The Most Important Thing to God...

Sometimes with all of the stuff going on in our lives with our families, our friends, our acquaintances, and even those people we would call our enemies, honestly we can feel quite alone. I know of several people who feel very alone in their family. They just don’t seem to agree with their parents, or maybe their parents are trying to work through their own issues about separation.


Maybe they are alone at school. I hear more and more stories of young people being bullied, and going through kinds of depression all fuelled by popularity, relationships and all that stuff.

This past week at Infuzion we talked about how the most important thing to God is you… yes, YOU! If you look at the bible you can see that as the story unfolds. It starts with God creating people, loving those people, setting up rules for the safety of those people, talking to those people, and having to limit those relationships because of sin. The rest of the bible is the story of how God provides a way of restoring the plan to get the relationship back with people. And the story ends when those that choose to follow God’s ways get to go to be with Him.

God gave us several things to help us to have a relationship with Him now… here… in our present life. He provides the 5-fold ministry: Evangelists, Prophets, Apostles, Pastors and Teachers. He provided several spiritual gifts for us to use a tools to help others in the church and outside the church. He provided spiritual armour to protect us in our fight against principalities and powers.

God gave us SO much, even offering His own Son so that we can know Him, and approach our Maker. He wants a relationship with us. I intend to keep embracing it, and getting as close to God as I can. It’s tough at times, but you can always count on the fact that no matter what, God loves you. He wants to know you, and He wants you to know Him.

Discipline....

Discipline.... such a large word, not in spelling, but in how it makes us feel. I asked about this at one of our Infuzion events, and the first thing that they came up with was that discipline is a punishment from your parents.  Some other definitions are: To discipline someone means to instruct them in something.  A discipline can be a field of study, like biology or something.  The one that we focused on at that Infuzion was like the way a drill sergeant trains his troops or like a coach pulls the best out of his team.  They use training that corrects, molds or perfects the mental faculties or moral character of their people.

We have all seen tv shows or movies where a drill sergeant yells and screams in peoples’ faces and makes them do really tough exercises to make their body stronger.  He is not doing it to be mean to the unit, he is doing it to train them for difficult situations.  He (or she) is stressing the bodies of the team to make it stronger, and to train them how to behave in a certain situation.  When they have completed the training, not only are they stronger... not only are they a team, but they know how to maintain their own body, and their duties.

Same thing if you think of all those sport movies where the team is against an insurmountable opposition, but somehow when the coach works with them, and trains them they are able to overcome the other team.  One of my favourites is Facing the Giants... a good football movie.  There always seems to be a point where the team learns to trust their coach and then they rally.  In the end though, they are able to move forward together because of the time that was put into training.

I compared this to Infuzion.  We have something called Fire Academy where each young person should be learning to spend time with God each day through Bible reading and prayer.  We have puppet projects  that we work together to perform for others that also ministers to them.  We have events where we minister to the poor, times where we reach out to our friends... and the list is still to be added to, and is still continuing.

The big key though, is that through the training, if young people plug in, and follow the training, they will be learning to become self-disciplined.  They will be responsible for their own walk with God, and eventually they can be used to help train others.

Hebrew 13:17 says “Obey your spiritual leaders, and do what they say. Their work is to watch over your souls, and they are accountable to God. Give them reason to do this with joy and not with sorrow. That would certainly not be for your benefit.”

Part of learning to be disciplined is learning to obey those in authority.  They have gone through it.  They know how to pull the best out of you.  While they are training you they are responsible to make sure that you do what you need to do.  But what happens when they have trained you?  You have to go out and use the skills and do it yourself.

1 Corinthians 9:24 -27 says, “Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.”

This is also tough to do.  I know that I find being disciplined with my body to be tough, but God still says we should do that.  But as Paul (the writer of 1 Corinthians) says, that we must be careful in our walk with God.  We can do all the stuff...  going to church, singing the songs and all that, but we have to make the decision to follow Jesus.

Here is another great passage in 1 Timothy 4:7-13, “Do not waste time arguing over godless ideas and old wives’ tales. Instead, train yourself to be godly. ‘Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.’ This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it. This is why we work hard and continue to struggle, for our hope is in the living God, who is the Savior of all people and particularly of all believers.

Teach these things and insist that everyone learn them. Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity. Until I get there, focus on reading the Scriptures to the church, encouraging the believers, and teaching them.”

This passage is an excellent passage to have young people memorize, especially verse 12!

We have to learn to take responsibility for living the life of a Christian.  It is ours to do.  No one can do it for us.  We will be successful at some points and not at others, but we will learn and get closer to God the more we spend time with him.  As 2 Timothy 1:7 says, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” We must live the life, walk the walk, and step out in faith for ourselves.

This is what Infuzion is about.... Training up in Christ, so that when the time comes you can use your gifts, both physical and spiritual to serve God and others.

Why should we go to church?

At Infuzion this week, we talked about this and thought I would share it with you:

More and more I hear about people saying that they can be a Christian without going to church, but I think that to be a Christian, part of what you do is go to church.  It is one of the ways that God builds and strengthens those that are His for His service.  It is something that we are to discipline ourselves to do.  It is not something that should just be prioritized out in favour of the football game, or the shopping trip.  I watch it all the time too.  Because so many people disregard Sunday as a day to worship God, practices and sports events and family events get scheduled there and Christians are left trying to figure out where they should prioritize church.

On the flip side, going to church alone does not make you a Christian.  Doing things that religious people do does not make you a follower of Jesus.  Choosing to follow Jesus means acknowledging that you are a sinner, asking God to forgive you of that sin, and then choosing to live the way Jesus tells us to in the Bible.

Here was the key verse that I used:

"And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. For if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins," (Heb. 10:24-26).

But why church?  What can only be done within the context of the church service? 

The Bible tells us that we are to spend time with God, and with other Christians.  Whenever Christians were within the same area, they would meet together in the first century church.  When there were a few of them, the Apostle Paul would organize them into small groups—usually house groups—or a small church.

As most of the new Christians were still practicing some Jewish traditions, they were still meeting in the Synagogue on the Sabbath, and then on the first day of the week they would meet as Christians.  They would break bread together, remembering the things that Jesus did for them, and then Paul would preach and teach to them.

As Christians, God gave us spiritual gifts, but how are those gifts to be used if not in the church to edify the body?  The whole gift of the pastor is wasted if not for the church.  Prophecy, that the Bible says is for the church, would not even be used.

The Church is sometimes called the Body of Christ, and the way it is described in 1 Corinthians 12 it is quite obvious that all of the parts are meant to work together.  We are one, and cannot be separated from the Body.  A foot would be useless off on its own.  An eye that can see and is not part of the Body provides no information to the rest of the parts.  Even if you are a belly button your job in the church might be to catch that lint and dispose of it before it hurts someone?

The New Testament is full of “one another” commands.  Take a look at a few.  We are to comfort one another (I Thessalonians 4:18), build up one another (I Thessalonians 5:11), confess our sins to one another (James 5:16), pray for one another (James 5:16), and many, many more.  How can we obey these directives if we stay away from the gathering of believers?

We go to church to build some accountability into our lives.  In the church, God has designed spiritual leaders to watch over those that come.  They are shepherds that guard the sheep.  If someone answers only to themselves, it is easy to dismiss bad choices or to even justify them.  If we submit ourselves to our pastor’s they may challenge us by hearing the word of the Lord from the pulpit to our church.  It amazes me how many times a message from my pastor can seem like it is directed at me.  I do love being challenged, but at the same time it hurts sometimes.

Going to church allows us to express our love for God collectively with other Christians.  It is where we can bring Him offerings of praise, thanks, and honour, which are pleasing to Him.

Going to church builds up our Spiritual Strength.  We are in a spiritual battle.  The bible tells us about times where spirits battle over issues of prayer.  Angels and Demons fight over our well-being.  As Christians we have access to the armour of the Lord... The helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the belt of truth, the shoes that walk the Gospel around the world, the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.

Going to church brings a special visitation of the Lord's Presence.  Jesus lives in each of us, but the Bible teaches “where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them" (Matt. 18:20).

Going to church provides fellowship with other Christians.  One of the most important reasons that we go to church is to practice love toward each other in the form of fellowship. 

Church is a time for people who have the same attitudes toward God to gather together and share their beliefs and knowledge. It is the interaction that does this. As the Proverb says, we are iron sharpening iron (Proverbs 27:17).  When two pieces of iron rub together there is friction, and sometimes there are sparks, but in the end when iron is set out to sharpen another piece of iron, both pieces are made better.  There are going to be times you will be dragging spiritually and someone will be going through something similar, but that God has already worked through with the.  There will be other times that you will do it from some other brother.

Going to church is an act of obedience to God.  As noted above we are not to forsake meeting together with other Christians.  Some say, “Well that doesn’t have to be in church.”  I suppose technically, no... where two or more, right?  But there is something to be said for the discipline of putting importance on meeting every week, and not just when you happen to run into other Christians.  It would be really easy to just let it go FAR too long.  I have friends where I only get to see them a few times a year, and it’s like we try to meet more often, but life gets in the way and it just ends up being a few times a year.

Going to church helps prepare us to lead others in Jesus.  Leaders don’t lead by doing things that are easy. They do the things that are tough, and if we are REALLY called to lead then we must show our faithfulness in following. In the Marine Corps the motto is Semper Fidelis; that’s Latin for “Always Faithful.”  I have watched people that attend church regularly, and people that don’t and I have found that church attendance is absolutely essential if Christians are to effective in their walk.

Going to church helps us build a spiritual family.  God has placed us into the body of Christ for our own protection and blessing. Just like every earthly family, it's not always fun. We don't always have warm and fuzzy feelings in the body. There are difficult and unlovely moments as we grow together as a family, but there are also blessings that we will never experience unless we become relational and connected in the body of Christ.  Many people come to Christ, and they are the only one in their family that is saved.  Sometimes a family-type relationship develops in the lack.

Going to church is SO important.  Don’t marginalize it.