Foundation Stones (Part 3) – Jesus w/the 12 – The Forgotten Foundation of Christian Life

You don’t get a choice. Eventually, the solo Christian life ends up being a tailspin. You don’t get a choice. If you want Christ, you take the church. You can’t have one in real, living reality without the other. You’re going to have to have it, unless they put you behind bars, then you can have the Lord and say, “Oh, it’s just so really nice just to have the Lord and nothing else, just really enjoy Him alone.” You cannot be his faithful follower. There’s no way for Jesus Christ to be the faithful follower of God without coming to the ekklesia. You must come ultimately both to Him and to her. She’s part of your destiny. We shall watch this pattern that began in eternity past in the Godhead. We have seen it come to Bethlehem. We have watched it in Nazareth. We’ve seen it enlarge slightly in Galilee. And now we’re about to see that pattern, that unbroken pattern, continue and enlarge among lost men, saved, who gathered once more around the fellowship of Jesus Christ. And I’m driving this point home to you.

The primitive essence of the Christian life and the primitive essence of the church and the primitive essence of how workers should be raised does not really ever change. I am inviting you to understand this because I intend to invite you into that fellowship, the fellowship with Him and into the fellowship of the body of Christ.

This is where you’re being taken by me, in case you’re not clear. And if I see one of you out some years from now paddling along in your canoe all the more and saying, “Boy, you I sure enjoyed that week.” Boy, that was nice. I really enjoyed that. You’re a good preacher, Gene. So good, but you’re out there paddling your canoe all. I assure you I will check you off as having failed. I will have failed in your life. I am astonished at how many people want to know Christ, but do not literally crawl over cut glass if necessary to have the church. You ought to have both, and you ought to burn for both.