The Doctrine Of The Church

0:05 Once I heard my grandma say the Laurel team is coming us away with a vivo, with a vivo, with a vivo, vivo, bumbo, and a riptale, raptale sitting on a cattail, bum, bum, bum. What's the matter with that team that they can't see, that they can't play as well as we? With a vivo, with a vivo, with a vivo, vivo, bumbo, and a riptale, raptale sitting on a cattail, bum, bum, bum. That was the first cheer I ever heard in my life. I was five years old, playing in my grandmother's front yard. She had this booming voice. Maybe that's where I get my voice from.

0:58 She would do the cheer. and I remember as a little guy that cheer motivating me to run faster, jump higher, and play harder. There's nothing like cheers. what if I told you that the best place for cheering,

1:28 what if I told you that the most amazing venue for cheers is right here in the local church? I think we should have a lot of cheering in the church. And so many of us are a little bit hesitant to cheer, which I understand, because we don't really know the depth and the breadth and the beauty of the church. Right now, the Bible tells you and me that there's a standing ovation going on in heaven. There's cheering going on right now in the heavenlies with the veterans, the saints, our loved ones, and others who've graduated from this life to the next. The message says it beautifully.

2:30 It says in Hebrews 12, 1, do you see what this means? all these pioneers who blazed the way, all of these veterans, say that with me, cheering us on. It means we better get on with it. It means we better cheer the church on. It means we better build the church. I mean, what is a cheer anyway? A cheer is a shout in joy for praise or encouragement. That's what a cheer is. But I would say a lot of us kind of stop at cheering because we don't really understand the theology of the church. Theology is the study of God, and we've been looking at what the entire Bible says about particular topics.

3:27 Today, we're going to look at what the entire Bible says about the church. Here's the church. Do it with me if you know it. There's the steeple. Open the doors and see all the people. I learned that when I was a kid in Sunday school, and I had no idea those gestures are absolutely riddled with deep theology. Have you ever thought about that? This whole little thing is theologically sound.

4:07 Many times you might be scrolling through Instagram and maybe you follow people and they're not theologically sound. Maybe you hear someone say something and you realize, wow, that's not theologically sound. Anytime we hear something as believers, anytime we get involved in maybe an issue or absorb something, we need to say, what does the entire Bible say about a particular topic? Here's the church. That's the foundation. The foundation. What is our foundation? the Bible says that the church is called Ekklesia. It's a pretty cool name, isn't it? And what we're doing today is ecclesiology.

5:03 It's the study of the church, ecclesiology. The purpose of fellowship church, for example, is threefold. It's to reach up. that's worship, that's prayer, to reach out, that's evangelism, and to reach in, that's discipleship, that's walking in sanctification, that's maturing, going through infancy, spiritual infancy to spiritual adolescence from spiritual adolescence onto spiritual adulthood. That's what it means. We reach up, we reach out, we reach in, and it's based on two incredible verses of Scripture that Jesus talked about.

6:02 Matthew 22, the great commandment, and Matthew 28, the great commission. What's the great commandment? We need to know this. Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. This is what Jesus said. And the second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. I love what my brother said about this last line, love your neighbor as yourself. My brother has his own doctorate in theology, and he was teaching before a large group one day at a particular church. And this guy came up to him and said, you know, Dr. Young, talking about my brother, I just want to go deeper.

6:55 Ben said, really? And then Ben goes, you know, I'm still working on love thy neighbor as thyself. How about you? That's pretty good. Anyway, Matthew 28, 19 says, Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, that's the Great Commission, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. And basically we believe a great commitment to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission will grow a great church. That's how you build the church. This is Christ's church. This church is built on the rock, the foundation, the cornerstone, which is Jesus. I think it's interesting, too, to go through some of the word pictures in Scripture about the church. The body of Christ, body members, you know what I'm talking about?

7:55 I always do this when I talk about the members of our bodies. You know, every body has different members. Well, years ago, right before one of our services, in fact, it was when we first started our Saturday night services, I was lifting weights, and I took a 40-pound dumbbell off the weight rack, and little did I know the other 40-pounder was not on there correctly. Boom! Some of you know this. It smashed my great toe right here in about 30 places. that was some serious pain so i went to the hospital and we had a plastic surgeon shocker in dallas who went to our church and he rebuilt the toe i have a toe i had a toe augmentation the first one ever But I'm going to tell you something.

8:57 A toe matters. You're like, oh, man, what is a toe? It matters. Crush your toe and tell me it doesn't matter. So you might be a big toe in the church. You might be a fingernail in the church. It matters. Everything matters. The body of Christ. The bride of Christ. Okay? hey, put that in your frontal lobe. We're gonna come back to that. The bride of the Christ. The church is the bride of Christ. Jesus is the bridegroom. The temple of the Holy Spirit. Your body, my body is a temple, a dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. I like to say, don't trash the temple. What are you putting in the temple? The family of God. The Bible tells us we're born again into the family of God.

9:51 We're justified. We're declared righteous. We're adopted into his family. Then we walk in sanctification and ultimately in glorification when we go from this life to the next. We're called the flock of God. We're a bunch of sheep. Eh, eh, eh, eh, eh. You ever thought about that? Why? Why does the Bible compare you and me to sheep? Well, sheep need a shepherd, and we're not the smartest around. Do you know sheep, if they don't have a shepherd, will just walk right off of a cliff? Yeah!

10:31 We need a shepherd. And the good shepherd, we know, is Jesus. The branches on a vine is another picture of the church. Jesus is the vine, we are the branches. Let me add this too because a lot of my Catholic friends get this wrong, just straight up. How many of you come from a Catholic background? Lift your hand. A lot of people. Okay. Lisa comes from a Lutheran background, which is a lot like Catholics. But here's something where Catholics kind of go off the ranch, okay? Matthew 16, 18. That's where Jesus is talking to Simon Peter, and he said, upon this rock I will build my church. Upon this rock I'll build my church. And if you look at the original language, when he talks to Peter, the Greek word is petros, which means a small rock, a stone, all right?

11:30 When he talks about himself, when he talks about the rock, he's talking about a mass of rock, literally a cornerstone, something foundational. Well, the Catholics get this incorrect. Nowhere, for example, in Scripture do we have Simon Peter going to Rome. Nowhere. Nowhere. Also, nowhere do we have Simon Peter being in authority over the church. It's just good to know that because you can be sincere but sincerely wrong when it comes to biblical interpretation. That's why you have to look at the original language, and you have to see what it says about the entire Bible. If you want to talk about the beginning of the church to really go a little deeper, go back to before the foundation of the world, God thought the church up. He did. So you have the Old Testament, God commanding his people to worship together, right? And then, of course, it formulating, it became official at Pentecost when the church began, and the church will go on and on and on forever and ever and ever.

12:45 We are the church. So here's the church. That's the foundation. There's the steeple. That's the location. The location, where's the church? Well, you're the church. I'm a member, when I was born again into the family of God, of the universal church. So are you. If you've been saved, if you've been rescued, you're a member of the church universal. And you'll see my definition. All believers worldwide transcending individual congregations and denominations. And you can keep on reading. The local church. That's what we are. Most of the time, the word church is used. It refers to a specific local church. Not the big C church, the little c church. this is fun isn't it here's the church, I do too, someone said I love it, there's the steeple, the next one, open the doors, that's the invitation, and okay, before I get to the last part, let me just talk about open the doors, that's the invitation, the invitation, the Bible says about the first church, Acts chapter 2 verse 42, they devoted themselves, they being the disciples, the early church, to what?

14:08 The apostles' teaching and to fellowship and to breaking of bread and to prayer. So we exist to communicate and care, celebrate and share. That's why we do what we do. We are the church. The Bible says in John 6, verse 35, in fact, Jesus' words, he said, I am the bread of life. the church should serve the bread in an innovative and creative way. They should serve the bread where people understand it and can eat the bread. We come together in community to dine at the table. Here's the church, there's the steeple. Open the doors, that's the invitation. And see all the people? That's celebration. That's celebration.

15:01 See all the people. All the people. Celebration. You remember I told you earlier to think about the bride of Christ, the church? Do you remember that?

15:22 I read something a while back that I never really thought about before regarding this. God made Adam, and the Bible says it wasn't good for him to be alone. He made Eve. And it was their purpose, their mission statement, to rule, you know, over everything God had created. Yet they messed up. They sinned. You have the fall of man. God in his sovereignty and in his great love decided to send Jesus.

16:07 Jesus was called the bridegroom. God said, you know, I want Jesus to have a bride. Thus you have the church. The church. We're not married yet. to the bridegroom.

16:30 We're not perfect. The Bible says, though, when we get to heaven, we'll be totally, I'm talking about the church, righteous, pure, without spot and wrinkle, and at the wedding feast, the supper of the lamb, that's where it will come together.

16:53 Isn't that cool? That's the church. So the church now is not perfect. I tell people all the time, if you're looking for a perfect church, don't join it because you'll mess it up. I've had people tell me that for 34 years. Hey, man, I'm just looking for the perfect church. I said, well, even though there's 8,000 churches here in Dallas, you're not going to find it. We're not perfect. You've got the church, and Jesus is sort of dating the church. You could say betrothed to the church, and in heaven, you're going to have the marriage feast. Well, what do you wear to a wedding? Ladies, I know. I know, I know, I know. You spend a lot of time and a lot of money thinking about what you're going to wear, especially to an event like that. And even guys, guys, we even want to look right. We don't want to be underdressed. Well, the Bible told me something in Revelation 19, 8 that I want to share with you.

17:47 It was granted her, now this is in heaven now, to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure, for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. So this is the marriage feast, the marriage supper of the Lamb. The righteous deeds, the righteous deeds of the saints. Not my righteousness in Christ. I already know I'm righteous in Christ. but my righteous deeds on earth.

18:25 So in other words, I'm sowing. You're sowing constantly. I'm sowing when I tithe. I'm sowing garments when I'm generous. I'm sowing garments when I'm kind. I'm sowing garments when I reach out and help the poor. I'm sewing garments as I act as a godly man in my marriage or a godly father or grandfather. I'm making, are you feeling me, garments. there's going to be some of us who are going to be embarrassingly underdressed. make sure you're dressed for true success. Here's the church, that's the foundation.

19:19 There's the steeple, location. Open the doors, the invitation. Come on in. And all of the people, wow, celebration. See all the people. So what do we do with this? the Bible says that we should cheer each other on. So I thought I would just give you some church cheers. I love cheers, you know. I have heard a lot of cheers because I've been involved in sports. Now, those of us who were members of a specific church, we should cheer. Those who were UFOs, I don't expect you to cheer. UFOs would be unidentified freeloading observers. or you might call them Pew Dodgers. It's pretty funny.

20:17 1 Corinthians 12, 12, for just as the body is one and has many members and all the members of the body, though many are one body, so it is in Christ. If I'm a member, I'm gonna be enthusiastic. If I'm a member, I'm gonna cheer.

20:45 We've got spirit, yes we do. We've got spirit. How about you? The Bible says in Acts 1, verse 8, you'll receive power. The word power is dunamis. You remember Jimmy Walker? Dynamite. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Those of us who are over 50 get that. If you don't, just Google it. You'll laugh later. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and in all the ends of the earth. Here is the setup for the church. Jesus went up, the Holy Spirit came down, the disciples went out, and the lost came in. That's it. Drop the mic.

21:29 We've got spirit. Yes, we do. That's the Holy Spirit. Here's another cheer I love. We are the Raiders, oh yeah. We eat potatoes, oh yeah. On Sunday morning, oh yeah. We eat bologna, oh yeah. With cheese. and with Eve. Say, oh yeah. We're the writers. we eat potatoes, carbs are good. John 6, 35, Jesus said, I'm the bread of life. But also we learned last time as we mature, we leave the milk and eat the meat. I'm talking about protein. Baloney with cheese. Are you feeling me? The Bible says in Hebrews 10, 25, Let us not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage, cheer, praise, fire people up, one another, and all the more as you see the day approaching.

22:38 I have another one. Bang, bang, choo, choo, train, come on, church, do your thing. And, um! oh that's a good one well what's our thing i'll tell you what our thing is i'll go back to acts 2 42 again they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching to fellowship and the breaking of bread and prayer let's say it again communicate care celebrate and share in the church ship happens Let's go. worship, fellowship, that's a good name for a church, discipleship, leadership. And in a church, too, you have these points of tension. Have you ever thought about that?

23:30 Quality versus quantity. How many of you were not the firstborn in your family? hmm what if your parents said you know what we're going to stop after one because we want the quality child you wouldn't be here i want i just want the quality church man why not both quality and quantity i love to fish I want to catch a bunch of big fish. Then we have the tension in the church of effectiveness and efficiency. Efficiency is doing things right, and that's important. But effectiveness is doing right things.

24:26 we also want to be predictably unpredictable God is not always predictable I mean yes he's constant he's the same today yesterday and forever but the way we communicate should be unique look at Jesus he never communicated the same way always using different phrases and questions and visuals and that's why 70% of his words were words of application. There's all sorts of tension. Simple, complex. I hope Fellowship Church is always known as a simple church. I didn't say shallow but if you cannot explain something in a simple way, you don't know what in the heck you're talking about. It's easy for me, as I've said a million times, to talk over your head.

25:19 Easy. I have training like that. I'm not called to do that. I'm here to serve the bread, the food, where you can understand it and dine on it. God, I have so many cheers. Na, na, na, na. Na, na, na, na. Hey, hey, hey, goodbye. I love that. The church is a place where we say goodbye to sin, where we know we're walking in victory. We know the devil has been defeated. We shouldn't walk around like in this depressed state. Also, too, we ain't got time for negative people. If negative people come in the church, I just sing this song in my mind. Na, na, na, na. Na, na, na, na.

26:12 Hey, hey, hey. Goodbye. join another 8,000, whatever, the other 8,000 churches go somewhere else and join that and be negative there, but not here. That doesn't make sense. So the Bible says in Titus 310, warn a divisive person once, warn them a second time, and after that, have nothing to do with them. We've not done this a bunch, but now and then. Here's another one, the last one I promise you, you've got it, now use it. You got it. Now use it. It says, each of you should use whatever gift you've received to serve others as faithful stewards of God's grace and in its various forms. We're going to talk about that next time. We're going to talk about the Holy Spirit and the gifts. But I want you to think just for a second in your mind's eye of all of the cheers ringing in your ears. Think how loud heaven is.

27:15 I mean, I can see Abraham saying, it's by faith. Can't you hear him saying that? I can hear Moses saying, lead. I can hear Joshua saying, step into the river. I can hear Samson saying, it's by the strength of the Lord. I can hear Jonah saying, God is the God of a second and third chance. I can hear the Apostle Paul saying, it's nothing but the blood. I can hear Simon Peter saying, church is for everyone, every race, every socioeconomic level. And then I can hear our precious Savior Jesus saying, I've redeemed you. I've cleansed you. I've declared you righteous. I've sanctified you.

28:09 and I'm going to glorify you. So, keep on cheering. Father, thank you for this message. I thank you for the church. and if someone's here and you've never established a personal relationship with Christ, I've got good news for you. Jesus has been searching for you. All you have to do is surrender and say, Jesus, I give everything to you.

28:51 Right now, during this time of worship, we're going to enter a celebration. and a remembrance, Jesus, of what you did by partaking of the Lord's Supper. As we receive the elements in a spirit of meditation, just hold the elements as we worship and later we'll be instructed on when to take them. But remember, the juice represents the blood of Jesus that was shed for our sin the bread represents the body, his righteousness, the incarnation that was given for you and me. And we remember and we believe that because Jesus died and rose again, we'll live forever in our new heavenly bodies.

29:54 In Jesus' name.