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Voddie Baucham - Church Growth · Voddie Baucham Sermons

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Speaker 1: Well, good evening. Good evening. It's good to be here
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Speaker 1: with you tonight. I live in Houston, Texas, so I'm
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Speaker 1: a couple of hours ahead of you. So when Brother
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Speaker 1: Ed Stetzer finished, I said to myself, Self, I'm tired.
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Speaker 1: We ought to leave right now. But Self didn't want
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Speaker 1: to miss the last guy, so we stayed. Did you
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Speaker 1: want to mean a word of prayer? Father, thank you
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Speaker 1: for the privilege of being in your presence and being
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Speaker 1: among your people and the opportunity that we have to
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Speaker 1: gather together around your word. We're grateful. Thank you for
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Speaker 1: what we've heard, the challenge that has been laid down
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Speaker 1: for us already. May we hear and heed what it
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Speaker 1: is that you have to say to us. Father, I
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Speaker 1: ask that you would grant me grace. and power from
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Speaker 1: on high that I might preach your word faithfully and
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Speaker 1: accurately that you might protect us from my opinion that
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Speaker 1: you might protect us from my frailty that you would
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Speaker 1: protect us from my sinfulness my unworthiness and that you
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Speaker 1: might do so by the power of the blood of
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Speaker 1: Jesus in whose name we pray and ask all these things. Amen. Amen.
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Speaker 1: My assignment tonight was very clear, and that was to
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Speaker 1: speak to you on the issue of transforming biblical vision,
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Speaker 1: or a biblical vision that transforms. Not that we're trying
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Speaker 1: to transform the biblical vision, but a biblical vision that
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Speaker 1: is transforming. one that will transform us. And I think
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Speaker 1: that that assignment is a very poignant one because when
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Speaker 1: we recognize that a biblical vision would actually have a
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Speaker 1: transforming impact on us, we recognize that we have moved
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Speaker 1: away from biblical truth. Did you catch that? We recognize
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Speaker 1: that we've moved away from biblical truth, and we have
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Speaker 1: for a number of reasons and in a number of ways.
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Speaker 1: We have moved away from biblical truth, sometimes in the
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Speaker 1: name of evangelism, no less. We've moved away from biblical truth.
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Speaker 1: I hear people say things like this, and I do
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Speaker 1: conferences like this in lots of parts of the country
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Speaker 1: and different parts of the world, and I'm always amazed
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Speaker 1: at the applause that this line gets. You know, it's
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Speaker 1: time for us to stop fussing and fighting over theological
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Speaker 1: issues and just love Jesus and love people. And the
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Speaker 1: room just erupts and amen, praise the Lord. Enough of
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Speaker 1: that theology. Really? Really? But you know, that's where we are,
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Speaker 1: where people will say things like that. Doctrine divides, we say.
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Speaker 1: Let's just love Jesus and love people. Okay, that sounds
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Speaker 1: good until you recognize that first, we have to determine
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Speaker 1: doctrinally who Jesus is. Second, we have to determine doctrinally
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Speaker 1: what love looks like. Number one, love for Jesus doctrinally.
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Speaker 1: Number two, love for people doctrinally. Then we have to
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Speaker 1: determine doctrinally that that is the most important thing for
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Speaker 1: us to do. So we've got five doctrinal assignments for
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Speaker 1: us to get away from doctrine. But it sounds so
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Speaker 1: good and it's so appealing to us. You know why
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Speaker 1: we want to get away from doctrine? Because we don't
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Speaker 1: know it. We're uncomfortable with doctrine. And it just feels
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Speaker 1: a lot better to just say, I'm going to do
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Speaker 1: this because God told me. Really? Now you got another
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Speaker 1: doctrinal issue. That is the doctrine of revelation. What do
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Speaker 1: you mean God told you? Now you're messing with the
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Speaker 1: doctrine of revelation. Now the canon is no longer closed. Well,
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Speaker 1: that's not what we mean, but that's what we say.
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Speaker 1: If you don't mean it, don't say it. So what
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Speaker 1: is this biblical mission of ours? I'd like for us
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Speaker 1: to look in the place that is very familiar to us,
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Speaker 1: but oftentimes those are the places that are the most dangerous,
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Speaker 1: the ones that are most familiar. Those are the ones
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Speaker 1: that we take for granted. So let's go to that
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Speaker 1: familiar place when we look at our mission in the church,
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Speaker 1: and that is the Great Commission. Matthew chapter 28. Let's
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Speaker 1: look at Matthew chapter 28. Beginning at verse 16. Matthew 28,
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Speaker 1: beginning at verse 16. Now the 11 disciples went to Galilee,
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Speaker 1: to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And
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Speaker 1: when they saw him, they worshipped him. But some doubted.
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Speaker 1: And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in
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Speaker 1: heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore,
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Speaker 1: and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the
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Speaker 1: name of the Father and of the Son and of
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Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I
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Speaker 1: have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always
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Speaker 1: to the end of the age. Amen. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.
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Speaker 1: That is our mission. Now, before I unpack this for you,
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Speaker 1: let me just give you a little snapshot of me,
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Speaker 1: who I am, why I'm here. I grew up in
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Speaker 1: Southern California. I grew up in drug-infested, gang-infested South Central
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Speaker 1: Los Angeles, California. I was raised by a single teenage
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Speaker 1: Buddhist mother. I never heard the gospel until my freshman
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Speaker 1: year in college. I was thoroughly unchurched as a young
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Speaker 1: man growing up here in Southern California. Well, I went
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Speaker 1: to college in Houston, Texas at Rice University. And I
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Speaker 1: am now officially the worst kind of Texan. I am
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Speaker 1: a Texan by choice. Yep. Wasn't born there. Just got
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Speaker 1: there quick as I could. And I ain't leaving. But
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Speaker 1: in all seriousness, I do love coming back and visiting
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Speaker 1: my home. here in Southern California. Couldn't afford to live here,
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Speaker 1: but I do enjoy coming back and visiting my home
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Speaker 1: here in Southern California. I've had the opportunity to do
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Speaker 1: a lot of things in ministry. None of them has
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Speaker 1: been more exciting or rewarding than the last year and
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Speaker 1: a half as a church planter. Now, I've served for
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Speaker 1: about 10 years in a number of different churches as
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Speaker 1: a minister of missions, sending teams out to plant churches,
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Speaker 1: served at teaching pastors in a number of churches, but
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Speaker 1: this is the first opportunity that I've had to lead
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Speaker 1: a church planting team. And so we planted a church
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Speaker 1: two years ago in April. And our goal as a
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Speaker 1: church was to plant 10 churches in our first 10
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Speaker 1: years of existence. I am currently personally training seven church
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Speaker 1: planters so that we can plant those 10 churches in
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Speaker 1: our first 10 years of existence as a church. We
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Speaker 1: heard earlier about these barriers that we reach and how
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Speaker 1: we get over these barriers. And our church is currently
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Speaker 1: dealing with a barrier. We have 250 people coming, and
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Speaker 1: we're trying to figure out how to get rid of
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Speaker 1: 75 of them. Training up church planters so they can
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Speaker 1: run folks off. Amen. That's how we're going to deal
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Speaker 1: with that barrier. We've got too many people. And I
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Speaker 1: know that's a radical idea for us, okay, because the
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Speaker 1: idea that we live with, we just assume. That the
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Speaker 1: right thing to do and the biblical thing to do
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Speaker 1: is to always make this thing bigger. That's the only
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Speaker 1: kind of growth that we think about. You know, I
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Speaker 1: would love for us to have a thousand people. I would.
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Speaker 1: But I'd love to have a thousand people meeting in
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Speaker 1: four or five different churches that we planted. Amen. Hallelujah.
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Speaker 1: Praise the Lord. So we got pastors with manageable flocks
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Speaker 1: that they can actually know and shepherd. I love that idea.
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Speaker 1: I love it. Am I against the other? No, I'm
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Speaker 1: not necessarily against the other. But I say that because
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Speaker 1: I'm afraid that we're falling into a trap, the American
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Speaker 1: trap of bigger is better and bigger is better. is
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Speaker 1: best therefore whoever's biggest is right nothing could be further
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Speaker 1: from the truth remember folks nothing grows faster than cancer
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Speaker 1: A brother asked earlier this afternoon, you know, if any
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Speaker 1: of us knew of any churches that were actually growing
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Speaker 1: by compromising the gospel. I wanted to stand up and scream,
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Speaker 1: come back to Houston with me. If you can't say amen,
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Speaker 1: you ought to say ouch. Yes, there are churches, monstrosities
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Speaker 1: that are growing while compromising the gospel. And so I
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Speaker 1: believe in the growth of the church. But 80% of
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Speaker 1: all church growth happens in churches that are less than
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Speaker 1: two years old. We need to plant churches. Amen, hallelujah,
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Speaker 1: praise the Lord. It's an effective growth strategy, planting churches.
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Speaker 1: And so I just want to put that out there
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Speaker 1: so we can think about that as well. I just
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Speaker 1: want to put that out there on the table so
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Speaker 1: we can mull that over as well. I also want
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Speaker 1: to put that out there because oftentimes when we come
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Speaker 1: to a conference like this, we hear from the guys
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Speaker 1: with the big ginormous churches. A lot of times we
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Speaker 1: leave here feeling inadequate, okay? Because somehow that guy's better
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Speaker 1: than me because that guy's got 1,000 people. That guy's
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Speaker 1: got 5,000 people. And when we talk to people, even
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Speaker 1: when they're introduced to When you write a guy's bio,
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Speaker 1: what do we write in the guy's bio? Well, we write, well,
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Speaker 1: he started with this many people. Now he has this
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Speaker 1: many people. He started with this much and now he
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Speaker 1: has that much. He started with a building this size
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Speaker 1: and now he has a building this size. In other words,
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Speaker 1: you should listen to him because his church is bigger
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Speaker 1: than yours. And we can leave here feeling inadequate. I
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Speaker 1: stand here as a guy. He's got 250 people meeting
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Speaker 1: in his church. And if I come back next year,
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Speaker 1: hopefully we'll have gotten rid of 75 of them. And
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Speaker 1: hopefully they'll have been replaced by people that we want
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Speaker 1: to the Lord. So I'm not standing before you as
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Speaker 1: the mega church pastor. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
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Speaker 1: But I'm just glad to be able to tell you
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Speaker 1: that not everybody who's coming up here before you It's
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Speaker 1: coming up here before you because of that. So as
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Speaker 1: we look here at the mission of the church, there's
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Speaker 1: several things I want you to see. And I went
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Speaker 1: back to verse 16 because we have to put this
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Speaker 1: in context. Jesus has been resurrected. His disciples have gone
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Speaker 1: to meet him. They're going to meet him on this
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Speaker 1: mountain and Jesus has appeared to them at the place
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Speaker 1: where he directed them to meet him. And the first
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Speaker 1: thing we see there in verse 17, when they saw him,
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Speaker 1: they worshiped him. The mission of the church is is
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Speaker 1: communicated in the context of worship. Don't miss that. The
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Speaker 1: mission of the church was communicated in the context of worship.
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Speaker 1: Christ is in their midst. And what they do is
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Speaker 1: they don't sit down and begin to take notes. They
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Speaker 1: bow down and they worship him. And it is in
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Speaker 1: the context of bowing down and worshiping Christ, not in
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Speaker 1: the context of a lecture situation. but in the context
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Speaker 1: of the worship of Christ, the worship of the resurrected one,
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Speaker 1: of lifting high the name of Jesus, of bowing down
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Speaker 1: before him and acknowledging his worth and being inspired to
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Speaker 1: all by him. It was given in the context of worship.
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Speaker 1: Here's what's amazing to me. Oftentimes, we look at worship
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Speaker 1: as solely this idea or this aspect of our singing.
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Speaker 1: And we so cheapen this idea or this concept of worship.
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Speaker 1: Let me do a couple of things for you. Look
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Speaker 1: at this. Listen to this from the Cambridge Declaration, from
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Speaker 1: the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. I love this statement. God
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Speaker 1: does not exist to satisfy human ambition, cravings, the appetite
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Speaker 1: of consumption. or our own private spiritual interests. We must
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Speaker 1: focus on God in our worship rather than the satisfaction
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Speaker 1: of our personal needs. God is sovereign in worship. We
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Speaker 1: are not. Our concern must be for God's kingdom, not
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Speaker 1: our own empires, popularity, or success. When we gather together
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Speaker 1: for the worship of God, what we are gathering for
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Speaker 1: is not for a cathartic experience, but for an encounter
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Speaker 1: with the most high God. That's what worship is all about.
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Speaker 1: Not a means to an end, but an end in itself.
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Speaker 1: There's a definition of worship I've come up with for
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Speaker 1: our people to try to help them to get past
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Speaker 1: this whole idea of worship equals singing. Because when you
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Speaker 1: say worship to a person, that's what they think. I mean,
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Speaker 1: everywhere I go, what do they say? They say, we're
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Speaker 1: going to have some worship and then you're going to
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Speaker 1: get up. To which I always respond, oh, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
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Speaker 1: We're going to have some singing. And then I'm going
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Speaker 1: to get up and worship is going to continue. There's
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Speaker 1: a definition that we give to our people. Worship is
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Speaker 1: a two-way conversation wherein we say things to and about
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Speaker 1: God that we know and believe to be true and
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Speaker 1: anxiously anticipate those moments where he in turn speaks to
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Speaker 1: us clearly and powerfully through his word to the end
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Speaker 1: that our lives would be touched, challenged, changed, transformed, and
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Speaker 1: conformed to the very image of Christ. By no means
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Speaker 1: does worship end when we begin the proclamation of the word.
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Speaker 1: All that we do is about the worship of Christ.
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Speaker 1: And the mission of the church was communicated in the
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Speaker 1: context of worship. Oftentimes, if we're having a difficult time
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Speaker 1: understanding our mission as a church, it would help us,
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Speaker 1: it would behoove us to ask ourselves a very simple question.
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Speaker 1: What's our worship like? Are you a worshiper? Well, I'm
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Speaker 1: a pastor. I'm a priest. I didn't ask you that. Well,
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Speaker 1: you know, I serve the church. I work. I didn't
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Speaker 1: ask you that. Well, you know, I lead the music
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Speaker 1: in our church. Didn't ask you that either. Because you
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Speaker 1: can do all of those things and not be a worshiper.
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Speaker 1: You can do all of those things and not ascribe
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Speaker 1: worth to the resurrected Christ. You can do all of
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Speaker 1: those things and not give him all that you have
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Speaker 1: and all that you are. Are you a worshiper? Because
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Speaker 1: worship is about our attitude before the most high. And
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Speaker 1: if our attitude is incorrect and if we are coming
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Speaker 1: to the Lord to do something other than describe worth
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Speaker 1: to him and to humble and submit ourselves before him,
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Speaker 1: how do we expect to get marching orders? If we
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Speaker 1: gather to hear ourselves, it becomes an echo chamber. you
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Speaker 1: don't get your marching orders in an echo chamber. So
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Speaker 1: the mission of the church is communicated in the context
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Speaker 1: of worship. Secondly, look at this. The mission of the
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Speaker 1: church is tied inexorably to the authority of Christ. Verse 18,
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Speaker 1: Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven
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Speaker 1: and on earth has been given to me. All authority
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Speaker 1: in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
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Speaker 1: If I believe that, That all authority on heaven and
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Speaker 1: on earth has been given to Christ. And if I'm
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Speaker 1: looking for the mission of the church, then the place
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Speaker 1: that I look for the mission of the church is where?
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Speaker 1: The person and work and word of Christ. That's where
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Speaker 1: I go to look for the mission of the church.
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Speaker 1: Here's what we've been told. If you want to understand
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Speaker 1: the mission of the church, start with lost people. That's
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Speaker 1: a lie from the pit of hell. That's like understanding God.
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Speaker 1: the nutrition that your child needs by starting with your
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Speaker 1: two-year-old and what they want. You do that and their
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Speaker 1: teeth will rot out. It begins with the authority of Christ.
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Speaker 1: For a long time in Baptist life, we fought, and
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Speaker 1: praise God that we fought. You know, all these people
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Speaker 1: who say, I just wish we'd quit fussing and fighting.
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Speaker 1: That's what we hear down south all the time. All
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Speaker 1: this fussing and fighting. Why are we fussing and fighting? Well,
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Speaker 1: one of the things we were fussing and fighting over
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Speaker 1: was the inerrancy of Scripture. And every denomination that has
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Speaker 1: lost that fight is now dying. I'm glad we fought
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Speaker 1: that fight and would gladly fight that fight again. Some
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Speaker 1: things are worth fighting for, the inerrancy of Scripture being one.
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Speaker 1: But here's the problem. That's not enough. Who cares if
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Speaker 1: we believe in the inerrancy of Scripture if we don't
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Speaker 1: believe in the sufficiency of Scripture? what good is a
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Speaker 1: closed inherent bible the bible is the inherent word of
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Speaker 1: god great so how are you structuring your ministry well
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Speaker 1: based on the church down the road that's growing Wait
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Speaker 1: a minute. You said this was the inerrant word of God,
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Speaker 1: but you're basing the structure of your church upon something
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Speaker 1: that happens to be working somewhere else and not upon
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Speaker 1: what Christ, who said that he would build his church
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Speaker 1: and that all authority in heaven and on earth was
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Speaker 1: given to him, actually said about what the church ought
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Speaker 1: to look like? If we believe in the authority of Christ,
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Speaker 1: then we build our ministries and our evangelism strategies from Scripture.
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Speaker 1: And I say that and people think, oh, yeah, that
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Speaker 1: sounds really good and sure. Yes, absolutely. I mean, we
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Speaker 1: assume that. No, don't assume that. That's like a man
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Speaker 1: who says he assumes that his wife knows that he
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Speaker 1: loves her. You've talked to this guy, haven't you? You've
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Speaker 1: counseled him. She knows I love her. Well, how does
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Speaker 1: she know you love her? Well, I told her so
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Speaker 1: when we got married. If I changed my mind, I'd
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Speaker 1: have said so. Well, yeah, we're based on the authority
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Speaker 1: of the word. Really? Yeah. You know, we've got a
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Speaker 1: charter back there somewhere, and it's got Bible verses in it.
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Speaker 1: But does every decision that you make in your church
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Speaker 1: go back to the word of God? Listen again to
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Speaker 1: the Cambridge Declaration. Scripture alone is the inerrant rule of
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Speaker 1: the church's life. But the evangelical church today has separated
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Speaker 1: scripture from its authoritative function. In practice, the church is
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Speaker 1: guided far too often by the culture. Therapeutic technique, marketing techniques,
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Speaker 1: and the beat of the entertainment world often have far
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Speaker 1: more to say about what the church wants, how it functions,
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Speaker 1: and what it offers than does the word of God.
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Speaker 1: What's the structure of your services like at church? And
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Speaker 1: based on what biblical texts? What's your approach to evangelism
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Speaker 1: like at your church? And based on what biblical texts?
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Speaker 1: What's the authority structure in your church? And based on
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Speaker 1: what biblical texts? What are the staffing positions that you've
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Speaker 1: placed in your church? And based on what biblical texts?
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Speaker 1: Do we believe that the mission of the church comes
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Speaker 1: to us from an authoritative Christ? Or have we merely
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Speaker 1: assumed that Jesus has spoken and his words were relevant 2,000
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Speaker 1: years ago? But Jesus did not live in and therefore
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Speaker 1: cannot possibly have comprehended the day in which we live. Therefore,
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Speaker 1: we need something more. We need something better. We need
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Speaker 1: something newer. We need something more sophisticated than just going
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Speaker 1: back to the antiquated words of Scripture to determine how
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Speaker 1: it is that we will minister to and win a
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Speaker 1: lost and hurting and dying world. Newsflash, he said all
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Speaker 1: authority is given to him in heaven. and on earth.
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Speaker 1: That's why this first context, it's birthed out of this
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Speaker 1: posture of worship. When we come to Christ with an
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Speaker 1: appropriate posture of worship, Our attitude is one of obedience.
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Speaker 1: We cannot be properly worshipful and not be obedient. If
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Speaker 1: you're being disobedient, you're not a worshiper. I don't care
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Speaker 1: how passionate you are when you sing to God. I
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Speaker 1: don't care how passionate you are when you preach the word.
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Speaker 1: If we're not being obedient to the authority of the
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Speaker 1: word of God, we are not true worshipers. The mission
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Speaker 1: of the church is based on Christ and his authority.
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Speaker 1: There are so many things that we give our time,
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Speaker 1: so many things that we give our energy. But there's
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Speaker 1: a very simple question. Based on what biblical texts? That's
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Speaker 1: the question we have to ask. And I know, I know,
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Speaker 1: I understand. We're passionate about lost souls. But here's the
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Speaker 1: mistake that we make. We fall into the trap of
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Speaker 1: pragmatic utilitarianism. And here's what happens. I'm passionate about souls.
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Speaker 1: I want souls to come to the kingdom. And by
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Speaker 1: the way, that's why we exist. We exist to see
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Speaker 1: souls come to the kingdom. Therefore, whatever we end up
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Speaker 1: doing that brings more souls is justifiable. It's called relativism.
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Speaker 1: It's the spirit of the age. The ends justifies the means.
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Speaker 1: It's okay if we destroy a few embryos. We might
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Speaker 1: help somebody to walk. The end justifies the means. All
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Speaker 1: authority is given to me in heaven and on earth,
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Speaker 1: Christ says. So the mission of the church is birthed
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Speaker 1: in this context of worship. The mission of the church
26:33
Speaker 1: is inexorably linked to the authority of Christ. Thirdly, the
26:38
Speaker 1: mission of the church is thoroughly evangelistic. Look at the
26:42
Speaker 1: next part of this. Go therefore and make disciples of
26:45
Speaker 1: all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father
26:47
Speaker 1: and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to
26:49
Speaker 1: observe all that I have commanded you. It's important that
26:52
Speaker 1: we read that whole thing. It's thoroughly evangelistic. And we
26:57
Speaker 1: hear that and we go, amen. That's why I'm here.
26:59
Speaker 1: It's an evangelism conference and I'm here for evangelism. We
27:03
Speaker 1: are trying to grow. We are trying to reach people.
27:05
Speaker 1: We're all about evangelism. You know, one of the things
27:09
Speaker 1: that I enjoy doing is ministering to young couples. My
27:14
Speaker 1: wife and I have a goal of having two families
27:18
Speaker 1: a week in our home. Sometimes that is a young couple.
27:20
Speaker 1: Sometimes that's a whole family. Sometimes that's a couple who's
27:23
Speaker 1: engaged or whatever. And taking under our wings young couples
27:26
Speaker 1: and mentoring young couples and ministering to young couples. And
27:29
Speaker 1: one of the things that we tell young couples all
27:31
Speaker 1: the time, because we get this a lot. You know,
27:33
Speaker 1: these young couples who come in and they're talking about
27:34
Speaker 1: when they're going to get married and they're engaged. Oh,
27:37
Speaker 1: we're going to get married in spring of 2010. Huh?
27:39
Speaker 1: Spring of 2010? What are you? Huh? Huh? Well, yeah,
27:51
Speaker 1: and sometimes they'll say that they're going to get married
27:53
Speaker 1: in the spring of 2010 because there's a certain amount
27:55
Speaker 1: of money that they have to save and a certain
27:57
Speaker 1: place that they wanted to book. And the only way
27:59
Speaker 1: that they can get that certain place and save that
28:01
Speaker 1: kind of money is if they wait until spring of 2010.
28:03
Speaker 1: And there's always a couple of things that we tell them,
28:05
Speaker 1: all right? Just a couple of things, just real quick. Listen, hey,
28:08
Speaker 1: you're here over our house for dinner. This is not
28:10
Speaker 1: marriage counseling, but can we give you a few principles,
28:13
Speaker 1: all right? Principle number one, if y'all want each other,
28:15
Speaker 1: don't wait. Amen. Amen. Strongest man in the Bible, wisest
28:21
Speaker 1: man in the Bible, most godly man in the Bible,
28:22
Speaker 1: they all fell into sexual sin. So unless you're stronger
28:25
Speaker 1: than Samson, wiser than Solomon, or more godly than David,
28:28
Speaker 1: y'all better get married in a hurry. All right? So
28:30
Speaker 1: that's principle number one. Okay? Here's principle number two. Principle
28:40
Speaker 1: number two. How long y'all need to be engaged? Long
28:42
Speaker 1: enough to plan a wedding. Principle number three. How much
28:47
Speaker 1: wedding do you need? How much can you afford without
28:50
Speaker 1: going in hock when you first get married? And then
28:53
Speaker 1: we look at him and we say this. Don't pay
28:56
Speaker 1: so much attention to the wedding that you forget the marriage.
29:02
Speaker 1: Now be careful how loud you amen because I'm about
29:05
Speaker 1: to bring that home. Because that's exactly how we treat evangelism.
29:14
Speaker 1: According to this text, evangelism It's not just about conversion.
29:21
Speaker 1: He says, baptize them in the name of the Father, Son,
29:23
Speaker 1: and the Holy Spirit and teach them to observe all
29:25
Speaker 1: the things that I've taught you. You can't separate evangelism
29:29
Speaker 1: from discipleship. But our attitude about evangelism is like that
29:32
Speaker 1: couple who's paying all the attention to the wedding and
29:35
Speaker 1: none to the marriage. That is why we're dunking so
29:38
Speaker 1: many people who are false. away. Sealing them in their unbelief.
29:46
Speaker 1: Because we've moved from evangelism to salesmanship. We believe evangelism
29:51
Speaker 1: is about doing anything necessary to get a person to
29:55
Speaker 1: repeat after us and to get into the waters of baptism. Newsflash,
29:59
Speaker 1: parable of the soils. There's four soils. Three of them
30:02
Speaker 1: spring up. Only one of them bears fruit. That means
30:06
Speaker 1: over 66% of those who look like something happened, it didn't. J.M.
30:19
Speaker 1: Pendleton in his manual of church order says it is
30:23
Speaker 1: incumbent upon pastors to examine carefully those candidates for baptism.
30:31
Speaker 1: I don't know what you do in your church. In
30:33
Speaker 1: our church, we won't baptize anybody under 12. We don't
30:36
Speaker 1: baptize anybody under 12. Well, that's arbitrary. Of course it's arbitrary.
30:43
Speaker 1: If we'd said four, that would be arbitrary. Okay. Southern
30:50
Speaker 1: Baptist Convention last year. Brother's standing up preaching at the
30:55
Speaker 1: Southern Baptist Convention last year. I'm standing in the back
30:57
Speaker 1: of the room and I hear him say this. And
31:00
Speaker 1: after I heard him say what he said, I paused
31:02
Speaker 1: for a minute because I thought there would be weeping
31:04
Speaker 1: and wailing and gnashing of teeth. But there wasn't, which
31:09
Speaker 1: kind of went on. But his comment was, the only
31:13
Speaker 1: category where we improved in baptisms last year was under
31:17
Speaker 1: age six. To which I responded to a friend of mine,
31:25
Speaker 1: you know what? We need to leave the Presbyterians alone.
31:29
Speaker 1: They baptize infants. We just wait a couple of years.
31:36
Speaker 1: Infant baptism, no. Toddler baptism, absolutely. We'll count that. Being
31:47
Speaker 1: Baptist means that we're committed to the baptism of believers
31:51
Speaker 1: by immersion. That first part is very important. How do
31:56
Speaker 1: you know if a person's a believer? My Bible says
31:58
Speaker 1: they're supposed to bear certain fruit. Can't say amen, you
32:04
Speaker 1: ought to say ouch. How many of you have had
32:07
Speaker 1: the conversation with a 21-year-old who says the same thing?
32:12
Speaker 1: If you've heard it once, you've heard it a thousand times.
32:16
Speaker 1: When I was five, I walked the aisle And he
32:21
Speaker 1: asked me where Jesus was, and I said, in my heart.
32:25
Speaker 1: And I was baptized, but we heard it on the
32:27
Speaker 1: video earlier today, didn't we? I had no idea what
32:31
Speaker 1: I was doing. I did not understand. I did not know.
32:36
Speaker 1: And I've been confused about it ever since. Am I
32:40
Speaker 1: saved or am I not? The fruit in my life
32:43
Speaker 1: says I'm not. But when I walked the aisle as
32:45
Speaker 1: a five-year-old or as a six-year-old, they looked at me
32:48
Speaker 1: and they said, if you prayed that prayer and you
32:51
Speaker 1: meant it, you're saved and you're going to heaven when
32:54
Speaker 1: you die. I have to be honest with you. The
33:02
Speaker 1: first thing I do when people say that to me
33:05
Speaker 1: is call preachers liars. And I look at them and
33:09
Speaker 1: I say... Sweetheart, I'm sorry, but some preacher lied to
33:12
Speaker 1: you because hell is going to be full of people
33:15
Speaker 1: who prayed the sinner's prayer and meant it. Huh? And
33:20
Speaker 1: meant it? Yeah. Yeah. They meant it. They really meant it.
33:29
Speaker 1: They hadn't heard the gospel yet. Because somebody looked at
33:37
Speaker 1: them and gave them a version of the gospel and
33:39
Speaker 1: Something that was almost a gospel. Something that sounds like
33:42
Speaker 1: your life is terrible, but if you want it to
33:44
Speaker 1: be better, you need to pray and ask Jesus into
33:46
Speaker 1: your heart, and everything will be better. Do you want
33:49
Speaker 1: to do that? Heck yeah, I want to do that.
33:52
Speaker 1: Pray this prayer. Okay. Did you mean it? Yeah, I
33:55
Speaker 1: mean it. Because I want that stuff you just told
33:57
Speaker 1: me about. I want to feel better. I want to
33:59
Speaker 1: sleep better at night. I want to go to heaven
34:01
Speaker 1: when I die. Yes, I mean that. But they are
34:04
Speaker 1: absolutely unregenerate. The mission of the church is thoroughly evangelistic.
34:16
Speaker 1: And being thoroughly evangelistic means more than just giving people
34:21
Speaker 1: a few propositions and then dunking them. It means proclaiming
34:27
Speaker 1: the gospel with clarity. Listen to this. Again, the Cambridge Declaration.
34:33
Speaker 1: I love this. We reaffirm that our salvation is accomplished
34:38
Speaker 1: by the mediatorial work of the historic Christ alone. His
34:42
Speaker 1: sinless life and substitutionary atonement alone are sufficient for our
34:46
Speaker 1: justification and reconciliation to the Father. We deny that the
34:50
Speaker 1: gospel is preached if Christ's substitutionary work is not declared
34:55
Speaker 1: and faith in Christ and his work is not solicited.
35:00
Speaker 1: unwarranted confidence and human ability is a product of fallen
35:03
Speaker 1: human nature the false confidence now fills the evangelical world
35:09
Speaker 1: from the self-esteem gospel to the health and wealth gospel
35:12
Speaker 1: from those who have transformed the gospel into a product
35:15
Speaker 1: to be sold and sinners into consumers who want to
35:19
Speaker 1: buy to others who treat the christian faith as being
35:23
Speaker 1: true simply because it works This silences the doctrine of
35:27
Speaker 1: justification regardless of the official commitments of our churches. We
35:37
Speaker 1: got real official sounding statements at our churches. But how
35:42
Speaker 1: many of us prostitute the gospel? Bring in speakers who
35:49
Speaker 1: are incredibly motivational and incredibly manipulative. who preach around the
35:55
Speaker 1: gospel but don't preach the gospel? How many of us
35:58
Speaker 1: bring in big muscle-bound men who break things and have
36:04
Speaker 1: people standing around slack-jawed and basically say, if you want
36:08
Speaker 1: to be big and break things like me, you need
36:10
Speaker 1: to pray to receive Christ. People respond to that stuff
36:20
Speaker 1: and we dunk them and count them at the next
36:22
Speaker 1: annual meeting. Who cares that we're losing around 70% of
36:30
Speaker 1: the young people who are growing up in our churches?
36:33
Speaker 1: Doesn't matter. We're dunking them and we're counting them on
36:38
Speaker 1: our records. See, here's the thing. As Brother Ed said earlier,
36:45
Speaker 1: what we see time after time after time is this.
36:48
Speaker 1: Things like the Barna report will come out and they
36:50
Speaker 1: will say, Christians behave the same way as lost people do.
36:55
Speaker 1: In this area and that area and the other area.
36:57
Speaker 1: How many times have we seen research that shows that?
37:00
Speaker 1: Christians don't behave any different than non-Christians. First of all,
37:04
Speaker 1: according to 1 John, that's a lie. They behave like
37:08
Speaker 1: that because they're not Christians. Their behavior is evidence of
37:13
Speaker 1: the fact that they remain unregenerate. Anybody who behaves like
37:21
Speaker 1: the world belongs to the world. Read 1 John again.
37:33
Speaker 1: They're unconverted. And we have not been thoroughly evangelistic. We're
37:41
Speaker 1: not communicating the gospel clearly and completely to people. Compel
37:48
Speaker 1: them to come to faith in Christ. Now let me
37:51
Speaker 1: make a clarification. because some of you are going to
37:53
Speaker 1: go out of here and, you know, if you preach
37:54
Speaker 1: long enough, you know how people lie on you, all right?
37:58
Speaker 1: Somebody is prepared to leave here tonight saying, Votie Whatcom
38:01
Speaker 1: said a person can't get saved before 12. That ain't
38:04
Speaker 1: what I said. I just said we don't baptize them
38:07
Speaker 1: before then. By the way, W.A. Criswell, he wouldn't baptize
38:10
Speaker 1: them before 10. So I'm not the first Baptist to
38:14
Speaker 1: do something like that. There are others historically who wouldn't
38:18
Speaker 1: do it before 18. So I'm a liberal, okay? that's
38:31
Speaker 1: not what I said that's not what I said at
38:35
Speaker 1: all that's not my point my point is we have
38:39
Speaker 1: to be careful before conferring on someone the fact that
38:44
Speaker 1: they have eternal life the fact is when young ones
38:52
Speaker 1: come to us And they say they believe. We say amen, hallelujah,
38:56
Speaker 1: praise the Lord, keep believing, keep trusting in Christ because
39:00
Speaker 1: therein is salvation. That's what we tell them. And it's
39:04
Speaker 1: the truth. What we don't tell them is because you
39:09
Speaker 1: said Jesus is in my heart, you're going to go
39:12
Speaker 1: to heaven when you die. You're saved. You're a Christian.
39:15
Speaker 1: We don't tell them that because we don't know that.
39:20
Speaker 1: I can't read that in a five-year-old. All I can
39:23
Speaker 1: read in a five-year-old is whether or not they can
39:25
Speaker 1: say what mama told them to say when they walked
39:27
Speaker 1: the aisle. That's all I can read in a five-year-old.
39:37
Speaker 1: Not only is it thoroughly evangelistic, but it is also
39:46
Speaker 1: gloriously global. Go and make disciples of Pantata Ethne. Every
39:56
Speaker 1: people group. You know, not all the people in our
40:00
Speaker 1: church know New Testament Greek. But everybody who's a member
40:05
Speaker 1: of our church knows this New Testament Greek phrase. Pantata Ethne.
40:10
Speaker 1: Because we hammer it home again and again and again
40:14
Speaker 1: and again. We have a program that goes out every
40:16
Speaker 1: week in our church. And every week in our program
40:19
Speaker 1: that goes out that we also pray through on Sunday mornings.
40:23
Speaker 1: There are several areas that we pray for. And one,
40:24
Speaker 1: we pray for one another. Scripture is clear about that.
40:26
Speaker 1: Pray for one another. So there's five families a week
40:28
Speaker 1: that we pray for. And we list these different families
40:30
Speaker 1: out and pray for them. Scripture also says pray for
40:32
Speaker 1: kings and those in authority. So every week we pray
40:34
Speaker 1: for one state, one local, and one national leader. Every
40:38
Speaker 1: week in our prayer ground. And the scripture says that
40:41
Speaker 1: we are to pray that the Lord of the harvest
40:43
Speaker 1: will send forth laborers. So every week in our church
40:45
Speaker 1: we pray for an unreached people group. Every week. And
40:48
Speaker 1: so this prayer ground that goes out every week, Reminds
40:50
Speaker 1: our people and constantly keeps before them the global nature
40:55
Speaker 1: of the mission of the church. Every people group. You know,
41:06
Speaker 1: there's only two other black families in our church. Didn't many.
41:17
Speaker 1: My family and I have not been members of a
41:19
Speaker 1: church filled with people who look like us in over
41:25
Speaker 1: 10 years. One reason why, God got a hold of us.
41:38
Speaker 1: And we said, you know, if God's got this passion
41:41
Speaker 1: for his glory to reach across cultural lines, we choose
41:46
Speaker 1: to Not to be part of a fellowship where everybody
41:49
Speaker 1: looks like us. So we've invested our lives in cross-cultural ministry.
42:07
Speaker 1: Now that makes some of you uncomfortable. Because for some
42:10
Speaker 1: of you, and you'll never admit it, but cross-cultural ministry
42:14
Speaker 1: is when white folks condescend to the lower classes. Amen, lights.
42:27
Speaker 1: We just decided, you know what? God loves everybody, whether
42:30
Speaker 1: he gave them as much melanin as he gave us
42:32
Speaker 1: or not. Just because God didn't give you as much
42:35
Speaker 1: melanin as he gave me doesn't mean he doesn't love
42:37
Speaker 1: you as much. And so my family and I minister
42:46
Speaker 1: to melanin-challenged people. and it constantly reminds us that the
43:01
Speaker 1: mission of the church is not just about reaching people
43:04
Speaker 1: who look like us does that mean that that's everybody's
43:12
Speaker 1: calling of course that's not everybody's calling if it was
43:15
Speaker 1: everybody's calling then You know, you run in one direction,
43:18
Speaker 1: everybody else run in another direction, and they just went
43:20
Speaker 1: over there and you just went over there. But here's
43:26
Speaker 1: my question. What is it that you're committed to in
43:31
Speaker 1: your life that says you believe passionately that the mission
43:38
Speaker 1: of the church is gloriously global? And it's about the
43:47
Speaker 1: gospel going to people who don't necessarily look like you.
43:59
Speaker 1: I guess you could say that's why I'm in Texas.
44:05
Speaker 1: I'm a missionary to the promised land. There's a final
44:16
Speaker 1: piece to this puzzle. The mission of the church was
44:25
Speaker 1: not only born out of this experience of worship, and
44:31
Speaker 1: not only is it tied inexorably to the authority of Christ,
44:35
Speaker 1: not only is it thoroughly evangelistic, and not only is
44:39
Speaker 1: it gloriously global, but it is also impossible in and
44:45
Speaker 1: of ourselves Look at what he says. And behold, I
44:52
Speaker 1: am with you always, even to the end of the age.
44:56
Speaker 1: Isn't this great? You know, I've taught my kids a
45:03
Speaker 1: lot of things. In fact, I'm a homeschool dad, and
45:07
Speaker 1: we educate our children in our home. As a matter
45:09
Speaker 1: of fact, we are a homeschool family because of the
45:12
Speaker 1: Great Commission. Okay? I know that sounds strange to a
45:16
Speaker 1: lot of people. But it's the Great Commission that really
45:18
Speaker 1: led us. It really pushed us over the edge as
45:21
Speaker 1: a homeschool family. Because I looked at what evangelism is
45:24
Speaker 1: supposed to be. Baptizing them in the name of the
45:26
Speaker 1: Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching
45:28
Speaker 1: them to observe everything that I've taught you. How many
45:33
Speaker 1: people can I teach to observe everything that the Lord
45:36
Speaker 1: has taught me? Well, so far there's four of them.
45:41
Speaker 1: And they're the four in my home. And I'm committed
45:44
Speaker 1: to thoroughly evangelizing my children. And Luke chapter 6 verse
45:47
Speaker 1: 40 says, a student is not above his teacher, but everyone,
45:49
Speaker 1: when he is fully trained, will be like his teacher.
45:52
Speaker 1: Whoever's educating our children is discipling our children. And so
45:56
Speaker 1: in an effort to obey the Great Commission, we are
45:58
Speaker 1: thoroughly discipling our children. My oldest son is 15 years old.
46:02
Speaker 1: He turned 15 years old on yesterday. And he travels
46:06
Speaker 1: with me full time. I gave him this trip off
46:08
Speaker 1: because it was his birthday. But Trey travels with me
46:10
Speaker 1: full time. He's 15 years old. He's been in 35
46:13
Speaker 1: states and 11 countries. He's 15 years old. He's studying logic.
46:18
Speaker 1: He's studying systematic theology, studying biology, studying geometry. He's also
46:25
Speaker 1: in his second semester of New Testament Greek. Why? What
46:34
Speaker 1: would I be worth if I poured my life into
46:37
Speaker 1: the rest of the world and did not disciple my
46:39
Speaker 1: own children? In fact, in our little old church in Houston, Texas,
46:55
Speaker 1: we don't have any age-graded ministries of any kind. We
47:00
Speaker 1: don't have a children's ministry. We don't have a youth ministry.
47:02
Speaker 1: We don't have a college ministry. We don't have any
47:05
Speaker 1: of that stuff. You know what we have? We have men.
47:13
Speaker 1: And here's what we do. We look those men in
47:15
Speaker 1: the eye and we say basically this. I double dog
47:19
Speaker 1: dare you to practice the Great Commission in your home.
47:23
Speaker 1: We will equip you. We will teach you. We will
47:26
Speaker 1: hold you accountable. But we ain't doing it for you.
47:29
Speaker 1: You will disciple your wife. And you will disciple your children. Yeah,
47:35
Speaker 1: but my wife is ahead of me. Then that means
47:36
Speaker 1: when she's sleeping, you need to be up catching up.
47:48
Speaker 1: And here's a question that we often get from people. Well,
47:51
Speaker 1: you know, what about if you've got a guy who's
47:52
Speaker 1: a new convert? How's a guy who's a new convert
47:54
Speaker 1: going to go home and disciple his family? It's this
47:57
Speaker 1: wonderful thing called catechism. Here's what we tell a guy
48:00
Speaker 1: who's a new convert. You're going to disciple your family.
48:03
Speaker 1: You're going to catechize them. Well, I haven't been catechized myself.
48:06
Speaker 1: And so we bring him over into a corner and
48:07
Speaker 1: we say, shh, be real quiet. When you're catechizing your family,
48:17
Speaker 1: You only have to be one day ahead. And so
48:30
Speaker 1: we got guys who've been saved a month who are
48:32
Speaker 1: now leading family worship, who are discipling their children in
48:35
Speaker 1: their home, catechizing their children in their home. Been saved
48:39
Speaker 1: a month. Their wives are the happiest women you've ever
48:43
Speaker 1: seen in your life. You want to know why? You
48:46
Speaker 1: know why, Pastor. Because when you talk to a woman
48:49
Speaker 1: in your church, nine times out of ten, what does
48:52
Speaker 1: she say she wants more than anything else in the world?
48:56
Speaker 1: For her husband to step up and lead. Our entire
49:05
Speaker 1: church philosophy and structure is built to answer that prayer.
49:11
Speaker 1: And we do just that. We have men who come
49:12
Speaker 1: to us sometimes. We've had this on a number of occasions. Pastor,
49:16
Speaker 1: I need to talk to you. What's the matter? My kids.
49:22
Speaker 1: Were you having rebellion? No, it's not really that. Well,
49:25
Speaker 1: what is it? My daughter came up to me the
49:29
Speaker 1: other day and said, Daddy, we're about the only family
49:32
Speaker 1: in the church who's not having regular family worship. Pastor,
49:38
Speaker 1: I don't know how to do that. So here's the deal.
49:42
Speaker 1: If I'm going to keep going home at night, you
49:45
Speaker 1: got to teach me how to lead my family in
49:47
Speaker 1: family worship. We gladly do it. And then we give
49:53
Speaker 1: them this last point. The Lord says, Lord, I'm with
49:56
Speaker 1: you always, even to the end of the age. And
49:59
Speaker 1: here's how we explain it to them. You remember when
50:02
Speaker 1: you taught your kids how to ride a bike? Yeah. Yeah.
50:06
Speaker 1: And all of a sudden, they were riding the bike
50:08
Speaker 1: and you held on to the back of the bike.
50:09
Speaker 1: And the reason you held on to the back of
50:11
Speaker 1: the bike was because they didn't have their balance yet
50:13
Speaker 1: and they needed you to help them and hold them up.
50:15
Speaker 1: But they knew and you knew that the moment was
50:18
Speaker 1: going to come when they were finally strong enough and
50:22
Speaker 1: they finally had enough balance for you to let go
50:25
Speaker 1: of the bike and for them to ride themselves and
50:28
Speaker 1: to keep themselves upright. They knew the moment was coming
50:32
Speaker 1: and you knew the moment was coming. Which meant your
50:35
Speaker 1: job was to build up their confidence and their own
50:38
Speaker 1: ability to balance themselves. Well, Jesus says to you, get
50:43
Speaker 1: on the bike and ride. And you look back at
50:46
Speaker 1: him and ask a very simple question, Lord, how good
50:49
Speaker 1: do I have to be at this for you to
50:52
Speaker 1: let go? And his response is, you can't get that good.
50:58
Speaker 1: I'm never going to let go. In fact, your wanting
51:02
Speaker 1: me to let go means that you're in dangerous territory
51:05
Speaker 1: because you actually believe that this is something that you
51:08
Speaker 1: can do in and of yourself you think a marketing
51:11
Speaker 1: scheme can do what only I can do you think
51:14
Speaker 1: the right music can do what only I can do
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Speaker 1: you think the right staffing can do what only I
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Speaker 1: can do the right training the right location the right
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Speaker 1: facility the right PowerPoint when the fact of the matter
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Speaker 1: is until you get it through your fixed skull that
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Speaker 1: you can never ride this bike on your own. You
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Speaker 1: will not enjoy the blessing and the freedom of ministering
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Speaker 1: in the power of the resurrected Christ. He builds his church.
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Speaker 1: Ride the bike, but don't ever expect him to let go.
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Speaker 1: Let's pray. Father, we are grateful to you for the
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Speaker 1: opportunity to serve you But we live in an age
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Speaker 1: that is lying to us. We live in an age
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Speaker 1: that has caused us to depend on ourselves. We live
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Speaker 1: in an age that has caused us to depend on
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Speaker 1: our abilities. We live in an age that has caused
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Speaker 1: us to look into the eyes of unregenerate, lost, God-hating
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Speaker 1: men and women and ask them what they want instead
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Speaker 1: of falling on our faces before the holy God and
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Speaker 1: asking him what they need. Father, we repent. May we
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Speaker 1: no longer be satisfied with mechanisms that are not thoroughly biblical.
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Speaker 1: May we no longer offer our applause and our allegiance
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Speaker 1: to individuals who give us man's wisdom just because it
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Speaker 1: supposedly works. May we no longer be duped into believing
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Speaker 1: that we have outgrown or become too sophisticated for the
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Speaker 1: simplicity of the gospel. And may we never for a
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Speaker 1: moment Believe that this is a ride that we can
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Speaker 1: take apart from you. Our desire is to be thoroughly
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Speaker 1: yours and to be completely and utterly obedient to your commands.
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Speaker 1: May the words that we've heard today be measured by
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Speaker 1: their faithfulness to the word that we've heard from you.
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Speaker 1: This is our prayer. And we ask it because we
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Speaker 1: believe it's in accordance with the will and the nature
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Speaker 1: and the authority of Jesus, who is the Christ.