Belonging to a Spiritual Family

Right into the week two of this series, I am excited and sometimes a little nervous because I have to be vulnerable about being imperfect, all right? I'm imperfect. You're imperfect. We're all imperfect. And when you get a bunch of imperfect people together, what happens?

Things happen. It's a mess. Nobody's perfect. Relationships aren't perfect. And that's what this series is for.

It's to help us be better at our relationships and be better with our families. And the theme scripture is this. If you're following along, you can open up your notes. I've got all the notes. I did a little homework for you there to provide you with any information that you need to follow along, as well as our app, Bible.

A lot of y'all use the Bible app. So you can open that up, find our church there, and the notes will be there ready for you. So follow along with me here. The Lord God said, it is not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.

Therefore, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife. God put men in the perfect situation to have family. And from the very beginning, family was most important to God. God cares about family so much in the beginning, he made it possible in the garden to have healthy family. But for many of us, we don't know what a family is anymore because we've been tainted by things.

We've been tainted by sin. Things have come into our lives. It's a sinful world. It's an imperfect world. And some of you have had family experiences, perhaps, that have left you not even knowing how to be a great family.

Not even understanding what family is. Maybe you had a dad that left you or a mom that never showed affection or a sister or brother that's just never treated you well. Or maybe there's abandonment or abuse or there's baggage that we all carry in our lives. Me included. We all have baggage.

But let's go back to God because God hasn't given up on family. In fact, God has intention and purpose behind everything he does. I know it seems like it's out there and miserable and frustrating. But God's intention for family. Because anything that God makes is good.

Can you believe that? That God makes things well. He does things well. And his plan is to fulfill them well. And we have a great book to go to.

Or many books, actually. 66 books that we can go to and learn about the family. So that's what we're doing in this series. So, last week we talked about what a family's for. I gave you some points on what a family really truly means.

What do we need a family for? Next week I'm going to talk about marriage. So, all of you married people and those who are looking for your spouse or whatever... We're going to. We're going to talk about that.

How do you build a good relationship? And the tagline is how to have an affair-free marriage, an affair-free marriage. We're going to talk about that. The week after that, some of you have wayward children. They're grown children, and they're out of the house, and you've been praying for them, and you've been hurting because they don't know the Lord.

We're going to talk about that. So we've got a lot coming up, okay? This is an awesome series. I'm excited about it. So don't miss any week.

Bring a friend. We've got plenty of seats to fill, and we've got plenty of room to add more seats if we need to. Amen? So we've got a situation where we can just bring people into... God said it is good to be in the house of the Lord.

Go in that byways and bring people in, right? My house needs to be full. Let's do that in the name of Jesus. So God, the day I want to talk about is belonging to a spiritual family. We need to belong to a spiritual family, and I want to give you some information on that.

But God left us here so that we didn't have to be alone. God brought a family in place so that we don't have to be alone. He put a spiritual family around us to help us out. We don't have to do it alone. 1 Peter 1.

3 says, God has given us the privilege of being born again so that we are now members of God's own family. So when you became a believer, if you're a believer here, you became a believer, you became a member of the family whether you liked it or not. You're a part of a spiritual family. You're a part of the church family. You're a part of the bigger picture family, okay?

Just like you were in your blood family. When you were born into your blood family, you didn't have a choice. When your mom decided to take you home from the hospital, that was what happened, right? You have a family whether you like it or not. I told somebody one time, hey, you know, God gave you that family, although they're messed up.

God gave you that family. You have to love them anyway. So you don't really get a choice in that. But one thing that you do get a choice in and you have to make a choice in is a local church family. And that's what I want to talk about.

A local church family, you need to become a part of a church family. And here's what it says in 1 Timothy 3.15. I'm writing these things to you, and you'll know how to live in the family of God. The family is the church.

So the Bible calls the church a family, a family of the living God, the support and foundation of truth. So the church is a family. It's not a business. It's not a social club. A lot of people like to see it as a social club where I can come in and out whenever I want to.

No, it's not that. And of course, it's not a building because our church doesn't really have a building. We meet wherever we can. We met in seven places in one year, guys, during the pandemic. So we know that really well.

But it is a support and foundation to... Like a building needs support, a building needs a foundation, you need support and foundation because things can crumble and collapse really quickly in this world. And you need something to come back to, to have that support for what you believe and why you believe. And you will not make it without a church family. You can't make it without a church family.

There's a lot of people, I don't need church, but you need it, you will not make it. I've heard people say, well I love Jesus, but I, but I don't love the church. Okay, I don't like the people in the church. I love Jesus, so that's why I don't go to church. It, it just doesn't, doesn't make sense.

It's like telling somebody, I like you, but I don't like your body. Or I like you, I don't like your wife. And I don't like you, I like you, but I don't like your, your family. I, I, I, Jesus takes that personal. Did you know that?

That, when you don't like his church, he takes that very personal. And, and we are to love the church as, as Jesus loved the church. Someone told, once told me, I'm a part of the invisible church. The, the, the church you can't see. See, I don't go to church, but I'm a part of the invisible church.

I said, okay, that, that's cool. I mean, the invisible church. So, how is your invisible pastor taking care of you? How is your invisible elders praying for you when, when, when you're sick or whatever? How is, how is your invisible small group doing?

You know, like, how, how does that work? How, how about the invisible weddings and the invisible funerals and all those things? How, how does that work with you? It's like saying, I want to be a part of, of the NFL, but I don't want to be a part of a team. It's like saying, I want to be in an, I want to be, I want to play the tuba, but I don't want to be a part of the orchestra.

Do, do, do, do, do, do, do. Are you just going to get up here playing a tuba? Boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop. Everybody's going like, yeah, no, no, you know, you need, you need, you need other people around you. It's like a sailor with a ship without any navigation system or any compass or any instruments to help them navigate.

That's what it's like to be a Christian without a local church family. Ephesians 2.19 says you belong in God's household with every other Christian. You belong in the household. So how do you show you really are a Christian?

You become a part of a local family, a part of the church family. And there's a difference between attending and being a member. There's a difference between just coming and listening. And it's okay if you're kicking the tires today. Don't feel guilt or anything like that.

Come as much as you want to just to receive. I get that. But if you're ready to take the next step, there's more than just attending. There's a difference between attending and being a member of a family. God does not intend us just to go to church.

He intends us to be the church. He intends us to be with a church. He has a family prepared for us. And if we refuse that family, then it's not good for us. He wants us to be a part of the church.

Here's a part of the church. Here's a part of the church. Here's a part of the church. Here's a part of the church. Here's a part of the church.

Here's a part of the church. Here we go. A statement that you can write down, the Christian life is not just a matter of believing, it includes belonging. In fact, we have a statement here that you can belong before you even believe. That you can come in, you can sit, you can enjoy, and you can hear the Word of God without even believing.

We have a place for you, absolutely. But believers, as believers, we need to belong. Not just believe, not just come to church, but we are the church. So I want to give you five reasons why God emphasizes the family of God so much. Like, why do we need a family of God?

When you understand these things, life makes a lot of sense. And the church family helps you achieve these five goals. So the first one is, if you're taking notes, and you can write this down, it will help me focus on God. I need to focus on God. I don't know about you, but when the week comes, and I get distracted with all the other things, it's hard to focus on God.

In fact, our hearts become weaker, and our minds and our souls drift, and it's easy to forget about God. It's easy for me to forget that God isn't with me. I need to know that God is with me. We overlook the important things, and we focus on the trivial things, and it distracts us from really knowing God. In fact, He made a commandment to help us with this.

It's called the fourth commandment, where every seven days, He desires us to get together, to get together and honor Him and focus on Him. What does the Bible call this focus moment? It's called worship. It's worship. So every seven days, God made a commandment, get together and focus on me and worship me.

In fact, Matthew 22, 37, 38, Jesus gives us the most important commandment. He says, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. He calls this the greatest commandment above any other commandment. When they tried to trip Him and say, Oh, which commandment is greater than the other?

He said, You need to love the Lord. You need to focus on the Lord. That's really what's most important. Why is this important? Because you were made for that.

You were made to worship. You were made to worship God. He knows everything about you, and He still loves you. Did you know that? He knows your warts.

He knows your mess. You know, He still loves you to death. And not only does He love you, He wants you to love Him. Not only does He know about you, He knows every detail of your life, He wants you to know about Him. So every seven days, we come together.

Every seven days, we get our, somebody called it our medicine. You know, you get together and you get what you need to move forward. Focusing on God rather than our problems. It is amazing that our problems become so much smaller when we make God bigger. Are we making God big in our lives?

Have you ever come to church like one day and you just didn't feel like going to church? I have, you know. Sometimes I come in in the morning, I say, I don't want to be here. I really don't. I want to be in bed.

I want to sip some coffee. Just hang out and, you know, enjoy the morning, but when I get here and I begin to worship God, it changes my heart and I'm so glad that I came into the house of the Lord. Have you ever had that moment where you're just like, I don't feel like coming to church, but I'm so glad I came today. I'm so glad that God filled me up and God touched me and I'm just so glad I came to church. And when I don't feel like coming to church, those are probably the days I need it most.

When I don't want to come to church, it's the days I really, really need it. Some people say, well, I can worship God on my own. Have you ever had those people or maybe you're one of those people? I can just worship God on my own. That's true.

You can worship God on your own. You can worship God anywhere, but there's power in presence. There's power when people come together and worship together and lift the name of Jesus, right? That's why we walked out on Easter morning and I had testimony after testimony how the power of God was just working and moving. You know why?

Because all of y'all showed up because it was Easter Sunday. Everybody came in, guests and all, and everybody was here. And in the name of Jesus, we celebrated and worshiped. And guess what? The Spirit started moving and the Spirit started working through people's lives and hearts.

People were saved. People were rededicating their lives. See, that's what the presence of God does when we come together and worship and create an atmosphere of which God can move and work in our midst. That's why Psalm 34.3 says, Magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt His name by myself.

No, together. Together. There's three words that I like to use for worship. And that's celebration, inspiration, and preparation. Celebration, inspiration, and preparation.

Celebration, that's why I like clapping. That's why I like raising hands. That's why I like those things. I get y'all, y'all were trying to sit down. I made you get back up because, you know, come on.

It's good to celebrate and be glad. He says, he didn't say, I was mad when I came into the house of the Lord. I was sad when I came into the house of the Lord. He says, I was glad when I came to the house of the Lord. Not because my dad made me come to the house of the Lord.

I was glad when I came to the house of the Lord. And that's what celebration is. It encourages us. It lifts us up. That's why we play music that kind of makes you kind of go this a little bit more, you know.

You're not like, you know, you remember the old hymns and stuff? I mean, we love hymns, by the way. Don't get me wrong. And we'll play one once in a while and things like that, you know, in our worship. But, you know, I remember going to church when I was young.

And I would fall asleep during singing. You got to turn to hymn page 23 and let's sing. And, you know, sometimes it was beautiful. But it was, I was going to sleep, you know. I was like, come on.

And then you go to that church. And then I visited his church for the first time. And it was just so energetic. And it was so life-giving. And people were, like, praising God.

Some people were even dancing. And I was like, what is this? You know, it's just. I was like, what is this? This excitement in the environment, that celebration, celebration.

David danced. David was so excited when he was in the presence of the Lord. He says, I'm glad when I came into the house. Let us be glad when we celebrate and we're inspired. A lot of you come with fears and failures and frustration and fatigue when you come into church, right?

You come in and you're like, oh man, I'm barely making it in. But when we come together and worship, it inspires us, it lifts our spirits. It does that because he's in control. And then the third thing, it prepares us. It prepares us for the week, right?

You're getting ready to go to Monday again. Tomorrow's Monday. Got to start the week all over again. Here we go. It refreshes our souls.

It encourages us and brings us closer to God. Secondly, it will help me face life's problems. It will help me face life problems. Being a part of a spiritual family gets us ready to face life's problems because life is tough. And sometimes we are crawling into church.

Let's just be honest. We're like Rocky, you know, beat up and banged up and trying to get over to the edge of the ropes to try to get ourselves up. But there's Mickey and I'm Mickey. And I'm like, come on. Come on, Rocky.

Come on. Let's do it. Let's get up. We got it. Go.

Get in there. You know, and that's what I do. I encourage you guys. I'm lifting you up. You need refueling.

This is your refueling station. You can't make it without your refueling. And that's what worship does. And when we come together, we face life's problems together. It helps us through life.

And the antidote to discouragement is getting around people who are encouraging. We need some encouragement in this world. Amen? We all need encouragement. And the Bible calls us fellowship.

We come together so that we can fellowship, so that we can enjoy each other. Because we aren't meant to be Long Ranger Christians. We aren't meant to be alone. We need people who are encouraging, who love the Lord, who can lift us up. Look what 1 Thessalonians 5, 10, and 11 says.

Jesus died for us so that we can live together with Him. So encourage each other and give each other strength. We need to give each other strength and encourage each other. Y'all probably heard the scenario about the coal in a fire. When you have a coal in a fire, you know, fire places or campfires.

Maybe you're a camper and you have that campfire and the coals are so hot. But you take one of those coals out and you put it out beside the fire. What does it do? It starts cooling off. It starts dying down.

But what do you do with that coal to get it hot again? You pull it back up and put it back in the coals. And the coals come together and heat it up. That's church. Church does that.

It heats us up. It inspires us and fills us up and encourages us. It gets us back to where we need to be. It heats us up again. And you can't make it in the Christian life unless you have people around you to help you and encourage you and move you through.

You need believers in your life. 1 Peter 3.8 1 Peter 3.8 He says you should be like one big happy family. I love how the Living Bible says that.

One big happy family, full of sympathy towards each other, loving one another with tender hearts. And this is more important than ever before because people don't have a sense of belongingness today. People don't want to be around people. I think I have neighbors that I don't think I've ever seen them. I say I know they're there.

I see the car. Matt can relate to me, brother. He's one of my neighbors back there. We have people in our neighborhood and we don't even know who's there. I mean that's how life is.

It's normal. It's normal. There used to be generations and generations and generations of people that lived in the same town back in the day. You know, you had like, you know, dad, granddad, great granddad and on and on that lived in one area and they were there and everybody, all the family was there. But we don't see that much anymore.

In fact, many of you don't even have family that live within, you know, a few hours from you. Most of you probably depending on, you know, where you're from or whatever. It could be they live on the West Coast. They live in the Midwest. They live down south.

They live up north. We live in a military, very transient community, a transient town. So so we have that, you know, we a lot of you don't have family here. So what do you have in place of that? That's what church offers a family away from family, a family that is available to you.

And if you don't have a family, you have brothers and you have sisters and you have aunts and you have uncles and you have fathers and you have mothers in the spirit, spiritual ways that are here for you. We that are here to support you here to support your children. We support each other. We support each other. Galatians 6 2 says by helping each other with your troubles, you truly obey the law of Christ.

We're here to help each other with our troubles. That's why we have small groups. I think one of the best ways to have small that the care for each other is in these groups that meet during the week. We've got different types of groups. We've got young adults groups.

We've got mixed groups. We've got men groups. We've got women groups. We've got all kinds of groups that you can get plugged in and we have some that are getting ready to start. You can get plugged in and those are people that that we need to be together.

And when times get hard, those are the people that will be there first. Those are the people that will be by your side. Romans 12 5 says in Christ, we who are many form one body and each member belongs to each other. That's interesting, isn't it? We actually belong to each other in Christ.

That we care for each other. We belong to each other. And as we grow up in a family, we support, we cry, we play, we do life together. And then we come in on Sunday morning and it's a big family reunion, right? Everybody comes together.

The little local families come together to have a celebration on Sunday morning. This morning it looks like a small group because I don't know where everybody is. But we come together on Sunday morning, but during the week we have that support group. I remember pastors. I remember pastors.

Rick Warren of Saddleback Church, sharing one of the largest churches in America, they were probably at the time running 20,000 with multiple campuses and his son committed suicide a few years back. He said when they found out about it, when they went up to the house and when they first heard the news, the very people that were there was his small group that he was with for years. They were there to support him, to pray for him, to encourage him in life's most difficult situation. That's what a group is for. That's what a church is for.

That's what a family is for. Number three, it will help me fortify my faith. It strengthens and reinforces my faith. It reinforces my goals. It reinforces my values.

My belief system. We need that clarified and strengthened at least once a week, right? We need to come together and reinforce those values because those values will plummet during the week. They will. You're going to be hit on every side with different worldviews, different values, different demonstrations of different things, and it's going to tear you apart.

That's why you need a church family so that you can be reinforced, that that house, that structure can be built up strong, that we're building a house upon the rock, the rock, a rock, a strong and sturdy rock. Here's what Hebrews 6.1 says in the Living Bible. Let us go on and become mature in our understanding as strong Christians ought to be. Let us become mature.

How do we reinforce our goals and values and our belief systems and believe what we believe, why we believe it, and hold strong to that? Because we're growing up. When we're together, we grow up. Now, many of you probably know people who've been Christians for a long time, and you're like, and you never see any growth there, any fruit there. It just seems like they're just kind of where they are.

But then you see somebody else who gives their life to Jesus, and within months they're just growing, and lots of great things are happening in their lives, and their knowledge, their perspective, their convictions, and their skills, and everything is just growing so strongly. And you ask the question, what is that? And I used to ask that question. Like, why do these people seem to grow, and these people don't? They've known the Lord for years, and they're just not producing.

And then these, they're just, God is just doing amazing things in their life. They're so full of joy, and they're excited about God. Is it because they're smarter? No, it isn't that. Is it because they're more spiritual?

Not necessarily. It was really about them being with people who are encouraging, with people who help them grow. What's God's will for your life? For you to grow up. To be more like Him.

To be more like Christ. We need to mature. And my goal is to have one of the most, I care more about a healthy church than I do a numbers church, okay? I'd rather everybody in here be so spiritually healthy, because guess what? Numbers will come if you're healthy.

It's just going to happen. I hope so. Healthy things grow, right? And that will happen, but my priority is a healthy church, and my prayer is that every one of us have a healthy, healthy, healthy spiritual life. And we learn that through the church.

God manifests His wisdom through the church. In fact, it says that in Ephesians 3.10, God's intent was that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known. That His wisdom is made known through us. Little us.

Little me. When we're together, though, wisdom develops. And God does amazing things in our lives. Growth is not a solo act. There's a myth that you need to go out and be a monk somewhere on a hill in order to grow with God.

But if you notice, there's not a lot of monks today. Why? Because it doesn't really work. You need to be together with people. Number four, being in a spiritual family will help me find my ministry.

Find my ministry. God uniquely shaped you and created you to be who you are. Whether you like yourself or not, God loves you. God really does love you, and He made you the way you are. Warts and all, He loves you.

And He gave you gifts. He gave you talents that make you you. And He's done it on purpose, for purpose. I love the acronym SHAPE. Someone used the word SHAPE.

S-H-A-P-E. That's your spiritual gifts, your heart, which is your passions, your abilities, your personality, and your experiences. All those things. Your crazy personality was made by God and is used for something. Can you believe that?

Your gifts and abilities, your skill level, you're a numbers person, you're an arts person, you're this and that. God created you to be you. And when you're not a part of a family of God, that family is really vitally missing something very important. It's a disservice to them, actually. They need you.

People need you. You need people. And we all develop our skills, and that's the purpose of the church. That's the purpose of the church family, is to help equip you for ministry, to help you discover who you are. What on earth am I here for?

This is what helps you figure out who you are in God. But pastors and ministers do the ministry, right? You're talking about ministry, finding ministry, and I'll find my ministry. You're supposed to do that, Pastor Leon. That's your job.

No, that's your job. Your job is to minister. My job is to equip you for ministry. My job is to help you discover who you are. Yes, I'm going to minister.

I'm going to go out. If you're in the hospital, if you need me, I'm going to be there. Because I'm a pastor, and I love you, and I want to be there for you. But my heart is that you're going out and ministering to people. You're going...

You're going out and sharing the gospel with other people, the good news, based on your gifts, abilities, talents, your personality type, whatever that might be. That's what God made us to do. We were made for this. Ephesians 2.10 says, It is God Himself who has made us what we are and given us new lives from Jesus Christ.

And long ages ago, He planned that we should spend these lives in helping others. That's a paraphrase, but it actually tells you in the Bible that you were born in a certain time, at a certain place, a certain way, in order to be put directly where you needed to be put for God to use you. Some people are like, Oh, I can't stand this world. I can't stand these times, the political situation. I get it.

But God chose you to be here because you're the person to be able to be here to communicate salt and light to the rest of the world. That's why you're here. And so many people have low self-esteem, you know, they're like, I just feel I feel a sense of worthlessness and people just just hopelessness. And I don't feel like I belong. You know, the remedy to that is learning who God created you to be and working in that.

You have purpose. God has a purpose for you. God created you for something specific. And whatever it is, it doesn't matter. And whatever you do, do it for the glory of God, as Scripture says.

Whatever, what is that whatever? It can be anything. Whether you're an accountant, whether you're a chef, you're an executive, you're a builder, and you're the captain of a ship, whatever it might be, God created you for that very thing, and you can do it as unto the glory of God. That's where joy is going to come when you do it for God. We don't get these things just to make money.

We don't get these things just to look good and get promotions and whatever. We have purpose in our lives. God gave us these things on purpose. There's a scripture for that, 1 Corinthians 12, 5, and 27. There are different kinds of service.

Together you form the body of Christ, and each one of you is a necessary part of it. Every part of the body is necessary. We call this church Salt Church. And some of you are like, well, that's because you're next to the beach, and you're a surfer, Leon, and that's just, you know, you chose that name. No, there's real intentionality behind it.

Because Jesus said, we are salt. And what he meant by salt was that we are preservative, not just flavor enhancers. We are preservative of the entire world. That God is actually, scripture tells us that God is holding back his wrath, his second coming, until every person has heard the name of Jesus. And because of us, because of the church, because we are here, because we are preservative, every person is important in God's eyes.

Those that are lost are important to God. But we're an important part of reaching those people for Christ. We are salt. We are light. You are salt.

We have a saying here that salt always makes a difference, and a little bit of salt goes a long way. You know what that means? That you go a long way. Your little gift, it may not be big in the world's eye, but your little gift is powerful in the kingdom of heaven. God can use that gift to do extraordinary things in the church and through the church family.

It might just be changing light bulbs or doing lights in here. We're still trying to figure out lights and how to do all this stuff, and that's your thing. That's great, you know? It may be communicating. Maybe we have some great communicators in here that are ready to communicate, but it doesn't have to be that.

It could be just simply small tasks. Whatever your gift is, it is important to God. Nobody, everybody's a 10. Everybody's a 10. All gifts are 10s in God's eyes.

There's no one that's better than the other. That's why salt always makes a difference, and a little salt goes a long way. You're a valuable piece to the kingdom of God. And then number five, a spiritual family will help me fulfill my life mission. Again, it's not an accident that you were created and made.

There's more than even just working in the church. God's got something even way bigger for you. He made you on purpose for a purpose. To not only have a ministry within the church, but a mission outside the church. God chose you when, where, and how for a specific reason.

And the church is to help you discover and develop that mission. Being a part of a local church family is so important because it helps us, it puts us on mission. Paul says it like this. He's talking about his ministry calling. He says life is worth nothing unless I use it for doing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus.

The work of telling others about this thing called the good news of God's kindness and his love. That's why we're put here. He says, I'm a very intelligent guy. I have all kinds of people, even before Christ, he was probably next in line for the Sanhedrin. I mean, he was that big of a deal.

He was a tent maker. He was very successful. He made a lot of money. But he said, life is worth nothing unless I use it for doing what God really intends me to do with my life. It's not worth anything.

The only way we can really truly experience completeness and wholeness and purpose is by doing that which God has called us to do. And the best part of it is when you get to heaven and that person walks up to you and says, hey, I'm here because of you. Thank you. That's the best part of it. That I'm here because you gave.

I'm here because you sacrificed. I'm here because you came at 6 o'clock in the morning and put lights up and put stage stuff up and worked. And I'm here because during the week you put a lot of ministry effort into your purpose and your skills. I'm here because of that. I remember my grandfather.

He has an amazing testimony. He's passed away now, but he had amazing testimony. He come from the greater Chicago area. Didn't have much on him. Felt a call to go to a children's home in North Carolina.

In case y'all know, I'm from North Carolina, born and bred. My grandfather, city boy, moves to this little town, Falcon, North Carolina, to serve at a children's home. Felt led to minister to little children. Children who didn't have fathers and didn't have mothers or came out of drug situations. And in his retirement ceremony, I remember my family is very musically gifted.

My father and my aunts are all vocalists and they could do, you know, four part quartet type situations and stuff. And they were up at his retirement singing this song. They sang the song, thank you for giving to the Lord. I am a life that was changed. Thank you for giving to the Lord.

I'm so glad you gave. And I remember as a little kid just looking at my grandfather up on the front row and he's just in tears. And I don't see my grandfather. I didn't see my grandfather cry a lot. But he was just in tears.

Thank you. And the story goes on about a guy giving his last bit of money to get to another town to minister to people. And it was a whole storyline of how they gave and how they sacrificed. And it says thank you. And it talks about this person going to the heaven and saying thank you.

And they say thank you for giving to the Lord because I'm a life that was changed because of you. And I remember that and I got some context on that. Because he did give his last bit of money. He didn't have anything. He gave it all.

He gave up everything to move the little falcon North Carolina to minister to children in an orphanage. To be a daddy to kids who didn't have daddies. And there he met my grandmother from the mountains of Virginia. Okay? All you Virginians here.

Met her. They both ministered together to children. And after my grandfather passed away. I think it was not even a year after he passed away. We were having Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner one.

I can't remember exactly the date. But I remember my aunt answering a phone call. She went in and she came out after about 15-20 minutes on the phone. And she shared that this man had called in. And he asked for E.

R. Dunning. That was my grandfather's name, Evan Rayford Dunning. He asked for ER, and she had to tell him that he had passed away. He says, I'm so sorry.

I'm sorry that you didn't know this, but he passed away. And the man stopped for a second, got really silent, and started crying. He said, that was my only father. I had no idea. And what we learned is that he had hundreds of kids that called all the time.

Because he was their father. That's what the church is. It's a ministry that's bigger than just in here. And can you imagine that? What you do, the little things you do.

Just giving up the little things, maybe giving away some money, or making a move, or whatever it might be. Or just simply ministering to the kid next door. Or simply ministering to the person, just helping them out with their windows. You have no idea those little things that really help bring about something even greater than we even know. That God is always working in the background.

Now, the dearest thing to the heart of God is the death of his son. And the second thing is when you share with someone else about him. There's two things you can't do in heaven. Two things you can't do in heaven. You can't sin, and you can't share your faith.

So, which of those two things do you think God left you to do here? He left me here to tell people about him. He left me here to share it with others. Romans 10, 13, and 14. Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

But who can know if they haven't heard? And how can they hear unless someone tells them? Right? How do they know? How do they know?

I remember a man coming to the front when I was a kid to my dad. And giving his life to Jesus. And he told him afterwards. He says, you know what? I went to church all my life.

But I had no idea that there was actually good news to this. That Jesus actually gave his life for me so that I don't have to work for my salvation. That it is made available for me as a free gift. And I'm so thankful. If we don't share, how do they know?

So, let me ask you this. If you don't join a church family, where will you get this help? If you don't have a local church family, where are you going to get all these things? There are many good churches out there, by the way. This isn't the only church.

There's a lot of good church families out there. There are many good churches. I'm friends with a lot of pastors around here. I have coffee with a lot of them. I talk on the phone with a lot of them.

And here's what you ought to do. You need to pray about it. We would love to have you as a part of our church family, but we're not the only church family. You're not the only church family. You're not the only church family.

because You become a Christian by committing to Christ, but you become a member of a church by committing to other Christians. It's a commitment. It really is. People don't like commitments, right? But Christ has brought us to a place where He's asking us, it's the law of Christ, to commit to other believers, to a local family.

So pray about it. What kind of family are you looking for? Find a family, and let me just be blunt, quit hopping around. Quit jumping from church to church to church based on what the flavor of the week is. I want this better worship this week.

I want this better Bible teaching this week. I want this non-vulnerable or vulnerable, whatever it might be. Get committed to a church family, because there's no perfect church. And if there is, you join it, it's not going to be perfect. Because I'm not perfect, you're not perfect, there is no perfect.

Family Colossians says it like this, and in closing, this is your responsibility and privilege as members of His body. The difference between being an attender and a member is responsibilities and privileges. You have a responsibility, but you also have privileges. An attender versus a member is the difference between living together and being married. You can live together with the church and just show up, you know, just sit in a seat.

Or you can do what God desires for relationships and be married and committed. You can be a consumer or you can be a contributor. You can go along with the ride or be a part of a real team. God says, I don't want you to go to church, I want you to be the church. I want you to be a part of the church.

I want you to be with a church family. So how do I become a member of a church family? How do I become a member of a church family? I'm glad you asked. Because Acts 2 tells us how to do that.

Acts 2 verse 41 and 42. It says, they were baptized and joined the other believers. They worshiped together regularly in the temple. They met in small groups in the homes for communion, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And it goes on.

So you need to be baptized. It's a way... See, baptism... We're doing baptism next week, by the way. Whoa!

Isn't that coincidental? What we do when we're baptized, it says, I'm a believer. It tells others that I'm a believer. That I'm humbly obedient to what Christ said about baptism. It shows the world that I am a part of a family.

And a local family gets to celebrate that with you. It's a powerful thing. I'm a believer and a humble act of obedience to... I'm making a humble act of obedience to... Some people are like, well, I don't want to get my hair wet on Sunday, you know, that's, I don't want to, well, you know what, I say I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, get my hair wet all I want to, and hey, guess what, we're gonna, we'll have, we'll have a change of clothes for you, get a change of clothes next week, okay, we'll have that all ready for you, okay, so you have no excuses, you know, I heard, I heard one person say, one little boy say that, that was talking about being baptized, he says, can I be advertised?

Baptized, you're being advertised, it's a symbol of what God, you're advertising that Jesus is so good, that God is so good, I shouldn't be where I am, but God, thank you, Lord, I'm dead to my sin, I'm dead to the old life, and here I am, a new, a new person in Jesus Christ, and we worship together, and we take communion together, we do communion here every couple of months here in the church, we we take communion together, so my question is, you know, why on earth haven't you been baptized? Why on earth haven't you become a member? Why on earth haven't you? What's the reason? If you say you love Jesus, he said, keep my commandments, and we are to love the church as Christ did.

We are to do that, we are to do that, because the church will outlast everything else, the church will outlast everything else, and if you don't have, you don't have to love our church, that's okay, but get connected to a church family, stop waiting, start moving, make a decision, serve, give, be committed, that's what we're called to do, and we have an awesome opportunity right here in this city. We have a lot of opportunity, a big door of opportunity, pile up our cars and bring people to church, because so many people here, it's a big melting pot of people from different cultures and different backgrounds, and a lot of them haven't heard anything about this stuff that we were talking about. They think Christianity is just a big cult, they think it's just another religion, but what we know, it's not a religion, it's certainly not a cult, because we aren't about rules, we're only about one thing, relationship with Jesus Christ. That's what a church family is, it's a group of believers, a group of people that believe that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father in heaven but through Jesus Christ. And it is a free gift, you don't have to be good, you don't have to be perfect, amen, amen.

So maybe that's you today, maybe you need to make a, maybe it's time. You know, pastor, I've heard this many times. I think I'm ready. Some of you are like, I gave, I made a commitment before but I've kind of done the whole thing, I've not been to church and I haven't been attending and I haven't been part of a small group, I haven't been doing any of this and I kind of drifted. I want to rededicate my life to Jesus.

You can do that this morning. It's available for you. It's a free gift. A gift available to you. Not by works that any man should boast, but because of Jesus, because He is.

He was perfect and He died for our sins. We can lay our sins at the cross of Jesus and He will make us a new creation. Let's pray together. All heads bow and eyes closed. Father, we thank you for the gospel.

We thank you for the good news, Lord. We thank you for salvation. We thank you for the opportunity to share with others about the good news, Lord. But today, God, we take this moment to humbly submit our hearts. For everybody in here, maybe you're asking, maybe I haven't been as committed as I need to be, Lord.

Lord, I want to commit today to being part of a family. I want to commit to really stepping it up and pursuing what you have in my life and what you have available for me to do in this world. And that purpose that you've created me. Maybe that's you. And I'm praying, Lord, in the name of Jesus, that you would just touch those hearts right now.

But there are others maybe today that they've never really taken the first step. And you're not a God that forces people to love Him. You're not a God that pushes people to commit. But you're a God that lovingly and tenderly speaks to our hearts and says, I love you. Will you come and have a relationship with me?

Will you give your life to me? Because I gave my life to you. I want the best for you. I have something special for you. If that's you today, if everybody would pray this together, let's pray the sinner's prayer of commitment or recommitment or wherever you are.

Father, I believe that you are the Son of God. I believe that you died on the cross for my sin. And I believe that you rose on the third day proving that you are God and you conquered death. Today, come into my heart. Come into my life.

I choose to have a relationship with you. I don't want to do it my way. It just hasn't worked. But Lord, I surrender it to you. Walk me with me from this day forward.

Come into my life. In Jesus' name. Amen.