Latest / Voddie Baucham Sermons / Voddie Baucham - Southern Baptists at Sardis_ The Crisis of Unregenerate Church Membership

Transcript

Voddie Baucham - Southern Baptists at Sardis_ The Crisis of Unregenerate Church Membership · Voddie Baucham Sermons

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: It's indeed a unique honor for me to be here
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: with you on this morning. I have looked forward to
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: this for quite some time. This is a special occasion
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: for me. I want you to know that. I want
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: you to be aware of that fact, that this is
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: one of the most meaningful things that I've ever been
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: called upon to do at any Southern Methodist convention, and
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: I'm grateful. Thank you, Tom, for this invitation, for this opportunity.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: And thank you for making it happen at 6.30 in
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: the morning. I'm going to be asked to speak to
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: the subject of Southern Baptist Sardis. If you'll open your
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Bibles with me to Revelation chapter 3, we will look
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: at that somewhat familiar passage of Scripture, what the Lord
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: has to say to the church at Sardis.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: Before you go there, as.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: I thought about this, I was reminded of a couple
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: of things. I was reminded of George O'Leary in December
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: of 2001. It was an interesting time in December of 2001.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: George O'Leary spent five days as the head coach of
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: Five days.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: Why did he spend just five days as the head
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: coach of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish? Well, because when
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: he was introduced, they read part of his resume, which
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: included a master's degree from New York University, and three
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: varsity letters from the University of New Hampshire. Unfortunately, George O'Leary,
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: although he had attended NYU, did not graduate, had no
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: master's degree from NYU, and although he attended the University
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: of New Hampshire, did not have three varsity letters in
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: football from the University of New Hampshire. He never saw
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: the field. So, He was summarily dismissed, and his name
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: became part of a punchline. But that's okay, because this
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: past academic year, George O'Leary found reprieve.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: How did he find reprieve?
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: Well, Marilee Jones was the Dean of Admissions at no
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: other than the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. That's right, MIT.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: Problem is, this Dean of Admissions, on her resume, listed
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: degrees from three institutions of higher learning. Unfortunately, she didn't
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: even have a B.A. What does this have to do
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: with Southern Baptist? What does this have to do with
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: my address this morning? I'll tell you what it has
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: to do with Southern Baptist. I'll tell you what it
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: has to do with my address this morning. We have
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: been lying on our résumé. And we have been lying
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: so consistently that it is now a joke. As a
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: matter of fact, just last year at the convention, at
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: least one of the presenters at the pastor's conference used
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: the commonly used joke now. There are 16 million Southern Baptists.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: Of course, the FBI couldn't find half of them. In
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: other words, we lie consistently on our resume.
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: Ha, ha, ha. What does that have to do with Sardis?
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: Shall we read?
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: To the angel of the church at Sardis writes, the
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: words of him who has the seven spirits of God
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: and the seven stars, I know your works.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: Wake up.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: Strengthen what remains and is about to die. For I
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: have not found your works complete in the sight of
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: my God. Remember then what you received and heard. Keep
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: it and repent. If you will not wake up, I
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: will come like a thief, and you will not know
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: what hour I will come against you. Yet you have
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: still a few names in Sardis, people who have not
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white,
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: for they are worthy. The one who conquers will be
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: Name out of the book of life.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: I will confess his name before my Father and before
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: his angels. He who has an ear, let him hear
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: what the Spirit says to the churches.
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: Amen. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. There is a stern word
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: here to Sardis, and it is a call to revival.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: As much of what is written to the churches here
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: in chapter 2 and chapter 3 of the book of Revelation,
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: It's a call to revival. A call to awaken. He
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: uses the word there, to awaken. The Greek word that
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: he uses there is the word from which we get.
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: Our word for gregarious.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: Wake up!
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: That's what revival is all about.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: You know, Charles Finney, although theologically he probably would not
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: have joined us here this morning, has one of my
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: favorite quotes about revival. And he says, Revival presupposes declension.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: You don't talk about revival unless something is beginning to stink.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: You don't talk about revival unless something is losing its life. Also,
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: one of my favorite definitions of revival comes from a
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: man who was a mentor of mine, two of them
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: who actually taught me and were mentors of mine, Malcolm
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: McDowell and Alvin Reed, in their book Firefall.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: They define revival this way.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: Genuine revival or spiritual awakening occurs when God supernaturally invades
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: the lives of one or more believers in order to
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: awaken them spiritually for kingdom ministry.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: Amen. I like that. First of all, because it starts
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: out rather Calvinistically.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: Revival happens when God supernaturally invades the lives of one
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: or more believers.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: Amen. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Can't make it happen. Can't
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: put it on the calendar. Can't make it happen.
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: Amen.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: Revival happens when God acts, when God awakens his people.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: God awakens his people for what? It's another part of
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: the definition that I like. Because when we talk about
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: a revival, we think about activity or we think about numbers.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: It's amazing how many things always come back around to
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: the numerical definition. Not that numbers aren't important. I believe
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: numbers are very important. I believe God thinks numbers are important.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, I know God thinks numbers
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: are important. He named the whole book of the Bible Numbers. Amen?
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: But God supernaturally invades the lives of one or more
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: believers in order to awaken them spiritually for kingdom ministry.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: How do you know when genuine revival takes place? Genuine
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: revival takes place when God's people no longer look like
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: they're slumbering. But they are awake spiritually, and their activity
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: is the activity of kingdom ministry. Their activity is defined
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: by kingdom ministry. So many of us, you ask the
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: average person, what would revival look like? And they will
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: tell you something about there would be passion, and there
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: would be large numbers of people, and we would sense it,
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: and we would feel it. And most people define revival
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: as a basketball game. It just took place here on Sunday.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: They had crowds of people. They had passion. They were loud.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: They were enthusiastic. They were praising and worshiping. They weren't
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: praising and worshiping. Of course they were. Of course they were.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: They most assuredly were. My favorite definition of worship from
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: another professor of mine. True worship, true biblical worship occurs
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: when we set our minds' attention and hearts' affection on
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: the Lord and praise Him for who He is.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: And for what He's done.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: What were they doing? What were they doing? They were
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: setting their minds' attention and hearts' affection on the Spurs
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: and praising them for who they were and for what
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: they had done.
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: They were worshiping.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: Is that all revival is? If that's the case, let's
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: just go buy a stadium. I'm sorry, the church in
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: my town already did that. But if that's all revival.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: If that's all revival is, then that's enough, is it not?
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: No.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: Genuine revival occurs when God awakens.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: And I love the fact that, read in the Tao
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: in their definition, genuine revival occurs when God supernaturally invades
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: the lives of one or more believers. We can see
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: genuine revival in the life of a believer. Amen? We
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: can see genuine revival in the meeting of a small
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: church that only has 40 or 50 people. Amen?
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: We could see genuine revival.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: In fact, I believe that if Southern Baptists saw genuine revivals,
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: one of the evidences would be our numbers would drop.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: I mean that.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: With every fiber of my being, I mean that. One
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: of the evidences that God has supernaturally invaded our lives
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: as a convention. And has awakened us from our slumber.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: One of the evidences of that would have to be,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: especially initially, that our numbers would drop significantly. Because the
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: first thing we'd have to do is repent that we
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: look like Sardis.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: Look at what he says.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: I know your works. You have a reputation of being alive,
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: but you are dead. Sardis is this city on a hill.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: It's the capital of this region. It's the capital there
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: in Lydia. It's the city that was seen as indestructible.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: You cannot get there. You have to scale the cliffs
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: to get there. It was majestic and magnificent, and it
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: was a fortress. However, an earthquake felled the city in
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: the second decade of the first century. And so devastated
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: the city that the emperor excused the people of Sardis
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: from paying taxes for five years in order to rebuild
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: the city. And they rebuilt Sardis. And Sardis looked good again.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: And it looked impenetrable again. However, economically, they never recovered.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: So on the outside, they were presenting themselves as the
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: Sardis of old, while on the inside, they were.
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: A mere shell.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: And shadow of their former selves. You have a reputation.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: And your reputation is that you are alive. The truth
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: is something quite different. A couple of weeks ago, my
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: son and I, my son Troy, he's 14. He's my
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: second oldest, and he travels with me full time now.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: We're a homeschool family. We teach our children, educate our
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: children at home. And our family, anyway, the way that
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: we've set it up is, especially when our boy's, reach manhood.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: We have a rite of passage for them. We have
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: a rite of passage for our daughter as well. We
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: have a rite of passage for them and they step
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: into manhood. And when they step into manhood, we expect
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: them to live like men. And one of the things
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: that happens when our boys step into manhood is that
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: my wife takes all of their educational material and dumps
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: them on me. And I become my son's teacher. And
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: so he travels with me full time. And we do
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: school on the road. I travel about eight days a
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: month And so he travels with me and he works
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: with me. He works for me. He is my personal assistant.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: Of course, he didn't get out of.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: Bed this morning at 630.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: I have to dock his pay. But we always try
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: to find things to do that we can learn from
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: when we're on the road.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: And we were in San Diego. San Diego.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: And there in the pier in San Diego, there's a
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: Russian submarine docked there in the pier in San Diego.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: And you can go onto this Russian submarine. It was
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: built in the early 70s.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: And I remember, you know, I remember when I was
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: a kid going to school. We used to be scared,
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: terrified that the Russians were.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: Going to get us. You know, we had drills.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: You know, you had to learn how to get under
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: your table in case somebody dropped a bomb on us
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: or something. And so I'm going over here, and I'm
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: looking at this Russian submarine that's docked here in San Diego.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: And outside of this Russian submarine, there's this large circle.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: And they say that you need to step through that
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: circle before you step onto the submarine.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: Why do you need to step through this large circle?
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: The circle comes to about here, maybe five and a half,
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: six feet in diameter.
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: Why do I need to step through this large circle?
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: The gentleman who was taking us on the tour was
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: a retired Master Chief in the Navy. He said, trust me,
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: just go through there. You'll understand in a minute. We
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: get on the submarine, and down the hull of the submarine,
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: the doors are all these circles. They did not make
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: the doors in shapes that men could walk through. No,
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: you have to lift up your leg about three feet
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: off the ground. And then you have to straddle the door,
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: put your leg down on the other side, cock your head,
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: bring your head back around, get to the other side
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: of the door, and then pull the back leg through.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: The rest of the submarine was as awful as the
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: design of the doors. It was terrible. It was a
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: piece of junk. And I'm standing there going, we were
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: scared of these people?
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: No.
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: Do you know who the Russians were back then?
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: They were like the guy who has the big roll
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: of cash, two or three twenties, surrounding a whole bunch
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: of wands. That's who they were. That's why we were
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: able to win the Cold War. We exposed them economically.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: They had a reputation that they were alive, but ultimately
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: they were dead. In many ways, that's what we're looking
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: at in the Southern Baptist Convention. We have a reputation
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: that we're alive, but in many ways, we're dead.
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: That's our reputation. But can I ask you a question?
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: Why is it that we continually, year after year after year,
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: hear the same message? And the message is this. We
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: need to do more evangelism. We need to win more people.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: We need to baptize more people. Why do we keep
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: hearing that? Why?
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: Over and over again.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: Well, because evangelism is important and we always have to
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: keep evangelism before.
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: Oh, really?
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: Because there's a lot of things that are important. But
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: it's that thing that we always hear about again and
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: again and again. Why?
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: I'll tell you why. Because we're like the Russians.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: And we know that while we have a reputation that
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: we are alive, the fact of the matter is we're not.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: The fact of the matter is we need to get
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: after it. The fact of the matter is we need
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: to do something. Unfortunately, what we're called upon to do
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: is the same thing that we've always done. And someone
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: once said that the definition of insanity is continuing to
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: do the same thing over and over and over again
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: and expecting different results. I believe we need revival. What
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: would that take? What does that look like? Look at
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: the next part of this text.
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: Wake up.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: Strengthen what remains and is about to die. That's the
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: first thing.
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: Wake up.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: Strengthen what remains and is about to die. We have
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: the infrastructure.
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: Amen?
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: We're not dead. We're not off the scene.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: We're not way out in left field. We have the infrastructure.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: We have those things here necessary to be effective from
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: a kingdom perspective. Wake up. Strengthen those things that remain.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: The problem is if we walk around acting like everything
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: is okay, we never strengthen those things that remain.
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: Amen? Wake up.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: Strengthen those things that remain. How do you get there?
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: There's three things he wants to look at. He says,
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: I have not found your works complete in the sight
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: of my God. Remember, then, what you have received and heard.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: That's number one.
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: Second, keep it. And third, repent. Remember. Keep. Repent.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: This first call is a call to remembrance. This call
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: to remembrance here is not just this mental exercise of
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: looking back over the things that you've experienced. No, this
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: call to remember here and the language here is a
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: reaching back to things that were before, things that you
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: didn't even experience yourself. It's reaching back to your history,
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: reaching back to your heritage. One of the things I
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: love and appreciate about Founders is that it is a
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: ministry of remembering.
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: Amen?
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: Remember, don't forget.
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you were anything like me, but
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: during my seminary days, my weakest point, church history. It was.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: I like to say it was the teacher, whatever. It
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: had to be. It couldn't have been something with me.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: It had to be the teacher.
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: But this idea of going through all.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: Of these mountains of information in this short period of
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: time and trying to remember names and dates and places
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: and all these, it was difficult. It wasn't until after
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: my seminary days that I began to appreciate history. It
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: wasn't until after those days that I began to realize
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: the importance of remembering. It wasn't until after those days
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: that I grabbed hold of the Puritans.
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: Amen.
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: You don't even have to be a Calvinist to appreciate
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: Richard Baxter and John Owen. If you don't, you just
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: need to get saved. Amen? To remember, I'm humbled. When
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: I read Jonathan Edwards, I'm humbled. Martin Lloyd-Jones, when I
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: read Preaching and Preachers, I feel like I'm back in
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: my football day. I just want to strap it up
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: and hit somebody. Amen? Remember, remember, there are some people
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: here at this convention, they have no idea about what's
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: happened over the last 20 years.
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: None whatsoever. For a long time, I was one of
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: those people. You can't say amen. You ought to say ouch. Remember.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: Remember.
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: That's the first thing we must do is we must remember.
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: And one of the.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: Reasons that I'm glad that this meeting occurs is that
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: if it didn't and if there wasn't a group like this,
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: there would be those who would conveniently forget some of
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: our roots and some of our Reformed heritage.
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: There would be.
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: Those who would conveniently continue to tell outright lies about
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: the history of Calvinism in the Southern Baptist Convention. That's right.
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: Not misspeak. No. Not make mistakes. No.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: Tell outright lies about the history of Calvinism in the
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: Southern Baptist Convention. Lies like there's never been a time,
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: never been a time, when Southern Baptists would have embraced
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: the five points of Calvinism. Lies like Calvinism has always
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: and everywhere meant an end to evangelism.
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: Lord, help us. Do you read your church history? Amen? Remember. Remember.
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: That's the first thing we must do.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: We must remember where we came from. We have to remember.
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: As a boy, I'll never forget one of the most
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: memorable days in my life. I came home from school
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: and I had a note that I had to give
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: to my mother. I must have been fourth or fifth grade.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: And I came home and I gave my mother this
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: note and I said to my mother, look mom, I
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: didn't do this one. She said, what do you mean?
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: I've been good for like three or four days. I
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: don't know what they say in that note, but this
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: one I didn't do. I had a lot of notes
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: sent home.
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: I had A little bit of trouble in school.
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, I had so much trouble
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: in school that when I was in the fourth grade, Mr.
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: Fourmore was my principal. I had been to Mr.
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: Fourmore's office so many times. And I grew up in
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: Southern California. I grew up in Los Angeles. Here I
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: am in the projects in South Central L.A., my principal, Mr.
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: Fourmore.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: And this wonderful, meek Japanese man had just sort of
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: reached his wit's end with me. He called my mother
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: a number of times, and my mother, who was a
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: single mother, raised me all by herself, would come up.
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: To my school and wear me out.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: First time it happened, Mr. Foremore didn't know what to do.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: He just thought my mother asked him to leave the
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: office so that she could wear me out. I mean,
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: he came back in. He just couldn't believe it. He
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: was appalled. Oh, I'll never call her again. Two weeks later,
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: my mother was right back up there at the school.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: It got so bad that Mr. Foremore looked at me
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: and Mr. Foremore said, listen, Bodie, if you'll be good,
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: there's three weeks left in the semester.
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: By the way, at this time.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: You'll stay out of my office for the rest of
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: the semester.
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: I'll take you to eat anywhere you want to go.
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: I'm a fourth grader.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: My principal looks at me and says, man, you give
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: me three weeks, you write your ticket. Just three weeks,
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: stay out of my office. He didn't even say be good.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: Just stay out of my office for three weeks. So
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: for three weeks, I stayed out of his office and
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: We went to Jack.
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: In the Box. And so I come home with this note.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: And I said, Mom, I'm telling you, it's been a
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: while since I didn't do whatever they said.
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: And she looks at the note and she says, you
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: are being bussed. Bussed.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: She said, yeah, they're going to bus you to another school.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: I mean, I've been good for days.
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: They can't kick me. They're not kicking you out. What
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: do I do?
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: He said, well, you go to an all-black elementary school.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: They're going to send you and several other students from
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: the school to an all-white elementary school. It had never
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: dawned on me that I went to an all-black elementary school.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: I just, wait, what about, yeah, he's black too.
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: Well, what about, no, he's the principal.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: So I was bused from Coliseum Street Elementary School to
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: get this Pacific Palisades Elementary School. It just sounds like
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: a place where there's not a lot of black folks,
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: you know.
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: And there weren't.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: The day before we left, there were several of us.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: Our parents sort of got us together for an impromptu meeting.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: And in this impromptu meeting, they gave us a black
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: history lesson. They talked to us about men like Benjamin O.
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: Davis Jr. and Sr.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: the first black brigadier generals in the Army and Air
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: Force respectively. They talked to us about men like D.
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: Hart Hubbard.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: They talked to us about men like Dr. Martin Luther
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: King Jr. They talked to us about all these people.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: And then the other shoe dropped. And they said to us, remember,
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: before fifth grade, you were about to go to a
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: school with a bunch of people who don't know anything
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: about us. And whatever they end up believing about us
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: will ultimately be a byproduct of the way you conduct
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: yourself there. My mother looked at me and said, when
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: you get on that bus, you remember, we don't have much.
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: And all we do have is our name. You make
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: sure it's intact when you get your behind off that
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: bus at the end of the day.
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: I was a model.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: Student at Coliseum Street. Never, ever had any trouble. Why?
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: Because I remembered. Something I wasn't even around to see,
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: I remembered.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: Was it fair for that weight to be on my
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: shoulders as a fourth or fifth grader? Absolutely not. It
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: wasn't fair, but it was a fact. And I had
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: to remember. And the Lord calls Sardis to remember. And
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: I believe, by implication, calls us to remember. We have
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: an eight-week process of membership in our church. It takes
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: about eight weeks. Eight grueling weeks for a person to.
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: Become a member of our congregation. And during that process...
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: They get.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: Our mission and vision, our philosophy, our strategy, our doctrine,
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: our theology.
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: They get a big chunk of church history.
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: The name of our church is Grace Family Baptist Church.
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: And there are a lot of people who, you know,
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: this is a new church plant. Why are you putting
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: Baptist in the name? Because that's where we are. Go figure.
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: Amen? Amen?
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: I'm not here to argue whether or not everybody has
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: to do that or whatever.
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: That's not my point. But my point is for us,
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: we put it in our name.
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: And there were people who came to our church and
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: they see aspects of our church and they say, you
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: guys aren't Baptist. Why not?
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: Well, number one, y'all just reformed theology stuff, man. Y'all
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: are Taoist.
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: And?
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: Well, that's not Baptist. Who told you that?
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: We have Elders. That's not Baptist. Who told you that?
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: You practice church discipline. That's certainly not Baptist. Okay, you
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: got us there.
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: But, okay. You're a family integrated church. You don't have
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: any kind of age grading in your church. That's not Baptist.
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: Who told you that? Y'all don't even have Sunday school.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: Why do you have that in your name? You know,
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: when they finish our segment, it's been an hour and
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: a half, an hour and a half during that eight-week
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: process on history. And when they finish and they've been
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: taught what a Baptist is, they walk out going, I've
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: been part of Baptist churches all my life. This is
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: the first time I've ever understood what the name means. Why?
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: Because evidently, many of us don't think it's important to remember.
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: There is a reason that we wear that title. We
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: need to remember Felix Mann. We need to remember that
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: man who was Why.
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: Was he drowned?
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: Why did they drown him? Why was that his mode
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: of martyrdom? Because he believed the baptism of believers by immersion.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: So they immersed him to death.
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: For his sake. I can't run away from being Baptist. Remember.
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: Don't just remember those things. Keep them. Keep them.
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: Don't just remember as an exercise in historicity.
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: No, keep them.
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: It's useless to remember if we don't have the intention
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: of keeping, to hold true to who we are. Keep
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: those things. Grasp those things. Own those things. This is
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: incredibly important because I believe there's some non-negotiables. And unfortunately,
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: one of the things that we're trying to do is
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: just sort of widen the tent so extensively that we
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: no longer say what the non-negotiables are. No, there are
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: things that are non-negotiable. Is that a huge laundry list
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: of things? Probably not, but there are things that are non-negotiable.
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: And I would hope, just individually speaking for myself, I
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: would hope that if ultimately I came to a place
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: where what it genuinely meant to be Baptist bumped up
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: against something that I thought it genuinely meant to be
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: Votibachum obeying Scripture, that I have to have enough respect
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: for myself and for the SBC.
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: To part ways.
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: The only reason I'm here is because I don't see that.
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: I'm here because I remember.
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: And I keep.
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: And I can remember and keep And stay right where
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: I am. Unfortunately, when I look around, I see a
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: lot of other folks who are not necessarily remembering. They're
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: not necessarily keeping. But I'm staying where I am. This
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: is my home.
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: I fight for my home. Finally, repent. A change in
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: attitude that leads to a change in behavior. A change
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: in direction. Repent.
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: If I look back and I remember, and if me
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: making the commitment to keep those things that I remember
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: causes me to have to repent, then I repent. And
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: in the time that we have remaining, I just want
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: to share with you seven areas, seven areas where I
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: believe we as Southern Baptists must repent. Seven areas where
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: we need a change in attitude that leads to a
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: change in behavior. Seven areas where if we genuinely believe
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: that God is calling us to revival, that we at.
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: Least need to be revived in these seven areas.
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: And as I look at these seven areas, if you
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: want another treatment of these seven areas, most of these
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: seven areas are dealt with in the 2005 issue of
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: the Southern Baptist Journal of Theology. They look at the
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: conservative resurgence. If you haven't seen that, if you don't
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: have that, I would encourage you to get a copy
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: of it. I would encourage you to get a copy
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: and read 2005 Spring Edition of the Southern Baptist Journal
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: of Theology. I'm going to read several quotes from that
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: issue of that journal as I look at these seven
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: areas where we need to repent. Five of them come
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: directly from that journal. Number one, you need to repent
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: in the area of regenerate church membership. Number two, you
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: need to repent in the area of church discipline. Number three,
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: we need to repent in the area of biblical exposition.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: Number three, we need to repent in the area of
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: biblical church planting. Number five, we need to repent in
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: the area of family discipleship. Number six, we need to
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: repent in the area of biblically qualified leadership. Number seven,
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: I believe we need to repent in the area of
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: Christian education. First of all, regenerate church membership. I believe
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: regenerate church membership involves true evangelism. It's unfortunate that there
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: are those who have looked at these as opposing concepts.
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: We cannot be committed to the idea of regenerate church
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: membership and committed to the idea of evangelism at.
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: The same time.
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: In fact, last year, when there was a resolution brought
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: last year to the floor on the issue of integrity
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: in our church membership, this resolution comes from the floor.
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: We need to be honest about who we are. We
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: need to be honest about our numbers. That's it. It
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: wasn't even going the whole way to some other issues
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: that we'll deal with in a minute. But just the issue,
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: just the issue that is supposed to be a tenet
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: of what it means to be a Southern Baptist, just
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: that one issue.
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: Let's be honest about our membership numbers. The response floored me.
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: In essence, it was, we can't do that because we'd
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: lose a whole list of prospects. That was spoken. Like
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: we're too ignorant to take the list of people who
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: claim to be members but are not and transfer them
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: over to a list of people who are not members
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: but prospects. And I'm not one of these guys who
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: likes to brag on his intellect. But I'm smart enough
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: to figure that out. Not just true evangelism. It's true integrity.
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: It's honesty. It's amazing. It's easier to be a Southern
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: Baptist than to be a coach at Notre Dame. Or
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: an administrator at MIT. Because they've got more integrity than us.
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: If we took them the lie that we consistently tell
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: on our resume, we'd have to resign. And it is
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: genuine evangelism. Listen, folks, can I tell you what we're finding?
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: Many of the people who we see come into faith
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: at our church, they're coming to faith because they're actually
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: hearing the gospel after having been members other places. Lord,
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: help us. When we commit to regenerate church membership, and
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: we don't just assume that because somebody knows enough to
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: know what the tradition calls for, We actually find out
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: that there are people who need to hear the gospel.
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: We need to repent in this area of regenerate church membership.
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: In the area of evangelism as well. And again, this
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: comes from that journal, Tom Rayner's research. Nearly one-third of
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: all Southern Baptist churches are baptizing no persons a year.
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: Not one.
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: Two-thirds baptizing less than six persons a year. Two-thirds of
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: our churches. Baptizing less than six persons a year. A
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: couple of years ago, we had a huge campaign to
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: reach and to baptize a million people. It was a
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: campaign from the top down. The president of the Southern
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: Baptist Convention took a bus tour around these United States
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: to motivate people to this movement to baptize a million.
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: Not only did we fail to reach that number, but
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: our baptismal figures dropped that year. So our problem is
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: not one of emphasis. Listen to this from Tom Rainer.
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: An honest evaluation of the data leads us to but
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: one conclusion. The conservative resurgence has not resulted in a
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: more evangelistic denomination. Indeed, the SBC is less evangelistic today
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: than in the years preceding the conservative resurgence. Rainer's research
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: in this area, half of the people that he surveyed,
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: and these are members of Southern Baptist churches, half the
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: people he surveyed had never heard a clear presentation of
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: the gospel. These are people we count in our figure.
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: About 40% said they confused other issues with salvation, i.e.
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: walking an aisle, joining the church, public statement. 10% admitted
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: to being deceptive in order to gain the political and
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: social capital that comes with being a member of a church.
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: Rainer's conclusion?
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: If our research approximates eternal realities, nearly one-half of all
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: church members may not be Christians. That's of the ones
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: we can find. Listen to Albert Moeller on the issue
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: of church discipline, the next area where we need to repent.
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: Without a recovery of functional church discipline firmly established upon
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: the principles revealed in the Bible, the church will continue
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: its slide into moral dissolution and relativism. We must exercise
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: church discipline.
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: We have to. to we have to.
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: It's amazing i was having a conversation with a member
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: of our church they had called to ask for some
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: advice and some help with another couple that they were
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: actually counseling And when they call.
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: To ask for this help and ask for this advice, and.
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: We're talking, I'm talking to this couple about, you know,
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: what to do as they engage this other couple. What
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: to do as they talk through these issues. And as
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: we're having this conversation, they chime in and say, you know,
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: one of the blessings is that we know if this
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: was us and we were in this situation, The church
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: would discipline us. And one of the things that this
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: couple doesn't have is a church that will discipline them.
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: And this man is walking all over his wife. And
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: this man is walking into his church with another woman.
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: And his church will not discipline him. They won't do it. How?
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: How do we do effective pastoral counseling if we don't
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: exercise church discipline?
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: We can't. We can't.
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: We also need to repent in the area of biblical exposition.
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: We need to repent in the area of biblical exposition.
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: And not just in the sermon, but in our entire
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: philosophy of preaching.
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: We need to repent.
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: We have succumbed to the spirit of the age. And
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: the spirit of the age is the spirit of entertainment.
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: The spirit of the age is the spirit of marketing.
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: Marketing. The spirit of the age is the spirit that
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: sends those flyers.
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: That I know I get in the mail regularly from
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: new church plants who figured out the formula. And the
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: formula is this. The formula is you get some guy who's.
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: Cool and attractive and who's hip. And then you get
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: some guy who does really nice music.
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: And then you get a marketing team to put together
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: a flyer. Now, when you put this flyer together, you
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: need to make sure that you have people who are young, attractive,
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: and ethnically diverse. It doesn't matter that you not only
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: don't have an ethnically diverse membership, but you don't have
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: a membership at all yet. But this is the picture
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: that you need to paint. And you need to use
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: words like this. Exciting, upbeat, contemporary music.
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: Relevant.
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: Relevant messages. Don't use sermons. Don't use preachers. You can
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: use talks, but you have to use relevant. And if
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: you can use life application, man.
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: That's a bonus.
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: And when they show up, you've got to give them
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: what they want. Not a commitment to biblical exposition. Folks,
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: in our church, we started last April in our church.
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: We preached through Ephesians. Now we're preaching through Mark. We
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: finished preaching through Mark. We're going to go to Deuteronomy.
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: Got to have a balanced diet. Why do we commit
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: to doing things like that? Because if we didn't, we'd
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: never preach Deuteronomy. We'd never get in Leviticus. Unless we
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: plan way ahead and say, this is what we have
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: to have for a balanced diet.
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: We wouldn't get to the minor prophets. It just wouldn't happen.
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: It just wouldn't happen.
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: We have to repent in the area of biblical exposition.
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: We have to repent in the area of church planting.
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: If we're honest right now, Our conventions. NAM is planting churches.
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: Local churches aren't planting churches. We have to repent in
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: the area of church planting. We have to. And by
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: the way, for us to repent in the area of
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: church planting means that we have to be revolutionary in
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: the way that we think about training those who would
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: plant the churches. We have to repent in the area
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: of family discipleship. For 30 years we've said to families,
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: we're trained professionals. Please don't try this at home. For
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: 30 years. And now we look back at the family
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: and say, why won't they step up and disciple their kids?
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: Because we have taught them, even through our very structures,
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: that it's not their responsibility. That it's not their job.
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: We don't have those structures in our church, and we're
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: intentional about that. I have three very small problems with,
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: for example, youth ministry. Children's ministry. As a separate, segregated
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: ministry in the church. Three minor problems. Number one, you
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: don't find them anywhere in Scripture. And I believe in
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: the inerrancy and the sufficiency of Scripture. I believe God
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: teaches us how to organize and structure our churches and
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: who the officers ought to be. I don't find the
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: concept of segregated, age-graded ministries anywhere in the text. My
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: second problem is they actually operate against the biblical model
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: of family discipleship. It creates an environment that moves people
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: away from family discipleship. And if you don't believe me,
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: just ask a family who's committed to family discipleship. Because
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: here's what we say. No, we just have these ministries
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: for those kids who don't have that at home. Then
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: why is it that family after family who's committed to
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: family discipleship comes up to me and tells me how
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: guilty they feel for not participating in the youth ministry? Why?
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: Because that is the mechanism that we have chosen. We
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: have screamed to the family, it is our job, not yours.
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: It's not found anywhere in Scripture. It works against the
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: biblical model of family discipleship. And thirdly, it hasn't worked.
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: Since the 1970s, our number of trained youth professionals has
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: grown exponentially. Our number of youth baptisms has declined steadily
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: over that same period.
• 45:19
  Speaker 2: It has not worked. It does not work.
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: Talk to an honest youth pastor who's been doing it
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: for 15 or 20 years and ask him, who are
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: the kids who are going to stay in the faith?
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: He'll tell you at least two groups of kids. Number one,
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: the kid who doesn't need me. The kid who's being
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: discipled at home. That kid's going to stay in the faith.
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: And number two, the kid whose family life is so
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: bad that basically I have adopted him. Other than that,
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: it's hit or miss and mostly miss. Al Mohler in
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: this same issue. points out the fact that right now
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: we're only baptizing a little more than 14% of our
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: own teenagers. A little more than 14% of our own teenagers.
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: We need to repent in the area of biblically qualified leadership.
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: We need to repent in this area. Remember to keep
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: repent in this area of biblically qualified leadership. We don't
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: know what biblically qualified leadership is, folks.
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: We have no idea. I have people talking to me
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: from pastoral search committees all the time. It's amazing, too.
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: I was at a church in our area, and I
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: was preaching for them. It was full of supply. They
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: didn't have a pastor. And two members of the pastor
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: search committee came up and talked to me. And I'm
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: just going to be honest with you here for a moment,
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: all right? Two members of the pastor search committee, they
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: come up and talk to me. And they said, you know,
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: can we have a word? I'm at the book table,
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: you know, finishing. I'm signing some books and some things
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: like this. And they want to talk to me. And,
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: you know, the pride in me said, finally, they want
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: to ask me about this position here. I don't want it,
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: but it's good to be able to say no, you know.
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: And so I come over, and I'm talking to you.
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: It's a big mega church in my area. And these
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: two members of the pulpit committee say, you know, we
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: know you're out there, and you preach in a lot
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: of places. And if you see somebody who you think
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: would be a good candidate, would you please send their
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: name to me?
• 47:09
  Speaker 3: And I'm sitting there thinking, I have no idea.
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: I wish they just insulted me.
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: But, yeah, I'd like.
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: Be glad to do that for you there. Yeah, thanks.
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: I'm going to go pick my pride up over here,
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: if that's okay. We continued our conversation, and I asked
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: them about what they were looking for. And I raised
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: the question about the biblical qualifications of leadership. The two
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: members of the committee looked at each other and looked
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: at me and asked, and I quote, where do we
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: find those qualifications? They're two of the people responsible in
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: one of our churches for finding the man who would
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: be the next pastor of one of our flagships. They
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: don't know about 1 Timothy 3. They don't know about
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: Titus 1. They don't know about 1 Peter 5. They
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: have no idea. They don't know where to go to
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: look for these things. What do they look for? Folks,
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: we look for in a pastor the same thing Enron
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: was looking for when it found their executives. We have
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: no concept of biblically qualified leadership, especially in the area
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: of a man's family. As I read the text, there
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: are only two skills required of a man who would
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: serve as an elder or pastor.
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: Two skills.
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: Numerous character requirements, but two things that are skill related.
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: One is to be able to teach. He has to
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: have that skill.
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: He has to be able to teach. It's not necessarily
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: a character quality. It's more of a skill. The second one,
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: he must manage his own household well.
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: It amazes me. And I'm going to say this here,
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: and I've said it before, and I always get in
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: trouble when I mention it. And I'll try to be
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: more careful here than I've been in the past so
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: that people understand where I'm coming from.
• 49:02
  Speaker 2: We shake our fists over the drinking issue.
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: We pound our chest over the drinking issue. We do.
• 49:08
  Speaker 2: We do.
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: I've got two problems with that. Number one, we don't
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: have a drinking problem with leaders in the SBC. That's
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: a paper tiger that we keep attacking. That is not
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: a problem that we have.
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: It's not. Guys who are leaders in the SBC know
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: that's a death knell.
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: You don't do that. If you do, you hide and
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: you lie. My second problem is this. When we look,
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: for example, in.
• 49:33
  Speaker 2: Titus 1, the passage is clear.
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: The passage is clear that a man qualified for that
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: position cannot abuse alcohol.
• 49:41
  Speaker 2: The passage doesn't say he can't use it. Now listen
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: to me. I don't drink. I'm a teetotaler. Never have.
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: Don't want to. I'm not against us taking stands on
• 49:49
  Speaker 2: issues like that. I'm not. That's not my point. Let
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: me say again.
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: That's not my point. I'm not trying to promote drinking.
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: I'm not mad at people because they take a stand.
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: Here's what bothers me. If you read just before it says,
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: a man must have faithful children. who are not open
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: to the charge of rebellion or dissipation. Why is it
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: that in that same paragraph, this is not a different genre,
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: this is not a different author, this is the same breath.
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: One requirement we raise, the other we lower. Same passage.
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: Biblically qualified leadership, please. You can lose your wife and
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: your children. Just don't have a drink to try to
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: drown your sorrows. Do you see the irony in.
• 50:48
  Speaker 2: This, folks? And again, let me say it again. My
• 50:51
  Speaker 2: point is not.
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: That it's wrong to talk about holiness and righteousness and
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: the way that we present ourselves on the issue of alcohol.
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: That is not my point. My point is the silence
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: is deafening when it comes to a man's marriage and
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: the way that he raises and disciples his children.
• 51:08
  Speaker 3: Why?
• 51:11
  Speaker 2: The fact that I don't drink says nothing about me spiritually.
• 51:14
  Speaker 2: I never have.
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: It takes nothing for me to wake up in the
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: morning and not drink. It takes everything for me to
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: disciple my children. That says something about who I am
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: as a man of God. You and I know well,
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: guys come preaching view of a call and their families
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: have never been met, let alone interviewed. We have not
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: determined if they're discipling and catechizing their children. We have
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: not determined what their marriage looks like. We have not
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: determined at all in any way, shape, form, or fashion
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: whether or not these are men who exemplify the character
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: in their homes that we're looking for in the church.
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: Why don't we worry about that? Because we have a
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: reputation that we are alive, but we are dead. And
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: we have missed The weightier matters. We've completely missed them.
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: We must repent in that area. Finally, we must repent
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: in the area of Christian education.
• 52:16
  Speaker 2: We must.
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: And you guys know that, you know, I've gotten in
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: trouble for bringing resolutions to the SBC on Christian education,
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: and I'm not here, you know, to pound the bully
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: pulpit for that. But let me explain to you where
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: I'm coming from. I'm coming from the same place that
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: the Baptist faith and message is coming from. Christianity is
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: a faith of enlightenment and intelligence. And Jesus Christ abides
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. All sound learning is, therefore,
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: a part of our Christian heritage. The new birth opens
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: all human faculties and creates a thirst for knowledge. Moreover,
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: the cause of education in the kingdom of Christ is
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: coordinate with the cause of life. of missions and general benevolence,
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: and should receive along with these the liberal support of
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: the churches, an adequate system of Christian education is necessary
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: to a complete spiritual program for Christ's people.
• 53:10
  Speaker 2: I believe education is discipleship.
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: Proverbs 22, 6, Train the child in the ways you've
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: known when he's old and he's not depart from it.
• 53:16
  Speaker 2: The New Testament version of that is Luke 6, 40.
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: A student is not above his teacher, but everyone, when
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: he is fully trained, will be like his teacher.
• 53:24
  Speaker 2: I want to be that teacher.
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: From K through 12, a child spends 14,000 seat hours
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: in school. And we're fooling ourselves if we don't believe
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: that that impacts their worldview. The number one indicator of
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: whether or not a child will end up with a
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: biblical worldview is where, how, and by whom they're educated.
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: The number one indicator. How can I know that and
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: not say something about it? And here's the other thing.
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: How can I, how can I, who represents a poor,
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: nappy-headed little black boy in the projects of South Central
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: Los Angeles, going to inferior schools, not open my mouth
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: and say something about the fact that that's still going
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: on and that we've done nothing to provide alternatives. Can
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: I be honest with you? I would love to end
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: government education in America.
• 54:16
  Speaker 2: I'd love to. I'd love for all education to be privatized.
• 54:20
  Speaker 2: I'd love to. I'd love to see that.
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: Why? Because education in America is academically, morally, spiritually, and
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: economically inferior.
• 54:31
  Speaker 2: It's killing us. It's hurting us.
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: 14,000 seat hours. I'd love for us to have those hours.
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: I would love for the people in our communities to
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: look around and say, there is an affordable alternative. Something
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: that's not hard to do. And for us to be
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: the ones who are the disciples of coming generations. not
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: just for an hour or two on Sundays, but Mondays
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: through Fridays. I believe that with every fiber of my being.
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: And I believe we need to repent in this area.
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: I believe we've missed the boat in this area. And
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: on these seven areas, we must repent. We must remember.
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: We've got to. We must keep what we remember. And
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: we must repent. If we don't, The Lord says he's
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: going to visit us. We don't know when.
• 55:27
  Speaker 2: But it will be like a thief in the night.
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: Here's the good news. There are those in Sardis who
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: are still alive. And I believe that this meeting this
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: morning is evidence of that. There are those who are
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: still alive and whose garments are yet white. Here's what
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: that doesn't mean. That doesn't mean that we beat our chests.
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: And say we're better than. That means that we smote
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: our breasts. And say Lord please bring our brothers along.
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: That's my prayer. Lord please bring my brothers along. Lord
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: please wake us up. Lord please make us miserable in
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: our current circumstance. Lord please raise up voices who will
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: call for integrity. Lord please raise up voices who will
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: say enough already. of this living off of our reputation
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: that says that we're alive. Let's be honest about the
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: fact that in many areas we have not completed the task,
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: and there is the stench of death all around us.
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: I do not want to see an end to the
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: Southern Baptist Convention. This is my home, and I will
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: fight for it. My prayer is that that fight will
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: be won, that will bear much fruit. The Lord may
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: not need the SBC. But right now, just to be
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: honest with you, I do. I need my brothers. I
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: want to be in this fight with my brothers. I
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: serve a God who has no needs. I serve a
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: God who is completely and utterly self-sufficient. He is more
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: than enough. But in the meantime, I am so incredibly
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: grateful that he has allowed me to be a part
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: of a brotherhood of a convention of confessing free churches
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: who voluntarily associate and partner with each other for the
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: cause of Christ, who lock arms with each other and
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: say together we will stand against the gates of hell
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: and together we will prevail. I need that desperately. I
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: want that desperately. But I will not have it at
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: the expense of honesty and or integrity. We have to
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: be at least as honest as MIT. We have to
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: have at least as much integrity as Notre Dame. Until
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: we do, how could we ever expect for the Lord
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: to supernaturally invade our lives and awaken us to kingdom ministry?
• 58:15
  Speaker 3: Amen.
• 58:27
  Speaker 2: Thank you, Dr.
• 58:27
  Speaker 3: Baucom.
• 58:28
  Speaker 2: We so appreciate your ministry here this morning.
• 58:31
  Speaker 4: Before we are dismissed, I want to inform you of
• 58:35
  Speaker 4: something that I am very excited about that is just
• 58:37
  Speaker 4: being announced this week. November the 26th, 27th, and 28th
• 58:42
  Speaker 4: of this year, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, in conjunction with
• 58:47
  Speaker 4: Founders Ministries, is going to host a conference being sponsored
• 58:51
  Speaker 4: by Lifeway at Ridgecrest, North Carolina.
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: Called Building Bridges, Southern Baptists and Calvinism.
• 58:59
  Speaker 4: And we are looking forward to bringing together speakers that
• 59:01
  Speaker 4: will represent different perspectives and having a no-holds-barred kind of
• 59:08
  Speaker 4: conversation about these issues that have been so divisive in
• 59:11
  Speaker 4: our convention, and to do so in a way that
• 59:14
  Speaker 4: will demonstrate that Christian brothers can talk about significant theology
• 59:19
  Speaker 4: and significant theological differences and do so in a way
• 59:22
  Speaker 4: that honors Jesus Christ. That's November the 26th. through 28
• 59:27
  Speaker 4: at Ridgecrest, North Carolina. Details will be forthcoming over the
• 59:31
  Speaker 4: next few weeks, but mark those days on your calendar,
• 59:33
  Speaker 4: and if at all possible, plan to be there. Let's
• 59:36
  Speaker 4: stand together, and we will pray and be dismissed. Our Father,
• 59:43
  Speaker 4: we bow to you this morning with grateful hearts. We
• 59:46
  Speaker 4: thank you for your word. We thank you that you've
• 59:49
  Speaker 4: not left us in this world. to our own imaginations
• 59:54
  Speaker 4: and our own efforts to try to figure out how
• 59:57
  Speaker 4: we ought to live. But You have spoken to us clearly.
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 4: You have given to us all that we need for
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 4: this life and the life to come in the Holy Scriptures.
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 4: We praise You for the way the Scriptures have led
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 4: us to Christ and revealed Him to us and in us.
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 4: and for Your Spirit who has given us the Word
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 4: and who makes Jesus Christ known. And we ask that
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 4: You would seal to our hearts the things that we've
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 4: considered from Your Word this morning.
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 2: Oh God, please renew.
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 4: Us, strengthen us, help us in our local congregations to
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 4: strengthen the things that remain. We do pray for Your
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 4: blessings upon this convention of churches and for our deliberations
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 4: today and tomorrow. Help us, O God, to conduct business
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 4: in a way.
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: That will glorify You, that will benefit the cause of
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: Christ in this land and among the peoples around the world.
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 2: Our eyes are upon You.
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: Our hope is in You.
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 2: We have nowhere else to go.
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 4: And so, Father, we are asking for the sake and
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 4: glory of Your own name, for the honor of Jesus Christ,
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 4: Your Son, that You would hear our prayers. Go with us,
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 4: we ask now, throughout these days. In Jesus' name, Amen.
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 4: We do have the books of Family Driven Faith here
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 4: at the front.
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 2: If you would like to secure a copy of those,
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 2: those will be available for purchase.