Why Your Family Needs the Church

Well, let me say that it's been good to be here with you over the course of this weekend. Its time has flown by, and we've arrived at our last session. This session is a session about the church, and it's important that we talk about the church and the importance of the church and the centrality of the church, because oftentimes when we talk about the family and the role that the family has called to play in the discipleship and equipping and evangelizing the next generation, oftentimes people will misunderstand or misinterpret what we're saying to mean that somehow we believe that the Church is superfluous, unnecessary, extraneous, when the fact of the matter is nothing can be further from the truth. The Church is essential and central to the Christian life. Amen. The Church is and central to the Christian life. Your family is not the church, Amen, Hallelujah, Praise the Lord. Your family is not the church, but your family most assuredly needs the Church. God has given us three institutions, the family, the state or civil government, and the church. And it's important that we understand the sphere sovereignties there All three are necessary. All three are necessary, okay, and this is important. The Bible commands submission to all three. The Bible commands submission to all three. We're commanded to submit in the home to the proper authority that God has established, in the church, to proper authority that God has established, and in civil government to proper authority that God has established. And a balanced Christian life requires participation in all three. We don't abandon any of those spheres. Those spheres are all important. The Second London Baptist Confession of Faith of sixteen eighty nine, we read this concerning the Church and the execution of this power, wherewith he is so entrusted. The Lord Jesus Christ calls out of the world unto himself, through the ministry of the Word, by the Spirit, by his Spirit, those that are given unto him by his Father, that they may walk before him in all the ways of obedience which He prescribed to them in his Word. Those thus called he commands to walk together in particular societies or churches for their mutual edification and the due performance of that public worship which He requires of them in the world. But here's the question, what is the church? Listen to this from the Augsburg Confession. The Church is the congregation of Saints, in which the Gospel is rightly taught and the sacraments are rightly administered. So the Augsburg Confession, the Gospel and the sacraments the Belgic Confession. The marks by which the true Church is known are these. If the pure doctrine of the Gospel is preached there in, so there's the Gospel again. If she maintains the pure administration of the sacraments, there's a sacrament again instituted by Christ. If church discipline is exercised in punishment of sin, so there's another dimension. In short, if all things are managed according to the pure word of God, all things contrary thereto rejected in Jesus Christ acknowledged as the only head of the Church. Hereby the true Church may certainly be known, from which no man has a right to separate himself. These are the essential elements. So what is it. It's a biblical assembly where you find the biblical Gospel, biblical officers, biblical ordinances, and biblical disciplines. Okay, this is the church. What do we mean by these? The biblical assembly The word church ecclesia in the Greek New Testament and in the septuagen The Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures that the apostles would likely have used, uses the same word in the Old Testament, the word ecclesia this gathering. It is a gathered or called out assembly. It is a congregation of Christians, implying interacting membership, congregation church. This is what the word means when we find it in the Greek New Testament, a gathering of people Hebrews ten twenty three to twenty five. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir one another up to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another. And all the more as you see the day drawing near. This is the biblical assembly in Matthew eighteen seventeen. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a gentile and as a tax collector. So there are those who are inside and those who are outside of the church. A biblical assembly with the Biblical gospel. When we talk about the biblical gospel, to what do we refer to a gospel that is historic, that is God centered, Christ centered, cross centered, and grace centered. This is the gospel that we look for that is historic, that it's God centered, Christ centered, cross centered, and grace centered, and this is what is essential. Let me pause here for a moment as we go into this section, because this is one of the things that's disturbing and heartbreaking for me. What's disturbing and heartbreaking for me is there are people who have been willing to compromise the gospel for quote unquote like mindedness, to find people who dress like us, and who educate like us, and who do things at home like us. Will go to an assembly where the gospel is not rightly preached because it's more important to us to have people who look like us on second and tertiary issues than it is for the primary issue of the gospel to be uphild. That is wrong. That is wrong. The Gospel is the center. The Gospel is the center. The Gospel is the center. There are a whole lot of other things, a whole lot of other things that we can agree to disagree on this. We cannot agree to disagree on and it says something, it speaks volumes. When you are willing to agree to disagree on the gospel, but you are not willing to agree to disagree on pick your peripheral issue, that's hugely problematic. The historic Gospel one Prienteen's fifteen one and two. Now, I would remind you, brothers of the gospel I preach to you, which you received and which you stand by, which you are being said, if you hold fast to the word I preach to you, unless you believed in vain. This is the historic Gospel that was proclaimed first Christian is fifteen threety five. I delivered to you as of first importance. What I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on a third day according to the scriptures. There are things of first importance. I was having a discussion, great discussion earlier about confessionalism, and they're just there's a lot of, you know, questions about confessionalism, whether or not we need to be confessional people. How important is it for us to be confessional people. And one of the questions that came up was, you know, who are we to say that there are these issues that are you know, of such importance that we will you know, raised them to confessional status, but these other issues that we won't. That's a New Testament concept, that there are some issues of first importance and other issues of secondary importance. That's not something that was just made up by men. That's something that we find clearly in scripture that there are certain issues wherein we can agree to disagree, right, And we're told as much to not judge one another in accordance with certain things, the foods we eat, the days we keep, you know, things of that nature. We're told very clearly about liberty in those areas, and we are also told very clearly that there are some issues of first importance. Here's one example. Okay, the gospel is of first importance. The gospel is God's centered, not just historic. It's God centered. God is at the center of the gospel, not Man. If your gospel has Man at its center, if it starts with you were so important and God needed you so much and you were you know, no, no, no, If your gospe starts with God creating the world and in being lonely so he created him that no, no, no, God's not lonely. The Triune God has never been lonely. He has always been complete in and of himself, and always in perfect unity and of himself, and by definition in need of nothing, and no one. Man is not the center of the Gospel God is Mark one fourteen. Now, after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the Gospel of God Romans one to one. Paul, a servant of Christ. Jesus called to be an apostle set apart for the Gospel of God verst. Thessalonians two too. But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the Gospel of God in the midst of much conflict. It is God's sinner. God is at the center of the Gospel. It is Christ's centered. The Gospel is Christ's centered. In other words, the Gospel is not the law. The Gospel is not the law. The Gospel is not all the moral teachings of Jesus. I've heard that said, heard that at homeschool conference more than one occasion, that the Gospel is all everything that Jesus taught. No, no, that's not the gospel. The gospel is not your story. Amen, Hallelujah, Praise the Lord. The gospel is not your story. Okay. I've had people come up to me sometimes at conferences and things that are you gonna tell us your story? Probably not? Probably not. I got another one that's much better. The gospel is Christ's story. It's Christ's story. Okay. My story might entertain you. His story can save you. One guaranteens nine twelve. If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even more. Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the Gospel of Christ. We do not put obstacles in the way of the Gospel. I remember, and this happens oftentimes with preachers as they preach and as they learn to preach. You know, when you start out preaching, you know a lot more about your own story than you do God's story, and so a lot of early sermons are very autobiographical, you know, extremely autobiographical. But there needs to come a point where we are captivated by Christ's story and our preaching becomes Christ centered, not me centered. Unfortunately, in this day and age, if you want to sell books and you want huge crowds, you need to get up and talk about you more than you do about Jesus. And there's a lot of people who are ready and willing to oblige. Because the fact of the matter is, if you look in Christian bookstores, books that major on making much of Christ, books that major on expounding on who Christ is sell a fraction of the number of copies as books that major on telling you my story. You write a Bible about you write a book about the theology of heaven in the Bible, you may sell a couple of thousand copies. Write a book say you died and you went there and you're telling your story. You'll sell millions and they'll make movies. Am I right or what? Because this is where we are. This is where we are. The gospel is cross centered. It's cross centered. This gospel that we preach across we preach a bloody gospel. The reason we preach a bloody gospel is because that's the consequence of sin. And the reason the only reason to preach across centered gospel is if you're preaching sin. And if you're not preaching sin, you're probably not preaching a cross much Verse Corinthians one seventeen. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the Cross of Christ be emptied of its power cross centered Galatians five eleven. But if I brothers still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case, the offense of the cross has been removed. He will not remove the offense of the cross. He doesn't want to put an obstacle in the way of the gospel. But he also doesn't want to remove the offense of the cross. One of those is offending your sensibilities because you're sinful. The other one is putting an obstacle in your way. That's not necessary at all. It's a grace centered gospel. Acts twenty twenty four. But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. It's a grace centered gospel. It's grace centered gospel Galatians one point six. I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. Folks, if this is not the gospel you are hearing, you are not in a true, healthy church. And that's a problem. And again here here's what worries me. What worries me is I will often homeschool conferences or other conferences, you know, where people who get this family discipleship thing. I will often get people who will come up and who will say, I just I just don't know if we can stay at our church. I just don't know. They have a youth culture. I just don't know. Sometimes people dress them modestly. I just don't know. You know, they this, I just don't know they that, and they that da da da da da da dada, we're one of the only ones who homeschool. And da da da da da da da. None of those, none of those, None of those are necessarily reasons to leave a church where you're gonna go and get the gospel. You may that, you may. What bothers me about that is not that this is what I hear, but I rarely hear people saying, we are just not hearing the historic God centered, Christ centered, Cross centered, grace centered gospel, and we desperately want to find someplace where our souls can be fed with the historic God centered, Christ centered, Cross centered, grace centered Gospel of Jesus Christ. Not hearing that, not hearing that. And in fact, as I said, sometimes I hear yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we get that, we get the historic gospel, we get the Christ centered gospel, we get the God centered gospel, we get the Cross centered gospel, we get the grace centered gospel. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeh yeah, we get that, we get the gospel. Right. But there's some other peripheral preference issues that are making us think about going to another church that doesn't have the gospel like that so that we can feel more comfortable. God help us all, God help us all. There is nothing more important than this, nothing more important than this. Not a single solitary thing is more important than this. That doesn't mean those things are unimportant. If they were unimportant, I wouldn't write about them. Amen. But something can be important, but not a matter of first importance. Biblical Officers two elders, overseers, bishops, pastor, this is all a reference to that same office and deacon. So elder and deacon, these are the two officers. Okay, these are the two officers. I give you another example of something that's really very interesting for me is that you know there are people who, again, we're just not willing to compromise on these lifestyle issues, right, we just can't. And if you're at a church where you're not getting those lifestyle issues, you just can't do that. You can't abide that. And so then you'll find some like minded families and sit around in your living room and listen to sermons or watch videos of sermons, but you have no biblical officers lifestyle issues. I'm not willing to overlook church without biblical officers. I'm cool with that. Just anybody else see a just slight problem with that. Elders called gifted by God, qualified for the work, appointed and ordained by the Church, not by themselves. You don't get to call yourself as an elder. You don't get to ordain yourself as an elder. Because this is the other thing that happens. Okay, we got these like minded families together and we don't have any biblical officers. That's fine. We'll just declare somebody, No, you don't get to do that. You don't get to do that. Roman's ten. How can they preach unless they're sent? Who sent them, Who sent them, Who sent them? Who sent them? This is what the church does Verse twenty three to one. The saying is trustworthy. If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task one Peter five one to two. So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed. Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly Acts fourteen twenty three. And when they had appointed elders from them in every church, or for them in every church, with prayer and fasting, they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed Titus one five. This is why I left you in crete, so that you might put what remained in order. Something was out of order? What was out of order? And to point elders in every town as I directed you under the direction of the Apostle, So elders, biblical ordinances, but biblical ordinances. Baptism and the Lord's Supper the front door and the back door of the church, if you will baptism. This is from Jonathan Lehman in his book The Church and the Surprising Offense of God's Love Masterful Treatment on Church Membership and Discipline, and he deals with this issue of baptism. Baptism and the Lord's Supper also serve as membership controls for the church. Baptism is the means for admitting people into the church, and the Lord's Supper is the means for allowing people to give a sign of continuing in the membership of the church. The church signifies that it considers those who receive baptism in the Lord's Supper to be saved. Therefore, these activities indicate what a church thinks about salvation and they are appropriately listed as a mark of the church today as well. Biblical discipline two types of discipline formative discipline and corrective discipline, and both of these are to be present in the Church. The formative discipline in the preaching of the Word designed to call forth holiness and corrective discipline for those who are found in sin. Matthew eighteen fifteen. If your brother sins against you, go to him. Go tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother, Amen eighteen sixteen. Next steps two. If he does not listen, take one or to others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. This is from the Levitical Code, by the way, Matthew eighteen seventeen. The first part, if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church Matthew eighteen seventeen. B. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a gentile, as a tax collector. This practice is designed to protect the integrity of the New Testament Church, and the goal is repentance. That's the goal, repentance at every step of the way. That's why there are steps in the process, because the goal at every step is repentance, and repentance stops the process at any point. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. And whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Our charismatic brethren have taken that, ripped it, kicking and screaming out of context. This has to do with church discipline and the authority of the church to discipline members and put them out of the church. This does not have to do with you nameing and claiming what you want. Again, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. Again another one, ripped and screaming out of contact. Come on, let's touch agree, Let's touch an agree. This relates to church discipline specifically. Okay, for where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I among them. I'll see whether there it is. That's why we don't need no church. We just need two or three like minded families, and we got us a church right there. No, no, and no again. This is a reference to church discipline. You have to have biblical officers and biblical ordinances in order to be a church, and biblical discipline in order to be a church. It's not just any two or three people who get together all of a sudden, that constitutes the church. That's not what this means in its context. And a text came in, would it never meant? And this text never meant that the case against church, Well, the church is the people. We don't have to go to no building, and worship is all of life. Well, I got to go somewhere to worship, and we could have or be the church anywhere at any time. Heard any of these before. I hear them all the time. These are excuses that people use to absent themselves from the duly constituted, legitimate, local news church biblical arguments for church membership. Here's some practical arguments identification, edification, cooperation, accountability, submission, and authority. Let's go over these five argument Number one, identification membership in a local body of believers identifies us as true Christians who believe the true Gospel. When you are a member of a healthy New Testament church, you are identified as a true Christian who believes the true Gospel. Does this mean that you're not a true Christian until you No, I didn't say that. I didn't say that. But understand this. What a healthy church does is it proclaims the Gospel and cause people to repentance in faith. When people come to repentance in faith, what the church does is it examines those people, and then those who show evidence of regeneration are baptized and brought into the membership of the church, so that the church is saying, these people are believing the gospel. See, if you're not part of a healthy church, you could have the wrong gospel and not be saved at all. He's believing something you made up. Right, found two or three like minded families that have go along with your delusion. One twenty three, fourteen fifteen. I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the Church of the Living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth. That's what the church is. One John two nineteen. They went out from us, but they were not of us. If they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out that it might become plain that they are all not of us. Notice anything, there what is implied here membership. There is an us and there is a them, and we know who us and them are membership. What does discipline imply membership? Membership? How do you put somebody out of something that they don't belong to? Membership? Membership? So not only are you identified as a true Christian who believes the true gospel, but you're identified as one who loves the brothers, as one who loves the brothers. By this, all people will know that you are My disciples if you have love one for another. A lot of times we look at that, well, I do, I love the brothers, And what we mean is that theoretical universal church in my mind where everybody agrees with me. But you can't do it in real life, with real flesh and blood people who disappoint you one John two seven to or eleven, Beloved, I'm writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true life is already shining. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. So when we're a member of a healthy local church, we understand that we've been identified as people who believe the true gospel, that we've been identified as one who loves the brothers because you are in communion with the brothers, you're in covenant with the brothers, and they're not all like minded on everything, and you still love them. Over the last year, God has sent people to GFBC from ten different nations, unbelievable. Just looked up one day, just looked up one day, and there they were. When we first started our church, we had Houston is the most ethnically diverse city in America, and so when we started our church, we prayed that God would just send us everyone and that we would preach the gospel. And the nations have come to us, and we want the gospel to go back to the nations to people coming to our church, this, that and the other, and but just didn't happen. You know, we had a whole bunch of white people, a few black people, some brown people, you know, that was it mostly a whole bunch of white people, just regular old white people, not even interesting white people, just regular old white people, you know. And that's just the way that it was, you know, for a long time, a good seven years or whatever. Then all of a sudden, several months ago, I'm walking through the church and I'm walking in and I'm going to get something. And as I'm going to get something, I walk over here and I'm gonna pick it up, and I look up and here's this Chinese guy who's been at our church for a few years, and the German girl that he married, who just came to our church from Germany to visit, met him when the nyga got married. So now there's these two guys. They're having a conversation with this couple. There's a regular white guy and his Filipino wife that they're having a conversation with. And then there's also the French guy who's a straight hairdresser who has a shop down the galleria where there's not a lot of straight men, and he's a straight hairdresser who's married to a lady from South Korea, right who's also a hairdresser at the place where they's. So that whole story right there. And then I turn over here and there's these Indian people who are talking to one young man who's from Guatemala and another one who just come to our church not long ago and he's from Thailand. And then I turn over here and there's another conversation going on with a Russian guy that we just learned not long ago is in the Russian naval reserves because they called him up and he had to go, and we were like, don't, don't, don't shoot us, you know. So anyway, there's this Russian guy, and then we walk in. So I'm doing all this and all of a sudden, I'm walking out, and as I walk out, I see some Nigerians who are at our church, you know, coming toward me. And I don't know who else that I saw. And so finally, after seeing all these people, just like boo boo boo bo bo bo bo boom, I went and grab one of our deacons named Richard Marquez, a Mexican guy. I said, Richard, I just ran past a couple of Filipinos, some Indians, Russians, French, Chinese, South Korean. I went through like ten different I'm like, dude, we're being overrun. You need to go find us some more Mexicans. But you know what's happened to some people in our church. They've complained because some of these people from these different parts of the world aren't necessarily like minded on everything. I'm like, what God is sending us the nations, But because some of them don't wear their hair like you think they ought too, you got a problem. God help us, God help us. Do you love the brothers? See if you only love the brothers and you're only willing to hang in there when everybody agrees with you on everything, you don't really love the brothers. You love yourself and you're willing to tolerate people who will agree with you on everything. That's not love of the brethren. That's love of yourself. That's narcissism. That's narcissism. We're identified also as one who walks in righteousness. Why because a healthy church practice is disciplined. So if you're not walking in righteousness, you'd be disciplined from that healthy church. But the fact that you're still in that healthy church is indicative of the fact that you're walking in righteousness. Amen. Now are all of these things guaranteed? Understand I'm talking about the doctrine here. This is why we need to be members of the local church. Second one, edification, the ordinary means of grace and spurring one another on. Listen to this from Westminster, The outward and ordinary means whereby Christ communicated to us the benefits of redemption are His ordinances, especially the words sacraments in prayer, all of which are made effectual to the elect for salvation. Listen to this from Richard Baxter. If you will be converted and saved, attend upon the Word of God, which is the ordinary means. Read the scriptures or hear it read and other holy writings that do apply it constantly. Attend on the public preaching of the Word, the ordinary means of grace, the word, corporate worship, preaching, the ordinances. These are the ordinary means of grace. And we are in desperate need of these ordinary means as believers, as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we need to attend to these ordinary means of grace. And we need to be together corporately for these ordinary means of grace for example. Well, anyway, I won't even deal with that. But Number three cooperation exercising spiritual gifts Romans twelve one Corinthians twelve. Your spiritual gifts are not about you. First, Corinthians twelve and Romans twelve both make it clear that God gave us spiritual gifts to benefit the body, to benefit the body. It's only when we're cooperating together and covenanting together in local bodies of believers that we have spiritual gifts that are being beneficial meeting material needs Acts two vers. Timothy five and then Titus two. Ministry older women, younger women, older men, younger men. So for cooperation, accountability for both life and doctrine. Accountability for both life and doctrine. We've already addressed that argument. Number five submission and authority. Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls. As those who have to give an account Hebrews thirteen seventeen. Let them do this with joy and not withgrowning, for that would be of no advantage to you. By the way, how are pastors and elders going to give an account for the souls that they shepherd. Unless you have official membership. How do I know who I'm responsible for? If we don't have official membership, I don't. I don't. If we don't have membership, I don't know who I'm responsible for. Okay. How does a father expect biblical, biblical submission from his wife and children in the home but refuse to submit to the authority of the church. How do you work that one out? Mhmm, you see it all the time, sir, whyn't you're in your family in church? Well, we just we just haven't found one yet. That's that. That's like minded enough. We haven't found one yet. That's worthy enough. We haven't found one yet. That Let me ask you a question, sir, are you worthy of your wife's submission? No? No, no, no. Man's perfect and she submissed to me because that's what the Lord calls her to do. And she submissed me in spite of the fact that I'm not perfect. Okay, let me go back and ask you a question again. Why are you and your family in the church? Sometimes I can do that like two three times before he finally goes, oh, I don't like you because I am not willing to give to the church what I demand from my wife, and I demand it from my wife in spite of my imperfection and lack of worthiness. But I won't give it to the church because if it's imperfection and lack of worthiness, I'm a hypocrite. What about my conscience? What about my conscience? There are things that just violate my conscience. Doesn't that matter? Number one? Is it a central issue? Is it a central issue or is this a peripheral issue? Number two? Are you being forced to sin? Because if you're not being forced to sin, then your conscience is actually not being violated. And usually when we say, well my conscience is being violated, well, how's your conscience being violated? Well, well, they have this at the church and we don't like to participate in that at the church, and so that violates my conscience. Do they tell you that you can't come unless you participate in that. No, then your conscience is not violated. You have liberty not to be a part of that. So your conscience is not being violated. Your preferences may be, but that's different. That's different. That's part of loving the brethren. Amen, That's part of loving the brethren. This is where your understanding of the Gospel is crucial. If the Gospel is all the teachings, the moral teachings of Jesus, as you understand them well, then we can elevate almost any issue to a gospel issue, and then I'm out of here. If the Gospel is the law, then I can divide over legalism. If the Gospel is my story, then I can divide over personal preference. This is where our understanding of the Gospel is crucial. So throughout finding a church. Number one must have a plan. I know what you believe, know what matters, know what you want, and know what you don't want. Have a plan, okay when you go when you go out trying to find a church, don't just go looking for a feeling somewhere, Okay, have a plan. Secondly, use tools and means, the Internet, neighbors, fellow Christians, okay, use tools and means like when you're searching for a house or searching for a car. Use the stuff that people use today. Use those things. Thirdly, you must be diligent. If you're not diligent, you'll look up and it'll be six months or a year since you've been to church regularly. You can't say amen. You ought to say ouch. You must be diligent. Treat this like trying to find a job. Get up and get after it. Every week, every day during the week, set aside a day or so where you're gonna contact people and find out information and get your list together. Okay, if there's a bunch of you who are drivers, you may want to separate and try to go and visit we We've had to try to find church before, and there were times where it just got crucial and if I was preaching somewhere on this weekend and then I'm back, and then I'm pretty sure all of a sudden our number of Sundays got dwindled down. So here's what we would do. Sometimes you and these go to that place, and then me and these will go to this place, and we'll come back and compare notes because we all know what we're not gonna be a part of, right, So we can get two places knocked out, and then if one of them is something that we need to go back and see, then we can go back to that one together and multiply. You gotta have a strategy. You gotta be diligent. This is serious business. You must make it a priority. This has to be a priority. And I'm afraid that with modern technology we've been able to get away with not making it a priority. I can't tell you how many people come to me and say, yeah, we get together, you know on Sundays, we don't have church, and we get together on Sundays and we'll put in your messages or this person's messages or that person's messages. I want to cry. I want to cry because that means I'm being used as a crutch and an excuse for people to not pursue the thing that they ought to be pursuing more than anything else in the world, and that is membership in a legitimate church. Sitting in your living room and listening to messages is not an acceptable substitute. It's not it's not. Make this a priority. Put this on the front burner. You need this. And this is commanded, Amen, this is commanded of you. And before you go saying, oh, well, they're just not ain't church in my area, let me take you to a few parts of the world where that's actually true, where it's actually true, where where literally you have to go one hundred miles to find another Christian. Let alone a church, folks, that's not the case here. That's not the case here. And see what we do is we take our consumerist mentality and all of these things that we have available to us. You know, we have our stuff on sermon audio. And by the way, I talk about this in Family Shepherds, so you can see that there. We have our stuff on sermon audio. And some of you may know this, some of you may not, but we have our things on sermon audio. Because I was outvoted by my fellow elders. That's why I was the loan holdout, Like, no, I don't want our stuff on sermon audio. No, we'll have a sermon audio. Sermon Audio contacted us and said, hey, we want you to have a page. Said fine, put some sample stuff up there. And there was some sample stuff up there. That's why our page is actually my name, because they gave me that with you know, to put my sample stuff up there. And then later on we kept getting all of these requests from people coming into the church, you know about our regular you know, weekly messages going on sermon audio. I'm like, no, uh huh, new new new read my lips. No, we're not doing that. We're not doing that. We're not doing that. We're not doing that. Why why don't you want to do that? Here's why I don't want to do that. Number one, because the people who are sitting in their living room and listen to that as a substitute for church. I don't want to be a part of that. And number two, for people who have a decent church in their neighborhood. It's a decent church, it's a healthy church. It's some guy with fifty sixty seventy members. He's not the most eloquent guy in the world, but he loves Jesus and he loves the people whom God's called him in the pastor. He's not a great preacher, but he preaches the gospel. And there are people who won't go listen to him because we're so used to listen to superstars all the time, and we go listen to this guy and we just write him off. I don't want to be a part of that. I don't want to be a part of that. And then they got me two things. One, we got a letter from one of those people who has to walk a day and a half to find a church somewhere, wrote us at the church, talking about what a blessing it was to have our stuff on her and audio and d da da da, and then a couple of other things happened, and then you know, finally it's like, hey, I'm a man under authority. I'm just one of you. I'm just one of the elders, you know. And at that time, I think there was four of us, and all three of the other guys were like, this is what we want to do. So I'm like, okay, well we'll do and we have it up there, and there are a lot of days when I'm very grateful. I'm very grateful that we have it up there because of some of the people who need that resource and for some of the people, you know, for whom that resource is helpful, and who use that resource in a very healthy way. And then something happens and somebody comes up and says, yeah, we don't go to church, and we just sit in the living room and we'll listen to you, and I just I just want, I just want to cry. I just I just I want to go to jiu jitsu class just for a little while. It just crushes me. It just crushes Meuse technology can be a wonderful thing, and it can also be a crutch. Don't allow technology to be a crush crutch and cause you to put this off. This is priority. It's priority number one. It's priority number one. This is important. This ismost importance. And before you decide to flee from the city. I know I've said this before, but it just belongs in this context. Before you decide to flee from the city and go away from the mean, mean streets, would you please consider what your church situation will be where you go, and don't be one of those people who walks up at a conference next year and says, can you help me because we moved seventy five miles away from people and can't find a church. That's like the person that walks up and says, it hurts it hurts so much when I do this. Stop doing that. Enough self inflicted wounds in this regard. Amen, all right, that's my time. I'm grateful for the opportunity to be here with you. I'm grateful for everything that been able to share with you. My prayer is that it's been helpful to you and that it's also been hopeful for you. My prayers that you leave here with hope as a result of the things that have been shared. I want to express my gratitude for the invitation to come and for the hospitality that we've received, for the encouragement for those of you who've just you know, brought words of encouragement to us as we consider prepare for our move Thank you for those who have indicated your intention to pray for us. That means a lot to me and to my family, and I'm encouraged by that, and I want you to know that I'm encouraged by that. Let me pray for us. Father, Thank you for your kindness to us over the course of this weekend. Thank you for the ways in which you have enriched us, the ways in which you've challenged us and taught us, stretched us grant by your grace that our lives might be challenged, changed, transformed, and even conformed to the image of Christ as a direct result of the investment that we have made over the course of this weekend. Thank you for all of the other teachers and for every person in attendance. Father, would you just multiply the impact of the time we've had. We pray in Christ, his name and for his sake. Amen,