Church Life and Ministry Intro

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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Good evening everyone.

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I'm glad to see you all here.

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We have taken a little break and we are back in the new term for Sovereign Grace Academy and this is an eight-week course that's going to be covering the subject of church, life and ministry and if you're not quite sure what I mean by that, hopefully you had a chance to look over the syllabus.

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We're fixing to look over it in just a moment but if you don't really know what I mean by that you'll know by the end of tonight what the goals are of this course.

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If you do have your syllabus please take it out.

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Here's our outline of tonight's agenda.

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We're going to be examining the course syllabus.

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By the way I'm doing something a little different this semester as you can tell.

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I've decided to make use of the television that I never had before so all the lessons are going to have accompanying PowerPoint presentations and I will say this if you have bad eyes there are going to be a few screens where it's a little tough to read but if you email me I will just email you the PDFs of these screens.

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I can save this to a PDF file and then you have all the notes so you don't have to sit there and try to squint your eyes to read.

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Part of this is for me, part of this is for you and the little pieces are like for me to be able to see.

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Everybody understand? I just don't want every five minutes I can't see it.

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If you can't see it it's fine.

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I'm gonna read it to you but the hope of it is that it will help you with your note-taking, that it will help keep us on task, it'll help keep us moving forward with the class.

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So tonight we're going to be first examining the course syllabus.

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This will explain what we need to do for this entire eight weeks to earn the course certificate.

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There is a certificate that goes with each course and then if you do the two years of ministry training you receive a diploma.

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Now we have a person who did two years of training and because this class was actually the end of, this is starting at really the second year because we had an additional class added in there on Greek and he did two years worth of classes and that is Alan Durenincourt who has completed two years.

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He'll be receiving a diploma basic ministry training which is his final diploma and then he now he's going to seminary.

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He called me today to tell me that he is going to seminary so pray for Alan as he moves forward seeking to be a pastor.

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So I'm excited that this was a step toward that in his life.

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Other ones who did the certificate last semester were Darian did her certificate and Miss Nancy Weller did hers.

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If you sent me if you if anybody else didn't get a grade it's because I didn't get your paper.

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So if you did the work and I and I didn't get back with you it's because I didn't I must not have received it.

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So let me know if that is in fact the case.

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I don't want anybody to do the work and not get the credit for the work.

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So we're examining the course syllabus that's the first thing we're going to do tonight.

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Then we're going to have our introduction to ecclesiology.

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Very quickly by show of hands how many of you know what the word ecclesiology means? Okay wait I'm not trying to put you on the spot you look like you're halfway.

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So that's that's not the case but that would be what people would think because there's a book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible.

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Ecclesiology the word ecclesia is the word for church.

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So the ecclesiology is the study of the church and so tonight is really an introduction to ecclesiology.

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This this book which is our textbook is the product of more than a year of writing that I did back in the the late 20 I think it was like 2009 2008 I think is when I wrote the material for this book and then I published it because I believe that one of the issues that we were having was that we were not functioning biblically as a church.

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This church and so I wanted our church to look at the things that we were doing and how could we do them better and so I preached an entire year on the subject of ecclesiology and then those notes became codified in the book and that's where the book came from and so this course is really an eight-week course on a year worth of material that I preached and taught here at the church.

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And so ecclesiology is studying the church the reason why church life and ministry matters.

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So then we're going to look tonight at the purpose and mission of the church that's the the third part of tonight and then after our break we always take a break at the hour mark and we try to keep that to five to seven minutes you can go down bathroom get you some water go outside and take a breath whatever you need to do we come back in for the last 20 minutes and we have a discussion.

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Tonight's discussion is going to be on the subject of how is church misunderstood.

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That's going to be the discussion after the break.

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So you have an idea of what we're doing? It's always good to tell you what you're going to do then do it right give us our give us our outline.

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Well first thing let's do is let's look at the course syllabus.

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Let's look at the course syllabus and see what it is we're going to be doing in this course.

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As I said we just sort of went through it.

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Under overview and objectives it says this course will introduce the student to the various aspects of church life and ministry including leadership, membership, finances, missions, etc.

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Each student will be encouraged to discover the place in Christ Church where he has uniquely gifted them to serve.

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That really is the ultimate goal of this class not that you just know what the church is but know what Christ has called you to be in his church.

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God has gifted you in some way shape or fashion to serve him.

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If you are his you are not his by accident you are his by design and you have a purpose in his church.

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And so part of this course is discovering the purpose that Christ has for you.

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The required texts are the Holy Bible.

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You need a Bible if you have a Bible app on your phone that will suffice but like to hear Bible pages turn so if you do have a Bible that's nice and there are blue Bibles on the tables those belong to the church but you're welcome to use them.

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And you need a copy of a biblically functioning church and if you didn't buy a copy you can buy a copy tonight.

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If you don't have the money just come I'll give you the book you can pay me when you can.

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You have to have here the requirements your course attendance.

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Class attendance is required will be checked at each session.

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What I'm going to do at the break is I'm going to pass around a piece of paper for you to write your name and please write your phone number this semester because I now have a texting app that will allow me to text you information.

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So rather than email you can put your email too we'll have name email phone number but I'm going to be sending most of you or sending all of you texts throughout this eight-week course.

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So we'll do that roster during Bobby would you help me to remember that get a piece of paper and get everybody's name.

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Thank you.

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And a student who misses more than 25% of the class meetings will forfeit credit for the class and receive a failing grade unless an arrangement is made with the professor to complete the work online.

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We do provide everything online that's what all this recording is.

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If you miss a class and you make it up online and you show me your notes that you've gone through and taken notes then I will accept that as you having attended the class but my desire is that you be here because if you are here you can raise your hand and ask questions if you're here you can interact with the discussion if you're not here you can't so I prefer that you be here if possible.

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Academic character using someone's work without proper citation handing in another's work is plagiarism and I haven't I don't think I've had to deal with that yet but here's the thing guys if you're citing something cite it don't hand in work that you've just copied from someone else if you're going to cite something cite it properly and if you don't know how to do that ask my wife.

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I was going to say ask me don't ask me.

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My wife teaches English I mean she loves to do this kind of stuff she would love to help you with your paper talk to her if you if you if you don't know my wife I'll be happy to introduce you she'd be happy to help you with your paper.

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Reading assignments are 20% of the 25% of the grade if you don't read the material you won't be able to engage the discussion if you don't engage the discussion I'll know it so please read what is required and the reading this semester is very important because I wrote it.

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No it just is you know I one of the things you'll notice on the reading assignment we'll get there in a minute but it's not in order because the way I ordered the book was the way I preached the sermons but the way the classes is in different order so I'll talk about why that is a little bit in a moment.

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Your notebook at the end of the semester is 20% of your final grade that means you should be taking notes every class and you have to show me your notebook if you're going to get the certificate you have to just show me that you've taken notes and I even had some people send me pictures because like there was one person who took the class online obviously I didn't see them so they took pictures of their notes and send them to me just so that I knew that they had done their notes.

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Finally your research project your research project this month this semester if you've done these courses before you know there's always the big research project and the research project of this semester is different than any one than we've ever done before this one is probably the most personal that I've ever asked for because I read it with me each student will write an autobiography of their experience in church life and ministry what is an autobiography it's the story of you it's the story of you it will include a history of the churches that you have joined and the positions that you have held the important events and the lessons that you have learned and the discovery of your own individual giftedness some of you probably have some heartbreaking stories of church life that you may want to share no one else will read it but me and my wife she does help me grade the papers so you know it be as be as honest as you want to be but just remember the goal of this is to give you an opportunity to tell your story you know you're not publishing this in the New York Times you're just writing a paper but it's an opportunity to talk about where how God's brought you here through the churches that he has used the paper should conclude with a portion looking to the future answering this question what do I believe God has called me to do in the church where I'm currently serving what has God called me to do in the church where I'm currently serving so that is your research project this year this semester rather and should be no less than three pages no more than five pages double space it's really not a lot of writing be as you know be as free as you want to but also consider the fact that it's a you know it has to be within a certain framework somebody gives me a 20 page paper that's me a lot for me to have to read in grade so three to five pages is usually enough to see that you've grasped the material our schedule is starting tonight lecture one why church life and ministry matters you didn't have any reading assignments tonight because many of you didn't have the book until tonight lecture to joining a local church will be next week by next week you should have read the first three chapters of the book now I want to tell you this this book I wrote it again I was 29 years old when I wrote it and it was not professionally edited it was edited by a friend who is also a minister so if you find many mistakes in the book feel free to let me know but but but don't be too mean again it was it was it was unprofessionally edited but we did try to make it as best as we could so you'll have one two chapters one through three next week now that the week after that you're going to read chapters five through seven because chapter four is on gender in the local church and I'm saving that for week five or week four rather so you see how that breaks down then you're going to read chapter nine then we're going to have a week where you don't have to read anything so that's your catch-up week if you're behind in your reading you can read whatever you've got to read in your catch-up week and then we're going to look at conflict in the local church that's in chapter eight and then supporting the local church in chapter ten any questions on the syllabus everybody know what is expected I'm excited about the new term very good well I'm excited to have you here all right well let's move on to our introduction to ecclesiology as we already said the word ecclesiology refers to the church and when we talk about ecclesiology we know one thing the word church doesn't come from the word ecclesia it's not like cardia you know the Greek word cardia means heart and we think of cardiac comes from cardia but church does not come from ecclesia church is actually derived the English word church is derived from the Scottish word Kirk or what it might look like Kirk like Captain Kirk but it's more pronounced like Kirk and the German designation kirch kirch and kirk are derivatives of the word Korea con now how many of you took Greek with me John do you remember what courios is it's okay if you don't I'm just curious do you remember Ross what curious means Bobby were you here for Greek yeah do you happen to remember what curious means it says it on the board by the way I'm asking the question if you can't the courios means Lord and Korea con means to belong to the Lord or belonging to the Lord and therefore when we talk about the Kirk or the kirch we are referring to that which belongs to the Lord the Korea con that which is the Lord's but the word church in the Bible when you open the Bible and you read in Matthew 18 and Jesus talks about the church or you open the Bible to Paul's letter to the Philippians and he's writing to the church at Philippi that word is the Greek word Ecclesia Ecclesia comes from two Greek words that construct together the word kaleo which means call and the prefix ek which means out and so the word Ecclesia refers to that which is called out or those who are called out and you'll notice I give you the definition here the textbook definition of Ecclesia is a gathering of citizens called out from their homes in some public place or an assembly the church is an assembly of the called that's what the church is and when we talk about being called what does that refer to well jump right in Calvin that's why don't you know what the idea though is to be called of God is to be his right to say that we're called of God like if somebody sometimes we talk about ministers I'll meet another minister and he might say to me well when did you receive your calling right or he might say when did you know you were called right when you and what and I know because what he's saying is when did you know you were called to preach or when did you know you received the calling to do what you do right and so there's a certain sense in which when the Bible talks about a calling it's talking about not just like a general hey hello it's talking about something specific in the heart of an individual and we say the Bible says those who he foreknew he called those whom he called he justified those whom he justified he glorified right so the calling is in regard to those who are his this week I'm preaching John chapter 10 my sheep hear my voice I know them and they follow me how did the sheep know his voice because he calls and they hear right at some point if you're a believer and I pray that all of you are if you're a believer at some point you were lost and Christ called and you heard the call and you responded in faith because of the power of the Holy Spirit who opened your heart to believe but that's the calling so when we talk about the called we're talking about believers we're talking about people who God has saved right and so the Ecclesia the called out the ones who've been called it's talking about the believers so to be part of the church is to first be in Christ we're not truly part of the church if we're not in him if we're not called to be his then we are not part of the church the word church in the New Testament is often found in the book of Acts and in the epistles and some have argued that Jesus did not come to establish a church I mean you ever heard that Jesus didn't come to set up a church well that's bupkis is what that is it's garbage there's a Greek word for it what is it baloney absolutely the Greek word baloney his people say Christ did not come to set up a church I say how do you explain Matthew 16 18 Jesus was talking to Peter he says I call you Peter and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it this is one of two times Jesus used the word Ecclesia in the book of Matthew both times referring to that which he came to establish I will build my church the Savior said those words and he said the gates of hell will not prevail against it if you were here in our last class which was apologetics what do we learn from this verse we learn from this verse that the church is on the offensive because hell has gates and we are charging the gates of hell see the gates of hell it doesn't say hell will not prevail against the church it says the gates of hell meaning we charge hell with the sword of the Spirit we go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father Son the Holy Spirit so the church and we're going to talk about this more when we get to the mission of the church but the church does have a purpose and a calling to do these things so Jesus said I will build my church and by the way those who would say Jesus didn't come to establish a church then all of the Apostles were wrong because they established churches everywhere they went everywhere Paul set his foot a church sprung up and Paul established churches every place he went he was a church planter par excellence he planted churches he built churches on and on and on and by the way the majority of the New Testament is written to what churches or church leaders whether it is to the Church of Rome the Church of Philippi the Church of Ephesus or it is to Timothy who is the pastor of the Church of Ephesus Ephesus right this is these things the yeah revelations written to seven churches very good thank you so the church here's a here's a good little quote for you if the church is important to Christ it must be important to us people say I love Jesus I hate the church that's like saying I love you Keith but I hate your wife you say that to me we're not friends I'll be honest with you say I love you Keith but your wife I hate her well I don't wanna be your friend because that's my wife that's my bride get my life for my bride Jesus gave his wife his life for his bride the Bible says yeah that's right the bride of Christ is the church and if the church matters to Christ the church should matter to us I love this quote I found this by the way having this allows me to share memes in that great as I found that I just have popped up yes I was like oh I'm gonna throw that in the thing this is from C8 Spurgeon if you don't know who Spurgeon is he was the preacher he was an English preacher in the 1800s considered to be the prince of preachers and he said this he said the church is not perfect but woe to the man who finds pleasure in pointing out her imperfections Christ loved his church let us do the same so let's talk a little bit about how we understand the designation of the church this is one of the ones can be almost impossible for some of you in the back to see and I'm sorry the big red ones are the most important because we're going to talk about a distinction in the church that we need to understand the church is represented in two ways in Scripture and in history first we have what we call the invisible church or otherwise known as the universal church and then we have what's known as the visible church or what's also called the local church somebody give me a definition well I guess it's on there so be easy for some of you who's close enough to read it what what is the what is the universal church all believers everywhere right when does someone become a member of the universal church when they're when they're regenerated right when they come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ when they are born again into the family of God they're made part of the universal church the what we would call the invisible church now why do we call it invisible yeah and we don't know who's in right if I look at if I look at a Jaguar game and I and I look at all that stadium right it's filled with people I don't it ain't like I see a bunch of people with ease tattooed to their foreheads elect you know I don't know who's in the invisible church right I don't know except by their confession right I only know back that's why a lot of times I meet people are you a believer you know do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ are you his that's a way of identifying if they're part of the invisible church because it doesn't come with a name tag you know the Bible does say in the book of Revelations it talks about a sign or a mark that is held by believers but I don't know that that's something that's physical or something that can be seen it's compared to the mark of the Beast in Revelation 13 what's that now yeah and that's what say so we don't know you know but but we we know that there are people all around the world that are part of the church right when I come on Sunday morning and we have communion every Sunday at our church when I stand before the communion table and I hold up the bread and the wine and I say to the congregation the bread and the cup I say this cup is being shared by men and women all around the world today this cup and this bread unifies us as the body of Christ today right that is an important understanding that the church is bigger than the local body the church is every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ all around the world but the distinction is the local church still has a purpose because some people think if I'm part of the universal church if I'm part of the invisible church then I don't have any need for the local church we're gonna get there and you're you jump you're right but just right off you've heard people say I'm sure you have haven't you brother say well I'm in Christ I know Jesus I'm part of the universal church they maybe not say it that way they might not get as theological as to call it the universal church or the invisible church but they say I'm I'm believer so I don't I'm a believer I don't need to be part of the local body but here's the thing to remember the visible or local church is made up of local believers in communion with one another and almost every time the Bible refers to the church it's referring to the local church not the universal church you read in fact I encourage you go through the New Testament find you a concordance or a Bible program that allow you to look up words and look up the word church in your ESV or King James Bible whatever Bible you use and you read every instance where the word church is used and you will find that the vast majority of them almost all of them is referring to the local church not the church universal yes I don't know right offhand which ones refer specifically to the I think some could be both but in almost every instance you have to church at Philippi it's the church at Romans the church here it's a church here so it's like so I said when you look through you just find over and over and over I think Jesus saying I will build my church you know there's a sense in which that could be used in regard to the universal church but I'd have to go back and look at each one to see but but you'll see though if you do what I'm talking about you'll see the majority of them is that local body it's referring to that local body so the reason why I bring this out I want to I want to I'm going to draw something on this board now for those of you who are watching might not be able to see this if you're online maybe you will maybe you won't do you guys know what a Venn diagram is we have two circles and there's an overlapping circle and something in the overlapping is what refers to both of them right so right here we're going to say this is the invisible church all right now I'm going to use a different color I'm going to say the blue represents the visible church now if you notice there is an overlap in the circle and the overlap in the circle is where you want to be let me explain why because if you are part of the invisible church that means you are in Christ but if you are in Christ and you're not in the local church then you're not in the will of God and I hope that by the end of this eight weeks you will trust and understand that I what I just said is absolutely true that if you're not in the local church you're not in the will of God you argue with me later don't argue me right now I get time for it but but the point is this circle represents the invisible church and there are people who are in the invisible church who are not in a local church hmm yeah so that would represent what we would say is being out of the will of God now other side there are people in the visible church who are not in Christ right that's even worse because that represents people who are not believers but are in the church who who pretend and there's a lot of people that do that too so where do you want to be you won't be right there you want to be in the invisible church and invisible church you want to be a true believer in Christ Church serving somewhere that makes sense that's why I think it's important to make that distinction and and I think that this Venn diagram helps maybe next time I'll have a better one looking on the board here but if I make sense okay so again going back to something to think about this course will focus on understanding the purpose mission and structure of the local church and discovering your place within I put this here because I want to remind you that we are focusing on this part the blue part because there's not much I can say about the invisible church except for they're all in Christ and if you're not in a local church you should be that's it but once you're in the local church then we got to talk and that's what the rest of this course is gonna be about so really the invisible visible church is the distinction is not as important anymore it's only important to bring us to where we are now we understand where we are what we're doing we're focusing on being this person right here and figuring out what Christ has for us to do discovering our place in the local church now I have three fallacies that I want to share with you about the church that I hope will make sense as I go through them regarding the church three things three fallacies that people will say and you want to explain why I believe they're wrong number one fallacy number one I am the church number one I am the church you ever heard somebody say that here's it here's a here's a good I know you can't really see it some of you this is a post I made a year ago I just celebrated my wife's birthday not going to tell you which one because I like my wife and she doesn't like me to say that we just celebrated her birthday does it say oh it's three years ago well well this was three years ago but we just celebrated it again because it happens every year but this post came up and reminded me that three years ago we were sitting at Longhorn Steakhouse I'd taken her to dinner on her birthday young man came up he was a sweet young man he sang happy birthday to her and he sang it and one of those real like happy birthday like very you know very excited to sing happy birthday beautiful voice nice young man we had a nice conversation on the midst of the conversation I said do you go to church and he goes no I am the church I said no you're not yes I know son you're not the word sure no I said I said no he was we had a jovial enough conversation going that I knew he wasn't going to get angry because he was trying to be yeah I am the church I said no you're not he goes yes I said no son I said because the church is the assembly of the called and you can't assemble by yourself I said if you're not assembling with other believers then you're not doing what God has called you to do and he kind of looked at me and I said do you know why and we went into a long conversation about why the church matters you cannot be the church alone there's no such thing as a lone wolf Christian the Bible knows not of anything like that so the idea well I am the church ipso facto I need not the church is wrong it's just a fallacy so that's number one number two dangerous fallacies boy we're going quick dangerous fallacy number two every gathering is a church I call this the Matthew 1820 fallacy can anybody tell me why I caught the Matthew 1820 fallacy where two or three are gathered in my name there I am in the midst of them I'll hear that all the time people say I don't need to go to church I just get two or three people together and we pray and read the Bible and we have church no you don't you say well I think you're being offensive well well I'm not no I know I say people say you're being offensive no I'm I'm I think that it's okay to sometimes be a little abrasive because the Bible says iron sharpens iron it doesn't say cotton sharpens iron you know what I mean and so sometimes an abrasive word might be what's needed to knock the bark off the tree somebody says well when I gather with my friends we have church I say well who are your elders who are your deacons and which missionaries are you supporting and how are you practicing the participation in the elements and the ordinance of baptism well we don't do that well then you're not a church the church has a biblically outlined structure it is not to be a disordered chaotic mess it is to be a body which is structured decently and maintains order and if you want the Bible verse it's right there 1st Corinthians 1440 referring to the church all things should be done decently and in order I've heard people say well I don't like going to this church they they don't they don't allow enough freedom and have freedom and have all this freedom you know who had a lot of freedom in their worship Nadab and Abihu you know what they did they offered a strange fire under the Lord and God consumed them before the before the temple for the tabernacle rather don't come and tell me how much freedom you need in worship because it ain't about you so dangerous fallacies when people say well I just gather with my friends and we have church no you don't now I'm saying I want to be clear about this I ain't saying you've got to have a building because people do have churches in their homes but let me tell you if it's a house church it ought to be a church it ought to be structured as a church and it ought to have the order of a church now that doesn't mean that you have to have pews and all those things but again if we are simply saying well we get together and pray and read the but there is no structure then we're not doing church dangerous fallacy number three as I'm pretty sure I've run off half of you by now so we'll see maybe we'll see if you come back after the break dangerous fallacy number three the ministry a church performs is more important than the teaching structure and practice of the church they'll set now but listen you you ever heard somebody say this you say well they didn't say in that many words how about this a common statement goes like this well this church does so much for the community it does so much for the homeless it does so much for the needy it does so much for this or that or the other therefore it must be a good church no guess what Mormons do great things for the needy but they teach things that will send you to hell so by saying well this church does this that or the other for the community therefore it's a good church you have misunderstood the purpose of the church yeah but indeed you grow out of it out right I mean we understand deeds are important and I'm not discounting any of those things but years ago and by years I mean decades ago back in the early part of the 1900s something arose called the social gospel movement you ever heard of that John you have a question go ahead sure yep no problem the ministry a church performs is more important than the teaching structure and practice church that's the fallacy what people say that well the ministry is more important than what you teach what you do is more important than what you believe that's really the fallacy back in the early 1900s many church denominations began to be influenced by the modernism and post-modernism of the day and they began to abandon the teachings of the Bible such as the miracles of Christ and the miracles of the Old Testament the Noah's Ark and those things that then began to disbelieve those things but they wanted to continue to maintain things like love and charity and all those things so they began to teach what was known as the social gospel and the social gospel was basically Christianity divorced from all of the teachings of Christianity it was love your neighbor and love God but don't know who God is and don't know your Bible and really don't understand what love is and they began to do things like well instead of giving people the gospel we're going to start feeding the hungry instead of giving people the gospel we're going to start going overseas and digging wells and building houses but we don't give the gospel because we don't want to offend them we're just going to show them the love of Jesus rather than tell them about Jesus and nobody in here watches their television on mute because you don't know what's going on if you can't hear any words people say preach the gospel use words when necessary that's a stupid statement because you can't preach the gospel without telling people about Jesus well I do good things and that's how they see Jesus and me atheists hold doors to atheists do good things too we must proclaim the name of Jesus and the truth of the word along with our good deeds or it's not a church so the fallacy will this I go to this church because they do so many good things but if the church is teaching heresy run and don't look back so that is the introduction to ecclesiology and the few fallacies about the church and we dive in right in as you noticed now I'm going to go to the purpose and mission of the church if you have your Bibles turn with me to Matthew 28 how's this is this helping liking it okay and I know I have the verse on the screen but I do want you to see it in your Bibles maybe make a little note in your Bible if you do happen to write Matthew 28 go to verse 19 this is what's commonly called the what the Great Commission who's the Commissioner Jesus that's right he is the captain of our ship when you became a Christian you gave up being the head of your own life somebody else took the and it was Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ is the captain of your ship as the king of your life as the sovereign of your soul gave you a command and actually he gives it to the whole church and it begins in verse 19 Jesus said go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you and behold I am with you always to the end of the age this passage is very important many of you probably have memorized it maybe some of you have have thought about it a lot but I want to just point out a few thoughts to you if you read Matthew 28 19 beginning with the first word go in the Greek that word go is actually not the verb that is a participle it is connected to the verb and the verb in that sentence is make disciples so the action being declared the command being declared is make disciples because a lot of people focus on the go right and going is important but the most important part of this sentence is the verb itself which is by the way if you study Greek you'll find out verbs make everything verbs are the most important part because that's verb show action and action matters right so the making of disciples is the main mission and purpose of the church the making of disciples is the primary mission of the church now according to this passage how is that done we go to make disciples doing what first baptizing them so let's for a moment I'm gonna erase this eraser so we do what first baptize now in the context of Matthew 28 what is baptism referring to well yes absolutely that's the that's what it means but what is the context is referring to their conversion yeah that's what I'm saying the baptism is referring to them becoming Christians right because the person has confessed and what happens when they confess Jesus we baptize them right when they confer confess Jesus Christ they're baptized so this is referring to their conversion now I want to make a point I do not believe baptism causes salvation but baptism does accompany salvation when we get saved we get baptized right by the way I'll say something else if you're saved tonight if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you haven't been baptized you need to be you should not be a you should not be denying that command Jesus said go and make disciples how baptizing them right this Sunday we're going to baptize two young girls in our church because they came to me six months ago I believe in Jesus and when it's children that come to me I spend time counseling them because I want to make sure that they understand the commitment that they have making they understand who it is they believe understand their sin understand these things right I want to make sure they understand but once I'm unconfirmed that they're can come that their confession is genuine then we boom we put them in the water right and so baptizing in this sense is referring to conversion but then he goes on and he says baptize them in the name of the Father the Son the Holy Spirit that's the way we baptize that's we call the Trinitarian formula of baptism we baptize them in the triune name but then he says something else he says teaching teaching who teaching them and them is a pronoun which has an antecedent what's the antecedent of them the disciples the disciples so so the disciples have been made through baptism made to see how do you make disciples you baptize them in the name of father son whole story and now you teach them so teaching you have your conversion and then you have your growth your growth right and some people some people this is as far as they get they go to a Billy Graham crusade not anymore because he's not with us anymore but they go to a crusade they say that prayer they raise their hand they go forward and then they're gone and you never see him again no growth we have to wonder sometimes was it genuine conversion right right in it but but you get what I'm saying right this is so so Jesus gives us the mission and purpose of the church in this verse first is to then it's to grow it's not just one or the other but it's both and this is why I want to ask this question is there a difference between evangelism and discipleship this is a question I want to raise your hand if you say yes there's a difference in evangelism and discipleship okay raise your hand if you say no here's why because we go to do what make disciples evangelism is a discipling prospect to evangelism is the process of making them and then we grow but it's all discipleship when we proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ to an unbeliever we're seeking that he would become a disciple and then we seek to grow that disciple so really when we say what is discipleship now in church we could say there's a distinction in how we do these things we go out to proclaim the gospel we come in to grow right so in that sense we could say there's a distinction in those who raise your hand that's probably what you were referring to but in regard to the actual mission of the church it's all the mission of the church right we're making them and we're growing them you said but wait a minute God's the one doing that yes that's right he's the one doing it but he's doing it through the ministry of the church right he's doing it through us he's using us to proclaim the gospel how shall they hear without a preacher right so we go and we preach the gospel to them so that they can hear and believe and then we don't just leave them in their unbelief but we seek to build them up in their faith so the church has a mission not just to get people saved but to grow people who are saved into mature believers and this is the mission I mean everything else is secondary to this this is the mission and the purpose of the church now I want to read I want to give you a quote from dr.

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John Piper I love this quote and I want to see if it makes sense to you all John Piper said this he said evangelism that means making disciples exists because worship doesn't don't get it okay let me explain what I what I what he means well I know what he means but let me explain it what he is saying is that there are people in this world who aren't worshiping God and they should be so when I go out to evangelize them it's because God deserves to be worshiped by every man woman and creature in this world and so I go proclaim to them the God who they should be worshiping because God deserves to work see this attitude puts the idea of evangelism on God not on the individual because a lot people I got to go out and pull them out of the fires of hell yes that's the byproduct but the goal is that God would be worshipped the goal of evangelism is that God would be worshipped if you are here tonight and you're not worshiping God you should be because he deserves it that's what Piper saying and see that changes the whole idea of the church because now what is the church the church is a place where people learn to worship God better not just on Sunday but every day and we learn to be worshipers we learn to be disciples because what is a disciple or what is a disciple a person who worships the Lord with their whole life right worship is an action of believers I want to mention this to you worship is an action of believers it is categorically impossible hear this categorically impossible for an unbeliever to worship God say wait a minute unbelievers can't worship God listen to Hebrews 11 for 11 6 without faith it is impossible to please him and whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who diligently seek him right you can't worship God if you don't believe in him you say well why are you set why are you bringing this up because a lot of people think Sunday morning is for unbelievers this is where we bring them to get saved no Sunday morning is for people who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you bring them to worship now our unbelievers welcome to come yes but it ain't for them see years ago about 25 to 30 years ago a group began to flourish called the seeker sensitive movement and the seeker sensitive movement said what we need to do is we need to structure our worship service around unbelievers we need to make our music appealing to unbelievers we need to make our sermons appealing to unbelievers we need to make the building appealing to unbelievers and church began to look much more like a nightclub than it did a church and what happens then what happens is then we are catering and preaching not to grow the faithful but to try to win the lost and the faithful go hungry here's here's what happens you guys know this guy Stephen Furtick okay Stephen Furtick is Stephen I would say Stephen Furtick is a false teacher he has said many things that were untrue but listen to what he says to this is what he said to his body I heard this sermon so I know he said it exactly like this and I know I was going to get the video but I didn't want to get tagged on because this goes out on social media I don't want to get tagged as like a copyright thing so I just read it to you this is what he said he said if you know Jesus I'm sorry to break it to you this church is not for you yeah I just gave my life to Jesus last week at Elevation well last week was the last week that Elevation Church existed for you because he'll tell you that the purpose of the church is simply to win the loss not to grow the faithful he goes on to say this he said we don't teach from books of the Bible because it gets in the way of evangelism we don't offer different kinds of Bible studies because it gets in the way of evangelism we don't teach doctrine because it gets in the way of evangelism if you want to be fed God's Word or have the Bible explained to you then you are a fat lazy Christian and you need to shut up and get to work or you need to leave this church because we only do evangelism you know what happened when he said that people clapped they don't know any better sheep without a shepherd or maybe a bunch of goats being shepherded by a wolf but here's the thing about that it's the way a lot of people see the church the only thing it's for is to get people saved it's not about growth look here I want you to read turn in your Bible to 2nd Peter 1 2nd Peter 1 5 asking this question is it wrong for a believer to want to grow in his knowledge this is what Stephen Furtick said if you want to grow then get out of here you're fat lazy Christian get out of here this is what Peter says in his second letter to the church for this very reason make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue and virtue with knowledge and knowledge with self-control and self-control with steadfastness and steadfastness with godliness and godliness with brotherly affection and brotherly affection with love for if these qualities are yours and are increasing they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ if these things are increasing they will keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful how many people do you know call themselves Christians they're absolutely ineffective and absolutely unfruitful maybe it's because they are not increasing in these qualities how do we increase in these qualities through the ministry of the body iron sharpens iron we come together we increase in these qualities through the church that's right shepherds are charged with feeding the flock and many pastors are derelict in this duty I'm one so I feel like I can speak on behalf of many of them I'm not one who's derelict I hope I know that sounded let me back up what I mean is I'm a pastor so I feel like I can say this listen to what Paul says to Timothy I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is the judge living in the dead and by his appearing in his kingdom preach the word be ready in season and out of season reprove rebuke exhort with complete patience and teaching for the time is coming when people will not endorse sound doctrine having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths if we're not there now I don't know well it's and he's not the only one right I mean they're just all around we see people churches that well they all around there was a guy down in Tampa for a while running a running a what's called a it was like a camp meeting type thing Todd Bentley you never heard that name Todd Bentley is was it was a quack I mean he literally whacked people kick people hit people and saying he was going to heal them I have a really funny video about it I posted when I like 20 like like I was like 26 it's been a long time ago but um but he was he was off his rocker but man let me tell you something I ain't never had a church filled like I mean I've never seen a church as big as he was able to fill up yeah I did so the idea though is there the ears are itching for this kind of thing they want someone to preach this nonsense and that's the danger this is why this is why so many churches are the way that they are and I certainly don't say in any way shape or form that this is a perfect church it is by far not a perfect church and if you do happen to find a perfect church please don't join it because you will destroy it because you are imperfect and I am imperfect but there's something to be said for a church that doesn't understand the purpose of the church and here it is in this this is I tried to think how could I write this out so this is my my quote if you will the ultimate purpose and mission of the church is to glorify God and this is done through the Holy Spirit empowered work of making mature disciples who worship him in spirit and truth notice I threw in a few very important words one it is a Holy Spirit empowered work we can't do it without the power of the Holy Spirit and two it is the job of making mature disciples not just disciples not just evangelism but growing them in their faith making the mature disciple not just the baby you know the Bible tells us we should move from milk to meat that we should go from the things of children to grow up now it tells us to have faith like children and there's a context where that's important but the idea that I've heard people say it so many times well I'm you know I I just you know I just believe I don't know what I believe but I believe it what does it matter all right so that ends and look at their one hour exactly we are time for a break yeah I'll bring it back up but I'm but we're now on break okay that might be the quickest break we've ever taken getting everybody back in here in only seven minutes whoo we did it it's well 738 eight minutes I'm proud we get everybody here well for the last 20 minutes we're going to have class discussion and I want to encourage this year this year I keep saying it like it for me it feels like a new year because I'm used to being on school schedule like we have kids in school you know we homeschool our kids so like at the end of last term it's like the end of school right and so now it's like a new year right it's a new semester a new term so this term not only are we going to having have the multimedia and hopefully have some videos and stuff that we're going to be including but I also want to try to get you guys to interact some more and answer questions and engage you know we did some really good conversations in our apologetics class at least I think we did and hopefully just build on that and continue to grow and just know that every time I do one of these classes I learn more about how to teach them and you know we're fixing to start over again because we've ended our two years and now we're starting the two years over again and if you did that if you did the classes before you may be interested in trying to do them again because I'm now that I've learned some things are going to they're going to evolve and be even hopefully even better than they were so I haven't decided what is going to be the next class but if we follow the standard if we follow the standard outline it would be the next class would be going back to a survey the Old Testament I know many of you already done that and I I'm not sure if that's what we're going to do but that would be the plan if we go back to the schedule question how is church misunderstood now I've already given a lot of this tonight in our conversation so some repetition is okay we can certainly make some repetition of what was already said but I want to hear your thoughts I want to hear some things that you have in your mind when you say how when I ask the question how is church or how has church been misunderstood what are some things that immediately come to mind John right out of the gate John nails a good one so we say church is an experience driven activity okay so and not to put you on the spot but give us an example of things that you've seen yeah yeah a lot of it has to do it a lot of it has to do with music I would agree in fact a lot of times when people will come and I've had this in in the years I've been doing this I've had many people say this come to me after church and they'll say you know I didn't really enjoy worship today let's say you'd be surprised how many times I've heard that I'm not making it up that's not I mean I had one guy tell me service went five minutes too long I remember that he said well that he said that sermon was good but it was five minutes too long five minutes he didn't say I want an hour he didn't say I want 30 minute five minutes yeah but but the idea of the experience when people say I didn't get anything out of church today what are they seeking some like you said it's the goosebumps there was a guy my dad knew a guy one time and he was he was at a church of a friend of mine it was the pastor and my dad knew that I knew the pastor so him and my dad were talking about the church and the guy was a member there and he was disgruntled he was unhappy in the church and my dad said well what is it that you don't like about the church what is it that you don't like about the pre was to preach specifically the preacher who was a fine preacher he was a fine expositor of God's Word and the man said to my dad he goes well I just don't get a fuzzy feeling when he's preaching that was the exact quote I just don't feel a fuzzy feeling when he's preaching but that's what you know people sometimes are really looking for they're looking for the experience they're looking for the goose bumps they're looking for a fuzzy feeling and so I think John you nailed it I mean that's often what church and I would say that that would even goes that that even goes further than what I was asking because when I say house church misunderstood you nailed an aspect of worship because that's how worship is misunderstood right worship is about me and my experience right so I agree with you but it but that's it like I said you kind of tighten the circle right it's like that's like how worship is often misunderstood is it's about me what you got brother no I only laugh because you're talking about the that's called the shocking message that message needs to be heard by everybody it's awesome but but when he said he why are you laughing I'm talking about you and and and and I do think that's an that's an important point and that is the the the idea of looking at others church is a place where I come to spectate the life of others right so I so that and that's what is I'm looking around that's you're the one he's talking to you're the one he's talking to he's talking he's not talking to me right so what we say what would we call that we just say church is a spectator sport you know you know it's all a spectacle it's something to see it's something to see not something that we are to to be engaged in what's something else has church misunderstood all right I always love to give the etymology of this word they may know what hypocrite where the word hypocrite comes from okay go ahead yes yeah did I did I share that with you or did we yeah yeah yeah hypocrisy is it was an actor it was a person who was in the word hoopoe the prefix is it to me is under a like a hoopoe and increases his judgment so it means somebody who does something because they're being watched right they're under judgment they're under the watching eye of someone else so they do it because they're being watched and it does in the simplest term mean actor somebody who does it because they're on display right and yeah absolutely absolutely yes who focuses I have to show it we'll do it later it's spelled like this in English and that's most important hypocrite yeah but so we have that concept right the idea of the hypocrite and and when we say that's the church is misunderstood people say well the church is just full of hypocrites and I think that that's true what's another one anybody got it yes well okay I do know I take a good good I'm glad you mentioned that because there are people who would say I do church at my house because I'm the only person who knows what the Bible says and all the churches or have false teacher I've heard people say just that thing in fact I I mean I've heard people say I'm trying to think exactly how they said it to me I have a special relationship with God nobody in the churches know what they're talking about and I worship God on my terms the way I understand him and I don't need anybody else to tell me anything oh yeah oh yeah absolutely so the idea so that so what they're saying is they're all a bunch of heretics I'm the only one who has a real relationship with Lord and I'm the only one who knows anything and they draw the circle so tight they're standing on one foot you know because it's what's that yeah absolutely what you got nails yeah that's true yeah and and these are things that do exist are there hypocrites yo are there are there heretics yes and just to clarify what he's talking about heterodoxy is different than heresy heterodox means something that is not necessarily an essential of the faith but it is something that there is an error regarding and every church has something that they're not 100% on no church is perfect and we we often talk about what is adiaphora adiaphora means those things that are not essential for instance if a person came here and said I don't believe that Jesus is the Son of God I would say then you can't be a member here because that's essential you can certainly come and hear the word but you cannot join the church if you deny that Jesus is the Christ but if somebody comes and says well I believe in a pre-tribulation rapture I don't but that's not going to keep you from joining the church because that is adiaphora that is not essential doctrine right and oftentimes heterodoxy falls under the category of that something that's not essential if it's essential and they disagree it's heresy and so we have to distinguish between those things yes boy howdy I call that church hurt church and they say the church doesn't do anything good it just it just hurts people and now I'm gonna ask a question you I tell you let's all close our eyes and bow our heads I'm just kidding anybody in here ever been hurt by church now I raised my hand because I've been doing this a long time now and and been in this church since I was seven years old and Bobby's been in this church longer than me and this church has I've experienced a lot of hurt so I'm not saying the church doesn't have times where there's things that hurt and people who hurt but but when people think that's all the churches that's how's the church misunderstood well the church is just a place where people go and mistreat each other the church is just a place where people go and act like they're better than other people or the church is you know I'm saying this is how people see the church you know I hear people all the time say I hate religious people you might say well I don't like religious people either but they're talking about you if you're in the church they're talking about you yeah I understand they're not making you distinguish they're not distinguishing between the good and the bad they're saying in general all right remember one time I was sitting I was 19 working at America online Bobby was working there too and I was sitting there and I heard a guy across the way now I wasn't saved at this point but I would just happen to be friends with the man who this guy was talking about he was a preacher and this guy was just running him into the ground well he's this and he's that and these preachers they're nothing but sorry dog blah blah blah blah well I was unsanctified because I was unsaved and I let him have it because I knew that this guy wasn't all the things that this guy was saying about him think about how many times people have just they drive by the church and they just say that just places full of hypocrites that place is full of false teachers that places people who just want your money yeah yeah or you know it's like it's like R.C.

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Sproul said he said the first time he ever saw a man in a collar you know a preacher's collar his uncle he asked his uncle what does that mean he said that means watch your wallet because that's how they saw religious people well I have some I have some things that I put down but I wanted to save mine to the end not because they're any better than what you guys said but just because I wanted to hear your thoughts first yes sir yeah absolutely a place of greed and I like what you said a means of gain but for the sake of time I'll just write greed but yeah people see it as a and you know I as a minister who is a minister not only by calling but by vocation I certainly have heard people say that well you just do what you do because you get paid no I would preach if I didn't get paid but by God's grace I'm able to be paid so that I don't have to do something else because if I didn't get paid to be a minister I would have to go be a school teacher that's the only other thing I'm really qualified to do and I would go and teach school 40 50 hours a week grade papers at night and I wouldn't have the time to dedicate to ministry and teaching and preaching and doing things like I'm doing right now but do but do people use ministry for gain absolutely and one of the things we're going to talk about in class seven or eight when we talk about finances is how our church finances supposed to be used that's important question anybody else before I throw out my few yes stereotyping yeah I won't even write that but that's true people do say you know they have this in their mind all these things are sort of stereotypes right this is what they think religious people are and what the church is full of anybody else Jackie yeah I would agree with that I think I spelled that right in it CLI Q yes because it's not clicks like clicks on a click click yeah yeah and they do right people who and I will I'll be honest with you I don't get to visit many churches as I work every Sunday but at least twice a year my wife will go away my wife and I will go away it's not a weird at least right here my wife and I will go away and we and we try to visit churches now we did this we were in the mountains we had a fun time we went to see the ark in Kentucky and on our way back we left at 7 a.m.