What it means to Be the church of Christ

Be scary. But I know that God is with us.

So before we go ahead and start, I just want to say start in

prayer before we do anything. So Father God, we give you

thanks, Lord, for this opportunity that you have

allowed us to come here today in fellowship with one another.

I thank you for the members and the body of this church.

Lord, I thank you for their pastor.

Lord, who is a way, I ask that you just be with him and protect

him and his family, wherever they are and whatever they do.

Lord, I I, I pray for the members of this Church, Lord,

that they may continue to grow. Lord, you know what you have in

store for them, Lord, You know that you have them here for a

reason. Lord.

And I pray over this church, this fellowship, this

congregation, that you continue to help them grow in their

faith, and you guide them, and you direct them in their steps.

Lord, I pray, Lord, over everything that we do here

today. Lord, That the word that you

have for today, Lord, just penetrate not only their minds

but also in their hearts. Lord, use me as a vessel.

Lord, I ask that you just let give me the words that you want

me to say today, no more, no less.

Lord, use me as an instrument for your word.

Lord, I ask you all these things.

In the name of the fallen, Son, in the Holy Spirit we pray.

Amen. So just a little more

introduction of myself. Originally, I am from New York,

from the Bronx. I met my lovely wife when we

were teenagers and we've been married for almost 20 years.

Now we have. She's going on our fourth child,

my oldest daughter there, Leilani Marie, my heavenly

flower. Cara faith, which translated as

pure faith. She's not here today.

She's with my mother. We had Nora Grace, which is

light of grace, who by the grace of God was taken home early.

And then we have my next one of Laura, who's also light of hope,

God's light of hope. So we praise God for my

children. It's been a blessing to me.

Also, I have my brother Nate, who is one of my best friends

and also a Co laborer with us and his daughter is with us as

well. All right, so I know that Pastor

John, I don't know what you guys call him because I know that he

had makes a big deal about the middle name.

So John Michael Okay. Because I was always told to

call him JM so. Oh, Okay.

So JM or John Michael is fine. Okay.

So that's still the same. All right, cool.

So a funny story when we were in the Academy together, you know,

I got there and I did law enforcement for years and I

decided to transition over to the fire department because my

father's a firefighter and so I figured I'd spend more time off

with my family. So we transitioned and I knew

nobody. And I just remember we were

going to get our uniforms and I was like, I I'm not a very,

despite what you may think, I'm pretty introverted so I'm not a

people person. So I was like, please Lord,

bring me somebody who I can just connect with and just a

Christian. And I just remember he, I walked

into the room and he just announced is anybody else

Christian? And I was like me, me.

And we instantly became friends after that.

So I was thankful. And we've been friends ever

since. We've gone through some highs

and lows together as brothers in Christ, and I'm thankful for him

and his family. And he's always been a blessing

to me. We don't always see eyes on

things, but that's the the benefit of being brothers in

Christ. We can, you know, kind of learn

from one another. So I'm thankful for that.

I'm. I'm thankful to seeing what he

has here and what he's come from.

You know, it's a blessing. So just know that you had.

You guys are being led by a great man of God and I'm

thankful for him in my life. All right.

That being said, we'll jump right into the word.

So I know that he told me that he was going over the Apostles

Creed with you guys recently, right.

So I thought that was great. You know, I love the Apostles

Creed. I haven't hung up on my wall at

home. And I, you know, just the

foundations of what it means to be a Christian, right, What it

means to be a believer in Christ.

So I said, what better way to transition to that into what it

means to be the Church of Christ?

So we go from being the what it is, the foundations of a

believer to what it means to be the church.

Now we know that each and every one of us here make up the

church. It's not the building.

It's not where we meet at. It's us.

We are the church. So what does it look like for us

to be the church? So what better way to do that,

to start right at the beginning. So we're going to jump into Acts

Acts 2:37–41

chapter 2, verse 37 through 41, and I'm reading for the From the

NET Bible. If you guys want to follow

along, make sure you keep your Bibles open.

I'm going to be giving a lot of verses just in case you want to

follow along. So Acts, chapter 2, verse 37

Acts 2:37–41

through 41. And I don't know about you guys,

but I was raised Pentecostal. So when we find it in the verse,

we say Amen, Amen. All right, so we're going to go

ahead. Now when they heard this, they

were acutely distressed and said to Peter and the rest of the

apostles, what should we do? Brothers, Peter said to them,

repent. And each one of you be baptized

in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins,

and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promises

for you and your children, and for all who are far away.

As many as the Lord your God will call to himself with many

other words He testified and exhorted them, saying, save

yourselves from this perverse generation.

So those who accepted his message were baptized, and that

day about 3000 people were added.

Amen. I can be a little long winded

sometimes. So if you see my my wife make

emotions just letting me know I'm running long on time, Okay.

So in chapter two we start off with the day of Pentecost right.

And the movement of the Holy Spirit.

So the Holy Spirit comes down and followed by the 1st gospel

preaching preaching post Jesus delivered by Peter.

And what does that message look like?

It looks like Bible verses, right?

He quotes Bible and he points him to Christ.

So the first gospel message is exactly that He's, he's, He's

join them in the Old Testament about the Messiah, and then he

gives them what Jesus did on the cross.

And so that's what the gospel looks like.

You know, sometimes we can overcomplicate those things,

right? And we can make it a little more

complicated than it needs to be. But what we need to remember is

what we're pointing to Christ through the word of God.

Simple. And the Holy Spirit will give

you the words that you need to say.

And it says, after hearing the message delivered by Peter, the

Declaration scriptures tell us that they were distressed.

So Peter advises them to repent and calls for a public

declaration of the fundamental change in them, which is what

the baptism, right. So we know that initially the

message reaches them. They recognize and they're

distressed because why? They realize that they are not

where they need to be. So the gospel reaches them.

It penetrates them straight to their hearts.

And they say something needs to be changed in me, something I

recognize I'm missing something, right.

Early on the Christians were unashamed to profess their faith

in their Jesus regardless of the circumstances.

So they just what what happens after they they understand.

He calls them to repentance and then they go on baptized, which

is a public declaration of their faith in Jesus Christ.

And that's been the the same way for over 2000 years, right?

It's still the same thing we do today.

But early on they were unashamed of who they were.

As Christians. We know that early on they met

in there was a lot of oppression towards Christians and where

they met. Sometimes in caverns, right?

Sometimes in mortuaries, sometimes in places that you

wouldn't want to be, which I imagine wasn't a great feeling,

right? You know, having to meet in a in

a somewhere where people were being buried, I imagine that

wasn't a great feeling for them, but they still met because what

they loved the Lord and they wanted to, they wanted to

congregate and fellowship. Nowadays we have to drag people

in the churches, right? We have to tell them they

profess to be Christians. But you asked them the last time

they went to a service and they tell you, I don't, I don't do

the whole church thing. Now I tell you this, there's no

example of fellowship or Christianity in the New

Testament apart from the fellowship.

There's no example of that. We see that in all the letters.

We see that when he's writing Galatians, Colossians, all these

letters are are written to churches, gatherings,

fellowships of the church. So there's no example of that.

But they met regardless of the circumstances that they were

going through, whether it be oppression, whether it be at the

cost of their very own lives. They still met together.

Why? Because it was.

It's necessary. It's necessary to grow in your

faith. It's necessary to grow in who

you are as a Christian, to have like minded brothers and sisters

with you. And that's why Jesus carried

disciples with him when he sent them out.

He sent them out two by two. He didn't send them out alone

because he understood that fellowship is necessary.

At the core foundation of who we are as Christians is fellowship.

He tells him to flee from this perverse generation, to be set

apart from the surrounding cultures, right.

So we should look different. Us as Christians should look

different at the core fundamental fund foundation of

who we are. We are different from the world.

Why? Because we have something that

they don't have. And what is that?

Christ, right? And what's what does Christ

give? Us?

Gives us joy and gives us peace. So that separates us from the

from the world around us that we see.

And that's why we fellowship. Because when we go out into the

world, when we go to our jobs, when we go to our schools, we're

around people who are not like minded and we need to be around

people who bring us back into the fold and remind us of who we

are. I'm thankful that you know I get

to work with Christian brothers at at my job.

I'm fortunate enough and I'm fortunate enough that I have one

of my best friends and A and a a guy who actually attends a

church with me to remind me sometimes and say hey man we

shouldn't be doing that we shouldn't be talking like that.

Hey man maybe we should have did this instead and and and I it's

I'm thankful because sometimes you know we're human beings

right. We struggle in our walk we

struggle in our faith and sometimes we stumble a little

and we need somebody to grab us by the collar and say hey I need

you back on track the same way he's done.

I've done it for him you know I've seen and other brothers

that we go to that we work with that are Christians.

Hey man, you know, I don't know that you should be doing that.

Maybe you you handled that guy a little more rough than should

have been. Maybe we need a more, a little

more grace, a little more peace. But thankfully we have these

this opportunity that you guys can meet together, fellowship

with one another, strengthen one another, create bonds of love

with one another that are tighter than family, right.

Jesus said, who is my mother? Who are my brothers, right.

When he's talking about his actual family?

And then he points to his disciples to say, this is my

family. Why not?

Because they were actually his blood.

Something deeper than than that was going on.

We have something coursing through us as Christians that's

deeper than actual physical blood.

And what is that? The blood of Christ.

And we're thankful for that. So at the onset of who the early

churches are, a group of Holy Spirit sealed, set apart,

professing people. That's who we are.

That's who we are at the core foundation.

All right. So now we're going to jump into

some. That's just the foundation.

We're going to get into a little more of what it means to be a

Christian Church. So we're going to give some

examples, different scriptures. Hopefully I can get through all

of this, but maybe not. Acts chapter two, we continue on

verse 42 to 47 says they were devoting themselves to the

apostles teaching and to fellowship.

Now what does that look like for us?

Modern day, devoting ourselves to the apostles teaching.

How can we do that? We don't have the apostles with

us, right? And not with us.

Back then they had the apostles in the flesh.

That's right. But what we have today is the

word of God. So we're devoting ourselves to

what? The word of God and to

fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

So at at the foundation of who we are is the scriptures.

Fellowship, breaking of bread and prayer, Reverend Rancho, all

came over everyone and many wonders and miraculous signs

came about by the apostles, all who believe we're together and

held everything in common. I want to make make an emphasis

on held everything in common and you're going to see why as we go

along. Held everything in common, which

is what they were like, Minded of the same mind, of the same

spirit, of the same goals. Just keep that in mind as we go

along. And they began selling their

property and possession possessions and distributing the

proceeds to everyone, as anyone had me.

Now I once had a my brotherinlaw who say to me there's no,

there's no talking about tithing in the New Testament.

There's none. There's nothing that says

anything about tithing. And he's right.

There is nothing in the New Testament that talks about

tithing, right. That's an Old Testament covenant

thing with the Israel people. However, the first example we

see of giving in the New Testament of the organized

church is them doing what? Selling everything And giving it

for the needs of others. So the example that we give we

get from Jesus and the church is what sell everything and give to

others. Now, don't, don't, don't go out

there. And like, I had a brother tell

me one time in a Bible study, he says gave me the same question.

I explained this to me. He says, well, I've got two cars

at home. Do I need to sell one of them?

I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa. You know, like what?

What? What they're trying to tell us

is it's a matter of the heart, right?

It's a matter of the need. So whatever God to Christ and

the Holy Spirit is convicting you of, that's what you should

be doing, right? So maybe that might be sell

everything and give. Maybe it might be like the lady

who gave her two cents, whatever she had and she put it in the

coffer. Right.

Maybe that's the example that God has given to you.

It may depend on your situation. But what it's telling us is

whatever the Holy Spirit is convicting you of giving that

you, that's what you should be doing.

Now that being said, some people are probably like, I'll stick

with the 10%, I'm good, right? You know, like I'm OK, 10% it

is. And you know, whatever Christ

convicts you, whatever the Holy Spirit convicts you up, that's

what you should be doing, right? And if you have an issue with

that, then you really need to go into prayer.

You really need to go into your alone time and ask Christ why

you have an issue with giving, especially for the fellowship of

others and our like minded brothers and sisters, all who

believed were together. I'm sorry, yeah, all who

believed were together and held everything in common.

And they began selling their property and possessions and

distributing to the proceeds everyone as anyone had need.

Every day they continued to gather together by common

consent in the temple courts, breaking bread from house to

house, sharing their fruit, their food with glad and humble

hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people.

And the Lord was adding to their number every day.

Those who were being saved eating.

I mean food. I mean, us as Christians, we

don't really have to, like, do we really need to elaborate on

that? Jesus ate with his disciples.

We love to eat. We love to.

We love potlucks down here. It's what we do.

Praise God for Potlucks, right. You know, there's something

about there's something about sitting down at in a meal with

someone where you can just people tend to let down their

guard, you know, when they're shoving food in their face.

So you can really connect with people as, you know, they're

eating and and, you know, you establish bonds and fellowship,

especially if, you know, they make something.

You know, one of the guys in our church makes some ribs and, you

know, everybody's like, oh, did you bring the ribs?

You know, now you got to talk to the guy because you like the

ribs and you want the recipe. So it forces you to have some

type of bond with that person. Right.

So, you know, thank God for that.

So chapter 2 finishes with a couple key takeaways to keep in

mind. 1. Devotion to the apostles

teaching, which is what? Scripture.

Right. Solo Scriptura.

The Core Foundation of us as Protestants 2.

Fellowship, Breaking of Bread 3. Selfless selflessness for your

fellow Christian And again, that's lost on the church at

times selflessness for our fellow Christians.

Often times, especially in a Western culture, Will tells you,

which tells you you're a superhero.

You're the greatest to ever do it.

You're the smartest, You're the fastest.

Here's an award for showing up every day, just doing your

regular job. Here's an award.

You know, we often tend to see ourselves in light of that, but

that's not what the Scripture tells us.

The Scripture tells us to what? To be selfless.

Like Christ was selfless, right? He was selfless for us.

He died on the cross of Calvary for our sins, and he took away

our sins. He didn't have to, but he did.

And and that's the approach we should have for our especially

for our brothers in Christ. That's that same approach that

we should have is selflessness for our fellow fellow brothers,

for humility and gladness. Now we all know those people who

claim to be Christian and they walk around looking like sour

past kids. You know, you're like, how does

this person have the love of Christ in them?

And they walk around so upset all the time.

Like I know I can probably name like 5 people off the top of my

head that are like that and I wonder to myself like what's

going on, that they don't have the joy of Christ in them.

But you know what? I what we can do is continue to

pray for those people and help them along the way.

Sometimes our example for those people can help them change who

they are. You know, I had a coworker at

work. We were talking about something

about the guys were talking about things that they wish

changed of other people in the in the in the group.

And the one coworker said, oh, I'll tell you what bothers me

about you. And I was like, all right.

And she says I feel like I can't cuss around you.

And I was like, well, I've never said you can't do that.

I've never said anything about that.

And she's like, well, no, I know that you guys are Christians.

And it it would bother me if I knew that you were upset at me,

Kirsten. And I was like, oh, well, praise

God, praise God. That's that's actually a good

one. But you know your, your example

of who you are is sometimes can win these people over.

You know, luckily for us, you know she's been attending a

church that she hasn't been she has been years that she's hasn't

been to a church. But she started attending a

church not because of anything I said to her or Nate said to her

or any of the other Christian guys in our group said to her

just from our example, you know, just us loving Christ, loving on

each other. I think that pushed her towards,

you know what, I need to get back in the church.

I need to get my family back in the church and praise God.

We give all the glory and honor to God for that #5, praising God

and having goodwill towards all people.

And so that's that's self-explanatory, right?

You know, at the foundation of who we are, we are selfless

people and that includes the people of the world.

All right, So we're going to jump into First Corinthians

chapter one, verse 9 through 13. Now we're going to remember what

I said. They held everything in common,

right there was likeminded people.

So we're going to jump forward just a few years, right into the

Corinthian to church and Corinth and Paul's letter to the

Corinthian people. And just we're going to see a

staunch difference. So in Acts, we see this happy,

loving, giving, selfless church, right?

And just a few years later, this is what we get in First

Corinthians. So First Corinthians chapter

one, verse 9 through 13, says God is faithful.

By whom you were called into fellowship with his Son, Jesus

Christ our Lord. I urge you, brothers and

sisters, by the name of the Lord our Lord Jesus Christ.

So stop right there for a second.

Paul is emphasizing what? That they are saved into Christ,

right? So he's putting an emphasis on

Christ, right? And why he's reminding them back

into He's trying to remind them back into what they got saved

under to agree together to end your divisions and to be united

by the same mind and purpose. So within a few years we see

that what the current church is what already divided, already

becoming divided within a few years for members of Chloe's

household have made it clear to me but my brothers and sisters,

that there are quarrels among you now.

I mean this to teach to each of you is saying now I mean this

that each of you is saying I am with Paul or I am with Apollo's

or I am with Cephas or I am with Christ.

Is Christ divided? Paul wasn't crucified for you,

was he? Or were you in fact baptized in

the name of Paul? So early on we see what

divisions within the church, right?

Were they holding all everything in common where they have like

mind? No.

Quickly we see that they become divided.

And I implore you church, you guys are at the at the

foundation. Just be reminded of of what

crisis called us to. I employ you guys like Paul

employed the the, the people of Korean.

Be reminded of what we're here doing, why we're here and what

he's called us to do. Let us be like minded.

Let us not be divided because division causes what strife.

And then all of a sudden you've got sections of I'm with this

guy, I'm with that guy, I'm with this guy, I'm with that guy.

And then what happens is we become divided within the

fellowship. And early on, we see that.

And there's a reason why it happens early on, You know why?

Because of human nature. And what they did was they took

their eyes and their sight off of Christ and they started to

put it on what? On themselves.

And they started to try to figure out what they knew.

Who's the better teacher? Well, you know what?

I like Peter better. Or Sephus.

You know his other name, Sephus. I like Sephus.

I like the way he talks. You know Paul, when he comes,

there's something about the way he talks.

I just don't enjoy. He doesn't have that.

Same oomphs that that this other preacher has, right?

I like this other preacher that I've been listening to on

YouTube. He doesn't have that same oomph

that JM has. I like I like JM though, because

I like how he does it. I don't like how this person

does this. I don't like when the other

brother gets up and and does the Bible.

We have to be very careful. Now there's a difference

between, you know, critiquing or you know, saying something oh,

you know, JM, you actually said something that wasn't correct.

And here's hey. And I'm sure he would be like,

oh, yeah, thank you, brother. Just like I've been guilty of

that. I've been guilty of saying

things that, you know, offend people, not on purpose.

But you know what happens? I'm a human being.

And somebody said, hey, you know, that offended me.

And I said, oh, I want to make a public acknowledgement that I

made a mistake. And I'm sorry, I didn't mean to

offend. And I take it back.

There's nothing wrong with that, you know?

But there's a difference between that and saying, you know what,

this guy's with me. This guy's with me.

We stick together. And that happens a lot of times

in churches. I know because I've been, I've

also been at the, the, the foundation of a church.

You know, when my father moved down here from New York more

than 20 years, almost 20 years ago, he started a Spanish

speaking church in Hampton, VA And we were it.

We were all he had. We don't know anybody here.

We have no family here. So we were all he had.

So I was we were at the core, the foundation of the church and

he built it up and God built it up and he he he was doing well.

And then there was a bit of a divide.

And I saw that happen real time. So I know that these things

happen. So I just want to make that

plant that in your minds and your hearts, reminding of what

the word says about being divisive and what at the core of

who we are as as Christians, right?

So in the fellowship, we see the Acts church, right, which is

what we should try to emulate, right?

That's what we should try to be like.

And then we see the current church, right?

And we see what they were like, and that's what we should try

strive not to be like. And that's what we should always

keep in mind. Paul and his letter to the

Church of Carmen reminds the church that we are to be in

fellowship with Christ and with one another.

He pleads with the church and come in to not be divided.

A stark contrast from Acts where they held everything in common

like minded. Within a short time the churches

have begun to forget what they were built on, the fellowship

that Christ has called us to. In Christ and within the Church,

let us not let us not so be so easily swayed into thoughts of

division, and instead to be reminded to be selfless, as

Jesus was selfless when he died on the cross.

For our sins let us strive to keep everything in common with

one another. Ephesians, chapter 4, verse one

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

through 7. I therefore the prisoner for the

Lord urge you to live worthily of the calling with which you

have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with

patience bearing with one another in love, making every

effort to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace,

which is a stark contrast from what we see in First the

Corinthians. Right?

So Paul is also writing to the church and of Ephesus, and he

tells them what? Keep in mind that you're

together. Join together in what?

In love, right? And love bears all things

bearing with one another, making every effort to keep what the

unity which is in the Spirit. Christ didn't call us to

division, He didn't call us to divide.

He call us to be one. And yes, there are a ton of

denominations. And yes, there's a ton of

different ways of preaching. Yes, there's a ton of different

ways of worship. But we're all centered around

what one Christ, right. And that's why you see something

like the Apostles Creed, right, which is given to us passed down

from the early Church Fathers, which is essential to us as

Christians. Right.

We can look on there and say if you believe in this, this, this,

this, this, this, which is all biblical right, we can hold in

common that we are brothers in the faith.

If at any point they start saying, well, I don't like that

part, I take that out, I take that.

Then you have to start the question and say, oh, maybe

there's something, something off here.

But remember we are called to live together in, in because in

in unity, in Christ Jesus, where do I leave off?

There is one body and one spirit, just as you two were

called to the one hope of your calling, 1 Lord, one faith, one

baptism, one God, and Father of all who is over all and through

all and in all but each But to each one of us grace was given

according to the measure of the gift of Christ.

So what is he comparing the the, the, the love that we should

have the grace from one of us to the grace that Christ gives us.

Now think about that. Now think about that in your

mind, the grace that God has called you to, knowing who you

were in our church. They call it the BC days, which

is the Before Christ days, right?

Who you were in your BC days, right.

And you think about how you were lost, how you were separated,

how much strife you had, how much anxiety you may have had,

how much sadness you may have had in your life.

And then where you are through His grace, because you did

nothing to deserve it, right? The grace that poured into you

when you when you receive Christ, right when you received

who He is, His salvation, you remember that grace that He

poured into you. That's the same amount of grace

that you should be pouring into your brothers and sisters.

So when when a person offends you, when a person does

something to you, are you quick to forgive them?

I'll be honest, I'm not. Sometimes I'll be honest, I'm

not. But that's what makes me

fallible. That's what makes me a human

being. And you know what I need to do

in those times? Lean on the Holy Spirit and pray

for God's direction and how. How I can be more graceful to my

brothers and sisters, how I can lean on him in order to to learn

what that grace looks like. And often times it's hard.

It's hard, especially when somebody's done something to

you, especially a brother in Christ, especially when it's a

brother in Christ. When you have that, you feel

like that betrayal, right? But we have to remember they're

not infallible. They're human beings.

They make mistakes. And it's our position to give

grace and forgiveness as Christ gave us grace and forgiveness.

Because imagine if you were going through life and Jesus

said no, you don't deserve that grace because you did XY&Z and

you offended me when you didn't show up that Sunday or that

Wednesday night or that Friday night.

Imagine that we forget sometimes how how good is His grace is in

our lives, how good He is to us, and we need to be reminded daily

that His grace on us is sufficient and therefore we

should be pouring that grace into our fellow brothers and

sisters. Philippians chapter 2 verses one

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

through 8. Therefore, if there is any

encouragement in Christ, any comfort provided by love, any

fellowship in the Spirit, any affection of mercy, complete my

joy and be of the same mind. See how that theme just keeps

popping up right? And held everything in common of

the same mind. By having the same love, being

united in spirit, and having one purpose.

Instead of being motivated by selfish ambition or vanity, each

of you should, in humility, be moved to treat one another as

more important than yourself. How often is that happening,

brothers and sisters? How often are we treating others

more important than ourselves? And if we're not, we have to

take a step back and say, you know what?

What do I need to do in order to do that?

And you know what? Sometimes we just don't know.

We don't know, and we have to pray.

And we have to pray and say, you know what, I don't know what

this looks like. I don't know how to go forward

in this. I'm going to lean on the Holy

Spirit and say, Holy Spirit, guide me and let me know what I

need to do in order to do that. Each of you should be concerned

not only about your own interests, but about the

interests of others as well. You should have the same

attitude toward one another that Jesus Christ had.

Again, he's mentioning the same thing again.

Who, though he existed in the form of a God, did form of God,

Excuse me, I apologize, Did not regard equality with God as

something to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking on the

form of a slave, by looking like other men, and by sharing in

human nature. He humbled himself by becoming

obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

So earlier on, Paul compares what the fellowship that we

should have to what the the grace that God pours upon us now

he calls us to what? The sacrifice?

And he's saying the sacrifice that you should be having for

your brothers and sisters should be the same sacrifice that Jesus

Christ did on the cross of Calvary for us.

And when you put it in that light, when you say to yourself,

man, you're talking about the the biggest moment in all of

history, the day that Jesus Christ out on the cross of

Calvary from mine and your sense, right?

When you look at it in light of that, it seems pretty small and

pretty simple. When you say, hey, can you drive

an extra mile to go pick up your brother so that he can go to

church, You know, it seems pretty small when you when you

have to. Hey man, you know, I'm kind of

hungry, you know, Can you stop by, man, I'm tired of this guy

always asking me for food. I'm tired of this guy always

begging me for it. Seems pretty simple when you put

it in light of that, When you put it in light of God's

sacrifice for us on the cross of Calvary, how selfless are we as

a church, as a body for one another.

Because Jesus was so selfless that he came down, took the form

of a man, and he died on the cross of Calvary for our sins,

right? So that one day we can be

redeemed, right? And knowing in the future that

you were going to exist, that he was going to form you in your

mother's womb before you even existed, He knew in all eternity

that he was going to need each and everyone of you right here.

That you were his children, that you were His children, and that

he knew that you were going to be here.

And he wanted to save you because he wanted you to bring

you into the fold, into the family.

And he wanted you there on the day of redemption, when when

there's nothing but the new heavens and the new earth, He

wanted you there. And he died on the cross of

Calvary for you. And yet we complain about doing

stuff for our brothers and our sisters.

You know, in light of that, it seems pretty minute, right?

Just something to keep in mind. Paul and his letter to Philip.

I compared Jesus sacrificial death on the cross with the same

level of selflessness we should have for our fellow brothers in

Christ. Something to keep in mind,

Colossians chapter one, verse 3 through 8.

We always give thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ

when we pray for you. Since we heard about your faith

in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the

Saints. Your faith and love have arisen

from the hope laid up for you in heaven, which you have heard

about in the message of the truth.

The gospel that has come to you justice in the entire in the

entire world. This gospel is bearing fruit and

growing. So it also been bearing fruit

and growing among you from the first day you heard it and

understood the grace of God and truth.

You learned the gospel from Epiphrase our dear fellow slave,

a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, who also told us of

your love in the Spirit. So from the beginning, again,

we've seen the same concepts being repeated, right?

So now he's writing to the church and Ephesus, and he's

repeating the same things, right?

So we see what he's saying to the church in Corinth, and we

see what you're saying to the church and Phillip Pie and

Ephesus and Collosions. He's repeating the same things.

But what we should hold all things in what in common, Be

likeminded, be selfless, reminded of God's love for us,

reminded of God's truth in us, at the core foundation of who we

are, not only as Christians but as the body of Christ.

And again, if you're struggling with those things, you're not

the first. And we what we have to do is

just take it in prayer and say, Holy Spirit, help me, help me to

be a better loving brother, help me to be a better church member.

Help me to be a better disciple. Help me in these things.

And be reminded that constantly, because you know what happens,

what starts happening is you see those divisions and when you see

the church start to die, unfortunately, you know it's a

slow thing. It's not, it's not over.

It doesn't happen overnight. It's usually a slow progression

thing, right? So I had once read a book I I I

forgot who was five. But it shows, I think it was the

11 signs of a dying church, right?

And this guy went and he went back to his home church after

years and years and years of being away.

And it wasn't the same as when he had left it.

And he realized that something was wrong.

And within a year the church closed and he went around and

he, he went to all these. He put it in his mind, I'm going

to go around to all these smaller churches that are

closing. I'm going to see what the good

churches are doing and what the other churches are doing wrong.

And he came up with 11 steps right and and that you see of a

of a dying church. It's very progressive like not

being reflective of the community, not doing things for

the community, forgetting the core foundations different a

bunch of different things. And I remember looking at a

church and I was like man, we've got like eight or nine of these

things going on in this church. And I bought books for the

people in the church at the time and I was like look we got we

got to read this. We got to look at this and we

got to really look at this from an an outsider's perspective and

see what we're what we're what we're lacking.

And I think it's by Tim Raines. And the person was like, no,

it's fine. You know, it's we're good.

We're good. You know, and I was like okay.

And you know, unfortunately things started to happen.

And you know, the church isn't where it used to be, you know,

as as far as that goes. But that's why we have to be

reminded that this is not our church.

This is Christchurch, right? And we have to do the things

that Christ has called us to. And sometimes that happens.

You know, we get into this mode of my church.

We do. No, we don't do this.

We don't do that. This is my church.

We're going to do this this way, my way.

And we have to be reminded that it's not my church, your church.

This is Christchurch. This is the fellowship that

Christ has called us to together.

All right, First to Peter, Chapter 5, verse five through

11. In the same way you who are

younger be subject to the elders, I'll pause there for a

second. In the same way you who are

younger be subject to the elders.

And that just doesn't mean kids or teenage people, you know,

Doesn't mean even older people, those of you that may be younger

in the faith, right? You might be 55 and just a new

convert, right? You're still young in the faith,

right? You need to be subject to those

of you that have been around this, gone around a few times,

right. Because I can tell you, you

know, I've been in in church my whole life.

You know, at 20 years old, I wasn't the same Christian that I

am today. And I'm thankful those people

around me that grabbed me and said, hey, you need to tighten

up. You know, I'm thankful for God's

mercy on me that he, he, he straightened my path, right.

But it's only because I have people around me that poured

into me, and it's only because I have people that, you know,

elder people that I listen to and I valued them.

And it wasn't always, hey, you need to stop doing this because

I said, you know, it was Hey man, let me Hey, man, you think

you're going to hey, I think you should read this book.

Hey, I think you should listen to this preaching and I think

you should, whatever it looks like, just be mindful that God

has placed the elders of this church here for a reason, right.

This particular church especially and those of you that

are younger in the faith or young in general, you need to

lean on those elders and say, you know what?

I'm having a hard time with this or this or that.

What can I do? Often times some people when

they, you know, you get some really Holy Spirit field

charismatic people, especially young people and they, you know,

they're on fire for the Lord, they're on fire for Christ.

But sometimes when that fire starts to dim down, you start to

see sometimes a crash and burn. So that's incumbent on the

elders, right, to grab them, take a hold of them and say let

me help you out, brother, let me guide you in this, let me help

you through this. And all of you clothe yourselves

with humility toward one another, because God opposes the

proud, but gives grace to the humble and will exalt you in due

time if you humble yourselves under His mighty hand by casting

all your cares on him because he cares for you, Be sober and

alert. Your enemy of the devil, like a

roaring lion, is on the prowl looking for someone to devour.

Let's not give him a reason. Resist him strong in your faith,

because you know that your brothers and sisters throughout

the world are enduring the same kinds of suffering.

And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all

grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will

himself restore, confirm, strengthen and establish you.

To him belongs the power forever.

Amen. And so at the core of of of of

what we do here. Nothing.

There's nothing new under the sun.

Right from the beginning we saw the divide of the church.

Right at the establishment of the Church, you have the Acts

church, and within a few years you have churches like Current.

Within a few 100 years of that, you see an even greater divide

with the churches, with the reason for the Apostles Creed,

right. We have to establish guidelines

because we have Aryans, we have Gnostics, and we have all these

different heretical people that are coming in and trying to

steal people from. So here we go, We're going to

have this in order, and if you align with this, we're good.

That had to happen. Think about that.

That's early on in Christian faith.

You think things going to be different now.

You think human beings have changed.

No, human beings have not changed.

Thank God we have, you know, the word of God.

We have early church fathers who have established things and they

fought against heresies. Right.

Unfortunately for us, you know, again in the Western culture,

we're taught to be the 11th commandment.

You know what the 11th commandment is?

No. Thou shall be nice, right?

That's what. That's what we teaching in the

Western world now. Thou shall be nice.

So we don't want to offend anyone, and that includes being

what? Taking back the truth and

putting a muzzle on the truth. And unfortunately what that does

is cause things like heresies to pop back up that have been out

of the church for a long time. Stuff like Jehovah Witnesses,

that was it. That's an ancient heresy.

It's just with a new name on it. And you know, early in the

church you had men of God that stood up and said, you're out,

you're out. But unfortunately for us, we

live in a Western culture where again, we practice the 11th

commandment. Thou shall be nice, So we don't

want to offend people, so we walk on egg shells and we don't

want to tell them the truth. But we need men of God within

the church, within the fellowship.

We need women who are going to stand firm and encourage their

husbands and their sons and their and their brothers to go

forward and preach the true gospel of Christ.

We need, we need men who stand firm and and and and raise their

children and say the only truth, the only truth can be found in

the word of God. I don't care what the schools

tell you. I don't care what the TV tells

you. I don't care what the Internet

tells you. The truth is right here.

And you know why? We know that's true.

You know why we know that's true, brothers and sisters,

because it's stood the test of time.

You don't think that if they could have destroyed the the,

the word of God, they would have.

You don't think that they would have found some kind of evidence

against the word of God. You don't think they they would

have by now. But they can't.

They're still arguing. They're still arguing and trying

to give us now. Now it's aliens, you know.

Now. Now they're saying the aliens

are the ones who did it, right? It's convenient.

It's convenient. A few years ago there was no

such thing as aliens. But now there's aliens.

And so we have. But you know what?

There's a reason why they're doing all this, right?

And so, you know, all the other arguments are falling apart.

So. Let's give you something new to

worry about. So let us keep in mind that we,

at the foundation of who we are as Christians, are what our

blood bought, sanctified in the name of Jesus.

He died on the cross of Calvary for our sins so that we may be

saved for the day of redemption. If you repent of your sins and

you turn to Christ, you will be saved.

You will be sealed for the day of redemption.

Praise God for that. Because there's no greater joy.

There's no greater gift that anyone can give you.

No greater thing that anyone, not your mother, your wife, your

sisters, your brothers, your father.

No one else can give you what Christ can give you.

That's peace and joy. You know, a lot of people talk

about having happiness in their life, but happiness comes with

happenstance. It means depending on your

circumstance, right? But joy comes from the Lord.

Only joy comes from the Lord. I don't want to be happy.

I want to be joyful, because that comes from the Lord.

And you can only find that in the Lord.

Even when you're distressed, you find joy in the Lord.

And I praise God because we have fellowships and we have

believers that still hold true to the word of God and and

nothing will come and will destroy the church, the true

church, right, The Church of God, the the, the saved people

that we are. And I thank God for my brothers

and sisters in Christ that we have people that are still

standing up for the Word. I encourage you once again be

reminded of what it means to be in fellowship with one another.

And what does that look like? That looks like reminding that

the same grace that God has poured on you is the same grace

that you should be pouring on fellow believers.

We should stand out in the world.

We should be a beacon of light. A light You don't put something

over. A lamp stand, right?

You don't cover a lamp state. You let it shine for the world

to see. We should be gracious to one

another, joyful with another, one another, one another,

selfless with one another. And the same way that Christ was

selfless with us. And I pray and I continue to

pray for you guys that the Lord continues to add on to to your

to your congregation, to your fellowship, the people that need

to be here, that God is going to call.

And I pray that each and every one of you here pour into those

people and pour into them the same amount of grace and love

and mercy that Christ poured into each and every one of you.

That's here today. And I pray for this church.

And in fact, I did pretty good. So I'm going to go ahead and

close up and in prayer. So if you guys just want to bow

your heads, I'll just pray over the church.

And the message today, Father God, we give you thanks, Lord,

for your grace and for your mercy.

Lord, we thank you for dying on the cross of Calvary for the

remissions of our sins. Lord, I pray right now, Lord,

that if there's any among us that truly doesn't have you in

their hearts, Lord, I pray that you just call them Lord.

If we have elect amongst us, Lord, that haven't given

themselves over, I haven't heard your calling yet.

I ask that this be the moment that you penetrate their heart,

Lord, that they seek to you for repentance.

Lord, that they repent of their ways and give their heart to

you. Lord, open their hearts for

Christ, or that you may come in and change their lives.

Lord, we pray over this congregation.

Lord, this fellowship of believers, Lord, that are

gathered here today just like the early church were gathered

in anywhere they could. Lord, I ask that you just

continue to bless them and strengthen them.

Lord, continue to help them going forward.

Lord and all the things that you have for them.

Lord, I ask that you just bless them and and just continue to

add on those that may be coming to the church.

Lord, that you that you continue to draw those people to this

church. I pray over their pastors.

Lord, that you continue to bless him, Lord, strengthen him, guide

him. Let your footsteps be his

footsteps. Lord, bless his family.

Lord, I know how hard it could be for a pastoral family as I

I'm the son of a pastor. Lord, that these you just

encourages his sons and his wife.

Strengthen the Lord as they go forward.

Lord and this Time Lord, that you just be with them, Protect

them, guide them, strengthen them, lead them.

Lord, let your Holy Spirit be first in their hearts, Lord, and

just help them. Lord.

I pray over anyone here, Lord, who struggles with with grace

and and that you just continue to remind them that your grace

is sufficient, Lord, and that you have poor grace into them,

so they may pour into others. Lord, I I know Lord that you

have great things for this congregation and for this

fellowship. Lord, I know that you have Bible

centered people here, Lord, because I know what type of man

JM is, Lord, and I ask that you just continue to bless this

fellowship. Lord, we ask that you bless each

and every one of these peoples, the homes and and their their

families. Lord, that you just guide them

and help them Lord and all that they do.

Lord, let them be Christ centered people.

Lord, let let you be at the center of their minds and in

their hearts as they continue to grow.

Lord, I pray over my family as well, Lord, that you have

encouraged us, Lord, with this fellowship.

Lord, to see what it looks like to have a gathering of people

that truly love the Lord and just truly give themselves over

to your desires and your ways, no matter what the cause.

Lord, I pray, Lord, for strong men of God in this church, Lord,

that they may lead your congregation and the men that

come in here. I pray for strong women, Lord,

that could be the support of their husbands, Lord, and the

and the leaders of their families, Lord, that they may be

guided by you and in the word of God.

Lord, reminding that we need to keep Christ centered in all

everything that we do. Lord, I ask you all this.

In the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, we pray.

Amen and Amen. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I've got to do tides and. Offering so the baskets here,

We'll leave it here for a little while while we've straightened

up the chairs and stuff like that, so feel free to also an

announcement. Real quick, we are doing a

baptism service. September 3rd, it's going to be.

Where JM lives, we're going to have some more details together.

Burn in the river there. Where we've done it before,

we'll have more details on that in the.

Coming weeks. Hey, Don Incubator.

Is that next incubator the 21st of August?

At 6:30 Susan Balls coming. So I know that.

Thank you ma'am. We know that there are some

announcements in the the Facebook.

To talk about who she is and what she can do and that kind of

stuff. So yeah, I mean, it's going to

be an exciting time. I think Susan Ball is coming.

Yep. For the business incubator.

No the 21st the 21st. So and and she also she also has

a.