A Place To Belong: Part 2

A Place To Belong: Part 2 - What does it mean to Belong?

1 Corinthians 10:31, Ephesians 1:12, Isaiah 43:7, Matthew 28:18-20

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

I'm excited today. We're going to be wrapping up our series called A Place to belong. And the main part of the series is to really explain what the church is, why we exist, and why we, Spring Valley, why are we here? What are we doing? What's the thing we got going on here? And so Pastor Andre last week, he kicked us off and asking why the church. And he went into detail. He talked about the universal church, which is more like the greater church. If you were to kind of take a zoom back from the area, you see all the different neighborhood churches and all the churches around the globe and around the world, they are all a part of what we call the universal church. And then you have the local church, which would be us here. Spring Valley Church is the local church. And so he answered the question of why is the church even necessary? It's just really good questions. And the church is necessary for the advancement of the gospel. It's to make disciples, to be in the family of God, is to reflect God's glory and to continue Christ's work that he began when he was here on earth. And so then what does it look like to belong to a church? And he gave us four good reasons of why to belong to a church. And it is to attend, is to connect with others, is to serve and use what God has given us, and then is to care for one another.

And so today, we're going to continue in the same light and to walk through some of these questions of why the church or why to belong to the church. And I've been asked from time to time as a pastor and conversations I've had with different people of what church should I attend? Well, I love to tell them you should come to Spring Valley Church. A little bias there. I love this place, but I have probably like five different things I like to tell them every single time. And when people are looking for churches, especially if someone in our church we love and we care for and their job is maybe taking them somewhere and they're moving somewhere else, they have a question of, Pastor, how am I going to find a church like Spring Valley? What does that look like? So I have a couple things. I always tell them, I tell them, find a church that preaches the gospel. Find the church that preaches the gospel. And I mean the whole gospel, all of it, the whole thing, the whole Bible, that sermons come from Scripture and the gospel of Jesus Christ and that Jesus himself is central. Because if you were to go maybe to a church and to attend and you hear a whole sermon and a whole teaching and the word Jesus is never mentioned, I would argue to say that you probably just went to a TED Talk. And I'm sorry to say that and maybe call out some of my peers and other pastors, but that's the reality, that if we don't share the gospel of Jesus every single week, then we're just giving TED Talks every week. And there's plenty of those on YouTube for you to watch whenever you want to. But the church should preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Number two, I pray and I hope that we are this, but that we are warm and friendly. I think a church that you should attend should be welcoming, should be hospitable, to live in a way that we have been transformed, right? If Jesus comes into our life and transforms us, we should live that out. There's a big fancy word for that term with this that would be called sanctification. It's an idea of every single day is an opportunity to live more like Jesus. And as we live like that, we should treat other people in the same way. And so when people come in, when people are here, a part of our church, I pray that it's friendly and warm.

I think the members should be spirit-filled. Those who are part of the church, I think there should be what we have been talking about lately, abiding and being part of the vine and seeing spiritual fruit. There should be some essence of feeling that there is something here that the Holy Spirit is doing. People should reflect things of God like his love and his care, his grace, his mercy, which also ties in again with the whole being hospitable and welcoming. I think what we members of a church should be concerned about what God is concerned about. There are things in life that God really cares about. And sometimes the church is silent on that and it breaks my heart. And I think we need to be bolder in our faith to speak into those things. And I think that people that we have been transformed, we are continuing to be transformed through the power of the Holy Spirit.

I think the church should emphasize missions, not only local, but around the globe and around the world, that we can focus on the kingdom of God outside these four walls that we call Spring Valley Church. And we're going to be doing a series in May. I've been having Zoom calls with some of our missionaries, and we're getting to hear some stories from them. And so we're going to be doing a series after Easter that we're going to be able to share some of the stories of what God is doing through them around the world. It's some really cool stuff. I can't wait to share it with you guys.

And I think the final thing that a church should be, it should be evangelical and doctrine. There's some really big churchy terms. Let me break that down for you. There should be a strong emphasis on a personal decision to commit your life to Jesus. There should be a push and a regular calling of those who come in here because the reality is sometimes it's easy to go, well, I've been in church my whole life. That's great. But have you made a decision for Jesus? Sometimes we can attend and be a part of a church for a really long time have Jesus. But the reality is we actually haven't made that decision. And so sometimes I get asked, and we here at Spring Valley will regularly present the gospel and I'll get people who say, pastor, why are we doing it? Everybody here is Christian. Everybody here has been coming to church for five, 10 years. I was like, you don't know, man. You know what God's doing in their lives. You don't know where they're at. I'm glad they've been faithfully attending here and a part of the family, but maybe they never made the decision. We just don't know. And so there should be always and emphasis to move people towards making Jesus Lord and leader of their life. And then we celebrate with that. We celebrate through baptisms. We celebrate through sharing stories and testimonies of what God is doing in people's life. Because I think without that key element, we're a social club. We're nothing more than, and no dig on them, but a country club or the Kiwanas or any other local group, the Elks Lodge. Like, love them. They're awesome. They do great things in the community, but they're not doing that in the name of Jesus. We do that in the name of Jesus.

So what does it mean to belong? What does it mean to be a part of more shifting towards Spring Valley Church? Well, our vision and mission on the wall every single Sunday is to see our community saturated with the glory of God, and we do that through making disciples in the everyday stuff of life. Our vision is our why, to see our community saturated with the glory of God. So what does that mean? What does it mean, this term, saturate? Have you ever spilled water at a table with other people around? You can really test people and how quick their reactions are, of how quick they can move when that water cup gets knocked over. We have four children in our home, some of which are very wanting to be independent. And so we offend them sometimes with lids and straws on their cups. and so every now and then we'll gamble we'll roll the dice and we'll give them a cup of liquid with no lid and it doesn't go well we love them they're amazing kids but it just doesn't go well it's just not there and so we always have the test okay who's gonna knock it over at dinner time who's who's gonna be the one and i've done it myself i i will be guilty i've knocked it over myself quite a few times. But when you knock over a cup of water, what happens to it? It goes everywhere. It goes everywhere. It finds every single little nook and cranny. It finds the edge of the table so fast. I don't know. It's just like, I'm out. I'm free. There's the edge. It's like making a jail break. And it just goes everywhere. It gets on the stuff on the table. The napkins are soaked. Like it just goes everywhere. And I love this idea of seeing our communities just saturated with the glory of God, that it just goes everywhere. That Jesus himself fills us up. He talks about that in scripture, that then we go out with our cup of water of Jesus in our lives. Maybe not actually a cup of water, but we go out with Jesus in our lives. And I pray and I hope that as we interact with people in our lives, we leave maybe a couple drops of Jesus with them. We maybe leave a little imprint, a wet spot of Jesus on their lives because you and I might be the only Jesus that they ever get to experience in life. I hope and pray that there's more people in their lives that are Christ followers and speaking truth into them, but we might be the only people to share Jesus with them. So what does it look like? Well, spreading the glory of God in our community looks like sharing and showing up, showing up in people's lives when they're hurting, sharing kindness, sharing in generosity, praying for people, even if they don't know that you're praying for them. I love that. It's like undercover prayer. Like you're praying for your neighbors and your friends and your co-workers and they don't have no idea. And they'll come tell you stuff that's going on in your life. And you're just like, all right, God, add it to my list. I'm praying for And it's amazing what God can do. But this is meeting a very real practical need in people's lives. And we're not doing it for us. We're doing it for God.

I love what it says in 1 Corinthians 10.31. It says, so whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God. Everything that we do at Spring Valley Church, and I pray that that trickles into your life too, is for the glory of God. But who are our communities? It says, two communities are saturated. So who are our communities? Well, our communities are really simple. It's where we live, where we learn, where we work, and where we play. That's our neighbors. It's our coworkers. That's our friends. That's our family. That's our classmates. It's anybody in our life that we interact with on a regular basis. And maybe sometimes just random basis. There's times in my life where I'm having a conversation with a random person, and God says, just tell them that I love them. And I'm like, God, just tell them I love them. I just, hey, I know we just met. God loves you, man. Just want you to know that. And I get to turn around and walk away, and I just left a little Jesus on him. But that's what we're called to do.

Ephesians 1.12 says, So that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be to the praise of his glory. God fills us up. When we receive Jesus, we are filled up. So then we will go out and be the ones to be the praise for his glory. I love how it talks about in Psalms chapter one, where it talks about the person that is planted by streams of water. That's who we are. Jesus is our source of everything. We just talked about this in Corinthians in our series about Christ, who is our life. Christ is our life. He is our source. He is our everything. And so as out of that flows streams of living water, as it says in John 7, he fills us up to overflowing. We gather regularly together, but that's not the end all be all. Sometimes it's easy to just get caught up in Sunday morning, right? To just be like, I come in, I sit down, sing some songs, maybe take communion, maybe somebody prays for me. I hear an encouraging word from the Lord. I'm filled up, I take my cup and I go out and I hold onto my cup all week. I just walk around, I'm like, oh, I got my Jesus. I love it. Got my Jesus. Oh, don't want to spill it. Oh, I have to share this with somebody else? No, this is my Jesus. They can go find their own Jesus. But that's not it. Our gathering, our Sunday morning is actually just the beginning. If you've played sports, you know the game doesn't happen in the locker room, right? It doesn't happen on the practice field. It doesn't happen in a training session. It doesn't happen in the gym. It happens out on the field. And everything we do around that prepares for that moment on the field together. Because the reality is the world is watching and the world is looking. The world takes on these false promises that society and things and other religions and groups and communities promise to give them, but fall short time and time and time again. And we are out to go to saturate our communities with the glory of God.

So how does this happen? How do we go, okay, that's our why, our what? Well, our what is making disciples in the everyday stuff of life. Jesus gave us this commandment called the Great Commission to go and to make disciples. And see, our vision here at Spring Valley will only be brought about when each of us strive as a lifelong learner in the way of God. To understand how he's uniquely created us, how he's called us, and how he's commissioned us. Isaiah says this in 43 verse 7. Anyone who is called by my name, whom I'm created for my glory, whom I formed and made. Jesus has a calling for each and every one of us, and that is to first be a disciple of him. But it doesn't stop there. Each of us are included in God's great redemption plan. And each of us have a part to play in that. And the reality is that we are plan A and there is no plan B. That we are called. And being a follower of Jesus leads us into being a disciple in the everyday stuff of life. So Chris, that's great. What does that mean? Well, what it means is a disciple.

And the definition of disciple is someone who is following Jesus, being changed by Jesus, and is committed to the mission of Jesus. You see how like Jesus is kind of part of the whole thing there? That being a disciple is someone who is following Jesus, being changed by Jesus, and is committed to the mission of Jesus. Matthew 4.19, Jesus calls disciples at different times and he calls us and he says, Follow me and I will make you fishers of men. I always thought it was very interesting how he used this term and this phrase. But when we break it down, there's three parts here of what Jesus is actually doing. Jesus says, follow me. Change your head. Or, yeah, change your head. Who are you thinking about? Who are you looking at? What are you striving for? Jesus says, follow me. Change how your head is thinking. Then Jesus said, you will be changed. He says there, I will make. Jesus is the one that's doing the transformation. This is our heart. Jesus is transforming our heart through the Holy Spirit. And then what does he say? He says, I will make you fishers of men. He says, you are being committed to the mission of Jesus. That's our hands of how we do it. So it's a head, our heart, and our hands. And some of these final words of Jesus he's giving to the disciples is exactly what he asked and is calling us to do as well.

He says these. These are some of the final words of Jesus before he goes back to heaven. It says in Matthew 28, it says, Then Jesus came to them and said, 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, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I commanded you. And surely I'm with you always to the very end of the age. There is one imperative large command in that, and it is to make disciples. But then there's three participles that describe how we do that. The first of which is go. So that is the everyday stuff of life. As you are going throughout life, you are a disciple. You are to baptize. You are to publicly declare with your faith that you are a follower of Jesus. And then you are to teach. You are to teach those and to grow them up, to spur them on, to take them deeper in their walk with Jesus. And the disciple making is about entering into relationships to help people trust and follow Jesus. This is what it's about. It's to enter into intentional relationships with Jesus to help people find and follow and trust him. It's all about him. It's all about Jesus. But we have to change our mindset. We have to focus on Jesus who is working in us, allowing him to work, and to fulfill the way that God has uniquely created, called, and commissioned us.

So Chris, this is great. Great vision, great mission. That's awesome. How does this rubber meets the road? How does this practically play out? We call it our four Gs, and it is just so that easy to remember, is to gather, grow, give, and go. these are the four four focuses to help make the vision and mission happen here at spring valley church the first one gather what does that mean well gathering means to commit to gathering together regularly with the church body what does that look like well that looks like worship that looks like discipleship that looks like evangelism these larger big churchy words but what it means is Jesus matters, prayer matters, God's word matters, and Sunday matter. That's what it's all about. And that when we gather together, we will have these different elements when we gather. Again, if you guys have picked up on that, but every time that we have gathered together as a church, whether it's a men's ministry, a women's ministry, all of us together on a Sunday or some other spot. There is an element of this that is happening every single time. We don't gather just for the sake of gathering. But it's about being together with one another, with the presence of the Holy Spirit, living on mission and on vision for Jesus Christ.

The second way we do this is we grow. We meet regularly with a few others to encourage and equip you in growing up in Christ. because the reality is that growing people change. And I was thinking about this last night as I was walking through my notes of, I always thought of it as in the sense of a positive, growing people change. Sometimes we can grow in the wrong ways and we change in the wrong ways, right? But we are to grow in Jesus, to grow up in Christ because transformation truly matters. I think sometimes we sit around and go, I'm good with Jesus. I'm set. I'm good. I got my routine. I'm set. But the reality is that each of us can be transformed even more into Jesus. Some of the most seasoned veteran Christians that I looked up to and respect, you could ask them, hey, when did you arrive? And they go, what do you mean, when did I arrive? I said, well, when did you arrive when you were like, I'm a Jesus follower. I'm a disciple. I'm transformed. There's always something more to grow and to learn and be sanctified into Jesus Christ more and more every single day. Creativity matters. I think there's some awesome ways in which you have tradition and you do the same thing the same way in a church sometimes, and I love it, but I think also it's great to shake things up. We here at Spring Valley try new things all the time. And you guys are awesome. You run with us on some things. Sometimes it's like, wow, they came up with that idea. But we like trying new things because sometimes we learn and we grow and things connect with different people at different times. That's why we have a few different voices that teach on the regular. Because every person brings a little bit different perspective and understanding with their training, their knowledge, their experience with scripture, and it speaks to a variety of people. I think it's a huge, huge way that we can continue to grow in our relationship with Jesus.

The third thing is that we give. And yeah, I'm going to talk about it, but we support Spring Valley and we serve the larger body with the things that God has blessed us with. Maybe you've been around in the church. You've heard it before, time, talent, treasure. And I'm talking about everything because the reality is that God has blessed us with everything, right? Everything that we have received in life is from Jesus himself. God blesses that with us. And so then his calling in us as we are to be a disciple is how do we use what he has given us to further his kingdom? We desire to have a generous impact here at Spring Valley Church. And that for some means tithing. for others it means tithing and it means to use everything we have for his glory to give back to him to make a generous impact with everything we have because gratitude matters Jesus has given us everything he's taking care of our eternal salvation right everything else is just gravy right he's taking care of our biggest need and so how do we be generous the way he has been so generous with us. We serve one another. Service matters. Saved people serve people. Because if we're truly saved, then we should have the same heart of Jesus. And he was the ultimate servant of giving up of himself to the cross in his death. So we serve one another. We talk about that regularly, serving on teams. Some of you we probably reached out to at times said, hey, can you serve in this way? How can you love on our church congregation?

And so then finally, our fourth G is to go. As Jesus said to go, to be a disciple of Jesus who makes his disciples with others. We want to live in relational community with one another, but not just fun, not just dinners, not just movie nights or vacations or pool parties or fun times, but to live life together missionally, that we are intentionally encouraging one another, loving one another, saying, hey, how are you doing with Jesus? What are you learning? What's he teaching you? How are you growing in him? Evangelism matters. Unity matters. We have a church care team here that you may get a phone call from them randomly from time to time that just checking in. How are you doing? And it's beyond just the pastoral staff, but it's another team that really cares for our church because you guys matter. Pastor Lauren talked about it earlier, but these invite cards during Easter, during this season, to take time to intentionally pray for an opportunity to invite somebody to come with you on Easter Sunday. Because we're all called, When you became a disciple, you accepted Jesus, you became a minister of the gospel. You may not carry the title pastor, but neither did the 12 disciples or apostles. But they're all called to share the gospel and ownership matters and that we need to own that.

The reality is we can't accomplish all of this without you. that's the reality and that we are all called to be together on this team we are called to be part of this family and so what does that mean for you well we've been talking about it for a few weeks now and that means membership and membership in this church means about engaging and partnering with us who is the local church another way of saying it is hey i'm all in this is my church and it's a two-way street sometimes it can get thought about well church membership is just the church wanting something from me no no no this is a this is a mutual relationship this is a two-way street membership is about the church also saying to you we are committed to you we are committed to your faith journey we are committed to you in the every day this is a mutual thing it's not just a person to the church, but it's also the church to the person. And I don't know what you grew up in. There's different churches of different models and some you utilize membership and some don't. And that's fine. They don't have to have membership at all. But I believe that there is something that is missed for both the church and the body when there isn't membership. And you can attend and you can be here at Spring Valley without being a member. This is not a It's a hope and a desire from us. But you can serve here. You can be here. You can give here. You can be a part of Spring Valley without being a member. Now, there are some ministry and leadership roles that membership is required of. But we will never, ever stop anybody from not being able to be here at Spring Valley Church. The church is a gift from God. It's a beautiful thing. And it's a beautiful thing when you have believers who are committed to that gift. And it's something really special when all of that comes together.

So what does it look like? What does it look like to be a member here at Spring Valley Church? It's just five areas. First of which is engagement. What does that look like? Well, that means attendance. It means being present. It means praying for our church, praying for our pastors, praying for those who are walking through different situations in life, encouraging one another.

It means discipleship. It means spiritual growth. They used that term earlier, sanctification, or a pursuit of holiness to allow Jesus to transform us. You're committing to saying, I'm going to walk deeper in my faith with Jesus in a community, and that community is going to be there with me. It means service. It means attending to the needs of others in our community. Spring Valley, Rocklin, Roseville. There are over a quarter of a million people in this region of 65 and 80 from Roseville, over the edges of Lincoln, up to Loomis, down into West Roseville, over a quarter of a million people. There are not enough churches. And not everybody is attending church every single week. And so we have to serve and care for the needs of others.

It looks like generosity, giving of God's blessing that he's given to you in practical needs. Maybe it's through tithing. Maybe it's a special giving project. Maybe it's supporting our missionaries around the globe. Maybe it's giving of your time. You're like, hey, money is super tight right now, but I got time. I can volunteer. I can be here. What do you need? I need help. I'm here to help. It means being generous with the talents that you've been given. What I love about our worship team is these guys are incredibly talented and gals. They're so gifted. They could probably, and most, some of them are on a stage regularly in bands, performing and being paid to do a lot of stuff. They donate all their time and talent to be here. because they love this church. Guys, we are so blessed by them.

And it looks like inviting, like we talked about these invite cards, to pray for people. And we've said it here before, and I wanna continue to say it, that if you come in on church on a Sunday and it was encouraging for you, it was uplifting for you, it was special, God spoke to you, God, Jesus gave you something, Why not invite somebody to come experience that with you? Don't hold back on that. Don't hold your little cup of Jesus and just walk around and don't spill it. But share that freely with others because somebody at some point invited you in, right? Somebody at some point said, hey, come to church with me. I want you to find Jesus. And you found Jesus. And then you found Spring Valley. And we want to keep doing that time and time again. Membership is about finding a place to belong.

And SVC is better with you. SVC wouldn't be the same if you weren't here. And there's people who are going to become part of this church and are going to find this church soon, and they get to be a part of that. And it just continues to grow and expand. and we grow God's kingdom for his glory through making disciples in the everyday stuff of life.

Pray with me. Jesus, we thank you for the many blessings, God, that you give us every single day. Jesus, we thank you for how you died on the cross for us, for our sins. The biggest problem in our life, you took care of as a servant, as a humble, humble sacrifice for our lives. And Jesus, you gave this gift that is the church. And God, I pray as we move into after service to have our membership class, God, that those who are trying to figure out what all this looks like may stick around and just have some question and answer, Jesus. But I pray that they would see the church as this beautiful gift to them in life. And I pray, God, that if you were leading them into, that they would step into becoming a member. Then they would see how, God, you have provided a community and a place for them to belong. and that membership is not only them committing but the church also committing to them saying we are all in on you and that we will be here for you. We will pray for you. We will care for you. And so Jesus, I pray that Spring Valley would truly be a place that is warm, that is welcoming, that is caring, that stays focused on the gospel, stays true to your word, and has a heart for lost people to find you, Jesus. For us to see our community saturated, your glory, Jesus. And that we would step into being true disciples in the everyday stuff of life. Thank you, Jesus. We love you. Amen.

A Place To Belong: Part 1

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.