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

Alright, so Ephesians guys, Ephesians chapter 1, I'm just going to get two verses out of that, just in the end there, verses 22 and 23, let's look at that again. The Bible says, And have put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, speaking of Jesus Christ, the head of the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all. The title of the sermon tonight is The Importance of Church. It's important to be in church tonight, it's important to be in church when the doors are open, it's important to be there for every service that you can be, because there's great blessings, there's great joy to be in the church. And who's the head of the church? Is that Kevin? No. Is that one of you guys? No. The head of the church here that we saw is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the head of this church. And whatever it is that I preach, I need to make sure that I recognise his authority above us. I can't be the one that calls all the shots, I'm going to try to make decisions based on the word of God as clearly as possible, but not every decision is in the word of God, that's why God has ordained men like bishops and pastors to oversee a church, because not every situation is found in the word of God. There's going to be these rare occasions where you go, how are you going to handle that? What scriptures are you going to use? People are going to have different opinions of how to manage that. Which is why there's a pastor, which is why there's a bishop, ideally in a church environment, because they've got to stand before the Lord and give an account for the church. They've got to give an account for what they've done. And so whatever it is that I decide to do in this church, I need to make sure that I have a clear conscience before the Lord. It's not to please me, it's not to please you, it's to make sure that I do the best job that I can to please the Lord. So we know that Jesus Christ, first of all, is the head of this church. What else are we seeing in this verse? Look at verse 23. Which is his body. This church is the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, that doesn't make full sense to me. When we think of the Lord Jesus Christ coming 2,000 years ago, he came and did great works for the Lord, healing the sick, preaching the gospel, organizing men, ordaining men, being a leader, being a great example, and then having the next generation follow after him. The Bible says that the church is his body, meaning that we've been left with the same responsibilities that Jesus Christ came 2,000 years ago. So Heavenly Father came and sent his Son, and the Son says that he's going to send us to do the same works, and maybe even the greater works, than what he was able to accomplish. Now, you might not be able to raise the dead, you may not be able to, you know, what does he do? Make the blind to see? Or cast out devils? You may not see that in your lifetime, but the one thing that you are able to do is preach the gospel and see souls saved. You're able to see souls saved from hell, and have their eternal destination in heaven forever. Hey, that's greater than casting out a devil. That's greater than moving a mountain into the sea. Seeing souls saved, they're going to spend eternity in heaven, and you're going to be able to see that person, and they're going to be able to thank you for all eternity. I mean, those are the great works that Jesus Christ has left us to do. And that's the job of the church. And one thing that saddened me, was when a lot of you had left, you know, a church, and not knowing exactly where to go, I said, no, we need to have a church. We need to have a representation of the body of Christ, and maybe this is the Lord's doing, so the gospel can be preached in other areas of Sydney. Because unfortunately, many churches that have the right gospel, that know the truth of the word of God, aren't doing the work. They're not going out and telling people about the eternal words of life. Hey, that's our job. That's our responsibility. That's what Jesus Christ has left us to do. Please turn to the book of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews chapter 2. The first thing that I want to ask is, what is the church? Hey, we've seen that it's the body of Christ, but what else can we learn in the scriptures? Hebrews chapter 2 verse 12. Hebrews chapter 2. And you guys can just stay in Hebrews, because I've got a few passages that we're going to turn to. Hebrews chapter 2 verse 12. The Bible says, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church, will I sing praise unto thee. So when we sing praises, what were we doing just a moment ago? We were singing praises to the Lord. And where are we meant to be doing that? In the midst of the church, right? Now that's a passage that is referred from the Old Testament. I'll just read it to you from Psalm 22. You guys keep looking at Hebrews 2.12. I'll read to you from Psalm 22, 22. It says, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the congregation, will I praise thee. This is the Old Testament reference of that New Testament. That's where it was taken from. That's what was being quoted. And the church here in the New Testament, in the Old Testament, it's called the congregation. Not only are we a church, that's just another way of saying a congregation. A congregation of God's people, a congregation of believers. We're here to be congregated together for the purpose of singing praises and worshiping God. Now if you can turn to Hebrews chapter 12. Turn to Hebrews chapter 12 verse 23. What else can we get here? Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12 verse 23. The Bible says, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirit of just men made perfect. You know what that's a church in heaven? And it's called the general assembly and church of the firstborn. Because when you've been saved, you've been born again. You've been born after the likeness of that new man, that new spirit. And one day we're going to have those amazing resurrected bodies which is going to be the same body as the resurrected Christ. Now it says here the general assembly and church. So what is a church? It's a general assembly. That's another way of saying congregation, right? But notice that it's a general assembly. It's an assembly of everybody. Adults, children, teenagers, right? With this church here, New Life Baptist Church in Sydney, we're not going to segregate the kids away. The kids are important. They can understand the word of God. If you've had your kids sitting in church for a while, you know that they'll pick up certain things. They may not pick up exactly what an adult can pick up, but they'll pick up something. I don't know if you've had times with your parents where you've sort of driven home from church and your kids have asked, hey, what was that about? You know, that was mentioned, that topic or whatever. You know, I'll never forget on the Sunshine Coast I was preaching on baptism and one of the little kids went to their parents and said, Mom and Dad, like on the same day, I need to get baptized. Like he was saved. But he realized when I preached on baptism, how old was he? How old was, I can't remember, maybe six, six or seven? Locky. Yeah, Locky. How old was he? Nine. Oh, nine, okay. But still, I mean, not that you're old, right? Listening to preaching on baptism, he knew that he needed to get baptized and we baptized him on the day. We didn't plan for it the week before. So, you know, even kids can understand things. This is why it's the General Assembly of all believers. Now, I know it was a hard job getting to church tonight. I recognize that. And, you know, again, as parents with lots of children, I know how hard it is. I've lived in Sydney most of my life, well, all my life, except the last eight months, right? I know how bad the traffic is. I'm really blessed that you guys were even able to make it. But let me give you some reasons to attend church because I know it was hard. I know it was challenging, especially traveling from Wollongong, right? I know it's hard to make a long journey like that. So let me give you some good reasons. Let me give you eight reasons why we ought to be attending church. Number one, you don't need to turn there, but I'll just read to you from Luke 4, if you want, you can turn, but I'd rather you stay in Hebrews for now. But number one, Jesus came and set the example for us. Now, when Jesus Christ came to this earth, not only did he come to die on the cross for our sins, not only did he come to keep the law of God perfect, but he came to set an example for us so that we could walk in his footsteps. Well, we're thinking about that no longer, footprints of Jesus. We want to follow after those footprints that Jesus Christ has left us. And I'll just quickly read to you from Luke 4, 16. It says, and he came, speaking of Jesus, and he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and as his custom was, and look, and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read. So what was the custom of Jesus? Now, if you look at the Old Testament, did God ever institute the synagogue? Was that ever part of God's plan? It wasn't, okay? Now, unfortunately, synagogues today, because of Judaism, they kind of mess up our understanding of what a synagogue is. Back then, in those days, a synagogue was similar to what we would consider a community centre, a place, a building, where the community could come and use it for various purposes. Obviously, on the Sabbath, they came to read the Bible, because remember, in those days, they didn't all have scriptures. We all have one, at least one Bible, maybe multiple Bibles. Back then, people didn't have Bibles, so they would have to come to a place and have the scriptures read, because remember, the scriptures back then were copied by hand, so they were rare to have copies of scriptures in your average house, so the community would come to that one place, to the synagogue. The synagogue was used for other things, just like a community centre. It could be used for weddings or receptions, for any kind of parties or kind of meetings, anything like that. It was used for that purpose. And we see, even though it was not something that was instituted in the Old Testament, we see how important it was for Jesus that it was custom for him, it was normal for him to, on the seventh day, go into the synagogue and hear the word of God being preached, to hear the word of God being read, and the discussions being had there. So we see, if that was important for Jesus, then how much more important... And Jesus is the word of God, by the way. I mean, he obviously grew in knowledge as a man, but he was God himself. He was the word of God. If it was important for him to be in church, then how much more important is it for us to grow and to learn from his example? You know, church attendance should not be a decision. You know, it was Jesus' custom. We should be saying, hey, going to church is our custom. It's the normal thing that we do. You know, and, you know, some people, most people go to church on a Sunday. You know, and many times on the weekend, families, unsaved families and friends, you know, have their parties, have their reunions, whatever. You know, family and friends should know, hey, if we invite so and so, we know it's their custom to go to church so they're probably not even going to turn up. I mean, it should be that normal, right? It should be as normal as you going to work. You know, you get up Monday morning, I've got work. You know, it's your custom to go to work. You don't make that decision. You don't go, should I go to work today? Well, you shouldn't, if that's you. You shouldn't be doing that, okay? It should just be part of your life. And church ought to be like that. Church ought to be just part of your life. You should never get to a point where you go, you know what? Should we be in church tonight? Should we be at church? It shouldn't be that way. Now, you know, obviously if you're sick, if there's some, you know, major issue as to why you can't attend, you know, so be it, you know. I'm not going to get cranky at you. If I don't see you for a couple of weeks, I'll probably call you and make sure you're okay. But, you know, if you don't turn up for a week, I'm not going to cranky crank you. But it should be our custom, okay? Now, number two, you should be in Hebrews. Go to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10 verse 25. Hebrews chapter 10 verse 25. The second reason that we ought to attend church is because we're commanded to, okay? God has asked us to be in church. It's our command of God. And if we love God, we're to keep his commandments. If you love Jesus Christ, we're to keep his commandments. And in Hebrews 10, 25, it says, not forsaking the assembling, now remember what church was, an assembly, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another. And exhorting means basically to build one another up and encourage one another and so much the more as you see that they approach him. So it says don't forsake. Don't neglect church attendance. This is a command of God. Now, we saw, you know, point number one, that it's the custom of Jesus. Jesus set that example. But look at the contrast here. It says that forsaking the assembling is the manner of some is, is the manner of some. There are Christians, there are Christians that go to church and it's not like you turn around and say, well, it's custom for them to be in church. It's like, well, it's their custom to not be in church. Okay, and that's what's being pointed out here in Hebrews 10, 25. Don't be that kind of Christian. Don't be the one like, it's a surprise that you made it to church? Awesome. You know, that's not a surprise. It's your custom to not be in church. You know, don't be like that. You know, make sure you're the one that's always there that's keeping the command of God. But notice that it says at the end of that verse, and so much the more as you see the day approaching, this is referring to the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is talking about the return of Christ when he's coming to rapture his saints, when he's going to give us those resurrected bodies. As we get closer to that time, and every day that we live, we are getting closer to that time, there should be more reason to be in church. There should be more reason to be gathered amongst the brethren, okay? And it kind of disappoints me that we're only going to be meeting, you know, generally once a week. But that's just the way it's going to be for now, because we're going to have to fly down on a Tuesday, have a Tuesday service, and then fly back. And ideally, if you feel comfortable to give us, preach a sermon, let me know, and we'll try to throw in a Sunday every now and again. And we're going to try to make an effort with my wife that not only would I fly down once a week, but once every three or four months, we're going to try to come down with the whole family and have a Sunday service as well as a Tuesday service. So there might be a Sunday service every three months, okay? So please, you know, it's just one Sunday service. Make it, you know? Please, be there. Please try to make it. But you know, we should be striving to have more church services. We should be striving to be gathered together with the assembling of ourselves together more often as we see it. And look, man, it's getting worse. I think we're seeing... And I feel, you know, I kind of don't like saying this, but it wouldn't surprise me if it's not too far away, you know, the day of the Lord coming. You know, but the thing is, all throughout history, as Christians, I've always said, yeah, it's coming in my lifetime. So I've kind of been like, oh, is it really coming in my lifetime? Could be my kid's lifetime. But it doesn't matter. Every day that goes past, we're getting a little closer to that day of the Lord Jesus Christ. Point number three. Look at Hebrews chapter 10, you're in there. Look at the verse before that. Verse 24. The third reason to be in church is to be provoked to love and good works. To be provoked to love and good works. Verse 24 says, and let us consider one another to provoke us to love and to good works. So we're to consider the brethren. The reason why we come to church isn't just for our sake, but for the sake of the brethren. So the brethren will be encouraged. You know, you being here tonight encourages me. And I hope as you look around and you see other people here, that encourages you. That we would be mindful of other believers and we know that being gathered together with other believers does encourage you. And be an encouragement. Don't be the depressed one. Don't be the one that's always complaining. Don't be the one that's always bagging our pastors and bagging our churches. Be the one that's positive. Be the one that's, hey, welcome, brother. It's such a blessing to have you here. Be that person. Usually there's one or two people like that in the church. I want the whole church to be like that. You know? There's been times where I've not wanted to be in church. You know? And I've been just down and cast down, whatever, because of problems of life. And then you turn up to church and there's someone, hey, brother, so good to see you. You know? And it's like, oh, okay, cool. I'm glad to be here. Because you know why? Because we have the flesh. And the flesh does not want to be in church. But when we're in church, when we're serving the Lord, when we're doing his work, it's nurturing that inner man. It's nurturing that spirit, the new man that's in you. And it's feeding that new man. And he loves it. The new man loves to be gathered with believers. But the flesh, selfish, doesn't want to be there, wants to be doing other things. That's the battle. That's the battle that we have as believers. We have that old man, the flesh, and we have the new man, the spirit. So we ought to provoke one another unto love and good works. Love. You know? And one thing that I've noticed with many Christians, the ones that do not go to church, the ones that just listen to online preaching, like, all the time, like, they might be filled with a lot of knowledge, but you know, knowledge puffs up. You know, they're filled with a lot of knowledge, and then they turn up to some church, and they just don't have a love. They just don't have a love for the brethren. They criticize everything. They say that everything's wrong. This could be better. That could be better. You know? This church is better. That church, this past is better. That's what online Christians that listen to online preaching, if they never set foot into church, they don't grow in love. That's why it's so important to be gathered together because as you get to know one another, you know, you start to love one another. And sometimes when someone's a little bit rude to you, you know, you might hear later on, oh, that person had some problems. That person was struggling with some difficulties. And then you'll understand why they were a little bit rude to you. You'll understand why they didn't greet you that time. And you wouldn't be so offended all the time. You know, and you'll grow in love, and you'll provoke, you can provoke one another unto good works. And I'm thinking right now, so many. The importance of going out, knocking doors, preaching the Gospel. I know how hard it is to be doing that work if the church you're in is not provoking you unto those good works. Or if you're not in a church, how hard it is to get out there and knock the doors and do it. Because you're not being motivated. You're not being encouraged to do it. It's so much easier to be sent by a church and to have a partner with you, even if that partner doesn't want to do any talking, if they're quiet, it's so much better because I don't want to let that person down. I want to go and knock those doors and encourage that person. Hopefully we can see someone saying. And they're encouraging me. Okay, so... Let's go to Acts... Well, actually, no, let me have a look. Let me see my notes. You can turn there if you want. Acts 20, 28. Acts 20, 28. Let me give you the fourth reason to attend church. Acts 20, 28. It says, It says, This is an instruction that's given to the overseer. You want to call it the bishop, the pastor, the older, whatever you want to call it. The instruction that's been given to the pastor is that they would feed the church of God, purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ, by the blood of God, okay? Now, the fourth reason to be in church is to be fed. It's to be fed the word of God, not to be fed... What do we have here? We've got chips. We can have that later on. We've got some biscuits. That's not my healthy food, sorry, Michael. But that's not what we're coming to church to be fed with, you know? We're coming to be fed with the word of God. I spoke about that inner man, that spirit, okay? What feeds that spirit is the book, is the Bible, is the word of God, okay? Now, we've got church once a week and sometimes Sundays if we can, so if you just came to church and you said, yep, I'm coming to just church to be fed, now, that's a good reason. That's part of the reason to be in church. But if that's the only time you got fed, then you're going to be a very lean Christian. You're going to be malnourished, okay? I mean, think about your physical life. If you only had one meal a week, how would you go? I mean, can you survive in one meal a week? If you have lots of water, I don't know. But you're not going to do very well. You're not going to last very long. Your life's not going to be able to live as long as you could, okay? So, in the same way, yes, you come to church to be fed the word of God, but you need to feed yourself. You need to go home and open your Bible and read and, you know, daily. You know, physically you have to eat daily, so why not spiritually? You know, you should start your morning with the word of God, but you need to make sure, we're talking about church tonight, you need to make sure that you're in a church that's feeding you the word of God. You need to be able to come out of there and say, hey, I was fed, there was something else taught there and I feel fuller. I feel better, you know? Now, I don't know, who can I pick? Juan, can I pick on you? What did you eat for lunch? Say it's Tuesday, right? So last Tuesday, what did you eat for lunch? You don't remember, good. That's the point. Okay, look, there's going to be times that I preach and I'm tired. I'm tired right now, it's probably not the best time. It's just like, I already knew that, there's nothing new brought to the table. You know, I've heard that sermon before. You know, we came to repeat this one last week kind of thing, you know, but you may not remember it. It might not have necessarily been something that was so groundbreaking, but it fed you. It fed you spiritually. I don't know, have you ever gone like a week and you go, what was the sermon? What was the sermon? I've gone to church and the preaching's over and I turn around, what's the sermon about? Like literally straight after the sermon. What was that about? I can't even remember. Babe, but I was fed. Okay, and sometimes you're going to eat a meal and you're just not going to remember what you ate. Well, sometimes it's the same meal that you had over and over again. Maybe, you know, family was busy and all you had was rice and beans, you know. Well, it fed you. It nourished you. And, you know, when it comes to the word of God, when it comes to preaching the word of God, you know, you may not hear necessarily the best sermons. You may not necessarily have the best preachers, but it's feeding you the word of God. That's the fourth reason why you need to be in church because it feeds the inner man. It feeds the spirit. Okay, the new man loves it, but the fleshly man sometimes likes to complain about the preacher, likes to complain about the sermons or whatever, okay. But it feeds the inner man. It's not there to feed the flesh. Okay, that's what the chips and the biscuits are for, to feed the flesh. Now, before we get to the fifth point, I just want to make a quick comparison of the Old Testament to the New Testament. So if you could please turn to 1 Timothy, 1 Timothy chapter 3, verse 15. 1 Timothy 3, verse 15. While you guys turn there, I'm going to read to you from 1 Chronicles 6, verse 48. 1 Chronicles 6, 48 and 49. This is about the Levites, you know, the tabernacle and the temple. You know, first it was the tabernacle when they were sacrificing the animals. Then they built the temple and they continued sacrificing the animals on the altar there. But it says in verse 48, their brethren, also the Levites, remember the Levites were the ones serving the temple in the tabernacle? Their brethren, also the Levites, were appointed unto all manner of service of the tabernacle, and notice the next words, of the house of God. So where the tabernacle was and where the temple was in the Old Testament, the Bible calls that the house of God. The Old Testament house of God was the tabernacle or the temple. Verse 49 says, But Aaron and his sons offered upon the altar of the burnt offering, and on the altar of incense, and were appointed for all the work of the place most holy, and to make an atonement for Israel, according to all that Moses the servant of God had commanded. So you can see there the tabernacle with the animals were being sacrificed, the blood was being shed, to picture the ultimate sacrifice being the Lord Jesus Christ and his shed blood, that is called the house of God. Now if you're in 1 Timothy 3, look at verse 15, 1 Timothy 3.15, it says, But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God. What's the house of God in the New Testament? Keep reading. Which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. So the house of God in the New Testament is the church. It's the local congregation. It's not that physical tabernacle, it's not that physical temple, it's not this physical building, as beautiful as it is, the church is you. The church is the congregation. It's the assembly of believers. And we're called the house of God. Because when we're gathered in his name, the two or three gathered in his name, he'll be there with us. And I know that's not really easy to understand, but somehow, Jesus Christ is here with us. And that's why when we come, we sing, we're not just singing for no reason, we're singing because God's presence is here. You may remember in the Old Testament, the glory of God would come, and his presence was literally there in the temple. In the same way, our bodies today are the temple of the Holy Spirit. And God dwells in us, and God is here in his church. Somewhere. He's here. He's omnipresent. He's everywhere. Now, with that as the basis, let's get to point number five. Point number five, if you want... Actually, yeah, let's do it. Turn to Psalm 122. Psalm 122. Psalm 122. One, two, two. Verse number one. Psalm 122, verse one. The fifth reason that you ought to be in church is to give you joy. It says, I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord. Now, obviously, this is Old Testament. Obviously, it's a song of David. So this is David speaking, going into the tabernacle, going into the temple to worship God. He said that when they said unto him, Let us go into the house of the Lord. And he was glad. He rejoiced. He wanted to be in the house of God. So if we take that application to the New Testament and the church to the house of God, then the fifth reason why we ought to be in church is because it gives us joy. It ought to give you joy. I hope you're happy today. I hope that you're happy to be gathered with believers and we're hearing the word of God being preached. You know, it's a place of joy. You know, if church is a place of depression and bitterness and anger and wrath, then really, we're not finding that joy that ought to exist in the house of the Lord. This is why I encourage you guys to, even if you're not feeling up for it, just try to be a blessing to others. You know, be mindful of other people because when you're mindful of others, you're going to rejoice and they're going to be mindful of you, okay? It ought to be a place where we can rejoice and be glad. We can rejoice in worship, rejoice in worshiping the Lord. You know, sing the songs. I don't care how bad your voice is. I don't care if you don't know the tune. Just sing it up. You know, sing it out of your heart, out of joy and abundance from your heart. Rejoice in the fellowship that we have with one another, with brethren, because, you know, seven days a week, you're in the world with unsafe people, you know, your workplace or, you know, your neighbours or whatever, unsafe family, friends. You know, you can't talk about the Bible with these people. They think you're crazy. They think you're crazy that you're even in church. We ought to be rejoicing that we're with brethren that has the same desire to be in the house of the Lord, to worship Him and to know the word of God more. It's important to be in the house of the Lord, especially while we're meeting once a week. If you miss one service, it's going to be two weeks before you go back into the house of God and find that real joy that you're going to find there. And just the last thing about giving joy, you know, bring joy to the life of others. I kind of already covered that, so I won't go into that too much. But the sixth reason, if you're still in Psalms, please send to Psalm 20. Psalm 20, Psalm 20, verse 1. The sixth reason to be in church is that church is a sanctuary from the world. And we kind of just covered that briefly there. A sanctuary from the world. Psalm 20, verse 1 to 3. It says, another psalm of David. The Lord hear thee in a day of trouble, the name of the God of Jacob defend thee. So here we see David in a day of trouble. He's been in trouble. He has distress. He has some type of anguish. And if you read the Psalms, you'll find that this is David's life. I mean, he's constantly, you know, being troubled. He's constantly having enemies trying to get him. As the king of Israel, of course, he had many, many enemies. So what does it say in verse number 2? Send thee help from the sanctuary and strengthen thee out of Zion. Remember all thy offerings and accept thy burnt sacrifice, Selah. So just to remember, what was the house of God in the Old Testament? The tabernacle, the temple where the sacrifices were made. What does David call this place? The sanctuary. The sanctuary. Now, a sanctuary, by definition, is a place of refuge. It's a place of safety from pursuits, from danger, from persecution. So the sixth reason to be in church is that we would have a sanctuary from the world. You know what? We're not being persecuted like David was. We're not running risk of losing our lives or sitting in traffic, maybe that way, but you're not going to lose your life right now for the name of Christ. No one's trying to kill us here in Australia, but still, the world's influence is there. It can kill our spirit, if you will, our desire for the Lord. Because in the workplace, I don't know if you guys work in offices, generally speaking, there's some sort of radio and it's playing all the world's music, and the world's music offer is just about drugs or not so much about drugs, but it's all about sex and it's always about ungodly living and it's about, so many songs now, just about homosexuality and you're not trying to work, but you're in an office full of other people and they want to hear that music and you're a Christian, you grieve the spirit, you try not to think about it, but the music is so catchy and it gets in your mind and you start humming and you're like, what am I singing? Why is that in my mind? We need a sanctuary. We need a place to come and sing those old hymns because those old hymns are wonderful. There's got a lot of doctrine in them. We can just refresh our mind. Hopefully, when you hear those worldly songs, you can bring to your remembrance some hymns and just mentally be singing those within you, but we need a place of safety. We need a place that doesn't resemble the world. So many churches today resemble the world, right? They have the rock bands. They've got all the fancy lights that look like a nightclub. They've got all the girls dressed in their miniskirts and all this kind of mess. It's disgusting. If I want that, the world's gone. Why do we need to come to church for that? But the church ought to be a place of sanctuary from the world, a place to be refreshed by the word of God, a place where you're not going to hear the dirty jokes and the ungodly music and so on and so forth. Let me give you the seventh reason to be in church. The seventh reason to be in church is to hear from the Holy Ghost, to hear from the Holy Spirit, not so much from Kevin or whatever other preacher but that we would be here to hear from the Holy Spirit. You don't need to turn there, but Revelation 2.7 says, He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. And that's mentioned seven times there in the book of Revelation because the book of Revelation was written to the seven churches in Asia Minor, which is Turkey, I think, today, and we hear that seven times that if you want to hear from the Spirit, you need to be in church. And if you miss a church service, there might be something there that the Holy Spirit wanted to say to you, but you missed it. You know, I remember that there have been times where I've been in church and I've had certain discussion with my Christian friends about certain doctrines, certain questions, and then the next week, the pastor preaches about it. You know, next week, the bishop preaches, answers those questions, but they're not there. You know, if they were just there, it's like God prepared that sermon in his heart to answer those questions they had and then they don't turn up to church. You know, they're missing what the Spirit had to say to them on that occasion, you know? But, you know, the Spirit speaking to you does not just come from the preaching. You know, you need to be here for the whole church service if possible. And again, I know Tuesday nights, family, work, get here, all that, you're probably going to be a bit late. Okay, I get that. That's okay. But still, don't make it a habit to miss, you know, the singing. Don't make it a habit to miss the fellowship. You know, try to be there on time so you can... Because the Holy Spirit will speak to you, not just from the preaching. You know, the Holy Spirit might speak to you through the songs, through the singing that you do. I mean, there's many times that I'm singing a hymn and I kind of feel, well, I'm a bit hypocritical singing that hymn. You know, I surrender all. You know, did I surrender? Am I really surrendering all? But I'm singing that and the Holy Spirit's saying, hey, you need to surrender more of your life, right? That doesn't mean we shouldn't sing it. The purpose is there so we can sing and be taught, you know, the Bible says that singing is teaching as well, but sometimes the Holy Spirit can just speak to you through the words of a song, you know? The Holy Spirit might speak to you through prayer. You know, when someone's up here praying, you know, you might just... At that point, you know, the Holy Spirit might be saying, hey, this is something you're not praying about. Did you know such and such is going through this? Pray for them. Did you know about this situation? Because they're praying about it. You may not have remembered it. And the Holy Spirit's saying, hey, this is something that needs to come to your mind and you need to pray for it, you know? All the church service is a way the Holy Spirit can speak to you. Or just a fellowship. Just a fellowship. Many times, you know, just fellowship, talking about the Bible, or just that encouragement that I mentioned before. Just having that encouragement from a brother may be the Holy Spirit there to encourage you in your Christian walk. Okay? So it's not just the preaching. Don't get in that habit of thinking, oh, I can just... You know, if we have a live broadcast this, I won't go into church today. I'm just listening to the preaching on the internet. No. You're going to miss how the Holy Spirit can speak to you in other ways through the church service. And the last thing I want to mention, point number eight, the reason that you need to be in church is to fulfil the Great Commission. To fulfil the Great Commission. Please turn to Matthew 28, if you can. Matthew 28, verse 18. Matthew. I was thinking about doing a whole sermon on the Great Commission, but let's just throw it in here. Matthew 28, verse 18. I don't know if you all know what the Great Commission is, but it's the work that Jesus Christ has left us to do. You know, after his resurrection, I think he mentions it three times at least, maybe four times, if you count, you know, some of the words that he says. But it's the work that he left us to do. Before he ascends up into heaven, he says to his disciples, the Christians, this is the work that I've left you to do. Matthew 28, verse 18. It says, And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. So Jesus Christ has all power in heaven and in earth. He says this to encourage us, because he's going to leave us work to do. And we're thinking, but Jesus, can we really do this work? Jesus, don't worry, I've got all power. You know, if I'm sending you, I'll just read to you quickly from Acts 1-8. Acts 1-8, it says, Jesus speaking, But ye shall receive power. Jesus speaking to his disciples, ye shall receive power. After that, the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and in Judea and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. So we see Jesus Christ, before he ascends into heaven, before he ascends into heaven, he tells his disciples that I'm going to give you this power. And when we see in Matthew 28, he says that I've got that power, which is that power that he's going to give to us to be able to do this great work of winning souls, preach the gospel. Matthew 28 verse 18, look at 19, the first part of verse 19, Matthew 28, 19. Jesus says, Go ye therefore, and teach all nations. You know, we get the benefit of teaching Australia. Go. You know, yeah, come to church, but then we're meant to go. We're meant to go and knock doors and preach the gospel, not just when the church sends you, but it should be part of your life. If you ever find yourself one-on-one with someone, give them the gospel. And I'm embarrassed to say, I haven't always done that. You know, when I've been one-on-one with someone, you know, I tend to forget. You know, you just don't, you know, whatever, whatever reason the flesh gives you, you don't end up giving the gospel. But then you feel ashamed, and you think, just give them the gospel. I should have just started planting some seeds. You know, Jesus Christ has come and given us that power. And I'll just quickly read to you Mark 16, 15, because you might be asking, well, teach all nations what? What do we teach all nations? Well, the answer is in Mark 16, verse 15, the other time that he gives the Great Commission, he says, And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature, to every creature, which is why we knock on every door if we can. Right? We try to knock on every door, we try to speak to every creature that we can to preach the gospel, because we won't see them saved. It's why Jesus Christ came and shed his blood. Not just so we can meet the church and fellowship, which is a wonderful thing, but that we can then carry that good news of salvation to this lost and dying world. Teach the gospel, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's the gospel. The death, burial, and resurrection, salvation by grace through faith on him, and not of works, not of you keeping the law, not of you keeping the commandments, right? Not you trying to clean up your life and repent from all your sins. Salvation is believing on his death, burial, and resurrection. One calls it a free gift for a reason, because it's free. It truly is free, paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ. Look at verse 19, the second part of verse 19. So after we teach them the gospel, it says, Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. So the next part of the Great Commission is not just preach the gospel and get them saved, but once they're saved, get them baptized, because baptism pictures that death, burial, and resurrection. It's an outward display of their faith. And if you're someone that has not yet been baptized, you're someone that is saved, you know you put your faith in Christ alone, you know you're saved, you know you're on your way to heaven, the next step of obedience is to be baptized. I mean if you read the Bible, you'll see that as soon as they believe, they get baptized. And if you're not yet being baptized, and I'm not talking about baptized as a baby, sprinkling, I'm talking about an immersion that represents that death, burial, submersion under the water, and then out again, the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. If you've not done that just yet, please let me know, because it's my plan that next Sunday, we should be meeting about 5pm, that I would do some baptisms. There's one guy that wants to get baptized, so please pray, by the way, that I'll be able to get a tub or something, because it's too cold. That water over there looks nice, but it's just a picture. We can't do that, right? So just pray that I can get a tub or something, and then we can sort of go out the back there and just do some baptisms. So if you need to get baptized, you know you're saved, you know you believe in Christ, let's just get it done, because that's the Great Commission. That's what God has left us to do. And then, what are we up to? Verse 20. Verse 20. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. Again, where are you going to get the teaching of all things? Yes, you teach the gospel, yes, you get baptized, but the next step is to teach all things. That's the importance of church. That's why we come to church, to hopefully hear the whole word of God preached. It's my intention to preach every page in this book as best as I can. In the limited ability that I have, it's my intention to preach everything, the good and the bad, what's in season and out of season. It doesn't matter. It's all good. It's all good for doctrine. And we need to cover all these things. These are the three things of the Great Commission. Preach the gospel, get people baptized, new believers, and be in church hearing the word of God being preached. No, it's not my job. Again, remember, I don't have the authority, I do have the authority of this church to some extent, but it's Christ that's my hand. It's Christ that's the hand of this whole church. Right? So, I need to make sure that as a church, we carry out what Jesus Christ has left us to do. And then it says here in second part of verse 20. And lo, I am with you always. Now, for you that have Bibles, does it say alway or always in yours? Alway. Alway, without the S? Alway, you got a bad one. That's alright. I've covered this before, I've preached on this before, but it's only a small little interesting thing, but always is different from alway. A lot of people think alway is like an archaic way of spelling always. But what you see in your King James Bible is sometimes it's always, sometimes it's alway. And the difference is, when you say always, it's time. If I said to my wife, I love you always, I'm saying to my wife that I love her for all time. But alway is basically all the way. And we just finished seeing that Jesus Christ is sending them to all nations, to the whole world, to the outermost part of the earth. We see him sending them everywhere. And he says, lo, I am with you alway. It's not about time, it's about destination. And it doesn't matter if it's the Sunshine Coast, it doesn't matter if it's Sydney, wherever it is, Jesus Christ has left us the great commission to go and do these works. That is the purpose of church. So we can encourage one another, provoke one another unto these good works to go and do the great commission that Jesus Christ has left us. Alway, every destination you go, wherever you find yourself in 20 years, 30 years, 50 years, wherever you go, this is the work that Christ has left you to do. And he promises you that he's going to be with you all the way. This is why it's important to be in church. And I hope you guys continue making the effort, I know it's challenging, but I hope you continue making the effort to be in church here and you like Baptist church as often as you can. So let's pray.