What is Discipleship?

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We are continuing this morning in our series entitled A Healthy Church.
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We have broken this series down into two parts.
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The first part is a question, what should a member expect from the church? And then the second part is what should the church expect from its members? Well, we're still looking at what the members should expect from the church.
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And so far we have seen that a member of a church should expect certain things in regard to the word.
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They should expect biblical preaching.
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They should expect biblical theology.
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They should expect a biblical understanding of the gospel.
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We've also looked at what a member should expect in regard to membership.
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They should expect that the church has a biblical understanding of conversion.
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We talked about last week, true and false conversion and what it means to truly be converted to Christ.
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We said the church should also have a biblical understanding of evangelism, which really is a result of how we understand conversion.
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And we should also have a biblical understanding of membership.
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Well, this week, we're going to go further into what a member should expect from the church with the question of what should a member expect from the church in regard to spiritual growth? We've looked at how we view the word.
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We've looked at how we view membership.
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So today we're going to look at what the church should expect or what the members should expect from the church in regard to spiritual growth.
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Now, just like last week, I don't have just one verse we're going to look at today.
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So for us to read one verse while standing, I don't think it's as appropriate because we're going to be looking at quite a few verses and giving some exposition of various texts.
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So instead, let's just begin now with a word of prayer and ask the Lord to be with us as we study.
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Our Father and our God, we thank you for this opportunity to study your word.
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I pray first and foremost that you would keep me from error, that you would anoint this time, that you would bless it.
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And Lord God, that you'd open up the hearts of your people to the truth, that there would be in this place an encouragement to draw closer to you and to be closer in line with what you have us to do as a church and as individuals.
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In Jesus name we pray.
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Amen.
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When we talk about the subject of spiritual growth, there are many areas which can fit appropriately into that category.
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Spiritual growth includes all kinds of things.
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You can include Bible study, prayer life, the discovery of spiritual gifts, ministry of spiritual gifts, fellowshipping with the saints, and a willingness to hone one another.
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As the scripture says, iron sharpens iron, so does one person sharpen another.
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So there's all kinds of subjects that we could approach when we're talking about the subject of spiritual growth.
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So really that series, that could be a series all on its own.
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But today we're going to limit ourselves to the simple question of what should a member expect from the church in regard to spiritual growth? What should you expect when you join the church, when you become a part of the church, when you are in the church? What should you expect in regard to your spiritual growth? We're going to look at three things today.
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If you have a notepad or if you're taking notes or writing in your Bible, here are the three things that the church should provide in the life of every church member.
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Number one is biblical discipleship.
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Number two is biblical leadership.
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And number three is biblical church discipline.
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Those are the three things that are the church's responsibility in regard to your spiritual growth, in regard to what you should expect when you come into the church.
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You should expect biblical discipleship, biblical leadership, and biblical church discipline.
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So let's look at the first one, biblical discipleship.
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We've probably all heard the word discipleship in the church.
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I remember going to a big megachurch one time.
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I was at a R.C.
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Sproul conference and they had it at the First Baptist Church of Orlando.
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You can imagine how big of a church the First Baptist Church of Orlando was.
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And I remember when you walk in, they had a huge youth room that was right off of the Northex area.
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And it was built like a pirate ship.
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Well, maybe we'll say not a pirate ship, but it's like a big ship.
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And it was called, it was scrolled across the side.
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It was the discipleship.
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I always thought it was kind of clever.
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Whoever the architect was came up with that.
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It was a pretty good idea.
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But, you know, we throw that word around a lot.
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The word discipleship, we say it, we use it.
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But what does it mean and how is the church supposed to provide that? How is the church supposed to help you with your own discipleship? Well, what does it even mean? Well, discipleship is the act of creating followers of Jesus Christ.
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It is the act of creating disciples of Jesus Christ.
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It begins with evangelism, wherein one is brought into a relationship by faith.
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But it doesn't end there.
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In fact, the new birth is only the beginning.
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I heard a guy one time, it so offended me.
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But when he said it, but it hurt me not just because he offended me because he was a preacher preaching to his congregation, but it hurt me for his congregation.
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I was hurting sort of vicariously.
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I was hurting for them because this guy who is who I consider to be one of the worst emergent preachers there is.
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I won't name him right now, but if you don't know what the emergent church movement is, it's important that you go out and find out what that is.
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The emergent church movement is all about inclusivism.
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It's all about trying to to to fit the gospel into the culture, fit the Bible into the culture.
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And what happens is they rip from the scriptures the truth and they replace it with cultural relativism.
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Well, this pastor was talking to his congregation and he said, he said, if you're saved, then our church isn't for you anymore.
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We're only about the business of getting people saved.
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So if you're here and you're already saved, all we're going to do is have you go out and get more people saved because we're not here for saved folks.
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We're here for lost folks to get them saved.
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And he was so proud of what he considered to be genius when all it was was foolishness.
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The idea that the church is just supposed to get you saved and turn you loose is ridiculous.
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But you see, that's the way so many people see the church.
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It's a place to get your health insurance.
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It's a place to get your your ticket punched for heaven.
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You come in, you sign the card, you raise the hand, you go forward, you get wet and then you become a CEO.
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Christmas, Easter only for those who don't know what CEO stands for.
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Yeah.
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Christmas, Easter only.
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That's that's that's what we do.
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Beloved, the church's responsibility is to provide avenues to help its members.
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To grow, to become like Christ, that's what discipleship is, is modeling ourselves after our leader.
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Christ is the leader.
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We are the followers.
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Our life is supposed to be modeled after him.
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We are supposed to conform ourselves to Christ.
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This is the whole this is why modern culture really bothers me, because the whole modern culture idea is to conform Christ to us.
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We want Christ to be what was a few years ago.
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Everybody wanted Christ to be married to Mary Magdalene because they want because they wanted to try to conform him to us.
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There was now they're saying, well, Christ said he had no problem with homosexuals.
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And if you've got a problem with homosexuals, then you're wrong because Christ never said anything about it.
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They're trying to conform Christ to the culture.
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Rather than conforming ourselves to Christ, and you know, that's what discipleship is when we are born again.
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We are infants in the faith, no matter how long we've been in church, though, I will grant if somebody's been in church for a long time and gets saved, they will have more information than somebody who hasn't.
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But still, same thing.
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You're an infant in the faith.
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You've been born again.
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You are.
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You've received the new birth.
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You are a infant in the faith.
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But here's the deal.
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You are not supposed to remain a baby forever.
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You're not supposed to remain an infant in Christ perpetually.
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Consider the words of the Apostle Paul, you know, we haven't read any scripture yet, so let's go read the scripture.
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Let's read first Corinthians three.
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Turn to first Corinthians three and verse one.
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It's the Apostle Paul.
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He's talking to the church at Corinth.
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Now, I've never done a sermon series through Corinthians, but I'm sure I will at some point before now and the end of my life.
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I'm sure I'm going to because it's such an interesting book.
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But what Corinthians is, first Corinthians is a series of the Apostle Paul rebuking this church for its carnality.
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He's rebuking them for their sinfulness.
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And it's amazing how much the Corinthian church models or looks like the modern church.
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So many of the issues they were facing are still being faced today.
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Two thousand years later and people haven't changed.
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Times change.
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Technology changes.
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People stay the same.
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And here's the situation, he says in verse one, but I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people.
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Now, he calls them brothers, and that's interesting because he's identifying them, at least as Christians, identifying them as his brothers.
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But he says, I couldn't address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh.
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Some of you says it's carnal.
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Some of the verses, but he says people of the flesh as infants in Christ.
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I fed you with milk, not with solid food, for you were not ready for it.
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And even now, you are not yet ready for you are still of the flesh.
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For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? For when one says, I follow Paul and another, I follow Apollos, are you not being merely human? Now, we'll just stop there.
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You see what the Apostle Paul is saying to the congregation.
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He's saying you're acting like children spiritually.
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See, the argument that was going on in court is very simple.
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Some of them have gotten saved under the ministry of Paul.
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Some of them had gotten saved under the ministry of Apollos.
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And so there was this debate about who was whose.
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I'm Pauline, I'm Apollonian, I'm of this person, I'm of that person.
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And then there were the super spiritual ones who would say, well, I'm of Jesus.
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You know, so there was this argument going on, but it was a silly argument.
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It was a foolish argument.
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The Apostle Paul would later say in this same text, he would later say, well, who saved you? Was it Paul? Was it Apollos? No, it was Christ.
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How silly is this argument? But yet compare that to the modern church, compare that to the silliness that gets in the way of true discipleship today, compare that to the the foolishness that is that is allowed to come in and confront and consume our minds rather than the gospel of Christ and his purpose for us in the world.
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And the Apostle Paul here, he's telling them, he says, I can't even I can't even deal with you as spiritually mature.
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I have to deal with you like your infants.
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I have to do I have to feed you milk.
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I can't even feed you with solid food.
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He's calling them.
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Out.
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For their spiritual infancy, he's he's challenging them that what they're in with the situation they've allowed themselves to be in is is wrong.
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He's telling them that that such a thing is actually indicative of the fact that they are still concerned with carnal things, that they are still focused on the flesh.
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And in essence, they have not yet grown up in their faith.
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Peter says something similar.
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Turn with me to first Peter closer to the back of your Bible.
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Little epistle of first Peter in chapter two.
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Now, Peter, Peter uses the analogy of milk a little differently, but I want you to still see that he's saying the same thing.
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But he uses milk a little differently here because the Apostle Paul was saying milk is for babies.
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Meat is for adults.
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You know, I'm feeding you milk because you're not ready for the for the solid food.
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You know, that's that's the way the Apostle Paul.
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Well, Peter uses the milk analogy a little differently, but he still says something very similar.
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Read in first Peter, chapter two, verse one.
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He says, So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.
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Like newborn infants long for the pure spiritual milk.
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All right, so right there, he's saying we should want the milk.
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Apostle Paul was more like, well, you should want the solid food.
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So are they contradicting each other? No, they're not contradicting each other, because look what he says next.
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He says, like newborn infants long for the spiritual food that by it you may grow up into salvation, that you can grow up, that you cannot remain an infant.
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You know, my baby, this is a great analogy for me, because my baby's big.
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She's six months old, but she is already like 17 pounds.
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And, you know, she has had nothing.
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She's had no solid food at all.
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I know some folks, some friends of ours, baby's like two months old, three months old.
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They were already feeding it cereal.
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And Jennifer has been like staunch.
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No, not until six months is her birthday is the 12th or six month birthday.
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She's going to finally get peas and carrots.
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And so we're all excited because we don't know how she's going to respond.
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But the point is that milk that she's had is just what she needed.
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But it's growing her up.
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It's growing her up.
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But we know she's not going to stay on it forever.
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We're looking forward to that day where we're finally going to put that spoon in her mouth.
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And I can't wait to take a picture because the first face is going to be hilarious.
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But because it's different.
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But that's what Paul's talking about.
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And that's the same thing really Peter's talking about.
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We start on the milk, but through it we grow up.
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Milk is how everybody starts.
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Everybody, when they first come to faith, they have to learn the rudimentary aspects of the faith.
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They have to learn about sacrifice and have to learn about redemption and have to learn about justification.
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And they have to learn about these things which are which are very foundational to the faith.
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But yet it doesn't stop there.
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Discipleship is a lifelong pursuit.
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There are men and women in this room who've been Christians almost their whole lives.
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And can I ask anybody, has anybody arrived at a perfect knowledge yet? Everybody here is still a disciple.
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I'm still a disciple, Jack's a disciple, Richard's a disciple, Byron's a disciple, Mr.
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Irv is a disciple, Mr.
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Lee is a disciple.
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Still continuing, Tony's a disciple, still continuing to learn, right? And every time you crack your Bible, you're still continuing to learn.
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To grow.
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And that's the call of discipleship.
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We're called to grow.
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And the problem is that is not appealing to many people today because we live in a society that glorifies immaturity.
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We live in a society that glorifies immaturity.
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It glorifies, you know, the most some people just so happy to not know.
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Oh, I don't know that.
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And they're proud, they don't know.
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They're happy to not know.
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Many people say, you know, I'm talking about Tony, don't the kids do that? You'll say something to them in school? No, I don't know that.
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And they're proud as they can be in their ignorance.
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Just as proud of their ignorance as, I mean, many people say they enjoy their childlike faith.
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They don't want to learn a lot of things because it brings confusion.
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I like my childlike faith.
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Well, didn't Jesus say a childlike faith was good? Yes, he said a childlike faith was good.
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He never said a childish faith is good.
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And there is a difference between a faith like a child which receives.
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And obeys, that's the whole picture of the childlike faith is when you tell a child something.
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A child trusts innately.
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When I tell my son something, he doesn't wonder if it's the truth.
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Daddy told him it's the truth.
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That's the way we're supposed to receive the word of God, the same faith of a child to his father.
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We're supposed to receive the word of God like a child to the father.
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But it doesn't mean we're supposed to remain perpetually six months old in the faith.
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We are to accept the truth the same way a child does.
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But that doesn't mean we have to remain immature.
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This is often one of the things which is spoken negatively about in regard to reformed theology.
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Reformed theology puts a premium on discipleship.
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The whole idea behind getting into doctrines which are deep and hard to understand is that we believe that it's important to grow.
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So we challenge each other to grow.
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How many of you, I mean, seriously, and I don't say this to build myself up.
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I don't say this to set myself on a pedestal because it's not me.
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But there are people who have been in this church for a long time and there are people who have been in and you've come and you've said, you know, I've been in church 40 years, never heard any of this stuff, some of this stuff, you know, and again, it's not me.
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This is the way it's supposed to be.
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We're supposed to challenge each other to grow no matter how long we've been a Christian, no matter how long we've been saved.
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We are still supposed to grow and the church should be the bastion of that.
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We should be the institution of higher learning, teaching not only the gospel, but teaching the theology of the Bible.
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The church is not just a place of worship, it is a place of learning and teaching and growth and a church member should expect that.
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A church member should expect to come into the church and grow in the faith and that's what the church, we should we should promote that and as in the church, we should encourage that and we should provide those opportunities.
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So that's number one, biblical discipleship.
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You should expect that as a member.
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Number two, look, move on to biblical leadership, biblical leadership.
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Well, we've looked at biblical discipleship, who's who's responsible primarily for providing that discipleship? I mean, who's who's responsible primarily for for being the instructors in the church, for being the ones who are teaching? Well, the pastor is the first person that the people here and but yet not often, not not always the smartest in the room.
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Thank God.
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But but he's the one that's uniquely gifted among the elders to speak.
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That's that's typical, you know, that he has been given that mouthpiece to speak the truth.
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And that's that's the pastor's job.
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But he's one he's one among equal men.
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Those men are the elders of the church that God has called.
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But here's the thing, those men who are in that position have to fit a very specific set of biblical requirements.
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Just go with me, First Timothy, I know most of you've heard this before, but again, it never hurts to hear it again.
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As an elder led church, we have heard these qualifications, you've ordained elders, you've seen elders in our church.
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So, you know, these qualifications are so, but to hear them again is important because this list is very, very specific.
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Says the saying is trustworthy, it's First Timothy 3.1.
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If you're still looking, First Timothy 3.1-7, the saying is trustworthy.
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If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, overseer, that word sometimes is translated as bishop.
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In the text, it's talking about the position of elder.
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Elder, overseer, episcopus, presbyterus, all of these words are are synonymous and they're used interchangeably in the text.
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So this is talking about the office of elder.
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It says, if anyone aspires to that office, he desires a noble task.
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Therefore, an overseer must be above reproach.
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The husband of one wife, sober minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.
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He must manage his own household well with all dignity, keeping his children submissive.
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For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? He must not be a recent convert or he may be puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil.
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Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.
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Right there, a very simple set, but specific set of requirements for eldership.
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And yet they're not the only leaders in the church.
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There is another group of leaders in the church, and there is some debate because I'm talking about obviously I'm talking about deacons.
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But there's some debate because some people say, well, deacons aren't leaders, they're servants.
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And by definition, that is true.
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Deacons, diaconate means to serve their servants in the church, but they're leaders by example.
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All the way, and they're supposed to be.
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The deacons are supposed to be the ones who lead by example.
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And here's the difference between an elder and a deacon's qualifications.
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Only one, the elder must have the ability to teach the word of God.
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Doesn't have to preach necessarily, because not all are gifted to stand behind the pulpit and preach, but to be able to explain the word of God, to be able to teach the word of God, to be able to answer questions from the word of God.
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And we see that, that's the major distinction between the two.
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If you read through the deacons, it says in verse 8, we'll go ahead and read, it says, deacons must be, must likewise be dignified, not double tongue, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain.
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They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.
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Let them also be tested first and let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless.
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And it goes on to talk about their wives and it's in verse 11 and then some other requirements about being the husband of one wife.
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But if you look at the requirements for elder deacon, the only real major difference is that ability to teach.
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And that's not saying deacons don't have that ability necessarily.
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But when we look at the text.
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That's the difference is that deacons aren't required to be able to do that, but they're still leaders in the church, they're leaders by example, they are leaders by how they do and what they do.
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And they should be examples to the congregation, as should the elders.
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Now, why is all that important? Well, if you're coming into the church, if you're coming into the congregation, what should you expect in regard to leadership? Well, you should expect, first and foremost, that your leaders have been chosen with those qualifications in mind, because I can tell you something, folks.
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There's a lot of churches never crack first Timothy three when they're looking at deacons.
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They never crack first Timothy three when they're looking at elders.
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They don't look at that at all.
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They say, hey, that guy there is a church every Sunday.
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And regardless of how many times he's been married, regardless of how he treats his wife or whether or not he has a job, hey, he's at church every Sunday and we need a deacon.
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Am I lying? We know it's the truth.
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We know it doesn't.
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You know what? Here's the thing.
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It doesn't matter how popular a person is or how well he might fit a role.
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If he is not biblically qualified, he is not to be ordained in the church.
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Period.
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End of discussion.
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And that's what the church should expect.
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That's what you should expect from the leadership.
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There should never be a call from the church to ordain someone who is unbiblical, nor should there be disappointment.
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In the church, when a person is denied ordination because they are not fitting the biblical parameters.
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I've heard people say, boy, I wish so and so was a was an elder.
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I know he doesn't qualify, but he'd be really good.
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Think about what was said.
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I've heard that more over the years.
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I heard that a lot, especially years ago.
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I know he's not biblically qualified, but he'd be really good.
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What are we doing? What kind of thought produces that? Unbiblical thought, unbiblical thinking produces that.
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We need to wish that God's will is followed.
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That's what we need to wish.
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That's what we need to pray for.
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That's what we need to do is follow God's will.
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And one issue that comes up, and I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it today, but I have to address it because we're talking about biblical leadership.
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One argument that often comes into play is the role of women in the church, the question of women in the church and leadership in the church and how that is, how that functions.
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And while there is debate about whether or not women can serve as deacons in our church, they don't.
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But there is debate in the body of Christ as to whether or not that is right or wrong and how you understand.
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First, Timothy chapter three, verse 11, whether it's wives or women, there's great debate about that.
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I'm not going to engage that today, but what I will engage in this is very simple.
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The eldership is limited to men only.
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And that is no question.
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There is no biblical debate.
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The only people who debate it biblically debate it like this.
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Well, that's what it used to mean.
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But we have to change for the culture because they cannot come to the text and honestly come away with any other idea than there is a male only pastor, pastor, male only eldership.
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It's just not I mean, you're in first Timothy already.
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You're in chapter three.
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Just look on the same page, one panel over and look at chapter two, verse 11 says, let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness.
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And the apostle Paul says, I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man.
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Rather, she is to remain quiet.
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Oh, man, I would get run out.
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I would get I'd get crucified on the six o'clock news if I said that in some churches.
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But beloved, I didn't write that.
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And the apostle Paul didn't come up with that on his own.
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I've heard people say, well, Paul was a sexist.
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It'd be funny if it weren't so arrogant, because to say Paul was a sexist is number one is saying that you know better about the Christian faith than the apostle Paul.
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It's a little arrogant, but it's also to say that Paul inspired the words.
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Paul didn't inspire those words.
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Paul says all scripture is theanostos, given by the breath of God, it came from the mouth of God, it's from the word of God.
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Who are you to tell God how it ought to be? Not even a question, and it's not a sexist statement.
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There is a there is a way that the church is supposed to be set up.
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There's a way the home is supposed to be set up.
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I still believe I know I may be archaic.
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I mean, people may think I need, you know, be a caveman or something.
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I still believe the man is the head of the house.
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I still believe it's my responsibility to make sure my family is taken care of, and if it ain't taken care of, it's my fault because I am called to that responsibility.
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And, you know, in the very same way as a man is to have first position of authority in his home, so too is the first position of authority in the church limited to men only.
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Many churches have failed to believe this and to heed that truth in the Bible, and they remain outside the will of God because of it.
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And I say that without any any remorse, I say that without any without any any shame.
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I say there are churches that are within a stone's throw of us.
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They're outside the will of God because they have disobeyed God in a very simple place, but a very profound place.
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And they've said, you know what? We know better than God.
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On this issue, no, you don't know, you don't.
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So we've seen church, you should expect church discipleship.
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You should expect biblical leadership.
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You should expect that.
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And finally, and I'm going to make this one brief, but because I've spent a lot of time on it in the past, but we're going to look at biblical church discipline number three.
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I've done whole sermons on this.
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I've done series on church discipline.
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This can be a real long thing to talk about.
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If you don't know what church discipline is, turn with me to Matthew 18.
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I'll show you what it is.
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It's only three verses here, four verses that Jesus explains to us about church discipline.
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It's Matthew 18, verse 15.
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Now, the church teaches and encourages growth, but we must also have a way to discourage those who are actively living in rebellion to Christ from continuing in the church because they damage the church.
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That's what this is all about.
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And here's what it says in verse 15.
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If a brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.
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Right there.
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Right there is it's hardly ever done anymore.
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We rarely go to the person and tell the individual, you have hurt me, you've sinned against me, you've done wrong to me.
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What do we do? We tell Facebook half the world.
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That's what we do.
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We get on the telephone and text and email everybody but the person that we have the problem with.
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And, you know, it's speaking to myself, speaking to everybody.
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We all have had that problem before because we're afraid to talk to you.
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So I'll talk to him instead.
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You know, but that's it starts with that.
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Somebody sins against you, go tell them that they've sinned against you and keep it between you and them.
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And what does it say? If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.
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See, if he repents, it should be over.
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If he has apologized, it should be done.
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If he has said, I'm sorry, or I've sinned, I repent.
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It is now as far as east is from the west or should be.
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But if he doesn't listen, and this is this is where it begins to begin to be the issue of church discipline.
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If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.
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So you could not bring it biblically.
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You could not bring somebody to court with just one witness.
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You had to have more than one who witnessed this act, witnessed this impropriety and be able to testify to it.
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So here, this is what the two or three or four, they go and they all try to bring to bear the sin.
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Hey, you're sinning and you need to repent.
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It says.
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If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church, and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and tax collector.
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By the way, Gentiles and tax collectors were not allowed in the assembly.
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That's what that means.
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If you ever wondered what that meant, the Gentiles were not allowed in the Jewish assembly of worship.
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Neither were the tax collectors, even though they were Jewish people.
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If they were Jews, they had been put out because of their misbehavior, because they had sided with Rome.
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And this is Jesus is very simple.
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He says, let them be to you as a Gentile tax collector.
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They are no longer welcome in the assembly of God's people.
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Oh, heavens, pastor, that sounds barbaric, barbaric, sorry, sounds bad that you would that you would excommunicate someone.
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That's so 15th century of you.
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But, you know, the Apostle Paul rebuked the Church of Corinth for not doing it.
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1 Corinthians chapter 5, he challenges them for not enacting church discipline when they have the opportunity.
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Somebody is definitely going to ask, though, at some point, isn't church discipline acting judgmental? And doesn't the Bible say we're not supposed to be, you know, judge not, bless ye, something like that, right? Well, the Apostle Paul says we are not to judge outside the church, but that we must exercise discernment within the church.
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Go to 1 Corinthians 5, I'll show you exactly the almost exact words.
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1 Corinthians 5, verse 9, this is right after he's rebuked them for their sin.
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It's right after he's rebuked them for allowing the sin to go on the church without it being challenged, without it being without being dealt with.
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And in 1 Corinthians 5, verse 9, he says this, he said, I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people.
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Not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world or the greedy or swindlers or idolaters.
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Since then, you would need to go out of the world.
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I love that.
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I mean, it's so simple.
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People make the Bible harder than it has to be.
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That really is simple.
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He said, he said, I'm telling you not to fellowship with sexually immoral people and greedy people and swindlers, but not the people in the world.
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Because you'd have to leave the world.
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If you were going to disassociate yourself from everybody in the world who did that stuff, then you'd have to fly to the moon.
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That's the standard version.
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But that's what he said.
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You'd have to go out of the world.
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Verse 11, but now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he's guilty of sexual immorality or greed or is an idolater, a reviler, a drunkard or swindler, not even to eat with such a one.
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That's a challenge.
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But he goes on to say, for what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside, purge the evil person from among you.
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Again, I didn't write that.
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I didn't invent that.
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This is not Keith's writing.
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This is the word of God.
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When Jesus said, judge not, lest you be judged, he was talking to a group of religious hypocrites.
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The Jewish Pharisees and Sadducees who had established a system of laws by which they could exclude everyone else and include only themselves, and yet they themselves were not even following them.
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Which is why he said to them, judge not, lest you be judged, take the plank out of your own eye before you try to remove the speck out of your brother's eye.
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He's talking specifically to them who are living in spiritual hypocrisy.
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Jesus was not saying, as many have misinterpreted the phrase, judge not, lest you be judged.
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He did not mean that to mean that we are never to exercise spiritual discernment, for such a life would be ridiculous.
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If we were never able to recognize sin and avoid it, we would be consumed by it.
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So that's why the Apostle Paul makes it very clear within the church, there has to be some discipline.
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Within the church, there has to be standards by which we all live and we covenant to live underneath.
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And if somebody chooses to not live under that covenant, if somebody chooses to live outside of that and we go to them and we encourage them and we beg them and we plead with them, repent and turn.
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And they refuse.
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We cannot allow that cancer to continue to infect the church.
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It must be removed.
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That's all church discipline is.
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It's very simple.
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And it's not every single little thing that people do is worthy of church discipline.
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I think that's another problem that people have is they try to enact it.
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Sometimes churches get hyper focused on church discipline and everything becomes a discipline issue.
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Everything becomes a problem that must be dealt with by the church.
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And that's not true either.
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Romans 14 tells us there are things that we can disagree about and still be brothers in Christ.
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Romans 14 tells us there's a lot of things that we might disagree about and still be brothers in Christ.
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You know, there's only one sin you can be removed from the church for.
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Do you know that? One sin you can be excommunicated for is only one sin and it's the sin of impenitence.
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What is impenitence? To be engaging in a sin and refuse to repent.
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That's it.
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So if you're living outside of marriage and you're living as a married person outside of marriage and you continue to live in that state and the church brings to you this opportunity to repent, you refuse to repent.
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You have to be separated because you are continuing in impenitence.
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You are continuing that unrepentant lifestyle.
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That's only one example there are many.
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That's a good example because we talk about living in sin.
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We don't talk about living in sin anymore.
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We challenge the homosexuals, we challenge the abortionists, but sinful living is going on all around us.
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People, well, we got to try this marriage thing out before we go all head first.
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Because that always helps to break God's law, to see how things work before you actually go and obey him.
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Beloved, as a church member, you should expect that the church has a standard.
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You should expect that we're all called to live to that standard.
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And if you fall, you should expect to be rebuked and you should, by God's grace, repent.
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But know this, if you refuse to repent, if you continue to live in that sin, the church cannot be a place for you to continue to bring that sin into.
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The church has to protect itself.
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The shepherds have to protect the sheep from the wolves.
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It's our job and we have to call people to account.
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We have to call people to repentance.
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We have to use the tool of church discipline when it is necessary and the church should expect that.
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So we're now concluding the first half of this series.
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We have looked at this series and we have seen what members should expect.
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Biblical preaching, biblical theology, biblical understanding of the gospel, of conversion, of evangelism, of local church membership, biblical discipleship, biblical leadership, biblical church discipline.
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Does anybody see a pattern? Everything the church should, the members should expect when they come into the church is that it's biblical.
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That's what the church should expect.
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That's what members should expect.
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That the church be centered on the text of the Bible, that the Bible be the foundation for all that is done.
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What good would it be to have a great youth group? What good, what benefit would there be to have a church order? Who is a pastor who is a perfect order? What good would it be to have the blessing of 10,000 church members if the church were not teaching, preaching and operating in accord with God's word? So now that we understand what a member should expect, we're going to take one week off.
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Next week is Mother's Day.
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I'm going to preach on mothers somehow.
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We're going to preach a special Mother's Day message.
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Is it two Sundays away? That's next Sunday.
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It is next Sunday.
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Oh, and then you're preaching.
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Yes, I'm going to be away in two weeks.
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I'm sorry.
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Thank you.
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Next week is Mother's Day.
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Then the week after that, I'm going to see my niece graduate in Tennessee.
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And so I'll be preaching.
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But when I come back, we're going to begin asking the question, what should the church expect from the members? What should we as a group expect from each other individually? So we're looking forward to that.
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Let's pray together.
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Father, we thank you for this opportunity to hear your word.
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We thank you for this opportunity to to prayerfully be moved by a Lord.
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And I do pray that we have seen something today that would change our heart, would encourage us towards a closer walk with you, closer discipleship, and that we would.
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That we would fear ever being so overtaken by sin that we refuse to repent that we would always want to follow you in Jesus name, we pray.