What Make the Church the Church | The Word of God Changes Lives | Pastor Jamie Kemp

Welcome to IES Jakarta.

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

At IES Jakarta, from young to old, new visitor to founding member, married and single, no matter where you're at on your spiritual journey, you are welcome here.

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Thanks for listening.

Well, good evening.

Great to see you guys here.

I hope that was uh a good time with for our kids.

It's always great to have our kids here.

So we we value them.

So I wanted to make them feel a part of the service tonight.

And as we start this What Makes the Church the Church, uh, these last couple weeks, I'd say, have been um, how would I describe it, bittersweet for many of us.

We've celebrated the retirement of our pastors, our friends and mentors, Pastor Dave and Gigi.

Um, man, we're grateful for their 26 years of faithful leadership uh here at IES, and we pray the best over them as they step into their next chapter of their life.

And uh, over the last five months, during this transition, I've I've talked to Pastor Dave nearly every day, trying to learn as much as I could from him before he retired.

And I'm so grateful for all the time and information that he shared with me these past five months.

Everything from how to lead a deacon's meeting to where are the best restaurants in Jakarta.

All right, so um so many of the things he shared with me are personal, and I'm I'm gonna hide them in my heart for a while.

Um, but the most consistent piece of advice, the thing that he shared with me every time we met, every time we met together, every Tuesday afternoon when we'd meet for mentoring, he would say the same thing every week.

He'd say this, he'd always say, be their pastor.

Be their pastor.

And that's exactly what Tosh and I plan on to do here at IES, is that we commit ourselves to being your pastors.

From young to old, from first-time visitor to founding member, member, married or single, we are humbled to be your pastors in this next season at IES.

So that's why, with this in mind, I think it's important for us to spend these next few weeks kind of just rooting ourselves in what makes the church the church.

You know, uh, what are we all about?

What uh what a great moment for us to pause and reflect and ask, what are what are we doing here?

You know, what's going on and what are we all about here at IS?

It's in the book of Acts that we we get a pretty good idea of what the church is all about.

You know, Luke is writing the sequel to his gospel of Jesus, and he gives us an accurate historical record of the early church.

And in some ways, we're we're seeing the ultimate leadership transition taking place in the early book of Acts.

Jesus has ascended to the Father and has entrusted a small group of people to carry out his mission.

It begins with the promised outpouring of the Holy Spirit to empower the new people of God to boldly proclaim the good news of Jesus.

And these spirit-empowered uh people, they they begin in Jerusalem and eventually spread to Rome and beyond, covering most of the Roman Empire and the known world.

Now, as a good Pentecostal, as a good spirit-filled, charismatic believer of man, uh I love this idea of the day of Pentecost, Acts 2, 1 through 4, right?

Uh uh that on the day of Pentecost, we see the fulfillment of God's promise, the outpouring of God's Spirit on all people.

I love this verse.

I preach Acts 2, 4.

I live this.

Uh I think most of us know what happens at the beginning of Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

You know, we see all the believers, they're they're gathered together in one place and they're praying and waiting on the promised Holy Spirit, just as Jesus commanded them.

And then it says this in uh in Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

It says, uh, it says, uh suddenly, or tibatibah, that's my favorite word in Bahasa.

But uh Tibatibah, suddenly, it says, uh, as they're praying, they hear the sound of a rushing wind.

You know, uh the sound of wind blowing through the room, and then and then they look around and and they're like, hey, your hair's on fire.

No, your hair is on fire.

It looks like the tongues of flames are resting upon their heads.

And then it says, it says that that they all spoke, not some, not a few, not a select number, but but they all spoke, uh, they they all spoke in uh an unlearned language as the Holy Spirit enabled them.

I pray and want that to happen every week at IS.

That we would experience the life-changing presence of God every time we gather.

Those of you who've been here the last few months and heard me preach, this is why I come after you at the end of service, because I want to give you the opportunity to step into the presence of God and allow him to change your life.

Now, here's where we make the mistake as good charismatic and non-traditional churches.

This is where we make the mistake is that sometimes we believe that the scriptures end after Acts 2.4.

All right.

But what comes after Acts 2.4?

Acts 2.5, all right?

There's more to the Bible, all right?

I think, you know, being a good charismatic, spirit-filled believer, I think, man, Acts 2.4, Holy Spirit, come down.

That's but but the scriptures actually don't end there, and they don't even end with the apostle uh Peter getting up and preaching, and 3,000 get saved.

There's there's more that happens.

Now, my prayers every time we meet, we have an Acts 2.4 experience that we experience the life-changing presence of God, that we have that opportunity to see God touch and change our lives.

But we see the result of Acts 2.4 later on in the chapter.

In Acts 2, verses 42 to 47, it gives us an idea of how to structure our lives, our ministry, and the church.

Acts 2:42–47

This is what it says in Acts 2, 42.

It says this.

All the believers, so the Holy Spirit's already come down, man, three people, 3,000 people got saved, man, the church has been established.

And now what does it say?

It says this all the believers devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship and to the sharing in meals, including the Lord's Supper and a prayer.

A deep sense of awe came over all of them, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders, and all the believers uh met together in one place and shared everything they had.

They sold their property and possessions and shared their money with those in needs, and they worshiped together at the temple each day.

They met in home 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.

Now that's the kind of church that I want to be a part of.

And that's the kind of church I want to see happen here at IS.

These first believers, these Christ followers, they devoted themselves to these things.

They were committed to these biblical values, and so are we at IS, right?

So that's why over the next five weeks I want to break this down and answer this question.

What makes the church the church?

What makes IS IS?

Five things.

The word of God changes lives.

Everyone is welcome.

God answers prayer, experiencing the presence of God, and missional living.

That's what makes the church the church.

And so we're gonna take a look at each one of these over the next next couple of weeks because the first thing we see when we read the scriptures here is those early Christians, those early believers, it says they devoted themselves to the apostles' teachings.

Before programs, buildings, worship styles, or ministries, they were devoted to God's word.

So here it is.

Biblical core value that we build upon is this the word of God changes lives.

The word of God changes lives.

In 1799, during Napoleon's campaign in Egypt, soldiers were digging near the city of Rosetta when they discovered what we now call the Rosetta Stone.

Carved into stone were three different languages: hieroglyphics, demotic, and Greek.

From what I've learned, for years scholars couldn't understand the ancient Egyptian language.

But once they finally connected the Greek translation to the hieroglyphics, everything changed.

It unlocked an entire civilization.

Suddenly they could understand Egypt's history, culture, beliefs, and way of life.

The Bible is kind of like our Rosetta Stone, right?

This is how we make sense of life.

How we understand love and truth, right and wrong.

This is how we answer life's biggest questions.

You know, uh-oh, where do we come from?

Um, why are we here?

Where are we going?

Written over 1,500 years in three different languages and on three different continents.

The Bible is a collection of 66 books written by over but written by 40 different authors, farmers and fishermen, poets and prophets, doctors, tax collectors, prime ministers.

It was written in prison cells and in palace courts, metropolitan cities and hidden in caves.

It covers every human experience.

We've got comedy and tragedy, history and theology, uh, everything from poetry, prophecy to philosophy.

There are musicals called the Psalms.

There's documentaries called Kings and Chronicles, there's the Gospels and the Epistles.

It's the most comprehensive longitudinal study of human history.

The Bible is the most comprehensive longitudinal study of human history.

All those authors, all those subjects, all those years, and yet it reads as one.

How is that even possible?

I think 2 Timothy 3.16 gives the answer.

It says this all scripture is God-breathed, useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that the servant of God may be equipped for every good work.

So here's how I imagine it.

When we read the scriptures, we're we're inhaling what the Spirit exhaled thousands of years ago.

All scripture is God breathed.

So when we open up the Bible, God opens his mouth not just to speak, but he breathes.

And it's like a Genesis 2.7 moment all over again.

Genesis 2.7.

Then the Lord God formed man from dust of the earth and breathed in his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.

So, number one, if you're taking notes or you can follow along on you version, God's word teaches us what is true.

God's word teaches us what is true.

It says all scripture is useful for teaching.

Now, all of us have an epistemology.

That's that idea, that theory of knowledge or that branch of philosophy that asks the question, what is truth?

You know, how do how do I relate to reality and how do I know what we know?

Now we live in a culture that wants us to believe that my truth is my truth and your truth is your truth.

The problem is it's not true, right?

It's a logical fallacy, right?

Uh, because you see, at some point, um you're going to bump, uh my truth is gonna bump into your truth, and then what's true, right?

And so so all truth is God's truth with this little caveat, with this little description.

Scripture is our epistemological starting point, meaning scripture is our starting point for understanding and interpreting the world around us, all right?

Scripture is our starting point for understanding and interpreting the world around us.

That's why it's so important for us to know and to apply it to our lives and let it affect the way we think and feel.

Jesus put it this way: I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one can come to the Father except through me.

So the Bible is not merely a collection of inspiring stories, it reveals God's character, his purposes, his promise, and the plan of salvation through Jesus.

So all scripture is God breathed, uh, good for teaching us what is true.

Number two, God's word rebukes us when we're wrong and corrects us to put us on the right path again.

So God's word rebukes and corrects.

God's word rebukes and corrects.

Now, we are currently as parents trying to teach Phoebe how to drive.

All right, and um, and it's been a disaster.

All right.

I've discovered that I have no patience and no compassion.

I feel like I'm a pretty good dad.

You know, you'll see me with my daughter, and I'm very affectionate.

But man, we get in that car and I don't know what happens.

And it's gone.

It's all it's all gone, all right?

Um I I found that I am great at rebuking and terrible at correcting.

Uh I mean, I can tell her everything she's doing wrong, all right, and nothing that she's doing right.

You know what I mean?

And all of our driving lessons have ended in tears for both of us.

Not just, I mean, we're both by the end.

So that's why, just so you know, uh, Tasha has taken over the driving lessons.

All right, I'm not allowed to teach Phoebe how to drive at this point.

All right, well, let me put it this way: rebuke shows us where we're wrong, correction shows us how to get it right.

So when the scriptures talk about rebuking, correcting, the rebuking shows us where we're wrong.

Correction shows us how to get it right.

Now, rebuking, man, that's not a popular word, right?

Because it means it means exposing sin or confronting error or revealing areas of our life that that aren't honoring to God.

I mean, most of us enjoy being encouraged, right?

I mean, I'm an optimist by nature.

You know, I have a I actually have a sign in my office that says, today's a great day to have a great day.

You know, I'm that's just how I'm wired.

You know, that's me.

Most of us like to be encouraged.

No one likes to be rebuked or corrected.

Yet God loves us too much to leave us unchanged.

I'll never forget the moment.

Uh I'll never forget one of the days where Pastor Dave rebuked me.

Not in store, not because of some sort of sin, but because of a bad attitude.

It was about 10 years ago he and I were driving, we were in my uh about to ma long, and we were driving to a leadership meeting together, and I'll never forget uh what he said to me.

He said, Jamie, I really like being with you, but you've really got to change your attitude towards these meetings.

And I was stunned because he was right.

I did have a bad attitude.

I was being critical.

My words weren't constructive.

And I'd say that day, that day of rebuke and correction, that was the day that Pastor Dave truly became my mentor.

Those of you looking for a mentor, I think sometimes we're just looking for cheerleaders, right?

To tell us how we're doing, how great we're doing.

But those of you, especially the young people, say, Man, I need a mentor in my life, I need somebody to show me, I need a spiritual guide in my life, I need a spiritual mentor in my life.

I've never had someone to disciple me.

Oh, maybe it's because you've never opened your heart to rebuke and correction.

You just want to be encouraged all the time.

Oh, you're doing great.

Maybe you just need a cheerleader rather than a spiritual mentor in your life.

Do you know some do you have someone in your life that can not only encourage you but rebuke and correct you when you've when you've wandered off?

Have you given someone permission in your life to correct you when you're going the wrong way?

Some of you are like, Yeah, I do have that person.

I married them.

So what's that what's that old joke?

Like, man, I uh that old joke that says, you know, I always wanted to to meet and marry Mr.

Wright.

I just didn't know his first name would be always, you know, that's like an old joke, right?

So it's silly.

All right.

Hebrews tells us that God disciplines those he loves.

For the Lord disciplines those he loves, he punishes each one who accepts, he accepts as children.

Now I realize my personality is an encourager.

Half the time I'm up here, I feel like I'm more like a motivational speaker with you guys, you know, because I know life is tough, and and man, you need some encouragement in life, you need somebody to cheer you on.

But there are times in godly love that I'm gonna need to challenge you and call you out.

A healthy church just doesn't tell people what they want to hear.

We want to be loving enough to tell others what they need to hear.

But here's the key the goal of rebuke is never condemnation, it's always reconciliation.

Does that make sense to you?

Like, like the goal of rebuke or correction is never to condemn somebody, the goal is always reconciliation to help get them into the right spot to be reconciled relationally or with God.

So if we're to speak the truth in love and Jesus is the truth, I suppose we're supposed to speak Jesus over people, not our opinion or the way we'd like things to be.

But Jesus had this way of calling out sinners and calling them in.

That Jesus didn't just call out sinners, but he would call them in.

In our rebukes and our corrections, let's just not call people out, let's call them in.

So we know that the word of God changes lives, it rebukes and corrects, but lastly, God's word trains us to be like Jesus.

God's word trains us to be like Jesus.

All athletes are disciplined in their training.

They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize.

No athlete becomes great by practicing once.

No musician masters an instrument in a day.

Uh, likewise, spiritual maturity happens through consistent commitment to God's word.

The Bible trains us to think differently, to speak differently, to love differently, to live differently.

The goal of scripture is not information, the goal is Christ-likeness.

The goal is Christ-likeness.

It's there that we immerse ourselves in God's word that we become more like Jesus.

And this is hugely important for me.

And if and if you can catch this, man, I'd really like you to grab a hold of this because I was in one of my soap groups just a few weeks ago, and we were talking to a couple of the guys there, and and and we were talking about our faith, and and and and what I what I wanted to communicate to them was that we're not looking for behavior modification.

You know, oh poor guy.

I feel the same way.

I my wife feels the same way with my sermons.

Like, get me out of here.

So I'm in this soap group with this guy, and we're talking about our struggles with our faith and kind of walking through that, and I realize like, when we talk about our faith in Jesus, man, we're we're not looking for behavior modification.

We're looking to be more like Jesus.

Right?

Where I'm not I'm not just trying to be a good moral person or a better person.

I'm uh the goal of my faith is to become more like Jesus.

Let me let me summarize what discipleship looks like.

Discipleship is this to be with Jesus, to be like Jesus, and to do what Jesus did.

That's discipleship.

That's the spiritual growth that we want to have in our life.

To be with Jesus, to be like Jesus, and to do what Jesus did.

I was just a couple weeks ago that I was in DC, in Washington, D.C., for a pastor's retreat.

And one of the pastors who were was a part of this cohort was uh one of my oldest friends, Joel.

You'll probably meet him in the next couple months or in the next couple uh yeah, next couple months.

And Tasha, my wife, she can always tell when I've spent time with Joel.

He's the kind of friend where uh where we just pick up where we just left off.

You know, like we might not have seen each other for years, but when we're together, I mean the jokes are flowing, you know, we're just like having a great time, and we just we just pick up right where we left off, no matter how long it's been.

And and and when I've been with Joel, I talk different, you know, because we we just kind of are joking around.

I I laugh different, I sound different.

Very few people can make me laugh like Joel does, and Tasha, she Can always tell you've been with Joel, haven't you?

All right, when I come home, right?

And here's what I want: the more I've been with Jesus, the more I act like Jesus, and the more I sound like Jesus.

And that's my prayer for you that you would be with Jesus and be more like Jesus.

Pastor Misha, if you want to come and help me close here.

I have this thing with uh with Tasha's voice.

Um, even though Tasha, you guys, I I really I need to say, I really am married, alright?

Tasha is not like an AI creation.

I she's she's been in America half the time I've been here because you were like, hey, he's talking about this, Tasha.

I've never really seen her, all right.

She just she really exists, alright.

So uh so but I've got this thing with uh Tasha's voice.

She'll come back July 13th, all right.

She's back here July 13th.

I've got this thing with Tasha's voice that even though it's she's soft-spoken and quiet, no matter where I'm at, I can recognize her voice.

Even in the middle of a crowded room, I can recognize when she calls out James.

You know, I can just recognize it, and I I can immediately hear it and distinguish it from all the other voices in the crowd.

So often people will come to me and they want to hear the voice of God.

They want God to speak to them, and I tell them this, I'd like to tell people this, that I can hear God's voice as clearly as I can recognize Tasha's voice.

Because I'm in the scriptures every day, and God's voice sounds just like his scriptures.

God's voice sounds just like his scriptures, and I read the scriptures every day.

If you want a word from God, get into the word of God.

If you want direction, if some of you guys are looking for some peace in your life, some of you guys are looking for healing, and and man, if you want that word from God, get into God's word.

I brought with me tonight one of my most prized possessions.

It's the Bible that I got when I was 17 years old.

All right, when I was 17 years old, I was a brand new Christian.

I just want to give you a little sneak peek.

You can look at it later if you want, just don't touch it.

Um but if you look in it, I mean it's falling apart.

You know, there's coffee stains on it.

Uh, you know, for six years, the first six years of my Christian faith, this was my Bible.

Reading it every morning, there's highlights, there's paper, there's notes in the margin, there's things underlined.

Um it it's it's I love this because it signifies the beginning of my spiritual journey.

For six years, every day, reading out of this Bible, learning the scriptures, memorizing scriptures.

I love what Charles Spurgeon said.

He said, a Bible that's falling apart probably belongs to someone who isn't.

A Bible that's falling apart probably belongs to some.

And I'm like, oh man, this Bible, like, it's been taped together, it's falling apart.

I mean, I've got so.

Can I give you some quick tips on how to have some good old-fashioned Bible reading, how to have a devotional life, how to how to spend that time with Jesus so that you can sound like Jesus, act like Jesus, and do what Jesus did.

This is how I like to put it.

I'll give you a quick four through four quick tips here.

Pick a plan, pick a place, pick a time, and I'd even add, pick a partner.

Those four things will help you to be with Jesus, be like Jesus, and do what Jesus did.

Pick a plan, pick a Bible reading plan.

I know there's a so there's a WhatsApp group out there somewhere that's reading the Bible in in a year, all right?

So that they hold each other accountable.

But pick a plan with you version.

There's so many of them.

Read through uh the gospel of Mark with me over the next 16 weeks.

Uh uh Man, pick a plan.

Pick a place.

Where do you want to consistently meet with God?

For me, it's each morning before my family awakes.

I sit at my home office, I got a little worship playlist going with Apple Music, and that's where I read my scriptures and spend time with the Lord.

Pick a time.

For me, it's gotta be before my family wakes up.

Because once my family wakes up, game over, right?

I mean, it's it's chaos has begun, all right?

And so it's gotta be early, and it's great because my kids are sleeping a little later now, but in those early years, man, I was getting up at like 4:30, 5 a.m.

to spend an hour with the Lord.

Man, a lot of coffee in Jesus, all right, in those early years, all right.

So to keep get me through.

And I'd even add, not only pick a plan, pick a place, pick a time, but I'd say pick a partner.

Find someone to read the scriptures with you to hold you accountable.

Say, hey, let's read, let's read Philippians this week together.

Let's read, let's let's pick a plan and let's read these scriptures together.

You see, you don't just read the Bible, the Bible reads you because the goal isn't to get through the scriptures, it's for the scriptures to get through you so that I can be with Jesus, be like Jesus, and do what Jesus did.

Would you stand with me this evening?

What makes the church the church?

We know they devoted themselves to God's word.

That's why we believe the word of God changes lives.

They also made it a habit of sharing the Lord's Supper together.

Did you catch that when we read it earlier?

It said that that the the these early Christians they devoted themselves to the apostles' teachings, to fellowship, to sharing the Lord's Supper and a prayer.

They made it a habit of taking communion together.

And so today, as we begin this, not just this new series, but dare I say this new season at IS, I can think of no better way to start it than taking communion together.

It's a reminder to me and to all of us that Ies is the Lord's church.

Jesus is our lead pastor, and we follow him together.

Would you prepare your hearts with me now as we sing?

I hope you enjoyed today's sermon.

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And until next time, may God bless you and keep you.