Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Church Is ..., Part 1: Church Is ...

Episode Date: November 26, 2016

The word “church” holds different meanings, depending on who you ask. And if you ask us, a church isn’t a building. It’s people. Want to know more? Let’s talk this weekend about what Church Is—and what church could be. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Thanks for joining us here at Life Church, where we are one church meeting in multiple locations and reaching around the world with the help of church online. If you have any questions or you'd like to learn more about us as a church, you can always check us out online simply by going to life.com. Or you can stay connected with us throughout the week and everywhere you go with the Life Church app available today, wherever you download your apps from. Coming up today, our senior pastor Craig Rochelle welcomes Pastor Rich Wilkerson Jr. from Miami, Florida, author of the book Sand Castle Kings, as he brings a message to us to help us understand that the church

is more than a building, but rather a group of people sold out to reach the world with the love of Christ. Let's join him today in today's message, The Church is. Why don't we go ahead and give God a big shout of praise, Life Church? It is so good to be here at Life Church, man, honored, honored, honored to be here. Love with this church. is doing really all around the world. And so thankful for the voice of Pastor Craig and Amy Groschelle in my life. And I can't tell you how many sermons I've stolen from Pastor Craig Groschell. But man, I'm so thankful that he makes it available. And hopefully you know today just how great this miracle is what God is doing. This is a church that's touching the world and you get to be a part of it. And it's churches like mine in

Miami that really, really reap the benefit of all of your sewing, of all of your heart. work and perseverance. And I just want to say a huge thank you on behalf of Voo Church, our entire community in Miami. We're so much better because of Life Church. But, man, I love the leaders of this house. Can we go ahead and make a little bit of noise for Pastor Craig and Amy? We love you guys. Thank you so much for having us. Well, hey, if you got a Bible, go ahead and reach for it and turn to the book of Ephesians, Ephesians Chapter 5. And we just planted a church a year and a month ago. And so I'm thinking, I'm talking, I'm studying, all things the church. And so I felt like today, God put a message on my heart to share with

Life Church. And I want to read a passage of scripture that's typically used for marriage counsel and relationships. Yet I believe something deeper is going on, not just in the natural, but in the supernatural regarding the church. And Ephesians chapter 5, verse 22, this is what the Bible says. It says, wives, submit to your husbands to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church, his body of which he is the Savior. Now, as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands and everything. Husbands love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself

as a radiant church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife, loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it just as Christ does the church. For we are members of his body. For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and will be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. Here we go. Verse 32, this is a profound mystery, but I am talking about Christ and the church. I want to take a few moments today, and hopefully you're taking notes. Research shows us that 98% of people who take notes, make it to heaven. So far are you, I would take some notes. But I want to talk to you for a few moments from this thought, the bride, the bride.

Would you pray with me all this place? Lord, we thank you so much that you're here. God, we thank you so much for life church, God, and the great revival that's taking place out of these four walls. Lord, I pray God that today, Lord, you'd speak directly to us as we open up your word. God, we honor you. We praise you. And it's in your son's name, Jesus' name, that we pray all these things. And if you believe it, all of God's people said, Come on, all of God's people said? Amen. Come on, if you love Jesus, somebody give him a big shout or praise.

Hallelujah. I'm one of these kinds of people that grew up not around church, but honestly in church. I mean, I was in church seven days a week. In fact, my first slow dance was to our God is an awesome God. I got some real problems, okay? On both sides of my family, I'm a fourth generation Pentecostal preacher. and I was thinking about my schedule. Like seven days a week, I was in church.

Sunday, that was the Lord's Day. And so we found ourselves in God's house. And I don't know what your tradition was or your custom, but we would start by going to Sunday school. Remember the flannel graph and the Sunday school teacher? And then from there, we would all gather into big church where we'd sit on the pews with our entire family. Now, we were real Christians, so we would go to lunch,

then we would come back for Holy Ghost Sunday night church. Come on now. And in my tradition where I would go, grew up, I don't know what it was like for you, but we grew up with this thing at the end of every Sunday night's service. It was called the Tunnel of Blessing. All of the Deacons and all of the elders, they would come down to the front and they would have people walk through the tunnel of blessing and they would anoint you with oil. Now, for me, as a kid, we didn't call it the Tunnel of Blessing. We just called the Holy Ghost Car Wash because you'd come through and you'd get anointed with

oil, man. And I was thinking, man, every day of the week. Sunday was where it started. But then Monday, I used to have to go to this thing called, wow, women of the word Bible study. My mom took me to women's Bible study, man. Tuesday night, my grandfather passed at a large church in the Tacoma, Washington area for 40-odd years. And on Tuesday night, he would take me with him to a thing called a taste of new wine. You say, what is that? It was Christian Alcoholics Anonymous, okay? We would sit in a group recovery session.

It would come around to me at nine years of age, and I would say, hi, my name's Rich. I'm an alcoholic, but I met Jesus. You know, I would just lean in and build the atmosphere. Wednesday I would go to midweek service. Thursday it was youth choir. Friday night was youth impact. Saturday was sidewalk Sunday school, seven days a week in church.

Come on, anybody out there love church. Make a little bit of noise. What I've learned about being in church is if you're not careful, you can get lost and caught up in doing church that you forget to be the church. Maybe you're here today and you're going, what is this whole thing with church? Seems like everyone's really excited about it

and passionate about it here at Life Church. Did Pastor Craig come up with this idea? And the answer is no, Pastor Craig didn't come up with church? God came up with church. You say, what does that word church mean? Well, the word church comes from a Greek word found in the New Testament and the word is ecclesia.

And I love this word ecclesia because ecclesia speaks about a gathering or an assembly of believers. Meaning church is not a place, but church is a people. and church really isn't about where, it's about who. You and I, we are called to be the church. You say, what's the purpose of the church?

Well, the purpose of the church, capital C, has always been threefold. The first thing is that it's ministry unto God, that when we gather we're to minister unto our God, that we're to praise and bless the name of Jesus. That's why we open up the services here at Life Church with praise and worship. That's not a concert for you and I, but rather that's a concert for our God.

We're worshiping our God. How many of you know that when we praise our God, when we bless our God, it changes things. The psalmist, he said this. He said, oh, magnify the Lord with me. Let us exalt His holy name. He was on to something. He was talking about the idea that I want to magnify. I want to bless the name of God because as I magnify the name of Jesus, his presence grows bigger in my life.

What are you magnifying it? The problem? Or are you magnifying the answer? answer, his name's Jesus. But it's not just ministry to God. It's also ministry to believers. I love this because when we come to church, what I'm doing right now, this is called preaching, okay? Preaching means to proclaim. And this is quite different from a lot of different things that happen all across our world. What we're doing the day is on Sunday, people all over the world right now are listening to someone open up God's word and then proclaim the truth of God. And the Bible

talks about that there's power in our preaching. The Bible says that the cross, it's foolishness to those that are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. And here's what I love about our God. All of us, come on. All of us can be on this different faith journey, but even though we're on this different faith journey, God is so big that he can speak intimately to each and every one of us on our journey. And as we preach, God speaks to us. But then thirdly, it's not just ministry to God, and it's not just ministry to believers, it's ministry to this world. That you and I, as we gather on Sunday, we're supposed to scatter for the rest of the week, and we're supposed to be the church at work, be the church at school, be the church in our

neighborhood. It was Jesus who said, upon this rock, I will build my house and the gates of hell shall not prevail. Don't you love that idea that Jesus is giving for us, that we're to be such a progressive, such an aggressive church, that we're literally rescuing people. from hell? How many here at Life Church, you want to be a church that's stepping out into the world, ministering to the world, and rescuing people? Come on, somebody give God a big shout of praise. We're to minister to the world. As a church, whatever we avoid, the devil will invade. We shouldn't be afraid. We shouldn't be ashamed. We should be bold and we should be courageous. And we should step out into the night with the light of Jesus. Amen?

As you study God's word, what you'll find out about when it comes to the ecclese of the churches, that there's lots of different metaphors. Paul will use the metaphor that we're the body of Christ, that every one of us have a function, that as we serve, we become the body of Christ. He'll talk about the idea that we're the building of Christ, that you and I were living stones being laid upon one another to form a home for our God. Yet one of the most peculiar metaphors that's used in the Bible that I've always found interesting is that you and I, we are called the bride of Christ. The bride of Christ. Have you ever wondered? why we're called the bride of Christ? Why is the church called the bride? You know, I just celebrated

this past summer 10 years of marriage to the same woman, praise God. Come on. And my wife, her name is Don Sheree. And I met my wife when she was 17 years of age. We were in church. A lot of reasons to come to church. That's just one right there. Now, sitting on the front row, I never forget. I looked up into the balcony, and I think she had like fans at her feet because her hair was blowing and every step she took. I felt like the ground just shook, you know? I just said, I choose you, you know? It took her a while to choose me back, but praise God, she heard from the Lord, and we've been together ever since. And my wife is my partner.

She's everything to me. We've been doing life since we were 17. We've been married for 10 years in ministry together. And I was thinking, it would be crazy if you ever came up to me and said, hey, Rich, I love you, man. Hey, Rich, I'm for you. I got your back, man. But, hey, Rich, I got to be honest with you. I don't really like Don Sheree very much.

I don't really get down with your wife. How many of you know I probably have a problem with that statement? Because you can't love me and not like my wife. Yet how many Christians have I met that say, I love Jesus, but I don't like the church. Hey, you don't have to go to church to be a Christian. Hey, church is boring. You see, church is full of hypocrites.

See, I think if we would just stop and reflect a little bit more on what we're saying and understand who we are as the church, we would never say these things. Because if we're the bride of Christ, there's no way to say, I love Jesus, but I don't like the church. That's like saying, I love you Jesus, but I don't like your bride. Come on, I know you don't have to go to church to be qualified as a Christian. But come on, if you love Jesus and you're a Christian, why would you? you not want to go to church. Church is boring. Don't ever say that, ever, because church is you and me, and I refuse to be boring. You're boring. Come on. We're not boring to you and I are.

Church is full of hypocrites. Are you just now figuring this out? Yes, you are correct. Church is full of hypocrites because church is full of people. And people tend to say, one thing and do another. That's why we come to church. We're in need of a savior. Anybody thankful that you serve a God who's not a hypocrite, but you serve a God who came and saved you and has always lived out what he says. Paul, so Paul said, why do I do the things I don't want to do and I don't do the things I want to do? What's he saying? He said, I'm a hypocrite, but I need a savior. I don't come to church to be reminded of my weaknesses. I come to church to be reminded of His strength.

My God's not a hypocrite. My God provides me grace so I can walk out my race. I want to try to answer in the few moments that we have really quick. Maybe just three benefits or three reasons why I believe that you and I are called the bride of Christ. And I just want you to write these down really quick and these will help you. We'll give a lot of reasons. But let me just give you three reasons.

I believe that God and the scriptures say that we're the bride of Christ. The first reason is Paul, as he's writing, this is what he says. He says, husbands, love your wives like Christ love the church. I think the first word that I want to talk about is this word intimacy. Everybody say intimacy. Oh, come on, Life Church, we can do better. Say intimacy. I really believe that the first reason why we're called the bride is because God wants intimacy with you and I.

And out of all of the things that we could be likened to, we're likened to a bride. I don't know if there's a more intimate place on the planet than the marriage bed between a husband and a wife. And God is trying to say, that's the type of relationship I want with my church. Now, maybe you hear right now and you're going, Rich, this is not the message for me, bro. It's getting kind of weird, dude. I'm not really into God romancing me. I'm not really into God, you know, calling me his bride. And it's probably because you're a dude and you don't understand the difference between something that's literal and something that's a metaphor, okay?

A metaphor is talking about something that they're trying to find to bring resemblance to your life. So this is not literal, but rather this is a metaphor. God is trying to find something on this earth to show you the level of intimacy that he wants with you. And real intimacy is all about trust. This past year has been an amazing year. We stepped out in faith and we planted this church called Voo Church. Vue is short for rendezvous. Rendezvous just means the meeting place,

but we found out quickly that nobody knows how to spell rendezvous. And when you Google rendezvous, really weird stuff comes up on your computer, so don't do it. But it's been a huge year of God developing and building our faith. As we've stepped out into the unknown, it's where God has made himself known.

And I was talking to our church a few weeks ago. I looked at our church. I said, church, do you know how much I love you? I pray for you. God's done something new in my heart. He's expanded my heart. I love you. I pray for you.

I want your business to flourish. I want your marriages to thrive. I love you. But then I said, I love you, but how many know I love my wife in a different kind of way? How many of my wife loves me in a different kind of way? And how many of you know, I know my wife, my wife knows me in a different kind of way. What if God is saying, I want to know you in a different way? What if God is inviting you to know him in a different way, in an intimate way,

in a way that's full of trust? See, trust. I like this idea. Intimacy, into me, see, see the real me. How many of you know that we date the projected self, we tend to marry the actual self? Right, when people are dating, they play out the best version. Hey, how you doing?

Yeah, I love you so much. You love blue, blue's my favorite color. Oh, my God. I love pizza too. You love pizza? Oh, my God, I love pizza. Yeah, I love you. Hey, I love you. Okay, good night, shut up.

No, shut up, good night. Okay, hang up, ready. One, two, three. You still there? Yeah, I'm still there. Yeah, we do all that, right? You date the projected self. Then one day you wake up, and you go, who's that?

Because the actual self shows up. What God is saying to us is that I'm not interested in the projected you. I love the real you. I want to know the real you. I don't need the church version of you. I'm into the real you. I want intimacy. I believe that God calls us the bride because he wants to know us and he wants us to know him in an intimate way.

Husbands love your wives like Christ love the church. but Paul will continue and he'll say that Christ gave himself up for her that we might be holy and blameless and blemish free wrinkle-free that we would be a pure bride see I think the first reason why we're called the bride is for intimacy but the second reason is for protection everyone say protection oh come on everybody say protection I believe that God is saying that the church is protected by our father. Now, as you read the text, this is one of these controversial parts in scripture because the Bible says, wives submit to your husbands.

Now, notice, it does not say women submit to men, and it doesn't say women submit to all husbands, but rather it says women submit to your husband. And I see a lot of women get really upset about this, but come on, read the next part of the scripture. It says, husbands love your wives like Christ love the church. I don't know who got the shorter end of the deal. Women, we have to submit to our husbands, but guess what? I have to die for you.

Girls have to submit. Guys have to die. I think we both have a responsibility here. And the question is, ladies, can you be a girl who's worth dying for? And men, can you be a man who's worth submitting too? Come on, if we're a clap, let's just all clap together out there. You see,

Paul is right and he's saying, Christ loved the church so much that he died for the church. Now, I know you look at me and I look pretty dangerous, and you'd probably think I'm a skilled fighter, but it's not true. I'm not a fighter. I'm more of a lover. And I'm not into fighting. There's a lot of reasons why I'm not into fighting.

Just a couple reasons. One reason is that there's this thing called UFC out there. And there's these guys that actually know moves of how to put you in submission. I'm not into it, okay? I was watching UFC the other day. And, man, sometimes I watched these things in like, these guys that are on UFC, they look like my seventh grade math teacher, right? It would be just my luck for me to be out one night.

you know, I get into a little tussle, this guy pushes some kind of pressure point on my neck. I'm in a geometry move. I'm not doing it, okay? And then the other thing is guns, right? Because you could be a 98-year-old grandmother. And if you have a gun, it doesn't matter how much Kempo and Taekwondo I know, you're taking me out. I'm not going to mess with you. You might have a gun.

So a couple weeks ago, I'm in Miami. I'm at this place called Hugo Fresh, amazing green juice place. And I'm in the store drinking green juice for Jesus, praise God. And I call Uber. Uber is a driving. system that we have in Miami to get cars to pick you up and it's easy than taxi cabs. And so I call the Uber and I'm just waiting for this guy to pick me up and all of a sudden my phone starts ringing. And this guy in the other hand, as I pick up my phone, he's like screaming at me. He's like,

where are you? I'm like, oh my God, what just happened? You know? And I'm like, I'm inside, man, I'm just drinking green juice in here. He goes, where are you? I just told you I'm drinking green juice for Jesus. What's going on, man? He's not been calling you. I'm coming out. I'm coming out right now. And so I walk outside, when I walk outside, his window is down and he's looking at me. And have you ever seen somebody who has like evil eyes? You know, I'm like, what's going on with this dude? I'm like, I'm not taking this ride today. And he starts screaming at me in front of everybody. He goes, where have you been? I've been calling you. I'm like, I didn't know I worked for you. You know what I mean? Like this guy's going off.

And as he's going off, something starts to rise up on the inside of me. Call it righteous anger, if you will. But I looked back at him and I raised my voice. It was like Simba becoming Mufasa. I said, hey, I say, hey, look, man. I told you. I was inside drinking green juice. And as I said green juice, all of a sudden, the thought went through my mind, wait a minute, this guy might know UFC. Wait a minute, this guy might have a gun. And all of a sudden, the little man that was coming out turned into a little boy.

And I said, you know what, sir, as I come to think about it, I don't really want any problems today. Why don't you go on your way and have a blessed day? You're such a great guy. I know what's hard out there being an Uber driver. Go with God. I love you. Peace.

I was like, I don't want a problem. I'm not a fighter. Not at all. But friend, mark my words. If you mess with my wife, that's a whole other story. If you mess with my wife, if you come to bring harm to my wife, I am prepared, I am ready by any means necessary to step in the middle and protect my wife. she is my responsibility. I will do anything that I need to do, even die for her if I have to. Oh, come on now. You see, this is how God loves you. God has so many different times stepped in the gap.

Many times you don't even know it. It's not until we get to heaven to the other side of eternity that we'll find out just how many times God stepped in the gap and protected you. That's why when you come to church, you don't have to wait for someone to pump you up. You don't have to wait for the worship team to play your favorite song. You ought to come into God's house, lift up holy hands, start worshiping God because you know God has shown up many times and stood in the gap for you. You see, this isn't just good preaching. This is good theology. Because right smack in the middle of Ephesians 5, Paul gives the gospel. How do I know that God will protect you?

Because he already did it. Two thousand years ago, Jesus came and he walked on this earth and he died a sinner's death. In fact, he died your death and my death on a cruel cross. And he died the death to take the punishment of sin. He took the curse of sin. And when he died, guess what, his life all of a sudden it protected you. And now today you are called spotless, you are called blameless, you are called righteous. not because of what you have done, but because of what Jesus has done.

You're a spotless, blemish-free bride. It's called grace. He protected you. Maybe you're here today. Rich, that sounds absolutely like unfair and wrong. Why would God, who's perfect, protect me? Well, this is the scandal of our gospel that God stepped in to humanity and died for us. I know I'm at Life Church right now, and this is like a,

really spiritual, awesome church, greatest church in all of the world and the best Christians in the world, biggest mansions in heaven, I know it. But, but, you know, I know you don't judge people, but sometimes I do. And have you ever been, like, you know, hanging out doing your thing? And all of a sudden, like, a couple walks in. And as the couple walks in, like, the girl, she's, you know, she's beautiful and gorgeous. And, but then the guy, um, the guy on her arm is, um, you're kind of like, How did that happen? You kind of look at it. You're like, oh, okay, okay, okay. Oh, you must have some money, bro. All right, all right. Dude's got some money. Do you, do you. Do you, player. Do you, right?

You're looking at it, and it causes attention because how many of you know, she's way out of his league. And you look at it and it's going, that's peculiar, that's strange. How did he get her? How many of you know that when the world looks upon the church, they see us with all of our problems, with all of our issues, with all of our weaknesses. But as they look upon us, they see our Savior and they say, how on earth did that guy pick them? And what you ought to do is you ought to say, that's called grace. That's called the scandal of the gospel. He chose me. He's way out of my league.

But he chose me. He protected me. And today I am blemish-free, I am wrinkle-free, I am a spotless bride. Not because of what I've done, but because of what Jesus has done. He chose me. He's out of my league, but he chose me. I think the first reason why we're called the bride is for intimacy. The second reason we're called the bride is for protection.

And the last reason, Paul continues to write, this is what he says. He says, at an appointed time, a man will leave his mother and father, and he will be united to a woman, and they will become one. flesh. He said, this is a profound mystery, but I'm actually talking about Christ and the church. First reason, intimacy, second reason protection. The third reason we're called the bride is for this reason that we have rights because of Jesus. We have rights. We are one with Jesus. I told you, I just celebrated 10 years of marriage to my wife, Don Sheree. I wish you could meet my wife. Don Sheree is, she's this the best. She's from Shreveport, Louisiana. She's a true southern

Bell. She just, she just, hey y'all, how y'all doing? She just speaks and she's just glorious. Everybody loves her, you know, she's the best thing in my life. Just how y'all doing? Good to see y'all. And when I met Donchery, her name was Doncheree Leney Duron. When I married her, she became Doncheree Duron, Wilkerson. Praise God. And when we got married, I remember our first year of marriage, we were living in Tennessee and we were in Bible college. And I remember one day, it must have been the first few months

that we were married. I was in the kitchen and Doncham's in the other room and she was on the phone with, I think, the cable company and she was talking to the cable company and she was having a dispute over one of our bills.

And I could hear her kind of like, you know, raising her voice. And Donchry once again, she's the sweetest person in the world. She never gets angry. I don't think she's ever sinned in her entire life. She's a real Christian people.

But all of a sudden I could hear and I can hear going, excuse me, excuse me, you do not need to speak to my husband. you are speaking to Mrs. Wilkerson. I said, preach, girl. Dang, that sounds good. What was she saying?

She was saying, actually, you don't need to get my husband on the phone. You've got me on the phone right now. And when you're talking to me, you're talking to him. Because I carry his name, I have the same rights. So whatever you're looking for, guess what? I have the authority and I have the right. rights to answer it. Friends, it reminds me of what the Apostle Paul said in Romans chapter 8. He said, if you and I, if we're willing to share in Christ's suffering, well, then guess what? We will also

share in His glory. I have good news today for the Church of Jesus Christ. Because of Jesus, when you put your trust and your faith in Him, all of a sudden you obtain the exact same rights. Today, you are the righteousness of God through Christ Jesus. And when you pray prayers according to the book of James, the Bible says the prayers of a righteous man. they availeth much. Aren't you thankful today that you're not standing in your righteousness, but you're standing in His righteousness? You have the same rights as Jesus. When you pray God, here's the prayers of Jesus. And you have rights today. I want to challenge life church. It's time to rise up like never before. Oh, I know what God has done has been amazing.

But I actually believe the best is still yet to come. Let's not get lost in doing church. Let's declare and decide in our spirit that we're going to be the church. We know who we are. We are the ecclesia. These buildings can come down, but praise God. Our God still rules and reigns, and we are his bride. We have intimacy. We have protection. And we have rights because of Jesus Christ. Come on if you believe it. Somebody give God a big shout of praise all over the house. Hallelujah. I want to pray for you at all of the locations today, wherever you're watching this from, Church Online. Let me pray today that God would begin to give you a new revelation of who you are as the Church. Lord, we thank you so much for speaking to us. God, we thank you for your word, Lord. God, we thank you that right now, Lord, you are here. And wherever we find ourselves, whatever we're going through, Lord, we open up our hearts right now, Lord, for you to come and speak and minister to us. God, we thank you, Lord, that you want intimacy with us. God, we thank you

that you have protected us, Lord. And God, we thank you that you have given us rights. Lord, Lord, I pray God, that we would begin to pray prayers, Lord, that are bold, Lord, that we begin to be people, Lord, that step up and be the church wherever we are. God, we thank you for all that you've done. But Lord, we declare that there's still more to come. We love you, we praise you. In Jesus, mighty name, everybody said, I love your life, church. Thank you so much. Pastor Rich, thank you so much. And that whole thing about marrying out of your league, I take that personally. I take it personally because I did.

All of our churches, could you just join me? And let's pray together. Father, thank you so much that you sent your son, Jesus, that he could give us life for us, your church. God, would you empower us to be your church to make a difference in this world? The light, the love of Jesus, we ask. As you're praying today at all of our churches,

I know that there are many of you right now. If you're really, really honest, you would say, well, I may be in the church, but I'm not really living as the church. And let me explain. We always say here that we don't just go to church, we are the church. God's calling for the church is not what happens for an hour or so inside of a building. What God wants for his church is for us to be active in the world. At all of our different locations, some of you are going to recognize, honestly, I am a follower of Jesus. And yes, I am attending church. Yes, I am at church online. But I'm not actively. engaged as the church. I believe that God wants all of us using our gifts. I believe that God wants all of us praying and using our faith. I believe that God wants all of us reaching out, inviting people to become followers of Jesus, to be active in this church. I believe God wants all of us to be engaged in life together, deep committed community around God's word. And all of our churches there are many of you, you're attending, but you're not fully engaged as the church. And I want to

invite you today to take a step forward. All of our churches you say, yes, I'm here, I come, but I'm not completely engaged. I'm not all in yet. I recognize, I know there's more for me. I know that God hasn't just created me to go to a service that God has created me to be his church, represent his love, use my gifts, make a difference in this world. If you say, yes, I want to take a step even more toward God's church, to be his church. Use my gifts and make a difference. Would you lift your hands right now, just all of our churches say, yes, that's me today. As there are hands going up all over, God, I pray today that there would be people in physical buildings that couldn't even leave the building without talking to someone to say, where can I get involved? How can I make a difference?

God, I pray there would be divine connections that we would meet people, do life together in life groups. I pray for people all over the world at church online, that they would reach out and say, plug me in, use me. I want to volunteer. I want to pray. I want to know people, love people, and being engaged as a church. God help us never just to go to church, but to be your church, the church for which Jesus died, showing your love all over this world. As you keep praying today at all of our churches, there may be those of you say, well, I am in church, but I don't know where I really, really stand with God. And this may be kind of a foreign concept. Some people you think, well, I'm going to church. I'm obviously am a follower of Jesus, but that is simply not true. And my life is a perfect

example of this. I was a kid that grew up in church, going to church, but I didn't have that intimate relationship with Jesus that Pastor Rich talked about. Maybe you think, well, I need to do more and be better and try harder and stop doing bad stuff and start doing good stuff. But the reality is that our God is so amazing that he sent his son Jesus who was perfect in every way. When you look at the life of Jesus, he never ever sinned and yet he loved sinners just like me. literally became sin for us on a cross, died, and on the third day, he was raised from the dead. Why? So that anyone, and this includes you, anyone who calls on his name would be transformed, forgiven, and made new. And all of our churches, there are those of you, you recognize, I may be in a church building,

I may be watching online, but I don't have a genuine living faith in relationship with Jesus. When you call on him, he will hear your prayer, he will forgive your sins, he will make you knew. There are those of you you know this is why God brought you here today. All of our churches, you say, yes, I want to turn from my sins. I want to turn toward him. I call on him, Jesus, take my life and make me new. That's your prayer. Lift your hands high right now. All of our churches and say, yes, Jesus, I surrender to you. Those of you at church online, you click right below me. And we have people in all of our churches crying out to Jesus who gave his life for the bride of Christ. Would you all join those around you and pray aloud?

Pray Heavenly Father, forgive me of my sins. Make me brand new. I believe Jesus died for me so I could live for you. Fill me with your spirit so I could follow you for the rest of my life. My life is not my own. Today I give it to you. In Jesus' name I pray, would you all celebrate big worship God? All of our different churches.

Welcome those born into God's family today. You know, it's our honor as a church to play even a small part in all that God is doing in and through your life. And we would love to continue with you on that journey. To find out what your next steps could be in your relationship with Christ, all you have to do is go to life.church slash next. You know, as Pastor Rich mentioned, the church is more than just a building, but rather a group of people sold out to reach their community with the love of Christ.

And that is so true at our life church location in all. Albany, New York as a group of people want to reach their world and change their community in the same way they've been changed. You know, you think of Albany and you think about it as being the capital of New York, you think it's this big, elaborate city. It's a large city with a small vibe. The people are fantastic in the way that it's like a melting pot, and you can see so many people from different backgrounds and different cultures.

It's just a big, young professional environment, I'd say. It's a very ambitious place. There is a lot going on. With our society today and how it's so focused on so many objects that people try to put in their life to fill spaces. I think the biggest need is for real relationships, right? Where we're having real conversations and not just shallow, how's the weather, how's your day going? Once you build those relationships, they get to see Christ through your actions, your deeds, your words. Some of the great things that we can do as individuals to bring that message to people is to be a reflection of God.

By us receiving his love, his mercy, of grace, it should just kind of flow right out of us. And I hope that to realize it's Jesus and me and just how he flows out through my character. Just love people. It doesn't matter what kind of background they come from or who they are. We're not just going to church once a week. We want to build a relationship where the people that we're interacting with trust us to have the hardest conversations. With Life Church popping up and the Word of God to reach people, that's what they need. It's Jesus. It's His Word.

It's not about a building. It's not about a city. It's about a community. It's about having relationships with our neighbors and living life together. We have hope in this world and we can get through things because of Christ. I hope that when people think about me, they see that there is something different about me.

And the thing that's different is Jesus. If you have a need to find community where you're at with a group of people with the same mission to reach the world for Christ, you can do so by going to life.church slash life groups. You know it's our mission to lead people to become fully devoted followers of Christ here at Life Church. That statement drives everything we do

because we believe whoever finds God truly finds life. See you next time. Thank you.