"There was a little boy who spent long hours working on intricate sand castles; whole cities would appear beneath his hands.
One year, for several days in a row, he was accosted by bullies who smashed his creations. Finally he tried an experiment: he placed cinder blocks, rocks, and chunks of concrete in the base of his castles. Then he built the sand kingdoms on top of the rocks. Then he disappeared so they would think the coast was clear,
When the local toughs appeared their bare feet suddenly met their match."
Many people see the church in grave peril from a variety of dangers: worldliness, declining membership, heresies, or plain old sin.
They forget that the church is built upon a Rock, Jesus Christ (Mt. 16:16), over which the gates of hell itself shall not prevail.
“…Christ is the head of his body, the church; he gave his life to be her Savior.” Eph. 5:23 NLT
“Christ is the head of the church, which is his body…” Col. 1:18 NLT
Remember putting your face above a headless frame painted to represent a muscle man, a clown, or even a bathing beauty? Many of us have had our pictures taken this way, and the photos are humorous because the head doesn't fit the body.
If we could picture Christ as the head of our local body of believers, would the world laugh at the misfit? Or would they stand in awe of a human body so closely related to a divine head?
Our goal as a church is to “match up” with the head of the church, Jesus Christ. It is time to reaffirm the responsibilities we have toward the church that Jesus Christ founded and for which He poured out His life. God did not create the church because He was looking for a way to waste our time, sap our finances, or frustrate our joy. God designed the church just as much for our benefit as for His. The church is God’s gift to us.
"Oh, he's going to play today."
"All by himself?!?"
"Sure, why not? He's had a lot more experience and training than the rest of us. We've got a lot of rookies on this team, and we might make mistakes. Anyway, they pay the coach well. We're all here to cheer and support him--and look at the huge crowd that's come to watch him play!"
Bewildered, we watch as the opposing team kicks off. The coach catches the ball. He valiantly charges upfield, but is buried under eleven opposing tacklers. He's carried off half- conscious...
Do you think that's ridiculous?
But isn't it the picture many of us have of the church? The members expect the minister to do the preaching, praying, witnessing, and visiting because he's paid to do the Lord's work and he's better trained. But listen to God's Game Plan.
According to Ephesians 4:11, 12, Christ has given the church apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers "to prepare God's people for works of service."
God gives leaders to the church, not to do all the work, but to help all of God's people to do it! People are not there simply to pay pastors and evangelists to do the Lord's work. Rather, pastors, evangelists, and teachers are to equip the people to be ministers!
The pastor is meant to be a kind of playing coach. His main function is to help you as a Christian discover your spiritual gifts, develop them, and use them to build up the Body of Christ.
2) The church provides encouragement when we become discouraged.
One of Satan’s favourite tactics for destroying Christians is to isolate them from other believers and then attack them with temptation, depression, illness, financial loss, or whatever. Even though a Christian is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, a solitary Christian is usually no match for the unending attacks of the Evil One. Listen to the wise words of Solomon:
“Two people can accomplish more than twice as much as one; they get a better return for their labor. 10 If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But people who are alone when they fall are in real trouble.” Ecc. 4:9-10NLT
A Christian never needs to face Satan’s attacks alone. God has given us a simple strategy for spiritual success: Bind yourself together with other Christians who can help you resist the Enemy.
“A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.” Ecc. 4:12NLT
God understands that there is strength in numbers! When we are under unrelenting attack, we need other Christians who will pray for us when we become discouraged, remind us of the spiritual battle in which we are engaged, and love us and lift us back up when we fail. That is what the church is all about.
3) The church provides accountability when we wander
God has provided a guardian for our spiritual well-being, it’s called the church. Consider Hebrews 13:17
“Obey your spiritual leaders and do what they say. Their work is to watch over your souls, and they know they are accountable to God…” Hebrews 13:17NLT
Ideally, godly leaders and concerned members link together to form a spiritual fence to keep us from wandering from God’s pasture into Satan’s field. This leads me to two important sub-points.
A) Your presence makes a difference to others
As church members we must get out of the “What’s in it for me?” mentality. There is a relationship between our attendance and the spiritual health of fellow believers:
“Think of ways to encourage one another to outbursts of love and good deeds. 25 And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage and warn each other, especially now that the day of his coming back again is drawing near.” Hebrews 10:24-25NLT
Every pastor has used those famous words, “let us not neglect our meeting together”. However, I love the first part of that verse, “Think of ways to encourage one another to outbursts of love and good deeds.”
Other versions say, provoke, stir up, rouse, or outdo one another when it comes to love and good deeds. We are to look beyond ourselves and remember our responsibility to build up other Christians.
One practical way we do that is by joining together with other Christians each week for worship and instruction but while we’re at it try to find a way to love on each other and do something good for each other.
How does your presence encourage other Christians? Let me ask you how you feel when you come to church and the crowd is sparse? How do you feel when it is better than usual?
Your presence in a local congregation can make a difference! When you are not in church, it means that…
-
One less voice is singing God’s praises.
-One less prayer is being offered before the throne of grace.
-One less person is available to meet the needs of hurting Christians.
-One less spiritual gift is being exercised to help perfect the body of Christ.
-One less believer is present to hear vital instruction from God’s Word, that will help that person, to impact the world, for Christ.
You presence not only makes an impact on other Christians but…
B) Your presence makes a difference in your own life.
We still need one day a week when we refuse to work and, instead, focus on our relationship with God in a congregation of other believers. Regular worship is still important for our emotional and spiritual health. However, this is not all the church is about. Let’s return to our football illustration.
The team now realizes they've all got to play, so they're on the field in a huddle. They huddle...and huddle...and huddle. The referee calls a penalty for delaying the game and moves the ball back five yards. Still the team huddles, huddles, and huddles. The referee calls penalty after penalty, until finally the ball is moved all the way back to their own goal line.
"Hey coach!" shouts the quarterback to the sidelines. "This is the greatest huddle I've ever been in. What a group of guys! We have the best fellowship...and some of these guys are amazing students of the play book. Some have memorized over a hundred plays and can analyze them precisely. We learn so much in this huddle!"
"But why don't you get up on the line and play?"
"Why should we? What we want are bigger and better huddles! Besides, we might get hurt. No one ever got hurt in a huddle!"
Our church is in big trouble if we become a "holy huddle" a band of saints gathered Sunday after Sunday, singing, praising, enjoying each other--but never setting out on the line to apply what we learn. The church is supposed to be Christ's body--his hands, his feet, and his voice--by which he carries out his plans in the world. God intends that "through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known" (Eph 3:10).
The church is to be God's light in a dark, corrupt society. The Christian life was never meant to be lived only in church for a couple of hours on Sunday. It's meant to be lived in the public arena--on the firing line at school, the office, and in the neighborhood, seven days a week. Of course, we need worship and training and fellowship with other Christians--a football team needs the huddle. But it's what happens after the huddle that the game is all about.
4) The church provides a more powerful witness to the world than one believer can
Christians joined together in a church have a greater impact on the world as well as on one another than they have individually. A spiritual synergy occurs when Christians band together. A community is much more likely to feel the impact of a group of Christians who are gathered and organized to fulfill the Great Commission than the same number of Christians who are operating as independent agents. Although every Christian’s individual witness is valuable, we should never underestimate the importance of our collective influence through the church.
One writer put it this way: “There is nothing like the local church when it is working right. Its beauty is indescribable. Its power is breathtaking. Its potential is unlimited. It comforts the grieving and heals the broken in the context of community. It builds bridges to seekers and offers truth to the confused. It provides resources to those in need and opens its arms to the forgotten, the downtrodden, the disillusioned. It breaks the chains of addictions, frees the oppressed, and offers belonging to the marginalized of this world. Whatever the capacity for human suffering, the church has a greater capacity for healing and wholeness.” (Bill Hybels)
When you put it like that, membership in a church is not only a duty it is an indescribable privilege! Let’s try our football illustration one more time.
The team breaks out of the huddle as the first half ends. They drag off to the locker room defeated, demoralized, beaten. But when the second half begins, we see a different team. Suddenly they're playing together with a new spirit. They huddle, slap each other on the back, and take the line. They're off the ball with split-second timing, there is no hesitation, they know where they're going. Each player carries out his assignment, and soon they score a touchdown, then another, and another.
When the game ends, they've won! Afterwards, in the locker room, the players are exhausted, cut and bruised, but happy.
"What happened at halftime to change this team?" we ask, the coach.
"We were sitting here beaten," he says, "and suddenly a kind of presence seemed to come over us. I started talking to the players, pointing out my mistakes, and theirs, and they started talking. Everyone was honest. Nobody blamed the others. We took a good look at ourselves.
Then someone recalled that the Great Coach, the one who invented the game, also wrote the Master Game Plan.
Wouldn't it make sense to see what he said? "We remembered how he literally gave himself to get the game started and to teach that first team everything he knew.
So we got out the original Game Plan and read about basics such as each player knowing his place and dedicating himself to it, about pulling together, being willing to sacrifice, knowing the aim of the game, and using the proper equipment he designed. "Well, we were quiet. It felt as if the Great Coach was with us, as if somehow his Spirit got inside us. Suddenly, we were up! Motivated! Ready to go! We can't take the credit. It goes to Him!"
-- sermon preached by pastor Rev.ROB ELKA, Sept 24, 2006, at Evangel.
