We Are THAT Church

We have all probably heard a phrase similar to this, maybe as you are trying to describe a co-worker to someone and you say “You know that guy.” And your co-worker replies, “Oh, you mean THAT guy?” And maybe you’re having a conversation about a church, and somebody says, “Oh, – THAT church.” I like this one that we throw out there:

• “You know that church?”
• “Which church?”
• “You know, the one with the crazy signs.”
• “Ohhhh, THAT church.”

How many of know one of “those” churches that has those crazy signs out there? Here are some of my favorites:

• “The best vitamin for a Christian is B-ONE”
• “Tithe if you love Jesus – anyone can honk” (yeah that’s pretty desperate)
• “Don’t give up, Moses is the one who was a basket case”
• “Prevent Truth Decay – Brush up on your Bible.” Absolutely – floss with wisdom right?
• Here’s my favorite: “When you won’t to reach God – use Kneemail” That’s when you won’t to take it to a whole new level in your prayer life.

Listen we all know “THAT CHURCH” don’t we? But listen to me, the truth is, any church that stands on the Word of God, if you stand for what is right, at some point – you are going to be labeled “That Church.” Somebody asked you “What church do you go to?” and you tell them “I go to Rally Point Biker Church.”  And you get the response “Oh, you go to “That Church.”

I want you to look at your Bible with me real quick, now the verse I am about to share is not the passage for my message, but it’s a good launching pad into the message.  Matthew 16:18, and the Lord is talking about His Church, and Jesus, flipping through the first part of the verse, is mentioning some things about Peter, and then Jesus says this:

“. . . I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

Let’s say that together out loud:

“I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

So let me just go ahead and announce to you this morning “We are THAT CHURCH.”

• No matter the political leanings in our country or our world,
• No matter whether the sun rises or not;
• No matter how many storms come our way;

WE ARE THAT CHURCH!, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against us!

You and I are not here today because we wanted to be a part of some social experiment – we are here today because we are a part this local body of believers, WE ARE THAT CHURCH. And it is through the local church that God’s plan for reaching the world is in full effect. WE ARE THAT CHURCH.

And I believe that when OUR churches Purpose aligns with God’s Passion, then “Nothing will not prevail against it.” Not even the gates of Hell.

So, the question becomes “What is it, as THAT Church, we are to be doing?”

Let’s look at Ephesians 4:11-16, “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; ¹² For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:”

So what is it about our church that is going to make us THAT CHURCH. Well, I believe:

IT BEGINS WHEN WE ENLIST PEOPLE

If you look around our church, the very first thing you are going to notice is that we are all different. There is not a single person in this church this morning that is a clone of someone else (or at least I hope not).

You are You, and YOU are uniquely crafted by the hand of God. You are special, You are individually identifiable. You have a unique DNA.

Although the positions mentioned here are similar, “Some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers,” but they are each unique.

God has blessed our church with a great ministry team, some of us are preachers, some are leading ministries, some are leading music, some are teaching kids, some are serving as our Elders. Though every one of us has a ministry, we are each unique in our calling.

Can I say, everyone in this church has a ministry in this church: You may clean, you may take the trash, to may make coffee or set up donuts; You may be a smiling face that greets someone when they come in.

But understand with me – there is NO ONE SINGLE ministry in this church that is anymore important than any other.

Do you know the one thing everyone of us here has in common? POTENTIAL. And the PURPOSE of my life and your life should be to fulfill our God given POTENTIAL.

God’s desire for my life and for your life is that we reach the peak of the potential He has planned for our lives. As members of the body of Christ, as THAT CHURCH, He wants us performing to our peak potential.

And I believe the problem in the church today is that we are spending more time suppressing people’s potential than we are supporting their potential.

SO the question comes to us as THAT CHURCH, “Are we helping people fulfill their God given potential, or are we suppressing them?”

We are all the body of Christ, and we will never be as good as we should be until every member is hitting their peak potential.

The last part of verse 12 says, “for the edifying of the body of Christ.” The ministry is not about me, and it’s not about you – it is about Christ. So, as the Body of Christ, we have to embrace the One who ministry is all about – it is about Jesus!

Now, notice verses 13-15:

¹³ Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: ¹⁴ That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; ¹⁵ But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:”

Not only are we to Enlist people:

WE ARE TO GROW PEOPLE

Do you know what Jesus wants in the life of His church – THAT CHURCH? He wants us to GROW UP IN HIM! In everything we do, He wants us:

• To be a reflection of Him.
• To be Perfected in Him.
• To be Representatives of the fulness of God.
• He wants us to know the Truth and to be bearers of the Truth.
• He wants us to stop being babies and GROW UP IN HIM!

And how do we do that, how do we become like Him? Pauls tells us in Romans 12:1, 2, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

That word “Beseech,” literally mean to ‘Beg.” So, what is it that God is begging us to do here? He is begging us to somehow learn daily, to become less like the world, and become more like Jesus.  That is the greatest need that I have, and that is probably the greatest need that you have.

This is what God is begging us to do – to somehow, not to be conformed, or made like the world, but to become less like the world and be transformed by the renewing of our minds, to be transformed into the image of Christ. 

You see folks, this is a process.  When Christ saved us, He cleansed us, He made us whole, and now we are going through the process of sanctification, being perfected – and it is a day-in and day-out process.  This is us EVERYDAY, deciding to be less like the world and more like Christ.

God’s desire for my life and for your life is that when He looks down at us, He wants a see a reflection of His Son in every aspect of our lives.

John says in I John 3:1,2, “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: . . .”). 

Verse 2 goes on to say, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”

Let me translate that into Joeology, “Now that I’m a child of God, I don’t know exactly what I look like at the moment (I don’t look like I used to look, but I don’t quite look like Him yet), because I am in the process of being perfected, transformed.  What I do know, is that through this process, if I continue to take the next steps in my life, I will look less like ME every day, and more like Him every day, so that when He returns, He will have no problem identifying me, because I’m going to look like Him.”

We are to Enlist People, we are to Grow People, not look at verse 16:

¹⁶ From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.”

WE ARE TO LOVE PEOPLE

I believe that the one thing the church needs more (and lacks more) – is love!

“Well preacher, I’m tired of hearing all this love talk.” Better go somewhere else then cause that’s all we got!

According to Jesus, the greatest Commandments in the Bible are connected to love.  Jesus said, “Love God with all your heart, all your mind, body, spirit and soul.  And the second is like unto it, that you love your neighbor as you love yourself.”

The Apostle Paul tells us that Love is the greatest gift: “Now abideth faith, hope and Charity (Love), and the greatest of these is Love.”  There is a day that our faith and hope will be a reality, but our love will live throughout all eternity. 

And the greatest evidence of love is displayed in the Bible when we love one another.  “By this, may all men know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

GOD IS LOVE – that’s what He is and that’s what He does!

Remember, Jesus said, “Love God, and love your neighbor like you love yourself.” But then he comes later and changes it a little and says this: “I’m going to give you a NEW Commandment, “Love one another, even as I have loved you.”

The old was “love your neighbor as you love yourself.”

The new is the “Love one another, even as I have loved love.”

Now as I thought about this, If I love you like I love myself, I’ve got to be honest with you, there are days I don’t like ME very much.  There are days I am not happy with myself.  I don’t even like to look at pictures of me, because camera’s LIE about me.  Folks, there are days I just don’t like being me.  And if I loved you like I loved myself, there’d be days I wouldn’t love you very much.

BUT, If I loved you the way that HE loves me, Oh firend, I’m glad there is never a time that He doesn’t love me.

• There is nothing I can do to cause God to love me more;
• There is nothing I can do to cause God to love me less;
• He loves me when I don’t love me;
• And He loves me even when I don’t love Him.

Friends, I change:  I am IN, I am Out, I am Up; I am Down.  But I’m glad HE never changes:

• He loves me when I’m in;
• He loves me when I’m out;
• He loves me when I’m up;
• He loves me when I’m down;
• He loves me when I’m right;
• AND He loves me when I’m wrong.  JESUS LOVES ME THIS I KNOW!

In Matthew 22, and I love this, one the disciples asked Jesus, “LORD, what is the greatest Commandment?”  Jesus said, “The Greatest Commandment is that you love God with all your heart mind, body and soul.  And the second greatest Commandment is that you love one another as you love yourself.” Jesus was saying, “Upon these two Commandments HANG ALL the Law and the Prophets.”

What Jesus was saying here, is, that if you get these two things right, everything else will take care of themselves.

• NUMBER 1 – LOVE GOD
• NUMBER 2 – LOVE EACH OTHER

Folks, that’s not hard to understand – LOVE GOD; LOVE EACH OTHER.  Say that with me – LOVE GOD, LOVE EACH OTHER.  The Christian life is not any more complicated that; it ain’t difficult.  What makes it difficult is our little understanding of His love for us.

LOVE GOD; LOVE EACH OTHER – It’s that simple! 

• There is not a problem in any church that can’t be fixed if we LOVE GOD and LOVE EACH OTHER;
• there is no problem in your home that can’t be fixed if you LOVE GOD AND LOVE EACH OTHER;

As a church, if we are going to live up to our full potential, we will have to Enlist People, then we will have to Grow those People, but most importantly, all through the process, we are going to have to Love the people God has given us to minister to. My prayer for you and for me is that Rally Point Biker Church will be THAT CHURCH!