What Every Church Should Do - Part A

In the New Testament, there's a phrase that is repeated a hundred times. It's the phrase, one another. And 59 of those 100 times, it's about how we relate as Christians to one another, when we get together with them. Encourage one another, serve one another, honor one another, love one another, prefer one another. 59 times in the New Testament. Today on Connect with Skip Heitig, Skip shares a message about why being part of a local church is vital for the Christian.

Now, check out this month's resource that'll bring encouragement to your heart straight from the music of the Psalms. Someone once estimated the cost of the services that mothers perform. The amount was huge. We know moms don't do it for money. They do it out of love.

While we can't repay our mothers, we can honor them. Here's a great suggestion. It's a special bundle of resources we're calling the Heart Songs package. It features heart songs. There's a Psalm for that, a powerful five-part series led by Lenya and Janae Heitzig designed to teach you to depend on God's love, power, and comfort in every season of life. You'll explore what the Psalms say about love, jealousy, fear, security, and longing.

Maybe you can think of a time when you really, really wanted something. This Psalm is kind of about that. It's this longing, this desire, this hunger that the Psalmist is expressing, and his longing is for home. In addition to this encouraging series, you'll also receive the Sheology Quiet Time Journal, perfect for daily Bible reading, to make notes as you follow the Heart Songs series or for your personal prayer time. Plus, you'll get a bag of Skip's library roast coffee, the coffee Pastor Skip chooses when he studies in his personal library. The Heart Songs package is our thanks for your gift to support the broadcast ministry of Connect with Skip Heitzig.

So request your Heart Songs package today when you give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer, or call 800-922-1888. Now, we're in Colossians 4 as Skip begins today's message. So I grew up going to church.

It was required. There was no argument in my house. You got up Sunday morning. You went to church.

You couldn't negotiate with my parents about that. It's just something we did as a family. True confession, it wasn't the highlight of my week. I went passively.

It never was something I really enjoyed doing. Fast forward several years later, now I am a pastor of a church, and I have collected just a few books on the church in particular. This is a sampling of books just about the church.

I have several more about preaching, several more about church history, but these are books that I have collected and read about the church, including, look at these titles, The Master's Plan for the Church, Liberating the Church, The Measure of a Church, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry Church. This is called Return of the Mighty Church. I like this title, Who Moved My Church, like Who Moved My Cheese. Remember that one? Another kind of follow-up, Who Moved My Pulpit.

I ask that question sometimes. Why Men Hate Going to Church, and then Why Churches Die, and then at the very bottom is The Death of the Church. Then I even have a book that I haven't read this book, though I wrote this book, The Church Who Needs It. I just want you to see these books, not because I want you to be impressed that I have a lot of books on the church, but I want to begin by expressing that I have a concern for the church, and it's a concern that is rooted in a cultural decline in the interest of church. Our culture, our society, much like other parts around the world, we are seeing a decline in church attendance throughout Europe and the United States and Canada, etc. The Anglican Church has declared that 10 percent of their churches, that is 1,600 of their buildings, are empty and no longer needed. I'll look at this headline from a Romanian newspaper, Thousands of European Churches Transformed into Mosques, Bars, Pizzerias, or Warehouses for Lack of Worshipers. Now that article went on to say that in France only five percent of Catholics go to church, in Denmark only five percent of Lutherans attend church, and only three percent of the population attends church in the Czech Republic. So I've just kind of collected a lot of these articles, and one of the sources talked about the trend of selling off church buildings in the United Kingdom. The article said, at one church the only thing being worshipped is beer.

At another, gleaming cars are on sale. Increasingly it seems a different kind of conversion is taking place at Britain's churches. And they interviewed a customer who was at this church that is now a bar. The customer said, if this was a church there'd be only two or three people here, but on Fridays and Saturdays this place is packed. Now that's the UK, that's Europe. We're not far behind in the United States. 4,500 churches closed their doors every year.

I just want that to settle on you. Every year in America 4,500 churches close their doors every year. That has gone up since COVID happened. Every year 3,000 new churches get started in our country. Now that offsets it a little bit, but that's still a net loss of 1,500 churches that we are losing every year.

According to the Barna Research Group, an estimated 3,500 Americans leave the church every day. Now why is this? Well, we could point to a number of reasons.

We don't have time to chase all those reasons down, but here's a little illustration. Two churches in a small town decided that it would be better if they combined their resources and combined their congregations instead of being two struggling congregations. Why not one united church?

Sounds like a good idea, right? There's one problem, the Lord's Prayer, and specifically the wording of the Lord's Prayer. So you know the Lord's Prayer, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, give us this day our daily bread. And it says forgive us our, now some of you said debts, some of you said, most of you said trespasses. Well that was the problem. They couldn't agree on how to word that. And they talked about it and they just would not give, and so one church said this, the other church said that, so one went back to its trespasses and one went back to its debts.

There was no coming together. So people see that and they just think, I'm done with that. I'm done with bickering and backbiting and triviality and legalism.

I'm done with formalism. Jesus is okay. I'm attracted to him as a character, but his followers are a bit weird.

So no thank you. Also, I'm convinced that what people really want in church is authenticity. They want reality.

They don't want a show. They want life-changing truth. Much of what goes on in churches is watered-down, therapeutic, pep-rally style, barely better than Dr. Phil Christianity, where you get tips on living, three ways to get your smile back, three ways to get your smile back, four ways to balance your checkbook, how to succeed when life is against you. What church is supposed to be is a life-changing encounter with the living God. So looking at all these books on the church that tells the church what not to do, including death of the church or why churches die, let's close out this book by looking at what every church should do. Now, we could do a series, and we have done a few series on the church in our history. But in closing this book, Paul, writing to a church leaves us with some great activities that every church should do. Let's begin with the first. Churches should assemble together. That makes sense.

It's sort of obvious. Churches should get together. They should assemble. Look at verse 15 of Colossians chapter 4. We have four verses left. Greet the brethren who are in Laodicea and Nymphos and the church that is in his house. Now, when this epistle is read among you, see that it is read also in the church of the Laodiceans and that you likewise read the epistle from Laodicea.

So Paul, the apostle, is in prison in Rome, and he is writing a letter to the church in Colossae. And he knows that they are going to get together, and they're going to assemble together. But he also mentions the town Laodicea that's nine miles away, a neighboring church.

So he is in his mind thinking of two different assemblies. And he talks about the church that is in his house. And that's sort of an interesting point to make, that the earliest assemblies of the church gathered in private homes. They met in homes. Sometimes these homes were quite large and could accommodate a large number of people, especially if the patron was a wealthy one. It mentions here the church that is in Nymphos' house, that is the church in Laodicea. We believe that the church in Colossae met in Philemon's house. We discussed that a few weeks ago.

So it really wasn't until the third century that church buildings came into being other than homes up until that point. Now, it's pretty obvious that the church, God's people, need to meet together regularly. I love the fact that we have a strong online presence. I really am. I mean, I get floored when they told me this week that we have 153,000 YouTube subscribers to our channel that pumps out these messages around the world.

That's enormous. I love that. And this message is going to be heard by somebody somewhere who's not a part of this congregation, but is meeting somewhere in the world. And I just want to say we're glad you can join us, but it'd be really good if you don't do this activity alone, but you do it with a group of people that you could invite over in the very least.

You could learn to do this with a watch party, watching with others. Because in the New Testament, there's a phrase that is repeated a hundred times. It's the phrase one another. And 59 of those 100 times, it's about how we relate as Christians to one another when we get together with them. Encourage one another, serve one another, honor one another, love one another, prefer one another. 59 times in the New Testament.

Over the years I've been seeing many times in the New Testament. Over the years I've been asked the question a number of times, but it goes like this, can I be a Christian without going to church? I always wonder why I'm asked that question. Because the technical answer to that, of course, is yes, you can be a Christian without going to church.

Because you don't become a Christian by going to church, you become a Christian by faith in Jesus Christ, period. But it's still a weird question. It's like saying, can I be a football player without a team? Well, I suppose you could throw it up in the air and catch it all day. That's not a whole lot of fun, is it? Can you be a soldier without an army around you? Can you be a bee without a hive? Can you be a tuba player without without a band? Can I just say, not fun. Either to listen to or to play.

You need a band. Think back a couple of years when we were not allowed to meet because of COVID. Do you remember what it felt like when suddenly the doors were open? It's like, wow.

And this is what I heard more than anything else. I can't believe how much I missed assembling together. That's what we were meant to do. We noted a couple weeks ago on two different occasions how God said it is not good that man should be alone. Technology has its benefits. You know, you can have Zoom calls and you can listen to online sermons. But I remember during that COVID time when I would come to this platform with nobody in church and record the church service and then the next day or a couple days later on Sunday, watch it. And so I had my connect group in my house and we're watching the service.

And you know what? The TV was on, but we all had the freedom to get up and use the restroom, go to the kitchen, go outside, take a phone call. It wasn't the same as engaging in a meeting as we assemble. Churches should assemble together. And when we assemble, a few things are accomplished. First, it fuels our faith. It fuels our faith when we gather together.

Much more than privately curated social media does. There is a psychological impetus when you are hearing truth and singing songs and sitting next to others who are having that same expression. There's a level of encouragement you get that you cannot get alone. This is why it says in Hebrews 10, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another and so much more as you see the day approaching. So it fuels our faith.

Does something else. It furthers our accountability. Yeah, you can say, I don't need to go to church. I don't even like organized religion.

Whenever I hear that, what I'm really hearing is a cop-out. I'm hearing people really say, I don't want accountability in my life. I don't want anybody watching my own private personal relationship with God. Well, Proverbs 18 says, a man who isolates himself seeks his own desire.

He rages against all wise judgment. Think of it this way. Having people around will help you abound. Having people around will help you abound. It's healthy to have people around you in an assembly. A third thing that assembling together, gathering will do is it fosters service. See, when I'm face-to-face with someone and I hear how their week's been and I get to know them a little bit, I understand what needs they have because that's part of the conversation. And it fosters an ability to serve them.

You can't serve people unless you are with people. So the church is not about us or me and Jesus. It's not about me and God, me and God, me and God. It's my own personal. No, it's about us and Jesus.

It's us. It's a group activity. That's how Jesus taught us to pray, our Father who art in heaven, not my Father. So churches should assemble.

That's one thing they should do. Second thing they should do, churches should study the Scripture. Go back to verse 15 where he says, or verse 16, now when this epistle, epistle means letter, when this letter is read among you, so you guys are gathering together in private homes at that time.

And when you do, read this. When this epistle is read among you, see that it is read also in the church of the Laodiceans and that you likewise read the epistle of Laodicea. Now the word read here means read aloud. In other words, the service, the church service should center around the reading, the proclamation, and the teaching of the Scripture. Now that means that if you happen to be mentioned in this letter that is read publicly, it'll add a little bit of pressure.

I just want you to watch this. Let's just Skip ahead a little bit. So picture this letter being read publicly, right, in an assembly.

And you get down to verse 17. And say to Archippus, okay, so if you're Archippus sitting in the house that day and you hear the letter saying, and say to Archippus, you're going to stand up really straight, take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord that you might fulfill it. Now let me just add this little tidbit.

It's kind of fun information. Did you know in the early days of America, the founding of our country, American churches, there was the preaching of the word in some churches, but then after the preaching of the word and the exposition of the Scripture, somebody came up called an exaltor. And the exaltor's job was to make sure that the exaltor's job was to personalize the application of what was taught. So somebody might come up and say, now Mrs. Jones, this means you're going to have to change the way you raise your kids. And Mr. Smith, the way you do business in town, that's going to have to change. Or Frank, where are you? Frank, you need to stop meddling.

That's what this means to you. Mildred, you've got to stop your gossiping. It'd make church really interesting, wouldn't it? Now we don't do that here in the public assembly. They're called connect groups. That's where we do that.

That's healthy. Listen, listen, the most important part or at least one of the most important parts of any church is not how friendly are the greeters, how did they treat me when I came to the parking lot, not how great is the kids' ministry or the music ministry, but high up on the list is did they preach and teach the Word of God? Did I hear a word from heaven today? Now most people grade churches on are they friendly, what programs do they have for me and for my family? God grades differently.

God grades churches on do they preach and teach my word. The great commission that Jesus gave to his disciples in Matthew chapter 28 is make disciples of all nations, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. You guys know Acts chapter 2 verse 42? Is that a familiar verse of scripture?

A lot of us know that by heart. It marks the early church. It describes what they were doing when they got together. Acts 2 42 says, and they continued steadfastly or some translations, they devoted themselves constantly to the apostles' doctrine, fellowship, breaking bread, and prayer, and the Lord added daily to the church those who were being saved. Did you get that list? First on the list, the apostles' doctrine. That wouldn't be first on a lot of our lists. First on a lot of our lists might be love or singing or service. First on their list was the apostles' doctrine, because once you know the apostles' doctrine, you're going to know how to love, how to serve, how to sing, how to do everything else.

So it was first on the list. Al Mohler writes this, rarely do we hear these days that a church is distinguished primarily by its preaching. What we hear people speak about when we hear people speak about their own congregations, generally they speak about something other than preaching. They might speak of a church's ministry.

They might speak of specialized programs for senior adults or young people. They might speak of a church's music. Sometimes they speak of things far more superficial, but rarely do you hear a church described first and foremost by the character, power, and content of its preaching. This is because few preachers today are true servants of the Word. Paul the apostle was a servant of the Word, and it seems Epaphras, the pastor of the Colossian church, was a servant of the Word. You recall that Paul's last letter, 2 Timothy, he writes to Timothy and he says, preach the Word. Preach the Word.

Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and teaching for the time will come, listen to this part, the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but heap up for themselves teachers because they have itching ears. They won't endure sound doctrine. Seems to me that the other church that is mentioned here did not endure sound doctrine. What is that church called?

What's the other church mentioned here? Laodicea. Laodicea. Remember what happened to Laodicea? Revelation chapter 3, Jesus writes a little postcard to the church of Laodicea, and he says that they are blind and naked spiritually speaking.

He said, you are neither cold nor hot but you are lukewarm and I will spit you out of my mouth. That's the church that Paul is mentioning here, the church of the Laodiceans. Seems that there was an epic fail in enduring sound doctrine.

The Gnostic heresy that we've spoke about in the last several weeks infiltrated that church and won. That's Skip Heitig with a message from the series Always Only Jesus. Find the full message as well as books, booklets, and full teaching series at connectwithskip.com. And did you know we've redesigned the Connect with Skip app to be more intuitive and give you a better user experience? If you've already been using the Connect with Skip app, you'll love the new version.

And if you've not yet downloaded it, you'll want to be sure to download it today wherever you get your apps. Thank you for tuning in today. We're passionate about helping you strengthen your walk with God, and you can be a part of connecting others to Jesus in the same way with a gift to help keep these teachings you love on the air. Just call 800-922-1888. That's 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate. Thank you. Join us again tomorrow as Skip concludes his message, What Every Church Should Do, and examines what churches should do and how you should be different because of the church. Connect with Skip Hyton is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.