WHAT REALLY MATTERS: THE CHURCH
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What Really Matters
What Really Matters
last week we asked the question: “what really matters?” At the end of the day what really matters to me. What is most important to me. There is no doubt that a lot of things that shouldn’t matter as much to us get mixed in and even given greater priority that n what should really matter. We allow so many worldly things to interfere and get in the way of what should really matter.
Last week from Paul and the book of Philippians we learned that what should really matter to us is Christ. Everything thing else is rubbish to knowing Christ. We should count all things as loss for the sake of Christ. We should want to know Christ and the power of his rising share in his suffering and be conformed to his; in order that I may attain to the resurrection of the dead more than anything. JESUS IS WHAT REALLY MATTERS!
This morning we ask the same question: What really matters? On your list of things that matter to you in your life, where does the church stand? How important is the church really? The church should be something that really matters to us and let me show you why.
“Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.
God purchased it with his own blood. What did God give for the church his own blood. Why is the church so important, why should elders shepherd, guard oversee the church properly. It was purchased with Jesus blood. The church is not some insignificant optional part of Christianity. Jesus purchased with his blood. The Son of God gave his life for it.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her,
The church matters because Christ built it.
“I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.
It’s his church, he built it
He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.
For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body.
And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church,
So if Jesus built it, and he is the head, and he purchased it. It’s his. He makes the rules, he determines is value, it’s importance. And he has placed a very high value upon it.
He has given the church, His body, important task to do.
from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.
every part is important and valuable
1 Cor. 12:12-27
For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ.
For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
For the body is not one member, but many.
If the foot says, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body.
And if the ear says, “Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body.
If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?
But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired.
If they were all one member, where would the body be?
But now there are many members, but one body.
And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; or again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”
On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary;
and those members of the body which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our less presentable members become much more presentable,
whereas our more presentable members have no need of it. But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked,
so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.
And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.
Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it.
We are baptized into one body, We are added to the church, you don’t join the church, God adds you to it when you are baptized. By the way Eph. 4:4 tells us there is just one body, one church, not multiples.
It’s through the church that God intends to accomplish his mission in the world
so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.
This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord,
which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
The church exists for God’s glory and showcases it in a unique way. “The church is built for Jesus, by Jesus, and on Jesus. It is simply unthinkable then to separate Jesus from the local church. If the gospel is the diamond in the great salvific plan of God, then the church is the clasp that supports it, holds it up, and shows it in its greatest light for the world to see.” If it matters so much to God, it needs to matter to us just as much.
How can we ensure that the church matters to us. How can we make sure Jesus knows and sees how much the church means to us.
Be the pillar & support of truth
By common confession, great is the mystery of godliness: He who was revealed in the flesh, Was vindicated in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Proclaimed among the nations, Believed on in the world, Taken up in glory.
we deal with false teachers, worship according to God’s Will (not ours), we appoint godly leadership, we focus on godliness, and we care for all those who are a part of the church.
2. Do good to those in the body
So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.
We help each other, we look out for one another, we give preference to one another, we consider one another more important than ourselves, we weep together, we suffer together, we rejoice to gether. We are a body and the body does not function with out each part doing it s part.
3. Be unified
Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;
How?
Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves;
do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.
with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love,
quite being selfish and practice some humility and deal with each-other patiently and love one another. spend more time looking out for others interest more than your own
4. Honor Christ & His church.
so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously
giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.
don’t be a hypocrite, don’t say you love the Lord and His church and then treat like everything else. don’t abuse it, don’t forsake it, don’t destroy by your lack of self control, don’t destroy it by making it look bad in the community by your actions.
Give your time, energy, money, life to Christ and his church, BECAUSE IT MATTERS!