Heart Church Escondido

Shane Rogers 0:00
pastor here at Heart Church. And, man, I want to dive right in the images that you just saw were from our church just in the last year. And the kinds of things that we were part of there was actually one in there of my buddy Lamont and his wife, Christine and the minister they did downtown. You know, it's, it's really one of the things that I'm most excited about and most proud of, regarding our church is that when we planted this church, a little over a year ago, that we wanted to be in the community wanted to be boots on the ground, and we really wanted to be the expression of the hands and feet of Jesus. And so here we find ourselves in with this quarantine. And now we've been a little while now, and looks like we're going to be kind of in this scenario for the next maybe month, maybe more. And at some level, feels like the church has been crippled a little bit simply because across the nation, churches are unable to gather course we're doing it online, but it's really caused me to ask some questions. And and one of the questions that I've been asking is, can the church thrive? Can our Christianity thrive in the midst of quarantine? Can Can your Christianity and your version of church cannot thrive without the bells and whistles? Without the performance without the lights and the stage? Without all of that can it? Can it thrive in a third world country without electricity? It's one of the challenges that I've had, as I've been processing this is Ken, our version of church still work. If we were in a third world country, and we had no electricity. I believe one of the greatest things about the gospel about what Jesus unleashed on the world that wasn't religion, but was the way it used to be called the way before Christianity. And it was a thought followers of Jesus a movement that Jesus said, not even the gates of hell could prevail against it. And so I've just sort of been challenged with that. And I love the video that we just watched with Francis Chan. And just the challenge there about what is it really about? And I'm not making a statement that I feel like most churches are missing it by by any stretch. But I think that these are the moments in time where it's good for us to evaluate what is it that's really at the bedrock of who we are as believers as followers? And and if if a quarantine somehow, come cuts us off at the past and cripples us, then I guess we're asking the question, Did we really place our foundation firmly in the right place. And so I want to, I want to share with you something that the Lord spoke to me on September 10 of last year, and I don't think I've ever shared this, in fact, my wife was even

Shane Rogers 2:45
hearing it for the first time as I was processing this message with her this week, because it was in my journal. And I don't always share everything with everybody. It's sort of been tucked away in my heart, but God unearthed it this week. And so I actually want to dive into that I want to show you a picture of where I was on September 10, when, when God began to speak to me I was walking along this this wall that you see, and it's actually Nehemiah as wall. I know that sounds pretty epic, I was able to go to Israel, our denomination sponsored a few of us to go for two weeks, and it was life changing. But this was at the end of our trip. This is in Jerusalem. It's an old Jerusalem. And there's parts of Nehemiah as wall that still standing. And I was walking along this wall. And the Lord began to speak to me profoundly. And this was right at the time when we were just planting our church. We were just a few months in that point. And he began to speak to me about what we were building, about what I was building, about the things that matter in life. And I think it's relevant today as we ask the question, what matters and what really is the thing that we're giving ourselves to in this thing called the church. And as I was walking along that wall, God began to remind me of what we had done for the last two weeks up to that point in Israel. See, our tour guide, he kind of took us all around, and showed us really epic things, some of which were connected and tied to the life of Jesus like in Galilee and whatnot. But a lot of it was tied to just what was going on in the time of Jesus. And many of you know, a guy by the name of King Herod or Herod the Great. He was known for his architecture, he built most of what you see in Jesus's time. And we visited a lot of those sites. And at the time, frankly, I wasn't all that surprised. And I wasn't all that impressed. I was looking for, you know, walking where Jesus walked, as most of you I'm sure would, are going to the epic places of the Old Testament, you know, where David killed Goliath, and we went to those places, but we've spent a lot of time in big epic structures that Herod the Great built. And so I want to walk through a few of them with you because they really are impressive. And the first one is set Surya it's right on the water. It was a King Herod's first city that he built. And in fact, you can see there. It's the place where the Olympic Games was held four times a year. Now, obviously, the Olympic games didn't start here. They started in Athens. But King Herod actually went to Athens. And it was the time when when the Olympic Games were bankrupt, and they had stopped for a number of years. And King Herod said, No, this can't happen. And so he actually was the benefactor. He was actually the one of the people that sewed into it financially, to get it back, going again. And then part of the deal was that he was hosting the Olympic Games here for every four years. So that was pretty cool. But it was a it was an incredible city. The next thing was a de capitalist, which was a huge city in Rome, Jesus passed right through here. Often it was a main highway, but it was an epic city. And we probably spent half a day here just looking at the architecture and the things that the Romans built. Next one was was Masada. This was one of King King Herod's main palaces. And the story behind Masada is absolutely epic. And you should check it out. But it was up on the top of this hill. In order to get there you have to take like one of the sky rails. And we walked around there for a couple of hours and saw all that King Herod built. The next thing we went to was her rhodium. rhodium was King Herod's next palace, and it was positioned so that it was close enough to Israel, where Jerusalem where he could actually kind of keep an eye on the Jews, if you will. But that was one of his main hideouts, main palaces, it was a humungous place where he ultimately was buried not far from there. The next thing was that we visited was the Wailing Wall. And this Wailing Wall is a massive wall massive structure that's still standing today from When King Herod built the temple on the Temple Mount. And this was not what Solomon built or David bill, this was actually King Herod, and the Wailing Wall was a part of that temple, which is why still today they go and, and submit prayers and put it in the wall. But those are stones laid one on top of another that King Herod actually laid in his day, it's very impressive. And the last one is a bigger picture of the Temple of Jerusalem that surrounds the Temple Mount. And these are structures that were built in the time of Jesus, and you can go and actually see them today and, you know, incredible wonders of the world that you can see, despite the lack of technology that they had, what they were able to build. And so these are the things that at the time, especially some of the palaces and things that we visited, the King Herod built, not really impressive to me. But as I was walking along, and Nehemiah his wall,

Shane Rogers 8:03
and you can go back to that picture, because I want you to get a sense as I was walking along this wall, God just spoke to me, it was like two days before we left. And this is what he said. And I wrote it down, I want to read it to you. He said, Son, I flung the stars in the sky, I created the world that you know, and the world you have yet to discover. I uniquely shaped and crafted every person in their mother's womb as my masterpiece. And I did all of this. In seven days. I came and I walked the very streets you are on and I spent 33 years among you. Imagine what I could have built in 33 years. This is kind of what struck me. As God began to sort of download this. Imagine what he could have built in 33 years when he created the universe and you and me in seven imagine what I have could have created that would stand today as a monument of my time on Earth. And then he asked me a series of questions. He asked me Do you know what I built? Do you know what I left behind as my legacy? An empty tomb and changed lives with the seed of eternity growing inside of them and you see a picture there of the empty tomb. This is what Jesus left behind. He was here for 33 years and this is what was just boggling my mind as I was walking Nehemiah his wall and seeing all of these structures for the last two weeks. Why? The Holy Land, and it suddenly hit me as, as the Holy Spirit spoke to me. And he said, Son, there's not a single rock on top of another rock that has any sort of structure where you we can say, Jesus built that he was here. Nothing. All we have is an empty tomb. And we have changed lives with the seed of eternity in sight of them. And I just remember sitting back and going, oh my gosh, that is incredible. Considering the amount of time and energy we put into building things, he went on to say, Do you know what makes the church so powerful? Nothing can stop a movement of my people, with the Spirit dwelling in sight of them. And then he asked me this, what will you build, with the time I have given you monuments of stone, or movements of people, a monument, or a movement, something built with stone, or something built with people. And I guess, this morning, my, my primary point is that the Church of Jesus Christ is the movement of people. And not even the gates of hell can stand against it. Because we have eternity inside of us. And I guess the question that I feel in the midst of this quarantine that God is asking us is, what are we building? What are you building? I want to look at the life of Jesus. And we're going to open up and mark in Luke chapter seven. It's a simple story. But I believe that there's a symbolism of the posture of Jesus, and that's a spirit and life of an advocate. See, Jesus spent 33 years here, and he just built people. That's it. He he wasn't concerned about anything else. In fact, he oftentimes would, would run away from fame and would cast aside any idea that he's coming to do anything else than so into people's lives so that they can be transformed. And then they can therefore go and help spread the news, the good news elsewhere. This is what his mission really was. That's it. And some would say he left the planet and didn't do much, because there's nothing that says, Man, Jesus, you built this, what a legacy. There's no organizations. No money he left behind.

Shane Rogers 12:52
I mean, nothing. Except people. He left behind a wake of people's lives being trance formed. And, man, I don't know about you, but that inspires me. Because we can do that in a third world country with no electricity. We can do that in the comfort of our own home, in the midst of a pandemic, we can do that anywhere. We don't have to have a building. We don't have to have lights, we don't have to have a camera. All we need is the Spirit of God in us and a passion to be a part of a movement of God that changes people's lives. And so, open your Bibles with me to Luke chapter seven. And we're gonna pick up in verse 36. And it says, one of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him. And he went into the Pharisees house, and reclined at the table. Notice that a lot of Jesus's work took place in the house. He wasn't in a synagogue. He wasn't in a church. He wasn't preaching. Jesus was just hanging out in a house probably much like your house. And he was hanging out with people. It says this in verse 37, and behold, a woman of the city who was a sinner, when she learned that she was reclining with the he was at reclining at the table in the Pharisees house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him and his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, and wipe them with her hair of her head, and kissed his feet and anointed them. Verse 39, now, when the Pharisee, who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, If this man were a prophet, He would have known who and what sort of woman this who is, this is who is touching him for she is a sinner. And Jesus answered, said and said to him, Simon, I have something to say to you. And we're going to skip down into verse 44. Then turning towards the woman, I want you to get This, Jesus was talking to Simon and then turning towards the woman, he said to Simon, so he's facing the woman still talking to Simon. This isn't Simon Peter, by the way, this is Simon a Pharisee. Do you see this woman, I entered your house and you gave Me no water for My feet. But she has wet my feet with her tears and wipe them with her hair. You gave me no kiss. But from the time I came in, she has not ceased to kiss my feet, verse 3047. Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which are many are forgiven for she loved much. Father, God, I asked in the next few moments, as we just take a look at your word. And we examine you, Jesus, the life that you lead on this earth, the life that was not limited by government oppression, or by lack of popularity or resources or technology. Jesus, you showed up and transformed the planet, because of your posture as an advocate towards people bringing good news of hope. And so Father, I pray that we would glean some of that this morning. In Jesus name, a man and a man I, I want you to recognize this morning that I believe that that God has a message for you, specifically. And I think he has a message for us corporately. And I'm going to sort of teeter back and forth a message for you specifically, because Jesus wants to speak to you. He wants to minister to your heart, He wants you to know how he feels about you today. But at the same time, I think he has a message for us as a church, and the posture that we would take in the world. And so I want to start out by a simple observation, Jesus turned towards her. Jesus turned, he pivoted, he made a shift in his physical posture towards this woman, this woman was shameful. The Pharisee, the religious person would have nothing to do with this woman. In fact, if it was up to him, she wouldn't even be allowed in his house. And yet Jesus takes a posture of turning towards him, while speaking to this religious person. And I just want to make a quick observation. Jesus turned towards you while you were still in your shame. And he gave me just pause for a minute, and recognize that when you were shameful, when no one wanted anything to do with you, because you were in your lowest moment, and listen, that's when the people didn't even know everything.

Shane Rogers 17:57
Jesus turned to you, when you didn't even want to look at you. Jesus turned, in fact, and Ephesians chapter two. I love the Scripture. And verse four and five, it says, But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead, in trespasses made us alive. I mean, Jesus turned to you, this is the Gospel, Jesus turned. He turned. And, and I love this reality. The Bible says that it's the kindness of God that leads us to repentance. And repentance means a turning, a changing, a going in a different direction, a pivoting, a shifting, I was going this way, and I was this person. But now I've been led to repentance. I've shifted my mind in my heart. And I can tell you today that the message to you specifically is Jesus has turned to you and he is still turned to you, you can wake up tomorrow morning, and this is my prayer is that we will wake up tomorrow morning, we catch a glimpse, just a glimpse of God. Because oftentimes, I recognize that even if you grew up in church, and even if you're a strong Christian, there's oftentimes because of our mistakes, and maybe just our awareness of who we are. Sometimes we get up in the morning and we don't we're not really ready to like gaze upon him. Because it's just kind of like, I don't know Do you really still love me because like, this is not all that lovable today. So we just kind of we kind of look and when we look we see Jesus posture fully turned towards us with a pig smile, saying I love you. I welcome you. I don't see you like you see you Come on, come on, come spend time with me Come here my words of affirmation, and it's this kindness that leads us to then make a shift and a turn. See, Christianity and, and, and the good news and the gospel isn't, Hey, man, you really need to change because because Jesus, he wants to save you and he wants to set you free. But man, you really need to change because of all the bad things and you need to start doing some good things so that God can bless you. The good news is Jesus turned to you, you caught a glimpse of that it changed your life. And that was the motivating factor for your natural response to be oh my gosh, you're right. I want to change, too. And I want to change my posture from building things that won't last to building things that are eternal. See, my heart beats for people, but it's not because I'm so good. It's not because I've been so good for so long. In fact, it's because I'm so bad. And I realized he's so good. And he accepted me. So it's just caused me to say, Man, I want to share this good news with as many people as I can. And that is good news. Jesus turned, Oh, that's good news. I think if you were here live, then you'd be celebrating that good news with me. The second idea and the thing that we see in Jesus life is that Jesus saw beauty. Instead of failure, he saw a miracle instead of a mess. So a miracle. I love what Jesus says. Jesus asks the Pharisee Do you see this woman? I mean, listen, I could do a whole message on just like God, renewing our eyes to see new see a new again. I mean, even just pause for a minute, let's shift from the message and just think about you in your life and the people that God's brought you think about your family and your friends and your loved ones. And like, man, may God give us a new way to see them for the beauty and the miracle of that they are this was who Jesus was because it was a primary objective. Jesus wasn't interested in building things. He was interested in seeing the miracle in front of him. And I think that will change your life that's

Shane Rogers 22:29
free. That's just a little nugget, man learn to see the beauty and the miracle right in front of you quit focusing on the flaws. And listen, I'm speaking to the choir here, quit focusing on the flaws. If we would just recognize the miracles that are in front of us every day, then our natural response would be to champion one another and see the best. But I want to ask you a bigger question. And that is, do you still believe in transformation? Do you I mean, transformation is kind of a churchy word, and it's something that we say a lot. Jesus transforms lives, Jesus still changes people. But I want to ask you, Do you actually believe in transformation? Do you believe in the story of somebody being really bad, and them transforming into a different person, a completely different person. That's not really bad anymore. For no other reason. Then they met Jesus. Sounds scandalous. Sounds ridiculous. Sounds too good to be true. There's got to be some good works in there somewhere. But it's good news that the gospel transformed lives. And it was the only way that Jesus could see a miracle instead of a mess, because what was before him, in all practical purposes was an absolute mess. And yet, Jesus saw beyond the mess and saw a miracle. And so Jesus said, Do you see this woman? See, he missed the miracle because all he could see was the mess. Most people project what they see when they look at themselves. When we look at ourselves in the mirror, we know what we've done, and we know all the things about ourselves and we know the good, bad and the ugly and when we look in our mirror and when we're honest with ourselves, most of us if we're if we're really honest, kind of see a little bit of a mess. And oftentimes we can project that on others and I can tell you that Jesus when he looks at you, he does not see a mess, because in Jesus you are actually trance formed. You are brand new and man Maybe this seems seems obvious. But if you truly believe in the transforming power of Jesus, then you will look at every person as a miracle. Not just because they have breath in their lungs, by that alone is a miracle. Every baby you look at and go, Oh my gosh, there's a miracle. But somehow we lose that off. Like, they're a baby. And they're a miracle. Why? Because they're pure and honest, and precious. But then like, you get to be about, you know, I don't know, 1618 2530. And all of a sudden, somehow, you're not precious anymore, you're not a miracle anymore. And I'm here to tell you that the good news of the gospel is not only Jesus turned to you, because He loves you. But when you accept Him, you are a walking, miracle. Ephesians carrying on in in the scripture of what we read, we talked about Jesus making us alive, but it down in verse nine Ephesians chapter two, verse nine, says this. In the New Living Translation, salvation is not a reward for the good things we've done. So none of us can boast about it. For we are God's masterpiece, and he has created us a new in Christ, Jesus. And so when we look at people, and we champion them, we look at them through the lens of Jesus made them transformed or brand new, we don't celebrate them because of how awesome they are, because of all the good choices that they made, although that's good, and we should do that that should be our response. But in the end, transformation is a work of the Cross. And here's what I want to land this this morning, simple message. I believe that Jesus came to transform the planet. I believe he sowed eternity into our hearts. And I believe that it's this movement that Jesus has invited us into as we spread this gospel, this gospel is not limited to anything, it's not limited by disease, or by quarantine, or by electricity, or by a building. It's not limited by anything. It's simply invites us, first and foremost, to shift, pivot, shift our focus on what is it that we're building? What is it that you're building? Are you spending time

Shane Rogers 27:26
building your kingdom, building your monument? What are you stressed out about what matters to you, and it's a simple verse that everyone really remembers, even as a kid that if you seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, then all these things will be added. But it's true when when we pivot towards Kingdom matters, then God takes care of the rest. Then we begin to see the miracles in front of us starting with you. It's my challenge for you today, tomorrow morning, when you wake up. Take Take a look at your father, take a glance. He's not up there with a gavel. He's not up there with a whip, ready to crack it. When you failed. He's not up there convicting and reminding you have all the things that you need to work on today. He's up there shifted his attention and his focus on the object of his affection. And that is you. And oh, by the way, you are a miracle. And so after you take a glance glance at him, I want you to go look at yourself in the mirror. And I want you to allow Jesus to give you this thought, I am a miracle. I am brand new, and that empowers me to leave this place. And everywhere I go, I get to be an advocate for people, I get to walk in Jesus's feet and shoes, pivoting towards him seeing people the way he saw them as a miracle and not a mess. This is the good news of Jesus, man. I can just say, thank you so much Heart Church, for being this kind of church. Thank you for going out into our community, having the hands and feet of Jesus and the heartbeat. We're called Heart Church for a reason having the heartbeat for people. This is not a church for Christians who have it all together. This is a church full of sinners that have been radically transformed and saved by grace and we are on a mission to share that good news with everybody we can't can't come in contact with and when somebody accepts Jesus, they are standing before us as a walking miracle. Will you bow your heads and close your eyes with me? God I thank you for these moments that we have to be reminded of what matters. God forgive For how easy it is to get off track in the world that we live in all the stresses and the anxieties that come and trying to pay the bills and feed our family, God trying to stay afloat emotionally. Sometimes our insecurity and our fear get the best of us. And it causes us Lord to be focused on all the wrong things, ultimately things that don't matter. God would you give us eyes to see like never before today, the things that matter things that are beautiful right in front of us the miracles that are standing in front of us. Would you remind us of your posture towards us, and that's that of an advocate. And we thank you for it. In Jesus name, a man and amen. God bless you. Have an awesome rest of your day. And we'll see you soon.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai