The Dream Church

A lot of things happen at this time of year. A lot of things going on on TV. Beginning or end of the season, of various sports, I think a lot of us were disappointed that our favorite son, favorite football player, I guess, didn't win the Heisman Trophy. And one of the things that happens at this time of year, you see a lot of sports magazines put together what they believe would be the ideal team, the dream team for a particular sport. Usually, you have the picture of all the superstar athletes filling in the key positions and a make believe team.

Fantasy team, wouldn't it be great if you could have one team with all these superstars from different teams on the same team? And then a lot of times you see the All Star Games, you know, the same thing. All Star Games are an effort to do this in real life and it's exciting to see the very best athletes all on the same team and watch them play against another regular opponent. Well, church life is not sports, of course. But sometimes I think about the dream church, the ideal church, and what what would that be like?

We don't have pictures, of course, superstars, things like that. But much like the dream teams in sport magazines, the bible describes for us what the I call the dream church, this ideal church, what it would be like. And so this morning, I'd like for us to get a glimpse of this ideal church contained in the pages of the New Testament. Now in order for my analogy to work, you have to understand, like all organizations or teams, the dream church is put together in a certain way. And the New Testament describes its character and its function.

For example, in the dream church, there's only 1 head, 1 leader, and that is Jesus Christ. We read about that in Colossians chapter 1 verse 18 where Paul says, he, referring to Jesus, he says, he is also head of the body, the church. And so the dream church is not confused about who the leader is. It's not a man or a prophet or an idea or an organization. The one and only leader and Lord of the dream church is Jesus Christ.

He is the Lord, not just of the body as a whole, but he is the Lord of every single cell in that body. And so in the dream church, nothing is done or said without the approval of the head, and all things are done through him and for him. Another aspect of the dream church is that it has a body only one body connected to that one head, and that is, of course, the church. In Ephesians chapter 4, Paul says, There is only 1 body, 1 spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling. And so the dream church sees itself as the only body.

See what I'm saying? The only body of the head. In the ideal New Testament church, there are no divisions, no denominations. There's just one body through which the head fulfills his complete will and purpose. The dream church is the only body by virtue of the fact that it perfectly fits itself to the head.

So in the dream church, you have only one head, and you have one body that is perfectly fitted to that head and not divided in any way. A third characteristic is this: the dream church has a holy character. Every team has a style aggressive style, defensive style, you know. Well, the dream church has a style, and that style is called holiness. That's the style of that church.

I was in Canada a a couple of weeks back preaching at a lectureship. And I was saying, I'm so fed up when I walk in somewhere, you know, and someone says, oh, you're a preacher. Yeah. Well, who do you preach for? And I said, well, I'm a minister for the Church of Christ.' And the answer I get back is, Oh, you're the guys that don't use any organ in your worship.

If I hear that one more time, I think I'm going to strangle somebody. Because I'm looking forward to the day when people say, Oh, the Church of Christ, you you people are holy, aren't you? Oh, I'd like to hear that. You people are holy. Every time I meet one of you people, the thing that comes the thing that comes across is that you you place value on holiness.

The style of the dream church is holiness. In Romans chapter 12 verse 1, Paul says, I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And in 1st Peter 1, Peter says, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior. Now, the word holy in the Old Testament and in the New Testament meant that something was separate, something was special. In other words, when God chose something for His own special use, then that place, whether it be a burning bush or a temple or that person, whether it be a prophet or a priest or that thing, whether it be the ark or the manna or Aaron's rod or whatever it was that thing, that person, that place, when God chose it, became separate.

It became special. It became holy. It meant that these people were to be treated with respect, or this place was to be treated with respect, or this thing was to be treated with respect. One of the things that is happening in modern society, unfortunately, is the desecration of the idea of holiness. Another thing I'm getting fed up of hearing is, Well, it's only a building.

Well, yeah. It's only a building, but it's a building that we built to worship the eternal God in. It's not just a building. Your garage is just a building. But this church building, yeah, it's a building, but we built it with a special purpose.

We consecrated it to the worship of the almighty God. So, yeah, it's special in many we don't worship the building, but we worship God in this building. And so holiness meant that whatever God separated for his special use was to be treated with respect and used with respect, or in the case of a person separated by God, that person was to live in a respectful way. Now the word church we're talking about the dream church has one body and the style of that body is holy. That word church in the Greek, ekklesia, comes from this Greek word ekklesia.

That means those who are called out or those who are separated. We're referring to those who are separated. God separates from the world those who believe in Jesus Christ and obey the gospel. And these people, by virtue of their separation, become holy because they've been put aside by God for a special purpose. And this holy group becomes the body.

They become the church. And the character of this group reflects their separation from the world by God. And it can be seen in various ways. This holiness you know when I said people will see your holiness? They see it in various ways.

For example, they see your holiness by your faith. We are people who believe and obey Jesus Christ, and so it is easy to tell the genuine from the fake. The dream church really does what Jesus would do, Whether they wear the little bracelet or the pin or not, it's not important. That's how they see your holiness. They see your obedience of faith.

They see your holiness because of the hope that you have. They continually maintain a sure hope of Christ's return and their eventual resurrection. Why do we get up on a rainy, damp, cold, foggy day when it would be a lot better to stay in bed and come to this building and we hand out little bits of cracker and we drink out of a tiny cup. That doesn't make any sense. Why do we do that?

Because it's our witness to the world. It's the way that we walk you know, other people walk around with placards, you know, and march up and down. That's our marching up and down in the world, saying, We believe, and we have a hope. And that hope is real for us. And because of our hope, we don't allow life's problems to overwhelm us.

And we don't allow the world to absorb us into itself. We're separate from the world. We're like oil. You know, you can throw oil into water but it won't mix, will it? It will float to the top.

It will make those little bubbles. That's how we are. And our holiness is seen also because of our love. The dream church is the Church of Love. You know, it would be okay if we tore down that sign next year.

It's been up there for a couple of years. It's starting to look a little ratty. The elders just say, Oh no, another budget item. But you know, if we tore down that sign and put up a new sign and it said, the Church of Love.' You know what? That would be okay.

That would be a very biblical thing to say, the Choctaw Church of Love. That'd be okay. God wouldn't condemn us for calling ourselves that. Our love of Christ is obvious because we can see it in our love for one another, and our love for the lost, whether they be rich or poor, black or white, near or far. Our holiness is seen through our love.

And so the dream church really stands out in this world because it is so unlike the world in its holy conduct of faith, in its holy conduct of hope, in its holy conduct of love. Another aspect of the dream church the dream church has a mission. It has a head. It has a specific body. It has a character.

It has a mission. And that mission is stated in Matthew 28 verses 18 to 20. You know that familiar passage where Jesus is saying to his apostles, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. You know, if you would read church magazines nowadays, a lot of magazines devoted specifically to church issues, they send them to preachers you would think that the purpose of the church is to make itself comfortable. You would think that the purpose if you came from Mars and you opened up a glossy magazine that they distribute to all churches, you would think that the purpose of the church is to entertain itself.

I mean, I receive dozens well, both Kenneth and I received these several magazines every week these church magazines and you flip through them and you see the advertisements. They're full of ads and articles about how to make the church grow through music or drama, or architecture, or marketing, or advertising, or seminars you know, $500 Come and hear this seminar! And it seems as if we've forgotten that the only way to make the church grow is by sticking to the main mission of the church, and that is preaching the gospel to the lost. How difficult can that be to understand? I'm not saying it's easy to carry out, but how difficult can that be to understand?

This was the mission that Jesus gave to the apostles and the early church, and that mission has never changed. The Dream Church has a functional facility, of course, and many programs and relevant and edifying worship and teaching and preaching, but all of these things are geared to accomplishing 2 things: number 1, saving the lost and number 2, keeping the saved faithful. That's what it's about in the dream church. You see, in the dream church, evangelism is job number 1. A 5th characteristic about the dream church the dream church has a message.

It doesn't just pop off in this direction and blast off in that direction and zoom off in this direction. What do we do this week? What program are we going to try? No, no. The Dream Church has a method.

You know, one of the reasons a team, a sports team, is successful is that it has skilled players who know how to play the game. Not enough just to be able to throw the ball if it's football, not enough just to be able to throw the ball 80 yards. You have to be able to read defenses and so on and so forth. To be able to react, you need to use your brain. Well, in the dream church, every member knows how to function within the body in order to accomplish the mission of the church.

Now I said that the mission was to win souls and to remain faithful. And in Acts chapter 2, Luke explains how this is accomplished. There's a method. There's an approach. Now Luke describes the function of the early church under the direct leadership of the apostles and how they won souls and remained faithful to the Lord.

In a nutshell, what they did was that they all serve in 5 basic ministries. I'm getting one last chance to repeat this to you. That's how important I think it is. In Acts chapter 2, you see everyone functioning in 5 basic ministries evangelism, education, fellowship, service, and worship. And as they functioned effectively in each one of these ministries, their combined effort produced 2 things.

Number 1, the Lord added souls daily to the church, Acts 2:47. And they grew in their unity and love for each other and the Lord. Now in a modern day setting, the dream church would function in the following way. 1st of all, those who are mature in the faith would be eager to teach and apply themselves to the serious study of God's word. In other words, in the dream church, when the new quarter comes around, there's no begging for teachers.

We don't have to beg people to teach in the dream church. In the dream church, we've got a deep bench. In the dream church, it works the other way around. Teachers are begging for the opportunity to get in there and teach. And the church would devote itself to Bible study in various ways, and every member would consider it a priority, not only to be in a Bible class, but also to learn with the purpose of putting things into practice in the dream church.

You don't have to beg people to teach and you don't have to beg people to come to Bible School in the dream church. And then, as far as evangelism is concerned, the goal would be that every person in the community that the church serves would hear the gospel. Now, a method or a plan would be developed that guaranteed that everyone in the area, in some way or another, would be invited to church or have a bible study or simply given the message of the gospel. I mean, even if it's just to hang the message of the gospel on their doorknob, somehow we figured a way to share the message of the gospel with every member of the community. In the dream church, provision would be made not only for the local community but also money would be set aside to finance the preaching of the gospel in other cities and in other nations.

In the dream church. And the dream church would understand that fellowship, for example, is more than just a potluck. Fellowship would be a conscious effort by all to grow closer together as a Christian family by sharing our faith and our work, sharing our burdens and our joys with each other. The Dream Church loves to be together and searches for ways and opportunities to melt our lives and our families and our friendships into the one body of Christ. How do you think you become 1?

You become the one body by sharing your lives as 1. For the dream church, serving, that fourth area of ministry, serving the Lord would be an opportunity and an honor, not a burden. You see, the Dream Church's building and grounds would say, I am proud of being a Christian, and I want everything the community sees about us to reflect excellence. After all, it's the Lord's building and it's the Lord's people. And this super church isn't necessarily the richest church, but it's rich in good works, from taking care of its own members' needs to finding ways to help the less fortunate in the community.

Are some things sounding familiar? Are you saying to yourself, Well, we do that. Oh, yeah, we do that. Well, that's the purpose. That's the reason.

I want you to understand the things that we are doing and maybe the things that we're not. The ideal church member would feel a personal responsibility to support the church financially and does not consider it a member. In the ideal church, like the Israelites when they were building the tabernacle, they received more than enough to do the job. Well, the dream church always makes budget. The dream church always makes budget.

And finally, in this church I dream about and the New Testament describes, worship is an experience, not a chore. There's no need for attendance cards because everyone is there at all services. And when the church is together, it sings with enthusiasm, and it prays fervently, and it preaches with conviction, and it gives generously, and it takes communion reverently. For members of the Dream Church, when it comes to services, coming to church is not the problem. The problem is not being able to come to church.

That's the problem in the dream church. The dream church always honors God, always worships in the spirit, always leaves with more than it came. And so when a church uses the New Testament method of serving the Lord, which I've described very briefly here biblical teaching, soul winning as a priority, loving fellowship, effective service, spiritual worship When that church does this, it experiences the growth that the green the the dream church knew in the 1st century. And so this morning, I presented to you the year 2000 Dream Church. Have you heard?

Have you gotten an image of what it's like? Let me resume it for you. Okay? Let me give you a little resume. The 2 1,000 Dream Church consists of a supernatural head, Jesus Christ.

It has a single unified body, which is the church. It has a special character. It's called holiness. It has a specific mission, which is to preach the gospel to all nations. And it has a systematic game plan or method to carry out this mission, which includes preaching Jesus' gospel, teaching Jesus' word, sharing Jesus' love, serving in Jesus' name, and worshiping Jesus in spirit and in truth.

That's the game plan. Now when the dream church is put together and it functions in this way, three things will happen. Number 1, some people will get angry and begin persecuting the church because it's shedding way too much light on their darkness. And so the church will suffer. Let me tell you something.

The dream church is not the dream church if it's not suffering in some way. Because once you start shedding a lot of light, people don't like that. People don't like too much light in their darkness. Number 2. Some people come to Christ because they see the glory in his glorious body.

That's what happens. The dream church isn't the dream church unless it's growing. Living thing grows. And finally, when we do these things, the church itself is confident and joyful because it is ready for the return of the Lord. You see, the Lord is coming for the church that dreams and strives to be the dream church, the New Testament church.

Now you know you can be that church. You can be that church. You can become that dream church. As a matter of fact, everything that I have done in the last seven and a half years, I have done with the purpose, the very clear purpose of helping the Choctaw congregation become the dream church that we read about in the New Testament. And we've made progress in so many areas.

I could take up another half hour telling you all the great things that we've done. We all recognize Jesus as our Lord. We are united under Christ as one body. This is a very united church. We understand the method or the game plan, and we are organized according to the New Testament plan.

So much work has been done and accomplished. But there are some areas where we still need some work, however. For example, not everyone is committed to holy living. Not everyone is offering themselves up as holy sacrifices. Not everyone is making an honest effort to deal with their personal sins, with their personal bad habits.

Too many of us are excusing our bad language or bad habits concerning drugs or alcohol or tobacco or whatever it is or impure sexual activity. We're excusing it. Not enough of us are making an effort to share our faith in some way with our family or with our neighbors or friends. Not all those who are in leadership roles and there are many leadership roles in the church. Not all of us who are leaders are taking that leadership seriously.

And we still have a large section of our body, sometimes 20, 25 percent, who don't attend regularly, don't give, don't serve, don't fellowship, have no personal bible reading time or study time by themselves with the Lord. And, of course, there are still some that gather with us week after week who have not yet done the very basic thing of confessing Christ as their Lord and responded in the waters of baptism. Brothers and sisters and friends, the only way to become the dream church is for each person here to examine their lives and decide to do what they need to do in order to obey the Lord and his word concerning their sins and their service to him. If you want to be part of the Lord's Church, if you want to help build up this dream church and need to make a change that you need to inform us of, perhaps you need to be baptized, perhaps you need to confess sin, perhaps you need prayer in your struggle to grow. Whatever your need, we encourage you to come forward now as Harold leads us in the song of encouragement.