I Will Build My Church | Sunday, August 24, 2025

Amen. Praise the Lord. Thank you, Anthony and team. Good morning, everybody. You can have a seat. It is so good to see you here this morning.

Sometimes, you don't realize how things are working together in the moment when something is happening in your life. You don't quite recognize it until you've gone through something. Last Sunday, I adjusted my teaching schedule. I had set a plan for what we were going to teach through this summer, using the Nicene Creed as the roadmap for our series, which we are about to finish up. I had planned everything out at the beginning of the summer, but at the end of the service a couple of weeks ago, I adjusted my schedule and moved some things around.

Last week, I was supposed to talk about the portion of the creed that speaks about the church, but I decided to do that this week instead of last week. I didn't realize at the time that there might have been something more to that decision, and perhaps the Lord was involved in it as well. God providentially sometimes has us do things a little bit differently. The message I would have delivered last week would have been decidedly different than the message I will present this week, due to some events that have occurred this week that connect to the idea of being a part of the church, the body of Christ. That will make more sense in a moment.

We are coming down to the end of this series, with just this week and next remaining. We have been using a creed that came together 1,700 years ago when the leadership of the Christian church, the bishops, gathered in 325 AD in what we know today as northern Turkey, in a city called Nicaea. They came together to formally articulate what the church believes from the Scriptures, from the Bible. They didn't just come up with this on their own; they based it on the Scriptures. What does the church believe about the nature of God?

In this series, we have been going through all the portions of the Nicene Creed. We have looked at what the creed says about our faith in God the Father, God the Son, and then God the Holy Spirit, which is where we were last week. As you go through the creed, there are these "we believe" statements. We have already examined the first three of the four "we believe" statements. The first one begins, "We believe in God the Father." The next portion states, "We believe in Christ Jesus the Lord, the Son." The third section is, "We believe in the Holy Spirit."

Today, we are going to turn our attention to the fourth "we believe" statement in this passage. I think that this fourth one teaches us some very important truths about God and the nature of the church.

God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit applies to us, His people. These are not just things that we say, believe, or proclaim; they reflect who God is. The very nature of God teaches us something about how He wants that to become a reality in our lives.

Ancient Judaism also has a very old creed. It's the first creed that every Jewish child would learn, found in Deuteronomy chapter 6. In Deuteronomy 6:4, it begins with these words: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord." This is the essential Jewish creed that Jews refer to as the Shema. They call it the Shema because the first word of that statement, "Hear, O Israel," is the Hebrew word "Shema." This word is translated in Deuteronomy 6 as "hear," but it means more than just casually hearing or listening to something. The idea in the word is that you hear, heed, and obey what is being said.

So, when God says, "Hear, O Israel," it is a command to listen and obey. It's similar to what parents say to their kids when they ask, "Are you hearing me?" They often say this when they are unsure their children are putting into practice the things they are being told to do.

Among the things that God tells His people to do in this creed is to teach it to their children. In Deuteronomy 6:6, it says, "And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart, and you shall teach them diligently to your children." This has been true ever since Moses gave these words to the children of Israel thousands of years ago. They have taught these words to their kids: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord."

Now, there is a challenge with this statement. If you look at it in the original language, there appears to be a grammatical problem. When the text of the Shema says, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord," the word "God" in the original Hebrew is "Elohim." The last two letters, "im," make that word plural. So, if you were to be super literal in your translation, it would say, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord, our Gods, is one Lord." This seems like a contradiction.

Grammatical challenges or problems arise until one understands how Hebrew works, because not only does "Elohim" make the word "God" plural, but when everything around it is singular, it emphasizes that word. It conveys something about the majesty and grandeur of God. O Israel, God the Lord is majestic. He is awesome. He is beyond all comprehension of who we can even think of Him being. He defies everything we can comprehend because He is infinite and we are finite.

For Christians, the idea that the word "Elohim" is plural in the phrase "O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord" takes on a whole different meaning. Through revelation, we understand something about the nature of God, which is expressed in the Nicene Creed: there is one God, but God exists in three persons. This is what we refer to as the Trinity. This concept is taught throughout the Scriptures, and it is a hard thing to explain and comprehend. As I said, God in His majesty is infinite, and we are finite. My brain cannot fully grasp the idea that there is one God who exists in three persons. These three persons are distinct, co-equal, co-eternal, and co-existent. Yet, there is one God in three persons.

From this understanding, various misunderstandings about the nature of God have emerged among Christians. Sometimes these misunderstandings stem from our finite brains trying to comprehend the infinite God, leading us to illustrate it in ways that may not fully capture the truth. If you've been around the church for any length of time, you may have heard people illustrate the Trinity using the idea of water, H2O. They might say something like this: "Well, you know, water can be a solid. We call that ice. Good. Yes, you got it. Then it can be a gas, which we refer to as steam. And water at room temperature is a liquid." So, it's all still water; it's still H2O, but it can be a solid, a liquid, or a gas.

The problem with using that illustration is that it actually represents modalism. Modalism is the idea that God exists in the mode of God the Father, then in the mode of Jesus the Son, and then as the mode of the Holy Spirit.

The Christian church does not believe in modalism, which suggests that God exists in different forms at different times. There is also a misunderstanding known as tritheism, which posits that there are three gods existing in a unity, like a divine council. This, too, is not what Christians believe.

Christians affirm the doctrine of the Trinity, which teaches that there is one God who exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This belief has been central to the church's teachings since the very beginning of Christianity.

You might wonder why this is important or worthwhile. My aim this morning is to show you why understanding the Trinity matters for you personally. What does it mean that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in our actual lives? We will explore this in the fourth "We Believe" statement of the Nicene Creed, which brings these concepts together.

This statement raises a point of contention for many American Protestant Christians. There is a word in this fourth statement that often catches people off guard. If you would stand with me, we will read the Nicene Creed together, as we have done every week. We will do this today and next week, and then that will be it for now.

Here we read together: "We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen. We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one being with the Father. Through him all things were made; for us men and for our salvation, he came down from heaven. By the power of the Holy Spirit, he became incarnate..."

The Virgin Mary and was made man. For our sake, He was crucified under Pontius Pilate. He suffered death and was buried. On the third day, He rose again in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and His kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son, He is worshiped and glorified. He has spoken through the prophets. We believe in one holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.

God, thank You. We got through that with almost no missteps by me. Lord, You are so good, and maybe I'll get it even better next week. But Lord, we thank You for what we learn about You, not necessarily in this creed. We only really affirm what we learn from You as revealed in Scripture in this creed.

God, I pray that in some way, maybe even a big way, we might recognize today why this even matters in a practical sense for my life—that You are Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, united together in an eternal oneness of relationship. God, teach us. Help us to comprehend this to a greater extent and continue, by the work of Your Word and by the working of Your Holy Spirit, to transform us by the renewing of our minds so that it would be expressed in our lives that we are Your people, that we are Your followers, and that You are working in us to will and to do Your good pleasure.

So God, do a work in us, we pray. We ask this in Jesus' name. And all those agreed said, "Amen." You can be seated.

The fourth "We believe" in the Nicene Creed says we believe in one holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. That word "Catholic" has caused some problems. I know because I've had more than a few people over the last twelve weeks or so come and talk to me and say, "Why don't we change that word?" Well, listen. This was established by a group of Christian bishops 1,700 years ago, and it caused a...

There was a massive split in the church when a word got changed. So, no, I'm not changing the word. However, I understand that this has caused a challenge for many American Protestants living in 2025. It has also caused some challenges for the church for the last 1,500 years. The second major split in the church occurred in 1517, specifically on October 31st, when a Catholic monk named Martin Luther in Wittenberg, Germany, posted 95 challenges, which he called the 95 Theses, against the teachings of the Catholic Church. This act triggered a series of events, including his excommunication from the Roman Church, and ultimately resulted in what we call the Protestant Reformation.

Here we are at Cross Connection Church in 2025, and we are Protestant Christians. Some of you grew up in a Catholic church or have connections to a Roman Catholic church. You left the Catholic Church, and now you are Protestant. This transition may have caused some issues for you within your family. The word "Catholic" challenges some people because it means something in our day that we need to recognize did not mean the same thing 1,700 years ago. We all understand that over time, words and phrases change in meaning.

For example, my kids say, "Yeah, he is sick," and I think, "Is he really sick?" No, they mean he is cool. You see, "sick" means cool for my kids. The problem is that when you said "cool," your parents might have asked, "So, is he cold?" You would respond, "No, he's cool." But what does that mean? It means he is sick. Words change over time.

Within our pastoral team, we've had to tell Pastor Mark more than a few times that he can't say he "hooked up" with someone. It doesn't mean what he thinks it means. Words change. So, "Catholic" in 2025 means something different to you than it did to those who wrote the creeds 1,700 years ago. When we read, "We believe in one holy Catholic Church," some of you might respond, "No, I don't." This is because "Catholic" means something different to you than it did to those who wrote this statement. There was no Roman Catholic Church 1,700 years ago; that did not come about until later.

The split between the Eastern Church in Constantinople and the Western Church in Rome in 1054 is known as the Great Schism. The term "Catholic" did not mean to them what it means to you today. What did it mean? The word "Catholic" comes from the Greek "Catholicos," which means "about the whole." This is the exact meaning when you break it down; it refers to the universal church.

The word "universal" has its roots in Latin, and when you break it down, it means "turned into one." This is really key. What is the holy Catholic Church? It is the universal church. The term "church" is also interesting. It comes from the Greek word "eklesia," which is translated as gathering, assembly, or congregation. So, we are the turned-into-one gathering; we are the turned-into-one universal church.

Each of us is an individual, and God made you as an individual. In Psalm 139, David says that God knit you together in your mother's womb. In Jeremiah 1:4-5, God says to Jeremiah, "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you." God knew who you were, just as He knew who Jeremiah was. He knew what you would be 30, 40, or 50 years after you were born. Paul, in Galatians, said, "God called me forth from my mother's womb unto a purpose." God has done the same thing for you individually.

However, God never designed or desired for you to live in isolation. He desired that you would be turned into one, that you would be brought into unity with others. This is where the triune nature of God brings an important application to us. There is one God, and there is a unity between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, where they are united in perfect oneness, which our brains can't fully comprehend.

We try to comprehend it, and God is so gracious. He even gave us an illustration that many of you have experienced in the oneness of the relationship you have with your spouse. From the beginning, God made them male and female. For this cause, He said, "A man shall leave his father and his mother, and the two shall become one flesh." So, they are no longer two but one. What God has joined together...

Joined together, let no one separate. Now, how many married couples do we have here this morning? Raise your hand. Okay, married couples. How many of you recognize your spouse as an individual? Oh, yeah. Did you have a fight within the last 90 days? Probably. You realize they're an individual and they don't have the same view on things that you do. And you had to change your view, guys, didn't you? Yes, you did. So, we'll have a talk about that later, I'm sure.

The two become one, but they are still individuals. There is a union that takes place, and as the Bible describes it, it's a spiritual union. There is something spiritual that occurs between you and your spouse when you become one under God. There is a spiritual union, but there is also a physical union, a body union, as well as a soulish union that takes place. You are united to your spouse in body, soul, and spirit. Even still, we don't fully comprehend this entirely. However, God has graciously given us an illustration so that we can understand the idea of oneness.

Now, there is another unity that I think is helpful and important for us to recognize. Every single one of us here this morning recognizes that there is something amazing, distinct, and wonderful about us humans when we talk about anthropology. This is a challenge for even those who are deeply ingrained in cognitive science and all the different aspects of neurology. It's hard for us to comprehend where the conscious part of you—the part that knows you are here, that you are a person, and that you are feeling feelings right now and hearing sounds—separates from just this physical body. We call that conscious part the soul.

Sometimes Christians will say we are a dichotomy: body and soul. We all kind of recognize that. Some Christians, and I would probably be in this camp, would say we are a trichotomy: body, soul, and spirit. But where does your soul end and your body begin? And where does your body end and your soul begin? We can't separate these things. There is a unity, a oneness, and God designed it that way. It's an amazing, majestic thing that we can't fully comprehend. We don't fully understand consciousness, but there is a unity within you.

You recognize there is a difference between your body and your soul. In the same way, God is a unity. He exists as three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in inseparable oneness—not to be separated, an inseparable oneness in love. Now, there was something horrific that took place 2,000 years ago on a cross.

When, because of sin, the Son experienced separation, He said, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?" There was something awesome happening there that we can't fully comprehend or realize, but it's the same thing that happens to us through death. In death, your body will be separated from your soul, and that is not the way that God intended it. There is this desire, this yearning of the soul to be reunited with the body. It's an amazing thing to consider.

A lot of people have thought deeply about this as it relates to theology, consciousness, and anthropology—what we are all about. Paul talks about this idea of what God desires to do for you and me, who are each individuals in Christ, to deal with that which causes separation. You see, in the beginning, He made them male and female. For this cause, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife. The two shall become one flesh. The first two that were united together as one flesh are called Adam and Eve in the Bible. They were separated by what? By sin. Because of that, all of us have experienced the separation that sin brings. Yet, Jesus came to restore and reconcile. He wants to redeem sinners and restore them back together as one, that they might be reconciled to God.

We are called to live life, as we talk about here at Cross Connection all the time, in connection with God and with one another. Paul discusses this in Ephesians chapter 2. If you want to take out your Bible this morning, you can open to Ephesians 2, or we will put it up on the screen. This is really key. Notice what Paul is saying here, beginning with these very famous verses: Ephesians 2:8 and 9, which many of you may have read and some of you have memorized without even trying.

"For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."

Therefore, remember, Paul is saying, "I want you to bring to mind and keep in mind this important reality." Therefore, remember that you once Gentiles in the flesh—how many here this morning are not Jewish by heritage? Lift up your hand. Most of us are bacon eaters. Yes, Gentiles. Remember that you were a Gentile. There is an ethnic division and distinction. You were Gentiles in the flesh, who were called the uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision made in flesh.

By hands, at that time you were without Christ, being aliens, separated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants and promises. You had no hope and were without God in the world. But now, in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one. He has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace. He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.

And He, Jesus, came and preached peace to you who were far off and to those who were near. For through Him, note this. Notice the Trinitarian language here. Through Him, Jesus, we who were formerly separated by sin both have access by one Spirit to the Father.

So what is Paul saying here? Let's sum it up in a simple point. Point number one: within the church, we are brought together as one in Christ by the Spirit to the Father. In this creedal statement, the Nicene Creed, we have four "we believes." We believe in the Father. We believe in the Son. We believe in the Holy Spirit. And then we have this thing thrown in there: we believe in the church.

Why does that show up in this statement? Because this is the overflow, if you will, of the nature of the triune God. This one God lives in perfect harmonious oneness of relationship and love: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. What does that mean for us individuals who are created in His image? It means that He desires for you and me, as individuals, to be united together in oneness of relationship with one another and with Him.

Where does that happen? It happens in this thing called the church. Why the church? Well, Jesus came up with this. He's the first one to use the word. He uses it in Matthew 16:18. He says, "On this rock, I will build my church," talking about the statement that Peter put forth: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Peter is making a Trinitarian declaration, and Jesus says, "Hey, listen. On this declaration, I'm going to build my church, my assembly, my gathering, my congregation."

Here in this thing called the church that Jesus came up with, the church didn't come up with this; Jesus came up with this. He says it's here in this thing called the church where individuals are going to be united together in oneness of relationship with one another and with God.

Why? Well, because at the beginning, when God made everything in the opening chapter of the Bible, as God is creating what we call the six days of creation, at the end of each creating event, God says, "It is good." On the six days of creation, and twice on the third day, he says, "It is good." Therefore, as God looks at his creation seven times in the opening chapter of the Bible, he says, "It is good."

The first negative comes in the next chapter, where God, in Genesis 2:18, says it is not good that man should be alone. It's not good. God created, and he said there's something not good. Now, he's not saying it's evil; it's not that it's not good because it's evil. It's not good in that it's not complete. It's out of order. God is a God of order. Here is this disordered, incomplete situation, and he says it's not good that man should be alone.

So what does he do? He fixes the aloneness. He causes a deep sleep to fall on the first man, Adam, and he takes something from his side. Most English translations say a rib. God fashioned and formed from man a woman and brought her to man. He said, "This is now bone of my bones." God caused them to be joined together as one, and the two became one flesh.

Why did God do this? Well, he created from the one two, with the intent that the two would be joined as one so that in a union of body, soul, and spirit as one, they might do what? Make more. God said, in the first command of the Bible, "Be fruitful and multiply."

Now, my wife and I have had four kids. We crossed the replacement rate, so we did the good thing, the right thing. We had kids. Be fruitful and multiply. If you're young and you're married and you haven't had kids, be fruitful and multiply. We have a nursery, and it's all ready for your babies. Fill the earth.

So God completes his creation by forming woman and bringing her to man, and the two become one flesh in order that they might be joined together in marriage, so that they would consummate and bring forth more children.

In order that there would be this great community of people, because it is not good that man should be alone, we see a significant problem in chapter 3 of Genesis. Through sin, separation and death enter in, and we experience the effects of that even today. The division that we see between families, individuals, ethnicities, language groups, and continents is not the way that God intended it. Sin has brought separation.

In the Gospel, Jesus is doing what? He is coming back to redeem, restore, reconcile, and bring us back so that we can experience oneness. Where do we experience that oneness? In the body of Christ, the church, the design and creation of God.

Now, all of this is great—this idea of oneness—except that we have a problem because we are Americans, and Americans love individuality. Throughout much of our history, both in folklore and fiction, as well as in real life, we exalt and highlight the individual, the rugged individual. In our fictional stories, we have characters like Paul Bunyan, Davy Crockett, Huck Finn, and Han Solo. We also have many guys named John, such as Johnny Appleseed, John Henry, and John Wick. These are the rugged individuals.

In real life, we value these rugged individuals as well: Ben Franklin, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Steve Jobs, and now Elon Musk. We are inculturated in American culture to value and exalt the individual. This means that we individualize everything, including the Bible. Most of the time when we read through the Scriptures and see the second person "you," we individualize it almost inevitably, just by nature.

For example, when I read, "For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God," we internalize that as individual. I was saved. However, the language is not solely individual. Frequently, when we see the word "you" used in the Bible, it is in a plural sense. The hard part is that in Southern California, we do not have the "you" plural. If you are from Georgia, you have it; it is called "y'all." Perhaps we need a Bible that reflects this understanding.

Says y'all instead of you when the y'all shows up. But being that we are inculturated here in American culture, we kind of individualize and centralize everything in the Bible around us personally.

Point number two: we have made it all about me when God meant it all for y'all. That's how you say it, I'm told. It's not "you all"; it's "y'all." Can you say it with me? One, two, three. Y'all. Okay, we're bringing y'all back here in San Diego. Except that we won't say it again after this, but we centralize it. We individualize it.

Now, whatever your opinions are about him—and there are a lot of people who have opinions about him—Rick Warren wrote a great book a number of years ago called The Purpose-Driven Life. A lot of Christians and non-Christians have read it, and it opens very interestingly. The very first heading in his book is this: "It's not about you." That was revolutionary for a lot of people 20 years ago when that book first came out, and it sold millions and millions of copies.

But the idea that it's not about you—why is that revolutionary? Because in American culture, it's all about you individually. And he's saying it's not about you; it's not the way that God made it. In his first paragraph, he says this: "If you want to know why you were placed on this planet, you must begin with God. You were born by His purpose and for His purpose." I think that's true.

Now, why does this matter? This idea of individuality and us Americans thinking in very individual terms and making everything in the Bible that is "you" plural into a "you" singular and focusing on me—why does any of this matter? Why does this idea of the church and the triune but unity focus of the nature of God matter?

Well, to be honest with you, it doesn't matter until it does. What do I mean? Well, there are certain times when it matters more than others. I'll give you an example. This Wednesday, I was on my way home from dropping my kids off at school with my wife in the morning. We were driving east on Highway 78, going to our house, and we were passing the road that turns to my parents' house.

At 7:55 in the morning on Wednesday, I got a phone call. My screen in my car lit up; it was my mom calling me. I knew as soon as I saw that something was wrong because she normally doesn't call me at 7:55 on a Wednesday morning. When I answered, I could tell in her voice immediately that something was wrong. She said, "I just got a call from the sheriff."

Deputy in Snohomish County, Washington. I knew as soon as she said that what it meant because two weeks ago, my brother Danny was here. He and I talked right out by the table after the third service, and he said, "I'm going to Washington to do this base jump." So, I knew as soon as she called what had happened. Danny had an accident. He was doing a wingsuit base jump off a mountain in Washington. For years, he shared his location with me on the app, and I instantly went to his location. There he was at the top of Mount Baring. That was his last known location. Danny had an accident on Tuesday night and died.

You never know when your last conversation will be. It was out there by that table. Why do you need the church, the body of Christ? You don't need it until you realize you do.

Point number three: God designed us for and desires that we would be joined together as one in His body. What's His body? It's the church. This is it. Why include the church in a statement about the nature of God? Because the church is the visible expression of the body of Christ.

By nature and by culture, we Americans tend to be pretty good loners, some of us more than others. Some of us might be labeled as neurodivergent or on the spectrum because we're just fine being alone. I'm one of those people. I could spend hours, maybe even days, just by myself. Even from the time I was a little kid, I was the kid who would play with a whole bunch of Legos by myself for hours and make up a whole bunch of noises that drove my family crazy.

But I can spend all kinds of time just by myself, long periods of time alone. However, God made you and me to live in connection with Him and with one another. It's not good for man to be alone; He made us to be in community. In fact, it makes us emotionally, spiritually, mentally, and physically sick when we're isolated. We're seeing that in our culture. We are the most technologically connected culture in all of human history, yet there is a loneliness epidemic, and people are suffering because of it.

I'm convinced that many of the illnesses people are experiencing—whether emotional, mental, or physical—are closely related to isolation and loneliness. There is a lot of science supporting this idea because we were not made to live alone.

The challenge is that in the last 20 years or so of American Protestantism, there has been a real push for just "me and Jesus" with my Bible. Many people feel they don't need the church. I believe this is a reaction from my generation, particularly Gen X, Gen Y, and Gen Z, to late 20th-century Protestant evangelicalism in America, which produced the phenomenon known as the megachurch. This trend emerged in the late 1970s, early 1980s, and continued into the 1990s. The megachurch became the one-stop shop for spirituality, akin to the Costco of Christianity, featuring churches with bookstores and coffee shops.

Some even have 24-hour gyms, although there are hardly any people using them because the Bible says bodily exercise profits little. Still, they are there, offering activities seven days a week, all day long, for adults and kids of all kinds. In reaction to this, many in Gen Y and Gen Z have expressed sentiments like, "I don't need the church; I just need Jesus and my Bible." This has become a popular notion in our culture, but it is misguided.

It is misguided because it does not align with what Christ came to accomplish: restoring us back to one another. It is not good for you to be isolated as an individual. He made you to be in connection with Him and with one another.

Sin brought separation, and Jesus came to deal with sin through His death, burial, and resurrection. He came to redeem us to Himself and to reconcile us to one another in Christ, in the church, the body of Christ. This is what Jesus prayed for the night before His crucifixion, as recorded in John 17:20. He said, "I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word. That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You. That they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me, I have given them, that they may be one as We are one. I in them and You in Me, that they may be made perfect in one, that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them as You have loved Me."

Point four: the church is Christ's plan for oneness and the gathering of His people as one in Him. Jesus came up with this idea—the church. The first time it is used is by Him in Matthew 16:18, where He says, "I will build My church." He uses or borrows this Greek term, which means congregation, assembly, or gathering, and He calls His group of people the church, the gathering.

The hard part is that here in our culture today, when we hear "church," we have certain things that come to mind. We think of buildings, organizations, and mission outreaches. It’s like the children's rhyme: "Here is the church, here is its steeple, open the door, here are all the people." This understanding is wrong in its very nature. The church is not an institution; it is not an organization; it is not a thing with bylaws and budgets and all sorts of buildings. That is not what it is.

Sure, in our culture today, the church has all those things, just as marriage, by its very nature, is something that God created between a man and a woman. Today, we have marriage licenses and over a thousand different rights that come to you under marriage according to society. But that is not what God made marriage. That is not marriage at its core. Marriage, at its core, is a spiritual union. The church is something majestic and spiritual that God has done. The idea of "Catholicos," or Catholic, just means that we are turned into one. We who were formerly individuals have been united.

We have been turned into one by the mercy and grace of Christ. We who were not a people have been made a people. Peter says in 1 Peter 2:9-10 that we who had not received mercy have now received mercy. So now we are a part of the body.

However, it's common to hear people say, "I don't need the church. It's just me and Jesus." I found some examples recently on social media that reflect this sentiment. Some claim that you don't need a worship team to worship Jesus. You don't even need a pastor or a church to worship Jesus. You can worship in the car, at home, at work, or at night. It doesn't matter.

Now, here's the problem with this perspective. While the words may be true, the sentiment is false. That's not how God intended it. Another common statement is that you don't need a priest, a church, good works, rituals, a pastor, or confessions. You only need a personal relationship with Jesus. Yes, there is truth in this, but the sentiment is still off.

Some people say you don't have to attend church or follow any prayer structure, claiming that none of that is in the Bible. We could have a conversation about that one, though there is strength in community. At least the person acknowledges that. They might say that God only cares about your relationship with Him. While there is truth in this, something still feels off.

What is it that is off? God established His church so that we could experience oneness. He wants us to experience that.

Why do these misconceptions arise? They happen because, in every generation, people get hurt in church. This is especially prevalent among Generation Y and Generation Z. For those of you who are from Generation X and older, you may not realize this, but there are entire TikTok followings dedicated to sharing stories of church hurt. People post their experiences on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, expressing how they were hurt in church.

I am not glossing over the fact that sometimes serious abuse occurs, and that should be prosecuted, with people held accountable. However, many of these church hurt stories boil down to this: I got my feelings hurt. It's important to ask, what made you think that church would be perfect? The church is filled with imperfect, broken people. When you gather a bunch of broken people together, what do you get? Broken people doing broken and sometimes foolish things. Sometimes, you have to repent for it, and sometimes, you have to call people out for it.

One of the times that Jesus uses the word "church" is in Matthew 18. It's in the context of getting hurt at church and someone doing something to you that makes you upset. He says, "This is how you deal with it. You don't run to the next church and say, 'I was hurt,' or make a YouTube video. You go to that person who hurt you and say, 'You hurt me.' They might respond, 'I didn't realize I hurt you. I was just being an idiot. I'm sorry. Can you forgive me?' Yes, that's how the church is supposed to function.

The church is filled with imperfect people saved by grace, seeking mercy and forgiveness from God and from one another. Yes, you will be hurt by Christians, but you're going to be hurt by people in general. If you came to Cross Connection Church thinking you found a perfect church, let me tell you two things. First, you didn't, because we're filled with imperfect people. Second, you made it even less perfect by coming here, because you're not perfect. So, you just made it worse. Thank you. You're forgiven. Jesus loves you, and so do we. We'll learn to love you, and you will learn to love us.

I've been a part of this church for more than 35 years. I started attending here when I was a kid, and I can tell you, I have stories about church hurt, but I'm still a part of the same church. Why? Because God put me here. He put you here to grow us, to transform us, to change us. We need one another, and we don't realize how much we need one another until we truly need one another.

For 48 hours, they were not able to get Danny's body off the mountain. During that entire time, almost every minute of the hour, I had to put my phone on do not disturb because it was just too much. People were reaching out, calling, showing up, and praying. It was all wonderful, but this is what the body of Christ is supposed to be. Now I see why God didn't have me talk about the church last week, because it would have been a decidedly different message.

There is practical application to this. This is God's plan: the church. Point number five, and I'll wrap it up. The church is God's plan A for redeeming and reconciling the lost and broken unto Himself. When I say it's His plan A, there is no plan B.

This is it. Is it flawed? Yes. Is it perfect? No. Is it saved by grace and experiencing mercy and forgiveness? Yes. Will you experience hurt when you're around other hurt people? Yes. This is where we learn to forgive and be forgiven, to extend and receive grace and mercy so that we might grow more and more into the likeness of Christ.

Whether you're a part of a church or not, you're going to be hurt because you live in a broken world. However, it's far better to be within the church, where there can be people who pray for you, share with you, and care for you, fulfilling the "one anothers" of the Scripture as God desires. Like it or not, we're going to spend eternity with each other, so we better get used to one another.

Now, the church is God's plan A for redeeming and reconciling the lost and broken to Himself. Here’s the amazing thing: there are a lot of lost and broken people in this world who need the body of Christ, and you are the ambassadors of His church. That’s the first thing. The second thing is that Jesus said, "I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against her." This means that the plans and purposes of the enemy will not prevail against the church. The church will continue to endure. If the Lord tarries and does not return for 500 or a thousand years, His church will still be there.

It has withstood the most tyrannical and horrible persecuting entities throughout its history and will continue to do so. It is thriving in places like Iran and China, where it is restricted or held back, and it just continues to thrive. Interestingly, the places where it experiences the most freedom are often where it becomes the most dead, which is a real challenge to us.

But God help us. We are to be His people, united together as one, and we need to recognize how much we actually need one another. If you are not known at this church, I can guarantee you it's not the fault of this church. We want to give you an opportunity to live life in connection more. That’s why we have our life groups starting up in another couple of weeks. They may seem trivial or small to you, but they are not.

That's where you develop the relationships with the people who know who you are. When something bad happens in your life, they're there for you. I can't tell you how many times I've heard this story. It comes back to me through someone else. Someone is upset; they left the church and are hurt because we didn't come visit them in the hospital. We call them and say, "We didn't even know you were in the hospital. You didn't tell us you were in the hospital."

But I can't tell you how many times we have visited people in the hospital and continue to visit people in the hospital. We only do that if we know you're in the hospital. People get hurt and leave because we didn't visit them. It's like we had no clue. Maybe you could have said, "I'm in the hospital." We would have said, "We'll be there. We're on our way."

You have to be vulnerable and say, "I want to be a part of the body. I want to be part of a life group." You might say, "I don't know how to do that." Well, Mark will teach you everything you need to know about living life in connection at his class next week after the third service, where he will talk about how to be a life group host. I hope you'll come to it.

It seems strange to me that it's so hard for us to get people to experience community when many are living in isolation and loneliness, but for some reason, it's a challenge. God help us.

Would you stand with me as we close in prayer? God, thank you for your church. This is your creation, your purpose, your plan. You put this together. I pray, God, that you would help us learn more about what it is to be your people gathered together as one in Christ. That we would experience grace, mercy, and forgiveness, and that we would extend grace, mercy, and forgiveness to others.

It is certain that someone here in this room is going to say or do something that offends us in the next six to ten weeks. We will have every reason in our flesh to say, "I'm out." But, Lord, you called us to be a part of this body. God, help us to know, experience, and express grace, mercy, and forgiveness as you enable us. For we ask this in Jesus' name. And all those that agreed said, "Amen."