Author: Jinson Thomas

Good morning church! Wanted to welcome everyone who has joined us online and also in person. If you’ve been with us at Gathering, you would have noticed that one of the things we deeply value is the preaching of God’s Word because we believe that God does speak to us clearly and personally to our hearts even today. How does he do that? He does that through the written Word (Bible). So let’s prayerfully prepare our hearts to listen to what God has to tell us today. Over the last few weeks, we’ve been going through this series titled “Why Church?” where we are grappling with the question of why is the church so important in a believer’s life:

1. In the first week, we learnt that the church is not a building or a place but a people – the people who have been redeemed and joined together by the sacrifice of Jesus.
2. The week after that we tried to understand what are the health markers of a healthy church. And we looked at two aspects which are the Priority of Scripture and the Centrality of the Gospel.
3. Last week we saw what leadership in the church looks like. And we saw the importance of having God-qualified elders appointed in the church so that they can model godly character as they lead and serve the church.
4. And today we come to the last topic in our series which is “Church Membership”. Before we get started on this, I think it’ll be good for us to pray and ask God to open up our spiritual eyes and hearts to eagerly receive what He has to tell us.

(Pray)

If someone were to ask you what comes to your mind when you think about “church membership”, what would you say? We usually draw from our own church experiences or what we may have seen happen in other churches. I just thought it’ll be good to list down predominant models of church membership that are seen across churches today:

1. Attendance model: Like the name goes, regular church attendance is the main criteria in order to become a member of a local church. 
2. Subscription model: This is viewed more in traditional church settings where they have this concept of “annual subscription”, which is a basic amount that you need to pay to keep your membership in that local church. Even if you aren’t regularly attending the church, that’s okay as long as you are paying your annual subscription.
3. Membership class model: This is where churches organize a membership class periodically. As long as you’ve completed the membership class, that’s sufficient to become a member of that local church.

Before I move on, I just want to say that there are aspects of attendance, subscription or the membership class models that are not bad but these models by themselves do not picture a healthy, biblical model of membership. Which is why our duty is not to copy the existing models of membership that we’ve seen around us or create a new version of church membership, but rather to go back to the Word and see what does the bible say about “church membership”. And I hope you don’t see this as something that only elders and leaders need to be concerned about, if it’s biblical then it is something that concerns every single believer. “Why Church Membership” or “Why should we consider to be a member of a local church”?

• Because it helps us live out God’s design for us (1 Cor 12:12-27)

Now the word “church membership” is not mentioned found in Scripture, however, the principles of church membership is seen right throughout Scripture. One of the beautiful metaphors used in the Bible for God’s church is that it’s Jesus’ body (1 Cor 12:12-27). And Jesus’ body consists of various “members”. Now some may argue that this is merely referring to the universal body of Christ – which consists of all believers everywhere. How can you say that it’s talking about being a member in a local church? The main point of this passage is to tell us that a kind of mutual interdependence needs to exist between the members of the body. Each and every member of the body is critical to the functioning of the body. There is not a single member in the body who has any less significant in God’s plan (v18). In fact, it tells us that the members of the body that are less presentable and weaker, are treated with greater modesty, greater honour and greater care. And so this kind of mutual interdependence simply cannot exist if we say that we’re only part of the universal church. It demands that we find ourselves integrated into a local church where we see ourselves as an essential members of the body & at the same time intentionally appreciate and care for others while also inviting others to similarly care for us.

Now isn’t this radically different from our usual church expectations? Sometimes we say “I’m part of this church because the preacher preaches on topics which are relevant to what I’m going through. I’m part of this church because the worship music is closer to what I prefer listening to. I’m part of this church because the people who come here are of my same wavelength. I’m part of this church because I have a prominent role out here. I’m part of this church because they host events that I enjoy participating in”. In other words, we’ve reduced the local church to an amazon shopping cart where just like consumers we pick and choose what we like as long as it fulfils our needs. The moment the church stops meeting our felt needs, what happens? We’ll look out for another local church or worse we’ll stop going to any church. And that’s not what this passage tells us, right? In fact, it tells us that just like the eye cannot tell the hand “I don’t need you”, similarly we cannot tell any other member that we don’t need them. We don’t stop caring and serving the other members because our church preferences or felt needs are not met. We don’t leave the local church for any random reason. (There are exceptional cases where you may leave the local church if God’s calling you to plant a church elsewhere or if your local church stops preaching the true gospel). Because God has specifically “arranged the members of the body, as He chose” (v18). And in order to live out this purpose and design that God has given us, it requires us to be committed members of a local church! 

• Because it helps us validate our faith

19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. (1 John 2:19)

In this passage in 1 John 2, the context talks about false believers who were among them but have now left and abandoned the local church. These people being described here were not people who turned up once in a blue moon at their church gatherings (Easter / Good Friday / Christmas). These were people who were active in their local church. They probably spent time in each other’s homes. They probably laughed with, cried with and prayed with the other members of the local church. And after all that they decided to abandon and depart from the church. And this is how the apostle John puts it. He says that the fact that they didn’t continue with us, the fact that they left the local church showed that they were never really part of us –they were never believers in the first place.

I hope we are able to grasp the seriousness of this verse. Our perseverance and commitment to the local church proves that we are genuinely believers. And that’s why when a church declares or confirms a person to be a member, the church is also affirming that they have seen the fruit of the gospel in that person’s life!

That’s why there is an absolute co-relation between our relationship with Jesus Christ and our relationship with His church. When people say “I love Jesus but I can’t stand the local church”, it simply doesn’t make sense because how can we say that we love Jesus but hate His bride whom He bought with His own blood?

20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot[a] love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. (1 John 4:20, 21)

So to be able to love our brothers and sisters, it would require a close, committed, steadfast relationship with the body which is why we need church membership.

• Because it helps us exercise church discipline

I know the word “discipline” is a pretty intense word & sometimes churches may choose to exclude these verses fearing that it might make people hesitant to join their church. But let’s try to understand it from Scripture:

15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. (Matt 18:15-17)

When you look at these verses, we realize that church discipline although temporarily painful for the people involved, it’s aimed at restoring the person’s heart and relationship with God. So the first step is always to have a private conversation, but if the person continues in unrepentant sin, then ask two or three more people to speak to that person. If that person still refuses to listen, then this needs to be brought before the church, and if the person still continues in sin then the person is to be put out of the church (in the sense where the person won’t enjoy the safety and intimacy of community as he or she did earlier). Do note that it’s not the elders, it’s not an individual but the final authority is given to the church to keep the person outside the church if he/she continues in unrepentance. And I’m aware that some of this might seem too harsh or extreme for some of us, but let’s not lose sight of grace being shown to help the person repent and come back into a right relationship with God. Now does this mean that every single sin comes under the category of church discipline? No, I think it is in reference to public, unrepentant sin which can be a negative influence on others within the church.

And therefore church membership is important so that you know who are the members of the church and are able to also exercise gracious discipline.

• Because it helps us know who are our leaders

17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. (Heb 13:17)

When we are committed to a local body of believers, then we also know that we’re called to submit to the elders of that local church. And this has become blurry, especially with this post-pandemic world where tuning into online churches across the globe has become so accessible and easy. Now there’s nothing wrong in tuning into another service, but let’s also be wary of the tendency to look at these wonderful pastors and preachers around the world and assume them to be our elders. John Piper is a wonderful preacher and pastor and I’ve been so encouraged by his sermons and writings, but the fact is that he’s not called to be my elder. I’m not called to submit to him in the way that I’m called to submit to Saju’s leadership. For every church, God has called, qualified and gifted certain people in their local context to lead and care for that church.

Similarly, as elders, we are called to keep a watch over the souls of this local church. Scripture says that we will need to give an account for these souls. But how will we know whom to give an account for if there’s no clear understanding of who are the members of this local church?

• Because it helps our witness to the outside world

20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. (John 17:20-21)

When Jesus prayed the High Priestly prayer in John 17, think about all the different things He could have prayed for us. But out of all the things, don’t you find it interesting and surprising that He would pray for our unity as a church? And He prays that through our unity, it would serve as a powerful witness to the world around us! Think with me for a second why would He pray for our unity? Probably because in His church – the body – He would have members from very different upbringings, He would have members who would be culturally different from each other, He would have members who didn’t look like or talk like each other, He would have members who would want to use their giftings to serve themselves rather than serve the other, He would have members who had their own set of the baggage of sin, selfishness and unbelief and would drag it into every close relationship, He would have members who no matter what they convinced themselves were at the core very difficult to love and serve. These would be members whom you would never picture together in a single room but yet they would be united because of the same Jesus Christ who died for them all & rose again for them on the third Day & is continuing to shape and change them through this thing/organism known as “local church”. And in God’s mind – His purpose is to join together these pieces of broken glass / broken mirror (us) so that His power, mercy, and patience can be reflected world that is lost and dying and is in desperate need for God.

Church, I don’t know what’s going through your mind when you think about membership now? Maybe it’s apprehension because of some abuse in your previous church experience. Maybe it’s fear of being known – you’re afraid of people knowing who you are if you come into this kind of close commitment. Maybe it’s the hesitation of having to deal with conflict and difficulty that comes with close relationships. Maybe it’s the reluctance of keeping your life accountable to others. And I’m not downplaying any of these reasons but what if the very thing you’ve been running away from is the very thing that God is planning to use to change you? What if the local church is God’s way of shaping your heart, using your life and together with others powerfully witness to His glory to a lost and dying world? Wouldn’t you want that? The local church is God’s Plan A. We’ve been created and called to live out our purpose in the context of being committed members of a local church!

Good morning church! Hope you had a good last week but even if you’re here thinking that the last week wasn’t great, I hope you see this as something that will bring rest and refreshment to your heart as you hear from God this morning.  If you’ve been tracking with us, you would be aware that we’ve started a new series titled “Why Church?”. And that’s an interesting & challenging question for all of us here. For many of us, we’ve heard the phrase “Go to Church” several times but rarely have we wondered “But why church?” Maybe it’s because that’s all that we’ve done since we were kids. Maybe it’s because that’s a good moral thing to do. And so last week we came down to a definition of “what is a church” and what we learned is that “the church is not a place but a people”. It’s a people who have been radically saved by Jesus Christ & joined to each other so that together they can display who He is to a lost and dying world around them. Today we arrive at the second topic of our series titled “What is a healthy church?” Would you join me as we pray and ask God to speak to us through the Word this morning?

(Pray)

If I were to ask this question – how do you assess if a person is physically healthy or not? Let’s say you didn’t have access to a diagnostic test. What are some health markers that you would look out for? You would probably say someone who eats a balanced diet, someone who exercises regularly, someone who ensures that he/she has proper sleep through the night etc. Similarly, what are some health markers for a church? How can we biblically assess whether a church is healthy or not? It’s a deep question, right? I’m thankful to brothers like Mark Dever who’ve spent a lot studying and writing on this topic of “Healthy Churches”. And so today I’ll be referring to his outline for our time today. There are at least 4 health markers for a church – 2 of which will be covered today and the other 2 will be covered over the next 2 Sundays:

• Priority of Scripture
• Reliability on the Gospel
• Capacity of Elders
• Authority of the Church

1. Priority of Scripture

16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God[b] may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2 Tim 3:16-17)

In these two verses, it’s so interesting that it tells us that every piece of Scripture – every verse, every chapter, every book, every testament is “God breathed” and “inspired by God”. And since every passage of Scripture is inspired by God, every passage can be used to “teach, reprove, correct and train in righteousness” so that the man of God may be “complete” equipped for every good work. In other words, it tells us that apart from God’s Word (apart from Scripture), man is incomplete (immature) & ill-equipped to carry out what God has called him to do. You see here – there’s a priority that’s been given to Scripture, there’s a very high view of Scripture, and there’s a primacy to Scripture in the life of the believer and also the church.

And so whenever we gather together as a church on Sundays, the preacher is not called to share his opinions on a bible text, the preacher is not called to entertain the church with a bunch of cool stories, the preacher is not called to pump people up with a motivational talk, the preacher is called to preach the Bible faithfully so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

And that’s why expository preaching is important. It is not just a stylistic preference but a necessity for every church that aspires to be healthy. Expository preaching basically means to expose the text / reveal the text / break down the text in accordance with its context and the author’s intent when he wrote that passage of Scripture. And think about this when we read any piece of literature, any normal book – don’t we attempt to read it from cover to cover to understand the main point of the story? We don’t randomly jump to the middle of the book and selectively pick out a quote and figure out our own interpretation through that random quote. That would be taking it out of context. So what we try to do is read the book from cover to cover, understand the author’s intent and through that make sense of the theme of the book. But isn’t it interesting that when it comes to the Bible, we have a tendency to treat it differently & set a different standard? If the Bible is God’s Word with every piece of Scripture that is God-inspired, shouldn’t we be all the more diligent in figuring out the context & author’s intent instead of inserting our own thoughts and opinions into the text?

But some may argue that “this is simply too technical, where is the dependence on the Spirit while preaching then?” Well let me tell you that because expository preaching makes us work through a book verse by verse; chapter by chapter, we are forced to deal with uncomfortable and unfamiliar passages. There’s a great deal of dependence on the Spirit to grapple and wrestle with these uncomfortable and unfamiliar passages before preaching it to people. If we only did topical sermons, we would more or less stick to topics and areas that we as preachers are comfortable with. But the goal is not to make people like us, the goal is to make people more and more like Jesus – which is what expository preaching allows us to do organically.

In the book of Acts, in Paul’s farewell speech to the Ephesian elders, we get a wonderful insight into the content of his preaching ministry. This is what Paul tells them: 

27 for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. (Acts 20:27)

What would it mean for us to be a church that “desires the whole counsel of God?” Firstly, I think to pray and ask God to build an appetite in our hearts to eagerly receive the whole counsel of God as revealed in Scripture. So that we may not approach God’s Word as merely something to address a felt need, but God’s Word to shape us into the likeness of Jesus which can come about through uncomfortable, unfamiliar and unsettling passages. (For eg: OT passages) Secondly, pray for us as elders that we seek to faithfully and prayerfully prepare sermons each week. Pray that we don’t grow weary and that we resist the temptation to preach messages that people want to hear and continue to preach the message that they need to hear.

But not only is there a Priority of Scripture, there is also a

2. Reliability on the Gospel

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. (Rom 1:16)

We show our reliability and dependence on the Gospel by correctly understanding it, living it out and by sharing it.

• Understand the Gospel

If you’ve been around a church or church people, my guess is that you would have definitely heard the word “Gospel” at some point during a church gathering. But if you were to ask people what it means, chances are that you would get a wide variety of answers. Some may say that the Gospel is the message that God is love, some may say that the Gospel is the message that God has a wonderful plan for your life, Some may say that the Gospel is the message to receive Jesus into your heart and pray a prayer, what if I told you that none of these is the true biblical Gospel?

Gospel basically means “good news” – and that should immediately make us think “but why is it good news?”

It’s helpful to understand the gospel through these 4 points

• God
• Sin
• Jesus
• Response

• God: We were all created by God in His image (like a mirror), to reflect His character and His rule to the created world. Like a father’s desire to see his child reflect His character and his work.
• Sin: But instead of reflecting God’s rule, the man wanted to represent His own independent image and independent rule. Man wanted to be his own boss. Man thought that by doing that his life would be more fulfilling, but instead it ended up being tragic and miserable. Why? Because now was going to be punished for His rebellion, he was now going to be separated from a relationship with God, and that image/mirror was terribly shattered and broken. Man thought “let me compensate for this by working harder, doing good things and trying to be better”. But all those efforts to be better were useless because none of that could remove the punishment, none of that could restore the broken relationship and none of it could fix the broken image. It was like humanity hit a dead end with no way out.
• Jesus: But God didn’t leave us there – To save us from our devastating predicament, God sent His own Son Jesus Christ into the world in the form of man. As God’s Son, He perfectly reflected God’s character and rule. He lived the life that we should have lived. And then when He was 33 years old, though innocent He took the punishment that we deserved upon Himself by dying on the cross for our sins. He paid the price for our guilt and rebellion. He was buried in a tomb but on the Third Day, He victoriously rose from the grave defeating sin, Satan and death.
• Response: No matter who you are, no matter what your background is, no matter what your past is, if you turn from your sins, your selfishness and your efforts to make yourself right before God and instead trust in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, then your punishment would be cancelled, your broken relationship with God would be reconciled and your broken image would be restored gradually & one day it will be fully completed when Jesus comes back again – on that day all those who’ve trusted in Him will perfectly reflect God’s character and rule as was God’s design in the first place. It’s the greatest role reversal in history – all because of what Jesus Christ did for us!
  That’s good news!

• Live out the Gospel

And this “good news” / “Gospel” now redefines the way we live our lives on this earth until Jesus returns.

14 For the love of Christ controls (compels) us because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. (2 Cor 5:14, 15)

Only a person who realizes that he has been rescued from a near-death accident will be grateful enough to owe his life to the one who rescued him. The Gospel compels us to live Holy lives (though not perfectly yet) but there is a pursuit of holiness for every true believer because he or she realizes what was put on the line, the sacrifice which was made to rescue us from sin, Satan and death. Even our DNA groups (GROW) – the end goal is not just to grow in friendship and intimacy with each other (although that is a by-product), the goal is that we may grow in holiness as we are weekly and daily being reminded of the Gospel. The Gospel of Jesus is an enabler, a fuel to help us live Holy lives.

• Share the Gospel

18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling[c] the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. (2 Cor 5:18-20)

Firstly, it’s so amazing that God is preaching a message of reconciliation to a lost and dying world through people who have personally firsthand experienced the reconciling work of God through Jesus. The other thing we notice in this verse is that “Gospel sharing” is primarily “verbally declaring the Gospel” to someone else – there’s an appeal which is being made. Inviting someone home for dinner, social justice initiatives, and planning outreaches are all good means to adorn & accompany the Gospel, however, the Gospel needs to be verbally shared because it’s “good news”. Thirdly, we see words like “appeal”, and “implore” being mentioned here – which tells us that there is a passionate persuasion and persistence in Gospel sharing. And that only happens when we are personally convicted about the power of the Gospel and genuinely care for the people we are sharing with (and that I believe happens as we pray for them).   

What’s the application? If you’re here today discouraged as you assess your pursuit of holiness and obedience. If you’re here today perplexed and unsure why you’ve not been able to share the Gospel as often and with as many people as you’ve met – it’s probably not because you’ve not been challenged enough or because you’ve not mastered the right methods. It could be because you’ve forgotten how precious and beautiful the Gospel is as revealed in Scripture. Have you been listening to the Gospel enough? Have you been made aware of the bad news? Are you aware of the remarkable role reversal which has taken place in Jesus?

Good morning church! Just wanted to welcome everyone who has joined us this morning both in person at the hall and also online. Our prayer is that all of us would meet Jesus in a very real and personal way this morning as He speaks to us through His Word. If you’ve been tracking with us at the Gathering, we’ve been going through this series from the book of Joshua titled “Our Promise Keeping God” over the last 5 months. Today we arrive at the final sermon from this series as we cover the last 2 chapters of Joshua.  As we’ve just read, these 2 chapters are the final recorded sermons that Joshua preaches to the people of Israel. I’ll read a small excerpt from Joshua 23:4-8:

4 Behold, I have allotted to you as an inheritance for your tribes those nations that remain, along with all the nations that I have already cut off, from the Jordan to the Great Sea in the west. 5 The Lord your God will push them back before you and drive them out of your sight. And you shall possess their land, just as the Lord your God promised you. 6 Therefore, be very strong to keep and to do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, turning aside from it neither to the right hand nor to the left, 7 that you may not mix with these nations remaining among you or make mention of the names of their gods or swear by them or serve them or bow down to them, 8 but you shall cling to the Lord your God just as you have done to this day. (v4-8)

(Pray)

One of the things that’s common to most organizations is that they’ll regularly schedule policy training where they’ll give you an overview of the company, they’ll talk about the company culture and then they’ll also list down their expectations on how you are expected to conduct yourself during your tenure as an employee of the firm.  And alongside the expectations, they’ll probably also mention what would happen if there was a breach or violation of the company policy. And this is something that isn’t just done on the first day of joining the firm, but it is done frequently with employees. And it’s interesting how in similar ways the Israelites are being given a sort of regular policy training. The only big difference is that this is not merely talking about serving a human organization or a human master, this is much more serious because it’s talking about serving God! And even as we try to understand what that meant for the Israelites, let’s not forget that this is a totally relevant question for us today because it’s not just the pastors, evangelists or people in ministry who are called as servants of God, every person who calls himself a follower & believer in Jesus is called to be a servant of God. And if we are all servants of God, then we ought to know “what it means for us to serve God” “What is the policy document for serving God” “What are the expectations of being servants of God”? To help us answer this question, today’s passage gives us 3 points:  

1. The choice to serve God – we all have a choice to serve

14 “Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Josh 24:14-15)

One of the most familiar Christian plaques or verses that’s put up in people’s homes is v15 which says
“as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord”. Now that’s definitely a nice, encouraging verse to be put up in a home but it sometimes is easy to miss the context in which this verse was said. Towards the end of Joshua’s sermon, he confronts the people with a choice they have to make. He tells them that they need to either choose to wholeheartedly serve the God of Israel (Yahweh) or choose to serve the idols of the nations around them. It’s either this or that. There is no in between space.  But what’s so interesting is that before confronting them to make a choice, Joshua prefaces the conversation by reminding them about God’s faithfulness shown to them through the ages.

The journey is traced back right from Abraham (Israel’s forefather). God had taken Abraham out of a lifestyle of pagan worship and revealed Himself to him. And though Abraham was too old to be a dad – 100 years old, God blessed him to have Isaac and through him formed an entire nation. And later after 400 years when the Israelites were enslaved by Egyptians, God delivered them out of their hands. But it wasn’t just against the Egyptians, God fought for His people against all the other great nations – nations who were greater than them in might and in number. And here’s how it’s summed up in Josh 24:12,13:

12 And I sent the hornet before you, which drove them out before you, the two kings of the Amorites; it was not by your sword or by your bow. 13 I gave you a land on which you had not laboured and cities that you had not built, and you dwell in them. You eat the fruit of vineyards and olive orchards that you did not plant.’

God’s heart was that when the people remember God’s faithfulness, generosity and kindness lavished upon them, they would be moved to wholeheartedly obey and serve God. God’s faithfulness is the context in which the people are confronted to make a choice to serve God. If you’ve been coming to the Gathering over a period of time, you would have noticed that it’s pretty much the same message that we preach week in and week out. It’s the same simple gospel message that we try to preach through every passage of Scripture. And why do we do it? We definitely want to be faithful to Scripture but also because we realize that if people need to truly obey and serve God out of right motivations, they can only do so if they remember the faithfulness, generosity and kindness of God. And so every week as we hear the Gospel, all of us (including us preachers) are confronted with the question: choose this day whom you will serve? Will you serve the God of the Bible who is so faithful, generous and kind to you or will you serve the relationships, jobs, money, comfort, pleasure and the stuff in your life?

But not only is there a choice to serve but there’s also an

• The inability to serve God

19 But Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. 20 If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm and consume you, after having done you good.” (Josh 24:19-20)

I wonder what the people thought when they heard Joshua respond like this. “Well, thank you Joshua for that piece of encouragement. We are trying to be committed, we have all the right intentions to be faithful, but somehow you don’t seem to be convinced”. But we need to understand why Joshua said what he did.

Firstly, it’s because he recognized that the God we serve is a holy God! “You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at the wrong (Hab 1:13)” One commentator said it in this way “that God’s hatred of wrong is pictured by His not being able to look toward it. If He looked toward them, they must perish”. Also, it’s the fact that God is a jealous God. Now, this seems like a contradiction – how can God be holy and jealous at the same time? It’s not referring to envy in our hearts when we are envious of each other. It’s referring in terms of fidelity and loyalty in a close relationship. One of my friends once used this illustration which helped me understand this well. If my daughter goes up to anybody else and calls them “dad”, that would make me angry and displeased. Why? Because that relationship is unique and can’t be shared with another. The same goes in a marriage where it’s a unique covenant relationship between the husband and wife and that relationship cannot be shared with another.

And then it goes on to say that “God will not forgive your transgressions or sins”. Now that doesn’t mean that God is going to harbour unforgiveness against us.  But rather that God cannot leave our sins unpunished. God cannot overlook our sins. His Holy character will need to respond justly to our sins. He will pour out His anger against us for our sins. Romans 6:23 says “the wages of sins is death – being eternally damned and separated from God forever”.

Secondly, it’s not just God’s character that Joshua is referring to but also our weakness and inability to be faithful to God with the consistency and perfection that He requires.

Some of us are perfectionists and go-getters, we are so disciplined and are able to achieve whatever we put our minds to. We think that if we discipline ourselves really well, we are able to serve God as He expects. And we need to be humbled to know that even the best of our efforts are filthy rags before a holy God. (Isa 64:6) our best efforts are simply not good enough for a holy God.

Some of us are people who probably think that we will do the bare minimum to go past the mark and God in His grace will understand. We think that our best intentions are enough for God. And we need to realize that even our best intentions are not good enough to serve God.

Why? The problem goes deeper than what we see on the surface – it’s with our sin infected hearts and that’s what renders us incapable to serve God as we should.

That’s why many times we fail to live up to the grand promises & commitments we make to serve God during our gatherings. It’s not because we’ve not tried hard enough or because we’ve not exercised self-discipline as we should have or because our intentions are not strong enough. If we were able to do it by ourselves, then we wouldn’t have required a Savior. And that’s why our inability to serve should point our attention to something outside of ourselves to come and help us. It should lead us to the 

• The gracious provision to serve God

“And now I am about to go the way of all the earth, and you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one word has failed of all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one of them has failed. But just as all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you have been fulfilled for you, so the Lord will bring upon you all the evil things, until he has destroyed you from off this good land that the Lord your God has given you, if you transgress the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them. Then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from off the good  land that he has given to you.” Josh 23:14-16

The OT covenant was a conditional one which provided blessings to God’s people based on their faithfulness and brought curses to them based on their unfaithfulness. Because we all have sinful hearts, it’s virtually impossible for us to secure blessings for ourselves based on faithfulness. So the OT covenant had limitations due to our sin infected hearts, and that’s why we needed a gracious provision from God to enter into a new covenant with God:

31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord (spiritual adultery). 33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts (heart change). And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord (close fellowship). For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. (full pardon and cleansing)” (Jer 31:31-34)

This gracious provision didn’t come through a decree or words on a tablet. This gracious provision came through a Person – God’s own Son Jesus Christ. This gracious provision of the new covenant could be brought into effect only through the perfect sacrifice of Jesus – Jesus Christ lived the life we needed to live with the consistency and perfection as required by a holy God & then He died the death that we deserved as our substitute. He was buried and after 3 days He rose again defeating sin, Satan and death once and for all so that whoever may repent of their sins and fully trust in Jesus’ work would now no longer face God’s curse but enjoy eternal blessing forever.

Let’s take a minute to introspect on what this could mean for us. I think for some of us we’ve we have been carrying the burden of our relationship with God on the basis of how faithful, how sorted, and how committed we’ve been. So we are constantly oscillating between security and insecurity, trying so hard to achieve the blessing of God and constantly fearing the curse of God if we mess up. I think we need to realize that there is a better covenant already in place through the loving work of our Savior Jesus Christ. Through the cross of calvary, Jesus removes the curse from us by becoming the curse for us (Gal 3:13). And through faith in Jesus, He has granted us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (Eph 1:3). What would it mean for us today to embrace this gracious provision? 

Some of you might be aware of the name Derek Raymond. Even if you’re not too familiar with the name you would have definitely seen his video on social media. In the 1992 Summer Olympics at Barcelona, Derek Redmond was in good form for the 400m sprint. He posted the fastest time in the first round and went on to win his quarter-final. In the semi-final, Redmond started well, but in the back straight about 250 metres from the finish, his hamstring tore. He hobbled to a halt and then fell to the ground in pain. Stretcher bearers made their way over to him, but Redmond decided he wanted to finish the race. He began to hobble along the track. He was soon joined on the track by his father, Jim Redmond, who barged past security and onto the track to get to his son. Jim and Derek completed the lap of the track together, with Derek leaning on his father’s shoulder for support. In so many ways this can capture visually what it looked like for us in our attempt to serve God. With all our best efforts and best intentions, we still can’t reach the finish line due to our debilitating sin infection. And yet there is this gracious provision where Jesus Christ God’s Son ran up to us when we couldn’t run anymore and then carried us to the finish line on our behalf so that we can serve God in the freedom, love and joy as we ought to. How amazing is our Lord? How amazing is our Savior who would do this for us?

Good morning church! Just wanted to welcome everyone who has joined us this morning – both in the hall and also online on Zoom and Facebook Live. We are so glad that you’ve joined us & we pray that you would encounter and meet with the Lord Jesus in a very personal way through the service. If you’ve been tracking with us over the last few months at the Gathering, we’ve been studying through the book of Joshua in a series titled “Our Promise Keeping God”.  Week after week we’ve been seeing the same theme being repeated again and again – that our God is One who always keeps His promises. He never fails to deliver on any of the promises that He makes to His people. And so today we arrive at Joshua chapter 22 where they have finally possessed the Promised Land, land allotments have been completed & are now experiencing a season of rest. What is God calling them to do now?

At that time Joshua summoned the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, 2 and said to them, “You have kept all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you and have obeyed my voice in all that I have commanded you. 3 You have not forsaken your brothers these many days, down to this day, but have been careful to keep the charge of the Lord your God. 4 And now the Lord your God has given rest to your brothers, as he promised them. Therefore turn and go to your tents in the land where your possession lies, which Moses the servant of the Lord gave you on the other side of the Jordan. 5 Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments and to cling to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.” (v1-5)

Medically it’s recommended to go in for a health check-up once every 2 years after you turn 30. The frequency of taking the health check-up should increase to once a year after you turn 60. During the health check, they perform a whole range of tests checking your blood sugar, cholesterol and other levels to assess your physical condition and suggest lifestyle changes wherever they may apply. Similarly, if you’ve been a believer for some time – it could be a few months or many years, wouldn’t it be important to assess your spiritual condition and understand where you’re at? If it’s important, then what’s the spiritual health check going to look like? What are the basic health markers? And I think today’s passage gives us at least 3 health markers and checks which are basic but so important to a believer in their relationship with the Lord:

1. Obedience – Loving Obedience

5 Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments and to cling to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.” (v5)

To give a small background, at this point the conquest of the Promised Land was completed & the entire nation of Israel was experiencing rest and peace from war after 7 long years. The eastern tribes (Reuben, Gad and half tribe of Manasseh) had already won their inheritance on the eastern side of the Jordan (during Moses’ time) and were preparing themselves to return back home. And Joshua summons them and gives them a parting speech before they head back. And think about all the things he could have told them – and he instead tells them to be “very careful to observe the commandment of the Lord”. In fact, the word “observe” in the original Hebrew language actually means “guard”. They were called to very carefully guard the commandments as something precious handed down to them. Imagine something extremely precious and valuable is given to you. Think about all the things that you would do to ensure that it was handled with care & protected from damage. And that’s the way in which we are called to “very carefully” observe and guard the commandments of the Lord.  

But for many people the instruction stops there – they’ll say “I get it. I have to carefully obey God’s law. I have to keep the rules. I have to do things by the book”. But it’s interesting that the verse doesn’t stop at rule-keeping and rule maintenance. In fact, it takes it one step further by talking about our motivations before obedience. It tells us that “we need to love the Lord our God”, “We need to cling to Him”, and “We need to serve Him with all our heart and our soul”.

Think about what all these things mean in our walk with God. It means that God doesn’t want us to obey out of a sense of obligation or guilt or fear of consequences. God wants us to obey Him out of a deep sense of love and trust for Him. In a sense, I wonder if through this verse God is communicating that if we obey God out of joylessness or a lack of love or a lack of trust, that in no way brings honour to God.  Think about 2 scenarios – what if I would go up to my wife and tell her that I’ll listen to her and do things to serve her because that’s what a good Christian is supposed to do. And in another scenario where I listen to and serve my wife because I truly love her. Which of the two do you think brings more honour to my wife? The second one right? And so it is with God. Jesus said in John 14:15 – “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Therefore, it’s not just obedience which matters, but love which motivates obedience which matters.

And so this becomes a very important health check for us as believers? Are we just obeying God out of a sense of dry, joyless obligation or is it coming out of love and trust for God? Take a look at all the different things that we do throughout the day or week. It could be your daily time of prayer, or time with your church community in GC, DNA group or Sunday service. What do you think motivates you? Is it an obligation or guilt or fear of consequences that motivate you? Or is actually love and trust for God? If we are honest, I think all of us in some way or the other do end up viewing obedience as an obligation. And that’s why we need to recognize our need to repent not just for the wrong things that we do, but also for the right things that we do out of the wrong motivations.

But it’s not just obedience which is a health check but also

• Sensitivity – Sensitive to the seriousness of sin

21 Then the people of Reuben, the people of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh said in answer to the heads of the families of Israel, 22 “The Mighty One, God, the Lord! The Mighty One, God, the Lord! He knows, and let Israel itself know! If it was in rebellion or in breach of faith against the Lord, do not spare us today 23 for building an altar to turn away from following the Lord. Or if we did so to offer burnt offerings or grain offerings or peace offerings on it, may the Lord himself take vengeance. (v21-23)

After the parting words from Joshua, the people from the eastern tribes head back home. But right before they cross the Jordan to go on the other side, they build a huge altar which was a copy of the altar in the tabernacle. Now the western tribes get really concerned by this & immediately sent out a delegation involving the priest and 10 chiefs of the remaining tribes to confront & make war with the eastern tribes.

The assumption was that this altar was being set up to offer sacrifices to one of the idols belonging to the Canaanite nations around them. Now the Canaanite nations would often set up altars in random places – mountains, hills, under the tree to their pagan gods. And so Yahweh – the God of the Israelites explicitly commanded them to only offer sacrifices in one single place – the altar near the tabernacle. That was also a distinct way in which they were to testify to the rest of the world that Yahweh was unique and hence required sacrifices to be offered in that specific place.

And so when the priest and chiefs of the remaining tribes meet with the eastern tribes, they keep citing examples in the past when the Israelites rebelled against God and brought punishment on the whole congregation of Israel. (24,000 people died at Peor / Achan and his entire family were killed – more than that the anger of the Lord remained on Israel until restitution was made). It was the awareness and sensitivity to the seriousness of sin which made them respond with such urgency and extreme action. In v21-23, we see that the eastern tribes also were in agreement with the seriousness of sin. In fact, they go on to say that if they were found to be in reality breaching & violating the faith, then they should not be spared but destroyed by the Lord Himself. So both the eastern and western tribes had this in common – they were both on the same page when it came to being sensitive to the seriousness of sin.

And this is definitely one of the health markers for a believer. A true believer in Christ cannot have a “chalta hai” attitude toward sin because the Holy Spirit has opened his / her heart to realize that we are in a relationship with God who is Holy:

5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness (persistent, unrepentant sin), we lie and do not practice the truth. (1 John 1:5-6)

Although there are times when we harbour unconfessed sin in our hearts and are desensitized to the seriousness of sin, let’s be sure that if the Holy Spirit resides in you then at some point or the other, you will be convicted of the fact that God is Holy & in turn your need to repent of that unconfessed sin. A true believer won’t be stuck on an “I don’t care how my sin grieves God and others” for too long because of the Holy Spirit.  And that’s why sensitivity to the seriousness of sin is a very essential health marker for a believer.

If I were to push further (you can answer this question in your mind), what are some areas in our lives where we see a “chalta hai” attitude to sin right now? Are there places where we don’t see the fear of the Lord in our hearts? Again this is one of the place which I believe all of us can identify if we are being honest. There is hope though in 1 John 1:9, tells us that 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

But not only are health checks in terms of obedience and sensitivity but also in our

• Intimacy – Longing to be with God

26 Therefore we said, ‘Let us now build an altar, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice, 27 but to be a witness between us and you, and between our generations after us, that we do perform the service of the Lord in his presence with our burnt offerings and sacrifices and peace offerings, so your children will not say to our children in time to come, “You have no portion in the Lord.”’ 28 And we thought, ‘If this should be said to us or to our descendants in time to come, we should say, “Behold, the copy of the altar of the Lord, which our fathers made, not for burnt offerings, nor for sacrifice, but to be a witness between us and you.”’ (v26-28)

These verses come to the crux of why the eastern tribes built a replica of the altar on the coast of the Jordan. It was not to forsake the Lord by worshipping another pagan god, it was not to kindle the anger of the Lord, but it was in fact because they wanted to continue accessing and experiencing intimacy with Yahweh! What they put out was a very reasonable answer – they said “it might be okay for now because our generation helped you all to conquer the land and get the inheritance but in generations to come, it shouldn’t be a case where your descendants deny us an opportunity to come and worship the Lord and offer sacrifices stating that the Jordan River is a barrier and we don’t have any portion of the Lord”. And so they build this altar as a “Witness” to help both the western and eastern tribes remember that Yahweh is their God and both can access God (imperfectly though) through the altar setup at Shiloh which was the place designated for the tabernacle. And when the western tribes realized this was the purpose and reason for the altar, it seemed good and their eyes and they in fact blessed God in response to this!

And this whole thing is taken to another level for us as believers. Think about it – OT Israelites had to travel to one single place (imperfect place) to offer sacrifices (imperfect sacrifices). But for us as NT believers, Jesus has offered Himself (perfect sacrifice once and for all on the cross) so that we don’t have an imperfect intimacy with God but a perfect one which God creates by residing within us through the Holy Spirit. How amazing it is that we have direct access into God’s heart, mind and purposes through the wonderful finished work of Jesus? And this is permanent – let’s remember and not place specific. So when we meet on Sundays or for GC – it’s not that the hall or the house is the only place where we can experience intimacy with God. No, intimacy can be experienced at all times because God lives in us. The Bible calls us the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19). Why do we gather then? To help each other grow in our intimacy with the Lord as we lovingly serve each other.

I want us to just take a minute to think about the wonderful privilege that we have as believers compared to the OT Israelites or anyone else today who goes from church to church, temple to temple, religious place to religious place trying to grasp a glimpse of the presence of God. And here we have the privilege of experiencing intimacy 24/7 with the One True God through our Lord Jesus. Let these thoughts just sink in for us. And then I want us to honestly answer – how do we approach God daily? Is it using a performance mindset – God, these are all the good things that I’ve done, so I now deserve to be around You. Is that how it is? Or maybe sometimes it’s the reverse – we think about all the terrible things we do, we are so aware of our sin, and so we automatically disqualify ourselves from approaching God because we don’t have the good works to show. Both are not the gospel. You know what? Jesus Christ – God’s own Son as the perfect High Priest went into the presence of God and brings us near to God on the basis of His perfect shed blood. And that’s why we have a relationship with God. And that’s why we have intimacy with Him.