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two and in juice then we pray amen men okay we're in first corinthians chapter number 12 this morning and the title of my sermon this morning is church membership church membership look down at your bibles at first corinthians 12 verse 12 it says for us the body is one and as many members and all the members of that one body being many are one body so also is christ for by one spirit are we all baptized into one body whether we be jews or gentiles whether we be bond or free and have been all made to drink into one spirit now this morning i'm going to talk about the subject of church membership and what it actually means what is church membership according to the bible and you know this concept of membership is actually can be found in the word of god it's found here in first corinthians chapter 12 and carries with it the idea that the church should operate somewhat like an actual body and in fact the bible talks about the body of christ and so when someone gets saved they're obviously immediately put in christ but that person has to decide to join themselves to or assemble themselves together to a congregation and what i'm referring to is a church and you know the bible uses congregation and church interchangeably in fact psalm 22 talks about i will praise thee in the midst of the congregation and then in hebrew chapter 2 it says i will praise thee in the midst of the church using church and congregation interchangeably and essentially implying that a church is a group of people that congregate together for a common cause for a common purpose that is what a church should do and as i mentioned it often carries with it this idea that it operates somewhat like a body for example you know you have the hands and the bible talks about that we ought to put our hands to the plow right to labor for the kingdom of god in other words the church should be characterized by labor okay you know a lot of times churches just kind of meet together it's kind of like a social club but they don't really get any work done and the bible specifically tells us that we should maintain good works that we should be characterized by labor and in fact when you study all the seven churches which are addressed in uh revelation chapter two in revelation chapter three you see that one of the main things that he keeps addressing is their labor their work and their labor and so the hands signify the fact that a church should be working not only that but you know a body has feet i don't know if you knew that okay and the feet are supposed to go out and what preach the gospel get people saved evangelize okay you a body has eyes okay and the bible jesus christ and the word of god in the new testament constantly emphasize the importance of being vigilant watching thereunto with prayer and making sure that we have our eyes enlightened by god's word and that we are essentially proving all things holding fast that which is good and not you know have a spirit of slumber so to speak okay how about this you know the the church or a body excuse me has a mouth right and the apostle paul said that uh that prayer should be made for him that he would open his mouth boldly to make known the mysteries of the gospel and a church should be characterized by what by preaching god's word right by proclaiming the word of god not just the gospel but how about preaching the entire council of god right you know i find it funny when people say oh man you you're causing division with your preaching just preach the gospel just preach the gospel but hold on a second the bible commands me to preach the entire word of god so you're trying to tell me that god gave us 66 books but he only wants us to preach the gospel i mean folks there's so much content in the word of god the bible tells us that we are to preach the word be instant in season out of season reprove rebuke exhort with all long suffering and listen to this and doctrine in other words that we have to teach the bible teach everything about the word of god and here's the thing we can't be a church that constantly preaches the gospel indoors because the vast majority of people in here are saved that's why we dedicate time after church miss angela i don't know if you want to take her out just for a little bit you know that's why we dedicate a certain amount of time after church where people can get together and actually preach the gospel and evangelize and do that but in here we ought to be teaching the bible okay to mature people in the word of god to help them to understand the word of god etcetera you know the bible also says that about you know a body also has ears okay and the bible tells us that we ought to be swift to hear slow to speak in other words that one of the main reasons why we come to church as i mentioned a fourth time is to hear the word of god you know faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of god god wants us to understand and open our ears and in fact you know the spirit saith unto the church is he that hath an ear let him hear right to understand and hear and receive god's word and so you know a church is essentially operating like a body and the bible talks about the body of christ now hold your place there in first corinthians chapter 12 and turn with me if you would to colossians chapter number one we're going to look at a lot of scripture this morning go to colossians chapter number one i'm going to read you from ephesians chapter number five you're in colossians chapter one ephesians chapter 5 verse 22 says this wives submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the lord that's a lot of husbands life verse amen it says here for the husband is the head of the wife listen to this even as christ is the head of the church and he is the savior of the body so the bible makes this comparison here and tells us that the husband is the authority of the wife and it says even as christ is the authority of the church right now let me ask you something is a husband the head of every wife no right he's the head of his own wife okay he's in charge of his own wife he has authority over his own wife and so the the parallels that we see here the comparison that the bible is making here is that just as a husband is the authority or the head of his of his individual wife in like manner jesus christ is the head of individual churches okay and so point number one here regarding church membership is that the body is nothing without the head right now who's the head jesus christ you say well that's pretty obvious though you're you're you're stating the obvious yeah but you'd be surprised how many churches out there have just completely removed christ right you say well how so you know i see i know churches out there that name the name of christ but hold on a second but what about the commandments of christ though you know the bible tells us if you love me keep my commandments and that you'd be surprised how many churches out there will name the name of christ but they teach a false gospel will name the name of christ but they teach a bunch of false doctrine they name the name of christ but hold on a second they teach everything contrary to what jesus christ taught that's essentially removing the head from your church and you go to that person you go to that church you go to that pastor you show them what the word of god says and they're like oh no but this is how we've always done it okay then just simply say that you remove the head you're a decapitated church is what you are because you remove the ultimate authority from your congregation let me give you some examples you know lutherans methodists you know uh uh many protestants for example have essentially removed the head from their congregation because they no longer teach what the bible says okay and we want to keep the head of our church as being jesus christ look at what it says in verse 16 of colossians chapter 1 for by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth visible and invisible whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers all things were created by him and for him and he is before all things and by him all things consist verse 18 and he is the head of the body the church who is the beginning the firstborn from the dead then in all things he might have the preeminence so the bible is telling us that jesus christ is the ultimate authority in a church right right well you know the catholic church doesn't believe that they have the pope as their ultimate authority and even above that you know they have uh mary as their ultimate authority you know she's like the head of the church there and you know people in order to go to jesus christ you have to go to mary and pray to mary and pray to the saints folks that is wrong that's false the head of every church should be jesus christ and his teachings and what he said you know our church is a baptist church and uh the reason we call ourselves a baptist church is because number one you know baptists are typically the most closest to the bible okay if you you know obviously you have baptists out there that are kind of off on a lot of things but in general baptists stick to the word of god they believe the bible they teach the word of god in practice in faith and but another reason why is because we baptize our converts we fully immerse them in water right just like john the baptist did and you know at our church we continuously baptize people because people are always getting saved and we continuously baptize them but you know i get a lot of comments for example online you know because we post our baptisms and you know this is how i baptize i baptize you in the name of the father of the son of the holy spirit buried in the life of his death raised to walk in the news of life and i will constantly get people to tell me why are you baptizing in the name of the father and of the son of the holy spirit you should be baptizing in the name of jesus you know because they're quoting the book of acts so their template to church ministry or how you should baptize is the book of acts but what people seem to forget is that the book of acts is a historical book that records listen to this the actions of the apostles and i always respond by saying so i guess we should just ignore what jesus said in matthew 28 verses 19 to 20 when he said go ye therefore 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've commanded you and lo i'm with you always even until the end of the world amen we should just completely remove those verses from the bible because they keep saying you're doing it wrong no i'm doing it the way jesus said to do it right you know stop trying to remove our head from our church right yeah but peter did this well first of all i believe peter and all the apostles baptized exactly the way jesus told them to baptize what the book of acts is doing is simply giving you a synopsis of what they've done okay you know the bible is not always just going to clearly tell you exactly what people said exactly what people did often it just gives you a concise version especially in books such as the book of acts of what was done when the bible says that souls were added into the church daily you know it's basically referring to the fact that people got saved it's not going to tell you every single time this person got saved this person got saved right if it says that they were added if it says that they received the word of god with all readiness of mind if it says that they received the word of god and were baptized we automatically assume based upon the general teaching that they got saved that they believed on the lord jesus christ you understand no it says that they got baptized in the name of jesus they got baptized with the authority of christ yes that's what that means it doesn't mean that they baptize them you know because what they're referring to is this pentecostal movement which is called oneness modalism that rejects the eternal sonship of jesus christ and says that when you baptize someone you should baptize them in the name of the father and the son of the holy spirit and that name is jesus no wrong yeah you know you don't see anybody baptizing in the bible in that manner okay and so you know we're going to stick to what jesus said and you know what we're also going to assume correctly that all the apostles and everybody who baptized in the bible did it the way jesus did because the bible is not a divided book it's not like people are just doing their own thing in the bible and god's just approving of it okay but the point that i'm making is that a body a local body of believers has jesus christ as its head he is the preeminent one we're not just going to reject anything that he says we're not just going to you know bypass his commandments we're not just going to ignore what he says we want to do things the way he told us to do it amen yeah and in fact you know here's the thing folks is that when you choose not to do things the way jesus told you to do it according to the bible he can actually remove your candlestick what the bible refers to as a candlestick essentially referring to you being a legitimate church go to revelation chapter two if you would revelation chapter two now you say what do you mean you know there's all kinds of churches out there to call themselves a church folks people could call themselves whatever they want i mean you got dudes out here calling themselves women doesn't mean it's true yeah you got women call you got people calling themselves a cat you can call yourself whatever object you want doesn't make it true and you know in like manner you can call yourself a church you can say you believe on jesus christ but if it doesn't match up with what the bible says it's not true you can repeat it all day long doesn't make it so and in fact there's certain things that a church can do that can revoke their privilege of being a church look at revelation 2 verse 5 of course this is the church at Ephesus that's being addressed by jesus christ himself they were essentially a church that had forsaken the first love referring to the fact that they no longer love souls you know a church's main objective should be aside from everything that the bible teaches us one of the main objectives is to reach people for christ to get people saved you know we should have a tender heart for the loss that we want to get them saved because we don't want people to go to hell that is the heart of god so when a church becomes apathetic towards evangelism towards soul winning they no longer want to get people saved you know essentially that church is dying look what it says in verse 5 remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works referring to soul winning or else i will come into thee quickly and i will remove thy candlestick out of its place except thou repent he's telling them i'm going to remove your privilege of being a church you're no longer a church if you no longer preach the gospel and get people saved and soul winning is not a major factor in your church you're removed okay well i don't really believe that well then you got to ask yourself is christ your head because the head here is saying that if you don't do that then your candlestick is removed okay now another thing i want to point out regarding this point here of jesus christ being the head is that this actually debunks listen to this this actually debunks the universal invisible church doctrine okay that's often taught by catholics protestants and even some baptists okay you say what is the universal church well often when pastors preach and they talk about churches or a church they'll often say the church okay and what they're referring to is that they think that every person who gets saved in this world is automatically assimilated into this invisible church you guys ever heard something like that okay and you'll hear it all the time you'll say you know oh the church is in trouble or the church is going lukewarm or the church is this you know and they kind of lump every believer and every congregation together and place them under this invisible canopy of the church okay but let me tell you something folks that's false that's 100 false and let me prove it to you just right now we're not invisible right can you see me yeah i see you you see me you see this building this is called the church it's not invisible well i think you're exaggerating you know we're referring to all believers all around the world well let me ask you you know is christ the head of every church no i'm not saying that he shouldn't be but there's a lot of churches out there that don't have him as the head right so how can he be you know how can we have an invisible church or universal church if there are certain churches out there that are not adhering to the doctrines of christ and making christ ahead right number one but how about this a church is a called out assembly of baptized believers an assembly is a group of people that are joining together for a common cause and a common purpose we're not assembled with all believers right i mean i don't know if you notice here but we're not assembled with you know uh the christians in africa we're not assembled with the christians in russia we're not assembled the christians in in korea we're not assembled we're assembled together here now today okay go with me if you want to ephesians chapter number four ephesians chapter number four now baptists will get caught up in this doctrine because they'll teach what's known as the doctrine of church ages now you have to excuse my hand here i can't do my quote so it's going to be a parentheses okay and then a quote all right it's a typo okay so i'm gonna be i do this a lot but i can't move my hand right now i got a fractured finger so church is a call that assembly of baptized believers but we're not assembled with all believers around the world oh but what i was saying is that you know a lot of churches will teach this doctrine of church ages okay essentially teaching that you know the book of revelation chapter two and three when it addresses the seven churches which are in asia those aren't seven literal churches those are church ages okay in other words you know there's a group of churches throughout a certain era that is characterized by that particular church okay you have the church at ephesus church of smirnam church at pergamos you have thyatira you have you know the laodicean church so you have all these churches that literally existed at one point but the dispensationalists and their infiltration in churches have taught people that this is actually referring to the churches of that era and how they're characterized by okay so let me give you an example you know the church at ephesus because they left their first love they're essentially saying there was an era there was a time where churches didn't go so many but you know what that's false you said well how do you know because we're here so obviously churches throughout history have preached the gospel faithfully and that's why we're here today because someone gave them the gospel they gave them the gospel they gave someone else the gospel they eventually gave us the gospel as well in this era today okay but here's the funny thing about that doctrine the lamest church in the seven churches which are in asia is which one the laodicean church era they're considered the what the lukewarm church you know the ones that god said that i will spew thee out of my mouth right because they were neither hot nor cold well you know for some reason a lot of churches will say that we're in the laodicean church era so by the way believe them when they say that because they're who are they referring to they're referring to themselves that's what they're talking about so they look through all these churches and say man which one's the lamest most lukewarm cold but not hot just kind of not doing anything for god because that's basically us oh the laodicean church era this fits us perfectly well speak for yourself our church is not a laodicean church what do you mean because we're getting people saved we're getting people baptized there are teenagers in our church that are on fire for god we love the bible here we preach the word of god we're constantly being persecuted i mean this is not a laodicean church but it's funny when people like to say we're in the laodicean church or they're essentially telling you that they're a laodicean type of a christian okay so it's a false doctrine but another thing that debunks the universal invisible church is the fact that we're taught doctrine in a local church look what it says in ephesians 4 verse 11 and 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 for the edifying of the body of christ till we all come in the unity of the faith and 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 be no more children tossed to and fro carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men in cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive and when you compare this with other scriptures you see that the job of the pastor is to teach doctrine and so if doctrine is supposed to be taught in the local new testament church you know we're not going to accept every doctrine that's out there right it's not a false doctrine out there false teaching about salvation false teaching about the trinity false teaching about the deity of christ false teaching about the bible there's all types of false doctrines in churches out there therefore we can't be a part of the universal church because there's there's churches out there that teach a lot of bad stuff okay but here's one of the main reasons why the bible rejects the universal church okay it's because of the fact that you can't carry out church discipline in a universal church go to first corinthians chapter five they say what do you mean by church discipline you talk about just being having character and you know being consistent no discipline as in punishment right now i'm not referring to like if you commit a crazy sin we're going to spank you up here or something like that and you're on a timeout or something like that but the bible specifically teaches that if there's specific sins that you are guilty of such as drunkenness such as idolatry such as fornication such as railing these are actually sins that will merit excommunication from a church you see you guys kick people out of church here if they're guilty of these sins and are not willing to get those right yes like oh man that sounds cultish no a cold try to keeps you tries to keep you in yeah a cold would say you can't leave lock the doors you can't go to any other church our church says see ya you know if you don't want to if you want to keep fornicating okay if you want to keep committing adultery and you don't want to get that right then there's the door don't let the door hit you where the lord split you that's what the bible teaches my friends and you know you say well i don't know that's not that doesn't seem very appropriate to keep people out of church folks the bible tells us that a little leaven leaven at the whole lump right you ever wonder why so many churches are just filled with just it's just a cesspool of sin why there's so much pedophilia and and just sin and it just seems as though churches are just filled with so much controversy filled with just iniquity it's because no church discipline is being carried out in those churches right god specifically instituted the local new testament church to make sure that sin doesn't go unfettered in the church unrepentant sin because all of us are sinners we all make mistakes however there's specific sins that if you're guilty of and you're unwilling to get right then you gotta go look what it says in first corinthians chapter 5 verse 12 for what have i to do to judge them also that are without do not you judge them that are within then that are without god judgeth therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person now let me ask you a question how do you do that in a universal church you know you got a person committing fornication they don't want to get it right they're sleeping around they're committing you know uh the sin you're like you're out of here they get out there like ah suck i'm still part of the universal church though can't get me out i'm still part of the church well you know what you can only do that in a local new testament church in the universal church you can't do that because once you kick them out they're still in church according to that doctrine okay now turn with me if you would to go back to first corinthians chapter 12 so that debunks this universal church teaching my friends okay this invisible universal church that essentially does not exist okay and you know i know there's a lot of people out there you know baptists even who will talk about the church but you know the bible specifically talks about churches okay it talks about the church at ephesus the churches which are in galatia the church at corinth these are specific known churches and never mentions the church he said well what about ephesians you know chapter five we're talking about glory in the church well who's the letter being written to the ephesians right so he's talking to that church at ephesus that's what he's doing okay not an invisible one so point number one is that the body has a head that head being jesus christ point number two is that people join a church listen to this to fulfill a specific function okay you see every limb in our body serves a function right and i'm learning this the hard way okay i i fractured my middle finger and you'd be surprised how often you actually use your middle finger i know i don't use it the way some of you use it though you know someone cuts you off on the freeway or something like that and you know you you know you do that one thing okay but you'd be surprised how often you actually use it and in fact even when you're not using it specifically because it's attached the tendons are attached to the other fingers when you move your other fingers you know it moves that finger as well and you know if it's fractured it creates a lot of pain okay but every limb has you know even that ugly little pinky toe you got going on there that barely has a nail or whatever that has a function believe it or not okay you know the the most uncommon part that you think is the most ugliest part of your body has a function god gave it to you for a reason there's a purpose with for your nose okay there's a purpose for your mouth there's a purpose for your limbs every single appendage has a job and you know what the same goes for a church every single member of the body of christ in the local new testament church has a function look at first corinthians 12 verse 4 it says now there are diversities of gifts but the same spirit there are differences of administration but the same lord and there are diversities of operations but it is the same god which worketh all in all but the manifestation of the spirit is given to every man to profit with all so what is the same you know in church or even churches there's all types of differences right you know this church functions different than other churches out there has a different administration than other churches and even people within our church here they serve different functions but at the end of the day it's what to profit with all in other words it's so you can profit the church don't ask what your church can do for you ask what you can do for your church it's like what does this church have to offer me you know what kind of gifts you guys give out here what kind of programs you got and by the way we have all kinds of stuff but at the end of the day you should ask what can i how can i be a blessing to this church because i am a finger i am a foot i am a limb i'm an appendage god's created me in such a way to function in this church in a specific manner to be a blessing to profit with all okay look skip down to verse 14 you say well you know i'm a pinky toe i don't know how much i can be of a service here i'm just a pinky toe or you know i'm i'm i'm that middle finger you're talking about or i'm that pinky finger i'm the whatever you know i'm the eyelid or something what good will i do look at verse 14 for the body is not one member but many if the foot shall say because i am not the hand i am not of the body is it therefore not of the body you know just because you're not the pastor just because you're not the deacon just because you're not the evangelist does that mean that you don't serve a function in the church does that mean you're not part of the body of christ says in verse 16 and if the ear shall say because i am not the eye i am not of the body is it therefore not of the body what is he trying to emphasize here he's trying to explain the fact that doesn't matter how big of an appendage you are or how small you still have a purpose in this church and God has gifted you with certain talents abilities uh you know experiences even in your life you know we have people in our church from different walks of life people who have experienced traumatic experiences others who have not others who have been successful in business others who have not we have people from different walks of life that can benefit the church members here I don't like how that sounds what do you mean benefit yeah God allowed you to go through that or God allowed you to have that experience so that you can profit the people in our church not just profit yourself profit the people in your church and you can't say well you know I'm not the ear or I'm not the eye not important folks it's important that we understand that a church is not just a social club you know a lot of churches today they're social clubs right they just go there to to you know to hang out to gossip a little bit or a lot of it right to you know create their little factions in church the little cliques to criticize the leadership or I don't like her because of x y and they create these little posses in the church and they miss the entire point of the church which is get to work and by the way why do people get involved in gossip and railings in church because they're busy bodies they're busy doing gossiping instead of busy doing the work of the Lord right yeah if you invested all that time in gossiping as you would in like soul winning you get a lot of people saved if you'd invest you know all that time in railing you know into actually being a blessing to someone in our church you know you'd get a lot of rewards from Christ but you know a lot of times churches become simply a social club now let me say this is that our church is a social club I'll be honest it is people I mean this hour and a half or whatever however long we're here pales in comparison to how long people hang out after church okay we have to like turn off the lights and long you know just like all right everybody you guys got homes you guys gotta go too yeah people like hanging out with each other here and that's good amen but here's the thing it's not only a social club right there's a purpose behind us being here it's not just so we can hang out and just kind of shoot the breeze or whatever you know it's also to get the work of the Lord done okay and in fact the Bible says in Titus three verse eight this is a faithful saying and these things I will that thou affirm constantly that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works these things are good and profitable unto men verse 14 says let ours also learn to maintain good works for necessary uses that they be not unfruitful you see in order for you to gain rewards in heaven there's got to be a centralized location where you can kind of manifest that out it's got to be a place where you can do that we get rewards by winning people to Christ but where are you going to be sent out to win people to Christ here you say well you know I kind of already know how to win people to Christ well you know we always need to refine our abilities to win people to Christ and you could always become a better soul winner especially when you join the local new testament church and let's be let's be honest the vast majority of churches out there don't necessarily do soul-winning I'm talking about confrontational soul-winning where you're going door to door preaching the gospel getting people saved you know our church does that and our church has experienced soul winners they can train you they can show you and obviously that can be intimidating for a lot of people they're just like oh man you just tell complete strangers they're gonna go burn in hell or something like that well not in those words exactly but something to that extent okay obviously we go through the gospel obviously it's with meekness and fear and look when a person is new to soul-winning in our church it's not like all right figure it out knock that door hey you're on your own buddy you know you know they open the door and they just they just look at you and you're just like I don't know what to tell you man you got to do it on your own no you become a silent partner right and you see how it's done for a certain amount of months until you build up the confidence to do it yourself okay and look preaching the gospel should be important to every christian yeah right shouldn't preaching the gospel and getting people say be important to everyone you said why well because of the fact that don't we all have family members who are dying or who are going to go to hell don't we all have friends and family members that we love that we care for don't we have co-workers don't we have people out there that we think about that are potentially going to die and go to hell well guess whose job it is to give them the gospel yours and i know a lot of people don't like to hear that but folks jesus said go therefore and teach all nations and he's referring to all christians to do so this is not just the job of the pastor or the job of the full-time christian service leader in the church the employee this is for everyone okay and so people are to assemble themselves together into a local new testament church to serve a function okay that's important now along with that listen to this okay members can become worthless oh man that sounds a little mean well go to matthew chapter five i'm just kind of repeating what jesus said he said that's that sounds mean well you know what mean means average and this is not an average church and so and let me just say this you know i'm going to give you the word of god i'm not going to sugarcoat things i'm not going to put you know uh whipped cream on the message i'm just going to give it to you as is okay members can become worthless you say how in the world could you say something like that well think about this you know my finger is worthless right now this thing is worthless i gotta wear this weird thing on my hand and everything it's like i can't use it okay and you know sometimes there are limbs in our body that if you don't use there's muscles in your body that if you're not constantly using can atrophy right they can go into atrophy and i know this personally because of the fact that my father-in-law you know he had an avm and um in his brain and there's bleeding in his brain about 10 years ago and you know he's essentially just uh bedridden okay and they constantly have to move him they constantly have to help him to kind of be mobile because if he doesn't he can essentially just destroy his body by just laying there i mean there's people who are in these recovery type places that will will develop bed source because they're not being moved and they can get infected because our bodies are meant to be moved they're meant to do something okay so if you don't use it you lose it if you don't use that body it becomes worthless right look what the bible says in verse 13 of matthew chapter 5 ye are the salt of the earth but if the salt hath lost its savor wherewith shall it be salted listen to this it is thenceforth good for nothing now what's another way of saying worthless you good for nothing that's basically what it means right it is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trotted under the foot of men the bible says so what jesus is saying is that when christians who are supposed to be salt refuse or revoke their responsibility of being the salt of the earth they basically become good for nothing there's no use for them now go to go to john 15 if you would john chapter 15 now the point that i'm trying to make is don't get to this point don't get to the point in your christian life or in your service in a church where you become a worthless christian because it can happen my friends where all you do is you come and you just want to take and take but you don't want to give you want to take bible preaching but you don't want to get people saved you want to take you know entertainment but you don't want to give out discipleship you don't want to give out to your wife you don't want to give out to your husband you don't want to give out to your children you don't want to give out by serving and then you become a good for nothing type of a christian it happens folks now in our church if you become a good for nothing christian so to speak this doesn't mean that you get kicked out of church or something it's just like hey you're taking up space not doing anything mori someone else can be doing exactly what you're doing right here let's get let's get you moving okay you got to go to a different church we're not going to do that and mori is not a good for nothing christian okay he's he's a laboring christian but what does this do this actually destroys your life spiritually though right destroys your life because then you become a gluttonous christian where you're just taken and taken and taken but you're not burning those calories right those spiritual calories and then you just get spiritually fat okay you get become spiritually obese now here's the thing is that when you become spiritually obese you know that meat of the word that you once took that you actually like now it's just like whatever to you because you're not burning those spiritual calories well in our church you know don't become a worthless christian burn those spiritual calories but actually investing in someone else amen burn those spiritual calories but actually i mean physically and spiritually by going out so many burn those spiritual calories but actually put it into action the teachings that you're getting so how do i burn the spiritual calories well you know the you know when you learn things about marriage husbands go love your wisest christ love the church go actually take your wife out to eat and tell her you love her and buy her roses and do things that she likes you know put those things into practice my friends you know oh how do i you know put those how do i burn those spiritual calories well how about you actually reverencing your husband as the bible tells you to do reverence him respect him love him make him a sandwich when he wants him make him pancakes for dinner if that's what he wants you say oh come on let's let's talk about the bible here this is the bible my friends right the bible gives us the parameters of what we're supposed to be doing and then he gives us a mind of woody inventions on how to carry that out amen right so when the bible tells us to love our wives as christ also loved the church okay there's the command but now we have to practically put that into practice and you know what making pancakes is not in the bible so therefore we have to come up with that right i like pancakes amen who doesn't like pancakes okay and so you know put these things into practice hey when you hear a sermon about child rearing and about winning the hearts of your children go burn those calories and actually go do it amen take your kids out spend time with them turn off the tv turn off the tablet turn off the social media turn off facebook and why don't you go take a walk with your family one day you know we don't have enough money then just go to the park or something right these are hard truths are they not amen but we're talking about the importance of not becoming a work you can become a worthless husband you can become a worthless wife you can become a worthless employee hey you know what we teach in this in this in this church to be a valuable employee at your job amen right to be the hard to make your boss a successful boss amen right to be a valuable employee to work hard to go the extra mile not be a burden on your boss to be a good worker you say why because the bible teaches us to go the extra mile that's why ask christians you know if your boss if your boss asks you to go one mile you go with him twain so go burn those calories and work extra hours and do overtime and don't complain about it oh what about my break skip your break yeah amen get the job done right yeah but i'm supposed to clock out at this time but is the job done though you understand you see that's where the calories need to be burned this is we want to be valuable employees not worthless employees we want to be valuable families and valuable husbands and valuable wives and valuable church members not vestigial members of the body or just like we have no need for this anymore look at look at john 15 let me give you an example here it says in verse 4 abide in me this is jesus speaking and i in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself excepted abide in the vine no more can he accept the abide in me i am the vine ye are the branches he that abideth in me and i in him the same bringeth forth much fruit for without me you can do nothing verse 6 if a man abide not in me listen to this he is cast forth as a branch so if you think i'm mean by saying this he's calling you guys branches they're just cast forth if you're not doing anything he says if you don't abide in me i'm just going to toss you like a branch that's pretty mean right well i guess the jesus that most churches are putting forth is like a lie then right because according to the bible jesus christ will tell you that if you're not abiding in the word of god and you're just going to be cast forth as a branch listen to this and it's withered and men gather them and cast them into the fire they are burned now this doesn't mean that you're going to lose your salvation okay you can't take a parable too far and say well you know it says fire you know and it says that they're burned but folks if you're to take everything literal here you would have to say that you're a literal branch and let me just let me just help you to understand something when people die without christ men don't gather them and cast them into the fire they just lift up their eyes in hell according to the bible what this is specifically saying is that if a branch is no longer attached to the vine it falls to the floor the next best thing for that person to do is just to be cast into the fire because they are simply worthless right you understand and and so what the bible is teaching us here is that we need to make sure that we continuously work at being a valuable christian by putting into being doers of the word not hearers only actually put it into practice the things that we're listening to and not just well i'm just here to appease my conscience you know by being in church now why don't you actually take what god's getting you today and actually put it into practice hey how about this teenagers you know here's a way that you can become a valuable christian how about you respect mom and dad when you're home amen and out at home how about you actually obey your parents in the lord for this is right how about you actually throw away the trash when they tell you to do that how about you actually clean up the house when they tell you how about you actually wash the dishes when they tell you to do so right and how about you do it with a good attitude too you know now i don't know how to roll my eyes because i think i did it once to my mom when i was young and they just never rolled after that you know how about you respect your mom yeah but my mom does this and that well you know it's not i don't see a verse in the bible that says unless your mom does this and that right so why don't you know why don't you become a valuable young man a valuable young lady hey hey ladies why don't you cook dad a meal amen as dad dad what is your favorite thing to eat you say well i don't know how to cook well get valuable and learn how to make your dad's favorite meal amen you know respect your parents do a good job at school learn how to be a hard worker right you know don't delay your obedience when they tell you to do something either i'll do it when i'm done i'll do it when i'm done with this level you know as you're playing video games or whatever well i got better things to do no the thing that you're supposed to be doing now that's better is obeying your parents that's right bottom line and you know what our church teaches for children and teenagers to obey their parents we're we are not a church that's going to tell the kids well you just keep doing whatever you want and you're a good christian anyways no you're a bad christian if you decide to go sowing but you're not obeying your parents right you're like well i'm gonna i'm gonna disobey my parents and just come to church anyways well folks you know if your parents tell you don't go to this church go to another church and you come to this church i don't care if you think this is the best church in the world you're being disobedient to your parents bottom line that's right okay and you know what i think it would help you some young person if you're a good testimony at home if you're obeying your mom and your dad you know they might let you come to this church more often that's right because like you know i kind of like the fact that they're making you respectable over there amen you know you're not yelling by the way don't yell your parents amen yep don't be raising your voice at your parents definitely don't be raising your hand right at your parents i mean that that should be just like a obvious one okay don't raise your hand at your parents don't raise your voice at your parents respect your parents love your parents serve your parents and it's sad that we have to talk about this in 2022 but that's the way it is nowadays we're teenagers and you know and let me just say this not just young adults all right i'm not just teenagers i'm talking about young adults as well if you're in your 20s and you live under your father's roof your mom's roof you're still expected by the bible to obey your parents amen i'm a grown man though you're living with your parents though i got a job though but you're still living under their roof right and so if you're a 30 year old living under the roof of your parents you better still be obeying your parents amen because that is god's word that's what the bible teaches well i want i don't want to do that thing get married move out and do your own thing be your own boss then at that point but until then god expects you to be a valuable young adult a valuable young lady and to respect your parents just thought i'd throw that in there for good measure all right go to first corinthians chapter uh five if you would every teenager here hates me now that's okay members can become worthless or vestigial okay if you're not putting it into practice your your your body can go into atrophy spiritually speaking that limb can go into atrophy if it's not moved you know after about six weeks this is supposed to heal after about six weeks or so but you know what because i haven't moved it in six weeks or if i don't move it in six weeks it's gonna hurt to even like move still not because it's not because it's still fractured but because i just haven't moved it i mean how many of you have ever broken a bone you keep it in a cast you're moving from that cast and you're just like man it looks all ugly and skinny and stinks and it's like it's like it's like a different race under there you know you know what i mean i was like this is who i truly am you know it's like wow you know but that's how it is and then you have to like work at it again and strengthen those muscles and those tendons etc number four members can become a detriment to the body so not only can members can become worthless they can actually be a detriment to the body you say what do you mean well you know think about people who get frostbite right you know what frostbite is you know they they try to do that climb to mount everest and they just bite off more than they can chew and then their nose freezes they get that black frost bit nose or that frost bitten foot or toe or hand right and it has to be what either amputated or you just live like that for the rest of your life okay and think about this you know christians can become cold towards the things of god right you could be in church but if you're just a cold christian in other words you're apathetic towards the things of god you know preaching doesn't get you going anymore the you sing the hymns you're just like whatever about it you just kind of dread coming to church you become cold towards the things of god you're essentially a detriment to the body of christ right yeah you say why because apathy spreads my friends how about diabetes right you know people can get diabetes to the point where it's just like their foot begins to rot and they have to remove it right a certain body part they have to remove it because of that you know cavities right can rot the oh man i think i just i hit a nerve there you know tooth begins to rot and it's just no longer useful and it has to be removed right and you say what happens if you don't remove it well you know if you don't remove a a cavity or if you don't remove a tooth that that's that's essentially rotting it can begin to affect the other teeth right it'll affect the other teeth and then you have to remove like three teeth later on or something i mean it can cause a lot of damage right well in like manner in churches you know if that cavity is not taken care of if that diabetes is not you know found sooner than later if that dude doesn't come down the mountain before he gets frostbitten that appendage is going to have to be removed that body part is going to become frostbitten it's going to become removed it's going to be a detriment look at verse three of first corinthians five this is referring to a man who is sleeping with his father's wife not his mom his father's wife and so he's committing the act of fornication and the idea here is that possibly maybe either his mother is just not in the picture for whatever reason or his mother has passed away and his father has remarried okay but he is essentially committing the act of fornication with his father's uh wife i mean this is disgusting right but the problem with this is that this is like in church this is happening in a church this is at the church of Corinth and what's even worse is that people know about it in the church they're just like it's commonly reported that this is taking place in church okay so it's just like you just come here on a sunday morning and you're like oh who's that couple it's like well it's kind of complicated you know wait so who's with who you know that's his dad and that's his dad's wife but he's kind of with his dad's wife it's just like what in a church so the apostle paul who's the one who planted this church hears about it he's not even there he hears about it from different witnesses and he's like this guy has to be kicked out he has to be removed now you wonder is that why isn't the wife removed well possibly because of the fact that the wife maybe doesn't even go to church it's possibly what it is okay so he's like this guy has to be removed because he's not getting it right he's not repenting he's not correcting the situation he needs to be removed from the church look at verse three for i barely as absent in body but present in spirit have judged already as though i were present concerning him that had so done this deed in the name of our lord jesus christ when you're gathered together in my spirit with the power of our lord jesus christ to deliver such a one into satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the lord jesus christ what is he saying he's saying i don't have to be there i already know what you guys have to do you have to kick him out if this guy's committing committing this heinous sin that's commonly reported he's not remorseful about it get him out of here right why because it'll become a frostbite in this church it'll become diabetic in this church it'll become a cavity in this church and you know what when someone sees that someone is involved in fornication in the church and the pastor's not doing anything about it he's kind of turning a blind eye to it that means other people are going to be like oh okay maybe i can sleep around with my girlfriend too and nothing's going to happen to me i mean i love her she loves me i mean we we love god and then they begin to allow that into the church that begins to spread in the church my friends that's why you even have cesspools of sin in a lot of churches you say how does pedophilia get into the church when things like this aren't corrected that's how verse 6 says your glorying is not good know you not that a little leaven leaven at the whole lump purge out therefore the old leaven that ye may be a new lump as you are unleavened even for even christ our passover is sacrificed for us so what he's saying is like just remove them and you know people today will hear them like yeah but how's the church going to grow like that how are you going to reach people like that folks it's not my job to build any church my job is to do this and to do what jesus told me to do his job is to build a church amen his job is to bring people in his job is to build up the congregation based upon my obedience and our obedience and us winning souls to christ that's our job right so how are we going to say well you know i know jesus said this but we know a little better we're going to keep these people around we're going to help them look this is the way you help them this is the way we help them if you're involved in fornication you have you have a couple options number one break up okay number two get married what get married oh i know how horrible what a horrible thing to have to marry the girl that you're sleeping with oh that's so terrible yeah in 2022 that would be terrible right well i'm not ready well it seems you're ready enough to to you know commit the act of fornication though do you respect the girl enough to actually marry her though well no okay then the only other option is that you break up or if you're just unwilling to get that right if you're unwilling to repent of that then you need to go to a different church that accepts that type of lifestyle but we don't accept it here see you later amen and that's how it works you're like i don't agree with that well you know there's plenty of churches that do you know that that don't practice that that you can go to and that's your choice but that's how we do it here because we don't want sin to spread here you know what our church started five years ago we've had nine marriages nine weddings at our church i think nine right brother lisa's am i right approximately nine weddings at our church of people who met and people who maybe yeah were involved in fornication and they got right they're like you know we're just gonna get married amen and they got married and they live happily ever after in christ oh what a terrible thing though huh to make them get married and make them have just a great marriage and and just love each other and do it the right way how terrible that is to make people do that it's crazy out there folks okay but look go to matthew chapter 18 go to matthew chapter 18 now don't misunderstand this because you know sometimes people hear this and like so does that mean you go around asking people are you in fornication are you in fornication are you guys in fornication are you guys like sleeping together or something none of us do that right okay i'm not the moral police here just kind of looking around making sure people are are doing right or something like that but often i'll preach something like this and then people come up to me and say well you know we're kind of living together and we're doing this and then i'll present that option and by the way when you when people come to me it's not like oh you you're so wicked wicked you're in our church and you're doing ah you're just like i just lose it or something okay so don't think that like i just blow up on you just because you're committing the act of fornication because i've heard it all before right and there's nothing new under the sun okay i just give them those options is what i do you know and you know what the best option out of all of those is just to get married amen because at that point then god's blessing can be on your marriage god's blessing can be on your life and married life is just way better anyways way better okay look at matthew 18 verse 7 it says well into the world because of offenses for it must needs be that offenses come but woe to that man by whom the offense offense cometh verse 8 wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee cut them off and cast them from thee it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire and if thy right eye offend thee or excuse me if an eye offending pluck it out and cast it from thee it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire skip down to verse 15 so here in matthew chapter 18 verses 7 through 9 we see one of the most controversial passages in the bible because of the fact that jesus christ is essentially saying if there's a limb that's causing you to be offended go into sin you should cut it off you know and he says of course it's better to enter into life with one eye or or maim than having both eyes cast into the lake of fire and really at the end of the day what he's teaching to the unsaved is that you need to cut off whatever is causing you to not get saved right okay that's like the main interpretation of this passage of scripture okay you need to repent not from your sin but from your dead works whatever you're trusting in to get you saved you need to remove that from your life okay whatever ideology you know if you believe you have to worship marry in order to be saved well you need to cut that off you understand but a secondary application to this because it's in the same exact chapter is it's referring to church discipline as well because if you remember the body in the local new testament church is described as a body okay now look at verse 15 it says moreover if thy brother trespass against thee go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone if he shall hear thee that was gained thy brother but if you will not hear they didn't take with thee one or two more than in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established and if he shall neglect to hear them tell it unto the church but if you neglect to hear the church let him be unto thee as a heathen man and as a publican now what is this referring to it's referring to church discipline so essentially if a brother has ought against another brother in christ here at our church and that brother is unwilling to repent of that then essentially they go to the church leadership to go confront that individual if they're like i don't care i'm not getting that right i'm not doing x y and z then at that point we execute church discipline and that person becomes as a heathen and as a publican unto us what does that mean we basically excommunicate that person from the local new testament church just as if a right eye or a right hand off envy you understand you cut it off and you get rid of it that's what that's specifically referring to why well the main teaching here is this it'll spread if you don't take care of it right removing a tooth is very painful but it's going to be more painful if you allow it to spread to the other teeth understand you know removing a foot because of diabetes because it's rotting is painful but it'll be more painful if they have to remove the entire leg because at the end of the day it's going to spread it's going to be detrimental to your entire church body's health understand go to first corinthians chapter 12 go back to first corinthians 12 here's one of my last points regarding church membership there are certain members that are actually more necessary than others right now look what it says in verse 22 of first corinthians 12 nay much more those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary and those members of the body which we think to be less honorable upon these we bestow more abundant honor the bible says now what is he referring to well at the church at corinth they were esteeming the gift of tongues more than the gift of prophecy prophecy meaning what preaching so in the eyes of the corinthian church it was more important to be able to speak in different languages than it was to preach the word of god so in other words they were honoring other spiritual gifts more than the preaching of god's word but he's saying here that the preaching that which is less esteem is actually more necessary now why bring this up well you know because of the fact that sometimes people churches members of different churches have a tendency to kind of not or they kind of despise the preaching of god's work you know they want to come to church to kind of dance to them it's just like yeah but what kind of worship service do you have though who cares i mean we care to a certain extent but we don't you shouldn't base what church you go to based off of what kind of worship is there right why because what's more necessary the preaching is amen amen because just think what if they had the kind of worship you like but they have a bunch of false doctrine from the pulpit it's not it's not a church worth going to amen right you know and there's even independent fundamental baptist churches out there we're an independent fundamental baptist church they will place more emphasis on the music ministry than on the preaching of god's word they will sing and play instruments for like 45 minutes or something like that and then the sermon is like 20 minutes you're like well i thought i was going to get a 20-minute sermon today you're lucky if i stay under an hour and that doesn't always happen okay you know i preach for about an hour but you know what it's because the preaching is far more important amen that's right the preaching of god's word is the pre-eminent thing in the local new testament church let me say this it's the most necessary thing for you to hear amen hey we're gonna have the kids olympics that's gonna be fun we have an air hockey table that's fun sometimes we have ice cream we have pizza we have fellowship all those things are great but the most necessary aspect of our church is the preaching of god's word that's right most important part why because the bible tells us to give attendance to reading to exhortation to doctrine that's what the bible says okay look at first corinthians chapter 14. first corinthians chapter 14 it says in verse one follow after charity and desire spiritual gifts but rather the e may prophesy for he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men but unto god for no man understandeth him howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries but he that prophesied speaketh unto men to edification and exhortation and comfort he that speaketh in an unknown tongue edify it himself but he that prophesied edify the church and let me say this the preaching of god's word is the most important part of his church service it should be of every church service and in fact if you have a pastor out there who claims to preach god's word but he doesn't study the bible it's worthless it's worthless why teach a 15-minute sermon and sing for 45 minutes well that's not the emphasis of the new testament church and we love singing here we love music we believe we should worship god and music and and with singing but it's not the preeminent thing to do in a church and people wonder why there's so many churches out there with biblically illiterate church members that don't know even even the basics of bible doctrine it's because the pastor is not emphasizing bible doctrine that's why well i want to hear a sermon on you know just give me a sermon on how to feel good or something give me a sermon on how to get through the week you know every once in a while i'll give a sermon like that but you know what you also need is just doctrine as well that's right you need to learn what the bible says my friends you know there's christians out there who are saved who can articulate salvation very well they can't even articulate how to get saved they can't even tell someone how to be saved they can't even tell someone about the deity of jesus christ why because they're spiritually anemic in their church that's why right we want to make sure we have a church that's that's that's serving steak every service right and you know what it's not always going to be delicious steak sometimes it's going to be liver amen you know liver is not the most uh delectable thing to eat but it's the most nutrient-dense food out there my friends okay most nutrient-dense and yeah it tastes kind of grainy when it gets in your mouth but it's so good for you though you know and you know what in church sometimes we need a little bit of liver that's right yep sometimes you need to eat the liver maybe put some maple syrup on there you know to help help it go down or whatever and eat it well i kind of want you know can we just have like fries can we have just like potatoes and starch and sugar and all those things you know we can have that after service but during the preaching service you need nutrition you need to you need to actually learn something about the bible you say well you know yeah i don't think god wants us to have that much look how big this book is look how big this thing is you're trying to tell me that he spent all that time writing this entire book but he only wants us to preach like this much of it i mean think about that my friends the bible tells us to preach the entire council of god okay i must hasten here i'm pretty much done okay go back to first corinthians 12 i'm going to skip a point here or i'm just going to breeze through this point point number six is that soul wonders are the most commonly members of a church of a body okay because the bible talks about the uncommonly parts of our body are actually the most commonly commonly meaning beautiful attractive and if you think about it you know feet happen to be the most unattractive part of a person's body sometimes some more than others and you know you think about them you know the middle east people wearing sandals walking in the desert they probably got had some ugly feet their feet were probably just atrocious you know which is why when they would go into different homes they would wash their feet and stuff like that god bless that person who was in charge in that home to wash the person's feet looking at you know all corns and bunions and all that stuff you know calluses but you think to yourself well that's the most uncommon part but the bible actually says that that's the most beautiful part because the bible actually says how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of glad tidings in god's eyes the most beautiful aspect of our church are the soul winners that go out and preach the gospel because they're proclaiming the good news of jesus christ it's the most beautiful aspect it's not the building it's not the paint on the wall it's not the immaculate piano or how well people are dressed or what type of instruments they have or what type of programs and nurseries and sunday school classes and activities that's not the most beautiful part in god's eyes the most beautiful part in god's eyes is when a group of people make the decision to say i'm going to take time out of my schedule out of my week to go tell someone about the gospel so they can get saved because the gospel is the death barrier and resurrection of jesus christ lastly is that when everyone understands the structure of the body there is no division look at verse 24 for our comely parts have no need but god has tempered the body together having given more abundant honor to that part which lacked that there be no schism in the body but that the members should have the same care one for another what is he saying you know when there's a schism there's a division and we should not have a divided church what did i mean by that well this section believes in calvinism this section believes you could lose your salvation this section believes in mormonism or parts of johovah's witness doctrine these people right here and i'm not saying that's what you guys believe okay i'm just giving you an example that would be like a divided church these people believe you have to repent of your sins to be saved these people believe it's by faith alone it's like you have a divided church there should be no schism in the body well how do you uh how do you prevent a schism in the body by knowing the structure of a church right by knowing who's in charge by knowing your place in a church by fulfilling your function in a local new testament church that's how you do it okay what's the sermon for today well this is true church membership and you know in our church we're not going to have you sign your life away with the church covenant it's just like here's a covenant for you to sign you got to make sure you got to make sure you tithe to this church you got to make sure that you go faithfully they have that they'll give you a church covenant like a piece of paper and it says like um you have to attend church faithfully by the way all the things that they require they're legitimate things amen you should be tithing you should be going to church faithfully you should be sharing the gospel but to sign a covenant a covenant is a contract right it's like you're signing your contract to let us know that you're gonna do these things and let's just be honest most of the pastors the part that they care about the most in that covenant is the tithing part that's why they want you to sign that thing okay whereas we don't have a church covenant here we're all part of the new covenant anyways okay you become a member of our church once you decide first of all once you're saved you're baptized and you decide to become a functioning member of our church come here and learn the word of god and and learn how to preach the gospel you're a member of our church that's how it works okay and so you know i hope that what was preached today as hard as it may have been to to your ears that you'd give heed to what was said because at the end of the day folks we showed you from the bible amen and so let's pray father we thank you so much for your word we're so thankful for uh jesus christ being our head lord and um this is probably stark contrast to what a lot of churches do out there but we want to be able to be as close to the word of god as possible and i pray that you'd help us to do so lord we love you we thank you pray these things in jesus name amen