The Church

Good morning. Welcome to Insights with

Pastor John. Today I want to talk about

the church

and uh you know one of the things that

we have to understand is the church

is Jesus's body. That's all of us.

The church isn't a building.

The church isn't a place of worship. The

church is the people that have received

Jesus as Lord and Savior.

Uh, a lot of things go on these days.

Uh, a lot of things we're seeing that in

America anyway, you never expected to

see.

um having a group of protesters invade a

church service where people are are

praying, hearing the word of God being

preached, singing songs and coming to

disrupt the service

um

is something we haven't seen in this

country

in its entire 250 year history as a

country.

Uh Christians are being persecuted all

over the world. Uh churches are attacked

in countries. Christians are taken

captive. Uh they're killed. Uh and I do

mean all over the world. And

the church hasn't suffered the

persecution it's suffering now since

back at the beginning of the church in

the first century church.

We started out, the church started out

as a

as Jewish believers that had received

Jesus

and they were immediately

brought under scrutiny by the Jewish

uh rulers of the synagogues and the

Sanhedrin court.

And then

the church began to suffer persecution

at the hands of

their own people.

And then they they the church shifted

and moved into reaching out into the

non-Jewish world and the spreading of

the gospel, which if you read through

the first six chapters of Acts, you you

would get a very good understanding of

the founding of the church and what

happened there.

It's very important that you understand

how the church progressed.

But then because the church was

considered Jewish,

um they began

and they were growing so rapidly

everywhere in the Roman Empire

that the church fell under persecution

that lasted for close to 300 years.

uh Christians were executed, Christians

were tortured, Christians were as we all

hear fed to the lions. Um and then

about 300 years after the church comes

into existence

uh

with emperor Constantine, it becomes the

state religion of Rome. But in that in

that interim from the time of Nero

until Constantine, the church was

attacked.

They they literally tried to wipe

the church out. Tried to wipe Christians

out of existence. Yet the church

continued to grow.

And it's one thing for us to

uh very important thing for us to recall

and remember is that the church grows

through adversity.

When things happen that you sit there

and you're it boggles the mind in

today's world that the church would come

under attack from anyone. Yet here we

are uh dealing with this today.

And you know, the church was

called out from among the people.

We're supposed to be a separate people.

We live in this world, but we're not of

this world.

And the church has taken a lot of uh

hits because we've had people that we

elevated

that had moral failures and uh some of

them were corrupt.

Um and people look at at church and at

Christians say, "Well, you're no

different than I am, so why should I

even be uh considering this?" But

for at least 40 years,

uh, Christianity was mocked. It's still

mocked in some places, put down. And you

have people out there that are claiming

to be Christians that uh,

their lives don't match that. Their

lives don't show us uh, a change. And

that's one thing about being a Christian

that's absolutely imperative

is that your life

should change.

Jesus, he accepts you as you are and

then the word tells us that you have to

change and that change has to be come

from the inside not the outside.

Uh Jesus even addressed it himself. And

what was the thing he said? He he told

the Pharisees

uh to go and clean the inside purse cuz

they were all about their appearance,

about who they were, about what they

were watching. Uh about how they prayed

on street corners and wore the finest

clothes. And Jesus said, "Don't do that.

clean the inside of first because what

you have there is a whitened septic. You

You look great on the outside, but

you're full of dead men's bones.

The church has to look different than

the world.

It has to act different than the world.

where we we are told in scriptures,

especially if you spend the time to

study all of Paul's writings between

from Romans all the way to Hebrews,

everything that he talked about was

separation, becoming something different

than what the world is. And you have to

do that. If you're a Christian, you have

to change. Uh things about you have to

change. Your focus has to change. the

things that you're looking for or

looking to

uh

live your life accordingly should line

up to God's word. And if it doesn't, uh

it's not God that's in error, it's you

that's in error.

U

you know, I I stop and think about the

way church has changed just in the 42

years I've been saved. Uh, do you

realize that a lot of churches have

armed security in the parking lots and

outside their buildings because people

attack them? You have people that have

no consciousness towards God. They have

no problem whatsoever attacking

churches. Um, last year alone in the

United States, I'm not talking about in

some third world countries where uh it's

well known and well documented that they

attack and kill Christians. I'm talking

about right here in the United States.

Uh people going into a Catholic church

and opening opening fire on the on the

people that are there trying to worship,

killing people.

uh other churches or people driving

vehicles through the walls and attacking

the the the people that are in the

church and trying to kill as many as

they can.

Um,

our most recent thing was they didn't

kill anybody, but they came in and

disrupted a church service

uh because they don't agree or because

they thought the pastor of that church

was a member of ICE.

Um,

but at the same time, just to show you

how skewed this is, they would not dare

do that

to a mosque,

but they would do it to a Jewish

synagogue. And they have. They've done

it in New York. They've done it in other

places. They've set the buildings on

fire. They've attacked the people

inside. They've killed people as they

come out of the synagogue.

In the United States,

the one place in the whole world

where we're our right to worship is in

the Constitution. And this is a

protected space. This is a space where

Christians or whatever are supposed to

be able to worship God freely.

Yet today,

we're under attack.

So I wanted to I wanted to remind you

the church has always been under attack

since its inception.

Jesus said that he would that upon this

rock I will build my church and the

gates of hell shall not prevail against

it. Well stop and think about that. Upon

this rock I will build my church and the

gates of hell shall not prevail against

it. That telling you that there is a

war. There's a war that is instituted by

the enemy. He uses people. He uses

people that have twisted ideologies. He

uses people that are fanatics and uh

that are violently angry at everything.

And the whole purpose is to do

everything he can.

He doesn't care if you go to church. He

doesn't care if you

uh say you're a Christian. What he cares

about is if Christ is changing you.

Because if you embrace Christ

and you live Christ

with your full life, you are his enemy.

Peter said that the devil goeth about as

a roaring lion seeking whom he may

devour.

Jesus said, "The thief cometh to kill,

steal, and destroy, but I came to give

life and give it more abundantly."

Um, you can't hold hands with the world

and be a Christian.

It doesn't work that way. We have to

understand how important it is to

separate ourselves. U, that doesn't mean

we become these weirdos that live in

these uh, small walled off communities

because that's not what he said either.

He gave us the great commission. He

said, "Go into the world and make

disciples, teaching them all the things

I've taught you, baptizing them in the

name of the Father, Son, and the Holy

Spirit." So, he sent us out as his

ambassadors, his emissaries

to bring people into his kingdom.

And the world

lives in darkness and they don't want to

see the light. and they get offended

when you when you are showing that

light. And so now we're at a place in in

our country where

the Christian faith is coming under deep

deep attack.

And if we're going to be the church,

we're going to have to go back and take

a look in the book of Acts and see what

the church did. in they continued to

pray, they continued to preach, they

continued to tell the truth, they

continued to help people that needed

help. And uh

we have to realize that the world does

not want

you to

um

represent Christ

truly. They don't care if you say you're

a Christian, but they don't want you to

live like one. And they definitely don't

want you to do the things that Christ

said to do. So, the battle's real. The

enemy is real.

Um, but we wrestle not against flesh and

blood, but against spiritual wickedness

in high places. And we have to keep in

mind that our our battle is not with the

person that's been deceived, but the one

that deceives them. And so we have to

proclaim the truth. We have to tell

them, "You're you're deceived. You

believe one thing, but that's not what

the word says." So today,

I would like for us to begin to pray

for

some specific things. The first thing is

for revival that the church will revive

itself and begin to to once again and

we've have done this many times but

begin to once again proclaim the gospel

as it is not a watered down uh gospel

that uh

doesn't resemble anything that the

church founders at the founding of the

church preached. But to preach that

gospel

to that Jesus came, he died on the

cross.

He was b he was in the grave for three

days and he rose from the dead. We have

the only church, the only message to the

to the world

that has a risen living savior.

Muhammad's dead, Buddha's dead. Um,

every major world religion that there is

uh outside of Christianity

does not have

a leader who's alive that founded it

except for the Christians because Jesus

Christ is sitting in heaven to the right

hand of the father waiting for the

father to send him back to gather the

church. And you and I need to be good

watchmen. We need to be watching for

Christ to return and we need to be

prepared to do what we need to be

prepared for.

And uh so I want to leave that with you

this week. Be the church, but be the

true church. Don't be a watered down

version of Christianity, but actually

live the life that Christ commanded.

And we'll see you guys next week. Fakes.