Church Weekend at Home: Jesus Our Foundation

[0:00] It's who you are, the good, good father. It's who we are, beloved. Amen. Do please sit down. Note to self, make the puzzles a little bit easier next time.

[0:16] What I'd like those who have very kindly put the puzzles together is to come back please, or six people, to come back and hold them up with the picture facing the front please. Picture facing the front.

[0:54] I don't think these are in the right order. But we all recognise the picture. So that is us as a church. And as a church we are truth seeking.

[1:08] We are generous. We are faith filled. We are caring and connected.

[1:19] We are joyful. We are joyful. And we are inclusive. That's what we've been looking at in the past six weeks. That's what we are as a church.

[1:30] And if we aren't perfect in those things yet, it's what we're striving to be. Turn the pictures back around again please. And of course it is not the building that is joyful.

[1:42] It is not the building that is faith filled. It is not the building that is generous. And so on. It is the people who are the church who are those things.

[1:52] Thank you very much. You may now take your seats and I will not call you back again. Thank you. Can you show me the first slide please, Anne? Okay.

[2:06] This wasn't a Vox Pop quiz or anything. I didn't go out on the streets and mad people with my clipboard and ask what do you say about the church. These are just a few quotes.

[2:17] I'm not expecting anybody to know any of them. But I'll give the opportunity anyway just to have a think about each one. So what do people say about the church?

[2:28] Can I have the first? Next slide please, Anne. Where God built a church, there the devil would also build a chapel. Once people gather together, the devil doesn't like it.

[2:40] He tries to get in there to spoil things. Anybody, any ideas? Any volunteers of a person who might have said that? Once we think of the language. Someone a long time ago, yes.

[2:51] Okay. Do you want to show us, Anne? Martin Luther. Okay. Next quote. Church attendance is as vital to a disciple as a transfusion of rich, healthy blood is to a sick man.

[3:06] Any ideas? Sorry? A doctor, not a doctor. No, I don't think he was a doctor. From the language, this was also some time a long time ago. So, Anne, if you could. Martel Moody.

[3:17] Similar sort of era. Next one. You don't need to go to church to be a Christian. If you go to Taco Bell, that doesn't make you a taco. Anyone, any ideas?

[3:29] Sorry? No? Keith Green. Not Keith Green. Someone very, very world famous. Not Billy Graham. Much younger. Still alive.

[3:40] There's people who follow him who are almost called believers. Justin Bieber. Next one. There's nobody who doesn't have problems with the church.

[3:53] Because there's sin in the church. But there's no other place to be a Christian except the church. And are we feeling the truth of that a little bit at the moment? But there's no other place to be a Christian except the church.

[4:07] No? Okay, Anne. Eugene H. Peterson. He who wrote the Message Bible. And the last one, I think this is the last one. When it comes to my salvation, all I need is Jesus.

[4:20] After my salvation, everything is Jesus plus the church. When people preach that all you need is Jesus, they cut you and I off from one of the greatest sources of healing, which is the body of Christ.

[4:36] Don't go it alone. You won't make it. There's who it is, Anne. Josh McDowell. And I should have checked. Was he youth with a mission? No, he wasn't youth with a mission.

[4:46] He used to be a lawyer. We see some of the contradictions of being in a church, the place of Christ, but also can be the place of difficulty.

[4:59] But it's also the place of healing. More revision. Further back, we did a series on a particular theme.

[5:12] And I'm going to take the mic and stand down there and just write some things down as people call them out. And this may or may not work. So, I don't want you to shout out.

[5:27] I want you to stick your hand up and I will point at you in answer to this. So, a while back, we did a series on fruits of the spirit and the sort of fruits we should be bearing and the sort of people we should be becoming.

[5:43] And one person stick their hand up and give me one of the fruits of the spirit. Patience. Okay. Another brick. What I want you to do is I want you to put it on the red table.

[5:59] And I'm going to put another one on there. Because not everybody is patient. Some of the people in this church, at different times, we can be impatient.

[6:10] Someone else? Another fruit of the spirit, please. Yes. Joy. So, we believe people with joy in the church. So, if you come and put a brick, because we're building a church together. Unfortunately, we're not always joyful.

[6:26] Some of us can be miserable at times. Thank you. But we're always down about things. Saying, oh, that's not going to work. Oh, we've tried that before. Oh, that person's not very good at what they're doing.

[6:38] We've got nine to go through. Yes. Love. We need to build a church with love. Let's. Unfortunately, not everybody is loving.

[6:51] We're loving all the time. And sometimes, we can come across and do things, and we're a bit selfish in what we do. Sometimes, we find that people in the church are acting in a selfish way. Next.

[7:04] Kindness. Here's your brick for building the church. Unfortunately, we don't always show kindness to everyone. And sometimes, in our rush, in our impatience, in our concern for ourselves, we can be a bit rude.

[7:20] Next one. And then we're more than halfway through. Yes. Self-control. We need to build a church where people have learnt self-control.

[7:34] Unfortunately, not everybody is completely self-controlled at all times. I know I'm not. And we can end up doing things which are disruptive and cause problems.

[7:45] Gentleness. Ooh. Okay. More than halfway through. Gentleness. Yes. We need a church that has gentleness in it.

[7:57] Thank you. We're not always gentle in the way we talk to people. We can sometimes be a bit rough and a bit short with each other. And that sometimes creeps into the church.

[8:11] Nearly there. Nearly there. So, forgiving is not one of the fruits of the Spirit. Kindness. Someone has already said kindness. Peaceful.

[8:22] Peace. Yes. I put noisy, but peaceful. Possibly, we'd be better to put restless.

[8:34] Can't settle. Some people can't settle. They don't feel comfortable in their own skin. They haven't learnt the peace of God yet. Okay. How many have we got here? Seven.

[8:45] So, we have two more. Faithful. Yes. We definitely need a church of faithful people. We've learnt how to be a faithful church. Fortunately, not everybody is faithful.

[9:01] Some people are disloyal. They will talk against other people. They will try and undermine other people. And unfortunately, the church is a mixture of so many different things.

[9:11] We're learning that we need to be all of these. We need to learn not to be like this. And we know that with the Holy Spirit and our commitment to each other. As someone was saying yesterday, sometimes it's stone against stone, sharpening.

[9:27] Which can be uncomfortable. So, we have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Which one is missing? Goodness. Goodness me. Yes, indeed. The last one.

[9:37] Against which I have put self-centred. Which is different to being selfish.

[9:49] You can be self-centred without necessarily being selfish. You can be self-centred. You can do good things for other people. It's about making you look good. Which is a bit different to being selfish where it's all about wanting things for yourself.

[10:01] So, these are some of the attributes of the people that we need to build the church. And some of the attributes, unfortunately, creep in from time to time. Let's have a little think.

[10:12] A little bit more of a think. What other sort of people? Not so much qualities. What other sort of people do we need in the church? Serving-hearted. Yes.

[10:24] What other sort of people do we need in the church? We come up with three or four more. Energetic, yes. I'm thinking more of practical things now.

[10:36] Yeah, we need generous people in the church. We need sandwich makers. All right. I'll give you that. Sandwich makers. Yes. Or to broaden that out, people to help with the catering.

[10:48] They're thinking of those people with skills. What other sort of people might we need? Friendly. Yes. We need friendly people. Want to come and put a brick up?

[11:00] No? Yeah? What did Paul say that Jesus left as gifts to the church? People who could... What sort of people?

[11:11] Preachers? Teachers? Yes? What other sort of people? Apostles? I don't know if you heard Peter's little side there. Who's going to knock it down?

[11:22] Of course, the answer is I am. That's going to be me. Because I need to belong to a church, even if I don't think I do. And if sometimes I'm frustrated with the church, both at large and particular.

[11:35] I need to be a member of the church. A few weeks ago, when I was leading the service, I chose a song called, The Church is One Foundation. He's Jesus Christ our Lord.

[11:48] That is the church that we've built. With all the good and not so good things about us, making up the church. And if you like, this table is the foundation.

[12:01] Because it's underneath. It's underneath the foundations of the church. You could call that Jesus. And this might be overly dramatic. But if you take Jesus away, the whole thing collapses.

[12:16] Let's stand and sing our final song. This is Amazing Grace.