Core Training: Primaries, Hills Upon Which to Die

Hey everybody, this is Pastor John Ewart from Inglewood

Baptist Church in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina.

Thank you so much for tuning into our podcast.

You're going to hear from God today as we share from His word

about important issues facing your life that can guide you

according to the Bible. So I want to thank you all for

being here in this live session. For those of you who are

listening online to the podcast, thank you for joining us as

well. I hope that you'll listen to

this entire series. If you weren't here last week, I

introduced the idea of a theological triage that may

sound like a technical term. Don't let that throw you.

Tonight we'll have some things that are fairly deep but but

necessary as we continue to talk about some of the primaries of

our faith. Next Wednesday, that's better.

Next Wednesday I'm going to talk about a specific primary.

This, this next couple of weeks are going to be really

important. If you can't be here, you're

going to want to capture those somehow because next week I'm

going to talk about why do we believe what we believe about

the Bible and why does that matter?

And then another one the week after that is why do I believe?

Why do we believe about Jesus, what we believe, and why does

that matter? And those two issues are going

to be crucial as you're dealing apologetically with a lost

world. If you don't understand your

authority and you don't understand who Jesus Christ is,

you're not going to have the foundational elements to be able

to share the gospel well with anybody out there.

And so our world today will not necessarily come from that

perspective. They're going to come from

different authorities. And you need to know what you

believe about about yours. And so last week I actually

ended with several passages in rapid fire from Paul to Timothy

and also Titus, about avoiding silly myths, avoiding silly

opinions and gossip and rumors, and instead we trust in God's

truth. A person that I feel like I've

quoted more in Rocky Mount than I have ever anywhere in my

entire existence is Corey Tenboom.

And I don't really know why that is, but she once said never be

afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.

And and so all of our definition, all of our

destination, all of our direction has to come from a a

single place. And so God is at work at

Inglewood. I believe that with all my

heart. I think when you look around

that room, the room to even now for those of here live would

believe that. And so we don't want to, we

don't want to ever neglect that or stop celebrating that.

But they're also always areas in which to grow and mature as we

seek God to perform and to to make his bride even healthier

and ready for his mission. And so we need to believe in him

and his plan for us. So that last session I shared a

pretty firehose summary of ways to prioritize our beliefs and

there. And there's two reasons for

that. I mean, these are the 2 main

goals of this little series right now.

One is it's the best way for us to unite as a church so that

we're all on the same page. And that we can also understand

that sometimes the pages have different paragraphs, so to

speak, that will have some nuances that that might be

different from one another. And, and that can be OK as long

as the basics and the primaries are the same.

And so we want to make sure that we're united together in

ministry. But also we really do need to

understand some of these things to be able to share real truth

with a world that doesn't believe in real truth.

It doesn't believe in any absoluteness, so to speak.

And so we want to be ready to do that out there.

So if you weren't here last time, please go back and listen

to that. And I told you last time that I

was going to break down each level in some detail.

And that's what we're going to begin to do tonight.

So what we're going to talk about tonight are really some of

the primary issues. And we would call this hills

upon which to die. These are things we must

believe. These are things that are

crucial to our belief. And, and because we're in such a

truth crisis in our world and frankly theological brute

bleeding, so to speak, we need this triage and, and Rocky

Mountain needs this triage as well.

In fact, let me summarize to you an article that I was reading

some time ago and it was about, it's about the nuns.

Now, what I mean by that are not the NUNSS, not the sisters in

the habit, but the NONESS, the NO, those who are not connected

to any religious organization. This is the third largest

religious group in the United States of America, those who are

not religious. And that's the first time in

American history that that's been true.

It's interesting in the last, just the last few months, the

growth of that nun group has actually slowed down, which is

interesting. I give God credit for that

obviously. And the growth, the rapid growth

of the nuns, the non religious, the non affiliated with any

organized religion people. And that's not just

Christianity, that's any religion that the growth of this

group has actually slowed down. But they're still significantly

large. If you were to look around the

Rocky Mount area, they would be the third largest group here.

You would have Baptists and you would have Catholics and you

would have others. But then the nuns are always

going to be there, the 3rd. And that's been true across

North Carolina in many places. But it's interesting because

referring to those who are, who are in this realm, there are

people who are trying to kind of be on both sides of the fence.

And so there are some churches and I put that in quotation

marks that no longer identify with biblical Christianity, but

identify as spiritual but not religious quote UN quote and

spiritual, but not necessarily religious.

Although I'm I'm not really necessarily wanting to be

religious either necessary and some of the the negative

connotations of that, but but often that means that they're

all over the place. So these spiritual organizations

don't follow any definite doctrine and they allow their

members incredible flexibility. This is going to be hard for

some of you to relate to who have been in more traditional

search setting. For example, in Atlanta, if you

think there's a Bible Belt, go to Atlanta and you'll realize

there isn't 1 Atlanta. Atlanta is one of the most

diverse cities in the United States of America and also one

of one of the most lost. But in Atlanta, there's a

community that no longer considers itself a church and

identifies as a more fluid group.

I'm just going to read this article for a minute.

Their quote UN quote pastor said.

We are an ever evolving spiritual collective.

If you're a Christian, wonderful.

If you're a post Christian, wonderful.

So at at first sight, these this organization, it looks like a

church has music, it has teachings, although I don't know

what they're teaching. It has teachings and fellowship

to connect together, but they reject blind faith and they

allow their members to and I quote, believe in anything and

nothing simultaneously. Another one, another one of

these churches, quote UN quote churches has a pastor who used

to be an active Christian pastor preacher but struggled with his

faith. This is what he said.

Everything started to unravel for me rather quickly.

The challenge of still going up and preaching A sermon every

Sunday when on the inside I was doubting the legitimacy of the

whole thing. So they rebranded as a spiritual

community, right? The focus is less on beliefs and

dogma and more about the experience, the practical

spirituality. Still another one of these kinds

of organizations or churches claims it's bound by values, not

written texts or beliefs. Here's what they say.

Our motto is love. Period.

We determine what these wisdom texts are saying through the

lens of love, rather than determining what love means

through the lens of a wisdom text.

And many of the members of these communities have experienced one

form of religious trauma or another, so they no longer feel

like they belong in churches. And since the doctrines aren't

set in stone, there's still a lot of experimental parts.

And their leaders believe they're figuring it out and will

continue to do so for as long as possible.

But the bottom line is they believe in anything and nothing

simultaneously. That might sound convenient,

that might even sound charming, but it's not going to help you.

It's not going to provide you what you need in life, and it's

certainly not going to provide you what you need in eternity.

And it's not going to impact this world because it's not

going to deal with the truth. So what we're dealing with is

the balance that we started to talk about last time.

The balance between love without truth leads to heresy and

ambiguity. You're going to have pluralism,

you're going to have universalism because you can

believe anything and everything. But truth without love leads to

legalism and conflict. And Jesus even dealt with this.

So in Mark Chapter 7 we encounter Christ encountering

Mark 7 · chapter mention

some religious leaders. It says this.

Now when the Pharisees gathered to him with some of the scribes

who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his

disciples ate with hands that were defiled, That is unwashed.

For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash

their hands properly, according to the tradition of the elders.

And when they had come from the marketplace, they do not eat

unless they wash. And there are many other

traditions that they observe, such as washing of cups and pots

and copper vessels and dining couches.

And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, why do your

disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but

eat with defiled hands? And he said to them, Well did

Isaiah prophecy of you hypocrites nothing like beating

around the Bush as it is written.

This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far

from me. In vain do they worship me,

teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.

You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of

men. And he said to them, You have a

fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to

establish your tradition. That last, that last part is

pretty powerful Traditions, opinions and often even in

church, I'll hear, well, I believe that.

Well, I think that or I think the Bible says right and, and,

and certainly there's some room for that when we're talking

about some tertiary or secondary issues.

But in primary issues, we need to be pretty rock solid to to

believe in whatever you invent as truth can can, can lead us to

a rejection of God's truth in the end.

We've got to be careful. Then you can also judge others

based on your truth, if you're creating your own truth.

So suddenly we're attacking or gossiping or posting on social

media about whatever. And, and it's often just opinion

or tradition rather than truth. And so perhaps some of these

folks are more concerned about getting followers for themselves

than followers of Jesus. But Jesus then continues with

specific examples of the way they took the truth and they

twisted it, how they ignored it. Now you got to remember these

are supposed to be the religious holy people of the day and how

they were ignoring it and twisting it or finding loopholes

in order to justify their their own behaviors or traditions

instead of following God's word. Look at verse 10.

It says for Moses said honor your father and your mother and

whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.

But you say if a man tells his father or his mother, whatever

you have gained for me is Corbin that is given to God, then you

no longer permit him to do anything for his father or

mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition

that you have handed down and many such things you do.

I'd like to have heard more of them, but rather than following

the actual word and will of God, they created a workaround and

and then in the name and facade of hyper spiritualism, they

justify their sin. And believe it or not, that

happens all the time. It happens in the church where

somebody's opinion or tradition. If that keeps going, then it

becomes truth and then your truth is based upon something

that's not true and then it's going to lead you to another

untruth and you'll find yourself in a spiral, a progression of,

of declining truth if you don't, if you're not careful.

So I'll just be honest with you. I grow kind of weary of those

who claim that God told them to do or, or or to do this or to do

that and and to bring glory to God when God was not telling any

mature believer to do that and his Word doesn't mandate that.

And in the end the glory goes to them rather than to God.

And so there are people who will hyper spiritualize things that

are not of the word and will of God in the 1st place.

But Jesus wasn't finished yet, just getting started.

This was a problem. This was a pattern.

This was a belief system. Now here what I just said.

This was a belief system of these religious leaders.

This wasn't just one time act. This wasn't just kind of a

misunderstanding. This wasn't just some mistake

they were making. This was a belief system upon

which they were basing not only their lives, but also oppressing

the people around them with those traditions and forcing

them into it as well. And so this became not only not

only a one time deal for them, it was an entire pattern of

behavior. So he wanted them to understand

that belief in our hearts is far more important in determining

than some of the physical rituals that they were

practicing, etcetera. So this is what he says in verse

14. And he called the people to him

again and said, hear me all of you and understand there's

nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him.

But the things that come out of a person are what defile him.

And when he entered the house and left the people, his

disciples asked him about the parable.

And he said to them, Then are you also without understanding?

Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside

cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart, but his

stomach and his expelled? Thus he declared all foods

clean. And he said What comes out of a

person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the

heart of man becomes evil thoughts, sexual immorality,

theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit,

sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.

All these evil things come from within and they defile a person.

Now, why am I telling you all this?

Because when, when we're surrounded by lostness, which we

are, and you might not think we are, because I recognize that I,

if I could throw a rock hard enough, I could probably hit

another Baptist Church from here.

But that doesn't mean anything. Don't let these buildings fool

you. Just because there is a St.

building on corners doesn't mean there's a healthy church on that

corner. And I'm not judging anybody, but

I, I actually know about the churches statistically and

demographically and qualitatively and

quantitatively. I've consulted with some of them

here and so I know what's going on in a lot of them.

And it's true, all across our nation, we are surrounded by

lostness and we are in an emergency triage mode to stop

the bleeding and we have to have prioritized treatment.

So as I promised, I need to share more about the first

level, our highest ranking doctrine, our primary

foundational beliefs. Because if not, then we'll see

this same spiral happening. And then it creeps into the

church and churches become more moderate, churches become more

liberal. Churches draw away from the Word

of God. And before long, God's not going

to bless them. They start declining in size.

They start calling me and asking me what to do about it.

And that's what happens in my life.

Theresa will testify to you that I, this is what these churches

do. They, they don't call me when

things are going great. I promise you.

They call me when they're in in serious decline and don't know

how to pull out of it. And for some of that, it's

actually a theological problem. It's the fact that they've

stopped living out the word of God and they started hanging on

to traditions. They have golden calves.

Now, I've said this to you before, but I like the

illustration so much that I'm going to say it again because I

think it's fun. I don't care what you've seen in

a movie. I don't care what you've seen in

a Western movie. But if a cow standing on a

railroad track and that train hits that cow, that cow is going

to explode in a million pieces. Now, my preference is to get the

cow off the track, but one way or the other, that train will

run right over that cow. And golden calves and traditions

that take priority over truth and over understanding how to

actually reach a world with the gospel can actually produce

problems. And So what we want to do is we

want to live according to the word of God and the will of God,

and not simply according to some tradition or opinion or gossip,

etcetera. So what is our true Christian

identity? Right here's here's what we're

asking upon what theological hills must we die?

What is of first importance? What gets you into heaven?

What defines you as a saved believer.

Pastor Charles and I and she may be here tonight.

I won't embarrass her by pointing her out if she is but

but we had the wonderful opportunity this week of

visiting with a lovely lady about the gospel 82 years old

and she prayed and asked Jesus into her heart this week as we

were sharing with her. It was a wonderful time and we

were just, it was just a very an honest conversation about what

we believe and what we we need to believe.

It was just a lovely, just wonderful conversation.

Plus she had a cute dog name that I liked and, and, and liked

me, which is nice. But even though he kind of

ignored me, I was a little offended.

But anyways, good. So let's start right here.

Acts chapter 16 verse 29 says this.

Acts 16:29

If you remember, Paul and Silas are in jail.

God opens up the jail. The jailer is scared to death

and the jailer called for lights and rushed in and trembling with

fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas.

Then he brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be

saved? OK, this is pretty, pretty

foundational. This is pretty primary great

question to ask. What do I need to be a

Christian? That was part of the

conversation this week and they said believe in the Lord Jesus

and you will be saved, you and your household.

So you have to believe now that you've heard me talk about that.

If you were here Sunday, you heard me talk a lot about this,

that you have to faith in Christ.

You have to and that that that means to rely upon, to trust in,

to cling to, to put your whole weight upon.

It doesn't just mean a head knowledge.

It means that you're, you're trusting him with your whole

existence and that you faith in him.

So there's that again, to believe, but to believe, we have

to know and understand certain truths.

There's certain things about Jesus and about the gospel you

need to know in order to know what it is to believe in, right?

And so when you're talking about believing in Jesus, what does

that mean, right? What does that mean to believe

in the gospel? We're going to spell that out a

lot in our personal evangelism training.

But in the in the classes that often teach at the seminary, we

actually discussed this. What must a person understand?

And we even sometimes say that what's the minimum a person must

understand in order to be really saved.

Now, that's not my goal. My goal is not minimalism, but

but what is that minimum thing? What, what must they understand

in order to be saved and be able?

And then what? What must I be able then to

articulate out to a lost world? So one of the things that I do

to them, I'm not going to do it to you all, although it would be

fun. It would just take several hours

is that I actually make the students take 90 plus Bible

stories and we'll take 90 starting from Genesis to

Revelation. We have 90, I think it's 93

Bible stories. And they have to decide which of

these Bible stories provide content that are absolutely

necessary for salvation. And they rank them 1-2 and

three. So they, you have to know this

in order to be saved. And then I wish you could know

this. And then for discipleship, you

should know this. And they rank all 93 of those

Bible stories according to the priority of salvation versus

discipleship, right? And so and so they do this and

it takes them a while. And we have to understand and

believe certain things to be a Christian.

What are those things? So there are some doctrinal

theological hills that are worth dying on if these things aren't

true. We aren't Christians, and so

they determine the outcome of the entire battle, frankly.

So these are the first level primary foundational ideas that

we're going to talk about tonight.

There's a there's a theologian author named Gavin Ortland who

wrote this. Some first ranked doctrines are

worth fighting for because they mark a fault line between the

gospel and a rival ideology, religion or worldview.

Some first ranked doctrines are worth fighting before because

they constitute a material point of the gospel.

More simply, some first rate doctrines are needed to defend

the gospel and others to proclaim the gospel.

Without them, the gospel is incomplete.

And so we recognize that there are certain things we have to

believe in order to share the gospel or even believe in the

gospel. And so they define what the true

gospel is. And that defines who we are as

true believers and not what we might call cultural Christians.

How many of you know cultural Christians who who may or may

not actually understand the gospel?

And I know we're not to judge the heart and mind of people,

but we just see that in their life, right?

And then remember what Doctor Mueller said last week.

He said these first order doctrines represent the most

fundamental truths of the Christian faith.

And the denial of these doctrines represent nothing less

than an eventual denial of Christianity.

So first level theological issues would include those

doctrines most central and essential to the Christian

faith, right? So we're going to talk about

what some of these are in detail and look at some scripture.

So these first level doctrines, you got to think about it this

way. These first leverage, these

primaries are very gospel focused, right?

They're very much about what the gospel would say.

You must believe these things to be saved.

You must believe these things to go to heaven.

You must believe these things to actually be a Christian.

So another theologian, Michael Whitmer, says this.

The essential beliefs of the Christian faith are clustered

around the story of salvation so that they surround it.

You have things like this, the triune God.

So who is God? That's that's a primary

doctrine. We have to know that in fact,

after last session, someone came up to me and they were talking

about some folks in the Connect group, in their small group, and

they were talking about this and how when we share the Gospel

today, and by the way, when we do personal evangelism, I'm

actually going to show you how to critically analyze gospel

tools and tracts and things like that because it's really hard in

today's world out there for most people.

We're probably not going to start in Romans.

We're probably not going to start in the Gospel of John.

Guess what book we need to start in, in Genesis, right?

And so we have to define who this God is, because we can't

assume they know. So here's what he says.

So one of them is the triune God.

Another one is a fallen humanity.

In other words, sin. We have to know what that is.

We need to understand sin. We need to understand who God

really is. We understand what sin really

is. We can't be saved unless we

understand some of that, right? And then we need to understand

the God man, Jesus, who died in our place, and our need to

repent of the sin that is killing us and claiming and

claim the forgiveness and new life offered in Christ.

These are the truths the Holy Spirit uses to regenerate us.

So there's certain things we have to know before the Holy

Spirit comes in and helps us with our salvation experience.

So this first level is very salvation centric, very gospel

and salvation centric, right? So included among those most

crucial doctrines would be things again like the Trinity,

the full deity and humanity of Jesus Christ, justification by

faith, and the authority of Scripture.

So you got to understand that this goes all the way back to

the early church. So in the earliest churches, in

these early years of the church, they fought false teaching.

In fact, when you read the New Testament, many of the epistles

that were written, especially when you get into John and some

of those, they're fighting false teaching in the church.

Paul had to do that too. And so early on, there are false

teachers who are attacking several of these doctrinal

issues. One of the primary things that

the early false teachers attacked was who is Jesus and

the deity of Christ and his relation, God the Son, his

relationship to God the Father, the Trinity, They they fought

all this stuff. And So what is the Trinity and

how do these relationships work? So again, let me quote Mueller.

I won't quote him all night long, but but let me quote

Mueller again. He says the earliest creeds and

councils of the church were emergency measures taken to

protect the central core of Christian doctrine and

orthodoxy. They, the heresy was condemned

and these councils dealt with doctrines of unquestionable

first order importance. And we just take it for granted.

When you come to a church like this, it preaches the Bible like

we do and teaches that you might take it for granted.

Don't because they don't out there.

They don't, and we're surrounded by people who don't know this

stuff and they don't understand it.

And so the church had to affirm the full deity and the full

humanity of Jesus Christ because they're absolutely necessary to

the Christian faith. If Jesus is not God Incarnate,

the cross doesn't work in the same way, and so we have to

understand who he is. So the doctrine of the

incarnation is just as important as many others, and often we

don't talk about it enough. So it's vital.

It provides the context behind the meaning of the life, burial

and a death burial, physical resurrection of Jesus.

So it matters who Jesus is, which is why in a couple of

sessions from now, I'm going to spend the whole time talking

about who is Jesus and why does it matter that we believe this

about him, Right. So those who deny these truths

are not Christians. And the same thing happened with

the Trinity. And Trinity's difficult at times

to explain. The early church had to clarify

and edify its understanding of one true and living God by

affirming the full deity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy

Spirit, while also insisting the Bible reveals one God in three

persons. We're not polytheistic, right?

What does that mean? Poly.

Yeah, many gods. We're not polytheistic.

Even though to be honest with you, no offense necessarily

meant, but a but a Muslim would consider us polytheistic.

One of the worst things to do. If you have somebody who's

Islamic, somebody who's a Muslim, don't, don't go down the

Trinity road in your first conversation or you're going to

lose them. Because they believe our belief

in the Trinity is actually polytheistic and they are

strongly mono one God, Allah theistic.

And so that's one of the heresies.

They think Christianity actually embraces and puts up a barrier

at times. So we we want to think through

how we're doing that. But the way true salvation also

matters. So salvation by grace through

faith is a primary issue. It has to happen that way, which

is why you heard me share so strongly.

I pray on Sunday about it. Because without it, we deny the

gospel. We make salvation some form of

human works righteousness. So we've got to hold fast to

that. We also have to hold fast to the

infallibility and errancy of Scripture, which is why next

session I'm going to spend so much time on it, right?

So we'll get to that more. But one disease of our fallen

sinful world is the fact that they have no source of

authority, right? And so we really do want to

emphasize the fact that the Holy Bible is this inspired,

infallible, inerrant word of God and, and, and frankly, the one

that defines our, our whole belief system.

And so I'm going to, I'm going to talk more about that and the

fact that, that the Bible is this authority.

This is not a, this is not a unique or new thing we have to

believe in. This goes all the way back, all

the way back to the Bible times and even the Garden of Eden.

Listen to second Timothy, chapter 3.

2 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

He writes this while evil people then, and imposters will, will

go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

But As for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly

believed, knowing from whom you've learned it and how.

From childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred

writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through

faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by

God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and

for training and righteousness that the man of God may be

complete, equipped for every good work.

And I'm going to spend a lot of time on that, frankly, both

Sunday and next session together.

But it's our final standard of authority and truth, right, and

the basis for all of our beliefs, which is right.

The psalmist writes in Psalm 119 in a couple of different places.

He writes, your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my

path. And verse 130 says the unfolding

of your words gives light. It imparts understanding to the

simple. So we, we, we need to unfold his

word and in a complete way so that even the even the simpleton

like me can understand it and that people can actually

understand what they need to understand in order to

understand the gospel and in order to be saved.

So let me give you a few ideas and tests to help us with some

of this diversity, some of this idea.

How do we know when something's primary and and and important?

And so a theologian named Ryan Putman helps with this.

The first one's called the hermeneutical test.

So some doctrines are clearly explicitly stated in Scripture,

while others are more are are mere implications or

interpretations of biblical ideas.

So there's some doctrines that are black and white.

There's no greatness to it. Thou shalt not you should do.

And these are clearly expressed in Scripture.

They're more primary, while contested doctrines can be often

be more secondary or tertiary. So Christian draws often draw

lines of fellowship and authority along those,

especially those secondary lines.

But people always want to twist these things.

They always want to reinterpret, they always want to reinstate or

reinvent. It seems like it's almost like a

cool thing to have new revelation, which is really

funny because the Bible says you, you can't have that.

But it's interesting to me that everybody wants a new twist on

on on scriptural passages. Listen to what Peter wrote in

Second Peter 3 and count the patience of our Lord as

salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you

according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his

letters when he speaks in them. Of these matters.

There are some things in them that are hard to understand,

which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction

as they do the other scriptures. You, therefore, beloved, knowing

this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with

the error of lawless people and lose your own stability, but

grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus

Christ. To Him be the glory both now and

to the day of eternity. Amen.

So even Peter's acknowledging that when Paul writes, you can

see the contemporariness of these two guys.

And as Paul's writing these letters, he already knows that

people are twisting Paul's words.

They're twisting the letters. They're twisting doctrine to

match their own opinions, to match their own, their own

twistings and interpretations. I'm sure there was probably even

a spirit of competition in there at times to where people were

jealous of Paul and wanted to be wanted to be the great apostle

or the great teacher or the great missionary.

That still happens in church today.

I know you don't believe that, but I see pastoral competition

often. And so there are some that are

hard to understand, but Peter even says there are some that

are hard to understand and that they get twisted.

But but one of the things that we recognize the more closely A

doctrine can be tied to a biblical passage, the more

authority it should have. So in other words, when the

Bible speaks clearly and you can attach that belief to that,

those are primary doctrines. Often the second one's called

the gospel test. Test is the doctrine and

essential component of the gospel message.

Does this doctrine support the gospel or would it hinder the

gospel if it was rejected? So if you didn't believe this,

could you still share the gospel?

Would the gospel still be true? And what must you believe in

order for you to share the gospel with someone?

Because not every doctrinal matter that has gospel slapped

on it is necessarily really the gospel.

When a favorite soapbox issue comes along, often people will

elevate it to a gospel primary level.

But it's not. And those who agree, those who

disagree with my my soapbox or judged in a wrong, it's my

soapbox. It has to be right.

So Paul makes this clear when he's talking to the Corinthians.

He says here's what the gospel is in First Corinthians 15 for I

delivered to you as of what Yeah, it it there's no question

about this. This is of first importance that

what I also received that Christ died for our sins in accordance

with the Scripture. So what we see here is the fact

that there's no question about the fact that there's certain

things that are elevated in meaning.

And I'm going to give us a list. We're walking through this.

This is just introduction. We're going to get the real

thing here in a minute. But but to talk about what these

first level doctrines are. So one of the one of the ways to

categorize them is this. Here are the things here.

Here's what Christians must believe.

Here's what Christians must not reject, and here's what

Christians should believe. Then you get down to the

secondary and tertiary levels where you say here's what some

Christians believe, and you start thinking about different

ways to look at this. There's the third test, the

praxis test, what doctrines and practices are vital for

fellowship and partnership and ministry.

So these doctrines are clearly defined in Scripture, given

first priority room is allowed for differences in

interpretation when it comes to secondary and tertiary things.

But So what? What do we believe here at

Inglewood? Well, if you know anything about

the church, some of you are very familiar with this, some of you

may have no idea what I'm about to say, but constitutionally,

officially, this church has adopted what's called the

Baptist Faith and Message 2000. And the Baptist Faith and

Message gets twisted around in the media.

It was adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention in 2000,

which is what's called what it is.

It's the Baptist faith and message has gone through various

versions and to be honest with you, the whole idea of the

Baptist faith and message started from the fact that the

media would always ask questions about what are Southern Baptists

believe and and there wasn't any good summary to tell them.

Here's what most Southern Baptists believe.

And so they created what was called the Baptist Faith and

Message. Now I want to be careful about

what I'm about to say. You got to hear all the

sentences, not just the first one.

Not all Southern Baptists believe every single thing about

the Baptist Faith and Message. And there's not an authority on

the convention level that makes you believe every single thing

about the Baptist faith and message.

That's not how Southern Baptist life works.

We are each individual autonomous churches that

cooperate together to do things together.

But most Southern Baptists believe the Baptist faith, the

message. That's the idea.

So to the outside world, who's trying to understand Southern

Baptists, especially when you come from a more ecumenical

background or say, a Catholic background where doctrine is

handed down and you must believe this specifically or you don't

get to be whatever we are. And so in Southern Baptist life,

we have a little more flexibility than that, but it

all still falls within the parameters of the word of God,

Right, Right. And so most Southern Baptists

believe the things that are written in what's called the

Baptist faith, the message. And you can go online and look

at the Baptist faith, the message and see a whole copy of

that, or you can you can see it in our Constitution.

But the reason I bring it up is simply this.

This church has accepted and adopted this as a, a statement

of belief. So Inglewood believes in this

and it was developed for to help us express that.

Let me just share with you the categories that are described in

paragraph form and a lot of scripture in each of these

paragraphs within the Baptist Faith Message.

I'm just going to give you the topics right now.

So it includes the scriptures, God, man, salvation, God's

purpose of grace, the church, baptism in the Lord's Supper,

the Lord's Day, the Kingdom, last things, evangelism and

missions, education, stewardship, cooperation, the

Christian and the social order, peace and war, religious

liberty, and the family. Now, when I read a list like

that, there's a lot of really vitally important content there.

But, but, but there's also more there than what I would consider

simply first level doctrine. There are other things there.

So you got some secondary and tertiary things mixed in, right?

So what I did just for you? No extra charge is I went and I

took five of the most popular systematic theology books that I

have in my office and I scoured the table of contents and I said

what what would be a kind of a combined list of the doctrines

found in some of the most popular evangelically

conservative, biblically oriented theologies.

Let me share that with you and then we're going to get to a

passage of Scripture, I promise. So here it is, the word of God

in revelation. I'm going to talk about that

next week. God, creation, humanity or man,

sin, Christ, Holy Spirit, Trinity, salvation, church, last

things in the future. Now that list gets us all even

closer, I think, to a better list of where we would find

primary issues. There might be a few things that

we would still debate about how they play out, but these are

getting closer. I need to believe in most of the

things on that list. Now.

There's always going to be a debate about what else and

there's going to be some debate about what we believe about

those things and that's pretty normal.

But and we could spend a year or more studying each of these in

great detail and we're going to continue to discuss these in

great deal. This is the last overview

lesson. But we but, but, but you got to

keep coming because. And then the other thing I want

to encourage you to do, because you didn't think you could come

and not hear this. I really wish you were heavily

engaged in a connect group. See, I had to put that in there

and make sure your students and your children are, are involved

in our family ministries so that that you can get as much of the

menu and the diet of biblical content as possible, right?

And so, but Paul had to deal, if you think about it in his

writings in these churches, Paul had to deal with people who came

from all kinds of weird backgrounds, especially once the

Gentiles came into the picture, right?

Right. Once the Gentiles came into the

picture, you had people who were coming from extremely Pagan

backgrounds who would have brought all kinds of tradition

and opinion and ritual understandings and all kinds of

weirdness to the table, right? And so if you think the church

is weird now, you should have been in it then.

And there was often struggle with their unity and often

struggle with their discipleship because of this mosaic of belief

systems that they brought with him.

So he had to remind them about where they'd come from, but also

to challenge them and encourage them about what the future held

for them. And so I want us to spend a

couple of minutes here in Galatians 4.

So in the same way, we also, when we were children were

enslaved to the elementary principles of the world, but

when the fullness of time had come.

And by the way, that'll be the theme of my Christmas series.

I'm fascinated by that passage. You know, you see that verse on

your Christmas card sometime. And I'm fascinated by what the

meaning of the fullness of time is.

And so I'm going to preach an entire Christmas series over

called The Fullness in the Fullness of Time and what that

means. Why then why there?

Why at that moment in history did Jesus come right?

Why was it in the Middle East 2000, whatever years ago?

Why at that moment in time with Rome, etcetera?

Why We're going to talk about that.

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his

son, born of a, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem

those who are under the law so that we might receive adoption

as sons. And because you were sons, God

has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ABBA

Father, so you're no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son,

then an heir through God. Formally, when you did not know

God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.

But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known

by God, since you can get both sides of the fence there, how

can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary

principles of the world whose slaves you want to be once more?

You observe days and months and seasons and years.

I'm afraid I may have labored over you in vain.

Now here's what's interesting about this verse.

When you read the entire context, this is not about

losing salvation. It's not when you read this

context. This is about struggling with

living by faith in the world with these people from a Pagan

background when they're surrounded with darkness and

lostness. And the world was so confused

about the truth and about Jesus And Satan is tempting them to go

back to their old ways to sin. And they had to be reminded who

they really were now. And there was no way for them to

go back to the Pagan lifestyle or practices they once knew.

So they had to live like one who is free, saved, adopted and

saved. And so the idea here is for them

to stand firm in their faith and believe because they were

children of God, because the only thing back there for them

was imprisonment to old ways of sin.

So the gospel was a hill upon which it was worth not only to

stand to fight, to be set free and even to die for these, for

these folks in Galatia. And so one of the things that

they recognize was, is that they were, they were observing

rituals that were part of that Pagan background.

They had brought that with them. So let me see if I can do this

for you. Let me see if I can do this.

This isn't on your sheet and it probably should have been.

So let's talk about some isms for a minute.

You with me. We've done a little, a few of

these, but I'm, I'm going to do this one more time with you

again in a new way. So universalism, who saved

everybody? Pluralism, how many ways to God,

right? Syncretism.

Anybody know that one, the disruption And another way to

say it is a mixture. So syncretism, which I believe

is one of the leading religions of the United States of America,

is where I pick and choose and I take this piece and I take this

piece and I put it together. Now I can give you classic

historic examples of syncretism. One of them is voodoo.

And then you can also look at South American Catholicism.

Voodoo is actually an African religion that comes to the

islands because of slavery and gets mixed in the United States

in certain parts with Catholic symbolism.

And so syncretism is when I pick and choose little pieces of that

religion, little pieces of this religion, and I make my own

religion. Well, that's exactly what our

culture, and often Christians in our culture are doing.

Our churches are full of synchronous.

Well, I don't like that part, but I like this part.

And so I'm going to keep this part.

It reminds me of Jefferson, who would cut out parts of his Bible

he didn't like. He used to have it on display at

Monticello. And if Jefferson didn't like a

part of the Bible, he just tore it out, just cut it out of his

Bible. And so his Bible is just full of

holes. And so if he didn't like it, he

just got rid, got rid of it. And since syncretism, I get to

do the same thing. So I don't like this part of

Christianity, so I'm just going to get rid of it.

But I like that part. So I'll keep that.

And I'll still call myself a Christian, even though I may not

believe in the primary doctrines that are absolutely necessary

for me to actually be saved. Cafeteria Christians.

And so it's an interesting thing because it is a huge thing.

Anybody if I say deism, I need you to understand these things.

You know what deism is? Who were Deists that in in your

knowledge anybody a deist that you know?

So a lot of the founding fathers were actually deists.

Now we don't like that because it it messes with our patriotism

and our and our mix of Christianity.

And I'm not going to go down that road, but many of the

founding fathers were actually deists.

They believe in a God figure and deism.

Here's the classic illustration of deism.

It's the watchmaker. And you'll actually hear people

debate. Atheists will still use this in

the debate against Christianity. It's the watchmaker.

So there's this God being out there who created everything,

wounded up, put it in a box, put the watch on the in a box, put

the box on the shelf. He has nothing to do with it

anymore. So it's a distant, impersonal

God. You have no personal

relationship with this God. He, he might be the creator, but

he has nothing to do with your life.

And so deism actually puts a distance between me and God at

times. Now here's what's interesting.

Now don't throw anything at me and I'm not making a connection

between our founding fathers and who I'm getting ready to mention

again, but Islam has a lot of Deus characteristics.

Don't ever believe that Allah and Yahweh are the same, because

they are not. And they're not by nature.

They're not by characteristic. They're not by desire.

A law would never die on the cross for someone.

Allah would never lower himself to die on the cross for you.

A law is a distant God that you're trying to appease.

It's deism to a large degree, but I also think that we have a

bunch of Diaz in the United States of America who don't call

themselves Diaz because you'll hear people talk about God,

somebody dies, somebody famous dies.

We're praying with, you know, celebrities, musicians, athletes

all talk about, well, my, but you know, I'm praying for them.

Our prayers go up to them, right?

And there's absolutely nothing else in that person's life that

indicates any faith relationship whatsoever by their normal

behavior, right? But there's some prayer thing,

some prayer connection to a God thing that they obviously have

in their belief system. Now, again, I can't judge them,

but I know people who believe in a God, but they have no personal

relationship with them. I know people on Southern

Baptist church rolls who are Deists and they have some God

figure in their head, but there's no personal relation in

other words. And that what that means is I

don't have any responsibility either.

See, I'm not interacting with God, and so I can kind of do

whatever I want, and God doesn't really care in a way.

So deism is a thing right now. I'm going to get weirder, and

I've shared a couple of these things with you before, but I

want to get it on this podcast too.

So if I say inclusivism, you're not probably going to know what

I mean. So there's a specific movement

within the church, Within the church.

It's always within the church, within the Christian Church

called inclusivism. And it's it's a weird form of

pluralism and almost universalism, but it's a little

different. An inclusivist could come right

here and say they could quote John 14-6.

I'm the way, the truth and the life.

No one can come to the Father except through me and we go,

Amen, brother. They can quote Acts 4.

There's no other name under heaven by which you can be saved

except Jesus. Amen, Amen, Amen.

They can quote Philippians. Every knee will bow and every

tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord.

And we go, man, that's right. Thank you, brother.

Thank you, brother. We're on the same page.

But here's what they mean. They mean that when you die,

you're going to stand before God, not know exactly how this

looks, but you're going to stand before God.

And regardless of what you believed on earth, you're going

to have this moment when you realize that if you were a

faithful person, whether you are a faithful Buddhist, whether

you're a faithful Muslim, whether you're a faithful animus

who worships a rock, whatever you were, if you were faithful

in your belief system, there's going to be this moment after

you die that God's going to reveal to you that the source of

your belief, the source of your faith, the source of your light,

was Jesus Christ and what he did for you on the cross.

And you're going to have an opportunity after death to trust

in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.

And every knee will bow and every tongue will confess.

It's just going to be after death.

And they'll teach that inside Christian churches.

It's a, it's a more liberal view because here's what that does.

It takes all the emotional pressure off, doesn't it?

See, I don't have to worry about those Hindus that we pray about

in our UUPGS. If they're faithful Hindus,

they're fine. If they're faithful Muslims,

they're fine. If they're faithful Buddhists,

they're fine. If they're faithful Jews,

they're fine. If they're faithful nature

worshippers, they're fine. If they're really good tree

huggers, they're in good shape as long as they really believe

in whatever it is they really believe.

Because they're going to get the opportunity later to hear that

the reason they were able to do that is because Jesus died on

the cross for their sins and paid for their paid for them and

rose again. Isn't that interesting?

So it's a weird, synchronistic, pluralistic, almost

universalistic combination. It's one of the most dangerous

movements in the Christian Church in the in America today

that people don't know about. And that's where liberalism in

churches today are actually getting their view of salvation.

So that I don't have to worry about evangelism, don't have to

worry about that. Takes all the pressure off.

Takes all the pressure off. That weird question of what

about that, that, that, that, that Hindu that lives in the

village and never gets a chance to hear about Jesus.

I don't have to worry about them.

They're taken care of. Takes all the pressure off.

See. Well, there's another view

called exclusivism. And that's that's my disease.

Exclusivism says that I have to trust in Jesus Christ as my Lord

and Savior and believe that he died on the cross for my sins

and the only one who could and he rose again and I have to do

it while I'm alive because that's what the Bible says.

Now you got to understand, let me show you this.

Let's pretend like this is world Christianity, my hands.

This is representing the billions of whoever really are

Christians in the world. Not for me to I'm glad it's not

for me to decide that right? Here are those who believe

totally in exclusivism. Here are those who believe in

exclusivism and the complete inerrancy of the Bible, and here

are those who believe in exclusive exclusivism,

inerrancy, and assurance of salvation.

You got to understand how narrow the gate is that I walk in now.

Are all those people lost? Not my call, but I know what the

Bible says to me. As I flip back to that page,

that list, all I know is the Bible says to me that if I don't

believe a whole gospel, I can't be saved.

We've got to share the whole truth with them.

And that truth includes I need to know who God is, but even

even before that. So here's the problem.

From what source am I defining God?

The Bible. So even before I start talking

about who God is, I've got to know what this is in my life,

this making sense. Which is why next week, that's

all we're going to talk about. This is the hill of authority.

It's worth dying on if I don't have that settled and if I don't

have some way to describe that to the people I'm talking to,

even if it's just the fact that I'm not saying convince them.

Don't misunderstand me. I don't.

I'm here to persuade. The Bible says in 2nd

Corinthians 5, I'm going to employ you.

I'm going to beg you to come to Christ.

I can't make you. I can't make you believe.

I've got to have the Holy Spirit to do that.

But I'm going to implore you. I'm going to.

But I need to be intelligent enough to have a conversation

when I'm confronted by somebody who thinks they're smarter than

I am. Because, you know, they think

we're a bunch of backward rednecks.

And some of us are, but the rest of you are pretty cool people.

I mean, I'm from Tahlequah. OK, So.

But if, if we can't articulate to some degree why I believe

what I believe about the Bible, why would they want to listen to

you, right? You don't even know why you

believe what you believe. Now, faith is an answer.

It's a faith issue, isn't it? But we also need to have some

ideas to back up our faith. So we're going to talk about

that next week. So then I need to say, here's

who God is. My God, the real God, the

biblical God, Yahweh, Jehovah, this is who he is.

These are his natures, this is who He is, and if I do that well

enough, then the understanding of sin is easier track with me.

If you understand who God is, you'll understand why sin's a

problem, see, because part of the problem we're going to have

to define sin. I used to always write when I

told you at the beginning in class, what must a person

understand? We'd go through those 93 things

and they'd tell me this story and this or what do you think a

story is? They have to believe in just

name one name one story you have to believe in from the Bible to

be saved. The the what Jesus is crucified.

I heard that one virgin birth might be who is Jesus, you know,

and, and things like that. And in the resurrection,

obviously things like that. Well, you'd be amazed at what

the students come up with. You know, suddenly I'm, I'm

getting a jar full of oil from a prophet and I'm like, what are

you with? And so these are illustrations.

Why use that to explain? OK, let you know it's funny.

So we're writing them on the board.

But then I make a list of saying, listen, you better nail

down these things in your own heart and, and, and you better

nail down the Bible. You better nail down who God is.

You've got to define sin in this world because they define it

differently out there. See, out there, it's normal now.

It's normal now things like, I mean, and if you're doing this,

I'm not trying to, I don't know. So I'm not pointing at you

because I don't know. But it's normal now to live

together before you're married, almost expected, you're almost

stupid if you don't, is the idea.

Why wouldn't you give it a test run before you got married?

Or why even get married or, or, or same sex issues or gender

confusion. These things are normal.

They're accepted. They're, they're part in fact,

they're defended, aren't they? They're defended.

They're, they're, they're equal to civil rights.

See. And so and so we've got to

understand why do I believe that's wrong or why do I believe

that's right? So I need to be able to identify

sin. And then we've got to talk about

who Jesus is. And we need to have an

understanding even of the Holy Spirit and this Trinitarian

relationship that's very hard and how salvation works.

So that list out of those, those doctrines in those theological

textbooks are pretty good guides.

These are primary issues for the most part.

We could argue a little bit, we could talk about the church and

we could talk about the second coming and some things like

that. We could have some different

perspectives and that would be fine.

But we've got to be able to find these things in truth.

So one day when you have five hours and the right audience is

in the room, I'll share my testimony.

But but the first time I heard the gospel, I was a young child

and I was at a college football game.

We had a College in our hometown.

It's where we played high school ball on that field.

But I was a little kid and you and I got to run around probably

more than I should in those days.

And I was somewhere and we were playing like a little football

game of our own down on one end of the state down there on the

grass. And there were college kids

there. And a college kid comes up to

him and he says, you know, I want to talk to you.

And he and he holds out a dime. I'll never forget this.

He holds out and I had a dime in his hand and he goes here, take

the dime. And I'm like, what's the catch?

You know, he goes, take it. It's a free gift.

So he gives me the dime. Well, guess what's next.

You know, we're in Romans 3, three, you know, 623 and 323.

We're walking right through the Romans road, right for the

gospel. And he shares the gospel with

me. I'd never heard that in my life.

I hadn't been in church. I didn't go to church.

I didn't know what church was. And I hear this gospel

presentation. It gives me nightmares.

I have nightmares for weeks after that as a kid.

I'll never forget it. The second time I heard the

gospel, and I have shared this with some of you before, was

later in life and I got so angry.

I knocked the guy out. And it was the third time I

heard the gospel. And the third time I heard the

gospel, I heard it in a way that was so authentic and so real

from the person I was hearing it from.

And, and I was so ready and desperate in my life to hear it

that I hungered for what he was saying to me, even though I was

a mess. And he shared the whole gospel

with me. Later this year, we're going to

talk about what that means. How do I share that?

How do I, how do I transition from this to this to get to this

entire story about who God is and what God's plan is and how

he fulfilled that plan and how it's all about you and that you

can have it in your life. And it radically changed me.

And that's all I want us to do for those people out there.

But there are also sad stories along the way.

So I was baptized with my best friend growing up.

Jay Bird, Buffalo meat. Told you I was from Cherokee

country. He had a brother named

Screechow. They called him a Ray, but his

name was Screechow. They were half Cheyenne, half

Cherokee brothers. My best friend's growing up,

good athletes, state champions and Jay.

Jay and I were inseparable for a long time in life.

And he and I were saved and we went forward at First Baptist

Church where we were, and we were baptized.

And the last time I ever talked to him, he was an alcoholic.

And he denied the very existence of God and claimed to be an

atheist in the early days. He's the one who taught me how

to read this book. He's the one that made this book

a part of my daily life. He's the one that taught me how

to pray. And he would be on me about it

because we were on in sports together.

I mean, he'd be rough on me if I wasn't doing what I did.

You read? Did you read your Bible?

Did you pray today? I mean, you know, he thumped me

if I didn't doing it. But he let that twist him and

distract him. We got to know what we believe

and it's got to be an anchor. It's got to be solid, right?

It's got to be who we are not only as individuals, but as a

church. So I appreciate so much you

coming to these experiences. And we're going to talk about

these primaries. Now.

Remember next week, our next session, we're going to talk

about this hill of authority. Why do I, what do I believe

about the Bible and why does it matter?

The week after that, we're going to talk about Jesus.

The week after that, I'm going to come back and we're going to

talk about what are secondary and tertiary doctrines.

And then we're going to come back and I'm going to talk about

at least three things. Now.

I want you to hear these three things.

This I just added a third. I'm actually moving everything a

week later down the road because of this, because of some of my

conversations with you. So the secondaries and

tertiaries, I'm going to talk about eschatology.

What, what, what can we believe about the second coming?

Just to appease some of you, we're going to talk about

spiritual gifts. Are all the spiritual sign gifts

still active today or have some of them ceased and why?

What do we believe about that can be controversial.

It actually separates denominations, some of those

beliefs. And then I want to talk to you

about the doctrine of evil. Now that might sound like a fun

night. I'll wear black, but but I want

to talk to you about, and that's not necessarily even a

secondary, it might be a primary issue, but I want to talk about

and answer that and have that conversation.

Often it's voiced this way, which is a bad way to voice it.

Why do bad things happen to good people?

But it's it more often sincerely from some of you, it's why did

they die? Why were they healed and why did

they die? And I'm going to share with you

why evil and death and sin still exist in this world, because

I've talked to several of you who need that and want to talk

about that. You may be here tonight.

And again, I'm not going to point you out, but even Sunday I

had a conversation with someone where bad things were happening

in life and they wondered if it was their fault.

And I want to talk about why. Why?

Why are we surrounded by this in our world today?

Why does this still exist? And what are we going to do

about it? And so then we're going to move

on into some other things later on.

But that's what's going to happen these next few weeks, OK.

And so appreciate you being here.

So let me pray for us. We're a little early tonight,

but I bet you'll survive. I hate getting out early.

I heard that. I heard that.

Well, I can tell another story. But Father, we are so grateful.

Father, I just thank you that these people have come and and

this is a lot of introductory material and some of it's a

little heavy. Maybe it's it leave in even a

little technical. I don't want it to be boring,

but we needed to kind of lay this foundation.

Father and I thank you for these folks who are enduring this and

Father, next, next few sessions when we really get into some

specifics into your word about important truths about you and

about what you said, I pray Father that even more would

come. Father, we we need to know who

you are as much as we can. And Father, you've revealed to

us all we need to know about you.

Now, Father, I look forward to the day where I'm going to learn

more than that. But for now, here on the in this

place, in this life, on this planet, Father, you've revealed

to us all we need to know about you, both in your word and your

will, through your spirit, through prayer, we know those

things. And so, Father, help us, Lord,

to become so intimately aware of who you are, that Father, what

it does. And sometimes it's very painful.

So because Father, sometimes this triage idea, this medical

treatment idea, it comes back on us a little bit because once we

realize what we should be believing and what we should be

doing, sometimes, Father, we look in the mirror and we

recognize that we're falling short.

It's really the definition of sin in one way, that hamartia,

that falling short of the target.

But Father, that's important for us.

If we don't know what the perfect standard is, if we don't

know what the perfect truth is, we don't know who the perfect

one is, then we're never going to know how we need to grow

because all of us need to improve.

All of us need to correct, all of us need to be better.

None of us is perfect. And so, Father, I pray, Lord,

that you'll help us that as we come together and learn and

study together, that Father, our desire is really to grow, to

know you better so that then we can know ourselves better.

And when we understand that dynamic Father, then we can see

the gap between the two and we'll know this is the area

where I really need to work. This is the area where I need to

grow, but also this is how I could help somebody else.

That's called the church. We're not only do we learn that

about ourselves, but we learn that about others and we help

one another so that I might be weak in this area and you're

strong in that one. You help me.

I might be stronger in that area and you're weaker and I help

you. That's called being the body,

Father. So over these next few weeks, I

pray we'll be dedicated to be here to build upon this

foundation. And Lord, for us really to

understand how I can, how I can not only in my own heart, nail

down certain things of what I believe, but Father, when I go

out there to this world, Father, I can actually articulate and

share with somebody. Father, I don't have to defend

you. As one author said, it'd be like

defending a lion. I don't have to defend you, but

Father, I can share about you and share in a way that people

could understand, share in a way that makes sense, share in a way

they could lead them to a greater knowledge of you.

Thank you for your word. Thank you for your truth.

Thank you that you made clear to us the gospel.

Thank you for being such an awesome creator that you didn't

want to create Father without the opportunity for us to have a

relationship with you and Father.

Even when we messed up and we mess up and we continue to mess

up, Father, You have graciously given us a way to be forgiven.

And Father, I pray, Lord, that we'll continue to seek to be

closer and closer to You in our walk.

But thank you, Father, for sending your son to pay for it.

Thank you, Father, for an empty tomb that proves it.

Thank you, Father, that one day, maybe today, you're going to

going to allow the return to happen.

And the sun's going to come and the trumpets are going to blow.

And the Father, we have people that we need to bring with us so

that we truly can all sit in a in a room with people from every

tribe, every tongue and every nation.

And we can all truly bow our knees and confess with our

tongues who is really Lord, Thank you for Inglewood.

I pray you'll bless us these next few days.

Help us this Sunday to worship you well.

I pray, Father, that you'll help me as I share about you.

Father, just bless us tonight in Christ's name, Amen.

Thank you all so much. Thank you so much for listening

today. And I also hope that you'll go

to [email protected]

as well as our app and find many other resources that will bless

you and your families. Thank you once again.