Why are we Here?

It’s important that we understand why we are doing this tonight. Why don’t we just have church on Sunday like we do every week? Why do we need to do this instead?

The quick answer is that we are here tonight to reach out to God for His help. We need His help to do His will and do it well. Sure, we could go about trying to build His church and His kingdom by ourselves, but usually when people do this, they end up failing. Only when we realize that if we abide in Jesus, then we will bear much fruit but apart from him, we can do nothing (John 15:5). So we need to understand right up front that the main reason for us to be here is to ask God to help us.

So now, you are asking – “Help us do what?” If you haven’t already heard, we will be starting a Saturday night service next month on July 16. We will be promoting this in different ways but the bottom line is that we need to get ourselves prepared for those who might come. We need to ask God to prepare them to come in. So there’s a lot of preparing that needs to happen and the only one who can do this preparing is God. So we need to ask God to work in those who He will be bringing in and to work in us to have the proper hearts for them.

So why do we want to start a Saturday night service? For the same reason we have a Sunday morning service – so that people can hear the good news of Jesus Christ. Unless we’re just playing church, the reason for our existence is to spread the news of what Jesus has done for us. To let people know that they have fallen short of God’s perfection and so in order to get back to where they need to be, they need Jesus. It’s all about building His kingdom.

Growing God’s Kingdom

Matthew 13:31-33 – The Parables of the Mustard Seed and the Leaven

Matt 24:12-14 Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved. This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.

From these, we have two major messages. The first is that we are living in a time when the hearts of people are far away from God. This is what it means to have cold hearts. The Bible teaches us that this coldness of heart has occurred because sin has increased. That’s what lawlessness is – sin. So as sin has increased, hearts have grown cold. This is interesting because if you ask these cold hearted people about this, they will tell you the exact opposite – that “we are better people today than we were 20, 50 even 100 years ago”. They will say this, because they do not recognize that there is more sin in the world and in their own lives than there had been in previous generations. However, when they compare the big picture, the overall environment that we live in, they feel that there has been progress. After all, hasn’t computers made life easier, travel is accessible, the world gets along (except for that whole Middle East thing), and there is no more oppression of blacks, women or gays. From their point of view, “life is much more civilized than it used to be when we were all oppressed by Christianity”. Unfortunately, this is exactly what you would expect sinful people to say – this means they don’t have to change their ways or their direction because everything is good. “Leave your talk of sinfulness and cold-heartedness home and stop trying to make me into something I’m not”. As Jesus told us would happen, we see that the world today is far from him and is happy to stay far from him. This is why the idea of hell no longer scares anyone. After all, “if hell means that I don’t have to be with God, that’s fine with me”.

However, the one who endures to the end will be saved. All of these people will not be saved because they have not been able to endure. The pull of society, of the culture, of the world has been too strong and these people have fallen completely into the trap. This pull is so strong, it has even taken many Christians and churches with it. These Christians and churches agree with the world on many of these issues to the point where many of them believe that there are many ways to heaven, that we all believe in the same God and that people are basically good. Satan has done well to set the groundwork for these last days and God is waiting for His Church to step up and counter Satan and the world.

We see that this is also what Jesus told us would happen – the true Church would not be satisfied sitting around waiting for Jesus to return. They would be busy preaching the gospel to the whole world while we wait for the end to come. We are to be a testimony to all nations. We are to plant the seeds and do the work that is necessary for people to know the truth about their lawlessness (sin) so that they can recognize their need for a savior who can redeem them from the ultimate price (hell). No one will receive Jesus until they realize they need to. There is no need for a savior if you aren’t going anywhere that you need saving from. As long as you think you are on a good path, then the idea of a savior is ludicrous. Jesus has told us that he expects his true church to be planting the seeds to show people their need for a savior and the good news that Jesus is the answer. The parable of the Mustard Seed and the parable of the Leaven both show us something that starts out small and grows big. But before anything happens, first someone had to do something. Someone had to take the first step. Plant the mustard seed. Hide the leaven. If these things aren’t done first, there is no growth – nothing can happen.

This is where we come in. Jesus is expecting us to preach the gospel to the whole world. This is the planting of the seed, the hiding of the leaven. If we do these things, then we can see the kingdom of heaven grow and fill up. However, God has determined that He will not do anything if we don’t take the first step. However, if we do take that first step, then God is faithful to complete what has been started. As long as we are walking in his ways, He will make sure that the things we are doing will be fruitful.

So as we work to grow the Kingdom of God, we recognize that we cannot leave new believers alone. The Bible is clear that we are to meet together (Hebrews 10:25) especially as we see that we are living in these days. So a by-product of building the Kingdom is that we need to build our church. We need to be bringing people in to the church so that they can know the good news but also so that they can grow in faith after coming in to the Kingdom.

There are many who are without a place to worship. There are many who are going to churches where they are not being fed and growing – they are stuck in a place of immaturity when they should be further along in their faith walk. Then of course there are those, of whom I once was, that are going to church and have no idea that they are not even saved. In all of these cases, we need to be available to these people. Not everyone will want to join us. Most people prefer a church where they can feel good about themselves. They want to walk out after church and say, “That was good! I felt the Holy Spirit moving and I feel great!” They don’t realize that the idea of church is not to feel good about yourself. It’s to challenge you to move to then next level of your faith walk, it’s to call you to use your spiritual gifts in the building up of the church and to equip you to go out into the world and be a real disciple of Jesus Christ. Many people will hear the hard messages here and decide that they would rather find someplace else where they can be spiritual porkers, sitting in the pews and getting fed. They’ll want to go somewhere that has great music or has cool entertainment. At least, the pastor should be funny and entertaining and should be able to make the time fly by. These people will not stay, even if we get them into the service. However, there will be others who are more interested in growing in Christ, knowing God more, desiring of more discipline and those people will come in and stay, even if everything isn’t perfect. They know that there is no such thing as a perfect church and that those areas that are weak in our church might be the exact place that they need to use their gifts to build us up.

The beauty of this is that as these people stay and use their gifts and help to build up the church, we will see a greater impact on the community. We will see the church more able to go out into the neighborhoods and impact them for Jesus. We will see more evangelistic outreaches that bring Christ into people’s lives even as we help them in their needs. Feeding the hungry and clothing the poor are important and Jesus tells us that whenever we do this for someone, we do it for him. However, doing these things for their own sake and not sharing Jesus is not only unbiblical, but works against what God is doing around us. When we do all these great things for people without sharing the gospel, we think how great we are, we puff ourselves up and even become boastful. Then we are like those who Jesus describes in the judgment who come to Jesus expecting to enter into heaven and are shocked that Jesus says “I never knew you”. We are absolutely called to impact the community, make a difference in the neighborhood and help those in need around us, but if we are doing those things for their own sake, then we are the same as a government agency or a social service. This is not what Jesus built his church upon. Jesus built his church upon the rock that is the truth spoken by Peter when he said, “You are the Christ, the son of the living God”. This is the gospel that we are to share, it is the purpose of the Church and we cannot be so proud of ourselves if we help out the needy and never share Jesus with them.

So as we look back and see that our goal here is to build the Kingdom of God, and in doing so, build the church, which will allow us to impact the community, we must remember that none of this will happen in our power. Though we plant the seed or hide the leaven, it is God who grows the plant and leavens all the flour. We must depend on God to do this. We cannot do it ourselves. It’s wonderful to have the heart to want to do these things for God but we must never forget that it is God who draws and it is God who is Sovereign and it is He who will build the Kingdom, the church and impact the community – through us. The moment we think we can do it ourselves, we will find ourselves drowning in water, spinning our wheels and running out of steam. But as long as we depend on God, we will find ourselves successful and refreshed as we go and use our gifts.

Acts 1:14 These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.

When the Disciples were waiting for the promised Holy Spirit, we find them praying continually. It is by this continual prayer that they are able to be prepared for the Holy Spirit’s power and it is only by this praying that those who heard their words on the day of Pentecost had their hearts moved to listen and desire salvation. It is only through prayer that we will be able to be successful in building God’s kingdom, to prepare ourselves and to prepare those who we will encounter. Not everyone who heard the disciples on that day came to repentance, but many did. If we want to experience a similar situation as the Disciples did, we need to do what they did – together, as a body, in one mind, devote ourselves to prayer.

This is why we are here tonight. This is the purpose of our gathering. Let us tonight, spend our time together, in prayer and asking God for His work in our lives, our church and in those we will encounter. If we do this, we can know God’s will for us, walk in His steps and know that God will complete what He started.

Send mail to david@TheArkNY.org with questions about the church or comments about this site.
Last modified: Jun 18, 2011

The Ark Church - Ronkonkoma, Suffolk County, NY - A non-denominational church for Jesus Christ