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This morning I had the thought 
of this is this is 1/2 baked 

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potato. 
So I'm going to work it out. 

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As I talk it out. 
What I was doing was comparing 

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and contrasting a marital 
relationship and the 

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relationship believers have with
the church as an organization, 

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as a place you go weekly or 
twice a week to fellowship and 

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whatever. 
And I was thinking how in 

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marriage, if you are just going 
through the motions, like, yes, 

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this is my spouse, but we don't 
share anything deep. 

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I don't have an open heart. 
I I'm easily offended. 

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I don't like the way this person
is. 

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I'm constantly praying that God 
change my spouse while 

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simultaneously blaming 
everything on them and never 

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looking at my heart like the way
that that makes a marriage feel,

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which I've lived through 
personally so I can. 

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It's not great. 
It's saltless hard boiled eggs. 

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If there was a flavor to 
marriage, that's what that 

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marriage is like. 
And how in those seasons of 

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life, when you stick it out, you
don't give up, You don't be 

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like, well, my husband's a 
narcissist and I'm out of here. 

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Hello. 
We're all narcissists to some 

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extent. 
So let's stop leveling blame, 

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even though it doesn't feel like
it at the time and it doesn't. 

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It feels like the Sahara desert 
in a windstorm, sandblasting 

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your face. 
Somehow the Holy Spirit works 

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some stuff out of you and like 
in you and through your heart, 

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you come to a place where it's 
like, oh, OK, so a lot of these 

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issues are my issues. 
And I keep looking over here to 

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blame this other person, but 
it's really me. 

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That is what it's like when 
you're going to church and 

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you're just doing it because 
this is what you do. 

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So a lot of times in that 
season, people divorce the 

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church. 
People will be like, this is 

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stupid. 
I'm tired of programs, I'm tired

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of formulas. 
I'm tired of empire building 

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within the church, right? 
And you leave and we did that. 

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So I'm not pointing fingers. 
But what ends up happening is 

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you don't get the fruit of 
perseverance. 

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And I'm not saying one should 
commit to a church and stay 

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there forever, but I'm saying 
divorcing the church, no longer 

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attending church services and 
and taking the approach of like 

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an A la carte experience, you 
lose the opportunity to bear the

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fruit of perseverance in that 
way. 

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And it so closely mirrors a 
marital bond. 

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So then you have to look at it 
as threefold, right? 

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There's the marriage of husband 
and wife, there's the marriage 

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to the Lamb, And then there's 
the marriage of the church and 

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us in the body, the unity of the
body, right? 

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So those 3 aspects are all 
marriage in some way. 

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They're like different facets of
the same diamond. 

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When we persevere, we come out 
of the other side with the fruit

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of persistence. 
And also it births in you a kind

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of grace for people and 
institutions because you see the

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hand of God even in the mess. 
Do I think God should sort out 

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the formulaic empire building 
that is in the church? 

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Yes, I do. 
I wish he would have done it 

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yesterday, but he's not. 
But and he is God and he's doing

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it in his timing. 
The Bible literally says don't 

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forsake the assembly of the 
Saints. 

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Don't do that. 
I was always like, why? 

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I mean, easy for you to say 
Paul, because when you were 

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writing that y'all were doing it
right, OK. 

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You were small gatherings. 
You were seeking the word for 

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yourselves. 
You're coming together, sharing 

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what you had amongst each other.
It was the book of Acts church 

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boom. 
And now look at us. 

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Now we have people dressed up in
Marvel costumes in doing skits 

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of Michael Jackson's thriller. 
This is what we're doing. 

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So what are you talking about 
forsaking the assembly of The 

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Who are the Saints? 
Where are the Saints? 

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Because all I see is a bunch of 
actors wearing masks. 

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I see theater Jesus, and I don't
want to participate in theater. 

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I got enough drama inside my own
walls. 

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I don't need to go watch 
somebody else's drama played out

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on the stage that they call 
church. 

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OK, puke. 
That was my mentality. 

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And I don't fault my yesterday's
self for that. 

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But retrospectively, when things
are clearer, I could say that we

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would do well to persevere 
because it mirrors what marriage

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is. 
And even if we're not married, 

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that bond with the Church in the
fellowship of the Saints, that 

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persistence, that willingness to
stick it out bears fruit in our 

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lives. 
That is hard to combine other 

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avenues. 
I think people come by it 

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through jobs they feel called 
to. 

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But all of this comes down to 
obedience, right? 

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Once we stop doing these things 
sacrificially and we start doing

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them out of obedience, then we 
bear fruit because the 

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sacrificial system is done. 
Now we do obedience.