Untitled Sermon (5)

DEAR CHURCH,

Start with the Sabbatical.. I am about to head into a month long Sabbatical in the month of June. I am taking time to heal up, and renew my mind. i has been a long time since I was just able to read the Word of God for myself and not think about how I aight apply this to the church. During this time I will be spending much time in prayer, and I ask that you continue to come, continue to give. Brother vic will be coming up from Lufkin to pastor the Church for me. And I have some Worship leaders that will be coming in and leading the Worship. Jon and Robbie will be taking care of the ministry stuff for me.

But what I would like to do is just kind of share with you where I am on church in general. Over the years I have seen some very good things, but I have also seen some very discouraging things that we have done to the body of Christ. So today I’ve entitled this message Dear Church,

You know like a letter. Today is the epilogue, and I hope to finish the series when I return from my Sabbatical as I have some things revealed to me by the Father.

There are some things that I have struggled with about church. Not just this church but what we call church in general. And I believe that the Lord has not allowed me to be successful at the current system for a reason. Because like most people, if I feel like I’m being successful even if it is success at the wrong thing, I will just keep going, I will allow pride to protect what it is that I am being successful, even if its success in the wrong things.

Letters from the Church- Talk about how it is challenging you

But I want to start out by reading scripture… from the book of Acts because that is where we see the church at work. We see what it looked like in early days, and I wnt to ask you do it look the same? I can tell you this church doesn’t look like what I see, and I’ve not really seen one that does. I’ve seen hints

The Church was Birthed in Power

Acts 1:8 ESV

8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Acts 1:

So they were too wait and pray and then they would recieve the Power. And they would be witnesses to the ends of the Earth. The church was always meant to go. Can I tell you how the church operates today? Come.... We hire people, we hire the most charismatic preachers we can find, the people that are charming, we hire the best worship pastors we can find. We have petting zoos and helicvopter drops. We wow people with our smoke machines and lights. We can gather a crowd. I want you too know I know how to gather a crowd. We saw this during the Easter outreach. OK I could get on the phone and nail down talented speakjers and gather a crowd. I intentionally do not do it at Relevant for a reason, and that is I think it is pathetic…

1 Corinthians 2:1–2 ESV

1 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

1 Corinthians 2:3–5 ESV

3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

1 Cor 2

1 corinthians 1

1 Corinthians 1:26–27 ESV

26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;

Today we are trying to gather but from the utse4t we see that the church was always meant to go. We are meant to cross paths with the lost and by the power of the Holy Spirit. Ordinary everyday people with extraordinary power, boldness and courage. And as I am on my sabbatical I am going to be wrestling with these things. I want to tell you that my heart has not been in to this church program things for a longing time, because when I read this book I see something entirely different.

I am not talking about the preaching of the word, I am not talking about our gathering together and worshipping that is biblical. I am talking about the mold of our current church structures. Instead of being fishers of men, we are keepers of the aquarium. Its like we are creating a zoo of domesticated animals when God has called us to the wild, to the unknown.

Story about Jamestown

A couple of years ago I seen this very thing when one of my old dope buddies came to the Lord and I went out because He turned his old bar into a place where they were having Bible Study. And I was just amazed, they were so wet behind the ears that they didn’t even know how to have a proper Bible Study, but I dared not get in the way, I was in awe of how the Lord was working. Somebody would read a scripture and say a few things, and then someone else would read a scripture

A guy by the name of John showed up there drunk. And I remember many there witnessing to him, asking him to givbe his life to Jesus. I don’t know if he ever did or not, but now that man has entered eternity. He was killed in a car wreck a short time after that

Acts 2:1 ESV

1 When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.

Now notice that I am not trying to tear down everything, we are meant to be together in one place, meeting, praying

Acts 2:2–8 ESV

2 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. 5 Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. 6 And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. 7 And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language?

Acts 2:2-

Now notice that God does extraordinary things through very ordinary people.

These men were fishermen and tax collectors and bar room brawlers, and Zealots, just ordinary guys, some tough guys, all cowards.

Acts 4:32–37 ESV

32 Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. 33 And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. 34 There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold 35 and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. 36 Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, 37 sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.

I spent years asking myself, “What will work?” And by that I meant, “What will get more people to attend gatherings?” This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. My intention was that I wanted more people interested in Christ,

He wanted their faith to rest on the Spirit’s power (2:1–5). They wanted a Christian celebrity they could all praise (), but Paul refused to let it be about him. He gave them what they needed and what was best for them rather than what they were demanding. “For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.” “And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

What we have done is created a consumer Chriaitnity. We are worried about filling seats and making budgets. But it was not this way in the early church. They were more concerned about loving Christ more, becoming obedient to his teachings, creating disciples that would take this church thing out there into the community.

There was a power that rested upon them, There was a unity among them There was a faith they're protected them. In church what we have done is sought after the most well spoken most charismatic teachers wait compiled the best worship musicians, and we have done everything we can to fill the seats on Sunday. But that so 4 for fells from what we read about in scripture.

Think about what Jesus did he didn't go after the most skilled men which as ordinary people the change the world in fact in the book of eggs when Peter's preaching is says this that when they perceived that they were uneducated men they could tell they had men would Jesus. With created a contract in church that hinders the body from using the supernatural spiritual gifts that God has given them by the Holy Spirit to add to build-up and exhorted church. And the effects of it have been that we have created a bunch of superficial christians Nominal christians, that means we're only christians by calling or selves christians.

And set are creating disciples we have prayed the consumers and we wonder why church attendance is falling off at record proportions. Yes there are large and growing churches out there, but they're typically means churches there have perfected they art of crowd gathering. Through entertainment through gimmicks through me theology through.

And what I am saying is that I'm finish with this particular mode as it comes to church. Let me ask you a question would you still come to church Sunday after Sunday if we did nothing other then pray break bread together and bear one another's burdens. If we took out all the media the worship team and our children's programs.

While we're on the subject of her children would you continue to come and bring your children if we quit the silly little Bible stories and began to a quip or children and start taking them to dangerous parts of the city to pray over. In are you groups we sat around in coddle them in make it as fun in entertaining as we can to keep them coming and to bring their friends. But what if we began to see that God works through teenagers and children and we began to equip them to be disciples. To teach them that suffering as a Christian is part of the Christian experience. If we quit trying to get them to simply stop having sex to not do drugs are to go to parties Who we began to teach them how to radically follow Jesus. How to be a lot in their school how to be bold witnesses common hats a stain on their convictions and be courageous in their witnessing.

THGE CHURCH WAS MEANT TO BE SUCH A PLACE OF BLESSING AND UNITY that church removal was something that was of consequence. There were people that would cause trouble in the church and they had to be removed from fellowship. One such instance was in the Corinthian Church

English Standard Version Chapter 5

5 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. 2 And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.

3 For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. 4 When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, 5 you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

Talk about the importance of staying in the church

Bring out the part of the Book, Where Paul hands over people to Satan but the Sad thing is People are pulling themselves out of church

And I have seen it many times- end in a divorce, end in death, end in the destruction of a family

I have seen people die in tragic accidents

it is sad that we are living in a day when you see people pulling themsevlves, removing themselves from fellowship, and what they don’t realize is they are basically hnding themselves over to Satan, and He will twist and deceive, pervert and defile. He will take them down roads that they never thought they could have gone. BUt part of the problem is the church model that we have come up with. Where if things here don’t go right, then we can jsut go to the bigger church down the road.

Now does it sound mean? No paul is not trying to mean, but He is wanting to uproot the sin because that would

Later this man repents and Paul permits him to come back