Why The Church Lasts Forever

What truly lasts beyond our lifetime? In this episode, we explore the eternal value of God's Word and His Church, and what it means to be part of the body of Christ.

Through biblical pictures of the Church—as a family, temple, body, and bride—we discover our purpose, our role, and the lasting impact of serving God's people.

Share this with someone who wants to grow deeper in their faith community, and let us know which picture of the Church spoke to you most.

PRAYER
We are here to pray for you - with you. Please share your prayer request or praise report here - https://hopeucindia.churchcenter.com/people/forms/3009, and someone from our team will pray for your need through the week.

NEXT STEPS
If you would like to give your heart to Jesus, it's the best decision you could ever make. We want to celebrate with you, provide you with resources and get you the support you need on this journey. Please fill the form - https://hopeucindia.churchcenter.com/people/forms/297739, and someone from our team will contact you soon.

ABOUT HOPEUC INDIA
Hope Unlimited Church is an independent, Spirit-filled church with multiple campuses in India, serving young professionals and families from all parts of India in a modern, dynamic metropolitan church setting.
More about us - https://hopeuc.in/

FIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hopeucsecunderabad

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

Two Things That Last Forever

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Alright, let's look into the word of the Lord today. And because we are talking about the church, I am going to preach also about the church. Now they say that there are two things that will last for an eternity. Two things that will never go extinct. Everything that we see around us, everything that is material will disappear. But there are two things that will last forever. Number one is the word of the Lord. Remember the Bible verse which says heaven and earth will pass away, but the words of the Lord will never, never pass away. The word of the Lord is going to remain. It's going to remain forever. Number two is the family of God, or else we call it the church of the church of God. Why? Because someday God will come. During his second coming, he will take his church home. And once God takes his church home, the church will never see an end. Today, here we worship God on this earth, but sooner or later, at some time, we will be worshipping God in his presence for all eternity. That will be our chief end. That's how we are going to end up. So that's why I say, you know, I mean, there's nothing we can add to the word of the Lord. There's nothing we can subtract or add to the word of the Lord, but there is something we can do with the church of the Lord. Believe me, you can buy assets, you can buy properties, you can have degrees, you can have name, fame, everything in your life, all of it will vanish one day or the other. In the next hundred years, nobody is going to remember that we ever really existed. How many of us remember a grand-great-grandfather or else a great-great-grandfather? Hardly anyone of now. And even if we remember anything of them, we remember all false details. My great-grandfather was six feet tall, he was like, you know, hairy, he was muscular. It's an April fool. It's all just like, you know, people just poked some things. No, no, all of it will be forgotten. But what you do for the church of God will be remembered forever. Whatever you do for the kingdom of God will always be remembered. You know, I'm not talking about, let's say, a typical mean like, you know, old church and all. You know, I go to some of those churches and right behind the chairs, it will be written, donated by such and such a person. Or else on the TV or behind, or on the TV, it will be written, donated by, even that will go away, man. What I mean is if you invite people to become part of the family of God or the church of God, that work will continue forever. Remember the story of the Samaritan woman? When Jesus spoke to her, she goes into the village, invites everybody into to meet with Jesus Christ. So in heaven, they are a group of people from the town of Sikar, and they will always, for all eternity, will say, that Samaritan woman invited us to Jesus Christ. She spoke to us about for all eternity, she will be remembered. Her name itself is not mentioned in the Bible. But what she did for the house of God, for the church of God, that act

What You Do For Church Endures

SPEAKER_00 3:40

will forever remain. So whatever you do for the church of God, when you speak, preach the gospel to somebody, when you talk about Jesus to somebody, when you call them into the house of the Lord, that work is never in vain. It will last an eternity. So let's talk about the church of God today.

Ecclesia Means The Called Out

SPEAKER_00 4:01

You know, the in the Greek language, the church is called as ecclesia. Why am I talking Greek? Because the New Testament is written in the in the Greek language. You have to forgive me for using some of these Greek words today. But wherever in the Bible, in the Greek Bible rather, you find the word ecclesia, that word is translated as church in our English Bibles. Ecclesia is a Greek word, two words come coming together. It's a compound word, ek meaning out. That's where even Exodus comes from. Ek meaning out and kalio. Kallio literally means call. We get the English word call from the Greek word kallio. Ek plus call. It would literally mean the called out once. So the word church means the called out, called out once. You know, let me just take a pause right here. And you might want to scan the QR code that they'll show on the screen. Why? Because whatever I'm going to share, it will be something really useful. Something about the church, and you will try to revisit these notes at some time or the sometime or the other. So if you have your mobile phone, please do scan them. And once you scan, you will go into a page, the sermon notes page, and you will have whatever I'm preaching today, plus a little more information. So in that way, you'll be able to save it up and uh look at it, refer to it at a later time. Alright, we just give you a moment. Alright, Ecclesia, the called out once. The idea of this word is God has called certain people to be part of his community. That's called the church. But loosely it can also mean an assembly of people or a gathering of gathering of people. And the church is a complex term in the sense a lot of things happen in the church. So what the Bible does is the Bible doesn't exactly mean I mean explain all of its duty as one, but the Bible uses metaphors in order to explain the different functions of the church. What is a metaphor? It's a part of a speech. Part of a speech which is totally unrelated to whatever we are talking about here, in this case, the church. So just because I'm not able to explain properly in English, I am using a metaphor. Something which is different but has some similarity. Part of it is true, the entirety of it is not really true. But part of it will paka make some sense. We use metaphors every now and then in order to convey abstract terms, in order to make sense of things which are too

Vine And Olive Tree Images

SPEAKER_00 6:59

complex. So what we are doing is we will study 10 metaphors of the church that we find in the New Testament. Let's just go very quickly. Metaphor number one in John chapter 15, verse 5. Now, this is the one famous chapter where John talks about our relationship, the church relationship with God. He calls the church as the branches on a on a wine. The church is referred to as the branches on a wine. And if you look at the Old Testament, whenever when they were carving the mean uh the furniture, the carving the beams for the temple at Jerusalem, Solomon and David made sure that every now and then they carved the the wines. Wines on the on the or the wooden work was done with a lot of wine engravings on it. You know, here I remember, I mean, if you go to the the Sikhindrabath Baptist church, not far from here, the main door is has a beautiful carvings of wine on it. Why? Because that church identifies itself as a mean branches on a wine. Let's read this verse. It says, I am the wine, you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing. The emphasis is on the word remain, meaning the church always remains in Christ. So if you take a church and remove Christ from that, that's not a church. Church has everything to do with Christ, and all the others are just additions. So if you get a bunch of rituals and say that we are a church, no. If Christ is not there, there no, that's really not called a church. You can get Christ and rituals or whatever it is, then you can still call it as a church. But without Christ, there is nothing, there's no entity called as a church. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit. So the only way for the church to be productive is to remain in Jesus Christ. Apart from Him, we can do nothing. Think about this. You know, sometimes we call, you know, our church a church which is alive and a church which is dead. You know, one thing about a church which is alive, or not just a church, anything which has life, it grows. Right? That's true with us, right? You know, when when if if we say that we are alive, that means we are growing. I mean, we grow physically to some at to till one age, then we grow in our wisdom, we grow in our experience, but we continue to grow. Anything which has life, it grows. Anything which is dead, it disintegrates. Anything which is dead, it will kind of decay. That's just a process of disintegration. So if a church, if you say that we belong to the church which is alive, that means we belong to a church which is growing, a church which is growing. The second one. Church, another metaphor for the church is an olive tree. Romans chapter 11, verse 17 onwards, you will find Apostle Paul is the one who uses this imagery. It's a rather too long uh a scripture, so let me just explain it to you. Now, Paul says that remember, God has kind of rejected the Jews because the Jews were hostile to the message of Jesus. The Jews turned against the message of Jesus. But then what did uh what did God do? In that place, God is welcoming the Gentiles, meaning the non-Jews, everybody from all across the globe. He's telling, come be part of the church of, come be part of the church of God. So he uses the metaphor of the olive tree, telling, God cut off some branches which are not productive, and he threw them away, but he went to the wild olive plants, he cut some branches from there and he grafted them into the good olive tree. So he says, Don't be too proud that you are part of this great olive tree that God is building up, that God is raising. But be grateful that God has accepted you because of his kindness and because of his grace. In other words, what God is telling you, you know, don't go bragging around. Hey, I belong to Hope Unlimited Church. We are the only people who go to heaven. Really? Man, you go there, you will find the Methodist, the Baptist, you will find the Pentecostal, you will find all kinds of Christians all throughout the ages in the presence of the Lord. We will only be one of them. Right? You know, you know, believe me, like, you know, if you really want to get comfortable in heaven, that means you need to worship God with people who are from different backgrounds, because that's exactly what you will find in heaven. You know, if you are in a habit of like, you know, I will only worship God with all Tilgu people and all, no, you'll find it a little uncomfortable there. Because in heaven, every nation, type and tongue, they will worship the worship the Lord. Here in an all weave branch is telling, you know, I mean, God is inviting everybody to be part of the part of his church family. You know, I mean, uh, I was like when I was pastoring the church at Banjara Hills, I always used to have this value system telling that, you know, no matter what you are, you can be a manager, you can be a general manager, CEO, owner, CM, PM, or whatever you are. I mean, the title is valid till you walk into the door. But as long as you're here in the house of the Lord, we are all the children of God. Amen. No more status, no more dignity. I mean, put them outside. Once you go back, you do whatever you want to do. But in the house of the Lord, we are all the children of children of God. Agree? Amen. The third one, a field of crops.

Field And Building Working As One

SPEAKER_00 13:38

I mean, this reference is for the next one, also, so let's look at it a little carefully. First Corinthians chapter 3, verse 6 to 9. It says, I planted a seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose. For we are co-workers in God's service. You are God's field. We are a field of crops. Now, the idea in this verse or the message of this verse is one person does one work, another person does another work. But then interestingly, it says all of us have the same one purpose. Same one purpose. You know, mean mean if I ask all the worship team to take care of the production equipment, all the production team to come and do whatever they're doing over here, it's going to be a mess. Yes, it's going to be a mess. Why? Because the worship team is good at what they do, the production team is good at what they what they do. And together, when we join hands and work together, that's when the name of the Lord is glorified, right? No, one person is not more important than the other in the house of the Lord. Maybe in the world the value system is different, but in God's house, we go by a different value system. Just because somebody is visible doesn't mean that person is the most important person. You know, we have this wrong notion. Wrong notion. Most of the people think, you know, just because you know the worship leader is the most visible person in the church or the pastor is the most visible person in the church, they are the most important people. Really? No, there are people who are working much harder behind the scenes. I walked in a little early today, and the first person that I saw is Chendapa. He's sitting right there. He's right uh right there, and then I saw all the production team, they're setting up everything. They were setting up everything and all, and uh mean God knows when they walked in. They walked in like in maybe two hours before I came to this church. And I'm sure they will walk out maybe three hours after all of us, all of us would leave. They won't get that much of recognition, but without them, nothing really happens here. Okay, let me tell you this. You know, I mean, when you look at me, I mean what you find more interesting, you will see that my nose is really nice. Or my ears are really. I mean, they're the most visible part of my face. But if I cut off my nose, you will find a hole there, but I can still breathe and survive. If you cut off my ears, I can still hear and I can still survive. These are the most visible part of my body, but there are other organs that are not really visible. Let's say I have a heart inside, I never saw my heart until now. I have some lungs inside, I never saw them anytime. But if I cut any one of them off, so the most important parts are the ones that I never saw, and the most visible parts, so visibility is not prominence. So you can do any work in the house of the Lord. I I love the word which says that all of us work with one purpose is to give glory to glory to God. That's the church. The fourth one is the same verse. It says, for you are God's field, then Kama, it says you are God's building. You are God's building. I love this. Together we become the building that God is constructing. You know, this this building is not really Hope Unlimited Church, Sikhrabah. This is not it. This is just the place where we gather to worship God. I hope you know, don't really misunderstand me. This building, this structure is not the church. You and I together, we become the we become the church. The people who are gathering over here, we are the church. Just that we chose to gather in this place at this time to worship the to worship our God. The next the fifth one, it is a temple, the new temple.

Temple And Priesthood In Daily Life

SPEAKER_00 18:17

First Peter chapter 2, verse 5. You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Now think about the temple. The temple is the place where everything about the the nation of Israel rotated around. Everything about their lives revolved around the temple. They would offer sacrifices at the temple, they would meet at the temple, they were taught at the temple. I mean, their harvest festival is at the temple. Whatever they did, they did it at the temple. You know, I remember when I was a kid, like, you know, I don't know if it is a blessing or I don't know. When I was a kid, I grew up in a church. I went to Sunday school in a church, then I went to the Christian school, the Wesley Boys High School. All of my classmates were all church people or uh mean their pastors' kids. Then I went to a youth making most of my life. I lived among Christians. Sometimes I feel very blessed about it. Because, you know, I mean, I mean I have a good number of people that I always like fellowship with and all. But sometimes I feel that it is a little bad because I have very few people who were not who are really non-Christians. I mean, if I have other mean friends of other faiths, I can at least share my so sometimes a mixed feelings. That's how I that's how I go through. But I am really happy that some way my life was surrounded around the church. It revolved around the church or things of things of God. I got friends who work in ministry, even now. I got friends who are in ministry, most of my close friends that I trust are from the from the ministry, things like that. Church is also called as a new temple. Now, the thing about the temple is that's where the presence of the Lord dwells. Remember the time when Solomon built the temple, when he said that prayer, the Bible says the Shekinah glory, or else the mighty glory of the Lord descended on that place. People were not able to stand in that place because the weight of his glory was so very heavy. God manifests his presence through the through the church. You know, believe me, you know, there are times when I struggle in my life, and uh the the answer is just one visit to the church. You know, especially, you know, my favorite are the worship services. Whenever, like, you know, mean, like, you know, mean people, whenever I feel bad, I walk into a worship service, I feel really nice. There are times when I was healed, there are times when my depression just left me, there are times when I got the answer just because I was in an atmosphere where people were praising God, where people were worshiping God. I believe our church also has the same effect. We worship God passionately so that somebody who's planning suicide will walk in and their life is changed for good. That's what the church of God does. The sixth one, the church is also a group of priests. 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 5. It says, We are a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God. We are a holy priesthood. Now, the thing about priests is now this is an awesome responsibility. This is a very sacred, solemn responsibility. In the old covenant, only the Levites had the pleasure to function as the priest of the Lord. Now, what did the duty involve? They had access into the presence of the Lord. Do we have access into the presence of the Lord? Yes. He's one prayer away. And what else did the Levites do? The Levites, the primary duty is they spoke to people on behalf of God. And the other thing that they did is they spoke to God on behalf of the people. So when they are in the presence of the Lord, they would say, God, people sinned. So I'm bringing a sacrifice. Look at this and forgive the sins of the people. But when they are like, you know, in front of the people, they say the Lord is gracious, but remain holy in the presence of the Lord. So they had these two functions. They represented God, they also represented the represented the people. You know, one thing I know is the world outside, they will never open the Bible and read. You can give them the Gideon's Bible, you can give them that, this, or anything. Very few might open it and read. But the one Bible that they will read is your life and my life. Right? They will look at our behavior. You know, mean mean I mean I I was a believer for me, believer for quite some time and all. And sometimes when I did something wrong, people around me, mostly family members, they're good at this. I mean, mostly family members, what they said is, you are a believer, you go to the church and all, and this is what you do. If you're smiling, Miss, they either did it to you or you did it to someone else. I mean, they asked me like that, or they questioned me like that. Why? Because they are expecting us to have a better moral standard than all the others, right? They're expecting us to represent Christ in our lives. The only Bible, or let's say some people say the only gospel that people will read is your life and it is my life. And if my life doesn't show the gospel, if my love doesn't show what it means to be a Christian, they will never come to a church. But they can look at your life, look at the way you respond to issues, look at the way you behave with others, the way you treat a fellow human being, and they might just come to you and say, Why do you do like things things like this? I also want to be like you. So choose. We are a group of priests. So when we walk into our schools or colleges, when we walk into the malls, when we go walk into our BPOs, when we walk into those commercial centers and all, we walk in like high priests. We walk representing God through everything that we do. The seventh one.

God’s House And Truth That Transforms

SPEAKER_00 25:15

If we hold firmly to our confidence, the hope in which we glory. So I read the English Bible, and oftentimes it uses the word church, church, church and all. And it made me wonder, where does this word church come from? They should have conveniently used the word ecclesia. You know, in North India, in the Hindi language, the church is called as Khalicia. At least that's a better word. That's a that sounds more like ecclesia. And why is that English uses the word church? So I went to something called as the etymology dictionary. Etymology just traces the history of the word. Where does the word come from? So the word church, it comes from it's an Anglo-Saxon word, but borrowed heavily from Russian and German, but the origins is from the Greek. Re, I told you you must forgive me for using Greek words. It comes from two Greek words: kurios, which means Lord, and oikos, which means house. You can check it later. Kurios plus oikos, meaning literally means the Lord's house or the house of the of the Lord. That word, when it goes into Russian, the Germans borrowed it, and by the time it ended up in English, it ended up as church. Church. The house of the Lord, the place where the presence of God dwells. Interestingly, this verse says, We are his house. Again, let me just reiterate: this building is not the church. All of us together, we are the we are the church. The eighth one. The church is the pillar and the foundation of foundation of truth. 1 Timothy chapter 3 verse 15. If I am delayed, or Paul is writing to Timothy, he says, if I am delayed, you will know how people are to conduct themselves in God's household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and the foundation of foundation of truth. Meaning, Paul is telling, man, if you're in the house of the Lord, your behavior changes. You know how to conduct yourself properly. Because just because you're part of the house of, just because you're part of the house of the Lord, no, me, it is my personal conviction that if people, that if all of us keep coming to church on a regular basis, there has to be a transformation. Okay, so if anybody is walking into the church for the last five years, ten years, and their spiritual life or they have not improved as a person, what's the point coming to the church? Why bother coming to the church? Every time we gather in the house of the Lord, every time we worship, every time we listen to the message of the Lord, it should have an effect on us. It should change us from the inside out. We should become better people, better husbands, better wives, better children, better employers, better employees. Whatever, wherever we are, we should become a better version of ourselves because we are the members of the house of God. Amen. It should transform us, it should make us into better people. The church is the foundation of truth. This is the place where people would come, they would see their lives change. I mean, I just pray that people who are like constantly depressed, constantly pessimistic people will walk into the house of the Lord and they will change their behavior, they will change their thought patterns. I mean, I just pray that short-tempered people who always keep shouting, abusing, beating, and all, that when they come to the house of the Lord, they become gentle and understanding. Yeah, some of you are telling me like God make my husband like that, or make my brother like that. But I think church should be that kind of a that kind of a place. The sick come so that they will find healing in the presence of the in the presence of the Lord. The ninth one.

Body Of Christ And Bride Of Christ

SPEAKER_00 29:36

Two more to go. The church is also known as the body of body of Christ. 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 12 to 27. Now, the portion is rather too big, so let me just give an explanation of that. Now, this is where Paul is talking about how the body functions. He says that, you know, I mean, no no member of the body functions independently. You know, my hand does not say I will do whatever I do. Or my leg doesn't have a mind of its own. Sometimes my stomach has. I mean, it just goes like gives some weird signals. I mean, like what is it trying to say? He's telling though we are different members, having different functions, our head is Jesus Christ. Every part of my body is being controlled by my mind. My head controls every part of the body. My head sends a signal, that's why I fold my fist, or that's why I open my fist. Or if I walk, it's my head that controls. So you might be the hand or the feet or whatever you are. Who is our head? Oh, you can say it loudly. Who is our head? Jesus is our head, meaning all of us submit ourselves to Jesus Christ, all of us receive instructions from Jesus Christ. None of us act independently, but we act together. All of us, when we surrender ourselves to Jesus Christ, and He gives us instruction. Wow, that's a beautiful way the church word, church would function. And believe me, something about surrender. Everybody surrenders to something or the other. Everybody. You know, some people might say, I don't surrender to anybody, I'm a very independent person. I have a very independent thinking and all. Man, you still have surrendered to that particular brand of philosophy, an independent thinking brand of philosophy. You are a slave to that. Everybody surrenders to something or the other. My challenge is surrender to God. Surrender your will to God, surrender your thought life to God, surrender your preferences to God, and let God transform you. Let God decide what is good for you, good for your life. The tenth and the final one. This is a very good one, very important one, especially for you unmarried people. The church is also known as the bride of the bride of Christ. And Ephesians chapter 5, verse 30. This is the scripture we read at most of the wedding ceremonies and all. Let me read it for you. It says, For we are members of his body, for this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. And somehow Paul says, This is a profound mystery. But then he says, I'm talking about church and Christ. You know, God could have chosen any other relationship to refer himself with the church or to relate himself with the church. You know, Israel, he calls Israel as his firstborn. But it when when it comes to the church, God calls church as my bride. He could have called, I am the mother and the church is my child. Somehow God in his wisdom has chosen this relationship to represent what he thinks about the church. He is the groom, the church is his bride. And uh, you know something about this marriage, marriage relationship? They say that it is the most intimate of human relationships. The most intimate relationship that human beings can ever achieve is a marriage relationship. You know, I was under the impression that the the the relationship of a mother and a child, that's the most intimate of all. Why? Because the child is in the womb of the mother, then the child is utterly dependent on the on the mother. In a way, it is a very important one, very intimate one also. I love my mother, I'm very close to my my mom. But then as I started growing, what I understood is I started becoming an individual. I started learning, earning, and then I, once we get married, we move away from our families. But when you talk about a marriage relationship, now these are two different individuals who come in the presence of the Lord, in the presence of the church, and they exchange, they make those vows. They mean they exchange those vows, and two independent individuals, they come together to become one unit. So much so the Bible says that they too will no longer be two, but they will be, they will be one. And not just that, you know, what else does the Bible say? What God has joined together, let no man put. Yes, let no man separate that kind of a relationship. Somehow God choose this relationship. Now think about this, you know, when it comes to, I mean, if you have a girlfriend or a boyfriend, or if you have a spouse, like if anybody says anything to my spouse, or let's say a girlfriend or what, what do I do? I'll give a tight slap. I will not even think who's right or wrong. The only thought in my uh in my mind is she's close to me and they insulted, so I will beat. Then I will justify my act using the word of the Lord. That's that's me. That's me. Why? Because love makes you do things like that. You know, unfortunately, you know, I mean, I really repent of whatever I had I did. Sometimes when I was upset with the church, I spoke bad about the church. But if anybody insults people who are close to me, if I respond that way, what do you think God will feed when we speak against the church? So next time, when we talk about the church, let's talk with some respect. Let's honor the church because Christ honors the church. Christ is preparing his church. So let's speak of it in respect, speak of the church in respect. Let's treat the church of God with some respect because Christ is jealously guarding his church, jealously waiting for his church, is very possessive about his church. Come

Ten Metaphors Recap And Close

SPEAKER_00 36:28

let's just stand in the presence of the Lord. Ten metaphors we have seen today. Ten metaphors talking about the church. Number one, we are the branches on a vine. If we remain in him, only then will we be fruitful. Number two, we are an olive tree. God has given us this awesome privilege to be grafted, to be part of his kingdom. Number three, we are a field of crops, different responsibilities, all for one purpose. Number four, we are a building. This is where the presence of the Lord dwells. Number five, we are a temple. The life of every believer revolved around the temple, around the presence of the Lord. Number six, we are a group of priests. Remember, we represent God outside, and in the presence of the Lord, we plead for everybody outside. And number seven, we are the house of, we are the house of God. Number eight, we are the pillar and the foundation of truth. Number nine, we are the body of Christ. Number ten, we are the bride of bride of Christ.