Our hearts desire is to cast an accurate and biblical vision of something more wonderful than we're able to describe with human words but fortunately we have the words of God to to give context and and structure to it all. The church is of enormous importance And how do you know the importance of anything? How would you properly discern the value of one thing over another? You would look at who loves it. You would look at how long does it last, you could look at how big is its impact.

And ultimately though you understand what's important by learning from Christ about what he says is important in life because even though there's so many voices crying out to us saying one thing or another is important the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ is the only voice to listen to. Ultimately we desire that all of this is summed up in a love for the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you love the Lord Jesus Christ, then you have to love his body because the church is his body. Now I want to leave you with a number of thoughts. I hope to sort of practically apply a lot of the things that we have experienced here.

I determined that this last message would not be prepared for in advance, but that I would spend time in the conference in an impressionable state, praying, asking God for wisdom for things that might be impacting me or from conversations that I've had. So I want to give you just a number of, I hope, practical points to consider. And the first thing that I want us to consider together is that this love for the church is not a nebulous love. It's a love for people in the church. It's not a love for some nondescript organism.

If you say, I love the Beatles, I hope you don't say that. But if you could say, I love the Beatles, it does not mean that you love the individuals there, but you love some image, some thing hanging out there. But when you say you love the church, you have to say that you love the people of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that means that love for the church is expressed in specific care for, relationship with, affection for, an availability, a pursuit, a reconciliation, a confrontation, a patience. It has to do with relationship.

It has to do with brother and sister together. With the love of the Lord Jesus Christ empowered by the Spirit, which delivers fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. That's how you love the Church. But there is another sense that there is kind of an institutional love that we're talking about and that is the loving of the gathered saints, the institution of the church. Now, if there's anyone here who needs to go to their brother in the church, let them go to their brother.

Let them be reconciled. It's necessary to be reconciled among brothers. If someone has something against you, you're required by God to go to them. That has to do with love for the church. And in the midst of disagreements, we often sin against one another.

And if there are any sins that need to be reconciled, let this be a place where that was acknowledged and then it was accomplished. You know, Disagreements in the past so easily turn into defilements in the future. And so God has a way of dealing with that. Confession. To stop the growth of the sin.

To extract the poison that would eventually poison. It's possible that you've been hurt by church leaders and you've come to the conclusion, I hurt therefore I do not love the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ any longer. But just because men sin does not give us any right at all to exempt ourselves from the love of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ by being a part of her. And doing what the Apostle Paul said, do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. If your enemy's hungry, Give him something to eat.

If he's thirsty, give him something to drink. That's what Christians do when they're offended. There's a way that God has dealt, has given us to deal with these problems with our brothers. The Bible assumes that you'll have these problems. The Bible delivers problems for our sanctification.

They are good. When you are offended, something glorious, something good has happened to you. You've heard that song, something good is going to happen to you. It doesn't often always come in the package that you might expect. So, number one, this is not a nebulous love, but it's a love for specific people.

And then secondly, this love has a birthplace and of course its ultimate birthplace is in conversion and the loving of the Lord Jesus Christ and because of that love there's love for his body but it is nourished in the home and I would just want to exhort make sure your family is in order Many of you have made enormous reformations in your families, but I know from my own experience in my own family how often there are gyrations in faithfulness in what the Puritans called family religion, which really meant family love for the Lord Jesus Christ and the saturation of the Word of God and family life. Strong churches begin in the nursery. The Puritans said that the family is the seminary of the church and that is absolutely true. And the church is built day to day from the littlest child, from the runny nose, from the diaper being changed. These things are cultivated in the nursery of life in a home where there are little children.

And many of you have little children. The average family size of those who sign up for the family rate is 7.5. It's a little bit higher than the national average. There are many children here. There are hundreds of children here and there is something that is so important that we do and that is that we seek to order our lives relentlessly in order to raise up a new generation who love the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The days slip away so fast, brothers and sisters, and they are gone in a blink of an eye. These things are cultivated in daily family worship. They're cultivated in conversations about the glorious nature of the way that God has configured the church. It's cultivated by Sabbath-keeping, giving the whole day to the ceasing of buying and selling, and an entire day just to worship Jesus Christ and give glory to him. God desires children to grow up in houses like that, where there's actually a day dedicated to the glorious contemplation of the Lord Jesus Christ.

All of these things are so important. So number two, get your family in order. Maybe get it back in order. We're constantly in this ebb and flow of family life where we lose touch with the things that we perhaps once did and need to recover. Just recover them.

It's happened many times in my life and my family life. The issue is though the righteous man gets back up and keeps on going and that's what I would encourage you to do if you need to do that. Number three, Marriage is so pivotal for understanding and implementing Christ's love for the church. Love for the church is not only pictured in a husband's love for his wife, but it's also forged in merit to love. Is it possible that we don't love the church rightly because we never learned how to love our wives rightly?

The two are interconnected. Number four, Are you treating your leaders properly? Have you cared for the biblical commands and principles regarding how you relate with those who have been set in authority in the local church? 1 Timothy 5 17 says, let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine. For the scripture says you shall not muzzle the ox while he treads out the grain and the labor is worthy of his wages.

Do not receive an accusation against an elder except from two or three witnesses." So there are ways that we are required to treat leaders of the Church. Hebrews 13, 17 says, obey those who rule over you and be submissive, for they watch over your souls as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you." There's an unprofitable way of relating with shepherds, and it's unprofitable for you. And you need to understand that. It's so easy in the kind of verbally licentious world that we live in to just take verbal potshots at people and make a game of criticism out of church leaders.

Be very careful when you do that. Be warned of the dangers of doing that to your own soul because it's not profitable for you. Are you treating your church leaders properly? I pray that all of you can identify those who have been set in authority over those local churches. If you're not in a local church where there is a covering of authority, you are in spiritual danger.

You are out from under a protective care that God has designed for you. Number five, Are you devoted to praying for your church, practicing hospitality, listening to the sermons, and applying them? That's another way of saying, are you shepherdable? Are you one in the church who is even able to be shepherded in the ways that God has designed for shepherding to take place? Often people are so out of the loop mentally with their church.

They don't know what their shepherds are thinking. They don't know what is burning in the souls of the leaders of their church. And because of that, they are an un-shepherded people. There are vast numbers of people who go to churches, but they are not shepherdable, because they don't submit themselves to the means of grace that God has designed for them. They don't put themselves under the authority and teaching that God has designed for them.

It may express itself in different ways. They might not come regularly to the preaching services. And so as shepherds work diligently to speak of the things that ought to be spoken, the sheep are not there. Because they're there when it's convenient, when things schedule works out right, they show up when they want to or when it seems to work for them. The result is though, is that they they're not being shepherded.

As godly men are praying, crying out to God, banging their heads against the wall to deliver messages, people are off doing other things and they don't hear the messages. And I would just exhort you to be a kind of church member that hears the messages. Hear all the messages. Be there attentively, crying out to God for wisdom, listening actively, expositorily, assiduously evaluating the things that are coming to you. Following the examples of godly leaders And then there's the whole condition of opposing leaders.

You might ask yourself this, is there any way that I am opposing the leaders that God has established in the church that I have been appointed to. There are different ways that you can oppose them. It might not be frontally, it might be passively, but there are ways the church members undermine the health of the church because of their passive rebellion and they are not shepherdable as a result. Number seven. There are various reasons that people do not love the church.

The most significant one is that they're not converted. They don't love the bride of Christ because they don't love the bride. Now I want to ask a question that really has been asked maybe 25 times here in this room. Do you love the bride of Christ? Do you love Christ?

Because there is an organic relationship between the two. And if you have no love for the people of God, it's most likely that you're not converted. And that you need to repent of your sins and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ and trust in His shed blood on the cross. So if there is lack of love, this should shake you to the core of your being. It should terrify you and if you do not see the fires of eternal damnation in it, you are missing the point.

How can anyone say that they love Christ when they do not love the bride whom Christ loves and shed his blood for. So there are many reasons. This most prominent reason stands at the top. But then there are there are other things that have to do with affections that we cultivate in our lives. Misplaced priorities, love of activities, love of Love of weekends and games and evenings and entertainments and business and all kinds of things.

Some of you in this room Probably have children who know more about sports personalities than they do about the members of your church. That should take your breath away. Many of your children can sing songs and recite lines from movies because they have squandered, you have allowed them to squander their minds and their affections on things that do not matter and they're not dialed into the hurts and the struggles and the prayer requests and the great issues that stand before your local church. Because the truth is you really do care more about other things And that should terrify you. There are geographical challenges that people have with actually loving their churches by their presence.

And maybe they live too far away from their church. And here's my advice. If you live too far away from a biblical Church so that you're disconnected from the fellowship in the life of that church. Move. M-O-V-E.

Just move. Are you going to just perpetuate lack of fellowship, lack of hospitality, lack of knowing the body of Christ and having affection. Now, I have known people who have burned a lot of fuel and burned a lot of rubber and have been an intimate part of a local church even though they lived an hour away. This is so unusual. It might happen one in ten thousand people out there.

So there are geographical challenges that need to be considered. When people say that they are going to come and move near us to be part of our church, I always say the same thing. Don't move more than 15 or 20 minutes away from us because you will not be part of us. It's just almost impossible to do that. You'll just be out of...

You'll be in a different community. You need to be in a church in your community. Now you may not agree with everything that I've said about that and there are certainly nuances to it, But let me say God has designed His local church for community and relationship and hospitality and people knowing one another and caring for one another and bearing one another's burdens. And that means that you are with them. It's not an internet relationship.

Often people are disconnected with churches because they want to create the church in their own image. They want to create a church that fits them, A designer church, which is all the rage today. Some people are disconnected from the church because of individualism. They regard the church as some kind of voluntary society. You know, you don't have to go to church to be a Christian.

That is actually completely incorrect. It could be that you're one of those independent homeschoolers that cannot get along with anyone, and you can't get along with other churches. Don't take what I said to be any hit on homeschooling. But there is an ungodly independence that can deprive you of the means of grace that God has supplied to you through his church. People often treat the church like a food court.

I like this, I like that, I don't like that. I'll pick whatever I want. And so they might say, well I don't really appreciate the prayer meetings, but I like this kind of meeting or that. And they don't gather together as a unified body. And the body is never unified because people are just picking this piece of food or that piece of food.

There could be deficiencies in the church which cause people to spurn her. There might be moral, normal deficiencies that are that are resident in every church. Every church has room to reform. Our church certainly does. We have not arrived, I guarantee you that.

There is more ahead of us in terms of reform. There are many areas that are needed to reform in our church And these are the natural deficiencies that just continue to require attention and progress. But there may be actual blatant heresy. And you need to know if you are in a synagogue of Satan or a real church. Some of you may be in synagogues of Satan and you need to get out of there.

But that too requires deliberation and care and careful management and consideration. I don't want to comfort people to stay in genuinely toxic churches. On the other hand, there's more to the story than that. You may simply have a spirit of discontentment and condemnation and you're holding out a vision of the church that doesn't exist really and it cannot exist on earth until Christ gathers his church together and then finally perfects it. You know there's no stock answer for when you should leave your church.

And when people come to me with that question, I always have 50 other questions before that question can be adequately answered. But here's a reality about our human nature in this whole matter. There is so much self-righteousness in us. And it misleads us so often. And because of our self-righteousness, our condemnation is greater than it ought to be.

And this is something that we always have to deal with. And you may be of a personality that has been so forged to just move from one relationship, one church, to another as you become dissatisfied because of your self-righteousness. And the reason for your nomadism is self-righteousness. And if the Holy Spirit would would reveal any of this to you what a blessing it would be to your children in the coming generations and you could actually inspire a rising generation to love the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ. That, brothers and sisters, it is such a significant contribution to make in the rising generation.

That if you love the members of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ in your soul that it will be caught by your children. And they will do the same. And their children will do the same. And their children will do the same. And that's one way that you keep love alive in the world.

Before we leave this point, I want us to understand that this is an incredibly serious issue. Do you realize that David said in Psalm 137 verse 5, he said, if I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill. Let my right hand be worthless." That's how important David saw the affections for the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then number eight, learn from the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul mirrors the sacrifice of Christ.

He said, I will very gladly spend and be spent for your sakes. Are you like the apostle Paul who said, but in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God. And God has appointed everyone in His church to be ministers. Ministers of God. How?

And He defines it. And I want to read this to you and I want you to think, is this me? In much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in fastings, by purity, knowledge, by long suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by sincere love, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report. As deceivers and yet true, as unknown and yet well-known, as dying and behold we live, as chastened and yet not killed, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things." Paul ends this enumeration of sacrifice for the Church of Jesus Christ by saying this, O Corinthians, we have spoken openly to you. Our heart is wide open.

You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections." And here Paul is placing in careful juxtaposition, a life of sacrifice, and a life of misplaced affections. And that is often the robber of love for the church. So learn from the Apostle Paul, who learned from the Lord Jesus Christ who learned from his Father in heaven. I would just like to remind us of an ever-present reality as we finally bring this conference to a close. Where is the Lord Jesus Christ today?

Where is he walking? In Revelation chapter 1, the Lord Jesus depicts himself as walking among the lampstands. These are local assemblies. He is holding the pastors of these local assemblies in his right hand and he's walking in the midst of the lampstands of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, which represent local assemblies. And he shows himself at the beginning of this great prophecy as walking in and through the lampstands of the church.

And so what that means is that when it comes to the true Church of the Lord Jesus Christ which is gathered, that there's no person that he does not see in our local churches. There is no preaching that he does not hear. There is no prayer that he does not hear. There is no song that he does not observe. There's no fellowship in which he is not present.

There's no communion table in which he is not present. There is no conversation that he does not record and judge. And he walks among the local churches, among his people. And what And what is he doing? He is doing many things.

He's judging his church. He's carrying His church as a father carries His son. He is pouring out His Spirit on His church. And He is doing so many things for His church. Interceding for them, never leaving them or forsaking them, and keeping them as the apple of His eye.

Christ is in his church. Christ loves his church. And so should you. Would you pray with me? Oh Lord, we pray for the mind of Christ in all things.

And that you would bless this people with such happiness in your body. That you would give them such energy and long-suffering, that you would use the adults in this room to train up a child in the way in which he should go in love for the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh God, I pray that you would give us a mighty generation of children in this room whom you're piercing their hearts today and you're helping them to know that your church is worthy of their whole investment of their lives. Oh God, may it be done in this place. And that you would raise up mighty churches who care nothing but for the glory of God in this generation.

And for more information about the National Center for Family Integrated Churches, where you can search our online network to find family integrated churches in your area, log on to our website ncfic.org.