The Church, The Body of Christ

The Church. The Church.  When I say church, what do you think of? A little white clapboard building with a steeple and a bell, or perhaps the Crystal Cathedral in California.   Maybe you don’t think of a building instead you think of people, perhaps your friends and fellow believers at Cornerstone   come to mind, if so that is good. Church means many different things to many different people.  Some people feel warm and fuzzy inside when you mention church, other’s get angry.  But the reality is that if you are a believer, a Christ Follower then you have no doubt had some experience with a church.

For some people Cornerstone Church became a church when we moved into this building.  But does a building make a church?  When people ask me what I do I tell them “I pastor the church across from Kingswood”  and for many that means that I work in this building.  The reality is that I pastor, or shepherd, the people who meet in this building. 
So let’s start by defining what Church means.  In the New Testament, the word that was used was a Greek word, which makes a lot of sense considering the New Testament was written in Greek. And the word was ekklesia, From ek 'out of' and kaleo 'call' thus they were the called out ones.  And although that word wasn’t used exclusively to mean Church it was the word used to describe the Church.  The English word Church has its roots in a different word that literally meant “Of the Lord.”

A.W. Tozer said “One hundred religious persons knit into a unity by careful organizations do not constitute a church any more than eleven dead men make a football team. The first requisite is life, always.” 

Over the past three weeks we have been looking at the church.  We started with what it would cost for our church to grow, that it would mean that we would be in a constant state of change, because every new family, every new person in the church would change what the church looked like.  And then we spoke about how we would have to give up our smallness, as perceived as that may or may not be, and that it would require sacrifice, of time, talent, money and preferences. 
Then two weeks ago we spoke about what it meant for the church to be the bride of Christ and the things that we could do to be the most attractive bride possible.  Last week the message was based on the Church being the Family of God and what that meant 2000 years ago and what it means for us today. 

There is another metaphor that the New Testament used for the church and it is found in the scripture that was read for us earlier Ephesians 4:15-16 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.

We are told here that the Church is the Body of Christ.  But it does tell us that we shouldn’t be content to just be any body that we are to be a healthy body.  So what does that mean? 

How do we become and remain a healthy church?    A church that had an impact on its entire community and the lives of the people in that community? A church that makes a difference not just for the here and now but for the there and then?  A church that has an eternal impact and makes an eternal difference?
Let’s go back to the scripture we started with:  Ephesians 4:15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.
1) A Healthy Church Will Have Christ at the Head. That seems almost self-evident but I’m not sure that it is.  Notice that I didn’t say a Healthy Church will be a Christian Church.  The reason is that I don’t think that every church that calls itself a Christian church is a Christ following church or for that matter a Christian Church.  What makes a church a Christian Church?  Historically they were churches that fell in line with the Apostle’s Creed.  What is the Apostle’s Creed, glad you asked.  Let’s read it together.

The Apostle’s Creed

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
the Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:

Who was conceived of the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.

He descended to the dead.
The third day He arose again from the dead.

He ascended into heaven
and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty,
whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Church Universal
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting.
Amen.

So there are some essentials in there that make a church a Christian Church.  Belief in God and the divinity of Jesus Christ, in the Trinity, in the virgin birth of Christ, of his death and resurrection and the reality of heaven and hell.  And if a church doesn’t believe in those things then historically and in my view they are not Christ Following Churches. 

But it has to go beyond that, it needs to go to following the directions that Christ set down for His church.  If we are going to be a Christ following Church then we need to take this book to heart as the word of God.  If we aren’t willing to take our direction from the word of God then where will we get it?

Ephesians 4:16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.

2) A Healthy Church Will be A Growing Church. 

First of all this has nothing to do with numbers.  A healthy church will be a church that is growing spiritually.  If we could figure out a way to test people who attended church on a regular basis than those who attend a healthy church would know more about the Bible today than they did a year ago and they should know more about the bible in a year then they know today.

Throughout the New Testament we see this concept taught time and time again, believers are told to leave the elementary things behind, to stop being content with spiritual milk and begin eating spiritual meat, to stop laying the foundation and start constructing the actual building of their faith.  We are told in Hebrews 6:1 So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. .  .   Sometimes we get so comfortable with the beginning that we don’t want to move on, but we have to, when we stop learning we stop growing, that’s true in your academic life, that is true in your work life and that is true in your spiritual life. 

So how do we grow spritually?  Well to a certain degree, it happens on Sunday morning, but if that is the only time you are being fed spiritually then you will starve to death.  You will not grow spiritually if this is all the spiritual food you take in.  And don’t try to dump it on me and do the “we’re not being fed spiritually” line.  My job is to provide you with good solid biblical teaching on Sunday.  But think about it, if I provided you with a wonderful gourmet meal each Sunday for lunch. The very best food that you could possibly want, soup, salad, appetizer, entrée, dessert the works, would you be content to only eat on Sundays?  And then only on the Sundays that you actually made it to Church.  No, you would make it your responsibility to eat on Monday, Tuesday and all the way through the week. 

If you are going to grow spiritually then you need to eat spiritually.  Listen to what the Bible says about some believers, nobody here I’m sure. Hebrews 5:12-14 You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food. For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right. Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.

How do you learn more about the Bible?  A good place to start is by reading the Bible, find a translation that works for you, I love the New Living Translation, if you don’t have a bible and can’t afford one let me know and I’ll buy you one.  Borrow the Bible on CD from the library out by the fireplace, listen to them in your car, read Christian books, again we have several shelves of them, fiction and non-fiction, when you’re through with those let me know and you can come peruse my library, when you’re done there I’ll introduce you to Miracles Christian Book Store or Noah’s ark. 

Another way of feeding yourself spiritually is through small groups, not just for the knowledge that you gain but for the relationships that you build.  (Skit guys video).

Tonight we are doing some brainstorming to see what our small group ministry should look like for the upcoming year and we would love for you to join us here at 6:00 p.m., did I mention there will be Ice Cream?

Acts 2:41 Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day . . .

3) A Healthy Church Will be A Growing Church.  This has everything to do with numbers.  I truly believe that if we are going to be a healthy church then we need to be growing numerically as well as spiritually.  We need to be seeing new faces in our church family. 

I know that when you talk numerical growth people automatically figure that you are only in it for the numbers.  And you know what they are right.  I tell people; I count numbers because numbers count.  Every number is a person and every person has a soul that needs God.  In the first chapters of the book of Acts Luke records that the church grew by 3000 and 5000and finally he gave up trying to keep track and just said “The Lord added to their numbers daily those who were being saved.”

If we are going to reach people with the Gospel and if we are going to see them grow spiritually then we will grow numerically.  There are thousands and thousands of people in our community who need to know the truth of the Gospel, and we have a moral obligation to share that truth with them.

Matthew 16:18 Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means ‘rock’), and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.

4) A Healthy Church Will be An Offensive Church.  Now this doesn’t mean offensive in the sense that the church is supposed to offend people. 

For too long the church has been on the defensive, we hunker down in our little trenches cover our heads and hope that we can ward off the Devil until he gets tired and goes away.  In other versions the scripture that I had read said “I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” And we have this vision of hell attacking the church and the church is putting up a great defence and we are able to withstand the attack of the Devil and his legions.

But that isn’t what the scripture says; it says the gates of hell will not prevail.  Now I’m not a military strategist or military historian but I don’t think that gates are normally used as offensive weapons. You don’t attack someone brandishing a gate over your head. Even in Canada with all of the budget cuts the military has had to put up with I don’t think they are issuing gates to our soldiers to use as weapons.

We are to take the offensive, the church is supposed to take a stand and say this is wrong and this is right.  We are supposed to be serious about depopulating hell and decrying immorality and that means that we need to take the offensive, not hide from the devil but attack. 

Matthew 15:12 Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you realize you offended the Pharisees by what you just said?”

5) A Healthy Church Will be An Offensive Church.  Now this means that the church will sometimes have to offend people.  As a matter of fact every time the word “offend” is used in the New Living Translation it is in reference to something Jesus either said or did.  You cannot be obedient to the word of God without offending people.  And if you are committed to taking a stand for what the scriptures teach then you will be offensive to some people.  If you take a stand for traditional marriage then you will offend those who living together and same sex couples.    If you say you must be born again then you will offend those who believe their own goodness will get them into heaven.  If you say that Jesus is the only way to heaven then you will offend the Muslims, the Hindu’s, the Buddhists etc. etc.

The only way that we will never offend anyone with our Christian faith is if we never say anything and never do anything.  And then we will be offending God with our disobedience.  As James Thomson said “I think a bishop who doesn't give offence to anyone is probably not a good bishop.” And a church that doesn’t give offence to anyone is probably not a good church.

1 John 3:16 We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters.

6) A Healthy Church Will be a Sacrificing Church.  Now this doesn’t have anything to do with money.  You understand don’t you that as a Christian there will be sacrifices that you have to make.  Decisions that you make as a believer that you might not have made were you not a follower of Jesus Christ. Life-style choices that you make because of your commitment to God’s word.  In other times and places those choices have resulted in people surrendering their lives.  In our culture you might be put into a position where you lose a promotion or popularity because of a stand that you take. That is a sacrifice.  As a church there will be stands that we take that make us less than popular with those around us.

Paul told the believers in the church in Corinth that there would be times that they would have to abstain from actions not because they were wrong but because they could cause fellow believers to stumble. That’s a sacrifice.  There may be times that you won’t agree a hundred percent with the direction the church is taking but unless it’s a direct violation of scripture you might say “at this point I’m willing to agree to disagree for the greater good.”  Sometimes the sacrifice that we need to make for the church is our own preferences.  

We aren’t talking about uniformity, we are not asking you to check your brain at the door.  We don’t all have to agree on everything we do as a church.  If we insisted on complete uniformity at Cornerstone then we wouldn’t be a church we would be a cult.  However if we are going to move ahead we will need unity.

You won’t be the first to make a sacrifice, Ghandi speaking of Jesus said  “A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act.”

Acts 2:44 And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had.

7) A Healthy Church Will be a Sacrificing Church Now this has everything to do with money.  I know, I’m only supposed to talk about money in April, but I will keep it short. 

I am convinced that nothing great is every achieved without sacrifices being made.  Every one of us has made sacrifices to achieve something. We have all given up something for something better or something we want more.  That is sacrifice.  Throughout the history of the church financial sacrifices were made.  Acts 4:32 All the believers were united in heart and mind. And they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had.

And if we skip ahead twenty years we read this description about the church in Macedonia, 

2 Corinthians 8:2-3 They are being tested by many troubles, and they are very poor. But they are also filled with abundant joy, which has overflowed in rich generosity. For I can testify that they gave not only what they could afford, but far more. And they did it of their own free will.

This church exists because people made sacrifices to make it happen, when we started we had people all over the Maritimes giving sacrificially to see this dream become a reality.  And today this church and every other church around exists because people give sacrificially.   You understand that every dollar that someone gives to Cornerstone   could have been spent somewhere else, they have sacrificed something in order to give to God’s work. 

                                                                                       

This building didn’t happen because people gave their spare time and spare change; it happened because people made sacrifices.  And that is kind of abstract now because it’s like the building has always been here, but a committed group of people gave up vacations, and buying new cars and building bigger homes so we could have this building to worship in.   Philosopher George Santayana commented “Nothing so much enhances a good as to make sacrifices for it.”

And who will decide what that sacrifice should be?  You are the only one who can do that. 

If Cornerstone is going to be the church that God wants it to be that will only happen as the people who make up Cornerstone are the people that God wants them to be.  Our individual responsibility as Christ followers is to follow Christ, to be spiritually healthy and spiritually mature.  Let’s go back to where we started this morning Ephesians 4:15-16 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.   The church can’t be all that it’s supposed to be unless the individual parts of the body are being all they are supposed to be as well.

Are you committed to helping Cornerstone Wesleyan Church be the church God desires it to be?

What Jesus Said about our Behaviour Intro

If you have been keeping track this is the fourth series that we have taught this year based on “What Jesus said about. .  .”  In April we spoke about “What Jesus said About Money” and we focused on Jesus’ words concerning how we make and how we spend our money.  In May and June we focused on “What Jesus said About Emotions” and we looked at his words concerning fear, love, hate and Joy. Through the summer we parked ourselves in the book of John and looked at the various metaphors that Jesus used for himself.  I am the Way, I am the Gate, I am the Resurrection, etc.

For the next few weeks we are going to look at “What Jesus Said about Our Behaviour”.    And too often I hear Christians express scorn for rules and regulations, they talk about how it is all about a relationship and how they are under grace not under the law.  It’s almost as if they think it was Jesus who said “Love God and do as you please.”  It wasn’t Jesus who said that it was   Augustine who may have been many things but he was neither Jesus or infallible. 

And so we have people who call themselves Christ Followers who have no real sense of the Christ they claim to follow.  If they think of his commands at all they hear him say “Love each other”  “Do not judge”  and “Do unto others”.  And while those are indeed things that Jesus commanded us to do they are not the sum total of what he commanded us to do.  There was a certain level of expectations to Jesus’ teaching.  That is he expected certain things and certain behaviour from those who chose to follow him. 

Apparently 2000 years ago it was expected that following Jesus would have an impact on how you behaved and what you did and on what you didn’t do.  And Jesus took this quite seriously and warned his disciples that they should take it seriously as well, listen to his words in Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter.”

Wow, that’s harsh.  “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter.”  Somehow that doesn’t seem to line up with the Jesus that is preached so often these days.   The Jesus who loves everybody unconditially as long as they are sincere and try their best.  It doesn’t sound like the Jesus who understands that it’s really tough behaving the way the Bible would direct so with a nod and smile he will sneak you in under the wire. 

But is that the reality?  This “But at least you tried” Jesus? The Bible doesn’t seem to indicate that is.   Instead the Jesus of the Bible teaches that there are rules that must be followed, things that need to be done and things that shouldn’t be done.  If we go back to the scripture that we started with we discover a man comes to Jesus and enquires about what he has to do to live forever.  That is a good question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”  But the man isn’t looking for a life change he is looking for a magic bullet, some “one thing” that he can do to assure himself a place in heaven.  Listen again to his question.  Matthew 19:16 Someone came to Jesus with this question: “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?”   Not “How should I live?” but “What good deed, what one thing, must I do to have eternal life?.  Tell me what to do and I will do and then I can get on with life.” 

And to hear some people’s theology today that magic bullet is “Just accept Jesus as Lord, pray the prayer and then get on with life.”  But that isn’t what Jesus said, what Jesus said was Matthew 19:17 “Why ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. But to answer your question—if you want to receive eternal life, keep the commandments.” Keep the commandments?  That doesn’t sound like Jesus, commandments?  What about grace and not being under the law?  What are the commandments that Jesus is talking about? 

Let’s go back to Matthew 5:17 where Jesus said “Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the Law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose.”

Well in order to understand what Jesus was saying  it would help if we knew what Jesus was saying.   So what was the “Law of Moses” that Jesus spoke of?  Well, the law could refer to a number of things  1) The Ten Commandments  2) The first five books of the Old Testament, which is often referred to as the Pentateuch or five scrolls. 3) The Law and the Prophets, or what we now call the Old Testament.  And this is what Jesus said would not pass away, the Law and the writings of the prophets.

God had been speaking to his people through the law and prophets for 4000 years, he wasn’t suddenly about to say, “oops I changed my mind, let’s start over.”   And that’s why Jesus told us in Matthew 5:19 So if you ignore the least commandment and teach others to do the same, you will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But anyone who obeys God’s laws and teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Christ wants us to know that he’s not changing the rules in the middle of the game. 

So the first thing we need to understand is that the law is necessary and the second thing is that the Christ Follower is not exempt simply because he follows Christ.  Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 6:12 You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. And even though “I am allowed to do anything,” I must not become a slave to anything.

We are able to do anything because Christ can forgive anything, but let’s not get into the mind-set.  The word of God says in Romans 6:1-2 Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?

Now keeping the law means keeping the laws of the land as well as the laws of God, and in the same way if you don’t agree with them you have every right to break those laws.  And society has every right to punish you for breaking them.  In the early days of the Wesleyan Church the founders of our denomination disagreed with slavery and the laws surrounding slavery.  Part of those laws said that it was illegal to help slaves escape, that would be on the same level today as someone who helped your car to escape.  That’s called stealing now and it was called stealing then.  But that didn’t prevent many Wesleyans from helping slaves escape to the Northern States and Canada.   And while they may have been able to justify what they were doing they were breaking the law and were willing to accept the consequences of their actions if they got caught.  And a hundred and twenty years later Martin Luther King Jr. said “One who breaks an unjust law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.”

In a word the Christian preserves the world order against decay by keeping the laws of the land.  If the laws are unjust he may break them, but that doesn’t mean he is freed from paying the price for breaking them.

And sometimes people will say “I don’t agree with what the bible says, or with the rules that the Bible imposes.  And in the same way they have every right to break those commandments and not obey those rules, but they have to realize that there is a price to be paid there as well.

But the question remains: why?  Why are there rules?  Cause, that’s why.  Why are there rules today?  Same reason, to protect you and to protect others.  That is why you aren’t supposed to drive when you’ve been drinking, why you aren’t supposed to eat raw hamburger and why you aren’t supposed to sleep with everyone you meet.

Too often people look at the rules that God has put in place and decide that He does it because He’s a spoil sport, He doesn’t want us to have any fun, He just sits up there in Heaven snickering because of the rules He’s put in place.  That couldn’t be any further from the truth.  God put those laws in place for our benefit and for our protection. 

It’s a Matter of God’s Love for Us

Within God’s law there are laws that are laid down for people’s Physical Benefit:  For example Leviticus 11:7-8 The pig has evenly split hooves but does not chew the cud, so it is unclean. You may not eat the meat of these animals or even touch their carcasses.

So when the law was given you couldn’t eat bacon, or pork chops or ham.  They were also told they couldn’t eat other animals or reptiles or fish, because most of those critters were yucky, the technical term was unclean but it means the same thing.  3000 years ago it was difficult to cook pork the right way to kill the parasites that live in it, we know today that there are certain time of the year that you can eat shell fish and certain times that you can’t.  We can read about it in the paper or hear on the radio but then, it was just safer to say “Don’t eat this stuff.” 

Other rules are set down for our Social Benefit: Leviticus 20:10 “If a man commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife, both the man and the woman who have committed adultery must be put to death.

Don’t know if that was a deterrent but it certainly cut down on repeat offenders.  Leviticus 19:11 “Do not steal. “Do not deceive or cheat one another.”

It is rules that keep society from disintegrating.  They keep family together they protect us from each other. It was Edmund Burke who said “When ancient opinions and rules of life are taken away, the loss cannot possibly be estimated. From that moment, we have no compass to govern us, nor can we know distinctly to what port to steer.” 

Other rules are for our Emotional Benefit: Exodus 20:17 “You must not covet your neighbor’s house. You must not covet your neighbor’s wife, male or female servant, ox or donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor.”

There are issues like covetness, hatred and lack of forgiveness that will destroy us inside if we allow them to.  And so there are rules that deal with these issues.

There are also rules and regulations that are there for our Spiritual Benefit:  There are rules against worshipping idols Leviticus 26:1 “Do not make idols or set up carved images, or sacred pillars, or sculptured stones in your land so you may worship them. I am the LORD your God.

There are rules against worshipping other gods Exodus 34:14 You must worship no other gods, for the LORD, whose very name is Jealous, is a God who is jealous about his relationship with you.

This particular section even deals with how much we are supposed to return to God Leviticus 27:30 “One tenth of the produce of the land, whether grain from the fields or fruit from the trees, belongs to the LORD and must be set apart to him as holy.

To be truthful we don’t know why God required some things, maybe for the same reason that we sometime require things as parents and so we have the Just Because Rules: Leviticus 19:19 “You must obey all my decrees. “Do not mate two different kinds of animals. Do not plant your field with two different kinds of seed. Do not wear clothing woven from two different kinds of thread.

How come?  Just because.  There is a lesson there that is lost on us but it wasn’t lost on the Israelites.  Parents are fond of quoting Leviticus 19:28 . . . do not mark your skin with tattoos. I am the LORD.

But then they forget Leviticus 19:27 “Do not trim off the hair on your temples or trim your beards.

Some rules cross over into several areas, Leviticus 18 deals almost exclusively with sexual issues, things which we would say are governed for social good.  Without regulations concerning marriage etc the family unit begins to fail and we are starting to discover the results of that in Canada today. 

However they also fall in the emotional good category as can be attested by the devastation that is felt when you discover your spouse has been cheating on you, or even the damage done to yourself when you break your wedding vows. You understand that you will pay, Proverbs 6:27 Can a man scoop a flame into his lap and not have his clothes catch on fire?

By the way that verse deals specifically with the consequences of adultery, check it out for yourself. 

But the rules governing sexual conduct are also there for our physical good, the physical consequences of promiscuity cannot be ignored, whether it unwanted pregnancies or sexual transmitted disease there are a many things that could be eliminated by following the rules.  I know and you know that AIDS is not simply a homosexuals disease but we also know that it was spread primarily because people would not listen to the rules, rules that said homosexuality is wrong, rules that said sex outside of marriage is wrong.

And you and I know that if people had of followed the rules that we wouldn’t have a problem with HIV and AIDS.

When Christ came and offered himself up as a sin offering for each of us he made many of the laws in Leviticus concerning offerings and the priesthood irrelevant.  But there are rules that govern our personal behaviour that still stand and I don’t think I need to tell you which are which, I think you can figure that out on your own.

However simply being legal isn’t enough.  The motive under which the scribes and Pharisees, that is the religious elite of Jesus’ day, lived was to satisfy the law.  Everything was aimed at doing what was specified in the law.  Theoretically a person could say “I have done all that is required by the law.”

It’s a Matter of Our Love for God

The difference in the life of the Christ Follower is that the motive is not the law, it is love. We seek to satisfy God not so that we have fulfilled the law, but because we love God.  For the religious leaders 2000 years ago, and for some people today, the aim is simply to satisfy the law of God, make sure that you have dotted all the i and crossed all the ts.  But for the Christian, the Christ Follower the goal is to show our gratitude for God’s love and salvation.

When you truly love God you don’t do what you want, you do what he wants.  When we see the love that God sets before us the we seek to answer that love with reciprocal love.  And that’s why Jesus said John 14:15 “If you love me, obey my commandments.

He didn’t say if you respect me as a teacher, obey my commandments.  Or if you acknowledge me as God, obey by commandments.  Instead he said “You’ll obey me if you love me.”  Respect and fear will only take you so far, it will be love that will take you the rest of the trip.

I hope that we can see beyond the law to see people and I hope that we can see beyond our own righteousness to our reason for being righteous and that is our love for Christ.  And so Christ gives us examples of what he means.  The law says you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, whoever divorces his wife let him give her a certificate of divorce, you shall not lie and you shall love your neighbour. 

Each of these five statements in one way or another symbolizes the Jewish society in which Christ was raised.  Each of these five statements was part of the Mosaic Law laid down to guide the people of Israel.  There was behind each statement a purpose and that purpose was to hold together a civilization, to keep it from deterioration, to prevent it from dissolving into chaos, and to allow it to govern itself.

What these basic five laws as laid down here did was to act as salt for society.  The Ten Commandments and Mosaic Law was not intended for a redeemed society it was to prevent an unredeemed society from tearing itself apart.  Often we think of the “Ten Commandments” as being Christian principles, but the same guidelines can be found in most civilizations around the world and throughout history.  Without these principles society and everyone in it would destroy themselves.  And Christ is saying that when we have been touched by his love and his grace that even more is expected of us then what is expected of everyone else.  That when we fulfill the law that we become salt and light to the world. 

Over the next couple of weeks we will be looking at what Jesus expects of his followers. 

Earlier I mentioned a quote that is often attributed to Augustine: “Love God and do whatever you please.”  But that isn’t the quote, listen to what Augustine actually said, “Love God and do whatever you please: for the soul trained in love to God will do nothing to offend the One who is Beloved.”

The Church, The Family of God

Over the past couple of years the media has made having a hay day with the news that fewer and fewer Canadians are attending church on any giving Sunday. They cite statistics that as a people Canadians seem to be becoming more spiritual, that is they pray more and meditate but they are not going to church as much.  You ever wonder why that is?  Well you are in luck because this morning we have the top ten reasons why people don’t go to church.  You ready?  Here we go the  # 10 Relate to Jazz and rock more then Handel and Bach # 9 Would rather sleep in own bed then pew # 8 Already served time as a child # 7 During organ music I think of Don Cherry # 6 Can only remember 3 commandments # 5 Feel guilty enough already # 4 When I want to feel guilty I call my mother #3 Last time I kneeled I had a hard time getting up again # 2 People that happy just give me the creeps and the number one reason people don’t go to church: It just isn’t relevant.

 

Well that was fun but what would happen if we were to go out and ask people on the street why they don’t go to church? Let’s see (Video clip from e.seentials vol. 3 No. 5 “Word on the street_ Why don’t you go to church?”)

Maybe you can relate, and maybe you can’t.  If I think back to before I had a relationship with God church really wasn’t something I thought about, church was what other people did.  And for people who are like that it’s mostly because they see church in a couple of different ways.

1) Some See Church as an Obligation.  There are people out there who see church as an ought to or a got to.  When I was a kid and a teenager if I was visiting at my Grandmother Guptill’s house I knew that if I was there over a Sunday there was an obligation to go to church.  You might choose not to go to church but then you really didn’t qualify for Sunday dinner.  It was pretty much a no brainer. So I would go, and smile and sing the songs or at least fake smiling and singing the songs.  I was there not because I wanted to be I was there under duress or at least as a courtesy to Gram, it was important to her so I went.  And I don’t think it hurt me that much, it did mean that when someone asked what religion I was that I had an answer: I’m a Baptist.  I didn’t really know what a Baptist was but I knew that the only church I ever attended was Baptist so I must have been a Baptist. 

When I was in High School my best friend’s girlfriend thought they ought to go to church, and so to keep her happy he went.  That was out of obligation.  He was Anglican and she was Catholic and they wanted to find middle ground and so they choose to try a Wesleyan Church because his brother was a Wesleyan Minister.  They heard that Wesleyan was kind of like Baptist so they dragged me along as a translator.  I went out of obligation.

Maybe you attend to make your spouse happy or to make your parents happy. That’s attending out of obligation.  I’ve been preaching for 30 years and I can usually tell when someone is here out of obligation.  But to be honest it probably won’t do you any harm. The night that I chose to follow Christ, I had gone to church that night out of obligation to get my best friend off my back.

Sometimes the obligation isn’t to another person it’s an obligation that is felt to God.  Kind of covering all the bases, you’re sure that somewhere in the 10 commandments it says “Thou shalt go to church”.  You’re not positive of all that God requires but you’re pretty sure that going to church is part of that.  And you figure that when you get to the pearly gates that if the question “did you go to church?” is on the admittance questionnaire you’ll at least have that one right.

Psychotherapist Wayne Dyer made the comment that  “Relationships based on obligation lack dignity.”  Dyer went on to say “If you are living out of a sense of obligation you are a slave.”

That doesn’t sound like fun.  Hmmm

2) Some See Church as an Event.  “Today family we are going to church.”  Kind of like going to the movies or going to the circus.  It’s an event not an everyday happening.  Sometimes those events are things like baptisms, weddings and funerals. I heard someone refer to those events as hatching, matching and dispatching.  Kind of like the fellow who said “Preacher the first time I went to church they sprinkled water on me and the second time I went they threw rice at me.” The preacher thought for a moment and then replied “Yeah and I suppose the next time you come we’ll throw dirt on you.”

I met a distant cousin a number of years ago and she told me the only time she’d ever been in church, ever, was for weddings and funerals. Church just wasn’t a part of her life.  And if Church is simply an event then it’s difficult to conceive of it as a regular part of your life, I mean how many weddings and funerals can you attend? I mean even Hugh Grant could only do four weddings and a funeral. Of course that was in the span of two hours.

And there are people who never attend church but when they get married they want it to happen in a church, and when they have their first child they want it baptized and when someone dies they go looking for a preacher to handle the funeral.  But to be truthful I think they are just superstitious and see the church like a lucky rabbit’s foot, which obviously wasn’t that lucky for the rabbit.  They think that maybe they’ll have a better marriage a healthier child and preferred reservations at the Pearly Gates if they include the church in their plans.

And then there are the C & E folks, those who come at Christmas and Easter.  It’s the thing to do that’s what church is all about and Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without going to Christmas Eve service.  I used to be amazed when Anglican, Catholic and United Pastors told me how many services they have to have on Christmas Eve to accommodate all the people for that one event.  I thought it was mind boggling.  Last year we had five services and saw over 600 people attend those services plus all of those who attended online.  For many people Cornerstone is their church even if they only attend at Christmas.

And then are still others who attend on a regular basis but church is still just an event for them.  Something that you do every Sunday.  When I was growing up on Saturday we had homemade beans and rolls and watched the Bugs Bunny show, every week. That was Saturday and that was our event.

For some people on Sunday they go to church, but I think they may be like Calvin Coleridge.  When he was President he attended church alone one Sunday while his wife was sick.  Now obviously the President didn’t always pay attention to the message because when he got home his wife quizzed him and asked “So what did the pastor preach on?”  The president thought for a moment and replied “Sin.”  “And what did he say about sin?” probed his wife.  The president thought again and replied “he was against it.”  I wonder if he was really paying attention?

By the way that isn’t a new phenomenon Thomas Fuller made this comment almost 400 years ago “Many come to bring their clothes to church rather than themselves.”

But if people see Church as an obligation or an event they aren’t to blame, the church is.  For way too many years the church has marketed itself that way.  Either they tried guilting people into attending. You know “If you don’t attend church you are going to hell.”  I got news for you: simply attending church isn’t going to have any impact on your eternity.  Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going to a Hockey Game makes you a hockey player or living in a garage would make you a car.  Sorry.

Other Churches don’t bother with the guilt routine instead they simply rely on the fact that their people have always come to church, it’s the thing to do on Sunday, so they offer Church as an event, the thing to do.  But in 2012 that doesn’t cut it.  Church isn’t the only show in town anymore and just because Mom and Dad went to church every Sunday isn’t a valid reason for me to go.  I can find another more relevant event to attend on Sunday.

So what’s the answer?  How does the church become relevant for 2012?  The question that is asked by many churches and pastors is: “What new thing do we need to become in order to attract a new generation of believers?”

 

But we don’t have to become something new instead we need to become something old and we need to present it in a new way.  Instead of looking at church as a religious thing we need to see it as a relationship thing.  A relationship with God and a relationship with others.

You see the Bible never saw church as an obligation, nor did it see Church as an event as a matter of fact for the first 300 years the church existed it was the socially and religiously unacceptable thing to do.  It could get you fed to the lions.  But when the New Testament sought a metaphor to use for the church of Christ time and time again it came back to “Family” 

Listen again to the scripture that was read earlier Ephesians 2:19 So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family.

The Bible Sees Church As A Family  Now you may be thinking: “But I already have a family.” There was a time that having a family was akin to the Waltons on TV, Ma and Pa, the kids and the Grand Parents all living together in happy harmony with Aunts and Uncles and cousins all within a stone’s throw away.  But that isn’t a reality anymore. 

We don’t see many families in this day and age that live in the same community.  Just out of curiosity I wonder how many people here today were born in Halifax. And of those who were born in Halifax how many of your parents were born in Halifax?

No longer do we live and raise our family in the same community as our parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins and nieces and nephews.  And because of that we don’t have the support system that those people offered to us and to our children.

Anthropologist Margaret Mead wrote “Nobody has ever before asked the nuclear family to live all by itself in a box the way we do. With no relatives, no support, we've put it in an impossible situation.”   And we weren’t designed that way, humans are social creatures for the most part and throughout history we have dwelt together in family units.

Jane Howard said “Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family: Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.” 

In 1990 we moved to Australia leaving our family behind and the people of the church we went to adopted us as their family.  The invited us over for special occasions, they were there when we needed someone to talk to or pray with.  We laughed with them and cried with them.  Our first day in our new country our children were introduced to Aunt Barb and Uncle Max, they were family and we were family.  The logo for the Wesleyan Church in Australia is “Not just a church, a family.” And it was.

But how do we move from “church” to “Family”? 

2000 years ago, in many ways becoming a Christian could mean leaving your family behind.  You were no longer identifying yourself as Jewish or aligning yourself with the Greek or Roman Gods.  And your decision to follow Christ would separate you from your natural family in much the same way as physical distance often separates us today, and so your brother and sisters in Christ became your family. 

So listen to the comment that Jesus made to his disciples in John’s gospel.  Jesus was telling the twelve how others would know that they were Christ followers.  He didn’t say it would happen because of what they called themselves, or where they attended church or how they voted, or how they wore their hair or what type of music they listened to instead he said John 13:35 “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

Notice that isn’t what made them Christ’s disciples it simply proved that they were Christ’s disciples.  Because they loved one another.

Listen to a description of the early church found in the book of Acts, they had no church buildings, no church names, no denominations but they were the church.  Acts 2:44-46 And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity—

In the book of 1 Corinthians Paul wrote to the believers in Corinth telling them how they were to behave toward one another in the church.  Now this passage is very familiar because it’s often read at weddings, but in reality it wasn’t written about marriage relationships, although it wouldn’t hurt to treat your spouse this way.  This was written telling believers how they were supposed to respond to one another. Paul has just listed  a number of different spiritual gifts and then he says 1 Corinthians 12:31 . . . But now let me show you a way of life that is best of all.

Now listen to what Paul wrote: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing. Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! But when full understanding comes, these partial things will become useless. When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

That’s what we are supposed to be doing, do we always get it right?  Nope, we’re still people, but we are trying to be more then a church, we are trying to be a family.  And if you don’t have a church family to call your own we’d love for you to try our church family but more than that we’d like to invite you to be a part of God’s family, and how does that happen?  John 1:12-13 But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.

 Two things here  “Believe in Him”  we talked about that this summer, who is Jesus, who did he claim to be.  It’s not just believing in Jesus in some nebulous, wishy washy way, mamby pamby, Jesus was a cool guy, kind of way.  It is believing that he was and is the son of God, that he was born of a virgin, that he died on a cross and physically rose from the dead.

And the second thing is “Accepting Him”.  Accepting that he loves you, accepting that he died for you, accepting that he can forgive you and accepting the grace that he has to offer you.  And the result?  You will become a child of God.

The Church, a Beautiful Bride

It was a quiet Saturday morning as the guests began to filter into the little church.  Friends of the couple had been there for hours making sure everything was just perfect.  The guests were a diverse bunch, some were friends of hers, and others were friends of his.  They both had family there as well as friends that they shared.  They were all there from the very old to the very young to celebrate with the couple.  It was a special day, perhaps the most special day in their lives and all those who loved them had come to make it even more special.

Each of the pew markers had been painstakingly created by the bride’s aunt, her mother's sister.  Tiny lace doilies starched to stiff perfection with burgundy bows holding petite ceramic bells in place.  Each one an individual expression of love.  The floral arrangements on the platform had been done by the groom's mother, four baskets overflowing with flowers from the garden which filled their back yard.  Each bloom chosen for its beauty, each one placed with the love that she had given her son through all his years growing up. 

The music had been chosen with an ear to tradition, and with careful attention given to things special to the couple.  The medley of love songs floated over the gathering crowd.  On the eleventh hour the bride groom and his entourage stepped on to the platform.  Fiddling with their hands and looking handsome and awkward in their rented tux's, they wait with baited breath.  With a barely discernible nod the pastor signals the organist who begins to play “ode to joy”.

Through the doors in the rear of the sanctuary step the first of the brides maids and she makes her way down the isle, consciously thinking of the instructions received the night before at the rehearsal.  Step, wait, step, wait, step wait.  Half way down the aisle she is followed by yet another pretty young lady in a matching dress.  Step by step they proceed, being joined by another bride's maid, the flower girl, and then the bride's best friend, now serving as her maid of honour.  The beautiful young ladies join the handsome young men at the platform and the organist finishes with Beethoven.

The Trumpet breaks the still air with a flourish and signals the beginning of the “Trumpet Voluntaire”, the crowd stands as one and even over the sound of brass you can hear a collective intake of breath as the bride steps into the sanctuary.

In the Talmud, the Jewish book of wisdom, the rabbis tell us “On their wedding day all brides are beautiful”.  They're right.  In  over thirty years of pastoral ministry I have performed dozens of weddings, and never once have I ever seen an ugly bride.  It just doesn't happen. 

On the wedding day the bride has made sure that her makeup is perfect, she's gone out and had two hours of intense work done on her hair and make-up.  The dress she is wearing was chosen after hours and hours of soul searching questions, and fears that it just wouldn't say the right thing.  The flowers in her bouquet were selected to perfectly compliment everything from her eyes to her hair to the shade of nail polish she is wearing.  Nothing is left to chance.  Absolutely nothing.  She is going to be radiant when she walks down the aisle and people are going to gasp, and talk about how they have never seen a more beautiful bride.  When her groom looks at her walking toward him, there will be no doubt at all in his mind that he is the luckiest man alive.

The church has long been recognised as the bride of Christ. Paul writes to the church in Corinth and tells them 2 Corinthians 11:2 For I am jealous for you with the jealousy of God himself. I promised you as a pure bride to one husband—Christ.

And we are told in Ephesians 5:25-27 For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault.

And we know that the one person the bride wants to be beautiful for on that special day is her groom, but she wants the spectators to know how much she loves her man and so she is looking her very best for the congregation as well.

In the same way that all eyes are on the bride when she walks down the aisle it often seems that the eyes of the world are on the church. And like every bride the church should be most concerned about how she is seen by her groom.  But we need to show the world how important that is to us.  If a bride showed up wearing old tattered clothes and hadn’t washed her hair in a week and smelled bad what would that say to the groom and to their friends?  Oh she could say “It’s what’s inside that counts” or “Don’t judge me”.  But her appearance would be sending a very clear message to the groom and to everyone else. 

In the same way the church should do it’s very best to be and look it’s very best. 

When Paul writes to Titus, he includes a fairly lengthy section on how Christians are to behave, what they are supposed to do what they are not supposed to do.  And then he finishes with these words in Titus 2:10 . . . but must show themselves to be entirely trustworthy and good. Then they will make the teaching about God our Saviour attractive in every way.

At no other time in history has the church been scrutinised more closely concerning the claims of the gospel.  Our outward attitudes and outward appearances are often the only visible means for people to examine us.  And the world holds us to a higher standard than they do other organizations, when a scandal breaks out involving a school teacher or a hockey coach or a scout leader it is a very brief flash in the pan, but the same scandal over someone in the church and it seems to take on a life of its own.  And we should be held to a higher standard, we are the church.

On her wedding day the church will be the most beautiful bride that anyone has ever seen.  Everything will be perfect.  Nothing will be out of place, and the entire universe will gasp as she walks down the aisle toward her bridegroom Jesus Christ.  And as he hears the fanfare and watches her approach he will know that all of his sacrifice and the price that he paid on the cross was worth it, because she is the most beautiful bride that ever was or ever will be.

I’m sure that Jesus could echo the words of King Edward VIII  who said “Of course, I do have a slight advantage over the rest of you. It helps in a pinch to be able to remind your bride that you gave up a throne for her.”  Because of Jesus great love for the world, he gave up all that he was, left his throne and came to earth for his bride, the church.

So how do we, the church, present ourselves to Christ as a beautiful bride? 

The scripture that was read earlier was from the last chapter of the book of Proverbs.  Chapter 31 begins with the words Proverbs 31:1 The sayings of King Lemuel contain this message, which his mother taught him.  And there has been much debate through the years over who he was and who is wasn’t.  Some scholars claim that Lemuel was a wise man who wrote in the style and nature of Solomon.  Others feel that it was written by Solomon himself and that Lemuel was possibly a nickname that his mother had for him.  But that is really irrelevant, I think what is relevant was that it was Lemuel’s mother who asked the question in Proverbs 31:10 Who can find a virtuous and capable wife? And then the King’s mother spends 300 words answering her own question.  And I think that in 2012 the question could be rephrased to read Proverbs 31:10 Who can find a virtuous and capable spouse?   But this morning we are going to focus what the “virtuous and capable bride” looks like as it relates to the bride of Christ.

Now we need to understand that the church’s main obligation is to be the beautiful in the eyes of Christ.  We all understand the reality of “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”.  And the one we are to be beautiful for is Jesus, but that doesn’t mean we ignore how the world sees us.

There are all kinds of ways that the church can be attractive to people, in attitude, in physical appearance and in the care taken during morning worship.  Because, whether we want to admit it or not, people see Jesus in the local church.  If we appear negligent in how we present ourselves it says something about our view of our Saviour.  Does the face that we present to the community say “We think it is important to do our best for our saviour,” or does it say, “We don’t really care.” 

So let’s begin with Song of Songs 4:10 Your love delights me, my treasure, my bride. Your love is better than wine, your perfume more fragrant than spices.   The Song of Songs or Song of Solomon has long been regarded as an allegory for the Love that God had for Israel and ultimately the love that Christ has for the church. 

1) The Church is to be a Loving Bride  One would think that would go without saying.  In Canada in 2012 we have pretty much moved beyond arranged marriages and forced marriages.  The concept of “we had to get married” is almost a relic of the past, today people marry because they are in love and want to spend the rest of their lives together. 

Unfortunately if we look at the statistics for divorce in our country it would appear that not everyone remains in love.  It seems that if we can fall into love we can also fall out of love. 

I don’t know how many times I have sat across the desk from someone who is trying to explain what has happened to their marriage and they say “I just don’t love them anymore” and sometimes they will go as far as saying “I don’t know if I ever loved them.”  But whatever feeling they experienced as a bride or groom they apparently no longer experience it as a wife or husband.    

Sometimes that happens with churches, in the book of Revelation,  that made everyone perk up didn’t it?  “Oh this is serious, he going to the Revelation.”   In the book of Revelation Jesus sends letters to seven churches in Asia and to the first one is addressed to the church in Ephesus.  This is the same church that the letter of Ephesians was addressed to, and Jesus begins his letter by telling them all of the things that they should be proud of.   And they had a lot to be proud of.  They worked hard at being an ideal church, they didn’t lack in good deeds and moral integrity, they rejected sin from their midst, tested teachers and knew how to separate the true ones from the false ones. And were perseverant to the end.  You gotta love them. 

But then Jesus says  “Whoa, not so fast guys, there’s something else.”  And so here it comes for the Ephesians, Jesus tells them  Revelation 2:4 “But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first!  Ouch.  That’s gotta hurt.  You ever hear those words in a personal relationship, you don’t love me like you used to?  And sometimes they are right, sometimes love fades and disappears.  Maybe because of neglect or apathy, maybe because the person isn’t as lovable as they once were.  But yeah sometimes first love disappears, not necessarily because we want it too and we certainly don’t plan it but it does.  When I’m counselling couples who are struggling in a relationship I will often challenge them to return to their first love. To remember what it was that attracted them to their partner in the first place, to remember how they felt and the commitments they made.  We don’t plan on falling out of love, when we get married we don’t say “Well this will be good for a few years then I’ll fall out of love and move on.”  No in most cases we take serious “Till death do us part”  We believe that our first love will never change.  That’s why Benjamin Disraeli who was the Prime Minister of England in the 1800s said “The magic of first love is our ignorance that it can never end.”

And Jesus is looking at the church and saying, “You don’t love me like you used to.”  And we’re not sure how that love had changed. Some would suggest that the love that was lost was their enthusiasm for the Lord.   A similar analogy is used in the Old Testament, in Jeremiah 2:2 I remember how eager you were to please me as a young bride long ago, how you loved me and followed me even through the barren wilderness.  Often times there is a honeymoon period in a relationship but then the first flush of enthusiasm fades.  Perhaps Jesus is insinuating that the joy and enthusiasm of the Ephesian Church had disappeared.

Kind of like the story told about the old farmer and his wife who were driving along in the pickup one day and she asks, “how come we don’t sit all snuggled up when we drive like we used to?”  to which he replied “I ain’t moved.”

And really how many of us can look back at the hunger with which we devoured the word of God right after our conversion, and the urgency and conviction that we shared the Gospel with our lost family and friends.  But then everything got ordinary, we just kind of drifted along until we lost our first love.

What does it mean to love Jesus?  It’s easy to say “I love you”  but how does that translate into action?   Well Jesus told his apostles in John 14:15 “If you love me, obey my commandments.”

Let’s go back to the scripture we began with in Proverbs 31:27 She carefully watches everything in her household and suffers nothing from laziness.  There was actually an entire section of that proverb that we didn’t read, and it talked about all the things that this wife did.  Kind of reminds me of a plaque my mom had in our kitchen when I was growing up and it said “A man works from sun to sun but a woman’s work is never done.” 2) The Church is to be A Productive Bride.  Periodically we read about churches closing, and it seems that it either happens in the inner city or in small rural communities.  And often we hear that is just the way it happens, that churches can’t survive in either of those situations in 2012.  But that isn’t a reality. 

I can point to churches in small towns that are thriving, churches where people are meeting God and growing in their faith.  Our new church in downtown Halifax, which is just five years old is running close to 300, people are meeting God and growing in their faith.  They are productive churches. 

Churches are supposed to be productive, they are supposed to be growing and they are supposed to be seeing their people growing spiritually.  Because if they are not productive, if they are not growing then they are dying.  It is simple math, if every year a church gets smaller and smaller then it will eventually disappear. 

And finally we read in Proverbs 31:11 Her husband can trust her, and she will greatly enrich his life.  This is probably the most important one, 4) The Church is to be a Faithful Bride There is nothing more devastating in a marriage than adultery.  And people give all kinds of reasons why they cheat and today it is greeted with little more than a nod and a wink.  But 2000 years ago it was considered a serious enough breach in the social fabric to warrant the death penalty. 

And we read in 2 Corinthians 11:2 For I am jealous for you with the jealousy of God himself. I promised you as a pure bride to one husband—Christ.  Not just any bride, but a pure bride, a faithful bride.

Throughout the bible adultery is used in relation to Israel and the church as a euphemism for stepping out on God.  When a church takes a soft stand on sin and refuses to admonish or condemn sin then it becomes unfaithful to the word of God and is in effect committing adultery.

We live in a world where churches all too often would rather preach “love, motherhood and lower taxes” then condemn sin.  They are afraid that they will drive people away if they preach against sin, they are afraid that it will make them unattractive to the world.  And because they are more concerned with pleasing the world than pleasing God they become the unfaithful wife to Christ. 

And while these churches may present what they see as an attractive appearance to the world often the world sees through the hypocrisy to the adultery at the core. 

The concept of biblical and personal holiness is summed up in the word obedience, obedience to the word of God.  And when the word of God is not used as our absolutes as Christians and when we participate in actions that are directly spoken against in the bible then we are unfaithful to Christ.

What do we need to do to be the most attractive bride that we can possibly be for Christ?  Well this passage tells us that we need to submit to him.  One person doesn't make a church but a church is made up of a pile of one persons.  And while we may not be able to change the church individually, individually we can change the church.  And we can make the church a beautiful bride through our individual obedience.  If the rest of the church doesn't come to the party that is their responsibility.  Yours is being obedient on a person level to what Christ wants in your life.