(Church Life) the Value of Church Membership - Part 2 — Mose Stoltzfus

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Thank you, Dale, for that prayer and for the song. You're an inspiring bunch. Amen. Well, this morning, let us turn our Bibles to Ephesians chapter 4. A very familiar passage of scripture here that we often quote on subjects like this.

And yet, I'm afraid many times overlook some of the powerful phrases that are in there or the full impact of what our brother Paul wrote about. Chapter 4, verse 11, the book of Ephesians. And he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth, or from now on, be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive, but speaking the truth in love, may grow up unto him in all things, which is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, making increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

The Edification and Unity of the Church Body

Sometimes the part that I feel that we look at too lightly is the whole matter of how necessary it is that we be edified. Beyond edifying ourselves, we need to be edified. And I'm sure most of you have had that kind of an experience in a corporate meeting like this.

And that's very true, but it is something that should happen on a regular basis. That we feed ourselves, we need not to be slothful there, very important in our private life, our family life, but to corporately come together and have the gifts manifest themselves in all the various ways given here and many more that are in other verses, and that that edifies or lifts up or builds the body of Christ.

That is an experience every one of us cannot afford to be long without unless we are stuck in prison for the faith. And then God overrules and takes care of us there with special grace, I believe. The title of my message this morning is just simply the value of normal church life.

And when I say normal there, I believe that many of the things that I'll speak about here are not the occasional extension. They are not the very special missions or reaching the uttermost parts of the earth necessarily in that way, but just simply in a local congregation, the things that should happen in a very normal and practical way.

Fellowship as a Means of Mutual Edification

The first one I have is fellowship. And I always like to give this, you've heard it from me before, it's two fellows going in the same ship in the same direction, to the same place, or maybe more than two or three or whatever.

But that is fellowship, that there is a loving intimacy of an exchange of a heart of love and brothers talking one to another, sitting in this boat, and of course they have no other option, no other place to go, they can't walk on water normally unless Jesus comes along.

And they are going in a given direction to the same place, and on that journey they have fellowship. They understand each other, they love each other, they just, I mean it's almost, I have found in a good local church setting it is almost like a husband and wife relationship.

You just know, you can just look at each other across the room, and you know what each other is thinking after years of dwelling together, and having shared together in many ways and many times. It's an amazing experience.

But first of all, and the Bible talks about iron sharpening iron, but in that whole experience there is a beautiful experience taking place which edifies the whole body. Love flows and you go home, and it's just amazing.

You know, at work we meet with some of our fellow brothers here that we work together with at our business, and we get together, you know, or meet each other on Monday morning, or my secretary comes in at around 11 o 'clock in the morning, and she just goes, wow, what a weekend!

You know, you can just tell she is totally edified and overwhelmed by the whole day long. Now, I would like to just emphasize the necessity of setting a day aside for the Lord. I am not going to make a law out of this, because I do not believe the Bible makes a Sabbath law in the New Testament.

However, I do believe it is the overarching principle of creation, that a man works six days and rests the seventh. And I have applied that to my own life to a great reward. I would have to say both mentally, spiritually and physically.

I find on a Monday morning my mind is so rejuvenated and so edified and lifted and rested and what have you, where we have concentrated on solving problems in work or in business. I have been a troubleshooter a certain part of my life, and we are always fixing problems mechanically or electrically or in refrigeration or something, the occupations that I have been in most of my life.

You know, but to have that total rest from that, and to not take that package of work home with you for that day of the Lord is of utmost importance. I would like to give you this little story of a test that was once done in Winnipeg, Manitoba by the Hudson Bay Company.

They decided once that every spring of the year after the spring thaw and the rivers up there and the lakes, they would go way up north with men rowing boats up north. I think they went out into the Hudson Bay and went up to gather the pelts for the trappers, around a hundred years ago or more, together and bring them down for their European markets.

I think is what they would do. Buyers would collect the whole winter's pelts there from trapping, from the trappers. And so they decided one year they were going to send their, the one group had a captain who was a Christian.

And he begged the Hudson Bay Company, their practice normally was they had to go all summer and be back before freeze up. And the Hudson Bay Company said you have to do it seven days a week in order to get back in time.

And the one man just begged and begged the Hudson Bay Company, let me try it six days a week and rest on the seventh. Oh no, they said, that's not going to work. You're going to freeze up up there, you know, you're not going to make it back.

And he pled with him and finally the guy said, all right, I'm going to let you do it. So they had two companies and one company left, they left at the same time. And they were going up through there and they were pretty much together.

But the Christian company was a little bit ahead. And on the first Sunday, they used to camp at night and go back in their boats and row all day, camp by the side of the river or the lake there or the bay.

And then they would go again. And on the first Sunday, they were ahead. And they camped and they slept in that morning, on Sunday morning. And then they got up and they read their Bibles and had a bit of a devotion.

And here comes the other crew rowing on Sunday past them. And laughing at them and mocking them, you know, for we're going to get way ahead of you today, you know, and all that. And so they went on their way mocking them and they sat there and they read their Bibles, maybe had some prayer time, took a long nap in the afternoon, rested the rest of the day and just talked and what have you, slept a good night again.

And on Monday morning, they were ready to go. And it was just an amazing thing. I think in a matter of weeks, I'm not sure how many, they passed the other group. They were tired. They were just kind of run down.

And because of one day in seven, having that mental and physical refreshment and spiritual likewise, they just had an energy the others didn't have. And if you've ever been in a factory that works seven days a week and look at the men with their faces, you'll know what I'm talking about.

But I think when the whole trip was over, I believe they came back up to about three weeks ahead of the other group. The Hudson Bay Company bowed their heart to the plan. It's not imaginary. There is a rest that takes place and my plea is there's some cultures and backgrounds among us who do not have that principle in their lives.

And they want to go to Walmart Sunday afternoons and want to fix their cars in their garages and what have you, or plan their construction jobs for the next week. And my plea is don't go that way. But set that day aside for the Lord.

And one of the habits that I have made myself or directed myself, or I like to use the word train myself in as a young married man, or probably, or worse, I was brought up very strictly that way. We would prepare on Saturday for Sunday so we had a minimal amount of chores on Sunday morning and evening.

And I appreciate that heritage and that upbringing very good. But I trained myself not to pick up normally a secular book or magazine on the Lord's Day, but rather a spiritual book to go to church regularly, religiously.

Because I felt that I needed it. Not because I wanted anything special or whatever, but the soul needed it to hear and be blessed by the preaching of the word. And the only time, and we would not even both stay home if one was sick.

If you can take care of yourself, the other would go to church, whether it was husband or wife, and take the children along. We did not use the slightest excuse to stay home. And then in the afternoon maybe take a rest, and then in the evening almost religiously visit in somebody's home on a religious discussion, or on spiritual things or something of that nature, rather than just playing games or heavy activity.

And I find that a great blessing and I really encourage that for everyone else. So, this matter of fellowship. I should spend 15 minutes on it, but I will not. I just have to go on. I have a long list there.

But it is of such importance. I would like to give the illustration yet of the silent witness, where the minister went to visit his member, also in colonial days with the fireplace and the hot coals on the fireplace.

And he went in, the man was sad and he was backslidden and he would not talk. And the minister also did not talk, so he just went up there and sat beside him in the living room by the fireplace. On a Saturday I think he went to see him.

And he finally went up and took the tongs and took a hot coal, a red hot coal, and just laid it out on the hearth. And you can guess what happened. He went home without a word, I think. But the man got the message.

That's what's happened to me. I was a hot coal as long as I was with the rest of the coals. But when I set myself aside and stopped going to fellowship and church and worship of the Lord, interacting with Christians, we get cold and dry.

Discipleship Across Generations

The next one I'd like to give is a blessing and benefit of discipleship. The value of the normal church life is in church life, real church life now, not as we know it in the evangelical world, that's almost non-existent, is discipleship.

That the older teach the younger. The older women teach the younger, Titus 2. The older men teach the younger, Titus 2, again. And that the young men are exhorted and admonished in a kind way and directed in family life, in finances, in all the areas of life, and how to live victoriously for God, overcoming personal sin, purity, and all kinds of things in discipleship.

And finally, having a rewarding experience to grow and the knowledge of the Word of God to the point where you can yourself win another soul to Christ or disciple another one. And some have said we're weak on that, and I accept that.

I believe we need to see that more as a very pertinent doctrine, and I see it especially in light of young couples. Now, I find that doesn't have to happen so much with young couples who are brought up in good homes where they've had lots of teaching.

But a lot of married couples, young married couples, struggle on some real issues of life. And oh, what a blessing to have an older couple just take them under their wing and be able to instruct them and guide them, and they save themselves a multitude of difficulties and problems.

Especially so in the financial world, but also in almost all other areas. Just in how to economize life and how the wife should love her husband and give herself freely to him and the husband love his wife and be gentle and kind.

Some men that come out of conversion experiences did not know that in the past, and they need to learn it. My next one is the evangelization of the family. Maybe you are born again, and you can feed yourself, and you can read the Word of God.

Evangelizing the Family Through Preaching

But I want to challenge you that your children need to sit under the preaching of the Word of God. You know, back in Romans chapter 10, we have that very clearly laid out to us in verse 14. How then shall they call on Him whom they have not believed?

And how shall they believe in Him on whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? There is something unique about the gospel in the preaching of the Word of God that does not take place.

Some of us in this room have been in the various places where there was nothing like that happening about. You know, they were either playing church on Sunday morning, and there wasn't a real preaching of the Word, or they were scattered families who just had a Bible study in the living room or something like that.

I did that one time in a Midwestern state, and I went in there for a weekend. And I preached on Saturday morning and on Sunday evening, I think it was, first. I'm not sure anymore. And then on Sunday morning and on Sunday evening.

And by the time I was finished, there were a number of people just crying and wanting to get converted. The young people somewhere in the ages of 15 to 19 that had not sat under the preaching of the Word of God just responded and wanted to get saved.

And there are some of you sitting in this room, I know, have had that experience too in places where it was very dry. But we do our children a disfavor by not bringing them to sit under the preaching of the Word of God.

Something happens in preaching that does not happen in Bible study. There's a hurling forth of the message, the power of the Holy Spirit in a corporate way comes down, and a conviction of God falls upon.

And I am a real stickler for protracted meetings. Because I find even many times that the hearts are so that it'll take a couple nights for them to break up. And you have protracted meetings two and three and four and five nights in a row.

You find conversions that come out that have been sitting in church on just Sunday morning meetings and never responded. Even though invitations are given. So it's important that we evangelize our own family by the preaching of the Word of God.

And I would like to say real preaching. I believe that the Word of God should be lifted up and preached. And we don't all have to have a certain tone of voice or a certain method. But I believe we ought to identify preaching to be real preaching.

Corporate Prayer and Congregational Ministry

The next one is very, very important, is corporate prayer. The value of corporate prayer in the normal church life is also a very valuable and incredible thing. We can pray by ourselves and that's a wonderful thing.

We can pray at the table, we can pray in the living room floor. We can pray in our prayer closet and pray in our bedroom. But something mysteriously happens when a group of men and a group of a church gets together and corporately focus on a given need and pours their heart out to God together for it.

Things happen that don't happen otherwise. And things happen in a dimension greater than happen otherwise. All the stories that could be given of the power of corporate prayer and the value of that and you're not going to have that unless you join yourself in an assembly where men care for each other and make those kind of things happen and pick up the needs of the congregation on a Wednesday night and then have a three quarter hour prayer or so to bring those needs before God.

Men and women involved. Another one is in Romans 10 that says, And how shall they preach except they be sent? How many people come to us, young and old, boys and girls, that say, You know, I have such a desire to serve.

Do you have any idea how I could get involved with a mission group and just go to a mission field somewhere and just serve a couple or help along or even fix their vehicles or whatever for six months or a year?

And there are gifts there and desires there. But you're not going to have those things if you're going to huddle around in a living room with one or two families. Mission work is not going to take place like that.

And you and many others will not have an opportunity to have their gifts developed if you have nothing like that for them to do. So it's very good. And the same is true for preaching. You might actually have the gift of preaching and teaching of a deacon or an elder, but nobody's going to send you, nobody's going to ordain you.

You sit in a situation where there's no authority and nothing ever happens. And here that gift lies asleep down in your breast. But it takes the church to bring it out. And it really does. It really does.

The self-styled preachers that try to just appoint themselves and go over the country preaching the gospel, few of them succeed. But when they are sent and there's a church behind them and has proved them and has guided them until they have matured and then calls them to these offices, they blossom like a flower and find real, real meaning in life.

And that is true with not only preaching. If you even just, there is tremendous satisfaction I have found in my past in mowing the lawn for the church, in doing janitorial work. When you feel that you're part of the core group, you're in there making things happen so the church can function.

The same is true for our wives in kitchen help and many other things, to put on something like this. There is great, deep, heartfelt rewards felt in the heart just to have the privilege to serve in that way.

Care in Sickness, Distress, and Bereavement

To aid in sickness and distress. That is a major thing. Great value in normal church life and in areas, at least when there is a number of families, that there is aid and help given in sickness and distress.

The first one that we normally find is that another family might have a single daughter to come over and help us when we have difficulty in childbirth or pregnancy and the wife is laid up and there are five little children to keep after and diapers to change and the husband needs to go to work in order to keep the money coming and put bread on the table.

And that is the dilemma that many people face and is a real problem in the church. Not a big problem. Somehow, we can always take care of those things one way or another. But let me also introduce to you to the office of deaconess that we hardly have.

Of course, we, in our movement of 25 years, do not have 60-year-old women in the church that are widows. But according to 1 Timothy chapter 5 verse 9, it says that not a woman be taken into the number below three score years.

And so it shows that a woman who has been faithful, who has determined she will not marry again and would dedicate herself to that, you just stop and think of the value. You are a family, a church of 20 -25 families, and you would have a 60-year-old widow that is called and recognized by the church to serve the church in that way.

And you know it's a lot better to bring a 60-year-old woman into your home if your wife is laid up or dies than it is another young girl. You know that? That is biblical and right to do something like this.

And I believe that it is something that should be revived in due time. Maybe not an ordination, but somehow an appointing or a recognition. And the lady is willing to consecrate herself for as long as she is physically and mentally able to do it.

I think it would be a great value. Look at the matter of death. Have you ever tried and do you know somebody that has struggled out in the middle of the Far West or Midwest sitting alone and somebody dies, the wife dies, and there are seven little children.

My! And there is no church. Compared to that happening in a group with 20 families. My! The difference is great. Or if a house burns down, right brother? And he comes home, burns down when he is away, the brother up front here, and the whole church nearly is gathered around there ready to help.

On a Sunday. And they put on their work clothes and clean the mess up and get ready to rebuild. And they are there through that also. The comparison of being alone waiting on the adjustment of the insurance company and finally some help from somewhere to get the place cleaned up and back up and running.

There is no comparison. A church is a thousand miles ahead. These things are precious and they should be normal church life. But we have to gather the solitude in the families. We have to gather together in bodies.

We have to have local churches. We have to submit one to another and love each other. We have to do those kind of things or we will not experience that. We will live the lonely worldly life. And trouble comes and these people are despairing out there when there is just nothing and nobody.

And you go into the world where they do not have the Lord Jesus and it is much worse yet. Accidents, fire, death, sickness, distress. And my next point is financial aid. Turning to Acts chapter 11, 27.

And in these days came prophets. Excuse me here. That is 29. Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judea. With any old colony men left, I just want to remind you that collectively having one purse is not scriptural.

I mean I do not even believe that happened in Acts 2. That they had one purse. I believe they gave and sold all the extras they had and gave it at the apostles' feet and the apostles distributed it to the people that had need.

But it is essential. The reason I bring this out is not attack colony men, but simply to say or people that believe very heavily in community, but simply to show you that something happens in the human heart when they out of their own volition give money to a need.

Or give of their material ownership to a neighbor or a brother or a sister in the church in time of need. And when you have all things come and that is impossible. The boss does it or the preacher does it or something like that.

And it does not engage the personal heart to give out of their own pocket. And so I recommend individual purses. So you can fulfill these scriptures and there are others too. On the first day of the week when you are gathered together as the Lord has prospered you, you are supposed to give personally to that need.

That is the biblical way. And you cannot get around it I do not think by the word of God. There is something that really concerns me. You know I have worked with these kind of people for years and I have seen this for a long time and there is something destructive to manhood and to the responsibility of manhood and fatherhood.

When you take that away, that personal responsibility of seeing and watching over your own finances and giving out of your own heart to those that need. You rob the man of some of his manhood I believe that God intended him to have.

Financially I do not believe that, I believe we have to be careful with this. But consequently you will also believe that I do not believe in extreme poverty on everyone because if there is finances to be given they have to be available from somebody.

Either somebody has a little extra somewhere or else they are willing to go and loan it in order to give to you. But one way or the other if we are supposed to give when another church has need it has to be somewhere.

We cannot all be living from hand to mouth and have nothing. And so I think it is much better to live simply in a God fearing way being stewards of our possessions and not the fact that you cannot have any.

I believe that is the biblical balance of that teaching. And then I do believe that church should be able to help to those who are committed at first. And then they can reach out to the non-committed, they can reach out to the poor in the world even.

I know men who have, Brother Joe Tindall I know in Bolivia was won to Christ through the love shown to him when his house burned down when he was simply a sinner, a drinker, a party man in the world. His house burned down and the neighbors got together and helped him.

And it drew him to respond to a revival meeting and give his heart to the Lord. And so that is a beautiful thing. But first of all having equality, enough of equality that we will not sit and let a family suffer and not have enough to eat and not have enough to live and to heat their house and enough clothing to wear when we have an abundance.

That should never happen in the church of Jesus Christ. There ought to be an equality, a care one for another that we will not let the righteous suffer in that way. And so I believe out of the abundance of those who have a business, those who have prospered and have a checking account are able to pull out of that in faith that God will continue to bless even though they could have well used it for some other things maybe and will give to the need.

I mean to sit in brother's meetings and watch that happen gives me a feeling that is just beyond words. And the brothers say, let's pay the rest of his hospital bill. Five thousand dollars, no problem.

It's paid. Let's take up a special offering. He's been out of work for six weeks and he's had a tough going and winter's on him and oil's up to nearly three dollars a gallon. Let's give him a hand here.

And that's just distributed. And things like that happen. That is beautiful. And it should be normal church life. Normal church life. Another one that I believe in, in order for young men to get started or to get a little business going and they don't have much cash is interest free loans.

I believe older men who have accumulated a bit or have prospered in their business, have their homes paid for ought to be able to give interest free loans to young men getting started. That they don't have to put themselves in great jeopardy with a bank and all that and try to get enough collateral and credit in order to make.

And then let the older man who does that be a bit of a shepherd to the young man and show him how to do it. Oh, it's beautiful. Needs to be in our midst. Interest free loans. Next one is a big one. Social needs of our family.

Social Needs, Marriage, and Youth

All of us have social needs. If not, we're going to dry up and blow away. And I believe church life basically provides all of that, a lot of that. But I think we finally need to look at social needs of our young people between the ages especially of 15 and 25.

And I mean all the way to marriage. What is better that our young people are able to pick their marriage partners out of similar believers. Believers who are going the similar direction and have similar convictions.

And don't have to wade through the great diversity of religion and what have you that the world has. We know nothing of that. Catholics and Protestants marrying together and then fighting over where they take their children.

The Catholic church is pulling for them and the Protestant one maybe is pulling for them likewise. Those things should not be. We should provide in the household of faith for the social needs of our young men and our young women.

And all the damage again that I've seen men sit there. And you can do that when they're little. But if you wait until they are 20 and 25 and 27 and 28. Until you finally get enough agumption in you to realize that maybe you ought to have some social fellowship for your children.

You risk losing them to the world. And a high percentage of them will split and walk into the world. After they lose confidence that you care enough about their social needs. Oh, that's a painful one.

And I'd just like to say it's good there that we marry with similar conviction and similar beliefs. And I'd just like to say this way, you know. We've had the experience here and I'm sure you're well familiar how this thing goes.

You know, we're widely known through the tape ministry and through meetings like this and Bible school and so forth. And sometimes you have a fellow show up, you know, out of the west. And with a cowboy hat on maybe and tight jeans on and has his thumb stuck in his pockets.

And he wants to come and get one of your girls and run. And go out on a Montana ranch, you know, and live happily ever after. Sorry, our fathers don't take to that very well. Or crawling off of a motorcycle with a black coat on and wrap around sunglasses and want your lovely daughter.

You just don't hunt very good. Similar conviction and lifestyle and beliefs and values. And then the beauty of it all is amazing. We just had one start here from 900 miles away or 1 ,000 miles away. One of our young men, one of a young daughter from there.

But from very similar churches. And those things normally work in an amazing and beautiful way. And it doesn't matter where they decide to move here or there. That's the way it ought to be. But again, think about this, fathers.

Before you just sit and sit and sit without making the decision to have a local church reality in your life. You'll weep over it someday if you wait too long. Missions. I won't speak much to that. Denny did a marvelous job on the whole concept of missions.

Missions and Service Opportunities for Young People

But I do want to add this way, add this. You can't have much, you can't go very far in mission work if you're just a very small group. You just can't get much accomplished. When you really want to get into it and you go into foreign countries and cross the sea or the borders of other countries, you need some backing.

And a lot of times that is not only a larger church experience, although it begins there, but also multiple churches experience. And that's what can make missions work to the uttermost parts of the earth.

And that is also a part in normal church life. I believe we should try to get a mission of some kind. I agree so much. If we're ever going to get our young people out of carnality and just batting a ball back and forth over a net with their hands, why, we're going to have to get them involved in something whereby they get excited about the things of God.

And a way to do that is to get active in both local and foreign missions and allow them to have terms of service and trips and things like that, where they get involved and see how the rest of the world lives instead of the prosperity we have here.

Let them go out there and experience third world country life for a while and they come home with a different attitude concerning materialism. Work for our boys. I believe that is another very important thing.

Work, Apprenticeship, and Practical Wisdom

You probably never have thought about that, but we do not believe in letting our boys sit until they're 18 years of age, twiddling their thumbs or reading books. But we believe they should be active, learn a trade, do an apprenticeship or be hired out if we don't have a little business to one or the other brethren.

And for the most part, all of our boys are employed by each other. And that is something that is no small thing. You can send your 15-year-old boy and 16-year-old and entrust him to work for the summer or for the year if he's finished with school, depending how far you're going to school.

That's a variable and I think should be and just take his GED and go to work at 16 and be able to be hired by a brother who has a business which will watch over his well-being. And that gets harder and harder with all these laws that they can't operate a tow motor and they can't operate a handsaw, a power saw, and they can't drive a tractor.

And I don't know where to start disobeying the government, but I'm not about to let my, wouldn't be about to let my son sit at home and twiddle his thumbs till he's 18. And I encourage the same for others.

But what a blessing, what a tremendous blessing to have these small businesses. We are so blessed with a private enterprise system in the United States. I mean, God is faithful in a communist country where that's not possible and can still raise up men under God, but I just say it's a blessing.