Welcome to Truth Talk Live. All right, let's talk. A daily program powered by the Truth Network. This is kind of a great thing, and I'll tell you why. Where pop culture, current events, and theology all come together.
Speak your mind. And now, here's today's Truth Talk Live host. Our ministry is called Date The Word.
You can get more information at DateTheWord.com or get the app, Date The Word, from your local, from your app store on your phone. And today, it's my joy to be your host for Truth Talk Live. And we've got a question today. Why should I be going to church, especially young men?
I'm looking at an article right now from the New York Times. Young men are returning to church. So the question is, why is the local church so important for a believer? Why, why should I be going to a local church, a local church body? Why should I be going, why should I be going to church? Why should other believers be going, and I like to say it this way, connected to and involved in a local church? What are your thoughts on that?
866-348-7884. Why should we be connected and involved in a local church? I'm going to give a shocking revelation in Matthew 16, and he says, I'm going to build my church. That's a new word. That's a new, if you will, organization, organism. He is going to create something new. He's the founder.
He's the builder. And on the day of Pentecost, we have the church is born. And once we have this church born, we have believers who now assemble together.
They get together and they carry out the different functions of the church. There's going to be baptism. There's going to be the Lord's Supper.
We call these ordinances. There's going to be the teaching of God's word. And Acts 2, we find there's worship. We find that there is communion, fellowship, and these believers begin to support one another.
So asking the question today, why is it so important for us as believers to be part of a local church? And we already have a call from Jay. Hello, Jay. Good afternoon, sir. How are you on this great, great Thursday afternoon? I'm doing awesome. How about yourself? Where are you calling from? Today I'm calling from Orlando, Florida. Okay.
The Sunshine State spending some time at the Magic Kingdom. Well, far from that. But it's a good day. You know, I think you're onto something in trying to unpack this question of, you know, why is the church so important?
Because it's wonderful to see there's almost this resurgence that's taking place across America. So it's necessary. I believe, I mean, there's a few things, Duane. I think, you know, the local church is important because one of the things I have shared with many people over the years, it's really, that's what God, God's design for community.
That's where it, you know, that's where it all happened. Acts 2, you know, talks about it very clearly that God, you know, he never intended for believers to walk alone. That is so true. You know, the church really is his chosen way, you know, to bring people, you know, together, you know, in faith. So it's really, it's God's, you know, it's God's design. And it's, you know, to a certain degree, Duane, I'm sure you would agree, it's, you know, it's really, it's the body of Christ. The church is, you know, it's described as Christ's body. And with that, you know, each person has a role and a purpose, and, you know, you find that in 1 Corinthians 12. And you find it in Romans 12 also. We have spiritual gifts.
And where are we supposed to use those spiritual gifts? With one another in a local church. Agree.
Agree. Colossians 3, let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach one another. I don't know why people for so long have just thought we can, we're just gonna, we don't need to attend church, A, or even B, you know, just go from church to church because my feelings were hurt and not really just, you know, stay true to a church and encourage one another. And, you know, just hold each other, you know, hold each other accountable.
The passage in Hebrews chapter 10 speaks of that we consider one another to stir up love and good works, which means somewhere along the line, love and good works are not taking place. So I come alongside you, hey, what are you doing for Jesus? You come alongside me, hey, what are you doing for Jesus? What can we be doing to help other people?
And there's that accountability. And then the writer says, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another. And much more as we see the day approach, because when the day is approaching, we're talking about Jesus coming back, it's going to be more persecution. We're going to need each other. I did a sermon in our church up in Ohio one time on who's got your back.
And you ought to be able to look around the room and say the people in this room, more than anyone else, they have my back. Fellow believers have each other's back. I was I preached a message a few years ago on it's necessary not to attend, but it's necessary to it's it's not it's not necessary.
Oh, how did it go? But the premise of it was exclusively you have to be involved and not just simply attend. Yes. And it really falls in line with what you were just talking about of we were involved because we've got to encourage people. Galatians 6, we've got to carry each other's burdens. And in this way, you're going to fulfill the law of Christ. Proverbs 27 was talking to a gentleman about this just today of desire sharpens iron.
So one person sharpens another. We've got to be involved and not just simply attend and just check the box. We've got to we've got to be involved to encourage people. But also, you know, the other thing that I've seen in a really in a fresh new way when people are involved, it helps fulfill the Great Commission even that much, even that much better. And we would agree that the church is the base for mission and outreach.
Matthew 28 and Acts 1 verse 8. So Dwayne, you're hitting something that's that's, you know, really extremely prevalent in today's day and age. And just thought I'd call in just add just a couple of cents to. We certainly appreciate your call. We hope your ministry goes well as you're doing some different things down there for Liberty University at Orlando and thrilled to see what's happening with Liberty with their campus church. Their community services on Wednesday nights are phenomenal. Some of what's happening with this program today is when we talk Tuesday about what advice would you give to a college student and a young lady said to me, I would tell them when they go to college, find a good church and get plugged in.
And so I kind of follow that up today with our why is the local church so important? And so we certainly appreciate all you're doing. And thank you for the call today. Pleasure to see you, Dwayne.
Thank you. Yes, sir. Hey, we've got Jamal. He's here in Winston. Hello, Jamal. I have Jamal on. Jamal. We're going to go to the break.
We'll be right back in Jamal. Then you and I are going to talk about why the local church is so important. 866-348-7884.
Give us a call. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Welcome back to Truth Talk Live.
Today we're asking the question, why is the local church so important for a believer? And we've got Dean on the line here. Good afternoon, Dean.
Hey, Dwayne. Dean and Sarah here from City Church in Tallahassee. It's good to be with you. Oh, it's good to have you. I have followed you for a number of years as you planted this church in Tallahassee, Florida, right there. That's the capital.
That's also Florida State territory. You planted that church and you constantly pound home how important the local church is. And I appreciate you giving us a call today. I love to hear your perspective for our listeners to hear what's so great about the local church.
Well, thank you. I learned it from you in college as my college pastor, so I'm grateful for you and your mentorship there. What's great about the local church is whenever I do a wedding, I often tell the couple and everyone that attends the wedding, by being here today, you're not just attending.
You're participating in God's grand design for humanity, which is marriage in a similar fashion. When you walk in the doors of a church on Sunday, you're actually participating in God's design for his people. So, yeah, there's more to being a Christian than going to church. There's definitely not less like the bare minimum.
You're promoting God's design, which is a neat thing. You've got to say that again. There's more to being a Christian than going to church. Of course there is, but there's certainly not less.
That's good. And that matters a lot. So there's no such thing in the Bible as an unchurched Christian. That would be unrecognizable in the New Testament.
They'd be confused. And so, you know, I blame a lot of kind of, you know, I'm thankful for most of it. Don't get me wrong. I'm grateful to be raised in the era where I was raised. But I was raised in 90s youth ministry, which all the sermons outside of true love weights we ever heard were always about a personal relationship with Jesus.
That's all we ever heard about. And that might have been an overcorrection to maybe some of the rigid fundamentalism. That was just about exterior, you know, doing things and not doing things. But when all you're ever told is the most important thing is your relationship with God, then you become an adult. And you're like, well, I can have a relationship with God on the boat or on the golf course or anywhere else is the most important thing. Why does it matter if I go to church? And I think some of them, I'm not trying to oversimplify it, but I think some of that is coming from that over emphasis on the individuality of the faith rather than the corporate us togetherness. You know, it's both and but one was way over emphasized the relationship over the corporate body expression of the faith. There's no question, John 3, we must be born again. You must be born again. But then you get Acts 2, you're in the church now and you're baptized and you become part of a fellowship.
And then you get to Paul's teaching more than any of the others and you begin to get all these one anothers. How do you do the one anothers if you're not close to other people? We had a caller a little bit ago and he talked about iron sharpens iron.
Well, how do you sharpen iron if you're not close to it? So coming together in this community, I'm able to consider what's happening with other believers. They're able to consider what's happening with me. And we're able to now how do we help each other out? How do we encourage? How do we we may need to give? We may need to put our spiritual gift into practice.
It could be calling someone else. First Thessalonians 5 14 says, warn the wayward. But it also could be given that that word of encouragement as someone is I'm just wore out.
I don't know if I want to continue to do this. We've got to be able to come together to do the one anothers. What's your thoughts on that point? Yeah, definitely. I mean, that is the way of the Christian church.
Like it really. So Christ ascends to heaven. I'm going to prepare a place for you. You know, one day one here, the new heavens, the new earth. In the meantime, God designed for the believers not just to survive, but to flourish.
That's one of others. It's through the local church. And you hear, I hear men especially use this line. They'll say things like, well, I just don't like organized religion. And I always laugh at that because the religion in the Bible is very organized. God established churches and appointed leadership over churches.
And, you know, he wanted to be done right. It's his design. It's not just a random thing he threw out there. It's an intentional design for houses to operate, what they're supposed to do together, how it's to be led. You know, God organizes religion in the Bible.
And so that's just, there's just so many excuses people throw out there. But the reality is an unchurched Christian is unrecognizable in the New Testament. And it is impossible to live the Christian life as described by the scriptures if you're not part of a local church. That is good information right there. Great insight. Are you seeing in your area an increase in church of people of coming, seeing, visiting, especially men.
New York Times is reporting young men are returning to church. Definitely. I'm absolutely seeing it. We have seen a, we have grown tremendously in the past about a year and a half to two years. We think people are hungry. We talk about the, we call it the permanent things.
We didn't originate that. But the permanent things, people are tired of building their houses on sand, you know, on temporary things. The chaos of this world and of our culture is, I think, making people think about things that really matter. And as a result of that, we're seeing people walk in the door and give it a chance.
And it's been a really neat thing to witness. And it's not happening just in Tallahassee, but like you said, we're hearing stories all over. I do believe, I'm speaking hypothetically, that I can become all God wants me to be without ever going to a local church. You're debunking that right now.
Yeah, they're making that up. That's just simply not true. So to a 20-year-old who's listening to this, they need, what do they need to be looking for when it comes to a local church?
Yeah, I mean, again, we don't want to be so nitpicky that nobody can pass the test, you know, on this side of heaven. So I think we want to make sure, I asked two questions. What do they believe?
Okay. And what is their, what are they doing with what they believe? What do they actually believe about the scriptures? What is their theology? Do they stand firm on the essential truths of the scriptures? Also, there's matters of what it means to believe certain things to be a part of a church.
So those kind of issues are important. They might not be a salvation issue, like what you view about baptism, but it is a church issue of what's going to require your fellowship or your membership. So what do they believe? How do I line up what they believe? And then what do they do with it?
How do they put feet onto it? What does this mean in the community? What does this mean for my personal discipleship, my community, my togetherness with everyone?
What does it mean here? So those are two questions that I ask. What do they believe?
What do they do with it? We don't want to be just a heady, knowledge-based church that just does doctrine. And we don't want to be some social church or just a church that goes out there and doesn't actually stand for anything or believe anything. We want to be a church that believes the truths of the scriptures and responds to it by shining this light and being salt in our communities.
Boy, that's excellent right there. There's belief, and then there's the – I'm going to call it the behavior, but putting into action your Christianity. I think I would sum up some of my early days of going to church as we met and we would eat and then we would retreat. And I don't want to be a part of a church that's retreating. I want to leave with action to do things and call – when I'm in a church and I'm here, a pastor calls me to be generous with something. They're calling me to go visit someone.
They're calling me to do the one anothers. I feel like I'm now action-oriented. I'm an action-oriented Christian.
And that happens because you're in a local body. Yes, where you're spurring one another on to those good deeds. I told our staff today, we had a staff – like our all-day kind of staff retreat we do on a quarterly basis.
Just at the church building, just kind of all day. And I told them I want to be three things of the church. We want to be – we want to have sound doctrine.
We want to be strongly devoted to Christ and strategically deployed into our community and around the world. Oh, that is so good. Dean, we're going to a break. Thank you for your call. What a blessing. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. We want to welcome you back to Truth Talk Live. Today we are exploring the question, why is the local church so important for a believer? Why should a believer – you've come to know the Lord – get involved, get connected to a local church and love to hear your thoughts? We've had a couple callers already. And 866-348-7884, give us a call. Let's dive in here. Why do we need to be part of a local church?
We've heard from a couple callers of just the connectedness. I go back to Acts 2. By the way, I'm Dwayne Carson. Ministries date the Word. It's just a privilege to be a part of Truth Network and to be part of this show, Truth Talk Live, where we want to bring the truth. And Scripture gives truth. Acts 2. You find the disciples. They're out preaching. Now Peter is preaching Day of Pentecost. And then in Acts 2, after there was the baptism, they assembled together to hear the apostles teaching. The apostles were giving instruction. They met together for worship and for instruction, for fellowship. And then from there, they went out and put their faith into action.
Chuck Swindoll said once they had been equipped in the faith, they went out to express the faith. He used a little analogy of a church being a wife, a place of worship, a place of instruction, a place of fellowship that then causes you to go out to express your faith, to put your faith on display into a dark world. And some of that then brings us back to why do I want to be a part of a local church?
It's a place for refueling. Sundays where you come into a Bible study, where you come into a worship service. There's corporate worship. But then there's the teaching of the Word that should help you in your own personal walk, but also equip you to be able to go out and live boldly for the Lord Jesus Christ. And Matthew 5 tells us we're supposed to be lights. We're supposed to be salt in the world. We're supposed to be doing good works to those who are not saved, causing them to now stand amazed at how God is using us, and they glorify God. So why should we be part of a local church?
I want to hear from you. Give us a call, 866-348-7884. That's 866-34-TRUTH. And Dean was part of a staff meeting today, had to get back, but he texted me. Those three things, again, are what he wants his church to be. He wants it to be sound doctrine. And that's so important, and you can't just go to any church. You, as Dean said, check out their beliefs. If they don't believe the Bible, folks, you don't need to be a part of the church. You shouldn't be a part of a church that doesn't believe the Bible. The Word of God is our authority. All Scripture is given by inspiration of Scripture. All Scripture is God-breathed. You believe the Word of God, and that's a core value that you've got to have. And then whoever is pastoring is preaching the Word of God so that you know the truth. Truth is what sets a person free. So sound doctrine. And then Dean said, strongly devoted. We grow in our devotion. We learn about being saved, and then there's new levels of surrender. We grow in our devotion to the Lord Jesus and say, Here am I. Lord, how do you want to use me?
And then strategically deployed. Okay, where do you fit? And when we think about the church, it is a body. It is a body, and each part, the members have different parts, just like a physical body, and not all the parts do the same thing. My eyes serve a purpose. My ears serve a purpose. My nose serves a purpose. My mouth serves a purpose. My hands serve a purpose.
But they're different. When you're in a body of believers, you bring to the table spiritual gifts. You ought to know your spiritual gift.
Romans chapter 12. There's seven specific spiritual gifts. Each one, I believe, has at least one of those gifts. You've got to know what that gift is, so then you can put it into action.
Charles Stanley talked about this, that you find what your spiritual gift is, and there's going to be this maximum fulfillment as you carry out your spiritual gift with minimum ease. There's certain things that I find more challenging to do, and my children would tell you, showing mercy is one of those things. But I have a friend up in Lynchburg, Dr. Ed Gomes. Mercy comes easy for him. Now, there are other things he would say that's difficult for me, but for Duane, that's ease for him. Some people have an ease at teaching.
Others have an ease at administration. So you've got to find your spiritual gift, and that's where Paul was saying, again, we're made up of a body, individual. We have gifts that now help the body out. Why do you need to be part of a local church? I love, again, we want to hear your thoughts. Why is the local church so important to a believer?
Give us a call, 866-348-7884. Love to hear your insights on how a local church has made a difference in your life. We follow up on Tuesday's question. What would you tell a college student, a college graduate, tell a high school graduate? Why should they get involved in a local church? I remember making the decision in high school to no longer attend the church that my parents were going to, but to attend the church that my grandparents on my dad's side was going to. I found that I needed to make a decision that was for me. I wasn't going to just go to church anymore. I wanted to be involved in a church, and I needed to make, maybe if you will, a break from just since I was a child going to the same church, kind of routine, this is what you do on Sunday. And when I started going to this other church where my grandparents went, all of a sudden I found something there that caused me to really evaluate what kind of person I was. I began to see that I wasn't really matching up to what Scripture was teaching, and the preaching of the Word was forcing me to take a look in the mirror. Am I really living the way God wants me to live? I think that's one of the reasons you need to be in a church, because good preaching is going to create conflict. It's going to cause you to have to examine, evaluate, question, am I truly living the way God wants me to live? If there's good, solid preaching that is opening up the Scripture, it's pointing us to renounce the things of this world and then put on, in action, the things that will cause others to have their life enhanced. We're going to help make life better for others. It could be giving a cup of cold water. It could be giving some food to a homeless person.
It could be visiting someone in a nursing home. All of a sudden, our Christianity is now being put on display. We're living like Christ who, as he walked this earth, what was he seeking to do? Make a difference in people's lives.
And the people that he encountered, they never left the same. That ought to be the way it is with us. 866-348-7884, why should you be a part of a local church? What would you tell another person on why they should be a part of a local church?
Give us a call. Love to hear your thoughts. As I think about how important the church is, when you come to the book of Revelation, you find that Jesus is going to give a report on his churches. And not long ago, I did a sermon on this where I said, Jesus is so concerned about his church, he is evaluating it more than Elon Musk, more than Doge would be with their government agencies. He's looking deep into the heart of the church, and he wants to, one, find the things they're doing and complement them.
And with the church at Ephesus, boy, did he bring out the compliments. It was a church that was working and laboring. I mean, they were making a difference in their community. They were witnessing. They were examining those who said they were something when they really were not. They were exposing false doctrine. We have to be so aware of false doctrine.
But then he also took a look to see what wasn't there. And the New Living Translation says that he had a complaint because they had lost their first love for him and for others. He says, I have this against you. You have left.
You've abandoned your first love. And if Jesus is so concerned about this local church that he's pointing out the things that are not right, we need to then value the local church. It's important to him. He is the founder.
He's the builder. He's the one that gives gifts for us to carry out the local church. It's his church. And to say that we're not going to be a part of it, that we're not going to be involved in it, it goes against, as Dean said, unchurched Christian is not found in the Bible.
We're going to be going to a break. I hope I'm stirring up some thinking and that you'll give us a call here at 866-348-7884. Why is the local church so important? You're listening to the Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com.
Welcome back to Truth Talk Live. I'm Duane Carson, and we're talking about the importance of the local church. This is the Bride of Christ. It's also called a building.
It's the body of Christ. And we just want to talk today about why is this local church in your community so important for a believer to be a part of, to be connected to, to be involved in? We have Mike from Dayton, Ohio. Hi, Mike. How are you today? I'm doing great. I got a little story.
I was in the Marine Corps, and when you're in the Marine Corps, you're out of your comfort zone. You're in another state or another country or another place. And I went to a local church, and it was really awesome. Somebody just came up and said, Hi, you're new here. My name is so-and-so, and I would love to be. Can I sit by you?
And I said, Sure. And the guy sat next to me, and he talked to me, and he became really friendly. And that taught me something about what I do at my local church. I go and sit with someone that's new and try to be friends with them and try to understand who they are and love on them and see what they're going through and say hi to them.
And as well, afterwards, maybe even take them out to dinner. That's the stuff I like to see more people in church do, and that would really minister to the community, you know what I mean? And also, it helps the individual minister to themselves, you know what I mean? The individual feels like they belong to the church. And it's not easy to feel like you belong to a church because sometimes you just feel like an outcast, maybe. And then that's important to be belonging.
And how do you belong? Sometimes just reaching out to people. You can't be liked unless you start liking other people. That's so true.
It's so important to start loving on other people, and then you will be loved back. Is that Proverbs 18.24, I'm thinking? Thank you. He who would have friends must show himself to be friendly. Amen. And I really believe that that's what's a little bit hurting the church a little bit. I think we need to be friendly. And some churches got it, some people don't. And some people are afraid, you know, maybe I'm not wearing the right thing, or maybe I'm not looking at the right thing, or maybe I didn't clap enough.
I think that doesn't matter. I think we need to know that God loves every one of us there, and be a loving person to each one. And when a church really does that, that's the one I was in California with, and my gosh, I start to know different people.
I got a job from a guy that was at the church after I got out of the Marine Corps. I mean, it was a wonderful, wonderful experience with that church, and I'm trying to instill this in my church now, you know what I mean? Because I realize that it's not easy for everyone to reach out to other people, but I really believe that if you're listening, be that bold person and reach out to other people in your church, and love one another. And that's what makes a really good church. That's the preaching I want.
Just don't go for the hour, check off the box. Go and expect something out of God, you know what I mean? And then witness to someone, and be friendly. Be friendly. Say hi. Say, how you doing?
You know what I mean? Well, I do think we get a little afraid of that verse that says, greet one another with a holy kiss, but really it's greet one another with a warm handshake. And I had a situation a couple Friday nights ago. I went to an Atlanta Braves baseball game, and they had everybody staying for the national anthem. And just before they had the person sing the national anthem, the announcer made this crazy request. Take a moment and say hello to the person to the right and to the left, to the one in front of you, and to the one behind you. And I'm like, what? What?
Well, what? And people in front of me turned around to shake my hand. And then now I'm shaking hands with the people behind me. My family was with me, friends, on the right-hand side. But then on the left, they shook my hand. And now we have the national anthem. And I thought, at a baseball game, they wanted us to be friendly toward one another.
How unique. Well, that's the way it ought to be in a church. And not just go through the motion of it, but like you're saying, truly, hey, it is so good to see you today. And if you learn names, a name is a bridge to ministry. Hey, by the way, is there anything I can be praying for you about as you go into this week?
And that's how, again, the body supports the body. Amen. Amen. Hey, Dr. Carson, can we pray for the churches?
Yes. Dear Lord, I just pray for the churches in America that they understand their role to the individual that goes to church. Lord, they understand that God loves all the individual that walks through those doors.
And, Lord, please, have men and women come up to those people and love on them like you would want them to, Lord, in Jesus' name. We pray that we get a revival in our country, through our local churches, through our nation, in Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen. And, Father, I agree with Mike's prayer, we are asking for a mighty rush of your Holy Spirit among our people, that we would become more loving, accepting, so that those who are searching, and they are searching, will feel comfortable as they make encounters with believers so that they can truly meet you and begin their relationship with you. Thank you again for Mike and for his desire just to see your church be all that it can be for you and for your glory.
We pray this in Christ's name. Mike, thank you for your call. Thank you, sir. Thank you. You have a good one. We have on the phone calling in now Clayton. Hey, it's good to be on with you. This is Clayton, my dad's Dwayne, and so it's good to talk about the local church.
Well, tell us your thinking. You're out there as a young pastor. Why should people be in a local church? It's so important about it, I know you work also with the Southern Baptist Convention, with the Conservative Baptist Network. Can you do Christianity without the local church?
I would say absolutely not. You can't do Christianity. When you look at the New Testament, equicea, the word for church, is used 114 times, roughly around there, 105 times.
It's talking about a location with a physical address. If you want any sort of New Testament Christianity, you have to be in a local church. When you look at the New Testament books of the Bible that are written, 19 � oh, I'm doing my math right there � only all but nine of the New Testament books are written to local churches.
I think Van Savner has a great quote. He says, �I'm not in favor of that view of the invisible church that makes one invisible at church on Sunday morning.� Van Savner. The local church is where you do the one anothers. The local church is where you primarily exercise your spiritual gifts.
Everything about it, you can't. There's too much that Scripture talks about where you are going to be a myopic Christian without being involved in a local church. I would go even further to say a local church that's built off of the Bible, not just gathering with anyone, but people who believe what the Word of God says. As we talk to our listeners, as the show starts coming to an end here, I want you to really be thinking how valuable is the local church, not just the church universal � Jesus died for the church universal � but he also, as Clayton just pointed out, if you look at these letters, they were written to a local body. He wrote to the church at Philippi. He wrote to the church at Colossae. He wrote to the church at Thessalonica. Jesus is going to address churches. He didn't just say to all you churches.
He said to the church at Ephesus, to the church at Philippi. So as you're driving around town and you're seeing these different names, these are his local bodies, his local churches, and you need to be part of one of those, and maybe it's time to rethink a re-engagement with a local church in your community. Life is just too difficult to be trying to go at it all by yourself. Yes, you need to have a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. There is an individualistic growing, but you need others. Do not forsake the assembling with others to build up your faith. This is Truth Talk Live. We've been talking about the importance of the local church. God bless you.
