What Is the Church?: full transcript and answers

▶ 0:01 1 Peter 2:9, “Who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” He’s called you more than just gathering. He’s called us out of darkness. he The church is a people that’s called out of sin and to his light, and the light exposes us. How do we know? With these lights on you can see things. I can see Christina, she’s got a stain on her jacket. Just kidding. And people, the Bible says that people don’t like the light because it exposes them. That’s right. That God has called us out of darkness, I mean, these scriptures make it plain. You can’t live your life as a Christian thinking that you you can stay in darkness. No way.

▶ 0:47 Why are the churches in China risking their lives, risking prison, to gather? The unofficial church. Mr. Kincer, our pastor, is over there right now cuz he wants to see what’s happening, he wants to be a part. You know, those people are are putting their lives on the line just to gather. You know, they could all stay home. They’re not taking the excuse, “I’m just going to stay home and live for Jesus.” They’re putting everything on the line together. And why? Is it ignorance because they’re just ignorant people? No, they have something inside of them that wants to gather with God’s people, and we should have that same desire in America. It’s scriptural, it’s important.

▶ 1:37 The church has a foundation, and I’ll tell you why this is important. And we’re going to go back to the verse that we talked about, Matthew 16:18, and he says, “Thou art Peter.” Now Peter, the word means piece of a rock, “and upon this rock.” This rock, you know, nonverbal communication is so helpful. You know, if we had a video of Jesus and Peter talking, it would be very helpful, you know, because this is what Jesus would be doing. Okay, say I’m Jesus and Peter’s standing here, “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock,” that’s what he’s saying. You know, I’ve read the scripture several times and you always think he’s talking about Peter. No, he’s talking about himself. He’s going to build the church on himself. And we know that’s true in 1 Corinthians 3:11, it says, “For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ.” He is the rock. He didn’t say which is Peter, which is John, which is James. he said He didn’t say the apostles. He said the foundation is Jesus Christ. He’s building the church on himself. In Isaiah 28:16 it says, “I lay in Zion, I lay...”

▶ 3:01 And you read right through that, but he’s saying, “I’m laying down in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation.” And how many know, when when you build a building you better have a good foundation. And I’m going to give you an example of that. When I went to college and I started taking some science classes, you know, Jordan knows what I’m talking about, when you go in that you go to that class, one of the first things they tell you is, all this information here is, they they they would tell me a special word, they wrote on the board, they said “falsifiable.” Everything we teach you is falsifiable, meaning it can be proven wrong. Now, how many of you want to live your life and base your life’s choices and base the way that you’re living on a fifi falsifiable philosophy? No way. You want to spend your life 60 years finding out when you’re 80 years old that it didn’t work? No. I need a sure foundation, I need a sure answer, and Jesus Christ is the sure answer.

▶ 4:12 People try to build their lives on their own philosophies. “I can live the way I want, I can do something as long as I don’t Hur you know I can do this as long as I don’t hurt somebody.” We have our own philosophies, but Jesus’s philosophy is the foundation. Jesus is the rock. No matter how many generations come and go, Jesus is always the same, no matter what. His word is never changed. That’s why it’s a sure foundation. It hasn’t been changing since 2,000 years. you It hasn’t changed, the word has stayed the same. It’s good.

▶ 5:00 That’s our foundation, Jesus Christ. And we have an enemy. It goes on to say that the gates of hell shall not provoke shall not prevail against it. And the gates, as we know, you put up gates or a wall as a defense, and it’s an entryway also. And the entryway to hell is sin. We know that if you want to get into hell, there’s a way get in, no problem: sin. And you know, the the first level of hell, when you look at it, it’s not like it’s black and dark and scary. No, hell doesn’t look bad. You look at the level of hell and it’s like, “Wow, they’re having a good time.” You know, hell looks good, sin looks good, the alcohol and the drugs, they all look good, the the sexual immorality, it looks good and it feels good. But you don’t know that there’s a second level under there, and you don’t know that the third level bottoms out, and the only thing under it is the lake of fire.

▶ 6:06 Gates are defense, because the church is... we should be attacking the gates of hell. We don’t want them reaching our young people, we don’t want them reaching our generation, we don’t want them overtaking America. Like we learned last week, some of us Americans are sick and we need healing. We’re sick, we need we need a spiritual medicine. We’ve been overcome by doctrines that people have taught us that sin is okay, and it’s not. We’ve got to get back on the right track.

▶ 6:46 Now, the next two things are very important, something that you don’t really think about ever. and In Ephesians 3:10, first he says “now,” so that means today today, right now, at the church, and if you follow this along, he said he says “unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church.” Okay, so the principalities and powers of dark darkness are going to learn something from the church, the manifold wisdom of God. You see, the church is teaching heavenly beings, principalities and powers, both the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light, they’re learning something from the church. Come on. God looks at you differently. God, Jesus Christ created you for more than what you think. You show heavenly beings what’s up. You teach them. They don’t... this is important.

▶ 8:08 1 Peter 1:12 it says that the angels desired, they longed to see what God was doing in the early church. They long to see, you know they’ be they you know, they can see everything in the spirit. When they walk by this church, you know, they want to see, they want to see the praises going up, they want to to see God doing something amazing. They wanted to see what God is doing in the church. You know, Jesus Christ created his church to teach his angels, to teach the kingdom of darkness, his manifold wisdom, everything about him. Us. And sometimes we don’t feel that way, sometimes we feel like so small, but God, you are more, and we got to act like it.

▶ 8:59 Do we know God’s wisdom? Do we have God’s wisdom? Are we seeking for God’s wisdom, or do we just gather because it says to gather? There’s more than just coming here. Amen. Matthew 28:19, “Go ye therefore and teach all nations,” or other version say “make disciples.” those two Those two things are important. We’re not just going out there to make believers, we’re going out there to make disciples, people that are following Jesus. It says teach all nations. You know, the church, we have the responsibility. God God looks at you and says you can do it, not Mr. Kincer. We all look at this [unclear] say, “Hey, you can teach people.”

▶ 9:53 Now, it’s not easy to come up here on Sundays. You know, when Christina has to speak, it’s difficult. And we all, we all we got to rise up to the occasion. Maybe you can’t speak up here and say, but you can speak to your brethren, you can speak to someone in the world. We can do it. God gives us the tools. Paul said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Not just talking about oh making the hockey goal. Talking about being able to tell someone about Christ, being able to teach someone, be able to have the wisdom wis of God. You know, there’s more. Amen. You know, if I come across like yelling at you, you know, I’m I’m just trying to show you this morning through God’s word how important we are, how important God sees us, how much room we have to to grow, and how much there’s just so much You know, and I’m not trying to say that you guys are lacking. No, no, I’m just saying there’s so much more that we can have in Christ as the church.

▶ 11:12 In Matthew 18:17 it says, “If he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church.” Now, it’s talking about someone who offended someone in the church, and you first, you go and talk to them. Next thing is, you if they refuse to listen, you go and get someone and you talk with them, and you have a, you know, a three-party discussion. And then if they don’t listen, then you bring it before the church. And you see, Jesus Christ isn’t saying that you need to take it to the judge in a court. He’s not saying you need to take it somewhere outside. He’s saying the church is so powerful and so important that they can make judgments. He’s looking at you and he’s saying that you can make judgments.

▶ 12:00 And we’ve heard so many times, you know, “Don’t judge,” “Judge not, lest you be judged.” I’m going to show you like four scriptures that are just powerful here. Now, Jesus said this. It wasn’t some apostle, and I’m just saying that because this is red letter stuff. This is Jesus Christ. He’s saying bring him before the church. He’s saying the church, the church can judge this kind of thing. Jesus gives us that position. 1 Corinthians 6:2, “Do you not know that the saints shall judge the world?” The saints, not talking about St. Peter and St. James, talking about us. He’s talking about his church, his people. We are going to judge the world. And some people say to us, “You can’t judge,” and, “You can’t, you know, we’re not allowed to judge.” Right judgment. One day we’re going to judge the whole world, and you you’re telling me we can’t do what’s right now? We can’t judge now? Come on. 1 Corinthians 6:3, “Know you not that you shall judge angels?” Not just the world, but also angels.

▶ 13:20 “How much more things that pertain to this life,” saying that we need to judge things in this life, not just a angels, but now we need to make right judgments. Now, another scripture says “judge righteous judgment.” We’ve got to judge rightly. And I’m just showing you through the scriptures that, you know, we may have heard things, or we may have beliefs or doctrines, but when you bring them before the scriptures, the scriptures say something else. “Is there not one wise among you?” You know, he’s implying here there should be more than just one person in this church. I’m using Mr. Kincer a lot cuz he’s not here. You know, I get to use him a lot. But you know, we know that he has wisdom, and he shouldn’t be the only one in this church that has wisdom. You know, all of us can have wisdom, all of us can have the manifold wisdom of God. You know, and Paul is telling this church, “Is there not one wise among you?” Come on, that we can have it.

▶ 14:31 The church as the body. Last week we learned when Saul was on the road to Damascus and Jesus stopped him and he said, “Why are you persecuting me?” And in Matthew 25 it says he goes on to say, “For I was sick, I was thirsty, I was hungry,” and he’s saying right there, there is no separation between me and God’s people. people And you know, that’s like I said before, when I came in here after reading these scriptures, you know, how are we treating God’s people? are we We need to treat them the way we treat Jesus Christ. We should be treating our W our our spouses the way that we treat Jesus Christ. We should come in here to our brethren with love, with respect, with kindness, with patience.

▶ 15:29 When you talk to Jesus, you talk to him with with with humbleness, right? You know, you don’t come up and slap in the face. And what you what do you do? What do you think? You know, super uh you just don’t, you don’t hold anything back when you make a critical statement, you just beat them to a pole. That’s not the way we should do it. That’s not the way you would talk to Jesus. When you talk to Jesus you would think before you speak. Amen.

▶ 16:12 Hebrews 12:22, “You have come into Mount Zion, the city of God, to an innumerable host of angels.” Revelations 2:1 it says, “I write to the angel of the church of Ephesus.” How many... you know, he’s writing to the angel of the church of Mountainside this morning. You know, we have an angel, it’s the real deal. There’s an angel in this church. There’s an angel, and it says there’s innumerable host of angels. We can have more than one angel, and we need to send our angel up to God and pour out those praises to God. We need to load that angel up. Yes. We have an angel, it’s the real deal.

▶ 17:05 You know, sometimes we feel God’s presence in this church. Sometimes we feel, we hear God speak, and how many know that’s the angel speaking to us? That’s the angel, you know, revealing God’s presence to us. But how many know I want God here? How many remember that statement, “God, step down”? You know, I want to irritate our angel so much that he goes up to God and he brings God down here and God steps down. You know, and that’s what was happening, that’s what’s happening in China. These people are spending hours seeking God till they irritate him so much that he comes and steps down, and God is moving all over those people. He’s transforming their lives. You know, these guys that were just complete sinners, complete, they, you know, they’re having sex with prostitutes, they they just, there’s there’s no sin they don’t partake of. God comes to them, touches them and transforms their life, turns them around, these Chinese people. God stepped down. We want God to step down. I want God to step down.

▶ 18:33 And the church, when we come together, we got to we got to blow that praise up. You know, when when I just is praising by myself, or Christina is just praising by herself, you know, how many know it’s different when you got 200 voices screaming within one? We need to get God’s attention.

▶ 19:04 1 Timothy 3, verses 12-14. The church, the people in the church, those that have been in church a long time, we should be showing the qualities of Jesus Christ. And in Second Timothy it talks about those qualities. The world, when they look at the church, they look at some bad examples of the church. They see see uh priests that are committing things that are wrong, and I’m not harping on that on the Catholic Church, but I’m harping on the things they’re doing wrong, and the Protestant leaders are doing things that are wrong. When they look at the church they should see the blameless qualities of good behavior. Hospitable, someone who, you know, opens their home up to people, opens their home up to the brethren. Is kind, you know, a servant. Somebody that’s hospitable is waiting on you. It’s almost like they’re waiting on you. You go in their house, “Can I get you something? can Would you like...?” How many know it’s great to be offered something when you walk into somebody’s house, and they say, you’re sitting there, you’re thirsty, you’re hungry, and you got to say, “Uh, can I have a glass of water?” Oh no. It’s nice to be served. And you know what I’m saying, for someone to extend their hand out to you, the same way in marriage, the same way in friendship, the same way with the brethren.

▶ 20:44 Not greedy. Able to teach. You know, these are things that we should shoot for. I’m just showing this this stuff so we know what to shoot for. We can shoot for more where we at right now. And how I know, I know I beat myself up all the time: “I’m not reaching these goals. God, I can never do that.” No, no, no, we can do it. You know, we don’t get somewhere. You don’t pop yourself in the microwave and you come out super Christian. Okay, it’s line upon line, it’s precept We know that here there, here a little, there a little. God is transforming you. Amen. Amen. You know, God set this up for a reason. You know, I really don’t like it sometimes. I really just like to get saved and just beat, pop, you’re a great Christian, you can handle all these things, I got them, I got everything. But God, just he likes to take time to get rid of things. It take time for you to change, and it’s just...

▶ 21:55 Ah, you know, we can’t come in this church church and rail on each other because we’re at a certain place, and you can’t use that as an excuse to stay where you’re at. But come on, we got to love one another where where each other are at. Not greedy, patient. Not covetous, patient, patient. Man, we could use patience. Amen. One that rules his own house well, and this is important. When I looked up the word here, “having his children in subjection with all gravity,” King James, and I looked at that word, I’m like, “What is he talking about?” You know, and I looked up the English word for this, and it’s a word I’ve never heard before. And when I looked it up, he’s talking about a father or a parent, a mother, someone who commands respect because of their character, because of their dignity, because of the virtue that is inside of them. You know, this is talking about a bishop or or a an elder, someone that the church looks up to. You know, we should all be having these goals to be like this. We should all, as parents, you know, not demanding your the respect using your voice, but demanding respect because you are living a life that is so dignified, so you have such character.

▶ 23:31 And as a young person, the character of my father, the character of my mother, is what really demanded my respect for them. I had such respect for them. You know, my dad would go out and he would go work, he’d kill himself working for us, and he’ come back, and when he was out with his co-workers, they’d all be, part you know, they’re all in Mexico and they’re all in places, they’re all doing things that are wrong, and he would tell me I had to stay in my my room. And when I heard that, your your heart just says, “Wow, this man is character.” And my whole life I remember that he demanded my respect because he was a man of character. And it’s the same way as parents, you don’t demand respect because you’re pushing everybody around. That’s not love, demanding your own way. You demand it because of your character and the way you are. That scripture is powerful. Amen. Amen.

▶ 24:49 Having a good report with people outside. You know, a lot of us have jobs out in other cities and other places. We all have jobs and we work in this world, and you know, just because we’re not in church doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t have a good report with people. When I go to work and I talk to people at work, you know, I should be known as a hardworking person, I should be known as someone who’s got his act together, I should be known as someone who is a Christian that lives the same way at work that I do at church. Having a good report. Amen. These are qualities of the church. We got to be examples. This world is looking for examples. This world is looking for a light, and we got to shine.

▶ 25:48 Ministering. The church, when we come to church we’ve got to understand that we are responsible to do some things. In Acts 2:46, continuing “Continuing daily with one accord in the temple.” You know, back then they were all doing the same thing. When it was time to pray, they all prayed. When it was time to lift up their voice, they all praise, praising God and having favor with all people. Some people say to me, “I don’t know what the point is of praise. You know Why do I have to do it?” Cuz we’re the church, that’s what we do. We assemble not just to get in one place, we assemble to praise and lift up the name of Jesus Christ with one accord. Corinthians says, you know, that people would come in and see everybody doing the same thing and be pricked in their heart. We want people to change, we’ve got to, with one accord, lift up Jesus. You know, we’ve got we’ve got young ones that come in here, children, we’ve got teenagers, we’ve got adults that have never heard of Christ. They need to see the church lifting up Jesus Christ.

▶ 27:12 Acts 12:5, “Peter therefore was kept in prison, but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.” We need to be a praying church. Jesus says, “My house is a house of prayer.” That’s what the church is for. You know, I’m just giving, and there’s more. When we end the day, there’s still more that the church should do. We just, as as church members, we got to come in here with a different attitude, with a different perspective, with a different set of goals in mind. It’s not about just getting here, there’s more. And again, I’m not trying to slap you in the face, I’m just saying you’ve got so much more to that you can have.

▶ 28:00 Acts 13:1, “As they ministered to the Lord and fasted.” Oh, they ministered to God. I mean, I’m going to say it again. We, people in the church, we come in here thinking that we are here to get something from God, when God is looking at us and he’s saying, “You guys minister to me,” not because he needs it, not because, you know, he’s proud and and and greedy, no. he’s He wants you to minister to him because he knows what happens to you when you minister to him. And some people say, “Where does it say to fast in the Bible?” Here we go: “and fasted.” They didn’t eat. You know, I I’m just showing you some more things that the church does.

▶ 28:52 And this is very important. Hebrews 2:12, “For he says, I will declare your father’s name.” Now, hold on. This scripture is a Psalm. It’s in the Psalms, you can read it in the Psalms, but when you read it, if you don’t be careful and know who you’re talking about, you’re going to think that it’s David talking about God. Now, if you read it right, he says, “For he says, I will declare your the father’s name to my brethren.” Now, this is a conversation between Jesus and God. He’s saying, “I will declare your name to my brethren,” and it goes on to say, “in the midst of the congregation I will sing hymns of praise to you.” Jesus is talking and saying, “I will sing hymns of praise to you.” when There’s got to be a transition. We start out with the sacrifice of praise, but if we continue, as we continue to live up his name, Jesus comes, Christ in you comes, and he begins to praise and lift up his father in heaven. And that’s what we want happening, a transition. And why do we want that? Because God begins to transform you when that happens. We don’t come in here just to say nice words to the air. We come in here to be changed by the power of Jesus Christ, because he’s in us and he wants to lift up God, and when he gets an opportunity to do something in us, he’s transforming us.

▶ 30:43 You know, we’d rather meet a famous person, we’d rather talk to a famous person, we’d rather go do something or have a, Rel “That’s my friend,” you know, that famous basketball player, that famous singer. “I know this, you know, I tweeted them and they tweeted me back. You know, I’ve talked to them before.” You know, we have an opportunity for Jesus to be inside of us, and not only inside of us, but doing something powerful through us. Fooey on the famous people, Jesus is the famous one. Like the Psalm says.

▶ 31:32 Romans 16:1-2, “I commend unto you Phoebe our sister.” And I bring this up because we this is a good example of where a woman was put in charge, and Paul said, “Receive her in the Lord as becometh saints.” You know, receive her in the Lord, as the way you would treat treat me as a saint, the way you would treat me. You talk to her, you don’t talk to her down, you don’t talk to her condescendingly, you talk to her right, you talk to her with patience and kindness. And amen, you didn’t say talk to her like she’s a woman. Talk to her with love, talk to her with respect, “as becometh saints. Assist her in whatever business she have need of you.” You know, just because you’re a woman doesn’t mean you get to be in charge, but just because you’re a woman doesn’t mean that you can’t, get you know, be sent by Paul. it It happened back there, and in other cases as well. “A sister, or whatever business she,” you know, maybe we don’t want to be in, maybe you can’t, you know, maybe you’re not someone who’s super Christian. Okay, maybe you’re someone that’s still being transformed, but you can help, and you can assist the people that are in charge, like Christina, like Mr. Kincer, like Mr. Barnes, and these people that are working and trying to get things done. Mr. Tavis, you know, he’s out there bringing these kids in, taking them home, he’s got to watch 20 of them, 30 of them at a time, and they’re all screaming and shouting at him, they’re all telling him, “No, no, no.” He needs some assistance. People here, we need assistance, and we all can put our hand in, help.

▶ 33:37 You know, we have two young people that are here to help my wife with the horses today. that you know Thank you. They’re here to assist. That’s good. And like I said, this is not sum up the church, there’s more. The Bible says that we are the light of the world, we are the salt of the earth. You can just go on and on and on. We’re the joy of the whole earth. You know, we walk in here, we’re supposed to have some joy in our hearts. Why? Because we know Jesus, because we met him throughout the week. We’ve got him inside of Christ in you. We’ve got joy. We’re the salt of the earth. When we go out to the world, and the people are living their life, lives for nothing, they’re going to die and they have no concept of Christ, in the church, you know, we’re the salts of the earth, we provide some flavor. “Oh, I didn’t know I was supposed to be living for Christ.” Amen.

▶ 34:48 We a royal priesthood, a chosen generation, just on and on. We’re an army. Like I read this morning, Jesus said, what did Jesus say? He said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight for me.” We are his servants and we fight for Jesus Christ. We are his army, we are his people, we fight for his word, we fight for truth, we fight. He said unto them, “I bear witness of the truth.” And Pilate said, “What is truth?” It mocked him. But we’re more. The church is more. Everybody say, “The church is more.” “Church is more.”

▶ 35:41 Philippians 3:8, “Doubtless I count all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung,” poop, potty. “I count it all rubbish, worthless.” You know, there’s going to come a day in your Christian walk where the things that you didn’t want to give up for Christ, the time that you didn’t want to give up, the the time it takes to to read God’s word, the discipline it takes, the discipline that you didn’t want to give up, there’s going to come a time where, when you transform, when when you decide to give up those things, you’re going to look back on it and it’s going to be rubbish. Dung, “that you might win Christ.” See, that’s the goal. We want to win Christ, the glory of God.

▶ 36:54 Philippians 3:10, he goes on to say, “That I may know him and the power of his resurrection.” That I might know Jesus Christ. Church, we our goal is to know Jesus, and we don’t have to wait till we die and go to heaven. You see, the the the story of Jesus and his bride implies that you have to wait to be married to him before you can know him, but Jesus is saying, you can commit to you to me now, you can know me now.