100 million in U.S. don’t go to church at all.
2050 – 10% will attend! My grandkids generation…
Instead of spending our time on what the church has become, let’s look at what it’s supposed to be. What it was designed to be.
The early Christian church was heavily persecuted, but they stuck together in community. Acts 2:44…they were always together, praying, worshiping, learning…doing life together. They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching.
The leader of the church is Jesus Christ. While we as Christians, both pastors and volunteers carry out the daily actions of the church, the focus HAS to remain on Jesus. Eph 5:23 says the church needs to submit to Christ.
1 Corinthians 12:18-20 tells us the church is the body of Christ. Each person is a part of the larger picture. It’s made up of people working together. It’s funny Paul would use ‘the body’ as an example! Most of us see imperfection in our bodies! Church is not perfect, we are not perfect, but the head of the church, Jesus is!
There is no perfect example of a church, it’s not about size (though an Acts 2 church should be growing) It’s not about a worship style. Traditional/contemporary…It’s about content. It’s about putting Jesus Christ first.
Church isn’t meant to be done alone!
Answer: The Bible says that believers must not keep apart from other believers (Hebrews 10:24-25).
Finding alone time to worship God is important, if you can’t do that, you’re missing a lot of scripture…but the thinking that we don’t need to gather together is a wrong one. We need the church for many reasons.
There’s a popular commercial that says ‘life comes at you fast’. Life isn’t always easy. It’s often these tough times that we realize the how the church can help, when the church is working right.
REDWOOD TREES IN CALIFORNIA
300 ft high, 2,500 years old…roots 4-6 ft deep, 250 long…but they’re intertwined, tied in with each other. When storms come, they stand. There is a God-given support system with the local church. We connect with each other, stand by one another and do life together…encouraging each other to live as Jesus did.
Why church? I have to make this personal. It’s not good enough for me to ask you to get involved, to ask you to submit to Jesus, without sharing how it changed my life.
I grew up in a strong, Bible believing Baptist church. I remember Sunday school. I have the church to thank for an early foundation, I have my parents to thank, for sacrificing, I have volunteers way back then to thank for taking the time to instill biblical doctrines in me…as do you with your kids and their teachers at church. Don’t take this for granted. What we do in Wee/Kid Ventures is so very important. What the church does in the lives of Jr. High students/high school students will set them on a course of understanding biblical ideas that will change the world. Even if it comes in the form of camps, water balloon fights and mud wrestling☺
In the early to mid 90’s I found myself far from God. I was living for myself, I was hurting everyone around me…I didn’t really care what God thought, I only cared what I thought. I was so selfish it sickens me to think about it.
Yet, in the back of my mind, hanging around like a bad rash…was God constantly reminding me that church was the reason I felt guilty. Jesus was using the efforts of my church past to remind me I could get back on track. To remind me there was a place out there somewhere that wanted me back. There was a God big enough to accept me back…
What we encountered that day, back in 1995 changed my life forever.
Church, done like it is supposed to be. Not perfect, but willing.
First Lifegroup, showed me I didn’t have to do it alone. Memories of great times, vacations with them…serving alongside them..
I WOULD NOT be doing what I’m doing today without that Lifegroup life. I learned ‘first century church’ community can be had, for even the most, private, self-centered, prideful of persons…me.
We talk a lot about serving where you’re gifted around here…spiritual gifts…
In ’96 I finally said ‘yes’ to using my musical gifts for God. Those are memories I won’t ever forget. Serving Jesus within the local church, when the local church is working right…will change you forever. I started to learn that life was not about ME! I thought it was about me! I was so focused on myself I couldn’t see hurting people around me. I started to realize my gifts, my time, my money was not given by God to keep locked up in some dark room only to be pulled out when it benefited me.
To prepare for this message, I sat down with a bunch of old archive VHS tapes from the past. I laughed like crazy, and I cried…in a good way –in a manly way… it reminded me of how thankful I am for church.
I put together some of those videos for us to watch here! To laugh at myself and how far we’ve come as a church, but also to see how church needs to be constantly changing to effectively communicate to the world around us.
Check it out, go ahead and laugh☺
That’s just a few clips of my personal trip down memory lane. I spend a lot of time thinking about who I was, I love to look back and see God’s plan in motion. We didn’t know what we were doing any more than we do now! We are just constantly trying to say YES to God and stretch ourselves because we believe the church, led by Jesus Christ is the hope of the world. It’s not always comfortable though☺
We learn to stretch by growing out, not in, it’s not about being safe. It’s about getting dirty, working hard.
When church is done like the Bible commands, we learn to blow the walls off our buildings and reach out to the world around us. To use our resources to help those who are less fortunate.
The church that does mission work really well, is a church that is focused on Jesus. BOW
I love to watch church, at its best! Watching baptisms, seeing endless conversations around dinner tables discussing what everyone in the family gleaned from a weekend service, seeing Jesus change someone’s life…from utter selfishness and isolation, from addiction and abandonment, to a life filled with purpose through Jesus Christ. That’s why I LOVE church!
That’s what we should see in church. Life change! Church has a way, when done right, of giving us the guidance we need to live out the Christian life.
God has a way of using the church to guide us . We learn together about morals, right choices, doctrines of the faith, who Jesus is, who we need to be, how we can get there…you won’t find that in this way on your own. That’s why Jesus uses the church.
We learn to love people more than we love ourselves when church is at its best. Paul, Ephesians 4:16 says that we all have a part, and when each part is working properly, it builds the body up in LOVE!
We’re unified, not through a great communicator, not through a denomination… through Jesus Christ.
The biggest complaint about the local church is that it’s filled with hypocrites…I say GREAT…YOU’LL BE RIGHT AT HOME! As we learned in our last series…Paul was constantly striving to be what God wanted him to be! No one is perfect, let’s get over that, get over our limitations, our fears, our excuses and start saying YES to Him, no matter what! If we were all perfect, there would be NO NEED for the local church!
The local church, when working right should be a place you can invite anyone to and they should see the love of Christ! You should not be embarrassed to invite someone and you should not be nervous.
BIG PUSH/Invite cards
1-1-1 (one person, one prayer, once a day at one o’clock) Business Cards, blank for a name on back
What not to do with church…ask ‘what’s in it for me??’
Church is no place for the selfish person! We need to be asking ‘what can I do for the Kingdom of God, what can I do to tell the world about Jesus Christ?’
John 17:21 Jesus prayed…’my prayer is that they will be as one, just as You Father, are in Me and I am in You. That they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me!’
This world needs Jesus. This world needs the local church.
Life comes at us fast. We are all busy…we all have our own set of difficulties. We all get worn out. You know what it’s like to have the feeling of home.
It feels good to be home.
A time to recharge, a time to prepare, a time to get a game plan. The feeling of being home after an exhausting trip is like no other.
Maybe you’re worn out? Maybe you’re tired? Maybe you have questions?
Maybe you need some friends that will love you no matter what?
Maybe you’ve been gone way too long?
Maybe you’ve forgotten what home feels like when everyone at home is doing their part?
It feels good to be home.
That’s the feeling you should feel from the local church. Welcome home.
Prayer
