This past fall was Stacy’s parents 40th wedding Anniversary. Stacy had left earlier than me and the kids for Belleville to help get things set up for the party. So we drove separately. The party was a great success and we had a wonderful turn out. Since we drove separately, I left the following day to come back to Leon and took Shelby and Austin with me and left Shayla and Kagen with Stacy. (Splitting up kids when driving is always a wise thing to do when traveling).
We got to Salina and I had to stop and use the restroom. Shelby was sleeping and I told Austin that I was going inside the gas station to use the restroom and I would be right back. I went in and did my business and came back out. I took off as I was getting on the Highway I turned around to make sure Austin had his seat belt on because He hates his seatbelt and has a habit of taking it off whenever we stop. As I turned around and asked, “Austin is your seat belt on?” I realized Austin was not in the car!! I woke Shelby up and she said she didn’t even realize we had stopped and she didn’t know Austin was gone either.
I was really freaking out!!!Austin had left the car when I was in the restroom and was walking around the gas station looking at candy and toys. When I left the restroom I assumed Austin was still in the car but this was not the case.
So, here I was, on the highway, with nowhere to turn around until a mile or two down the road. Gary, I have to tell you, I was speeding!! Horrible thoughts were racing through my mind and getting back to the gas station seemed like an eternity.
I finally got there and sure enough Austin was standing in the store looking at some sunglasses. I was relieved I had him but then my thoughts turned to what Stacy was gonna say about it when she found out I left our youngest son and a gas station in Salina Kansas.
Have you ever been left behind? I learned a very valuable lesson that day, make sure I have everyone before I take off!
In one sense each one of us has been left behind this morning. Jesus has come. He gave His life for the salvation of the world but He left behind something very important to help us and to encourage us, His Church. We are not alone; God is with us through His church.
There is no question that the Church has its problems. It will never be perfect because it accepts you and me and others like us, but even with all of its faults and failures Jesus loves His Church and here we can find His love and His plan for our lives.
This morning, the Sunday after Easter, I would like for us to look at “What He Left Behind,” His Church. I believe in the church, because I believe in the plan that God gave us – that He left behind.
I. The church first of all is a place to begin.
A. In verse 19 we read, “Therefore Brothers and Sisters since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus…”
1. As people we need opportunities to begin anew and afresh. A place where we can be loved and accepted for who we are and grow into what we were meant to be.
2. The church is that place to begin! Because we start not with just who we are and what we are, but who God is and what He has done and what He promised He will do.
3. Do you need a new beginning this morning? You will not find it at work or in society in general. The only place where we are actually invited to come and start our life over is in and through the church.
4. It is here that God is constantly reshaping us and making us into the people He wants us to be. We are rough along the edges.
5. But what other power or authority on earth is vested with the purpose of allowing us to start over – to begin again! In John Chapter 3 Nicodemus is told by Jesus, “you must be born again.” And Nicodemus responds, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?”
6. What the world throws away and discards, God loves and accepts and calls His spotless Bride!
7. Do you want a new life today? Do you need to start over? You can! No matter where are or what you have done, Jesus left behind His church as a place for us to start over.
II. But the church is not only a place to begin, but a place to become as well.
A. In verse 22 we read, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.
1. In the ministry and teachings of the church we come to be all that God has called us to be.
2. The church is the living body of Jesus in this world, it is holy and honorable. It is holy because it believes in Jesus and has the Holy Spirit
3. It is holy not because it is without sin, either in its individual members or as a whole, but the Word of God from which it is constantly born again through the Holy Spirit, makes it holy.
4. When a seed falls to the ground, it takes time to mature, to become the strong tree that it was meant to be. A beautiful butterfly only emerges after first being an ugly caterpillar.
5. I say give us time for heaven’s sake! We are still in the state of becoming. We have not yet arrived but we are becoming.
III. But the church is also a place to belong.
A. In verse 23, Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for
he who promised is faithful.
1. Our membership this morning is not in denominations, doctrines or creeds. We belong to Jesus. He is our confession. That is what being a member of the church means.
2. “hold unswervingly to the hope we profess” is not our membership in a local body of believers that entitles us to the rights and privileges of the church. The church is more than a place to be hatched, matched and dispatched.
3. Belonging is being His; now obviously we find that expression in the LCC, but it is not exclusively here – it is Christian!
4. Yes, I believe that church membership is important, but belonging is more than being a member – it is being in a loving, caring community. Here we give ourselves to others and they give of themselves to us. We learn from each other, grow with each other and are stretched in faith together.
Illustration: Three good men once asked a preacher; “Do you think a man could get to heaven without joining the church?” “I think he could,” replied the preacher. They laughed, patted him on he back, and called him broadminded. “Let me ask you a question and I want you to answer me just as quickly as I answered you;” said the preacher. “Why do you want to go to heaven that way?” The men were speechless. “Why don’t you ask me another question?” suggested the preacher. “Why don’t you ask me if a man could get to England without going on a ship?” “Well,” they said, “we will ask you that. Now what is your answer?” I see no reason why a man could not get to England without going on a ship, provided he was a good swimmer, tied some food between his shoulders to eat on the way, had strength to buffet all the waves – if a shark did not get him first. And suppose he did get to England without a ship, do you think he would get there much ahead of the man who goes by ship? And would he be any better off than those who had the fellowship of others and went by ship?”
5. Church does not save us. Jesus saves, but then you don’t need a grocery store to find food either, but it sure is much easier if you use one.
IV. But in belonging to the church, it becomes a place to benefit too.
A. In verse 24 “let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds,”
1. The purpose of the church is two fold: it should benefit because of you and me and we should benefit because of it.
2. Every single person here this morning has something God has given you to give to all of us that we can’t receive from anyone else. As we find our gifts and use them within the Body of Christ, His church, then we help enrich the lives of others as they in turn enrich ours.
3. I believe that the church is the place where we teach the God. Where values and morals are learned and practiced and as a result society benefits.
4. Add it up however you want. We can even throw in all of the hypocrites and liars that we so easily look for, and find in the church, but when the total is added the church is still the best place to find good and honorable things about people.
5. Right now, this very moment you are teaching your children, grandchildren some very valuable lessons about life that will benefit them for eternity. Your very presence here this morning says volumes about what you believe and hope for.
6. For all of its sins and failures, no one can dispute the benefit to society of the church.
V. Yes the church is a place to begin, a place to become, a place to belong, a place to benefit, and it is also the place to be.
A. In verse 25 “not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
1. The church functions best when we are present, but it is not just our attendance that’s disired– it is our presence. Are you present this morning or only here?
2. Have you ever asked yourself or had someone else ask. “Why can I not feel God? Why do I see so many others who have a passion for God, yet all I have is a knowledge but no experience?”
3. Church is a place where we are to teach and receive the knowledge of God. Even with our Sunday school classes, Men’s breakfasts, Women’s group and Youth Group to help us with the knowledge of God, knowledge alone can’t satisfy.
4. Worship is not a service we attend, it is an act of bringing ourselves before God and allowing Him to touch us and change us.
Conclusion:
I believe in the church because Jesus died for it and one day He’s coming back for it. He left the church behind as an extension of who He was in this world.
Jesus left behind His church. Here we find His love and acceptance. Do you need Jesus this morning in some area of your life? You will find Him in church. He meets us here. You can meet Him if you want. In fact, He is waiting on you.
