Why Join a Local Church?

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00:06
Well, if you would take out your Bibles and turn with me to, well, you're actually going to turn to two passages so you can hold your place in both, you're going to turn to Acts and you're going to go to Acts chapter 20, hold your place there at verse 28, and then if you want to go ahead and run your finger back to Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 17.
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The title, as Brother Andy has already mentioned, the title of today's message is, Why Join a Local Church? It is far too often that I hear people who call themselves Christians say that they have no desire for or intention to participate in membership in a local church.
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According to an international survey, which was conducted around the turn of the last century, more than 40% of people, now this is 20 years ago, more than 40% of people who identified as Christians are neither members nor even frequent attenders of any church.
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According to a website known as the Federalist, it said this, it said that the Pew reported that among Americans who decided not to attend church services, 37% skip out because they practice their faith in other ways.
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And the article goes on to say, quote, I'm spiritual, but not religious, has become the creed of a generation.
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And what millennials as well as younger members of Gen X and older members of Gen Z mean by that is they don't need the institutional church, its gospel, its sacraments, or even the believers to have the experience of what faith is meant to be about.
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And often if you talk to these folks and you challenge them, you will receive the response of many excuses as to why they feel this is the case.
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They'll come and say, well, I don't want to go to church because the church is corrupt and it's only out for money and power.
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Or they'll say, I don't want to be a part of a church because it's only filled with mean-spirited hypocrites.
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Or they'll say, I don't want to join a church because the services are long and boring.
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But the most consistent claim, the most consistent excuse for why people don't want to be part of a local church is because they will say simply, it's unnecessary.
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I don't need the church.
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It's me and Jesus.
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It's me and my Bible.
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And that's all I need.
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And what this is, it is a product of the hyper-individualism of modern American thought that has popularized the idea that church is at best optional and at worst disposable.
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And this has been combined with an anti-institutional attitude towards religion that supports the idea that it's better to simply be alone in faith than part of an organized group.
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You ever heard somebody say, I don't believe in organized religion? Well, there it is.
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People say, I want to be a Christian on my own terms.
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Well, there it is.
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Or the more modern expression might be, why should I go to church when there's YouTube? And I've often said over the years, and I've said this many times, I know Brother Andy and Brother Mike have said something similar, if not the exact same thing.
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The Bible does not support lone wolf Christianity.
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And the Bible does not encourage hyper-individualized faith.
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Now, that may sound very American, but not everything American is Christian.
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Thanks for at least some of you said amen.
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Being all by yourself is not, with your Bible, is not what the Bible actually tells you to do.
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People say, I don't need the church, it's just, all I need to do is read my Bible.
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Well, that's proof you ain't reading your Bible.
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It's like, all I need is me and my Bible.
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Well, if you were reading it, you would know that's dumb.
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Because that's not what the Bible teaches.
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The Christian faith is to be lived out in community.
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It is about loving one another, submitting to one another, encouraging one another, all of which is impossible if you never gather with one another.
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And I'm going to say this from the start.
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I am going to say some unpopular things today.
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In fact, I'm approaching this from the, I've taught on this subject before, I've taught it in our academy, I've taught it even on Sunday mornings, but I've never approached this subject the way I'm approaching it today.
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I'm approaching it today almost as a polemic.
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And that means as an argument.
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Because I'm assuming that there are people who hold a different view.
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I've already said there are people who hold a different view.
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Just this week on Wednesday night, I mentioned, Sunday morning I'm going to preach on church membership.
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That night, a man went onto our Facebook page, I don't even know who he is.
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And he went on our Facebook page to light us up and say there's nothing in the Bible about church membership and church membership is unbiblical and this is not going to be a sermon that's filled with truth.
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You're wrong, dude.
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I don't know who you are, but you're wrong.
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This is nonsense and this is the hyper-individualized faith idea that has so permeated the modern culture.
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If you think church membership is unbiblical, I hope by the end of today I will convince you otherwise.
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Because I'm coming at this as an argument.
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Not arguing with you, but arguing for the truth.
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Now we all have different ways of doing things.
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Brother Mike always says I'm the apologist.
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Yeah, I defend the truth.
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That's my, that's the way God built me.
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Being part of a biblically functioning local church is God's will for every believer.
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If you refuse to be part of a local church, you are outside of God's will.
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Now I will add a caveat.
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Maybe you're moving and you haven't found a church yet.
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Maybe you are in a state of flux where you're going from one church to another.
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I'm not saying you're necessarily in sin at this point, but I am saying this.
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You need to find where you're going to go and go and join and be part.
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Because if you choose to remain outside of local church membership, you are outside the will of God.
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The idea that you can properly live out the Christian life, totally divorced from the local church, has no basis in scripture.
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In fact, I believe it is a ruse concocted by the enemy to encourage the separation and division, the dividing and the conquering of God's people.
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So today we're going to, try it again.
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We're going to support the argument by looking at two passages.
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And I really did, I labored over these passages.
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I actually talked to both of our elders this week.
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I went to them, I said, what do you guys think about this? Because these passages in my heart are, this is it, but it's a strange way to approach it.
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I hope you understand that this is not the normal way.
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I'm doing this, I'm kind of coming in at a different angle.
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I'm going to land the plane sideways on the runway, but we're going to screech to a stop.
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Because I'm going to argue this.
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I'll just give it to you.
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God created a structure in the church.
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He created a structure of God ordained men whose responsibility it is to care for your souls.
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And he put into your responsibility, the responsibility of submitting to the leadership of scripture and to those men that God put over your souls.
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And if we are not in a covenant relationship, then there is no way that we can perform the duties God has called us to do.
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And there's no ways that you can really perform the duties God has called you to do.
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It is a mutual relationship.
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And without that, there's no idea what the church is supposed to do.
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Just gather together and sing kumbaya.
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No, we are to have a relationship where we speak into your life.
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And you are in a relationship with us where we all are submitting to one another and to the Lord.
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And with that in mind, let's look at the scriptures.
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Now we stand for the reading of scripture here.
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So I know you've been sitting for a while.
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Let's stand for just a moment and hear these two texts.
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Look with me first.
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This is Acts 20 and 28.
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Paul is speaking to the elders in Ephesus.
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This is his last message to them.
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And he says this to the elders.
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Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God which he obtained with his own blood.
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Now, turn to Hebrews 13.
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That was spoken to the elders.
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Hebrews 13 is spoken to the church.
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Hebrews 13, 17.
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Obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account.
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Let them do this with joy and not with groaning for that would be of no advantage to you.
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Father in heaven, I thank you for your word.
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I pray, Lord, as we look at these texts today, that we would understand them in their proper context and interpretation.
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And I pray that you would keep me from error as I preach.
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And I pray this in Jesus' name.
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Amen.
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When we discuss the church, theologians often make a distinction between the universal church and the local church.
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And in that sense, what they are talking about is the body of Christ which exists all around the world.
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They call that the universal church.
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Some people don't like that term.
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And I do think it can be somewhat complicated.
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But it is an old term.
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It was a term that was used very early in the church.
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In fact, that's what the word Catholic means.
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Catholic means universal.
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It means part of the universal body of Christ.
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And you say, well, what about the Roman Catholics? That's an oxymoron.
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Because Rome is a place in Italy.
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That ain't universal.
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And the idea of Roman Catholicism being the universal church is just not true.
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The universal church is everyone who has ever believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and been by his spirit born again.
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They are adopted into his family and made part of the body of Christ.
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That is the global body of Christ.
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And when we later take communion here at Sovereign Grace, there are churches all over this city, all over this country, all over this world, who at that moment or sometime today will also be taking a bread of wine.
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And at that moment, they will be showing forth the unity that we have in Christ.
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But when you look at the Bible and you begin to study the word church, you find that very, very infrequently is the universal church in view.
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Almost every time the Bible uses the word church, it's referring to a local assembly of believers.
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Paul talks about the church in Rome.
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Paul writes to the church in Ephesus or Corinth or Colossae.
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All of those are local churches.
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The Bible not only addresses local churches, but it also gives a structure by which that local church is to be ordered.
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Do you understand the Bible tells us what the church is supposed to be like? The Bible doesn't tell us the church is supposed to be like a CEO-driven community, which a lot of them are now.
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Sort of like Apple Church.
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Say Apple like Apple computers, like Apple Church, they got a big CEO, looks like Steve Jobs, and talks like Steve Jobs instead of talking like a pastor.
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You know what I'm talking about.
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That's the idea.
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What a lot of people have is church.
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That's not the structure of the church.
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The Bible gives a very simple structure.
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Those of you who've taken the academy, you know we teach on this.
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I've written on this.
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The structure of the church is that Christ is the head of the church.
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The local body recognizes men within the body whom God has called to act in the role of elders.
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And the word elder comes from two Greek words.
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There's the word presbyteros and there's the word episkopos.
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Both of those are synonyms for the idea of an overseer or a bishop or a pastor.
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The word shepherd also is in view there.
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So the local church recognizes men who are called to this office and they ordain them or lay hands on them.
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That's the idea.
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And commission them to the task of eldership.
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Now the local church also recognizes gifted men to serve as servant examples.
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We call them deacons.
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Those men serve as well.
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Both of these men are given qualifications in scripture in 1st Timothy chapter 3.
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And the elders are also given a qualification in Titus chapter 1.
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And the qualifications are very specific.
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Showing that God actually cares how his church is supposed to be ordered.
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And the local church recognizes every member of the church as having been given a spiritual gift by God.
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Whose goal is to edify the rest of the church.
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This is in 1st Corinthians chapter 12.
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Where Paul says the hand can't say to the foot, I have no need of you.
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Or the eye can't say to the ear, I have no need of you.
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I can't look at brother Chris and say, brother Chris I have no need of you.
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I need you brother.
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I need you here and I need you serving and I need you loving people and I need you loving the Lord.
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And so do you.
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You need me here and that's what he's saying.
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So you can't look at anybody and say you have no value.
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Just because you're not an elder or deacon that doesn't matter because we're all gifted to serve.
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And the role of the elders is supposed to be equipping you for the work of ministry according to the book of Ephesians.
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We're supposed to be equipping the saints.
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By the way that's all of you.
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Sainthood is not something that's granted to you by the Roman Catholic Church.
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Sainthood is something that we receive by being members of the body of Christ.
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And therefore the saints who gather at Sovereign Grace Family Church gather to minister one to another.
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And right away what we have to recognize is that if God has gone to the trouble, hear this argument.
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If God has gone to the trouble to provide commands for the structure and the order of the church.
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Then he has a purpose for us being a part of that.
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Why would he give us commands and order and structure if it didn't matter? This is why people say oh I don't go to church.
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I just meet with two or three friends in my local pub and we have a Bible study.
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Presbyterian's pub.
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Baptists, we go to the Dairy Queen.
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You know what I'm saying.
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People say I don't need the church.
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And I'll hear people say this.
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They'll say Christ didn't come to establish a church.
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There's a Greek word for that.
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It's baloney.
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That's baloney.
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As Jesus said in Matthew chapter 16.
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I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
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So if the local church is given structure and order in scripture.
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It stands to reason God would want his people to be a part of it.
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So when someone says oh I don't think I need to be a part of that.
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Who are you denying? The one who came to build his church.
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The one who called his men to be ordained and serve in his church.
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And the one who called his people to gather as the church.
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And people say well the church isn't the building.
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Nobody said the church is the building.
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I understand that for years people made a big deal about the building.
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And they got lost in the idea that the church is the building and not the people.
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We know though that the church is the people.
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Ekklesia.
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Those who have been called out to an assembly.
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That's what that word means.
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Yes we know that.
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But don't ever let that confuse you to think that coming together doesn't matter.
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It doesn't matter where we come together.
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If we come together here.
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You come together to my yard.
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You come together to brother Mike's shop.
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Wherever we come we would still be the church.
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Old boy one time.
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Jennifer's birthday.
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He was singing to us at the restaurant.
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Happy birthday to you.
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Very nice.
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Beautiful voice.
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And afterwards I said to him.
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I said it was very nice to meet you.
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And he was a very sweet young man.
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And I said do you happen to have a home church? And he says oh I don't go to church.
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I am the church.
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I said no you're not.
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What do you mean I'm not? I said you're not the church.
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You can't do that by yourself.
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If the word church means assembly.
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You ain't but one of you.
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You can't assemble all by yourself.
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You ain't Voltron.
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Now that's an inside 80's joke.
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But you get it.
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You are not the church all by yourself.
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You're part of the body of Christ.
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Yes.
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But the church is the gathered assembled people of God.
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So I want to look at these two passages.
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And I want to see what they say to that gathered people.
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Acts chapter 20 will be where we begin.
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Because this puts the onus on the elders.
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And I realize that in this room there are just the three of us who serve in this capacity right now.
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But I want to say this.
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Understanding what your elders are called to do helps you to understand what you should expect of them.
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So I'm not just preaching to Mike and Andy and me in a vacuum.
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I'm saying if you know what the elders are called to do then you know what is expected for you.
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By the way new members class this afternoon.
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Part of our new members class we talk about expectations.
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What do you expect as a member of the church and what should the church expect from you? Notice what it says to the elders.
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And by the way as I said I don't want to go into an exposition of Acts.
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I already preached through an exposition of Acts.
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If you want to hear me, my whole sermon on this you can go back into our archives and you actually find where I preached on verses 18 to 27 which was Paul's whole message to the Ephesian elders.
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But for now I just want to focus on verse 28 where he looks at them and he says pay careful attention to yourselves.
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Number one, the elders have to be men of integrity who actually walk according to the word and fulfill the requirements of 1st Timothy chapter 3 and Titus chapter 1.
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They have to pay careful attention to themselves.
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This is an interesting thing.
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Because we actually challenge one another.
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Brother Mike and Brother Andy and me we have this opportunity to challenge one another and all of you have the opportunity to challenge us.
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There's nothing I say from this pulpit that I am too good for you to come and talk to me about or ask me about or challenge me on.
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I have made mistakes and I have repented from this pulpit of things I have said wrong.
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I am not perfect.
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And that's why it says pay careful attention to yourselves.
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It begins with that.
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Any man who's not willing to look at himself in the mirror of God's word is not fit to stand behind this pulpit.
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He must pay careful attention to himself and conjunction to all the flock.
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Now here's the thing.
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You have to understand the phrase all the flock is immediately modified.
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Because it is not my job to pay careful attention to all the flock in the world.
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The people at Bold City ain't my sheep.
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And when I say my sheep I'm talking about under shepherds of the great shepherd who is Jesus.
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Understand what I mean.
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Flock.
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People at Bold City ain't part of my flock.
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It ain't part of our flock.
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The people at Ocean Way Assembly ain't part of this flock.
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I had a guy come to me in a restaurant one time and he started talking all kinds of nonsense.
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When he left somebody at the table with me says why didn't you correct him? I said dude not my sheep.
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I said first of all we'd be here for six hours because dude need a lot of correcting.
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I said second I said it's not my job.
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Now if he asked me to help him I'd be more than happy to help him.
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If he asked me to sit down and go over the word I'd love to do that.
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I do that all the time.
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That's part of what the podcast is.
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It's all about reaching people that we'll never get to talk to and share the word with.
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I'm all about that.
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But I'm not walking around being everybody's ecclesiastical policeman.
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This is where God has called me and Mike and Andy to serve and this is what matters to us.
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You all.
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So it says pay careful attention to yourselves and to the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.
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In which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.
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That's y'all.
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This is where God has made us overseers.
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This is where God has called us to be elders.
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This is where we function in that role.
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I ain't no Protestant Pope.
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And there ain't no Protestant Pope.
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There ain't no real Pope either.
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The real Pope's a fake Pope.
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It's all just, I'm just beating up on Catholics.
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I don't mean to be doing that.
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But I'm saying all that idea that there's an ecclesiastical authority somewhere in the world who has the power to rain down upon the church from the seed of Peter the authority of Jesus Christ is a false teaching from the pit of hell.
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Okay now I'm getting mean.
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But it's, yeah it's false, right? There is no Protestant Pope and the Pope who exercises Pope, papacy in the Catholic Church is false.
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Christ did not establish a single seed of power.
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He established the local church wherein God ordained men would be raised up in that church to exercise leadership, oversight, and authority within that body.
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But here's the thing they have to recognize and this is the part we dare not miss.
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He says, pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God which he obtained with his own blood.
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See that's the key for elders is you have to understand if you're a man who's called to that position, if you're a God called elder, you have to understand what you're doing is you are managing and shepherding God's flock that he paid for with his own blood.
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That is a valuable thing.
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This I think of it like this, I think of it as a king who has a queen and the king has gone away and the queen has been left in the charge of a steward.
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That steward better know what's up.
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That steward better understand the value that he has and he better work toward doing all he can to care for the purity, the sanctity, and the safety of that bride.
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That's why I care so much about false teachers.
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And I mentioned to you please watch out for this man, please watch out for this woman, please watch out for these people because they are dangerous to your souls.
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And so we tell you be on guard because the wolves are out there and our job is to be like a sheep dog who runs those wolves away.
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The shepherd who says no.
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We have people come in here all the time, I talked about this this week.
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People come in here and say God called me to preach to your congregation.
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No he didn't.
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If he did, I didn't hear it and you're not preaching here.
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I don't know who you are.
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We had a couple one time came in, man and woman.
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It was during Sunday school.
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They sat right where Meg's at and they're just sitting there, we're doing music and after we got prepared just back when I was leading the worship, I walked down and talked to them.
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And I said, nice to meet you, you don't want to go to Sunday school, no I don't want to go to Sunday school.
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I said, well I'd love to talk to you a little bit about your background, who you are.
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And the guy said, well I want to tell you something.
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My wife is a prophetess.
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Alright, sorry, immediately, and he said, and she has a word for the congregation today.
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I said, well, she needs to tell me what it is.
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Oh it's not for you, it's for the church, that's not how it works here.
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There's a gatekeeper here, three of them, it ain't going to happen that way.
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That's nonsense.
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If a church just lets anybody say anything at any time and is not subject to the word of God, that's just nonsense.
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You ain't preaching here today.
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The elders have the responsibility to pay attention to themselves and to the flock.
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By the way, this is why we actually care about your lives and we talk to you about your lives and we want to know you better.
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We want to actually engage with you and ask you questions.
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And what Brother Mike said earlier is true, and this is Mike Smith, I know when I say Mike it doesn't really always register, but Mike Smith said, you know, when we ask you how you are, we actually care.
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And I know it's easy to just go, I'm okay.
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But it's impossible to, none of us are mind readers.
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We don't know if you're heartbroken.
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We might can see it on your face, but we might not.
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Some people are pretty good at hiding that.
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We don't know if you're flat broken, ain't got no money, and you ain't feeding your family because you are embarrassed to say something, don't ever be embarrassed.
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Because ain't nobody here in a situation that the rest of us ain't been in at some time and want to be a blessing to you and help you.
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Nobody in this church should ever go hungry, ever.
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In fact, the deacons are right now working on a plan to put together a pantry for the purpose that if anybody in this church needs to go in there at any time and take food home to their family, it will be available.
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Nobody should ever go hungry.
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Nobody in this church should ever go in a situation where you are absolutely without and we don't know about it.
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We can't shepherd your soul or your life and minister to you if we don't know.
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I'm going past my notes here, but you understand my heart in this.
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We love you.
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And the church should love you.
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That's part of what we're called to do.
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All right, now let's go to Hebrews 13.
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Because we talked about the elders and our responsibility to you.
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Now let's look at Hebrews 13.
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It says, obey your leaders, submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls.
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By the way, that phrase, keeping watch over your souls, if you look back, you don't have to turn there, but if you go back, that is basically the same thing he says in Acts 20, 28, where he says to care for the flock, watching over their souls.
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That's why I put these two passages together, because it's the same idea expressed from one side and now the other, but this one's not written to the elders.
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This one's written to the church members.
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It's written about the role that the church and the elders are to play in the life of the believer.
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This context of this passage begins up in verse 7, where he says, remember your leaders who spoke to you the word of God, consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.
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So it begins in chapter 13 with verse 7 to begin talking about the leaders and their responsibility and how you're to remember them, but down in verse 17, he actually says obey.
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Now, I got to talk about this because there are, and it's become increasingly bad.
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There are churches, especially churches in the reformed community that I have seen, where the elders at times become heavy handed despots who believe it's their job to micromanage every area of your life.
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That is not biblical, and that is not what this is calling us to or y'all to.
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First of all, I ain't got time to manage your life, I'm managing mine hard enough.
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I ain't got time to come around and sweep up your dirty floor, okay? But, there is a sense in which the call to obedience here is a call to where if we are calling you to biblical fidelity, because by the way, I'm not calling you to be obedient to me, and I'm not calling you to be obedient to Mike or obedient to Andy.
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The only authority we have in anybody's life is the authority of the word of God.
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It's what the word of God says.
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That's it.
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So when it calls to obedience, it's the obedience to the leaders who are doing what? Who are being faithful to the word of God.
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And notice what it says next, for they are keeping watch over what? Over your souls.
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Let me tell you something, that ought to scare you to death if you're an elder.
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Or if you have any desire at some point, if you feel God is calling you to that.
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I'm going to tell you something, becoming a pastor, becoming an elder is no small thing.
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James chapter 3 verse 1 ought to put the fear of God into all of us if we stand up and teach.
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Because it says not everyone is supposed to be a teacher, for what reason? For teachers will be judged with greater strictness, it says.
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And that same idea is here.
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They are called to watch over your souls.
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They are in that position where one day I am going to stand before God, Mike is going to stand before God, Andy is going to stand before God, and we are going to give an account for how we shepherded the church.
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And I must say, if that doesn't sit you, that should sit us back and cause us to really consider the weightiness of what we're doing.
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I remember years ago, and I don't in any way intend to make this seem like, I hope this, Lord don't let this come out in any way prideful, because I don't intend it to be.
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But I remember years ago thinking about the difference between a pastor and a doctor.
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And I thought, you know, doctors are so important, they have so much value in the world because they save lives.
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And one miscut with a scalpel, one misapplication of medicine, and it can take a person's life or ruin their life.
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And we know that medical doctors have a very vital and important part of this world.
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But no matter what they do, they're dealing with something that eventually is going to die anyway.
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The body is going to die anyway.
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No matter how good the doctor is, no matter how wise the doctor is, the body is going to die anyway.
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But the pastor is shepherding the soul, the one part of the body that's going to live on forever, either in heaven or in hell.
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I don't know, just set us back on the way to that.
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And so the scripture says, obey your leaders, submit to them.
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And I know the word, man, submission is a dirty word.
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People don't want to hear the word submit.
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People don't want to hear the word obey.
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Especially, especially when there's so many churches where the leaders aren't worth obedience.
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So what do you mean by that? There's some bad teachers out there, I just said it earlier.
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But guess what you do? Don't go there.
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People come to me sometimes, you think I should go to this church? Can you submit to their leaders? No, then don't go.
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It's just, well, they got a really good youth program.
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Don't go.
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If you cannot trust the men who have been charged with leading the church, then you don't need to be there.
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So I don't think that, I don't know about this whole submission thing.
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Understand why God established the rule that he did in the church.
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This is very simple.
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I've been explaining this for years, because I know not everybody agrees, but I've been trying to get people to understand.
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The church is not a democracy.
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The church is ruled by one thing, and it's this right here.
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It's not a democracy.
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This is the rule.
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You know, in a truly democratic church, where everybody gets a vote, and the vote is all powerful, then let's say somebody comes up one day and says, we're going to vote that homosexual marriage is okay, and gets a 51% vote.
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Guess what? It still ain't right.
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Even if it's voted in, it still ain't right.
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What if somebody says, well, now we're going to vote in women pastors.
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Oh, that's offensive.
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I don't care if it's offensive.
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It ain't right, and you don't vote it in, no matter if 51% want it or not, because it's not what the word of God teaches.
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So that's why you get God ordained men who are willing to teach and preach the word of God exegetically, consistently, and going through the word of God, teaching it in such a way that God speaks and not men.
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That's what exegetical preaching is.
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God speaks through his word, and his mouthpiece is used to, as it were, take the meal and break it down so that it can be eaten and digested like a meal.
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I always tell people, that's what I think about on a sermon.
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Yesterday I had dinner at Lance's house, and it was a wonderful, he's a great cook, and I appreciated him cooking my food, and I watched him do it, it was so masterful.
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I am not that way.
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If you come to my house, you're either going to get grilled meat or cereal.
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I'm not a cook.
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It's usually grilled meat, because I can do that on the grill.
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But here's the thing.
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Preparing a sermon, preparing a lesson, is like preparing a meal.
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You sit down, you read God's words, you try to think God's thoughts after him, you prepare it as if it were a meal to serve the people of God, and then you serve it to them.
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And hopefully they will take it and digest it, and it will become part of their Christian walk.
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That's why God has established the church the way that he has.
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I do believe preaching is the number one method of discipleship in the church.
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This is the way God disciples his people, first from the pulpit, and in the Sunday school classes, and on the Wednesday night.
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This is where God disciples his people.
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People say, well, you know, what about small groups? What about one-on-one? All that's important.
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But let me tell you something, and this is again, every time I walk away from there, I'm not in my notes anymore.
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But what we have convinced ourselves is that personal time in Bible study is more valuable than this.
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Now personal time in Bible study is good.
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Personal time in Bible study should not be replaced or put away.
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But you cannot dispense with being a part of the public proclamation of the word of God.
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This is the primary method of discipleship in the church.
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And you don't need reheated meals.
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You need to come and eat when the food's served.
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You don't need to wait and watch it on YouTube later in the week.
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You need to be here when the food is served.
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Unless you're sick or you're out of town, we should be together.
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Amen? Now, I've said a lot about the role of the elders and the role of the church in response to that.
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I know some of you have to be asking this question.
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I would be, if I were you, asking the question, well, what does this have to do with church membership? Here it is.
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For the elders to properly shepherd the flock in their care, they have to know who that flock is.
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And for the Christian to properly submit to the leaders that God has placed above them, they have to know who those leaders are.
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And therefore, there must be a covenant relationship that is made, which is formally called church membership.
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Where there is a commitment that I'm gonna come here and I'm going to submit to the teaching and I'm gonna submit to the leaders and I'm gonna submit to the word and I'm gonna submit to the body and I'm going to use my gifts to build up this body and we're gonna do this in a covenant relationship.
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Let me tell you something that's lost in the modern church.
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Kent Hughes said it best.
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He said, what we have today is a lot of ecclesiastical hitchhikers.
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Think of what that means.
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Ecclesiastical hitchhikers.
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People who would just attach themselves to a church as long as it does them, as long as they're satisfied, and then when they're not satisfied anymore, they'll disconnect from that church and they'll thumb it out until they find another church and they'll connect to that church and they'll do that for a couple months or maybe a year or two years and then they'll thumb it out and they'll find another church and they end up never being in a covenant relationship with a body, never being under the authority of a local church, never being part of a church that could call them to account over sin.
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They never make a commitment.
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And that's not biblical.
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I don't care what the internet says.
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God never calls us to be halfway.
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And I'm going to tell you, I'll be the first to tell you, none of our elders are perfect and this church ain't perfect.
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If you came here looking for a perfect church, keep on going.
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But guess what? When you find one, you're going to ruin it because you're going to take all your imperfections into that perfect church.
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So I'm not saying the church is perfect, but I'm saying it's God's church and he calls us to be a part of it.
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Are there bad churches and bad leaders? Yes.
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Avoid them.
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Mark them out.
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Call them by name.
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If you've got a church that's supporting men like Kenneth Copeland, if you've got a church that's supporting men like Todd White, if you've got a church who's supporting men like, well, I've got a list.
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Don't go there.
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Those men are false.
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Their teaching is false.
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You say, well, how do I know to trust you? We have a longstanding policy in this church.
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At least this is my personal policy and I think the other elders would agree.
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And that's this.
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Shepherds smell like sheep.
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You will know who we are if you be here long enough.
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You're going to know who, and you'll know who I am because I don't put on any pretenses.
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Neither do they.
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I don't put on a church face.
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I just act like I act because you can't trust someone you don't know.
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Years ago, I was meeting with a pastor and he was going through a terrible time at his church.
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We were in a pastor's forum meeting, Tim, you remember those? And we were there, and this was about 10 years ago, and I remember him saying, I just don't know what's wrong.
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I'm having these problems.
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And I looked at him, and I was young, and I just looked at him and I said, do your people trust you? He said, nobody's ever asked me that.
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I said, well, if they don't, they ain't going to listen to anything you say.
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Now, somebody would say, I don't have to trust you.
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I have to trust Jesus.
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Don't do that.
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Don't be that holier-than-thou right now.
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Stop and think about what you just said.
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Nobody here is telling you not to trust Jesus.
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Trust Jesus first, trust Jesus most, trust Jesus only, yes.
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But if you can't trust the leaders, you don't belong in the church.
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The Bible calls the elders to be faithful men.
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We're supposed to be men who can be trusted, to have integrity, preach the truth, recognize our own errors, and repent when necessary.
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And if ever comes a time where I'm not that man, get rid of me and find somebody who will.
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Now, I want to say this clearly.
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Even though I've expressed the importance of church membership today, I'm not saying that you have to be a member of a local church to be saved.
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But I will say this, and listen close.
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The Bible says Christ knows those who are his.
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If you are his, you are part of his body.
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You were made part of his body by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
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That's how you were saved.
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That's how you made part of his body.
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But if you are part of his body, you should want to be part of the local body.
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You should want to be in a community where you use your spiritual gifts.
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You should want to be in fellowship with other brothers and sisters in Christ.
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You should want the leadership of qualified men.
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And if you don't want that, there is a problem.
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It's either a problem in your own heart, maybe you're just not saved yet.
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Or maybe it's a problem in your understanding of what the church is all about.
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If you are a believer and you cannot submit yourself to covenant membership in a local church, there is something wrong in your soul.
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And if you're a believer and you can't commit to covenant membership here, then find somewhere you can.
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Don't be an ecclesiastical hitchhiker.
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Now, I just mentioned something, I'm going to close with this.
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Maybe you're not a believer.
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I want you to know this.
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If you are not yet a believer, I want you here.
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Mike wants you here.
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Every one of us wants you here.
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But membership is for believers because membership includes that right there, which is what we're fixing to do.
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And if you are not a believer, you don't get to do this.
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Because the Bible says this is for those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Now, we allow non-members to do this, but we say this, you have to be in good fellowship with another local church.
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Or you have to be seeking membership in this church, or you have to be in good standing.
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If you are outside of good standing with a local church, if you're under church discipline, you say, what is church discipline? I've never heard of church discipline.
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That's another way I could preach this sermon.
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Because church discipline is this.
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If a person in a church continues to commit habitual unrepentant sin, then the church as a body is to come together and remove that person.
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And how can the church have any ecclesiastical authority if there's no membership to where we can determine who is and who is not a member? So anybody who says church members on biblical day, they just don't know the Bible.
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And they don't understand the importance of what it means to be in a covenant relationship with a local body.
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And if you're a believer and you're not yet a part of this church, you are welcome here.
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If you're not a believer, understand this.
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You will one day stand before the Lord.
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And when you stand before the Lord, the only thing that's going to matter at that moment is where you stood with Christ.
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Now, you might say, you just talked about church membership.
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Yes, I did.
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And church membership is important as a believer.
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But if you're not a believer, the one thing you need to be concerned about right now is where you stand with Christ, not the church.
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Because once you come to Christ, then we can talk about the church.
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But you have to first repent of your sin and trust in Jesus.
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If you're outside of Christ today, understand this.
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There's only one person who can save you.
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And it's not me and it ain't Mike and it ain't Andy.
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It's the Lord Jesus Christ.
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The Bible says there's one name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
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And if you are outside of Jesus Christ, then you stand guilty of your sin and you're going to stand before God under his condemnation.
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But if you receive Christ, the Bible says Christ forgives us through his blood.
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Our sin is attributed to him, his righteousness given to us.
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So I ask you today, are you outside of Christ? The Bible says today is the day of salvation.
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You may not get tomorrow.
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You may not get next week.
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You may not get next month.
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You have today to make it right with God.
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You say, how do I do that? You repent of your sins and you trust in him.
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And if you've done that and you're still outside the body, there's no reason for that.
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Come, be part of the church.
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Because this is what Christ established for the blessing and building up of his people.
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Let's pray.
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Father, I thank you for your word, for your church, and for your son.
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Your son came and said that he will build his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
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Lord, give us the strength.
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Give us the wisdom to lead your church in the way that you have called us to.
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I pray for our elders, Lord, that you would bless them to lead.
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I pray for our congregation that we would all, Lord, submit one to another as unto the Lord.
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And pray that you would be glorified.
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And all that we do, I pray it in Jesus' name.
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Amen.