The Church's Raison d'Être

Good morning, everyone. I hope all of you are doing well during this time of trial and had a good night's sleep. We have so much to be thankful for. God has brought us through the past 25 years. It is because of God's divine favor. His grace that we're here today is the Apostle Paul writes, I am what I am by the grace of God. During a time like this, we need to be reminded of our reason for being, raison d'etre, as it is called by the French. First, let's ask, what is your reason? What is my reason for being? It is the same as saying, why were you born? I believe that less than 1% of the world's 1 billion people know why they were born. Western civilization, the bastion of Christianity, is so disoriented and demoralized that people have become putrid putty in the name of toleration, political correctness, and multiculturalism. Even sincere religious people who profess to believe in God and Christ do not understand the great questions of God. Who is God? God is our loving creator and father. He created all things through Jesus Christ. What is God? God is spirit. And what is God's purpose? The purpose of God is to bring sons and daughters to glory in his family. And the corollary to that, with regard to man, who is man. Man is made in the image of God with faculties akin to God. He can think, he can reason, he can even think about living forever. What is man? Man is made from the dust of the ground and is subject to sin and death and is going to die unless he is redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ through repentance and faith.

And what is man's great purpose? Man's great purpose. The reason why he was created is to become a son or a daughter of God and eventually, in the resurrection, a born son of God, a glorious and radiant spirit being.

So, in short, God created humans to become begotten-born sons and daughters in his family. We need to shout this from the lowest valleys to the highest mountains. Do we remotely understand the gravity of the critical crucial times that we're living in? Or are we saying through our action my Lord delays his coming? The nations of the world are arming themselves with all the weapons they can possibly beg, buy, borrow, or steal. As the prophet Joel writes in Joel chapter 3 verses 9 through 10 Proclaim you this among the nations, the gentiles, prepare war, wake up the mighty men. Let all the men of war draw near. Let them come up, beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears and let the weak say, I am strong. And so we see small nations like North Korea and Iran and other nations that are threatening the world order and trying to attain to nuclear weapons. But now we see the nations struggling to cope with an invisible microscopic virus. And none of their weapons will defeat this virus. They should fall on their knees and repent and beseech God for deliverance. But they probably won't. They will look to science and the government for deliverance. But we must proclaim a call to repentance. Whether they will hear or not, we must do what God has called us to do, what He's commissioned us to do.

In addition to arming themselves with strategic and tactical weapons, several nations, especially in the Islamic world, have a religious raison d'etre, a reason for their existence as they view it.

And we shall never forget and should not forget that Satan has his raison d'etre. His raison d'etre is to deceive the whole world, break prophecy, and become the object of worship. The major religions of the world are expecting a great messianic figure to come on the scene and lead the world into a new age. An era of peace and prosperity for all the peoples of the world. The Hindus are looking for Krishna, the Buddhists are looking for the fifth Buddha, the Islamic world is looking for the Grand Mahdi, the Jews are looking for the first coming of the Messiah as they view it. Political Zionism has its sights set on ruling the world. Christians are looking for the second coming of Jesus, the Messiah, and the New Agers are looking for Maitreya. In addition to these groups, there are various nations and political blocs that are struggling to gain dominance and hegemony over the world. China, North Korea, Iran, Russia, European Union, the United States, the United Nations, NATO, and the Zionists in Israel. And now a deadly virus stalks the earth like a serial killer. The virus is akin to Satan, who walks about seeking whom he may devour. I've talked for many years about standing in the gap, as so many great men and women have done in critical times like these through the ages. In Ezekiel 22 and verse 30, Ezekiel 22 and verse 30, there's a prophecy that shows that God is looking for men and women for a person to stand in the gap.

And I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge and stand in the gap before me for the land and that I should not destroy it. But I found none.

Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them. I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath. Their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, says the Lord God. God is looking for men and women to stand in the gap today. So this must not be said of us. God is looking for a person, men and women, to stand in the gap. This is our opportunity to stand in the gap and set ourselves apart as the church of God as never before. Once again, Western civilization, once the bastion of Christianity, has become so disoriented and demoralized that people have become putrid putty in the name of toleration, political correctness, and multiculturalism. We must set ourselves apart from the tidal wave of confusion that is tossing the people of the world around like a toy ship in a tsunami.

Without anchors, they will drown. Now is the time for them to be thrown a lifeline, and we can throw that lifeline. Let's now discuss some things that we need to do in order to maintain our reason for being.

Our reason for being is not to be just another, quote, Christian organization that is a bit different in that we observe certain traditions that basically the nominal Christian world would say are Jewish in nature. The Church of God is not some kind of halfway house between the churches of the world and the truth of God. We are of the true Church of God. As the apostle Paul writes in 1 Timothy 3 verses 14 and 15, These things I write unto you, hoping to come unto you shortly. But if I tarry long that you may know how you ought to behave yourself in the house of God which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. Let's now discuss some things that we need to do in order to retain our reason for being and our identity as the Church of God. Many voices, both religious and secular, are crying out. Whose voices will be heard and whose voices will be heeded?

Will it be the voice of the United Church of God or will it we cave in and compromise in a time like this? John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ coming in the flesh, turned the world upside down in about six months. John and a few disciples were crying aloud a message of repentance in the Judean wilderness. John the Baptist had none of the technologies that are available to us today. What can we do with all the marvels of technology that are at our disposal?

Are we afraid of persecution?

I am far more fearful of what God thinks than what man thinks. Let's notice once again the words of Ezekiel. In Ezekiel 33, The word of the Lord came unto me saying, Son of man, speak to the children of your people and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon the land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts and set him for their watchmen, if when he sees the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet and warn the people. Then whosoever hears the trumpet will be saved. But if the watchman does not blow the trumpet and sound the alarm, then the blood will be upon the head of the watchman. And if the people don't heed, let's say that you do blow the trumpet and the people don't heed, then the blood is upon their head. But our calling, our commission, is to blow the trumpet and to warn the people of what they are facing and what they need to do in order to be delivered in the ultimate sense. So I believe that this is a time for us to serve in the role of the watchman. To do as Isaiah was inspired to write, cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet, show my people their transgressions and the house of Jacob their sins from Isaiah 58, verse 1.

In so doing, the church must maintain and further develop its own distinct identity. The church must cling to those teachings that sets us apart from the churches of the world as summarized by the great questions of life. The church must set itself apart from the churches of the world by preaching, publishing, and teaching those things that identifies it as the true church of God. Yes, the true church of God. I'm not afraid to use the term the true church of God. We are not the false church of God. We're not the in-between church of God. We are the church of God. As I noticed earlier, the church of God is a pillar and ground of the truth. That is according to the words of the apostle Paul, as we read from verse Timothy 3 and verse 15.

We must not be intimidated by this society. Our message must be based on the immutable word of God.

We don't want to be guilty of what Isaiah writes. Now go write it before them in a table and note it in a book that it may be for a time to come forever and ever that this is rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord, which say to the seers, see not to the prophets, prophesy not unto us write things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceit. We don't want to be guilty of that. We want to preach and teach the word of God.

There are religious and secular voices crying out today, in some ways far more powerfully and directly than we are. We must not get lost in the sea of religious confusion about the end of this age. We must clearly and boldly and loudly proclaim the truth of God as never before. The world hates the truth. Scripture declares that one cannot love God and love the world.

It says clearly in 1 John chapter 2 verse 16-17 along in there, "...he who loves the world is not of the Father." The church must not try to operate for maintaining the status quo, not rocking the boat, but boldly proclaim the truth. We cannot halt between two opinions. As Joshua admonished Israel, if God be God, then serve him.

If not, then serve the gods on the other side of the river. We must identify what the goal of the church is. The church's goal must be the same as God's goal. What would you say is God's greatest goal? I believe that God's greatest goal is to bring all people into the family of God. As noted in 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 9, "...not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." God and Christ were willing to give all they could. The familiar John 3.16, "...for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." And also, as it says later in the Gospel of John, "...that greater love had no man than this, than he lay down his life for his friends." The theme of the Bible in the broadest sense is the kingdom of God.

When Jesus started preaching, as it says in Mark 1, he went forth preaching repentance. Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand. We must clearly teach in a systematic manner, in a systematic manner, the plan and purpose of God, and bringing sons and daughters to glory in the family of God.

The seven great questions of life outlines, in a systematic way, the plan of salvation. When you understand who is God, what is God, what is his purpose, and the corollary to that, who is man, what is man, what is his purpose, sermons can be preached on each one of those in a systematic way. The theme includes why humankind was created as summarized by these seven great questions of life. Why did God create human beings?

God and Christ so loved the world. They wanted to share who they are and what they are with humanity. Love, outgoing concern. The great overriding purpose of God, then, is to bring sons and daughters to glory in his family through a spiritual, begat-al, and a birth process. Once again, I would venture to say that less than one percent of the world's population understands the spiritual, begat-al, and birth process. If humanity could just come to understand that humans do not possess an immortal soul, it would make a tremendous difference in their thinking.

They need to understand that there is a physical, begat-al, and birth, and there is a spiritual, begat-al, and birth. Now we note in the Gospel of John chapter 1 beginning in verse 10. Here we'll see clearly that there is a physical, begat-al, and birth, and a spiritual, begat-al, and birth. John chapter 1 verse 10, He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.

He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born not of blood, there's the physical birth, which were born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. So a physical, begat-al, and birth, and a spiritual, begat-al, and birth. And the word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begat-an of the Father, full of grace and truth.

Now let's go to Revelation chapter 1 and verse 5. We'll see very clearly here what the Scripture says about Jesus and the resurrection in Revelation 1 and verse 5. And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness and the first-born, the prototichos, the first-born of the dead and the prince of the kings of the earth, unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood.

And now let's go to Romans chapter 8 and verse 29, for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate, to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the first-born, just as we saw from Revelation 1 and 5, the first-born among many brethren. At the resurrection, believers become spirit-born sons and daughters of God, with Jesus being the first-born from the dead. The Church understands this and much more. Will we proclaim it? The Church understands what is sin and how a person can be justified before God.

We must strive to motivate each member to take his or her ownership of the truth and become a dispenser, one who is ready and willing with his feet, her feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, not just a semi-interested recipient of the truth. The Apostle Paul writes in Timothy, and remember the theme of the GCE this year, as we spoke about yesterday, that we are to be convicted, committed, and then to the degree that we are convicted and committed, we will behave, we will respond courageously.

Hear Paul writing to Timothy, 2 Timothy 2, verse 1, 1, You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and the things that you have heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit you to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. We need to stimulate, motivate, encourage each member to become aware of and interested in the world around them. What's going on in the world? Watch and pray always that you may be account worthy to escape all these things. The church needs to publish and broadcast world news and its possible prophetic implications because people are going to be searching the internet.

They're going to be looking to and asking questions, and we need to fulfill the yearning of people so that they'll be apprised of what lies ahead. We need to create anticipatory expectation. Notice that again, anticipatory expectation. What I mean by that, so that in the minds of members, when they are thinking about attending church services, and they probably start thinking more about it on Friday and then the Sabbath arrives, what am I going to learn today?

Am I filled with anticipatory expectation? Am I expecting to learn something here today? In other words, motivate them to anticipate and expect that they will be inspired and learn something from attending sermons, attending services, and listening to the sermons. We need to expand this to include anticipatory participation. So we have anticipatory expectation of learning something, and anticipatory participation can lead one to take ownership of what is being taught. You participate in it. You affirm what you believe in the presence of others. We can do this by engaging them in what is being taught to some degree. This can be accomplished through interactive Bible studies and discussion groups.

There's an interesting prophecy in Habakkuk chapter 3 verses 1 and 2, a prayer of Habakkuk, the prophet, upon Shiganoth, O eternal, I have heard your speech and was afraid. And, of course, as I said earlier, I am far more afraid of what God would think of us than what man thinks of us. The prophet goes on to write, O Lord, revive your work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years, make known in wrath, remember mercy.

At the present time, the world is being tried and tested, the whole world, by an invisible enemy. None of the weapons of war will defeat this enemy. God can defeat it. God can defeat it easily. So we have the opportunity to issue a call, a powerful call, for repentance. Will we be one of the ones through whom God revives the work? God used John the Baptist, and John did no miracle. As we said, he turned the world upside down in about six months. God used Apollos even before he had the Holy Spirit.

God used the deacon Stephen in a mighty way. His testimony was so powerful that they killed him for it. But in the wake of that, they were scattered from Jerusalem, and they went forth, preaching and teaching. Philip went up into Antioch, and he preached the gospel there, and several were converted in that part of the world. And Philip was even transported to other areas where he preached the gospel. God used Esther, a young woman of about 20 years of age, to save her people. And we could go on and on with the great heroes and heroines in, listed in the handles of faith in the Bible.

And therefore, if God can use all of these people, I submit that he can use you and I. We have the opportunity to be a light, to be the salt of the earth, to turn our hearts to the children so their hearts can be turned to God. We can be turned on and zealous for the Word of God and His way of life. We can begin in our own homes to teach God's truth to our children. And we can begin to exercise judgment, mercy, and faith in our interaction with each other. We can put away envy, and strife, and jealousy. We can heed the message without judging the messenger.

We can learn to discern between good and evil. We can be a source of encouragement to others. We can make a difference in our homes, neighborhoods, and in our workplaces. We can be ambassadors for Christ. We can be filled with a hope, with a big picture of the kingdom of God burning brightly in our minds. We can put on the whole armor of God, and especially the shield of faith whereby we'll be able to quench all the fiery darts of Satan. We can become new creations in Christ. We can exemplify the righteousness of God and much more. All of this and more can be done regardless of the governmental system or the definitions of the work of the gospel. In short, we can do what God has called us to do. We can fulfill the Great Commission. Go you into all the world, disciple all nations, teach them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you, and lo, I'm with you, even to the end of the age. If we respond with zeal, the God of grace, divine favor, will fight our battles for us. That does not mean that He will not allow us, all of us, each one of us, to be tested and tried for boldly proclaiming the truth. So we can choose, the church can choose, to try to save ourselves or trust in God for deliverance. We can choose the praise of men or the praise of God.

So are we going to go forward? Will we stir up the spirit that is within us, as Paul admonished Timothy to do? Will we fill our lamps with oil so we will not be counted among the foolish virgins? Will we become living sacrifices willing to give up self? Will we really heed according to the word of God?

I submit that we can do this and much more. The church must move forward with conviction, commitment, and courage.