Do You Have to Go to Church to Be a Good Christian?.

Steve Gentry

[0:00] Morning. Once again, I guess. [0:04] McLeanzy had the idea of bringing a cow, an actual one, in this morning. [0:10] But man, that just didn’t work out on a lot of levels. [0:13] I was scared. [0:16] And he actually wanted to tip it, and I was like, James, that’s a terrible idea. [0:21] You could kill the cow.

[0:23] And he said, really? I said, yeah. He’s slow. [0:27] But I’m glad to see you once again. [0:30] That’s mostly true, by the way. [0:32] I only embellished a little. [0:34] James is smarter than that. [0:36] I’m glad to see you. We’re starting a new series today.

[0:39] I’m excited, but I’m also scared to death because last night I was kind of reviewing my notes, [0:44] kind of going over some of the statistics I’m going to share with you so I could remember them this morning. [0:49] And I just looked at them, and I was like, what am I thinking? [0:52] I might make some people mad. [0:53] But then I said, be a preacher, make it interesting, make some people mad this morning. [0:58] Today we’re going to start with what I think is one of the hardest questions in an area like Midlothian to really deal with.

[1:07] And that’s the question that I think a lot of us have dealt with in our lives. [1:10] And that question is, do you have to go to church to be a good Christian? [1:14] And I thought this was a great way to have a kickoff, [1:16] because it’s probably one of the hardest subjects I’m going to deal with the whole time, [1:19] because what I’m really dealing with is how you live out your life in Jesus and how your relationship with Jesus really goes. [1:26] And this is going to go one of two ways for you this morning.

[1:29] You’re either going to love it because we’re just going to get our answers straight out of the Bible, [1:32] or you’re going to get really mad because you’re thinking that I’m asking you to live this life of ridiculous commitment to the church, [1:37] which, by the way, I’m going to ask you during the sermon, and you’re not going to like it. [1:42] But what I’m going to do this morning is I’m just going to be as brutally honest with you as I can [1:48] and as transparent about God’s Word as I can, because this morning, [1:53] this question is a question that I have personally had to really flesh out

[1:58] and learn how to actually apply the church into my walk with Jesus, [2:04] because for a long time when I was a new Christian, I struggled with this. [2:10] Because, let me just be honest with you, in my life, I have had some very, [2:15] what could be called unfortunate things happen where churches are concerned in my life. [2:23] There has been hurt. There have been unmet expectations. [2:28] There has been hypocrisy. There has been people that were leading churches for the wrong motives.

[2:36] In my own family, we’ve been through a church where the pastor was actually caught embezzling money [2:43] and also having an affair with his secretary at the same time, and it all came out at once.

[2:50] And so what most of the time happens in our lives is that where our life in the church of Jesus is concerned [2:57] is typically based on experiences that we have had with other people inside of the church, [3:05] whether it be pastors or choir leaders or ushers or just that old lady that always sits in the back row [3:11] and is very critical of everything that ever takes place, including the carpet color. [3:16] We gauge what we think about the church of Jesus Christ on those experiences, [3:22] often neglecting what does God himself have to say about the church.

[3:29] And often times our reactions and our lifestyles come out of very deep and very real pain that we’ve experienced. [3:39] And so what I’m not going to do this morning is I’m not going to tell you to deny that pain [3:46] that many of you in this type of area have probably experienced. [3:51] I’m not going to tell you to deny the hurt of unmet expectations by leaders.

[3:59] I’m not going to tell you to deny the mess that often happens when Christians get together, [4:05] because frankly it’s messy. Anytime you’re dealing with other human beings, it’s messy. [4:11] If you’re married, you know that. I’m married, sometimes it’s messy. [4:18] Sometimes I say the wrong thing, do the wrong thing, and a lot of my illustrations come out of my stupidity [4:23] where marriage is concerned. And some of you guys are out there like, [4:26] I have no idea what he’s talking about, honey. Our home is perfect. Yeah, right. Whatever.

[4:33] But I did want to share with you a couple of things this morning. [4:37] What I really want to base what we’re talking about is the experience that people are having in church [4:43] in just our own geographical location. And so to begin with, I’m going to talk about the south. [4:50] And then to move on, I’m going to talk about Midlothian itself, which is where our church meets. [4:55] We’re pretty much right dead in the center of Midlothian right now. [4:58] But what I want to tell you is, 98% of evangelicals in the southeast,

[5:08] that’s the area from here to probably Florida, 98% of people who claim to be Bible-believing, [5:16] Jesus-following evangelicals claim to be certain on the existence of God. [5:24] But then 96% of evangelicals in the south claim that religion is important in their lives. [5:34] So let me just tell you what these people are. First off, we’re not dealing with just religious people as a whole. [5:40] We’re dealing with people who have classified themselves as Bible-believing Jesus-followers. [5:46] So those are honestly pretty good stats. And we’re like, we’re doing pretty good.

[5:50] And most of us at least are pretty sure that God exists. That’s good. [5:54] We really want that to be the majority of Jesus-followers. [5:59] And then 96% say that religion inside of that is very good in their lives. [6:04] That’s like, that’s pretty good, but what do they mean by religion? Right? [6:09] But then out of that 98% and 96%, only 58% of people in the south that say they believe in Jesus, [6:21] they believe the Bible, they’re following Jesus, only 58% of those people attend church.

[6:28] At least regularly.

[6:31] Then 28% of people that claim that go at least to Easter and Christmas services. [6:39] So what we see is inside of that Jesus-following bracket,

[6:47] something’s taking place where we have this huge number of people that have no connection to a local church whatsoever. [6:55] So if we have 58% that are really involved, really going to church, [7:00] that means 42% have no connection to the church whatsoever. [7:06] And so the question that we’re going to deal with today is, is that possible? [7:10] Can you follow Jesus and not go to church? [7:15] Can you be a faithful follower of Jesus Christ and have no connection to a church body whatsoever?

[7:22] Because for some of you, maybe you’re not connected.

[7:27] Maybe this is the first time you’ve been to church in a long time. [7:31] Maybe you’re just kind of given it a shot because you want to hear what the preacher has to say. [7:35] It’s very tempting sometimes when you have a question that seems as objective as that, [7:38] to just come up on stage and say either yes or no and then just run off the stage to run from the tomatoes. [7:44] Because I understand that some of you may not like the outcome of today, [7:48] and some of you may be like total liberation.

[7:51] But what I want you to understand is that what the statistics are showing, [7:54] and these are not statistics I made up, they came from the Pew Research Group, [7:58] is there is becoming, even in what we would consider the Bible Belt, [8:04] a disconnect in our culture from following Jesus and being a part of a local church. [8:11] There is a disconnect there. [8:13] So this is a timely question that we’re dealing with this morning.

[8:17] I also want to throw another statistic at you. [8:20] In Midlothian itself, and I’m just going to deal with the culture at large, [8:24] because Midlothian is not what we would call this culture where atheism and religious hatred really run rampant.

[8:34] 20% of Midlothian, that’s 23112, 23113, and 23114, [8:42] 20% of Midlothian attends church.

[8:48] So that means 80% of the culture that we’re going to walk out into this afternoon does not attend church, [8:57] and that is including people that just go maybe four or five times a year. [9:02] So even in our own culture, which I would say the predominant faith claim in this culture is one of following Jesus. [9:14] Even in this culture, there is a disconnect between what we are doing this morning and following Jesus.

[9:23] So are Jesus and the church inseparable, or can you separate the two and be faithful to Jesus and ignore church? [9:34] And I’m kind of just going to go ahead and lead off with this this morning. [9:38] And I’m just going to let the cat out of the bag that in my opinion, [9:42] If you can follow Jesus faithfully without the church, then why not?

[9:51] Why not?

[9:54] All right. [9:54] I mean, let’s just be honest this morning. [9:56] This took a lot of work. [9:59] We had to set up screens and speakers. [10:02] And then in the week, we’re going to have people that are having community groups, [10:05] people come together to disciple each other in the gospel,

[10:08] and they’re going to make meals and they’re going to vacuum their carpets. [10:13] They’re going to work really hard. [10:14] And they might even light a candle so you can’t smell the funk. [10:18] And that’s just me. [10:21] My house is really clean.

[10:25] But if we don’t need it all, then let’s just go watch the race this afternoon and forget about it.

[10:37] When we as a people of God love Jesus, OK, [10:44] and you really have to love Jesus to be a Christian, [10:45] I mean, let’s at least just settle on that one. [10:48] It’s hard to follow Jesus when you hate him. [10:51] OK, it’s just one of those difficult things. [10:53] It just doesn’t seem to be congruent.

[10:57] Can we at least agree that if you love Jesus, you should have a passion for other people to love Jesus? [11:02] But here’s the question. [11:03] If there is nothing to connect those people to,

[11:09] what are we telling them to be?

[11:14] And I think as I go, you’ll understand that a little bit more. [11:17] But there are lots of reasons that people don’t go to church. [11:20] But today I want to deal with reasons that maybe we should give it a shot. [11:25] And you’re like, well, I’m already here, so you’re preaching to the choir. [11:27] But I know some of you are like, maybe he’s going to convince me I don’t really have to be here. [11:32] All right. I mean, really, be honest.

[11:34] Do you think I was going to do that? No, because I want you to be here. [11:37] So if I said no, then, well, you wouldn’t come next Sunday and I might sleep in, too. [11:42] Turning your Bibles to Ephesians, chapter one, we’re going to start in verse 18 today. [11:47] We’re going to start in verse 18.

[11:52] The first thing that I want to really tell you this morning is that [11:56] you have to understand that as a church, village church, [12:01] Scripture is our final authority.

[12:04] We believe that in the life of a believer, the Scripture is kind of the final word [12:09] on how we should live our lives and that God has given us this great revelation [12:13] so that we wouldn’t be left just totally ignorant of what he wants out of us [12:17] and that in our life in Jesus, that Scripture is the final authority. [12:21] So really, all of my answers this morning to this question are going to come straight from the Bible. [12:26] I’m not really going to appeal to anything else because I believe that this is sufficient

[12:30] to answer all of my questions. [12:32] So throughout this series, I’m going to be dealing a lot with the Scripture [12:36] and I’m going to be throwing a lot of verses at you and I’m not going to make you turn to all of them. [12:40] I’m going to get them all up on the screen, hopefully, if they can keep up with how fast I talk. [12:45] But what I’m not going to do this morning is I’m not going to appeal. [12:48] Have you ever asked anybody, hey, do I need to go to church to grow as a Christian?

[12:52] And then they just look at you and say, well, in Hebrews 10, it says, [12:55] for sake not the assembling of yourselves together. [12:59] So you better assemble. [13:01] Go to church, sing the hymns. [13:04] I know that most of you have had that thrown at you before. [13:09] So I’m going to save that one to the end.

[13:11] And I am going to talk about that a little bit. [13:13] But I’m going to save that one to the end. [13:15] And I’m going to flesh out a lot of other things for you this morning. [13:19] In the time that we have, it’s going to be pretty impossible [13:22] for me to give you this complete and total ecclesiology [13:25] of the church in every way it should function.

[13:28] So what I’m going to do is I’m going to give you this one overview [13:31] of what God thinks about the church. [13:33] That’s all I’m going to deal with this morning. [13:36] First, I’m going to start off and say, well, what does God think about the church [13:39] and how does that relate to our lives? [13:41] And we’re going to leave it at that.

[13:42] And then throughout in your community group this week, [13:44] you can deal with any other question that you might have [13:46] about how exactly church should go. [13:48] Or you can just wait until we talk about that [13:50] in I think three or four weeks as we deal with worship style. [13:54] But in Ephesians chapter 1, I’m going to throw it right there out of the bag.

[13:57] I want you to understand the first thing you have to start with [14:00] is how does God feel about the church. [14:02] And I want to let you know right out of the gate, God loves the church. [14:06] He does. [14:07] God is passionate about the church. [14:11] When you go through the Scriptures and the New Testament,

[14:14] you cannot leave it and say, well, God’s kind of indifferent. [14:19] You know, He kind of likes the church. [14:21] They’ve got this love-hate thing going. [14:22] They break up sometimes, but they typically get back together. [14:25] This is not the story of Ross and Rachel. [14:28] God is passionately in love with the church,

[14:31] and we never get to take a break. [14:33] All right. [14:34] God is in a loving, passionate relationship with His church. [14:38] And in Ephesians 1, I want to start there, [14:41] and then we’re just going to really hit the races [14:43] going through the New Testament, and I hope you can keep up.

[14:45] But in Ephesians chapter 1, starting in verse 18, we’re going to read,

[15:05] All right. Stop right there, [15:07] because I just want to lay something out for you. [15:09] Ephesians chapter 1, the whole thing. [15:11] What you’ve got is Paul is writing a worship song in Ephesians chapter 1. [15:16] And what he does in Ephesians chapter 1 is he unpacks how awesome Jesus is [15:22] and how amazing it is to have the privilege of knowing Jesus

[15:26] and all that we get to experience. [15:29] And what he says here in verse 18 is, [15:31] as he’s summing something up, and he’s saying, [15:33] when we come to know Jesus, [15:35] when God redeems us through the cross and through the resurrection, [15:39] and our trust and our faith in that,

[15:40] when we have hope, our eyes are opened by God, [15:44] and we are able to see the immeasurable riches that He has waiting for us [15:50] when we get to spend eternity in glory with Him. [15:54] The gospel enlightens your eyes about God and everything that He gives you, [15:59] and He wants for your life. [16:03] So you do not have to be ignorant, according to Paul.

[16:06] But then this, what we’re about to talk about, [16:09] is what God is opening your eyes to. [16:13] So go back to verse 20. [16:15] That He worked in Christ, [16:17] He’s going to unpack the gospel, [16:19] when He worked in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead,

[16:23] and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, [16:26] far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, [16:30] and above every name that is to be named, [16:32] not only in this age, but also in the age to come. [16:36] Paul is simply right there restating what Jesus said in Matthew 28, 18, [16:42] when Jesus gathered the disciples,

[16:44] when He was about to ascend up into heaven, [16:45] and He said, understand one thing, [16:47] all authority in heaven and earth has been given to Me. [16:50] And Paul takes it a little bit further, and he says, [16:53] Jesus has been given absolute dominion over everything that exists and ever has existed, [17:00] because He has perfected the saints in the gospel,

[17:03] and He’s going to reveal the immeasurable riches of God to us [17:07] through the work of Jesus in our lives. [17:11] And we’re like, yes, okay, I gotcha. [17:15] Because if you’re a follower of Jesus, you really can’t deny that. [17:18] Just so you know, if you deny that, then you’re not really a follower of Jesus. [17:23] You’ve been cut from the team, all right, because you kind of cut yourself.

[17:28] It’s hard to be a Christian and say Jesus doesn’t have authority. [17:32] It kind of totally makes it pointless to follow Him. [17:36] But what we often don’t do is go the next step in Ephesians, [17:41] because check it with me, in verse 21, excuse me, in verse 22. [17:45] And He, talking about the Father, put all things under His feet [17:51] and gave Him as head over all things to the church.

[17:59] So Jesus, everything has been put under His feet, [18:03] and what that analogy means is everything’s under Jesus. [18:06] He has absolute power over everything. [18:08] He is directing traffic. [18:10] And then it says that dominion relates specially and specifically [18:19] to everything and the church.

[18:25] Keep going.

[18:29] Which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

[18:40] Here’s the analogy that Paul’s breaking down for us right now, [18:42] showing this great love that God has for the church. [18:45] It’s that we have the gospel, and what has happened is [18:48] God has given Him dominion over all things, but He is specifically using His dominion [18:54] to work His will in the world through the church. [19:00] Because He said Jesus is, in this analogy, the head.

[19:04] I don’t know if you realize this, but without your head, you can’t really do much. [19:10] When I’m moving my hand, my brain is telling it to. [19:15] When I’m walking towards the podium here, my brain is telling it to. [19:19] When my brain ceases to function properly, I will begin to have things like, you know, [19:25] cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, I will have seizures. [19:29] If my brain’s not functioning properly, my body will not function properly.

[19:33] And when my body is functioning properly, it’s because my brain is telling it to. [19:39] And what it’s saying is that Jesus has been made the head, and that the church is His body, [19:45] and His dominion is proclaimed through His body.

[19:50] God is so passionate about this thing called the church [19:53] that He works the fullness of Jesus through the church. [19:57] And what He’s saying is the gospel has been designed in such a way [20:00] that Jesus finds His fulfillment in the church. [20:03] Notice that at the end of verse 23 where it says that the church, the body, [20:08] is the fullness of Him.

[20:12] The fullness of Jesus. [20:14] Jesus, His hopes, His dreams, His passion, His desires are fulfilled through the church. [20:23] You say, well, I thought Jesus had dominion. [20:24] He does, because notice how it ends. [20:26] The church is the fullness of Him who fills all in all. [20:30] So in other words, Jesus takes for Himself a people called the church,

[20:35] and He fills the church with His Spirit, [20:40] and He finds fulfillment in that action and activity and life and community, [20:47] because He’s doing the work, because it’s all based on Him, [20:51] but it’s fulfilling when it functions properly.

[20:55] So let’s look at a couple more passages. [20:57] I want to break it down. [20:58] How does God really feel about the church? [21:02] Well, first place, we just saw it in Ephesians 1.23. [21:06] The church is the fullness of Jesus. [21:10] In other words, if you take the church away, Jesus is not going to like it,

[21:15] because that’s where He finds His fulfillment. [21:19] Secondly, in 1 Peter chapter 2 verses 9 and 10, [21:23] the church is called the people of God. [21:26] It says, But you are a chosen race, Peter writing to the church, [21:29] a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, [21:35] that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness

[21:39] into His marvelous light. [21:41] Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people.

[21:47] So now we’re called the people of God. [21:49] Then in Galatians chapter 4 verses 6 through 7, [21:55] it’s seen that we’re the family of God. [21:59] And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son [22:03] into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father, so you are no longer a slave, [22:08] but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God.

[22:12] And then in Romans chapter 8, He says, [22:14] For you did not receive the Spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, [22:16] but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, [22:20] Abba, Father. [22:22] In other words, Daddy, we’re in His presence. [22:24] He’s our Dad.

[22:26] And He says, The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit [22:28] that we are the children of God. [22:31] So the church is seen in the New Testament as the family of God. [22:35] He brings us in. He says, You are an heir to My kingdom. [22:38] You’re My children. You’re My family. I love you. [22:41] And then we’re called the bride of Jesus.

[22:43] In Ephesians chapter 5, verses 31 through 32, [22:46] Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother, [22:48] and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. [22:51] And He’s talking about marriage. [22:52] This is the great marriage chapter, right, [22:53] where we tell our wives to submit, even though it says we’re supposed to die for them.

[22:57] And then it says in verse 32, This mystery is profound, [22:59] and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. [23:03] In other words, marriage itself proclaims how God feels about the church, [23:07] because Jesus is the husband, and we’re His wife. [23:10] We’re the bride of Jesus.

[23:14] And then, understand in Ephesians chapter 1, 23, [23:17] again He says the church is the body of Christ. [23:21] And then in Colossians chapter 1, verse 18, He reiterates it, [23:25] and Paul writes, And He is the head of the body, the church. [23:29] He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, [23:31] that in everything He might be preeminent.

[23:34] In other words, His dominion, the authority of Jesus, [23:38] is most clearly seen through the church. [23:44] The church is His body. [23:46] And then finally, in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, [23:48] the church is seen as the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. [23:53] In 1 Corinthians 12, 13, we read,

[23:55] For in one spirit you were all baptized into one body, [23:58] Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, [24:01] and all were made to drink of one spirit. [24:05] In other words, it takes the analogy and says, [24:06] You’re one body, and you’ve been given one spirit. [24:10] You’re united, you’re together, you’re the church.

[24:16] So when we go through simply what a few books in the New Testament [24:20] have to say about the church, [24:22] we cannot get away and say, [24:25] God is somewhat indifferent about the people that He redeems, [24:28] but know what the Scriptures are actually putting together, [24:31] and they’re saying, God passionately loves the church.

[24:34] He makes it His family, He makes it His bride, He makes it His people, [24:39] He makes them a holy nation. [24:41] He loves the church.

[24:45] And you’re like, OK, so I’m part of the church, OK, that’s cool. [24:53] But I’ll just be part of the church at home. [24:56] This is a spiritual thing, it doesn’t have to be physical.

[24:59] So I’m a part of the church universal. [25:03] And so what I will do is I will sit at home, [25:06] and I will watch TBN, and I will grow in grace, [25:10] and I will just pray for the church to grow.

[25:16] So now we’ve got to do that. [25:17] Does it have to be a thing where we come and we get together? [25:19] Well, first thing I want you to see is that a Christian’s identity must be in the church. [25:26] OK? [25:27] And then we’ll get to how that actually fleshes out. [25:31] OK?

[25:32] What I mean by that is that you cannot biblically see yourself as an individual [25:41] who is simply on a journey with Jesus by Himself. [25:46] The New Testament tells us that we must find our identity in the church. [25:51] If you go back to Ephesians chapter 1, [25:53] it’s very clear that God’s passionate about the church, [25:56] and then He lays out what the church looks like.

[25:59] But it becomes more and more apparent throughout the New Testament [26:03] that when we are redeemed by Jesus, we lose our individualism, [26:09] and we’re now a part of something bigger than ourselves, [26:14] and that thing is called the church. [26:17] And that’s very difficult in this culture for us to grab ahold to, [26:22] because what we do is we love to grab ahold of our individualism

[26:26] and say things like, just me and Jesus, He’s all I need. [26:30] The problem with statements like that is that they’re no way biblical.

[26:36] The Bible does not lay out a pathway where it’s just you and Jesus walking hand in hand. [26:43] Actually, what the New Testament says is that if that is the life that you want in Jesus, [26:49] that is similar to saying you’re His mistress apart from His people. [26:54] And He’s not going to commit adultery.

[26:59] His bride is the church, and your identity must therefore be in the church, [27:06] not as just an individual part of it, but as a part of the collective nation, [27:12] and people, and family, and bride, and fellowship [27:17] that God is building through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

[27:22] Turning your Bibles real quick, if you can, to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. [27:28] 1 Corinthians chapter 12, and we’re going to unpack exactly how this works specifically in our lives.

[27:37] But before we read that, I want to share with you a quote about our identity [27:41] from an author and a pastor in England named Tim Chester. [27:46] How does this identity thing work? Well, it works this way. [27:49] By becoming a Christian, I belong to God. [27:54] We’re cool with that. But he takes it one step further. [27:58] And I belong to my brothers and sisters. Joint heirs is what he calls us.

[28:03] Family is what he calls us. Bride is what he calls us. [28:06] Then he says things like, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, [28:09] love your neighbor as yourself. The church is the ultimate fulfillment of loving your neighbor as yourself.

[28:16] Galatians chapter 6 says, be kind to everyone, especially those who are of the household of faith. [28:22] Jesus says in the book of John, he says, they’ll know you’re my disciples by the way that you love each other.

[28:28] There’s a strange identity and connection between other believers in Jesus that God gives us. [28:36] It is not that I belong to God and then make a decision to join a local church. [28:41] My being in Christ means being in Christ with those others who are in Christ. [28:46] This is my identity. This is our identity.

[28:52] In other words, when Jesus says, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me, [28:58] he’s saying in one way, die to the lie of individualism because it’s what we’re obsessed with. [29:06] Stand in line at Starbucks and you’re just going to see a bunch of people with their heads down [29:09] trying to avoid talking to each other as much as possible. [29:13] He says, die to that lie and come and belong in the church. [29:17] In the last series we went through story, one of our days was just focusing on the fact that Jesus has redeemed us

[29:22] from the isolation that we live in, that sin has caused in our relationship with each other. [29:26] So what happens in the church is we get to fulfill that expectation of redemption from isolation [29:32] in the here and now and that is what the first fruits of the spirit look like.

[29:38] Look in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, I’m going to start reading in verse 14.

[29:46] For the body does not consist of one member, but of many. [29:53] He’s talking about the church, I’m just kind of not giving you the whole chapter here. [29:58] See, you by yourself, you’re not in the church.

[30:03] You can’t do it in your recliner at home. [30:06] But my wife’s there.

[30:09] What if I have a letter of the law? [30:12] For the church does not consist of one member, but of many.

[30:16] And I love the analogy he gives us. [30:18] If the foot should say, because I am not a hand, I did not belong to the body, [30:22] that would not make it any less part of the body. [30:24] And if the ear should say, because I am not an eye, I did not belong to the body, [30:28] that would not make it any less a part of the body. [30:30] If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be?

[30:33] If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? [30:36] But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them as he chose. [30:41] If all were a single member, where would the body be? [30:44] As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. [30:48] What he’s saying here is that you as an individual do not make up the whole body, [30:51] but you as an individual cannot then divorce yourself from the body.

[30:54] You’re in it whether you like it or not, you just might be a bad member of the body. [31:00] And what he’s saying is, and this plays so true to how we live our lives, [31:05] what we do is we say, I have this gift. [31:08] Because if you notice in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, the thing that it’s so popular for, [31:12] is that at the beginning of the chapter, he unfolds the spiritual gifts. [31:17] Gifts of prophecy, gifts of teaching, gifts of help, gifts of mercy, gifts of giving.

[31:21] All these different spiritual gifts. [31:23] And then what he says is, look, if you have the spiritual gift that makes you look kind of like a foot, [31:29] because you’re the person that carries a lot of the weight and does some of the physical labor, [31:33] you cannot say, well because I don’t have the same gifts as the hands or the mouth or the ear or the eyes, [31:39] because my gift is different, I’m going to resent those other people that have gifts that are a little more showy than mine. [31:46] And I’m going to divorce myself, I’m going to take my spiritual gift, and I’m going to go home.

[31:52] And I’ll just be a foot by myself.

[31:55] And Paul says, that makes about as much sense as having an ingrown toenail and chopping your foot off for it.

[32:03] Good luck getting around with one foot.

[32:08] Paul says, you by yourself are not the fullness of Jesus. [32:12] You by yourself can in no way proclaim the excellencies of his glory. [32:19] You need the other people in the church.

[32:26] Because let me be honest with you. [32:28] Sometimes when you have the gift of the mouth, it’s not the most pleasant one. [32:35] It’s the one that gets the most attention, but it’s also the one that gets the most grief. [32:39] Alright.

[32:41] I don’t know where I would be without people that have gifts of just being an ear.

[32:47] I don’t know where I’d be.

[32:50] I don’t know where I would be without the people that have the gifts of hands.

[32:55] Or the people that have the gifts of just bearing burdens because they’re more like feet that can walk with you and sometimes carry you a little bit.

[33:03] If all we have in the village is a mouth, Jesus isn’t being glorified.

[33:17] We need you.

[33:19] I need you. [33:22] Because I’ll be frank with you. [33:23] I do not reflect the excellencies and glory of our great God and King Jesus by myself. [33:30] I fail miserably. [33:33] And quite often I need other people to help me see how to follow Jesus right. [33:38] And that’s only possible in the context of the church.

[33:43] And you’re like, but Steve, I’ve never seen it like that. [33:46] I’ve never come into a church and seen them glorifying God. [33:49] I’ve never come into a church and seen people that love Jesus the way the scripture says they love Jesus. [33:54] I’ve never seen it in a good way. [33:56] You don’t know what I’ve been through. [33:58] You’re right.

[33:58] I don’t know what church you’re coming out of, what church you come from. [34:03] We’re brand new. [34:04] Most of you are not three years old. [34:06] So most of you have probably been through this before. [34:08] And you’ve been to a couple of churches where you didn’t have that good of a time. [34:12] And people may have made Jesus look really bad.

[34:18] But I’m here to tell you this morning, because people make Jesus look really bad does not mean there’s not a better way. [34:25] And it does not mean that God has given up on his plan. [34:28] The church is God’s plan A and there is no plan B.

[34:37] But that’s what I want to be.

[34:41] That’s what I want to be. [34:43] And it ain’t easy.

[34:47] Hard as the road, Jesus said.

[34:51] But this is our vision. [34:54] Of people coming together and being the body of Jesus Christ.

[35:01] And you need to be a part of it.

[35:05] Is it going to be perfect? No. [35:06] Is it going to be messy? Yeah. [35:08] Am I going to offend and say stupid things sometimes? Hypothetically? Maybe.

[35:13] You may every once in a while leave on a Sunday and say, I’m never going back there, he offended me. [35:18] Hypothetically, that might happen. [35:20] But sometimes, just forgive me. [35:23] I preached here 49 times last year. [35:26] That’s like 49 hours really. [35:28] In 49 hours of talking, I may have misspoken.

[35:32] Give me some grace.

[35:37] I mean you are a family, right? [35:40] How often do you get mad at your own family members? [35:43] That’s what the church is. [35:44] Remember, it’s the family of God. [35:47] Sometimes we just need to show each other a little forgiveness.

[35:50] So we’ve seen how the church happens. [35:54] But here, I want to go here. [35:55] I want to tell you that you cannot love Jesus and not the church. [36:00] Here’s where I really answer the question. [36:03] And I want you to notice how I spelled church.

[36:07] I did it that way purposefully. [36:10] Because you cannot love the church universal. [36:13] The big church, the worldwide church. [36:15] Which I’m really excited this week. [36:16] We grew in the church universal because our team in China led a young lady to Jesus this week. [36:23] I praise God for that.

[36:25] Our team in China led a young lady to Jesus. [36:27] I got the email Friday morning. [36:29] And there’s a time difference. [36:30] So it might be like next Thursday right now in China for all I know. [36:33] But I can’t really figure out when it happened. [36:36] I think it was Friday.

[36:37] But when I got the email Friday, I think it was like Sunday afternoon at that point. [36:40] But in China, on Friday, a young lady came to know Jesus. [36:44] Never heard the name of Jesus before. [36:46] Our team, our small church got a team in China. [36:50] And they’re leading people to Jesus Christ. [36:52] We had one on Friday.

[36:53] There’s another one that he said was really, really close. [36:56] A young guy. [36:57] And this is exciting because China is not the most open place to the gospel of Jesus. [37:02] He even had to send his email to me. [37:04] And I think some of you as well, in code. [37:07] He couldn’t really say the name of Jesus or say Christian.

[37:10] Because then Big Brother’s going to come and swoop in. [37:12] And I think they’re going to be political prisoners or something. [37:14] So let’s hope that doesn’t happen. [37:15] I could really use them next Sunday to help me set up.

[37:19] But how did that happen? [37:22] I’ll tell you how it happened. [37:24] The universal church grew by one member. [37:26] Maybe two at this point. [37:27] But it grew by number because of the little seed church. [37:31] The local church.

[37:33] You cannot claim to have a passion for growing the church of Jesus Christ. [37:38] In a universal sense. [37:40] And never pitch in and help out in a local sense.

[37:44] You can’t do it. It’s impossible.

[37:51] God is glorified through the local church because what the local church represents is the spiritual reality of the universal church globally. [37:59] But it’s realized and experienced through the physical local church.

[38:07] And you say, but that’s going to take commitment, right? [38:10] Yeah. [38:12] Sorry.

[38:17] That means I have to get to know some people. [38:19] Yeah. [38:20] That means I might need to go to a community group. [38:23] It would help.

[38:25] It’s pretty hard to be the local church when you’re all looking at me. [38:30] And that’s what you do on Sunday. [38:31] You just come here and you stare at me for a while. [38:34] It’s hard to figure out if you’re a foot or a hand if you have no relationship with anybody else in the church.

[38:40] What I want you to notice in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 has nothing to do with the verses we read, but it has everything to do with the verses that we read. [38:48] We all want to focus on the beginning of 1 Corinthians chapter 12 because that’s where the spiritual gifts are. [38:51] And we want to know where we fit in, what part we play. [38:54] And then when we get married, we focus on 1 Corinthians chapter 13. [38:58] That’s the love chapter. [39:00] And everybody wants to say that’s the whole Bible right there.

[39:03] Love is patient. Love is kind. [39:06] Love for gifts.

[39:09] The greatest of these is love. [39:12] That’s a great chapter. [39:13] I’m not demeaning it. [39:14] So don’t walk away and say, pastor doesn’t believe in love. [39:17] I’m not demeaning it. It’s in the Bible. [39:18] God loves us.

[39:20] But here’s what I want you to know. [39:21] We find our gifts, focus on love, but sandwiched in between is the point. [39:29] And that’s the body of Christ. [39:31] You find your gifts in the body of Christ. [39:34] You use your gifts to grow the body of Christ. [39:38] And then the outcome is this supernatural outpouring of abundant love in 1 Corinthians chapter 13.

[39:46] And some of you are like, but I don’t experience any love in my life. [39:49] It’s because you’re not using your gifts in the local church.

[39:54] I don’t feel a part of the church. [39:55] When have you served?

[39:58] I just don’t feel like anybody likes me. [40:01] Who are you talking to? [40:03] Nobody ever emails me. [40:04] Well, who do you email?

[40:09] Honestly, in life, oftentimes you get what you give.

[40:18] But your gifts lead to love when you use them to grow the church.

[40:27] You’re like, but that might cut in on my free time. [40:30] Yeah, trust me, it will.

[40:34] Finally, this morning, I want you to understand that the church is not an institution.

[40:42] The church is not just a building.

[40:46] You don’t go to church to be a Christian.

[40:52] You are the church if you’re a Christian.

[40:57] The church is not an organization. [40:58] It’s an organism.

[41:00] It’s growing. [41:02] It’s something that the scripture says you can’t divorce yourself from, [41:04] even if you want to and try to.

[41:08] Are there problems? [41:10] Yeah.

[41:12] But the answer to most of those problems is to find a church that is striving most of the time [41:17] imperfectly to bring glory to the name of Jesus and worship the name of Jesus [41:21] and just relish in the redemption of Jesus so that we can be ready for the revelation of Jesus.

[41:29] And for a church that is striving to grow the body of Christ, [41:33] because I want you to understand the church is a people of mission. [41:37] Turn back real quick to Ephesians chapter 2. [41:41] Or forward, whichever way your Bible goes.

[41:46] Ephesians chapter 2. [41:49] And He, Jesus, came and preached peace to you who were far off, [41:55] and peace to those who were near. [41:58] For through Him, Jesus, we have access in one spirit to the Father. [42:02] There’s that unity again. [42:05] So then you are no longer strangers and aliens,

[42:08] but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God [42:13] built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. [42:17] Christ, Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, [42:20] in whom the whole structure being joined together, [42:23] grows into the holy temple to the Lord. [42:25] In Him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

[42:33] The reason the church is not yet perfect is because it’s not done being built. [42:38] We have a foundation on the apostles. [42:41] We have a cornerstone that the whole foundation rests on. [42:44] That’s the work of Jesus Christ. [42:47] But then it says that those of us that believe, [42:51] those of us that have been brought in,

[42:52] those of us who have had our isolation killed, [42:55] and we’ve been brought into the presence of Jesus, [42:57] into the presence of God the Father, where He tells us we’re His children, [43:00] those of us that are here, what He’s saying this morning is He’s saying, [43:03] you’re no longer strangers or aliens, but you belong. [43:07] And you as a people are together building the walls of the church together

[43:16] into a holy dwelling place of the Lord.

[43:22] When we finally see its completion, [43:24] it’s what we talked about last week in Revelation 21 where it says, [43:27] and there will be no temple because God will dwell with them physically.

[43:36] You see, the problem is, is oftentimes we try to define the church by our preferences,

[43:45] by our interests, by our hurts, by our experiences, by our expectations. [43:53] And we come in with our own personal mission and opinion of what the church should be like [44:01] rather than saying, speak Lord Jesus, what do you want it to be like? [44:06] And He’s told us. [44:08] It’s a people that belong together to Him [44:15] who are living out His purpose, which is His mission,

[44:19] which is to build the church, His kingdom.

[44:26] I finished with Hebrews chapter 10 this morning.

[44:31] That verse that often people allude to, [44:35] forsake not the assembling of yourselves together. [44:37] Alright, I want to start in verse 23.

[44:43] It says, let us hold fast the confession of our hope [44:47] without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. [44:53] That’s Jesus. [44:55] We base everything that we do as a church and everything that we are [44:59] on the fact that Jesus can be trusted and that we have hope. [45:03] Verse 24.

[45:06] Just catch a vision of what this would look like if we lived it. [45:11] And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works. [45:18] Not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, [45:23] but encouraging one another. [45:26] And all the more as you see the day of the ultimate revelation of Jesus. [45:33] As you see it drawing near.

[45:39] Could you imagine living a life in which you live [45:45] to contribute rather than consume.

[45:52] Where we live to encourage each other to live for the gospel, [45:56] rather than look at how no one is encouraging us.

[46:01] Where we live with this hope that’s constantly driven into us, [46:07] because the people we have a relationship with remind us all the time. [46:13] That our hope is in His kingdom and not in our own.

[46:20] I’ll be honest, church services the way we do them now, [46:24] it’s a cultural thing. [46:27] They haven’t always looked like this, [46:30] but in our culture, this is what we do. [46:34] We haven’t had a better idea yet.

[46:38] But this isn’t all that being the church is all about.

[46:42] I want to answer your question this way, [46:44] do you have to go to church to be a good Christian?

[46:50] Do I have to live with my wife to be a good husband?

[46:56] I think so.

[47:01] If I neglect her,

[47:05] if I ignore her,

[47:10] I don’t love her.

[47:16] Jesus loves the church, [47:18] God loves the church.

[47:22] So following Jesus means loving what He loves,

[47:26] building what He came to build, [47:29] being discipled by the people that He gives you to be discipled by.

[47:35] It can’t happen by yourself. [47:37] It only happens when we come together as the church. [47:42] So yes, you have to go to church to be a good Christian.

[47:47] But it’s about so much more than that. [47:51] Don’t just go to church, [47:53] be the church.

[47:57] Father, oh God we love you. [48:02] Only because you’ve given us the grace to make it even possible [48:06] for me to have love for you.

[48:11] God, you’ve given us your church.

[48:15] You’ve made us your church. [48:18] God, may we live and breathe and walk [48:21] as a community that is passionately in love with you.

[48:28] And this morning, [48:30] if you don’t know Jesus, you’re not part of the church.

[48:35] But you can know Jesus.

[48:38] You can know Him this morning. [48:41] And I’m honestly going to tell you, [48:42] if you’re here this morning and you’re like, [48:44] I don’t know Jesus, but I want to be a part of that. [48:47] Quite honestly, I want you to be a part of it. [48:49] And more than that, Jesus wants you to be a part of it.

[48:54] If you don’t know Jesus, I’d love to tell you how this works.

[48:57] And the rest of us, those of us that are believers, [49:00] our response this morning is to come preach the Gospel [49:03] to one another through the bread and the cup. [49:07] His broken body, His shed blood, He gave us His life, [49:10] and He tells us to come and symbolically consume it.

[49:16] We do it every week here. [49:19] Let’s worship.