Latest / HBCWestminster / Lesson 9: The Church: Fellowship and Worship

Transcript

Lesson 9: The Church: Fellowship and Worship · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  But tonight we're going to talk a little bit about the church and fellowship and worship. So before we get started, let me open up in prayer. Dear Holy Father, I just thank you, Lord, for just giving to us the grace and the gospel of Jesus Christ. Lord, thank you that you would send Jesus to die for us and rise again, Lord, and that through that death.
• 0:27
  the burial and the resurrection, Lord God, that we have the opportunity to come to you directly so that we can be with you in all of eternity. And just thank you, Lord, for bestowing that upon us. God, I just ask that you'll be with this class tonight, be with everyone in this room, be with everyone in our church, and just take care of the needs that need to be met and bless and encourage those, Lord, that are struggling. And just thank you for the fellowship that we have.
• 0:57
  And I just ask that you'll bless this lesson tonight in Jesus' name. Amen. So, I'm going to go ahead and start for a minute and see if you guys would be willing to share just a little bit some of your experiences about being in the body of Christ. What circumstances in your life that being in the body of Christ may have gotten you through? You know, especially tonight we're talking about fellowship, so...
• 1:32
  Being in the body of Christ as a whole, maybe what is something that being a part of a fellowship has helped you out with? I can say for me, I grew up in a Christian home. I've talked about this I think the last time or the time before when I was teaching how I grew up in a Christian home. But being in the body of Christ or being part of God's fellowship for me really meant a whole lot to me when my dad passed away.
• 2:11
  I was able to come together with people who I had gotten to know. Amazingly, ever since I was really little, up until being the age of 35 at the time, there were many people in my life that, because of my parents, were in my life for a long time. And being in that fellowship gave me a lot of strength because a lot of people I didn't even realize were around to support us and to be there for us.
• 2:40
  pastors that we hadn't seen in years were involved, and other friends and family members that we hadn't seen in a long time who were all in the body of Christ for coming and praying with us and just being with us. So I think that's an example of how the body of Christ really ministered to our family and ministered to us and really made an impact on me. When we went to my dad's funeral, I would say,
• 3:08
  You know, my dad was a pastor of a small little church, maybe 100 members at most. And I think there's around 1,000 people or more at his funeral when we did his funeral. And I would venture to guess that every single person in that room was somehow impacted by my dad one way or another throughout his life as a Christian. So, I mean, you think about a pastor of a small church, yet his impact for Christ was great. There were over 100 people.
• 3:39
  if I recall correctly, that may have accepted Christ at his funeral after the gospel was preached three different times, the last time by him on an audio tape of one of his sermons. So it was amazing, and that's an example of how the body of Christ, I think, was an impact in my life at that time. So how many of you did your homework? You really don't have to raise your hand.
• 4:17
  We're going to be looking at section number one real quick. The church universal. What do you guys think the difference is between a universal church and the local church? Does anyone have an idea? What is the difference between, say, here on the earth when we talk about the church as a whole versus our church here at Highland Baptist? It's an interactive class.
• 4:48
  Right? Well, when you think about it, sometimes the church is referred to as the body of Christ. So a lot of times when we're talking about the church, we're talking about God's people, the Christians, those of us who are in Christ. Whereas the local church is a small group of believers or a smaller group of believers who come together to worship fellowship and learn about the Bible.
• 5:18
  and also who come together to help evangelize the local area. If you think about what we as a church do, that's what we do. We come together. We have the common bond of being a member or a part of this church. We depend and lean on each other for fellowship in good times and bad times. I know many times when people are in need, this church steps up to the plate big time. I was talking with one of our local members last night, and she was sharing with us.
• 5:48
  when she was sick and her husband was sick, there were over 14 weeks of meals provided on a nightly basis for her and her husband. And that's an example of how we come together as a church to minister to one another. So the church as a whole, the Church of Christ, not the Church of Christ as a nomination, but the church, I was going to say the Church of Jesus Christ, but that's a whole different realm. That's not what I mean.
• 6:25
  What I mean is the church as a whole, the universal church or the church that we all belong to as Christians. Think of it more as an organism, not as an organization. Whereas our church is more of an organization, an organized group of believers that come together. And we are coming together under a church government basically to learn and go back out and evangelize. That's a good way to put it. You see.
• 7:02
  I don't know, section one, if you don't have it done, it might be hard to look at. But if somebody can just come up with some of the responses you have to question 1A, which is read Colossians 1.18 and Ephesians 5.23. So if somebody wants to pick that up and maybe read both of those verses real quick, we can go through and answer what question number one under letter A says. And that is, what is Christ's position in the church?
• 7:37
  Colossians 1.18. I'm going to get my electronic button ready. He is the head of the body of the church, supported from the dead, that in all things he may have the preeminence. Okay, I'm in Ephesians 5.23. So what is Christ's position in the church or of the church?
• 8:28
  He's the head of the church. So Christ is the head. We're going to talk about this, the body of Christ, a little bit. I don't know if any of you listened to your sermon. Anyone not listen to their sermon this week? But John MacArthur goes into this. The sermon was a little over an hour long.
• 8:55
  He's even talking in there, he's referring to the body of Christ and how some people want to say they're the nose and some people want to say they're the feet. And then he said something to the effect of, I'd rather be the feet because that takes you places. The nose just kind of sits up there, you know. And it kind of made me laugh. But Christ is the head of the church. 1 Corinthians 3.15
• 9:25
  The question correlating to that says, how does a person become a member of the body of Christ? So if you read 1 Corinthians 3.15, and then I'll look up 1 Corinthians 12.13. I'm sorry, Colossians 3.15 and 1 Corinthians. That's Colossians 3.15. I misread it. I saw the Corinthians and then... So Colossians 3.15.
• 10:07
  1 Corinthians 12, 13. Colossians 3, 15 says, Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful. Okay. And 1 Corinthians 12, 13 says, For one spirit, we were all baptized into one body. Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and all were made to drink of one spirit. So how does a person become a member of the body of Christ?
• 10:50
  We're called and then we're baptized, correct? Baptized into the body of Christ. Now, since we're water baptized, does that mean we're baptized into the body of Christ when we get dunked under the water? Or what does that mean? Right. Okay. We're going to talk about baptism here in a minute.
• 11:22
  When we accept Christ, we are actually baptized into the body of Christ by the Holy Spirit. And so we're going to correlate that as to why we baptize with water. But we're baptized into the body of Christ by the Holy Spirit. You'll hear some denominations that still believe in a lot of the spiritual gifts talk about being filled with the Holy Spirit. But where I think they get that wrong is they forget that the minute the Holy Spirit enters us,
• 11:52
  Because we are filled with the Holy Spirit. Because we have the Holy Spirit living within us. Because we're baptized by the Holy Spirit. And then, each believer has a unique function within the body. So, we are called, we are baptized, and each believer has a unique function within the body of Christ. What is... And we're going to go to 1 Corinthians 12.12. And actually, since I have it up, I'll just read it real quick.
• 12:28
  And then we'll kind of talk about this for a minute. So 1 Corinthians 12, 12 says, For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. It sounds kind of like a riddle, but does that make sense? So the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body. Think of it like this. Our bodies are made up of a bunch of fingers, toes, arms, legs, eyes.
• 13:00
  a mouth, organs internally. All these different things in our bodies make up our whole body. But there's many parts to our body. And that's kind of how Paul is talking about the body of Christ. So how is it? I mean, is it important? Think about it. Is it important for believers to be ministering within the church so that the body of Christ functions in one accord? That's a good way to put it. I think it is.
• 13:38
  I think it is because if you think about the body of Christ, many different members, we have people who are doing many different things. We have pastors, teachers, nursery workers, youth workers, kids who come and just listen, adults who come and listen, and maybe go out and share the gospel on their own time with other people. We have many different facets to what we're doing.
• 14:11
  coordinate the worship team and who provide the worshiping. We have so many different people doing so many different things. People behind the scenes we never think about or see. There's somebody that comes into the church to clean the church that we don't think about. We just throw our trash away and make our messes and we never think about that somebody might actually come up behind us and have to pick up the messes that we don't catch on the way out.
• 14:36
  Somebody has to do the sound. People work in the office to prepare everything. There's a lot that goes on we don't see or realize just to come in and listen to somebody preach a sermon or teach a lesson or sing a song with us. And we never think about those little things. The church is seen as a family. So we're seen as a family. As a whole, the church is seen as a family. I believe our church is definitely going to fall into that category.
• 15:07
  And when Olivia and I started coming here as a couple, and when I first came here before I was married, and all of those times, I always felt like I was family here. It just, I walked in, people who I never met or seen before just welcomed me. And that isn't something that you can teach. I think it's something that you just have. Some churches you can walk into, and you will feel like you, I mean, even their greeters don't greet.
• 15:40
  They look at you coming in the door and they go this way, you know. But our church, in this body of believers, we have a natural knack for just welcoming people in. And I love it because I know we have the people that greet on Sundays to hand out the bulletins or do whatever, but I make it a point to greet people on Sundays even though I'm not part of that team.
• 16:07
  I know how I felt when I walked in. And people who weren't the greeters were greeting me. As a body of believers, we are all children of God. John 1.12 talks about that. We're all brothers and sisters in Christ. You can find that in 1 Corinthians 7.15. And God is our Father, and Christ is our brother. And that's found in Hebrews 2.11. And I'm going to turn to that real quick. Because I never thought of Christ as a brother. I just never...
• 16:42
  thought in those terms. But Hebrews 2.11 says, For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source, and that is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, I will tell of your name to my brothers, and in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise. So there it is. God considers us brothers. That's kind of cool. I mean Jesus, I should say. The Son. If you think about it, the closeness of family,
• 17:19
  You have fathers and sons or fathers and daughters. The relationships we have with our children are very intimate and personal when you think about it. Fathers, in general, provide for their family. And children tend to respect and obey fathers. That's almost universal. And I bet a lot of moms would sit here and say that children tend to respect and obey, in a sense, the dads more than the mom.
• 17:54
  And I've seen that with my own children. Even with my little stepkids. They will not listen and they'll act up and act out. And then I walk in the room. I give them the look, snap the finger or whatever. And that's it. It ends. And it's kind of funny. But you see it. And it's almost the natural way God has designed it. Has anyone ever experienced a closeness and unity with other believers?
• 18:28
  Whom you had just met. So have you ever experienced a closeness and unity with somebody you had just met, you know, as a believer? Does anyone have an example of that? Such as whenever I was in a men's retreat, you went with me also. We was in a men's retreat. Probably not the first day. The worshiping and the fellowship with one another brought us closer, you know, together as a group. Which is really, really good for me. I really enjoyed it.
• 19:11
  It helped me out. That's right. Any other examples? A couple who was coming here for a very short period of time to move back to Michigan. Carla and I were sitting down and talking to them on Sunday. And I had a couple conversations with them as we began talking. There's this pulling together of God is at work. And I think that's something that's unique to Christians.
• 20:03
  It's part of that bond we have in Christ. I've experienced it working as a police officer. I actually experienced it one time with a guy I arrested. And I may have told this story, but he was in jail, going to jail on a Sunday morning. I asked him what he'd be doing today, and the minute he said, well, I should be in church because I'm a Christian. But instead, I was out not living for God and selling drugs, and I got busted. And that's why you're going to be taking me to jail.
• 20:33
  And instantly I felt the, I call it the fellowship of the Holy Spirit because, and I knew at that moment that he was a believer that had just turned his back on his faith, really, and just walked away from God. But I knew that he was saved. And I knew, it was that moment because this was actually Sunday. I wasn't supposed to work. I never was scheduled to ever work Sundays at that time. And for whatever reason, I got called into work that day. And in fact,
• 21:02
  It used to happen to me a lot, but I would get frustrated sometimes. And that morning I remember being frustrated. God, I want to be in church with you. Why am I having to work today? Just complaining to God about it. And then I get to work and immediately I'm able to minister to this guy. And I was like, oh, Lord, I'm sorry for my complaining. But we instantly developed a closeness. And before I got him over to the jail, I was...
• 21:32
  I was able to pray with him and I checked up on him a few times and he turned his life around. And he just basically turned his life back over to Christ in that sense and recommitted to serve God and to put away all that. So it's kind of neat because we have that as Christians. And it's amazing because sometimes you can talk to someone and not even ask them if they're a Christian and yet you feel it in the Spirit.
• 22:01
  And then he realized that they are later. So the local church, and this was in section two of your lesson, is the smaller group of believers that come together so that we could worship, learn, and go back out and evangelize. The model of our local church was formed by looking at priorities and the structures of our early churches during the time of the apostles. So what was the priority of the early church?
• 22:41
  So if you look in section 2A3, it will have some of those. And the question is, out of Acts 2.42, lists the four things in which the early church was devoted. So we want to look up Acts 2.42 real quick and read it. And this continues steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship in the breaking of bread and in prayers. Okay.
• 23:27
  And what's another word that we can use for doctrine? I'd say teaching there. They're teaching the doctrine. So, number one is teaching. The early church was devoted to the apostles' teaching. They're devoted to teaching God's Word, which is vital to the growth of all believers. And you can find that in 1 Peter 2.2. God also gave the church gifted pastors, teachers for the equipping of the saints. So, He gifted people.
• 24:16
  To be pastors and teachers. And this is in Ephesians 4, 11 and 12. Also in section 2B1. Gifted men. I'll read that real quick. Verse 11 in Ephesians 4 says, And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers, verse 12, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ. Church was so new.
• 24:55
  And God wanted everyone to know about him, that he gifted these people. He gifted them as apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors and teachers so that they can go out there and train, really train other people who come to know the Lord at that time. He was equipping of the saints for the work of the service so that we can build up the body of Christ. So God gave the church gifted pastors, teachers for the equipping of the saints.
• 25:32
  Number two, the local church priority is fellowship. The early church body was involved in a lot of everybody else's lives. They were all ministering to one another, and they were trying to bond in unity. And if you read any part of the New Testament, especially in the epistles, you see, especially when Paul's writing to the different churches, he talks a lot about how they were coming together and fellowshipping. And some of the churches he chastised for the behavior he was hearing about.
• 26:03
  Some of the churches he commended. But that's what one of their goals was, was to come together in fellowship. Why do we come together in fellowship? Well, there's strength in numbers, right? We face so much from the world in our lives and all the stuff going on in the world, the political stuff or whatever. So much sin, so much negativity out there. And we come together to get away from that, to fellowship.
• 26:33
  To be of a like mind, a Christ-like mind. I don't mean we always agree personally maybe or politically at times, but we agree on the doctrines of Jesus Christ. And we agree on trying to bring many people to come into heaven with us. Third priority for the early church was communion, also referred to as breaking of bread. The early church never lost sight of Christ's sacrifice.
• 27:08
  They involve themselves in communion. We're going to talk a little bit more about that here in just a little bit. And then the number four priority of the early church was prayer. The members of the early church were devoted to praying together and praying for one another. James 5.16. This was the heart of the church, recognizing God as the head and provider, and it aligns the direction of the church with the will of God. It's important. Pastor Danny was talking the other day in church about how
• 27:43
  Sometimes we emphasize coffee more than we do prayer. And he said, maybe I need to make a change even within myself. But in reality, we come together as a church for prayer. And even though we sing and we listen to sermons, but another important aspect of what we do at church is pray. And I think it's good and it's refreshing because, and we talked about this a few weeks ago, sometimes we don't probably pray enough in our own lives.
• 28:10
  And we think we are, but we could always do better. Even when we're doing good, we always can do better. But coming to church helps us reset. How do the four essential components that I just talked about of the early church compare to the type of life that we have today in our local church? Is there anything missing or downplayed from then to now, you think? What do you think, Nathan? Well, I think sometimes things like communion.
• 28:53
  There are some things that can be misunderstood, like baptism, that can be misunderstood by people who aren't saved. I think sometimes we can sacrifice those things in the name of being saved to do. I think that prayer is probably one of the biggest ones because of the schedules that we have. We take those schedules even into our church services, and we don't structure time for all of that.
• 29:37
  We're out. We're done. It's time for lunch. And I think that's right. I mean, you think about some of the older churches and some of the churches brought out of the early revivals. You think about pastors like Spurgeon in those times.
• 30:01
  when those guys would preach for hours on end you know now we're like oh pastor danny's they're already two minutes over and i can't wait for lunch you know and you know it's funny my mom can relate to this because we had a pastor who used to say i preach by being led by the holy spirit and if you get hungry get up and go get lunch then you know and literally this guy preached for two hours sometimes you know and sometimes you would be like okay god i can't handle it but
• 30:32
  But, you know, in reality, though, in some of the early churches, the churches would go on for hours at a time. And they would have probably several hour-long prayer sessions. And Mike was talking about the men's retreat we went to with another church last year. And it was the second night we were there. It was at the end of the last service we were doing or session.
• 31:01
  The end, you know, they asked for prayer. People were coming up, you know, to get prayer. And they expected it to last maybe 10, 15 minutes. And I think we were there for two hours just praising God, singing, worshiping, praying, praying over people, praying for people's lives. Mike and I aren't even a part of this church. We weren't even a part of this church, obviously. But we were praying for other people that were coming forward to seek prayer, you know. And it was a really neat time.
• 31:30
  really being able to minister to people, men, who normally wouldn't experience that. And sometimes we have to let loose and just kind of let God. And I know it's tough in our church and our setting, but I think you're right. I think it's easy to lose sight of that. And it's nice when we can have those retreats and stuff, when we can let it go and let the Holy Spirit move in that way. It's fun to watch and minister.
• 32:06
  The structure of the early church, there was some responsibilities both of leadership and members of the church. And the early church, we had gifted men who were given to the church. If you did your question for question Roman numeral 2B regarding to the gifted men of the church,
• 32:38
  If you have any of those answers about that and you want to share that, feel free to do so. I'll see if I can find it. Here it is. Gifted men. The question was under number one. The local church organized and it says gifted men according to Ephesians 4, 11 and 12. And we just went over this. God gave us the four types of gifted men. And since I went over that, we talked about apostles.
• 33:10
  An apostle is literally one who is sent on a mission. In a strict sense, it means the twelve apostles, plus Paul, who is also called an apostle when he is uniquely brought forward by God himself or Jesus Christ at his time. And Paul's specific mission was to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles. That's found in Galatians 1, 15-17.
• 33:41
  being chosen directly by Christ, and having seen the resurrected Christ. There is no possibility of anyone to be an apostle in the church right now because technically we'd all have to see Christ physically to be an apostle, and he'd have to call us directly. So unfortunately all the apostles are in heaven right now. But in a wider sense, the word apostle can also refer to someone
• 34:15
  who are not members of the Twelve, but nonetheless were sent on the mission. And I think that's referring more to Apostle Paul. Sometimes Barnabas, Silas, and Timothy may have been considered apostles, and maybe it was they were considered apostles in the wider sense because Paul commissioned them, and they were like his right-hand men. They went out from Paul and even went out on their own. Evangelists.
• 34:48
  Who knows what an evangelist is? Can someone define that for me? You read evangelists in a dictionary and that's his picture right there. Exactly that. An evangelist is somebody who basically goes throughout the world preaching the gospel of Christ. As opposed to a missionary. No. No.
• 35:26
  Right. And I was going to say, missionaries are evangelists because they go out into wherever they're at and they're evangelizing the gospel of Christ. They're preaching or they're teaching or they're even one-on-one Bible studies. I would say an evangelist could be somebody who goes to different people's homes and just has one-on-one Bible studies with them. That's something that they do. I actually got a good idea for a ministry.
• 35:56
  from a friend of mine that I'm actually going to help with a wedding this weekend. And we were talking and I was sharing with the couple some of my ideas for ministry that I would like to do. And she owns a home health care business. And she said to me, and they're Christians, they love God, and she said, have you ever thought about being a person who would...
• 36:21
  Maybe go into homes and just have Bible studies with believers or share the gospel of Jesus with non-believers. And if you set up a ministry, maybe you can get churches to donate to that or organizations. And I thought to myself, ding! God, that's actually a very brilliant idea. I never thought of it. I never thought of doing something like that. But it would be set up like her home health care business. She sends caretakers into hundreds of homes to help take care of elderly people, sick people.
• 36:50
  people who have disabilities. And it's the same concept, only instead of meeting their physical needs, that person would be meeting their spiritual needs. And I thought, what an amazing idea. So think about it. If they can't be mobile enough to go to church, bring church to them. And I thought, wow, that's an evangelist right there. Pastors and teachers. We all know what pastors and teachers are in the sense that we see our pastors.
• 37:21
  and our preachers and our teachers up. But does it have to be limited to the pastor of the church? I don't think it does either. Because we have, again, it's kind of like evangelists, but we have people that are teaching Bible studies, leading Bible studies, maybe in their home or at their work or places of business, doing those kinds of different things. And that's a form of pastor in teaching. But what sets them apart is they're also shepherding a flock.
• 37:54
  They're separating that flock. So our pastor here and our pastors on staff here, whether paid or volunteer, are separating the flock here. And that's what's really neat about that. So I know we just read Ephesians 4, 11 through 12, and we just talked about the answers there. But the gifted men that it talks about are to equip the saints for the work of service. So who are the saints? Who are the saints?
• 38:38
  Not the gifted men we're equipped to do the work for. It's us. It's the believers. We're the saints. It's not the saints that the Catholic Church talks about. Although there's some pretty saintly people that are saints, I'm sure. But it's us as believers. We're saints. Ain't that kind of cool to think that we accepted Christ and now we're saints? That's awesome. So why are we being equipped? Why are we being equipped?
• 39:21
  And if we share the gospel, what happens to the body of Christ? It grows. It builds up. It grows. It builds up. That's beautiful. So who is responsible for building the body of Christ? Building it up? Yep. All of us. All of us that are in Christ. So think about this. When you looked for a church, did you look for a church in which you could best
• 40:03
  and use your gifts? Or did you look for a church where you can just sit there and do nothing? You don't have to answer that question, but think about it. When you were looking for a church, what was your intent? You know, I know there's a lot of people that come to church just to be preached at. They just want to sit there and be left alone and just hear the sermon and move on. And unfortunately, I think that's a majority of...
• 40:35
  Christians at times. It's easy. We can get stagnant or lazy or, you know, I can't think of the term. Complacent. There you go. Complacent is the term I was looking for.
• 41:27
  And I think that's important because even though some people come to church and maybe they just sit there and listen every week and sing, but as a parent, if your motive is to bring your children into a church where you know they're going to learn the gospel of Christ, you know they're going to learn the doctrine of salvation and the doctrine of
• 41:48
  and all the Christian tenets that all goes with it. You know your children are going to be raised and grow into this. And as a parent, maybe you're not good at teaching. Maybe you're not good at getting up in front of people or wanting to work in the nursery. Don't ask me to work in the nursery because I'll tell you right now, I'll buck that probably. Especially if there's a diaper that needs to be changed. I'll be like, here you go.
• 42:18
  But if, as a parent, my goal is to teach my children to know Christ and to bring them in a situation where, as they grow into youth group, they're going to learn the precepts that I want them to learn and the foundation of the gospel of Christ, then that, I think, is a very valid motive. Because in that sense, you are teaching and you're reaching your kids. Our number one goal should be to evangelize our kids. I know some parents...
• 42:47
  I've had parents ask me in the past, how do I teach my kids about Jesus? And, you know, we think that should be a simple question to answer sometimes, but sometimes parents just don't know how to do it. But you come to a church like ours, they will learn how to do it because they'll be seeing the examples of people around them who can. And I think that's what's great. One of the questions in here is, it's asking if you're looking for...
• 43:26
  In this class, are you looking for an opportunity to become a better equipped person so you can serve more effectively in church? And I think that's a valid question. You may not have to answer that outwardly, but sometimes we don't think we can do anything more. How could God use me? There's no way He would use me. But I think you'd be surprised. I just talked about how I greet people just because I like to. But maybe that's something you can do.
• 43:57
  There's many people that, older people, younger people, and one thing I love about our church is I don't see the cliques that you get in a lot of churches. The church I was going to at one time, you had your millennial generation, which was led by a millennial pastor and the staff were between the ages of 32 all the way down to 21. And then you had the Gen Xers, where the people my age were in their mid-40s.
• 44:26
  And then you had maybe two people who were elderly in the church. And this was a church of maybe 120, 130 people. But after the service, all the young millennials would all congregate, hang out, fellowship with each other. And the eight of us who were in our mid-40s would be left alone and left aside. And I ended up bringing the older people into our group because I felt really bad for the three or four of them.
• 44:56
  And so I actually made it a point for me to kind of bridge that gap and try to connect all the cliques because I felt like they were going to lose an older generation. And in fact, when I met with that pastor and some of the staff, I said, we could be your mentors and your guides. I mean, I know you're the pastor and you guys probably know a lot, but we have a lot of life experience that we could mentor you in.
• 45:25
  And especially when it comes to leadership and all that. And it started working before we left. We started seeing the gaps bridge and the small groups that we started having were starting to become a mix. And the couples group I was involved in became a couples group from our youngest couple was in their early 20s all the way to the oldest couple on there was in their late 60s going into their 70s. And it was really neat to watch that transformation.
• 45:58
  So we have a church government here. And in our church, we do have the office of elders or overseers. And I'm going to kind of try and relate it to our church because I also know that we have elders here and we have a board of trustees here. And Bob Jones is actually explaining to me the difference because I asked the other day. And he said the trustees kind of oversee the money issues of the church and the elders kind of oversee the...
• 46:30
  personal issues of the church or the spiritual issues, I guess. But if you kind of equate them to be about the same, elders in the early church were appointed in every church. They were the people who ruled the church, so basically they were set as a board. Elders oversee the shepherd or the pastor. The members are to obey and submit to the leaders of the church.
• 46:59
  And the qualifications of elders are actually stated in 1 Timothy 3, verses 1-7. And also Titus 1, 6-9. Now, all of these things I just talked about are in the Bible. They're appointed in every church that's in Acts 14, 23 and Titus 1, 5. 1 Timothy 5, 17 talks about that the elders are to rule the church.
• 47:29
  And then 1 Peter 5, 1 and 2 talks about how they oversee the shepherd. They oversee and they shepherd. And Hebrews 13, 17 talks about the members needing to obey and submit to their leaders. And again, the passage in 1 Timothy gives the qualifications of elders and the qualifications of deacons. Does our church have an actual set of deacons here? No. No? Basically the opposite.
• 48:05
  So it's kind of the same thing. I know growing up in the old-time Southern Baptist churches, you had elders and deacons and all of that. But deacons is not really a term I hear a lot lately. But deacons in the early church were those who served the needs of the church and the direction of the elders. I remember growing up in our church with deacons. The deacons might kind of be the ones to help.
• 48:37
  I don't know, minister to those who just accepted Christ. They would be charged with maybe making sure that they're visited and met with. They would help oversee the visiting ministry. The deacons would often check in on the Sunday school classes to make sure all the things, all the needs were met and that the classes had everything that they needed, things like that. Thoughts on the qualifications of the deacons. So in our case, probably our trustees is found in 1 Timothy.
• 49:07
  Chapter 3, verses 8 through 13. And an example of men selected to serve are in Acts 6, 2 through 4. Let's look at, real quick, 1 Timothy 3. I'm going to kind of move on real quick because I'm running out of time. So I'll just read it real quick. The saying is trustworthy. If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore, an overseer must be above reproach.
• 49:53
  the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well with all dignity, keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? He must not be a recent convert. In other words, he mustn't be a new believer.
• 50:23
  or he may become a puffed-up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into the snare of the devil. Deacons, likewise, must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain. They must hold the ministry of the faith with clear conscience, and let them also be tested first, then let them serve as deacons.
• 50:53
  they prove themselves blameless. Their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderous, but sober-minded, faithful in all things. Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own household well. For those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and also great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus. I think it's so important to understand that about church leadership. And that goes for all church leadership.
• 51:21
  As a law enforcement officer, because God says, as an official of the government, I'm a minister of the government. I also say I'm a minister of Jesus Christ while working in the government, and I tried to live my life by those standards as a police officer. And I found that if I did, it kept me out of trouble with law enforcement, the government, the public, the supervisors, and my own family.
• 51:48
  A lot of police officers you find on the news are in trouble, don't live their lives based on those. And that's the reason why I always try to aspire to that. Church membership is very important. It's, I think, important that we do more than just show up for church. I think that it's important we actually become members of a church. Some churches have open membership, and churches I've been to with that, meaning that...
• 52:26
  If you go more than three times, they consider you a member and they allow you to start actively getting involved. Our church is a little bit more strict than that. I understand they want to vet the people that are coming in here and make sure that who's getting involved is really going to fall in line with what we believe and teach. But it's important because as members, we want to be focused on fellowshipping with one another and standing up for each other in Christ and being a part of that fellowship.
• 52:57
  So it's really important to be a part of a church and be a member of one. Some of the wrong reasons to choose a church are because they play the cool music, they offer the fun programs, they have the best service times, and those kinds of things. I know that those are reasons people pick a church. And there's some good churches out there that probably have cool music and fun service times and Tuesday night rock worship.
• 53:31
  You know, Saturday night hip-hop service and all that. And that's all good. And if it's evangelizing the gospel of Jesus Christ and whatnot, then fine. But that shouldn't be the reason why we're trying to become a member of a church. Although those are things that we could be a part of being involved in if that's how the church is. The reason we should become a member of the church is because the church is focused on Scripture, teaching the sound doctrine of Christ.
• 54:00
  being evangelistic, being loving and promoting worship and the lives of believers. And the elders of the church should be godly men who are not going to tolerate immorality. And I think those are so important, those key aspects. Because you can find some of those fun churches who don't follow those other precepts. I've left churches because they would not stand up for morality. They allowed immorality to come in.
• 54:30
  And that will drive a church apart. And that could sink a church. Immorality alone. If you allow sin to come into a church. And you compromise your values as a Christian. And say. Oh I just love everybody. So I'm going to allow this sin to spread through the church. You're going to lose that church at some point. It's all fine and good to have the concert style praise and worship. That's going to draw people in to sing praise and worship. But if your content is.
• 54:59
  sing in 10,000 Reasons or Amazing Grace, but they're not getting sound doctrine after their worship service, it's not going to do anyone any good because they're not going to be equipped to go out and build up the body of Christ. So those are important reasons to look for a church. We fellowship in church because we want unity within the church. We want there to be no divisions in the church. We should all be of the same mind. We want to promote unity and humility and gentleness.
• 55:36
  That comes out of Ephesians 4, 2, and 3. And we should be humble as, in other words, we should make sure we put other people above ourselves. Have that humility. And we can never find true fellowship with unbelievers. 2 Corinthians 6, 14, and 15 talk about this. True fellowship can only be enjoyed with other believers. And that's true. We talked about how when we're with other believers, we feel the communion in the Holy Spirit.
• 56:09
  I have friends who are unbelievers, but I can't have true fellowship with them. It seems like the conversation always goes in a sinful fashion with them. I start trying to talk with them. I want to talk about good things, maybe even talk about the Lord to them, but next thing you know they want to tell raunchy jokes and talk about things that we shouldn't be talking about. You just can't have true fellowship that way. Why can't true fellowship be enjoyed with unbelievers? I think that's a big key aspect.
• 56:46
  The Bible tells us that our fellowship is in Christ. It's in the Spirit. It's in the fellowship, exactly. Exactly. They're in sin. You can't have fellowship with sin. That's the bottom line. Somebody asked me one time, do you judge an unbeliever for the immoral things they do in reality? You know, yeah, I'll look at things and I'll be like, man, that's wrong, that's horrible. But they're in sin, so no matter how much good they do, they're already in sin. It's a believer who...
• 57:19
  does things wrong, we can look at them and say, brother, you're sinning. You can't be doing that. That's sinful. Because he's in Christ, she's in Christ, they know better. But there's that fellowship within Christ that we have, that true fellowship. We should be ministering to others within the church. We're to love one another. We give preference to one another. We should admonish one another. Again, admonish one another. I just talked about that. If I'm doing something wrong and you see it or you know of it,
• 57:54
  I'm okay with it. My feelings might be hurt, but what happens when we're called out on our sin? Our feelings get hurt, right? But if I'm admonished for it and I know about it, then I can correct the wrong that I'm doing. My mom still admonishes me to this day. One time I walked into the house and she punched me hard in the shoulder. I was wearing a police uniform at the time and I asked her why she did that. She said, because I can punch a cot now.
• 58:32
  I'm like, oh. I'm like, yeah, you're a mom, you can. I didn't know why she was admonishing me that day. She's like, you did something wrong. We're to comfort one another, encourage and build each other up, and we should have fellowship with one another. A church should be a closely knit group of believers who come together and share their lives with each other.
• 59:06
  So worship is close communion with God through prayer. I'm sorry I'm going fast, but we're running out of time. It is close communion with God through prayer and with a full understanding of teaching and knowledge of the scriptures. The definition of worship is to ascribe worth or value to words translated. The word worship translated is derived from the ancient practice of bowing oneself to the ground in reverence.
• 59:38
  Our worship does belong to God alone. He is a jealous God and He's not willing to share worship with anyone or anything else. And God is worthy to receive our worship because He is our Creator. Just think about the areas of your lives where you may not be giving worship to God. Sometimes we think of worship as when we come into church and we just sing praises to God during that worship time. But worship goes far beyond that. Today I was driving down to...
• 1:00:11
  Commerce City because I'm testing with the Commerce City Police Department. And the whole way down there, I'm just praying. Probably the cars that are next to me are like, who's that crazy guy talking to? But I'm praying out loud and just getting into worshiping God and just praising Him and thanking Him and asking Him to be with me and bless the day. And that is an awesome form of worship. You just got to remember not to close your eyes when you're driving.
• 1:00:43
  True worship is when we worship in truth from the heart. Don't just worship with your lips. Don't give God lip service. Bring it from the heart. Make sure we're doing it in truth. We should be seeking to know Him by learning about His attributes in our actions. So as a church, we do have ordinances in the church. I would ask you to go back in your lesson if you haven't.
• 1:01:20
  If you want to know about the ordinance of baptism, why we do it, basically why we baptize is because Jesus was baptized. Jesus said to baptize. Who needs to be baptized? Our believers. And the meaning of baptism is to show that we were buried in Christ in baptism and that we were raised to walk in newness of life.
• 1:01:47
  with Christ. And it's the symbolism of His death, burial, and resurrection. And that's the biggest reason that God wants us to be baptized because it shows what we've done through accepting Him. Do we sprinkle? We don't sprinkle. No sprinkling. Although I was sprinkled as a baby. But we immersed in water. I have in my notes I put dunked. I know Olivia, she's not here in the room, but
• 1:02:24
  I had to laugh because I told her that she's going to get baptized on Easter. We've been talking about this. So we're pretty excited. But I told her I asked Pastor Danny to hold her down a second or two longer to make sure all the sins were washed away. She's like, I'm going to sin afterward if that happens when I smack you.
• 1:02:53
  And then the other ordinance that we follow here is communion. And communion is basically also known as the Lord's Supper, and that's to remember the time of Passover when Christ shared his last supper with the apostles to remind us of him actually coming to die for us and then rising again. It's another remembrance. In our church, does the bread become the actual flesh of Jesus?
• 1:03:22
  In other churches it doesn't either, but do they believe it does, right? That was my trick question. And the wine does not become as blood. That would be very interesting if that really did happen though. But go back and read up in your lesson on those. If you have questions about baptism or communion, I really implore you to come talk with Nathan.
• 1:03:54
  or Pastor Danny, or one of the elders of the church, because they can really just describe for you guys exactly why we do what we do in those areas and what it really truly means. And if you haven't been baptized and you want to really show, you want to follow God and you want to show that you accepted Christ, then please feel free to do so. And I'm looking forward to Olivia getting baptized. Any questions real quick?
• 1:04:25
  And I got through the end of that really fast. Alright, let's go ahead and close in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we just thank You, Lord, for Your love and Your grace and Your mercy, God. Just ask that You'll be with our group, be with our church. Lord, bless the rest of our week. Bless our Thursday and our Friday and Saturday. Bring us all together on Sunday, Lord, so we can fellowship and worship You. Just help everyone get through the rest of the week. And we love You. In Jesus' name, Amen.