Do You require me to be a part of a local church?

Well, good morning. Good morning. So good to have all of you here today, whether you’re joining us in person, you are streaming in online or you’re watching later on demand.

Also, our friends at First Lutheran Algonac, so glad that we have the opportunity to stream into your church as well, as we are continuing a series of messages that we’ve been on the last couple of weeks called Questioning God. For those of you that are here in person, if you haven’t met Ben or I yet, we would love to meet you right after the service. We’ll be in the middle of that west lobby.

Maybe this is your first Sunday or you’ve been coming for a couple of weeks or maybe you’ve even been coming for the last couple of months. And that just gives us a chance to meet you, greet you, and just thank you for being here. And if you have any questions about our church, we’d love to answer them.

We’ve been hitting some pretty tough questions the last couple of weeks. And the sermon series, the way that we designed it is these are questions that we are asking directly to God. And then we are going to God’s word and saying, okay, God, what is it that you say and how would you answer these questions? And so for the last three weeks, these are some of the things that we’ve been looking at.

Week one, we looked at God, did you write the Bible and is it true? Then we said, God, don’t all religions ultimately lead to you? I mean, why can’t we all just get along? Why can’t we all coexist? What is it that you have said about this very thing? Last week, as Ben walked us through of answering the question, well, God, when I die, will I actually be with you? And I think what’s been humbling this week in particular as we look at just the last three weeks in view of what happened last week in grand blank and the heaviness of something like that processing, how do we come along a side, a community that’s been shattered, their church as they’ve lost members, their church building even just being reduced to rubble in view of what we believe that God teaches us in his word. And so as we do, and as you just heard, we pray, we bring it before God, we try to figure out ways to go and to serve that congregation. And that’s through even contacting our sister congregation that’s right there in that community.

Because at the end of the day, we know that God has called us and he’s placed us where he has us to go and to tell people about the one true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And so if you haven’t been with us, I would encourage you to go back and even watch some of these messages that we’ve done. Now, this is the verse, that’s kind of the theme verse that’s been carrying us through this sermon series.

And it’s found in second Timothy, it says this, that scripture is actually breathed out by God, God is the one who wrote the Bible and it’s useful in teaching and training us. Like if we wanna know how to be a follower of Jesus, this is what we do, we go to the scriptures and God is the one that tells us how to live our lives. And not only does he teach and train us, but he also rebukes and corrects us.

And those aren’t negative things, those are positive things. And since he’s the creator and he knows us even better than ourselves, he knows the best way for us to live our lives this side of eternity. And so all of these questions have been through that lens.

And so today, buckle your seatbelts, especially if you’re new today, because this is the question we’re gonna answer, is God, do you require me to be part of a local church? Do your kids think this? Do your grandkids think this? And we actually put the word require in here on purpose, because it’s a little heavier, it’s a little more forceful, don’t you think? Like God, is that true? Because there’s all sorts of opinions out there, there’s all sorts of ideas and what faith looks like. So we’ve been through the Bible, we’ve been through, okay, do all religions lead to the same God? Now, the next part of this is do you really, am I really supposed to be here every single Sunday and if I don’t come every single Sunday, they’re gonna zap me or I’m not gonna make it to heaven? But maybe if we start with this question as well, and I’m talking about people of faith, people that have a conviction, they believe in Jesus as their Lord and Savior, why don’t people who believe in Jesus go to church? You can answer this question, right? Go ahead, give me some answers this morning. They’ve been hurt, okay.

Schedule conflicts. Anybody busy out there? Can I go ahead and see your hands? Anybody busy? Laziness, okay. Golf.

I love the honesty this morning. That what? They think they can do it on their own. They don’t know what’s best for them.

Hunting, but they think it’s boring, yes. You can stream it later. And by golly, we have invested so much in the technology that we have and the volunteers that we have and what a blessing it is to be able to do this for those that can’t come here, some of our shut-ins, those that physically, for whatever reason, can’t be part of coming together on Sunday mornings.

Lots of different reasons. Well, what’s interesting is some new data just came out and if you’re unfamiliar with a guy named George Barna, he is like the renowned researcher. He looks at data across all churches, all shapes and sizes, all denominations, and he recently released a report.

And I wanna ask you this morning, out of all the generations that we have now, which generation do you think has the most faithful monthly church attendance? Boomers. Okay. Gen X? Who else? Millennials.

Interesting. The first service said old people. No joke, they said old people and boomers go to church.

I think this is gonna shock you this morning, folks. You ready for this? The average church attendance faithfulness is actually Gen Z. There is a shift happening in our culture. There’s a shift that’s happening in our country.

And Gen Z, it depends on which research you use, but there’s somewhere between 13 and 28 years old, some of you, these are your kids. And in particular, what is driving this is not just this generation, but the males of this generation are returning to church in record number. But why? Why are they coming to church? And what’s interesting is most of them are going to more of a traditional, biblical-type congregation because they wanna cut through the noise, they wanna cut through the distraction, even to some degree the show, and they just wanna be taught the Bible.

And so we gotta figure out how to do that because out of this group, God bless these Gen Zs, do you know which one is the one that’s falling away from church the fastest? Oh, you got this one right, the boomers. And the reason the boomers have stopped coming to church, number one reason is apathy. Well, they raise their kids in the church and they don’t really see the need to come to church or they’ve already heard all of the scriptures and Bible studies or they got the cottage now or they got the boat or they got this or they got that or is this like, there’s just so many other things that they could be doing and vying for their time and so the idea of still gathering every week, it’s just, it gets further and further in the distance.

And so this morning, again, what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna say, well, what do the scriptures say about the local church in particular? What’s the pattern that’s been set for us? And then what did Jesus tell his followers to do? And we’re gonna start in the book of Acts on purpose because you got four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Acts is the beginning of the church and we’re gonna see Jesus here with his closest followers, his disciples, or they’re also called apostles, right before he ascends into heaven. And so these are the last words, think of this, these are the last things that are gonna come out of his mouth and into their ears and he tells them this, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses.

And it’s gonna start in your local community of Jerusalem, it’s then gonna spread to the regions of Judea and Samaria and ultimately, some of you guys are actually gonna be in other countries telling people that I am the promised Messiah. Well, isn’t it interesting that that’s the first thing he tells them or the last thing he tells them is you’re going to be the witnesses, you’re going to be the mouthpiece and the only way you can be God’s mouthpiece is you have to be out in the community and you go out in the community and then you bring people back into a local congregation where they can be nurtured and discipled and loved. If you keep reading, it tells us this, it says that they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

Now, in between the time that he ascends to heaven and this verse, Peter’s actually the one that gets up on the day of Pentecost, he delivers the first ever sermon and the power of the Holy Spirit is upon him and lots of people come to know him. In fact, they is this, one verse earlier, it says those who received his message, this is Peter’s message, they heard Peter’s sermon, they were moved by the Holy Spirit, they were instantly baptized and 3,000 people were added to the number that day and I can tell you, every pastor on the planet hopes and prays that one day they can preach a sermon and at the end of that sermon, 3,000 people come to Jesus. I mean, instant megachurch for Peter and the gang and so when it says they, that’s what it is talking about.

Now, some of you were here last week and there was kind of a remarkable thing that happened and look, there’s already one back there right now. Last week, I didn’t have to do anything, it was great. Ben and Eric did all the work and I got to just chill with everybody and I was back here by the door and there was parents that had their children in their arms so I’m guessing maybe they were getting a little fussy but they still wanted to be part of what was happening in here.

They still wanted to hear the message and so there was a bunch of parents with kids that were over in the entryway of the door. It might have been a fire hazard but that’s okay, right? And I thought, how cool is this that people are coming with their precious children, that they’re coming here to worship at Shepherd’s Gate and in fact, two of those families, it was the first time that they’ve ever been here, they actually immediately went to the baptism class after the service and they’ve already scheduled the baptisms for their kids. That’s the power of the Holy Spirit at work.

That’s what an axe church looks like in real time 2,000 years later when you see God bringing people back to church, it says this, they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching. Well, what does that mean? That means this group of 3,000 had to come together and the people that God had appointed as apostles, they would teach, they would open the scriptures, they would talk about the teachings of Jesus and everything that they had experienced and so every week they would do this, they would be investing in their lives. They’re listening to the teaching of God’s word.

Not only are they listening to the teaching of God’s word, what does it say? They would come together for fellowship. Well, what’s fellowship? Churchy word, right? A lot of churches, ours included, we have a fellowship hall. And why do churches call it a fellowship hall? Because they’re hoping people will go into that room and? This is a huge part of being in a congregation.

Most of the time that you’re here on Sunday morning, you’re just staring this way, one direction. You’re staring at the back of somebody’s head and for us, this is why we put such an emphasis on coming early and mingling in the lobby and staying afterwards. Every church has coffee, not because you need another cup of coffee.

Did you know that? Every church has snacks, not because you need to be fed in between breakfast and lunch. It’s all a gimmick to get people to stick around, to talk and to invest in each other and to share stories with each other and to catch up on life together. It also says the breaking of bread and in this text, in this passage, that specifically means Holy Communion, that they would come together and they would receive Holy Communion often, which as you know, those of you that go here, this is a huge thing for us.

We try to have Holy Communion as much as possible. In fact, the Sundays that we don’t have Holy Communion are almost always because we have baptism scheduled and I love that Ben who oversees this and he works with Jan, they have so many people wanting to have their kids and then themselves baptize that they’re having a hard time getting them all in by the end of the year. Is that not incredible what God is doing, right? And of course, prayer, that we come together and we lift up our individual prayer requests, that we lift up the needs of those that are in this church, that we pray as we did today for our community and even things that are happening all over our world.

And as a result, it says this, that every day they continue to meet together in the temple courts, they continue to break bread in their homes and they ate with glad and sincere hearts and they were praising God and people were actually being nice to them and God continued to add to their number daily, those who were being saved, they were watching God at work, they were watching the power of the Holy Spirit at work. Now, the only way that they were able to do that is by leaving their homes, they had to go to the temple courts, they had to go out in the community, they had to be the mouthpiece of God and not be afraid to share their faith or to invite others to a local congregation. And our communication team just recently gathered some data about our church and why is it that people ultimately end up coming here and what is it that draws them and what is it that actually keeps them here? These are people that have actually taken that step and become members of Shepherd’s Gate.

And what do you think is the number one reason people are introduced to Shepherd’s Gate? I want you to look at this, this is real data from just our little local congregation from September 24 to September 2025, the majority of people that are here are because a family member or a friend invited them. I mean, what do you mean? Our social media isn’t converting people’s lives? I mean, my sermon clips are out there, right? Certainly that should bring in 3000 alone. It’s not because of our really cool outdoor church sign, driving down 23 mile, probably because everyone’s on their phones while they’re driving, unfortunately.

And it’s not even because we send new mover postcards. It’s because of you. It’s you going out, it’s you having this pattern that models and replicates the early church.

And again, as the word of God continues to increase, the number of disciples multiplies greatly in their region. And even those that were of the Jewish faith that were educated were cut to the heart and became believers in Jesus. Now I’m gonna give you a passage of scripture.

And if you’ve ever been in church, you’ve ever heard a sermon in this regard, this is like the number one passage that is always used. And I do this on purpose because you’re all expecting it anyways. And I want us to look at it and break it down together.

It comes from Hebrews chapter 10, where it says, let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. So this is more important than we realize, coming together as the body of Christ, having this weekly check in with each other. And it even says, guess what? There’s some people that have kind of gotten out of the habit of doing this.

There’s some people that maybe it’s been weeks or months or even years since they’ve been in the church. You may even be sitting here today and you’re thinking to yourself, man, I haven’t been church in a long time. Oh man, I wish I would have known they would have been talking about this because I would have just stayed home, right? Here’s the good news for you.

I didn’t know you were gonna be here today. These sermon series get planned out months in advance. I mean, any of these sermon weeks could have been changed out for another one.

But if you’re here, God clearly is speaking to you today. God used our planning months ago to bring you here to hear this message. And it’s not like this, oh man, I gotta feel awful about myself.

No, this is God saying, I want you here and I love you. And I want you to hear how valuable it is being part of a local congregation. And maybe this is the start of a new start.

Maybe this is the start of something you’ve never done before, of figuring out if this local congregation is the congregation that God would have you call your home. What does it say to do? We are to encourage one another. And the reason we are to encourage each other as we see that day approaching.

And what is that day approaching? When Jesus comes back once and for all and gathers his church to be with him for all eternity. So let me ask you again, why don’t people who believe in Jesus go to church? Personalize it for yourself. What is that barrier? What is that thing that’s preventing you from committing to a local congregation? And I will say this, it may not be this place.

You may come here for a few weeks, you may come here for a few months, and you realize something inside of you is like, this is a great church, which I hope you would say that, but this isn’t necessarily the church that God is calling me to be part of. Keep searching, keep doing the research, keep attending local congregations, and let the Holy Spirit lead you to a church where he wants you to be to use your gifts and abilities to bless others in that congregation. For us here at Shepherds Gate, and again, very conservative, Bible-based church.

We believe in the basics of the Bible. We don’t believe things change over time. This is what the church has believed for 2,000 years.

We go all the way back to the 10 Commandments, which we believe the 10 Commandments are still for us today, amen? And the reason we believe that is because we believe that Jesus came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. In fact, in Matthew 5, the Sermon on the Mount, he refers back to the 10 Commandments, and even some of them he elevates to a whole different level. And so if you go back to the 10 Commandments, the third commandment simply states this.

Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Seems simple enough, doesn’t it? Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. That one day out of that week that you are going to gather with the church and fellow believers, that you’re gonna allow somebody else to speak God’s word into your life.

Together at the church, you’re gonna celebrate and partake of holy communion and witness as people are baptized into the family of God. And if you don’t know what this means, this is exactly what this commandment means, ready? It’s that we should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and his word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear it and learn it. Isn’t that a great explanation? That was written 1,500 years ago, believe it or not.

That explanation right there. Here’s the thing when it comes to the Sabbath, because people say, well, I don’t have to worship on Sunday, I don’t have to be part of a local church, I don’t have to do this, I don’t have to do that. You’re right, the Sabbath is actually fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

And so the commandment for us now is about receiving God’s word, hearing the preaching of the word, receiving the sacraments, but it’s doing it on a regular, consistent basis. Now, if you go back to the chart that I showed you with the generations, it is a little crazy that even the best generation is still only coming to church less than two times a month. And that consistent church attendance is now just considered once a month.

And did you know that’s why pastors actually started what they call sermon series back in the 60s and 70s? It’s because people during that time period, and it’s elevated to where we’re at now, were in and out of church. And so you do a sermon series so that you’re kind of repetitively saying the same thing over and over again, because you might only have people there on certain weeks, and you wanna make sure that everybody is following along. Well, not only do we believe in the third commandment, do we believe that this is what God teaches us on the third commandment? This is really cool.

We also believe in the third article of the Apostles’ Creed, which is something we say here often. The first article is about God the Father. The second article is about Jesus Christ.

The third article says this. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting, amen. And I wanna start by digging into the first of these statements, because the last two we’re gonna handle in a future sermon this month.

This Holy Christian Church is a collection of all believers who trust in Jesus, in all of the churches in Michigan, the United States, and all over the world. We’re all part of the Church, capital C. The communion of saints in this statement of faith that we make is not holy communion, it’s the spiritual fellowship of investing in each other, of bearing each other’s burdens, of finding out what’s going on in each other’s lives, being vulnerable with one another, and being willing to walk through life together. And then think of this, the hallmark of the Christian faith is the forgiveness of sins.

We need Jesus on the cross. We need him to stretch out his arms. Our sins need to be placed upon his body.

He needs to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves, which is why he says, Father, forgive them for they don’t know what they’re doing. Paul later picks up on that and says that we are dead in our sins, we were dead and we didn’t even realize that we needed God. He came to us, he’s the one that delivers us, he’s the one that produces faith in our hearts and our lives, and we need the forgiveness that he gives us so that when God the Father sees us, he doesn’t see our fallen sinful ways, he sees the redemptive work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

And because of that, we get to inherit eternal life. We get to spend eternity with God. But make no mistake, God is the one that’s doing the pardoning.

God is the one who is forgiving our sins. And then likewise, he then calls us to forgive each other. Now, I don’t know how many of you have been following this tragedy that took place just a week ago in Grand Blanc.

And one of the things that really shocked me, but also amazed me with that gathering of people is that soon after that tragedy, I think it was the next day, the church came together there and they started a GoFundMe for the murderer, the guy who had killed him, for his wife and his kid. How many of you saw that? And you think to yourself, who does that? How in the world would you have the ability to have that kind of empathy and compassion instead of anger toward his wife and his family after what he just did to members of your local church and what he did to your church building? I’ll tell you this, this last week, I had to have a meeting where I sat with some members of our church who I had offended. And we had to sit in the conference room here at the church and the meeting started with prayer and after we were done praying, the very next thing was me looking them in the eyes saying, I’m sorry, I screwed this up.

I put things in the wrong order. I didn’t communicate clearly. This is all on me.

Will you please forgive me? I know some of you are like, but pastor, I thought you were perfect. Some of you are like, wow, you really apologize to people in the church? Yes. And you know, the people, the members on the other end of the table, do you know what they said? Forget it, you’re a bum, we’re out of here, we’re going to another church.

No, they said, thank you for apologizing. We receive your apology. And then they said this, you are forgiven.

They spoke words of forgiveness over me and the entire atmosphere in that room changed. And that’s the problem, is so many people hold on to unforgiveness. So many people have a hard time laying down their pride, whether it’s in their homes or in their places of work or in their families and sometimes, yes, even the church.

What are the chances that I would screw up the week before I had to preach this sermon, huh? God at work. And I told them, I said, if you stick around Shepherd’s Gate long enough, I’m probably going to screw up again. Because I’m human, I’m a fallen, sinful person, just like you, this is why we need the church, this is why I need to be here, this is why I need to listen to the others that preach from this stage, this is why I need to receive holy communion as part of the body of Christ.

Man, we’re all screwed up, did you know that? Ask my wife, she’s right over here, she’ll tell you everything. Yeah, probably more than you ever want to know. Some of my dearest friends at this church, they know more about me and yet they still allow me to be their pastor.

And I want to be part of a community that is willing to lay down our pride, amen? That’s willing to say, you know what, we believe in the word of God and we will hold firmly to our biblical values and what we know God is communicating his word and likewise over here, we are going to continue to be humble servants of God and we are going to go out and love the least and find those that have been marginalized and be with people no matter if they agree with us or not or vote like us or not or act like us or not or whatever circumstance you want to put over here. Man, we are the church, we are God’s body, we are God’s messengers until he comes back, amen? So now the question becomes this, do I have to go to church to be a Christian? You can be a follower of Jesus and never go to church because we are saved by grace alone through faith alone. But the harsh reality is you’re just missing out on all of the benefits that God gives you by being part of a local congregation.

And what’s remarkable about what’s happening in even these last few weeks is there’s another shift that’s taking place even in churches in America. People are shifting churches and sometimes there’s circumstances that cause that to happen. Maybe you’re here because of a shift in your life, maybe you got some bad news or maybe something just really spoke to you and you said, man, we need to get back in church, we need to commit to church, we need to make this a priority.

Again, that is the Holy Spirit speaking in and through you. Some of you might be aware of what’s happening even around our world in a place called Nigeria in Africa. And it seems like it’s a world away because it is and yet for whatever reason, Christians are being persecuted.

Christians, believers in Jesus are losing their lives for being followers of Jesus. And I saw this video come across my Instagram feed and it just brought tears to my eyes and I wanted to show you this today because I want you to tell me, is this the church? Is this a church? Let’s watch this. ♪ Son of God, Son of God ♪ ♪ Jesus, your false enemy ♪ ♪ Your false enemy, God’s evil son of David ♪ ♪ To the holy Lord, we praise your name ♪ what do you think do we need a building to be the church? Do we need air conditioning to be the church? Do we need these fancy lights and that smoke machine hazer thing to be the church? Or even a big screen? I mean the church is the gathering of God’s people and these are people that most likely they’ve lost family members and loved ones and members of their church.

They’re building that’s in rubble and yet somehow see the value in coming together and singing praises to God, grabbing arms and saying whatever God has for us we’re just going to get through this and we’re going to continue to trust in Him. And I just believe that’s where every church is at now. Every church in America is trying to navigate again these uncertain waters of what does it look like as we launch into the future and we’re praying here at Shepherds Gate we’re believing this that we don’t want anyone to be isolated or alone.

We don’t want our loved ones to say well I have a private faith and I’m perfectly fine just expressing that on my on my own in my own time in my own way. If you open scripture you will never find anybody in the Bible where God told them to be on their own. There is not one person that God ever called to live in isolation until he comes back.

Every single time he calls us into community and he does that for several reasons. We are stronger and better together. When we are together we can pour into one another and encourage each other and again the hallmark of this is offering us and each other the forgiveness of sins.

Being able to speak those things into each other’s lives receiving and being strengthened in our faith and truthfully by neglecting the local church, by neglecting the gathering of God’s people, really at the end of the day what we’re neglecting is God’s good gifts. This incredible gift that he does give us each and every week. So I want to end by asking you this question which I’ve asked several times throughout this message is what is preventing you from being in consistent community with other Christians? What is the barrier for you and what is it that the Holy Spirit is speaking to you this morning that you now would say you know what and men in this room in particular because you know here at Shepherds Gate we believe that you are the spiritual head of your home.

What is it for you and your house to worship and serve the Lord? Parents for your kids. It was amazing again to see so many young families in the back corner just this last week. Sometimes let’s just be honest we get lazy.

I don’t want to wake up. Then I got to take a shower. Then I got to brush my teeth.

Then I have to put clothes on. Then I have to drive to church. Then I have to talk to people.

Then all the introverts said yes more on that more on that. It’s so much easier to wake up and sit in my recliner and have my cat and my coffee and I’ll watch you on my 80 inch television from Costco Tim. This takes work and then think about this next generation where so many of them not only have to get themselves ready they have to get their kids ready.

Do you know how difficult that is? Come on folks we’re all in this together but every single time you make the effort every single time you step out in faith every single time I guarantee you God has something for you in this place because I want to close with this. You may not be here just simply to receive a message. You may not be here just simply to receive holy communion.

In fact you might come in here and go that was a terrible sermon. Clearly Tim stayed up to watch the Tigers game. Your purpose for being here may be because he wants you to speak into somebody else’s life.

It may be a touch that you have before you come in here someone that you don’t even know whose life has been wrecked and they’re just looking for someone to listen to them someone to hug them someone to validate them or maybe because you’re willing to stay after the service and you’re not staying after the service just because the Lions are on at 425 today. You’re staying after the service because you want to invest in somebody else that calls Shepherds Gate their home or you want to find someone that hasn’t been here in a while and put your arms around them and say man it’s so good to see you or maybe you’re gonna go find someone that’s never been here and you don’t even know and say man I’m so glad that you’re here let me know if there’s any questions I can answer if there’s anything that you want to know about this church we’re just so glad that you’re here and smile. And that may be the reason that God has you in church on that Sunday.

All of us we’re in this together and we’re going to keep pursuing our God we’re going to keep running after him and asking him to give us his guidance his direction and his peace amen amen.