#196 Love the church you have not the church you want
God placed each one of us where we are at for a specific reason. If God does not want us to be where we are at, then we must seek out his will, and go where he might lead us. If we truly feel cold to be a part of our particular church, be as a congregate pastor or lay leader. We must make the choice to love the church. We have not the church we want.
The church we have is one filled with flawed people. Each one of us must acknowledge the ways in which we are still sinful in this life. The ways in which we are not living up to what God has for us. It is the saying of Paul from 1 Timothy 1:15, “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.” In the church, this means that each one of us is the worst part of the church. We must acknowledge the ways in which each, and every person in the church is better than us. We must give praise to God that he allows us to be a part of this community.
The church we might want Is one filled with perfect people. We all want to be part of the community of Christ. In many ways, we wish that it was just our family sitting in a room with Jesus each Sunday morning. Yet this is not how the church is set up in this world there is no church where it is just you and Christ. In fact, the church today is filled with sinners. If we want to be with Christ, we must be where Christ is at. Christ came to save the lost. Christ came for the sinners. We must go be at the place where Christ is at and follow his will.
More so than all of this, we must love the church. We must love the church because Christ loved the church. He came and died for the church. Do not love the church is to deny the death and resurrection of Christ. As we read in Ephesians 5:25, “Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her.” In this same passage, Paul makes much light of how we are to love the church like Christ. To love the church as a husband loves his wife. We are to love the church as our very own body.
The tendency today is to find a church where you feel at home. This is not necessarily wrong but is a flawed method of thinking. The first issue with this is that it does not put God’s will first it puts your own first. Secondly, it falls into the same trap as much of our culture falls into at times that we believe the chief end of life is to be happy rather than to serve God. If our Chief goal is to be happy then finding a church that feels like home is a logical step to take. And it is of course a good sign if you feel at home at your church. Yet God does not call us to be happy rather he calls us to serve him. God may be calling us to be a part of a church that makes us deeply uncomfortable. He may be calling us to be a part of a church that is deeply flawed. The Westminster shorter catechism says, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.” Our purpose is not to just be happy. The root of true happiness lies in glorifying God not in self-service.
Instead, we are to find a church that God wants us to be a part of. This follows the first and second Commandments of Christ. As Christ said in Matthew 22:37, “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” Therefore, the first commandment of God is to love him, and the second is like it is to love your neighbor as yourself. By loving God, we will go where he is. We will go where we feel his presence, where he is at work, where God directs our hearts, and where we are needed.
When we get where God wants us to be, we then follow the second commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves. We do not need to over complicate this; love looks like what we want and what is best for us. In a church setting love looks like forgiveness, giving the benefit of the doubt, brushing over minor issues, laughing and crying together, caring for one another needs.
I charge you this day, love the church that God has called you to. Love each and every person in that church.
