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Voddie Baucham - Church Foundations · Voddie Baucham Sermons

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  Speaker 1: My responsibility here during this session is to address the
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  Speaker 1: issue of building a solid doctrinal foundation specifically as it
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  Speaker 1: relates to church plants. I am the pastor of preaching at...
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  Speaker 1: A recent church plant in Houston, Texas. We planted this
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  Speaker 1: church two years ago. And as a two-year-old church plant,
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  Speaker 1: and we don't really consider ourselves a church plant. We
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  Speaker 1: consider ourselves a church planting movement. We are a church
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  Speaker 1: planting church. So we planted a church planting church. We
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  Speaker 1: are right now in the process of training and mentoring
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  Speaker 1: and discipling seven men with a view towards sending them
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  Speaker 1: out as church planters. Not all of them will do that,
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  Speaker 1: and that's part of what has borne out in this
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  Speaker 1: year-long process, that not everybody is called or ready to
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  Speaker 1: do this. By God's grace, by the end of the year,
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  Speaker 1: we should have our first plant up and off the ground.
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  Speaker 1: And we're praying for two by the end of the year.
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  Speaker 1: But that's who we are. That's what we do. But
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  Speaker 1: it's important that as we do this, as we plant churches,
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  Speaker 1: that we do so for the right reasons and that
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  Speaker 1: we do so with a proper understanding from a biblical
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  Speaker 1: perspective of of what the church is, of what it
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  Speaker 1: means to plant a church and how it is that
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  Speaker 1: we put into the DNA of that new church a
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  Speaker 1: proper and solid doctrinal foundation. So what I want to
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  Speaker 1: do here is a couple of things. First of all,
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  Speaker 1: I want to give you the short answer, the brief answer,
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  Speaker 1: the easy answer And then after I give you that
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  Speaker 1: answer through a brief exposition, we'll sort of expand on that.
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  Speaker 1: And I'll just talk to you from a very practical
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  Speaker 1: perspective about some things that we have done, because I
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  Speaker 1: think that's valuable. But first, I want to give the
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  Speaker 1: easy answer, the quick answer. If you'll open your Bibles
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  Speaker 1: with me to the book of 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy.
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  Speaker 1: Chapter 4. In verse 2a, preach the word. Amen, hallelujah,
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  Speaker 1: praise the Lord. That's the brief answer. Preach the word.
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  Speaker 1: That's how you get a solid doctrinal foundation.
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  Speaker 2: Preach the word. But let's look here a little.
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  Speaker 1: More broadly at this passage of scripture. Here beginning at
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  Speaker 1: verse 1. I charge you in the presence of God
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  Speaker 1: and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living
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  Speaker 1: and the dead, and by his appearing in his kingdom
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  Speaker 1: preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke,
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  Speaker 1: exhort with complete patience and teaching. For the time is
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  Speaker 1: coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having
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  Speaker 1: itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit
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  Speaker 1: their own passions and will turn away from listening to
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  Speaker 1: the truth and wander off into myths. As for you,
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  Speaker 1: always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist,
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  Speaker 1: fulfill your ministry. Now, in order to understand the significance
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  Speaker 1: of this passage, I believe it's important to understand the
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  Speaker 1: significance of its context within this book of 2 Timothy.
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  Speaker 1: 2 Timothy is one of, if not my favorite book
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  Speaker 1: in the whole New Testament, at least, maybe in the
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  Speaker 1: whole Bible. I love the book of 2 Timothy. There
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  Speaker 1: are Just myriad aspects of the book of 2 Timothy
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  Speaker 1: that really draw me to this letter. Let me just
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  Speaker 1: give you a few of them. First of all, the
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  Speaker 1: intimacy of 2 Timothy is astounding. The intimacy between Paul
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  Speaker 1: and Timothy, the closeness of their relationship, the love that
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  Speaker 1: they have for one another is almost astounding in this letter. Secondly,
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  Speaker 1: the care and instruction. that you see from Paul toward
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  Speaker 1: Timothy in this book, it's incredibly encouraging to me to
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  Speaker 1: just look at the care that Paul takes as he
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  Speaker 1: is about to be martyred and taking the time out
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  Speaker 1: to instruct his young protege. And thirdly, really, the overall
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  Speaker 1: singleness of focus in this letter. It's hard to miss.
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  Speaker 1: There's a two-pronged theme in 2 Timothy, as I see it.
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  Speaker 1: And that two-pronged theme shows up in every chapter of
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  Speaker 1: this letter. And it is simply this. On the one hand,
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  Speaker 1: preserve and proclaim the truth of the gospel. That's one
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  Speaker 1: side of the theme. Preserve and proclaim the truth of
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  Speaker 1: the gospel. And those are inseparable. Preserve and proclaim the
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  Speaker 1: truth of the gospel. Why preserve it if you're not
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  Speaker 1: going to proclaim it? And you can't proclaim it unless
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  Speaker 1: you preserve it. Preserve and proclaim the truth of the gospel.
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  Speaker 1: Paul is about to be martyred. He knows he's about
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  Speaker 1: to be martyred. We see that at the end of
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  Speaker 1: the letter. I'm already being poured out like a drink
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  Speaker 1: offering and the hour of my departure has come. He
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  Speaker 1: knows he's going to be martyred. He even tells young
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  Speaker 1: Timothy to come to him quickly so he knows it's
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  Speaker 1: going to be soon. He's aware of that. So on
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  Speaker 1: the one hand, here he is about to go off
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  Speaker 1: the scene Remember, the New Testament is in process right now.
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  Speaker 1: The church is burgeoning, it's growing, but it's being attacked
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  Speaker 1: from within and from without. So it is important if
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  Speaker 1: the church is going to continue to thrive and grow
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  Speaker 1: that we preserve and proclaim the truth of the gospel.
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  Speaker 1: So that's forefront in Paul's mind. It has to be
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  Speaker 1: passed on. It has to be preserved. And on the
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  Speaker 1: other hand, the other prong in this two-pronged theme of
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  Speaker 1: 2 Timothy is endure the suffering that will inevitably follow
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  Speaker 1: as a result of doing the first. That's the two-pronged theme.
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  Speaker 1: And you see it in every chapter. Look with me
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  Speaker 1: in chapter 1. Go down to verse 13 if you will.
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  Speaker 1: Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have
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  Speaker 1: heard from me in the faith and love that are
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  Speaker 1: in Christ Jesus. Now the Holy Spirit who dwells within
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  Speaker 1: us guard the good deposit entrusted to you. That's one
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  Speaker 1: prong of the theme, this preserving and proclaiming. But look back,
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  Speaker 1: if you will, in verse 8. Therefore do not be
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  Speaker 1: ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me,
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  Speaker 1: his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by
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  Speaker 1: the power of God. Preserve and proclaim the truth on
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  Speaker 1: the one hand. On the other hand, endure the suffering
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  Speaker 1: that will inevitably follow. By the way, one of my
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  Speaker 1: favorite lines in this whole book, my favorite book, one
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  Speaker 1: of my favorite lines in this whole book is right here.
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  Speaker 1: He says, nor be his prisoner, but share in suffering
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  Speaker 1: for the gospel by the power of God. You know
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  Speaker 1: what my tendency is? When I suffer, I believe it's
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  Speaker 1: evidence that I need the power of God. It's evidence
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  Speaker 1: of the absence of the power of God. So here's
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  Speaker 1: how I pray when I suffer. God, I need your
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  Speaker 1: power to end my suffering. God, it's me. Bad stuff
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  Speaker 1: is happening to me.
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  Speaker 2: I know you're probably.
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  Speaker 1: Busy, you know. Dr. Nettles, you know, he's over there
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  Speaker 1: doing his thing and you're probably helping him out right now. However...
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  Speaker 1: I need your power right now to end my suffering.
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  Speaker 1: Paul says, join in suffering by the power of God.
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  Speaker 1: It's almost counterintuitive, isn't it? In other words, Paul wants
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  Speaker 1: young Timothy to understand that I'm suffering here and I'm
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  Speaker 1: not shaking my fists at God. I don't think that
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  Speaker 1: God has somehow fallen off of his throne. I think
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  Speaker 1: this is part of the deal. Now look at chapter 2.
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  Speaker 1: You'll see the same two things. You then, my child,
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  Speaker 1: be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
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  Speaker 1: And what you have heard from me in the presence
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  Speaker 1: of many witnesses, entrust to faithful men.
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  Speaker 2: Who will be able to teach others also.
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  Speaker 1: So there it is. Preserve and proclaim this truth. Look
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  Speaker 1: at the next verse. Share in suffering as a good
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  Speaker 1: soldier of Christ Jesus. Then again, we'll see it in
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  Speaker 1: chapter 3. Look here in chapter 3. Look beginning at
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  Speaker 1: verse 14. But as for you, continue in what you
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  Speaker 1: have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you
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  Speaker 1: learned it, and how from childhood you have been acquainted
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  Speaker 1: with the sacred writings which are able to make you
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  Speaker 1: wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. And again,
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  Speaker 1: this final statement about the Scripture. All Scripture is breathed
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  Speaker 1: out by God and profitable for teaching, rebuking, correction, and
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  Speaker 1: training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent,
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  Speaker 1: equipped for every good work. But if you go up
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  Speaker 1: just a few verses earlier, beginning in verse 10. There's
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  Speaker 1: the preservation of the truth. But right before it, what
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  Speaker 1: do you see? You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct,
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  Speaker 1: my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love,
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  Speaker 1: my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me
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  Speaker 1: at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, which persecutions I endured,
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  Speaker 1: yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Verse 12. Indeed,
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  Speaker 1: all who desire to live a godly life in Christ
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  Speaker 1: Jesus will be persecuted. And we've already seen the two
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  Speaker 1: themes in the passage that we read here in chapter 4.
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  Speaker 1: On the one hand, preach the word, verse 2. On
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  Speaker 1: the other, endure suffering, verse 5. In every chapter, we
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  Speaker 1: see this two-pronged thing in every chapter I believe that
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  Speaker 1: it's important for us as preachers regardless of our context
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  Speaker 1: to understand this two-pronged thing that on the one hand
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  Speaker 1: we are called to preserve and to proclaim the truth
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  Speaker 1: of the gospel and on the other We are called
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  Speaker 1: to endure the suffering that will inevitably follow as a
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  Speaker 1: result of doing the first.
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  Speaker 2: We miss this and we're.
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  Speaker 1: Not on sound doctrinal ground. If on the one hand
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  Speaker 1: we are not preserving or proclaiming, it's easy to understand
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  Speaker 1: it from that perspective. That on the one hand, if
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  Speaker 1: we're not preserving this truth and if we're not proclaiming
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  Speaker 1: this truth, we're not going to be on sound doctrinal ground.
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  Speaker 1: It's easy to understand. But on the other hand, if
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  Speaker 1: we are not enduring this suffering properly, then we're not
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  Speaker 1: going to be on firm, solid doctrinal ground. Why? Because
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  Speaker 1: if you're not enduring suffering, then what are you doing? Well,
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  Speaker 1: you're compromising in light of the suffering. And if you compromise,
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  Speaker 1: what are you going to compromise? Preserve or proclaim. We've
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  Speaker 1: got to have both sides of this coin. So why
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  Speaker 1: is this so crucial? I'm glad you asked. Back with
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  Speaker 1: me here in our passage in chapter 4. We see
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  Speaker 1: it in its context. Why must we be committed to
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  Speaker 1: proclaiming this sound doctrine? He says, first of all, I
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  Speaker 1: charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus,
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  Speaker 1: who is to judge the living and the dead, and
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  Speaker 1: by his appearing and his kingdom. First of all, we
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  Speaker 1: must commit ourselves to proclaiming and preserving this truth, this doctrine,
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  Speaker 1: because it's the standard by which we will be judged.
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  Speaker 1: I love that statement. I charge you in the presence
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  Speaker 1: of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge
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  Speaker 1: the living and the dead. And by his appearing and
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  Speaker 1: by his kingdom, he's coming. He's going to judge the
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  Speaker 1: living and the dead. He doesn't just say, Timothy, you
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  Speaker 1: need to preach, boy. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
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  Speaker 2: There's so much more than that here in this first verse.
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  Speaker 1: It's kind of like when I was a boy.
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  Speaker 2: I remember growing up as a boy.
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  Speaker 1: I grew up in Los Angeles, California. Drug-infested, gang-infested, south-central Los.
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  Speaker 2: Angeles, California.
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  Speaker 1: And I have often been asked the question, How is
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  Speaker 1: it that you have survived? How is it that you
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  Speaker 1: have turned out so well having grown up where you
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  Speaker 1: grew up? I was raised by a single teenage Buddhist mother.
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  Speaker 1: First time I heard the gospel was my freshman year
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  Speaker 1: of college. My mom was a black-leaning Buddhist. That's all
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  Speaker 1: I knew. So people, how is it that you managed?
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  Speaker 1: How is it that you survived? How is it that
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  Speaker 1: you've turned out so well? And I always say two things.
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  Speaker 1: Number one, I haven't turned out as well as you think. Amen.
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  Speaker 1: Better today than yesterday. Better tomorrow than today. Every day
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  Speaker 1: I realize something that's just messed up about me, okay?
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  Speaker 1: But secondly, here's the second thing. The reason that that
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  Speaker 1: happened in my life is because there's two things I
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  Speaker 1: never doubted as it related to my mother. Never, ever,
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  Speaker 1: ever doubted growing up in L.A., growing up in the projects,
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  Speaker 1: growing up in all of that. Number one, I never
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  Speaker 1: doubted that my mother loved me with every fiber of
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  Speaker 1: her being. I never doubted that. I never doubted that
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  Speaker 1: she would do anything and everything for me. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: when I got old enough to find a little trouble,
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  Speaker 1: my mother, being a single teenage mother, decided it was
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  Speaker 1: time for us to move. And so in my formative years,
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  Speaker 1: in my early teen years, We set out and we
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  Speaker 1: moved across the country.
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  Speaker 2: We moved from Los Angeles to Beaufort.
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  Speaker 1: South Carolina. Well, why did we move to Beaufort, South Carolina?
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  Speaker 1: Because that's where Parris Island is. And Beaufort, right there,
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  Speaker 1: Parris Island. You know about the Marines, you know about
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  Speaker 1: Parris Island. Well, what, did your mother take you to
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  Speaker 1: the Marines? Well, in a manner of speaking, yes. Her
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  Speaker 1: oldest brother was a retired drill instructor who had done
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  Speaker 1: 22 years and three tours in Nam in the Marine Corps.
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  Speaker 1: I got out of trouble. And so I spent a
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  Speaker 1: year there with him. My mother turned her whole life
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  Speaker 1: upside down. I never doubted that, that my mother loved
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  Speaker 1: me with every fiber of her being. And that helped
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  Speaker 1: me to escape. That helped me to make it. Second
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  Speaker 1: thing I never doubted, I never doubted that she would
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  Speaker 1: kill me and bury me in the backyard. For real.
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  Speaker 1: For real. My mother would look at me and she'd say, boy,
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  Speaker 1: do you know what I'll do to you? Those two
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  Speaker 1: things in balance. Grace and law kept me in line.
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  Speaker 1: I knew my mother loved me. And I was so
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  Speaker 1: terrified of what would happen if I did what she
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  Speaker 1: told me not to do. As a result of that,
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  Speaker 1: The most powerful phrase in my life when I was
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  Speaker 1: a boy. I got in all kind of trouble growing
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  Speaker 1: up as a boy. It's interesting, you know, whenever one
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  Speaker 1: of our sons does something, my wife looks at me
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  Speaker 1: and she goes, payback, you know. I was. I was
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  Speaker 1: so much trouble as a boy that the principal, third grade,
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  Speaker 1: Coliseum Street Elementary School, my principal, Mr. Foremore, there's just
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  Speaker 1: a few weeks left in the term. He brings me
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  Speaker 1: in and says, Votie, if you can just be good
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  Speaker 1: for the rest of the semester, take you to eat
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  Speaker 1: anywhere you want to go. Third grader. Principal's having to
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  Speaker 1: make deals. But there was one phrase that always put
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  Speaker 1: me in line. And that phrase was, your mama said, well,
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  Speaker 1: that was it. Voter, you need to straighten up. I
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  Speaker 1: ain't straightened up. Who are you? You're not the boss
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  Speaker 1: of me. Voter, you need to, voter, you need to, whatever.
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  Speaker 1: No impact. However, your mama said, it's time for you
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  Speaker 1: to get in the house. I'll see y'all later. Here's
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  Speaker 1: something more powerful than your mama said. Paul says, I
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  Speaker 1: charge you in the presence of God and of Christ
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  Speaker 1: Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead
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  Speaker 1: and by his appearing and by his kingdom. In other words,
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  Speaker 1: this is not just me, your mentor, speaking to you here.
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  Speaker 1: This is not something that I think is a good idea. No,
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  Speaker 1: this is the standard by which we will be judged
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  Speaker 1: before a holy and righteous God. Preach the word. Don't
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  Speaker 1: back down from it. And don't ever stop doing it
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  Speaker 1: with fear and trembling as you do it. Be faithful
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  Speaker 1: to the word. Preach the word. It's the standard by
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  Speaker 1: which we will be judged. We have to do it.
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  Speaker 1: The second principle here. Preach the word. Be ready in
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  Speaker 1: season and out of season. Preach the word. Why? Because
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  Speaker 1: the word is the answer no matter what the question.
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  Speaker 1: You Kairos, a Kairos.
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  Speaker 2: Opportune time, inopportune time.
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  Speaker 1: Preach the word. Whenever, wherever. Preach the word. That's who
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  Speaker 1: we are. That's what we do. We preach the word.
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  Speaker 1: There's never a time when God will call you to
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  Speaker 1: speak to something with any kind of authority for which
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  Speaker 1: the word of God won't undergird and equip you. There's
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  Speaker 1: never a time. By the way, this goes back to
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  Speaker 1: the statement that was just made earlier. Just a few
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  Speaker 1: verses earlier. Let's read it again.
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  Speaker 2: All scripture is breathed out by God.
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  Speaker 1: All of it. and probable for teaching, reproof, correction, and
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  Speaker 1: training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent,
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  Speaker 1: equipped for every good work. Whatever God calls me to.
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  Speaker 1: If I want to do it effectively, I go to
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  Speaker 1: the Word of God to figure out how to do
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  Speaker 1: it effectively. If I can't figure out how to do
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  Speaker 1: it effectively in the Word, I probably don't need to
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  Speaker 1: be doing it. Amen? In season. Out of season. Otherwise,
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  Speaker 1: then sometimes the word may be appropriate, and other times,
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  Speaker 1: other things may be more appropriate. When we lived in Oxford,
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  Speaker 1: we went to a church there. I won't say what
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  Speaker 1: denomination this church was. So we went to this church.
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  Speaker 1: And while we were there at this church, this first
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  Speaker 1: day when we were visiting at this church, the pastor
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  Speaker 1: was preaching, and his text was Orwell's 1984. He was
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  Speaker 1: preaching a series of messages through the book, 1984. His
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  Speaker 1: message on the morning we were there was titled, Newspeak.
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  Speaker 1: So she's preaching Orwell. In other words, he felt like
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  Speaker 1: there was something that his people needed that Orwell could
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  Speaker 1: give them better than God. So he felt like whatever
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  Speaker 1: that need was that he had identified, there was something
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  Speaker 1: that was more appropriate during that time than the scriptures
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  Speaker 1: that were breathed out by God. Listen, I understand. Oh, well,
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  Speaker 1: that's wonderful, 1984, wonderful, get it. Great insights. I understand that.
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  Speaker 1: But that's not what we need. There's never a time
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  Speaker 1: when we don't need the Word of God. We always
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  Speaker 1: need the Word of God. Always. Always. And by the way,
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  Speaker 1: whether it was Orwell or something that we would deem
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  Speaker 1: more appropriate, if it's not the Word of God, it
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  Speaker 1: doesn't answer our deepest needs and longings. It's the Word.
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  Speaker 1: We preach the Word and we're ready in season and
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  Speaker 1: out of season. And as a church planter, one of
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  Speaker 1: the things that we've learned in planting this church is
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: that things don't always go according to plan. Amen? Amen.
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: It's not always eukaryotes.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: It's not always opportune time. Sometimes it's completely inopportune time.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: I'll give you an example of inopportune time. A person
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: wants to give money to church planting. They hear that
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: you're planting a church. They've heard about your ministry. We're
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: excited that you're planting this church. That's awesome. That's wonderful.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: And they want to commit to give money. But there
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: are things in their life that don't line up to
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: the word. And there are things about our church that
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: are going to be offensive to them once they find out.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: What do you do? We're playing the church. We can
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: really use money. Maybe this is what we'll do. Maybe
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: we'll hold off for now because it's not you, Kairos.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: It's not an opportune time for the word. Eventually, we're
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: going to apply the word to this situation. But right now,
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: it's just not an opportune time. Right now, we need
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: the money to do the ministry. So right now, we'll
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: hold off on the word until a more opportune time.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: Because the need right now is for the finances. If
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: you can't say amen, you ought to say ouch.
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: It's always time for the Word.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: Always time for the Word. Do you know what?
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: We spoke the truth and love to those people.
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: They decided not to come and be a part of
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: our church plant.
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: But they mailed us a check.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: Praise God. Reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching.
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: This is beautiful.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: But what's he talking about? Again, back to what we
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: just said. Our scripture is breathed out by God and
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: profitable for what? Teaching, reproof, correction, training in righteousness. So
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: what does he say? Preach the word, be ready in
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: season and out of season. And what do you do?
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: You reprove, you rebuke, and you exhort with complete patience
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: and teaching. The word does this. I can't do this.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: The word does this. We must be committed to preaching
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: and teaching the word because therein and therein only do
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: we have moral authority. We have no moral authority or
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: any other kind of authority in and of ourselves. I
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: can't reprove you. I can't rebuke you based on me.
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: I can't do that. I can't. You've got specks in
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: your eye. I've got logs in mine. And if we're
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: just having a spec contest, I lose most of the time. Amen?
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: I do. I do. If we're just having a spec contest. Now, hey,
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: I've got something to say to you, but before I
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: say this to you, let me see something. Let me see.
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: I need to measure the diameter of that spec right there. Okay,
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: now let me measure. Okay, that's all right. I'll just, yeah.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: Somebody else will talk to you. That's what happens in
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: a spec contest. But if it's just the proclamation of
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: the Word of God, I can buffet myself about the
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: head and shoulders while I do the same to others. Amen?
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: You just preach it.
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: You just preach it.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: You know, it's interesting. As a young preacher, I remember
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: I was helped greatly in this principle by another teaching
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: pastor in the church where I served. And I was
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: just really wrestling about preaching. And I was preaching. I
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: was doing some systematic expositions. And I came to a
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: passage about marriage. And so I just said to him,
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: and again, I was younger in the ministry, and I
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: hadn't been married all that long. And I just, I
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: was struggling. And he could see that I was struggling.
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: And he said, what's the deal? What's the problem? I said, man,
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: I'm just struggling with preaching this. I mean, there are
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: people out there who have been married 40 and 50 years,
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: and I'm going to stand up and preach to them
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: about marriage? Here I am. I don't even have 10 in.
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: And I'm going to stand up and preach to them
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: about marriage? And he looks at me and he goes, huh,
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: guess you'll never preach about heaven then. And he walked out.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: I'm just sitting there. And I'm going, huh. I started
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: thinking about all the things that I would never, ever
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: preach about if I had to be the authority. Are
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: you smelling what I'm stepping in? But when we're just
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: preaching the word, we just handle the text. As honestly
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: as we can. And sometimes that means that we get
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: a beating all week while we prepare the message. But
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: you know what I've noticed? Here's what I've noticed. When
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: I preach passages like that, I enjoy coming to the pulpit.
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: Not because my beating is over, but at least other
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: people get to share in it. Amen? It's not just
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: going to be me anymore by myself. How do you
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: do that? It's the Word. It's the Word. If you're
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: committed to preaching things that you know and have come
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: to understand better than others have come to understand them
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: or things that you've mastered in your life, number one,
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: you're not going to preach very many things.
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: And secondly, when you do.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: You'll ultimately be a hypocrite because you don't know them
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: nor have you mastered them as well as you think.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: Preach the word. Because therein and therein only is any
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: moral authority. And then here's the other.
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: And it gets us to what we're talking about here.
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: This issue of planting churches and sound doctrinal foundations. He says...
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: For the time is coming when people will not endure
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: away from listening.
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: To the truth and will wander off into myths.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: Now, that next phrase is, as for you. Now, here's
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: what's interesting about that phrase, as for you. In chapter 3,
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: here's what we have. We have a picture of ungodly
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: men who have a form of godliness but deny its power.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: And after that, right after this verse 13, where he
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: says evil people and impostors will go from bad to worse,
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: deceiving and being deceived, he says, but as for you.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: So in chapter 3, we have this great divide between
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: us and them. And both us and them are preaching something.
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: The difference is, on the second half, the but as
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: for you have, what does he say to Timothy? But
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: as for you, number one, you know the word, you've
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: been taught the word, you've been brought up in the word,
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: and oh, by the way, the word is the answer.
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: The difference between you and them is the word.
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: Now, here again, we come to but as for you.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: People are going to wander off into myths away from
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: the word, but as for you. Why must we be
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: committed to preaching sound doctrine? Here's why. Because our flesh
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: wants to be liked and wants big crowds. Let me
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: correct that. My flesh. I know you guys are probably
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: above and beyond that. My flesh wants to be liked.
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: My flesh is happier when there's more people than when
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: there's less. So you know what my flesh may have
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: a tendency to do? My flesh may have a tendency
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: to look at individuals who are growing large and who
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: are growing rapidly and do what they do, as opposed
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: to looking into the Word of God and discerning what
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: I'm called to and doing that and trusting God for
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: the increase. People are going to accumulate teachers for themselves.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: And you at times won't be one of them. You
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: won't be their favorite. You won't be as liked. They
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: will not be as endeared to you. Remember, this is
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: all in the context of preach the word. It's the
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: standard by which you're going to be judged.
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: Preach the word.
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: Because no matter what the question, it's the answer. Preach
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: the word. Preach the word because therein lies moral authority.
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: And oh, by the way, preach the word because people
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: are going to like others who are not doing it
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: and you may be tempted. But as for you, what
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: do you do? Always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. Better in life success.
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: Always be sober-minded. In this context, I believe, again, this
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: is about us and the Word and the Word in us.
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: That's the only way I can be sober-minded. When I
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: get into the Word, I get the Word into me.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: As for you, you be sober-minded. Keep your head about you,
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: he's saying here. There are people who are not going
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: to keep their heads about them. That they're going to
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: go off into the new thing. You, however, keep your
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: head about you. You be sober minded.
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: You endure suffering.
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: Remember what we talked about earlier? This is going to
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: be a form of suffering. And for Timothy, it's very real.
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: Paul is about to die. If he just preached differently,
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: he might not have gotten martyred. By the way, I
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: believe this is why. Because another thing that's striking about
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: 2 Timothy, if you read 2 Timothy, Paul knows he's
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: about to be martyred and he never flinches at death.
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: Not once does he flinch at death. If I know
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: I'm about to be martyred and I'm here in this
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: setting and I'm writing a letter, here's the letter I'm writing.
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: I'm writing a letter. I'm saying, hey, Timothy, brother, I
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: love you and everything, but do you remember that group
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: who got together and had a prayer meeting when Peter
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: was in jail, and the angel came and got him out? Yeah, yeah,
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: find those people. Amen.
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: But that's not what he does.
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: Why? Here's why. Because basically, here's 2 Timothy. Timothy, they're
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: about to kill me for preaching. When they do, take
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: my place. How can you say that and flinch at death? Answer,
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: you can't. If I'm not willing to lay it down,
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: I can't ask you to lay it down. And Paul's
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: willing to lay it down. And he calls upon Timothy
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: to follow his example. Endure suffering. And then he says,
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: do the work of an evangelist. Do the work of
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: an evangelist. Interesting, you know, oftentimes we think about evangelistic
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: preaching as not being doctrinal preaching. There was already a
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: mention earlier, I believe you mentioned Lloyd-Jones in his book,
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: Preaching and Preachers. One of the sections I love in
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: Preaching and Preachers is where he deals with that myth.
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: Lloyd-Jones argues that evangelistic preaching ought to be more doctrinal
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: than any other preaching. Amen? Finally, fulfill your ministry. So
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: what we do here is we're planting these churches, okay?
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: For the remainder of my time, I want to look
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: at this from this practical perspective with this passage in
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: mind as our context as to how we build a
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: solid doctrinal foundation as we plant churches. And first of all,
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: I don't want to assume that we're all on board
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: and that we all understand this need for planting churches.
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: Let me say this. There are 195 million non-church Americans.
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: At least 195 million. There are two and a half
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: million in Houston where we planted our church. Our goal
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: was ten churches in our first ten years of existence.
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: And people asked us, well, you know, you're in the
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: Bible Belt. You're in Houston. Why do you want to
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: plant churches in Houston? Two and a half million unchurched
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: people in Houston. Find me another town.
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: Besides LA, New York, Chicago.
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: Find me another one. You can't. You can't. Two and
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: a half million. There are countries that don't have that
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: many unchurched people. My hometown has that many unchurched people.
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: In the United States, over 195 million, nearly 200 million
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: non-churched in America. No county in the United States has
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: a greater church population today than it did 10 years ago.
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: Not one county in the United States has a greater
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: church population today than it did 10 years ago. In
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: the last decade, church membership declined by almost 10% while
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: the U.S. population grew by almost 11.5%. Let me say
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: that again. Church declined by nearly 10% while the population
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: grew by 11.5%. Each year, between 3,500 and 5,000 churches die.
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: In the decade of the 90s, it was a banner decade. 100,000
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: churches closed their doors in the decade of the 90s.
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: We now have 60% fewer churches per.
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: 10,000 persons than there were in 1920.
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: In 1920, there were 27 churches for every 10,000 people.
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: By 1950, that number was down to.
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: 17 churches for every 10,000 people. And by 1996, that
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: number was down to 11 churches for every 10,000 people.
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: Now we're below 10 churches for every 10,000 people in
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: the United States. And 80 to 85% of American churches
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: are plateaued or in decline.
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: And finally, the majority of church growth, again.
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: 80 to 85% plateaued or declined. The majority of church
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: growth occurs in churches that are less than two years old.
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: That's where the majority happens. Listen to this. Bill Newton.
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: Get the Founders Journal, the one on church planting. I
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: got it last night. It had me up all night.
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: Listen to what he writes. With projected population growth in
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: the next 20 years, at least 29,000 new churches would
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: need to be started in the deep south.
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: Just in the deep south. Just to keep up with
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: population growth.
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: And that does not consider the existing population and existing
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: communities that lack adequate gospel-centered churches. 29,000 in the next
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: 20 years, just to keep up. And by the way,
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: now think about this in context, okay? The number of
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: churches per 10,000 people has declined significantly by 60% since 1920.
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: So just to keep up with where we are.
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: In our current state of decline in the number of churches,
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: we'd have to plant 29,000 new churches in the next
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: 20 years. That's just the data. That's just the reality.
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: We're not talking about the doctrine of it, the theology
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: of it. That's just the reality of it. Those are
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: just the numbers. But there's another crisis. There's another crisis. Unfortunately,
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: what we see is that there are many would-be church planters,
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: but most of them have more zeal and passion than
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: they do anything else. The other thing is many plant
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: for just purely pragmatic reasons, and some of them, quite frankly,
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: plant in protest. Amen. Don't like what's going on over here,
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: I'm going to go plant a church. Amen. Amen. A
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: lot of young people, a lot of young guys in seminaries,
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: they're disgruntled, they're dissatisfied with what's happening in the church
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: in America. And so they want to go plant churches.
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: And so a lot of them are doing it for
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: those reasons.
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: But many of these individuals have zeal.
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: And most of the church planting movements, unfortunately, are not
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: coming from solid doctrinal, not to mention reformed theological perspectives.
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: That's not where much of the church planting movement is
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: coming from.
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: So as a result, you know, there's a passage of
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: scripture that sort of echoes in my mind. And again,
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: just predict me here. Give me a little latitude to
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: understand what I'm doing here. But the passages in Romans 10,
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: 1 through 4. Now here's how we see it. Brothers,
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: that they may be saved. I've let them witness that
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: they have.
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: A zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: For being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God,
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: to God's righteousness. For Christ is the end of the
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: law for righteousness to everyone who believes. Now here's what's interesting.
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: You read that passage. As a church planner, I read
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: that passage. And I've read that passage before. I've preached
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: on that passage before. But I just, in the logical
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: progression of the text, it's summed up. It summed up
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: my heartburn about what's going on in church planting. Just
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: a couple of different words here. Now, mind you, again,
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: bear with me. Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: God for them is that they may be discipled and redeployed.
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: I've been a witness that they have a zeal for
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: church planting, but not according to knowledge. For being ignorant
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: of the ecclesiology that comes from God and seeking to
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: establish their own, they did not submit to God's ecclesiology.
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: For Christ is the end of the law. For ecclesiology
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: to everyone who believes. It's the same problem as those
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: who are trying to achieve salvation by other means and
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: not understanding the righteousness of God. There are many out
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: there who are trying to achieve church planting by other
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: means but not according to biblical ecclesiology. And there's a problem.
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: There's a problem. So what do we do? Let me
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: give you these seven things. We had the number ten
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: last night. This morning we get to number seven. Okay?
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: Let me give you seven things to do. And the
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: reason we have seven is because he took a lot
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: of mine. All right. Number one, develop a biblical theology
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: of church planting. Develop a biblical theology of church planting.
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: Understand why we do it from a biblical perspective. And again,
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: I just encourage you to read through the current Founders Journal.
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: If you're struggling with that, if you haven't thought through that,
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: read those articles there about church planting from a biblical perspective.
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: It's incredibly important that we understand it from a biblical perspective.
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: Because if we're not doing it from a biblical perspective, well,
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: there's two problems. Number one, in the text that we
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: just looked at, preach the word in season, out of season.
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: Here's what some people are saying about church planting. They're saying,
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: you know, the word is appropriate, and we exegete the
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: word for certain things, but when it relates to planting churches, no, no, no.
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: Then we need marketing.
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: In season, out of season. If we don't have an
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: intentional biblical theology of church planting, we will be pure pragmatists.
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: So what do we do? Let me just, three things
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: here that we need to understand from a theological perspective.
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: We plant churches to extend and to expand the kingdom.
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: We plant churches to extend and expand the kingdom. Matthew 28,
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: 16 to 20 has already been read for us. But
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: I love that he, you know, go and make disciples
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: of every people group. Go and make disciples of every
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: people group. You know, there's a small problem with that.
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: The small problem is people groups tend to live in
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: places where I don't live and speak languages that I
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: don't speak. In other words, church planting is inherent in
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: the Great Commission. If we're going to reach every people group,
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: we're not going to be able to reach them all
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: from Jerusalem. Amen? So we have to go where people
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: are and plant churches. And we have to plant indigenous
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: churches because different people groups speak different languages. So we
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: need to have churches speaking languages of the peoples all
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: over the world. Acts chapter 1 and verse 8. You
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea,
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: in Samaria, and even in the remotest parts of the world. Now,
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: here's what's interesting. Oftentimes we look at Acts chapter 1,
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: verse 8, and we kind of get creative with the
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: way we look at Acts chapter 1, verse 8. We say, well,
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: you know, when he says Jerusalem, he means kind of
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: where we are and where we live right here. And
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: when he says, you know, Judea, you know, he means
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: kind of in our outlying region, Samaria. That's where those
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: people live, you know, the remotest parts of the world.
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: That's, you know, Africa, whatever.
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: No, no, no.
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: When he said Jerusalem, he meant Jerusalem.
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: Amen. Amen. When he said Judea, he meant Judea. Samaria,
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: he meant Samaria. When he said the remotest parts of
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: the world, he meant America. Now think about that for
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: a minute. That gets some of us paused. Why? Because
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: we're all ethnocentric. And we look at the Great Commission
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: from our perspective and we're the epicenter of the Great Commission. No,
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: we're the remotest parts of the world that were talked
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: about in Acts chapter 1 verse 8. We're the fulfillment
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: of that fulfillment. The gospel got to us because people
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: took that seriously. We ought to be grateful for that.
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: We ought to be grateful that there are those who
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: got the gospel out of just Jerusalem, and we don't
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: all have to go there. We don't have to make
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: a pilgrimage like those who make pilgrimage to Mecca in
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: order to fulfill their duty and their responsibility to Allah. No. Uh-uh.
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: The gospel has come to the remotest parts of the world. Ironically,
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: now we're trying to do it in reverse and go
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: back to the epicenter. Amen? And that's okay. That's all right.
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: But I believe church planting is inherent here. Is everybody
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: from Judea going to come to Jerusalem? No. Got to
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: plant churches. Is everybody from Samaria going to come to Jerusalem? No.
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: Got to plant churches. Are all the different people groups
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: in the remotest parts of the world going to come
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: to Jerusalem? No. We must plant churches, extending and expanding
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: the kingdom. Next, seeing the worship of God spread among
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: the nations. But listen, I just want to read a
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: couple of things. Go to Psalm 96. Psalm 96. Psalm 96. Oh,
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: Lord all the earth. Stop there for a minute. Sing
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: all the earth. And here's what's interesting. Oftentimes we read
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: that and people immediately go to the sort of debate over,
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: you know, whether we're going to do hymns or we're
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: going to do choruses or whether or not we're going
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: to do, quote, unquote, contemporary music. Can I just tweak
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: this for us just a little bit? It's because of
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: obedience to this that we have the great hymns of
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: the faith from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. Think
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: about that now. A Mighty Fortress is Our God was
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: a brand new song. These songs are released today. The
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: songs we sing are in large part European. So because
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: the gospel pushed forth to the remotest parts of the earth,
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: the worship of God begins to spring up in the
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: tongues of people groups all over the world, and we've
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: benefited greatly from that. And God is glorified. Amen? Praise
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: God for that.
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: Praise God for that.
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: But look at this as well. Sing to the Lord,
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: bless His name, tell of His salvation from day to day.
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous works among
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: the peoples. Everywhere. Everywhere. Revelation 7, 9. Look, and behold,
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: a great multitude that no one could number from every nation,
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: every tribe, every kindred, and every tongue. That's what it
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: looks like in heaven. People from everywhere, not everywhere. Everywhere,
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: that's beyond everywhere, okay? Every nation, every tribe, every tongue. Why?
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: Because the church was planted everywhere. And we see the
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: worship of God spread among the nations. And finally, establishing
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: gospel outposts. Establishing gospel outposts. The only thing I love,
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: here in Acts chapter 2, Peter stands up and he
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: preaches this great day of Pentecost sermon. Now, after Peter
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: preaches this great day of Pentecost sermon, did they turn
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: Peter into a roadshow? I mean, that's one of the
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: things that could have happened.
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: They could have said, oh, man, we got it.
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: We need to reproduce this right here. Let's go to
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: another town and just wait until the fire comes again.
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: Then you preach again, and then we... No. No. What
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: do you see? In Acts 2, from 37 to the
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: end of the chapter, what do you see? They establish
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: a church, a gospel outpost. In fact, when you look
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: at those who were planting churches in the book of Acts,
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: one of the things you notice is the absence of
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: Peter's name very much. As the church planting movement pushes forward,
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: they don't go back to the guy who has the
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: thing that happened on the day. No. No. Gospel outposts here.
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: Gospel outposts there. Paul spends a year here. He spends
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: a year and a half there. Gospel outposts here. Gospel
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: outposts there. We plant churches so that there will be
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: gospel outposts. That's what we do. And again, there's more
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: that can be said about this, but for the sake
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: of time, okay, we got to number one, and I
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: got like five minutes. Okay, number two, develop a culture
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: of church planting. Develop a culture of church planting. It's interesting,
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: there in chapter 4 of 2 Timothy, I always read this,
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: beginning verse 9. Do your best to come to me soon,
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: for Demas, in love with the present world, has deserted
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia,
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: Titus to Dalmatia. Luke alone is with me. Get Mark
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: and bring him with you, for he is very useful
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: to me for ministry. Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus.
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: Here's what's interesting. Paul's not giving a treatise here on
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: what they were doing. But just in his normal, natural conversation,
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: he couldn't help but talk about all the people who
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: were with him in this church planting movement and where
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: they were all over the place. We need to create
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: a culture of church planting. It needs to be natural
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: and normal for us to talk about planting churches. Number three, seek, disciple,
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: and plant with biblically qualified church planters. Seek, disciple, and
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: plant with biblically qualified church planters. All those words are important.
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: Number one, we need to seek church planters. Look for them.
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: Look for them. If church planting is important, then we
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: need to go find church planters.
• 50:50
  Speaker 2: It's amazing.
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: When there is a need in our churches, we go look.
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: We start telling people, you know, hey, we need an
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: education guy. Hey, we need a music guy.
• 50:59
  Speaker 2: You know anybody?
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: Hey, we need this. Hey, we need that.
• 51:01
  Speaker 2: You know anybody? You know anybody?
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: That's some of us who have done that here at
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: this conference. Hey, we're looking for this. Do you know anybody?
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: When's the last time you said, hey, we really want
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: to plant a church in such and such a town?
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: You know anybody? Seek church planters. Disciple church planters. Train
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: these guys. Train these guys. Get them on the ground.
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: Rub elbows with them. Get your hands dirty in their lives.
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: And then plant churches with them. Plant churches with them.
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: You know, sometimes what we do is we bring somebody in,
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: because this is where we are right now. We bring
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: somebody in, and they've got the goods. You know what
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: the natural tendency is? I think we're going to keep him.
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: We'll send somebody else to plant a church. Amen. No, no, no, no.
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: We need this one to stay right here. Send them.
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: Plant with them. We need effective churches planted. Man. Listen
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: to this from Bill Hull. For the sake of time,
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: I'll move here. Number four, plant from the ground up.
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: Plant from the ground up.
• 52:18
  Speaker 2: And here's what I mean by that.
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: Our starting point is important. Listen to this from Donald McGavern.
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: We devise mission methods and policies in light of what
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: God has blessed and what he has obviously not blessed. Okay,
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: the battle is already gone right now. We devise mission
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: methods and policies in light of what God has said,
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: not in light of what God has blessed. McGavern says
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: we do it in light of what he is blessed
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: and what he is not blessed. But what does that mean?
• 52:51
  Speaker 2: That basically means we look at numerical growth.
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: And whatever produces the most numerical growth, that's what God's in.
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: We do that. Industry, listen to this, industry calls this
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: modifying operation in light of feedback. Nothing hurts missions overseas
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: so much as continuing methods, institutions, and policies which ought
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: to bring men to Christ but don't. Which ought to
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: multiply churches but don't. We teach men to be ruthless
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: in regard to method. If it does not work to
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: the glory of God and the extension of Christ's church,
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: throw it away and get something which does. As to methods,
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: we are fiercely pragmatic. Doctrine is something else. I believe doctrine,
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: but methods rather, are doctrinal. I believe methods are doctrinal issues.
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: And if you've been around church planting.
• 53:47
  Speaker 2: At all, you've heard this mantra. You've heard this mantra.
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: This is the thinking that dominates the day. Okay? No, no, no, no.
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: We don't change the message, just the methods. I believe
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: the message gives us the method. Pragmatism. I was at
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: an event recently, an evangelism conference, where an individual stood
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: up and professed himself as a pragmatist. You know, when
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: it comes to evangelism, I'm a pragmatist. Amen, amen. Huge
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: state evangelism conference. Amen, amen. Listen to this. Pragmatism. Number one.
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: Definition one. A straightforward, practical way of thinking about things
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: or dealing with problems concerned with results rather than with
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: theories and principles. Definition number two. A philosophical view that
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: a theory or concept should be evaluated in terms of
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: how it works and its consequences as the standard for
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: action and thought. Our passage again. People are going to
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: turn aside to myths. You, however, be pragmatic. No. You, however,
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: be sober-minded. We are not called to pragmatism. And so
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: where's our starting point? Again, many times in the church
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: growth movement, people start with the field, and then they
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: move from the field to the gospel and then to
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: the church. Here's what I mean by that. You start
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: by analyzing your field. And once you've analyzed your field,
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: then you determine what the gospel has to look like
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: based upon your field. And then you determine what your
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: church has to look like. Listen to this from the
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: Purpose Driven Church. It is my deep conviction that anybody
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: can be one to Christ if you discover the key
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: to his or her heart. The most likely place to
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: start is with the person's felt needs. As I pointed out.
• 55:44
  Speaker 2: Earlier, this was the approach Jesus used.
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: I'm glad I don't have time to elaborate on that.
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: Here's our paradigm. You start with the gospel, then you
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: move to the church, and then you move to the field.
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: In other words, when I say gospel, you start with
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: the word of God. And then the word of God
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: instructs us as to what the church is and what
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: the church is supposed to look like. Then you move
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: to your field. So when Paul talks about becoming all
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: things to all men, he's not talking about the church itself.
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: and her essence becoming all things to all men. No,
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: he's talking about himself as an evangelist. You sit down
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: and you talk to somebody, you know, and you speak
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: the language that they speak. You rub elbows with individuals.
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: He's not talking about change the church to become whatever
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: people want. He's not talking about this methodology of surveying
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: the community to find out what the community wants. Survey
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: lost people who are on their way to hell, find
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: out why they're repulsed by God, and then give them
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: everything except what repulses them. Lord, have mercy on our souls.
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: That's not the way we do this. Finally, okay, number five,
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: take time to develop a solid core group. Take time
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: to develop a solid core group. It's very important. We
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: took our core group through our membership training. Our membership
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: training is.
• 57:16
  Speaker 2: Really an eight-week process, but there's six sort of really
• 57:18
  Speaker 2: instructional weeks.
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: Week one, we go through our mission and vision, and
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: then we go through our theology. Then we go through
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: our strategy, and then membership and covenant, all these things.
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: All these things we laid out for individuals. And so
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: I just spent, and that's what we continue to take
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: members through. I just spent an hour and 45 minutes
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: on Monday night with a group of people in my home,
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: Talking about, you know, what is a Reformed Church? So
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: we talked about the five solas of the Reformation. We
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: talked about the five points of Calvinism. And then we
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: talked about the six distinguishing characteristics of a Reformed Church.
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: Hour and 45 minutes. We talked about all that stuff.
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: Then we fellowshiped around the table for a while and
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: talked for about another 45 minutes about all that stuff. Okay? Okay.
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: We're not trying to hide our doctrine from anybody. We
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: want unity in the body.
• 58:07
  Speaker 2: And unity comes when we're clear about what we believe
• 58:09
  Speaker 2: and why.
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: One of the goals in our membership training is that
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: people who can't be on board will find out they
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: can't be on board and they'll leave. Amen. Not because
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: we don't like them. You know? Not because we don't
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: like them. Just because. Amen. All right. Number six. Plant
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: with a long haul mentality. You know, nothing grows faster
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: than cancer. Our church is two years old. We have
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: 250 people who come regularly. We have a little over
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: 100 members in our church in that two years that
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: we've been there. A quarter, a full quarter of those
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: people have come by baptism. And we don't baptize below 12.
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: So a quarter of the people who we have, all adults,
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: a quarter of those people who have come to our
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: church in these two years have come through baptism. Okay? Okay.
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: And so our goal is to be fiercely evangelistic. That's
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: why we plant churches. Plant churches to reach people with
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: the gospel, to be a gospel outpost. but it takes
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: time our evangelistic methodologies in our church it takes time
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: and mine is gone here let me give you number
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: seven plant here there and yonder hit her and yawn
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: plant here there and yonder we see that in Acts
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: chapter 8 that principle is there Churches are to be
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: planted everywhere. And so we try to keep it for
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: our people that need to plant churches where we live
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: and need to plant churches in the United States. Phoenix,
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: Las Vegas. I mean, there are places just growing rapidly
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: needing churches. And then all over the world. 1.8 billion
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: people who've never heard the name of Jesus Christ. We
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: need churches. We need gospel outposts. So my time is gone.
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: I know we kind of went rapidly through those last ones,
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: but let me just sum it up this way. I
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: spent a number of years preaching the gospel. And a
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: lot of people just know me from my itinerant ministry,
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: and they think that that's me and that's just kind
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: of what I've always done. I started preaching in 1989.
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: So it's been 19 years that I've been preaching. Of
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: those 19 years, I've spent 18 years on a church
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: staff somewhere. 18 of my 19 years, I've been on
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: a church staff somewhere. Of those 18 years, 10 of
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: them were spent as a minister of missions. Basically, getting
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: teams prepared to plant churches. This is my ministry. My
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: life is the local church. I love the local church.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: I've never had a full-time itinerant ministry. I wouldn't want
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: to have a full-time itinerant ministry. I love the local
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: church too much. Jesus came to shed his blood, to
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: die for his bride, his bride, the church. And so
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: now I've had the opportunity in the last two years
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: to be a planter of a local church. And I
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: love having planted this local church. When I wake up,
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: all I think about is planting more local churches. And
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: my prayer is that perhaps through this time this morning,
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: you get a glimpse of that. And maybe God will
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: just awaken something in you. And we can begin to
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: plant churches. We can begin to plant these gospel outposts.
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: You know, one thing we're praying about right now is,
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: you know, Houston is either the second or third most
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: ethnically diverse city in the United States. Over 100 different
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: language groups. The world has come to us. What an
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: incredible opportunity to plant churches among different people groups and
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: different language groups right there in our city. Right now
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: we've only got one guy who's preparing to do that.
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: But we're praying and we're seeking. We're seeking because we
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: want to do that. We want to plant churches among
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: these people groups. And so we're seeking individuals so that
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: we can train individuals who can then go out and
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: plant these churches. So my prayer is that you get
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: a glimpse of it. My prayer is that God will
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: ignite this passion for you, but that we would also
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: take a step back because right now this field is
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: dominated by the pragmatists. I mean, hands down, no questions asked.
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: This field is dominated by the pragmatists. And when I
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: go places and I preach at these evangelism conferences, it's
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: the pragmatists who's had the most tangible success is the
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: person who's called upon to represent church planting. I'm just
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: a guy who's plodding away trying to do it the slow,
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: hard way. We haven't seen thousands upon thousands of people
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: come to Christ. But I tell you what we have seen.
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: We've seen a healthy church with a solid doctrinal foundation
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: who is intent on reproducing.