Sermon Tone Analysis

1 Cor 12

What Are You Looking For In A Church?

1 Cor 12:

What Are You Looking For In A Church?

In my lifetime as a Christian, even as a teen who grew up in church, when it come to people joining or leaving a church, there is a phrase that seems to just roll of the tongue of the dissatisfied...

“The church doesn’t have what we are looking for”.

What do you think is the typical response when I ask them “What is it you are looking for?”

99.9% of the time the answer has always been the same “I don’t know”.

Even when the pastor an leadership are pointing the church in the right direction, people still use that same line of thinking...

We just don’t like the direction the church is going?

If the church is going in a biblical direction, then what is the problem with the direction we are going?

“The ideal church is a place with...”

What do you think are some things people identify to complete that sentence?

What do you think are some things people identify to complete that sentence?

Beautiful music…what is beautiful music?…no guitars/drums?…choir?

violins?…music that glorifies God…contemporary?…traditional?…sing what people listen to on the radio?...

Preaching…sermons are good and meaningful, but not heavy handed…biblical, but not boring…practical but not picky and legalistic...

preacher himself — intense scholar who loves doctrine and never smiles, funny guy with great stories, family counselor, someone who always has something “facebook worthy” to post...

People are the in the same place in life…they understand what you are going through because they are going through it…just out of college, like you…have young children, just like you…nearing retirement, just like you…shop at Walmart, just like you…

Opportunities to get involved…places to serve, places to do good…big on evangelism, big on missions, big on helping the poor…does it provide opportunities for you in the children’s ministry, does it have fun and exciting kids programs?

Alive in the Spirit — lots of new things, new songs, people are quick to listen to his voice, quick to watch for his work, quick to believe He can do remarkable things…tired of being around tradition lovers and Spirit quenchers...

Has a certain feel to it — feels like what you are used to…coffee house atmosphere, mall or old chapel…want to constantly be in that state of nostalgia with certain sights, smells or sounds like what you grew up in...

The point of all this is to get us thinking about what we value most in a church!

What words would you use to describe what a church should be?

Who is responsible for what your church becomes?

Who is responsible for what your church becomes?

Consider the recipients of these words in Scripture...

The whole church, not the pastors alone...

Paul didn’t tell the pastors or staff to care of the problem of the adulterous relationship, he told the church to take care of it.

The majority of the letters in the New Testament are addressed to actual, local churches!

I am sure the pastors were listening to the words of Paul, Peter, James and John as they addressed their congregations and that they intended to lead their congregations to respond to whatever instructions were given.

Together, we are all responsible for what MBC becomes!

It is not just my job, it is not just the leaderships job…you and all the members of this church are responsible for what this church becomes.

Yes, I and all the leaders will stand before God and give account for how we lead this congregation

Every disciple of Christ will give an account for whether or not we have gathered together regularly with the church, spurred the church on to love and good deeds, and fought to maintain a right teaching of the hope of the gospel

Before we can make any efforts towards a more healthy church, it is important for us to gain some biblical insight to what a Christian is and how that relates to church life.

Heb 10:23-25

We need to see the urgency of our need for a healthy local church.

Many believers tend to view their Christianity as a personal relationship with God and not much else.

Yes many acknowledge there are personal implications to how we live, but do we take the time to consider how our relationship with God necessitates a number of secondary personal relationships?

God wants to establish us in relationships with actual flesh and blood, step on your toes kind of people.

“If you call yourself a Christian but you are not a member of the church you regularly attend, I worry that you might be going to hell.” — Mark Dever, What is A Healthy Church?

p.21

He is not saying that joining a church makes you a Christian..but he does say that to cause us to see the importance of the church in the life of the believer and to spark a passion for the church like that of Christ.

Also when you consider what the New Testament speaks regarding the believer and the church, there very well could be truth in his statement…in other words, it is possible for someone to claim Christ and not be member in good standing of a local church and be bound for hell…consider what it means to be a Christian.

What A Christian Is.

How would you define a Christian?

First and foremost, a Christian is someone who has been forgiven of his/her sin and been reconciled to God the Father through Jesus Christ.

Repentance of sin, faith placed in the perfect life, substitutionary death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Reached the end of himself and his own moral resources.

Recognizes he has defied God’s plainly revealed law, has given his life over from worshipping and loving things more than God.

If God asked you, “Why should I let you into my presence?”

what would be your response?

If God asked you “Why should I let you into my presence

Most would give the answer “because I trusted in Jesus”…but I’m going to challenge you to go deeper than that…a deeper answer that communicates your understanding of the gospel.

(May need to camp out here for a few moments and let it all sink in)

"you shouldn’t let me in…I sinned and owed a debt too big for me to pay…yet because of your great promises and marvelous grace and mercy, I depend upon the blood of Jesus Christ shed as a substitute for me…he payed my moral debt and satisfied your holy and righteous requirements, and removed your wrath against sin”

Going deeper in your answer as a plea to be declared righteous in Christ is the beginning of discovering how you can experience freedom from sin’s enslavement.

You recognize those idols can never be satisfied…you recognize that God was satisfied with the work of Christ…you have been purchased out of condemnation by His blood and you are now free!

For the first time, the Christian is now free to turn his back on sin…not just replace it with some other enslaving sin…you now have the desire for Christ and for him to rule your life.

A Christian is someone who has been reconciled to God in Christ!

Second, by virtue of being reconciled with God, a Christian is someone who has been reconciled with God’s people!

After Adam and Eve were banished from the garden what happened to the next relationship of Cain and Abel?

Cain murdered Abel…why?…because

Adam’s act of breaking fellowship with God resulted in an immediate break in fellowship among all human beings…since Adam pushed God off the throne and tried to place himself upon it, we’re not going to let some other person take it from us…it is every man for himself!

What are the two greatest commandments?

matt 22

love God with all your heart…love your neighbor as yourself…these two commandments go together…the first produces the second, the second proves the first.

In Christ, what happens to the relationship between Jews and Gentiles and by extension, all those who are in Christ?

Eph 2

Being a Christian makes you part of a family, a fellowship, and a body.

Being reconciled to God also means being reconciled to his people...

Adoption illustration..children don’t adopt their parents, their parents adopt them…the child receives the last name of the parents…they share bedrooms with siblings…they attend family functions…they do not play the role of a family member, they ARE a family member, they became a child of someone and a sibling of others.

That describes all of us…we are all adopted into the family of God and given the same last name…Christian!

Now we are part of the whole family of God.

It is a fellowship… a partnering...

1 Cor 1:9

It is a body, bound together by our individual decisions but also bound together by the person and work of Christ…that is why it would be foolish for us to think we can exist without the other parts of the body!

It is impossible to answer the question of what is a Christian without ending up in a conversation about the church!

at least if we are going to think biblically about it…there are many metaphors in the New Testament regarding the church...

Never does the NT conceive of the Christian existing on a prolonged basis outside the fellowship of the church…the church is not really a place, it is a people…God’s people!

Joining A Church

A Christian joins a local church because it is the expression of what Christ has made him…a member of the body of Christ.

Being united to Christ means being united to every Christian…that universal union must be expressed in the existence in a local church.

Other than a few references to the universal church ( and the bulk of Ephesians), most references to the church in the NT are to local churches.

The relationship between our membership in the universal church and our membership in the local church is a lot like the relationship between the righteousness God gives us through faith and the actual practice of righteousness in our daily lives.

At the moment of salvation, we are declared righteous…yet we are still called to actively BE righteous.

Those who happily continue to live in unrighteousness call into question the genuineness of their belonging to Christ.

See ; ;

So too, it is with those who refuse to commit themselves to a local church.

“Committing to a local body is the natural outcome — it confirms what Christ has done.

If you have no interest in actually committing yourself to an actual group of gospel-believing, Bible-teaching Christians, you might question whether you belong to the body of Christ at all!” — Mark Dever, What is A Healthy Church?

pg.

27

Again listen carefully to the writer of Hebrews

In other words, if our relationship with God is authentic, it will translate into our daily decisions, even if the process is slow and full of missteps.

We cannot become complacent in our idea of possessing the righteousness of Christ if we are not pursuing a life of righteousness…the same is true with our concept of belonging to the universal church without pursuing life together with an actual local church…

A true Christian builds his life into the lives of other believers through the concrete fellowship of the church...

no one fully arrives…we are all still fallen people who need accountability…we need instruction…we need fellowship with God’s people…we need you and you need us!

As we live together as a covenant community, we demonstrate the reality of being reconciled to God and each other.

We demonstrate to the world we have been changed because we increasingly show a willingness to put up with, to forgive, and even to love a bunch of fellow sinners.