Okay, let's get into the sermon then.
I'll get you to turn back to Philippians if you turned away.
Go to Philippians chapter 3.
Philippians chapter 3.
Philippians chapter 3 verse 14.
The Bible reads, I press toward the mark for the prize
the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Okay, so obviously we're celebrating our one year anniversary.
It's a great thing to look back on, like looking at those videos
we're able to look back and celebrate all the things we've been able to achieve.
I mean the Lord has blessed us. I don't know how you guys feel about it, but He's blessed us
beyond measure above what I expected. You know, above.
You know, above. You know, I consider let's say the church plant in Sydney
New Life Baptist Church in Sydney. It was never my intention, right?
When I came and studied this church, I never intended to be traveling down to Sydney
once a week. That's something that was out of the blue. That's something that was in the
plan of God. You know, I never anticipated it, but it's been a great blessing
to the family down there. It's been a great blessing to me. I hope it's been a great
blessing to you. You know, this church building, the fact that we have a permanent location
again, you know, I was planning. My plan was to hire a hall.
Indefinitely. Hire a hall until, you know, I never
thought we'd even be leasing a building. I didn't think we'd have the finances as a church
to lease a building. You know, when I looked at the finances, wow, they're pretty high.
But somehow the Lord has been able to provide for us. We've got this building.
I mean there are things in this first year that I never anticipated, right? All I wanted to do
was come here, enjoy the beaches, well not so much the
beaches, but you know, take it easy, relax with a family. My wife was
pregnant with baby number 10. I just wanted to do church.
You know, go soul winning, do those basic things. But the Lord has given us so much
more. So much more. And so it's important for us to reflect back
in our first year. It's important for us to rejoice and be thankful for
what God has provided for us. But also, we can't forget, we can't get
comfortable. We can't say, well let's just keep it going. Well yes, let's keep it
going, but we also need to build on what we did in the first year.
Okay? I've always said to you guys, you know, you guys had some really fancy
ideas of what we could do, and I've always told you guys, let's just grow organically.
You know, let's just grow, let the Lord grow this church, let the Lord
build it in time, and as time comes past, and as the Lord does things,
we'll add things to the basic things that we need to do as a church. But we see
the apostle Paul here saying that he's setting, uh,
he's pressing toward the mark for the prize of the high calling
of Christ Jesus, in Christ Jesus. And when I think about the apostle Paul,
I mean, he's one of the main Christians that we read about in the Bible, right?
He's there establishing churches, um, ordaining pastors,
he's, uh, getting many souls saved, and we think,
wow, you know, if anyone has reached it, if anyone has reached a level
that God would expect from a Christian, surely it's Paul.
And yet when we read about Paul, he says, look, he's still pressing
toward the mark of the prize of the high calling. He's still pushing himself,
he's still striving to do more than what he's done before. Okay, so
we as a church, we can't get too comfortable and say, wow, you know,
yes, it's great, celebrate the first year, but hey, we need to build from this.
Okay, if we don't start building, we're going to start going backwards.
Okay, we're going to be doing, uh, less soul winning, we're going to be doing, uh, preaching the Bible
less, we're going to be focused on Christ less, we need to maintain
growth, okay? But again, we need to remember that it's the Lord that provides growth
for our church. Okay, it's not a time to relax, it's a time
to raise the bar. The title of the sermon this morning is Raising the Bar.
Okay, it's Raising the Bar, that same idea of pressing
toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God
in Christ Jesus. Okay, in Christ Jesus,
not of our own strength. Look at verse number 1, Philippians 3, verse 1.
Raising the bar. We're talking about raising the bar, doing
greater things for God in our second year, and I've got a few points that I want to
bring out of this chapter, because this whole chapter, uh, gets us to this
pinnacle of what Paul is saying, about pressing toward that mark of the high calling.
So point number 1, guys, point number 1, look at verse number 1, it says
Philippians 3, 1, finally, my brethren, rejoice
in the Lord. Hey, and that is something that we need to strive
to do as a church, is to rejoice in the Lord, right? Be thankful.
Praise the Lord for his blessings. Praise the Lord for his salvation.
Praise the Lord for the brethren that we have and the things that he's given us.
But then he says, to write the same things to
you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you
it is safe. Okay, so as we get toward this,
this prize of the high calling, what does Paul establish in verse number 1?
He says, hey, look, I need to write the same things
to you, okay? The point I want to bring here
is that to raise the bar, we must repeat,
we must teach the same, uh, fundamental
or foundational truths as a church, okay? And when I talk about, what are the
foundations of Christianity? Yes, you know, salvation by grace
through faith on the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord. Yes, those basic
things, you know, going out and not just being saved and enjoying
salvation for ourselves, but going out and preaching the gospel to this
lost and dying world. Hey, these are things that need to be repeated.
These are things that we need to hear again. And we can't be people
that get grievous with hearing the same kind of sermons. Sometimes
the sermons we preach will be reinforcing these same foundational
truths, the same things that we've heard before. They need to be
repeated, all right? And I think about, you know, the need for our church to be fulfilling the
Great Commission. You know, I just mentioned soul winning. Yeah, that's important.
But what's the Great Commission? Baptizing believers as well, right?
Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost.
Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you
always, even unto the end of the world. Hey, for the third part of the Great Commission is
to teach all things, is to open the Word of God, have believers
gathered here together and preach in the whole council or all the council
of God, preaching the Bible in season and out of season. These are
fundamental truths that we need to continue. These are the same things that we need
to continue. Hey, these are the foundations of our church. If we move away
from the foundations and try to add, you know, exciting or special things,
our church is going to collapse because we don't have those foundational truths anymore.
Okay? And then it's not just that, but just your own personal life.
Your own personal life as a believer. Okay? You're going to hear sermons in the second year.
Guess what? About reading your Bible. All right? Opening the Word
of God every day and reading the Bible. You say, we've already heard those preached that sermon.
Yeah, you're going to hear it again in the second years. Hey, it's said there in verse
number one, that to write these same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but
for you it is safe. Meaning that the safety in
hearing these same things again, all right, for you to have that personal
prayer life with God. You know, every day coming to the Lord
and asking Him to provide your needs. Coming to the Lord,
confessing your sins to Him. Because as we're sinners, we're seen every day
in order to maintain that fellowship with the Lord, we must make sure
that we're confessing our sins, admitting our guilt, asking the Lord to
forgive us on a daily basis. Of course, not for salvation, but to maintain
that right fellowship with the Lord God. Okay?
And of course, you know, to love the Lord, to love the Lord God
and of course, to love the brethren. Okay? As a church, what we're going to see in the second
year is that we would love the brethren even more. Okay?
And we've been together for a year. Okay? Now we've noticed all the little things
that annoy us about each other. You know, all the little bad habits that we have
and all those little annoying things. It doesn't matter. Okay? Just like a family,
just like a husband and wife, there are things that, you know, you don't like.
But hey, the Lord wants us to grow in love for the brethren. Okay?
We can't allow our little differences to get in the way and hurt our
families, hurt ourselves and hurt the body of God, hurt the body of Christ.
You know, hurt our church. We can't. We need to grow in love for the brethren.
You're going to be hearing sermons about loving the brethren. You've already heard that. Yeah!
It's for you. It's safe to hear these things. Okay? There's safety in these things.
We need to make sure these things are repeated once again. And of course, the need to
attend church. All right? We're here for a year.
I don't know. I'm still in a high. I'm so excited about the church. I hope you guys still are.
But again, you know, there's going to come times where you're like, oh, should we really come to
churches, you know, today? No, just come. All right? That's important. That's safety.
We can hear the word of God. That's when you're in a fellowship with believers. That's where the new man
came here. Maybe the old man, maybe the flesh doesn't want to be in church, but the
new man will be encouraged, the new man will be strengthened, and the new man will be rejoicing that
we've been gathered together with the believers. Okay? These are the same things
that need to be repeated again. And we can't get to the point where it becomes
grievous for us and say, oh, come on, let's move on from these things. Hey, we are going to move on
from these things. We are going to build on these things, but we need to make sure that foundation remains
true. Okay? So get used to it. Those sermons are important
because, you know, again, it's the old man. The old man doesn't like these things.
And the old man is the one that's going to push away from the fundamental truths.
Alright? Now that's point number one. Point number one, to raise the bar,
we must repeat the same foundational truths. Okay?
It is safe for us. It is safety for us. Point number two, look at verse number two.
Philippians three, verse two. What's the warning?
Beware of dogs. And we're not talking about dogs when you go soul winning.
Well, you should beware of dogs as well. Alright? Be careful when you go and
enter a house that says beware of the dog or dog on premises. Yeah.
Hey, but beware of dogs. Beware of evil workers. Beware
of the concision. Hey, if we're going to raise the bar as a church,
if we're going to do greater things in our second year, we need to be careful
of the wicked. We need to beware. We need to be watchful and not allow
wicked people to come into this church, infiltrate this church, and take us,
take advantage of us and hurt us. Okay? What are dogs? Usually
when you think about dogs, you know, I mean, I can preach a whole sermon on this really
because it's mentioned many times in the Bible, but just to keep it simple,
when you go soul winning, and what does a dog do? Barks.
You know, yells. It might even attack you. You know, I've never been attacked
by a dog out soul winning,
but I've heard of stories of people that have. Alright? But, you know, dogs,
you know, you might say they're the wolf in sheep's clothing, the false prophet
that's coming to attack the church. These people we need to be
aware of. Okay? And then it says beware of evil workers.
People that work iniquity. People that come in with sin
and they want to influence this church with their sinful behavior.
They want to influence us to make us acceptable of their sinful ways
and affect us so that our church will become workers of iniquity.
We can't allow people with sinful habits to infiltrate this church.
Hey, if someone's, I mean, we're all sinners. Don't get me wrong. Okay? I'm not saying that we need to be perfect,
but there are evil workers that want to hurt our church. Okay?
They want to bring in the leaven that will leaven the whole lump, and we can't allow that leaven
to come into this church. Okay? We need to try to maintain this church to be that
chaste virgin to Jesus Christ, like a bride prepared for a wedding day.
Okay? That's my goal as a pastor, that our church will remain pure,
clean, and virtuous. Alright? And then it says there, beware
of the concision. What's the concision?
Those days it was the Jews, right? What were the Jews trying to do to the believers?
They were trying to put them under the law.
In the sense of, they were trying to get people to be circumcised
or keep different aspects of the law for salvation.
In other words, they'll bring in a false gospel. Hey, we need to be careful of
people that come in here trying to put us under the law. Now, I love the law of God.
I love the law of God. Alright? It's beautiful. We ought to live
according to his commandments. We ought to live holy and righteous lives.
Okay? But salvation is by grace through faith on Jesus Christ
alone. Okay? You can't mix works with salvation.
And that's the most important doctrine that you're ever going to believe
is that Jesus Christ has paid it all on the cross, his death, burial,
and resurrection, raised him again on the third day. We can't allow people to come in here
like the concision were trying to bring works to the gospel. Okay?
Corrupts the gospel. And there are many, many good independent
fundamental Baptist churches that had the right gospel, have allowed people
like concision to come in, and now they're teaching a corrupt gospel. Alright?
All the brethren aren't even aware of false gospels that have been
preached in the church. We need to be careful of these people as a church.
Look at verse 18, Philippians 3.18.
Hey, Paul says, I warned you
often that there were going to be people that come into the church and
they're actually enemies of the cross of Christ. Enemies. Okay?
We need to be careful as a church to not be influenced by these
people that come and he says, hey, I've told you often and now
I tell you even weeping. I hope I don't have to come here before you one day
and tell you weeping about some false prophet that we have in the church.
Okay? Hopefully we're careful and we make sure these people do not allow
to influence our church in a negative way. Look at verse 19.
Whose end, talking about these evil doers, whose end is destruction,
whose God is their belly, so they're only out for themselves,
they're only looking out for themselves, not for others, and whose glory is in
their shame, who mind earthly things. This gives us
an idea of these people, right? They're selfish, they're after their own belly, they're not
looking after the needs of others, and then whose glory is in their shame.
Okay? So they glory in their wickedness. They want to
promote their wickedness, promote their sinful lifestyle,
and then it says, who mind earthly things. Okay? Their minds
are on the worldly, the temporal things. They want to shift our focus away
from the eternal things, away from the Lord Jesus Christ. These are the people
that we need to be careful of. The solution is in verse 17. Look at 17.
The solution to this is in verse 17. Philippians 3 17. It says,
So the solution, guys, to be careful of these false prophets
and these evil doers is to have people that you can set as an example.
Believers that we can, that are solely on the word of God, set them
as an example, and mark and avoid the false prophet. Okay?
Mark and avoid the false prophet. Look at,
keep a finger there, and turn to Galatians
6 14. Keep a finger there. We're coming back to Philippians. Turn to Galatians 6
14. Alright? Because what are they called?
They're called enemies of the cross. Think about that,
think about that term, enemies of the cross. What is the cross
of Jesus Christ? It's where he came and he shed
his blood and he was sacrificed and took upon the sins
of the world upon himself, right? Jesus Christ is the one who
paid it all, okay? He did all the hard work
on the cross. So if someone's an enemy of the cross,
what would they be teaching? We already covered this. They're going to be teaching that the cross
is not sufficient, okay? It wasn't enough. Christ's sacrifice was not enough
and you need to step up to the plate. You need to add
your part of salvation, otherwise you won't be saved. That's what they're going to be teaching.
They're going to be an enemy to the cross. Instead of teaching that Jesus Christ has paid it all,
they're going to be saying, but you've also got to put your part into salvation.
No. Okay? Our works are like filthy rags next to
God, but that's just one example which I've already spoken about. Go to Galatians
6 14. Look at this. What else
did we learn about the cross? Galatians 6 14. But God forbid
that I should glory save in the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the
world is crucified unto me and I unto the world.
So if Paul here is glorying in the cross
of the Lord Jesus Christ, what is he relating that to?
To the fact that the world, the worldliness,
the evil that's been propagated by this world,
the world's system, the world's philosophies that are anti-biblical,
all these things, he says, has been crucified to the cross
of Christ. And so what am I trying to say to you?
What are enemies of the cross then? Those that come into our
church and want to promote worldliness. They want you
to be worldly, they want to turn your eyes away from the truth of God's
word, and they want to promote all the wisdom,
so-called wisdom, which is foolishness in the eyes of God, that the world has.
These are also people that are enemies of the cross.
Yes, those that corrupt the gospel, but those that try to influence you to be
worldly. To love the world when we're instructed to not
love the world. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
So that's point number two. Point number two was to raise the bar,
we must beware of the wicked. We must be aware,
beware that Satan will send his ministers
to hurt our church, okay? Now look, if we're not doing anything for God,
okay, and we just, whatever, we just go through
the motions and have church and do nothing great for God, then Satan's not going to send
his ministers. He's not going to worry. But if we strive to raise that bar,
and do greater things for God, then expect Satan to attack us.
Okay, but beware, beware, it's going to come, it's going to come, beware.
Point number three, go back to Philippians 3 again, back to Philippians 3 verse 3.
Philippians 3 verse 3.
Philippians 3 verse 3. To raise the bar, we must not have confidence
in the flesh. We can't have confidence in ourselves,
in our own strength, in our flesh, which is that sinful nature.
Okay, we need to, as we heard yesterday by brother Callum,
right, everything that we need to do for the Lord should be done through
his Spirit, not by our might, not by our power,
not in the flesh. Look at verse number three, Philippians 3 verse 3.
For we are the circumcision, of course we're circumcising the heart,
which worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice
in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
And yet Paul did amazing works, right?
He was a great apostle of God, and for sure he's going to be
one of those great ones in heaven, alright? But he says, look,
he didn't work in his flesh, he had no confidence in his flesh.
He did it all through the Spirit of God, okay?
And look, I'll be honest with you guys, as your pastor, when I get up here
and preach, I'm nervous. I've always got butterflies
in my stomach. I always think I'm going to mess it up, alright?
Because I don't have confidence in myself, alright? If the message
touches your heart, if you get something out of the message, then that's coming from the Spirit of God.
Okay? Because I'm not an eloquent speaker. You know, I fumble, I misread
words sometimes, I mispronounce names when I'm reading through the Old Testament.
You know, I mess up a lot. But you know, if you're getting something out of it, that's coming from the Spirit of God.
That's coming from the Spirit of God. I just want you to know, I don't have any confidence in the flesh
when I come and stand behind the pulpit and preach to you.
And any of you guys that are preachers, that come here, I want you to just mind the same thing.
Hey, it's not about you. I'm not impressed by you. You need to show
the work of the Holy Ghost in you, okay? You need to be working through that new man
that God has given us, which is the new spirit.
Look at verse number eight. Verse number eight.
Yea, doubtless, he says, and I count all things
but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss
of all things, and do count them but dung
that I may win Christ. Now, don't get
this confused. This is not about salvation. He's pressing toward that high
calling, remember, in Christ Jesus, okay? But how does he
do it? How does he increase his knowledge in Christ Jesus?
Look at the beginning there. Verse eight, doubtless, yea,
doubtless, and I count all things but loss
for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus.
Hey, whatever you can glory in the flesh, whatever
successes you've had in the past in just being worldly,
you know, whatever achievements you think
you've gained that have no eternal value, okay?
That have no eternal value, that are not adding treasures in heaven,
all the earthly things that you work and strive for,
okay, all those things, if you want to gain the
excellency of the knowledge of Christ, if you want to be more
Christ-like, you need to count those things as loss, okay?
You don't want to spend the rest of your life chasing temporal things.
Being worldly, you know, enjoying your sin,
all those things are loss, okay? You need to say, make a
decision and go, hey, look, I need to forget those things, I need to put those things
behind me and work toward knowing my Lord
Jesus Christ even more, okay? And then he says,
for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. He says, I've lost it all. You know,
Paul, he was a Pharisee, well-educated, you know,
he was known by the high priest in the temple in Jerusalem,
you know, he was a powerful man, even, uh, you know,
amongst the temple, amongst his peers, you know, he had a great
teacher, and he says, look, all of that, he counts as loss, and he counts
them like dung, but dung, okay? Next to the knowledge of God,
next to knowing that he's saved through Jesus Christ, and that he's working
toward it, and then he says that I may win
Christ, okay? You say, I've already won Christ, not really,
okay? When you're saved, you don't win anything out of your own achievement,
it's Jesus Christ that gave his life for you, okay?
But if you were to win Christ, you need to then, in return,
give your life to him. I'm not talking about salvation, I'm talking about living
a victorious, uh, a fruitful life, that God can use you to your maximum
potential upon this earth, and that you can be gaining rewards in
heaven for all eternity, okay? Being more Christ-like, that's winning
Christ, okay? But if you're more worldly, you're not
going to gain that knowledge, you're not going to be able to work toward
those things. Look at verse 13, verse 13, brethren, I count not myself to
have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind,
and reaching forth unto those things which are before.
Yes, I said, let's celebrate our first year, praise God, he's done a lot of
things for us, it's good to raise up his name and thank
him, hey, but you know what? In order for us to get to the second
year and do greater things, we need to forget those things, we need
to move on, all right? We can't live in the past, we need to
move on and do greater things for the Lord, all right? And, uh, also,
look, if you're someone that has committed some
great sin in the past, you know, you're struggling with some
mistakes you've made before, you know, it's going to hinder you from
serving the Lord, it's going to hinder you
from doing great things, you need to forgive yourself,
confess those sins to God if you haven't already, ask him to forgive you for your
past, and move on, okay? Forget those things
behind, move on and do great things for God, that's what God wants from you,
all right? Look at verse 14, I already read it,
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God
in Christ Jesus, all right? So, I just want to show you, we could say,
yeah, you know, Pastor Kevin, this is, this is
poor, you know, this is poor, but what about the
rest of the church? Look at verse 15, look at verse 15, so
after he says that we, he's pressing toward this, this, uh,
this prize of the high calling of God, in verse 15 he says,
let us, therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded, and if anything
ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal
even this unto you, okay? So Paul says to the Philippian church,
not just me, but us, this ought to be the goal of our church,
that we would, uh, push on and do greater things for the Lord,
be a church that the Lord Jesus Christ can look down on,
and say, wow, they're working really hard for my name, you know, they must love me,
you know, I want God to look down, Jesus Christ to say, hey,
this church, New Life Baptist Church loves me, and is working
for my, for my, uh, doing my works that I've left them to do,
okay? So do I want to grow as a church? Yes, okay, I want to grow numerically,
that would be a wonderful thing, okay, but I can't, I don't have any control of
that, I don't have any control if people walk in this store and stay
here, I really can't do much except encourage them to be here,
but one thing we can control is our growth spiritually,
okay? Do we want to grow in the second year in numbers? Yes,
but I also want us to grow spiritually, I want us to grow
in our quality of life as a believer, okay?
I want us to grow as individuals, I want us to grow as families
that are closer to the Lord, and, and if we get that right,
then naturally, our church will grow, okay?
Because the church at the end of the day is made up of families and made up of
individuals. If we don't get that right, we're not
going to be able to grow as a church, okay? So we need to keep these things in
mind, be more like the Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
I'll get you to turn away from, let me, sorry, let me have a look at this.
Now, stay in Philippians, maybe turn to Acts chapter 2, keep your finger there in
Philippians, turn to Acts chapter 2,
and while you're turning there, I'm going to read to you from
Matthew 16 18. You guys are turning to Acts 2,
I'm going to read to you from Matthew 16 18.
These are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says,
and I say unto thee, thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I build my
church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it, okay? So it says, look, upon this rock, who's the rock? It's Jesus
Christ, it's the words of Christ, it's the word
of God, okay? And Jesus says that I will build
my church, okay? We do what we can do, we serve the Lord
in our capacity, okay? But it's the Lord Jesus that will build
this church, okay? We need to remember that if we say, oh we're not growing fast
enough, relax! If we're not growing fast enough, but
we're doing all the important things, then it's the Lord that is building the
church, and he wants to take his time, okay? And if we grow suddenly, then that's
the Lord's doing as well. It's not because we change things up,
you know? We're not going to have the rock band, we're not going to have all
the fancy lights, you're going to turn on the fairy lights
now? No, we're not going to have all that going on,
right? Just to bring in the crowds. No, we're going to allow Jesus Christ
to build our church, all right? That's his promise to us.
And by the way, when it says, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it, I've often heard a lot of people preach
that that's like the forces of Satan, that they will not overcome the church. I
don't believe that, because hell is a place that God has created. What
I believe that's saying is that, of course, once you're saved, we
will never have the fear of hell, okay? We've prevailed those gates of
hell, because it's eternal security. We'll never lose it, you know? So, you
know, hell has no fear, should have no fear. Our
church should not be afraid of hell at all,
because we know our eternal destination, and that's heaven,
okay? But you guys are in Acts 2. Look at Acts 2, verse 41.
If we want to grow this church, and again, it's the Lord Jesus that builds it,
okay? There are some things that we need to do. There is a, there are,
there's a bar that we need to raise as a church, okay?
And I want to go through some of these things right now, but look at Acts 2
41. Acts 2 41, the Bible reads,
and they that gladly received his word were baptized, and the same day they were
added unto them, about three thousand souls. Now, if our
church got three thousand souls added to our
church all of a sudden, I don't know what we'd do.
We'd have to meet at a park or something in the rain,
we'd be out there. But anyway, the point I want to drive to you is that the Bible
shows us how people were added to the church.
They gladly received the word, and then they were baptized, right?
Look at verse 42, and actually before I get to verse 42,
one thing that I do want to say that I think we're not doing
well as a church, okay? When we go out and knock doors and preach the gospel,
and that's beautiful, we see souls saved, what's the next thing that we need to
encourage them to do? What did we just read about? And then
they were added. They were baptized, weren't they? They were baptized. Now,
we've done baptism through the year, praise God, but it's something, guys, that
we need to start adding to our gospel presentation
if you're not doing it already, okay? When someone calls upon the name of the Lord,
they've placed their faith on Jesus Christ, the next thing we need to
encourage them to do is to come and get baptized, all right?
Karamundi Lake, that's where we're going, all right? Karamundi Lake, get people
baptized. It's something we need to do if we want
people to be added to this church, okay? We see that in the scriptures. I
think that's something we can improve as a church,
okay? And I'd like to have discussions with you guys at some point,
you know, what's the best way to do this? You know, does anyone have any good ideas?
Let's think about that, let's teach that, and let's make that change
in our gospel presentation. But look at verse 42,
and they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship
and in breaking of bread and in prayers, all right?
So they continued steadfast when the Lord added to their church.
So that's what we need to do, right? Continue steadfastly in what things?
In the apostles doctrines. We need to remain true
to the doctrines that the apostles taught. And where are they?
Right here, okay? They're not hidden, we know where they are,
we need to stay true to the word of God. It's found in the pages of your Bible.
But then what else do they do? Doctrine and fellowship,
okay? Fellowship, so important. I didn't realize how important this was
until I got older, okay? Because often as a kid, I'd go to my Baptist Union church,
as soon as the service was over, I'd want to be home, right?
And I never built like close friendships or anything like that with the people in
the church, you know? And if our church is going to
learn to love one another more, we need to fellowship with one another,
right? I don't want you to feel rushed at the end of the service
to go home, hey stay, I'm not locking the doors,
stay, fellowship, you know, share things that are on your heart,
you know, ask for people to pray for your needs, all these kind of things.
Hey, it's important to fellowship, okay? That's part of growing a church, is the
fellowship. We can't ignore that, we can't forget that.
And then it says, and in breaking of bread,
okay? So that is the idea of sharing meals together,
you know? Now with this church building, I can't, we can't afford,
you know, lunch every week anymore, right? But if you want to bring your own lunch,
bring it, feel free, you know? Maybe, but what I want to do is, and I'll
go into that later on, but we will have a time of lunch and
fellowship, like a, like a proper time, um, once a month
together as a church, because we want to continue that. Of course you guys can
fellowship, break bread together, um, as well in your
own homes, you know? Fellowship with dinner and stuff like that, lunch, whatever,
you know? But also, when you talk about breaking of bread, it's not just the meal
of fellowship together, but it's also to do with the Lord's
Supper, okay? The breaking of bread, and taking the grape juice, and remembering
the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hey, we're doing all these things, right?
We're doing these things. These are things that we ought to continue doing
as a church, and then it says, and in prayers,
and in prayers. So our midweek service, since we started, right? Our midweek
service has always been bathed in prayer at the
end of the service, right? We go through the prayer requests,
and there are many churches that are dropping this off the, off their,
off their routine, okay? I think it's so important for the church to come
together, and pray for one another, okay? And then
come into grips together, and just pray, and I think we've seen the Lord
answer the prayers that we've been praying together, right?
This is something that we need to do. This is something that's foundational.
This is something that's going to keep our church, uh, together and united,
okay? Praying together, loving one another, caring for one another,
thinking about other people, and their needs, and then throughout the week,
all right? Throughout the week, the things that we prayed about on
Wednesday night, we ought to be praying through about that
through the week, uh, thinking about other people in the church.
So what I want to talk about now, guys, are some changes.
No one likes change. Some changes to our church
in the second year, okay? Some changes to our church
in the second year. Are you still in Philippians 3? I think I said keep a
finger there. Look at verse 20, Philippians 3, verse 20.
Philippians 3, verse 20. The Bible reads, for our conversation, now that's that
word there isn't just speaking, that's part of it,
but it's our lifestyle, okay? It's where we're from. It's our
identity, if you want to put it that way. It says, for our conversation is in
heaven. Hey, look, we're not physically in heaven right now,
okay? But our lifestyle is in heaven, okay? We are citizens of heaven. We are
representatives of the kingdom of heaven, all right, on this earth, okay? We're not
to be worldly. We're not to be earthly. We're meant to
be heavenly. From whence we also, sorry, from whence
also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. So we're waiting
for his coming, right? We're looking for the Savior
coming from heaven. Verse 21, who shall change our viral body
that he may be fashioned like unto his glorious body
according to the working whereby he is even able to subdue
all things unto himself. So what's that? The coming of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the resurrected bodies, the rapture, being caught up in the clouds
with the Lord, but notice that he's talking about our identity,
our citizenship is heavenly, okay? That's really what we're meant to be
representing on this earth. Now stay there. I'm going to read to you
from Hebrews 10 24. Hebrews 10 24, the Bible says, and let us
consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works,
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, okay? So when you think about
the call, the pressing on to the prize of the
high calling of Christ, what does Paul say? He's looking
to the return of Christ, right? And then we read here in Hebrews 10
as a church that we're not to forsake the assembling of ourselves,
but we are to gather together so much the more,
okay? And so much the more as you see the day approaching.
You know, today is one year closer to the return of Christ
than one year ago when we started the church, okay? So the first change that
we're going to do in this church is, and I already mentioned it to some of
you guys, is we're adding our afternoon service, not every week,
but just the first Sunday of the month, okay? For now, I told you guys let's grow
organically, let's grow as the Lord allows, but for
the first Sunday of every month, okay, in the afternoon
guys, we have another service. We need to gather even more as we see
the day approaching, okay? And of course, throughout the year,
that might develop to be every fortnight or every week, who knows?
Wait for the Lord to guide us and to show us our path there,
but for now guys, we're adding an extra service through
the week, through the month, okay? The first Sunday of the month.
If you can make it, please do. I know some of you travel far, but still hey,
it's worth being there, okay? It's worth being there. This is part of the changes.
This is part of us as a church raising that bar,
okay? Also, I'm going to start implementing,
again, this is probably going to be once a month. I'm going to see how we go,
but I'm going to do a leadership course, okay?
I'm talking about people that have a desire to be a pastor
or maybe a deacon, a leader at some point in the church,
want to take on a leadership position. Look, I'm not going to rehash
some curriculum. I'm not going to repeat some sermons of other pastors.
This is stuff that I've experienced. These are things that I've learnt.
These are things that I've experienced in my first year that I want to share
with you guys that have a desire to be leaders, and
you know, you guys are going to get practice to preach
sermons that I'm going to give you to preach, right? Instead of you just coming
up with your favorite sermons to preach, I'm going to give you things to preach
that's going to challenge you, and I'm going to go through all these
things, and look, this is available to anyone,
anyone that wants to take on a leadership role one day,
but it's available to everybody to attend, okay? Everybody can attend this,
but only it's focused upon those, especially, of course, the men
that have a desire to take on a leadership position in the future.
This is part of the changes. This is part of us
raising the bar, okay? We need to have men that are ready.
If the Lord opens a door to establish churches,
okay, or if this church grows and we need another pastor or a helper, deacon,
these kinds of things, we need to have men that are ready to step into that
role, okay? So, and of course,
I want to take advantage of the facilities, right? We have this projector
and this screen now. Never mind tension, but we have it, and
there's been a lot of excellent documentaries. I hope you
haven't seen them all, okay? This Wednesday we're going to watch a
homeschooling documentary. Please don't look it up.
Don't watch it. Save yourself for Wednesday, but we're going to use the
facilities we have, right? We're going to have movie nights,
all right? But instead of watching Hollywood, we're going to watch good
documentaries from men of God, all right? So, you know,
and we'll have popcorn. We'll have, I don't know, whatever. You guys come up
with some ideas. We'll make it fun, and yeah, we'll partake in this kind of
stuff, because we have the facilities, right?
God has given it organic growth. We've got it. Let's use it, all right?
This is what I mean. Let's let the Lord guide us and direct our paths, okay?
The next change, guys, so the first, sorry, the first change
was we need to change our soul-winning technique, include baptism,
okay? Encourage people to get baptized. The second one is that we're going to
assemble ourselves even more, okay? Even more, and the third one
is right here. You see that? You guys thought, oh, it's getting a tie,
because it's one year celebration, all right? It serves a purpose, okay?
It serves a purpose. The third change, guys, is that I want to raise the
standard of dress, not for the church necessarily. I don't
want to put any restrictions on you, like any sort of rules upon you guys,
but for the preacher, for the one that comes behind the pulpit and preaches to
you, I want to include the tie, okay? And I'll
give you my reasons for that. You say, give me Bible verses for that.
Well, you know, I'm the pastor, all right? There you go. There's the Bible reason,
all right? Obey the one that has a rule over you, but no, look,
you know, from now on, guys, and if you're going to be preaching behind the pulpit,
I'm not saying you have to wear a jacket, you know, it gets hot here, it gets humid,
I'm sweating right now, but a tie and your shirt tucked in, tucked in shirt
and your tie, I want you to look presentable, okay? Just like if you'd go
anywhere else to look presentable and present anything,
the same expectation is going to be there for you, all right? I've done it, I've done
presentations for businesses, for corporations, things like that,
and I dressed even better, I guess, sometimes than I dressed for church,
okay? But the reason I want to do that, guys,
is because it's something that I've learned through observation,
okay? It's something that I didn't really pick up on this until the last few years,
but I realized when you start to dress down,
especially as the pastor, the whole congregation starts to dress
down, okay? And even to the point, and look, I've been to some churches where
they dress maybe too much, it's like too much focus on the
dress, all right? And we need to be careful of that as well,
okay? But then I've also been to churches where they really dress down,
but then the congregation gets too comfortable and they come
looking really scabby, and if we're trying to grow in
love for one another, okay? And I've seen people complain, like
this, you know, this person's dressed really bad, like it's almost like
they don't want to look at them because they wouldn't even dress like that if
they're invited to a friend's house, but they're dressing even more down
when they come to church, you know? We need to lift our standard a little bit
here, but I recognize that it comes from the
person behind the pulpit, and ultimately the pastor, okay? So I'm
adding the tie to it, guys, but also, and I, because of, I mean,
think about all the churches here on the Sunshine Coast,
how many of them are preaching the Bible without compromise?
How many of them are going out knocking doors and preaching the gospel?
You say there's not many, of course, maybe one,
yeah, yeah, I'm not talking about our church, okay, maybe one, yeah,
okay, but what, what do they have in common? They start to dress down, don't
they? And I don't want people to mistake our
church for some liberal fund center, okay? We're not a liberal fund center, we
take the word of God seriously, we take the assembly of God seriously,
okay? And I want to, I want to respect you by dressing up a little bit more,
being a little bit more presentable, okay? And this will show even, I know you guys
know that I take the word of God seriously,
but I want our visitors, I want people to come and go, wow,
he's dressed up, it must, it must be serious, right? This isn't a place to
muck around, play around, play games, this is a place where we're going to listen
to the word of God being preached, and there's a certain expectation that
comes with a pastor that's put on a tie, okay? There's, there's, there's, again,
just in the workplace, I've experienced this, okay? I was working for a company,
they used to all wear ties, all the, all the managers, all the men used to wear
ties, and then that was actually part of the
rule, that was part of the conditions of working there
as a manager, then they changed the rule, and they took off their ties,
the whole, I'm telling you, the whole workplace dressed down,
okay? And then eventually I became a manager,
and this is what I observed, when they started to dress down,
then their work ethic lowered as well, everything started going down,
okay? They started to care less for working hard,
and I just did an experiment, I came to work one day with a tie,
okay? I was the only man with a tie, and everyone was laughing at me and teasing
me and mocking me, that's fine, you know, and then I came the next day with a tie,
I came next two weeks with a tie, then the mocking started to go away, they
realized, oh, it's just going to come, right? And then after a few weeks, wearing
a tie, guess what happened? All my employees under me, they started
to dress up, I'm serious, I'm just telling you the truth,
so I had to dress up, and then guess what happened? The production of our work
went up, just by wearing a tie, all right? So if we're going to be a church that
does greater things, I think the way your dress does
represent how you're going to take church, you know, you're going to take it
seriously, are you going to take the word of God
seriously, okay? So, yeah, I just want to, uh,
oh, please turn to Matthew 23, Matthew 23,
sorry, Matthew 23, we're almost done guys, we're almost done, Matthew 23,
because when you start dressing up, you've also got to be careful about
something else, okay? When you start dressing up, you've got
to be careful with something else, turn to Matthew 23,
verse 25, Matthew 23, verse 25, this is Jesus Christ, all right?
Having a go at the Pharisees, rebuking the Pharisees sharply,
look what he says in verse 25, Matthew 23, verse 25,
the Bible reads, this is Jesus' words, woe unto you scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites, why are they hypocrites? For you may
clean the outside of the cup and the platter,
that's what I'm doing guys, by putting on my tie and making clean the outside,
right? But within they are full of extortion
and excess. We need to be careful about this,
there are plenty of people that dress up nice and look wonderful,
okay? And are religious leaders and say they serve the Lord God of the Bible,
but they are what? Full of extortion and excess.
Verse 26, thou blind Pharisee cleans first that which is within the cup
and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.
So what is Jesus Christ more concerned about? The nice jacket and the tie,
or is he more concerned about the inside of the man?
Inside, right? Being clean on the inside, right?
But then it says that the outside of them may be clean also. Is he concerned
for the outside as well? Yes. Look at verse 27, woe unto you
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye are like unto white and sepulchres,
those are graves, which indeed appear beautiful outward,
but are within full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness.
Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous
unto men, but within are ye full of hypocrisy and iniquity,
all right? So does God care about the outward
appearance? Yes he does, but not at the expense
of the inner man, not at the expense of the inner man,
okay? So I want you to put on your tie, tuck in your shirt when you come and
preach the gospel, oh sorry, when you come and preach behind
the pulpit, all right? And I want this to be a
representation for the rest of the church that you're
clean on the inside, all right? Because I don't want you
coming here and preaching it with your own strength,
out of your own might, out of your own flesh, relying upon your own flesh.
No, I want your outward appearance to be representative
of the cleanliness that you have inside. Hey when you come to preach a sermon,
I expect you to confess your sins to God
before you come and stand before, you know, and present the word of God,
all right? And when I see that nice tie and I see that tuck in shirt or whatever,
I'm going to know, I'm going to expect and I'm going to hope that this man of
God preaching is also clean on the inside, that's the expectation,
all right? Otherwise you're going to be no better than these Pharisees,
looking nice on the outside but full of dead men's bones,
all right? So that's another thing that I want the outward appearance to
represent. I want you to be reminded if you come and
preach and you start putting on your tie, you're like hold on, have I made peace
with God? You know, have I confessed my sins to God?
Let me get that right God and then please help me when I get behind the
pulpit to preach in your spirit, okay?
And the fourth change guys, the fourth change that I want to talk about,
are you still in Philippians? Sorry, Philippians 3 17.
Philippians 3 17.
The last one guys, just the last thing here, Philippians 3 17.
Philippians 3 17, the Bible reads, Reverend
be followers together of me. Yep, they're following Paul, we have Paul's
writings here, you know, and then it says this, and mark
them, now when Paul uses the word them,
he's often talking about people that are not part of that church.
Sometimes that them can be evil workers, can be false prophets,
but in this case to them are other people, other godly men that are outside
of that church, all right? It says and mark them
which walk so as ye have us for an ensemble. The fourth change
is for us to grow and raise this bar as a church,
is to reach out and develop a network of like-minded believers,
okay? Have other men, other men of God that we can look up to, that we can mark
and follow their ensemble, okay? Other churches, okay?
In this first year, I've not been too concerned
about fellowshiping with other churches, I've not really been too concerned about
having, you know, some guest preacher or anything
like that. This first year, not only is the first year of the
church, but it's my first year as a pastor, all right? And I just wanted to
grow into the role, make sure I'm not making any major
mistakes along the way, right? And just be focused upon our church,
focus on our people, focus upon what God has given us, okay?
And that's good, that's good. But we, we also need other men, we also need
fellowship with other like-minded believers that
can join up with us, that we can work with,
and they can bless us, and we, I hope as we grow in the Lord,
can bless other believers as well, okay? And I'm not talking necessarily
about one particular movement, I'm just talking about believers in general
that have the right gospel, that are striving to serve the Lord,
that want to get out there and see souls saved. Hey, I'm willing to work with
anybody that believes the King James Bible and
wants to see souls saved, and they have the right gospel,
all right? So in this second year, you're going to see me probably reach out a
little bit more to, to people that I know, that are right
in the gospel, okay? They might differ with us on other
things, hey, but we can partner up with them
and do the great works of God, all right? And um, I would love,
I would love if we can this second year, we've got our satellite church in Sydney,
I would love to meet up halfway, all right? Instead of,
instead of our church traveling down to Sydney, or the Sydney guys traveling up
here, let's meet halfway somewhere and go and
knock those doors in that area, all right? If we find a good church, we
can say to these people if they get saved, hey,
here's a good church in your area that you can attend, all right? So I
want to start reaching out, being a godly influence to other
believers, but also start accepting some of that godly example
that we have from other men of God, okay? That can be national,
that can be international, I'll let the Lord again guide us in those steps, all
right? So we need to mark, mark them, yes, mark
the false prophets, okay? Be careful, but also mark godly men
that we can line up with, work with, and be blessed by their example.
All right guys, so I hope that's been a blessing for you, I hope these are things
that you can think about, I hope as a church we can be aligned, be
of one mind, work toward this, raise the bar, and work
toward having that greater knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ,
that we would be more like Jesus Christ in our personal lives,
in our families, and in this church. All right, let's pray.