A Place To Belong: Part 1 - What is the Church?
Romans 12:10; 15:7, Galatians 5:13; 6:2, Ephesians 5:21, 1 Thessalonians 5:11
SERMON TRANSCRIPT
We are starting a new series, very excited for this series, called A Place to Belong. And I think that's true for all of us, right? We long for a place to belong in a world that's increasingly disconnected, transient, individualistic. God has given us something that is intentional and beautiful, and that is the church. Not a building, not an event, not a weekly obligation, but a people. So our series, A Place to Belong, is a two-week series exploring what the church truly is, why it matters, and why it's essential for our lives as followers of Jesus. When Jesus said, "I will build my church," he wasn't talking about just a structure, but a spiritual family. And together we're going to look at what the church is and what it isn't, why it's necessary for our growth, why gathering together isn't optional but vital. And in a culture that often asks, "Can't I just follow Jesus on my own?" We'll discover God's design for community, for accountability, worship, mission, and belonging. So next week we're going to bring that conversation even closer to home, as Pastor Chris is going to talk about the mission and vision of Spring Valley Church specifically, who we are and what we value and what life looks like as a committed member of this body. And he's going to talk about why the global church is a beautiful thing. God places us in local contexts. And so what does it mean to not just attend but to truly belong, to serve, to give, to commit, and to build a spiritual family here at Spring Valley? Because again, the church isn't just somewhere you go, it's something you're a part of. We believe God has created a place for you to belong. So you guys ready to dive into the series with me as we kind of step back and take a general view of the church? Yeah? Okay, I saw it. That's good.
We're going to answer three important questions this morning. The first is, what is the church? Second is, why is church necessary? And the third is, what does it look like to belong to a church? And again, this is just going to be for general. I mean, whether you go here or whether you've been going to other churches, this is just for churches across the globe. And we're going to then next week get specific about Spring Valley Church. Let me go ahead and pray one more time and then we'll continue. God, thank you again for our time together this morning. And I pray that you, as you have been this morning preparing our hearts, I pray that we'd be ready to listen now, that our hearts will be able to receive your truth. And God, I pray that we'd be able to maybe just pause on all the other things going on in life, whether they're good, but maybe they're just distracting at the moment. I just pray that you'd help us to be present. And I pray that you would speak through your word. Give me the words to say and how to say them. And I pray that we would all be encouraged and drawn closer to you. We pray this in your name. Amen.
All right. So the first question, what is the church? As I already said, it's not just a building. We call this church and it is church, but that's not all it is. When the Bible talks about church, it's talking about a people, a group of believers. Paul does a lot of explaining about what the church is because he was alive and he was an apostle during the time when the church was just beginning and Jesus had ascended. And so I'm going to be bouncing around a lot of Paul's writings because he does a good definition of explaining to everyone at that time, here's what you guys are. You group and community of believers. This is the church. Here's what you are. Here's what it should look like. So I'm gonna be referencing him. But I want to start by explaining some terms that I think are going to help us.
And the first is the universal church. What we often call, if you've been around Spring Valley for a while, we've said the big C church. That means capital C church. And we don't mean just this church. We mean all the churches that are founded on Christ around the world. That's what we call the universal church. A definition could be all believers in all times and places. So throughout history, from the early church into the future, when we say the universal church, we're talking about every believer of every, over the decades and centuries, thousands of years. This is the universal church. And some things about the big C church that are true is one, the church is united in Christ. It's holy, it's set apart for Christ, and it is the body of Christ. First Corinthians 12 says, "Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all of its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ." He's talking to all the individual believers. We are all part of the body of Christ. And then First Corinthians, Paul also tells us that the church's foundation is built on Jesus Christ himself. The church is the representation of God here on earth. As we are all being formed individually, to be made more like Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit inside of us, we then share his light and his truth and his hope and love to the world around us. The other thing about the universal church, every church that, again, has its foundation in Christ, it began at Pentecost with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. So I just think it's so cool to know that even these local churches, this church has only been around for 20-something years, I think. But we can trace our history from other places on Sunset, where we were, to being planted by Faith Legacy, which used to be called Arcade Wesleyan in Sacramento, to earlier churches in America in the 1700s, to the medieval times, to all the way back to Pentecost. Our church history is tied in with all of that. I think that's beautiful. So that's the universal church, all believers in all times.
Then we're going to get to the local church. So we are a local church here at Spring Valley Church. Local church is all believers in one place and at one time. So it's an expression of the universal church. Our church here in Rocklin is going to look different than the local church in the Czech Republic or the local church in India or even the local church in San Francisco. The local church is an expression of the community that it's in. We might have different songs that we sing, different applications to our sermons, given the circumstances that are surrounding that church and what they're going through, made up of different people, different looking buildings, different emphasis and focuses on Bible passages. But we are still united in Christ, set apart for his purposes and have Christ as our foundation. God created humanity and appreciates the different cultures and tongues around the world. Says so in scripture. And the church is going to be made up of those different cultures and people. And that's a good thing. Another way of saying it is that the local church is the local community of people who have been indwelt by and empowered by the Holy Spirit. So we see examples of the local church primarily in the Bible and just even in the epistles, in the New Testament. A lot of Paul's writings are called Philippians, Colossians, Ephesians. Those are all local churches. The local church in Philippi received the letter of the Philippians. Colossians is written to the local church in Colosia. Ephesians, the local church in Ephesus. Corinthians, the local church in Corinth. So on and so forth. Some of the Bible is addressed to these local churches, each with their unique flavor, not necessarily theologically, but just in the people that make up that church. Some were more diverse and were around port cities. Some were made primarily of Jews. Some were made up primarily of Romans. Others had more upper class. Others had more working class. The local church reflects its local community. The local church is all about glorifying God by carrying out his redemptive mandate in a specific local area. That mandate I'm talking about is Matthew 28 when it says, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." So each local church is trying to do that in their local area. The local church is about serving people, and that work is done by the entire body of believers. Not just a few, it's supposed to be the whole church who is looking to serve others in the church and outside the church. And the local church is equipped by Christ through its church leaders for the purpose of equipping all the saints. Pastor Chris is going to go into that next week in more details. He shares the mission and vision of Spring Valley Church and the mission and vision that God has given him and shared with its leaders. And then we're sharing with you as we equip you for the work that God has given you individually in your life, but also as belonging to this church and the work that we are doing together as a community.
The Bible tells us that the local church is characterized by a few things. Romans 12 10 says, "Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves." So the local church should be about honor and devotion to each other. Romans 15 says, "Accept one another, then just as Christ accepted you in order to bring praise to God." So the local church should be about acceptance of one another. Galatians 5 13 says, "Serve one another humbly in love." And Galatians 6 2 says, "Carry each other's burdens and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ." So the local church should be about admonishing, serving each other and bearing one another's burdens. Ephesians 5 21 says, "Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ." So in the local church, now we're getting a little bit tougher here, we should be submitting to each other in some way, shape or form. And 1 Thessalonians 5 11 says, "Therefore, encourage one another and build each other up." So in the local church, there should be an encouragement and we should be experiencing and partaking in building each other up in Christ. So what the local churches should be characterized as should be known of local churches, there should be true of their community and true of their people. And finally, when it comes to the local church and to the universal church, I just want to mention the two sacraments that Jesus gave us and instructed us to carry out. And these sacraments are the visible signs of an invisible spiritual reality that were given and instructed and that is communion and baptism. So in the church, we practice communion, the Lord's Supper, we share in the Lord's meal and obedience to what Christ told us to do as we gather. And then we also practice baptism with those who are new believers, and we get baptized. Now, we believe that you can take communion in any church, not just here, you don't have to belong, you can only take communion here at this church, you can take communion in other churches. You can be baptized in any church as well if you're a believer, though I think we believe that it's really nice if you belong to this church family that you would practice those things with the people that support you and love you and are walking in life with you. So that's what the church is. This was a huge flyover. We can go into more deeds of all those things, but I only have about 20 minutes this morning. And so we could have spent six months on what the church is, but I just want to remind you that this will be on YouTube and the transcript will be there. And if you want to have further conversation about what the church is or clarify anything, you can find one of us after the service or at that membership class next week, you can stop by and ask your question.
So I know I'm going quickly, but that is what is the church? Next I want to answer why is the church necessary? Why is the church necessary? There's quite a few people these days who might have a personal relationship with God, but don't really want to be involved in church. They may say something like, "I'm not okay with organized religion, but I'm a Christian, I believe." But that isn't quite what God desires or wants. I met a guy over at the park over here one time and he said, "I'm a Christian, I'm a former church goer, and I have my own faith community with my friends." This was after I introduced myself as a pastor, which, you know, we get all these sorts of answers. And he had that down, like that was something he said over and over again. He just had that off the cuff. "I'm a Christian, former church goer, but I have my own faith community with my friends." And it just makes me want to ask more questions. And I didn't really have time to go into it, but I said, "I'm sure there's a story there." He said, "Oh, there's definitely a story there." I said, "Oh, okay." Makes me curious. It's more common now, I'm a Christian, I don't want to go to church, but God wants us to go to church and to belong. And being a Christian technically means you are a part of the universal church. The universal church, again, is the body of Christ. Once you believe and you accept Jesus as your savior, you are a part of the body of believers, the body of Christ. So if you're a part of the universal church, why not be a part of the local church in your area? The purpose of the church, again, is to make visible God's glory. And we do that in primarily two ways, to love God through worship, through prayer, partaking of sacraments, being in obedience with God, by making disciples. The church is how Jesus chose to continue the ministry that he started, to have his believers be together in life, ministering and sharing his truth and his love with the rest of the world. In John 20 and John 17, we hear that from Jesus as he empowers the disciples to say, you are going to continue the work that I have begun. And that is to us today too, as a church. So if we were to parse that out a bit more, I think we see some more specific purposes for the church.
The first one is the advancement of the gospel. While God can work miracles, and there are stories of people in remote places of the earth who have not heard from missionaries or anyone who received dreams and visions of Jesus and come to know and believe in him, and that is amazing. That's incredible. I think the more common route, especially in our context, is by hearing from someone about the gospel, someone sharing with someone else God's word. And that is the purpose of the church. That's why the church is important, is that we are tasked with sharing the gospel to other people. The truth of God will be shared by us. And that can happen in so many different ways. That can be Sunday morning and you invite someone to church and they are here and they hear the gospel message. Or it could be through a Bible study, that someone attends a Bible study and that discussion that's happening around God's word. It can be in outreaches, it can be in men's and women's groups and informal gatherings. It can be in a church setting, it can be something like a VBS, a vacation Bible school, where we invite kids and they are there for a few days and they are going to hear Bible lessons. But the church is about advancing the gospel.
Secondly, the church is important because it's there to make disciples of Jesus. Right after advancing the gospel is to make disciples, make followers of Jesus. And we want to make disciples who make disciples. We want to be leading people to Jesus and then they are with the same heart saying, "Hey, I need other people. There's other people who need the word of God too." Just as the 12 did, the 12 who followed Jesus and they continued the work of Christ and spread the gospel around Jerusalem and beyond. We are to share the gospel with our community, with the people that we have in our life. So the church is about making disciples for Jesus. Again, we are not saying, "Come follow me." We are saying, "Come follow Jesus. I'm following him too. Come join me in following Jesus. We will follow Jesus together.”
Thirdly, the church is important because we are called to be a family of God. So we want to commune with each other, have fellowship with each other, have that community. God created community. And his truth, the gospel, I think this is important to know. His truth is meant to be understood in the context of community. Our culture is such an individualistic culture and it's true that we have a personal relationship with Jesus, but we are also meant to be in community. We are meant to hear God's word in community. We are meant to encourage each other. We are meant to live life alongside other people. It's in this group setting that we are encouraged by others, edified to be more like Christ, where we pray for each other, walk with each other through hardship and difficulty, support each other through crises, and love each other with the love of God. So church is important because we are meant to be a family of God. Church is important.
The fourth reason is to reflect God's glory. As I mentioned, we are a representation of Christ in this world. We just talked about this in our Christian-ish series. We are supposed to abide in him. And as we abide in him, he abides in us. And when we do, and when he abides in us, we reflect his character, his light, his truth, his hope, his love to the world around us. We are that representation of what is true and good, not just individually, but as a church as a whole. We pray that each local church is a light in the darkness, in the chaos, in the confusion and fear of the world.
And fifth is, the church is important because we are continuing Christ's work in us and for others. This goes beyond just making disciples. This speaks to the care that we have for the poor, for the widowed, for those who are treated unjustly, unfairly. We come alongside as a church, we come alongside the broken. We love like Jesus did, those who are in pain, who are hurting, who are alone. We want to have a mind and a heart like Christ, who didn't judge and didn't just say, "Here's what needs to be fixed," but comforted them, walked alongside them, had a meal with them. The church is a place where individually we are refined and transformed and made more like Christ. But it's also a place where together we strive for Christ together. And it's in this group setting as we continue Christ's word that we can better know His truth, we can study God's word, iron sharpening iron, we can care for those who need others, who need love and need someone else to walk with them. So you know what the church is, we know why it's important.
Now what does it look like to belong to a church? Again, these are general, but we see these in Scripture and they are informative for us today and I think transformative for us today. The first one is, what does it look like? Well, it begins with attending, right? You are a part of a church family, which means you got to show up to be with the church family. Your presence matters, you being in church matters. You are missed when you are not here. Church life is not as full when people are not here. Now it's not just attendance, because I think people can attend but not belong, if you know what I mean, right? People can show up but not truly be a part of the church, but it starts with attending. You got to be here at church.
Secondly, connecting with others. That's what it means to belong to a church, is connecting with others. It's a two-way street. We are there for other people and we let other people be there for us. Now some of that is really hard for us. Whichever one, maybe it's easy to be there for others but we don't like to let people in. You say, "Hey, I'll show up, I'll help out, but as soon as we're in a hard time, we kind of disappear. I'll come back when I've figured it out." No, being a part of a church and connecting with others, having that relationship means vulnerability, letting other people in, letting other people care for you, and it requires sacrificial living, doing things and being there for others even when it's not convenient. Even when you may be busy or when you don't get to do that thing that you wanted to do because now someone's asked for your help. That's real relationship. That's what the church should be about, where we connect with others, where we build relationship with people based on Christ's love for us.
So attending, connecting with others, and then belonging to a church means serving with and using your God-given talents. Whatever God has given you, time, talents, resources, how are you using that for his kingdom and in the local church context? Again, whether that's time, talents, or money, but I would say it's not less than money. We serve each other. We use whatever God has given us. We give our time to show that we care. We give our skills because God has given them to us to use for his kingdom, and we give our money as a way to be generous, out of obedience, and as an ongoing way to exercise trust in God. So what do you have? What has God given you? And it may change. Maybe at one season of life you have a lot of time, and maybe you're called to be involved with the church. Maybe in another season you're really busy, but God's blessed you with some finances and you say, "Hey, I'm going to give a bit more during this time." Or maybe God's given you some kind of talent skill that the church can use, and you can offer that and say, "Hey, I want to do this for the church." Then lastly, I want to say that belonging to a church means caring for one another. This just goes beyond connecting. It's actively looking out for one another, and we love that that happens so organically in a small church. When you know each other's lives, when you know what's going on, and when something arises, you can say, "Hey, I heard this, and I want to be there for you. I want to cook this meal for you. I want to show up. I'm going to mow your lawn for you," whatever it is. Pastor Chris is going to share more of this next week, I think, but we have a care team here who checks in with people. Whether we hear something or when we just haven't seen you for a while, you might get a call and say, "Hey, how are you doing? You just want to make sure everything's okay. Is there anything we can be praying for?" But it's actively looking out for one another. Part of caring for one another is also providing encouragement. Through word or deed or by the Holy Spirit, we want to encourage one another to follow God in whatever situation we are in. That may be by providing answers and conversation, or it may just mean praying for each other. Say, "Hey, I heard this, and they're not ready to hear anything right now, but I'm just going to be praying for them." Or it may mean, "Hey, I know this person. I know what they're going through, and I'm going to invite them out to coffee because I think we need to talk it out. I think they need someone to listen to them, or maybe they need to hear some encouragement right now." But we're actively trying to do that. Lastly, the thing about caring for one another is welcoming new people. Again, if the church is doing what the church is supposed to do, we're going to be seeing new people in the church, receiving Christ and starting their faith journey, or returning to church, maybe after years of not walking with God. We are here to welcome them in, back to the family of God. You're here to welcome them, not to judge, not to be gatekeepers of the truth or our community. We are here to welcome people, just as Jesus welcomed people.
So I would say belonging to a church looks like these things. You're attending, you're connecting with others, you're serving the church and giving to the church, and you're caring for one another. Now, given all those things, I want to ask, do you belong here at Spring Valley Church? Do you feel like you are doing those things and this is the place that you belong? Or do you sense, "I'm not doing all these things, and I want to belong, and here's a couple more things now that I can do, that I can improve, that I can work on." I want all of you to pull out your programs, as Lauren mentioned. If you've been here for a while, you might have noticed that we changed a couple of things down here. There's something new. And I want to point this out to you. Now there's a little section that kind of pertains to today. It says, "Sign me up for membership class on March 22nd." If you're not yet a member here at Spring Valley, but you're hearing what church is, and what it means to belong to a church, and you want to belong to Spring Valley Church, I would encourage you to write your name, contact information, and check that box. I am signing up for membership class. If you're here, and you're still wondering, and you've got questions, like, "I've heard this, I've understood what the church is, but I have some more questions," I'd still encourage you to write your name down, attend the class. The class next week is not a, "I'm for sure becoming a member." So don't worry, there's no pressure there. But just, it's time to ask questions, to clarify anything, for us to explain some more things. So I'd still encourage you to attend. There's going to be a bucket in the back, and at the end of the service, when we dismiss, I want you guys to drop those in there. Even if you've been attending church a long time, I'd still encourage you. This is a chance to, again, we've had local churches, but we're going to talk next week about Spring Valley Church specifically, and so I'd love for you guys to be there to hear specifically what God is doing at this church. All right, I know that was, you have your tear-off sheets, I hope I, did I hear some of this, did I hear this happening right here? Did you guys do this yet? Oh, okay, yeah, okay, I heard one. Great, there we go. I know that was a lot, and hopefully some of it was familiar, hopefully some of it might have been new, or a good reminder of why the church exists, and hopefully it's guiding you closer to why, just going week after week, again, not out of obligation, but because you belong to a family, a church family, and that is such a good thing. And again, the sermon will be posted online, if anything, if I went too fast over anything, feel free to go back.
Lastly, I just want to put this in front of you, something that we're trying to stress more is how we can be more intentional, be mindful of those who need Jesus in your life. So who in your life could benefit from being a part of a local church? Who in your life needs to hear the truth, needs to be encouraged, needs to connect with warm and loving people who love God? Who do you know that you can reflect God's glory to? And if some names are coming to mind, good, if you don't have anyone, and everyone in your life is a Christian, praise God for that, but I think it's time to pray that you meet some new people. And I think it's time to pray for a new opportunity, say, "God, bring someone in my life that I can be a Christian to, that I can witness to." But if you don't, if you have names swirling in your head, that's good, I want you to bring out, there should have been a card on your screen, I'm having you fill out a lot this morning, that's a good thing. There's a card that's the Easter service invitation card. And if you have a name that is on your mind, on your heart, I want you to write that down on the top and on the bottom. The top is for you, you keep that section and you're going to put that somewhere in your wallet, your purse, your car, your Bible, somewhere where you're going to see and say, "That's right, when I see, I'm supposed to be looking for an opportunity to invite this person to Easter service." So do that. And then you're going to write the same name on the bottom, you're going to put it in the bucket, and we're going to pray for you. And we're going to be praying for these names. We don't know who belongs to who, we're just going to be praying, "Hey, for this person, we pray that whoever is in their life that knows Jesus, they're going to invite this person to Easter service." So we're going to partner with you in praying for people to come to a church service.
And the great thing about this, about praying about an opportunity, is you guys do not have to be super confident in that moment. It's okay to be nervous, it's okay to just have a little anxiety over it, but I want to tell you this, it does not depend on you. Their relationship with God, their attendance, and what they do with church does not depend on you. I know for some people it takes a while, it takes multiple invites to say, "You know what? I'm going to go." And so you might be the first invite, and you might get rejected, and that's okay. You're priming the pump and making them think about church, and making them think about God. And God is doing so much work that we cannot see in their hearts. Now you also might be the invite that they say yes to. And so just know that, be at peace, pray about it, and say, "God, give me the words to say and help me to be okay as I invite this person to church." But I want you to pull that card out, fill that out, and drop it in the bucket in the back. And if you are, have already done it, do it again. We want to keep seeing those names, okay? If you're like, "Hey, I did this two weeks ago." That's okay, still do it, fill it out, drop it in the back. Well, I'm looking forward to next week, I'm looking forward to what God is going to do in the series in our church, and what he's going to do on Easter and beyond. So looking forward to next week as Pastor Chris is going to share more about the mission and vision of Spring Valley. Hope you guys will join us for that. And again, stay after for that membership class right after.
So just pray with me this morning. God, thank you again for your word. Thank you for the church that you have given us. It is a gift that we have people that we can walk through life with, that we have a community that we can share in our belief in, and have common faith in you that you are the thing that unites us, that gives us life, that gives us love and grace to have on other people. God, thank you for how the church can support each other. I know that so many in this room feel the love from other people in this room who have gone through a hard time and other people in this church have prayed for them, have supported them, walked alongside them. God, I pray for those of us who are in a time right now, you would help us to be vulnerable and say, "Church, I need you." God, I pray that you would help those of us who have the capacity to be there for other people to live with the sacrificial love that says, "You know what? I was going to do this, but I'm going to go be there for this person. I'm going to show up." And God, I pray that you would put on all of our hearts an understanding of how important and vital it is to belong to a church. And I pray that you would help us in our belonging here at Spring Valley Church. Give you all the glory and all the praise. We pray this in your son's name. Amen.