Before we go to the text and look at it
I'm compelled to share something.
The fellowship here at this
conference is just wonderful.
I look forward to it every year as a participant.
The preaching, like last night, has always been edifying
stirring, for me personally.
But there's a potential danger
that I want us to avoid.
The danger is to hear preaching of these men,
to have fellowship with these brothers and sisters,
to hear the testimonies,
and then to leave here
and go home to your local assembly
and begin to compare.
It very easily, if you're not careful beloved,
can lead you to begin to despise
your local assembly.
As wonderful as it is to gather for these few days
in worship and fellowship together,
there's an aspect of this that's somewhat misleading.
It's two and a half days.
And we've left most of our normative
responsibilities at home right now.
But what I mean by this is the fellowship here,
the worship here,
the love we share here, it's genuine,
it's real, I'm not implying anything but that.
It is genuine and real.
But if we all just stayed at Camp Copass,
and this became our local church,
beloved, it would not be long
before we'd begin to find faults with one another.
It wouldn't be very long before
you'd begin to find faults with
the preaching and the preachers.
I guess what I'm trying to say is
our weekend get-togethers like this are wonderful.
I'm thankful for them, they're edifying,
but they should not be compared
to those you live life with.
Week after week, month after month,
and year after year in your local assembly.
With all the different local
churches represented here,
we should be gleaning from one another
this is a good time to learn from one another.
But we must be careful that we don't
enjoy the blessing here
and then again, measure our experience
in these two and a half days
with what we experience back home
week after week with our assemblies.
If you do that
you'll begin to love what your
local church could be,
but you'll despise what they are.
I shared with a brother
earlier this week that I read
Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book
Life Together: An Exploration of Christian Community
And he says, speaking of the
local church in that book, he says this:
"He who loves his dream of a community
more than the Christian community itself,
becomes a destroyer of the latter
even though his personal intentions may be
ever so honest, earnest, and sacrificial."
In other words, if I love
what my local church could be,
but I don't love what they are
(the very thing I desire for them
and to be with them)
I begin to destroy.
Beloved, God has sovereignly
placed you in your local church.
He's given you your pastors.
He's given you those people
and they're very imperfect.
But those weaknesses that you see
in your local church and your pastors
may be the very thing God is using to
conform you to the image of Christ
and teach you to abound in love.
One last reminder is Jesus Christ identifies with
the weakest of the genuine believers.
He doesn't despise them.
I'm not condoning immaturity or idleness
in any person or any local church.
We should pray for our assemblies to grow.
We should pray for our pastors to grow,
but here's the warning.
Once you begin to think
the problem with my local church
not being like what I experienced here
the moment you begin to think the problem
that's keeping us from getting here
are those people and that pastor
in my local church,
and you remove yourself from the problem
that keeps you from this,
you're very dangerous to your local church.
So guard your heart.
Enjoy the blessing of the week.
But don't go back and compare the
experience here to your local church,
and begin to despise them.
Let's pray for God's grace upon the Word,
and over that warning.