Why Should I Keep Going to Church?
Summary
Transcript
· Am I welcoming people into my lives? Am I welcoming people into my home? Or am I closed off and pretending like everything's great on the outside?
· Everything looks great on social media.
· Everything looks great at a 10,000 ft distance. But when we let people get close, it's uncomfortable because they see the real us. But guess what? The real you is the transformed view by Jesus Christ.
· We have been going through the book of Corinthians and 1 Corinthians. And we have started this at the beginning of the year. We're in week 18 and we're at the very end of this book. So, if you have your Bibles, you can go flip to 1 Corinthians chapter 16 as we'll be diving into and kind of dissecting as we wrap up this study through the book of Corinthians. But next week, I'm very excited, is next week is Mother's Day.
· Hopefully, you have that on your calendar. And some of you, you know, dads out there are like, "Oh, all right.
· Uh, what does Amazon have that will be here before Sunday?" All right. Um, good luck. All right. Uh, but it is Mother's Day, but we're also excited because we're starting a new family series calling family less of the mess. Um, anyone want a little less mess in your Well, okay, let's be honest. You're like, I want less mess in my house. All right. Uh, dads, maybe a cleaning service works for next Sunday. I don't know. But we're going to talk about how there's messiness in our families, but how God is so great and comes in and cleans up our mess despite our mistakes.
· But today, as we wrap up in First Corinthians, uh we've been going through this journey. And if you've been with us on some of it, just going to kind of catch you up a little bit is is the book of Corinth is a unique one. Is Paul wrote this letter to the church located in Corinth. And Corinth, Corinth was like ancient day Las Vegas. It was a messy town. They're focused on money and focused on wealth and focused on sex and everything outside of what Jesus was getting them to focus on. And Paul comes into this church that had all these issues, had all these mistakes, and he's lovingly correcting and pastoring them through this process. And then in the last half of this book, what we've talked and we've called this, hey, Paul, is he just been answering these deep theological questions that they have in their mind and going through is what does the Bible say about this? What does the Bible say about that? And as we kind of start to go through here, Paul kind of gets to the heart of this and I think is so important is kind of his closing statements. He answers this question that I think we need to ask and let this scripture answer today is hey Paul why should I keep going to church?
· Hm. You know, there's a big, if you look overall in America, church attendance has been declining for years and years.
· And really, the pinnacle of it happened in 2020. I don't know what happened then, right? Something happened then, right? Um, but after that, like, church just changed. Attendance was declining, declining. We're actually seeing some positive signs in the last uh year that baptisms were actually up in 2024, and we're seeing revival, especially in the younger generations, in Gen Z. But people have asked these questions and these are honest questions and maybe you've never said them out loud but you've said them in your heart is like do I need to go to church every week like my couch is pretty comfortable.
· They're streaming the service. My kids aren't going to get bugs and germs and everything else they get in kids ministry and then bring back home and then it goes through your entire family.
· Know that. Feel that. Right. And you're like it's it's kind of nice here. I can watch it from my phone as I'm on the way to the lake or as I'm traveling. He's like, "Do I need to go every week? Like once or twice? That sounds like a pretty good commitment. Like why do I have to show up continuously?" Well, Paul today is going to give us the answer to that. And and the answer we're going to start with and spend our time dissecting through chapter 16 is church attendance is not just about what you are contributing to, but who is contributing to you. Think about that for a second. A church attendance is not just about the things we do. You do a lot of things if you are plugged in and serving here.
· Maybe you help kids and you wipe noses and get kids that are screaming on their end, right? Like you're in children's ministry. That's a great commercial for kids ministry right there, right? Go serve in there. Um maybe you wave and you greet people. You're on the AV team or you're in worship or you're in a number of ways. We serve in our church family and you feel like you give, you give, you give. But church is also about what comes back and what God is building in you. And today, Paul, as we kind of start to go down this road, is going to show us that it's not just about checking our church boxes, saying, "I'm doing this. I'm done that." And it's not less than that. But there also is more. Last Sunday, uh, we had a pretty full slate for our staff. We had church.
· And then right after we did pizza with a pastor, which we do that once a month, and that's where, if you're new, kind of check out how do you get involved? And as I'm leaving, uh, Cheryl, Kyle's wife, and Kyle's our student guy. He's the real loud one that we can't turn the volume down. Um, like, "Where's the volume switch on you, bro?" And like he's like, "God, great one." Um, like clearly. But Cheryl's like, "Hey, uh, she's like, uh, we're going to have our Bible group party and it's at a park right by my house." She's like, "You guys can come if you want." And I was thinking about this. I'm like, "All right, it's a beautiful day out." I'm like, "It's at a park so our four kids can run around. Uh, it's free food because we're not bringing anything.
· We're just going to eat all their food that they already had planned for." Um, like sold. So, we crashed the Gallagher Bible Group party and we got to hang out. Our kids ran around. It was fun and just talking to families that I know in our church that serve that are involved.
· And it was just this amazing kind of night of it's like this is church community. This is doing life together.
· This is where we just get to talk about, you know, what God's doing in our life and talk about the stresses we have going on. Talk and just have fun and enjoy each other's company and do life.
· And you're like, that is great of how church goes outside of Sunday. But you'll never get that community outside of Sunday if you're not involved in contributing on Sunday morning the right way.
· And Paul, here's what he's going to show us today in this question that we're going to pose and let the scripture answer is what does going to church contribute to our lives? Why why do I need to show up here every Sunday morning? Why do I need to come to this place and sing these songs and hear these texts and wipe these noses and do all the things I do? What is it building inside of me? Well, in 1 Corinthians chapter 16, Paul actually starts this chapter and we'll kind of I'll save you the first part is first he asked for a collection to continue his ministry.
· He's like, "Hey, Church of Glacia has already given some. Now you guys need to pony up, give more money so we can go and take the gospel more places." And then in verse 5, he gives his travel itinerary. He's like, "I booked with Southwest a couple times. They keep canceling on me, but we got it sorted out."
· But in verse 13, here's where Paul gets into his wrap up of this book of Corinthians and all that he's been just laying down this truth after truth after truth of how do you live in such a broken context? How do you be this church that is making Jesus known to the people around you? In verse 13, he starts this. He says, "Be alert." He says, "Be alert. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong.
· do everything in love. Here's how Paul starts this as we kind of ask this question of what does church contribute to our lives. The first thing he shows us is that when we are part of a church family, when we are going to church, when we are part of this things, just what he's describing of here is it makes us spiritually hungry. You see, here's what Paul is kind of dissecting a little bit. He he he's not just giving some like basic little instructions, some kind of empty platitudes, but listen to this. He says, "Be alert." He's like, "Be on guard." He stand firm in your faith. He says, "Be courageous. Don't back down. Be strong." What he's telling them is we are in a spiritual war. And he's like, "And you can't do this on your own." Instead, you need to do this with a church family who is also focused on these things and moving in this direction. So, in partners with one another, we are moving closer to God and not farther away. My wife and I, uh, we eat pretty healthy. Um, overall, and and I am not as good at eating as healthy as her, and I have a really good metabolism system that's slowly starting down, but I'll eat a lot of junk, hit the restroom, and I'm good, right? Um, and too much, too far. All right, just trying to get that line. Uh, but anyway, so every night I don't eat a lot of sweets, but every night I eat four Oreos. Not three, not five, four. All right, you got to keep it in there. But after I eat my Oreos, like I won't then go, I need a few more Oreos. But sometimes I'm like, I need something else. So sometimes I'll make a bag of popcorn. And usually I would ask and then she's like, uh, she's like, sure.
· And I'll get two bowls out. And then recently I've been asking. She's like, no, I don't need it. I don't want it.
· It's fine. So then I got one big bowl, poured it all in, taken. and she's like, "You're not going to give me any." I'm like, "Is this a trap right now? I don't understand." And as I was thinking about, I'm like, "Man, I wasn't being a very good partner in eating healthy how we were supposed to go with our goal and like making sure we're, you know, on that path together." And see, Paul is saying in this church life, when we have shared values, when we're both saying, "How do we get closer to Jesus together?" There's this accountability that comes into it as we're showing each other what does right spiritual hunger look like. How do we fall more in love with Jesus through the reading of his word, through the worshiping and the praising of his name, through praying, through who meeting together? He shows us how this works. And here's I think there's some practical things we need to reflect on as we go through this text.
· And in this first pillar, and we're going to have each one of these as we go through of talking about how this church contributes the spiritual hunger to our lives. Here's a pulse check on are you doing it the right way? And this question that I just want you to kind of write down on your notes and reflect on now and through this week is am I closer or farther away from God than last year? So basic, so easy, but so deadly if you're honest. Because here's the thing. If you've been a Christian for decades, you you should still see some progression. The Bible tells us we work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Meaning, there is a positive momentum towards our God. And we're getting closer to him. And when we reflect on that, say, "Am I closer and more dependent and more loving and all these things towards Jesus now than I was a year ago?" And if you've been a Christian for a long time, that question still examines. Maybe you're like, "That's not me." We we baptized 11 people on Easter. We have some baptisms we're going to see in just a second. We have more baptisms on Mother's Day.
· People starting their journey in Christ.
· It's easy to answer that question now.
· I'm like, if like before you didn't know Jesus, you know Jesus now? Yes, I'm closer. But continually as we go, are we moving the right direction? Are we getting closer to our God, closer to our father, or farther away? And here's the thing. When it comes to our spiritual life, there's no such thing as being stagnant. We either moving intentionally closer to him or we're drifting farther away. And here's the thing, as I hear from people all the time, like, I'm a spiritual person or or I love Jesus, but I don't know if I like his church, right? Like, I I love him, but I don't know if I like his people very much. I think they're saying that to me usually when they say that, you know, I don't know if I like you as much. Um, but here's the thing, is we say this at Cross Church all the time, is that a Christian without a church is a contradiction. We see it nowhere in the New Testament that believers were acting in isolation apart from a church family is you need other believers who are going to come around you help you focus on the right things and move in the right direction. But Paul keeps going in verse 15. He says, "Brothers and sisters," he's writing this to his church family as he has been doing. He says, "You know the household of Stephanus. They are the first fruits of Aaya and have devoted themselves, I love this, to serving the saints. I urge you also to submit to such people and to everyone who works and labors with them. I am delighted to have Stephanus, Fortunice, and Aayas present because these men have made up for your absence for they have refreshed my spirit and yours. Therefore, recognize such people. You see, Paul tells us that we keep going to church because it makes us spiritually hungry, but it not only does that, it also makes us radically humble. You see, Paul points out here, and I love this household that he describes. If he starts describing the household of Stephanus, and he tells them a little bit about him, he says, "These people have made it their mission to devote themselves to serving other people. They have made it their mission to not think so selfishly about themselves, but to love their church family, to love the people around them. And he tells the Corinthian church, you need to mimic this household. One of the most beautiful things when you have children is when there's more than one of them and they play nicely together. Okay? It's it's beautiful because it's rare. All right?
· That's what makes it so beautiful. But it's like I I got four, okay? and and my two middle ones are my boys and seven and three and they're like when they play nicely, it's so it's so amazing.
· Like Archie, the seven-year-old, will be like, "I'm just playing with my best buddy." Uh like you did this yesterday.
· I'm like, "You just tried to strangle your best buddy 2 minutes ago." Like, I saw it. But one of the things we're working through with Archie is like sharing. And he's really into Pokemon cards right now. So, he like sets up a fort in his room and has all his Pokemon cards on the floor. And then Arlo, Hurricane Arlo, the three-year-old, runs in and and he's like, "Don't touch anything. I won't share my toys. These are mine.
· These are mine. These are mine." And then I get annoyed. I'm like, "You know what is mine? This house and everything in it? We go to court. None of it's yours.
· Okay? I own it all."
· Sometimes I'm wondering if God's up in heaven and be like, "You know what's mine? All of it." And Paul is telling us, "Look at the household of Stepheness cuz I don't know about you, but I can get so caught up in this is mine. This is mine. I got to protect my time. I got to protect my resources. I got to do this. I got to do that. I got that." And God's like, "I've given it all to you. you can give a little bit of it back. And Paul is challenging us to be like the household of Stephanus, to embrace this idea of not being so selfish, but to start looking at our lives with open hands rather than closed fists. And here's the amazing part about this is I think when you're in a church with radically humble people, it starts to happen naturally that when people are generous around you, two things happen. either you want to be more like them and there's like this conviction that happens that all of a sudden like it just kind of it becomes like it it wears off on you and you're like oh I'm going to be more generous too with my time and my resources or you feel so bad and so convicted in the other way that you're like I'm going to be generous just because like Sally's so generous so I got to start being more generous right and being a part of that community there's this health in there so here's our pulse check for this is asking ourselves this question so basic so easy but so convicting. Am I more or less generous with my time and resources than last year? Am I more or less generous? And here's what's really hard is right now there's a good chance that for you, the economy, your portfolio, your personal finances, we're at a better place last year than this year. And when things start going south, the first natural instinct is I got to protect my time and spend it all on myself. I got to protect my resources and keep them at home and use them all myself. And we just become more me focused where God in his word is saying, "No, no, no. Live with an open hand. Live with saying, how can I serve and submit and love the people around me rather than hoarding everything for myself?" But Paul starts to wrap up this letter in verse 19. And as he kind of gets to our last point and he closes out, he says this that the churches of Asia send you greetings. Aquilla and Priscilla send you greetings warmly in the Lord along with the church that meets in their home. He says, "All the brothers and sisters send you greetings.
· Greet one another with a holy kiss."
· This greeting, what Paul is saying, what he's writing here, he says, is in my own hands.
· Paul, if anyone does not love the Lord, a curse be on him. Our Lord come. In verse 23, he says, "The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. My love be with all of you in Christ Jesus." You see, Paul says that when we're part of a church, the things it contributes to us is it it burns the spiritual hunger in us that we want to be closer to God and not farther away.
· That it makes us more radically humble.
· We live our lives more open-handed than closedfisted. And lastly, and and if you've been at our church, you've already heard me preach this point specifically, and I've been preaching it through this year, but it's as Paul wrapped all this up, is it makes us uncomfortably hospitable. Look at these verses again.
· There's just so much relational language here. The the churches Vasa send you greetings. Aquilla and Priscilla who are who are stalwarts within the early church, send them greetings. He said, "The churches that meet in their homes, they send you greetings." He says, "All the brothers and sisters that I'm interacting, they are praying for you.
· They're loving for you. They want to be a family with you." He says, "Paul myself, I've been yelling at you for 16 chapters to get your stuff together. I send you greetings with my own hands." You see, Paul is modeling and encouraging the type of hospitable community that should characterize our churches.
· I don't know about you, but I I I am pretty extroverted. But when I get tired on Sundays even this will happen or like you know throughout the week and like I got a lot when once I hit that moment my natural instinct is putting the kids to bed is putting an AirPod in, hooking it to my Apple TV while my wife goes shopping or doing something else and like watching shows and saying everyone leave me alone, right? And then I'll eat my Oreos and I'm good. But but my natural instincts to rest is let me cave into myself. Let let me not talk to people. Let me just kind of like be in my own little isolated echo chamber and let me just uh watch, you know, um whatever show is streaming through right now. I have like 10 shows streaming. It's really hard to keep them all straight. Um I don't even know what's going on in half of them, but it's like I just want to watch that and then I'm good. But here's where the conviction sets in. is is as I read the Bible, I have yet to find the verse that Jesus sat down and watched Netflix. All right? It's not there. Okay? That we don't see Jesus just sitting and and like going into and when he did isolate himself, he was praying and fasting.
· Come on, Jesus. He's at a pretty high standard. All right? But inside the church, he's saying that it's not about us. It's not just about being comfortable. It's not about hoarding.
· It's not about getting away and creating our own community. is being a part of a church makes us uncomfortably hospital because we're constantly exposed to this biblical command that we need to love other people as we love ourselves, just as the same as we love ourselves. That we need to care more about what other people are going through rather than just our own little kingdom. And in Surprise, Arizona, wherever we are around uh the valley, our go-to is we just want to go into our castles. We want to close the door. We want to lock it. We want to rest and have self-care and just think about ourselves rather than engaging in loving the people around us. And Paul here is showing us that's not what the successful, the good, the god-fearing, making Jesus known churches of the first century were like. Instead, they were greeting. They were loving.
· They were reaching out to people to engage them in the church family. Here's our pulse check on this basic, easy, could be wrecking when you're honest. Is am I more loving and inviting towards others than last year right now? Am I more loving? Am I more inviting in my workplace to other people? Am I more loving and inviting? The one question I will not ask this is on the road because I am not. All right. I moved to North Surprise. had to deal with the Grand and 303 exit and 163rd. So, the answer is no. I am not more loving on the road.
· Um, I tell people, don't put a cross church sticker on your car if you're going to cut people off, which is why I don't have one. Felt some conviction today as I met a new family in between services. How did you find our church? We saw a cross church sticker and decided to come check it out. Like, oh, did they cut you off?
· and they played along. They're like, "No, they flipped us off." I'm like, "Yeah, no, I'm just kidding." But not really. So, someone, you were actually nice on the road. Uh, I'm going to start driving better and put a sticker maybe on there. But anyway, but am I more loving and inviting in blank? Am I welcoming people into my lives? Am I welcoming people into my home, into how I do, or am I closed off and pretending like everything's great on the outside?
· Everything looks great on social media.
· Everything looks great at a 10,000 foot distance. But when we let people get close, it's uncomfortable because they see the real us. But guess what? The real you is the transformed you by Jesus Christ. And Paul here, as we start to wrap up all of this of how do we attempt to apply this? How do we walk out these doors after being kind of supercharged here on a Sunday morning? How do we begin to live out this book of first Corinthians? And here's how I think this happens in the life of cross church and how you are part of something greater that God's not just moving in your individual hearts, but he is moving in the life of our church that will go to the life of our community, the life of our city is cross church will make Jesus known by being hungry, humble, and hospitable.
· You see, this is not just a cheesy saying. This is not just something we say because it looks cool on the back of a t-shirt, but it does look cool so you can keep buying those. Okay? But this is metrics to show us, are we creating a culture where we are making Jesus known?
· Not by being kind of okay in life, not by being spiritually eh, not by being selfish, not by being comfortable, but are we making Jesus known? By feasting after our Lord, saying, "How can I get to know him better? How can I get to know him greater? How can iron sharpen iron within his church family and in his context?" So, we're spurring one another on towards getting closer to our Lord.
· How do I be radically humble? Stop living my life so closedfisted but living it open-handed, being generous with my time and my resources. And how do we be uncomfortably hospital of inviting people in and seeing how God can change their life? Here's a couple practical ways you can do this and we've been talking about this, but here here's your next step in each of these areas. Maybe you're like, "How do I be more how do I be more spiritually hungry?" We we did a challenge at the beginning of the year saying, "How what if you became an Agraded church attender?" You showed up 90% of the Sundays available to church. And maybe you're thinking about that. You're like, "Man, I've already failed." All right, new semester starts today. All right, there's 35 and we'll give you one extra cuz the last Sunday we don't meet.
· There's 30. So, show up 30 more times the rest of this year on a church weekend and see how God starts to change your life. How it doesn't just become a box you check, but it becomes a lifestyle and it becomes a movement inside your heart in your life that changes what you do. What if you showed up 90% of the time to be with God's family?
· And we talk about this radically humble like where do you start with that? Maybe you're like man I'm not in a position financially I can give yet. Start small but maybe you're like I maybe you just need to give your time. Go volunteer at VBS. Man that will change you. You're like I'm not that generous. All [Music] right. Al Mhler, one of the premier preachers of our day, seminary president in Southern. I heard him share his testimony years ago. He was saved in a vacation Bible school and God forever changed his life. Maybe you need to pour into the next generation. You need to give your time and your resources in a way that changes someone's eternity. And this hospitable one, I think this is the one we have beat a drum over so much. And as you leave our outside our lobby, you'll see some ping pong balls on a wall. And what we said is we challenged our church. What if every single adult once a month hosted someone either in their home or at a coffee and they picked up the bill or at a lunch? What would it look like to create a culture of hospitality where we're meeting with saints, sinners, and strangers and we're showing them who Jesus is? Early on, I was watching that thing fill up and I'm like, I might have done the math wrong or we're really bad at this. All right, but we're seeing some momentum starting to happen. We're on track. But what if we just keep doing that? We pour gas on that fire and instead of just welcoming people to the surface level of our lives, we're welcoming them behind the scenes to show how Jesus has truly transformed us. And here's the beauty of that. When we start to do these things, guys, God is going to change lives.
· God is going to reach behind the barricades people have put up in their heart because he's interacted with their people. And then just as Paul closes his letter, all of the sudden the grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. We get to share how Jesus died on the cross for you. How he raised again to defeat your sins. Now, no longer do you have to be identified by your past, by your struggle, by all the junk in your life, but you can have a relationship with a savior who wipes the slate clean. And we'll do this as Paul is showing in verse 24. He says, "My love will be with all of you." Paul's love was spiritually hungry. Paul's love was radically humble. Paul's love was uncomfortably hospitable. But it was not because of Paul's power. Listen to this all of you in Christ Jesus. It was Jesus's love flowing through him, flowing through the church at Galatia, through the church at Corenth, through cross church so that the people around us can know who our Jesus is, whose lives can forever be changed. And we can see a movement in our city, in all our campuses around Arizona and beyond because Jesus changes everything.
· Cuz when we make him known, all the stuff is different and our world sees something greater than anything else our culture can give them. Church, that's my prayer.
· As just as the church in Corenth faced in ancient day Las Vegas, just as we face a world that is so jacked up, so messed up, promising so many things it cannot deliver, we get to make known to them a loving Jesus who changes it all.
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Hey, Paul
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· Am I welcoming people into my lives? Am I welcoming people into my home? Or am I closed off and pretending like everything's great on the outside?
· Everything looks great on social media.
· Everything looks great at a 10,000 ft distance. But when we let people get close, it's uncomfortable because they see the real us. But guess what? The real you is the transformed view by Jesus Christ.
· We have been going through the book of Corinthians and 1 Corinthians. And we have started this at the beginning of the year. We're in week 18 and we're at the very end of this book. So, if you have your Bibles, you can go flip to 1 Corinthians chapter 16 as we'll be diving into and kind of dissecting as we wrap up this study through the book of Corinthians. But next week, I'm very excited, is next week is Mother's Day.
· Hopefully, you have that on your calendar. And some of you, you know, dads out there are like, "Oh, all right.
· Uh, what does Amazon have that will be here before Sunday?" All right. Um, good luck. All right. Uh, but it is Mother's Day, but we're also excited because we're starting a new family series calling family less of the mess. Um, anyone want a little less mess in your Well, okay, let's be honest. You're like, I want less mess in my house. All right. Uh, dads, maybe a cleaning service works for next Sunday. I don't know. But we're going to talk about how there's messiness in our families, but how God is so great and comes in and cleans up our mess despite our mistakes.
· But today, as we wrap up in First Corinthians, uh we've been going through this journey. And if you've been with us on some of it, just going to kind of catch you up a little bit is is the book of Corinth is a unique one. Is Paul wrote this letter to the church located in Corinth. And Corinth, Corinth was like ancient day Las Vegas. It was a messy town. They're focused on money and focused on wealth and focused on sex and everything outside of what Jesus was getting them to focus on. And Paul comes into this church that had all these issues, had all these mistakes, and he's lovingly correcting and pastoring them through this process. And then in the last half of this book, what we've talked and we've called this, hey, Paul, is he just been answering these deep theological questions that they have in their mind and going through is what does the Bible say about this? What does the Bible say about that? And as we kind of start to go through here, Paul kind of gets to the heart of this and I think is so important is kind of his closing statements. He answers this question that I think we need to ask and let this scripture answer today is hey Paul why should I keep going to church?
· Hm. You know, there's a big, if you look overall in America, church attendance has been declining for years and years.
· And really, the pinnacle of it happened in 2020. I don't know what happened then, right? Something happened then, right? Um, but after that, like, church just changed. Attendance was declining, declining. We're actually seeing some positive signs in the last uh year that baptisms were actually up in 2024, and we're seeing revival, especially in the younger generations, in Gen Z. But people have asked these questions and these are honest questions and maybe you've never said them out loud but you've said them in your heart is like do I need to go to church every week like my couch is pretty comfortable.
· They're streaming the service. My kids aren't going to get bugs and germs and everything else they get in kids ministry and then bring back home and then it goes through your entire family.
· Know that. Feel that. Right. And you're like it's it's kind of nice here. I can watch it from my phone as I'm on the way to the lake or as I'm traveling. He's like, "Do I need to go every week? Like once or twice? That sounds like a pretty good commitment. Like why do I have to show up continuously?" Well, Paul today is going to give us the answer to that. And and the answer we're going to start with and spend our time dissecting through chapter 16 is church attendance is not just about what you are contributing to, but who is contributing to you. Think about that for a second. A church attendance is not just about the things we do. You do a lot of things if you are plugged in and serving here.
· Maybe you help kids and you wipe noses and get kids that are screaming on their end, right? Like you're in children's ministry. That's a great commercial for kids ministry right there, right? Go serve in there. Um maybe you wave and you greet people. You're on the AV team or you're in worship or you're in a number of ways. We serve in our church family and you feel like you give, you give, you give. But church is also about what comes back and what God is building in you. And today, Paul, as we kind of start to go down this road, is going to show us that it's not just about checking our church boxes, saying, "I'm doing this. I'm done that." And it's not less than that. But there also is more. Last Sunday, uh, we had a pretty full slate for our staff. We had church.
· And then right after we did pizza with a pastor, which we do that once a month, and that's where, if you're new, kind of check out how do you get involved? And as I'm leaving, uh, Cheryl, Kyle's wife, and Kyle's our student guy. He's the real loud one that we can't turn the volume down. Um, like, "Where's the volume switch on you, bro?" And like he's like, "God, great one." Um, like clearly. But Cheryl's like, "Hey, uh, she's like, uh, we're going to have our Bible group party and it's at a park right by my house." She's like, "You guys can come if you want." And I was thinking about this. I'm like, "All right, it's a beautiful day out." I'm like, "It's at a park so our four kids can run around. Uh, it's free food because we're not bringing anything.
· We're just going to eat all their food that they already had planned for." Um, like sold. So, we crashed the Gallagher Bible Group party and we got to hang out. Our kids ran around. It was fun and just talking to families that I know in our church that serve that are involved.
· And it was just this amazing kind of night of it's like this is church community. This is doing life together.
· This is where we just get to talk about, you know, what God's doing in our life and talk about the stresses we have going on. Talk and just have fun and enjoy each other's company and do life.
· And you're like, that is great of how church goes outside of Sunday. But you'll never get that community outside of Sunday if you're not involved in contributing on Sunday morning the right way.
· And Paul, here's what he's going to show us today in this question that we're going to pose and let the scripture answer is what does going to church contribute to our lives? Why why do I need to show up here every Sunday morning? Why do I need to come to this place and sing these songs and hear these texts and wipe these noses and do all the things I do? What is it building inside of me? Well, in 1 Corinthians chapter 16, Paul actually starts this chapter and we'll kind of I'll save you the first part is first he asked for a collection to continue his ministry.
· He's like, "Hey, Church of Glacia has already given some. Now you guys need to pony up, give more money so we can go and take the gospel more places." And then in verse 5, he gives his travel itinerary. He's like, "I booked with Southwest a couple times. They keep canceling on me, but we got it sorted out."
· But in verse 13, here's where Paul gets into his wrap up of this book of Corinthians and all that he's been just laying down this truth after truth after truth of how do you live in such a broken context? How do you be this church that is making Jesus known to the people around you? In verse 13, he starts this. He says, "Be alert." He says, "Be alert. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong.
· do everything in love. Here's how Paul starts this as we kind of ask this question of what does church contribute to our lives. The first thing he shows us is that when we are part of a church family, when we are going to church, when we are part of this things, just what he's describing of here is it makes us spiritually hungry. You see, here's what Paul is kind of dissecting a little bit. He he he's not just giving some like basic little instructions, some kind of empty platitudes, but listen to this. He says, "Be alert." He's like, "Be on guard." He stand firm in your faith. He says, "Be courageous. Don't back down. Be strong." What he's telling them is we are in a spiritual war. And he's like, "And you can't do this on your own." Instead, you need to do this with a church family who is also focused on these things and moving in this direction. So, in partners with one another, we are moving closer to God and not farther away. My wife and I, uh, we eat pretty healthy. Um, overall, and and I am not as good at eating as healthy as her, and I have a really good metabolism system that's slowly starting down, but I'll eat a lot of junk, hit the restroom, and I'm good, right? Um, and too much, too far. All right, just trying to get that line. Uh, but anyway, so every night I don't eat a lot of sweets, but every night I eat four Oreos. Not three, not five, four. All right, you got to keep it in there. But after I eat my Oreos, like I won't then go, I need a few more Oreos. But sometimes I'm like, I need something else. So sometimes I'll make a bag of popcorn. And usually I would ask and then she's like, uh, she's like, sure.
· And I'll get two bowls out. And then recently I've been asking. She's like, no, I don't need it. I don't want it.
· It's fine. So then I got one big bowl, poured it all in, taken. and she's like, "You're not going to give me any." I'm like, "Is this a trap right now? I don't understand." And as I was thinking about, I'm like, "Man, I wasn't being a very good partner in eating healthy how we were supposed to go with our goal and like making sure we're, you know, on that path together." And see, Paul is saying in this church life, when we have shared values, when we're both saying, "How do we get closer to Jesus together?" There's this accountability that comes into it as we're showing each other what does right spiritual hunger look like. How do we fall more in love with Jesus through the reading of his word, through the worshiping and the praising of his name, through praying, through who meeting together? He shows us how this works. And here's I think there's some practical things we need to reflect on as we go through this text.
· And in this first pillar, and we're going to have each one of these as we go through of talking about how this church contributes the spiritual hunger to our lives. Here's a pulse check on are you doing it the right way? And this question that I just want you to kind of write down on your notes and reflect on now and through this week is am I closer or farther away from God than last year? So basic, so easy, but so deadly if you're honest. Because here's the thing. If you've been a Christian for decades, you you should still see some progression. The Bible tells us we work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Meaning, there is a positive momentum towards our God. And we're getting closer to him. And when we reflect on that, say, "Am I closer and more dependent and more loving and all these things towards Jesus now than I was a year ago?" And if you've been a Christian for a long time, that question still examines. Maybe you're like, "That's not me." We we baptized 11 people on Easter. We have some baptisms we're going to see in just a second. We have more baptisms on Mother's Day.
· People starting their journey in Christ.
· It's easy to answer that question now.
· I'm like, if like before you didn't know Jesus, you know Jesus now? Yes, I'm closer. But continually as we go, are we moving the right direction? Are we getting closer to our God, closer to our father, or farther away? And here's the thing. When it comes to our spiritual life, there's no such thing as being stagnant. We either moving intentionally closer to him or we're drifting farther away. And here's the thing, as I hear from people all the time, like, I'm a spiritual person or or I love Jesus, but I don't know if I like his church, right? Like, I I love him, but I don't know if I like his people very much. I think they're saying that to me usually when they say that, you know, I don't know if I like you as much. Um, but here's the thing, is we say this at Cross Church all the time, is that a Christian without a church is a contradiction. We see it nowhere in the New Testament that believers were acting in isolation apart from a church family is you need other believers who are going to come around you help you focus on the right things and move in the right direction. But Paul keeps going in verse 15. He says, "Brothers and sisters," he's writing this to his church family as he has been doing. He says, "You know the household of Stephanus. They are the first fruits of Aaya and have devoted themselves, I love this, to serving the saints. I urge you also to submit to such people and to everyone who works and labors with them. I am delighted to have Stephanus, Fortunice, and Aayas present because these men have made up for your absence for they have refreshed my spirit and yours. Therefore, recognize such people. You see, Paul tells us that we keep going to church because it makes us spiritually hungry, but it not only does that, it also makes us radically humble. You see, Paul points out here, and I love this household that he describes. If he starts describing the household of Stephanus, and he tells them a little bit about him, he says, "These people have made it their mission to devote themselves to serving other people. They have made it their mission to not think so selfishly about themselves, but to love their church family, to love the people around them. And he tells the Corinthian church, you need to mimic this household. One of the most beautiful things when you have children is when there's more than one of them and they play nicely together. Okay? It's it's beautiful because it's rare. All right?
· That's what makes it so beautiful. But it's like I I got four, okay? and and my two middle ones are my boys and seven and three and they're like when they play nicely, it's so it's so amazing.
· Like Archie, the seven-year-old, will be like, "I'm just playing with my best buddy." Uh like you did this yesterday.
· I'm like, "You just tried to strangle your best buddy 2 minutes ago." Like, I saw it. But one of the things we're working through with Archie is like sharing. And he's really into Pokemon cards right now. So, he like sets up a fort in his room and has all his Pokemon cards on the floor. And then Arlo, Hurricane Arlo, the three-year-old, runs in and and he's like, "Don't touch anything. I won't share my toys. These are mine.
· These are mine. These are mine." And then I get annoyed. I'm like, "You know what is mine? This house and everything in it? We go to court. None of it's yours.
· Okay? I own it all."
· Sometimes I'm wondering if God's up in heaven and be like, "You know what's mine? All of it." And Paul is telling us, "Look at the household of Stepheness cuz I don't know about you, but I can get so caught up in this is mine. This is mine. I got to protect my time. I got to protect my resources. I got to do this. I got to do that. I got that." And God's like, "I've given it all to you. you can give a little bit of it back. And Paul is challenging us to be like the household of Stephanus, to embrace this idea of not being so selfish, but to start looking at our lives with open hands rather than closed fists. And here's the amazing part about this is I think when you're in a church with radically humble people, it starts to happen naturally that when people are generous around you, two things happen. either you want to be more like them and there's like this conviction that happens that all of a sudden like it just kind of it becomes like it it wears off on you and you're like oh I'm going to be more generous too with my time and my resources or you feel so bad and so convicted in the other way that you're like I'm going to be generous just because like Sally's so generous so I got to start being more generous right and being a part of that community there's this health in there so here's our pulse check for this is asking ourselves this question so basic so easy but so convicting. Am I more or less generous with my time and resources than last year? Am I more or less generous? And here's what's really hard is right now there's a good chance that for you, the economy, your portfolio, your personal finances, we're at a better place last year than this year. And when things start going south, the first natural instinct is I got to protect my time and spend it all on myself. I got to protect my resources and keep them at home and use them all myself. And we just become more me focused where God in his word is saying, "No, no, no. Live with an open hand. Live with saying, how can I serve and submit and love the people around me rather than hoarding everything for myself?" But Paul starts to wrap up this letter in verse 19. And as he kind of gets to our last point and he closes out, he says this that the churches of Asia send you greetings. Aquilla and Priscilla send you greetings warmly in the Lord along with the church that meets in their home. He says, "All the brothers and sisters send you greetings.
· Greet one another with a holy kiss."
· This greeting, what Paul is saying, what he's writing here, he says, is in my own hands.
· Paul, if anyone does not love the Lord, a curse be on him. Our Lord come. In verse 23, he says, "The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. My love be with all of you in Christ Jesus." You see, Paul says that when we're part of a church, the things it contributes to us is it it burns the spiritual hunger in us that we want to be closer to God and not farther away.
· That it makes us more radically humble.
· We live our lives more open-handed than closedfisted. And lastly, and and if you've been at our church, you've already heard me preach this point specifically, and I've been preaching it through this year, but it's as Paul wrapped all this up, is it makes us uncomfortably hospitable. Look at these verses again.
· There's just so much relational language here. The the churches Vasa send you greetings. Aquilla and Priscilla who are who are stalwarts within the early church, send them greetings. He said, "The churches that meet in their homes, they send you greetings." He says, "All the brothers and sisters that I'm interacting, they are praying for you.
· They're loving for you. They want to be a family with you." He says, "Paul myself, I've been yelling at you for 16 chapters to get your stuff together. I send you greetings with my own hands." You see, Paul is modeling and encouraging the type of hospitable community that should characterize our churches.
· I don't know about you, but I I I am pretty extroverted. But when I get tired on Sundays even this will happen or like you know throughout the week and like I got a lot when once I hit that moment my natural instinct is putting the kids to bed is putting an AirPod in, hooking it to my Apple TV while my wife goes shopping or doing something else and like watching shows and saying everyone leave me alone, right? And then I'll eat my Oreos and I'm good. But but my natural instincts to rest is let me cave into myself. Let let me not talk to people. Let me just kind of like be in my own little isolated echo chamber and let me just uh watch, you know, um whatever show is streaming through right now. I have like 10 shows streaming. It's really hard to keep them all straight. Um I don't even know what's going on in half of them, but it's like I just want to watch that and then I'm good. But here's where the conviction sets in. is is as I read the Bible, I have yet to find the verse that Jesus sat down and watched Netflix. All right? It's not there. Okay? That we don't see Jesus just sitting and and like going into and when he did isolate himself, he was praying and fasting.
· Come on, Jesus. He's at a pretty high standard. All right? But inside the church, he's saying that it's not about us. It's not just about being comfortable. It's not about hoarding.
· It's not about getting away and creating our own community. is being a part of a church makes us uncomfortably hospital because we're constantly exposed to this biblical command that we need to love other people as we love ourselves, just as the same as we love ourselves. That we need to care more about what other people are going through rather than just our own little kingdom. And in Surprise, Arizona, wherever we are around uh the valley, our go-to is we just want to go into our castles. We want to close the door. We want to lock it. We want to rest and have self-care and just think about ourselves rather than engaging in loving the people around us. And Paul here is showing us that's not what the successful, the good, the god-fearing, making Jesus known churches of the first century were like. Instead, they were greeting. They were loving.
· They were reaching out to people to engage them in the church family. Here's our pulse check on this basic, easy, could be wrecking when you're honest. Is am I more loving and inviting towards others than last year right now? Am I more loving? Am I more inviting in my workplace to other people? Am I more loving and inviting? The one question I will not ask this is on the road because I am not. All right. I moved to North Surprise. had to deal with the Grand and 303 exit and 163rd. So, the answer is no. I am not more loving on the road.
· Um, I tell people, don't put a cross church sticker on your car if you're going to cut people off, which is why I don't have one. Felt some conviction today as I met a new family in between services. How did you find our church? We saw a cross church sticker and decided to come check it out. Like, oh, did they cut you off?
· and they played along. They're like, "No, they flipped us off." I'm like, "Yeah, no, I'm just kidding." But not really. So, someone, you were actually nice on the road. Uh, I'm going to start driving better and put a sticker maybe on there. But anyway, but am I more loving and inviting in blank? Am I welcoming people into my lives? Am I welcoming people into my home, into how I do, or am I closed off and pretending like everything's great on the outside?
· Everything looks great on social media.
· Everything looks great at a 10,000 foot distance. But when we let people get close, it's uncomfortable because they see the real us. But guess what? The real you is the transformed you by Jesus Christ. And Paul here, as we start to wrap up all of this of how do we attempt to apply this? How do we walk out these doors after being kind of supercharged here on a Sunday morning? How do we begin to live out this book of first Corinthians? And here's how I think this happens in the life of cross church and how you are part of something greater that God's not just moving in your individual hearts, but he is moving in the life of our church that will go to the life of our community, the life of our city is cross church will make Jesus known by being hungry, humble, and hospitable.
· You see, this is not just a cheesy saying. This is not just something we say because it looks cool on the back of a t-shirt, but it does look cool so you can keep buying those. Okay? But this is metrics to show us, are we creating a culture where we are making Jesus known?
· Not by being kind of okay in life, not by being spiritually eh, not by being selfish, not by being comfortable, but are we making Jesus known? By feasting after our Lord, saying, "How can I get to know him better? How can I get to know him greater? How can iron sharpen iron within his church family and in his context?" So, we're spurring one another on towards getting closer to our Lord.
· How do I be radically humble? Stop living my life so closedfisted but living it open-handed, being generous with my time and my resources. And how do we be uncomfortably hospital of inviting people in and seeing how God can change their life? Here's a couple practical ways you can do this and we've been talking about this, but here here's your next step in each of these areas. Maybe you're like, "How do I be more how do I be more spiritually hungry?" We we did a challenge at the beginning of the year saying, "How what if you became an Agraded church attender?" You showed up 90% of the Sundays available to church. And maybe you're thinking about that. You're like, "Man, I've already failed." All right, new semester starts today. All right, there's 35 and we'll give you one extra cuz the last Sunday we don't meet.
· There's 30. So, show up 30 more times the rest of this year on a church weekend and see how God starts to change your life. How it doesn't just become a box you check, but it becomes a lifestyle and it becomes a movement inside your heart in your life that changes what you do. What if you showed up 90% of the time to be with God's family?
· And we talk about this radically humble like where do you start with that? Maybe you're like man I'm not in a position financially I can give yet. Start small but maybe you're like I maybe you just need to give your time. Go volunteer at VBS. Man that will change you. You're like I'm not that generous. All [Music] right. Al Mhler, one of the premier preachers of our day, seminary president in Southern. I heard him share his testimony years ago. He was saved in a vacation Bible school and God forever changed his life. Maybe you need to pour into the next generation. You need to give your time and your resources in a way that changes someone's eternity. And this hospitable one, I think this is the one we have beat a drum over so much. And as you leave our outside our lobby, you'll see some ping pong balls on a wall. And what we said is we challenged our church. What if every single adult once a month hosted someone either in their home or at a coffee and they picked up the bill or at a lunch? What would it look like to create a culture of hospitality where we're meeting with saints, sinners, and strangers and we're showing them who Jesus is? Early on, I was watching that thing fill up and I'm like, I might have done the math wrong or we're really bad at this. All right, but we're seeing some momentum starting to happen. We're on track. But what if we just keep doing that? We pour gas on that fire and instead of just welcoming people to the surface level of our lives, we're welcoming them behind the scenes to show how Jesus has truly transformed us. And here's the beauty of that. When we start to do these things, guys, God is going to change lives.
· God is going to reach behind the barricades people have put up in their heart because he's interacted with their people. And then just as Paul closes his letter, all of the sudden the grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. We get to share how Jesus died on the cross for you. How he raised again to defeat your sins. Now, no longer do you have to be identified by your past, by your struggle, by all the junk in your life, but you can have a relationship with a savior who wipes the slate clean. And we'll do this as Paul is showing in verse 24. He says, "My love will be with all of you." Paul's love was spiritually hungry. Paul's love was radically humble. Paul's love was uncomfortably hospitable. But it was not because of Paul's power. Listen to this all of you in Christ Jesus. It was Jesus's love flowing through him, flowing through the church at Galatia, through the church at Corenth, through cross church so that the people around us can know who our Jesus is, whose lives can forever be changed. And we can see a movement in our city, in all our campuses around Arizona and beyond because Jesus changes everything.
· Cuz when we make him known, all the stuff is different and our world sees something greater than anything else our culture can give them. Church, that's my prayer.
· As just as the church in Corenth faced in ancient day Las Vegas, just as we face a world that is so jacked up, so messed up, promising so many things it cannot deliver, we get to make known to them a loving Jesus who changes it all.
Hey, Paul