I'm just going to tell you up front, today's a heavy message. It's pretty heavy. I'm going to be pretty direct and it's pretty dense. In fact, there's a lot of scripture, there's a lot of information. In the first two services, I felt like I was like a podcast set on two point speed. I was just trying to talk as fast as possible to get through these notes. And it's 11:00 hour, so I'm just going to slow down and we're going to be here for a while. But I think you can handle the heaviness of it. I think you can handle the directness of it. I think we have that relationship, at least I hope that we do. And I think you can handle the denseness of it. Just get your pen out right, verses down that we can't spend a lot of time on. So you can go back and read them later, but just got a lot of content to get to. And what we're talking about, like Caleb pointed out, is the church. And we're saying the church is essential. You might hear that word essential and have some COVID PTSD on that one, like when it talked about essential workers and what's essential, what's not essential, and trying to navigate that. Or maybe you hear the word church and you're a little triggered for that because you've had bad experiences or you've had church hurt. And I understand those are real. I don't want to make light of that. In fact, I've talked to many of you who have told me your stories of. Of church hurting, that my heart goes out to you because I know that's a real pain. And I also want to let you know that there's no such thing as a perfect church. And if you stick around veritas long enough, we're going to disappoint you, too. In fact, it may happen today. So let's see where this goes. But yet, despite those things, we unapologetically use the term essential when it comes to church, no essential means absolutely necessary or extremely important. And I think that's an attitude we need to recapture when it comes to church. It can seem like the prevailing attitude among churchgoers or christians in this culture and climate is I don't really need the church. It's not that I don't like it, but it's not. It's not an absolute necessity. It's not extremely important. I might not use essential to talk about it, that I don't really need the church. And it feels like what we're dealing with when it comes to the church is lower commitment and lower priority from people. Even when you look at average church attendance, average church attender attends church one to two times a month is kind of the average church attendance. Like, even for us as a church, when we kind of filled up three services for Easter at the paramount, that's not so much of us experiencing a ton of visitors as much as is us saying, like, everybody that calls Veritas church their home church comes on one Sunday. And when that happens, we don't fit here. But you can obviously see that don't happen too often. Like, we have this kind of rhythm of like, people don't come that consistently. There's a lower commitment, a lower priority, a lower devotion when it comes to church. We have roughly around 2000 people that kind of attend these services. We only have like 650 members. We're dealing with some space issues. By the grace of God. Like, thank you for that problem. We're trying to maximize this building. But out of our 650 members, there was like 50% of our members, our members that didn't give anything to it. Those are our members. We're a church that has a lot of people. And you would think that we would have a large volunteer pool to pick from. We have a lot of people who don't serve. Like, we struggle just like other churches, filling volunteer spots. And it can seem like the church is competing with so much else going on in people's lives. And it's not just that the church is competing, the church is often losing. And I gotta like preface this, because I'm pro sports, played sports, dad was a coach. But the reality is, that's one of the things that we kind of bump into, and here's what kind of plays itself out. That can be a bit of a frustration. Like, as parents who like to put our kids in sports, we want to teach good things. And one of the things that we say is like, hey, you made a commitment to this team. Honor your commitment. You gotta go to the practice. But why doesn't that language work the other way? Why don't we say, hey, I made a commitment to this church. I got people depending on this church. Like, I'm devoted to this church. Like, what's behind this kind of drop in commitment and priority when it comes to the local church? And maybe, perhaps I wonder, is there just a lack of understanding of what this is? Like? Somewhere we've lost the uniqueness, the specialness of the body of Christ. And if we recaptured a better understanding of what the church is. Would we see higher devotion to the church? Because my goal here is not to like, make you feel guilty where you're like, well, I guess we gotta be more committed. He's right. And then you're like, but you don't want to, like, that's not a win. I wanna like, help you understand how beautiful and amazing the body of Christ is that you would be like, I want to be mortibude. I want to be more passionate about the gathering of God's people. So that's where we're going. And I want you to know. Cause one of our passions is to be a next generation church. And every church is one generation away from extinction, right? We have a lot of young families in our church. One of the things people say when they come here is like, I love how many young families we see at Veritas. And it's awesome. That's not that common when you go to a lot of churches. It's like, boy, everybody here is 60 and over, right? And if you're a family in your thirties and you show up there, you're gonna be a celebrity. It's like, we love to see you. We have a lot of young families in our church and I love it. But what happens when all of our families in their thirties are now in their sixties and seventies? Will we still be a church that has a lot of young families? How do we not lose that? And I think we have to have a better understanding of what the church is to have a greater devotion and passion to it, to pass it on to the next generation. So here's where we're going. I want to ask three questions. What is the church? What makes a good church and why is it essential? What is the church, what makes a good church and why is it essential? And we're going to start with, what is the church? I'm just going to be up front with you so you don't panic. We're going to spend most of the time on that first question because we have to establish that answer to be able to appropriately answer the next two. So we're going to get like over the first question, like, whoa, all that time for one question. The next two will go quicker, okay? So don't panic, but we're going to spend some time on this first one. What is the church? And as simple as I can put it, it's God's people. It's God's people. Now, the word that gets translated church in our english language is the greek word ecclesia, it gets used 113 times in the Bible, two times by Jesus, which are really important because he introduces this concept of the church. And the word ekklesia just means called out ones. So that word is used in the Bible to describe an orderly assembly. It's also used in the Bible to describe a mob. They were orderly and wanting to stone Paul. Same word. So it's not just God's people, it's God's people gathered or called out with a purpose. So you have God saying, these are my people, and I've called them out, and they've kind of gathered together on purpose or with a purpose. Now, the Bible gives other imagery to the church that kind of helps us get a fuller understanding of what it is. One of them is the body of Christ. He talks about the church is the body of Christ, which is an odd imagery to give. But Paul, talking to a local church, gives this imagery of, you're the body of Christ, like Christ is the head and you are the body. We don't want to practice headless theology. You need Christ, you need the church. Both go together. But this imagery of being the body of Christ is Paul saying, hey, you guys, not you individually, but you guys collectively together are the closest thing to a living, breathing, functioning Jesus Christ that this world will experience. Until he returns. You represent him other places in scripture, it talks about the family of God. When he talks about the church or the household of God, like, there is a spiritual connection that we have with each other through what Christ accomplished on the cross, that you've been adopted into his family. We're children of God. We're sons and daughters of God, and we're in the same family. And when Jesus first introduced the concept of church, it was in Matthew 16. I go back and read that sometimes, but they're getting ready to go into Caesarea Philippi, which is kind of this pagan religion capital. So there's a lot of religious talk in the city. And Jesus asked his followers, what are people saying about me? What's the word on the street about me? It's like, well, there is word on the street about you. Some people think you're Elijah or some Jeremiah or maybe a resurrected John the Baptist. Like, there's a buzz about you. And then he turns to his disciples and says, well, who do you say I am? And Peter gets it right. He's like, you're the messiah, like, you're the son of God. And he's like, that's right. And you got help to get that right. Like, the spirit of God opened your eyes to that truth. And then he says, on that rock, which is the statement Peter made about who Jesus is, he says, I'm going to build my church. Now, that's important to understand. The church is something God builds. He takes ownership of it. He's like, I'm going to build my church. And the reality that the church has survived governments and oppressions and time periods and cross cultures and is through the ends of the earth today points to the reality of God. He is building his church. He's alive and active, and that's happening. Amen. That's a great testimony. It's what he says next that gets interesting. He says, I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Like, whoa, I just dialed it up a notch here. What do you mean about your church? And if that's the perspective in that sense, then the church is God's unstoppable, offensive weapon of choice in this world. Say there's a battle going on in this world, and my weapon of choice is the church. And it's on offense because the gates are defensive mechanism and they won't stop the church, who's on offense going through the gates of hell. So we need to get out of our mind this idea that church is boring. And if you think that, then you don't understand church and the reality that's going on in church or the spiritual reality that's going on in church, because he says, I'm establishing this, like, earthly institution, but this earthly institution is doing spiritual battle. This earthly institution is storming the gates of hell. There's a spiritual reality going on in church, and it's a big deal. And I want to point that out. So turn to Ephesians. Ephesians, chapter three. We're going to go a lot of different places because I don't want to see, like, holistically in the Bible what it's saying about the church. But Ephesians might be the most represented text. If you want to leave your finger there, but we'll put them all up on the screen. This is in Ephesians chapter three, starting in verse eight. Excuse me. He says this to me. This is Paul. Though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone. What is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things so that through the. What's the word? Church. Church. The manifold wisdom of God might be made known. Now, if you just stop there, it makes pretty good sense. It's like Paul's preaching the gospel to the gentiles. And in that he's making known the manifold wisdom of God. He's making known this mystery of God's plan of saving people. And you're like, okay, I'm tracking with you. I get that. It's what he says next that dials up the weird thermometer here. He says this. Who's he making it known to? That it might be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. What's he mean by that? Who are these rulers and authorities in the heavenly places? Now, he could meet angels in one. Peter 112. It talks about how angels long to look in to what God is doing in this world. But I don't think the context points to that. I think that's true, but I think Paul is making a different point. Now, when we hear heavenly places, like, we tend to think of angels, but rather than thinking of heavenly places as, like, heaven, heavenly places is like a spiritual realm, a spiritual reality. Because when you look at how Paul uses that same language just a few chapters later in the same letter, this is what he says. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places, in the reality of the spiritual world. So what he's saying here is God is making something known to evil spirits through the church. Or you put it this way, God is doing some trash talking to the spiritual powers through the church. God has something to say to the spiritual forces through the church. And he's saying something. He's saying, like, I got this. I got my people, and you can't stop it. My people are saved. Like, this is a big deal that's under, like, we got to understand the weightiness of what's happening. So doing church, right, is spiritual warfare. The enemy would love nothing more than to kind of undermine the work of the church. You know, sometimes when you think of spiritual warfare, we think of, like, you know, horror movies you would watch. But maybe the greatest tactic of the enemy is just to get you to love volleyball more than church. You know what I'm saying? That kind of undermine the priority or the importance of the local church. And you may not feel like this, this gathering is that big a deal. But if you had eyes, if you had eyes to see the spiritual reality that we live in, you would understand that we're on the front lines of that the church. Like, when we gather and we open God's word and we sing praises, we're doing some trash talking to a spiritual world. Like, there is the manifold wisdom of God that's being declared to the rulers and authorities of this present world, of heavenly places, of this spirituality. Like, think about that next time you worship today. Like, after this message. All hail King Jesus. When you sing that, there's a reality that you have an audience of a spiritual world where you're saying, like, you don't have any dominion here, like, you have no power, like, Jesus is king here. Like, you have to have a broader perspective of that spiritual reality. When angels long to look in on what's going on in this world, they don't watch CNN and Fox News. They watch the church channel. Like, that's the front lines of this battle. So there are a couple different ways to think about church. There's the visible church and the invisible church. There's the universal church and the local church. The visible church is pretty self explanatory. It's the church that you see, that you experience. Like, look around, it's the church. It's not the building, but it's the gathering. Like, this is the church. I see it. The invisible church is the church that God sees. And there are people that are a part of the visible church that might not be a part of the invisible church because weeds grow among the wheat, and God knows who his people are, and that'll happen when he returns to sift that out. So you have the visible church, the invisible church. Then you have the universal church, and you have the local church. And the universal church is the community of all true believers in all places across all time. So you living in Cedar rapids, Iowa, in 2024, as a believer of Jesus Christ as your lord and savior, is a part of the same community or church or family of God as the apostle Paul living in the first century in Jerusalem. It's all God's people across all times, across all places. Well, that's the universal church then. The local church is God's true believers in this place at this time. But it's not just like all true believers in the Cedar Rapids area. There's some marks or commands given to a church to connect them together, which we'll get into and look at a little bit. But before we move on, let me press back at one kind of type of thinking that we see sometimes in our context, especially in America, where it's like strong, independent individualism attitude that we have. Let me just say this. It doesn't make any biblical sense to be a part of the universal church and not part of the local church. So we need to kind of get that out of our vocabulary that it's like, well, I'm part of the universal church, but you have no connection or belonging to a local church that doesn't make any biblical sense that we see in scripture. Now, this is where we're going to camp out and we're going to get a little bit more detailed because this is our reality, the local church. This is what we experience. So I'm going to give you a definition. I want you to write it down if you're a note taker, but these words matter. Like these words come out of the text. This definition of a local church is shaped biblically and we want to understand it. And this statement is also going to kind of serve as an outline of where we're going. But here's the definition for local church. A church is a diverse yet unified family of believers organized for the representation and mission of Christ. Now, that sentence is very intentional. Let's get into it and better understand it. First is a church is diverse yet unified. And from day one of the birth of the church, we see how the gospel is applicable for all people. Like, it wasn't just for jews, it was for gentiles, it wasn't just for the wealthy, but even slaves. It wasn't just for men, but also women. It wasn't just for the rich, but across all kinds of borders, like the gospel is for everybody. When we talk about the church universal, you feel like it's broadly represented. Now when you think of the church local, you just feel like, well, we don't have like global diversity locally. Now, if you do, it's beautiful when the church represents that. But the diversity and unity of the church goes beyond ethnicity or just social economic class. It also goes to giftings. So when Paul's talking to a local church in Corinth, he's saying, hey, you're the body of Christ. But he didn't stop there. He starts to talk about body parts. It's like you have an eye, you have an ear. They both have different functions. They're both valuable to the church. How ridiculous would it be if the eye was mad at the ear? Like you've been gifted differently by God to contribute to the work of ministry. So it's diverse yet unified. Or you could say diverse yet cooperative, like working together. In Ephesians, chapter four talks about how God gave gifts to men, apostles, teachers, prophets, shepherds, evangelists, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry. So you have this diversity in the body of different giftings and abilities that all are supposed to contribute to a good church. So a church is diverse, yet unified family. Let's look at some text here. It's John, chapter one. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. Here's another one. This is in Ephesians two. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. So that kind of family talk. Let's go one more first. Timothy 315. If I delay, here's some context to this statement. Paul is saying, I hope to visit you soon, but the reason I'm writing this to you is if I delay, I want you to know this information. If I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the what church. So there is a family type language. Household, family of God, children of God. And to begin to prioritize the church, you got to understand the family connection that is a reality through the gospel. We don't use this language as much as we should. I think as much as scripture talks about it. You're my brother in Christ. This is my sister in Christ. Like that type of language reinforces what Christ accomplished on the cross. We should be family. We should understand the connection made to the gospel. Now, everybody has that weird uncle, right? You may be it here, but they're still family, right? And we need to understand, okay, we're bonded together through the work of Christ. So a church is diverse, yet unified family of believers. Let's go back to that verse in John, chapter one. But to all who did receive him, who believed, believed in his name. It's those people that have the right to become children of God. Look at another one. Ephesians five. This is often used to talk about marriages, but Paul is talking about marriages, but about something deeper than marriage. He says this, husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the what? Church. And he gave himself up for her. Now, who's her in the sentence? The church, like the church, is who Christ died for. It is made up of believers. That's who he sacrificed himself for. You see this in the great commission, when Jesus tells his disciples, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations. And what's the next word? Baptizing. And in the New Testament, baptism is this public expression of a new association. It was the way people publicly expressed, I'm with them. I'm publicly showing everybody this is who I belong with. It's this new association. And we see this as like this entrance into the church. So if you get baptized here, you give us your testimony, we sit down and talk with you. We want to know, do you really believe this? Are you a genuine believer? Have you truly embraced the gospel? Because that's kind of the front door into the church. It's a body of believers. So if you're not a believer, you're welcome here. We would love it if you come. In fact, we may invite you to come. Right? We would love you. So you put your faith in Christ, but you don't belong to the church unless you're a believer of Jesus Christ as your lord and savior. It's a gathering of believers. It's in the name ekklesia, my called out ones. Called out to what? Called out to Jesus Christ as king, who we serve. So that connects us. So a church is a diverse, yet unified family of believers. Organized. This is where we're disqualified. Organized. Now, what I mean by organized is that there is a God. God commanded structure and activity to the church. Okay? It's not just we do whatever we want, like we're organ. There's an organization to it. God has a structure he wants us to be a part of. He has activities he's calling us to be a part of. Let's look at some passages for this. Ephesians four. This is what we referred to earlier. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers, like some of these gifts of leadership to be in the church to equip the saints for the work of ministry. So you've got leaders. You also have work of ministry that's building up the body of Christ. You got that analogy in there as well. Let's look at another one. Titus one five. This is Paul talking. This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order. There's an order that God desires in his church. And what is that order? To appoint elders in every town, as I've directed you. Now, he's a calling for elders, for leaders. If you go to one Timothy, chapter three, among some other places. But if you go there, you can find a list of qualifications for elders and deacons, leaders in the church. So he's saying, hey, my church should have qualified leaders. But it's not just leaders that get addressed. It's also members or sheep in that flock. Here's Hebrews 13. Remember your leaders. So who is he talking to? The members of that local assembly, those who spoke to you, the word of God. So that's what leaders should be doing, speaking the word of God. Consider their outcome and their way of life. They should also be modeling the word of God that serves qualifications for leaders and imitate their faith. You should be able to look at your leaders and say, hey, follow Paul as he follows Christ as a leader. As an example, you'll love this one. Obey your leaders and submit to them. Amen. For they are keeping watch over your souls. They have a responsibility to watch out over your souls. So there is a qualification for leadership. There's an expectation on devoted members. There's also activities the church is called to engage in. Look at acts chapter two. And they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayers. And you go down a little further, he says this, and day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they receive their food with glad and generous hearts. You have another passage in Hebrews says this, and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as the habit of some. So there is a gathering that's called the people of God should get together. And when you do get together, there's things you should be devoted to. The apostles teaching, prayer, fellowship, communion. In fact, in one corinthians eleven, when Paul is writing to a local church, he's saying, when you get together. And then he gives constructions or some rebukes about how they're taking communion or the Lord's supper. That should be a part of our gathering. So a church should have qualified leaders, committed members, and there should be specific activities commanded by God that the church is engaged in. So diverse yet unified family of believers. Organized. You guys still track with me? I know we're going a lot. We're going fast. Okay. For the representation, the representation of Christ. Let's go back to that first Timothy passage, one, Timothy 315. If I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God. What Paul is saying is, there is a way you ought to behave as a Christian, and I'm writing to you so that you know the way you ought to behave. And if there's a way you ought to behave in the household of God, there's a way you ought not to behave in the household of God. In fact, he gets into that in one corinthians chapter five. Now let me give you some context of this verse. Cause right before this, he's saying, hey, it's not our job to judge outsiders. They're outsiders. Why would we expect outsiders to behave like christians? They're not christians, but it makes sense to expect christians to behave like christians. So even though we're not supposed to judge outsiders, he says we are to judge insiders. So he says, God judges those outside. And then he says this, purge the evil person from among you, the one that's among you, that is not living as they ought to live, not representing Christ as they ought to represent. You need to deal with that. In fact, Jesus addresses this in Matthew 18 to the church of you, saying, hey, when your brother sins, go to him, confront him, go with him. And if he repents, it says, you've won your brother because you weren't representing Christ. Well, we called you out on that. You repented and you acted like a Christian. So we're going to call you brother. But if you don't act like a Christian and you don't repent, we're going to get some more people, we're going to come talk to you. And if they repent, then, then you've won your brother. So because you repented when we challenged you to act like a Christian, you repented to start acting like a Christian. So we're going to treat you like a Christian. But it keeps going on. And eventually it says, like, if they're unrepentant, tell it to the church. And if they still don't win, you don't win your brother, then he's your brother. But it says, if they don't repent, then treat him like a tax collector or sinner. It no longer uses the term brother. And what he's saying is, like, we've challenged you for not living like a Christian, and then we're going to try to treat you like a Christian. But if you don't live like a Christian, it's going to come to a point where we're saying, I don't think you're a Christian because you're not acting like a Christian. You guys get that? And then Paul says, and purge the evil one. Now, some context to that statement is, here's what's happening in Corinth. There is a fellow in that church who is hooking up with his mom or his stepmom, and they're okay with it. And Paul's saying, you shouldn't be okay with that. You're not representing Christ well as a church. You should not be okay with sin. You need to deal with sin. You got sin amongst you. Y'all ain't dealing with it. That's what Paul's challenging. Like, you're not representing Christ very well in that. So a church is a diverse yet unified family of believers organized for the representation and mission of Christ. Now let me give you some categories when it comes to the mission of the church. Cause it can seem like everybody wants the church to be more passionate about whatever they're passionate about. But the scripture has given the church commands on what the church should be passionate about. You can think of it in three categories. The church, number one, as a ministry to God. The church is supposed to make much of God. We're supposed to worship and praise God. You see that in Colossians chapter three. It says, let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called into one body. That's a church here. The expression of that. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts. To who? God. To God. And our ministry as a church to God is first and foremost to make much of God, to worship God, to praise God. So the church has a ministry to God. The church also has a ministry to believers. And the great commission were to make disciples, not just converts, but disciples. And in that great commission, we're to teach them to obey everything that Jesus commanded. We're to help them live it out. That's a slow grind process of helping people live lives devoted to Christ. So we're to help people grow in the relationship with Christ. We're helped to disciple them. We're also to care for believers. We're to take care of one another. Paul puts it this way in Galatians chapter six. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone. So it's like, yeah, if you got opportunity to do good, do it right, you should do that. But especially to those who are of the household of faith, we are to especially take care of one another. And Paul instructs us in one Timothy, he talks about, like, you're gonna take care of widows. Here's what it means to be a widow. Here's the qualifications to meet to take care of a widow. Are they a real believer? Like, do we need to? Is they part of this family? Because we're going to take care of our family. And then the church also has a ministry to the world, evangelism. We're to take the message in the gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth. So a church is a diverse, yet unified family of believers organized for the representation and mission of Christ. You tracking with me? Yeah. Okay. You can go back and watch this later. It's all online if you didn't. But now we can move on to the next two questions. And you're just like, oh, all that for the first one? I told you it's gonna take longer on the first one, but that lays the foundation of. Once we have that answered, we can answer the next two questions, which is, what makes a good church and why is it essential? So what makes a good church? Cause you judge. I know. You judge like, you go to church, and you're like, I like this church. I don't like this church. You make all kinds of conclusions, but why? What are you looking at to make those judgments? Because a church is more than just good music and a pep talk. What is it that you look for to make a conclusion that it's a good church or not a good church? Well, once you understand what the definition is, it helps you assess a church. A good church is a diverse, yet unified. We have a lot of different gifts represented in the body that are contributing. They're collaborating. You have a group of believers collaborating together for the cause of Christ family. So you have people that understand their connection to one another through the gospel, that they see each other as brothers and sisters in Christ and have a familiar care for one another. Believers. There's a group of real regenerate, confessing christians, organized, qualified leaders, committed members, activity commanded, representing, or for the representation. Like they care about holiness, they'll deal with sin and mission of Christ. So if you want to know if a church is good or bad because there's good churches and there's bad churches, it's not about assessing if you like the music or the programming, the coffee or the parking. You have to ask, is this church being what it's called to be? Is this church doing what it's called to do? So if the church is to have a ministry to God, does this church make much of God? Do they exalt the name of Jesus Christ? Do their people worship passionately, their king? If the church is supposed to have a ministry to the believer, is this church discipling people? Like, are people growing in their faith in this church? Are they growing more christlike? Does this church take care of one another? Do you see a care that they provide for each other? If this church is to have a ministry to the world, does this church evangelize. Do you see lost people get saved here? Do you see people get baptized here? Do you see this church care about missions and extending the gospel to the ends of the earth? And some churches are going to be stronger in some of those categories than others, but every category should be represented. And I would argue, I would argue that there is an order to them that tends to get reversed, the tendency that people can think like, well, the church's driving priority is to make the world a better place and to help society. But I think, and I think the Bible teaches this, that getting the first two right is how you get the third one right. That if we grow in our passion for God and our devotion to one another, that's the best salt and light for evangelism in our world. Hear me now, guys. Missions to our world should be an extension of devoted christians in healthy churches, right? Missions to our world should be extension of devoted christians in healthy churches. And I think you see that in acts two. Like, let's go back to acts chapter two. It says this, and they what? Devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship and the breaking of bread and the prayers, and all came upon every soul. And many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles and all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all people. And the Lord added to their number, day by day, those who are being saved. So in this description, you get this description of this passionate church for God. They were devoted to the apostles teaching. They were devoted to one another. They were devoted to the community. And in that type of community, what was God doing? He was growing it. He was adding to their number those who were being saved. So they're like doing church right and God is adding to that number. And if you have a community that is passionate for God and devoted to each other, that's the type of community other people are going to want to be a part of. Like that is essential in evangelism. I think you see that also in acts where it unfolds, where the main sending church in the book of acts is this church in Antioch. And that church is where Paul and Barnabas get sent out from. Well, you get a description of that thriving local church before you get them sent. So I think, like, church mission should be an extension of devoted christians in healthy churches. Now when I read acts two, did you notice all the devoted language in the text? They're devoted to the apostles teaching. They're devoted to fellowship, they're devoted to breaking a bread, like they were strong devotion language. And then it got into like them selling their possessions to help each other. That's a pretty crazy group, right? I mean, that's some radical commitment in there. And I want you to know, when we read acts two, we're not looking at that and be like, whoa, they're kind of extreme. We're like, no, we love that. We want that. We want to see that type of community in our life. So why should you be devoted to the church like that? Why should you prioritize the church like that? Why is it essential? Let me give you two reasons. Number one, let's look at this. The activities and organization of a church are commanded. Now that should be enough. We could stop there. But commanded and instrumental in your development and protection. You are not going to be the Christian you are called to be on your own, detached from this grace of God which is his body of Christ. Other believers, you need leaders in your life looking after your soul. You need the Bible taught to you. You need fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ that are going to hold you accountable and sharpen you in order to become the type of Christian you're called to become. And if you don't have that, you are more vulnerable to the lies of this world. In fact, in Ephesians four, when Paul's talking about the gifts that God has given to the church, this leadership, so that you can equip the saints with a work of service, he goes on to say, so that you won't be children tossed to and fro by every wind and wave of doctrine, basically, so you won't be gullible to the lies of this world, because if you take yourself out of community, you're more vulnerable to the lies of this world. Listen, we all have blind spots. We all need accountability. We all need a community that will pull us back in. Some of you are just like, oh, I've been hurt by the church. And I don't doubt that you have. The church is full of sinners. But when you say, like, I've had a bad experience, so you remove yourself from the church, that doesn't make sense. If you understand the church and your need for it. Like, if you had a bad haircut and you're like, well, I'm never getting a haircut again. No, you know you need it. If you had a bad experience in church. You don't say, well, I'm done with the church. When you know that you need her, when you know that you need fellowship. When you know that you need leadership. When you know that you need community. So the activities and organization of a church are commanded and instrumental for your development, protection. Here's the second reason it makes sense. It's like, that's less profound. Stay with me for this one. It's a fitting response for the gospel. That's what I'm saying. It's a fitting response for the gospel. Think about it. If you put yourself in the shoes of the apostles in the first century, here's what you've witnessed. I've witnessed the power of Jesus Christ like he did that. I saw him walk on water. I saw him feed 5000 people with some loaves and fishes. I saw him raise the dead, give sight to the blind. I saw him crucified. I saw him resurrected from the dead. And then he gathered us together and gave us a command. Take this life altering eternity changing news to the ends of the earth. And then he floated away on a cloud and said, I'll be back. Doesn't that make sense? Like, what else are you gonna do? It's like, really? I mean, I'm busy all week. No, it's like, of course you're gonna be devoted to the church. Is anything more radically life altering than what Christ accomplished? Like being this kind, when you read acts two, it's like, oh, yeah, that totally makes sense. When you understand all of what happened before it. Let me put it this way. The magnitude of the gospel calls for devotion to the church. The magnitude of the gospel calls for devotion to the church. So here's my challenge, guys. Be devoted. Be devoted not just to Christ but to his body. And I'm not talking about perfection, but be devoted, not half hearted devotion to the church. Be seriously devoted to the church. Express your devotion attendance when we gather. Like, do you see it as precious and important? You want to be here whether that's on a Sunday morning or if you're in a connection group of like, I know I need community and my community needs me. And I'm devoted to these people. I'm devoted to this mission. Show your devotion financially. Give to the church. Say, I want the ministry that happens through this church to continue and grow. And if you can't say this about this church, then go find a church that you can say that about. You say, like, I want this ministry to extend and grow, serve. Don't just come here and try to consume. And just like, this is what I like, this is what I don't like. Be a part of the church. Serve, get involved, but be devoted. Don't just half heart and go through the motions. I pressed in on this on Easter. It's like our church. We have a big fringe problem. Some people said french problem. Why does Jake hate the French? I should have clarified and not saying we have a fringe problem. So far, we don't have a french problem that I'm aware of, but we have a lot of people that are just kind of on the fringe. And I want to tell you two things. One, I'm super glad that you're here. Cause I know spiritual growth is a process, and I want to be patient with you. And if you're still on the fringe in five years, I hope you leave. We need your seat. And I'm really serious. We do you no favors by letting you just come and consume and feel comfortable here when the mission and the seriousness of what we're called to be devoted life is too short not to take the gospel and his church seriously. Now, I recently read a study or about a study that really hit me, and the study shows that students. And this is important for us because we want to be a next generation church. The study shows that students that walk away from the church do so in high school, more so than college. And we've experienced some of this reality. Like, in our youth ministry, we know that the sophomore year is like death year, because you know what happens in their sophomore year? They get their license, right? So whether they want to come or not like that, that's evident. And you see numbers drop that sophomore year. But the study is surprising because I think we have this assumption, like, kids grow up in these christian homes, and then they go off to college and they lose their faith. And the study is saying, oh, no, no, they lose it a lot earlier than that. And what this study shows, that if it's more common for kids to walk away from the church in high school, more so than in college, here's what it tells us. It's not the liberal professor that is wrecking kids faith. It's lukewarm parents. It's lukewarm parents. And I'm not saying it's true across the board, but as a general principle, you show me parents that are half heartedly devoted to God and his church and his mission, and I'll show you kids that as soon as they can drive, they'll go somewhere else, or as soon as they go off to college, they're out. But if you show me parents that are passionate about their lord and savior and his church, then I'll show you kids that are leaning in. And if we want to be a next generation church, then that next generation people has to be a part of the church where they see an older generation that are saying, I die for this. Like, I give my life to this. There's nothing more important going on than the expansion of the kingdom of God. So, parents, when your kids look at you, do they see that you love Jesus? Do they see that you love his church? Do they see that you're satisfied in Christ when you attend? Do they see you praise God and the freedom you found in the gospel? Or do they see you half heartedly committed to a church that is competing with everything else and all the other demands in this world? And not just competing, but often losing guys, I love the church. I love it. Is it messy? Yes. It's full of sinners, and it's messy, and it's beautiful. Like, when a local church is working right and people are caring for each other and we're on mission together, and we're trying to, like, break down the gates of hell in our community with the loving, saving message of Jesus Christ, there's nothing more thrilling and exciting than that. And I love this church. I love this church. I want to fight for your holiness. You get a group of elders that, like, passionately don't want to see you caught up and entangled with the lies of this world, but give your life to something worthy of your life. The gospel of Jesus Christ and his church. And the greatest threat to this church is not what's happening outside these walls. It's not what's going on in our political scene. It's not what's going on in our economy. It's not what's going on in our school. School board. The greatest threat to this church is lukewarmness, half hearted devotion to the cause of Jesus Christ. Let me leave you with this letter to a local church. This is in revelation, chapter three. It's the Church of Laodicea. He says this. I know your works. You are neither cold nor hot. With that, you are either cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. This is God talking for you. Say, I am rich and have prospered. I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked. You don't know your need. You're comfortable in this life. But he has some advice. He says, I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich and white garments, so that you may clothe yourself, and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline. So here's the command. Be zealous and repent. You're like, repent of what? Your lukewarmness. Repent of your lukewarmness. Repent of your half hearted devotion. What is the opposite of that? Zealousness for the Lord? And he says, behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him and he with me, the one who conquers. I will grant him to sit with me on my throne as I also conquered and sat down with my father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. Now, guys, don't over personalize this text. This was written to a local church. So what he's saying is, if we. We collectively repent of our lukewarmness and have a zealous passion for the Lord, there's a promise. You see the promise in there? There's a promise of greater closeness to Christ. I'll come in and eat with you, and you'll eat with me. You'll experience a fellowship with me that you can't imagine. And you know how that you experienced that fellowship with me through the church, through a church that's passionate for Jesus Christ, not just you alone in your Bible, in your room, like, yes, and amen to that. But if you want special, like, fellowship with Christ, he's saying you're gonna find it in a church who's committed and passionate about me. Guys, we need to be that church. Amen. Let's pray. Father, you are the prize. Knowing you is worth it. It's worth our sacrifice. It's worth our sacrifice of time, devotion, open our eyes that we would be more committed to you and your body, that we would experience you more fully through your body. Lead us to repent before lukewarmness and chase after the promise of you knocking at the door, that we would have greater fellowship with you. We pray this in your name. Amen.