Why Are You Here?

Click Here to Listen to the Sermon for Sunday, December 4,2011 by Pastor Rodger S. Loar

Scripture Reference:  1Peter 2:4-10 and 2Timothy 2:2

 

People have some funny ideas about church. 

The first one is that church is a building.  It’s not.   

The second is that church is a business that sells a product called God to the people who come.  It’s not. 

The third that going to church is just showing up on a Sunday morning.  It’s not

 The church is the body of people who gather together.  It is the living, breathing extended family of God, gathering together to worship him and to encourage each other.

It’s about living together in that messy, knocked-around, whoops-I-made-a-mistake, let-me-help-you-up-when-you-fall, kind of way. 

Peter calls us living stones, being built into a spiritual house with Christ as the cornerstone:  The Church!

Like the toy bricks that you had as a kid, we build upon each other to be a wall.  We are strong because we stand together and we stand with Christ.

The church is US!

Why are you here?  Why do you come to church on Sunday?  Why should you make it a priority to be together with your church family every week?

The answer is simple:  We are stronger together.  We encourage each other.  We build each other up.  The strong among us today help the weak.  And tomorrow, when we struggle, they will be strong to help us. 

Church isn’t about habit.  It’s not about business.  It’s not about going to a building because that’s what your parents did?  It’s about people.

Let me encourage you to make Sunday morning a priority.  Be here with your family through thick and thin.  Build them up and you’ll find that they build you up too.

Life is a Journey.  You don’t have to walk alone.

That’s why you are here.

Pastor Rodger

Why Am I Here?

Click Here to Listen to the Sunday, November 27, 2011 Sermon by Pastor Rodger S. Loar

Scripture Reference:  Genesis 1:27-31, Deuteronomy 6:5, and Matthew 22:34-40

Philosophers have been wrestling with the question of existence for millennia.  Why am I here?  The answers are there in God’s word.  From the beginning of the Bible, God lets us know the answer to the question, “Why am I here?”

God put us here for relationship.

We are here to care.

Care for God.

Care for Each other.

and Take Care of Creation.

That’s why I am here.

God put us here to take care of the place.  We are caretakers and we haven’t been very good at it.  All too often, Evangelicals get so focused on heaven, that we are no earthly good.  All arguments about global warming aside, we need to take care of the planet, and yet, we often push away others who care about the environment.  We seem to present the idea to the world that Christ is coming back, so it doesn’t matter how we keep the place.  But God cares about creation and we are called to take care of it.

We are also called to care for one another.  Do we do that very well?  Christians are unfortunately known for treating our own brothers and sisters in sin very poorly.  We have similar divorce rates and even higher abortion rates as the rest of the world.  God cares about our relationships with one another, so perhaps we should treat those better too.

Finally, We are called to care for God; to love Him with all of our hearts and mind and strength.  Sadly, we don’t do a very good job of that either.  Worship on Sunday is just another activity that might fall to the wayside for work or entertainment.  We don’t spend time with God in His word or in prayer.

God put us here to care.

That’s the answer to the question:  “Why am I here?”

The answer then calls us to get to work:

1.       Let’s care for God.  Make it a priority to spend time with Him each week.

2.       Let’s care for each other.  Get counseling, build relationships, seek help, so that when times are hard we can turn to those closest to us for support, and know that they will be there to walk with us.

3.       Let’s care for creation.  Let’s show the rest of the world that we care about the creation that God gave us.  Let’s glorify God by living simply, by cutting our trash, by recycling, by cleaning up.

Let’s care and show the world that we care. 

Pastor Rodger

We Are Back!!!

After hours of technical support, changing to a new server, internet provider issues, and not one, but two computer crashes, the Monday Morning Bible Blog has returned.  We will be restarting the blog beginning the first week of Advent (Sunday, 11/27/11).  If you would like to listen to any of the sermons that are missing between August & November, please contact Mountain View Christian Church to obtain a CD of the sermon:

Mountain View Christian Church
2927 East Campbell Avenue
Phoenix, AZ 85016
(602) 955-9414