What Make the Church the Church l Experiencing the Presence of God l Pastor Jamie Kemp

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I'm Pastor Jamie and I'm excited that you're joining us for this week's message.

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Man, I'm starting to show up to church just to see what uh teacher Amos is gonna do every week uh during our kids' ministry.

Uh he's becoming like a superstar here at IES.

So uh hey, um, it was uh it was early on in my years in Indonesia.

I mean, I was preaching everywhere when I first arrived here in Indonesia and learned the language.

And one Sunday afternoon, I was scheduled to preach in a small, uh, tiny church in a village outside of Tagal.

All right, and and the pastor picked me up and drove me to the church a couple hours uh to the church, and I and the in the the congregation, the church was so excited to have a Boule pastor come and preach, alright?

And so so the worship leader, and in an effort to kind of honor their guests, uh that a foreigner was coming to preach, they uh uh the the worship leader she really wanted to worship uh sing a song in English.

The problem was no one in the church spoke English or understood English, all right?

So what they were excited, they were committed to like singing.

They were like, we got the foreigner here, we want to sing a song in English, all right?

And so they picked the song, the worship leader picked the song.

Um, God is so good, God is so good, God is so good, he's so good to me.

Okay, so remember, so they they they're they're excited to sing that song.

So so they because they picked a song that would be sung in Bahasa first, and then in English.

So uh so they sing it in Bahasa.

The congregation is so excited, they sing, Allah you too bike, alaytubike, alaytubike, da-da-da-da-da-da.

So I forgot the the lyrics.

So God is, and then so so after singing it, the the the worship leader is like, Okay, uh, okay, now we're gonna sing it in Bahasa English, we're gonna sing it in English in the congregation.

All right.

I mean, there's only like 12 of them there, but they're all like, yeah, let's go.

All right, now remember, no English, no one, no, they don't speak English, they don't understand English, and so they uh so they start to sing it in the the worship leader the way L.

She begins to sing, you know, they're singing, alaytubike, okay, now in Bahasa singing in English, and they start singing, God is no good, God is no good.

And I mean they I mean they had no idea.

I mean, it was so great because they were like, no good, God, you are no good.

You know, their hearts, their hearts were in the right place, but their lyrics were quite wrong, right?

And so it was one of my one of my favorite things to see him say, no good, God, you're so no good.

All right, so well, sometimes we can get a little mixed up when we talk about worship, all right?

We all have different experiences and ideas when it comes to worship.

Most of us, when I say worship, our minds automatically go towards singing.

And that's just one side of the coin.

When we read through the scriptures, we discover that worship of God is much bigger than just singing.

Our English word worship comes from the word worship and helps us by drawing our attention away from ourselves and towards the worth of God.

This is to be understood in both adoration and action.

Worship is to be understood in both in both adoration and action.

There's two signs to there's two sides to the worship coin.

If one really adores God, he will serve him faithfully.

And likewise, true service to God includes adoration from the hearts and praise from our lips.

All that we do in response to God and his goodness and his glory is considered worship.

So we so we don't limit ourselves to worshiping God only by singing, but we worship God with our entire life.

Now, over the past three weeks, we've been talking about, uh I've been asking this one simple but important question.

What makes the church the church?

What makes the church the church?

And most people think about the church, they're thinking about a building or a worship service or maybe even a denomination.

But in Acts chapter 2, we discover the first church wasn't defined by any of those things.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

It was defined by the presence of Jesus at work in the community of the ordinary people who'd been transformed by the Holy Spirit.

In Acts 2, 42 to uh verse 47, Luke gives us a picture of what the church looked like after Pentecost.

These first believers, they devoted themselves to a few simple but powerful practices that became the foundation for everything they did.

We've been talking about them the last few weeks in this series.

Um we discovered first that the word of God changes lives.

That if you want to get a word from God, you got to get into the word of God.

Two weeks ago I shared about that everyone's welcome, that no matter where you're at on your spiritual journey, you are welcome here.

Last week I talked about God answers prayers, that the only way to fail at prayer is to not pray.

So today I want us to look at to see our fourth biblical core value that we see in the early church.

It says this in Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

They worshiped together at the temple each day, met in homes for the Lord's Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity, all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people.

And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.

So today I want to talk about the biblical core value that we want to see here at IS.

What makes the church the church?

The presence of God.

Experiencing the presence.

The goal of the Christian life isn't simply to know about God, it's to know God.

The goal isn't to merely study his word or enjoy Christian fellowship or even pray faithfully.

Even those though those are essential and important things.

The goal is to encounter and to know the living God.

My vision for IS has never been that we simply become a church with great worship, although we do have great worship.

You know, my vision isn't that we have a church that has great teens and children's program, although we do have great teens and children's program.

My vision isn't even that we have a church with great preaching, which I with juries still out on whether that's true or not.

You guys are like, you're only a month in.

All right, we'll we'll tell you next month.

All right, so, but the goal here, my prayer is that we would be a church filled with people who uh who encounter the life-changing presence of God.

That when we gather together, man, we sense the presence of God.

When the presence of God fills a church, lives are transformed, man, people are healed, faith is strengthened, and Jesus is glorified.

This is the one defining mark of the church.

The early church uh will experience the presence of God, and that's got to be the defining difference between the church and all the other organizations out there.

This is what makes the church different from an NGO, a Yaya San or anything else out there.

Is that what defines us, what marks us is the presence of God.

It was when I was 17 years old, I committed my life to following Jesus.

I didn't know all the theology.

I didn't know the latest Bethel or Maverick City worship, worship songs at the time.

You know, I don't I don't even remember any sermons from when I was a teenager, when I was in high school.

All I remember are those encounters with the presence of God, those life-changing moments when I was in a service and I felt God transforming and changing my life.

Philippians 3 10 became one of my life verses as a teenager when it says that I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing his sufferings, and so somehow attain resurrection from the dead.

That I want to know Christ.

Since then, I basically built my entire ministry around this.

My whole discipleship model is this that that if I can just get you into the presence of God, something might happen.

You know, some uh you know, I've been working with Mahasis or university students for all these years, and and people are asking me now that I'm at IS, they're like, man, we've heard about your discipleship, we've heard about you the way you've been able to mentor, and I feel like saying, my my mentoring philosophy is this if I can get you into the presence of God, he'll do all the work.

He'll bring the transformation.

This is why I put it, I'd rather have you hear one word from God than a thousand sermons from me.

I'd rather have you hear one word from God than a thousand sermons from me.

This is why I push you so hard at the end of service.

You know, some of you guys like, man, can't you just pray and dismiss after the sermon?

I'm like, yeah, but when you get out, once you go through those doors, something magical happens and you forget my sermon, all right?

Uh but but if you can, if you can just get into the presence of God, I know that you won't forget when God touches your heart, when the Lord touches your heart.

I remember my kids when they were younger, they'd always complain, because they would say, Man, why do we got to stand and sing again?

You know, like we already did at the front of the service, and how you're gonna make us do it at the end of the service again.

But but there's no way I won't do it.

I always wanna give you an opportunity to respond to the word of God.

You might never remember anything I say, but you'll never forget what the Lord said.

The early church met together to worship the Lord and experience his life-changing presence.

The last two Sundays, I've been talking with one of our young adults who who's getting ready to move, uh, and so we're sad to see her go, but excited about her future.

She didn't grow up in a Christian home, and and she'd never even been to a church until she came to IS.

And when she first came and she heard the drums and the loud music and the and the lighting, she she joked and said it felt more like a concert than a church.

But uh, but something began to happen.

She began to feel the presence of God.

And little by little she started clapping her hands during the songs.

Then suddenly she, a few weeks later, she found herself closing her eyes during the worship time.

Then she took a big step of faith and she went from this to this.

All right, now some of you guys, some of you guys remember the first time you ever raised your hand in worship, and I mean it was a bold step to just go from this to, yes, Lord.

You know, I get that, all right?

Some of you aren't there yet.

You're like, uh, you know, I'm closing my eyes, isn't that enough?

All right.

But and then she says, now, now when you watch your worship, man, both hands are in the air, praising God because God has saved her and redeemed her from so much.

I'm not saying you have to lift your hands to experience the presence of God, but when you experience the presence of God, man, I want to lift my hands.

So let me take a moment to talk about why we sing so much at IS.

All right.

You know, let's let let's let's take a moment and just kind of wrestle with this idea of what why do we sing so much here at IS?

So many of my conversations over the last couple months have been so interesting for me.

Many of you know have noticed that I'm a little more expressive in my worship.

You know, I love to clap and sing and raise my hands.

I like to sit in the front row because I have more airspace, you know, like you guys in the in the middle aisles, you know, you have to like, you can't hardly lift your hands.

You know, I need a lot of space when I worship, all right?

So so uh so I so a lot of people are coming with to me and with expectate expectations, and and some people, some of you are coming to me and say, hey, are we gonna have more time to sing and worship in the weekend services?

And then some of you are coming to me with more skepticism and and asking, are we gonna have to have more time for singing and worship during the weekend worship services?

Same question, totally different, uh uh, totally different answer they're expecting.

So I get it.

Some of you are like, man, 15 minutes of worship isn't enough at the weekend.

That's why we want you to come to altar this uh this Wednesday night where we have kind of a full hour of just worship.

So if you feel like, man, 15 minutes isn't enough for me to express my heart of worship to the Lord, man, we've got Wednesday night altar for you.

Come and join us in the chapel.

But for some of you, I get it, our 15 minutes of worship is about 14 minutes too long, all right?

Because you're just not there yet.

You're like, can't we just do an opening song and be done with it?

All right.

So I get that.

But here's what I know: it's not about the amount of time we spend in worship.

For me, it's the quality of our worship.

The goal is to experience the life-changing presence of God.

The year was 1990.

I was finishing up my eighth grade year, all right, and uh, and looking forward to a great summer when Michelle, the girl I had been going out with, even though we didn't go anywhere, um uh we'd been we'd been going out um for one whole month.

Now, in junior high, you know, years, that's like that's like marriage, all right.

One month dating in junior high, you know, like even though we didn't go anywhere, all right?

So, you know, so we're going out, we don't go anywhere, we've been together, and all of a sudden, um uh what happened is apparently on one of a c a class trip with another school, she met another boy.

And I found out, and I was heartbroken.

My first heartbreak as a 13-year-old, just the the way that she she broke up with me.

And so that night, I still remember that night on my walk, man.

Some of you, uh, you're with me, all right.

Some of you say, what?

All right, I had my cassette tape, popped it in, headphones on, and I listened to Poisons, every rose has its thorn.

About a thousand times, you know.

I'd listened to it, you know, rewind that cassette tape, listen to that song again.

Man, that was now get this.

That was 36 years ago, all right?

And I still remember every lyric to that song.

All right, and I know every word.

I mean, if we played it right now, I just kind of, it's my karaoke song if we go out, all right.

So, um, but here's here's what I want to say is songs have the power to express what we feel, right?

Songs have that, the songs have that ability to express what we feel, but we just we don't have the words to say it, right?

Tosh and I, we have a song.

Um, that song, uh, Have I Told You Lately That I Love You?

That's that's our song, all right?

So actually, we we've kind of got this deal, Tash and I.

Anytime we hear that song being played, no matter where we're at, we have to stand up and dance together.

All right.

So uh it's we've been in some silly situations where like, are we gonna stick to this or not?

All right.

So so uh um, but so but that's our song, and I was thinking, you know, that song kind of captures the way that I feel about my wife Tasha.

Could you imagine if I tried to write a song for her?

I mean, it would be like, hey, you're pretty cool to hang out with.

You know, it would be nearly as romantic, right?

So songs have this way of taking what we feel on the inside and expressing them on the outside.

And so the scriptures have that, we call it the Psalms, right?

The scriptures have the Psalms.

They're love songs, they're songs of victory, songs of mourning, songs of grief, songs of celebration, and songs of loss.

Songs have the ability to capture our imagination and even move our emotions, right?

Songs have a way of creeping into our memory, and then years later, we still remember a song that we learned as a child.

Chi chuck, chee-chuck.

All right, you know what I'm saying now, right?

How many of you, when you learn the alphabet in English, you didn't memorize the alphabet like, okay, A and then B.

Then what's the third letter?

You know, you you know how I remember as a kid we memorized the song A, B, C.

You memorize it to a song, right?

Elemento P, you know, elemento, what is that?

What letter is that?

All right.

So, but uh, but that's how you memorize, you know, it's easier to memorize the alphabet in a song, ah, be che day.

You know, that's how I try to learn it in language school, all right?

So the psalms teach us how to talk to God.

Nearly the entirety of scriptures are God speaking to us.

But the psalms are different.

They they show so they show us how to talk to God.

I mean, most of the scriptures are are teaching us how to live and how to treat one another, but what's unique about the psalms is they show us how to express our heart to God.

That's why I love the psalms.

They're often filled with brutal honesty.

Sometimes I can't even believe what I'm reading when I'm reading through the scriptures, what the writers are are brawny enough or are bold enough to say to God, right?

Yet we sometimes think when we pray, we have to tiptoe around God or try to think trick him into thinking we're better than we really are.

But here's what you'll notice, what I want us to notice that the psalms, they're entirely human and their emotional response to God.

The psalms are entirely human and their emotional response to God.

Some people will complain or criticize the church for singing too much, or people respond emotionally to church, or they respond emotionally to a worship song.

And I want to say, well, that's good, because that points us back to the psalms.

I mean, they're an emotional response to their to their situation, a remote an emotional response to the things of God.

Nearly every psalm, no matter how deep the level of frustration or despair, ends with a song of praise, a glimmer of hope, a seed of faith.

Psalm 35, 17.

How long, O Lord, will you look on and do nothing?

How about that as a prayer?

Some of you guys have been there.

Or you were in a time.

Some of you guys are there right now.

This is your cry to the Lord God.

You know my situation.

You know the trouble I'm in.

You know my prayer round.

How long will you look at my situation and do nothing?

But yet, what does the next part of the verse say?

Yes, I will thank you in front of the great assembly.

I will praise you before all the people.

Here's what I want you to know today.

Don't let what's wrong with you keep you from worship what's right with God.

Don't let what's wrong with you keeping keep you from worshiping what's right with God.

Saul and Barnabas, Paul and Silas, they found themselves locked up in jail, and in their midnight hour they began to sing, and the Bible says, all their chains came off.

This guy was no stranger to tough situations.

He wrote in 2 Corinthians, we are pressed on every side by troubles, but not crushed.

We are perplexed, but not driven to despair.

We are hunted down but never abandoned by God.

We are knocked down, but we are not destroyed.

Though suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that we may lift up so that the life of Jesus may be also seen in our bodies.

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

When I was a kid, my mom had uh had three sets of dishes, alright?

Um we had the the everyday plastic dishes, all right.

They were cheap, they easily broke and were easily replaced, all right.

So that's what we were as kids.

We were expected to eat off the plastic, uh, the plastic plates.

But then we had like when we'd have dinner as a family, we had uh ceramic plates, all right?

They kind of we bought them in a set, you'd have the you'd have the the the the regular plate, maybe the salad plate, maybe a bowl, uh a cup or a uh uh a matching mug that would go with it.

You know, it came in as a set, and so it was ceramic, and you had to be a little more careful with it.

You know, when you'd wash it, you'd have to be a little more because it would chip, the ceramic would would chip easily, all right?

Um so that was our so we had the the everyday uh you know eating lunch, you just use the plastic stuff.

Real if it broke, no problem, replace it.

Then we had like our our ceramic are nicer, you know.

We'd have dinner at the dinner table with that.

Um guests came over, that's what we would use.

Um there was a third set of dishware that we had that uh was rarely used.

It was actually a wedding present my parents got.

It was uh it was fine China, okay?

It was fine China, and uh it actually, this still cracks me up today, it actually had its own cabinet, you know, like a display.

Like we were not allowed to actually use it, it was just on display, all right?

Maybe like once a year someone would come over and uh and we weren't even allowed to eat off it.

You know, my my mom and her friends would eat off it, and the kids would be like, hey, what's that?

Alright, no, uh, we don't, but you know, it was it was the fine china because I uh uh and my mom one day would explain to me as a kid the difference between the plastic, the ceramic, and and how can we tell what makes the fine china so good?

And I remember I was probably eight or nine years old, and and she had me take my finger and I and I'd have to I'd click the like flick or hit the plate, and you know, you hit the plastic.

Plate and just like you know I'd hit the ceramic plate and it'd like ding.

But then she said, watch what happens when you hit the fine china.

It would it would ring, or she said, You know it's fine when you hit it, and it sings.

That's how you knew it was that it that was it was it was valuable because when you hit it, a song would come out of it.

My mom taught me that that that that that that beat that's what made it fine, that that something that made it important, made it what a difference between the plastic every day, the ceramic, but when you had the fine stuff, even when it was you would could tell it was good, it was valuable, it was important.

Bing it would sing when you hit it.

Now listen, this is what happens when Christ lives inside of you, and this is what the world can't understand, this is what our neighbors and our co-workers don't get about us, they can't comprehend it.

That that every time the enemy attacks you, there's still joy that comes out of our lives.

That when life hits you, out comes a song of joy.

And they and that how in the world can it be that the enemy can attack you and you still show up here week after week after week, singing and expressing a heart of worship to God because the devil doesn't know who he's messing with, right?

That no matter what he does, we're gonna find a song to worship the Lord.

Man, uh, how long, oh Lord, will you look on and do nothing?

Yet I will praise you.

No matter what comes against us, we're gonna sing that song.

He can attack you in every way, he can attack your mind and your body, but deep down inside of us, there's something that's welling up that no matter what you throw at me, hit me with your best shot, and a song is still gonna come out of me.

Come against me, and a song is gonna come out.

Come and fight against me.

There's gonna be something deep inside my spirit that that won't stay quiet because the more you hit me, the more you come against me, I realize I must be doing something right.

So tonight, sing that song to the Lord.

Sing it in the midst of your trouble, in the midst of your circumstances, in the midst of your good times, in the midst of your bad times.

Man, we sing that song to the Lord.

Enemy, you can hit me all you want, and all you're gonna find is a song coming out of me.

Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that's within me.

Bless your holy name.

Would you stand with me tonight?

This may happen or that may happen, yet something deep within my soul says, Sing to the Lord and rejoice in who he is.

That if you hit me, my friends, I will sing, attack me, and I have a song in my heart.

Come against me, and I will exalt the name of the Lord forever.

I'm not gonna let what's wrong with me keep me from worshiping what's right with the Lord.

So no matter what you're going through, tonight, sing that song to the Lord.

Would you pray with me, Father in heaven?

Put a song in our soul, Lord, that no matter where we're at, no matter what we're going through, God, that we have a song of praise, a song of thanksgiving to lift to you tonight.

So, Lord, we lift our hearts, we lift our hands to you tonight.

In Jesus' name.

Hallelujah.

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