The Renowned Church

[00:00:00] Amen. Hey. Well, good morning, Christ Church. [00:00:04] Good morning. It's good to. Yeah, there you go. All right. [00:00:09] I'm going to need a little more energy through this sermon today. [00:00:15] Wow, thank you. We're really forcing it today. That's okay. We'll take it. But, hey, today's a special day. Trunk or treat. If you want to come back, hang out, we'd love to have you thankful for good. Sunny day and no rain. Little cold, but you know, that's what fall's all about. [00:00:34] But today I want to share a special message with you. I've got some really great news to share with you about our future as a church. Some amazing things God has been doing behind the scenes. So I'm going to share that with you. [00:00:50] So we're going to have some cool stuff to celebrate today, but I want to talk about what it means to be the church. We are at the church. We are God's church. And I wanna talk about what that means and how to be more and more of that. So let me pray and we'll get to the message today. Father, thank you for this time. Thank you for all your faithfulness and your goodness. To each of us personally and to our church. Father, I pray that we could be the type of place that glorifies your name first and foremost. I pray, Father, that we would be, Lord, a church that you could work through to reach others and to bring others into the family of faith and into life with Jesus Christ. Bless us, Lord, as we talk about this, as we think about this, as we take the next steps as a church. And I pray that you would be glorified in all we do in Jesus name. Amen. [00:01:50] Well, I want you to just kind of think for a second in your own mind when you hear the word church. Just like what images, what feelings, what memories, what thoughts. I want you just to notice what comes up in your mind and in your heart, what you feel. [00:02:09] And I think probably for many of us there might be some different ways that we go, some different first feelings and thoughts and memories. I think if we were to ask a lot of people, even outside of our church, when you bring up the word church, for a lot of people, that might just seem like something they're indifferent to, just kind of. It's neither here nor there. It's not really something relevant to their life, not something they're passionate or dispassionate about. It's just something that maybe looks like a archaic institution that doesn't connect to their life. [00:02:46] For others of us, when we think about church, it might automatically start bringing up some weird memories. Just being in the church for a while and talking to so many people about church. I have heard some of the strangest stories connected to church. I don't know why that is. I think sometimes people think the weirder you are, the more spiritual you are. [00:03:11] But unfortunately, the more weirder you are, that just means the more weirder you are. [00:03:18] It has no bearing on your spirituality. But church, it could be a place where just sort of weird things, you know, happen, or you go in and you're like, what's going on here? What are people doing? And we could sort of feel out of place and disconnected. For some of us, when we talk about church, it might bring up some painful memories. [00:03:39] Sad to say that sometimes there's broken trust and broken relationships and things that are confusing or wounding or frustrating. And that can be where our heart or mind goes. But when I think about church, I want to just share with you where my heart and mind goes. And when I think about church, I think about a beautiful place. [00:04:06] It fills my heart with joy and meaning and a sense of sacredness. Because for me, my experiences with church have been some of the biggest blessings in my life. Now I realize that might not be everybody's story here, but that is more what it's been in my life. Church was a place where God reached me. I walked into the doors of church and I believed God exists in a very general way. But I felt like I had no idea who he was, what it meant to relate to him. I didn't know any of that. And church was a place where God turned the lights on in my heart and in my mind. And it was a place where I realized who Jesus Christ is. What he did for me, and really it is changed my life ever since. So when I think about church, I think about that. I think about it as a place where I could grow and learn and understand who God has made me and have a place to serve him and to use my gifts in a meaningful way. And all of that has been very, very meaningful in my life. When I think about church, I think about some of my best friends. [00:05:27] We, you know, met each other and connected through church. That was the catalyst. And I have, like four guys that I'm super close to. We've been really close for like coming up on 20 years. And we get together and we're as obnoxious as can be. But I know at the end of the day that they love God, they love me, they are rock solid people. In my life. And it was through the church that I got introduced to those relationships. So when I think about it, that's what comes to my mind and my heart. And that's a big part of the reason why that's what I'm spending my life doing, is serving in God's church, because of what God has done in my life through it. And the reason I bring that up is because I want to be a type of church that passes that kind of thing on. I want to be a type of place that when people think about church, they think about the place they connected to God in a real way. They think about these meaningful relationships. They think about finding who they are in Christ and learning how to be that and live that. And I believe we are that place, but I believe we can be more and more of that place. And today I want to share with you a chapter of the Bible. It's from the book of first Thessalonians. And this is one of the earliest pictures that we get of the church. This letter is one of the. It's probably the second letter written in the New Testament. So it's very, very early. And what's cool about this letter is it's written to this church in Thessalonica, which is a city in Greece. And basically the Apostle Paul who wrote it, he can't say enough good things about this church. He's like, you guys are crushing it. You're honoring God. You're serving people well. You're making a difference. And he explains how and why and what it looks like to do that. So as we read these verses, as we read this chapter, it really helps us to see how to be a church that pleases God, how to be a church that honors God, how to be a church that glorifies him in a special way. So I'm going to read to you this whole chapter. First Thessalonians, chapter one, verse one. And here's how it goes. It says, Paul, Silvanus and Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians, in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to you and peace. Now, if you have a Bible, just circle those prepositions of to the church of the Thessalonians and circle in God. [00:08:12] You might expect those to be reversed. That'd be the church in Thessalonica, in the Church of God. But I want to talk to you about that in a minute. He says, we give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father, your work of faith and labor, of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers, loved by God, that he's chosen you because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and the Lord. For you received the Word in much affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit. You became an example of all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. And not only has the Word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith has gone forth everywhere, so we need not say anything. So Paul says, look, God is using you, and I'm just so thankful for you, and I'm praying for you, and I'm remembering how God worked among you. But he's also saying, but I'm hearing all about how God is working through you. He's saying, your faith is sounding for us. It's going out. And he's saying, I don't even have to bring it up. Other people are bringing it up to me. People are like, hey, have you heard about that church in Thessalonica? Have you heard about what they're doing, how God is at working? And Paul's saying, I'm hearing about you, and it's this awesome picture of a healthy church. And I think if we could just kind of summarize all this today, here's what I would say about this first chapter. [00:09:56] That the church that is good, that honors God, is one that is receptive and responsive to God's presence and purpose. Paul says, the church, he says, hey, when I showed up to you and I shared with you the message of Jesus, you received it, you were open to it, and it went down deep into your heart. But then as you grew, then you began to share that with others. You allowed it to go through you and reach the communities and the people around you. So they received it and they responded to it. Now, there's three things I want to talk about in this passage. And the first one is just very simply, I want to talk about where this church is at, where it is at now. It's a letter to Thessalonians. And Thessalonica is a city that exists today. It exists in Greece today, and it's one of the few cities that a letter in the New Testament was written to. And that city still, you know, exists today in the modern world. Most of them are kind of rubble and archaeological sites. But Thessalonica, you can actually go there and get an Airbnb and eat a Gyro, you know, and have a good time. It's still there. [00:11:23] And so on the one hand, well, obviously, where is the church? It's in Thessalonica. That's who this is written to. But I want you to look again at these verses. Cause Paul shows something very interesting here. He says it's the church of Thessalonica. Yes, it's in Thessalonica. But more importantly, look what he says. But it's in God the Father, in the Lord Jesus Christ. [00:11:48] And this is kind of many commentators, they point out, like this is a little bit of a weird phrase to use. Again, you would think it was a church of God in Thessalonica, but he says it's a church of Thessalonica in God. It's a little bit different than we might just normally write it. And. And what is he doing? Well, Paul's making a point. He's saying this church is connected to God. It exists in God, it exists for God, it exists by God, it exists to God. And I think we can't miss that point because at the end of the day, every real church can only exist in God. It can only exist for God, by God, to God. And with God, as soon as we, God gets eclipsed in the church, or God gets kind of put to the side, then you lose everything. And all that's left is just us. [00:12:56] And I'm sorry to say that doesn't usually produce great things. [00:13:01] When God is eclipsed, then you lose. You lose everything. Because at the end of the day, the church can only exist through God, in God, by God. There's never a day goes by that we can be a church without complete dependence on God in every way, whether we realize it or not. It's kind of like this. After I cut the grass and weed whack, my favorite step is blowing all the grass out with the leaf blower. I love doing that. I'm not sure why I love it, because maybe it signifies that I'm done. But there's also this sense where my problem, I'm now blowing into the street and it's someone else's problem. [00:13:45] That just like, spiritually feels so good to me. [00:13:49] But I don't have a super fancy leaf blower like some of you probably have. Mine's on a really long extension cord. And so, you know, inevitably every time I use it, I'll like, get to a certain point and I'll overreach just a little bit and the cord will just slightly come out and it's dead and it's useless. Then I'm like, oh, great, I gotta go walk back in there. Plug it in, you know. Yes, I'm getting my step counts up. But, you know, and it loses all its power. And that's the same thing with the church. When we just. When we start to just come away from God, we lose everything. Because at the end of the day, it has to be in God. And the church exists for God. Now, in the New Testament, there's a lot of powerful metaphors and images that show us and teach us what it means to be the church. And I want to share some of them with you. These aren't all of them, but these are some of them. So the New Testament refers to the church as the church of the living God again. So this is God's church. God is alive. He is active. Right. If we're the church, we should not act in ways where we don't think God is actually real. [00:15:10] Like sometimes as followers of Jesus, we can pray, but we're really praying in a way that doesn't really believe. God moves and hears and does things. But we are the church of the living God, which means we should expect God to still be acting in our lives, in the world, doing things that we're not in it alone. And he's with us and he's guiding us and he's helping us. The next one is that we are the body of Christ. Now just think for a second how powerful this idea is. Jesus lived and walked and talked and healed and welcomed people. And he did all of that in the Gospels in his physical body. [00:15:55] And people could literally have breakfast with him. They could walk with him down the street. It was this amazing experience. And then Jesus died, rose again, and ascended to be with the Father. And Jesus said, all right, I will not be here physically anymore. [00:16:17] But in a sense, I will still be here. But how? Through my church. We are his body. So when we welcome and love and pray for God's healing to people's life, Christ saying, that's my body. I'm doing that through you and church. I just wanna acknowledge that is an incredible privilege. [00:16:43] Now, I think many of us are like, lord, I really think you should have a different strategy than that. You know, I think you should use people that maybe are better and more reliable. But God says, no, you're my body. [00:16:56] I want to love and serve and lead and teach the world through you. Through his Church. The next one is that we're a holy temple in the Lord, that God is doing something that is sacred and special. And then here's the last one, maybe the most powerful to me. We are the bride of Christ. [00:17:20] So here's just what I want you to see. We, as God's church, we have been entrusted and privileged with a really important and meaningful thing. The bride of Christ. I've done. You don't usually refer to someone as a bride, except on the wedding day. I mean, sometimes you can use it, but it's primarily a term that you use on a wedding day. And I've done a lot of weddings over the years. And I've been, you know, around a lot of brides. And I could tell you that on the wedding day, the brides are a big deal. [00:18:02] In fact, like, grooms don't even matter that day. Pretty much. [00:18:07] There is, you know, they go all out. It's about them. And many times when, you know, I'm leading a wedding or wedding rehearsal and, you know, other people are. I'm like, look, it's what the bride wants, a day. All right? Like you again, you're important, just not right now. You know, you will be another time. It's about the bride and God saying, you're God's bride as his church, that he loves us and gives us this place of importance and honor and significance, and we are that as his church. Now, why does the church exist? Well, it exists first and foremost for God. [00:18:56] To serve him, to exalt him. And we do it in three ways. Number one, we worship and we honor Him. See, this whole Bride of Christ holy temple. All of these are ways that help us see that as we honor God, as we bring our lives in obedience to him, as we live in the world. But we live in the world. In a way. We're saying, I'm not living for myself, I'm not living for others, but I'm living for God. That's part of how we be a healthy church. And we worship and we say God is more important than anything else. Now, the second way is this word discipleship. But what that means is the church is meant to be a place where we grow in our relationship with Christ and with each other. [00:19:44] That as we are a community, as God is at work in us, we're growing, we're learning. God is growing us to be more and more who he wants us to be. And then lastly is evangelism, which means that what's happening in Thessalonians is happening through us. That other people are knowing God through what we do, through us as his church. And when we do those things, we glorify Him. So, number one, the church is in God, and it's for God. [00:20:19] It's all about Him. At the end of the day, God invites us into this incredible thing, but it's all about Him. But then here's the second part. But the church is also in Thessalonica, that God raises up churches in certain places for very special purposes. [00:20:40] God is working through the church to accomplish his eternal purpose. And every church that knows him and loves him has a role to play in that and church. I just want to acknowledge today that God has a special role for us, that we're not where we are accidentally. [00:21:03] We're here by the purpose and the plan of God. And the purpose and the plan of God is not just about us who are here, but it's also about the people that God wants to reach through us that aren't here yet. That God puts us in a place not so we can just kind of get comfortable and get cozy and relaxed, but also so we can be part of God's mission in the world, to seek and to save those who are lost. Many of us probably were here because someone invited us, because someone reached out in some way at some point in our lives. And that was the beginning point of our faith journey. And a healthy church always has that outward focus. It says, it's not just about us, it's about Thessalonica. It's about the bigger area that God has put us in. And it's about helping others to know the greatness and the majesty of Jesus Christ. And then this letter goes on and Paul says. [00:22:13] He says these cool phrases here. He says, we're remembering you before God and our Father, your work of faith, labor of love, and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. And just notice there you have those three qualities, faith, hope, and love. Your work of faith, your labor of love, and your steadfastness of hope. And so what does the church do? Well, it works by faith, it labors by love, and it endures in hope. It works by faith, it labors by love, and it endures in hope. What does the church do? Works by faith. What does that mean? That means that we as a church, we dream and we plan and we think and we move forward with an expectation that God is real, that God is acting in the world, that God wants to reach people who are far from him, and that God wants to use us. And we act by faith. We work by faith. Now, I want to celebrate something, but I want to show you a video from 2020, and I want to talk about this Working by faith. So here we go. [00:24:08] All right. You ever seen that? Yeah. [00:24:14] When I look at that video, I'm reminded of that commercial. This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs. [00:24:21] That's your pastor. This is your pastor on three. Kids see the difference? [00:24:28] But anyway, but here's why I bring that up. So in 2020, that was in the midst of COVID and it was such a crazy time at our church. At that time, we were, you know, we were doing all the social distancing, all of that. We had been basically not meeting for a while, and then we started slowly opening up. But we would literally have, like, I think about 30 people. We had a RSVP system. Everything was uncertain, and it was crisis mode all the time. You just never knew what was gonna happen, never knew where things were gonna go. But in that time, right before that, we had felt like God was leading us to purchase that land and to build a new future. But then Covid happened. It was like all that, like, burned up in your mind. Cause it was like we just got to survive. But in the midst of that, we had the opportunity to purchase that land, and we prayed about it. And even though that move made zero sense at that time. [00:25:34] Cause like I said, there was more than enough room for everybody. It made no sense. We didn't know what was happening. But we did it because we felt God was leading us to. [00:25:47] And we knew there was no way anything good would come out of it unless God was in it. And we did it. [00:25:56] And then we said, hey, we're going to work towards saving up 1.5 million to get enough to break ground and to build a new facility. And at the time we set that goal, that seemed absolutely impossible and difficult. And over the last couple years, church, I want to tell you, our church has raised just close to 800,000. So a little bit less than that right now. But here's the big news today. A couple weeks ago, a church committed to buying this facility for 600,000. Yeah. [00:26:33] So here's what that means. So that brings us to about 1.4. We're going to keep raising my mind. We're going to keep working towards it, but here's what that means. We are going to be taking the next steps as a church. We're gonna. Now, we've got some time before we have to move out. So some of you don't Start freaking out yet. We've got till May or June and we're gonna figure out, you know, an intermediate location. But this is a turning point for our church. This is a turning point where we are taking steps to get there and to build and to have a new facility on Archer Road and to glorify God. Now selling this building, I can't tell you for 600,000 is truly a miracle. Some of you that you're like, yes, that immediately makes sense to me. But just to give you a little bit of context, there was. We had reached out. Pat Behan had reached out to a developer, a local developer, and he said, I'll give you 66,000 for this. So that's where we were at. So to go from that to 600 is a true act of God. It's also a blessing to this church is gonna be a great win for the kingdom. So as excited as we are for our next steps, they are excited for their steps. So today I just wanna take a moment and I wanna celebrate and I wanna say thank you to God and thank you to you for your faith and your trust and your willingness to sacrifice and to serve and to pray and to keep moving forward. The church to be the church God has for us. So we're going to pop one of these off again. You know, this is. This is. Yeah, this is now a thing. So, you know, just kind of COVID your eyes if you don't have Eye Pro. But give me a. Give me a countdown, a three, two, one. Right, Ready? Three, two, one. [00:28:35] Hey, Amen. [00:28:44] Yeah, thanks. [00:28:48] Sorry. [00:28:49] Amen. So, church, we got a lot of stuff to figure out, a lot of prayers, a lot of mess to clean up now because we're going to do it next service too, but. Need a leaf blower. Yeah, yeah, that's right. Amen. It all comes full circle, doesn't it? Amen. [00:29:13] But church, God is at work. And thank you for being part. We say as a church man, we exist for the adventure of faith. And from day one, this campus we have been living that. We are living that there's more adventure to come. [00:29:27] But let's keep trusting and serving and honoring God. Amen. [00:29:32] Now, let me just talk about this last part. What was this church known for? It says they were known for their faith. Their faith sounded forth. Wouldn't it be awesome to be a place that is known for our faith and say, man, Christ church, they trust God. [00:29:49] That's the place where I encountered a real God in a real way? What a beautiful reputation. And then these last Verses he said, we want to report the reception we had among you. How you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his son from heaven whom he raised from the dead. Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come, he says, when I think about you, I think about people who have turned to God. They've turned from idols. I just. I think that's so powerful. See, the greatest moment in my life was when I turned to God. I believe the greatest moment in everyone's life is when they turn to God. I want to be the church God wants us to be so that we can be a place where people turn from idols and they turn to God. Idols are. That's kind of living for everything else that promises you, but always everything, but always under delivers. All an idol can do is take and take and take from you, but it can't give you anything. On the other hand, God gives you everything and ultimately takes nothing. He gives you everything. [00:31:06] And I want to be a church where people can come and they can see the fullness, the excellence of Jesus Christ. Say, man, I was living for myself. I was living for all these nice things. I was living for the next high. I was living for this person. No. But now I'm living for God. I've turned to him. Paul says, that's what's happened among you. And you serve the living and true God. [00:31:34] I believe you can. You will never waste your life. If you commit your life to serving God, you will never waste it. I've wasted a lot of time doing other things. I've wasted a lot of energy and effort. But I don't think you will ever regret your service to God. [00:31:52] I'm afraid that probably if we're not careful, we will get to the end of our journey and we'll regret that we didn't serve him more. Paul says, you've turned to him and you served him and now you're waiting for his son. Your hope is in the Lord. [00:32:12] And Paul says, you have this sense of patience and endurance because you know that what you're ultimately hoping in to make the world right to help your life is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And when people have that hope and when people have that courage, it changes everything. The church. I want to be that type of church. I think we are. I want to be more of that. How about you? I want to be a place that God can continue to use, that God can use to shape people's stories and lives for generations to come. Now I'm afraid to Admit to you. But I like the movie the Notebook. Don't judge me. [00:32:57] Feeling a real mixed reaction there. [00:33:00] But Alan and I have watched it a few times, and there's a scene in there where Noah, you know, is. He's building. He's rebuilding the house, you know, and it's this old, beautiful colonial house, but it's completely dilapidated. It's in terrible shape. And he's rebuilding the house, and he's like manically doing it. But what it really represents is not this house being restored, but his life being restored. He's rebuilding the house, but what's really happening in the story is he's rebuilding himself. [00:33:34] And the house is a metaphor that he's broken down, he's dilapidated. But now on this journey, he's beginning to get restored and renewed. And then it all works out at the end after the house, you know, it all comes to this beautiful reconciliation. But I like that idea of restoring the house is a picture of restoring himself. [00:34:01] And when I think about where our church is at, I think that this journey of building a new building is not about a building, but it's about building our faith, it's about building our trust, it's about building our hope, it's about building our confidence. I think what we're going towards is building a building, but it's really building a church, because the church is not a building. We might meet in a building, but the church is not that. It's a people. [00:34:35] And I think what God is doing is actually building us. [00:34:40] And what an awesome thing. Let's pray. Father, we love you. [00:34:45] I pray that you would bless us in this next season as a church. I thank you for providing for us. Lord, I thank you for new community that is going to buy this building. And Lord, I thank you that it helps us to get to where we need to be financially. I thank you, Lord, just for all the small ways you've blessed us and helped us till now in all the big ways. And Father, I pray that as we take these next steps, we could take them with faith, we could take them with courage, we could take them with wisdom. And I pray that you would be glorified. And Lord, I pray that our church would be a place where people would turn to God, people would serve God, people would wait on him. And I pray you'd be glorified. Thank you for these good people. Thank you for all you've done. Glorify your name through us. In Jesus name, Amen.