Care of the Church

Let's turn in our Bibles to Revelation chapter 20 verses 11 through 15, a marvelous and familiar text, giving to us the most serious and sobering scene in all of the Bible because it describes the most tragic event in the history of mankind, the Great White Throne Judgment. Revelation chapter 20 verse 11, "And I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it from whose presence earth and heaven fled away and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne and books were opened, and another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them, and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. And death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire." When I think about the cross of Jesus Christ it's easy for me to get emotional, it's easy for me to have certain feelings of gratitude and worship and praise. When we come to a time a worship like this, a time to think about the Lord, it isn't just that emotion, it isn't just that thought, that praise, that worship that the Lord wants; he wants us. He wants all that we are to be given away in abandonment to Him and I guess that's really the burden that a church leader carries that the people would so live to give themselves away to God. The second letter of Paul to the Corinthians, the 11th chapter, and Paul lists there all the difficulties of his ministry and then he adds in verse 28 that the most difficult of all was the care of the church, or in his case the churches, the care of the churches. Now what do you think it was that he was carrying in his heart? What was it about the care of the church that in many ways was worse than being beaten with rods? Worse than being whipped? Worse that being shipwrecked? Worse that being in peril of robbers? Worse than all of these things? I believe he articulates it most beautifully in Colossians 1 when he says that he longs to see every Christian made complete in Christ. Or when he said he was in travail till Christ beformed in his people. It is the heart's desire of a church leader that they totally come to the place of commitment, of abandoning themselves to Christ and his purposes and his cause, and no one knows better than a leader that people can be busy, they can be good people, they can be active to some extent in the church, they can be living religious lives, they can be coming to church and worshipping the Lord and yet still miss what is essential because they don't really abandon themselves totally to Christ. And so I thought just with that as a sort of an introduction I wanted to share the five things that what I care to see in us, and these are the things that no matter what else we see, if we don't see these, there's anxiety in your heart. I suppose there are many people who come to church and I guess for them it's being there that is enough, and they'll come at their own pace and maybe even in addition to their normal pace when something special happens, and maybe there's a certain token involvement or activity, but there's not that abandonment and consequently we have those birth pangs that travail or soul until Christ be fully formed in an individual. And after all since in Hebrews it says we have to give an account for every one of you, we have a great responsibility. Let me give you five things. The first thing for which I care is that there be purity in your life, purity in your life. Over and over again in the New Testament we are called to purity. In 2 Corinthians 7:1 it says, "Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God," cleansing ourselves, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. The great desire that I have for you is that you be pure in your life, that you be holy in your life, that you manifest Godliness in your life, and that means obedience. And that means when you sin and when I sin there must come confession and repentance turning from that sin. I believe that it is critical that if we are to live holy lives that we spend time communing with a Holy God, and it's very basic and yet it seems that we need reminder, there must be a faithful, daily, consistent prayer life, when you draw yourself into the presence of a thrice Holy God sensing in a time of awe and wonder his infinite majesty and purity. That's one important reason why 1 Thessalonians 5 says, "Pray without ceasing." It isn't a string an unceasing demands, it is a life of unceasing communion with the living God. And secondly, and basically as well, we are all very much aware of the fact that in order for us to have a pure life, David said that he must hide the word in his heart that he might not sin, there must be faithful study of the Word of God and I trust you're at this point in your Christian life daily in the Word of God, every day. Personal study to show yourself approved unto God a workman needing not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth. It isn't activity that you long to see, it isn't just attendance that you care to see; it's purity that comes by constantly being in the word and constantly communing with the Holy God. Secondly, another thing for which I care is worship, that your life be a worshipping life. Psalm 96:9 says, "Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." There were two aspects of worship that are important: first and foremost is worship from the heart. I care that you worship God from your heart, that when you're not here, you worship God. That when the service isn't everything you thought it ought to be, you worship God. That when you come here, you come not to get, but to give to him adoring praise, that when you hear the wonderful music like you heard earlier, you are able to follow in the words and in the beauty of the melodies a train of thought that lifts you into the presence of God. Worship from the heart, and secondly that you worship in the fellowship. Worship from the heart is one element of it, the other element is that you worship in the corporate fellowship of God's people for He inhabits the praises of his people and as we come together collectively in a very special way we become the habitation of the spirit and there uniqueness to the corporate worship of God's people. And frankly it burdens me that for some people faithfulness at worship time on the Lord's Day seems to be a difficulty. Here whenever it's convenient, not here if it's not convenient. Here is they decide not to go somewhere else and do something else, and they lose that great sense of faithful presence with God's people that is so strengthening. You need to realize the tremendous heritage you have here to come together with God's people faithfully on the Lord's Day as we have been commanded, not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, and to worship God. And you need to learn the faithfulness and the discipline of that expression of corporate worship. And so my desire for you is that you worship from the heart and that you worship in the fellowship faithfully. I believe that this church ought to be filled every week by all of God's people who come with a hunger for his people, his presence, and his word. Thirdly, another thing which expresses care in the church is the fellowship. Tell you of a story of a man had not been coming to church, he hadn't been attending a class, they just didn't have the time to always be faithful and the pastor went to call on them and they were sitting behind a hot fire keeping warm in the winter and talking about the need for the man to be in church, to be fellowshipping with God's people, to be as Hebrews 10 says, "Stimulating one another to love and good works," that's why we don't forsake our assembling. And the man apparently wasn't getting the message so the pastor took the tongs that were hanging beside the fireplace, pulled the screen open, reached in with the tongs pulled out a live coal and set it on the hearth and closed the screen and in a matter of minutes, the coal had grown cold and he said to the absent parishioner, "You see what happens when you isolate yourself? This occurs in your spiritual life. You need the stimulation; you need the fire that is passed from one believer to the next. You need the accountability; you need the exercise of mutual ministry. There are many people who just don't feel the need for fellowship and I guess maybe it's because again they may come expecting to get instead of expecting to give. How important it is that we come to give ourselves away, in a flock, fellowship group, a Bible study, a class, a prayer time, whatever it is. You need that fellowship. You need accountability. That's right you need somebody poking their nose in your life making sure it's the way it ought to be. I need that. Fourth, there is the care also that you be engaged in ministry, ministry. We have spiritual gifts, we have a lot of ministry, using your gifts, working for the Lord, giving to the Lord of your substance. I want you to be involved. All of us are called to a ministry and we need to be aggressively abandoning ourselves to that which God has gifted us to do. I also think about giving, how well or How poorly are we in giving to one another, not only to the church. And then lastly I care also that you be involved in evangelism. 1 Corinthians 15:58 says, "We're to be always abounding in the work of the Lord." Always for we know our labor's not in vain in the Lord and part of that is to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature baptizing them in the name of the Lord Jesus, making disciples out of them. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you. I really believe we need to be about the business of evangelism. We must be able to get a vision of the lost and damned people of the world on their way to hell. When we preach salvation, we also preach hell. There's a group of people inside and outside the church who are not saved. It actually is a dynamite experience for someone who doesn't know Christ to hear testimony after testimony after testimony how God has transformed people's lives, and I think you ought to bring unsaved people all the time. You ought to be dragging around a whole string of them just in general so that you can bring them to the hearing of the Gospel of Christ. The care of the church, we care for purity, we care that you worship, we care that you fellowship, we care that you serve, we care that you evangelize the lost. And I believe you care too. I really believe you do. And we all fight the same battle. Sometimes I don't do what I know I ought to do. Sometimes you don't either, but we can't make a habit out of that can we? And somewhere down the path you say, "That's enough, I'm going to change the habit pattern. I'm going to do what I ought to do. I'm going to make the kind of commitment God knows I need to make." And maybe it could begin right now.