Feb. 23, 2025

Welcome back to our winter conversation called ‘Real Faith Disrupts.’  We are walking you through 12 essential questions about our faith. So far, we have discussed The Bible, Grace, Worship, and Success, focusing on what these things mean to you and how they impact your life.  Why is that important?  Well, it’s because real faith leads to life change; it disrupts what was so that we can experience what could be, which is what I like to refer to as our best lives possible, which is life in Christ as God designed it to be lived.  Here’s the foundational Scripture this series is built around.

James 1:17 So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless… 19 You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror. 20 How foolish! Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is useless? NLT  

Real faith is bigger than just believing in God; even demons believe in God; real faith leads to new life, no new life, no real faith, and we want our faith to be real, don’t we?  This is the heart of this series: to do what we pray for every week here at MRC: to be real, to experience real faith, to experience new life, this abundant life that Christianity adversities that so many of us struggle to find.  Have you noticed all the questions are about how we view things?  Has our faith changed how we view Scripture, Grace, Worship, and Success?  This is important because how we view things is so powerful in our lives.  How we view things interprets life to us and sets in our reality and what we see as truth or what is real to us.  The challenge can be that the lens through which we view things may not give us an accurate view, but to us, it is. This is why people say perception is reality.  Even if it isn’t reality, it is to the perceiver.  I think about this often, and I believe the number one reason we struggle to experience true life change is our inability to view life through the true, healthy lens God wants us to see through.  Once someone accepts their view of life as reality, good luck getting them to see life or anything in any other way.  One of the most important things we can do is allow God to disrupt and heal how we view things because how we view things sets our reality and will be how we treat things, and how we treat things impacts how we experience life.  So, as we move toward our question of the day, I am just going to say it: we will be fighting an uphill battle today because everyone has a way of viewing what we are talking about today, and there may not be a more challenging view to change or disrupt than this one.   We can say that with confidence here at MRC, where for over two decades, we have been doing our best to help people see this thing the way God wants us to see it, rather than what this world and we people have made it.  Today, we are talking about church; here’s our question of the day.

Has your faith disrupted how you view the church?

Now, here is what may have just happened.  You see the word church, and I can immediately lose you because you already know what church should look like and can even think, here we go. After all, you may even have an idea in your mind what motives are behind churches talking about church!  I am fascinated by something about the church. Whether you have spent your whole life inside the church or have never stepped foot in one, we all have a preset idea, a view, and an expectation of what it is.  Once we accept our view of the church, right or wrong, accurate to Scripture or not, inside or outside of what God intended it to be, that is our reality and how the church makes sense to us—good luck changing it.  So, this could be an uphill battle, I get that…but it’s too important not to address, so think about this as we get started today.  How do you view the church?  

You know, there is a major contrast between the world's view of church and God’s.  As I write this, I keep thinking about when Jesus cleared the temple and the disciples remembered something important.  This is a wild moment because we see a side of Jesus that we don’t often see.  It’s also a great moment to look at because it exposes a real tension between the world and the church and allows us to dive into how we view the church, which will determine how we treat and experience it.  So, let’s go to one of the more ferocious moments of Jesus’ time on this Earth, where He drives people out of The Temple.

John 2:13 It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration, so Jesus went to Jerusalem. 14 In the Temple area he saw merchants selling cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifices; he also saw dealers at tables exchanging foreign money. 15 Jesus made a whip from some ropes and chased them all out of the Temple. He drove out the sheep and cattle, scattered the money changers’ coins over the floor, and turned over their tables. 16 Then, going over to the people who sold doves, he told them, “Get these things out of here. Stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace!” NLT

So, this is a “wow” moment for sure!  Jesus makes a whip and drives people out of the temple.  He flips tables and scatters things everywhere!  I mean, you talk about a disruption…wow!  Let's set the scene here.  The temple is really busy, money is changing hands, people are everywhere, and I’m sure many people are having a great time inside the temple; then Jesus comes in with a whip and drives them out!  This is so intense, and you know He meant business because everyone leaves!  Can you imagine what is going through the disciples' minds as they watch this unfold?  It seems that Jesus has a very different view of what the church should have been doing compared to what these people were doing in it…that was made clear here as he flips tables and drives them all away!  But it’s this next line that I want you to see…

John 2:17 Then his disciples remembered this prophecy from the Scriptures: “Passion for God’s house will consume me.” NLT

So, we see Christ’s passion for His Father’s House here, but it also reveals how differently so many view and treat God’s House compared to how we should view and treat it.  When I read about this moment and what Jesus did, there is something I can’t stop thinking about.  The temple was full of people.  I am sure it looked good and successful. I mean, the aim of the temple isn’t to be empty!  Now, think about this. How many people were in that temple doing everything opposite of what God would want to see done in His House?  Judging by Jesus’ reaction, we can say a lot…even many who worked for The Church.  So, how many came to the defense of God’s House?  Just Jesus.  David made this prophecy the disciples are remembering in Psalm 69.

Psalm 69:7 For I endure insults for your sake; humiliation is written all over my face. 8 Even my own brothers pretend they don’t know me; they treat me like a stranger. 9 Passion for your house has consumed me, and the insults of those who insult you have fallen on me. 10 When I weep and fast, they scoff at me. 11 When I dress in burlap to show sorrow, they make fun of me. 12 I am the favorite topic of town gossip, and all the drunks sing about me. NLT

So, how do the people respond as David grows in passion for God and God’s House? Not so well.  As David becomes more passionate about God’s House, are droves of people coming to Him?  How do they respond?  Not so well.  David’s real faith has disrupted how He views God’s House; his passion for it has consumed him, making people around him uncomfortable because they don’t view it the same.  He is now enduring insults, even rejection and embarrassment from his brothers.

Now, let’s go back to Jesus.  Can I ask you this?  What do you think the next service looked like after Jesus drove all “the fun and activity” out of God’s House?  Do you think there were more or less people in that church the next time it met?  There is real tension in this, isn’t there?  So, let me ask you this question again.  Has your faith disrupted how you view the church?

As Christians, we are to grow more and more like Christ each day.  As we do, the things that matter to Him will matter to us.  What He cares about and desires will become what we care about and desire.  This is why I read that passage on repentance to you from Charles Spurgeon a couple of weeks ago.  We are living in the complete opposite direction of the lives we once lived.  We don’t do it perfectly all the time, but we hate what we once loved and love what we once hated.  While this may sound easy on paper, it’s not, and I will tell you why.  It’s because what God cares about and desires is just opposite from what this world values, cares for, and desires.  That is the tension every Christian and every Church faces.  It pulls on church leaders.  It pulls on denominations, and it pulls on Christians to bend to culture and this world.  After all, how can you keep the lights on if you aren’t attracting people, and how can you attract people with something as polarizing as The Truth?  It’s the major conversation in and around The Church today: how do we reach people of this world?  Do we need to water down the truth?  Should we soften the message?  Should we bend to look more like the world?  Can we be relevant while pointing to a message opposite to what our humanness desires?  This is so important to wrestle with, and while I can’t say I have all the answers, I will say this.  I wish that Jesus Christ and the Gospel were the main attractions and the focal point for people today. Unfortunately, more often than not, when we point to Jesus and The Gospel message as the main thing, it’s often met with a lot of this, “Yeah, but what else do you have for me?”  Whew, it’s tough. We want to reach and help people, but those people already have a set view of what things should look like, and so often, that view seems more exciting and attractive to this world, which is such a setup.  We must allow God to lead and shape how we view the church because how we view it is how we will treat it, and how we treat it affects our experience in it, which doesn’t just affect us but all those the church is trying to reach for Christ.    

So, as we think through our view of the church, it’s important to look at how Scripture says we SHOULD view it.  The Bible describes the church in many different ways, like The Body of Christ, the Bride of Christ, A Lampstand, A Flock, and The House of God…all are excellent descriptors of The Church. All matter greatly to us, but there is one way to view The Church that would allow us to treat it very differently.  You hear us call The Church this around MRC, very intentionally.  If we view and treat The Church this way, it would change everything.  We should view the church as Our Family.

1 Timothy 3:14 I hope to visit you soon. However, I’m writing this to you 15 in case I’m delayed. I want you to know how people who are members of God’s family must live. God’s family is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. GWT

I have a lot of thoughts and things that come to my mind when it comes to church and church life, and I wonder what comes to yours.  All our experiences, some good and some not so good, can shape how we view church.  In some instances, it may help us draw into the church community, but often, the hurts and negative experiences shape us and push us away from God.  I wonder if you see Church as a positive or a negative thing.  You know, that has always messed with me?  Why is church life often so painful and messy?  Why can a group of people saved by Jesus coming together hurt each other so badly?  With Christ at the center, why is finding healthy, unified, loving churches so rare?  Why would a group of people rallying around the greatest gift we could have in salvation through Jesus Christ, with the greatest mission to work on together, struggle to get along with each other, and struggle to stay on the very mission Scripture calls the church to be on?  Why do we have such a disinterest in the things that Christ is interested in, even as we say we are growing to be more like Him?  I will tell you one of the main reasons this happens.  Yes, there is spiritual warfare, and yes, imperfect people coming together will always be challenging. Yes, some people don’t know what God’s Word truly calls the church to be, but the number one reason church life can be so messy and painful is that we don’t view the church as God tells us we should.  We see it as a resource to take from or a place that should make life happen for us, or maybe some weird religious obligation, but we don’t see it and treat it as family.  What would change if we did view the church as family?  Why would I say this is the number one reason that the church struggles?  Let’s look at three ways this could change how we treat church.

First, in a healthy family, there SHOULD be love, generosity, and support.  Here’s what I know about family: it should be a life of loving, giving, and supporting each other with no strings attached!  As parents, we love and support and give whatever we can to help our children grow up and succeed.  As parents get older, kids take care of, love, and support their parents and give whatever they can to them.  A healthy family centers around love, serving one another, wanting each other to succeed, being generous, and doing whatever we can to help each other!  Now let me ask you, do we treat the church this way?  If we don’t view the church as a family, we treat it very differently.  We compete and focus on what it can do for us, keeping it a resource to take from, and if we don’t get what we want, we will move on to another church or make sure people feel our disappointment. 

When someone in the family has hopes, dreams, and goals, what does a family do?  They do their best to help that family member succeed!  They rally around them and work together to make sure those dreams and goals are achieved.  Well, the church has hopes and dreams, too.  The church has a mission, and it’s a very clear one, but we aren’t always open or willing to help the church get there!  We can view the mission of Christ or the call to serve as annoying, or we decide it’s a marketing ploy or some weird form of manipulation to get us to do things we are not interested in doing…but what if we viewed it as family?  I wonder how we would treat people inside the church if we viewed them as family…would we hold the same expectations over a church leader or member if we viewed them as family members that we want to see be healthy and succeed?  Selfishness, greed, and control have no room in a loving, generous family, and when it is there, it causes a lot of damage.  Check out what Solomon says here…

Proverbs 15:27 Greed brings grief to the whole family, but those who hate bribes will live. NLT

One of the more confusing things for me around church life is how hard it can be for people to do tasks or things around the church.  I mean, simple tasks we easily do around home or out in the community that we may find fun in other settings become extremely hard inside a church setting.  Church planting gives you a lot of examples of this, but it’s something that used to mess with me.  Why does a simple task in everyday life feel difficult and exhausting to do inside the church?  Well, Solomon is nailing it…it’s selfishness that makes things hard…now it doesn’t feel like greed or selfishness, but here’s the thing.  It's hard because we would rather be doing something else.  We always have the time and energy for things we want to do. Have you ever noticed that?  It's not hard when we want to do something; when we don’t…whew…it sure can be.  It’s funny, but I could never answer that question about church life and activities until I watched something similar unfold for people around youth sports. Then it all made sense to me!  My kids are older now, but I spent a lot of time around youth sports fields, watching my kids play.  That was always fun for me, but I watched something happen that helped me understand why things at church can be so hard for us to do.  So, one of the things you hear parents struggling with is taking their kids to their youth sporting events.  They complain they fight it and are exhausted from it…but let’s think it through.  Is the task all that difficult?  I mean, they are sitting in a park somewhere in a lawn chair, drinking iced tea or coffee, and giving a thumbs up as their beautiful child runs by!  So why does something so easy feel so difficult and exhausting?  It’s because Mom and Dad would rather be doing something else!  They want to do what they want rather than what their child wants, making it so hard and exhausting for them.  Then, it dawned on me, that is the issue with church life.  Selfishness and Greed make this so hard and cause church communities to struggle, which is why simple tasks at church feel so hard and exhausting. It’s because we have our plans and agendas, and church or faith gets in the way of our wants and desires!  This is why something as simple as attending church consistently or serving becomes so hard…or why the goals of others, including the church, can feel like a burden to us; we aren’t seeing it as a family to support and build into; we want what we want.

Proverbs 15:27 A greedy and grasping person destroys community; those who refuse to exploit live and let live. MSG

If you come to church and view it as family, you treat it differently, don’t you? You don’t come into it looking to take from it or control it. The tasks and goals of the family are important to you because you want to see it succeed. You love, give to it, and bring your strength to it. You want to see it grow and reach its goals because family matters.

Second, in a healthy family, there SHOULD be patience and a willingness to stick with it through tough times, even if it doesn’t always go the way you want.

This is so important; I want you to think about your family.  Those people are who they are, and you only get one family, am I right?  That means when your dad or mom upsets you or your siblings disappoint you, you can be hurt or upset, but they are still your family.  In a family, we stick with things even when it’s messy…but in the North American church, we don’t do that.  We go to one church for a while, and instead of viewing it as family and stepping in with love, generosity, patience, and strength, we expect things from it, and if we don’t get those things from it, or if things get tough on us, we just move on to another church.  Wouldn’t it be different if we saw the church as God’s word tells us to see it, as family?

Proverbs 17:17 Friends love through all kinds of weather, and families stick together in all kinds of trouble. MSG

When it comes to family, we stick together and work through things, don’t we?  Well, this is also important in church life because it will never be perfect. Because we don’t view it as a family, we end up going to a church for a while where it will inevitably disappoint us, or someone will let us down, and we move on to the next church…think about how wild that would be if we treated family that way.  Family sticks together because they are family…and this is how the church should also be viewed.  Even in difficult and divisive times, we stick together.  God’s word told us so, and I believe the church would look very different if we viewed it this way.

Lastly, and this is the key, there SHOULD be continual Growth to Maturity in a healthy family.  This is so essential, and I want you to think about this concept of Spiritual Growth and or Spiritual Maturity because so often, inside The Spiritual Family, we misunderstand what this is. We tend to measure it in ways that we should not.  Spiritual Maturity is not measured in how long you have attended a church, who you know, what you do at church, or how much knowledge you have obtained about God and Spirituality.  This concept of continual growth and maturity inside a family is very important.  I mean, can you imagine a family that had no grown-ups in it?  I mean, picture a family of all teenagers!  I assume they would have some fun for a while, but oh, my word!  What would get done?  Who would turn off the lights?  Who would make sure the doors are locked?  Who would clean up the home?  Who would be getting the groceries?  Who would maintain the cars and mow the grass?  Who would pay the bills? A healthy family must have some adults in it, or it won’t go well. It’s the same thing in The Spiritual Family.  We are constantly and continually challenged to grow.

Ephesians 4:15 God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love — like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. 16 He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love. MSG

As we grow into spiritual adulthood, like growing up as human beings, we gain knowledge of the truth and tell it in love.  We are to grow up healthy and robust in love.  Think about the difference between a child and an adult.  A child is self-focused.  A child expects to be served, not to serve.  A child will do whatever they feel like doing, and a child is often swayed by the latest fads and popularity contests of the times.  While an adult knows there is a time for fun, there are more important things than just indulging our feelings and emotions.  Adults understand they aren’t the only people on the planet, and an adult is less likely to be influenced by popularity contests and the latest fads.  We are challenged in Scripture to continually grow into spiritual adulthood and become more like Christ each day, and just as this is needed in any family home, it is a necessity inside the spiritual family.  Why do I say that?  Well, do you remember that tension we were talking through earlier?  What the world wants and what Christ points us toward are very different.  Without spiritual maturity, that tension pulls the church away from God’s truth and mission and toward what people of this world would find more pleasing.

Ephesians 4:13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.  14 Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. 15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.  NLT

Every family will have people in different life stages of development, but there is a deep need for adults.  It is the same inside The Spiritual Family, especially in the world you and I live in today, that pulls hard against what matters to God.  A world that is placing greater and greater tension on the Church and forcing it to bend to the world’s ways.  A world that throws so much at us that if we aren’t growing to be more and more like Christ, it can cause us to be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching…and if you think about it, you can click a button and get all kinds of new teachings today.  Did you pick up on that in verse 14?  It takes an adult not to conform or be influenced by the world trying to trick us with things that sound like truth.  Staying true to what matters takes a lot of maturity.  A spiritually mature Christian loves well. The problem is that few of us have learned or worked on how to do that. This is one of the greatest gifts we can give our world. It starts individually and affects the entire Spiritual Family.  This takes the power of God and a commitment to learn, grow, and break free from the things in our lives that keep us stuck!  This takes work and God’s help…but it is so needed inside the spiritual family.  You see, an adult doesn’t bow to this world, feelings, or personal desires; he or she does what is best for their family.  This is why growing into Spiritual Adulthood is so important inside The Spiritual Family; otherwise, culture and this world will influence the church, rather than the church influencing culture and this world.

Listen, we love you so much, and we understand that talking about how we view life, particularly church, is challenging because we all have a way of seeing things. We pray that you allow your faith to disrupt how you live, see things, and, most importantly, live your life. That is when things get real, and that is when things get fun.

So, please think through our question of the day.  Has your faith disrupted your view of the church?  This is important because whether you have gone to church your whole life or never stepped foot in one before today, we come to church with a preset view and expectation of what it should be. It’s hard to break out of that and into what could be, but take it from a couple of preachers kids who have spent their lives trying to free people from the tangled webs of religion to experience real faith.  Allow God to disrupt your view of the church so you can step into the beauty, love, support, relationships, strength, and protection of a true spiritual family.  That won’t happen until we allow God to disrupt how we view the church because how we view it is how we will treat it, and how we treat it is how we will experience it.