5 Marks of a Healthy Church

Laurel Bible Church

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Good morning. Good morning. I hope everyone is doing well this morning.

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It's a joy to be with you. It truly is. I was very honored that Pastor Rob wanted me to come and fill the pulpit for him.

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I've gotten to know him a little bit over the last few months and I'm very, very impressed with him.

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I'm very impressed with him. I think that you will be in very good hands once Pastor Rob is here.

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He's a really, really good guy. Loves the Lord. Loves his word. Cares about doctrine and theology. Cares about the truth.

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And so I think you'll be in really, really good hands. I'm very excited that Pastor Rob is going to be here.

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Let's go to the Lord in a word of prayer and we will begin. Father, we are grateful that you have given us this time to gather together around your word.

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We pray that your word will have its intended result.

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We know that it will not return void, so we pray that it will accomplish the task that you have given to it.

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We pray that it would find good purchase in the soil of our hearts, that it would bear good fruit, good and lasting fruit.

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May our hearts and minds be conformed to your word, all for the glory of Christ Jesus, our

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King. And it is in his name that we pray. Amen. Amen. I invite you to take your copy of God's word and open to 1

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Timothy chapter 3. 1 Timothy chapter 3. This is a message

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I have entitled quite simply, Five Marks of a Healthy Church. Pastor Rob has not asked me to preach on this or any of this.

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This was completely my idea. He gave me complete reign, but I thought that this might be a helpful message for you as a local body of believers in this time of transition as you are eagerly awaiting

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Pastor Rob and his family's arrival in this time of transition. So, just kind of a topical message here, but Five Marks of a

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Healthy Church. I am not going to fully exposit 1 Timothy 3, but this will kind of be our jumping off point.

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1 Timothy chapter 3, beginning in verse 14, the Apostle Paul, writing under the inspiration of the

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Holy Spirit of God, says this, I am writing these things to you, hoping to come to you soon, but in case

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I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, the pillar and support of the truth.

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The Apostle Paul is writing to Timothy, a man who is converted under Paul's preaching.

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Timothy was converted as an older teenager, probably around 17 or 18 years of age, maybe 16, but in that neighborhood.

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And then some 15 years later, Timothy is serving as pastor in Ephesus.

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And it's kind of interesting, we hear that verse, Paul says to Timothy, let no one despise you for your youth.

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We think of Timothy as being a teenager, but by that time, Timothy was a man in his early 30s.

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And so he was serving as pastor of Ephesus, and Paul is writing to him to help him navigate some issues that the church in Ephesus was facing.

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False teachers, false doctrine, prayer, roles of women in the church, qualification for elders and deacons, honoring widows, and just general instructions necessary for a healthy church.

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So we see from this text, there is a way in which we as believers ought to conduct ourselves in the house of God, the church.

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The church is Christ's creation. He created it, he purchased it with his own blood.

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He gets to decide what a church is, what a church does, and how it is to function.

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He has not left these things up to us. He gives us all of these instructions.

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It is his church, his creation. He gets to decide how it is to function. And so I want us to look now at five marks of a healthy church.

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And I think you have there in your outline those five points, and so I encourage you to follow along and take notes as you're able to do so, kind of fill in the blanks there.

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Five marks of a healthy church. Number one, a sheep -centered ecclesiology. Number two, word -centered preaching.

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Number three, a biblical leadership structure. Number four, sound doctrine. And number five, church discipline.

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And we will work our way through these. So the first mark of a healthy church, a sheep -centered ecclesiology.

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A sheep -centered ecclesiology. Now ecclesiology, that's a big word, but it really just simply means the study of the church.

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So a sheep -centered ecclesiology means, quite simply, that churches are to be centered around the sheep, not the goats.

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Dear friends, a church is not for lost people. A church is not for the goats, it is for the sheep.

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If you get this wrong, you get pretty much everything else wrong. A church, by definition, is comprised of people who have been born again, called by God's grace into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.

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Sadly, that is not the predominant model for the vast majority of churches today.

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The vast majority of evangelical churches today are geared around the goats, not the sheep.

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They are designed to attract the world into the church, but it is not really designed and comprised of sheep.

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They want to bring the lost people into the world. Of course, to do that, you're going to have to make your church look like the world to attract the world, right?

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This is nothing new. This goes back decades. Robert Schuller, some of you know that name.

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Robert Schuller was the pioneer in the seeker -sensitive model to doing church, the attractional model of doing church.

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Robert Schuller began by having a drive -in church. He had this enormous parking lot, and people would literally drive into this church, and they would park there.

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He had a platform in the front, and he would preach, quote -unquote. At one point, they had about 500 cars that would come in on a weekly basis on Sunday mornings, and people never even got out of their cars.

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They were doing social distancing before social distancing was even a thing. He later built the

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Crystal Cathedral. The Hour of Power was a long, long -running television show.

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Schuller was known for saying this, quote, Jesus met needs before touting creeds.

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He met needs before touting creeds. In other words, what was really important is not doctrine, not theology, just meeting people's felt needs.

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He was known for preaching on self -esteem. That was the predominant theme of his ministry.

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His seminal best -selling book was titled Self -Esteem, the

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New Reformation. Self -esteem, the New Reformation. Let me quote to you

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Robert Schuller. He said, quote, sin is any act or thought that robs myself or another human being of his or her self -esteem.

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Sin is being robbed of your self -esteem. That's what he thought sin was. That is a stunningly unbiblical view of sin.

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The Bible describes sin as transgression of God's law. When we sin, that sin incurs his righteous wrath, and his wrath must be satisfied either in the person and work of Christ on the cross or by us for all of eternity as we perish in the lake of fire.

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That's what sin is, but not according to Robert Schuller. Sin is simply losing your self -esteem. I'll never forget one morning

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I was watching him on television, and he said, and I quote, when

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Jesus was on the cross, he lost his self -esteem. Unbelievable.

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And then he said, Jesus died on the cross to forgive you of the greatest sin of all, not believing in yourself.

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Not believing in yourself. That is the greatest sin of all. He was known for conducting door -to -door research in the community, asking people what they wanted in a church.

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He would literally go up to lost people in a community and ask them, do you go to church? And if you don't, what would get you to go to church?

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And if you did go to church, what would you want in a church? He would ask lost people what they wanted in a church.

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Dear friends, lost people have, they have no desire for church, not for true church.

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Asking a lost person what he or she wants in a church is about like asking me what I want in a pair of running shoes.

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I don't care. I don't have any interest. He founded the

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Church Growth Institute, and the Church Growth Institute was to train pastors and aspiring pastors as to how to do church and follow his model.

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Robert Shuler said this, hell is the loss of pride that naturally follows separation from God.

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Hell is the loss of pride. The Bible has a lot to say about pride, and none of it is good.

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But according to Robert Shuler, that's what hell is, is losing pride. Unbelievable. One of his star students was a young man at the time by the name of Rick Warren.

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His wife came. They were students of Robert Shuler. Rick Warren, of course, is the author of Purpose Driven Life and Purpose Driven Church.

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Rick Warren, his book Purpose Driven Life starts out famously with this sentence, first sentence in the book.

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It's not about you. That's the first sentence in the Purpose Driven Life. And then the entirety of the rest of the book is all about you.

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It's all about you. Rick Warren said, quote, much in the vein of Robert Shuler, he says, quote, for me, hell would be if God showed me all he could have done in my life if I had just trusted him a little bit more.

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That's what hell is, according to Rick Warren. Just seeing what he has missed out on, if he had just trusted

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God a little bit more. Dear friends, that is not what hell is. Hell is a very real place, the lake of fire, where the fire will not be quenched, the worm will not die, the full undiluted fury of God's wrath will be poured out on the ungodly forever and ever, and it will never end.

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That's what hell is, but not according to Rick Warren, because you see, according to the attractional model to doing church, seeker sensitive, lost people don't want to hear about such things, so we've got to water it down.

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We've got to dilute it, in fact, completely change the Bible. Rick Warren says, and I quote, we should study our community and target our audience geographically, demographically, culturally, and spiritually.

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He says that evangelism should, quote, make the gospel as easy and attractive as possible.

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Make the gospel easy, make it attractive, make it fun. He says we are to, quote, create a service, church service, that is intentionally designed for your members to bring their friends to.

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Make the service so attractive, so appealing, and relevant to the unchurched that your members are eager to share it with the lost people they care about.

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So make church fun, make it entertaining, to attract worldly people.

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Well, to attract worldly people, you're going to have to have a worldly, quote, unquote, church.

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He said the music style should reflect that which is the preference of the community in which it is.

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So whatever the world is listening to in music, that's how the music should be in church. Quite famously or infamously, several years ago,

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Perry Noble, a pastor in South Carolina, performed, had his church sing on Resurrection Sunday morning, no less,

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Easter Sunday morning, sang Highway to Hell as one of their worship songs.

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This is the attractional model. Rick Shuler, excuse me, Robert Shuler and Rick Warren started this.

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Rick Warren, I quote again, says this, quote, the preaching should focus on those passages that require no previous understanding of the text, and they should show the benefits of knowing

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Christ. In other words, Jesus will make your life better. Jesus will enhance your life.

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He'll give you your purpose -driven life. He'll make your life better. That's why you should come to know

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Jesus. Life enhancement. Dear friends, the true gospel, the true message of Jesus is not self -fulfillment, it is self -denial.

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Number of years ago, I was watching the show on Fox News that at the time was called

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Hannity and Combs, Sean Hannity and Alan Combs. Alan Combs is dead now, but Alan Combs was the liberal.

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He was the liberal to Sean Hannity, the conservative. Alan Combs was a Jew. In one of their programs they had

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Rick Warren in as their guest, had him on the set. Alan Combs asked

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Rick Warren this question. He said, Rick, I'm a Jew. What about me?

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I don't believe in Jesus. What happens to me? And Rick Warren responded with this.

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He said, well, Alan, try Jesus for 60 days. Try Jesus for 60 days and see if he won't make your life better.

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This is the man who has sometimes been called America's pastor. In his response to a direct question from a

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Jew, what happens to me? And his response is, try Jesus for 60 days, like he's a weight loss program.

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It's unbelievable, unbelievable. But the

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Purpose Driven Life and the Purpose Driven Church have been two of the most influential books in all of evangelicalism in the last two decades, tragically, tragically.

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This is the seeker -sensitive approach to doing church. Dear friends, this is far into the

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Word of God. This is far into the Word of God. If you make church fun, if you make it entertaining, you've got to make it look like the world to attract the world.

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And that is not how the Bible describes church. What is the church?

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Dear friends, a church is not a business group. It's not a social group.

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And though there is one political party that a thinking Christian could never support, the

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Democratic Party, because the Democratic Party has literally enshrined the sins of Romans chapter 1 into its platform, could never support that party.

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But that having been said, a church is not a political party. A church is a group of people called out by God's sovereign grace for His own possession.

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A church is a group of people called out by God's sovereign grace for His own possession.

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In fact, the very word church, ecclesia, literally means the called out ones, those who have been called out of the world into the kingdom of God, out of darkness into light.

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So what does a church do? A church worships God. That's what we do as a church.

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We worship God. And unbelievers, by definition, cannot worship because they don't know

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God. You cannot worship whom you do not know. So a church worships

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God. A church is only for believers, to equip the saints for the work of the ministry.

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To equip the saints. Now, do not misunderstand me. Am I saying we should not invite our lost friends or family members to church?

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No, I am perfectly fine with that. I do that myself all the time. Yes, invite people to church.

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Don't do that as a replacement for personal evangelism though. But yes, certainly invite people, lost people to church.

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And the prayer is, is that they will hear the gospel and be converted. But please understand that a church is not for lost people.

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A church is comprised of the sheep. A church worships God. Stephen Furtick, another pastor in North Carolina, says that he wants, quote, a church for the unchurched.

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A church for the unchurched is a contradiction in terms. It's nonsensical. It's as meaningless.

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To say I want a church for the unchurched is as meaningless as saying I want to have a square circle.

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It doesn't make any sense. But to have a church for the unchurched, quote, unquote, you're going to have to keep the teaching shallow, avoid doctrine, avoid theology, don't talk about things like wrath or repentance or self -denial.

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Don't talk about those things because the world doesn't want to hear those things, so you can't talk about them. Don't talk about doctrine and theology.

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And yet, the Apostle Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, says this to Timothy.

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He says, pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching. Persevere in these things, for as you do this, you will save both yourself and those who hear you.

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Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching, to your doctrine.

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True churches care about doctrine, care about theology. Besides all of this, dear friends, when it comes to the seeker -sensitive approach to doing church, we need to keep in mind that there are no seekers.

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There is only one seeker, and that is God. Romans 3, verses 10 -11,

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Paul writes, there is none righteous, not even one. There is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God.

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There is none who seeks for God. None. Now, there are a lot of people out there that want to, they're seeking after a

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God, they want to scratch their religious itch, but they're not seeking after the true

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God. Lots of people are seeking after false gods and false Jesuses, but they're not seeking after the true

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God. There is only one seeker, and that is God, who seeks those to worship

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Him in spirit and in truth. Now, I suppose if you want to find a seeker, pigeonhole a seeker into the

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Scripture somewhere, you could go to Mark, chapter 10. Mark, chapter 10, verses 17 -21.

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The rich young ruler, and this rich young ruler, as we often call him, runs up to Jesus, and he says, good teacher, what must

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I do to inherit eternal life? So if you want to try to find a seeker in the

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New Testament, I suppose you could say that the rich young ruler in Mark, chapter 10, was one. Good teacher, what must

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I do to inherit eternal life? What did Jesus say? Oh, young man,

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I'm so glad you came up to me. That's such a good question. I'll tell you what, you look tired. Let me pull up a chair for you and, you know, take a load off.

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Can I get you a cup of coffee? How can I make your life better? What can

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I do for you? How can I enhance your life? Tell me, what are your felt needs?

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No. Jesus cited to him the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments.

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You know the commandments. Do not murder. Do not commit adultery. Do not defraud.

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Honor your father and your mother. And then the rich young ruler, because he had been taught these things, there was an instant kind of initial impulse of familiarity, and he said, oh, yeah, yeah, teacher,

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I've kept all these things from my youth up. He thought he had, but he really hadn't because none of us has done that.

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All of us are sinners. And he said, one thing you lack, go and sell everything you have, give to the poor, and then come follow me.

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Now, Jesus was not teaching, of course, a work salvation, but what he was doing, he was zeroing in on the one thing in that man's life that was the most important thing to him, his wealth, and he said, get rid of it.

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That thing that is so important to you, that thing that is keeping you from serving God, get rid of it.

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And then come, follow me. Oh, Jesus, that's not very seeker friendly,

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Jesus. John chapter 21, verses 18 through 19,

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Jesus speaking to Peter says this, truly, truly, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished, but when you grow old,

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Peter, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will gird you and bring you where you do not wish to go.

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And this Jesus said signifying by what kind of death he would glorify

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God. And then Jesus said to Peter, follow me.

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You want to talk about a seeker insensitive message? Try that one on for size.

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Try a message like that. If you want to come to know Christ, deny yourself, take up your cross, in other words, be willing to die, because your faith in Christ, your obedience to Christ will result in your persecution.

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Come, follow me. Let me tell you something, dear friends. Jesus would have flunked church growth evangelism, the class that I took in seminary.

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He would have flunked it. That is about the most seeker insensitive message you could possibly tell.

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And people say, well, lost people don't want to hear that message.

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That'll push them away. You know what? It will. That kind of message, that kind of hard preaching, that kind of true representation of the gospel, not self -fulfillment but self -denial, that will repel the goats.

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But you know who it's going to attract? It's going to attract the sheep. It's going to draw the sheep, because it is only sheep that will respond to that message.

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Goats aren't going to respond to that. Goats will be repelled by that, but it will draw the sheep.

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A few years ago, Kathy and I were living in Idaho, Sandpoint, Idaho. And when we moved into this particular neighborhood, we met this couple in the neighborhood.

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I have a scooter, and I would ride my scooter all over the neighborhood, meeting people and walking the dog, but getting to meet people.

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And I met this neighbor of ours named Jim and Sherry Skeen. And neither one of them were believers.

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And I began to befriend them, and I shared the gospel with them many, many, many times.

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Kathy did as well, as we got to know them. And Jim had some kind of a nominal, like religious of sorts background, but not a believer.

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Sherry, however, his wife, had absolutely no understanding of the Bible at all.

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When I met Sherry, she didn't even know that there was an Old and New Testament. I mean, she was a blank slate.

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She knew nothing. But we began to share the gospel with them. And then one day,

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Sherry asked if she could go to church with us. And of course, we took her.

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And we were going to Kootenai Community Church. And Kootenai Community Church, pastored by Jim Osmond, is an old seeker -friendly, happy, clappy church.

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Solid preaching, convicting preaching. And that particular Sunday that Sherry was there was a communion

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Sunday. We did the Lord's Supper. And so they began to pass around the plates of the crackers.

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And Sherry didn't know what that was. And Sherry was sitting next to Kathy. And Sherry asked

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Kathy, she said, what is that? And Kathy said, well, can I do this? And Kathy said, no, you can't.

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I'll explain to you later. So the service came to a close. And after the service,

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Sherry asked Kathy, why couldn't I participate in that? And Kathy explained to her, she said,

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Sherry, you're not a Christian. And if you were to die today, you would spend eternity in hell.

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But Kathy gave her the gospel. Now that might seem like, oh, that's kind of harsh.

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That's kind of offensive. No, the truth is love. Kathy did the most loving thing she could do for Sherry.

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Gave her the truth. And you know what? The next Sunday, Sherry came back. And the next

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Sunday, Sherry came back. And the next, and the next, and the next. Now if Sherry had just wanted to scratch her religious itch, there's any number of happy, clappy churches in the community she could have gone to.

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But she kept coming back to our church. And somewhere along that way, you know what happened?

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God saved her. God saved her. And her life was completely changed.

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She began to have a hunger for the word of God and for the truth. And she started soaking it up like a sponge.

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And she was baptized. And then just, just about a year or so after her baptism, about a year and a half after her baptism, she died of cancer.

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Sherry's in heaven now. You see, the truth didn't push her away.

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It drew her. Why? Because Sherry was a lost sheep who heard the voice of the shepherd,

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John 10, 27, and went to him. A sheep -centered ecclesiology.

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Second mark of a healthy church. Second mark of a healthy church. Word -centered preaching.

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Word -centered preaching. Look with me in 2 Timothy chapter 2, excuse me, 2

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Timothy chapter 4 verses 1 through 2. 2 Timothy 4 verses 1 through 2.

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Paul says, I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing in his kingdom, preach the word.

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Preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction.

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Preach the word. A healthy church will be marked by word -centered preaching.

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Expository preaching. Expository preaching simply means that we take the word of God and we exposit it.

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We expose the meaning of the text. As opposed to what most churches do, topical preaching.

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You know, how to have healthy relationships. How to have, you know, a good family.

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How to excel in your work. And they'll take a few, they'll take these different topics and they'll cherry -pick a few verses here and there and kind of isogete it, you know, make those verses fit whatever they're wanting to say.

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That's topical preaching and that's not, that's not, that should not be the diet of a church.

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The standard diet of a church needs to be expositional preaching. When you take the word of God and you go verse by verse and you exposit the text, you expose the meaning of the text.

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Expository preaching is not about style. It's not about whether or not the preacher is animated.

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It's not about whether he's monotone or expressive. Expository preaching is not simply that scripture is referenced on occasion.

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Joel Osteen is about the furthest thing from an expository preacher as you can get, but Joel Osteen will reference one or two verses in his sermons.

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Completely gets the meaning wrong 100 % of the time, but he'll reference scripture. That's not expository preaching.

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Expository preaching is not how many verses are handled. Expository preaching is when the text is king.

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The text is king. Expository preaching exposes the meaning of the text.

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The meaning of the text is the meaning of the sermon. The text determines both the content and the direction.

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Let me give you an example of the difference. John 10 .27, our reference says, excuse me a second ago, my sheep hear my voice.

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I know them and they follow me. A topical preacher would say, this is how to hear the voice of God on a regular basis.

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My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. That's about us hearing God speak to us on a regular basis, but an expositional preacher, as he's going through this verse by verse, it will be very clear that that is not the meaning of John 10 .27

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at all because in context, John 10 is talking about the shepherd calling lost sheep to himself in salvation, in regeneration, in the new birth.

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It is the effectual call of the gospel. Before our conversion, we are lost sheep, but then one day we hear as it were the voice of the shepherd and he calls us in salvation.

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Expository preaching will expose that true meaning of the text. Expository preaching rightly robs the preacher of any personal agenda in any preconceived theology.

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Number three. Number three, third mark of a healthy church, a biblical leadership structure.

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A biblical leadership structure. Let me give you a definition of biblical eldership.

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The Bible describes and prescribes that churches are to be led by elders.

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Let me give you a definition of this. Biblical eldership is defined as the following.

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A biblically qualified council of men who jointly pastor the local church.

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A biblically qualified council of men who jointly pastor the local church.

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Every word of that definition is important. Elders are to be men who meet biblical qualifications, biblical, biblically qualified council of men who jointly together pastor, shepherd the local church.

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Dear friends, God has not left it to our own imagination as how his church is to be organized.

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It is his blood bought church. He purchased it with his own blood. Acts chapter 20 verse 28.

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He gets to call the shots, not us. It is his body, his bride, his temple.

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It is for his glory to accomplish his purposes. He has not left it to our own imagination as to how to do church.

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Most evangelical churches sadly are modeled roughly after the American United States Constitution.

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The United States Constitution, our government, we've got three branches of government, legislative, judicial, and executive.

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There's checks and balances, at least theoretically. You've got a nominating procedure and you've got committees and you've got proposals that are voted on by the, in our church, in our example here, by the congregation.

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Most churches are kind of roughly modeled after the United States Constitution in our form of government.

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We vote on things. Hey, it works for the good old red, white, and blue, so why shouldn't it work for church?

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The problem is that that's not biblical. Dear friends, a church is not supposed to look like a government.

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A church is not a democracy. A church is not a business. A church is distinctly different.

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It is unique A church is unlike any other organization on the face of the planet.

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A church is to be infused with the DNA of Jesus Christ. It's supposed to look different.

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It's not supposed to look like the world. Scripture establishes for the church a plurality of elders, a plurality of elders, not that decisions are to be made simply by a majority vote in the congregation.

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As I've traveled around the world, I've been in hundreds of different churches, I see God's wisdom in this because even the best of churches, even the best of churches are comprised of a mixture of wheat and tares.

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Every church, you have, I mean the ideal is for everyone to be converted, but in every church, you will have false professors of Christ.

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Some of them don't even know that they're not yet converts. And that kind of, the percentage will vary from church to church, but every church has some unregenerate people in it.

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So if you leave it up to just a congregational vote, we're going to vote on something and majority rules, well you've got unregenerate people voting on something about the life of the local body of believers.

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That's not wise. That leads to disaster. The Bible has described and prescribed a plurality of elders.

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Let me give you a few examples of this, and you can write the references down. Acts chapter 14, verse 23.

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Acts 14, verse 23. And when they had appointed elders, plural, for them in every church, having prayed with fasting, they commanded them to be, commended them to the

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Lord in whom they had believed. Acts chapter 20, verse 17. Acts 20, verse 17.

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Now from Miletus, he sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church.

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Titus chapter 1, verse 5. Titus 1, verse 5. Paul says, for this reason

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I left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I directed you.

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So in the early days of the church, you basically had one church in every city. That's why

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I said appoint elders in every city. The church of Rome, the church in Ephesus, church of Laodicea.

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You know, appoint elders in every city as I directed you. A biblically qualified council of men who jointly pastor the local church.

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Plurality of elders. Now, this term elders, in the

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Greek is the word presbuteros. And there's three different terms that the Bible uses for elders, pastors, and overseers.

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And I want to show you that these three words are interchangeable in the New Testament. An elder, presbuteros, this word signifies the dignity that comes with that office of being an elder, the maturity, the honor that comes along with it, the wisdom.

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That's presbuteros, elder. Overseer in the Greek is the word episkopos. Episkopos stresses the work of oversight and administration of the church.

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And then you have the word shepherd, poimain in the Greek. Poimain stresses the function and work of shepherding.

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Shepherding the local body. Feeding the local body. The truth of God's word.

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Protecting the local body from the wolves. That's the work of a shepherd.

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An elder, overseer, and shepherd, these three words are used interchangeably in the

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New Testament. For example, Acts chapter 20 verse 17 and verse 28 says this.

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Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church. And then verse 28, be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock among which the

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Holy Spirit has made you overseers, episkopos, to shepherd, poimain, the church of God which he purchased with his own blood.

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So here you see these three terms and they are used interchangeably, right? First Peter chapter 5 verses 1 through 2.

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First Peter 5, 1 through 2. The apostle Peter says this. Therefore I exhort the elders, presbuteroi, plural, presbuteroi.

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I exhort the elders among you as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed.

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Shepherd, poimain, the flock of God among you exercising oversight, episkopos, not under compulsion but voluntarily according to the will of God and not for sordid gain but with eagerness.

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So here in this text you see these three terms, presbuteroi, episkopos, and poimain and they are used interchangeably.

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So in other words, an elder is an overseer, an overseer is an elder, a shepherd is an overseer, a shepherd is an elder, an elder is a shepherd.

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You see these words are used interchangeably. They mean the same thing. Stress different functions but they mean the same thing.

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And scripture gives us qualifications for elders of a local church and those qualifications are found in First Timothy chapter 3 verses 1 through 7.

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First Timothy 3, 1 through 7 and Titus chapter 1 verses 5 through 9. An elder of a church is a man who is to be above reproach, husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach doctrine, not addicted to wine, gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money, and one who manages his own household well.

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Those are the qualifications of an elder. Being an elder is not a popularity contest.

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A man has to meet these requirements in order to be an elder. I want us to look at the fruit of the plurality of elders.

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The wisdom of God in having a plurality, more than one elder in each local church.

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A plurality of elders provides a few things. Number one, it provides accountability.

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When you have a plurality of elders, no single man runs the church.

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When we were at Kootenai Community Church, we had four elders there.

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Jim Osman is a primary preaching and teaching elder. It's perfectly natural and it will be the case here that amongst the elders, you have one man that is the primary preaching and teaching elder.

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And Jim Osman is at Kootenai Community Church so he would be the pastor of that church.

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But there's three other elders and they have just as much say so in the affairs of the church as does

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Jim, even though he's the one that's usually behind the pulpit. A shared responsibility and accountability.

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A shared workload. Each elder operates in his particular area of giftedness.

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Jim Osman's giftedness is in preaching and teaching. Rob Kimsey's giftedness will be in preaching and teaching.

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He will be the one, most of the time, behind the pulpit. But a plurality of elders helps these men to share the workload and each man can function more freely in the area in which he is primarily gifted.

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A plurality of elders also provides stability among the leadership. Stability means

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I've traveled around the world. I've been in hundreds of churches and, dear friends, I see the wisdom of God in describing and prescribing a plurality of elders in the church.

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I see the wisdom of God in that. And it's a beautiful thing to see. A beautiful thing to see.

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And there are also, of course, deacons in the church. Deacons. And a deacon must also be a man and he must meet most of the same qualifications that an elder does.

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Qualifications of a deacon are found in 1 Timothy 3, verses 8 -10. And a deacon must also be one who is not addicted to wine, must be peaceable, not a lover of money.

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But the deacons in the church are primarily servants. And that's what the word deacon, diakonos, means.

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It means a servant. It is an office in the church and the deacons are primarily servants to the physical needs of the body in the church.

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We see the birth of deacons, I believe, in Acts chapter 6 when there was a need for the widows and the believers got together and they decided, well, we need to choose six men to help with the administration of the needs of the widows.

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And I think Acts chapter 6 is when we see the birth of the deacons. So the elders are more the spiritual leadership and the deacons are the servants in the church.

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But they must meet almost the exact same qualifications. Fourth mark of a healthy church.

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Fourth mark of a healthy church. Sound doctrine. Sound doctrine. Dear friends, we live in a day and age today in which the terms doctrine and theology have almost become bad words.

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There's a palpable disdain amongst so many professing believers when it comes to doctrine and theology.

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And you may have heard someone say something kind of like this, well, I don't need doctrine.

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I don't need theology. I just love Jesus. That is a foolish thing to say because it is sound doctrine.

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It is right theology that deepens our knowledge of God. And when our knowledge of God is deepened, that enables our love for God to be deepened.

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You show me a church that has weak doctrine, I'll show you a church that has weak love.

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Show me a church with weak doctrine, I'll show you a church with weak, if any, love. Doctrine and theology and love are not opposed to each other.

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They're complementary. In fact, Paul says in Philippians chapter 1 verse 9, he says, in this

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I pray that your love would abound still more and more in knowledge and discernment.

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You see, the Bible never separates knowledge of God and love for God. It always combines these things.

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So a healthy church will be marked by sound doctrine. First Timothy chapter 4 verse 6,

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Paul says this, in pointing out these things to the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following.

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Chapter 6 verses 3 through 4, 1 Timothy, Paul says, if anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our

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Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing.

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With the doctrine conforming to godliness. Let me meddle here just a little bit, because there's something that I've noticed in our theological circles who have a high view of the sovereignty of God.

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And they'll have right doctrine, they'll have good theology, but when you look at their lives, there's very little sanctification.

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Some people in our circles, they talk about the sovereignty of God and that's good, but then they'll also engage in coarse jesting, filthy talk, there's no holiness in their lives.

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Dear friends, let me say something. You can have sound doctrine, you can have intellectual sound doctrine and not have a holy life, and that's tragic.

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But what you cannot have, you cannot have true holiness apart from sound doctrine.

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Does that make sense? You can have sound doctrine and not holiness, you can just have a head full of knowledge that has not penetrated your heart, but you cannot have holiness apart from sound doctrine.

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Paul says the doctrine conforming to godliness, true doctrine, sound doctrine must always result in personal holiness.

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Paul says in Titus chapter 1 verse 9 that the elders are to teach sound doctrine and refute those who contradict.

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Teach sound doctrine and refute those who contradict. A lot of people say, yeah, yeah, let's teach good theology but let's not ever call someone out as a false teacher.

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Don't refute those who contradict. Dear friends, it's not an either or, it's a both and.

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A true church will teach sound doctrine and refute those who contradict it. 26 of the 27 books in the

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New Testament directly warn about false doctrine and or false teachers. Only the short little book of Philemon has nothing to say about that, at least not directly.

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But warning about false doctrine and false teaching, that is a prominent theme in the

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New Testament. And a biblically qualified man serving as pastor will do both.

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He will teach sound doctrine and refute those who contradict. Fifth mark of a healthy church, fifth mark of a healthy church is church discipline, church discipline.

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What is church discipline? That is something that hardly any churches do but flip over with me in your

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Bibles to Matthew chapter 18. Matthew 18 verses 15 through 20.

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Jesus says, and if your brother sins, go and reprove him in private.

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If he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed.

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And if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a

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Gentile and a tax collector. Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven.

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Whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by my

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Father who is in heaven for where two or three have gathered together in my name, there I am in their midst.

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How many times have we heard that verse used out of context? Where two or three are gathered together.

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We have more than two or three gathered here so we know Jesus is with us. I cannot tell you how many times

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I heard that growing up as a kid in a Southern Baptist church used usually for Wednesday night prayer meeting.

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We'd gather together for a meal and then have prayer meeting, prayer requests. I can't tell you how many times I heard the pastor say, where two or three are gathered together.

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We have more than two or three here. We know that Jesus is here with us. And I can remember always wondering, what about when

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I'm by myself? You know, is Jesus not there when I'm just by myself?

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Do I have to have two or three gathered together? If that's never made sense, it's because that verse has been so often used out of context.

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The two or three gathered together refers to the one or two that you take with you on step two of church discipline.

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So in other words, and this is not a full exposition of Matthew 18 here, but when a person in your local body of believers, your local church, is in some serious, habitual, unrepentant sin, then you need to go to that person and confront that person privately.

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And Jesus says, if he listens to you, wonderful, praise the Lord. You have won your brother.

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Don't talk about it anymore. Don't talk about it anymore. Don't show up to Sunday school the next

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Sunday morning and Sunday school teacher says, well, does anybody have any prayer requests or praise reports? Ooh, ooh, me.

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I have a praise report. I went and I confronted Billy Bob in his sin this week and he repented.

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Let me tell you what he repented of. No. It's over.

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Done. You've won your brother. Don't talk about it anymore. It's done. But if he doesn't listen to you, then you take one or two more with you and you go back to Billy Bob and you confront him again.

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And if he listens to you, wonderful, praise the Lord. You have won your brother. Don't talk about it anymore.

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But if he doesn't listen to you, then step three, you tell it to the church.

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Whoa, wait a minute. You mean you get up on Sunday morning and you tell it to the whole church?

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That's right. That's what you do. Do you know that this is the very first command that Jesus gave to his church?

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Bible trivia for you. The very first command that Jesus gave to his church is right here in his church discipline.

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Just as much a command as is the Lord's Supper and Believer's Baptism. Just as much a command.

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And yet hardly any churches do this because it's hard. It's uncomfortable.

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The goal of church discipline is not to get someone kicked out of the church. That's not the goal. It might come to that, but that's not the goal.

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The goal of church discipline is to bring a sinning brother or sister in Christ to a place of repentance.

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And that fellowship, that relationship is then restored and they're back in a right relationship with the local body of believers.

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That's what you want. That's what church discipline is designed to do. But if that person refuses to repent, then you have to treat him as a

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Gentile or a tax collector. In other words, treat him as an outsider. Very first command that Jesus gave to his church.

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And yet hardly any churches do this. Hardly any do. And yet it is the first command that Jesus gave.

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So, dear friends, in conclusion, healthy churches will have all five of these marks in some measure.

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Healthy churches will have all five of them. A sheep -centered ecclesiology, word -centered preaching, a biblical leadership structure, sound doctrine in church discipline.

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Now, this is not to say that any church is perfect because no church is perfect.

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And a church can grow in these areas. A church is in periods of transition.

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Transitioning into these five marks, transitioning into a more biblical leadership structure.

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And that's good. That's good. So I'm not saying that a church cannot grow here.

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Of course churches can grow and they should grow in these areas. I'm not saying that there are any perfect churches.

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There are no perfect churches. But these are the marks towards which and for which all healthy churches should seek to strive.

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They should seek to strive. The church is his church, not ours.

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So as I close, I just want to close real quickly with the gospel. Has there been a time in your life when you have been convicted by the

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Holy Spirit of God that you are a sinner? That you have broken God's laws? All of us are liars.

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We are thieves. We have taken something that does not belong to us. We are blasphemers. We are adulterers at heart at least.

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Jesus says if you look at a woman with lust, you've committed adultery already in your heart. Dear friends, go through the

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Ten Commandments. Go through the Ten Commandments that Jesus cited to the rich young ruler and you'll see very quickly that you have not, nor have

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I truly kept all of these things from our youth up. We have all broken God's laws. And just like when we break laws on earth, there's a penalty to be paid.

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How much more so when we break the laws of God? But because we have sinned against God who is eternal and infinite, the punishment of that sin is eternal and infinite.

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And if we die in our sin, we will very rightly and very justly go to a very real place that the

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Bible calls hell, where the worm will not die. The fire will not be quenched.

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There will be wailing, weeping, gnashing of teeth. That's the bad news. That is what each and every one of us in here deserves.

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And there is no amount of good works that we can do to earn our way into heaven. We are completely helpless.

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We deserve hell. That's the bad news. But the good news is that God sent

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His Son to this earth, Jesus Christ. And Jesus lived a perfect life, never broke any of God's laws.

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Jesus lived a life of perfection to the perfect satisfaction of God the

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Father. In this perfect person, Jesus, one person with two natures, willingly laid down His life on the cross.

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His life was not taken, He gave it. And on the cross, this perfect person offered

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His perfect life as a perfect sacrifice to perfectly satisfy the perfect wrath of God.

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Died on the cross, three days later, bodily raised from the dead, proving Himself to be who

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He said He was, God in human flesh. And if you will repent of sin, turn from sin, and place your trust in the risen

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Lord Jesus Christ and what He accomplished on the cross, He will save you. He will save you.

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You will pass from death to life. If you will come to Christ seeking not only a

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Savior from hell, but also a Savior from your sin, in a true godly sorrow over your sin, when you grieve over your sin because you understand that your sin grieves

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God, if you will come to Christ grieving over your sin, seeking Him as Savior from hell, but also a

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Savior from sin, He will save you. Jesus says, the one who comes to me,

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I will in no wise cast out. Turn from sin, place your trust in Christ, He will save you.

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Let's close in order of prayer. Father, we thank you for this day.

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We thank you for your word that is sufficient for us. It is everything that we need to grow in the grace and knowledge of the

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Lord Jesus Christ. It is everything that we need to know how to do church the way you would have us do it.

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It is everything because ultimately it is all about you. It is your creation. You created it.

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You define it. You purchased it with your own blood. May we conduct ourselves in such a way that brings honor and glory to you.