This morning, if you're tuning in online, thank you for joining us online. You can turn me down because I'm like really, really loud right now. Thank you.
And if you're ever in the Holland area, we invite you to join us in person. We promise we'll make you feel right at home. You know, in the sitcom, the 80s sitcom, Cheers, where everyone knows your name, the focus is heavy on togetherness, understanding one another, and sharing their lives.
In Acts 2:42-47, I just want to read this to you real quick. It talks about the early church and how they shared their lives together. They devoted themselves to the Apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the Apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.
Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
The early church was a community that truly lived out the essence of Cheers. They exemplified the heart of community—not just knowing each other's names, but truly knowing each other, sharing life together, including their resources.
And this morning, as we come to a time of offering and we prepare to give, let's remember that our tithes and offerings are more than just a financial transaction. They're a reflection of our community and togetherness in Christ.
Just as the patrons of Cheers found a sense of belonging and home, our church seeks to be a place where everyone is known, loved, and cared for. Your generosity helps to create a community where we can all grow in faith, supporting each other in times of need and reaching out with love to those beyond our walls.
We offer a number of ways that you can give back today. You can do that by clicking on the QR code, and you can give safely and securely online. You can put your offering in the welcome box or the offering box when you leave today, or you can send it by mail.
As we do give, let's do so with hearts full of gratitude, remembering the joy and blessing of being part of a community where everyone knows your name, and more importantly, where everyone is seen, loved, and cared for.
Let's continue to be a place of welcome and warmth and togetherness, just like Cheers. Both the added joy of sharing the love of Christ, and there are a lot of ways that we can do that. We can do that through giving, we can do that through serving, we can do that by coming together.
And we'll be talking about that today—coming together. There are a number of ways that you can come together with the body this upcoming month. We have our Anchored on Hymn Women's Night on Thursday, March 21st, led by Kim Beckman and my wife Carrie Lightstein. You can sign up at the welcome desk or see Carrie if you have any questions about that.
Also, Easter is right around the corner, and right before Good Friday, we have a special event called Christ our Passover. What we're going to do is gather together here in the sanctuary, and we're going to have a traditional Jewish meal. We're going to walk through the events of the Last Supper. It's a very special and intimate time. However, the seating is limited; we're only limited to about 60 people, and we're over half that way now. So if you'd like to be part of that, make sure you sign up at the welcome desk before you leave today.
I want to let you know that Good Friday will be the very next day. We're going to do it on Friday this year at 7 p.m. This is a really good and intimate time to just kind of remember what our Savior has done for us. So come on out; it's going to be a community Good Friday service.
If you know others in your community you'd like to invite, please do so. And then Easter Sunday is going to be an amazing family service. Let your family and friends know. The first 50 kids who come in get an Easter bag full of goodies this Easter. It's going to be an awesome time and an awesome celebration.
If you have your Bibles, go ahead and get those out. We'll be turning there in a little bit. If you didn't have a Bible or forgot to bring your Bible, you can click on the QR code there, and you can follow along with the message. I would encourage you to bookmark that section and go back and revisit the message throughout this week.
Well, we're right in the middle of our series on 80s sitcoms. After a church service one Sunday, this young boy went home with his mom, and he said to his mom, "I think I know what I want to do when I grow up." And she said, "Well, that's great! What do you want to do?" He goes, "I think I want to be a pastor." And she said, "Well, that's fantastic! What made you decide to do that?" He said, "Well, you know, I figure I got to go to church every Sunday anyway, and I'd rather stand up and yell than sit down and listen."
Cheers! Come on, what do you do? Cheers! Cheers, yeah. When my daughter was younger—and I don't know if she remembers this or not—she used to say that a lot. She would say, "Cheers!" And I don't know if you remember this, Trinity, but you had to tap your glass. You had to tap your glass; you couldn't just say cheers. You actually had to do it.
She wanted participation, not pacification. She wanted us not to pacify her; she wanted us to participate with her. If you don't get anything else out of this message this morning, get this one thing: Relationship equals participation. Relationship equals participation.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, I pray that this morning we would come aboard together, be united in one as we seek to be the church that you want us to be, to reach out to our community and to those who are so much in need. Including ourselves, we all need one another. I pray that you would speak to our hearts this morning through your word. In Jesus' name, Amen.
So, cheers! Cheers! We're going to play that song again for you, and I want you to sing along with us. I want you to listen to the words as you sing it.
Are you ready?
You want to go where people know, people are all the same. You want to go where everybody knows your name. You know, one of the clichés of the show was whenever Norm would enter the bar, everyone would yell. Cheers was the place where everybody knows your name.
Now, I gotta be honest, I did not watch Cheers as much as I did Who's the Boss and Family Ties, but I still enjoyed it when I did. And I'd have to say that while Kirstie Alley did a great job, I was a little more OG in this way, and that I was more of a Shelly Long fan.
So I want to see what we got here going on today. So let me hear you if you were a Cheers Kirstie Alley fan. Let me hear you if you were a Shelly Long fan. At least some people, okay. Let me hear you if you've ever even heard of the sitcom Cheers. Maybe I should have done a little research before I put this series together.
I've always said this one thing: This is something that I've always said, and I really truly believe it, and I need you to hear this this morning. I truly believe that the bars are not popular because of the beer. I want you to hear it again: The bars are not popular because of the beer. It is much cheaper to drink at home alone.
People go to the bars, people go to the nightclubs for one reason: To party with other people. They desperately want someone else to relate to. You know, that's why AA is so successful. Yes, the 12 steps are great, and they do wonderful, but it's the community, it's the sponsors, it's the support that they have.
You see, the people who go to AA, these are people who are used to going out to the bars. They're used to going out and relating with other people. So they take the same idea and they apply it to their relationships in AA, and it works.
You know, my dad and my stepmom, many, many years ago, there was a big snowstorm in Maryland. It was a big snowstorm for them; it was like two and a half feet within like four to six hours. It was really, really bad. And my dad got in a really bad accident. He and my stepmom went to the emergency room.
Literally within 30 minutes, there were 30 people from AA in that ER. Within 30 minutes, they had 30 people from AA who heard that they were in there, that their family was there, and they were at the emergency room. You can tell how much—ask my wife; she said it many times because we've been with the AA people, my dad's friends, and she will tell you that people in AA, they really like each other. They are a family.
You know, my dad still goes to four to five AA meetings every single week. He's celebrating 38 years of sobriety this year. Yeah, he goes for sobriety, sure, but he's more for the support, for the relationships.
You see, that was the great thing about the sitcom Cheers. Sure, they got on each other's nerves, but they really liked each other, and they got together just to have fun, just to be together. Whenever you watch Cheers, even though they get on each other's nerves, you can tell they really, really enjoyed being together, and they lived life together.
There's a story of this biker who was part of this big biker gang. They were pretty notorious. And through a series of events, the biker wound up hearing the gospel message and coming to the Lord and giving his life over to Christ. He went to church and he started getting involved, and he was there and pretty active.
But after about two, two and a half months, he stopped coming. The pastor was a little concerned, afraid he might have gone back to his old ways. So he went and visited the biker, and he said, "Hey, you know, you were doing really well. You were coming for a couple months, and you just stopped. Just wondering what was going on. How come you stopped?"
And he said, "Well, I'll be honest with you. I was pretty discouraged. I thought the church was going to be like my biker gang. There are people who really cared about each other, but I don't even see these people except for on Sunday, if they even show up."
See, that's how the world views relationships: Participation. And that's how we should view relationships as well. In fact, in the church, we should all look at it that way.
See, real relationship is all about participating. It's about relating. Back when we lived in Midland, they had a really nice community center. We're still looking for a community center; I don't know if they have one or not. But they had a really nice community center, nice pools and racquetball courts, and our whole family was part of it.
We'd go there and spend time together as a family, but, you know, it was really more of a tool. There was no real participating or relating with others. We just went there for like the swimming pools and the racquetball courts and that sort of thing.
Sometimes people go to the movies, or maybe they go to the opera, or they go see a play, but it's kind of like a tool. It's entertainment. There's no real participating or relating. I mean, maybe you say hi to the person who's sitting next to you. You know, you say hi, how you doing, you know, and that sort of thing.
We go to church. For many people, there's no real participating or relating. Maybe you say hi to the person next to you, "Hi, how you doing?" Or if they are relating, it's like this fake relationship. You know, like, "Hey, how you doing? What's going on?"
You know, the church shouldn't be a tool of our faith; it should be the center of our faith. Jesus is the foundation, but our faith should be centered around his body.
Go ahead and turn your Bible to 1 Corinthians 12. 1 Corinthians 12. Now, as we go to this section here, Paul is talking to the Corinthian church. And the Corinthian church, I gotta be honest, they got some issues. I mean, they don't know how to deal with things. They don't know how to handle things. They don't know how to treat each other.
It's kind of like, you know, if you went to like a potluck here or something, you know, like they're pushing everybody out of the way, "Let me get up to the front," you know? They were just—and they're looking at other people like the way that they're dressed, like, "Look at how that person's dressed," or "What they're doing," or "How that's going."
Or they're thinking, "You know, I've got some pretty good gifts, but that guy over there, I don't know about their gifts." You know, they're kind of puffing themselves up; they're kind of looking at themselves a certain way, above everybody else.
And Paul's like, "Listen, guys, this isn't what the church is about. This isn't what we are all about." And he goes to talk about the body, and he talks about the church being a body. But he talks about a person's physical body, and he uses that to explain to them.
So as I'm going to read this to you about the physical body and how that applies to the church body, in fact, why don't you just take a look here, right? I'll just show you; I'll demonstrate for you.
So, Paul says, "Just as a body, though one, has many parts." You know, I've got arms, I've got legs—arms, legs, all that. He says, "But it's many parts form one body." So it is with Christ.
And he says, "You know, for those who are believers and receivers, who are truly Christians," he says, "For we were all baptized by one spirit to form one body." And he says, "It's not just me, whether you're a Jew or a Gentile, or a slave or free. We're all given the one spirit to drink."
Even so, the body is not made up of one part but of many. And he says, "Now the foot should not say, 'Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body.' It would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, 'Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,' it would not for that reason stop being part of the body."
If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact—and listen to this part very carefully—"But in fact, God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be."
Do you know what that means? That means you are here for a reason. Now maybe you think, "Oh, I'm here because I like the family atmosphere," or "I'm here because I like the great worship," or "I'm here to see if the pastor falls down," or whatever he's going to do, or "I'm here for whatever," or "It's close by; it's real close by to where I live."
Maybe that's why you think you're here, but the Bible says, "No, you're here because God brought you here. He put you here. He brought you here because He wants you here." It's a good reason to be here, right? If God has us here because He wants us here, it's a good reason to show up and be here and be part of each other's lives.
He says, "If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body." The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you," and the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you."
On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable. The parts that we think are less honorable, we treat with special honor. The parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment.
But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it. If one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
But here's the rub: How can we do that if we're not spending time together? How can you know what's going on in the other person's life if you're not spending time with the other person?
You know, we talk a lot about relationships and how it applies to God, but how do we really relate to God? Especially if relationship equals participation.
So this morning, I'm going to give you three quick things. First, when we look at how to relate to God, the first thing we have to do is we have to spend time in His presence. We've got to spend time with Him.
You know what it's like. You have anybody in your life that you don't spend a lot of time with? How's that relationship? Let me ask you this question: Has anybody ever had, like maybe in the past, a whole bunch of really close friends or family members or some people that you're really close to, and then some time went by, you didn't really talk to each other that much for a couple years or so, and then you get back together after a couple years, and it's a little awkward?
It feels a little weird. You don't feel as close, and it feels awkward. My kids will say this; they're here, and they go back to Midland. It's just awkward. It's not the same. People move on; we move on.
You see, when you're not spending time with somebody, when you're not actually relating with them and participating in their life, how can you expect to have a real relationship with them? And how can we expect to have a real relationship with God if we only spend one hour a week in His presence?
A little time with Him—that relationship isn't going to be very strong. And I hate to say this because this is probably too true. What's it like if you only spend an hour with your spouse a week or your child a week? You probably feel the effects, right?
Spending time in His presence, to Him, not at Him, which is great, or about Him. God has done amazing things, but we need to converse with Him. We need to have a conversation with Him. We need to speak, but we need to let Him speak back.
Talk about things. A lot of times when people pray, they're just organ recitals, like, "Lord, help me with my liver. Help me with my heart." Or they just talk about other people, but they don't really converse or have a relationship.
Even before I was a believer, I was in the Air Force. My son's going in the Air Force; I'm so proud of him. He's going to be doing amazing things. I was in the Air Force, and I was a firefighter in the Air Force, and I was stationed at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona.
While I was there, they had the main fire station, and then they had an auxiliary station that was further on the flight line. Throughout my career in the Air Force, I supported the F-16s, and I did fire rescue and stuff with the planes.
So I was out there, and this was before I was even a believer. I hadn't received Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I knew there was a God, but I didn't really have that moment where I accepted Jesus as my Lord. But I remember on the way from the fire station to the flight line, there was like this driveway where we'd drive the fire trucks out if there was an emergency.
And late at night, I would just walk up and down this little driveway to the flight line, back and forth, just talking out loud to God. I was going over all the things that I wanted to do in my life, asking Him about those things. And even before I was even a believer, I was spending this time trying to relate to this God that's out there, trying to have this conversation with Him.
Later on, after I did become a believer, my wife and I lived in Midland. On our street in Midland, there were very few houses out there. Carrie and I, we would walk on our street, and we would just talk to God.
I remember I was the associate pastor of Midland Christian Church, and we felt that God wanted me to become a senior pastor, but we already had a senior pastor. I don't know if you remember this, Carrie; I'm sure you remember this.
So many days, just walking up and down our street, just talking to God. "Lord, if this is what you want, you know, but let it be your will, Lord, not our will." We just had these deep conversations with God.
In fact, a couple of years ago, we were in Florida, and in Florida, in our apartment complex, there's this little pond in between, and we'd walk past all the palm trees. I remember walking past the palm trees with Carrie, talking about West Shore Christian Church, asking God, "Is West Shore the place you want us to go? Is this what you want from us? Where are you leading us?"
Having this conversation and conversing with Him and just listening. Sometimes we would pray and we'd be talking, and then we would just walk and just listen—just listen for what He was saying to us.
I can't tell you how important this is—to have this time where you are talking with God and you're really truly relating with Him. In fact, it's so important that I went back. This was not easy for me; it was not easy for me. But I know a guy, so I talked to him, and we went back into the archives because I wanted to demonstrate this to you and show it to you.
So I went to the archives to get an aerial image of Luke Air Force Base, and this is the image that he pulled up. This was back from 1994-95 time frame. And if you look closely there, right in there, you can actually see—they actually got a picture of me.
So I pulled it up a little bit, and you can see, there I am, I'm just going. I'm just like going and stuff. It was a really important time in my life; it was a really important thing.
And we also got to think about Him regularly. When you fall in love with someone, you think about them all the time. Think about them all the time. Hint for those who are struggling in their marriage here or online.
We carry an eye. We used to do marriage counseling, and whenever we do marriage counseling, the very first thing I would ask the couple is, "Tell me if you're married." And if you're married, the very first thing I would ask the couple is, "Tell me about your courtship. Tell me about the beginning."
Not because I really care—I mean, I did care. It was really, I wanted them to remember what were you thinking and feeling when you were sitting at the altar. I mean, I assume when you're standing at the altar, you're not like, "I hate you." You're feeling these emotions, these feelings of love.
I wanted them to think about those things because many times by the time they get to our office, they're so stressed out; their marriage is so on the rocks. We need to get back to the beginning: Why did you love each other in the first place?
To remember those things, those feelings. And see, when you start to think about those, if you start to think about your spouse, when you think about those, a lot of times those feelings will start to come back.
And we need to spend time really thinking about God regularly to really help with that relationship. How does this apply to us here at the church? Well, the same way—three ways to relate to His body, to Christ's body, to us at the church.
Well, first of all, we've got to spend time with the body. We've got to spend time with the body at church, yes. I mean, that's a no-brainer. The Bible literally says, "Don't forsake meeting together as some are in the habit of doing."
But it's more than that. When Carrie and I were—I went home to work for my dad for a year in Maryland, and we were going to Mountain Christian Church. Carrie was part of a couple of women's groups, and I remember a couple of friends of ours, Rich and Leslie, they would call us, and they'd call some other people in the church, and they'd say, "Hey, if anybody wants to come and join us, come on out and join us."
And before you know it, we'd have like four or five families out at the park, and spontaneously just coming there, just coming there. We tried doing this in Midland; you've got to do like a six-month window before you can get anybody to get together with you.
But it was amazing there. People were just like, "Hey, we're just going to go downtown. You want to come downtown?" "Yes! Yes, let's go downtown; let's spend time together; let's do things together."
And I've got to tell you, that was one of the most blessed moments and times in our life and in our walk. We were built there because people put people first. They put each other first.
And I remember there were times where we were like, "Well, we got other things to do," but what's more important than getting together with our family? So spend time with the body.
And listen, I don't want everybody to stop coming on Sunday, but this doesn't count. This doesn't count. How many important intimate relationship talks did you have this morning? Did you have on Sunday morning?
You know what our important relational talks are? "Oh, I've got to talk about the children's ministry. I've got to talk about this with the ministry. I've got to talk about this."
And I think it was the ghost of Christmas present or whatever who said to Scrooge, "Mankind should be our business." You know, the business that we should be about is one another.
And when we're with the body, we need to talk to the body—not at the body, not about the body, but to the body. Not as a tool, but as a personal relationship, relating to each other simply for the purpose of relating with each other.
You know, sometimes it's like, "Hey, how you doing?" Why do we say, "Hey, how you doing?" Because that's what you say, "Hey, how you doing? How's your week going?" That's what you say.
We had an elder in Midland; he decided he didn't like that. So he told everybody from now on that he would go around and he'd say, "Hey Corbin, how you doing? No, how are you really doing?" And he would do that often.
But after a while, I realized that was just a tool for him too. You know, we gotta ask people how they're doing as a matter of the heart, not as a matter of a tool. Because that's what we're supposed to do.
But I'm asking Corbin, how's he doing? Because I really want to know. I really want to know. That way with the body, where we really want to know one another, growing together as the body.
Think about the body regularly. Think about the body regularly when not with them. Really think about each other when you're at home. Think, "I wonder how things are going."
You know, I wonder when Ro's coming back; I wonder when Brad's coming back; I wonder how things are going there; I wonder how that person's doing. Thinking about one another.
Well good, praise God; we're glad to have you home. Now listen, I can stand up here every week, and I can say it, and we can all nod. You know, let's not be the bobblehead church. Let's not be the bobblehead church. We're just fools, fooling ourselves.
James says to do what the word says. The word tells us to be the body. That doesn't mean to do stuff; be the body. A body is one unit; it works together. It's together, supporting each other, hurting when the other members are hurting, rising up to help, rejoicing when the other members are rejoicing.
The body stays together, works together, and plays together. And my question is, are you the body? The decision we make today, church tomorrow, to do our part. What is your part? And will you step up to the plate and do it?
Listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and after looking at himself goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.
But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues to do this—not forgetting what he's heard but doing it—will be blessed in what he does.
And I have to—you gotta know this—coming to church, that's great; that's the first step. Taking in information, that's great; that's another step. But it's when that information actually causes transformation that is when it happens.
And listen, transformation doesn't end in the baptistry; it begins there. That's the first place it starts there. The transformation should continue to grow us closer to one another, closer to Christ each and every day.
And maybe it isn't gonna be tomorrow where you're just sitting there and you're like, "But maybe you're in there and you're like." And the next day you're, "You know," but we gotta start. We gotta start moving in that direction, and as we do that, I'm telling you, that is when true blessings not only come to us individually but when the church, when the kingdom.
You know, the Bible says this: We can truly bless God when God is blessed is when He sees His children coming together and being the body.
I want you to know that if you're struggling right now, we love you and care about you, and we want to come alongside you. If you don't know who Jesus is or if you've never made that decision to have a relationship with Him, or you want to talk with someone about beginning a relationship, or you want to talk with someone about strengthening your relationship, or you just need prayer, one of our elders, Sean Betzelberger, will be over by the prayer room, and he'd love to pray with you after service today.
You know, once our church begins to grow as the family truly comes together, there's gonna be a time of great growth. But we want to navigate through His waters carefully.
So join us next week as we close our series with growing pains.
Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your love and your goodness and your grace. I thank you for each and every person here, for everyone who's at home, for those who couldn't make it today. I pray for this body and thank you for this body. You have brought us together for such a time as this.
Your word says that you have each one of us here for a reason—to love and support one another. And I just pray that we would continue to do that, and even ever more as the time advances. May you get all the glory. May people see West Shore Christian Church and see the family and the faith and say, "I want some of that."
May we truly be able to be a lighthouse, a beacon of light and hope to a lost and dying world, and may you get all the glory. We love you so very much. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Will you stand with me now as we close in worship?
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on Mar 13, 2024
