Ephesians 2:19, “You are fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God” (KJV) The Living Bible says; “You are members of God’s very own family,……. you belong in a household with every other Christian.“ Out of this verse we gather three important keys about the church and what the Bible says about the church.

The key truths are these:

1. The church is a family. Some of you were raised in good families. Some of you didn’t have that privilege, but God’s word teaches that he as a faith-family he has destined you to be a part of. Maybe you’re here today and you’re all alone in the world. The bible says “God sets the solitary in families.” Ps. 68:6

2. God expects me to be a member of a family. This is not an option you may choose. God’s army, which you enlisted in when you said “Yes” to the captain of the Host and received his forgiveness and eternal salvation, … this army is organized as any effective army is, and you can’t fight the battle on your own. You need to be a part of a regiment and a platoon. You can’t produce much honey if you buzz about on your own. You need to be a part of the hive, doing your part in the hive. The bible speaks of the church universal which you join by saving faith, but it also clearly speaks of the local church where the rubber hits the road and we are expected to grow up, mature and serve.

3. A Christian without a church family is an orphan. It says, “You belong in God’s household with every other member of the church.” Did you realize God has given us at least 30 instructions in the New Testament that you can’t fulfill unless you choose to be a part of a local church?

We will always have, what I call, floating believers. These are people who, every week, pop around to a different church. The Bible says, if you’re a Christian, it means you’re a part of the body of Christ. You could be the hand, the ear, the eyes, the nose, the liver. What would you say if the liver said, “I think for one week I’ll be a part of this body over here and the next week I’ll be a part of that body over there and the week after that I’ll be a part of this body over here…” Pretty soon what’s going to happen is an unconnected liver shrivels up and dies. You need to be a part of a local church family.

What’s the difference between being a Christian and being a member of a church family. The difference is the word “commitment”. I become a Christian by committing my life to Christ. I become a member of a church by committing myself to other Christians. I say, “That’s going to be my church home where I’m going to give and be given to, where I’m going to serve and be served, where I’ll love and be loved.”

What are the distinctives of our local family? We have anywhere from 70 to 100 people on a typical Sunday. Many of our congregation are in the agri-business one way or another, but we’re different in so many different ways. What makes us a family? Four things:

1. Our Salvation. What God has done for us.

2. Our Statement. Why we exist as a church.

3. Our Strategy. How we fulfill our purpose.

4. Our Structure. When and where we fulfill that purpose.

I want to talk about:

Why We Exist As A Church

We have borrowed from others the statement that captures the essence of our raison d’etra, our reason to exist.

We believe a great commitment to the great commandment and the great commission will grow a great church.

This summarizes everything we do here at Rosebank Church in one sentence. It’s taken from two main passages of Scripture: Matthew 22:36-40, The great Commandment: “Jesus said, `Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Then from the Great Commission we get these things: “Jesus said, `Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

From the first — the Great Commandment — we take Loving God With All Your Heart. That’s worship. Also Loving Your Neighbour As Yourself — that’s ministry. From the Great Commission — Go And Make Disciples — evangelism; Baptize — incorporate into fellowship; Teach Them All Things — discipleship.

So we exist for these five reasons. Let’s say it a different way. These five things — these five reasons why we exist:

1. To celebrate God’s presence. The number one purpose of this church, to celebrate God’s presence or to express our corporate love for him in worship.

2.) To demonstrate God’s love through selfless sacrifice and service which is ministry.

Let me just interject a few thoughts here about the condition of the church today. I believe God is very jealous of his precious bride and I believe he is very angry with what he sees in the church today. The Master Artist of the Universe painted a very clear picture for us in his manual for life and practice, especially in the section he called ACTS, because there he was showing us how to act. His brush and pen gave us a picture of a church that was unified. It met daily for fellowship and encouragement. Like the example His son gave them, this church was into personal and corporate sacrifice for the great cause of reconciling people to God. They cared nothing for the things of this world – a thought that extended to their very lives. They were consumed with the passion of Christ to share the good news, whatever the cost. They taught that separation from the world meant abstinence from sinful practices, not a separate self-absorbed self-contained culture that abstained from worldly people. They did not attempt to win the world by integrating societal preference and mixture to the pure word they had been taught. They called sin- SIN and they told of judgement to come, and they rejected the materialistic, hedonistic worldviews around them. Their faith reflected in sacrificial works of service that shone as bright lights attracting people to Jesus, who said, “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” There message was an invitation to taste of the divine and experience eternal freedom and they shared that message while they invited people to join them and their Lord in persecution, torture, poverty, ridicule, and death. And people responded by the thousands because they saw the reality of an empowered Christ-centred church. These people were truly “Salt” – flavouring, affecting, protecting and preserving the world around them.

The prophets foretold of a day when the church would be beset by ravenous wolves who would deceive if possible, the very elect. We’re in that day folks. We have exchanged the message of

• The cross – for the message of comfort

• The message of self-denial for the message of self esteem. The bible says esteem others better than yourself.

• We have gone soft on the message of repentance and reconciliation, and heavy on the message of rest and relaxation.

• The whole message of the bible is: Live to give. We teach, – come to Christ to gain and to get.

• We have sacrificed the piety and power of the pure life, to the god of pleasure, provision and popularity.

• We have tripped over ourselves to be inclusive and tolerant while turning a blind eye to the scriptures that teach about holiness and a narrow, hard way, that leads to life.

Today, many wolves teach that God is a God who blesses you with material things and health if you only give to him (through this ministry of course) in the here and now. A couple of years ago Jackie and I were in Florida, I caught a few minutes of several different ministers who have huge followings. In one scene I heard the evangelist say, “If you need money, sow your money here today and God will bless you,” and people by the hundreds were coming up to an altar and laying down their money. A team of men were scooping it up into buckets.” I heard another teacher / evangelist share that Christ could not possibly return yet ‘cause some of you do not yet have your healing and you have not yet prospered. He will delay His coming until you have had a chance to give your way into getting all the blessings God has promised you in Abraham’s covenant, and you can do that here today or through the mail.

A man who was a member of Dave Jantzi’s church in St. Catharines went many years ago to South Africa as a missionary. I read his letter to Dave. “I wish these great healing / prosperity evangelists would stay home. They come here and people go to their rallies by the tens of thousands and they hear a message of health and wealth to be found in Christ, and so … of course, thousands respond to Christ, because they desperately want what the white evangelist has personified – health and wealth and they’ll happily pray any prayer or mantra to get it. Out of their poverty they are encouraged to give sacrificially to seed their wealth and they do – millions of dollars given to the Lottery Lords of prosperity gospel in hopes of cashing in on the western worlds blessings and riches.”

He went on to explain months and years later when the poverty is deeper and health more elusive, we have to explain that they need to trust Jesus who promised to be with us and give grace no matter what we go through. Yes, there are wolves and we need to call them wolves in the church.

Today there are many prosperity prophets who prophesy that the glory days are coming and great revival will sweep over our lands and the world will come rushing to Christ before He comes again. That is not what my bible teaches at all:

While I firmly believe God desires revival in the hearts of men and women, and that in specific places, in response to specific prayer and consecration of His people, He will bring revival fire and many will be saved … here is what the bible says we need to look for:

Jesus had just been asked what signs would precede his return. What should we look for? Here’s what Jesus said, “ Many false prophets will rise up and deceive many, and because lawlessness (in the Greek that accurately means, “doing your own thing”) will abound, the love of many will grow cold”. Matt.24:11-12

He said, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate (Who is the Gate? In Jn.10:9 Jesus said, “I am the gate or door, anyone who enters in by me will be saved.”) and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

Speaking of his own children Jesus told the story of the woman and the unjust judge, to prove the point of how persistent, unrelenting faith pays off and then he asks the redundant question in Luke 18:8, “… When the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” The unspoken answer sadly implies, there won’t be much of that kind of faith on display.

In the one of the saddest indictments against the church Jesus says: “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish that you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth. Because you say, I am rich and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing – and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked – I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; (What does he mean by that? Paul said in I Cor. 3 that when we reach the judgement seat of Christ at the door of our eternity, what we have chosen to build our lives with will be tested by fire. We can build with wood, hay and stubble and it will all become useless ashes and dust or we can build with gold that translates to eternal riches and rewards, so here Jesus is saying) I counsel you to buy gold from me refined in the fire, that you may be rich, and white garments that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed and anoint your eyes with salve that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore, be zealous and repent.” Rev.3:15-19

Please forgive me for that tangent but some things just need to be said! The reason for our existence as a church is pure, undefiled, Christ-centred worship followed secondly by the demonstration of God’s love through selfless sacrifice and service. Part of my vision for 2007 for us as a church is to come up with ways in which we can serve our community so profoundly that they will glorify God because of the good works we do in letting our light shine. How can we serve the community and bless them with a demonstration of the incarnation of God through us? What can we do to show that we are more concerned about lost souls than we are about the material things that plague our lives?

Next we are called to:

3.) To communicate God’s word by evangelism.

The definition of evangelism is “sharing the good news”. Ephesians 3:10 “His (God’s) intent was that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known.” In other words, the purpose of the church is to talk about God, talk about the incredible things He has done and the incredible person He is to make known His wisdom to other people. That is our purpose.

Romans 10:13-14 (Living Bible) “Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, but who can ask Him to save them unless they believe in Him and how can they believe in Him if they have never heard about Him and how can they hear about Him unless someone tells them.” The point of the verse is that you can’t know about God unless somebody tells you. A great majority of people have somebody first tell them about Jesus Christ before they come to church. That’s one of our purposes, to tell the good news of Jesus Christ.

The fourth reason we exist is:

4. We exist to incorporate God’s people into His family which is fellowship. We need to be obvious about our love of people and our desire to see them join the family of God and our local family after that. We need to pray people will come to Christ. We need to believe for it. We need to be involved in witness and then we need to notice others and extend loving care. “Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ.” Gal. 6:2 I want to institute a 3 minute rule for those who are faithful attenders here, or members of Rosebank. What do I mean by that?

For 3 minutes after the service is dismissed – don’t engage those you know in conversation. Look for those you don’t know and make sure they know you’re glad they were here. Get to know them. Introduce yourself. If they are brand new, make sure you get them to sign the guest book so we have a record of their visit. Proverbs says, “He who would have friends must show himself friendly”. You can do this. It is the 3 minute rule! From now on when I say, “Remember 3 Minutes” at the end of a service, you’ll know what I’m talking about. It will only work if you do, so for the sake of Jesus Christ and His church – do it.

Well there is no time like the present to move on this 4^th directive which is to incorporate folks into the church. Today we want to welcome into membership Harold and Ruth Sherk.