September 20, 2026 Dr. Mark Turman - What Is the Church?

and everybody hope you're having a great weekend just a couple of things before we look at God's Word this morning it's gonna be about a month actually I'll see you on the pier at Trish and Steve's house in about a month because a week from today I'm helping lead a group of about 70 people to relive some of the experiences of the journeys of Paul in Greece and in Turkey and we're also going to stop by the island of Patmos and so would would request your prayers obviously for safe travel and for a good experience we're gonna grow some disciples in that spirit that led Paul if you can imagine this to travel somewhere around 13,000 miles trying to share the gospel over the 30 or 40 years from his conversion to the time of his death can you imagine that 13,000 miles because of the message that we came here to celebrate and the God and the Savior that we love. So it'll be about a month before Judy and I are back and you'll be well taken care of by Bobby and by Gerald. We also have a new friend of ours coming out in a week or two. His name is Gene Wilkes, pastored Legacy Church in Plano for many, many years and recently retired as the dean of the BH Carroll Bible Institute, now the BH Carol Seminary at East Texas Baptist University over in Marshall. You're going to love Gene, and he has heard about you for a very long time. And so he is eager to come out and get to have an opportunity to worship with you and to share God's Word with you. So that's going to be happening over the next few weeks, all right?

I don't know how many times you get asked this question, but it's the way we talk about it in our culture. Did you go to church today? Are you going to church this Sunday?

What did you like about church? Do you know that those phrases nowhere find themselves in the Bible? Nobody in the bible ever said, did you go to church?

They might have said something similar to it, but they never said that. You're familiar with the psalmist when he says, as he is walking, perhaps after weeks of travel, finally coming over the crest of the hill and about to enter into the temple in jerusalem in the days of the old testament they had what they called songs of ascent that is as they came up the trail and eventually up the steps into the temple they were singing and reciting to each other song psalm 122 is one of those where the psalmist says i was glad i rejoiced i was full of excitement when they said let's go to the house of the lord for the opportunity of worship around the living and wonderful and good God that we have come to celebrate today.

There's been a lot of reflections in my life about the church over this year. Earlier this year, back in the spring, I had the chance to participate and actually got to speak at the 150th anniversary of the First Baptist Church of Brownwood. Now, this will give you insight that AI is not ready to take over the world because I asked AI to help me find photographs. So it found a picture of the First Baptist Church of Brownwood, but it's not the biggest picture. So that's how you know AI has not yet figured out how to run the world.

These are three different churches in Brownwood. One of them, the largest one, First Presbyterian Church, and then the First Baptists Church on the other corner. corner this is the very first church that ever paid me to do ministry they hired me to be an intern when I was a student at Howard Payne and we're actually going this afternoon down to Brownwood to celebrate because the university is hosting Chris Tomlin who we often sing his songs they're hosting Chris Tamlin as a concert this fall so Judy and I are going to get to be a part of that this afternoon but i got to speak at their 150th anniversary last sunday judy and i got to be at this church the church that we got to be a part of for 25 years we helped to plant this church in mckinney this is crosspoint church right in the middle of the stone bridge development in mckennie west mckinnie and we had a fabulous celebration celebrating 30 years of ministry When Judy and I walked into this church for the very first time in the spring of 1997, they'd been meeting together for about six months, and there were all of 15 families that had stepped out of very significant and comfortable experiences of church, and they had moved to this community, and they made an all-out commitment to start a brand-new congregation that we got to be a part of for two and a half decades. It's been fabulous. and now God has led us into the ministry that is about 17 years old here at PK now I want to show you this slide that we show you every Sunday and maybe take a minute to help you understand this this is the Church of possum Kingdom you could also call it the Church Of Denison ministries I've been trying to figure out for almost four years how to explain this to anybody because I just don't have the words for it, okay? What does it mean for us to be in partnership with each other? What does it means for us have PK Chapel and all of these other things going on on the world wide web? Let me see if I can take a stab at this this morning. We are a church. Let's just think of it that way. And you've been in churches, most of you, to know that all churches have different departments or different ministries the biggest and most important thing we do is we worship together that's why PK Chapel is so critical to this reality that we call Denison ministries it's best perhaps to call it PK ministries in some ways because worship is at the center it's the most important thing that we do now you know all churches have a children's ministry if if they stay in business for very long. I learned this through several different children's ministers. They kept telling me, what about the children, Pastor? What about the kids?

What aboutthe kids? How are we going to serve the kids?" We do that in a unique way together through this thing called Christian parenting. We also try to reach people who don't know Christ or who are very new to the faith and help them grow by spending time with God. That's what First 15 is. It's an app on your phone or something you get in your email box that will help you have a devotional a time in scripture and a time with music and a time to pray to spend time with God every day we also know that the Bible is Amos prayed a moment ago is so key to our lives to our faith that we feed on the word of God that we hear it spoken and preached we go where it's taught we read it for ourselves that happens through what we call foundations but we also have this ministry that is probably the one most familiar to you if you follow anything that we do beyond the chapel we have this thing called Denison forum this is where Jim Denison started 17 years ago and this is intended to use the news and events of our day as a doorway to help you see the world as God sees it and serve the way God wants you to serve to let people know how great and good he is Jesus said in the Sermon on the mount that you you all of us together the people of god are the salt of the earth and the light of the world dr dennison has helped us for 17 years to do that through dennison forum and what you'll find on your seat today and what i want to show you in a short video is what's coming next particularly in this area of dennison form because we've been praying and and talking and working for almost two and a half years about where God wanted this part of our ministry, the discipling and equipping ministry that includes Jim Denison and will soon include others. We wanted you to see where this is going. We shared this with a handful of people last week, and you are the second group in all the world to get to see Where Denison Forum, as a part of Denison Ministries, the church that we are together, where are we going over the next number of years a little bit of information on your chair but I want you to watch the video and then I'm going to share about this through God's Word in just a moment so this may take a moment of transition technologically we'll see if we can pull this off y'all ready all right here we go my technical assistant is coming close it's not behaving We tested this like three times and it worked perfectly. Here we go. You feel it, I feel it. The people we love feel it The news doesn't just inform us anymore. It's forming us. One alert at a time, one headline at a time, one outrage at a time. It shapes what we think, who we fear, who we trust, who we don't and over time without Without us ever agreeing to it, it's shaping who we're becoming. The people of God were made for more than this. Not to retreat from the world, not to be consumed by it, but to engage it with clarity, with peace, with the one thing news will never give you on its own, Scripture.

The reaction to the headlines, the Bible is older than the headlines. It's wiser than the deadlines and more enduring than any issue you're facing today. For years, hundreds of thousands of people have started their mornings with the daily on. They trusted us with their attention.

how to make sense of the world. That trust is not something we take lightly, and today it calls us to something bigger, because Christians don't just need more news, they need formation, the kind that makes them more thoughtful, more patient, more discerning, more like Jesus, one day at a time. So this is what we refuse.

We refuse to trade your peace for your attention. We refuse the manufactured urgency where there is only uncertainty. We refuse to let fear do our writing or outrage do our framing. And in this is what we choose every single day.

Scripture before ideology. Clarity before speed. Discernment before reaction. People before politics.

The way of Jesus before the pull of the moment. What's coming is something this ministry has never done before. We now have a trusted network of contributors, theologians, journalists, pastors, and scholars, covering the stories that shape how Christians think and live, from politics to culture to science to sports, through the lens of scripture. New newsletters, new podcasts, new video, all of it easily accessible online.

All of it built around one conviction, that the way Christians engage the news can actually form them to be more like Jesus.

And it all launches under a new name. what's happening in culture today can feel overwhelming but we know that all of us are held by a word that doesn't shift a savior who doesn't change and a gospel that doesn t rescue so when the world says be afraid we choose hope when the culture says divide we choose And when everything around us seems to be shaking, we stand on our firm foundation. This is why Anchor News exists. To help the people of God stay present to the world without losing themselves in it. To engage every story, every time, in the way of Jesus.

Jesus engaged the issues of the day. He was always current. He was culturally engaged with the needs and the concerns of the people around him. now it's our privilege to do the same thing to engage the deeds and the issues that we find every day and to do it the way that it works questions to know jesus more intimately so that make him known more powerfully if we know christ we can make him know and that's my passion that's our passion that is the purpose behind what we do and that is a privilege that we have in sharing this ministry with you today the bible said of one of the groups in the tribes of israel the men of Issachar it said that they understood their times and they knew what Israel should do that is the goal of Anchored News formerly Denison Forum you'll see some things that are very familiar to you in January that's when all of this launches in its public expression and you'll find some information on your chair and at the back if you want to know more you'll find a really great report about the chapel in the middle of this magazine that probably would be where you'd want to go first but this will help you understand a little bit about where denison forum is going as a part of the possum kingdom denison ministry church that we are all a partof and i want to talk to you about this for just a few minutes from scripture it just seems like god has put this in front of me over and over again all through this year through these anniversaries if you read jim's column this week one of those columns included this uh this research that he did he talked about a man by the name of paul minor who in 1966 released a book detailed detailing out of the bible the different images of what the church actually is there are only 96 of them and we're going to cover not all of them today but i thought maybe we would try to cover 43 or so if that's all right 43 48 no i actually i just want to take time to look at what the church is on this Sunday morning to remind us even in this unusual day where we can be a church gathered together in a room like this as Christians have done for thousands of years but because of our culture because of Our technology we can actually be the church virtually and we can come and encourage each other we can strengthen each other through tools like your phone and like your laptop computer we can actually help you continue to grow and to be formed into the image of Christ by reinforcing what you experience when you gather in rooms like this through the news through parenting through all of these different ministries we want to help you walk with Christ and serve Christ and shine for Christ as people have done for thousands of years so some of the images that guide us this morning are found in 1st Timothy chapter 3 and verse 14 just a few verses here's what it says Paul writing to his protege Timothy in the strategic city of Ephesus he says I write these things to you hoping to come to you soon but if I should be delayed I have written so that you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in In God's household, listen to that phrase, God's household, which is, notice this phrase, the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. And most certainly, the mystery of godliness is great. He, speaking of Jesus, was manifested in the flesh, vindicated in the spirit, seen by angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory in just those few words the apostle paul is giving us three profound understandings of how we should see ourselves and each other as the church the people of god in this generation now notice he has a purpose in what he's writing about how you ought to act in the church now does that mean when you come into the building well it has something to do with that but it has more to do with how you and I live and behave as the church once we go out from here to live our lives as followers of Christ now there's a lot to be learned in these passages but I just want you to think with me for a few minutes what does it mean to be God's household household to live in the relational realities that he's trying to describe realities of love that we are a people that we get to live with each other and strengthen each other he says we are the church of the living god the church that is the living giving everlasting reality of an eternal god we have a god to live for and he says that we Are the pillar and the foundation of truth we are actually the repository of wisdom and hope for the world so that people know how to live by God's word there's a lot here to think about but when we gather like this we need to remember what God has called us to be so that we can then do what God has told us to do whether we're spending time here at the lake or back in other places where we live and do our lives we need to remember who god is calling us to be every single day he says first of all you are god's household you are God's forever family you have a people to live with which is a profound reality in a world that is more technologically connected but also personally isolated than it's ever been in our pastor taught us judy and i when we were teenagers that technology can make the world a neighborhood but it is only jesus who can make it a brotherhood that this is a family that god has brought together the word he uses is the word in the greek oikios which can mean either a structure called a house or it can refer to the people who occupy it obviously he's probably probably talking about the ladder. The property doesn't matter as much as the people who occupy it. And so he says that God's great call to us is to do what Jesus told us to do when he was asked, what's the most important commandment? He said, love God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. Now, I've told you before that I come from a big family but i remember my mom later in her years we were talking and and i talked a little bit to her about how in the world did a a single child adopted a couple of days after christmas how do did you end up with eight children and she went on to tell me some of that story in her own unique way but she said you know what's wrong with you and your brothers and sisters you all think you're are only children and that's the way we sometimes behave in church we think we're the only one that matters i've told you before as well that the bible uses a number of names for us as the followers of christ it calls us disciples because of the knowledge that we have and that we're gaining we're sometimes called saints because ofthe holiness in our character and our morality that we're growing into we'resometimes called christians because of our association and our love and and loyalty for Christ, but the predominant image that saturates the New Testament when it comes to the people of God is that we are sacred siblings. We are brothers and sisters under the fatherhood of God. Now, I don't know if you ever struggle with your siblings. Judy and I do from time to time. Judy, I've had a great weekend. We have had our grandkids for 24 hours, and it's a a good thing it didn't go to 25 or 26 they are adorable but they are full-time all the time and when we finally dropped them off with their parents in Dallas and headed out here yesterday yesterday afternoon we just decided to turn the radio off and not speak and just be quiet right in the middle of our quiet time one of my siblings one of our older brothers called and I saw it come up on my phone and I thought nope I can't do that right now just can't just can handle that drama right now and you know what as siblings as sometimes what you have to do but we come here to remind ourselves not only of the friendships and the love and the connections that we enjoy but the ones that we aspire to as well jesus said in the upper room just before he was arrested and taken to the cross he said i am giving you a new commandment love one another by this he said the world will know that you are my followers you are my children you are mine brothers and sisters by this they will know as they see you care for love forgive appreciate reconcile trust support one another that's what this is all about not just about connecting to God we're going to get to that in just a second but but it's about connecting to each other. The Bible even says in some way that you and I are kind of supposed to lean in favor of our fellow Christians. Galatians 6.10 says this, that we are to do good to all people, and then it ends with this line, especially to those who are of the household of God. Same word. That we look for each other and we celebrate each other and we strive to build the healthiest possible relationships we can through the love of god and the truth of god and the presence of god if you take time to read the rest of this short letter that paul wrote from a prison cell to his protege timothy who had taken over as pastor of this strategic church in ephesus you'll find these kind of practical instructions all through the rest of the letter chapter four and following is all about how we are to live the character of christ in our lives when he gets to chapter 5 he says timothy you're a young man you're a young pastor i want you to relate to the older men as if they were your fathers and to the elder women as if they were your mother i want to you to relate to all of the people your age and below you as if you are sacred siblings i want you to treat widows with special care i want you to work together in business in a particular way i want the world to see that you are marked by my character by my love and by my grace in all that you do you find this all through the bible the book of hebrews says that we are to hold each other accountable that there would be no unbelieving heart among us that's what connection's all about so before we were totally exhausted with these grandkids kids. I took one of them to Whataburger because that's the place that we really connect. I usually take all three of them, but fortunately one of the was asleep and the other one wanted to stay home and read her book. So I got to take Caleb, our five-year-old, to Whata Burger. He figured out really quick that by going just by himself, there were more french fries and there was more milkshake available just for him caleb just started kindergarten about a month ago so as we were sitting down waiting for our food to be brought to us i thought i got to find something to talk to this young man about so i said tell me what is the best thing so far about kindergarten and he just sat back didn't answer seemed like an eternity he looked up into the sky i wondered if he had heard me and finally he looked at me with his beautiful blue eyes and he said said I made a new friend her name is Anna and I thought he's on a great track already that is one of the best things about school isn't it but it ought to even be better at church it oughta be that when you come to church the best thing about being in church sometimes is I made new friend or I got to check on an old one or I've got to pray with one that was about to go through something challenging we are relationally connected with one father as the family of god the brothers and sisters of christ the second image he gives is that we are the gathering the church of the living god i wonder why paul felt like he needed to say that because he uses the word church and in its simplest form the word just means assembly or a gathering a get-together it was used in their day particularly as a term referring to the civic or the political gatherings of their community and in Ephesus that was particularly relevant because it was what was called a city state or an independent city because Rome had decided that Ephesus was was stable enough and and loyal enough that they could basically run their own show. They didn't have to have Roman soldiers lording over them all the time, that they had proven themselves, and so they were known, like Philippi and a few other places, as a city that could basically handle its own business. And if you visit Ephesus today, you'll see that there was a large city hall, there was huge amphitheater, there was all kinds of buildings for them to manage their lives. eyes and so when they called an assembly or an ecclesia the church it was a gathering for a particular purpose to do some kind of business and that served the gospel and the apostle paul well because this guy if you read the book of acts he could call a crowd he could gather a group and he did it a number of times let me just give you a short review that you find in the book book of acts when he first came into the city he did what he always did he went to the synagogue because he was a jewish man and he went into the synagogue and he started explaining to them the truths of god but after a while it became apparent to him and to his friend apollos that these jews were no longer going to receive what he was trying to explain to them about christ you'll also find some weird stories about paul in this city when he first got there he mailed 12 men who were followers of john the baptist but they had had never heard of Jesus and so Paul prayed with them and there was kind of a mini Pentecost like you read in Acts chapter 2 and they received the Holy Spirit in the same way that the church had way back in Jerusalem and all of the sudden well some of our friends in the Christian faith picked up on that and said well maybe that's the way all of us should experience the Holy spirit and it created yet another denomination in our modern day after about a number of months Paul Paul decided that you know what I've talked to the Jews in the synagogue as long as I can they're not really responding to me and so he said you know what I told you everything I need to tell you and can tell you about Christ I'm going to go talk to the Gentiles and somehow he was able to secure one of the largest buildings in Ephesus a place called the Hall of Tyrannus and it must have gone well because it says in the book of Acts that for two years Paul drew a crowd into the Tyrannous Hall and he taught them over and over again about the truths of jesus tells you a couple of things one is is people were hungry for hope and truth tells you another thing he must have been really significant in his teaching because they kept coming back over andover again god even gave paul a special opportunity in this city to do miracles it says that for a season if a handkerchief touched the apostle paul you could take that handkerchief and put it on a sick person and they got well it didn't last forever it was a momentary kind of thing but this was a dynamic ministry a gathering of people coming around the truth of the living god but there was opposition most all of you have heard of the parthenon in athens when i lead this group next week we'll be going very first stop we'll be going to the Acropolis in Athens to see the Parthenon but do you know that in Ephesus at the same time there was a building twice that size considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world and it was dedicated to an idol named Artemis the Romans called her Diana the Greeks called her Artemis she She was the goddess of fertility and of prosperity. And right in the center of town was this temple, larger than the Parthenon, more than a football field long and almost a footballfield wide.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And at the center, in the very core of this temple was a very strange, odd-looking female statue that they worshipped as the center of their lives. not only did this temple house this statue it was also considered the most secure environment for hundreds of miles and so it served as the bank people bought brought their gold and their silver kings used it as a treasury because it believed was believed to be a place of safety and protection and they even designated a certain amount of space in and around the temple as an an asylum for people that had done crimes who wanted to be protected from judgment they ran to the temple of diana for protection the only problem with it is it was all the worship of a false god if you read the book of acts particularly chapter 19 what you'll find out is this is where paul experienced his biggest riot because he brought to them the message of the living god the true God the God that was worthy of being followed the God who still says today that if two or three or more people will gather in my name I am in their midst to receive their worship to hear their prayers and to show them my love because he is a living ever-present everlasting God the only God worthy of our worship the last image and we'll be done is that we are the temple of god's truth obviously when paul brings up these terms he is thinking of this incredible structure in the middle of ephesus he says that the church of the living god is also the pillar and foundation of truth truth this temple was amazing a hundred yards or longer wide and deep it was twice the size of the parthenon it had 127 60 foot columns some of which are still laying on the ground today the very foundation and center of their lives paul has that architecture in his mind when he says that's a way to think about yourselves as the church it's interesting because the church is built on the truth of jesus but it also is the security of god's truth in this culture that's why denison forum is trying to reach more people through anchored news that's why we're trying to be a light here in the pk community it's because we want to hold up the truth of jesus christ as the people of christ so that they might come to know him even as we have paul is so taken with this idea that he he starts to sing verse 16 is probably one of the very first poems or songs of the early church we don't know if paul was the first one to be inspired to say it or to write it but he is talking about the simple story of Jesus that we celebrate every time we gather that Jesus came as one of us identified fully with us as a person but he was vindicated on Easter Sunday morning when God rose raised him from the dead after the cross that at that moment he was seen by angels that he was preached by the church and is still preached by the church among the nations he is being believed on in all the world and he has been taken up in glory until he comes again i read an article on friday by dr dennison's son ryan dennison do you know that the majority of christians in the world today no longer live in the united states they live in africa today as ryan talked about in his article we are receiving as many missionaries into our country as we are sending around the world and it is expected that by 2060 40 of all christian people will be living in africa rather than in america or in europe and it's just ironic that the people that for decades if not centuries we sent missionaries to are now having to send missionaries back to us to remind us of what our country used to believe that we are in fact god's forever family that in christ we are the church of the living god that we in fact the temple of truth built on the truth of christ and holding it up like those pillars for all the world our pastor used to say this this thing called the church it's not a graduate school for saints it's a kindergarten for sinners where everybody's invited and anything is possible because of who he is let's pray together jesus thank you for this good sunday and thank you voor this part of your church that we call pk k chapel lord thank you that pk chapel and denison ministries is seeking to hold up your love and your light and your truth everywhere we possibly can not only around this lake community but all over the world god we pray that you would help us to work together for your glory and for for the good of others.

Lord, help us to have the clarity to understand the gospel deeply and personally and to share it joyfully with our families, with our friends, and anywhere and everywhere that you give us opportunity. God, thank you that right from this small chapel in this wonderful, relaxed community, you are doing work that touches the world.

God, help uns to do it well. Help us to do with passion. compassion in jesus name we pray and everyone said together amen god bless you have a great sunday