Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome this morning. Happy Happy New Year 2025. It's just, I guess I know people say as you get older, it just goes by a whole lot quicker. I don't know if that's true or not, but it seems to go by quicker. But we are glad that you're here on this first Sunday of the month. Thank you for being here. If you're a visitor, thank you for joining us today. If you found us online and you searched us and showed up, we thank you for that and we hope you have a great day of worship and fellowship with us today as well.
Hebrews chapter 10, verses 19 through 25 says, Therefore brothers, since we have a or have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain that is through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. With our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near. Let's pray. Father God, we are, we are blessed and privileged, Lord, to come together as a body, Lord, to. To praise you and as the scriptures, your scriptures tell us, Lord, to stir each other on, to continue to do the good works that you called us to do. Father Lord, at the same time as we going to remember today that when we fail to do that, that our sins have been forgiven through the blood of Christ and Father, each day is a new beginning that we can just commit, lay down our crosses or pick up our crosses, lay down ourselves and just follow you step by step.
And Father, part of that is coming together in fellowship and worshiping you and praising your wonderful name. So today we want to do that. Today we want to magnify you. Today we want to lift up your holy name and to thank you and to rejoice in you because you are worthy. Father, we ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:02:24] Speaker B: Happy New Year.
It is somehow 2025. I'm not sure how that happened since it was just January 2024, but time seems to seems to fly at Living Hope Church. Every three years we kind of walk through the same rotation and we've done this for a little while now and the Three mission words that we have, you'll see in the foyer on your way in or out, is gather, grow, go. And it's underneath it says that. And our vision is that woodland and beyond would know love and serve. Who? Jesus. Can we say Jesus together? Jesus. Just making sure we're all awake. That's the right way to start. This year, by the way, is saying Jesus, recognizing he is the One, as we just sung about and we'll read about today as the author, perfecter of our faith, the one who made our faith even possible. So those three words, and to give it a little bit more, put a little bit more skin, if you will, on those three words. Gather is the year that we're in now. Last year was the go. This year it's gather. Next year will be grow. And we'll kind of walk through that. And what we lean into in those words is today for this year, gather. That is in healthy community and right worship. We grow. We'll look at this next year. We looked at a couple years ago, grow in obedient discipleship and regular prayer. And then to go, to go be ambassadors of Christ in a world that needs Jesus.
All of these things, these are vital in a healthy church. So next week we're going to pick back up in John, and through this year, we'll preach through John. We'll finish the book of John as we started last year. But today, I think properly and appropriately starting the year off, thinking about, considering and unpacking on some level, actually not very deep today will kind of be a surface level, if you will, on answering this question. What is a healthy church? I was listening to a video this week by this guy who talks a lot to pastors and studies church life, and he had run across a study recently, and he said this.
For every one church that opens in America, three churches close their doors.
For every one church that opens, that is planted and that exists for longer, I think, than six months, three churches close their doors in this country. And that was just, again, not only sad but staggering, isn't it?
So how do we live in practice living in a healthy church? How do we be a church that is not only stable and existing, but healthy and as we know, in even human life or just animal life and the creation around us, if something is healthy, it's often growing. Let's pray and then we'll begin to answer this question this morning. If you would join me, Lord Jesus, we recognize first and foremost that we're here today because of what you have done for us. We Recognize that even from the beginning, thousands of years ago, you made us very good sin, broke the relationship we had as humans with you human. And you made a way for that relationship to be restored.
And here today, because of what you have done, your death and your resurrection, we are now able to live in a relationship again with you, where we no longer have to hide and be in fear, but we can approach your throne with confidence.
We praise you for that this morning as we spend time in your word. As we consider this question, how do we as followers of you, live out relationships with one another and with you to have a healthy church? Lord, we want to listen to what you want to say. So I pray that you would speak to us. You keep our eyes and ears open. You would speak through me as well. In Jesus name, amen. As we go through this year, we want to help this church, particularly to be a healthy church. And we're going to do that in different ways. So I'll just speak on the side, if you will, some of the staff and leaders perspective and the elder's perspective in this. And one of the some of the few ways that we're gonna do this is by offering you resources to learn about how to be a healthy church. The first we have Book of the quarters that kind of focus in on what the theme is for this year. Next week you'll see the book of the Quarter in the foyer. If you want to get a head start on that in your bulletin it says Book of the Quarter. You can scan that and read about how you can begin to be a healthy or continue to be a healthy church member. We'll help equip you to be healthy church members in other ways. In classes and courses, we'll preach and teach about unity, humility, sacrifice, forgiveness and compassion. We'll practice right and biblical worship. We'll fight against division and dissension. And we'll listen to God's leading as we make decisions. Those things are key in growing to be a healthy church. But today we want to zoom in on this question that you see there. What is a healthy church? And this question is particularly aimed at us as we really any Christian look to attach ourselves to a church and understand why one church is healthy and one church isn't healthy. Many people you might know this, maybe you don't. Many people who call themselves Christians maybe are Christians are leaving the church in masses. Actually maybe it's because they don't like what they see in the church. They don't find a church that reflects the heart and the Emotions or the intentions of God or perhaps it's because they have experienced hurt in the life of the church. And so they say, and here's often the words that we hear maybe that you've heard is I am not leaving God, but I'm leaving the church.
And there's this tension that we maybe even as maybe someone who enjoys going to church, who participates in church regularly, who says wait a minute, can you do that? Is that right? Is that good? And why. And I would say here today our goal isn't to try to get people to stay in church or to get people to come back to church in whatever means possible, but rather it's this. It's to see from God's word. This morning what are. We'll look at just seven, there's many more seven attributes of a healthy church. We want to practice those here in the life of this church and then let God do the rest.
So to be clear, we're talking about the local church also, not the global church, that is not the global church of Christians around the world. But today particularly the local church. We need to first define, it's on the screen as well define the church or even what we're talking about here this morning before we get into these seven points here and then we'll walk right through that. You see a lot of passages there will be in various places. Have you heard the phrase go be the church? Have any of you heard that? Go, go be the church or don't go to church, Go be the church or you don't have to go to church as a Christian you just need to go and be the church. And really what that means is this what they often good intentioned people mean by this is go be an obedient Christian, that is go love other people. Well, go demonstrate Christ as you already should, the church. How about this phrase the church is not a place, it's a people. You heard that right.
And it's correct that the church is not a location, but the church is the gathering of God's people at a location.
So what does this mean? If we look at the actual word church ekklesia in the original language, what this means is literally an assembly or a meeting together of God's people. So by the word in scripture, church, it's not one person by themselves or you can't go and be the church. According to what the Bible says, you can go be an obedient Christian, but the church is the gathering together of God's people. Oftentimes particularly for gathering for worship. Or for fellowship and community, for growth, often in preaching and teaching, even maybe more to the point of the church and defining it. I know I'm leaning into it a little bit, maybe more detail than you think is necessary. As we think back about COVID you remember Covid from a really long time ago.
Any of you impacted by that?
There was the phrase, for example, and I know I might step on some toes here, but that's fine.
I watched church online, or there is church online. And if we look back at what scripture calls the church, that is the meeting together, the assembly of God's people. Often actually what we're doing there is we were watching other people preach a message and sing songs.
We were not watching church because in order to be a part of church, you're gathering with people. Now maybe you gathered with other Christians in your home and you watched a sermon, most likely perhaps of somebody that you know or of your pastor or you watched music. But you don't attend church online. And so I just want to throw that out there. As we think about this concept of church, it's, oh, I don't go to church. I just watch it online. You can't.
Church is the gathering together of God's people. It's the meeting together. Pastor Les read this earlier from Hebrews 10:23 through 25, speaks about the coming together of God's people. A healthy church is a congregation that is increasingly, as we think about this definition, is increasingly reflects God's character as his character has been revealed in His Word. The aim then of a healthy church is not to be a large church.
And it's important for us to see also, just because a church is large does not mean it's healthy. Right? We know a lot of big churches that exist out there. The goal should not be what will grow the church, but rather numerically, but what will help us grow spiritually. How can we become healthier people, and then we let God do the rest. I put perhaps just one definition. There's many that could be kind of worked through and thought through, but one that I thought might be helpful for you to consider is this as we think about a healthy church. A healthy church is one made up of members who are actively expecting to be changed by God. That is not to just learn about God, but to be transformed by God. Practicing disciplines, for example, prayer or worship, or time alone with God to demonstrate their submission to God's will.
My life is no longer about me. It's about God and him doing his will through me and in me and Actively obeying the leading of the Holy Spirit to bring about their maturity, my maturity and your maturity and kingdom growth. So all of those things together, so much of that can be unpacked in greater detail, which we won't do in great detail today, but maybe take a picture of that, maybe write that down somewhere, because those are really key elements as we consider what a healthy church is. So a healthy church is marked by. Here we go, point one. You can maybe write this in. And there's a lot of passages there so you can flip around in your Bible as I talk through them. And some of them will be on the screen. Firstly, is marked by biblical preaching and teaching. We'll spend a few more minutes here than the other points. This is key. Biblical preaching and teaching. Good, right? Christian teaching is calling people to listen not to the preacher, but to Jesus. It's taking upon yourself, perhaps as the preacher or as the teacher, the realization that you are speaking verbally about what God has written and calling upon others to listen and to respond to the words of Jesus first and foremost. Preaching, maybe if you were to put this in just a few words, is calling people to change. Now, we do this in various ways as we walk through Scripture. We teach, yes, to inform about the context or about information about people or locations. That's the teaching aspect. But the preaching, the slight difference there is now that you understand, now it's time to do something about it. So as you think about even a preacher, for example, it's this or someone who is preaching. God is using a mortal to transmit his immortal message. And that is powerful as we consider this teaching and preaching. Because as soon as we say, I see what God's word says, and I'm gonna make it fit what I want and then communicate that now we're no longer preaching God, Jesus, we're preaching me. I have an opinion or an agenda for other people. And I would like to see them change to fit my agenda rather than the agenda of God. The spirit of God is what does the work in people. Acts 2:42 speaks about this. Speaking of the new believers, they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching or doctrine or instruction, and the fellowship or association or community.
Why is biblical preaching and teaching so important? I think that's an important thing to even ask as we consider biblical preaching and teaching. Why is it so important? Because sound doctrine comes from sound exposition of Scripture. If we don't exposit the word properly, the doctrines or the teachings, the belief that we have about God is going to be very skewed. You with Me there. If I begin to say, I think this means this, I think this means this, then God, Jesus, or the God that I preach isn't the God of the Bible any longer.
Scripture is clear that everything here is breathed out by God. All Scripture. 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17, it's on the screen. All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for changing people. That is teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man or the person, the man of God might be complete, equipped for every.
Another way of thinking about this, the preacher is the vehicle or the preacher and teacher is the vehicle of God's and God's word is what they're carrying.
It's not okay. It's okay. Not maybe to like one pastor's style, that's really not the most important thing, but rather it's how is the Word of God handled in the church? Is it based on the perspective of the individual or is it interpreted by the rest of scripture? A healthy church listens to and follows God's word as intended by God.
This is primary even for the next six points. Those then will be defined by how preaching and teaching happens in the church. Because if this is skewed, everything else then will be improperly handled. What I'm going to do as we go through each of these, to kind of help us focus in on each point and know what do I do with this concept or this subject matter at the end of each one of these, I encourage you to just to write this in. I'm going to give you kind of one thought or one takeaway to have or one question to consider after each one of these points. So we're at the end of point one here. So here's something to think about, something to consider as we ponder this point about biblical preaching and teaching as a key mark of a healthy church. And this particularly is pointed at the church member is this be, and this might be a new phrase for you, be an expositional listener.
And here's what that means. Make sure what is being said matches what the Bible actually means. So just like we talk about expositional preaching, that is to go through the text of Scripture and expose it or expound upon what's here. So too a healthy church member says, I am, even with what's being preached to me, I'm going to look at Scripture and say, is that actually what it means? This is the duty of a healthy church member. Secondly, you can write this in on your outline. Second point here is gospel literacy and centrality. Gospel literacy and centrality. And this happens in three key parts. And I'll just kind of briefly move through this. This is vital. Again, for a healthy church. The gospel is understood and is central. How do we do this first three things? Maybe just write these concepts down. Gospel understanding has to occur, Gospel personalization has to occur, and gospel application has to occur. I'll walk through that in a little bit more detail here. So gospel understanding, gospel personalization and gospel application. In order for gospel literacy and centrality to. To be real in the life of the church, the church member needs to understand the gospel. What is it? According to Romans 1:16, it is the power of God for the what?
We should all know this. I hope the salvation of everyone who believes. I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone believes.
Romans 3 and 6 says that salvation occurs because we recognize in order for salvation to occur, we Notice that Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fallen of the glory of God. And Romans 6:23 says, for the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is so we realize that people are sinners, there's a problem then we can't attain salvation. We've all fallen short of God's glory. But the gift of God, not of my own works, not of my own effort, is eternal life. Romans 5. 8 says that Christ died. He demonstrates his love towards sinners and died for us. Romans 10:9 says that if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is and believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead, we will experience salvation.
Now, I know that even saying something like that, walking through some pieces of the Romans Road, like, all right, I know some of that.
There's various frameworks to help us remember the gospel. For example, there's a gospel hand or gospel beads at Romans Road and a gospel circle and five spiritual laws kind of list goes on.
But it's important, I think, for every Christian to be able to, on their own, in their own words, write out what is the gospel. Write out the answer to that. Every Christian should be able to do that. If it's true and real in your life, then we should be able to know how to communicate that. That leads to the second thing that I had said, so gospel understanding, gospel personalization. So not just do I understand what it means out there as the good news, that's what gospel means. But it's real in my.
For example, something along the lines of this for me, I have been saved by Jesus from the domain of darkness. I have been adopted as his son, and I have been commissioned as an ambassador.
Here's the concept of the gospel made personalized or real to me. If the gospel changes us, which it does when we believe in it, then it will be personally powerful in your life. You have a new identity because of the gospel. And our life should be and will be different because of the gospel. And other people will see that as well. So gospel understanding, gospel personalization and gospel application. So not only do I know what it is, not only is it real and important in my life, but if I want the Gospel to be central and understood in the life of the church, it also has to be applied. Colossians 3:11 says this here. There is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian or Scythian, slave or free, but Christ in all, in all. And in Christ is all. And in all, we recognize there's a level of unity that is only experienced in the person and work of Jesus. When the gospel is applied, we look at aspects of it and say, I want this to be true in my life. Just like God, who is far and distant from mankind as we were sinners, said, I'm gonna be unified, I'm gonna bridge the gap. So too, mankind should be doing that with one another as we trust in Jesus.
The gospel is powerful, yes. And when rightly applied, it is something that will not make a small dent in your life and my life, but will make such an impact that heads will turn when we interact with them. So here's something that you can think about before we move to point three. Maybe write down or consider. Make a habit of regularly writing down what the gospel is and how its attributes are impacting your way of life. Make a habit of regularly writing down what the gospel is and how its attributes are impacting your way of life.
The gospel reminds me of his love. Is his love impacting my way of life? Shows his patience, his goodness, his kindness, his faithfulness. Is that impacting my way of life? Thirdly, you can write this in on your outline. As we consider this a discipleship process and practice. Let's lean back into Hebrews chapter 10, a key verse as we consider the church. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 24 and 25. Speak about this. Let us. So some of this was read earlier. Let us consider how to stir up. We'll pause that. Stir up. Those two words in English is one word in the original language, and it's actually the word for provoke or to irritate. It's the idea of interacting with somebody else. Stir up one another. There's a lot of one another's throughout the New Testament to love and good works. So let us consider, let us weigh out, let us practice how we can provoke or irritate or rub shoulders with others so that more love abounds in the life of the church and good works, that is serving Christ, not neglecting to what meet together. That's the interacting with one another, as we've already seen here, the stirring up. You have to have interaction with one another, as is the habit of son, but rather encouraging. The word encouraging you see there on the screen is the same word, same root word as Holy Spirit. It's one who comes alongside.
So, but rather coming alongside one another is what this is calling us to do. Just as the Holy Spirit comes alongside us to make us more mature, we as followers of Jesus are called to come alongside one another and help the other become more mature. Jesus called us to do this in Matthew 28, didn't he? He said, go and make disciples. Go and do that. How do you help make somebody more mature? Is a huge question that we're not going to spend tons of time answering here. But the process I think is key. Thinking about this as the church's calling is to go and the Christians calling is to go and make disciples. If we looked at even some numbers, maybe just think about this with me. If we looked at the church as a manufacturing plant for disciples, okay, for example, you have a car manufacturing plant. Their job is to manufacture.
And you would expect after a little while something would come out of the door. What would that probably be? A car, Right? You would assume, all right, they're probably building cars in there. I'm probably gonna see some cars coming out of the car manufacturing plant. What if the church was a manufacturing plant for disciples?
Now we ask ourselves the question. Looking at the church as a whole or even particularly in the life of our church, if people watch it long enough, are they going to see disciples walking out the door? Are they going to see people who were walked in with this maturity level and they walked out with this maturity level, or are they going to say, looks like the same thing? Like, I just saw a tire roll in. It was in there for a while and the tire rolled out. I thought it was supposed to be attached to a frame. That doesn't make any sense.
The church is called to not just teach for the purpose of saying things and information, but rather for bringing about maturity. And a healthy church has a process to help people move from. I'M brand new to the faith to I am growing and maturing every day. I am self sustaining just like children and parents. You have a little child, he's a couple days old, a few months old, a few years old. You would hope by the time he's 18, you're not doing the same thing you did for him when he was 2. If you did, that would be concerning. Your job as the parent is to help them mature, become more independent. Something to think about. The end of point three here. Question actually to consider.
Are you regularly expecting to be changed by God's Word and God's spirit?
Do you read the Bible and pray, go to church study and Bible study and so on with the expectation to think differently, believe differently or act differently after taking part in those spaces?
And if not, pray that God would change that.
Rather than I'm going to go to church or Bible study or spend time in the Lord or open the Word just because it's the duty, rather than I think God wants to keep changing me, I'm going to expect that to occur when I go into these spaces especially and even more so are you coming alongside somebody else and saying, let me help you mature, let me help you grow.4 on your outline, you could write this in.
Yes. These other things that we've talked about are key. There's one aspect that's very important, is those who are leading in the church, that there's qualified and shepherding leaders, leadership. There's one passage in Scripture that I'll just lean into a little bit more here that speaks probably most potently to leaders, particularly in the life of the church. And that's 1 Timothy, chapter 3, verses 1 through 7. And because it's a powerful and important passage that covers all the bases, many of the bases, at least we'll just read it together as we think about qualified and shepherding leaders, particularly in the life of local church.
This saying is trustworthy. This is Paul speaking. This saying is trustworthy. If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore, an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober minded, self controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome or not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity, keeping his children submissive. For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? Reasonable question. He must not be a recent convert or he may be puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders so that he may not fall into disgrace into the snare of the. Into a snare of the devil. Acts chapter 20, verse 28 is one other passage I'll just put on the screen here. Pay attention, careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock. This is particularly speaking to the leader in the church, to all the flock, which the Holy Spirit has made you an overseer to care for the church of God which he has obtained with his own blood. This shows incredible weight upon those leading in the life of the church. Titus chapter one speaks about leaders in the church as well. Leaders are called to be shepherds who love the sheep, who love the people they are working with. They're called to seek the direction of God and the welfare of God's people. Not to use people for their own glory or their own edification or their own agenda, but rather to lay before others. Here's the heart and the will of God and where God's taking us. As a shepherd leads sheep and says, I want your best in mind. You're not here for my own gain, but so that I can benefit you. So too, that does a healthy leader. If the leaders are shallow or unqualified, it will be seen in the life and ministry of the church.
The key is finding those leaders, not just elders or staff, that will help grow people into the likeness of Christ as they themselves are growing.
So point to consider here as we go before. Point five is this as we think about qualified leaders, as you might have, by the way, picked up, Every one of these could be like a sermon in itself. We're just touching some of these qualified leaders and shepherds is key. So what can we do with this? What's the action step with this point? It's this. Pray for the leaders in the church. It is a high calling and one in which God cares deeply about leading in the church, regardless of what a title may be attached to. That is not about power, but about stewardship.
And so praying and asking God for perseverance and guidance and direction.5.
We've talked about some different things here now, leaning particularly into the members, those making up the life of the church, members who pursue unity. Who pursue unity. There's three primary ways that this is done that I'll speak to. Now. Obviously there's many more that we couldn't speak to, but three main ways that members in the life of the church can pursue church unity. Firstly, it's by praying prayer. Praying Biblically, what does scripture say? Praying in line with that, praying regularly and praying together. As you read through scripture, we see so many times, particularly in Paul's letters, how often he says, I am praying for you, I am praying for you. And to pray for one another and pray for one another, because prayer binds people together, many of you, even in the life of the church. Here, Tom, who shares emails back and forth, your prayer requests and your praises. You might get these emails and you're able to pray for and with others in the life of the church. We have a couple prayer meetings on Tuesday night and Friday morning where people here, you all come together and we pray together. Prayer is a clear way to demonstrate our humility in the church.
So how do we pursue unity? Yes, by prayer. Secondly, love, loving each other, loving one another, and loving those who are in leadership. Colossians chapter three speaks about this probably most clearly as we think about our role to love one another. Put on then as God's chosen ones, that's you and me, holy and beloved, that's us. Put on compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness. You can put that on the screen, put on patience, bearing with one another. And by the way, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all, put on what love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. You see that not only does prayer, but loving each other, loving one another brings about unity. And thirdly, service serving one another. 1 Corinthians 12, 12, 20 speak about the one body having many, what many parts and how all the different parts, yes, they are different, but when all working together, it's moving together, it's unified, it's like, and I always like this picture, it's like keys on a piano, that they are all very different. If they were not different, that would be a problem, right? If you had multiple keys that were the same Note, but every eight, all 88 keys bring out a different sound. But when working together, they can make something beautiful. Now, if you play the two keys that don't fit in the right chord together, often it doesn't sound lovely. But with intentionality, something beautiful is brought about when you bring things that are different together, and that can be done as we serve together in the different ways that God has gifted us. Let's look at a few closing questions on point five before we look at point six.
Do you tend to pray for people and build them up or just talk about their shortcomings instead of maybe just reflective questions? Do you tend to talk about your discontentments rather than express joy and gratitude in the life of the church, do you tend to take rather than serve?
Those questions really center around looking to build unity in the church.
Number six.
This is probably one of the most neglected points in churches, particularly in America. I was looking at a study recently and it said that in the States, I think it was in 2023, there was a study done of pastors across the country.
And in 20, I think 2017 or 2018, like 20% or 15 or 20% of pastors thought that their churches did a great job of evangelism. In 2023, that number dropped to 1%.
I was like, what?
How?
Maybe this is why.
Because we've believed that the church's job is evangelism, not the Christian's job.
The church is made up of Christians, but too many Christians have traded their role as Jesus imitator for good church member. Sadly, this has resulted in lots of Christians going to church and few Christians imitating Christ, particularly in how they engage with the lost, how we engage with the lost.
But Romans 1:16, we saw this already says that I am not ashamed of the gospel, of the gospel and even think about that. That's one of the key things perhaps that we forget or we don't believe. As we think about evangelism in the church, too many of us are shy about the gospel. We're willing to talk about it if somebody else brings it up, but we're much more bold about trivial issues. And Paul's declaration in Romans 1 says, I'm not ashamed. I am not concerned about bringing this up and talking about it. Sadly, also too many of us believe that it is our power that will bring about salvation. If I'm convincing enough, if I have all of the answers, if I know enough, then maybe they will be saved rather than what, trusting in the power of God for salvation. And thirdly, I underline three things there for everyone.
Perhaps too many of us believe that the gospel isn't for everyone, but for only those who are seeking or asking questions about God. I'll wait until they ask, or I'll wait until they come to church and then we'll talk about Jesus rather than it's for everyone, whether or not they know they need Jesus.
Somebody said DT Niles said this about evangelism. Evangelism is one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.
That was very appropriate. Point the end of point six. Here, something you can think about, consider, maybe write down before we look at point seven, it's this own Evangelism as your calling, not the church's duty.
When that happens, the church will be known for its evangelism.
It's not the leaders saying, evangelize, evangelize, evangelize. We're going to do all of these things, though sometimes that's effective and God uses those things. But first and foremost, it's the Christian owning our identity as ambassadors of Christ as lights in the world around us. First and foremost and by default, what will naturally happen is the church will be an evangelistic church.
Number seven here is this. And we've moved right through all six of these so far. One key attribute of healthy churches is that we observe the ordinances and that is God ordained. God ordained ceremony is one definition. There's sometimes there's the word sacrament that is used in some denominations and prefer really the word ordinance. And here's why. Sacrament is often thought of as being a means of God's grace.
So for example, as a worshiper performs a particular action, he or she receives divine blessing, either salvation or sanctification. So we get more sanctified. For example, some believe that when we take communion, we become more changed. We experience more salvation or more saving act inside of us rather than the word ordinance, which is not considered as a conduit for God's grace, but rather a practice commanded by God. And this is what we believe, that communion, which we'll take part in a little bit and baptism, baptizing others is a call to demonstrate our obedience and trust and work of Christ that has taken place in us. The Bible tells us that grace is not given to us because of our works. Isn't that a good thing? I don't receive grace because I did this and I did this and I did this. But rather God showed us his grace. He gave us his grace. We don't have to work as a part of our salvation. So the two ordinances that we're considering here now is particularly baptism in the Lord's Supper communion.
And by the way, we're going to baptize someone next week. So if you have not been baptized and you would like to be, let me know soon, before next Sunday.
And I mean, I guess you could just like come up and jump in. Well, this board will be pulled up. There's a baptismal back there.
Baptism is an outward sign that we take part in as a church because of an inward act that has already taken place in the believer's life. This is. This does not need to take place in a church. This happens and takes places depending on parts of the world in various places. But oftentimes it happens in the church. When we trust in Christ as our Savior, we are transferred from the domain of darkness to the domain of light. We are moved from death to life. And that's the picture that baptism offers us. It's a public act showing others. I have trusted in Jesus Christ, I have moved from darkness and death to, to light and life. And we rejoice with one another as we take part in this. The Lord's Supper is a soul stirring experience, an act that we take part in because of the depth, the meaning and the meaning of the cross.
It was during an age old celebration of the Passover, the eve of his death, that Jesus instituted this new meal that we take part in, this new activity that we take part in. And it's integral, it's key as we worship him because it reminds us of the power of one, our sin. But more importantly, perhaps, or on the other side of the power of Jesus that trumps the power of our sin.
The Lord's Supper or Christian communion is a remembrance of what Christ did for us and the celebration that we're able to have in a new life. So concluding thought for point seven. And then we're gonna shift to a time of communion. Maybe write this in somewhere.
Don't get caught up in the outward activities of the church. So caught up in the outward activities of the church that you neglect the heart work that God wants to do. A healthy church remembers together what we should all be remembering personally.
So particularly in the area of communion, as we think about that, that is an act that we take part in together, but it should not only be remembered once a month. Right. But rather personally for us. We come to the Lord every day and we praise him. We thank him for the forgiveness that we're able to have because of his death and his resurrection. I'm going to pray just to kind of conclude that. And then ushers and worship team will kind of come up and then we'll kind of think a little bit more about communion. If you would bow your heads and pray. Dear Jesus, we know here today that we need your help. We need your spirit's guidance in our life and in this church. We want to trust in you, we want to lean on you. We want to lean on the word that you have given us. We want to listen to you as you lead and guide and direct us.
That we would walk and act in humility first with you and then with one another.
That when you see us, you see that we have not lost our first love, you and everything that we take part in surrounds that point. The person of Jesus Christ.
As we sing songs, we spend time in your word as we interact with one another. Lord, we pray that your spirit continue to mature us, continue to grow us, continue to help us to know how to love well one another.
In Jesus name, amen.
