What Kind Of Church Does God Want This Church To Be?

Illus: Did you hear about Cowboy Joe, who went to church for the first time? Cowboy Joe was telling his friend Charlie about his first visit to the big-city church.

• He said, "When I got there, they had me park my old truck in the corral," Charlie said, "You mean the parking lot."

• "I walked up the trail to the door." Charlie again corrected him and said, “You mean the sidewalk.”

• Joe continued, "Inside the door, I was met by this dude." Charlie said, “You mean usher.”

• "Well, the usher led me down the chute." Charlie said, "You mean the aisle."

• "Then, he led me to a stall and told me to sit there." Charlie said, “You mean PEW!"

• "Yeah, That's what that pretty lady said when I sat down beside her…PEW!”

Like I said, some folks have some strange ideas when it comes to the church. The question I want to ask you is this, "What kind of church does God want this church to be?”

As we look at the scriptures, we are not without guidance concerning God’s church. For example, based on the scriptures we can see:

I. HIS DESIRE FOR HIS CHURCH

Notice, in our scripture reading the Lord referred to the church as, “My church”.

There are all kinds of religious groups today that refer to themselves as God’s church. For example, we have the:

• UNITARIAN CHURCH - they simply believe that whatever you think is sin is sin, but if you do not think it is sin, it is not!

• METROPOLITAN COMMUNITY CHURCHES - “...created in 1968 as a way of providing an environment where HOMOSEXUAL CHRISTIANS could freely worship God and grow in their spiritual journeys.”

• SATANIC CHURCHES - (Church of Satan - Founded by “Lord Egan”)

All these groups call themselves churches, but as we look at the Scriptures, we see they certainly are not the kind of a church that Christ would call “..My Church...”

Before we can determine what kind of church the Lord wants our church to be, we need to consider two things:

(1) The word Church is derived from the Greek word “KURIAKOS” which means "Belonging to the Lord".

(2) It is also a combination of another Greek word, "EKKLESIA" which means "Assembly".

If we combine the two, we get the true meaning, which is “An assembly belonging to the Lord". Notice, it is an ASSEMBLY OF PEOPLE BELONGING TO THE LORD.

This is why Bible-believing churches believe that people that join their churches should be PEOPLE THAT ARE SAVED, and that love to be in the Lord’s house!

Illus: Did you hear about the church that had a strange way of taking in new members?

Three couples, an elderly couple, a middle-aged couple and a young, newlywed couple wanted to join a church.

The pastor said, "We have special requirements for new members. To show that you have discipline in your life and will never cause an embarrassment to our church, each couple must separate from their mate for two weeks.” They all agreed this would be something they were willing to do to join!

• After two weeks, the elderly couple came to the pastor and he asked them if they met the criteria of becoming new members in his church. The old man replied, "No problem at all.” The Pastor extended his hand and said, "Congratulations! Welcome to the church!"

• The middle aged couple came to the pastor’s office. They walked in and he asked them if they were able to live a disciplined life. The man said, “Yes, the first week was not too bad, but I have to confess that the second week required some hard discipline in our lives.” The pastor said, “Congratulations! Welcome to the church!”

• The newlyweds came into the pastor’s office and he said, “Were you able to reveal discipline in your life and stay away from each other for two weeks?” The young man said, “Pastor, I am afraid we could not show such discipline in our life!”

The pastor said, “What happened?” He said, “I was at Home Depot and I accidentally ran into my wife shopping, and as you can imagine I was VERY glad to see her after several days of not seeing her.”

The pastor said “I can not tell you how bad I feel, I am certainly sorry, but our rules require that we do not allow you in our church again!”

The young man said, “Pastor, don’t feel bad because they told us we could not come back in Home Deport anymore either.”

The church is an ASSEMBLY OF PEOPLE WHO BELONG TO AND LOVE THE LORD, and you can not keep them from the Lord’s house! Every time the doors are open they are going to be there.