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It is a tremendous privilege

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for me and brother Leiter

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to be here with you,

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a tremendous privilege.

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And I have been given sort of

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an insurmountable or difficult task:

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take an hour and preach everything

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that ought to be preached 
on a biblical church.

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And I think it would take 
much longer than an hour.

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But we are going to look at 
a few things (incomplete thought).

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Oh, well, be careful with 
that kind of statement.

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You may regret it.

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But we are going to talk about church.

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And if you are here tonight,

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you are probably here because you have

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an uneasiness or restlessness

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about the way things are,

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about the spiritual 
decline in your country,

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in Europe as well as America,

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looking for something.

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Well, let me just share with you.

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There are a lot of people and a lot of movements that can give you something.

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There are all sorts of things going on in Christianity today.

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It looks like a circus offering certain aspects of Christianity,

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certain power, certain joy, certain life.

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So many things, so many gimmicks, so many promises,

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healing, prosperity, life as you want it, your best life now,

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absolutely everything is laid before you.

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What Jesus Christ lays before you is this:

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the promise of eternal life, and a cross.

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What Jesus Christ lays before you is what really matters.

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And that is a character conformed to his image.

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The writers of the New Testament, although they speak quite frequently

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about all the blessings that God can pour out on a man,

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and the full counsel of Scripture tells us that the blessings of God are many,

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but for those who have come to know Christ,

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I think they have settled it in their heart

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that every blessing other than conformity to Christ is a lesser blessing.

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I want to be like Jesus.

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I want to be conformed to his will,

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and not just in some extravagant religious way.

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I want to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ

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in my personal relationship with God the Father,

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and I want to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ

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in the relationships in my life, especially the most intimate.

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Now I bring this up because it is so very important to me.

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I was preaching several years ago in Austin, Texas.

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And after I finished my first sermon, this pulpit committee,

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it is a committee in the church that is looking for a new pastor,

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it came up to me, and it said, "Would you be our pastor?"

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I said, “What?”

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They said, “Would you consider being our pastor?”

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And I looked at them and I said, “Are you crazy?”

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And they said, “Why do you say that?”

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I said, “You don’t know if I love my wife or not.”

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The point that I was making is: You know nothing about me.

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The devil preaches well.

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But true Christianity is seen in the life, the hidden life of a man, of a woman,

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and the dying to self,

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and the giving one’s self away in the name of Christ to God the Father

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in the power of the Holy Spirit, and giving that life to others.

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We hear a lot of talk today about doing everything for the glory of God,

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and that is true.

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It is a true statement.

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But I am afraid we sometimes use it to forget the Second Command.

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The first is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.

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And the second is to love your neighbor as yourself in sacrificial, joyful service.

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So the Christianity that I am talking about tonight

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is not some gigantic religious show in a coliseum.

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It's not about you getting your best life now,

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the car you want, the house you want or perfect health.

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What it's about is this:

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It's knowing God the Father and knowing Jesus Christ whom he has sent,

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and being conformed to his image.

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What joy!

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To be able, just think about this, to be able to love as he loves.

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To be able to represent him.

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Just to know him. That is Christianity.

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Now, we are going to talk a bit about church.

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Most of us have this ecclesiastical, organizational idea of church.

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We think of buildings with steeples on top of them and crosses on top of the steeples.

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We think of beautiful lawns.

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We think of old men preaching very boring messages.

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We think of all sorts of things when we think about church.

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But we need to understand what church truly is.

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It's none of that.

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Church is not so much an organization, as it is an organism.

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It is a living entity.

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It is a creation of God through his Son and for his Son.

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It is relational.

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Now I want you to keep that word in the forefront of your mind.

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It is relational.

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Church, like your own personal life, is about a relationship with God

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and a relationship with brothers and sisters in Christ.

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You see, it is all about relationship.

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It is all about that.

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There is so much that is done, dressed in religious garb,

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but it really has so little meaning.

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God has called us into a relationship with himself.

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He has done that as we are individuals.

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He has done that collectively as a body,

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and God has called us to be in relationship with one another,

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to love one another as brothers and sisters in Christ.

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And so the first thing I want you to see is that when we talk about church,

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we are talking about an organism, something organic in nature.

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Now, there are two passages of Scripture,

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and we are not going to spend much time there at all

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because we are going to look at several things tonight.

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But just for a moment, I want you to go to Jeremiah

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and I want you to see the origin of the Church, its divine origin.

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Jeremiah chapter 31, just quickly.

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Now if you look in verse 31 of Jeremiah 31,

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He says, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD,

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when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,

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not like the covenant which I made with their fathers

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in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt,

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My covenant which they broke,

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although I was a husband to them, declares the LORD.”

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Now the first thing I want you to understand is something about the nation of Israel.

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Do you honestly believe that everyone who came out of Egypt, led by Moses, was a believer?

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No, not at all.

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As a matter of fact, the great majority of them were idolaters.

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They were worshiping goat gods, demon gods, all sorts of things

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even in the desert as they are being led around by God.

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We are looking at basically a physical nation that was called out of Egypt.

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They were of the blood of Abraham.

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But most of them did not have faith.

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That is why they died in the wilderness, all right?

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So they were basically a carnal nation doing carnal things

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who had to be subdued by laws and authorities and this and that.

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They had to be subdued, in a sense, by the whip in order to keep them in line.

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And why is that?

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Because their hearts had not be changed.

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Now I want you to think about something for a moment.

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Most churches today are that way.

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Filled with a group of people whose hearts have not been changed.

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And pastors spend a great deal of their time doing what?

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Trying to motivate, manipulate, push, shove, coerce,

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throwing all sorts of little parties and all sorts of little gimmicks

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and this and that, and so many other things

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just to try to keep a group of people together in Jesus’ name.

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Behold the power of the gospel!

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Not much gospel power manifested there, is it?

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Countless people identified in this country, in my country

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with some denomination or some church,

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but it has no power, no sway over their life whatsoever, nothing.

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The true Church is not that way.

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Your ideas of Church as a building;

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as an ecclesiastical, organizational structure of half hearted people attending,

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and having to be held together by manipulation and coercion and gimmicks,

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that is not the Church.

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Now he is going to tell us what the Church is like.

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Look what he says: He says in verse 33,

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“But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,

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declares the LORD,

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I will put My laws within them, and on their heart I will write it.”

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Now you must understand God is not speaking here poetically.

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Now why do I say that?

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Because sometimes we hear such beautiful things in Scripture

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and we say, “Oh, that is nice,” but we are not considering what he is saying.

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He is saying, in the Church through the coming of the Messiah,

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He is going to create a new people,

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and they are not going to be a group of people

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who merely have some tablets of stone that they look at and disobey.

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He is going to create a group of people and he is going to transform their heart

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and he is going to put his will, his laws, his desires in their heart.

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Do you see that?

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They are going to be changed.

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And I use the word 'desire.'

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I know it can be sort of dangerous, but there is a reason for it.

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When I say he puts his laws in your heart,

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you can still have this mechanical idea

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that, yes, those laws are in there and I must obey them.

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But when I say 'desires,' he is not just revealing his will to you,

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he is changing your heart so that his will is your will

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and you desire to do what he desires.

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That is why John writes in his epistle

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that the commandments of God to the people of God are not burdensome.

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They desire these things. Do you see that?

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That is what the Church is.

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He goes on and he says,

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“I will put My laws within them, and on their heart I will write it;

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and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”

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All throughout the Old Testament, there is this impassioned longing that we see

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in the words coming out of the mouth of God

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in which he is constantly saying, looking forward to the future,

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“One day, they will be My people. I will be their God.

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I will have a people on this earth, and I will be that people's God.”

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That time came with the coming of Christ.

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Through his death and resurrection; through the work of the Holy Spirit,

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God has created for himself a people.

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Now, they are not a people who have simply turned over a new leaf.

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They are not a people who have simply decided

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that they want to live a higher lifestyle.

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They are not a people who just, one day, decided we are going to change and be better.

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No. They are people upon whom God has acted in his own power.

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He has transformed them.

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Now, are you that people?

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Do you know, I still, as we all, I struggle with many failures,

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many weaknesses, many struggles in the Christian life.

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But there is no doubt, the witness of my own, the people around me,

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and the people who knew me 25 years ago,

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this guy is not even the same the person that I knew.

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I mean, I know my desires have changed.

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I mean, one day just going from, "let’s go party, let’s get in a fight if we can,

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let’s chase women, let’s get drunk, let’s do this,"

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to the very next day, "I don’t want to do all that anymore."

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What has happened to me?

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I want Christ.

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I want to know him.

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I want to please God and be pleasing to God.

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Do you know that as a reality in your own life?

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Is your religion something that you are just trying to do the right thing,

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or has Christ transformed you so that you want to know him,

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you want to do his will, you delight to do his will?

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I mean, what has happened to you?

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Brother Leiter says quite often that most people’s Christianity is basically this:

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They are trying to do all the good things they hate, in order to please God.

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That is not Christianity.

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Christianity is when, "I want to do this."

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And you are not sad because you look at the will of God, and think, I have to do that.

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You are sad when you look at the will of God and realize you have fallen short.

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The burden doesn't come from obedience,

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the burden comes when we see we have disobeyed.

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Why?

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We are transformed. We are new creatures.

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We are saints of God. We are children of God.

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We are sons of the living God. We are led of the Spirit.

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Do you see?

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When he says, “New creature,” when he says, “I will write it on their heart,”

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he is not speaking metaphorically to the point where it no longer has meaning.

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He is not speaking poetically so it's just some beautiful nonsense. No.

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When a person is saved, they become a new creature.

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That is what the Church is made up of.

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Now he says this:

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“They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying,

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‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me.”

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That is not saying that in the Church there won’t be teachers or pastors,

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evangelists and so on.

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But what he is saying is:

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The people of Israel, although they saw these magnificent manifestations of God,

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00:18:19,829 --> 00:18:21,760
they didn’t understand them.

243
00:18:21,766 --> 00:18:28,710
I mean, they could see God part the water, and then go worship a goat idol.

244
00:18:28,716 --> 00:18:33,063
They could see fire coming down from heaven, and then make a golden calf.

245
00:18:33,069 --> 00:18:35,798
They didn’t understand.

246
00:18:35,804 --> 00:18:41,573
In witnessing to people—and I know many of you have had this same experience—

247
00:18:41,579 --> 00:18:47,041
you pour your heart out to someone about the grace of God,

248
00:18:47,047 --> 00:18:53,982
and they don’t comprehend at all.

249
00:18:53,988 --> 00:18:58,255
Someone says, “Sir, are you going to go to heaven when you die?”

250
00:18:58,261 --> 00:18:59,586
“Oh, yes, I am going to go to heaven.”

251
00:18:59,592 --> 00:19:00,476
“Why do you think so?”

252
00:19:00,482 --> 00:19:04,281
“Well, I am a good man. I am a good man.”

253
00:19:04,287 --> 00:19:11,535
And so you go through, for the next 20 minutes, every Scripture in the Bible

254
00:19:11,541 --> 00:19:16,448
that explains he is a wretched beast under the wrath of God.

255
00:19:16,454 --> 00:19:20,104
He says "Yes" to every one of the verses;

256
00:19:20,110 --> 00:19:22,986
and then when you say, “Sir, are you going to go to heaven?”

257
00:19:22,992 --> 00:19:23,831
“Yes.”

258
00:19:23,837 --> 00:19:24,479
“Why?”

259
00:19:24,485 --> 00:19:27,112
“I am a good man.”

260
00:19:27,118 --> 00:19:30,358
Now, that is where you would be. Do you understand that?

261
00:19:30,364 --> 00:19:33,961
Your darkness would be to that extent and even worse.

262
00:19:33,967 --> 00:19:35,249
But what's happened?

263
00:19:35,255 --> 00:19:43,739
This passage. He has taught you.

264
00:19:43,745 --> 00:19:48,754
“They shall be taught of God.”

265
00:19:48,760 --> 00:19:56,625
He himself illumined your mind and changed your heart.

266
00:19:56,631 --> 00:20:00,521
So many people walking around, especially these TV evangelists.

267
00:20:00,527 --> 00:20:03,860
I think we ought to put most of them on a boat and just ship them somewhere

268
00:20:03,866 --> 00:20:08,096
to an island where there is no people.

269
00:20:08,102 --> 00:20:11,039
But they are saying, “The supernatural nature of Christianity

270
00:20:11,045 --> 00:20:13,675
and the supernatural this and the supernatural that.”

271
00:20:13,681 --> 00:20:16,770
Supernatural?

272
00:20:16,776 --> 00:20:20,426
There is more of the supernatural power of God

273
00:20:20,432 --> 00:20:24,122
manifested in the regeneration of a single heart

274
00:20:24,128 --> 00:20:27,099
than in the creation of the universe itself.

275
00:20:27,105 --> 00:20:35,073
Supernatural; we are not marveling at what is truly supernatural.

276
00:20:35,079 --> 00:20:37,991
You say, “Well, brother Paul, do you believe God can heal people?”

277
00:20:37,997 --> 00:20:42,772
I have seen God heal people in the mountains where there were no doctors,

278
00:20:42,778 --> 00:20:46,922
not frequently, but according to his will, his plan, his purpose.

279
00:20:46,928 --> 00:20:52,108
But I want to tell you something, I did not get excited in comparison

280
00:20:52,114 --> 00:21:00,065
when I have seen the Holy Spirit literally take a spiritually dead man and make him alive.

281
00:21:00,071 --> 00:21:01,700
Do you see that?

282
00:21:01,706 --> 00:21:04,258
There is the supernatural nature of Christianity,

283
00:21:04,264 --> 00:21:10,286
but focus on what is truly supernatural and important.

284
00:21:10,292 --> 00:21:16,541
Now, he goes on and he says this,

285
00:21:16,547 --> 00:21:20,775
“For they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.”

286
00:21:20,781 --> 00:21:25,481
Now will they all know him to the extent that Jonathan Edwards

287
00:21:25,487 --> 00:21:28,356
or a Calvin or a Luther or somebody like that?

288
00:21:28,362 --> 00:21:32,042
No, I am not even in their league.

289
00:21:32,048 --> 00:21:34,942
So what does this mean?

290
00:21:34,947 --> 00:21:36,714
Well, let’s go on.

291
00:21:36,720 --> 00:21:40,169
It says, “For they will all know Me,

292
00:21:40,175 --> 00:21:43,561
from the least of them to the greatest of them, declares the LORD.

293
00:21:43,567 --> 00:21:50,489
For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

294
00:21:50,495 --> 00:21:54,113
They will enter into a relationship with him,

295
00:21:54,119 --> 00:21:56,909
knowing that he is the one true God,

296
00:21:56,915 --> 00:22:04,140
and they will have a keen awareness that by his hand he has cleansed them,

297
00:22:04,146 --> 00:22:09,105
freed them from their sin.

298
00:22:09,111 --> 00:22:13,516
There will not be the smack of self-righteousness there.

299
00:22:13,522 --> 00:22:17,285
They will not say, "God and I have worked this out."

300
00:22:17,291 --> 00:22:23,257
They will have a keen awareness that God has taken care of their iniquity,

301
00:22:23,263 --> 00:22:26,472
and he did it all by himself.

302
00:22:26,478 --> 00:22:30,913
Now, another thing. Let’s go on.

303
00:22:30,919 --> 00:22:36,341
Just jump over really quick to verse 38 of chapter 32.

304
00:22:36,347 --> 00:22:39,296
Again, “They shall be My people, and I will be their God.”

305
00:22:39,302 --> 00:22:50,861
And look what he says, “I will give them one heart and one way.”

306
00:22:53,135 --> 00:22:59,701
Have you ever seen these marches for Jesus, the unity marches that they have,

307
00:22:59,707 --> 00:23:02,978
in which all these different denominations come together,

308
00:23:02,984 --> 00:23:07,443
and they are trying to prove to the world that there is unity between them

309
00:23:07,449 --> 00:23:10,891
when, in fact, there is very little unity at all between them.

310
00:23:10,897 --> 00:23:14,146
And they are all marching together and singing "Kumbaya,"

311
00:23:14,152 --> 00:23:16,755
and we are proving to the world that we are one.

312
00:23:16,761 --> 00:23:20,701
That is not what Jesus meant, ok?

313
00:23:20,707 --> 00:23:25,781
That is not what Jesus meant.

314
00:23:28,845 --> 00:23:33,720
You bring two Christians together, two Christians,

315
00:23:33,726 --> 00:23:38,928
and although they may differ in some things,

316
00:23:38,934 --> 00:23:46,673
but you bring two Christians together and, my friend, you will find unity.

317
00:23:46,679 --> 00:23:50,925
You will find Spirit bearing witness with spirit.

318
00:23:50,931 --> 00:23:52,205
You will find joy.

319
00:23:52,211 --> 00:24:00,114
It is amazing; I can sit down, for example, in an airplane in Zambia,

320
00:24:00,120 --> 00:24:04,974
and sit down beside a person I have never met in my life,

321
00:24:04,980 --> 00:24:09,886
and after a while pull out my Bible to kind of, you know,

322
00:24:09,892 --> 00:24:14,433
hoping this guy say something to me like, “What’s that?”

323
00:24:14,439 --> 00:24:16,427
Sometimes I pull out my Greek New Testament

324
00:24:16,433 --> 00:24:18,384
so they will look at it and go, “What is that?”

325
00:24:18,390 --> 00:24:22,111
I can’t read it very well, but it really makes a great witnessing tool.

326
00:24:22,117 --> 00:24:24,845
No matter where I am in the Greek New Testament,

327
00:24:24,851 --> 00:24:29,245
I read John 3:16 when they ask me to read something to them.

328
00:24:29,251 --> 00:24:35,142
But I can sit down with someone I have never met,

329
00:24:35,148 --> 00:24:41,458
and we start talking and discover that we are both believers in Jesus Christ,

330
00:24:41,464 --> 00:24:46,190
and I mean it is a party for the rest of the flight.

331
00:24:46,196 --> 00:24:50,068
We are one.

332
00:24:50,074 --> 00:24:53,381
People say, "There is so much disunity in the Church."

333
00:24:53,386 --> 00:24:55,522
No, there is not.

334
00:24:55,528 --> 00:24:58,681
There is a lot of disunity with a bunch of carnal people

335
00:24:58,687 --> 00:25:00,716
who are goats trying to act like sheep.

336
00:25:00,722 --> 00:25:02,763
That is the problem.

337
00:25:02,769 --> 00:25:06,849
But when you bring believers together, there will be unity.

338
00:25:06,855 --> 00:25:09,266
Does it mean that there will never be disunity?

339
00:25:09,272 --> 00:25:11,845
No, it doesn’t mean, because there is sin in all of us.

340
00:25:11,851 --> 00:25:13,637
It doesn't mean there will never be disunity.

341
00:25:13,643 --> 00:25:16,566
It doesn't mean there will never be disagreements.

342
00:25:16,572 --> 00:25:19,815
But it means when you look at the full course of the relationship,

343
00:25:19,821 --> 00:25:27,994
there is a fraternal love, a unity there.

344
00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:31,836
I remember one of the illustrations that I just love to use on this,

345
00:25:31,842 --> 00:25:34,297
I was traveling through the mountains years and years ago

346
00:25:34,303 --> 00:25:37,642
in a red zone that the Communists, the Maoists controlled.

347
00:25:37,648 --> 00:25:39,799
And we were lost and everything.

348
00:25:39,805 --> 00:25:44,338
It was pitch dark and we were scared, another missionary and myself.

349
00:25:44,344 --> 00:25:48,758
And we made our way into this little village and I kind of stood on the edge of it,

350
00:25:48,764 --> 00:25:51,893
my brother that was with me was a Peruvian.

351
00:25:51,899 --> 00:25:54,684
And he went in and he came back out.

352
00:25:54,690 --> 00:25:56,266
He says, “I don’t see any military.”

353
00:25:56,272 --> 00:26:00,769
So we kind of walked in, and I kind of humped over so everyone would think I was short,

354
00:26:00,775 --> 00:26:08,689
and we came up to this drunk and we said, [?], “Are there brothers here?”

355
00:26:08,695 --> 00:26:15,591
And he said, [?], “The old woman over there. She is one of you.”

356
00:26:15,597 --> 00:26:19,986
And so I went over there, and I knocked on the door.

357
00:26:19,992 --> 00:26:23,019
And after a few minutes, the door kind of creaks open.

358
00:26:23,025 --> 00:26:29,665
It is a little mud, adobe hut carved into the back of a cliff.

359
00:26:29,671 --> 00:26:31,715
And this little woman, she is about this big,

360
00:26:31,721 --> 00:26:34,693
she opened the door with her lantern and looked.

361
00:26:34,699 --> 00:26:40,512
And I said [?], “We are brothers.”

362
00:26:40,518 --> 00:26:42,436
She knew what that meant in Spanish.

363
00:26:42,442 --> 00:26:46,512
We are evangelicals, we are Christian, and we need help.

364
00:26:46,518 --> 00:26:50,210
And she went... I will never forget that face.

365
00:26:50,216 --> 00:26:53,375
And she just grabbed us and pulled us in,

366
00:26:53,381 --> 00:26:58,392
took us down to the basement that they had carved out of the side of the hill there,

367
00:26:58,398 --> 00:26:59,450
put us down there.

368
00:26:59,456 --> 00:27:01,875
A little boy came. She gave him some instructions.

369
00:27:01,881 --> 00:27:03,844
All of the sudden he took off.

370
00:27:03,850 --> 00:27:05,234
He comes back, running.

371
00:27:05,240 --> 00:27:08,605
And then this man shows up. He has got two chickens;

372
00:27:08,611 --> 00:27:12,114
and another little poor farmer comes up with some yucca plant

373
00:27:12,120 --> 00:27:13,787
and they start preparing.

374
00:27:13,793 --> 00:27:15,714
And we stayed there all night.

375
00:27:15,720 --> 00:27:23,557
All right, now they were won to the Lord by a group of Nazarene missionaries.

376
00:27:23,562 --> 00:27:30,004
The Nazarenes and I could sit down and debate some issues.

377
00:27:30,010 --> 00:27:32,931
We would.

378
00:27:35,712 --> 00:27:43,848
But these were people who knew Christ and knew their sins had been forgiven,

379
00:27:43,854 --> 00:27:52,214
and because I was a preacher in Jesus’ name, willing to risk their life.

380
00:27:52,220 --> 00:27:56,779
There is unity.

381
00:27:57,537 --> 00:28:04,384
Now, theology is extremely important. It is extremely important.

382
00:28:04,390 --> 00:28:11,839
But I'll tell you this: I will not separate and break fellowship

383
00:28:11,845 --> 00:28:15,837
with someone who disagrees with me on some things.

384
00:28:15,843 --> 00:28:21,191
Now I will separate with people who depart from historical Christianity,

385
00:28:21,197 --> 00:28:24,072
who preach another Christ and so on and so forth.

386
00:28:24,078 --> 00:28:28,018
But, you see, there is a unity there.

387
00:28:28,024 --> 00:28:34,624
They knew Christ. They rejoiced in him.

388
00:28:34,630 --> 00:28:37,604
That is what happens when you have a church

389
00:28:37,610 --> 00:28:44,383
and it's a church of people who have been converted;

390
00:28:44,389 --> 00:28:51,613
who have been regenerated by the Spirit of God.

391
00:28:53,136 --> 00:28:55,945
Will there be immaturity? Yes.

392
00:28:55,951 --> 00:29:03,257
Will there be problems? Live with me for a while, you will get your answer.

393
00:29:03,996 --> 00:29:10,348
But will people be able to see there is something different about this group of people

394
00:29:10,354 --> 00:29:12,637
and that something is their love?

395
00:29:12,643 --> 00:29:17,876
Jesus says, “They will know, the world will know you are my disciples

396
00:29:17,882 --> 00:29:21,192
by the love you have for one another.”

397
00:29:21,198 --> 00:29:29,279
Now, he says, “I will give them one heart and one way.”

398
00:29:29,285 --> 00:29:33,791
And then, “that they may fear Me.”

399
00:29:33,797 --> 00:29:37,893
Here is something about us as Christians.

400
00:29:37,899 --> 00:29:44,296
We can make a mess, but there is something that God has done to us.

401
00:29:44,302 --> 00:29:49,223
He has put his fear in our hearts.

402
00:29:49,229 --> 00:29:56,896
In a marriage relationship, my own, sometimes I will act like a jerk.

403
00:29:56,902 --> 00:29:59,472
Do you know what that word is?

404
00:29:59,478 --> 00:30:09,772
And not want to acknowledge it, not want to say to my wife, “I am sorry.”

405
00:30:09,778 --> 00:30:13,970
And I will walk out there and I will go into my office,

406
00:30:13,976 --> 00:30:16,989
I got a book to write, I got a sermon to prepare.

407
00:30:16,995 --> 00:30:22,784
It's like the Lord's there, "That's fine, you are going to be doing it on your own

408
00:30:22,790 --> 00:30:26,269
till you get this matter straight."

409
00:30:26,275 --> 00:30:30,111
But do you know what? There is a fear in me.

410
00:30:30,117 --> 00:30:32,191
There is a fear.

411
00:30:32,197 --> 00:30:38,298
There is an uneasiness, an unsettledness in my heart, a tremor.

412
00:30:38,304 --> 00:30:44,591
And I know I have got to go back and I have got to apologize

413
00:30:44,597 --> 00:30:49,318
and I have got to make this matter right.

414
00:30:49,324 --> 00:30:55,103
You see, you have a group of people who have been given new hearts,

415
00:30:55,109 --> 00:30:57,993
and in that new heart, the law of God has been written.

416
00:30:57,999 --> 00:31:02,634
And not only the law of God has been written, but he has put his fear in us

417
00:31:02,640 --> 00:31:08,888
so that even when we have conflicts, disagreements and problems,

418
00:31:08,894 --> 00:31:13,175
it is the fear of the Lord that causes us once again to humble ourselves

419
00:31:13,181 --> 00:31:20,173
and to acknowledge our wrong and to work for restoration.

420
00:31:20,179 --> 00:31:22,286
That is the Church.

421
00:31:22,292 --> 00:31:27,575
Now, I want us to go for a moment...Again, I said I would have to skip around.

422
00:31:27,581 --> 00:31:34,774
I want us to go to Matthew chapter 28.

423
00:31:34,780 --> 00:31:37,395
You know the great commission in verse 18,

424
00:31:37,401 --> 00:31:39,659
“And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying,

425
00:31:39,665 --> 00:31:43,784
‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.’”

426
00:31:43,790 --> 00:31:45,589
Oh this passage!

427
00:31:45,595 --> 00:31:51,939
Last month, I spent like three weeks on "All authority has been given unto Me.”

428
00:31:51,945 --> 00:31:58,037
Oh, man, it just laid me on the floor.

429
00:31:59,247 --> 00:32:02,605
We have very little idea what that means.

430
00:32:02,611 --> 00:32:09,479
But I would encourage you to read Daniel chapter 7 and Psalms chapter 2.

431
00:32:09,485 --> 00:32:12,776
Such authority has been given to him.

432
00:32:12,782 --> 00:32:17,489
He has so much authority that all the kings,

433
00:32:17,495 --> 00:32:22,045
all their actions and decrees are inconsequential.

434
00:32:22,051 --> 00:32:23,197
They don't even matter.

435
00:32:23,203 --> 00:32:26,673
It is as though they didn't even exist.

436
00:32:26,679 --> 00:32:34,025
When his kingdom showed up 2,000 years ago, everything else came to an end.

437
00:32:34,031 --> 00:32:37,133
Oh, he's allowing the kings and the nations to still play,

438
00:32:37,139 --> 00:32:40,509
as though they had life and power.

439
00:32:40,515 --> 00:32:44,964
But they have none. He rules over all.

440
00:32:44,970 --> 00:32:46,976
Now, but it says this,

441
00:32:46,982 --> 00:32:54,695
"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations."

442
00:32:54,701 --> 00:33:01,800
I am so glad that he did not put here, “Go therefore and preach the gospel.”

443
00:33:01,806 --> 00:33:04,034
You say, “Well, why, brother Paul?

444
00:33:04,040 --> 00:33:11,346
I mean, on YouTube that is all you talk about, you only have one sermon."

445
00:33:12,498 --> 00:33:23,534
Because it is so easy...now Adolphe Monod the famous French Reformed pastor

446
00:33:23,540 --> 00:33:26,508
he said, “Oh, the cross of preaching the cross,”

447
00:33:26,514 --> 00:33:29,963
meaning that preaching the cross was such a burden because of its grandeur,

448
00:33:29,969 --> 00:33:34,410
because a preacher could never preach the cross as it ought to be preached.

449
00:33:34,416 --> 00:33:40,754
But there is another sense in which the preaching of the gospel

450
00:33:40,760 --> 00:33:44,893
is a lot easier than making disciples.

451
00:33:45,699 --> 00:33:49,744
You see, someone hears a preacher like me on YouTube

452
00:33:49,750 --> 00:33:53,137
or you see me preach right now.

453
00:33:53,143 --> 00:33:56,693
But you don't know me.

454
00:33:57,888 --> 00:34:01,902
Or I know how to make sentences connect together.

455
00:34:01,908 --> 00:34:05,042
But do you really know me?

456
00:34:05,048 --> 00:34:09,063
Do you really know if I am a godly man?

457
00:34:09,070 --> 00:34:13,987
You see in preaching the gospel, I can preach, go.

458
00:34:13,994 --> 00:34:18,897
I can stand in front of people and, boy, look like something very, very spiritual

459
00:34:18,902 --> 00:34:23,168
and then go and you never see my life. Do you see that?

460
00:34:23,175 --> 00:34:25,216
That is so easy.

461
00:34:25,222 --> 00:34:28,514
But he says, “Go and make disciples.” And what does that mean?

462
00:34:28,521 --> 00:34:33,429
To make disciples, that means you are going, at least for a while,

463
00:34:33,435 --> 00:34:37,353
to imitate me as I imitate Christ, to follow me as I follow Christ.

464
00:34:37,359 --> 00:34:40,318
I am going to teach you, not only with my words,

465
00:34:40,324 --> 00:34:45,826
but I am going to teach you as you watch me live 24 hours a day.

466
00:34:45,831 --> 00:34:49,228
That is tough.

467
00:34:50,940 --> 00:34:57,328
That is part of the work of the church.

468
00:34:58,047 --> 00:35:02,668
This has...you know, when I first was a missionary in Peru,

469
00:35:02,674 --> 00:35:05,758
I just discipled, discipled and discipled.

470
00:35:05,764 --> 00:35:13,219
And it was tough because people watched your life.

471
00:35:13,225 --> 00:35:19,015
But I will tell you something that has been even more difficult:

472
00:35:19,021 --> 00:35:24,159
My three children. To disciple them.

473
00:35:24,165 --> 00:35:27,669
Because, you know, they are just... they can, you know,

474
00:35:27,675 --> 00:35:31,825
“Dad, you said this. Why did you do this?”

475
00:35:31,831 --> 00:35:35,117
You see, it is so humbling, but it is so good.

476
00:35:35,123 --> 00:35:44,026
I would rather be crushed so that the hypocrisy would be torn out of me

477
00:35:44,032 --> 00:35:48,900
than to put on a mask and make everybody think I am something I am not.

478
00:35:48,906 --> 00:35:52,827
See, make disciples, it means that you live with people.

479
00:35:52,833 --> 00:35:57,643
You touch people. You get involved in their life.

480
00:35:57,649 --> 00:36:02,620
I was evangelizing one day and boy did I have a rude awakening.

481
00:36:02,626 --> 00:36:05,088
I was out there, man. I was handing out tracts.

482
00:36:05,094 --> 00:36:09,227
And I was preaching and people were throwing the tracts at me,

483
00:36:09,233 --> 00:36:12,795
and I saw this guy kind of look kind of a punk rocker guy,

484
00:36:12,801 --> 00:36:14,694
and he took off kind of one direction.

485
00:36:14,700 --> 00:36:17,489
I walked up there and put a tract on him.

486
00:36:17,495 --> 00:36:20,854
I said, "Here, this is a tract of the gospel about Jesus."

487
00:36:20,860 --> 00:36:26,222
He turned around and he goes, “You don’t care about me.”

488
00:36:26,228 --> 00:36:30,730
And he, I mean, stopped me in my tracks.

489
00:36:30,736 --> 00:36:36,208
He goes, "Do you care enough about me to be my friend,

490
00:36:36,214 --> 00:36:39,009
to come to my house,

491
00:36:39,015 --> 00:36:42,941
to get to know me and my problems and my messed up life,

492
00:36:42,947 --> 00:36:48,754
or are you just out here winning brownie points for God?”

493
00:36:49,536 --> 00:36:51,489
Caring about people.

494
00:36:51,495 --> 00:36:54,448
That is why even be very, very careful in your evangelism.

495
00:36:54,454 --> 00:37:00,030
People can recognize just superficial, I want to just put another notch on my belt.

496
00:37:00,036 --> 00:37:03,474
Look at me, "I am a preacher that everybody persecutes.”

497
00:37:03,480 --> 00:37:05,977
It is not about you.

498
00:37:05,983 --> 00:37:09,773
To disciple people, you have got to enter into relationships with people.

499
00:37:09,779 --> 00:37:11,263
And to have a church,

500
00:37:11,269 --> 00:37:17,373
you are committing yourself to enter into a profound relationship with people.

501
00:37:17,379 --> 00:37:19,681
That is why one of our missionaries said,

502
00:37:19,687 --> 00:37:22,319
“Brother Paul, we need to start a church in this area.”

503
00:37:22,325 --> 00:37:24,801
I said, “Well, why do you feel like we need to start a church?”

504
00:37:24,807 --> 00:37:27,360
“We need to start a church here because if we start this church here,

505
00:37:27,366 --> 00:37:29,129
then we can start this church over here,

506
00:37:29,135 --> 00:37:34,556
and we can use it as kind of a mother or a seed bed to plant other churches over here.”

507
00:37:34,562 --> 00:37:40,946
And I said, “Stop. You don’t plant churches so that you can plant another church.

508
00:37:40,952 --> 00:37:45,482
You plant a church because you care about the people.

509
00:37:45,488 --> 00:37:48,155
And if you have any other idea about it,

510
00:37:48,161 --> 00:37:53,953
you end up using people to fulfill your vision.”

511
00:37:53,959 --> 00:38:04,797
You see, church is for these people.

512
00:38:06,088 --> 00:38:14,844
And I want you to think about some of the greatest writers among the reformers,

513
00:38:14,850 --> 00:38:18,605
the Puritans, the early Baptists.

514
00:38:18,611 --> 00:38:20,898
I want you to realize something.

515
00:38:20,904 --> 00:38:23,798
They never got on an airplane.

516
00:38:23,804 --> 00:38:27,553
They never traveled, some of them, outside of their country.

517
00:38:27,559 --> 00:38:31,681
Some of them even outside of their town.

518
00:38:31,687 --> 00:38:38,221
But as they pastored, and their sermons, their writings,

519
00:38:38,227 --> 00:38:48,224
their life of pouring themselves into a flock has been used to change the world.

520
00:38:48,230 --> 00:38:57,511
Adolphe Monod, the guy was so smart, his head must have been this big.

521
00:38:57,517 --> 00:39:00,366
He could do anything at the university.

522
00:39:00,372 --> 00:39:02,791
He could do critical studies in Hebrew.

523
00:39:02,797 --> 00:39:05,621
Then they'd get him over here, critical studies in the New Testament.

524
00:39:05,627 --> 00:39:07,713
Then over here, history of the world.

525
00:39:07,719 --> 00:39:09,914
I mean, the guy could do everything.

526
00:39:09,920 --> 00:39:12,411
And they wanted him in the university so bad,

527
00:39:12,417 --> 00:39:16,022
and he said, “No, I want to go pastor this little flock.”

528
00:39:16,028 --> 00:39:22,460
And the book that he wrote [?] The Farewell,

529
00:39:22,466 --> 00:39:27,317
are 19 sermons that he preached on his death bed to his flock.

530
00:39:27,323 --> 00:39:30,348
And the last few sermons he laid on his back like this,

531
00:39:30,354 --> 00:39:31,834
and could only look up at the ceiling

532
00:39:31,840 --> 00:39:34,486
because he couldn’t even turn his head to look at the flock anymore.

533
00:39:34,492 --> 00:39:38,605
That book is priceless.

534
00:39:38,611 --> 00:39:44,242
Sometimes we want to do so much that we don’t do anything.

535
00:39:44,248 --> 00:39:48,333
And sometimes we do so much and you can discern in there,

536
00:39:48,339 --> 00:39:52,654
man, you are all about creating a name for yourself.

537
00:39:52,660 --> 00:39:57,909
You're all about some great thing you're going to do.

538
00:39:59,534 --> 00:40:04,516
I was preaching last year in a place and people were coming from everywhere,

539
00:40:04,522 --> 00:40:07,407
but it really wasn’t of the Lord.

540
00:40:07,413 --> 00:40:10,842
It was celebritism and it stunk.

541
00:40:10,848 --> 00:40:14,337
And I walked over in the corner and the pastor came up to me

542
00:40:14,343 --> 00:40:21,185
and he said, “Paul, maybe you just ought to go somewhere and die,

543
00:40:21,191 --> 00:40:23,774
so that no one will hear your name again.”

544
00:40:23,780 --> 00:40:27,635
And what he meant is, maybe you need to walk away from this entire circus

545
00:40:27,641 --> 00:40:31,630
and go pastor a little flock of people and just die there,

546
00:40:31,636 --> 00:40:33,215
and walk away from this mess.

547
00:40:33,221 --> 00:40:36,256
You see, here is what I want you to see.

548
00:40:36,262 --> 00:40:44,639
I am 47. I mean, I am like, I am not as old as these two guys here,

549
00:40:44,645 --> 00:40:48,414
but I am getting older.

550
00:40:48,420 --> 00:40:52,432
I am not as old as him but I am getting older.

551
00:40:52,438 --> 00:40:55,190
I'm over the hill, and I figured out when you get over the hill,

552
00:40:55,196 --> 00:40:57,514
you start going down a lot faster.

553
00:40:57,520 --> 00:41:03,296
I'm getting older and I don't want to waste my life.

554
00:41:03,302 --> 00:41:08,934
And what I see is that a lot of the big stuff and big plans and big ideas

555
00:41:08,940 --> 00:41:16,633
and everything we have about winning the world is nothing but flesh sometimes,

556
00:41:16,639 --> 00:41:23,906
because we want to touch everybody, but we don’t touch anybody.

557
00:41:25,890 --> 00:41:28,138
And so he says, “Make disciples.”

558
00:41:28,144 --> 00:41:29,867
And then he says this. Look at this.

559
00:41:29,873 --> 00:41:33,846
He says, "Make disciples of all the nations,

560
00:41:33,852 --> 00:41:37,777
baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,

561
00:41:37,783 --> 00:41:42,709
teaching them to observe all that I commanded you.”

562
00:41:42,715 --> 00:41:44,467
Now think about this.

563
00:41:44,473 --> 00:41:48,253
He doesn't just say, "Teach them."

564
00:41:48,259 --> 00:41:54,789
He says, “Teach them to obey what I have commanded you.”

565
00:41:54,795 --> 00:41:59,648
You can’t teach them to obey what God has commanded you

566
00:41:59,654 --> 00:42:03,507
unless you are obeying what God has commanded you.

567
00:42:03,513 --> 00:42:10,683
And so the Church gives us an opportunity to live, to flesh this out,

568
00:42:10,689 --> 00:42:26,660
to live in obedience before other people and to be an influence with our lives.

569
00:42:27,598 --> 00:42:40,476
And so the Church is a community of people who have professed faith in Jesus Christ

570
00:42:40,482 --> 00:42:48,469
and confessed his Lordship and have come together to worship him,

571
00:42:48,475 --> 00:42:56,937
but have also come together that they might mutually encourage one another

572
00:42:56,943 --> 00:43:02,293
towards the goal of conformity to the image of Jesus Christ.

573
00:43:02,299 --> 00:43:05,234
Now it is amazing. I was in Peru several years ago,

574
00:43:05,240 --> 00:43:10,663
and a young American Marine, it was just a freak accident.

575
00:43:10,669 --> 00:43:15,425
He had his gun and he just turned... it went off and he shot himself in the head.

576
00:43:15,431 --> 00:43:19,873
And he laid there in the hospital basically brain dead for three or four days

577
00:43:19,879 --> 00:43:21,746
before they pulled the plug.

578
00:43:21,752 --> 00:43:26,296
And I didn’t know this, but I show up to try to witness to him

579
00:43:26,302 --> 00:43:33,407
and there is these two Marines in full dress standing on each side of the door like this.

580
00:43:33,413 --> 00:43:36,465
I asked somebody, “What is this?”

581
00:43:36,471 --> 00:43:40,915
And the Marine says, “No Marine dies alone.”

582
00:43:40,921 --> 00:43:41,760
Wow.

583
00:43:41,766 --> 00:43:44,681
Well, I started talking to somebody and I found out

584
00:43:44,687 --> 00:43:48,800
if a bunch of Marines are running,

585
00:43:48,806 --> 00:43:52,939
the first Marine arrives when the last Marine arrives.

586
00:43:52,945 --> 00:43:55,947
They arrive together.

587
00:43:55,953 --> 00:43:59,942
So if you are running first, and this guy is last,

588
00:43:59,948 --> 00:44:05,297
don’t think about crossing that line until you get him and bring him with you.

589
00:44:05,303 --> 00:44:09,895
Well, you talk about an example of the Christian life.

590
00:44:09,901 --> 00:44:11,883
"I am growing."

591
00:44:11,889 --> 00:44:20,014
Yeah, what about your brother? What about your sister in Christ?

592
00:44:20,020 --> 00:44:26,943
You see, without a church we can’t do any of this.

593
00:44:27,684 --> 00:44:29,516
You want to have a biblical church?

594
00:44:29,522 --> 00:44:31,422
Why do you want to have a biblical church

595
00:44:31,428 --> 00:44:34,311
so that you can say you have a biblical church?

596
00:44:34,317 --> 00:44:37,384
Do you want to have a biblical church so that, you know, I mean...

597
00:44:37,390 --> 00:44:41,362
so that you can start a bunch of biblical churches?

598
00:44:41,368 --> 00:44:45,371
Or do you just want to honor God and love people,

599
00:44:45,377 --> 00:44:50,092
whether anything happens or not?

600
00:44:50,098 --> 00:45:05,959
Now, it goes on, and I want us to go for a moment just to Ephesians four.

601
00:45:05,965 --> 00:45:11,636
I want to talk about leadership for a moment, chapter four.

602
00:45:11,642 --> 00:45:14,212
Speaking of Christ in verse 11,

603
00:45:14,218 --> 00:45:16,775
"And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets,

604
00:45:16,781 --> 00:45:20,280
and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,

605
00:45:20,286 --> 00:45:24,268
for the equipping of the saints for the work of service,

606
00:45:24,274 --> 00:45:26,451
to the building up of the body of Christ."

607
00:45:26,457 --> 00:45:35,239
Now, this is both a beautiful text and a very dangerous text.

608
00:45:35,245 --> 00:45:37,998
What do I mean?

609
00:45:38,560 --> 00:45:45,203
He has given gifted men to the Church to do what? To equip the saints.

610
00:45:45,209 --> 00:45:48,293
But most of the time when this is preached,

611
00:45:48,299 --> 00:45:51,942
it is preached in a militant sort of way.

612
00:45:51,948 --> 00:45:53,108
What do I mean?

613
00:45:53,114 --> 00:45:57,923
It is preached to the..."Look, in our church, man, we have got to get going,

614
00:45:57,929 --> 00:45:59,506
we have got to get doing stuff.

615
00:45:59,512 --> 00:46:02,619
Look, I train you so that you can go out and do the ministry,

616
00:46:02,625 --> 00:46:06,756
and that ministry is winning people and making this church grow."

617
00:46:06,762 --> 00:46:08,714
And what am I doing?

618
00:46:08,720 --> 00:46:13,699
I am turning this thing back again into a factory,

619
00:46:13,705 --> 00:46:17,960
into a place where the saints come to labor.

620
00:46:17,966 --> 00:46:20,716
Do you see that?

621
00:46:21,482 --> 00:46:29,622
You are a worker in the beehive, in the anthill.

622
00:46:29,628 --> 00:46:33,564
"We have got to go. We have got to grow. We have got to build.

623
00:46:33,570 --> 00:46:39,913
We have got to do. I train you, you go."

624
00:46:39,919 --> 00:46:42,346
People have asked me several times today,

625
00:46:42,352 --> 00:46:45,601
how is it that some churches start out wanting to be biblical

626
00:46:45,607 --> 00:46:49,640
and then eventually they just kind of go the way of all other churches?

627
00:46:49,646 --> 00:46:52,170
These are the reasons.

628
00:46:52,176 --> 00:47:01,314
They turn church life into almost some kind of a factory, a work house.

629
00:47:01,320 --> 00:47:03,485
Now are we to do works of service?

630
00:47:03,491 --> 00:47:06,105
We absolutely are to do works of service.

631
00:47:06,111 --> 00:47:10,053
But I want you to look at this in a little bit different way.

632
00:47:10,059 --> 00:47:13,779
He has given us gifted men for the equipping of the saints.

633
00:47:13,785 --> 00:47:18,621
Now the equipping of the saints just doesn't mean so that they can go out and work

634
00:47:18,627 --> 00:47:22,500
and bring in more people.

635
00:47:22,506 --> 00:47:34,253
The equipping ot the saints means to prepare them, to grow them to maturity,

636
00:47:34,259 --> 00:47:40,786
to help them be able to enter in strongly into a personal devotional life,

637
00:47:40,792 --> 00:47:43,558
into a personal walk with Christ.

638
00:47:43,564 --> 00:47:47,371
It's not just about training them to go out to do something.

639
00:47:47,377 --> 00:47:52,199
It's training them so that they can be something.

640
00:47:52,205 --> 00:47:54,762
To be like Christ.

641
00:47:54,768 --> 00:47:59,420
And also this equipping is for the building up of the body of Christ.

642
00:47:59,426 --> 00:48:03,665
Now, of course, that includes evangelism.

643
00:48:03,671 --> 00:48:10,698
But I need to equip you, not to just go out and win somebody

644
00:48:10,704 --> 00:48:14,727
and bring them in and they remain just as immature as the rest of us.

645
00:48:14,733 --> 00:48:20,811
I need to equip you to be able to minister to him.

646
00:48:20,817 --> 00:48:25,611
To minister to the body also, to help us grow into maturity.

647
00:48:25,617 --> 00:48:33,493
I need to equip husbands to do what? To minister to their wives.

648
00:48:33,499 --> 00:48:38,695
I need to equip fathers to do what? To minister to their children.

649
00:48:38,701 --> 00:48:44,401
I need to equip women to minister to their husbands and their children.

650
00:48:44,407 --> 00:48:50,346
You see how we will just take a verse and automatically assume this is what it means?

651
00:48:50,352 --> 00:48:54,011
Get them all equipped so they can go out there and do a bunch of work.

652
00:48:54,017 --> 00:48:57,209
Get them equipped so that they can be like Christ,

653
00:48:57,215 --> 00:49:01,026
minister to one another, and witness to the world,

654
00:49:01,032 --> 00:49:10,751
but not in a machine, cog in a wheel, factory sense of a beehive sort of thing,

655
00:49:10,757 --> 00:49:17,471
or an anthill where everyone goes out, gathers and comes back in.

656
00:49:18,579 --> 00:49:20,721
You see, again, look at what we are talking about,

657
00:49:20,727 --> 00:49:26,426
relationships, loving one another, caring about one another,

658
00:49:26,432 --> 00:49:29,642
not so concerned about coming across the line first,

659
00:49:29,648 --> 00:49:36,295
but coming across the line with our other brothers and sisters in Christ as a church.

660
00:49:36,301 --> 00:49:42,289
Now, he goes on and he says,

661
00:49:42,295 --> 00:49:44,843
“For the equipping of the saints for the work of service,

662
00:49:44,849 --> 00:49:46,772
to the building up of the body of Christ.”

663
00:49:46,778 --> 00:49:48,956
Now look, you can see.

664
00:49:48,962 --> 00:49:51,530
"Until we all attain to the unity of the faith,

665
00:49:51,536 --> 00:49:54,825
and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man,

666
00:49:54,831 --> 00:50:03,124
to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.”

667
00:50:03,130 --> 00:50:12,886
To be a part of a church is to make a commitment to be biblically,

668
00:50:12,892 --> 00:50:20,462
practically concerned for the other people in that body,

669
00:50:20,468 --> 00:50:26,899
that they might become everything that God desires for them to be.

670
00:50:26,905 --> 00:50:28,881
Now, let’s go on.

671
00:50:28,887 --> 00:50:36,492
I want us to go now to 2 Timothy chapter three.

672
00:50:36,498 --> 00:50:42,492
The Church, its doctrine, its practices

673
00:50:42,498 --> 00:50:47,608
must be founded upon the Word of God.

674
00:50:47,614 --> 00:50:53,862
Now, he says here, “That from childhood you have known the sacred writings

675
00:50:53,868 --> 00:50:57,485
which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation

676
00:50:57,491 --> 00:51:01,940
through faith which is in Christ Jesus.“

677
00:51:01,946 --> 00:51:04,131
How does a person come to know the Lord?

678
00:51:04,137 --> 00:51:08,317
Through the sacred writings, through Scripture.

679
00:51:08,323 --> 00:51:17,023
Let me share with you. We will maybe talk about this tomorrow about evangelism,

680
00:51:18,095 --> 00:51:23,245
but I have seen recently people come to know the Lord,

681
00:51:23,251 --> 00:51:32,592
not as a result of a one time encounter or witnessing through a tract.

682
00:51:32,598 --> 00:51:41,310
I have seen people come to the Lord after eight months of Bible study,

683
00:51:41,316 --> 00:51:43,686
after eight months of the study in Scripture.

684
00:51:43,692 --> 00:51:49,237
My brother-in-law, John Green, from England is a great evangelist.

685
00:51:49,243 --> 00:51:53,618
He doesn’t preach. He shouldn’t preach.

686
00:51:53,624 --> 00:51:58,460
But as far as one on one dealing with people...

687
00:51:58,466 --> 00:52:01,174
And he just recently brought a guy to my office

688
00:52:01,180 --> 00:52:05,480
that he had been dealing with for about eight months,

689
00:52:05,486 --> 00:52:07,672
Bible study after Bible study,

690
00:52:07,678 --> 00:52:11,609
going through the Scripture, going through the Scripture.

691
00:52:11,615 --> 00:52:17,065
Listen to me: Preach on the streets? Yes.

692
00:52:17,071 --> 00:52:20,327
Witness to people, tracts? Yes.

693
00:52:20,333 --> 00:52:24,797
Have you ever thought about entering into a relationship with some of these people?

694
00:52:24,803 --> 00:52:30,357
Inviting to meet them at a coffee shop once a week, twice a week,

695
00:52:30,363 --> 00:52:33,355
going through Scripture, studying Scripture.

696
00:52:33,361 --> 00:52:38,260
Not just hit and miss, like a sniper with a rifle,

697
00:52:38,266 --> 00:52:40,616
giving them one shot to come to know the Lord,

698
00:52:40,622 --> 00:52:48,760
but maybe saying, “I am going to pour my life into that person.”

699
00:52:50,215 --> 00:52:56,282
And then he says, "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching,

700
00:52:56,288 --> 00:52:59,713
for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;

701
00:52:59,719 --> 00:53:04,847
so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work."

702
00:53:04,853 --> 00:53:08,373
When I was in seminary several years ago,

703
00:53:08,379 --> 00:53:14,763
my professor, he stood in front of the class one day

704
00:53:14,769 --> 00:53:21,949
and he goes, “Sh... sh, listen.”

705
00:53:21,955 --> 00:53:23,125
“What?”

706
00:53:23,131 --> 00:53:30,492
“Listen. I hear footsteps.

707
00:53:30,498 --> 00:53:40,510
Yes. They are the footsteps of Aristotle walking through these halls

708
00:53:40,516 --> 00:53:44,445
and they are louder than the footsteps of the apostles.”

709
00:53:44,451 --> 00:53:46,758
The point he was making was,

710
00:53:46,764 --> 00:53:52,378
much of what we were doing had more to do with Greek philosophy

711
00:53:52,384 --> 00:53:57,755
than it did with the New Testament, saying it was wrong.

712
00:53:57,761 --> 00:54:02,637
I want you to know something, not only walking through church,

713
00:54:02,643 --> 00:54:13,614
but walking through your mind and your heart is psychology, sociology,

714
00:54:13,620 --> 00:54:24,382
anthropology, doctrines of this age, and they will destroy you.

715
00:54:24,388 --> 00:54:30,069
We do not need to augment the Scriptures with the social sciences

716
00:54:30,075 --> 00:54:32,798
in order to have a church.

717
00:54:32,804 --> 00:54:38,797
A church is founded upon the Word of God,

718
00:54:38,803 --> 00:54:45,727
and it needs no help from any outside source.

719
00:54:45,733 --> 00:54:48,285
I will give you an example.

720
00:54:48,291 --> 00:54:54,380
If I were to teach on, right now, on the father's responsibility

721
00:54:54,386 --> 00:54:58,150
to be the primary educator in the life of his child,

722
00:54:58,156 --> 00:55:04,829
many of you would be going... because that is not practiced here.

723
00:55:04,834 --> 00:55:06,337
Yeah.

724
00:55:06,343 --> 00:55:14,636
Or if I began to teach on the biblical submission of the wife to the husband,

725
00:55:14,642 --> 00:55:18,031
some of you women would probably grow horns and claws

726
00:55:18,037 --> 00:55:23,125
and attack me right now, because that is not practiced here.

727
00:55:23,131 --> 00:55:25,237
It is hated. It is despised.

728
00:55:25,243 --> 00:55:34,189
Years and years and years of training, and all the dark arts you have received.

729
00:55:34,195 --> 00:55:40,460
You went to preschool. They did not teach you Psalms one.

730
00:55:40,466 --> 00:55:42,999
They taught you the ways of the world.

731
00:55:43,005 --> 00:55:47,852
You went to grade school, they taught you all the doctrines of this age.

732
00:55:47,858 --> 00:55:50,799
You went to high school and they did the same.

733
00:55:50,805 --> 00:55:53,988
As a child, every time you turned on the television set,

734
00:55:53,994 --> 00:55:58,562
they taught you in a manner completely contrary to Christianity.

735
00:55:58,568 --> 00:56:06,847
And now you wonder why it is so difficult to live the Christian life?

736
00:56:08,450 --> 00:56:09,652
You see?

737
00:56:09,658 --> 00:56:14,203
There are things that Scripture teaches that if I taught them right now,

738
00:56:14,209 --> 00:56:19,616
maybe some of you would rise up in anger and just jump right through that window

739
00:56:19,622 --> 00:56:22,558
or throw me through that window,

740
00:56:22,564 --> 00:56:25,939
because you can’t even begin to address the issue

741
00:56:25,945 --> 00:56:32,359
because you have been taught the contrary over and over and over.

742
00:56:32,365 --> 00:56:36,739
Do not bring those sciences into the Church

743
00:56:36,745 --> 00:56:42,166
because social sciences are not sciences by the pure definition of science.

744
00:56:42,172 --> 00:56:46,839
And do not bring something into the Church whose major theories change

745
00:56:46,845 --> 00:56:50,871
about once ever three years.

746
00:56:51,286 --> 00:56:56,424
We are to found the Church upon the Scriptures,

747
00:56:56,430 --> 00:57:00,505
and the Church and the Scriptures need no outside help.

748
00:57:00,511 --> 00:57:03,481
Let me give you a perfect example of this.

749
00:57:03,487 --> 00:57:11,545
You go to a Christian counselor who is also a psychologist

750
00:57:11,551 --> 00:57:17,109
and you say, “I need some counseling.” He goes, “Ok.”

751
00:57:17,115 --> 00:57:18,763
You walk in.

752
00:57:18,769 --> 00:57:25,025
You say, “Now, before we get started, I understand you are a Christian psychologist.

753
00:57:25,031 --> 00:57:28,423
What is your basis of authority?”

754
00:57:28,429 --> 00:57:34,376
Now that is a proper question in debate, apologetics, secular philosophy, ok?

755
00:57:34,382 --> 00:57:36,208
What is the basis of your authority?

756
00:57:36,214 --> 00:57:38,798
I mean, you are going to start telling me things.

757
00:57:38,804 --> 00:57:41,846
What is the basis of your authority?

758
00:57:41,852 --> 00:57:45,098
And so you say, “Well, the Bible.”

759
00:57:45,104 --> 00:57:47,892
I go, “What are all these other books?”

760
00:57:47,898 --> 00:57:54,401
“Well, I just... you know, the truth of Scripture, but all truth is God’s truth,

761
00:57:54,407 --> 00:57:58,922
so the truth we also find in these books are true, too.”

762
00:57:58,928 --> 00:58:02,072
“Well, I got a problem.”

763
00:58:02,078 --> 00:58:03,505
“Well, what is your problem?”

764
00:58:03,511 --> 00:58:10,985
“Well, I see there Freud, Rogers and Skinner,

765
00:58:10,991 --> 00:58:16,379
three main guys in the West with regard to psychology.”

766
00:58:16,385 --> 00:58:18,868
“Yes, so?”

767
00:58:18,874 --> 00:58:24,949
“Well, Freud said that Rogers and Skinner were idiots.

768
00:58:24,955 --> 00:58:28,714
And Rogers and Skinner said that Freud was a pervert.

769
00:58:28,720 --> 00:58:31,902
And Skinner said Rogers didn’t know what he was talking about,

770
00:58:31,908 --> 00:58:34,686
and everything Rogers wrote contradicted Skinner.

771
00:58:34,691 --> 00:58:37,315
So now here's my question:

772
00:58:37,321 --> 00:58:40,564
If all three of them contradict each other,

773
00:58:40,570 --> 00:58:46,187
and all three of them contradict the Bible, who is the authority?”

774
00:58:46,193 --> 00:58:50,128
And he goes, “Well, I choose..you know, the Bible, of course, is the authority.

775
00:58:50,134 --> 00:58:55,219
And then I choose out of these men what's true”

776
00:58:55,225 --> 00:58:58,425
“So now you are the authority.”

777
00:58:58,431 --> 00:59:00,534
Do you see the problem?

778
00:59:00,540 --> 00:59:03,029
There is one authority and it is Scripture.

779
00:59:03,035 --> 00:59:13,844
If they speak not according to the Law and the Prophets, there is no light in them.

780
00:59:15,539 --> 00:59:18,272
But it has become the religion of the age

781
00:59:18,278 --> 00:59:24,821
and one of the greatest hindrances to biblical church, a great hindrance.

782
00:59:24,827 --> 00:59:28,060
Now I realize that I may have made people mad

783
00:59:28,066 --> 00:59:30,652
and if I did so by my attitude I apologize,

784
00:59:30,658 --> 00:59:35,539
but what I said, I do not apologize for. It is true.

785
00:59:35,545 --> 00:59:43,360
Churches today are overrun with the ideas of secular anthropology,

786
00:59:43,366 --> 00:59:48,834
secular psychology and secular sociology.

787
00:59:48,840 --> 00:59:52,371
Now, don’t think you are going to have a biblical church

788
00:59:52,377 --> 00:59:57,142
by purging that out of your evangelism.

789
00:59:57,148 --> 01:00:06,632
You have to purge it out of your marriage, your idea of man, your idea of truth.

790
01:00:06,638 --> 01:00:09,765
You have to purge it out of everything.

791
01:00:09,771 --> 01:00:13,209
God’s Word is true.

792
01:00:13,215 --> 01:00:16,974
And if something does not line up with God’s Word, it is not true

793
01:00:16,980 --> 01:00:21,051
and it's not additional truth.

794
01:00:21,635 --> 01:00:22,588
Do you see?

795
01:00:22,594 --> 01:00:26,993
Many of you, let me ask you a question, you would possibly say,

796
01:00:26,999 --> 01:00:30,882
“Yes, brother Paul, I believe in the inspiration of Scripture.

797
01:00:30,888 --> 01:00:35,159
I am a conservative Christian. I believe in the inspiration of Scripture;

798
01:00:35,165 --> 01:00:40,099
that Scripture was God breathed, that it is infallible, inerrant;

799
01:00:40,105 --> 01:00:43,946
that it is a faithful communication of God's truth.

800
01:00:43,952 --> 01:00:46,902
Ok. You believe in the inspiration of Scripture?

801
01:00:46,908 --> 01:00:50,984
You have only won half the battle.

802
01:00:50,990 --> 01:00:52,605
Here is the next question:

803
01:00:52,611 --> 01:00:57,597
But do you believe in the sufficiency of Scripture?

804
01:00:58,025 --> 01:01:03,712
Do you believe that the Scripture is sufficient

805
01:01:03,718 --> 01:01:08,298
to make the man of God adequate for every good work

806
01:01:08,304 --> 01:01:14,527
or does the man of God also need Freud, Skinner, Rogers and everything else

807
01:01:14,533 --> 01:01:18,690
in order to counsel God’s people, in order to teach God's people,

808
01:01:18,696 --> 01:01:20,413
in order to train God’s people?

809
01:01:20,419 --> 01:01:26,840
You see, this is what Scripture is saying.

810
01:01:26,846 --> 01:01:30,698
All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching,

811
01:01:30,704 --> 01:01:34,637
for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;

812
01:01:34,643 --> 01:01:41,343
so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

813
01:01:41,349 --> 01:01:47,750
Every good work that needs to be done in the body, every good work,

814
01:01:47,756 --> 01:01:50,552
the Scripture can adequately prepare us for that.

815
01:01:50,558 --> 01:01:56,252
The Bible says in 2 Peter chapter one,

816
01:01:56,258 --> 01:02:02,437
Everything that we need for life and godliness has been granted to us.

817
01:02:02,443 --> 01:02:07,973
Everything we need to direct our marriages have been granted to us in this book.

818
01:02:07,979 --> 01:02:12,921
Everything we need to raise our children have been granted to us in this book.

819
01:02:12,927 --> 01:02:18,234
It is found there. It is.

820
01:02:19,195 --> 01:02:21,461
And you have to make a decision.

821
01:02:21,467 --> 01:02:27,840
Do you want a biblical church, or do you want a halfway biblical church?

822
01:02:28,375 --> 01:02:31,800
There is no, like the philosopher said,

823
01:02:31,806 --> 01:02:37,638
“What does Jerusalem have to do with Athens?”

824
01:02:37,652 --> 01:02:44,258
What does Christianity have to do with all these doctrines of the age

825
01:02:44,264 --> 01:02:47,486
that give no light and bring no blessing

826
01:02:47,492 --> 01:02:51,332
and kill all fruitfulness in the life of a person?

827
01:02:51,338 --> 01:02:57,738
Now, I want to go to one other thing and then we will bring this to a close,

828
01:02:57,744 --> 01:03:01,988
because I know I have gone on very long.

829
01:03:01,994 --> 01:03:06,137
Let’s just look for a moment at body life.

830
01:03:06,143 --> 01:03:14,308
I want us to go to chapter twelve of the book of Romans, verse 3,

831
01:03:14,314 --> 01:03:17,887
“For through the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you

832
01:03:17,893 --> 01:03:21,477
not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think;

833
01:03:21,483 --> 01:03:24,344
but to think so as to have sound judgment,

834
01:03:24,350 --> 01:03:29,236
as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.”

835
01:03:29,242 --> 01:03:34,757
Listen. As you grow in your Christian walk,

836
01:03:34,763 --> 01:03:39,362
you are going to come across true, honest believers

837
01:03:39,368 --> 01:03:44,554
that are not quite as mature, that are rather problematic.

838
01:03:44,560 --> 01:03:47,296
You need to constantly be asking yourself this question.

839
01:03:47,302 --> 01:03:49,618
What do I have that I have not received,

840
01:03:49,624 --> 01:03:53,506
and if I have received it, why do I boast?

841
01:03:53,512 --> 01:03:55,840
Who made you what you are?

842
01:03:55,846 --> 01:03:58,446
By God’s grace you have been saved.

843
01:03:58,452 --> 01:04:03,620
By God's grace, a work of sanctification continues in you.

844
01:04:03,626 --> 01:04:06,680
There is no room for boasting in the Christian life.

845
01:04:06,686 --> 01:04:14,935
And there is no room for comparison of setting one saint against another.

846
01:04:14,941 --> 01:04:20,270
I remember one time a woman who had done a great deal of damage

847
01:04:20,276 --> 01:04:22,760
with her wickedness in the Church,

848
01:04:22,766 --> 01:04:27,173
and one morning she came just running down the aisle.

849
01:04:27,179 --> 01:04:29,842
I was preaching, and she was weeping,

850
01:04:29,848 --> 01:04:33,150
and she just fell on the steps of the platform

851
01:04:33,156 --> 01:04:35,870
and she was crying out to God for forgiveness.

852
01:04:35,876 --> 01:04:40,014
And I looked up and I saw the faces of the people in that crowd.

853
01:04:40,020 --> 01:04:49,358
And I mean, they were like, unbelieving, unforgiving.

854
01:04:50,131 --> 01:04:53,856
The woman had done some bad things.

855
01:04:53,862 --> 01:05:00,795
And I went down and I put my hand on her shoulder and I prayed for her.

856
01:05:00,801 --> 01:05:05,542
Afterwards, some people came up to me and they said,

857
01:05:05,548 --> 01:05:09,509
“How could you touch that woman?”

858
01:05:09,515 --> 01:05:15,425
And I said, “Because if she doesn’t get forgiven, I have to go to hell too.”

859
01:05:15,431 --> 01:05:18,276
You see the point?

860
01:05:18,282 --> 01:05:20,130
Mercy...you know,

861
01:05:20,136 --> 01:05:27,295
if you need evidence that we are not perfected at the moment of our conversion,

862
01:05:27,301 --> 01:05:29,559
if you need evidence of that,

863
01:05:29,565 --> 01:05:33,763
then just listen to this one statement by Jesus Christ.

864
01:05:33,769 --> 01:05:38,807
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.”

865
01:05:39,034 --> 01:05:43,167
That shames me, that verse; and I will tell you why.

866
01:05:43,173 --> 01:05:47,545
A man like me who has received such mercy,

867
01:05:47,551 --> 01:05:51,377
I have to be told to be merciful?

868
01:05:51,825 --> 01:05:54,505
I have to be reminded to be merciful?

869
01:05:54,511 --> 01:05:56,329
After the mercy I have received,

870
01:05:56,335 --> 01:05:58,953
after the things I have done and been forgiven.

871
01:05:58,959 --> 01:06:06,473
I have to be reminded to be merciful? That is pathetic.

872
01:06:11,271 --> 01:06:14,921
And so body life is, again, built around humility.

873
01:06:14,927 --> 01:06:17,264
It is built around a mercy.

874
01:06:17,270 --> 01:06:20,951
It's built around thinking more of others.

875
01:06:20,957 --> 01:06:24,497
And he says: "For just as we have many members in one body

876
01:06:24,503 --> 01:06:28,606
and all the members do not have the same function,

877
01:06:28,612 --> 01:06:31,677
so we, who are many, are one body in Christ,

878
01:06:31,683 --> 01:06:34,605
and individually members one of another."

879
01:06:34,611 --> 01:06:41,529
Now, In 1 Corinthians, Paul deals with this in greater length

880
01:06:41,535 --> 01:06:42,705
and I didn’t want to go there

881
01:06:42,711 --> 01:06:51,232
because I didn’t want to spend the entire night having you just sitting here.

882
01:06:54,642 --> 01:06:59,349
Sometimes I look at my wife

883
01:06:59,355 --> 01:07:04,769
and, you know, men are really bad in that we begin to think at times

884
01:07:04,775 --> 01:07:07,802
that our wives are an extension of us,

885
01:07:07,808 --> 01:07:11,349
and our children are an extension of us.

886
01:07:11,355 --> 01:07:16,624
We forget that they are persons in their own right.

887
01:07:17,703 --> 01:07:23,401
There will be things between our wives and Christ that we know not of.

888
01:07:23,407 --> 01:07:27,740
But sometimes I sit there and I try to remember this:

889
01:07:27,746 --> 01:07:32,464
She is God's daughter.

890
01:07:32,470 --> 01:07:35,337
Now I don’t know if any of you have daughters.

891
01:07:35,343 --> 01:07:38,651
But I have a little daughter.

892
01:07:39,221 --> 01:07:44,396
I don't know where my Christianity would go if somebody tried to hurt her,

893
01:07:44,402 --> 01:07:48,561
but I would do everything in my power to stop them.

894
01:07:48,567 --> 01:07:53,949
I mean, If you really don't want to be my friend,

895
01:07:53,955 --> 01:07:57,709
then do something bad to my daughter.

896
01:07:58,342 --> 01:08:01,413
I can't even imagine; someone would have to restrain me

897
01:08:01,419 --> 01:08:04,262
if somebody did something to my daughter.

898
01:08:04,268 --> 01:08:11,286
And I always try to remember my wife in that context with her Father.

899
01:08:11,292 --> 01:08:15,679
She is God’s daughter.

900
01:08:15,685 --> 01:08:19,023
I am going to mess with her?

901
01:08:19,028 --> 01:08:21,435
I am going to hurt her?

902
01:08:21,441 --> 01:08:24,608
If I being evil can love my daughter so much

903
01:08:24,613 --> 01:08:27,005
that I would throw myself in front of a train for her,

904
01:08:27,011 --> 01:08:31,121
or fight any man on the face of the earth at least for two seconds

905
01:08:31,127 --> 01:08:34,509
before he knocks me out,

906
01:08:34,515 --> 01:08:38,770
am I going to suppose that I want to deal with God in that way,

907
01:08:38,776 --> 01:08:40,475
treating harshly his daughter?

908
01:08:40,481 --> 01:08:42,477
Now let’s take that farther.

909
01:08:42,483 --> 01:08:48,189
You see, C S Lewis said this one time and I can’t quote him directly,

910
01:08:48,194 --> 01:08:53,500
but basically he said this, “There are no common people.”

911
01:08:53,506 --> 01:09:05,835
Every person you meet will either be, one day, a monster in the bowels of hell

912
01:09:05,841 --> 01:09:10,602
or will be a creature so splendid and glorious

913
01:09:10,608 --> 01:09:13,796
that if you could see them now in that future state,

914
01:09:13,801 --> 01:09:18,399
you would fall down on your face and have a tendency to worship them.”

915
01:09:18,404 --> 01:09:22,828
All right, now I want you to think that about your brother in Christ for a moment,

916
01:09:22,834 --> 01:09:24,060
your sister in Christ.

917
01:09:24,067 --> 01:09:30,366
Don't deal with this person in a harsh manner.

918
01:09:30,372 --> 01:09:32,915
Realize what they are.

919
01:09:32,921 --> 01:09:36,377
Realize what has been paid for them.

920
01:09:36,384 --> 01:09:39,402
Realize what they are going to become.

921
01:09:39,408 --> 01:09:44,033
Realize the relationship they have with God,

922
01:09:44,040 --> 01:09:46,997
and you will begin to treat them differently.

923
01:09:47,004 --> 01:09:48,287
Do you see that?

924
01:09:48,292 --> 01:09:55,121
They are not just some common little believer who attends church.

925
01:09:55,127 --> 01:10:00,489
They are God’s and one day they will be more glorious

926
01:10:00,495 --> 01:10:05,142
than anyone could even imagine.

927
01:10:06,952 --> 01:10:09,473
That is church.

928
01:10:10,051 --> 01:10:16,832
And he goes on and he says that we are members.

929
01:10:16,838 --> 01:10:19,675
I am told that I am one with my wife

930
01:10:19,681 --> 01:10:24,918
and that only an insane man tears at his own flesh.

931
01:10:24,924 --> 01:10:31,096
Only an insane man practices self mutilation, I mean, we all now that.

932
01:10:31,102 --> 01:10:33,886
You see a man on the side of the street,

933
01:10:33,892 --> 01:10:35,295
and he is ripping his arm off,

934
01:10:35,301 --> 01:10:38,000
you don’t say, “Hey, how is it going?”

935
01:10:38,006 --> 01:10:42,514
I mean, you say, “That is a very problemed person.”

936
01:10:42,520 --> 01:10:52,514
All right, now, to attack my wife is insanity, the worst form, to rip at her.

937
01:10:52,520 --> 01:10:58,493
Brother and sister in Christ, same thing, members.

938
01:10:59,295 --> 01:11:00,555
And just remember this:

939
01:11:00,561 --> 01:11:05,476
You are not just ripping at one of your members.

940
01:11:05,482 --> 01:11:11,627
You are ripping at one of Christ’s members, part of his body.

941
01:11:11,633 --> 01:11:16,705
The Church in Corinth was sternly warned that anyone destroys the body,

942
01:11:16,711 --> 01:11:19,588
God will destroy them.

943
01:11:20,867 --> 01:11:24,267
You see, you need to have a heightened view of God.

944
01:11:24,273 --> 01:11:25,568
You have heard that over and over.

945
01:11:25,574 --> 01:11:27,904
We need to have a heightened view of God.

946
01:11:27,910 --> 01:11:29,747
That's true. Do you know what else though?

947
01:11:29,753 --> 01:11:37,361
You need to have a heightened view of other believers;

948
01:11:38,932 --> 01:11:44,150
of what they are, what they will be, what was paid for them.

949
01:11:44,156 --> 01:11:46,044
And we are members.

950
01:11:46,050 --> 01:11:48,969
Now, gosh, I can do this in America,

951
01:11:48,975 --> 01:11:54,554
but here in Europe you guys are a lot more civilized.

952
01:11:54,560 --> 01:11:56,211
But I am going to do this anyways.

953
01:11:56,217 --> 01:11:59,350
Let’s see. Who has got tennis shoes on?

954
01:11:59,356 --> 01:12:03,728
Who wants to volunteer? Who is really brave? Is anybody brave?

955
01:12:03,734 --> 01:12:06,260
You don’t need tennis shoes, you can do it in socks.

956
01:12:06,266 --> 01:12:08,111
Ok, stand up.

957
01:12:08,117 --> 01:12:11,601
And, really, guys, if I am out of line, just realize I am an American,

958
01:12:11,607 --> 01:12:15,138
I am from the South. I have no culture, ok?

959
01:12:15,174 --> 01:12:23,674
Now I want you to run over to that rail as fast as you can, and then run back.

960
01:12:23,680 --> 01:12:25,785
As fast as you can.

961
01:12:25,790 --> 01:12:27,964
Go!

962
01:12:28,932 --> 01:12:33,066
Ooh, I should have got tennis shoes on him. He almost went out the window.

963
01:12:33,072 --> 01:12:38,999
Ok, now I want you to grab one foot like this,

964
01:12:39,005 --> 01:12:44,036
and I want you to run over there half way, and then come back.

965
01:12:44,042 --> 01:12:48,142
Halfway? yeah, just half way. We don't want you going out the window.

966
01:12:48,148 --> 01:12:51,863
Ok. Slower, right?

967
01:12:51,869 --> 01:12:55,619
All right. Now grab this foot like this,

968
01:12:55,625 --> 01:12:58,214
and grab the other one and pull it back.

969
01:12:58,220 --> 01:12:59,506
All right, thank you.

970
01:12:59,512 --> 01:13:07,585
Now look. I removed one member and he could not move as fast,

971
01:13:07,591 --> 01:13:11,314
as quickly and definitely he wasn’t as graceful.

972
01:13:11,320 --> 01:13:13,214
I removed one member.

973
01:13:13,220 --> 01:13:18,222
I remove two members and I incapacitated him completely.

974
01:13:18,228 --> 01:13:21,055
He couldn't even walk.

975
01:13:21,061 --> 01:13:27,778
Now, do you think every member in the body of Christ is important?

976
01:13:27,784 --> 01:13:31,948
This is not only an encouragement for every saint

977
01:13:31,954 --> 01:13:36,190
to come to understand their giftedness and their part in the body of Christ,

978
01:13:36,196 --> 01:13:41,127
but it is also necessary for us to appreciate every saint

979
01:13:41,133 --> 01:13:45,996
and to encourage them to be a part of the body, because we need them.

980
01:13:46,002 --> 01:13:54,411
Now, if you tell saints, “Look. We need you to minister according to your gifts.

981
01:13:54,417 --> 01:13:59,651
We need you to be a part of this body because, man, we are out to do this.”

982
01:13:59,657 --> 01:14:02,879
Again, that is mechanical.

983
01:14:02,885 --> 01:14:05,642
We just want you to be part of the factory.

984
01:14:05,648 --> 01:14:11,071
But if you say, “We need you in this body to minister to your gifts

985
01:14:11,077 --> 01:14:15,739
because we as a body need you.

986
01:14:15,752 --> 01:14:17,004
We need your giftedness.

987
01:14:17,010 --> 01:14:19,025
We need what God has done in your life.

988
01:14:19,031 --> 01:14:21,818
We need you as a person. We need you.”

989
01:14:21,824 --> 01:14:26,795
That is church, you see, that is church;

990
01:14:26,801 --> 01:14:29,503
that we are members of one another.

991
01:14:29,509 --> 01:14:34,196
And then he goes on and he says this...

992
01:14:34,202 --> 01:14:39,900
I want to just run down to nine because of the lack of time.

993
01:14:39,906 --> 01:14:42,303
He says, "Let love be without hypocrisy.

994
01:14:42,309 --> 01:14:45,202
Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.

995
01:14:45,208 --> 01:14:48,422
Be devoted to one another."

996
01:14:48,428 --> 01:14:51,168
So you want to have a church?

997
01:14:51,174 --> 01:14:54,739
Are you willing to be devoted to one another?

998
01:14:54,745 --> 01:14:58,419
I am not talking about showing up on Sunday,

999
01:14:58,425 --> 01:15:03,929
listening to a sermon and running away.

1000
01:15:03,935 --> 01:15:07,607
I am talking about actually entering into relationships.

1001
01:15:07,613 --> 01:15:12,688
You see, Christianity, especially now in reformed circles,

1002
01:15:12,694 --> 01:15:18,662
in many ways has become like almost going to the theater.

1003
01:15:18,668 --> 01:15:21,987
People got their favourite preacher,

1004
01:15:21,993 --> 01:15:25,564
and their favorite worship, and so they go in

1005
01:15:25,570 --> 01:15:29,279
and they take their seat in the church.

1006
01:15:29,285 --> 01:15:32,109
We ought to get a thing with a popcorn holder

1007
01:15:32,115 --> 01:15:37,549
and a place where you can put your Coke to watch your favorite preacher,

1008
01:15:37,554 --> 01:15:42,806
to watch your favorite worship guy, and then to say good bye.

1009
01:15:42,813 --> 01:15:46,314
And the best part is, it's free.

1010
01:15:46,351 --> 01:15:51,540
Unless you're in a baptist church and then they make you pay a tithe.

1011
01:15:51,546 --> 01:15:53,061
It's free.

1012
01:15:53,067 --> 01:15:54,200
That is not church.

1013
01:15:54,206 --> 01:15:55,948
I hear ministers say all the time,

1014
01:15:55,954 --> 01:15:58,953
"The Bible says you shall not forsake the assembling of yourselves together.”

1015
01:15:58,959 --> 01:16:00,051
And what he is saying is,

1016
01:16:00,057 --> 01:16:02,571
“Listen, you need to come hear me preach.”

1017
01:16:02,577 --> 01:16:05,915
But what it is saying is you don’t forsake the assembling of yourselves together

1018
01:16:05,921 --> 01:16:07,717
so that you can minister to one another,

1019
01:16:07,723 --> 01:16:10,152
exhort one another, encourage one another.

1020
01:16:10,165 --> 01:16:21,903
That is why, at least, there is less obstacles in doing this sort of thing in a small fellowship.

1021
01:16:21,909 --> 01:16:25,571
And if the fellowship grows larger, to either,

1022
01:16:25,577 --> 01:16:29,448
some of the members that are in that fellowship that are from a certain part of town,

1023
01:16:29,454 --> 01:16:31,300
send them over there to start another church,

1024
01:16:31,306 --> 01:16:35,729
or at least break this thing up in some sort of house churches and things like that,

1025
01:16:35,735 --> 01:16:39,490
so that you can actually get involved in ministering to one another.

1026
01:16:39,496 --> 01:16:41,382
Another thing that is very important.

1027
01:16:41,388 --> 01:16:46,800
I was preaching down in a place in Alabama a few weeks ago

1028
01:16:46,806 --> 01:16:49,886
to a group of people in Tharptown, Alabama.

1029
01:16:49,892 --> 01:16:52,477
And I just love these people, they are just wonderful.

1030
01:16:52,483 --> 01:16:58,374
And I was preaching, and it was going a little bit long.

1031
01:16:58,380 --> 01:17:01,521
I know you can’t believe that, but it was going a little bit long

1032
01:17:01,527 --> 01:17:04,245
and I said, “Now, stop that.”

1033
01:17:04,251 --> 01:17:07,183
They all kind of looked up. I said, “I know what you are thinking.

1034
01:17:07,189 --> 01:17:10,096
You are all thinking about leaving here and going to El Rancho.”

1035
01:17:10,102 --> 01:17:16,008
El Rancho is the most favorite Mexican restaurant there near the church.

1036
01:17:16,014 --> 01:17:20,831
As a matter of fact, it is the only restaurant in the whole entire town.

1037
01:17:20,837 --> 01:17:23,063
And I said, “I know what you are doing.

1038
01:17:23,069 --> 01:17:24,941
You're not thinking about church anymore,

1039
01:17:24,947 --> 01:17:27,942
you're thinking about going to El Rancho."

1040
01:17:27,948 --> 01:17:31,301
And they were like, you know, all feeling guilty.

1041
01:17:31,307 --> 01:17:33,713
But I said that because I wanted to teach them something.

1042
01:17:33,719 --> 01:17:43,655
I said, "Now stop. Ask yourself right now. Are you doing church?"

1043
01:17:43,661 --> 01:17:47,104
I said, "I want you to look at something a little bit different.

1044
01:17:47,110 --> 01:17:50,922
Right now, you are sitting under the preaching of the Word of God.

1045
01:17:50,928 --> 01:17:54,764
We have worshiped collectively and we have prayed collectively.

1046
01:17:54,770 --> 01:17:57,716
Now you think you have done something spiritual,

1047
01:17:57,722 --> 01:18:01,589
and then you are going to leave and you are going to go to El Rancho

1048
01:18:01,595 --> 01:18:05,187
and do something not so spiritual.”

1049
01:18:05,193 --> 01:18:08,443
I said, “Actually, the way you need to look at it is,

1050
01:18:08,449 --> 01:18:12,995
you are leaving here to go to church.”

1051
01:18:13,001 --> 01:18:14,746
And they are like, “Well, what do you mean?”

1052
01:18:14,752 --> 01:18:18,569
I said, “Now, if you go there and talk about your favorite football team or something,

1053
01:18:18,575 --> 01:18:20,346
not necessarily.”

1054
01:18:20,352 --> 01:18:24,603
I said, “But do you realize, you are not talking to each other right now.

1055
01:18:24,609 --> 01:18:26,956
You are not ministering to one another.

1056
01:18:26,962 --> 01:18:29,679
You are listening to a sermon, which is necessary,

1057
01:18:29,685 --> 01:18:32,288
you have worshiped collectively and prayed collectively,

1058
01:18:32,294 --> 01:18:34,828
which is all necessary and good and it is part of church.

1059
01:18:34,834 --> 01:18:38,372
But what do you say now that as soon as I dismiss this,

1060
01:18:38,378 --> 01:18:44,385
we all go over to El Rancho and have church?”

1061
01:18:44,391 --> 01:18:51,708
We go over there, sit down at a table with a fellow believer,

1062
01:18:51,714 --> 01:18:54,436
talk to them, get to know them,

1063
01:18:54,442 --> 01:19:01,559
find out what is going on in their life, eat some chips. God is good.

1064
01:19:01,565 --> 01:19:04,500
And just get to know one another,

1065
01:19:04,506 --> 01:19:08,324
to love one another, to bless one another.

1066
01:19:08,330 --> 01:19:12,598
You see, their whole idea of church revolved around coming into that place,

1067
01:19:12,604 --> 01:19:18,255
worshiping collectively, listening to a Bible study and then leaving.

1068
01:19:18,261 --> 01:19:19,607
That is not Church.

1069
01:19:19,613 --> 01:19:22,508
That is a very essential part of Church.

1070
01:19:22,514 --> 01:19:29,062
But see, there you go again just identifying it with a service, a meeting, a meeting place.

1071
01:19:29,068 --> 01:19:33,254
It is you collectively caring for one another.

1072
01:19:33,260 --> 01:19:38,788
There was a pastor down in Argentina, and he had grown the church to about 600,

1073
01:19:38,794 --> 01:19:40,181
and that is the language he used.

1074
01:19:40,187 --> 01:19:43,001
He said, “Because I had grown the church to 600.”

1075
01:19:43,007 --> 01:19:45,021
And he said, “I was miserable.”

1076
01:19:45,027 --> 01:19:49,389
He said, “Finally I came under such... I didn’t even know why.

1077
01:19:49,395 --> 01:19:52,107
I just knew something was wrong; knew something was terribly wrong.”

1078
01:19:52,113 --> 01:19:56,822
So he set aside time for prayer and fasting, and studying the Scriptures,

1079
01:19:56,828 --> 01:20:00,877
and it just seemed that the Lord impressed upon his heart through the study of Scripture,

1080
01:20:00,883 --> 01:20:06,329
that everything he had built was just hay, wood and stubble,

1081
01:20:06,335 --> 01:20:07,688
that he needed to start again.

1082
01:20:07,694 --> 01:20:12,413
He is a really personable guy, a really great speaker, knew how to do things,

1083
01:20:12,419 --> 01:20:15,382
and I mean people were coming to that church in the droves.

1084
01:20:15,388 --> 01:20:17,714
And God was saying...

1085
01:20:18,196 --> 01:20:19,729
So this is what he did.

1086
01:20:19,735 --> 01:20:25,268
The next Sunday, you know, they got the big worship service and everything,

1087
01:20:25,274 --> 01:20:30,494
and the music director goes, “And now, pastor Ortiz,” let’s say,

1088
01:20:30,500 --> 01:20:33,275
“is going to come and give us the Word of God.”

1089
01:20:33,285 --> 01:20:35,343
And he got up and he walked over there,

1090
01:20:35,349 --> 01:20:48,549
and he goes, “Love one another as Jesus loved you.”

1091
01:20:48,554 --> 01:20:50,076
And he sat down.

1092
01:20:50,082 --> 01:20:51,947
And the music director hopped up

1093
01:20:51,953 --> 01:20:55,903
and said, “We will have another song now before the main sermon.”

1094
01:20:55,909 --> 01:21:00,195
So he sings another song and then, “Now our pastor will come and...”

1095
01:21:00,201 --> 01:21:10,359
He goes, “No, really. Love one another as Christ loved you.”

1096
01:21:10,365 --> 01:21:13,726
He said he did that for six weeks.

1097
01:21:13,732 --> 01:21:20,589
And he said on the sixth week, two of the deacons sitting in the front pew;

1098
01:21:20,595 --> 01:21:22,691
one in the front pew, the other one in the second pew;

1099
01:21:22,697 --> 01:21:24,655
the one in the front pew turned around,

1100
01:21:24,661 --> 01:21:27,808
and he said, “As soon as I got through saying, ‘Love one another,’

1101
01:21:27,814 --> 01:21:31,848
the deacon turned around and goes, ‘Hey,

1102
01:21:31,854 --> 01:21:35,985
I think I know what he is trying to tell us.’”

1103
01:21:35,991 --> 01:21:40,334
And what happened was they started serving one another,

1104
01:21:40,340 --> 01:21:41,846
caring for one another.

1105
01:21:41,852 --> 01:21:45,702
The Spirit of God began to work.

1106
01:21:45,708 --> 01:21:50,608
The deacons started searching out the widows in the church who were alone.

1107
01:21:50,614 --> 01:21:56,785
I mean, just all kinds of things. Do you see?

1108
01:21:57,371 --> 01:22:01,668
This is church. That is church.

1109
01:22:01,674 --> 01:22:11,314
Now, he goes on and says, “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love;

1110
01:22:11,320 --> 01:22:16,067
give preference to one another in honor.”

1111
01:22:16,073 --> 01:22:21,758
Boy. We are not a people who know much about honor.

1112
01:22:21,764 --> 01:22:24,599
In America, we pride ourselves,

1113
01:22:24,605 --> 01:22:28,571
"We don’t have a king and we are never going to have a king.

1114
01:22:28,577 --> 01:22:31,133
And I don’t care who you think you are.

1115
01:22:31,139 --> 01:22:34,057
I am just as good as you are."

1116
01:22:34,063 --> 01:22:35,547
That's our mentality.

1117
01:22:35,553 --> 01:22:41,186
Independent spirit - I bow my head to no one.

1118
01:22:41,192 --> 01:22:44,838
That is not Christian.

1119
01:22:46,489 --> 01:22:49,956
He says, "Give preference to one another in honor,

1120
01:22:49,962 --> 01:22:55,471
not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.”

1121
01:22:55,477 --> 01:22:59,459
Look. But this lagging behind, look what it is in.

1122
01:22:59,465 --> 01:23:02,440
Don't lag behind in being devoted to one another.

1123
01:23:02,446 --> 01:23:06,821
Don't lag behind in giving preference to one another.

1124
01:23:06,827 --> 01:23:09,578
“Rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation,

1125
01:23:09,584 --> 01:23:14,152
devoted to prayer,” for your brothers and sisters in Christ.

1126
01:23:14,158 --> 01:23:18,819
“Contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.”

1127
01:23:18,825 --> 01:23:23,051
Do you do that? Do you practice hospitality?

1128
01:23:23,057 --> 01:23:30,120
Invite people into your home, feed them?

1129
01:23:30,126 --> 01:23:32,117
Call over other believers?

1130
01:23:32,123 --> 01:23:35,742
Hey, come on over to my house tomorrow.

1131
01:23:35,748 --> 01:23:39,312
I am going to put a pot of stew on and we'll just talk about the Lord.

1132
01:23:39,318 --> 01:23:40,441
Do you open your home?

1133
01:23:40,447 --> 01:23:43,969
Do you know it is one of the qualifications of an elder?

1134
01:23:43,975 --> 01:23:47,840
He has to be hospitable. He has to open up his home.

1135
01:23:47,846 --> 01:23:49,886
And if he doesn’t, he doesn’t qualify.

1136
01:23:49,892 --> 01:23:54,398
I don't care if he is the best teacher on the face of the earth.

1137
01:23:54,404 --> 01:23:55,178
Do you see?

1138
01:23:55,184 --> 01:23:58,730
You can say, “Oh, we can look past that, because he is a great Bible teacher."

1139
01:23:58,736 --> 01:24:01,475
No, you can’t.

1140
01:24:03,749 --> 01:24:06,769
“Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.”

1141
01:24:06,775 --> 01:24:12,276
Now, I want you to just think about this for a moment.

1142
01:24:12,282 --> 01:24:17,723
A guy says... I will put this in the context of marriage;

1143
01:24:17,729 --> 01:24:21,390
A guy says, “I can’t love my wife.”

1144
01:24:21,396 --> 01:24:23,673
He is a Christian. He is in the church.

1145
01:24:23,679 --> 01:24:28,725
He comes to the pastor and he says, “I can’t love my wife.”

1146
01:24:28,731 --> 01:24:31,160
Ok. You can't love her as a wife.

1147
01:24:31,166 --> 01:24:32,677
"No."

1148
01:24:32,683 --> 01:24:38,380
Can you love her as a fellow believer?

1149
01:24:38,386 --> 01:24:40,402
"No."

1150
01:24:40,408 --> 01:24:45,459
Can you love her as a lost person?

1151
01:24:45,465 --> 01:24:47,259
"No."

1152
01:24:47,265 --> 01:24:51,320
Can you love her as an enemy who persecutes you and curses you?

1153
01:24:51,326 --> 01:24:52,336
"No."

1154
01:24:52,342 --> 01:24:55,708
Christ has commanded you to love her in all those ways.

1155
01:24:55,714 --> 01:24:59,695
See, you are not just called to love your brother.

1156
01:24:59,701 --> 01:25:03,792
You are called to love your enemy who persecutes you and curses you

1157
01:25:03,798 --> 01:25:06,441
and wants your eternal condemnation.

1158
01:25:06,447 --> 01:25:13,786
So if you are called to love that guy, most certainly you can love your brother.

1159
01:25:13,792 --> 01:25:17,475
Do you see that?

1160
01:25:28,761 --> 01:25:33,267
Do you know, honestly, what my goal is in life?

1161
01:25:33,273 --> 01:25:38,203
I mean, I kind of have a little... I figured I wasn’t going to get everything, you know,

1162
01:25:38,209 --> 01:25:40,371
I wasn’t going to be able to accomplish everything,

1163
01:25:40,377 --> 01:25:44,323
so I thought, “I am going to set out one goal.”

1164
01:25:44,329 --> 01:25:50,504
But it is kind of an all encompassing goal.

1165
01:25:52,449 --> 01:26:03,623
If I can grow in my love toward my wife,

1166
01:26:03,629 --> 01:26:12,194
if I can manifest Christlike love toward her, that is my goal.

1167
01:26:12,200 --> 01:26:15,793
You say, “Well, that is kind of puny.”

1168
01:26:15,799 --> 01:26:20,240
Obviously you are not a husband.

1169
01:26:21,928 --> 01:26:23,765
But look at this.

1170
01:26:23,770 --> 01:26:32,539
If I can love the person with whom I have the closest, most intimate relationship,

1171
01:26:32,545 --> 01:26:38,770
she seeing all my flaws, and I having to bear with all of hers,

1172
01:26:38,776 --> 01:26:44,409
then love is not going to be a problem with everybody else, is it?

1173
01:26:44,415 --> 01:26:48,141
I am so tired. I told someone.

1174
01:26:48,147 --> 01:26:50,767
They said, “Why are you going to plant a church somewhere?”

1175
01:26:50,773 --> 01:27:03,614
I said, “I am tired of preaching Christianity. I want to go live it somewhere.”

1176
01:27:04,122 --> 01:27:14,657
You know, guys, if this is a church and if this is not your goal,

1177
01:27:14,663 --> 01:27:17,580
then what you are going to do is, you are going to go out and bring in people

1178
01:27:17,586 --> 01:27:22,961
and make them two fold sons of hell like yourself.

1179
01:27:24,523 --> 01:27:32,955
But this goal is, to be like Christ and to follow him.

1180
01:27:32,961 --> 01:27:35,753
That is the church.

1181
01:27:35,759 --> 01:27:42,847
A group of people devoted to Christ, devoted to one another.

1182
01:27:42,853 --> 01:27:44,325
That’s it.

1183
01:27:44,331 --> 01:27:49,338
So you can have all those other things and elders and everything else,

1184
01:27:49,344 --> 01:27:55,939
but if you don’t have this, then you don’t have a church, ok?

1185
01:27:55,945 --> 01:27:58,311
All right. Let’s pray.

1186
01:27:58,317 --> 01:28:01,279
Father, I come before you and I pray, Lord,

1187
01:28:01,285 --> 01:28:06,665
that you would help us to understand and to apply these truths,

1188
01:28:06,671 --> 01:28:12,794
to be transformed by them, in Jesus name, Amen.