R536 What The Church Should Look Like

Gaining perspective on what the Church should look like. That's today's topic from Dr. Don Wilton.

I thought that everybody could go to everything always at the Church, because we have a lot of things going on. And so every now and again, I'm going to make an announcement to you. And you know that when I do that, I want you to know that I really believe the Lord has put that on my heart. And I'm going to speak to you today on a subject that is just burning in my heart.

My cup is full to overflowing. I want you to come with me on a journey. I want you to come with me on a journey right throughout Spartanburg.

And I'm going to show you churches of every shape and every size. I want you to come on this journey with me. I want you to come with me to Greenville, then we'll go down through Easley, and then down to Anderson, maybe stop off in Commerce for a little shopping. Off to Atlanta to the big mall. Come with me to Auburn, the home of Bob Morgan, the great. Come with me down to New Orleans, the best seafood in town. Come with me on a trip to Marshall, Texas and Dallas. Let's go to Phoenix, Arizona and cross over the mountains to the west coast.

And I'm going to show you churches like ours. Come with me up to Seattle. Let's go across Montana down into Nebraska, North and South Dakota into Michigan. Let's take a trip up Lake Erie. Let's go to the White Mountains of New Hampshire and Vermont. Let's go up into Nova Scotia to one of the most beautiful places in the world and turn and come back down the east coast through Boston and Rhode Island. Let's go to New York City. Let's come down to Wilmington, North Carolina and go with the senior adults to the Outer Banks in a couple of weeks time.

Let's come back here to Spartanburg and catch our breath before we all go down to Key West and sit in a condo and dip our toe into the water and have a good time catching some fish. Everywhere we go, I'm going to show you churches. This land is blessed with churches, churches of every shape and every size. There are big churches and little churches, churches with steeples, churches without steeples, churches in the bush, churches in the center of the city on Main Street, churches with cemeteries parked outside their front door, churches that are old, churches that are new, churches that are brick buildings, churches that are being built in every kind of imaginary architectural design you and I could ever think about, churches that are comprised of older people, some of younger people, some mixed, churches that are vibrant, churches that are dead and dying. We will find churches everywhere. And all of us have got an opinion about God's church. That's one of the reasons why there are so many denominations. We've all got an opinion about what the church should look like. I think it's time, don't you, in America that we begin to ask one question. What should the church look like?

Is there a common denominator? Are there core values for God's church? Now friends, in the next little while we're going to go here into the Acts of the Apostles, the founding of the New Testament church, and I want us to study, albeit briefly, what the church should look like. And I'm going to ask you to do something this morning, a little bit difficult for someone like me to do because I have so many opinions. I'm going to ask all of us just to lay our opinions aside. I'm going to ask us to put all our biases and prejudices, all the money we've spent, all the years we belong to the church, all the ownership, all the mandates, all our ways of doing things, and let's ask God to show us what God tells us the church should look like.

And then I'm going to ask a very personal question. I'm going to ask you in your own heart to ask yourself whether your church, in this case First Baptist Church Spartanburg, or if you're a guest with us today, I know the Conroys and some others are with us, the McSwains and others are visiting with us today, and that's a real blessing. I want you to go and ask those questions in your own heart about your church. I want you to ask this question, Lord, am I, are we, anywhere near to following what you are telling us we should look like? Perhaps we don't need a deacons meeting for this one. Perhaps we don't need to call the church into conference.

We just simply need to ask God. I'm going to read to you a few verses in Acts chapter 2 beginning at verse 42. They, that is the believers, devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. Every one was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods they gave to anyone as he had need.

Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes, and they ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. What should the church look like? I'm going to try to give us some food for thought from God's Word. Number one, number one, the church should be a place where a whole lot of devotion takes place. Right here in verse 42, the church should be a place where a whole lot of devotion takes place.

And this means three things according to Scripture. It means that God's people in God's church are devoted in faith, we are devoted in hope, and we are devoted in love together. What should the church look like according to Scripture? The church should be a place, a house, a meeting or gathering place where a whole lot of devotion takes place. You see, beloved friends, devotion is that single-minded focus that Paul talked about when he said, Let this mind be in you which was also in the Lord Jesus Christ. Devotion means that God's church is filled with a people who are single-minded in seeking after the mind and the will of God.

How does it express itself? It expresses itself in devotion in faith. What is faith? Faith is the very essence of what we believe and how we believe.

Faith means that we as a group of people just simply trust God. Devotion in hope. The church needs to be a place where believers come together devoted in hope. What does hope mean? Hope means that I cannot yet see where I'm going, but I know I'm going to get there because my hope is in Jesus Christ. Hope means that I don't know what I'm going to do about my physical circumstances, but I have faith enough because of my devotion that God knows all about me, and God is going to be able to do for me what I cannot do for myself. Hope in a congregation means that even though we mourn the death and the passing of so many of our loved ones, we just happen to believe with all of our hearts that one day we're going to all be in the presence of the Lord together.

Amen? Folks, the Bible says if you don't have devotion in faith and devotion in hope, you might as well not meet together as a church. If the church is not openly, publicly, and unashamedly expressing devotion, the church is not a church, and it all comes together in our devotion in love.

Jesus put it like this. He said, He said, By this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you love one another. That's the key ingredient. Right there, devotion. May I suggest to you today, beloved friends, that devotion means that we as God's people are imitating God and consequently we possess these Christian virtues. What are Christian virtues? Faith, hope, and love. And the Word of God says if you want to know what the church should look like, it needs to be a place where a whole lot of devotion is taking place.

Number two. It should be a place where a whole lot of feasting takes place. I love this one. Where a whole lot of feasting takes place. Now let me explain to you. Did you notice right there in verse 42? It said they devoted themselves to what? To the apostles' teaching. Feasting.

Do you know something? The Bible says that the church should be a place where a whole lot of feasting takes place. What does it mean? It means two things. Number one, it means that when we come to church, church should be a place where we are about teaching about God. That's doctrine.

That's the first component of spiritual feasting. It is teaching about God. But there is a second component in scripture here. It's not just teaching about God, it is equipping for God.

Now these two kind of run parallel tracks together. Teaching about God and equipping for God. One deals with doctrine, the other deals with my Christian service. That's what the church should look like. Friend, the church is not a place for bubble and froth. I'm going to say to you that one of the greatest challenges that I have as your pastor, week by week, and let me tell you these weeks run into each other. You want to be a preacher and know how Sundays come up? In a hurry.

One after another, after another, after another. And I'm going to tell you one of the things you can always pray for me is that I believe that God has called me to be a teacher and a preacher and a feeder of spiritual truth. And my mandate is that there ought to never be a time that we come together in the house of God, that we are not about the business of teaching about God and equipping for service for God. That's the mandate of the Scriptures. I've heard people say to me, I just want to go somewhere where they just tell all nice little stories all the time.

What a shame. Folks, there are popping up all over America, not houses of God, houses of entertainment. People want to go to church so they can be entertained. I had a man several years ago in this church come and complain to me that I always invited people to take up their Bibles because he has a busy week and this is the one hour that he's got in the week to be able to relax when he comes to church. The Bible says, my friends, listen, we've got a mandate.

God says the church should be a place where a whole lot of feasting takes place. You're listening to Dr. Don Wilton, our teacher here on The Encouraging Word. Please don't go away. He'll be back to complete today's message, what the church should look like in just a moment. But we encourage you to drop by our website. If you haven't been by lately, T-E-W online dot O-R-G is the place you can sign up for the daily encouraging word email devotional from Dr. Wilton.

That's T-E-W online dot O-R-G. It's also a great place to discover wonderful resources like this. The Encouraging Word's most requested resource is the daily encouraging word. The daily encouraging word is a daily devotional made available in a quarterly booklet or delivered each morning in your email inbox. If you would like to request this free devotional, please call 866-899-WORD.

That's 866-899-9673 or visit online at T-E-W online dot O-R-G. That's T-E-W online dot O-R-G. We are confident that it will be a blessing to you. The Encouraging Word is a viewer and listener supported ministry. Thank you for listening today. Now back to today's great teaching from Dr. Don Wilton. They devoted themselves to the Apostles' doctrine.

That's what it's about. 2 Timothy 2 verse 2, The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Hosea hanging his head in shame in chapter 4 and verse 6 said, My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge. Church, what should it look like?

Come with me on a journey through America. Number 3, a whole lot of fellowshipping takes place in the church according to God's prescription. Look there at verse 42, They devoted themselves to the Apostles' teaching and to fellowship. I love that word, fellowship.

You know, it's just got something about it. You know the word fellowship in Scripture really means three things. Let me give them to you. Number 1, it means gathering together. Have you ever had people come to you and say, You know, I don't have to go to church. Yes, you do.

Excuse me? You do. According to God's word, I hear people say all the time, You know, I love the Lord. I love the Lord, but you know, I don't have to go to church. Yes, you do.

Because the Bible says that is the primary place where God's people gather together. Folks, I'm going to tell you something that's going to shock you. Do you know that young people influence other young people? Is that a genius for me to say that?

I've been working on that all week. Young people influence, there is no greater influence on a young person than another young person. So what happens if you take your young person out of that?

Huh? What happens? What happens if you're a believer and you take yourself out of that? I've heard people say, Well, I'm not going to go to, I don't want this and I'm not going to do that. If you take yourself out of the gathering of God's people, you are literally making a choice to remove yourself from one of God's primary methods of blessing you. It doesn't only mean gathering, it means encouraging. That's what fellowship means. I love the fact that we call ourselves the fellowship of encouragement. We always need to make sure that's who we are.

I've seen churches call themselves all kinds of things and they seem to be the very opposite. Folks, the day we stop encouraging one another through fellowship is the day we need to remove that from our title. Encouragement, I need encouragement, don't you? I know there are people here today, all of us need encouragement. There's a third component of fellowship and that is motivating.

It just motivates me. I'm just telling you. Folks, I don't mind, can I just tell you something this morning? I was flat out tired this morning. Don't look at me, you go on a youth retreat, you will be too. I'm telling you, when I woke up this morning, I said, man, I'm going to call Sal Barone, let him preach. Or let Seth go, he's done absolutely nothing this week.

He's such a meanie little fella, isn't he? You know, I felt great this morning when I woke up, but I'm telling you, I was tired. You know, coming to God's house, folks, there's just something special about that. What happens when we fellowship? We gather together, we encourage one another, and we motivate one another. Motivation means that God, through God's people, takes us by the scruff of the neck and he catapults us out into the weak. He just shoots us out the door of his grace. He just motivates us to do it. He says, go on out there, I'm going to recharge your batteries, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to re-energize you.

I'm going to make you the most unbelievable pink bunny you've ever been. You just keep going and going and going and going. God does that. You know where you find that? In the church. In the church.

What does God say about the church? Come with me on a trip. Let's go around the country from Chicago to San Francisco, maybe down to San Diego. Let's go to Mexico, shall we? Let's go to Tijuana where the teething masses of people. Let's go to Anchorage, Alaska. Let's go to Honolulu, Hawaii or London, England and I'll show you churches.

What should we look like? A whole lot of devotion needs to be taking place. A whole lot of feasting needs to be taking place. A whole lot of fellowshipping needs to be taking place.

Here's what God's Word says in Hebrews chapter 10. Consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some of you, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near. What did He mean by this? He meant that fellowship means three things. It means mutual love. We come together and we mutually love one another. It means mutually spurned on to do good deeds and it means mutual encouragement. In other words, what God is saying at this juncture, my friend, is that the Christian life cannot be lived apart from one another. The expression of that is the local church, what the church should look like. It should be a place, number four, where a whole lot of celebrating takes place.

Look what He says right here in the latter part of this passage. He says they devoted themselves to the breaking of bread. Did you know that the Lord's Supper is the ultimate time of celebration?

Why is this a whole lot of celebrating? Well, think about the Lord's Supper. Three things happen.

Number one, self-examination takes place. That's cause to celebrate. That's what the Lord's Supper is. God calls upon us to examine our hearts before God. Number two, the purging of sin takes place.

Now that is reason to celebrate. That's what the Lord's Supper is all about. We not only are called to examine our hearts as the body of Christ, but we are consequently purged of our sin. That means that God takes people like you and me and He purifies us. And if He doesn't purify us, my friends, we're in trouble. That is the third cause for celebration, the purifying of the church.

May I give you a guarantee? If there is known unrepentant sin in the body of Christ, my friends, we as a church will suffer the consequences. You go with me on a journey through America, you show me churches that are dead and dying, and I'll guarantee you they are not places where a whole lot of celebrating is taking place. They are not in the business of self-examination. They are not receiving purging for their sin. God is not purifying them as a body, and I'll guarantee you according to the Word of God, if God's body is not purified, God will not bless.

He's not going to do it. Number five, a whole lot of praying takes place. The other Word of God says that they were given to the breaking of bread and to prayer. We need to do a lot of work in this area in our church, personally, corporately. Yes, we're on a long way down the road, but you know prayer means two things. When God said my house must be a house of prayer, He meant two things. He said, number one, when you pray, which is my standard for my church, you bring about a consciousness of the presence of God. And when you pray, you consequently receive the power of God. So there are two dynamics involved in a church that prays a whole lot. Number one is the presence of God.

Paul put it like this. He said, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Friends, we need to be far more about the business of invoking the presence of God than we ought to be about doing anything else, and that comes through prayer. And as a consequence of that, God pulls out His power through His presence based upon His promise of the Holy Spirit. God does that.

God answers prayer. Number six. Number six, the church should be a place where a whole lot of, now you need to listen to this, wow takes place. A whole lot of wow takes place. I don't know if you've ever been to Disney World. I've been down there. Love going down to Disney World. One of the best things you could ever do when you go to Disney World is take a child.

How many of you have gone to Disney World with a child? Put your hands up. Okay, here's what happens.

You've got a 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10-year-old with you. Here's what they do when they walk into the Magic Kingdom. Have you seen them? Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow.

Oh, wow. Wow. Wow. Wow.

Do you know what the Bible says, folks? The Bible says right here in verse 43, everyone was filled with awe. Wow. God tells us that His church should be a place where a whole lot of wow takes place. It means that we come into His presence in the house of God and we literally sit there, and in our hearts and in our lives, we're saying, wow. Wow.

Wow. Fearing God and being filled with a sense of awe in His church doesn't mean God is here. It means, Lord, you are here, and your awesome presence fools this place.

Our God is an awesome God. How we celebrate our awesome God together, and today this Bible teaching has stirred us to be closer, to draw into the presence of God and understand that as we come into His presence, as we hear His Word taught, we want to be changed. We want to grow deeper in our faith, or perhaps it's time for a reboot to restart your commitment to Christ, or say yes to Jesus for the very first time. If you'd like to speak with someone, our phone is open right now at 866-899-WORD.

That's 866-899-9673. We stand ready to connect with you just as Dr. Wilton steps into the studio to connect with us now. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't you pray this prayer with me right now? Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner, and I know that Jesus died for me on the cross. Today I repent of my sin, and by faith I receive you into my heart. In Jesus' name. My friend, I welcome you today into the family of God.

This is exciting news. Perhaps you just gave your life to Christ, praying along with Dr. Wilton, or rededicated your life to Jesus. We want you to know that we're excited to pray with you for the next steps, to encourage you. Matter of fact, Dr. Wilton has prepared a packet for you if you just gave your life to Christ or rededicated your life to Jesus. He wants you to have absolutely free if you'll call 866-899-WORD. The Encouraging Word.