(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Amen. Alright well thank you very much for being here tonight. We are very glad, I'm glad to be here and of course brother Jared and Miss Heidi thank you for everything you do. We love you and miss you and your family of course. My wife sends her apologies. She was supposed to be here with me tonight. I was supposed to be here with my wife and all my kids. And we were driving up here and we got a flat tire and then we got it all changed and everything but the tire that we had to spare is this little tiny spare tire. We weren't able to drive the van up to Fresno on that little tire. So brother Oliver came and picked me up and brought me the rest of the way and my wife and kids had to go back home. So she wishes she could be here. She's planning on being here and we apologize for that. You know you have a good employee when they show up to pick you up and it's like hey you're spending the night in Fresno and he's like okay. And you know then he didn't know so we'll have to probably get him a shirt or something but I appreciate that. I'm glad that I've got my family here too. My parents are here, my siblings and nieces and nephews and all of that and a lot of you came up from Sacramento and I do need to apologize to those of you from Sacramento. I'm sorry. Alright you came up here to get a break from me and I follow you up here and you're stuck listening to me and I got two apologies because the sermon I'm preaching tonight I'm planning on preaching it in Sacramento. So I don't know if God just felt you really needed it or what but I apologize for that. We're there in Hebrews chapter number 12 and I am glad that you're here. I appreciate you being here. We're praying for you here in this location and we appreciate you and I appreciate those of you from Sacramento that are here. I noticed brother George is wearing a tie and I'll try not to be offended. You come to Fresno and put a tie on. I guess that's good. But Hebrews chapter 12, I want you to notice that in verse number 23 the Bible says this. Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 23. Can I drink this? Is this mine? Alright great. Thank you. If it is now alright and if it wasn't before hopefully whoever didn't have coronavirus but Hebrews chapter 12 verse 23 the Bible says this. To the general assembly and church of the firstborn which are written in heaven and to God the judge of all and to the spirit of just men made perfect. Of course this church is a newer church, a younger church. I think the next time I come will probably be for your one year in August. So I'm thankful for that and I'm glad for that and we're really happy with how things are going here in Fresno and the work that's being done and all the salvations. But you know when a church is young you want to give it a lot of training. You want to try to help people in a young church. And I want you to notice here that God has called us together to be church members that make up his church. And by the way this is God's will for your life today to be once you're saved God's will is that you would be put into the body of Christ. That you would get connected to a local church but for all of eternity you're going to be part of a church. And that's what we read there in verse 23 where it says to the general assembly and the church of the firstborn which are written in heaven. In heaven we're going to be gathered together as an assembly of called out believers. It's going to be a church. We're going to be experiencing church life for all of eternity. And you know God has a plan for you to be part of this local church here in Fresno. And God has a plan for church for believers in Sacramento to be part of a local church. But whenever you start a church you want to try to provide training. You know Paul said this but if I tell you long that thou mayest know how thou art is to behave thyself in the house of God which is the church of the living God the pillar and ground of truth. I think a couple of times ago when I was here I preached a sermon on how to get the most out of your family integrated church. We talked about being family integrated. Tonight I want to preach a sermon on the subject of how to be a great church member. How to be a great church member and I was sitting there during the singing and I was thinking about this as I'm watching these young guys lead the music. And I'm watching the men take the offering and everything was done very professionally and very orderly. Now think about the fact that I grew up, you know I'm a church kid. I grew up in church my whole life. I mean I was a Baptist before I was even saved. You know I just grew up in church. But when we start churches that's not the case for all of you. For all of you, for many of you, church is a new thing. We get you connected in church. So we've got to provide training to help you know how you are to act, what you are supposed to do. Like Paul said, how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God which is the church of the living God. And I believe that God is using this church and is going to continue to use this church to do great things for him of course and here in this location. But I want to help you to understand what does God expect from you as a church member. How can you be a great church member and of course I'd encourage you to take notes and you can write some of these statements down as we work through it. Number one tonight, I want you to notice that in order to be a great church member you ought to get involved in church. You ought to make the decision that you're going to get involved in church. And when we talk about getting involved, what does that mean? What does that look like? Well first of all you ought to get involved in the church services. You're there in Hebrews chapter 12. Flip back to Hebrews chapter 10 and look at verse number 24. Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 24, a very well known passage in regards to church attendance and being part of a church. Hebrews 10, 24 the Bible says this, and let us consider. You see that word consider there? The word consider means to think about. He says let us stop for a moment and think about a few things. He says let us consider one another. He says you know you ought to stop and consider one another. You ought to consider your fellow church member. He says let us stop and consider. He says let us consider one another. Why do we want to consider one another? Notice to provoke. The word provoke means to stimulate, to stir up, to provoke unto love and to good works. Then he says this in verse 25 and I want you to notice the context leading into verse 25 is that we should consider one another, to provoke one another unto love and good works. Verse 25, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the matter of some is, he says but exhorting. The word exhort means to strongly encourage, to urge. He says but exhorting one another and then he says and so much the more as you see the day approaching. See the main reason why you want to come to church is because coming to church benefits you. When you come to church you can be exhorted, you can be provoked by others. Others can come alongside you and help you and provoke you unto love and good works. So to be a good church member you ought to make this decision that you're just going to get involved. And the first place you need to get involved is in the church services. You ought to make a choice that you're going to be faithful and consistent to the church services. Because here's the thing, if you come to a church like this, you know and often times people will say this to me in Sacramento. I'm sure people say it to brother Jared here all the time. But you know people come to a church service on Sunday mornings for a while and I'll stand at the back door and greet people on the way out. Something that people are always saying to me and I always take this as a great compliment of course. But people will say something like this, they'll say man I'm learning so much. You know I've never learned so much of the Bible. I've gone to other churches. I've never learned so much of the Bible as I'm learning in this church you know on Sunday mornings. And I never say this of course because I'm not a rude person alright. But I always think to myself you know you'd learn more if you showed up on Sunday night. You know you'd learn more if you showed up on Wednesday night. I mean it's just math right. If you're learning so much coming one time a week, hey you can learn three times as much coming three times a week. And you say oh everybody's really friendly. You know I'm developed as a friendship. But you know that you would be more likely to develop friendships even not much faster if you showed up Sunday night. If you showed up Wednesday night. If you want to be part of a church and say I want to get involved in this thing. You know you ought to make a choice and I'll just kind of let you in on the secret. You know what is the secret of being a great church member. I want to be a great church member. Here's the secret. Make the decision to be in church. Make the decision to just say I remember when we were growing up we used to say it this way. We used to say whenever the church doors are open we're going to be there. If the church doors are open we're going to go. If it's Sunday morning, if it's Sunday night, if it's Wednesday night, if it's a special meeting or special conference or whatever it is. If it's available for us we're going to go. We're just going to be there. We're going to get involved in the services. You ought to get involved in the church services of the church. Go to the book of Philippians if you would. If you start in the book of Matthew you have Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1st, 2nd Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians. 1st, 2nd Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians. You know you ought to be consistent. You should just make the decision. You should just make the choice that to the best of my ability I'm not going to allow anything to stop me from going to church. The best church members make this choice that I'm not going to allow anything to stop me from going to church. The best church members make this choice that I'm not going to allow anything to stop me from going to church. Now obviously if God providentially stops you from going to church and if you get sick and you're so sick in bed, you're dying of coronavirus or whatever and you can't make it. We understand that. We get that. But don't be the type of person that just any little thing, just any little excuse, just a blown out tire on the freeway or whatever is going to keep you from getting to church. And look, in your life you ought to make it a habit of just being in church. And that's why I'm so thankful to see a lot of our families from Sacramento here because you know what? They don't have to come to Sacramento. When you're on vacation, I want our church families to go on vacation but you know what? When you go on vacation, go to church. Find a church in your area and go there. You know and just decide that I'm going to be the type of person who is going to be faithful to the church service. We ought to live our lives. We ought to live our lives in a way that if you don't show up to Sunday night church, people are worried like where's brother? I mean is he dead? You know, what happened? He's always here. And when he's not here, he calls and let's somebody know what's going on. You ought to be so faithful and so consistent. Sometimes people leave our church, Verity Baptist Church. They leave our church and they don't come to church for like 8 weeks and nobody notices. And then you hear about them and they're all upset. I didn't go to church for 8 weeks and nobody contacted me. But it's like it was a normal thing for you to not show up for 2 months. Like why would we notice that? You're the type of person, you know, going 6 weeks without being in church was a common occurrence in your life. You know, don't let that be you. Look, if you die in your apartment, you know, I hope brother Jared shows up on Monday, you know, like something happened to him. Something happened to that because they're always in church. You know, you got to live your life that consistently where you're just there. And here's what I'm telling you. If you allow the devil to give you an excuse to skip church, you know, whatever that excuse is, he's just going to put that excuse in front of you every week. You know, every week, whatever lame thing, you know, I woke up with a headache or whatever, you know, he's just going to make sure you have that every week. If you're looking for an excuse to skip church, you can find an excuse to skip church. But a great church member decides, I'm getting involved. And the first step is in the church services, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. But the second place that you got to get involved in church world is not just in the church services, you got to get involved in soul winning. Philippians chapter 1, are you there? Look at verse number 4. Philippians chapter 1 and verse 4, the Bible says this, See, one of the great things about soul winning, other than the fact that we get to go out and preach the gospel and get people saved. Look, do you realize that we get to work alongside God, that we can work with God to bring people to the saving knowledge of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ? I mean, that's a great reason to go, that's the main reason to go. But you know, a great reason to go soul winning is that when you go soul winning, you get to fellowship with other church members. You get to know other people, you get to go out there and serve the Lord together and get partnered and it's a great way to get to know people. For your fellowship, Paul said, of the gospel, your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. So a great church member is one who decides to get involved. You say, well how do I do that? Well you got to do it in the church, look it's not complicated. Just say Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. Three to thrive, I'm going to be there. Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, I'm going to be faithful, I'm going to be consistent, I'm going to go and I'm going to learn the Bible and I'm going to fellowship with other believers. They're going to exhort me, they're going to consider me, I'm going to exhort them, I'm going to consider them, I'm going to live my life in community with other believers. That's what God wants for you. Then you got to get involved in soul winning, reaching people with the gospel and fellowshipping with other believers. Look, there's a reason why military people who go out into war, you know, the band of brothers, the camaraderie there and the fellow. There's a reason why these men who go out, there's something about just going out to battle together that will connect you. Well you know spiritual is the same thing. There's something about going out in spiritual warfare and fighting the battles of the Lord and soul winning that will just get you, get your heart in it with other believers in the church. So you got to get involved not only in the church services, you got to get involved in soul winning. Thirdly, you got to get involved in the serving. Go to the book of Colossians chapter 4 if you would, you're there in Philippians, just flip over to the book of Colossians, Colossians chapter 4. And look at verse number 7, Philippians, Colossians, Colossians chapter 4. All my state shall Tychaeus declare unto you, who is a beloved brother and a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. I want you to notice that Paul referred to this man Tychaeus who was a faithful minister but he said he was a fellow servant. He was a fellow servant in the Lord. Look at verse number 11, verse number 11 the Bible says this, and Jesus which is called justice who are of the circumcision. This is not of course Jesus of Nazareth or Jesus Christ, this is a different Jesus who is called justice. But notice it says these only are my fellow workers unto the kingdom of God which have been comfort unto me. See a great church member is one who not only decides to be consistent with the church services, who not only gets involved in soul winning, but it's also someone who gets involved in the serving. Do you know that church world requires a lot of serving? There's a lot of work that needs to be done in church. And there's a lot of things that need to be accomplished. I mean there's song leading that needs to be done, there's offering that needs to be taken, there's audio and video, there's cleaning, there's cleaning, there's always cleaning. There's cleaning that can be done. Look there's all sorts of things that you can get involved in and if you want to know hey what's the secret to being a great church member, you get involved in serving and you'll be a great church member. You want your pastor to love you, you want your satellite leader to love you, you want your future pastor to love you. Get involved in serving and you'll become a great church member. You know our church in Sacramento in September will be 10 years old and in those 10 years the Lord has allowed us to of course plant our church in Sacramento. But we also planted a church in Vancouver, Washington. We've also planted a church in Boise, Idaho. We've also planted a church in Fresno, California. We've also planted a church in Manila, Philippines. We've also planted a church in Pampanga, Philippines. You know we've done a lot of church planting over the last 10 years. And I'll tell you something about church planting, it's this bittersweet thing. It's exciting to start churches and get new works going and get new works growing. But it's always bittersweet because the thing about church planting is this. You spend all your time developing you know some great church members and then you take your best church members and send them away. You know and you send them to Fresno to go start a church. And that's good for me because that means I always need to be developing good church members. Which is why we preach sermons like these. You say, why are you preaching a sermon like this? Because we want to develop you into the best church members that you can be so that you can help this church grow. And some of you, especially you young men, one day can get married and go do this somewhere else. And the way you say, how do I start a great church? By first being a great church member. And you know get involved in the church. I remember when we were sending the Pozarski family here. You know and I hope it's okay for me to say this. But you know in my flesh, you know obviously spiritually we love, we want to send them out. In my flesh I'm thinking to myself, good night, what are we going to do? I mean Brother Jared and Miss Heidi, I mean they did so much. I mean obviously we love them as friends and just for brothers and sisters of Christ. But I was thinking to myself like, I'm going to have to hire like six people just to fill in what Miss Heidi did as a volunteer. I mean Brother Jared can go but can Miss Heidi stay? You know it's like good night. You know what makes you a great church member is when you just decide, hey you know what I'm just going to serve. The Bible talks about getting addicted to the ministry. The Bible talks about serving the church. You got to get involved in service. You got to find somewhere. You know and you got to ask yourself and I'm not trying to make you feel guilty. But once you've been here for a while, you say I just showed up. Okay look, then just you worry about getting yourself to church Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. Alright, that's your goal. Once you've done that for a while, then you got to start asking yourself, what am I doing? And I'm not saying that you know just generically. I'm asking, you should ask yourself, what am I doing to serve in church? You say, oh I'm not very spiritual, I'm a new Christian. I don't think you have to be as spiritual to push a broom around. I don't think it requires a lot of discipleship to push a vacuum. You know to take out the trash. You got to ask yourself, what am I doing? And you got to get involved. You got to find somewhere where you can serve and get yourself involved. You got to be a fellow worker, why? Because look, it will help you. I don't know, I don't know why it is. I don't get what it is. But the Apostle Paul wrote in the book of Ephesians that God has given you pastors and teachers and prophets. He gave you these gifts of spiritual leadership for the perfecting of the saints. The word perfecting there means the maturing, the growing of the saints. And then he says this, for the work of the ministry. There is something about getting involved in the work of the ministry that grows you spiritually. So you got to get involved in the church services. You got to get involved in soul winning. You got to get involved in service. Lastly, you got to get involved in stewardship. Now keep your place there in Colossians. In fact, go to Colossians chapter 1. And while you go there, I'll just quote this to you. Matthew 6 21, the Bible says this, for where your treasure is, there where your heart be also. You know, you got to get financially invested in your local church. You got to get financially invested. You say what? Why? Because where your treasure is, there where your heart be also. You know, the way to get your heart in your local church is to get yourself financially invested in the church. And I'm not teaching on tithing and all that. But you got to be giving to your local church. Obviously it costs money to run a church. But that's not even the reason why you should give. You got to give because it will tie your heart to that ministry. So you got to get involved with the church. And if you say, well I don't know how to get involved. Well get involved in stewardship. Get involved in serving. Get involved in soul winning. Get involved in the church services. But just decide, I want to be a great church member. I mean, I don't know about you, but anything that I do, I want to be the best at it. I want to be good at it. You know, if I'm going to go get a job, I want to try to be the best of that job that I can be. And if I'm going to be part of a local church, then I want to be the best church member I can be. What does that mean? It means you got to show up to church. That means you got to show up to soul winning. That means you got to find somewhere to serve. That means you got to get yourself financially involved and invested in the stewardship of the church. So you got to get involved in the church. But I want to give you secondly tonight, when we talk about how to be a great church member, you got to get involved in church, point number one. Point number two is this, not only should you get involved in church, but I want to say this, you got to get on board with church. And I'll let you in on a little secret. You say, well what do you mean? I thought that was it. I mean, you know, that was an alliterated outline. I thought you were going to pray and we were going to have pizza now. Well, you know, the sermon's not over. Because you know what you'll find as a pastor? Is that you can find people who do all those things that I just talked about, faithful to all the church services, faithful to soul winning, faithful to serving, faithful in their stewardship, and they can still be a pain in your neck. There's more to being a church member than just those things. Now look, that's the start. How do I be a great church member? Get involved in church. If you're not involved in church, you're not even at first base, all right? That's where you need to start. But there's another aspect of being a great church member. One is that you get involved in church. Then there's another aspect, which is you get on board with church. So what do you mean by that? Well, let me give you an illustration here from the Bible. Colossians chapter 1, look at verse 18. Colossians 1, 18 kind of teaches us the purpose of church. Colossians 1, 18 says this, and he, that's Jesus, is the head of the body. Notice these words, the church. Who's the head of Verity Baptist Church here in Fresno? It's not Pastor Jimenez. It's not Brother Pazarski. It is the Lord Jesus Christ. Now you say, okay, well, Jesus is the head, but practically speaking, what does that look like or how does that mean? Well, here's the thing. Jesus is the word. I've got the word of God. So He is the head, but practically speaking, He runs His church through His word. Right? Brother Jared doesn't just get to get up and preach whatever he wants. Everything he preaches needs to come straight out of this King James Bible. Everything I preach and teach, everything we do needs to be filtered through the word of God. Because I'm not the head of the church. Jesus Christ is the head of the church through His word. So I've got to submit myself as a pastor to the word of God. The preachers have to submit themselves to the word of God. See, the local church is the pillar and ground of the truth. The Bible says, sanctify them through Thy truth. Thy word is truth. This is the pillar and ground of God's word. This is the pillar and ground of the Lord Jesus Christ. The local church, the purpose of the church is to uphold and to lift up the Lord Jesus Christ. When you see it that way, you understand verse 18. And He is the head of the body, the church. See, the body holds up the head, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. Notice, that in all things He, that's Jesus, might have the preeminence. See, the purpose of church is that in church, in all things, Jesus might have the preeminence. That Jesus might be glorified. The purpose of church is to push the agenda of the Lord Jesus Christ. Is to push the thoughts of the Lord Jesus Christ. Say, why do we go sowing Him? Because Jesus told us to go sowing Him. I mean He said, He said, go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, in law and with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. Hey, Jesus said that. Our job as a church is to lift up, is to make sure He has preeminence. So we just go and do what He tells us to do. Do you understand that? The purpose of the church is to uphold the agenda of Jesus Christ. By the way, when you think that way, when you realize that way, then you can filter everything in your church to say, does this bring glory to Jesus Christ? I mean sometimes you can have musicians come in and they play real nice. You can have singers come in and they sing real nice. You can have certain things come in. And if you start thinking, well man that sounds really nice and I think the crowd's really going to like it and I think people are going to like it if we let that music in. But see you're asking the wrong question. Because the question is not, will the crowd like it? The question is, will Jesus like it? Because the purpose of the church is that He might have the preeminence among them. That He might have the preeminence. In all things He might have the preeminence. We are here to push the agenda of the Lord Jesus Christ. Go to the book of 3 John chapter 1. 3 John chapter 1. You start at the end of the New Testament, book of Revelation, and you head back, you have the book of Jude, and then you have the book of 3 John, 3 John chapter 1. So what's the purpose of the church? That He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence. Here's what's interesting. Sometimes people show up to church and they decide that they want to have the preeminence. 3 John chapter 1, verse 9. I wrote unto the church. This is the church matter. This is John, the beloved, writing to the church, notice, but Diotrophes, notice these words, who loveth to have the preeminence among them. Now, wait a minute. The Bible says that He might have the preeminence, that He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence. But here we're told that John says, I wrote unto the church, but Diotrophes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. Notice here there's a guy in the church and he wants to have preeminence. He wants to push his agenda. He wants to do what, get the church to do what he wants to do. And look, I'm here to tell you, as a church member, what makes you a great church member? Number one, you ought to get involved in church. What does that mean? In the church services, in the soul winning, in the serving, in the stewardship. But number two, you ought to get on board with church. What does that mean? That you don't come to a church like this one and then try to have your, try to have the preeminence. We're going to do it my way. We're going to do it, this is how I think we should do it. Now wait a minute. We're here to uphold the Lord Jesus Christ. And you say okay, well practically speaking though, what does that look like? Well you know what, practically speaking it looks like we submit ourselves to the word of God. But practically speaking it means that we submit ourselves to the man of God. To the pastor, to the leadership. You say why? You say why? Because that's what Jesus ordained. Look, Jesus ordained pastoral leadership. Jesus ordained deacons and evangelists. Jesus ordained the leadership in the church. Look, He died for the church. He builds the church. He's the head of the church. And then He said I want to set up leadership in the church. So look, you say I want to get on Jesus' agenda. Then you better get on the pastor's agenda. And you better get on the satellite leader's agenda. Then you better get on the agenda of the spiritual leadership. Because that is, it's not enough to get involved. You also need to get on board. You got to get on board with the church. What does that mean? Well look, getting on the church's agenda means you do not push your own agenda. And by the way, let me just say this. This will help you at work too. Work isn't spiritual for some of you. You know, Brother Oliver's work isn't spiritual either but I'm kidding. His work is spiritual. But you know, you go to work, you say I'm just a mechanic. I'm just an electrician. I'm just whatever. But you know what, hey, let me give you some advice. Figure out what the boss's agenda is and get on that. Well if I ran the shop, well you don't run the shop. Well if I ran the crew, but you don't run the crew. But if I got to be the supervisor, but you're not the supervisor. You want to be a great employee? Look, just change the descriptions. You want to be a great employee? Figure out what the agenda of the boss is and get on that agenda. Whatever the boss wants, just get that done. Whatever, you want to be a great church member? Get on the church's agenda and do not push your agenda. Let me give you an example. Sometimes you preach these things and people are like, oh yeah, amen, I guess. I'm not sure what that means. Let me give you some practical examples. You know at our church, if you come to our church, you'll hear me every week, every week. I'll get up and I'll say, you know, we'd love for you to come to our soul winning. And I'll explain just like Brother Jared does. A soul winning is when we're gone in the community, we knock doors, we invite people to church. We preach the gospel to anyone who's interested. Our main soul winning time is on Saturday morning. And we'd love for you to join us on Saturday morning for soul winning. We have additional soul winning times on Thursdays at 2 p.m. and on Sunday at 2 p.m. The reason we announced it that way is because my agenda as a pastor of Verity Baptist Church is to get as many of our soul winners to show up on Saturday morning. Because I believe that Saturday morning soul winning is the best and most effective and most productive soul winning that you can do. Now I'm not against other soul winning. And we have soul winning on Sundays and we have soul winning on Thursdays. We have soul winning on other things. And in different areas and in different places, it works differently. I understand that. I'm just telling you in Sacramento, I have found that if we can get soul winners out on Saturday morning, they will not only get people saved, but they will also get visitors in church the next day. So we push soul. You say, well, why do you have Sunday soul winning? Well, we have Sunday soul winning because we also have a lot of commuters that come in. And we don't want to ask them to drive three hours to Saturday soul winning and then, you know, three hours to church on Sunday. So for our commuters, it's easier for them to come, be there for the Sunday morning, be there during the afternoon soul winning, be there for evening. They just make one big day of it. We understand that we have other people who just want to do more soul winning. They go on Saturday and Sunday. Some people work on Saturday, so they go on Sunday. We understand that there are reasons why you couldn't go on Saturday. But if you have a choice, if you have a choice, the agenda I'm pushing is that you show up for Saturday soul winning. I'm not saying here in Fresno, I'm saying in Sacramento. In Fresno, figure out whatever Brother Jared wants and do that. I'm just telling you this. If somebody said, hey, I could come on Saturday or on Sunday, I would say come on Saturday because then you're more likely to have a visitor in church and we're trying to push the agenda of Jesus Christ, which is to get people saved and get people baptized and help them observe all things, whatever I've commanded you. And since we're trying to push His agenda, then let's do it the way that will get His agenda done the best. So we push Saturday soul winning. There's a reason why we have, you know, just last Saturday, we had 72 soul winners on Saturday morning. This afternoon, I'm sure we had 20, 25, 30 soul winners on Sunday. On Thursday, we had 15 soul winners or whatever, 10, 15 soul winners. On Thursday, there's a reason why we have the vast majority of our soul winners on Saturday because that's how we push it. And when I say we push it that way, I'm not saying we force anybody, but that's how I encourage people, that's what I tell people, that's what I push. A couple of years ago, we had a couple that came to our church. They don't come to our church anymore. This was a couple that was a pain in our neck. I'll just be frank with you. They were a pain in our neck. They were involved in the services and the soul winning and the serving and the stewardship, but they just could not get on board with the agenda. They went on this campaign where they tried to get everyone who went soul winning on Saturday to stop going soul winning on Saturday and to start going on Sunday. And they were literally just wound up to people saying, you know, what we found is that Saturday is a great day for the family and Saturday is this and Saturday is that. You got to take the whole day Saturday. And you say, oh, you're being nit-picky. Here's what I'm telling you. Just figure out what the pastor wants and do that. If you can't go on Saturday, you can't go on Saturday. But here's the point that I'm making. Get on the church's agenda. Do not push your agenda. And when your agenda conflicts the church's agenda, then don't make a big deal about it. Do you understand what I just said? If you got 80 soul winners showing up on Saturday and you want to have a family day, then go have your family day, but why do you have to try to get everybody on your agenda? Why don't you just let everybody do whatever they're doing, let the pastor do whatever he's doing and get on board. See, a great church member gets on board with the church's agenda when they can and they do not push their own agenda. And when your agenda does not match the church's agenda, you know what a great church member does? They just don't make a big deal about it. They don't try to fight the pastor. They don't try to fight the satellite leader. They don't try to get everybody, no, let's do this instead. They just get on board with whatever the church is doing. I remember when my wife and I, we went to an old IFB church before I was a pastor. And in this church, we tried to be the best church members. I mean Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, we were there. This whole morning we were there. We served in different capacities and we gave. We just tried to be the best church members we could be as an old IFB church, not a new IFB church that didn't have the doctrines and beliefs that we have as new IFB, but it was the best church in our area and we just got involved. I remember the first year we were there, they announced football Sunday, you know, Super Bowl football Sunday. And it was the Sunday, and look, as a pastor I get it. You know, I wish they'd play that stupid game on Saturday. I wish they'd play that stupid game on Monday and people skip church, people skip work instead of church. You know, but you have the Super Bowl every Sunday and they were trying to get people to not skip church. So they had this idea of Super Bowl Sunday and what they were pushing was that on, you know, instead of skipping church on Sunday to watch the Super Bowl, what they were going to do is they were going to have this football Sunday. They were going to record the Super Bowl. They told everybody don't watch it. You know, we're going to record it. Then you come to church on Sunday night and then you come in your team's, in your favorite team's jersey, you know, the 49ers, the Raiders, the whatever. You come in your jersey, we're going to have a church service and then afterwards we're going to have popcorn, we're going to put the screen down and we're all going to watch the Super Bowl together at the end. Now let me tell you something. I don't agree with that. I don't like that idea. I hate professional sports. I like playing football. I don't like watching football. And don't sit there and try to convince me, okay, you got a bunch of naked, half-naked cheerleaders running around in those football games. There's nothing in a football game that a Christian man should be watching. I'm against it. You know, but here's the thing. We were at this church and that's what they were pushing. That's what they were doing. And I didn't want any part of it. My wife didn't want any part of it. So you say, Pastor, what did you do? Well, I mean, we did what every good Christian would do. We went on a Facebook campaign and started ripping the pastor apart and split the church, right? Because that's what a good Christian does. No, you know what? My wife and I just thought about it. We prayed about it. And we thought, you know, there's a couple of things we could do. We could not show up to church that night, but we don't want to do that because we go to church. When the doors are open, we go to church. We could just show up in our regular clothes and that's probably what we were going to do, show up in our regular clothes. But then that would be real obvious that we just weren't involved in what we were doing. Then my wife, a precious, you know, intelligent Christian, she got this idea and she said, how about this? Because they want you to bring your jerseys and they were going to have a little contest about the best jerseys or whatever. My wife got this idea. She went out and bought the material and she sewed up some football jerseys. She actually made some jerseys and she got some stencil, I don't know what it is, some stuff you iron on and so on or whatever. And she made these Team Jimenez jerseys for me and for her and for our kids. And they had our names on the back and it was Team Jimenez. You know what? And everybody loved it. Like, oh, you got the best team and everybody was happy, whatever. You know what? We got to be involved without sinning against our conscience. And at the end of the service, when they brought out the popcorn and the screen came down, we just kind of, you know, drifted out the back door and went home. And here's what I'm telling you. Here's what I'm telling you. You know what a good church member does? They get on board wherever they can and then they don't make a big deal about it when they can't. They don't sit there and try to make, you know. Now, when we started Verity Baptist Church, did I have football Sunday? No, when we started Verity Baptist Church, I started preaching against a stinking Super Bowl and tell people that they need to get right with God and show up to church instead of watching a stupid football game. That's my position. But you know what? As a church member, I didn't sit there and rip the pastor apart. We got on board where we could get on board. And where we could not get on board, we just, we did our best. We did our best to support our church. See, you know what a great church member does? They get involved in church, but you know what else they do? They get on board with church. They're trying to hurt their church. You get on the church's agenda and you don't push your other agendas. You don't make a big deal about when you can't get on board. You know, at that church, my wife and I, we never went to Sunday school. Never showed up to Sunday school. Because we didn't want, they were real strict about Sunday school and they were like these, you know, nursery Nazis. They would not allow you to have the kids and, you know, this and that or whatever. So we never showed up to Sunday school. And there was times when things would happen at Sunday school and people would talk. You know when people walked up to us and said, oh man, the funniest thing happened at Sunday school. And they were telling, you know, we didn't sit there like, well, we weren't there because, you know, we take a stand against Sunday school, let me tell you. You know, people said something about Sunday school. Well, that's great. And we just, people didn't even notice we weren't there. Here's what I'm telling you, you know what a great church member does? They get on board. They just figure out, what is the church pushing? And where you can get on board, you get on board and in the areas that you can't push what the church is doing, you know what a great church member does? They don't make a big deal about it. They don't make a big fuss about it. They don't make a big, you know, uproar about it. They figure out what they can do without sinning against their conscience and they just get on board. Let me give you a third one tonight. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 1 if you would. 1 Corinthians chapter 1, you have Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians. We're talking about how to be a great church member. Number 1, you ought to get involved in church. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Number 1, you ought to get involved in church. Number 2, you ought to get on board in church. And number 3, you ought to get along in church. 1 Corinthians 1, look at verse number 11. 1 Corinthians 1, 11, the Bible says this, For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. You know, the truth is this. What I've learned over the last 10 years of ministry is this, that we cannot spend as much time as we spend together without there being conflict from time to time. And you understand that? I can't ask people, and I do ask people. But I can't ask people to show up to church Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, to show up to soul winning, to show up to Red Hot Preaching Conference, which we hope you'll come to, on Thursday night and Friday morning and Friday night to show up to this event, to show up to that event, to show up to this picnic, to show up to that. Look, we can't ask people to show up to as many things as we ask people to show up to and not expect that from time to time there's going to be conflict. You know, from time to time, people are going to rub you the wrong way and they're going to do things to offend you and you're going to do things to offend them. That's just life. It's the truth of life. You cannot say, I'm going to go to church and just get along with everybody. Look, I'm the pastor of the church and I don't like everybody. I'm not going to tell you who I don't like, okay? You know, for the right price, but anyway. And look, I'm the pastor of the church and some people don't like me. Now I don't understand that, but you know, it's true. So the point is this, we cannot spend as much time as we spend together and not have conflict and not be contentions. You say, well, how do we deal with that? What do we do about that? Go to Romans chapter 12. Keep your place there in 1 Corinthians. We're going to come back to it and go backwards to the book of Romans right before 1 Corinthians where there's a couple of things that you should do. The first thing is the best thing you can do. It's also the hardest thing you can do and this is not something that can be done about everything, but it can be done probably about most things. And it's this, to just be the bigger person. Just decide, you know what, I'm going to be the bigger person, I'm going to be the more mature person. What does it mean to be the bigger person? It means this, to be the opposite of petty. Romans chapter 12, look at verse 9. Notice what the Bible says. Let love be without dissimulation. Let love be without dissimulation. The word dissimulation means the concealment of one's true thoughts or feelings. The Bible says you should not feign yourself to love someone when you don't. You say, oh yeah, well I don't, I let them know. No, that's not what it's saying either. It's saying you need to figure out how to make sure that you actually love everyone in church. You should try to love everybody. He says, let love be without dissimulation. Abhort that which is evil, cleave to that which is good. Notice verse 10, be kindly affection one to another with brotherly love. And then notice these words, in honor, preferring one another. The word prefer means to promote or advance the other. See the best thing that you could do is just to decide, I'm going to be the bigger person. And in honor, I'm going to prefer one another. I'm going to be kindly affection one to another with brotherly love in honor, preferring one another. Go to Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2. Look at verse 3, you're there in Romans? We'll go 1 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians. Philippians chapter 2, my kids are starting a new curriculum. My wife's doing a new curriculum for our kids this year when they start back up after the summer. And there's all these books that they're supposed to read and I was looking through the list. My wife was looking through the list and we thought it was super interesting, some of these books. And we said, you know, we're going to read through some of these ourselves. I started reading through one of them called The Life of George Washington. It was really interesting because it talks about how George Washington, when he was a very young man, I mean a kid, a teenager, and they don't know where he got this list from, if he made it himself or if he got it from someone. But he made this list of like, I think it was 120 rules that he had for himself. I mean that's a great thing for young people to do. Sit down and say, you know, here's 100 rules for myself, 120 rules for myself. It's really interesting, the 120 things that George Washington had as rules for himself. So I've been trying to apply some of them to me, to my life. One of them was this, always be the first to say hello. Always be the first to say hello. It's one of the rules he had for himself. I walk the dog every day. That's my prayer time. I take the dog out and I'll walk the dog for about 30, 40 minutes and I'll pray during that time. That'll be the major part of my prayer time during the day as I walk the dog. And as I walk the dog, I'm praying so I'm sometimes distracted and, you know, I walk by someone and someone will say hello and I'll be like, ah man, I failed again. I'm supposed to be the first to say hello, you know. But George Washington talked about always be the first to say hello. One of his rules was this, never criticize someone when they're not there. Never criticize someone when they're not there. He said if you have a problem with someone, then you should take it to them, but if they're not there, you shouldn't criticize them. And the Bible teaches these things. Philippians 2, look at verse 3, let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, notice these words, let each esteem other better than themselves. He says let each esteem other better than themselves. And look, let me tell you something. Church life would change, your work environment would change, your marriage would change if everyone involved said, I'm going to esteem other better than myself. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. Verse 4, look not every man to his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Now what does that mean? Look not every man on his own things. It means this, don't be concerned for your own interests. He says don't be concerned for your own interests, but be concerned in the interests of others. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. He says you ought to esteem other better than yourself. You ought to be preferring one another. Put aside in this relationship, if someone has to lose and someone has to win, then I will choose to lose so that you can win. He says that's how you ought to live your life and that's how you can be the bigger person. Now look, this doesn't come without some heartache. Go to the book of Matthew if you would, Matthew chapter 5. Because being of the bigger person can be difficult at times. Being the bigger person can be difficult at times. We had a lady one time coming to our church and she had all these weird beliefs. She was that person that didn't want to get on board with church. She wanted to get us on board with all her weird beliefs. And she would submit these prayer requests. We do this thing in our church where on the communication card you write in a prayer request and then you mark whether it's private or it's public and I always tell people if it's private then only I will see it if it's public. She would submit these prayer requests and they were always private. And it was that the eyes of the pastor would be opened. You know it's really hard when somebody submits a prayer request that the eyes of the pastor would be opened. That the pastor's eyes would be opened to the foolishness of all these stupid garbage. And then you have to shake their hand and say, Oh God bless you, have a good day. It was nice to see you. You say, what do you do? Well you just say, you know what, I'm going to esteem others better than myself. It's an honor preferring one another. You know sometimes people are jerks. It's true. Sometimes people rub you the wrong way. Sometimes people do things just rude. You know it's like, I've been pastor of the church for 10 years now. We've been doing these certain things for 10 years. You just showed up last week. You want us to change everything we're doing. And you're going to submit a prayer request. Private that the pastor's going to see, you know, that the eyes of the pastor would be opened. These foolish doctrines that he's pushing, you know. What do you do? Well you look not every man on his own things, but every man on things of others. You choose to be the bigger person. Now look, when you become the bigger person, when you choose to be the bigger person. I'm not always done, you know, right in this. And I've failed from time to time. But what does it mean? Well it means that the bigger person turns the other cheek. Go to Matthew 5, look at verse 38. Ye have heard that it had been said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say unto you, that ye resist not evil. But whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go at mile, go with him twain. See the Bible says, look, if someone smites you, he says, but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. I don't know about you, but somebody's smacking you on the face, I think one of the rudest things that you could do. And see here's the thing, when someone smacks you in the face, your reaction, your reflect to that is, I'm going to smack you back. But you know what Jesus says? Jesus says turn the other cheek. See the bigger person will turn, you know what that means? You take the hurt and you don't return it. You take the hurt and you don't return it. See the bigger person turns the other cheek. Let me give you another example, go to 1 Corinthians 6. If you go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 6, the bigger person suffers himself to be defrauded. 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 6, 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 6, the Bible says this, But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers. He's talking about the fact that Christian brethren are taking each other to court, they're suing each other over money. Because now therefore there is utterly a fault among you. Because you go to law one with another, he says why do you not rather take wrong? Why do you not rather suffer yourself to be defrauded? He says look, maybe he did try to rip you off, maybe she did try to rip you off, maybe they did try to steal from you, maybe they did try to offend you. Why don't you suffer? The word suffer means allow yourself to be defrauded. Because nay ye do wrong and defraud, and that your brethren. Look I can tell you over the years of early Baptist church, there have been times in our church, I can tell you of a time in our church when two people were fighting about money. Two of our church people went into some sort of business thing together and that's not always the best thing either. They go into some business thing together and it was a couple hundred dollars that they were in a disagreement about and they were fighting with each other. Literally, you know how I got results? I took two hundred dollars out of my personal account and I said here, I don't want to hear about this anymore. And you say why would you have, you know the Bible says that you ought to suffer yourself to be defrauded. The Bible says that you ought to, you know if they spite you on the cheek, if they sue you for your coke, give them your cloak also. He says whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with them twain. See the bigger person turns the other cheek. The bigger person suffers themselves to be defrauded. The bigger person will be preferring one another and esteem other better themselves. Go back to the book of Matthew, Matthew chapter 18. You ought to try to get along in church. You can't imagine that we're going to spend as much time as we spend together and that there's not going to be any conflict. So what do you do? Well the best thing and the hardest thing and not always the possible thing is to be the bigger person. But I'll just be honest with you, that's not always possible. Sometimes things cannot get resolved by someone just being the bigger person. It's just not possible. It's just too, it's too serious, it's too hard. You know that thing that burdens me, one of the things that burdens my wife and really bothers us is when people feel uncomfortable coming to church. You know because of how they're being treated. And I've had situations where my wife and I were being targeted by certain individuals and they're just being really mean to us and doing things. And you know if you're targeting us it's like no big deal. But they start targeting other people in church and making them feel uncomfortable and it's like no this is not going to, we're not going to play this game. You know we don't, we don't, we don't want, you look if there's one place you ought to be able to go and feel comfortable you know. It's not Cheers okay. It's not the bar you know. Somewhere you ought to go where everybody knows your name. I ought to be the local New Testament church. I ought to be the house of God. Somewhere you can go where people love you and care for you and you feel accepted and you feel comfortable. I ought to be the local New Testament church. So when that doesn't happen that's a big deal. You shouldn't have to feel uncomfortable going to church. You shouldn't have to feel like you're being targeted at church. Well how do you deal with that? Well you know the Bible tells us how to deal with it. Matthew chapter 18 look at verse 15. Matthew chapter 18 and verse 15. The Bible says this, moreover if thy brothers shall trespass against thee. What does that mean? That means that they hurt you. That they did something against you. That they sinned against you. And by the way let me just say this because people always try to bring up Matthew 18. Sometimes when you kick people out of church it's not a Matthew 18 thing. First Corinthians 6 and there's certain things in the Bible when you cross that line you're out. If you're a reprobate we're not going to go through the Matthew 18 process. We're just going to throw you out. You say well when does Matthew 18 apply? It applies when somebody offends you. When somebody hurts you. He says moreover if thy brothers shall trespass against thee. Notice there's a three step process here. He says go and tell the entire church's fault. Is that what it says? Go and just post it on social media and let everybody know. Is that what it says? Look you can go on social media right now and find all sorts of drama. Of local New Testament churches upset with things that are happening. Is that what the Bible says? Moreover if thy brothers shall trespass against thee. Go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone. That's what the Bible says. If he shall hear thee. And by the way this is the purpose. If he shall hear thee thou is gain thy brother. The purpose is you don't go to them because you want to just start a fight. You go because you want to try to make things right. Thou is gain thy brother. But if he will not hear thee then take with thee one or two more than in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And you know what let me just say this. By the time you get to step two you better be involving church leadership. You know you better be involving brother Jared before you start gathering up your two witnesses or whatever and let them know what's going on. But this is what the Bible says. If somebody offends you to the point where you say no it's too much, it's too big, it's too long, it's too bad. Then how do you deal with it and you go to them alone and you try to resolve it. And if that doesn't work then you bring one or two more. Then in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. Look at verse 17. This is how serious God takes it. And if he shall neglect to hear them tell it unto the church. But if he neglect to hear the church let him be unto thee as a heathen and a publican. God cares about unresolved matters in church so much that he says if it can't be resolved then someone ends up getting thrown out. So look you say I got a problem with someone or you know I've got an issue. Well look if you can then just esteem others better than yourself. Suffer yourself to be defrauded. But if you say it's too big and look I'm here to tell you there are some issues that are too big. There are some things that it's not something you just suffer yourself to be defrauded. It's wrong and needs to be dealt with. It's not okay what they're doing and how they're treating you. But then the Bible tells you what to do. You go and tell them it's a fault between thee and him alone. You don't go be a gossip and tell everybody else. Here's what our flesh wants to do. We want to tell everybody except the person we have a problem with. But God says no you go to them and you try to solve it and if that doesn't work then you bring one or two more with you. And if that doesn't work then you tell it to the church and if that doesn't work if they neglect to hear the church then you make them a heathen and a publican. Go to first Corinthians chapter one. First Corinthians chapter one. See you're not supposed to. You're not supposed to dislike coming to church. A lot of times what people do is in situations like this they just they don't deal with it and look I'm here to tell you. You know what a great church member does? They try to deal with their problems. And I'm not just saying oh so I just let it go. No if it's a big deal then God Jesus actually look if you have a red letter edition Bible I don't even notice Matthew 18, 15, 16, 17 it's in red letters. This is what Jesus said. Jesus said here's how you deal with it. Here's how you deal with it. First Corinthians chapter three and verse one the Bible says this. First Corinthians three and verse one. And I brethren could not speak unto you as unto spiritual but as unto carnal even as unto babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with meat for hitherto you were not able to bear it neither yet now are ye able. Notice verse three. For ye are yet carnal for whereas there is among you envying and strive and divisions are ye not carnal and walk as men. For while one sayeth I am of Paul and another I am of Paul is are ye not carnal? Now I want you to notice that the Apostle Paul he's connecting these two thoughts. He says this in verse one. He says I could not speak unto you as unto spiritual but as unto carnal. Why are they carnal? Because they're babes in Christ. And then in verse three he says because you're a babe in Christ because you're carnal he says for ye are yet carnal for whereas there is among you envying and strive and divisions. Let me explain something to you. If you and I are going to go out in this community and reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ and bring in new Christians into this church. Then you know what? In our church we're going to have strife and divisions and envying. You say why? Because that's what carnal people do. So you say well what do we do about it? Then we try to preach sermons to try to help carnal people become spiritual people. And ye that are spiritual we want you to help us. Don't be surprised when new Christians, when worldly Christians act like worldly people. That's what they do. We want to help them grow. You know what I've learned over the years of ministry is this that spiritual people will take a big deal and they'll make it small. Spiritual people will take a big problem. Sometimes there's a big, I catch wind of a big problem and I think I got to step into this. I can't just let this be. And I walk in on that and say hey you know what I'm sorry about this. I just heard about this. I can't believe that that happened and whatever. Spiritual people they'll say you know what pastors no big deal. It's no problem. They'll take something that's big and they'll make it small. You know what carnal people do? They'll take something that's small and they'll make it big. I mean it's no big deal and they'll say I'm leaving the church. I'm splitting the church. I'm going to spend the rest of my days making YouTube videos about you. They'll take something small and make it big. Spiritual people will take something big and make it small. See you don't want to know how to be a great church member. You got to get involved. Sunday mornings, Sunday night, Wednesday night, soul winning, serving, giving. You need to get on board. Figure out what you can do. Figure out what the church is doing and get in that direction. And in the areas that you can't get on board then don't make a big deal. And if you can't get on board with anything then you need to just go find another church. Do you understand that? Obviously you're never going to agree with any church 100%. Do you understand that? I don't agree with the church 100%. I'm the pastor. Somebody said if you get three Baptists together you'll get four opinions. There's always going to be different thoughts and different ideas that people think but you have to figure out where can I get on board and just get on board. And where you can't get on board just try to be spiritual. Don't make a big deal out of something small. Super Bowl Sunday, I'm not going to make a big deal about that. I'm going to figure out a way to get on board and do what I got to do. And you got to get along in church. What that means is that sometimes you need to just be the bigger person and suffer yourself to be defrauded and turn the other cheek. And sometimes it means the mature person in a bad situation is the one that says, no you know what, we can't live like this. I can't live like this. My family can't live like this. And they're going to address it in a mature way to the individual that they have a problem with. They're going to go to them and try to fix it. And if they can't be fixed then they're going to bring two witnesses. And if that can't be fixed they're going to involve the whole church. And they're going to do it the way that the Bible said to do because God has given us a format. So you got to get along. You got to get on board. And you got to get involved in your local New Testament church.