At the Core: A Faithful Membership Dr. Steve Walker

Transcription

1 Series: At the Core January 11, 2015 At the Core: A Faithful Membership Dr. Steve Walker Out in our lobby, for the next several Sundays, there are going to be all kinds of people who are attached to our Life Group ministry, and we want you to at least make your way out there. Meet some people and find out how to get connected to your church beyond Sunday morning. You will hear a lot more about that over the coming weeks, but you have a head start on it this weekend. I want to encourage you to just walk through the lobby today and pick something up or talk to someone and find out how you can connect that way. Let's get our Bibles open to Hebrews, chapter 10. While you're doing that I'm always tickled and honored whenever we have pastors from the community visit with us here at Canyon Hills. At this service today, Pastor Dean, from the Midnight Cry Community Fellowship in Snohomish, is visiting with us. I love this guy. If I didn't go to this church, I would go to his church. That's how much I love him. Pastor Dean, wave at me so we can just welcome you to Canyon Hills today. I love you, brother. It always makes me nervous when they sit close to the front. I'm sure I'm going to quote him and not give him any credit for it, so forgive me afterward. Last week, we talked about the fact that the church, especially lately, has been criticized a lot, and it's always going to be criticized a lot by our world, especially in the culture and day and age in which we live. Honestly, we deserve some of that criticism. Our sins can expose our lack of sincerity to what we say we believe, and ultimately reveal our hypocrisy, and the world is really good at picking up on our hypocrisy. The world loves to remind us of it, don't they? On the other hand, the criticism and hatred for God's people and the church shouldn't surprise us. Jesus warned us very clearly that if they hated him enough to brutally kill him on a cross, "Don't be surprised that the world hates you and those who love me." The church has long been the punching bag for a world that rejects and mocks Jesus. We get accused of a lot of things, as a church, don't we? We get accused of suppressing women. We get accused of being judgmental. We get accused of being bigots and intolerant. I think the favorite one, for the last 10 years, is that all Christians are homophobic. Canyon Hills Community Church 1

2 I wish I had time to refute all of these this morning, but on that last one specifically, we are bombarded with the accusations that we are, as a group (and I don't mean just Canyon Hills) Christianity as a whole is just kind of a bunch of people who are afraid of homosexual people and who are especially afraid of homosexuality. I'm sure there are some Christians somewhere in some church where that is true, but it's not nearly the epidemic it's purported to be by our world. I want to propose to you today that there's a much greater phobia going on in the church. It's a much greater phobia than homophobia will ever be in the church. It's a phobia that I'm calling commitment-phobia. I think that's way more prevalent in churches today than anything close to some of the things of which we're being accused. There are way more Christians who are commitment-phobes. I love how Mark Dever, in his book, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, kind of describes this concept of Christians' fears of getting more involved. He says it is " the fear that in promising to do something good we will miss out on getting something even better. And so, although we see many good things we could be doing, we would rather just 'keep our options open.'" What a true description of many people in our world, but specifically for us in the church. Sadly, for many Christians, when it comes to belonging to their church When I say belonging, I mean beyond attending. When it comes to belonging to the church, most Christians want to leave their options open. We don't want to be judged as exclusionary or too serious by the world. The world is already mad enough at us as it is, so we don't want to join something at which the world may look as too high and mighty. If that's not the case, we don't want to commit ourselves if it means interfering with our conveniences or if it means someone might get into our business. So today is really part two of this little series we're calling At the Core. We're going to talk about, for a few weeks anyway, who it is we're supposed to be, inside these walls, and what it is we're supposed to be like as Christians who belong to this thing called the church. I want to answer three really important questions before we're done this morning. The first question is, "What is a church?" It sounds like a silly question, considering we're all sitting here this morning, but you'd probably be surprised if I asked you to take one of those cards out of the seat pocket in front of you and turn it over and write down a one-sentence definition of the church. If you were to pass them all forward, and I were just to read them randomly, I think we would be blown away by how different and how many definitions we have amongst ourselves as to who it is we really are. We need to answer the question, "What is a church?" The second question I want to answer is, "Why belong to a church? Why join a church?" I want to try to convince you today that joining your church is not something the modern church has just added to the Bible. Instead, I want you to see it is a necessary privilege and a life-changing responsibility to actually belong to your church. So, "What is a church and why should I belong to my church?" Canyon Hills Community Church 2

3 Thirdly is the question, "What does joining or belonging to a church look like?" What in the world does that mean? Are we all going to have to shave our heads and wear robes of a certain color and all look and sound the same, or does it mean something different? That's what I hope to answer before we leave this room, so if your Bibles are open to Hebrews, chapter 10, let's let God's Word answer those questions for us. Let's stand for the reading of God's Word, because we love his Word and we trust his Word and we expect that it has the power to actually change us a little bit, as it convicts us of our sin and encourages us in righteousness. We're going to pick it up in verse 19 of chapter 10. "Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near." God in heaven, we just bow our heads right now and we ask, in the name of Jesus, that you would make these words mean something to us. I pray, God, that you would press them upon our hearts and give us great joy and great confidence in your calling to belong. I pray, God, that you would show us today where our attitudes need to change and where sin in our lives needs to be repented of. I pray, God, for those in this room who are hurting and who have really heavy hearts. I ask, in the name of your Son, O God, would you comfort them? God, would you remind them they are safe in your arms right now? God, I pray for churches all over our community that are opening their Bibles. I pray that your Word would be proclaimed with power, confidence, and joy today. In the name of your amazing Son and our Savior, we say, "Amen." Amen. All right. Before we unpack the passage we just read in Hebrews 10, I want to try to answer the first question for us, the one that may seem silly on the surface. 1. What is a church? Again, it seems kind of odd to ask that question of you because we're all sitting here, but part of the reason we need to answer this question is because the world has really messed this word up, and it gets attached to so many things that really have nothing to do with God or Christianity, unfortunately. The other reason is because there are a bunch of us sitting here right now who are just honestly confused. We really don't know how we would define that word, this thing we call church. I Canyon Hills Community Church 3

4 hope, at least in the next couple of minutes, you will be unconfused and feel confident that you know who you are and what the church is. A. Church isn't for every religion. That's very important for you to get. Judaism, Buddhism, and Islam all have their synagogues, temples, and mosques, and so it would be tempting to think the church is Christianity's version of those things. Temples, synagogues, and mosques are names of physical buildings where religious people go to do religious rituals, but the word church absolutely cannot mean a building. It's impossible for the word to mean that or refer to that, ultimately because for the first 300 years of the history of the church, the church had no buildings. The church met in homes. There was no such thing as a structure to which people went that was designated just for that purpose. They met in houses. So we know, first of all, when we talk about the word church, we're not talking about what every other religion might be thinking about when they think of this word. B. A church is a collection of people called out by God. The very Greek word in the Bible for the word church actually means the called-out ones. It's people, called out of spiritual darkness, called out of our slavery to sin and guilt, called out of our condemnation and hopelessness and into a salvation by his grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone for God's glory alone. Amen? That's what the church is. It is a church of people who have been radically changed by the saving grace of God in Christ. The church is a collection of people called out by God. C. The church is a living, breathing community of Christian people. This takes that just a little bit further. That may be the very definition I want you to grab onto today. It is a community of Christian people. The church is for Christians. The church is Christians. The New Testament gives us several metaphors that make it crystal clear that the church is a very specific community of people who have been relocated, so to speak. There are pictures of who the church is in the Bible that give us a really clear sense of who we are. For instance, one of the metaphors in the New Testament is that the church is a collection of Christian people who have been relocated into a kingdom, a new kingdom, a kingdom of people in which God reigns and rules in the hearts of his subjects. We are a part of an eternal kingdom, and God is the ruler. We have been relocated into a new family, a spiritual household, as Galatians talks about, of adopted brothers and sisters who share their faith in Jesus Christ in common. Every single Christian has been given a brand-new family. We've been relocated into a body with many parts all working together for each other's good and God's glory. Much like the human body works together with all the different parts, the church is a picture of a body, a body of people, all working together for each other's good. The Bible also tells us we have been put into a brand-new marriage between Jesus, the faithful husband, and his faithful bride, the church. Canyon Hills Community Church 4

5 Ultimately, the Bible tells us we are co-traveling strangers. All of us who are Christians are traveling through this life, this world, on our way to our heavenly home where our citizenship is already eternally secure, and sealed by God's very own Holy Spirit, who resides in us. His Holy Spirit lives in you and in me, guaranteeing the inheritance of our salvation when this life is through. What an amazing and beautiful picture of who you are and we are, together. The implication of all of those pictures ( kingdom, family, body, marriage, and co-travelers) is that there's no evidence at all that followers of Jesus were ever free-floating or independent, goand-come-as-you-feel individual worshipers of Jesus. Never. In fact, seven times in the book of Acts, we read that whenever people repented and were baptized to follow Jesus, they were immediately, the Scripture says, " added to their number " Those are the very words in the book of Acts. Every time people repented and were baptized, they were specifically and immediately added to their number. In other words, they were converted, counted, and then connected to the church. There was never, ever, in the New Testament, any consideration that followers of Jesus could pull off the Christian life, outside of belonging to a committed community of believers. That's what the church is, a community of committed Christians. Now for the big question. 2. Why join the church? Why belong to a church? Again, why go past just attending on Sunday morning and actually connect and step all the way in? It's really important to know. I've already alluded to this, but I really want you to hear me say this. Church membership is not something new. It's not a modern religious trick churches do in order to somehow exercise control over the people. Some of you have a little bit of that cynicism in you, maybe from some bad past experience or something, but belonging to a church is not some tricky little thing the modern-day church has come up with in order to kind of keep everybody under control. The New Testament makes a very strong argument for the fact that when God calls his chosen ones to faith and repentance, he also calls them to belong to each other, and so we have responsibilities as Christians that require us to belong. The family of God has been given divine chores, so to speak. We all have a job to do. That's very clear in the Bible. A. To assure each other's faith. This is where I want us to return to our text, Hebrews, chapter 10. Let's get our eyes back on that passage now to answer this question, "Why join?" I want you to pick it up in verse 22 with me. It says, " let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water." Now that's just a picture of salvation, there. Look at verse 23. "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful." So one of the things we have to see here in our Christian responsibilities to belong is to assure each other's faith. It's right there in the passage. Verse 22: " let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith " Wow. Canyon Hills Community Church 5

6 Again, I refer to Mark Dever in his book, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church. He says something like, "You should not join the church in order to be saved, but you may want to join the church to help you make certain that you are saved." There's a lot of truth to that, because there's a whole bunch of confusion out there as to what it really means to be a Christian, and belonging to the church helps make and keep that very clear. Now in verses 19-21, right above the verses we just read, Jesus' death is described as the curtain which we pass through to come near to God. His very death and shed blood on the cross paid the price and purchased our ransom for forgiveness so that as you see this picture We walk through this curtain of Christ's cleansing blood and it removes all of our sin and forgives us of our sin because he has paid the price and taken the punishment our sin deserves, and then we are given his righteousness and we can come near to God together, because of Jesus. That's what the first few verses are talking about, but when you read those verses all the way through to the end, you'll notice, eight different times, the plural pronouns are being used: us, we, our, and brothers. Never does the writer of Hebrews use singular pronouns, ever. It's always plural in referring to who we are as a church. If you see here in verse 24, he says, "And let us consider how to stir up one another " Wow. "Let us draw near to God together," it says here, in verse 22, "with hearts full of assurance." Us, together " let us " Let us be honest for just a minute. Life puts a lot of pressure on our faith in God, sometimes to the point where we start to actually think God's love and grace may have run out on us because of our sin. We might start to feel like, "There's no possible way God would ever forgive me of that, or of this, again." We may get to a point where we start to feel like maybe God has forgotten us in our suffering. In belonging to a church, we are asking our fellow followers of Jesus to hold us accountable to our faith and hope in Jesus. We're grasping hands with each other when we belong and join. We're agreeing to help each other, especially when our hearts are weak, especially when our faith in God grows weak, reminding each other of God's faithfulness, strength, power, and love. How many Christians have sunk into the waves of doubt and fear into despair, depression, and disappointment? Sometimes we're desperate to remember that by grace, God works in the situations of our everyday lives. He's doing that, and he's crafting, hammering, and molding us into people who live life based on the radical belief that he really does exist and reward those who seek him. We need that. We desperately need those reminders, so our first responsibility in belonging is to help assure each other of our faith. That's at the core of belonging. B. To love God, each other, and our neighbors. Again, it's right there in verse 24. "And let us consider how to stir up one another to love " Now the author just leaves it at that, " to love " and then he goes on to something else, but the New Testament gives us context as to what this love is we're supposed to be stirring up in each other. You'll remember, back in Matthew 22, when the people asked Jesus, "Jesus, what's the most important command we have to keep? We just keep hearing of so many. Which is the highest Canyon Hills Community Church 6

7 priority?" Jesus said, "I'll tell you what it is. Love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength." I love to watch and hear about your love for God. I love to watch and hear about the love for God the people in the Life Group Tammy and I attend have in their hearts for God. Those are moving moments, and we join the church to stir this love up in each other's hearts. Those unplanned and surprising moments when we see in each other's eyes and hear in each other's voices It moves us and draws us to love him more. That's one of our responsibilities, to love God with all our heart. We have to keep encouraging each other in that. I remember, a long time ago I've never forgotten this. A pastor said to a bunch of us pastors, in a meeting, "Pastors, you have one job, and that is to teach your people to love God with all their hearts and then let them do whatever they want!" Well, I'm not sure about that second one, but I like the first one. There's a lot of truth to that. Teach them to love God with all their hearts, and then whatever they do is going to be right and good for God's people and his glory. The other context of this stirring one another to love is to love each other. There are hundreds of verses in the New Testament that speak to this. The most direct may be 1 John 4:20, where John writes, " for [anyone] who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen." Here's the translation of that. One of the surest ways to prove we understand God's love for us is to try to love each other in the same way. Don't miss that now. I want you to hear this. One of the surest ways to prove you and I understand how much God loves us is to try to love each other in the same way God loves us. Scripture tells us we're to seek peace with each other. We're to forgive each other 70 times 7 times. We're to carry each other's burdens. We're to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Joining the church is really the only way to confirm our love for God by loving each other. When the writer of Hebrews says we have to stir one another on to love, he's talking about loving God and loving each other, but there's a third love in the context of the New Testament, and it's loving our neighbor. You remember, back in Matthew 22, when they asked Jesus, "What's the most important commandment?" he said, "Love God with all your heart " and without them even asking, he said, " and the second one is just like it. Love your neighbor as you love yourself." Our love for our neighbor is an overflow of our love of God and each other. So these are the top three ways Christian love is supposed to be stirred up in each other, and we can't do any of them without being deeply rooted in the church. It's too hard. We will give up after a while, especially the part about loving each other. Amen? That may be the hardest one of all. At the core of who we are is a people who stir up love in each other. C. To use our gifts for the good of others. It's right there in the same sentence in verse 24. "And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works " Some of your Bibles Canyon Hills Community Church 7

8 say " good deeds " In 1 Corinthians, the Bible teaches, very clearly, the Holy Spirit who lives in us equips us with gifts in order to use them for the purpose of serving and edifying the church. So the good deeds here, the good works in Hebrews, chapter 10, relate to all of our acts of service that help each other spiritually grow up and mature, that help the whole process of becoming a better disciple of Jesus. That includes all kinds of good deeds and all kinds of good works together. Just this morning, you already experienced the service of some people for you, those people who were at the doors telling you, "Hey, you are at the right church. This is Canyon Hills. Yeah, this is it " They might have pointed you in a direction. Those people who walk down the aisles and received our offering, or, last week, passed out Communion They're using their gifts and they're serving. Children's ministry and youth ministry volunteers, right now Life Group leaders who are hosting, leading, and facilitating A parking lot team ministry, which we're going to tell you about in a few weeks The people who come in and take care of the facilities We have people who come in once a week, just to clean fingerprints off windows. Other people come in just to vacuum a lobby. Some others come in to just clean the kitchen to make sure it's ready for a funeral, wedding, or banquet we're having. All of these, working together, serving so the ministry of making disciples takes place. Now here's the sad part. A lot of believers Let's just make it personal. A lot of you have excused yourselves from this responsibility. You have. You see, the Christian life isn't only about trying to reach the people I'm trying to witness to, but God has called you and me to serve so, together, we can help make disciples out of the sheep who are already saved. That's our responsibility. We must join the church because the church is dependent on itself to make disciples. Let me give you a revealing question to ask yourself. I think, from time to time, this is a good question to ask. This is a good way to evaluate you. I want you to ask yourself this question right now. If everybody in this church served and volunteered the exact amount you do, what would be the condition of this church? What would happen to this church? I was going to say I'm not asking you that question to make you feel bad, but I really am. I am. I want you to ask it honestly. If everyone in this church used their gifts in serving others in the body like you're currently doing right now, what would happen to this church? Some of you (I can see who you are) are serving and you would say, "Wow, if everyone served as much as I do, this place would be an even more effective, better church." You don't say that full of pride. It's just reality. Yet there are some of you who would have to honestly answer that question and say, "If everyone were serving the way I am " or, maybe if you're married, " we are, or my family is, Canyon Hills Community Church 8

9 we'd have to shut the doors. At the core of who we are, who we have to be as a community of committed Christians, is fulfilling our responsibility to use our gifts for the good of others. D. To worship, pray, and hear the Word together. Verse 25: " not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some " Now the key word there is together. Worship, prayer, and the ministry of the Word is just as much a corporate experience as it is a private one. Hebrews describes it as a good habit to meet together, and it's a really bad habit, therefore, not to. A great picture of this is in Acts, chapter 2, toward the end. If you want a beautiful descriptor of what the church really looks like, it is in Acts, chapter 2. Look at that later. Joining a church is a commitment to feed on God together. Isn't that what the psalmist says? " taste and see that the LORD is good!" Have you ever noticed really good meals are always more enjoyable together? Did you ever notice that? They're always more enjoyable when you're sharing them with someone. If that's not true for you, you are obviously not Italian. Growing up in an Italian family, mealtime was awesome, because it was a place to practice your yelling. That's what you got accomplished, there. It's the same in worship and prayer together. It's so much more enjoyable when we get to do it together. At the core of who we are inside this place is a group of committed people who are willing to fulfill the responsibility of meeting together for the purpose of worship and praying in the Word. E. To wait for the Lord's return, together. This is so cool. In verse 25, the writer says, " not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near." That day he's talking about there is the coming return of Jesus Christ. Now when I was a much younger Christian, I used to hear the older saints in the church talk about wanting Jesus to come soon and wanting to go to heaven, like right now. Whenever I heard that, I used to think to myself, "Easy for you to say! I just got married! I want to have some kids. I want to watch them grow up. I want to be a grandpa!" I actually used to think it was kind of selfish for you people to always be hurrying Jesus along to get back. I'm like, "Hey, cool it a little bit! Well, now that I'm getting a lot closer to 60, I think I understand this. You see, not to be excited about Jesus coming back as soon as possible is really because of one or two things going on in our hearts. Not being excited about Jesus coming back as soon as possible either means you seriously overestimate the promise of future joys in this life or you seriously underestimate the promise of future joys in our eternal life. I'm getting that a little more now. Why join the church? First of all, because it's nothing new. The New Testament has always modeled that the church is a community of committed believers who belong to each other. Secondly, because our Christian responsibilities require us to belong to one another, to assure of Canyon Hills Community Church 9

10 our faith, to love God, each other and our neighbors, to use our gifts for the good of others to worship, pray, and hear the Word, and to wait for the Lord's soon return. We summarize it this way, in the Discover Canyon Hills Membership Class. "Membership at Canyon Hills is a covenant relationship between God's people. We share a mutual passion for spiritual maturity, accountability, service, and unity in order to carry out the mission of the church." That's what it is. It's a relationship with other believers that goes beyond attending. 3. What does joining or belonging to a church really look like? We always say it this way. Membership says, "You can count on me." Joining your church means we can count on you. The whole process isn't that complicated. It's always initiated by baptism in Christ. If you have already repented of your sin and received Jesus as your Lord and Savior, put your faith in his death and resurrection, and been baptized in his name, then you have already taken the first step of belonging to God's family. Now for this particular local family of believers, here at Canyon Hills The second step is we want you to attend a four-hour Discover Canyon Hills seminar I teach. In that class, we cover our history and our values. We talk about the process of how leaders are appointed and approved of. We talk about our key essential doctrines. We deal with our budget, finance, policies, and procedures so there's absolute transparency and accountability. We talk about the expectations of membership, so that class is a really important part of making sure you know what you're getting into. Then, if you determine, after that, that this is the kind of church in which you want to put your roots down, grow, and serve, then you meet with one of our elders and his wife and you just get to ask any last questions that might still need to be cleared up. You get to ask them anything about me that you want to know, and they'll tell you. For sure, they'll tell you. Don't worry about that. Then, ultimately, if you believe you can trust, serve, and grow in this church, we want you to literally sign a member covenant that says, "You can count on me. I can support this church in its mission and leadership in the biblical manner we have seen this church attempt to function." Then we give you a big hug and a kick in the rear end and say, "Now go get 'em." No balloons, no confetti We don't make a big deal. We're not rewarding you for something you should already be doing. We're loving you and thanking you for seeing the value of belonging to a committed community of believers. Some of you might be thinking right now, "Why can't I do all of that without going to four hours of a class?" Some of you come from a church background where this was never talked about. It was never even alluded to. You just came and you got involved. You came and went as you could. Some of you right now, even though it's not on the outside Your arms are crossed on the inside. You're just like, "I knew it. I knew these guys are just like everybody else." Canyon Hills Community Church 10

11 You have that cynicism. You have that phobia of commitment, thinking somehow, some way, this is going to be too stifling for you. Listen. The very reason you ask that question is why we do it the way we do. We want you to know exactly what this church is all about. We want you to not have any surprises. We want you to know exactly what your brothers and sisters in Christ would expect of you and what you could expect of them. Ultimately, we want you to get over your commitment-phobia. Time is short. Jesus is coming back soon and we have a job to do. The apostle Paul wrote about all this like this, in Romans 12. "For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others." There are really only two types of people who are sitting here in this room right now who aren't members yet. I think the first type is the person who just needs to be asked, so I'm asking. I'm just asking you, straight up. It's time now. You're comfortable here. You've been coming long enough to know what you're going to get when you show up on Sundays. We're going to try to worship hard, pray hard, and preach hard. I'm asking you to make that commitment today to move from just attending and maybe occasionally volunteering, if anything, and step all the way into the deep end and commit to belong to your church. Right at the beginning of this new year, I want you to become a part of the church you probably already love. It's not that you've been avoiding it. It's just that it hasn't been convenient, so I'm going to ask you to make it convenient. I said there were two types of people. One group here just needs to be asked, and I'm asking. The second group of people sitting here just needs to be told. It's time to commit. For one reason or another, you've been hesitant, and so I want to invite you to come get the answers to the things that may be causing you to be a little hesitant or cynical, or just a little standoffish. Get those answers. If, at the end of that four-hour session, you feel like, "Okay, all right. Worries taken care of," then I'm going to ask you, "Join us." If, at the end of that session, you're like, "You know what? Hey, I'm glad I did this. I realize this isn't the kind of church I want to be a part of," then praise God. It's probably time to move on and find a church to which you can belong. I would rather you do that then stay here and not belong. That sounds really dumb coming out of my mouth, as I'm speaking. I'm not trying to chase anybody off, but I am trying to chase you in. Belong. I want to pray for you and then, in just a minute, I'm going to ask us all to stand, after we pray. Then I'm going to invite you Do you know what I was going to do? I was going to have an old-fashioned altar call. I was just going to have you walk up here. We're going to give you a little invitation card to our Membership Class. Canyon Hills Community Church 11

12 By the way, the next one is two weeks from yesterday. Some of you just said to yourself, "Oh, I'm busy that Saturday." We know that. We checked your calendar. So we added a second class at the end of February, just for you, and so now, there are no excuses. I'm hoping of you, right now, are willing to say, "I'll come to the class. I will consider your invitation to belong." Would you bow your heads with me? Father in heaven, I just ask, in the name of Jesus Christ, that you would be pleased today that we understand what and who you call us to be. I ask, Lord, that you would have your way in this church. I pray, God, for those for whom it just hasn't been convenient, that today they would push aside whatever they need to in order to make this step possible. I pray, God, for those in this room who are just a little bit cynical. Lord, would you give them the courage to find out if it's justified or not? Help them, God, to get answers so they can belong as well. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to stand up. I'm going to dismiss you in a second, but before you're all dismissed, I'm just going to invite any and all of you who would be willing to come forward, instead of backward, and just say, "Give me one of those invitations." We're not going to sign you up, up here. You're going to do that yourself. We're just going to give you an invitation card that tells you the dates and how to go on our website and sign up at home. Get on your computer and do it and we'll have a record of that. I hope you will do that. I have some of our pastors right over here. I'm just going to ask them, right now, to make their way forward. We're just going to spread out. As we're dismissed, I'm going to invite anyone who wants to come forward and get one of these invitations to come right now. Would you be willing to take that chance and just do it? Old-fashioned Just come forward. We're not going to play an organ. That guy got it easy. He was in the front row, but does anybody else want to come? Come on down and get one of these invitations. God bless you. Anyone else? Come on. Just come right now and step over the line. Awesome. I'm hoping hundreds of you will do that right now. Awesome. Keep coming! Keep coming, right now. Do it. What you didn't know is the first 10 people got a free car, so those of you who were waiting can still come, but we're out of cars, so come on. All right. You are dismissed, but you keep coming. If you couldn't get out, we'll stay up here just for you, all right? The rest of you go backward so we can come forward. Canyon Hills Community Church 12