Why I Am A Reformed Baptist

And now Dr. White will minister to us once again. We announced in the bulletin the topic of this evening's sermon that's somewhat unusual. It also forces me to stick with what I've announced. But you will also notice that it is rather an unusual topic.

And this will be an unusual sermon, I can guarantee you that. In the passage that we looked at this morning in Acts chapter 20, we read a particular passage, verse 24, that says,. But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course in the ministry which I receive from the Lord Jesus to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God.

Such a passage reminds me of the tremendous importance in being able to fulfill the ministry, finish the course that has been given to us by the Lord Jesus Christ. And I believe he has given to his church in general, his church as a whole, a course to run, a ministry to fulfill, and that the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ is central to that accomplishment, to that course that has been given to her.

This evening I want to address the subject, why I am a Reformed Baptist. And I recognize that sometimes even ministers who are very good at speaking and preaching, I'm thinking of Charles Spurgeon, would once in a while cite a passage and then immediately leave that passage and go on to something else.

And the connection would not be overly clear between what he had cited and what he ended up talking about. But I think there is a connection between Paul's assertion, Acts 20, 24, and his desire to finish the course and the ministry that had been given to him by the Lord Jesus.

And my subject this evening, I speak primarily to the family of faith that is the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church. I speak to those of you who are my friends. We know each other very well. We see each other, thankfully, on a very regular basis.

And I don't speak as someone who's been here as long as many of the rest of you have been. Obviously, to some of you, I am but a newcomer, a young pup in comparison to some who have been here for a long, long time.

But I also have an interesting perspective to bring to you, one that I think you might recognize. I have, I will call it the opportunity to travel a good bit. This, for example, would give me a much greater opportunity to speak from one who gets to see other congregations and to visit other congregations than, for example, our own pastor, who we can never get to go anyplace else.

He doesn't get to do anything else at all in preaching. So I get to do that all the time. And I get to meet with other Reformed Baptists all across the United States. In fact, I also get to meet with a lot of folks who aren't Reformed Baptists.

And in fact, when they ask me where I go to church, give me that wonderfully quizzical stare that we've all gotten at some point in our lives. When you said, well, I am a member of the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church.

And people look at you and go, Reformed Baptist? Does that mean you used to be a Baptist and you're not anymore? You've Reformed? What have you done? And I get to try to explain exactly what a Reformed Baptist is.

And I have to admit, I still get some very strange looks even after my best attempts. We've all experienced that. So I speak with some level of authority because I can somewhat stand back and I can look at what we have here.

And I can look at other places. I can look at other similar Reformed Baptist churches. I can look at regular Baptist churches. I can look at Presbyterian churches. I have the opportunity of speaking in OPC, PCA churches.

I have the opportunity of speaking in all sorts of different types of places. And hence, I have certain things that are frequently on my mind. I've shared some of these things with many of you, but hopefully in a way of encouraging all of us to be thankful for what the Lord has done in our midst, I'd like to talk to you about these reasons why I am a Reformed Baptist.

Why I Became a Reformed Baptist

First, though, we all have traveled a certain road to get here. Each one of the roads that we have traveled to be a part of this fellowship are different. But I imagine for many of us there are certain similarities.

In my own case, I remember very clearly the first night that I visited, and the scary thing is, Roxy does too. She remembers very clearly who I was with and, in fact, where I sat, and I can only barely remember some of those details.

But what I do remember that really had a tremendous impact upon me and was very important in the Lord eventually leading me and my family here was that you were at that time going through a series in Amos, as I recall, and the first thing that struck me was that anyone would actually preach out of the book of Amos.

I had never been in a church where anyone did actually preach out of the book of Amos, other than maybe picking a particular verse at a particular time of year and associating it with something. You were going through Amos verse by verse.

That immediately caught my attention. I also had never experienced the period of quiet and solitude before the service, after the piano played, and I really appreciated that. I looked around and I saw people that were serious about what was about to take place.

There was consideration about the fact that worship was about to be engaged in, and again, I had never experienced that. And that evening, the pastor got up and said, We've been going through Amos, but to be perfectly honest with you, I've encountered a passage I don't understand, so I'm going to preach from the Psalter.

And I had never experienced anyone standing behind a pulpit saying, I'm not sure what to do with this passage of Scripture. Most of the churches, all the churches that I had been associated with, those who ministered from the pulpit, would never have ever said, I don't know about this passage of Scripture.

They would have considered that a sign of weakness. So I was very, very, very much impressed. Some of those reasons then gave me the drive to put up with some of the things that we encountered when we first came here.

Some of those that we left in our other church thought we had joined a cult. And in fact, they went around telling people that. They didn't understand what the church was all about, nor did they really care about what made a Reformed Baptist any different than any other Baptist.

All of us probably have come from places that offered certain programs, certain perks. I know that there are certain things, certainly at the church that we came from, that there was nothing wrong with them in and of themselves.

They were very enjoyable that we simply don't have here. We don't have a choir, you may have noticed. Not sure exactly where we'd put them, even if we did, but we don't have one. I don't think there's anything wrong with the choir, but we don't have the room for one, and I think we do pretty well on our own as it is, though we need to work on the amens just a little bit at the end of the hymn.

There are a few things we gave up, but there was reason to do it. And the seventh reason I'm going to give you will be the main reason that we were willing to go through what we went through and continue to be willing to do that to this very day.

There is a word that you will hear over and over again. I'm going to give you seven reasons, and there's not any numerological significance to the seven reasons. I'm going to give you seven reasons why I'm a Reformed Baptist, and there is one word that will go through pretty much all seven of them.

It's the word consistency. The word consistency. Each of these seven reasons is only a reason because we are consistent in our belief about it. Some of these beliefs that I'm going to mention are shared by many other people, but the difference that I see and that is precious to me is consistency.

That is, looking at what we believe and trying, as best we can, to be consistent in the light of God's Word and God's truth in what we proclaim and in what we do. Recognizing that there must be that consistency between what is professed and what is practiced.

That, you will see, is very important to me. Well, if you're a fast writer, let me give you all seven reasons very quickly, and then break them down and discuss each one. Number one is Sola Scriptura.

Sola Scriptura. Number two is Tota Scriptura. That means all of Scripture. Number three is Sola Fide and Sola Gratia. That will be the Gospel. Number four is Soli Deo Gloria. To God alone be the glory.

Number five is the Confession. Number six is the local church. And number seven, I just mentioned, it is simply the word consistency. Let me explain what each one means. First, Sola Scriptura. Consistency in the application of the belief that the Scriptures are the sole infallible rule of faith for the Church.

Obviously, right off the bat, that separates us from a large number of groups. Roman Catholicism, all the cults and isms. But it also separates us from a large portion of Protestantism today that has become what we call liberal, that no longer holds to a view of Scripture that would allow you to believe in Sola Scriptura.

When I speak of Sola Scriptura as one of the reasons why I'm a Reformed Baptist, I do so in the sense that we have a high view of Scripture. We have a biblical view of the Bible, if you can use that terminology.

We view it as God's word. We view it as not being subject to correction or change or amendation. And we truly believe that it is the ultimate source of authority for what we believe, teach and practice.

As a result, within our fellowship, we have exegetical preaching. It is balanced. It is full. We preach in the morning from the New Testament, normally. We preach in the evening, normally, from the Old Testament.

We go verse by verse. We work through difficult passages and we engage in exegetical preaching. And I have no intention of trying to embarrass anyone, but I am tremendously thankful for the fact that our pastor is the exegete that he is.

I get to hear a lot of people in a lot of different places. And if you don't, then let me just tell you something. We get a feast every Sunday. And the balance of the exegesis is what is so important to me.

There are people who have tremendous skills in exegesis who are willing to use them to promote a particular perspective or agenda, rather than being fair with the text before them. And we don't experience that, and I am appreciative of that fact.

So, reason number one is Sola Scriptura. Reason number two is a phrase that we trace back to John Calvin, Tota Scriptura. Tota Scriptura goes with Sola Scriptura. It is one thing to believe that the Scriptures alone are the infallible rule of faith.

It is another to then be picky and choosy as to what you do and do not believe in the Bible. Tota Scriptura refers to the fact that we have a full canon. And what I mean by that is there are, pretty much any evangelical church would say, oh, I believe in all 66 books of the Bible.

And most evangelical Protestants who attend church tonight, their Bible is maybe not as thick as mine. This is a giant print, so I can see it while it's sitting here. But it's pretty much got the same books of the Bible in it.

The problem is there is a difference between professing a certain canon and actually practicing a certain canon. What do I mean by that? Well, simple fact of the matter is, in many Protestant and evangelical churches today, the Old Testament really isn't a part of what you hear preached or taught.

You might hear the 23rd Psalm once in a while. You might hear some stories on a Genesis or Exodus. But the idea of actually preaching as it is the Word of God from the Old Testament, they have a functionally smaller canon.

There is less of Scripture that is preached and proclaimed. Well, that's not the case here. We have Old and New Testament readings. Brother Cross plows through some of those names that none of us have ever seen before, except the last time we read through the Old Testament.

We hear, we are exposed to all of Scripture. Not just that which is popular, not just that which makes us feel good. All of Scripture, no dodging those tough passages. Sola Scriptura, Toda Scriptura. You might say, well, there's a lot of people that would also say they believe that.

I think that when we put those two together, we have one of the reasons that makes me a Reformed Baptist and not one of my dear brethren, the Presbyterians. Because I firmly believe that especially on the primary issue of Pedo-Baptism, a full and complete application of Sola Scriptura and Toda Scriptura is what leads you to reject the interpretation presented by our Presbyterian friends.

I honestly believe that fundamentally the Pedo-Baptistic position is based upon a tradition. It is based upon a tradition that I do not believe can stand up to the light of examination from Scripture.

And I believe that my friends, as precious as they are to me and the Lord, and I do believe that they are heirs of eternal life, I do not throw them out of the kingdom, but I do believe that at this point, if they were truly consistent on Sola Scriptura and Toda Scriptura, that they would have to abandon what is, I believe, a human tradition in Pedo-Baptism.

So you have the first two. The third, I put two together, I guess you might say. Sola Fide and Sola Gratia, you know all these are the great watchwords of the Reformation. Sola Fide, faith alone. Sola Gratia, grace alone.

Consistent Reformed soteriology, a consistent Reformed understanding of the Gospel from start to finish. We preach justification by faith. We talk about the five points, the sovereignty of grace, but, but, but, there is something I think very important to immediately emphasize, and I was struck by this within the first few weeks of beginning to attend myself.

It is not exhaustive of what we teach. Many people come amongst us and they're, they're new to the doctrines of grace, and they're on fire. They've got a bag full of Arthur W. Pink, and they're ready to hand it to anybody that even looks semi-interested.

And they think that when you walk through the door of a Reformed Baptist church, all you've got to find out is which of the five weeks you're in, because there's just five sermons. Just a little bit of variation on the Sunday night theme.

Either you're going to be preaching about the, well, you can make it six. We can preach on the sovereignty of God too, but pretty much that's what you've got to be talking about all the time, and I discovered very, very quickly that's, that's not how it works.

And that's not how it works because if you're exegetical and you're preaching, if you're balanced and you're preaching and you allow the Word of God to determine what you're addressing, then you're going to address everything the Word of God talks about.

And while those truths are foundational and fundamental, and there can be no room for compromise on them, and while since they are foundational, they give rise to everything else and they give direction to everything else, all those things are true, you can't just simply preach upon the five points over and over and over again.

And so there is balance. There is a firm commitment to the Gospel. There is no willingness to compromise. With man's desire to exalt himself, with man's desire to intrude himself into the Gospel, to take some of the glory from God and ascribe it to himself, no willingness to do that.

And oh, how it would be easier for us to, quote-unquote, get along with everybody else if we would just keep our mouths shut about that subject, wouldn't it be? Oh, how popular we could be if we just wouldn't talk about man being dead in sin, if we just wouldn't talk about God being the sovereign ruler of the entire universe, how easy it would be to get along.

But we're not willing to do that. Nor can we be to be faithful to who we are as we form baptism. The Gospel we preach flows from the assertion we make that it must be biblical. Not just something that you can find a proof text that sort of sounds like what you're saying.

What we believe about the Gospel must come forth from the exegesis of the text of Scripture. It cannot be a tradition we force on it. It must come from the text of Scripture. And it is our job to be constantly vigilant in our preaching and our teaching to make sure that we are consistent with our profession on those points.

So we believe in justification by faith. And we have no problems identifying as a false gospel those systems that say, oh, you're not justified by faith alone. You're justified by faith and a mixture of works.

No, Paul anathematized that. And even though it's not popular, we're willing to preach the same thing. So three reasons so far. The fourth, soli deo gloria. Now I'm not talking about the book publishing company here.

That means to God alone be the glory. And as I understand our application of this truth, we honestly seek to do what is right in God's eyes, not what is right in man's eyes. There is a strong willingness amongst us to go against the flow as long as we feel it is right in God's sight and is honoring to him.

There is a strong rejection of man-centered programs, of man-centered ploys, of man-centered activities that while in and of themselves might not be sinful, they can tend to obscure the singular purpose of the church.

To glorify God and proclaim his truth. Some people don't understand why there are certain things that we just don't do. Most people who come into our midst we need to understand are a little bit confused by our priorities.

That is, it seems if you look at our bulletin, that the primary reason we're here is to listen to the word preached. We're not really here to be distracted by anything else. We sing hymns together and we pray together and we read the scriptures together.

And then we preach and then we go home. Most people that are sitting here aren't having to worry about too many other quote-unquote church activities outside of those that are necessary to accomplish.

We're not running around from pillar to post with this program and that program. And a lot of folks just wonder, what are you all about? And I know that one of the greatest things that attracted me was the fact that at the very beginning it was explained to me that we believe that God is worshiped when his truth is proclaimed.

And that the greatest act of worship we can engage in is to use our minds and to listen and to think and to pray, God, please help me to understand your truth, apply it to my life, so that this week I can bring more honor and glory to you by living more consistently in light with your truth.

I came from a background that would have led me to believe that worship was more emotional than that. And the idea that it was work, and that I was called to engage in worship by using my mind to think upon God's truth, you just got to realize a lot of folks come amongst us, they don't understand that.

And we, I think, need to be quick to explain it. But we also need to be quick to apply it ourselves. We don't try to seek to convince people to come along with us by using programs and offers and ploys.

I've mentioned to a number of you on a private level that nothing was ever said to me. When I and my wife and children, we were just thinking recently, summer had just been born, when we began visiting here and I would talk with the pastor and would talk about, I was a recent graduate of Fuller Seminary and he didn't hold that against me, for which I'm very thankful.

And all the time that I was visiting, nothing was ever, ever said about teaching, about doing anything. Nothing. Though the pastor knew that I was teaching at the church that I was at and everything else, nothing was ever said.

No little ploys were put out to say, well, come on along with us. Nothing. I know why now. I didn't really think about it too much at the time, but I know why now. We believe that when God calls someone to be a part of this fellowship, that's God's business.

We only want those to be a part of us that God calls, because I'm going to tell you something, there are a lot of churches that have done everything in their power to get somebody involved in the church, and boy, about six months later, they wish they hadn't.

The pastor spends most of his time dealing with those folks that he cajoled in, and now he'd like to cajole them out if he could. You see, because of our commitment, and because of the overriding commitment that we have, that the primary purpose that we have is to preach and teach God's truth to His people and trust the Holy Spirit to apply it to them and to grow them in the faith, because of that overriding commitment, then we're not running around trying to convince people to get involved.

God will bring His people. And we don't have to sort of throw things out and say, well, you know, you join us and maybe then you can do this. What will we have to offer anyway? Well, join us and you can teach the kids on Wednesday night.

Join us and you can help clean up after the next hymning. We have positions of service. We don't have, you know, a family life center in the back and we don't have to say, well, come on along and our personal trainers will get you in good shape.

It doesn't work that way. Soli Deo Gloria, to God alone be the glory. And hence, we don't want to get in the way of His glory. We don't want to intrude ourselves. We don't want to use men's programs to try to accomplish what only the Holy Spirit of God can do.

The Confession, the Local Church, and the Heritage of the Reformation

Fifth reason, the confession. Confession. Confession. All the these and thous and everything else right there. What would that be a reason? As I go place to place and as I speak to individuals, one thing that certainly struck me before we became a part of this fellowship and even then I had already started traveling and speaking on a limited basis was the amount of confusion that existed about what people were to believe.

There was a tremendous amount of confusion within the Southern Baptist rank that I was a part of in regards to what we were supposed to believe too. You can find a Southern Baptist who believes almost anything.

And while the Southern Baptist, we had that Baptist faith message, it was obviously written in such a way as to allow for a multitude of different viewpoints even on some very significant beliefs. And so when someone asks me, well, what does Reformed Baptist believe?

I can tell them. Say, well, we have a confession of faith. Oh, so it's part of your Bible, huh? No. No, it's technically called a subordinate standard. It's not Scripture. It is liable to correction by Scripture.

It is instead a summary, a statement of what we believe on the major articles of the Christian faith. No, it talks about everything, does it? No. No, it doesn't. Answer a number of questions where the Scriptures do not come to a firm conclusion.

It doesn't try to go beyond the Scriptures in that way. But this is simply our confession that tells you what we believe. So when someone comes to the door and someone goes, you know, I like the Bible teaching here.

You know, the Sunday school teacher is questionable, but the Bible teaching is good. And I'm interested in knowing a little bit more. We can give them some of this as well. Here's where we're coming from.

And they're going to open that up and they're going to read stuff about God being in sovereign control of all things. And they're going to read about predestination and election. They're going to read about a whole bunch of stuff.

And if they still want to be a part of us, they do so on the basis of knowledge, not on the basis of ignorance. In a world where there are so many competing voices as we discussed this morning, a clear, direct statement of this is what we believe, is extremely useful and I think very necessary to avoid confusion and to be clear in what we're saying and what we're teaching.

Sixth reason, the local church. The local church. What do I mean? Well, first and foremost, we're Baptists. We're not Episcopalians. We're not Lutherans. We're not Presbyterians. Many Presbyterians would like to say we should never use the term reformed of ourselves.

I say I think you're a little bit limited on your use of the term. We believe in a local church. We believe in a church with elders who direct, teach, shepherd the church of God as we saw in Acts chapter 20 this morning.

We believe in a local congregation, the authorities of elders within that congregation. We do not, thankfully, have to deal with the committee on committees, the third level of committees in the Presbytery.

Because anyone who knows anyone who has had experience in that area knows that if you want something to last into eternity, you commit it to the Presbytery and to the committees in the Presbytery. We follow, I believe, the biblical form of the church at that point.

When Paul called for the elders of the church at Ephesus, he did not call for the Presbytery in Asia Minor. He called for the elders in a church and spoke with them and committed to them the task of guarding the flock.

And so we are Baptists. And yes, that places us in an unusual position. We have that historical tension placed upon us because we look back in history and we honor the memory of a John Calvin or a Martin Luther or an Ulrich Zwingli.

But we also recognize that they were involved in a magisterial reformation. And we recognize that probably none of us, believing what we believe today, would have been overly welcome in their church. In fact, some of us, especially those of us who cannot control their mouths as well as others, probably would have had a very short lifespan under some of those gentlemen's rules.

And so we recognize that historical tension. But we assert that historical tension exists not because of something that we've done wrong, but because of the simple fact that we can honor the reformers for as far as they went, given the situation that they were in.

But we do not believe that even they, in their honest moments, would have said, we now become the benchmark. We now become the standard. No more reformation. It stops with us. If they were consistent.

And if they applied Sola Scriptura and Toda Scriptura to their own positions, then it is our assertion that we have every claim, every right to claim to be the heirs of the Reformation, because we continue to practice Sola Scriptura and Toda Scriptura, and as a result, reject what we believe to be traditions that are not based upon the clear teaching of the Word of God.

And so we have a local church here. We are not a part of a denomination where someone can come along and say, well, I'm not really sure that you did that right. Or, you know, the red hymnals, the blue stuff doesn't go, now you've got to spend money to do something different.

Doesn't work that way. Local church. The Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church. Well, seventh point, I'm running out of time. Consistency, consistency, consistency. When my family came here, I mentioned to the pastor at that time one of my greatest personal difficulties.

At the time, I was teaching at the church that we were a part of, and I had come to understand what the scriptures taught about predestination and election. That wasn't all I taught on. I taught an entire Christian doctrine class, and so we did the Trinity and the deity of Christ, the inspiration of scripture, and all that stuff.

But when we addressed the doctrine of salvation, I taught these things. And one of the greatest difficulties I had, and maybe some of you can't understand why this would be so personally painful and difficult for me, was about three out of five Sundays when the people would leave my class and go into the church service, they'd hear most of what I'd said.

But two out of five, they'd hear the opposite of what I'd said. And on the same subject. In other words, on one Sunday, you'd get one sermon that would say, God's in control. God's sovereign. God's the one who saves.

But three weeks later, you'd get another passage in another part of the Bible that would say, we limit God, and we control God, and you'd never know exactly what you were going to get when you walked through the door.

And for me, that was a tremendous burden to bear. I don't believe that I have the right to countermand what's being preached from the pulpit as a, at that time, a early 20-year-old, mid -20-year-old person in a Bible study class.

I needed consistency between what I was doing in the ministry, what I was saying to the Mormons out in Mesa, or to the Mormons up in Salt Lake City, or to the Jehovah's Witnesses over here, or the Roman Catholics over there.

There had to be consistency between what I believed and what I was saying to people out on the front lines and what was being preached from the pulpit of the church. And it was a terrible feeling to recognize that I could not invite a person with whom I was sharing the gospel to come to my own church and have confidence that what they were going to hear from the pulpit was what I had said to them.

In fact, they might hear the opposite. Some of you understand the kind of burden that would be to bear and how difficult it was for me. And so, those of you who do understand that can understand the tremendous joy that continues to be mine in this fellowship.

Sometimes I don't think the pastor realizes it because he can't hear all the Sunday school class, but sometimes I'll sort of catch a glance from Mrs. Fry or from the flocks or someone who's been in the Bible study because we had just gone through a topic, maybe we chased a rabbit some direction or something like that, and we come into the service and the pastor starts speaking, and guess what happens?

He goes to the same passage and makes the same comments that I just got done making in the Bible study class. We were not in cahoots. We had not called each other up the night before and say, hey, let's talk about this and both Bible study and service today.

We didn't do that. We're just on the same page. And very shortly after we joined the church, I remember doing a seminar, still have it on tape, on the atonement. That was like on a Friday. On the next Sunday, I believe we had the Lord's Supper and the pastor spoke on the atonement, and he spoke from the same passages, and he made the same points, and it's not like we've used the same outline.

And I don't know exactly how to express to you how neat that is. When I go and preach, I get the opportunity to preach at Reformed Baptist churches on Long Island. And it is such a joy for me to know that when I stand in the pulpit and I preach on Philippians chapter 2, I preach on the deity of Christ and the atonement of the gospel, I don't have to fear there's someone sitting out there with a tape of Pastor Frye tucked into their suit coat going, there's inconsistency over there.

I don't have to worry about that. And I just can't express to you how wonderful that is. Consistency, consistency, consistency. You know, people say, you know, I came to your church about 10 years ago.

Visited again. Nothing's changed. Glad to hear it. I'm glad to hear it. You know, the greatest compliment that was ever paid to me by a non-Christian was one day after a radio program up in Salt Lake City, this Mormon apologist said to me, and I believe Rich was with me, he said, you know, you and I have been going back and forth like this on the radio for 10 years.

You're still saying the same things now you said 10 years ago. I said, thank you. Thank you. Still talking about God. Still talking about the fundamentals of the faith, the main issues. And that's what we do here.

That's what we're involved with here. Consistency, consistency, consistency. You know, we all know how you can fill this place up. We all know how we could start the building drive, you know, put some balloons out front, have a band, you know, music, special music, greens and some big name.

But the reason we don't is because every single time there's one price we'd have to pay. Consistency. We'd have to compromise someplace. Maybe not by directly denying something, but just maybe not by saying about it what we really need to say about it.

You can compromise without ever saying no to anything. You can just sort of slide it off the side. It is my prayer that God will give us the patience and the grace to remain consistent. So why did I choose to speak on this this evening?

Because you know the phrase familiarity breeds contempt. Well, maybe amongst the saints familiarity can breed complacency, apathy. Sometimes even the best of saints, when faced with a tremendous feast on a regular basis, can sort of get accustomed to it.

Maybe not realize that it's as rich and wonderful and a blessing as it really is. Maybe we get so used to doing things in a certain way that we don't realize anymore how special it is that we have the opportunity, the freedom to do what we do here.

For me, every once in a while, I've got to go back. I've got to remind myself of where I came from. I've got to remind myself of the costs of inconsistency. And I've just got to be reminded that God has been very merciful to us.

And if you, like me, share that commitment that you know there are certain things that are true, I've got to believe those things. I've got to be consistent with those things. And they're more important than all the programs and all the popularity and all the perks.

Of anything else. Most of us have made that commitment. And all I wanted to do tonight was to encourage you to rekindle that commitment. To remember why it is that we came here. Why it is that the Lord drew us to this place.

So that we can recognize His blessing. We can be properly thankful. And that when we speak with others, we are communicating to them something that is not old and dusty for us. It's still new. Still fresh.