If you would like to send your offering through the mail, our mailing address is:

CrossPointe Community Church
P O Box 126
Chippewa Lake, OH 44215

SCRIPTURE

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
“Well,” they replied, “some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.”
Then He asked them, “But who do you say I am?”
Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus replied, “You are blessed, Simon son of John, because My Father in heaven has revealed this to you. You did not learn this from any human being. Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means ‘rock’), and upon this rock I will build My church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it. And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.” Then He sternly warned the disciples not to tell anyone that He was the Messiah.

Matthew 16:13-20

Speaking of the Church, here are six actual bloopers and blunders cultivated from Church bulletins.

The Low Self-Esteem Support Group will meet at the church Thursday at 7 PM.
Please use the back door.

Don’t let worry kill you off – let the Church help.

Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married in our church on October 24. So ends a friendship that began in their school days.

At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be ‘What is Hell?’ Come early and listen to our church choir practice.

A bean supper will be held on Tuesday evening in the church hall; music to follow.

Ladies, don’t forget the rummage sale at the church this coming Saturday. It’s a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping anymore. Bring your husbands.

Only in the church!

Last week, I began talking about loving the church. And I told you that during this month I was going to be sharing with you some of the wonderful aspects of the Church so that we might, if need be, fall in the love with the church all over again.

I believe that Jesus not only wants us to love the Church as He does, but also to be thrilled about being part of CrossPointe Community Church! And I want to do my part to make that happen. So allow me to read . . .

Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of His body, the church. He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.

Ephesians 4:11-16

SERMON

Gym of the Soul

Randy K’Meyer

Most of us know people who love to go to the gym or recreation center. Why? Because they love to buff and tone their bodies. Whether it’s to catch the eye of the opposite sex or to be more appealing to their spouse or for their own long-term health, some people love to go to the gym.

Other folks love to go to school. Whether preparing for a career or to simply improve their minds, some people love to go to school. My grandson, Noah, was scheduled to graduate this Spring from OSU with a degree in electrical engineering. But he loves to learn and wanted to take fly-fishing and so he’s going back next fall for one more semester.

As people love the gym because it helps them tone their bodies, people love colleges and universities because they help them to improve the mind, so people love the Church because one of the reasons it exists is to help them grow to spiritual maturity.

The New Testament is replete with verses that encourage us to grow to become more and more like Jesus.

From today’s text in Ephesians 4:15: “Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ,”

Colossians 1:10 says, “Walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.”

2 Peter 3:18 posits: “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

And 2 Peter 1:5-8 very wisely says, “Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Where is the arena where the majority of the growth in Christ takes place? Why, the Church, of course.

Dr. Tony Evans in his book, God’s Glorious Church, writes,

The Church is the most important institution on the earth. The church, and only the church, has been commissioned by the Sovereign Lord to be His representative agency in history. It has been given sole authority to unlock the treasures of the spiritual realm so that they can be brought to bear on the realities of earth. . . . the church has been given the assignment of growing all of its members into mature believers who can disciple others and maximize their spiritual potential. 1

This aspect of the church begins with Jesus who in today’s text said, “I will build My Church” (Matthew 16:18).

Where the word church literally means, “called out ones.”

When people like you and I make a faith commitment to Jesus, we are called out of the world, into the Kingdom of God. We have been called to embrace God’s Kingdom and to facilitate to the best of our ability the bringing of His Kingdom to this earth as it is in heaven.

And what does Jesus desire for this entity of called-out ones? That they are built up . . . I will build My Church.

As Paul writes, the goal is “that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love” (Ephesians 4:16).

You need the church and the church needs you to fully accomplish its God-given goals.

Thom Rainer in the article Five Seemingly Well-Intended Sayings that Hurt the Church, states that one of the five is, “Jesus and I get along just fine by ourselves.”

“No, you don’t,” he continues. “Jesus wants you to get off your idle posture and connect with other believers. From Acts 2 to Revelation 3, the Bible is about the local church or written in the context of the local church. The local church is God’s plan A, and he didn’t give us a plan B.” 2

In the early church, coming to Christ was coming to the church. The idea of experiencing salvation without belonging to a local church is foreign to the New Testament. More than simply living out a private commitment to Christ, believers joined together formally with other believers in a local assembly and devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer (Acts 2:42). The majority of epistles of the New Testament were written to churches. These letters assumed that believers would be committed to a local assembly.

According to one scholar, the definition of a member of a local church is one who, by his own volition, has declared allegiance, commitment, or submission to; a particular local assembly specifically and exclusively (exclusively meaning you can’t be a ‘member’ of more than one assembly).

To be a member of the church is to belong to an incredible gift given to us by God. And one of the blessings and benefits when we make the best use of this gift is that we will mature in Christ.

I hope and pray that you are in love with that aspect of the church!

At CrossPointe we are serious about the Biblical mandate to coach people up; to, as Jesus said, “make disciples,” (Matthew 28:18), and as Paul counseled, “to build up the church, the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12).

We don’t take membership lightly as does the church that advertises: “Has the heaviness of your old-fashioned church got you weighted down? We are the New and Improved Lite Church of the Valley . . . so try us. We promise 40-minute worship services, with 10-minute sermons. We are the home of the 7.5% tithe and only take the offering every other week. We encourage obeying only 8 of the 10 Commandments . . . you pick which ones. We are closed the first week of hunting season, the last week of December, and for the month of July.
Yes, at Lite Church of the Valley, we are everything you want in a church, and less 3

Here at CrossPointe, we have something more meaningful in mind. Several years ago, our leaders spent some time painting a picture of what we considered the Marks of a Mature Member.

“I am a church member. I have been adopted into Christ’s universal church through faith in Christ to forgive sins (Ephesians 5:5-7). I will join with other members at CrossPointe Community Church to participate in the body of Christ” (I Corinthians 12:27). I will attend corporate worship services to honor Christ and to grow in grace. I will individually engage in prayer and the scriptures in order to become more like Jesus. I will help build up the body of Christ by using my gifts to love, to serve, to give, and to offer Christ to the people in my sphere of influence.”

“I am a church member. I will pray for our church’s pastor, other leaders, and our ministry. Because our leaders cannot serve our church in their own power, I will pray for God’s strength and wisdom for them every day. I will also pray for fellow church members as the need arises (Colossians 4:3).”

Concerning the importance of prayer, in his book, The Prayer Shield, C. Peter Wagner states that,

The most underutilized source of spiritual power in our churches today is the intercession for Christian leaders.” He states, “No question exists in the minds of those who have experienced it: committed, faithful intercession brings increased spiritual power to Christian ministries.

This why Acts 2:42-47 says: “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”

“I am a church member. I will be a source of unity in His church. I understand that people in the church are not perfect; that includes me. I will not be a source of gossip or conflict. I will not judge others. I will do all I can to humbly accept, love, and forgive others (Ephesians 4:1-6).”

“I am a church member. I am in this church to serve others and to serve Christ (Romans 12:1). Therefore, I will not let my preferences and desires adversely affect my participation. I will humbly follow the directives of our church leaders who have been called by God to advance His Kingdom.”

“I am a church member. In order to honor Christ, I will make a prayerful, informed decision about the giving of a portion of my income to Christ’s Church (II Corinthians 9:7).”

“I am a church member. I will view this membership as a gift of God; therefore, I will not take membership for granted. I am humbled and honored to serve and to love others through the church.”

“I am a church member. And I thank God that I am.”

I love that document! And I hope you do too!

But it’s one thing to write up a document like that; how are we going to go about helping people like you and me cultivate those qualities of maturity?

We came up with what we call our process of discipleship (refer to handout).

It begins with Pizza with the Pastor as a brief introduction to CrossPointe. From there we hope you will take a New Member’s Class, which will cover the ABCs of the Faith, our Beliefs, our Values, our Purpose, Structure, and Budget.

And then, our church will offer short-term classes on the following subjects that were laid out in the Marks of a Mature Member: Prayer, Worship, Unity, Forgiveness, Serving, Evangelism, and Stewardship.

Our hope is that all CrossPointe people will avail themselves of the opportunities provided to take these classes so that together we will grow in our faith. COVID derailed us but in 2023, we are going to focus on making as many of these available as we are able.

And, of course, we are starting today with the three-week module on prayer, probably the most important of all.

Why would you want to devote yourself to growing in Christ through the Church? Because your life will go better.

All of us know individual people and families who have no Christian foundation and who, consequently, make poor choices about the way they live their lives. And who, as a result, suffer painful, and sometimes terrible consequences: relationship disasters, addictions, incarceration, and even death.

However; he or she who makes it a regular part of life to grow in Christ through the Church will live better than those who do not. For they will experience more “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control.”

He or she who exhibits more and more of these qualities will be better equipped to handle illness and death with patience and peace, will enjoy more satisfying and less stressful relationships with love, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and faithfulness, and will be better equipped to handle temptation with self-control.

As an illustration of your life going better the more you immerse yourself into the life of the Church, most of you will remember the name Sylvester Stallone, the actor most well-known for his role as Rocky Balboa. He was raised in the Catholic faith, left it behind to live life for himself, and later returned to his roots to live a better life.

He writes, “I was raised in a Catholic home and I went to Catholic schools. Then one day, I got out into the so-called real world, and I was presented with temptation. I kinda, like, lost my way and made a lot of bad choices. Those bad choices ultimately left me unsatisfied, especially my decision to place fame and career ahead of his family.”

After traveling down the road of a misguided and therefore stressful life for years, he decided to return to the church.

“The more I go to church,” he says, “and the more I turn myself over to the process of believing in Jesus and listening to His Word and having Him guide me, the more I felt the pressure leave me. You need to have the expertise and the guidance of someone else,” he said. “You cannot train yourself. I feel the same way about Christianity and about what the church is: The church is the gym of the soul.” 4

1 Dr. Tony Evans, God’s Glorious Church, [Chicago, Illinois: Moody Publishers, © 2003], Page 16.

2 https://churchanswers.com/blog/five-seemingly-well-intending-sentences-that-are-hurting-the-church/?utm_source=convertkit&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=
Church+Answers+Week+in+Review%3A+August+29+-+September+2%2C+2202%20-%208895565

3 New And Improved ‘Lite’ Church! Author Unknown
http://www.gospelweb.net/ChurchHumor7/NewAndImprovedLiteChurch.htm

4 Stuart Shepard, The Gym of the Soul, Citizenlink.com (11-15-06);
submitted by David Slagle, Atlanta, Georgia
https://www.biblia.work/sermons/training-in-the-gym-of-the-soul/