Going to Church

Message Transcription

So 33 years ago, Dan Harden, who's now with the Lord, a missionary, think 30 something years in Korea. Um, I was taking a graduate class, and Dan Hardin has been was one of my mentors. And like many of us in this auditorium, he would speak life into you. And, uh, I had this dream with a few friends of mine because we had gone on a maester's tour in the northwest, and we wanted to go start a church in the northwest, and we thought it was going to be a great idea. And I could tell you the names, some of us who grew up together at LCU, you would remember these names. We're going to go to the northwest and we're going to start a church. And I'm walking back to my office at Green Lawn. I've been in ministry for one year, just working on this little master's degree. And Dan was walking with me and he said, Dave, you could go to the northwest and you would do, you know, a good job and it would be great to do mission work. Then he said these words. He said, but I really do feel that you need to stay here and encourage the church. And I think back now, from that moment to this will be my 36th summer working with young people. People pay me to do that. It's crazy. That's what I've done, is encouraged the church because I believe in her. And you need to hear me from the very onset.

I. I'm going to use two scriptures, but then I'm going to tell you a lot of stories and be very personal of why going to church still matters to me. And Dan would say these words, and I've used them because if you were to ask my references and, and ask me, um, do you want to work at a certain place and call my reference and say, would say this David is too idealistic, and I am. But here's what Dan would say. He called himself a theistic idealist. I understand the problems. I understand my problems. I understand the world. I'm 55. I was late coming here today because I have a grandkid in my home, and I forgot how to get him ready for church. Okay, so I'm like, oh my word. And I'm seeing Jesus coming. Okay, on the other side, gray hair doctorate I'm tenured. Okay, so here we go. I have I know life. But I still believe in the glory of the church. And she's a beautiful, broken mess at times. But I found nothing else like it. So when I'm training young ministers and we're talking about how to do church, I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings. Gary knows this. We all know this. Everyone does video announcements, everyone has great ushers. Everyone does communion. Y'all have a little special thing because our kids are going to be raised thinking the click on top of the communion cups is a holy sound, which I think is awesome.

You've given them something to remember and that's wonderful. But when I ask our students, what kind of community do you want to belong to? What? What? Why do we do church? How do how do people come to be involved and remain faithful to church? They talk about authenticity, authenticity, authenticity. One girl said right before spring break. She said, we've seen too much of the smoke show and I love that. There's this Christian smoke show that everyone says come to ours because it's better come to our music, because it's better come to our preaching. Because it's better come to our classes. It's better. Our ministers are better. It's the Christian smoke show. And guess what? It's great sometimes, but you can get lost in the smoke show. You can find better preaching. You can download what you want and stay home. But it's not just about the preaching event. You can find the best music you can find. Gary Moyers with a cappella and take communion while he's singing Sweet Fellowship. Which would be fun to see. And you don't have to see anybody. We did it all during Covid. But there's a reason you're here, isn't it? Church? There's a reason you're here. Because the Christian smoke show. There's more to it than that. You can get upset about things. You can say, well, I'm not so sure. I like the theology of this church, and you can be all upset about it because something feels different and you may go to a different place.

But guess what? You're still part of us. And I understand some people going to places and saying, I just don't feel at home. It's very hard not to feel at home here. Like I said, people grab you. Did you see the potluck? They're going to get sued because the Sesame Street, I love it, bring your food. Who has a potluck anymore? I love that slow down and enjoy and meet the people. Because you can have the smoke show, but you can't have Peter, James and John in Bay city last week I was in Bay city. I will call them Peter, James and John when the most unique situations of this church because the funeral home burned down. So at this Church of Christ, they have Muslim, they have, uh, Catholic, they have Christian, they have all kinds of funerals because the church is like, you need a place. Come have the funeral in here. It was the weirdest thing. The funeral director is a minister. There is a member there rather. So I'm preaching at this little this little event with best friends. And. And there was an entire group from another faith tribe, and one guy sat in the back. He had so many tattoos. It's awesome. I only have two. So I felt left out. And I looked at him and I said, man, we'll call him Peter. Peter, look, you got like Pharaoh over here. He had a pharaoh head and an ankh over here.

Have you ever been to Egypt? And he looked at me straight in the eye and said, I can't travel internationally. I'm a felon. I'm like. This is going to be a great story. And that he said, I can go to Dubai, but it's too expensive. I don't even know what that means. But then he pointed to the row in front of us where this lady, this older lady, was surrounded by kids, she said. He said, I am here because of that lady right there. I did all kinds of bad things. This is in the Houston area and he's tatted up. He goes, man, my life was destroyed. And then I tried to do the math. He said, man, I did an 820 or whatever. I mean, he was he took a 180 and he multiplied it. He goes, it took me so long. It was that woman right there. And I'm here because of her. And I'm like, that blows my mind. That's not a smoke show. That's authentic. That is a grandmother who said, I will not give up on you. And it took place in a church that really was just kind of a normal type of place in the middle of Bay city. Then there was James. James was a funeral director. And he was the one who took me to my hotel, and he was the only one wearing a suit. So I put you got to know me.

I, I say things sometimes and I'm like, you got a suit on. Don't tell me you have a black car. And the preacher's like the biggest black car in town. I said, you're the mortician. I mean, it was just like that. He's recovering from cancer. And he just wanted to tell me a story. It was a really bad cancer. He's buried almost. It's like his whole career has been in this town. And as we're driving to the hotel, he said, I know these people, these people, these people and all the relationships here. It was. I'm like, man, you are an amazing guy. And all he does is does his job and he's set in the back. And he wore a suit because he was coming from work. That's church. And then there's John a, a preacher from another church that brought his youth group over. And he struggles being a preacher and feeling like he is authentic and feel like he's doing his job. And he's like, I just, I have this struggle. I'm like, what's going on? And he looked at me. He said, my dad has never supported me. I came from a family of an atheist. And we just stopped and prayed for his dad. And he goes, my dad's living in my house, but he doesn't go to church and all this kind of stuff. And he said, do you know this guy Rick Atchley, who I worked with? I'm like, yeah, I worked with him.

And get this because in rock and roll terms, Rick actually is kind of the rock and roll preacher, right? He's at Pepperdine, about to do a keynote. And this preacher who just feels beat down is sitting on a park bench because they have an ocean there. And Rick just shows sets over there and he goes, hey, can I sit here for a moment? As I looked through my notes and this guy's like, Elvis showed up in the room or something. Come on, where did that trick, actually? And he goes, David, do you know what he did? And I go, no, he goes, he stopped and he just talked to me. And encouraged me in my ministry. That's a reason I come to church. All those stories you would never know unless I told you. They're not smoke show stories, they're real. And I love this verse that was read so eloquently by our friends. Let's read it one more time, but I want you to hear it from a standpoint of not check. I got my perfect attendance badge. But why we come to church? I'm going to give you two points. Here's the first one. This is really bad public speaking. I'm going to tell you what to look for before I say it. We need each other. Look to the person next to you and say, we need each other. You're staring at me like cats. Go ahead. And on top of that, we need the people who need us.

Let me explain. A lot over the last year, I've had people tell me, Dave, you know, the church is under attack, and if we don't stand up on on whatever issue, we're going to be destroyed. And I just stop. I mean, these are people who know better, living in fear, people who lead organizations. And I'm like, can you name one time in the Bible that Satan has ever directly impacted the people of God? And one. Kind of stare at me like, were you one of those liberal theologians? No, I just read the Bible. We have nothing to attack because we're the ones at the gates. And when Satan attacks like he does in our world, he does it for the smoke show to divide us. Hello. Election year. The church is fine. There's always been fine, right? Church. And we need each other. The problem is when people try to come to us, when we need each other and we feel attacked, what do we do? We circle the wagons and we're like, are they with us, Gary, or are they not with us? You're like us. You're a beard wearer. I'm clean shaven. Can I trust you? Everyone needs to belong. Everyone needs to be needed, right? And they will go to where they need to be in order to feel that safety. So let's look at what the Bible has to say. Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain that is his body.

And since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. We just celebrated that. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how many were spur one another on towards love and good deeds, not giving up meeting as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another, and all the more as we see the day approaching. Encouragement is education. Accountability, calling out, calling up, calling in. Encouragement is remembering the gospel. Hope that we have encouragement is remembering the family. And sometimes it gets really ugly, but we still need each other. I remember we had a big argument at Greenlawn about Sunday night activities during the 5:00 assembly. Does anybody remember this? The elders said, we're going to have a 5:00 service. Well, some of the families were so busy and I just simply ask a question. I'm like, can we have a family class during the 5:00 assembly? And you would thought I brought a gun into an elders meeting. I didn't know it was a thing. But then we started debating back and forth. And one of my mentors.

He called me his youngest best friend, Jess. Paul is just a hero of mine. And Jess, let me argue this elder and just kind of winked a little bit and I'm like, why? And we had a 45 minute discussion on why it's good to have parents during the 5:00 assembly so they can go home and rest with their kids, and they don't have to do 500 different things, and I'm just going after it. And then I just stop because it felt awkward. I was raised not this way. And I looked at Jesse and I said, you got to solve this because I don't want to do this. I'm too young. You're the elders. Decide it. Tell me what to do. And I just stopped. And this elder stopped. And this is what I remember. And young people, you got to hear this. I'm as passionate as you are about some things, but as big Don Williams, who was a minister here, said, don't complain about something unless you have something better to put in its place. And as I'm leaving, I looked at this elder and I looked at him. He looked at me and I said, I love you. And he goes, I love you. It's not about love. That was incredible. We fought for 45 minutes about a 5:00 assembly. But we knew we needed to encourage one another. Even though I was over here and what he was over here, and we weren't going to let go of that relationship, even though it was strained.

Amen. Because we need each other. I still remember. My youth minister when I was young. Who grew up here too. I'm telling you, once you're part of Broadway, Philip Nichols. Who was in Big Don's youth group. I wanted to do everything I needed to be involved. And he pulled me aside as an 18 year old and he said this to me. He said, Dave, there's only been one savior of the world. There'll never be another one, and you're not it. And it stung and it hurt because I thought I was special, but I needed him to say that to me and to hold me accountable. So let's fast forward 25 years and we're having dinner, and I'm in this, this ministry position. And he just looked across the table loving me enough, and he said, is this enough? Finally. Are you going to settle down and just do your job? Wow. Ouch. I was doctor phrase by that time. You can't. Yes he can. Because we encourage one another all the more as we see the day approaching. And he didn't want me to burn out. And he loved me enough. That's why I got to go to church. Then Bobby Blankenship. I think I probably told this story here. Bobby is one of the oldest men that I remember. He was one of my dad's friends. And I was that little kid that would run around like some of you seen these kids run around.

I think it's glorious. And I would walk up to him and he would grab me and he'd say, Dave, go put rocks in your pocket and jump in the lake. An elder in the Lord's church would tell me that. So a couple of years ago, I'm preaching at my home church and right in the back, here's Bobby and Claudette. And Bobby has tears coming down his eyes, and I walk up to him and I just give him a big old hug. And he whispers in my ear, I'm glad you didn't put rocks in your pocket. That's why I go to church. I need that. I need people who know me. I mean really know me. How about you? That's what the world wants. No one cares about this stage. I don't live life for this stage. You shouldn't live life for anybody on this stage. You probably are here because of someone next to you that can pull you out of a crowd. When you're a big deal and hug you and whisper in your ear, I'm glad you didn't put rocks in your pocket. And some of us in this room have done that time and time again, haven't we? And that's why we're here. Look at this next verse. This is kind of one of those verses. If you haven't read it, I'm pretty sure we have to start over with your faith. Um, no matter what church you attend or stop attending.

And here's the point. If we need each other, we are family. Want that to sink in. Because everybody has a crazy cousin or aunt or sister. When they show up to Thanksgiving, you're like, oh my word, they ate half the dish. I mean, you know that person? But they still said at your table. We're not as homogenous as we like to make ourselves be. Do you know church growth people try to get us to think about homogenous communities so we can bring them in. And if you bring those people in, then you can make more money. If you make more money, then you can go reach the lost. Guess what? Our kids understand the smoke show. They want to feel like family. And we learned this song. Remember this when we were kids, and they'll know we are Christians. By our love. By our love. Yes, they'll know we are Christians by our political stance. No. Just the love. And right in the middle of Corinthians. In a church that championed their own teachers. Apollos. Cephas. Paul said, none of you were crucified for the church. None of you are any better than anybody else. We all have to crawl the same distance to the cross. So with that in mind, this very divided church, you had more issues than any church known to man. He says these words from First Corinthians 12, just as a body has many parts. But all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.

For we were all baptized by one spirit so as to form one body, whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free, right or left, black, white, tan, we were all given the one spirit to drink. Even so, the body is not made up of one part but of many. And he goes on to illustrate that. But here I love how he lands the plane. But God has put the body together, given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be here it is no divisions in the body. But that its parts should have equal concern for each other if one part suffers. We all suffer. If one part is honored. Now you are the body of Christ and each one of you. Is a part of it. We need each other. We are family. One of the greatest communion services I've been a part of. Three stories and we'll land the plane. Been walking with the Lord for three years, and my youth minister and the adults around us really put that unity thing in us. And we had a young man show up to our youth group. We were up in a there was only about 50 of us. And um, he would come and he would sit in the back. He had a patch over his eye and he kind of stumbled a little bit. And, you know, we were teenagers. It was the 80s, you know, feathered hair, peg jeans, and we just didn't know what to do because he would come in late and they would leave.

We knew he was nervous. But one Sunday, kind of on a cool dare young people, we broke teen rules and we're like, let's sorry, Gary, you're down front. Let's invite little Gary to come to set with us because we used to sit together and that was a big deal. Remember, I'm not really a big champion of that anymore, but it used to be one of the things that we did. And so here's this young man between me and a friend of mine, and we started taking communion, and we're like, this is cool. You know, he's just with us, no big deal. And he asked his mom, and he was so excited, and his mom let him sit with us and the bread came by and he took his hand and he started shaking, and he just dove it into the tray and bread went everywhere and we're like, oh no, here comes the juice. Right? We just what happened? So when the Jews came by, he he poured it down the front of him. And here's where the magic of family came out. He was terrified. He was frightened. He was just like, this is bad. I held the tray and the guy next to him held his hand. And we did the second try and he took communion. Now, this is not going to be one of those weird, manipulative stories, but it has a weird turn about a week later.

Um, his name is Eric, and Eric had problems and something with his esophagus. An area like that that was connected to his muscular problems. And he got sick, and he went to the bathroom at a middle school. And when he was throwing up, he he died. Nobody was in there. And my mom, I still remember walking in and she's just crying. She said, Eric's gone and says that. And we were all like, devastated. But his mom came to youth group and hear what she said and just always stick with me. I was probably 16 at the time. She goes. This youth group is the first place that my son felt welcomed. That he felt like he was a part of something. Thank you for loving our son. All we did was ask him to sit with us and helped him take communion. But he felt like family. I'll always remember as well. When Boba Fett came to my church, I was the youth minister at the Hills, and we had this kid that walked in. And if. Where's my counselors? In the room? Yeah. This is this is one of those. Definitely a cover. He wore a Boba Fett. Uh, zippy. Where the hood. You zip it up and it's Boba Fett's face. And when he got nervous, he just zip. And there's Boba Fett, I cape and everything. And we were doing small group. And he kept coming to church and people kept saying hi.

And he kept kind of slipping down that Boba Fett just a little bit more. And he zipped back up and he just kind of kind of uncomfortable. And finally, in this small group, he felt comfortable enough and had a couple of elders and myself and Lisa, my wife, and he just takes his jacket off and he said, my dad hurts me at home. And this is why I'm the way that I am. And I'm like, and I wish you could have saw the elders. They were like, you're the professional. I mean, it's just kind of like, what are you going to do now? But there's a certain family from Broadway. The Christians. Where are you, Mr. Christian? You're where your grandson, Ethan. Who's a stud. Decathlete at Abilene Christian. He was a stud in high school. Everybody liked him. That Sunday. Everybody was gathered around worshiping and jumping up and down. We went through a charismatic phase of the hills, and there's Ethan. And here comes Boba Fett, 2500 people in the auditorium, and Boba Fett sees the teenagers. He's like, just enough courage. He walks and I'm on the slope watching, going, this is going to be interesting. Here comes Boba Fett, and he's in full Boba Fett gear, right? Full Boba Fett gear. And he's sitting here and there's the students just worshiping. Ryan is leading singing, and Ethan feels something. And Ethan turns around and sees Boba Fett. And thus does this.

And pulls him into the group, and Boba Fett worshipped at the front of the auditorium with Ethan and his friends. We're family. That's a big deal. That's a big deal. Personally, one of the things I experienced after the bus wreck in 99 remember, we were in the convention center having this great, weird, just emotional, incredible service just the day after we lost six girls. And I'm on stage. And if you remember, some of y'all probably won't. But I left the stage. Because right in the middle of the auditorium and the person who wanted me to see him was Bobby Hice. And he was just weeping. And I'm sitting there on the stage and Bobby's looking at me just weeping. And I walked over there and we just held each other. And he just needed to hug me, he said. We're family church. That's no smoke. Show all. There's no smoke shows to it. God has placed us exactly where he wants us. So when you're thinking, I don't like that part, go back and read your Bible. I don't like these people. Go back and read your Bible. They may not like you either. When you're fussing about something that's crazy, like a 5:00 assembly. It can't be about love. You cannot let them go because we need each other. We are family. So just for a moment. I want you to look around the auditorium. Don't look at me. Turn around and just see the faces.

Don't say a word. Just look at it. Look at him. That's funny. Y'all are sitting in the back going, I'm out of here. No, they see you. They see you every week and they're glad that you're here. Do you feel all the stories? This is a reason we're here. And if you're a guest. This is why you need to be here. Yeah, we believe that Jesus Christ transforms us in your soul and it's amazing. It's not just about fire insurance. It's not about checking it out. We need each other, and we are family, and we need you to be a part of that. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much. That you have given us this broken, beautiful mess. That you've given us, uh, because of your spirit inside of us. And we are so guilty at times of not showing the world the joy of that relationship that starts with you. Because we can be so divided. We can be so angry. But, father, would you bless us to remember this day and recommit to the idea of that? We need the individuals in here. We cannot do it by ourselves. We can't just be a fly on the wall and listen to a message and sing alone. We need each other. Father, would you just solidify that inside of ourselves? And father, would you help us realize that we are family? In all of our oddities and our weirdness, we are so grateful that we have family that is closer. Then flesh and blood. It is spirit. Through Jesus we all say Amen.