Alright, thanks for having me, you guys. Can everyone hear me okay? I'm sure you can.
My name is Brother David Kiefer. I'm from Faith Forward Baptist Church. I'm very pleased
to be here. Thank you, Pastor Thompson, for allowing me to come and preach for you guys.
I look forward to fellowshipping with you guys after the sermon. With that being said,
let's just go straight into the sermon.
The title of this message this morning is All of the Congregation.
Sure Foundation Baptist Church, Faith Forward Baptist Church, and churches like ours are
known to be family integrated. A lot of times when we hear sermons on family integration,
most cases we're talking about children being allowed in the congregation while the church
is going on. This is a scriptural thing that we need to understand the importance of a
family integrated church. I'm going to address the point of children being in the service,
but family integration means everyone in the family is together to hear the man of God
preach. I don't have time to go into every single point that says where all the congregation
is everyone, man, woman, boy, girl, grandma, grandpa, and everyone in between, but a good
example of this is found in Deuteronomy 31. It says in Deuteronomy 31 verse 11,
When all Israel is come to appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose,
thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing. Gather the people together,
men and women and children and thy stranger that is within thy gates that they may hear
and that they may learn and fear the Lord your God and observe to do all the words of
this law. Just in case you didn't hear when he said all children, the next passage tells
us and that their children which have not known anything may hear and learn to fear
the Lord your God as long as you live in the land whether you go over Jordan to possess
it. So these are children that don't even know anything, you know, babies, infants,
toddlers that can't really maybe understand a lot of deep doctrine, but they are to be
integrated into the church. And with that being said, these other churches, evangelical
churches, unfortunately, even among some Baptist churches like IFB churches, they're trying
to pattern their church model after the world. You know, if you look at the schooling system,
I don't understand whose bright idea it was to gather 30 teenagers and stick them in one
room with one adult and think there was not a recipe for disaster there. If you took 35
year olds and stuck them in a room and put one adult in there, they're going to wreak
havoc. It's just inevitable. But this is what the world thinks is wisdom and education and
things like that. God's plan is very clear from the beginning that all of the congregation
come together and hear the man of God speak. And with that being said, I want to address
what would be the purpose of God wanting it to be like this? Why wouldn't God separate
and segregate different age groups? People learn at different capacities, right? And
you know, there's some truth to that. But I believe the reason why God designed family
integrated churches ultimately is to teach us believers how to function in society.
I mean, what is the church? It's the pillar and ground of the truth, right? And we understand
that the church, everything is to be decently and in order. So if we take the model that
we've learned in our church and follow it with us outside the walls of this building,
people are going to look at us and glorify God, which is in heaven, because of how we
function in society. And I'm going to address every member in the family, everyone from
a baby all the way to grandma and grandpa, because we all have a different role in the
church and we all have a different function. And with that being said, I want you to think
on this. The Bible teaches, for instance, in Philippians 4-11, For I have learned in
whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. You know, we need to learn contentment in
our life and understand we can only live in the here and now. We cannot live in the future,
it is to come. We cannot live in the past, it's already happened. We can only exist in
the here and now. So whatever state you're in in life today, you need to learn contentment
and we need to learn our role in the church and our function in society. So let's go down
the list and let's start with infants, babies. Babies are anyone that are birth to two, you
know, and like we said, you know, earlier in the announcement, we have a mother baby
room for if, you know, we want the children here, as Jesus said, suffer the children to
come unto me. We want to allow babies to come into the, hear the man of God preach. And
it is true that they don't know language, they don't know what's being said, they don't
understand the deep things of God, but there is more than meets the eye. Babies are little
sponges and they're learning a lot more than probably you know and the world gives them
credit for. And I believe that the function of a baby or the, you know, if they have a
function in the church, they're not going out soul winning, they're not reading, they're
not gathering offerings, they're just sitting there and learning. That's all a baby is to
do. I mean, I believe that the most influential time in someone's life is from birth to two.
More than meets the eye. We have, you know, subconscious actions that we carry through
the rest of our lives because of what our development years of birth to two. When you
go home tonight and you fall asleep and you're just about to fall asleep, notice the position
you are in your bed. They say 80% of the time, whether you sleep fetal position left, right,
belly sleeping or back sleeping, in most cases that's how you are being developed in the
womb. You naturally just want to go into a position that you feel most comfortable and
they do studies and I'm not going to go into those studies, but that's just a thought of
we tend to pick up a lot more than meets the eyes as babies. And I believe that babies
with that most influential time in their life, if they're hearing preaching and hymns
and things like that, they're learning to know what a church looks like, sounds like,
feels like, and how it is to function in a church. If a baby, you know, is raised in
an IFB church, in a family integrated church with a man of God preaching from the word
of God and hymns are being sung, God forbid if that child grows up and gets into a liberal
church or a church that's in a different model, patterning themselves after the world,
then that child, it may sit uneasy with them. They'd be thinking to themselves, this is
weird, this isn't what church is supposed to be like, because I remember as a child,
you know, as the Bible teaches, raise up a child in the way you should go and when he
is old, you will not depart from it. That church is done decently and in order. In turn
if you went to Hebrews, this is a good example of someone being raised in a godly manner
and it followed him throughout the rest of his life. And I'm talking about Moses. You
know, Moses was not raised in a godly home. Moses was raised in, you know, Pharaoh's daughter's
house in Egypt, which is symbolized of the world. And as we see here in Hebrews, we know
the story that Moses, when he was a baby, was to be delivered into an ark, sent down
the Nile River. Pharaoh's daughter picked him up. Miriam, his sister, found Pharaoh's
daughter and said, hey, here's one of the Hebrew women, should I, you know, have called
them over? And we know that from that moment till about two years old, because that's when
children get weaned, he was under his mother's influence. And we don't know exactly what
his mother did within those two years, but we see Moses serving God for the rest of his
life because of some influence that his mother had on him in those two years. And if you
would look down at your Bible at verse 23, this is an example. It says, by faith, Moses,
when he was born, was hid three months and his parents because they saw he was a proper
child and they were not afraid of the king's commandment. By faith, Moses, when he was
come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to
suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season,
esteem in the reproach of Christ's greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he
had respect under the recompense of the reward. Moses somehow knew that it was more important
to serve God than to be with the people of Egypt and to live in sin. And I believe it's
because of his childhood years, his infant years, birth to two. So the function of a
baby simply is to learn. I mean, they can't really contribute too much to the church.
We are here for them. We're here to serve the children. As Jesus said, suffer the little
children. The next group of people I want to address is toddlers. Toddlers are your
children that are the ages two to five. And they're very similar in the same function
of a baby. They're just here to learn. And you know and I know that when you go out into
the world and you see toddlers being misbehaved, it's because they're not raised in a family
integrated church. You know, when you go to Walmart, Costco or shopping or anything like
that, you're going to see the toddler, I want candy. No, you can't have candy. And then
he throws a tantrum, throws himself on the floor, screams his head off. No one's doing
anything. We're all just kind of shopping by like, okay, you know, see no evil. I'm
just going to walk away from this. And the mom is doing nothing. He won't stop. She'll
eventually just give him the candy. And what does that really teach him? Did that teach
him how to live decently and in order? No, we know that if you spare the rod, you hate
the child. That if a child in this church acts up, the mother, I mean, goes and disciplines
their child to teach them to sit still. If anything a toddler can learn in a family integrated
church, it's how to sit still. Look, children, whether you know this or not, sitting still
is a skill that even some adults don't even know how to do. So that is a huge skill and
function that you can learn that will carry you throughout the rest of your life. I mean,
no one loves going to the DMV, but guess what you're doing at the DMV? You're sitting
still just waiting for if not hour to who knows how long. So this is a function that
I believe toddlers can learn. That is a very critical thing to do is sit still. Just sit
still and learn. And I get it. Children act up. The Bible teaches that foolishness is
bound in the heart of a child. But you know, that doesn't mean that we suffer the children.
These other churches that are, you know, not family integrated, unfortunately, these
preachers and pastors and them, they're wanting to preach in like a vacuum in a soundless
box and they want all the attention and they don't want any distractions. And that's unfortunate
because now that child is not going to know his function in society to just be able to
sit down when someone is speaking to them, be respectful, you know, follow the church's
plan of attack, whether it's, you know, going out and preaching the gospel or whatever it
is. And a good example I like to point out is, have any of you heard of Second Sunday
Amanda from our church? Well, Second Sunday Amanda, she's had her name dropped in a couple
of sermons. She was there from the second Sunday of our church and she has a son, her
and her husband named Caleb. And this kid, like I said, there's more that they're learning
than meets the eye. He's about three years old. And sometimes you'll notice after the
sermon, he'll come up and stand by the podium and he'll sit there and go like this, you
know, and it's obviously, he doesn't know what's being said. He doesn't understand a
lot of the deep doctrines or the deep truths, but you know what he knows? This is how someone
leads song, to listen to the man of God. Sometimes they'll see him and they'll be like, it's
like he's mimicking hard preaching. And Mrs. Amanda and her husband, they have told me
that at home, he actually plays church. He'll sit there with his little desk. He'll have
like a piece of paper, pretend to like read announcements and like call, oh, one, okay,
one soul and so on and so forth. He'll lead a song. Then he'll pretend to preach hard
and then he'll lead a song. I mean, it's truly that they're learning more than meets the
eye and we need to suffer the children. You guys are a part of the congregation. We are
all, the congregation has the title of this messages. We are all a part of this church.
So the next group of people I want to address is children, kids, you know what I mean? This
is, you know, people who are ages six to 12 and turn, if you would, actually don't turn
there. First Corinthians 13, 11 tells us this. What is the function of a kid, a child, someone
who's ages six to 12? I believe truly is to be a child, to be a kid. You know, the world
today is trying to grow you kids up more than you know. They're trying to make you become
adults at an early age. You need to enjoy your childhood. Your childhood only comes
once. Remember, whatsoever state you're in, they're in to be content. Every kid looks
to their parents and says, I wish I was an adult. I wish I could do all this stuff. And
every parent laughs and says, I wish I was a kid. I could just eat cookies all day and
you know, play around. But you know what? Back to even the adults, we need to learn
in whatever state we're in to be content. And First Corinthians 13, 11 is a good passage
that a lot of people point to for us adults to grow up. You know, for instance, it says
when I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child,
but when I became a man, I put away childish things. And there are two things being taught
here in this passage, and we all get the primary concept of what's being said, but
I think we lose the secondary thing, which I believe to be the primary. What this is
teaching is that when you grow up, act like an adult, act your age, you know, women act
like ladies, men act like men, you know, but what they're not understanding is children
act like children. When I was a child, I spake as a child. When I was a child, I understood
as a child. When I was a child, you know, I thought as a child. That means the thought
life of a child should be different than the thought life of an adult. You know, you guys
don't need to burden your minds with intense responsibilities and bills and things that
you don't need to worry about. You need to enjoy your childhood. It only comes once in
your life. And you know, I wish someone gave me this advice growing up, but you know, you
need to enjoy your childhood and keep your innocence. What does that mean? What children
need to understand is the world is in an agenda to ultimately destroy your minds. So your
parents' goals is to keep you innocent and pure as long as you humanly possibly can.
Have fun, but know this, the Bible does also say in Proverbs 20-11, even a child is known
by his doing, whether his work be pure or whether it be right. But David, you just said
have fun and be a kid. Now you're telling me to work? Your work is not the work of your
parents. Your work, I mean, you're going to be known for what you do in your life, your
work. You're not going to be known for your playing. No parent's going to look back at
their life and be like, oh, my child was so good at playing with toys and they're just
the best at playing games. No, they're going to say my son was so good at just doing what
I told him to do. My daughter was so wise to never even, I didn't have to ask her. She
would just do anything that was necessary, her chores, her homework. I didn't even need
to ask her. You're going to be known for your doings, but your doings are not going to consume
your life. You need to enjoy life, have fun, keep your innocence, and that's your function
in society. Other kids are going to try to tempt you into being adult, to being older.
You need to be different and be like, you know what? I am a child. I need to think as
a child and I need to understand as a child. Therefore, you go and do that, but we are
going to serve God. Next group I'm going to go into is teenagers. Buckle up. Nah, I'm
just playing. You guys, teenage years, I'm not going to sit here and sugarcoat nothing.
It's a hard time in your life. I get it. Bodies are changing. Hormones are raging. A lot's
going on, but this is what I believe when it comes to the teenage years. Your function
in society is to learn to become an adult. Understand this. You're going to be an adult
a lot longer than you're going to be a child. Back to the thing I just said a moment ago.
Your childhood only comes once. Enjoy it. You're going to be an adult a lot longer in
your life, so as a teenager, you need to start mentally prepping of what it means to be an
adult. Now, whether you're a teenage girl or teenage boys, we understand there's different
functions in society, right? But know this. The Bible teaches in Luke 12, 48, for unto
whomsoever much is given of him shall much be required. Back to that work aspect, you
know, the Bible says a child is even known by his doings. So, the child at 6 to 12 doesn't
have a lot of responsibility, but they have responsibility. Do the dishes. Clean your
room. Do your homework. The teenager may be given a little bit more responsibility,
but they should still enjoy their life and still have fun. A teenager, a teenage boy,
if the parents allow them, or can maybe go out into the workforce and get a job, and,
you know, that's up to your parents' age. Some people say 16 is fine. Some people say
no, 18. It all depends on your house and what their rules are, but a boy who's starting
to hit the workforce is going to be given a little bit more responsibility. So, this
is what it means to be an adult, is to start acquiring responsibilities. Ladies, teenage
girls, if your family is trying to bestow upon you Christian values, they may not be
giving you responsibilities to go into the workforce, but they're going to give you more
house responsibilities because the function of women in our society is to keep the home,
as the Bible teaches, and if you're doing more at home, maybe learning more to cook
for the family, maybe learning more to do laundry or keep the house in any way, shape,
or form, whatever your mother's rule is, you know, if you're given more responsibility,
you need to understand the importance of that and know that, as an adult, these are things
that you're going to be doing for the rest of your life. So, that's the function of teenagers
in society, and, like I said, a teenager that walks into the world, you know, they're
trying to destroy your mind and how you think. You need to understand that we are in the
world, but we are not of the world. If you are a born believer in the Lord Jesus Christ
as a teenage boy or girl, you need to be sanctified and be separated from the world, and we can
learn how to do that in the congregation as, you know, the body of Christ.
The next group of people I want to go into is young adults, and young adults are, you
know, the ages of 18 to 25. Now, understand this. I'm going to be very severe in this
matter. Satan is gunning for you young adults. The public enemy, number one, in Satan's radar
is young adults. You know, young adults are under attack, I believe, more today than they've
ever been under attack. Look, everyone's under attack. You know, babies, toddlers, children,
teenagers, but young adults, Satan is gunning for you. Satan wants to destroy your life,
whether you know it or not, and everyone in their young adult life, even me included,
thinks we know how the rest of our life is going to go. A part of the function of the
church as a whole is we need to respect our elderly brothers and sisters in Christ and
adhere to wisdom that what they have to teach us, and outside of that is what the Word of
God tells us. And if you would turn to Proverbs 5.
Proverbs 5, verse 1, I'm going to go ahead and read, and this is primarily geared to young men,
young adult men. This is what it says.
Under the path of life, her ways are movable that thou canst not know them. If you ever think
that you're going to be able to live a life of fornication or adultery or anything like that as a
young adult male, you are foolish. Her ways are movable, and you don't even know what that
ultimately means. Your life will be destroyed. Fornication in the Bible is a horrible, wicked sin
that we need to be disdained and disgusted with. And when you learn to hate sin,
as God hates sin, this is going to keep you pure on your wedding day as young men
and young women. It goes on to say this, because if you think you're going to be able to
fool with the whorish woman or something like that, lest thou ponders the ways of life,
her ways are movable that thou canst not know them. Hear me now, therefore,
O ye children, not just you young adults, everyone, and depart not from the words of my
mouth. Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house.
We need to just avoid any temptations when it comes to, you know,
being with a man or a woman outside of marriage. As Joseph fleed,
you need to flee fornication. And look, like I said, the world is geared towards
young adults. They're attacking you, young adults. More and more
Hollywood music and things are trying to get you to think that everyone's doing it,
there's nothing wrong with it. You know, you live life only once. Was that YOLO?
Was this the YOLO? You only live once. And it's like, you know what, that's ridiculous.
If you only live once, don't you want to live your best life now and have the blessings of God on your life?
You know, this isn't just for men. This is also for young adult ladies. Turn, if you would, to
1 Timothy. And everything that I read from Proverbs, you can flip the
script and address it to a woman as well. Women, if you think you're going to
be with a whoremongering man and think that his ways are movable, you're a fool.
The whorish man, or what the Bible calls a whoremonger, you know, his ways are
just as movable as the woman is.
But the Bible teaches for young ladies,
this is the advice I have for you. In 1 Timothy 5, verse 14,
the Bible reads, I will, therefore, that the younger women marry, bear
children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully,
for some have already turned aside after Satan. In our churches, in the
NIFB and independent Baptist churches, isn't there seem to be a missing demographic of people
in our churches? A lot of cases it's young adult women. Girls that are
18 to about 35 years old, their numbers are small in the church. And it's unfortunate
because they've gone after the way of Satan and they lived after the world. So like I
said, if Satan's gunning for you, if you're a young lady here today in
church, you are in the right path to serving God for the rest of your life.
Your function in society is looking to starting a family. You know, the world
today is going to tell you, wait, wait till you're 30, experiment with this
boyfriend, that girlfriend or whatever. Don't just marry your first person that bats their eye at you
or shows you any sign of, they like you.
And I will say you should be cautious about marrying the first person that's nice to you or your
liking. But it does happen that some people fall in love with the first person they meet and that's a
great blessing. It's not in most cases. Just understand that. So if you got that, praise the Lord, that's great.
But you need to understand if you're going to be with this person for the rest of your life, you need to
be very cautious of who you marry. And not just marry the first person that comes around, if
that's the case, praise the Lord. But understand the importance of that person is going
to be with you forever. It's you two against the world in a sense, and
Jesus Christ. It's you three against the world. But it's, you know,
if you understand that your function is to look to starting a family
earlier on, the Bible teaches that it's a blessing to have a family in your
young age. You know, the world's saying don't do that. Wait till you're older. Go into college.
Build a career. Start a family. Date a couple of people first. That's, that's foolishness.
The Bible says the wife of your youth is a blessing and the husband of your youth is a blessing.
You know, I got married when I was 24 years old and in this category of young adults, it's
18 to 25. I wish I got married earlier. If it were up to me, I would have.
In a nutshell, not to get too deep or personal. My in-laws were not about that. So
if my in-laws gave me their blessing earlier on, I would have married my wife. But, you know, I
wanted to make sure I got their blessing. And you should, as men, seek the blessing of your
future spouse's father-in-law because ultimately what is happening with young women,
your father being your authority is going to hand you off to the man who's your new authority
and they're going to be in charge of you for the rest of their life. But men, it's the same
thing. You're going to leave your father and mother and cleave unto your wife. And if the world sees
you starting to looking into a family earlier on in your life, that's going to be
a blessing to Christ, to Christianity. It's going to teach us how to function in society.
Some people look at young married couples and think like, oh, that's not wise. You shouldn't have done that
20, 30, 40 years later. That's the greatest decision they could have ever made was getting
married early on. We know the Bible says it's better to marry
than to burn. Not burn in hell over eternity. Burn in lust for the
opposite gender. And we need to understand that marriage
at a young age is a blessing from God. That is your function young adults in society.
The next group of people I'm going to address is adults, you know, ages 26 to 65.
And I don't need to go into a lot of preaching on adults because we hear a lot of preaching
on men and women roles in churches. And I'm sure you guys heard a lot of, you know, what the
dad's role is, what the mom's role is and how we function in the church.
But just to kind of go over a couple of things. Men, your goal, priority number one is
spiritually lead your family into serving Christ. But outside
of that, it's to financially support your home. You know, we believe in the
man being the sole provider for a family. There's nothing wrong with a woman making an
income as a Proverbs 31 woman teaches us, but her job is not to go out into the world
to make money. She can make money from within doing a hobby or a
skill. Like my wife breeds dogs and, you know, she successfully
bred two different breeds of dogs and some women,
you know, they do crochets. There's all sorts of ways that a woman can make money. But it's our job as men to
financially support our home. The Bible teaches in Exodus 29,
six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work because the Lord created
everything in it is in six days and on the seventh day he rested. Now,
I personally, I moved here from Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands and
the cost in Hawaii is really expensive. And I'll say this, there is a point in
my life where I had three jobs and I was working seven days a week. Six days shalt thou labor
is what God commands of us. And, you know, the Bible teaches that I've not seen the righteous
forsaken nor his seed begging bread. That as long as you're working, you will be
cared for. If you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, all things will be added unto you.
Food, clothes, house and things like that. But that is the goal of
a dad or a man in the family is to financially support their home and to
spiritually guide their house. And we know for ladies, ultimately,
it's just to keep the home, to raise your children, raise up the next generation of Christians.
We just went from baby all the way to young adults. Everything before that is the mom's
role to teach that next generation. If dad's out working, you know,
10, 12 hour days, six days a week, who's home with the children all day?
Her job is to keep her home, raise her children in a godly manner, raise them
up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord so that they can continue in serving God. And
every mother knows they love seeing their children serving God and doing good in their life.
No mother wants to see their child going down a wrong path or a bad path.
But, you know, part of our function in society, our function in the
church is to show the world how a family is to be run. And the last group
of people I want to address is elderly people.
I believe that there's not a lot of preaching and there's not enough preaching on the
elderly. Elderly people, elderly brothers, these are people who are ages 65 and above
till they see the kingdom of God. The Bible says that if a man or
a woman makes a three score in 10 years, that's a blessing from God. A score in the Bible is 20 years.
So 20, 30, or 20, 40, 60, 70 years. So a 70 year old man or woman
is a blessing. The Bible teaches that the hoary head is a crown of righteousness unto them.
The Bible teaches in the Ten Commandments, you know, honor thy father and thy mother that thou mayest
live long upon the earth. It's the first commandment with promise. There's no doubt making it to the tail end of
your life is a blessing from God because understand not everyone does. Some people don't make it to 60,
70 years old. But I believe, and if you would turn
back to Titus, Titus 2 where we started,
that the function for elderly brothers and sisters in Christ primarily is to
teach wisdom to the next generation.
If they understand that they're on their way out, you know, then they want
to make sure that the next generation picks up the mantle and continues the work moving forward.
And I will say this, that as long as you have breath in your chest and you're hearing the sound of my
voice, you can still be used by God to the fullest of your
ability in life today. Remember, whatsoever state you're in, they're in to be content.
If you're 80, 90 years old, you can still be used by God. And if not,
some of the greatest way, the greatest way in your life. We see examples of elderly
brothers and sisters in Christ doing the best works for God. Moses, when he led the children out of
Egypt, was 85 years old.
Abraham was 99 years old when he had Isaac. And Sarah was given
the strength to conceive seed. And Sarah, if you look at this spiritually,
like as a symbolism, Sarah had Isaac in her later
years. So that shows us that elderly women can still go out and preach
the gospel and win someone to the Lord, even in their 90 years of age. Now
I will say this, if we younger brothers and sisters in Christ should not
push our elderly people to do more soul winning, go two, three, four, five days a week,
that's not right. The Bible teaches that the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. They're
not as brittle and able to do as much physical work as we, the younger generation,
but we should help assist them. As Moses was out
fighting the Lord's battle and he was raising his hand and, you know,
the children of Israel were prevailing when his hand were raised and when his hand was dropped,
the children of Amalek were winning the battle. Then Joshua and her helped
assist his hand up. It is our job, younger Christians, to help
assist our elderly people in the serving God, whether that be through prayer,
physically, financially, emotionally, spiritually. Let's serve our elder brothers and
sisters in Christ because they're going to bestow upon us wisdom to be able to move forward.
This is why I had you start in Titus. Titus 2 tells us the function
of elderly people in the church.
Notice what it says in verse 2, that the aged men be sober,
grave, temperate, sound in the faith, in charity and patience. The aged
women likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness, not false accuser, not given to much
wine, teachers of good things, that they may teach the young women to be sober,
to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good
obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. They are to bestow
upon us wisdom to continue serving God because, you know,
some people get saved later on in their life, in their elder years, and they maybe didn't serve God
their whole life, but they're now serving God and that's a blessing. There are people who
were born in a Christian home and were raised in a Christian home
and will go all the way and be, you know, as I've heard Pastor Anderson said,
I was Baptist born, I was Baptist bred, and when I die,
my Baptist dad, I butchered that, but he's ultimately been a Baptist his whole life and that's a blessing from God.
And we need to, like, I've heard of
old IFB churches that are full of grey heads and, you know,
their churches are dying, there's not a lot of young youthfulness going on, they're not
keeping the first works as it says in Revelation and going and preaching the Gospel and things like that.
But you know what? Even though their church is dying and it's not
growing, and that's an unfortunate thing, don't get me wrong, it's still a blessing that they are being
faithful to their church and still showing up and being diligent to the end. The Bible
teaches, you know, like I said, in whatsoever state you're in, therewith to be content.
You know, I press towards the mark of the high calling which is in Christ Jesus. We need to
continue moving forward as long as you are breathing, God is not done with you.
So what's the conclusion of the matter? Turn, if you would, to 1 Corinthians.
Alright David, I get it. Church,
the congregation, we are all the congregation. We are family integrated. Family
integration does not mean only, oh, we just have the kids in the church. And that is true, we do allow
the children in the church. We suffer the children, we allow them to hear the word of God, we want
them to grow in the nurture and admonition. We all have a different function in the church, we all have a different
function in society. And we are going to learn how to function in society by our church. The church
is going to help us to move forward in our world. But with that being said, we are also the
body of Christ. And the Bible teaches us right here in 1 Corinthians
12. Turn, if you would, to 1 Corinthians 12.
Verse 12, the Bible reads, For as the body is one,
and as many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are
one body, so also in Christ. For by one spirit are we
all baptized into one body, whether we be Jew or Gentiles, whether we be bond or
free, and have been all made to drink into one spirit. For the body is not one
member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not
of the body, is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say,
Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body?
If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole body were hearing,
where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members every one of them
in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if they were
all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members
yet but one body. So ultimately the Bible is saying that we are
all one body. We all have a different function.
The hand cannot say to the foot that I don't need you. I can't say to the ear
that I don't need you. We all need each other. We all are serving
God every day. And you know when we go out soul winning, I am a big
advocate and a believer that when you hit the door
it may be that you are the only person that were possible to get that person saved.
Everyone has a different approach to their Gospel presentations when they go soul winning. And I could hit
the exact same door as someone and I would not get them saved. Maybe because
how I look, how I smell, whatever. But that person was the only person or
it was ordained of God that that person bring that person the Gospel. And this
is why we believe that all of us are part of the congregation. We are all in the yoke
and bondage of Christ to serve God in any state you are in. They are in to be
content. You know look at yourselves today and understand where am
I on the list. A child, a toddler or whatever.
And if you learn to serve Christ to your ability today then you
understand what it means to be family integrated. These other churches, these evangelical
churches that are following the worldly model and sending their teenagers off.
Like I said, that's their prerogative and they can do whatever they want. But as
for this church, Faithful Word Baptist Church and churches like this
we are going to be family integrated, suffer the children and we are all in this work
together. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father thank you so much
for this church. Thank you so much for family integration in church. Please
help everyone to have got something. Fill us with the Holy Spirit to go preach your word and get
as many people saved as we can. And in Jesus name we pray. Amen.