MAKE IT MAKE SENSE: WHAT IS THE CHURCH? | Joel Gorveatte

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And as we approach uh God's Word today, I just want you to think about this. We live in a world uh where several realities are true. And one of those realities is that we as human beings, we as people with free will, uh, who don't always uh use that will for the best uh uh of intentions, uh what's true is that we are capable of both great good and great evil at the same time. That we're human beings that have the potential for great good and to impact the world around us for good, and also to impact the world around us in harmful ways at the same time. And I want you to think about a layer deeper in that reality, uh, that many times the the thing or the resource that we would use to inflict harm intentionally or unintentionally, is not necessarily the issue is with the thing itself. Often it's with our understanding and engagement of that thing. Often when there's a situation, whether intentionally or unintentionally, that that we cause harm, that we inflict pain, that we bump into one another and impact each other in a negative way, it's not necessarily the thing itself. It's it's how the thing is understood and used that that can cause a negative impact. Now, some of you are saying that is so abstract and philosophical, and I'm still trying to wake up. Like, what in the world are you talking about? Uh let's make it a little more concrete and track together today. I get it, I get it. Uh think about this. Um my daughter, Thea, is about three and a half years old. I'll show you a cute family picture. They're way better looking than I am. And uh so I uh intentionally left myself out of the photo. We're on the way home from a couple uh from Journey that we're having dinner with their house, and they're about 20-minute drive away. And it was that time of night that, you know, um kids just start acting uh unsaved, we'll say. You start to see the depravity of kids, but like after 7:45 p.m., right, there's just something uh they start to turn into pumpkins or werewolves. I don't know what happens, but something physiologically changes, and we were past that threshold getting ready uh to drive home. And we're about five minutes out uh from from the from leaving their house. We're five minutes into this 20 or so minute drive, and Thea starts to ask for something. I think she was asking for for one of her phones, which we said, no, you don't you don't need a phone right now. And there were some other requests made, and you know, things just start to escalate, right? It's like one no after another. And finally she she's so frustrated, she takes the book that she was holding and she chucks it across the backseat towards her brother. And literally, I see it in the mirror, uh back mirror of the car, and I see it literally like grazed his nose. Like I think it took like a little hair off his nose. Like, and I was like, what in the world, Thea? Like, what were you thinking? The third part that made it even better was I think it was like a bedtime prayers book uh that she was now using as like a semi-lethal weapon. And uh she just chucks it at her baby brother in this moment of rage. Now, the issue in that moment was not the book. Right? The issue was not, man, that we shouldn't have that book in the garden. The issue was how the book was used, how the book was implemented, how she understanded and engaged the book in that moment as a weapon to inflict harm. Uh, let's think about a little bit more broadly than that. Think about something like power. Power. Or you could use the word authority. Power and authority in and of itself is not negative. It's not not detrimental, it's not harmful, but power and authority, how many know, can be used in a way that inflicts harm. Whether it's political power or social influence, even in a religious type context, those things can be used to inflict harm. They can be used inappropriately. That's why we call it abuse, right? It's a it's a misuse of power. Think about one more example, two letters uh that many of us didn't think were ever a thing growing up, two letters that maybe caused you a little bit of anxiety, two letters that we interact with in some form every day, the two letters of AI, artificial intelligence. Most uses of AI on their own are neutral. It's a neutral playing ground, but they can be used for harm. They can be used to inflict harm on ourselves, they can be used for detrimental purposes in our world. These things in and of themselves, whether it's Thea's book or whether it's power or whether it's something as big and sweeping and pervasive as AI, in and of themselves, are they bad? Probably not, but their understanding and the use of those things can cause, can cause harm to ourselves, to other people. At worst, they're misused, and at worst, they cause harm in the lives of other people. These things. We're gonna have a look into a group of Jesus followers in the New Testament today in the city of Corinth. The city of Corinth. And Corinth is about 50 miles west of Athens, Greece. Corinth was this influential city in the first century. Corinth was this place where Paul had spent time. The Apostle Paul had launched up leaders, he had loved these people, he had spent time around here. He cycled through this city in his missionary journeys. And Paul writes to this church because something is not going super well in Corinth. Paul catches wind that things are not as they should be in Corinth. And catch this Paul catches wind that something that should be for their good and for the good of other people is being used and misunderstood in a way that is causing harm. In a way that is inflicting actually damage when it should be for people's benefit. And Paul catches wind, he hears reports of that scene's like, guys, you're missing the mark. You're both misunderstanding this thing and you're misusing this thing. And he writes to them this pointed letter, this pointed address to correct these things. And I wonder if Paul was a leader, was a church planner, was an influencer in the United States, maybe even in the Midwest, maybe even in West Michigan, would he write a similar letter to us? Would he address a similar theme to our direction? Would he have this message echo not just to all believers and all times, but would he have it specifically addressed and wanted to echo to us today? And what Paul addresses, what he talks about both to the Corinthians and what we'll receive and hear today, he writes to them about themselves. He writes to them about the church. Like the gathering of the people of God. And what he would write to us, what he would want us to hear is about ourselves. Those of us who call ourselves members, participants, part of the church. What he writes about is this church. And we've been in this collection of messages just addressing a question each week under this theme of make it make sense. And today the question we'll wrestle with as we engage Paul's letter is this What is the church? What is the church? If you're a note taker, uh your subtitle could be What is the Church and Why Bother with it? Why bother? What should be what is the church and what should be my relationship to the church? And I want to take you to the words of Paul, and what we'll see is what the church isn't and what the church is, and and then we'll walk through three postures, three orientations, three relationships we can have with the church. What the church isn't, what the church is, and three postures we can find ourselves in today as it relates to when it comes to the church. I want to take you to the words of Paul, 1 Corinthians 11, starting in verse 17. He's covered some ground up until this point, and he's continuing his letter to the Corinthians. He says, This, in the following directives, I have no praise for you. Just so you know, guys, we're gonna wade into some content. We're gonna wade into some directives that are a little bit hard to hear. I like that Paul gets them a warm-up for this. Then he says, This, for your meetings do more harm than good. In the following directives, I have no praise for you. Paul's about to walk into several different themes addressing it, one of which is what we actually partook in today. He talks about the Lord's Supper, he talks about things like marriage, he talks about their worship, their gathering together. And Paul's saying, guys, I don't have a lot of compliments for you in this part of my letter. I don't have a lot of praise. And then he says, For your meetings do more harm than good. And if you're like me, you're asking, what in the world are they doing? Right? What are they getting wrong? Are they worshiping idols? Are they throwing parties? What are they doing when they're meeting together? And look what he addresses first. He says, in the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you. When you come together as a church, when you come together as a local body of Jesus Global Church, what is true about your gatherings, part of how they are harming you and other people is that there are divisions among you. And here's what's true about the divisions. The divisions were not all that they didn't look all the same. Their divisions weren't that they had different preferences, their divisions weren't that they liked certain styles of music and maybe didn't care for certain styles of music, maybe you didn't care for one of the songs today. It wasn't one of those things. What Paul is getting at is this hey, Corinthians, you have the right practice, but you have the wrong posture. He said you have a motivation problem. You have a posture issue, how you're coming together. You are coming together, you have the right practice, but the nature of your meetings, the the things that you're doing when you come together, the the motivations, the the ambitions of your heart, the goal, the orientation, the posture you are bringing to those are actually causing you harm and causing other people harm. And today I want to walk through a couple of postures that we can find ourselves in, that most of the time are subtle, that most of the time they're gradual, they they form, they happen over time, but we can find ourselves in some mindsets, in some postures that create division, that create a letter like Paul would write to people like us. I want to walk through two postures in these moments and a third a little bit later. Posture number one is this we can find ourselves in this posture of the critic. The critic. You can read in Paul's letter, there are there are people uh who have certain opinions, who have certain preferences, and it's kind of like their way is the highway. It's like my way or the highway. That's the mentality, and that's the mentality of the critic. And it's sometimes the critical posture is is overt and loud, and sometimes it's subtle and hidden and a little bit behind the scenes. But here's what happens with the critical posture is when there is suspicion or criticism about people, things, and motives. When we have a suspicion or a critique of a question about people, things, and motive, uh the posture of the critic in any scenario, but even in a church scenario, assumes that it's their responsibility for being the judge of right or wrong for everything and everyone. I I don't know if you ever met somebody, I'm sure it's not you, that you just have the right, like it's your, it's your perspective, it's your way, and and they're the judge. They're somehow the objective standard for everything and everyone. This is the the posture of the critic. There's usually a scorecard, there's a there's a rating, there's a posture of the critic. How is that church? How was that church you visited? How was journey today? Uh the worship was about an eight out of ten, the message was about a seven out of ten, the length was about a six and a half out of ten, and the coffee is about an eight out of ten. Right? And we might not say it that way, but but sometimes in our in our in our motivations, in in what we're looking for, we can approach things with a posture of the critic. Now, how can this harm ourselves in other people? Well, one, when I put myself as the critic, I am by nature creating a barrier between me and that thing I'm critiquing. Right? Because if I was a part of it, then I'd be critiquing myself, and we don't do that. Right? I don't want to give myself negative feedback, right? So when I critique something, when I critique a group of people, when I critique uh the church, when I critique whatever it is, I'm I'm putting a barrier between myself and that thing. I'm objectifying that thing. So I'm making a judgment, I make a critique about that. Uh, it also can harm us because I can't criticize something and benefit it from this at the same time. I can't criticize something and benefit from that thing at the same time. You could say it this way: it's hard to have open hands to receive when I'm too busy keeping score. It's hard to have open hands to benefit, to to receive, to be part of something when my goal is, when my orientation, when my posture is the critic. It's a little bit more intuitive how that can be harmful for for other people, right? Because when when we criticize something, we see people through the lens of what they are not. The lens of they're not there yet. We see we see faults first, not potential first. We see people as what they are not instead of what they are and what they could be, both individuals and groups of people. And it can be subtle and it can be gradual, but even in places like this, is I've been there. We can have a posture of the critic. Posture number two is the posture of the consumer. The consumer. And the consumer, it's a little bit more engaged than the critic. Like if you think about the critic, they're they're in the cheap seats, right? They're they're they're back a little bit, they're a little bit removed and kind of making judgments, taking score, taking inventory. The consumer is engaged in the person. The consumer is engaged in the thing, but the motivation, the posture is what I can get, right? What I can consume, what I can benefit from. It's my preferences, it's my convenience. And this is hard because we live in a world that is hardwired, is designed for your consumption. Even if you don't feel like, I don't, most days I don't feel like an overly greedy, consumeristic person. But even in the subtleties of life, in the little decisions, in the little motivations, our culture, our world is bent on me consuming. That's why, that's why the demonic thing called YouTube ads exists. Right? That's why you're plagued with YouTube ads when you're just trying to watch your vlog, you're just trying to watch your DIY video, and you keep getting these ads. Why? Because they want you to consume. It's a consumption engine. And a consumer-only mindset can be harmful to ourselves and to other people. Think about this is not so much of a thing with internet shopping, all those things, but think about Black Friday.

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We're getting into fall, we're getting, we're getting closer and closer to full-on fall and Thanksgiving and all those things. But think about Black Friday. Think about some of the headlines, some of the images you've seen, I'm sure it's not been you, but of other people. When it comes to Good Friday, there is something about Good Friday. There is something about a deal that returns us to a primal state of hunter and gatherer. Right? Like everything and everyone, there's just an obstacle in my way of getting this 65% off grill, right? I'm gonna get, I'm gonna get that pair of shoes, right? And now it's a little more subtle because we do it from our laptops. But we have the same anxiety, we have the same thing. Is it gonna run out, right? Oh my gosh, it's back ordered. No, I was too late, right? I should have stayed up till midnight. Right? There's something, there's something about a day, there's something about a culture that focuses in on consumption only, that makes us less than human. Makes you and you a barrier to what I want and what I think I need. This can be the consumer posture, and it can even be the consumer posture for those of us who follow Jesus. For those of us that I'm part of this church, I'm a part of this thing called the church, we can find ourselves gradually, subtly over time with a consumer with consumer posture. In both the critic posture and the consumer posture, they cause harm to ourselves and other people. They're like what Paul says, like, we can do more harm than good. If that is my primary posture, if that is my primary approach to a place like this, I can actually be an agent of harm more than I'm an agent of good. And Paul just says, hey, watch out for this. You have the right practice, but you have the wrong posture. Some of us were here today, and you've been on the receiving end. You've been the one harmed by a posture like that. And for some of us, that harm was caused unintentionally. Someone didn't mean it, someone didn't even know that that's what they were living in, and they they impacted you in a negative way. Some of us, we have stories, we have real hurts, and I know some of them, I don't know all of them, about people that that it was all about them. It was their way, the highway, and it was even in a spiritual context, and that caused harm. And I'm I'm sorry that happened. It's not how it should be. And you know firsthand how those mindsets, how those postures can actually harm people in real ways and harm groups of people in real ways, whether it was from a leader or a group or just a dysfunctional environment, you know firsthand that can cause more harm than good. And they miss the mark. Both the critic and the consumer miss the mark. Why? Because the church is not an event and it's not a product. The church isn't an event or product. If it were, then critics and consumers would should be the norm. Right? Because when I go to an event, I'm evaluating things. I'm not paying $50 to go to a concert because I'm a benevolent human being. Right? I'm paying $50 for a concert because I want to get something. I want to be entertained, I want to hear that song, I want to hear that performance, I want to see that comedy show, right? If the church were an event, the the critic and the consumer would be welcome. But the the church is an event and it's not a product. It's not a product. The church is not an event or a product. It's not an event to be critiqued, and it's not a product to be consumed. The church is way bigger and broader and messier. And more full of potential than that. The church is not a vendor product. So let's return to the question what is the church? What is the church? Maybe you're here today and you're not a Jesus follower. I hope today is really helpful and enlightening for you. Maybe you're new to this whole Jesus follower thing. I hope today is enlightening and helpful for you. Maybe you're here and you've been following Jesus longer than I've been alive. I hope today is a reminder and a motivator and an encourager for what the church is. I want to start with the words of Jesus. What is the church? Jesus said this in Matthew 16, 18, that I will build my church. I will build my church. And when he was talking about that, he wasn't talking about in a specific community, in a specific building, specific address. Jesus was saying, I'm going to build a group of people that's going to literally span the globe. And it's going to be my church. I am building a capital C church. And he started with his disciples, but he did not end with his disciples. And it does not end with us. Jesus said, I will build my church. And when he says church, that word is ecclesia. Ecclesia. It's actually a borrowed term from the social setting of those times that meant assembly or gathering. They would gather in these ecclesias and they would agree around a policy. They would agree around a decision that was to be made. They would gather, they would assemble for a purpose, and then they would go from the place to live out that purpose. And Jesus says, I will build my church. I will build my ecclesia, my assembly or gathering. Not an event or a product, but an assembly, a gathering of people, of people that will span demographics, that'll span interests, that'll span preferences. I will build my church. And in the New Testament, you can see all kinds of different words that are used for the word church. There's the people of God, there's his temple or his house. There's the family of God, the family of believers. There's all these different pictures, there's all these different, almost like a diamond, right? There's almost these all these different faces of what the church is, of what Jesus was building when he said, I will build my church. But what Paul uses to the Corinthians, what Paul addresses to the Corinthians is a very specific image, and he does it on the heels of the words we just read. He does it as he addresses the division, as he addresses the harm that is happening both in themselves and to other people. And look what the Apostle Paul uses as this image. A body, though one has many parts, many expressions, many functions, many unique parts, but all its many parts form one body. So it is with Christ. He uses the image of a body. And again, he's addressing the division, he's addressing the posture, and to do it, he gives them a correct image of this is what the church is. And what he's saying, the church isn't an event or a product, it's a body. It is a body. This is the image, this is the window into this reality of the church that he gives them and he gives to us today. This is the thing that Jesus is interested in building. It's a body. A body. What exactly does that look like for us, for people that would follow Jesus? I want to walk through five things of what is true about this body. What is true about the body of Jesus? What is true about this body called the church? Number one, the body, it's a body that is imperfect. Just like your body and just like my body. Right? There are imperfections. The church is an imperfect body that aims to represent a perfect Savior. The church is not perfect, should never claim to be perfect. Only Jesus is perfect. The church, it's an imperfect body. The church isn't perfect because I'm in it. The church isn't perfect because you're in it. Right? We are imperfect. We are the body of Christ, the body of Jesus followers, the body of believers. We are the church, but it's a body that is imperfect. Here's what's beautiful about that: it's it's a body that is imperfect, but it's still a body that Jesus moves in. Jesus uses imperfect things. He uses imperfect people, he uses imperfect groups to move in. We don't gather on Sundays to hear what I have to say, to hear what I care about what you have to say, but not fully. We gather because Jesus loves to move in and through his people. What I'm looking for in a Sunday is is I'm coming to meet with Jesus, with his people. And Jesus loves to use you, he loves to use me as his vessels, as his conduits, but but Jesus moves in his body. Look what Paul says earlier in his letter to the Corinthians. Don't you know that you yourselves, the people of God, the body of Jesus, are God's temple? Like the physical limitation that God had expressed himself in is no longer a thing. You yourselves are God's temple. And God's spirit, he dwells in your midst. When you gather with people for a meal, when you gather with a small group, when you gather with the ministry ministry team, God's presence is in your midst. Would we be a place where people come? Where I come, where you come, where those who don't follow Jesus yet come and say, I don't know, but I think Jesus is there. I don't know, but there's like a presence, there's like a vibe, you know. And it's not a vibe. That's not the goal. The goal is would it be a temple? Would it be a house? Would it be a place where Jesus moves in? It's a body that is imperfect, it's a body that Jesus moves in. It's a body that Jesus moves through. It's a body that Jesus moves through. It's a body with a mission. It's a body with a cause. It's a body that should, like our bodies do, move and move out from just Jesus moving into Jesus moving through. It's a body with a mission to represent, to show Jesus to the world. Look at this quote, uh, who's like many quotes attributed to about 14 different people. Powerful quote that's that's been been around for hundreds of years. It says this Christ has no body now on earth but yours. No hands, no feet on or on earth, but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks with compassion on this world. Yours are the feet through which he walks to do good. Yo are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Jesus came in a body for 33 years and he ascended. He returned to the Father. And now the only physical body he moves through on the earth is yours and is mine. We we are the expression, maybe you heard it, right? The hand, the hands, the feet of Jesus. He loves to move through his body. It's an imperfect body, it's a body that Jesus moves in, it's a body that he moves through. And let's get a little more personal. It's a body that needs you. It's a body that needs you. Some of y'all don't believe me yet. It's a body that needs you. Look what the apostle Paul says. He said, now you, you, all of you together form this one body of Christ. You are the body of Christ, and each one of you is part of it. If you're a Jesus follower, you are part of the body. If you follow Jesus, if he is your Lord, the body needs you. You're part of, you're part of the body. The body needs your story. The body needs your gifts. The body needs your faith. The body needs your time. The body needs your energy. The body needs your your prayer and your devotion. The body needs you. It's a body that Jesus moves in and through, and it's a body that needs you. Each one is part of it, and it's a body that you need. It's a body not that just needs you, but it's a body that you need. Look what Paul says. He fleshes this out again. The I cannot say to the hand, I don't need you. Right? That's me if I'm a Jesus follower and say, I don't need. I may go to church, I might have a church that I call home, but I don't, I don't really need it at the end of the day. The I cannot say to the hand, I don't need you. And the head cannot say to the feet, I don't need you. Imagine if you just woke up one day and said, I don't think I'm gonna use my hands today. It's just good, it's like a it's a Tuesday, it's kind of a no-hands day, and I just we'd never, we'd never say that. But we can fall into a posture that says, I don't, I'm, I maybe a part of that place, but I don't really, I'm not that needy. I can kind of do this faith walk on my own. It's a body that needs you, but it's a body that you need. It's a body that I need. I I need the church. I need, I need the body. We need it in good seasons and hard seasons and high seasons and low seasons, and there is part of Jesus, there are parts of following Jesus that he is buried in other people for you to experience. There's part of the reality of following Jesus that you will never step into detached from the body. It's a body that needs you, and it's a body that you need. It's not an event, not a product, it's a body that Jesus builds and moves in and through, and it's imperfect, but but it needs me, it needs you. And when we start to see that, we start to be reminded of that posture, it's very easy for the critic posture and the consumer posture to feel a little out of context then. Like if that's really what it is, then I don't fully think that's the way to engage us. So what's the right, what's the right way? What's the more accurate way to both see the church correctly and then use it, not misuse it, but but use and engage a place like this, the body of Christ. And it's the third posture of the contributor. The contributor. The contributor says this that the church is an event to attend or a product to consume. It's a place, it's a body to contribute to. The contributor says, I need this place, and this place needs me. I need these people, and these people need me. I need this gathering, and this gathering needs me. I need this group, and this group needs me. It's a body that says, I need it, and it needs me. It's the young mom with the busy schedule that prioritizes walking in Jesus-centered relationships and not just walking in them herself, but helping other people around her walk in them as well. It's saying, I need this body, and I realize I can be part of other people experiencing the body. It's the retired couple who sees their season, their new, their new uh freedom, uh, schedule-wise and time-wise, not to just check out and veg and disappear, but to actually engage in a next level way in people around them. It's saying, I I need, I need this, and this people, this group, these people, this place needs me. I need the body and it needs me. It's the successful salesperson who generously tithes and faithfully tithes and gives above the tithe because it's one, it's part of surrendering to Jesus, a living surrender to Jesus, but also of being used by him in a tangible way to move in and through his church, is saying, I need this body, and this body needs me. It's this mindset, it's this contributor posture, not an event, not a product, but a body that I need it in and it needs me to be a contributor. And church, those five things are true of us. We are imperfect, but we're a body, we're we're a place, we're a people that Jesus wants to move in and he wants to move through. And Journey needs you, and you need a place like Journey to walk out the journey of faith, to grow with Jesus, to use your gifts, to be part of people who are following Jesus and helping other people follow Jesus. It's the mindset of the contributor. And I just want to ask you today, how's your posture? How is my posture? If I were to fill in and find myself in one of those, the critic, the consumer, or the contributor, where where am I landing in this season? How do I see a place like this? How do I see how I'm engaging at a place like this? How's your posture? And number two, what's your next step? What's your next step? What's your next is it getting engaged? Is it being faithful and consistent and coming to a place like this? Is it giving? Is it serving? Is it stepping up in leadership? Is it inviting someone else to jump in with you? Is it joining a small group? I don't I don't know what it is for you. But how's your posture? How's how's my posture? How am I seeing the body that Jesus wants to move in and through? And and what's my next step?