To what do you want to give your life? Maybe you have 10, 30, or 70 years left. Only God knows how long, for he has ordained your steps. So, out of all of the things you could give your life to, let me challenge you to love and invest in one unique, otherworldly, precious one: the church. 

This challenge may seem obvious to you; after all, you are at Providence Church. But there is a danger for all of us who have been in and around the church for any length of time. That is, we can love the idea—or, rather, our idea—of the church more than the God’s church in which he has placed us.

So why love the church?

First, love the church because the Lord Jesus Christ obtained it with his own blood (Acts 20:28). The church belongs to God as his possession, having been bought at a great price. More personally, Providence was brought into existence through the person and work of Jesus, and is therefore valuable to God and should be treated as such by its leaders and members. 

Think about what that means. When Christ died for the church, he died to make it his own. He suffered a horrific death—the just for the unjust—to identify himself with an unlovely people. It means that Christ identifies with people who are not like us, who rub us the wrong way, who are immature, who have flawed theology, and who even at times may be annoying. And guess what? You and I are those kinds of people too. Praise God that he sent his Son to give us new identities and to make us new creations. How extravagant is the grace and love of God toward us in Christ!

Second, love the church because Jesus promised to build it (Matt 16:18)—and he makes good on his promises. No matter how good and helpful they are, he did not promise to build schools, conferences, or podcasts. He promised to build his church, and not even death can overcome it because Jesus has defeated even death. So give yourself to something that will triumph over our greatest enemy as we confess the Satan-destroying, sin-defeating, death-swallowing resurrected Christ who conquered the grave so that we can have life.

Third, love the church to be in God’s will (Eph 3:10). In discussions over finding the will of God, rarely is the church mentioned. But the church—redeemed Jews and Gentiles in Christ who together form God’s prized possession—is at the heart of the mystery once concealed but now revealed. God’s manifold wisdom is put on display when all kinds of people—very different people!—come together to love and fellowship and sacrificially give of themselves because of the love and fellowship of Jesus Christ, who loved them and gave himself up for them. So jump into the center of God’s will by participating in the body of Christ.

Fourth, love the church to become and to help others become more Christ-like. God foreknew and predestined his people to be conformed to the image of his Son (Rom 8:29-30), and his gracious means to accomplish his good end is the church. It’s easy to be patient and virtuous when you listen to your favorite podcasts and you’re around people like yourself. But God calls us into fellowship with all different kinds of people—racially, culturally, socio-economically—in order to produce Christ-like fruit in us and to show that everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him (1 John 5:1). In other words, Christians do not love others because of who they are, but because of whose they are.

Fifth, love the church for the nations. In the face of the cross, Jesus left his disciples with these words: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35). 

Jesus’s mission strategy is simple: Christians across the world going and loving each other. This work takes place in the context of churches where baptized believers in Christ covenant together to submit to the authority of their leaders as they proclaim the whole counsel of God, submit to one another, love each other, look out for each other’s interests, bear one another’s burdens, speak the truth in love to one another, grieve with each other, rejoice with each other, and give of themselves even if it comes at great cost—especially when it comes at great cost. Why? Because Jesus did all of these things—and more—for us and our salvation, and his loving work is made manifest when we do it for others.

God has given us the gift of the church—the gift of one another—for your good, for the good of others, and for God’s glory in Christ. The saying, “I love Jesus but can do without the church,” is like telling a person, “I like you but can’t stand your spouse.” To know and enjoy one is to know and enjoy the other. The church is God’s gift to his people in Christ, and as we love Christ we love his beloved bride.

To this end, loving the church is what the Antioch Initiative is all about. Because God loves the church, and Christ died for and is building it across space and time, we want to leverage our lives and resources to make Providence a faithful church. Faithful in gathering and faithful in scattering the gospel to the ends of the earth for the sake of Christ’s name among the nations.

So love the church and devote your life to something grand. It may not seem grand now, but through your investment and the investment of others we will one day join in that new song, saying,

“Worthy are you to take the scroll  and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation,
and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
and they shall reign on the earth” (Rev 5:9-10).