Holy Mulligans

[00:00:00] Foreign pastor Chuck Allen here, back with another weekday podcast. And I want to talk today about holy mulligans. [00:00:11] You know, I didn't want to step right into it and just, just like talk really plainly today. If the church right now, I mean seriously ever needed a mulligan, a second shot, a holy do over, it really is right now. [00:00:28] Somewhere along the way we stopped being a movement and we started becoming a fortress. We traded wild wide eyed welcome for safe sameness. We huddle with our own kind while folks outside are hurting. This is true of the American church all across the country. Now. Yeah, there are exceptions for sure. [00:00:47] But honestly folks, do you really think that the church as we see it in America today is what Jesus laid out for us? [00:00:56] I don't, I don't see it. [00:00:57] Somewhere along the way we just literally lost our way. To be honest, sometimes we lock, we just kind of lock the members only sign on a door that God had flung wide open. We forget the world isn't waiting for and dying for another club. It's aching to have a holy family that cares, that is receiving and welcoming. Jesus said, whoever will let them come. [00:01:23] So why do we whisper? If you fit, you can sit. [00:01:28] Listen to what Acts chapter 2 talks about, beginning in verse 42 where it says all the believers devoted themselves to the apostles teaching. You see that they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship. They shared everything. The Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved. In other words, this is what's happening day after day after day. [00:01:51] That was their every day. It was their every table. It was their every need. The first church didn't wait for a better world. They became the better world. [00:02:00] It's time that we ask the Lord for a mulligan. Not to retreat, but to risk. Not to build higher walls, but longer tables. Here's the challenge. Step out this week. Engage. Get in the game. Join a group. Serve, risk. Give. I mean care. [00:02:18] I mean love. Somebody. [00:02:20] Connect. [00:02:21] Share your struggle or your story. [00:02:23] Ask for a mulletin or give one. Be a friend to the lonely and contribute. Contribute your prayers and your time and your laughter and your encouragement. I mean, there are people out there literally dying in need of that. [00:02:37] Let's become a verb, not a noun. A movement, not a monument. Write down how you're going to engage and connect or contribute this week. Be that one. Don't just play for a trophy. [00:02:50] Play for the team that gives the world a reason to hope. And that hope is Jesus himself. You, my friend, you are the church. [00:02:58] Make the mulligan count and let's be the people that Jesus said, you're my plan A and there is no plan B, friend. Remember this. They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching. They devoted themselves to fellowship. They shared everything and the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved. Friends, where Jesus is alive and well, the Lord is adding to and growing his church. He's growing it, yes, numerically, but he's growing it in our hearts. He's growing us up like him, and he's growing us in how we care and give a rip about a lost and a dying world. God bless you, friend. Thanks so much for joining me on today's weekday podcast.