Is Church Important? | Sunday Message

Greg, Lori, and Harvest Ministries would like to send you the movie Unsung Hero, the back story of the music group for King and Country. It's a story of a mom and a dad and their seven kids putting their faith into action. You're going to be deeply moved by this story of the amazing small-bone family that have gone on to impact so many through their music, and we are offering this film to you for your gift of any size.

Get the DVD and digital download of Unsung Hero at Harvest.org. Hey there. Thanks for listening to the Greg Lori podcast, a ministry supported by Harvest Partners. I'm Greg Lori, encouraging you.

If you want to find out more about Harvest Ministries and learn more about how to become a Harvest Partner, just go to Harvest.org. Well, good to see you all. We're going to be talking today as we continue in our series, which we have titled, not Hot Topics. I always forget it. Hot Button Issues. Excuse me.

Hot Button Issues. We're talking today about the church. The church. Is Church Important is the title of my message. Is Church Important?

And we're going to be in Acts Chapter 2, if you want to turn in your Bible there, and Romans Chapter 12, Acts 2 and Romans 12. How fun was that, doing all the baby dedications? That was so sweet, seeing all those kids out here. Well, as some of you know, growing up, I had a bit of a drug problem. You know, I was born and raised in the church, and my mom, she drugged me to church, and she drugged me to Sunday school, and she drugged me to church functions. How many of you had a drug problem when you were younger? Yeah, your parents drug you to church.

Well, you know what? I got to tell you, I've got three kids, and I drag them to church sometimes. They don't always want to go, and you know what?

I didn't always want to go, but my parents made it a priority for us to attend church as a family, and that wasn't always easy. You know, dad was preaching on Sunday morning. Mom had to get my brother and me ready and up and out of bed, and we didn't always want to do that. We'd push back. We knew we could, you know, twist mom's arm a little bit more than we could dad.

Dad was like, hey, you get up, you do it. You know, that's an end of story. With mom, you know, we could play the emotional card a little bit.

Oh, we're tired. Can we go to a later service? And we always tried to push it later and later, but you know what? She was firm, and she brought us to church, and I'm thankful that she did because I can tell you right now that I am a product of parents bringing their kids to the Lord because you know what? My brother and I, we both had a time where we walked away from the Lord, but you know what? Those principles, those truths were instilled in our heart, and we always knew that we wanted to get home. Even when we were not walking with the Lord, we always knew that we wanted to get home, and I believe that's because we just had the truths instilled in us that we heard at church.

The community, the friendships, the teachings, all of it. It was so important, so I want to tell you from one dad to another, from one man, one parent, one person to another, regular church attendance is so important, and we'll get into that in a moment. I heard the story about a husband and wife who got up one morning. They were getting ready for church. It was about time to walk out the door, and the wife was ready, and she walked over, and her husband was still in his pajamas laying in bed. She said, sweetie, come on.

We do this every week. It's time to get up and go to church. You need to get ready. You need to get dressed.

Come on. Time is ticking, and he said, well, sweetie, you know what? I'll give you three reasons why I'm not going to church today. Number one, the church is cold and nobody likes me. Number two, and number three, I'm just not going.

And she said, wow, okay. Well, I'll give you three reasons why you should go to church. Number one, the church is not cold. Number two, people like you there. And number three, you're the pastor, so get up and get dressed. Let's get going.

You're waiting for me to say that that was me this morning. But that's how some people feel about church. It's all about them, right? I don't like the music. I don't like this.

I don't like that. There's a cloud in the sky. It might rain.

You know, God forbid that we drive in the rain here in Southern California or in Hawaii. No, we can't come to church. Well, there's a game on, and it's my team. And they're playing one of 600 games this week. And so I have to turn that on. Oh, church is too crowded. There's so many people. There's a lot of different reasons people offer up to not go to church.

How about this one? Hey, we can always watch online, right? As we talk about this topic, is church important in our series, Hot Button Issues, I want to answer that question for you all. Is church important? Yes, it is. God bless.

I'll see you next week. No, but it is. Seriously, it's a good question. In this age of Christian radio, podcasts, Christian concerts, Christian conferences, reading plans, Bible commentaries, is the church still important?

Can't our spiritual needs be met from some of those resources? Now if you've asked this question before, I'm glad you're here or at least listening or at least appear to be listening. Most of you appear to be listening.

You, sir, look like you might be falling asleep back there in the white shirt. But it's no secret that the church really seems to have fallen from grace in America. It's no longer a priority like it once was. Back in the 1950s, as many as 90% of Americans identified as Christians. 90% of our country. Today, 63% identify as Christian. And I think if we helped define what we mean by Christian, it would be actually a much lower number.

Biblical Christians. But church attendance has dropped. Now 50 to 55% or excuse me, in the 1950s, 50 to 55% of Americans attended on a weekly basis. Meaning the majority of Sundays a year, 50% of our country was attending church regularly. Versus today, only about 20 to 25% of Americans attend on a weekly basis.

Now why is that? That's a good question and there's a lot, a lot of articles about that. Why is church attendance dropping?

Everybody's written articles on this. Some of the ones that I saw speculate the cause of this is the rise of secularism and individualism. That it's a cultural shift and there's no longer that same social pressure. That there's changes in the family and social structures. That it's an issue of relevance in the church and the message that it brings. Others have speculated that it's a competition from sports, television, technology and other distractions and others have speculated the reason for the decrease in church attendance is a shift towards spirituality over organized religion. I think some of those are pretty valid.

There's something there for sure. But I think one reason that people have began to decrease their attendance is church is because they have begun to view church as something you spectate and not participate in. People have become consumers rather than disciples. Meaning that you came to church, it became more about what you got out of it over what you were offering to God. So it used to be when you came to church, you came and you were here to worship God.

You were there to sing to Him and praise Him and regardless of what the preacher was talking about, regardless how busy it was, you went to church because that's what you did. You know, that's good. That's good. But it seems today more than ever it has shifted. It's more about what you're getting out of it, right?

Does that make sense? That you're, what you're getting out of it versus what you're bringing to the table. It became more about is the preacher's sermon going to apply to me and is there convenient parking and does it conflict with the football game? Is anyone sitting in my seat to the music is too antiquated to the music is too modern to whatever it might be. When you come into church with a mindset of cater to me, you are missing the number one reason why you come to church.

It's not cater to me. It's not all about you. The number one reason why you come to church is to glorify God, is to worship God. This may come as a revelation to you and many of you listening today, but church is not all about you, your preferences and your enjoyment.

It's not. You know, we here at Harvest, we do our best to bring a message that applies to as many people as possible. Of course, we want to hit on topics like marriage and family and being a professional and being in school and different things.

And we try and make it as broad as we can so it applies to as many of you as we can. But we've heard from some people, oh, you're talking about marriage this week or you're talking about singleness this week and what does that have to do with me? I don't want to come to church if you're talking about something that doesn't apply to me. Okay, you're kind of missing the point because there's a good chance with that mentality, you will soon be single.

And if you are single, there's a good chance that you will become married. But if you don't, hey, eventually we'll get to that topic and hopefully it applies to you. But if you're constantly thinking about it's all about me, it's all about me, man, you are missing the number one reason why you come to church and that is to bring God glory. We do that during our worship. We do that during our serving and participation for those of you that volunteer. And we do that also as we hear the message.

You know, we at Harvest, we do our best again to bring a message that applies to everybody. But really what we're doing is based on a first century principle. We do our best to just build on the foundation that was laid all the way back in the first century in the book of Acts chapter two. And that's where we read about the very first church. And so let's read about that together in Acts chapter two, starting in verse 42. It says this, and they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship and the breaking of bread and in prayers. And then fear came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believe were together and had all things in common and sold their possessions and goods and divided them among all as anyone had need. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

That's great. That is a picture, a snapshot of the first century church that were followers of Jesus back in Jerusalem. And so right away, what do we see? We see that the first century church, there was an observation of and adherence to the apostles doctrine. They were hearing Bible teaching. They were hearing edification. They were getting edified.

They were being built up. They understood who Jesus was. They were being taught all kinds of things and they adhered to it. There was the breaking of bread, not just food being shared and having meals together, though there was that. They were actually engaging in the Lord's supper, celebrating communion, proclaiming the Lord's birth, death and resurrection together as we're all called to do as believers. There was the breaking of bread. There was the prayers. They prayed together. They knew each other's problems.

They bore each other's burdens. And a quick little plug here. I want to let you know on September 29th, next Sunday at 6 p.m. at Riverside and Orange County, we're going to be having a prayer service that we'd love to have you all come out for.

It's going to be a great time. There was also radical generosity. Look how it says, they sold their possessions and their goods and divided them among all as anyone had need. You know, sometimes when we talk about tithing here at the church, giving your tithe to the church, one-tenth of your income, people say, you know, Jonathan, that's actually an Old Testament covenant and we are no longer bound by the law and we don't have to give one-tenth. And to that I say, you're absolutely right. We are not bound.

It is a good principle to follow. If you want to talk about New Testament giving, we see it right here in the book of Acts. They sold all their possessions and their goods and divided them among all. So I invite you, you're more than welcome, if you would like to be a New Testament giver, you have the example for you right here. So there's radical generosity and there was gathering in the temple and there was gathering in house to house. And so what we see is, much like what we're having right now, this is a corporate gathering. All of us are here right now. We're now at this church hearing the message, hearing the worship, worshiping together, singing these songs, but also they're gathering house to house.

I think that's exactly what a small group is, getting together in a more intimate environment, asking questions, having more of a dialogue where this is definitely a monologue, what's happening here. And so we see a large group, small group, they were praising God. They had good rapport in the community. It says in verse 47, they praise God and had good favor with all the people. And then it says the Lord added daily to the church those who were being saved. And we see evangelistic outreach. They were living out their faith. They were living out what they believed. They were inviting people to come and hear the teaching of the apostles and people were being saved. They were completely dependent on the Lord for every single aspect. This really is a template that we look to to this present day. And that is because church is not all about you and it is all about God and his glory.

Look at that text. Again, God's people came and heard God's word. They partook in communion, which is the greatest gift God ever gave us, the remembrance of what Jesus did for us. They gave to God's people who were in need. They gathered in large and small groups with God's people talking about God. They praised God.

They did good in the community in God's name and they depended on God to add to the church. It is all about God's glory. That is the template.

That is the template that we look at and that is the template we do our best today to follow. And in case you haven't learned this yet, Christians, the way we receive from God is that we empty ourselves of our expectations. We empty ourselves of our demands and preferences and we come instead not about us but to come and bless God, to come and bless God. King David said in Psalm 103, bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Who forgives all your sin, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies, who satisfies your mouth with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles.

I love that. I think the reason that we have seen church attendance go down and the social fabric of our society begin to break down and the overall morality of America decline is because to many the church has become a commodity. We have put our pleasure and our enjoyment ahead of God's glory and our consumerist mentality has actually broken the first commandment which is to have no other gods before me.

We have put ourselves in that position. Church was a time to come and glorify God. Now what has church become?

All about me. Who's leading worship today? Who's preaching today? Is it going to be busy?

What's the weather like? Is there a game on? Is there anything conflicting? Okay, if all the stars perfectly align then we'll show up 15 minutes late and leave 10 minutes early.

Okay, that sounds good. It's like when you're, again, you're a single person and you're not hearing a sermon on singleness or a person that's married or parenting and you say, well that's not for me. This doesn't apply to me.

I'm not going. Or you don't like that guest speaker or you only like it when Hans leads worship or Tim or Ricky or Larry lead worship because wow, they really, you know, usher in the presence of God in such a tangible way. It's amazing. Hey, it's great. We love good worship leaders too.

But I would just ask you, is it about your experience or is it about God's glory at this point? My dad has said before, if we train up consumers instead of communers, we will end up with customers instead of disciples. You understand that? If you come with a consumerist mentality, you are going to be a customer. This is a product.

This is something you buy. Oh yeah, this week's message was a five out of 10. Hey, I get it. I like listening to good preaching too and whatever else, but you know what? We are here for God's glory. That is the role of the believer. We do not want to be customers. We want to be disciples.

And so here's how that could look. You pull up into the parking lot like I'm sure many of you have experienced. You get here, you have to battle the parking a little bit. Some guy cut in front of you when they weren't supposed to, but hey, you're at church. You're going to let it go. God bless our parking lot attendants. They do a great job, but they can't control you animals.

I'm just kidding. We're thankful for them, but you show up and you're a little bit agitated and now it's like, oh gee, it's not even the speaker that I like or it's not even the worship leader that I'm hoping for. And so here's what I would encourage you to do. Before you even get out of your car next week, I would encourage you as you're sitting there getting ready to open the door and go engage in a service to bring God glory that you would just offer up a simple prayer or something like this. God, as I come into this place to hear from you and worship you, I ask that you would speak to me exactly what you want me to hear, that you would reveal to me who you want me to be. God, you are good and I thank you for the blessings in my life.

Thank you that I am your child and you have chosen me to be in your family. Amen. That's it. When you come in with that mentality versus it's all about me and whatever else, it completely shifts. When you switch that approach, you realize that emptying yourself is exactly what God wants so that he can fill you up.

When you empty yourself of your expectation and what you're hoping to get out of it and you instead empty yourself of that and open yourself up to what God has for you, man, it completely changes everything. And so again, can you glorify God outside of church? Can you glorify God through listening to a good Christian podcast by going to a great Christian concert at home, in nature, sitting on your surfboard, on the golf course, in your car? Yes, you can and you absolutely should. But I would also remind you as we read in the book of Hebrews chapter 10 to consider one another, to consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another and so much more the day, so much more as you see the day approaching. And so we think that we can just do this on our own.

No, absolutely not. We are called to be in fellowship and community with other believers. The gathering together of God's people into one place is a special thing. You see your friends here, you see your family here, you hear God's word taught, you get to worship him corporately. And if you are actually glorifying God on your own, on the golf course, in your car, on your surfboard, you know, listening to great Christian music and good teaching and all of that, I would say that it is going to actually create an appetite in you to want to come to church. You're going to want to come to church if you're doing all of those things like you're putting up this, you know, this is why I don't go to church, I do all these things outside. If you actually are, you're going to have a hunger to be with God's people more than not.

That is absolutely certain. You're going to have an appetite to be with other believers and come to church. But worshiping God, fellowshipping with other believers and volunteering isn't the only reason we come to church.

It's not the only thing we do at church. In fact, the easiest way to define what we do here each and every week is, you've heard us say this before, upward, inward, outward. Upward, inward, outward.

How many of you have heard that before? I teach this at Harvest, yep, upward, inward, outward. So basically the church exists for these three reasons. The church exists for the upward glorification of God.

We're talking about that. Emptying ourselves, worshiping God, really having no expectation for God to bless us, just coming back and saying, God, you've given us the greatest blessing of all. The forgiveness of our sins, the hope of heaven, the Holy Spirit, the church, you've given us everything.

We're not coming with any requests or expectation. We're here to worship you, God, and give you glory. That's the glorification of God. Then there's the inward. The inward is the edification of the saints. Edification is just a fancy word for fortification, basically building up the church, strengthening it, helping lay that spiritual foundation and theological foundation so you can build your life upon Jesus and you can have him impact every part of your life, really. And so edification is fortification, just building it up, strengthening it.

And then lastly, outward. The church exists for the outward, which is the evangelization of the world, going and preaching the gospel, sharing with people what Jesus has done for us, living out our faith in a tangible way where people see it and are attracted to it. And hopefully we can invite those people to church and they can now begin in this process of upward, inward, and outward.

Everything we do here at Harvest fits into one of those three categories. And all three of those actually fulfill the first one, which is the glorification of God. We edify and build up the church to bring God glory. We evangelize the world and invite people into a relationship with Jesus to bring God glory. You know, it used to be that the church was the center of the community. They actually built towns and the first thing they would build is the church and the very center of the community.

People would hear the church bells and they would come from far and wide to come and worship the Lord. It was a place that you could oftentimes find a job. Maybe there was somebody there who owned a farm and you're out of work and you needed a job.

And there's a Christian man there who offered you a position so you got to work for him. It was a place where you came and you found your spouse, right? What better place to find someone that you want to spend the rest of your life with and marry than someone who also worships God and glorifies God with their life? It's a place where you find your friends. It was a place where you would find a mentor, someone that would help you along in your professional life, in your marriage, in your family as a father.

You would find your mentor there. It was a place that you would introduce your kids to each other. What better place as I think more and more about my kids and who they're going to marry and where they're going to find their spouses. I pray that it's in the church because I know that those kids are going to have been raised with the same morals and principles and beliefs as my kids do. What better place for our kids to meet each other than in the church? We saw all these families up here with these babies. We're dedicating them to the Lord and raising them up in the way of the Lord.

And so we're so thankful for that. The church used to be the center of the community. It was a place you would be known and the place that you would know other people and where you would comfort each other also after the loss of a loved one, right? Your family, your parent would be known in that church and when they pass away, all those people that they impacted would come to their service and celebrate that life with you and it's a beautiful thing.

It's a beautiful thing. The church is a place to be known and to know other people. I have a small group that I have with a group of guys and I'm always blown away at how the Lord connects the dots with people in my group. There's these two guys that I have that are still in my group and one of them started experiencing severe anxiety, really out of nowhere, like crippling wake you up at two o'clock in the morning, heart racing, fight or flight kind of dynamic happening anxiety and he would call me and I'd do my best. I'd pray for him. I'd share scripture with him. I'd encourage him. I'd check up on him every couple of days but honestly, I've never experienced anxiety like that and so there wasn't a whole lot that I could offer. Well, one week he shared about it in our men's group and immediately one of the other guys in the group, a law enforcement officer, perked up and he said, I've dealt with that exact same thing. I've gone through that exact same thing and let me tell you what has helped me so much and he shared in the group and then after group they were talking to each other afterwards and I love that because it just shows that is the body, meaning the needs of the body. That's what happens in the church.

I couldn't do that perfectly. The people at his job couldn't do that perfectly but God brought those two guys together in the context of a small group to help meet the needs of one another. Today, again, church, people want to treat the church as a commodity, as an experience, as something to endure. They show up late. They leave early to avoid traffic. Hey, by the way, if it's too busy, you can attend an earlier service. You can attend a different service if you really want to.

There are more than just the 12 p.m. and the 10 a.m. over in Maui. You can go to the earlier service and avoid some of this traffic but, again, we come to Jesus, excuse me, we come to church not just for us. We come for God's glory. It was Jesus who said, on this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades, the gates of hell, shall not prevail against it. Now notice that Jesus did not say, on this rock I will build my club. On this rock I will build my experience. I will build my concert venue.

On this rock I will build my online community or YouTube channel. No, he said, upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Now this word first seen here in the New Testament, Jesus uses it, is ekklesia. The word for church in our New Testaments is the Greek word ekklesia.

It appears 110 times in the New Testament and it is first seen right here in Jesus' words in Matthew 16. Now to be clear, the church is not a location. It is not a building.

It is not a structure even though the Oxford Dictionary of English defines church as a building used for public Christian worship. Now I think that's fair. I understand why people do that when I tell my wife where I am. I never have to tell my wife where I am.

We share our locations with each other so she always knows but I will still tell her, hey, I'm on my way home from church. I'm not talking about the group of people. I'm usually talking about the building. But in scripture, when we read about the church, it's not referring to a building. It's referring to the people.

It's referring to the people. When people think of church, they might think of a formal setting. They might think of men wearing robes and sometimes collars and a very formal place where you stand up and sit down and kneel and stand up and sit down. They think of church as the place where you're hatched, matched, and dispatched, where you're born, you're married, and you're dead and you're buried. But the concept of the church is obviously much more than that.

It appears throughout the Bible, the Old Testament as well, going back into the wilderness when Moses gathered the Jewish people out in the wilderness after they had left Egypt and he gathered them together and God told him to bring them into a group so that they could all hear God's word and learn to fear the Lord. And so when I'm referring to the church here and we're talking about it and we read about it in scripture, we're referring to not a building but to true believers. We're referring to people that are genuine followers, not just those who come to a building or those who come to church a couple of times a year. We're not talking about those who only attend a Christmas and Easter service, CEO, Christians we like to call them.

No, we're talking about true disciples. To understand better, we need to look at the original language that the Bible was written in the New Testament. It again is the word ekklesia. Ekklesia is two Greek words put together, ek, which means out from, and kaleo, which means to call. Out from and to call. So you put those all together and you get ekklesia, which means to call out from.

To call out from. Pastor Skip Heitzig said, church is a new society called out from the society at large to be God's people. We are a chosen people, a holy race, chosen for God ultimately to worship Him. We are sanctified, set apart from everybody else. We are to be different from the rest of the world. And so is the church important? Well, we've learned about that it's not about us and it's about Him. We've learned not to let our personal preferences get in the way, but ultimately it's about glorifying God. We've learned that it's about participating over spectating, moving from what can I get to what can I give? And so let's think about that for a moment. What can I give?

What can I do? How can we serve God? How can we edify the church?

How can we reach the lost? How can we make the church the best church that it can be? I think we find that answer in Romans chapter 12 as we jump into this text now together starting in verse 3. The Apostle Paul says these words, because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning.

Don't think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us. Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ's body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other. I think that's really important to note, and we all belong to each other. Verse 6, in His grace God has given us different gifts for doing different things.

So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you're a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously.

If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly. Don't just pretend to love others, really love them. Hate what is wrong, hold tightly to what is good.

Love each other with genuine affection and take delight in honoring each other. Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically. Rejoice in our confident hope, be patient in trouble, and keep on praying. That's great words from the Apostle Paul. And so what does that mean for us today? The first thing that jumped out at me in that text is we are to have humility.

We're to have humility, not thinking too highly of ourselves, but also not thinking too lowly of ourselves based on our gifting and recognizing that what we have comes from God. You know, you might look at someone like me or look at my dad, Pastor Greg, or look at our worship team and think, wow, they just have such an amazing gift. They're so good at what they do. God has really blessed them. I wish I had that kind of gift. The fact is you may have incredible hospitality. You may have some gift that I don't have. See, we're all members of the same body, different body parts, and we are all called to exercise our gifts in different ways.

And so that is an awesome thing. I'm glad that we're not all a bunch of people just like me. This would be the most dysfunctional church if it was all people like me.

That would not be good. No, we need the diversity. We need the various gifts. We need to not think too highly or lowly of ourselves based on our gifting.

And again, we all have different gifts. We all have different roles, but we all belong to the body of Christ and we belong to each other. And so when you don't come to church for a few weeks or you're not participating, you're not serving, you're not engaging in church, we miss you. This church is missing you. Can you imagine what the church, what a human body would be like if it didn't have a left leg or if it didn't have the big toe on the left foot?

How off balance it would be. Everybody has a different role. I don't know who the big toe is, but everybody has a different role to play and we need you. Now you might say, Jonathan, I'm sorry, but I'm thinking that there are definitely some parts that are not necessary in the human body, like spiritually speaking, right? There's some parts that are more attractive than others. You know, who wants to be a liver when someone else is the eyes? Who else wants to be the intestines when someone else is the hands?

Like I want to be a hand. Hey, listen, the apostle Paul actually addresses this as well in first Corinthians. He says, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary. The parts we regard as less honorable are those we clothe with the greatest care. So we carefully protect those parts that should not be seen while the more honorable parts do not require this special care. So God has put the body together such that extra honor and extra care are given to those parts that have less dignity.

This makes for harmony among the members so that all the members care for each other. That's why we need to embrace our roles. God has given us all different gifts. He's given all of us different callings and we need to embrace that. You might see someone else that has, again, that gift of speaking or leading worship or leading volunteers and you want that. Listen, we need you to embrace your role. And sometimes the foot wants to be a hand or the eye wants to be a mouth and that's where we can help you figure out this gifting.

Actually, that is what the church is called to do, is help people figure out, all of you, what your spiritual calling is, what your gifts are. And it just so happens we've put together a little quiz that can help you figure that out. There's a screen that we've got up there, harvest.church slash quiz.

Yes, you can pull your phone out and enter it in if you want. And what this does, you kind of tell it your preferences. Oh, I like being in front of people. I like helping behind the scenes. I like making people feel comfortable with yes or no questions to all of these things. And as you fill it out, it's going to bring you down to, you should serve in children's ministry. No, just kidding.

I promise that's not like the default answer for every single one. But we do need help in children's ministry, seriously. No, but there's a number of places that you can serve and live out your gift and live out what God has called you to be. God has called you to live out and to fulfill your spiritual role.

Man, what a blessing it is. When you come to church, not with the expectation of it's all about me, but how can I bless other people? How can I glorify God with the gifts that he has given to me? Take that gift God's given you. Maybe you've got the gift of gab. You're great at talking. Maybe you've got the gift of making people feel welcome, whatever it might be.

Give it back to the Lord and see that it is just such a great blessing to bless God in return for all that he has done for you. And so whether you feel your role appears big or small, what matters is that you are serving God with the gift that he gave you. And I'll tell you what, I've served in pretty much every area in the church and participated in everything from even helping to lead worship to preaching to running the cameras to running the cables and attaching things. And there's some things that I am just not good at. You do not want me behind the scenes mixing sound. There's, you know what, counseling.

I'm not a huge fan of doing counseling. I feel like I'm not very good at it. There are others who are great in this area. We all have different gifts. And so I'd encourage you to find a ministry and to find an area in the church where you can use your gifts.

There is a place for you. I want to close with a story about a friend of ours who went to heaven a couple of weeks ago. His name is Don Ochs. And he was very involved at our Riverside campus. He'd been coming for about 30 years.

He was not a believer. He came. He ended up coming forward. And as he sat in church, he was kind of like, OK, I'm here.

I believe this. But he started off in the back row. And every week he kind of jumped forward one row. And after a while, he ended up in the front row.

And he was serving at this point. And he started helping out in the church. And then he started helping in the usher ministry. And then he became our head usher at our Riverside campus. And he was blessing people.

And at this memorial, at this celebration of life, it was amazing because you know what? Don never stood on the stage. Don never preached a sermon.

He never played a guitar. But you know what he did? He touched so many lives. That church sanctuary was packed out full of people. And after the service and we were talking, every single person that I talked to had an amazing story of how Don had blessed their lives, how he was generous, how he met a need, how he was there for them when they needed him the most, how when they fell in sin, Don was there to help pick them back up and restore them in the church.

Absolutely amazing. We need more men and women like Don Ochs in the church. And so you too can be that person.

You can fulfill your role. Church is not about what you're getting out of it. It's about what you give to God. And that's the greatest blessing of all is pouring yourself out to the Lord. And so is the church important?

Without question. It's through the church that God decides to impact the world and change the culture. And when we get out of spectator mode and into participant mode and into skin and the game mode, that is when we are going to discover what we were really created for. So let's not settle for attending church. Let's be the church.

Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for the amazing gift of the church. We know that you created it for us to help us to grow in our faith, to edify us. But God, we come here together not because it's all about building us up and making us powerful and rich and famous.

And it's a training seminar on how to be the best version of ourselves so that we can die rich and happy and have all the stuff we want. No, God, you created the church for your glory. You created us for your glory.

You sent Jesus to die in our place for your glory. And so we know that the sooner we recognize that we exist for your glory, the sooner we understand our purpose in life. Father, help us to find our role in the church. Help us to see who you have called us to be and that we would fulfill that, God. What a blessing it is to be your child. What a blessing, God, that you have redeemed us from hell and you have forgiven our sins, Lord.

We are thankful for that. And now while our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed and we're praying together, I know there may be some here who attend kind of on that infrequent basis that I was talking about earlier. Maybe this is your one time a month that you come to the church or your one time a year that you come to church. Well, first of all, I'm glad you're here.

But I want to tell you, there is so much more for you. There is such a greater purpose for your life than just coming in when it's convenient and when you feel like it. Being a part of the body of Christ is what you were created for. And so I want to invite you, if you haven't already, or maybe you're just kind of lukewarm and you're in this place where you don't think that, you know, the church is all that important, make a commitment today to follow Jesus on a regular basis, to come to church for three, four weeks a month.

Try it. Test the Lord in this. Come to church for four weeks straight and see what He will do.

See what He'll do in your life. And for anybody else here who has not yet put their faith in Jesus Christ, you haven't asked Him to be your Lord and Savior and you actually haven't joined the church. Listen, I would like to invite you right here, right now, to put your faith in God.

That's right. You can walk out of this building knowing that beyond the shadow of a doubt, you will go to heaven when you die. Would you like that? Would you like to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? If you would, wherever you are, would you just raise your hand up and I want to lead you in a prayer. Wherever you might be, just raise your hand up. You might be here at the sanctuary at Harvest Orange County or you might be out in the cafe area.

You might be watching at Harvest Riverside. I can't see your hand, but the Lord sees you over on the island of Maui. You as well. Raise your hand up and I'll lead you in a prayer. God bless you. God bless you. Anybody else, raise your hand up and we'll pray together. You want to put your faith in Jesus Christ today.

Make a stand for Him. Raise your hand up and we'll pray together. God bless you in the back there.

Anybody else? God bless you, little guy in the back as well. God bless you, buddy.

Awesome. Okay, for those of you that raised your hand, I'm just going to ask that you would pray this prayer out loud after me, that you'd mean it in your heart. This is you talking to God, not the person next to you, not to me on stage. This is you talking to your Father in heaven who loves you and wants to hear from you. So say these words now.

Pray this now. Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner, but I know that Jesus is the Savior who died on the cross for my sin. And I turn from that sin now, from this moment forward, and I turn to you. Would you help me to walk with you and to hear from you and to be a part of your body?

Help me to find my role and my purpose in the church. Fill me with your Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. God bless you that prayed that prayer just now. Amen.

Hey, everybody. Thanks for listening to this podcast. To learn more about Harvest Ministries, follow this show and consider supporting it. Just go to harvest.org. And to find out how to know God personally, go to harvest.org and click on Know God.