If you'd open your Bible with me to the book of 1st Thessalonians, as I begin a series
that will take us through the summer months entitled, The Church I Want to Join.
I've not been church shopping too often in my life.
I think it was probably in college the last time that I was church shopping.
For some reason, when I go to pastor a church, they insist that I join there.
And so I haven't done that too often in the last 30 plus years.
And it may be that you're here today church shopping, but most of us at some point in
our lives, whether we're young or old or right now, we have been looking for a church.
And the question I'm asking myself is, what kind of a church do I want to join?
How do you decide that anyway?
Do you look at the preaching?
Do you look at the music styles?
You try to find a church where the kids find a place or where the facilities meet the eye?
Is it where my friends go to church?
Do I look for a church where the people reach out with a welcoming hand and make me feel
important?
Now, there's something to be said about all of these things that I've just mentioned,
but there are some deeper matters that need to be weighed too in this matter of finding
a church to join.
In fact, some of the most important things about a church are well beyond the preaching
and music styles and whether the facility is new or attractive.
These things go much deeper than that.
They go to the very heart of the church into, shall we say, its culture, into what the church
really is.
We find the kind of information that I'm talking about in the book of 1 Thessalonians and 2
Thessalonians.
Paul's letters to this church located in the city of Thessalonica may in fact have been
his earliest writings that were inspired by the Holy Spirit as a revelation.
By looking into these writings, I believe that we can chart what a church looks like
that you and I would really want to join.
This is an important question.
It is not a matter of mere theory.
It is a matter of real practical application to our lives because although most of us sitting
here this morning are not looking to join a church, we ought to be looking to build
a church.
We've heard the statistic many times that 85% of American churches are either stagnant
or declining.
And let me say to you as your pastor who loves you, that includes us.
Los Gatos Christian Church has been in decline since the mid-1980s.
And right now in a Sunday morning service, typically we have 500 or fewer people.
Now there are probably 1200 who say that they come and are a part of our church, and that
would be true if you add up everybody who comes over maybe a year's period.
And we have a number of people who come two times a month or once a month and they consider
themselves to be active in our church.
But when you average it all out, we have each Sunday about 500 people who come and who are
here in this auditorium as part of our worship service.
We are among the churches in America that are in decline that ought to concern you.
It concerns me a great deal.
It concerns the leaders of our church.
And this summer in the series that I'm going to talk about, I want to talk about the kind
of a church people want to join.
Now there are lots of reasons why people leave churches.
We have seen probably 60 families leave our church in the last now two and a half years
because of the economy.
We read in the paper yesterday that this is the worst economic situation the valley has
been in in many decades.
And it will probably take the rest of this decade before we're able to climb out of it.
But the fact is in the midst of a lot of people leaving the valley, there are some churches
that are growing.
Why is that?
Well, some of it is attributed to the fact that Christians have a tendency to go where
something's happening.
So really the church isn't growing from new converts, but it's growing because people
are migrating to other places.
Los Gatos Christian Church benefited, if you want to call it that, from this same phenomenon
back in the 70s and early 80s, as this was the place to go.
And lots of people who found problems in their churches left and came here, and that would
include some of you sitting here this morning.
And the reason there are some churches growing in our valley is because there are Christians
migrating to them for one reason or another.
But there aren't many churches that are growing because of new converts, and that's what church
growth really is.
It's when a church grows because people are coming to faith in Jesus Christ.
There are not many churches in our valley, even some whose numbers are growing, who are
adding because people are coming to faith in Jesus Christ.
I want to talk about that this summer.
I want to talk about becoming the kind of a place where people want to come, where they
are attracted to come.
I want to talk about being a place where you would want to join.
The kind of church that I would want to join and the kind of church that you would want
to join is the kind of church that I hope that we together desire to build at Los Gatos
Christian Church.
I want to read a text here in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1.
I'm going to begin in verse 2 rather than read the introduction.
For Paul says, we always thank God for all of you mentioning you in our prayers.
We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your work
of faith.
The kind of a church that I want to join is the kind of a church that has a faith that
works.
Or to say it another way, it's a place where authentic faith powerfully transforms lives
and brings God's outcome.
That's the kind of a church I want to join.
Charles Spurgeon said more than a hundred years ago, brethren, be great believers.
Be great believers.
I like that.
He went on to say, little faith will bring your souls to heaven, but great faith will
bring heaven to your souls.
What I want to be a part of is a church, a congregation, a assembly of God's people who
are great believers.
That was the case with the Thessalonians.
They had a great faith because they had a powerful message.
The message that they had received by faith was none other than the gospel that Paul had
preached to them.
In fact, Paul refers to it in the verses that follow here as our gospel.
Verse four, we know, brothers, beloved by God, that he has chosen you because our gospel
came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit, and with
deep conviction.
Paul is here describing the ministry that he had in bringing the gospel to the city
of Thessalonica.
Now, if you go back to Acts chapter 17 and read about it, it reads a little differently
than this.
There it says that he went and he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jewish leaders and
being thrown out of there, he went to Gentiles, he was greatly opposed.
And yet, as Paul looks back upon that, he says, when we were there preaching the gospel
to you, it was more than just words.
The words were accompanied, he says, with power, with the Holy Spirit, and with deep
conviction.
They had believed a powerful message, the gospel of God.
It was accompanied with some demonstration of God's power, whatever that was, were not
made clear.
But certainly, it was at least with a deep moving conviction in their hearts.
And God used the proclamation of the gospel of Christ to woo these Jewish unbelievers
and pagan unbelievers to place their faith in the person of Jesus.
They heard that there was a Savior that came to the world, that it was God who had come
in the flesh.
Paul proclaimed to them his sinless life, his death for them on the cross, and his resurrection
from the dead.
And having heard that there was a God who loved them that much and who paid the price
for their sins, and who wanted to come into their lives, they believed on him.
And they believed with transforming results.
Their faith was an authentic faith.
The results are clear.
Paul says in verse 9, you turned to God from idols.
Do you understand the dynamic that is involved here?
The sea change of thought and of tradition and pattern in their lives.
Those who were pagans had worshiped idols all of their lives.
They were brought up in that system of religion.
But now, hearing the gospel of Christ, they believed.
And the result of their belief was they turned from idols to serve God.
They turned away from what they had been a part of in the past to begin a brand new relationship
with this creator God who had loved them and given himself for them.
This message not only resonated in their hearts, it resonated through them, throughout the
city and throughout the region.
It was like the roll of thunder the gospel was in the Thessalonian church.
Paul says as much when he says in verse 8, the Lord's message rang out from you not only
in Macedonia and Achaia, the areas nearby.
He says your faith in God has become known everywhere.
Something powerful was taking place among the people who believed in Thessalonica.
Their authentic faith transformed them.
And that transformation was so complete that it rolled like thunder.
It echoed throughout the whole region so that many, many people heard that something was
happening in the city of Thessalonica.
When the persecution came, a third result of their genuine faith was this.
They remained loyal to Christ.
Paul speaks of that early in the epistle in verse 6.
He says you became imitators of us and of the Lord.
What do you mean Paul?
He says in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by
the Holy Spirit.
Despite the fact that the powers of darkness struck back quickly against the new believers,
their faith was so transforming and so authentic that despite the severe suffering they underwent,
they persevered.
They persisted and stuck with it.
But not only that.
Their authentic faith was reflected in another way entirely.
In chapter 4 verses 9 and 10, Paul speaks of their life change, their lifestyle change.
He says now about brotherly love, we do not need to write to you.
For you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other.
And in fact you do love all the brothers throughout Macedonia.
Yet we urge you brothers to do so more and more.
The fourth demonstration of this transforming result of the gospel was in their lifestyle.
Rather than being typically self-centered, selfish people, they began to care for others
and to demonstrate that love and concern for others in very practical, tangible ways so
that it could be called agape love, self-sacrificing love.
And Paul says I don't even need to write to you about this.
He said I'll tell you, do it more and more but you yourselves know how to do this already.
Why?
Because of their authentic faith.
Because their faith was authentic.
This powerful message brought transforming results to their lives.
Now what is authentic faith?
Paul seems to describe it in verse 13 of chapter 2.
I want you to turn there and look at that.
He says we also thank God continually because when you received the Word of God, which you
heard from us, you accepted it not as the Word of men but as it actually is the Word
of God which is at work in you who believe.
There are three words in this verse that Paul seems to use interchangeably.
He seems to be saying that to believe is to receive which is to embrace or to accept.
They received or embraced the message.
That is they reached out and they brought it to themselves.
It wasn't a matter of mere intellectual understanding of what the gospel was.
They reached out and they took it for themselves.
It can also be described as a welcoming.
To take hold of with the hand.
This morning I had you greet people.
What that means is that you welcomed them, you stuck out your hand, you took their hand
in yours and you shook it.
That was a way of welcoming them.
And what Paul is saying is that you welcomed the gospel.
You reached out with your hand and you took it.
You see, authentic faith is more than merely hearing a message.
It is acting upon it.
Authentic faith is more than assenting to the truth of a message.
It is actually reaching out and making it yours.
I fear that there are many who think they are Christians who are not because they have
something less than authentic faith.
Even the devil has faith.
James says the devil believes that there is a God.
He has a faith.
And I fear that there are many people who call themselves Christians who have a kind
of faith in which they sort of go along with the message.
They like the people that they go to church with.
They feel comfortable there.
They've got roots there.
They think the message is a wonderful message.
They like the things it does in other people's lives.
But they themselves have never experienced the reality of the transforming gospel of
Jesus Christ.
Authentic faith is a faith that is reached out for, taken a hold of, and applied to one's
life.
Authentic faith, genuine faith.
It reaches out for the gospel.
It takes it by the hand, as it were, and it brings it to one's own heart.
Have you ever done that?
Have you experienced the transforming power of Jesus Christ?
In the case of the Thessalonians, there was an authentic faith that powerfully transformed
their lives, and it brought God's outcome in their church.
Jesus had an awful lot to say about the importance of faith.
There are certain principles that Jesus taught about faith.
I want to mention two of them this morning.
I want to talk about this because I believe that if we're going to be a church that is
going to last beyond another generation.
If we are a church that is going to be the kind of a church where people want to join,
then we need to be a church where faith is dynamic.
Where faith is more than something we talk about.
Faith is something that changes our lives.
It energizes who we are and what we do.
The first principle I want to give you that Jesus taught about faith is this, that faith
releases God's resources.
I remind you of what Jesus said in Matthew 9 verses 27 to 30.
Jesus was going on from the city of Jericho, and there were two blind men who were following
him.
They called out to him, Lord, son of David, have mercy upon us.
And it says when he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him and he asked them, do
you believe that I am able to do this?
Yes, Lord, they replied.
Then he touched their eyes and said, according to your faith, will it be done to you?
And their sight was restored.
There is a basic principle locked up in that statement.
According to your faith, will it be done to you?
I heard a story recently about a church in West Virginia which bought a few acres of
ground.
In fact, they didn't buy it.
They inherited it from a man in the congregation who passed away.
It was just large enough for them to build the kind of a church that they were eager
to build.
And so they went to work.
They did that.
They built the church.
They put in the parking lot that they could fit onto that site.
And just a week or so before they had the dedication of the new facility, they learned
from the building inspector that they didn't have enough parking for the church.
And therefore, they were not going to receive the occupancy permit to use it.
Now they had a little bit of a problem because you see this church was built right at the
foot of a mountain.
So that the parking lot ended and the mountain went up like this.
And so it wasn't as though they could go buy a few more acres and build more parking.
And so the pastor called the church to pray.
Out of the 300 people in the church, 24 came to the prayer meeting.
And they prayed for three hours.
And they claimed the promise of God and that the promise they claimed was that if you speak
to this mountain and believe it will be moved, it will be moved.
And so they prayed that God would move that mountain so that they would have room then
to build a parking lot large enough for their church.
Now how would you like to be in that prayer meeting and be asked to have that kind of
faith?
There are all kinds of reasons why Jesus didn't mean what He said, right?
There are ways that we rationalize these things and we qualify these things so in the end
whatever Jesus said is basically nullified.
But not with this congregation.
They said, we're going to believe God to move that mountain.
At least 24 of them did.
They entered the prayer meeting.
The next morning the pastor was in a study.
There was a knock at the door.
And a man introduced himself.
He was a burly man.
He was dressed as a construction worker.
And he said to the pastor, I'm sorry to disturb you, but I am from the Acme Construction Company.
And down the road here a ways we're building a shopping center.
We desperately need some fill dirt.
Would you mind if we could buy some of that mountain behind your church?
We would like to take down some of that mountain.
And pastor, we know that it kind of leaves a mess.
So I'll tell you what we'll do.
We'll even smooth it out at the base and we'll put some asphalt down there for you so you
can use that as a parking lot.
The mountain was moved.
You see, God has a way of answering prayer when we have authentic faith.
When we really believe that God will answer.
Jesus said, according to your faith will it be done to you?
Sometimes when I'm praying I examine my heart and I say, do you really believe that God
can do that?
Do you ever struggle that way or am I the only one?
I think we all do.
And what we are learning here is that Jesus says, according to your faith your request
will be granted.
What are you believing God for?
Spurgeon said, have great faith.
We would hope to have great faith, but usually our great faith is more of a theory than a
theory.
Because our requests are so innocuous, are so small that if God answered it we couldn't
really measure it.
God wants us to have a great faith.
God wants us to ask prayers that are God sized.
That's the kind of a church I want to join.
That's the kind of a church that I want us together to build.
The kind of a church that is able to lay hold of the promises of God and to believe God
for big things.
Be willing to risk our own reputation, what people think of us and so forth, for the glory
of God.
There's another principle that Jesus gives.
It is the principle found in Matthew chapter 13 verses 57 and 58.
It's this principle, so it's the opposite of what I've said.
It is that unbelief hinders God's results.
It says in Matthew 13, Jesus said to them, only in his hometown and in his own house
is a prophet without honor.
He is talking about the city of Nazareth.
And it goes on to say, and he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.
In Matthew chapter 17, the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked him a question.
They had been trying to drive out a demon and they could not do it.
And they said, Lord, why couldn't we drive it out?
And he replied, because you have so little faith.
Again, in Mark chapter 6, it says, he could not do any miracles there except lay his hands
on a few sick people and heal them.
And he was amazed at their lack of faith.
When you read the gospels, you see Jesus doing miracles in many places, especially around
the Sea of Galilee, the Sea of Capernaum.
You see it in the Decapolis.
You see it in lots of the little villages as he would travel along.
But in the city of Nazareth, where he was best known, where he grew up, where he spent
most of his earthly life, it says he could not do many miracles there.
And the reason was the lack of faith.
Faith hinders the release of God's power.
God's results cannot be realized where God's people do not believe him.
Martin Luther said, God, our Father, has made all things depend on faith so that whoever
has faith will have everything.
And whoever does not have faith will have nothing.
I want to be a part of a church that has authentic faith, that has the kind of faith that changes
lives and accomplishes God's outcome.
Now, what does authentic, transforming faith look like?
Well, I think we could say on one hand, there would be excitement in a church like this.
There would be energy in a church like this.
There would be something in the air in a church like this.
You would want to go there.
You would want to invite others to go with you there because of the faith that is experienced
when you attend.
When I think of a church like this, I think of the Brooklyn Tabernacle where some of you
have been.
I have not been there.
Someday I hope to visit.
Now, why do I want to go?
Because it is a church of incredible faith where people pray and believe God for big
things.
And God has a way of answering those kinds of prayers.
I want to be in that kind of an atmosphere.
I want to see it.
I want to experience it.
That's the kind of church I want to be a part of.
And I believe it's the kind of church you want to be a part of.
A church that has authentic, transforming faith also has a sense of expectation.
When you go there, you have this sense that something is about to happen.
When you listen to people talk, there is a positive talk.
There is a way in which they express themselves, in which they are expecting God to do something.
It's just not the ordinary kind of conversation.
This transforming authentic faith is the kind that pushes the boundaries out of our comfort
zones.
We Christians and we as churches can get stale.
We can get stuck in a rut and hamstrung by our own traditions.
Wasn't that not at least in part what happened to Israel in Jesus' day?
The leaders rejected Him because they were hamstrung by their own traditions, which they
respected more than they respected the Word of God.
The same thing can happen to us.
Authentic faith is the kind of faith that pushes the boundaries of our comfort zones.
I grew up in a church that was of a certain theological persuasion.
I went to schools that had a certain theological persuasion.
But I'm grateful for the doctrine that I learned growing up.
I'm grateful for the foundation that I have for my belief system.
But I will tell you this, the kind of system that I brought up in put God in a box.
The theological grid that I grew up with was such that God could not do certain things
because that was inconsistent with our theological grid.
And I think that that is a grid that is very common in the evangelical church in America.
Why is it that we hear stories of how God moves in powerful ways in Muslim countries,
for example, as I heard this last week, or as I've heard stories about Ethiopia in the
past, places where there is more of an openness to the supernatural and a working of the supernatural?
Why is it that when Christians pray there, miracles happen that don't happen here?
I think part of that is because we have this theological grid that says that God can't
do this or can't do that because it's inconsistent with our theology.
I think authentic faith pushes us beyond the grid.
I think authentic faith pushes us beyond the comfort zones.
I went to church a few months ago with a friend of mine.
It was a church that's in a different theological camp than the one that I pastor and that I
grew up in.
And in the service, at a particular point, the pastor called for anybody who had a need
to slip out of the pew where they were seated and stand in the aisle.
And then people who had some oil went down the aisles and anointed them in the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now that was beyond my comfort zone.
You say your comfort zone is way too narrow.
That's what I'm telling you.
When I experienced that at first, I thought, oh my goodness, what's going on here?
I've never experienced anything like this before.
And yet I saw God touch the lives of people.
Now how God answered their prayers and met their needs, I cannot know.
But I know that in that body, in Fridley, Minnesota, there are some people, there are
scores of people in that church who believe that God answers prayer.
And that was symbolized by their going down the aisles and touching the foreheads of people
that they prayed for and anointing them in the name of Christ.
Now there's nothing magic about the form, about the oil.
The power, you see, is in the faith to believe that God is able to answer prayer.
Faith releases God's power.
Faith and our traditions hinder God doing what he wants to do.
I believe that authentic transforming faith not only is the kind that pushes our boundaries
out, it's the kind of faith that sees supernatural results.
Isn't that reasonable that if we pray to a supernatural God, we ought to see supernatural
things?
And yet we in the Western culture see little evidence of this.
I think part of that is because of our culture.
We live in a culture that is rationalistic, materialistic, and we don't expect to see
the supernatural because in the world view that dominates our culture, the supernatural
doesn't exist.
And we know on some level that it does exist, but for many of us it hasn't gotten down into
our faith where we really believe that the supernatural can intervene in our situations
despite what our world view is.
Authentic transforming faith is the kind that sees supernatural results.
Authentic transforming faith is the kind that believes God is at work even when that work
is invisible.
It perseveres because it is focused on the promises of God rather than on the circumstances
of the moment.
It knows that God is at work even when we can't see God.
Some people seem to think that God is only working when they can see Him working.
It's sort of like that blonde that we've all heard about who was asked to stick her head
out the window of the car to see if the blinker was working.
In doing that she said, yes, no, yes, no, yes, no.
You see she thought the blinker only worked when she saw it on.
We need to learn that we don't have to see God at work for Him in fact to be at work.
He works in the invisible realm very often.
Authentic transforming faith believes that God is at work even when He can't be seen.
Authentic transforming faith allows God His mysteries.
That is the mystery of when the miracle doesn't happen.
Why?
The mystery of when the answer to prayer suddenly disappears.
Why?
There are many mysteries in life.
An authentic transforming faith believes God deeply, but it leaves the mysteries to God
and says, God, I don't understand.
This doesn't make sense to me, but I believe you.
That's genuine faith.
You see it gives God room for His mysteries.
One theologian said, the more we know of God, the more unreservedly we will trust Him.
Why?
Because God is always faithful.
Why would I look for a church with authentic faith?
Well, I will tell you honestly that one reason for that is because I need that support.
I need that stimulation of others who believe God for my own faith.
And I want to be a part of a congregation with a big God, a people who believe that
God is bigger than any circumstance.
Jeremiah did.
He said, Oh, sovereign Lord, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power
and outstretched arm.
Nothing is too difficult or too hard for You.
Nothing.
Jesus said to His disciples, I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter
the kingdom of heaven.
I tell you it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich
man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
This blew the minds of the disciples because their whole view was that if you were rich,
it meant that God had been pleased with you and had blessed you.
And they heard this and they were astonished and asked, Well Lord, who can be saved then
if not rich people?
And Jesus looked at them and said, With man this is impossible, but with God all things
are what?
Are possible.
I asked myself some heart-searching questions in light of the need for authentic faith.
What issues do I need to surrender to Jesus?
What issues in my life do I need to surrender to Jesus?
In light of this challenge about faith, what attitudes in me need to be changed?
What actions show my faith to be authentic?
How should my faith grow?
These are questions that I need to deal with and you need to deal with.
There's an old chorus, it's so old even I haven't sung it.
But it said, Faith, mighty faith, the promise sees and looks to God alone, laughs at impossibilities
and cries, It shall be done.
With man it is impossible.
With God all things are possible.
Kind of church that I want to join is the kind of a church that says amen to that.
It says we may not have much, we may be against difficult circumstances, we may be under pressure,
but with God all things are possible.
It's the kind of a faith that has a positive outlook.
It's the kind of a faith that says it can be done.
It's the kind of a faith that says God will do it and if he doesn't I'm going to trust
him anyway.
That's authentic transforming faith.
The kind of faith that Hudson Taylor had on many occasions, but on one occasion that I
want to share with you in 1853 he was traveling on his first voyage to China.
And he was of course on a ship that was empowered by the wind and they hit a calm near New Guinea.
And they noticed as they were in the water that there was a current that was strong,
taking them in the direction of some reefs that would destroy the ship.
The captain immediately ordered some sailors to get in a longboat and to attach a rope
to the big ship and to try to row it out of that current, but they could not begin to
make headway with it.
The captain finally said, we have done everything that we can do.
And Hudson Taylor said to him, no there is one thing we haven't done yet.
We have not prayed.
There were some other believers who were on the ship with Taylor.
They retired to a cabin and they began to pray.
In fact they each went to their own cabins and began to pray.
And after some time Hudson Taylor began to be convinced in his spirit that God was going
to deliver them, that God was going to send a wind so they would not drift with the current
into the rocks.
So he went up onto the deck.
Now it's one thing to believe that, right?
But he went up on the deck and he said to the first officer who was not a Christian,
let down the main sail because a breeze is on its way.
Now my friends, that's authentic faith.
It's more than a private impression that God is going to do something.
It is taking a public stand.
He said put down the main sail, a breeze is on its way.
The man refused to do it.
But just then, just then the corner of the sail began to stir just a little bit.
And so they quickly let down the sail and it was only within a matter of minutes before
there was a wind that had come that carried them out of that dangerous current and on
their way.
I wish I were a Hudson Taylor, don't you?
We can be.
Because you see the power was not in Hudson Taylor.
The power was in the God that he believed.
That's all.
He was an ordinary man.
The chorus is sung today.
It says only believe.
Only believe.
All things are possible.
Only believe.
Have you ever heard that?
You know it?
Many of you do.
Only believe all things are possible.
Are we ready to believe?
I believe you are.
I want God to move in us in a way that will truly honor him by releasing his power in
our midst.
I'm willing to be stretched.
I'm willing for my comfort zones to be pushed back.
What I want to experience is Jesus.
Jesus working in our midst because our hearts truly believe him.
Let's bow together.
If you know that chorus, sing it with me.
Only believe.
All things are possible.
Only believe.
All things are possible.
Only believe.
Would you stand together with me, please?
Father God, our prayer today is that we might be men and women who activate authentic, transforming
faith in our lives.
We're not looking to join another church, but we are, Lord, seeking to build our church.
And we want it to be built upon this kind of faith.
We want it to be built upon the kind of faith that sees you as a big God for whom nothing
is impossible, in whom all things are possible.
Lord, help us to believe this way.
Teach us to believe this way.
Change us to believe this way.
I pray in Jesus' name, amen.