WHY I JOINED MY LAST CHURCH

Eph 4:11-16

Lk 4:16 So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. 17And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:

        18"The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me,
        Because He has anointed Me
        To preach the gospel to the poor;
        He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
        To proclaim liberty to the captives
        And recovery of sight to the blind,
        To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
        19To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD."

20Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. 21And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."

History makers – planetshakers – Get the basics right.

 Jesus was the ultimate example – He esteemed church.

He is the head of the church – His concern is the church – always has been – always will be.

I decided to talk about why I joined my last church for two reasons:
1] Because I have no idea what motivates people to join churches or not…,
2] Because if you can see where I come then you can see where I am and where we’re heading with The River, you can see what my motivations are that make me get out of bed in the morning, and what I value.

I know a single dish cannot satisfy the tastes of a hundred people but here goes…

1] I joined my last church because it preached the Word. The Word changed me because the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a transforming Gospel.

I wanted my life transformed from what I was into what God had created me to be. Transformed lives is what God is about.

The Word concerning faith, healing, prayer, the authority of the believer and being led by the Holy Spirit transformed my life.

2] I joined my last church because it had a world vision to make a difference one person at a time bc I wanted to make a difference here on the earth for God.

I caught the vision that one was too small a number to achieve greatness     and make a difference. Together, with one heart and one vision we can do more. Church is not about looking at each other but in looking forward and moving forward together as one.

We accepted, honoured and celebrated our differences and esteemed them of lesser importance than what God wanted to do in us and through us. Our differences didn’t divide and make us small-minded, menial and petty – our vision of Christ united us in kingdom purposes and pursuits.

I joined my last church because I wanted to be a part and play my part in making a difference.

And the difference my last church wanted to make was by doing so one person at a time. We never spoke about taking a city for God or taking a nation for God. We just spoke about making a difference in one person at a time – the teller at the bank, our work colleague, the dad at the rugby match, the mom at school picking up her kids, the businessman we’re making a deal with.

We could focus on our purposes, or we could focus on our problems. If we focus on our problems, we went into self-centeredness, 'which is my problem, my issues, my pain.' But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.

And when we looked up a city had been taken and a nation had been changed.

3] I joined my last church because I wanted to be a part of a family – my spiritual family - the family of God. Relationship was essential bc I had come from an ungodly broken dysfunctional family.

Matt 12:48 "Who is My mother and who are My brothers?" 49And He stretched out His hand toward His disciples and said, "Here are My mother and My brothers! 50For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother."
A family is accountable to each other for the way they live.

Acts 4:23 After they were permitted to go, [the apostles] returned to their own [company] and told all that the chief priests and elders had said to them.
24And when they heard it, lifted their voices together with one united mind to God.

Col 2:6 6As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 7rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it F2 with thanksgiving.

The Word gives pictures of the church - a believer without a church is like a
a living stone without a building
an arm/leg/eye without a body
a son/daughter without a family
a sheep without a flock
a soldier without an army
a bride without a groom
a plant without a field

Within the church, we should have our closest and most life changing relationships (like a family), we connect with the greatest purpose to which we could give our lives (like an army), and we discover the unique gifts God has given us to offer others (like a body). We also discover that God has provided leadership to help us grow (like a flock), a pursuit of a Christ-like life that unites us (as a fellowship), and that the church has become the temple of God, financially supported by those who are part of it (like a building).

4] I joined our last church because it loved to reach the lost bc I once was lost and will forever be indebted to those who reached across the table to me and gave Christ to me. We loved leading people to Christ were-ever we went. We loved inviting people to church. We loved our pastor doing the altar call and loved see hundreds of people go down the aisles to the altar and give their lives to Christ.

5] I joined my last church because it challenged my walk with God to grow in Christ because I grew up around people who never grew in any area of their lives; never upped their game but his under a victimized blame and excuse culture. Grow in my Christlikeness – grow in my love walk, grow in my faith, grow in my character, grow in the fruits of the spirit, grow in the gifts of the spirit, grow in my spirituality, grow in my obedience to God through His Word, grow in my giving, grow in our worship.

It challenged us to increasingly love God more on a daily basis as reflected in our humility, submission and obedience before Him.

In our happy moments we were taught to praise God
In our challenging times to seek God
In the quiet times to worship God
In our pain to trust God
And at all times to thank God

1Pet 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a dedicated nation, [God's] own purchased, special people, that you may set forth the wonderful deeds and display the virtues and perfections of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

6] I joined my last church because it equipped and empowered me for spiritual warfare in my daily life because I had enough sense to understand that if I was ever going to have a better life I would have to stop making the same generational choices that landed my family in a mess all the time. Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into an other one. My last church equipped and empowered me to navigate my life successfully through these problems. Sometimes deliverance was quick and other times deliverance was slow but in our perseverance we formed our character through the adversity of life’s problems – and it’s our character not our comfort that He is interested in; our holiness not our happiness.

Rather than life being a constant journey of going from mountaintop to valley, it’s more like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life. No  matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on. And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for.

7] I joined my last church because it was an empowering church. It believed in my potential, in my the treasure that God had hidden within me. Believed that with God I could do it. Because I grew up in a family that had a crab bucket pull everyone down mentality.

All things are possible with God.

8] I joined my last church because it wanted me prepared for eternity instead of living for the here and now. Our relationship with God was paramount because God wants us to spend eternity with Him.

Only rewards we get in Heaven was based on what we did with our resources and people here on the earth for the Kingdom. Our faithfulness toward Him to advance kingdom purposes with the two things will determine what I get to do for eternity.

9] I joined my last church because it was purpose-driven – behind everything we did there was a kingdom purpose behind it instead of just doings things but not knowing why

We learnt how to stop being driven:
by the pressures of life,
by the guilt of past wrongs
by the bitterness of pain
by the fear of things inward and things outward
by the insecurities of our weakness and dysfunctionalism
by the greed of materialism
by the yearning for popularity
by the fear of failure

and to be His and His alone.