Sermon Cloud

God’s Road Signs: Rest Stop: What Kind of Church Should I Pull Into?

2 Timothy 4:1-5

Intro: 54 year old man in Turkey is moving into a cave for his retirement.  Has electricity and satellite tv installed.  Many people think, “that’s the life.”  Got everything I need and no one will bother me.  We want to just go to work, go home and rest.  And people can just leave us alone.  No call list, no soliciting sign, no church member visits, no evening gatherings. 

And that individualism is especially popular with our faith.  It is personal.  And I will experience church at home – or by picking a place that fulfills my needs.

Proposition:  The Christian life is meant to be lived locked in with a great church.  Now there are multiple things we should want in a church.  Paul gives us three key things to look for.  These three things to find in a church are also three reasons why you should commit to a church.

I.                Find a church that (because it) teaches the Word as God’s Word. (1-2)

Let me remind you that 2 Timothy is a pastoral letter from Paul to Timothy telling him how to be a pastor and how churches should be run.  And he is about to get real specific, and so he gets Timothy’s attention with this section of the letter.  He says, what I’m about to tell you, I am telling you this in the presence of GOD – so listen up!  #1 Preach the word!

What’s the most important thing a church should do?  Have a pastor who preaches the word!

“Well I listen to sermons on the radio – I don’t need to hear the word at church.” Ex. Trevor.

Ex. Jim’s mom has someone pump gas for her.  Unneeded – I can do it myself.

What’s wrong with that?

The Bible itself testifies that its teachings are linked to the church.  The New Testament, for the most part, was not written to individuals.  It is written to churches.  Why?  Because Christianity does not truly and fully exist outside of being part of a church.

14 Although I hope to come to you soon, I am writing you these instructions so that, 15 if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.  1 Timothy 3:14-15

In Paul’s first letter to Timothy he says something very important here.  He doesn’t say I’m writing to you about God so you can take the instruction and follow Jesus on your own.  He says, I’m giving you this instruction to take to the church – and the church is the support structure and holder of this truth – the word of God.

Can you read God’s word on your own?  Of Course!  And you should be.  But know that God has given the church the responsibility to make sure the Word is rightly being preached.  And God has commanded that certain men be called out to preach the word.  That is what Paul is telling Timothy in our passage.  He is saying, “God has called you Timothy to preach the word to the church.”  Pastors have a special calling from God – they are ordained by Him to preach.

“The great revivals and movements throughout Christian history are almost always ignited by God’s use of a communicator: a bold, impassioned man of conviction who has a heart to share God’s word with people.” – Hershael York

So if one of the reasons to go to church is to hear the word preached – then how do you know if a church is truly preaching the word?

1. Pastor preaches out of (expository) the Bible.  “preach the word”
2. The word is being taught with clarity.

“My prayer is that preachers will never choose between being either biblical or effective but learn that they can and must be both.” – Hershael York

3. Pastor seeks to preach ALL of Scripture.  2 Timothy 3:16
4. There is a solid Sunday School/Bible study program.

Usually it is in Sunday School where you will learn what the church is fully supposed to be.

42 They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.  Acts 2:42-47

The fullest sense of hearing the word of God taught is only going to come to you in the church.  So make sure you are a part of one that does it well.

II.             Find a church with (because it offers) both love and discipline.  (2-4)

Paul tells Timothy that a church should be about reproving, rebuking, exhorting, and instruction – but make sure it is done with great patience.  People will turn away from God’s word, so you need to show discipline – but you need to do it in a loving way.  And so every church needs the balance of holding people accountable and showing love.

The church is meant to be a community of fellow believers.  It is the place we go to lift each other up in love and hold each other accountable in following Christ.

 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching.  Hebrews 10:25

We need each other.  We need to be able to be a community – a family.  A church is the place to go to hold each other up.  It is the place to go that if you go the wrong way – the church will “reprove, rebuke, exhort” you “with great patience and instruction.”

12 "What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? 13 And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. 14 In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.  Matt. 18:12-13

Ex. John MacArthur heard a man from his church was going to leave his wife for his secretary.  He was at her house.  MacArthur went there and grabbed him and took him away.

You need to be accountable to a church – cause if you go off and do something stupid they can come rescue you.  Ex. Broke down in mountains.  No cell. I wish I had a link to someone.

You say, “But I’ve never experienced real love and accountability in a church.”

“The church is for the perfecting of the members not a rest home for the perfect.” – unknown

“Any person can stand outside the church and criticize its obedience to the gospel.  Part of God’s call on a Christian’s life is to walk inside and die to self by relating to other human beings, both in their fallenness and in their redeemed glory.” – Christianity Today

Go find a church that is both loving and holds people accountable.  You will never find a church that holds that balance perfectly.  So the first step might be you becoming what you want from other people.

How quickly we forget the golden rule.

“If they don’t do unto me the way I want it done then I am moving on to another church or just quitting church all together.”

Become the example in church of someone who both loves and holds your brother accountable.

III.           Find a church that (because it) shares the person of Jesus and is the body of Jesus. (5)

Paul tells Timothy that there is hardship in being a pastor and a church that God has called us to be.  He says it will be hard, but endure as you do the work of an evangelist.  In other words, the church’s job is to make Christ known.

Churches are called to share Christ to the lost and to be Christ to each other.  If you want to be a part of showing and being Christ – then God has called you to do this within the church.

“We offer perilous advice when we urge people to ‘find Christ’ anywhere but in a local congregation.” – Tim Stafford 

“That sounds harsh.  We can find Christ in nature, at home alone, in a concert, in a ministry not connected to a church, etc.”

Yes, you can experience Christ anywhere.  But you don’t fully know Christ unless you know Him through His church.

You say, “Churches are imperfect, mean, unfulfilling, boring, etc.”

But Jesus loves the church as His own body and as His bride, because the church IS his body.  The church IS His bride.

Imagine someone coming up to me: “Paul, I love you.  But man I hate your wife Amy.  She is boring, mean, and I can’t stand her.”

Ex. Get a volunteer.  Slap them around while saying I love you.

The human body has parts, but the many parts make up only one body.  So it is with the body of Christ…The eye can never say to the hand, “I don’t need you.”  The head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you.”  1 Corinthians 12:12,21

As a Christian you have no right to say to the body of Christ, “I don’t need you.”  You will often experience Christ by yourself.  You will often experience Christ when gathered with other Christians not part of your church.  However, you will never fully experience Christ until you are experiencing Him through His body and His bride – the church.

“There is no healthy relationship with Jesus without a relationship to the church.” – Tim Stafford

Why is this so?  Why is Christ only fully experienced in the church?  Because Christ gave the church the task of finish His work on the earth in the Great Commission.

Seek out a church that is attempting to fulfill the great commission by sharing Christ.  And seek out a church that is fulfilling the greatest commandment to love by being Christ to each other.

“The New Testament writers…emphasized that we are in this experience of life with God, that God is in it with us, and that we are in it with each other.” – Dennis Kinlaw

Conclusion: In London recently a man put a 12k engagement ring in helium balloon.  He wanted to literally pop the question to his gf.  It got away from him and he chased it for 2 hours and never caught it.

How many of you are letting your life slip away without experiencing life how God means for it to be lived?  It will be gone before you know it.