Elevate - God's Church, My Church Pt 1 - Identity

The main ideas from this information are: - The church's identity is found in Christ and in the people of God. - The church should revolve around God growing the assembly to be more like Him. - The church is not about the building or entertainment, but about being called out by God. - Jesus is the head of the church and it is important to understand His authority. - The church is a privilege and its importance to God cannot be understated. - In times of transition, it is important to guard against a loss of identity. - The church's identity is found in Jesus Christ. - Unity in the church is crucial and the church's identity is found in the person of Jesus Christ. A church's identity is found in Christ and then in the people of God. Church is not about what's happening on this stage. This church is about the person sitting next to you, in front of you, and behind you. That is God's church. It should revolve around God growing the assembly, the people, the family of God to be more like Him. Welcome to Elevate, the radio ministry of Authentic Life Church in Mobile, Alabama. We pray that it builds your faith, helps you to live a life of God that you've always wanted to live, and that it inspires you to be a fully devoted, authentic follower of Jesus Christ. Here's today's message from Neil DeQuatro. We're starting a series called God's Church, My Church. And, you know, when you think about people who speak and do this sort of thing, you know, there are folks who are more heavy on the preaching side, you know, the sort of fiery, and folks on the teaching side of things. And that's me. I really enjoy sort of breaking things down. I'm on the teacher's side. But you'll have to forgive me if I get excited this morning because I love the church. I love this church, Small C. I love God's church, the capital C. And it's just, over the last three years, it's something that God has just been doing in my heart. You know, just a love for His church. I love this church. I love the church across the street that maybe believes a couple things different than I do. I love them. You know, because we're all going to spend eternity in heaven together. And as long as you believe in the finished work of Jesus Christ, His death, burial, resurrection, man, we're family. Amen. If you trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins. So I want us to be clear, which is why we named this series this. God's church, which is way bigger than just this church. And we are connected by His grace to the bigger church. And I also want to say, just to sort of set a frame here, is that I know the current events of our church, we're in transition. And I want you to know that even though I'm preaching about the church this morning, I have no desire at all to manipulate anybody. When you're in transition, you'll find people coming, you'll find people going. And we bless everyone. And we reserve judgment. Amen? Because that's what God's people do. But I do, and it's appropriate, I do want to take a look at what the Word of God says regarding our situation and overlay it on top so we can know how to think and how to be grounded and rooted in the season that we're in. Amen? And so that's what this series is all about, and that's what today is all about. And so let's just start out practically. What is the church? And when you're defining the church, sometimes it's easier to define what it is not. So let's start there. It's not a building. It's certainly not a building. You know why? Because there are men and women of God who are hunkered down in the corner of a living room by candlelight because it's illegal to assemble in their country. And guess what? We're serving the same Jesus at the same time. So it's not about the four walls. We're blessed in America. Praise the Lord. Help us do everything we can with this place. So many don't have it. Right? But it's not the four walls of the church that makes the church. We're not a corporation. We're not a business. There's some practical needs, but we're certainly not a business. We're not a string of programs connected together. And we're certainly not Christian entertainment. And in modern churches, and I'm not judging, but it's sort of an unintended consequence of being blessed financially in America and the different talent that people have. But sometimes it becomes about the entertainment here that is consumed by people in the seats. Right? And if the quality of a church is through the roof, praise God for that. But if we lose sight of what's most important, then it's not helpful. So church is definitely not about entertainment. The church is the ecclesia. Some pronounce the word ecclesia. Ecclesia. It's the Greek word where we get the modern word church. And it simply means called out ones or gathering of those summoned, which I like even better. It was used by the Greeks in a political sense of those who were special and called out to the assembly to make decisions, political decisions. So it has that connotation to it. But church, I want you to know that you are the called out ones and you're the gathering of those summoned. By whom? By God. By God through the blood of Jesus. And here's how the church came into existence. God promised Abraham that through him all the nations would be blessed. He promised Abraham a family was going to come through his bloodline. And Jesus made this possible by being born of that same bloodline and then redeeming us from the death grip of sin and Satan. And then God placed Jesus above all, and then here's this, delivered to Him the church as His bride. Isn't that beautiful what God did? So we're the called out ones that have been redeemed by Jesus Christ. And this same Christ is the head of the church. He's the head. Listen, God gives the institution of authority, and we understand that there's a godly way to understand that. Hebrews chapter 13 tells us about that. But let's not be confused. In the end, God is the head of a church. We're in a kingdom and He's the only king. And we know this because Colossians chapter 1, verse 17, Paul says, He, Jesus, is before all things, and in Him all things consist, and He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have preeminence. Isn't that awesome? So God's will on earth now revolves around an obedient, faithful church. What a privilege! So now you know why I said I might be a little bit excited. I love talking about the church. It's a privilege to be a part of a church, right? It's a privilege to be here dividing God's Word. It's just a privilege to be saved. And so this makes what happens in and through the church of the utmost importance to God. You've got to know that. I mean, we're His bride. We're the bride of Christ. He suffered the way He suffered, and the prize was God delivered to Him the church. Right. And so, if we know it's that important to God, then you need to know that He cares about this church. And He sees and He cares about you as an individual. You've got to know that. Because right now we're a church in transition, and transition can lead to lots of feelings. Like being unsure. Like, what's happening? What's going on? I feel unsure. Some folks feel sad. Sometimes people leave. Sometimes new people come. But of all the things that can happen in transition, the most critical thing that happens is oftentimes a loss of identity. A loss of identity. And we're going to unpack that this morning. And this is what we've got to guard against. This is what we've got to guard against. Because thankfully, there's a church in the Bible who is struggling with an identity crisis themselves. And in this passage of Scripture, we're going to look at there are three clear things that we can take away that will help us know how to find our identity and to understand what the identity of God's church is. And this is found in Paul's letter to the Corinthians. And so I'm going to read the longer passage, and we're going to go through and break it down and see what we can learn from Paul's letter to the Corinthians. So, 1 Corinthians 3, we'll start with verse 4. For when one says, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos, are you not carnal? That just means fleshly. Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos? But ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field. You are God's building. According to the grace of God, which was given to me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Let's skip down to verse 16. Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. Wow, that's strong language, isn't it? For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. This letter was written to a group. It's not talking about an individual. He's talking about his church, and we're going to get into that in just a little bit. But this church's unity was suffering, as you can sort of read between the lines in this passage. And Paul wanted them to know several things. And that leads to our first point. The church's identity is found in the person of Jesus Christ. Gigantic period at the end of that sentence. Our identity is found in Jesus Christ. I said it a little bit in the opening here that churches unintentionally in their desire to do well and to grow and to fill seats and to be faithful, sometimes church becomes about lots of things other than Christ. And you've got everything from people worrying about the color of the carpet to, you know, I didn't really like those songs, or I'm going to this church because their band sounds more professional than this one or this preacher, right? And it's particularly gifted, or this one I like better. And all of these things sort of slip into why Americans go to church and why they choose churches. And God, listen, and that's okay in the sense that God's got a place for everybody because we're all so different, right? So there's no judgment there. But what I want to say is if ever you're in a situation where the whole church becomes about a band or about an individual speaking or about anything else, run. Because this is Christ's church. And everything that we do, we want to glorify God in our assembling together. We've got to get that first. I can't punctuate that enough. Our identity is found in the person of Christ, not in the flaws and the weaknesses of those who are around us driving us crazy. Because that's not going to end this time in heaven, no matter where you are, right? It's about Christ and being focused on Him. So when we break this passage apart, we see in verse 4, For when one says, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos, are you not carnal? Meaning, have you just been thinking like the world? Meaning fleshly? Who then is Paul and who is Apollos? You see Paul diminishing the leaders, saying your focus... Leaders are important, but your focus has got to be first here. It's got to be on... You keep your eyes on Christ, the author, the finisher of your faith. Alright. So, but who are they? But ministers through whom you believe, that the Lord gave to each one. I planted Apollos' water, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God gives the increase. Amen. So here's the background here, is that the people in the city of Corinth, in that church, were aligning themselves with one teacher over the other. Just a man, just people, right? They were aligning themselves with one person over the other. And like I said in Hebrews 13, it tells us that we want to honor leaders, right? Who work hard, who serve the church. But this church found themselves struggling, because their focus on individuals then became divisive, and the unity of their fellowship suffered. You see how that's happening here? You know, when Paul's writing a letter, he's responding to something, an issue that we don't have access to. We can only deduce it from his side of the conversation. And this is what we can deduce. There's division that's happening over people. And so Paul reorients them to focusing on Jesus. Because there's no disunity when Jesus is the centerpiece of church life. And Jesus should be the centerpiece, as He suffered so greatly for His church. That's why Paul says in Ephesians 1, verse 22, And God placed all things under Jesus' feet, and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way. What this verse is telling us is that everything is about Christ, in Christ, from Christ, through Christ. Because He fills His body, as Ephesians says, with everything in every way, with His provision, with His presence, with His fullness. This is what Jesus does when it's all about Jesus. And that's why this is so important. So a church's identity is found first in Christ, which leads us to the second place identity is found. So, I've sort of said this a couple of times this morning. I think it's probably just because it bothers me that you'll see churches crumble. I'm talking about television, some of these big ministries, because somebody sinned, somebody fell, they lost their way, or somebody moved on. I had that happen to a big megachurch that was in the area. I lived in South Carolina. I don't want to say the name of the church. Because the church was built on the foundation of a highly gifted speaker. And I praise God for that, right? Don't we need highly gifted speakers and teachers and worship leaders? Rhonda, killing it. Right? And so we need all of that. So that's not my point. The point is, who is the church revolving around? Who is the church revolving around? Not the level of talent that's within the church. Because God loves His church. He'll bring the right people with the right talent and His will. And then we give it all back to Him by making sure everything we do revolves around Christ. But that brings us to our second point. A church's identity is found in Christ, and then in the people of God. In the family of God. Church is not about what's happening on this stage. Please don't ever confuse that. This church is about the person sitting next to you, in front of you, and behind you. That is God's church. It should revolve around God growing the assembly, the people, the family of God to be more like Him. Now this doesn't mean when I say it's found in the people of God, the identity is found in the people of God. I'm not saying that the church is about you. I'm saying you are the church. You see the difference there? I'm not saying it's about you. I'm saying, frankly, you are the church. There's a difference. So if we look down at verse 8 in our passage, 1 Corinthians 3, 8, we see now, He who plants and he who waters are one. Right? So the leaders are just working together to do God's will. And each one will receive his own reward according to his labor, for we are God's fellow workers. And here's the point. You are God's field. You are God's building. Hear that again, church. You are God's field. You are God's building. God is building something out of the assembly of people and the community and the family in this church. So our identity is found first in the person of Jesus Christ, but it's also found in the people for whom Christ died. And that's not one or two or three or five individuals. Or the most visible people who, you know, often you see them on the stage or running around. Man, all of those people are just servants. Just servants. The least important people in the church might be the most visible, because they're just equipping. Right? And as Paul makes this point, he's trying to diminish the role of just a couple and put the attention on Christ and the body. So what does this mean? If you're the one for whom Christ died, and I put myself in that category, and I could sit in the chair and sort of preach to myself, you know, as a member of this family, that we're the ones for whom Christ died. So what does that mean? It means you should shine in this place as you reflect Christ through your gifts, through your uniqueness, through the way God made you. You should shine for Christ. God wants you to shine. In your small groups, when you're discussing the Word and you speak up and share the insight that's on your heart, and you use your gift to exhort the body, you shine when you do that. That's why we see here in 1 Peter 4.10 where Peter says, as each one has received a gift, minister it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Why? Because you're God's building and you are building one another up. And you're building God's kingdom. Paul says, listen, you're the field. You're the building. Peter says, and you've been gifts to use to build up that building. This is what the church is. This is how the church works. So the identity of a church is found first in Christ, then in His people, and that leads us to the last truth about identity. The identity that we see in the Corinthian church, and it's this. A church's identity is found in the presence of God. A church's identity is found in the presence of God. Let's read chapter 3 of 1 Corinthians, verse 16. Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. This temple that Paul is referring to here isn't the individual. A lot of times we misread some of these verses about God's temple. We apply them to ourselves individually. And that's an easy thing to do. But you've got to really step back and understand who's Paul talking to? Who's he writing to? He's writing to an entire church. So in the context of this verse, the temple that Paul is referring to isn't the individual. It's the church. It's the whole church. And he's saying, you're the temple that carries the presence of God. So what do we mean by God's presence? So, let me just try to break it down here. So, do we sometimes come to church and we're worshiping and God, because of His goodness, for whatever reason or another, He just manifests Himself in a way that's such a blessing. Anyone ever felt that before? You just, you sense the glory of God? Right? God does that. God does that. And we are grateful for that. But I'm talking about something that's even deeper than that. Because that's somewhat subjective. You know, Brother Toby could say, man, I really felt God's presence today. And Jennifer may say, oh, I wasn't sort of feeling it, right? You know? And so, what can we know about the presence of God that we can count on, that's a rock, that's a foundation that we can take to the bank? It's this. You as individuals are temples of the indwelt Holy Spirit. And you carry the presence of God with you as we assemble for the shared purpose of honoring Christ. Do you understand that? Whether you feel it or you don't feel it. The great mystery of the New Testament, and we see this in Ephesians, is the church of God. This is how God wished to accomplish His will and carry His presence through the earth, through the assembled body of believers, through the church. So what does this have to do with identity? The knowledge of His presence in and among us, if we understand it, if we get it, that wow, God's presence dwells in me, and it dwells in Toby, and it dwells in Brother Horst, and Miss Angela, and together, God's presence dwells because when two or three are gathered, God is with us. If we know that's true, then it directs everything that we do. It directs our reverence for how we honor God. It directs our expectation of God's mighty works. Praise God for that. We focus a lot on churches about honoring God. But we're not confused. God does mighty works. And He loves to touch His people and do powerful... I mean, there's a church that believes in the continuation of the gifts. And so we know God does that, right? And so it impacts our expectation of God's mighty works. It impacts our attitude, and it impacts our heart posture of everything that we do. Why? Because when I walk through the door, I'm carrying the presence of God with me. That's the secret of the New Testament church. That's why it was such a mystery that the prophets of old longed to look into it. They didn't know how this was going to work. This is why Satan totally got duped when Jesus rose from the dead. He was clueless about this secret that God was putting together known as the church. And what happens when we have the right heart posture and we have reverence for the fact that we carry the presence of God with us as a community, then the unbeliever comes in and sees the love of God in action and says, I have encountered the presence of God through the people of God today. You see that? That's how a church grows. That's the primary way a church grows. Transform lives reflecting Jesus in His character and telling others about Jesus. Telling them with their words, telling them with their actions and their attitude. You see, Christ, His people, and His presence is what makes us a church. Nothing else. No one up here. No one playing the music. Listen, Toby and Jenny knock themselves out cleaning this church every week. It's not about that. It is about Christ, the body, and His presence. And with that, you have a fully functioning, healthy church. A blessed church in the body of believers. And that's what you are. This church is awesome. I hope you know that. I mean, I'm not saying that to be... I told you in the beginning. I wrestled with this message. I didn't want anyone to feel like I was trying to manipulate them. Because we're going through stuff, right? But there's not a person who comes to this church who doesn't say, oh my goodness, I love the people in your church. That's why the name got changed. The name that was chosen simply reflected the comments of every visitor and guest speaker that comes to this place. Why? Because people here... Again, look at the manor house. They have a desire to serve and to carry the presence of God with them in church, in the workplace, in everything they do and they assemble and they act like the body of Christ. That's what this place is. And it's beautiful. And so Paul, after talking about the temple, gives them a warning in verse 17. And I'm getting close to wrapping here. He gives them a warning in verse 17. He says, if anyone defiles the temple of God, so that's the church, whether it's an individual church or the large capital C church, God will destroy him. I wish that wasn't in there. But it says it. So the only way I can understand that is kind of like... And I like to think I'm a generally tempered person, you know, and it really gets me... You get aware of it and you take a deep breath before you do something totally stupid. Like you have to get really pushed really hard. Not that you won't lash out eventually, but you try to step on the level. Except if you mess with one of my kids or my wife. Then I will destroy you. You know? Why? Because they're everything. They're everything. That's why I get up in the morning when I don't want to. I try to make money. They're everything. Well, how do you think God thinks about His church? It's the same way. Church. Don't mess with God's church. There's a great blessing when you're a part of God's church and you bless God's church and then it's not good when you don't. When you proactively sow discord. And so, He says, if anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy. Which temple you are. Authentic life church. You're holy. You're set apart for God and His purposes. Jesus died on the cross for you and He doesn't want anyone messing that up. So consider the carefulness I think that's the right word with which the ancient Israelites handled the presence of God. Think about the Ark of the Covenant. They were so careful. Why? Because it was the presence of God. And they handled everything in such a prescriptive way there was a sense of awe and wonder about the presence of God. Imagine if you were an ancient Israelite. How would you feel if you walked up to the Ark of the Covenant? Wouldn't you have a sense of like, whoa, this is heavy. I'm not going to mess around with this. I'm grateful for it. Man, I'm blessed. The presence of God dwells with us. But whoa, it's God's presence. And then now, God says through the Apostle Paul, now you're the temple. Now you're the Ark. Now you're carrying the presence. It matters what we do and how we do it and how we reflect Christ. And it matters that no one would try to sow division or discord. Why? Because you're dealing with the presence of God. This is how we choose to do it in the New Testament. So let me just say this to you and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you in however it applies to your life. In this season, more than ever, work to build up the church. And be careful not to tear it down. Sometimes it's just better to be quiet if you're not sure. You know? Be gracious. We're all messes. I'll put myself on the front of the list. We're all messes. We just think someone else is a mess since that's not the mess we have. We think their mess is worse. This is different. Be gracious. Be forgiving. Be wronged if necessary. Christ was wronged unto death for the sake of His church. Be wronged if necessary. Thank you for listening to Elevate. We pray that this message encouraged, inspired, and challenged you. Authentic Life Church is located at 3750 Michael Boulevard in Mobile, Alabama. Visit our website, AuthenticLife.tv for more information about Authentic Life Church. To find out what we have going on or to make a donation, we'd love for you to join us on Sundays at 10 a.m. for our weekend service. We have excellent children's, nursery, and youth programs so bring the family. Thanks again for listening to Elevate and may God bless you.