The Messiah’s Church

Sermon Summary:

This powerful message invites us to reconsider what we truly think about the church—not as a building or an institution with flaws, but as Jesus’ own creation, established with divine purpose and eternal significance. Drawing from Matthew 16, we encounter that pivotal moment at Caesarea Philippi where Peter declares Jesus as the Messiah and Son of the living God, and Jesus responds by announcing His intention to build His church. What’s striking is the setting: Jesus makes this declaration in one of the most pagan places in Israel, standing before the very ‘gates of Hades’ where darkness seemed to reign. Yet He proclaims that nothing—not death, not evil, not any force of darkness—will overcome His church. We’re challenged to lift our gaze beyond the imperfections we see and recognize the church as a purposeful community of gathered believers following the Jesus way together. It’s a spiritual entity with heavenly authority, empowered by Christ Himself to unlock doors to eternity. The church isn’t perfect because we’re in it, but it’s beautiful because Jesus is building it. From childhood Sunday school lessons to baptisms, from worship gatherings to life’s most significant moments, the church has been the vessel through which God works in our lives. This message calls us to join it, love it, serve in it, and get in on what Jesus is doing—because when we do, we’re participating in something that transcends time and connects directly to eternity.

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Sermon Points:

We believe the CHURCH IS THE BODY OF CHRIST ON EARTH TODAY! Jesus established the church and it exists to perform God’s will on earth. Believers are to invest themselves in the life and work of the church. (Matthew 16:17-18; Acts 2:42; 1 Corinthians 12:27)

The Church is a purposeful community of gathered believers following The Jesus Way together.

PERSON – Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, the Son of God, and the Head of the Church!

PETER – Peter was the spokesman for the Disciples on numerous occasions.

PURPOSE – The Church was established by Jesus to carry out His heavenly mission on earth.

POWER – Jesus has empowered the Church to accomplish His mission.

FLOURISHING – Living life as God intended!

Key Takeaways:

• The church is a purposeful community of gathered believers following the Jesus way together
• Jesus Christ is the head of the church, not any human leader or institution
• The church is built on the foundation of Christ Himself and the confession of His identity as Messiah and Son of God
• The church was established by Jesus to carry out His heavenly mission on earth
• The church has been given spiritual authority through “keys of the kingdom” to bind and loose, opening doors to eternity
• The church is empowered by Jesus and will ultimately be victorious despite opposition
• The gates of Hades (forces of darkness and death) will not overcome the church
• The church is not ethnically based, geographically constrained, or socially discriminatory
• Despite human imperfections and failures, the church remains the only institution Jesus Himself established
• Believers need the church for spiritual nurture, growth, worship, and community

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Scripture References:

• Matthew 16:13-20 (primary passage)
• Matthew 14:33
• Matthew 18:18
• Matthew 23:13
• Galatians 3:28
• Ephesians 1:22
• Colossians 1:18
• John 1:42
• John 6:67-68
• John 18 (Peter drawing sword)

Stories:

• C.S. Lewis’s “The Screwtape Letters” – the story of senior demon Screwtape writing to junior demon Wormwood about keeping a patient away from church, illustrating how demons fear the true church spread across time and eternity, but humans often only see the church’s surface imperfections
• Astronaut Butch Wilmore from Providence Baptist Church in Pasadena, Texas, who attended church online every Sunday while stranded at the International Space Station, demonstrating the importance of church even in space
• Pastor’s personal testimony of church involvement throughout his life – from receiving a Bible as a week-old baby, attending Sunday school and RAs (Royal Ambassadors), getting saved and baptized, being called to ministry, getting married and ordained, to seeing his children and grandchildren dedicated and baptized in church
• The incident with the Sunday school teacher who put a combination lock on the cracker cabinet to keep weekday daycare children from eating “their” crackers, illustrating church imperfections
• The RA basketball coach who taught missions on Wednesday nights, coached practice on Fridays, and drove boys to games on Saturdays with the philosophy “get the lead and hold it”

Sermon Transcript

Well, thank you, Michael and worship team, for leading us in worship today. Well, as you know, we are in the midst of our Lenten season as we are on our way to Easter Sunday and we are looking forward to the rest of this journey. And our theme for the Easter season is the real story. And we have been making our way through the Gospel of Matthew. He is our guide this year for the Easter season.

Next Sunday is Palm Sunday, and it Marks the beginning of Holy Week, and we’re looking forward to that week at our church. Those of you that are Bible study leaders, you’ve had access already to a couple of Bible study lessons that Ryan Chandler has written for us for Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday. And then I have written a devotional guide for us and they’re available today. If you’d like to get one of these, they’re available in all of our welcome center areas across our campus. It also can be found online@fbca.org easter but it is a guide that will begin on Palm Sunday and it’s a daily Bible reading devotional guide for Holy Week.

And I would encourage you to get one of these as we make this ancient journey together as a church family. And I’m grateful for this season of the year. So with that said, let’s continue our conversation looking at the Gospel of Matthew. Today, we find ourselves on the 16th page of Matthew. So if you’ve got your copy of the New Testament, the message today is entitled the Messiah’s Church.

When you get to Matthew 16 the way Matthew tells the story, starting in Matthew 14, Jesus starts to withdraw from Galilee. He has been engaged for a little over two years in ministry, primarily in Galilee. And now he’s going to begin to leave Galilee and he’ll make his way to various places across Israel. And eventually he will make his way to Judea in the south and ultimately to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. When you come to where we are in the story, Jesus has taken his disciples to the northernmost part of Israel, to a town called Caesarea Philippi.

It is in the area of Israel that was ruled by Herod Philip, and the town was dedicated to the Caesar, and he named it after the Caesar and after himself. But it’s an incredibly pagan city. It was a Gentile community, and it was awash in and dominated by pagan ideology. And so many Jews avoided Caesarea Philippi because of that. Yet this is where Jesus chooses to take his disciples for this particular lesson.

So if you have your copy of the Scripture, look with me at Matthew 16. We’re going to begin reading verse 13, and I’ll invite you to stand with me as we honor the Lord Jesus in the reading of his Gospel.

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, who do people say the Son of Man is? They replied, some say John the Baptist. Others say Elijah, and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets. What about you? He asked.

Who do you say I am? Simon Peter answered, you are the Messiah, the son of the living God. And Jesus replied, blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah. Thank you. You may be seated.

Today, I want us to talk together about the church. And I know there are a lot of views about the church. Let me begin by sharing with you what our individual church believes about it. You know, if you were to look at the Constitution and the bylaws of First Baptist Arlington, which I’m sure some of y’ all probably were doing this very morning before you came to church, you’ll read in our Constitution that our church believes that the confession of faith, known as the Baptist Faith and Message adopted by the Southern Baptist convention in 1963, best represents what our church believes. And we’ve taken the articles of that confession of faith and made them more accessible in succinct statements in what we call our core beliefs.

And you can access our core beliefs online. Let me read you the article about the church from our core belief statement. We believe the church is the body of Christ on earth. Today, Jesus established the church and it exists to perform God’s will on earth. Believers are to invest themselves in the life and work of the church.

And then we have several scripture passages noted that serve as the foundation of that belief. Now, if you want to state it even more succinctly than that, when you ask me my take on what is the church, here’s how I would put it. The church is a purposeful community of gathered believers following the Jesus Way together. In other words, we’re not just gathered, we are purposefully gathered. We’re a community and we’re following the Jesus way.

And we do that together alongside one another. And that really comes from, I believe, the teaching that is found consistently in the New Testament about the church. So here’s what I want us to do this morning. I’m not going to take the time to unpack everything in this passage, but I just want to point out a few truths about this passage today as we give consideration to the Messiah’s church. And let’s just start with the person.

And that person is Jesus. Jesus of Nazareth. He’s the Messiah. He’s the Son of God, and he’s the head of the church. Our constitution actually says that as well.

We believe that Jesus Christ is the head of our church, local church. So if you look at this text, we still have your Bibles open. Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi. That’s in the northernmost part of Israel. And again, it was a town that was dedicated to pagan worship, pagan idolatry and pagan ideology.

And that’s where Jesus happens to be. And he asks this question of his disciples. He’s taken these 12 men aside to teach them, and he says, so what is everyone saying about me? What are you hearing about me? Who do people think I am?

And so the disciples began to answer them. They say, well, some people think you’re John the Baptist who’s come back from the dead. That’s what Herod Antipas thought According to Matthew 14. Some people think maybe you’re Elijah, the one who is to come to prepare the way of the Lord. Some people think you’re Jeremiah.

They just listed a group of prophets. And then Jesus says, who do you say that I am? And then, as is so often in the Gospel, Simon Peter speaks up first and he says, well, you’re the Christ. You’re Christos is the Greek word. You’re the Messiah.

You’re the anointed one, and you’re the Son of the living God. So Simon Peter says, you’re the Promised One, you’re the anointed one. You’re the one who was to come. We believe that. And you’re the Son of the living God.

Now, if you still have your Bibles open. If you look back at Matthew 14, the rest of the disciples believe this as well. And they’ve already said it. In Matthew 14:33, Jesus has walked on water. He comes back into the boat after the wind dies down.

And the text says, in verse 33 of Matthew 14:30, those who were in the boat, these disciples, they worshiped him. And they said, truly, you are the Son of God. And so these disciples all agreed with this, that Jesus was not just a good teacher, not just a prophet, but he’s actually the Son of God. And they had begun the practice of worshiping him. So when Jesus asks the question directly of them later in Matthew 16, they say Peter just speaks on behalf of all the disciples and says, well, you’re the Christ the King.

Matthew would say, and you are the Son of the living God. Well, Jesus has heard that himself as a testimony from God. It is baptism in Matthew 3. This is my beloved Son. I’m pleased with him on the mount of Transfiguration.

This is my beloved Son. So Jesus is the Son of God and the Promised One. Now how did the disciples come to that conclusion? What was it that has happened that Peter could speak on their behalf and they all make this confession of faith? Well, I would contend it’s not the ritual that they had experienced because Simon Peter and all of these men were Jews.

They had been reared in first century Israel. That means they went to synagogue, they heard the teachings of the law, they were familiar with certain rabbinical teachings. They understood the rituals of the faith. They also saw the opulence of the Sadducees and how they were ruling over the people. I would contend it’s not the reason that was purported by the Sadducees, not the ritual that was practiced by the Pharisees.

As a matter of fact, Jesus says that’s not how it’s happened. They have not come to this conclusion through that pathway. Here’s what Jesus says. God has revealed this to you. Verse 17.

In other words, it’s Revelation. The only way to come to this conclusion is for the Spirit of God to reveal this. The Father lets you know that that is who Jesus is. So Jesus says that. And then Jesus says this.

I will build my church. He says, what a powerful statement. Matthew’s the first gospel writer to use that word. It’ll be found again in Matthew 18. I will build my church.

Jesus is the head of the church. That’s the teaching of the New Testament. Ephesians 1, verse 22. Paul says God’s appointed Christ to be head over the church. Colossians 1, verse 18.

He is the head of the body of the church. The church. Ekklesia is the Greek word. The called out ones, the gathered ones. They belong to Jesus.

That’s who the church is. These are his people. Jesus is establishing something brand new. It’s a new community. It is not ethnically based.

It is not geographically constrained. It is not socially discriminatory. That’s not the new community. Jesus is the Jewish Messiah, but he’s the Savior of the whole world. And so he’s establishing a brand new community.

Like I said, it’s not ethnically based, it’s not geographically constrained, it is not discriminatory socially. As a matter of fact, the Apostle Paul will follow up on this in Galatians 3, verse 28 and say, there’s neither Jew nor gentile, slave nor free, male nor female. We are all one in Christ Jesus. So Jesus breaks through every man made barrier and he establishes a brand new community and he calls it his church and he will build it. And how do you get in it?

How do you get in the church where you’re born into it? Actually you’re born again into it. You’re born into it in the sense that you can receive instruction and nurture. But to step inside this community, this is a believing community, you’ve got to embrace what Simon Peter declared all those years ago about the identity of Jesus, that he really is the Messiah, that he’s the Son of God, we are his body and he is the head. The, the church is comprised of his followers and he’s building his church himself.

Now you can’t read this text though, without giving some consideration to Peter. Peter was the spokesman for the disciples on numerous occasions, wasn’t he? It just seems like every time a question comes up, Simon Peter is the first one to speak up, right? He just was a leader, he was a spokesman. And we find him often playing that role.

When Jesus met Simon Peter, according to John’s gospel, John 1, verse 42, he says, Simon, you’re going to be known as Petros, is the Greek word rock Peter. And then Peter is going to become this spokesman. John, chapter six. Jesus engages in a very serious time of teaching. It’s really hard.

He gets to the end of it and a lot of people leave, they just, they just can’t take it. And Jesus looks at the disciples and says, what about you? You’re going to leave. Also Simon Peter says in John 6, verse 67, where would we go? To whom would we go?

You are the only one who gives the words of eternal life. So Simon Peter has a way of speaking up. As a matter of fact, look at Matthew 16, the very next section. Not everybody understood what was really going on. I would tell you when Simon Peter said, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God, he could not have unpacked theologically everything you and I know today about that.

He didn’t have a real understanding of the Trinity. He didn’t necessarily understand the Eternity of the nature of the Son of God. He is in the middle of something brand new, but he’s got enough Revelation to know who this is. As a matter of fact, Jesus even tells them at the end of the text in verse 20, don’t go tell anybody about me yet, because nobody will really understand it. Y’ all don’t even understand it yet.

You’re just barely, barely knowing exactly what’s going on. But then Simon Peter is a spokesman. Look at verse 21. Jesus started telling everybody, these disciples, rather, here’s what’s going to happen. We’re going to get to Jerusalem.

I’m going to be handed over. The chief priest describes, I’m going to die, and then I’m going to rise again on the third day. Verse 22. Peter said, that’s just not going to happen.

Never, Lord. We won’t let it happen. In other words, Peter says, not on my watch. He just spoke on behalf of these disciples. That’s how Simon Peter was, you know?

Y’ all know the story. You keep reading the story, get to Matthew 26, and Jesus says, all of y’ all are going to fall away. All of you. Simon Peter says, not me. I’m not going to fall away.

I would never do that. Remember what Jesus said this very night? This very night, you’re going to deny me. You know what Simon Peter said won’t happen. I will die first.

He said, before that happens. Now we all know what happens, right? We all know that Simon Peter is going to walk out into that garden. The soldiers are going to show up. John 18.

Simon Peter is going to draw a sword and try to cut one of his head off. Remember that story? I mean, Simon Peter was loud, boisterous. He was the first to speak up. And then he failed.

Aren’t you glad your greatest failure has not been recorded in the Bible? For all of us to read about his is, though. But aren’t you grateful the story of Simon Peter doesn’t end on Thursday night of Holy Week. Jesus is going to be resurrected from the dead and he’s going to restore Simon Peter. And Simon Peter is going to go on and become a great man of God.

He’ll continue to be a spokesman in the book of Acts. We’ll read about it every year when we go to Rome. We always go to my favorite church in Rome, dedicated to Simon Peter. And that’s St. Peter in chainsaw. Well, we’re reminded that when Simon Peter came to Rome, he would die as a martyr at the hands of Nero, crucified Upside down in Nero’s circus.

So he gave his whole life for this. A mighty man of God. Now, with that said, I want us to think this morning, just for a minute, about the purpose of the church, because Jesus shares it with us in this text. The church was established by Jesus to carry out his heavenly mission on earth. That’s why he established the church.

I want you to notice what Jesus says. This is my church. And it’s a very fascinating text that’s been examined for years and years and years. Okay? I mean, just.

Just look at what, what Jesus said in verse 18. He says, I tell you that you are Peter on this rock, I will build my church. Now, that little sentence has been debated by theologians for 2000 years. Now, what did Jesus mean? Now, if you were reading this in Greek, the New Testament is written in Greek.

Jesus, his words are recorded by Matthew, and Matthew uses two different words in this text. You are Peter. Petros is the masculine noun. Then he says upon this, petra. It’s a feminine noun.

I’m going to build my church. So what does that mean? Thou art Peter, you are the rock, and upon this rock, I’ll build my church. Well, a lot of debate about that. Now, some scholars say, well, Jesus spoke Aramaic, and this has been translated into Greek, and now we’re reading it in English.

And so in Aramaic had been the same word, Cephas, if you will. But here’s the challenge. For some reason, Matthew chooses to use two different Greek words. And it causes us to have to try to evaluate what does he mean by that and why did he choose to do that. So when some people read this text, they read it and they say, well, the church is established upon Peter.

He is a rock, and the church is built upon him, the rock. And so therefore, if you want to be legitimate, you’ve got to be in that line, that Petrine line, if you will, of people who succeed him, the head of the church from an earthly perspective, not a spiritual one. And he became known as the Vicar of Christ. I disagree with that view. And the reason I do is because I can’t reconcile why Matthew chose two different words in this text.

Because Petros means rock. Petra means a massive shelf of rock. And if you’ve ever been to Caesarea Philippi, which we’ve been. Caesarea Philippi is built on the top of a huge rock, a huge cliff. So Jesus is standing at the foot of that teaching.

And so right behind him, the backdrop is this massive rock formation that would have been known as a Petra. Peter would have Been known as a rock, which is a smaller expression of the Petra. So I believe Jesus is saying something else. What’s he saying? Well, some people say, well, he’s talking about the confession that Simon Peter makes upon this rock, upon this confessional statement, upon this belief in my identity, accepting me as the Messiah.

There’s some reputable scholars who would teach that. A lot of my colleagues believe that. The third option is that he’s talking about himself upon this rock. I will build my church. That’s the view that I would espouse.

I believe the church is built on the foundation of Christ himself. But. And I’m not going to go into all that today, but that would be my conviction. And there are many of us who believe that. But the point is, when Jesus says that, he says, now the church is established, it’s mine.

I will build it. Here’s what it’s going to do. Here are the keys, and you’re going to bind and loose. Now, if you were to flip over to Matthew 18, you find the very same thing Jesus will tell us in Matthew 18, verse 18. Truly, I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven.

Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Matthew 18 is in the plural you. Matthew 16 is in the singular U. It’s a little bit challenging in the NIV because English is limited. Our word.

You can mean singular or it can mean plural. When you’re reading Greek, the distinction is made. The old King James used to help you because it used the word ye, y, e, singular, you, plural. The Alabama version uses you and y’, all, which makes it a whole lot easier for Everybody. So Matthew 16 is a you.

Matthew 18 is a y’. All. The point is, Jesus is saying to his disciples, going to give you something. Keys. Now, why do you have keys to unlock?

You’re going to unlock doors on this earth that will have eternal ramifications in heaven. Whatever you unlock, if you choose to do that, it’s going to also make sure that eternity is open. If you choose not to do that, then the eternity will be closed. In other words, what’s bound on this earth will be bound in heaven. But if you’ll unleash it, open it, unlock it.

As a matter of fact, Jesus will say in Matthew 23:13 to the Pharisees, the teachers of the law, he says, you have shut the door of the kingdom in the face of God’s people. The opposite calling is for the church to open the doors, open the doors to the Jews, open the doors to the Gentiles, open the doors to the Samaritans. The Book of Acts tells that story. And so the gospel is to be proclaimed. The church is supposed to unlock those doors.

And when we do that and the Gospel is proclaimed and people receive it, it has eternal ramifications. So what’s set loose here on this earth will actually be recorded in eternity. So the church has a heavenly authority and a spiritual authority. It is a spiritual entity. It is connected to eternity.

And we have heavenly authority given to us by Jesus himself so that the prayer of Jesus can come true, so that God’s will can be done on earth just like it is in heaven. So the church is engaged in this heavenly activity. The church offers the opening of the door to eternity, to people where sins can be forgiven. You can embrace the Revelation of Jesus that he really is the Son of God. Now, to think about that for just a second.

When Jesus spoke that he’s a carpenter from Nazareth, he’s not a recognized scholar in his day, even though he knew the law, he had not been to a rabbinical school that of reputation that anybody knew of. And he’s got 12 men with him who mostly are just small businessmen for the most part. And think about the audacity. There he is, standing in the face of Roman ideology and pagan worship in Caesarea Philippi. And he says to this handful of guys, here’s what we’re going to do.

I’m going to give you the authority to change the whole world and connect everything you do to eternity and. And I will build it. How audacious is that? Well, here’s the secret power. The reason it can happen is because Jesus has empowered the church to accomplish his mission.

In other words, we’re not doing this on our own. Look what Jesus says. The gates of Hades will not overcome the church. Now, here’s where Jesus was, y’. All.

He’s in Caesarea Philippi. He’s standing at the foot of this massive shelf of rock. And there are three huge temples located in Caesarea Philippi if you’ve ever been there. They’re in ruin now, but one of them was constructed over a massive opening with a cave that the Romans believe led to the spiritual underground. They believe that’s where the gods slept in the winter, if you will.

They believe it was connected to the netherworld. And all this pagan ideology is circulating all around Jesus while he’s standing there in Caesarea Philippi. And you know what that opening was called? There was a massive temple built over it to pan the Roman God. But that massive opening, you know what it was called?

The gates of Hades. It was the opening to the dead, the abode of the dead. And there’s Jesus standing in front of it, and he says, the gates of Hades. In other words, all this pagan teaching, all this pagan ideology, all these forces of darkness, even the force of death is not going to overcome the church. The church is going to emerge victorious.

I’m going to empower the church because it’s mine, and I will build it, and it will be successful, and it will ultimately be victorious. Not even death can overcome it. Jesus will show us that on Easter Sunday. So the gates of Hades, the forces of darkness, are not going to overcome the church. The church is empowered by Jesus himself, equipped with for the mission that he’s given to us.

The church will always be opposed. Of course it will. The church is going to have to engage in spiritual warfare, but the church will be victorious. So let me just ask y’ all this morning, what do y’ all think about the church? See, here’s my fear.

I think your thinking about the church is just too low. I don’t think you give enough credit. Now, I want to make sure that we lift our gaze this morning. You know, C.S. lewis wrote a series of articles for a British newspaper, and the articles were actually a series of letters.

The letters were written by a senior demon, and his name was Screwtape, and he was writing them to his nephew Wormwood. And Wormwood was a junior demon, and he had been assigned a patient, a person. And the principal responsibility was to keep this person out of the church, keep them away from Jesus, make sure they never become a Christian. But as you read each successive letter, you realize that Wormwood has failed and the patient has become a Christian and is going to church. Screwtape is not happy, and he tells him, you’re going to be in trouble with the master because he’s talking about the devil, the master, because of this.

Once the guy starts going to church, Screwtape writes another letter to Wormwood. Let me read it to you. He says, dear Wormwood, one of our great allies at present is the church itself. Don’t misunderstand me. I don’t mean the church as we see her, spread out through all time and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners that I confess, is a spectacle which makes our boldest tempters uneasy.

Y’ all hear what Lewis is saying. He says the demons look at the church and go, oh, my goodness. It’s set out all across time. It’s dangerous. We’re uneasy when we talk about the church, he says, but fortunately, it’s quite invisible to these humans.

All your patient sees is the half finished, sham gothic erection on the new building estate. And when he goes inside, he sees the local grocer with rather oily expression on his face bustling up to offer him one shiny little book containing a liturgy which neither of them understands, and one shabby little book containing corrupt texts of a number of religious lyrics, mostly bad and in very small print. And when he gets to his pew, he looks around him and he sees a selection of his neighbors whom he has hitherto avoided. So in other words, he says, the good news is when your patient goes to church, he doesn’t think about the church. He’s totally unaware of the church.

All he can see is his frailties. Distract him with those, y’. All. There are plenty of those. So what do you think of when you think of the church?

Think about it. You know, we’ve been talking about flourishing. Tyler Vanderweel says flourishing is living life as God intended. This Harvard professor, I like that statement. Well, God intended for you to live in community with his people, to be a part of the church.

It’s important. Have y’ all been following the story of these two astronauts that got stranded at the space station? I saw an interview with Butch Wilmore, who’s just returned safely. We got a photo of him. You know what’s interesting about him?

He is a member of Providence Baptist Church in Pasadena, Texas. He’s an elder. And you know what he said in an interview the other day? I joined my church in worship online every Sunday while I was in space.

He said, I got the best pastors in the world, and they are out of this world at the same time. And they asked him why? Why were you at church in space? He said, I need it. I need to hear the word of God.

And so I went to church. Even in space. Come on, y’. All. We have a hard enough time getting people in Arlington to church.

Can you imagine in space? He sees the value of church. How about you? What do you think of when you think of the church? I get it, y’.

All. It’s not perfect. You know why? Look around. Y’ all are in it.

So am I. Guess what that means. It’s never going to be perfect. And when I think of the church, I don’t think about all its failures. I don’t.

You think I don’t know about them? How long y’ all think I’ve been Doing this. What do you think I’ve seen at church? How disappointed do you think I’ve been sometimes at church? The actions of church members in my own actions.

Y’ all, come on. I had been to so many meetings. I was a young preacher. I’ll never forget. I was at a meeting one night as a young pastor, and the daycare was used in the building.

And we had some Sunday school teachers want to talk to me. One of the Sunday school teachers said, I’m telling you right now, I’m sick and tired of these daycare kids eating our crackers. So here’s what I’ve done. I put a lock on our cabinet. They can’t have our crackers tell you that right now.

I don’t know what’s going on here Monday through Friday, but it’s a Sunday school room. I said, well, tell you what, we got one of those. She said, it’s a combination lock, too. So nobody knows the combination. I said, well, I’ll tell you what.

When you get to church next Sunday, we got those clipper things. They ain’t gonna be no locks. I don’t care if you got a combination. It’ll be gone by the time you get. We’re not locking up the crackers from the children.

My goodness. Seriously. But when I think of the church, that’s not the first thing I think of. I don’t think of all its brokenness. I don’t think of all the poor decisions the church has made through the years.

I don’t think of all the hurt that I and others have experienced. I don’t think of the failure. Excuse me, the failures. When I think of the church. You know, my mama, she started taking me to church before I was born.

And when I was born, she took me when I was a week old. And when I was a week old, her Sunday school class gave me this Bible. I’ve had this Bible my whole life. My home church gave it to me. And they prayed over me, and they took care of her while I was little.

And then you know what? I went to Sunday school and they taught me the Bible at my church. People just like y’, all, they nurtured me. They loved me. They loved my family.

On Wednesday nights, we had these people, they just volunteered to take care of us. Wednesday nights, I went to Ras and Ra. Teacher taught us about missions. He coached our basketball team. He used to tell us he’d teach us on Wednesday night, practice us on Friday night, take us to the games on Saturday, load us up in his truck and he used to tell us, boys, get the lead and hold it.

I thought, that’s a pretty good philosophy. Get the lead and hold it. I said that last night during the Auburn game. Just get the lead, hold it. That’s my RA basketball coming out.

He never told us how to hold it. He just told us to do it. Why did he come every Wednesday night and teach a group of boys? Why did he come on Friday night and take us to practice? Why did he haul us around on Saturdays to ball games?

Why did all these teachers teach me the Bible? I worshiped at church. I was trained at church. I got saved at church, came to know Jesus. I got baptized in my church.

My church baptized me.

I was called to ministry at my church. I surrendered to the calling of God on my life. We got married at our church. I got ordained into the gospel ministry, our church.

And then I began serving the church. In my adult life, I’ve pastored six churches. Oklahoma, Alabama and Texas.

My kids were dedicated in the church. My kids were baptized at the church. My grandkids have been dedicated at this church. My grandkids have been baptized at this church. So when I think of the church, my whole life has been lived in the life of the church.

You know, it’s the only institution that Jesus himself established. It’s the only one. It’s different than anything else. There’s nothing else on earth like it. There’s no other institution like it.

It’s the church. So let me say this to you. Join it. Love it, Serve in it. Put your hands on it.

Your church needs you and you need it. Get in on what Jesus is doing. If you want to do that, then you got to be a part of a church. Because this is what Jesus chose to work through. And all those things that are extensions of it are all tied to the church.

Because our mission is a heavenly spiritual mission. And you know what? The church will emerge victorious. Hallelujah. Amen.

Let’s pray together.

Father, we’re grateful for the church in spite of all its imperfections.

It’s beautiful. It’s a reflection of your will. Thank you. Thank you for Jesus establishing the church, giving us an opportunity to be a part of something that matters. Pray your blessings on this church, on our churches all over.

Arlington Mansfield. Today, pastors, men and women faithfully preaching, teaching the word of God, Sunday school workers. So thank you, Lord. I pray your blessings on our ministries that will honor you in what we do. And today, Lord, we pray you’ll have your will in our lives and may you find us faithful, loyal to your church.

We pray in Jesus name.