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I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God had dealt to every man the measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office, so we being many are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophesy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith, or ministry, let us wait on our ministering, or he that teacheth on teaching, or he that exhorteth on exhortation, he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity, he that ruleth with diligence, he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness. Let love be without dissimulation, abhor that which is evil, plead to that which is good. Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love, in honor preferring one another, not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patience in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer, distributing to the necessity of saints, given to hospitality, bless them which persecute you, bless and curse not, rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep. Be of the same mind one toward another, mind not high things, but condescend to men of low state, be not wise in your own conceits, recompense to no man evil for evil, provide things honest in the sight of all men, if it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, save the Lord. Therefore, if thine enemy hunger, feed him, if he thirst, give him drink, for in so doing, thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. Let's bow our heads. Father, thank you so much for the opportunity tonight, dear God, and we love church and we love the Bible, that's why we're back on Wednesday night, and so God, please just fill me with your spirit as I preach, and help those that are here to learn what's needed from the Bible, help me to learn these truths as well, as I teach them. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. Now, in Romans chapter 12, we have some talk about an entity known as the body of Christ, also known as the church, the local church, the body of Christ, and I want to talk to you tonight about the body of Christ, the church as the body of Christ. Now, here we see a list of different gifts that people have, different positions that they have, or the Bible uses this word, different offices that people have in the body of Christ. Now, first of all, before I get into this, I want to say this, we do not believe in the invisible church. Now, I know, that's weird, because you say, pastor, how do you not believe in an invisible church? I mean, it seems like it would seem completely normal or rational for me to believe in something that I can't see, that's never described in the Bible, you can't see it, you can't touch it, you can't taste it, you can't smell it, you can't see any effects of it, of course you believe in it. No, believe it or not, I don't believe in the invisible church, and I don't believe in the universal church of all believers. Now, many people believe this, that the moment that you get saved, you are spiritually baptized into the universal church. I don't believe that for one second. When the Bible talks about baptism, the word baptism means immersion, okay? And when a person is baptized in water, they're immersed under water, okay? You say, what about the baptism of the Holy Ghost? Well, that was found in Acts chapter 2, when the Holy Spirit literally rested upon them, and it filled all the house where they were sitting, you remember that? And so because it filled the house where they were sitting, they were baptized or immersed in the Holy Ghost. That's what it says, that's what the Bible said, read it in Acts chapter 2. Now, we don't believe in the universal church, we believe in local churches, and this is not what the sermon's about, but I just want to clarify this. The Bible talks about the congregation all throughout the Old Testament. Anytime you find a verse in the Old Testament that uses the word congregation, when that verse is quoted in the New Testament, the word is church, okay? In the midst of the congregation, I will sing praise unto thee, Psalm 22 verse 22. In the New Testament it says, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee, Hebrews 2.17. And so we see it's the same word. Congregation, what does it mean to congregate? It means to gather together, to assemble together. So a church is an assembly of people, a congregation of people, agree? That's what the Bible uses the word. Now, the church cannot be universal or every believer, because is every believer assembled with us right now? No. And so there can't be an invisible congregation. Well, it's people all over the world. That's not much of a congregation if we're spread all over the world. That doesn't make any sense. And so you say, well, there's one church because the Bible says that Christ is the head of the church. Keep your finger in Romans 12 and flip over to Ephesians 5. Ephesians chapter number 5, which is just toward the back of your Bible, keep your finger in Romans 12 and let's look at Ephesians 5 where that phrase is taken from. Verse 23, Ephesians 5, 23, the Bible reads, For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the savior of the body. You say, well, see, right there, Pastor Anderson, there's only one body of Christ and there's only one church and Christ has... Wrong! Because is there only one wife? Look at it. I mean, it's the same verse. For the husband is the head of the wife. See, the wife, there's only one wife in the whole world and there's only one husband in the whole world. That doesn't make any sense, does it? No. When he says the husband is the head of the wife, he's talking about a position of being a husband or being a wife. What he's saying is every husband is the head of his wife, right? We're not talking about one husband, one wife. We're saying in general, the husband is the head of the wife, okay? And so, Christ is the head of the church, just as every husband is the head of every wife, then Christ is the head of every church. Do you understand that? So it's not that there's one church, but in the church, as an institution, the head is Christ. Just as in a marriage, there's not only one marriage, but in every marriage, the husband is the head. In every church, Christ is the head. That's why God puts those things side by side. We're not talking about one church. We're talking about churches that are all over the world, and every single one of them should have Christ as its head. You say, how can that be? Because Jesus Christ can be everywhere at the same time. He's God, and so he has the power to be the head of Faithful Word Baptist Church and the head of every other church that's a soul-winning, gospel-preaching, scriptural church, right? And so we see here that we don't believe in the universal church. We believe in the local church, the church at Ephesus, the church at Corinth, the church in Smyrna, the church in Pergamos, the church in Tempe that you're sitting in, and elsewhere all around the world. Now back to Romans 12 where we were. It says in Romans 12, down in verse number 4, it says, For as we have many members in one body... That's talking about in this church here, in our body, okay? As we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office. So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and everyone members one another. This is talking about in a church, okay? We here at this church are one body, okay? But there are many members. I mean, this church is made up of all the different people here that are the members of the body here, which is Faithful Word Baptist Church. And so we see here that they all have a different position. Is everyone the pastor? No. The office of being the bishop or the pastor is filled by Stephen Anderson. Now, is everybody here the pastor? No. But does that make me better than somebody who's not the pastor? No. Does that make you less necessary to this church? Well, you're not the pastor, so you're not necessary. We don't need you. Well, we do need you. We need every member to be in their place. Now you say, oh, okay, so you're the head, right? Wrong. The head is Jesus. Okay. Now, aside from Jesus being the head, we have all different positions, we have all different offices, and the Bible talks about, look down, we all have different gifts. So not only do we have a different office, according to verse 4, verse number 6 says, having then gifts, differing. We have different gifts. According to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportionate. Now, prophecy is talking about preaching. Now, not everybody is going to be a preacher. Not everybody is, and we're not talking about soul winning. But we're talking about getting behind the pulpit. The Bible doesn't call what we do at the door prophesying. It calls that preaching the gospel or soul winning. But what I do behind the pulpit is known as prophesying in the Bible. We think of it as preaching, but really the more scriptural term is prophesying. So when I stand behind the pulpit Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night, and prophesy, not everyone has that gift. There's a certain amount of talent that comes with being able to get up and do public speaking and preaching. Not everybody has that gift. Not everybody has that talent. There are many people here. It has nothing to do with how spiritual they are. It has nothing to do with how godly they are or how righteous they are. They're just never going to stand up and preach a sermon because that's not their gift. God says some people have a gift of prophecy, some people don't. It doesn't make them any less of a Christian. It doesn't make them any less important to the body's functioning. But he says not everybody is a prophet. But he says here, you know, if your gift is prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith. Or ministry. Ministry is serving. He says let us wait on our ministry. He did teach it on teaching. Some people have a gift or an ability to teach. Some people do not have a gift or an ability to stand up and teach the Bible. They just don't have that skill. They don't have that gift from God. Or he did exhorteth on exhortation. What is exhortation? It's encouraging somebody to do something good. Exhortation would be if I come up to you and say, hey, let's go soul winning. You want to go soul winning with me? Or, man, I want to see you in church tonight. Can you make it to church tonight? Trying to encourage, I guess we could use a word instead of exhortation, encouraging people. Somebody says, oh, man, I don't know, things are going so, hey, it's going to be all right. Let me help you. You can do it. Stay with it. Somebody is down. Somebody is depressed or they don't think they can keep going. Say, man, stay with it. Keep on going. Stick with soul winning. You say, oh, I didn't get anybody saved. Man, stay with soul winning. You're going to reap the great harvest someday. Oh, my marriage is up. Hey, stay with it. Don't quit. Oh, I'm so, I'm struggling with my job. You know, encouraging, exhorting one another. That's another, that's a gift. Some people have a gift to get people excited. Or a gift to encourage somebody who is down. Or a gift to teach somebody the Bible. Or a gift to preach a sermon. It says also, he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity. So a gift of maybe making money and giving or something like that. Or giving other things. It says, he that ruleth with diligence. That's talking about leadership. Somebody who is making decisions. Somebody who is guiding the direction of the church. Somebody who is ruling. And then it says, he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness. Let love be without dissimulation. Now what is a simulator? Is it real? No, a simulator is something that's not real. If you sit down and you're in a flight simulator, you're not really flying a plane. So he's saying, your love should not be simulated. It should not be fake. Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil. Cleave to that which is good. Be kindly affectioned one to another. It's talking about in the church with brotherly love. In honor, preferring one another. And on and on, I'm not going to go through the whole chapter again. But we see here that people have different gifts. The point that I want to make with this, when we talk about the body of Christ, and we're going to go into this in great detail, but the point that I want to make is that we sometimes might need to change our attitude about what church is for and what is the purpose of church. You see, the purpose of church is not just for you to sit and listen. Now it is very important to come to learn. Very important. It's important that you come and hear the preaching and learn. But, church is a place where you have a function that you need to perform. Now, first of all, did you notice that none of the gifts that we read about was a gift for soul-witting? None of them. I mean, we saw prophesying, which is what I'm doing right now, but nowhere did you see a gift of evangelism or a gift of soul-witting. You can turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. If you would, just toward the end of your Bible, one book. 1 Corinthians chapter number 12. And look down, if you would, at verse number 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 12. Similar subject matter as Romans chapter 12. Spiritual gifts. Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. Look down at verse number 4. Now there are diversities of gifts. People have different gifts, but the same spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. Now what is he talking about? Administrations, operations. There are certain nuts and bolts of what it takes to run a church. Now our church is smaller and newer, and so our church is not as complicated. Now we don't want to get unnecessarily complicated. We want to keep it simple, but still, as it gets larger, there's going to be a little bit more need to have more people helping with leadership, with preaching, with teaching. For example, we have a service going on down at the nursing home. There's other preaching and teaching going on down there. We have more and more soul-winning, so we get more organized with our soul-winning, so that we can canvas whole areas and knock every door and so forth, because we have more people out on the street. And so as we get bigger, there's an operation going on. Like, think of it as a business. You say, oh, I can't believe you call it a business. Hey, Jesus said I must be about my father's business. Now, this is a non-profit organization. We're not trying to make money, but we are business-like in the way that we approach things, which means we're serious. You see, here's the problem with the government. The government doesn't care about how much money they make. They don't care about making a profit. So that's why everything they do is sloppy and they waste money and everything. Whereas, man, if you've ever run a business, that business has got to be lean. It's got to be organized. It's got to be efficient. You're not going to waste a bunch of time and waste a bunch of money. And the same thing with God's work. Do we want to waste God's money? Just waste all God's money and let's waste all God's time and let's be sloppy and disorganized and haphazard. No. We want to operate an operation, is what it says here, that's a smooth operation, that's an efficient operation, that's going to get the most work done for God. That's the purpose. Now, how are we going to get the most work done for God? When every part of the body is functioning in synthesis. When we're all in our place. When we have people that are leaders, that are organizing things. When we have everybody else in their place working, doing what needs to be done. This is what God is teaching here. Administration, operation, organization, is what he's talking about. Now, have you ever noticed how organized the human body is? Now, you have all different parts that are functioning and you say, well, which part is the most important? What's more important, your heart or your brain? Now, that's a dumb question because you can't function without either one of them. You say, oh, well, the liver. Your liver is pretty important. You don't have a liver, you're dead. You're not alive anymore. You don't have a brain, you're not alive. You don't have a heart, you're going to cease to live. You don't have lungs, you're done. You see what I'm saying? So, all these parts of the body are extremely important. What if you don't have legs? You can't walk, you can't go anywhere. It's going to restrict how much you can accomplish. And so, the whole body is working together. The Bible talks about in 1 Corinthians 12, go down if you would a little bit. It says in verse number 8, it starts to list some of these different gifts that people have. Again, kind of like the list in Romans 12. 1 Corinthians 12, 8. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom. A gift of having wisdom about what to do and so forth. To another, the word of knowledge by the same Spirit. Somebody who knows the Bible. 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, deserting of spirits. To another, diverse kinds of tongues. It's talking about foreign languages. 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 hath many members or body parts, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body. It's talking about in each church. Are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free? And if all made to drink that into one Spirit, for the body is not one member, but many. And he goes on to say, if we say, oh, we don't need the foot. Of course you need the foot. Oh, we don't need the nose. Hey, how are you going to smell what you need to smell? There's different parts. You say, why do I need my nose anyway? So you can smell when something's rotten. Smell when something's sour. Have you ever gone to eat something and put something in your mouth? And just before you put it in your mouth, you smelled? How bad it smelled? Thank God for your nose, that you didn't put that all the way in your mouth. It could have been poisonous. It could kill you even. And the nose is very necessary, the function of your body. Now, here we see all these different gifts. You say, what's that about the gift of tongues and interpretations? Why is that so important? I'll tell you why it's important. Because God said to teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. Our job is to reach out to other nationalities and other nations. And so, it's important. We were just talking about today, the Navajos and translating the Bible into Navajo. And something that would match up with the King James and not be the NIV in Navajo or something like that. It's important. There are many languages that still don't have any Bible in Africa and different places. It's important that some people in the church are gifted with speaking many different languages. I happen to meet one of them. I won somebody to the Lord on, what was it, yesterday, on Saturday? I won a guy to the Lord completely 100% in Spanish. It's a good thing I knew Spanish. Praise the Lord. Because I was able to win somebody to the Lord that I could not have gotten saved otherwise. And I've won somebody to the Lord in German and I've won somebody to the Lord in different languages. And so, the point is that if you learn other languages and have a gift for languages, you could help maybe someday be a missionary to some other part of the world. Or translate a part of the Bible into another language. Or reach people right here in Phoenix that are all different nationalities. And then they could take the Gospel back home to their country. And so, God could greatly use somebody who's gifted in speaking of another tongue. Paul said, I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all. Why? He's a man who traveled the world preaching the Gospel, speaking a variety of languages. He said, but in the church, he said, I'd rather speak five words with understanding. He said that people can understand what I'm saying. I'm not going to get up and just show you how I can speak. Here, the service tonight is going to be trilingual. I'm going to say everything in English and then Spanish and then German. What would be the point? He said, no, just stick with one language in 1 Corinthians 14 that everybody understands. But yet, there's still a place in the church for people who know other languages to use that to win people to Christ. That speak other languages of other nationalities. And so, that's a gift. That's a gift from God. There are some people that could hardly learn a foreign language that saved their life. I mean, literally. I mean, there are people who would struggle and go to school and work at it. They could not learn a foreign language that saved their life. There are other people that just pick it up. They can just learn it. It's easy for them. It's a gift. It's a talent. Preaching. Some people, I've seen people get up and you say, well, what is your greatest gift? You know, I believe I have a gift for preaching, but you know what? I really worked hard to learn how to preach because when I first started preaching, you would have said that is not your gift for a long time. And so, I would say that I'm not supremely gifted as a preacher because I'd say that I have maybe a little less than average gift of preaching. But I've worked hard to cultivate what little I've been given from God and learned how to preach. But I have seen people who got up. I'm telling you. They've been saved for a short time who got up and had no experience that preached very well without any training. That person is very gifted from God and God helps them if they don't use it for the glory of God. I mean, here I have a small gift of preaching that I've worked and worked and worked and worked to learn how to preach. And then I see somebody else that just has, they're born with it. Use it for God. And so, different people have different, you know, not everybody is gifted the same either. Some person might have a little bit of a gift for preaching. Somebody might have a great talent for preaching. Boy, the more that you've been given, it says the more that's going to be required of you. To whom much is given, much should be required. Some people have a gift for knowing and understanding the Bible, unlike other people maybe. They see things that other people don't see in the Bible. They know the Bible very well. Do you understand how there's all these different talents and gifts? So we all have different positions, different functions, different offices in the church. Now, look at Ephesians chapter 4 verse 11. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 11. I'm trying to just get you to understand the local church, the body of Christ. What's the purpose of it? It's a place where we can get together, people of all different nationalities, Jew, Gentile, whatever. People of all different nationalities, all different talents, all different personalities, different ages, different economic classes perhaps. We all get together in one body and God uses each of us in our own unique individual way with the talents that he has given us to perform a certain function and a role in the church, which is work. Not just coming and saying... And a lot of people think of church as a place where we just come and sit and listen and see what we can get out of it. Don't see what you can get out of it. Hey, see what you can put into it. I mean, come to church with an answer that says, what do I have to offer to faithful work back to church? Not just, what do they offer me? What can I get from church? Say, what can I give to church? I mean, Jesus Christ has already given his life for us. He shed his blood. He gave us everything. He gave us a home in heaven and now he's asking you to give back. And you give back by joining the local church, being in your place, finding your niche, finding what part of the body you can perform and function well as, what your talents are, what your gifts are, rolling up your sleeves and get involved in the work. Being a part of the action. Don't be sitting on the sidelines, but get involved in the action. Now, there's no gift for soul winning in 1 Corinthians 12. We just read it. There was no gift for soul winning in Romans 12. Soul winning is not a gift, it's a command. It's not a special gift that I have or that you have or that somebody else had. It's a gift, it's not a gift. It's just a command of God to every born again Christian. I mean, even people who cannot speak well, who are very shy, hey, stammer and stutter your way through the Gospel and get somebody saved. And I promise you that anybody who's saved can get somebody else saved. I mean, it doesn't matter whether you're stammering and stuttering. It doesn't matter whether you're, whoops, I dropped my Bible again. You know, just a minute. Hang on just a second. I think I know where I'm going. You can get somebody saved no matter who you are. And you know what? God can use you to get somebody saved, but I could never get saved. God wants to use everybody in their own function. So first of all, we've got to understand, in order to find your place in the body, you better understand you're a soul winner. No matter, I don't care whether you're the foot, the nose, the eye, the mouth, the hand, the finger, the liver, the brain, the heart, you better be a soul winner. Or else you belong in a different body. You know, it's like, this is the soul winning body. Okay, do you understand that? So, whether you're the soul winning lung, the soul winning heart, the soul winning finger, the soul winning foot, the soul winning nose, be a soul winner. But on top of being a soul winner, you have other gifts and talents that could be used for God. See, life is not all about soul winning. Now, you come to this church and you start thinking, man, is life all about soul winning? Okay? Because that's what we emphasize. But, you know, there's more to it than just soul winning. I mean, getting people saved is not all we do around here. I mean, we also teach and preach the Bible. We raise our children for God. We help other people. We teach other people. We do all kinds of things. We live our lives and it's not just soul winning. I mean, it's the whole package. But, soul winning is something that belongs to everybody. But then we all find our talents and use our abilities for God. Whether it be speaking a foreign language. Whether it be teaching the Bible, preaching in a nursing home, whatever it is that you do in addition. You know, playing a musical instrument, okay? It could be a talent that could be used by God to play piano, to play the organ, to play a musical instrument and so forth. Not everybody can learn piano. Piano is a difficult instrument and some people can never learn. They can practice for years and years and years and never become a piano virtuoso. Other people, it comes naturally to them. There's a talent that's given to them by God. Now, did I tell you to turn to Ephesians 4? Look at verse 11. It says that he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints. For the work of the ministry. The ministry is about work. Church is about work. It's a place to come to get your marching orders to work for God. There's work to be done. Who's going to knock all these doors and feedings? We are, the local church. Who's going to get the gospel of this area? The TV? Is it the TV preacher? Is it the flyers that we're in? It's me and you. We're in. We're the workers. How's God going to get his work done? We're going to do it. How's the Bible going to be taught? We're going to teach it. How's the Bible going to be preached? We're going to preach it. We're going to do everything that God wants done in Phoenix. It's going to be done by the local church. But it says here, for the perfecting of the saints to help us all grow. For the work of the ministry. For the edifying of the body of Christ. That's talking about building the church. Edifying the body of Christ. Until we all come in the unity of the faith, which is never. So that's how long we're supposed to do this for. Forever. Until we all come in the unity of faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth, henceforth means from here on out, that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, bouncing from church to church, bouncing from Bible version to Bible version, bouncing, well, I think it's by faith. Well, maybe it's by works. Well, you know, maybe it's the universal invisible church. Well, maybe it's the local church. Maybe it's soul winning. Maybe it's handing out a flyer. Well, maybe it's a TV broadcast. Well, I don't know, maybe it's Presbyterian. Well, I'm a Methodist. Now I'm a Catholic. No. Don't be tossed around. He says you need to be established. He says, don't be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, every new thing that somebody teaches, you just blindly accept it and believe it. He says, by the slight of men and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to the sea, but speaking the truth in Christ may grow up, grow up, he's saying, in to him in all things, which is the head, even Christ, from which the whole body, watch this, this is an important verse, fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth. According to the effectual working and the measure of every part, make an increase of the body unto the edifying of itself and love. Notice the emphasis. Every joint, every part, every member is in their place, supplying something, contributing something to the success of the body. In 1 Corinthians 12 it says, when one member suffers, the whole body suffers. When one member is glorified, the whole body is glorified. So we see that there's got to be a unity of the church where we're all performing our function. You see, when you're not here, something's missing. When you're not outsold, when something's missing, somebody's missing, we're missing something. We're like a person who's missing a part of their body. You know, sometimes our church, you know, could look, you know, something like this, you know, when you're not here. Something's missing, you know. Is this normal? No. You know, it's like, well, you know, something's missing. Here we are. We're trying to do something great for God here, you know, but you can't run very fast like that. You know, we want faith-forward Baptist church to grow, right? We want to move fast. You know, we got to go somewhere, you know. Or we can just say like, wait for me, you know. Right? You know, something's missing. Have you ever tried to do things just with one hand? It's called having a baby. It's called having a toddler. You hold them strapped to your hip for about the first year of their life. You know, you're holding them all day long. And you learn to do everything with one arm, but it's a whole lot easier with two hands and two arms. You know, we don't want to be this one-armed, one-legged, missing an eye, no nose, one ear, kind of a church. We're not going to be able to go full speed ahead like that. And so we've got to have all the body parts in place. Now, with that all being said and understood, we know that the purpose of church is to come and get involved and serve. You should be choosing a church like you're choosing where you're going to serve God. Not like, well, this is where I'm going to listen to a sermon. This is the people that I want to work with, right? That's what it should be when you're picking a church. This is who I'm going to roll up my sleeves and get in the trenches with. These are the people that I'm going to work side by side with to serve Jesus Christ. That's what church is about. And so, look if you would at 1 Timothy 3. Let's talk about the offices in church. Now, we talked a little bit about this this afternoon. We were chatting about this, and so I incorporated a little bit into my sermon just to explain some of this, but we see that there's a team in place. Think of church as a team, okay? Just like in basketball, you've got the guards, you've got the forwards, you've got the center, you've got the five members of the team. They're all important. Not one is more important than the other. You know, if you're on a soccer team, you've got the fullbacks, you've got the halfbacks, you've got the forwards, and you've got the goalie. It's not about which one's more important. It's not about which one's better than the other. Say, oh, man, I'm never going to be pastor. And, you know, people get hung up on some of these things. Look at 1 Timothy 3, verse 1. It says, this is a true saying, if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. Now, some men, because they have gifts for preaching, or maybe a gift for ruling or administrating or leading or teaching the Bible, they say, you know what, I would like to be a pastor. I would like to be a bishop. Now, let me tell you something. I didn't have some lightning bolt come into my room. You know, people talk about, oh, I was called to preach on June 12th, blah, blah, blah. I couldn't give you some date when I was called to preach. The whole room lit up. And God says, Steve, I want you to preach for me. That's not what happened. I couldn't tell you some date of the call to preach. You know, the Bible says if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. God gave me the talents and the abilities that I needed to do what I needed to do, and he'll give you the talents and abilities for whatever work he's called you to do. But he says here, if a man desireth the office of a bishop, he desireth a man. God's just looking for a man, not a certain person. He's saying if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work, but these are the qualifications for that man. But if a person wants to do this, they can do it. What's it say? A bishop then must be blameless. The husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach. That means he has ability to get up and teach the Bible. Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre, but patient, not a brawler, not covetous, one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity. Now let's learn some things here. What are we looking for in a bishop or a pastor? Now think about this for a moment. Everything brings forth after its own kind. So the local church begets the local church. I don't believe it's right for a person to just say, you know what, I'm just going to start a church. I'm just going to start my own church. That's not right. The church always sent out people to go start a church. I mean one local church chooses somebody and sends them out to go start a church, and the person that they send out to start a church or to pastor an existing church has to fit these qualifications. Now you say, well wait a minute, I fit these qualifications, so I'm just going to go start a church somewhere. Can't do that. You have to be sent out by the local church. You have to be, this is what the Bible calls being ordained by the local church, like sent out. And it's not necessarily a shingle on the wall or somebody signing a piece of paper. It's when the local church prays for you and sends you out, like they laid hands on the men in the book of Acts and sent them out in the ministry, Simon, Paul, Barnabas in the church in Antioch. They sent them out to the work that God had called them to do. So the church begets the church. It shouldn't just be a guy somewhere in a house somewhere that says, oh I'm just going to start my own church. No. If a person wants to start a church, what they should do is come to a good church, be trained by that church. The church will say, okay, you fit these qualifications. We'll send you out to go start a church. We've trained you. We've taught you. Go ahead and go for it. That's God's plan. So we see here, what are the qualifications? A person blameless. What does that mean? They're perfect? No. Blameless means that they have a good reputation, like there's no big spot on their reputation. For example, it says later in verse 7, Moreover, he must have a good report of them which are without, lest he fall into reproach in the snare of the devil. A good reputation. So he can't be having some big blight on his past, maybe, that would make everybody look at him and say, this guy's the pastor? You know, what about this embarrassing, you know, wicked thing they did in the past? For example, let's say you've got a guy who's committed adultery. Right? And then he says, well you know what, I'd like to be the pastor. He's not blameless, because people are going to say, this guy's an adulterer. You can't trust this guy. Do you understand what I'm saying? Wait a minute, this guy's an adulterer. This guy has broke, or maybe somebody who's broken some trust, or stolen money from a church, or been dishonest. You know, there are people in churches, pastors, and missionaries, and people who've stolen money. They've embezzled money. You can think about the televangelists and all their scandals, and they've committed adultery. They had an affair with the secretary. I'm sorry buddy, you're done being the pastor. You're done being the bishop. You're not blameless. Does that make sense? I'm not talking about somebody who's above sin. I mean, we all sin. But I'm talking about a major blight that's going to ruin their reputation, where they don't have a good report anymore to people that are outside the church. And they're not blameless. You can blame them, and say, this is what you're guilty of. Look what you're doing. What business do you have, being the pastor, when you're yourself doing these wicked things? And so we see that, you know, somebody's blameless. The husband of one wife. And that's not one wife at a time. That's the husband of one wife, period. Now, people get hung up on this. Oh man, so now, I guess I've been divorced. God can't use me anymore. Oh, you're so unloving, because you say that people who've been divorced can't pastor a church. Look, that's not unloving, because it doesn't mean that God can't use you. Because there's a whole body to fill in here. Bishop is one position. Deacon is one position. You've still got the whole body. And by the way, the most important thing you're doing is soul winning. Oh, God can't use me anymore. It doesn't matter how blameful you are. You might have committed adultery. You may have embezzled money. You've ripped people off. You're an extortioner. You've been a drunk. You've been a dopehead. You've been divorced five times. I mean, you've been in jail. You've been in jail. You're a convicted felon. You're a murderer. Hey, God can use you. Yes, he can. He can use you out soul winning. He can use you to serve in the church. Now, you're not going to be a bishop. You're not going to be a deacon. You're not going to be standing up preaching the Bible. But you know what? You could play the piano, right? You could play the organ. You could go out soul winning. Hey, you could sweep the floor. You could do a lot of things to serve God in the local church. And you know what? You're not any less important than the pastor is. Because nobody ought to think of himself. It's where we started in Romans 12. More highly than he ought to think. Because we're all in the same body. We're all working together. And none of us is more important than each other. We're all important. No matter what the function. And so these are, you know, husband to one wife. Vigilant. What does that mean? Vigilant. A vigil is when people stay up all night. Vigilant is somebody who's always on their guard. Always watching. Somebody says, be sober. Be vigilant. Because you're adversary of the devil. You're walking the Bible. It's a rolling line. Seek whom you may devour. Hey, he's saying, if you're vigilant. It means you're always watching. Making sure that there's nothing bad creeping in. Like a watchdog. Okay? He's like, that's the way the bishop needs to be. The pastor needs to be like a watchdog. Making sure false doctrine isn't creeping into the church. Making sure sin and fornication isn't creeping into the church. It's like a watchdog. He's vigilant. Sober. I mean, serious. Life is not a big joke to him. Ah, whatever. Who cares? No. He's serious about serving God. He's serious about what the Bible teaches. It's not a joke. Man, this is life or death. Sobriety is what we're talking about. And then he says, of good behavior. Given to hospitality. He's not rude and doesn't ever want to help anybody or give anything to anybody. And apt to teach. He's got to have the ability to teach. He's got to have a talent from God. Not given to wine. He doesn't drink. No striker. He's not going out getting in fistfights. Not greedy or filthy lucre. He's not in it for the money. But patient. Not a brawler. Not covetous. One that ruleth well is the one at the house having his children in subjection with all gravity. And yes, that means that he must be married and that he must have children. Because you can't have your children in subjection with all gravity if you don't have children. Okay, and I take the Bible literally. I don't sit there and guess and say, well, he's just saying if you have children. That's not what it says. So I just go by what it says. I don't believe it's right for a single man to pastor a church. And I don't think it's right for a married man with no kids to pastor a church. Because he's got to have children in subjection with all gravity. Why? For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? Not a novice. What does a novice mean? A beginner. Not a novice lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil. A novice is a beginner. If you've ever ridden dirt bikes or gone skiing. You'll see different classifications in sports. Novice, intermediate, expert. Who's ever heard that terminology before? Novice is a beginner. It's somebody who's just starting out. So we don't win somebody to the Lord, baptize them, they go to church for a year, then we make them a pastor. Or they come to church for a couple of years, then we make them a pastor. No. It can't be a beginner. It can't be a novice. It needs to be somebody who's been serving God for a long, long time. Now turn, if you would, to Titus chapter 1. You're in 1 Timothy. This is just a few pages toward the end of your Bible. Right now we're understanding the doctrine of some of the positions that are in the local church. Some of the positions and offices in the body. Because we don't want to be ignorant. You say, why are you teaching on this Pastor Anderson? Because we don't want to be tossed to and fro with every window of doctrine. We want to know exactly what we believe about the local church. Exactly why the invisible church is not real. Exactly why it's local church only. Exactly what the qualification for the pastor is. Exactly how churches are started and built. Exactly what the pastor's job is. Exactly what the people's job is. Exactly what the body of Christ means. Exactly what the deacon is and who he is and why he is and what he does. We've got to know these things. So that we have the knowledge to stay firm and strong. Why we're a Baptist. These are the reasons why we're Baptist. Because we're independent. Because we're local church. Because we're not universal church like the Catholics and Protestants. That's why you're sitting in a Baptist church right now. Because we believe these things. Look at Titus 1.5. For this cause left I thee in Crete. Paul speaking to Titus. That thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting or lacking. There's something missing, he's saying. And ordain elders in every city as I had appointed thee. He's saying, all throughout the island of Crete, there are cities all throughout that island. He said every city in that island should have a pastor, an elder, a bishop. These words are synonymous. I'm going to show you that a little bit later. But every one of these cities should have a pastor that's basically the ruler or the bishop of that local church in each city. He says each city should have a church. I wish that there were a good, fundamental Baptist, independent church in every city in America. Remember what it said in 1 Samuel when Saul said, There is in this city a man of God. I wish that could be said of in Flagstaff there's a man of God. In Cassock Ranch there is a man of God. In Tucson there's a man of God. In Benson there's a man of God. In Yuma there is a man of God. In Quartzsite there is in this city a man of God. All throughout the whole of Arizona and throughout America and throughout the world there should be an elder, a preacher, a pastor in every local church in every city in the world. That's God's will. He says you need to ordain pastors over the churches in the individual cities in Crete. If any be blameless. You've got to find the right guy. Now how do we know the bishop and the elder are the same person? Well in verse 5 we're talking about elders. But look at verse 7, now it's bishop. For a bishop must be blameless. See how the Bible defines itself. So it says in verse 6, If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of riot or unruly. For a bishop must be blameless as the steward of God. Not self-willed. Not having his own agenda, he's saying. Not soon angry. He flies off the handle. Nobody's going to tell me what to do. I can't believe you're doing this and that. Somebody who's cool and calm and collected should be the pastor. That doesn't just overreact about everything. Flip out. You go to the pastor and chase him. He just flips out. Has anybody ever come to me and said something to me and I just went berserk and just started yelling at him? Have I ever screamed at anybody in this whole church? Now, behind the pulpit, I mean, it's all it is. It's a bunch of screaming. But I mean, you hear him come to me and say, you know, how about this? You know, not soon angry. It says, uh, where am I? I lost my place. Oh, I lost my place. Let's just close the service. I'm mad. Uh, where am I? Not given to wine. Not given to wine. No striker. Not given to filthy lucre. A lover of hospitality. A lover of good men. Sober. Just. Holy. Temperate. Holding fast the faithful word. That's where our church got its name. As he hath been taught that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. Now look, if you would, at 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. We're studying the role of the pastor right now and what the pastor is and who he is. What is he? Number 1, he's a worker. If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. He doesn't stand around and say, okay, you go do this and you do this. I'm going to be sitting in my office drinking a glass of lemonade. And you go out and knock all these doors and you go out and set up all these chairs. And you do this and you preach here and you do that. Hey, the pastor's a worker. He's out there doing the soul winning. He's out there himself knocking the doors. He's out there preaching the gospel. He's out there rolling up his sleeve getting his hands dirty in the work. He's a worker, number 1. What else is he doing? He's a bishop. He's vigilant. He's walking guard. He's teaching the Bible. He's teaching the flock. He's feeding the flock of God. What else is he doing? He's an elder. And you say, wait a minute, an elder? Well, do you remember I said not a novice? So when he says elder, he's not talking about just like geriatricly. We're not talking about like, okay, is that a word? We got a guy here that's, you know, okay, this guy's 89 years old. I guess he's the pastor. He's the oldest guy here. Put him on the pulpit. Put him in charge. No, when we talk about the elder, we're talking about somebody who's elder spiritually. So we're talking about somebody who's been saved for a long time, soul winning for a long time, preaching for a long time. That's what it means. Not a novice. Not a beginner. He's an elder, okay? He's grown up in the faith. Okay, he's not fully grown. Nobody is. But he's elder than the person in the pew, perhaps. Now, the pastor's not always going to be more spiritually advanced than the person in the pew. I mean, that's not the point here. But the point is that the guy behind the pulpit, the guy who's in charge, should not be a beginner. And he should, let's put it this way. It shouldn't be that he's one of the least spiritual people in the whole church. Like, everybody in the pew is way more advanced than the pastor is. That's not a healthy environment for a church. You say, well, Pastor Anderson, how do you work to make sure that you are more spiritually mature than the people in the pew? Because we're constantly winning people to the Lord. They're brand new baby Christians. You know? And then we're definitely elder than they are. Now look, I got saved when I was six years old. So I've been saved for over 20 years. And I've been soul winning now, knocking doors, door-to-door soul winning, for over 10 years. 10 years I've been knocking, or not over 10 years, but just about 10 years now. 10 years now I've been knocking the doors, soul winning. I mean, 10 years, week in and week out, week in, week out, knocking doors for hours a week, again and again, thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of doors. Before I even started this church, I'd been soul winning for over seven years. I'd been preaching for five years on a weekly basis when I started this church. In Sunday schools and bus ministries and nursing homes. You say, why are you explaining this? Hey, because this is the process by which a person becomes qualified to be a bishop. They go out and they do the work. They learn how to do it. They're not a beginner. They've preached. They've won souls. They've done these different things. And so that's what it means to be an elder. It's not a beginner. It's not the newbie. It's not a baby Christian. It should be somebody who's been at this for a long time. Does that make sense? Okay. Look, if you would, at 1 Thessalonians 5, 12. And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you. Now, the admonish you is the preaching. Okay. But do you notice how the guy who's over you in the Lord and admonishing you is also laboring with you? Do you see that? So the pastor is supposed to be working with you side by side in the trenches, not in the ivory tower, not sitting on a pedestal telling everybody what to do. But hey, I'll show you how to do it. I'm not going to tell you how to win souls. I'll show you how to win souls. I'm not going to tell you how to preach. I'll show you how to preach. And that's how leaders lead by example. And I'm not the only leader. Okay. There are other people in this church who should be leading others how to win souls, how to preach, how to do these different things. But he says, and to esteem them very highly in love because they're so wonderful. No, for their work's sake. It's all about the work, my friend. It's about the labor and be at peace among yourselves. Look at, you don't have to turn there. Turn to 1 Peter 5 and while you're turning there I'll read for you 1 Timothy 5.17. Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine. Labor. Work. That's what we're talking about with the pastor. He's a worker. He's a laborer. He's supposed to be. And so he says here that the elders that rule well. Okay. What does ruling mean? It's not talking about, we'll get to that. Look at 1 Peter 5 verse 1 and we'll see what the ruling is. The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. This is Peter speaking. Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof. Like an overseer. Okay. Do you understand? Like somebody who's watching over and making sure that everything's going correctly. Taking the oversight thereof not by constraint. He's saying not because you have to, but willingly. Not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind. It's something that you want to do. It has nothing to do with money.