The Identity of God's Church (Jake Enns)

I've titled our sermon this morning, The Identity of God's

Church. You will know that for quite a

while we've been going through the book of First Corinthians,

and it's been a fairly long series of sermons.

And so today is not about First Corinthians and next Sunday

we'll begin a series on the book of Nehemiah.

It's an Old Testament book. It's in a book more focused on

leadership and what what the leadership's all about.

So we look forward to that. But this morning is kind of what

you mean to call a one off sermon.

And I've again at the identity of God's church, we hear

comments where people want to identify as something or

someone. You see children do that, right?

They wear a superhero or Superman outfit.

They want to identify a Superman or something like that.

It's not wrong for kids to do that.

And you, you know that they're pretend, but we all know it's

not real. We didn't know.

It's just make up and kids do it all the time in their play.

But we can't do that as adults. We can't do that.

We have to be real. We have to be who we're called

to be. And so when someone would ask

what is the identity of God's church?

Good question. We know we have one.

Organizations have identities, people, groups across the world

wherever they are. Let's say you would look at a

bikers club. They have an identity.

You have, maybe you could call it anything.

Even groups in the church have identities.

And through the ages, the Church of Jesus Christ at certain times

has not been the best at living up to what it claims to be.

They kind of gotten confused sometimes.

The church has not always been what God called it to be.

Think of Revelations chapter 1-2 and three.

Revelation 1 · chapter mention

In Revelation one and two and three, God has some issues.

Jesus issues with his church. He's redeemed them, he's saved

them. He's he got them going.

The spirits there is working but all of a sudden, wait a minute,

you're falling after trails and areas you shouldn't be going,

especially the Church of Laodicea.

That's a bad one. And he commands them.

You guys, he says this is not right.

Got to repent or else if we look at how Jesus lived and what he

taught and and so on. It was very simple, very basic,

very deep and profound, but very basic.

He says to his disciples, he said by this will all men know

that you're my disciples If you love one another.

A clear statement what he wanted them to be identified by.

He wanted his church to be identified by how they worship

God in spirit and truth and it would be revealed, but how they

would love one another. This morning we're coming to the

end well again this last Sunday of 2024.

And we know in the business world, often times at a certain

time of year, maybe the year end, if they have it, December,

most, many businesses don't. But let's say they had to take

inventory. OK, what was 2024 like?

How did we do? Do we shift our focus for next

year? Do we do something different

with our business and so on? What if we would take inventory

at Ali MC? Let's say we would be evaluated.

What would be the criteria? What would be the things we

would look at? Well, we could list a bunch,

which I won't, but one would be Love.

How did we do at Love last year? Were we a loving church?

Could could our community say, yeah, that church, they really

are a loving church. Well, we know the culture around

us is shifting and changing in and I would say on the decline

in most, most ways. And it's ever more important

that as the Church of Jesus, we stand strong, live up to Our

Calling that we don't shift. It's important for the Church of

Jesus to be healthy, to be strong, to have a vibrant

ministry practiced in love. We must be united, this common

focus and direction. We must remain on track.

A question I would like to ask ourselves this morning is this

what is it that makes the church grow and what is it that makes

it strong and keeps going in the same direction, keeps it on

track? You see churches, they rise and

fall. There are churches that are

hundreds of years old in terms of the faith group, but then

there are churches that last a very short time.

Sometimes they last a year or two and then they start and then

they just quickly as quickly manage.

I've seen that happen as well. One of the many criteria by

which churches rise and fall has a lot to do with how they engage

or not engage the community around them.

Sometimes the church falls prey to the pressures of the culture

and uses the culture as kind of a thermostat.

The culture shifts. When they shift to the culture

changes, they shift. They change to how can we?

The culture becomes the guiding force.

That's usually a bad way to run a church.

Loud to see it did that. Had a conversation with a friend

some time ago and he goes to different church, doesn't come

here and asked him how's your church doing.

He said not good and he mentioned the numbers are down

and spiritual life was on a decline.

I asked So what will your church die and he said something that

left me wondering and I've not forgotten his comment.

It still resonates in my mind. And he says, oh, the church's

dead already, just hasn't closed yet.

I thought about that. I thought thought to myself,

when is a church dead? Maybe we should ask ourselves,

at what point in time can you take off the, the life support

or now the it's, it's the end. When is a church dead?

I want to ask the question, can a church be alive without the

Spirit of God? Is it possible?

No. If the Spirit of God is not in

the church, the church is not alive.

Oh, it still may be getting together.

There may still be events happening, but if the Spirit of

God is gone, the church is dead. They may have a gathering of

sorts. I'll talk about that a little

bit more toward the very end. See what what makes a church is

not just what happens on Sunday morning, even though that's part

of it. We're here together as a church,

which we should be. And I trust that we don't fit

that category. I want to say so.

But we always have to be on guard in the sense where are we

going? How are we doing?

Are we staying on track? Yeah.

The church is not a building. It's not a facility.

But the church is a body of believers that meets in a place

in a given time. The church is a body of people

who are called by Christ, who live out in obedience to God,

their relationship with Christ by spreading the gospel of Jesus

and making disciples. And that all happens in the

context of love, when the church is alive and well.

When the church lives out its call to spread the gospel, to

bring freedom to the oppressed, to feed the poor, to care for

the sick, doing what Jesus told it to do, then that's the

church. And it's not just intermittent

or temporary part time. It's like a marriage.

In the Bible we find God describing the relationship

between Him and His people to that of a bride and a

bridegroom. You see, have you ever met a

part time married couple? Don't exist, do they?

You're not married one day of the week and the rest of the

week you're not married. There's no part time married

couples. When a man and a woman get

married, it's a permanent, full time, all inclusive

relationship. Everything is impacted and

shaped by that. It changed.

When a man and woman get married, they change forever.

They become something they were not before.

They become husband and wife, one flesh unit.

They never were that before. When a person becomes a follower

of Jesus and joins the body of Christ, the church, that person

is now united. He's in the fold, or she's in

the fold. That person now joined God's

church and as a result, it's there's a new identity.

That person is now a disciple with other disciples.

There's something's changed. That person's born again, and if

it is real, the community will experience it.

The community will know something is different.

Something has happened. A scripture passage this morning

is taken out of the book of Acts, the story where the church

was born. The church.

We don't know the day that it happened exactly.

It was Pentecost, and I don't know when, what day Pentecost

might have been back that many years ago.

It's not that important, but what is important is what

happened. It's a wonderful piece of

history. The book of Acts is a history

book. It's a piece of history of how

the early church functioned right after it was born at

Pentecost this morning. You want to take a bit of time

and look at what what, how was it identified?

What did they see? What happened?

How did it happened? How did it come to be?

We want to know what caused the church to grow as it did and to

flourish as well as it did. Of course, we'd say, yeah, it

was all God and all the Spirit. That's true.

That's all true. God's Spirit went to work in the

hearts of these people. When He started the church,

there were sinners, heard the gospel, they were drawn by the

Spirit, they repented, they reconciled, they received the

message, and they were the ones that became part of the church.

That's all true, but it's so much more.

It's so much bigger, so much, so much deeper.

I want us to read this morning Acts 2 verse 42 to 47, Acts

Acts 2:42–47 Acts 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2. Acts chapter 2, verse 42 to 47.

Acts 2:42–47

Here's now what happened, the baptism.

Peter has preached, baptism has happened, the people have

joined. 3000 people were at it, and that says then verse 42.

And they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and

fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayers.

Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were

done through the apostles. Now all who believe were

together and had all things in common, and sold their

possessions and goods and divided them among all, as

anyone had need. So continuing daily with one

accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to

house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of

heart, praising God and having favor with all the people, And

the Lord added to the heart to the church.

Daily, those who were being saved, God's church grew.

We see that God's church grew, not just the numbers also in

action. They had never existed before.

It was a fledgling group. They had no experience in how to

do church, but they had the Word, they had the Spirit.

They just knew we got to do what Jesus said, do what Jesus told

us. The apostles were sharing the

Word. And I want to take a little bit

of a rabbit trail here. A side note here, it's not so

much part of the sermon, but it's important to note this.

The church grew not an environment of that was

conducive to growth or that was a suitable environment for

church growth. Not at all.

I've preached on this before, but it has to be mentioned here.

The church grew against insurmountable odds.

It should not have worked. The church did not come into

existence in a, in a social environment where, you know,

everybody's kind of in favor of religion, everybody's kind of in

favor of new ideas and new movements, None of none of that.

It was the opposite, the Jewish ruling class, they were totally

against this, a formidable force to be reckoned with, very

intentional about shutting it down right from the start.

We find the Jewish leaders persecuting the apostles in Acts

Acts 8 · chapter mention

chapter 8. Great persecution rose against

the church in Jerusalem in the wider culture as well as time

went on, the church should not have expanded because the

empire, the Roman Empire, was not for it either.

But nothing could stop these people.

Nothing could stop this movement.

And despite all that had happened was continuing to

happen against all odds. God bless his church.

The church grew in strength and influence and numbers, impacting

the community and eventually the whole Roman Empire.

How did this happen? They grew to the apostles

teaching it says verse 42. Let's read this again.

And they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and

fellowship, in the breaking of bread and prayers.

Continuing is not a one time, only one time.

Been there, done that. Let's move on to other things.

It's an on something that starts and goes on and on and on and

on. The church had been born, it was

alive, it was healthy, it was vibrant, full of life, full of

the spirit, full of praise and energy.

It was not intermittent, not convenience based.

You know, there's a lot of people who really love Jesus as

long as it's Sunday morning between 9:00 and noon.

Other than that, we're busy with other things.

You get the idea. The early church was a body of

people in an ongoing, continuing, ever increasing

growth mode through the teachings of the disciples, the

apostles. We find in the Gospels that

Jesus reminded his audience of the importance of continuing in

the journey. To start a journey is one thing,

to continue a journey is another.

We find in the Gospel of John 15 where Jesus reminded his

disciples that he's the vine, they're the branches.

He told his disciples about the importance of remaining in him.

Same thing as continuing. He says the branches that remain

continue in him will bear fruit, much fruit, but branches do not

remain will be cut off and thrown to the fire and burned.

He says is he continuing is important or what?

What to continue in then says in the apostles doctrine in the

apostles doctrines teachings, the power of God was active in

the ministry of the church. The apostles continued to teach

about Jesus and what his message to them was.

They shared with the people. The focus was learning about

God, his teachings and how to live out their faith.

At this time the gospels had not been written yet.

That was still to come in the future was going to happen years

later and as these new believers embraced the teachings of the

apostles, they got busy living out what they learned.

It was like, OK, we've heard it, let's do it.

The gist didn't sit back and just take it easy and wait for

things to happen. They had the Spirit and the

Spirit energize them and move them.

There's implications here for us today in this passage.

The apostles work was not finished.

It was not like, OK, we have followed Jesus, we've got the

Holy Spirit, we're going to teach them and then it's done.

And now let them run with it. No, their work was ongoing too.

Interesting how God uses His Spirit work in people, but then

uses His Spirit to work in people to work in people.

The word that God did through the apostles of Pentecost, it

continued was just a start. It mentions that the new

followers of Jesus remained in the teachings of the apostles.

The Holy Spirit had come, but he didn't.

He didn't go away from with the do away with human element.

God still uses people. He still uses us.

For three years the disciples had followed Jesus.

Good solid teaching and word indeed.

Now with the coming of the Holy Spirit, all that teaching came

to fruition and the lives of these people now says they

continued steadfast in the apostles doctrine.

Oh, and there's the next one, fellowship.

They continued in fellowship, you're together, you do things

together. Fellowship when people are

connecting with each other, they're together.

Church is not just a an occasional gathering.

It's everything. Church was what this was about.

Everything revolved around church.

Fellowship was opportunity to be to bond together, to relate to

each other, to build up strength and support.

And in short, it's safe to say that people who really truly

love Jesus, they're glad to be part of the church.

In many years, in my years as I've seen this for many years

now, there's a it's something that troubles me.

It's a a troubling decline in the interest in church.

Increasingly people find reasons to just not be part of church,

increasingly so as church increasingly just is pushed to

the margin, it's only going to increase our desires to have

less church, not more. You see what we neglect,

eventually we have no desire for.

We just don't want it anymore. Years ago, we had a speaker here

named Glenn Lowe, and some of you remember him, preached a

series of sermons, evening sermons.

One night he asked this question.

It was one of the weeknights. He said, are you bored with

Jesus, Johan? You know, I'd never heard that

question before and I've never forgotten it when he asked it.

We may say, no, we're not. We read our Bible every morning,

pray every morning. That's not it.

Where's our thirst, our hunger, our desire, our craving for the

word, for relationship or fellowship?

Oh, we'd never be bored with Jesus.

And I'm not here to argue, but let's just ask ourselves, what

if we take inventory? What if we evaluate ourselves?

We can give verbal affirmation that we're not.

But does my lifestyle send a different message?

I can say anything I want. If my heart's not in it.

It shows verbal affirmations. One thing, lifestyle's another.

These people remain together in fellowship.

Is my lifestyle such that people have a hard time matching up

what I say and what I actually do?

I may say I have faith, but is it productive?

Is it fruitful? And if we're bored with Jesus,

let's admit it, let's repent. Somebody said, well, I I'm not

bored with Jesus, I'm bored with this church.

OK, fair enough. Let's be very careful though.

There are some churches who really don't do a very good job

and no church gets a perfect score.

And sometimes the Bible is not preached properly.

Sometimes the fellowship is not right there.

There could be a lot of things that may be a social club.

But even in churches that struggle again in Revelation,

there's there are still some Saints and we need to pray for

them. We need to pray for those

churches and maybe even us sometimes.

I want to say this, if church as Jesus describes his people, if

that to us has become boring, that means we have some serious

work to do. I don't want to end 2024 on a

negative pessimistic note. However, I want to be positive.

Look what the Bible teaches us. Maybe we didn't measure up in

2024. Maybe we have serious growth to

to do. But are we together?

Are we have one heart, soul and mind as the early church was in

the word, being taught, breaking bread, celebrating together,

reminding ourselves what the core central message is and

following it. They were doing this ongoing

steadfastly and fellowship, but notice what else they were

doing. The breaking of bread and in

prayers. Prayer is specifically mentioned

here. Specifically mentioned.

One of the key identifying marks of the early church, a praying

church. They gather for prayer once in a

while. No regularly.

They continued steadfastly in prayers.

The prayer times, it seems to me in the West, especially in the

Western world, Canada, the US, and so on, in our busy living

styles, prayers being marginalized more and more and

eventually it just falls off the side.

I'm not saying we're not praying.

I get it. We pray in the church here.

We have, we have prayer at different times of the service.

We pray at different times of the week.

But still, is prayer here what God wants it to be?

I've often wondered, and perhaps you we all should wonder, why is

prayer not more important in the Western church today?

What has happened to the church in general that prayer does not

have a stronger focus? What I find interesting in

reading stories of the martyrs, modern day martyrs in the less

to see how much prayer is part of their lives.

I confess I do not pray like those people do and I have no

excuse. I will say also admire their

prayer lives and their inspiration to me.

Let me ask, what is it that brings our prayer lives into a

slump, into a place where it simply is too busy, we're too

tired, we don't want to go. What is missing?

I believe one of the most effective ways to stop people

from praying is to distract them from prayer And, and, and the,

the times we live in, it's easy. You know, we, we, we're addicted

to this, to this idea of easy, routine, comfortable,

convenient, secure, and predictable living.

Let's be honest. And when we achieve that, guess

what? Prayer does not rise in

importance. It decreases a Christian who

just wants what's here and for now will eventually start

praying less. And let's be honest, prayer is

at a very low ebb in many, I will say evangelical churches

because we're busy. Places to be, errands to run,

things to do. Where's the time?

I don't know what God will yet do, but He may just bless us

with circumstances that will really bring prayer coming back.

He may even grant us to suffer for His name, as He's done is

doing for so many Saints in the world.

I do believe our prayer lives would reignite very fast.

Or if they would not, maybe we would just be revealed that we

were not who we claimed to be as the story of the sower and the

seed in Matthew 13. Without prayer, I say, it's

impossible to stay connected to God in any way.

Prayer is a must. It's a link, the oxygen of the

soul. And yet so few people pray.

For the early church, prayer was their spiritual breath.

It was the way in which the commune with God were connected

and received strength from God, and their growth impacted the

community. The community noticed.

Well, what did all this have to do with the community?

How did all this affect the community as this was going on?

What? What difference did it make?

Well, let's continue on. Then fear came upon every soul,

and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.

I don't know if it means every soul in the church or in the

community, but we do know this impact of the community because

we know from other passages the disciples were opposed and they

were persecuted for what they were doing.

But this really had its effect. The church made a difference.

And it was none of this stuff like all we're going to take

back Leamington for Jesus, None of that kind of talk.

And I don't agree with that kind of talk.

It's it's not how we as church should function.

All we're going to take back our country for Jesus.

No, none of that. We're called to worship Christ

by serving others and God will work.

The change, you see, the early church, was to love like Jesus,

to live like Jesus, and to serve like Jesus, and I'll add, and

also to suffer like Jesus. Not that we pray for suffering,

but for strength to endure it when it comes.

The mindset to love and to serve was there, and it was lived out

in the community and it was contagious and it brought

change. You see, the church had just

started and God used wonders and signs done to the apostles to

undergird what they were doing. Want to be careful here that we

don't make this into a prescriptive passage where you

know what you got to do miracles.

We're taught in many other passages we should be together

continually. Here's a kind of a summary of

it. We should be praying all the

time. We should be caring for one

another. We should be loving one another.

But we're never commanded to go and do miracles.

The disciples were commanded to do that in the Gospels.

God does do miracles Today I will say I'm not one someone who

says I believe in the cessation of gifts.

God doesn't do miracles equally bountiful and plentiful in all

areas at all times. But I do believe God still does

miracles. I read enough stories and I have

connections, personal connections with people who've

told me what happened to them and that they got healed and a

miracle happened and it can be happened in a variety of ways.

But this is what happened then, and there was a lot of them

going on, and especially and persecuted countries.

If you start digging through the records and through the stories

and experiences those people share, it's nothing but miracles

in many cases that see them through.

God can do what He chooses, and the time of miracles may come to

our place again, to one time. We don't know.

One thing I find encouraging is reading the stories of churches

and persecuted countries, how they're outlawed and oppressed,

and how miracles come again and again and again.

We're not here to make miracles the hallmark, the benchmark by

which we valued ourselves. But God can and does do miracles

for those who are faithful. And so all this together

resulted in growth. So here we go #2 God's church

gained in strength. You know what the greatest force

in the world is? You ever thought about that?

It's not the universe. The mass of stars and the

planets, as big as they are. It's not nature, it's not the

galaxies, it's not our little solar system.

The greatest force on Earth is none of that.

It's not another is a military power.

Anything humans create, the greatest force on Earth is well

in the universe is usually silent.

It's it's it's gentle. It's love.

When a person practices love, that person is engaging in the

most powerful force in eternity. Nothing supersedes love.

It's because of love that God sent Jesus to this earth.

It's because of love that Jesus taught and died.

It's because of love the church was born.

Strength is revealed in action, and you can look strong.

You may have seen something look strong or sound powerful, but

where's the evidence? The early church was very

powerful and it showed. And how was it demonstrated?

Well, let's go on verse 44 now all who believed the whole

church were together fellowship and had all things in common.

All right, now let's share the wealth, right?

No, it's not prescriptive, guys. It's not prescriptive.

It does tell us to care for the poor and to care for those it

says in verse 45 and sold the possessions and goods and divide

them among all that anyone had need.

This community of believers who focused on one another so much.

They helped each other. They they benefit from from

everything and the words of Jesus the great commandment love

one another was shown how they were caring for one another with

their wealth. Again, I want to just make make

it clear this is a passage of history and it's not

prescriptively written as a piece.

It's a historical piece of given to us to learn from and any

given community where everyone would always just sell what they

had, that wouldn't work. If you had people of 100

community of 100 people and all 100 people try to sell

everything to have, who would buy it?

That's not the point. The point is, can you

sacrificially be sacrificially generous?

That's the point. What impact has the gospel made

in my life in terms of my material wealth?

Has it made a difference? Am I the same person materially

minded the same way before I became a Christian or after I

became a Christian or or did I change and went back And we do

know chapter 6, little bit down the road, things started

happening that shouldn't have happened.

The widows were being overlooked for some certain widows were

being overlooked and so they had to re restructure.

There are some Christians today who believe that no Christian

should have a title to any wealth at all.

I mean, you should all live just communally and the Hutterite

community, if you know about the Hutterites, they practice that

literally the Anabaptist and the came out of the Protestant

Reformation back in the 1500s, the certain group, the

Anabaptist, they were called Hutterites and they said we're

going to share everything. And so they as a community owned

property and land, but no individual owns anything except

a few personal belongings. So they live that out very

physically. We're not judging that, just

that is not a direct command from the Scripture.

It's not a command here. But this is a principle that's

lived out. And how do we live out this

principle? Again, let me use the knowledge

of a couple in love, a married couple.

They share everything. If it's working right, his bank

account becomes her bank account.

Her stuff becomes his stuff. It's not anymore I and my and

mine. It's we, us and ours.

Sacrificial generosity, surrender.

When a man and a woman truly love each other and they get

married, they only think of what will make my spouse happy, what

will make my spouse life better. That's how they function, how

they work. They don't care about themselves

so much, but what will make my wife, my husband look, be

better, work better, have a better life?

They're obsessed with how they can help the other.

It becomes, I wonder. I wonder, how can I improve my

spouse's life? It's never.

I hope they don't find out and I hope they don't notice and I

hope I get away with it. That's not good.

You see, when relationships fall apart, when churches fall apart,

when marriages fall apart, misfortunes and hardships don't

derail it. They just reveal what is made of

what is falling apart. I believe it this way, when it

comes to marriage especially, marriages don't break apart

because of problems. They break apart because they're

not equipped to handle problems. The same holds true in the

Christian faith. Thousands of martyrs have

testified with their lives and persevered and died for their

faith because of what they were made of.

You see, what does a dictator government do when a people

group is not afraid of suffering, not afraid to die,

while the only thing they're they resort to is oppression and

persecution. That's what happened to the

apostles. The early church happens today.

We read stories of that. You see, there are a lot of

people who would love to be part of the church, like to identify

with the church, just can't get themselves to go all in a little

bit like being half married or three quarters married, maybe

75% married. It's a self focused issue in the

book of Acts, in the story of the early church, this they were

so in love with Jesus. Everything had to align up with

that. They did it out of joy and

gladness, sharing generously, sacrificially, growing together

and becoming established and strong.

And that's the last point. God's church remained on track.

They remained on track because of who they were.

They were able to carry out the work that assigned to them

because of how they were grounded and rooted and together

and united. It says here verse 46.

So continuing daily there's a word continuing again daily

ongoing every day with one accord unity in the temple

breaking bread from house to house.

I guess some houses weren't sold after all.

They ate their food with clad in simplicity of heart, praising

God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added

dated to the church. Those who are being saved.

Let's just pause for a moment here.

Isn't this special? Isn't this great?

Wouldn't we, as alums he want to be that church?

Where's the priorities? Where's the focus?

Daily gathering, continuing in fellowship.

Prayer is a big priority. Generosity is a big priority.

What do we do when we find that in our hearts or when we find

it's not there? When we find that fellowship

becomes a chore, an obligation. I have to.

I already did last time. When that becomes one more thing

to do, we should be deeply concerned.

And often times, instead of us becoming concerned why we're

struggling and falling, we've become concerned.

Well, how can I just make it easier?

Adjust the thermostat even at the temperature so the pressure

is decreased. When we deliberately avoid

fellowship and do not want to be part of God's people, we're

going the wrong direction. We are confused when we find

that our personal worldly interests override and cancel

out our desires for fellowship. We should be checking in with

God and asking Lord, what's going on here?

The people in the early church, they ate their bread with

gladness, shared together, prayed together, simplicity of

of heart. These were the very people, the

very Jews, who up before Pentecost were not believers.

They were good Jews, and perhaps, but they were not

believers. They had repented, heard the

gospel, repented, put their faith in Jesus.

Let's ask ourselves this morning, what's our identity at

LEMC? That road signed by the road,

LEMC, What do people think when they see it?

What comes to their minds? The early church lived out its

faith in Jesus by its fruits. Its activities were a clear sign

their ministries were not in vain.

Their existence was not in vain. The impact of the community and

more and it just rooted them. I want to close with a short

piece from AW Tozer. I said before I was going to

come back to this about the church.

In his writings he wrote about the state of the church and and

I wonder what he would say if he lived today.

He died, I believe in 1963. He starts off this piece by

saying it's not by might nor by power.

And Zacharias 4 verse six, he says, so he answered and said to

me, this is the word of the Lord to the rubber bowl, not by might

nor by power, but by my spirit says the Lord of hosts.

And Tozer says this. He says, I say this because it

is possible to run a church and all of its activity without the

Holy Spirit. You can organize it, get a board

together, call a pastor from a choir, lunch or Sunday's going

on, you get it. All the organization stuff, It's

not bad. I'm for it.

But I'm warning, he says about getting organized, getting a

pastor, just turning the crank. Some people think it's all

there's to it. You know, Holy Spirit can be

gone. The pastor keeps turning the

crank. Nobody finds out for years and

years what a tragedy. This can happen in a church.

It doesn't have to be that way, he says.

If you could increase the attendance of your church until

there's no more room, you can provide everything you have in

churches that men could want and love and value.

You don't have the Spirit. You have nothing at all.

Again, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says

the Lord Almighty. What does it matter for you and

I today? Our world, our communities, our

homes are in great need of godly examples.

Let's not look at what everybody else is doing.

Let's look in inward, in our own hearts.

If we see people sinning, talk to them, encourage and pray for

them. Walk in humility, encourage one

another, lift up one another, bless one another and do the

other all one another's thing. The fellowshipping, the prayer,

all those things. I want to close with a short

poem. I just the first the first piece

of the poem written by a guy man attributed to Edgar Guest.

It says I'd rather see a sermon than here one any day.

Let me read it. I'd rather see a sermon than

here one any day. I rather one should walk with me

then merely point the way. The eyes of better pupil more

willing than the ear find counsel is confusing, but

examples always clear. And the best of all the

preachers are the men who live their creeds.

For to see a good put in action is what everybody needs.

You see, our corporate identity as a church is made-up of each

one of our individual identities.

And what it comes down to is, are we walking with Jesus?

If we all do it, the church will do it.

We can say the right things. Let's make sure our lives add up

to the right things. I want to encourage us this

morning to identify with Jesus as a church will be identified

with Christ. May God bless this church.

Let us pray. Lord, we thank you for the gift

of salvation, that we are your people, but you've been merciful

and gracious to us. We thank you.

Lord, we ask that as we wrap up 2024, we will do so with praise

and Thanksgiving in our hearts what you've done for us.

And may we enter 2025 with confidence and hope and

encouragement and trust that you will see us through and You'll

help us to be a strong, active, healthy, vibrant church for this

community. That starts with each one of us

individually. May our hearts be tuned to You,

Lord. Maybe we live out in our

day-to-day lives the example you've set for us in Scripture.

In your name we pray. Amen.