FIT Conference 2025: What Does Inclusion REALLY Mean?

We're going to be on the 1st lesson.

It is a group session called What does Inclusion Mean?

And so as those are getting passed out, you can go right to

the group session in the front. You also find in the booklet

some your conference schedule as well as a little bit about us,

some of the books that we have. We'll talk about those later.

Places to eat for lunch. As you can see, for us to be

able to serve lunch is a difficulty here because of the

space, the confines of being able to serve it, prepare it,

all of those things. And So what we do is take a

break and there's a Wendy's up the street, there's a Dunkin'

Donuts up the street, there's other places.

That's all in your booklet so that you don't even have to pop

at your GPS. You can just look over the next

few minutes to see what you'd like to do for lunch.

Thank you for understanding that.

But I want our first session to be this this morning.

What does inclusion mean? Now, if you are like me, you

probably hear that word inclusion.

It makes you cringe a little bit.

And that wasn't always the way. I feel like when we started our

special needs journey years ago, the term inclusion was one that

was used quite a bit and I don't know that we ever thought

anything about it. In fact, the FIT Conference, if

you're curious about the first time you heard about the FIT

Conference, you thought we were exercising or something like

that, that's certainly not the case with all the doughnuts we

have in the back. Amen.

But it is not the big conference is not that kind of conference,

but it is finding inclusion together, finding inclusion

together. But again, if you're like me,

this word inclusion is one that maybe you've become

uncomfortable with over the past few years.

And the whole reason is DEI, diversity, equity and inclusion.

Right there at the top of your page, it says this.

And we have a lot of blanks. So we can make sure that you're

following along, fill those in. If you are following along at

home, you can fill those in as well.

But there's been a great deal of discussion about inclusion over

the past several years due to DEI, diversity, equity and

inclusion. And I try to do a little bit of

research recently about a good working definition of what DEI

is. And I know this will be a

surprise to you, but nobody seems to have a good definition

of it because it seems like it's what whoever the person is

talking about wants it to be is what it is.

And that's, that's kind of the problem, isn't it?

The whole idea What's 1 of many problems with DEI and this is 1

definition that I found this gobbledygook here.

It says DEI includes 3 terms that get to the heart of the

conditions research shows are essential for better

performance, problem solving, and helping people thrive in

their schools, workplaces and communities.

Encompassing diversity and various identities, equity in

ensuring opportunities despite inequalities and inclusion in

creating welcoming environments. And this is from DEI.

Define what diversity, equity inclusion really means.

Authored by Debate Chavez, chief diversity officer at the

University of Michigan. And that's a lot of words that

basically say not a whole lot, isn't it?

It's a whole lot of words that don't say a whole lot.

And I want to say on the record here this morning, I have no

problem with diversity or equity or inclusion.

What I do have a problem with is what the liberals have termed

diversity and equity and inclusion compared to what the

word of God would talk about diversity and equity and

inclusion that we don't buy into the hype of the DEI wokeness

that is out there today. You say, brother, are you just

trying to push Amen buttons this morning?

Why are you going over this? Don't you know, do you feel like

there's some closet liberals that are around here today?

And the answer is yes, yes, I do.

No, I'm just kidding. No, I don't at all.

But but I, I think this term inclusion is an important one.

It's one that's talked about a lot in the special needs

community, but it's also one that's going to be important and

should be important in your church if we use it in the right

way. I'm tired.

I don't know about you, but I'm tired of yielding those things

that are good and right to those who want to take them and

pervert them. For instance, I want to be able

to use the rainbow without having the connotation of that

stolen by the L GB TQIA plus minus equal divided sign

movement. It's and you say, well you're

mocking. No, I'm not.

I'm just saying that's exactly how it goes.

I remember when it was just gay and lesbian and then it just

grew and grew and grew because there's no actual definition.

Love is love, defining the word by the word meaning it could be

whatever you want it to be. So I don't want to yield the

rainbow. I don't want to yield a good

word like inclusion to those who are trying to muddy the waters

and turn it into something of which it is not.

DEI, as it's taught in academia and liberal think tanks, is

opposite to biblical truths. I can just give you a couple.

And again, this is not us preaching for an hour on

teaching for an hour on DEI. But again, I do think we need to

kind of lay a little bit of a baseline.

It was Voltaire who said, if you wish to converse with me, define

your terms. Now, I will say Voltaire was not

a very nice man, particularly to Christians.

But I do like that, that quote because we want to make sure

when we're using the word inclusion that we're using the

same word with the same definition.

For instance, when I was growing up, I was a Lutheran.

I got saved when I was 16 years old by the grace of God.

I was in the Lutheran Church before I heard the gospel in a

independent Baptist Church. And for years they said in the

Lutheran Church, you're saved by grace through faith, and the

Baptist say you're saved by grace through faith.

I came to find out. But what the Lutheran Church

meant by saved by grace through faith was not the same as what

the Bible said. And so we wanted to define our

terms to make sure that we're not just saying the same thing,

but talking about the same thing.

So what? Why isn't this inclusion

incorrect, this worldly thought process of inclusion that's out

there? Well, first of all, because the

Bible condemns being a respecter of purpose of persons, showing

favoritism or partiality, inclusion, trying to put one

group ahead of another. Deuteronomy 117 You shall not

respect persons in judgment. You shall hear the small as well

as the great. You shall not be afraid of the

face of man, for the judgment is God.

Then the cause is too hard for you.

Bring it unto me, and I will hear it.

Problem 2821. To have respect to persons is

not good. Another problem with this DEI.

It promotes the Bible teaches promotion by merit.

Lukes, 1917. And he said unto him, Well, thou

good servant, because that has been faithful, and little have

thou authority over 10 cities. James 21.

My brethren have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the

Lord of glory with respect of persons, but if you have

respective persons, you commit sin, you are convinced of the

law as transgressors, you know, what are we supposed to do?

James chapter 2 is a a perfect example of this is that we don't

James 2 · chapter mention

move people up to the front because of the way they look,

the way they talk, what they can tie.

We don't move people to the back because of what little they have

or how they're dressed or what not.

You know, the whole idea of DEI as the world says it is false

and we reject it wholeheartedly. However, and this is where we

get to the part about not what we're talking against, but what

we're talking for because that's where we really want to get this

morning. What we are for is good and

right inclusion with those special needs children and by

the way, adults as well. They're not going to get a lot

of conversation here today because of what we're focusing

on. But we do want to make clear

that there are not just special needs children in your church.

There's also special needs adults in your church.

And if you don't have special needs adults in your church,

those special needs children will turn into special needs

adults someday. So there does need to be some

thought and conversation about that as well.

So how do we include them? How do we make them feel like

they are a part of the church? How do we make them feel like

they're a part of the Sunday school, of the junior Church of

the Morning worship? How do they feel like they're a

part of it? And the good news is you feel

the same way that we do. That's why you're here, the

reason you're watching, the reason that you came here to

Easton today is because you want to be able to figure that out or

you want to sharpen your skills for those people that you were

trying to minister to. So with this in mind, I do want

to mention this. We have likely have a very dim

view of inclusion, yet I might remind you that when that Satan

is the master copycat, taking things that are good and right

and perverting them and using that word, perverting in the

very real context of taking something that is good and right

and turning into something that is not, that's a perversion.

Genesis 3-4, the serpent said of the woman, He shall not surely

die. Galatians 1-6 and seven I

marveled that you were so soon removed from that, from him that

called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel which

is not another, but that some may trouble you and would

pervert the gospel of Christ. This is what Satan does.

He takes something that's good. Let's include everyone special

needs wise, into our churches, into our Sunday schools, into

our junior churches, and turns that word inclusion into

something else that becomes a buzzword that does not mean what

it ought to mean. So now let's get to what it is.

The very basic definition of inclusion is near the bottom of

your page, top of your next page.

It was universally accepted until the recent political

changes. The action or state of including

or of being included within a group structure.

The action or state of including or of being included within a

group structure. Now, I don't know about you, but

I don't typically like definitions using the very same

word to be able to define. I just talked about that, didn't

I? And we went through several

dictionaries because Diane said, well, is it just the dictionary

you chose? And so, you know, that's the way

the world does it now. You just find the dictionary you

want, right? So it, hey, we'll do the same

thing, right? That's what they do.

We'll do it. No, but we just wanted to see

what was out there. Every single one of them used

the word including. And I do think it's OK because I

don't know about you, but when I hear the term inclusion, I don't

know that I actually think including at the first, I don't

know that I do. Maybe you do.

But the idea of what is inclusion, we want everyone to

be included. We, we want little Johnny, We

want little Susie in your class who has autism, who is

nonverbal, who has some sort of physical disability, whatever it

may be, some combination of all of those.

We want them to feel included in the classroom.

By the way, we're not just doing that because we want them to

feel warm and fuzzy. We're not just doing that

because we don't want mom and dad to leave the church.

We're doing that because Johnny and Susie special needs, they

need to learn about Jesus Christ.

I want to make something abundantly clear this morning

before we go any further, is that everything that we're going

to teach you, everything that we want to talk to you about, the

question and answers that we have are really all focused at

its very core at this purpose, teaching these young people and

again, older people, but these younger people about Jesus

Christ. You might say this, well, I

don't know that he'll understand about Jesus Christ if I teach

him Jesus Christ. I don't know that she'll

understand the basic concepts of the Bible if I teach her the

basic concepts of the Bible. And I'm going to say this

clearly, this is a special needs loving group.

And so I can say things very clearly because you're used to

people saying things, probably those kids to you very clearly

sometimes right down the line. So I'm going to say this to you

very clearly. It's not up to you to decide if

they can learn those things or not.

Just teach them Jesus. All right.

Now the way we adapt that will be different.

And that's OK. We're going to talk a lot that

that's a lot of what we're going to talk about today.

But we're going to teach them Jesus.

We what we don't want is to create a place where, well, as

long as they're quiet and as long as they don't get interrupt

everyone else, then everything will be OK.

That's not what we're going to be teaching you.

And I don't believe that's biblical.

The idea is this, we're going to teach them Jesus, whether they

reach the age of accountability or not, where they'll truly

understand the gospel. That's not for me to decide.

That's not for our junior church teachers to decide.

What we're just do is keep teaching them Jesus.

AJ, if you'd asked me when he was about four or five years

old, if that he would understand the concept of who God is or

talk about Bible verses or things like that, the answer

would have been a hard no. He was pretty much non verbal at

the time and there wasn't a lot of hope that we had that he

would be verbal. I would tell you now he is so

very verbal Now he is, he is so verbal.

I mean, there are times like that non verbal thing like what

you know, what happened to that? Or can we just get a couple

hours of the non verbal thing, you know, like that would that

would be great. But you know, this is we don't

know. The doctors don't know.

We don't know, God knows. And So what do we know?

Well, we've got a Commission. This Commission does not change

because of the needs of others. In fact, God gave us Commission

knowing that there be autism. I'd, I'd argue that God gave us

Commission knowing to be Down syndrome and knowing that there

be children that have other type of neurotypical issues and

physical issues and all those things.

The principles don't change, but the methods will.

And that's what you need to remember.

The principles that we're going to look at don't change.

If it's from the Word of God, we don't get to change it.

Listen, that's what the liberals do.

And I'm not talking about liberals politically.

I'm talking about liberal Christians that they say, well,

I know what the Bible says, but in our situation, stop right

there. This is what the Bible says.

This is what we're going to do. And by the way, we're going to

be looking at what the Bible says about inclusion here in

just a few moments. But we're not going to change

what the Word of God says because of our unique

situations. But what we are going to do is

that we are going to keep the principles of the Word of God as

they are, but adapt them so that those young people will be able

to be included in their classrooms.

What inclusion is not. I've also talked about this,

just made some, just some remarks about it.

It's not simply making sure every child can physically sit

in your classroom. Inclusion is not.

Well, we have all of our kids in the classroom.

That would be the very technical definition of inclusion.

But that's not what we're trying to do here and now.

That might be a good starting place.

It could be that Johnny needs to only sit in class for 5 minutes

and that's all he can handle for a while.

And then, excuse me, we'll work to 10 minutes and we'll work to

20 minutes and we'll work to a whole class.

And then we'll start to give him some adaptives that we can work

on to be able to allow him to be able to understand some

concepts. But the whole idea is that we're

not just going to leave him there in the corner and say,

look, just don't interrupt the other kids while they're

learning. You say, why would you say that?

Because there's churches that that's the way that it is.

That's not your heart. I know that's why you're here.

But that's there are churches that are like that and we want

to avoid that. That is not inclusion.

It's not pretending differences don't exist and forcing everyone

into identical activities. There was a mother that we met

in Kansas a few years ago. It's interesting that when we go

to these special needs conferences, we've been able to

do some fit conferences or do some special needs teaching in

other places. And that we were at a church in

Kansas and they said, what would you also talk about special

needs and the ministry and the books before you get to

preaching? And that's what we did.

And after church, listen, the ladies line up to talk to my

wife. All the ladies want to talk to

my wife. And I just stand there and

sometimes the guys would come up and say, what do you think about

the chiefs? You know, that's what so and

it's like, well, I mean, special needs dads and men really need

to be able to get involved in that world and understand those

things too. But I find it's the women that

always want to talk to my wife. But one of the conversations

that she was having with the lady, and then I kind of butted

into it because none of the guys were really talking to me.

So I just decided to join that conversation was a woman who

said, and I'm going to kind of just give you a very basic

summary of this. Her daughter was non verbal.

And she was saying that her daughter in the junior church in

that children's class really was not participating at all and was

not allowed to participate because she could not speak.

And she says, I want her to be able to do memory verses and I'd

like her to be able to pray in front of the class.

And the teacher just took that as well.

I'm going to make her say her memory verse just like everyone

else. And if she can't say it, then

she doesn't get a star on the chart.

And if she can't, she can stand in front of the classroom.

And if she can't say anything, then she has to sit back down.

Now, that seems rather cruel to me, to be honest with you.

That's not, by the way, that's not what the mother was asking

for. The mother was asking, well, is

there some way that my child can do a memory verse like with a, a

board to be able to either write or to be able to make choices to

be able to do that or to be able to have a prayer request board.

We have a young lady in our church who is nonverbal.

She is the sweetest young girl that you could ever imagine.

She comes in to church with this beautiful smile every Sunday

morning and I just love her dearly.

In fact, AJ and her have this very interesting relationship

that they have with each other. It's like they connect on a

different level. There's on a wavelength none of

us understand, but they can. They understand one another.

And you know, she has a board when it's prayer time that she

has six different things that she can pick from and she pulls

off the one she wants to pick. It's attached with Velcro and

she puts at the top and says, this is what I'm going to pray

for or this is who I'm going to pray for this week.

She can participate. That's inclusion.

Now here's the problem. That takes work.

You don't just roll out of bed on Sunday morning and blow off

the flash cards and stand in front of the kids.

And that works because it's not. It does take some preparation.

And by the way, over time that preparation can be lessened as

you start to build a body of materials that you can reuse

over and over again. But that's not what we're

talking about. Just saying, well, we're going

to force you to do the same thing whether you can do it or

not, that that's not what we're talking about.

It's not allowing a child to behave or act how they however

they want. You know, the the pendulum, and

we'll talk about this in our last session.

The pendulum can swing so far the other direction that special

needs families become entitled. We have to have this.

We will have this pastor. This is the way that it needs to

be. And can I just say this and I

don't know again, if you're in the room, don't get offended

because listen, I'm not talking about you.

I'm talking about the people online.

OK, so just that that makes me feel better if I say that.

But I may be talking to you too. All right.

But I will say this, I am very much involved and want to

minister to the special needs community, but as a pastor, I

have to think of everybody. I can't just lobby for one

community at the sake of everyone else in the church.

Sometimes decisions have to be made that are hard and difficult

and maybe not as easy as a special needs parent would want

it to be. So as a pastor and as a special

needs parent, you have to understand that your child can't

act however they want. And by the way, you don't want

your child to act however you want.

There are times, you know that AJ acts in a way that's not

right. And I want him to know that when

he's adult, He can't do that at Walmart.

He can't do that in other places.

And by the way, this goes with it, It's not permitting a child

or their parent to be in charge of your classroom.

That's not inclusion either. Several years ago, we consulted

with a church in Ohio and they wanted to talk to us about an

issue they were having in their junior church.

They were working so hard with this young man.

He was probably about 13 or 14 years old, somewhere around

there, and they were trying to work with him to be able to sit

in a junior church. And if my memory was right that

he was actually maybe a little bit outside of the normal grades

to be in there, but they were making accommodations for him

and also had someone that was sitting with him.

Well, it ended up that he was being inappropriate to some of

the young ladies that were there, inappropriate to the

adult workers, female workers that were there.

And so the pastor had to call the family in.

Now the pastor, again, we consulted with him and, and the

whole idea was, listen, we don't want to be accusatory to this

young man at all. Perhaps he doesn't understand,

perhaps he's doing something that he doesn't know.

However, it's still not appropriate.

You can't just say, well, my child doesn't understand.

So moms and daughters just beware.

Moms and daughters just stand far away from him.

That that's, that's not inclusion.

That's that's not what we're aiming for.

And it ended up being that in talking to this with this

pastor, talk to the family, the family just got so upset they

left the church. Well, you don't, you don't care

about our family. You don't love our family.

The idea is we love them so much and they were trying to bend

over backwards and make even more accommodations.

But we love you so much that we're just telling you it's not

appropriate. Listen, that 13 year old becomes

a 21 year old and at the store touches a woman inappropriately

and he could be taken out in handcuffs.

Now, I'm not trying to be weird about this, but we've seen even

young autistic people or autistic people of any age, to

be honest with you, then resist arrest because they're confused

and tragic consequences can take place.

You say you you're being over the top.

No, no, I'm saying exactly what has been in the news the last

few years. This happened in Rhode Island

not that long ago. It's happened to other places as

well, where a child with autism becomes confused, not with a

guardian, not with a parent, and then tragic consequences can

take place. So what does that young man need

to know whether his intent was right or not?

We don't touch women in an inappropriate way.

And So what we're telling you is if you were worried about

inclusion, meaning the parents run your class or the children

run your class, that's the pendulum swinging too far the

other direction. The old saying is true.

There's a ditch on both sides of the road and we don't want to

fall so far and we don't make any accommodations.

Your kid can't talk well, they can't do anything in our class

and they can't learn. They can't get a star.

They don't get a treat. The other side is, well, we

don't listen. We don't want to offend these

people. So we'll just let them do

whatever they want. We'll let the kid do whatever

they want. They can scream, they can

terrorize, and other people will leave the church because now

they can't hear the word of God because of what's going on.

There has to be a middle ground. There has to be a biblical

ground. And the answer is there is

that's what true inclusion is, making sure that everyone is

fitly framed together, that it's not just the special needs child

and it's not just the special needs family, but that as a

church, all are together. Now, here's the definition that

I really want you to focus on. And if you want to know what

true inclusion is and what it asks, this is what I want you to

focus on inclusion in the classroom.

Ask this question, do I have access to the room and am I

included in what is going on in the room?

Do I have access to the room and am I included in what is going

on in the room? Now let's take the first part

that mostly deals with physical disabilities, doesn't it?

Can a child be in the room? Now let's also be equally

honest. Our church is blessed in the

sense that we don't have any type of access issues in this

building because this is not a typical church building.

We had a guy who came here once and he called us the cult in the

trailer after he left. And and The funny thing was, I

was more insulted about calling this a trailer than a cult.

And it's like, this is not a trailer.

All right. Like it's not a cold either, but

I'm just saying it's not a trailer.

We think it's a double wide. Come on, man.

Like, are you kidding me? But because this is a metal

building that was turned into a church and we came here, we have

no ADA issues at all. In fact, we're one of the few

churches in town that is ADA accessible, which is a blessing

for us. But I also recognize that some

of you come from churches that retrofitting to the ADA is

almost next to impossible. I get that.

Or it would come at such great expense.

It's cost prohibitive. And again, you don't have to

follow the ADA federally because churches are exempt.

I will tell you this, the AAB, which is the state version, the

Massachusetts version of the ADA, it is more stringent than

the ADA churches are required to follow.

And that may be a little bit of a shock to pastors.

And there can be some carve outs for you as well because of

finances and different types of things.

But there are certain parts of the law served on the Commission

of disabilities in our town for six years.

There are certain things that are required even of churches in

the state of Massachusetts, not federally, but from the state.

And if you're watching wherever you are, if whatever country

you're in, you should be aware of what the laws are in your

area as well. But I will say that there are

things that you can do and accommodations you can make even

an older church buildings to be able to make accessibility.

And so those are some things that you would have to look at

or maybe consult with someone who knows a lot more about

building and those types of things.

Or you might just need to be able to say, well, we're going

to move our classroom to an accessible room.

We're gonna move to the first floor or we're going to move to

another room. It's, it's just more of a

mindset than anything. We were at another church in

Kansas. It was about a year and a half

ago and we were actually doing a fit conference there.

They actually invited us to come and do a conference.

They said, listen, we'll invite everybody.

We'll do everything. We'll, we'll serve the meal.

All you got to do is come and teach the lessons.

I was like, Pam, there's a great setup right here.

We, we were all about that. And it was such a blessing to be

able to go. And there was 1 gentleman that

was in a power chair that was there.

You get a special needed adult, a, a person with a handicap.

He was there with a power chair, chair and we talked to him for a

little bit and he we learned through the process of time that

because of the way this church was that and it was an older

church and he couldn't actually come in through the front door.

And so they made him with the only way to come in the

accessible entrance was in the back.

It went through a choir room. It went through a place.

Well, if your choir rooms, like most choir rooms, you know, it's

just like, it's like, you know, it's like there's all this sheet

music everywhere and you kind of what are we going to sing on

Sunday? Kind of just that one, all

right, Because that's the way ours was when we were in, when

we were in Tampa. It took us a lot of work to get

it what it needed to be. They decided if this is the

accessible entrance to the church, we've got to do better

back here. And so they renovated that small

room. It was about 8 by 810 by 10,

something like that. They moved the choir books to

another area. They they painted it, they put a

little chair in there just so other people for coming in and

out and they just made it look comfortable to me.

That was wow, that's inclusion. It's not just going through and

saying, well, listen, just go through the stacks, acquire

books and make it to It was someone who felt like they were

a part of the church. It probably cost them a few $100

for paint and a little elbow grease to clean and that was

about it. But do you know what a

difference of a testimony it was to that man to be able to feel

like my church cares? So that's the first part is just

knowing that they can get access to the room, wherever that is.

That's your auditorium, your sanctuary, that's the classroom

that you meet, whatever it is. But when they get there, are

they included in what's going on in the room?

That it's not just about making sure they can get in the room,

but can they participate in what's going on when they get

there. This is the part that will help

you with as time goes on. It's not what I'm going to cover

this morning in this session because what we're talking more

philosophical, more biblical. Diane is going to help you with

a great deal more with that because it requires maybe

adapting the environment. It requires adapting the method

of instruction. It requires adapting the

conditions. And we'll look at all of those

later and make practical application.

But adapting those things does not mean you have to change who

you are. It does not mean you have to

change who you teach. It doesn't mean that you have to

teach that one child at the expense of all the other

children. It can all be done together.

I am constantly amazed that's what's accomplished in that

glass room back there here at 800 Washington St.

It was I think 2 weeks ago, we had a, a very high attendance.

We were in and of that high attendance, there were 12 in

that glass room. Now, I would encourage you at

some point, just go peek your head in that glass room.

All right, men, we'll be meeting in there in just a few minutes,

but peek your head in the glass room.

Tell me if you think 12 children should be in there, especially

with several of them with special needs.

And I, and I've, I've said this before, I'd rather preach out

here. I'd rather do everything out

here than to be the one standing in that classroom and doing it

because I, I don't know that I can do it.

I just don't know. I mean, look, Lord gives you

grace when you need it. But I mean, we're talking about

grace, you know, for, for me to be able to do it.

But to know that my wife at 10:00 and Miss Cassandra at

11:00 are in there and they're teaching the kids the word of

God and they're not just getting a, a hey, sit down and be quiet

and, and, and don't, don't make a lot of noise.

But they are learning and they're growing.

And we just had a young lady just about 6 months ago in there

that didn't get saved in junior church.

But then she came out during the children junior church activity

afterwards. And she wanted to get saved to

the point that I was trying to go through with her.

And she's kind of like, what's taking so long?

I already know what I needed. If she was trying to tell me the

plan of salvation, I was like, hey, girl, I think you already

got it, to be honest with you. I think you already know what

you need to do. And so where did that come from?

Because of the preacher. Because what happened in the

glass room, you know? And a young lady, by the way,

also has trouble keeping attention.

But the Lord was able to work through some of those things,

but there was some accommodations that needed to be

made. So we thank the Lord for that.

Well, what's the biblical foundation for this type of

inclusion? I want to take maybe the next 10

minutes to look at this. So if you have your Bibles, turn

to 1st Corinthians chapter 10. Let's get down to preaching.

All right, First Corinthians chapter 12, you can go to

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

chapter 10. It's a good chapter 2.

But we're supposed to be going to chapter 12, and we're looking

at verse #12. Now, this chapter deals with the

local church. I I say that because sometimes

it's talked about in a universal sense.

And I would say what we see here is a local church body that's

being spoken of here, because at the end you'll see that there

could be the potential for schisms, difficulties,

divisions. Nothing that's universal,

invisible can have schisms, difficulties and divisions.

But we're talking about a very real church here.

And this is where we start to get the idea of this fit

conference, how we're we're put together.

So read along with me verse #12 you read silently widely aloud.

It says, For as the body is 1 and hath 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 be bond or free, and have made all, and have been all made

to drink into one spirit. For the body is not one member,

but many At the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am

not of the body. Is it therefore not of the body?

The ears shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not the body.

Is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye,

were where were they hearing? If the whole were hearing, where

were the smelling? But now hath God set members,

every one of them, in the body, as it had pleased them?

Let's stop right there for a moment.

In the local body, we are different.

And I've said before, the Liberty Baptist Church has so

many different characters. We could have a sitcom with all

the different characters that we have.

You know, there's so many different people coming from so

many different walks of life. By the way, that starts with the

pastor. I'm not exempting myself from

all that. I'm I, I am.

I may be the under shepherd. I'm not the chief shepherd, but

I may be the chief character that is here at Liberty Baptist

Church. I'm not.

I'll acknowledge that freely. But I will say this, we're

different by design, that God has purposely put us together,

that what God has done in Bellingham or what God has done

in Webster or in Peabody or in Holbrook or in Washington,

Trailia, Washington, I hope I said that right.

Or in Scotland or wherever that is that pretty good.

No, it wasn't good, all right. But wherever it may be that God

has put the people in that church to be I eyes, ears,

mouths, noses, hands, feet, all different, but different by

design. Because if we were all the same,

that that would make a very difficult type of church,

wouldn't it? That God brought us all together

the way he did. And who is the one that did it?

Well, it said that God was the one.

He did it as it pleased him. So I would say to you this

morning that even those who might seem like they don't fit

because of their special needs, so maybe I remind you, God has

placed them within your watch care God, God has God desires

for you to remember that they are part of the body.

They are part of the body, that they cannot be put off to the

side. Not only are they important, but

they are necessary to the work. Do you know how many people have

come to know the Lord or have come to church over the years

because of AJ? And he doesn't even realize it.

He doesn't even recognize it. We were at that conference a

couple of years ago in Kansas and I remember it was pretty

overwhelming. It's probably about 150 or so

people there was so well attended.

It was such a blessing. And we got to the end of there

was a pastor there. In fact, I believe there's some

from their church that are watching here today.

And Brother Quigley, Pastor Quigley, a friend of ours, got

up and, and he, he prayed to close the service to, to close

the conference. And I'll never forget what he

said. He said as he prayed, you know,

for safe travel and, and all the different things.

And as we went our way, he says, and Lord, thank you for AJ.

And none of them knew AJ. We didn't bring him with us.

I said thank you for AJ because if it wasn't for AJ, none of us

would be here today. I thought about that.

It sounds like I didn't know that, so I'd never heard it come

out of someone else's mouth. And it really hit differently

when I thought, wow, all of these people came today because

of AJ. Anything good that we have

obviously comes from the Lord, but it's because the Lord gave

us AJ. You're telling me we'd have

three books for special needs families and for churches?

If you're telling me we have a fit conference, it would be more

likely to have a fit conference. And that's unlikely, but it

would have been more likely than this.

I didn't know the difference between autism and Down syndrome

when they told me what it what what AJ was dealing with.

And I say that not to be funny. I'm saying cuz that's where I

was. I'd no idea whatsoever.

But look at what God did. Why?

Because God placed him with us. God placed him within this

church. And so those people, that's what

inclusion is all about. Look at verse #19.

And if they were all one member, where would be the body?

But now are they many members, yet one body?

And the eye cannot say into the hand I have no need of thee, nor

get to the head of the feet, I have no need of you.

Why do we need these special needs people here?

Well, it seems like we don't have the right to ask that

question. Nay, much more, those members of

the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary.

It's the ones that you don't see coming that could be the ones

that are the game changers in the church.

And so, well, you know, I'll, I'll teach this little boy about

the Bible, but I don't know what he'll become to well, one, he

could get saved and that'd be good enough.

I mean, I don't know what more you'd need from that.

But it could just be he could change a family, could just be

he could change a church, could just be change a community.

See, it's not up for us to decide what the end consequences

will be to say, you know what this seems more feeble, but it

seems to me that God takes pleasure in the feeble.

Just went through First Corinthians preaching through on

Wednesday nights, first few chapters.

They were so proud of themselves.

He said this you know what you you really need to be weak.

That's where it's at weakness as where as you, you've cherished

your strength, but you're not actually strong.

So I had to talk to you as babes.

You need milk instead of being the strong meet people that you

need to be. And so, yeah, there's some

people that may not seem like they belong, but boy do they

belong. And we need to help them belong.

Nay, much more of those members of the body, verse 22 would see

more feeble or necessary. And those members of the body

which we think to be less honorable upon these we bestow

more abundant honor, and our uncomely parts have more

abundant comeliness, for our comely parts have no need.

But God had tempered the body together, giving more abundant

honor to them, part which lacked that there'd be no schism in the

body, but that the members should have the same care one

for another. And whether one member suffer,

all members suffer with it or 1 be honored, all of them, all the

members rejoice with it. Again, it seems to me that's

very clear why this is talking about the local church, because

it's talking about real issues that are happening within a

body. Not something that's just

floating in the air, but something that's very real here.

So what do we see from this? Just to fill in your blanks

there. Each member of the body, the

local church has unique gifts. AJ has unique gifts.

He does. And I'm not talking about the

special gifts that sometimes people ask you about that say,

well, what's your child's special gift like?

Like every child has to be a savant at the piano or do math

on command or, or, or some of those things you see on

television or in the movies. AJ does not have a special gift

in the sense that he is a savant at something, you know, he can

play chess with blindfolded, you know, or something like that.

You know what AJ special gift is being AJ and you say, well, that

sounds that sounds just kind of silly.

Well, that's what it is, because that's who God made him.

And so yes, that's that's what he is.

That's his unique gift. But every member has unique

gifts. Those who seem, quote seem to be

more feeble are necessary. The body is tempered, which

means to commingle the body being commingled together that

we are one. That's why when one rejoices, we

all rejoice. That's why when one sorrows, we

all sorrow because we're together as one to the end that

there be no schism and that the members have the same care one

for another. I would say it's a good argument

for biblical inclusion, not the world's inclusion, but what the

Bible says. Now quickly because I'm going

over just a touch and we'll probably go to 9:50 and then

take a 10 minute break and then we'll split.

I'll tell you more about that in the and in Ephesians 2/21/22.

It's right there on your page. And whom the this is where we

get our our term fit conference from.

And whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto a

holy temple in the Lord. And whom you also are building

together for the habitation of God through the Spirit.

While the body is the temple of the Spirit.

The church is also recognized that way as well.

First Corinthians chapter 6 talks about the body being the

1 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention

temple of Spirit. First Corinthians chapter 3, and

1 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

of course Ephesians chapter 2 talk about the church being that

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

the church is fitly framed together, meaning every piece is

exactly who and where it needs to be.

This is biblical inclusion. The world's inclusion typically

brings together pieces that don't belong for the sake of

unity. Biblical inclusion understands

that those God has entrusted us with must be included in the

whole. The mission of the church

extends every part of the church, including those with

special needs. Again, the Great Commission does

not stop when someone's understanding seemingly stops.

The Great Commission continues. It's just that we need to adapt

our methods so that we can fulfill the biblical command.

And I'll just give you this this, and, and, and then we'll,

we'll take a break. When AJ started here, I mean we

started Liberty 2013. We moved to this building very

quickly after being in the in the school for about 3 months

and we knew around that time something was different about

AJ. Time goes on, he gets the

diagnosis, he's not able to sit in the classroom.

Of course, you understand some of you being from smaller

churches, church plants, you understand that when you're the

church planter, church planter's wife, you do everything.

I mean, let me tell you, you don't understand church planting

until you plunge the toilet in your suit.

I'll tell you. That's when you know, it's like,

you know, this is when this is like, it's hit me like, this is

church planting. This is where it's at.

OK. And so there were times for

years that AJ would actually have to sit in the nursery

because he couldn't sit out here during services.

So either Diane or Bethany or Kaylee's older sisters, we had

to sit in the nursery until he's about 7 or 8 years old because

he just couldn't handle being out here.

We got to the place we said this is unsustainable, we can't keep

doing this. So we explained to our church,

he's going to be coming out a few minutes at a time.

And we worked on it. And our church was so wonderful

in so many ways. And I remember AJ sitting in the

back. I have a video of him I'm

preaching. And I'm just, you know, just

Sunday night, you know, independent Baptist, I, I say it

to Lara, you know, and AJ is in the back and he's, he's got

headphones on. They're not even connected to

anything. And he's doing this.

And Diane takes a video of it and you can just hear me.

And AJ is, I thought, I wonder how many other people would wish

they were doing that right now, to be honest with you,

headphones on, not listening pass.

You know, we went from that to him sitting in church to even

after my wife's gone through some very difficult health

issues and still does in many ways, but was not able to come

to church for a while. But sometimes I'd have to preach

and he'd be sitting right here in the front row.

Never thought that would happen. They could sit through old

service. Well, a couple times he didn't

do so well and had to come down and finish my sermon standing

next to him. Didn't see that coming either.

And thankfully I've remembered a lot of my sermons so that like,

OK, I see, I didn't know I need to memorize this one, but that's

OK. But you know, what's really

interesting, you talk about inclusion growing over time.

And Diane noticed this a couple weeks ago.

We have men's prayer here at 9:00, and we actually have about

9 or 10 men who will come together and pray.

But then afterwards, you know, we all kind of get into our

groups and drink coffee and talk until 10:00 and Sunday school

starts. I didn't notice this, but

there's a couple guys talking outside.

I believe it's Dave and the other day, because our church

had five days here on Sunday. Could you imagine 50 people in

five days? That's, that doesn't make any

sense. But that's what we 10%.

We had a tithe of Dave's in our church on Sunday.

And so Dave, Dave too, you're Dave too, all right.

And Dave too was outside with Dave for outside talking.

And there was AJ just standing with them.

He was standing and listening. And then he was talking about

geese. OK.

He had some desire to talk about geese.

But you know, I thought that's the elder teaching the younger.

He said, no, that's not the old teaching the younger saying,

hey, that's what the Bible says. No, he would just learn, hey,

this is what the men do. They stand outside and drink

coffee. They anybody hasn't asked to

drink coffee yet, but they stand outside and drink coffee and

they talk before church and sometimes they talk about the

Lord. Sometimes they talk about the

Pats. Not much lately.

Sometimes they talk about the weather or what's going on, but

that. But they're together as men.

They're saved. They have commonality.

And there's AJ just standing there and you know, every once

in a while talk about geese and they'll get back to just

listening. It's like that's inclusion.

And two guys who one fairly knew who didn't bat an eye at that,

but just included him in the conversation.

That's what we're looking for. That's biblical inclusion.

And we're going to help you with some of that here as the day

goes on. Heavenly Father, thank you for

this time. I pray that you just be with us.

We take a break. And as we continue here in just

a moment, thank you for each of these people.

Thank you for the people watching online.

It's something that we don't take lightly.

Thank you so much for each and every one of them.

We ask it in Jesus name, Amen. Before we go to a break, let me

just explain to everybody, whether you're here or whether

you're online, what's about to happen.

We'll take a break at 10:00. The men, we will take in the

glass room. We might not have enough chairs.

We might need to move some in there.

That's the case. We'll address that when we get

there. Ladies, you'll remain out here

for split session. Diane will be teaching and then

I'll be teaching in the glass room.

If you are watching online, what's going to happen is this

link will be your link for the entire day.

But what will happen is while we're on breaks, you'll just see

a, a card on the screen that says we will be right back in a

minute and just know right around 10:00 Eastern Time we

will be returning. It will be Diane's lesson.

We will not be recording the lesson in the glass room just

because of the constraints of the size of our building and

where we have everything as far as audio visual.

So at 10:00 Eastern Time, if you're watching online, you'll

be watching Diane. If you're here, get Donuts, get

coffee. If you're at home, you're on

your own. I hope you got something there.

All right? And so we'll be breaking and

we'll be back at it at 10:00, All right.