What I want to do this morning is just talk about religious our church. I’m just just praising the Lord for where he’s brought us over these last couple of years. Just kind of for those of us who’ve been here for at least since I’ve been here, just kind of refresh our hearts and minds about who we are as a church, what we want to be. And those of us who have come along after since we started two years ago, a little more than that, back in October, just to kind of say, hey, this is who we are. And I really, you know, my heart’s desire is for us to kind of rally around who we are as a church and just commit to that. And so, yes, Lord, we’re excited to be here and we’re excited to be this church. And this is our DNA. And just to kind of talk about where, you know, we want to see the Lord lead us. And so that’s just kind of my hope and just kind of really just some of my heart as a pastor, who I am. And just what I really just want to see. See among us happen as well. So that’s just kind of my aim for this morning. I do want to read Matthew 28, 18 through 20. I think I’ve preached this sermon on it last year, but it’s probably a verse. I will preach a sermon on many, many times because for me, it’s integral to what the church is. It’s integral to your relationship with Jesus. And so right before Jesus ascends in Matthew 28, 18, it says, And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I’m with you always to the end. I’m with you always to the end of the age.

Before this weekend, I did not know how to replace the cartilage inside of a faucet for a sink that’s dripping. I now know. I had been putting it off for a year and a half, maybe the whole time Jessica and I have lived in the house we’ve lived in, because I don’t know how to do it. And I just didn’t want to fool with it. And that’s true for a lot of things in life. But I don’t know how to do it. But my dad was up this past weekend, and we got under the sink, and we took things apart. And he said things to me, but he showed me, this is how you do it. So I feel pretty confident now, not because I was just told, but I was shown, this is how you do this thing. Right? So discipleship is not, strictly speaking, a biblical category. You can disciple someone to do a lot of things in life. You can teach people with your words and with your life how to do a number of things. I think the wonderful thing about the word disciple is it finds its greatest climax in the Christian faith. Because what is the greatest thing you could be discipled towards? And more than that, what is the greatest thing you can make a disciple of? And that is Jesus.

That’s discipleship. You know, you’ve maybe heard the difference between a fan and a follower. A fan can sit back and really appreciate something that they’ll never be able to do, whether that’s perhaps an instrument played or a sport played, and wow, it’s amazing. But you know you’re never going to do it. But a follower is very much so expected to come behind and follow in the way of and do the very thing. And that’s the most amazing thing about Jesus, is though He is the God-man, He invites us to follow Him and to do what He did. I believe that that is our calling as a church, is to follow Jesus together. Just to look at the Great Commission with you again. Jesus has all authority in heaven and all that’s been given to me. Kind of like a warrant. You know when someone says, oh, there’s a warrant out for your arrest? What does that policeman have? He’s got the authority of the government. to go arrest somebody. He’s got a warrant. In the same way, you could translate that as a warrant. Jesus says, I’ve got all authority and now I am able to warrant that you go out and you arrest souls for the sake of the gospel. You are my disciples and I’m putting my authority, I’m putting my power, I’m putting the power of the kingdom of heaven not just on you, but in you. I’m putting the Holy Spirit inside of you and you’re going to go and you’re going to make disciples. You’re going to make these learners, these students. You’re going to be in a very real way those over others who can, what’s Paul say, imitate me as I imitate Christ. And you’re going to make it of everybody. If someone has a heartbeat in their chest, that person should be made a follower of Christ. Baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Bring them in. And then how are they kept as a disciple? The same way they’re made one. You teach them the gospel. You teach it to them. But again, Jesus is teaching and for like his whole life, it’s not just you sit there in a chair and let me say some things to you. It is that. There’s a lot of value and Jesus did that a lot, didn’t he? He got up in front of crowds and he would teach and he would teach and he would teach and he would teach. Remember the Sermon on the Mount? We walked through that. It was him teaching and teaching and teaching. But how often does Jesus show with his life this is how you love poor people and this is how you spend your time and this is how you live sacrificially. This is how you wash someone’s feet. Jesus showed his disciples the kingdom of heaven not with his words, but with his life. So you see, Jesus says teach them to what? Observe. Not like look at it. Observe. Keep the whole way of it. And what a wonderful thing. He says, I’m with you. The Spirit’s with you to do this very thing to the end of the age. So that’s our great calling as a church. It is to be disciples and it is to make disciples. If you’re a note taker, feel free to take notes on there. Some of that’s laid out for you. So a disciple is one committed to learning and following the way of Jesus. And I think the Great Commission is the best kind of, in a nutshell, if I had to distill it down, that’s what it means to be a disciple. But even further than that, can you distill it even further? What does it mean to be a disciple? That sounds like a big task. I think it is a big task. And it’s a really big task. And I think it’s really, really important. I think it’s really, really important because I think a lot of churches and a lot of places are really, really confused about what they’re supposed to be doing. I think a lot of pastors are really, really confused about what they’re supposed to be doing. They’re not supposed to be entertaining people. They’re not supposed to be filling a religious void in people’s life. They’re not supposed to be activists for good causes. All of those things are rampant in the church. They’re not supposed to be CEOs and these heads of organizations and corporations. They’re supposed to be disciple-making disciples in a church that is a bunch of people. A bunch of disciples making disciples. When I was doing Bible college, distance learning, Moody Bible Institute, I was in ministry and doing Bible school and kind of learning. It was in a spiritual discipleship class, what that was. There was this thing He showed us and it was the simplest thing to me, but it was the most wonderful thing to me and it was just the best thing I ever saw and it’s still the best thing I’ve ever seen and it’s entirely underwhelming when I describe it to you. It was just this cross and it was not pretty. It looked like it had been drawn in the 40s and it just had the Word and it had prayer on this angle of the wood and it had Christ-centered community and evangelism on this one.

And I don’t know why I just stared at it. And I thought, that is the most wonderful thing because that is the gospel, but through the cross of Christ, what has Jesus done? He’s renewed, He’s brought back my relationship with God. But that’s not the only thing the cross has fixed. It’s fixed my relationship with people.

And I think that was just such a wonderful way just to see the gospel and that reshaped and shapes just the way I think about my own Christian life, the way I think about what it means to me, to follow Jesus, what a healthy church is. What if you just had a bunch of people? I mean, what we’re doing is we’re knowing God again and we’re knowing God as we know people. That was just the most wonderful thing to me. So you’ve heard me say those things in sermons, hopefully. It’s not an accident. Hopefully it’s just kind of in our DNA and it just kind of comes out of us because I think it’s incredibly biblical. I don’t think, I really don’t think every church has a different mission and they think they do. Like, our church, we do this thing and this is our thing and this is our thing and this is our strategy and you bring in these big, really expensive church consultants and they help you figure out your, and I’ve sat through this, like figure out your church’s strategy and your church is this. And I think that Jesus already gave us a strategy. And I think it’s the exact same strategy for every local church for all time and all places. And it’s just to follow Jesus through knowing God and knowing God in our relationships with people. I don’t think it needs to be anything more than that. I think it’s beautiful in its simplicity. I think it’s beautiful in its simplicity.

So I would like to just kind of go through those with you and just talk about what those things mean for us as a church. And the first thing I want to talk about is just prayer. If I was to say this is what it means to follow Jesus and this is a capstone, this is a cornerstone of Jesus this is a life and this is a capstone, cornerstone of Jesus’ life it must mean it should be a capstone and cornerstone of my life, doesn’t it? And I think the beauty of being a follower of Jesus is this. He says you can because of me now you couldn’t do it before you can come into God’s presence and you can know that what you ask of me you will receive. So pray with a relentless faith and believe that God hears you and believe that God wants to hear you. Trust God’s power and provision to bring to pass in your life the very kingdom of God. You know we’ve been talking about Matthew. Remember in Luke 18 that woman and she can’t get justice. She beats on the wicked judge’s door and she can’t get justice. And Jesus says he eventually gives in because he wants her to go away. But he says how much more does your father know what you need and is he ready to provide it? You know?

Prayer is wonderful because prayer is not about you and I getting what we want. We want it to be that, don’t we? God I want this to work out. I don’t want any problems in my life. I want to make this much money. I want this. And Jesus says here’s prayer. Look at me in the garden. I’m getting ready to be crucified. And I say Father that’s awful. I don’t want it to happen. But he says not my will but your will be done. So the wonderful thing about prayer is it’s not about getting stuff from God. It’s about God shaping us and forming our desires to match his son’s in the very things we say to God. The wonderful thing about prayer is it doesn’t stop with just me. Prayer goes deep but it goes wide. In prayer I’m so mindful that the kingdom of God is not just about me but God is wanting me to intercede on the behalf of others that they would make it home to and they’re praying for me and I’m praying. God’s like I see all of my children and I see that Jesus was so often renewed in prayer. You remember when Jesus in the beginning of Mark’s gospel

he’s out alone with the Father in the dark and the disciples say hey Jesus all the people are back the crowds are back. They want to see you work your wonders. They want to see you do your amazing things. Come on Jesus. Wow the crowds again. And Jesus says no. We’re going to the next town. I’ve come to preach the gospel. I’ve not come to do all this stuff and get all this fame. What if Christ hadn’t prayed that morning? Of course he’s perfect so he did. But it’s simply to remind us in prayer my spirit that so often gets bent and twisted. What does prayer do in the spirit of the Father? It brings me back into alignment with who God is and who I am in Christ. So prayer can’t be underemphasized. And you know I could riff off a bunch of depressing statistics about prayer and that is the case the church is prayerless today. We’ve replaced prayer with techniques. We’ve replaced prayer with technology. At the end of the day friends God’s arm moves when his people pray as he wants us to pray. And I love just the thought of God in heaven and he’s holding back a barn and it’s got grain you know like those cartoons there’s so much grain that starts to bend and God’s like are y’all going to ask me? Who’s going to ask for this grain to come in? God wants it to flow down to us. We just don’t ask. We need a greater faith in prayer. So I think that’s a major part of following Christ. I think the next major part of following Christ is knowing God in his word.

Just to throw these up here for you if you want to fill in the blanks and keep them.

We talk about this a lot and again I hope none of this is like oh I’ve never heard of this before. Hopefully like we’ve been weaving this you know into our hearts over time but just to kind of look at it together. How important is the word of God? What does Paul say to Timothy? He says know the word because what does the word do? It trains you up for righteousness. When I know the word which is not a book but it is the only window I have into who Christ is physically to read about Jesus it says hey look at this part of your heart you’re not like Jesus here you know. Let the spirit take that sword and cut deep and show those dark ugly parts and train me up to be effective in the local church. Train me up to look like Jesus. Train me up to know God and to be like Jesus I’m called to be. I need the word to purify me. How often did Jesus riff off the Bible or riff off the Old Testament? Why? Because the Old Testament the scriptures were integral to his own ministry. So if the scriptures are integral to his own ministry and him being what he needed to be and doing what he needed to do how much more important is it for you not to know the word? He says in John 17 that they would know the truth. Your word is truth.

And then secondly how do we as a church even guard and protect what it means to be a Christian and to believe the gospel if we don’t even know it so we can’t protect it? Well this person is saying this and this doctrine is coming in and it seems popular and people are flocking to that church and they’re teaching and preaching so it must be fine. Because you know Satan did that same thing. It’s not a new trick. You see churches going in all kinds of doctrinal directions. You see them doing all kinds of weird things to get people to show up. And Satan said hey Jesus I’ll give you the whole world if you worship me. And Jesus says you worship the Lord your God. So what is the son of God’s weapon to be guarded and kept from evil and darkness? It’s the Bible. And if that’s good enough for Jesus should it not be good enough for us? How important is the word friends? How important is the word? So the word and prayer friends that is the beauty of the gospel this way. It renews and purifies my relationship with God. It makes me like God. As I was designed to be in Christ Jesus. So those are wonderful pillars in my heart and I think to build the church on.

But and this is where I talk about this way you know it’s not just that God has said okay you He said okay y’all. He probably didn’t use southern vernacular. Well okay y’all y’all y’all y’all in Huntsville, Alabama. Y’all counsel one another. Y’all correct one another. Y’all confess your sin to one another. Y’all bear one another’s burdens. Y’all pray deeply for one another. Y’all encourage and edify one another. No y’all are all going to struggle in your different ways and you know what the Spirit’s means to keep you keep that vertical relationship keep you going to the end. It’s other people.

God never intended for any of us to say well yes I’ve got my my relationship with God or I’ve done business with God you know people say but their relationship with the church is really it’s like this or it’s or it’s non-existent. And I think a lot of times we ask these wicked questions in our hearts like where does Paul say I’ve got to be a member of a church and I think Paul would say back why would you ask that question? How would you expect to counsel me? Also correct or confess sin bear one another’s burdens be in prison together die together and it like you didn’t just assume I meant you have to be like locked arms committed to one another. We don’t do that with Netflix.

Hey I want your service but I’m not going to agree to your terms and contracts like I don’t want to do that. Guess what Netflix is going to say? Go away. Fine we don’t want you because here’s our terms and agreements. We’re willing to be so rude as an understatement irreverent to how God says I have saved you I’ve given you eternal life here is my means for you to be kept in the gospel and it looks like dying to self locking arms with other people being a help to them and them helping you get home it’s God’s means so I cannot bear with someone that yes oh I’m a Christian I follow Christ but they’re not knee deep in the mess of the local church. They’re not knee deep in discipleship they’re not knee deep in being discipled it’s just unbiblical it’s a non-biblical thing and that puts its finger doesn’t it on the most American individualistic nerve you have doesn’t it? It’s something to die to it’s something to die to but friends we together are the body of Christ we are the spirit’s means to be kept in the gospel and you say well if I’m if Jesus saved me then perseverance of the saints I’m saved right? Yeah if you believe that you’re also going to obey the rest of it in context and you’re going to abide in the local church so what a blessing a responsibility a wonderful privilege to be knee deep in the local church and that’s a lot of what I just want to talk to you about this morning is the great value of finding God with brothers and sisters in Christ in the only place it can be found in the context of the local church

just the last one I want to talk about and we talk about this don’t talk about enough don’t do it enough you need to do more it’s evangelism and mission if you and I have such a great and wonderful thing in Christ if you and I really have been satisfied in soul with Jesus you know what it means it means that we’re just not going to be able to keep it quiet yesterday at our donut breakfast David told about when he was sitting on a porch years ago and some lady just drove up and got out of her car and said I got saved today and got back in her car and drove away

that’s what if you think God and being in the local church is so wonderful you won’t be able to keep it to yourself you know you tell people about the things that mean the most to you and it’s hard and so I think again that’s where none of these things are on their own like here’s prayer here’s the word here’s community here’s the church here’s evangelism no we’re a Christ centered community rooted in the word praying loving one another and then what all that flows out into evangelism like hey world look at how we love one another hey world hear about our savior and sometimes it’s hard I love that word pain line it’s from a book and it’s just this guy that says you know every time the spirit says hey share the gospel and you get that knot in your stomach like I don’t want to but you cross that pain line and you do it because you know that God wanted you to do it and you can go back to your church and say hey I was in this pain line moment and that’s so encouraging right to share those stories of obedience and we’re just preaching the gospel to one another and hey I want the world to know about all this stuff because we don’t want to keep the gospel to ourselves I don’t want to keep the local church I don’t want it to be us four no more I want to see the church flourish God’s way but I want to see the church to flourish so so again that for me it’s just like these these four so important foundations of what it means to just follow Christ if those things could be embodied in us that would be just amazing to see what the spirit would do and just the simplicity of it and the beauty of just seeing Jesus’ life and see the spirit work that out in the way he wants to work it out and how does he want to work it out? through the local church through the local church you say well can’t can I just like keep all that organic like I see what you’re saying I see what Jesus is saying but does it have to be like this official formal thing can we just be like disciples? no here’s why we can’t do that because Jesus didn’t intend for that to happen so people can do it you can pit Jesus against Paul it’s like Jesus the four gospels and he’s like organic moving around Jerusalem with his disciples it’s very relational but then Paul comes in with all of his doctrine and there’s all these rules and boundaries for the church and here’s stuffy Paul and the rest of the New Testament but there’s Jesus and it’s so organic and it’s like it’s a false dichotomy Jesus’ intentions with his twelve apostles was the birth of the church what did Jesus say in the beginning of Acts? he said you wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit comes upon you wait because you cannot be my people unless the Holy Spirit of God is inside of you Jesus wanted the church to be born he bled and died so that the church would be born and when he died and when Peter gets up there and he preaches the gospel and it says thousands come to saving faith but what does it tell us in the next chapter of Acts? it says they what? they regularly met together to eat to share to take communion together to what? hear the apostles’ teachings so again if we would say to Paul or to Peter or to Jesus do we have to like you know have boundary lines and be organized can’t we just be organic? I mean I would I would just take a bullet instead of hearing the word organic because it’s so organic it’s so abused you know in Christian circles I just want it to be organic can it be organic? and and friends if there was an era maybe in the last century where the church was too programmatic and it tried too hard to like you know make everything with it’s clearly defined how disciples are made and there’s this ministry this program and blah blah blah if that was unhealthy okay but here’s the greatest lesson you can learn from church history the church never corrects the church always over corrects so instead of saying hey we’re low on relationship and love we’re heavy on like program so let’s fly off the other side of the road and ditch organization altogether and be totally organic right? you can’t do that there’s a middle there where we’re in the middle so you know there is love and there is fellowship and it is real it is organic but Jesus also says hey this is what it looks like when you gather here’s how you have ordered services this is what church discipline looks like when one of you acts out and you send this is how the elders deal with it this is how church hey here’s how you pray here’s what you pray for here’s what it looks like to do mission innovative it gives us very clear lines and rules for being an organized church for being an organization right? I think a local church is just the greatest organization on the face of the earth because it’s filled with the Holy Spirit so we’ve got to be a church we’ve got to be a local church and we’ve got to love what it means to be the local church together so if I’m a church that just simply means this it means that I’m in a place where many disciples are committed to learning and following the way of Jesus we’re all together in this local place we’re all together in this geographical place saying yeah we are a Christ centered community we’re word saturated we’re prayer dependent and we’re gospel proclaiming and we’re doing it right here together because that’s Jesus’ chosen context for discipleship to flourish and kind of in the same way you’re just beating a dead horse what is a church member? well it’s a it’s a disciple committed to that specific local church in a particular geographical cultural context so on some measure you can say well this is duh stuff it is duh stuff but it’s also stuff we don’t really love and take serious the way that we should so this discipleship you just want to switch gears and talk about what about the church? we’re talking about the church just to answer a few questions for us and I don’t have fill-ins for this but if you want to take notes on the back of your fill in the blanks you can how did the church come to be? has there always been a church? has there always been a church? no we talk about the fall of man a lot I weave that into a lot of what I say in my sermons because I don’t think we can ever really know and love the gospel if we’re not talking about the fall of man and why the gospel is good news but we go all the way back to the garden what do we mean by fall? Adam had everything it was great Adam and Eve they were in paradise God said know me right? that sounds familiar doesn’t it? know me know one another in the context of my morality my goodness my purity but Satan came along and he said what? hey let me invite you to do things your own way Satan said let me invite you to come up with your own truths and the moment that Adam and Eve went for that what happened but the ruin of man and you know it’s interesting I never I never realized how merciful God was even in the garden because God had said the day you eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good news you shall die and they didn’t die I only realized that last year how gracious God is that Adam and Eve didn’t die that day but he said it you know he said you will die and they didn’t die what does God do instead of killing him? he says I’m going to send my son Jesus the seed I’m going to kill him instead how amazing is the gospel even in the very beginning of Genesis that God makes a promise to save us

but he does give the people the law he says hey here’s my law and you can keep it because remember you fell and the law the law of Moses is this constant reminder that we’re still waiting on that seed to come we’re still waiting for that to come and the law is a reminder things are not as they should be but what happens is Jesus comes and Jesus bleeds and Jesus dies and Jesus he raises up from the dead having dealt with our sins right and what did Jesus do? he created us from the dead he creates a new people for himself his own body and that’s the church that’s his bride so the church in I guess a biblical sense was born in Acts when the spirit fell but the church was in God’s heart because before time began the scriptures say it was in God’s heart to send Christ to bleed and die for us the church wasn’t plan B friend God loves you so much before time began you were in his heart and what a wonderful truth that he he down the corridors of time saw the pain and suffering of his son for us that’s amazing isn’t it and if that’s so wow what a wonderful thing to be in a local church it’s like well just religion is a part of life and people you know choose their religions and this is the one I’m stuck no like you were in the heart of the eternal God and here we are not out there you know somebody’s down the road right now eating pancakes at sunny street and they’re just they’re just trying to enjoy their life and they don’t even know they don’t even know and if they don’t hear the gospel they’re going to die and perish yet you are sitting here hearing the gospel having believed the gospel what an amazing thing to be called a church member it’s an amazing thing

so that’s where the church came to be again I want to re-emphasize what is the church what is the church universal and you could say that’s every Christian ever everyone who’s ever believed in the sight even in the Old Testament sense Jesus said Abraham Abraham had faith he saw my day right so in that sense the church is everyone who had faith in Christ even Old Testament saints and that’s wonderful because we celebrate the gospel of Jesus but this is back to where we have to understand scripture in its context God is not doing His work in the world today through the church universal He’s doing His work through the local church in geographical places places in particular cultural context because guess what that’s where all the lost and dying people are it’s great for you to be a universal church member oh I got my ticket to heaven but friends if we really have we’re going to say no I want to sign up to be part of the local church because that’s where I’m hearing the word that’s where I’m growing that’s where I’m worshiping that’s where I’m being encouraged that’s where God’s using me that’s where we’re seeing people baptized that’s where we’re taking communion that’s where we’re going on mission trips that’s where we’re just praying for one another and just doing the Christian life together so there is no universal church that’s such a cop out maybe you’ve heard someone say my religion is private my religion is private it’s not the Christian religion at least not if you’ve read the New Testament it’s not right so the local church is the only place where God if we’re reading the New Testament that’s the place from which He is effectively reaching the nations right in the local church

next thing and again I hope this one is pretty like we know but well how do I be in one you’re saying the church is such an awesome place how do I get inside that place well here’s how you get in there you receive the atonement and we talked about the atonement a couple weeks ago Jesus once for all spilled His blood to make you clean the atonement was the necessary requirement from God’s law for your sins to be dealt with you know you go back to the Old Testament and what did they do over and over again those animal sacrifices were they effective to take the sins of the people away no they were a temporary appeasement and they pointed towards who Jesus Jesus’ blood and Jesus’ blood would be enough and we talked about this in our Bible study Jesus’ blood is even better than the Old Testament sacrificial system because it covers not just the sins that the sacrifice for the people of God the sacrificial system would it went outside of that to the curse

committed adultery committed murder the Old Testament sacrifice had no had no provision for you you are to die but Paul says Jesus became a curse for you so in Christ we are blessed because Christ has dealt with the sin problem so what do I do with that Jesus says you repent you turn from your sin you turn from yourself and you just believe on the Lord Jesus Christ you have to repent wholeheartedly embrace Christ’s atoning work you were converted you’re this dead old nasty thing and Jesus He didn’t renovate you He didn’t renovate you you know you can renovate a house you can’t renovate a sinful heart Jesus rebirthed you Jesus rebirthed you He spoke life where it was not like Ezekiel’s valley of dry bones they’re just dry bones and He says flesh get on those bones a heart go on those bones blood get on those bones be alive valley of dry bones that’s what Jesus has done to us that’s the grace that brings us in to the fold of Christ together and what’s baptism well baptism is that wonderful outward ordinance where we say to not just the world but to the church hey church you’re responsible for me now because inside I died and came back to life so I’m one of you now I’m in the club and hey world I got baptized which means identify with the church and the same in the Old Testament right you obey the law you’re circumcised you live different from the rest of the world you say hey I’m one of God’s people you know I belong to Jehovah I’m in that camp now I’m different from the world your baptism says I’m different from the world I’m in the church as an outpost of heaven I’m an ambassador for the kingdom a king of kings now so that’s how we get in there but now that I’m in there and again we’re back to just the thing that I think I want to most impress on us now that I’m in there what do I do in there what’s it like well it’s like it’s like being an adopted son or daughter that’s what it’s like it’s like roaming around the streets as a poor beggar but a king brings you in to his royal family and he’s not just done it for you he’s done it for all these other people and now your beloved sons and daughters of God you’ve been adopted into a family you know the funny thing about family every family has its rules doesn’t it like if I sit at the dinner table and if Darcy if she starts to eat her food before we pray or if Dawson he starts to eat before he prays hey what do we do in this family we pray first right there’s certain rules like that’s our family we have those rules it’s the same thing friends if we’ve been brought in here brought into the family of God like okay I’m in the family now God like what are your rules I’m going to live by your rules teach and tell me I want to know those we so often don’t treat the church that way there’s a book I love it’s by a pastor named Mark Dever and he tells a story in his book of this girl who came to his church years ago and they very much so wanted formal membership they said hey if you want to be a member here you need to you know put your name on the line and commit to being a formal member commit to who we are what we believe how we function and operate and she was disgusted by it and so she left but years later that same girl came back and she said now I understand she said all these other churches that you could easily be a part of you can leave just the same it may feel great at first but the relationships and the commitment to the truth it’s awfully shallow I see now why you wanted a commitment up front because you want the church to be real and deep for everybody you want a common commitment to that right so so often we don’t we want the church to feel like a country club and it’s the best analogy I think there is because what’s a country club it’s really something that exists for you right what are your rooms like what amenities do you have to offer how big is your swimming pool you know do you all have a really good menu here you know do you keep the place up manicured well but guess what happens in a country club as soon as it doesn’t please you in some way you have every right in the world to pull your membership and go to the one down the road that does and that is exactly how the local church is treated today you don’t have the right programs you don’t meet my needs oh I was offended so I’m leaving I can’t I can’t give you more time you want me to serve I can’t I can’t do that I’m a busy person I’ve got a life be a country club for me so you could call it comfort based comfort based versus commitment based callings which one is which one sounds like I’m going to read the differences comfort based calling says how can I be served how can you customize my experience only speaking to my life to the degree I allow if I’m wronged I’ll walk away we are a club commitment based callings says how can I serve you how can I help edify our church let’s fight for one another’s holiness if I’m wronged I’ll forgive and trust Christ to restore our relationship we’re a family now here’s what I’m not saying I’m not saying there’s never a good reason to leave a local church sometimes there is bad theology

entirely just poor leadership there’s a number of things that happen that hey that’s just a healthy thing for me to do for me and my family I’m not saying that what I am saying is 99% of the time that’s not the reason why people church hop it’s just not the case and it’s terribly unfortunate and so I know I’m beating a dead horse here well he won’t die and so I have to keep beating him because because because I think you and I are constantly as consumers in 21st century America like we need to be we need to hear the gospel being a part of the local churches dying to me it’s dying to me it’s dying to me it’s dying to me it’s a wonderful privilege but it is a responsibility I would say to command on your life and on mine to be committed to a local church

a couple more things I don’t want to overdo it here I know it’s a lot of information at once just talking about leadership in the local church and just my heart pastorally I think these are two of the best descriptions of a pastor a pastor is not someone who gets to dominate like I’m in charge and I’ll tell you what to do right and so I’m the I’m the the grand poobah around here that’s not it a pastor has a license to serve my calling is to lead by example it is to preach and teach the gospel to you in its fullness but it is to by God’s grace and that is to that is a daunting thing on me and on those who God calls me pastors but to with my life teach and show the way of Jesus right to the end that you would teach and show Jesus to others in your life so that’s the great calling of a pastor it is to point to Jesus with his words and with his life now I think a lot of times and again this this pushes on that 21st century American hey there are times when doing that in reverse it’s called pastoral discipline or you know discipline church discipline cases where that’s been acted why is that well imagine a shepherd on the inside of his fold he’s got all these sheep and one of those sheep is sick right so he can say well you know I don’t want to make that sheep uncomfortable I don’t want to hurt its feelings I don’t want him to be upset with me so I’m just going to leave him alone what’s going to happen all the other sheep are going to get sick because I didn’t do anything to them deal with the problem right in the same way a good shepherd sometimes on the outside of that flock doing this he’s got his step he’s not letting wolves in he’s not letting people and sheep’s clothing come in he is on the inside and the out guarding and keeping so even the function of church discipline which I think is a non-category in a lot of churches the function of church discipline is a loving reflex of a pastor who doesn’t want to see his people’s holiness polluted

so you should love church discipline so much so when you have a brother or sister come to you attempting to obey the scriptures to say hey man we need to talk about fill in the blank you don’t go how dare they do that to me because wow you care about my holiness and you care about not just my holiness but you care about the holiness of God Jesus is bride because you were willing to address that issue in me thank you right so we should those shouldn’t be like church discipline how could he have said those words I mean who’s willing to do that we should all be willing to do church discipline okay it’s part of God’s plan for keeping us whole it’s correcting one another you need a whack to the shin every once in a while I need one you know not literally but you know in the soul so just kind of kind of touch on that so just at Providence how are we doing that and again just to recap here we’re following Jesus nobody’s allowed to do that together we’re a Christ centered community it’s a work saturated prayer dependent gospel proclaiming where’s that happening context of a local church okay how are we doing that in a local church what we do on Sundays when we gather when we gather to worship God through the songs that are prepared and the scriptures that are prepared and the prayers that are prepared that’s turning our heart towards Christ in so many ways in so many ways we pray for the nations it’s evangelistic we pray for one another’s sin well that’s Christ centered community we pray we know God more that’s the word and that’s prayer so we’re growing in our worship we’re growing when supernaturally the spirit takes the word of God in a sermon and he convicts you and sometimes I think even in ways you can’t see he’s just shaping you into the image of Christ and impressing Jesus on your soul and the Hebrew Bible it’s just don’t stop doing that keep doing that keep doing that keep doing that a variety of discipleship meetings you know I know 2020 was a weird one you know but hey we did the best we could we met virtually and we encouraged one another on Wednesday nights in prayer in just the word and that’s good and I don’t these are very general because I want to be general because they’re like here’s our thing we do this thing and everybody’s got to get in this thing you know maybe Richard you know after a while after service is going to walk up to Lawton and say hey you want to start meeting on Tuesday morning at 730 and God’s going to use that six month relationship to grow them in incredible ways so the Spirit you know just works in all kinds of ways when we do that you know so we will have hey formally we have this Bible so available but you listen to the Spirit and disciple one another I can’t disciple everybody if I wanted to and tried I would do it poorly you know so we’ve got to be getting ourselves you know a good illustration would be a trellis you know that like a vine grows on got this trellis and there’s these vines and they just go wild man they’re just going all over that thing that’s when you get a heart for discipleship and it’s not watching me do all the ministry I mean I’m doing a lot of it that I’m told to do but you’re doing it you know with one another and in the world so just ways that we disciple one another and we hopefully will offer more classes I know like how to study the Bible classes I’d like to do some theology classes and some different things like that in the future fellowship events ladies you ate desserts and the guys ate donuts and guess what that is really important it’s really important just to sit down and just make jokes and look at one another and eat some donuts those donut palace donuts they’re so good man eat some donut palace donuts and just pray and just hear an encouraging word Chris shared such a good word for us yesterday that grows you that keeps you it’s a work of the Lord mission mission you know I’ve been talking about let’s pray let’s pray about what God could do just this past week I had a conversation with a missionary in Mexico actually Dalton’s uncle runs an orphanage compound he does all kinds of really cool ministry in Mexico just among very impoverished people so I talked to him about doing a mission trip later this year and I think it’s going to be a wonderful opportunity for us as a church I would love to take a few people down there and do that so just finding ways and places where the spirit leads us locally around the world to just share the gospel and just to be a light and just help missionaries in what ways we can and then lastly children’s discipleship we just recently got our nursery back going and we’re so grateful for the sacrifice of those ladies to hey yeah I will watch some babies and some kids every once in a while but children and hopefully we talk about that a lot I think we do just the value of the home and mom and dad you know I wish I could glue a mirror on a bulletin or something one sermon you know and say I would like to introduce to you this church’s youth pastor and then tell you to look at the mirror like mom and dad like hey you’re the youth pastor congratulations or the children’s pastor because I think there’s a lot of things we kind of sell off like here you do this stuff and the Bible’s like no you do this stuff in your own house you know so I want to be a church where we do equip parents to be the children’s pastor and the youth pastor in their own home and just grown in that more and more and more I think that’s so important I think the home is broken today the home is the home is a mess and I think it’s because Christ is not the center of it anymore so so we’re not shooting ten for ten on anything but by God’s grace He’s going to get us there and He’s going to grow us more right and that’s the thing it’s not about our perfections it’s about the power of the gospel and we’re going to grow us more working in us and through us so that is the best I can in one sitting I think just kind of put my heart on the table about the way that I think about the local church about what I want to see happen at Providence and just what I really want to partner with you in in being a local church together just to hit on doctrines for a second and you know I left my I left my copy somewhere else didn’t I

well it’s okay I want to just talk about the doctrines for a second you know when Chase and I were just talking about what doctrinal statement are we going to use and I think someone could say just to address this for a second what why does a church have to have a doctrinal statement in the same way someone could say why do I have to formally commit right here’s why in the year 2021 there are a thousand different versions of Jesus right okay so you saying you’re a Christian me saying I’m a Christian can mean two very very different things two very different things so there’s a lot of prudence and wisdom and having a doctrinal statement in the same way there’s wisdom and having church membership say here’s the shape of our door make sure you fit this mold before you come on through because it’s going to be a lot of heartache for you and us if we don’t you match up doctrinally or methodologically so what we we ended up landing on it’s called it’s the New Hampshire Confession of Faith it was a really good book written in 1833 revised in 1853 it was a baptistic doctrine in kind of northeast United States at that time it is very much so a middle of the road just evangelical conservative doctrine doctrinal statement so I I’m not going to go up here because that would be a whole other thing to work through every doctrine I would encourage you to do it if you would like you can go on our website and it’s there but just to hit hit on some of those main ones and again I don’t have my things I’m not going to read it and I’m pressing it anyways the Trinity God the Father God the Son God the Holy Spirit you know if you ever meet a Mormon or a Jehovah’s Witness and they can talk the same smack as you about Jesus for a while but if you press into who Jesus really is you discover oh you don’t believe Jesus is God oh you don’t believe in the Trinity oh you don’t believe that there’s three persons in one being the Trinity is the crux of the Christian faith because friends if Jesus loses his Godhood we lose our Savior so Jesus must also be the only way he’s not a way he is the way through repentance and faith that is a must something else I think I would want to say is we believe in a physical return of Christ Jesus is going to come back for his people someday and we are looking for that we’re waiting for that and it’s why we are fighting so hard to be faithful disciples in the local church now those are just some of those main points again read it the last thing I’m going to say and I just feel compelled to say it because we live in the 21st century and everything that’s going on seems daily we will always hold to a traditional view of marriage marriages between a man and a woman sexual relationships between a man and a woman in the context of a marriage and that is God’s final and only word and that is God’s final word on that and we must we must stand there and I think that is a gospel issue that is a gospel issue it’s not it’s not a peripheral issue at all so if you if you feel the need to read that please do do it it’s not that long you know if you would like to read it so kind of with all that in mind I need a copy of one of those things can I borrow yours here thank you so much all of that in mind if you just look at that last page I gave you there

membership application form okay yes it looks formal it feels formal because it’s formal I think Jesus deserves that

here’s what here’s what I’m asking of you to do I’m asking you to formally become a member and if you’ve been here since the beginning this is just kind of a man this is a reaffirmation for you hey I’m excited to be here this is great I’m glad this is who we are and I’m glad that we’re here today and I need you to refresh your course if you’ve been here any time since hopefully this provides you great clarity on that and now you can say I know what this church is about and yes I’m ready to commit to that but let me just read through just some of those what are requirements for membership this is straight out of our constitution which we have and if you want a full copy of the constitution go crazy and read that constitution after church today I’ve got copies of it for you as well but this is just from the membership requirements form page profession of faith faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior you need to be baptized if you haven’t been baptized come talk to me if you don’t know Jesus come talk to me affirmation of purpose statement and core values so that’s following Jesus together how are we doing that we’re a Christ centered community it’s word saturated prayer dependent gospel proclaiming affirmation of church doctrinal statement that’s the New Hampshire Confession of Faith submission to and alignment with church government so again if you want to read the constitution but that just speaks into my role as a Christian as a pastor Chase’s role as an elder boundaries for what we can and can’t do in relationship to voting privileges you have as a member so again if you need to read that please read that

and a hearty commitment to expectations of membership these are things that I’m not going to say are requirements

because at some point this piece of paper can only take us so far either you have the Holy Spirit or you don’t okay and I can’t I can’t like dragging a cinder block through saying like it’s going to wear me out all right and it’s not going to help anything at some point you’re going to have to desire this so I would hope that the expectations of membership you see them as a desire prioritize our Sunday morning worship gatherings okay I think that’s so important for local church the second one is very important model New Testament financial generosity towards the church okay let me just talk about that for a minute when we started back in the day in October man it was the Mullins the Brannings and Mark and Lane and us and the Chunns and the Comos and I’m thinking what have I done here if I got to be honest

and I don’t I don’t really know how to account for it other than grace

money would fall out of the sky and I don’t know how to account for it God would do amazing things I remember sitting in my office like God what are we going to do and Mackenzie you may remember this was the old building she’s like hey this came in the mail and I opened it and it was like a check for like $900 or something and it was like that’s what we need you know like so just so many like amazing things and we have over the last two years even through COVID we’re like right there like we’re so close like operating in the black we need a couple like two three tithing families to just do that for us just like put us across the finish line and when that happens I will do backflips I will come up here on Sundays and do backflips and we will just have a full-blown worship service to the Lord and I know we’re going to get there I know we’re going to get there because I believe that just as the Lord has been faithful to bring tithing families along he’s going to keep bringing along people that say yes I see province fellowship I see the work of God there I see it deserves my dollars and that’s where God wants me to put my dollars is right there so I would say to you if you are tithing thank you from the bottom of my heart it’s so encouraging that you’ve taken care of my family taken care of our needs I would say to you if you’re not tithing and giving here

please start obeying the New Testament and give to the local church I think it is very incumbent upon every member of every local church to say yes I’m going to put my dollars here because I want to see it flourish and again just for a second to address the fact that the wicked questions of where does it say in the New Testament that I have to give 10% well okay 10% was like a bare minimum in the Old Testament let’s start there so there’s that but when we come to the New Testament no you won’t say give 10% to the local church you’ll see it say in Corinthians that they gave out of their extreme poverty to the needs of the church in other words they took the 10% thing and multiplied it times 10 they gave and they gave and they shared everything in common so if you want to go like tit for tat in the New Testament you will find people incredibly sacrificial and generous in their giving to the local church okay and then secondly I would just say if you would say and again this is Paul it’s weird for me because I’m the pastor but Paul says don’t muzzle the ox while it treads out the grain in other words take care of the people physically he provided for you spiritually okay right and again I had to make a decision in my heart a long time ago when I came here you actually do not meet my needs okay God meets my needs now I think how he would like to meet my needs is through you right because I think that’s just biblical so this isn’t me up here trying to count more dollars and I don’t think any of you are thinking bad thoughts about me but I’m just saying for me to continue on as a pastor for us to have money to do ministry to grow if you look around you we are getting tighter and tighter in this room all the time our lease is coming up in July pretty soon and so we’re just starting to talk and pray about Lord I don’t think this place is going to work soon you know so again when we financially give when we obey the scriptures God says okay let me open up the blessing a little bit more here for what y’all are able to do and how I want to use you so I would just encourage you call Providence your home put your dollars here and see what God wants you to do with us and he’s faithful to do that okay

next thing is just committed to disciple making relationships and again I’m not talking about anything too in depth this morning but just the value of life on life discipleship the value of meeting for Bible studies when you have that I think that stuff’s critical it’s important like Sunday so we just want to be a church where I will use it where we do organic discipleship in that way where you are on your own just making disciples of one another and just a commitment to serve thank you again my wife and Rebecca are back there so that we can all be up here this morning but thank you for those of you that serve in our children’s ministry now it’s so exciting some of you come up here now and you clean the toilets and you sweep and we have this really great team of cleaning folks and Chris is doing our finances and we just have servants and servants and so that’s so encouraging to my heart so again find a place to serve and if you’re saying alright I’m ready to yeah this is the church I’m supposed to be let’s find a place for you to serve and just further invest in the local church okay so there’s that you are here and you say well I like yeah Chad you know that’s me I’ll put my signature on this thing and that’s great great if you’re here and you’re like yeah I’m ready but I’ve got a couple questions let’s talk alright I’m not expecting like there I said it now deal with it let’s talk if you have questions about the doctrinal statement you got a question about anything but don’t not say nothing because I want you to find a local church here it is painful for me to say this but I’ll say it if you cannot become a member of Providence Fellowship I want you to find the church where you can find the church to be a member of because God’s intention for you to flourish is in the local church if it’s not Providence again I hate to say that because I don’t want to lose anybody I would rather the kingdom flourish by you finding that local church so let’s help you find it if it’s not Providence right so again hopefully that’s none of you but again I want to say that so there is that again if you want to sign that today man sign that praise God if you have some questions please come talk to me but I love you so much I’ve said before but I wouldn’t trade Providence for a 10,000 member church with a giant salary blahdy blahdy blah I want to be right here with you doing God’s work and I just we say man we love our church we say that to each other all the time man I’m so grateful for Providence man I love man I love man I love David and Patty man Sprayberry’s always there Chris is always there oh this person’s always doing that oh you know they’re so encouraging we just love our church we have I think we just really have a wonderful special church here and I really am excited for the future for what God’s going to do for His glory through us