As you know, I am Lebanese by birth.
I grew up in Beirut, Lebanon, and came to this country
as a student to study in college.
I remember a very early experience
as a foreigner. I've been
naturalized since then, and I've served two years in the army during the
Vietnam era, so I am a naturalized citizen. But I remember
when I first came, some of my friends
wanted me to go to a baseball game. You realize
that in Lebanon, all that we saw was soccer. Soccer was
the only thing. And so if I went to a soccer
game, I knew what to expect. If I went to a concert,
I'd know what to expect. If I went to a library, I know what to
expect. But they took me to a baseball
game, and I had no idea what on earth
was happening. I mean, I was completely
lost. I mean,
I had no idea.
What are the rules? What are they trying
to accomplish? Why are they doing this?
Why aren't they doing that?
I had no idea.
Some of you may
feel the same way about church.
That is,
you know what to expect in a library,
you know what to expect in a movie theater,
you know what to expect in a concert,
you know what to expect in a class at school.
But what is it that happens in church?
What is church all about?
I also remember the first time I flew
in an airplane
from Lebanon to New York.
I had read about New York
and tried to learn something about the city,
but as we flew over it,
it dawned on me what New York was like.
So there is the Empire State Building,
and there is the Statue of Liberty,
and there is the Rockefeller Center.
And in the airplane,
because we were flying high,
we could see the larger picture.
Not just one block,
but the larger picture.
So what I'm going to do this morning,
Lord willing,
is to give you the larger picture,
a really big picture
of what this church is about.
So if you take out your bulletins at the back,
I wrote some things,
so hopefully you'll be able to follow
what I'm doing.
Ask yourself,
during a typical week,
what different activities happen in this place?
I mean, there are people who shovel snow,
there are people who unlock doors,
there are people who empty garbage cans,
there are people who cook food
for Sunday morning,
there are people who are greeters,
people who take the offering,
people who clean up at the end of the service.
How many activities and tasks take place
in a place like this during the week?
Over 50 activities.
Over 50.
And sometimes maybe one or two persons
do most of the work,
and sometimes if you're in a big church,
you could hire a larger staff.
But there are all these activities to do.
And of course,
if I gave you a list
of 50 things,
most of us wouldn't be able to remember.
They need to be somehow organized
or reflect some sense of order
to remember the 50,
but just an arbitrary list
of 50 people,
it's hard to do,
it's hard to remember.
So what has happened in the church
is that as we have been reflecting on this
for 2,000 years,
several approaches have been done,
and I want to walk you through some of them.
So if you say to yourself,
I can't remember all 50 activities,
is there some other way to organize the data?
Yes, there is.
One way of looking at it
is to ask yourself,
how does the New Testament
describe the church?
And there is no simple answer.
There is a scholar
by the name of Paul Meniere
who did the research for that.
He was paid by Yale University to do it.
And in a book called
New Testament Images of the Church,
he found out that the New Testament
describes the church
in 95 different ways.
95 different ways
of describing the church.
Well, I mean,
if memorizing 50 is bad,
memorizing 95 is a little bit more challenge.
So he asked himself,
can we organize,
can we group things together,
can we put them in different boxes?
And he came up with six very important ways
of looking at the church.
The church is the people of God.
The church is the flock of God.
The church is the temple of God.
The church are the called out ones,
the saints of God.
The church is the body of Christ.
The church is the bride of Christ.
So if I am thinking about the church
and I think to myself,
we are the body of Christ,
then the next thing I should ask myself,
well, what does that entail?
Well, a couple things for sure.
That we are different.
That there is diversity.
We're not all ears.
We're not all eyes.
I mean, be the weirdest looking body
if you had nothing but eyes everywhere.
You know, we're not all feet.
We're not all hands.
We reflect enormous diversity
and that we need each other.
If you don't believe me,
try to feed yourself through your ear
this afternoon.
You know, see how the cake goes down,
if it will.
We are diverse.
So we look at these various images
and we ask ourselves,
what is the church
and what activity goes with these metaphors
and pictures of the church?
There was a teacher
who was very, very influential.
Almost everybody who studied with her
became professors
in some important Christian universities.
Now, she had students
who were all single
and they were all studying Christian ministry
and they were all preparing
for the pastorate.
So this mean teacher
used to look at them
and used to say,
remember your wife.
Now, you can take that
in one of two ways.
One way it means
if you are single,
if you are single
and you graduate
and you think you're going to get a job
as a single pastor,
forget about it.
Unless you're married,
nobody is going to hire you.
So remember your wife meant
better start dating,
you know,
improve your prayer life,
ask God to bring Rebecca
into your existence.
because if you're single,
you're not going to be employed.
Churches are not looking for single youth pastors
or senior pastors
or lead pastors.
Well, that's not what she meant
with remember your wife.
I'm so delighted
that some of my friends
here at this church
who are either already pastors
or pastors in training
or hoping to become pastors,
I'm so glad that you're all married.
I mean, you know,
that's one prayer list.
I mean, I have to pray for you
in some other way
but not for that one at least.
You have lightened my burden.
But when she said,
remember your wife,
she really meant something else.
She said,
she is saying,
have a healthy church.
Look,
my doctor told me,
either you lose weight
or you're flirting with diabetes.
So the last few months,
I have been trying to lose weight
and I lost 31 pounds.
I won't tell you
how many I've regained
but I have lost 31.
And sometimes
when I become ambitious
or panic,
I think to myself,
the only thing I'm going to eat
is cauliflower.
You know,
eat 40 months,
morning,
lunch,
noon,
dinner,
cauliflower.
And then the doctor says,
come on, Samir,
we want balanced meal.
You know,
cereal,
meat,
you know.
So,
he wants me to lose weight
but do it in a balanced way,
not just broccoli and cauliflower.
She was saying to her students,
if you're going to become pastors,
then have a healthy church,
not a distorted church,
a church out of whack.
And the word that she used was wife.
W-I-F-E.
W,
worship,
I,
instruction,
F,
fellowship,
E,
evangelism.
It is not healthy to go to a church
that the only thing they ever do
is evangelism.
Now,
I am all for evangelism.
The Lord told us to do evangelism.
But he didn't say only evangelism
and nothing else.
That is not healthy.
Or just fellowship.
That's not healthy either.
Or just Sunday school.
Or just worship.
It is a combination of all four.
And so she was saying to her students,
have a healthy, balanced church.
Not some distorted church
with only one activity.
So remember your wife.
She was extremely influential.
Her students are basically my generation
and we have occupied
every important position
in Christian colleges.
But
somebody noticed
that looking at wife
that
the idea of discipleship
is missing.
So where does discipleship go?
Well, you could try to find another word.
You know,
with five letters.
Since I love languages,
I came with a simple solution.
Make the word wife
a verb
rather than a noun.
And then we have
I wifed,
you wifed,
he, she, it wifed,
you wifed,
they wifed,
we wifed.
And we've solved the problem.
Regrettably,
nobody follows my instructions.
God hasn't given
the gift of wisdom
to the rest of people
that he has given me.
So nobody used wifed.
And,
consequently,
people continue to argue
in academic circles,
in my circles.
What is discipleship?
And some think,
well,
discipleship is a product.
Make disciples,
Jesus says.
Some say,
look,
discipleship is a fifth activity.
She left it out,
we put it back in.
And that's what it is.
It's an activity.
I know how to praise,
I know how to disciple.
And then,
some have thought
that maybe discipleship
is a style
of doing things.
I understand lectures,
seminar discussions,
paper presentations,
skits.
There are various ways
of teaching,
and maybe discipleship
is a style of teaching.
Well,
she never addressed
that issue,
but I did want
to bring it up
because discipleship
is important.
And if you want to know
whether discipleship
is one of the things
those three
or all three of them
or et cetera,
I have my wonderful friend,
Billy Nye,
who's an expert
at these things
and corner him
and,
but go gentle,
you know.
Go gentle.
Another way
to look at it
is to ask yourself,
when we do
all these activities,
who is the recipient
of these activities?
Who is our target?
And there are
three targets.
God,
believers,
and the world.
God,
believers,
and the world.
So you can take
something like wife
and say,
worship,
where does that?
To whom is
worship directed at?
Certainly not the world,
heaven forbid.
And certainly not us,
we're not worshipping,
we're not that conceited,
you know,
or grand,
you know.
worship belongs to God.
So,
in trying to think
of what we do,
when it comes to God,
there are two
main activities.
The first one
is to worship God.
When we come to church,
we are here
to worship God.
I was just so delighted,
I was just so
completely delighted
that two of the songs,
I don't mean only two,
but at least two of them
clearly,
helped us think about
praising God
and worshiping him.
that's just appropriate,
that's the right
thing to do.
This is not a restaurant,
this is a church.
And we worship God.
The other major activity
is the greatest commandment.
What shall I do?
Love the Lord your God
with all of your heart.
And Jesus says,
if you love me,
keep my commandments.
So when I come to church,
the least minimum
I expect
is that
I'll have a chance
to worship God
and I have a chance
to say,
Lord,
I really love you,
but you loved me first
and you've,
you know,
you have raised me
from the dead.
You have shown your light
on my life.
I really thank you
for that
and I'm grateful
and I'm learning
to love you.
That is bare minimum.
This is bare minimum.
Now,
we can be mediocre.
I was going to say McDonald's.
I'm sorry.
I don't mean to offend anybody.
We can be mediocre
or we can be good,
but we need to love God
and worship God.
We need to love God.
That is our primary activity
toward God.
So what does it,
what is it for believers?
Well,
English translations use
three different words in English,
but they all mean the same thing.
To strengthen
or
to
edify
or
to build up
and these are all
basically meaning
the same thing.
When we get together,
we are trying
to
edify each other,
strengthen each other,
build each other up
in the faith
and there are numerous
places in the Bible
that says so.
So how do we do that?
How do we edify?
What kind of activities
go on in a church
that are designed
to build up each other,
to strengthen each other?
Discipleship,
clearly,
fellowship,
teaching,
learning to lead
holy lives?
These are all
activities that are
aimed at
believers.
God doesn't need
to be holy.
I need to be holy.
And so
these activities
are designed
to
help
us
grow
so we can be
healthy
rather than
sick and weak.
and what
activity
is
aimed at
the world.
Traditionally,
if you read
about, you know,
100 years ago
textbooks,
they would say
evangelism
and missions
and you
evangelize
in your own
culture
and you do
missions
in
somebody else's
culture.
So if I am
witnessing to
an Arab,
because I'm
an Arab,
I am
evangelizing,
but if I am
witnessing to
a Chinese,
since I'm
not Chinese,
I am
doing missionary
work.
Well, it may
be helpful to
think of it
as outreach.
We are
reaching out
to the world.
Whether they
speak our
language or
don't speak our
language,
it doesn't
matter.
Whether we
are using
English or
a different
language,
that doesn't
matter.
What matters
is that we
are reaching
out to the
world.
and how
do we
reach out
to the
world?
By
proclaiming
the gospel
and by
showing acts
of kindness
and mercy.
Jesus
says in
Matthew 5
16 that
we are the
light of the
world and
they will
see our
good works
and glorify
our Father
in heaven.
So it
is worship,
edification,
and outreach.
Let me
try to
make this
manageable.
Here is a
passage that
does a good
job summarizing
what I'm
saying.
The reason
I haven't
stuck to one
passage is
because I've
wanted you to
see all of
Chicago,
all of the
forests,
not just one
tree.
But here is a
fabulous passage.
It's really
fabulous.
It's
fabulous.
New Testament
authors are
just brilliant.
You know,
they're just
fantastic.
I read it
and I think,
gosh, how
can anybody
be so smart?
Well, the
Holy Spirit,
obviously.
So, look
at Hebrews
13, 15.
If you have
a pencil,
jot down
13, 15
somewhere.
And then
13, 16.
So, in
Hebrews 13,
15,
through Jesus,
therefore,
let us
continually
offer to
God a
sacrifice of
praise,
the fruit
of our
lips that
confess his
name.
Let us
offer to
God the
sacrifice of
praise.
If you're
not sure
what praise
is, let
me recommend
a passage
for you.
The last
five psalms,
Psalms 146,
147,
148,
149,
and 150,
those last
five psalms,
every one
of them
begins in
Hebrew with
praise the
Lord, and
every one of
them ends
with praise
the Lord.
Five psalms,
five times.
And, of
course, praise
the Lord in
Hebrew is
hallelujah.
So, it
begins hallelujah,
and then a
discussion of
praise, and
then hallelujah.
Again,
hallelujah,
hallelujah.
So, in
case you're
wondering, oh,
what is
praise like?
Here are
five psalms
to start
thinking about
that.
And so,
the author of
Hebrews is
saying, when
it comes to
God, let
us offer
to God a
sacrifice of
praise, the
fruit of
lips that
confess his
name.
And then
verse 16,
and don't
forget to
do good and
to share with
others.
In the
first one,
we're offering
God.
In the
second one,
verse 16,
it is to
do good and
to share
with others.
For with
such sacrifices
God is
pleased.
Notice he
calls praise
sacrifice, and
he calls
doing good and
sharing with
others sacrifice.
It's the same
word.
That is an
act of
sacrifice, and
this is an
act of
sacrifice.
But one is
directed at
God, the
other one is
directed at
people.
So do
good and
share with
others.
I don't
think that,
I personally
don't think
that giving
somebody a
ride to
O'Hare is
a spiritual
sacrifice.
Maybe I
don't think
so, but
God thinks
so.
God bless
my next
door neighbor.
He has a
huge snow
blower.
I have
poor muscles
who are
getting weaker
as I lose
more and
more weight.
And when
it snows, he
clears, everybody
is on the
block, including
my driveway.
He is doing
good.
He is sharing
his lawnmower,
not lawnmower,
snowblower,
sorry, snowblower
with me.
He's being
kind to me.
But I want
you to think
deeper about
this passage.
Think this.
We praise
God, that's
an activity
directed at
God.
We share
and do
good, and
that's activity
directed at
people.
What is
behind God
and people?
The two
greatest
commandments.
Love God
and love
your neighbor.
So maybe
one way
I show
God that
I love
him is
by praising
him.
And maybe
one way
I show
my neighbor
that I love
him by
sharing and
doing good.
So we
minister to
God with
praise.
We minister
to each
other with
encouragement,
edification,
building up,
strengthening,
and we
minister to
the world
through our
outreach,
through our
good acts,
acts of mercy,
and through the
preaching of
the gospel.
They will
see our good
deeds and
glorify our
Father in
heaven.
Well,
but I'm
keeping the
best to the
last.
If I
worship God
and strengthen
believers and
reach out to
the world,
or I should
say it more
properly,
if our
church,
if we as
a body of
believers,
all of us
together as
believers,
if we
praise God,
strengthen each
other,
and reach out
to the
world,
what is the
result of
that?
Are these
three ends
in themselves,
or are they
means to
still one
more higher
end?
what?
Well,
they are.
I thought,
first of all,
I would check
how many times
that word is
used in the
Bible.
I stopped
after 400.
I thought,
you know,
there's other
things to do
in my life,
and my eyes
are not that
good,
you know.
I suspect
it's about
600 times,
600 times
in the Bible.
Where do I
begin?
You know,
shall I
just read
you all
600 verses
and say,
ah,
there it
is,
it's in
the Bible.
I can't
do that,
so I
thought I
would choose
two passages
that represent
as a
sample,
rather than
an exhaustive
list,
just as a
sample.
Turn to
1 Corinthians
chapter 10,
verse 31.
1 Corinthians
chapter 10,
verse 31.
chapter 11.
So whether
you eat
or drink
or whatever
you do,
whatever covers
fairly everything,
you know,
so whether you
eat or drink
or whatever
you do,
do it
all
for the
glory
of God.
Do it
all
for the
glory of
God.
whatever I
do,
putting on
a shirt,
I should
do it
to the
glory of
God.
Driving
to my
work,
I do
it to
the glory
of God.
When I
edify
believers,
I'm doing
it for
the glory
of God.
And
another
place where
you can
remember
that,
the very,
very,
very last
verse in
the epistle
to the
Romans.
So turn
to the
end of
Paul's
epistle
to the
Romans.
Look at
the very
last
verse.
And
Paul
ends
his
magisterial
epistle
with these
words.
To the
only
wise
God
be
glory
forever
through
Jesus
Christ.
Amen.
To the
only
wise
God
be
glory
forever
through
Jesus
Christ.
Amen.
Whatever
we do,
the
ultimate,
the very
ultimate
purpose of
the church
is to
glorify
God.
It's
not about
us.
Even
though we
are important,
even though
he loves
us,
even though
he gave
his son
for the
world,
it is
not
about
us.
It
is
about
him.
And
I
think
these
are
indicators
of a
healthy
church.
I
know
that
as
one
of
the
elders
here,
I
am
committed
to a
healthy
church.
I
am
committed
to a
church
that
reflects
all of
these
things.
And
if
you
look
at
the
four
goals
that
we
have,
they're
all
there.
Fellowship,
holy
living,
burden
for the
unsaved,
prayer,
these
are all
activities
designed
to help
us grow
and be
healthy.
May God
give us
the grace
and the
strength
and the
wisdom
to do
it.
I want
to pray
for you.
You're
my family.
Lord,
Father,
thank you
for these
dear
believers.
Thank you
for those
who
belong
to you.
Thank you
because you
have saved
us and
showed us
your great
love.
I pray,
Lord,
Father,
that you
help us
as a
church
to walk
in this
way.
May you
give us
all the
wisdom,
the
godliness,
the
devotion,
the
desire
to
please
you
and to
glorify
your
wonderful
name.
Thank
you
for
the
many
people
who
are
here
who
contribute
to
these
tasks,
some
big and
some
small,
but all
important
and all
to your
glory.
I
ask this,
Lord,
with much
gratitude,
in Jesus'
name.
Amen.