Biblical Church Priorities

speaker-0: Mm-hmm.

speaker-1: Faith Baptist Church in Taylor presents This Week in the Word. Welcome back to This Week in the Word, where we simply talk about things that are happening here at Faith Baptist Church with a focus on the Word of God. And I'm joined again by Pastor Andrew Starr. And we're so glad that you could, you know, have a chance to either watch or listen to this however you're doing so today. Right now, I want to jump into a conversation that we have been having now for the last two weeks related to a brand new book study that we've just started through the book of First Corinthians. We started it two weeks ago. And then we continued it this past Sunday. And we've been doing it for now just those two weeks.

speaker-0: Yeah, it's been a really good study ⁓ just starting it, but I I think it's gonna be ⁓ one that I really appreciate and ⁓ one that our church is gonna really appreciate as well.

speaker-1: I I have the privilege of reading ahead, of course, and I everybody does, by the way. I don't know why that was unique privilege of mine that I get to read ahead. You also get to read too. You are allowed. And any listener can read ahead. And ⁓ we'll cover a lot of territory in the book of First Corinthians. But in chapter one, Paul began with a priority focus. And that's where we really focused on even this past Sunday. An introduction to that, I gave some reference to a book. By Tom Raynor. ⁓ the book is entitled The Autopsy of the Deceased Church. And ⁓ if you don't know who Tom Rayner is, he spent more than twenty-five years helping churches that are in the decline. And so he writes from experience. I'm not saying that everything Tom Raynor says we're totally in agreement with, but he does have some interesting notations that he gives on the autopsy of the of the of a deceased church, some telltale signs of the decline of a church. Let me give them to you, and then Andrew and I are gonna have some conversation about them. It says The church is inward focused with few attempts to minister to those in the community. That would be one of the signs of it. Church business meetings become arguments over preferences and desires. Nembers of members in the congregation are openly critical of the pastor, other church staff, and lay leaders in the church. Any change necessary to become great commission centered is met with anger and resistance. The past becomes the hero of. Pastors and other church leaders have become so discouraged that they withdraw from effective leadership. Now, when you hear that list, you might think those are several unrelated problems, but I would suggest that many of them grow from the same root. When members of the body begin pulling against one another instead of working with one another, the health of the entire body is threatened. And the question from First Corinthians that we sought to address. is well well then what is our purpose? Like why do we actually gather whenever we gather as a church body, why do we gather? That's the focus. That's where it needs to go.

speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah, priorities is a is a is a big thing. Whenever you even at at a job, like you've got a secular job, right? There there's a goal in mind, there's a priority in mind, and there needs to be unity. Or else if there's not unity, you're pulling in different directions and nothing's gonna be accomplished.

speaker-1: Right. And that so frequently is the case in almost any venue where multiple people are meant to be working together. Yeah. Whether it be something as simple as sports to a business world, certainly from the church as well. Mm-hmm. Imagine if we're all pulling in different directions on a sport team, it's not gonna work way.

speaker-0: No, we're not gonna get anywhere.

speaker-1: So in 1 Corinthians, what was the evidence of their misplaced priorities? Well, here's what Paul says 1 Corinthians 1 11, Chloe's people, which I love that, because who is Chloe? We don't know. We know what was being reported. So Chloe's people, how many of them were there? ⁓ again, we don't know, but we know the report. Here's the report. There are contentions among you. That word contentions means strife. There's

speaker-0: But no

speaker-1: Discords, there's arguing. Is arguing serious? It's serious enough that Jesus would call it wicked. Paul would say in Romans 13, 3, let us walk honestly, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness. That's in striving. That's contention. There's contentions that is going on in that church. And what are they contending over? Well, this I say some are saying I am of Paul, I'm of Apollos, some are saying I'm of Cephas, and I am of Christ. So what was their big problem?

speaker-0: They were all following people they really shouldn't have been following. Right. They're they're good role models, I'm sure. But they're not they're not who we should be following on the daily.

speaker-1: They had a argument over preferences. Yeah. I'm a pro Paul guy. I'm a pro Apollos guy. Which there were good arguments to be made. Could you make an argument for following Paul? ⁓ yeah. Yeah. He wrote a lot of letters to us in the New Testament. ⁓ obviously God used them to establish churches. How about Apollos? Plenty of material to go seize on to, Acts eighteen twenty four. Apollos is an eloquent speaker. We know that. Cephas, that's the Aramaic form of Peter. So Peter arguments to follow Peter? Absolutely. By the way, I made this point in my message. ⁓ there's possibly a fourth group. Some would say, I am of Christ. Many study Bibles understand this is a fourth faction in Corinth, claiming to be the truly spiritual group over and against the others. That's certainly possible. However, there's another wort view worth considering that I would say is better, that there's only three competing groups Paul, Peter, and Cephas. And Paul's words, I am of Christ, is not a slogan of a fourth party, but a corrective to the other three. In other words, Paul is saying, why are you aligning yourselves with these men? You ought to be aligning yourselves with Christ. I could make that case even from the book of Corinth that that's correct, because in chapter three, he repeatedly mentions factions of Paul, Apollos, and Cephas again in chapter three and on into the beginning portions of chapter four. And instead of referring to a separate Christ party, He concludes in chapter three, verse twenty three, You are Christ and Christ is God. And that sounds less like a fourth faction and more like Paul's solution to the problem. ⁓

speaker-0: That's his his statement too that follow me as I follow Christ. Yes. But if if you need an earthly figure to watch, like my goal is to be of Christ. Absolutely. So if you need someone physical to watch to be able to do that, sure, go ahead and follow me 'cause that's my goal. But I'm sure he would have told you, if that stops being my goal, stop following me.

speaker-1: Stop following me. So do we follow preferences more than Christ? And are there examples of that? I gave one on Sunday. You did. Yeah. You can give others. I don't have to repeat myself on Sunday. You could even thinking about it. Are there examples of ways we could get in our in our heads around things that just don't matter?

speaker-0: Well, let's take it like s like on a daily. We all have different hobbies, right? Right. So let's just take baseball for instance, right? We're kind of getting to the end here. September, October's coming and baseball's gonna come to a close, but everybody has the team they follow. Yep. And you could easily say I'm I'm a Cardinals fan, you're a Red Sox fan.

speaker-1: And and and yesterday I was also a Cardinals fan. Yeah.

speaker-0: 'cause we were beating up on the Yankees. That's right. But I could also seep into the church as well and you just say, Well, this is the part that I like about church better than this. I know you like this part, but I like this part and the music is what I really appreciate. Or, you know, this the the fellowships is what I appreciate. And we can all have the areas of misplaced priorities where that is why we're

speaker-1: Yeah, thank you. That's why we're there. Yeah. Yeah. How many people have made those kind of choices?

speaker-0: You can see it because if if anything changes in their priority, they're gone too. Right. And it's we're finding that even ⁓ Christian families are willing to leave a church to go to another church that fits their level of preferential priority.

speaker-1: I love the Babylon B on these things. I know we've referenced it last time. I just want to clarify this is strictly satire. Satire. This is not real. Okay. Although it's really relevant. They they had an article, nine most important things to look for when shopping for a new church. It's really deep. The article begins, we get it. Sometimes church can be off putting, especially when people ask you to do things or suggest you stop sinning. What a bunch of jerks.

speaker-0: Yeah.

speaker-1: That's tough. Here's their their number one thing to look for in your next church. No judgment at all. Even if you're being a big fat jerk. Number two, comfortable pews. That's huge. Ever tried sleeping in a wooden pew? Not easy. Number three, a sermon series based on the latest Marvel movie.

speaker-0: That's a big one.

speaker-1: There's actually churches that do. Every summer. You know, come the church at the movies or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ number four, top of the line lighting and sound design. Yeah. Though the it says the Holy Spirit can't comfort you if you're not rocking to some sweet jams. Number five, a second secret entrance without greeters. It's best if you're allowed to worship God in a way where you don't have to say hi to anybody. There's all kinds of there's there's nine, there's ten of these, they're kind of ridiculous. But the point is still true. I mean, what why are we going to church? I remember when before you came we were looking for a youth pastor and I was privileged to, you know, have conversation and and some even anonymously slipped to me lists of what they expected from a youth pastor and nothing had nothing to do with the word of God or focus or what we're trying to do, misplaced priorities.

speaker-0: Yeah.

speaker-1: It can get really easy. You are Christ and Christ is God's. That's that ought to be our priorities. And that's exactly how division begins. We take something that was meant to be a tool for ministry and turn it into a bander under which we rally.

speaker-0: We can. Yeah. And if anything changes in that banner, really pushes us off, right? Yeah.

speaker-1: Changes heart. You know a Baptist that takes a change of light bulb. Change. I mean you're leading teens through priorities, obviously. How how would you get a because that's I think it's formative to talk about young people and how we would focus them on fo on priorities because we don't change as we grow in that sense. So if a if a young teenager, seventh grader boy comes and says, I wanna guide my life towards gospel priorities

speaker-0: Yeah. We don't want that.

speaker-1: What would you tell ⁓ How would you start?

speaker-0: Well, I mean, you start where truth is, right? It's God's word. So how much time are you spending ⁓ with God in his word? Because your your your whole outlook on life stems from that. Mm-hmm. And ⁓ if you're if you're looking through this world for anything else, you'll find it, right? If you if you want to just have a fun life, you'll find it. Right. But at the end of that road, there's no substance to it. It's all gone. It's here and it's gone. And then you're looking for the next thing. ⁓ but when you when you center yourself on the word of God, that that's the most important priority. And it's important for teens to understand, and I I try to reiterate this, that I'm so thankful that we have moms and dads that are are are setting that example at home, that the priority is that we want to worship together in church. ⁓ we're gonna have family devotions. ⁓ our goal is to be like Christ, but if a teenager does not make that his or her priority, once they're out of the house, it's gonna show. And so it can't be mom and dad's religion. It has to be the teen's relationship with Christ. It's not about religion, it's about a relationship.

speaker-1: I love when you talk through this with teens 'cause I think there's a lot of people that would say, ⁓ amen. Mm-hmm. Well that's like you just described in my hyperbol you know, in my fake scenario, a s you're counsel to a seventh grade boy. Now counsel a seventy year old man. Would it change?

speaker-0: Ditto. Copy paste.

speaker-1: It's the same. I mean the the same priorities didn't change. Yeah. And that's where we're missed. I I think more people are so consumed on things that ultimately don't matter.

speaker-0: I think as parents we could really help our teens with this too and our kids. ⁓ we've got we've got four kids at home at ranging from the age of three to eleven and and we we want to teach our children that we don't not do something just because that's the rule. We don't not do something because that's like our God. For instance, let's just say ⁓ that a child lies. So we go to them and say, Hey, we shouldn't. Okay, well that that's the rule. That's true. We see that from scripture. Right. But really the real reason that we should not lie is this, because God is truth. Right. So we're connecting them with the God of the Bible. So we can help our kids as parents to take their hand and to not force feed them all the rules and regulations, but to with that show them the God, the relationship that you have, parents, with this God. To where the child connects, okay, this is why I shouldn't lie. Because it goes against the nature of God. And if it goes against the nature of God, then therefore it's sin. I have a sin problem that separated me from God. Now now we're going to not just because I said so to helping them see a relationship with Jesus Christ is the highest priority.

speaker-1: I don't know what came first, the chicken or the egg. And I don't know what came first, preferences driven church or consumer driven attitudes, but it seems to be the same issue. Yeah. You know, like why are we why do we even have church on Sunday? Like why do we have anything we do at Faith Baptist Church under the auspices of our ministry, under the banner of what we call church? Why why would we build a building? Why would we have a gym? There's gotta be a bigger goal than just getting together and having

speaker-0: I think if we could you you've been out of the country, I've been out of the country. I think if we could just step outside of the United States for a second and go to a third world country where there's a church. ⁓ we would find in that church a gymnasium. We would find a a a booming men's ministry where they get together every weekend at a McDonald's and hang out and and again, I'm I'm being facetious with it.

speaker-1: You gotta have a Sunday night after that.

speaker-0: Have a Sunday night after church. You you have to have a coffee shop.

speaker-1: Yeah, yeah.

speaker-0: Exactly. Yeah. But then then you go to these third world countries and you're realizing that all these people, they don't even have Sunday school classrooms. They're meeting together, maybe outside underneath some sort of a covering, and they're having church. Right. So it it it really puts us in our place and we realize that what we're looking for in church is what America has really driven this consumer mindset that I gotta have it and I want it my way. It's that it's the slogan, what is it? ⁓ Burger King.

speaker-1: Have it your way. You're the king, man. Yeah.

speaker-0: I I just feel like that has seeped into the church and the church needs to be what my mind thinks it ought to be. And if it's not, now I've got a problem.

speaker-1: And if it's not, you know, the issue is transparency. Right.

speaker-0: Yeah.

speaker-1: I don't want it I don't want you to see my heart. I want you to see God's word. Like I don't I don't need you to follow what I think is a good preference. I need you and I together to hold our preferences lightly and hold God's word tightly. Like that's what I need. I I need that to be the driving focus of what we're trying to accomplish.

speaker-0: We're just trying to reiterate that even on the the youth level. Yeah. Because if you go to God's word, you're not gonna find youth group in God's word. Now I'm a huge like pusher of of of the youth in the next generation and training them. ⁓ but if I'm honest, like that that's not in scripture. Can you have a church without a youth group? According to God's word, you can. And there are many there are many churches around the world that do that. They all meet together.

speaker-1: You can.

speaker-0: They're all in the same auditorium, even the kids that are crying, they're all there together because why? The priority is God and His Word.

speaker-1: Well, can you have a church to use the example I gave on Sunday? Can you have a church without a Sunday school hour? Any no Sunday school hour. You can. You can and in fact you can be a very healthy church. Right. So that's not the driving focus.

speaker-0: Now these things are are really good. I very good. I call them and and you even use this illustration on Sunday. They're enhancers, but they're not the main ingredient. Right. It's we're looking at icing instead of the cake. What's the main thing? Yeah. That's what we're asking.

speaker-1: Yeah. Don't eat the cake. Man, I do like frosting on my cake, by the way. But can you imagine just a just frosting?

speaker-0: Good like the first spoon or two.

speaker-1: I'll mix dessert analogies for a second. All right. Okay. So Paul says your issue that he asks a question that is the most obvious rhetorical question is, this is 1 Corinthians 1 13, is Christ divided? The answer? No. So to mix dessert analogies here. When a church splits and divides and argues over preferences, Paul's point Is you are acting like Christ is a piece of a pie is a big apple pie. And in that apple pie you have slices. So here's the Paul slice, and here's the Apollos slice, and here's the Peter slice. But we're all, you know, apple pie. And his answer is no, Christ is not divided. Is Christ divided? No. And when you divide him according to these slices of preferences, You are taking away who he is. And that's a pretty stunning way of looking at it as Paul does. Because I don't I believe that that the Corinthian church at that time, when they're saying I'm a Paul, I'm a Paulus, I'm a Peter, they're not saying it because in their they're they're thinking we're outright rebellious. They're still going to church. But they're Paul's group.

speaker-0: You got you gotta think that these guys were very different in their personalities. Totally different. So you probably had people within the churches that ⁓ just clicked better with one, not the other. Right. So so this is this is my guy. This is my teacher. Like th this is who I connect with. Right. And maybe that's how it started. But then it began to divide even more to where Paul's now talking about unity. Yeah. I mean it just it just fractioned the church.

speaker-1: Totally fraction of the church. He he was one of those groups that's what's ironic. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, hey, don't follow my group. Right. You know, I I I don't want anything to do with this. And I would argue I we don't know, but it would seem Peter and Apollos would have been in that same and similar camp. You know, this is not the way that God would have it to do. Right. I do want to bring it back to another point of this conversation though, maybe introducing a new point. And we asked, Well, I don't know what came first, the chicken or the egg, preferences or consumer driven. But I do know that there's a warning in scripture that when you're in a position of prosperity, when you're in a position of wealth, when you're in a position of comfort, the natural next step that you need to be warned about is is spiritual amnesia, a forgetting of God and a forgetting of priorities. And I bring that up because that is exactly Joshua's admonition before they go into or mo what mo yeah, when they go into the promised land, and there's this warning There that Joshua gives the people. You're about to enter the promised land. You didn't build the cities, you didn't plant these gardens, you've been out in the wilderness, and now look what you're about to have. And this is a pretty powerful, don't forget who God is moment. Well, that's kind of Corinth. That's how we introduce the series. Very, very profitable city. There's a there's wealth there, there's opportunity there. Everybody that's in Corinth is there to try to make a name for themselves. Most of the congregation would have made it made it men made up of retired Roman soldiers, entrepreneurs being a kind word for what they're doing there, free soldiers or freed slaves as well. They're trying to make a name for themselves and they have an air of prosperity, and Corinth, the city, had a lot of wealth. And look at the factions that divide. Is it no wonder that the American church is so divided? It may be because we have too much stuff at our disposal.

speaker-0: I think that was kind of the point that I was trying to make with third world countries. Yes. Like is our church better than a church over in a third world country because we have more stuff? I don't think that's the way the Lord sees it. But that's that's what we come in on a Sunday and we're kind of miffed when, you know, something doesn't fit our preference. Yeah. But then we're reminded that there are people that don't have much at all. And yet they're the happiest people in the world. Because that all they have is Christ.

speaker-1: We have one reference in the New Testament to the gospel message being proclaimed so much and souls are coming to Christ that there the Bible says, and this is in Acts eight, there is much rejoicing in the city. People are getting saved, the church is growing, there is much rejoice in the city. If I were to ask you, don't you want your church to have much rejoicing in the city? 'Cause the gospel so saturated your community that there's the true joy Lord. We talked about joy last time. But the true joy lord saturating the city. Yeah. Okay. Then why don't we go ahead and sign up for the how they got there in Acts eight? You wanna know how they got there? Well, first they elected deacons. That goes back to Acts right four. And then Acts six, right? Stephen and Acts they elect deacons. And then Acts six, Stephen preaches to the religious leaders of his day. They don't like it. They're pricked to the heart. He's stoned in Acts seven. Acts eight opens with Paul now laying havoc on the church, persecuting the church, and there at the beginning of Acts eight, as the church is under intense persecution, there is great rejoicing in the city. Question. ⁓ did they have a Sunday school hour? What about youth group times? Yeah. How about a pizza party? You know? I'm not even sure they had time to do anything but study Wad's word and pray together.

speaker-0: Yeah, I'd be curious, you know, you don't wish this, but if something like that were to happen at our church, who would be left?

speaker-1: If a real trial came, like a legitimate trial. Yeah. It would show you who's coming for the reasons that we're talking about here. It's a real check your heart question. Like why did you even come to church? It's a check your heart question for everything. Okay. I use this as examples on Sunday. Okay, so we let's say we start a let's say we start a softball league. Some churches do that. We have a softball field. Should we start a softball league? I'm not against starting a softball league. Why would we start a softball league? Better be because the gospel's gonna be burning.

speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah. That's gotta be that's gotta be the priority. Everything that we do as a church ought to be centered around the gospel.

speaker-1: If it's not

speaker-0: Is it really that important?

speaker-1: Man, do d were you at the Wilds when they used to sing the song Is It Gonna Burn? Yeah. I don't know. A little peppy for the actual text. But I I mean, is it gonna burn?

speaker-0: Yeah. It is a sobering thought. Everything that you've done in your life up to this point. So whatever your ages, so over the last, you know, couple decades of my life, what I've done, what of it is gonna be burned and what of it is gonna still remain in eternity.

speaker-1: Man, when we misplace our priorities we misplace ourselves in the in the keeping of what God is actually trying to accomplish. And we we lose so much.

speaker-0: Yeah. I'm having to have those conversations with my kids. Right? They they get excited about something that is going on at church, and we're about to walk out of the door. And I've I've told them multiple times. I've asked them this question. Guys, why are we going? Right. Why are we going to church? Is it because of the Sunday school party that we're going to have? Because that that's the conversation that I'm hearing is the excitement over this rather than the excitement of going. Worshiping our God as a as a corporate body. Right. And hearing from His word. That ought to be the focal point. Now there are some fun things that come with that. Even youth group. Like my my philosophy in youth ministry ⁓ is not to have fun with teens. Cause anywhere in the world, they'll do the better job, they'll do a better job than me. I could come out here and say, let's we're gonna have.

speaker-1: do a better job.

speaker-0: the the most exciting game of dodgeball ever. Yeah. We come out and we play it and then all of a sudden we realize, well, the world's gonna do it too, and they're gonna do it at Sky Zone and they're gonna have strobe lights and and and there's nothing wrong with those things. It's just the the resources that the world has of having fun is far beyond what I have. Right. So what does the church have that the world does not? Right. And what does the world not have that the church has that the world needs?

speaker-1: What you just brought up is one of the things I I hope I there may be people listening to this that are not members of faith and and I appreciate that and by the way, thank you for listening. But this is for people that are connected to Faith Baptists and Taylors and are members here. We have been blessed with tremendous resources and ability to do things and to that end, as a pa as the pastor here, that scares me. Like that's really scary. Like The the fact that we have, for example, a gym is scary to me. Because it could become the gym is the focus. But it's not. Like I don't need a gym to have a church. But we have one. So if I have one, I want it to be used for God. Right. That's what I want it for.

speaker-0: It's very similar to our talents. Yeah. God has given to us abilities and talents to use back for Him. Are we gonna hide them, bury them, are we gonna use them for Him? Yeah. We have all these resources and with great resources comes great responsibility.

speaker-1: That sounds like a Spider Man quote, by the way. With what is I'll trademark that just for you. Will it make you a superhero? Yeah. No, I I get your point though, and it is scary to think. Like the the the more that God gives you in his in his good providence and allows you as a church to do and the resources and the talents that God has given to you, the the the greater the responsibility.

speaker-0: Remember.

speaker-1: And the greater the responsibility, the more we should be on our knees. Like I wasn't here when the bridge was built, which is our gym. But I sure hope that after it was built, we prayed more than when it was being built. Because when it was being built, I think the assumption is, yeah, we're gonna pray about it that we would raise the funds to pay it off. But now we have it. I hope and pray that there are people in this church listening to this and going, I I better be praying that we are using that resource. For what's actually clearly God's priority because it could be very easy to just play volleyball and call it ministry.

speaker-0: Yeah. Can you I it's not gonna happen this way, but maybe, I don't know. We're in heaven, the Lord pulls out a list, right, and ⁓ he gets to our church. ⁓ boy, yeah. And he says, All right, Faith Baptist Church, you built a bridge to the community, a gymnasium. Let's see how you used it for eternity's sake. It's kind of a sobering thought. I'm all about having fun. Like it is.

speaker-1: Well and I don't know. It's a beautiful building.

speaker-0: I love I love what what's been built there. But the let's let's think deeper. Let's think eternally. How can we use the resources that God has given to us for e eternity's sake?

speaker-1: And and I don't want to just think in the negative 'cause there's some positive. Like we're sitting in a room right now that was more or less a storage space a year ago. And we had resources to be able to have a microphone to record things like we're doing. Is this a big deal? I wouldn't pretend like it is. But I would say that we're at least recognizing, hey, there was an empty space in our p building and we're trying to use it for God's glory. Are we doing the best job? No, we can improve. That's part of change, by the way. Yeah.

speaker-0: It is. We ought to be doing that on a personal level. Right. Our time, our resources, our energy, how much of that is being given to the cause of the gospel and laying up treasure in heaven versus laying up treasure in earth. That that that ought to be a personal goal. Right. That heaven is our priority. Right. So if that's our personal goal, should it not be our ministry's goal as well? Right. When all believers come together. And that's the that's the awesome thing about unity. And you talked about this on Sunday. ⁓ do you remember if you've ever counseled and I you have ⁓ premarital counseling, you know the triangle. Yes. You know, so you've got, you know, man and wife and you've got God at the top. Sure. The goal is not to draw closer to each other, the goal is to draw closer to God. Right. And when we do that, we inevitably draw closer together. Right. Because God is the unifying factor. So here at Faith Baptists It should be that our priority, our goal is Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

speaker-1: Man, I ⁓ we can give Paul the word on that. You know, he says First Corinthians one seventeen, Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. He understood that every ministry, every program, every ordinance, every decision, every relationship in the church exists with one greater purpose, the advancement of God's gospel. That's why he concludes, not with the wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. Paul says, if people walk away impressed with me instead of captivated by Christ, then I've failed. And I I want to think of that in terms of Faith, Baptists, and Taylors, because we can do some awesome things. And I'm glad we can. But if people walk away from our ministry captivated by Faith, Baptists, and church Taylors in South Taylor, South Carolina, and not Christ, then we have failed. I'm actually glad to pastor a church where you walk, drive on our parking lot, and you don't see my name on. church sign. I'm glad for that. You don't you didn't come to Faith Baptist, I hope, to hear Caleb Phelps. Frankly, my prayer request would be that you wouldn't remember who I am. You came for Christ. That's why we're here. Yeah. It has to be why we're here. Why would we gather for anything?

speaker-0: sobering thought you go to Revelation and you read the letters to the churches here's the sobering thought that if you don't you know get back on the priority train God can snuff your light out. Yes. That that that's sobering. And I think of we we always go to the church of Laodicea, you know, lukewarm and but there's a church in there, ⁓ the church of Sardis. And the church of Sardis was living on its previous name. It was living on everything that it had built for for itself. And even the letter tells them, Look, you're living on the past and you're not living on what you should be living for, and that's Jesus Christ. And the community needs you, the people in the church need you, and here you are as Sardis Baptist Church, I don't know what it was called, but and you're just living in the name that you've built. Yeah. Instead of living for the God who even gave you the breath to be able to meet together.

speaker-1: Man, I I I hope and pray that there are those that are at our church that are listening to this conversation and and would recognize the heart of this. I mean, we we have staff meetings today actually, the day we're recording this as staff meetings. I we need to evaluate and make sure our our time is spent focused on ministry forward. There are no doubt people in this room that are maybe listening, not in this room, but listening, that are involved in other ministries. I hope that your focus and your dream scenario for your Sunday school class is not to spend your time talking about what a cool activity you can have. But when you do have a cool activity, it's a word based activity. Or whatever your passion project may be. It better be a God passion project. And if it's not, then stop it. Yeah. It's just not worth it. I think that song is Is It Gonna Burn is worthy of our considerations. At the end of all that you just planned, is there anything of eternal value?

speaker-0: The question specifically, it says, What you built in this life is it gonna burn? What are you living for? I like selfishly, well, conviction wise, last night was a very busy day for us. Sure. And I realized even as I'm going to bed, my kids are already in bed, I realized we didn't have family devotions. Yeah. That it's not to check a box, parents. I had yesterday to be able to pour into my kids, spiritually speaking, before they went to bed. And I didn't do it. Priority today, like tonight, we're having them.

speaker-1: You know what? Well, it's funny you bring that up because yesterday we were getting close to bedtime and we were we were actually at we had guests over and ⁓ we had ⁓ we were getting it was after bedtime and so they left a little later and then the kids brush your teeth, get your PJs on, and we're like, We probably just need to go right to bed and our littlest said, Is it devotions time yet? Can't say To be honest with you, we pr if you hadn't asked, I don't think we would have done it. I was thankful for a four year old who asked to do devotions because it was not in our

speaker-0: And that's not to make anybody feel bad at all. What the the the point is this, that even as pastors, even as staff here at at Faith Baptists, like like the daily ⁓ check of where our priorities has to be constant.

speaker-1: Now again, just to come back as we close, within a local church, there must be unity. That's Christ's point. There can't be any tear, there can't be any schism, there can't be any quarreling, and that the unity is not manufactured unity through fellowship channels. No, no, no. The unity is we preach Christ. So how are we doing? Well, I'm gonna give Paul the final word from Ephesians four. He says, I beseech you. This is to the Ephesian church that you walk worthy of the vocation you were called into. You this is what you've been called to do. With lowliness and meekness, with long suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Did you notice what Paul didn't say? He didn't say unity is preserved by everyone getting their own way. He didn't say unity is preserved by everyone thinking exactly alike about literally every issue. He said it's you preserved through humility, gentleness, patience, and love, wrapped up in this understanding. You have been called to a specific goal. This is what your calling is. You better be sure that you're following God's calling. But if you're watching this, I I encourage you, we're we've we're just now starting the book of First Corinthians, and boy, there's a lot more that we will jump into. It's a big book. ⁓ Not just big in length, I think big in it's pretty intense. But it's a necessary intensity. And ⁓ I pray that if you're listening to this either one, you'll join us on Sunday morning, or two, you could at least go back and listen to where we've already been. But regardless of where you're at, would you before you you know go to bed tonight, pray, God, would you check my priorities? I am I am I positioning myself correctly? Is this where you would have me to do? And if it's not, with humility.

speaker-0: Yeah.

speaker-1: Would you reorient yourself towards Christ? ⁓ Thank you for joining us today. Information about Faith Baptist Church, visit us at www.fbctailor.