Christ Is All In the Church | March 1, 2026 AM

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The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist

Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us

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message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.

Matthew chapter #16 As we continue our series, Christ is

All, but we're going to do something a little bit different

here this morning. As I mentioned, it is sign up

Sunday and we have several ministries.

That will be in the back after church that I'd like you to be

able to look over, particularly those of you who are members

here at Liberty Baptist Church. And I really am not encouraging

you to sign up for any of them today.

I don't want to get us into a place where we emotionally sign

up for things just because want to be able to help here in the

church, but rather. That you pray about and you ask

the Lord about where he could use you here in this church, and

perhaps even your heart would be this.

Wherever he leads, I'll go, and whatever he leads, I will do.

And so that's my thought about that this morning.

But the title of my message today is this.

Christ is all in the church. Christ is all in the church.

You know, it's interesting that we come from a lot of different

backgrounds and we come from a lot of different perspectives

here today. There's some of you who have

been at this church for a great length of time.

We have at least one who's here this morning that was here in

Year 1, not counting our own family.

Some who came around the 5th anniversary or so, others who

have came. Later we have some who have

covenanted with our church through membership and others

who just visit and are part of the family but aren't

necessarily members of the church we have.

Some who are newly saved, some of you just came into the faith

not that long ago. And perhaps every one of us from

our own perspective has this question, what is church?

What's it all about? What do we do here at church?

Why do we do the things that we do here at church?

And so we're going to talk about some things in regards to that.

We're going to be looking through our Bibles that you

don't mind looking through your Bibles this morning, do you?

All right, good. I was saying I hope I'm in the

right church. Amen.

We want to find out what the Bible says about church.

But I'm going to say something to you this morning as we start

that shouldn't be controversial. But depending on who hears it

and depending on what quarters it might be said it is

controversial, Although I would submit to you again that it

should not be. And that's this.

Each local church belongs to Christ and not man.

I'm going to say that one more time.

I'll roll that passage. Some of you were afraid to say

Amen because you thought I was setting you up for something,

but I'm not. All right.

Each church belongs to Christ, not to man me.

This. This church doesn't belong to

Adam Rivera. This church doesn't belong to

Diane Rivera. This church does not belong to

the members. This church does not belong to

the leadership. This church does not belong to

the trustees. This church does not belong to

any of us who are sitting here today.

It belongs to Jesus Christ. Any Bible believing biblical

church, whether it's liberty or wherever, has a deed that is

held by none other than Jesus Christ Jesus, not the pastor,

not the leadership or the members of the church.

The deed is held by none other than Jesus Christ.

And there's an immutable law of life that goes along with that,

and that's this. When someone owns something, it

belongs to them. When someone owns something, it

belongs to them to do with it as they wish.

Reminds me the story of the pastor who years ago he had

always wanted to be able to buy a boat and he finally got one.

But he was afraid the people in this church would get upset if

they found out that during the week he was going out on his

boat instead of doing some of the pastorly duties that he

normally would have done. And so he got the idea that when

he bought his boat, he was going to name it Visitation.

So that way, when anytime anyone called the church, the secretary

would say, well, the pastor's out on visitation and he could

do that. It belonged to him.

He could name it. He could do whatever he wanted

to. That was his boat and he could

call it what he wanted to. That's fair.

He bought it, he named it. It was his.

This morning you need to know this, that the church in which

you sit in now and any Bible believing church was purchased

with the blood of Jesus Christ. Acts chapter 20 verse 28 speaks

Acts 20:28

of that specifically. Christ built it, He bought it

and that means He's the boss of it.

I'll say that one more time. Christ built it, He bought it,

and that means he's the boss of it.

So I want to look at this morning a little bit of a lesson

on ecclesiology. Don't get scared by that term.

It just means it's the study of the Church.

What is it, why is it, and what does it have to?

Do with you and me. Today, and the place we're going

to start there with that is in Matthew chapter 16.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

So why don't you stand, please, for the reading of God's Word?

Matthew chapter #16 and we'll begin in verse #17 for some

reason I'm in Jeremiah 32. All right, that's not going to

help. I mean, it'll help you, but just

not for this message. Amen.

So Matthew chapter #16 verse #17 is where we'll start.

Jesus answered. And said unto him, Blessed art

thou Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood had not revealed it

unto thee, but my father, which is in heaven.

And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this

rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not

prevail against it. Why don't we read verse 18

again? You read it silently as I read

it out loud. And I say also unto thee, that

thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and

the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

We see here in Matthew 16 Christ's first mention of the

church. And Christ's mentioning of the

church ought to give great weight to what we understand the

church is all about. And so we're a look at Christ

mentioning of the church this morning and how it affects us

and where we are today. So why don't you go ahead and be

seated and we'll have a word of prayer.

Heavenly Father, again, thank you for this.

Time and I thank you for the ability that we have to be in

your house today. And I do pray that you help us

to get a biblical understanding of what the church is.

Help me to be able to quiet my mind and my heart from many

other thoughts other than those that are biblical, Lord, those

that you have in front of me here today, Lord, so that I may

be able to impart these truths to these dear people here today.

And Lord, we do ask once again and just beg you that if there's

someone here today that doesn't know you as Savior, that your

Holy Spirit will work upon them in such a way that by the time

the message is done that it's very clear to them that they

need to call upon you in salvation today.

And we do ask this all in Jesus name, Amen.

Amen. Supposed to ask you how many

times Jesus used the word church in the gospels.

What would you guess? How many times did Jesus mention

or use the word church in the Gospel?

Some would maybe say 50, Some would maybe say 25, Some would

maybe say a dozen. All of those are far too many.

In fact, if you were to look at how many times Jesus used the

word church, you would find he only mentioned it twice here in

Matthew chapter 16 and another passage that we'll look at in a

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

few moments in Matthew chapter 18 as well.

Matthew 18 · chapter mention

So before we get too deep into the message, we need to ask

ourselves this question. What is the church?

What does it mean? Well, if we were to look at the

word church as it's found here in Matthew chapter 16 and it is

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

found throughout the New Testament, it is the Greek word

ekklesia. And the Greek word ekklesia

means this a called out assembly.

This is a word that was not coined by Jesus Christ.

It was a popular word that was used used at the time anytime

there was a called out assembly, a group of people that came

together for a common purpose, it would be an ecclesia.

In fact, we find it in different places in the book of Acts.

For instance, when there was a group of people that wanted to

shut down Christianity altogether in the city of

Ephesus, that that group of people that came together was

called an ekklesia. Now they weren't a church in the

way we would understand it, but it was just the fact that they

were gathered together in a certain place for a certain

purpose. This is what an ekklesia is.

And in reference to the church today, we could probably put it

this way, that a church is a called out assembly of baptized

believers who have covenanted together in membership.

That a church is a called out assembly of baptized believers.

Remember Matthew chapter 28 says that we are to teach all

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the

Son and the Holy Ghost, and to further teach them in the things

of that which they are to do, to learn how to be discipled, to be

a follower of Jesus Christ. A called out assembly of

baptized believers who have covenanted together in

membership. That we didn't just fall in

together at random, but rather that we came with a purpose,

that we came with a plan. What is that purpose and what is

that plan? It is to do that which God has

commanded us to do through His Word.

There's a lot of ideas that are out there about what a church is

today. Some people think that it's a

building with stained. Glass and a steeple and praise

the Lord. That's not true, or else we

wouldn't be much of A church, would we?

Some people think it's just a group of Christians that are

gathered together at any particular time.

Some think that it's a social club for those that have similar

values. Some think it's a.

Religious version of a Country Club others think it's a brand

has multiple campuses with one pastor who it kind of acts as a

non denominational Pope who is on the video screen and all the

different campuses and that he's in charge of all of those

churches quote UN quote. Some believe it's a universal or

invisible gathering of All Souls who have ever been saved in that

what's called the universal church.

But I have found that no matter what you believe about the

church, most people believe what they want to about the church or

maybe what they've had passed down to them about the church,

but never really coming to the place and the understanding of

what does the Bible say about what the church is?

Because we would agree here this morning that it really doesn't

matter what we think about any topic in and of ourselves.

But it really comes down to what the Bible says about that topic.

Amen. That our thoughts need to be

biblical thoughts that our thoughts need to be God's

thoughts. And so when it comes the issue

of the church, and I came across this myself again, getting saved

at 16 years old, coming from a Lutheran background, that my

ideas of the church came down to what was passed down from me to

generation to generation. I had to come to a place ready

to readjust my thinking and say it's not just about what my

parents taught me. It's not just about what the

catechism taught me. And it's not just about what

Reverend James R Gilzo taught me who was my pastor for 17 plus

years in the Lutheran Church. But it really comes down to this

and this alone. What does the Bible say about

this issue of the church and that's true here today.

Listen, it's not just about what I think about this issue.

This is not just well, Pastor Rivero gets to get up and just

kind of give his random thoughts about this and that.

No, no, I want us to be biblical in our thoughts today.

I want to know what Jesus says about the church and I want it

to affect how we act and how we operate within this church that

we have here because there has to be some structure.

There has to be some order, there has to be some God-given

design because again, it's not about being my church or or your

church. Jesus Christ has the deed.

So what does he think about the church?

It's his church. Well, to better understand this

better, I want us to look at the two passages to start, the two

passages of which Jesus mentions the church.

So one of those is in front of us here at this moment.

Now don't mistake the small amount of times Jesus uses the

word church as something that is of little importance to Christ

because again, Acts chapter 20 verse 28 tells us that Christ

Acts 20:28

gave himself for the church, that his shed blood was, yes,

for our sins. But also is the groundwork the

very foundation of which the church was purchased and the

church is what it is. The church was not established

on the day of Pentecost. I don't believe the Bible

teaches that, but rather as Jesus founded the church as it

says in First Corinthians chapter 12 verse 28 says, and

1 Corinthians 12:28

God has set forth some in the church.

First apostles. Well, what did Jesus do?

He called the apostles in the old tower in the Old Testament,

in the Gospels, he called the apostles the disciples.

They are called there. And so it's very clear to me,

without going too deep into it this morning, that the church

was empowered at Pentecost, but that it was started by none

other than Jesus Christ. They had ordinances, they had

business meetings. They go to Acts chapter one.

It says that they voted for a new disciple as one had passed

away and wanted taken his own life.

Judas had. And then you get to Acts chapter

#2 when 3000 are saved, it says they were added unto them about

3000 souls. Well, who's the them?

That's the church that had already been established by

Jesus Christ. So Jesus Christ as the founder

of the church, Jesus Christ as the builder of the church, what

he says about the church matters.

And so we want to see these two passages and understand what

does this have to do with me? So we're here in Matthew chapter

#16 and we read those two verses.

And it sounds like as you were reading, if it sounds like there

was a, we jumped in the middle of a conversation, that's

because, well, we did. We jumped in the middle of a

conversation that Jesus was having with Peter, but really

with the disciples at large. So go to Matthew 16, Go up to

verse #13 let's start here. Look at what it says in verse

#13 it says when Jesus came in the coast of Caesarea Philippi,

he asked his disciples saying, whom do men say that I, the Son

of Man, AM? And they said, some say that

thou art John the Baptist, some Elias, others Jeremias, or one

of the prophets. And he saith unto them, But whom

say ye that I am? Now stop here for just a moment.

Jesus asked the disciples, Who are people saying that I am?

Now let me remind you of this. I know I've said it before, but

it bears repeating again this morning.

When Jesus asked questions or when God himself asked

questions. Knowing Jesus is God, but

considering the Old Testament, like when God asked Adam and

Eve. Where art thou?

When God asks questions, it's not because he doesn't know the

answer. When I ask questions, it's

because I need to find out an answer.

When Jesus asks questions, it's because he is trying to get the

person he is questioning to think about the answer they're

about to give. So he is prodding the disciples

minds. He wants them to think about

this. Who are people saying that I am?

Again, Jesus, fully aware of every thought of every person.

And they say, well, they are saying you're one of the

prophets, like John the Baptist or Jeremiah or Elijah, one of

them. And then Jesus asked the

fundamental question. And pay attention to this.

Every single person has to answer this question.

He says, but who do you say that I am?

The question you have to answer today, friend, if you don't know

Jesus Christ your Savior is not what your neighbor thinks about

Jesus, not what your spouse thinks about Jesus, not what the

people next door think about Jesus.

What do you think about Jesus? Who do you believe him to be?

If you don't accept Jesus Christ as your Savior and you stand

with the great right throne of judgment, you're not going to be

asked by the king, King Jesus. Well, who does everybody else

think that I am? The question is going to be

about you and what you believe And Jesus says, well, who do you

say? And Peter, Peter said a lot of

dumb stuff, didn't he? It's all right.

You can say yes to that. It's all right.

I know it's church, but we can use the word dumb, all right?

It's fine. Jesus said a lot of dumb stuff.

Or hold on a second, Peter, edit that.

Edit that I told you I was having trouble with words today.

All right, Peter said a lot of dumb stuff.

Pastor said a lot of dumb stuff. But Peter has said a lot of dumb

stuff. I wasn't expecting that many

people to agree, but but I have to agree myself.

This is one of the best things Peter said right here.

Peter said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God.

And that's where we get to the text we just read.

And Jesus answered, said, and blessed art thou, Simon Bart

Jonah, for flesh hath flesh and blood have not revealed that

unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven.

And I say also unto thee, thou art Peter.

Upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell

shall not prevail against it. There's a lot there in verse #18

if you were to go to Catholic Church today, they would say to

you the verse #18 was Jesus telling Peter that he would be

the first Pope? This is what will be taught

commonly today, That and this moment that Jesus was being told

but was telling Peter that he would become the first Pope.

And in their tradition, that is what the case is.

There's a major problem with that.

Peter did not believe that he was the cornerstone of the

church. No, in fact, if you go to first

Peter, we'll have time to go there.

But he made it very clear in First Peter chapter #2 that

Jesus Christ is the foundation of the church and not himself.

So that's not what's being said here.

Jesus says upon this rock I will build my church.

Well, the rock of what? The rock of the testimony of

Peter, that he was the Christ, the Son of the living God.

What is the church founded upon? The fact that Jesus Christ is

the Son of God. So what's?

Being taught here first. Well, first, when this first

mention of church that we see here in Matthew chapter 16 tells

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

us that the church has an expected belief.

First of all, that the church has expected belief.

We just looked in Sunday school this morning at the Unitarian

Universalist and we saw that they believe nothing and

everything all at the same time. That they have no creed.

But yet they still have a explicit set of ethics and

values of which they follow, which are really the antithesis

of God's Word, to be honest with you.

But yet we saw that this morning.

But as we gather together, what is the foundation of our

gathering together? Why are we here?

Well, it really comes down to this belief in Jesus Christ as

our Savior. This is what brings us together

today. We're different people today.

Look around here. No, go ahead.

Look around for a minute. There's a bunch of nobody's

looking around. All right, look around.

Some of you are still struggling with what I said a few minutes

ago. Look, I'm sorry about that, all

right? The Lord knows my heart.

I didn't mean that. It just sometimes, you know, the

words come out faster than the brain can process them.

All right? And so I do my best, But look

around. We are different.

We're as different as can be. Different nationalities,

different complexions, different backgrounds, different financial

strata, different languages, different struggles.

But what do we have in common? The only thing that matters.

Jesus Christ. And Jesus says this, that the

church is founded upon the belief in him that this is what

the church is about. This is why we're here.

And so if you're ever wondering how someone becomes a member of

a Bible believing Baptist Church, this is the starting

point that someone has to know Jesus Christ their savior.

That someone has to make the confession that Peter would have

made that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God and

following believers baptism as we see in the book of Acts, as

we. Understand that this is where

the membership begins. You say, well, it sounds like

your church is so exclusive. No, it's as wide open as Jesus

said. Whosoever shall call upon the

name of the Lord shall be saved. It's open for black and for

white and for red and for yellow.

It's open for those who have have high incomes and those with

low incomes. It's open for those from the

rural areas and the suburban areas and the urban areas.

It's open to all because Jesus died for all.

And so the first thing we see about this church is that it's

around the common belief. And I want to encourage you

again that if you come to this church every week and you don't

know Jesus Christ as your Savior, it's not going to help

you to just get some encouragement from God's word

and to go on your merry way. Because while certainly that may

help you in the short term, it will not help you for eternity.

Because the very first thing that you must do is to accept

Christ as your Savior, to understand that you're a Sinner,

to understand the judgement and the lake of fire is.

Real, but that Jesus died in the cross to take the penalty of

your sin. And that's what the church is

built upon, upon that commonality of belief.

But it's not just the fact that the church is built on belief,

but it's also built on behavior. Look at chapter #18 just go a

couple pages away, Matthew chapter #18 and this might seem

pretty. Intense when we read it at

first, but again, we're reading both the places where Jesus

spoke about the church. The first, very clear.

There's a common belief if you're part of the church.

Second, there's a common behavior in the church.

The verse #15 It says, Moreover, if thy brother shall.

Trespass against thee. Go and tell him his fault

between thee and him alone. If he shall hear thee, thou has

gained thy brother. Now Jesus is giving the methods

of conflict resolution and he's saying this.

If someone has a problem with you, make sure you text 10 of

your closest friends, but don't tell them.

Make sure you're paying attention.

No I I miss said that one. But it was on purpose.

OK, he says this. Is what you need to do.

If you got a problem with somebody, go to them.

How much a life would be solved so much more easily if instead

of just going to everyone else but the person, you go to the

person. Well, that's too uncomfortable,

pastor. Oh, so it's much more more

comfortable to gossip. That's not going to solve the

problem. And so Jesus gives some very

basic elemental instructions here.

But that may not always work if there's an offense.

And so in verse #16 it says, But if he will not hear thee, then

take with thee one or more, or one, or two more, that in the

mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established in

verse #17 And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it

unto the church. But if he neglect to hear.

The church. Let him be unto him as a heathen

man and a publican. One of the very basic reasons I

believe the church was already established was and if Jesus

said this and the church wasn't established, they say why are

you talking about this? It seems like this was being

discussed because this was already something that was an

issue that was already ongoing. And so he mentions it.

But in that mention of the church twice in verse #17 we

find that there's an expectation that there is to be proper

behavior within the church. Now, some of you get worried,

some of you get nervous. I don't want you to get nervous.

I don't want you to like lose me here for a moment.

But I want you to understand that when it comes to the

church, we believe something. But also, it's not just that we

believe in Jesus Christ, but we're to be.

Behave like people believe in Jesus Christ.

I don't think I was going to be as popular, but that's all

right. One commentator said it

perfectly. I'm going to read what he said

because I think this explains what I'm trying to say very

well. The church that Jesus mentions

has not only standards of belief, but also of conduct.

What we see here from this verse, these verses, it has

membership from which one may be excluded, a process of

discipline, a form of government meetings at which a matter may

be told, and officers who facilitate the whole.

The commentator concludes this way.

The church that Jesus builds is not merely a random gathering of

believers in a coffee shop to pray and share Scripture verses.

Such meetings are self selecting.

The church is not. There's nothing wrong with

believers gathering together in a coffee shop or reading Bible

verses. But we're talking, in fact, I

think probably we'd do better in a coffee shop if we'd be reading

Bible verses, wouldn't we? But we're talking about what is

the church? And when he mentions it here,

he's talking about there's a way to have things taken care of,

that there's leadership, there has to be a meeting so that

these things could be addressed in the 1st place, that there's a

structure that comes from God. You say, well, why does it come

from him? Because he owns.

The deed, because it belongs to him, and because of that, he is

the one who gets to decide that which it is.

In short, we can put it this way.

The Church has government and membership and discipline and

standards of conduct, and membership comes with both

rights and responsibility, just like anything in life does.

We understand that the gym has rights and responsibility.

You pay a fee and that you have to go in there and you pay the

fee and then you get to use the equipment.

But what are your responsibilities?

You know, wipe it down when you're done.

Don't yell, yell and grunt or else.

So we saw on Sunday school, the siren will go off if you start

doing that, at least at Planet Fitness.

And so there's things that you have to do.

There's rights and responsibilities.

The golf course has rights and responsibilities.

I'm not very good at golf, but I do know this, that there's a

starter that when you get to the 1st hole, he thinks he's in

charge. You know why he is.

He says it's been a lot of rain. Stay on the paths, don't go off.

Guess what, You stay on the paths, says we're receding hole

5, just skip over to hole 6. You skip over hole 5, you go to

hole six. Well, I paid money, so I should

be able to do what I want. You know, that's not the way it

works. There are rights, but there are

also responsibilities. It's true at the gym, the golf

course, the scouts. This is true.

But I would ask this question, why not church as well?

Shouldn't there be a structure to what we have?

Shouldn't there be rights and responsibilities for all,

including the pastor or whoever we are, that God defines that

which a church is and that we as we covenant together as a

church, we say, God, whatever you have for us here in this

assembly, we're going to do what you want us to do because this

is your church. It's not just a hodgepodge of

Christians who kind of just. Roll in and.

Roll out however or we want to, or whenever we want to, but that

we come here with a purpose to fulfill God's Great Commission.

This is why we're here, and it's a joy to be able to fulfill that

which God has called us to do. It's good to be a church.

Amen. I was hoping more people would

agree with that and say pastor. Most weeks I do, but not this

week. All right, it's a joy to be part

of a church and to have a family.

But with that comes rights and responsibilities.

And Jesus was the one who laid it out.

And those two times he mentions it, he says.

Yeah, there's a. Belief got to believe in me.

There's behavior, we got to make sure we act right amongst each

other and make sure we take care of things properly and when

things aren't taken care of properly, that there has to be

some leadership that gets involved to make sure that

things go the course. And we understand this with any

other area of life, but yet it's true in God's church, most

especially say pastor. All right, I agree with all

that, but. What does it have to do with me?

Well. It has to do with you because.

If you are a member of Liberty Baptist Church, you are a part

of this body. And if you are not a member of

Liberty Baptist Church, is not the goal of this church to keep

you out at arm's length, But it's to love you and say we

would love you to be a part of the family of Liberty Baptist

Church, but we want you to be in that way, the way that God

speaks of it. So what does this have to do

with us? I want to show you some really

good, applicable verses that will help us.

I don't know how many of them were yet to read, but we're

going to go ahead and turn there.

So go to 1st Corinthians chapter #12 I told you we're going to

work through our Bibles a little bit.

First Corinthians chapter #12 First Corinthians chapter 12

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

we'll begin verse #12 says this for as the body is 1 and has

many members. And all the members of that one

body, being many, are one body. So also is Christ.

For by 1 spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether

we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we bond or free and have been

made all made to drink into one spirit.

Now there's a lot of. Theology around this verse that

is off the mark. The very clear reading of this

verse makes this clear. Paul is talking to the Church of

Corinth. He's talking about the visible

church, not a universal invisible church, because you

get later on in the chapter and it talks about there being

schisms and difficulties in the body.

You can't have schisms and difficulties in an invisible

body. You're talking about a real

church because real churches have real problems.

And so it says this by 1 spirit or we baptize into one body,

meaning the church body of which we are.

That's what it's talking about, being part of a local church.

And it says in verse #14 for the body is not one member but many.

Now when it's using that word member, it's talking about the

body and talk about the members of the.

Body like the. Eyes, the ears, the nose, it's

talking about the members. But we can also look at it this

way as it's talking about the church as a body, it's talking

about us as members as well. There's a duality to the term

that is being used there. One, it's talking about the body

parts of the body, but it's also comparing it to the membership

of the church. Now what does it say?

If the foot shall say, because I am not the hand, I am not of the

body, is it therefore not of the body?

If the ear shall say, because I am not the eye, I am not of the

body, is it therefore not of the body?

If the whole body were an eye, where were, where were they

hearing it? The whole we're hearing, where

is the smelling? But now God has set the members,

every one of them in the body as it pleased him.

Now stop right here. What is Paul saying?

That there are different people that God has set within the

church. Now God plans for people to be

part of a church and within that church, within that body of

which he's placed you through baptism, through the transfer of

membership, whatever it may be. But as he's put you in this

church, he says there is a usefulness for you here because

we are all different. We have different abilities, we

have different characteristics, we have different strengths.

And so because of that, God has put the body together in such a

way that we can function as one. If everybody is doing, that's

what they're called to do. Some are eyes, some are ears,

some are noses, some are feet, some are more glorified, some

are look down on a little bit. But he says this, every single

one of them are needed. Every single one of them are

needed. What happens when part of the

body don't work? Well, the body has problems.

Every part of the body needs to work.

Every single one of us have some kind of ailing that's going on

within our body. Some are minor, some are major.

But when the body doesn't work right.

Boy, it could be a chore. Can't it?

Sometimes it's as simple as maybe a little bit of a limp.

Sometimes it can be bad as I don't even know if I can get out

of bed. The body's not what it needs to

be because not all the bodies going the way that it's supposed

to go. So what has God done always

brought a group of people together with a common belief

who agreed on a common behavior. And he said this I have brought

you together to work as one unit for me.

That's why we're here. You know, you said why I thought

I was here to get some help. Well, we want you to get help

while you're here. Well, I thought I was here to to

socialize with people. I hope you have fellowship with

people. What, what better place for you

to have lifelong friends and in church?

In fact, lifelong friends doesn't even seem like a good

way of putting it because they're really your brothers and

sisters in Christ. And often we would, many of us

would say something along these lines that we're closer with our

brothers and sisters in Christ and sometimes we are with our

own family. Not everyone's family situation

is different. But I'm just saying that that

often times can be the case. And I'm not saying it has to be

the case, but there are some people that we just look at this

and say, wow, these are the people that get me.

Well, my own family doesn't even get me because they don't

necessarily understand what I believe.

I'm not trying to ostracize you from your family, not saying

that at all. Understand what I'm saying.

At least the people in this room get you because we have common

belief. That's what I'm trying to say.

I'm doubting myself even. I'm talking because I said Jesus

said things that he shouldn't be saying.

And I'm, I'm doubting everything that I'm saying right now.

In fact, I probably shouldn't be standing back there anymore just

in case I say something that's wrong.

I don't want to be standing back there when it happens, but I

need to be saying it right no matter where I am.

He's brought us together and says God put us together as he

pleased. This means we all have a

purpose. We all have a need that God

wants those to be part of this body, to be active within the

body. Well, how do I be part of the

body? We got to be saved, got to be

baptized properly, and then you're part of the church.

Say, well, how much money do I need to pay this in the Country

Club? Now, the Bible talks about

tithes and offerings, of course, but guess what?

We're not checking up on those kind of things.

Before anybody joins, you know what we want to know?

Are you saved? Are you baptized?

They're part of the body. Well, well, I've only known the

Lord a little while. You're as much a part of the

body as someone that's known the Lord for 60 years.

Amen. Isn't that awesome?

And God did that on purpose. You know why?

So the person who's been in the Lord 60 years can teach the

person only been in the Lord six months that the elder can teach

the younger. Let's see, we're all important

here and all have needs. Every single one of us God

wants. You to be a part of what he's

doing in his church verse 19 if there were one member where is

the body has there been but now they're many members yet one

body the I cannot say of the hand I have no need of thee nor

again the hand of the feet I have no.

Need of you. Nay, much more than those

members of the body which seem more feeble are necessary.

Well, pastor, I'm never going to be a pastor, so what's the big

deal? I may be called to be the pastor

here at Liberty Baptist Church, but there's a lot of people that

are needed just to keep this thing moving every week.

There are people that are needed in the nursery.

There's people that are needed in the parking lot.

There's people that are needed here is ushers and greeters.

And there are people that are needed to print things that are

people that are needed to go out and reach people.

And there's people that are needed for the Internet and for

the Facebook and all those different social media type

things that are out there. Those are all that you say.

Well, that's not as important as preaching.

It's all important. It's all important.

You say, well, I can't do much, but you can do something that I

can't do, and you can do something that your neighbor

can't do. And so God has brought us all

together in his wisdom and his Providence.

We're not all eyes. We're not all ears.

We're not all noses. Can you imagine a body that was

all ears? It would know a lot, but it

couldn't tell anybody because it had no mouth.

We're different and that's not a weakness, that's a strength.

We all got to be doing our part. Why?

Because real life is real life and life comes at us pretty

fast. Look at verse #25 drop down that

there should be no schism in the body.

Again, this is a, this is a local assembly that's been

talking about here. You can't have a schism in an

invisible body. There should be no schism in the

body, but then the other members should have the same care, one

for another. Whether one member suffer, all

the members suffer with it. One member be honored, the other

members rejoice with it. Now you're the body of Christ

and members in particular, We'll stop right there.

There are people who struggle. There are people who have needs.

There are people who who have difficulties.

And here's what God's church is supposed to do, that you are to

help other people when they have a need so that when you have a

need, those other people help you.

It's not about just, well, I'm going to hang around the church

and I just want everyone to to give to me and to give to me, to

give to me. No, you give to the church.

And I'm not just talking about money.

I'm talking about you. Just give of yourself and you'll

find that as you give. Your needs are met, I'll be

honest with you, as much as I have given to a church.

And again, I'm not talking about money.

I'm just talking about as I've given it myself.

It's not equal say passable. You've given a whole lot more

than what you've received. No, no, it's the opposite.

Whatever I have given to the Lord, I've received so much more

back. I'm undeserving of the benefits

and the blessings of God. You know where he what he uses

is one of his main vehicles of those blessings his church that

we're to help each other. A lot of people out there say

they'll help you and the means you have trouble.

They're gone. So I don't feel like this church

has helped me very much. Maybe they don't.

They don't know you very well because you haven't given to

yourself as you ought. I'm not trying to make you feel

guilty. I'm just saying maybe people

just don't even know there is a need because sometimes people

are reaching out. Sometimes people want to help,

but they don't even know. What I'm saying is this.

Get involved in the church. Oh, pastor, who's just like

growing the church. This is one of those messages

about growing the church. And it's like, it's one big

Ponzi scheme is like, why don't you just sell Amway, Pastor, Why

you just sell, sell Amway? Is that what you're doing?

This is Mary Kay. What is it?

No, no, it's, it's, it's telling you there's no greater

organization on earth than God's church.

And He's called us to be part of it, to help one another in a way

that no other organization's equipped to.

So be a part of what God is doing within the church.

There's one of the passage I want you to look at.

I know we're almost out of time, but first Peter chapter #5

Quickly, because I can probably put a pretty fine point on this

first Peter chapter #5 I don't know this message is going where

I intended it to go, but it's going where it needs to go.

I think, by God's grace. First, Peter chapter #5 I know

this is a different kind of message because we're we're.

We're teaching you things that maybe you didn't think that you

needed to know about, and I understand that.

And for those of you that guests today, I'll pick a weird day to

come to church. I I know we're not, we're not

recruiting you again. This is not that.

It's not that first Peter Chapter 5, the elders which are

1 Peter 5 · chapter mention

among you, I exhort, who am also an elder.

So Peter is talking to pastors here.

One of the titles of a pastor is an elder.

Now I prefer you not call me elder Pastor's great.

All right, pastor, elder Bishop. These are the terms that New

Testament uses for the pastor. Elder Rivero doesn't really roll

off the tongue. I'll be honest with you who am

also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ and

also a partaker of the glory that be revealed.

Paul, Peter here is going to give some instructions to the

pastor and if you agree with these to give a good Amen as we

go through feed the flock of God, which is among you.

It's the job of the pastor to feed the flock.

Now sometimes I gotta feed you some things you don't like.

You say like when probably this morning, but it keeps you

healthy. That's right.

It's a balanced diet. Because these are things that

you need to learn about and understand.

You want a pastor that feeds the flock of God.

You want a pastor that's going to feed you from the word of

God. It is my heart.

It's my desire during the week, not just sit behind a desk and

be an administrator, not just to go do the things that would grow

our organization quote UN quote like we're some kind of Fortune

500 company with a cross in front of it.

No, it's my desire to be in the Word of God, as the disciple

said in Acts chapter 6, to give themselves the word in prayer so

Acts 6 · chapter mention

that I can put things together to help you learn, to help you

grow, to exhort you to. Encourage you.

This is my desire to feed the flock of God.

It's my heartbeat to feed you. Taking the oversight thereof not

by constraint but will not by constraint means that I'm not

doing it in a. Way that is abusing you as

believers. There's a lot of pastoral abuse

out there. It doesn't matter what

denomination it is. But includes independent

Baptist. Not by constraint, but

willingly. Not for filthy lucre, but of a

ready mind. Now, I would tell you this.

If I pastor for the money, I picked the wrong profession.

This is not a complaint. Liberty Baptist Church takes

great care of me. It takes great care of our

family. It's not a complaint.

I'm just saying that if you're getting rich, pastor, you're

doing it wrong. I'm not saying you shouldn't be

taken care of and all that stuff.

I'm saying, you know, I'm not on my third jet yet.

I'm still trying to pay off my first two.

No, I'm just kidding. But I'm just saying those are

the kind of people you got to watch out for them.

Watch out for them on TV, watch out for them online.

You watch out for them, but they have oversight, the right kind

of oversight. You want a pastor that has

oversight over the church that should know what's going on,

when it's going on, how it's going on.

No, I'm not talking about being all up in your business and

going through your Facebook page, your Instagram.

I don't know what they're doing. I don't want to.

Know. I know what you're doing, not

like that, but that should be aware of who you are, what your

name is, who you know, those kind that would be.

A good thing neither is being Lords over God's heritage.

I don't Lord over you. I'm not the priest of your home.

No, no, I preach what I need to preach here.

I teach what I need to teach here.

But I'm not going around checking what you're doing in

your home. That's between you and the Lord.

I'm here to be a helper of your joy.

I'm here to be a helper of the faith.

But I'm not here to tell you this is what you're doing in

your home. You answer the Lord for that.

I answer the Lord of whether I gave the word of God as I ought

to give it, and you have to answer to whether.

You do what God's told you to do through His Word, but being in

samples, the flog, the pastor is to be an example.

You know, where the heaviest things for me as a pastor is

that I'm to be an example to you and my faith and the way I

handled myself. You know, there are times as a

pastor that I can. I've said things, I've done

things and I thought, well, man, I hope nobody from the church

knows that that's it because I'm a person just like you.

But God has called me to live in a way that's higher.

No, I don't mean got higher above you, but this is a holy

calling and it's when I imagine you want your pastor take

seriously. You're not rolling around in the

mud for six days a week and coming up and singing holy,

holy, holy. You probably don't want that.

I wouldn't want that as a pastor.

Now you agree with everything I just said, right?

OK, that's good because. You know the hammer's coming,

right? Jay's back.

There's like, I know it's coming.

I don't want to agree, but I got to because I know it's going to

come back to me. It's going to boomerang back on

you, all right? I'm not trying to be weird about

this, but look back at this again because the law of

opposites is real. I mean, if something is true on

this end, then the opposite of it is true as well.

Feed the flock of God, which is among you.

If I'm called to feed the flock, then you are called to be fed.

I told you you wouldn't like it if I'm called to feed the flock

of God that you were called to be fed.

You know, we have feedings Sunday morning, Sunday night,

Wednesday night. OK, Dave, can I say this?

Sure. OK.

Thank you, Dave. All right.

He's a trustee, so I got his permission.

I don't say this about me. I'm saying so you understand my

heart. Putting together messages during

the week. Take some time.

It does. I love it.

You know, I love it. It's, it's a joy.

I, I get to study the Bible by trade.

What an awesome thing that some of you like me and I've had to

work jobs where I cleaned up garbage.

In fact, there were times I had to clean up garbage and then go

study the Bible by trade or drive people around by Uber and

study the Bible. I get to do this for a little.

It's such a blessing to work on feeding, but it's hard to work

on all that feeding when there aren't people to be fed when

it's feeding time. We have feeding times on Sunday

morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, and I know not everybody

can come to all of them. I know there's work issues and

things like that. I can tell you there's a lot of

problems in life that would help if you just get fed the way

you're supposed to. If I'm to feed the flock, that

means somebody's got to be fed. I might have the oversight Now

you're all afraid to answer. I'm have the oversight.

Thank you. That means somebody needs to be

overseen. That means somebody has to say

what to do, not being. Lords over you not abusing the

flock. But someone has to say this is

the direction. This is what the Bible says it

has to be. People are willing to be

overseen. Do I need to be an example?

Yes. But if I have to be the example

doesn't have to be people that have to follow the example.

People say, Hey, you got to come to our church.

See our pastor. I mean, he gets up and he

preaches the Bible. He and his family boy, you, we

want to come and see him. You, you want to you want to see

what's going on at the church. Praise the Lord.

If you if you feel like you could say that I pray that we

live in a way that you can. It's our hearts desire.

But that example is not necessarily for the lost.

That example is for you, the flock so that we all can live in

the way that we ought to live. You know, what kind of comes

down to this church thing is not as casual as we thought.

It's serious. It's serious.

Now, what does that mean for you?

I don't know. You know why?

Because I'm not the Holy Spirit and I don't plan applying for

the position. It's between you and the Lord.

You need to be saved. Get saved.

You've been thinking about joining the church.

Just know, we don't every week say we want to join the church.

You want to join the church, you want to join the church.

We don't do that. We don't do that.

But we would love to talk to you about covenanting together with

us as believers because there's a great purpose that God has for

us together. That's what those things are

back there. Those, those clipboards

represent little things maybe on the outside, but their eyes,

their ears, their noses, their thumbs, their fingers, their

knees, their spleens, their everything.

And we need it all. It's a story.

And I, I've expired my time, but I'm, I'm done.

There's a story of Steve Jobs back in the early 1980s.

You're talking to a man named John Scully.

John Scully was the CEO of Pepsi during the Pepsi Challenge in

the 70s. You know, the Pepsi Challenge is

a big thing. It helped actually propel Pepsi

to the place of beating Coke because they started a New Coke.

They were so afraid of Pepsi that they got rid of their

formula and Pepsi won the cola wars.

Back during that time, Apple needed a new CEO.

Steve Jobs was the visionary but yet couldn't lead it himself.

At that time the way that was needed.

CEO was needed to to go to direction and he was talking to

John Sculley back and forth and back and forth for a while and

there was no real decision about what to do.

And finally Steve Jobs looked at John Sculley and said some of

these words. He says, do you want to sell

sugar water for the rest of your life or do you want to change

the world? And John Sculley said that was

the moment I realized I need to work for Apple.

Now, that might be a little bit of hyperbole there because I

would say iPhones and soda have rotted a lot of people.

I say that as a card carrying iPhone member.

But he said there's something greater that's out there.

Don't you want to be part of it? You know, when I look at Liberty

Baptist Church and I look at all this, the world might not see

much. They go to Unity Church

downtown, the beautiful Spires, the stonework, the beautiful

stained glass. They go to some of the

cathedrals downtown in Boston that raised 10 stories high with

Spires even higher. And I said, this is where it's

at. I tell you, I just want to be

where God's at. He's working at Liberty Baptist

Church and he wants to work through you and with you for

something great, greater than you, greater than me, greater

than this life and eternity of reaching people, reaching people

for eternity. Jesus Christ.

And he'd be done this morning. But I don't need to tell you

what to do. That's between you and the Holy

Spirit. I want to present to you the

need. I'll present to you what Jesus

said about the church, First Corinthians said about the

church, what First Peter chapter 5 talks about the pastor, but

1 Peter 5 · chapter mention

also talks about you as well. And how does that relate to you?

That's between you and the Lord. Thank you for listening to the

sermon from the pulpit of Liberty Baptist Church.

If this message was a blessing to you, or if there's any way we

can serve you, please let us know by contacting us at

[email protected]. Or you can visit us this Sunday

at 800 Washington St. in Easton, MA.

May the Lord bless you as you grow in His Word.