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Who Are We, #9 - Church
Well, I am on the ninth installment of the "Who Are We" summer series. It's on the
beliefs of our church and today we're gonna talk about church. We believe in church. That's one
of our beliefs, church, and here we are at church. Praise God for that. So we do follow what we
believe here at church. But what is church? The question here is what makes church important
to you?
If you've got a bulletin, there's always notes and I'm curious what you think about that,
what is church? What makes church important to you? What does it mean to you? What is the
purpose of church? Something to think about. Why are you here? You are a member of this
church or you are a guest of this church. What brings you here? There is a lot of people in this
world that think church is not important. In fact, more and more people in America think that
church is not important. Each year it seems like the attendance of church has shrunk a little bit
all around our country and in all our different denominations. Our church is actually doing
pretty well in that matter as a Seventh Day Adventist church. So, think about it. What is it's
purpose.
Ephesians 3:10-11. It says: "Isn't it that now through the church the manifold wisdom of
God should be made known to the rulers, authorities in heavenly realms according to his eternal
purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord? What does that mean? Read this part
with me. "Through the church the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to rulers and
authority in heavenly realms." Let's just stop right there. The church's purpose is the manifold
wisdom of God that will be known to the rulers and authorities, not just to the United States'
rulers or the rulers around the world, but to heavenly realms. Our church is to show the wisdom
that according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Our church is to show, not only this world, the universe, that God's purpose was to send
Jesus Christ to come out to this earth to fulfill a purpose. What is that purpose? To ransom it.
That is the purpose of the church. What is church? Church is a lot of things. Church is the place
where my family is. Church is the place of fellowship. Church is the place to have a VBS, have
Wednesday night prayer meeting. Church is the place to have small groups. Church is the place
to have great socials. It is a lot of things, but God's view of the church is to show the world and
the universe that he has fulfilled his purpose by sending Jesus Christ to this earth.
Nowadays our church can be seen a little clearer to our community. I was telling some
people that it is like a shaved dog here. They cut down all those trees. People can see the
Downey Seventh Day Church more now. They can see the big VBS sign that's up there. I was
thinking, praise God for that. I like the trees, but I like the world to see us. Amen! And so it's
purpose is to be visible to it's community and why? For this purpose, to show the world that
Jesus came and to fulfill it's purpose that you don't have to suffer and sin any longer which
makes sense to this part. I've read this before in a sermon, but I love this chapter and these
verses here.
Matthew 16:13-16. It says: "When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he
asked his disciples, who do people say the son of man is? They replied, some say John the
Baptist, others Elijah and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. But what about you? he
asked. Who do you say I am? Simon Peter answered, you are the messiah, the son of the living
God." So when you think of this story, you see Jesus talking to Peter. Have you ever known
someone who could look straight in your eyes and kind of know what you're thinking and
feeling? And if things aren't going well, you kind of hide your eyes so they don't see your mind,
if you will. I believe here, Jesus knew exactly what Peter was thinking, so he didn't just say oh,
you are the messiah. I believed he knew exactly that Peter was completely convicted right there,
in front of the son of God. And Jesus' response to him was, "Blessed are you Simon son of
Jonah for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven and I tell
you, you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not
overcome it."
What was the purpose of the church? The purpose of the church was to show that God
fulfilled his purpose by sending Jesus Christ to this earth. What was the start of this church?
Where did it start from? It started right here as we speak. And what was the circumstance of
how this became, Peter telling Jesus, I believe, I know who you are? You are the son of God and
from that point, from that acknowledge, from that understanding, that is the start of the Christian
church as we know it. So what is church about? It's about a lot of things. It's gathering, it's
coming together, worshipping, but it's about Jesus.
Now that that is it's purpose, what is our part in this? What is your part? Why are you
here at church today? All of us are here for different reasons, different connections to this
church. Maybe you are a deacon or head elder or a deaconess or a different type of leader and
you're connected in this church in a ministry way. Some of you maybe here as you come every
Sabbath, but your here for Sabbath and praise God that you are here. Some of you maybe
visiting here. God bless you, but this is for any church for that matter and you are always
welcome to be a part of this church. But what is our role?
Ephesians 4:1-7 has a beautiful depiction of what church is about. "As a prisoner of the
Lord I urge you to ..." - this is Paul writing - "I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you
have received. Be completely humble and gentle. Be patient, bearing with one another in love."
Okay, one of your roles is to be humble and gentle. What's your purpose in church? It is to be
humble and gentle, that's one of your roles. Have churches always been humble and gentle? Has
it been humble and gentle to you? Have you been humble and gentle to the people around you as
regards to church?
One of the roles of church is to be humble and gentle to each other. Be patient with each
other. Churches are meant to be patient with each other. Not everybody is in the same spiritual
level as you are and sometimes we might have a conviction of something, that we say oh man
this is the truth and everybody else is wrong and you know what, they need to be on our side.
They need to understand this and if they don't understand this they shouldn't be a part of this
church. Is that patience? We have to recognize that everybody, all of us that are here, have
different points of view and God is working in their lives and we have to trust that God is
working in all of our lives in the timing and the way it's working. And so we allow each other to
grow in the timing that God is working in their lives and we are patient with each other. And
some day, because I haven't arrived yet, I'm still here, I haven't translated and I haven't arrived
yet, so I have more to learn and boy, do I have more to learn, I do. And so is the rest of us so
let's be patient with each other.
So one of the purposes of the church is being humble and gentle with each other.
Another is to be patient with other. Another is bearing with one another in love, to love each
other, that's your role to love each other as a church.
I love Downey, that's one of the reasons why I'm gonna do Wednesday night prayer
meeting. I get another opportunity to spend some time with you guys. I love you guys. So
church is about loving each other.
The other is, which is really our ultimate goal. Make every effort to keep the unity of the
spirit through the bonds of peace. This is the real purpose of our role in church. There is a lot of
different personalities in churches, a lot of different understandings of things in churches and
what do we do with that? What do we do with people who may not think like us and are still a
part of our community? What do you do when someone that maybe you just had a past issue
with and is still sitting right next to you in your congregation, how do you deal with these things?
Paul is saying, whatever you do, this comes first. Make every effort to keep unity of the spirit
through the bonds of peace. That's our role, to keep unity. There is one body and one spirit.
Just as you are called to one hope and when you are called. One Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God the father of all who is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us grace is
given as Christ appoints.
The other thing is, God does give us purposes. This is how we are to treat each other in
church. God calls us for different reasons, different purposes. I am the pastor, I am not your
music leader and praise God for that. You guys all can praise God that I am not your music
leader. I just do not have that gift of music, but some of you do have this gift which leads us to
our next part.
Ephesians 4:11-13. So Christ himself gave the apostles the prophets, the evangelists, the
pastors, the teachers to equip his people for service so that the body of Christ may be built up
until we all reach unity in the faith. You know, that's very interesting. It talks about how Christ
has called you, Alberto, to be here and to act upon the way God has called you to be. And the
rest of you, God has called you. What is your life for? You have your life, what is your life for?
Your life is to truly fill God's purpose in life. Do you believe that? You may be a nurse, you
may be a doctor, you may be a student, you may be sitting at home waiting for a job, whatever it
is, that's not the purpose. You can act upon God's purpose through those things, but your
purpose is to live your life as God has called you to live, amen! And how do you do that?
Here it goes. God has called some of us to be apostles, to be prophets, to be evangelists,
to be pastors, to be teachers. God has given the gift of knowledge, of wisdom, for music. What
is your role in God's church. And it doesn't mean that you need to become an officer of this
church, because God is gonna work through you, not just in this church, but in contacts of your
daily life. I'm a pastor not only here, but I'm a pastor outside this community. When I got my
haircut yesterday, way too short, I'm still the pastor. I'm still a pastor, so I couldn't go off at that
person who cut my hair short.
Yes, our role is to keep unity, to be gentle, humble towards each other. To bond in love
with each other and then to act in the purposes of how God has called us to be, based upon the
gifts that God has given us. Some of you may have taken spiritual gifts inventory. Anybody has
done that? Do you know what your purpose is through that inventory? I'm a little skeptical of
those things, do you know why? Sometimes I think those things are based upon your abilities,
but I think God uses us, despite our abilities. Probably your gift is something that will take you
out of your comfort zone, do you know what I'm saying? The idea of me twenty years ago to
think that I would be up here talking to you guys like is, that is way out of my comfort zone. I
can't even believe that I'd be here like this, so it's not necessarily that your gift is something that
you are comfortable with. Maybe God is calling you to go and give a bible study to someone
and you just know that God is calling you to do that, but you are saying, I don't know the bible
that well, I can't do that. You know what? That's how you learn, by giving a bible study; getting
out of your comfort zone.
But the interesting thing in this is, that everybody act on the gifts that God has given to
you, as we all sense the calling that God is working in our lives and all of us act on the calling of
that working. Do you hear what I'm saying? Do you follow me? As we act on that calling,
guess what's going to happen to this? The reason why: So the body of Christ maybe built up.
The church will be built up as we all act. And then what happens? Until we all reach unity in
the faith. Isn't that interesting. The purpose we have for church is to have unity. How are we
going to have unity? As a pastor you wonder about that all the time in the church. How do we
get unity, to do sermons of how to get along? But according to this, unity happens when we all
act upon the Holy Spirit working in our lives. Amen!
So if you are doing what God is calling you to do and I am doing what God is calling me
to do, guess what? We are going to find unity through that way. So as Seventh Day Adventist
Christians, we believe that God has created this church for us to show the world who Jesus Christ
is. That was his purpose and what he does, is he works with us. He teaches us how to interact
with each other in gentleness, in humbleness and in love and then he also gives us gifts to make
that happen, to reach out to the people. He has given us gifts to go and show the world who
Jesus is. That's the purpose of the church.
Now there are lots of churches out there, do you know that? You can drive on Florence
Avenue towards the west. How many churches are you gonna see on that drive? A lot. There
are a lot of churches out there and do you believe the people that go to those churches will be
saved? Absolutely! Those that have given their lives to Jesus? Absolutely! We don't have the
corner market of salvation. We won't profess that, but what is the purpose of the Seventh Day
Adventist church? Why do we exist? We know the purpose of the church as a whole is to uplift
Jesus. But what is is our role in the Seventh Day Adventist church?
Revelation 14 is the three angels' messages. Anybody has ever heard of that? It used to
be the logo of our church, the three little angels. The three angels' message, what is that?
Because that helps us define who we are in so many ways. The first of it says: "I saw another
angel ..." - this is actually the first angel - "flying in the mid air and he had the eternal gospel to
proclaim to those who live on the earth, to every nation and tribe, language and people. He said
in loud voice, fear God and give him glory because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship
him who made the heavens, the earth, sea and the springs of waters." There has been a
progression of the Christian church. We have the Catholic church. The Protestant Reformation
comes from there, where there was a strong belief that everybody should have the word of God
in their hands. You have a bible in your hands or in the pew, is because of the protestant
reformation. It gave everybody the opportunity to read and study the bible and to have God
work in their lives. And the church had progressed and different understandings of the church.
Then there became a point where there was a strong belief that Jesus is going to come again and
for that to happen, every nation, tribe, language will hear the gospel. And it says, fear God and
give him glory because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who has made the
heavens and the earth.
I'm not gonna read through the entire three angels' messages, but the end of it says: "Hear
us. This calls for patience endurance on the part of the people of God who keep his
commandments and remain faithful to Jesus." We believe that Jesus is coming soon. I get these
waves of moments where I am like, you know what? The world is where it is and it's been like
that and Jesus hasn't come in two thousand years and he can come any time. But then lately you
see the things that are going on in this world and you can say, Jesus truly can come any time. He
can come at any moment and what does it say for us, to those that will be ready? This calls for
patient endurance. We need to be patient. And for those who keep the commands to remain
faithful to Jesus.
Are there other churches that are faithful to Jesus? Absolutely! Are they gonna be saved
when Jesus comes? Absolutely! But we do we believe we have a part to play in the last day
events. We talk about the commandments and the Sabbath and we believe that's an important
part of our relationship with Jesus. We have a purpose in this world. God has called us for a
purpose and the church is many things. It's being together for potluck. It's being together for
fellowship. It's doing things together, but ultimately it's here for a purpose. That's who we are.
Let us pray.