The Biology of Human Flourishing | 1 Corinthians 12:12-14

You have your Bibles.

Go ahead and turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 12.

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

1 Corinthians chapter 12.

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

We're beginning this morning a new series of messages called Habitat.

We're going to be looking at meaningful membership and Christian flourishing to see if there's a relationship between the two.

1 Corinthians chapter 12.

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

We're going to just read verses 12 through 14 together.

This is the word of the Lord.

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many are one body, so it is with Christ.

For in one body we were all baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and all were made to drink of one spirit.

For the body does not consist of one member, but of many.

Let's pray to the Lord.

Holy Spirit, this morning, would you give us eyes to see?

Would you give us ears to hear?

Would you give us minds to understand?

Would you give us hearts to receive?

Holy Spirit, show us Jesus and change our lives.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

You may be seated.

The pandemic a few years ago really created a whole series of new categories through which we've come to understand life now, didn't it?

One of the ones that was most distinct that I remember was the distinction between essential and non-essential.

We'd probably never really thought of that before, had we.

But somewhere, somebody, whomever it was, was able to deem whether you and your job was essential or not essential.

And if it was deemed essential, well, you got to pretty much carry on with life and continue doing the things that you do did.

If it wasn't essential, hope your Netflix subscription is paid up, right?

A lot of spare time on your hands.

I went back and I looked up some of the examples so that we could see how arbitrary and silly so much of it was.

Did you know that in Florida, professional wrestling was allowed to come back before haircuts?

In Wells, if you went into the grocery stores, they were required to block off the bookshelves, but not the beer shelves.

Probably says something about us, doesn't it?

Or how about this one?

In New York, you could attend an acupuncture clinic, but you could not attend worship.

Isn't that interesting?

One of the most fascinating effects during that time was about that particular one to me.

Is what it did is it actually brought what was a broader theological discussion to the forefront.

It centers around this question: Is church essential?

Is church essential?

It's a debate, I think, that had really been going on inside the hearts and minds of Christians and inside the broader, especially within the Western church for the last 30 years or so.

And it seems to go something like this.

Well, Jesus saves me, and when Jesus saves me, it's not due to any works of my own.

And when Jesus saves me, he gives me the Spirit.

So the Spirit goes with me anywhere.

So if I'm saved not by any works, and my works feel irrelevant, then and then Jesus is with me everywhere that I go.

Church seems pointless, irrelevant, superfluous.

That I'm not going to get any credit if I go, and I can go be with the Spirit.

He's on the golf course too.

Like that sounds great.

In other words, there's been a growing movement within Christianity itself that agrees that maybe the church isn't essential.

Maybe it's unnecessary, maybe it's irrelevant.

In fact, this is actually even demonstrated within statistics that we have of Christians who consider themselves committed.

Do you know that research suggests that the average Christian who would, if you ask them and interview them and you say, are you committed to your local church?

And they said yes, the average one of those Christians attends worship one and a half Sundays per month.

That's 18 Sundays per year.

That is, even a committed Christian teams tends to deem the church essential so long as the weather isn't too nice and the weather isn't too poor, the right team isn't playing, or my team didn't lose.

That's a little bit personal for me this morning.

So long as the school or work doesn't have something more important for me to do.

But y'all, try to show up for practice or school or work 35% of the time and see if they deem that to be committed.

In other words, long before the pandemic, we were already asking the question of whether or not the church is essential, and increasingly we were determining and deciding that it was optional.

So this morning I want to make a bold assertion.

Probably the boldest assertion that I've made since I've come to the orchard as lead pastor.

And my hope is that all of us as thinking Christians, that you would just be willing to hear me out.

Just be willing to hear me out.

Here's the bold assertion no person can flourish apart from the local church.

None.

Not one.

Zilt, not a not a missionary, not an atheist, not a spiritual giant, not a strong-willed person.

No person can flourish outside of a committed relationship with a local church.

Now, how can I be so sure?

It's not just a matter of theology, it's also a matter of biology.

That in other words, the way that God has created living things is that we are only able to flourish when we are within the right habitat.

And the conviction that I have is that the habitat of the Christian life is the local church.

So just like a fish can't survive and flourish outside of water.

In fact, it can't even flourish and survive outside of the right kind of water, or a polar bear can't flourish in Arizona, a Christian cannot flourish apart from the local church.

I want to show you this from scripture here from 1 Corinthians chapter 12.

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul is attempting to reconcile what appears apparently to this particular church to be irreconcilable, that they are so diverse and they're so different, and there are so many of them, and yet they are commanded to live in unity with one another.

And so he's trying to resolve the tension of how can we be one when there are so many of us and all of us are so incredibly different.

And Paul's resolution is simple.

This is how God builds bodies.

This is how God builds bodies.

God always builds bodies with diverse complementary members united under a single head.

This is how he built the human body, and this is how now he is constructing the body of Christ.

Verse 13 on your screen there is really the main point that he's trying to make.

And you'll notice that verse 13 is focused on location.

For in one spirit, we were all baptized into one body, whether Jew or Greek, slave or free.

And the point is that diversity finds its unity not in its common experiences, not in its common giftings, not in its common personalities, not in its common interests.

It finds its unity in its common location.

That I have arms and legs, eyes and ears, and they're all different, but they're also very, very, very united.

Why?

Because they're all in my body.

They're all located in one particular place.

So the diversity in Paul's mind isn't the problem.

In fact, the diversity of the body is actually the point.

You don't need all arms, all legs, or all feet.

That creates a pretty deformed body.

No, you need all of the varied members, you need all of the complementary parts, you need all of the diversity united and unified under each part.

That God is arranging in his mind every single person in the right location so that the body of Christ is complete, properly formed, and able to become and accomplish what Christ has placed it here to accomplish.

Now, how does he do that?

How does he do that?

Again, it's a matter of location.

In his mind, he's resolving the question like this is not a theological, theoretical question.

He's talking to real people that have real frustrations in their hearts.

He's talking to real people that are looking across and thinking, uh you're free and I'm a slave, we're not alike.

You're a Gentile and I'm a Jew, we're not alike.

I'm not even sure I'm supposed to like you, whether or not I do like you, right?

Like he's looking to people and he's recognizing, and what he's wanting them to see is, yeah, you have different backgrounds, you have different socioeconomic levels.

Yeah, you have different levels of hardship in your life, but you're all in the same location because you're all in the spirit of God.

That this is the word.

You'll notice that the spirit, though he is a person, is described here as a location.

For in one spirit, we were all baptized into one body.

That we were made to drink of one spirit.

That here's the flow of logic.

That we were all living our separate lives, and we were all living in separate worlds, and we were all pursuing separate interests, but now we've been relocated.

Now we've been relocated.

We're not united because we're the same people, we're not united because we're the same gifts, we're not united because we have the same background.

We're united because now we're all in the same spirit.

We're all in the same location.

So one of the primary works we begin to see of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament is to unite and arrange the body of Christ so that it's properly formed and able to do all the things that Christ intends for it to do.

That the Spirit is at work arranging each member of the body so that each member flourishes, and then when each member flourishes, the body flourishes, and when the body flourishes, now Christ is glorified by what he has accomplished in them.

Now let's go back to the bold assertion that we made at the start and make the point.

How can it be that no person can flourish apart from the local church?

Well, how can an arm or a hand or a leg or a foot or a lung flourish if it's detached from the body?

For a person, I think we would all agree, for a person to flourish, they have to be in Christ.

If you didn't agree with that, you might not be here this morning, right?

That for a person to truly flourish, they have to be forgiven of their sins, brought into a relationship with Christ, so that now they are able to rest in him.

Well, when you are brought into Christ, what happens?

Now you are also simultaneously brought into the Spirit, filled with the Spirit.

Well, what's the work of the Spirit?

The work of the Spirit is to bring you now into the habitat of the body.

And the body becomes the Christian the habitat in which Christian flourishing can actually take place.

I think this helps us understand all of the different metaphors that are used throughout the New Testament to explain the church.

All of the metaphors are actually habitats.

The one we have here is the body, and what is the body?

The body is the habitat in which the organs live.

Often it's referred to as the family, or we are referred to as the adopted sons and daughters of God.

Well, what is a family?

A family is the habitat for the children.

Often it's referred to as a kingdom.

And us as servants, well, what is a kingdom?

A kingdom is the habitat of the servants.

So the whole point of the metaphors of the New Testament church is to get us into the right habitat so that we can flourish and become and represent Christ in the way that we're intended.

A few years ago, one of my neighbors gave me a plumeria tree that he had gotten while he was on a trip to Hawaii.

And he explained to me that because it's meant for Hawaii, that it cannot live in temperatures that are below 40 degrees.

But the good news is that this particular tree has really shallow roots because it's made to grow on the volcanic ground that you find there in Hawaii.

And he says, so at the end of each growing season, right before the temperatures dip, you can actually pull it straight up by the roots and you can go and you can lay it on the concrete floor of your basement and close the door and just leave it.

And he said, It's gonna look dead.

It's gonna look dead, but it's still alive, and then when the growing season comes back the next year, you just replant it and it'll sprout out new leaves.

That's a picture of a lot of the Christians that I know.

A lot of the Christians that I know, they're alive, they are in Christ, but they're laid on the concrete of the basement floor looking dead.

They're meant to bloom, they're meant for an entirely different habitat.

But there they are, wilting and languishing.

You know, one of the ways that I knew that my plumeria tree wasn't flourishing is that every year I did exactly what he told me.

I always kind of thought he was gonna come and check my homework to make sure that I was doing what he told me to do.

And so I always did exactly what he said to do, and I would take it out and I would replant it at the beginning of every growing season, and I did this for five years, and it took me five years to get one bloom.

I got a picture of that particular bloom.

Really pretty.

This is my green thumb right here.

In five years, though, in five years, this is the only bloom, and I couldn't get it to repeat.

I tried.

It's interesting, isn't it?

In Hawaii, these trees bloom on a continuous cycle.

And they bloom with some of the most fragrant flowers that you can find anywhere on earth.

That, in other words, they might be able to do something here and there.

They might be able to occasionally sprout out some health when they're in the wrong environment, but they'll never flourish.

But place them in the right environment, place them where they're supposed to be, and they bloom over and over and over again.

And I stop there for a second and I ask you, what is the vision that you have for your Christian life?

What is the vision that you have for your family?

What is the vision that you have for your kids?

What is the vision that you have for your church?

Do you want to bloom one flower in five years, or do you want to bloom over and over and over to put out a fragrant aroma to the nose of the Lord as a witness to the world?

You see, this helps us to understand.

We use the word flourishing a lot here.

We're gonna keep using it because I like it.

It's in the text.

I love what James wrote to start our service.

I read what James uh read, I love what James read to start our service.

There, that came out.

Um because it's a biblical word, it describes how God intends for his people to be.

But what do we mean by the word flourishing?

Well, what we mean by flourishing is it means to bear the fruit that you're supposed to bear because you're the person you're supposed to be planted where you're supposed to be planted.

That this is exactly how we judge plumeria trees.

And Jesus says in Matthew 17, he says it again in John 15, this is how Jesus says that we're meant to evaluate and judge the effectiveness of our own lives.

In fact, in John 15, Jesus says that if we abide in the vine as the branches, that we'll know it, and we'll know it because we'll begin to bear the right fruit.

And then he tells us explicitly what the right fruit actually is.

What's the right fruit?

Well, it's obedience.

Look at what he says in John chapter 15, verse 10.

John 15:10

He says, If you keep my commandments, keep is a New Testament word for obey.

If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love.

Just as who I have kept, Jesus has obeyed my father's commandments and abide in his love.

That for him, he wants us to see that the fruit of a life that is rooted in him, a fruit of the fruit of a life that is abiding in him, the fruit of a life that is filled and located in the Spirit, bears the fruit of obedience.

And now what does that obedience lead to?

Verse 11.

These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full, not halfway full, not on the way up, full joy.

Not just any old joy, not superficial joy, the joy of Christ Himself.

In other words, in other words, it's obedience and the fruit of obedience that leads to flourishing.

Not 35% joy, full joy, full flourishing.

And here's what I want you to see bearing that fruit, keeping Jesus' commandments, flourishing as Jesus intends, it can only occur inside the local church.

The local church is the assumption of the New Testament, that it's so ingrained as the habitat of the Christian life that the New Testament actually becomes nonsensical when you remove the context of the local church.

That many of the commands that you find in the New Testament cannot be obeyed outside of a committed relationship within the local church.

They cannot be fulfilled in Bible studies or in personal spirituality, and they cannot be fulfilled in a low commitment, high consumption relationship with a local church.

That if you're to flourish the way that you're meant to be fur to flourish, you have to be deeply planted in the right habitat.

The way I wanted to show you this is I actually wanted to go and list all of the commandments of the New Testament that can only be fulfilled if you're committed to the local church.

And as I began to study and line up and list all of those commandments out, what I realized quickly is that they're too numerous for me to walk you through all of them.

So what it is, I divided them up into three categories so that you can see three categories of commandments that can only be fulfilled according when you're living in the local church.

We might think about these as blooms that appear on a healthy tree planted in the spirit.

So there are three blooms of a flourishing person.

First, they agree with Jesus.

They agree with I mean, that seems pretty simple, right?

They agree with Jesus.

Best-selling novelist uh Ann Rice, she announced in 2010 that she had left the church.

She said this.

She said, I remain committed to Christ as always, but not to being Christian or to being a part of Christianity.

That she maintained that she could follow Christ just through the scriptures and through relationships, that she didn't have to deal with all of the drama that's in the church.

And if we're all self-aware, we're pretty dramatic, folks.

That's probably fair, right?

So here's the question that I want to ask.

Is that true?

Is that true?

Can you follow Christ faithfully through the scriptures apart from the church?

Maybe to word it another way, can you live a form of Christianity that Jesus Himself would recognize as Christianity apart from the Christian church?

I think we would all agree that the bare minimum definition of what it means to be a Christian is to say, I agree with Jesus.

I agree with Jesus.

So if we're going to make a determination about the priority and importance of the local church, we should start with what did Jesus believe about the local church?

What were his thoughts about the local church?

You know, in Matthew chapter 16, we get the introduction from Jesus.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

He says in verse 18, he says, And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.

And the gates of hell shall not prevail against us.

Now, when Jesus is talking about church here in Matthew chapter 16, he's talking about the global church.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

He's talking about the capital C church, what we might call the invisible church.

He's talking about all true Christians in all places across all generations.

He's talking about every single citizen of heaven that is going to enjoy the new heavens and the new earth together.

But then, just two chapters later in chapter 18, what we come to realize is that this capital C global invisible church is actually going to be experienced here in the earth in visible local fellowships.

Listen to what it says.

It says, he's talking about church discipline, somebody that you'd had difficulty with or you found with in sin in the life of the church.

He says this if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church.

And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile or a tax club.

In other words, he's saying, let him be cast out of the church.

Let him be disfellowshipped from the church to mark the severity.

Now, from this, we can tell a few things.

First of all, we can tell that there is a local church that you can see.

In other words, that that makes no sense if there's not a local church that you're gathering with regularly that you can actually see.

We can also see That there is a membership that you can receive and that you can lose.

I mean, if you can be cast out of the church, that means that there was a church that you were in and a part of to begin with, doesn't it?

And the teachings of Jesus, it shows us, are meant to be lived out in an accountable community with one another.

That the clear expectation of Jesus is that his disciples will be a part of his church living life together, and that that life together will be very significant to them.

So, if it's the bare minimum of Christianity to agree with Jesus and to believe what Jesus believes, then it must include the local church in at least as meaningful a way as Jesus originally intended.

At least as meaningfully that enables us to live out Matthew chapter 18.

Matthew 18 · chapter mention

That because Jesus is the one who established the local church, that Jesus is the one who established the local church as the context and the habitat of the Christian life.

And that means that there's no way, there's no way to be a flourishing Christian that is in disagreement with Jesus, and there's no way to be a flourishing Christian apart from the local church.

Now think about this.

What do we see in Jesus' disciples after Jesus' life?

What do they do?

What do they do when Jesus ascends to the right hand of the Father?

As soon as Jesus ascends to the right hand of the Father, the disciples, the men that literally lived with Jesus for three years, the men who literally heard everything that he said and knew the context for all the teachings and the context for every sentence that was spoken, the very first thing they did was gather for worship.

Gather for worship.

That was their outworking of all that had been planted in their hearts over three years.

That we see them planting the habitat that Christ intended at extreme, even fatal cost to themselves.

You know, during COVID, I noticed back then that a lot of Christians, and I thought this was so beautiful, a lot of Christians, even though we were being told that we can't meet, shouldn't meet, don't meet, we're still finding some way.

Sometimes it was digital, sometimes it was, you know, like the underground church.

We were finding ways to get together and to gather.

And back then I wrote a blog that stirred a bit of controversy where I was, where essentially I made the case that telling Christians not to gather is like telling bees not to build hives and make honey.

Bees make hive, they don't even know why they do it.

They don't even know why they do it.

They do it because it's their nature to do it, right?

Christians, we gather for a similar reason.

The reason that they gathered as soon as Jesus ascended to the right hand is because when the Spirit came, the Spirit brought them together.

It made it their nature to gather and to come together.

In fact, if you'll notice, this is exactly why the author, what the author of Hebrews is getting at.

He says, Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

That word, that phrase that you see there, meet together.

In the Greek, that's just one word.

And that one word, it represents a formal gathering.

It's the word that's often used to, in fact, it's the word that Jews use to use the uh to create the word synagogue.

It means literally coming together for a formal purpose, a formal gathering.

So the idea of the church is more than getting with some Christians for a barbecue around the pool.

They have they have something more orderly, more formal in mind.

You can think of a couple more examples.

Ephesians chapter 5, I have it there on your screen.

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

It says, Do not get drunk with wine, for this that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart.

Now look, I love the beach.

I think you should go to the beach.

I think we should all go, and I think you should sit on the beach, and I think you should think about the glories of God and see Psalm 19 being lived out, how the heavens are proclaiming the handiwork of God.

I think all of that is true.

I think the Spirit of God is with you on the beach.

But I doubt you are addressing one another with Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs while you're on the beach.

In fact, I hope you're not.

That's weird.

We already have a reputation for being weird as Christians, don't we?

I doubt when you're out with the boys at the golf course, you're like, hey, can I sing to you Psalm 127?

Would that be okay?

If you do, let's play.

I would like to be in your foursome.

That'd be great, right?

No.

What's the picture?

Like, we are supposed to gather for worship with one another.

So that when we're going through the hardest moments of our lives, we can borrow praise from each other.

So that when we're going through the most passionate times of one another, we can stir each other up in passion, so that we can build up each other for the faith.

That we gather together because we need to hear one another sing.

It's the only place we can live out these commands.

1 Corinthians chapter 14, the last one we'll do under this example.

1 Corinthians 14 · chapter mention

He says, What then, brothers?

When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation.

Let all things be done for building up.

Do you hear that?

When?

It's the assumption, it's the expectation.

Paul literally can't even imagine that there are Christians and they're not wanting to gather together.

We are gathering people who have been commanded to gather.

That you might think of it like this: that if the church is the habitat of the Christian life, then the worship of the church is really the oxygen of the Christian life.

That fish have gills and humans have lungs.

And Christians, we have the Spirit of God who has placed in us the new song of the new kingdom that we want to gather together and proclaim to our risen King.

That we can't flourish without the worship of the church any more than we can breathe without oxygen.

That we're commanded, but we're commanded to do something that we already ought to want to do because of the presence of the Spirit and the thing that we're commanded to do because our God is good, is good.

And it's good for us, and it's good for others.

And it glorifies his name that what he has commanded us to do, he has commanded us as bees to make honey, as roses to make a fragrance, as Christians, as image bearers to reflect his glory by coming together.

But you'll notice that especially you'll see in Hebrews 10, this is the reason I use these particular examples, 1 Corinthians 14, that we are meant to gather together so that we can build up.

Here's what's interesting.

It seems to me that the logic behind the de-emphasizing of the church often revolves around the omnipresence of the Holy Spirit.

It's like, I mean, the Spirit is everywhere, so like what difference does it make?

I don't really like those people anyway, you know?

And very often, if we're honest, it tends to feel like it's the people of the church that makes enjoying the church and encountering God at the church so challenging, so frustrating.

The joke behind the scenes for pastors has always been ministry would be easy if it wasn't for all the people.

Yeah?

Ministry would be easy if it wasn't for all the people.

But of course, there would be no ministry, right?

You see, the Holy Spirit doesn't make gathering with people irrelevant.

The Holy Spirit makes gathering with people meaningful and significant and spiritual.

In Galatians 5, Paul teaches us about the fruit of the Spirit.

And what are the fruit of the Spirit?

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

In other words, they're all the things that we experience when?

When we're with other people.

When we're with other people.

Like, not you ought to be on a rock taking in the sunset, praising God, but that's not when you need gentleness and self-control, is it?

That's not when you need patience.

That's when you feel at peace.

In fact, in Galatians chapter 6, literally, next chapter over, after he talks about the fruit of the spirit, Paul gives us a command, applying the fruit of the spirit, and it's a command that can only be obeyed in the context of the local church.

Galatians 6 · chapter mention

He says this in Galatians chapter 6, verse 1, he says, Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.

Galatians 6:1

Does that sound familiar?

Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.

You see this?

So imagine the situation.

A brother sins against you, and then he repents, and my guess is that that repentance happened through some hard conversations that were awkward and uncomfortable, that nobody wanted to have to have, that you didn't want to have to have, but the Lord works through that.

In other words, what did the Lord do?

The Lord gave you an opportunity for gentleness, right?

Does anybody like an opportunity for I hate opportunities for gentleness, right?

Y'all ever seen the uh the I've seen a video where somebody was talking about gentle parenting, and it's like a mom and she's there and she's got like a hot pot and she's trying to hand it over to her kid and she's saying, it's hot on the bottom.

He says, What?

It's hot on the bottom.

What?

It's hot on the bottom.

What?

It's hot on the bottom, right?

Like y'all know what I'm talking about?

Like all of us kind of resent, resent those moments in which we have to have opportunities for gentleness.

And that's what the church provides.

That's what Galatians 6.1 is talking about.

So that they can do what?

So that they can restore him.

Now, why are they what are they restoring him to?

They're restoring him to the local church, to the fellowship of believers, to the community of saints.

That the local church is a place where you're constantly dealing with people and being hurt by people and being frustrated by people and being encouraged by people.

And all of that.

The good and the bad, the difficult and the easy, the encouraging and the frustrating is used by God to make you into who you are meant to be, that you could flourish in the kingdom and accomplish what Christ has accomplished, so that you could be sanctified.

There are very few sanctifiers more effective than frustration.

Think of all the New Testament commands that are given to this end.

I'm just gonna name some of them.

Romans 16 and Titus says, address divisions.

1 Thessalonians chapter 5, warn the disorderly in worship.

1 Thessalonians 5 · chapter mention

Ephesians 4, bear with and forgive one another.

These are direct quotes.

Philippians chapter 2, pursue a shared mind in the church.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

James 2, reject favoritism in the assembly.

Galatians 6, do good to the household of faith.

Ephesians 5, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

And 1 Corinthians chapter 12, the one none of us want, suffer together.

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

Y'all, we could keep going.

But these are the commands and expectations of the New Testament that you simply cannot fulfill and obey apart from the local church.

And ironically, ironically, all of those things that we just talked about, those are all of the reasons that we usually leave a church for, aren't they?

But Paul, Jesus, Peter, the apostles, the New Testament says that these aren't the reasons that we leave the church.

These are the very reasons for which we go to church.

That these are the means by which we are built up, and our brothers and sisters are built up, and the church is built up, and the kingdom is built up, and Christ's glory is increased.

That this is the habitat, as hostile as it feels sometimes, that enables us to grow into the fruit-producing, flourishing Christians that Jesus saved us to be.

So do you hear the assumption?

Do you hear the assumption?

The local church is the assumption.

The local church is the context, it is the habitat of New Testament Christianity.

It's people who know you, it's leaders who care for you, it's brothers and sisters who can know when you're struggling, know you well enough to know when you're struggling, can step into your life and lift you up when you can't stand another step.

The local church is where these commands take shape in a shared life together.

And that's what we want to invite you into.

That's what we want to invite you into.

Not into a perfect church, not into an ideal situation, not into a place where you'll never get hurt or never deal with frustration.

I promise you, there's no person at the Orchard Church you're gonna have to forgive more than Cody Hill.

There's no person that needs your grace more than Cody Hill.

But we want you to come into the local church because this is where Jesus intends for you to flourish.

This is where your character and your godliness is refined.

And so over the next six weeks, what we're gonna do is unapologetically, we're gonna lean into meaningful membership and show you how meaningful membership in the local church leads to Christian flourishing.

And so if you're not a member of the orchard and you've been coming and you're coming maybe for years, maybe coming for weeks, we're gonna be calling you forward to consider joining us and to entering into a commitment with us.

If you have been a member of the local church here at the orchard, but maybe you haven't been fully engaged, we're gonna call you to lean in and to lean into that commitment.

So that, so that you can flourish in all the ways that Jesus has called you to flourish.

You see, our goal here is not to get more people into our system.

Our database doesn't just need more names in it.

Nope.

Our goal here is to help more and more of you enjoy God more and more.

That's what we're passionate about.

That's what we're about.

That our dream, our dream here isn't that you would enjoy God at 35%.

Our dream is that you would enjoy Him fully, deeply, increasingly, and devoutly.

When I was a young kid, I hadn't learned how to swim yet.

And I still remember this vividly.

I hadn't learned how to swim.

I didn't lack confidence.

And so I decided that it was time for me to go and get into the deep end.

And so one day, without telling anybody, my grandparents were sitting up on the deck, I just ran and just plunged myself into the deep end of the pool.

And it didn't take very long for me to realize I can't breathe underwater.

Turns out that's not the way that I function.

And so there I was, wanting more than anything in the world just to have a deep breath.

But I couldn't take one because I was in the wrong habitat.

How many people in Collierville and Germantown feel just like that?

All they want is a deep breath.

All they want is to be able to breathe.

But they can't.

And they don't know why.

And it's because they're trying to make it alone.

It's because they're not in the habitat for which they were intended.

When I was 13 or 14, I wanted to know where I fit and where I belonged more than anything else in the world.

And I wouldn't have been able to articulate it like that, but that's what I was searching for, and that's what I was looking for, and then I found myself always wanting to go to church.

And somewhere along the line, I realized that the reason that I want to go to church is because when I go to church, church is the only place where I feel like I can actually breathe.

The only place where I'm known, cared about, seen, and listened to.

That's my dream for the Orchard Church.

That's my dream for every one of you.

My dream is that when you come through the doors after a week in the world, that you stop there for just a second and go, I finally made it.

I'm okay now.

I'm safe here.

I can breathe here.

My hope is that you will want to be here every week, not because you feel ashamed if you aren't.

But because when you come here, it's like oxygen.

Every force.