You Are the Church: Why Belonging Matters

But today we're going to talk about the church and periodically through the years become very,

very aware that we need to have a significant focus on a given Sunday on the

issue of belonging to the church. And that's what's planned for today.

But I want to challenge you today. I want you, I hope you have your Bibles because

I think a lot of times, if you ever notice you read through your Bible,

sometimes you read scripture verses and it just, you accidentally skip over things that are so,

so important, and it doesn't sink in the first time sometimes.

So I want to challenge you today.

Have your Bibles read along with us today, because I think you'll see in the

New Testament, you'll see what's bared out to us.

And God is not hidden this from us. It's very plain.

So there comes a time at these intervals, though, but we need to say, wait a minute.

We need to kind of rethink our relationship to the church. And that's what we

want to talk about, like I said this morning, I'm very much aware,

y'all, that we live in a culture of consumers.

We live in a culture of people who are used to getting what they want,

when they want it, delivered in the forum that they want it,

and in the mode that they want it, and in the method that they want it.

And it's about consumerism in our world today.

It's about what I want. It's about me.

And people make choices in their churches based upon what they think they like.

And I also understand that evangelical consumerism, I understand that.

I also understand there's a large, massive disinterest in accountability and

responsibility and sacrifice today.

And I understand that. I understand as well.

The churches themselves, or so-called churches, are indifferent to accountability,

indifferent to responsibility.

And they want to make as minimal a requirement as is conceivable so that everybody

will be able to come and nothing will hold them back.

And I also understand that churches today tend to be led by independent,

entrepreneurial type people who developed a kind of dog and pony show that entertains

people and feeds some of their personal assumed felt needs and comes down a

track of the kind of entertainment that they like.

And that's enough for them. They're satisfied. I understand all that.

And I understand too that people can pour their energies and their interest

into non-church ministries, if you will, that are big and wealthy and can make

great appeals to them through the mail and through media.

And they're very slick in doing all that. And they're very detached as well.

And the more detached they are, the more comfortable people get.

They don't know much about the people that run the thing and the people that

run the thing don't know anything about them. And that's just the way they like it.

And in more recent years, the secret movement, they tell you that you go to

a secret conference if you want to build a church,

give people full anonymity, don't make them reveal anything about themselves

because that scares people away, right?

Well, that might work, y'all, for whatever those organizations are.

But I want you to know this morning here that it has nothing to do with the church.

But all those things continue to contribute to the fact that there is a low

level of commitment to the church and that people actually flit around covering

all the various options, if you will, on the landscape,

the evangelical landscape, according to whatever their whims at that current moment might be.

And they don't tend to make sacrificial, long-term, enduring accountability

and responsibility and involvement in a given local assembly of believers.

And there's just little interest in this in our culture today.

There are actually entire associations of churches in which there are thousands

of churches that disdain the idea of belonging.

And you just come whenever you want to come. You float in, you float out,

and we just hope we can scratch you where you're itch, right?

But I want y'all to know this morning is we're going to see in the Bible that

this has nothing to do with the church.

We have to rethink this today. So this is kind of like church 101 this morning, okay?

And this is just for me to you as your pastor. And we even have a kind of lingo

that we say, you can probably relate to this some, or you've heard it.

I go to so-and-so church. You ever heard that? Or I go to such and such a church.

My church is so-and-so church, and it's on so-and-so Street. You ever heard that?

Or we might even say, this is my church, right?

This is my church. We all understand what people mean by that.

And the word church has definitely developed that connotation,

but that may be an English dictionary use of the word church.

But I want y'all to know this morning, once again, it's not a biblical use of

the word church. Let me put it this way, okay?

Are you ready? This is not your church.

This is not your church. You don't come to this church. Are you having a little

trouble processing that?

Look on that slide up there. This is not your church and you don't come to this church.

This is not your church because what? You are the church.

You are this church. You don't come to this church because the church comes

here with you And we need to just kind of change our definition a little bit.

Eastwood Baptist Church is not this campus on this location,

but Eastwood Baptist Church assembles at this campus.

And as a pastor, I want you all to get this. I do not minister at the church.

I minister to the church.

And we just need to clarify that in just a foundational sense this morning.

The church is the assembly of the redeemed, ekaleo, called out.

It's the assembly of those who've been called out of darkness into light.

It's the assembly of those who have been called effectually by God into new

life in Christ to become part of the community of those who believe in the family

of God, if you will. the body of Christ, the kingdom.

You are this church.

This is not your church. You are this church.

You are this church because you have made the common confession.

You are the Christ, the son of the living God in regard to Jesus Christ.

You've confessed Jesus Christ as Lord. you've believed in your heart,

God raised him from the dead, you have been saved.

Therefore, this morning, y'all, you are in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And by the providence of God, you assemble here at Eastwood Baptist Church with

those in the church who assemble in this place under this leadership and with these people.

You are this church. So am I.

You know, the New Testament lays this out in such simple terms.

That's why I said, I hope you brought your Bible today.

Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 1, if you will. 1 Corinthians chapter 1.

1 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention 1 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

And let's just get a basic understanding. 1 Corinthians 1, Paul called an apostle

of Jesus Christ by the will of God,

Sothenes, our brother, to the church of God, which is at Corinth.

It is an assembly of believers, y'all, collected together in the city of what? Where?

Corinth. And how do you define them? They are those, according to the scripture,

who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus.

That just simply means separated from sin.

They're saints by effectual calling, an actual sovereign calling to salvation,

along with all, look at it, all who in every place, in every group,

call on the name of the Lord jesus christ their lord and

ours there's just so much y'all in those

simple two verses look at it again there

is of course the body of christ at large you

see it those who in every place along with those in every place the body of

christ at large the one true church the indivisible church militant alive on

earth today and it is that church as we see here that then assembles in smaller

groups in various locales like Corinth.

One of the assemblies we see here in 1 Corinthians 1 is at where again?

Corinth, which is part of the larger church that involves, as you see there,

all who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Never in the New Testament is the word church used for a building or an organization

or an institution or anything like that.

It's always used for an assembly of people collected around the gospel and because

of salvation in Christ, but it meets in assemblies in varying places,

as we're seeing through the New Testament,

as it says there, all who in every place.

In second corinthians we see

it again believe it or not this simple

identification of the church in second corinthians look

at it paul an apostle of christ jesus by the will of god and timothy our brother

to the church of god which is at corinth again and again in a broader context

and with all the saints who are throughout a k-i it says in that passage in other words He says,

I'm writing to you, but I know this is going to go to saints just beyond Corinth,

even to those who are at Achaia.

And in the first letter, he even said, even those in every place who gather

together, this is written to you.

So get this this morning, Eastwood, there is that church universal.

There's also the church that gathers in every local place, as you see here in

the New Testament. In Galatians chapter 1, we see it a little bit differently,

Galatians 1 · chapter mention

but essentially the emphasis here is.

Is on the multiple places in which assemblies of believers gather.

Paul, an apostle, he says, as he begins, and then in verse 2,

and all the brethren who are with me, to the churches of Galatia.

Galatia was a region in which there were a number of cities and a number of churches.

And again, you have the one church, and then you have the church as the groups

of those who are called out,

who belong to Christ, who make that common confession that Jesus is the Christ,

the son of the living God.

Then also, believe it or not, in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1,

1 Thessalonians 1 · chapter mention

Paul and Silvanus and Timothy of the church of the Thessalonians.

This is the assembly of believers who gather together in the city of Thessalonica, right?

They are in God the Father. They are in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Y'all, this is the defining spiritual reality of those who constitute the local

church of Thessalonica here.

And he further describes them in that passage in wonderful terms there as expressing

there in verse 3, a work of faith, a labor of love, a steadfastness of hope.

In our Lord Jesus Christ, in the presence of God and our Father,

they are brethren and beloved by God. They are chosen by God. They are elect.

They are redeemed. They are assembled, y'all. And the second letter to the Thessalonian

church starts similarly as well.

Paul and Silvanus and Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians who are in

God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

And as we see in this next slide, simply just saying this, don't miss this.

If you are in God, if you are in Christ, that is, if you are redeemed and you're

saved, you are part of the universal church.

And according to the New Testament, it is assumed that you will assemble in

a local group, that you will belong to a local assembly of believers.

Do you see that in the New Testament?

It is so plain if you just read the text.

Jesus said I will build my church

and certainly his church is the church universal but it expresses itself in

local churches according to the new testament and if you've purchased if you're

purchased with his blood acts 20 28 simply tells us you are part of the church.

Don't miss this today. There's no such thing as a believer in the New Testament

who exists in some kind of random, independent, free-floating lifestyle.

You won't find it in the scriptures.

All believers, when you read throughout the New Testament, were connected into local assemblies.

Revelation that we're studying on Sunday nights, if y'all remember back in chapter

two and three, letters are sent to believers, right?

Where are the letters sent?

To the churches, right?

When you want to send a letter to believers, where do you send the letter?

Well, I suppose today you might do an email, I don't know, a text.

I don't know if you had all the numbers of all the believers in the world.

That'd be a mighty big group message, wouldn't it?

But in the New Testament time, if you're going to send letters to believers, you send them to what?

Churches. The epistles of the New Testament written to churches or church leaders.

In Revelation, how many letters of the Lord himself do you have to how many churches?

Seven churches that he writes to specifically there because that's where the

Lord sent this message because it was obvious, y'all.

According to the New Testament, that if you were a believer, you were in the church.

The Lord spoke to his church through letters written to his church and to the leaders of the church,

his church, and then throughout the history of the church, the Lord continues

to speak to his church by having called and gifted and prepared pastors,

teachers, shepherds to disseminate his message to his church in every generation, right?

Really, the New Testament knows of no means to communicate to the church except

by the teaching and preaching of the Word of God.

That's the only way the New Testament knows to disseminate the truth.

I guess another way that we might say it would be there were no media ministries in those days.

No books in the sense like we have today. You know, I'm kind of dating myself.

Some of y'all might never remember this.

No tapes, no CDs, no MP3s, right?

No podcasts, right? No YouTube.

There were no other means to disseminate truth and verbally one another to others.

Right there, you had to do that. And the church is the chosen place in the New

Testament where that's to happen.

You say, well, hey, Brother Judd, we're in the modern world,

right? We can do it in a techno way.

Yeah, I kind of think about, you know, people, you know, I think about I love tech, you know, right?

Technical guy, you know, kind of a redneck tech guy.

Anyway, but here in the modern world, we think, hey, techno,

we have all this technology today.

So we can just do it that way, Brother Judd. We don't need to gather together in a local assembly.

Well, no, we can't because that's not all that happens.

That's the foundation of what happens. but here

in response to that teaching of the word of God the

life of the church goes into action and

into motion and it requires that you be there not only to hear the truth of

God being proclaimed but then guess what church to begin to enact the truth

of God in a common fellowship for the sake of the impact of the gospel to the world.

In a New Testament era, if in the New Testament era you happened to move from

one city to another city,

it would have been pretty traditional for there to be a letter that was given

to you to take to your new church or your new local assembly of believers.

There was an assumption in the New Testament that

when you went somewhere else you would have a letter of commendation the apostle

paul in first second corinthians excuse me chapter three actually brings up

the issue of letters of commendation because some of the corinthians were actually criticizing him.

Because he didn't seem to have a letter of commendation from what they thought

would be the proper sources anyway.

And in Romans chapter 16, the apostle Paul talks about Phoebe,

Romans 16 · chapter mention

if you remember, who's been at the church of Sancria, and she's now at the church of Rome.

And he says to the church at Rome, by the way, this is what you need to know

about this wonderful lady.

He says, she's been a helper. She served, and now she'll be a helper to you.

And a servant to you, accept her and embrace her. That's what Paul said.

And there are such indications repeated, y'all, throughout the New Testament.

In fact, when anybody went from one place to another,

it was probably very common for them to have some kind of commendation from

the church from which they came to assure the church to which they went that

they would be received as believers in good standing.

It was important, y'all. Why? Why was it important?

Yeah, and because you had to protect the church. The church was protected.

Do you know how protected the church is?

Well, Scripture says that if there's anybody in the church that is in sin, what do you do?

You go to the person. If they don't respond, you go with two or three witnesses.

If they don't respond, you actually put them out of the fellowship.

The Lord wants to protect his church according to the scriptures.

And to the degree that even people, y'all, as you look through the New Testament,

that are moving around in the ancient world, in the early church,

they were given letters of commendation because the church was concerned to

what? To protect itself.

You ever wonder why Sister Southern Baptist churches, when someone comes and

moves their membership, we request a letter from the other church?

It shouldn't be a given that that church sends the

letter they should pray over that and

that particular individual or family it should be truly a letter of commendation

saying our church puts the stamp of approval upon this person in this family

just like paul did with phoebe they have served well here they will be a blessing

to you that should be what sent and that's how it was in new testament era.

In fact, it's not a place where just anybody can come, and it's not a place

where people who are true believers are supposed to come and go with any kind of anonymity.

And then there's, in the book of Acts, a clear indication. If you look back

at chapter 2 in the book of Acts, a clear indication that there was a very good

record of who was truly in the church. Did you know that, Brother Ronnie?

On the day of Pentecost, Acts 2.41 says, it says that they who received his word were baptized.

Great preaching. Hallelujah, Peter. He preached, right? The gospel.

And there were added that day about, anybody remember?

3,000 souls, which means somebody was what?

Counting. Counting, y'all. Verse 47 says, the Lord was adding to their number,

adding to their number day by day, those who were being saved.

Look, they were to be shepherds of the flock that the Lord had given to them.

In fact, Hebrews 13, as we read earlier, says that we have an account as pastors and leaders.

We have to give an account to God for how we shepherd the flock.

And the first thing, y'all, that's very helpful is to know who's in your flock.

I remember talking to a couple one time that had been coming to church over

and over again, but they never really belonged to the church.

They never would step and unite with the church.

And I was telling them, I so love your coming. I love that you're here.

I so want to be your pastor, but I can't be your pastor really until you join

the church because you're not in my flock.

And if you were a shepherd in the ancient world, get this, y'all,

there were no visiting sheep.

You didn't say, well, I have my flock and I have my visiting sheep, right?

Really? Yeah, they show up about every third day and expect me to feed them and clean them.

And I don't see them and they go wherever they want to go. And maybe they go

to some other shepherd for what, you know.

There's no such concept in the New Testament, y'all.

Everybody knew his flock. He knew exactly who was in his flock,

and he had the responsibility and the accountability to care for his flock,

according to Hebrews 13.

And that's the imagery that Scripture uses.

The first thing you need to know to be a good shepherd is for whom I am responsible.

If I have to discharge that responsibility, tell me for whom I'm responsible.

And they knew, y'all, according to Scripture. They kept record.

They kept track, and they added to the number.

These people were believers who had made a profession to Christ openly and were

baptized, according to the Scripture.

So it wasn't hard to identify them.

It wasn't hard to count them, in other words. It wasn't hard to keep track of

them, even though there were many of them, and they grew very rapidly.

In fact, in the fifth chapter of the book of Acts, verse 14,

it says, all the more believers in the Lord, multitudes of men and women were

constantly added to their number.

They were adding more and more and more, and they're keeping account.

They know these believers. They know who they are. They've heard their public confession.

They've been baptized and identified.

They knew them by name. In Acts chapter 11, verse 19, Listen to this, Acts 11, 19.

Acts 11:19

So then those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose in connection

with Stephen made their way to Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch.

Y'all, persecution always scattered the church. And you know what else it did?

It spread the gospel and the church grew.

And it says, and so they were scattered. They were speaking the word to no one

except to Jews alone. but there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrena,

come to Antioch and began preaching to the Greeks also, preaching the Lord Jesus.

And the hand of the Lord was with them, it says, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord.

Here we go again, y'all. Number, number, number, right?

They're keeping track of this in some way. And further down,

it says at the end to verse 24 considerable numbers

literally were added considerable multitudes actually were added to the Lord

and now we've not added to the now we have not added to the church but we've

added to the Lord according to that passage and that's a synonym by the way to be added to the Lord,

is to be added to the church.

Y'all don't miss this today. There's no sense that you could be added to the

church and not added to the Lord or added to the Lord and not added to the church.

In other words, you can't have a church made up of people who are not Christians

with only a superficial interest in Jesus,

nor can you have a people who are true Christians who are not part of the church,

according to the New Testament.

You are the church it's

only a question y'all of how faithful you

are to discharge your responsibility

and do what the Lord wants you to do as part of the church you are the church

I guess we could ask the question as we see in this next slide would I want

to be a member of a church that was full of people with my level of commitment.

Think about it this morning. Would I want to be a member of a church that was

full of people with my level of commitment?

Now that reminds me of that old Groucho Marx line.

Y'all remember this one? I wouldn't want to join a country club that would have

me as a member. Remember that one?

What would the church be if they were all like you at your level of commitment?

Let me say it again. what would the church be if they were all like you at your level of commitment?

Do you take your calling that God has given you? Those of you are teachers.

Do you take that seriously?

Do you just fly in and fly out? Do you just miss Sundays and don't let anybody

know? Are you taking it seriously?

What would the church be if they were all like you at your level of commitment?

Well, you are the church. You are the church.

They knew who was in the church, y'all. They kept track of it.

People were baptized. They knew their names. They knew for whom they were responsible.

The shepherd, they shepherded the flock of God over which they had been made

overseers. They had that accountability, y'all.

They have to give an account, it says in Hebrews 13, 17, we read earlier, to who?

To God for that responsibility being discharged. So it's It's very different

from the mindset today, isn't it?

Very, very different. If you were added to the Lord, you were added to the church.

You were baptized. You made a profession of faith.

You belong to the community of believers gathered together in your local area.

It's plain as day all through the New Testament.

For many of you, that's exactly how you live.

You are in the Lord. You are in the church. You're committed to Christ and committed to the church.

And you're what? Christ designed.

But for some, we don't know where you belong.

You come, you go, you float in, you float out. You're here, you're not here.

We have people who come to Eastwood Baptist Church who've never really said,

I want to be responsible.

I want to be a part. I want to be accountable.

And I want to be cared for, nurtured, taught, discipled, loved,

forgiven, because that's part of it, y'all.

I want to be what Christ wants me to be.

And y'all, I grieve over this sometimes. This is a wound to me,

and I know it comes from the spirit and the age in which we live in.

As we see on this next slide, I want to start in this slide to give you a few

reasons why you need to belong.

Let me say this. First off, this is not a commercial for Eastwood Baptist Church,

because there are plenty of other churches in this area and in all kinds of other areas.

But you need to be faithful to be in the Lord, according to the New Testament,

and in the church, known, committed, devoted, responsible, and accountable.

And if you run from that, I just want to say, first of all today,

that's a spiritual issue if you run from it.

And I'm going to start with that. Number one, as we see in this first point,

it's a spiritual issue. That's point one.

Why would you not say, I want to be a member here, known, loved,

taught, respected, helped, ministered to?

I want to be under the leadership, the protection, the care,

the love of this congregation of assembled believers in this place,

just like they were in the New Testament.

What noble spiritual reason for not doing that? What would you come up with?

Well, the truth is, they're pretty serious over there. I'm kind of comfortable

to slide in and fly it out, right?

I like what I hear and it's a good experience.

And I'm giving my life to the Lord. It's just me and Jesus. I just don't want

anybody expecting too much.

I don't want anybody getting too close. You ever heard that?

You know what will happen if we get too close to you? We'll say, hey, guess what?

That guy, that lady that sits next to me, they're just like me,

right? We're all fighting the same battles, y'all.

I had a guy say to me one time when I talked to him about coming to the church,

he said, well, I'd love to come to your church, but I got to get my life cleaned up first.

You ever heard that? So what do you think we're here for?

What do you think? We're a bunch of people whose lives have already been cleaned

up. No, we are all in the process, right?

All the time of growing in our faith, right?

I mean, there are no spiritual reasons, is my point, to not do this.

Certainly no biblical ones. The Bible, again, y'all, knows nothing of a free-floating,

kind of free-willing, independent Christian who comes and goes willy-nilly at

his own discretion or her own discretion.

It only knows in the New Testament, those who are in the Lord and in the church

and accountable to Christ and accountable as well to the church, their local assembly.

It's a spiritual issue, y'all.

Hebrews 10 actually says, forsake not the assembling of yourselves together

as the manner of some is, and all the more as you see the day approaching.

Closer we get, y'all, to the coming of the Lord, the more important it is you'd

be part of the church, that you'd be here to stimulate, according to Scripture,

one another, love and good works, that you'd be part of the redeemed community,

that you'd be part of this.

It's all that the New Testament knows as you read throughout it.

You saw it today if you read the passages.

It's what the New Testament teaches us. It's what Jesus himself referred to even in Revelation.

It's inconceivable, y'all, to the writers of the New Testament that somebody

would be in Christ and not in the church.

A local gathered group of those who are in Christ.

It's a spiritual issue. Don't make it any other kind of issue because it's a spiritual issue.

Look, you were redeemed with the precious blood of Jesus. Amen.

God purchased you with his blood, according to Acts 20, puts you into the church.

Every time a person is redeemed, the Spirit of God places you into the body of Christ.

You're in the body of Christ. you're joined with the Lord, you're one with everybody

else who's joined with the Lord, why do you resist what the New Testament teaches?

Why do you resist becoming part of a local assembly of faithful believers who

are fighting the same struggles as you are and who will be a great spiritual

help and encouragement to you in the process? Why do you resist it?

It's a spiritual issue don't make it anything else secondly it's a fellowship

issue a fellowship issue as we see on this next point.

Go back to what we said in Hebrews 10, 24. We're called, y'all,

to stimulate one another to love and good works.

We need each other. It's a fellowship issue.

We've been introduced into the fellowship.

It's 1 Corinthians 1, 9. It's 1 John 1, verses 3, 6, and 7.

1 John 1:3

Our fellowship is with the Lord and with God and with His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

We have a common fellowship with God and with Christ, but it's also a fellowship with each other.

In a local assembly of believers it's koinonia you ever heard that word koinonia,

koinonia means partnership it's what the that's what that word means partnership we're all connected,

he that's joined to the lord is one spirit in other words with everybody else

who's joined with the lord so we're all joined together and that's why philippians

1 27 actually says we strive together.

We strive together for the faith, Eastwood. Now that, by the way,

is a passage worth reading. Let me read that. Philippians 1, 27. Listen to it.

Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.

So that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I may hear of you that

you're standing firm in one spirit with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel.

There he goes on, y'all, in chapter two to say, if there's any encouragement

in Christ, if there's any consolation of love, if there's any fellowship of

the spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind,

maintaining the same love, united in spirit intent

on one purpose that's about unity y'all

when you say think about it when you say

you want encouragement in your life you say you want love in your life you say

you want compassion you want affection you want that in your life then you'll

find it you'll find that in the fellowship of the church the local assembly

of believers just like in the new testament.

And our fellowship is defined by truth and love. Amen?

Truth and love. I guess in today's vernacular, we'd probably say,

whatever you're going through, we're here for you.

And it's not a superficial issue. It's a fellowship issue.

I'll tell you something else. You cannot live effectively your Christian life in isolation.

Think about it for a minute. You do a barbecue in the backyard and you put all

the coals together and they all stay hot, don't they?

What happens if you take one out, stick it outside the rest and watch what happened

to it? What happens to it? It grows cold fast.

You isolate yourself from the intimacy of fellowship in the church,

from people's fellowship, expectation, accountability, from the opportunity

to minister to them, to exercise the one another's toward them as they exercise them toward you,

you know, pray for one another, love one another, comfort one another,

encourage one another, edify one another.

Rebuke one another, restore one another, forgive one another.

All those one another's, there's many more.

That's what it means y'all to engage in real fellowship. How many of you want some real fellowship?

I'm not talking about a meal that you stuff down your gullet, right?

I'm talking about real fellowship, koinonia, partnership in life.

Fellowship is a common, a sharing common life, a sharing life in common,

mutually ministering the one another's to each other.

That's essential, y'all. That's purifying.

That's enriching. It's nobling. It's comforting. It's caring.

It's sharing, bearing one another's burdens, fulfilling the law of Christ,

which is the law of love, by the way.

As Galatians tells us, it's a fellowship issue. I'm moving along.

Thirdly, it's not only a spiritual and a fellowship issue, it's an authority issue.

See this next point. It's an authority issue. I hate to tell you this,

but as a believer, did y'all know that you're under authority?

You're under authority. You say, yes, but I'm under God's authority. Okay.

Yeah, I agree. You're under God's authority. I'll buy that, but I'm under Christ

authority. I have a personal relationship with Christ. It's just me and Jesus.

Okay. So all you need is your little personal relationship with Christ and you're

under his authority. Okay.

By the way, let me ask you a question. Who disseminates to you what Christ is commanding?

Oh, I kind of pick it up myself. I have a Bible reading plan. Really?

Do you ever come across things you don't understand? All the time,

right? So you're missing all that part, huh?

You say you're under the authority of God, which means you're under the authority

of his word and his commands.

Who's disseminating that to you?

Who's holding you accountable for that?

If God commands and he does, and since his word is the authority,

y'all, and since we're called to obedience, you remember that passage,

don't call me Lord and don't do the things I say, right?

How can you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say?

You will never, believe me, y'all, you'll never as a believer come under the

true authority of your Lord unless somebody is delineating the significance

and the meaning of his word to you.

Hence that is pastors, shepherds of the flock.

It's an authority issue, y'all. You have people responsible who are called to

disseminate divine truth to you, according to the New Testament.

Now, let me explain that really quickly. People who just kind of float over

here and there, they'll say, I heard a really good message by this guy today.

I heard a good message by this guy over here.

And at the end of the day, that might be true. I heard some good music over here.

That was good. This was good. But what you're lacking in that scenario is continuity.

And the word of God is a whole revelation, y'all.

Isn't that true? I mean, all scripture, it says, is given by inspiration of

God and is what? Starts with a P.

Profitable. One of the things that shows itself up in the absolute absence of

discernment among Christian people today is the fact that they don't have a

whole theology, a whole system of belief of what they believe about God.

They don't have an understanding of scripture that's systematic, that has integrity.

They don't understand the whole revelation. They don't have a sound theology.

They just have bits and pieces of little interesting good experience that don't

really connect. The dots don't connect, in other words.

It looks like the backside of a braided rug. You ever seen one of those?

It's just a whole lot of loose ends, right?

Some very pretty, but they make no sense. And if everything's going fine in

your life, you might can live with the back-sided braided rug look and that kind of understanding.

But when you need real help.

When you need, in a crisis of life, when you really want to understand the world

and the way things are and how God can fully communicate to you,

reveal Christ fully to you in every way, and what God is doing in this world

and all the blessings and the promises of obedient Christian living, guess what?

You need a whole, integrated, systematic understanding of God's holy word.

You need sound theology.

You're not going to get that bouncing from place to place. or having experiences

in all these different ways.

So we say at this point, we're talking about this particular aspect of the church.

It's really a truth issue, y'all.

I remember many years ago, a lady said to me, I'm looking for a church, what should I look for?

And another guy who was standing by, he said, look for a place that's caring

and sharing and willing to listen.

And I said, you can get that in a bar.

You can get that at AA or a cult. They offer that at Weight Watchers.

That's not a church. You only want to ask one question about a church. You know what it is?

What do they do with the word of God?

What do they do with the word of God? That's the only question.

What do they do with the word of God?

And some people say, well, we don't do anything with it. We think it gets in

the way. People don't want that.

What do they do with the word of God? Look, we're under authority,

y'all. We're under God's authority.

It's mediated through those who are faithful teachers in his word. That's all we are.

Let my authority even rest in the truth of scripture, in the truth of God's word.

And I bring that truth to bear upon your life through the means that God has ordained.

And what is that? The preaching of his word. Amen.

I know preaching is not popular today.

I know I'm a dinosaur, but I'm just saying what the Bible says to do. Preach the word.

Preach it. That's not hard to interpret. it. It's not brain surgery.

My friend, you say, it ain't rocket science tree, right? Take the word,

preach it. Preach actually means to proclaim publicly and openly.

It's an authority issue. And I understand that.

I understand there are people who come in here and say, I don't want to be in

this church because they don't want to be under the authority of the word of God.

And it's not just preaching that authority. Let me remind you,

it's also implementing that authority.

That's the application of the Word of God to individual lives, y'all.

And that's what we endeavor to do, not just from the pulpit,

not just from the classes and the lecterns that people use to teach or they're

sitting at a table, whatever it is, or in the Bible study time,

but person to person as well, right?

Don't we hold each other accountable to that, which is authoritative, the Word of God?

If somebody's in sin, we go to that person. If somebody needs comfort, we go to that person.

We try to live out in the community of believers here, the word of God,

which is our authority. And it's a loving authority.

Y'all, if you have somebody come to you in the church, your pastor,

your shepherd, your under shepherd here in the church, and they point out a

spiritual issue to you, y'all, you shouldn't be mad at them.

You should be thankful that they are holding you accountable.

And just like everybody else in this church, we hold each other accountable.

It's an accountability. It's an authority issue.

When people see us in sin, we want them to let us know because they love us.

We're part of koinonia, partnership in the gospel.

And remember, the law of the Lord is love, y'all. The most loving thing the

Lord can do is tell us what he wants us to do and have us obey.

And if you remember that verse we opened up with, and I know it's 12 o'clock,

it's okay. I hardly, I don't think I've ever passed 12 preaching here.

So you'll make it today. All right.

Y'all think about it for a moment.

We're to give an account to God for the people who are in the flock.

And you know what it says in that passage? It talks about obeying your leaders

so they can have joy instead of groaning.

Now, I want y'all to know it ain't fun to groan as a leader.

You know why it said that? Because it won't be profitable for you.

That puts us in the circle of love when He pours down His blessing on us.

So it's an authority issue, which means it's an issue of truth that's at the

foundation of life in the church.

And another thing, I'm almost done, it's a ministry issue, a ministry issue.

You know, all of us are given spiritual gifts. I'm going to speed this up,

but all of us have spiritual gifts, right?

Serving, speaking, all those things. And you know what? We need that.

Every one of us need the one another's.

In fact, you know why you have your spiritual gift? It's not for you.

Who is it for? the others to others

to minister to other people you need to minister to each other using your gifts

you have a responsibility to do that ministry i mentioned earlier do you take

your responsibility serious here i mean even from being on a team a committee

to teaching all that are you taking it seriously.

Building up in the body of Christ is why we do it. The unity of the faith.

The Lord builds his body into Christ's likeness through the ministry of the

gifts. Every one of us has one.

You need to minister. I need to minister.

That'll happen in your life, by the way, if you're part of the church and you are faithful.

It's a spiritual issue. It's a fellowship issue. It's an authority issue. It's a ministry issue.

And last of all, y'all, it's an evangelism issue. Why do I say that?

Why do people who have a loose kind of indifferent marginal connection to the

church, what do they have to say to somebody who's not a Christian?

What do they say? Well, you just come to Christ, but don't mess with the church.

It's full of hypocrites, blah, blah, blah. You've heard it all, right?

You know, a lady visited our church, and I remember her statement to me that

she had never, ever been in a group where so much love was being expressed.

She became a member as first as John

13 34 35 talks about by this

get this church shall all men know you're my disciples because

you have what it's so powerful to

see this in the church to experience the love and the life that's in the church

but if you can say to somebody who's not a believer don't miss this Christ has

changed my life and I'd love to take you to meet some people who've had their

lives changed by Christ just like me.

Do you see how it's an evangelism issue?

So much can be said about belonging to the church spiritually.

And it's obvious, as we see in this last slide, if you belong to the Lord,

you belong to the church.

You don't want to be unfaithful to the Lord. But if you're unfaithful to a local

body, you're unfaithful to the Lord.

You see that? Y'all, this is serious business.

It's a spiritual issue. It's a fellowship issue. It's an authority issue.

It's a ministry issue. It's an evangelism issue.

Well, all of that needs to be applied, and that's what I want to do in these last few minutes.

I know there are those of you who might be saying to yourself,

I didn't think it was this big a deal.

That's good. It is. It's huge. Not joining the church and belonging to a local

assembly of believers is saying, I don't want to be under authority.

I want to avoid spiritual accountability. It may limit my evangelism,

but I don't think that's as big a deal as you do, Brother Judd,

or as the New Testament does.

But I want y'all today, my challenge to you all is to see it for what it is.

If you resist it, because that's what it really is, y'all.

We're going to give you an opportunity right now. I want to ask you to stand

with us, bow your heads, close your eyes for a moment.

We're going to give you an opportunity to do the right thing.

If God has brought you here among this group of believers at this local assembly

here at Eastwood Baptist Church, there are people all over the world, y'all.

That would give anything to be here and belong. And I know familiarity can breed

a certain degree of contempt. But you're here and you need to belong.

Look, this isn't my church. It isn't your church. We are this church.

And what this church is, it's not a result of me. It's not a result of you. God's done it all.

God has done it all. We're weak. We're frail. We're human.

We have no spiritual power on our own. Everything that's happened here is to

the honor of the Lord. The Lord has done it by his power.

All things are for him and to him. You say, but we're weak and frail.

That doesn't make any less the work of God. It makes it more the work of God.

There's no human explanation for this church. No human explanation.

When we're weak, he is what? Strong.

We know our weaknesses. You are this church.

If you're here, you need to be all that you should be to honor the Lord of the church.

My desire, y'all, is completely that you would be in the place where God can

pour out his greatest blessing to you.

And it more importantly, through you.

We need you at Eastwood Baptist Church, this local assembly of believers.

And believe it or not, you need us according to the scriptures.

Father, I thank you for a wonderful time this morning, Lord.

Lord, I thank you for a reminder again from your word, what you want us to do, Lord.

I thank you. You haven't hidden. You made it so plain throughout scripture.

But beyond our responsibility, Lord, we're just overwhelmed that you give us

this privilege today of belonging to your church, your kingdom,

your body, to be your people, the Lord of the universe, that you would allow us to do it.

Lord, there are many organizations in this world, no matter how we try,

they wouldn't let us belong.

They wouldn't let us join. We're too common. and we're too lowly.

We're nobodies. We couldn't get in the front door.

But Lord, you throw the doors open and invite us into your church.

The called out, the assembly of the redeemed. Lord, I pray today that we would

know the fullness of blessing, usefulness, and our eternal reward and joy in you, Lord.

We can't come fast enough, Lord. Let us embrace this privilege today, Lord.

Work your work, Jesus, in hearts today. Bring us to faithfulness today that

we might honor you together.

Koinonia, the head of the church, Lord, whom we love. Lord, we pray today for

your glory forever and ever.

In Jesus' name. Right now with.