 Good afternoon Pastor David. How are you doing John? Welcome everybody to Unfiltered. You know Pastor we had an amazing Easter season. Our Good Friday service was the worship was amazing. We had the cardboard testimonies where people came up and they on one side of the cardboard they shared what they were before Christ and then they flipped the cardboard over and what they are in Christ now and very touching and very moving to see the transformation power of God's grace. Then on Sunday it was just the highlight of everything. We celebrated the resurrection of Christ and the worship was anointed and spirit filled and the message you gave was just very touching and it just made the whole Easter season if we called it that. Just a very uplifting spiritual anointed spirit led time in the Lord and your messages on Good Friday and on Easter Sunday just one of those things and so I wanted to ask you today in the light of all the things that are going on and even in this dark world we celebrated resurrection Sunday Good Friday and resurrection Sunday and so my question to you pastors why does the church matter? Why does the church matter? Celebrating resurrection Sunday Good Friday and why does the church matter? That's an interesting question to ask. Imagine a world without light. Imagine a world without taste. We would be in darkness and we would be living in corruption because light obviously dispels darkness and Jesus calling us the light as well as the salt would be saying that we have the responsibility of revealing the truth through Christ who is the light of the world as well as the ministry of being a preventative against the decay of sin and so why is the church important and why does it matter? It's because Jesus said you're the only light and you're the only salt in this world and so he gave to us a commission to take a message that deals with the evil of mankind. You know I'll give you an example very quickly we're going through the book of Romans this Wednesday tomorrow we'll be looking at Romans chapter three where Paul in chapter one has stated that the Gentiles the non-Jews the Gentiles are all under sin then in chapter two up to verse 17 in verse 17 he makes it very clear that he's speaking to the Jewish nation and then in chapter three he continues on into chapter three right around verse nine and he brings a word of exposure of the Jews sinfulness and so the Gentiles in chapter one the Jews in chapter two into chapter three are brought into a position of being rightfully judged and then in chapter three following at verse 10 he continues on by making the case that both Jew and Gentile all humanity whether you have had the opportunity to have the law of Moses given to you or whether you have have just spoiled your opportunities of knowing of God through your conscience and creation all humanity both Gentile and Jew he says are under under strict judgment and so the church is necessary because we declare the light the church is necessary because we are used by God as a preventative against the decay and so when we gather on Easter Sunday and we celebrate the reality of the Savior who loved us and paid for our sins and bought us through his blood and demonstrated himself to be the son of God through his resurrection well why is the church necessary it's because we prevent evil and expose it and because we help people to know the truth and the grace of God and a word that brings freedom to the center Paul in 2nd Corinthians 5 says it in this way he says that we have received the gospel of reconciliation he says in chapter five and he says to it that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself and he said he has given to us and trusted to us the message or the gospel of reconciliation and so the word reconciliation is a word that speaks of a cessation of enmity between two warring parties and that the gospel is God's declaration of peace with a demand for an unconditional surrender to the one who's victorious Jesus dying on the cross and all an unconditional surrender to this one who is the Lord of the universe and so that ministry of reconciliation is what we as Christians are supposed to be you know living out that's what we're supposed to be doing that's what the church does so it's not just gathering together to watch some celebrity pastor bounce around the platform with great energy and enthusiasm and it's not just to come and hear some trained singers put on a performance and then to have a donut afterwards with some people or go to your family's house it's it's a deeper thing than that it's it's the presentation of the fact that we can have peace with God who rightly is going to judge the world of sin and but we can have peace with him because Jesus when it's been said like this Jesus on the cross with one hand stretched out in one way the other stretched out to the other with one hand is holding the hand of the father and the other hand is holding the hand of a sinner and so Jesus is reconciling us it's through the blood of Christ he who is our peace we celebrate that in that had Jesus died remained in the grave then we Paul said of all people would be most miserable why because we believe and teach that God raised Jesus from the dead so why did we celebrate and why do we celebrate we do so because we have a message of reconciliation and why is the church important we're the only ones who have it amen and that was evident by the people that came forward on Sunday by the number to give their lives to Christ and that's what it's all about and it's that reconciling I like how you explain that God in one hand the sinner in the other and never seen it like that so I hope we're able to we do it's not just a one thing once a year type of thing it's every day and it's important for the church to understand it's not just Christmas and Easter it's an every day where the Gospels is is there for everybody every single day amen and that's what we're called to do we walk worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ we live out the gospel of Jesus Christ we give out the gospel of Jesus Christ and it is not it is not something we only celebrate once in a while it's something that we we celebrate every day amen and as we wrap up here pastor I'm keeping an eye on time just want to invite our friends and family to come join us on Wednesday evening tomorrow evening as you mentioned you're starting Romans chapter three and it's a great opportunity to invite your friends and family to come out and join us and and continue the gift that we have in the resurrection of of Christ and and then Sunday we have our services at 8 30 and 10 45 it's no longer 11 it was just for that extended time of worship and invite you guys to come join us 8 30 and 10 45 on Sunday as we're going through mark we're almost going to conclude we're very close to it and so we look forward to that I mean it's been a great study I do and and so we thank you guys for tuning in pastor thank you so much for your time and remember not only do we as the church matter but the church matters church matters and we're that light in this dark world so thank you guys for tuning in pastor thank you again God bless you guys