Lesson 04 - Why Do We Come to Church?

Lesson 04 - Why Do We Come to Church?

Introduction

Welcome back everyone - it seems like we all just saw each other. Oh that’s right, we did - yesterday we had the Amicalola Falls hike and then had a nice dinner together at the Meriwethers.
Getting to spend time together as a group is very important - more important than you may think right offhand.
And that really leads us into what we want to talk about this week - why it is that we come to church at all.
Last week we looked at the concept of individuals and how we’re created in the image of God.

It confirms the value of each individual human life, and by extension, that confirms the value that each of us have.
Our value to God is not dependent on how we look, how successful we are, or where we are in life.
Our value to God is rooted in the fact that we carry his image - because of that we are unbelievably valuable both to him and should be to other people.
God demonstrated how much value we have to him when he sent the Lord Jesus Christ in the middle of the brokenness and distortion in this world

The beauty of the gospel is that our value is not based on ourselves, but rather based on the Lord.
Knowing him is truly knowing what life is - our motivation for living becomes our complete focus on the Lord Jesus and glorifying him in every decision we make and everything we do.

But if you only look at your value individually, we’re missing another important thing - the importance of community.

Our American system uniquely keeps the focus on individuals - think of how much it’s all about what you do as a person.
When in reality, that old saying that no person is an island is true - God has designed us to live the Christian life not on our own, in a monastery, but rather we live it together.
We’re the body of Christ - we’re all connected whether we realize that or not.

So this week, we want to get in the concept of community - living life together and what that looks like.

Basically, why in the world do we do church?

Reasons to Come to Church

Now, we could give a lot of reasons why people come to church, but I’ve assembled just a few for purposes of discussion this morning.

First, and most applicable in this class, is the donuts. Coffee and donuts are very important parts of a Christian experience in life, as evidenced by how often Christians meet at places like Starbucks.

Some churches now openly encourage you to carry your coffee with you into church. Why? There are several theories, but the main one relates to the fact that pastors generally prefer congregations that are awake. One quick and easy way to ensure that this is the case is to have a caffeinated congregation.
Plus, holding that Starbucks cup in your hand, whether it’s actually full of coffee or of tea or some other concoction, gives you an amazing “with it” feeling that will make you more likely to focus on the message, right?
Ok, so as you can probably figure out this is not a good reason to come to church - it’s more like a side benefit.

Second, is the classic one - my parents make me come.

If you wanted to live in my house growing up, there was never a choice in the matter - we were going to church on Sunday morning. And we were going to early service. Not that I ever objected because I was that good kid, but if I had refused, I would have been dragged to church against my will anyway.
Obviously, involuntarily being forced to come to church isn’t exactly the best scenario either.

Third, is another classic - it’s force of habit.

What else would you do on Sunday morning if you didn’t come to church?
I mean, you spent your entire life up to this point making the trip to church each Sunday morning. It’s not like you’re going to get up and watch the weekly political shows on TV (besides, you can catch those on CSPAN later in the day like I used to do - yes, I’m that much of a political nerd, but I’m recovering now).
You’ve got NFL football on Sunday but not until 1:00. So it’s not like you can start that - unless you want to stay in bed until 1:00.
So we just come to church sometimes because it’s what we’re supposed to do on Sunday mornings.

Fourth is another biggie especially in our circles - we come to church to make God happy.

You know, the Bible says to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. It also says lots of other things. But somehow, if we miss church, God is not going to be happy with us this week.

This is the mentality that says I’m going to church to help make sure I don’t get a flat tire, or that I keep my job, or that I get a good grade on that test I have Monday morning.
If I have a test, maybe I’ll make sure I do Sunday morning, Sunday night, and visitation in between just to be sure God is really thrilled with me.

This is an idea we’ve been fighting against since last semester - we’ve been focused on recognizing how flawed this view of the world is and how it doesn’t reflect a gospel understanding of the world.

The gospel tells us that our approval before God is not based on what we do and don’t do. God is not hating us one day and liking us the next based on how well things have gone that day.
Instead, God’s approval of us is based on what Jesus has already done on the cross.
The gospel tells us that our approval is based solely on the sacrifice of Jesus, and nothing we can do can add to that sacrifice.

Now of course there are consequences for our decisions, especially if we choose to walk in sin.
But our underlying motivation in life must be to please God with how we’re living and what we’re doing.

So this view of coming to church to make God happy - can I let you in on a little secret? God doesn’t care one bit whether you’re at church or not.

God is concerned about your heart - and you being here does not make God happier with you than he is right this second.
Take a look at your heart attitude.
Now if you are in a relationship with the Lord, that will be demonstrated by how you live - you will be growing in a relationship with the Lord individually and living in a community with other Christians like we’re going to talk about here in a minute.

Fifth reason people come to church is what other people will think.

I mean, can you imagine the scandal that would happen if you missed a Sunday morning or Sunday night service?

Now, if you’ve got a family vacation, you’re covered, because everyone else from your family won’t be here and word will get around that you’re with your family.
Or if you can send word ahead that you’re at a ministry opportunity, then you also get a pass - I mean, it’s good to be doing ministry, right?

But if you just straight-up missed a service because you overslept, talk about horrors! People may think that you’re backsliding or you don’t care about learning the Bible or that you are some kind of heathen.
Many times we’re far more concerned about what people will think of us than we are about what God will think of us.
If you’re concerned about what people will think, you’ve got your eyes on the wrong prize, and that is not a right reason for coming to church.

So Why Do We Come?

So if it’s not any of those reasons, why in the world does the church even exist? There are some primary reasons from the Bible that we want to unpack, but they all relate to the idea of Christian community.

I’m going to be giving you a lot of different references this morning, focusing primarily on the one-another verses in the New Testament..
Once you are adopted into God’s family as a Christian, you become part of the body of Christ. We’re told that the body of Jesus in this world has a lot of different parts--eyes, hands, legs, feet--but that all of them work for the same purpose - to exalt the head, the Lord Jesus.
But that analogy of “members” of one body means that we all belong to each other and Paul tells us that in Romans 12:5 that each member belongs to the other, in other words, we all belong to each other.
So when we think of a Christian community, or a church, it’s built on the fact that each of us belongs to each other. We stand or fall together - that’s the way God designed it.

John tells us that our loved is tested by how much we love our brothers and sisters in the church - those people that we belong to.
So does Christian community look like?

I’m going to shamelessly steal material from Tim Keller’s study on Community in his Gospel in Life study to walk through several of the “one another” passages this morning with us to understand nine things that make up gospel community.

We’re going to look at nine purposes for why we do church - how God designed for us to live in a community.

Why We Live in Community

So in order to understand living in community, we start with affirming each other - God designed for us to encourage and build each other up.
First, we affirm one another’s strengths, abilities, and gifts

Romans 12:10 - honor one another
James 5:9 - don’t grumble against one another
Romans 12:3-8 - confirm the gifts of one another.
We’re quick to praise each other when things are going well, when we see people working well together, when we see strengths.
We’re also deliberate about this - we all know people who are good encouragers, but it’s something we all should be focused on doing.

So when we see someone growing spiritually - do we see the fruit of the Spirit growing in their life? Affirm them. Tell them.
Do we see people ministering effectively in the church or in outside ministries? If so, affirm them - tell them that.
Notice the sacrifices other people are making to honor the Lord and affirm them in that.

The opposite of affirming each other’s strengths, gifts, and abilities is to grumble, which is exactly what James 5:9 tells us not to do.

If we get exasperated or upset with people, sighing or groaning, then we’re not participating in the community the way God designed for us to do.

So the first reason we do church - to affirm each other in our growth in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Second thing is that we affirm one another’s equal importance in Christ

Romans 15:7 - accept others as Christ has accepted you
I Corinthians 12:25 - have equal concern for one another
I Peter 5:5 - Clothe yourselves with humility
James 2:1 - Don’t show favoritism
We all stand equal at the foot of the cross. Your pastors are not super-Christians, your teacher definitely is not. The new believer who has just come to know Jesus stands just as redeemed at this moment as the person who has known Jesus for years.

So we gather together as Christians to affirm that we all stand equal and are equally important to the work God is doing in this world.

This is also why we don’t make distinctions based on class, income, people group. We stand against racism, classism, favoritism because we all stand equal before God.

And in order to affirm each other’s equal importance in Christ, we intentionally should build relationships with other believers across those cultural and racial and class barriers.
We show the world the fellowship and equality we have in Jesus when we’re intentional about building a gospel reality.

The gospel shatters those divisions that we often try to draw.

Think about whether it’s more important for your friend to be in a relationship with someone who is of the same race, same class, same status regardless of their faith background instead of marrying a Christian of a different race, class, or status, something is wrong.
James 2 talks in detail about how much it violates the gospel for us to show favoritism.

So one crucial purpose of why we do church is to affirm and build relationships that affirm our equal importance in Christ and break down those societal barriers.

Third thing, which can be awkward or can be seen as a license is that we affirm one another through visible affection

Romans 16:16 - greet one another with a holy kiss
James 1:19 - be quick to listen, slow to speak
Ephesians 4:32 - be kind and compassionate to one another
I Thessalonians 3:12 - let your love increase and overflow for one another
Now, this doesn’t mean that you go around kissing everyone you meet at church - don’t get the wrong idea.
But think about what this meant culturally. There was a visible expression, which in their culture was a kiss.

What is it in our culture? Think about a handshake, a hug, a hand on the shoulder - not awkwardly but naturally.
It’s also listening - when someone has a challenge or a problem, we listen to each other and affirm each other that way.
Obviously, this also means we have to be careful not to take advantage of other people’s time, especially if you like to talk. But we should be showing outward love and affection.

We can’t be cold, aloof, clipped, indifferent, or harsh when dealing with our fellow believers.

And more than communicating our affection for each other outwardly, we also have to discuss our affection for each other.

The first three involved affirming each other. The next three involve sharing with each other.
So fourth, we share one another’s space, time, and goods

Romans 12:10 - be devoted to one another in brotherly love
I Peter 4:9 - offer hospitality to one another
Galatians 6:10 - do good as we have opportunity
This really involves doing life together. We get together as a church and we share space, we share time together at youth ministry events and fellowship times, we share goods with each other.

We listen to Alex’s stories together.
We study together, eat together, pray together.
We slide down the hill at the Meriwethers’ together.
We’re sharing life together.

We share practical things like helping each other out, we make meals for each other when someone is sick, we get together and walk together.
So we’re walking through life together, sharing life - and that doesn’t just mean sharing “spiritual” type moments.

There’s also the fact of doing life together and walking through the normal things.
So it’s fine to hang out and talk about school - we’re deepening our walk together, sharing life even if we aren’t necessarily doing a devotional together each time.

Fifth thing is that we share one another’s needs and problems

Galatians 6:2 - bear one another’s burdens
I Thessalonians 5:11 - encourage one another
Hebrews 3:13 - encourage one another daily
We share with others our grief and weaknesses, and we allow them to give us their love and support. We find people who are hurting and minister to them.
Galatians talks about carrying each other’s burdens. What that in essence means is that we should be living in a community where we are helping other people carry loads that are too heavy for them, and we’re letting others help us carry the loads that are too heavy for us.

This is a tough one for me, but it’s hypocrisy for us to help other people in their weaknesses but then hiding our own weaknesses or saying we don’t have any.
It takes a gospel-changed heart to give help unselfishly to others.
It also takes a gospel-changed heart to receive help unashamedly from others.

God designed for us to model the burden-sharing that Jesus did for us when he took the load of sin on himself and carried it when we could never carry it.
So we do life together and share needs and problems to grow together.

Sixth, we share one another’s beliefs, thinking, and spirituality

Colossians 3:16 - each and admonish one another
Ephesians 5:19 - speak to each other with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs
Romans 12:16 - live in harmony with each other
I Corinthians 1:10 - agree with one another
This is where preaching and teaching comes in.

Often, we think of church as just a preaching and teaching time. But it’s only one part of the unity that we should have as a church.
If we’re well-trained, and Pastor TP does an incredible job in teaching us, we become of one mind when it comes to the Bible and the gospel and have a unity of heart - sharing beliefs, thinking, and spirituality.
Challenging and confronting ourselves with the truth of the Bible and the gospel helps us grow.

It also means we work together to grow - we discuss, we challenge, we make reasoned arguments together so that we come to know the Lord in a deeper way with more and more unity of mind.

So we’re affirming each other, we’re sharing with each other. Last areas involve we must serve each other.
Seventh, we serve one another through accountability

James 5:16 - confess your sins to each other and pray for each other
Romans 15:14 - instruct one another
Ephesians 4:25 - speak truthfully
We have to share our problems, but another part of living in community involves walking in accountability.

Now, this is usually only given as a solution for guys struggling with impure thoughts or something like that.
But Scripture is clear that we’re all supposed to be admitting where we’re weak and looking to our Christian friends and Christian community to help us overcome sin.
Some areas - work/life balance, relationships with authority, use of money, sexuality.
All of those should be areas where we are growing in accountability, walking with other believers together.

We work out in community what the Lord is doing in our lives. But in order to have this, we have to be willing to let our Christian friends into our lives deeply enough to see our weaknesses and help us grow into the the likeness of Jesus.

Number eight, we serve one another through forgiveness and reconciliation

Ephesians 4:2 - be completely humble and gentle, be patient
Colossians 3:13 - forgive whatever grievances you have against each other
Galatians 5:26 - don’t provoke or envy each other
James 4:11 - don’t slander each other
Matthew 5:23-24, 18:15 - reestablish broken relationships with one another
It’s our responsibility to reestablish broken relationships in our community.

God holds us responsible for that. We must be reaching out, never giving up on each other, not holding grudges.
Jesus tells us that one of the key ways that the world tells that we’re Christians is by the love we have for each other.

So we don’t let broken relationships hang out without resolving them.

Instead, we focus on growing in forgiveness and reconciliation with each other.
Our community then becomes an example of how life is supposed to be lived instead of the grudges that people hold in the secular world.

Last thing is that we serve one another’s interests rather than your own

Hebrews 10:24 - spur each other on to love and good works
Romans 15:1-2 - don’t please yourself, but please others
Galatians 5:13 - serve each other
Our mindset should always be to put the interests of other people in our community ahead of our own.

It’s having a servant heart. We look for needs, and try to meet them as much as we can.

We don’t exist in community to satisfy our own needs and desires. There are plenty of places to go if you need to be connected with people. You can hang out at a gym or coffee shop if you just want to feel like you belong somewhere.
Instead, we put the needs of others ahead of our own.

But we can still exploit each other - if we gain our own dependency based on people’s dependency on us, then that’s a problem. It’s also a problem if we’re never giving but just taking from the community.
We should be really giving and not becoming co-dependent along the way.
We’re supposed to build each other up, serving each other, owing each other a debt of love.

Sharing love with each other as believers is critical to our walk together.

How This Works Out

So these nine reasons are why we do church. We gather to do these things with each other. We gather to do life together. As we do life together, even in quote “unspiritual” close quote, things, we’re walking together as a body.

We affirm each other, we share with each other, we serve each other.
We follow the example of the Lord Jesus Christ in how he loved us - he affirms us all the time, he shares life with us, he serves us.
And that’s how we live it out.

We’re transparent and honest with each other. We’re not hiding behind a facade that says everything is ok, when in fact everything isn’t.

Now, it’s not easy to create that kind of environment where it’s safe to discuss what’s not ok.
It’s not ok to stay not ok, but it should be ok to not be ok with each other so we can do this together.

Now, if you’re thinking you’re probably wondering where worship comes into all of this?

All of these nine things have worship built in all through.
Worship at its root is turning our hearts and minds to the Lord. Focusing on him, rejoicing in him, thinking of him.
So as we’re doing these things, our eyes should be turned to the Lord and turning to him as our example.
As we do that, we’re living in worshipful approach to life and to the Lord.

So we want to build our lives together in community as a church.

It’s not an easy process, but it’s a process we all can walk through because this is what God designed for us to do as a body.
We grow together, we live together, we minister together.
We’re giving to each other, growing together, and keeping each other accountable.

Now, on Wednesday, we want to unpack more of what living in this kind of community looks like for us here.

Our church does some of these things well, some not so well, and we want to talk about them and how we can grow as a community together.
It’s not easy, we all still have a long way to go, but it’s where we’re called to be as members of the body of Christ.

Let’s close in prayer for this week.