I'm gonna be reading from Ephesians 521 through 32. Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ, wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is head of the church, his body and is himself at savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish.
Speaker 1:In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife, loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church. Because we are members of his body, therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and the 2 shall become 1 flesh. This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.
Speaker 1:The word of the Lord.
Speaker 2:Let's pray. Father, I ask that, the words of my mouth and, the meditations of our hearts would be pleasing and acceptable in your sight, oh, lord, our rock and our redeemer. Pray this in and for the name of Christ. Amen. Staying married is not mainly about staying in love.
Speaker 2:It's about keeping covenant. Till death do us part or as long as we both shall live is a sacred covenant promise. The same kind Jesus made with His bride when He died for her. Therefore, what makes divorce and remarriage so horrific in God's eyes is not merely that it involves covenant breaking to the spouse, but that it involves misrepresenting Christ and His covenant. See, Christ will never leave His wife, ever.
Speaker 2:There may be times of painful distance and tragic backsliding on our part, but Christ keeps his covenant forever. Marriage is a display of that. That is the ultimate thing we can say about it. It puts the glory of Christ's covenant keeping love on display. It's a book about marriage by John Piper which I highly recommend.
Speaker 2:But I've been thinking a good bit about marriage, the last couple weeks in preparing for this, but probably more than that. Because we've all had the privilege of seeing a number of people in our church get engaged and and already a couple, enter into that covenant of marriage. I think of Matt and Aaron Francisco who aren't here. They're, doing ministry down at the beach. They're in my small group, and they just got married.
Speaker 2:And, very shortly ago, Scottie and Catherine got married. And in, just a couple weeks, Phil and Natalie will be married. In couple months, I think. Parker and Emily will be married also. It's a special time for these couples, obviously, but it's a special time for our church that gets to watch this, that gets to be a part of this.
Speaker 2:Now if you're a visitor, and you don't know those people, we all have had friends and family that have, gotten married. My brother gets married in 2 weeks, the first of, my family. Didn't think it could happen, but I guess it's going to. But we've all seen these relationships begin and grow and mature and blossom into deep love and then show inseparable commitment, a type of love that is really rare and a type of commitment that's probably even more rare. And, frankly, for me, inspiring as someone that's not married.
Speaker 2:We have the great benefit here at Redeemer to see some mature marriages, in the Brooks and in the Klings and the Villanue's and the Rich's and the Johnson's. And there's lots of them. I'm not gonna name them all. But we get to watch them love each other and serve each other and honor one another. And I know that there is a a good bit of us in this room that are not married, but we probably think of a future marriage and a future spouse.
Speaker 2:And I bet there are some of us in this room that, yearn for that day. To be a part of companionship and commitment and acceptance and partnership. And that all to say that marriage is all around us. And I think I know a lot of people in this room. I think we do a pretty good job of honoring marriage as a serious and a sacred institution.
Speaker 2:And that's good because it's a gift. It is. But at its best, marriage at its very best is a parable of a greater truth. At its root, marriage is a metaphor of a greater truer reality. See, it's a copy of an original, and it's a shadow of a substance.
Speaker 2:And marriage always points to this true reality. Now why do I say that? As we heard just a few moments ago as Josh read that, familiar passage in Ephesians, amused many at the weddings, that we have been a part of or or have been to. Paul calls the marriage between a husband and a wife a mystery. In fact, he calls it a profound mystery.
Speaker 2:Now the word mystery here as Paul uses it does not mean something that's too deep or complex or obscure for us to understand. Instead it refers to a yet to be revealed will of God. A purpose hidden by God until he makes it known. But now this mystery is meant to be understood by us. This mystery, which was largely hidden in the Old Testament, the mystery of Genesis 224, is is being made known by Paul.
Speaker 2:This first marriage where a man will leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the 2 become 1 flesh. And Paul says that that, that mystery is profound, and the reality is that it it does now and always has pointed to Christ and the church. See, the Genesis passages passage, long before the church ever existed, actually refers to Christ and the church. So in an attempt to display what the relationship was going to be like between Christ and the church, God did not just point arbitrarily to marriage and say, oh, that's what it's, that's what it looks like. That's an analogous picture.
Speaker 2:No. God created marriage so that we would have a picture, an illustration of Christ in the church. Marriage is a copy of that truer covenant, that permanent covenant between God and his people. You see the difference there. They don't just coexist.
Speaker 2:God created marriage for this purpose. And it's always pointed to this reality. Every true love story and every faithful, committed, loving marriage has always pointed to this, this picture of a permanent covenant. See, in our own marriages, marriages here, the committed marriages of our family and friends, and even the marriages of the people that don't know Christ, don't care anything about Christ, is still a sign that says, that's how much Christ loves his people. That's what Christ that's how Christ views his people.
Speaker 2:Even that says that. Now I believe that the people of this church, at least that I know, do an admirable job of work working on, focusing on, even loving, the institution of marriage. But I fear too often, we focus more on the shadow than on the substance. We can neglect what the church points to. After all, marriage is temporal.
Speaker 2:Even the best marriages do not last. As Jesus said in Matthew 22, there is neither marriage nor giving in marriage in heaven. So tonight, I wanna focus on the substance, the enduring reality. And to do that, I wanna begin with Christ's view and role in the church as our foundation to understand. What I'll talk about then is our view and our role in the church built on this foundation of Christ.
Speaker 2:So to begin, let's look at Jesus' perspective as it concerns His body, the church. How does Jesus view the church? That is, what's His relationship? What's His role like? And Paul decisively answers this question in not only the passage that we read from Ephesians just a second ago, but throughout the letter to the Ephesians.
Speaker 2:This entire letter is rich in teaching on the church. And I'm gonna try to show from just a a few passages in Ephesians, what it teaches us about Christ's view of and role in the church. So let's quickly kinda walk through, Ephesians. And, you don't have to turn with me, but if you want to, I I think there'll be time for that. At least you can jot down the references maybe for, your own study later.
Speaker 2:But the first thing we see is that the church is like a family. Now I get that from Ephesians 1 5 and 4. It says we have been chosen. We have been adopted through Christ. And what are we adopted to if not into a family?
Speaker 2:We're adopted into God's family. And we see in verses 9 and 10 in chapter 1 that this mystery of the church, this family, was set forth or begun in Christ before the foundation of the world as a plan for the fullness of time or as a plan for the very right time according to God's eternal purposes. So Christ in the church was the plan from the very beginning. Long before there was a church like we know it, that was the plan. It's not plan b.
Speaker 2:It's not a reaction to sin. Before there was anything, there was Christ and there was the plan for the church. Now at the end of Ephesians 1, Ephesians 122, kind of moving through here, we also see that because of Jesus' death and actually in the in the text because of his resurrection and ascension, Jesus is head of the church and we are his body. The church is his body. So Christ and the church are 1.
Speaker 2:They're inseparably bound together as inseparable as a head is from the body. You don't have a body without a head, and every head has a body. Moving on in Ephesians 2 verses 12 through 22, we also see another really beautiful teaching. One of my favorite teachings really throughout scripture that this body is made up of people who were formerly separated from one another, Strange actually and worse yet, were alienated from God. But now, Christ has brought us near by his blood, by his own blood.
Speaker 2:And he's torn down the dividing wall of hostility that existed between these different races and these different ethnicities. And God has reconciled us now as one body, one new man. This is important imagery that Ephesians 4 12 through 16 elaborates on. That we're one body that's to attain mature manhood as it grows up every way into its head. That is into Christ who also joins and holds this body together.
Speaker 2:So we see that Christ is central in this one new man. He's the head. He makes it grow up into him, and he holds it all together. But family is in 1 and this body or man that's seen in 2 and 3, chapters 2 and 3, aren't the only pictures of the church. We also see in Ephesians 2 verses 19 and 21, the church is also described as a building.
Speaker 2:The church is what's called the household of God. It's built on a foundation of which Christ is the corner stone. That is Christ is the centerpiece that holds it all together. And this one household is also growing into now a holy temple in the Lord. And so we see that the church is a family.
Speaker 2:It's one new man with Christ at the head and we also see it's a building with Christ being the cornerstone, The most important piece there. Preeminent in in all of these word pictures. And this is important because now in Ephesians 3 8 through 10, it goes on to say that this mystery of the church which had remained hidden throughout all the Old Testament, this previously unknown plan of God, that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the whole world. And not just to the world but to all the invisible onlookers in the heavenly places is what it talks about. And that's probably another sermon, there.
Speaker 2:But the word, the adjective manifold for wisdom can also be translated something like many colored or many splendor. It's just a compound Greek word. But through Christ's body, the many splendor or many colored wisdom of God is seen. Because we see it in light of Ephesians 2 that now that new multiracial, multiethnic people that have been reconciled to one another and now to God, that displays the many colored or many splendered wisdom of God. Church is obviously important and I think that's a real beautiful picture of what the body is.
Speaker 2:Well, then we come across Ephesians 5. For most of us, Ephesians 5 has been firmly implanted into us as a wedding or marriage scripture text. And of course, it is that. But I think this often causes us to miss the crucial relationship between Christ and the church. Causes us to miss what Christ thinks of and has done for the church.
Speaker 2:So I'm gonna read this again. And as I read it, instead of focusing on what husbands and wives do, hear what these verses tell us about what Jesus has done and will do for us. Starting in 22, wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife even as Christ is head of the church, His body, and is himself its savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
Speaker 2:Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word. So that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it just as Christ does the church because we're members of his body.
Speaker 2:Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the 2 shall become 1 flesh. This mystery is profound and I'm saying that refers to Christ and the church. So in this text, we see again that Christ is head of the church and that we're his body as it previously talked about in in the first chapter. We also see he's the savior of the church. And not only that, we see that he loved the church.
Speaker 2:And notice the tense, loved, it's past tense. He's loved the church from eternity past and he purchased the church in eternity past at the cost of his life. And now, he sanctifies the church, cleansing it from all unrighteousness through the washing of water, which correlates to baptism and through the word, which probably in this text correlates to the gospel. And and probably more specifically to what Ephesians 5 is talking about, but for our purposes, we can kind of understand it as the gospel. So he cleanses it through baptism and through the gospel, through the washing of water and the word.
Speaker 2:And he also is now nourishing and cherishing it as his own body. And then one day in the future, he will present the church to himself completely holy and beautifully perfect. This is what Christ has done, is doing, and will do. He died. He gives it righteousness and it will one day be with him forever.
Speaker 2:And that is the gospel. That's the gospel. So we see that this mystery to which marriage points is not something secondary. It's not something peripheral, and it's not something marginally important. The church is central to Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2:It's central throughout history as we see him loving and purchasing. It's it's central, right now as he sanctifies and cleanses and in the future as he presents. So it's central throughout history, and it's also central to the gospel. And not just the gospel that has to do with you as an individual. That Jesus died for you and your sins.
Speaker 2:Of course, that's true. But John Stott, a great theologian, wrote this. The good news of the unsearchable riches of Christ with which Paul preached is that he died and rose again not only to save sinners like me, but also to create a new single humanity. Not only to redeem us from sin, but also to adopt us into God's family. Not only to reconcile us to God but also to reconcile us to one another.
Speaker 2:The church is an integral part of the gospel. End quote. So just even briefly looking at Ephesians, we can see God's heart and Christ's love for the church. In short, he loved it enough to die for it. And it's absolutely central to him.
Speaker 2:And if we're to submit to Christ, as Ephesians 524 says, and if we're to be imitators of God, as Ephesians 51 tells us to be, then the church needs to be central to us also. Stott continues with this quote, if the church is central to God's purpose, as seen both in history and the gospel, it must surely be central to our lives. How can we take lightly what God takes so seriously? How dare we push to the circumference what God has placed at the center? So I think this begs the question, what's our view of the church?
Speaker 2:Does it match Christ? Are we nearly as passionate about the church as Christ is? Both the church with the big c, the universal church across the globe, and the church with the little c's, the local church like redeemer, or if you're a visitor, your local church. And if we do think we'd we, view the church like this, does our life reflect that? Does our life reflect that?
Speaker 2:My observation is, at least in my own life and and Christians in general, is that we don't seem to esteem the church like Christ does. Or at least we don't always live like we do. So I think our view of the church is too small. It's too diminished. And this is not just true about the church capital c, the universal church, the institution, the bride.
Speaker 2:I think it's especially true of the lower case c church, the local church like redeemer. And this is in fact how the New Testament, speaks of the church, the overwhelming majority of the time in your scripture as just a local gathering of believers. It's a local body whether that's the scripture as just a local gathering of believers. It's a local body whether that's Rome or Jerusalem or Galatia or wherever. It usually speaks to the church as just those people.
Speaker 2:And I think this is the crux of the matter for us. That our view of, the local church is too small and I think it might need a little bit of an adjustment. I think it needs an adjustment to come back to the center of our lives where it belongs. To move it from a peripheral, an extracurricular place that fits somewhere between a day off and the upcoming work week. Back to the center.
Speaker 2:So tonight I just wanna give a few practical ways in which I think we, as a people that makes up this local body, can put it back in its rightful place. And I wanna say this is a disclaimer. This is not to make you feel bad. It's not to make you more helpful or make you a more willing servant here at the church. The purpose is honestly that you would love what Christ love loves, and you would magnify Christ as the head of this body.
Speaker 2:And we know that it will ultimately be for your joy and for your own, good as you as you love the church. So I'm gonna share 3 kind of things I think we would do well to shift. The first is how much we need the church. Like, we need to shift our view of how much, at least we in our, I guess, kinda lives think we need this. I think all too often our attitude is one of nonchalance towards a church.
Speaker 2:When it comes down to it, if we're pressed, I don't think we really think we need the church. But I'm here to tell you that as a Christian, you desperately need the church, and you need a local church. First one for for 1, you need it, for assurance of your own salvation. How do I say that? John 13 says this, a new command I give you that you love one another.
Speaker 2:Just as if I have loved you, you are also to love one another. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. You see, loving one another is just simply the litmus test of if our faith is real or not. If you love people, that's not gonna save you. Only Christ's death does that.
Speaker 2:But loving others will certainly show you and those other people that your salvation is authentic, that it's real. See, it's easy for us to claim that we love other people or know a love from God in Christ, and yet live in a way that gives lie to that claim. It's easy to say, oh, I love my neighbors. I love my church, and and I don't think I have boundaries there, but but very clearly have definite boundaries that say, I'll love this much, but I'm not gonna go and and love them this much. Mark Deaver, kind of a notable pastor in in Washington DC, says these striking words.
Speaker 2:I don't care how much you cry during singing or preaching. If you do not live a life marked by love toward others, the bible has no encouragement for you to think that you're a Christian. None. Close quote. See, we need the local church for this because Deborah goes on to say this.
Speaker 2:Do you want to know that your new life in Christ is real? Commit yourself to a local group of saved sinners. Try to love them. Don't just do it for 3 weeks. Don't just do it for 6 months.
Speaker 2:Do it for years. And I think you'll find out and others will too whether or not you love God. The truth will show itself. Close quote. See, the local church is where we are to live out this new life in Christ with perseverance and with authenticity.
Speaker 2:Yes, we love everyone around us that we're in contact with, at work and in our neighborhoods, But the church is different. The church is the intended place for this. You see, there's nothing that takes place of the local church. Not a loose collection of friends, not some community you have, not some homogeneous group that you're involved with some some with some sort of sub theme. For me, this is seminary.
Speaker 2:I'm in seminary and a lot of times that can be a de facto church, but it's not the church. It's not the church. It's not replaced by listening to sermons and worship music by yourself either. Because as Ephesians 2 says, only the church is this new society. This multiracial, multiethnic group reconciled displaying the many colored fellowship which proclaims the many splendored wisdom of God.
Speaker 2:Nothing else can do that like the church. See, the church is unique in our life, and, you might be sitting next to someone you have nothing in common with and don't particularly like except for Jesus Christ, and he's reconciled both of you. Only the church offers that. The second reason I think you need the church is for your own sanctification. Because it's this group of people that's committed to the local church and therefore committed to you who's going to know you well enough to know that you're not living out this new life and confront you about it, hopefully lovingly and gently.
Speaker 2:As one author says, sanctification is a community project. We're often so blind to our own sin that we need our brothers and sisters here who know us, who love us, who are committed to us, to help us know our sin, to help us fight our sin, to help us magnify Christ as we love others, love those around us. And the church is where this occurs. We also need the church because this is where we grow as Christians. I love it.
Speaker 2:Every week, Joel prays before his sermon, that his words would fall away, and the word of God would remain and that it would change us. And it does change us. No, this doesn't happen immediately, instantly, and it doesn't even happen exhaustively. It happens slowly over time, like an hour hand of a clock. Sometimes, this is painfully slow for many of us, but but here is where the word is offered.
Speaker 2:Here's where the bread of life is given. Here is where the word is preached week in week out, and that does change us. This is not even to mention we need the church for just the practical support, independence, and help that it offers. I know many of us in this room are are young and don't really have a care in the world and have not had a traumatizing experience in our life, something that rocks us to the core. But that's gonna come for every one of us.
Speaker 2:That will come. And, when that happens, the church will be there for you because God promises to cherish and nourish his church. And so when you face your most dark and difficult hour, the church will be there. God uses it for that. So far from being extraneous, for so many reasons, we as Christians desperately need this body.
Speaker 2:Second thing that I think we would do well to shift is our commitment to the local church. If we're honest, I think our commitment level is pretty low when it comes to the church. But the church is certainly not the only recipient of our generation's inability to stick with things. It seems in most areas, we have, a sort of commitment phobia. I think in something like this, and in promising to do something good we might miss out on something better.
Speaker 2:We keep our options open and this kind of permeates most of our lives. And I think this is particularly seen in the church. But recall, what was created as a picture of the relationship between Christ and the church? It's marriage. Is there anything that requires more of a commitment than marriage?
Speaker 2:Maybe besides children, I don't think that there is anything. And I'm not even married, so I'm sure I don't know the half of it. But our commitment to the local church should look a lot less like that to the 5th season of lost or a hobby or sport of choice, and more like that of marriage. I think most of us, to some extent, understand the commitment and prioritizing that goes along with marriage. But very few of us carry this over to the church.
Speaker 2:Piper says, right after that quote that I read for you, John Piper says this, being married is mostly about telling the truth with our lives that Christ keeps his covenant with his wife. It's about portraying something true about Jesus Christ and the way he relates to his people. And I think we do see this in marriage. But what about the substance that gives the shadow? I think by being unreliable and uninvolved and inactive members in our churches, we confuse both Christians in the church and non Christians outside of the church about what the covenant of Christ and His people is like.
Speaker 2:When our attitude towards a church is, I'm here tentatively, at least for the moment, I think. When it's that, I think we rob Christ of his glory because we're not displaying his covenant accurately. We mislead what, to others what Christ is like. So I think our lack of commitment to the church has some very serious consequences to the watching world. So I want to give you just a couple brief thoughts about the ways we could be committed to the local church.
Speaker 2:First is this. Join your local church. Become a member. Because only as an active member will you avail yourself to the privileges and the benefits that are only in the local church. And when you join, put your roots down.
Speaker 2:Be all there. Jim Elliott has this great quote, the missionary in, I think the thirties and forties. He says this, wherever you are, be all there. Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God. These words are for us.
Speaker 2:Don't always live life looking to the next thing with one eye kind of peering around the corner hoping something better is gonna come along. Saints, that is idolatry. It's the idol of choice and options, and that's a sin. And many of us, including me and and maybe even chiefly me, are guilty of this. We need to fight this urge.
Speaker 2:We need to fight it, in the people we date. We need to fight it in our marriages. We need to fight it in our jobs, and certainly fight it in the church. We need to join the local church and be there with all of your gifts, with all your mind, with all your strength, with your commitment. Second thing that we can help us commit, I think, is make church a priority.
Speaker 2:We all build our lives around priorities. All of us, almost without exception, do what we prioritize. We have that luxury in America. That doesn't exist all over the world, but here we do. Now I know we all think we're really very busy, but all of us make time to do what we wanna do.
Speaker 2:Our lives just bear this out. And it seems for most of us that the church falls kinda somewhere in the middle, neatly fitting, between the other priorities we have. Not lower, but really not that much higher. But the shirt the church should be on the short list of priorities. And all the secondary concerns should flow around the Church, not over the Church.
Speaker 2:See, if godliness matters to us, if loving Christ is important to us, if eternity matters, should not the church be a top priority? And I'm not talking about making it home from the lake on time or not going to the event that conflicts with church or spending less time visiting with the parents or in laws. Those are obvious. Like that there shouldn't be a question about that. I'm talking about big things like, what about your job?
Speaker 2:The place you live? Where or whether you go away to school? Are these more important than the church? One author I that I read in kind of preparing for this says this about moving, but I think it holds for a number of these big decisions. Says this.
Speaker 2:If God has blessed you with relationships, accountability and community in the church you are in, I encourage you to give something as significant as a move much prayerful consideration. I think what he's saying here is it's not automatic that these big decisions trump the local church. See, the church should not be in the middle of our priority list, just like a husband or wife would never be in the middle of a priority list for a good marriage. So I I can't I'm not gonna try to spell this out exactly and and only you know what God has called you, but I do wanna raise this question. Is the local church, a priority on par with your job, with your career, with the education that you get, with where you live?
Speaker 2:If it's not, I would just encourage you to search the scriptures and pray about if the church needs to move up on your priority list. Well, a couple more ways that I think we can commit to the local church. I think I have 6 and all. Number 3 is you find ways to serve. And not just the ways you like.
Speaker 2:The definition of serving is meeting someone else's needs, not our needs. Perhaps you don't care much for cooking, at the homeless shelter or going down there or even the thought of going down there. But these are legitimate needs that other people have. We serve for the sake of others, just for the way it makes us feel. 4th, give your time and your money to the local church.
Speaker 2:5th is connect with people in your local church and not just the people that are like you. And 6th, share your passion for the church with others, especially non Christians. Non Christians need to see that you love, that you cherish, that you value the local church. The local church gets enough bad press. Some of it is deserved, but Christ loves his bride.
Speaker 2:And we need to show the world that that we do too. And, in preparing for this message, I read a couple books, and I wanna recommend 2 that I think help, particularly in loving the church and and being able to display that. The first is a book called Stop Dating the Church. These are real readable. They're they're quick reads.
Speaker 2:Stop Dating the Church, and this is by an unknown author. I could tell you his name, but then I think you'd write him off. And it's a good book, so don't don't write it off. And then the second is why we love the church. It's written by a couple of guys.
Speaker 2:This is very funny, and it's really, I hesitate to use the word relevant. That's kind of a buzzword, but it's really it talks about a lot of the issues right now. There's a lot of books out there that kinda disparage the church, and that kinda answers a lot of those. But it helps us display that we love the church. Alright.
Speaker 2:Finally, the last thing that I think we would do well to to rethink or or shift. I think we need to shift our view of the purpose of the church. Now I'm just going to say this, the purpose of the church is not about you. It's almost cliche, but I think it's true that we are consumers when it comes to church. And what's behind that is the subconscious question is, how does this meet my needs?
Speaker 2:And I know that's how we operate with technology and the restaurants we go to and where we shop, but that's not the question we ask when we're in church. And I would go so far as to say that's not a biblical question. Because asking this question never satisfies us because nothing's gonna meet our needs perfectly, exactly as we would like. Not a spouse and certainly not a church. And in asking this question, we're always going to be disappointed in the outcome.
Speaker 2:So consequently, we're always disappointed in the local church. But I think, this is just kind of my thought, is the dissatisfaction, disappointment is largely our fault because I think we've taken on attitudes and assumptions from the world that affect what we expect from the church. Now this is certainly not for everybody, but I I noticed this in our generation. Just a couple things that we're typically fairly self centered because we believe the lie that we're gonna be happier the less we sacrifice and give of ourselves and our time. And this is simply not true.
Speaker 2:Not that old, but I've done enough things that I don't wanna do and have found it very fulfilling to know that that's not true. We don't believe the lie that as we clutch our resources in times, we're gonna be happier. That's not how God designed us. He designed us to give ourselves away. I also think that this generation struggles with being independent.
Speaker 2:I'd say even proudly so that we don't need other people, but we do. Thirdly, I think a lot of us can be critical. We easily complain about the church's many failures and inadequacies. But rarely are we concerned. And concern is when you care enough to fix a problem.
Speaker 2:If you saw a child playing in a busy street, you would be concerned. You wouldn't be critical. And I think mostly with the church, we're critical. So I think the shift then needs to be from thinking the church is there for you to you are there for the church. The men's breakfast that we have, and the theological coffee houses, and the prayer before the services at 4:30, are not just there for you to get something out of them.
Speaker 2:We hope that happens. But the reality is we need you and what you bring. And that should be your attitude. Not one of consumerism, one of commitment and sacrifice. And I can say this because I'm not the pastor.
Speaker 2:I sit in the pews with you week in and week out, and this is a message for me also. The church needs your gifts. It needs your physical presence. It needs your service and it needs your prayers. So even though you might get nothing out of it, you do it because the church needs what you offer.
Speaker 2:And I would also say because our preference as Christians is for others, we can understand that it's not just about getting or receiving. It's about giving. Just like a marriage, the shadow of this substance, there's receiving and there's giving. And I bet if you're married you feel a lot more like there's giving more often than not. But I think in the shift from what you can get to what you can give, I think there's great joy and satisfaction and fulfillment in that.
Speaker 2:Not the least of which you honor Christ when you do that. You honor your head. So as you come to men's breakfast and prayer in the middle of the week that Joel talked about, and you come a little early, to help set up, you know, the the pastors get here at 2:30 to start setting up. As as you come at 2:30 to help set up and stay a little bit later to tear down. In short, as you commit to this local church, as you commit here, I think, we'll live the truth of the glorious and unbreakable covenant of love between Christ and His bride, us, the church.
Speaker 2:So in sum, I believe that as we change our view of our need for the local church, our commitment to the local church, and the purpose of a local church, the church then becomes, much less of a burden and more of a necessity. Something that that ties us down less and becomes more of an anchor for us. Now, it's no coincidence that redeemer has its membership Sunday coming up in a couple weeks. And as kind of articulated, we believe that the church is God's plan and that Christ loves his body. And we want you to we want you to believe and live that also.
Speaker 2:And membership is where we start. Membership is the visible sign of your commitment to and love for the bride of Christ. And it's the beginning of your submission to the head to Christ. So So if you go here regularly and are not a member, we urge you become a member. And in full disclosure, I've been here for a long time, and I have not become a member yet.
Speaker 2:That is out of my laziness. I have no theological misgivings or anything, and I'm gonna become a member in a couple weeks. And I've been thoroughly convicted as I've put this together. If you do wanna become a member, there's a couple steps that are involved in that, that the redeemer has, put together. The first is that you need to be a baptized believer.
Speaker 2:As Ephesians 5 talked about, you're cleansed through the washing of water and the word. Baptism is that. And so we want you to have been a baptized believer. The second is you need to provide a a written testimony to the pastor so that they know that your conversion is authentic and you are a regenerated, person, that you belong to this body, that you're a member of this household. 3rd is, affirming the, covenant and this the church covenant and the statement of faith.
Speaker 2:We just wanna be a unified body on the same page, and so we want you to affirm these certain things about what we believe. About God and man and sin and, these important doctrines. And 4th, that you'd be committed to the relationships here. A lot of just kinda what I've talked about. But if you can do that, we would love to have you as a member.
Speaker 2:I hope they would love to have me as a member because I'm gonna do that. And that's in a couple weeks. So if you have more questions about that, you can talk to Joel or or me after the service. For those of you who already are members, and there are a lot of you here, membership Sunday is a special time for you too because it's the time when you renew your covenant here. Every year we do this.
Speaker 2:Just as the covenant was renewed with Israel in the old testament, you see that in Exodus and Deuteronomy and again in Joshua. We have the chance to recommit ourselves to the local church. And as you do this, members, don't just simply do it as a hoop to jump through to be a part of what's going on here. Think about what you're doing. Rethink your view of the church, how your life reflects your view of the church, your commitment to it, your priorities, how you're involved, what you expect from it.
Speaker 2:Use this as an opportunity to continue loving the Church as much as Christ loves the church. Now while I've kind of filled this last part of the sermon with imperatives or what you need to do, I wanna end with an indicative. Just a statement of fact. However, low our view of the church is, however inconsistent And regardless of how much or little we change our attitude towards the church because of this sermon or how great or paltry our new commitment is. It's Christ's church and He is responsible for her.
Speaker 2:See, we do not get better at loving the church to clean her up and offer her all pretty and perfect. The gospel is that Christ is the one who has done this and has completed work. Christ is the one who has loved us and gave himself for us by dying for our sins as a substitute in our place. And Christ is the one who cleanses and sanctifies by giving all who are part of the church His own perfect righteousness which reconciles us to God the Father. And having died in our place, taking on our alienation and our sin and clothing us in His righteousness, a righteousness that is not our own, He will present us to Himself in all of our blood bought splendor as a pure and a spotless bride.
Speaker 2:Blameless and without blemish. So make no mistake. Christ will receive this glorious bride that he gave his life for. This work is outside of us and it's totally finished. So we don't love the church and commit to it out of guilt or to be a better Christian.
Speaker 2:We love and we commit to the church because it shows the truth about how much Christ loves and is committed to us. Amen.