Do_I_Go_To_Church

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As always, i we can help you in any way, please contact the church here atP.O. Box 68309, Indianapolis, IN 46268 USA.

www.JesusLifeTogether.comCopyright 2003 [email protected]

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(the entire document) except by the authors permission. You may, however,reely reproduce this in its entirety. And, o course, this publication is never

to be sold or any price (2 Corinthians 2:17, Matthew 10:8).

Do I HavetoGoto CHurCH

So, Do You Have To Go To CHurCH

To Be a CHriSTian?Many o us grew up having religious experiences that gave us a certainperspective o church. We concluded, Tis aint nothing. Tis doesntmean anything. Its just a bad organization. Te organization I go toand attend on Monday morning rom nine to ve is ar more organized,ar more proessional, with ar more intelligent people perorming theirunctions ar more prociently (and usually with more integrity) thanwhat I see in this thing called church. But I know Im supposed to dothis church thing because its in the Bible. Somewhere in the backo our minds and hearts we have dierent memories o our religious

experiences. One o my memories, or example, is o my pastor comingover to my house and getting drunk on Saturdays while watching ootballwith my dad. We all have our own stories that somehow discredit thisthing called church, dont we?

As a result, somewhere in the back o our minds we lost respect and aweor this thing called church, and in a sense, rightully so, because mosto what we saw didnt really deserve respect. It was a contradiction. Iyou ask the average pagan or unbeliever to tell you everything they knowabout church, they could usually sum it up in one word: Hypocrites.Or, Boring, Both words are the same thing, really. Tose words would

be the very rst things on the average unbelievers mind.


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And or most o us, we grew up with those same sorts o concepts aboutthe church. I we were on the inside because our parents were, then wewould see the hypocrisy but think that maybe we could just x thingsrom the inside. And, you know, you can get accustomed to just aboutanything. Youd eel guiltier or not going than or going, so you beginto accept the hypocrisy as normative. You tolerate it and explain it awaywith were only human or were all just sinners saved by grace. Youjust create a theology to explain it all.

SeeinGGoD affeCTSTHe WaYYou SeeCHurCH

But in truth, God means or the Church, the Body o Christ, to beviewed with an awe, and i we arent viewing it that way, then wearent seeing it properly. In those who rst saw the Church, there wasa transition that took place. It was reported that those early believerswere lled with awe when they saw the Church. Something verydramatic happened in their lives to the extent that they all abandonedtheir separate lives and were together and had everything in common.

Its not just, Yeah, yeah, I know. Tey loved Jesus. Tey gave their lieto the Messiah who they realized had come. Tey repented o acts thatlead to death. Something else happened, too. Tey were devoted tothe apostles teaching, to ellowship, to prayer, and to the breaking obreadall these things have to do with other people and have to dowith the Church. Tey instantly had a regard or the Household oGod as something much more than a loose-knit afliation o peoplewho each believed in God. It was not just about praying in their prayerclosets and then acknowledging these other people, Well, they areChristians, too. Im going to live or God, and they are going to liveor God. So, we ought to at least try to get along and attend something

together regularly. Tat isnt how the believers 2,000 years ago viewedthe Church.

Instead, the way they viewed the Church aected every ounce otheir being. When they saw the House o God, the gate o Heaven,something radical happened in the way they began to unction with oneanother. Tey now saw their lives as actually belonging to each other,rather than themselves. It wasnt just simply, I believe the Messiahhas come. Something happened in the way they viewed other people.Something about Christ with His Head in heaven and His eet on earthwas awe-inspiring to them and had a dramatic eect on their lives. It

was a dreadul thing, not in the negative sense o course, but there was

something very awe-inspiring about who Jesus was and is in His Peopleon this earth. Tey saw it and they responded to it.

WHaTiS CHurCH? WHaTiSaCHriSTian?From Jesus standpoint, or us not to discern the Body, is also not todiscern Christ. For us to persecute the Church or minimize the Church

or not esteem this thing called the Church is in turn doing the same toChrist. As I said beore, we all grew up not esteeming the thing we calledchurch. But the thing we were not esteeming was an institution. It wasan organization. It was a religious group with some belie system thatdrew them together. But, in the average church, more than hal o theattendees were not even new creations! I you were to go down any streetin America, youl l nd that probably very ew people in these churcheswho proess Christ and claim to be Christians are truly Christians, imeasured against the Bibles denition o a Christian.

Te Bible denes Christians as ones who have orsaken all in order to be Hisdisciple. Teyve lost their lives in order to nd it. Teyve turned rom sinand thereore can come to be cal led new creations because the old has beengiven away. Teyve died to sin and then buried it under the water. Mostpeople wouldnt come anywhere near a description like that. Tey want tolive or themselves. Tey love the world and thereore the Scriptures saythat they are enemies o God. Tey love the world and have not died to sin,thereore they are children o the devil (1 John 3). So, most o what wevehistorically called church really isnt Church, rom a biblical standpoint.

But, its not a measurement o maturity. Its a measurement o what isthe standard. Is the standard the Word o God? Is the standard the Lieo Christ and the teachings o Christ? Is that what we live or? Is thatwhat we are willing to die or? Or are we going to make little loopholesor ourselves? Are we going to try to create some other standard? Well,lets not take that too seriously. Tats not practical. I we live like that,someone might not like us. We might get sued. Tose sorts o humanreasonings (which are wisdom rom below, unspiritual, and o thedevilJames 3:15), are what most religious bodies are built on. At thevery least, most make great room or worldly wisdom.

THe CHurCHanD CHriSTare inSeparaBle

I you say you love God desperately, dont you dare try to undermine or


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underplay the relevance o loving the House o God, loving the work oGods hands, loving the extension o Gods heart, loving the visible othe invisible God (as Paul said in Colossians).

Its essential that you see the connection between loving God and lovingHis Body. Dont pompously think that you love God, but loving His Bodyis secondary in importance. I can be a Christian, but I dont need thechurch. Wrong. Because God in His innite wisdom said that Jesus Christ

is the head o His Body, and IN His Body He has chosen to invest HISSON as the ullness o Him who lls everything in every way. COULDthere be someone who says they love Jesus, but wouldnt want HA?!Unless you are a daily part o a local body o true Heaven-Born Believers, aLampstand (not simply an attendance-based clergy-laity organization),you are missing SO much, or yoursel and your ami ly. A REAL Church isto be a dai ly Christ-honoring, Christ-centered, Bible-believing people whoare walking in obedience to Godnot just talking about it.

True love expreSSeS iTSelf

I there is someone you love desperately, what do your mind and yourheart want to do? You have to nd some way to express that love. I I lovesomeone, my mind is going to be creatively nding ways to express it byalways thinking, How could I do something special or them that wouldmake them smile or take a load of their shoulders? How could I creativelynd a way to get into their heart, into their lie and to just do somethingspecial, with no need or anything in return? I just want to give. Whenyou really love someone, you just want to give. Tats the way it is withGod, too. I you really love God, there is no way you can draw some linebetween loving Him and expressing that love in His Housewith a zeal, a

passion or the House. I you rea lly want to serve Him, there arent a lot oways to do that with a God whom you cant touch, and whom no one hasseen or can see, as the Scriptures saythe only immortal, invisible, great,and awesome God. How can you wash His eet? What other ways do youhave to love Him i you dont love His House and are not consumed withzeal or His House as was King David and Jesus?

So, loving His House is not an irrelevant point. But you being capturedby the vision o loving His House is not a replacement or loving God.It is the overfow o loving God. Dont you dare replace loving God withloving His Church, but understand that they are inseparable. Loving

His Church is the overfow o loving God. I you are really a worshipper

o God, you will worship Him like David did (as you can see throughoutthe Psalms) and zeal or Gods House will consume you. Tere is no wayto separate that.

Te Church must be built on the right oundation o obedience to Jesusand lives that are devoted to ollowing Christ. Tese are not lives thatclaim absolute perection, but they are striving or it and acceptingnothing less while walking in the transparency with God and each other

between here and there. So, i I see a particular sin in my lie, its not theend o the world. I that sin has occurred in my lie today, it is the end othe world, spiritual ly speaking, i I say, I dont care. Tat doesnt matter.Mind your own business. Get the log out o your own eye. When Ireuse to walk in the light (honest transparency with real people whoknow God), reuse to humbly submit to the Word o God, and reuse toturn to God and the other believers around me in Gods Family, thatswhen its all over. Tis is the verdict, Jesus said: Some love the light; somelove the darkness. Tats the issue that divides.

When the House o God is built on a oundation o walking in the light

and a wil lingness to hear the Word o God and respond to the Word oGod with Jesus as the standard, then there is nothing in heaven or onearth that can hold us back. I, however, at any point, regardless o howmature we may be, we decide that we dont really need the standardo the Word o God and the teachings o Jesus, when something lessthan the character and the ull measure o the stature o Christ isacceptable to us, when we push away rom any light that shines onthe discrepancy between where Jesus is at and where we arethatterminates our existence as the people o God, at least as a Church,as a oundation that God can build His House on. Tat reverence andawe or the Church, the Head in heaven and the eet on earth has to be

restored. Tats the point.

Its a very simple Biblical idea. Its not a deep, ar-etched concept, butpeople despise this revelation o the Body o Christ. Tey despise thisidea o being joined one to another, being members o one another.Tese are gruesome terms to people who want to live selsh lives. Teyhave no desire or the House o God. Zeal or themselves consumesthem and they are not going to lose their lives. In act, thats a repulsiveidea to them. Tey want to have what they want. Tey want to be godswho control their own destiny and perhaps others destinies as well. Butto lose their lives as Jesus did, to make themselves nothing, to become

a slave to others even to the point o death i necessarythose are


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despicable, scandalous ideas. Not only will they not do it, but they willalso mock and blackmail anyone else who desires to live that way.

I you see this revelation o the Body o Christ in your lietime, andgive your lie to this heart that God has or His House, you will bemocked and persecuted beyond belie. You will be called every namein the book. It is something very supernatural because satan despisesthat sort o agape love. o lose your lie or the sake o others is a

terrible idea to those who will mock and persecute. Tey think, Youcan believe what you want to believe, but dont you dare love peopleeven to the loss o your own personal identity, possessions, and evenlie. Dont you dare do anything terrible like that. But, i you wantto believe a certain set o things, thats ne. Just make sure you liveselshly, loving a worldly sort o liestyle like everybody else does, andit will be ne. Just stay plugged into this socially acceptable, cultural,normative, satanic, American, matrix liestyleand dont you dareever love anybody. Ten, you will be ne.

However, i youll embrace this revelation o the Body o Christ in your

lietime, you will also experience the Reality o the Fullness o the Lieyou were created or. No more empty, striving, peace-less living. But, theReal Lie you were created to experience, reveled in along with otherswho have also sold themselves completely to Jesus and His Church.

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Do_I_Go_To_Church