The Church is of God and shall be preserved to the end of time as the visible body of Christ on earth. The local church remains God's best hope for humanity. For a lifetime now, the Church has captured my heart, my mind, and my deepest devotion. After all these years I can still join Timothy Dwight in saying:

Beyond my highest joys I prize her heavenly ways.
Her sweet communion, solemn vows, her hymns of love and praise.

I love the Church. Because I love it so much, I want God's very best for it. So I spend my days and many nights pondering ways to fulfill God's vision for this community of faith. Sometimes I find myself asking, “If Jesus came to our church to spend a day or two, if he came for just a visit, I wonder what he would say for us to do?" This sermon is an attempt to answer that …