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Jesse: I can't see how we can 
read though the Bible

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and not clearly see the 
call to a commitment

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to a local assembly in person.

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Mack: It would be like saying,

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"Well, I want to play football, 
but I don't want to be on a team."

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It makes no sense.

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Christianity is the people of God.

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Christ has redeemed a people.

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And it's a family the Bible says.

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It's a body.

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It's a building.

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What good is a brick laying 
on the grass by itself?

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It's not functioning any 
good for any purpose

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until it's connected to other bricks

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and it's cemented together

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as a part having its place.

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Kevin: You know, it's 
so important for someone -

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for a Christian to be 
part of a local church.

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That's the means God has given.

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You don't get that impression in Scripture

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where He just saves Christians

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and has them dotted about just everywhere

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just by themselves.

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You know, when we're saved,

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we become part of a body -

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a localized body.

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You know, God expects His Christians

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to gather in local gatherings.

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All the letters are 
addressed to the churches.

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You see that in whatever region

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whether it's in Galatia or Thyatira

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or wherever - in Ephesus.

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You know, he's speaking 
to people in that region.

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Jesse: Some people struggle 
with the word "membership."

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And if you want to throw out 
the word membership, I don't care.

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But the notion, the 
concept of being a part

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of a family of faith in person -

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so much of what we are 
called to in the Scriptures

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can not be fulfilled 
without the understanding

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of commitment to a local 
group of believers.

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Take for instance the 
call given to pastors.

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We are told that a pastor's 
going to give an account

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for those that they pastor.

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How do we know who we pastor

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without the notion of 
there being a commitment

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to a specific local group of people?

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Who am I responsible for?

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Everyone who logs into the website?

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You take the notion of church discipline.

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You can't fulfill church discipline

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without the understanding 
that you're a part

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of a local assembly

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and being put out of it would 
have an impact on you

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and lead you to repentance.

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So, you can't fulfill it.

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You can't fulfill the one anothers.

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Kevin: The other Christians

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with all their little quirks and whatever,

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being in their lives, it 
helps you grow together.

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But again, someone's not going to get that

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on the Internet.

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And one of the evidences 
someone is a true Christian

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is we know we've passed from death to life

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if you love the brethren.

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It's very easy to say 
"I love people" on Facebook

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or whatever who you've never met

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and around the world

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and they're a nice person.

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Well, you know, they may 
be a horrible person.

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(incomplete thought)

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It may be a PR (public relations) job 
what you're seeing on the Internet.

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So again, the means is to find

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a local church to be part of.

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And generally, when one is truly converted

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they will crawl over 
broken glass to find one.

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Mack: A Christian can only grow,

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they can only be rightly related to Christ

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as they're rightly related to the church.

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Why? Because He's the head of the church.

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And so, you can only 
be related to the Head

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if you're a part of the body.

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If my finger's cut off 
and it's laying over here,

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(incomplete thought).

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So we can only grow properly

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as we're a part of the church

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and all that that means.

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The last verse of 2nd Peter says,

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"But grow in the grace and knowledge

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of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

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And the New Testament tells us

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in teaching,

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in exhortation,

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and by example,

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the believers were together,

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were worshiping together.

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And so there is no biblical Christianity,

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there's no living the Christian life

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or living out biblical Christianity;

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there's no pleasing God

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without being a part of a biblical church.

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Jesse: When we look at that call

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Paul gives to the church at Corinth

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in 1 Corinthians 12,

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regarding the gifts,

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and he talks about that 
each one has been gifted

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for the edification of the body.

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And I understand that that doesn't mean

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that you can't use your 
gifts outside the church.

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It's not an exclusive thing.

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But this is what it's written to.

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It's written to a local church

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to be used for the building up.

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Paul speaks about it in Ephesians 4.

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When each part is doing their role,

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we're built up to maturity

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fit for the head of Christ.

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And so when you have someone out there

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who is not committed to that,

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you can't fulfill the one anothers

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as they're given in Scripture.

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And so this notion that 
you can float around

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or just glean from the Internet

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and not be committed and accountable

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to a specific group of believers,

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it's unfounded in Scripture.

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Kevin: One of the biggest dangers

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for young Christians in our generation

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is because we've become 
an Internet society

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where people tend to react on social media

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rather than in real life.

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And a lot of it's fake.

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(unintelligible)

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But the danger of that

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is to translate it into the church

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where you get these 
so-called "Internet Christians"

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where they have no interest

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in being around real 
believers in the flesh.

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I don't mean in the flesh in a bad way,

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but I mean in person,

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because again, to actively 
be in other people's lives

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and submit to authority,

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you can only do that in reality,

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not in some kind of hypothetical

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social media context.

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Clint: I would say it's a necessity

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to be a part of a biblical church.

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To be isolated is no existence.

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It's very difficult.

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It might be for a season.

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But the desire,

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the motivation ought to be

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to either start a biblical church,

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become a biblical church themselves,

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or become a part of a biblical church.

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It's necessary for longevity.

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You know, we live in a day and age

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where the Internet supplies us

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with vast resources of sermons.

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Sermons at every hand.

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Video sermons, livestream 
sermons, and so on.

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But there's nothing like being a part

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of a congregation, sitting there,

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with your mouth open

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and your Bible open,

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taking in what's coming 
to you from the pulpit

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with the solid belief that 
what you're hearing right then

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is God's Word for you on that occasion,

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on that morning.

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There's nothing like that.

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And so the other Internet 
sermons, CD's, and so on,

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those can be auxiliary.

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Those can be additional.

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Those can be sort of emergency rations

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if you want to call it that.

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But we really do need to be a part

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of a believing church.

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Kevin: The thing that makes 
a church most biblical -

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it can become a cliche, so 
you've got to be careful with it,

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but it being Christ-centered.

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And I say it can become a cliche

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because it's very easy 
for people to say that,

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but is that what people center on there?

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I don't mean that it's Israel-centered

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where people are obsessed with Jews.

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I don't mean where people are obsessed

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with end times or conspiracy theories

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and that's the thing that 
gathers them together.

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You know, some professing churches,

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the big uniting factor is 
they're all of a certain race.

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But they shouldn't be race-centered.

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Let me clarify on that one.

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It's like in America, you 
go to certain parts

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or certain parts of the world.

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Everyone will be pretty 
similar if you like,

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but in a city like San 
Antonio or Manchester

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where I come from,

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it's very multi-cultural.

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The church should reflect that

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if the uniting factor is Christ there.

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It shouldn't be that people are 
home-schooled-centered.

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Or anything else basically.

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Or the big thing is we 
do street evangelism

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or we meet in a house.

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But are the people 
enamored with Christ there?

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Once you see the real thing,

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it's very easy to see the difference.

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Again, what makes a biblical church

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is not someone doing a big PR video

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saying we're so lovely here

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and everyone's no nice and loving.

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But you come there

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and Christ should be the drawing thing.

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Now if He is the drawing thing,

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then the other things generally

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will all be true anyway.

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The preaching of His Word is essential -

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that they're getting the 
sermons from Scripture.

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Not a pastor putting a verse of Scripture

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up on a screen

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and then talking about 
whatever else for the time.

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Are they expositing the Scriptures there?

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And being truthful to them?

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You know, not trying to explain them away

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and things like that,

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but does this church follow the Bible?

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Are the people living it?

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Because that's the thing.

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True conversion -

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are there true Christians there?

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(Incomplete thought)

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And that's where the Christ-
centeredness comes.

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When people are centered on other things -

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of course, a Christian can get 
out of balance for a time.

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But when it's all the time,

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it tends to be a lack of 
true conversion there.

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And another thing with dealing with that

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is of course church discipline.

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Will a church be faithful 
with people souls?

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When they go astray,

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when they go on in sin,

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will they come and correct them

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and put them out of the church if 
necessary for their own good?

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And for the good of 
the church and so forth?

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Because you don't want to be somewhere

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where if you go astray,

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no one's going to come and correct you.

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They're just going to put 
their arm around you

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all the way to hell.

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So those things definitely

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are the most important:

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true conversion,

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the preaching of the Word.

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Are the sermons challenging?

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As in, do they engage you?

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What I'm saying is you can 
teach through the Bible,

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but it can all be Bible trivia

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where it doesn't engage your life.

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I'm not saying that every sermon

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needs to give you a kicking.

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For instance, if you hear 
a sermon on giving,

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and you're faithfully giving,

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you shouldn't be convicted.

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You should be encouraged by that.

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Because some Christians 
get into that mentality

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where every sermon needs 
to knock them out.

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(incomplete thought)

267
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We should be challenged there.

268
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It shouldn't be just about:

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we're the perfect church,

270
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but look at those out there

271
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and all their faults.

272
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It should be engaging my life

273
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and helpful to me.

274
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Tim: When you have God come down

275
00:13:02,706 --> 00:13:04,603
and break into your life -

276
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the God who is love -

277
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and save your soul,

278
00:13:10,483 --> 00:13:15,022
if God is saving men, 
women, boys, and girls,

279
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there's going to be love.

280
00:13:17,004 --> 00:13:18,784
He said of course there is.

281
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There always is.

282
00:13:20,531 --> 00:13:28,763
And any community that does not have love,

283
00:13:28,763 --> 00:13:31,793
John tells us in these verses,

284
00:13:31,793 --> 00:13:33,575
he tells us in v. 8,

285
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"Anyone who does not love

286
00:13:35,054 --> 00:13:39,294
does not know God because God is love."

287
00:13:39,294 --> 00:13:41,393
Brethren, if you find churches

288
00:13:41,393 --> 00:13:42,571
where there's no love,

289
00:13:42,571 --> 00:13:44,252
it's because it's not a church.

290
00:13:44,252 --> 00:13:45,853
It's not one of His churches.

291
00:13:45,853 --> 00:13:47,293
It's not a candlestick.

292
00:13:47,293 --> 00:13:50,464
That's John's conclusion.

293
00:13:50,464 --> 00:13:51,925
That's what we see here.

294
00:13:51,925 --> 00:13:54,090
Think about these words again.

295
00:13:54,090 --> 00:13:56,585
"Beloved..." I'm going 
to read verses 7-10.

296
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"Beloved, let us love one another,

297
00:14:00,643 --> 00:14:02,383
for love is from God.

298
00:14:02,383 --> 00:14:05,134
Whoever loves has been 
born of God and knows God.

299
00:14:05,134 --> 00:14:06,794
Anyone who does not love

300
00:14:06,794 --> 00:14:11,274
does not know God because God is love."

301
00:14:11,274 --> 00:14:14,471
Kevin: The churchless person -

302
00:14:14,471 --> 00:14:17,184
realize this, they have an evidence

303
00:14:17,184 --> 00:14:21,957
of salvation missing

304
00:14:21,957 --> 00:14:24,373
until they're part of a 
church with believers.

305
00:14:24,373 --> 00:14:26,014
I'm not saying they're not saved,

306
00:14:26,014 --> 00:14:28,383
but you know, we know he's passed

307
00:14:28,383 --> 00:14:30,921
from death to life because 
he loves the brethren.

308
00:14:30,921 --> 00:14:33,483
Don: There is no such 
thing as lone ranger -

309
00:14:33,483 --> 00:14:35,429
I call it being a lone ranger -

310
00:14:35,429 --> 00:14:37,303
me being saved out here

311
00:14:37,303 --> 00:14:40,732
apart from my fellowship

312
00:14:40,732 --> 00:14:42,594
and my participation in the local body.

313
00:14:42,594 --> 00:14:44,504
I can't know that I'm a real Christian

314
00:14:44,504 --> 00:14:46,764
unless I'm in the local church. 
You can't know.

315
00:14:46,764 --> 00:14:49,444
You can't have any assurance
that you're a real Christian

316
00:14:49,444 --> 00:14:50,723
by reading books

317
00:14:50,723 --> 00:14:53,154
and by listening to sermons

318
00:14:53,154 --> 00:14:54,893
and being out here isolated and say,

319
00:14:54,893 --> 00:14:56,144
well, it's wonderful.

320
00:14:56,144 --> 00:14:58,443
We love God.

321
00:14:58,443 --> 00:15:00,733
Listen, if we walk in the light

322
00:15:00,733 --> 00:15:01,864
as He is in the light,

323
00:15:01,864 --> 00:15:04,813
we have fellowship one with another

324
00:15:04,813 --> 00:15:07,654
and the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son,

325
00:15:07,654 --> 00:15:09,123
cleanses us from all sin.

326
00:15:09,123 --> 00:15:11,163
By this we know that we have passed

327
00:15:11,163 --> 00:15:15,042
from death into life because 
we love the brethren.

328
00:15:15,042 --> 00:15:17,445
We have to have brethren around us

329
00:15:17,445 --> 00:15:19,504
to prove that we are Christians.

330
00:15:19,504 --> 00:15:21,584
And we have to have brethren

331
00:15:21,584 --> 00:15:23,574
to show that we really love the brethren.

332
00:15:23,574 --> 00:15:25,324
And how can we love God -

333
00:15:25,324 --> 00:15:28,225
this is such a theme in 
the little epistle of 1 John -

334
00:15:28,225 --> 00:15:30,374
how can we say we love God

335
00:15:30,374 --> 00:15:32,726
and not be in union and fellowship

336
00:15:32,726 --> 00:15:35,234
and in love with brothers 
and sisters in Christ

337
00:15:35,234 --> 00:15:36,492
in a local body?

338
00:15:36,492 --> 00:15:38,353
(incomplete thought)

339
00:15:38,353 --> 00:15:40,189
There's going to be contention.

340
00:15:40,189 --> 00:15:41,734
There will be division at times.

341
00:15:41,734 --> 00:15:43,383
There will be misunderstandings.

342
00:15:43,383 --> 00:15:46,514
There will be differences of opinion.

343
00:15:46,514 --> 00:15:47,955
But these have to be in grace.

344
00:15:47,955 --> 00:15:49,544
These have to be worked through.

345
00:15:49,544 --> 00:15:51,364
You have to live through these things.

346
00:15:51,364 --> 00:15:53,244
You have to walk through these things.

347
00:15:53,244 --> 00:15:55,053
You have to submit to one another.

348
00:15:55,053 --> 00:15:58,444
You have to learn that we've been called

349
00:15:58,444 --> 00:16:00,242
and called out from the world,

350
00:16:00,242 --> 00:16:03,898
and we've been put into 
an assembly upon earth.

351
00:16:03,898 --> 00:16:05,734
If we forsake the assembling

352
00:16:05,734 --> 00:16:07,955
of ourselves together,

353
00:16:07,955 --> 00:16:11,242
we fall out of the realm of teaching.

354
00:16:11,242 --> 00:16:14,683
We fall out of the realm of oversight.

355
00:16:14,683 --> 00:16:18,342
We fall out of the area of 
communion and fellowship.

356
00:16:18,342 --> 00:16:20,734
We're no longer participating 
in the ordinance.

357
00:16:20,734 --> 00:16:23,792
There's no way in the world 
you can sit alone by yourself

358
00:16:23,792 --> 00:16:26,622
and take the Lord's Supper.

359
00:16:26,622 --> 00:16:30,493
There's no way in the world 
you can baptize yourself.

360
00:16:30,493 --> 00:16:33,543
You're baptized by someone else.

361
00:16:33,543 --> 00:16:36,197
You take the Lord's 
Supper with other people.

362
00:16:36,197 --> 00:16:39,211
It's a supper and it's for the family.

363
00:16:39,211 --> 00:16:41,212
So, I would say again,

364
00:16:41,212 --> 00:16:45,473
there's a lot of misguided, 
misdirected souls

365
00:16:45,473 --> 00:16:49,694
that don't want to have any part to do

366
00:16:49,694 --> 00:16:50,930
with a local church.

367
00:16:50,930 --> 00:16:54,185
They're greatly in error.

368
00:16:54,185 --> 00:16:56,103
And I would not go so far as to say

369
00:16:56,103 --> 00:16:57,983
that all of them are completely lost,

370
00:16:57,983 --> 00:17:00,642
but I'm saying this,

371
00:17:00,642 --> 00:17:03,950
they are going to be very stunted

372
00:17:03,950 --> 00:17:05,914
and have an accounting -

373
00:17:05,914 --> 00:17:07,745
if they're not going to be willing

374
00:17:07,745 --> 00:17:08,924
to be accountable here,

375
00:17:08,924 --> 00:17:11,937
they're going to have to give an 
accounting to Him one day.

376
00:17:11,937 --> 00:17:13,511
And I sure wouldn't want to be

377
00:17:13,511 --> 00:17:16,163
standing before the Lord 
Jesus Christ when He says,

378
00:17:16,163 --> 00:17:20,473
"Why wouldn't you be a part of My church?"