As a new believer, a new convert to Jesus Christ you may be a person who never went to church or one who rarely every went, maybe Christmas and Easter. Well remember what has happened, You have been adopted by our Heavenly Father into His Kingdom, His family. You have a new Father, you are Born Again, A new man, A new Woman and your life is different now than it was before. You may have never gone to church or you may have had a strong aversion to avoid church. Well as a new Christian, a new member of the family, those feeling of aversion should subside and you should think seriously about finding a BIBLE PREACHING TEACHING CHURCH.

Just because a building may have a church steeple on its roof does not mean that it is a Church. First of all the Lord said He will build His church and he was not referring to a building. The Lord’s Church is made up of every believer from every nationality who has placed their faith in Jesus Christ for the remission of their sins. Thus the Church is the people who worship the Lord whether it be held in a living room of a home, a store front building where there is a meeting room, a somewhat run down church house, or some grand magnificent building. Never forget the Church is the people who have gathered together to praise and worship the Lord.

Unfortunately then, you cannot pick a church because it is close to where you reside, because it has a magnificent appearance or for reason such as, it is where my grandmother went to church. In America and the World today there are basically two kind of churches.

1. A Church that teaches and preaches Jesus Christ as God who died on the cross, rose from the dead, after 40 days ascended into Heaven and is coming again to this earth. A Church that explains and teaches that mankind has fallen and we are sinners in need of a Savior. There is a Heaven and there is a Hell where people will spend eternity who want nothing to do with God. God did not reject them, they rejected God’s love and mercy that He extended to them that they might be adopted into His family which the Bible calls being SAVED. This church will believe in the sanity of life and that God creates a baby in the womb of a mother and life is sacred to Him. This church will be evangelistic meaning having a great burden for spreading the Gospel and bringing all men into a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

2. Then there is the liberal social gospel preaching church. A church of this type looks upon Christ perhaps as a great teacher, a social reformer, a good man but not the sinless Son of God or God Himself Incarnate. It basically is a Sunday morning social affair where people meet to delve into mans social problems, the homeless problem, the drug problem, the alcoholics problem, the need to help underdeveloped countries, etc. Certainly we do not discount that the world is full of problems. In a social gospel church Jesus will be rarely mentioned, the shed blood of Christ is a non issue and the Bible may contain some of God’s Word but it they say was written thousands of years ago and is not very relevant today.

The first church described above also recognizes the social problems of mankind, to that church drunkenness is not a disease it is a sin, Alcoholism is not a disease it is a sin and the good news is that when a person comes to Christ, acknowledges that he is a sinner, and turns his life over to the Lord, that person is adopted into God’s family and is born again. As a new creature now possessed by the Holy Spirit that dwells within the believer, that person will be freed of drunkenness, his alcoholism by the transforming power of God that takes place at the new birth.

A new believer needs to find a church like the church as outlined as number One. The reasons are many.

1. A New Believer can be pretty ignorant about the Word of God. A person may be super educated, a real computer geek and have all kinds of talent and knowledge but little knowledge about God’s plan for his/her life. Thus there is a need for teaching and gaining knowledge. Gaining Knowledge produces spiritual growth.

2. Then there is a need for fellowship, expanding your friendship associates. As a new Christian in time you will be less inclined to be a part of the Worldly party crowd and long to associate with others who have found the Lord and experienced the new birth and the change that it has brought in your life.

3. Then there are two ordinances in a local church which are water baptism and the Lord’s supper. As soon as possible a new believer should submit to water baptism by immersion. Water baptism is an act where you are saying publicly that your old man, your old nature was put to the cross with your Lord and it is dead and buried and now the new man of the new birth is raised as Christ was raised from the dead. You have buried the old sinful man and you have been raised a new creature in Christ Jesus and you publicly claim that you now intend to live and serve the Lord by His Grace.

Now beware, there are churches that teach false doctrine that you must be baptized to be saved and that being baptized a person is saved. In other words to those church you are saved by water baptism. Remember the thief on the cross who asked the Lord for forgiveness when he said, “Lord remember me when you come into your Kingdom” and the Lord said, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” The thief on the cross was not baptized but he accepted the Lord as his savior there on the cross. Nevertheless, we are not on the cross and the Lord gave the church this ordinance that believers would follow Him in believers baptism. Again not to be Saved, but because you have already been Saved and are making a very public statement to other believers that you too have believed. The other ordinance of the church is the Lord’s supper and it is a moment the church sets aside to remember the Lord’s death as payment for our sin, His Giving His life by the shedding of His blood for the remission of our sins which brought about His death fulfilling the penalty of mans sin which is death. That is why we are all going to die, because we have all sinned and the payment for sin is death of the body. Our Lord paid our debt on the cross and He died in our place and now offers us Life eternal with Him in Heaven.

Thus I cannot tell you which Church you should attend and eventually join as a member but I have tried to explain to you what the church should teach. The Bible, the Word of God should be preeminent and held extremely high. The weekly sermons of the pastor should be straight from the Word of God, the Bible. I my self as a child was taken to the closest church to where we lived as a matter of convenience. This Church, the Christian Church or Disciples of Christ was a non gospel preaching church that believed water baptism was the element that God used to save a person. I never heard the pastor preach on Hell or that as sinners we needed to be saved and to come to the Lord for salvation. At age 12 I was baptized at my mothers urging but I was not converted, was never talked to about my sin problem, had little understanding and just went through the motions of being an obedient son. It is so sad that millions of church people in our land are LOST IN THE CHURCH AND NEED TO BE SAVED. See you in a Bible Believing Church Next Sunday!