Privileges of Church Membership

Grace Fellowship Church

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This sermon is from Grace Fellowship Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. To access other sermons or to learn more about us, please visit our website at graceedmonton .ca.

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Good afternoon, brethren. It's good to see everyone. Thank you, Shane, for reading 1

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Peter for us. Again, welcome to those who are visiting. It's good to see visitors and we're blessed to have you join us in our midst today.

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Again, like Shane said at the top of the service, if you've been here before, you've known that we've been going expositionally to 1

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Corinthians. But over the course of October, we've been going to our series in church membership.

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We've been looking at several topics. We've been looking at a couple of things in particular. We've tried to answer a couple of questions.

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The first one being, is church membership biblical? We've looked at that the last couple of weeks.

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And if you remember, we aim to answer one of these questions, is church membership biblical? And if so, where is it?

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There's no verse in the Bible that says that church membership is required. Is there? So we explored that.

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We explored that message. And as we've come to understand, if you've been joining us, you've been able to follow us online, it actually, the topic and the commandment of church membership runs through the whole of Scripture.

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And in particular, it runs so closely ingrained in the New Testament that it cannot be divorced.

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This idea that church membership is vital for our souls, or that anything taken in context in the

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New Testament would make no sense in this lone wolf Christianity or easy believism that allows for Christians to roam without a local church out in the wild, as it were.

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As a member of the flock, we need to be ingrained in the local assembly. And we've looked at that. And I pray that as we read our

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Bibles and as we study the Word at home and incorporately, that theme that runs through all of Scripture and in the

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New Testament of church biblical membership runs so deeply that it comes so clear you can see it everywhere.

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And the second question that we've been looking at is this. What does it mean to be a church member?

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This is probably the one that's most poignant and one that we at Great Fellowship Sherpa are trying to communicate all the more.

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What does a church member look like? When we examine the Scriptures and we say that I want to belong to a local church, what does a church member look like?

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What is a church member? How do they conduct themselves? What do they believe? What do they think? And that is the question that today we're going to be looking at answering all the more.

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So before we dive any further into that question, so keep that running in your mind, I also need to bring up two important things that we need to also keep in mind as we dive into the

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Scriptures today. So the first thing we need to acknowledge is this. As we speak about church membership, we need to acknowledge that true church membership applies solely to the

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Christian. So true church membership applies solely to the Christian. Church membership isn't designed to create two classes of Christians.

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There is one Savior. And all saviors and all blood -bought believers who walk in through the same narrow gate, and that gate is

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Jesus Christ. So that is the first thing you need to keep in mind, is that in preaching and teaching and going through church membership and biblical church membership, there is no divide or class amongst

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Christians who are in a local church and not. All go through the same narrow gate. However, this is our second point.

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And this is the one that I'm praying that we will come away with with greater convictions after today. And the point is this.

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The second one is, as we explore this topic a little bit more, if you're unsure about what holds you back from church membership, if there is doubt that lingers, if there is hesitation, without a clear conscience, without a conscience and a conviction that satisfies the

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Lord, that is one that we can altogether affirm, but if you have a hesitation, any doubts, and you call yourself a

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Christian, you purport to be a follower of Christ, and yet deny the church your membership, keep in mind that in our time together, and I want us to understand that church membership is no way designed to keep anyone at bay or at arm's length, but rather, it is one of God's primary means of receiving the blessings and the gifts that await for those who put their faith in Him.

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So I'll say that one more time. If you have any doubts about church membership, church membership is not designed to keep those at bay, it is not designed to keep anyone at an arm's length or anyone that would hold, it is not meant to hold the door on anyone.

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But rather, church membership is one of God's primary means of receiving the blessings and gifts that await any and all of those who put their faith and trust in Lord Jesus Christ.

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So let's keep that in mind. So again, let that run through today's message, but before we do that, let's seek the

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Lord in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you.

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Lord, we bring nothing before you. We bring nothing but our rags and our unrighteousness,

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Father, and in return, Father, you prepare a feast for us. A feast, Father, with blessings and gifts,

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Father, that we don't claim from any one of us in particular, Lord, but only through our Lord Jesus Christ do we lay claim and hold to these things and hold fast to the promises made to us in your scriptures.

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Lord, we thank you that we are able to come into your fold and that we are able to receive these things. And it is no small miracle,

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Father, and the entry fee that is paid is of the highest cost. Lord, we ask that you would continue to till the soil of our hearts,

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Lord, that we would accept these gifts with thanksgiving and humility, Lord, and that we would come to the table,

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Lord, with hearts of gladness, Father, and that we would praise the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ all the more for,

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Father, making the way for us to be able to enjoy these things, the privileges and the responsibilities of a church member, as a church member,

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Lord, to come into the fold as one of your flock. So, Lord, we ask as we receive these again with thanksgiving,

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Lord, that we would come with humility and hearts of praise, Lord, that have been transformed and seek to study more of your word and to become more and more like our

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Savior Jesus Christ, like the one who ransomed us. So, Lord, we ask you that in his precious and mighty name,

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Lord, that you would make this so in our hearts. Again, Lord, we pray this in his name. Amen.

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Again, so thank you for all of you who are able to make it today. So if you guys are taking notes, my apologies that I wasn't able to get the notes out in time, so I'll just have to communicate them effectively to you guys.

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So, as Shane mentioned at the top, we're talking about the privileges, but I would also like to include some responsibility of being a church member.

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What does that look like, right, to be a church member? And if you would like to title today's message, I would say, biblical members are biblical citizens.

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Biblical citizens. And we'll talk more about what it means to be a citizen. Again, like Shane said, we're going to be looking at a couple different topics and pieces of Scripture.

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I thank you in advance already for being able to keep up with me, because we're going to try to stay grounded in as much as possible in one place.

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But again, because of the nature of today's study, we'll be looking at a couple different things. So we appreciate you being able to keep up.

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So without further ado, we're going to be looking at 1 Peter, like Shane read at the beginning. So again, we're looking right at the text, starting at verse 13.

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The first thing that jumps out to us in this text is this. Therefore, preparing your minds for action, being sober minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

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So from verse 13, we are immediately introduced to the notion that our faith is active and mindful.

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It is an active and mindful faith. Peter starts off emphatically saying, preparing your minds.

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There's an active part of the Christian faith that demands that we prepare our minds to be active, to be sober minded.

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This is a command right from the beginning of the text today. And it should be clear at any point, at least to those of us who are

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Christians and to those who aspire and watch the flock, that our faith, that the

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Christian faith, isn't one that can be lived out lying down, as it were. It's not one that we join into and is lived out in its full and entirety by lying down and being passive.

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It is an active one. It takes work. Our minds are to be prepared daily, and our minds are to be ready, and ready for use every single day.

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In verse 23, when we think about why that might be the case, one question one might ask is, why is it that we are required to have an active mind, or mind ready for action?

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In verse 23 of 1 Peter, it says this, or 1 Peter 1, it says, In other words, we have been purchased with a very high price.

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When the Lord ransoms us, He ransoms us from one state of death, of spiritual death, of spiritual judgment, to spiritual life and joy in Jesus Christ.

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And this is not a price that is paid for even in the most precious of materials or a large sum of money. This isn't as though Jesus Christ purchased us with anything perishable in the world that we see today.

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Even all the precious stones on earth could not pay for that. We have been paid for and bought with the precious blood of the

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Lamb, the imperishable. Therefore, our conduct needs to reflect the high price for which our souls were purchased.

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If thinking about it practically, the higher the price, the more active, the more worthy our lives should be of the price that is, or the sum that is paid for our lives.

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But remember, this leads us back to our question. This leads us right back to our question of, if this is the case, if we have been paid with a, or purchased with a very high price, again, what does a church member look like or act like?

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Or in other words, how should we conduct ourselves? And I want us to linger on that idea of conduct, of status in one sense, of being able to move from one degree of deadness to a degree of life, and how does that conduct look about us?

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To understand this, I want us to look at one quick illustration. I want us to understand this illustration of conduct.

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And where we are going to find this is in verse 16 of our text, 1 Peter 1, verse 16 and 17.

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And Peter says this, Since it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy.

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And if you call on him as father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout your time of exile.

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So it's clear from this text that we could spend many a day talking about verse 16, about the holiness, about the commandment in the old law, you should be holy for I am holy.

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We could spend a multitude of time on this. I want us to focus more specifically on verse 17.

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And specifically on verse 17, the part that says, conduct yourselves with fear throughout your time of your exile.

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That term exile is one that, as biblically -minded Christians, we might understand, but it's not one that is popular in today's current day.

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That's not a term we use very much, the term of exile. However, if you're looking at the letter of 1

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Peter, you know that we see it right at the beginning. We see it at 1 Peter 1. Peter, an apostle of Christ, or Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles of the dispersion, in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.

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This term exile, in other words, is known to these peoples, known to the dispersion in Turkey.

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If you're looking at the word exile, what it means in a very practical sense is to be exiled or in exile is to be put in another nation or to reside in another's land or territory.

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And when reading 1 Peter, we understand that Peter is writing to a dispersion, a group of people that have been exiled for their faith and their commitment and their love and trust in the

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Lord Jesus Christ. As a punishment and as a consequence of their faith, they have been dispersed within what we now call today as modern

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Turkey. This dispersion, these churches that he's writing to in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.

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These are people under the suffering of persecution, under the suffering of the dispersion, of being essentially uprooted from their current lives into new areas in which they did not find themselves in, but as a consequence of their faith in Jesus.

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So, in other words, this word exile is a weighted and loaded term. It's very weighty. We have to understand that there's a lot here that Peter is talking about when he says prepare your minds or conduct yourselves with fear throughout your time of exile.

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So, in other words, these Christians were pretty familiar with feelings of despair, of doubt, of sorrow, no doubt, because, again, imagine the difficulty of being uprooted.

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These are, again, Christians persecuted and suffering for their faith in the Lord Jesus. They are uprooted, moved, and if we consider our own current situation, how much we value our current situations, our lives, and our homes, imagine being torn from you, all that security that you find in waking up in the same bed every single night.

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So, no doubt, this is a very difficult situation for these Christian Jews. So, think about that term exile and thinking about what it means in context.

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We have to understand that these Christians knew full well the suffering. However, notice that Peter isn't talking about, the tone of 1

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Peter isn't one of despair. It isn't one that Peter labors in where he despairs with the dispersion.

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Actually, it is a term of hope. As anyone would expect, this would be a tough situation for anyone to undergo, but the term exile is actually a pointer to something a little bit more meaningful and much more profound than even we come to understand it even today.

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It's a very profound term, and the point is this.

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To be in exile is also a very hopeful thing, since it reveals to us that our citizenship is not with any one nation, but to God.

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So, I'll say that one more time, again, because this is pivotal. It reveals that the citizenship that we as Christians partake in is not of any one nation, but it is of the nation of the

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Lord. That is our primary citizenship, and for those who might think, well,

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I don't know if that runs through the course of the Bible, it does. There's many places in the New Testament where you see this legal jargon, this political language being used to describe a people, to describe recipients of letters.

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The other one that we're going to turn to right now is Philippians 3, verse 17. If I can even suggest, try to keep a finger in Philippians.

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We're going to be here a lot, so we're going to be jumping around in different places, but we'll be jumping into Philippians quite a bit. And where we're looking at right now is

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Philippians 3, verse 17 to 21. It says this,

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And notice the wording here, but in verse 20 it says, Who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him to subject all things to himself.

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Again, as Christians, we have to understand that while we all have different levels of earthly provision and privilege, we are citizens of the

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Lord Jesus Christ first and foremost. Nation comes second to us.

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It doesn't matter where you live on earth. All the brethren on the globe are citizens to the nation of the

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Lord Jesus Christ. That is our primary citizenship. And we are citizens of our country second.

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Now, that doesn't mean that we are to rebel against this nation, but we have to put our importance where the Lord Jesus Christ demands that we put our importance.

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As a citizen of the Lord's nation, that carries weight. That carries consequences.

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It carries privileges, but responsibilities as well. Again, we see this thread in the

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New Testament. You see it in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 19. It says, Again, it's very similar language.

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We are citizens with the saints and members of God. To invoke the language of citizenry and to belong to a nation carried a really high sense of prestige.

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Again, remember the time of the writing of the New Testament, of the New Testament authors. We have to remember what nations were in power back then and what was the political circumstances.

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Considering the power, the superpower of the day, the Roman Empire, this is the highest power in the land.

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This is the strongest nation that has existed. We were having a conversation with our brothers on Thursday during our

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Statement of Faith teachings. I couldn't help but smile inwardly because we were talking about the exile.

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We were talking about the Roman Empire. In my mind, knowing that the Lord was preparing this message in my mind to speak, we are talking about the very thing that I'm preaching here today.

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We are citizens of the Lord first, but we see the consequences of superpowers and political nations.

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We instinctively understand that citizenry matters. What we do as citizens, it matters.

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It has consequences. Before we get to some practical stuff, I want to go with an illustration here.

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Maybe I lost the kids. I don't want to put any of the parents on the hot seat here, but there's a couple of things that have happened in the last couple of weeks, in the last month in particular, that is indicative of good citizenship, something that we as free people of this country get to do.

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Do you guys know what that is? Do you guys have any idea? It took place on Monday, if you remember. I heard it.

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Elections. Yes, elections. It's voting. We get the opportunity to vote. Again, I'm not going to put any parents on the hot seat if they didn't go and vote, like I said.

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That's between you and the Lord. But the idea, again, is that as citizens, there's a responsibility.

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As someone who is a citizen of this nation, of this community, and so forth, we have responsibilities.

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Another thing that good citizens do, what are good things that you should be doing as citizens? I don't know if you guys have studied this in school. Do you guys have any other ideas about what you might be able to...

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So there's voting, but there's also something that... Oh, we haven't put in the adults. Pay taxes.

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That's right. Yeah, we pay taxes. And that's not a nice one. I mean, none of us love taxes. But it's important.

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Jesus said, render unto Caesar what is Caesar's. There are things that are... Government is a gift from the

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Lord, and we understand as well as mindful and active thinking

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Christians that citizens have responsibilities to their nation. They must do things. And actually, historically, prosperous nations throughout world history have often prided themselves with not just the strength of nations, but the strength of their citizenry, of the people within their countries.

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So in other words, strong nations are made up of responsible citizens, ones that pay taxes, vote, that are active members in their community, good neighbors.

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We've externalized that to just being good neighbors to one another, but that Christian principle lies in this principle of the

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Bible, of citizenry, of citizenship. Conversely, or in the other direction, if you look at nations that don't have those things, nations that don't have strong citizenry, ones that care to follow the law, care to pay taxes, and is, in other words, chaos or chaotic, you see those nations plunged into despair and to dismay.

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You see a lot of suffering. There's disorder. There's none of that, none of the good graces of clean roads or lighting that works or water that comes in through the pipes.

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None of that even exists. It's not even a thought in their mind. It is chaotic because no one cares to care for their neighbor as long as they are able to get their own.

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That is the sinful human that comes forth living in his flesh and not understanding that good principles of being a sound biblical citizen requires good stewardship of the privileges that are bestowed upon us.

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So in other words, we vote, we pay taxes, we do other things as well as good citizens, but the reality is, what this means is that we have responsibility.

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There's a responsibility that is given to us and allows us to be enacted for the glory of the

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Lord. So that should be the mind of the

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Christian. So the idea again is that if we esteem our earthly responsibilities and our nationally duties of voting and paying taxes and all those things, and we esteem them rightly, they're important and they have a lot of weight to them.

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The world sees them as very important issues. However, those are secondary to our principal citizenry in the

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Lord. In being of His nation first and foremost, His is a higher calling. His is one of eternal consequence that if we don't pay attention, if we don't esteem it rightly, we're going to miss the blessings that come with being a privileged citizen of the

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Lord Jesus Christ, of His nation, a nation of saints and priests like Peter says. And we have to understand that that's important.

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So again, in an effort to save time and to leave here today with a really digestible message, so now that we've laid the foundation of what it looks like to be a church member, you might say, okay, well,

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I'd like to know specifically what that means. Let's go through some practical application and following kind of in Shane's footsteps.

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I didn't chalk it up to nine marks, because he had nine marks of something last week, of a healthy church member, and I won't be able to do that.

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I have six. So for those taking notes, I have six points of good, digestible application that as soon as,

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Lord willing, we leave this building, or I conclude, these are things that we can immediately start doing with one another. That we can start to apply, and we can start to meditate upon the very goodness that the

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Lord has enacted and bestows upon us these privileges, these things that we can do right off the bat.

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I also want to make the note as well, that given each its proper time, every point on this list could be a sermon or an issue of discussion.

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These are great weighty topics that if given the time, we would love to go through more and more in depth.

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But again, I want us to really leave here with a sense of digestible content that we can, as Christians, say, okay,

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I can be doing more of this and less of this. So again, without further ado, we're going to get right into it.

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So the first one is, number one, receiving pastoral care. So again, receiving pastoral care.

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One good example of receiving pastoral care is found, again, we're drawing from large portions of Scripture here, but you see it all over the

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New Testament in relation to Paul's relationship with Timothy and Titus in the New Testament. You see this relationship that is played out from the beginning of the books of Acts all the way to the end of Paul's life in his last letter in 2

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Timothy. You see this idea of receiving pastoral care, of being cared for as a member of the flock as Paul engages in missionary journeys to different parts of Asia.

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You see him live out this principle of discipleship. But specifically, one might say, well, this isn't pastoral care, he's not an elder.

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But Paul wrote the rule book for pastoral care. God inspired Paul to write the rules for which eldership is to be conducted.

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And you see that pastoral care lived out in Timothy and Titus. Looking at 1

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Timothy, we get to see, oh sorry, Philippians 2 .20. Hopefully you have your finger in Philippians.

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Again, just for context, we'll read a little bit here. You get to see this idea, this lived out faith and love that Paul pours into his disciples.

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Starting from 19 -24 it says, That's pretty heavy praise if we really understand what

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Paul is saying here in verse 22. He refers to Timothy as a son.

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As a son with a father he has served me in the gospel. Paul cares for Timothy.

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And in looking at Titus, for example, in the book of Titus chapter 1 verse 4, he says this of Titus, My true child in the faith.

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My true child. Paul loved his disciples. Paul loved people under whom he was discipling in his pastoral care.

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He loved these people. Referring to them as even his own children. So we can understand that there is love that is being poured out from the pastoral care and the leaders of this church.

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So one privilege and one responsibility that I would render onto you guys as we look at this first point is,

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Receive pastoral care. Allow yourselves to be cared for pastorally. Allow the elders and leaders to invest into the lives of the flock and that we might build each other up in love.

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Allow that. It's a point of pride for us to say, Well, I might not need that. I might not want that in my life.

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That might be too much investment in my life. But I have to disagree with you that as a familial body in the

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Lord Jesus, that care and devotion should not just come from the pastoral care.

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It should come from every single one of us. You're going to have a hard time trying to avoid people if you aspire to come to a church and not expect people to invest in you.

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So leaving that aside, we'll get to that one. Again, the first point is this. Receive pastoral care. Receive it.

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Be open to it. So point two. Allow the prayers of others.

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Again, keeping our fingers again in Philippians chapter four, verses four to seven this time. It says this.

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Just as I find myself here. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice.

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Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything.

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But in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

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Allow the people of the Lord to pray for your needs. Allow that. Allow that to take place. Again, humility is important here because sharing our lives with one another is a responsibility.

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We are commanded to pray for one another. It is vital for our spiritual growth and our spiritual well -being.

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Shane mentioned at the beginning of the talk that he said we believe that God hears our prayers, that God desires for us to pray to him, to seek him in prayer, and he rejoices in us sharing those prayers with him.

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The Lord knows what we need, but he rejoices knowing that we seek him first in supplication and in faith.

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We believe that he answers all these prayers as well. Sharing our prayers allows people and allowing people to pray for us demonstrates not just to us or to others, sorry, but to ourselves that we believe in the sufficiency and the power of our

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Lord. In other words, to deny your brother or sister the opportunity to pray for you is quite in fact sinful because it denies the

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Lord his power, that his divine grace and his mercy and his love, that he does not want to hear you.

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We walk in sin. But also we deny our brothers and sisters. We harm them by not allowing them to express that gift of prayer, allowing them the opportunity to come to the

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Lord with your needs, beseeching him. If, in other words, again, we are doing wrong to not just the

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Lord but to our brothers and sisters. If we seek to hide things and seek not to bear with one another all the things that we need prayer for.

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I've been a recipient of such many blessings, being a part of this church and as the one that sent us and many others, but the reality is part of the blessing is that they care for your needs spiritually and physically and emotionally.

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And they are allowed to pray for me. That's a real blessing. And again, if we're going to look at this second point, again, it's this.

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Allow the prayers of others. So again, if you're having issues with letting people in, you're going to have a harder time still because we're going to get through more things that demand more of us to be able to be open again and faithful to one another.

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And the third one, again, probably even more difficult is this. Be accountable to one another.

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So number three is be accountable to one another. This is a difficult one to speak on because accountability is not something that we inherently search out.

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It's not something as sinful people, as people of flesh, that we seek to be corrected.

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There's a popular saying that says, I'm always willing to learn, but I'm not always willing to be taught.

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We love knowledge. We aspire to knowledge. We have halls of academia. We have these big buildings that hold countless hours of information.

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But not all of us are willing to accept loving correction at any given time of the day. That's difficult.

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Galatians chapter 6, verses 1 to 5. Again, thank you for being able to keep up with just all these references. But Galatians chapter 6, verses 1 to 5 says,

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Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.

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Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

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For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But that each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor.

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For each will have to bear his own load. Looking at the first two verses of that, it says,

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If anyone is caught in transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Being a responsible and a loving church member of the local assembly of the

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Lord's people requires that we be accountable to one another. It means letting in those outside that we may not be at once comfortable, but allowing those people to speak life into us.

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Proverbs says, Profuse are the enemies of a kisses, faithful are the wounds of a friend. We must be friends to one another, not only because it is good for us, but we are commanded to.

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This is the accountability that we're talking about. That is, the privilege of being a citizen also requires that we be accountable to one another in a way that holds our brothers and sisters to a higher standard, the

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Lord's standard, and that we build up each other in love. As a result of accountability, it is actually one of the most loving acts that we can as an assembly come together and do.

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Thinking about just the difficulty of church discipline or loving accounting for each other's souls, that is something that if I, and I won't ask you to, but if you were to raise your hands at some point and say, if I've ever witnessed this or if I've ever been the recipient of this,

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I would dare say not a single hand would go up. Even to have witnessed faithful, loving church discipline or accountability from one brother to another, we are hard pressed to even have witnessed such a thing.

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However, it is one of the most loving things we can do. It is one of the highest privileges that we can enact between one another as we let each other into our lives and we seek each other's spiritual good in a spirit of restoration and of gentleness.

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It is one of the most loving things we can do. It is difficult. It's hard. It's not as though, again, we seek this out instinctively.

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It's not something that is put within us. I see all the children running around. I've seen what good parenting does, but never once do

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I see a child looking to be corrected, at least not at first. They don't come to you first seeking, you know,

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I've done something wrong and I need consequence for this. They don't say that at first. That's something that's brought into them. But again, it is one of the most loving things that we can do.

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It's not because, again, because we're commanded to do this, but it's also because it's difficult. And we have to understand as recipients of accountability that someone coming to us in loving rebuke, in a spirit of gentleness, of restoration, does so not because it is easy.

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It is very difficult to do. So, without laboring that one any further, so number three is, again, be accountable to one another.

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Accountability, love one another that way. In a similar vein, we're going to go with number four.

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It says this, serve one another. So, serving. The Greek word for servant is doulos.

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Serve one another, be a servant to one another. Let's look at Philippians chapter four again, verse 14 to 18.

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And I'm hoping you guys have kept a finger there because we've gone back and forth here. So, like I said, I try to keep it grounded as much as possible in one text as I could.

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But looking at verses 14 to 18, it says this, Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble.

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And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me giving and receiving except you only.

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Even in Thessalonica, you sent me help for my needs once and again. Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit.

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I have received full payment and more. I am well supplied having received from Epaphroditus the gifts that you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.

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So already, we've talked about holding each other to account, praying for one another, being open to receiving prayers from your brothers and sisters.

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But all of that falls under this kind of larger brother of serving one another. Responsible church members love and care for their neighbors, but also care for their physical well -being as well.

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Again, this pandemic has given us no shorts of opportunities and times for us to care for one another's needs.

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And I'm blessed to say that I've been the recipient of such care and love from brothers and sisters in and amongst yourselves.

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Again, through prayers or the provision of goods and services while we're locked in our homes.

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What a blessing it is that we as Christians have that opportunity to serve one another, to take care of the many needs that plague us, the many things that we are required to fulfill.

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And even not just myself, but I've witnessed, not just in this church, but in many others, like I said, the sending church from which we came from, the opportunity and the blessing it was to be able to serve one another, to be able to give to someone else as one blessing passes through to me to pass it along to someone else.

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We used to have this running joke, actually, as we, there's a couple brothers of us here that we, if you guys are familiar with Tim Conway, he preached on something similar many months ago.

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And it was a running joke with us that we would look at these, the way that he presented the argument of serving one another as we lay up treasures in heaven.

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The Lord sees that and rewards in secret. However, it is a blessing for us to be able to give. Jesus Christ himself said that it is better to give than to receive.

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So again, looking at number four, serving one another, I want to say this, brothers and sisters, allow others to serve you.

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Don't let pride get in the way of that. Allow them to serve you. And again, if I'm going to quote Tim Conway, don't deny us this blessing, brothers.

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Don't deny it. Don't deny us. Let us serve you. Let us do with hearts of gladness. Don't deny me.

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So if I receive, again, if we receive Thanksgiving in many ways, let us receive from one another, again, with hearts of Thanksgiving and joy, and let us give with Thanksgiving and joy.

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So that was four. As we near the end of this,

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I want to look at a couple, again, if we're looking at responsible church membership, we're looking at not just the leadership, but we're looking at every single one of us here.

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Number five aims at the heart of that is be the recipient of discipleship. So discipleship is a big topic.

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So being the recipient of discipleship, take an active role in that. When Jesus Christ said in Matthew 28 of the

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Great Commission, He said, Jesus' main purpose in saying this was to propagate the

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Gospel and to evangelize the world, to spread the good news, the Evangelion of the Gospel, that Jesus Christ came and died for our sins.

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That was the primary goal of the Great Commission. However, if we take the

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Great Commission to its logical conclusion, making disciples doesn't happen in one day.

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It doesn't even take two days. It doesn't take a year. It doesn't take a set amount of time.

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Our life and our devotion to the Lord doesn't occur when He first saves us. It starts there. It doesn't end there.

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It begins, and we take, and the Lord sanctifies us until the end of time. It begins there.

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Becoming a disciple is not something that is completed on the day that the Lord saves us by His grace.

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It's the beginning of a journey. Titus 2 talks about older women guiding and teaching the younger women. 1

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Timothy 5 talks about further honoring those older than you as fathers and mothers. Again, we've talked about pastoral care and how the leaders and the elders and the shepherds want to pour into your lives.

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However, that's not all that is at our disposal, even in amongst all of you right now. Every sister, every father, mother, brother, sister, all come equipped with gifts, and they are to be used.

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They are to be entered into a relationship of discipling or being the disciple.

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So again, you are either discipling or you are the disciple. At some point or another, even from my own experience,

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I can tell you that being on the receiving ends of both or being on the ends of both, it has been a blessing all the way through.

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Again, being able to bear with one another, being able to share this walk that we share together in the

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Lord Jesus. Share with one another. Be disciples. Enter into that relationship, not just amongst the leadership, but amongst yourselves.

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Seek to it. Pray about it. Seek one another out. Seek to build and establish relationships. And allow yourselves to be discipled in humility.

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So again, that point there is be the recipient of discipleship. And the last one that we're going to go through in just our quick fire here is number six.

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It is this. Forgive one another. Again, not an easy one.

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Number six is forgive one another. Matthew 18, in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus Christ is speaking to the group, and Peter asks him about how forgiveness is to be rendered.

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And Jesus answers him beautifully. Because, again, just for the sake of time,

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I won't go through all of it. But Jesus Christ, amazing in his teaching, he says this, starting in verse one, it says,

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Then Peter came up and said to him, Lord, how often will my brothers sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?

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That seems like a lot to Peter, seven times. Seven times seems like a long time to forgive someone for the same thing.

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And Jesus Christ says in verse 22, I do not say to you seven times, but 77 times.

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So he takes what Peter says, and that's not even enough.

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You have to do more than that. You have to forgive him even more. And then Jesus Christ goes on to tell the parable of the unforgiving servant.

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And if anyone is unfamiliar with this parable, I urge you to go and read it again and find the humility that comes from understanding how much has been done for us and how much we ought to forgive one another because of how much has been forgiven of us.

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Jesus Christ, again, just a short summary of the parable. He tells the parable of the servant who's been forgiven by his master, a total sum of 10 ,000 talents.

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Do you guys know what a talent is, I think? Are you guys familiar? Like money?

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Yes, but do you know how much money? So if I said I'm giving you one talent, Noah, how much is one talent? One dollar?

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Good guess. It's a lot more than that. Yes, in some places it's 20.

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It's a lot of, it's a huge sum of money. So if I said, Noah, I'm going to give you one talent and I want you to take care of this, that's a lot of money.

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But in this parable, Jesus Christ is talking to a servant who owes his master 10 ,000 talents.

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He is owing of that to his master. A sum too large to pay, obviously, in one lifetime.

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If one talent is 10 to 20 years of wages, 10 ,000 is, I don't know my math, but it's a lot.

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He can't pay that back. He cannot pay that back. So when receiving such grace, the master forgives him of this debt.

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He settles the debt and forgives him. And the servant goes on his way in joy and thanksgiving.

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However, not long after that, he seeks justice for himself because one of his own servants owes him money.

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So he seeks to have justice put against this man who owes him money. Again, forgetting of the grace that has been done for him.

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Upon hearing of the injustice being done from the master, the master goes and punishes his iniquity.

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Punishes the wicked servant for being so cruel to someone, to his brother. Although grace was poured onto him, he sought justice for himself, even though the greatest justice is the injustice that we do to the

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Lord Jesus Christ. So therefore, brothers, I want us to keep this in mind.

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Again, read this parable in your daily devotions of your families. Go back and read this again. Just understand just the grace that has been poured for us.

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There are times in the body, the body of believers, every single one of us here, when we will be wrong or we will wrong another.

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We will inevitably do that. That is the casualty and the reality of a sinful world.

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None of us, we're all fallible and we all sin and we all make mistakes. We will wrong one another, brothers and sisters.

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Being like the first servant, allow, be not like the first servant, but allow forgiveness to propagate amongst yourselves.

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Forgive one another. That is what a church member, the responsibility of a good citizen, of a church member, faithful one, loving one, forgive one another.

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And allow yourselves to be forgiven. So that's point number six.

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So forgive one another. So again, just to wrap up our quick fire here and again, for the sake of time, like I said,

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I thank you everyone here for, like I said, this is not, we love expositional preaching and it's a nice change of pace to be able to go topical because we get to look at larger portions of Scripture.

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But again, appreciate that you guys have been able to keep up. And I'm praying, again, that although there can be said a lot about the awesome responsibilities of being a church member, that everyone should stand convinced of how great it is a privilege, again, the privilege it is to be a faithful member of the body of Christ.

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Although the responsibilities are grand and they're massive, they are. They are in great stature only because of who we represent, remembering that we are ambassadors of Jesus Christ.

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So if the calling is a large one, it is only because it reflects the maker, his praise.

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It reflects Jesus Christ, all the praise and glory that he's due. However, I have to plead for a third group here.

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I'm pleading for a third group. A theologian once said this, if you win people to biblical principles, but fail to win them to the biblical

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Christ, you simply create religious people who lack the power to change. We create tidy unbelievers.

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You could have the tidiest of unbelievers. You could be the best dressed. You could be the one who seems to have the most grace in his life.

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But if that life and that change does not come about by the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, you are no better off than the worst beggar among us, the worst tax collector.

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We are all sinners, brothers and sisters, but my pleading is for this third group who sits at a distance, who sees the glory of the kingdom and yet does not take that step, does not seek the

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Lord Jesus, only seeks to be the recipient of grace without ever giving

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Jesus Christ and the maker his due. For anyone who might stumble upon this message or anyone who stands here unsure of this amazing gift and all the responsibilities and the grace that has been poured out for us, my question is won't you examine your very soul?

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Won't you leave here today examining your soul? Would you continue to linger in the midst of God's people, never truly understanding the joy with which we come to meet as a disciple, as a believer of the

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Lord Jesus Christ? And worse yet, and not just that you are denied these privileges, it is not just that it ends there, worse still, fail to understand where your soul lies in direct contradiction to the

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Lord, in direct sight of his judgment, failing to understand how much peril you're in.

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My plea again is to those who sit on the edges of the kingdom, again recognizing the good and the beauty and the privilege that it is to be a church member but never fully stepping forth into the light, never fully recognizing

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Jesus Christ as Lord and repenting of sin. Please do not linger outside this gate. So my plea is to you guys, don't linger outside the king's gate.

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Those within the sight of his blessed kingdom are in no less danger from judgment than those who do not even see the kingdom, for those who care not.

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My prayer is that you bring your doubt, bring your disagreements, bring your shame and leave it at the foot of the cross.

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Go to Jesus Christ, go to him, run to him. Don't delay any second longer. Today is the day for salvation.

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Go to him now. Come to Jesus Christ, repent of sin and be redeemed. Let's pray.