Some Assembly Required

Announcements (Election), Worship, Opening Prayer (Halloween)

Welcome Guests, Mention offering box

New Members Recognition - call up those who attended the class

These brothers and sisters have received Christ as their Lord and Savior, they have been baptized, and they have learned and are in agreement with Cross Creek Community Church’s statements, strategy and structure. They stand here, led by the Holy Spirit to unite with this church family as an official member in covenant relationship.

In light of this relationship, if you agree to the following statements, respond by saying “I will”...

Will you protect the unity of your Church by acting in love toward other members, refusing to gossip, and following the leaders? (I will)

Will you share in the responsibility of your Church by praying for its growth, inviting the un-churched to attend, and warmly welcoming our guests? (I will)

Will you serve in the ministry of your Church by being committed to a small group, discovering your gifts and talents, and developing a servant’s heart? (I will)

Will you support the testimony of your Church by attending faithfully, living a godly life, and giving regularly? (I will)

And the Cross Creek statement of commitment: Will you commit your prayers, presence, gifts, service and witness to the mission, vision and values of Cross Creek Community Church as a participating Member of this body? (I will)

Then we welcome you as official members of Cross Creek Community Church this morning by everyone in the house saying… “Welcome Home!”

Opening

I remember when Phil and I were newlyweds, and we were combining our two separate homes into one. That was an adventure in itself with five kids between us, but then he introduced me to a wonderfully inspirational place called… IKEA.

Anyone ever been to IKEA?

Yeah… when you first walk in, it’s this massive, kind of unassuming, blue-and-yellow warehouse building. But then they funnel you right up to the upper floor, and it’s like a completely different world. They have these beautifully designed, perfectly minimalist rooms for you to walk through. You see a gorgeous, sunlit living room, a flawless kitchen where nothing is out of place, a bedroom that looks like a sanctuary.

Seriously, it’s like Disney World for those of us who have absolutely no idea how to put together, let alone interior design a room! And the best part is everything you see can be bought right there. They make it so easy! You just grab your little pencil and your slip of paper, write down the item numbers for the products you love, and when you’re ready to leave, you just load them up and take them home!

Yeah! So easy.

I remember one specific trip where we were looking for a modern, wall-mounted entertainment center for our living room. We had so much fun walking through the showroom, picking out the exact color and pattern. We were so excited about how sleek and clean it was going to make our new living room setup look.

But then, the arrows through the showroom ended, and we found ourselves downstairs in the self-serve warehouse. As we were lifting this incredibly heavy, completely flat box onto our cart and pushing it out the door, I remember looking at it and thinking… Hmm. That entire, gorgeous wall unit fit inside this one flat-packed box?

But I let that go, as we drove happily home with our prize.

We dragged that heavy box into the living room. The image of the pristine showroom display fresh in our minds. It looked perfect even on the photo on the front of the box. Then, we cut the tape, opened the flaps, and looked inside.

My excitement completely evaporated.

There were about 400 loose screws, a handful of unhelpful wooden dowels, a bunch of identical-looking particleboard panels, instructions written entirely in ambiguous diagrams of a little cartoon character who looked like he was mocking me... and one tiny little Allan Wrench.

Anyone ever been there? You panicked a little bit, didn’t you? If you ever want to prove your love to your spouse, you should try this! That box contains 100% of what you paid for. That piece of furniture is fully present in your house. It belongs to you. It’s in the room. Yet, it’s completely unusable until you put some skin in the game.

It doesn’t build itself.

Introduction

Our faith life can look a lot like that living room floor.

Deep down, we all want the picture on the front of the box. We want that vibrant, peaceful, deeply connected, and powerful Christian life. We want the marriage that reflects God’s love, the joy that outlasts our circumstances, and the spiritual strength to overcome temptation. We see that beautiful picture displayed in Scripture, and we see it in the lives of mature believers around us.

Many times I’ve sat in these seats on a Sunday morning, staring at that picture, wishing my reality matched the layout on the cover. Because if we’re being completely honest with ourselves, our daily reality often feels a lot more like the scattered screws and particleboard panels. We feel disconnected. We feel a bit scattered. We look at where we are right now, we look at the picture on the box, and we ask: How in the world do I get from point A to point B?

Here is the good news - and it’s incredibly good news: God has already delivered everything you need for life and godliness right to your doorstep. The raw materials are already paid for. The power is already in the room.

But it doesn’t manifest just sitting in the packaging.

The truth we have to face is that God doesn’t just drop a fully formed, pre-assembled life of victory into our laps. He doesn’t zap us into spiritual maturity while we sit on the couch. The reality is that many of us, without even realizing it, mistake God’s grace for our own passivity. We treat our faith like an unopened package sitting in the corner of the room, wondering why it isn’t changing our lives.

Let’s be honest about why we’re hesitant to engage our faith in our everyday lives. For some of us, it’s a fear of failure. We look at the beautiful picture of a restored marriage, or a life freed from addiction, or a heart full of peace, and a whisper inside says, “Don’t even try. You’ll get halfway through building it, you’ll mess it up, and you’ll just end up with a pile of broken pieces.” So we live in the clutter because it feels safer than trying to build.

For others, it’s spiritual laziness. We want the maturity, but we don’t want the effort. We want the strength of a seasoned warrior, but we want it delivered instantly via microwave grace. We want a deep, intimate walk with God, but we aren’t willing to turn off the TV, crack open the Word, or wake up fifteen minutes earlier to look at the blueprint.

And for some of us, we’ve just convinced ourselves that the instructions are too hard. We look at what God requires - forgiving the person who devastated us, showing up to serve when we’re exhausted, attending a small group for prayer and discipleship - and we say, “That works for the pastors, that works for the super-Christians, but I don’t have the tools for that.” And so the box sits, unopened, on the living room floor, taking up space, while we settle for a life that feels incomplete.

Friends, the Christian walk isn’t a spectator sport; there is Some Assembly Required.

Pray

Body

I’d like you to turn this morning to 2 Peter chapter 1.

This second and final letter from the Apostle Peter reads like a last will and testament. He’s writing to the Christian exiles scattered throughout the provinces, facing intense cultural pressure and internal confusion. Peter knows his time on earth is short. And out of everything he could say in his final days, his heart’s desire was for believers to make fruitful progress in their Christian faith.

Peter knew that surviving the cultural elements was going to take much more than passive belief. He wanted us to understand that we are called to actively engage with the Lord to bring His kingdom to earth as it is in heaven.

And Peter had the track record to prove it. Don’t forget who is writing these words! This is the man who looked out into a raging storm, saw Jesus, and was the only disciple willing to step out of the boat to experience the miracle of walking on water. He knew firsthand that divine power requires human feet to move.

Read along with me 2 Peter 1:3:

“His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue...”

Look closely at that phrase: “has given to us.” In the original Greek text, the word used here for “granted” or “given” is doreomai. It’s a legal term that implies a permanent, fully executed, irrevocable gift. It means the transaction is complete. The title deed has been signed.

Peter says that God’s divine power is given “through the knowledge of Him.” Now, the word used here for knowledge is epignosis - which means experiential, relational intimacy, not just data accumulation. This isn’t academic knowledge. This isn’t the kind of information you cram into your head to pass a theology exam. It’s not about memorizing facts about the Builder; it’s about walking with the Builder daily.

Think about it this way: you can buy a book about how to build a house. You can memorize the chapters, you can quote the statistics on structural engineering, and you can give a brilliant lecture on the exact layout of a blueprint. But knowing about building doesn’t give you the calluses on your hands from swinging a hammer. You don’t truly know the build until you’ve stood in the dust, felt the weight of the timber, and watched the framework go up piece by piece.

Peter is saying that the divine power to live a godly life doesn’t flow from how much information you’ve accumulated about Jesus; it flows out of how closely you are walking with Jesus. When you spend time sitting at His feet, when you allow His heart to break yours, when you listen to His voice in the quiet places - that is where the trust is built.

Knowing Jesus personally, spending time with Him and in His Word, is what builds our faith so that we are structurally sound when we’re out and about in the world. You don’t get the confidence to step out of the boat into a storm because you read a pamphlet on water safety. You step out because you look across the waves and you deeply know the face of the One who is calling your name.

Listen, God has held absolutely nothing back from you. He’s not keeping your strength on backorder. He hasn’t delayed your peace. He isn’t waiting for you to become holy enough to ship you to the tools. By your trust in Jesus Christ and your belief in His power as the Son of God, the entire inventory - everything you could possibly need to live a godly, victorious life is already right here in the room.

If you can imagine it, the moment you receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior, God pours out a massive box of divine provision. It’s like an infinite supply of spiritual Legos. He gives you every single block, every component, and every piece needed to build a life according to His magnificent purpose. But here’s the catch: Legos don’t click themselves together.

It’s our responsibility to take those pieces and put them into place. But hear me clearly: God does not expect you to build this life by your own human willpower. We click these pieces into place by using the muscles of the Holy Spirit and following the direction of the Creator’s instruction manual. As Philippians 2:13 tells us, “...for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.”

We act, but we act because He is working inside us. Knowing that He provides the internal strength, we have to pick up that spiritual Allan Wrench called faith, roll up our sleeves, and get to turning!

This is why I gave you all a little Allan Wrench today. It’s a physical reminder of this spiritual truth: a tool is only useful when you choose to pick it up and engage. Everything His divine power has given us for life and godliness must be applied by our cooperation with the Holy Spirit through faith.

Notice how Peter explicitly anchors this provision in God’s “divine power.” (His divine power has given to us all things...) But God’s power never bypasses human agency. The Holy Spirit doesn’t go around overriding your free will or robotically forcing you to act like Jesus. The Holy Spirit is an active, living force that empowers us, yes, but He always invites our cooperation in God’s unfolding work.

The power behind Christ’s work on earth is not activated through passive reception, but through active engagement. It is a faith that responds to the Holy Spirit’s divine initiative while maintaining authentic human choice and responsibility.

God provides the raw material of heaven; we provide the willing obedience of earth.

Peter understood this concept perfectly because he lived it. The power to walk on water belonged entirely to Jesus. Peter couldn’t command the waves. But the miracle didn’t happen while Peter was sitting safely inside the boat. The power met him in the moment his sandals hit the water.

The others in the boat still witnessed the miracle, but only Peter fully experienced it.

Every believer in this room needs to reach out by faith, take that step into the unknown, and engage with the work that God has set before us. You don’t have to wait on God to move - He is waiting on you to unbox what He already gave you. Spiritual power is not waiting to flow from heaven; it is waiting to flow from within the believer. Because God delivers the provision, but faith handles the assembly.

Summary

Engaging our faith with what God has already provided is what builds the Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. And Church, this assembly process begins first in our prayer life.

How many of us pray as if we haven’t received everything we need for life and godliness? Are we still asking God for things we already own? Still begging for what He’s already given?

My first challenge to you this morning is to dynamically shift the language of your prayers from “God give me...” to “God help me engage...” This moves our mindset away from passively waiting for God to drop something new from heaven, and instead activates our willingness to engage with what He has already placed inside us.

When you pour your cup of coffee tomorrow morning and that familiar, heavy blanket of anxiety drops onto your shoulders. The bills are pling up, the relationship is tense, the pressure at work is hitting a breaking point... Instead of looking up at the ceiling, and crying “God give me peace,” I want you to remember what’s already been given for you.

Lean in by faith and pray a dynamic prayer of activation instead, “God, thank You that the complete peace of Jesus Christ is already inside me. Holy Spirit, I’m picking up my faith right now, I choose to trust You. Help me unbox the supernatural peace that already belongs to me right now in Jesus’ name.”

Do you see the shift? You aren’t begging a distant God to ship you a package; you are cooperating with a very present God to deploy the inventory He already delivered! The words that come out of our mouths are the simplest, most direct way to engage our faith. It’s the very first way we show our agreement or our disagreement with His good an precious promises. So start training your words to be active in your prayer life this week.

My second challenge is to think about the last thing God told you to do, even if it felt small. Did you do it?

Faith means moving your feet the moment God says, “go.” It’s choosing to extend forgiveness, and genuinely letting it go. It’s choosing to give, and giving generously. It’s choosing to serve, and serving cheerfully. Faith is choosing to do what God has asked of you even before you “feel” the supernatural power to do it.

Spiritual muscles and divine power show up during the build, not before. God unleashes the strength the moment you pick up the tools.

Cast Vision - Troy come up

Every single one of us who has asked Jesus into our heart has received the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 8:11 tells us “the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you...” But we aren’t called to be a spiritual showroom for what He can do. We’re not supposed to be a sterile, perfect place where people just look at beautiful, untouchable concepts on display.

Leaving your faith in the packaging is like buying a brand-new, top-of-the-line vacuum cleaner to fix a messy house, but leaving it completely sealed in the box in the hallway. you can walk past it every day, you can point to the picture on the cover, you can be proud that you own it - but the floor stays dirty until you pull it out of the box, plug it in, and move it across the floor!

If Phil and I had left the components of our wall unit in the packaging, we might have been able to use the box as a makeshift TV stand, but it would never fully function in the beautiful, dynamic way it was designed. We are called to be kingdom builders not box collectors! The workshop of our lives is meant to display the kingdom in active, messy, beautiful motion, not just to paint a perfect picture of what “could be.”

Action

Imagine what would happen if we determined to engage our faith with what God calls us to do. To put the Allan Wrench of our faith to work in every situation, whether it’s a health issue, a heart issue, a relational issue, or an issue out in the marketplace. If we step out of the safety of the boat in faith, we won’t just witness miracles from a distance - we will fully experience them in our lives.

Pray (Stand)

Benediction