How to Have a Happy Church

Thousand Oaks Baptist Church

How to Have a Happy Church

(Sunday morning sermon for June 3, 2001)

Text: Acts 2:41-47

Introduction:

As a certain popular series of soap commercials of a few years ago has informed us, our bodies consist of some 2000 parts.

I asked someone the other day, “Of how many parts does the space shuttle consist?” And he said, “All of them.”

Here’s another question: Of what does the local church consist?

And of course, the answer is: Its members, all of them.

And happy churches consist of happy Christians. And so the title of my message is, How to Have a Happy Church.

I firmly believe that it’s possible to have a happy church. I also believe it’s possible to continue to have a happy church – a happy church where all of us are rejoicing in the Lord, rejoicing in His salvation, rejoicing in His goodness and mercy and grace, rejoicing in what God is doing for us and in us and through us, and rejoicing in our fellowship with each other.

And I believe the Bible teaches that there are definite beneficial results of having a happy church:

•        I believe a happy church will be a productive church.

•        I believe a happy church will be a soul-winning church.

•        I believe a happy church will be a growing church.

•        I believe a happy church will be a church where the needs of all

of its members are met in spiritual fellowship, spiritual growth,

and practical, spiritual service.

Happy churches are made up of happy Christians.

And this morning I’d like to spend a few minutes sharing with you the five elements which, if they are present in our local church, will produce and maintain the joy of the Lord right here in our own lives, in our own local church.

Turn with me in your Bibles to Acts 2:46.

As you’re turning to that verse, let me quickly let you know that this is one of my how to messages from Acts 2. And in the last two of these messages, preached in April and May, we’ve already discovered both how to come to church and how to have a strong church.

And by way of quick review, let me remind you that the Bible tells us, in Acts 2:41-42, that we should come to church in five ways:

•        We should come as believers.

•        We should come as baptized believers.

•        We should come as members of the local church.

•        We should come as steadfast Christians.

•        We should come as teachable Christians.

And then, the Bible also tells us, in Acts 2:42-45, how to have a strong church. The Bible says that to have a strong church…

•        We must be strong in our fellowship.

•        We must be strong in our obedience and discernment.

•        We must be strong in prayer.

•        We must be strong in the fear of God.

•        We must be strong in sharing what we have with those in the

church who have needs.

And now, as we read on in Acts 2:46-47, we are about to discover how to have a happy church, made that way by happy Christians.

Acts 2:46 - And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,

47 Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

Now folks, if these two verses mean what they clearly say, and if we intend to have and maintain a happy church, then five things have to happen:

•       First, we have to become single-hearted believers.

•       Second, we have to become loving and forgiving believers.

•       Third, we have to become glad believers.

•       Fourth, we have to learn to genuinely praise the Lord.

•       Fifth, we have to become winsome believers.

And the Lord willing, we’re going to learn how to start doing that this morning.

I.       A Happy Church Must Be a Single-Hearted Church.

First of all, a happy church must be a single-hearted church.

Acts 2:46 says that all of the more than 3,000 new believers in that first local church in Jerusalem continued daily, with one accord, doing everything they did with singleness of heart.

In other words, they all deliberately agreed to work together. They all deliberately agreed to work toward the same common goals. And they all deliberately agreed on the methods, the materials, and the personnel to be used.

In his letter to the local church at Philippi, the Apostle Paul commanded the believers in that local church to do four things. In Philippians 2:2…

•        He commanded them to be likeminded. (Inclined to have the same thoughts towards people and things and circumstances)

•        He commanded them to have the same love.

•        He commanded them to be of one accord. (Inclined to have the same emotions and feelings towards people and things and circumstances)

•        He commanded them to be of one mind. (Keeping your minds centered on one thing)

In Philippians 3:16, Paul also commanded these same believers to all live by the same, godly, holy, Biblical rules and standards. He again commanded them to all mind the same thing.

In Philippians 4:2, Paul pleaded with two women in that same church to be of the same mind in the Lord.

And you know something? The Epistle to the Philippians is well-known to virtually every Bible scholar as the epistle of joy!

And this was joy that resulted when all of the believers in that local church were mentally and emotionally and spiritually in one accord in all things.

“Well now, Pastor, in just what things should we be of one accord or of one and the same mind?”

I’m glad you asked that question. I believe the Bible teaches that we should be of one accord in at least eight areas:

•        I believe we should be of one accord in our love for one another.

•        I believe we should be of one accord in our assessment of the

purposes and problems that we have as a local church.

•        I believe we should be of one accord in our understanding of our

needs as a local church.

•        I believe we should be of one accord in our objectives and goals as a

local church.

•        I believe we should be of one accord in our programs and policies in

our local church.

•        I believe we should be of one accord as to the methods and materials

we seek to employ to implement our programs and to meet our needs

in our local church.

•        I believe we should be of one accord in selecting and training and

using the personnel to accomplish each job in our local church.

•        I believe we should be of one accord in our support of and our

agreement with the administration and organization of these things in

our local church.

In all of these things, I believe we need to be daily and continually in one accord in our local church. And each of them definitely merits a sermon all of its own.

“But, Pastor, don’t you think it’s really an impossible goal for a local church to do and be all of those things?”

I’m so glad you asked that question. I don’t believe this is an impossible goal.

After all, if each of us who is a member of this church is a truly born again Christian, and if each of us is counting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Master, and each of us is diligently studying the Bible every day to find God’s will, and if each of us is conscientiously attempting to obey the Lord’s will, … why then, it can’t be all that hard to learn how to be of one accord in the things that are so obviously so very important to the Lord.

After all, the Bible has one message for all of us. There is only one Biblical faith. God’s standards are the same for every believer. The Holy Spirit will never be the One to tell us to believe or to do mutually contradictory things.

And my Bible says that the Holy Spirit of God dwells within each of us. And He teaches us. He guides us into all truth. And even though our gifts and our ministries and our opportunities will indeed differ, nevertheless none of these should ever truly come into conflict with each other. Why? Because the one Holy Spirit administers and directs all of us in a logical, ordered, harmonious manner, decently and in order.

We have only one Lord, and He lives in each of us. And He will never lead us into discord or strife. In fact, He says in Proverbs 6:16 that He personally hates discord and strife.

And so, if God has commanded us to all be of one accord, then He must also have sufficient provision for us to tap into, so that we can obey His command to be of one accord.

And if we will just yield our sanctified, Bible taught and Bible disciplined wills and emotions to His will, then our wills and emotions and intentions will be in one accord, and we will experience real happiness in our local church.

And so, a happy church must first of all be a single-hearted church.

II.      A Happy Church Must Have Members Who Are Loving and Forgiving.

Second, a happy church must have members who are loving and forgiving.

From what we read in both the New Testament and history, it seems that the genuine love that the early Christians had for each other quickly became a byword among all men.

Yes, those early believers were solid in their doctrine. Yes, they were unswerving in living holy lives. Yes, they refused to compromise with worldliness and apostasy.

But at the same time, they were also willing to spend themselves to poverty and exhaustion and even death, if by doing so they could bring blessing and help and edification to others of like precious faith and practice.

And their love even toward the unsaved was unmatched in the annals of history.

Down through the centuries has come the true example of their deep love for the unlovely.

It seems that in one of the more densely populated, Mediterranean, pagan cities of the first century, some of the citizens became Christian believers. They started living for the Lord and witnessing to their friends and neighbors. And as was usually the case, they were severely persecuted for their newfound faith. In fact, so violent were the attacks on them that they were forced to leave the city and live in caves and dens in the rocks in the hills surrounding the city.

After a time, a highly contagious and deadly plague struck the city. Thousands died in the first few, terrible days of the plague. The pagan citizens saw the plague as the wrathful visitation of the gods. And so they began to flee from the city in terror, leaving everything behind. Within hours, the city was utterly deserted, except for those so incapacitated with the plague that they couldn’t move. Hundreds of desperately sick people were left in the city, left in pain and agony, left to die, uncared for and alone.

In the meantime, the outcast Christians saw what was happening. And in compassionate love, the Christians did what the unsaved pagans were terrified to do. The Christians came down out of the hills, into the plague stricken city, and started to work. They buried the dead. They ministered the best they could to the dying. And in the process, they won many to Christ in deathbed confessions of faith.

And yes, many of these loving Christians also caught the plague and also died. But the loving actions of these Christian believers soon wiped out the deadly plague, and within another week or so, the city was safe to live in once again.

The pagan inhabitants began to return to their cleansed city. First from one survivor and then from others, they learned what the Christians had done for their friends and loved ones, at the risk and even sacrifice of their own lives.

And history tells us that many of these pagans received Jesus Christ as their Savior, all because the Christians showed their genuine love. These Christians held no grudges for the terrible persecutions they had suffered. They freely forgave all men, just as Christ had freely forgiven them.

…And just as Christ has freely forgiven us. And beloved, if God can forgive vile, rotten sinners, then we’d better forgive the saints. And if God holds nothing against the saints, then what grudge or ill feeling do we dare harbor against another child of God. To his own master each of us must stand or fall.

I believe we need to learn to show the love of Christ by forgiving others, even before they ask for forgiveness. I believe we should make the first move toward reconciliation. I believe we do well not to be offended when others give offense, even when they do it on purpose.

God calls us, pleads with us, commands us to love and to forgive. And He can and will teach us to love and to forgive. And when He does, and when we do, a happy church will be the blessed result. A happy church must have members who are loving and forgiving.

III.    A Happy Church Must Have Glad Members.

Third, a happy church must have glad members.

The dictionary says that to be glad is to be full of joy.

And Acts 2:46 says that those 3,000 new believers in that first happy church in Jerusalem were glad believers.

All of them were simply bubbling over with the joy of the Lord and the joy of His salvation. And they had good reason to rejoice, and so do we.

After all, God has given us a salvation that’s free and full beyond our widest hopes.

God has given us a new life of purity and love and acceptance, without fear or anxiety or rejection.

God has given us freedom from the bondage and the condemnation of the Old Testament Law. And this, in and of itself, has given us the freedom to live – really live – for the Lord.

We have a Savior Who loves us. And He’s promised to return for us any day now.

We have the indwelling, blessed, happy, Holy Spirit Who produces this gladness. And He maintains this gladness in us, infusing all of our being and our dealings with this joy and gladness.

God even commands us to be full of gladness and joy.

In Philippians 2:2, the Apostle Paul commanded us to fulfill his joy – to so live and trust the Lord that Paul’s joy would be complete.

In Philippians 3:1, he commanded us to rejoice in the Lord.

In Philippians 4:4, he twice commanded us to rejoice in the Lord always!

It’s a fact of life that people who are full of bitterness get ignored. On the other hand, folks who are full of joy are good to be around; we listen to joyful folks.

And so, when we radiate joy as we sing and speak with the joy of the Lord, the unsaved will listen. They may not always want to hear our testimony, but they have to admit that a joyful Christian seems to turn on the light of springtime whenever he or she shows up.

You know, this old world has a lot of problems in these last days. It’s always had problems, but I think they’re getting worse. Communism has been around since the beginning of the last century. Humanism has been around for a long time, in one form or another. Atheism has been a problem since before Noah’s Flood. Worldliness has been a problem since Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden. And today, all of these evils are tearing down the flag of godliness and burning it and trampling it into the dust of the earth.

Apostasy in the churches, creeping worldliness among believers, the defection of thousands to the cults, compromise with evil, confusion over what’s right – all of these things are taking their deadly toll.

But as the spiritual and moral darkness grows deeper and closes in around us, we can still rejoice. We can rejoice, because all of these things just mean that the blessed light of the Gospel will appear to burn all that much brighter.

We can rejoice, because all of these things just mean that our faithful testimonies will shine like welcome beacons of hope to the lost, pointing the way to Jesus.

We can rejoice, because all these things just mean that when folks leave the world’s side to come over to the Lord’s side, they’ll know for sure what they’ve done. They’ll know what kind of a stand they’ve taken. They’ll be able to burn their bridges to the world behind them. They’ll know that they can be strong in the Lord. They’ll know that they don’t have to look back or turn back to Sodom and Gomorrah.

And folks, that’s cause for rejoicing!

Jesus is coming; that’s cause for rejoicing!

God is still leading us and providing for us; that’s cause for rejoicing!

You see, a church full of joy and gladness draws good people like honey draws flies. And a glad church just can’t help but be a happy church.

IV.     A Happy Church is a Church Whose Members Are Praising the Lord.

Fourth, a happy church is a church whose members are genuinely praising the Lord.

Acts 2:47 tells us that those 3,000 brand new, glad believers in that happy local church in Jerusalem were continually praising God.

Let me give you a little background on this. Please remember that these 3,000 new Christian believers had until very recently been faithful Old Testament type Jews. They were so faithful that they’d just traveled for perhaps many days, over dangerous and tedious trails, from far-distant lands just to be in Jerusalem for the feasts of the Passover and Pentecost.

These were the people who diligently studied the Old Testament. They were faithful in their temple worship whenever they came to Jerusalem.

And now they were born-again Christians. But from their past lives, they had known and experienced something about which we know all too little today. They knew the real meaning of praise. And it wasn’t singing the same charismatic chorus over and over again, until the congregation was hypnotized and emotionalized and traumatized by the numbing repetition.

You see, hundreds of times in the Old Testament, we find people genuinely praising the Lord. In the Hebrew language of the Old Testament, the word praise has six meanings.

•        It can mean to shine forth.

•        It can mean to make a show.

•        It can mean to boast.

•        It can mean to rave – to speak with wild enthusiasm - about something

or someone great.

•        It can mean to even get a bit foolish over something.

•        It can mean to extol or exalt something or someone.

And these 3,000 new Christians were praising the Lord by letting the light of His presence shine forth from their lives.

They were praising the Lord by showing forth the Lord’s attitudes and words and works and love and compassion.

They were praising the Lord by boasting of what God had done and was doing.

They were praising the Lord by speaking very enthusiastically about Him, and by exalting His person and works with joy and thanksgiving.

These folks knew what it was to genuinely praise the Lord, and they were not afraid to give forth a testimony that really gave praise to the Lord.

They were not afraid to learn by experience what it was to live a life that brings praise to God.

Don’t be afraid to genuinely praise the Lord! God gave us emotions so that we could use them for His glory. Good emotions encourage good things. Don’t chain up your good emotional responses in deadly silence.

It’s true that degraded and perverted and sin-marred emotions need to be crucified and put off and put away. But genuine love and joy and humility and gentleness need to be exercised and expressed by God’s people. If we don’t learn how to exercise and express them properly, then these Spirit-led emotions will die, bound in the dark prison of a false piety.

The old song rightly sings, “Let the AMEN sound from His people again!”

If you’re really praising the Lord, and you really mean it, then go ahead and say, “Hallelujah,” and let God and the people know about it.

If your heart has begun to echo the godly words and praise of others, then go right ahead and say, “Amen!”

And when your soul is especially blessed, why then an occasional “Glory!” is certainly not out of place.

A church whose members feel free to praise the Lord and who know how to praise the Lord will be a happy church.

V.      A Happy Church is Composed of Winsome Believers.

Fifth, a happy church is a church that is filled with winsome believers.

“Now Pastor, what on earth does winsome mean?”

I’m so glad you asked that question. Because a winsome person is a person who is:

•        Pleasing.

•        Interesting to be near.

•        Full of charm.

•        Full of childlike innocence.

•        Cheerful and sweet in disposition and dealings.

•        Gracious and kind in such a manner that good folks just can’t help but

like you and want to be near you.

In other words, a winsome person is a person who has favor with others.

Acts 2:47 says that these 3,000 new believers in that happy local church in Jerusalem had favor with all the people. They were winsome.

They were so gracious and kind and cheerful and sweet and charming and interesting and pleasant to be near that good folks just couldn’t help but like them and take their side.

That’s winsomeness!

I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it a hundred times in the future, but if we always look and act and talk as if we’ve been baptized in lemon juice and sanctified with vinegar, people out there in the community are going to think that our church and our Christianity and our Christ and our God are pretty sour and maybe more than just a little bitter to the taste.

And if we look and act sour, then folks who visit our church and eventually end up getting saved and baptized and becoming members are going to become as scarce as Edsels.

Some of you are old enough to remember what an Edsel was. The rest of you are asking, “What’s an Edsel?”

I’ll tell you what an Edsel was. An Edsel was an automobile manufactured by the Ford Motor Company about 1957 that had a front end on it that looked a lot like a toad puckering up to kiss a catfish.

The car wasn’t very popular. And neither is a sour Christian.

But winsomeness wins souls. Winsomeness encourages the saints. Winsomeness keeps us in love with each other in the Lord. Winsomeness makes us easy to get along with and a joy to be near. It works better than Right Guard, Dial, Scope, Listerine, or TicTacs.

Let me suggest something: If you feel you’ve been somehow slighted in the fellowship of the local church, maybe it’s time to ask yourself how winsome you are. Don’t take offense; just take a look. Maybe you don’t have to pack it in and go looking for another church, after all.

I know, some of us are just a little bit cantankerous. And maybe some of us haven’t kept our fellowship with the Lord Jesus just as fresh and sweet as it ought to be. Maybe our lives have gone a bit sour of late, and maybe we’ve started to leave a bitter taste in some people’s mouths.

Oh, how we need that sweet, gracious, charming, cheerful winsomeness that’s so nice to be near!

A church full of winsome members will truly be a happy church.

Conclusion:

The seeds of a truly happy church have been sown here in our local church. Some of those seeds have come up and grown up and blossomed and borne fruit.

But we all need to decide, and we all need to make a solid commitment, to all sprout and grow in the same direction, together.

God is greatly blessing those who have already done this.

Why not join with those who have? Instead of pulling away or off to the side, why not pull with us?

Then we’ll be a single-hearted church, in one accord, of one mind in all things.

Make a solid commitment to love and forgive the saints.

Be a glad Christian.

Learn and begin to really praise the Lord.

And let the sweet, gentle, blessed Holy Spirit teach you how to be a winsome believer. The most charming person in the world is a Christian who is genuinely in love with Jesus Christ and surrendered completely to Him.

I believe God wants this to be the happiest church in Ventura County. And I believe God wants you to be a happy part of it by deciding to follow Jesus, wherever He leads us.

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