Could you turn with me please to 1 Timothy? 1 Timothy chapter 3. After 10 months in Nehemiah. So you're able to find Nehemiah very quick because you've been there so many times. We have closed the door on Nehemiah after about 10 months. And over the next months, we turn primarily to our New Testament to start a new series of studies. My title for this series is self-explanatory. The title is Why the Local Church Really Matters. Why the Local Church Really Matters. This is vitally important because we live in a generation that plays down and diminishes the role and the importance of the local church in the Christian experience. And you find many, many people who claim to be saved and claim to be Christian, but they don't attend anywhere on a Sunday. And it's as if church and fellowship is secondary. And so we're gonna look at this whole area of the local church. Satan attacks it from without. He undermines it from within. And many of God's children have got discouraged and weary because of petty politics and squabbles. Satan seems to target his storms and his tempest at the local church to the point where many of God's people have not only given up on the local church, but given up on their faith and walked away. So God has called me over these next few weeks to remind us all of familiar truths, of why the local church really matters to God, and therefore should really matter to us as his children. By way of introduction this morning, I want to remind you of what the local church is, and that's a series in itself, of course. But as I thought that my mind was directed to these verses in 1 Timothy chapter three, we're gonna read verses 14 and 15, but our focus is on verse 15, because I think in these verses, we have three basic elements of a local church. 1 Timothy 3, verse 14, these things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly. But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. What an amazing verse. Let me read verse 15 to you again. But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the church of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. Let me divide that up for you very simply as I bring this message to you. First of all, the local church is a place where we sense the presence of God. a place where we sense the presence of God. 1 Timothy calls the local church the house of God. And that title makes the local church immensely unique and immensely special. It is immeasurably more important than any other organism, charity, missionary organization on planet Earth. This is, as we meet together and other fellowships dotted around our town and district, indeed across the world on different time zones, this is the house of God. It is where we sense the presence of God. It is where God dwells. When we come to thinking of God's dwelling, of course, there are two aspects. There is the personal aspect in that He resides in people's hearts. And so those who don't come to church will emphasize that, that Christ is in my heart, I've trusted in Him, I have Him, therefore, I don't need anything else. But there is another dimension. There is the collective aspect to the presence of God and the dwelling of God, and that is through the local church. And as we come, our kindred spirits, as believers in the Lord Jesus, knit together, as we sing together, as we fellowship together, as we learn together, and we form in a very unique way the presence of the living God. It's God's house. In the Old Testament, of course, they could see that presence in the tabernacle, and then later on in the temple, presence of God dwelt above the mercy seat in the holy of holies there upon the ark of the testimony between the two cherubims and and that amazing reality struck the nation and they could see during the day a pillar of cloud and they knew when they saw that pillar of And then at night, when they couldn't see the cloud, it was a pillar of fire. It lightened their tent. They could see its shadow. They could see its impact. And they knew that God dwelt in the midst, at the center of the nation. They knew God's dwelling place. But of course, there's a transition. God's dwelling place moved from that which was a temporary dwelling in the tabernacle, which was a tent in the wilderness, and then it moved into a permanent dwelling, the temple, around 959 BC, whenever Solomon built that first temple. Today, he dwells in a living temple. He dwells in a living dwelling, in you and me, living stones. And as we come to church, as living stones come together, we form the local church. When you go home, the local church is not in Bali Baptist. We have all gone. This building, the bricks and mortars that we're so thankful for and has been such a blessing to us, but that's not the church. you and I are the church. And when we come together, we are knit together in fellowship, in worship, in knowledge, in learning the Word of God, and we become, in a new dimension, the dwelling place of God. This is awesome, because that means that God is here. God, the God who has been from eternity and will be to eternity, he is here. Just as sure as the children of Israel saw the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, so he is here. And that should be enough to raise the profile and the importance and the uniqueness of the local church. He is here convicting. He is here moving. He is here comforting. He is here healing and guiding and encouraging and instructing and feeding and restoring. He's here. And Satan, listen to me very carefully, Satan rubs his hands with glee every time you come to church and don't sense the presence of God. Because it's all pointless. Coming to hear a sermon is neither here nor there. Meeting your friends is lovely, but it's immaterial. We come and we meet with a living God of glory. He's here. That'll affect how we come. That'll affect how we dress when we do come. That will affect how we conduct ourselves inside the sanctuary. It'll affect how we sing. It'll affect how we listen because the almighty God of glory is here. We could quote Matthew 18 and 20. Where the twos and threes are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Do you believe that? I believe that with all my heart. I believe that every time I come to meet with other believers here in Bali Baptist, that miraculously, supernaturally, God of heaven is in the midst. Wow. I tell you, You'd need to take my arm off than miss a meeting, if I can help it. One of my hardest problems when I'm on holiday is to be at home and not be at the meetings when I'm on holiday. Why would you miss it? The God of glory deigns to meet with his people. I don't understand it. That God's people say, no, I've something more important. He walks in the worship and in the singing, regardless of the date the particular hymn was written. He whispers or shouts in the sermon, regardless of how unworthy the preacher. He welcomes in the handshake. He comforts in the embrace. It's not about stained glass windows. It's not about professional musicians. It's not even about the numbers attending. Dear friend, this is about the presence of the living God speaking and blessing and encouraging. That is why the local church really matters. He comes and he convicts, he comes and he restores. That is why you came this morning, wasn't it? To meet with God. And that God can meet the need of your heart today. That God can meet your crisis today. That God can bring balm where you're hurting today. That's why we come to church, to meet with the God of glory, isn't it? He whispers to us, I'm here. I will walk with you, I will strengthen you, I will restore you, I will enable you. Dear friend, listen to me carefully. If you are a church and don't sense the presence of God, then you're not experiencing church as God intended it to be. Let me say that again. If you're a church, and you don't experience and sense the presence of God, then you're not experiencing church as God intended it to be. This is to be a place where God's house is. We sense the presence of God. Secondly, not only a place where we sense the presence of God, it's also a place where we sample the power of God. It says in verse 15, that to know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God. Did you get that? It's the church of the living God. We come to sample the power of God. It's not only the house of God, it's the church of the living God. Church is the Greek word ecclesia. It literally means a calling out, an assembly of people gathered together. That's why brethren, churches call their fellowships assemblies. It's just another word for, from ecclesia, where we get our word church, exactly the same. But more than that, it's an assembly of people called out together to the living, omnipotent God of glory. Dear Saint of God, listen, we do not meet to maintain our old traditions. That's not what we're here for. I love the traditions, by the way. I love those things that we do that we have done for years and it helps us in our worship and helps us in our focus, but we are not here to maintain long loved traditions. We are not here to improve our social standing in the community. So if anybody asks, you can say, well, I go to Bali Baptist. No, no, no, no, no. That's not why we're here. We are here to meet with the awesome, majestic God of glory, whose power exceeds the boundaries of human imagination. In the words of Paul to the church at Ephesus, chapter 3, verse 20, he is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or even think. He's bigger than Brexit and the manipulating politicians He's bigger than Trump and all the problems that America has as well. He's greater than unemployment and his trauma and hardship. He's more extensive than recession, more immense than all the stress and worry. And dear friend, this morning, listen to me carefully. You can gather up all your hurts and scars and cares and all the questions and you can leave them at his feet. He's big enough for it all. Big enough for it all. This is not religious fantasy. This, according to God's word, is spiritual reality. This is not a fairy tale for adults. This is the detail of scripture. The local church really matters because it's where we sense, in a special way, the presence of God, and it's where we sense, in a special way, the power of God. That power can be diluted by sin, no doubt about it. And that power can be quenched by worldliness. But praise God, that power is available whenever the disciples are going out in Acts 1.8. Ye shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you. That power. In Acts chapter four. You read these words in verse 33, that with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. What a power. It's a power that convicts sinners. If you're in this meeting this morning or tuning in through your computer, I want to tell you that the power of God is here to convict sinners. It causes sinners to tremble under the weight of their sin. It should stop them sitting in church unmoved. It should stop them sitting in church unconcerned. It should stop them sitting in church unrepentant. If I had time this morning, I would tell you about David Braynard. He lived in the mid 1700s, America. He started to preach to the American Indians, saw a revival among the American Indians. He died of TB at 29 years of age, burnt out for God. If I had time this morning, I'd tell you about Charles Finlay, the mid-1800s. One day, he went to a cotton factory, large cotton factory in America. He was doing meetings in the area. He was walking through the factory floor. A little girl sniggered and laughed at him and made a sarcastic comment. As he walked past, he stopped. And he looked at her. She fell on her knees with a conviction of sin. They had to stop the machines. They had to stop the factory to have a gospel meeting and all 3,000 in the factory could see it. The power of the God that we serve. I'm speaking to my own heart. It's a power that's available. Through the Holy Spirit, we must grieve him. And we get all caught up with silly, trivial, little matters that don't matter in the light of eternity, and we are missing the power of Almighty God. It's a power that convicts sinners. I'll tell you something else. It's a power that challenges saints. You know, so many people are happy Members but no commitment. Members but no responsibility, no cause, no concern, and no blessing. But the power of God instills conviction and challenge. There is, in God's word, that call to holiness, that call to separation, that call to involvement. Why is the local church so important. Why does the church really matter? Maybe you've never thought of it before. It really matters because this is where, in a new way, we sense the presence of God. That should be enough, but there's more. The church is really important, the local church, because it's where we sample a special sense of the power of God. The power of God. There's nothing in your heart and life, there's nothing in your mind, there's no problem, there's no circumstances that's too big for him. But thirdly, The local church really matters because it's where we sense the presence of God, it's the house of God. It's where we sample the power of God. It is the church of the living God. But thirdly, it's where we state the principles of God. It says at the end of verse 15, the pillar and ground of the truth. The foundations on which the local church stands are truth. It's the word of God. And if our society ever thought to itself, where on earth could we find truth? They should think, let's look at the local church. That's the pillar and ground of the truth. Our goal is not to be a fun church, whatever that means. Our goal is not to be a fashionable church. Our goal is not to be a fickle church. No, our goal and passion as elders is to be a fundamental church, grounded in truth, secure in its biblical roots. That when the storm comes, as it surely will, we'll have strong foundations. And when other churches, sadly, who don't see the importance of the word, and it's all a social kind of thing, and they're breezed aside, that there will be a testimony here in Bali that will stand firm because of a strong, solid, The Word of God must not be shelved. The Word of God must not be sidelined. The Word of God must not be secondary. Rather, the word of God must be central and the focus of the local church. The book that we have in our hand is the enshrined, inspired, inerrant word of the living God. The writer of this book is not dead. He's alive. Martin Luther, I think it was, said, the scriptures have never erred. John Calvin said, let the Lord, sorry, the Lord does not shine upon us except when we take his word as our lamp. I like that. Whenever we take this book seriously, as the foundation of our faith, God's light shines in our life. Our Bible is rock. Everything else is sand. We have the truth and we should not be embarrassed to say so. And the final ultimate goal of this book is not to win arguments. The ultimate goal of this book is that we might have a close, real, exciting relationship with the God of heaven. It's all about relationship. And you could know this book, Genesis to Revelation, you could win every argument and your heart be as cold as coal could be. No, no, no, this book, this book was written so that our relationship with the author may be close, may be intimate, may be special. through faith in Jesus Christ, who died for us at Calvary. Let me leave it there this morning. The local church really matters. Why? Because it's where we sense the presence of God, it's where we sample the power of God, and it's where we state the principles of God. That's 1 Timothy 3.15. And I hope and pray that this morning you have sensed the presence of God.