What is Your Life Missing?
- Craig Groeschel
- Oct 3, 2020
- 18 min read
- Recently, I walked into the gym, and I saw a guy that looked up, and noticed and
recognized me as his pastor. And this guy just blurted out, didn't say hello. He just said,
"Oh my gosh, I'm so far from God." And then the very next thing he said it jarred me. He
said, "I had no idea how much I miss going to church. I'm so far from God. And I had no
idea how much I missed going to church." Things are so different today aren't they?
How many of you miss the good old days? Remember back in January and February,
the good old days back when you could like travel, and make plans and go anywhere,
and things have changed so much. I've heard so many times we're living in
unprecedented times. It's unprecedented times. This is an unprecedented season. I
would give anything for precedented, anything precedented. I just want some
precedent. Can anybody give me a little precedent? More people today they're just
tense. I'm tense. I'm easily agitated. People are so uneasy at best. Some people are
terrified and incredibly angry at worse. Since this I talked to so many people who just
have a deep sense of feeling disconnected, or feel hopeless, or they're lacking
confidence in the future, lacking direction, questioning everything and everybody.
Where's the conspiracy? Who's behind this? Who can we trust? Who's telling us the
truth? They're slipping back, lot of people into destructive habits and bad rhythms. And
so many people in some form or another would just say, life's just not working the way I
want it to work. Things just aren't going well right now. Such a heaviness, such an
uneasiness. And that's why the title of today's message is this. What Your Life Is Missing.
What your life might be missing. At all of our churches and those of you online, let's
pray together today. Father, we ask that by the power of your spirit, and through the
truth of your word, that you would help us perhaps discover what we are missing so we
could know you intimately and serve you passionately. We pray this in Jesus' name, and
everybody said Amen. This guy at the gym, he was so nice. I had no idea how far I'd
drifted from God. And, oh my gosh, I had no idea how much I miss going to church.
Somebody say church. - [Audience] Church. - Type that in the chat, if you will, church. Type in church, church, church. I want to talk
to you today about the church, and give you just a little bit of context from Scripture.
The root Greek word that's translated as church in the New Testament it appears 107
times. And the word is ekklesia. Ek means out of, klesia comes from the root word
calling. This word means both at the same time to assemble, to gather, and called out.
That's who we are. We are the church. We're gathered together to be strengthened, to
be called out, the word is ekklesia. The first time that the word is mentioned in all of the
New Testament is actually mentioned by who do you think said it? Jesus mentioned the
church the very first time. Jesus, to give you context, he was kind of talking to his
disciples, and he gave them a pop quiz. He's like, let me ask you a question. And he said
to his disciples, who do people say that I am? And the disciples were like maybe
reaching, or maybe they were telling the truth, they're like, uh, John the Baptist, Elijah,
Jeremiah, other prophets. And then Jesus turned the pop quiz on to Peter, and he said,
no, Peter, you tell me, who do you say that I am? And the spirit of God gave him
wisdom, and Peter said, "You're the Messiah. You are the Christ. You are the son of the
living God." And Jesus said to Peter this. The first time the church is mentioned in all of
Scripture, Matthew 16:18, he said, "On this rock," Jesus says, "I will build," what? Say it
aloud all of our churches. He said, "I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it." Jesus said, "I will build my church." It's his church. Jesus loves his
church. He cares about his church. He loves and wants to build his church. I want to tell
you for just a moment about some events that happened at church, around church, or
1
WYLIM_1_Transcript
because of the church in my life. I just jotted down on a piece of paper in about maybe
three or four minutes, just randomly thoughts about the church that came to my mind.
And to give you a little bit of context, my family grew up attending church, but we were
not committed to Jesus. We were churchgoers, but we were not intimately connected
to Jesus, or following him faithfully. And so here's just a list of how my life has been
influenced a short list of the different ways from the church. First of all, when I was
maybe five or six years of age, we went to church one week and I came home, and my
mom said that I told her I felt like I was supposed to be a pastor one day, which is
completely bizarre because I don't ever remember really even liking a pastor growing
up, but for some reason I felt drawn to the church. And even as a very young child felt
like maybe I was supposed to be a pastor one day. Then years later in youth group, I
just felt drawn to God. I would go to youth, but I didn't know God, but I felt drawn to
him occasionally. And then I was actually voted, not because I was a spiritual superstar,
but maybe because I was well liked enough, or nobody else wanted the role, I was voted
to be president of my youth group. And it was at church I discovered I really probably
don't know God because they asked me to pray out loud and I panicked because I
didn't know how to pray quietly, or privately, much less out loud, and I realized maybe
I'm really not connected to the God of this church. Then I went to college on a partial
athletic scholarship, and partial religious scholarship because I was the president of my
youth group even though I wasn't a Christian. And it was at college that I fell deep into
sin, and started reading the Bible, and decided to become a follower of Jesus, and
immediately for no apparent reason, I just decided I need to go to church. So all by
myself, 19, 20-year-old, I'd get in the car and drive to the closest church. I just felt drawn
for some reason, all by myself to church. I started to make new friends at church, and
they were very different from my old friends. You see, before I was a Christian, I thought
everybody was a Christian. I grew up in Texas and in Oklahoma, and we weren't
Muslims, and we weren't Buddhists, so I just assumed we were all Christians. When I
became a Christian I looked back and I thought all my old friends none of them were
Christians because these new friends were so passionate about doing something that
would make a difference for God, and would way outlast this life. I met new friends
through the church, and I started being discipled through the church learning God’s
Word, being corrected and encouraged, and sharpened through the church. I started
growing spiritually through the church. I got my first whole Bible through the church. I
got a half a Bible through the Gideons who gave me a New Testament, but some
strange guy I'd never met before felt called to give me a whole Bible with my name
engraved on. Some guy from the church that just randomly gave me this gift. I started
to learn to be generous and give in the church. When they called for an offering, and I
didn't give anything, and the lady sitting next to me, who I didn't know at the time took
out a $20 bill and said, "Hey, let's never come unprepared to give. I'll give this to you so
you can give it to God." I was so blown away by her generosity that it started a journey
growing toward generosity. I heard about Amy from some friends at church. This girl is
like overboard for God, just like you they said. And I wasn't sure this was like pre social
media. I couldn't check her out and stalk her. And so I just asked some friends at church
who confirmed, oh, yeah, she's the real deal, you should get to know her. So I called her
and I left her a message, and she's in the room and can confirm this. I said on her voice
message. If you don't know what that is, we had little machines. And I said, "Hey,
Christian babe, take me to church, or lose me forever." Is that true? And then I said,
"And the verse for the day is, and now these three remain faith, hope, and love, but the
greatest of these is love." 1 Corinthians 13:13. And I left that message. And I recorded
that message with a little black device I put on a landline, and then we played it at our
wedding. Take me to church, or lose me forever, who says that? Who says that? And
2
WYLIM_1_Transcript
our first date, we went to a Bible study at her church and then a Bible study that I led.
And we grew together spiritually, and suddenly for no reason, these two young kids just
felt called to serve God with their whole lives in the church. I proposed to Amy. Guess
where I proposed? In the church. I think I might have a picture even of that. Proposed to
her in the church. We prepared for marriage in the church as my pastor prepped us for
marriage. We shared our covenant vows, and promised to give our lives to one another.
And I would love her as Christ loves the church. And we do that in the church. Suddenly
we felt called to start live church. And that's where the fun really got heated up. We saw
miracles upon miracles, and we experienced heartbreaks upon heartbreaks, the highest
highs and the lowest lows. And we continued to love Jesus in his church. We had six
kids and they were all baptized in the church. If you know my kids today, they're not
perfect, but all six of them all love Jesus. And they all faithfully serve and love in the
church. How did that happen? I give a lot of credit to Amy who is an incredible godly
mom, and home educated our kids, but, truthfully, I give so much credit to you all, our
church family who helped disciple them in LifeKids, and helped raise them in Switch. I'd
tell my kids one thing and they wouldn't believe me then what you would tell them the
same thing. They're, oh my gosh, this is amazing because together we help disciple each
other's children. I have four daughters, three of them are married, and they all married
young men they met in the church. And all three of their godly husbands are on staff at
our church where I can keep a very close eye on them all for the glory of God. And our
whole life, honestly, everything that I can find that's anything meaningful is a reflection
of the work of God through his bride the church. And it's not because I'm a pastor. It
was before I was a pastor. It's because I'm a follower of Christ, and I'm a part of the
bride of Jesus. His church, and I hope that many of you have some type of a story like
that, where here's how God used the people of God. Here's how he used the church.
Jesus said, "I will build my church." I want to talk to you today about the church. In fact,
what I want to do for the next few minutes is I want to kind of do a little test with you.
And I want to share with you something to see how it connects with you. I want you to
see if this moves you, sparks you, stirs you, or if it kind of just bores you. I'm gonna
show you a portion from the Old Testament, Proverbs 31. Now those of you who have
been around the church, ladies, you know that Proverbs 31 is all about a godly woman.
These unbelievably high standards, which make men glad they're not women because
these standards are too hard to live up to, just saying, but these are amazing standards
of a godly person. There's 22 verses about the godly wife. And what's amazing about
these 22 verses is they're actually an acrostic poem. What that means is each of these
22 verses start with one of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and spell out all these
beautiful qualities of the godly bride. For example, if I would do this with Amy, I would
say ABC like Amy is adorable, A. B, she is beautiful. C, she is Christ-like and that's kind
of what this does. Essentially, this godly bright exhausts the entirety of the letters of the
Hebrew alphabet. Now, what we need to know is any time you read the Bible, all the
Scripture points toward Jesus. You look in the Old Testament and you can see images,
and prophetic utterances of Jesus. I asked our staff who is the main character of the
Bible? And everybody hesitated. That's why we're taking applications for staff members
right now at Life.Church, no. Jesus is the main character of the Bible. And even in the
Old Testament you see images of Jesus. You see images of God, the church, like Song
of Solomon it's a very graphic love story between a man and a woman. It's also a
metaphor, a portrayal of God's love for the church. And what I want to do is show you in
Proverbs 31 out of the Passion Translation a potential metaphor, or series of metaphors
about the church. So let me explain what I'm gonna do. When we look at the husband,
what I'm gonna do is put in parentheses Jesus, as perhaps this husband represents
maybe Jesus. And anytime we see the godly woman, the bride, I'm going to put in
3
WYLIM_1_Transcript
instead the bride of Christ Jesus the church. And so let me just demonstrate so you'll
know clearly what I'm doing here. Perhaps looking at a metaphor in the Old Testament
about Jesus and his bride, we'll start in verse 10. And this is what the real text says. It
says "Who could find a wife like this one. She is a woman of strength and mighty value.
She's full of wealth and wisdom. The price paid for her was greater than many jewels."
Now here's how I edit it. You can see in parentheses, here's what I put. Who could ever
find a church like this one. Christ's church is full of strength and mighty valor. See if this
does anything to you emotionally. The church is full of wealth and wisdom. The price
paid for the church was greater than many jewels. Verse 13 and 14. The church searches
out continually to possess that which is pure and righteous. The church gives out
revelation, truth to feed others. The church tastes and experiences a better substance,
and her shining light will not be extinguished, no matter how dark the night. She, the
church is known by her extravagant generosity to the poor, for she always reaches out
her hands to those who are in need. Her husband, Jesus, is famous and admired by all.
Even her works of righteousness she does for the benefit of her enemies. I edited this
next verse, but you'll see what I did. There are many valiant and noble ones, but you
have ascended above them all. Popularity can be misleading, and followers, wealth, and
worldly clout is vain, and so quickly fades, but the church, the bride of Christ lives in
wonder, awe, and fear of the Lord. She will be praised throughout all eternity. The
Proverbs 31 woman, or maybe even a metaphor of the bride of Christ exhausts the 22
letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Question. Does that connect with you emotionally? If it
does, it's probably because you recognize you don't just go to church, but you are the
bride of Christ. Jesus said, "I will build my church." And he's been building your life to be
even more about you, but to be a part of a bigger calling, a bigger mission in this world.
Does this connect with you emotionally? Now, if it doesn't, what's missing from your
life? Why is your life maybe not working the way it should? Why is it that you feel
disconnected? Alone? Trapped? Hopeless? Desperate? What's missing from your life?
Maybe it's church. And maybe the church is missing you. Jesus said, "I will build my
church." I want to suggest to you a very real shift in mindset. And please hear me when I
tell you, this is so much more than a play on words. This is a change of thinking to truly
understand the church for which Jesus gave his life, and the church for which he's
building. We do not just go to church. If you can go to church, you can leave a church.
You don't just go to church. The church is not a destination. The church is an identity.
It's not a building. It is a people. And that's why we don't just go to church. We are the
church and we are here for the world. What's profoundly interesting to me is that the
first time Jesus mentions the church, he says, "I will build my church." And then he
didn't say, I will build my church, and the church will care for widows, which was very
important to him. He didn't say I'll build my church, and there will be peace on Earth,
which he said, "I came to bring peace on Earth." What he said was I will build my church,
and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. In other words, the first time he talks
about his church, there is a very visible, very clear, very plain reminder that we are
engaged in a war. What's missing from your life? Maybe you're not engaged in the war,
making a difference, pushing back the forces of darkness as you've been created called
by God to do in as his church. Maybe you recognize, man, it is crazy out there. Man, we
are in a war, but I'm not engaged in the war. I'll give you a visual of it. Back when I was
in college before I was a Christian, there might have been some alcohol, maybe a lot.
Pabst Blue Ribbon, cheapest beer in town back in that era. I don't even know if that
exists anymore, but it was like 99 bottles for $4, or whatever it was. And I was at a
party, and this guy from another fraternity came up to me, and he just walked up and he
pushed me pretty hard. He goes what's up? He pushed me hard. Well, if you don't know
that can be an affectionate form of greeting for a guy. You just go up to a friend and
4
WYLIM_1_Transcript
you push him hard. That can be affectionate. So I thought he was like being cool. And so
I just pushed him back kind of hard. I said, not much. And the next thing you know, he
put his arm around me to put me in a headlock. And, again, this may be confusing to
some of you, but that can be a very bro to bro type of like, hey, we're cool together
putting each other in a headlock. And so I thought we're being buddies. And so I just
backed out of it kind of quickly, and I aggressively pushed him away just to say, we're
really good friends. Well, evidently he had a different strategy because the next thing I
know this guy who like a running back came at me full speed, put his shoulder into me
and threw me into a wall. My butt went through the wall. I was back and he's laying into
me for no reason. I said, "Oh, so we're not being buddies, we're in a battle." Now I see
how it's gonna go down. Some of you, you would be wise to recognize there is someone
attacking you, whose mission is to steal, kill, and destroy. And we are in a battle, and we
are to engage in the battle as the church, and our battle, listen to me, it's not against
flesh and blood, Paul said. It's not against mask wearers, or not mask wearers. Come on
somebody. It's not against those who vote one way or vote another way, or post one
way or post another way, but our battle is against spiritual forces of this dark world, and
we are called to be a light, to be a force of love, and to push back the kingdom of
darkness. Listen to me, what's missing in your life? Maybe it's the church. Maybe the
church is missing you. Maybe you're yeah, yeah, I believe in Jesus. I believe in God, and
all this stuff, but you're not engaged in the war. You're called to be engaged. And I don't
know what this would mean for you right now, because right now the world is different.
And so it may have to be a little different. If all you can do is watch online, or all you can
do is maybe come once in a while to a physical, whatever it is. Let me just encourage
you, plead with you, beg you to engage in the spiritual battle. What might be missing
maybe is just the power of community when iron sharpens iron, and together you
strengthen, and lift, and love, and convict, and correct, and encourage each other. You
can't do it alone. I got to have your back, you got to have mine. We cannot fight alone.
Maybe for you it's prayer. You want to do some real spiritual warfare. You get down on
your knees, you pray, heaven opens up, and the power of God descends upon this
Earth. You ask for his will on Earth, as it is in heaven. Engage in prayer. Don't just sit by
and watch the news all day long, and just be blah, blah, the world is coming to an end.
Do something about it, engage. Hey, listen, you have spiritual gifts. You're part of the
body of Christ. Every part of the body of Christ is important. If all you're doing is like
streaming a message every now and then, yell at people. And you're not using your
spiritual gifts somewhere, and listen, 70% of you, you're not using them in a church right
now because you're not coming. Maybe you can't, maybe whatever, but I'm gonna tell
you just find a place to use what God has given you to make a difference in this world
because you actually serve someone else, and guess what? You're fulfilled as you use
your gifts to make a difference. You can give, for God so loved the world that he gave.
One of the ways you're most like God is when you give, and thank you to those of you
who are giving to the work of God through the church, or giving into the community
and seeing needs of people, and say, hey, as a church, we want to be a blessing. You
can invite people. You can invite them online. Guess what? Anybody can come to
Church Online, anybody in the world with access. You can invite people back. Listen,
here's the deal. As a church in a war when you wake up, you wake up with a search and
rescue mentality. We are ambassadors of God called to help people be reconciled to
God. The church is not a place we go, it's who we are. Who are we as the church?
Listen, we will lead the way with irrational generosity because we truly believe it's more
blessed to give than receive. And that's why on top of all the normal things during the
season, you, I mean like you, you're giving as a church have helped eliminate over $6
million of medical debt for COVID-19 heroes. You did that as the church to witness into
5
WYLIM_1_Transcript
the lives of families. You right now are funding over 100, that's a lot of local mission
partners helping injustice issues, and feeding people and educating people, and helping
those who are in need. You are involved. You are the church doing this. There are
people around the world that are hurting, unable to work and unable to eat. So we
picked one part that we could impact. In central America because of your generosity
there are millions of families eating today because you the church are engaged in the
war. We believe that the local church is the hope of the world that we can do infinitely
more together than apart. It's not about us. It's about the church. So we'll do what we
can to serve other churches because of your generosity. There are 27,000 churches
signed up to use the free Church Online Platform. There are churches able to be online
because of your generosity and it is free to them, but it ain't nowhere near free to us.
Our costs have gone way, way up. And what have you done? You funded the mission to
help other churches. You've given so generously. We're now giving grants to other
churches to help them keep the doors open. The YouVersion Bible App because of your
generosity, a massive team, a massive team, putting out the number one Bible
distribution system in the history of the world completely free on 433 million devices,
millions. Do you realize that we as a church can do that? The same word of God that
changed my life. We can give freely to people all over the world. We're in a war, we're in
a war. We'll do anything short of sin to reach people who don't know Christ, to reach
people no one's reaching we're gonna do things no one's doing. We are not spiritual
consumers. We are spiritual contributors. The church does not exist for us, but we are
the church and we exist for the world. What are you? You're the church. Come on
church what's missing? The church. We're full of faith and not fear for God has not given
us a spirit of fear, but a power, and of love, and of a sound mind. If you're at a physical
location, would you mind standing? Heck if you're in your living room, you might get up
off your sofa, or get out of your bed for just a moment. What are we? We're the church,
the bride of Christ. We are united standing against one enemy whose mission is to steal,
kill, and destroy. And we are united around one mission to lead people to become fully
devoted followers of Christ. Paul said in Ephesians 3:20, he said this. Now to him who is
able to do exceedingly abundantly more than all we can ask, think, or imagine according
to his power, that is at work within us, within you, within us, within you, to him be the
glory, where? In the church, in the church, in the bride of Christ throughout all
generations, forever and ever, Amen. Who are we? We're the church, the bride of Christ
known for generosity, seeking justice, expressing love, not backing down in the face of
opposition, but taking the message of Jesus all over the world. What's missing from
your life? Maybe it's the church and maybe the church is missing you. And as you
prepare your hearts to worship, I would love to invite you to engage in the spiritual
battle. Step in, step up. Because of the one who gave his life for you our only reasonable
response is to give our lives for him. If you can see it, if you can feel, he's moving in our
cities, he's moving on our streets. His name is Jesus. He is good. We are the church and
we exist for the work. Lift up your voices, lift up your hands, and worship our God, give
him praise.
6
WYLIM_1_Transcript
If you feel disconnected, hopeless, or you just know something is missing—it’s not the end of your story. It’s an opportunity to reconnect. To find hope. And to rediscover what you lost.
What might be missing maybe is just the power of community when iron sharpens iron, and together you strengthen, and lift, and love, and convict, and correct, and encourage each other. You can’t do it alone.