Embracing and Nurturing the Church.

So we are so excited today. One of the beautiful things about being a part of a church is that we're not only part of this local community, but we're part of a greater kingdom family of churches literally all over the world. We are so excited today to have some friends with us that are going to be sharing about the work that they are doing for the global church.

The Powell family is with us today, and they're going to give us all the incredible stories of what God has been doing through their family. We're excited to welcome them, but before they come, we have a short video to share.

Hey, we are the Powell family, empowering the church in Thailand. We have had a refreshing and fruitful time stateside this past year, as we have been sharing with old and new partners how God is at work in the Buddhist world, and in Thailand specifically. We want to thank all of the individuals, families, businesses, and churches that support our family's ministry through faithful prayers and giving, sharing the vision of the unreached of Thailand.

In June 2023, we will be heading back to Thailand for our next 40-year term. We will be based out of the International Assemblies of God Church in Bangkok. We plan to work hand in hand with this amazing team to reach the largest Thai and international communities. Which will provide opportunities for Thai churches and teams from around the world to do outreaches in schools, youth prisons, and rural communities to share the gospel and connect them to the local church. Thank you for partnering with us to empower the church in Thailand.

The Buddhist Wall

In the year 1813, Adoniram Judson, a missionary to Burma, looked over thousands of temples and pagodas and spoke these prophetic words. Weep over your falling temples. Retire from the scenes of your past greatness. The churches of Jesus will soon supplant these idolatrous monuments and the chanting of Buddha will die away before the Christian hymn of praise. Judson did not live to see the fulfillment of this prophecy.

After 200 years of missionary labor, Buddhism still looks as strong and immovable as the fortress of Jericho did. The gospel impact on the Buddhist world seems like small cracks in these walls that have stood for hundreds and in some places even thousands of years. Nearly one billion people live imprisoned by Buddhism and its demanding rituals. Places like Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam are less than 5 percent Christian, with Thailand, Nepal, Cambodia, Japan and others with less than one percent.

Something has to change. As we circle these massive walls, we know that powerful fervent prayer is the key to seeing them crumble. Focused intercession has the power to kick down doors, to break chains, to set the captives free. Will you march with an army of prayer warriors for the Buddhist world? Your prayers can change a heart. Change a city. Change a nation and change the map.

Well, I just want to share a little bit with you guys just quickly tonight. Just something that the Holy Spirit has really put on my heart for the church here in America. One of the things that has come out of our time here in the States honestly has just been a reignited heart for the local church. I love to see what God is doing in the local church, not just here in the States, but all over the world.

Like Brandon said, we get to partner with the local church in Thailand. We're not just out doing our own thing. We are part of the body of Christ here in the States and then all over the world, which is so exciting. I just want to share, hopefully at the end of this, we can all have that reignited heart and passion for what God is doing in the local church.

The Story of Sun

I just want to share a quick story about a young man that we'll call Sun. He's one of our students in Bangkok. We have the opportunity to help with an English program at one of the largest universities in the world. It's 525,000 students on campus. It's like its own little city. And we have the opportunity to go in each week and do some English club and just kind of hang out, get to know some students.

Sun is one of these students that was coming, and we got to know him a little bit. Through conversation we realized that he is actually a practicing Buddhist monk, which is not common to meet on a college campus like that. He said, well, I just really wanted to get better at English. He is actually a Buddhist monk at probably the most popular, famous temple in Thailand, if not all of Buddhism.

We got to know him a little bit. Through our English club, we invited him to an Easter event. It was around Easter time and we were sharing why, you know, Americans celebrate Easter, what Easter is. We did this event off campus at the local church that we were partnering with. It was just a normal classroom in the church. It didn't look like it wasn't in the sanctuary or anything. It was just this normal kind of concrete, basic classroom.

We had this Easter event and we were explaining to the students what Easter is, sharing the gospel message, having fun. I think we gave them peeps to eat, and they thought we were insane. They're like, you eat this in America? I was like, well, some of us. We shared the gospel story with these students.

Sun came up to Brandon and a couple of our other guy missionaries that were there and said, you know, I've heard of Jesus before, but I've never heard this story. I've never heard about the cross. I've never heard about the resurrection. They just shared a little bit with him.

In the conversation, Sun stopped them and he said, wait, is this a Christian church? And Brandon was like, I mean, we weren't tricking them. It wasn't a secret. And Brandon was like, yeah, this is the local church that we work with. He looked around the classroom and it's very, again, very boring. He goes, oh, he's like, I thought churches would be more beautiful, which we were kind of like, ouch. But it was just the classroom.

What he was meaning was the Thai temples are ornate and beautiful on the outside. Very, very pretty. You can see the picture. That's the temple where Sun actually practices Buddhism. It is beautiful to look at. You walk around, you see the detail of it. It's very old and there's a lot of history there. But inside, it's very dark. It's very hopeless.

We got to share with Sun that when Jesus talks about the church, he's talking about the people. He's not talking about the building, right? We get to do stuff in the building. We get to do cool things. But when Jesus talks about the church, he's talking about his people. It is through Jesus that we are becoming more and more beautiful as we become more like him.

Just got me thinking about this concept that the church is beautiful. Maybe you've never thought of it that way before. In fact, I think maybe in America sometimes there's some different adjectives that we like to throw around about church. Maybe it's boring or kind of stuffy or irrelevant, right? But I see this idea in scripture as well, that the church is beautiful.

When we are functioning as Jesus has created us to be, as we are becoming more and more like him, we are beautiful. Another way to think about it is that we are attractive, right? You see that in the book of Acts. This is the pattern that we see with the early church. They get together. They just hang out. They worship. They pray together. They eat together. They have fun together and they worship. Then the world around them looks in and says, hey, what's going on over here? What is this? Because this is different. This is attractive. There's something pulling me in here.

When we think about missions, we think about going and reaching the lost people around us. Really we fulfill that mandate through worship. It's as simple as that. We gather together. We worship. We eat together. We hang out. When we are functioning like Jesus has created us to function, the world is going to look around and say, whoa. What's going on over at New Culture Church? What is this? What's this community? What is this? I want to be part of it.

The Goal and Fuel of Missions

When we worship like we were created to, the church is beautiful. A few years ago I was reading a book about missions and it caught my attention because, like Brandon mentioned, I'm a worship leader. I'm a worship pastor. That's what I love. I read this quote and it just got me excited. He said this. He said, therefore worship is the goal and the fuel of missions. Missions exists because worship doesn't.

Missions is our way of saying the joy of knowing Christ is not a private or tribal or national or ethnic privilege. It is for all. And that's why we go. Because we have tasted the joy of worshiping Jesus. And we want all the families of the earth to be included. Seeking the worship of the nations is fueled by the joy of our own worship.

You can't commend what you don't cherish. You can't proclaim what you don't prize. Worship is the fuel and the goal of missions. That's so good, right? That's such a unique way of looking at missions. Sometimes we don't think of it that way.

But when we are worshiping, when we are a church that is focused on Jesus, becoming more like Jesus, it's in that that the world around us is going to say, what is going on there? I want to be part of it.

The truth is, though, sometimes the church today doesn't look like that, right? We look around and maybe you think like, Sun, I thought this was going to be more beautiful. Right? I thought this was going to be more like what I read in scripture. And the truth is, in that discouragement, a lot of people get stuck and they say, okay, I don't want anything to do with church. Church just isn't for me. I want out, right? Maybe you've been there. Maybe you've been in that place or maybe you've met someone that's like that.

But I just want to encourage us tonight with just three things that we see in scripture that Jesus says about the church. Because how many know we were trying to model our lives after Jesus, right? What Jesus says is the most important.

Three Things Jesus Says About the Church

Number one is that Jesus loves the church. Scripture shows us that. Ephesians chapter 5, this is a passage talking about husbands and wives, but I love what it says:

Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

Ephesians 5:25

Jesus loves the church. The second thing we see is that Jesus establishes the church. In Matthew chapter 16, he's talking to Peter. He says:

You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Matthew 16:18

This is Jesus' church, right? It's not ours. It's not our programs. It's not our thing. It is Jesus. He is the head of the church. And the third thing that we see is that Jesus equips the church. Not only does he establish this as his church, he gives us the tools and the resources that we need.

I love what it says in Ephesians chapter 4, verses 11 and 12:

He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and the teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.

Ephesians 4:11-12

Jesus loves the church. He establishes the church as the vehicle to share his good news with the world. Then he gives us the tools that we need to do it through the Holy Spirit. It's clear in scripture that if we are truly following Christ, we need to love the church. We're part of the church.

So I want to challenge you tonight in two ways. How can we love the church like Jesus does. The first one is this: commitment. We have to be planted in God's house, right? We are committed to following God and we are committed to his church.

I love what it says in Psalm 92:

The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the Lord and they flourish in the courts of our God.

Psalm 92:12-13

It says it right there. Those that are planted are the ones that flourish. We have to be planted in God's house. We make a commitment. Okay, this is my church. I'm going to be here. I'm going to be part of the family. I'm going to be part of the community. This is my church.

I love what author John Bevere says. He says, it's only those that are planted that flourish in the house of God. If you think about the idea of plants and gardening, if you're constantly uprooting a plant and moving it from here and moving it from there, it's not going to grow. It's not going to get the nourishment that it needs. It's not going to develop the way that it was supposed to.

We are designed to be planted in a community. We not only plant ourselves for benefit for ourselves, but also for others. If we're part of this community, we have to be part of this community. If you think about like redwood trees in California, their roots grow together, right? They're planted not only for themselves, but they're able to grow taller and stronger because they are planted together. This is something that I think is so unique about the church. We might be able to grow on our own and individually, but we just won't grow as stronger and as tall as we want to, unless we're doing it together.

Care for God's House

And the second thing is this. If we're committed to God's house, we also have to care for God's house. We minister. We take care of this place and these people.

I love what it says in Acts 20, verse 28:

Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

Acts 20:28

We're called to care for God's house, the same church that Jesus died for. Commitment to God's house and care for God's house. One way to think of it is that commitment to the body breeds care for the body.

If you're committed to this place, you're going to want to care for it. If this is your home, if this is your house, then you're going to take care of it. If we look back at Ephesians 5, again we see this. It says:

No one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it just as Christ does the church.

Ephesians 5:29

If this is our own body and our own house, if these are our people in our community, then we're going to nourish it and take care of it and cherish it. If we're committed to the body of Christ, I believe we will care for the body of Christ.

And how many know when we are living in that kind of community, that's the one that we see in Acts. That's the one that we see in the early church. We are committed and we are caring. Then the world looks around us and says, I want whatever they're talking about. Who is this Jesus? I want to be part of it.

Closing Challenge and Prayer

So as we close tonight, I just want to challenge us in that response. Is there an area of maybe you're struggling to stay connected to the church? Maybe you're struggling to see God's plan in the church, or what is this community? I want to challenge you in that. Challenge you in those two areas. Are you committed? Are you committed to the body of Christ?

And maybe you are. Maybe you aren't. Are you caring for his church? I just want to pray over you guys as we worship. As we kind of close and respond to that. If there's an area, just allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you and challenge you tonight. Maybe remake that commitment to the body of Christ. Remake that commitment to caring for his house.

So let me pray over you. Holy Spirit, I thank you so much for each person represented in this room, Lord. I love what you are doing here in this city. God, I pray over New Culture Church. I pray over Pastor Abbie and the team here tonight. Lord, I just pray that there would be a fresh anointing and a fresh vision and excitement and a passion for the local church because God, this is what you have set up. This is the vehicle that you have set here on this planet to reach the lost world with the hope and life that is only found in Jesus Christ.

And so Lord, I just pray over these people in this room tonight that you would reignite the passion for the local church. That you would reignite our love and commitment, not only for you, Jesus, but for your church and for your people. And God, I pray over New Culture Church. Just even in the name itself, Lord, I believe is a prophetic statement of what you want to do in this community and what you want to do in these people and in this city.

And so Lord we are open. We respond to you tonight. Whatever ways you are challenging us, we are open to you. In Jesus' name we say Amen.