Southern Baptists at Sardis

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