A Passion for the Church

Before, Carlos comes to bring the word to us this morning, just a couple other. Announcements that we want to, to bring to your attention, first of all, for the, the men, the men's retreat is coming up November 17th and 18th, and, there's gonna be men from, three churches that are gathered up at our, men's retreat this year. We've invited two other churches to, to come along, so. we're really looking forward to a great time of fellowship together and, sitting under the teaching of the word and worshiping together, and being ministered to, by Doctor Ernie Baker, and, his son.

So, if you have not yet signed up for the men's retreat, please, do so as you leave, this morning. And then also, a big reminder, guys, the last reminder, there's an insert in your bulletin regarding the harvest dinner, something that, we do, every year, generally the first, Saturday in November. this Saturday at 5 o'clock at Woodcrest Christian High School is our annual harvest dinner, and you'll find information regarding that dinner on this insert along with a map that, shows you exactly how to get.

There if you need that help.

but we're looking forward to a great time of good food, fellowship with one another, and, hearing testimonies of faith in Jesus and, hearing a brief, gospel, message as well. We would encourage you if you have not yet signed up to consider coming to our harvest dinner, bring family and friends along with you. And this is the last Sunday to sign up. For the harvest dinner for this year.

If you have not yet signed up and purchased a ticket and you would like to do that, then you need to do that today. So as you leave this morning, we'll try to remind you at the end of the, the service to make sure that you do that as you leave this morning. And then also, Halloween is, coming up, this week. And if you would like a resource, we wanna make it available to you.

If, people are gonna be coming by your house and you're gonna be giving them, candy, we have gospel tracks available in the lobby and you're welcome to, pick up a stack of those. For a minimal charge that just covers our cost, so that you can use that as a resource to make available to other people. Halloween is the only holiday, if you wanna call it that, or time of the year where people from your neighborhood actually come over to your house. And, so we often think about reaching out to others.

This is one of those occasions. the history of Halloween notwithstanding where people actually come over to your house and, it would be an opportunity to, give them the gospel at least in writing as they come to your door. So that resource is available and you'll see that as you leave this morning. Well, today is the 7th installment of our series on experiencing the fullness of God in the church.

And, I've preached, I think 4 of the 7 messages and Mike Berry has preached a couple of them. Carlos has been away, in New Zealand and has not been able to do his share of, helping us, go through this series. And so from the very outset, we assigned him, this Sunday because it's, the Sunday that he would be here and be available. And we've processed some things together with him.

this past week about what we've covered and, and so forth, but I really appreciate Carlos, his ministry as the pastor of care groups of this church. our care group ministry is what it is today, largely because of his leadership and his ministry, to this church body and to us as, as elders, and, he has much to say on his heart about the church. And the way we ought to view the church and be committed to the local church and so he's the perfect guy to come and to speak to us on this, the last installment of our series on experiencing the fullness of God in the church.

So Carlos, why don't you come and let's give him a warm cornerstone welcome.

Is the, yeah, it's uh-huh I don't need that. Boy, I feel like I'm loud. Am I loud? Come on, John, help me out.

Before we, jump into the swing of things. I, Milton says I'm the perfect guy to preach on the topic and, if you consider jet lag time and you realize that I got up at midnight. And I've been awake ever since right about now is about nap time. I'm not sure if I am the perfect guy to speak on anything right now, but let's, let's please look to the Lord with me and pray that he would give me help so that you can be helped out by anything of what I have to say.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you this morning. And Lord, we just wanna give you thanks, we wanna give you praise, Lord, because Lord, at the end of the day, you are good and you are good all the time. Lord, you have blessed us with every spiritual blessing, Lord.

You have given to us an inheritance, Father, we have been given unfathomable riches, Lord. Father, words could never even begin to express how good and how great you have been to us, Lord. I thank you, Father, for this local church and Lord, I thank you for the various local churches that are out there in the world, Lord. That are seeking to exalt your name and Father this morning we want to ask that Lord you might see fit to bless your people, your church, the church universal as well as the church local Lord and.

Included in that would be this particular local church Cornerstone Fellowship Bible Church. Thank you Lord, for this church and for allowing us the privilege of being a part of what you are doing. In this particular body, Lord, as I give thought and expression to your passion for the church and as I seek to explain how a passionate commitment to the church might manifest itself practically in our lives, I ask Lord that you would, you would bless what it is that will be communicated this morning.

And that Father, at the end of this day we might all collectively be able to say that our understanding of how the church is indeed the fullness of God would be expanded upon.

Lord, it's not that I'll say anything different or anything new or anything better than what has already been said, but Lord, I pray that in whatever ways in which we have failed to hear what you have said in the past, that you might illuminate the eyes of our understanding to help us, Lord, to see clearly this morning. Father, we depend upon you for your grace, Lord, and we ask these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. At some point in the future, I don't know, next week or maybe the week after that, Team New Zealand will be able to come forward.

And give you a more full update but it is in my heart to just share with you a little bit, just a little bit about the trip I would like to begin by saying to all of you just a huge thank you, a personal thank you. I'm speaking on behalf of myself and my family. Just thank you for your support, thank you for the prayer support, thank you, for the financial support, and just to share with you, prior to going, my family actually got hit pretty hard, with some financial things. I thought that I had blown up my car.

Fortunately I didn't blow it up entirely, but the radiator blew and it that was a financial expense and. and then the pool pump, we have an aboveground pool and the pump went out and all of a sudden we needed to fork out some money and as it turned out. one evening I had to spend $500 that I didn't really feel that I had, and then the next day I go into, the church office and I look inside my box and I have no clue who would've given this to me and my family, but there was a gift specifically to us for about $500 and that's just, one little expression of God's goodness, His grace to me and my family.

And I know that that is representative of this church and His grace to me through all of you guys and, and again thank you.

The trip was a blessing. The highlight obviously would be the missionary part of the trip. I got to spend another two weeks. Vacationing there but the missionary part of the trip was a huge highlight and of all of the neat things that happened I wanna just share with you one thing which I think would be the highlight of highlights at the youth camp I was able to preach, a sermon, a message to the youth, and at the end of the message I encouraged the kids that., if they had any further questions and if they wanted to receive the Lord, that they, they would need to come and speak to one of the camp counselors and so after, that message, a little boy came running up through the crowd and, and I saw him as he was running my way.

And I, I could tell just by looking at him there was this sense of urgency and it became more obvious the minute he opened up his mouth and he said to me, do you remember when you said how, if we want to know more that we need to come to a counselor and yeah, I remember, would you please tell me more? And so I had the opportunity to just really unpack for him the gospel in a very clear and relevant manner to him. And then at the end of it all, he communicated that he, he wanted the Lord and I said, well, you can, you can pray to him and just share your heart with him and this would have been the very first time in his entire life that he have ever prayed to the Lord.

he asked me, how, how do I speak to the Lord and whatnot and I said it's just like talking to me, but instead the Lord is here and so talk to him.

And, without giving him any cues or any leading, he just began to pray to the Lord and I'll never forget his prayer. It, it was a cute prayer. It was a serious prayer too, but he, he said, he said something to the effect of Lord, it sure would be nice if you could find it in your heart to forgive me. For my sins and then he said, Lord, I have been cross with my sister which in Kiwi slang means angry and Lord I have dishonored and disrespected my mom and my dad which mom is mom in English and and so he makes this prayer and then.

And he just, he asked the Lord to just make him what the Lord wants him to be and then afterwards I had a chance to pray and when I was done, I'll never, I'll never forget this, he lets off this big sigh. It's not a word, it was just a sigh and then he said, I feel better already. And I think of all of the things that happened there were so many blessings that that was probably one of the, the top 3 highlights. it was a huge blessing so, so thank you.

That's the missionary trip, but my family was also able to spend two weeks of vacation time, and, New Zealand, is a, is an extremely beautiful country, as far as the vacation time, the highlight of my trip there, despite how beautiful the country is. The highlight of my trip was the opportunity to go to a couple of different local churches, on the Sundays, and so it was really neat. You consider the mission trip. I think we went to about 5 different local churches and then you consider my vacation time me and my family went to a couple of different local churches and on the last Sunday we were there I was.

I was able to to shake hands with and. And to meet the man who God used in answers to my prayers to lead my grandfather to the Lord. And that was just a huge blessing to his name is Nick and and there's a there's a wonderful story behind all of that in terms of God answer God's answering of prayer but I was able to to meet Nick, the guy that led my grandfather to the Lord while he was on his deathbed, that was a huge blessing. Now getting away from the spiritual blessings, I wanna just mention something and it's gonna relate to the message, so please bear with me.

I, I wanna speak to you about, just of all of the different scenery that I saw, I wanna, I wanna just share something about one particular day that, we went on a, on a little bit of a, a, a drive and then we went, on a little bit of a boat ride and. This would easily be that this 2 hour time span from the drive coming down the mountains to the waterfront on the boat, that 2 hour span was, was very easily the most beautiful, awe inspiring, majestic, 2 hour period of seeing scenery that I had ever seen in my entire life.

It was just. It was absolutely mind boggling for me.

it had been raining in this place called Milford Sounds for about 3 days straight, and it had been raining pretty heavily. And so as we drove through Milford Sounds with these cliffs jutting up, I don't know how many. thousands of feet high, it would be no exaggeration for me to say, and, and as one who loves waterfalls, it would be no exaggeration for me to say that in a two hour period of time, mind you, we were driving pretty slow. So we didn't cover hundreds of miles.

It was kinda stop and go, stop and go. We must have seen at least, at least 500 waterfalls, during that time. It was, it was just breathtaking. It was absolutely amazing and, and I'll, I'll never forget that when I, when I, we, we went down through, got on the boat and went out one side and then came back the other side and when I got off the boat.

The thought that entered my mind was what hit me. I was, I was to some degree left in shock as a result of just the power and the splendor and just the, the, the, the sense of just awesomeness of, of just. Bucketfuls of water cascading from the side of these mountains, it was just, it was absolutely amazing. again I, I, I felt like I needed to just kinda get my bearing straight as if I just got whacked really hard by something that I don't know what hit me it was just I had never experienced that in reference to creation before but, but on this Thursday I was just completely blown.

Away and, and by way of analogy, I believe that the apostle Paul was completely blown away as he gave thought to this institution. That scripture refers to as the church. I believe that the apostle Paul, when, when he spent time thinking about and meditating upon this concept of the church, that, that, that he. Was blown away perhaps way more than I was in the midst of Milford Sounds and the hundreds of waterfalls.

The apostle Paul, when he thought about the church, he found within himself just that sense of wonder. And amazement, and I, and I believe that he is giving expression to that amazement just in relation to the Ephesian Church as he is communicating to them truths about the church and as he is communicating to them, just all of what it is that God has done for the church and he is, as he is helping them to more fully understand the. concept of the church, I believe that he had a picture of it that was just beyond his ability to communicate and yet he seeks to communicate to the Ephesians through this epistle, a, a majestic view of the church.

He wants them if you were to be blown away by, the church and so, so obviously this Morning I wanna be talking about the church and I would submit to you that as, as a people, as a people of God, you and I should be, passionately committed to this institution called the church and when I say the church I am including both the universal invisible church.

that would be the church consisting of all born again believers throughout the entire world throughout time, but I am also making reference to, the local expressions of the church, the local churches as well. we are to be passionately committed to the church and this morning. I want to try to answer two questions, OK? These are the questions that I want to try to answer with the time that we have.

question number 1, why should we be passionately committed to the church? Why should you and I, be passionately committed to the church? That's the first question. And then the second question would be this, what are some ways that being passionately committed to the church expresses itself?

Or in other words, what does it look like when a person is passionately committed to the church? What does that look like? How does that. Manifest itself, those are the two questions.

So let me hasten on to question number 1. Number 1, why? Why should you and I be passionately committed to the church? There are a number of reasons.

Here is one of those reasons. We should be passionately committed to the church because of what God says it is. And in the book of Ephesians, it has much to say, God through Paul has much to say about what the church is. We learned that the church is his body.

In Ephesians. 122, we read that he put all things, God the Father put all things in subjection under his Christ's feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body. OK? So, so clearly, God's view of the church is that the church is his body.

OK, let's make that a little more relevant to us. You and I, assuming that we are born again believers in relationship to Christ, we are His body. We are the body of Christ, the church is his body. There are some things implicit in this concept of us being the body of Christ, the church being the body of Christ, implicit in that is the fact.

That he loves and cares for his church. He loves and cares for his body. Implicit is the fact that it is a it is a living organism we are as a local church and the universal church as well, we are a living organism and every single member of the body is important every single. Member of the body has significance and we know from other passages that the hands cannot say to the foot, I don't need you and vice versa.

There's a sense in which every part is important and as we give thought to the body, we need to understand as we give thought to the body to the church that the members of the body, the members of the church, you and I, every single person. is an important element in this church. Well, the church is his body. This is, this is what God is saying, the church is, And there is a sense of interdependency that we as members of this body have with one another, OK?

So why should we be passionately committed to the church? It's because of what God says it is. The church is his body. You and I are a part of the body of Christ.

We are the church, but not only does Paul refer to the church as his body, not only does God see the church as his body, but we also know. From Ephesians 1:22 again that the church is his body but also the fullness of him who fills all in all. You see, the church is the fullness of him. the church is the place on planet Earth through which God wishes all of his fullness to be revealed and to be made known.

We are the place we. As the body, we as the fullness of Him, we are the place through which God wants to express his fullness and part of what that means is he wants his character, his person, himself, his glory to be made known in and among us as well as through us into the lives of people around us both saved and unsaved, OK? You see, God. God, when he, when he thinks about the church, God sees it as his body.

We as the church are his fullness. we as the church, according to Ephesians 2:19, are God's household. The church is the household of God, 219, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and are of God's household, and this would suggest, a relational and familial, connection one to another. It would also speak of God's possession.

We are God's household. We, belong to God. I belong. You belong, and every person who is a believer belongs to God.

And so, we learned that God sees it as his household. He sees the church also as the temple in which God the Spirit dwells. Ephesians 2:21, we read in whom the whole building being fitted together is growing into a whole. Temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit and so he's using borrowing from the Old Testament, using Old Testament languages and, and suggesting to us that we are the temple of God and as such we are the place through which God wants his spirit to dwell and to be made manifest, which obviously would involve and include the fruit of the Spirit being made manifest in and among us through Through to others around us, OK?

So, so again, the question, why should we be passionately committed to the church? One of the answers to that question is because of how God views the church, and I believe that the apostle Paul, he is, he is just absolutely blown away by these things, these truths as it relates to what God thinks about the church. He's got this vision of this church and of what it is and what it should be. The, that serves to motivate him, that serves to be a source of passion for him as it relates to the church.

We should be committed, passionately committed to the church because of what God says about it, but also we should be passionately committed to the church because Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ himself is passionately committed to the church. In Ephesians 2:21 we read. In whom the whole building being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord. Verse 22, in whom you also are being built together into a, oh, I'm sorry, Ephesians 5:1.

I read the wrong verse, Ephesians 5:1, it says, therefore be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love. Walk in love just as Christ also loved the church. And there we have that Christ loved the church and then he goes on to say, and he gave himself up for us. So why should we be committed to the church?

Because of Jesus Christ's passionate commitment to the church. He loved the. Church so much that he gave himself up for the church. And when you think about it, that is a staggering thought because the church consists of people that apart from Christ are just thoroughly ruined, sinful, rebellious against God, vile and wretched and depraved or whatever word you want to come up with it.

The church is made up of a bunch of sinful people, and yet Jesus Christ loved the church, and he gave himself up for the church, and likewise we too ought to love the church and be willing to sacrifice for the benefit of the church. We read in Ephesians 5:25 and following. Now in this particular passage, the apostle Paul is speaking. about the relationship between the husband and his wife and how the husband is to, to love his wife, but as he speaks about that, he draws from the relationship between Christ and the church, and he, and he says some things in reference to the passion and the passionate commitment of Jesus Christ to the church.

Notice what he says in Ephesians 5:25, just as Christ also loved the church. Christ loved the church. This is very similar to what he says in 5:1, and he gave himself up for her. Here again, Paul is drawing attention to the, the, the, the, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for the benefit of the church.

He gave himself up for the church, and he does that in order as you continue on in that passage that he might sanctify her. That he might set her apart, and then it goes on a little bit later in verse 27, that he might present to himself the church in all of her glory. And so there's a sense from that passage in which we discover that Jesus Christ, he loved the church, he gave himself up for the church, so that we, the church would be sanctified, so that ultimately At the end of the day, he would be able to present the church to himself in all of her glory without spot and without wrinkle.

Do you get a sense from there that Jesus Christ is passionately committed to the church?

So why should we be committed to the church? Because of what God says about the church, because of, of the metaphors he uses to Describe the church, his view of the church, and because of the passion of Jesus Christ for the church, loving the church, loving you and I and our brothers and sisters to such an extent that he would be willing to sacrifice his life for us. That is tremendous love and we ought to be passionately committed to the church because that's the heart of the Lord.

Word Jesus Christ.

But you see, he not only, not only died on the cross for the church, but we also know, from Scripture that he was, he was buried, he was, he was raised from the dead, and then he ascended to the right hand of the Father. Ephesians 1:20 says, he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. Christ is seated. At the right hand of the Father, parallel passage found in Colossians 3:1, Christ is seated at the right hand of God, and then in Hebrews, I don't know who wrote it, but whoever wrote it says, that he always lives to make intercession for us.

Let's say, Jesus Christ right now as I am speaking is living. At the right hand of the Father, he is seen and he lives to make intercession for you and I, pleading our case 24/7 before the Father, that He has died for us and through his blood, we are innocent and we are without guilt. And the fact of the matter is, is that he's gonna return again someday. Why?

To, to bring his bride, the church, to himself. He has a Passion for the church. We ought to be committed to the church passionately because of God's view of it, because of the passion of Jesus for the church. We should be passionately committed to the church because the apostle Paul, Paul himself was passionately committed to the church.

And, you, you just look at the Ephesian book itself. It's very clear. That he was committed to the church, that he loved the church, what he communicates, to the Ephesians speaks of his view, his grandiose view of the church. He is blown away by this concept of the church, and he has committed his life for the advancement of this, this organism, this thing, this, this church in which the fullness of God is wanting to find expression.

He's very committed. He's committed with his whole heart, OK? as you look at the apostle Paul, what by being committed with his whole heart intellectually, he's committed. He, he, everything that I have said is stuff that Paul has said, and he has said this to the Ephesians.

He has told the Ephesians about God's view of. Of the church he has communicated that to them. He has communicated to the Ephesians the passionate commitment of Jesus to the church. Everything of what I have said is part of his framework.

It's, it's part of his thinking and so intellectually in terms of the things that he thought about as he thought about the church, what I have said are the things that were on his mind. were the things that he thought about. And I submit to you again that he was completely blown away by this concept called the church. He was, he was, passionate, for the church, not just intellectually, but emotionally as well.

There was that, there was that part of his heart, the emotional part of his heart. In which he was, he was committed passionately to the church as well. when you, when you read through Ephesians, if you don't get that sense, you're not reading carefully enough, go with me, for example, to verse 3 of chapter 1. And he starts by saying, blessed be the God and Father, and he doesn't even stop to take a breath, and in 14 verses, he goes on and on and on and on and on about all of the blessings that are his, and that are the Ephesians in Christ.

And, and, and the reason I believe that he just goes on and on without stopping to take a breath of air is because he is so emotionally wound up by the church and by what Christ has. Done for the church as he is communicating that in Ephesians chapter 1 verses 3 all the way to 14, blessed be the God and Father, I believe that there's a passionate, element in what he is saying there, and then later on in the same book, he goes on to describe the riches of Christ, and what does he say about the riches of Christ?

They are unfathomable. And, when I, when I was in Milford Sounds and at the end of it, there's just no possible way that I could communicate to you just how grandiose it was.

It was completely beyond imagination. I, there's a sense in which I still don't believe it. And I think similarly, if not even more so, Paul is astounded by the unfathomable riches of Christ and by What he has done for the church. Paul says that God has called me to proclaim to you the church, the unfathomable, mind-boggling, mind-stretching, unimaginable riches of Christ.

And so why should we be passionately committed to the church? Because of what God says it is, because of the example of Jesus, and because of the example of Paul. Again, as I have said, Paul is committed, passionately committed intellectually, emotionally. And I need not even make the argument that he was committed volitionally, volitionally.

his will, the things that he chose to do with his life were completely informed by his understanding of this thing called the church. He made very important life decisions on the basis of his commitment to the church. He allowed his passion for the church to direct the way in which he lived his life. And think about it, Paul, Paul, he chose to do what with his life?

Ultimately, we know God called him as an apostle, but he chose to go around and plant what? Those things that he knows God loves. He planted churches all over the place. I do not know how many countless numbers of churches that he planted, but he planted these churches all over the place.

And what, if you are to be a church planter in the way which he was, I think Paul was, was seeing it this way that what? I'm gonna choose not to get married because that would allow me even more freedom. And less responsibilities in relation to marriage so that I might give my all to the establishment of churches across Asia. And so this is what he does.

Now I'm not saying that you should, not get married. I'm not saying that, but what I am saying is allow your passion for the church to impact life decisions that you make, such as what Paul did. Why should we be passionately committed to the church? We should be passionately committed to the church because it is what God expects of us.

This is what God wants for you and I, and, and as it relates even to say Cornerstone Fellowship Bible Church, he wants for us to be passionately committed to this local expression of the body of Christ. In Ephesians 4:1. The apostle Paul says, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. Walk in a worthy manner.

With all humility, gentleness, patience, showing forbearance to one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. You see, essentially, what Paul is saying to his readers as he gives them, the first instructions related to how they ought to live their lives, walk in a worthy manner. And you walk in that worthy manner in relation to one another, in relation to the church. He's writing to the church, speaking to the church, and he is saying, in relation to the church, you walk, and he describes how they should walk with humility and love and, that stuff.

But, but he's wanting them. To walk in such a way. That they are manifesting fruit, in their relationships with the people of God around them. See, God expects us To do such.

And why should we be passionately committed to the local church? we should be passionately committed to the church because the church will not grow to the ultimate glory of God without it. Imagine us, just imagine, I'm not saying we're guilty of this at all, but just imagine hypothetically if we were a church full of a bunch of individuals who had no passionate commitment to the church. If that were true, where would this particular church be?

Imagine if as you go backwards throughout the corridors of time and you reach as far back as to even the beginning of the church on the day of Pentecost and imagine if it could be said that there was not one person who was passionately committed to the church, where would the church right now be? OK, we know that God is sovereign and He is working in all things according to the counsel of His will, but there's a human element involved in which God calls us into obedience to Him, and I believe he is calling us into being passionately committed to the church, and there are those in the past who in answering that call have left an imprint, a positive imprint, have made an impact on the advancement of this institution called the church.

We should be passionately committed to the church because the church will not grow to the ultimate glory of God without it. Think about Ephesians 4:11 and following.

In that passage we read that God gave to the church these gifted men, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. Why? For the equipping of the saints, the saints to be equipped. Why?

So that they might be able to do the work of ministry, and then as you continue on, it becomes very clear that Paul is saying, so that the church might build itself up in love as each individual member works properly in relation to the other members of the church. As you read later in Ephesians, you'll find that it says verse 16, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, every single one of us has something to supply according to the proper working of each individual part, we all need to be properly working in relation to one another within the body of Christ, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

OK, so God intends to use the body, us to build the body up in love, of course, Christ being the head and, and, and ultimately at the end of the day, Christ is building it, but he is building it through using us in this process of building the body up in love. You realize without a passionate commitment to the church that the church is going to fail.

And what it is that God is calling it to be. God would call all of us to be passionately committed to the church, OK, so we've answered the question briefly, why should we be passionately committed to the church and, and, and the reason why we should be passionately committed to the church is because of, of what God sees the church as being. Because Paul's example, you look at Paul's example, he was passionately committed and he says, follow me as I follow the Lord. And his passionate commitment really is a mirror of the commitment of Christ to the church.

All Paul is doing is being Christ-like in, in his own passionate commitment to the church. So we, we've got, we've got, we've got Paul. So God's view of the church, the example of Jesus, we've got Paul, we've got the fact that the church is not going to be what God wants it to be without our passionate commitment and the fact, and, and the fact that, God, God commands us to be passionately committed to the church. So those are the reasons.

Let's now get into the next question. The next question, how does passionate commitment to the church manifest itself? Or in other words, if I am passionately committed to the church, what are those things that will be, be evident in my life? What does it look like when a person is passionately committed to the church?

OK? passionate commitment to the church will express itself in our prayers for our brothers and sisters. Again, looking at Ephesians, think about Paul. There are 2 prayers recorded.

At the end of chapter 1, he prays a prayer of enlightenment for the Ephesians. Oh God, please, please, God, help them to understand the truths that I have been communicating to them in verses 3 to 14. Help them to understand, illuminate the eyes of their understanding that they might know and understand what I've already communicated. He's praying for them.

OK, and then you get into the other prayer that he makes right before chapter 4, at the end of chapter 3, and he's basically saying, God, please help them to experience the reality of who it is that they are in you. Help them to experience and the last component of that prayer, he says, the fullness of God. Help these people to experience, practically speaking, all of the fullness of you, God, as you seek to manifest your fullness in the lives of these dear brothers and sisters of mine in this church, the Ephesian Church.

You see, if you're passionately committed to the church, you're gonna be praying.

That's what Paul does. He's praying for the church. And then elsewhere, in some of the other prayers recorded or as he talks about himself praying, you get the sense that, Paul says, I pray with thanksgiving all the time upon my every remembrance for all of you as I constantly remember your faith and love day and night. you've got a man passionately committed to the church, expressing itself in the fact that he prays for them.

And so How are we doing in reference to our prayers for this particular local church as well as for the church universal. Passionate commitment to the church will express itself in a personal commitment to spiritual growth, that means personal devotion to Christ. We see that from Paul in one of the other prison epistles in, in the book of Philippians, we see that he was very passionate. About his relationship to Christ.

in Philippians 3:7, he says, whatever things were gained to me, those things I have counted as lost for the sake of Christ, more than I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. All things are lost, all things are rubbish, all things are done. In comparison with the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. Later on in verse 10, he, he says that I may know him.

Clearly, he is a man passionately committed to his relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ, and I believe that passionate commitment to the church is gonna manifest itself in our passionate commitment, to our own devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ. It will also express itself in our loving attitude towards the church. Again, going back to Paul, we're using Paul as, as the example, and as an example, he's doing nothing more than expressing, mirroring for us Jesus' attitude, but the apostle Paul himself has an amazing attitude towards the church.

The church that is made up of a bunch of sinful people who are in need of sanctification and growth, the apostle Paul communicates, continuously, consistently love and care and concern for the church and so passionate commitment.

to the church is going to manifest itself in our prayers. It's gonna manifest itself in our, in our commitment to Christ and our devotion to Him and our wanting to know Him. It's gonna manifest itself in our loving attitude towards the church and, and the members of the church as we relate to one another, we will relate to one another in love. Passionate commitment to the church is gonna manifest itself.

It's gonna express itself in our longing to be with the people of God. We're gonna find within ourselves, a longing. We ought to long to be with the people of God. Again, the parallel prison epistle.

Philippians 4:1, Paul says. Therefore, my beloved brethren whom I long to see. You get the sense from Paul that, as an overflow of his commitment to the church, there is that longing to see the members of the church, members of this local body, members of that local body, and the other. He just wanted to see the faces of these people.

He would be the type of guy who, if he were a part of Cornerstone Fellowship Bible Church, he would get very excited about the Sunday celebrations. 00, what is the best day of the week, Paul? Sundays. Why is Sunday the best day of the week, Paul?

Oh, because I get to see my brothers and sisters on Sunday. Oh, I long to see them. Paul, is there anything else about Sundays that you like? Yeah, I love the celebration and I love the care groups.

I love the small groups. I love just being able to mingle with my brothers and sisters in smaller settings, bigger settings, smaller settings. It doesn't matter. I just love being around the people of God.

And, and as I was sharing from, from my vacation, the waterfalls were awesome, they were incredible, but one of the things that I think the Lord was, was tugging at in my heart, one of the things that he was revealing to me is the fact that as I consider the possibility of ever moving to New Zealand, that I don't care how beautiful the country is. I don't care. I would much rather be in the smog pit capital of the world with the people of God than in this most beautiful, awe-inspiring, amazing, country called New Zealand that if I, if I had to choose between a beautiful country.

And a smog pit capital of the world.

I'm referring to Riverside. and, and, and, and if here there is a, a lack of fellowship, no fellowship, but here I've got the people of God. There's no comparison. There's absolutely no comparison.

I'm not gonna be drawn away or lured by the possibility of a more beautiful place. In my heart of hearts, my desire is to be with the people that God wants me to be with. And if it happens to be in a beautiful place, well, that's cool, but what, at the end of the day, that really means nothing compared with who does God want me to be with, who does he want me to be in relationship with as it relates to the, a particular body of believers. At any rate, passionate commitment to the church is gonna manifest itself in our longing to see the people of God.

And again, back to New Zealand, it was a blessing every Sunday on vacation to be with the people of God, to be able to sing with them, to be able to pray with them, to talk in fellowship, talk about the Lord. There is no greater place to be than among the people of God, the place in which God wishes to express his fullness. It will express itself in our ministry involvement. What by that is our ministry to others and our willingness to allow others to minister to us.

Passionate commitment to Christ is going to express itself in our ministry involvement, and I would hasten to say. That ministry involvement, there has to be something to be said about ministry involvement taking place within the context of the local church. That the local church is a microcosm of the universal church and Paul envisions as he thinks about local churches, the people of God being actively involved within that context to the building up of the body of Christ and it's each individual local church entity is being built up.

there's a sense in which the collective whole is being built up as well.

It will express itself in our efforts to build the members of the church up in the gospel. Think about Ephesians, is that not what Paul does? He is building them up in the gospel. I do not need to say a whole lot more than that.

Milton has covered it well for us, but, but Paul with the Ephesians and in every single epistle written by Paul, it is very clear that he is seeking to build the people up in the gospel, wanting the gospel to be the foundation upon which they live their lives, wanting to be the, the environment in which they live, the air that they breathe. The gospel and so again passionate commitment to the church is going to express itself in our efforts to build the members of the church up in the gospel and again that's exactly what we see Paul doing it will express itself in our willingness to give to the church in in New Zealand on the mission trip we were so incredibly blessed by the giving of the local churches that we ministered to.

They gave to us of their time they gave to us their homes they gave to us their automobiles, and they were a huge blessing to us and those who are committed to the church, that commitment will manifest itself in a willingness. To give.

Think about Paul. he completely laid down his life willing to die, why? For the benefit of the people of God, for the church, for the glory of Christ, that the fullness of God might be be manifest in the church. He was willing to give over his life.

in 2 Corinthians 8:182, Paul says, in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and the deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of the liberality and in that passage what he's talking about is the fact of their willingness to give, financially and so it's gonna express itself in our willingness to give to the church of our time, of our resources, even of our finances. A passionate commitment to the local church will express itself in our willingness to suffer for the church.

How many of you, if the Lord were to step up into your face and say, I want you to go to Indonesia. and I want you to go to a place in which, Muslim extremists are killing believers on a daily basis because of their faith.

How many of you, if the Lord were to step up in your face and say, go to Indonesia, how many of you would say, I would gladly go for the sake of the glory of God. And yet, a passionate commitment to the church will manifest itself in our willingness to suffer. The apostle Paul, in speaking of himself, Ephesians 4:1 says, a prisoner of the Lord. I am a prisoner of the Lord.

In Ephesians 6:19, he says, pray for me, pray on my behalf that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel. For which I am an ambassador in chains. I am in chains because of my passionate commitment to the church and to the proclamation of the gospel within the church and in the lives of those who have yet to come into the church. The apostle Paul was willing, in fact, in Philippians, he talks about how he is willing, that, that for him he will die for the sake of bringing glory to God.

That at the end of the day that for him was what mattered and if he could share in the sufferings of Christ, so be it and praise be to God that he would allow me, he would consider me worthy to share in his suffering. So a passionate commitment to Christ is going to manifest itself in our willingness to suffer for the church. And finally, there's more that could be said, but here's a final thought. A passionate commitment to Christ.

Will it express itself as we consider very important life decisions. And I've said this already, the apostle Paul, I believe he chose not to marry because he thought that that would be better for him as it relates to him planting churches and having to travel all over the place. It'd be easier for him to do it independently as a single man than to have to drag a wife and. Potentially children along with him to do that and so I believe that the apostle Paul, he probably gave some thought to that and says, what, being single for me is gonna be better and his decision making process, was connected to his passion.

For the church, his passionate commitment to the church, as I consider the possibility as my family considers the possibility of, moving to New Zealand someday, we don't have any clear direction on that, but as we consider the possibility at the end of the day like I said before, what we're wanting has nothing to do with how beautiful. Or how ugly a certain country or state or whatever is the the driving motivation is the church of God and where would God have us to be in relation to his people in which local church might he want us to be that we might be able to be a blessing to that body whether it be here or elsewhere it really doesn't matter what matters is is where God would have us.

I'm not gonna be motivated. And we ought not to be motivated by anything less when we make such an important decision as to where I'm going to live than by than by the church by Christ His calling and the local body of believers among whom God would want us to minister so much more could be said, but I have attempted to answer just a couple of questions.

Why should we be passionately committed to the church? and then. What does passionate commitment to the church look like? How does it express itself?

We, we here, as I wrap it up, we here at Cornerstone Fellowship Bible Church, we are extremely blessed. I don't wanna go so far as to say that we have experienced all of the fullness of God. We haven't, and there is yet room to grow, but as I look around and I've, and as I'm exposed to church after church since I consider Cornerstone Fellowship Bible Church, it would be sinful for me not to think of Cornerstone with a thankfulness, realizing how the Lord has blessed this body.

this is a body of believers who I believe is passionately committed to the church.

It's a church that loves the church. We love what God loves. We love what Jesus loves. We love the church.

When you think about it, year to date, our giving financially is we have never ever given more year to date than we have this year financially. That is an expression of our passionate commitment to the church. We have people in this church who every Sunday arrived here at the crack of dawn. I was here fairly early, about 6 in the morning, but I wasn't the first person here.

There's others here that beat me to the door and they were here just ministering to us behind the scenes that is passionate commitment to the church. We have people here who will take the prayer bulletin and and on a weekly basis, some on a daily basis are praying. The prayer requests of that prayer bulletin, that's passionate commitment to the church. When you think about our care group ministry, it is fairly astonishing to consider the amount of involvement we have, the amount the, the attendance of this church to the care groups, it that that speaks of a passionate commitment.

We've got people in this church who faithfully, regularly are reaching out to our High Grove neighbors, ministering to them, demonstrating a passionate commitment to the body of Christ, to the church, and to the advancement of the church as they seek to evangelize and win others to, to the faith. there are some in this church, faithful commitment, right? It's being manifest in this body. I don't think there's been a birthday of mine or an anniversary of mine that has gone by without me receiving a card from someone in the church on behalf of Cornerstone Fellowship Bible Church saying happy birthday or congratulations on your anniversary.

these are expressions of passionate commitment to the church and, and again we in this church, I believe, are blessed and, and back to the care group ministry when you think about it. not only do we have a lot of people attending, but we have a lot of people actually involved, whether it's providing leadership or stepping up to the plate when the leadership asks, administering their gifts and music and leading music and discussion leadership or, or leading the communion or, or even other things outside of the immediate care group we've got ministry.

Taking place and all of these things speak well in my opinion of Cornerstone Fellowship Bible Church and these expressions tell me that this is a church of people passionately committed to the church but at the same time I would also hasten to say that it may be that. God has laid out for us in the book of Ephesians, as Paul communicates an exalted view of the church that perhaps there, there are ways in which we can grow, that perhaps there are ways in which we have yet failed to realize all of the fullness of God that he intends his fullness to be made manifest in this church.

And so, and so again, there, there are perhaps ways in which we can grow, and I would ask you to ask yourself the question. How am I doing in relation to my passion? My passionate commitment for the church. How am I doing as it relates to the expression of my passionate commitment to Cornerstone Fellowship Bible Church, the church in which the Lord has called me and expects me to minister my gifts for the building up of my brothers and sisters in this particular local expression of the Church of God.

When you look at Paul's vision for the church, it is astounding. He envisions a church experiencing the fullness of God, where all of the people of God are actively involved, ministering their gifts, and there's nothing but vibrancy and health and unity and love, and the fullness of God is being expressed. That's what he sees for the church, and He is writing to the Ephesians, I believe, to that end, that's what he wants to see and likewise God would want this church to be at the place in which we, we, we can accurately, it can, it can be said of us that we are a good reflection of this.

Awesome, marvelous, beautiful, entity that Paul describes as the church, the body of Christ, the fullness of him who fills all and is in all.

Let us go ahead and close in prayer. dear Lord, we know that you call us. To a passionate commitment to the church. Lord, there are plenty of good reasons as to why.

We should be passionately committed, oh God, you are. Jesus, you are. You have given to us examples like Paul. You have commanded us.

In relation to our brothers and sisters. To walk in love, to be committed to one another. And Lord, you have revealed to us in scripture. That if we are not, apart from our healthy functioning, Within the body, the body is going to suffer for it.

We will suffer when our brothers and sisters don't exercise passionate commitment. Lord, plenty of good reasons as to why we ought to be passionately committed. And Lord, there are plenty of ways, countless ways. In which our passionate commitment to the church might express itself in our lives.

Lord, Our prayer and our desire matches Paul's prayer and his desire for the church, his prayer and his desire for the Ephesian church as he prays for them. That they might be filled up with all of the fullness of God, the church being the very place through which you wish your fullness to be made manifest, oh God, may it be that you are not done with us yet. And that Father you might cause your fullness to explode upon us in such a way that would be beyond our ability to comprehend.

Oh Lord, the waterfalls of Milford Sounds would have nothing against what it is that we would want you to do and indeed invite you to do in this particular church.

In the lives of our brothers and sisters in this church, Cornerstone Fellowship Bible Church, for whom you have spilled your blood and lived to make intercession for us and will come at the end of the day with a trumpet sound and Lord, you will bring us to yourself. Oh God, may it be. That your glorious vision for what the church ought to be would be realized here at Cornerstone Fellowship Bible Church, and we pray these things, Lord, for your glory and for our good. In the name of Jesus Christ.

Amen. Well, I believe it would be appropriate for me to say that you guys were dismissed. Have a good Lord's Day and bless you during the next week. Lord willing, we'll see you back next week.