Why We Church
August 27, 2022

Why Church?
120 Million People Go To Church Every Sunday

In America More People Attend Church On One Sunday
Than Every Single Professional Sporting Event In One Year

Why do you go to church?

Habit, Tradition, Pressure, Guilt
Donuts, Babysitting, Personalities

What The Church Is Not
Not A Building
Not A Place I Attend
Not An Institution
Not A Club

What Is The Church?
Simple Understanding
Church – Greek – Ekklesia – A Called Out Assembly, The Called Out Ones

ACTS 2:41-42 NLT
Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day — about 3,000 in all. All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer. They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity.

C.R.A.B.
A Family of Believers Who Are Joined To Christ In A Commitment To Help Each Other Find and Fulfill God’s Purpose and Destiny

It’s A Spiritual Family I Belong To

God’s Perspective
The Church Is The Most Important Group (Family) On The Earth

1 Corinthians 12:27
Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.

There Is Nothing On This Planet That God Loves More Than The Church

1. The Church Is God’s Family
1 Peter 1:3 TLB
All honor to God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; for it is his boundless mercy that has given us the privilege of being born again so that we are now members of God’s own family.

1 Timothy 3:15 NCV
Then, even if I am delayed, you will know how to live in the family of God. That family is the church of the living God, the support and foundation of the truth.

2. The Church Was God’s Idea, Not Man’s!
It Is The Only Reason God Created The Universe

Ephesians 1:4-5 TLB
Long ago, even before he made the world, God chose us to be his very own through what Christ would do for us; he decided then to make us holy in his eyes, without a single fault — we who stand before him covered with his love. His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by sending Jesus Christ to die for us. And he did this because he wanted to!

3. Being A Part of The Church Is The Greatest and Highest Privilege Of Your Life
1 Peter 1:3 TLB
All honor to God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; for it is his boundless mercy that has given us the privilege of being born again so that we are now members of God’s own family.

4. The Church Is What Jesus Died For
Ephesians 5:25, 27 NCV
Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it to make it belong to God. Christ used the word to make the church clean by washing it with water. He died so that he could give the church to himself like a bride in all her beauty. He died so that the church could be pure and without fault, with no evil or sin or any other wrong thing in it.

The Value of Something Is Determined By What Someone Is Willing To Pay For It

To Speak Negatively Of The Church Is To Talk About Christ’s Bride

Proverbs 6:16-19 TMB
Here are six things God hates, and one more that he loathes with a passion: eyes that are arrogant, a tongue that lies, hands that murder the innocent, a heart that hatches evil plots, feet that race down a wicked track, a mouth that lies under oath, a troublemaker in the family.

5. The Church Is The Only Thing On The Earth That Will Last Forever
Ephesians 3:21
to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

1 Thessalonians 4:17 TLB
Then we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and remain with him forever.

6. The Church Is The Only One Capable of Fixing The World’s Problems
Globally
2.2 Billion Church Members In The World
1/3 of The Earth’s Population
The Church Is Larger Than India and China Combined

We Love Like No Other
We Serve Like No Other
We’re Motivated Like No Other
We Give Like No Other
We’re Equipped Like No Other

Ephesians 3:20 AMP
Now to Him who is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly more than all that we dare ask or think [infinitely beyond our greatest prayers, hopes, or dreams], according to His power that is at work within us,

7. The Church Is The Only Entity That Fulfills God’s Eternal Purpose
Ephesians 3:10-11
My task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God, who created all this in the first place, has been doing in secret and behind the scenes all along. Through followers of Jesus like yourselves gathered in churches, this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels!

8. The Church Is the Only Entity That Cannot Be Defeated
Ephesians 3:19-22
and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

Matthew 16:18-19
And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”