Church Is Not a Place—It's His People | Building a Gospel-Shaped Church | Week 6

If you have your Bibles, and I hope you

do, take that out and I'll meet you in First Timothy chapter 3. I do want to say

thank you to the church for allowing our staff, those that were able to go to go

to the right now media conference in Dallas this past week. It was a great time of refreshment, good teaching, and

uh just it was a great time to to be with one another and to be with the church quite honestly. Uh this

conference is set aside for uh pastors and church staff to come and be encouraged and taught and fed and and it

was just a great time. Thank you, church, for having professional development in our budget that allows us

to go and do that. So, I'm thankful for that. And as I said, it's it's just good

to be with the church. It's unfortunate today that many Christians

uh have a light view when it comes to the doctrine of the church. We feel like

the church is uh it's kind of like uh

ornaments. It's kind of like jewelry. Whether you wear it or not, it doesn't really

matter. I I can just pull up any pastor I want on the internet and I can listen to the pastor and I've gone to church.

That tells me you have a light view on the doctrine of the church. And I'm just here to tell you, I want to use our text

today to show you that that's not what scripture teaches.

The Bible holds a high view of the church. And today, if you leave with

anything other than knowing that God loves you and wants to be close to you,

I hope you'll walk away understanding how valuable the church is. You realize

the church is not a building. It's not a place. It's not somewhere we go to. The

church is you and I. The church is is people. We sang a song

when we were kids, and some of you did anyway.

um about the church. Mark Dver, he writes this in his book, The Church, the

Gospel Made Visible. He says this, "For too many Christians today, the doctrine of the church is

like a decoration on the front of a building. Maybe it's pretty, maybe it's not. But finally, it's unimportant

because it has no weight. Yet, nothing could be further from the truth. The doctrine of the church is of utmost

importance. It is the most valu most visible part of Christian theology and

it is vitally connected with every other part.

I agree with his thoughts and that too many professing Christians

feel that the church is irrevalent or just optional.

the opt the option of going to church. The importance of going and being a part of the church doesn't seem to be

important. Would you be surprised to know that

scripture speaks differently when it comes to the church? Let me show you what I mean. Matthew chapter 16,

Christ founded the church. Listen to verse 18 when he's talking to Peter. He says, "And I tell you, you are Peter,

and on this rock I will say it, build my

church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." He died for the church.

Ephesians 5 25. Husbands,

love your wives as. Say it. Christ loved the church and gave himself

up for her. Christ gave his life up not for a

building, but for you and for me. The importance of the church.

I I don't I don't want to understate that today. I'm not sure I can overstate it. How important it is

for us to be the church. A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that uh there are

some people that are impacted by SNAP being shut down, unfunded,

the government shutdown. I wanted to bring that to our attention because I want to make sure that we are

thinking we are alert to the potential that the church may need to be the

church. And I ain't talking about a building where people can come and have a a camp out. I'm talking about the

church being able to provide and help provide for those that are in need.

He goes on in Acts chapter nine verses four and five where he identifies

closely with the church. This is when Saul, we talked about him a

few weeks ago on his road to Damascus when he had an encounter with Jesus.

And falling to the ground, verse four, and falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why

are you persecuting me?" And he said who who are you Lord? And he

said I am Jesus whom you are pers persecuting.

Jesus closely identifies with his people because Saul was hunting Christians down

putting them in jail and he even carried the coats of the people that were stoning Stephen.

And Jesus says man I'm Jesus whom you're persecuting. You're persecuting my people.

John chapter 3 verse 29. This is John the Baptist in that

conversation. The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. We are the bridegroom of

Christ. Church, you are important.

I don't want any of us to leave today with a small view of the church. That is

just something optional that I don't feel like it today. It's unimportant for me to You know what? No one will notice

if I'm not there today. Nobody will care if I don't go.

You're wrong. You are important because listen, I I

wish I had time to point at every single face in the room. I need you.

I need who is inside of you. And so do the people sitting around you.

Because God Almighty lives within each one of you who have trusted in Jesus to be your Lord and Savior. I need what you

have. You know, I need what he has been teaching you this week.

I need how he has carried you through a tough patch of life.

I need the encouragement that he's been breathing into your life this week. We need each other. I don't want any of us

leaving out of this room today with a small understanding of the importance of the church.

We are his body. In our current passage today in 1 Timothy chapter 3 and chapter

4, we're going to cover a lot of texts today. He's going to speak to us as a church.

We're going to find that he gives Timothy some some instructions to him, but he also gives instruction to the

church. So, I want to read the end of chapter 3 where we left off

last week. Starting in verse 16, verse 14, sorry.

Follow along with me there. Chapter 3, starting in verse 14.

He says, 'I hope to come to you soon, but but I am writing these things to you so that if I delay, you may know how one

ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a

pillar and buttress of the truth. Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of

godliness. He was manifested in the flesh,

vindicated by the spirit, seen by angels,

proclaimed among the nations, believed on in this world, and taken up in glory.

Today, we're going to look back, look at the church, and address who we are

and what we do. There's two things I want to cover today. Who we are and what

we do. In our text that I just read, we come across the theme verse, kind of the

purpose statement of this whole letter. I'm writing to you that if I delay, if

I'm if I don't get there very soon, how one might know how he ought to behave in

the house of God. The house of God.

He goes on to re-emphasize in verse 16 the supremacy of Christ. No, not the

born supremacy, but the Christ supremacy.

Thanks for getting that. I do want you to see this. And when you

first look at it and you you say he was manifested in the flesh, you might think, well, that's when he that's when

he stepped out of heaven and and uh he was born in a in a manger in a stable in Bethlehem. He

was born to Joseph. What we're talking about here is the gospel.

Now, we're from the very beginning of this letter, Timothy, protect the gospel.

When it says he was manifested in the flesh, it's when he walked out of the tomb.

He walked out of the tomb, his resurrection. He He was vindicated

by the spirit. He uh uh justified by the spirit. He breathed life into the lifeless body that was laying in the

tomb. He was seen by angels. In fact, think about it with me, church. Listen. When

the stone was rolled away, who was standing outside the tomb? The angels. When the when the ladies came to take

care of the body of Jesus, who was there? The angels. They said, "Man, why are you looking for the dead among or the living among the dead? He's alive.

He's not here. He was seen by angels,

proclaimed among the nations. This was so important to Paul because he was called to be the the missionary to the

nations. He was believed on in the world. And

listen, as that word was proclaimed among the nations and it kept going out and going further and going further, we

saw people from all tribes, nations, and tongues trusting in Jesus. And he

ascended. He t he was taken up in glory. He ascended to heaven. He comes back to

this mystery of godliness. And we have that because of what Christ has done.

What God did through Christ. He raised him from the dead. Praise the Lord.

So, we're going to look at the church, who we are.

I want to point out two descriptions today from our text. And the first one is who we are as God's family. We're

described as his household, his family unit, his children.

Right now, my household consists of me and Catherine.

Not too long ago, we had a dog. And quite some time before that, we had

two boys that lived in the house with us. When our boys were at home, they we live by the rules that I set up for our

house. It's the way it's going to be. Reminds me of a story that my dad loved

to tell. I don't appreciate it very much, but he loved to tell it.

One of the years that we went to to Pagosa Springs, our family

would go there every year. This is why we lived in Texas. We'd come up to Pagosa Springs every year. And one of

those years we're all sitting around the living room and my dad says, "You know,

I find it interesting that both of my sons have married into matriarchal systems."

Side note here, my dad got his doctorate degree in family therapy, family

systems, family blah blah blah.

But he makes this statement that both of his sons married into matriarchal systems. I was like, we

what are you talking about? I run my house.

I'm the man. I wear the pants in my household. And my dad looked over at me. He goes,

"No, son. Catherine's just really good at letting you think you are."

That wasn't that funny. And I I don't appreciate that much laughter. Now you

know why I don't like that story. So maybe I should alter my statement.

When our boys lived at home, it was with rules that we came up with. It was regulations that we came up with. When

it's time to eat, this is when we're going to eat. When you it's time for you to go to bed, you go to bed.

We had our rules. We ran the house the way we saw fit. We are the household of

God. So in verse 15, Paul is letting us know that we are part of his household,

not our household, his household, and how we ought to behave.

We're to live by his rules. We're to live by his teaching, by his word. That's how we're

to live. And this should motivate us every day to put our feet on the floor and ask God,

"God, how do you want me to live today when I go into that meeting at work? God, how do you want me to address my

boss today when he comes up and he's a jerk to me the way he's been to me these last few weeks? How do you want me to

respond today, Lord, as someone that lives in your household as a part of your household? How do you want me to

behave? This whole mystery of godliness, I I I need some of that today. I want to

be godly today. How do you want me to live today?

When my family member that I got sideways with years ago calls, how do

you want me to respond to him? How do you want me to respond?

So, brings me to my first descriptor from the text and it's that it's up on

the screen. We are the place where God's presence lives. There's no special

building. There's no temple. There's no brickandmortar place. He lives in us.

Listen to what Paul says to the church in Corenth in 2 Corinthians 6:16. He

says, "For we are the temple of the living God as God said,"I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them,

and I will be their God, and they shall be my people."

to the church in Ephesus. Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:22, he said, "In him, you

also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by his spirit.

You and I are being built together. Church, I don't want us to view church as

optional." Now, some of you are already thinking, "O, you're talking about attendance.

You're talking about counting heads. You just want to be able to count how many people came to church." No, no, no, no.

I don't want you to think of meeting together is optional.

I don't want any of us to think that my participation in the body of Christ of

God's household is optional. We need each other. I'm not talking

about Sunday morning attendance. I'm talking about church body presence.

I need you. Those of you who come up to me on Sunday mornings and give me words of

encouragement, I need that. My love language, if you ever read the five love, my love language is words of

encouragement. So, those of you who are my encouragers, and some of you know who you are, I need

you. Now, I'm I'm speaking first person here,

but that applies to every one of you in this room. We need each other. And I

don't want you to view that your presence in another believer's life is optional. I'm not speaking about church

attendance. Please hear me on that. Sunday morning attendance. I'm speaking

of church body participation. So when we gather in places like on

Sunday mornings, you are important. Don't ever let that thought come across

your mind again that it won't matter if I'm not there. You do matter.

When we gather tonight for chili at our chili cookoff, whether you're bringing chili or not, and if you're not, if

you're not planning on bringing chili, I want to see you here because we need each other. It's when the body comes

together. It's so important. Please don't miss that. We are the place where God's presence

dwells. Second thing I want to point out is that

we are the guardians of his word. The guardians of his word. This is what

Paul says when he's referring to the pillar. We are where does it say it in verse 15 of chapter 3. Uh we are the

church of the living God, the household of the living God, a pillar and buttress

of the truth. Now, those first readers of this letter,

Timothy, when he read this letter, they live in Ephesus. One of the seven

wonders of the ancient world is in Ephesus, the temple of Aremis. I've got

a picture of it here. It's not a photograph, but it's an an artist rendering of what the temple of Artemis

would have looked like. Look at the pillars, some 18 meters tall.

Uh this this strong towering building. And he says, "We are pillars and the the

pillars and buttresses of the truth, God's household.

We are to protect the truth." That has been a theme that has started from the very first chapter of this book.

Timothy, don't let you don't let those people come in here and teach that mess that they've been teaching. You protect

the gospel, Timothy. The truth

is something that we are to be guardians of. And how do we do that? We hold on to it tightly. We hold on to the truth

tightly. Because it doesn't matter what I think about what this Bible says.

What you don't need, church, is for me or any other pastor to stand in front of you and say, "Well, I think

and I think and I think it doesn't matter what I think. It matters what

God's word says." That's what matters. And so, we hold on to this word tightly.

And the only way we can hold on to it tightly is if we spend time in it. That we marinate in it. That we soak in it.

We take on the flavoring of God. He says, "You are the salt of this earth. You need to be the flavoring of God

wherever you go." One of the ways we do that is by holding on tightly to this and soaking in it, learning it,

memorizing it. Well, Joel, I'm hold I'm horrible at memorizing. Would anybody say amen to that?

I don't agree with you because there's some of you who can quote to me a song that you learned in high school by one

of your favorite bands. You could still sing the words to the Beach Boys song, whatever it was. By the

way, that was a that was a group back in the 1900s for those

younger. One of the ways that we protect his word is we hold on to it tightly. And we

also, another way is we hold it up high.

When it comes to authority, authoritative things in my life, God's word, I'm going to hold it up high, man.

It is going to be the loudest voice in my life. It's not going to be what society says ought to be.

It's not going to be what culture says ought to be important to me. No. One of the ways that I can protect God's word

is that when it comes to the things that societyy's pushing, I'm going to hold God's word up high and say, "This is the

authoritative word in my life. This is what I'll stand by."

Yes, it tells me to pray for my government leaders and to obey the government. But if there's ever a time when the government steps across the

line and tells me to go against this book, that is where this book will supersede the laws of our government.

Timothy, don't you let people come in there and teach that mess, man. You you you teach that word and you

teach what it says. You hold on to it tightly and you lift it up high.

It is the authoritative verse in voice in my life and in your life.

If I were to stop right now, and I'm going to, and ask you, what is the authoritative

word in your life? Who has the loudest voice,

the heaviest voice in your day in and day out life?

As we moved on to chapter 4, we'll see some instructions to Timothy

and then like I said, we will see some instructions to the church. But we've talked about who we are. Now I want to

talk about what we do. What we do as the church. What do we do?

First thing is this. we discern false teaching.

Now, it would be nice, it would have been nice uh if back in that day in

Corinth, if somebody uh had gone down to the screen printing shop and bought a

t-shirt and and had a t-shirt made and they came into the church and on the shirt it says,

"I have a seared conscience

be- because what does it say there in verse two?" Let me just start in verse one. I'm ahead of myself. Verse one. Now

the spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from faith by

devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons through the

insincerity of liars whose conscience consciences are seared who forbid

marriage marriage and required abstinence from food that God created to

be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and

nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for

it is made holy by the word of God and prayer. These false teachers were were

coming in and they didn't they didn't identify themselves with shirts that said, "My conscience is seared." That

would have been easy to identify false teachers. That would be easy today if someone were

to come in and do that. But there were people with inside the church

who were numb to the truth of God and they were convinced they were

telling the truth and they started teaching and were drawing people away.

And Paul tells this young leader Timothy, "Don't allow it.

Don't allow it." And so part of our task what we do and and if you'll remember

last week we spoke about the elders qualifications of overseers

qualifications of deacons church leadership. This passage that we're looking at comes right after that.

Part of our task is to discern when false teaching is happening within the

body. The only way we can identify the false is to know the truth.

Church leadership, we need to know the word of God.

Now, some might say that doesn't apply to me.

Nice try. That's a good word for all of us.

Have you ever been in a place and thought, there's just something dark about this

place? I listened to Katherine tell a story about a mission trip going to Salt Lake City

and she said, "Joel, when we drove into town, it you could just it was different.

There was just a dark heavy spirit in that city. I mean, the the presence

of of the Mormon church was just heavy.

Are you able to discern to test the spirits as scripture teaches

us and to know when something false is being taught? Look at the sources. And this is a good word for us to to realize

and recognize the sources of these false teachings. Look at it in verse the end

of verse one says they were devoting themselves to dece deceitful spirits and

teachings of demons. Let's be clear. False teaching is

demonic. I I I'll say it again. False teaching is

demonic.

We shouldn't be fooled. Let's not be fooled.

False teachers have seared consciences. They're numb to the truth and are spreading

spreading things as verse six points out, things that are irreverent and silly myths. And Paul is telling

Timothy, don't have anything to do with them. We would be wise to to know that false

teaching wasn't just a thing back then, but it is also a thing today. the prosperity gospel that is running

rampant not just in our land but around the world.

The prosperity gospel teaches that if you love Jesus, if you've given your life to Jesus, you will experience he

will give you wealth and health.

That's not how I read scripture. What I see in scripture says, man, as

one of my followers, you're going to experience persecution. It won't be easy,

but you're more than overcomers. Uh we know the end of the story. We know

that. I I we s I was singing a song in the car the other day. I'm fighting a battle that's already won.

False teaching isn't a new thing today. Prosperity gospel is it it was present

back then and they're leading people away. We can

see it. You can turn on a bunch of I don't need to call names, but you can you're already thinking of people that

are teaching this prosperity gospel. They twist God's word.

It not only comes from a denomic demonic source, but they twist God's word as

well. They go back and they use things that uh

the enemy used in the first and second chapters of the Bible when the serpent approached

Eve and said, "Did did God really say that?"

Did Did he really mean that if you eat from the tree of life, you're going to

They twist God's word. And church, we need to be quick to discern

false teaching. These false teachers were putting down rules and regulations on people.

But church, I need to tell you that godliness does not need rules.

Godliness simply means a relationship with God.

Spending time with God. It's not about regulations. It's about

being with God. God, how do you want me to live today?

When you and I get close to God, when we spend time with him, when we interact with him, not just talking to him and

giving him our wish list or our Santa Claus list. No, no, no. When we spend time with God, listening to him, God,

what do you have for me today? When I sit down and I open your word and I'm reading, what do you have for me?

I want to hear your voice because God, I want to live more like you. I You gave

us an example. His name is Jesus. I want to live more like Jesus today. How do I do that? Please give me something to

chew on today that I can apply godliness.

Too often, godliness will be put into a sermon or into a book. Six steps to godliness,

which is simply giving us more rules, more dos, more don'ts

when all God wants is you to come and crawl up in his lap. And maybe the thing

you might be here today and you've been living by rules. You've been living by regulations your whole life. You may

have grown up in a church that was this is how you dress when you come to church. This is how you don't dress when

you come to church. And today you might be here and need to

hear this. God simply wants you to come and crawl up in his lap and be loved.

Just enjoy his love for you. Cherish his presence and his care for

you. The warm embrace of your father in heaven.

I love you, son. I I love you, daughter.

Hear me say that. I love you. You can't do anything anything to make me love you more. You can't do anything to make me

love you less. I love you. I love you. Do you need that today?

I want to encourage you when it comes to this issue of godliness, this mystery, this great mystery of godliness that he

spoke of to just enjoy God

and and love his love for you. Take that in.

The other thing that we do besides discerning false teaching is that we declare the truth.

Look at verse six. If you put these things before the brothers,

the brothers and sisters, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus. Declare the truth. Tell people. Give it to them

straight. Put the truth before the people. Timothy. Let them soak it in.

Let them take on the flavor of God through his word. How do we do that?

How do we teach the truth? We trained for eternity. Look at this is

a verse many of us have memorized. Starting in verse seven, he says, "Have

nothing to do with irreverent silly myths. Rather, train yourself for godliness." There's

that word. For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in

every way as it holds promise for the present life and for the life to come

and for eternity. Listen, training the the Ephesians would have got it, man.

They had games. Uh they had their NFL, their NHL, their

MLB, their NBA. They had all their games

and they spent a lot of time and money training for games.

And so Paul jumps in and uses some of that language. Listen, bodily training

is is good. Of course it is. It's good for you. It makes you healthier, but it's only good in this present life. But

training in godliness,

spending time and spending uh energy on being with God and growing and

developing, nurturing that relationship with God, man, that has value not only today, but in eternity. And Timothy, I'm

telling you, man, you put this truth in front of the people. And they need to be training today in light of eternity.

[Music] What are you training for today?

Another way that that uh we declare the truth is we teach with authority. Again,

the context of our passage is teaching is talking to church leadership, but it's a good word for all of us

is to teach with authority. Look at verse 13. until I come. Timothy,

devote yourself to public reading of scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.

I I I hope I hope we all gather. I hope we all grab it that we need to be people of the word of God.

The word devotion, it's a strong word.

Am I devoted? Are you devoted to this?

It don't matter if I go to it today. It doesn't matter if I read tomorrow or

not. I disagree with you. We need to teach

with authority. We also need to live with purity.

To live with purity. Until I come, devote yourself to this

public reading of scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given to

you by the prophecy of the council of elders, laid their hands on you. Practice, here we are. Practice these

things. Immerse yourself in them so that all may see your progress.

My heart breaks every time I see in the news of church leadership somewhere that has

fallen to moral failure. We see it way too often.

Church family, I'm just telling you, I need your prayers. Our elders need your

prayers. Our life group leaders need your prayers. Church leadership needs prayers.

Man, if the enemy can get one of us to stumble, the devastation that can do across an

entire congregation, please pray for me

to live with purity. Our society's covered up with impurity.

So, I wonder how you God wants you to respond today to his word.

verse 16 at the end he says persist in this so by doing so you will save both

yourself and your hearers

church I I I hit this often and I hope it sticks every once in a while

if you have your Bibles and I hope you do

if I could record myself and put that in your earphone every day.

Unfortunately, the only opportunity I have to say that publicly is

10:25 on Sunday mornings.

I hope you have your Bible every day and I hope you're meeting with God in

there somewhere every day that you would understand how important

you are as a part of the body of Christ, the church.

That you are a pillar and a buttress of the truth.

You matter and you're important.