5 Tips to Finding a Great Church | Pastor Reacts

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Debate Teacher Reacts: James White vs. Leighton Flowers (John 6:44)

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that when a Jew is faced with a question that they cannot answer, they dance. Why? Well, because they know that one day the

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Lord will answer their question. And so you fatigue. After about the third church, you see some good things. And you go, alright,

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I've had enough, I'll just stay right here. But that might be the wrong move. Let me go ahead and give you my criteria for finding a good church.

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And it really, it comes down to about three key passages of scripture. Welcome back to another video here at Wise Disciple.

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My name is Nate, and I'm helping you become the effective Christian that you are meant to be. Before I jumped into this ministry,

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I was a pastor and a debate teacher. And so I bring these elements together to make a lovely stew.

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That was a weird picture. I just gave you my skills. Alright, today we're looking at an article from a

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Relevant magazine. Relevant is interesting. It's hard to, I don't know.

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They've had their fair share of controversy in recent years. So I'm not sure what we're going to read here together. But I definitely have some opinions about what to look for when you're searching for a church.

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As a matter of fact, I'm going to evaluate whether or not these tips in this article are good or bad.

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And then stay tuned to the end of the video. I'm going to share with you my biblical tips for finding a new church. This is not theoretical.

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My family and I recently had to find a new church for ourselves. And so I'll tell you what I looked for.

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So stay tuned to the end of the video for that. Before we jump into the article, make sure to like and subscribe to the channel as it helps me get these videos out to more and more people.

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Also, make sure to avail yourself of the awesome discounts that we're running right now through Logos Bible Software.

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This is the Bible software I use to do my studies of the Scripture. I use Logos to read the

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Scripture with you on YouTube. It will absolutely help you and open up the Word like never before. So this article is, again, from Relevant.

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It says, Five Tips for Finding a New Church. Now, the author starts by speaking of their experience trying to find a new church.

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But let's pick it up right here. It says, Finding a church is hard, but oh, so worth it.

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Here are five tips to remember when searching for the next church home. Tip number one, pray.

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In Matthew 7 -11, Jesus promises that the Father will give good things to his children who ask for them. And guess what?

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Finding a Christian fellowship is definitely a good thing. Be honest when talking to God and invite him into this journey of finding a new church home.

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You know, Matthew 7 -11 is an interesting passage because I don't think

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Jesus is telling his followers to ask God for just any old thing in Matthew 7 -11.

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Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds.

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And to the one who knocks, it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?

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Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? Here it is. If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your

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Father, who is in heaven, give good things to those who ask him? If you notice, the teaching, the same teaching, is given in Luke 11.

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Here we go. Luke 11, verse 9. And I tell you, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find.

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Knock and it will be opened to you. So it tracks along the same sort of teaching. Notice how it reads.

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For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds. And to the one who knocks, it will be opened. Both of these passages should make a

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Jew think of the Old Testament teaching. It should make a Jew go in their minds and go, okay, is this somewhere in the

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Torah? Is this somewhere in the scripture that we have? And if you think about it, it is.

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In the Old Testament, there are teachings where God says, if you seek God with all of your heart, you will find him.

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This is taught in places like Deuteronomy 4 .29. It's taught again. You will seek me and you will find me if you seek me with all of your heart.

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That's Jeremiah 29 .13. If the question is, what does Jesus want you to ask?

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Then you're not going to be able to see, I think, what Jesus is teaching in this moment, because that's not the point.

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I think the point that Jesus is making is not what you ask, but to whom you ask.

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Does that make sense? So when you pray, you get God. That's the point that Jesus is making.

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Watch how Jesus finishes this teaching in Luke 11. Verse 11, what father among you, if his son asked for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent?

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Or if he asked for an egg, will give him a scorpion? Here it is. If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly father give the

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Holy Spirit to those who ask him? See how it tracks the same way as Matthew 7 .11?

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Only this time we see that it's the Holy Spirit that God will give. And that's the ultimate point,

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I think. So, does that mean that God will never give us what we ask for? No, that's not what I'm saying. I just,

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I don't think that's what the ultimate point is that Jesus is making. Having said all of that, boy, what a diversion, right?

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Okay, that was a rabbit trail. I completely agree, though, with this first point, pray, right? I think it's vital that we pray as we go around, we try to find a new church, but we need to pray that God will give us the wisdom to see a few things.

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Number one, whether or not the pastor rightly handles the word of truth, right? The truths of God, that's 2

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Timothy 2, and that this pastor is equipping the saints for the work of ministry, that's Ephesians 4, but also that the church is filled with folks who love each other like Christ.

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Jesus said in John 13, verse 34, a new commandment I give to you that you love one another just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

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By this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.

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And finally, is the church fulfilling the Great Commission, right? Are they making disciples according to Jesus' command in Matthew chapter 28?

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These things that I just listed, they're not easily answered in the first five minutes, like when you first walk into this new church and walk through the lobby, right?

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It takes time, it takes wisdom, it takes discernment to discover these things. So yeah, you need to pray, and you need to ask the

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Lord to give you this insight. Tip number two, do your research. You might say, well,

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I'd like to visit churches, but I don't know where to start. How about Google? I've literally searched churches near me as a starting point to look at what churches are available nearby.

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Most churches will have a website that shares what they believe, very important, the time and location of services and different ministries that the churches offers.

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Yeah, this is helpful, but only as a precursor to physically going to the church and looking around.

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So I definitely have to add that, I think. You know, there's a blessing and a curse in the way that churches are designed right now, especially online.

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The blessing is you get to look up the church's set of beliefs and doctrine that they affirm.

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You can see if they're involved in various arms of ministry, if they've got small groups running, you know, if they're actually fellowshipping, all by just going to the website and doing your due diligence, doing your research, right?

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But you cannot see whether they are the real deal until you walk into the brick and mortar building and, you know, you show up and you sit among them and corporately worship with them.

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You still have to go there. You still have to see what it's really like. And for some of us, that's difficult, and I totally get it.

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But nevertheless, it is absolutely crucial to the search. Not bad so far.

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Let's keep going. Don't forget to stay to the end of it, the end of the video where I'll give you my biblical tips.

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Tip number three, get to know people. Jesus teaches that we reap what we sow, and in the case of making friends, we have to sow some small talk in order to reap real relationships.

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And trust me, it's so rewarding once you get to the other side. Join a Bible study, visit a small group, or have coffee with a member on staff.

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Overall, be intentional about seeking friendship. Yes and amen.

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This is incredibly important. Because once you sit in the seat on a Sunday and you hear the sermon and you worship corporately with everyone, you still don't know whether the church government is biblically structured.

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You still don't know whether the staff and the leadership are real shepherds or not. Whether the things that they claim, again,

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I just said this, on their website are actually taking place. You don't even know what their philosophy of discipleship looks like.

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All of these things must be fleshed out by sitting with one of the members of church staff, one of the pastors, ideally, by going and watching their small groups, by going and seeing what their ministry looks like, and asking pointed questions.

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Hey, how does your church handle discipline? Right? How does your church hold your senior pastor accountable?

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What type of ministry is this church involved in and what does that look like? Any church worth its salt is going to have answers to all these questions, but more importantly, they're going to want you to ask those questions.

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Tip number four, be thorough. Don't be too quick to throw down your roots just because you're tired of the visiting process.

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This is so good. A few times I've been tempted to say, I found the church. The search is over before I really felt confident that the church was where God wanted me to be.

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Be patient. Do not rush the process. This is probably one of the best pieces of advice, and, you know,

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I get it. So right now, if you're watching this video and you're on this journey, it's a slow process.

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It's, you know, it's not ideal. And a lot of us hate the process because it smells too much of consumerism and transactionalism, right?

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You're going out there and looking for what you want in a church, right? Which ends up feeling like you're not looking for a church.

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You're buying a car or, you know, or a house or something, right? And so you fatigue. I get it.

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After about the third church, you see some good things and you go, all right, I've had enough. I'll just stay right here.

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OK, but that might be the wrong move. You might figure out after a month or two, right, that you're at the wrong church, that you stuck around for the wrong reasons or you thought you saw something there that turned out to not be accurate or whatever the case is, you know, or even worse than that, you start to catch on to some very subtle, very sly, abusive behavior from church leadership, which, again, is not easily identifiable in the first week or two of attending that church.

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That just takes time and patience. And so you need to be ready to move.

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You know, don't be too quick to throw down your roots. I like how that was said. And finally, tip number five, praise

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God along the way. You've probably heard the saying, the joy is in the journey. I have this phrase embroidered on a pillow in my living room.

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OK, so so often this is true in life, and I believe it applies to finding a church as well.

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As you visit churches and interact with different believers, you will learn a lot about yourself, your calling and your relationship with God.

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Thank him for the small surprises and discoveries throughout the process. I hesitate.

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The joy is in the journey. That's that's a kind of froofy way of saying what the

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Apostle Paul actually said. First Thessalonians 5, verse 16 says, Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

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Rejoice. Even when I'm struggling and without a church, Nate, yes, even when you're struggling, even when you're without a church, you can, you know, probably question like, well, how is that even possible?

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Like, how can I do that? I've said this before, but it's been said of Jews that when a

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Jew is faced with a question that they cannot answer, they dance. Why? Well, because they know that one day the

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Lord will answer their question. And so they get excited. How can we rejoice even when we're struggling?

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Well, because we know that one day the Lord will answer our prayers. He'll give us the solution. He will help us to see tomorrow what we do not see today.

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Philippians 4, verse 4 says, Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.

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The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

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The Bible commands us to rejoice and we can do so precisely when we relinquish control of our lives to God and we trust him that he's going to lead us exactly where we need to go, that in all things he is working for our good.

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Right. Hey, real quick, I'm so grateful that you're watching. If I've earned the right to get your sub, I'd love it if you would just click the like and subscribe button.

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It would really help me to get the video out to more and more people. I really do appreciate you. Those are some good tips.

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Those weren't bad. Let me go ahead and give you my criteria for finding a good church.

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Okay. And it really it comes down to about three key passages of scripture. And what they do for me in my mind is they intersect to create kind of a grid through which

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I view the search or the journey that I'm on to find a good church. Okay.

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So let me give you those passages of scripture. Acts chapter two, verse forty two says this. And they, the church, devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

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And all came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were being done to the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common.

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And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need.

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And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising

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God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day, those who were being saved.

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There's so much to say here. There there's there's a sermon definitely here just on these few verses.

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Okay. But notice this is a picture of what the body of believers look like.

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And it centers on a few important things. Okay. They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching.

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All right. A good church is going to devote itself to the teaching of Jesus and of the word of God.

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All right. Notice the word devote. Okay. That means that they placed high priority on these things.

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And so should we. Also notice they devoted themselves to fellowship.

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The basic understanding of fellowship is partnership. It's it's sharing. You know, the church gave of themselves to each other.

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They gave their time, their resources. They spent time together with each other. They ate food together.

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They shared their possessions that they had with each other. These are the kinds of people

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I'm looking for when I'm looking for a new church. And again, you just can't figure this out on a

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Sunday morning. You know, this takes time. You with me so far? Also, look at this.

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They devoted themselves to communion, to the breaking of bread. Okay. I mean, besides the command of Christ to do this, communion demands of us that we examine ourselves as we fellowship together corporately.

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The Apostle Paul said this. First Corinthians 11 verse 26 says, for as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, the cup of communion, you proclaim the

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Lord's death until he comes. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the

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Lord. Let a person examine himself then. And so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

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Communion causes us to sometimes, because we are examining ourselves first, realize that we need to be reconciled to our brothers and sisters.

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It causes us to first go and reconcile with each other if we have something against each other.

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It causes us to evaluate our own relationship and commitment to God. Every single time we take communion, the

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Church of God must absolutely partake in communion as a regular feature of the gathering together.

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Back in Acts 2, and finally, they devoted themselves to prayer. It says the prayers.

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Prayer is a real problem. Amongst a lot of churches, what

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I mean is a lot of churches don't pray as much as they should. OK, we need to not only pray, but we need to devote ourselves to prayer.

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And we need to be around other people that devote themselves to prayer, too. I struggle myself with prayer sometimes.

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I think we all do at various aspects and stages of life. So, you know, I'm talking to myself as much as I'm talking to anybody else who's watching this video.

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But as a corporate body, we can inspire each other. We can keep each other accountable if we find the right church that doesn't just pray, but devotes itself to prayer.

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Does that make sense? That's what I'm looking for when I'm finding a new church. OK, you with me so far?

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Let me give you—so that's just one part of sort of this biblical grid that I use to find a new church.

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Let me give you another one. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 11. This is what it says. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the

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Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we're no longer children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes.

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Rather, speaking the truth in love, we're to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped.

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So there are—again, this is a whole sermon, you know—but there are some important words and phrases that characterize church right here.

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Now, hopefully you saw it. Equip. Ministry work, right? Building up, right?

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Knowledge of God, maturity, fullness of Christ. OK, you see those? All of these words and phrases are what the people of God, the saints, are supposed to look like as a byproduct of gathering together at church.

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I think you can also see that these things cannot be developed if we only attend Sunday mornings, right?

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Does that make sense? No, these are characteristics that are developed all throughout the week, not just one day.

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So what I'm looking for when I'm looking for a new church is I'm looking for pastors at the pulpit, on church staff, right?

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I'm also looking for a church culture that is all about equipping the saints, especially in very practical ways, in ways that the congregation know what to do very practically, to do the work of ministry, to build each other up, to know

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God, to mature, to look more like Jesus tomorrow than they did today. A lot of sermons—and you'll know this if you've seen my sermon reactions—are way too abstract and not very practical for the

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Christian. We need to find a church who can give the saints real ways and real help to be equipped and to live out their faith effectively in today's culture.

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That's what I look for in a new church. Finally, I'm looking for a certain kind of pastor.

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In John 10, verse 11, Jesus says, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

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He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.

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He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the

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Father knows me and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep.

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This is a picture of what a good pastor looks like. Jesus models for pastors what it looks like to shepherd the flock of God.

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Pastors are not the good shepherd. Only Jesus is the good shepherd. But pastors are under -shepherds of the good shepherd.

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That means that Jesus is their model, okay? So a good pastor needs to, number one, know his flock.

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He needs to know what they're struggling with. He needs to know what they're good at. He needs to know his flock.

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The worst thing that can happen is a pastor who is never available to his church that essentially goes into hiding and then magically appears

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Sunday morning, you know, gets up at the pulpit and then disappears again directly afterwards. You know what happens to those pastor sermons?

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They do not equip the saints because they don't know they're saints. A good pastor must be ready, willing, and able to lay down his life for his flock.

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He needs to wake up every morning and diligently die to self. As Jesus said in John 12, 24, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it will not bear fruit.

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When I'm looking for a new church, I'm looking for a pastor who has died and continues to die daily because this is very likely the kind of pastor who knows what it means to lay down his life for the sheep.

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These are the things that I look for when I'm looking for a new church. And like I said, I've recently had to do that.

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I moved my family from Las Vegas all the way to Nashville, Tennessee. And we had to go looking, right?

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So this is not theoretical at all for me and my family. But these principles guided us well.

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There's probably another thing I could say about this, but this is actually maybe another video for another time. But you have to, through prayer, ask to sense the

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Spirit at the church that you're at. Whether you're evaluating a church, they are a candidate for where you will call home eventually.

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Ask the Lord to give you the discernment to sense his hand of activity.

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And that comes out of John 5 .19. If you've seen any other video that I've made, you've heard me talk about John 5 .19

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quite a bit. We should be able to go wherever we sense the hand of God's activity.

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And so that also probably is another thing to incorporate and to think long and hard about when you're evaluating churches, when you're looking for a new one, right?

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But again, that's probably a video for another time. So if you want me to make that video, I'd be happy to. Lot more to say about all this, but I'm going to leave this right here with you in the hopes that it blesses you.

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What about you? What do you look for in a new church? Let me know in the comments below. And look, at the end of the day, I'm praying for all of you who are looking.

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It is no small thing to find where you should be, the church that you should call home, where God's people truly are.

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All right, if you made it this far, you need to join my Patreon community, even just to read the Bible with me. Did you know that? We're doing a

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Bible study together on Patreon, and it's for free. Anyone can join. You can also get exclusive access to videos like this before they make it to YouTube, and you can join me for exclusive live streams and ask me anything you want.

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The link for the Patreon is below. As always, I'm going to return soon with more videos. I hope this one really blessed you.