In this sermon, Josh Buice emphasizes the importance of the local church in the spiritual life of believers. He shares several stories of individuals who have isolated themselves from the context of a local church and the negative effects it has on their spiritual lives. Buice argues that the local church plays a crucial role in the spiritual growth and encouragement of believers and that isolation can lead to struggles with sin and questioning one's faith. He urges believers to be active participants in their local churches and highlights the importance of Christian koinonia, or fellowship, within the church body.

My name is Josh Byce. I serve as pastor of Praisemeal Baptist Church on the west side of Atlanta, Georgia. It is a true privilege to be with you for this occasion, for this conference. What's burning in my soul today is something that is a continuous flame, you might say, and a passion that I consistently come back to time and time again. And we find it in the New Testament in Matthew chapter 16 verse 18 when Jesus makes a definitive statement and he says to Peter, he says, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

It was a number of years ago we were busy as a church preparing for the G3 conference and a young man walked in the door and he sat at a table nearby and he came to speak to me after we closed and he said, listen, when the conference is finished, he said, I would love to speak with you, maybe over coffee at some point. He says, I live locally here in the Atlanta area and I would love to just sit down and have coffee. So after the dust settled from the conference, he contacted the church, we got together for coffee at a coffee shop, and he started to just bear his soul over that table that day. I sat and I listened patiently as he described his life journey as a young man who had been sent out from his local church in the Atlanta area. He had been serving on the mission field for two years.

He had become, he stated in his own language, reformed while he was on the mission field. And when he came home, he said, I did not feel that I could go back to my home church because we did not share the same doctrinal positions. As he continued to talk he said, but I find myself discouraged. He said I'm sitting at a coffee shop on the Lord's Day. I'm watching YouTube sermons.

He said, some of the best preachers that we might agree upon as far as Reformed theology. And he said, I sit alone at a table. I drink my coffee. I watch these sermons. And he said, I find myself consistently battling with sin.

And he said, now as if I'm honest with you, he said, I struggle with whether or not I'm a Christian at all. I'm struggling with whether or not I should be serving in any sort of mission endeavor in the future." And he said, what do you think? I looked at this man across the table, this young man, and I said, well, I believe what you've stated is very normal under these conditions. And one of two things is at play here. Either you are not a Christian and you need to repent and you need to trust Jesus Christ as your Lord, Or you are so isolated from the context of the local church that it's no wonder that you're struggling with sin.

It's no wonder that you're wondering whether or not you are a true believer or not. And so as we continue to talk, I encouraged him to examine himself, to see if he was in the faith, and then to give himself wholly and fully to the context of a local church. And so one of the most tragic things that I have seen over these last, say, ten years of my own personal ministry, and as I look at the evangelical culture, is this de-churching of the evangelical church. We see it with this idea of the coffee shop church and and here recently with COVID-19 with this quote-unquote digital church which there's no such thing as the digital church. Several years ago I was invited to speak at a conference for open-air evangelists, for open-air preachers, And I went and I stood before these men and I encouraged them in the Word.

And I've had that privilege now numerous times in various settings with this specific community of open-air evangelists. And each time that I go, I start off by saying this. I want to ask a few questions. First of all, how many of you men are actually engaged in the life of your local church, training others in the work of evangelism? Raise your hand.

A few might raise their hand. Okay, next question. How many of you are currently using your teaching gift within the life of your local church, teaching small groups on some level? Raise your hand. And a few raise their hand.

I say, how many of you are actually elders within your local church? Hardly any raised their hand. Then I ask this question, how many of you are sent out from your local church to go to these sporting events—Wimbledon, the Super Bowl, other places—sent out from your church to go out and to preach the gospel there. Raise your hand. And only a few raised their hand.

And I came to learn after a few of these conferences that an awful lot of these men who are in these open-air preaching circles, although bold in the faith and stand on the street corner and proclaim the gospel, many of them are isolated from the context of a local church. From a local church. I find that tragic. I remember several years ago we were talking with a specific couple by email. They were looking for a place to stay for the G3 conference and they wanted to know if we would host them in our home because they couldn't afford lodging so we agreed and they came in we met them they were just a sweet family it was a husband and wife and and the wife's sister and after the conference was over we sat in my living room over coffee and we talked about their life journey and we talked about all sorts of things and when I asked this brother I said tell me what church you're a member of He kind of looked down at the floor and shook his head and he said, Well, that's the thing.

He said, I can't find a local church. And so what do you mean? He said, Well, and then he went on to describe this specific doctrinal conviction that he holds to, which is a secondary issue that he and his wife have elevated to a primary issue and he said, so I'm going to these conferences and he said I'm seeking to be fed the the Word of God through these different conferences he said but I can't really find a local church for us to join that believes exactly what we believe. So I encouraged him over coffee that evening until the late hours of the night to find a church to submit himself into the very context of that church for the glory of God and for the good of his soul. And so we would part ways and about four years later I went to another conference and I walked in and just within a few minutes he made his way through and he grabbed me and he hugged me and we greeted one another and and after a small talk I said, well brother you know the question that I'm going to ask you.

And he looked at the floor and I said, what church are you a member of? And he said, well that's the thing. He said, we're still searching. We're still searching. You see, when Jesus said, I will build my church, he's speaking there in the universal, ekklesia, in the universal, the church from all geographic locations on planet Earth.

But the primary usage of that term in the New Testament is in the local. The local church matters. And it is God's will for our lives to give ourselves to the context of a local, tangible, visible New Testament church. As we consider the words of Hebrews chapter 10, Hebrews chapter 10 verses 23 to 25, 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 how to stimulate one another to love and good works not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another all the more as you see the day drawing near. You see, what's burning in my soul today is this idea that we need the local church, and not just that we need it, but that it's good for us.

It is good for our soul, the local churches. Isolation, it creates distance from the church body. It kills community. It opens up individuals and families to the attack and to the attacks of the wicked one. When we consider the reality that the world, the flesh, and the devil, the constant temptations are ever before us, we need the local church.

We need the local church. We were called to stimulate one another, to encourage one another. When we look at the sermon that Peter preached at Pentecost, and after the 3, 000 souls believed, they were baptized. And as we look at that text we see the very next verse in verse 42 of Acts chapter 2 we find the church gathering together they were a together body They were together for the ordinary means of grace. And they were together for the purpose of Christian koinonia, fellowship, which, by the way, transcends hello in the hallway and a slap on the back on Sunday morning.

It communicates the idea of depth, sharing that association through the bond of King Jesus. And so it is that we must put emphasis on these very matters within the life of the local church. By the way, how do fishermen and businessmen and Jews and Greeks and bond and free and male and female and rich and poor, young and old, how do all of these individuals come together and how do they find this great, wonderful bond in koinonia? It's because of something that transcends the social issues of life. It is based upon the bond of Jesus Christ.

We come and we worship together, serve together, evangelize together, engage in missions together, encourage one another. We stir up one another. So this is God's will for our lives. Mount Everest is some 29, 000 feet above sea level. It's the highest point on planet Earth, some 8, 848 meters high.

If you're going to climb Mount Everest, I'm told it will cost you about $25, 000. You say, well, what's the cost? Well, because of all of the equipment, the training, and most importantly, the team. You see, no one goes to the top of the world without a team. It's mandated, in fact.

And many people have actually climbed to the top of Mount Everest. It's documented that some 8, 000 people have actually made it to the top of the world to stand on the very summit. But if you were to travel there today and you were to go through the proper training and get all of the equipment necessary and make your journey to the top of the world somewhere along the journey. After you leave the last base camp before you make it to the very pinnacle of the mountainside, you will find all sorts of equipment there. Off in the distance, in the deep crevices of the ice, you will see picks, you will see helmets, you will see glasses, and buried beneath the snow and the ice, you will find the bodies of those who lie there who never made it home.

And you see, God's will for us in the journey of faith is that we would not journey alone, that we would not sit at a coffee shop, or that we would isolate ourselves from the context of a local church. And so we must never underestimate the value, the blessing of a local church as we gather together under the banner of the gospel. Jesus Christ presented the ordinary means of grace and us growing in grace and maturity. You see, with such evil ideologies and the winds of doctrine that are continuously blowing in our culture, the safest place for you to be is not isolated but right at the center of the context of a local church where you have pastors who are committed to shepherding your soul, warning you, helping you along the journey of faith. So brothers and sisters in the Lord, let us remember these words that we often sing.

O to grace how great a debtor, daily I'm constrained to be, let thy goodness like a fetter bind my wondering heart to thee. Prone to wonder, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart. O take and seal it.

Seal it for thy courts above." Martin Luther once speaking to a group of ministers in his day said this, he said, Brothers, now is not the hour for sleeping and snoring. I would encourage us to remember that it's not the hour for us to be negligent. You see, we must understand that when Jesus made this statement when he said, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it, He did not say, I will build my parachurch ministry. I will build my G3 conference ministry. I will build my Samaritan's Purse ministry.

I will build some other whatever it might be fill-in-the-blank ministry. You see there's some 100, 000 parachurch ministries in the US alone, and right now every last one of them could drop dead and go bankrupt and Jesus would still be seated upon his throne. He has called us to serve through the context of a local church for his glory. This is what's burning in my soul. You need the church.

It is God's blessing for your soul, for your family. Don't neglect it. Don't be a conference junkie, going from one conference to the next to the next and isolating yourself from a local body. You need the church. Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in Christ Jesus.

May God bless you.