SPEAKER_00 0:00

So you've come today on a Sunday where not only we did we have the opportunity to share about this, but this is a unique Sunday for us in that once a year uh we get to take time to talk a little bit about what it means to be the church and specifically what it means to be a part of Point Community Church. Um you probably or many of you may not know, but today is actually our fourth birthday as a church. Uh we've now been in existence as Point Community Church for four years. Um it's been an amazing journey, uh ups and downs and challenges, and but just watching people's lives transformed by the grace of Jesus, and so grateful for that, and so thankful for you being a part of that. Many of you have been on that journey with us through the last four years. Um, and so we just want to say thank you to God for his provision in that. Um I'm gonna ask that uh our elder team come up. Uh, we're gonna actually do something a little bit different in how we share this morning uh from God's Word. And uh and so they're gonna come up and join me up here. And what we would like to do is share a little bit of our heart as leaders. Um sometimes we typic we we call this this team the elder board, but that just sounds really stuffy and too serious and stiff. Um that's really uh kind of a formal term, but we just this is the elder team here at Point Community Church. And uh elder in scripture just means overseer, um, the ones who've been appointed by God to give oversight to the church, to serve the church faithfully in that. And so this is some of our uh this well, this is the current uh elder team. Yes, if possible, that'd be great. Um of our elder team here. So the um the thing I would say to you is that uh on the front end, we we want to just ask that you continue to pray for us as we seek to hear from God and obey and follow Jesus. I'm gonna talk a little bit about structure uh today as we try to answer this question what is the church? And in fact, if you uh if you have a worship guide with you, I encourage you to pull that out. Um that worship guide has got some lines where you can take some notes, and I encourage you to take some notes. Um but I'm gonna go ahead and well let me start with you. Uh if you did not get a worship guide when you came in, if you'll lift your hand real fast, these guys at the back of the room can can connect, can can uh give you one of those. Um I was planning to uh provide some some uh fill in the blanks if you come here on a weekly basis. A lot of times in our worship guide, we have fill in the blanks, so as we kind of are teaching, you can you can fill in uh some of the key teaching points. Um I spent a couple of days this past week in uh in California with about 20 pastors from across the United States talking about the church, evaluating uh what's going on in the Western church and specifically in the United States, in the church of the United States, and uh it messed me up so bad, I just put lines in the guide. Um so for those of you who like to fill in the blank, sorry. Um I needed to sort through it and I wasn't ready to put them on there. So um, but uh that being said, I know God's timing is perfect, so that conversation was really helpful, and we had obviously planned this a long time ago to have this discussion about what is the church. Uh before I move forward though, I want to really quickly just come back to this elder piece. So to my right, far down here, this is Aaron Negron. Uh he serves as one of the elders here. Uh this is Gonzo, uh, and he serves as one of the elders, and then Tim Brown serves as one of the elders. Uh, if you've been around point for the last three years, you may or may not be aware, uh, but I think you probably would be. One of the men who's not up here this morning is a guy named Sean Wills. Uh I don't is Sean around? Oh, very back in the room. Uh Sean, stand up real fast. Uh so Sean, I actually will make him stand up unlike the people group over here. Uh, he's okay with that. Um, but Sean actually served as an elder the last three years here at Point Community Church, and and we're so thankful for his faithful service. In fact, if you get a chance to talk to Sean today, please tell him thank you and how much you appreciate what he has done. Um, the last three years that he has served with this board, he's really helped us as we've been trying to follow God forward. In fact, he was the chairman of the board the last couple of years, um, which means he was leading the meetings and even facilitating some of our vision meetings here. And so we're really thankful for him and for his family and the gift that they've been to Point Community Church. We have actually reshifted the way that we do elder um uh terms, I guess is the right way to say that. And so we now have um unlimited terms that basically each year we evaluate as an elder board. And so this year, as we got to the end of that, uh we just all prayed and with Sean and Amy uh and their family prayed, and God made it clear that for this next season uh they needed to step away from that responsibility of eldering. And so we we wanted to just bless them in that and say this would be a good opportunity for them to do that. Um they all will continue to serve faithfully here at Point Community Church, be a part of leading a life group and all those things, and we're so thankful uh because you don't stop being an elder just because you roll off of the board in the meetings. Um it just means that functionally you're in a different different role, um a different different uh rhythm of life. But again, I want to say thank you to them so much for graciously serving. So can we give God praise for them? And yeah, thank you, Sean. Um, so I um I brought this question, what is the church? That is a a large question, that's a tall order to try to answer in a short window of time. But I wanted to do our best today to answer some of the most important aspects of that question. And the best way to answer the question, what is the church, is to actually go to the Bible, okay? Is to go to scripture and say, what does Jesus, what does God say to us about what the church is? If I asked this question in the community at large, I said, hey, what is the church? Um I'm guessing that pretty quickly people would say, well, it's that building over there. Uh that's that building. Or you might say, um, well, it's it's that thing that people attend on Sunday. It's that's that's the church. Um that's actually a really anemic definition of the church, okay? Uh buildings can be a part of the process, and and even Sunday gatherings can be a part of it, but that's not actually what the church is described as in the scripture. Uh so what I would suggest is that we go back to the Bible. And again, we're only going to cover three passages today. The first one's probably gonna be the most familiar for you, and this is the passage where Jesus gives instructions to his disciples. Um, the second passage is actually describing what happens in the book of Acts, uh, where the church is birthed. And then the third passage is a passage from the book of Ephesians, but that I think is actually the clearest definition of what the church is functionally. Okay? So, that being said, let's start with Matthew 28, 18 through 20. Hopefully, this becomes so familiar to you that you have it either memorized or pretty close to memorized because you keep hearing us talk about this passage. Um, Matthew 28, 18 through 20. Uh, some people have called this the Great Commission. All right? And if you were here in September, we actually taught through some of this passage of scripture because this is where we get this instruction from Jesus to make disciples. But I want to read the whole text to us, just three verses here. It says this. Then Jesus came near and said to them, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe, I like the word obey, some translations say obey, obey everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always to the end of the age. Now, um, as I mentioned a while ago, these are Jesus' final words or some of his final instructions to his disciples before he leaves the earth and goes back to the throne room of heaven. And if you will, it's kind of his pregame speech. He knows that they've been getting trained, they've been getting prepared to go and do ministry and to take this gospel to the nations, and he's going to give them some clear instructions on how to do that and what that's supposed to look like. Just a couple of things to note from this passage. First off, notice it says all authority has been given to who? Jesus. Jesus is in charge. He is in charge. He is the supreme authority, he is the ultimate authority. Jesus is in charge. Which, again, is so key for us to remember that Jesus is in charge of his church. He's the king on the throne of his kingdom. And so we want to remember that so that when he speaks to us, when he gives instructions in this specific command, guess what? He's in charge. We should listen. We should obey. We should follow his instruction. Um the second thing you note is that in this passage, he reminds us the primary activity that he gave his disciples, the ones who he had spent almost three years of his life, roughly three years of his life with. He tells them that the primary activity they should be involved in is making disciples. Like helping other people know him, right? Uh in fact, he gives us clarity on what it means to make those disciples by saying, as you go into all of life, he didn't say stay right there and just get really smart and be better, better under, you know, understand the Bible better, the scripture better. He said, go, right? So as you go, do what? Baptize people in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Um obviously the implication here is that he is saying, you're gonna go out and you're gonna proclaim uh who I am and what I've done. And as you do that, people are gonna receive me, they're gonna, they're gonna receive this message, this news, they're gonna put their trust in me, and you want to baptize them. And he gives Trinitarian theology, meaning Father, Son, Holy Spirit. He says, baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, okay? Because the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit are all involved in our conversion and in uh our being saved. And so we see that he says, go, baptize, and then he says, teach. So you got to teach people. They have been taught how to follow Jesus, how to become more and more like Jesus. And so that's what they were given the instruction to do, and they obeyed it. Now, um, when we hear this section of scripture, some people will say, well, that was just to the disciples. That was just to the original apostles. That's not for us today. And I actually think that in the definition of discipleship, it's implied that that means that the disciples were to make disciples who make disciples who make disciples who make disciples. Does that make sense? That's the way the kingdom of God grows. And by the way, it's brilliant because when that is the case, then Christians can reach every crack and crevice of our culture and our society because it's not just a few people getting together and learning the Bible and getting deeper. It's actually us going into all of life and making disciples. We'll come back to that instruction in a little bit. So let's fast forward. Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2. Jesus has now left. He's left his disciples behind. They were a little nervous, they were a little bit concerned. How's this going to go? And he said, I want you to wait and I want you to pray. And so that's what they did. They went and prayed and they waited, and the Holy Spirit comes on them. And I won't uh read it all to you, but in Acts chapter 2, we get this picture of Peter and the other apostles. They're there praying in what's called the upper room. We think there were about 120 disciples at this point, followers of Jesus. We would call them Christians today. Uh that wasn't even a terminology they had back then. But they said there are 120 of them, and they're praying, and the Holy Spirit comes at Pentecost. And when the Holy Spirit comes, they are empowered and they go out into the streets and they start telling people about Jesus. In fact, Peter, we get a record a record of his sermon as he starts to just preach the good news and the message of Jesus. Um, Peter clearly had not been trained in what it looks like to be sensitive and seeker sensitive, okay? Because he basically goes through this whole history to the Jews and leads them up to the point where his primary point is, you killed the Son of God. That's like his kicker. And the whole thing, he goes through this whole process of explaining the history to the Jews, which they knew well, and he says, You killed the Messiah, you killed the Son of God. And I'm sure at that point some wanted to kill him, but it says in the text that actually they were cut to the heart because of the work of the Holy Spirit, and they say, What do we do now? And Peter says, Repent and be baptized. So, do you see how they're now doing what Jesus asked them to do through the work of the Holy Spirit? And the Holy Spirit is empowering them, and they're seeing this transformation happen. In fact, it even says in the passage, but I'll read, that 3,000 people were saved just that first day when they started to preach this word under the power of the Holy Spirit. And by the way, just a simple note here, when the Holy Spirit came, the people that were around them thought that they were like drunk. It's one of the funniest parts of Scripture there. Is it says they walked down the street and started speaking in other languages, and the people were like, Why are you drunk? And what's going on with you? And they said, Listen, it's only 10 in the morning. We haven't started drinking yet, right? Um, we have the Holy Spirit. That's what's causing us to be uh so full of joy and full of this message that we can't stop speaking, proclaiming. So, let's read this together. Acts 2, 41 through 47. So those who accepted his message were baptized. Well, that sounds like what Jesus told them to do, right? And that day about three thousand people were added to them. Now, what did they do after they came to Christ? And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to the prayers. Then fear came over everyone, and many wonders and signs were being performed through the apostles. Now all the believers were together and held all things in common. They sold their possessions and their property, they distributed the proceeds to all as anyone had a need. Everyone, or every day, they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple complex, and they broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with a joyful and a humble attitude. I love that. They were joyful and they were humble. Praising God and having favor with all the people. And every day the Lord added to them those who were being saved. People who were coming to faith in Jesus every single day. How awesome is that! So this is what the early church looked like. This is a description of what happened in the book of Acts when these guys actually obeyed Jesus. Now, um, before I talk about what we do see in this passage, let me just quickly reiterate the point that there's things we don't see in this passage, right? So what we don't see, well, we don't see any big fancy church buildings. It does say they met in the temple complex, right? They met in the in the in the in the in the area outside the temple there. It does say that they met house to house, which is our Karini people group. This is what they're experiencing right now. Uh Ethan and our friends over here are meeting house to house. They look more like the New Testament church in many ways than we do many times. Okay? And the meeting house to house and just and and spending time together. Um, but in the text, we don't see uh these big massive church buildings. You know what else we don't see? Big fancy children's ministries. Now, again, I'm not saying that we shouldn't have dynamic or or uh you know really strong children's ministries, but you don't see them there, right? And there's many other things you could say we don't see there. We don't see church leadership conferences, we don't see uh good cool Christian websites or church websites, uh, we don't see good marketing schemes. Uh we we don't see any of that stuff here. And guess what? Here's what's amazing. When Jesus leaves the scene, there's 120 disciples. By A.D. 40, there's a thousand. And by A.D. 325, there are 56 million Christians in the Roman Empire. Did you hear that? 120 to 56 million. Without any of the things that we also think we need today to be a good church. What am I saying? I'm saying that when we obey Jesus, he brings the growth. He helps other people know him and follow him and become disciples. I hope you know this, but we are not converting people to church, we are calling people to Jesus. We're not converting people to church, we're calling people to follow Jesus, to trust in Jesus. A church just happens to be the organizational structure, we're gonna talk about a definition here in a second, but how this thing forms up as people follow Jesus together, right? Now, just a side note currently in the United States, if statistics are true, and by the way, um I don't typically trust all the Christian statisticians, I think they inflate numbers, but some secular statisticians, they actually uh said that right now in the United States we spend about $1.5 million for every one baptism. If you counted all the money we invest in structures, staff, programs, and all those things, it's about $1.5 million to see someone be baptized in the United States. That's keeping me awake at night right now. Okay. Because in the end, God has all the money in the world, and if that's what it takes, that's what it takes. What I'm saying to you is that these guys in the early church, they didn't have any of that, and they saw 56 million people come to face in the first roughly 300 years. Okay. So in this passage, what do we see? What does it mean to be the church? Well, descriptive in this passage, what we see is that the church boils down to really three components worship, community, and mission. If I was to try to summarize what we see there, we see worship to Jesus, we see community, which includes communion and breaking the bread house to house and prayer and spending time together, investing in one another. In fact, even so much so that they were willing to sell their possessions to serve one another's needs. This was definitely not an American church, okay? They were willing to give up and sacrifice everything so that everybody else could have enough. And mission in that we see God adding to the number of those being saved. The gospel was going out, the gospel was being proclaimed. Are you still with me? Isn't this a beautiful picture of the church? Such an amazing picture to see what happened. Now, this is a highlight reel, so we don't see all the problems they had. There were problems there. And in fact, they got so comfortable with each other that persecution was the only thing that pushed them out of Jerusalem to go and help the rest of the world know Jesus. Because they kind of were like our holy huddle. In fact, I read a uh uh quote this week. It was actually really helpful. Um, I'll have to come back to it because I just lost it. But um basically it said this most people they come to church to get community, and when you do that, you become disillusioned really fast, and you actually go from not just uh receiving what you have to being angry and frustrated and even hurtful to other people because when when community is your primary goal for church uh and Jesus isn't, you actually turn it into an idol, and then when you don't what you get what you get, you start to cry and throw a fit, right? Because ultimately what happens is in the church, the church doesn't exist primarily for community, it exists for Jesus. Okay, I just had to get that out. Okay. Now, but in the passage, you see worship, you see community, and you see mission. That means that if you've got a people, a group of people, could be two, could be three, underneath a coconut tree on an island in Indonesia, and they are worshiping Jesus and they are having community together and they are on mission together, they're a church. Even without a building, without structure and strategy and staff and programs, they're a church, right? Part of the church. Now, you can have more than this and still be a church, but you can't have less than this. You can have more, but you can't have less. So let's talk now about Ephesians 4 for a second. Okay? Ephesians chapter 4. If you have your Bible, I encourage you to go there. This is the lengthiest passage I'm gonna read today. You still tracking with me? Jesus gives his command to make disciples of all people. And he even says, here's how you do it. Now we see it happening in the book of Acts. And then part of the story that Jesus actually didn't have to participate in when he was here is the organization and the development of the body now living out the mission together. Living on in community together. Here's what it says in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 1 through 16. Therefore, I, the prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, accepting one another in love, diligently keeping the unity of the Spirit with the peace that binds us. Now, now listen to these words. There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to one hope at your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. Now grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of the Messiah's gift. For it says, when he ascended on high, he took prisoners into captivity, he gave gifts to people. What is it, what does uh he ascended mean, except that he descended to the lower parts of the earth. The one who descended is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. Now there's more than we can talk about this morning there. And he personally gave some to be apostles, catch this, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers. Who? Jesus gifts his church with these particular roles, these particular gifts, so that what? For the training of the saints in the work of ministry to build up the body of Christ, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God's Son, growing into a mature man with a stature measured by Christ's fullness. Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit. But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into Him who is the head, Christ. From him, the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building up itself in love by the proper working of each individual part. As I said, I think this is the most descriptive, and even I would go as far as to prescriptive passage in all of the Bible on what the church should look like. Even when Paul writes in 1 Corinthians, which if you were here last year, we went through the book of 1 Corinthians, he's correcting them, he's instructing them on how to get back onto this page. But here Paul lays it out. Now, one of the things I should note is that this book of Ephesians that I just read from, this chapter four that we're in from this book of Ephesians, it was not written to the president of the church at Ephesus. It was not written to the pastor of the church at Ephesus. It wasn't written even to the elders of the church at Ephesus. If you read Ephesians 1, verse 1, it says to the saints in Ephesus. It means this, that this is a letter that was written for all of us, for all these people at Ephesus, and then been passed down to us to get instruction on how we actually function as the church, as the people of God. And if I were to summarize this passage, again, this is going to be an oversimplification, but I want to give us just some language. If I were to summarize this passage on what is the church based on this section of Scripture, I would say it this way: the church is the family of God, saved, empowered, and gifted by God so that we might know Jesus and make him known. Now let me just briefly break that apart for you. The church is the family of God. Did you notice in the beginning that he says that we have one father? Now, um, this wasn't just metaphorical. This is literal. That we are not being converted into a religion when we put our trust in Jesus, but we are being adopted into a family. Did you know that? There is no other religion on the planet. There is no other system and a way of trying to work out this view of eternity and how we're to live that promotes the idea that you actually become a member of God's family. In Christianity, what we see is that God the Father, and in Ephesians, if you didn't have never read Ephesians chapter 1, it says it very plainly that he chose us before the foundations of the world to adopt us into his family. So the church is the people, right? It's not just the building, it's not just the programs, it's not just what we do in activity, it's who we are. It's an identity. We are adopted into the family of God. If you have put your trust in Jesus Christ, if you've asked Jesus Christ to save you, if you've asked him to rescue you, if you've said, Jesus, you are Lord and you are Savior, that moment, when that happened, you were adopted into God's family. And so the church is a family. Now, does it have some issues? Absolutely, because anytime people are involved, there's going to be issues. Right? Just like your family and my family, the spiritual family of God has some issues, it has some challenges, but we are God's family, and by God's grace, thankfully, the work of the Holy Spirit, we are sealed and we cannot be unadopted. That's a good thing. Now, some people in this room are like, well, I wish they would get unadopted. But you can't, because we're in the family of God. God is our father. You could even go as far as to say Jesus is our big brother, which is pretty awesome. We know that because Jesus laid down his life for us at the cross, he paid the price so that we could be adopted. That was the price for the adoption was Jesus' very life. And him taking our sin. So, just a few things to note in this. Not only are we family of God, but we are saved. We have been adopted, we've been rescued, we've been brought in to the family of God, have been saved and rescued by him. We are empowered. Did you notice how the language in here talks about the spirit coming in to his people, God giving his spirit and allowing us to be empowered? Even did you note when we go back to the Matthew 28, 19 and 20, he says, I will never leave you. I am with you always, even to the end of the age. How is he with us? He's with us through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, God, the Holy Spirit is present right now. And if you're a believer, he's actually present inside of you. So when we gather together as the church, we know we have the Holy Spirit empowering us, leading us, guiding us. Another thing you'll note there is that it says that we are gifted. I love the fact that this passage reminds us that it's not just a few who are gifted, but all are gifted. Um, in the United States, in the Western model, we've basically adopted the European model of church in the United States. We inherited it. Many of you probably don't realize that because you never really kind of zoomed out and thought about it. But we actually, uh, as a country adopted the European model of church, where a few people who are very formally trained through seminary or some other means kind of lead the whole show. Right? Now, if you've ever been to Europe, we know where that train leads. Because if you've ever walked around Europe, you will see plenty of empty church buildings that no longer have any vibrancy at all for the kingdom of God. I actually think that a big part of that is because it became something where only a few did what everybody was supposed to do, which was all be participating and making disciples, using those gifts, those spiritual gifts for the kingdom. But to move on, what are we trying to do? We're actually trying to know Jesus. Did you notice what he said about what maturity looks like? That we would grow in the fullness of the knowledge of who? The fullness of the knowledge of Jesus. To know Jesus. Not just about him, by the way, but to actually know him. To know Jesus. And I would encourage you guys to understand and to be reminded that what God wants for you is not to just know about him, but to actually know him, to have a dynamic relationship with him. And as we know him, this is the beauty, and these guys are going to speak to it in just a minute. Is that as we know him, we then are able to display him to the world in which we live, the people around us in all of life. And I think this is beauty because beautiful because as we mature and we know Jesus more and more, Jesus will be evident to those around us through our lives. Okay. Now I want these men to share, and they've uh been prayerfully um asking God to show them what to share with you guys as a church family, and then we're gonna come back and talk a little bit about what do we do with all this. Um but Gonzo has has a word to share first, and I think they're gonna pass us the mic around.

SPEAKER_02 29:28

So uh the question we're asking ourselves is why are we here? And uh according to Ethan, young man over there, it's not by accident. So uh what is our purpose? Um why do we collectively spend thousands of dollars every year to support what we do here? Um is it to check something off some list? Is it listening to someone say some words that make you feel better for a little while? Or is it because you love God and therefore love people? If that's why you're here, then I'm gonna read uh Ephesians, but it's a new living translation. Because I like the way uh uh the words are I like the words in this one, so here we go. Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won't be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever that they sound like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of the 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 so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love. Okay, so what we're trying to do by restructuring our ministries by gifting is make sure that we are working by the Spirit to make sure the body is healthy, growing, and full of love. The last line. Every Sunday there's over 200 people here. So, how does a church with limited resources? I'm talking about finances and leaders, shepherd that many people and do it well and for God's glory. And by the way, shepherding does not only mean seeing to the physical and emotional needs of the flock, which sometimes that's all we're doing. It also means that we see that the flock is growing spiritually and using their gifts to further the mission, which is to make disciples and make disciples. And I apologize if that seems overly simplified, but there's still so many of us who don't understand this yet. Um we realized that because of the needs of our congregation, that we were not shepherding well. So we started praying about this, and God put it in our hearts that we needed to make some changes, that we were not using our sources resources well. So we prayed and talked, and we prayed for wisdom and insight, for patience and love. And we realized that God was selling us that we needed to reorganize and to reorganize in a way that utilizes the gifts that He has given each of us. And so I understand that sometimes it's not easy to hear that we that and many of us do not like change, but I ask that you have faith in God and your leaders. But in actuality, most of you will not even notice the changes except that we will be growing to be more like Christ. Um I'm gonna conclude with Acts 2, 36, 39. Peter replied, Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God and be baptized in the way of in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promises to you, to your children, and to those far away, and to people far in the future, and to the Gentiles, all who have been called by the Lord our God. Are you being led by the Holy Spirit?

SPEAKER_03 32:38

As I was uh considering the subject, and there could be many ways to go. I was just led to the I'll say the spiritual aspect, meaning to look at the church from a very spiritual viewpoint. Uh I think that might be maybe natural or maybe not that natural for you, but in this particular passage, and I focus on the Ephesians 4 passages principally. You see right up front there the unity, but it starts with one body. One body. Body's not an organization. In fact, this book has nothing to do with organization, the book of Ephesians. It has everything to do with a body, a living organism, a spiritual body. And it points out very clearly there is one spirit, the life of the body, one spirit. So the body of Christ, which some people call the church, maybe traditionally, is actually a spiritual body. And then quickly in verse 5, you see it says, one Lord, one head, the head of the spiritual body. You know, a body is one. Your head and your body is one body. You're not separated from the head. The head is where we get our instructions. This is really easy to follow. The head is in charge. We get our guidance, and the body carries out whatever it is the head is saying, directing, indicating. I would hope that's true in a case of your physical body. And there's one faith, and to us, one faith central on the gospel message, that the heart of the one faith is the gospel message. And then there's one baptism. This is really key, of course, water baptism being a picture of a spiritual baptism. But baptism here is referring to being identified with, united with Jesus Christ, identified with him closely. So personally we call him brother, as you heard, and friend and our God. United with him. It's a vital connecting. The body is one. It is spiritual. It is empowered, led by, inspired by, defended by, the Spirit of God under the authority of Jesus Christ. So the body, why do you have a body? But to carry out the work of our Lord, to serve him, to do his will, to represent him on earth. The head happens to be in heaven, even though he said he'd never leave us or forsake us. He sent his spirit, his representation, and in fact of his very present in us, so that we could reveal him, serve him, proclaim him, and live this life which has a very high calling, if you look at verse 1 here, worthy of the calling to which we have been called. So we're not talking about an organization. And then I think one of the great gifts, the church we see in uh Nick referred to Pentecost in Acts chapter 2. We see the great gift of the Holy Spirit, the gift, and you see in that this spiritual body is birthed by God. Life is breathed into the believers, and they become the body of Christ. Many of us sitting here today, members of that body. And as I looked at that passage, I couldn't help but think back in Genesis, when God made man out of dirt with his own hands. He didn't speak them into existence. He made them with his own hands, and then the scripture says God breathed into him the breath of life. And he became a living soul. That's what the church is. God breathed into a believer, and the body, those followers of Jesus Christ, became a living, alive, alive in Christ's body. So we see the unity up front. Then you get to verse 7 here in Ephesians 4, and there's a but and it goes into diversity because it says that to each one there is a variety of gifts given. So even though one and one body, every individual is gifted by God, every one of his children gifted by God differently for the same purpose. But remember, gifting, I'll say remember, if you don't know, gifting is a supernatural ability by God, designated by the Spirit of God, empowered by God to do God's supernatural work. So if you're trying to figure out how to get all this stuff done, read more about the work of the Holy Spirit and learn to lead your life under the authority and the power of the Holy Spirit and watch him do a great job in your life. There is a picture in the middle there in verses 8 to 10 there about how God has given us these gifts, and it's a picture of tremendous victory. We sang about it earlier. And that picture is that Jesus paid the price, you see there in a verses 8 to 10. He descended to the uttermost parts of the earth and he ascended to the highest place in the heavens. He won a victory. He won a victory over sin and death and darkness that our friend referred to. Victory that is now available, that the victor grants to those who would walk with him, so that we, the spiritual body of Christ, have victory over Satan, over his authority, over the authority of your flesh, that you can overcome all temptations. You can live the life that God has called you to live. You just can't live it without him. Get over it. I tried for 30 years. You cannot live it without the authority of the Spirit of God in your life. Spiritual body. And I have to point out, as you get down the bottom here, I say the bottom, verse 16, at the end there, it makes it very clear that for the body to function, just like your physical body, it is required that every individual part is working properly. So first you have to be a part of the body of Christ, and then you have to be working, led by the Spirit in the place that God has called you to be, led by the Spirit, not where you want to be, where you think you need to be, what you think your gifts or your talents are, but where God places you to be, and He will accomplish what He sent the Spirit of God into your life to accomplish. So I I guess I would just sort of sum up by saying this God is a spirit. God is spirit. His work on earth is done by us through this through the spiritual body using spiritual gifts. The Christian life is spiritual. We are told to worship in spirit and in truth. That's the only way you can worship in spirit and in truth. We are told to pray always in the spirit. We're told to live our life on a daily, moment-by-moment basis in the power of the Spirit. Walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. And oh, by the way, when you live the life, and as you're following Jesus, if you haven't figured it out, you will by the time you get to Ephesians 6, the end of this book, and you will find out that you are in a spiritual conflict in which the enemy of your soul, a spiritual enemy, with a huge mass force of spiritual, we'd say soldiers, are in a violent opposition to everything Jesus Christ stands for. And so if you don't understand that and you have not put on the full armor of God, I know your life's a mess. I know it. I've been there and I'm there more than I should be. So I will say this. Romans 8, 9, this is a caution, making no assumptions here. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. Hear that? If anyone does not have the Holy Spirit dwelling in him, you do not belong to Jesus Christ. He is the affirmation in your life that you are his. So you must be born again. When Jesus said that to that guy in the middle of the night, you must be born. What he was saying was, you must be born of the Spirit. Born of heaven, born of the Spirit, born into the family of God.

SPEAKER_01 41:06

Yeah, thanks, guys. I appreciate what they've had to say. And I think at this point, um just listening to them, I think it'd be really helpful just to walk through maybe a practical application of what they've been sharing this morning. And uh today is, as has already been mentioned, Super Bowl Sunday, right? And um fun day. I love it. I love chicken wings. Uh that's the way to my heart. And but if when I think of the Super Bowl and I think of this, like what we've been talking about, this like eternal perspective, um, it's a it's actually a beautiful opportunity to be this kingdom that they've been talking about, to be this body, these people united, because individually none of us is the fullness of Christ. But when we come together, we can reflect Christ more fully. And so that's why it matters. It matters that we're here together. It matters that we're together in our small groups, it matters that we do things together throughout the week. Um, because as we interact with each other, we help each other become more like Jesus. As we interact with other people, you know, outside of this body, outside of this family, we reflect more fully who Christ is. So, for example, at something like a Super Bowl party, like uh Tim said, we have this unique mix of giftings as individuals. And when we come together, maybe some of us are just comfortable picking up someone's plate for them and throwing them away. That's showing them that Jesus is a servant. He he lays down his life and serves us. Um maybe some of us enjoy cooking and we we prepare something really great to share. Uh that shows us that shows people that Jesus gives his best. Um maybe some of us are really comfortable, you know, going up to someone we don't know and starting a conversation, introducing ourselves. Uh that you know, that shows Jesus pursues us, right? He pursues relationship with us. Um and so all that together creates this more full picture of who Jesus is and who God is, and we do that in community together. So again, it matters that we're together. Um and so when I think of our culture and I think of this, you know, first century Jerusalem, um, our lives look a lot different, right? Like they're doing all these things together. But when I think of our lives, I think of you know, what we do so much on our own, we do so much by ourselves. Um, and it's a lot of things that we we're all doing, but we just do it by ourselves. You know, we we grocery shop for an hour or two hours, we do it by ourselves. Um why don't we do that together, you know? And I I know it's hard, like we have to work to make it happen, but they had to work to make it happen. Uh they weren't just sitting around doing nothing, like they had lives. Um why can we do that? Because because we're in Christ, we're united in Christ, like it's worth it. He's beautiful. Um, he motivates us to make the effort, to be together, to reflect who he is. Uh, we grocery shop, we eat dinner every night. A lot of times we just do it by ourselves, we're just with our The people in our home. Why? Those are all opportunities to again be together, to reflect Jesus to each other, to build each other up. And then when we invite people who aren't in the body to participate in that with us, they're being exposed to who Jesus is. And like I said, the more of us that are together around, they're getting a more complete, a more full picture of that. So as you go to the Super Bowl parties, and they like as you're hanging out today, like it's an opportunity to reflect the beauty of who Jesus is. And without an ulterior motive, we're not trying to get them to point. We're not trying to get them into a small group. It's the ultimate motive. We want them to know who Jesus is. And so when it says that God added to their number daily, that can still be true today. He can add to our number daily. And again, I don't mean at point, I mean to his kingdom. He can add to his kingdom daily. We're not trying to build a kingdom here. The point won't exist one day. This won't even be a memory. It'll only be the kingdom of Jesus. And that's what we're about. So with that, I give it back to you guys.

SPEAKER_00 45:08

Awesome. Thank you. Well, I want to I want to wrap up our time on this discussion with just a couple of things. Gonzo alluded to the fact that there's been conversations and prayer, and there always will be discussions happening behind the scenes, if you will, about how do we follow the Spirit's lead. That's what it's about. That's what elders are tasked to do is to follow the head, Jesus, through the work of the Spirit to help the church be the body he's called us to be. And while here at Point Community Church, we are just one piece of the global body of Christ, we're just one local expression of the greater body of Christ. God's given us some specific specific ways that we can utilize the gifts we have to help people know Jesus. And so I would just speak into that. That part of the discussion has been how do we uh communicate who we are to you and then help uh help us grow into that. Um first off, we felt like that it was time to give some clarity to our uh our identity uh statement, and I just want to read this to you. Uh some of you that have been coming for a while, you've heard us say something uh like along these lines. We are a family of Jesus followers, pointing people to life in Christ. You heard that statement? Um, which is absolutely uh what we felt God compelling us to write onto a piece of paper and to communicate because we, again, are first and foremost a people, the family of God as disciples of Jesus before we are actually doing something for him. It's identity that precedes activity. But we felt like what would be really helpful is what do we mean by pointing people to life in Christ? Because that's pretty ambiguous. Like people kind of fill in the blanks. Well, pointing people to Christ looks like this or this or this. And we sense that what God was saying to us is that we are a family of Jesus followers, that hasn't changed, but that we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to make disciples of Jesus in all of life for the glory of God. Now, for some of you that might just sound like a bunch of church words thrown together. But the intentionality is that we want to be this family of people who are being formed into the image of Christ and then helping others be formed to the image of Christ through discipleship, making disciples, which is what Jesus told his disciples to do and what that we can now say we are supposed to be doing. Um, and they're disciples of Jesus. They're not disciples of Point Community Church, they're not disciples of any personality up here, they're disciples of Jesus. That's the goal. That's the hope for all of us in this room is that we would grow to be more and more like Jesus individually and collectively. For for in all of life, because we'd hope that you don't see church as just a Sunday only thing. That's not the biblical definition of the church. That being the church is every part of your life, every aspect of your life, your marriage, your parenting, your work, your singleness, all of your aspects of life. Like Aaron was giving specific examples to, we are the church wherever we go, whether we're gathered, whether we're scattered, we are the people of God. We are the family of God on this mission. And ultimately, we exist for the glory of God, not for our own fame, not for our own little kingdom. Uh that was already said as well, but for the glory of God. So what do we do with this? Where do we go from here? Um, I would just simply say a couple things. One, um, as we think about this quote, restructure, I think is the word Gonzo used, but it's it's it's really asking the question again, how can we, as leaders who've been tasked with shepherding this body, leading, overseeing this body, how can we help you do what God's called you to do? Okay? Now, what typically happens in the church is that you get a leader who hears from God, kind of the Moses thing, right? And then comes down and says, All right, everybody, here's what God's called us to do. Y'all get on board with our plan. All right, guys, uh, we've gone up to the mountain, we've heard from God. Now, everybody, you gotta come serve. I need you guys to get into uh the preschool room, you get in the elementary room, you get in this room. All right, you use those gifts. And we actually even sometimes we squelch people's uh calling by even just plugging them in. We use that language in church. Let's just plug them into a ministry. We actually believe that God is speaking to every one of you by the power of the Holy Spirit, and that He's not only speaking to you, but He's gifted you. And that our job is to actually help support and nurture and encourage and equip, which is what Ephesians 4 says, for you to do the work that God's called you to do. So, anybody been to Home Depot? They have a great phrase there. In the church, we tend to say things like this we can do it and you can help us. But Home Depot says what? You can do it and we can help. That ought to be the focus of the leadership of the church is how do we help you be unleashed for the kingdom of God? Because if the whole goal is to get people into a building on Sunday, that's really short-sighted. And it's unbiblical. See, the goal is that you would take the gospel to every part of your life and that we could help you support you, encourage you, equip you to go and actually do that. For far too long in the United States, we've made it all about a few personalities standing on the stage. Even this this morning, I know it's functionally like how we're having to do it, but this is not the goal. Like, this is not the goal to be a person on the stage. The goal is to embody Christ wherever we go, the work of Christ that God's called us to do individually and collectively by the spirits that He's given, the spiritual gifts that He's given us in every aspect of life. And so specifically, I just read uh this kind of identity statement for Point. The question I have for you today, and some leaders would cringe at even asking this question, but we're not afraid, is are you personally called to be a part of the work at Point Community Church? Are you called to grow in the knowledge of Christ here and help others know Jesus through participating in this family? And when I say participating, again, don't think I mean by just plugging into a kid's ministry or to a worship A B team. Those are all important things that we do for Sunday, but that's one little window of our week. We're saying, do you feel called to participate and use your gifts in all of life alongside of us as we work out our salvation together? My hope is that you would even today, in this moment, and then as you go through your week, ask God, God, would you show me what you've called me to do? I believe God's put it in some of your hearts. I believe He's put in your hearts to really help the marginalized in our community. There's some of you who feel a deep calling to a specific issue, a hurt in our community. Maybe it's the community of the orphans. Maybe it's the community of prostitutes, maybe it's the community of the homeless. I I don't know. But God's put things in your heart. Maybe it's the community of soccer moms. Maybe it's the community, it's not just the poor who need Jesus. In fact, the rich are sometimes farther from Jesus than the poor because we got all of our stuff that gets in the way. But who is God calling you to? Who is God raising up in you a passion for so that you could make sure that they know Jesus that he's life? But some of you, as Tim mentioned earlier, like you're not part of the family yet. The Spirit of God is not in you. You've not even received the salvation that is offered to you. And I guess today, before we leave, I would be amiss to not just say, if you've never received the gift, it is a gift, not something that you earn, the gift of salvation, today's the day. Jesus Christ went to the cross for your sin. He laid down his life so that you could have life. And I would hope and pray that you would receive the gift by faith that Jesus is salvation, that he is the good news, that he is life, and that the Spirit of God would come into you. And as the Spirit of God comes into you, he's gonna awaken your heart and your soul to do what he's called you to do. He's gonna do that. And it's gonna be beautiful and it's gonna be messy. But it's gonna be awesome for God's kingdom, for his purposes. So let's pray. God, I thank you so much again for every person in this room today. And we thank you, thank you, that as we started today, we've talked about Jesus. We didn't initiate this thing, we didn't save ourselves, we didn't start the church, we didn't uh establish uh this religion, uh, we didn't we didn't do any. God, you did these things by your sovereignty, by your grace, by your mercy. You came and interrupted our lives, and you brought salvation and redemption and hope. And so, God, today, the only reason that I stand here as your son is because of your grace, your sovereign grace in my life. And that makes me overwhelmed with gratitude, overwhelmed with a sense of awe. Super humbled, God, that you chose me. And God, I know there's people in this room who feel those same things today. I also know there's some people that are sitting here today that have never actually received the sonship or the daughtership that you desire for them. They've never been adopted into your family because they've resisted you. And I don't know how the mystery of this whole thing works, but I believe even now you're calling people to yourself. And I pray that you would do that in this room right now. And I pray that Point Community Church would be the family of God on your mission to know you and to make you known. Praise in your strong name. Amen.