1 Corinthians chapter 12 is a great chapter about the local church and the different gifts
that people have that they exercise within the local church, the different members of
the body of Christ and the functions that they have within the local church.
And what I want to preach about tonight is the local church and how there are many things
today that want to try to replace the local church.
There are a lot of these parachurch organizations or parachurch ministries that people want
to become involved with and they de-emphasize the local church which is God's institution.
It's really the only institution that God set up.
You don't see God founding colleges or television ministries or you see him founding the local
church.
And I believe that God's work should be done through the local church, God's institution.
I'm going to show you scripturally why I think this is so important.
Now first of all, before we can really have a sermon that talks about the local church
and its importance versus these other parachurch ministries that are there as cheap substitutes
for the local church, we need to understand what the word church even means.
And this is a word that many people fail to understand.
Now I think church is a good word, but it's just a word that people misunderstand.
You know the previous Bible translations before the King James Version, the older English
translations that predate the King James Version, they would always translate it as, or some
of them anyway, would translate it as congregation, okay?
And in our King James Bible, that's the way it's translated all the time in the Old Testament.
So throughout the Old Testament we see this word over and over again, congregation.
We don't find the word church until we get to Matthew.
But all throughout the Old Testament we see congregation, congregation, congregation.
But what's interesting is that when an Old Testament verse that says congregation is
quoted in the New Testament, then the New Testament uses the word church, showing us
that church and congregation are the same thing, which is why a lot of these older English
translations would use the word congregation instead of church because that's what it means.
It's the same thing.
It's the same word.
For example, in Psalm 22, 22 it says, in the midst of the congregation I will sing praise
unto thee.
Then that's quoted in Hebrews 2, 12 as in the midst of the church will I sing praise
unto thee, showing that those two words have the identical meaning.
Now go back, if you would, to Exodus chapter number 33, Exodus chapter number 33.
And while you're turning to Exodus chapter number 33, I want to read to you from 1 Corinthians
chapter number 10.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 10, the Bible says in verse 1, Moreover, brethren, I would not
that you should be ignorant how that all our fathers were under the cloud and all passed
through the sea, and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and did
all eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink.
For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.
But with many of them God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
Now these things were written, he said, they were for our examples, to the intent we should
not lust after evil things as they also lusted.
And on and on, neither do this, neither do that.
But the point is, he says, these things are written for our examples, and he explains
the symbolism.
He says, look, when the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea, that pictured baptism,
you know, because they had the water on all sides, because they had the cloud above, and
then they had the water on both sides.
That's a picture of baptism.
It wasn't baptism, it was a picture of baptism, okay?
And the blood was put on the doorpost in Egypt with the Passover lamb.
That was a picture of salvation, the blood sprinkled on our hearts, and the lamb being
the lamb of God, Jesus Christ.
He says, look, all these things happen for examples.
So when you're reading these stories in the book of Exodus and elsewhere in the Old Testament,
you need to understand that these were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of
the world are come.
He says when you read it, you have to understand, you know, that that Passover lamb is Jesus.
And the sprinkling of the blood is talking about the blood sprinkled on our hearts.
And that crossing of the Red Sea pictures baptism.
And that congregation in the wilderness pictures the church.
And Moses was the pastor of that church.
And so on, it's all the different things, you know, the manna that they ate.
It's all symbolic, everything.
Now I'm not saying it didn't really happen, of course it really happened, but it's also
symbolic and it's also things that are written for our admonition.
Now look what the Bible says in Exodus 33 verse 2.
And I will send an angel before thee, and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite,
and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, unto a land flowing with
milk and honey, for I will not go up in the midst of thee, for thou art a stiff-necked
people lest I consume thee in the way.
And when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned and no man did put on his ornaments.
Chapter 33 verse 5.
For the Lord had said unto Moses, Say unto the children of Israel, You are a stiff-necked
people.
I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment and consume thee.
Therefore now, put off my ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee.
Basically God's saying, you know, I'm so angry at you, I don't know what to do with you.
Take off your stupid ornaments and let me figure out what I'm going to do with you.
Because you're such a stiff-necked, rebellious people.
So God's very angry because the children of Israel have been sinning and so forth.
So it says in verse 6, the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by
the Mount Horeb and Moses took the tabernacle.
This is the key verse in verse 7.
And Moses took the tabernacle and pitched it without the camp, outside the camp.
So everybody's camped.
And keep in mind, not everybody's saved, okay?
It's just a bunch of people who came out of Egypt.
First of all, it's the whole nation of Israel, many of which are not saved of course.
There's Korah, there's Dathan, Abiram, all the rebels, all those people.
But then also there's a mixed multitude that comes up with them.
Just a bunch of people who just jump on this bandwagon.
I mean you just have millions of people here, of course they're not all saved.
So there's the camp where the whole multitude is camped in the wilderness.
But Moses took the tabernacle and he pitched it without the camp.
He takes God's house and he moves it outside the camp, far off from the camp.
Now look, this is not in the Bible by accident.
It's not just incidental.
God's trying to teach us something here.
He takes it without the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the tabernacle
of the congregation.
And it came to pass that everyone which sought the Lord went out under the tabernacle of
the congregation which was without the camp.
Now go if you would to Hebrews 13, Hebrews chapter 13.
So what's he saying here?
The tabernacle of the congregation, which in the Old Testament was God's house, is basically
pitched without the camp, afar off from the camp, and he wants to make a delineation and
a separation between those who want to seek the Lord and don't.
He said, you know, we don't want to have the whole world in the church, everybody in church.
He says, no, we're going to put the congregation outside the camp and anybody who wants to
seek the Lord is going to have to make the effort to go to that congregation.
It's not going to come to you.
It's not going to be where you live.
No, it's just going to be outside the camp so that you have to leave your house and go
to that congregation and seek after the Lord in that way.
Now look what the Bible says in Hebrews 13 which ties in with this.
Verse 6 it says, so that we may boldly say the Lord is my helper and I will not fear
what man shall do unto me.
Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God,
whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.
Jesus Christ, the same, yesterday and today and forever, be not carried about with divers
and strange doctrines.
For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace, not with meats which have not
profited them that have been occupied therein.
We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.
For the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high
priest for sin are burned without the camp.
Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without
the gate.
Now watch verse 13.
Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.
For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.
By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is the
fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name, but to do good and to communicate, forget
not.
For with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
Obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves, for they watch for your
souls as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy and not with grief,
for that is unprofitable for you.
Now the part that I really want to emphasize here is in verse number 13 when it says, Let
us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.
That's exactly the wording used in Exodus 33.7 when he said that the tabernacle of the
congregation was pitched without the camp and that anybody who sought after the Lord
would go to that congregation and God's telling us in the New Testament, let's go forth unto
Christ outside the camp bearing his reproach.
This is an admonition about going to church, about going to the congregation.
In the Old Testament they went to the congregation and here that's what he's talking about, which
is why it starts out in verse 7 and ends up in verse 17 in this section talking about,
hey, remember them that have the rule over you.
Obey them that have the rule over you.
What's he talking about?
He's talking about the local church here.
He's not talking about, hey, remember, you know, some king or emperor or whatever.
No, because he says, Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you
the word of God.
This is talking about the church.
That's why those bookends are there in verse 7 and 17 because right here he's saying, look,
let's go without the camp.
Let's go to the tabernacle of the congregation.
He just said a few chapters ago in chapter 10, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves
together.
What does it mean to congregate?
To assemble.
That's what congregate means.
He says, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting
one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching.
He says that we need to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together.
Where?
Without the camp.
Where?
In the congregation.
Where?
In the local church.
He says don't forget, don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some
is, but exhorting one another.
What does exhorting one another mean?
It means to tell other people, hey, you need to be in church.
Exhorting one another, but in the end times this will become less important.
Is that what it says?
No, it says, but exhorting one another and so much the more as we see the day approaching.
That means in 2015 we need more church than in 2014.
It's even more important not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together now than
it was yesterday because it says it's more important as we see the day approaching.
And yet we see the exact opposite today.
We see the church being de-emphasized and we see more people than ever forsaking the
assembling of themselves together.
Exactly what the Bible's predicting would happen, which is why he adds that phrase so
much the more as you see the day approaching.
God knows the end from the beginning.
He knew that in the end times people were going to start forsaking the assembly, forsaking
the congregation.
Now the reason I make a big deal about that, and if you would go to 1 Corinthians 12.
The reason I make a big deal about that is that the church is a congregation.
The church is an assembly.
The church is a group that you go to.
Now a lot of people say, well, church isn't a building.
Of course church isn't a building.
I agree with that.
The church is not a building.
But here's what people miss though when they go around and say, hey, we're the church.
Yeah that's right, we're the church because we congregate.
But as soon as we stop congregating, we're not the church anymore.
You see, you could have been a saved Israelite and you could have even been baptized, you
know, quote unquote.
You went through the cloud and the sea.
But if you don't go out to that congregation, you know, you're not a part of that congregation.
You're with all the wicked people that are hanging out in the camp, murmuring against
God and against Moses and don't care and don't want to listen to the truth and don't want
to go to that tabernacle at the congregation.
So just because you're saved, it doesn't make you the church.
But see, this is what people are teaching now.
People teach this doctrine that's called the universal church doctrine.
And it's amazing because the word universal means Catholic.
That's what, you want to know what Catholic means?
Look up Catholic in a dictionary.
Catholic means universal.
And it's this teaching that there's one true church, the Catholic universal church and
we're all, you know, we all need to look to this one church and it's universal pastor,
the pope.
Right.
Okay, that's what the Catholic church teaches.
Well, the Protestant Reformation comes along and says, well, there's not a visible Catholic
church or universal church, but there's an invisible, you know.
There's an invisible Catholic church, an invisible universal church.
And in fact, if you talk to Protestants who actually know their doctrine, Protestants
who actually follow the teachings of, you know, Martin Luther, John Calvin, these heroes
of theirs, then they'll even say, I'm Catholic.
They will literally say, I am a Protestant Catholic.
That's what they'll tell you.
And they'll say, we are members of the true Catholic church.
And this is what they'll say, well, we didn't leave the Catholic church, Rome left us.
You know, the Roman Catholic church left the true church, we're the true church and they'll
teach there's only one true church, this universal church mentality.
But then you have today the evangelicals, okay, who will often believe in this universal
church doctrine and they'll say, well, you know, it's just a universal church that's
just made up of all the saved.
So that's kind of the evolution.
You have the Catholic, Roman Catholic church with their visible universal church, then
you have the Protestants with their invisible universal church, and then you have the evangelicals
that just say, hey, if you're saved, you're automatically the church.
This is not what the Bible teaches because that doesn't even make sense in light of the
definition of the word church.
Once you realize that the word church means congregation, once you realize that it means
an assembly, you just have to ask yourself the question, am I congregated with all believers?
Have I ever congregated with all believers?
And the answer is no.
So there is no universal church.
There is no church made up of all believers.
It's a fraud.
It doesn't exist.
There are local churches.
That's why the Bible uses the word church singular 80 times, but it uses the word churches,
plural, 37 times.
But here's the thing, of those 80 mentions, most of them are clearly talking about a certain
geography and saying the church at Ephesus, the church at Smyrna, the church at Pergamos.
How can you say, well, we're all part of the church when you've got a church at Smyrna
and you've got another church over in Pergamos and you've got a church over in Ephesus and
you've got a church over in Laodicea and you've got the churches of Galatia, plural, because
it's a multitude of church as plural.
So when these Catholics will tell you, whether they be the Roman Catholics or the Protestant
Catholics, they tell you, hey, there's only one church, then explain to me 37 plural mentions
of churches.
How do you explain that?
How do you send it to the seven churches in Asia if there's only one?
So evangelicals will often answer this with, well, it's both.
You know, there's a local church and then there's also a universal church.
But there simply isn't a universal congregation of believers.
It just doesn't exist.
It doesn't make any sense.
It's just to turn the definition of the word church on its head to come up with that doctrine.
And it's a very dangerous doctrine because of the fact that God has ordained separate
churches for a reason.
There's a big important reason why they are separate.
And you know what this kind of reminds me of when we think about the importance of being
independent?
And look, this is why our church is independent Baptist.
I mean, you ever wonder why are we independent?
Why are we an independent Baptist church?
Why are we not part of one of these denominations like the Southern Baptist Convention or the
North American Baptist or the ABA or the G.A.R.B.?
You know, why are we independent?
Because we believe that it's biblical to be independent.
Because the Bible says that as Christ is the head of the church, it says the husband is
the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church.
Now a lot of people will just take out of context that phrase Christ is the head of
the church and say, see, there's only one church.
Christ is the head of the church.
But here's the thing.
He said the husband is the head of the wife.
Is there only one wife?
Per guy, you know.
I mean, is there only one wife?
Is there only one husband?
No.
Because the husband is the head of the wife, what's he saying?
That the husband is the head of the wife.
That means every husband is the head of his wife.
And when it says Christ is the head of the church, it's saying Christ is the head of
any true church, any spiritual church.
So it's talking about the institution of being a husband and the institution of being a wife
and it's talking about the institution of the local church saying, look, the church
has Christ as its head.
That means Christ is the head of the church at Ephesus.
Christ is the head of the church at Smyrna.
Christ is the head of the church at Pergamos.
Does everybody understand?
So it says, hey, if I were to say, hey, well, you know, the president, the president is
the head of the corporation.
You know, if I were to make a statement like that, am I talking about one certain corporation
or am I just kind of explaining something about businesses?
Or what if I said, well, the partners are equal, you know, in a partnership or something.
You know, if I'm just speaking in generalities, do you understand what I'm saying?
Or what if I said, you know, hey, the father is in charge of the children.
Am I saying there's only one father and one set of children?
No, I'm saying that fathers in general are in charge of their children.
Okay.
And that's all the Bible's saying when it says that Christ is the head of the church.
That means that Christ is the head of Faithful Word Baptist Church.
And that means that Christ is the head of any other.
No-believing church, okay, then that church has Christ as it.
So here's the thing.
If Christ is the head, then how can we take orders from anyone other than Christ?
We don't need a middle man, folks.
And that's what these denominations are, a middle man.
You know, some headquarters somewhere in Texas or in some distant country or distant state,
we don't need them telling us, hey, we just decided that, you know, sodomites are allowed
or something.
That's all the kind of stuff these conventions are constantly voting on.
I mean, I just read this week how the Southern Baptist Convention said, hey, we're going
to allow tongue speaking now or something.
Our missionaries in Africa, because they said, look, it's just not cool to go to Africa and
not speak in tongues.
Because everybody in Africa is speaking in tongues, if we want to be popular over there,
we got to speak in tongues.
So they just started saying, hey, we're going to allow our missionaries to speak in tongues
in Africa.
Allowed them to be demon possessed in Africa.
You know, because what they call speaking in tongues, they didn't want the Bible calls
speaking in tongues.
It's people that are like, you know, it's people that are demon possessed.
Or they're just acting a fool or whatever.
But the bottom line is that when you have some other convention that's given you orders,
you can do this, you can't do that, and then they're taking a portion of the funds and
redistributing it, et cetera, et cetera.
You know, then the church no longer has Christ as its head, but rather it's answering to
someone else instead of just answering to Christ.
Now here's the thing, the pastor is not the head of the church.
Jesus is the head of the church, okay.
The pastor is basically an executive that basically just executes the will of the main
shepherd, Jesus.
He's the head, he's the boss.
And the pastor is just here physically on this earth as an under shepherd to the chief
shepherd just making sure that Christ's will is carried out, that Christ's word is taught,
just to be an on-site, on the ground.
It'd be sort of like if you went to a company and there's the manager on site making sure
everything happens the way it's supposed to, but he's not the owner of the company.
You know, the owner of the company might be in a distant state.
Well that's like the Lord is the owner.
You know, he's the real boss, he's the head, and then he's got his pastors that are there
to basically run things on the ground according to his will, not according to their own wishes
and will.
You know, not just a manager who just runs it how he wants, no, he's taking orders from
the boss man, the owner of the company.
And that's what a pastor's supposed to do, take orders from the real boss, which is Jesus.
That's the head of the church.
But here's the thing, if the pastor's taking orders from a denomination, you know, that's
interfering with his ability to let the spirit lead him.
And that's why we believe in an independent church and we believe in a pastor-run church,
not a church that's run by an organization or a board or a fellowship or other churches.
You know, we don't want one church telling another church what they must do.
We want the church to be independent, autonomous, self-governing, and answering only to Jesus
and only having the Bible as a guideline.
And I'm going to explain why that's so important.
So once we understand that there is no universal church, okay, all the scriptures talk about
geographically local churches.
The word church itself means a congregation, an assembly of people.
Then when you look at all these scriptures that talk about the importance of the church,
then you have to ask yourself, you know, how can we really be in the will of God if we're
not a part of a local church?
When God commands us to be a part of a local church and when, you know, a lot of the New
Testament is written out to churches and over and over again he talks about the importance
of the church.
We need to go out to that tabernacle of the congregation.
So just saying, oh, well, we all make up the church, well, that's not really true.
That's deceptive.
Now, it is true that the church is the people, not the building, but it's the people that
congregate and the people that don't congregate aren't part of the church.
See, a person who never attends Faithful Word Baptist Church is not a member of Faithful
Word Baptist Church.
They are not congregated.
Even somebody who just listens online, I listen to every sermon.
You know, praise the Lord, I'm glad you listen to every sermon, but you know what?
You're not a member of this church.
You need to be a member of a local church in your area.
You know, listening to preaching online can be a great supplement but should never be
a substitute for physically attending a local church and being a member of that local body.
Okay?
Now what these parachurch ministries are is they are ministries that are outside of the
authority of any local church.
They're just operating freestyle as a competitor to the local church but they're not modeled
after God's plan for the local church.
They're basically just doing it their own way.
Instead of following God's plan for establishing churches in every city and for the church
to be the instrument of evangelism, for the church to be the instrument of teaching and
training up God's people and training up the next generation of leaders, this parachurch
ministry comes in and just operates outside of that paradigm and just operates on its
own principles that don't follow the patterns laid forth in scripture of what a bishop or
pastor should be, what a deacon should be, what a church should look like, what the function
is, what the protocols are.
They just operate outside of that and just do their own thing and they just say, oh we're
such and such the ministry.
We're so and so the ministry and they might be just selling a bunch of, you know, Christian
materials and books and here's the thing, there's nothing wrong with selling a Christian
book friends, but when you're setting up a ministry that is basically substituting
for the local church and is under the authority of no local church, that is not scriptural.
You see if you want to set up a ministry where you're selling your Christian book, you still
need to get your backside into a local church and be a part of a local church.
See a person who's a part of a local church, you know, can publish whatever book they want
and be right with God or whatever CD or whatever video they want to do, but they're a part
of the church.
They're not just operating freestyle outside of the local church and instead of going to
church it's just, oh I just have this ministry.
I just run this ministry or I'm just a part of this ministry.
No, that does not take the place of church.
You need to get in church and be under a man of God preaching and teaching.
Oh, that sounds so controlling.
Set up and read the Bible.
You need to get in a local church.
Now look, you say, what do you mean outside the authority of the local church?
Look at Matthew 16.
This is the first time the word church is used in the Bible.
And listen, anybody who has gone to this church for a long time will tell you that this church
is not a controlling church and that Pastor Anderson is not a controlling person.
I'm probably, I'll say this, I've gone to church my whole life and I am more of a hands
off pastor than any church I've ever attended in my entire life.
I'm very hands off.
I'm not a micromanager.
I don't like to tell people what to do and get involved in the details of this, that
and the other.
I like to just basically let people do their thing and interfere as little as possible.
Just try to provide guidance and preaching and teaching.
But here's the thing though.
There is a time when I've had to step in in certain situations and just say, no we're
not going to do that here.
As the bishop, as the overseer, as the watchdog as it were, because otherwise false doctrine
can creep in, wrong Bible versions can creep in, sinful practices can creep in.
So part of the pastor's job is to say no when these things try to creep in and when bad
things are happening and when the church is going a wrong direction.
Most of that, 99% of that is just taken care of from the pulpit through preaching.
When I see an issue, I just try to preach about it and then people can learn and grow.
But there are times when you just have to confront people and say, hey look, we can't
do this.
We need to change this and so on and so forth.
So when we talk about the church having authority, we're not talking about authority over anybody's
personal lives.
That would be like a cult.
If you go to a church and the pastor is dominating your family and telling you what you can and
can't do in your personal life and trying to basically order you around, that's obviously
cult-like and strange.
When we talk about the pastor having authority in the church, what we're talking about is
authority in the church as far as running the church.
Not running your family, your life, your business or anything like that.
But just basically somebody's in charge of the church.
See this church is not a free-for-all.
You say, well what would a free-for-all look like?
Anybody who wants to can just come up behind the pulpit and start teaching and preaching.
Is that the way we run things here?
Just an open mic.
Open mic at Faithful Word Baptist.
No, there's not an open mic at Faithful Word Baptist.
Anybody can come up here and sing and play whatever kind of music they want.
And anybody can come up here and preach.
Anybody can talk.
No, that is not the way that we do things because there is a boss here and it's Jesus.
And then there's a guy that Jesus has given authority to rule the house of God in the
sense that he's there to make sure that things are done according to his wishes and will.
If somebody wants to get up and read and you say, well I can't see this ever happening.
Well you know what, you haven't been around for very long because I've been in churches
where all kinds of bad things are constantly creeping in and the pastor doesn't always
put a stop to it.
I mean where somebody can just get up and just get behind the pulpit and just say, let
me read you something that touched my heart and just start reading the NIV.
Not going to happen in this church.
And you say, well what gives you the right?
You know what, there is an authority structure in the local church.
And here's the thing.
You say, well church is supposed to be a democracy.
What chapter and verse is that?
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
And you know what, in a democracy that would mean that a whole bunch of people could come
in here and just say, well we like the NIV better.
And then it's the NIV.
And a bunch of people could come in and say, well we want to have Christian contemporary
boy bands in here.
Get rid of these hymns.
We want to have jiving and jamming for Jesus and swinging and swaying for the Savior.
We want to bring in the effeminate Christian boy band music.
Who's going to stop us?
I am.
I'm going to stop you.
And that's what my job is.
So the Bible teaches a principle of leadership.
And again that's not what the sermon's about so I don't want to spend a lot of time on
that.
I just want to quickly touch on that because it's in the passage there in Hebrews 13 about
the congregation and so that we can understand what's going on here.
Where did I have you turn?
Okay look at this.
This is the first time church is mentioned.
Don't tell me this is a coincidence.
We're going to look at the first two times the word church is ever used in the Bible.
Matthew 16 17 and Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou Simon Bar-Jonah,
for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee but my Father which is in heaven.
And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Watch verse 19 and I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatsoever
thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on
earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Now go to Matthew chapter 18.
Matthew chapter number 18.
The Bible says in verse 15, this is the second mention of the church, Moreover if thy brother
shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone.
If he shall hear thee, thou has gained thy brother.
But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more that in the mouth of
two or three witnesses every word may be established.
And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church.
Now again, this is where the foolishness of the universal church comes in.
Are we going to tell it to every believer?
All right, I'm going to go travel to Ethiopia and tell all the believers there that I have
a problem with somebody here in Phoenix, Arizona.
I've got to tell it unto the church, right?
Every believer, every saved person, right?
It's ridiculous, isn't it?
I've heard people actually refer to this in that context, as bizarre as it sounds, and
say, we need to tell it unto the church.
And then they did like a radio broadcast or a television broadcast, literally.
We got to tell it to the whole church.
Every saved person.
It's like, what in the world?
I'm not kidding, folks.
It says, if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church.
But if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.
Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and
whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
What is this saying here?
That God has given authority to the church, and God allows the church to make decisions,
and God respects those decisions and says, hey, if you bind it on earth, I'll bind it
in heaven.
I mean, isn't that what it says?
God gives the church the right to judge in certain situations.
And again, this isn't about controlling anyone or dictating personal lives in a cult-like
way.
It's about situations like in 1 Corinthians 5, where here's a guy living in open fornication,
and he said, you need to judge this guy, and you need to cast him out of the church.
And the Bible says, put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
He said, I, being absent, have judged already as though I were present.
What should be done concerning him that hath so done this deed?
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you're gathered together, and my spirit, and
the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such and wanted as Satan for the destruction
of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
He gives them the authority to cast out those who are living in major sin, right?
And the sins are listed there.
He says, hey, if they're in drunkenness, they can be cast out.
By who?
By the church.
Who can cast them out if they're in fornication?
By the church.
And he says, you know what, whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.
This isn't talking about people's salvation.
Obviously their salvation is based on their personal faith in Jesus.
You don't have to be a member of a church to be saved.
But you know what, the church does have a certain authority to judge people that are
living in major sin, right?
So if somebody's a drunk, the church uses its authority and exercises authority to throw
them out.
And if they're a fornicator, the church exercises and uses its authority to throw them out.
So when we talk about a parachurch ministry not being under the authority of the local
church, what we're saying is that this process couldn't even be followed when sin is in that
organization.
There's no church to tell it unto because they're operating outside of the local church
paradigm.
There is no pastor.
There's no overseer.
It's a free for all.
There's no keys to the kingdom of binding on earth and binding in heaven.
It's just outside of that.
It's just a freestyle in it doing their own thing.
Why is this important?
Go to 1 Corinthians 12.
I think you might already be there or you were there and I took you away from there.
1 Corinthians 12 is a great chapter about the body of Christ, the church.
It's an often misunderstood passage.
Let's look at it word by word and let's see what's being taught.
Verse 4.
There are diversities of gifts but the same spirit and there are diverse, excuse me.
Now there are differences of administrations but the same Lord.
Verse 6.
And there are diversities of operations but it is the same God which worketh all in all.
What's he saying?
The church does all kinds of work.
There are diversities of administrations and operations of the church, things that the
church does.
You know, there's the soul winning, there's the music.
You know, the church might print scriptures or the church might make a sermon CD or whatever
the church does.
Whatever the ministry the church has.
The church could have a ministry feeding the homeless.
The church could have a ministry that's visiting prisoners or sending gifts to prisoners and
sending them letters and preaching and whatever.
The church could have a ministry for foreign missions.
You know, the church could have all kinds of ministries.
And God's saying that it's the same God, the same Lord, the same spirit.
You know, with all these diversities of administrations or operations, whatever the church does work
for the Lord wise.
It says in verse 7, but the manifestation of the spirit is given to every man to profit
with all.
For to one is given by the spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge
by the same spirit, to another faith by the same spirit, to another the gifts of healing
by the same spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another
discerning of spirits, to another diverse kinds of tongues, meaning various types of
languages, foreign languages.
He says to another the interpretation of tongues.
But all these work at that one and the self same spirit dividing to every man severally
as he will.
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 is Christ.
For as the body is one, he says in verse 12, and hath many members.
Now is that saying that there's only one body in this earth?
There are like eight billion bodies in this earth.
But when he says the body is one, he's saying each body is one that is composed of many
members.
My body is one body, but it's made up of the hands, the feet, the head, the eyes, the nose,
the mouth.
He says here in verse 13, for by one spirit are we all baptized into one body, and a lot
of people will just stop there and say, see right there, it's the universal church.
No, he says by one spirit we're all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles.
So what's he saying?
We don't have a separate church for Jews and a separate church for Gentiles.
No, by one spirit we're all baptized into one body, whether we're a Jew or a Gentile.
Meaning that there's one church for Jews and Gentiles.
There's one church for red and yellow, black and white.
We don't segregate it to the Chinese church, the black church, the white church, the Jew
church, the Gentile church.
He's not saying that there's only one church on the planet.
So he says here, by one spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews
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'm not the hand, I'm not of the body, is it therefore
not of the body?
And if the ear shall say, because I'm not the eye, I'm not of the body, is it therefore
not of the body?
And here's the key, verse 17.
If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing?
If the whole 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.
Now listen, this is very important, I want you to think about this.
God builds the church.
He said upon this rock I'll build my church, and the Bible says that God will severally
put into that church whom he will, and he will put in there a diversity of people that
have a diversity of gifts, diversity of skills, they're all different, and they have different
roles, different functions, and they're all necessary.
And even the parts that we think are not that necessary, they are necessary.
And you might just think, oh it's all about the pastor.
No it's not all about the pastor, it's about all the people.
If the whole church were a pastor, that wouldn't, you know, you need different types of people.
Look, if this church were just a hundred Steve Andersons, that would not be the church that
God wants to exist.
God wants there to be all different types, the hand, the nose, the foot, the mouth, the
eye.
Now what does this have to do with these parachurch ministries?
Well here's the thing, these parachurch ministries, they always specialize in one thing, and therefore
they are imbalanced.
So what are these parachurch ministries?
Just a big giant nose.
A big mouth.
You know, it's a big mouth ministry.
Because here's the thing, a lot of these ministries are just nothing but a mouth.
Because what are they?
It's just like, oh it's just a radio show, or just a TV show.
So it's just talk, but there's no real boots on the ground action, there's no knocking
of a physical door, there's no going to the physical ghetto and actually talking to human
beings, it's just all just blah blah.
There's no feet of the gospel of peace going to the ghetto and preaching the gospel to
every creature.
Somebody said, oh well you know, if you want to get the gospel to everybody, just put it
on TV, put it on the radio, put it on the internet.
No, because here's the thing, you'll never reach the poor that way, and you'll never
reach the derelict that way.
You know how you reach the poor and the derelict?
You go to their house and open the Bible and tell them how to be saved.
Because you know what, the poor and the derelict, when they go on TV, and when they go on the
internet, and when they go on the radio, guess what, they're not seeking after God.
See the derelicts of this world, the ghetto people of this world, the poor of this world
that are just living in slums and ghettos where we go sowing, you know what, they're
not just going online and, how can I be saved?
What does the Bible say about heaven and hell?
No, you know what they're doing?
They're looking at, you know, hey what's, you know, I'm not up with the times, you know,
Rihanna or what, you know, who's the famous, come on worldly ones, who's the famous pop
star right now, Beyonce, okay, so we got one worldly one right here, okay, no I'm just
kidding.
You know, oh you know, they're looking for Beyonce's latest song, they're looking for
the latest Hollywood movie, am I right or wrong?
Or are they seeking out the New Testament of Jesus Christ?
Look you are never, listen to me, you're never going to reach the poor, you're never going
to reach the illiterate.
Look there are people in this world that can't read and write.
How are you going to reach them?
Walk up to them and preach them the gospel.
You're never going to reach the derelict, the child, the teenager, there are plenty
of people who are not going on the internet and surfing looking for this stuff.
So to sit there and say, oh well just, if we just put it all on the internet we'll reach
everybody.
No, there are people that you'll reach through the internet, true, but you know what, there
are many people that you will never reach through the internet and you will only reach
with boots on the ground, physically going to their door and giving them the gospel and
that is a fact.
That's why God said to do it, go into the highways and hedges daily in the temple and
in every house they cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.
So you know, to sit there and say, hey all we need is a broadcast, no wrong, we need
to physically go talk to people.
Human beings, imagine that, in 2015 interacting physically in the flesh.
But these parachurch ministries, they're specialized.
Oh, you know, we just specialize in being the nose.
We just specialize in being the foot.
We just specialize in being the hand.
Is that what God designed?
Or did God design a body where he puts every diversity in it and says this is what I've
designed as my institution that I'm building, the local church, and I'm going to put members
into it severally as I will.
Let's think about some of the parachurch ministries of our day and what's wrong with them and
why we don't support them and why we need to get back to supporting local churches.
And I'm not saying it's all about supporting Faithful Word Baptist.
No, local churches in every city that are completely independent from Faithful Word
Baptist.
You know, people have said to me, I want to start a church and I want to call it Faithful
Word Baptist Church and I want to promote your ministry.
No, call it something else and do your own thing.
Be independent.
I mean, there's nothing wrong with, you know, hey, I'm going to promote this guy or promote
that guy.
But you know what, when you have this network of churches that are all looking to one person
as the leader, that's dangerous.
You need to have independent Baptist churches with pastors who are thinking for themselves,
not just a franchise of the home base, you know what I mean?
What we have with these parachurch ministries, you know, they'll usually have just one specialty.
Like for example, the family.
We're just all about, you know, dealing with family issues.
You know, the big one is what?
Hocus pocus on the family, right?
Dr. James Dobson, Christian psychiatrist.
Christian psychiatrist?
What are you going to be, a Christian bartender?
Christian prostitute?
Christian psychiatrist.
Christian psychiatry is of the devil.
Hello.
Sigmund Freud.
Unbelieving, Christ rejecting, perverted Jew, false teacher, false prophet, Sigmund
Freud.
I don't want anything to do with him.
The father of modern psychology.
You know, when I was a kid, the churches preached against the psychology and the psychobabble
and the psychiatry, but he's this Christian psychologist and he's got this parachurch
ministry focus on the family.
So what church is that?
And then sometimes even when they go to church, they like won't tell you what church it is.
It's all about their parachurch ministry, and that supersedes and is greater than the
church.
No, nothing's greater than the church, because the church is the institution for which Christ
died.
The Bible says, feed the church of God, he said, which Christ purchased with his own
blood.
That's what we ought to be doing.
He didn't write this, hey, you know, I'm sending the book of Revelation to the seven ministries
out in Colorado Springs, Colorado, which is where a lot of these organizations are all
based in Colorado Springs.
It's like a hub of evil there in Colorado Springs, by the way.
It's one of the most satanic places, and I'm not against people who live in Colorado, obviously,
it's not their fault, but there's a lot of satanic things that go on in Colorado.
There are a lot of like Satan churches, and even if you fly into the Denver airport, who's
seen the satanic things at the Denver airport?
It's weird.
I went there before I'd ever heard about it, and I went to the Denver airport, I was on
a layover, and I'm just like, what in the world?
There's all this demonic artwork everywhere, showing mass murder and all this satanic illuminati
free masonry and people with gas masks and everybody's dying, and you're just like, this
is an airport, what are you doing with these?
And then I looked it up online, and it's like, oh yeah, you know, it's all demonic and everything.
The Mile High City, worshiping Satan in the high places, you know.
And thank God for Bible-believing Christians that live in Colorado that are serving the
Lord there, but I'm just saying, there is a lot of evil there as well.
And a lot of false prophets, a lot of false teachers that come out of Colorado Springs
with all their parachurch ministries, promise creepers, hocus pocus on the family, you know,
all these other different parachurch ministries that are just all about, you know, marriage,
or all about child rearing, or all about this or that or the other.
And another big one is Bill Gothard.
You know, this is one that, what's it called, the, help me out Zuzia, the ATI, the Advanced
Training Institute, what in the world is that?
The Advanced Training Institute.
That doesn't sound like something that Christ built in the New, that doesn't sound like
a local church.
And then it's also called, what's the other thing, the Bible Life Principles Inst, IBLP,
the Institute of Biblical Life Principles, and it's just all about the book of Proverbs
and having character, and it's all about modesty, and they have like these certain issues, are
you listening?
Listen to this sermon, it's important.
They have these certain issues that that's all they care about and that's all they talk
about and overemphasize and are imbalanced.
How are they having an eye and a nose and a mouth and a foot and a hand when they're
just like, well we just only specialize in, you know, Proverbs.
Well there's 65 other books you need to specialize in or whatever.
And then oh well we, all we do is Bible prophecy.
You're imbalanced.
You're all one body part.
All we do is the family.
All we do is strength and marriage.
You know these ministries, and here's the problem with these ministries, is that there's
no nose.
Now what does the nose represent?
Why do we have a nose?
Have you thought about that?
You know of our five senses probably the one that we would say is the least important would
be our sense of smell.
Wouldn't we like, if I were to take away one of your senses tonight, would you give up
your sight?
Well no way, you don't want to give that.
Would you give up your hearing?
Oh man that'd be terrible.
You know would you give up your sense of touch?
You know I mean that's gonna, that's gonna be awful.
You know you'd be, you'd go to eat your food and you'd chew up and swallow your own tongue.
You know if you don't have any feeling, if you're just numb everywhere, you know you
wouldn't even be able to function.
You know would you give up your sense of taste?
Good night.
You know you enjoy food every day.
But your sense of smell, it's like well I could live without it.
But you know what your sense of smell does for you?
It warns you of stuff that's rotten.
Think about, I mean think about how many times you go to eat something and you're like, ah
something's wrong.
Or think about those of you who have kids, the dirty diaper.
Sometimes you forget to check the diaper, oh the diaper will remind you because you
smell it.
So what is the sense of smell?
It tells you when something stinks, when there's dung, when there's junk, when there's rot,
when there's decay, when there's filth, when there's mold, when there's something that's
putrefying, your nose warns you.
So couldn't that be what Christ is telling us here in 1 Corinthians when he says hey,
somebody in the church has the nose to smell when there's something rotten in Denmark.
You know and let you know, hey wait a minute, something isn't right here, something doesn't
smell right.
And you know why?
That's why these parachurch ministries are constantly having scandals where perverts
are just running rampant in them for decades and they're not getting busted.
Why?
No nose.
Too specialized.
No qualified pastor.
And it's also often characterized by people getting way too much money and way too much
power than what they can handle.
See here's the thing, if we follow a local church model, nobody gets too much power.
Think about that.
Because if we follow a local church model, okay Pastor Anderson has authority over a
local church, it's not really that big, there's not really that much money.
You know and then we got another church over here, you know people that we've trained and
sent out.
Pastor Romero over in Fort Worth, Texas, you know he has certain authority and certain
you know things that he says grace over over there.
Pastor Berzen's up in Prescott Valley, Pastor Jimenez in Sacramento, California.
You know these guys are independent.
I don't have any authority over them and they don't have any authority over me or each other.
We're just all independent Baptists.
That's it.
He's friends and that friendship can change.
You know I mean it's not real and you know what that friendship doesn't make or break
anything because we're all independent, functioning, self-governing, autonomous churches and here's
the thing about that.
The thing about that is that if you had a bunch of churches that were all under the
authority of one guy, aren't you kind of giving that guy way too much power and aren't you
putting him over way too much money and then it can go to their head?
You say well you know a good pastor would never do that but here's the thing, a lot
of good men have been corrupted by way too much power.
Now think about how God laid it out in the Old Testament with the children of Israel.
Did he just have one guy that had all the power?
No because he had the judges and there were all the different judges and all the different
tribes okay and they didn't have a king that had all the power and they said give us a
king we want to be like all the other nations and God said no no I'm your king you don't
need a king and they had all these different judges so there was not a centralization of
power.
Does everybody understand that?
There were rulers of tens, rulers of a hundred, rulers of thousands but there was not a centralized
ruler of millions because of the fact that when you give people too much power bad things
happen.
Look at King David, man after God's own heart, give him too much power, what happens?
He commits sin, he does all kinds of things.
Most of the kings of Judah and Israel had a multitude of wives, why?
Too much power goes to the head and then they feel like they can take liberties and everything
like that.
And you know with this Bill Gothard and the ATI and the IBLP and by the way my dad warned
me about this guy when I was a small child.
My dad used to scream and yell about a lot of things but he screamed and yelled about
Bill Gothard and ATI and the IBLP because he talked about it that it was a cult, that
it was a cult of Bill Gothard and that people would start coming to church with these red
notebooks and this is what it was, they'd carry their Bible and their ATI notebook or
IBLP notebook or whatever and it was like that was their authority there, they got the
Bible and they got their red book and they'd carry this thing everywhere and it was a lot
of strange false doctrines and my dad was fighting it back when I was a kid and here's
the thing, this guy turned out to be a complete pervert and he ran this 80 million dollar
empire of these organizations, these parachurch ministries, there's no church and here's the
thing, all throughout the history of this organization they were covering up for a whole
bunch of scandals, multitudes of people that worked for the organization were constantly
involved in scandal but they were not being cast out biblically because there's no church
even there to do it.
It's just this parachurch ministry, free for all, freestyle and you have all kinds of scandal
and molestation and adultery and fornication running rampant in that institution all along
but it doesn't come out for decades, decades later it all comes out because there's no
watchdog because it's not being run on a biblical model and so therefore this stuff is allowed
to just run rampant and listen, we will never cover up that kind of filth in this church,
we will, if we find out that any kind of sin or filth as far as, you know, if anybody's
being molested or if anybody's committing adultery, okay, we will expose it, we will
expose that, we will not allow that in this church because this isn't your little parachurch
ministry, you know, where we sweep that under the rug, no, this is a local church where
we exercise the authority given us by Christ to clean house and we will do it and we've
done it in the past and we'll do it in the future.
Thank God there's been no molestation or adultery but we've cleaned house on fornication repeatedly,
that is something that has taken place in this church and when we find out the people
who are living in fornication, we give them a chance to either get married, get out of
fornication or get out of the church, they have seven days to do it and that's what we've
done many times but what I'm saying is these parachurch ministry and this Bill Gothard
was a total pervert surrounding himself with all these young girls that would be his secretaries
and assistants and he's being totally inappropriate with multitudes of them, okay, because he's
a pervert and he was exposed as such when he's like 80 years old so it's like he gets
away with it for decade upon decade upon decade but here's the thing, he was the head of a
very imbalanced ministry that's just all about one thing, not about a whole bunch of
other important stuff.
Now listen, God is telling us here that the local church is his institution, it's his
body, he designed it.
Why do we think we can design something better than what he designed?
And listen, anybody who is part of a parachurch ministry or the head of a parachurch ministry
but not a part of a bona fide local New Testament church is not a part of a local New Testament
church and is therefore living in sin and is not right with God.
They need to get under the authority of a local church, they need to get and become
a part of the body and join a body.
Now in our church, we want to make sure that we do not become focused on one thing where
we just become just the eye or just the foot or just the mouth.
We need to make sure that we maintain the diversity of administrations, the diversity
of operations and that every member of the body is doing their part and playing a role.
You see, how could we become imbalanced?
Like all of these parachurch ministries are all imbalanced because listen, if they weren't
imbalanced they wouldn't be a parachurch ministry, think about that.
If they had all the elements, if they had a pastor, if they had soul winning, if they
had Bible teaching and preaching, if they had the singing of hymns, if they had the
congregation of believers, then they would become a church at that point.
They wouldn't be a parachurch ministry.
By definition, a parachurch ministry is just a chopped off piece of the body that's just
writhing in the gutter.
I mean think about it, this is what spiritually a parachurch ministry is.
If we were to just hack off an arm and just that arm is just there.
That's a parachurch ministry.
Here's what a functioning body looks like.
Here's a human body, Steven Anderson, right?
This is a functioning body, hands, nose, mouth, eyes.
Now here's the thing, there could be a functioning body that's missing a part and it could still
function, right?
Like let's say I had just only one foot, right?
This is me, you know, I'm Pastor Steven Anderson and I only have one foot.
Could I still function?
Am I still human?
Of course.
I can still function here.
I can do something.
I can make something happen.
You know, or maybe I'm just missing a hand.
You know, okay, but I can still function.
I can still accomplish something.
I'm missing an eye.
But look, I can get something done for the Lord like this, okay?
But here's the thing, am I going to be as effective, if this is who I am, am I going
to be as effective, am I going to be able to do as much for the Lord like this as if
I were complete?
No.
And here's the thing, when you don't show up, this is what you're doing to our church,
okay?
When you don't get involved, when you don't show up, this is what you're creating, okay?
So you know, we want to be a fully functioning body.
But here's the thing, even this, even this, even a church that's got issues, okay, is
still better than just an arm laying in the street, just a foot.
I mean, imagine Jezebel after she was torn of dogs and you know, it's just the palms
of her hands that are left.
Isn't that what it said that they found?
They just found hands.
That's the parachurch ministry today, it's just hands.
It's just feet.
It's just an eye.
I mean, just imagine an eye and say, man, look at what the Lord's going to do with this
eye.
God's going to use this eye for great things.
No, if that eye, if we're going to take that eye and install it into somebody's head, then
we can do something great for God.
It's true, folks.
But without the body, that eye's not going to do anything.
Look, you could have the most beautiful mouth ever, but if it's not installed in a body,
it's not going to do anything.
You could have a perfect foot with a perfect arch.
If it's not installed, it's not going to do anything.
And look, all these people out there, oh, but they have a YouTube channel.
But hold on a second, are they installed in a body?
Folks, what I'm telling you is true tonight.
We need to be a part of the body.
We need to be functioning.
And here's the thing, one of the biggest things that I strive for in my ministry as pastor
of Faithful Word Baptist Church, I'm telling you, this is the thing that I think about
more than anything else when it comes to preparing sermons and I think about what am I going
to preach on.
Because people often ask, you know, how do you decide what to preach?
I'll tell you the biggest thing that determines what I preach is I always ask myself, what
have I not covered in a while or, you know, what have I talked too much about, what have
I not talked about enough?
Because I really strive for balance and not to just get all off on one thing.
And you find so many people that are just so specialized on one thing.
It's just all they talk about is why the King James is right and these other versions are
wrong and that's all they want to talk about.
Or all they want to talk about is Bible prophecy.
Or all they want to do is soul winning.
And, you know, you think, well, what's wrong with that if it's all about soul winning?
Because churches that are all about soul winning, they start getting worldly.
Because they don't have the hard preaching against sin because it's just all about reaching
people.
Well, no, it needs to be also about holiness.
And then you have other people that are just all about holiness.
And all they want to talk about is dressing modestly and keeping yourself pure and having
character and blah, blah, blah, hey, let's get our red notebooks and, you know, talk
about it.
But here's the thing about that.
Where's the soul winning?
You know, where's the hard preaching?
Where's the music ministry?
You know, it all has to be there, folks.
And then other people, they get all about the music.
And you know what?
There are plenty of Christian rock bands who have been found snorting cocaine out in the
trailer after the show.
Where do you even want to start with that?
Enjoying a six pack of beer, snorting a few lines of coke, you know, having all the groupies
and all the sin and the filth and the wickedness.
Plenty of times.
And you know what?
Their band members know about it.
The manager knows about it.
You know what?
There's no nose there.
And there's no boot there.
No boot in the rear end to these type of people.
We need to be a part of a local church under the authority of a local church that's a real
bona fide church.
Well, you're making it about the building.
It's not about the building.
It could be outside.
But it better have a scriptural pastor.
It better be reaching people.
There better be a soul winning program.
And you know what?
It should strive for balance.
And you know what?
If we're missing a hand, you know, the goal should be eventually to at least get a prosthetic
going.
You know what I mean?
And look, when you first start a church, obviously when you start a church from scratch, you're
not going to have all the elements.
But that's why God said I'll build the church and he'll put the members in severally as
he will.
And obviously with the human body, we can't just install eyes.
But you know what?
His body, he does as it goes.
He builds it.
You know, it's sort of like an embryo in the womb.
You know, it starts out and then you know, then the heart starts beating and then and
then the eyes develop and you know, all the different parts of the body develop in time.
You know, that's how it is with the church also.
It grows and members are added.
We need to strive for balance.
We are not a church that is only all about soul winning.
We are not a church that's only all about exposing false prophets.
We're not a church that's only all about Bible prophecy.
We are not a church that is only all about King James only.
You know, we're not a church that's only all about, you know, singing praises to God and
having the hymns.
But you know, we're all of those things.
We're not a church that's just about memorizing the Bible.
But that is part of what we're about.
We need to have the whole package.
And a local church has it all or should have it all.
And these parachurch ministries are just a chunk of flesh that is not a functioning
body.
And they are not legitimate.
And they're not God's plan for reaching the world.
And they're constantly scandal ridden as a result.
And when they go down, they take a day take down everybody with them because they're these
massive organizations that have their little tentacles all over the place, you know, and
then when they go down, it all goes down.
But you know what, if you have, you say, well, you could have scandal in the church.
But here's the thing.
If we have all local churches that are totally independent, autonomous, let's say faithful
word goes down.
The rest of them don't.
Let's say one of them goes down.
We don't because we're all separate.
We're all independent.
And that's why it's important not to put all the eggs in one basket and give one person
all the power.
Because then they start, you know, taking liberties with the ladies and everything else
because they just think that they're just, you know, running an 80 million dollar empire.
You know, and that's one of the reasons why I'm glad that our church doesn't own any property.
It's great.
You know what?
You say, well, how long are we going to be in a storefront till Jesus comes?
Until Jesus comes?
When are we going to get a real church building?
You know, we get our own property and everything.
Never.
And you know what?
It's not because we're not going to grow.
Our church is growing by leaps and bounds.
You know, I believe that our church will eventually run more than a thousand people.
But here's the thing.
We're still going to be in a storefront because we're just going to get a bigger storefront.
Because you know what?
Storefronts come in all sizes, my friend.
I mean, have you ever seen a Bed, Bath, and Beyond go out of business or linens and things?
That's a big building, right?
Grocery store?
People rent a grocery store space for our church.
Why not?
You know why?
Because when you've got nothing, you've got nothing to lose.
And they can't come in and take it all away from us because we don't own anything.
You know, the IRS tried to come after me for money and I just told the IRS, I don't have
any money and I don't own anything.
And I have eight kids.
And here's how much money I make.
And they looked at how much money I made.
And then they looked at how many kids I have and they said, you have no extra money.
And I'm like, yeah, tell me something I don't know.
And they're like, well, how are you going to pay us?
I'm not.
You know, drop dead.
So basically, it's like, I don't have any money.
You know, people are constantly saying, I'm going to sue you, Pastor Anderson.
Sue me for what?
I don't own anything.
I own nothing.
Oh, we're going to sue the church.
The church owns nothing.
What do we have?
Okay, we own a van.
That's what our church owns, a van.
I'm ready to kiss a goodbye any moment.
I'm not kidding.
Look, look, loosen your grip on the things of this world, folks.
I don't want it.
You know what?
Here's the thing.
What if we just own like millions of dollars of property?
And then we started getting corrupt ideas.
You know, it's kind of like, oh, oh, this property is worth millions and oh, man, you
know, we better who cares about it's about souls.
You know, and I don't want to go into debt.
Why would you want to bring the church into debt to go into some building?
You know, and then it's all about the building fund and the building program and all about
the property and blah, blah, blah.
And then we're constantly worried.
Oh, they're coming in, they're seizing the church property, what do we do?
It's like, hey, you want to seize the church property, IRS man?
It's all yours, buddy.
And then we'll go start a church across the street and call it something different.
All right, IRS man, thank you.
I don't know what that had to do with the sermon, but you know what?
When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose.
And you know what?
We don't want to put too much power, we're talking about putting too much power in one
person.
In order to diversify and to have all different independent churches where one guy isn't running
some 80 million dollar empire of a parachurch ministry and then he gets into scandal and
then all of his, you know, employees are coming out and whatever.
You know, why don't we just get back to the model of the local church?
Why don't we only ever have a guy in charge who's biblically qualified?
Would be a good place to start.
And the qualifications are there for a reason in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1.
Let's get a guy in charge that's biblically qualified.
That would get rid of a lot of these problems.
And then let's also exercise church discipline as it's stated in Matthew or 1 Corinthians
5 and elsewhere.
So let's bow our heads in a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for the institution that you've given us, Lord.
We thank you for the local church.
It's a marvelous institution, Lord, and everybody's downplaying it.
Everybody's got a better idea.
Everybody wants to be just a body part floating around, Lord, but help us to realize the importance
of being a part of this body or some body that is a Bible believing church with Christ
as the head.
Lord, help us to stay balanced and to have all the body parts and never to think of certain
church members with disdain and to think, oh, that person's not important.
All they do is clean the building or all they're doing is just, I mean, they're going soul
winning, but I mean, are they really leading?
Well, Lord, help us just understand that every person's important, the piano player, whether
it's the song leader, whether it's the preacher, whether it's the person that reads the scripture,
whether it's the person who cleans the building, whether it's the soul winners, whoever and
whatever they do, Lord, help us understand that everybody's important.
And Lord, help us not to desire a church of clones, but rather to desire a church of all
kinds of people, different nations, different, different styles of people, rich, poor, middle
class, Lord, help us to be a place for all people so that we can be balanced and a healthy
body.
And in Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.