1 00:00:01,560 --> 00:00:04,040 Hey everybody, this is Pastor John Ewart from Inglewood 2 00:00:04,040 --> 00:00:05,920 Baptist Church in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina. 3 00:00:05,920 --> 00:00:08,119 Thank you so much for tuning in to our podcast. 4 00:00:08,360 --> 00:00:11,320 You're going to hear from God today as we share from his word 5 00:00:11,560 --> 00:00:15,080 about important issues facing your life that can guide you 6 00:00:15,080 --> 00:00:20,560 according to the Bible. Well, good morning Inglewood. 7 00:00:22,240 --> 00:00:24,600 Take your Bibles turn to Matthew chapter 16. 8 00:00:24,600 --> 00:00:26,760 I will catch up to you momentarily. 9 00:00:26,760 --> 00:00:28,680 Good to see everybody here. Good to have guests with us. 10 00:00:28,680 --> 00:00:32,640 Thank you worship team, appreciate James and Tracy 11 00:00:32,640 --> 00:00:35,200 sharing with us. They're off to a connect group, 12 00:00:35,200 --> 00:00:38,360 I believe to share. So appreciate that so much. 13 00:00:38,360 --> 00:00:40,760 Listen, I hope you'll be back on Wednesday nights. 14 00:00:40,760 --> 00:00:44,680 We're having a good time, good sized crowd coming on Wednesday 15 00:00:44,680 --> 00:00:48,320 nights to to study in our core training series. 16 00:00:48,360 --> 00:00:51,840 If you if you want to try to understand and to deal with this 17 00:00:51,840 --> 00:00:54,520 post postmodern pre Christian culture that we live in 18 00:00:55,320 --> 00:00:58,360 apologetically, as well as to nail down what you believe. 19 00:00:58,880 --> 00:01:00,840 These next couple of Wednesday nights going to be crucial 20 00:01:00,840 --> 00:01:03,480 because we're going to talk this Wednesday night about why do I 21 00:01:03,480 --> 00:01:07,920 believe what I believe about the Bible and why does that matter? 22 00:01:08,400 --> 00:01:11,000 And to be able to articulate that to people who don't 23 00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:15,320 necessarily believe the Bible or appreciate its authority in 24 00:01:15,320 --> 00:01:18,800 their life, to be able to articulate and, and what you 25 00:01:18,800 --> 00:01:20,600 believe about this word is going to be crucial. 26 00:01:20,920 --> 00:01:23,000 Then a week from Wednesday, we're going to do the same thing 27 00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:25,240 about Jesus. What do I believe about Jesus? 28 00:01:25,240 --> 00:01:28,320 Why does that matter? How do I share that with a world 29 00:01:28,400 --> 00:01:31,280 that doesn't necessarily believe the same thing that I do? 30 00:01:31,280 --> 00:01:33,640 So come back on Wednesday nights, Look forward to that. 31 00:01:34,040 --> 00:01:36,920 Also appreciate so much. Those of you who are in Connect 32 00:01:36,920 --> 00:01:41,400 groups, you're going to be needing to select a Connect 33 00:01:41,400 --> 00:01:42,720 group. If you're a church member, 34 00:01:42,960 --> 00:01:45,400 you've got about two weeks to find your Connect group, or I'm 35 00:01:45,400 --> 00:01:48,200 going to find one for you. So hop in there. 36 00:01:49,880 --> 00:01:54,040 I'm smiling, but I ain't joking, so figure that out. 37 00:01:55,480 --> 00:01:57,680 What percentage of participation do I want? 38 00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:01,320 That's it. So thank you so much. 39 00:02:01,320 --> 00:02:03,520 I appreciate your willingness and your spirit about that. 40 00:02:03,520 --> 00:02:05,720 I appreciate the testimonies, people running up to me. 41 00:02:05,720 --> 00:02:07,040 So join a connect group this week. 42 00:02:07,520 --> 00:02:10,720 Join a connect group this week so that you make my heart warm. 43 00:02:11,200 --> 00:02:14,440 So thanks for doing that. Listen, I hope that you are as 44 00:02:14,440 --> 00:02:16,920 we were hearing in our testimony earlier, I hope that you're 45 00:02:17,320 --> 00:02:18,880 ready to move out. It's time. 46 00:02:19,280 --> 00:02:21,880 So I hope you get on board. You know, it's easy to keep the 47 00:02:21,880 --> 00:02:25,240 train on the track when it's not moving, but it just didn't go 48 00:02:25,240 --> 00:02:27,880 very far. And so we got to start putting 49 00:02:27,880 --> 00:02:30,240 some distance. I've shared with you maybe the 50 00:02:30,240 --> 00:02:32,640 first time we were ever together, notes Swahili proverb 51 00:02:32,880 --> 00:02:35,640 someone shared with me when I was in East Africa. 52 00:02:35,640 --> 00:02:38,560 But you probably know this statement. 53 00:02:38,560 --> 00:02:42,880 You may not know it's Swahili, But if you want to go far or if 54 00:02:42,880 --> 00:02:45,120 you want to go fast, let me get this right because you know it's 55 00:02:45,120 --> 00:02:48,920 in English now, maybe Oklahoma ESL student. 56 00:02:49,360 --> 00:02:52,200 So if you want to go fast, go alone. 57 00:02:52,200 --> 00:02:55,040 But if you want to go far, go together. 58 00:02:55,840 --> 00:02:58,120 And so it's time for us to join together to move forward. 59 00:02:58,120 --> 00:03:00,760 And, and in this new sermon series that I've just started, 60 00:03:01,320 --> 00:03:05,080 I'm asking a series of foundational questions about the 61 00:03:05,080 --> 00:03:08,840 church and about discipleship. It's really a precursor. 62 00:03:08,840 --> 00:03:12,520 It's an intro to the next sermon series where we're going to lay 63 00:03:12,520 --> 00:03:15,440 out what we call the seven essentials of discipleship that 64 00:03:15,440 --> 00:03:18,000 really are going to map out our mission and vision and kind of 65 00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:21,520 the whole future of our church. But right now we're in a series 66 00:03:21,520 --> 00:03:23,280 to help us define our true identity. 67 00:03:23,280 --> 00:03:26,640 And I invite you to come be the King's bride. 68 00:03:26,640 --> 00:03:29,960 Last week I began with a very vital question. 69 00:03:29,960 --> 00:03:32,560 Might seem basic, but you might want to go back if you weren't 70 00:03:32,560 --> 00:03:36,160 here and listen to last week. And I asked the question of why. 71 00:03:36,160 --> 00:03:39,880 Why do I need to be saved? And it was an important 72 00:03:39,920 --> 00:03:43,040 question, But, but, but then the part of that last week was I 73 00:03:43,040 --> 00:03:46,160 talked about the assurance of salvation in a way that maybe 74 00:03:46,160 --> 00:03:48,800 you've not heard before. But today I need to ask a 75 00:03:48,800 --> 00:03:52,400 different question. It may seem basic, but it's not. 76 00:03:52,720 --> 00:03:57,600 Why do we need the church? Why do we need this? 77 00:03:57,600 --> 00:04:00,280 Why do we need this odd little creature, right? 78 00:04:00,680 --> 00:04:03,040 So we're going to dive deeply into God's word. 79 00:04:03,040 --> 00:04:05,280 I pray this morning, I hope you'll listen along and pay 80 00:04:05,280 --> 00:04:07,280 attention. I'll try to move us through 81 00:04:07,280 --> 00:04:09,120 this. There was a a country church 82 00:04:09,120 --> 00:04:11,800 Deacon who was talking to his pastor right before the worship 83 00:04:11,800 --> 00:04:13,640 service. He said, preacher, leave the 84 00:04:13,640 --> 00:04:15,960 cooking in the kitchen, just bring out the meat. 85 00:04:16,240 --> 00:04:21,320 So I hope this morning we can chew on some pretty good stuff 86 00:04:21,320 --> 00:04:24,680 here out of God's word, because our future really does depend 87 00:04:24,680 --> 00:04:27,800 upon us taking this seriously. And over the next few months, I 88 00:04:27,800 --> 00:04:30,360 am going to be talking about what true discipleship is, what 89 00:04:30,360 --> 00:04:35,840 personal growth is, but also how do we apply biblical belief into 90 00:04:35,840 --> 00:04:39,920 a practical action into our lives, What the stuff we learn? 91 00:04:39,920 --> 00:04:43,200 How do we apply this as we're dealing with this culture that 92 00:04:43,200 --> 00:04:46,800 doesn't necessarily believe this anymore or has never heard it, 93 00:04:46,800 --> 00:04:50,680 frankly, whether it's here or overseas or someone else. 94 00:04:50,680 --> 00:04:54,080 So invite others to be here. This is all very, very 95 00:04:54,240 --> 00:04:56,280 important. So this morning, let's talk 96 00:04:56,280 --> 00:04:59,800 about this, this interesting, weird little family called The 97 00:04:59,800 --> 00:05:01,840 Church. There are a lot of opinions 98 00:05:01,840 --> 00:05:06,440 about what we think we want or need from 1:00 and we need to 99 00:05:06,440 --> 00:05:09,560 kind of see what the Bible says. We've studied 2 of them already. 100 00:05:09,560 --> 00:05:12,200 Whether you understood that's what we were doing in that Acts 101 00:05:12,200 --> 00:05:13,920 series. We studied the church in 102 00:05:13,920 --> 00:05:15,840 Jerusalem. We studied the church in Antioch 103 00:05:16,720 --> 00:05:20,240 and, and we might think we understand why and what 1 is or 104 00:05:20,240 --> 00:05:24,200 should be, but we, we may have have seen or experienced such a 105 00:05:24,200 --> 00:05:28,760 variety and many of them are extremely unhealthy that it 106 00:05:28,760 --> 00:05:30,680 might be hard for us to know for sure. 107 00:05:30,760 --> 00:05:33,240 Some of you, if you're not a guest, you know that I have a 108 00:05:33,240 --> 00:05:36,480 background in church consulting and church background where I've 109 00:05:36,480 --> 00:05:38,280 worked with hundreds and hundreds of churches and 110 00:05:38,280 --> 00:05:40,520 thousands of church leaders both here in the United States and 111 00:05:40,520 --> 00:05:42,040 around the world. So I've seen a whole bunch of 112 00:05:42,240 --> 00:05:44,560 these things, a lot of variety of them. 113 00:05:44,960 --> 00:05:47,440 Most of the ones I worked with were unhealthy because of the 114 00:05:47,440 --> 00:05:50,160 nature of what people wanted for for me to do. 115 00:05:50,160 --> 00:05:52,600 In fact, this week I'm teaching a doctoral seminar on church 116 00:05:52,600 --> 00:05:55,280 revitalization to help others do the same thing. 117 00:05:55,640 --> 00:05:58,520 But one of the things we recognize out of about 400,000 118 00:05:58,720 --> 00:06:02,080 churches in the United States of America, about 360,000 of them 119 00:06:02,080 --> 00:06:05,600 would be unhealthy. And so Gallup has told us that 120 00:06:05,600 --> 00:06:09,840 back in the 1940s, about 80% of Americans said that they were 121 00:06:09,840 --> 00:06:13,720 members of a church or a mosque or a synagogue or a temple. 122 00:06:13,960 --> 00:06:17,280 Today, that number would be about 40 to 45%. 123 00:06:17,280 --> 00:06:20,000 Now, that's not attending. That's just membership. 124 00:06:20,640 --> 00:06:25,480 And so we recognize that in America today, this has changed 125 00:06:25,920 --> 00:06:27,760 dramatically. And we need to talk about then 126 00:06:28,040 --> 00:06:31,120 what's what's the standard? What's the definition? 127 00:06:31,200 --> 00:06:33,880 What's the Plumb line is if you want to quote blackity, what, 128 00:06:34,040 --> 00:06:36,920 what, what is the standard to which we can compare ourselves? 129 00:06:37,040 --> 00:06:40,520 How do we know if we're healthy? How do we know what we need to 130 00:06:40,520 --> 00:06:42,640 become? How do we know who we need to 131 00:06:42,640 --> 00:06:44,240 be? So we need a standard to talk 132 00:06:44,240 --> 00:06:45,760 about. We're going to try to define 133 00:06:45,760 --> 00:06:49,800 that some of this morning. Mark Dever once wrote Pastor 134 00:06:49,800 --> 00:06:52,720 Doctor Dever said many Christians in the West, and he 135 00:06:52,720 --> 00:06:56,000 means the United States of America today, tend to view 136 00:06:56,000 --> 00:06:59,120 their Christianity as a personal relationship with God and not 137 00:06:59,120 --> 00:07:01,320 much else. I'm concerned that many 138 00:07:01,320 --> 00:07:04,120 Christians don't realize how this most important relationship 139 00:07:04,120 --> 00:07:07,960 with God necessitates a number of secondary personal 140 00:07:07,960 --> 00:07:10,920 relationships. The relationship that Christ 141 00:07:10,920 --> 00:07:14,000 establishes between US and his body, the church. 142 00:07:14,520 --> 00:07:17,240 God doesn't mean for these to be relationships that we pick and 143 00:07:17,240 --> 00:07:20,080 choose at our whim. Among the many Christians out 144 00:07:20,080 --> 00:07:24,400 there, He means to establish us in relationship with an actual 145 00:07:24,560 --> 00:07:28,960 blood and flesh, step on your toes body of people. 146 00:07:29,920 --> 00:07:32,880 We're to be a family. So let's talk about this for a 147 00:07:32,880 --> 00:07:34,240 minute. So the first thing, let's just 148 00:07:34,240 --> 00:07:37,200 ask very simply, why is a biblical church? 149 00:07:37,560 --> 00:07:40,280 Why is 1. Why does the church exist? 150 00:07:40,720 --> 00:07:43,560 So we can never forget. In Latin it's called Missy O 151 00:07:43,560 --> 00:07:44,960 day. But we can never forget the 152 00:07:44,960 --> 00:07:47,200 mission of God very simply, very simply. 153 00:07:47,200 --> 00:07:50,680 Don't make that hard. God is seeking to bring himself 154 00:07:50,680 --> 00:07:51,920 great glory. That's it. 155 00:07:52,240 --> 00:07:55,240 And so our ultimate goal in life, our ultimate goal for the 156 00:07:55,240 --> 00:07:57,160 church is to bring God great glory. 157 00:07:57,320 --> 00:08:01,160 So the way we do things, why we do things, our heart, our 158 00:08:01,160 --> 00:08:04,680 motive, our thought process, not just our methodology, It's not 159 00:08:04,680 --> 00:08:07,920 just the pragmatic stuff, but why are we doing stuff? 160 00:08:07,920 --> 00:08:10,600 It all matters. We need to do stuff with 161 00:08:10,720 --> 00:08:13,000 integrity, we need to do it with authenticity. 162 00:08:13,160 --> 00:08:15,680 We need to do it with transparency, we need to do it 163 00:08:15,680 --> 00:08:18,720 with an honest heart seeking to bring Him glory. 164 00:08:19,040 --> 00:08:23,200 Now, one way that God brings Himself glory and we are able to 165 00:08:23,200 --> 00:08:27,120 join in that is to be intentionally used by Him in His 166 00:08:27,120 --> 00:08:31,120 disciple making redeeming work. And that's part of what we want 167 00:08:31,120 --> 00:08:33,880 to do here. We want to make true disciples. 168 00:08:34,039 --> 00:08:37,039 We're going to spend several weeks talking about what we 169 00:08:37,039 --> 00:08:41,000 think that is what we believe the Bible teaches an authentic 170 00:08:41,000 --> 00:08:43,360 disciple of Jesus. Who are they? 171 00:08:43,480 --> 00:08:47,400 What do we need to know to be 1? What do we need to be doing to 172 00:08:47,560 --> 00:08:50,920 to be 1? And, and, and what is should our 173 00:08:50,920 --> 00:08:53,840 state of being even be? Who should we be as a disciple? 174 00:08:53,840 --> 00:08:55,520 What are some of the characteristics that ought to 175 00:08:55,520 --> 00:08:58,280 mark our lives? So it's very, very important. 176 00:08:58,520 --> 00:09:04,440 And God then has designed the church to be the instrumental 177 00:09:04,440 --> 00:09:10,160 institution to fulfill his Great Commission and his work. 178 00:09:10,600 --> 00:09:12,320 So this church is really important. 179 00:09:12,400 --> 00:09:15,600 The church. A friend of mine who passed away 180 00:09:16,160 --> 00:09:20,080 a while back, Doctor Aubrey Malfours, who was an incredible 181 00:09:20,080 --> 00:09:23,320 professor at Dallas Theological Seminary for years and has 182 00:09:23,320 --> 00:09:26,960 written about 150 books, probably he and I have the 183 00:09:26,960 --> 00:09:29,040 privilege of serving on a board or two together. 184 00:09:29,840 --> 00:09:33,360 And listen to this definition that Doctor Malfours presents. 185 00:09:33,840 --> 00:09:37,480 A local church is an indispensable, don't miss that 186 00:09:37,480 --> 00:09:41,840 word, indispensable gathering of professing believers in Christ 187 00:09:42,360 --> 00:09:45,520 who under leadership are organized to pursue its mission 188 00:09:45,520 --> 00:09:47,640 through its functions to accomplish its purpose. 189 00:09:48,400 --> 00:09:51,640 Now, the point being here is the church is indispensable. 190 00:09:51,840 --> 00:09:56,920 It's the only institution that can do what it must. 191 00:09:57,360 --> 00:09:58,840 And it's very important to note this. 192 00:09:58,960 --> 00:10:04,840 It's God's organized, purposeful body to fulfill his mission, to 193 00:10:04,840 --> 00:10:07,800 bring in glory, and to fulfill the Great Commission, etcetera. 194 00:10:08,160 --> 00:10:10,800 And so the church is not just any group of people. 195 00:10:11,000 --> 00:10:12,960 It's not just any group of Christians. 196 00:10:13,080 --> 00:10:18,440 It exists for specific purposes, not to simply please or appease 197 00:10:18,440 --> 00:10:23,040 us, but to please him first. I know this would shock you. 198 00:10:23,320 --> 00:10:25,480 I'm, I, I, I'm glad you're sitting down. 199 00:10:26,560 --> 00:10:29,160 But there are actually people who think the church is all 200 00:10:29,160 --> 00:10:31,720 about them. Did I hear a gasp? 201 00:10:31,720 --> 00:10:34,960 Was there a gasp? There are people who actually 202 00:10:34,960 --> 00:10:37,840 think that the church ought to do what they want to want it to 203 00:10:37,840 --> 00:10:40,320 do exactly the way they wanted to do it all the time and it, 204 00:10:40,520 --> 00:10:42,720 and if the church doesn't do that, the church somehow has 205 00:10:42,720 --> 00:10:45,440 failed and and and and and needs to be corrected. 206 00:10:46,280 --> 00:10:50,720 It's amazing. The church is not about us only 207 00:10:51,360 --> 00:10:53,520 the church is about pleasing him. 208 00:10:54,520 --> 00:10:57,120 And by doing that we ought to be encouraging one another. 209 00:10:57,480 --> 00:11:00,960 So we discussed a lot of these purposes back in our ACT study. 210 00:11:00,960 --> 00:11:03,480 I promise you in our seven essential study, we're going to 211 00:11:03,480 --> 00:11:05,880 bring them right back out because we're not just another 212 00:11:05,880 --> 00:11:08,680 social club. We're not just some humanitarian 213 00:11:08,680 --> 00:11:13,080 agency. We must understand why we are 214 00:11:13,920 --> 00:11:17,720 and why that matters. And then we also need to 215 00:11:17,720 --> 00:11:21,080 understand who we are and why that matters. 216 00:11:21,560 --> 00:11:26,640 So who is a biblical church? So Matthew chapter 16, I told 217 00:11:26,640 --> 00:11:29,440 you I'd finally get there an hour and a half later. 218 00:11:29,440 --> 00:11:32,680 Here we are. Now when Jesus came into the 219 00:11:32,680 --> 00:11:36,480 district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, who do 220 00:11:36,480 --> 00:11:38,360 people say that the Son of Man is? 221 00:11:38,520 --> 00:11:40,320 Now I'll be talking about this in a couple of weeks on 222 00:11:40,440 --> 00:11:43,240 Wednesday night. And they said, some say John the 223 00:11:43,240 --> 00:11:45,720 Baptist, others say Elijah, another is Jeremiah or one of 224 00:11:45,720 --> 00:11:48,400 the prophets. And he said to them, the bigger 225 00:11:48,400 --> 00:11:50,160 question, but who do you say that I am? 226 00:11:50,800 --> 00:11:53,480 And Simon Peter replied, because Simon Peter always replied, 227 00:11:55,360 --> 00:11:57,400 You're the Christ, the Son of the living God. 228 00:11:57,840 --> 00:12:00,960 And Jesus answered him, blessed are you Simon Barjona, for flesh 229 00:12:00,960 --> 00:12:03,360 and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in 230 00:12:03,360 --> 00:12:05,280 heaven, and I tell you, you're Peter. 231 00:12:05,440 --> 00:12:08,120 And on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell 232 00:12:08,280 --> 00:12:11,560 should not prevail against it. Now, we know theologically and 233 00:12:11,560 --> 00:12:13,800 even linguistically that the church isn't just built on 234 00:12:13,800 --> 00:12:16,000 Peter. The idea here is Jesus called a 235 00:12:16,000 --> 00:12:18,320 group of men to follow him and to learn from him. 236 00:12:18,320 --> 00:12:21,600 We call him the disciples. And these original followers 237 00:12:21,600 --> 00:12:25,120 become a human, earthly foundation for the church. 238 00:12:25,320 --> 00:12:28,200 I mean, on a very practical level, but we also recognize 239 00:12:28,200 --> 00:12:31,240 that the true foundation of the church, the spiritual foundation 240 00:12:31,240 --> 00:12:34,480 of the church, is the truth about who Jesus is, the fact 241 00:12:34,480 --> 00:12:36,080 that he really is the Son of the living God. 242 00:12:36,080 --> 00:12:39,320 He is the Messiah. He is God Incarnate, and that's 243 00:12:39,320 --> 00:12:41,080 a that's the foundation of the church. 244 00:12:41,080 --> 00:12:44,320 In fact, Paul writes about it to a troubled church in Corinth. 245 00:12:44,800 --> 00:12:48,080 He says in First Corinthians chapter 3, for no one can lay a 246 00:12:48,080 --> 00:12:52,520 foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 247 00:12:54,040 --> 00:12:56,240 Jesus said, I will build. Whose church? 248 00:12:57,560 --> 00:12:59,560 Yeah, my church, see, doesn't belong to us. 249 00:12:59,880 --> 00:13:01,920 Now this, I've said this to you before. 250 00:13:02,040 --> 00:13:06,200 I'll say it to you again because it's a big issue in the churches 251 00:13:06,200 --> 00:13:08,760 that I've helped. This is a huge issue. 252 00:13:09,160 --> 00:13:12,280 The confusion between ownership and stewardship is massive. 253 00:13:13,240 --> 00:13:18,200 This is not ours. But gang, this is not ours 254 00:13:18,280 --> 00:13:21,280 either. Your breath is not yours. 255 00:13:21,280 --> 00:13:24,200 Your heartbeat is not yours. You couldn't create life if you 256 00:13:24,200 --> 00:13:25,800 had to. That's not how it works. 257 00:13:25,960 --> 00:13:28,560 And the church isn't ours. We're stewards of it, which 258 00:13:28,560 --> 00:13:30,200 means we take great care. We want to. 259 00:13:30,200 --> 00:13:32,040 We want to make sure it's used for His glory. 260 00:13:32,120 --> 00:13:34,520 We want to. We want to respect what we've 261 00:13:34,520 --> 00:13:36,440 been given. But this is not your church. 262 00:13:36,440 --> 00:13:38,440 Now, I know we say that that's my church. 263 00:13:38,440 --> 00:13:41,120 Englewood's my church, right? And that's fine. 264 00:13:41,120 --> 00:13:42,920 There's nothing wrong with it. It's a term of endearment. 265 00:13:42,920 --> 00:13:45,040 It's a term of that means you care about it. 266 00:13:45,040 --> 00:13:46,960 You love that. You love the church that you 267 00:13:46,960 --> 00:13:48,520 attend, right? So there's nothing wrong with 268 00:13:48,520 --> 00:13:52,960 that language, but we recognize that in the end, this is his, 269 00:13:53,600 --> 00:13:55,600 this is his body, this is his church. 270 00:13:55,840 --> 00:14:00,160 He's the chief cornerstone upon which all strength, upon which 271 00:14:00,160 --> 00:14:04,280 all stability depends. In fact, Paul also wrote to the 272 00:14:04,280 --> 00:14:06,920 church at Ephesus and kind of brought this home. 273 00:14:06,920 --> 00:14:08,960 Listen to this. So then you are no longer 274 00:14:08,960 --> 00:14:13,160 strangers and aliens, but your fellow citizens with the Saints 275 00:14:13,160 --> 00:14:16,720 and members of the household of God built on the foundation of 276 00:14:16,720 --> 00:14:20,240 the apostles and prophets. Or is that human, practical part 277 00:14:20,240 --> 00:14:23,240 of it? But Christ Jesus himself being 278 00:14:23,240 --> 00:14:26,080 the cornerstone, everything hinges upon him. 279 00:14:26,760 --> 00:14:32,400 So the church then is made-up of those about to whom about the 280 00:14:32,400 --> 00:14:36,040 truth of Jesus that the gospel has been revealed, and those who 281 00:14:36,040 --> 00:14:40,680 confess and believe the gospel. And the biblical church began 282 00:14:40,680 --> 00:14:44,280 when people believed and responded to Peter's a sermon at 283 00:14:44,280 --> 00:14:46,240 the day of Pentecost. And it continues all the way to 284 00:14:46,240 --> 00:14:49,080 today, still, still churches being planted, churches being 285 00:14:49,080 --> 00:14:50,680 planted overseas that we've heard about. 286 00:14:50,960 --> 00:14:54,200 We sent Jonathan out to Tarboro to plant a church there. 287 00:14:54,320 --> 00:14:56,840 We're going to try to send out a church planter or people 288 00:14:56,840 --> 00:14:59,200 overseas at least once every three years and see if we can 289 00:14:59,200 --> 00:15:03,040 how many churches we can plant. So the church comes into being 290 00:15:03,440 --> 00:15:07,520 in a response to this divine call of God to salvation. 291 00:15:08,160 --> 00:15:10,600 Now, let me get technical for a minute. 292 00:15:10,600 --> 00:15:13,360 Hang in there with me, all right, Grip tight. 293 00:15:13,600 --> 00:15:16,440 Hang in there. That's what one of the reasons 294 00:15:16,440 --> 00:15:18,800 why you see this word that you all already know. 295 00:15:18,880 --> 00:15:21,680 There's a few Greek words I know most of you know, and one of 296 00:15:21,680 --> 00:15:23,280 them is this Greek word ekklesia. 297 00:15:24,480 --> 00:15:27,240 So the word ekklesia is important because when you break 298 00:15:27,240 --> 00:15:30,920 it down, ECH means out, kaleo means to call. 299 00:15:31,040 --> 00:15:32,760 So this is the called out assembly. 300 00:15:32,760 --> 00:15:35,240 A lot of you already knew that it's actually a word used in 301 00:15:35,240 --> 00:15:39,200 Greek culture, but it became the most common word for the church 302 00:15:39,200 --> 00:15:42,840 for a reason. Now, they translated the Old 303 00:15:42,840 --> 00:15:45,200 Testament from Hebrew to Greek in a thing called the 304 00:15:45,200 --> 00:15:48,320 Septuagint. And when they translated words 305 00:15:48,320 --> 00:15:52,480 in Hebrew into Greek, they would use some of these same words. 306 00:15:52,760 --> 00:15:56,040 And so there's a word in Hebrew that means somebody who's called 307 00:15:56,040 --> 00:16:00,040 out by they've heard the calling of God and they're following him 308 00:16:00,040 --> 00:16:02,520 spiritually. OK, that's kahal. 309 00:16:02,880 --> 00:16:05,920 Don't worry about that word. But in other words, I've heard 310 00:16:05,920 --> 00:16:07,840 God's calling. I'm following him. 311 00:16:08,080 --> 00:16:10,680 There was a different word that was used when the people of 312 00:16:10,680 --> 00:16:12,640 Israel were physically gathered together. 313 00:16:12,640 --> 00:16:19,720 EDA ecclesia is always used for Cajal, never used for EDA. 314 00:16:19,720 --> 00:16:21,720 Here's why I'm saying all that. Wake up. 315 00:16:22,480 --> 00:16:26,480 Here's why I'm saying all that. This isn't the church. 316 00:16:27,440 --> 00:16:32,000 You are the Church, right? And so the church are the people 317 00:16:32,000 --> 00:16:35,840 who are called out by God. And the Bible emphasizes this 318 00:16:35,840 --> 00:16:39,720 over and over and over again. The people who hear the calling 319 00:16:39,720 --> 00:16:42,080 of God and are called out by him to serve him. 320 00:16:42,280 --> 00:16:45,800 It's made-up of those people. In fact, Paul even uses another 321 00:16:45,800 --> 00:16:49,080 word, cletos, which is a word for called in his opening to 322 00:16:49,080 --> 00:16:53,080 Romans and Corinthians to emphasize I'm writing to those 323 00:16:53,080 --> 00:16:56,200 who are called out by God. So if this building cease to 324 00:16:56,200 --> 00:17:00,840 exist, Englewood Baptist Church still exists because it's us. 325 00:17:02,000 --> 00:17:03,800 So we know it's not this physical thing. 326 00:17:05,000 --> 00:17:07,760 So a friend of mine and a former colleague when I was full time 327 00:17:07,760 --> 00:17:11,560 at the seminary, Jon Hammett, one of my opinion, probably the 328 00:17:11,560 --> 00:17:15,480 best Baptist theologian still riding and alive today. 329 00:17:16,200 --> 00:17:20,480 He makes sure we understand that the word Hogyoy, so the word for 330 00:17:20,480 --> 00:17:24,800 holy hagias hagi or the people, these are the Saints or the holy 331 00:17:24,800 --> 00:17:26,880 ones. It's used more than 60 times to 332 00:17:26,880 --> 00:17:30,400 describe members of the church. We are called out ones. 333 00:17:30,640 --> 00:17:34,360 That's who the church is. So this isn't just some Country 334 00:17:34,360 --> 00:17:36,920 Club. It's not just some social 335 00:17:36,920 --> 00:17:39,880 gathering. It's something very different. 336 00:17:40,680 --> 00:17:43,440 So when we're truly saved, you need to listen to last week. 337 00:17:43,440 --> 00:17:47,800 If you missed it and we're adopted into God's family, we're 338 00:17:47,800 --> 00:17:52,800 called out to become part of the family of God as well. 339 00:17:53,000 --> 00:17:56,120 And we're called into fellowship with God and with one another. 340 00:17:56,320 --> 00:17:59,920 So we don't simply get to say, now this is where you, you get 341 00:17:59,920 --> 00:18:01,720 back to what you need to pay attention to. 342 00:18:02,880 --> 00:18:06,200 We don't simply get to say, I don't need the rest of you. 343 00:18:07,160 --> 00:18:09,000 It doesn't Christianity, it doesn't work that way. 344 00:18:09,800 --> 00:18:11,680 Listen to what he wrote in Corinthians, he says. 345 00:18:11,680 --> 00:18:15,200 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of 346 00:18:15,200 --> 00:18:18,600 them as He chose. If all were a single member were 347 00:18:18,600 --> 00:18:22,320 would the body be as it is? There are many parts, yet one 348 00:18:22,320 --> 00:18:26,640 body, the I cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor 349 00:18:26,640 --> 00:18:29,400 again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. 350 00:18:30,280 --> 00:18:34,720 We need one another in this thing called Christianity, in 351 00:18:34,720 --> 00:18:38,560 this thing called discipleship through this thing called the 352 00:18:38,560 --> 00:18:41,360 Church. Mark Dever again says this. 353 00:18:41,360 --> 00:18:44,840 He says the New Testament just does not conceive of the 354 00:18:44,840 --> 00:18:48,120 Christian existing on a prolonged basis outside the 355 00:18:48,120 --> 00:18:51,520 fellowship of the church. The church is not really a 356 00:18:51,520 --> 00:18:54,160 place. It's a people, God's people in 357 00:18:54,160 --> 00:18:56,880 Christ. So if you hear people, or maybe 358 00:18:56,880 --> 00:18:59,840 you're here today, somebody dragged you in here and thanks 359 00:18:59,840 --> 00:19:01,440 for coming. Thanks for dragging them too. 360 00:19:01,440 --> 00:19:03,600 Whoever dragged, whoever the dragger is, thank you. 361 00:19:03,600 --> 00:19:05,160 Whoever the draggy is, thank you. 362 00:19:08,400 --> 00:19:10,000 And you say I really don't need the church. 363 00:19:10,000 --> 00:19:12,480 I don't need, I don't need to go to church in order to be a 364 00:19:12,480 --> 00:19:15,120 Christian. Now, if you're talking about 365 00:19:15,120 --> 00:19:16,960 salvation, I understand what you mean. 366 00:19:17,760 --> 00:19:19,920 If you're talking about being a disciple, you're wrong. 367 00:19:21,160 --> 00:19:25,200 It doesn't work that way. The entire Bible, New Testament, 368 00:19:25,200 --> 00:19:27,720 the epistles, everything is written to the local church. 369 00:19:27,920 --> 00:19:30,320 Everything is written about how I use my giftedness and my 370 00:19:30,320 --> 00:19:32,160 spirit of skill for the local church. 371 00:19:33,000 --> 00:19:36,880 So you've got to be very careful about your frankly selfish 372 00:19:36,880 --> 00:19:41,040 claims. So then the third thing we need 373 00:19:41,040 --> 00:19:43,040 to see is what then is a biblical church? 374 00:19:43,880 --> 00:19:47,840 See, the problem is, is we need this clear, biblically objective 375 00:19:47,840 --> 00:19:50,840 definition or we're never going to know if we're meeting it or 376 00:19:50,840 --> 00:19:53,240 not. But the problem is there's not a 377 00:19:53,240 --> 00:19:56,160 verse in the Bible that says thus shall be the church. 378 00:19:57,800 --> 00:20:00,800 And so we have to look at various churches, various 379 00:20:00,800 --> 00:20:05,520 characteristics, various images, various actions to help us 380 00:20:05,600 --> 00:20:08,560 really put together what. The image of the true biblical 381 00:20:08,560 --> 00:20:10,360 churches. Now throughout history there 382 00:20:10,360 --> 00:20:13,200 have been statements of description to declare. 383 00:20:13,200 --> 00:20:15,720 For example, the Charleston Baptist Association in the South 384 00:20:15,720 --> 00:20:18,320 Carolina had a strong one that was quoted by many. 385 00:20:18,320 --> 00:20:21,920 But I'm going to move on to what we call the Baptist faith in 386 00:20:21,920 --> 00:20:23,920 message just for a moment because that's the one that 387 00:20:23,920 --> 00:20:28,440 Inglewood constitutionally says. This describes our belief the 388 00:20:28,440 --> 00:20:31,880 Baptist faith in message 2000. It was put together by Southern 389 00:20:31,880 --> 00:20:33,920 Baptists to describe to the outside world. 390 00:20:33,920 --> 00:20:36,760 Here's what most Southern Baptists believe, and here's 391 00:20:36,760 --> 00:20:40,000 what it says about the church. It says a New Testament Church 392 00:20:40,000 --> 00:20:44,040 of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of 393 00:20:44,040 --> 00:20:47,960 baptized believers associated by covenant in the faith and 394 00:20:47,960 --> 00:20:50,760 fellowship of the gospel, observing the two ordinances of 395 00:20:50,760 --> 00:20:54,720 Christ governed by His laws, exercising the gifts, rights, 396 00:20:54,720 --> 00:20:58,120 and privileges invested in them by His Word, and seeking to 397 00:20:58,120 --> 00:21:00,200 extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. 398 00:21:00,720 --> 00:21:03,400 Each congregation operates under the Lordship of Christ, the 399 00:21:03,400 --> 00:21:06,880 democratic processes. In such congregation each member 400 00:21:06,880 --> 00:21:10,720 is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord. 401 00:21:11,280 --> 00:21:15,760 Now these are helpful, but we need to examine in Scripture the 402 00:21:15,760 --> 00:21:19,320 whole council of God and begin to look to define true biblical 403 00:21:19,320 --> 00:21:20,520 ecclesiology. What? 404 00:21:20,520 --> 00:21:23,480 What is the church? Our Acts study helped us as we 405 00:21:23,480 --> 00:21:27,200 saw these examples, but the New Testament also identifies 406 00:21:27,200 --> 00:21:30,400 certain elements, certain characteristics, certain actions 407 00:21:30,400 --> 00:21:34,360 that that make up a legitimate, practical and biblical local 408 00:21:34,360 --> 00:21:36,200 church. So let's look at a few of these 409 00:21:36,320 --> 00:21:38,840 that we find in Scripture. The first image we would look at 410 00:21:39,520 --> 00:21:45,280 is the body of Christ. And so as the owner, builder, 411 00:21:45,480 --> 00:21:51,960 foundation, and cornerstone, Jesus is also the head of his 412 00:21:51,960 --> 00:21:55,040 body. Colossians chapter 1 says this. 413 00:21:55,360 --> 00:21:57,320 And he is the head of the body of the church. 414 00:21:57,600 --> 00:22:00,680 He is the beginning, the first born from the dead, that in 415 00:22:00,680 --> 00:22:03,200 everything he might be preeminent. 416 00:22:04,440 --> 00:22:06,120 So everything is joined together by him. 417 00:22:06,520 --> 00:22:11,760 And this image points to our unity and illustrates how the 418 00:22:11,760 --> 00:22:15,720 church may be one while its members are still quite diverse. 419 00:22:15,720 --> 00:22:18,360 We're not all the same. We come from all kinds of 420 00:22:18,360 --> 00:22:20,520 backgrounds. We have different spiritual 421 00:22:20,520 --> 00:22:22,800 gifts. We have, as the book of Exodus 422 00:22:22,800 --> 00:22:24,960 says, different spirits of skill. 423 00:22:25,400 --> 00:22:27,400 We have different experiences in life. 424 00:22:27,960 --> 00:22:30,160 But and so we're diverse and yet we can come together. 425 00:22:30,160 --> 00:22:33,680 So it reflects how the members of the church need to show this 426 00:22:33,680 --> 00:22:37,480 mutuality of love and care and cooperation and coordination 427 00:22:37,480 --> 00:22:40,600 with one another. You need to be in the church to 428 00:22:40,600 --> 00:22:43,480 do this. In fact, he writes to that 429 00:22:43,480 --> 00:22:45,400 church in Corinth again in chapter 12. 430 00:22:47,560 --> 00:22:51,160 But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to 431 00:22:51,160 --> 00:22:54,440 the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the 432 00:22:54,440 --> 00:22:57,600 body, but that the members may have the same care for one 433 00:22:57,600 --> 00:23:00,360 another. If one member suffers, all 434 00:23:00,360 --> 00:23:04,240 suffer together. If one member is honored, all 435 00:23:04,280 --> 00:23:07,920 rejoice together. Now it says that he composed 436 00:23:07,920 --> 00:23:09,640 your translation may say he combined. 437 00:23:09,640 --> 00:23:11,320 It means to mix or to mingle this. 438 00:23:11,400 --> 00:23:15,600 So literally, God is putting together a recipe of the church 439 00:23:15,840 --> 00:23:19,440 where he puts us together in a special way to fulfill his 440 00:23:19,440 --> 00:23:22,080 mission and purpose. We're not all the same, nor 441 00:23:22,080 --> 00:23:25,280 should we be, but that's part of the beauty of the recipe. 442 00:23:25,360 --> 00:23:27,720 So I believe with all of my heart and the sovereignty of 443 00:23:27,720 --> 00:23:31,400 God, I believe that he has mixed together Englewood Baptist 444 00:23:31,400 --> 00:23:36,000 Church for this moment at this place with you people, for this 445 00:23:36,000 --> 00:23:40,200 time, for purpose. So you're not here by accident. 446 00:23:40,960 --> 00:23:43,280 You're not even visiting here by accident. 447 00:23:43,720 --> 00:23:46,000 God's brought you here. And you need to be part of the 448 00:23:46,000 --> 00:23:47,720 mix. You need to be part of this 449 00:23:47,720 --> 00:23:51,960 special recipe that makes up what is called Englewood so that 450 00:23:51,960 --> 00:23:55,040 we can impact the Rocky Mount area, so that we can impact the 451 00:23:55,040 --> 00:23:57,080 United States of America, so that we continue to send 452 00:23:57,080 --> 00:24:00,760 missionaries around the world. And there's a special thing 453 00:24:00,760 --> 00:24:02,720 about that. In fact, CS Lewis wrote about 454 00:24:02,720 --> 00:24:05,160 this. Listen to Lewis, he said the New 455 00:24:05,160 --> 00:24:08,040 Testament does not envision solitary religion. 456 00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:12,440 Some kind of regular assembly for worship and instruction is 457 00:24:12,440 --> 00:24:15,280 everywhere taken for granted in the epistles. 458 00:24:16,080 --> 00:24:18,760 So we must be regularly practicing members of the 459 00:24:18,760 --> 00:24:21,800 church. For the Church is not a human 460 00:24:21,800 --> 00:24:25,520 Society of people united by their natural infant affinities, 461 00:24:26,000 --> 00:24:29,760 but the body of Christ, in which all members, however different, 462 00:24:29,760 --> 00:24:32,560 and he rejoices in their differences and by no means 463 00:24:32,560 --> 00:24:35,760 wishes to iron them out. They must share. 464 00:24:36,360 --> 00:24:42,040 We share life, complementing and helping one another precisely by 465 00:24:42,040 --> 00:24:45,880 our differences. So Christ, as the head of the 466 00:24:45,880 --> 00:24:50,000 body, is the ultimate authority for the Church, but he also 467 00:24:50,000 --> 00:24:53,640 creates our unity. He creates our ability to serve 468 00:24:53,640 --> 00:24:56,560 with one another even when we're part of such a crazy family. 469 00:24:57,920 --> 00:25:01,920 And so all the members make up the body parts and, and all the 470 00:25:01,920 --> 00:25:05,560 members contribute to the growth and all the members contribute 471 00:25:05,560 --> 00:25:07,480 to the unity. And if you're not a part of 472 00:25:07,480 --> 00:25:09,360 that, then we're missing something. 473 00:25:09,880 --> 00:25:13,880 You're missing something because every one of us is designed to 474 00:25:13,880 --> 00:25:16,720 perform that specific part of the ministry. 475 00:25:17,000 --> 00:25:19,280 What percentage of participation am I looking for? 476 00:25:21,760 --> 00:25:24,080 Ephesians Chapter 4 says it this way. 477 00:25:25,240 --> 00:25:29,080 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every 478 00:25:29,080 --> 00:25:33,240 way into Him who is the head into Christ, from whom the whole 479 00:25:33,240 --> 00:25:36,440 body joined and held together by every joint with which it is 480 00:25:36,440 --> 00:25:44,920 equipped, when each part, when each part is properly working, 481 00:25:45,600 --> 00:25:48,800 makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. 482 00:25:49,720 --> 00:25:54,800 Every part needs to work right. We need you, We need everyone of 483 00:25:54,800 --> 00:25:56,200 you. We need everyone of you to be 484 00:25:56,200 --> 00:25:57,920 involved. We need everyone of you in the 485 00:25:57,920 --> 00:25:59,600 Connect group. We need everyone of you at 486 00:25:59,600 --> 00:26:01,240 midweek. We need everyone of you in 487 00:26:01,240 --> 00:26:04,680 service. We need you to be a part of 488 00:26:04,680 --> 00:26:07,440 this, for this to work the way God wants it to work. 489 00:26:07,560 --> 00:26:10,600 He's created a recipe, but it's not going to turn out right if 490 00:26:10,600 --> 00:26:14,480 we're all not part of it. He wants us to be a part of it. 491 00:26:14,800 --> 00:26:18,680 And if we refuse, He'll move on and He'll find somebody else to 492 00:26:18,680 --> 00:26:21,320 be a part of it. So I hope that you'll be there. 493 00:26:21,320 --> 00:26:23,400 But some people, I'm telling you, it's amazing how they think 494 00:26:23,600 --> 00:26:26,200 that somehow that this is for me and that I that, that. 495 00:26:26,200 --> 00:26:28,960 And they're more concerned about what, what room they meet in or 496 00:26:28,960 --> 00:26:31,240 they're more consumed about what seat they sit in, or they're 497 00:26:31,240 --> 00:26:33,120 more consumed about this or that. 498 00:26:33,520 --> 00:26:35,840 And I'm thankful that that's not the spirit of Inglewood. 499 00:26:36,280 --> 00:26:39,000 I'm thankful that you all have been so willing to get on board 500 00:26:39,440 --> 00:26:41,840 and so willing, so excited, so happy. 501 00:26:42,120 --> 00:26:49,720 Thanks for being happy. I was the interim pastor at a 502 00:26:49,720 --> 00:26:52,400 church up in Boone, Mount Vernon Baptist. 503 00:26:52,400 --> 00:26:55,360 I always kid everybody that was Franklin Graham's pastor for a 504 00:26:55,360 --> 00:26:56,400 while. Even though I never saw 505 00:26:56,400 --> 00:27:00,200 Franklin, but I saw his family. He was always on the road, but I 506 00:27:00,200 --> 00:27:02,280 used to always give them a hard time because they were nice. 507 00:27:02,440 --> 00:27:04,360 They were nice, nice people, nice. 508 00:27:04,480 --> 00:27:06,040 Mount Vernon's nice. Someone starts saying that about 509 00:27:06,040 --> 00:27:07,160 Inglewood. They finally burned that in 510 00:27:07,160 --> 00:27:08,680 wood. I've got a Mount Vernon Baptist 511 00:27:08,680 --> 00:27:14,960 Church were nice, nice. Let me give you another image. 512 00:27:15,400 --> 00:27:17,920 I'll focus. Thanks a little ADD there, 513 00:27:17,920 --> 00:27:20,600 sorry. So let's look at the second one, 514 00:27:20,600 --> 00:27:24,360 the bride of Christ. Revelation 19 seven says this. 515 00:27:24,360 --> 00:27:27,440 Let us rejoice and exalt and give him the glory, for the 516 00:27:27,440 --> 00:27:31,320 marriage of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself 517 00:27:31,320 --> 00:27:35,760 ready. Are we the image of the pure 518 00:27:35,760 --> 00:27:38,480 bride? You know, the relationship of 519 00:27:38,480 --> 00:27:40,480 marriage and the church go together. 520 00:27:40,480 --> 00:27:43,640 It may not seem like that makes sense, but it always has been 521 00:27:43,640 --> 00:27:46,960 that way. Marriage is a symbol of many 522 00:27:46,960 --> 00:27:51,040 things, and it's a symbol of the relationship between Christ and 523 00:27:51,040 --> 00:27:53,000 the Church. Listen to Ephesians 5. 524 00:27:53,280 --> 00:27:56,160 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast 525 00:27:56,160 --> 00:27:58,160 to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. 526 00:27:58,600 --> 00:28:03,080 So we see this Genesis covenant type passage that we often quote 527 00:28:03,080 --> 00:28:05,520 in a marriage ceremony. And he says the mystery is 528 00:28:05,520 --> 00:28:08,520 profound. And I'm saying that it refers to 529 00:28:08,520 --> 00:28:13,400 Christ and the church. I'll talk more about church 530 00:28:13,400 --> 00:28:16,680 membership in two weeks, specifically about why should we 531 00:28:16,680 --> 00:28:20,920 join the church and be a member. But this level of love and 532 00:28:20,920 --> 00:28:23,480 relationship are vital parts of it. 533 00:28:24,560 --> 00:28:27,240 Earthly marriage is a symbol. It's a symbol of something that 534 00:28:27,240 --> 00:28:29,600 God has already done in the hearts of two people. 535 00:28:29,960 --> 00:28:32,840 And it shows us that the relationship of the church must 536 00:28:32,840 --> 00:28:36,720 be like that to Jesus. We must be one with him and one 537 00:28:36,720 --> 00:28:39,880 another. Hard to do that when you 538 00:28:39,880 --> 00:28:43,880 separate yourself, hard to do that when you keep a distance, 539 00:28:44,560 --> 00:28:47,080 Hard to do that when you're on your own and not officially 540 00:28:47,080 --> 00:28:49,320 apart. And, you know, I've met people 541 00:28:49,320 --> 00:28:51,600 over the years and they'll say, you know, I love Jesus, but I 542 00:28:51,600 --> 00:28:53,680 don't love the church. And you've got to understand 543 00:28:53,680 --> 00:28:56,440 that that's incongruent. I understand that some churches 544 00:28:56,440 --> 00:28:58,680 are not very lovable, but it's incongruent. 545 00:28:58,680 --> 00:29:00,960 I mean, that's like coming to me and saying, John, I want to be 546 00:29:00,960 --> 00:29:03,000 your best friend, but I can't stand your wife, Teresa. 547 00:29:04,280 --> 00:29:06,640 And if you can't stand my wife, Teresa, you got a problem. 548 00:29:06,640 --> 00:29:08,560 Amen. Amen. 549 00:29:09,480 --> 00:29:14,480 Thank you. I needed some points, so I 550 00:29:14,480 --> 00:29:16,720 appreciate it, but you understand what I'm saying. 551 00:29:16,720 --> 00:29:20,960 I mean, it makes no sense. In fact, I was leading AI was 552 00:29:20,960 --> 00:29:23,480 leading the retreat for all of our association of leaders a 553 00:29:23,480 --> 00:29:24,920 couple years ago here in North Carolina. 554 00:29:25,360 --> 00:29:28,480 And we were talking about this and I was talking about how 555 00:29:28,480 --> 00:29:30,000 sometimes we joke about the church. 556 00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:33,080 That's kind of the way the church is, you know, And I was 557 00:29:33,080 --> 00:29:35,520 just sharing with those guys. It's about how that breaks my 558 00:29:35,520 --> 00:29:38,880 heart. When I was saved, I did have we 559 00:29:38,880 --> 00:29:40,560 hadn't, I had no church background. 560 00:29:41,120 --> 00:29:43,960 And so the church literally became my family, precious to 561 00:29:43,960 --> 00:29:46,440 me. And I told those guys, I said, 562 00:29:46,440 --> 00:29:50,800 how would you feel if somebody was mocking your wife or mocking 563 00:29:50,800 --> 00:29:53,920 your daughter? I said, how do we make Jesus 564 00:29:53,920 --> 00:29:57,640 feel when we mock the church? You know, And one of the guys 565 00:29:57,640 --> 00:30:00,400 was praying at a break later and he was just weeping as he prayed 566 00:30:00,400 --> 00:30:01,920 because he just couldn't get past that. 567 00:30:01,920 --> 00:30:06,400 And he says, Lord, I would hate it if somebody was making fun of 568 00:30:06,400 --> 00:30:12,480 my wife or making fun of my daughter and he was confessing. 569 00:30:12,480 --> 00:30:16,120 He goes, I'm sorry for the way we must make you feel at times. 570 00:30:17,400 --> 00:30:19,120 The third image is the people of God. 571 00:30:19,120 --> 00:30:20,640 It kind of ties us to the Old Testament. 572 00:30:20,640 --> 00:30:24,600 First Peter 2 says, but you are a chosen race, a royal 573 00:30:24,600 --> 00:30:29,040 priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, 574 00:30:29,280 --> 00:30:32,080 that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called 575 00:30:32,080 --> 00:30:34,040 you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 576 00:30:34,240 --> 00:30:37,560 Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. 577 00:30:37,720 --> 00:30:40,840 Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 578 00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:44,320 So this imagery connects the the the church to the Old Testament 579 00:30:44,320 --> 00:30:47,960 and God's great purpose of calling to himself a people. 580 00:30:48,160 --> 00:30:52,040 It underscores the nature of the church as called, called out by 581 00:30:52,040 --> 00:30:55,440 God to be his. And so the church is, is a 582 00:30:55,440 --> 00:30:57,680 people. It's not just a collection of 583 00:30:57,680 --> 00:31:01,160 isolated individuals. One person cannot be a church. 584 00:31:01,360 --> 00:31:04,360 That's not the way it works. The church is God's people, not 585 00:31:04,360 --> 00:31:07,920 a human institution. And it and the church is one of 586 00:31:07,920 --> 00:31:12,160 the ways that God is going to use us to fulfill his mission. 587 00:31:12,960 --> 00:31:14,680 And then finally, let me show you this one. 588 00:31:14,840 --> 00:31:17,520 Let me talk about the representatives of God's Kingdom 589 00:31:18,880 --> 00:31:22,600 because I want to compare what Jesus said to what the epistles 590 00:31:22,600 --> 00:31:25,800 say. It's interesting because Jesus 591 00:31:25,800 --> 00:31:28,280 talked far more about the Kingdom of God than the church. 592 00:31:28,280 --> 00:31:30,720 Now you got to understand historically, he was at a time 593 00:31:31,120 --> 00:31:33,760 before the church, so he was talking about what the Kingdom 594 00:31:33,760 --> 00:31:36,880 was, and then the church came later. 595 00:31:38,000 --> 00:31:40,920 But the New Testament epistles were just the opposite. 596 00:31:41,480 --> 00:31:45,760 For example, in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus only mentions the 597 00:31:45,760 --> 00:31:50,000 church twice, but he mentions the Kingdom of God 49 times. 598 00:31:50,920 --> 00:31:55,760 But then Paul will mention the church 43 times and the Kingdom 599 00:31:55,760 --> 00:31:59,120 only 14 times, and so it gets reversed. 600 00:31:59,520 --> 00:32:03,920 So Jesus is emphasizing the Kingdom and it leads to the 601 00:32:03,920 --> 00:32:06,520 establishment of the church. But the two are not opposites of 602 00:32:06,520 --> 00:32:08,480 one another. The church is the fulfillment, 603 00:32:09,040 --> 00:32:11,920 the extension of Christ's teaching. 604 00:32:12,640 --> 00:32:17,640 So following his declaration about building his church and 605 00:32:17,680 --> 00:32:21,520 held inability to defeat the church back in Matthew chapter 606 00:32:21,520 --> 00:32:25,480 16 that we saw earlier, Jesus continues in that passage in 607 00:32:25,480 --> 00:32:30,560 Matthew 16/19. He says, I will give you the 608 00:32:30,560 --> 00:32:33,680 keys of the Kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth 609 00:32:33,680 --> 00:32:37,040 shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth 610 00:32:37,360 --> 00:32:42,120 shall be loosed in heaven. Now this is an amazing promise 611 00:32:42,120 --> 00:32:44,760 of purpose and power for the disciples. 612 00:32:45,520 --> 00:32:49,640 But later I want you to listen to the second time Jesus 613 00:32:49,640 --> 00:32:52,880 mentions the church in the Gospel of Matthew in Matthew 614 00:32:52,880 --> 00:32:55,920 chapter 18, beginning in verse 15. 615 00:32:57,480 --> 00:33:02,080 If your brother sins against you and and, go and tell him his 616 00:33:02,080 --> 00:33:05,800 fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have 617 00:33:05,800 --> 00:33:08,720 gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take 618 00:33:08,720 --> 00:33:12,560 one or two others along with you, that every charge may be 619 00:33:12,560 --> 00:33:15,200 established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 620 00:33:15,560 --> 00:33:19,080 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church, and if he 621 00:33:19,080 --> 00:33:21,560 refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a 622 00:33:21,560 --> 00:33:25,040 Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, now notice 623 00:33:25,840 --> 00:33:28,400 the parallel. Whatever you bind on earth shall 624 00:33:28,400 --> 00:33:31,600 be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be 625 00:33:31,600 --> 00:33:34,600 loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if 2 of you 626 00:33:34,600 --> 00:33:37,160 agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for 627 00:33:37,160 --> 00:33:40,000 them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are 628 00:33:40,000 --> 00:33:43,520 gathered in My name, there am I among them. 629 00:33:44,160 --> 00:33:47,800 Now the context of this passage and in Matthew 18 is church 630 00:33:47,880 --> 00:33:51,840 discipline, which is often an unheard of concept in the modern 631 00:33:51,840 --> 00:33:55,440 day church. But note the parallel Kingdom 632 00:33:55,440 --> 00:34:01,840 promise with that of chapter 16. The apostles and the local 633 00:34:01,840 --> 00:34:06,160 church were given Kingdom authority for declaring who was 634 00:34:06,160 --> 00:34:11,000 a true Kingdom citizen and for guarding true discipleship. 635 00:34:11,159 --> 00:34:16,440 Now that's a huge responsibility to be able to to determine when 636 00:34:16,440 --> 00:34:21,000 a person is saved and how a person is spiritually growing. 637 00:34:21,239 --> 00:34:25,280 So spiritual accountability was a significant issue and purpose 638 00:34:25,280 --> 00:34:28,639 of the church, even though often today it's not thought of like 639 00:34:28,639 --> 00:34:31,800 that because there's a corporate nature to this promise. 640 00:34:32,679 --> 00:34:35,920 Again, verse 19 says, again, I say to you, if 2 of you agree on 641 00:34:35,920 --> 00:34:38,199 earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my 642 00:34:38,199 --> 00:34:40,239 Father in heaven. For where two or three are 643 00:34:40,239 --> 00:34:42,199 gathered in my name, there am I among them. 644 00:34:42,199 --> 00:34:44,440 Now people often use these verses out of context. 645 00:34:45,760 --> 00:34:49,840 We often use these verses and only teach them in terms of 646 00:34:49,840 --> 00:34:53,520 prayer and prayers being answered about how when we pray 647 00:34:53,520 --> 00:34:57,240 together, God listens and he answers our prayer and we forget 648 00:34:57,720 --> 00:35:01,320 the whole passage. So the church provides corporate 649 00:35:01,320 --> 00:35:04,360 agreement, the church provides corporate affirmation, the 650 00:35:04,360 --> 00:35:08,000 church provides corporate accountability, again, which is 651 00:35:08,000 --> 00:35:12,200 often not thought of today. So those outside faithful church 652 00:35:12,200 --> 00:35:15,880 membership and participation often don't want to hear these 653 00:35:15,880 --> 00:35:19,400 kinds of things in their lives because they want to avoid that 654 00:35:19,400 --> 00:35:22,200 accountability. They want to be able to justify 655 00:35:22,200 --> 00:35:25,160 and excuse themselves. One of the things that we're 656 00:35:25,160 --> 00:35:29,600 going to be working on is to make sure that we don't have any 657 00:35:29,600 --> 00:35:33,040 inactive church members. We want everybody here. 658 00:35:33,680 --> 00:35:36,560 We want to love them and disciple them back into true 659 00:35:36,560 --> 00:35:41,120 fellowship with us, right? And so they that often people 660 00:35:41,120 --> 00:35:45,720 prize their self defined individual freedom and 661 00:35:45,720 --> 00:35:50,200 preferences over the God designed plan for us to be part 662 00:35:50,200 --> 00:35:53,120 of his body, part of his fellowship and part of his 663 00:35:53,120 --> 00:35:56,800 family. Now listen to this. 664 00:35:56,960 --> 00:35:58,200 Some of you aren't going to like it. 665 00:36:00,040 --> 00:36:02,560 Guy named Jonathan Lehman wrote a book about church. 666 00:36:03,800 --> 00:36:06,280 Let's know this line. He says a local church is a 667 00:36:06,280 --> 00:36:09,840 group of Christians who regularly gather in Christ's 668 00:36:09,840 --> 00:36:14,680 name to officially affirm and oversee one another's membership 669 00:36:14,680 --> 00:36:18,840 in Jesus Christ and his Kingdom through gospel preaching and 670 00:36:18,840 --> 00:36:22,200 gospel ordinances. Is it too much to think about 671 00:36:22,200 --> 00:36:26,040 the church having some role and actually overseeing your 672 00:36:26,040 --> 00:36:29,640 spiritual walk and discipleship? See, that kind of flies in the 673 00:36:29,640 --> 00:36:34,680 face of the American luxury of judging, shopping and hopping 674 00:36:34,680 --> 00:36:39,360 church to church seeking, seeking out the best one that 675 00:36:39,480 --> 00:36:44,680 perhaps tickles your fancy, the best show in town for that 676 00:36:44,680 --> 00:36:48,080 season until a better show comes along. 677 00:36:49,240 --> 00:36:52,160 So we need to commit. We need to decide who we're 678 00:36:52,160 --> 00:36:55,240 going to be, who we're going to be, and how we're going to grow, 679 00:36:55,360 --> 00:37:01,240 because I want Inglewood to make true disciples who multiply, who 680 00:37:01,240 --> 00:37:04,920 reproduce, disciples who make disciples who make disciples. 681 00:37:04,920 --> 00:37:07,680 Amen. Now I'm going to quote somebody 682 00:37:07,680 --> 00:37:11,480 you love, somebody you'd never argue with, somebody you'd just 683 00:37:11,480 --> 00:37:18,640 embrace Billy Graham. Billy once said, I'm afraid that 684 00:37:18,640 --> 00:37:21,080 we in the church are making a mistake by trying to make 685 00:37:21,080 --> 00:37:22,960 Christianity popular and pleasant. 686 00:37:23,840 --> 00:37:28,400 We've taken the cross away and we've substituted cushions. 687 00:37:31,360 --> 00:37:34,240 That's because at times, my friends, we have dumbed down the 688 00:37:34,240 --> 00:37:38,680 value and seriousness of being an active part of the church and 689 00:37:38,680 --> 00:37:40,520 what our true biblical purposes are. 690 00:37:41,960 --> 00:37:44,360 Listen, I know some churches that are very unhealthy. 691 00:37:44,360 --> 00:37:46,640 In fact, I know some churches that are flat out lousy. 692 00:37:47,600 --> 00:37:50,000 And that's not an opinion. That's based on research and 693 00:37:50,000 --> 00:37:52,920 work that I've done with them. I know churches that are 694 00:37:52,920 --> 00:37:54,920 unbiblical. They stopped being churches a 695 00:37:54,920 --> 00:37:57,880 long time ago. They have a sign and they have a 696 00:37:57,880 --> 00:38:00,480 building and they have meetings, but they're not fulfilling any 697 00:38:00,480 --> 00:38:02,440 biblical purpose. They stopped doing that a long 698 00:38:02,440 --> 00:38:04,480 time ago. Gang, I've been there and I've 699 00:38:04,480 --> 00:38:07,040 had to turn the key. They couldn't do it. 700 00:38:07,040 --> 00:38:09,400 They stood in the parking lot and wept while I turned the key 701 00:38:09,400 --> 00:38:11,160 and locked the door for the last time. 702 00:38:12,480 --> 00:38:15,640 Dozens of churches close their doors every week in the United 703 00:38:15,640 --> 00:38:19,720 States of America. It used to be over 70 a week. 704 00:38:19,720 --> 00:38:21,080 It's probably higher than that now. 705 00:38:23,120 --> 00:38:26,120 And some of them merged and some of them try, but they stopped 706 00:38:26,120 --> 00:38:28,720 being a church because they forgot why they exist and they 707 00:38:28,720 --> 00:38:30,960 forgot who they're supposed to be, and they forgot what they're 708 00:38:30,960 --> 00:38:34,000 supposed to be about. And I know there's some lousy 709 00:38:34,000 --> 00:38:36,360 church leaders out there, too. I'm writing a book about them, 710 00:38:37,640 --> 00:38:39,920 writing a book about toxic leadership, because I've spent 711 00:38:39,920 --> 00:38:43,480 the last 12 years of my life studying and working around and 712 00:38:43,480 --> 00:38:49,040 through and after many of them. I know that. 713 00:38:50,880 --> 00:38:52,320 So I want Inglewood to be different. 714 00:38:54,840 --> 00:38:58,840 I want us to be the church that loves God and brings him great 715 00:38:58,840 --> 00:39:01,760 glory. And over the next few weeks, I'm 716 00:39:01,760 --> 00:39:04,080 going to be sharing about opportunities for us to grow. 717 00:39:04,080 --> 00:39:07,040 Next week I'm going to ask the question, why should you be 718 00:39:07,040 --> 00:39:10,600 baptized? We got to talk about our 719 00:39:10,600 --> 00:39:12,360 ordinances. We got to lay this foundation. 720 00:39:12,360 --> 00:39:15,360 Then we're going to get into this heavy specific discipleship 721 00:39:15,360 --> 00:39:18,960 series, but I want us over the next few weeks to hear about 722 00:39:18,960 --> 00:39:23,600 opportunities to grow, to learn how to fit into true Kingdom 723 00:39:23,600 --> 00:39:27,680 work. I need 100% of you in worship. 724 00:39:27,680 --> 00:39:29,520 I need 100% of you in Connect groups. 725 00:39:29,520 --> 00:39:32,880 I need 100% of you at midweek, and I need 100% of you to serve. 726 00:39:33,600 --> 00:39:36,480 In fact, after this service, there are tables in the lobby 727 00:39:36,480 --> 00:39:39,520 right now for those of you who are church members. 728 00:39:40,360 --> 00:39:43,040 They're signing up volunteers for children in preschool 729 00:39:43,040 --> 00:39:46,240 ministry because they're growing and they need more help and you 730 00:39:46,240 --> 00:39:50,400 need to take a turn if you can. So you talk to him at those 731 00:39:50,400 --> 00:39:53,280 tables before you leave. Embrace these opportunities 732 00:39:53,280 --> 00:39:56,040 wholeheartedly. Submit to this rule of Christ in 733 00:39:56,040 --> 00:40:00,040 your life as the head, the great theologian Mark Twain. 734 00:40:02,520 --> 00:40:07,200 Go from Billy Graham to Mark Twain, there's a shift, He said. 735 00:40:07,200 --> 00:40:09,600 There's The most important days in a person's life are the day 736 00:40:09,600 --> 00:40:12,680 that they're born and the day they find out why. 737 00:40:14,520 --> 00:40:17,040 And then he also said the secret of getting ahead is getting 738 00:40:17,040 --> 00:40:20,000 started. We're getting started. 739 00:40:20,000 --> 00:40:24,280 It's time, it's coming. These room changes, 740 00:40:25,320 --> 00:40:29,040 repositioning our children's ministries, getting ready with 741 00:40:29,040 --> 00:40:31,000 reach. We have a huge connect group 742 00:40:31,000 --> 00:40:34,600 leader meeting today. It's starting. 743 00:40:35,200 --> 00:40:37,160 So get ready and just focus on this. 744 00:40:37,160 --> 00:40:41,000 John 15 five. I'm the vine, you're the 745 00:40:41,000 --> 00:40:44,320 branches. Whoever abides in me and I in 746 00:40:44,320 --> 00:40:46,760 him, He, he, it is that bears much fruit. 747 00:40:47,600 --> 00:40:49,240 For apart from me, you can do what? 748 00:40:50,480 --> 00:40:53,880 What? We either believe that or we 749 00:40:53,880 --> 00:40:57,600 don't. And I pray today that you do, or 750 00:40:57,600 --> 00:41:01,080 I pray today that you seek Him, that you seek that abiding 751 00:41:01,080 --> 00:41:02,600 connection with the Master Builder. 752 00:41:03,400 --> 00:41:06,600 That we avoid pride, we avoid any sense of our own selfish 753 00:41:06,600 --> 00:41:10,040 powers and ability, but that we depend upon Him because you need 754 00:41:10,040 --> 00:41:12,320 Him. You also need His church. 755 00:41:12,560 --> 00:41:17,360 That's His plan. So join him then join her. 756 00:41:18,440 --> 00:41:21,840 That's the way it's supposed to work, Father. 757 00:41:21,840 --> 00:41:24,120 I thank you for your word. I thank you for the truth, 758 00:41:25,960 --> 00:41:27,600 Father. Sometimes it's not always 759 00:41:27,600 --> 00:41:30,520 comfortable or convenient, Father, because we recognize 760 00:41:30,520 --> 00:41:33,200 that we don't get to do whatever we want to do the way we want to 761 00:41:33,200 --> 00:41:36,880 do it, Father. We're actually supposed to do 762 00:41:36,880 --> 00:41:42,000 what you want us to do. And Father, the joy of that is, 763 00:41:42,000 --> 00:41:47,400 is if we will, it will be the best thing for us that Father, 764 00:41:47,400 --> 00:41:52,800 it will bring us more joy, more purpose, more hope, more peace, 765 00:41:52,800 --> 00:42:01,000 more abundance, Father, to live life the way you want us to. 766 00:42:02,240 --> 00:42:04,440 Now for some here this morning, that means salvation. 767 00:42:05,480 --> 00:42:07,440 There are some here today. And they just have to admit, 768 00:42:07,440 --> 00:42:10,240 John, I've never trusted Christ as my Lord and Savior. 769 00:42:10,240 --> 00:42:12,000 I don't know what's going to happen to me when I die. 770 00:42:12,000 --> 00:42:13,920 I don't. I don't even know why I'm here. 771 00:42:14,800 --> 00:42:18,720 Well, I know why you're here. The Holy Spirit's brought you to 772 00:42:18,720 --> 00:42:21,760 this moment. And I pray the Holy Spirit will 773 00:42:21,760 --> 00:42:25,720 just Pierce their hearts, Father, and that Lord, you'll 774 00:42:25,720 --> 00:42:28,240 draw them to you and that they'll understand the truth of 775 00:42:28,240 --> 00:42:30,960 the gospel, that Jesus died on the cross for them and rose 776 00:42:30,960 --> 00:42:32,760 again. He's the only one who can save 777 00:42:32,760 --> 00:42:36,360 us. Others here recognize that they 778 00:42:36,360 --> 00:42:40,200 need to join the church. They need to become an official 779 00:42:40,200 --> 00:42:41,720 part. They've been visiting, they've 780 00:42:41,720 --> 00:42:46,040 been spectating, they've been watching, learning, praying. 781 00:42:47,440 --> 00:42:51,560 But Father, I pray that it it's time to close that door and to 782 00:42:51,560 --> 00:42:54,080 move forward and to join. Maybe somebody here needs to be 783 00:42:54,080 --> 00:42:57,280 baptized. Maybe somebody here just needs 784 00:42:57,280 --> 00:43:00,240 prayer. So, Father, in a moment I pray 785 00:43:00,240 --> 00:43:02,400 that people would come, that they'd take a pastor by the 786 00:43:02,400 --> 00:43:06,000 hand, or they'd go to our Next steps room and share with one of 787 00:43:06,000 --> 00:43:07,960 those decision counselors their father. 788 00:43:09,560 --> 00:43:11,160 Or maybe they just need to come and pray. 789 00:43:12,880 --> 00:43:15,560 The Lord just lead us. Help us to submit to you. 790 00:43:16,120 --> 00:43:21,920 Help us to be your people, your bride, your body, your church. 791 00:43:22,680 --> 00:43:25,280 Thank you, Father in Christ's name, Amen. 792 00:43:25,880 --> 00:43:27,360 We're going to sing in just a moment. 793 00:43:27,800 --> 00:43:30,120 Some of our pastors will be standing up here and you can 794 00:43:30,120 --> 00:43:32,560 come talk to us or you can just come and kneel and pray here. 795 00:43:32,800 --> 00:43:36,320 But we also have a Next steps room right there where we have 796 00:43:36,320 --> 00:43:38,600 people who are trained and they just want to pray with you and 797 00:43:38,600 --> 00:43:41,120 love you. Be a discreet, private place for 798 00:43:41,120 --> 00:43:43,040 you to go to. Have a good conversation about 799 00:43:43,040 --> 00:43:44,640 what it is the Lord's laying on your heart. 800 00:43:44,760 --> 00:43:45,960 Some of you may want to go there. 801 00:43:45,960 --> 00:43:47,120 You don't have to come here first. 802 00:43:47,120 --> 00:43:49,840 Just go straight there. They would welcome you and love 803 00:43:49,840 --> 00:43:53,680 to have you join them there just to talk to you, just to share 804 00:43:53,680 --> 00:43:57,080 with you, just to love you. So let's stand together. 805 00:43:57,120 --> 00:43:58,360 Worship team is going to lead us. 806 00:43:58,360 --> 00:44:04,800 We'll be here, you come. Thank you so much for listening 807 00:44:04,800 --> 00:44:06,400 today. And I also hope that you'll go 808 00:44:06,400 --> 00:44:08,640 to ourwebsite@englewoodbaptist.com 809 00:44:08,640 --> 00:44:11,680 as well as our app and find many other resources that will bless 810 00:44:11,680 --> 00:44:13,880 you and your families. Thank you once again.