back to index2015-04-26 Vision 3: Building a Community Based on Love and Accountability
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In our series of the church series, and if you look at the bottom of the front side of 00:00:10.040 |
your program, we have written the fourfold vision of our church, and each one of them 00:00:14.960 |
starts out by saying our vision is to glorify God by establishing. 00:00:18.560 |
And so I want to read it real quick with you because we're on the third one today, and 00:00:24.120 |
then we'll get to the fourth one before we jump to the next series of teachings in the 00:00:31.480 |
The first and foremost, our vision is to glorify God by establishing a church that engages 00:00:35.760 |
in God, God-centered worship and not man-centered. 00:00:39.760 |
Number two, a church that equips every believer with God's inerrant word. 00:00:45.120 |
Number three, a church that builds a community through love and accountability. 00:00:50.000 |
And fourth, a church that reaches out to its community with the gospel of Jesus Christ. 00:00:54.080 |
So we've been talking about that these are the fourfold vision that we are trying to 00:01:00.160 |
And again, this is not anything unique to Beroean Community Church. 00:01:02.760 |
This is something that as we've been studying, we're convicted that these are the things 00:01:06.600 |
that a church ought to focus on, a God-centered worship, equipping with the word of God, building 00:01:11.960 |
a community based on love and accountability, and then fourthly, the Great Commission. 00:01:17.880 |
And so as we look at the third vision today, we want to be talking about the importance 00:01:24.120 |
of the community, why this is so important, why this is a focal point of one of the fourfold 00:01:31.120 |
So let me pray and then we'll jump into the sermon this morning. 00:01:35.480 |
Heavenly Father, we want to praise you for your goodness. 00:01:40.280 |
And again, we know that our very breath is sustained by you. 00:01:45.720 |
We pray, Father God, that you would be merciful to us as you always are, that we would have 00:01:52.400 |
ears to hear, hearts, Lord God, that are easily molded, and lives that can be challenged and 00:02:03.680 |
Help us, Lord God, to sift through your word and that nothing coming off of this pulpit 00:02:09.720 |
is contradictory or contradicts anything, Lord God, that your word has to say. 00:02:16.400 |
So we pray for the power of the Holy Spirit to guide and lead us. 00:02:22.440 |
You know, whenever we talk about the issue of the church, even though I've been a Christian 00:02:26.360 |
for a while and I've been a pastor for a while, we, you know, not too long ago, we celebrated 00:02:33.000 |
And prior to that, I was a pastor for about seven, eight years prior to that. 00:02:37.160 |
And so, you know, I've been a pastor for so long and our church has been around for so 00:02:40.880 |
long, it's just kind of like, yeah, of course, you know, I'm a pastor and I'm committed to 00:02:45.240 |
But growing up, church was the last thing that I wanted to be a part of. 00:02:52.520 |
Some of you guys have come from churches where you've had experiences of split up and bad 00:02:59.120 |
So naturally, humanly speaking, I would have easily been one of those people that if you 00:03:03.840 |
were out in the street evangelizing, I would have been one of those people that's like, 00:03:08.560 |
You know, it's not Christ or Christianity, it's just, I think the church is filled with 00:03:14.840 |
I would have been one of those people, for sure. 00:03:17.680 |
In fact, when I was younger, my memory of the church, at least not as a little child, 00:03:22.760 |
but as soon as I began to understand the church, some of the things that I can tell you, the 00:03:26.920 |
horror stories that I've seen, I've had a close friend of mine whose father was an elder 00:03:32.960 |
after a Bible study, wanted to physically hit my dad. 00:03:36.080 |
And I remember sitting in there watching this, you know, thinking, man, why do people come 00:03:41.680 |
And I've heard so many times in the back of the car while my parents are driving, sitting 00:03:46.640 |
in the back and listening to them talking about what was happening at church. 00:03:50.560 |
And I'd be sitting in there, sitting in the back as a young kid, listening to all of this. 00:03:54.240 |
And again, years of this piling up, seeing the behind the story of people's complaints 00:04:02.440 |
And I remember one time, I don't remember my dad raising his voice too often. 00:04:11.720 |
And I remember one time he was on the phone with somebody else at church, and he was pretty 00:04:19.920 |
And basically, somebody said something to my mom, and my dad was on the phone defending 00:04:26.520 |
And I don't know the background story behind that, but I remember listening to this. 00:04:30.320 |
And if I knew what it was and what they said, I don't know if I would have been able to 00:04:37.080 |
So my earliest memories of church, I mean, to say it was negative would be an understatement. 00:04:44.520 |
So as early as I can remember, I remember committing to myself inwardly. 00:04:48.200 |
I never shared this with anybody, but inwardly thinking, as soon as I'm 18, I'm gone. 00:04:56.680 |
And if it wasn't for the grace of God, I would not be here. 00:05:00.840 |
And even after I became a Christian, now I realize the church was the condition that 00:05:06.120 |
it was at, not because that's what God wanted, but because the church has gone astray. 00:05:10.160 |
So even after I became a Christian, the local church was the last thing that was on my mind. 00:05:16.320 |
I wanted to work on campus, work with college students. 00:05:19.000 |
I wanted to do all kinds of stuff, but the local church was the last thing that I wanted 00:05:25.080 |
So here I am, you know, so many years later, I'm a pastor of a local church. 00:05:35.720 |
It wasn't like, "Oh, I went to this church and I started to see what a healthy church 00:05:39.860 |
looks like and like, oh, I see, what I saw was wrong and this is right." 00:05:45.380 |
There was no eye-opening experience that happened to me. 00:05:50.240 |
Basically what happened was, as I was teaching through the Bible, and it wasn't really even 00:05:55.900 |
I'm sure in seminary I was taught often the importance of the local church, but to me 00:06:00.000 |
it was just, you know, okay, you know, that's what you say and that's what I heard. 00:06:04.160 |
But after I became a pastor, I started preaching through the Bible. 00:06:10.240 |
I started preaching through John and then went to Romans. 00:06:14.240 |
And so I was just kind of working my way through the New Testament and then started to study 00:06:21.960 |
And certain things that I thought about Christian life started getting challenging. 00:06:26.240 |
I realized a lot of my thinking wasn't biblical, even though that's what I was taught, even 00:06:31.720 |
though that's what I was practicing for years. 00:06:35.880 |
And one of the key things that I learned about Christianity is about the church. 00:06:41.920 |
And again, typically we tend to think like, well, prayer is important, evangelism is important, 00:06:47.000 |
discipleship is important, but the church is kind of like, you know, like fellowship. 00:06:51.660 |
Those are for we Christians, like who don't really want to pray and like, you know, level 00:06:55.780 |
one Christians are the ones who are doing missions. 00:06:58.520 |
But the church, you know, that just, that's just like nominal people. 00:07:02.160 |
They don't come and hang out and want a fellowship. 00:07:05.520 |
But I, as I was sifting through the scripture and I realized just how important the church 00:07:11.640 |
And I, one of the key things that I learned, one of the first things that I learned was 00:07:15.080 |
God sees all of us in a context of a church, not just individually in a desert, in the 00:07:23.180 |
Now, I'm going to show you a few things and hopefully you can see what I'm, what I'm getting 00:07:29.780 |
Turn your Bibles with me to Joshua chapter 7, 16 to 18. 00:07:34.140 |
This is a passage where the Israelites are about to conquer Jericho and God tells the 00:07:43.940 |
nation of Israel, I'm going to deliver this city to you and all you have to obey me. 00:07:49.500 |
But when you go in, this one stipulation is everything in this city is under a ban. 00:07:57.500 |
Well, one of the Israelites from the tribe of Judah named Achan thought that he was going 00:08:02.700 |
to be smart and say, you know what God, maybe God didn't really mean everything. 00:08:06.020 |
You know, there are some good things here that I can take away and benefit from. 00:08:10.580 |
So, instead of obeying God, he decides to go and take some of the, some of the prized 00:08:18.260 |
But because of that particular sin, they end up going to the next city to conquer and it's 00:08:24.540 |
They should have, if they were able to conquer this big fortified city, this tiny little 00:08:28.020 |
city up in the hill should have been a piece of cake for them. 00:08:34.660 |
And then because of this particular sin, God withdraws his favor and then they get attacked 00:08:42.500 |
So God speaks to Joshua and the leaders of Israel and say, this is the reason why this 00:08:52.100 |
Just like I told you to meditate on my word, do not turn from it to the left or to the 00:08:58.540 |
Well, Joshua chapter 7, 16 to 18 is a scene where God picks out Achan for the purpose 00:09:14.500 |
It says, "Early next morning, Joshua had Israel come forward by tribes and Judah was 00:09:21.660 |
So again, they're pinpointing Achan, this one particular person. 00:09:25.940 |
But the whole nation of Israel had to come out. 00:09:32.400 |
If any of you have ever tried to organize a group of people, even 10, I get 10 of you 00:09:38.000 |
guys get together and say, "Hey, let's go eat somewhere." 00:09:41.640 |
You know what kind of headache it is just to organize even 10 people, right? 00:09:45.320 |
And it's like you run a picnic with 100 people. 00:09:47.120 |
And I'm very thankful for our family ministry team who's organizing the picnic. 00:09:51.600 |
But just to get the people to move from this table to this table sometimes takes 20 minutes. 00:10:07.920 |
Why this huge drama to pinpoint this one person? 00:10:14.640 |
And then after that, the clan of Judah is separated because that's the tribe that he's 00:10:19.360 |
So even the clan of Judah is now a small group of people, right? 00:10:22.520 |
It's probably thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of people. 00:10:27.560 |
And then he took the Zarahites within the tribe of Judah, this family group, the Zarahites. 00:10:33.560 |
He had the clan of Zarahites come forward by families. 00:10:38.560 |
So you see this drama of Israelites, the tribe of Judah, the Zarahites, and then the Zimri, 00:10:45.520 |
So Joshua had his family come forward man by man, one by one. 00:10:49.000 |
And Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zimri, the son of Zarah, the tribe of Judah was taken. 00:10:56.080 |
That's a lot of drama to pinpoint one guy, right? 00:11:07.080 |
This whole drama of all the nation of Israel coming out, and then the Judah, and then the 00:11:11.440 |
Zarahites, and then the Zimri, and then his family, and then one by one, and then Achan. 00:11:22.240 |
If you study the Old Testament, every single individual is connected to his family and 00:11:29.020 |
So whenever they identify their God, they always say the God of Abraham, Isaac, and 00:11:32.960 |
Jacob, meaning the connection that they have. 00:11:36.440 |
And you'll notice that every individual in Israel is connected to a community. 00:11:43.440 |
And God basically was teaching the nation of Israel, because of this one man sin, Israel 00:11:52.360 |
And the closer they get to him, they're more culpable. 00:11:54.720 |
But the whole nation was guilty because of this one man. 00:11:59.080 |
In fact, if you see all throughout the New Testament, and Old Testament, and the New 00:12:03.080 |
Testament, you'll see that that's exactly how God sees us. 00:12:13.680 |
As a child, we kind of look at it as like, "Oh, I'm good. 00:12:19.080 |
But as a parent, it's not enough that my first son is doing well. 00:12:30.600 |
So as a parent, you never, it's never individual. 00:12:35.360 |
Like I don't feel well until our family is well. 00:12:43.160 |
So if my children ask me, like, "What can I do for you?" 00:12:47.600 |
The first thing that I would think of is, "Take care of your brother. 00:12:53.480 |
Because I won't be at peace until everybody is okay. 00:12:58.320 |
And you see that God as the Father of the nation of Israel always sees them as a unit, 00:13:05.200 |
And if you come to the New Testament, you can't practice Christianity outside of a devoted 00:13:15.440 |
Look at the language of the New Testament, Romans 12.10. 00:13:23.040 |
He doesn't say just casually, just kind of, "I attend this church." 00:13:54.760 |
Clothe yourself with humility toward one another. 00:14:03.320 |
He says, "Flee the evil desires of your youth. 00:14:05.760 |
Pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, along with those who call on the Lord out 00:14:11.660 |
Even when we practice communion in 1 Corinthians 11, what does it say? 00:14:15.000 |
He who eats and drinks off the table without acknowledging the body of Christ, he eats 00:14:32.800 |
A Christian cannot be obedient outside of a devoted relationship with the body of Christ. 00:14:41.380 |
Again, I can sit here and spend probably the rest of this month, maybe even year, talking 00:14:50.260 |
about this because almost every text in the scripture in the New Testament is written 00:14:58.780 |
If you look at 1 Corinthians chapter 12, or so, you don't need to turn your Bible there, 00:15:01.820 |
it's about the body of Christ, and how God has given each person different spiritual 00:15:10.540 |
Why didn't He give different spiritual gifts as soon as you became Christian that you're 00:15:15.700 |
He says some, He made eyes, tongue, head, feet, mouth, and each one is vitally connected 00:15:23.460 |
to one another that a mouth, independent, is useless unless it is connected to the head. 00:15:29.380 |
A feet is useless unless it's connected to the hands. 00:15:33.860 |
And God deliberately made it that way so that we would not be able to function without one 00:15:39.460 |
In Ephesians 4, 16, that's exactly what it says. 00:15:42.460 |
From Him the whole body, from Him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting 00:15:48.620 |
ligament grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work. 00:15:58.100 |
The body of Christ is His physical presence on earth. 00:16:05.620 |
So somebody says, "Well, you know, as Christians, you know, I can be a Christian. 00:16:11.740 |
I say, "Yeah, you could go to, you may be able to go to heaven, but it's just not like 00:16:16.100 |
saying, 'I'm a Christian, I don't have to read the Bible.'" 00:16:19.660 |
You're right, you can be a Christian without reading the Bible necessarily, but you wouldn't 00:16:24.100 |
You can be saying, "Well, I don't have to pray." 00:16:27.100 |
I say, "Well, you could technically, but you wouldn't be an obedient Christian." 00:16:32.900 |
You can't practice, you can't be reading the Bible and practicing Scripture outside of 00:16:39.820 |
So it's kind of like, that's why when an individual is separated from the body of Christ, there 00:16:47.420 |
The only thing that we look for in Scripture is encouragement. 00:16:53.900 |
How do I find encouragement in this difficult world? 00:16:59.340 |
The book is nothing more than a how-to for my own individual life. 00:17:03.460 |
So if we're going to the Scripture, it doesn't come alive because I'm not committed to obey 00:17:09.500 |
Again, it's no different than reading an instruction manual of how to build. 00:17:15.100 |
Like I say, you buy an IKEA furniture and you have the instruction manual, but you have 00:17:22.500 |
And then after a while, it's just going to get old. 00:17:23.860 |
It's like, "Well, you know, I've read this before." 00:17:28.820 |
We live in a culture where if things don't fit us, we try to redefine it. 00:17:34.300 |
Because again, remember we talked about that? 00:17:36.620 |
The beginning is God-centered worship, not us, but Him-centered. 00:17:44.660 |
Some of you guys may remember, remember the TV show Cheers? 00:17:56.020 |
The earlier service had more older people, so they agreed. 00:17:59.220 |
Okay, so Cheers was the popular sitcom before Friends. 00:18:09.140 |
So Cheers was a sitcom, and I remember at that time when that sitcom came, and if you 00:18:19.980 |
You know, it's, I don't even know if they would rate it PG. 00:18:23.700 |
But I remember when this TV show was popular, there was a debate in the Christian community 00:18:27.900 |
thing, should Christians be watching this because it's so raunchy. 00:18:31.740 |
You know, because they were talking about, you know, sexual encounters very openly. 00:18:35.740 |
And then prior to this TV show becoming popular, it was all family-oriented, like the Cosby 00:18:47.460 |
But it was all family-oriented, it was pretty wholesome. 00:18:49.300 |
This show came on, and it became really popular. 00:18:53.100 |
And I think part of the reason why it was really popular, it showed a group of friends 00:19:02.060 |
And this is how the theme song of that sitcom goes. 00:19:10.380 |
Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got. 00:19:14.660 |
Taking a break from all your worries sure would help a lot. 00:19:20.300 |
Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name. 00:19:26.580 |
You want to be where you can see our troubles are all the same? 00:19:29.540 |
You want to be where everybody knows your name." 00:19:33.700 |
I think this particular sitcom tapped into a longing in our generation. 00:19:40.380 |
Because we no longer have communities in our neighborhoods. 00:19:43.620 |
In fact, with so many families being torn apart, there's really not even communities 00:19:51.620 |
And there isn't much community when you go to work. 00:19:53.300 |
You go into a cubicle, do your job, cock in, cock out, and you come home. 00:19:57.740 |
And again, part of the reason why Facebook and all this social media is so popular is 00:20:01.900 |
because there is a longing, even if it is superficial, there is a longing for connection. 00:20:08.300 |
Now at the core of what this song says, it is not wrong. 00:20:16.920 |
But here's the danger of this, if we're not careful. 00:20:24.260 |
A place where we can go where everybody knows my name, I feel connected to people. 00:20:29.540 |
That we're all going through the same struggle. 00:20:34.500 |
There's no push to anything, that I feel accepted exactly the way I am. 00:20:42.980 |
No matter what I'm doing, no matter where I'm going, no matter what my life looks like, 00:20:51.500 |
And I believe that, again, whether it's cheers, whether it's friends, or whatever sitcom that 00:21:04.260 |
And again, the danger of this being applied to the church is that more and more we're 00:21:09.860 |
redefining the purpose and intent of the church based upon what our generation desires. 00:21:19.980 |
Again, like I said, at the core of it, in and of itself, it is not necessarily wrong. 00:21:27.780 |
When we begin to redefine church based upon our generation, our need, and who I am, what 00:21:39.900 |
If you build a church where people feel connected and love and accepted and not judged all the 00:21:46.700 |
You don't have to have the best sermon, you don't have to have the best organization, 00:21:49.540 |
but if people feel loved and accepted, no matter what, it will grow. 00:21:54.140 |
Because that's the longing of our generation. 00:21:56.100 |
I'm pretty sure that's a longing that you have in your heart as well. 00:22:01.260 |
But we need to be careful that whatever churches that we're building, that we're building because 00:22:06.740 |
this is what the scripture tells us what the church is. 00:22:09.700 |
So I'm going to do an exercise with you real quick. 00:22:16.060 |
If you have pencil or pen, I want you to do something for me as an exercise. 00:22:21.100 |
I want you to draw one triangle, three square, and a rectangle. 00:22:30.060 |
If you know what I'm doing, don't say anything. 00:22:32.940 |
Draw a triangle, three squares, and one rectangle. 00:22:43.060 |
So there's nothing sacred on that sheet that you can't mess up. 00:22:48.740 |
One triangle, three squares, and one rectangle. 00:23:04.820 |
I told you to draw a triangle, square, and a rectangle. 00:23:18.380 |
So when we don't understand the doctrine of the church, we can focus and be busy on evangelism, 00:23:26.780 |
on fellowship, on discipleship, and focus on all of these things, and miss the big picture. 00:23:32.660 |
They're not recognizing that God's intent for the church is to build His church. 00:23:39.420 |
Why we do evangelism is for the building of the church. 00:23:42.660 |
Why God puts us in situations so that we can use our gifts to build the church. 00:23:49.740 |
And if we don't understand the doctrine of ecclesiology about the church, and you don't 00:23:54.780 |
see the big picture, we can be busy drawing rectangles and triangles, and that triangle 00:24:00.820 |
You know, some of you guys are focused on triangles, you know. 00:24:15.500 |
Some of you guys are on discipleship, you know. 00:24:17.100 |
So you got the rectangle, and it's like, it's a perfect rectangle. 00:24:24.660 |
And then the square is like, how come that triangle doesn't look like me? 00:24:32.300 |
That in the context, when you read the scripture, all of these things put together build up 00:24:40.980 |
In Matthew 16, 17, this is the first place that Jesus uses the term "church," ecclesia. 00:24:47.980 |
And the word ecclesia literally means a gathering of called out people. 00:24:58.140 |
Before they go to war, they would gather together, have a rally, and say, "Hey, we're going 00:25:03.740 |
Or the word ecclesia was also used for the Senate Assembly. 00:25:08.060 |
People who were voted in for a meeting to help run the government. 00:25:14.180 |
So it wasn't just a random gathering of people. 00:25:16.460 |
It was people who were selected in a gathering for a particular purpose. 00:25:21.440 |
And so when Jesus uses the term ecclesia, it was not a new term. 00:25:26.260 |
Today if we say church, we automatically think of the Christian church. 00:25:29.420 |
But at that time, when they said ecclesia, they thought of the assembly. 00:25:33.860 |
A purposeful gathering of a small or gathering of elect people. 00:25:42.820 |
It is a physical gathering to represent the universal church. 00:25:49.540 |
In Matthew 16, 17, where Jesus uses that term first, he says, "Blessed are you, Simon, 00:25:55.640 |
the son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 00:26:00.400 |
And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the 00:26:09.200 |
That God's intention was to build His church. 00:26:19.860 |
But all of it collectively for the purpose of building His church. 00:26:25.420 |
And the only reason why you and I are here today is because God has covenanted with us 00:26:33.500 |
If you think about the 2,000 years of church history, the utter chaos, how often false 00:26:41.440 |
doctrines have come in and done crazy things. 00:26:46.220 |
You know, I know, like right now, there's a lot of crazy things going on under the name 00:26:52.940 |
Well, Christians at some point in Christian history, they were killing other Christians 00:27:01.940 |
I mean, they – Christians, the church, did some crazy stuff. 00:27:06.720 |
We would look at all this, and how do we get here? 00:27:09.620 |
At one point in church history, they were selling salvation. 00:27:12.220 |
If you gave the church a lot of money, you know, they'd say, "You're blessed and 00:27:16.300 |
Not only are you saved, but all your ancestors are saved." 00:27:20.060 |
The only reason why you and I are here and the gospel is still being preached is because 00:27:29.100 |
He said, "I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it." 00:27:36.180 |
We don't even have to look at church history. 00:27:41.280 |
I know for a fact there's some people in this room thinking, "This church is going 00:27:44.660 |
to die if this church is filled with those people." 00:27:48.540 |
How is this church even functioning with those people? 00:27:54.100 |
We don't even have to think about other people. 00:27:58.540 |
Look at – when I look at myself, how can God possibly think that this is a good idea? 00:28:08.140 |
He said, "You know, they will know you by the love that you practice with one another." 00:28:13.100 |
And then we observe and observe ourselves, we observe the church, and it's like, "No, 00:28:23.580 |
And how does God ever think that for the next hundred years the church is going to survive 00:28:27.660 |
when we look at the condition of the church today? 00:28:31.580 |
The only reason why you and I are here today is because God made a unilateral covenant. 00:28:42.900 |
I know, you know, I know there's some people that have been married for a long period of 00:28:47.260 |
time and I feel like Esther and I, we have a great marriage. 00:28:51.500 |
You know, and some of you who are younger may think, "Oh, you found the right one." 00:29:01.260 |
We fit, you know, she finished my sentences before, you know, like it cleared my throat 00:29:06.700 |
and there's water on the table already, you know. 00:29:12.220 |
A marriage is strong because there are times when it, you know, if I didn't want to be 00:29:17.660 |
married with her, I wouldn't have asked her, right? 00:29:20.700 |
But there have been times where we have persevered because of a covenant. 00:29:26.620 |
Because there was a covenant that kept us together. 00:29:28.820 |
You know, I think about it, I'm like, "What the fuck?" 00:29:33.500 |
Am I telling you something that is shocking to you? 00:29:37.140 |
Any human relationship, there are periods of selfishness, there's periods of misunderstanding, 00:29:41.740 |
there are periods when it's so difficult where you start to think, "I don't know, man, my 00:29:46.500 |
She doesn't understand me, I don't understand her." 00:29:49.820 |
But what keeps a good marriage growing and continuing is the covenant. 00:29:54.100 |
See, the only reason why you and I exist is because God made a unilateral covenant to 00:30:03.780 |
Despite our weaknesses, despite all the mess, despite all the divisions and all the things 00:30:11.540 |
that we have seen, all the things that you see now, all the things that you experience 00:30:19.700 |
Ephesians 1, 22 to 23, it says, "God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him 00:30:24.820 |
to be the head over everything for the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who 00:30:34.740 |
You know, I know some of you guys maybe here is thinking, "Well, you know, the body of 00:30:40.700 |
Everything that is written in the New Testament is written in the context of a local church, 00:30:46.580 |
That's the term, ecclesia, is a gathering, a local gathering of people who've been called 00:30:54.200 |
So when we talk about the church, we're not referring to the universal church, that's 00:30:59.700 |
But we're talking about the expression of that universal church in the local church. 00:31:04.420 |
And He says, "It's that local church which is the body of Christ, and it is that body 00:31:10.060 |
of Christ, us, is the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way." 00:31:15.660 |
Again, you and I, because of the internet, that there is more and more people thinking, 00:31:26.220 |
So if I go and listen to a sermon, I participated in the church." 00:31:32.180 |
It is the local gathering of believers where the fullness of Him who fills everything in 00:31:38.920 |
You did not attend service because you listened to a sermon on that Sunday. 00:31:46.460 |
You know the passage in Ephesians 5, 25-33, you hear that passage often in sermons at 00:31:53.260 |
And it's a beautiful description of a relationship between husband and wife. 00:31:59.060 |
It says, "Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up 00:32:04.240 |
And again, you'll hear that in saying, "Hey, husband, love her unconditionally." 00:32:07.340 |
You know, "To make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word, 00:32:11.940 |
and to present her to Himself as the radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other 00:32:19.660 |
It's a beautiful picture of a husband that commits to his wife unconditionally as Christ 00:32:25.220 |
And then it says to the wife, "In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as 00:32:35.940 |
After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ 00:32:39.980 |
does the church, for we are the members of his body." 00:32:44.140 |
After he presents this beautiful picture of husband and wife and God-ordained relationship, 00:32:49.340 |
he says in verse 32, "This is a profound mystery, but I am talking about Christ and the church." 00:32:56.920 |
He wasn't using Christ and the church as an example to look at and say, "Look at the beauty 00:33:03.740 |
of the relationship between husband and wife." 00:33:06.260 |
He was referring to the relationship between husband and wife as an example of the beauty 00:33:18.500 |
One, we see the love that Jesus has for His church. 00:33:33.140 |
Like, even after I became a Christian, I mean, I can honestly confess to you, I loved God. 00:33:41.100 |
Because as I'm praying for salvation, like God would give me a heart and I'd be broken 00:33:45.540 |
for, whether it was the homeless people or people who just didn't know Christ. 00:33:49.060 |
Even as I'm driving on the freeway, I look at the people on the freeway and God would 00:33:56.260 |
But I can honestly tell you, I had no love for the church. 00:34:01.220 |
Because to me, church is where chaos happens. 00:34:06.980 |
Church is where people who, for whatever the reason, is using their flesh to kind of work 00:34:16.260 |
And I wanted to commit to everything but the church. 00:34:20.300 |
But what transformed my thinking was as I was looking at the scripture and found how 00:34:31.180 |
He demonstrated His love while they were sinners. 00:34:36.300 |
And I realized that I cannot love this God who loves this church so much and ignore what 00:34:43.940 |
Who am I to come before God and say, "God, you messed up. 00:34:47.900 |
We tried it for 2,000 years and it's not working." 00:34:52.260 |
Who am I to come before God and question His judgment? 00:34:54.620 |
And I realized that I need to commit to what He's committed to. 00:35:16.140 |
He loved us because He made a covenant with us that I will love you despite. 00:35:40.540 |
I want to do disciple making, but not to the church. 00:35:47.180 |
And I, honest with you, there are days that in my heart I kick and scream because sometimes 00:35:53.980 |
I notice certain things and it triggers memories and I think to myself, "I don't know if I 00:36:01.380 |
And it's all that baggage from when I was a kid and I projected upon the church and 00:36:06.500 |
I have to take a step back and revisit, "Who am I? 00:36:12.140 |
Who am I to question if He loves the church for me to not to love the church?" 00:36:18.140 |
See Colossians 118, it says, "He is the head of the body, the church. 00:36:22.540 |
He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead so that in everything He might 00:36:30.660 |
What makes the church beautiful is not you, it's not me. 00:36:35.820 |
You know, those of you who are married and you've been proposed to, you know, you, I 00:36:41.580 |
know not everybody, you know, got a diamond ring. 00:36:43.900 |
My wife didn't get a diamond ring either, you know. 00:36:47.460 |
But those of you who got a ring, when you get the ring, the focal point of the ring 00:36:53.180 |
is the stone, whether it's diamond or opal, beautiful opal, right? 00:37:00.940 |
The focal point of all of that, the setting, is to highlight the stone. 00:37:06.620 |
I just call it diamond for the purpose of illustration, okay? 00:37:09.900 |
The focal point of that ring is the diamond, not the setting. 00:37:14.460 |
The setting is only there to beautify the stone. 00:37:18.100 |
But imagine if you got it, if you got the ring, and there's no focal point. 00:37:26.780 |
How many of you look at that, it's like, "That's an awesome ring," right? 00:37:30.980 |
And there's a place for it, there's a little thing that holds up like this, but there's 00:37:36.500 |
How many of you are going to look at that ring, it's like, "That's a beautiful ring," 00:37:40.500 |
You're going to all look at that and say, "Where is this? 00:37:46.380 |
Because the point of the ring that is the setting is to highlight the stone. 00:37:54.100 |
And the better job it highlights the stone, the better job the setting does. 00:37:57.900 |
See, the scripture says the church is the setting for Christ. 00:38:03.780 |
And our job is to be a setting so that Christ may be highlighted. 00:38:09.820 |
And the moment where Christ is not the head, and He's not the purpose, and He's not the 00:38:22.060 |
You have great friendship, you know, people love each other. 00:38:25.020 |
I mean, you have a lot of money, you have, I mean, people are so nice. 00:38:28.380 |
But if Christ is not the focal point, if Christ is not the reason why you're coming, sooner 00:38:32.740 |
or later you will see the blemishes, and that's all you will see. 00:38:37.860 |
You will see the ugliness, you will see the insecurities, you will see the cliquishness 00:38:52.000 |
It's the cornerstone that the world looked at and said, "This is worth it, let's throw 00:38:57.700 |
But you and I know that that's the chief cornerstone that keeps up this church. 00:39:04.500 |
That you and I are dependent upon this cornerstone. 00:39:08.260 |
And so what causes us to persevere through the ugliness, through the mess? 00:39:17.020 |
What causes you and I to persevere when we see ugliness in us? 00:39:21.380 |
Is it because we're better than other people? 00:39:23.020 |
We're more strong-willed and disciplined than other people? 00:39:31.900 |
And despite all my sins, despite all of your sins, Christ continues to call you and me 00:39:40.920 |
And that's why he says, "If the church does not lift up Christ, if the reason why you 00:39:47.380 |
come to church is not Christ, if the reason why you love the church is not Christ, eventually 00:39:57.100 |
You have four selfish people together, it's difficult. 00:40:00.740 |
You have a hundred people who are selfish together, it's impossible. 00:40:04.780 |
You have 400 selfish people looking for a place to feel significant, it will be a horrible 00:40:14.660 |
And that's why he says, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2, "For I decided to know nothing among you 00:40:27.140 |
Because the only thing beautiful, worth upholding is Jesus. 00:40:33.380 |
"I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ." 00:40:45.820 |
And I'm going to preach Christ, I'm going to talk about Christ, and I'm going to love 00:40:49.100 |
Christ, and I'm going to proclaim Christ, and I'm going to magnify Christ, because there's 00:40:53.220 |
nothing else in the church that belongs on that pedestal but Christ. 00:41:06.720 |
You and I learn how to be patient with one another so that we can be a better setting 00:41:13.380 |
We learn how to be hospitable so that we can be a better setting for the stone, the chief 00:41:20.300 |
You know, when I was younger in college, we lived, a lot of you guys know, I was in this 00:41:25.040 |
intense apartment training, woke up in the morning, disciplined, evangelizing. 00:41:31.980 |
But after about a year of living, I realized the real training wasn't the physical discipline. 00:41:38.040 |
Even though that was beneficial, the real training was happening in my heart. 00:41:43.940 |
The bitterness I had toward my roommates, because they ate all the curry, you know what 00:41:50.340 |
We made a whole batch of curry on Friday night, went to a leaders meeting Saturday morning, 00:42:01.860 |
That guy always eats, but he never does his dishes. 00:42:09.660 |
We're all sleeping at 11 o'clock, but this guy's playing guitar to throw in the morning. 00:42:20.700 |
Because of him, we always have to pay penalty. 00:42:26.660 |
And all these things are building up inside, and at the end of the year, it's just like, 00:42:35.860 |
I realized at the end of the year, the real sanctification, the real discipleship was 00:42:41.260 |
happening within me, to confess my sins, my pride, to love my roommates that were difficult 00:42:51.400 |
And so God was forming the person in me, even though I was focused on what was outside. 00:43:00.580 |
So if you're in the habit of coming in and saying, "Ha, these people, I rubbed these 00:43:03.460 |
people wrong, and these guys are jerks, and that guy's insensitive," and then so you 00:43:06.740 |
kind of pull back, you will never be sanctified. 00:43:12.180 |
Because what God is really doing is in your own heart, your own pride, right? 00:43:17.340 |
Your own insecurities, your own insurance, right? 00:43:21.940 |
Where you find safety, where you find comfort. 00:43:24.380 |
God is challenging all of that to make sure that Christ is at the center, not you, not 00:43:29.420 |
family, not possessions, not your job, not this world, not your health, that He'll tap 00:43:35.220 |
into all of that to make sure that the setting, that place where at the center, that only 00:43:47.340 |
That's why if you look at the qualification of an elder, it is not his gifting. 00:43:51.460 |
It's not like, you know, we would think if somebody's going to be preaching on a regular 00:43:55.300 |
basis, the top quality, you would say that he needs to be at least articulate. 00:44:05.260 |
He needs to be somebody who can engage people. 00:44:08.060 |
He needs to be somebody who recognizes that people are not interested in the sermon and 00:44:13.900 |
You have all these qualifications of what an elder should be, but if you look at the 00:44:17.180 |
qualification of an elder, it's all patience, temperance, hospitality. 00:44:24.140 |
And all of these characters are things that happen in the context of a community. 00:44:36.220 |
Do you know you're patient if you're in the middle of the mountain with nobody around 00:44:51.060 |
Just know, right here, Holy Spirit told me, right? 00:44:56.500 |
In the context of the community that you belong to. 00:44:59.980 |
How do you know if you're a forgiving person? 00:45:01.960 |
If you always run away from people that are difficult. 00:45:05.820 |
All of these things God is sanctifying in the context of the community. 00:45:10.180 |
So God is not simply bringing us together and saying, "Hey, you know, all the perfect 00:45:14.060 |
people go to this church so that we can build up the body of Christ and do it." 00:45:24.780 |
We're in the context of building, rubbing each other, wrong sometimes. 00:45:30.020 |
Different personalities, different backgrounds, different anxieties, different sins. 00:45:35.860 |
And in that context, we learn to be patient with one another. 00:45:43.820 |
And as we are being sanctified, we make a greater setting for Christ. 00:45:50.060 |
Isn't that exactly what Paul says in Timothy, 1 Timothy 3.14? 00:45:55.820 |
I am writing you these instructions so that if I am delayed, you will know how you ought 00:45:59.980 |
to conduct yourselves in the household of God, which is the church of the living God. 00:46:08.660 |
The church is the pillar and the foundation of the truth. 00:46:13.060 |
Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. 00:46:17.340 |
The church is the foundation in which we lift up Christ. 00:46:24.500 |
His intent was that now, through the church, not just an individual, not just one person, 00:46:30.220 |
not just an evangelist, not just a missionary, but through the whole church, with all our 00:46:37.140 |
With all our anxieties, even with all our divisions, he said, "Through the church." 00:46:43.280 |
He covenanted that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known 00:46:48.500 |
to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms. 00:46:54.900 |
This was not plan B. This was plan A, from the beginning. 00:46:59.500 |
You know, there are times when I look at the church and, you know, I know some of you guys 00:47:11.780 |
You know, you may think about it every once in a while. 00:47:19.940 |
I get, you know, if something's happening, it usually comes to my ear. 00:47:21.900 |
So, some days, some weeks, it just kind of piles up and like, "Oh my gosh! 00:47:28.360 |
You know, and really, I've shared this with you before, but there's sometimes I feel like 00:47:33.100 |
You know, I leave church like, "Oh God, thank you so much for this church." 00:47:37.780 |
And then I get an email and I hear these things like, "Oh my God, I don't want to do this 00:47:42.780 |
And every time I take a step back, and again, with all the baggage that comes in, I forget 00:48:03.020 |
I can't, if you ask me why, I can't tell you why. 00:48:09.100 |
Why do you care for these people who are so hard to move? 00:48:15.100 |
I, I, when I read, you know, when I first started reading about Israel, I would say, 00:48:23.340 |
Now when I read Israel, I'm like, "I could see myself doing that." 00:48:26.700 |
You know, I went in the desert, I have all my kids, and they can't drink water. 00:48:31.340 |
I mean, think about it as a parent, you know, maybe as a single person, I don't know. 00:48:36.300 |
You've got three small kids, you're walking in the desert, and let alone milk, there's 00:48:43.860 |
How many of you would think, "Why did we come out here? 00:48:49.460 |
At least over there, I mean, I was working my butt off, but I couldn't give my kids water. 00:48:55.460 |
And I read the Israelites, and I can say, "I can see myself saying that." 00:49:00.180 |
I can see myself, every time they fall apart, I can see myself, now that I, I feel like 00:49:05.020 |
I know myself a little bit better, I can see myself in every sin that Israel commits. 00:49:14.940 |
And I could even see myself doing what Judas did. 00:49:26.780 |
After 2,000 years of mess, of all the things that you brought into this room, and if we 00:49:33.220 |
were to expose all of that, and we could see it with our eyes, we would say, "Oh my gosh, 00:49:39.900 |
And yet, despite all of that, He said, "I will build my church, and the gates of Hades 00:49:57.060 |
So who am I to say, "No, Lord, if you love the church, then I will love the church." 00:50:04.740 |
I pray, again, with all my heart, that our commitment, that we would see the big picture, 00:50:11.740 |
and not just see the little triangles and little squares, that what God is trying to 00:50:24.380 |
Gracious and loving Father, You are a merciful, merciful God.