Well, before we get started this morning, there's not a specific text that we're going to look at this morning. We're going to look at several different ones. But before we, you may be seated, but we're going to go to the Lord in a word of prayer before we begin this sermon. And we're going to take a break from Luke and look at the church. And we're going to spend some time looking at some of the one another passages of how we ought to operate and show and express our love towards one another now that we've been placed in the church of God as believers. And if you would, bow your heads together and let's go to the Lord in a word of prayer. Father, as we come to you this morning, we thank you for this time together to look at your word and what it says about the church, the church that you have called out from this world, the church that you have redeemed by the blood of Christ. Father, I pray that we would grow in our appreciation for your bride. I pray that we would grow in our love and affection for you and for those around us. Lord, I pray that we would see that this great thing that we call the church is a beautiful thing. And pray, Father, that we would see our place in it and that we would know what you have called us to do as church members. You would show us, Lord, how we ought to love one another better and how we ought to serve one another and be and follow Christ and how He laid down His life for the church and gave Himself for it. Lord, we just ask that You'll be with us at this time, help us to understand Your Word, and we pray that You would guide and direct us. In Jesus' name that we pray, Amen. Well, again, we are taking a break from the Gospel of Luke. We finished chapter 11 and figured that it was a perfect place to stop for a moment in that. And sometimes you need to just do that when you're going through a long book. You need to take a step back and maybe just look at some other topics or something else in Scripture, lest we get so bogged down in something that it just becomes redundant and and we don't really pay attention to what is going on. So I thought what we would do is we would look at the subject of the church. I've entitled this message, as you can see, What is the Big Deal About the Church? We ask that question because in our day and age, there's a lot of people who don't think that church is a big deal. I can remember growing up when people went to church, and where lots of people went to church. It was kind of the thing to do. It may have been something that someone just did on Sunday, and their heart was not really in it, but people went to church. institutions outside of the church, like schools and baseball leagues and so forth, they would always honor the church and give them preference when it came to Wednesday or Sunday afternoon and things like that. But all of that has changed, partly because people don't have any regard for the church of God. And so that's what I want us to look at today. I want us to establish what the church is all about, what God has done to, the way He looks at it. I want us to look at a few metaphors that God gives for the church, and from that we'll launch out into how we ought to view ourselves in the church, how we ought to function in the church. But that's a question we're going to deal with today. What is the big deal about the church? Why is the church so important? And how important is it for you specifically? Is it your number one priority? Well, God should be your number one priority, but outside of that, is it a priority in your life? There was a survey done several years back by one of the churches that are known for doing surveys, and they asked some of the people who never attended church what they thought about the church. And the survey came back with these remarks about the church. When asked what the the people who never attended church thought about the church, most of them answered the question by saying, well, it is boring, or it's irrelevant, or they thought that the church was always asking for money. It's just a place to that just wants to take your money, or many of them said they were too busy to go and so it wasn't really a big deal to them, or they felt awkward when they were at church, when they would go there. But unfortunately, even though the outside world, the non-believer, looks at the church that way, It's not a lot better when you get inside the church. There's a lot of people who just do not have a high regard for the church, who even attend. They don't really have much commitment to it. For example, some people, they never place themselves in one place. They like to hop around. We call them church hoppers. They're at this church for a while, there's really no commitment, something doesn't go right for them, and so what do they do? They go off and they go to this church. Well, they stay there for a few months, maybe a year, and something doesn't work out for them there, and then they go over to another church, and then they're there for a while, and they're with that group of believers, and then something doesn't work out there, and it's just constantly, they're like a frog, just constantly hopping from one church to another. They never stop to invest. And I think the problem with that is, there is a time to leave a church when the Word is not being preached and things like that. If the Word is being preached, and no church is going to be perfect, but if a church is preaching the Word of God, and you're constantly hopping to this church and that church, I would say the problem is with you and not necessarily the church. I think those type of people are looking for something. They're more in the line of being a consumer than giving of themselves to that particular place. And that leads us to the other way in which people look at the church. There are people who look at the church as, or they act like, consumers. They treat the church no different than some retail shop that's down the street. They come to church, and they want the church to give them everything. They want to be served. They want their children to be served. They want people to make much of them, and they want the church to go out of its way to lift them up and make something of them. Now we ought to do that for each and every person. We ought to pour into each other's lives in such a way that we do make much of each other. But for those people who just come with a consumer mentality and they never give of themselves to the church, they have a wrong view and a distorted view of what the church is all about. And there are some people who go to church faithfully, regularly attend, but they go out to church simply because it's a duty. It's not really a delight, it's just something they've always been doing their entire life, and so they go to earn points with God, or they just go to feel okay spiritually, or and just kind of ease their conscience. But they don't really go there for the purpose of, you know, maybe hearing the word and also investing in the lives of those around them. And then there are those who are kids. There are kids who have views of the church. They go to church. Maybe it's just because mom and dad drag them along. They'd rather be out, you know, playing outside or running around with their friends or something like that. And then There are others who have that mentality that the grass is greener on the other side. This kind of goes back to the church hopper mentality of always wanting to go here and there and it's better somewhere else and things are always better and they get there and it's better over here. There are people like that. So, as you can see, there are people on the inside of the church who have a poor understanding of what the church is all about, and especially on the outside. Well, this morning, as we look at various passages, and we define the church, and we look at how the Bible looks at the church, and look at some of the metaphors that God gives of the church. And then we look at what Christ has done for the church and how He views it. I hope and pray that after we do this, you'll have a better understanding of why the church is so important. I hope and pray that this morning you'll have a greater appreciation for the church, that you will have a deeper love for the church, and you'll have a deeper commitment to the church of God. And so, we're going to begin by defining the church. What is the church? Unfortunately, when people hear the word church, they think of a building. They think of pews or stained glass windows or, there's not so many stained glass windows anymore, but that's what people used to think of. Or they think it's some just cool place to hang out that's got a kitchen and a place for the children to play, maybe a room for the teenagers and so forth. The truth is, that is where people go to be with the church, but those places are not churches. Now, I know we use that term, and we say, well, there's the church, and we point to a building. And that's fine, because we know what we're talking about. But when the Bible talks about the church, the Bible isn't talking about a building or an institution. It is talking about the people that are in that church who have believed upon the Lord Jesus Christ by faith and have trusted in Jesus alone for salvation. There was a professor I had back in college. He told a story one time about how he was pastoring this church, and it had burnt down. And when he got there, it was basically a heap of rubble. And he goes there, and there were some news reporters there, and they came up to him, and they interviewed him, and they said, what are you going to do now that the church is burnt down? And he looked at them, and he said, well, with all due respect, the church is just fine. They're right over there. And he pointed to the believers. who were trusting in Christ. He knew that that building was not the church. But many people will look at it that way. But let's look at how the Bible defines the church. The Bible defines the church as those who have been called out from the world, and who have been gathered together, and who have been redeemed by Christ. The word in Greek is ekklesia. the called out ones, the ones who are gathered together. And in the New Testament times, that word would be used to describe a group who would assemble, if people would assemble politically or in social gatherings, they would call it the Ekklesia, the gathered ones, the ones who would come together. But when the New Testament comes along and it uses that word in reference to those who have been redeemed, those who have been saved, It refers to the church, the ones who have been gathered together to worship the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me give you a verse, 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 2. Paul says, to the ecclesia, or as you'll find in your Bible, the church, to the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus. Listen to the description of the church. to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours." Notice the definition that Paul gives. To the church, of God. It is possessed by God. God owns the church. God is Lord over the church. And there he writes, he says, to the church of God that is in Corinth. And you'll find that type of language, to the church of God that is in Philippi, or some other region, or Athens, or Thessalonica, and stuff like that. A church is scattered out. There's local assemblies everywhere. In the New Testament, again, you have them in Corinth, you have a church in Philippi, and you have a church in Berea, and you have one in Corinth, and so forth. But the church is collectively a whole. It is one universally. All over the world, the church is made up of everyone who has ever existed who has believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. But Paul goes on to say, to those who are sanctified, That is, made holy. That is, they have been made holy before they were not holy. They were living in sin, but now they have been sanctified in Christ Jesus. And they are called. They are called to be saints. That is, they are called to be holy. together with all of those who in every place call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The church is known, or should be known, for prayer. It calls upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, because He is its Lord. He is its head, as we will see elsewhere. We see this same type of word being used in 1 Thessalonians 1.1. Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the ecclesia or the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and so there we see that the church is those who have been sanctified those who have been called out from the world and now they are saints and they call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ but Because the word described people assembled and called out together, it was the perfect word for the New Testament writers to use to describe the church. They are the called out ones, the ones who are gathered together. And that's exactly what God has done. Out of this world, he has sent out the gospel call, and all of those who have come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, they're the ones who have been called They are the ones who have been called by God for His purpose. As Romans 1.6 says, they belong to Jesus. As Ephesians 4.4 says, they have been called to hope. That's what the church is. It is the called out ones and have been called to so many things. They belong to Jesus, called to hope, called to be part of the kingdom of glory, 1 Thessalonians 2.12. They've been called to an eternal glory in Christ, 1 Peter 5.10. They've been called into one body, Colossians 3.15. They've been called to holiness. the church has, 1 Thessalonians 4.7, and the church has been called out of darkness into his marvelous light, 1 Peter 2.9. And so we see there that the church isn't a bunch of bricks and mortar on some street corner. It's not that at all. The church is not some human organization that man has created. The church is a group of people who have been called out of this world to be holy, redeemed by the blood of Christ, and I hope by that you're starting to get to see the picture of why the church is so important. Now, we may neglect that, and we may not think of the church as being important, but when you start thinking of those believers, who make up the church and what the church is, called by God, redeemed by Christ, Christ is Lord over it, it is his body, it is his bride, then you start seeing why the church is so important. You see why it's such a big deal. It's a big deal because it is a big deal to God. In fact, the church is so loved by God that Ephesians 5.25 tells us that Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. But the problem is, there are too many people who call themselves Christians, but they could take or leave the body of Christ. It's like they're indifferent to it, and they're indifferent to the local church. Let me give you an example of that. In a letter to John MacArthur several years ago, there was a man who wrote a letter to him describing his reason for wanting to leave the Protestant church, why he wanted to leave the church and go and become a Catholic. And the reason he wanted to leave the church for Catholicism was this. He told MacArthur that Protestants don't seem to appreciate the church. The Bible describes the church as an institution that Christ founded and loves. The church is everything to Catholics. It is nothing to most of my Protestant friends. We know that the Catholic Church teaches a false gospel because it does not teach by faith alone in Christ alone. That's why Luther rebelled against the Catholic Church. It had strayed from the gospel. Its emphasis was on works, what you do, rather than the grace of God. But yet they have all of their, just like the Pharisees we saw in Luke chapter 11, there are all the rituals and all of that and it looks inviting to some but most people would look at that and say well they're devoted but we see a lot of people out here in the church the true church and we don't see a lot of people devoted to it like we once did and so most people don't think about the church in this way, and they don't value it the way God does. But that's what we want to do. We want to get to a place where we love the church, where we see those around us who are in Christ as being the church, and we give of ourselves to them. We devote ourselves first and foremost to God, but also to His body. And we see that we're part of this body. And it's supposed to work a certain way, and we're going to get to that as we look at the verses that deal with how we ought to relate to one another, where to pray to one another, where to serve one another, and so forth. But we've got to get to this point where we understand why the church is so important. When we realize that the church is made up of faces for whom Christ died, as souls that He has redeemed. When we think about it that way, when we think about the church as being gathered together out of the world, we start beginning to think about it in a different way. When we realize what the church truly is, the church should become the most precious place on earth. Because this is the closest thing that we're going to get to heaven on this side of eternity. Because we're two or three or more gathered together, their God is in their midst. There God is working through His local church as a body, using each one who has a gift, a spiritual gift, working together. When we think about the church, we think about what Peter says, and this makes it precious. Peter even said of it, he said 1 Peter 1, 18 and 19, that It was bought not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but it was redeemed with the precious blood of Christ like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. When you purchase something with a lot of money, it's worth something. It's valuable. And we see that the church has been purchased by the blood of Christ, so it is valuable. And so we ought to see it as valuable as well. To better appreciate the church, let's think about how God describes the church using different metaphors throughout the scriptures. First, we see that the church, when God describes the church, it is described as a body. We know the body has different parts. There's the hand, there's the arms, the legs, and so forth. And each part serves in a, or functions in a certain way, and without one part of your body, it doesn't function 100%. I mean, you stub your little toe, you realize how much you need that little guy. You need him a whole lot. And so, that is the way it is with a body. Should one fall, should one stumble, it affects the entire body. But listen to 1 Corinthians 12, 13 through 18. If you have your Bibles and want to follow along with me, This is a great place to follow along because 1 Corinthians 12 through 14 deals with the body and how it should function together with its spiritual gifts. In 1 Corinthians 12, 13 through 18, Paul writes to them because they were high on pride but low on love, the church at Corinth, and he's trying to hone them in to see how important the body of Christ is and how they ought to love one another. And he says in verse 13, For in one spirit we were all baptized into one body. Notice the language there. One spirit, one body. He says, we were all baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and all were made to drink of one spirit. Now think about that, what Paul just said. In our society, there are different classes of people that It's just the way people function. You've got your rich, you've got your poor, you've got your Jews, you've got your Greeks, and so forth. And that's the way people view these things. But when it comes to the family of God, all of those things are put aside. It doesn't matter if you're rich. It doesn't matter if you're the poorest man in the world. When you're in Christ, you are one. Jew or Greek. Slave or free. All are made to drink of one spirit. Verse 14. For the body does not consist of one member, but of many. And if the foot should say, because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body. That would not make it any less part of the body. And if the ears should say, because I'm not an eye, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them as He chose. He puts you in the body of Christ, He gave you spiritual gifts, and He gave you just what you have for a purpose. Some are able to teach. Some have the gift of mercy. Some serve in other manners or capacities within the body. But every single believer is important. Because it is a body. And not a physical body like the body you and I walk around in. But we think about our body and how we need every part of it. That's what the scripture is saying. That's what Paul is saying. Every part is important. It's not just the preacher that's important, it's not a deacon that's just important, or anybody else. Every single person who is a believer in the body of Christ matters and have a function and a part to play and a role to play within the body. And so, when you start thinking of the church in those terms, if you are a believer, and you have trusted in Christ as Lord and Savior, you have a part to play in the church. It's not just me up here every Sunday or Brandon up here leading music and so forth, but every single person has a part to play. We don't just come to church and just do nothing and never involve ourselves in the lives of other people around us, but we have a part to play in the body of Christ. If you're an older person, if you're a younger person, it doesn't matter if you're black, white, purple, brown, it doesn't matter if you're rich or poor, if you're from South America or North America or Asia or whatever, if you're in the body of Christ, you have a place in the body of Christ and you are to use your gifts to the glory of God. Ephesians 5.23 says this, For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. So what is he saying there? Well, there's the body, and each one of us make up that body, but the head of the body is the Lord Jesus Christ. That's one metaphor that we get from the scripture. We're a body, so we're to function together. Everyone has a role. The other thing that we see is that we are the people of God. 1 Peter 2, 9-10. Peter describes the church as being a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession. Why? That you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. And so, when we criticize the church, now, there are things that need to be called out. Obviously, the New Testament writers called things out that were going on in the church that were wrong, and that's fine if we call it to repentance, but We need to be careful, because the church is the apple of God's eye, His own people, His prized possession, as we see there in 1 Peter 2, 9-10. We are a holy nation, a holy group of people, a chosen race that God has for His own possession. And what are we to do? We are to proclaim the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. God has called us to Himself, we are holy, and we have a job to proclaim our great God. We are to go to the world and describe and proclaim the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. Now here's another metaphor that the Bible gives. We are the family of God. Several times when the Scripture describes a church, many times it describes us as just one big family. As the song goes, as that old hymn goes, I'm part of the family of God. For example, 1 Timothy 1 says, Do not rebuke an older man, but exhort him as you would a father. Treat younger men like brothers, older women like mothers, younger women like sisters, in all purity. When Paul gave that command to Timothy, how they are to relate, notice the language. Younger men as brothers. Older women like mothers. Younger women like sisters. And do not rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father. So father, brothers, mothers, and sisters. That's all family language. And that's what we are when we are part of the church of God. We are one big family. And so, what should a family do? There's many dysfunctional families in our world. But a family that is healthy loves one another. It cares for one another. It prays for one another. It serves one another. It's there when the other person in the family needs them. And so forth. And so that is what the church is. It is the family of God. We are all brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. The Bible also describes the church, and we could give many more metaphors than this, but I'm just giving you a few. It is the light of the world, Matthew 5, 14 through 16. Jesus describes the church, or Christians, He depicts them there as a collective light unto the world when He says, You are the light of the world, a city set on a hill that cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all. and in the same way let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." There's an evangelistic purpose to the church. We ought to be living in such a way among ourselves and how we conduct ourselves out in the world in such a way that we shine as lights in a dark world and that the world might see our good works. our good works, and how we love one another, and how we care for one another, and so forth. that they might give glory to our Father who is in heaven." You know, that's one of the great apologies that the early church gave in the first century. When the pagan world was coming against the Christians and they were trying to demean them and discredit them and so forth, one of the apologies that they gave, now not an apology like, oh, we're sorry, but an apology as in a defense of who they say they are, was this. Look at how we love one another. The world doesn't do this, but we are devoted to one another. We lay down our lives for one another. And so when we display those good works before the world, we give glory to our Father who is in heaven. And so that is a testimony to the world. But that's how the church ought to function. The other thing is, we are exiles. The Church is not of this world. It's in the world, but it's not to be of the world. For example, 1 Peter 1.1, Peter says, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are the elect exiles of the dispersion, in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. And so there we see that Peter calls the Church strangers and pilgrims. We're just passing through this world. This world is not our home. We're like Pilgrim in Pilgrim's Progress. We're just traveling along, traveling along to the Celestial City. And we should be more diligent in how we live in this world. A lot of people who go to church, they go to church, they do their thing and they're gone. And they don't really devote themselves to the church. They don't really function as they should as the church. And so they go out and they just devote more of their time and energy to the world than to the church. But yet we see that we are not of this world. We are just sojourners. And so we ought to be devoting our time and attention to our Savior. and the church that he has redeemed, functioning within it. So, these are just a few of the metaphors. Now, when we think about the church, you know, there are churches we could look at, and in our day and age, there's a lot of things we could critique. And a lot of things have went on in churches that the unbelieving world are like, I don't want any part of that, because of what came out about that church in the news and so forth. But we gotta remember this. The church is a beautiful thing. And when we see those bad things that happen, that show up in the news about the church, or we hear this or that, know that in that church, and the Bible tells us this, and it is straightforward about it, the church, the visible church, the church that you see, Not everybody that goes to the local church is believers. It's like my yard. There's some good grass, and then there's a bunch of weeds. And that's the way the church is, and it's going to be that way until the end. There's wheat that grows up and there's tares that grow up. And the tares give the church the bad name. But Jesus will sift it all out and he will make it all right in the end. The other thing we have to remember even about believers, because believers are not always perfect on this side of eternity. We need to remember the idea of already, not yet. We're saved, we're redeemed, we're sanctified, but we're not yet what we're going to be. We're not what we once were as people. We're not living in darkness. We've been called out of darkness into His marvelous light. We've been saved and sanctified. but where it's a process. And so there are times I will disappoint you. There are times when you will disappoint me and so forth because we haven't reached that state where Christ returns and we're perfected. The resurrection has not occurred yet. I still walk around in a fallen body just like you do. And so That's why sometimes it doesn't seem as beautiful or as valuable as it should be. But the Church, as we see, is a beautiful thing. And the Church is made up of those who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's where we come to the third thing I want us to see about the Church, the Church's relationship to Christ, or Christ's relationship to the Church. Think about why the Church even exists. It would not exist if it were not for Christ. We looked at how the church is a body, and when we think about the church, and how Christ has redeemed it, and He's Lord over it, we realize that Christ's relationship to the church, He relates to it as its head. He is its Lord. Colossians 1.16-18 says this, For by Him all things were created. All things. in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authority, all things were created through Him and for Him. Those invisible things that we don't see, the demonic realm, the angels and so forth, He created all of those things. He created everything that we see on this earth, mountains and flowers and people. And He's Lord over it all. And all things were created by Him and for Him. And so, verse 17 says, And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. and he is the head of the body, the church. The church exists because of Christ. Because he went to the cross and he died for a sin-sick world. Those who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, those who have repented of their sins, those are the ones who have been redeemed and are a part of the church of God. And so Christ is its head. He also gathers and he governs the church. Many times people can call themselves Christians when they are not. We see this in the book of James, the false brethren. We see it in 1 John, their false brothers and so forth. But Christ is the one who saves those who are in Him. Those who look to Him are truly saved. But there are many people who will name the name of Christ, but are not necessarily in the church. Matthew chapter 7, we know that many on that day will say, Lord, Lord, did I not prophesy and cast out demons and do mighty works in your name? But he'll say, I never knew you. And so Christ, those who are truly of Christ are those who have been gathered by Christ and he governs them. He rules over them. They, John 10, 27, My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. Those who are Christ's sheep are the ones who hear His voice and follow Him. And Christ remains with His church. He's devoted to His church. He loves it so much that He's not going to abandon it. He's like a true husband should be. He's devoted to His wife. In Matthew 28, 18-20 we see this, And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. And what does He say? And behold, I am with you always. even to the end of the age. He does not abandon his bride. Christ will never abandon his church. He remains committed to it until the end. And so, therefore, we ought to remain committed to the church as well. And so, in light of this truth, Christ is intimately connected with his church. Listen to Acts chapter 9. Here is the passage about Paul who became a believer. But listen to what it says when Paul cries out, Who are you, Lord? Listen to the answer given to him. It says, But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for the letters to the synagogue at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a heavenly light flashed around him. And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said, Who are you, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. Now Paul had gotten letters to go persecute people, believers. men and women and so forth. But when Jesus confronts him, he says, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Why would he say that? Because Christ is so identified with his church that when you persecute his church, you're persecuting him. It's why in Matthew 25, when Jesus said, you know, to those at the end, he'll say, You know, you brought me a cold cup of water. You fed me. And they're like, when did we do this? Well, as you've done unto the least of these, you've done it unto me. And so when somebody does something good for the church, it's as though they are doing it unto Christ, because He is so intimately acquainted with His church. And so the question is, How are you treating His Church, His Bride? Do you despise it? Are you loosely connected with it? Are you serving it? Or are you wanting it to serve you? Do you love it? Do you care for it? Do you prize it? Do you value it? However you view the Church, that's really tied closely to your view of Christ. There are these people out there who will say, Well, I don't need to go to church. I can just go out and spend time alone with the Lord on a boat. Well, you can go spend time alone with the Lord on a boat fishing and stuff. I've done that. But you can't do that apart from, and then just despise His body. Because the Bible says in 1 John that how are you going to say you love God whom you've not seen, and yet you're going to hate your brother? You're not going to be devoted to Him. You're not going to love Him whom you have seen. If that's the case, the Bible says you're a liar, and basically the truth is not in you. So, you can't... going to meet with believers does not save you. But if you're a true believer, you'll want to be where the Church of God is, because that is the body of Christ. And then we go on, we see that Christ's relationship to the Church is so intimate, that he dwells in it by his spirit 1st Corinthians 6 18 through 20 says flee from sexual immorality every other sin a person commits outside the body sorry every other sin a person commits is outside the body but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body or you do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God. You are not your own. You were brought with a price, so glorify God in your body. As the church, as a believer in Christ, the Spirit of Christ dwells within you. And if Christ dwells within you, you are to remain pure. You are to walk in holiness. You are to live a certain way. You are to remain pure. And the question is, How have you done that? Have you part of the body? If we were to look at the body, the hands and the feet and all of that, is there some corrupt part of it? And when a believer sins, and sins against God, they are basically corrupting the church of God. Even if you're sinning on your own and everybody else is living in purity, you are affecting that church. But if you are a believer, that's why it's so necessary that we all walk in holiness and in purity. We also see that Christ loves the church, and I think that is quite evident in that Christ is its head, He's intimately acquainted with it, He's connected to it, and He even sends His Spirit to dwell within it. But Ephesians 5.25, and we end with this, says this, Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Christ loves the church so much that he laid down his life for the church. I think that's a big deal. I think that the church is a big deal because Christ died for the church. Christ laid down His life that those who look to Him by faith alone might have redemption, might have forgiveness of sins. And so the question is in light of that, do you love the church? Do you love the church in such a way that you're committed to the church as well? If you're a believer, you ought to see yourself as part of this body. And if you're part of the body, you have a function. Are you the hand? Are you the foot? Are you the leg? Whatever part you play, you have a part to play. Whatever part of the body you are, you have a part to play in the body of Christ. And it is a precious thing because Christ redeemed. It's the group of people that Christ has redeemed from this sin-cursed world. And God has placed you in it. He's placed His Spirit within you. And so I pray this morning that none of us will take the church lightly. When we gather together, you wouldn't just say, well, it's really no big deal. Or I hope that you don't see yourself. You know, we live in the U.S. where it's known for its individualistic mindset. I can do it. I can get it done. I can achieve this. I can climb to the top. Okay, there's a place for that. Maybe out in the world and stuff. and growing a business or working here or trying to accomplish something. But when it comes to the church, we need each other. It's not, you know, just me and God and no one else. No, it's you and God and the church, because if you're a believer, you're part of the church. And so when you start looking at it this way and you think about how precious the church is, shouldn't we be committed to the church? Shouldn't we be committed to each other's lives? Shouldn't we just not just come and just soak up whatever we receive? and go home and have nothing to do with the church. I think that we should have much to do with the church, that we ought to value it more than we do. And it's easy for all of us to get focused on our own lives and to get busy and things like that and not really think about others in the church. What is somebody else in the church going through besides me? What are they dealing with in life? What issues do they need help with? What struggles do they have right now that I need to go to them and pray for them? Maybe I need to make them a meal. Maybe I need to have them over. Maybe we need to go meet up or something like that. But how is it that you can serve the church better and those around you? Well, in the next few weeks, we'll look at some of those passages and how we can do that, and how we can devote ourselves to this wonderful thing that we call the Church, the Bride of Christ. And so, I hope that you are here to be able to hear some of those things and look at it. There are many, many passages, and I encourage you to just go home and look it up. Look up the one another verses throughout the New Testament. We were talking earlier about how many of them are in the Scriptures. AI says there's like 51, but I think there's more, because as we were talking, AI doesn't always get its math right. But I think that there's like, I thought I read somewhere there's like 90 something, but I'll try to look it up this week and have that for you. But there are so many passages that tell us how we ought to relate to one another as a church. We're to love one another, we're to pray for one another, we're to serve one another. I mean, just if someone has a need, we ought to meet that need and so forth. And I think that as we look at that, we will see that the consumer mindset of how we've viewed church for so long in this country, or for the last probably 30 years since the seeker-sensitive movement, that says, well, the church is all about you, they're to serve you. I think that we'll see that that's not really the case. Yeah, the church is there and should be there for you, but you ought to be there for the church as well and serve the church. So, uh, and I hope that you also see that with all of its spots and all of its wrinkles, there is a beauty there and it is a beauty that God has created himself and it is because of what Christ has done. But the last thing I would say, and I'll close with this, As we pointed out, the church are those who are no longer like the world. They have been saved from darkness. They have been saved from their sins, the wrath to come, and they have been set apart and they are sanctified. They call upon the name of the Lord. and they trust in Him. My question to you this morning is, do you know Christ? Are you truly part of the church? Not, do you come to church, what we call church, but are you part of the Bride of Christ? Have you truly come to a place in your life where you have trusted in Jesus and Jesus alone for salvation. You recognize you're a sinner, and you've turned from your sin, and you look to Jesus, and you call upon Him as Lord to save you. And you know that your good works, your coming to church, your reading your Bible, none of that can save you from the wrath of God. But to have eternal life, only Jesus can save you. And so you've trusted in Him by faith and faith alone. And now you're a new person because you've been born again. And the Bible says you must be born again. and have a transformed heart, and no longer go on like the world, cursing, and blaspheming the name of the Lord, and lying, and stealing, and doing all the things that the world engages in. But now you hate sin. The sin that you once loved, you now hate. Has that happened to you? Has your life been transformed? Or if you were put in a room with everybody out in the grocery store or wherever, you'd look just like everybody else. Or could people look at you and say, there's something different about that person. They don't act like the rest of us. They live, they're striving to live a holier life. They're not perfect, but yet they're so much different than the rest of us. If you've never come to that place where you've recognized you're a sinner, and you've broken the law of God, and you've trusted in Him, in Jesus Christ by faith, believe that His death on the cross and His resurrection is enough to save you, then today I encourage you to repent and to look to Jesus by faith. And if you are a believer, Know that if that's happened to you, the Spirit of God dwells within you, and you are part of this church. But if you don't know Christ today, before you go out the doors, I just encourage you just to cry out to Him. The Bible says, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Just cry out to Him by faith. Ask Him to save you today. And when you cry out to save Him, and you truly trust Him by faith, He will save you, and He will cause His Spirit to dwell within you. Let's go to the Lord in a word of prayer. Father, as we come to you this morning, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the church. Lord, I pray that you would forgive us of all the times that we have been indifferent, where we have, Lord, lacked a love for other believers who make up this church. And Lord, the churches around us, Lord, forgive us of all the times where we have, Lord, just been so isolated, where we focus on ourselves, and Lord, we expect everyone else to serve us. I pray, Father, that we would look outside of ourselves and we would see that we're part of something much bigger than us. And I pray, Father, that we would love the church just as Christ loved it and gave his life for it. I pray that we would lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters around us. I pray that we would grow in brotherly love and affection and that, Lord, we would be known as a group of people that, Lord, do not look like the world but are holy and sanctified and also love one another father I just pray that Lord you would help us to see the beauty of your church help us to in the coming weeks learn how to function within the church as we as we serve one another Lord we just pray for anybody who's without Christ I pray today would be the day of salvation that you would convict them and draw them pray that you would open their eyes to the truth and may they Trust in Jesus and Jesus alone for salvation. Lord, we love you and praise you in Jesus's name. Amen.