Amen. How are we doing, church? Doing good? You're looking good. Grab your Bibles if you got them. I hope you do. You're going to be in the book of Genesis. The reason we wanted to show you that video is because we want you to understand that we are a part of something so much bigger than just this thing that we attend on the weekends that we're doing this series. We're in the second week of an eight-week series called Ecclesia.

That's how you say it.

Everybody say Ecclesia?

That's a Greek word.

And the word is now translated church.

Originally, it was the word that Jesus used to describe this thing that he was going to start.

And the first time he ever used the word, it's in Matthew

Chapter 16. He takes his boys, his 12 disciples, he takes them to Cessaria Philippi, which would have

been like ancient Las Vegas. What happened in Cessar of Philippi just stayed in Cessarie of Philippi.

And it was there. It was literally at the edge of the gates of hell. That's where the gates of hell were. And it's on that place where

he asked his disciples, so who do people say that I am? And they've got all kind of weird, Oprah-esque

answers. And then he goes, all right, but who do you say that I am? And then Peter, his name wasn't

Peter yet, but Peter says, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. In that moment, Jesus stops everything and says,

hold on, Peter, that idea did not come from you.

It came from the Father above.

And I'm going to change your name to Petra, which means rock or rocky.

So he changes his name to Rocky.

So then the music starts.

And then Jesus says, and upon this rock, I will build my ecclesia and the gates

of hell will not prevail against it. Now that word ecclesia was not a religious word. It just meant

like a called out people on purpose or the way I translated here is it was a movement. About 300 years

later church fathers started using this word Kirche instead of ecclesia.

...