What's the Big Deal About Church Anyway?

Well, brethren, it's no secret that faith communities in America as a whole are struggling.

You know, there's been a number of organizations over the years that have done studies into this. They've kept track of the decline. And the most prominent of which is BARNA, BARNA Research Group, which is they do a yearly state-of-the-church report. And they haven't put forth their data yet from 2021, but their latest data is 2022. They're still coalescing everything from 2021 to put it together. But it tracks a number of critical statistics with regards to faith in America, with regards to kind of how people perceive their faith, how they perceive their their own Christianity, so to speak, in the various faith communities of the Christian faith here in America. Again, they've not released their 2021 data yet, but their 2020 data painted a pretty bleak picture of the future of Christianity in America from the year 2000, which is kind of when this particular study started. So it's about a 20-year study at this point that they have data on. From the year 2000 through December of 2020, the data shows the number of non-practicing Christians. So these are individuals who at one point in time considered themselves to be active, engaged members of their faith community. Those who attended regularly, they were engaged, they were involved. The number of non-practicing Christians increased from 35% to 43%. So an 8% increase in 20 years. Okay, 8% increase in 20 years. Now, in that same time period from 2000 to 2020, December of 2020, practicing Christians, those that are engaged and involved, overall declined from 45% to 25%. 20% drop. 1% a year, essentially. I'm sure it wasn't a linear progression. I'm sure there were some years that were worse and some years that were better. But it dropped a full 20%. Now, you might be thinking about the numbers that I just gave you and said, wait a second. So they dropped 20%. Non-practicing increased by 8%. Where's the other 12%? The other 12% walked away completely. They left Christianity. They became agnostic. They became, you know, what they would define as non-Christians, whatever it might be. So the population of Christians from 2000 to 2020 dropped by 20%. Some of those may remain Christian by definition, though not engaged with their faith, while 12% walked away completely.

Now, you might be thinking, too, 2020 data is going to be impacted by the pandemic, and you're absolutely right. The 2020 data is going to have a pandemic effect, so it's very possible that these numbers jump up a little bit as things start to kind of return to some semblance of normalcy.

But what's interesting is, Barna, as they did their study and as they looked at these things, they discovered that church attendance on the whole declined 16%. 16% overall in attendance.

29% of people saying they regularly attended in 2020. Again, it may bump. It may recover slightly.

But interestingly enough, I found that's not the lowest year that it's ever been. Actually, 2017 was a total of 27% in 2017. A drop of 27%. Now, COVID-19 livestream services have changed the landscape of the church as a whole. In fact, 91% of people that were surveyed reported they were happy with the livestream services that they were able to partake in. In fact, a majority of those individuals said they actually preferred the online format. In fact, as they dug deeper into that set of questions, is what I found interesting. Only 52% of those surveyed responded that they wanted to return to in-person services at all. That they wanted to even come back at all. Now, interestingly, that was split among ages. 71% of the baby boomer generation said, yes, I want to go back in person. Whereas the Gen X, Millennial, and Gen Z generations, that's ages 18 through 56, less than 50% of those generations surveyed wanted to return to in-person services at all.

Some churches, as of quarter three of 2020, which is the last data that is available, reported being at 36% of their regular attendance compared to much higher statistics earlier than that. And the study also discovered that the difference is significant from the Midwest to the West. In fact, the difference is stark between the Midwest at about 70% of capacity and the West at about 50% of capacity. Now, interestingly, as a result of this, I was reading a number of articles online that talked about the number of churches that have seen this trend and seen this data and decided, you know, we should just go to online only. It's what our members want. It's what our members prefer. We should just go to an online only format. Now, for those of you that are on the West Coast, we've spent a lot of time home in the past couple of years as a result of COVID-19 related issues and primarily a lack of rental facilities, primarily a lack of things available for us. And I truly hope, and this is going to sound weird when I say it, but I truly hope that you struggled as much with that as I did. I hope that we didn't reach a point where we went, well, this is actually kind of nice. I hope that we struggled with that, that we had a hard time being apart from one another, and that we haven't reached a point where we, like the Christian surveyed above, are preferring online services to the ability to gather together in person. You know, coming together and gathering before God is important. You know, there are situations that mitigate and prevent us from being able to do so. You know, we've talked a lot in the last couple of years about the biblical quarantine principle. We've talked about, you know, advanced age and health issues that happen. You know, there reaches a point in time in a season of life where it's just very difficult to be able to get out and to do services, to get there, to be there, to go home. You know, there's issues with driving at night. I mean, there's a lot of things that relate to this. There's weather in emergency situations. You know, we could have woke up to eight inches of snow this morning, and we would not have had services with eight inches of snow on the road, just from a safety standpoint of our membership. You know, these kind of things should hopefully be fewer and farther between. They shouldn't be the norm. They should be, you know, the exception. We have had a live webcast. We've had a phone hookup that's available for those situations, and I am so thankful that we do. I really am very thankful that we have that technology when it's needed. It is good to have it available, and it's wonderful that those that aren't able to join us regularly have the ability to be with us in, you know, in some semblance. But, brethren, I have kind of a tough question for us today that I want to ask and I want us to consider as we go through the message today, and that is, are we keeping the Sabbath fully, as God intended it, if we are able-bodied, healthy, and able to be in in-person services, and yet we choose not to?

Are we keeping the Sabbath fully in those scenarios and in that circumstance?

What is the big deal about church anyway? That's the title for the second split sermon today. What is the big deal about church anyway? You know, the word that we use for church, this translated church in the New Testament, is the Greek word ekklesia, and you're familiar with that concept, you're familiar with that term. We've used it before and gone through it before, but I kind of want to remind you, you're not going to necessarily find anything necessarily earth-shattering today.

This is hopefully just a reminder and hopefully something that gives us, you know, kind of touches back on the reasons why we assemble together for church. But the word ekklesia is a compound word that's made up of two roots. It's made up of the root ek, which means out of, and koleo, which is a word that means to call. So the word itself, quite literally, compounded together, means to call out, or to have been called out. In Greece, so the the land of Greece, the kingdom of Greece, the word had a connotation of an assembly. So the word had a connotation of an assembly in Greece.

In fact, one of the more famous ekklesias was the ekklesia of Athens. And the ekklesia of Athens was this large assembly of Greek citizens, and those individuals got together in this assembly, in this ekklesia, and they used that to make civic decisions. So they would elect representatives, they would determine whether or not Athens was going to war, you know, they would agree upon military strategy, they would agree on, you know, trade deals and things like that, and that was all decided by the citizens of Greece that were called together in this ekklesia. So when we see that word in the New Testament, it's referring to the assembly of those who had been called out, the assembly of those who had been singled out and selected for a specific purpose. Now in the case of Greece, that was voting citizens. That was individuals who were citizens and able to vote in Athens. But with regards to the New Testament church, when we talk about the ekklesia, we're talking about individuals that God had called or was calling and establishing relationship and covenant with them. And this isn't a strictly Greek and New Testament concept. In fact, a similar setting existed in the Old Testament. Let's go ahead and turn over to Leviticus 23 as we consider how God worked with Israel. Leviticus 23. And we'll see the scriptures and the kind of that outline and explain here in Leviticus 23 the holy days of God. You know, Mr. Hansen mentioned here this morning about how, you know, Christmas takes away from what God actually put together, what we see outlined here in Leviticus 23. And we'll see that beginning with the Sabbath and kind of working his way through the rest, God outlines these days in detail to Moses to capture for Israel, but not just for Israel, because that's going to be captured down through history for us. Leviticus 23, we'll pick it up in verse 1. Leviticus 23 in verse 1 says, The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, say to them, The feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are my feasts. Verse 3, Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation.

You shall do no work on it. It is the Sabbath of the Lord in all of your dwellings. It goes on in verse 4, These are the feasts of the Lord, holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. And then he digs into and starts going through the Passover and the days of Unleavened Bread and the Feast of Weeks and on and on and on. Now, these holy days that are outlined in Leviticus 23, they, including the Sabbath, not just the holy days that we would consider, they are holy convocations. They are days which are holy that have been set apart. They are special assemblies of the congregation before God. But I think it's really important that there is an aspect of this that we focus on and that we look at because the concept of convocation, right, the concept of convocation implies people being convoked. Okay, what I mean by that is to have a convocation, someone has to convoke that convocation. Okay, and so what you end up with is you end up with the situation where in Israel, in particular, we had days that were proclaimed by the priesthood.

They'd sound the trumpets to notify the camp. You heard the trumpet. You came, right? That was your summons. Now, we are in a very different world, and for most of us, I suppose. Most of us don't work in a legal sense, and so a summons may be a concept that's somewhat foreign to us.

But the reality is, if you receive a legal summons, what happens if you ignore it?

What happens if you ignore legal summons? They put out a warrant for your arrest, right? That summons says, you are coming to this location at this time because we need to talk to you.

And in many ways, this holy convocation that God has put forth is a summons.

It is an expectation of our presence assembled before God.

Now, again, in Israel, we had this as a nation. You know, in the New Testament, it wasn't a relationship with the entire nation, so to speak, at that point. It shifted to spiritual Israel. It shifted to those whom God had called and whom God was offering a special relationship with, and a group of people that we refer to as the Ekklesia, those who have been called out. So, in that sense, and we've mentioned this before, the church itself, it's not a building. It's not a location. The church is the people who have been summoned together to come before their God. It is those individuals who make up that body that is collectively known as the church, or the Ekklesia. Those individuals who have been called out, those who have been separated by God according to His purposes. Now, we don't assemble, therefore, because it's something to do. We assemble because we have received a personal summons from our God. The Apostle Peter wrote about this concept in his first epistle. Let's go ahead and flip over there. We've been going through First Peter in our midweek studies on the general epistles. First Peter will pick it up in First Peter 2 and verse 4. And, you know, we've been looking at... Peter utilizes a great deal of symbolism in this particular section, in a variety of ways. You know, he talks about the word as being this this milk, you know, that is pure and for the newborn. It talks about, you know, the the chosen generation, the royal priesthood, the holy nation. It talks about the living stones. I mean, there's a lot of different analogies that Peter uses to essentially get the same point across. First Peter 2, we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 4. And he says, coming to him, speaking of Jesus Christ here, as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious. Notice what he says in verse 5. You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Therefore, verse 6, it is also contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on him will by no means be put to shame. It's referencing Isaiah 28. Therefore, to you who believe he is precious, but to those who are disobedient, the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone, referencing back to Psalms 118. And a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.

It says, they stumble being disobedient to the word to which they were also appointed. But you, he says, are a chosen generation. You are a royal priesthood. You are a holy nation.

His own special people that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, who once were not a people but are now the people of God who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Referencing back to that concept from Hosea of Loami and Lohruhama, the idea that they will not be my people, that they will not have mercy, but that there would be a time in the future in which they would, right? A time in which God began to work and put his spirit in those he had called.

Now, so we see this analogy that Peter lays out here. Jesus Christ, we see as the chief cornerstone.

I'm not a mason. I'm not a brick mason. I'll freely admit that. In fact, if you ask me to build a brick wall, it ain't gonna look like a brick wall when I'm done. I can assure you of that.

The general concept is there. The general, you know, I know which end of the trial goes in the mortar, but it's not gonna be plumb and it ain't gonna be level. So, you know, I'm always kind of in awe of masons that really can produce phenomenal work. I'm really kind of just blown away by, you know, some of the incredible things that can be built. But you go back and you look at the architecture of the time in Judea.

You go back and look at some of these huge Herodian architecture projects, you know, the Temple Mount, some of these massive stones that were put into place. You know, the process of building these things back in that time frame required the setting of that cornerstone first.

That cornerstone was critical. You set your site, you leveled it, you got it ready to go. You figured out exactly where your walls were going to go. You laid it out, you staked it out, you did whatever you did. They didn't have laser levels back then. And then you set that cornerstone very, very carefully because it needed to be oriented exactly where you wanted your walls to come off of that corner. It needed to be level because the walls and the stones which were then built off of that cornerstone would be level and oriented based on the orientation of your corner. And so as they built these walls and as they set these stones, the walls that are going out in both of those directions would be leveled and oriented properly based upon the placement of that stone and its orientation.

And Peter says, you, brethren, he's writing to the people reading this epistle, you are the living stones that are being collected and put together into that wall, building off of that cornerstone, building into this spiritual building, this spiritual temple. You know, Paul uses other analogies, this spiritual body, this spiritual organism. But the idea being that these bricks are collected and they are put together and they are set in such a way.

You know, with mortar, you can be a little more, maybe off, a little bit, not much, but mortar hides a multitude of sins. We used to have a saying in our house and we were working on everything in our house. We'd say, mud, mud, hides a multitude of sins because we're terrible at drywall. After you sand the mud down, you go, texture, texture hides a multitude of sins. Paint, paint, paintings hide. So when you mess it up, put a creative painting there and then no one knows the difference.

You know, when you're dry stacking stone, though, if you dry stack stone, which a lot of parts of that temple mount are dry stacked, huge, heavy dry stack stones, those edges have got to be lined up right. Or you've got gaps and you've got weaknesses. And if it's not set in the right way, the whole thing comes down. Brethren, it's really difficult to build a spiritual house with one or two bricks here or a brick there. In fact, one brick is just a brick.

It's not a wall. It's just a brick. We need one another. You know, these bricks support one another. That's what the wall strength comes from, is the bricks in that wall. And so when we talk about this concept of why church is so important and what the big deal is about church, there are several kind of primary reasons as to the church experience and what we do when we come together. And so at the time that I have left today, I'd like to examine some of these purposes and look at their relevance and importance to our spiritual life.

I've had four points today, brief points. First, we come together before God. We assemble and as we are summoned to worship Him, point number one, we come together, point number two, to be instructed and edified. Point number three, we come together to be encouraged and exhorted, and then we come together to fellowship. So we come together to worship God, to be instructed and edified, to be encouraged and exhorted, and then to fellowship. And that's the fourth point.

So we consider worship and we kind of consider what that looks like. Often, I think we tend to consider it in a very external fashion. You think of, you mentioned worship today, and I think your brain kind of automatically goes to some sort of a public display, you know, some kind of thing where you've maybe got songs of praise, energetic prayers, messages, perhaps some shouts of agreement in the raising of hands, you know, as you kind of consider what it means in the world around us today from a standpoint of worship. But what is God's design when it comes to worship of Him? Well, worship, by definition, at its core, is a reverence towards God, and it's ultimately the act of expressing that reverence to Him. In fact, the word, if you look back at the Old English, where worship comes from, it comes from worth-ship. Worth. That God is worthy. That God is, you know, all-powerful, and He is our Creator. And that we have a degree of awe and reverence toward Him because of that.

So you look at the things we mentioned earlier, things the world's considered to be worship.

Yeah, those things could be listed as a form of worship, but what does God say in His Word that He desires? Let's go to John 4. John 4. And John 4 contains the example of the woman at the well, the Samaritan woman at the well, that Jesus takes the time to sit down with and talk.

John 4. And we'll just kind of jump into the context here as we dig in. Most are familiar with the passage. But Christ, in talking with her, explains to her the importance of our worship, and really the importance of ensuring that our worship to God is coming from the right place, that it's coming with the right intent, and that it's coming with the right heart in place.

Jesus said to her, verse 21 of John 4, He says, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. He says, We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. Verse 23, But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. Verse 24, God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. And so we see God desires that we worship Him in spirit and in truth.

One of the things that Jesus Christ rebuked the Pharisees for was the outward expression of their worship. Go back and you look at some of those accounts as He goes through the Gospels.

We see that the Pharisees largely did what they did to be seen. It was all about having that elongated, you know, tassel, that elongated tzitzit. It's all about having the the oversized phylactery. It was all about show. It was all about loudly proclaiming the prayers from the corner.

It wasn't in spirit. It wasn't something that was, you know, that was with the right intent.

In fact, you recall, Jesus accused Him of being whitewashed tombs, that they were clean and sparkling on the outside, but inside they were like dead man's bones. In fact, He went one step further and He said, in vain they worship Me. In vain they worship Me, teaching His doctrines, the commandments of men. The outward expression that was that was in place, all these things that they had added, all these things that were now important to them, were not things that God Himself appreciated. God desires our worship to be in spirit. It's coming in the right place from our heart. That doesn't mean that it can't be outward. In fact, it often is. You know, we come and we sing songs of praise to God. We worship Him in song. Have you ever caught yourself just going along with the motions of the song and the same... I have. I mean, it becomes rote sometimes.

And I have to stop and I have to jog myself and go, no, I am praising the Creator God.

This is not just going, you know, follow the bouncing ball. It's my opportunity to praise my God because of what He has done for me and the reverence that I have for Him. You know, God desires that we come before Him and that we worship and we assemble together as we've been summoned to show our reverence and our love for Him. Ultimately, also, that we're worshiping in truth, that we are worshiping Him in representation of His character and of His being and who He really is. Vines Expository Dictionary writes, it says, the worship of God is nowhere defined in Scripture and what they mean specifically as to exactly what that looks like in every circumstance. It's not confined to praise. Broadly, it may be regarded as the direct acknowledgement of God, of His nature, of His attributes, His ways and claims, whether by the outgoing of the heart and praise and thanksgiving, or, I find this really interesting, or by deed done in such acknowledgement.

Not just by our outgoing of our heart and praise and thanksgiving, but also by the actions done in acknowledgement of the character of our God.

And I think sometimes what that worship looks like is being willing to ask ourselves tough questions and ensure that we're putting into practice what we hear. That we are becoming more like His Son. That we are becoming more like the example of Jesus Christ. What better example of worship to God is allowing our hearts to be transformed. Allowing us to become what He has called us to become. What higher form of worship could God desire of us? That we are yielding ourselves to Him in that way. You know, coming before God on His Sabbath, having this opportunity to come together at this time of Holy Convocation, in some ways too is giving God the one thing that He doesn't already own. You know that God has everything. The earth is His and all of its fullness. The one thing He does not have, because of the free will that He's created us with, is our time and our focus. That is our choice to give. So when we come before Him in worship, we are choosing to give Him that, to provide Him with that. So this worship, it's not solely outward.

Ultimately, the end goal, the end result, the desire of God is a transformation of our heart to become more like Him. And in part of that process, we come to be instructed and we come to be edified. Point number two, we come before God to be instructed and edified. In fact, Gallup, I was a little surprised, actually, at this statistic, Gallup polls found that one of the primary reasons why people come to church and decide on a congregation to attend is the quality and content of the sermons. So there you go. There you go. 75% reported that they preferred sermon messages that were relevant to their lives. I can see that. And then 76% of those surveyed also stated that they enjoyed sermons that expounded on Scripture. So three quarters of the people surveyed said they want relative, relevant, the other word that starts with relevant, expository preaching as part of the messages that hit them and impact them in such a way.

You know, when you look back at ancient Israel, you look back even at the New Testament church, instruction and edification was one of the primary purposes of the congregation gathering together, you know, in addition to worshiping God. In fact, during the time of Nehemiah, I'll have you jot this down. It's Nehemiah 8 and verse 8, and I'll have you just do that as part of homework. But during Nehemiah's time, this concept of convocation, this concept of being called together and assembled before God in this way, the word convocation became synonymous with the word reading. So the two words are like identical. In fact, in Nehemiah 8 and verse 8, the word for convocation that is in Leviticus 23, mikra, is the same word that is in Nehemiah 8 verse 8, but it's translated by context into reading. And the reason for that was because at Nehemiah's time, when the when the congregation, so to speak, was brought together, they were instructed from the law. They were read to from the law. That was the instruction. That was the instructive part of the service itself during Nehemiah's time. And so these two things became very synonymous with one another. This idea of convocation coming together and assembling, as well as the reading of the law or the instruction of the law, ultimately, to those in the church. But one of the primary purposes of bringing people together was to instruct. And today we do that. We come together, we read, we expound on the word, we, you know, bring lessons from the word of God for us to consider. You know, we talk about places where the rubber meets the road. How do you respond when somebody says, you know, Merry Christmas! What do you do? Mr. Hanson talked about that today. I got a new one.

Drive safely! I love that. That's great. I'm going to use that for everything. No. Not just Christmas questions. No, but, you know, having that opportunity where you look at it and you say, hey, this is what I believe. This is who I am. I'm not just going to, you know, kind of let it go by. I'm going to take this opportunity to very tactfully and humbly and, you know, lovingly say, hey, you know, this is who I am and this is what I do. I appreciate the sentiment, but I don't celebrate Christmas. So talk about these rubber meets the road sort of things. Let's go ahead and turn over to 1 Timothy 3. 1 Timothy 3, you know, we'll see that we read, we expound upon Scripture, we bring lessons from the Word of God to consider, and that that's important. That's incredibly important. 1 Timothy 3, and we'll see Paul's writing here to Timothy.

1 Timothy 3, we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 14.

1 Timothy 3 and verse 14, you know, Paul writes here to Timothy. He says, These things I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly. Paul says, look, I'm having to write for now, but I'm hoping I can be there in person.

He says, I'm hoping that I can say these words to you in person as well, but I'm kind of stuck writing to you now. Maybe today he'd say, I have to have this web conference with you, but I hope to see you in person. We have to zoom for now, but I hope to see you in person. He says, but, verse 15, if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and the ground of the truth.

And Paul tells Timothy, he says, look, I hope to be there soon, but if I'm not, I'm writing this so that you'll know how to conduct yourself in the house of God. You'll know how to conduct yourself in the ecclesia, in this group of people that have been called out, this assembly of the living God, which is, he says, Paul, the pillar and the ground, or the word there is foundation of the truth, the pillar and foundation of the truth. Why is the church, or the members of the church, the ecclesia, as we've been talking about today, why is that the foundation of the truth? Well, we know of John 1717 that thy word is truth. We know that the truth of God is contained in the pages of this book. This is God's message to us. And so, the church, the ecclesia, is the foundation and the pillar of the truth because each and every one of us individually, as well as collectively, are building our lives upon the word of God, upon what we find in this book. And as long as all of us are doing that, as long as we are doing that formally through instruction, we're doing it informally when we have a chance to go out and practice what we've learned, right? We have a chance to go out and interact with people and talk about these things and find ways to interact and get our point across without causing offense and anger, you know, trying to figure out ways to interact with people as Paul kind of talked about being all things to all people. You know, we're all doing that. We're all yielding ourselves to the truth of God and living our lives in that way. The church is the foundation and the pillar of the truth. It is the support of the truth and the pillar or in the foundation, I should say, that what that truth is built upon. In addition to that instruction, we're also being edified. We're being built up. Definition of edification is that we are refined or improved morally or intellectually. Kind of that concept in Scripture is that of building someone up. You have a foundation that's laid and then brick on brick on brick, you're building that foundation.

2 Peter 1 talks a little bit about this and we've come here before as well, but I want to check it, go here again. 2 Peter 1.

And we'll pick it up in verse 5. 2 Peter 1 and verse 5.

2 Peter 1 and verse 5. Oops, I'm in 1 Peter.

2 Peter 1 verse 5, but also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. He says, For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. As we think about these things, they build on one another.

You know, you start with you've got this diligence adding faith or adding virtue to faith, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, and it's like you're laying courses of bricks upon this foundation as it's being built. And as you approximate and as you go up these layers of bricks, so to speak, you're reaching a point where you're nearing the example that Jesus Christ has provided us. You know, moving on into that love.

That's generally edification. It's this idea of building up, to adding to, and becoming, and strengthening both morally and intellectually. Brethren, it's really challenging to build these things in isolation. It's really challenging to build these things in isolation, because many of these things are things that we must practice. They are things that we must practice and practice takes other people. We are one another's guinea pigs. We really are.

We're working through these things with each other. You know, we're trying to work through these things with each other, and it's a give and it's a take. You know, we both come to church to be edified, but you know what? We also have the opportunity to edify others while we're here, too.

And that give and take is important. Another give and take that we have, point number three, is that we come to be encouraged and exhorted. We also come to exhort and to encourage, because it's a give and it's a take. Exhortation and encouragement both come from the Greek word paraclesis.

Paraclesis comes, it's translated as calling to one's aid. You might think about someone who is a comforter, someone who encourages or consoles, someone when they're struggling. A comforter and encourager and exhorter is someone who is an ear to listen and a shoulder to cry on.

It is an ear to listen and a shoulder to cry on. Let's turn over to Romans 3.

Romans 3. You know, there are a number of places in Scripture where the gifts of God's Spirit are listed. You know, they're discussed. You know, 1 Corinthians 12 talks about it in the context of a body and how all the parts of the body have to work together for the body to function properly.

Right? And if you've got one part that's not working or you've got a few parts that aren't working, you know the whole body's out of whack. Right? Anybody who's been ill before, you understand that analogy all too well. We look at Ephesians 4. It talks about all these parts existing for a reason.

Not only do they exist, not only do they work in concert, they exist for a reason.

And that reason is the growth and edification of the body in love. Okay? So these parts exist, interacting with one another, in order to edify, to build up, and to cause growth of the body in love.

Romans 12. I told you Romans 3 because that's where I turned. Romans 12. Sorry. Romans 12, verse 3. I transposed it. I'll blame the new glasses. Must be these transition lenses. No, I missed it. I transposed it. Romans 12, verse 3. It says, for I say, through the grace given to me, that everyone who is among you do not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. So we shouldn't get too big for our britches, so to speak, as the vernacular says. You know, we have to recognize God's dealt each one a measure of faith. For as we have many members of one body, or in one body, but all the members do not have the same function. Verse 5, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and notice this, individually, members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that's given to us, let us use them. If prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith. We know that's a gift that God's going to pour out once again on this earth.

We see that in the book of Joel. Or ministry, service, let us use it in our ministering, he who teaches and teaching, he who exhorts or encourages or comforts or consoles, we might say, periclesis. In exhortation, he who gives with liberality, he who leads with diligence, he who shows mercy with cheerfulness. God's given to each a measure of faith. Again, all are members in one body. All are part of this ecclesia of God. But not all the members have the same exact function.

They don't all have the same exact function. We are all members of the same body. We're all members of one another. We're connected. We're intertwined. And as you'll notice here in Romans 12, exhortation or encouragement, consolation, comfort, it's listed as one of these gifts. What that means, brethren, is that there are some of you that are very good at this, and there are others of us that are not.

And we need each other. That's what this means. That means that where someone does not have maybe that gift or has not fully developed that gift, and someone else has, there are gaps in places where one another fill these gaps. I want you to think about it for a second. If none of us encouraged or exhorted while we were at service, if none of us provided that comfort, can you imagine?

Can you imagine? Come to services? Every time we leave services, we just are miserable and defeated because we didn't receive encouragement or consolation or comfort. What a dreary prospect.

I really truly, what a dreary prospect. That's not what God intended. You know, you come in six days out of the week getting battered by the world to come here and be encouraged and strengthened and bolstered and ready to go right back out there again and get back in the fight. But we come together, we assemble, and are summoned in part to encourage and to be encouraged. Let's go over to Hebrews 10. Hebrews 10. We've gone to this passage before as well, but I want to take a look at one aspect of this that we might not necessarily have focused on. Often we go to this section to talk about not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together, but Hebrews 10. Hebrews 10, we'll grab verses 24 and 25. Obviously, not forsaking our assembling together is very applicable in this what we're looking at, but that's... I want to look at one other piece here. Verse 24, again, Hebrews 10 verse 24 says, and let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works. Verse 25, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another. Notice it says exhorting one another, encouraging one another, comforting one another, consoling one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching. So much the more as we see the day approaching. That we're making additional effort in some ways as we see in things getting more and more challenging and more and more difficult of encouraging one another. Now, it says we're not to forsake our assembly as the custom of some. It's kind of... it's difficult to ascertain exactly what is meant in that context, but it is theorized that this is a result of external persecution that the church was facing at this point, and that what was happening was the church was being rounded up, the church was being arrested, they were being persecuted, they were being beaten, and that there was a number that said, you know what? I don't want to go to services because when they come in there and round us all up, you know, we're going to end up in this place. And so he said, as is the custom of some or the habit of some, not meaning this is a forever thing, but something that was happening temporarily, says let's not forsake that assembly because we need to encourage one another. We need to encourage one another. You know, one of the benefits and the purposes of being together and coming together is to provide one another with that comfort and with that encouragement to help all of us endure the challenges that we face as we see that day approaching, as we see things becoming even more challenging in the world around us today.

Lastly, the final reason that we come together and that we're summoned together is to grow the bonds of fellowship. To grow the bonds of fellowship. You know, one of the neatest things for me personally about the church, you know, as I look around this room and all the relationships that I built with all of you guys as time has gone on, one of the coolest things for me about the church is none of us, none of us, short of God's calling, would have ever interacted with one another in any way, shape, or form outside of church. I just, I mean, come on, there's no way we might have crossed paths. We might have bumped into each other at some point in time, but the reality is not all of us run in the same circles. Not all of us have the same interests. Not all of us have, you know, much in common really beyond, in some cases, church and the calling that God has provided us. And yet, you know, here we are, right? Here we are, a family that's been drawn together by the calling that God has provided us and the summons that He gives us on the Sabbath. He's been drawn us together into this common calling, into a spiritual organism, a spiritual house, to worship Him and to grow into grace and knowledge together. Now, you'll notice the church, it's not a social club.

This isn't a group of people that get together because our love of fishing or our love of quilting.

You know, look, I know there's a few of us in here that like to fish, and I'm sure there's plenty of us in here that like to quilt as well. But we come together each week because we are answering a personal summons by our Creator to come before Him into His presence on the Sabbath. But brethren, it's really important to consider it's not just that act alone that satisfies our obligation.

It's not just that act alone that satisfies it. We are to become closer to one another. We're to grow closer to one another in this commitment, talking to each other about the commonalities that we do have. So fellowship, yeah, it's going to entail getting to know one another. You know, it's going to entail having opportunities to talk about common interests and pursuits. It's going to mean socials and activities and other things. But we should be able to have godly fellowship with anyone in this room, whether we have anything else in common at all, because we have God's calling in common. We have God's Spirit in common. We have like-mindedness in common. I think that's just incredible. Let's turn to Malachi 3. Malachi 3, I love this passage. We don't go to Malachi very often, but there's a lot of good stuff in Malachi.

Malachi 3, I want you to see this passage. I don't know if you've read this recently or not, but I find this so fascinating. I find this so fascinating. Malachi 3, we're going to pick it up in verse 16. Malachi 3 and verse 16. Notice what it says, then those who feared the Lord spoke to each other. And notice God's response. And the Lord listened and heard them.

And a book of remembrance was written before him for those who fear the Lord and who meditate on his name. They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts. On that day I will make them my jewels, and I will spare them. As a man spares his own son who serves him, then you shall again discern between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.

This is such an incredible concept to consider. That God is listening in on our conversations with one another, when the people of God who fear God are talking with one another, that he's listening. That he's involved in that. He hears us. And not only that, he writes a book of remembrance, because it's so pleasing to him to see. For those that fellowship together, that share in this spiritual partnership of this common calling, God hears and God remembers. You might remember the latter verses of Acts 2 that talk about the fellowship of the early church, right after the day of Pentecost, and all the energy that was in place. They were going house to house, and they were breaking bread with one another. They were sharing one another's company. They were sharing meals. They were probably sharing encouragement as well, as they were starting this journey and beginning their initial steps on this path, as they were lurking to kind of live this way of life together, and ultimately to grow in faith. But Godly fellowship is the glue that binds the ecclesia together. It strengthens them. It helps them to reach a point that they can encourage one another, strengthen one another, and at times, lovingly correct one another as needed. And both come out of that interaction in a better place, because both the individuals recognize that you're helping one another reach a shared goal. We're in it together. We're pulling in the same direction. You know, we have to be equally yoked. It's tough to do that when there's no one else in the yoke next to you. You know, it's just a single ox and a double yoke, and plow's going this way, and the plow's going that way. But we have to be together, pulling in the same direction, walking in the light. Let's turn over to 1 John 1. 1 John 1, and we'll go ahead and look at 1 John 1, verse 7 to close here today. 1 John 1 and verse 7. We'll sneak up here to 5 and pick it up for context in 5. This is the message which you have heard from him and declare to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and we walk in darkness, we lie and we do not practice the truth. That is not worshiping God in truth.

This is worshiping in the form of a lie. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin. Verse 8, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You know, this fellowship that we're talking about, this Godly fellowship, only works as much as everyone involved is willing to endeavor to walk in the light. You know, if you have one walking in the light and ultimately the other walking in darkness, it's very difficult to achieve fellowship. In fact, if you look at the passage, what fellowship does light have with darkness? If we're all striving to live according to our calling, we can achieve a level of fellowship with one another that strengthens our bonds, enables us to be able to grow more closely together, and ultimately grow in the body, into love.

You know, you look at Barna's research over the last 20 years or so, the future of the Christian Church in America looks pretty dismal. You know, it's a war of slow attrition, essentially, as people die out and the young are not replacing those that are leaving. Attendance is down across the board. Many youth are leaving the faith, and again, Barna has all this information. Their 2021 state of the church should be coming out shortly. It's usually within a couple of months after 2020 is wrapped up, but more than half of people... the statistics still blows me away. More than half of people ages 18 to 56 don't even want to come back. That blows me away. They are content to just watch services online and not worry about the rest. And brethren, honestly, that would all be well and good if the sole purpose of assembling together was instruction only. Okay? But it is so much more than that. It's so much more than that. Locally, we spent a significant portion of 2020 and 2021 online. I did the math. It's depressing. I counted up the Sabbath that we were in person and the Sabbath we were at home on Zoom here in Salem. It's depressing. It really is. I cannot tell you how thankful I am that we are able to be together again in person. I cannot even express to you how just incredibly thankful I am for this. That we have the ability to worship our God together.

That we have the ability to be instructed and edified from the Word of God. To be encouraged and comforted in our challenges and in our difficulties. And where we can build the bonds of fellowship and we can strengthen those relationships in preparation of what is to come.

So I just wanted to take a moment and thank you for your part in this Eclaecia. For the role that you play. For the gift that you share. You all serve an absolutely critical role to the function of this church. To the function of this body. The Eclaecia of God.