SPEAKER_04: Acts chapter 2.
SPEAKER_04: And also, would you look with me and pick up uh 1 Timothy chapter 3?
SPEAKER_04: Acts chapter 2 and 1 Timothy Chapter 3.
SPEAKER_04: I want to give you some things that when you read these with me at the start, you may say they're basic, but they're a foundation to what I want to get to in in just a few moments from now.
SPEAKER_04: Acts chapter 2 and 1 Timothy chapter 3.
SPEAKER_04: In Acts chapter 2, would you look with me at verse number 41?
SPEAKER_04: Verse 41.
SPEAKER_04: They then they that gladly received his word were baptized.
SPEAKER_04: And the same day there were, what's the next word?
SPEAKER_04: Added.
SPEAKER_04: Unto them about three thousand souls.
SPEAKER_04: Who did the adding?
SPEAKER_04: God did.
SPEAKER_04: Look at verse 47.
SPEAKER_04: Praising God and having favor with all the people.
SPEAKER_04: And who?
SPEAKER_04: The Lord did what?
SPEAKER_04: Added to the church daily, such as should be saved.
SPEAKER_04: You know, brethren, God's the one that adds to the church.
SPEAKER_04: God's the one who sets it up.
SPEAKER_04: And look at 1 Timothy chapter 3.
SPEAKER_04: And let me show you what he likens it to.
SPEAKER_04: 1 Timothy chapter 3.
SPEAKER_04: And this will have an impact on you personally in just a few minutes from now.
SPEAKER_04: 1 Timothy chapter 3.
SPEAKER_04: And notice what he says, brethren, in verse 15.
SPEAKER_04: But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the what?
SPEAKER_04: The house of God, which is the what?
SPEAKER_04: The church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
SPEAKER_04: I realize the house of God is also likened unto our bodies, which is the temple.
SPEAKER_04: But in this verse, it seems like he likens the church, if you would, to the house of God.
SPEAKER_04: And I just have to say, I think he's talking about the local New Testament church.
SPEAKER_04: Not so much the church that's going to be gathered together later on, which it will be when the eagles are gathered together.
SPEAKER_04: But right now, he's organized systematically in order.
SPEAKER_04: Local New Testament churches that in here he refers to as the house of God.
SPEAKER_04: Now, understanding the word there, he says verse 3, verse chapter 3, verse 15, the house.
SPEAKER_04: The house likens it to the church.
SPEAKER_04: With that in mind, the house, look if you would in uh Ephesians chapter 2.
SPEAKER_04: Ephesians chapter 2.
SPEAKER_04: Stay with me.
SPEAKER_04: Because it is a house, if you would, according to biblical standards.
SPEAKER_04: Ephesians chapter 2.
SPEAKER_04: And that's why he uses some certain terminology after you understand what the what the house, if you would, is all about.
SPEAKER_04: Look if you would in Ephesians 2, and notice, if you would, verse 19.
SPEAKER_04: Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the what?
SPEAKER_04: The household of God.
SPEAKER_04: And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner what?
SPEAKER_04: Stone.
SPEAKER_04: It says there's a foundation, there's a stone, and if you would, a house, when he think of these houses in these days, they had a cornerstone, if you would, and they had a foundation.
SPEAKER_04: Then he says in verse 21, look at it, in whom all the what?
SPEAKER_04: Say it.
SPEAKER_04: Building.
SPEAKER_04: And then notice the next two words.
SPEAKER_04: Fitly what?
SPEAKER_04: Framed.
SPEAKER_04: And if you know anything about construction, a house has to be properly framed and set up with the foundation and the cornerstone.
SPEAKER_04: And what he's talking about here is the church.
SPEAKER_04: The church has to be fitly framed together, groweth up into an holy temple in the Lord.
SPEAKER_04: Now I understand you could also liken this to a body, if you would, in whom you also are built it together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
SPEAKER_04: But he also likens it to a church as the house of God.
SPEAKER_04: It's fitly framed together.
SPEAKER_04: And notice if you would Ephesians chapter 4, a couple of chapters over, Ephesians chapter 4.
SPEAKER_04: Old material to some, new material to some, reiteration to some who forgot about it a little bit.
SPEAKER_04: Ephesians 4.
SPEAKER_04: And look if you would at verse 16.
SPEAKER_04: Verse 16.
SPEAKER_04: Go to verse 15.
SPEAKER_04: But speaking the truth in love may grow up unto him in all things which the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, what, fitly what?
SPEAKER_04: Joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth according to the effectual working and the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.
SPEAKER_04: The idea there, if you read that verse carefully, is every part has a place.
SPEAKER_04: Every joint supplieth in some way, shape, or form, and every joint and every part increases the strength of the body, if you would.
SPEAKER_04: And by that he's talking about this.
SPEAKER_04: Every person in the church is supposed to have a part.
SPEAKER_04: Every person of the church supplies in some way, shape, or form.
SPEAKER_04: And the whole idea of the church and the house is to increase the strength of itself so it'll stand and do what God wants it to do.
SPEAKER_04: Are you with me?
SPEAKER_04: There is no unimportant job in the church.
SPEAKER_04: Now, with that in mind, look at 1 Corinthians chapter 12.
SPEAKER_04: 1 Corinthians chapter 12.
SPEAKER_04: And this will apply to you in just a moment.
SPEAKER_04: 1 Corinthians chapter 12.
SPEAKER_04: Don't you want our church to be strong?
SPEAKER_04: Our house should be strong, so when the winds beat on it, it stands.
SPEAKER_04: 1 Corinthians chapter 12.
SPEAKER_04: And sometimes I believe God lets the wind and the rain beat on it, and especially when you got it on a good foundation.
SPEAKER_04: And by the way, the foundation is not Doug Fisher.
SPEAKER_04: Mark it down.
SPEAKER_04: We do not have hero worship in this church.
SPEAKER_04: If there was anybody worshiping me as a hero, I'd dispel it.
SPEAKER_04: Now we'll be passing out pictures for you afterwards.
SPEAKER_04: It goes in your area where you have the candles and putting the and the fruit underneath would be nice.
SPEAKER_04: We make fun of it because it should be funny.
SPEAKER_04: You say, well, well, if you're not the head, who is?
SPEAKER_04: Jesus Christ is still the head.
SPEAKER_04: Hey, I'm just an under-shepherd, just a servant, just somebody that needs to stand up here and gives a little direction once in a while.
SPEAKER_04: But listen, we've got an authority right here.
SPEAKER_04: So the idea is that we all fit together, jointly compacted, if you would, and God adds to it.
SPEAKER_04: Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 12.
SPEAKER_04: And notice, if you would, verse 14.
SPEAKER_04: Verse 14.
SPEAKER_04: For the body is not one member, but what?
SPEAKER_04: Say it.
SPEAKER_04: Many.
SPEAKER_04: Verse 18.
SPEAKER_04: But now hath God, what's the next word?
SPEAKER_04: Set.
SPEAKER_04: Hey, listen, uh, you guys that understand construction, you ladies, just bear with me.
SPEAKER_04: I know about as much as is anybody, but the idea is this.
SPEAKER_04: I know this.
SPEAKER_04: When you build a house, you don't haphazardly do it.
SPEAKER_04: There's a way that you set that frame, and there's a systematic order to setting that house up, or the whole thing falls apart.
SPEAKER_04: I uh recently read a book of some men who built a huge tabernacle.
SPEAKER_04: They were Amish.
SPEAKER_04: And this thing was huge.
SPEAKER_04: Seats uh 1,200 people.
SPEAKER_04: And I read this little book on it and everything, and they would talk about, and these guys had just passed it down from generation to generation, and the blueprints was kind of like they had sketch it out and everything, and they'd call the beams and everything fellows and this guy and all that, and it was kind of like it was kind of like this building took on a personality.
SPEAKER_04: And he said, now listen, I mean they had they had huge beams, and the thing was huge.
SPEAKER_04: It was uh, I believe they said it was ten stories high from the foundation to the top of the I know.
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, they built it.
SPEAKER_04: And uh they said, now this fellow up here, this big fellow up here, these guys will join it this way, and it was all those things where they would join it with wood pegs and all that.
SPEAKER_04: And then I tell you something, as I read that thing, I thought about the local New Testament church, how it had to be set by somebody that knew what they were doing.
SPEAKER_04: And by the way, let me confess to you tonight, I don't know what I'm doing.
SPEAKER_04: They say, Well, man, I don't want to be a part of a church like that, that the pastor doesn't know what he's doing.
SPEAKER_04: Do you know what you're doing?
SPEAKER_04: Do you understand how to lead what you're in charge of?
SPEAKER_04: Come on, talk to me.
SPEAKER_04: Oh, I got it all figured out.
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you're ready for a fall, too.
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I understand some of it, but I understand this too.
SPEAKER_04: Best thing I can do is fall upon my knees and say, God, set it in order.
SPEAKER_04: And don't let me mess it up.
SPEAKER_04: Best thing I can do in those Amish we're building, I just sit and pray for those guys and say, Don't fall off up there, y'all.
SPEAKER_04: Make that pulpit big so I can preach from that puppy.
SPEAKER_04: That's my job.
SPEAKER_04: For now hath God set the members, every one of them, in the body, as it has what?
SPEAKER_04: Say it, pleased him.
SPEAKER_04: Now certainly God gives us direction what to do and how to do, and we have to act upon it.
SPEAKER_04: And when I say you say, man, why would I want an ignorant pastor that doesn't know what he's doing?
SPEAKER_04: I don't know about you, but I'd rather admit from time to time that I don't want to know what I'm doing, rather than standing up here and profess some strength that I really don't have, so you believe something, so you don't think I'm weak.
SPEAKER_04: Bible says when I'm weak, then he is strong.
SPEAKER_04: Amen.
SPEAKER_04: Somebody says, what are we gonna do next?
SPEAKER_04: I don't know.
SPEAKER_04: What are we doing here?
SPEAKER_04: But I know this, he does know, and as long as he knows, and we keep our eyes on him that can see, we're gonna be just fine.
SPEAKER_04: Now he says he sets the members, every one of them, in the body, as it pleased him.
SPEAKER_04: Look, if you would, a little bit farther, and notice if you would, verse 24.
SPEAKER_04: For our comely parts have no need.
SPEAKER_04: But God had tempered the body together.
SPEAKER_04: That's that house, having given more abundant honor to that part which what?
SPEAKER_04: Lack.
SPEAKER_04: That there should be no schism in the body.
SPEAKER_04: Hey, we don't want cracks in the foundation, we don't want cracks in the rafters, we don't want it to get to where old timber warps, but that the members should have the same care one for another.
SPEAKER_04: Please look up here.
SPEAKER_04: Uh, you know what?
SPEAKER_04: You ever look at your body, and the more you understand it, and the more I go to surgeries and and and people are operated on and different things like that, the more I understand something, these bodies didn't evolve.
SPEAKER_04: You gotta be crazy to believe that.
SPEAKER_04: I mean, you really have to be crazy to believe that these bodies just happened to, after millions of years and billions of years, that that this nose uh was put right here.
SPEAKER_04: And that these ears were put right here, and these eyes were put right here.
SPEAKER_04: And I mean, these hands and all that, that these things evolved.
SPEAKER_04: No, God placed them that way when he formed Adam and when he formed Eve.
SPEAKER_04: You say, I already know that, but think about it for a moment, and God placed it that way, and man still can't figure it out.
SPEAKER_04: Just like he sets the body, he sets the church.
SPEAKER_04: Now, if you were looking with me at 1 Corinthians 14.
SPEAKER_04: 1 Corinthians 14, stay with me.
SPEAKER_04: We're going somewhere.
SPEAKER_04: 1 Corinthians 14, and then would you pick up 1 Chronicles 15?
SPEAKER_04: 1 Corinthians 14 and 1 Chronicles 15.
SPEAKER_04: God brought you to this church and God brought you to this place and set you here, and sets you in the place for a reason.
SPEAKER_04: And by the way, if you're new or something like that, God's got a purpose for you.
SPEAKER_04: And every purpose and every part is important.
SPEAKER_04: 1 Corinthians 14 and 1 Chronicles chapter 15.
SPEAKER_04: Now notice something in 1 Corinthians 14.
SPEAKER_04: Look at verse 5.
SPEAKER_04: I word that you all spake with tongues.
SPEAKER_04: But rather.
SPEAKER_04: You ought to underline, but rather.
SPEAKER_04: You see, one of them, the group, the charismatics, they just want you to see the first part.
SPEAKER_04: But read the scripture and it says, but rather that ye prophesied.
SPEAKER_04: You know what that is?
SPEAKER_04: Preaching.
SPEAKER_04: For greater is he that prophesies than he that speaketh with tongues.
SPEAKER_04: Then, you know, if that be the case, I ought to pray more to be a preacher than to speak with tongues.
SPEAKER_04: And by the way, those tongues are just languages easy to be understood by those who hear.
SPEAKER_04: So the idea is then this, except he interpret that, say it, the church may receive what?
SPEAKER_04: Say it, edifying.
SPEAKER_04: See that some people think 1 Corinthians 14 is all just about tongues, but if you look at it, it's more about the church than anything.
SPEAKER_04: Look if you would at verse 12.
SPEAKER_04: Even so much for as much as ye are zealous of spiritual gift, seek that ye may excel to the what?
SPEAKER_04: Edifying of the what?
SPEAKER_04: Of the church.
SPEAKER_04: The whole idea of 1 Corinthians chapter 14 is edifying the church, edifying the church, strengthening the church, enlightening the church.
SPEAKER_04: If you look in verse 19, it says, Yet in the church, I'd rather speak five words with my what?
SPEAKER_04: Say it, understanding, than by my voice I might teach others also.
SPEAKER_04: And then 10,000 words in an unknown tongue.
SPEAKER_04: What a language that you couldn't understand.
SPEAKER_04: Verse 23 talks about the church.
SPEAKER_04: Verse 28 talks about the church.
SPEAKER_04: And he doesn't leave you any imaginations about what 1 Corinthians 14 is all about.
SPEAKER_04: Look at verse 40.
SPEAKER_04: Let all things be done what?
SPEAKER_04: Decently and what?
SPEAKER_04: In order.
SPEAKER_04: Where?
SPEAKER_04: In the church.
SPEAKER_04: What he's saying is there is an order to the church.
SPEAKER_04: There's a systematic way that God has set up the church.
SPEAKER_04: Now, different churches have different personalities.
SPEAKER_04: Our personality is different than some other church.
SPEAKER_04: It doesn't mean we're the best church in town.
SPEAKER_04: Doesn't mean we're the only church in town.
SPEAKER_04: It just means we are a church in town.
SPEAKER_04: Amen.
SPEAKER_04: Oh, it's the best church in town.
SPEAKER_04: Well, it's the best church for you in town.
SPEAKER_04: Amen?
SPEAKER_04: But that doesn't mean we're out ripping other churches up.
SPEAKER_04: We may be ripping other churches up that teach false doctrine.
SPEAKER_04: And it's not so much we're reach ripping the church, we just want to expose heresy.
SPEAKER_04: But the idea here is all things are supposed to be done decently and verse 40, look at it.
SPEAKER_04: Everybody say it.
SPEAKER_04: Last two words.
SPEAKER_04: In order.
SPEAKER_04: There's a way to accomplish where there's not chaos.
SPEAKER_04: Look at 1 Corinthians, or 1 Chronicles 15.
SPEAKER_04: So he sets the members in the body.
SPEAKER_04: Stay with me now.
SPEAKER_04: There'll be something for you in a moment in here.
SPEAKER_04: 1 Chronicles 15.
SPEAKER_04: He sets the body in order as it pleases him.
SPEAKER_04: He tempers it together.
SPEAKER_04: He fitly frames it together.
SPEAKER_04: He joins it together systematically in order so the thing doesn't fall apart.
SPEAKER_04: Just like you would build a house or a building, it systematically has to be done so it doesn't fall apart.
SPEAKER_04: And the master builder knows what he's doing.
SPEAKER_04: 1 Chronicles chapter 15.
SPEAKER_04: Now David does something here, and he brings the ark back, and he's zealous about it, and he wants to bring the ark back, and they bring it back the way the Philistines took it out on a cart.
SPEAKER_04: And when they get back down there with the thing, and David understands what's going on, and one of the guys dies, chapter, 1 Chronicles 14, you'll see that David perceives himself to be king, and look what he says in verse 12.
SPEAKER_04: I'm sorry, 1 Chronicles 15, verse 12.
SPEAKER_04: 1 Chronicles 15, verse 12.
SPEAKER_04: And say unto them, Ye are the chief of the fathers of the Levites, sanctify yourselves, both you and your brethren, that ye may bring up the ark of the Lord God of Israel unto the place that I've prepared for it.
SPEAKER_04: For because ye did it not at the first, the Lord our God made a breach upon us.
SPEAKER_04: You know what he says?
SPEAKER_04: Because we didn't do it in due order in the first place, God broke through and one of us died.
SPEAKER_04: For that we sought him not after the say the next word.
SPEAKER_04: Do, next word, order.
SPEAKER_04: The due order.
SPEAKER_04: Well, who orders it?
SPEAKER_04: God orders it.
SPEAKER_04: And the idea is David got out of order.
SPEAKER_04: You say, well, David was a great man.
SPEAKER_04: Please look up here.
SPEAKER_04: The greatest man going, the greatest pastor going.
SPEAKER_04: If he gets out of due order, God won't be pleased.
SPEAKER_04: David was a great man of God, a man after God's own heart.
SPEAKER_04: But when David got out of due order, God says, I don't like it, you're going to do it my way.
SPEAKER_04: With that in mind, look at 2 Chronicles 29.
SPEAKER_04: 2 Chronicles 29.
SPEAKER_04: You don't mind looking at your Bible, do you?
SPEAKER_04: We're coming to a place where it all makes sense in a minute.
SPEAKER_04: 2 Chronicles chapter 29.
SPEAKER_04: You see, all through here you'll see God is very ordered.
SPEAKER_04: But he's not ordered to the place where he chokes it.
SPEAKER_04: 2 Chronicles 29.
SPEAKER_04: Oh, if you would, uh, verse 34.
SPEAKER_04: Verse 34.
SPEAKER_04: They're offering offerings here in preparation for the Passover.
SPEAKER_04: Verse 34 of 2 Chronicles 29.
SPEAKER_04: But the priests were too few, so that they could not flay all the burnt offerings.
SPEAKER_04: Wherefore their brethren, the Levites, did help them, till the work was in, and until the other priests had sanctified themselves.
SPEAKER_04: For the Levites were more upright in heart to sanctify themselves than the priests.
SPEAKER_04: You see, there wasn't enough, if you would, men that were priests that were prepared to get the job done.
SPEAKER_04: And also the burnt offerings were in abundance, with the fat of the peace offerings and the drink offerings for every burnt offering.
SPEAKER_04: So the service of the house of the Lord was, would you say the next three words?
SPEAKER_04: Set in order.
SPEAKER_04: Now, brethren, just like that service had to be set in order, the local New Testament church still today needs to maintain its order.
SPEAKER_04: There needs to be, if you would, please look up here, there needs to be guardrails on the road to keep us going down the right path.
SPEAKER_04: Somebody says, why does this church have standards and why does this church have have methods?
SPEAKER_04: For example, if you sing in our choir, we have a dress code.
SPEAKER_04: You shouldn't be offended by that.
SPEAKER_04: It just keeps things decently and in order.
SPEAKER_04: Somebody says, Well, I don't believe in that.
SPEAKER_04: You know, where you choke it off.
SPEAKER_04: You know what, when you join the military, you know what they do?
SPEAKER_04: They say, Here, you're wearing that.
SPEAKER_04: And you're going to wear it this way.
SPEAKER_04: And we're going to inspect you to make sure you wear it that way.
SPEAKER_04: And somebody says, Well, that's no big deal.
SPEAKER_04: But we have a dress code in the choir, and somebody says something about it, well, relax.
SPEAKER_04: We're setting things in order, amen.
SPEAKER_04: And by the way, I say that, I hope there hasn't been initially, I don't know of anything.
SPEAKER_04: I haven't talked to Brother Jordan in a long time about that.
SPEAKER_04: If there is, I don't know about it.
SPEAKER_04: If someone's got bent out recently, I don't know about it.
SPEAKER_04: But in our choir, we have a dress code.
SPEAKER_04: In our school, we have a dress code.
SPEAKER_04: We want things set in order.
SPEAKER_04: But it's not meant pharasitically.
SPEAKER_04: It's not a matter of this makes us more spiritual.
SPEAKER_04: In fact, it's a result of what we think is spirituality that causes us to put clothes on.
SPEAKER_04: Come on, talk to me.
SPEAKER_04: The Levites had a clothing standard that they had to maintain, yes or no?
SPEAKER_04: The priest had a clothing standard.
SPEAKER_04: And I'm not majoring on that, I'm just saying there's different things in the church that we have maintained to try to set in order.
SPEAKER_04: But we're not coming into your home and checking you out.
SPEAKER_04: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_04: We're not coming into your home and checking you out.
SPEAKER_04: Whoever is the head of your home is the head of your home.
SPEAKER_04: I don't go to my staff and check out what they're doing.
SPEAKER_04: In their home.
SPEAKER_04: And I'm not coming to your home to check you out.
SPEAKER_04: You stand accountable before God that way.
SPEAKER_04: Amen?
SPEAKER_04: I'm not trying to clone you.
SPEAKER_04: I told somebody the other day, everything I do in my home and that I require my home, I don't bring it to the church.
SPEAKER_04: I've got things in my home that are little quirks that I prefer.
SPEAKER_04: I don't bring that into the church and put that on you.
SPEAKER_04: That's my home.
SPEAKER_04: But everything we do in the church, we do it in my home.
SPEAKER_04: Because there needs to be consistency.
SPEAKER_04: Amen?
SPEAKER_04: Somebody says, Well, did you know so-and-so?
SPEAKER_04: Hey! That's up to them! But when they come to church, if they try to bend us, I don't care about it.
SPEAKER_04: It's no big deal.
SPEAKER_04: Relax.
SPEAKER_04: Ladies, if you become a nurse, they're gonna ask you to wear the uniform.
SPEAKER_04: It used to be a little more conservative, maybe, than it is now, but it's still a uniform.
SPEAKER_04: If you become a fireman, there's a uniform.
SPEAKER_04: Are we okay?
SPEAKER_04: It just keeps everything decent and in order.
SPEAKER_04: There's morality issues in the church.
SPEAKER_04: There's boundaries, there's guidelines, and we're gonna do our best to preach them and teach them and influence, and if necessary, do our best to enforce them.
SPEAKER_04: We're not gonna do a bunch of marriage swaps.
SPEAKER_04: We are not a swinging church.
SPEAKER_04: Amen?
SPEAKER_04: We don't have musical marriages where the music stops, everybody switches partners.
SPEAKER_04: That's why I said, well, you know, that's just no compassion.
SPEAKER_04: No, that's decent and in order.
SPEAKER_04: It's less chaos, it's less confusion.
SPEAKER_04: We believe in monogamy.
SPEAKER_04: And we're gonna continue to preach that and teach it.
SPEAKER_04: But if someone gets a divorce, we're not gonna condemn them.
SPEAKER_04: We're gonna befriend them.
SPEAKER_04: Is that wrong to say?
SPEAKER_04: We're not gonna advocate it, but if it happens, we're gonna be a friend to them.
SPEAKER_04: Say amen.
SPEAKER_04: Ah, I think you ought to take them out and stone them.
SPEAKER_04: You should have been born in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_04: But even they issued a little grace.
SPEAKER_04: So don't get offended if we say we're going to try to keep things decent and in order.
SPEAKER_04: Yet we have grace for mitigating circumstances.
SPEAKER_04: Amen?
SPEAKER_04: Look with me a little bit further and notice Hebrews chapter 5.
SPEAKER_04: Hebrews chapter 5.
SPEAKER_04: Doing okay tonight?
SPEAKER_04: Hebrews 5.
SPEAKER_04: And would you also pick up Deuteronomy chapter 8?
SPEAKER_04: Hebrews 5.
SPEAKER_04: Deuteronomy chapter 8.
SPEAKER_04: I should, before I move on, say something here, since it's come to mind.
SPEAKER_04: Hebrews chapter 5 and Deuteronomy chapter 8.
SPEAKER_04: I'll let you turn there so I have your rapt attention.
SPEAKER_04: Churches out there that everybody has their own personalities.
SPEAKER_04: That, you know, if someone had a series of time or situation where they fell by the wayside or they fell off the mark, or there were some things in their life that they shouldn't have done.
SPEAKER_04: And maybe it was something that was public or maybe it was private, we've carried a standard around this church that God can still use people that falter along the wayside.
SPEAKER_04: And by the way, you may say after if you got to know everybody in this church and in all their pasts, let me say that again.
SPEAKER_04: If you just got to know all these guys up here and all their pasts, this is not your Mormon tabernacle choir.
SPEAKER_04: But I'm going to say this they're forgiven.
SPEAKER_04: And God can still use them if they get right.
SPEAKER_04: So why don't you guys get right?
SPEAKER_04: I kind of like having these guys up here to pick on, amen.
SPEAKER_04: But my point of is this we use people that have blemishes.
SPEAKER_04: We use people that have falterings in their life.
SPEAKER_04: We don't haphazardly use people.
SPEAKER_04: We use people that we believe God's ordained and called and chosen and set.
SPEAKER_04: And we're not afraid when it's time to put the two by four up and frame them in.
SPEAKER_04: And see God do it and use them.
SPEAKER_04: Doesn't matter the age.
SPEAKER_04: I think where are you at, Brother Swim?
SPEAKER_04: Brother Swim, how old are you now?
unknown: 76.
SPEAKER_04: 76.
SPEAKER_04: Oh, all those a lot of those tapes you just received?
SPEAKER_04: That's the one God framed in to take care of a lot of that.
SPEAKER_04: Amen.
SPEAKER_04: So somebody says, Well, you know, can you still serve when you're a little bit older?
SPEAKER_04: I'm a little older.
SPEAKER_04: No, I mean older, older.
SPEAKER_04: Well, how old?
SPEAKER_04: What's the requirement?
SPEAKER_04: You still breathing?
SPEAKER_04: We'll probably use you.
SPEAKER_04: Look at Hebrews chapter 5.
SPEAKER_04: Hebrews chapter 5.
SPEAKER_04: You say, well, that's not the standard party line.
SPEAKER_04: Then break the party line and get in the book.
SPEAKER_04: Amen?
SPEAKER_04: Hebrews chapter 5.
SPEAKER_04: Verse 1.
SPEAKER_04: Now we come down a little more specifically.
SPEAKER_04: For every high priest taken from among men is what?
SPEAKER_04: Ordained for men in things pertaining to God.
SPEAKER_04: That he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sin.
SPEAKER_04: Who can have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way?
SPEAKER_04: For that he himself also is compassed with infirmity.
SPEAKER_04: And by reason hereof he ought, as for the people, so also for himself to offer for sins.
SPEAKER_04: Verse 4, and no man taketh this honor upon himself.
SPEAKER_04: If we ought to learn anything, it won't work if we take it upon ourselves.
SPEAKER_04: And choose ourselves sometimes without God's leading.
SPEAKER_04: I know man after man who had high expectations, but they just couldn't wait.
SPEAKER_04: Sometimes you wonder if they just would have waited, but they got ahead.
SPEAKER_04: It says, and no man taketh this honor upon himself, but he that is say it called.
SPEAKER_04: You say, What's what's being called?
SPEAKER_04: Called of God, as was Aaron.
SPEAKER_04: You know the callings of God, brethren, is how God sets members in the body and fitly frames and jointly compacts and sets in order and builds, it's through his calling.
SPEAKER_04: For example, the twelve apostles, if you read Matthew 10, they were called.
SPEAKER_04: God specifically called them and chose them, but they had to be willing to go.
SPEAKER_04: And I believe in a church, different people, please look up here, are called of God to do certain things.
SPEAKER_04: We have junior churches over in our B ministry.
SPEAKER_04: The ones leading those ministries should be called of God to lead that junior church.
SPEAKER_04: The calling of God is so important, and you say, Well, I know the calling of God deals with pastoring and preaching.
SPEAKER_04: No, the calling of God deals with Him setting members in the body to frame up this house so it works.
unknown: That's right.
SPEAKER_04: We have different men and women that are called.
SPEAKER_04: All of our Sunday school teachers that are that are working, you should see God's calling.
SPEAKER_04: And don't quit now because you say, oh no, I don't know if I've ever been called.
SPEAKER_04: I think it was Brother Jordan that called me one night.
SPEAKER_04: I just said I would do it.
SPEAKER_04: Well, if Brother Jordan called you, you're called of God.
SPEAKER_04: Amen?
SPEAKER_04: But the idea, brethren, is God sets in order the church and fitly frames it together and sets it just like you'd set.
SPEAKER_04: This two by four goes here, this fellow goes here, and that goes on to this guy here, and then we got to do this, and you know, there's certain ways to build.
SPEAKER_04: I won't get into all that because I look like a fool.
SPEAKER_04: But I know you gotta set a foundation and you know, set this and set that and set this and that and everything, and there's a way to do it, or the whole thing is unsupported and falls apart.
SPEAKER_04: Let me ask you a question.
SPEAKER_04: Have you been called to do a job in the local testament, New Testament church?
SPEAKER_04: But have you realized it's a calling?
SPEAKER_04: Is what you do and what I do, please look up here, the call of God.
SPEAKER_04: God looks down and says, Doug Fisher, I want you to do this job.
SPEAKER_04: Alright?
SPEAKER_04: That's what you want me to do, I'll do it as unto you, God.
SPEAKER_04: You see, when you just do it as unto a man or as unto a woman or as unto a leader, it gives some leeway not to do it consistently.
SPEAKER_04: Not to do it faithfully.
SPEAKER_04: We just kind of go through the motions.
SPEAKER_04: Like Juan Carlos says, he's just playing church.
SPEAKER_04: Now I realize when someone new comes in, just gets saved and everything.
SPEAKER_04: Man, this thing just looks like I don't understand.
SPEAKER_04: I'm just excited about being here.
SPEAKER_04: And there's nothing wrong with that.
SPEAKER_04: It's called zeal.
SPEAKER_04: You say, where do you get that from?
SPEAKER_04: Look at when a new baby's born.
SPEAKER_04: You know what they do?
SPEAKER_04: That too, amen.
SPEAKER_04: I can do that a lot.
SPEAKER_04: Oh, that's a classic.
SPEAKER_04: Mark it down.
SPEAKER_04: Put a red dot on that tape, amen.
SPEAKER_04: And after a while, they they they learn how to talk, they learn how to walk, they learn how to act just like a baby.
SPEAKER_04: And they're fitly framed in.
SPEAKER_04: We want to give them a chance to let them grow.
SPEAKER_04: Now, the idea about the calling of God is is it's interesting.
SPEAKER_04: And I can only, if you would, use myself as an illustration.
SPEAKER_04: Look at Deuteronomy chapter 8, would you please?
SPEAKER_04: Now, so far, I think you understand what we've got.
SPEAKER_04: Set in order, fitly framed, jointly compacted.
SPEAKER_04: Deuteronomy chapter 8.
SPEAKER_04: Some of you are still residually laughing.
SPEAKER_04: You just you just got it.
SPEAKER_04: Boy, that takes a little.
SPEAKER_04: Deuteronomy chapter 8.
SPEAKER_04: And also, would you pick up Luke chapter 12?
SPEAKER_04: Last two scriptures I'm gonna ask you to turn to.
SPEAKER_04: Deuteronomy 8 and Luke 12.
SPEAKER_04: I want to use myself as an illustration.
SPEAKER_04: It's the guy I know best.
SPEAKER_04: And so don't think I'm just talking about myself, but I think you'll understand where I'm I'm going with this thing if you listen.
SPEAKER_04: He sets us in the church and he sets us in order, and he fitly frames and he jointly compacts.
SPEAKER_04: Now, when God brought me to the lighthouse in uh a number of years ago, what he brought me here to do, I passed through as a missionary.
SPEAKER_04: My wife and I married, we went to the mission field, and when we came back, what God set me in this church to do was number one, he wanted me to be an usher.
SPEAKER_04: And then number two, a little bit later on, I was asked to begin the military ministry, but it wasn't really something where I was ordained and said, now you'll be the military director.
SPEAKER_04: You know what it was?
SPEAKER_04: Some guys called and they needed a ride to church from 32nd Street.
SPEAKER_04: And I told the pastor, I'll go down and pick them up.
SPEAKER_04: And after I picked them up, I had to take them home.
SPEAKER_04: And the next week they said, Do you like to come again?
SPEAKER_04: So I drove down my little Toyota car and picked them up and took them home again.
SPEAKER_04: And that's how the military ministry got started.
SPEAKER_04: You say, Well, didn't God ride it in the stars and say, You are the military director?
SPEAKER_04: No, somebody called and said they needed a ride.
SPEAKER_04: And you just become available.
SPEAKER_04: Amen?
SPEAKER_04: Oh, didn't you have it all planned out?
SPEAKER_04: No, I didn't have nothing planned out.
SPEAKER_04: I just knew I wanted to be used.
SPEAKER_04: And it developed more and more, and more started coming.
SPEAKER_04: We started doing an outrage in the colony house, and et cetera, et cetera, and on and on it went.
SPEAKER_04: Please look up here.
SPEAKER_04: It became a call.
SPEAKER_04: My task as an usher and a military director became a call.
SPEAKER_04: I knew that's what God wanted me to do.
SPEAKER_04: I remember uh at that time.
SPEAKER_04: Brother Sturger, where are you at?
SPEAKER_04: You in here somewhere tonight?
SPEAKER_04: Brother Sturger, who was the military director before you?
SPEAKER_04: Now I understand the pastor, but wasn't Thistle doing some of that?
SPEAKER_04: Oh, I'm sorry, just say military?
SPEAKER_04: Bus.
SPEAKER_04: Dale Thistle.
SPEAKER_04: Uh you were a bus captain at that time.
SPEAKER_04: Is that correct under Brother Thistle?
SPEAKER_04: This is years ago.
SPEAKER_04: When Chris still had hair.
SPEAKER_04: And uh it's nice to be part of a family.
SPEAKER_04: And uh Brother Thistle was the bus director at the same time that I became the military director.
SPEAKER_04: Now it was interesting.
SPEAKER_04: Um, Brother Thistle and I were, in my mind, uh doing our callings before God.
SPEAKER_04: And by that I mean this.
SPEAKER_04: Uh, Brother Thistle was a volunteer.
SPEAKER_04: He volunteered to do that job.
SPEAKER_04: He volunteered to get saved, and he volunteered to do that job.
SPEAKER_04: Please look up here.
SPEAKER_04: And I was a volunteer.
SPEAKER_04: I volunteered to do the military ministry.
SPEAKER_04: Umistle was called by God to do the bus directoring, and I know I was called by God to do the military.
SPEAKER_04: Brother Thistle, please look up here, was set in order to be the bus director at that time, and I was set to be the military director.
SPEAKER_04: Brother Thistle was paid by God, and so was I.
SPEAKER_04: Now, wait a minute.
SPEAKER_04: Here's where we get this thing mixed up sometimes.
SPEAKER_04: You see, Brother Thistle was paid by the church, and I was paid by ABM, a company.
SPEAKER_04: But in my mind, there was no difference in our calling.
SPEAKER_04: He was called to be the bus director, I was called to be the military director.
SPEAKER_04: He was set in the church to be a bus director, I was set in the church to be the military director.
SPEAKER_04: He was paid by God, I was paid by God.
SPEAKER_04: We were both volunteers that submitted ourselves to God's leading.
SPEAKER_04: It just so happens that he was paid by the church, and I was paid by a company.
SPEAKER_04: Look if you would in Deuteronomy chapter 8, and look if you would at verse 17.
SPEAKER_04: And thou say in thine heart, my power, and the mind of my hand hath gotten me this what?
SPEAKER_04: Wealth.
SPEAKER_04: You guys and gals that, you know, we go out and we we work and we we make money and everything, let's remember something that God is the one that gives us power to make that money.
SPEAKER_04: Verse 18, but thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth.
SPEAKER_04: Now, I say that to say this.
SPEAKER_04: Just like Brother Thistle was given his money by God, I was given my money by God.
SPEAKER_04: So would you understand this if I said in my mind at that time, my employer was God, just like Dale Thistle's employer was God.
SPEAKER_04: Now let me say it again.
SPEAKER_04: He was set in the church to do a job.
SPEAKER_04: I was set in the church to adopt.
SPEAKER_04: He volunteered for it, I volunteered for it.
SPEAKER_04: God called me, God called him.
SPEAKER_04: God paid me, God paid him.
SPEAKER_04: God was my employer, God was his employer.
SPEAKER_04: The only difference was his money came from the church, my money came from a company.
SPEAKER_04: Now there was a difference, and I understand this.
SPEAKER_04: He had more time.
SPEAKER_04: He could focus on what he was doing, maybe a little bit more.
SPEAKER_04: But he had various and Sunday things that he had to do.
SPEAKER_04: The time may have been a factor, but please look up here.
SPEAKER_04: We've got to come to the place and point in time that you look at your job in the church no matter what it is, and say, Well, you don't understand, you know, uh, I'm not paid by the church.
SPEAKER_04: So, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_04: I'm not as committed?
SPEAKER_04: Because I'm not on the church paywall?
SPEAKER_04: I'm called of God, I'm a volunteer, I'm set.
SPEAKER_04: God's given me wealth, God's taken care of me, God sent me, He ordained me.
SPEAKER_04: I'm committed no matter who pays me.
SPEAKER_04: Now, wait a minute.
SPEAKER_04: I only got myself to talk about again, and I don't mean to be vain about it.
SPEAKER_04: I became pastor of the church.
SPEAKER_04: And I didn't know what I was doing.
SPEAKER_04: But I knew that God wanted that.
SPEAKER_04: And uh say, well, then you you you must have been paid by the church.
SPEAKER_04: The church couldn't afford it.
SPEAKER_04: Couldn't afford to pay me.
SPEAKER_04: In 1984 I became pastor.
SPEAKER_04: The church couldn't afford to pay me.
SPEAKER_04: Hey, you know what?
SPEAKER_04: I worked two and a half, two and a quarter years till April of 86.
SPEAKER_04: And you know what?
SPEAKER_04: Please look up here.
SPEAKER_04: It's no big deal.
SPEAKER_04: What do you mean you worked a full-time job?
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I worked a full-time job in pastor church.
SPEAKER_04: I'm not a martyr.
SPEAKER_04: Nobody was sawing my children asunder.
SPEAKER_04: Nobody was hanging my wife up by her hair.
SPEAKER_04: We never got to get to the place where if we have to return to the secular field to work to keep the thing going, we ought to never get above that.
SPEAKER_04: So I remember, I remember specifically for a couple years I worked.
SPEAKER_04: We took care of the church as we could, and it all worked out fine and everything.
SPEAKER_04: April of 1986.
SPEAKER_04: Remember, Roland Garlic was here.
SPEAKER_04: And it was clear to me that I was supposed to step out of that secular job and come on and let the church begin to pay me.
SPEAKER_04: That was a huge step.
SPEAKER_04: You know why?
SPEAKER_04: The biggest giver in the church at that time, I'll say one of the biggest givers was me.
SPEAKER_04: So I was we were reason we were losing the money that we were put I was putting in, and we were starting to pay me now.
SPEAKER_04: That's take a pretty big step of faith.
SPEAKER_04: And you say, oh, what's the big deal about that?
SPEAKER_04: You should have been there.
SPEAKER_04: Some of you were.
SPEAKER_04: But please look up here.
SPEAKER_04: The way my pay came changed, but the commitment didn't change.
SPEAKER_04: The way the pay came changed, and please look up here.
SPEAKER_04: It was better because I could focus more, and I didn't have to put in the the secular tape.
SPEAKER_04: Okay, now I gotta work.
SPEAKER_04: And then take that out and be the pastor.
SPEAKER_04: You know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_04: All right, that tape out, this tape in.
SPEAKER_04: But the commitment was the same, it was just that I could get more focused on my calling.
SPEAKER_04: Would you understand if I'm trying to say to you, if you're a Sunday school teacher and that's the call that God gave to you, whether you're paid by the church or not, you ought to be committed.
SPEAKER_04: If you're a bus captain and the church doesn't pay you, which as far as I know, none of the bus captains get paid.
SPEAKER_04: And if they do, cut their pay right now.
SPEAKER_04: Amen.
SPEAKER_04: You ought to not look at that thing and say, well, the church doesn't pay me, so I'm gonna put more, you know, focus on the secular work because that's where I, that's where I get my, you know, that's where I get my hand, and that's where they take care of me, and that's who feeds me.
SPEAKER_04: No, God feeds you.
SPEAKER_04: God feeds us.
SPEAKER_04: God is the one who takes care of us, and I want to say this: I've seen situations where people leave their job in a local New Testament church and their job doesn't go as well as it used to.
SPEAKER_04: Because God was paying them to work in a local New Testament church.
SPEAKER_04: And it was blessing them that way.
unknown: Come on.
SPEAKER_04: It all comes from God.
SPEAKER_04: The difference is how you can focus.
SPEAKER_04: And without being entangled sometimes, and that was the hard part, and that's the hard part that you face sometimes as you go to work and you have to work and you get entangled a little bit with that thing.
SPEAKER_04: And I understand that.
SPEAKER_04: And then it's hard, man.
SPEAKER_04: I gotta get my Sunday school lesson, or I gotta get this, or I've got to get time, and then the work says we want you to work this time on Saturday, or something like that.
SPEAKER_04: And please look up here.
SPEAKER_04: Nobody's condemned in our church because you have a commitment to your work schedule, whether it be anything, including the military.
SPEAKER_04: We've got men and women that's worked in this church for years, and we realize certain times they're gonna be out.
SPEAKER_04: We don't say, well, if you can't commit, then you know you can't.
SPEAKER_04: Hey, you know what?
SPEAKER_04: We've just learned that their commitment is just as strong as those of us who are paid by the church.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_04: Now, some might be sitting here and saying, What is my place in this church?
SPEAKER_04: That's a good question.
SPEAKER_04: Because there's something for everybody to do.
SPEAKER_04: Do you know a lot of leaders need help?
SPEAKER_04: In all kinds of different ways, shapes, and forms.
SPEAKER_04: Well, you know, I haven't been called.
SPEAKER_04: Sometimes the call is just a need.
SPEAKER_04: Brother Fisher, there's a milligar military guy's call.
SPEAKER_04: Would you go out and pick him up?
SPEAKER_04: Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_04: Get that taken care of right away.
SPEAKER_04: Well it won't be a problem.
SPEAKER_04: No, it won't be a problem.
SPEAKER_04: My wife and I work it out and get somebody to pick her up and take her to church and go get her.
SPEAKER_04: Why?
SPEAKER_04: Because God is the creator.
SPEAKER_04: And all things are created for his pleasure.
SPEAKER_04: And we've got a job to do.
SPEAKER_04: Are we okay?
SPEAKER_04: Are you getting what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_04: You say, what's the, I thought there was something in this for me.
SPEAKER_04: Alright, listen to this.
SPEAKER_04: It's just a it's just a little, I don't know, call it a philosophy or whatever you want to call it, but listen to me very carefully.
SPEAKER_04: Some people, some Christians, they are intermittently committed to the concept of local church.
SPEAKER_04: Now, please look up here and understand.
SPEAKER_04: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_04: Some Christians are intermittently committed to the concept of local church.
SPEAKER_04: That means they go to church once in a while.
SPEAKER_04: And they may call it, that's my church, but they really don't have a concept of what's going on because they only come once in a while.
SPEAKER_04: Amen?
SPEAKER_04: There are people here tonight that are committed to the concept of the local church.
SPEAKER_04: Now, I've watched this and noticed this.
SPEAKER_04: What makes a family a strong family is commitment to the concept of the local New Testament church where they're at.
SPEAKER_04: Now stay with me.
SPEAKER_04: What makes a family a great family, a strong family, a spiritual family, is to get committed to the concept of the local New Testament church where they're at.
SPEAKER_04: For example, there are those of you in the military.
SPEAKER_04: You are transferred from time to time as you believe you should stay in.
SPEAKER_04: And I believe God calls people to stay in the military.
SPEAKER_04: And you get moved, but you're committed to the concept of the local New Testament church.
SPEAKER_04: So wherever you're moved to, one of the first things you do is where's the local New Testament church that we're going to get committed to while we're there?
SPEAKER_04: And that's what makes a great family.
SPEAKER_04: It's not a matter of if we're going to church intermittently, it's a matter that when we get where we're going, we are going to find a church, and if there's not one, we're going to start one.
SPEAKER_04: That's commitment to the local New Testament church.
SPEAKER_04: For example, we've got a few people getting ready to leave.
SPEAKER_04: Brother Ross, Brother Evans, family.
SPEAKER_04: I know the Van Hofwigans are leaving.
SPEAKER_04: Brother Perkins, you all are leaving.
SPEAKER_04: But all those are committed to the concept of the local New Testament church.
SPEAKER_04: Sometimes situations may come up.
SPEAKER_04: For example, Paul Bannister and his wife are committed to the concept of the local New Testament church.
SPEAKER_04: God called them from here to New York.
SPEAKER_04: He told me on Saturday, Pastor, do you mind if we call our church here Lighthouse Baptist Church?
SPEAKER_04: I said, hey, it's a free country.
SPEAKER_04: He said, Well, we just kind of like that name for some reason.
SPEAKER_04: I said, be fine.
SPEAKER_04: He said, okay.
SPEAKER_04: Then that's what we're calling it.
SPEAKER_04: I said, how's it going?
SPEAKER_04: He said, it's corn grape.
SPEAKER_04: We just need a name.
SPEAKER_04: I said, okay.
SPEAKER_04: Brother William, you just got back from Alaska and Brother Pollock.
SPEAKER_04: They're committed to the concept, please look up here, of the local New Testament church.
SPEAKER_04: When they went up there, they went up there specifically for the local New Testament church, and now he pastors up there.
SPEAKER_04: That's what makes, please look up here, a great family.
SPEAKER_04: It's not intermittent commitment, it's commitment.
SPEAKER_04: I understand people have to work and all that.
SPEAKER_04: Now stay with me, stay with me.
SPEAKER_04: But you know what makes a great church?
SPEAKER_04: I already told you what makes a great family.
SPEAKER_04: A great family is made by people who committed to the local New Testament church and find their place and get in their place and look at it as a calling and work towards those ends.
SPEAKER_04: Oh, by the way, please look up here.
SPEAKER_04: That doesn't mean you can't have family time.
SPEAKER_04: That doesn't mean that you know that you burn out at the church.
SPEAKER_04: Say amen.
SPEAKER_04: We don't want burnouts.
SPEAKER_04: But what makes a great church is people called of God set in order that are committed to a local New Testament church.
SPEAKER_04: Now follow with me.
SPEAKER_04: What makes a great family?
SPEAKER_04: Commitment to the local New Testament church, wherever they're at, they're a part of it.
SPEAKER_04: What makes a great church?
SPEAKER_04: People that get committed to not only the local New Testament church, but a local New Testament church.
SPEAKER_04: Where it becomes my church.
SPEAKER_04: And that's my job in my church.
SPEAKER_04: And I'm committed to my job in my local New Testament church.
SPEAKER_04: I'm not putting anybody down that God's transferring out or moves out or anything like that, because you know what?
SPEAKER_04: That's up to God.
SPEAKER_04: He fitly frames, he jointly combacks, he moves it around.
SPEAKER_04: But I know what makes a good local New Testament church, it's people who get committed, if possible, for a lifetime.
SPEAKER_04: Whether they are paid full time by the church or paid full time by some other entity, they're paid full time for God and by God.
SPEAKER_04: Are you with me?
SPEAKER_04: By the way, I think I should tell you this tonight.
SPEAKER_04: I'm not only committed, and my family is not only committed to the concept of the local church.
SPEAKER_04: Please look up here.
SPEAKER_04: We are committed, my wife and my family and myself, to this local New Testament church.
SPEAKER_04: Please, this is our church.
SPEAKER_04: It was our church before I became pastor.
SPEAKER_04: It is still, it is still the church that I'm focusing on.
SPEAKER_04: I go to Montana tomorrow and I'm up there for a couple days preaching.
SPEAKER_04: If the plane broke down and I didn't get there, no big deal to me.
SPEAKER_04: I got plenty of work to do at my local New Testament church.
SPEAKER_04: Oh, preacher, don't you like to go out and preach?
SPEAKER_04: I guess it's okay.
SPEAKER_04: But that's not my focus.
SPEAKER_04: That's not my focal point.
SPEAKER_04: Please look up here.
SPEAKER_04: My focal point is the call of God on my life to be the pastor of this church and to be the husband and the father of my family, and I do that other stuff believing God's called me to do it, but please look up here.
SPEAKER_04: My local New Testament church is my focus.
SPEAKER_04: I think about you all when I'm away.
SPEAKER_04: Quite a bit.
SPEAKER_04: I keep up with what's going on.
SPEAKER_04: And if God ever told me to get off the road and stop doing that, that either because he didn't want me to or I was ineffective, it would be no big deal for me not to go to the airport at 6 30 in the morning.
SPEAKER_04: And eat coke and peanuts for breakfast.
SPEAKER_04: It's just a room.
SPEAKER_04: And some of them smell like smoke.
SPEAKER_04: And I'm not complaining, but I'm saying this is my voice.
SPEAKER_04: Is it yours?
SPEAKER_04: I know these families that are getting ready to leave us.
SPEAKER_04: If they could, they'd say.
SPEAKER_04: And God willing, if God wills, we'll see them back around again.
SPEAKER_04: You know what I enjoy?
SPEAKER_04: Watching them go out, doing God's work, doing God's will, keeping in contact, and watching make the full circle.
SPEAKER_04: Back in again.
SPEAKER_04: And we get to see that quite often.
SPEAKER_04: Do you understand?
SPEAKER_04: I'm not putting anybody down that's committed to the local church concept because they can be a great family.
SPEAKER_04: But the way to be a great church is for a bunch of people to be committed to that church.
SPEAKER_04: And look at it and say, you know what?
SPEAKER_04: This is God's call.
SPEAKER_04: I've uh asked for a little testimony tonight.
SPEAKER_04: I want you to look at Luke chapter 12.
SPEAKER_04: Brother Stevenson, make your way up here if you would.
SPEAKER_04: Stay with me.
SPEAKER_04: I told you we'd get done before midnight, and we will.
SPEAKER_04: Luke chapter 12.
SPEAKER_04: Look, if you would, at verse 48.
SPEAKER_04: Verse 48.
SPEAKER_04: But he knew that or he that knew not and did commit things worthy of stripes shall be beaten with few stripes.
SPEAKER_04: For unto whomsoever much is what?
SPEAKER_04: Given.
SPEAKER_04: Of him shall much or be much what?
SPEAKER_04: Require.
SPEAKER_04: And to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.
SPEAKER_04: Now, I know that's talking about an individual, but may I say this to you, as a pastor?
SPEAKER_04: Do you understand that that also goes and holds true for the church?
SPEAKER_04: If God gives a church much, God's going to require much of a church.
SPEAKER_04: Because the principle holds true.
SPEAKER_04: Therefore, for us to accomplish what God wants us to accomplish, there must be people that God sets in this church that are committed and focused and ready to do much.
SPEAKER_04: Because where much is given, God will also require much.
SPEAKER_04: They're going to be working in the schools, a few other things that they're going to be taking care of.
SPEAKER_04: They're going to be doing uh, Mr.
SPEAKER_04: Mrs.
SPEAKER_04: Stevens is going to be doing some work considering uh, if you would, when Brother Gibbs was here last year, he told us of some needs to uh screen personnel and record keeping and things like that.
SPEAKER_04: They're gonna work in that capacity in the church and and just some various things, uh, but primarily they'll be working in the school as Brother Stevenson.
SPEAKER_04: I just asked Brother Stevenson to come and give you a testimony here a little bit tonight.
SPEAKER_04: You don't mind doing this, do you?
SPEAKER_04: Because it is your church.
SPEAKER_04: Brother Stevenson, you come.
SPEAKER_00: Despite everything that's been said tonight, a lot of people I know I know and I know you can name people that would argue, but you can't take away a man's testimony.
SPEAKER_00: And uh I've been I spent about 14 years in the military.
SPEAKER_00: Um and I first arrived here in June of 1985.
SPEAKER_00: Um start out when I got married in 1980 1977, someone said something about God takes care of fools and something else, I forget what the quote is or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: But um I had been saved, but I didn't know anything about this book.
SPEAKER_00: But the first thing I wanted to do is I knew, I don't know why, because my parents didn't do it, but I knew that I was supposed to get my family out of church.
SPEAKER_00: Now I didn't pick out necessarily the right church or the perfect church or whatever, but I found a church, and I kept looking for the church that God wanted to be in.
SPEAKER_00: And every time God would show me something else, give me some truth, and it didn't match up, then I would look for that church.
SPEAKER_00: When I first arrived here in June of 1985, I remember I first walked into the church and I sat down right over here, and the church was different than what I would come out of.
SPEAKER_00: I tried to, uh matter of fact, I people were getting excited, people were shouting amen.
SPEAKER_00: And I didn't think that was appropriate in church.
SPEAKER_00: And uh I in all I in all my infinite knowledge went out and told my wife we're not coming back.
SPEAKER_00: I says, that's not what you do in church.
SPEAKER_00: I says, you go to church to yeah, what's but you go to church, that's not what you do in church.
SPEAKER_00: So we walked away, we went back to another church, and um after you've been to the lighthouse, you get ruined, and I said, Well, those people are different and a little peculiar, but you know, honey, at least they they seem sincere, so we'll go on back there.
SPEAKER_00: And uh it was here in the church, in the local New Testament church, that I find out that um I found out that I had a perfect Bible.
SPEAKER_00: It was through a local New Testament church.
SPEAKER_00: Brother said over in Bible Institute class, no, it was a Saturday morning's men's prayer breakfast.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, uh he quoted Matthew 4, 4, about man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Where is it?
SPEAKER_00: Where is every word contained?
SPEAKER_00: If all the different versions are different, where did God put all those words?
SPEAKER_00: And I thought, well, sincere, ignorant, but sincere.
SPEAKER_00: I had taken one Greek lesson, so you know, I knew how to handle that.
SPEAKER_00: I later on found out that I had a King James Bible, and because of a local church, that I knew that Bible was perfect, I read my Bible through for the first time.
SPEAKER_00: I've now just completed my 25th time through my Bible, and I wouldn't have done, I wouldn't have received that truth except through a local New Testament church.
SPEAKER_00: I know that.
SPEAKER_00: In a local New Testament church, I learned how to train up my family in the way they should go.
SPEAKER_00: In a local New Testament church, I realized that I found out what my duties as a husband were and a father.
SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't have gotten that anywhere else.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't never get that at work, I never got that in the bars, I never got that in the softball game on Sunday afternoon when I should have been in church.
SPEAKER_00: I never received that from anyone.
SPEAKER_00: I found that, I got that through a local New Testament church.
SPEAKER_00: I found direction on how to grow spiritually.
SPEAKER_00: I found direction on what it took to be a man, to be God's man.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 55, verses 8 and 9, many of you can quote it.
SPEAKER_00: It says, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
SPEAKER_00: I had the pleasure of preaching in the Spanish ministry, Brother Shindel there, uh translating.
SPEAKER_00: And I preached on Peter and Naaman.
SPEAKER_00: And drew those two fellows together, and they had a little Peter and John 13 with the feet washing.
SPEAKER_00: Naaman, when he was going to get cleansed of leprosy, both of them questioned God's ways.
SPEAKER_00: Now they both fortunately got right.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not saying that I always accepted God's ways, but I always wanted to do right.
SPEAKER_00: The first time I might not have received it, but I did receive it.
SPEAKER_00: I don't always understand God's ways, like Naaman didn't understand God's ways.
SPEAKER_00: Peter at first didn't understand it, but they finally said, God, your ways are higher than my ways, and they took God's way.
SPEAKER_00: I'm here to say here that God's local New Testament church works.
SPEAKER_00: I don't understand it all.
SPEAKER_00: How can you put a motley group like this together, with again, like you said, with some of the backgrounds of some of us, and make it work?
SPEAKER_00: How can you do that?
SPEAKER_00: Do you Amen?
SPEAKER_00: Three great gifts, which was the day I received the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior.
SPEAKER_00: The local church, and through that I found my Bible.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to ever stand, I know the judgment seat of Christ is coming.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to stand before God and haven't thumbed my nose at any of those gifts that God has given me.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of folks give up on the local church.
SPEAKER_00: I was told before my father finally accepted God's ways, he says, He said, son, you can have church in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: You can have church, I'll serve God my way.
SPEAKER_00: Well, your way isn't God's way, so it's wrong.
SPEAKER_00: And I am not perfect.
SPEAKER_00: Many of you I have rubbed the wrong way, some of you have rubbed the right way, and many of you have forbeared me, put up with me, prayed for me.
SPEAKER_00: No one else has ever done that for me.
SPEAKER_00: Many of you have have come to me and and uh and and talked with me and encouraged me.
SPEAKER_00: No one's ever done it like it's done in the local New Testament church.
SPEAKER_00: There are many imitations, and I've come across those imitations.
SPEAKER_00: They counterfeit the real thing always.
SPEAKER_00: Never a phony, they counterfeit the real thing.
SPEAKER_00: They counterfeit money, they counterfeit the King James Bible, they counterfeit the local church.
SPEAKER_00: God's ways is right ways.
SPEAKER_00: For example, this happened to be a subject of conversation with a brother of mine, me and a brother of mine, uh, brother Mike Klein.
SPEAKER_00: Promise keepers are a counterfeit.
SPEAKER_00: They are an imitation of the local church, they are wrong, they are not of God.
SPEAKER_00: It is wrong to be involved in that organization.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a local New Testament church.
SPEAKER_00: And they're out to deceive people who do not do not know the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Get in this book when you see when you when men, when you when people are trained to spot counterfeit money, they're trained on the real thing first.
SPEAKER_00: Then they can spot the counterfeit.
SPEAKER_00: Get in this book, and you'll be able to spot an imitation, a counterfeit of a local church.
SPEAKER_00: I serve God.
SPEAKER_00: Get paid, I want genuine U.S.
SPEAKER_00: money, no counterfeit.
SPEAKER_00: I serve God, I want a genuine, God-given, God-ordained local New Testament church.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want a counterfeit, no thank you.
SPEAKER_00: You know a tree by its fruit.
SPEAKER_00: I've seen the fruit in my life, in my family's life.
SPEAKER_00: We are not perfect.
SPEAKER_00: You many of you can testify to that.
SPEAKER_00: But I'll compare all glory given to God.
SPEAKER_00: I'll compare my family and the fruit by the grace of God has come up come of my family to anyone who's tried to do it outside the local church.
SPEAKER_00: My son is in Pensacola.
SPEAKER_00: I want to thank every one of you for showing up for his graduation.
SPEAKER_00: He was floored.
SPEAKER_00: He was the only one that graduated, and over a hundred of you came, and many others wanted to come but couldn't.
SPEAKER_00: He walked out of there, he had tears in his eyes at night.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Dad, that came from me.
SPEAKER_00: I said, That's your church.
SPEAKER_00: I said, That's the love.
SPEAKER_00: He's seen the love that you have in this church.
SPEAKER_00: He's seen, he's seen, he's gotten in conflict with other brothers in this church, and they've gone into a room and prayed together and got it right.
SPEAKER_00: He's seen the love that's in this church.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Dad, I know I'm in God's will.
SPEAKER_00: I just want you to know I'm happy down here.
SPEAKER_00: I'm doing what God wants me to do.
SPEAKER_00: But he says, I love the lighthouse.
SPEAKER_00: I love the people in my church.
SPEAKER_00: He's taking a stand, I've seen the fruit in his life.
SPEAKER_00: He's taken a stand against the world down there.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I will not listen to country music, I will not l I will not chew.
SPEAKER_00: And he doesn't run around with those who do.
SPEAKER_00: He even had an unsaved Christian, or excuse me, contradiction, a carnal Christian, who got away from God and serving God, and a good fellow walked up to him and got out of a car as he tried to lead him into some place that was playing uh doing something ungodly, some ungodly music, country western band or something.
SPEAKER_00: And he looked over to a friend of his who was raised the same way that he was in a local church, and they both together said, We're out of here.
SPEAKER_00: This is not pleasing to God.
SPEAKER_00: That's fruit.
SPEAKER_00: And my son had everything in our home, reinforced here in the local church.
SPEAKER_00: And then the local church brought out things for me to reinforce in my home.
SPEAKER_00: That fellow young man turned around to my son and says, I hate you, as he got out of the car.
SPEAKER_00: He repeated again.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I hate you.
SPEAKER_00: He says, You're the Christian I've always wanted to be.
SPEAKER_00: I had good news today.
SPEAKER_00: Trying to be the Christian that God always wanted him to be because of my son's influence on his life.
SPEAKER_00: God has used my boy.
SPEAKER_00: And I praise God, that's fruit that you won't find anywhere outside of a local church.
SPEAKER_00: You'll find temporary fruit, but folks, it won't last.
SPEAKER_00: When the organization closes up, when the parrot church organization closes up, the fruit doesn't last.
SPEAKER_00: The world says No, we've basically got two choices.
SPEAKER_00: And I've seen it over my life.
SPEAKER_00: Fourteen years I came here, I was in this church for ten years, being in the military and going to different places.
SPEAKER_00: And there were times when I've been in churches I didn't know if they were going to stand or not.
SPEAKER_00: And I got scared.
SPEAKER_00: I really got scared.
SPEAKER_00: Because I've seen the fruit, I've watched the tree.
SPEAKER_00: And one day, if God takes it away from you and puts you someplace, you're going to regret that you didn't praise God and pray for your church.
SPEAKER_00: We've got two choices.
SPEAKER_00: We can go back to the world's ways.
SPEAKER_00: We can go back to the pseudo-Christianity's ways.
SPEAKER_00: You know, God called us out of the world.
SPEAKER_00: We can go back to the world's ways.
SPEAKER_00: Folks, that isn't much of a choice, amen.
SPEAKER_00: Or we can take God's way, the local church.
SPEAKER_00: I want to publicly thank the Lord Jesus Christ for the gift that he gave me of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: I want to publicly thank the Lord Jesus Christ for the gift that he gave me of a perfect Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to publicly thank the Lord Jesus Christ for the gift that he gave me and all the gifts that are inside it, the gift of the local New Testament church.
SPEAKER_00: Father, I thank you publicly, and I pray that I'll be found faithful to you come back praying and serving in my local New Testament church.
SPEAKER_00: Glory be to God.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: This is the uh one of the families of Mr.
SPEAKER_03: Perkins who are getting transferred out here.
SPEAKER_03: And they're committed to the local New Testament church.
SPEAKER_03: They're uh being transferred to Las Vegas as uh what are you gonna do over there, John?
SPEAKER_03: I uh I heard that uh it's about six hours between Las Vegas and here, so we expect to see you from time to time.
SPEAKER_03: Well, we're praying that God give you what you need over there, too.
SPEAKER_03: See, please look up here.
SPEAKER_03: We are for the local New Testament church.
SPEAKER_03: We believe there's certainly uh outside helps to the local New Testament church.
SPEAKER_03: We go and get preaching.
SPEAKER_03: I've been to different things and different situations and I've received help on.
SPEAKER_03: But at one point comes back to it, the focus is on the body fitly framed, jointly compacted, set.
SPEAKER_03: One last statement.
SPEAKER_03: And remember this statement in the in the near future.
SPEAKER_03: When God gives a church much, he also requires much of it.
SPEAKER_03: And if God gives us much in a miraculous way, we should be expected of God to be required much in what it's going to take as committed individuals.
SPEAKER_03: Statement, we're not a perfect church.
SPEAKER_03: We've got our faults and our failures, we've got our shortcomings, but we are a church that's planning on standing and staying together, and loving each other, and forbearing one another, and putting up with different beliefs and opinions and judgments and going on for God.
SPEAKER_03: Those of you who are been here for years, stay faithful.
SPEAKER_03: Those of you who God has said in our church, we need you right now.
SPEAKER_03: More than you ever know, we need you.
SPEAKER_03: If God's brought you here temporarily to the military or job or whatever, we need you.
SPEAKER_03: There's work to be done.
SPEAKER_03: I understand those who are coming into the church, it takes a while to get used to a new church or a new setting.
SPEAKER_03: Give it time.
SPEAKER_03: I want to do this.
SPEAKER_03: I want Mrs.
SPEAKER_03: Perkins to come.
SPEAKER_03: I want you to listen to a special tonight.
SPEAKER_03: We're gonna have an altar call, and then we're gonna be dismissed.
SPEAKER_03: And some of us need to look at our commitment and realize it's a calling.
SPEAKER_03: And we realize it's a calling.
SPEAKER_03: Realize who called us.
SPEAKER_03: This is not something that I have ordained or you have ordained, this is something God's ordained.
SPEAKER_03: And he makes it consist when we give ourselves over to him.
unknown: Ms.
SPEAKER_03: Perkins, you come.
SPEAKER_03: This will be there last night here for a little while.
SPEAKER_03: I don't know what the expectations are, but we expect him to see him around again.
SPEAKER_03: And uh the will of the Lord be done.
SPEAKER_03: So, Ms.
SPEAKER_03: Perkins, you come.
SPEAKER_01: We'll sail forever, bright and shining, strong and free.
SPEAKER_01: I can ark of peace and safety on the sea of humanity through the ears of all the ages, lost tired of sailing on the rock, finally rest inside the shadow, cast by cavalry's love across the sun.
SPEAKER_01: Calcutta, Calvary's love can heal the sphere.
SPEAKER_01: Life has crushed and cast aside and redeem till heaven's promise fills with joy One seventy eyes so design to tell the story of the love that lovely love to die colours already and fed by colours of Calvary's love has never faltered all its wonder still remain, so still take eternal passage, sins aton'd, and heaven gained sins aton'd, and heaven given.
SPEAKER_03: Tonight you may say, Wow, it's 8:15 already.
SPEAKER_03: This is 15 minutes past what we normally go.
SPEAKER_03: Well, the workplace would call it overtime.
SPEAKER_03: You say, Well, I'm not being paid.
SPEAKER_03: Oh, yes, you are.
SPEAKER_03: God's got that all taken care of.
SPEAKER_03: We're gonna have an altar call tonight.
SPEAKER_03: You say, Well, what should I think about at an altar call?
SPEAKER_03: Being set as part of the house.
SPEAKER_03: Realizing that God set you there.
SPEAKER_03: Realizing your call to be set in that place, and that your place is important.
SPEAKER_03: It helps the building all frame together to function like it should.
SPEAKER_03: And realizing that one day we'll be judged according to the works done in our body, not for salvation, but for the commitment and faithfulness, the opportunity that he gave us and what we did with us.
SPEAKER_03: Like Brother Steve said, I'm an advocate and believe that we can do more as individuals, as families, as a part of a local New Testament church, and to be more faithful and consistent than floundering around intermittently.
SPEAKER_03: Tonight, are you set in place?
SPEAKER_03: Hath God called you to have a part.
SPEAKER_03: No matter how small, no matter how great, your place and part in this church, please look up here, is just as important as the last hour and 15 minutes that I did in my part.
SPEAKER_03: If you could just understand that.
SPEAKER_03: Some of you men say, Oh, if I could only preach.
SPEAKER_03: The last hour and a half that I did is just my part.
SPEAKER_03: And it's no more important than what you did today in driving that bus.
SPEAKER_03: Or what you did today in fixing, or what you did today in whatever it was, or what you did during the week, or your prayers, or whatever.
SPEAKER_03: It's just all apart.
SPEAKER_03: And it all works together.
SPEAKER_03: We don't have any big shots in our church.
SPEAKER_03: We don't want any.
SPEAKER_03: There's one head, and he's the head, and he's the big shot.
SPEAKER_03: And he gets all the glory, and we sing about him.
SPEAKER_03: And we're gonna keep it that way.
SPEAKER_03: What can I do?
SPEAKER_03: Pray for your part.
SPEAKER_03: Pray for this church.
SPEAKER_03: Pray for those who are getting ready to move on that God gives them a local New Testament church where they're going.
SPEAKER_03: And in the meantime, stay faithful on this corner to make this church which it's supposed to be for God.
SPEAKER_03: I say this again we're not the only church in town.
SPEAKER_03: But, brethren, this is a big town.
SPEAKER_03: And there's enough work for all to do.
SPEAKER_03: We must do our part and our place, not only in Jerusalem, but Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost.
SPEAKER_03: Let's all stand.