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["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] The preaching of your word, Lord, and we thank you for all of our mothers as well, Lord, that you've given us as an admonition, as a guide in our life, Lord, and we thank you for them, and we thank you for giving us this day to take to honor them. I thank you, Lord Father, for the souls that were saved this afternoon and for the service this morning, and I ask that you please just bless this service as well, Lord. Please bless the singing, but most of all, Lord, please bless the preaching of your word. Fill Pastor Mahieu with your spirit as he preaches, and fill us also with your spirit that we may leave here edified. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. All right, turn in your song books to song number 197, you may be seated. Song number 197, Singing I Go, The Trusting Heart to Jesus Clings. Song number 197, all together nice and strong on that first verse. The trusting heart to Jesus clings, nor any ill or foes, but at the cross of Calvary sings praise God for lifted loaves. Singing I go, a long life's prone, praising the Lord, praising the Lord, singing I go, a long life's prone, for Jesus has lifted my load. The passing days bring many cares, fear not, I hear Him say, and when my fears are turned to prayers, the burdens slip away. Singing I go, a long life's prone, praising the Lord, praising the Lord, singing I go, a long life's prone, for Jesus has lifted my load. He tells me of my Father's love, and never slumbering I. My everlasting King above will all my needs supply. Singing I go, a long life's prone, praising the Lord, praising the Lord, singing I go, a long life's prone, for Jesus has lifted my load. When to the throne of grace I flee, I find the promise true. The mighty arms upholding me will bear my burdens too. Singing I go, a long life's prone, praising the Lord, praising the Lord, singing I go, a long life's prone, for Jesus has lifted my load. Sunday evening is at 5 p.m. and then we have our Thursday night Bible study at 7 o'clock. You see the soul winning times and teams, the list of expecting mothers, if you can continue to keep them in prayer, and the important reminders there at the bottom. Some of the upcoming church events, of course today is Mother's Day, so happy Mother's Day to you all. All the mothers who came, it was an honor to have you, and I hope you got your gift as well as your chocolate. And then we do have Sarah Solis' baby shower coming up on Sunday, May 15th. You can see my wife for more details regarding that. The P.E. end of school picnic, it's coming up on Wednesday, May 25th. You can see Brother Ulysses for the details on that. And then on Sunday, May 29th, the Sunday evening service, we're going to have a graduation service for Giovanni Franceschini. And just to celebrate with him as he concludes his schooling or high school, right? So congratulations. Are you excited or what? Very. You sound very excited. And then Father's Day, of course, is coming up on Sunday, June 19th. We'll have a gift for all the dads, and of course the service will be geared towards fathers as well as the sermon. And then just the important reminders here at the bottom. No food or drink allowed in the main auditorium except for water and coffee. No loitering in the foyer or fellowship hall during the preaching service. And of course, I want to kindly remind everyone just to kind of reiterate this rule here, you know, that quiet time is from 3 p.m. to 4 15 throughout the entire building, including the fellowship hall. OK, now we grew a little lax and left one of the lights on so people can hang out in there. But, you know, after a while, you know, it got kind of lively in there. And so just as a reminder to everyone that if we're going to keep that light on, we need to make sure that we keep it down and or else we're just going to have to turn all the lights off. And so just keep that in mind. Please make sure you silence your phones during the preaching so as to not be a distraction during the service. It's going to take some so many numbers from this past week. Salvations from Monday to Thursday. Any salvations from Monday to Thursday? One. OK, anybody else? OK, how about Friday and Saturday? Salvations for Friday and Saturday. Four for Riverside. Anybody else? And then this afternoon, Salvations for this afternoon. One. Anything else? Seven for brother Elise's team. Eight for brother Morrie's team. One from the service. OK. And three for brother Marcus's team. Three for brother Marcus's team. OK, great. Anybody else? OK. Keep up the great work on soul winning. Let's go to sing our next song. Song number one hundred and twenty one. Like a river glorious. Song number one hundred and twenty one. Like a river glorious. All together, nice and powerful on that first verse. Like a river glorious. Is God's perfect peace. Over all victorious. In its pride and grace. Perfect can it flow away. Fuller every day. Perfect can it flow away. Deeper all the way. Stayed upon Jehovah. Hearts are fully blessed. Finding as He promised. Perfect peace and rest. Hidden in the hollow. Of His blessed hand. Never folk and follow. Never traitors stand. Not a surge of worry. Not a shade of fear. Not a blast of hurry. Touch the Spirit there. Stayed upon Jehovah. Hearts are fully blessed. Finding as He promised. Perfect peace and rest. Every joy or trial. Fallen from above. Traced upon our dial. By the Son of God. We may trust Him fully. All for all. For us to do. They who trust Him wholly. Find Him wholly true. Stayed upon Jehovah. Hearts are fully blessed. Finding as He promised. Perfect peace and rest. Amen. Wonderful singing. At this time the ushers will come forth to collect the offering and you can turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter number 20. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. Tonight we're in Acts chapter 20. Acts chapter 20 and the Bible reads, And after the uproar was ceased, Paul called unto him the disciples and embraced them, and departed forth to go into Macedonia. And when he had gone over those parts, and had given them much exhortation, Paul called unto him the disciples and embraced them, and departed forth to go into Macedonia. And when he had gone over those parts, and had given them much exhortation, he came into Greece. And there abode three months, and when the Jews laid weight for him, as he was about to sail into Syria, he purposed to return through Macedonia. And there accompanied him into Asia, Sopater of Berea, and of the Thessalonians Aristarchus and Secuntus and Gaius of Derbe and Timotheus, and of Asia, Tychicus and Trophimus, and going before Terry for us at Troas. And we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and came unto them to Troas in five days, where we abode seven days. And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow, and continued his speech until midnight. And there were many lights in the upper chamber, where they were gathered together. And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep. And as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep, and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead. And Paul went down and fell on him, and embracing him, said, Trouble not yourselves, for his life is in him. When he therefore was come up again, and had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even till break of day, so he departed. And they brought the young man alive, and were not a little comforted. And we went before to ship, and sailed unto Essos, there intending to take on Paul, for so he had appointed, minding himself to go afoot. And when he met with us at Essos, we took him in, and came to Mytilene. And we sailed thence, and came the next day over against Chios, and the next day we arrived to Samos, and tarried at Trigylium, and the next day we came to Miletus. For Paul had determined to sail to Ephesus, because he would not spend the time in Asia, for he hasted, if it were possible for him, to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost. And from Miletus he said to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church, and when they were come to him, he said unto him, Ye know from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations which befell me by the lying and weight of the Jews. And now I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have showed you, and have taught you publicly, and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And now behold I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there, save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God. And now behold I know that ye all, among whom I am gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more. Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to trawey disciples after them. Therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years I cease not to warn every one night and day with tears. And now brethren I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified. For I have not coveted no man's silver or gold or apparel. Yet ye yourselves know that these hands have ministered unto my necessities and to them that were with me. I have showed you all things, how that so laboring you ought to support the weak and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said it is more blessed to give than to receive. And when he had thus spoken he knelt down and prayed with them all. And they all wept sore and fell on Paul's neck and kissed him, sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, to see his face no more and they accompanied him unto the ship. Let's pray. Dear Lord God we thank you for our salvation Lord and Lord we thank you for the church that you've given us Lord and the congregation here Lord. We thank you for all the people within this church and Lord we thank you for pastor as well. We pray that you bless him and fill him with your spirit as he preaches your word and I pray that the people here are edified by the preaching Lord. It says take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood. Of course here the Apostle Paul is simply instructing the elders of these different churches here and before he leaves more specifically the church of Ephesus and he's telling him take heed to yourselves, make sure you take heed to the flock, make sure you are an overseer of the local ascension, take heed to the local assembly there and feed the church of God, give him the word of God, understand the importance of the local assembly because of the fact that the church was purchased with the blood of Jesus Christ and he's placing an emphasis there on that local assembly. Now the title of my sermon this evening is what a church should do, what a church should do and the reason I want to preach this this evening is really to emphasize or really bring us back to what the Bible says on what a church should do and what a church should do. A lot of Christians have different priorities so to speak, you understand. They basically see church as only a place to socialize, it's just a club for people to hang out with, other people and they just see it not necessarily as what the Bible defines as being a church whereas the Bible actually clearly lays out what a church is actually for and what the responsibilities of a church are. Now go with me if you want to Acts chapter 11, go to Acts chapter 11, it says here, Then they that gladly received this word were baptized, and the same day they were added unto them about three thousand souls and they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and in fellowship and in breaking bread and in prayers, verse 46 tells us, and they continued daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house and did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people who should be saved. Now the first thing I want to mention here of what a church should do or what is the purpose of a church, number one is that the local church should have, listen to this, a physical, centralized location. And what I mean by that, there should be a visible, local, New Testament location that's called a church. Now why make a big deal about that? Well, you know, a lot of people will say, well, you know, the church is not a building though, and you can say, amen, but only halfway, okay? Because of the fact that the church is not just for believers or is not just made up of believers, the church is a local called out assembly of baptized believers, okay? They're called out, they're baptized, they are meeting in a centralized location to fulfill the commandments that God has given to them. Now one of the reasons why Christians today will try to undervalue the importance of an actual physical centralized location for a church is because of this false teaching known as the universal church, okay? You know, you often hear people say, well, every believer is part of the church, right? They'll talk about the church and anytime you hear preaching, for example, on social media or on YouTube, you know, they'll say, well, the church needs to listen to this message. The church has this problem. We need to fix this in the church. Well, my question is this, what church? Because, you know, let's say, well, the church is so lukewarm today. Well, not my church. So who are you talking about? Oh, the church is just filled with sin and they need to get this right. Yeah, but what church are you talking about? Because my church is not filled with sin. Oh, but then, you know, the church needs to wake up. Oh, we're awake. You know, the Bible says awake to righteousness is sin not for some have not the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame and I'm not referring to our church. You know, when people say the church, they're referring to this invisible universal church that every believer is a part of. But folks, it's not a biblical doctrine. Okay. This teaching is nothing more than a diet version of the Catholic Church. Right? And where they get it from is actually dispensationalism. Okay. You say, well, how did dispensationalism introduce this into, you know, this, this concept of the universal, you know, invisible church? Well, they introduced it by perverting the teaching of the seven churches which are in Asia in the Book of Revelation because of the fact that in order for them to prop up their false doctrine of dispensationalism, the pre-tribulation rapture, and even this false doctrine of Zionism, the Jews being God's chosen people, they have to explain away what God is talking about in Revelation chapter two and three, where he's literally writing to seven local separate churches. Well, they interpret Revelation two and three as seven different church ages. So you have the church at Philadelphia, you have the church at Ephesus, Smyrna, Thyatira, all these churches they interpreted as, well, that actually highlights the church age. Okay. Now, the funny thing is, is that when you ask them what church age are we in, they'll tell you, oh, we're part of the church. So this is basically a personal testimony for themselves. What church should we pick for our age? Laodicea. Because they're lukewarm, but I don't know about you, but I'm not lukewarm. I don't think my church is lukewarm. As far as I can see, the people in our church are fired up about the things of God, they're preaching the gospel, they love doctrine, they ardently defend the faith, and that's why the church, two and three, are actual churches. And it's for that reason that God told them to read those letters in each of those churches. So the letter that the church at Ephesus got, they had to read that at Laodicea. The church that Thyatira got, they had to read that at Pergamos. Well, that doesn't really jive if you're dealing with church ages, you understand? And so it's a false doctrine and it doesn't work. The Bible is referencing churches, it's actually talking about physical, local, New Testament churches. You're in Acts 11, I'm going to read to you from Acts chapter 8. It says, And Saul was consenting unto his death, and at that time there was a great persecution against the church, which was at Jerusalem. Now, you have a problem here if church means the church, a universal church, because of the fact that it's actually describing a local assembly at a centralized location in Jerusalem. And they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles. Now, why would they call it the church at Jerusalem if they're already scattered and the church goes everywhere? You understand? No, the reason it's calling it that is because there's a centralized location for this specific assembly. Look at Acts 11 and verse 19. We're going to read a lot of verses here. It says, Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose but unto the Jews only, and some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which when they were come to Antioch spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them and a great number believed and turned unto the Lord. This is basically another way of saying they got saved, amen. It says in verse 22, Then tidings of these things came into the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem, and came and had seen the grace of God, was glad, exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart there was Cleveland to the Lord. For he was a good man and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith and much people was added to the Lord. Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus for to seek Saul. Saul referred to Paul the Apostle. Verse 26 says, And when he had found him he brought him unto Antioch and it came to pass that a whole year Now hold on a second, if we see the church as being a universal invisible church, how is it that they could assemble with the church for an entire year? That doesn't make sense at all. How can you say, well I'm not part of the church, does that mean you're not saved anymore or what does this mean? Because according to their definition of what a church is, an invisible universal church, doesn't matter if you're right with God or not, Barnabas and Saul, known as Paul, assembled themselves to the church for an entire year, referring to the fact that they were with a local visible physical assembly there. It says, And taught much people and the disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. Go to Acts chapter 18, if you would, Acts chapter 18. And it doesn't take much to prove this but this is something that should be emphasized because of the fact that we consider ourselves to be an independent Baptist church. This is why we call ourselves an independent fundamental Baptist church. It's not just a cool way of saying Baptist folks, okay? You know, it's like, oh man, IFB, independent fundamental Baptist, independent means we're autonomous, just like the churches were in the book of Acts. In other words, we don't have a centralized location that watches after us. You know, that funds us or tells us what to preach and governs our church. We are self-governing, look at Acts 18 verse 19. It says, And he came to Ephesus and left them there. But he himself entered into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. When they desired him to tarry longer time with them, he consented not, but bade them farewell saying, I must by all means keep this feast that cometh in Jerusalem. But I will return again unto you if God will. And he sailed from Ephesus and when he had landed at Caesarea and gone up and saluted the church, he went down to Antioch. And after he had spent some time there, he departed and went over all the country of Galatian and Phrygia in order strengthening all the disciples. Again, he's going somewhere to a centralized location. He's saluting the church, referring to the fact that once he landed in Caesarea, there was an actual local physical assembly for him to address. Go to Acts chapter 14, if you would, Acts chapter 14. And so the first thing that a church should do is have a centralized location. I see that in the book of Acts where they met in a house, you have different believers that actually met in someone's house because of the fact that if it's a small enough congregation that there's not a whole lot of resources coming through, not a whole lot of tides, the pastor might need to use his house. And in fact, when we started our church, we started at someone's house. We didn't start at my house because my house is not big enough. But we had someone in our church that we can assemble there for a couple weeks until we can find a building. But then after that, as the church begins to grow, at that point, we need to move to actual physical building. You understand? And in fact, the next chapter one, when you see the church is being assembled there, there's about 120 people that are meeting together in a house. And of course, as they began to grow, 3,000 to 5,000 people were being added daily to that church. They would obviously have to move from that location to somewhere else. So what a church is supposed to do is have somewhere to meet. You say, why is that important? Well, because there's certain ordinances that God has commanded us to do that can only be carried out at a centralized location. You can't do it at a house church. And when I mean a house church, I'm talking about this movement that seeks to have five different leaders and no one has, there's not one leader. They have a board of people and they share what they think the Bible means or what it's saying or what it's being interpreted as. No, we need a physical centralized location. And I'll get into it later on, but one of the reasons it's important to have a centralized location is because how do you exercise church discipline? How do you put away from among yourselves that wicked person if there is a universal church? It doesn't make any sense. So number one is that a church is supposed to have a centralized location to meet in. Number two is a church is supposed to have an ordained leader. Now this can come in the form of a pastor or an evangelist. Someone who is temporarily taking over until a qualified leader can then take the reins and become the pastor of that local assembly. Look at Acts chapter 14 verse 21. It says, And when they had preached the gospel to that city and had taught many, many of them in Antioch confirming the souls of the disciples and exhorting them to continue in the faith and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. And when they had ordained them elders in every church and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord on whom they believed. Now a lot of times in the New Testament, the Bible will actually use elders way more than pastor, use them more than bishop because elder simply means someone who is spiritually mature. You think of someone who's elderly, physically speaking, means that they're older. Well when the Bible uses that term, it's referring to someone who is older in the faith. And in order for someone to lead a congregation, you don't just need someone who is older, you need someone who is older in the faith. Not a novice, less being lifted up with pride, he falls into condemnation of the devil, the Bible says. And so every time you see the term elder there, they'll let that throw you off and you'll be like, oh man, don't the Mormons call each other elders? Those are elder berries, okay, because they're fruits. It's really referring to pastors. And you'll see this is a common thing throughout the New Testament, you'll see this in the book of Titus, that elders are being ordained to oversee congregations and assemblies. Go to 1 Timothy chapter number 5, 1 Timothy chapter number 5 if you would. So a church is supposed to have an ordained leader, whether that's an evangelist, whether that is a pastor. A lot of churches will start satellite church plants and they will not ordain a pastor there, but they will ordain an evangelist, someone who can lead the congregation and lead them in soul winning, preach to the congregation, et cetera, until they are either qualified themselves or someone else is selected to take over that church. Now you're in 1 Timothy chapter 5 I'm gonna read to you from Titus 1 verse 5, it says, for this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting and ordain elders in every city as I had appointed thee. Now let me ask you this, if he's saying that elders are needed in these churches and he's saying to set things in order, that means if there's no leader, things are what? Disorderly, right? So according to the Bible, God's order is that there is a leader there to basically rule over the congregation, oversee the congregation, fulfill the ordinances of the local New Testament church, that's what the Bible tells us. Look at 1 Timothy chapter 5, now you say, well no, you know, I don't agree with that, I think we need to have multiple leaders and then you can pow wow with them and you can vote on, you know, what the church should do or vote on where the finances should go, where the resources should be spent, you know, what areas we should go and what the church should come up with, I think we all need to collectively have the authority over the church. Well look what the Bible says in 1 Timothy 5 verse 17, let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor. Now how do you do this if there's multiple elders, right? How do you do this if there's multiple leaders? Here it's telling us that the elder that is ruling well, he's studying to show himself and prove them to God, the good and doctrine. So the Bible's specifically commanding churches to honor their pastor, okay? Gotta honor him, man, you know? You know, give me a Coke or something and give me double, instead of double honor, I'll take a double double and I'll consider that double honor, okay? Well more specifically, Luther says in verse 18, For the scripture said, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn, against an elder, receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses. Now how do you do that in a universal church? How do you do that in an invisible universal church that only works in a physical, local assembly? You know sometimes people gossip and they talk trash behind the pastor's back, they'll go to someone in the church and say I don't like his beard, I don't like what he said in that sermon and there's no specific instruction to a church member regarding such an accusation, okay? Which can only be done in a physical church that has a leader, you understand? Go to 1 Peter, actually go to 1 Corinthians chapter 1, 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and then we'll go to chapter 14. This is why we'll never have a deacon board and it's funny because it's kind of sad actually, because the pastors are supposed to be the spearhead of this thing, right? Because they're the ones who are right on salvation, they know how to soul win, they have the King James Bible, they have the right doctrine, but they have allowed themselves to be influenced by these Protestants. By these Protestants they basically say well you know we have to have a deacon board, we have to vote and look in some fundamental Baptist churches it's really bad. Where the pastor's hands his congregation as he would want to for fear of the deacon board. I'm talking about something as simple as what color of the carpet should the carpet be or whatever, you know? What kind of flowers should we put for the spring program? You know, what kind of lights should we have? Like they literally have a deacon board which sometimes they're filled with women, okay? Determining what the pastor should earn as a salary, what kind of lights should be used, what kind of chairs, what kind of decorations, and they'll literally have a business meeting in church to determine those things. Phooey on that. I don't see anything in the book of Acts that states that that should happen. I don't see anything in the book of Acts that there should be a board of deacons supposed to serve the pastor. Where in the Bible does it say that a deacon is supposed to determine where the resources of the church are supposed to be allocated? Where the position of a deacon was even created in the book of Acts is to alleviate the pastor so he can study the word of God and pray and they have to go visit those who are sickly, those who are widows, those who are in need of encouragement and discipleship. That's actually the responsibility of the deacons. Not to meet together and pow wow together to control the pastor, okay? And look, there's times when there's been churches out there that have pastors that they can't preach certain things because of their deacons. They won't allow it. I'm thinking of one in particular. I don't remember if it was a deacon board but I remember this guy, his name is Patrick Boyle, okay? And he had enjoined himself to the new IFB and became, started believing like us and preaching like us and he had this church and he couldn't say certain things from the pulpit because, you know, his deacon board or his church members would just, you know, they might fire him or something like that and he would literally, he was like restrained from teaching the book of Revelation and he couldn't say certain things and hold certain positions because he just might get in trouble, you know? By the way, this is the same guy, by the way, who condemned churches like us for closing down during COVID for like a week when this is the guy who's actually afraid of his own church members firing his rear end for preaching the word of God, okay? It's called projecting, folks. But you know, he's not the only one. There's plenty of churches out there that are just like that where, you know, the pastor is just not free. Folks, at this church, I'm free to say whatever I biblically want. Right? And you say, well, what if like 99% of the church doesn't agree? Well, I'm still gonna preach it because my hands are not tied here, okay? Well, we'll vote you out. You can take a vote. Folks, El Mani took a vote of 15,000 signatures and petitions and didn't do nothing. They had to blow up my building to get me out of there. Signing petitions and voting won't do nothing here. But in certain churches, it does, okay? And so, you know, we don't see that type of structure or administration being given out in the book of Acts. According to the Bible, there's one ordained leader that leads the flock. And in fact, the Bible says in 1 Peter 5, let me read to you verse number 1, says, The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ and also partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. Feed the flock of God which is among you, listen to this, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but surprisingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind, neither as being lords or for God's heritage, but being examples to the flock. So here it says that the pastor, the shepherd, the elder, is supposed to oversee the congregation. That would mean that there's one leader, right? Now let me ask you this. How is it that if there's supposed to be multiple leaders and not one pastor, everyone is just kind of ruling over the congregation, then how does this make sense? Verse 4 says, And when the chief shepherd shall appear, he shall receive a crown of glory that faith is not a weight. So according to the Bible, there's actually a crown, a reward, that is designated for pastors. Well, that doesn't work if there is no pastors allowed. That doesn't work if you have a group of people who are leaving the congregation. It doesn't work that way. Now, don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying there can't be leaders in the church, right? We have leaders in the church. We have team leaders that are put in place by myself, right, to lead the congregation to be an extension of the pastor. But let me just say this. None of them are ordained. It's not like I laid hands on them and say, I now ordain you to be a team leader and you have the power over all serpents and to tread upon scorpions and if you drink any deadly thing, you know, it doesn't work that way, okay? Obviously, we have an administration here where we have somewhat of like under shepherds under the pastor to be an extension of the pastor to help people and disciple them and train them and lead them but it's not an official title, so to speak, where we see something in the Bible that the Bible's telling us to do that. That's obviously a preference of mine to help our church, okay? Now, what's another thing that a church should do? Well, I believe a church should baptize believers. I think that's very important, okay? And in fact, that's one of the reasons why we're called what? Baptists! I'm not a freaking Presbyterian. I'm not a Lutheran up here. I don't baptize babies. I don't baptize believers! Folks, the Great Commission is still the Great Commission and within that Great Commission is the mandate to teach all nations and then it says, baptizing them. Now, every time we baptize someone, we film it, I put it on YouTube and there's always someone who says, oh, you're doing it wrong. Supposed to baptize in the name of Jesus. Acts 2 38, in the name of Jesus. Let's just ignore Matthew 28 then, right? Let's just forget that Matthew 28 is just there, right? Let's just forget that it's there. No, let's not forget that it's there. Jesus said, 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. So according to the Bible, we get people saved and then we have the responsibility to do what? To tell them, hey, you need to get baptized. Now, thankfully, at our church, we have a lot of baptisms. In fact, I think we got a baptism tonight. We had two in the morning, we have one tonight, and if that person tonight was reconsidering to get baptized, it's too late. Too late! No, I'm just kidding. I think it's important. And let me just say this. Let me tell you what I personally believe, and if you don't agree with this, I'm not mad at you. It's okay, we can agree to disagree, but this is how we do it at our church. I personally believe based upon what the Bible says, that only ordained people should baptize. And I'll take it a step further. I think that only saved people should baptize. So saved, ordained people should baptize. Now look, I have pastor friends who disagree with that, and I wouldn't say that they're wrong on their part. That's what they do in their administration. That's perfectly fine. That's why we're independent, amen? We're independent because we have different administrations. I'm just saying, and by the way, it's not a hill that I'm gonna die on. I'm not going on some crusade to say, I'm gonna baptize. I'm talking about in our local assembly. That's what I believe. That's what we're gonna do. You know, because sometimes people take it upon themselves to baptize believers even though they're not ordained, or sometimes they're not even saved or something. And in fact, you know, I saw a story yesterday, and someone was standing in front of a church that was started by Roger Williams, okay? And Roger Williams is like one of these Baptists from like one of the first Baptists in America, and you know, he kinda kick-started a lot of churches. But what a lot of people don't know about this guy, because a lot of Baptists actually esteem him as being like a really godly person, and this guy is just, because he's like one of the first Baptists to come to America. But what a lot of people don't know about this guy is he actually baptized himself. Yeah. This guy baptized himself. Now, how do you do that? I don't know. It's like, like, like, I mean, like, you just get in the pool, and you're just like, how do you do that? Silly. And obviously, that's an extreme example. But what I'm saying is that a local assembly should baptize believers, and obviously, you know, the most important thing for us is that people get saved, amen? We want to get people saved and give them the gospel, but we also want to take the other commandments into consideration and put an effort into actually executing them. That's why we added this step that when we get someone saved, we immediately follow up with, do you want to get baptized? We follow with, you need to get baptized. We want to strike while the iron is hot, and in our church, we've created a culture that when someone gets saved, we immediately ask them to get baptized. And so that's why we get a lot of people baptized. You know, and sometimes they say no, and it's just like, all right, well, then we move on or whatever, you know? But you get what you emphasize, amen? Look what it is, 1 Corinthians 1, verse 12. Actually, let's skip that. Go to chapter 14, because I got some more points I want to go over here. And look, my personal preference is simply this, is that people should get baptized as soon as they get saved. I don't think people should wait. I don't think, you know, you need to throw a big old party. You need to have this whole baptism celebration thing going on. And the reason I say this, because that's a very common thing amongst Christians sometimes. I mean, I remember when I first got saved, it's just like someone told me, all right, you need to get baptized. And I'm like, well, I'm still going to wait till next week. I told them. And then I brought my family and I got baptized, but I should have done it right then and there, looking back, obviously. People want to throw these parties. And here's the thing, this comes from the liberal churches, by the way. Baptism Sunday, come join us where God happens and baptisms. You know what I'm talking about? Baptism Sunday. It's code four. We don't get anybody baptized. So we're just going to choose one Sunday out of the year something to baptize everyone to make it look like we're just getting a bunch of people baptized. OK, that's what it's code for. OK, whereas here it's baptism Sunday every Sunday. I'm not saying every Sunday we get baptized, but for the most part, we get a lot of people baptized. And it's not like, oh, you know, we're just going to throw this huge party. This is what you get when you get baptized. I tell everyone to just look over at you as you're being dunked in the water. And then I tell them to go to, you know, talk amongst yourselves and they're dismissed and all that. And I'm not saying baptism is not special. Obviously it's important. That's why we emphasize it. I'm just saying that we're not going to go down this liberal route where we keep the baptismal empty, you know, because we're just not getting anybody baptized. And in fact, I was part of a church plant where I say this to my shame. They're like, you know, we shared this building with Southern Baptists. They would rent us. I wasn't in charge, you know, but I was serving there and these were Southern Baptists. They were NIV toters and whatnot. And they said, you know, you can't baptize every week here because we use the baptismal for storage. So you just let us know a date when you would like to baptize people and then we'll get the water ready and all that. Because that church would know, they wouldn't baptize all the time. I'm talking about the Southern Baptists. They'd baptize like once a year or something, maybe like one person. And I guarantee maybe that one person would probably not even say it, to be honest. And it's just like, well, what if people just want to get baptized now? You know what I mean? Like, we should just do it now. It's like, well, we got to let them know in advance and we have to pick a date. Make it, you know, real special and have the lights and the smoke and the mirrors and have Eminem playing in the background, lose yourself. And I'm not joking. It's out there. I'm not messing around. Okay, they actually do that. Folks, the only music we have here is like, you know, whatever's playing on the computer or Eric's playing something on the piano. And we just dunk them right then and there. Okay. When you don't baptize consistently or at least try to baptize consistently, ask people about baptism, people start getting a little wonky on their baptism doctrine. Because then they start getting baptized again and again and again to kind of like recommit their lives into the Lord. I haven't even heard that before. I just need to recommit my life. I need to rededicate my life to God. I mean, just people who get baptized like twice a year or something like that because they backslide and they go back to baptizing. Baptism is not to dedicate your life, folks. You dedicate your life on a daily basis when you die daily. Okay. Now when you get baptized, if you're getting baptized to rededicate your life, all you're doing is washing away all the dirt from your skin. Okay. That's all you're doing. There's nothing spiritual about getting dunked in the water to rededicate your life. It's death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Okay. It's a public profession to say I believe on Jesus Christ, I'm saved, and I want to identify with my Savior through water baptism, immersion. And so I believe a church should baptize believers, and I want to keep that culture in our church. I think it's an awesome thing where it's just like the norm here where people get saved. There are people who get saved here, and they get baptized. That happens a lot. Okay. And so a church should baptize believers. Also, a church should be geared towards Christians. Okay. What do I mean by that? This church should seek to benefit and help Christians, people who are saved, people who are believers. Now, that's not to say that unsaved people are not going to waltz in here, because obviously they do. But when they come in here, we want to get them saved and help them to assimilate to the local New Testament church. But we're not going to gear the service to the unsaved. That's why we don't have purple lights and the smoke machines and the concert and whatever, because it's not geared towards the unsaved. Verse 22 says, Wherefore tongues, verse 22, Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not. But prophesying, referring to preaching, serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe. So we're saying, you know, biblical preaching doesn't really benefit an unsaved person, because the unsaved person, also known as a natural man, receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. It doesn't really help unsaved people. It just goes over their head. I mean, sometimes it even goes over saved people's heads, right? As this prophesying will serve them that believe. It says in verse 23, If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, in other words, a person who doesn't know that language, or unbelievers, will they not say here, Matt, you know, if someone comes in here and says, this is weird, this is not a Chinese person in sight, but everyone's speaking Mandarin. But if I'll prophesy, in other words, preaching God's word in a known tongue, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all, and thus are the secrets of the heart made manifest, and so falling down in his face he will worship God and report that God is in you of a truth. This is one of the reasons why we call them doctrines. Because when we go out and preach the gospel, that's what we're doing, we're preaching the gospel. Now if they come here, they're coming here on our terms. This is our turf, because this local assembly is meant to preach God's word and the entire counsel of God, the deep things of God, doctrine, and so when someone comes here and they hear that, there's a little bit of peer pressure, good peer pressure from the church that is supposed to be geared towards believers. Now, they often say this is a difference between an evangelistic service and a soul winning church. Because I often say a soul winning church or an evangelistic service is more like a service where we only bring people here and get them saved here. Whereas a soul winning church will seek to basically get their people out to go and preach the gospel and get people saved out there. Okay, amen. I would be against a church that only does evangelistic services and does no soul winning. Because they're only depending on the track, they're depending on the door hanger, they're depending on whatever gimmick they're throwing out there to try to get people to come here and then the numbers aren't necessarily always clear on that. When you're given a gospel presentation, are there people that are equipped to know if people are saved? There's a lot of things meaning that the individuals in your church are equipped to preach the gospel then there's nothing wrong with having an evangelistic service because the people know how to go soul winning. So you bring in the sinners here, you bring the unsaved here and the soul winners who are already equipped can check on their salvation. So there's nothing wrong with having an evangelistic service but there is something wrong with having an evangelistic service at the expense of just not doing any soul winning whatsoever. Even when we have an evangelistic service, it's not going to be geared towards the unsaved. The only thing that will be geared towards the unsaved is the fact that we preach the gospel to them because that's the message for the unsaved, amen? But we're not going to have, I don't know, hoochie mamas up here and a rock band, a punk rock band up here and a pony up here. We're not going to have farm animals up here so the kids can come and we're not going to be giving out goldfish or whatever. Go to Ephesians chapter 4. What is the church supposed to do? Well number one is that it's supposed to have a centralized location. Number two is that it's supposed to have an ordained leader. Number three is supposed to baptize believers. Number four is that it should be geared towards believers. It should equip Christians. You see we don't just meet here just to say, hey what's up Moses? Good to see you once a week or twice a week or something. There's actually a method to the madness here and the method is to equip you. Now here's four simple things that you can basically, we can summarize what we do here at First Works Baptist Church. And here's a good way, you'll remember this for the rest of your life. You'll remember this for the rest of your life forever. It's not really, but now that I say that you'll never forget it. We're here to normalize, evangelize, discipleize, and socialize. So we're here to normalize. What does that mean? We're here to bring Christians to spiritual maturity through the preaching of God's word. Why are you saying normalize though? Are you saying that we're not normal? All of us come to Christ not normal. Because normal to God is not what's normal to the world. You understand? And so when we come to Christ and when we get saved and then we get in church and we start learning the Bible we start hearing preaching we need some of these gears to start turning a little bit to become normal. Things that we would accept in times past become unacceptable Things that were unacceptable back when we were in the world are now acceptable to us now. It's unacceptable to go to church on a Sunday morning or something. Well now it's not only acceptable it's necessary. It's a conviction that we have. So we're here to really stabilize and normalize people from seeing things the worldly way to seeing it through a biblical lens. To behave like a Christian. Well if you have a rebellious wife for example, become an obedient wife. Thank you to the 15 year old back there without a wife. Hey you got guts my friend. Yeah we gotta normalize them. Gotta normalize them. Yup gotta normalize them. You know if there's a weak leader in the home if the man is a weak leader we're here to normalize that. Biblically normalize him to become a strong leader. And we can go on and on as far as what that spiritual maturity looks like but of course Ephesians 4 verse 12 says for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ. So we want to make a good Christian out of you. We want to fulfill your biblical role but not just that. Because look there's churches out there that are great at doing that. You know there's churches out there that preach on the family and they preach on how to be a good husband and how to have godly children and how to be a godly wife and how to have a godly home and I'm all for that preaching but that's not the only preaching that you need. We don't want to be a one sided show so to speak. God puts the focus on. And you know when it comes to the Bible we have to focus on a myriad of things. It's not just one thing. You know a lot of people they only want to talk about Bible prophecy. Or other people they only want to talk about the Jews. Other people are like well just tell me about the family. Other people are like well let's just talk about soul winning. Other people are just like well let's just talk about X, Y, and Z. No we got to talk about it all. About Christian or about reprobates. You know we have to talk about it all. We have to be a well balanced Christian my friends. And so that's part of normalizing someone is teaching them to be a well balanced Christian. But then we have to teach them how to evangelize as well. Because again the church is out there to know how to do the first part but they neglect the second part which is equipping believers on how to preach the gospel. Churches out there think that this is my job. Well that's what you're supposed to do pastor. You're supposed to be the the soul winner here. Yeah well so are you. That's your job too. That's every man woman boy and girls responsibility in our church my friends. This isn't a church where God's like only the pastor is supposed to be the soul winner. Let me just say this. I'm not the only one who can teach other great people here who know how to win souls to Christ on a weekly basis and they do a great job at it as well. OK why because we're a church that not only wants to normalize people but we also want to teach them how to evangelize as well how to preach the gospel. And you know don't become this Christian don't become this family don't become this individual in our church where it's just like well I go to a church or something. You should be on board with the rest of the church. Be a team player and recognize that the church is responsible to send you out. OK. We don't have Ronan Christians here. You know Ronan samurais out there just without a master or something like that. You know you have a church here and so be equipped learn how to preach the gospel get on board get on a team. Start getting serious about this stuff. OK. So we equip believers to normalize. We equip them to evangelize. We equip them to disciple eyes. I know that's not really a word but I mean it goes with it though. What does that mean. It means you need to learn how to invest in others. That means that you help someone else normalize. Right. You take someone else. Hey that means you hit you hang out with someone outside of church. You go have a bite with someone outside of church you go have a coffee with someone you go shooting with brother. I don't want to you know I don't want to you know call you out brother T but I guess too late now. You know you you go learn about things externally outside of the church you go hang out with other believers. Spend time with them. Love them. Create bonds with them. Right. Ladies that means you know you don't just like. This church ends. You actually get to know some of the ladies in our church. Right. Join a chat on on social media with the ladies in our church get to know some of the ladies in our church befriend some of the ladies in our church allow them to exhort you and to confirm you in the Lord. Amen. Invest in other people. You say well that sounds kind of you know I'm not really into that kind of stuff. Oh you mean not into the Bible and stuff is that what you're saying. That's what the Bible teaches though you know. Do good into others but especially of those of the household of faith. I mean that's in the Bible right. Yeah that sounds kind of soft. I don't know. I'm just not really. I'm more into like just you know I just just tell me how it is or I'll tell you how it is going best in someone. That's how it is. So normalize evangelize disciple lies and believe it or not we're here to socialize too. Now again here's the problem sometimes is that churches only some people only go to church just to socialize because they got their best friends there and you know they have their their comrades there and their buddies there and that's all they want to do for. And you know what that's wrong when it only becomes a social club. Now I would say First Works Baptist Church is somewhat of a social club. Right. We come here we want to hang out with each other. But let me say this there's a reason why this is last on the list. It should be a byproduct of being normalized. It should be a byproduct of evangelizing. It should be a byproduct of disciplizing. That's what it should be a byproduct of. Some of the greatest fellowship that you have is when you go sowing with somebody. Some of the greatest fellowship that you have is when you hang out after church and talk about the sermon. Talk about doctrine. Talk about prophecy. Talk about the Bible. Talk about the Lord. Amen. And so what is socializing means we provide fellowship. That's why we have food sometimes folks. So that you can break the ice with someone and say oh you you like donuts too. Oh is that your fifth one too. It's just a way to break the ice. Oh you're breaking your diet too. You know. Yeah. Just a way to break the ice and then by breaking your diet. And so you know we normalize we evangelize we disciple as we socialize. That's what a church should do. You know there's a lot of holier than dows out there aren't there. There's I don't know about that we should be here for God's word brother. Well isn't that what you're doing now. I scream and yell at you about doctrine for an entire hour. Can we have like 30 minutes of fellowship too. Sometimes we even have more than that. But all of these things are biblical my friends. OK. All of these things are biblical all of these things are necessary and in fact this is the example and model that we see in the New Testament. Is that they're fellowshipping together they're exhorting one and in fact how can you exhort one another daily without having friends. Because we don't meet daily. Right. We have church on Sunday morning Sunday night Thursday evening and there's the Bible saying to exhort one another daily if it says for sake not the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is. And previous to that it says exhort one another daily it means you have to develop relationships in the church to keep in contact with throughout the week. Hey let me say this your friends should be Christians. Well I don't know about that you know I got to kind of have my friends here and my friends here and you know know the Bible says that we should not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. And if you have a friend who's a believer who's not a believer try to win the Christ. But if not you know you should probably move on from that. And that's another sermon in of itself go to Matthew chapter 18 if you would. Matthew chapter 18. Talk about the things that a that a church should do. OK. It should meet at a centralized location. It doesn't have to be a fancy church building. I mean I mean I said everything but you know this is just as good a man. This is providing everything that we need. A church should baptize believers. It should be geared towards believers. It should provide preaching for believers. The services should be geared towards them it should equip believers but also a church should provide disciplinary structure. A church should supply disciplinary structure. OK. And what I mean by that. Well. A church should be a place where believers can hash out their differences between one another. In a civil manner. OK. You know if there is a financial things or you know odd against one another. U.S. Christians should be able to hash that out as a church. Because God has actually ordained this institution to have people that have enough discernment and sense in the Bible. To actually you know resolve conflicts. Now obviously when there's like legal things such as like you know. Pedophilia or something like that. At that point we designate that to the law. But again that's a that's because our church is structured in that way. So if there's some pedophile in our church and we find out about it we just. We just called 911. I have. A freaking reverberate here and if you don't know what that is that's a pedophile. And I need you to come pick him up because he's on church premise right now. We're throwing him out. You can pick him up. We don't want nothing to do with him. But we're not talking about those things though. Talk about just conflicts between believers with another believer. And you know just things just arise because of relationships business woes or whatever it may be. We need to provide disciplinary structure. Look what it says in Matthew 18 verse 15. Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee. What does that mean. It means he wrongs you. He sins against you. He borrows money from you telling you he'll pay you back and he doesn't pay you back. Go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone. Go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone. You go confront him to his face. Hey bro you owe me money you say you're gonna pay me back what's up. If he says what money. I don't know what you're talking about. Well if he shall hear thee thou wast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee then take with thee one or two more that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. So you go take another brother with you to go confront that individual because a church provides this disciplinary structure of taking another believer to go confront this individual over their offense. OK. Because you know two or three witnesses there's some pressure there for that person to just humble themselves and get right. Right. It's just like oh man he's bringing his buddies all right. I did wrong. I'll give you those 20 bucks. Whatever. Tomorrow. Verse 17. And if he shall neglect to hear them. Tell it unto the church. Now let me explain what that means because this is not saying you should go around and gossip about that. Dude owes me like 20 bucks man. I'll talk to you in a bit. That dude owes me like 20 bucks. He's just like recruiting people. What this is referring to is the pastor should come before the church. Because we need to follow this structure of disciplinary discipline in our church where you know if this is taking place the leader should rebuke that person before all. You know. If G owes me 20 bucks or owes John 20 dollars and John's like he's not willing to give me those 20 dollars. We already confronted him. He's not repenting. You know and I go up to G and I'm like you need to give him those 20 bucks. He's offended by that. And he's like John can go jump in the lake. OK. We're not friends anymore. Ever since he stopped sitting by me I stopped sitting by him. We just never been the same. And so I'm not giving him nothing. And I'm like you're not going to repent of that. He's like no because I don't think I owe him that money. Then at that point I come before the church and I rebuke Gio in front of the entire congregation. You get picked on because you're in the front. And I said this delinquent Christian here is not willing to pay John back the 20 dollars that he owes him. We've already confronted him about it. And he's unrepentant. You know this guy is going to get thrown out of the church tonight. Get out of my face. You know and just rebuke him before the church. That's what the Bible's talking about. He says if he shall neglect to hear them tell it unto the church. But if he neglect to hear the church let him be unto thee as a heathen man and as a publican. So that means after service if Gio comes to me and says I'm sorry. I got the 20 bucks right here. And I repent. I want to get right. I don't want to be kicked out of church. And then you know it's all good. OK. But if he's like you know I got the 20 bucks here and I'm about to go spend it right now. Then he's unto us as a heathen and as a publican in other words he's he's like an unsafe person to us. I mean we're questioning his salvation. God just says treat him like he's unsafe. OK. Verse 18. Verily I say unto you whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. God is saying I support this disciplinary structure of the church. So when a church makes that call the leader of the church makes that call. We have God's backing on that where God says yeah Gio's. He's a delinquent like. See a Gio you know. And he supports the decision we make as a church. Why. Because the church is supposed to provide that disciplinary structure. OK. It's not like well we hear no evil see no evil speak no evil. Go to First Corinthians six. First Corinthians six. Look at verse number one of First Corinthians six it says dare any of you having a matter against another go to law before the unjust and not before the saints. John are you seriously going to sue Gio in a court of law for 20 bucks because you can't resolve this here. You're you're willing to go before unsaved wicked judges by the way who are super wicked unrighteous people to resolve a spiritual matter between brethren. He says Do you not know that the saints shall judge the world. Don't you know that you're going to be ruling and reigning with Christ for a thousand years. You know if you can't rule a small matter like this what makes you think you're going to be qualified to go rule in the millennial reign. Do you not know that the saints shall judge the world and if the world shall be judged by you. Are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters. No you're not that we shall judge angels. How much more things that pertain to this life. If then you have judgments of things pertaining to this life set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church. God is saying you can choose the most novice Christian in the church to judge a matter before you go to some wicked unrighteous judge in the court system. They'll do a better job because they don't understand. You know the judges don't understand spiritual matters but you at least know that the Bible tells us to allow ourselves to be defrauded or to take this before the church and to discipline this person according to church standards. And so this is what a church should provide. It should provide a structure for discipline. OK. Go to Malachi Chapter 3 if you would. Malachi Chapter 3. I'm going to breeze through these last three here because we're simply out of time. The local church. Here's another thing that a church should do. The local church should be the object of our giving. It is my personal belief based upon the word of God that the local church should be the object of our giving as Christians. Look what the Bible says in Malachi Chapter 3 verse 10. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be meat in mine house and prove me now here with say the Lord of hosts if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that there should not be room enough to receive it. Go with me if you would to Galatians Chapter Number 6. Galatians Chapter Number 6. I believe that the tithes and offerings should go to the local New Testament church. And people say well you're quoting Malachi that's in the Old Testament. Well Abraham gave tithes prior to the Old Testament covenant being instituted at Mount Sinai. Gave tithes into Melchizedek prior to that law being instituted. OK. Now what is a tithe? That means 10 percent of your gross income should go to the local New Testament church. And look I've been giving to whatever church I've been in of course now our church since I became a Christian and I love it because of the fact that it alleviates me from giving to some lame you know organization out there who knows what they're going to do you know the people who aren't get that they got the entire white suit and the white gloves and they got a little bell the Salvation Army and they want you to give them a little donation. Folks anytime people ask me would you like you know how you're purchasing something at the store and they just love putting you on the spot. This is like would you like to give two dollars to starving children in Africa. What a bunch of jerks. How dare you ask me that in front of this long line behind me. Because you know they do it and they do it. That's on purpose you know I mean because it's just like no you know. Not me though. I tell them I do all my giving through my local church. Or I'll tell them I already donated all my money to the local church. I'm donating it to starving souls. That's what we should say right. I've actually donated all my money to starving souls. And it's more than two dollars. And you know the Bible God has instructed us. Obviously the church should be the source of where we give our resources to so we can keep this thing going. So we can keep preaching the gospel so we can keep reaching the law so we can put more content out there so we can continue to grow and reach the world for Christ. But even more than that is that you know the Bible says where your treasure is there where your harpy also. And so when you give to your local New Testament church it actually endears your heart to that church. It endears your heart to that ministry. The investment of your time does that. Absolutely. But you know what. Sometimes our hearts are attached to our wallets. That's the truth. So wherever you place your resources and your investment your heart's going to follow. And that's why I can tell. And by the way you say well who ties in our church pastor. I don't know. But I would say this just from that principle alone I would say pretty much everyone ties in our church. You say well how do you know that. Because I see everyone's invested in our church. I see the people in our church love our church. They are invested in our church. You stay the whole day on Sunday I would say you probably tithe. You know I turn off all the lights in the building you still stick around. You probably already tithed to our church. I get up here and I scream and yell about turning off all the lights and stop fellowshipping and do this and you still do it. It's probably because you're already tied into our church. Because you're already invested in the church. Understand. And so the local church should be the object of our giving. And in fact if you want the most bang for your spiritual buck. It's better to invest it in a local church. Not in some stupid organization where you're not going to know where that money's going. It's going in someone's pocket. I don't trust the Salvation Army. They're not preaching the gospel and if they are I'm pretty sure it's a false gospel. I'm not giving to Walgreens little thing of feeding some starving child in Mongolia or whatever. I don't believe it. I'm not buying it. You say why would you invest in this church because I see soul winners in this church. I see the numbers. You know what I'm more concerned with than the actual finances of how much is coming in is how much salvation are we getting. How many baptisms we're getting in. How many new people are coming. How many people are being changed. That's what I see. And so if I see people getting saved. If I'm seeing people getting baptized. If I see marriages are being restored. If I see people being normalized. If I see people just you know living and serving the Lord. For me it's like that's where I want my investment to go. And I'm not just talking about my tithe either. I tithe to this church. Let me say this. I also give my offerings to this church as well. My free will offerings go to this church. To missions in this church. To whatever this church needs. This is where our money goes as far as my my wife and I are concerned. OK. Because I tithe. But you know what I want to give a free will offering to. You say why. Because I want more rewards. When I get to heaven. I want more rewards at the millennial reign of Christ. OK. And the more I invest into this church that's producing souls being saved. Baptisms and people being dedicated unto the Lord and serving God. You know what the more bang for your buck that you're going to get. OK. Now I'm not saying don't invest in other churches invest in other churches if you want. But it's my personal belief that you should invest in your local New Testament church. OK. And by the way I do believe that if you're coming to this church you should tithe to this church not tithe to other churches. I think that's a biblical principle as well. OK. And in fact look what it says in Galatians 6 6. Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teach it in all good things that word communicate means to basically distribute resources too. That's how the Bible is using it there. And it says there be not deceived. God is not mocked for whatsoever man soweth that shall he also reap. In other words when you invest resources into something you're going to reap the benefits or the consequences of that. You know there's people out there that are like I knew someone that told her family and this person was very wealthy and they got saved. The reason I say this because it's very questionable but they said you know this person was very wealthy and they said I'm not giving a single dime to any of you and talking to their family. I'm not giving a single dime to any of you. They said all my money is going to the San Diego Zoo wild animal park. That's what they said. Like when I die all my money is going to all the animals at the wild animal park and you know whatever. Well if that person is saved first of all those animals are going to burn. Just read Revelation 8. We're all going to die. OK. But secondly that person's investment will burn with that because we get no rewards my friends for investing in San Diego Zoo wild animal park. God doesn't look at that as like oh you're investing in my creation. Wrong. The church should also be not only the object of our giving but it should be the object of our service. This is the place where we should learn how to serve others. OK. The Bible says in Romans chapter 16 verse 1 I commend unto you Phoebe your sister which is a servant of the church which is in Chantria that you receive her in the Lord as becometh saints and that you assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you for she hath been a sucker of many and of myself also. Go to First Timothy chapter number three if you would and that'll be the last portion of scripture that we visit tonight. The church should be the object of our service. This is where you should learn how to sow in. This is where you should learn how to be a blessing to others. This is where you should learn how to lead your family. This is where you should learn how to be a blessing to others. And we try to provide as many opportunities for that. You know I'm thankful that the pregnancy list is always just always growing. You know God's blessing our church. But one of the reasons I'm thankful for that because it gives our gives our people an opportunity to be a blessing to them by you know sending them a meal or you know just providing some sort of resource for them that they need. I mean that's a big blessing. OK. And so this place should be an object of our service whether it's bringing people to Christ bringing people to church getting people saved helping love one another. I think it's a great opportunity for us to do so. OK. And then the church should be the epicenter of truth. The Bible says in First Timothy Chapter 3 verse 15 But if I tarry long that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God which is the church of the living God the pillar and ground of truth. And folks let me just say this. You know if you have a local New Testament church where the truth is being spoken. Why are you going to like political news. Why are you going to some idiot on YouTube that's probably not even saved. And if he is he's doing the wrong thing to help you to distinguish between the left and the right. Right. The only left and right we should be going to is the left of our Bible and the right of our Bible. Amen. Right. Right. You know we don't need to be listening to podcasts of these unsaved people who are trying to deceive you with this false left right paradigm. OK. I'm not left and I'm not right because both of those wings are part of the same bird. And I'm not on that bird. You heard. You know we as Christians should have enough sense and discernment to be outside of that scope. Let the Republican Fox News Baptist fall for that. Let them be carried away with the deception of this world and the fake news by you know what's that Jews name Ben Shapiro. OK. Let them be carried away with the the deception of Ben Shapiro and all these Republicans and Fox News Baptist and even some of these conspiracy guys on YouTube. Let them let them be carried away with that nonsense. Folks we have the Bible. Why are you going before the unrighteous. To judge these matters of the world folks we have the truth. This is the pillar and ground of truth. The word of God is the pillar and ground of truth not some stupid YouTube channel. OK. Where most of them are probably flat earthers anyways. Lost credibility already there. Right. You know the church should be the source in the pillar and ground of truth that's what it should be. And unfortunately you know the reason why a lot of conservatives or a lot of Christians should I say you know converted to the religion of Republicanism and being conservative is because their pastor in their church was not wasn't preaching enough on the truth. So they need to go find it somewhere else. And unfortunately what they think they found is not the truth. They think they found the truth but it's not the truth. We as a church you say well who are you voting for. Nobody. You know that already. I don't vote. I don't care for those things. And look. If you if that's your thing and you like to vote and you believe in Trump and all that stuff or whatever. I'm not against you. You know what I mean. I think the guy is good. As far as like Collaris is concerned you know. I like him better than Biden. OK. And if he becomes president in 2024 you know I think I told him I was like I'm almost tempted to vote for Trump just because I want to be entertained again. You know because this term is boring. This guy's weird. He just doesn't is incoherent and he's not as excited. I'm almost tempted to vote for Trump just to get just to liven things up around here you know. But obviously I'm not even going to do that. What I'm saying is this you know we as a church should have enough sense that when the world is falling apart we don't fall for that deception. You know if the world is getting darker. We need to get into our Bibles more is what it means not into a podcast more not into some YouTube dude out there who's trying to decipher you know what's the next move or what's going on in this country. Who cares. I'm here to win souls to Christ to preach the word of God to look at things in light of the Bible. And be swayed by that. You understand. And so these are the things that a church should do. All right. Let's pray. Thank you so much for your word and I thank you Lord for the truth. And Lord I pray that you'd help us as a church to fulfill these responsibilities Lord and take them to heart. And a lot of these virtues a lot of these these things that we see in the word of God they're being relinquished by many churches. And I pray that Lord you'd help us to to continue in them to continue to practice them and not put them away not put them into practice not devalue them but recognize their importance and I pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. Please turn your song books to song number one. Jesus I my cross have taken. All to leave and follow the song number one the first song there and your hymnals. All together nice and strong on that first verse. Jesus I my cross have taken. All to leave and follow thee. Destined to despise forsaken. Thou from hence my all shall be. Perish every fond ambition. All I've sought and hope and known. Yet how rich is my commission. God and him are still my own. Let the world despise and leave me. They have left my savior too. Human hearts and loves deceive me. Thou art not like men untrue. And while thou shalt smile upon me. God of wisdom love and mine. Foes may hate and friends may shun me. Show thy face and all is bright. Men may trouble and distress me. It will but drive me to thy breast. Life with trials heart may press me. And will bring me sweeter rest. O, tis not in grief to harm me. While thy love is left to me. O, twere not in joy to charm me. Were that joy unmixed with thee. Haze beyond from praise to glory. Armed by faith and winged by prayer. Hence eternal days before thee. God's own hand shall guide me there. To shall close thy earthly mission. Swift shall pass thy pilgrim days. O shall change to plan for mission. Faith to sign and prayer to praise. Amen. Wonderful scene. Now the baptism. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.