Session 5 / The Church

Hey everybody, let's get into session number five now. We're going to talk about the church. You know, even as you maybe started reading the book or in my initial sessions, I'm using the word church or I'm talking about the community. So let's talk about it a little bit because maybe some of you are really familiar with church and what that looks like. Maybe some of you are just brand new into it and what is it? Well, a lot of times you may be here, the church is a family, the church is a body, the church is people. Most of the time maybe you've grown up hearing like, hey, I'm going to go to church. You might think of church as a physical building, but let me just read in the message translation. I love a few of these verses that talk about what the church is. In Ephesians chapter one, verse 20, it says this, all this energy issues from Christ. God raised him from death and set him on a throne in deep heaven in charge of running the universe. Everything from galaxies to governments, no name and no power is exempt from his rule. And not just for the time being, but forever. He is in charge of it all, has the final word on everything. At the center of all this, Christ rules the church. The church you see is not peripheral to the world, the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ's body in which he speaks and acts and by which he fills everything with his presence. I love this passage and this description of what the church is. So the church is a building, it's where we go to church, but also the church is not just a place I go, the church is who we are. We are the church. We are the community. We are the body of Christ. We are the family of God. And so as an individual believer, I really, I'm really missing out on something.

If I attempt to follow Jesus on my own, I was never designed that. God did not design Christianity to be like a solo sport, if you will, to be an individual thing. You know, sometimes people will really mistakenly kind of attempt to go, you know, I'm just, my faith is personal. I'm just going to kind of be on my own, don't really want to get in the community. I don't really want to be part of a church. And they just go, well, you know, I can be a Christian and not go to church. Well, yeah, you're going to get to heaven without physically going to a church building. Obviously, it's about your faith in Jesus. But the truth is you were not designed to, and the mission and mandate that's on your life and that God is calling you into and that God is attempting to fulfill as a church, it needs every part of the body of Christ to actually fulfill its purpose. That's why the church is actually called a body. If you literally think of that, this metaphor that the Bible uses in different settings that every part matters, every part of the body is essential, be literally like thinking of my body. Each part of my body matters. Each part of my physical body is necessary. But each part really only finds its value as it's connected to my whole body. I mean, you know, my thumb is great. I use it for a few different things. But if I cut my thumb off and just, you know, that's a little bit of a gruesome visual, but if I set it here on the table for a little while, it might look all right, but it actually can't function disconnected from my hand. It actually doesn't. Same thing if I, you know, you know, I had my arm, you know, kind of severed there, be okay, got an arm, but it doesn't really function. The same way you and me, if we're apart from the body that God has designed, we actually don't function properly. I actually find my fulfillment, my purpose, all that when I'm connected, when I'm a part

of the church. So if you hear your pastor say, or different people, hey, you got to get connected. You got to be a part. You got to get in. You got to get, you know, a part of the family, the circle, whatever they're saying. Why are they saying that? Because you're actually, you're actually not really functioning optimal potential when you're disconnected from the family or disconnected from the body. We thrive in that connected space. There's a couple of things I'll kind of lean into here during this session that I highlighted in here is that kind of two big things that we'll find as a part of a church family. The first is community, and the second is actually mission, right? So the first thing I find as a part of a church family is that concept of family, is that I actually feel like, man, I actually got home here. I've got relationship here, and the church is designed to not just be a space. I come to a church, sit through some worship, sit through some preaching, check the box, and I'm out of there. I'm actually designed, as a family and as a community of believers, to actually be together, to do life together, to actually have that sharing time, that time where we're connected, maybe having a meal together. That's why the beginning of the church, as you're reading the book of Acts, if you want to know a little bit more, what did the church look like in those beginning times? Read the book of Acts, man, they were having meals together, spending time together. So that's what I love. When you're spending time together as a church, and I always, myself personally, when you're spending time, I was encouraged, there needs to be food in the house. Come on, somebody. You know what I mean? If we're going to gather together, part of the beauty of that is, let's share meals together. Let's be together.

You'll find community. And when I'm in that relationship, when I find my circle, my tribe, my people, man, there's a fulfillment that happens. Remember, right in the book of Genesis, when God created Adam, before He created Eve, He comments about Adam and says, hey, it's not good that we're alone. And you know what? It's not good for you to try to follow Jesus on your own. We actually are better together. We're better in community. But I even like to say, it's not just that we're better together. I actually like to say, man, we're essential to each other. I actually need what you have in your life. You need what I have in my life. When I've got my church, family, community that I'm a part of, I just draw so much life and strength off that. So you're going to find community. Here's the other thing you're going to find. You're going to find mission. You're going to find mission. Just like I said, my hand finds value as it's connected to the rest of the body. You're going to find, man, when you ask yourself, what's my purpose? What's my identity? What am I supposed to be about? Believe it or not, some of the biggest purpose and potential that you will discover and unpack is as you're a part of your church community, you'll actually begin to find identity arise. You'll begin to find purpose rise. You're going to begin to find mission rise up. It's kind of two parts of that mission. It's kind of personal mission and vision of what God has kind of shaped you for will actually rise out of that.

But then it's also that broader kingdom of God vision. Those verses I read in the beginning where it says that Christ rules the church. It says, the church you see is not peripheral to the world, but the world is peripheral to the church. And I love this. The church is Christ's body, watch this, in which he speaks, acts, and fills a whole world with his presence. So part of our mandate as the church and the community of faith is that we are extending the kingdom of God. If you've thought, man, there's got to be more purpose to just the job and the career that I'm in. Well, the truth is there is. Your job, your career, your life, your passions, your skills, everything that God has designed you for, yes, is for your own personal kind of advancement and territory taking and fulfilling the purpose of God on your life individually. But actually God wants to use all of what he's given you to collectively work together as the church to keep advancing the kingdom, to extending the presence of God every single corner of the earth. So like I said, I want to encourage you, don't just go to church, be the church. I like that difference. It's an important, kind of subtle, but very important difference is that I don't just think of like, okay, fam, time to go to church, you know, check that box, move on, no. Church is actually that Sunday morning gathering, you know, that church gathering that you're going to, that's a place where we're getting trained, it's a place we're getting encouraged, it's a place where we're getting built up and strengthened. But it's actually, I like to think of it kind of like a command center, like a military base where you're getting fed, you're getting trained, you're getting, you know, maybe you're in the medic tent if you know you've had a rough week, you're getting bandaged up, getting worked on, but ultimately you're getting trained and you're getting marching orders to take on the week, to advance the kingdom of God and to fulfill the purposes of God.

And I've found over the years, whether somebody feels called to be a pastor in ministry, whether somebody's, you know, a construction worker, they're a business entrepreneur, whatever they're calling, whether they're a teacher, they're an athlete, over the years you just find that as people connect their gift and their ability to the kingdom of God and to the purposes of God, man, it'll come alive. And that thing you thought was a job now becomes ministry, now becomes calling, now becomes purpose in your everyday life. And I like to say this too, you know, fulfilling your purpose doesn't mean that everyone has to like leave their job to come and like work at a church, it's actually the opposite. The church is actually equipping and developing you to go out and fulfill your purpose and calling. Now, there are church leadership roles where God is established in the word of God, He's established, you know, the leaders of the church. church, and they do oversee and pastor and coach and lead and develop our lives, but every single one of us are not called to be pastors. I am, but I grew up in a family of six kids and some of us are, many of us aren't, and all of us have our own calling, our own unique thing, we all have our own role that we play, but every single one of us is called to use our gifts and abilities to advance the purposes of God. So I talk in this chapter on the church, some key things you're going to learn, some key things you're going to find in most church services, I just want to encourage you to read over that and embrace it, you know, from worship times, you know, sing, I know sometimes it can be uncomfortable, go for it, times of giving, I want to encourage you to start bringing your tithe, it'll transform your life when you begin to become obedient in that area of tithes and offerings, bringing your first and your best to God, it's amazing, you know, lean into the

word of God, all these types of things are so important, so powerful, I want to encourage you to go for it. And then the last thing I just want to encourage us before we kind of wrap this up, stay consistent, you know, I know that when you've worked hard during the week, sometimes, you know, things come up or, you know, you're planning stuff, you know, sometimes those weekends can be real precious and you're trying to like cram everything in, whether it be chores, you know, around the house, you know, that to-do list or whether it's, you know, a vacation you're trying to do, different things like that, you know, I just want to encourage you, make consistently being in the house of God a non-negotiable for yourself, and if you've got a family, for your whole family. Joshua said one time, he goes, listen, as for me and my house, we serve the Lord, I want to encourage you, make that bold declaration that when church is happening, you're going to find yourself there. Now, hey, you know, we go on vacations, we're out of town from time to time throughout a year, it's all good, again, we're not trying to earn brownie points in heaven by being at church, but I'm at church because not only do I desperately need it, I need the coaching, I need the training, I need the encouragement, I need somebody speaking life into me, I need a fresh word from God, but also somebody at church needs you to be there, somebody else in church needs you to be the body of Christ that you're called to be, to minister life, healing and hope to somebody else, and so together, now, we work together, we're the body, we're the family, and let me just make this note, because the enemy will love to try to take you out of the church, because he knows if he can get you separated from

the church, maybe because somebody said something you didn't like, somebody offended you, maybe he just felt it, or maybe it was genuine, maybe somebody genuinely said something or did something, and it kind of hurt you, offended you, I want to encourage you, do not let that get you out of the house of God, because I've seen it too many times, over decades of ministry leadership, somebody gets offended over something that I would say is usually fairly small, but they get offended over it, and before you know it, they've taken themselves out of the church, and they're not going anymore, they're disgruntled, and they're hurt, and they feel justified that they've got all this reason, but what they don't realize is when they take themselves out of the family, they become open hunting season for the enemy in their life. I've seen so many people's lives deteriorate and just get jacked up when they get outside of the family, so stay connected, stay planted, stay in the body, stay in the family, and I want to encourage you, find ways you can get connected, serving on teams, getting in small groups, all kinds of different ways that you can find yourself, and chances are high, if you're watching this right now, you're probably with your church community, so I just want to encourage you, keep at it, stay connected, stay planted, and not just go to church, but be the church.