Church Isn't Something You Attend

Automatically generated from the video captions and lightly tidied, so expect the odd misheard word.

But I titled this message God house our home. God's house our home. And this idea about a church that many of us when we go to church I want you to let you know that you are next slide please that you are accepted that you can belong and that you can come as you are. And we want you to know that you're accepted. Hey maybe you're here and it's your first time. So glad that you're here.

I want you to know from the very start that you are accepted just as you are. The way you are, the way you look, the way you're dressed, you are so welcome. This place that you are loved. Church is a place that you can feel loved, be loved and church should be a place that you can belong even before you can believe in. So you can belong in this place. I want you to know from the very start if it's your first time here, you can belong in this place.

You can come just as you are. Like I said, you can come in this place just as you are. And if it's your first time, hey, I am really glad that you're here. Sorry that you don't have your pastors. You got me here today. But you are so welcome in this place.

So just come as you are in this place as well. There's a place for you here. See this empty seats around here. If you see, there's a place for you. There's a place for your family. There's a place for your friends.

There's a place for you to thrive in this church. But the only thing when I think about church is that to be part of something to belong to a church it can be very difficult at sometimes it can be difficult. Belonging to a church can be very difficult and you wonder how church should be like the only place that you can not be difficult. But in fact many of us growing up in church or maybe not growing up in church we have this idea what church is what church should not be. So belonging to a church could be difficult because church has different meanings to all of us in this room right now. For us, some of us in this room, the church could be this strict religion thing that tell you what to do, what to do, how to do it, what certain way that you have to talk, certain way that you have to dress.

So, it could be very strict for others, could be boring. You know, a few days ago, I was in Austria and we had some time to come back and they some time back and we stopped at this beautiful place, beautiful cathedral in the middle of Austria. Sorry, that was actually Germany. And we just stopped there and we went to this church and it was empty. It was beautiful. Oh my goodness.

Like we appreciate the building inside and the colorful things and the pictures. It was beautiful. But there was no life. There was no community. It was boring. And I was like trying to say a joke and all my friends like sh like why?

So could be boring for others could be boring growing up in church maybe not grow up in church you have this idea that church could be boring or it is boring or is a set of rules that you have to do this ABC and that's what it is well what I taught growing up little let me give you a little bit of my testimony growing up in Ireland I was never born into a Christian family my far as is as far as east is from the west is they're never they come to church from time to time. My dad was actually an alcoholic. He gambled all our money. He used to abuse myself and my mom growing up. It was very difficult. So, we were far from church.

At the age of 16, I got invited to Lighthouse Church in the U group. So, I was like, "Okay, I have nothing to do on a Friday night." So, I went got invited. I saw some of my mates there that was like, "You come to this thing." I was like, "Wow." I heard the message for the very first time. They was like, "God loves you. Has a plan and a purpose for your life." But I was like, well, I have a plan and a purpose for my life. And I was like, okay.

And the following months, two months, I decided to give my life to Christ. I decided to say, hey, this thing about Jesus, I don't have it all together, but I want to try it. And it's been 13 years that I devoted myself. I found my wife in the church. 4 years ago, we've been asked to go and plant our location number three in Dundock. And God is just incredible doing things in our lives that I am so grateful that I took that step.

But can I be honest? That's not what I thought at the beginning before I went to church. I thought that church is not relevant. First of all, I used to go to church once a year and that was Easter with because we were I was grow I grew up in a Romanian family and they went to Easter time. I don't know why just Easter. Have no idea.

Don't ask me. And we went to Easter time and we stayed there from like 8:00 until 3:00 in the night and this thing and like service and sermon sang songs and I'm like why it's like so irrelevant like it doesn't make sense like once a year there was no there was no live I didn't even know the guys didn't even know anyone there so it was irrelevant for me it was not relevant whatsoever and definitely not helpful because if I went once a year I didn't find any help in them cuz they were just singing. They were not speaking like this or trying to help me in my faith or trying to tell about God. They were just doing the things not even considering new people, considering others and definitely not a family because you don't visit the family once a year. Hey, some of us we might visit the family once a year. I'm sorry about that.

I know my family, they try to come as often to the ducks. So, but what church is not? What church is not? Is this maybe some of you as well what why is church then? Church is definitely not a building. Church is not a building guys like we are gathering in this building right now.

We're using this room but then Monday to Saturday it's going to be a meetings room. It's going to be a business room. So it's definitely not a building. It's definitely not a institution. Like we can use the systems and this in place so they can makes us better but we don't follow the system. We are all about people.

So definitely not institution and it's definitely not a cult cuz we don't follow a human leader. We don't follow someone and we don't look at them and dress like them. We look at one person and one person only and his name is Jesus. So what is church? Church is definitely not a building institution or a cult. Church is not something we go to and church is definitely not something we attend.

So you're just wondering like saying what is church then? So the question I want to ask you today, what is church? What is church? And in order to answer that, we're going to go to a book in the New Testament called Ephesians. And Apostle Paul wrote this to a church in Ephesus is a modern day modern day Turkey. He writes this to them.

And if you don't know anything about Apostle Paul, this Apostle Paul is actually called Saul. He had an encounter with Jesus. He actually hated Christians, by the way. He hated them, persecuted them. He did anything to stop the church, the ministry that God started in the books of Acts. He wanted to stop them.

He put them in prison. He persecuted them until one day he was on the road to call Damascus. He went he wanted to go and put these Christians in rooms and kill them. And he never killed somebody actually, but he tried to, you know, tried to stop the movement. And as he was going to this road, he had an encounter with Jesus. And Jesus says to him, "Hey, what are you doing?

Why are you trying to hurt my family, my people? And why you persecuting me?" And God lit Jesus just blinded him. And then he had to go and to pray. He got his eyesight. And then going from the opposite direction of like hating Christians and being perse persecuting them going to write twothirds of the New Testament. If you're here and you're just wondering is that kind of people that God is using absolutely yes.

God uses imperfect people for his mission for his glory because he's the only one perfect for his glory. So Paul writes this letter to Ephesus because what happened then? Let me give you a little bit of context. These people who are Gentiles who are not Jews, but they're Gentiles. Gentiles is you and I cuz we're not Jewish. They start having faith.

They start having faith in Jesus because Jesus was changing their lives and they were like, "Wow." But all of a sudden the Jews started to put these standards on them because they've been taught this from the very young, but they were not Jewish. They were Gentiles. So they were trying to put something on them that they couldn't even do it themselves. So then Paul writes this say, "Hey, let me tell you this. They don't have to do this. God changed their lives.

Leave them alone." So they he writes this to them. He says he goes from like just one second. Let me explain the context. Sorry, my fault. My fault. He's writing them like, "Hey Gentiles, once you were far you were far from him.

You were dead in your sins, but now you are near. Once you were divided like you were against him, but now you're united with him. Once you were with without hope, now you're full of purpose. Now you once you were outsiders, you were not into his family, but because of Christ, because what he did, now you are citizen. You are a member of his household. Now once you were strangers, but now you are a family.

And then he writes this in chapter 2 19, he writes this to them and he says, "Csequently, you are no longer foreign." And I love that word consequently. Whenever you see that, it means therefore. And in order to understand what therefore is, you have to read back what that means. You got it? So consequently, therefore, you are no longer foreign and strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people and also members of his household. So what is church?

Well, let me give you first point. Church is God's family. Church from the very beginning of time. Church is God's family. Church is the only hope for our community. Church is the only hope for our friends.

Church is the only hope for our family who are far from God. Church is God's family. And it starts with God, not us. Because we don't have to earn it. We don't have to work for it. We can just accept this gift because church starts with him, not us.

And we didn't find God. We didn't find our way into his family. Love this. We didn't find our way into his family. He brought us But not only he brought us in. Maybe you're new here.

I'm going to tell you the gospel. Not only he brought us in, he bought us in. What does that even mean? He bought us at a price. When God created this earth, Adam and Eve sinned. So, we got separated from our heavenly father.

And because we're sin is, God cannot live because he's holy. He's separate. And God doesn't hate you. He doesn't like he hates he hates the sin that we're doing. But he loves you. He loves you.

So, he had an idea because he him like as a good heavenly father, he wants to spend time with us. He wants to live in community with us. He wants to be with us. He said from the very beginning, I have a plan. I have a I have an idea. I'm going to send the most precious thing to me, my beloved son, to die for me on the cross.

So, not only he brought us in, but he bought us at a very high price so we can be in his family. So, we can accept his family. So, you might be, you might be here in this place today. You might not even believe in this. You might not even accept it. That is okay.

It doesn't change the fact that God bought us at a high price because it cost us nothing. To be in God's family cost us absolutely nothing. Nothing. But it cost God It cost is his most precious son so that we can belong to his family. You know when I came to church like I said I was born in a non-Christian family. When I start coming to church and going to church, when I start saying to my family, hey, I think God is changing my life.

I think I want to get they drew the line. I'm like, not in this family. I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa. But like, I'm not doing anything wrong. Gosh, I'm like, I want to love God. I want to serve God.

He's changed my life. I was once I was with hopeless. I was looking for affirmation. I was looking for hope. I was looking for a purpose. And I found that in God.

Thank God. Not in drugs, not in alcohol. I found it in God. And it changed my life. And then you're saying that I cannot do this. Yes.

They gave me what can I say? They gave me a ultimatum. Thank you. They said God or this family. And I am 17 years And I said God. I said, "I'm going to get baptized.

I'm going to follow him all my life." I get emotional because I remember the night. And they said, "Well, be with your God." And they kick me out of the house many times because I choose God and I want to be in his family. And family is this. I have a brother-in-law. His name is Sam. I have a picture of him.

I asked him to send me a picture of him. That's the best picture he sent me. I'm like, "Okay, bro. That's my sister-in-law. She's my wife's sister." And every time I got kicked out of the house or something happened, he would open the door for me and he would let me sleep in his house. He will have the bedroom door for me at any time.

Sometimes even at 2:00 a.m. My dad will get drunk, come get me out, kick me out of the house because I was a Christian, a Christ follower. So my friend, my brother-in-law, now he would open the door and let me sleep in his house. Cuz here's the deal. You don't visit a family. You belong to one.

He said, "Hey, I know your earthly family and your family might not want you there, but I want you to know that you can belong to this one. There's a place for you every time." And I like, "Wow." And maybe you're here right now, and maybe you're in the same situation. Maybe you're looking for a spiritual home. I want you to know that you can belong to a family. There's a place for you here. Apostle Paul goes on in verse 20 and he says this.

He says, "Built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone." Second thing, what the church is the church is built on Jesus. The church is built on Jesus. He is the cornerstone of our foundation. Easter Sunday is the most Christmas. Yeah, I love Christmas. Baby Jesus celebrating.

Love it. You know, but Easter Sunday, if Easter Sunday didn't happen and him resurrected, then all this here right now we're doing it's But because we believe in Easter Sunday, we believe that not only he died, he rose again and he is king of kings and lord of lords. He is the foundation of our faith. He's the cornerstone. My dad was he I grew up seeing my dad in construction and he would tell me stories and I will ask questions. So if you don't know what cornerstone is, here's a picture of a cornerstone.

And cornerstone is this idea that before you paint the walls and do the structure and before you put the roof on top, you need to do the cornerstone because if you don't do the cornerstone, the whole house will collapse. So the function of the cornerstone will be this. It will be to establish the entire building's alignment, the angle and the structure So it's to establish that. So before you do anything else, if you don't do that, then your whole house will be in danger. So the important of the corner store was this. If the corner store was improperly set or removed, the entire building, like I said, could compromise or collapse.

Guys, can I tell you that the church exists because of Jesus? Jesus is the cornerstone of this foundation. Jesus is the cornerstone of our faith. Here's the deal. Some of us Christ followers, can I speak to you for a second? We're making Jesus as just a part of it.

But not can I tell you today that he's not just part of it. He is the foundation of it. Whether he's the Lord of all or he's the Lord at all. And as Christians, we have to make a decision today or every day. Is Jesus Lord of all or Lord not at all? If it's not built on Christ, he won't last.

Guys, non-Christians in the room, can I tell you this? If your life is not built on Christ, it won't last. Unfortunately, if your marriage, if your friendships, if your relationship is not built on Christ, it won't last. And you may ask me how? How? Well, the reason won't last because sometimes we have different opinions.

Sometimes we love different ways. But Christ has a standard of love. Christ love is I love you and I will sacrifice everything for you just as Christ did for the church. Christ is the foundation of our faith. And if your foundation is not with Christ, if your marriage, your friendship, relationship is not, you might be in danger to hurt yourself or to hurt others. And you might ask, "How do I know?

How do I know if I have Christ as my cornerstone?" Very easy. When the storm comes, do you have peace? When chaos around you is happening, is your foundation shaky or is it firm that in the storms very strong storms of life? Maybe you might be losing so many maybe you might be, you know, putting you on the trials or faith and all of this when that comes do you have peace in all of that? Do you have joy in all of that? And for the non-Christians in the room can ask where do you go when that happens?

Who do you turn to? I know for many years I turn to other people for affirmation and to find something. And every time they let me do down I found disappointment. But only when I met God, only when I met Christ, he became my foundation and I found real peace, real joy. Paul goes in verse 22 and he says this. He says, "And him too." And in him too, sorry.

And in him too, you two are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his spirit. The third thing that God that the church is the church is God's dwelling place. For some of like, what does that even mean, bro? You're talking nonsense here. Sorry about that. Let me explain to you.

Well, it means this. In the Old Testament, before Jesus came to this earth and lived on this earth and died for us, the in the Old Testament, God's presence didn't live in people. He lived in a place. So, they carry his presence everywhere he went. And only once a year, the high priest would enter this holies of holies place on the behalf of people. And he will speak on behalf of God's people to him.

And he was the only one around allowed to do that. But when Jesus died, when Jesus died, that barrier between God and us, between God and people was removed forever. God was no longer living in a building, but he was living inside of us. His spirit will live inside of us. When you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and you ask him to forgive your sins, his fills you from inside out and he lives inside of you. He's presence lives in with you and you carry his presence.

So you no longer have to go to a place. You no longer have to go to the church. It's good to be part of a church. It's good to be part of community because that is the main thing that Jesus died for to be to of his church, you know. So if you're here and you feel obligated to go to church, you feel like church is optional. Can I just pray for you and consider make you consider that church should never be consideration.

You should never have to consider should I come to church on Sunday? Let me encourage you being in church on Sunday because that's what Jesus died for. That's what Jesus coming back for. For his church. Let me go back cuz I got carried away. But we carry his presence.

We carry his presence now. We no longer have to go on or we don't longer have to come to me. Cuz a lot of people like, "Pastor, can you pray for me? Pastor, can you do that? Pastor." No. I'm like, "Let's pray together.

Let me help you to pray." Because the same presence I carry, the same person that I carry inside of me, you carry that as well. So we carry his presence. And here's the deal. We don't go to church. We are the church. If you are here and you are a Christ follower, you confess your sins to Jesus.

He changed your life inside. You are the church. And you can't switch off. Let me ask you a question. Does the enemy switch off? No.

So why do we switch off? Why do we switch off? Oh, today Saturday, you know what? I work six days. Today, Saturday, five days. I'm gonna take a break.

I'm not going to read my Bible today. I'm not going to go to church tomorrow. I need a break. The enemy was like, "Why are you like laughing at us?" Let me encourage you, church. Let's not be those type of people that switch on and off our Christianity when it's it's working for us. We live in a word.

I see it in my own church. Probably not here because you guys are amazing. But in my church back home in Dundock, they switch on and off whenever they want to. And I'm like, "Guys, what are we doing?" We had a prayer night group few weeks, few weeks ago. And out of like even just our dream team, we have around like 75 people on our team. We had like 20 people showed up.

Now you might like, Julian, 20 people on a Wednesday night. That's incredible. I'm like, absolutely. I agree with you. In fact, I remember when we were a church of 20 people and to have 20 people now, it's incredible. But where I felt kind of like upset and sad is like if we the Christians, the ones that have experienced the grace and the love of Jesus, if we don't desire to be in a place to worship him, to pray for him, then what are we doing this for?

And I'm talking to the non-Christians here. You are great. I love you guys. You are committed people. I love you are committed to something. You go to your club, you go to I just wish that Christians, we learn from the non-Christians to be committed to Christ like that cuz we live in a world where we switch on Christianity and we switch it on and off when it suits us.

If you go back to the book of Acts and in the in the in the beginning when this movement started, people died for this People died. They were like, "No, this is my fate. I'm not going to back off. You can kill me if you want." And now 2026, we get to switch on and off whenever suits us. We have to be so careful Christians that we are not going to become those type of people. And like I said, probably not here.

I'm just telling you the bad things that happens in my church. Okay? If the church is God's family, if it's built on Jesus, if God himself lives in us, then the church cannot be something we just attend. The church is not something that we just can attend. So here's my main point for today. L15, this church is not something you attend.

It's a family that you're part of. You can belong in this place even before you believe. You can serve in this place even before. I hope so. I can say this cuz I know in my church I'm sorry in our church I know there was people who are not even Christian yet and they are serving in our church because we believe that there's a place for them and we don't want to put on them something that we can ourselves cannot fulfill. Church is a family that you're part of.

I'm going to finish on time. See I'm a good guy. His three benefits of belonging to a When we belong to a church, the number one and the most important one, it helps me find God. Every single Sunday we show up, we put the chairs, we have the SL, we have the music, the band, the kids, everything is because we want to tell our community that in this place they can find God. And sometimes finding God, it might take time. It can take weeks, months, or years.

And I want you not to be disheartened, guys. You might look around you and be like, "But there's so little here." But if I invite someone, you invite someone, you invite someone, next week we can dumble in numbers. Because when we're part of something, think about it. When you have a new baby and the little baby at the back, what do you what do you want to do? You want to tell the whole friends and family, you want to show this precious little baby. It's the same thing with church.

God changed my life. I don't want to tell you what God has done for me. Will you come and experience that? I'm not going to force you. I'm not going to ask you to believe what I believe. Would you just consider to come and see for He helps you find God.

Second thing, what the churches can do, he helps you. He helps me and you to fulfill our purpose. God has placed a purpose in every single one of us in this room. An extraordinary purpose like we say in He has placed a purpose in our in our heart in our in our lives that here's the deal. Only you and I can fulfill that purpose. We can we can get lost in the sauce and forget about it and we can do our own purpose or we can go to creator of that purpose and say hey I want to partner with you to find out my purpose.

It's not like God decided when he created you and I. He wasn't like, "Oh, I have this. I made this. Oh, I need a person like Rebecca and I'm like, I need a singer L15 and oh yeah, I'm going to make Rebecca." No, he made Rebecca and they gave her a purpose that only her can fulfill that purpose. He made Pastor Oz and Pastor Caroline to fulfill that purpose. And he made you and I with a specific purpose.

And when we come to church and we are part of the church and we can belong to the church, church should be a place that can discover and help you to find that purpose. And lastly is this belonging to a church. It helps you to find my people. We loving lighthouse having the crack. We love it. We love having the crack.

But if you don't have the crack with the wrong pe with the right people, then it's no fun. I just hope that you have one or two, one or two, cuz we can't be friends with everyone, but you can be friends with one person to find your people, to die for them, to sacrifice for them. Not physically dead, don't get me wrong, but he can help you find your people. The church is a family. The church is a family to be loved, to be loved, to become, and to belong. It was the author Aaron Mcmanus said this.

He said this. He said, "Home is ultimately not about a place to live, but about the people with whom you are most fully alive." Can I ask you a question? When you hang out with your people, are you fully Do you have that sense of joy or are they draining you? Because if you don't, can I be bold and ask you a question? Can you reconsider your friends? Goes on and says, "Home is about love, relationship, community, and belonging.

And we are all searching for a home." And if you're here today and if you're new skeptic, don't believe in this or Christian, I want to say to you, Fchure Aalia, welcome home.