I told you when I began this series that I would try to share with you the reason that I had for preparing a sermon. The sermons that I preach tend to be issue-driven. I don't need to tell you that there are a lot of issues out there that need to be addressed.

The focus these days in many places seems to be to see how many people we can get to come to church or to come back to church. So as you will see, we will be looking at that particular challenge. Let's see where we end up! The title of this sermon is "Is the Church for Everybody?"

I am going to start by asking two questions, and as you will notice, I won't take long to answer them. From there I will go on to explain why.

The first question is, should everybody be a member of the church? The second question is, should anybody be a member of the church? Here we go. We will do the second question first.

If the head of the church is Christ and the church is His body, and inasmuch as the head is what gives orders to the body, it would only stand to reason that a person who wants to live a life and not take orders from Jesus shouldn't be a member of the church.

If the head of the church is Christ and the members of the church are the body, then a person who isn't willing to let the Scripture guide their life shouldn't be a member of the church, because Jesus said about the Scripture that "they are they that testify of me."

Jesus is the head of the church and the members are the body. Now it is true that parts of the physical body get sick or infected from time to time. When a part of our body is sick or is not functioning correctly, the whole body is at risk. If a part of our body becomes seriously diseased or infected, medical ethics tend to suggest surgically separating that part of the body rather than putting the whole body at risk.

There is an old saying that you may have heard, and that is that the church is not a rest home for saints but a hospital for sinners. I am sure that is true, but it cannot be true that the church is a hospital for moral hypochondriacs either. You know what a hypochondriac is! A hospital is a place where you go to get well. Do you follow me?

We should clarify this old saying by adding that if the church is not a rest home for saints, it is also not a rest home for practicing sinners either. A person who is practicing sin with impunity should not be a member of the church, because in the first place, Christ is not the author of moral confusion.

I hear a text quoted often when referring to what the church's attitude should be toward sinners. The text that is quoted is the one that says, "Come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28).

The text is quoted then to mean that anyone who is a sinner should be allowed into the church. But before we come to that conclusion, read the whole text. It continues, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you will find rest into your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

I don't need to tell you that Jesus is saying: "Come to Me as you are." The fact is that if Jesus is the only one who can truly change us, then we must come to Him as we are; there is no other way to come. Yet Jesus says, having come to Me as you are, now learn of Me. That means, when we come to Jesus, we are to become like Him.

The church, then, is a fellowship of sinners who have responded to Christ's call to come to Him. They didn't come to Him so that they could stay the way that they were. The invitation is to those who labor and are heavy laden. In other words, to those who are fed up with a life of sin.

There are people who are living in open sin out there who insist that they have every right to be card-carrying, voice and vote members of the church, and there are increasing numbers of people who support their position.

To suggest that a person who has chosen to live in open sin should not be a member in good and regular standing is considered by many to be Phariseeism.

Hello? How's that again? I'm sorry. If you know anyone who thinks that way, you can disabuse him or her of the idea.

Let's set the record straight. Who were the Pharisees? They were on the outside the religious elite, but at the gut level they were sinners in denial. Did you hear that? A Pharisee then is a person who is a sinner but denies it.

Hang on now. Those who live in open sin and those who are sinning with impunity and their supporters are themselves the real Pharisees. Will the real Pharisee please stand up! The real Pharisee, my friends, is a sinner who says that what he or she is doing is not wrong, and that the rest of the world is wrong in thinking otherwise.

History has repeatedly shown that when open sin is institutionalized in the church, the whole body becomes poisoned and can die. There is a lot of smoke and mirrors out there these days in regards as to how the church is to relate to open sin on the part of its members. Ladies and gentlemen, don't be deceived! The issue these days that is having a profound effect upon the future health of the church is not how shall church members relate to open sinners in the world, but how shall we relate to those who persist on living in open sin, yet insist on being received or retained in church fellowship.

Many people like to use the writings of the apostle Paul to prove that you don't have to keep the Sabbath or that your lifestyle has nothing to do with a person's salvation. But if we are going to be true to Brother Paul we ought to hear him out. Listen to this:

"It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife. And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed, In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

"Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

"I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person" (1 Corinthians 5:1-13).

This text, my friends, is crystal clear. Our insistence on disobeying is going to cause us untold grief and betrayal in the future and many will be lost who otherwise would have been saved.

God is not mocked; we will reap what we are sowing. The so-called compassion that is being called for in many quarters is not compassion for sinners, but a secret compassion and compromise with sin itself.

The church is to be the fellowship of the "called-out" ones. To be a member of the church means that a person has a heart's desire to separate from the world and from sin. Those who God will sanctify, He first must separate.

Should everybody be a member of the church? Yes, of course. Should anybody be a member of the church? No.

Some years ago a man named George Barna wrote a book entitled, The Frog in the Kettle. The premise of the book is that, unless the church gets savvy and begins to use modern marketing principles to attract new members, it will be like a frog swimming around in a kettle on the stove that is going be cooked without even knowing what is going on.

These days one of the buzzwords out there is "church growth." There are, of course, then a lot of church growth specialists, church growth seminars, and classes at the seminary for church growth and books on church growth.

Now I must admit that the Book of Acts is about church growth. It says that the Lord added to the church daily. But not just anybody. Acts says that the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

You see, to be a member of the church you had to sign on to a process. That process was that you had to let Jesus change you from the inside out. That should come as no surprise, because that is what the name "Jesus" means. You remember the angel said to Joseph, "Thou shalt call his name Jesus for He shall save his people from their sins." You don't need to be an English major to understand that "from" is not "in."

The church is once again, here in the 21st century, in a huge crisis. You will notice that I said "once again." No, friends, it is true. The church has been this way before.

When the church becomes confused as to what its purpose is, or when it changes its purpose from God's purpose to man's purpose, something has to give. Or maybe I should say, something has got to go and what goes is truth. Truth goes out the window and the church goes down the drain.

Back to the matter of these buzzwords, "church growth." Someone is going to be upset with me for saying this, but the most prominent church growth specialists out there are also the ones who give you Sunday observance, immortality of the soul and eternal torment.

I suppose that there are many dynamic Adventist ministers who could build up churches of between ten and fifteen thousand members, too, except for one small detail, and that is the fourth commandment.

You may think that I am some kind of pessimist, but it has always been a minority and not a majority that get in line to do the will of God. You remember the Bible says that many are called but few are chosen. It also says that only a few would be willing to walk the narrow way. God has room for everybody but not for anybody. God has room for everybody, but it is always a comparative few who are willing to pay the high price of discipleship.

But nevertheless, in spite of what we should have learned from history and in spite of clear instruction from the Word of God, we have decided that we know how to build a better gospel mousetrap. Actually, in the Judgment we are going to discover that it was not a new gospel mousetrap, but the old devil's rattrap that he has always used to catch souls for hell.

The writer Barna and others basically teach us how to use modern Madison Avenue marketing principles to bring people to Jesus. Actually though, the truth is that you can't use Madison Avenue marketing principles to bring people to Jesus, because Scripture itself asks the question, "Can two walk together except they be agreed." And in another place it says, "What fellowship has light with darkness or God with the devil."

Come on now, think clearly. Modern advertising is not amoral, but basically it is immoral because it appeals to every carnal motive in the hearts of men and women. Modern advertising tries to link up with lust, greed, with covetousness, and with pride, just to name a few.

To use Madison Avenue's marketing principles to sell the gospel is to corrupt the truth and is an affront to Him who is the gospel--our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And, of course, it goes without saying that to bring a person to Jesus for carnal reasons makes the real purpose of the church non-functional in the life of the person and causes the real effectivity of the church to "crash," as they say in computer language.

God did not establish the church on the earth as so many thousand square feet of floor space to be filled by so many pews filled with so many thousand warm bodies.

Church growth--real church growth--is not measured in numbers, but to the extent that those who are members of the church measure up to the stature of the fullness of Christ. If we are going to stop the slide, we are going to have to understand what the purpose of the church really is. Listen now to the Word of God. These verses are not the only ones in the Bible having to do with the purpose of the church; there are others, but they all fit together and do not contradict each other.

The text is found in Ephesians. By the way, read the whole book of Ephesians some day if you haven't already, and if you have, you would do well to read it again. The Book of Ephesians is one of the most hands-on books in the Bible as far as how things are going to have to be. Did you notice I didn't say how things ought to be, but how they must be before this is over.

Anyway, here goes. Ephesians 4:11-13, "And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ."

Did you get that? Here then is the underlying purpose of the church. "For the perfecting (maturing) of the saints till we all come in the unity of the faith, and the knowledge of the son of God unto a perfect (mature) man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ."

A few years ago some organization in our denomination commissioned a survey to be taken. I believe it was taken basically among our young people. I don't need to tell you that our young people are leaving the church in droves.

I am a father and a grandfather. As I speak, I have a prodigal son. (I never understood the pain the Heavenly Father has for His lost children until I had one myself.)

We parents and grandparents are desperate. Our children are leaving the church. Well, someone decided that we needed to discover why. As you know, one of the principles upon which modern marketing is built is the principle that the customer is always right. If a product is going to be successful it has to be meeting a need--be it real or perceived.

When this marketing principle is applied to the church it says that, unless the church is meeting the needs of the people, it will become passé. So a scientific study was commissioned and it was named "Value Genesis." The bottom line, as it related to the young people who had left the church, was in the question, "What would it take to get you to come back to church?"

Now let me repeat, lest we misunderstand where I am coming from. As a minister of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, I have been commissioned not to send people to hell but to try to win them for heaven. Jesus said He came to seek and to save that which was lost, which by the way was all of us.

I have already revealed to you that, as a father of four and a grandfather of eight, I have more than a professional interest in what the gospel is all about.

Having said that I must go on to say that I think we have made the mistake of a lifetime when we have asked the lost what it would take to make them willing to be saved. This is a classic example of asking the fox to guard the hen house. What we should have done when we saw our children being lost was go to the Word and to the Spirit of Prophecy and then to our knees.

Hang on now for a shock. I was thinking the other day that the current conditions in society were not created by the youth. The youth have bought into what their parents set them up for. What the parents have done in moderation, the children do in excess.

It is a frightening thought, but could it be that we are actually seeing the results of our own sins being visited upon our children and grandchildren? We are praying that God will bring our children and grandchildren to repentance, and rightly so, but could it be that this cannot happen until we who have set them up, until we ourselves, repent?

But back to the matter of the study. God does not ask sinners their conditions for receiving salvation; rather He tells the sinners the condition by which they must be saved.

The failure of the church that has lead up to the moral anarchy of this age was not an old- fashioned gospel out of sync with a modern age, but a failure to preach and live before the modern sinner the old-fashioned and everlasting gospel.

As I look into my own life, my regret is that in the hustle and bustle, in trying to keep up with cares of this life, I was very likely preaching a lop-sided gospel as well as living a life that was, in ways important to the children, inconsistent with what I was preaching.

The real gospel is never out of date. The interesting thing about the gospel is that it is a one-size fits all gospel. The old-fashioned gospel is new in every age when it is preached in its fullness.

The gospel may seem a little big for a new believer when they first put it on, but then the Holy Spirit will help you to grow into it. My mama used to buy my clothes with room for me to grow a little. But in the 21st century we are selfish; we are style conscious. The gospel makes a sinner look bad. We are selfish. We are style conscious. We are image conscious in the 21st century.

We don't care how we look to God; we care how we look to ourselves and to each other. So in the 21st century, rather than let the Holy Spirit help us to grow up in Christ, we get out the spiritual scissors and start cutting away at the gospel.

Some of you ladies and men here know how to take a garment apart and put it back together again. But I think that you ought to understand that when a person tries to take the gospel apart and put it back together again so they will look good in their own eyes, in the eyes of the judge of all the earth they are naked.

And so now we have what they call "user-friendly" churches. People don't look for a church that preaches the truth but one that meets their needs.

You may say, "What is wrong with that?" I'll tell you. If your need is to be Number One, to be a part of the party crowd, if you are into the world and its sinful ways, then crafting a church to meet your needs is like constructing a ship with built-in leaks or planting bombs on an airplane.

We hear once in a while about hospitals where there are outbreaks of infection. People go to the hospital to get well and sometimes contract infections so bad that the cure is worse than the disease!

God forbid, but this has happened in history in the church and may in some places be happening right now. Remember, Jesus said to the church leaders one time, "You go to great lengths to get a member of the church and then you make them worse than you."

Please listen to me now. A church where the gospel is truly preached will never attract people who are into sin, but it will always attract people who want out. This is because the cross kills sin. A person who wants to persist in selfishness, pride, lust, bitterness and resentment and love of the world will never be attracted to Jesus, and if they are, it will be because the messages that are being preached have become corrupted.

And so instead of going back to the Word and then to our knees, we went to the people. The Bible has counseled us not to do this in many places. In one place Jesus warns us about substituting tradition for the Word of God, teaching for doctrine the commandments of men. We could say, in this instance, teaching what the youth said they want God to be rather than teaching the youth what God wants them to be.

In another place it says that those who compare themselves among themselves are not wise.

You may not agree with me, but in many places we are using surveys and group thought as a substitute for a plain "thus saith the Lord." We are even using the present culture to interpret the Bible.

Our children are at risk of being destroyed by the immorality of the modern culture. Our young people are being exposed to raw, explicit immorality. The music that is being served to them by the devil is calculated to put them into a spiritual sleep from which they will only wake up when the fires of hell are burning all around them.

It is no wonder that six days of being exposed to the carnal sounds of the world can make church seem so boring as to be totally undesirable. A person who is used to spicy food finds food not so prepared utterly insipid.

Is it any wonder then that the "Old Rugged Cross" tends to bore some young people out of their gourd? It is also no wonder that when the church has installed electronic drums and a keyboard, and instead of hearing the "Old Rugged Cross" it is now the "Pray Around the Clock Rock," the youth don't mind getting back to church.

In a generation which spends an enormous amount of its time watching MTV or videos or in the theater, it is not hard to understand that it would be easier to relate to puppets, clowns or theater presentations in church than the preaching of the Word.

Our low concept of God and our high concept of ourselves is now being manifested in many places in the worship service, and the number, unfortunately, is expanding every week. In many of these places, contrary to what you may think, God is not the center of the worship. You may not agree with me, but many churches are not celebrating anyone but themselves. And if that is an overstatement, in many places (and the number is expanding every week), we have converted the worship hour into what amounts to a social fellowship with a religious motif.

We used to have church socials on Saturday night. Now it seems like some are headed toward doing it on Sabbath morning at 11:00 a.m.

Listen to this ad that I copied off the on-line service. This ad is to announce the creation of a new Adventist Church in a Midwestern state. The title of the piece is "A Church for the Unchurched." It says:

"If you live in Northern Colorado, and are no longer actively involved in an Adventist church this article is especially directed to you. A new church is beginning with you in mind. The Conference has endorsed the concept of an experimental regional congregation which will especially target former and inactive young adult Adventists, as well as their unchurched friends and neighbors.

"Christ Advent Fellowship will begin public worship services September 14, 10:30 a.m., at the Berthoud High School Auditorium. If you live in the region and have not been attending church, why don't you come check out things on the opening day?

"Here is what you can expect when you visit Christ Advent Fellowship: I will list five points,

"A grace-oriented community. We believe that the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. The main thing is the Gospel. We are committed to keeping the Gospel central. The Gospel is the simple New Testament proclamation of the good news that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, because of Christ's finished work on the cross. Period.

"An atmosphere of love and acceptance. Because of a strong grace-orientation, you can expect an atmosphere of love and acceptance. Knowing that none of us are perfect, we want to establish a climate where people can come explore Christianity, worship God and experience fellowship regardless of where they are in their growth journey. You shouldn't feel like you have to get your life all in order before you are ready to come to church. And, by the way, expect a casual atmosphere. Come dressed however you like. No one will judge you for your personal tastes and styles.

"Worship that is contemporary and relevant. We serve a God who loves variety. He has created us all with different tastes and personalities. If you prefer organ music and hymns, Christ Advent Fellowship, may not meet your needs. Expect a band playing lively, contemporary, praise and worship music. While we will include some of the time-honored hymns of our Christian heritage, most of our music will be songs written for today's generation. You can also expect periodic drama and multimedia presentations as we seek to communicate clearly, creatively and effectively.

"A young adult emphasis. You are welcome at Christ Advent Fellowship regardless of age, race, socioeconomic status or any other distinguishing characteristics, but there will be a strong youth and young adult emphasis. We envision a community where kids, teens, and young adults have fun at church. They are allowed to question and be themselves. They are able to grow, get involved and lead out.

"People-focused ministries. It is easy for churches to be preoccupied with programs, budgets, buildings, and maintenance. Did you know that the Bible never uses the word "church" to refer to a building? The church is people. We intend to put our resources and effort into meeting people's needs, ministering to those in our fellowship and reaching the lost."

That is the ad. Be honest with me now. Who is to be the actual center of this church? Though the gospel is mentioned and noble Christian principles are annunciated, the fact is that we are making a church for you; it is just the way that you want it to be. We'll do it your way.

Please excuse me. My language is about to go bad, but a person who thinks that you can worship their way or any old way has to be out to lunch! Excuse me. Maybe I should say uninformed, or maybe I should say blind to history.

By the way, a good friend of mine visited that church a while back. The preacher was dressed in black Levis and cowboy boots. There was a man sitting there with his dog in his lap. People who were sitting behind him reached forward to pet the dog. This church is listed on the World Wide Web as an interdenominational church as a part of the Willow Creek Association.

Well, anyway, the first mention of worship styles to my knowledge is Genesis 4:3-5. You may remember the story.

"And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering: But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell."

Don't tell me that God accepts any worship that we choose to conjure up or that a cultural bias justifies any kind of worship. Give yourself a break. Don't let them lead you down the primrose path to perdition. The books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy have enormous amounts to say about how God expects to be worshipped, and practically the rest of the Old Testament is the story of what happened to Israel when they tried to do it their way or to make it user-friendly.

I don't know if you remember the story. After Israel split in two, the temple was in one country (Judah) and the nation of Israel (the other country) was cut out of the worship loop.

The king didn't want his people traveling back to Judah to worship and risk reuniting the countries, so he built his own interpretation of the temple in Bethel and in Dan. There were golden calves. The calves were representations of the true God and were placed there to make worship more acceptable and responsive to the people's needs.

That was the beginning of the end for the Ten Tribes. Before it was over they would cease to exist as a nation and were scattered over the face of the earth.

Friends, what we have begun as an innocent and sincere attempt to save our children could backfire and cause the church as we know it and as God established it to suffer eternal loss.

All of your life you may have wondered what good the Old Testament is for the modern times. I will tell you what good it is. The Old Testament is a clear picture of what may very well happen to us and our children unless we repent as individuals and as a church.

I pray God it is not too late; I pray God that we have not gone too far.

What we are doing in many places in the church is what Cain did. What we are doing in many places in the church is what Adab and Abihu did when they brought strange fire into the Lord's house. What we are doing in many places in the church is what Jeroboam did when he set up false worship in Bethel and Dan. It was the beginning of the end.

Call: Brothers and sisters, the true worship that God gave us is not boring. If worship has become boring, one of two things has happened: We are not worshipping in Spirit and in truth, or we are so involved in the things of the world that spiritual things are not spicy enough for us.

God is calling everybody to come to His house to worship Him who is our Holy God. But He is not calling for anybody to come to worship Him anyway they want to.

Only those who are willing to renounce the world and its sinful ways are invited to worship Him. The devil would do anything to keep out of hell--anything, that is, but repent.

And so there are many who will do anything as long as it is their thing and as long as they don't have to give up anything. Unfortunately, that is not what the true gospel is all about.

Heaven is sad by the huge numbers who are leaving the faith and not coming to church anymore. But heaven must also be beside itself with the huge numbers who have left the faith but are still coming to church and insisting that if things aren't done their way, they are out of there.

May God have mercy on us all. May God save our children.