Harbor Church - Mid City

Spiritually Healthy Lives—The Church Part 2 Col. 3: 1-17 Mid-City 2/7/10

We’re in a series where we are looking at the ingredients of a spiritually healthy life. We began the discussion last week on the role of the local church in a spiritually healthy life and we’ll pick it back up this week. According to a survey, 81% of Americans believe that you can have a spiritually healthy relationship with God and not be involved in a church. 81%. There are lots of reasons why 8 out of 10 people in America think they don’t need the church.

Madonna one of those. Madonna said, “I don’t think there is anything wrong with the teachings of Jesus, but I am suspicious of organized religion.” Now I never thought I would say this, but I actually agree with Madonna’s sentiments here. See I, too, am deeply suspicious of organized religion. It isn’t the organized part that bothers me, because, well, organization is a good thing. I, like, Madonna can’t stand religion. I see it rob people of spiritual life and vitality all the time. Jesus couldn’t stand religion either. Think about it—who was he harshest with…the religious—the Pharisees.

But, Jesus, loved the church. He bled for the church. And he said in Heb. 10: 24-25, whatever you do, don’t give up on the church—don’t forsake assembling and worshipping. To Jesus, the church isn’t optional, but it is integral to spiritual health. Why was he so committed to it? Well, I will give you 2 reasons that the church is absolutely critical for your spiritual health: (1) character, and (2) creeds

1. You need the church to develop your character

V12, “Therefore, as God’s chosen people (i.e. as the church), holy and dearly loved , clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” Clothe yourself with these character attributes. But those of you who are skeptical of the church should rightly ask-- why do you need the church to develop your character?

Here is why. See character development only happens over long periods of time where you have people who are committed to you—for better or for worse. v13 says, “Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” I am here and you are here and we’re going to try to love Jesus and our neighbor. It will get messy. We’ll hurt each other b/c we’re human, but we are committed to bearing with and forgiving one another. Why? B/c Jesus has done this with us and when we forgive we get to be like Him and as we do this over time, His character is being formed in us over time.

Let me show you why the local church is so critical for character development by talking about some real life examples. Some of you know that we are following Jesus call to begin a community center out of which a charter school will operate. This vision flows out of not only the needs of this community, but also Marnie’s experience and education in studying other urban communities. In getting her PhD, Marnie had to synthesize the research that is out there on resiliency factors for at-risk kids. Resiliency factors are the things that enabled kids to make it through tough neighborhoods and difficult families lives and other problems. The 3 factors are (1) safe schools (which we hope the school will be), (2) a mentor (which we are providing and will provide) and (3) church participation. The 3^rd one most secular academics don’t like to admit, but you simply can’t ignore the data. Kids whose lives are integrated in a local church make it—they are resilient--because they have a family who will be longsuffering with them (v13), love them (v14), seek peace (v15), and teach and admonish them in the gospel (v16). These are the things they are craving—these are the things we are all craving.

See it isn’t just at-risk teens that need the church for character development. We all do. See lots of us try the seminar route for character development. I am going to go away to a seminar or a camp retreat and get all fixed up in one weekend. Conferences and Christians camps, as good as they are, aren’t enough. Some of you have experienced the high of a Christian camp. It is like the best kind of buzz. You go away to some idyllic setting in the mountains. You get away from the dirt and grime of the city and broken relationships and there is Christian music always on and you see everyone there in the most ideal light possible because no one has the normal stress and strain of life. So we’re all happy Christians putting on our happy Christian faces.

No better example of this than the Christian outdoors camp up in Northern California where I met my wife called the JH Ranch. Amazing experience on the mountain, but it was really a sociological phenomenon to watch my friends come back from the mountain and descend into real life and think, “But why isn’t it working for me down here in the valley? Everything was great for me up there. If I could only get back to that place and around those people, then I would be a good Christian.

No. You don’t need to go back to camp, you need a church committed to v13-16 for life. You need a church Committed to v13 (forgiving/bearing with), v14 (loving), v15 (peace), v16 (teaching and admonishing one another in the gospel). If you have this, then v12 happens—your character is being formed. You’re putting on the clothes.

Those of you who are skeptical are thinking—can’t I get this in other areas? In part, yes, but not in full b/c the church is the only thing that won’t allow you to run. Here is why. In every other area of your life you simply leave when things get tough. You don’t like the way you are being treated at work, you resign. If you have a friend that doesn’t treat you well, you just don’t hang out with them anymore. Marriage is, sadly, no different—we get divorced like we open and close bank accounts. No problem, I don’t like the service I got at this branch, I’ll try another one.

But inside a local church committed to the gospel, Jesus doesn’t allow you to just walk away when the going gets tough. No. See he says so in Mat. 18. In Mt. 18, Jesus outlines a process for how we handle conflict in the church. He doesn’t allow you to just walk away when you get ticked. No. He says relationships matter. Go to that person. Repent and be reconciled. And if they won’t listen, then step 2—bring in one or two witnesses. Then I’ll quote Mt. 18:17, “If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church.” See he didn’t say tell it to your lawyer. Didn’t say tell it to all your friends so they know what a jerk your friend is. No—he says get the elders of the church involved. See the local church, for Jesus, is the crucible that creates character.

2. You need the church to give you a creed to believe in

What is a creed? A creed is something to believe in.

For followers of Jesus, our creed, that which we believe and set the course of our life, is in v16. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.” The gospel message—the good news of Jesus—is the word of Christ and it is to dwell in us richly. The good news that Christ lived for us so that he could impart all of His wonderful character traits listed in v12; the good news Christ died so that he could as v13 says forgive us. This gospel should be dwelling in our hearts.

We all need a creed—a set of beliefs by which to live our lives. A set of beliefs that help us make sense of the world. How do I know? Well, 2 legendary rock bands of the 80s said so—Poison and Bon Jovi. And if Poison and Bon Jovi agree on something, then you know it must be true. Let me take you back to the 80s. Remember Poison’s great song, “Give me something to believe in.” You know what the next line was, “if there is a Lord above.” Then it goes on, “Give me something to believe in, Lord arise.” Poison acknowledges how bad we all want something to believe in, but they just aren’t sure about whether that is the Lord above or not.

Bon Jovi said the same thing in a song entitled, “Something to Believe In,”

“I lost all faith in my God, in his religion too
Tonight I'll dust myself off
Tonight I'll suck my gut in
I'll face the night and I'll pretend
I got something to believe in

Bon Jovi/Poison. Need you any more cultural evidence that we’re all longing for a creed, for something to believe in. Yet, so many people are struggling to find this in the church..

Let me give you some sociological evidence. In 2007, Lifeway Research released a study showing that 7 out of 10 Protestatns age 18-30 stopped attending church by age 23. These were people who would have labeled themselves Christians and they give it up in their 20s and 30s. What happens between the age of 18-30?

Here is what happens. Those of you who are skeptical about the church or Jesus you know this journey well. Some of you went to college and you are surrounded by a whole new group of people presenting new information that rattles your intellectual foundation. Or for others of you it isn’t college but it is just life in your 20s and 30s. You’re are trying to make it out of what Steve Garber calls the valley of diapers. Can Christianity hold up? Does it give me a creed by which to live? Put it another way—does it give me a credible worldview by which to live?

But it isn’t just belief and intellectual questions that cause people to leave the church. Your creed moves you into a community. See we all need a band of brothers and sisters who care about the same things. You need a community of people and often times people don’t find this in the church. The Christians they know are either too judgmental or anti-intellectual or they don’t seem to care about social justice or they are just dorky. Right—I like to have a good time and the Christians seem to want to play Scrabble all night.

Then there is the personal side of things. Ultimately, your creed must lead to a sense on the heart. When you were involved with church in your youth, it was mostly your parent’s god. And the reality, my friends, is that this won’t carry you. You’ll ditch this, most likely in college, but if not there, once you get out.

So, here is the question on the table, my friends—how do you make it out of the college years, then your 20s and 30s and the valley of diapers, with a vibrant faith in Jesus?

Answer: A local church where Christ is all and is in all. Why? B/c the creed of any local church committed to the gospel is centered around the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Your conviction and your belief is that you have been forgiven as v13 says and so you have forgiveness to offer. And when the gospel comes over you—that when Jesus was on the cross and he said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do?” He wasn’t talking just about those who were crucifying him, but he was talking about me. He becomes my Savior, not simply my parents or my friends. He inhabits you and you experience the wonder of being united with Christ.

What you believe must, at some point, change and impact the heart. See this gospel creed then brings you into a community committed to grace, committed to working the grace of Jesus into every part of your city. And then you as you try to work the gospel into your community, you realize how helpless you are to actually to do so, so you start praying like crazy and Jesus starts showing up like crazy in your life. And in the rear view mirror you realize that your character is being shaped. You’re more loving, more joyful, peaceful and all the rest of the fruit of His Spirit are growing and abounding in your life.

Let me close with a story of how this works out in your life. This is a story about a 70 year old South African woman who was black. Imagine this scene from a recent courtroom trial in South Africa: A frail black woman stands slowly to her feet. She is about 70 years of age. Facing her from across the room are several white police officers, one of whom, Mr. van der Broek, has just been tried and found implicated in the murders of both the woman's son and her husband some years before.It was indeed Mr. Van der Broek, it has now been established, who had come to the woman's home a number of years back, taken her son, shot him at point-blank range and then burned the young man's body on a fire while he and his officers partied nearby.Several years later, Van der Broek and his security police colleagues had returned to take away her husband as well. For many months she heard nothing of his whereabouts. Then, almost two years after her husband's disappearance, Van der Broek came back to fetch the woman herself. How vividly she remembers that evening, going to a place beside a river where she was shown her husband, bound and beaten, but still strong in spirit, lying on a pile of wood. The last words she heard from his lips as the officers poured gasoline over his body and set him aflame were, "Father, forgive them."And now the woman stands in the courtroom and listens to the confessions offered by Mr. Van der Broek. A member of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission turns to her and asks, "So, what do you want? How should justice be done to this man who has so brutally destroyed your family?""I want three things," begins the old woman, calmly but confidently. "I want first to be taken to the place where my husband's body was burned so that I can gather up the dust and give his remains a decent burial."She pauses, then continues. "My husband and son were my only family. I want, secondly, therefore, for Mr. Van der Broek to become my son. I would like for him to come twice a month to the ghetto and spend a day with me so that I can pour out on him whatever love I still have remaining within me."" And, finally," she says, "I want a third thing. I would like Mr. Van der Broek to know that I offer him my forgiveness because Jesus Christ died to forgive. This was also the wish of my husband. And so, I would kindly ask someone to come to my side and lead me across the courtroom so that I can take Mr. van der Broek in my arms, embrace him and let him know that he is truly forgiven."

Do you see her gospel creed? She has been forgiven by Jesus and adopted into his family and as a result she had a lot of love to give so she wanted to bring others—even her enemies—into her family and ultimately into his.

As the court assistants come to lead the elderly woman across the room, Mr. van der Broek, overwhelmed by what he has just heard, faints. And as he does, her church (who were in court with her)— all victims of decades of oppression and injustice — began to sing, softly, but assuredly, "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. See for her church, this was normal. Another sinner experiencing the wonder of forgiveness and grace in Jesus. They knew exactly what was going on and began to sing about. Mr. Van Der Broek was just learning. "Here is what can happen if you get rooted in a community committed to a creed of grace.

But it must begin in your heart.

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