The Church

Grace and peace in the name of Jesus to each one this morning. I'd like to speak today about something that was actually requested in one of our brother's meetings. As you know, we had a brother's meeting a while back and discussed the idea of membership and especially the idea of the church and our young people growing up in this church, becoming baptized up to this point.

We hadn't even asked them if they'd like to be a member. We just assumed it, but we thought it would be a good thing for each one to commit to with their own mouths and heart, confess that they want to be submitted here at this local church. And one of the brothers requested that we would go through our statement of faith and which we have done.

And then he also requested that we would preach a sermon on a teaching on the church. And so I want to endeavor to do that this morning and maybe a little bit share some of my own journey of some of these things. But as I thought about that this morning and this last week, why do we wake up on Sunday mornings early? We could be sleeping and comb our hair and get dressed nicely and come to this place every week.

Why can't we just get online? We live in a technology age. Why can't we just get online and watch a good sermon on Zoom or on YouTube? Pick our preacher that we like. That's the age we live in.

It's about me. Find the guy I like and I can sit in bed with a big smile on my face. I don't need to do my hair up and just watch the sermon.

Enjoy it. Why don't we do that? I remember years ago when I was in the Baptist church. I remember one day I was leading songs and as I was leading, this thought came into me.

Why do we do what we do? And I started thinking, looking at different people in the congregation as they were singing the song and thinking, what are they thinking about right now? Are they thinking about the words in the song or are they thinking about what are we going to have for lunch this afternoon? I wonder what we're going to do tomorrow morning. That neat trip we're going to go on this week. Is this just a religious practice for them or is this really from their heart? And that actually was some of the very beginning awakening days for me to start realizing.

I call it the dark night of my soul where I started asking questions. Why do we have clockwork every Sunday morning? Three songs, announcement, sermon. And then as soon as the meeting was over, everybody was off just discussing carnal earthly things.

It was like it really didn't affect them. And it really bothered me. I remember one day somebody came in and her face was drooping.

She just had Bell's palsy. And I thought, we need to pray for her. And no, we had to go on with the service as usual.

And it really bothered me. Like, why? What is the church? And it launched me into a time of studying and seeking God's word to ask him, what is the church? Turn to Matthew, if you would, chapter 16. Now this is going to, I'm going to have, I mean, I could make this into a four part study, but I'm not going to do that.

So this is going to be like a 40,000 foot overfly of this subject as fast as I can go through it. And because the purpose at the end, you know, we could learn all kinds of really great things here, great meanings of Greek words and understand the function of the church and all that. But that's not my heart.

My heart this morning is that we would be fired up about the church of God, that we would be, it would be our focus. You know, if anything, after going through the study, just this last week and preparing for the sermon, I realized how much the church should be our focus because it's God's focus. And so I want to see that this morning, uh, as we, I want to try to keep to that and not get into too many nitty-gritty details, but at the same time, we need to build up and understand some of that.

So Matthew chapter 16, famous passage, verse 18, where he's talking to Peter and he says, um, in verse 18, I say to thee, thou art Peter. And upon this rock, I will build my church. Think about that.

He will build his church. Turn over to John chapter four. This I remember in the early days when I was, when the Lord was waking me up to religion and hypocrisy, um, and just going through the motions.

I treated church more like a movie, you know, come to church, view everything's really good. It's like a show and then go home. I remember this verse really, really opened my eyes.

And this is when, um, the woman at the well, Jesus comes to her and she's talking to him and he's telling her to put in her, uh, bucket for water. And she's thinking he's a little strange for the things he's saying. And finally he tells her, she, he says, go with your husband there.

And I don't have a husband. And he says, you're right. You don't have a husband.

You have five. The one you're with is not your husband. And immediately she realizes he's a prophet.

You know, whatever he just know, how did he know this about me? He must be a prophet. And notice the first question she has on her heart. John chapter four, verse 20.

Um, we'll go with 21. Jesus said in her woman, believe me that thou this, when you shall, sorry, let me start over. Jesus said, woman, believe me, the hour cometh when you shall neither in this mountain nor yet in Jerusalem.

And her question was, should we worship in Jerusalem at the temple? Or we should we worship in this mountain? And he said, it's not going to be in the mountain and it's not going to be in Jerusalem anymore. He says, verse 22, you worship the father. What you know, what we worship for salvation is of the Jews verse 23, but the hour cometh.

And now is when the true worshipers, the real worshipers, the authentic worshipers shall worship the father and spirit and in truth for the father seeks such to worship him. God is a spirit. And they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

And so we can see from this passage that something was changing. You know, in the old Testament, we had this temple, everybody went, you know, they, they, they came formally to this place and they sat in the temple. And this is the true place to worship.

God, this world, God existed. He said he was in the, in the, um, Holy of Holies in the ark. And now here we sit and Jesus said, something's changing.

It's no longer going to be in the temple. It's no longer going to be up on this mountain. It's going to be in a different form.

It's going to be in the spirit and in truth, it's going to be different. And so let's talk about this, this meaning of church. Jesus said, I will build my church.

Now this word in the Bible is the word Ecclesia or some people calls it Ecclesia. So depending on you want to pronounce it, you can figure that out. But it's the idea is it was not a new word when Jesus didn't make this up.

It wasn't like this new word. It's very religious word. This is my word church.

It was a word that already existed when he said, I will build my church. In fact, it was a political word, um, a social political word. Uh, it was a word that meant a group called out from another group.

So, uh, Timothy just joined search and rescue. He's part of a group that was called out from the vast majority of a town and city and their duty is to search and rescue. Right.

So I'm a little afraid of that right now. So anyway, the, the, the group is called out of another group. And so in the same way in Athens, for example, they had an Ecclesia same word as church.

And it was for people in the town to make decisions. In fact, they would make decisions whether to go to war. They would make decisions, whether to have a festival in their town.

They'd make decisions, whether the King should stay on. They would all gather together and they would join in an assembly and they would make these decisions for the town of Athens. It was a word that was used in this way.

Um, there were requirements to be part of this group. You had to be a male. You had to be over 18 years old.

You couldn't be a foreigner. You couldn't be a criminal. You couldn't be a slave.

Only certain people could be part of this group, the church of Athens. And it was actually a, a, a social political group. It wasn't anything to do with, um, with the Bible.

And so the meaning of this word, when he says, I will build my church is a, is a, we might think of it as a congregation. When we think of Congress, you know, in the United States, they all get together. What are their purpose? Their purpose is to run this country, to make decisions.

It's the same concept, a group of people who have been called out for a specific purpose. So when we say Congress is going to meet, we think of them all back there in Washington, right? Now I heard this in the sermon once, what would you think if, uh, in Congress, you heard that, um, that they were just having great potlucks and fellowship meals and, um, you know, they, they were like patting each other on the back, brother, you know, so good to see you. And, you know, every week Congress got together, that's all they did.

Would you think Congress was, um, was accomplishing its task? Not really. So this is the idea when Jesus came on the scene and he said, I will build my church. He was thinking a group of people.

Now Tyndale, who translated an English translation, actually translated his word church congregation. It's, it's how he saw it. And it's a true definition.

In fact, in your Bible, when you see the word church, you will see it. It will refer about 5% of the time to the universal church, which we'll talk about in a minute. 95% of the time it refers to more of the local church and about a random, I don't know, very rarely does it refer to actually meeting.

So now I'm not going to push my pet peeve. I know you all know me and I have a pet peeve. Here it goes.

I see faces. You know, I don't like to say this is the church because I don't see that in the Bible. This building is not the church.

You are the church. You are part of the church. Now you, I'm not trying to make you guys change it, but what I'm trying to say, the Lord used this in my life to wake me up to the hypocrisy of Sunday only going to a show idea, going to a movie versus a community.

What did Jesus say? He said he came to preach the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is a community of people. And that's what the church was.

So who can join this church? Well, I think we all know this and I don't want to spend too much time on the little things because this is a high flyover, but I can remind you of some of these passages. There is neither barbarian, there is neither Scythian circumcision, nor uncircumcision, Greek, nor Jew, male, nor female bond, nor free. One of the neatest things about the church of God is it puts down classes.

It puts down racial prejudices and it brings unity. And if we can remember that, you know what that means? If a grunge skateboarder came in the back door there and you farmer saw him, if you were being the church, you'd reach out to him. And if he became a Christian, he'd be part of us.

He'd be a little different for a while and it would take a little time for him to become part of us and assimilate and understand. But this is what early Christianity was. Think about that.

Servants sitting alongside of masters. In that time, females were thought of much less and they were elevated to the same level of receiving salvation. Barbarians, these guys were like, we get our word, you're eating like a barbarian.

These guys were, probably. And then the Scythians were these expert warriors that could ride on the back of horses and aim really well and hit things and they were top notch. But the barbarians and the Scythians somehow found unity in the same church.

Isn't that amazing? And may we never forget that's what Jesus brings. Jesus brings unity. Sin brings division.

Remember that. And when there's division, we have sin among us. Now, there are times we might need to divide for purposes, but if there is division, it's carnality.

Paul said that. He said, you are carnal, where there is envying, strife, and division in 1 Corinthians. Okay.

So also in Acts chapter 2, on the day of Pentecost, it says they that gladly received his word were baptized. So not only is this thing breaking down racial prejudices, but it's bringing in these people that were truly believers in Jesus and baptized into the faith. Who else can be added? Well, let's turn to 1 Corinthians.

I want you to see that God is the one that adds these people. 1 Corinthians chapter 12. Maybe one of you young men can read verse 13 for us.

1 Corinthians 12, 13. So God is the one who adds to the church. None of us can add somebody to the church.

We can only recognize what God has done, but it's a work of God. It's a power of God. And that's why we beg for his mercy at repentance.

We need to see this God as a God that isn't a formula God, but a God that we come to and beg if he would have mercy on us and forgive us. And as it says, he baptizes us. He adds us into the church.

What a beautiful picture. Okay. So we have this church.

Now there are two expressions we could talk about. You've probably heard the term the universal church before. I was part of a church once that didn't believe in the universal church.

I don't know how that's possible, but in the Bible, it's all over the place. The universal body of Christ. We can read in Romans 12, 5. I'll just say it.

It says, so we being many are one body and everyone members of one another. Now we can see that as a local group here, but in Ephesians it says there is one body and one spirit and one baptism and one Lord. Jesus only has one body.

Jesus only has one bride. He doesn't have, he's not polygamous. He has one body and one bride.

And so we have this thing called the universal church, but the thing is, is it's somewhat indivisible. All right. Did I say that right? Invisible.

Thank you. The local church is the expression of an, it'd be kind of like papay, right? We've got great company up and down the West coast. Can you imagine a papay without any branches? Could you imagine if I went out and passed out tracks all day long, little cards for papay and told people how great papay was, but there were no, like there was not one in Harrisburg.

There wasn't one in Eugene. Oh, it's this great company. Papay needs a place, right? Papay needs a place that you can walk in and experience customer service.

What'd it be like if you walked into papay and they were all fighting with each other in the back room, in the parts area, and you just waited for 30 minutes for somebody to serve you. And they, you know, they finally come out and give you an attitude. That's about what this idea is.

See, we have local churches that express, and it's actually the only authorized place to express Jesus in community is the local church. So though we have this universal church as a whole, one body, we're made up of many local churches. That's why in the Bible, we had the church of Ephesus.

Think about that. The town of Ephesus had a church and it was those people in the early days. If you want to be a Christian, you went to that church.

If in Corinth, there was a church in the area and region of Galatia, there were many churches in the book of revelation. We have seven different churches, Smyrna and Sardis and Philadelphia. Now there are some problems.

I'm going to draw this today. We have some problems with the universal and the local church. This is not how it's supposed to be, but it can happen.

Sometimes you can have some members that are out here. They're not in the church. They're not true Christians.

Is that right? No. So just because you're part of a member of a church here doesn't make you actually part of the universal church. It's not the right thing, but it does happen because we are only at the best we know how trying to recognize what God has done.

So you can't take some kind of comfort in your heart that you are for sure in the universal church. Now here's another problem that these are all people. Sometimes we have this people out here that are Christians, but they won't join the church.

They won't be part of the church. Is this by God's design? Well, that's some things I want to look at this morning. These are both not by God's design, but it does happen.

And we want to see what is God's heart. One thing I think we need to remember is we are in an age of individualism. Think about it.

Think about all of the apps that are designed for you. Think about all the ways you think about sermons. My wife was talking to me the other day as we were driving home and we were reminiscing what would have been like a hundred years ago when you wanted something.

You went to the store and they pulled out a big catalog and they looked for what you wanted and they had to order it in and you didn't have many options. Now think about online and all of the options you have, all of the choices you have. Think about sermons.

Think about, you know, you can sit here and you're thinking, Jeremy is kind of boring because, you know, this brother over here, I listen to. He's far better. He's a better communicator.

Think about what we've become in the age of individualism. And I don't think we realize how much this has affected us. You know, we are all products of the Protestant church.

We all came out of this Protestantism that said, we don't want what the Catholic church had anymore. The Catholic church had some heresies, right? We've talked about that a couple of weeks back. But is there a possibility that we have swung into another ditch, a ditch of individualism? I heard once, I don't know, I think it was an Orthodox person say, the Protestants have become popes to themselves.

Think about that for a little bit. Popes to themselves. We have overreacted, I think, sometimes.

And in the name of, we don't want to see any wrongs ever done, we won't submit. We won't submit to one another. We won't become part of a local church.

But is that the heart of God? I like how I was listening to a sermon, Micah Hosen, we all remember him. He preached on the subject and he said this, it is the only authorized manifestation of the one universal global church. These local churches are the only authorized manifestation of the one universal local church.

Pope is the one authorized in Harrisburg. You know, you couldn't just set up your own little papay shop and start putting papay signs up everywhere. No, you have to be authorized.

And so in the same way, this is how God has designed it and authorized. Think about this thought. Can you be a soldier in the army without ever being part of a unit or a platoon? It doesn't work.

If you say, I'm a soldier, you know, I'm in the US Army. Where's your platoon? Where's your unit? In the same way, if you are in the kingdom of God and you're part of the church, where's your local church? Where are the people that you are part of that you're learning to submit to? I've heard of people who have become wounded by the church and they say, I just can't stand the church anymore. You know, I'll just go out in the woods and I'll worship God and I'll have my own church, me and God.

Well, I was thinking about this, Timothy and Miriam hopefully are getting married here soon. How would it work if like Dennis went up to Timothy and said, you know, Dennis, Timothy, you and I are good friends, but I just can't stand Miriam. Can you be a friend of Timothy and not like Miriam? You should see his face right now.

He's saying no, not allowed. And then if they got married, Timothy said, look, I just despise her, but can we just be close friends? See, if you love Jesus, you will love his church. It's his bride.

It's his body. It's his family. You can't hate the church, but love Jesus.

It's not possible. In fact, in the Bible, I heard someone say there's over 50 one another's, 50 one another's at the love one another, let each brother esteem one another better than themselves. There's over 50 of one another's.

God wants us to learn something by being part of this. I've thought about this before. You know, okay, so Timothy is going to get married.

Sorry to keep picking on you, but Timothy is going to get married and he's going to learn a whole and so is Miriam. She's going to both, they're both going to learn a whole new level of sanctification once they have this marriage. And then they're going to have children and they're going to hold, learn a whole nother level of sanctification.

And then they're going to bring that family to this church and they're going to learn a whole nother sanctification of how to submit to one another and how to be part of a church together. And then get this, this is even bigger. What happens when our brotherhood says, we want to learn not only to submit to each other, but to submit to other brotherhoods.

Wow. Like, can you imagine Galatia, the churches in Galatia and the church in Ephesus and the church in Corinth and them learning to appreciate each other and submit to one another. And if one brotherhood calls out another one, they would say, you know, we're not just about us here.

You know, we're not only learning to submit to ourselves here, but we want to learn to submit to others that see things in us. It's a, it's a, it's an amazing layered thought of, of how God can use the church. In fact, I've heard that when, when a brother would leave Galatia and a church in Galatia and go to Ephesus, he would take a letter of communion, which would show that he was, he was faithful in the church he was at.

And he would bring that letter of communion to the next church and they would accept him in because they had unity together in that same, they were walking in that same way. Here's another one from Micah Hosen. The church, the local church is a, I like this, a clearly defined group of Christians, a clearly defined group.

Remember that word ecclesia of Christians in a geographical area, Ephesus, Corinth, who regularly gather in Jesus name, and that's our authority, Jesus name, and who partake together in the ordinances. Wow. It's a clearly defined group of Christians in a particular geographical area that regularly gather in Jesus name and who partake together in the ordinances.

But sometimes we have to deal with this and how do we deal with that? And that's what I'm hoping somewhat to look at today. But before we do that, I want to talk a little bit. Does the Bible give us anything to talk or to teach us on what our meetings should look like? What these meetings right here should look like.

Let's all turn to first Corinthians chapter 14, and it actually does amazingly enough, but we're going to do a quick broad flyover. 14, 23. Now he's just getting done speaking about tongues and prophecy and the vantage of the two and how in the assembly it's about when we're congregating together, it's about, it's about doing what edifies and builds up.

And he says in verse 23 of 14, if therefore the whole church, if the whole church, now think of that word, the whole congregation be as gathered together, that means that they can be ungathered too, right? They can come together and they can ungather too. So when they come together into one place, like we're doing this morning and all speak with tongues and there come in those that are unlearned or unbelievers, will they not say that you are mad, but listen to this. If all prophesy and there come in one that believe if not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all.

Think about that when we are walking in the spirit, when we are coming and doing our part here and an unbeliever walks through those backstores and we are truly in connection with God, it says he is convinced of all. And then what does it go on to say? He is judged of all and listen to what it goes on to say. And though thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest.

And so falling down on his face, he will worship God and report that God is in you of a truth. You know, I've been, okay, maybe I'm wrong on this, but I've been thinking about this this last week. We put a lot of emphasis on individual, uh, what is it called? Uh, evangelism tracks and things like that.

And those are good. I'm not saying they're not, but are we putting the right emphasis that God puts on evangelizing through the unity in the church, through the spirit in the church here? The scripture shows that as this person walks in, he falls down on his face because of what he sees in the congregation. He sees the spirit of God.

That is, that is amazing. And then he goes on to tell us if he says, how be it when you come together brothers, you have a song, that's some kind of song or a poem has a doctrine. That's a teaching has a tongue, has a revelation.

That would be prophecy has an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying. God is a God of order.

He wants this meeting and every meeting we have to be one that builds the church up, uh, flip the page, or maybe it's not a flip for you, but go down to verse 33 and he's going through and he's explaining how the prophets should speak by two and by three. And he's giving lots of orders in verse 33. He says, for God is not the author of confusion, but of peace as in all the churches of the saints.

He even goes on to say, let your women keep silent in the churches. It is not permitted unto them to speak, but they are commanded to be under obedience over in Titus or Timothy. It says that they should not usurp or teach a man.

So he gives these orders and jump all the way to the end of the chapter. He says, let all things be done decently and in order. So the goal of us gathering is for the edification of the church, for the building up of each person.

And in, um, let's jump there. Hebrews chapter 10, um, notice verse 24 and let us consider one another to provoke one another to love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves to gather as, as the manner of some is, but so much, the more, so much, the more, as we see the day approaching, we should be gathering more together than less for what purpose to provoke. You know what that means? Poke, you know, provoke, put a hot iron in brother, follow the Lord, you know, to, to encourage one another to follow the Lord.

And so that's why we meet. We meet for these purposes. Now, uh, turn over to, uh, Titus, one of the young men read Titus one, five, there are offices in the church.

We don't just make this stuff up. God has given us directions. Thank you.

Ordain elders in every town. Somebody read first Timothy three one. Uh, we don't have time to go through all of it.

Maybe just a couple of verses. First Timothy three, maybe go just another verse or two. Okay.

Thank you. So, and it goes on with lots of qualifications of the Bishop, but the Bishop, I mean, when we hear the word Bishop, we all recoil a little bit. You know, we think of big robes and big rods and we think of authority and all that, but all Bishop means is overseer.

It's just an older brother, uh, who is looking over the flock. It actually has so many times to do with a flock of God, of sheep, sheep, and a shepherd. Uh, and, and the overseer is like the under shepherd.

He's just a shepherd that is overseeing the flock. Okay. Jump down in the same chapter.

We have deacons. Um, somebody read three, eight. So, and it goes on with more of a list there, but deacons are just servants.

They're ministers in the church. They're people who are there to help. You think of the, the time in Acts when the seven were chosen to minister to the Grecian widows who were not getting enough help and they were appointed.

Many think those were the deacons in the church. That way the apostles could stay with the word of God and ministering the word of God. And so we have offices in the church.

We have gifts in the church. And I don't want to take the time to look at these verses, but I think you all know them. Um, in Romans 12, we talk about admonishment and prophecy and teaching and all of those things.

And first Corinthians, we talk about, uh, and it's chapter 12. It talks about, um, gifts of healing, gifts of tongues. It talks about word of knowledge, word of wisdom, word of faith.

These are all gifts within the church that every one of you should have something flowing out of you from the Holy Spirit. It were all many one body. You think about this hand, if this hand was paralyzed and it just came every week and it said, I just need to receive nourishment.

I just need to receive, you know, blood and oxygen so I can say, but it never did anything. It just was all, it would just be a, it would just be a nuisance. This hand that couldn't do anything.

And in the same way, what, what are you in the church? Are you the hand that's jumping and helping and bringing water and plugging ears and you know, shouting out and whatever it needs to do? Or are you the hand that's just always stuck here? You view the church more like a movie or a community that you're helping out in. Okay. Now, like brother Micah had said, it's a geographical with boundaries.

I want to talk a little bit about boundaries and we practice church membership here. And for years I struggled with the idea of church membership because I saw very clearly, see, I'd seen an abuse with the church that would not recognize the universal church, right? So many times when we struggle with things, sometimes it's an overreaction from the abuses we saw. And if we're just honest with it.

And so every Christian, according to what I see in the Bible should be a part, should be a member, should be known who is in this local church and who is in this local church and who is in this local church. Not saying that this one here is the only church, but every Christian should be part committed and submitted to a local brotherhood. If you read through the Bible, you will see that membership is assumed.

It doesn't just come out and flatly say, and this is how you have membership and you should do this, but you just see it through the different terms it adds. I'll just joggle your memory. Acts 2.41 on the day of Pentecost, it says, as many were baptized were added to the church.

They were added to the disciples, it says in Acts and another portion. When Paul came to Jerusalem, it says he sought to join them. These are ideas of glue coming together, being committed to this group here.

And then in the same way we have Matthew, in Matthew, Jesus says, if somebody comes in and has a problem, we're to go to that brother. And if he won't hear that brother, then you take two brothers. And if they won't hear, you take the church.

And if he won't hear the ecclesia, the congregation, you put him out. That's a hard thing to do, but that's a line. That's a line that would say, even if that person walked back in the door, we would say, because we love you and we want to see you repent, we cannot consider you part of here.

That means you have to know those that are part and you have to know those that are not. We also have a passage here in Ephesians and Peter that talks about submitting to one another, submitting to one another. So one of the reasons for membership is to know who you're submitting to.

Like I was saying, so many of the scriptures have the idea of we are his sheep, we are his flock and the shepherd, our great shepherd, Jesus, and then the under shepherd, which is the overseers are watching for the flock. Now let's just think about that for a moment. Here's this shepherd.

He's out with his flock. He knows which sheep are his. He knows which sheep that he's watching for them.

He knows which sheep tend to wander away and he's watching for the wolf. Now, what if that sheep was like, you know, nice, but you know, next week I'm going to be over in that flock. And then after that, the next week I'm going to be over in that flock and then I'm going to be over in that flock and then I'm going to be over in that flock.

Is that how shepherding and sheep flocking work? It doesn't. There has to be a flock that you know your shepherd and your shepherd knows you. And there's a communion there.

There's a, um, there's, and it says it in Hebrews. It says that we are to submit to them for they watch over your souls, right? And they must give an account. Think about that.

Think about that. The elders, brother Mark is going to have to give an account for every one of those here that it consider committed and submitted brothers. Someday God's going to pull them up and say, brother Mark, you made these decisions and it led them this way.

And I'm not happy with that. If that's the case, or he might say, brother Mark, you made these decisions and led the brotherhood in this way. And I'm happy with that.

Think about that. Just like a sheep and a shepherd, there are lines. I heard of a person, he wrote a book called stop dating the church.

And we live in a society that doesn't want to commit, right? Are we honest with that, that we live in a society that says it's just better to date. Let's just date. I get married and that same feeling can roll over to us.

Why, why would I want to commit? And I might get hurt. You know, I've got to stick my neck out a little bit, but is that not what Christ wants us to do? Okay. Here's the heart.

So we have 10 minutes left. This is what I really wanted to get to some. Okay.

Let's have one of the older brothers turned Ephesians chapter two. What is the purpose of the church? What is the purpose of all of this? Why did you come here? And, you know, maybe it's a little bit like, ah, why did I come here this morning? What is the purpose? Ephesians chapter two, one of the older brothers, please read 19 through 22. Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone in whom all the buildings that they bring together grow under a holy temple in the Lord.

And whom also we are building. Did you hear that? I mean, I was struck with this this last week. We are builded together for a habitation of God.

Where did the, where did God live in the old Testament? He lived in temple, right? At least, I mean, at least that's where they thought he was. Obviously he wasn't all there, but we had the holy of holies and they had to go to the, they had to go to Jerusalem. Where is God living now? Do you, do you notice how interesting it is? We immediately think, well, he lives in my heart.

You show, we interpret so many verses individually. What did he say where he lives right here? He says, you are builded. I don't even have Ephesians 2 19 in whom all the building fitly framed is growing to a holy temple in the Lord in whom ye also, ye is an old English plural word are builded together for habitation of God.

Did you get that? We are part of the temple of God corporately. You know that verse that says, um, ye are the temple of God. Do you ever notice it has the word ye there? You know what that means? Ye are the temple of God.

Think about that for a little bit. We are the temple of God. This is what has changed in the new Testament.

As we, as we grow in unity and oneness, we become a holy dwelling place for the Lord. Not just you, but us put together. Okay.

Look at a Ephesians three, jump over a chapter, some older brother read verse 10 please. Now I know this is old English and it's very hard to get, um, because of the wording, but the second point is that we bring glory to God. Did you get that? It says to the intent.

And he's talking about that. All men would see. And then he talks about the principalities to the intent that now to the principalities in the heavenly places and the powers in heaven might be made known by the church.

What does it say? The manifold wisdom of God. So you can say it this way. The church is declaring the glory of God to the principalities in heavenly places.

Is that not humbling to realize that God is using the church to declare his glory to angelic beans? Do we grasp this? Like this is big stuff. This isn't just a social club. This is what God is using to manifest his glory to not only angelic beans, but to man.

Look at this other one. Uh, okay. I'm just going to quote these because we don't have time.

Jesus said, you will know that they will know that you are my disciples by what love one for another. We read this verse a couple of weeks back. It said by this, we'll all men know that.

I'm sorry. Not that's not how it goes. Um, that the world may know that thou has sent me.

Can anybody complete? Why? How will the world know that thou has sent me? Okay. Close. That's the other one.

That's the verse by this. We'll all know. But what else? There's one other thing.

He says, we are one. You and I are one and make us all one. And this will make the world know that you sent me our unity.

Our love and our unity will cause the world to say, Jesus is real. Now, let me ask you this. If our love and unity will show that Jesus is real, what will disunity say to the world? What do you think he's not real? And is that not what the world has seen today? If one thing I saw preparing for the sermon, do we see the beauty and, and, and this treasure to the same view as God, the church.

Do we see that this is our opportunity to witness to the world where we have to die to ourself and say, you know, I'll give this other brother, I'll let them do it this way. And I won't have it my way. Do we see it? This is the chiefest primary way to evangelize to the world that Jesus is real.

Sadly, I don't think we do. I think many times we think a track world, you know, a good sign will, and those are good. But the chief way to witness to the world is your love and your unity through self-denial to yourself, to each one of us.

Okay. So imagine a marriage. Imagine you met Stephanie years ago.

You all think we have a great marriage. We didn't one time. Imagine you saw us and we were just always fighting and bickering and, um, all this, and we were rude to each other.

Stephanie said mean things to me. And I said mean things to her. And you guys are like, man, those guys are messed up.

And then one day you said, you saw us being kind to each other and loving each other and putting each other first and opening the door and no honey, what would you like? And all that. And you came to me and you said, what changed so radically? And I said, oh, we read this book. You know, it was a bestseller on the New York list, whatever it's called.

And what would you want to do if you had a marriage? What would you want to do now? Go read the book, right? Pretty simple. That's how simple it is when we are loving and unified. They say, what and where did this come from? And we can say, go read the book, right? But don't think you have any credibility with the world about your Jesus.

If you can't follow your Jesus and joining your local church and learning. Unity from one another. OK, so we have a habitation for God.

We have bringing God glory. We have witnessing to the world. Let's all turn to Ephesians four from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supply, according to the come, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

That's hard. But what it's saying is, as we grow in unity, the whole body compacted with joints and all these things are making increase, they're growing together. And what does it say? It says in love, the body unto the edifying, the building up of love.

So one of the other reasons you're part of this church is to learn what true love looks like. Love isn't just a feeling. It's a commitment.

It's a it's an action of the will to love one another. We already read the verse, but it said to provoke one another to love and good work. So in conclusion, let's all turn to Romans 12.

Now we all this is another one of these individual verses. How many of you have read this verse like me? I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable, you know, which is your reasonable service. And we all think that means that tomorrow I'm going to wake up and I'm going to be a servant to Jesus.

That's good. But look at the context. First of all, it says ye plural to the congregation.

And what does it go on to say? Verse four, for as we have many members in one body and all members have not the same office, so we being many are one body in Christ and everyone members one of another, having then gets differing. Did you pick that up? Presenting yourselves a living sacrifice. Is about joining and dying to yourself and becoming part of one body.

I think that's exciting. All right, let's look at Ephesians chapter five. I'm sorry, I'm going to go just a little bit over today.

Verse twenty nine. Actually, verse twenty six. He's talking about husbands love your wives and as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it.

Verse twenty six that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of the word by the water, by the word that he might present it to himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. So what men to love their wives as their bodies, he that loveth his wife, loveth himself for no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourish it and cherish it even as the Lord, the church, for we are all members of his body and his flesh and his bones. He wants a glorious church.

He wants a church that he sees as something to cherish. When you walked in the door this morning, did you think, I love this church? And you weren't thinking the walls or the pillars or the carpet. You know, were you like I was thinking that as I was listening to you all sing, I love this church.

Christ loves his church. He nourishes and cherishes it. Do we love the church? Does it surpass? And I asked you this to all search your own hearts.

Does it surpass every other thing in your life as in your job, as in your hobby, as in other organizations? Is the church your main focus in life? Because after I studied this, I realized when we seek first the kingdom of God, we're seeking first his kingdom expressed in the church. That verse that says that in everything, Christ may have the preeminence, the number one. You know what that's talking about? It says, and he is the head of the body of the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn for the dead, that in Christ, he might have the preeminence through Jesus, his body.

He wants to have the preeminence in everything. And we do that as a congregation. Is the church more like a movie to you, or is it like a community? Is it like bees that give their life's up? They die for the service of their hive.

Is that how you view the church? Think about these pictures that Jesus gave us, a flock, a body, a family, a bride. Is that the church to you? Is it as special to you as it is to God? That's what he wants. He wants us to see it as his focus.

This is his focus in the world, is his bride. And he wants us to love it in the same way. And he wants us to submit to it in the same way and learn sanctification through it in the same way.

And so I say, let's search our own hearts. How much individualism do we have in us? Because I know in me, I can't believe how many verses I read as a walk between me and God. And I'm not advocating we drop individualism because we will all stand before God.

And you will be judged for your own works and your relationship with God. But think about your body made up of so many little cells. Every little cell has to do its job.

It's got to stay connected to create that vein. It's got to stay connected to create that skin. It's got to stay connected to create that muscle.

Everyone has to do its job and it has to be healthy and it's got to oxidize. It doesn't have a lone relationship between it and the brain. It's not like, you know, just, it has to stay connected with everything.

If it starts to die or starts to replicate in the wrong way, it creates cancer and can kill the body. So in the same way, I ask you, is your relationship with God individually also being expressed corporately in the congregation, in the church of God's people? And do you love it like Jesus loves it? Thank you. Sorry for going away.