The Church

Title

What comes to your mind when I say the word Church?

A family

Community

A building

Fellowship

Sunday

Non-profit

Social club

Some who find no importance to church

Some who misunderstand church

Why do need to talk about how important church is? We’re all here this morning, we all made it in. We get how important church is.

Surely there are more important things to talk about. Issues of justice, how we can love our neighbors. Or discipleship, how can we grow in our faith. Shouldn’t we talk about evangelism and how we can be more winsome in bringing people to Christ.

The problem is that many of us can

Failure to understand the church is a failure to understand Christianity.

What is the church?

Passage

Images of church

Global church

Local church

The church is central not supplemental in God’s plan

Why the church?

July 22nd, 2018

How do we church?

BI: The Christian life is the church-shaped life

Meet together

OS:

b. Join

Join

I. Intro

Invest

What comes to your mind when I say the word Church?

Time

· A family

Finances

· Community

Grow

· A place that’s welcoming

Multiply

· A place that’s loving and accepting

· Fellowship

· A building

· Non-profit

· Social club

Some who find no importance to church

Some who misunderstand church

Why do need to talk about how important church is? We’re all here this morning, we all made it in. We get how important church is.

Surely there are more important things to talk about. Issues of justice, how we can love our neighbors. Or discipleship, how can we grow in our faith. Shouldn’t we talk about evangelism and how we can be more winsome in bringing people to Christ.

The problem is that we can go to church each week. We can be at a church for years and decades, and still misunderstand what the church is. We can be confused about what is we’re supposed to do here.

So that’s why we need to look at the church this morning.

The church is foundational to the entirety of the Christian life.

And a failure to understand the church is a failure to understand Christianity.

I recognize that’s a bold claim, and it’s my hope that from the witness of scripture you will be able to see why I’m making it.

The church is the foundation of how we ought to live out our Christian faith, and if the foundation is off then nothing else will be quite right.

Illustration: Recently I was hanging a mirror at my house. And like when you hang anything on the wall, whether it’s a mirror or a piece of art I wanted to make sure it was nice and level. So I busted out my laser level-ten second plug: if you don’t have a laser level they’re amazing-so I setup the level and made sure that my line was perfectly straight and perfectly level. I measured the bracket three times. I drilled the holes as perfectly as possible. And then I hung the mirror and stepped back.

And it was just…a little off. I know it was perfectly level, the problem is that my house is 60 years old and the walls aren’t quite level anymore. Over the decades ground has shifted and walls have shifted just enough that they’re no longer perfectly plumb and straight.

The mirror was hung well, but because the house around it wasn’t true it was just a little…off.

Transition: Likewise, if our foundational understanding of church is off, then everything else in our Christian faith is affected. Evangelism might be there, but it’ll be somehow a little off. We might be pursuing discipleship and growth. But if we don’t get what it means to be a part of a church then our discipleship will be off. In every area of we will not be functioning as God has intended our Christian walk to function.

The church is not some addition to being a Christian. It’s not that you choose to follow Christ, and if you have time do the church thing.

Church isn’t simply another option available to demonstrate your Christian life.

If you are trusting in Christ for salvation you belong to the church. You can choose to ignore that or embrace that.

There are three questions I want us to ask this morning: What, Why, and How.

First:

II. What is the church? The blood-bought bride

Slide 1

What is the church? What do we mean when we use that word.

There’s a very simple and helpful definition given by a pastor in Washington DC named Mark Dever. He says this:

Slide 2

The Church is the body of people called by God’s grace through faith in Christ to glorify him together by serving him in his world.

a. images of church

b. Global church

c. local church

III. Why the church? The church is central not supplemental in God’s plan

IV. How do we church?

a. Meet together

b. Join

c. Invest

i. time

ii. finances

d. Grow (As a local body)

i. evangelism

ii. discipleship

e. Multiply (More local bodies)

V. Conclusion

Something I hear oftentimes is that we want church to be a place of acceptance and love. We want church to be a welcoming place. We want church to be a friendly place. I believe these statements come from good intentions.