One Church

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. It's good to have you here. We are in this series, week seven of it, so if you're back from up north for the first Sunday, it's good to have you here. Maybe you're watching us online and saw a lot of it. It's a series because 1,700 years ago, I wasn't even born then, okay? But 1,700 years ago, in 325, the church gathered together and put together what's called the Nicene Creed, we believe. It became, for 1,700 years now, kind of a summary of the Christian faith. It's we believe, not we know. It's not I think, therefore I am. It's not I feel, but I trust. I believe, we believe, we confess, this is who our God is and what he's about. So we've gone through a number of weeks. Today, we're on a section that some people struggle with a little more, I think. It's this section of the creed, we believe in one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. Now, right away, that word Catholic does bother a lot of people. In the original Latin understanding, it just means universal. There is one church on earth. One. Many different expressions, but one. One Christian church on earth. And you might also just struggle with the church. Why? Well, it's filled with human beings who happen to be flawed and broken, and I understand it. And yet, it is also a divine organization, something that Jesus Christ set up, and something, this organization established by him in which God's Spirit dwells. So it's not just that we believe in God somewhere up there, but we believe in the God who works through each one of us. And I get to see it all the time with just amazing personal service so many of you have done and are doing. And that's just what I know, let alone what God is doing through you, well beyond anything that I get to see. And we're going to be going through these three points in the message today. The glory, the grittiness, and the grace of the church. Okay? Our passage is Ephesians chapter 2, so if you've got your Bibles, you can open it to that, or it's right here on the screen. It's verses 18 to 22. We're only going to touch the surface of this. There's so much, in Paul's letters like Ephesians, man, it's like every little phrase you could go into great depth on. But, and like I said, up until now, we've been just talking about the reality of who God is, Father, Son, and Spirit. That's easier to confess and believe and trust in. A lot of people struggle at trusting with the church, the organized religion, as they say. Organized. Well, that's kind of an oxymoron, by the way. No church is really organized. But it's probably the messiness, and I know people have struggled with the cliques, the politics, the divisions, the abuse of power. They've gotten burned by the church. I heard this story of a middle-aged man who woke up on Sunday morning, and he turned to his wife and said, I don't want to go to church today. I'm just so tired of it. It's filled with difficult people, and the worship is boring, and the sermon is just long and tiring, and I don't get much out of it. And his wife turned to him and said, well, that's, honey, I understand, but it is still God's church, and you need the fellowship, and by the way, you're the pastor. I hardly ever tell jokes, right? But that one was such a good one. Hey, I've gotten burned by the church, too, okay? We've had, Lisa and I, we've been married 30, almost 30 years this next summer, and we got married out in California in a church, yeah, and I had been pastor prior to that already. I don't know if she knew what she was getting into in terms of church, but man, our families, you know, and you're a pastor's kid, David. Any other PKs here? I think Mark is a PK. Pastor's grandkid counts. Grandchild of a pastor. Anybody else a PK? Okay, yeah, yeah. It's a lot, right? And we've all probably, and you could, yeah, we've all gotten burned by the church. It is filled sometimes with difficult people. By the way, I have also gotten burned by restaurants. Do you know what I mean? Like, you go in, and it's the rudest waiter that you've ever had. The service terrible. The food is overpriced. Comes in cold. You try to get it back. The management, everything is just terrible all around. I have been burned by restaurants, but it doesn't stop me from going out to eat. Just not to that one. What's so sad is when I see people say they got burned by the church, and I get it, because it happens, and terrible things have happened. Like, really God-awful. Okay? But then to just write everything off. Hmm. I think you're shortchanging yourself and what God has for you. So we're gonna look at all of this, and what we find is that God is working. What he has planned from the beginning of time is that you are not just individually, if you want to say that, saved, but that you are created in God's image to live in relationship with other people, as God himself, Father, Son, and Hol...