The Doctrine of the Church

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Alright, today we are starting on week 11 of 12 on the subject of the principles of theology and doctrine.
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And today we are looking at...
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Did you not get one? Did they run out? Do me a favor, brother, would you run to Pastor Mark and tell him we need about 7 or 8 more? Thank you.
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And I won't say nothing until you get back.
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I'm just kidding, I've got to go.
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But you go ahead, I'll catch up.
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Today, every week we do a different theological topic.
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So we've done everything from theology proper to Christology to Pneumatology to Harmartiology and all of those ologies which relate to a certain topic of Christian truth and teaching.
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And today we are looking at ecclesiology.
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Ecclesiology...
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this is a horrible marker.
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It's alright, I'll make it work.
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It comes from the Greek word ekklesia or ekklesia.
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The word ek means out of.
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Kalesia is the word kaleo which means called.
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So the word ekklesia means called out or the called out ones.
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But more specifically, it refers to the word assembly.
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If you call people out of their homes to gather in the public square, that would be called an assembly.
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So you're calling them out of their home, you're calling them into the public square for the purpose of gathering.
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Therefore, that's how you use the term ekklesia.
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We talked about this earlier, why words matter and the etymology of words is not always the only thing that you need to know.
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You need to know how the word was used.
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So if the city council called an ekklesia, it was an assembly, it was a gathering.
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Well, this was the word that would come to be used for the church because the church was the assembly of God's people.
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Therefore, ekklesia is the word that when you open your Bible and it says to the church of Philippi or to the church of Ephesus or to the church of Rome, the Greek word under that is the word ekklesia, the assembly at Rome, the assembly at Ephesus, the assembly at wherever.
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So that's the word for church.
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So that's the definition of the underlying Greek word.
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Everybody open your Bibles to Matthew 16.
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And verse 18.
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Yes, I'll explain that in a moment.
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Basically, who is the main character in Ecclesiastes? Ecclesiastes.
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But what does he call himself? The preacher.
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That's where the word Ecclesiastes comes from.
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The idea of the preacher.
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Matthew 16, verse 18.
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This is in the middle of Peter's great confession.
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You probably all remember this scene where Jesus in verse 13, it says, when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, who do the people say that the Son of Man is? And they said, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.
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And He said to them, but who do you say that I am? Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
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We call that the good confession.
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When somebody joins our church, we actually ask them, do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God? That's just the good confession.
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That's the confession Peter made.
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And Jesus answered him, blessed are you, Simon bar Jonah.
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It means Simon, son of Jonah.
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Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.
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And I tell you, you are Peter.
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Yes, Petras.
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And on this rock, I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
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Interesting piece of biblical information here.
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That is one of the only times, in fact, may be the only, I'll have to look it up, but I know it is one of the only times that the word church is used in the Gospels.
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The word church is primarily used in Acts and in the Epistles.
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Obviously, we hear that word over and over and over and over.
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But the word church is not used very much in the Gospels.
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And that has led some people to argue, well, Christ didn't come to build a church.
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Christ came to save people from their sins.
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And He didn't want to start a religion.
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He just wanted to start a movement of faith and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
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It's always this garbage argument trying to argue against the church.
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But the reality is, He says right here in verse 18, I will build My church.
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But just before we even get to that, and that's true, He went on to talk about the gates of hell, but the first thing He says, I will build My church, which means that Christ has a purpose in the building of His church, that He has desired and willed that He will build something called the church.
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I've heard people say, I love Jesus, but I hate the church.
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That's hogwash.
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It's garbage.
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That thinking is based on a misunderstanding of who Jesus is and a misunderstanding of what the church is.
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The church is the bride of Christ.
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Don't come to me and say, I like you, but I hate your wife.
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I don't want to hear that.
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You might as well hate me too.
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If the church is the bride of Christ, then we ought to love her because the Bible says, Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her that He might present her without spot or blemish.
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Christ loves the church.
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See, people come up with all kinds of thoughts in their minds, and then they try to impose that on the Bible.
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Somebody at church hurt my feelings, therefore the church is no good.
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The church has been corrupted by false teaching, therefore the church is no good.
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My daddy went to church and somebody called him a name, therefore the church is no good.
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It's always something.
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The problem is there are a lot of bad things that happen in churches because churches are filled with people who are sinful people and there's things that do occur.
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And if you ever find a perfect church, I want to remind you, do not join it because you will ruin it.
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That's not mine.
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That's a good quote.
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That's been around for a while.
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That's an old pastor's zinger.
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But it's the truth, right? I've never met a perfect church.
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I've never met a perfect pastor.
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I've never met a perfect church member.
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Therefore, the church has struggles.
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The whole reason for the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, one of my favorite eras of time in history to study and teach on.
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You guys know this because you've heard me teach on it.
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The very reason for the Protestant Reformation was because there was corruption that had made its way into the church and it needed to be stood against.
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The church was selling salvation for money.
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The church was mistreating people regarding the truth of the Gospel.
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They were misrepresenting God.
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And I would say the Roman Catholic Church still continues to do that today with the false teaching of the papacy and the magisterium.
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Yes, sir.
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No, you weren't listening good enough.
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You weren't listening good enough.
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Okay.
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I appreciate you, Irishman.
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You know I love you.
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But that's as far as we're going to go with that.
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So, anyhow.
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We can go back into history.
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And it's not limited to Roman Catholicism.
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There's been corruption outside of the Roman Church.
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And so there is no perfect church.
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But there is a perfect Savior.
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And when we want to know what the church is supposed to be, we should go to the Savior, not to any imperfect example.
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And so today we're going to look at what the Scripture says the church is supposed to be.
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And then we're going to look at what we should understand about the structure of the church.
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And then finally, at the end, you'll notice at the bottom of your handout, you will see that I have given you an outline of what the church should expect from its members and what the members should expect from their church.
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Because one day you men, by God's grace, one day you'll probably move on from here.
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Maybe it will be that you'll go out and get a job, move away.
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Maybe one day you won't be a part of that free church anymore.
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Maybe one day you'll have to find another church.
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And I hope that you will.
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I hope you won't just quit going to church just because you don't live here.
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What should you look for in a church? That's the question.
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That's that last part at the bottom.
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And what should the church expect from you? That's important, right? Because it's a symbiotic relationship that you join the church and you bring your gifts to the church.
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Not just monies, but you bring your gifts and talents to the church.
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And the gifts and talents that are in the church are benefiting you and you're benefiting the church.
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And there's a mutual relationship there.
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There should be expectation on both sides.
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When somebody joins our church, they have to actually take a class just to know what is expected of them and to know what they should expect from us.
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So that being said, let's look first at the biblical definition of the church.
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It's the assembly of God's people.
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And the metaphors for the church, as you see on your sheet, first is body.
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That's 1 Corinthians 12.
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You can read that another time.
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Just because of time, we're not going to be able to read all the passages today.
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But you'll remember this, when Paul talks about the hand and the foot.
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The hand can't say to the foot, I have no need of you.
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The eye can't say to the ear, I have no need of you.
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That's 1 Corinthians 12 because it's talking about the church is like a body.
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And that's why if you join a church, God has brought you to that church for a reason.
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Maybe you are an ear.
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Maybe you are an eye.
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Maybe you're a pinky finger.
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I don't know, you've got something to give.
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And that's why God brought you there.
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Maybe you're a pinky toe.
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You don't feel like you've got a lot, but you're still important.
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I'd be mad if I lost my pinky toe.
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It's got value, right? And so you in the church are part of the body.
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I always tell people I'm the mouth.
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God made me a mouth.
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I've got a big old mouth.
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But that's okay because that's what He's gifted me to.
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I'm not gifted to much else.
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But I can teach, so that's what He gifted me to do.
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That was 1 Corinthians 12, specifically verses 12 and 13.
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But the whole chapter is on the subject of the church.
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We're also called a bride.
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I mentioned this earlier.
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The bride of Christ, right? And the picture there is Christ came and gave Himself for us like a man gives himself for his wife.
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And He brings us into His family like a man who goes and takes a wife and brings her into his family.
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That's the picture of that.
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And the Bible says one day, we will experience the marriage supper of the Lamb, which is a moment that's coming at the end of the age where we will get to, as believers in Christ, sit down and enjoy the consummation of our relationship.
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You know, think about a marriage.
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You know, a marriage happens and a wedding happens and then there's that moment of consummation.
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Now with us, it's physical and sexual.
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That's certainly not the way we're talking about with Christ.
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With Christ, it's a moment of absolute intimacy that we are with Him in Heaven.
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We are with Him at His table and there is there the marriage supper.
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Everything that has been done is leading up to that moment where we will know at that point we are with Him forever.
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Just like a wife is brought to her husband and now she's with him forever.
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It's supposed to be.
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I know a lot of people nowadays don't believe that marriage is supposed to be forever, but it is.
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It's intended to.
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And that's why the bride is the picture.
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You know, till death do us part.
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Well, if you ain't going to die no more, then you're not going to part.
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And the next one is a building.
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This is Ephesians 2.
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By the way, the bride is Ephesians 5, 22-30.
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And the marriage supper is Revelation 19, 7-9.
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Revelation 19, 7-9.
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And Ephesians 5, 22-30.
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We're also called a building.
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This one I can actually have you look at.
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I've turned to Ephesians.
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This one's easier to read than to explain.
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Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, General Electric Power Company.
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Okay, I'll always remember that if you're having trouble.
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General Electric Power Company, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians.
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That's how you remember how to find it.
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Because they're little books and they stick together.
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General Electric Power Company, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians.
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That's just a simple way to remember.
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And it's Ephesians 2, 19.
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And this is what it says.
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I'll read down to the end.
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It says, So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
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In Him also you are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Holy Spirit.
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So the church is pictured as a building.
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In the Old Testament, there was a tabernacle that housed the presence of God, if you will.
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It was the symbol of God's presence among the people.
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And then it became the temple where the tabernacle was made into an actual physical structure rather than a tent.
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It became a structure.
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That temple was destroyed.
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Another temple was built.
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And then that temple became...
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there was actually an interim temple, but then there was Herod's great temple.
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That was the temple Jesus went into.
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The money changers were whipped and cast out.
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Now, that temple was destroyed in AD 70.
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When that temple was destroyed, there has been not another one built.
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We are the temple of God.
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The temple is within us.
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And the Holy Spirit lives in believers.
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Yes sir, you may ask your question.
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I'm sorry.
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What is the definition of a cornerstone? I can't understand you both.
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What is the definition of a cornerstone? A cornerstone.
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It's what the whole building is built against.
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It's the first stone laid down and everything is built off that to make sure everything is straight.
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It's the corner.
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It's the foundational stone.
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So Jesus is the first foundational stone against everything that is built.
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Yep.
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And so the temple gives way to us as the temple.
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But we as the body, we are Christians individually, but we're not the church individually because the church is the assembly, right? So we are part of the church, but we come together as the church.
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And so we assemble together as the church.
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Some people say, well, I can just be a Christian all by myself.
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There's no biblical warrant for lone wolf Christianity.
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Yeah, there is.
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There's a reason to assemble.
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Hebrews tells us, right? It tells us to forsake not the assembling of yourselves together.
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But why? Because we gather together for correction and reproof and fellowship and all of those things.
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Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.
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If you don't ever take your knife and rub it against a sharpening stone, it's going to get duller and duller and duller.
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It's like the old man who was visited by the new preacher.
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The preacher noticed on the roll there was a man's name who never came to church, so he went to his house and he visited him.
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He said, can I sit with you? It's cold outside.
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Can we go in and sit by the fire? They went in and sat by the fire.
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And while they were sitting there, he tried to explain to the man his need to be with the body, his need to be in church.
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The man said, no, I'm fine without going.
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I'm fine without being there.
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So the pastor went over and he took a piece of coal from the fire and he set it down outside of the fire.
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And they both watched it get darker and darker and darker as the flame went away and finally it burned out.
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And the man said, yeah, okay, I'll be in church Sunday.
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Because he understood what the picture was.
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When you're all by yourself, there's no re-encouragement.
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There's no flame.
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If you go out into the world and you're not connected to the church and you try to do the Christian life on your own, and there's no one there to help you, there's no one there to make you accountable, there's no one there for you to fellowship with in the body.
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This is why I often warn people about when you're here at set free, some people leave prematurely.
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And oftentimes what happens is that premature departure becomes an avenue for danger because they're separating themselves from the place that's keeping them lit.
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They're separating themselves from the place that's keeping them warm.
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You understand the picture there.
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So, when we talk about the building, we are the building.
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It's not the building building.
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You know, if my church building burned down, well, let's hope not.
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It's been a week.
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But if my church building burned down, we'd still have a church.
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We'd just have to meet in a field somewhere.
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Or we'd have to meet in somebody's house.
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Or we'd have to come here and meet under y'all's tent.
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And we probably would.
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We'd meet wherever we could.
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Because the church would still exist without the metal structure that we now meet in.
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That's the point.
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That's the point of this passage.
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That we are the building.
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We are the building.
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Not the building.
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Now, the fourth and fifth thing on here, I need to move on.
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We are also called a priesthood.
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That's 1 Peter 2, 4-9.
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We are called a royal priesthood.
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In the Old Covenant, certain people were made priests.
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But in the New Covenant, we are all made priests.
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Why? Because we all have access to God.
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Only the priests had access to God in the Old Testament.
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But within the New Covenant, all of us have access because of the High Priest Jesus Christ.
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He is the mediator for all of us.
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So how do we go to God? Through Jesus.
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That's why when we pray, what do we pray? In Jesus' name.
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That's why.
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He is the mediator between God and man.
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There is no other mediator.
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There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
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In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is the name by which we go to God.
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The last one is flock.
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We are a flock.
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Acts 20, 28.
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And several other passages.
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John 10, 11-27 talks about us as His sheep.
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Christ is the shepherd.
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And it says He knows His sheep and His sheep follow Him.
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My sheep know My voice.
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Right? Knowing the shepherd's voice.
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Isn't that wild? That's why I say, man, if I'm reading the Word and the Word is not affecting your heart, it might be because you're not His sheep.
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If you can hear the Word of God and it not affect your heart, it might just be because you're not His sheep.
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My sheep hear My voice.
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I know them and they follow Me, He says.
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My sheep know My voice.
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They are pretty dumb, but they know the shepherd.
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That's right.
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I'm glad you said it, not me.
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There is a reality where sheep are followers.
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This is why the danger of false shepherds, the danger of false preachers and false teachers, and wolves that come in sheep's clothing.
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This is all those metaphors because of the danger of being a sheep.
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That's another reason why it's important to be with the flock.
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What happened to the one? The 99 were together and the one left.
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And what did the shepherd do? He left the 99 to go after the one.
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Why? Because as long as the 99 were together, they were okay.
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That's the point a lot of people miss.
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People say, oh, he really loved the one.
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Yes, he really loved the one, but he was also comfortable leaving the 99 because as long as they were together, they were okay.
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See, there's something to be said for the value of being together to be part of the flock.
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And when one person gets away, they're in peril.
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So you go after that person.
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So that's the five.
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There's more, but that's five very particular analogies the Bible uses.
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Body, bride, building, priesthood, and flock.
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Now let's look at the structure of the church.
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This is the second part.
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Actually, it's the second.
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Let me look at your thing here.
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Oh, it's the second letter of the first part.
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No, it's not.
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It's the second part.
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I'm sorry.
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The second part.
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The structure of the church is very simple.
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There is one head in the church and it ain't Keith Foskey and it ain't Mark Souter and it ain't any of you.
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The head of the church is Jesus Christ.
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He is called the kephele or the head of the church.
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In fact, that term is used in Ephesians 5, 22-24.
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How does He exercise His headship? He exercises His headship through the Word.
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This is His Word.
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Therefore, this is how He rules.
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He rules through the Scriptures.
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It's sort of like this.
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I tell this story sometimes.
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If I go to my daughter, she's 22 years old.
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I've got five kids.
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She's the oldest.
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She's the one that I rely on most because she is oldest.
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Even though the other ones are getting old enough to be a little more responsible.
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And you all know JJ.
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He's usually with me.
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He's five.
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But my 22-year-old, she's a big helper around the house and stuff.
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Sometimes I'll get up in the morning and I'll say, hey, don't forget to do X, Y, and Z.
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You've got this responsibility today.
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Okay, Daddy.
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I'll take care of it.
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Whatever.
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Now, if I wrote that down and left her a note, would it be any different than me saying to her? No, because it's still my Word.
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So people say, well, I want to hear the voice of God.
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Here, I want to hear it out loud.
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Read it out loud.
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If that helps.
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I mean, if that's what you want, it's there.
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2 Timothy 3.16-17 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness that the man of God will be fully equipped, able to do all good works.
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The Word of God is living and active and more sharp than any two-edged sword, able to divide, even down to the soul and the spirit, the bone and the marrow.
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The Word of God is living and active.
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There's a whole psalm.
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The longest psalm is what? 119.
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I think it's 172 verses.
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I might be wrong about that, but it's a lot.
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It's the longest chapter in the Bible and the one subject that runs through the whole chapter is the Word of God.
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The law of God.
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The precepts of God.
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But it's all the same thing.
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It's the idea of this.
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The Word of God.
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So that is how Christ governs the church.
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He is head.
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He governs through His Word.
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There are two offices in the church.
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And this is, by the way, why a lot of churches end up failing because they do not recognize the offices that God assigns.
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The first is the office of elder and the second is the office of deacon.
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An elder and deacon are found in 1 Timothy 3.
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Go there with me.
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We're going to read the qualifications for an elder and a deacon.
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And I have to clarify something.
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The ESV uses the word overseer.
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I know you guys have that word here, but it's not the same thing.
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Just understand.
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I know I'm just...
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I appreciate the overseers.
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I mean, Bobby, my brother, is one.
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I'm with it.
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I'm with it.
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But this is actually the word...
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There's two Greek words.
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One is episkopos.
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The other is presbyteros.
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Episkopos.
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Episkopos is where we get the word oversee.
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Epi means over.
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Skopos means to see or to look.
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Episkopos means to be an overseer.
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Presbyteros is the word for someone who is older, wiser, someone who is an elder.
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And if you've ever heard of the Episcopal Church and the Presbyterian Church, those are both drawn...
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The names are drawn from the word episkopos and presbyteros.
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Episcopalian, Presbyterian, right? That's where those words come from.
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And so when we look at this qualification, the overseer in view here is what we would normally call the elder or the pastor.
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The elder and the pastor are the same thing.
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I'm an elder of my church.
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I'm a pastor of my church.
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I serve with three other men.
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All of them are elders but could rightly be called pastors.
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Typically, we distinguish in our church between pastor and elder, only that I preach every Sunday.
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That's my job, and so people tend to call me Pastor Keith.
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And Brother Andy, Brother Mike, Brother Jack are elders.
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But we all share an equality of function.
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All of us have to have the same qualifications.
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The biggest difference is I am vocational, which means it's my job to be at the church, to work at the church, to serve the church.
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The other men have other jobs.
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Brother Mike is a painting.
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He owns a painting company.
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Brother Andy works for Penske Trucking.
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They have jobs outside the church, so their responsibilities are less because they have other responsibilities outside of the church.
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But we share our authority and duty as pastors, as elders.
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And so let's read the qualifications.
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It says in chapter 3, the saying is trustworthy.
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If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, episkopos, presbyteros, it's the idea of pastor or elder, he desires a noble task.
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Therefore, an overseer must be above reproach.
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The husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.
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He must manage his own household well with all dignity, keeping his children submissive.
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For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? He must not be a recent convert or he may become puffed up with deceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil.
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Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.
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Okay, so that's qualifications for a pastor.
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And I don't have the time today to really go and do an extensive explanation, but let me just basically say this.
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He has to be a believer.
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He has to be able to teach.
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And his life should be free from all signs of perpetual wickedness.
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That's basically what it means to be above reproach.
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He's not a liar or a thief or a drunkard or a violent abuser.
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That's the term that's in there about being violent.
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If he's a bully, then he wouldn't qualify.
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You understand, right? Yes.
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So that's what a pastor is supposed to be.
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But then it goes on to talk about deacons.
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The pastor or elder has to be able to teach.
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The deacon has to be able to serve.
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And that's what the word deacon means.
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Diakonos means servant.
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And it says this, deacons must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain.
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They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience and let them also be tested first.
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Then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless.
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I'll stop there just for a second.
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At our church, you have to go through a time of examination.
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Same for an elder, but for deacons, because it says in the Scripture, let them be tested.
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They have to go through several months to see if they truly want to serve the people of God the way they need to be served before they are put into that office.
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That's that testing.
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Let them be tested first.
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I say this, a deacon is really not chosen, a deacon is discovered.
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Because you don't choose somebody to be a servant, you recognize that somebody is a servant.
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Because it's their heart.
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They have a servant's heart.
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And a servant doesn't need a title to be a servant.
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A servant doesn't need a demand to be a servant.
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A servant comes and serves whether he's asked to or not.
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So that's I think part of the testing is just recognizing that this guy, this is his calling.
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He is called to serve.
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Look at him.
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Every time he's at the church, he's doing something for the people.
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He's calling people.
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He's going to visit the hospitals.
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He's making sure the hungry are fed.
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He's making sure the weak are strengthened.
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He's nailing up fence posts that have fallen down.
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I mean, everything.
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You don't have to choose a deacon.
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They will show themselves.
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Does that make sense? Alright, so going on.
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Verse 11, it says, Their wives must be dignified also, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things.
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Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their households well.
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For those who serve well as deacons, gain a good standing for themselves and also great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.
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So, deacons got to be able to manage their house.
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Same as an elder.
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If a man comes and he says, my kids are out of control, my wife hates me, but I want to be a deacon, I'm going to say, slow down.
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You can go home and take care of things at the house.
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Same for an elder.
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If a man can't manage his house, if his bills are unpaid, if his credit score is awful, I mean, these are all things that are indicative of a man who is irresponsible, right? Then he's not going to be good to lead the people of God.
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Maybe one day, because you can overcome those things, but not right now.
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You know what I mean? And that's why the testing is there.
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And so, the elder teaches the congregation.
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The deacon serves the congregation.
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It depends on the church.
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Some churches require that an ordained minister administer communion.
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Our church doesn't.
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We will allow deacons to serve communion and lead the consecration of the communion.
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But in like a Presbyterian church, you have to be ordained to lead.
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So it depends on the rules of the church.
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And again, I don't think it's a biblical demand.
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I think it's just how the church is structured.
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And if I were at a Presbyterian church, I would obey that structural thing, but I wouldn't necessarily think it was necessary.
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Sort of like baptism, right? Like Philip met the eunuch on the road.
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Remember? And the eunuch said, here's water.
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What keeps me from being baptized? And Philip took him down and baptized him.
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Well, Philip was a deacon, but Philip administered baptism.
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So in some churches, only elders can administer baptism.
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I would say a deacon could administer baptism and administer the Lord's Supper.
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That's my opinion though.
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Sure, yeah.
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Good question.
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Very good question.
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Alright, the last thing on these three.
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First, Christ is the head.
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Second, there are two offices.
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Third, there is no democracy in the church.
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Let me explain what I mean by that.
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Well, no, I don't mean there's no politics.
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Anytime you've got two or more people, there's politics.
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Anytime you've got two or more people with opinions, you've got politics.
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Yeah.
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Now what I mean by that is the church is not ruled by vote.
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Now some churches are, and this is where I'm going to be a little challenging.
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Because the idea that the church should be ruled by vote, that's American, but it ain't biblical.
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Because the idea in America is everything is one man, one vote, 51%.
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That's the majority.
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The majority rules, right? The Bible doesn't say that because the Bible says that the church is to be structured on the Word of God.
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The elders have the responsibility to teach the Word of God.
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And this is the rule, not the vote.
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So let's say, for instance, I were to say, guys, we're going to take a vote today to see whether or not stealing is right or wrong.
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And let's say 51% of you voted that stealing is right.
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It wouldn't make one hairs width of difference as to whether or not it was right.
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That's why I say the church is not a democracy.
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It ain't about a vote.
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We don't get to vote on what's right and what's wrong.
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God tells us what's right and what's wrong.
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And that's what I mean when I say the church is not a democracy.
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It is a theocracy.
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A theocracy means ruled by God.
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Not ruled by the demographic.
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Not ruled by the people.
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It's not people ruled.
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It's God ruled.
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And you might say, well, nobody would ever say stealing is right.
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Maybe not.
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But think of how many things have crept into the church.
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Churches are now affirming same-sex marriage.
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Churches are now affirming transgender.
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Churches are now affirming all kinds of things that the Bible says is wrong.
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Why? Because the church is functioning unbiblically.
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The Bible is the last word.
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In our church, we say we aspire to be a biblically functioning church in all that we say and do.
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That's our motto.
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We aspire to be a biblically functioning church in all that we say and do.
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We're not there because we're not perfect.
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But every time we make decisions, this is the answer.
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This is the Word.
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The Bible.
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Now, let me back that up.
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We have women's Bible studies that women lead.
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But we do not have any women preachers.
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We do not have women elders.
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We don't even have women deacons.
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Though that one is sort of controversial.
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Probably not.
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We have women that stand up and sing with us.
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Did you see us when we came to lead the music? Remember the night we had worship here? I had Sister Tamara with me and Sister Cindy and Sister Ashley, my daughter.
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And then Sister Lori that was on the piano.
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So they're all up on the chancel with me, but I'm the leader of the music.
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I'm the worship leader.
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So in that regard, there's a sense of understanding of who's leading the music.
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The others are accompanying to keep the songs, as it were, full.
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There's a reason for a worship team.
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We enjoy being able to lead together, but ultimately, there's an understanding.
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If I'm not there to lead, Jerry leads.
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He's the drummer.
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We would not have a lady stand up and command the people of God during worship.
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Now again, somebody may want to debate over that.
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I'm not here to debate that subject, but I do believe it's very clear that female pastors are not biblical.
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I've already offended somebody.
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I can offend more.
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1 Timothy 2 very clearly says women are not to teach or to exercise authority over men.
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I think that pretty much says it all.
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If you read the qualifications for an elder that we just read, it's very clear that it's talking about a man because he's to be the head of his house.
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He's to be the husband of one wife.
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He's to manage his children.
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Well, all of these are things that refer specifically to the role of a man in the home.
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To me, it's not even a debate.
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It's just an opportunity for rebellion, and that's what we see.
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We see churches that are in rebellion because this is one of the easiest ways to rebel.
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Well, we've got a lady here who's a great teacher.
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What's wrong with having her teach? Because she's not anointed by God and she's not supposed to be there.
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That's the reason.
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I'm sorry, you said...
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No? I thought it was you.
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Okay, I thought somebody said something.
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My bad.
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Alright, last but not least, let's look at the expectations.
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I've got nine and nine.
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Now, I came up with this list several years ago.
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This is my personal outline.
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I didn't take it from a book or anything, so if you take issues with it, I'm fine.
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You can come ask me questions afterwards.
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But if I were looking for a church, let's say I needed to go find a new church or whatever, I would be looking on the left side.
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These are the nine things I would be looking for.
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And on the right side, that is the nine things I would hope that they would expect from me.
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So let's look at them.
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I'm going to go through them relatively quickly because there's 18 of them, so if I spend one minute on each one, we'll be here for 20 more minutes and we don't have much time.
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So let's go through each one quickly.
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Biblical preaching.
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Preaching should be from the Bible.
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Preaching should not be stories and reading out of the Wall Street Journal or the Farmer's Almanac.
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What was that other thing? The stories used to come in.
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The Reader's Digest.
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Thank you.
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I've heard people get up, they read the Bible, they read one verse, and then they go off and tell 50 stories.
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They never get back to talking about the verse.
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It's not biblical preaching.
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So if I go to a church, I want to hear the Bible preached because I want to hear from God.
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And this is God's Word.
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I want to hear God's Word.
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And that's what you should expect.
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Your pastor is.
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I know he is because he and I know one another.
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And I've heard him preach enough.
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He's preaching verse by verse, right? Generally, what's he in now? He's Hebrew.
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See, I was in Genesis.
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It took me a little over a year to do Genesis 1 to Genesis 3 because I was going kind of slow.
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But now that I've gotten to Genesis 4, I'm taking a little break.
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We're about to enter into the Christmas season, so I'm going to spend some time preaching on some of the life of Christ because Genesis is Old Testament.
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But it's all going to be Bible wherever I preach.
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This Sunday, I'm preaching Psalm 46.
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The Lord is our strength and our refuge, a very present help in times of trouble.
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Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth move, though the mountains fall into the sea.
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You remember that? There's just a lot going on in our church right now, so I want to comfort the people, so I'm going to bring them the Word of God to comfort them, not my own sentiments.
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But the Word of God is the answer.
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Biblical preaching leads to biblical theology.
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Your theology should come from the Bible.
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A biblical understanding of the Gospel.
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One of the first questions I ask anyone, especially a minister, is tell me the Gospel.
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Do you understand the Gospel? A biblical understanding of conversion.
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If you don't understand the Gospel, you won't understand how somebody gets saved.
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Conversion means getting saved.
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See, because you can tell a church doesn't understand conversion by how they handle evangelism, and that's the next one, a biblical understanding of evangelism.
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This is often how churches do.
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The pastor will preach a sermon.
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At the end of the sermon, he'll say, okay, everybody close your eyes and bow your heads.
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And now if you want to receive Jesus, slip your hand up.
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I see that hand.
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I see that hand.
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And everybody's eyes are closed.
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I don't ever close my eyes.
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I look around.
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I don't see no hands.
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Sorry.
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You're lying.
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There ain't no hands.
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Used to, they'd have them get up and come forward.
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But they wanted enough people coming forward so they switched to the hand thing.
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But that's unbiblical.
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Biblical evangelism is presenting someone with the Gospel, the call to repentance and faith, and then it is up to God.
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It is not my responsibility to lead somebody through a process.
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I present them the Gospel.
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Now if somebody wants help, if somebody says I don't know what to do, I don't know how to pray, then I will help them.
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But I'm not going to sit there and try to repeat after me.
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I believe.
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I believe.
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Jesus.
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Jesus.
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No.
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No.
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Because conversion is an act of God.
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I present the Gospel.
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You are a sinner.
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You deserve the wrath of God.
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One day you will face God.
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And when you face God, what will you face Him with? Your own damnable good works? Or with the works of Jesus Christ? Will you face Him holding on to what you have done? Or holding on to what Christ has done for you? Will you trust in yourself? Or will you trust in the Savior? Very simple, right? That's it.
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There's only two religions in the world.
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I don't care whether you're Muslim, Hindu, whatever.
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It's all me, me, me.
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I can do it myself.
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Or Jesus does it all.
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That's it.
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Yes, it is...
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Not one religion to another.
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No, it's coming to Christ.
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Whether you're coming from Islam or whether you're coming from atheism, conversion is coming to Christ.
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And it is Christ, if you will, bringing you to Himself.
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So a biblical understanding of evangelism, conversion, the Gospel, and then number six is biblical church membership.
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This is something that a lot of people don't understand the value of being part of a body.
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So that's why we have that class I told you about, explaining membership.
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Because membership leads to the next three things.
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Notice the next three things.
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There's biblical discipleship, biblical leadership, and biblical discipline.
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Discipleship is submission to learning.
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Becoming a disciple.
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When you come to Christ, you become a disciple.
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And when you come into a church, you should expect to be discipled.
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You know what part of discipleship is? Being corrected.
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If you're not willing to be corrected by the Word of God, then you're not ready to be a disciple.
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If you're not ready to be corrected by the Word of God, then you're not ready to really be a follower of Christ.
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So that's the first thing.
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Biblical discipleship.
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Biblical leadership.
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The church should have elders and deacons.
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That's what we just talked about.
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And finally, biblical discipline.
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What is biblical discipline? Matthew 18, Jesus said, if a person sins and he refuses to repent, his sin is to be removed from the body.
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We've had to exercise discipline a few times over the years at our church where we have had to remove people from the body who were engaging in habitual, perpetual, unrepentant sin and were unwilling to repent.
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I have never ever been happy about that.
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I have always been broken over it.
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But it is a necessary thing.
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A cancer must be removed or it will metastasize and destroy the whole body.
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Absolutely.
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Titus 2 talks about it as well.
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The divisive man, you warn him twice and then you remove him.
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Remember when Achan...
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In the Old Testament, Achan stole some of the bounty of war.
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God said leave it all to destruction and he stole it and hid it in his tent.
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And the people of Israel went to war and they lost and they came back to God and said, why did we lose? He said, there's sin in the camp.
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Anathema.
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Yeah, that's an anathema or a curse.
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Yes.
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And his name was Achan.
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Achan in the Old Testament, the reason for their failure was there was sin in the camp.
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And it was undealt with.
50:04
Yeah, yeah.
50:05
In 1 Corinthians 5, same thing.
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The Apostle Paul writes to Corinth.
50:08
He said there's a man in the church that is sleeping with his father's wife and you have done nothing.
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That's right.
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Read 1 Corinthians 5.
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He says you have a man in the church who's sleeping with his father's wife and you have done nothing.
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Would it have been that I would have been there, I would have done something.
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That's right.
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It's a sin that doesn't even exist among the heathen.
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If I would have been there, something would have been done.
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But you guys are proud of yourself because you're so liberal and so tolerant.
50:51
So, biblical discipline is biblical.
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Alright, that's the nine things you should expect from the church.
50:56
There's nine things the church should expect from you.
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If you ever join another church, or even though you're part of set free now, these are nine things the church should expect from you.
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Number one, participation in worship.
51:08
Now, y'all don't really have much choice, but you should enjoy going to worship.
51:14
You should enjoy worshiping together.
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You know, I tell people when you become a church member, the first thing we want you to do is come and join your voice to ours and sing to God.
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Come and open your Bible and hear from God.
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Come and take from the table of communion the bread and the cup.
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We do that every Sunday.
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Come and do this as part of the body.
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If you're not participating in worship, then you're missing out on this blessing.
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Participation in fellowship is number two.
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Fellowship is on top of worship.
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Fellowship is the intimate relationships that are built in Christ outside of worship.
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Participation in ministry.
51:57
That's the hard one because a lot of people don't want to get involved.
52:01
They feel like they're busy.
52:02
And we live such busy lives now.
52:04
We've got all these people who are like, the kids are involved in everything and they're involved in everything.
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They're too busy to do anything.
52:13
In the church, there's people that are sick that need to be visited.
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There's people that are hurting that need to be helped.
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There are people that need to be loved.
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Think about it.
52:22
In our church, we have people that are 80's all the way down to babies.
52:28
And the 80 year olds need love.
52:32
And the people with the babies sometimes need a night off.
52:34
They need help.
52:36
And there's a way to minister within the body, all that.
52:40
And if you're in a church, you're in a family.
52:46
That's number four.
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Contribution of spiritual gifts.
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If you're saved, God's given you a gift for the purpose of ministering in church.
52:53
That's 1 Corinthians 14.
52:54
It says the reason you were gifted was to minister within the church.
52:59
And so I know what my gift is.
53:00
My gift is doing just what I'm doing right now.
53:02
It's running my mouth.
53:03
Not really, but yes.
53:05
What about 1 Peter 14? Remind me.
53:08
It says, as each one proceeds to give and minister to others, the end being good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
53:15
Wonderful, yes.
53:16
That's a perfect passage.
53:18
Yes, you've been given a gift if you're a believer to minister to other Christians.
53:23
And there are different types of gifts.
53:25
And I think every person is gifted somewhat differently.
53:28
Even teachers.
53:29
There's me and Brother Andy.
53:30
Brother Mike.
53:31
We're all teachers, but we all teach different.
53:32
Y'all know.
53:33
Y'all have heard all of us.
53:34
Brother Andy comes here on Tuesday nights once a month.
53:37
Some of y'all saw him last week or Thursday night.
53:41
Thursday night.
53:42
And then Brother Mike.
53:43
Yes, he's got a bad eye.
53:45
And then Brother Mike, he's bald, got a big old long beard and tattoos.
53:50
He hasn't been here much, but he's a much different preacher.
53:54
All three of us are different, but we're all gifted to teach.
53:57
That's what God's given us the ability to do.
54:00
But it's all different.
54:01
So you may have a different gift that's different than the guy beside you, but it might be in the same category of gifts.
54:12
I said 1 Corinthians 14.
54:13
That's what I was referencing because that talks about...
54:15
Actually, 1 Corinthians 12-14 and Romans 12 both deal with the subject of spiritual gifts.
54:24
Number 5 is very important.
54:27
Did you have another question? Number 5 is often overlooked and that is contribution of prayer.
54:32
A lot of people fail to pray for their church, pray for their pastor, pray for their elders, pray for their deacons, pray for one another.
54:42
And so praying is important.
54:45
Number 6, contribution of finances.
54:49
I speak very little about money.
54:52
I try not to be that guy who's always calling people to give.
54:56
Because I think if you're right in your spiritual heart and mind, giving is a natural thing.
55:01
It's a gift.
55:02
It talks about...
55:04
There's a gift of generosity and I do think there are people who are gifted to a certain type of expressive generosity.
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But we're all called to give just like we're all called to evangelize.
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But there are certain people who are gifted in evangelism.
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Is it that the worker is honored? I mean, should be compensated? Yes, and that's why I do get paid to be a pastor.
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And it's what I went and trained for.
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It's what I went to school for.
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It's what I've dedicated my life to the last 20 years of my life has been doing this thing.
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I'm sorry to interrupt, but when we go to a regular doctor to help him heal our bodies, we don't bother to pay them the amount of money that they...
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What about the spiritual? Even if a pastor gives to a person, what about that part? You know what I'm saying? People overlook that.
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They say, oh, the doctor.
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But what about the sacrifices that the pastor has to go through? You know what I'm saying? We don't know the price that they pay for to help us out in their spiritual lives.
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I mean, that's the way I look at it.
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That's a good thought.
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I often tell people what I get paid to do is give my time to the church that I would not be able to give if I had a regular 9-5.
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I mean, if I worked 5 days a week, 40 hours a week, whatever, I wouldn't be able to come here.
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I wouldn't be able to visit people all the time.
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My life would be much different.
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And I spend hours and hours a week studying so that I can be the leader both in the pulpit and outside the pulpit.
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Can I just say that as just like a humanly...
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You know what I'm saying? People try to talk about...
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Like, you know, morally.
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You know what I'm saying? There will be somehow to address the person that's trying to...
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Yeah, there are a lot of people that say a minister shouldn't get paid or whatever.
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And my answer is simple.
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It depends on the church.
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It depends on the size of the church.
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If it's a real small church that can't afford to pay the minister, that's one thing.
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And I don't think the church should overpay.
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But most churches are not guilty of that.
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Some are.
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You've got your Joel Osteen's and your Kenneth Copeland's, your false teachers out there that are bilking the people of God.
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But most ministers are living well within the means.
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Some don't even get...
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Some have to live in the house the church provides called a parsonage.
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I don't.
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I have my own house.
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But again, it depends on the church, right? Alright, let's finish up.
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Three last things.
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Submission.
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Submission to Scripture, submission to leadership, and submission to discipline.
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If I join a church, I'm submitting to the Scripture, but I'm also submitting to the leaders of that church.
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I may not like everything that they do, but I'm putting myself in submission.
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And if you think that this is me exaggerating, just go to Hebrews 13.
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It says, Submit to the leaders who are over you, for they are appointed by God to shepherd your souls.
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Well, I mean, obviously...
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The way it works in our church is the elders are responsible to lead the people and to manage the church.
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Therefore, we're going to stand before God one day and give an account for that.
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And one day, one day, God will call us to account.
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We have to know that.
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I hope that was helpful.
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That was a lot to squeeze into an hour, but I did 58 minutes.
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So, praise the Lord.
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Let's pray.
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Father, I thank You for Your Word.
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May it be that Your Word be the light to our feet and the lamp to our path.
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May we, Lord, be submissive to it and ultimately to You in Christ's name.
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Amen.