Pastor Troy Murphy said that during his recent trip to Nepal, he saw leprosy patients going through therapy together. They soaked their injured hands and limbs to get the moisture back and stretched to get the circulation moving.

Gathering together was a way to hold each other accountable and offer encouragement to one another. They weren’t alone going through life’s challenges and knew that someone had their back.

Troy observed that in the same way this is a picture of the local church, where people gather to serve, learn, grow and encourage one another. You can walk together through the trials of life rather than doing it alone.

Troy’s message on Sunday, January 28, focused on the importance of the local church and how God places other people on our path to sharpen us and come alongside us. It was the final message in the series “Comfortably Numb: The Cure for Spiritual Leprosy.” Here are some key points:

*Churches shouldn’t be viewed as logos or programs or buildings, but instead as the people of God in your life.

*Many Christians isolate themselves, which isn’t healthy. R Kent Hughes said: "On the most elementary level, you do not have to go to church to be a Christian. You do not have to go home to be married either. But in both cases if you do not, you will have a very poor relationship.”

*Too many treat the church with a consumeristic mentality, as if going through a buffet line and selecting the things you like. When we don’t have our needs met, we take our money to a different vendor. We’ve reduced the church to a programmatic transaction. 

*When you leave a church you are leaving people that God selected to pour into your life and sharpen you.

*The church is not about what we can get. It’s about what we can give.

*What is the church? It’s a body of believers. It’s an assembly of called out people, not a building. 

*We are to view the church with reverence and holiness. We should appreciate the church as a divine gift from God.

*The church can hurt people. But it’s not the church that hurts you, it’s a person, or a relationship. It’s people that hurt you because people are messy.

*The church is like a bride (Ephesians 5: 25-27). Jesus died for the church. He was the perfect example of loving others no matter how or if you are loved back. Do we care for the church as we would a bride? God calls us to think of the church with holiness and purity.

*The church is compared to a family (Ephesians 5:19-22). We have a sense of belonging and connectedness in our families. God fits the local church together like a family. He has placed you into a church body, just like he placed you into a family.

*God gave us the church — the people of God.  Wherever God has placed you, hammer your stake in and be there. Instead of church hopping, we should fight through things we might not like. We are to operate with loyalty and love in the church. Your faith needs to be lived out with fellow believers, despite the messiness that will ensue.

*When sin happens in the church, it’s our greatest chance to show the love of Christ. It’s an opportunity to love and extend ourselves very differently than the world does in the midst of sin and brokenness and adversity.

*God’s spirit dwells in the midst of believers when they gather together, and it’s not tied to a building. (1 Corinthians 3:16). Never in biblical history was a building to be called a church. It was the people, no matter where they met.

*We shouldn’t come and make the church what we want it to be. We should enter into a body of believers and receive whatever God gives you or reveals to you (church exegesis). We should not take the attitude: 'We’ll see what they do for me today.’ ’This is not meeting my needs.’ (church eisegesis).

*Acts 2: 42-47 spells out the benefits of the church:

-Common Community. It's a connection with people that can be beautiful. You have a family you can lean on.

-Common Mission. The apostles were all giving to those who had need. It’s not about how many classes you take or how much knowledge of the Bible you accumulate. It should be: How are you living like Jesus in the world?

-Common Joy. There’s a joy that is unexplainable for believers, something the world cannot comprehend.

*Programs don’t love people. Bible studies don’t love people. It’s the people of God that are called to be in our lives to grow the people of God.

Discussion questions

In a one on one setting, who has made the greatest spiritual impact in your life?

Why is it important to get plugged into a local church? Why couldn't you watch worship services from home?

How has the local church poured into your life?

What are you doing to give back within the local church?