Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Well, good morning village church east. It is great to see you this morning. Welcome to our services. Morning has been wonderful to already praise the Lord this morning together. Um, and I just, I love having our, our church too together and singing like that every Sunday morning. Don't you love that those of you that are home welcome. We're glad that you're joining us as well. Uh, I want to just give you, um, if you're thinking of yourself, ah, I'm thinking about venturing back to church. Uh, you know, the, the COVID thing is kind of not so not quite so scary anymore or not. Maybe we got inoculator and vaccinated or something I want to encourage you next Sunday would be a great Sunday to join us for our service. And we're going to be a baptism service right in the public pool here, which is really cool.
Speaker 0 00:00:44 They're they're letting us back into the public pool. And if you've never seen a baptism in a public pool, this could be the chance of a lifetime for you. So we wanna encourage you to, to come out and be a part of that. If you are thinking to yourself, I'm not quite sure. I think I do want to be baptized, but I'm not quite sure. I want to know a little bit more about that. I am making myself available to you, the church to the ones online. If you get ahold of me this week, where we can have a one-on-one and I can give you a quick little 45 minute class synopsis on what baptism is all about. But if you've been thinking about it, this could be your opportunity to take that step of obedience. God commanded us to go into all the world and preach the gospel, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, son, and the holy spirit.
Speaker 0 00:01:26 This is us keeping doing what God has called us to do. And so, uh, I'd love to be able to explain that to you, why we do it the way that we do here, why we immerse all of that is covered. Why we don't sprinkle, why we don't baptize infants. All of those things are covered in our class that I will do with you. So I promise if you get a hold of me this week, I'll clear my schedule as best I can. And we'll do a one-on-one. If you're thinking about being baptized, don't put it off. This could be a great opportunity for you to be baptized. If you know, the Lord is your savior. It's a wonderful way to proclaim that in a public setting. Uh, next week also is July 4th. So, uh, hopefully you'll be here with your family and your loved ones and make this the first part of your day.
Speaker 0 00:02:11 We're going to be finishing up today, our message series that we're doing on potential. And next week, we'll jump back into Exodus. I'm excited to get back into Exodus with you. Uh, but today I'm really pumped about this particular message, because it's all about the church message of the title, the title of the message, sorry. Today is the potential of a Christ led church. And before we jump in, I want to just ask them, Lord would direct our thoughts and our hearts. As we listened this morning, father give us grace. As we look into your word, thank you for the worship time. I am overwhelmed by the words we get to proclaim to you. And the words you love to hear from us as we lift up our voices to lift up your name, it's been a wonderful blessing already this morning, praising your name.
Speaker 0 00:02:58 I pray that it will only as not. We listen to what you have to say for, to us from your word. I pray in Jesus name. Amen. All right. How do you decide what brand to buy at the grocery store? When I go to the grocery store, I have some idiosyncrasies. Beth would love to tell you about if you, if you, uh, uh, get her in the corner and say, what, what does Craig do at the grocery store? Well, she will tell you all of this. I have to have certain brands for instance, and let's just get it out there. There is only one brand of toilet paper that really works. Is that not correct? Right. So when we go, we get the Sharman brand. You don't like the Sharman pan. Yeah. Okay. All right. Every other toilet paper you got in more ways than one, you got to get the Sharman bread. So I got a little idiosyncrasy with that, with some of the brands that I buy at the grocery store. You, you probably are sitting there thinking toilet papers that you prefer, even at this, as long as it's not a Truckstop toilet paper, I think you're going to be okay
Speaker 1 00:04:04 In the eighties.
Speaker 0 00:04:06 I had a hair gel that I loved. Do you remember, do you remember depth? Did anybody ever use DEP hairdo? You remember that? Yeah, so I don't have it anymore. They don't make it anymore. And for a decade, I went through a period of mourning. And, uh, instead of having this, this, uh, fro up here that I have now, I just buzz cut the whole thing until I found another brand that I liked my brother. And, uh, I don't know if he's going to watch this or not, but I'll embarrass him. My brother has a frock. Like you would not believe on the top of his head. And I said, one time we were, I was over at his house. I said, Chris, I need, I need some, some gel for my hair. Cause we, we were just outside and, and I think we were, yeah, we were in the pool in the pool.
Speaker 0 00:04:47 And I said, I gotta have some gel because if you don't put something in this hair, it just turns into, yeah, it's it's bad news. So I walked into his bathroom, said, Craig, you're in knock. And he opened this cabinet and there are hair products on three different shelves. And he's gone here. You should try this one. This one I got in Europe. It's really good. This one I got in south America, it's really good. I'm going, what is wrong with you? So I felt much better about myself after I left my brother's apartment, these brands, we like to support these brands. They do something for us. They scratch an itch, literally, maybe sometimes. So we'd like to get the certain kind of brand in the grocery store that we're looking for. Here's my question to you now, do you think we, we choose our churches in the same way.
Speaker 0 00:05:32 It's interesting, right? I wonder how most people decide what church to attend. Like the one that works for them, the one that speaks to them, the one that scratches their itch, uh, think of what's at stake. When you choose a church, think of this, the information your children are taught, we just dismissed our children. They're out in their own area. Now being taught God's word on the level that they can understand. Literally they are being taught God's word and you're letting it happen in a church setting the support system for the troubled times yet to come is found in the church, the opportunity to grow spiritually and make a dent in our world in our neighborhoods is done through a local church. The ability my spouse will have to listen change and to mature into a better version of themselves. I count on the church.
Speaker 0 00:06:17 No, that's probably what Beth would say to me. The investment of money I give to the church each week. And I, and that decision is made by my church as to where the money will go and being invested in the opportunity to reach my community, to bless them the opportunity to bless my world through how my local church decides to give internationally to other organizations, the balance of truth that I hear that combat the lies of culture on a weekly basis. The potential that God gives to me to use my gifts, to serve all of that is done through a church. If you think to, to yourself, the church has a lot to do with how I grow, how I evolve, how I, how I become a better version of me, how my I family grows. We give them church a lot of weight in our lives.
Speaker 0 00:07:04 And it's amazing to me because I think to myself, I wonder what the credentials are for most people, choosing a local church to go to the list is pretty long as to how the church impacts our lives. So I wonder, I wonder how we decide what church we're to. And I got to tell you for most people, I think it's like buying a different brand of beings. Let's just give this one a shot and see if it works and you take it home. And it's the off-brand model. And you think yourself, I don't like that one. So let's go try another brand.
Speaker 1 00:07:39 And you can't
Speaker 0 00:07:40 Do WWJD because Jesus never went to church. Did you know that is that shocking to Jesus never spent one day in church. There was no church until Jesus ascended into heaven. The holy spirit comes the church churches established though until Jesus ascended to heaven, there was no church. He went to synagogue, he went to the temple. He worshiped as he should. He worshiped God whom he loved, but he did not go to church. So you can't do WWJD. What church would Jesus attend? He didn't attend any. And we are commanded in scripture to make this a major part of our lives. Did you know that in Hebrews chapter 10 verse 24, it says, let us consider how to stir one another up one. Another to love and good works. Look at this in verse 25, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
Speaker 0 00:08:36 So it literally says don't neglect to gather together. The word church literally means assembly. Did you know that ekklesia in scripture? The Greek word means a symbol. We are commanded to assemble together, not to neglect that very important part of our lives. The church is essential and it can impact our lives in pretty significant ways. By the way, I believe this is one reason why our church hits such a tailspin in 20 18 20. If you thought to yourself at any time over the last eight, 18 months, I think the world's going to hell in a hand basket, you might be right because what was taken away from the world in 2020, the church, a third of people were regularly involved in their churches in 2020. When you take that influence out of communities, out of neighborhoods, out of the world, you're naturally going to have a whole lot of listen when good is removed, sin will move in.
Speaker 0 00:09:38 So you think to yourself, I think the world just went crazy in 2020. I agree with you. And I think a big part of it is because the church was removed. And I think it's having a hard time getting back on its feet. Just like by buying toilet paper, you should never buy. There are churches by the way that you should never attend. There's some churches that you should not go to. And my goal this morning is to help us identify what makes a good church and what can that church do? What can that local church do? Listen, churches are essential to this world. They have been, they always will be going to church, going to worship God publicly with fellow believers was important to Jesus. When he was growing up, it was a big part of his life. Even though he didn't go to church, he went to temple, he went to tabernacle.
Speaker 0 00:10:28 It shouldn't be a big part of our lives, but what Jesus gave us was even better. Jesus gave us the church. Now the church can meet around the world around time. We don't have to travel to Jerusalem. We don't have to do a pilgrimage to, to Jerusalem and find a temple. The temple somewhere. You don't have to do any of that. The church is where Christ is present. When we gather on Sunday morning, something very supernatural happens. I know you don't see it. Maybe you don't feel it, but I I'll tell you when I sing some of the songs in the morning, I kind of feel it. And I'm not looking for a feeling. I just know the reality is the church. When we gather something significant happens in our lives, it's meant to be that way. In fact, it was so important to Jesus that he died for the church.
Speaker 0 00:11:17 We'd like to, as individuals in America, we'd like to, because America is an individualistic nation. We like to say, Jesus loves you. And that's very true. But in scripture you will find that Jesus loves the church an awful lot, because his point was not to save you and let you go on your own. His church is his point was to save you to get involved in your life so that you could be a part of a greater thing. His church, a greater family, the person, if they know Jesus Christ as their savior, they a part of the family. God has worked in their lives. God has worked in your life. God has worked in the person behind you and brought you together to be this thing called the church, which Jesus died for all of the disciples died because they were establishing churches. They were consumed by the idea that Jesus was, was building something greater, not just the community of people that like the lion's club that have something in common or a cigar club that we all smoked the same cigars or a beer club, whatever it is, Ali or a mom's club.
Speaker 0 00:12:25 It's not the same as that. It's not that we all get together and we all have the same thing in common. So we all kind of have this, uh, this commonality. The commonality that we have in the church is simply this. It is diverse. It is stroke time. It exists around the world, but the holy spirit enters individuals, one person at a time as they surrender their lives to Jesus Christ. And when that happens, you become a part of a family and you may look different from the person sitting next to you. You may look different from the, from the church down the road. But if we know Christ as our savior, we're all brothers and sisters in Christ. Each of these disciples were killed murdered because their emphasis to build local churches assumed them. And when they were told to recant, they didn't, they said Christ is building his church.
Speaker 0 00:13:18 It was important to them. It was important to Jesus and it should be important to us. So, first question is, what is a church? Again, started this potential series. I said, what is a family? And it was really hard to identify that right, or sitting there going. I thought I knew what a family was. I'm in one, but I don't know if I can define what a family is. Well, the same thing for church. How do you define what a family is? Let me give you a little bit of history of what a church is. The church was established the minute that Jesus ascended, these local assemblies began to pop up through Europe, through Turkey, through Asia, minor, through Jerusalem, through Israel and all over the then, then known world. The, the disciples became missionaries. They went to all different places. Thomas supposedly went to India. By the way, if you look at the map
Speaker 1 00:14:08 For India, sidebar,
Speaker 0 00:14:10 You will see in the south west corner of India, you will see a portion of, of India where the people only have Christian names. And that is because they believe Thomas made his way all the way to India and impacted that culture for Jesus Christ. And, and it goes on to 2021. Even to this day, these missionaries, some went down into, into Africa, someone north up into, into Europe, the gospel spread, because this was God's purpose through Jesus Christ to build this church.
Speaker 1 00:14:47 It existed
Speaker 0 00:14:47 For a long time after Jesus for a thousand years. It, it, it, it, it existed, but it kind of went off track. And if anybody has something to say about the church in a negative way, they always say, remember the crusades, right? Right. Let's, let's go all the way back to the crusades. Listen, the church has not always been what it should be. You want to know why? Because it's led by people and people are not always who they should be. This is by the way, why the Protestant reformation began because Martin Luther had it. Martin Luther after 1500 years of the church stood up and said, the church is not what it should be. He was disillusioned with what it had become. He was disillusioned with these gold plated. The Sistine chapel is doing a, uh, uh, George and I were talking Sistine. Chapel is doing a tour here.
Speaker 0 00:15:39 It's incredible masterpiece. That is not what the church was created to be. It wasn't created to have gold plated, anything. The church was created to be a place where people could belong, be family, our church, literally, there's nothing in this room before we get here on Sunday morning, the only symbol that you will see in our church is that right there, because that represents what it takes, what it took for us to be a part of this family know for thousands of, for a thousand years after Jesus, um, uh, rose from the dead and ascended into heaven for a thousand years, the church went on, it went up, it went down, it was led by crap people. Some, some people were pretty good. Uh, Gustin was way early. We love Augustan. Gustin was amazing. We did, I did, uh, a message on him, uh, last year.
Speaker 0 00:16:28 And as we went through, as you go through history, you can see a kind of descending into anarchy and into chaos. And finally, it's all they wanted was money and power. And the Protestant reformation began 15, 17 Martin Luther stood up and said, that's enough. And he nailed the 95 theses on the castle door Rittenberg. Uh, he was ticked off by several different things. Number one, nobody could read the Bible. There was only one version of the Bible is Latin Vulgate. It was a thousand years old. Can you imagine reading a language that was written a thousand years ago? You wouldn't even understand beginning. Is that a letter? You wouldn't even understand it. And the church determined they were not going to let this Bible be translated to anyone that tried to translate the Bible into modern day English. They killed them. You can read about it.
Speaker 0 00:17:15 It's all in church history. It's not hidden. Just dig for the information it's there. Martin Luther said, no, we got to get the Bible into the, into the hands of the regular people. Another thing that got him was indulgences. The church was always asking for money. The church made up this thing called purgatory. So they could say, Hey, your, you know, your, your grandma's in purgatory. But if you give us some shackles, your grandma can get out of purgatory. Nowhere in scripture, nowhere, you can dig as long as you want. And I know this, this might offend some, maybe some Catholic folks that might be watching our in house, but I just want to tell you it ain't there. It was so that the church could get more money to build the Sistine chapel, if you want to be honest. So they, they collect money. That's indulgences and Martin Luther said, this isn't that right? And then, and then God gets a hold of his life, transformed him. He becomes, he becomes in love with Jesus Christ. Like, like you never, before he was already studying to be a priest, but he went to Rome. He started going to these pastor conferences and found out that these guys are all sleeping with prostitutes. And he thought to himself, what is going on? And he had it, he had it.
Speaker 0 00:18:21 And so he began what we call the Protestant reformation. They threatened him with his life over and over and over again, threatened to take his life away. But he stood up in 1517. And when he did, and he nailed those feces and he asked for time with the church so that he could, he wanted to debate the leaders of the church so he could show them they were wrong using scripture harassments that just translated the Bible into a modern language. And he had kept his life because the Catholic church liked harassments. And so he said, let's just debate what we're reading in here. And they said, no debate recant or die. And so he said, here I stand. That's all I can do.
Speaker 0 00:19:00 And so he was whisked away and he knew a very rich person. He was Frederick was the guy's name. He had a castle. He put him in the, in the tower of the castle. He put some guards around it, Catholic church couldn't touch Luther. And in less than a year, he translated the Bible into modern English called the farmers' Bible and put it into the hands of the people. Those that could read, could read it. And we began, we began to see an incredible growth because people who were filled with the holy spirit could suddenly start hearing from God's word, not through a human being, but from God himself.
Speaker 0 00:19:34 Here's what, here's the little chart you might be interested in. This is what, what happened through. If you can read that, it's pretty cool. This might be some information on, on, uh, that you may or may not know about where the different denominations came from in 1517, you got Zwingli at the bottom. Luther. Those guys lived the same time. And right at that time at the Protestant reformation, this is when all of the different church denominations began from them. And you go up the reformed path and the BA the Anglican broke off from the reform. The Baptist broke off from the Anglican. Methodist broke off from the Anglican through Wesley John Wesley. You may know him, uh, by the way, the Anglican church broke off from the reform church. Do you know why there was a king there that, that, uh, wanted to get a divorce?
Speaker 0 00:20:19 Yeah. Do you remember his name? The church. Wouldn't let them have a divorce. So what did he do? He just kept killing his wives. Do you remember that? King Henry the eighth, right. So he thought, oh, I'll just start. A new church starts. He becomes Protestant. He starts a new church, but it's pretty amazing. Anabaptist breaks off from the reformed Presbyterian. If you think of yourself, how did all of this start? It started with the Protestant reformation. And now you have all these brands of churches that people go to each brand is not the same. Each one will read the Bible. And each one will determine for themselves through the leadership of those of those groups, the directions that they will take in life for us, we are non-denominational. Uh, which means that we simply don't clean to any one particular denomination. Any one of those branches, we are definitely Protestant.
Speaker 0 00:21:09 We are not Catholic because our main belief is that the thing that transforms your life is God speaking to you through the holy spirit, by reading and knowing his word. And so every, every week you get together, that's why we preach the gospel. That's why we speak from God's word. It is the thing that changes lives. Not all denominations will do that. So what did Jesus mean when he said I will build my church? Well, what he meant is God's family is exactly that it is the idea that God is building a family and he's not done yet. If you know Christ as your savior, you are part of God's family. You remember the circles I showed you a few weeks ago when we were talking about, uh, what it means to be family in the, in the early days, you were, your family was a part of a clan.
Speaker 0 00:22:00 And that clan was a part of a tribe. And that tribe was a part of the nation. So the stronger your family, the stronger the nation, this kind of applies even today, right? Your family. We may not have a lot of clans and tribes or wear kilts that show what clans or tribes were from, but your family definitely contributes to the strength of the nation. If the families are broken, the nation will break. This kind of idea is what we're used to, uh, even in our world today. But when Jesus talks about family, he doesn't talk about it. In these terms, when Jesus talks about family, he, he knows, there are two words in the Greek that are used for family. One is oil costs, and one is trio.
Speaker 0 00:22:46 Patria means descendant. Like what it means to make up a Klan oil costs is actually the household, the individual members of a family that make up that family unit. And as Jesus talks about the church, he uses the word oil costs. He uses the word, not Patria, like where you fit into the grander scheme of things, but he uses the word oil costs, meaning that we are all a part of this family. This one family that God is building. Once Jesus was teaching in his own family, came to see him. You may be under the impression that Jesus was an only child. You would be wrong. Jesus had brothers and sisters. Mary was a Virgin when she had Jesus had to be because no sin nature was passed on to him. But after Jesus came, you know, Joseph and Mary, they did what married people do.
Speaker 0 00:23:34 And so they ended up having more kids. And you may think to yourself, I don't think that's right. I think Jesus was an only child. Well, let me take you to an incident. When Jesus' family went to visit, he's preaching the gospel and he's in a house and the people in the house, there's so many people in there, the people in the house said, Hey, Jesus, your mom's outside. And Jesus responds to them. It's in Luke eight 20. And it says this. He was told your mother and your brothers are standing outside desiring to see you. But he answered them. My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God into it. So in other words, he's using these uses every opportunity to make a point. They said, Hey, your, your, your family's outside. They want to see you for a minute.
Speaker 0 00:24:20 Jesus says, you know who? My family is, anyone who hears my word and does it. They are family. He begins using this term of family. He expands this idea of family, never been done before to an idea where it includes anybody who hears his word and does it. In other words, anybody who believes in him, anybody who believes he's the son of God, this is why, by the way, Jesus said over and over again, you must be born again. Because what he's saying is you were born into your family. I was born into my family and that makes me a Jarvis. I carry the Jarvis gene, the Jarvis blood through my veins. My kids were born in my family. That makes them Jarvis's too. We, we share a common, uh, bloodline. Jesus was using this term in a brand new way. He's saying in, in his family, you have to be born again.
Speaker 0 00:25:16 You still are a part of your family, but you must understand you are born into the bloodline of the family of Jesus Christ. Do you know in scripture, Jesus even calls us brothers and sisters. Jesus says, I am your brother. Yeah. That's kind of weird, isn't it? Because you think there's a, wait a minute. We worshiped Jesus and you would be right. But because he died on the cross and gave us a way to be a part of his family, he becomes our or brother. That's crazy. I'll share that verse with you in a minute.
Speaker 0 00:25:52 We have to, I understand in order to be a part of this family, we were not born into it. When you came out of your mother's womb, you weren't not as a child of God. I know that's not popular to say now today, because everybody, every politician will get up and say, we're all children of God. That is not true. You, when you were born, you were born an enemy of God. Did you know that we had a rebellious nature? Did you need any classes to learn how to steal your brother's or sister's toys? Did you need any classes to lie to your parents? Do you need any classes at all to do anything wrong? Nope. Why? Because it comes natural. You know what you need classes to do to learn how to get along with your spouse, to learn how to be a good person to learn how to think positively.
Speaker 0 00:26:40 Oh yeah. We need a lot of classes on those things that is natural to us. And when we're born, we are not born with God flowing through us. We are born basically with the, with the devil in control of us and God at one point reaches down and rescues us. And we become, instead of enemies, God, children of God, passage of scripture, this is a main verses. We're going to be looking at it in Ephesians chapter two. So if you want to turn there in your devices, Ephesians two verse 12, remember that here it is. You were at that time, separated from Christ. Not, not good words, right? You were separated from Christ alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise. You had no hope and you were without God in the world. Does that sound like your children of God?
Speaker 0 00:27:33 Nope. It sounds like you're alienated. It sounds like you're a strangers. It sounds like your enemies. It sounds like you're without hope. And without God in the world, Romans five, 10 is a passage that calls us enemies of God. Simply this. We loved our sin more than we love God. All of us were in the same boat, but Jesus invites every person everywhere to become a part of his family. Every person everywhere to be born again into the family of God, verse 13 by, but now in Christ, Jesus, you who once were far off, have been brought near by what church by the blood of Christ. This is what it means. Jesus is transforming the idea of family. Instead of family clan tribe, nation. He's taking us to the idea that if you want to be a part of his family, there's no clans. There's no tribes.
Speaker 0 00:28:22 There's no hierarchies. There's just Jesus. And if you want to be a part of Jesus' family, you accept Christ as your savior, you receive his blood that covers your sins. That means you are a child of God. You're in the bloodline, not your blood, but Jesus' blood. You have been brought near by the blood of Jesus Christ. This is why he says you must be born again. We're so used to that phrase. We don't even think about it, but think about it for a second. The Pharisee Nicodemus that came to Jesus in John chapter three, I'd never heard that phrase before. You must be born again. What is that? So he asked the question. You mean I have to crawl into my mother's womb and be born again. And Jesus must've thought he was a total idiot for saying that, right? Cause that can never happen.
Speaker 0 00:29:04 But he was, he was seriously confused. So Jesus said, no, no, no, no, you don't have to be born physically. You have to be born spiritually. You have to have the blood of Jesus Christ applied and cover your sins. And now the blood of Jesus makes you family born. Again, gives us a path into the very family of God. Verse 14. It says in Ephesians two for he himself is our peace. I love that. Who has made us both one and has broken down in his face, the dividing wall of hostility, no more sin that divides us. There's no more of us hearing what God says and said, screw you. I'm going to do what I want to do. That's natural to us. But for those of us that know Christ as our savior, for those of us that are part of the family of God, we hear what God says.
Speaker 0 00:29:57 And we say, that's what I must do because we're part of his family. His blood has brought peace to our lives. And so Jesus extends a family circle. So look at the chart. Now, G Jesus says, no tribes, no clans, no nations, not none of that stuff. There's only the family of God. It doesn't matter what nationality you are, Canadian American. It doesn't matter if you're German. It doesn't matter if you're Italian. Thank God. Cause there's a lot of times in here and it doesn't matter your nationality. It doesn't matter what tribe you belong to. It doesn't matter how bad your tribe was in the past. Did you? Uh, Beth and my, our, our, uh, our tribes in the past, we, we clashed in England. We found that we dug through our history and we actually were, what is it? Scottish got us history. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:30:43 And, uh, my scores tribe was that, uh, was, was fighting her scholars tribe. And you know, and, and so we've United the clans now, but, and it still happens a little bit. No, I'm just kidding. Uh, in Christ family, there's none of that. All are welcome. There's no slave. There's no free. There's no Greek. There's no Jew. There's no, there's no, there's none of that. There's no male or female. And when you look at somebody these days, they say, notice the color of their skin. It's a first thing they say, notice their nationality, notice their, uh, their sexual orientation. Notice their gender identity. Notice that our, our, our, our, our world today is saying, notice those things first and learn to love them.
Speaker 0 00:31:29 Jesus says, it's not that your identity is not found in anything, except the fact that you were a sinner and God has saved you by grace. God has brought you into the family of God. That is your identity. Jesus created you on purpose for a purpose. You're not here by mistake. God has given us a purpose in this family. There's no tribes. There's no clans. There's no nations. We're all equal members of the household of God. An entrance into this family is not automatic. Not everybody gets in, everybody's invited, but not everybody chooses to come. Jesus answered him in John three, three. This is Jesus talking to Nicodemus. Like I said, truly, truly. I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. These are the words of Christ himself. Unless you're born again, you are not going to heaven.
Speaker 0 00:32:28 So this is pretty, pretty essential. When you say this is pretty key information that nicotine has has to get. And so do we, the key is we have to be adopted into the family of God. Adoption is the process where God accepts us as his own family. Even those that by nature, don't belong to it. And to be honest with you, none of us by nature belong to the family of God. By nature. We are all sinners bound for hell. Calvin says from the crown of our head to the soles of our feet, we are filled with sin. Our first inclination, when somebody slaps us on the cheek is not to turn the other cheek. Our first inclination is to take a piece of the other cheek, right? That is because we are not born naturally into this family. Jesus Christ has to come fill our lives and adopt us as his own.
Speaker 0 00:33:17 That is why, by the way we call, we have this familial understanding of the Godhead. God, the father, God, the son, God, the holy spirit, Jesus teaches us to call God. Our father who is in heaven, Galatians four, six says this. And because you are sons, God has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, crying Abba, father Abba by the word, by the way, if you don't know this ABA is a very intimate, familiar term that you would use for your, for your father. It'd be like the term that you would use. When, um, when, when, when you feel like just holding onto your dad's hand, you would say, father, there would be something different about the term you would use, or when you're, when your dad's lying on the deathbed and you come beside of him and you say dad, or when you're in trouble and you need somebody that will hear you and listen to you and love you.
Speaker 0 00:34:10 Even when you're in trouble, you say dad, same word used here. Jesus accepts us into the family and gives us because he died for us. The right to look at our face, our heavenly father, with that kind of intimacy. God has sent us spirit of his son into our hearts, crying Abba father. So you are no longer they're slave, but a son or a daughter, the sun than an heir through God. It's so cool. You're not just a child of God. You inherit all of the blessings goddess. You're literally a part of his family. I should tell you. Adoption has never referred to with Jesus Christ. The only people adopted into the family are everybody else. Jesus has never referred to as an adopted son of God, only us and God is building this family. Still. John was 12 says, but to all who did receive him to all who believe in his name, he gave the right to be come.
Speaker 0 00:35:05 What is it? Church, children of God, right? If you call on his name, if you, if you accept Christ as your savior, you have the right to call yourself a child of God and God's family. This new family, we have brothers and sisters from all races and backgrounds. Romans 10, 12 says there's no distinction between Jew and Greek. The same Lord is Lord of all bestowing his riches on all who call on him for, and it quotes that other verse, everyone who calls calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. And this is Jesus calls us brothers and sisters. Let me give you that verse Hebrews two 11. Here's what it says for he who sanctifies that's Jesus Christ, sanctifies us. He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified. That's us all have one source. That's Jesus. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.
Speaker 0 00:35:58 That's a crazy thought. Isn't it? You are. If you accept Christ as your savior, you are a brother to Jesus and God is your heavenly father verse 19. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Jesus Christ, himself being the cornerstone. What that means is Jesus started this family. There was no church until he rose from the dead. He ascended to heaven. And then the church began. The holy spirit came and fills each individual, sanctifying each individual and making us a part of the family of God. Listen, you may be in hurting relationships today. You may be feeling let down by those around, you may feel like you're the last one chosen for the sports team. You may feel like you've been hurt by a spouse or somebody you loved. You may feel like you have played a part in the failure of your own family. The reality is many people feel like they just don't have a place to belong because of something they did or something that was done to them. The church is meant to fill that void. The church is a place where everyone belongs.
Speaker 1 00:37:14 You can
Speaker 0 00:37:14 Belong to a family that has been put together for thousands of years. This is exactly the reason Jesus came. He came because he was building
Speaker 1 00:37:22 Family.
Speaker 0 00:37:24 You want to know the potential of the church led by Jesus Christ. The potential is every person belongs and the local church becomes the expression of Jesus Christ in each neighborhood. This is why in 2020, I think the world went crazy because those churches, those expressions were removed from communities. I think of it this way, because I think in pictures a lot, I think this way, when God puts a church in a community, kind of puts an umbrella over the whole community. And that umbrella just kinda kind of protects isolates, helps saves blesses that community. That's why village church at our church. We want to make sure that we're involved in the community as much as we can be as much possibly as we can be, because we want to make sure that this church blesses this community. We don't want to, we want to grow small. That's our phrase. We want to grow small because, because we want every person to feel like they have a place to belong, not get lost
Speaker 1 00:38:27 In the crowds.
Speaker 0 00:38:29 The local church is a local expression of Jesus in each community. Now the universal church, the difference is when accept Christ as your savior, you become a part of his family, but you've got to find a local church where you can get busy, where you can become a part of whatever that church is doing to bless that community where you can express Jesus on a one to one basis. I remember a couple of years ago when we were able to do it, we were involved in national night out. How many of you were at national night out a couple of years ago? Several of you were, I know you were there helping us with that. We did. What is that stuff we did for the kids? What does that mucky stuff? Slime. We did slime. So we, we went to national night out and kids showed up and the police were there and a couple of different community, uh, events were happening.
Speaker 0 00:39:15 And we wanted to make a place so that the kids had something to do while their parents were standing in line, getting, getting school supplies and stuff for their kids. And so this church pulled together and we had, we'd like four different tables. I'll put together. We had slime out there. We had, what else did we have? We had pictures. We had a picture booth. What else did we do? We did something else. Anyway. Well, we gave away a, those, those, uh, tops or something. Anyway, we did, we did activities with the kids. It's it was no big deal, but it was something so that we could let our, our church, our, our community know we wanted to be a part of what this community was doing.
Speaker 0 00:39:53 Local churches are meant to bless local communities. This is where we experience this idea of family. If you think about it in your own family, if you're a son or a daughter or a mom or a dad or a grandparent, you play a role, right? If you're a grandparent, you I've heard have the best role in the world. You're bringing the kids in for awhile. You spoil them and you send them home. So they, they can, they can kind of bother their parents. I've heard that. That does happen. I'm sure nobody does that. Here. Grandparents have a role to play. Parents have a role to play. Kids have a role to play. Everybody has a role to play. And maybe in the home, your role is maybe you wash dishes. Maybe you, you mow the lawn. Maybe you take care of the cars. Maybe you clean the clean the house and do the laundry. Maybe, maybe you do, but you participate. You, you become a part of whatever role you play in that, in that home, in the same way in a local church, we play roles. You are here because God has put you here to serve, to do something.
Speaker 0 00:41:01 Relationships that interact with one another and just like traditional relationships. We are meant to play a role in God's family. In God's family. We love and in God's family, we forgiven God's family. We use our gifts to serve one another and God's family. We welcome other members in God's family. We value each other in God's family. We have a place to worship Jesus Christ. This is what happens in our local assembly. This is why your involvement here in this local church is essential. And I'm pleased to say last time we did an evaluation. I don't know it is now, but we had like 80% of our church. We're regularly involved in weekly service in some way or another that's because every person has a role to play. In first Corinthians 1225. It says that there may be no division in the body. The members have the same care for one another.
Speaker 0 00:41:48 If one member suffers all suffer together. If one member is honored all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. Here's the key. The family of God has a potential of impacting culture. When they live out family principles. If you're a part of a local church, the more you get involved in that local church, the more impact you have in community, in, in the culture around it starts with you and it impacts the world. How do we live up to our potential? Well, I wrote down a couple of things. The main thing is we keep the main thing, the main thing. And the main thing is what is the main job of the church to glorify Jesus. And all we do that is the bottom line. We want to live Jesus all the time. And I tell you why in our culture today, we need to lift up Jesus more and more because the world, if you don't, if you don't agree with this, I'd love to find out why.
Speaker 0 00:42:46 But the world to me just seems to get darker and darker. The more we lift up Jesus, the more light we bring into the world. A light Jesus said that is set on a hill, cannot be hidden churches. Local churches are meant to be the light in those communities. Not by looking like the world, cause that's covering the light of Jesus. But by looking different, a lot of churches are sold out to on the idea, wrongly that if they look more like the world, more of the world will get saved. That will not happen. The church, our main job is to glorify Jesus Christ by not watering down the truth that he taught. This is how we bring the gospel to life. We don't, we don't bring it down. We lifted up. This is why. And when we baptize, one of the greatest things I enjoy doing at the church is baptizing out there in that public pool. If you've never been a part of a baptism where you're baptizing in one section of the pool and people are doing laps behind you, then you have not experienced a public baptism. It's re really quite cool. That's what we're going to do next week.
Speaker 0 00:43:57 We want to make sure that Jesus' name is lifted up no matter what two years ago, before COVID hit like two months before COVID hit. We had a neighborhood service in the gym right across the hall. And we had, we had a couple of different churches that were involved with us. And, uh, and people were walking around on the track up top. And we were just singing praises to God's name. We do that. Not, not because we, we not because we want to, uh, hurt anybody's feelings or, or be obnoxious or anything like that. We do that because we are churches that meet in this building every single Sunday. And we want people to know here, we want to lift up Jesus name. Therefore it's essential that we keep the gospel
Speaker 1 00:44:38 Clear.
Speaker 0 00:44:40 We want to glorify God's name. And we want to keep the gospel
Speaker 1 00:44:45 Clear.
Speaker 0 00:44:47 First Timothy three 14. I hope to come to you soon. Timothy Paul writes to Timothy, but I'm writing these things to you. So that look at verse 15. If I delay, you may know how you ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living. God, what is the household of God? The oil costs of God, the church, the household of God, which is a church of the living. God. And look at these words, a pillar and buttress of what church
Speaker 1 00:45:15 Truth. We
Speaker 0 00:45:17 Live in a world that lies to us regularly in church, you receive a regular dose of truth. Well, I don't know about you, but if I had to live watching the news every single day, it just, I would be an individual that you would not want to be around. But the hope that I have is every Sunday, I get to come together with you and either preach or hear somebody preach about the truth of Jesus Christ. It balances my life out. If I don't hear the truth, I will start believing a lot of lies. And you think to yourself, how can people believe that you ever think that how can you possibly believe that is because there's no balance of truth for them. And it doesn't even have to be about an individual item. Like whatever item it is that you think people are falling for. It just has to be a regular dose of gospel truth.
Speaker 1 00:46:12 Jesus Christ called himself way. The truth, the life on purpose.
Speaker 0 00:46:20 It's because we need a regular dose of truth. The church is, is a pillar. And do you know what a buttress is? A buttress is what holds something back, right? It's a pillar. It's a buttress. It's a, it's something that you can't, that nothing can force itself through. The church is a buttress of truth. The last line of defense for a world lost in sin. Listen, do you ever wonder why Satan is hell bound, bent on killing the church. He's tried through the centuries to kill the church. One person at a time, and he's never succeeded. He goes around as a roaring lion seeking someone. He might devour, right? He doesn't want to play with you. He wants to kill you because if he can get you, you can get your family. He can get your church. And, and if he can destroy a church, he'll work from the top down. You want to know why our world parades the sins of the church on a regular basis. There's a lot of sin to parade in this world. You want to know why they choose churches to parade on the television on a regular basis is because sin values, destruction.
Speaker 0 00:47:27 And if Satan can destroy the church, the integrity of the church, if he can get somebody to doubt the church he succeeded and he wants you to stay in the dark. Have you ever been around a dysfunctional family? Is it it's something you look forward to? Oh, I can't wait for Thanksgiving. We're going to be around our dysfunctional family. Again, nobody looks forward to that. This is why Satan parades around dysfunctional churches is because if he can get the world to believe that churches are all mess, stop, maybe people will stop going. So let the passion of your heart be to live in the church. As Christ, your brother would live in the church, Christ died to build his church. The church is the passion of Jesus Christ. Ephesians 5 25 Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her that he might sanctify her having cleansed her by the washing of water, with the word so that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish.
Speaker 0 00:48:48 Do you understand in the church why we have hard conversations with each other? Cause we do on a regular basis. I've had hard conversations with people in this church. I've had to come up to you and say, listen, I'm seeing what's happening in your life. And I gotta tell ya. I don't think it's going to go in a good direction. Let's be honest with one another. I need you to be honest with me right now. Is there something we need to talk about? And I, I will walk that path. Not because I enjoy putting the other person down, but because if we don't speak truth to one another, we are going to live in a lot of darkness. And what happens is you surround yourself with other people who live in the darkness and suddenly your darkness doesn't look that bad in the church. We come to one another in love.
Speaker 0 00:49:33 Not because we enjoyed doing it. I love correcting other people. Not because we enjoyed my gift is to correct other people. Nobody has that gift, but in love we come to one another because the church is the pillar and the buttress of truth. And if one family member suffers, we all suffer. And if one family members in trouble, we're all in trouble. And if one family member is suffering under the weight of sin, we all suffer under the weight of sin. You are sitting with people that bear as much shame as you do as much pain as you do. So I know your yours might be even deeper than theirs, but they have lived the life and you have lived the life. And in both of those lives, there is shame, hurt, regret, despair, the churches, where we come together and we're reminded, we are not the sum of our past decisions.
Speaker 1 00:50:24 We are who
Speaker 0 00:50:25 God is making us into. We are the family of Christ. That's why when we come together and we do communion, that's why we do communion. Like we do. I do it with you because there's no one of us higher than the other. There's no tribe. There's no clan. There's only the family of God Christ loved the church so that the church could be without spot or wrinkle. Holy and without blemish. Here's some so what's for you. You belong to a family. If you belong to God, if you've given your life to Jesus Christ, you belong to the universal family of Jesus Christ. You are a brother of Jesus Christ. God is your father. It exists road time. It exists throughout all around the world, but you need to be involved in a local expression of that family. It's not enough for you to be a Christian and live on an island. It's not enough to be a Jarvis and live on an island as a Jarvis. People come up to me and say, Craig, uh, what is your last name? Jarvis. Oh, you're a Jarvis. That's fantastic. Yeah, but I haven't lived as a Jarvis. I've lived as a single person on an island all by myself. It's time for us who belong to him, the family of God to be a part of the family of God. That's done locally through a church. So it's really important how we choose our church, that we would become involved in.
Speaker 0 00:51:48 It's where you find a real place to belong. This is by the way, why I became a pastor, I just couldn't find anything more significant to do with my life than to be a part of what this family that Jesus is building. John 6 37 says, Jesus says all that the father gives me will come to me. And whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. So listen, if you're listening to this message and you're thinking to yourself, I can't really be a part of that family because I have some too low in life. I've got to remind you of the words of Jesus here. All the father gives to me will come to me. Whoever comes to me, I will not
Speaker 1 00:52:23 Cast out.
Speaker 0 00:52:25 You belong because of Jesus Christ in the family. It doesn't matter whether you feel like you belong. If you know Jesus as your savior, you're in the blood you belong. And everybody who wants to follow Jesus is invited. Romans eight 16 says this spirit himself bears witness with our spirit. We are children of God. So you may feel like you don't belong. Don't believe it. You do belong. Some people know a lot about Jesus. Some people know a little bit about Jesus. Some people are crazy in love with Jesus. Some people not so much. Some people will lift their hands. When they sing. Some people held their hands in their pockets. Some people will look like me. Some people will look like you. It's a, it's a, it's a family made up of all different pieces, all different kinds. And you don't have to wait for a feeling to belong. If you know Christ as your savior, you have the right to call yourself part of the family of God. Number two, your role in God's family is essential. You are needed. God has chosen you for a purpose
Speaker 1 00:53:29 On purpose. You've
Speaker 0 00:53:32 Been given. Then this gift of salvation that God has given to you start using your gift to serve others. Did you know that when you surrender to Jesus Christ, God gifts you with a very special gift. I was, I was reminded of, uh, of a, of a gift that one of our members has that she blessed me with. Even this morning, she has this incredible gift of giving and she, she, she demonstrated again this morning when you use these, these gifts that God gives you to bless others. There's a part of you that goes, ah, that felt pretty good. And it's not a pride thing. It's a, it's a thing where the spirit himself bears witness with our spirit. We are a part of it, family, and we feel good when we serve one another.
Speaker 0 00:54:16 And did you know your main, your main place to serve as in the church? Not in the community as a whole, did you know that they could this verse in Galatians six, 10? So then as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone and say this with me. If you would church, especially to those who are in the household of faith, the oil costs of God, the family of God, did you know that that's crazy, right? Like we can do, you can do good to the world and you should, but the main place that you are meant to use your gifts to bless others is in the local cool church. So get involved. Number three, the church can live up to her potential. When each member serves one another in love, the potential of a church that's dedicated to serving God is simply in comparable.
Speaker 0 00:55:06 I'm amazed at how the world has tried to crush, destroy, discredit, ignore, or kill the church over time. I'm amazed how many, the evil men and women have crept into abuse the church and use it to abuse others that has happened in the church. And it still happens today. How many, how, how many people will never appreciate how the church has held back the onslaught of evil in the world? Some people never realize it. Some people don't realize the church is the bastion. The bulwark that holds back the evil in the world. The church has been on highs and lows, embarrassing moments, powerfully embarrassing moments throughout time, but she's still here and she's still a strong, I don't want to tell you her own critics have become converts through a time one life at a time, the church continues to change the world, impacting one family, one individual at a time when I studied about splitting an atom, I was pretty amazed. What happens when you split an atom? Do you know? You know, this, what happens when you split an atom, something big and amazing happens, right? Big blast, big boom. We call it the atomic bomb. We, we split those atoms. There's a huge explosion. Do you know the power in a church dedicated to serving God?
Speaker 0 00:56:38 How powerful do you think sin is pretty powerful, right? How powerful is sin been in your life? Pretty powerful, right? The power of God at work within you is greater than the power of sin. Greater is he, that is in you than he, that is in the world. Did you know that the power at work within one child of God, because of the holy spirit is incredible. The power of one child of God, with other children of God, in a local church, serving a community blessing. The world is incredible. The atom bomb has nothing on the church. The atom bomb could cause physical destruction. The church can hold back. Spiritual destruction. Matthew 16, 18. Jesus says I will build my church. Listen to this. Say with me church, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. That's pretty powerful.
Speaker 0 00:57:34 When you say Jesus said, I will build my church and there ain't no power that can come against it. The gates of hell itself will not prevail against the church. She will remain strong. She will remain full of dedicated people. She will remain a bastion of the truth. She will preach. The gospel. People will be changed. Families will be changed. Generations will be changed. I will work through the church. I have built my church. Jesus says, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. As long as the churches here, as long as God continues to build his church, as long as we submit to one another out of love and reverence for Jesus Christ. As long as we play our roles properly in the church, splitting an atom has nothing on the power of God at work through his people. So if you're at home and you're thinking to yourself, I don't know if it's time to come back to church, you're missing it because there's something about gathering that makes this visible power visible, this hidden power visible. When we gathered together, there's just something, there's something about shaking a hand. There's something about getting a hug. There's something about seeing one another face to face. There's something about having a conversation, not with your family in the living room, but getting together again. And I want to tell you next week, there's something about watching a baptism in a public pool that is going to change, not just the people who are staying in the pool, but the people who are watching as well. It's when you see the truth of God, proclaim the loudly
Speaker 1 00:59:07 In this world of darkness, the potential of a church led by Jesus Christ.
Speaker 0 00:59:16 You've probably seen it in your own life. I've seen it in mine. I have to you, I don't know where my family would be. Had we not dedicated ourselves to making the church a central part of our lives every week is a family reunion. And that's why when we finished services, once in a while, I say we come to the worst part of my day, cause we have to split up until next week until we meet again, this is why God gave us Jesus Christ so that he could build a family. And it starts as his church. If you would like to be a part of this church, the offer still open, you can accept Jesus Christ. As your savior, you have automatic adoption privileges. You become an heir to Jesus with Jesus Christ and heir to all the promises of God.
Speaker 1 01:00:16 Don't wait another day.
Speaker 0 01:00:18 If this is a decision you need to make, you can call me. You can text me. I I'll lay everything aside. Uh, Brent is going to be over here with, at our prayer booth. If you want to talk to him afterwards, it's amazingly easy, but it cost Jesus everything. And because he did all the work, you don't have to do a thing and God can use
Speaker 1 01:00:38 Your life.
Speaker 0 01:00:40 Let's pray, father, thank you for the time that we had here today to look into the potential of a church led by you help us father to keep in mind our part, to play in this and how you can use us to change the world. Not because of who we are simply because of who you are and who you can make us into. I pray that you would use our church more and more through the years as each one of us plays the role that you've called us to play and that you would be pleased with us as we continue to play our part
Speaker 1 01:01:16 In your church in Jesus name. Amen.
