He said, I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.

He who knows his sheep, whose names he wrote down before the foundation of the world, he will build his church. Welcome to Grace to you with John MacArthur. I'm your host Phil Johnson. If you ask a handful of church

leaders why people love being in their congregations you'd probably hear answers

like great music, friendly people, an enjoyable atmosphere.

And it's fair to say, those are the main selling points

for many churches today.

The reasons their leaders think you love to attend each week.

Well, you no doubt enjoy good music and appreciate

encouraging people who doesn't but are those the main reasons to love a local

church? Frankly the Bible gives other reasons, better reasons to love being part of a local church.

John MacArthur looks at those reasons today on Grace to you and a message he calls

why I love the church.

And now with a lesson, here's John.

I love the church.

I confess to that.

I am an inveterate and incurable lover of the church. It thrills me beyond anything and everything to serve

the church. It is the supreme joy of my life to labor for the church. To spend my years

on behalf of the church I wouldn't trade for anything.

And there are some reasons why that is true and I will share a few of those with you and we'll look at some texts who

undergird them. First of all I love the church because the church is being

built by the Lord himself. The immutable sovereign, omnipotent Lord of heaven, whose word can't return

void but always accomplishes what he says, whose purpose always comes to pass,

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