Christian Living

Be the Church

by Thomas Kirkpatrick
12/28/21
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“Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence.” (1 Peter 3:15)

Bob Dylan, in 1964 wrote and sang a song named “The Times They Are a Changing.” It was true then and now and always has been ever since. I can’t remember the lyrics, but the title runs through my mind now and then. Does it bother you when a jingle gets stuck in your mind and can’t be driven out? It happens to me all the time, and seldom is a lyric I want to be running around freely throughout the day. The times have changed a lot from what we had thought to be the norm in the past year. Particularly people attending church with their families have fallen off. It is bothersome to me as for most of my life, I never missed a Sunday worship service where ever I was.

People worship by online services, and small family groups are a good thing, and I have no problem. Actually, that is a good thing to do even if attending a church. The truth is the church is not the building, as it is where the church gathers for like-minded fellowship and accountability. The importance of that is enormous, as it is a safe place where the deeper questions are answered, support for the church’s family can be expressed, and fun memory-making is created. Even as the church teaches the gospel, evangelists move about the world; many people filled with self-pride will not humble themselves before an audience.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is not just the introduction of Christianity; it is the message of Christianity. God’s glory surrounds a Christian, and in all we do, we should give Him glory back. By His grace, through our faith, we have received His salvation. In the power of His Holy Spirit, we are being sanctified and perfected in Him. The Christian life is not a moment in time but an eternal commitment between the Creator and His creation. When the Christian contemplates His holiness, love, grace, and mercy, it motivates them to live the Christian life. The gospel was not born from a finite mind but an infinite God and is glorious as the richness of Him. He has entrusted us with His creation and, by His love, has entrusted the gospel. “According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted.” (1 Timothy 1:11)

A Christian growing in the character of the Lord Jesus will never at a lack for zeal in their faith. The Christians’ commitment to the whole gospel and their continued study of God’s Word will not fall into the trap of waterless cisterns. “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, The fountain of living waters, To hew for themselves cisterns, Broken cisterns That can hold no water.” (Jeremiah 2:13)

The Prophet Jeremiah was troubled by the false prophets, and they are still troubling today. It is a woeful misadventure to twist the truth of God’s Word. Some manipulate the Word to fit the narrative that satisfies their wants and desires. A firm foundation is needed in the scriptures. Many teach a candy doctrine of God is love and neglect the hard truth of His justice. False teachers preach wealth and prosperity in this realm without speaking the richness of His glory in the next. They are not lying, but it is a mistruth. Jesus taught, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33)

Prophets are being seen on social media, and it makes me wonder. The Prophets of old were repeating the words God gave them. When Jesus, the Son of God, came, He is now our Prophet, Priest, and King. I am not saying they are false, and I don’t know; I am saying test them against the Word of God. “Then the LORD said to me, ‘The prophets are prophesying falsehood in My name. I have neither sent them nor commanded them nor spoken to them; they are prophesying to you a false vision, divination, futility and the deception of their own minds.’” (Jeremiah 14:14)

Preachers of the day do no service to the members of the church. I can imagine many reasons, but here, I will not speculate. Many churches are interested in the number of the attending. They do not want to preach anything offensive to drive away from the flock. The church's leadership may influence many to give the people what they want to hear. I hear relevancy shouted all day. There are two things people cry for, love and truth. I think they deserve both, especially the truth. Whatever the Lord lays upon me to teach, whether loving or firm, I play the song He gives me as His instrument. People will not stay in a church that does not teach the truth. Truth, hard or soft in meaning, convicts the heart and the hearer must accept or reject. That’s their free will. I am not teaching your thoughts or mine. I am teaching what the Lord has given me from His Word. “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.” (2 Timothy 4:3-4)

Preachers are spiritual counselors guided by the Holy Spirit to deliver the good food of God’s Word. If the Spirit leads their hearers, it will have physical and mental implications. When people live their lives in the counsel of the Holy Spirit, they will experience the goodness of the Lord. People who come to the church for physical and mental gratification have come with the cart before the horse. The sacrifice to the Lord is a humble and citrate heart. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.” (Psalm 51:17)

The people come to church not to be entertained but to worship with praise and thanksgiving, and they come to learn how to live in righteousness before a darkened world. Humanity is spiritual beings, and they come to be spiritually fed, as that is the food of life. “He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.” (Deuteronomy 8:3)

We have begun a journey at our conversion that will last throughout eternity. We are finite creatures serving an infinite God. None of us here are holier than thou and will never be while in this world. We were born in corrupted flesh and will die in corrupted flesh. We will be perfected at the Judgment Seat of Christ and receive an immortal body that will never die again. Still, it will be an endless journey with new truths to learn and comprehend. I do not claim to know much, as I am a wretched sinner who God saw pleasing to forgive and view me as I someday will be. Till then, I struggled to live each day in His will. “Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13-14)

The worldly reject the truth because it convicts. The world loves the evil ways of today more than a far-off realm of righteousness. They have been blinded by the god of this world and cannot comprehend the truth of God’s Word and see it as foolishness. When at a rodeo event, I asked the riders if I could pray for them. I was given a funny look as they answered they did not need that foolishness. If God’s Word is the ordained gospel to save those who believe in Jesus as their Savior. “For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.” (1 Corinthians 1:21)

The world is a place of opinions developed on the events of contemporary life. Nothing in corruptible humanity can generate a superior morality above the Lord God Almighty’s words. Yet, the world is content with their fallen worldly wisdom that has yet to prove infallible. The world will trust their own minds rather than the infinite Creator of all. There are many gods in the world, and they are all false. Anything the world places before God is an idol built by man. “Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.” (Romans 1:22-23)

In AD, the Temple was destroyed by the Romans. God no longer dwells in that Temple. God does not dwell in the Church Building or at an old-time revival tent meeting. God does not dwell in bible studies, church campgrounds, or fervent prayer meetings. The Throne of God is in the heart of the believer. From the Throne, God executes His will through the instruments of His children. The Church, where His children are, is where church service is held. Christians where ever you are, have a revival, as you are, the church. Through Jesus, the wisdom of God, we can be the righteousness for the darkened world to see. We can tell our story of redemption and the joy we have received. Let us be as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.” Where the Lord places us in life, be the church.

“But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:30-31)

Thomas N Kirkpatrick

First Baptist Church of Durant, April 7, 2021