The Local Church: The Signpost that Matters Most in the Bay Area

It's good to see you church, or I should say, household of God.

I never say that, but today I'm gonna say it as you turn in your Bibles to 1st Timothy, chapter 3.

I Am in the middle.

I'm preaching today, or teaching today, in the middle of a series that is being Led by pastor Ian McConnell, who is away from us today, taking two of his kids back to the East Coast for college and Also taking a vacation, and he will be picking up on that series in the church, and so this particular text has been specifically chosen for today.

Here's the heart and here's why I feel like we need to teach it and we need to learn it, because we're at a pivotal time in Our church.

I can feel the energy happening.

The leadership team is very excited.

We're looking forward to the future.

The messages by pastor Ian have been profound and impactful on all of us, and and several have said to me a number of you have said to me how much is just helping us shape our thinking and our feelings for the church, and so what I want to do is add to the feelings that we ought to have about the church and Lay out a conviction that we share and that we all want to share, and I'll put it up here on the screen.

The Bay Area of California needs many healthy local churches and neighborhoods where Christians worship together and live Holistic and holy lives in the profound mystery of godliness, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

And you say, what in the world does all of that mean?

Well, that's what I'm going to try to teach, but before I teach that, let's read the scripture that I want to expose it and You'll see some of the answers right here in the scriptures.

Before I read the scriptures, let's understand the context.

This is a letter from an old guy about to die who has been serving God Sacrificially and giving his life up for the ministry, planting churches all over the the Roman world at that time, to a young man who is like a son to him, who doesn't have quite the same personality as Paul, evidently, we're told, paul tells Timothy To be courageous, to be bold.

Paul seems to not been afraid of anything, as we try to glean from his personality, and Timothy has been left behind to pastor a church.

Probably feels overwhelmed and and remember, there's not decades and decades of church history to learn from, there's not a library of To go to.

There's not a seminary to attend, like a number of seminarians here are going to a good, solid seminary.

There's none of those things.

There's no internet to do some quick search on Pastoral complexities and get some ideas to do.

None of that's there.

Here comes a letter from the apostle Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, meant for the good of this man and Safeguarded throughout thousands of years for us to glean some truths from.

And we're gonna pick up right at verse 14 of Chapter 3.

You're in your pew Bible, it's page 1024.

Paul the old man says although I hope to come to you soon, I Am writing these instructions so that, if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth Beyond all question.

The mystery from which true godliness springs is great.

He appeared in the flesh, was vindicated by the spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory.

The spirit clearly says that in latter times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.

Such teachings come through Hippocritical liars whose consciousness have been seared, as with hot iron.

They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods which God created to be received with Thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth, for everything God created is good and Nothing is to be rejected if it is received with Thanksgiving because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.

If you point these things out to the brothers and sisters, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, nourished on the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed.

Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives tales.

Rather, train yourself to be godly, for physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.

This is trustworthy saying.

It is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance.

That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the savior of all people and especially of those who believe.

Command and teach these things.

Do not let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech and conduct, in love and faith and in your impurity until I come to vote yourself, to the public reading of scripture, to preaching and to Teaching.

Do not neglect your gift, which was giving you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you.

Be diligent in these matters.

Give yourself holy to them so that everyone may see your progress.

Watch your life and doctrine closely.

Persevere in them, because if you do, you will say both yourself and your hearings oh, lord, add your blessing to this word.

Help us to understand at least the great concepts that are in this text, as I seek to teach it In Jesus name.

Amen.

Paul says I'm writing this letter so that you would know how to conduct yourself in the household of God, which is the church, the pillar and ground for the truth.

First of all, of the seven points in this, seven chapters in this book the community.

What is this community?

And right at the outset we see this community described.

But the local church is a group of Christians in a particular place who cooperate together, self-consciously worshiping as people who live and move and have their being from God.

A group of people in a particular place, that's what a local church is.

That's the word local Churches and assembling a group.

Sometimes we forget that and we need to see that in applied or implied by Paul in verse 14.

I hope to come to you soon, so I'm in one space, I'm gonna go to another space, I'm gonna go to that church.

But if I don't get there, at least you will know how you all ought to behave in the household of God.

And there's three metaphors that stand out here.

There's what I call the metaphor of sociality household.

The word household is speaking is a more Expansive term than how we may think of it today.

The way we think of household today is mom and dad, the two kids and the dog, and on a piece of land.

That's the household.

But the way household was used in Bible times or in Roman times is much more expensive.

It would include all the servants and all the slaves and maybe some of the underlings and the master.

It was patriarchal society, the lord of the household, everybody fit on.

It was a small economy, if you would, if you will.

In fact, the word we have, economy, comes from the Greek word of house.

It's a it, so there's a whole society.

And so when Paul All uses the word household, he is using a metaphor of Sociality.

That means there's social order, there's connectedness.

So the church is not just a place you attend, it is a place you belong to.

It is a place of order and Cooperation together.

That's implied in the word household.

There's a metaphor of stability.

The church is the pillar and Ground of the truth, or the foundation.

It gives the idea of Solidity and permanence and an anchor.

And the church is not a place for Novelty or places and we'll get to that in a little bit later but it's not a place for newness and it's not a place for fragility, but the idea.

In fact, the metaphor of foundation is used several times in the Bible.

The most famous one that we know of is in Matthew, chapter 7, where Jesus says the wise man built his house upon the rock and that's a metaphor of foundation.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

So Paul says the local church is Foundational, it's a foundation for truth.

This place where the congregation gathers.

There's a metaphor of signage.

That's the idea in the word pillar.

Now some scholars say pillars talking about holding up a platform, but other scholars say that the word that a pillar was made for visibility and signage.

That's how road signs were done in the day.

It was a place to draw attention to people and or from people and direct them in another place.

A pillar could have this upholding a Feature, but it also stood out as a place of signage.

This is a particular kind of building.

This is a particular, particularly important place.

So what you have is a Sociality and stability and signage a congregation of people who are socially cooperating together.

They're working together in, in worship to God, the living God.

The phrase of living God in this section of scripture that I've read to you appears twice.

We're talking about a God who is omniscient, he knows everything and he is omnipotent.

He's all power and, significantly for the church, he is omnipresent.

He is everywhere and Christians act and move and live and have their being as people who are aware of this God who is everywhere.

We ought to know, therefore, that we are a community.

A community has culture, it has shared values, it has a shared understanding, and that's why Paul uses the word conduct.

You conduct yourself, and the idea is to turn one style, a self, in degree.

So second point, culture.

I Told her slide person, I'm gonna be moving faster a lot of data, so you be patient with her and me as we try to get our slide in our data together.

The culture the word on a strafo means to turn oneself and it is in the passive or Reflexive nature that means you do it to yourself.

It it applies Self application to change.

Charles Bridges, one of my favorite writers that I returned to over and over again, who died to almost 200 years ago, said this Scriptural preaching will expound doctrines practically and practice Doctrination, omitting neither but stating neither independent of the other.

It's an extremely practical doctrine.

You have to hit the forward on the bullet points there.

Yeah, in the next one.

In the next one, I'm too ahead of you, thank you.

So the local church should be comprised of people who are so aware of the presence of God in their community that they engage in Get this self discipline.

Pursuit of true godliness what is godliness?

The very next verse talks about this godliness.

Verse 16 says beyond all question, the mystery from which true godliness brings is great.

And then it quotes an old him.

He appeared in the flesh, was indicated by the spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was Believed on in the world, was taken up in glory.

What is this godliness that we're speaking of?

It sourced in a mystery and sometimes referred to as the mystery of godliness, and in the New Testament the word mystery is talking about a Revelation that a hither to had been unknown.

Something has now been revealed, something, and revelation itself speaks of saying something, talking out something.

So this godliness, whatever we know, is thirdly, third chapter, a confession.

And there's some features about this confession.

Number one it is common.

Unfortunately, the NIV doesn't capture the impact of confession as much as some other translations.

In fact, the ESV says and we confess, it talks about what we confess, but it is something that the whole church says.

Homo lo guminas literally means same speaking.

There's a same speaking that transpires by this church and I think there's some things feature, some implications or some features of same speaking, of a confession.

First of all, it is common.

It is not subject to private interpretation.

So we can't just start a church at a storefront somewhere and say I'm gonna preach something that you all have never heard before.

No, we preach something that is confessional, that's committed to the exposition of the word of God.

It is not of private interpretation, it is not subject to parochialism.

Parochialism means the area, the community.

We can't have some truth that's just relevant in one space and not relevant in another space.

So we ought to know that if we are preaching the Christian doctrine, that that Christian doctrine is the same doctrine that's being preached in the Central African Republic where I am right now, or my sister is right now.

I feel like I'm there every morning.

We have a word that comes through Redeemer Church.

That is common and confessional.

It is not subject to power mongering because it is a confession that we all say together about God.

Secondly, letter B it is creedal.

This is not directly stated, but it is almost as directly stated as you can do without directly saying it, because Paul says here's the mystery of godliness In your NIV.

There's colon and then there's six lines which make up a hymn, a poem.

This is given in poetry fashion, it is given in creedal fashion, it is given in a way of a song that was sung by many people at that time.

Therefore, this creed is universally understood.

It is without controversy, as said in verse 16.

It is a mystery.

It has been revealed to us by God.

What is the revelation?

The hymn says it.

There's six lines in this hymn.

Look at this hymn quickly.

First of all, god was manifest in the flesh.

It's a doctrine of incarnation Justified in the spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles or the nations believed on in the world received in glory.

Now, each one of these lines is loaded with theological content and truth and even a lot of difficulty.

There are actually in my own library I have, a number of books on each of these topics.

That's how dense this particular hymn is.

Now, that's not to say we're supposed to sing dense hymns, that's not what it's saying.

But what it is saying is that our doctrine is in our faith and our conception of godliness, our conception of the household of God, the church, is grounded in theological content that we confess, and it is creedal, it is common, it's not new and it's something that has been believed on and preached over the centuries.

I think that this hymn also does something spectacular that we want every one of our services to do.

So, if you allow me, I'm gonna read from another favorite author of mine, a living author, at least I think he's still alive Robert Raymond, who explains this particular hymn and it's a little bit academic but I think it's understandable by everybody he goes.

The hymn appears to be a finely crafted piece of poetry, with not one but two patterns of internal relationships that bind the six lines together in a remarkable literary unit.

There are first the six date of nouns flesh, spirit, angels, nations, world and glory which almost certainly are intended to be construed not chronologically but antithetically and chastically.

Chastically means like an X, that is to say the hymn moves from that which is earthly flesh to that which is heavenly spirit, then from that which is heavenly angels back to that which is earthly nations, then back again from that which is earthly world to that which is heavenly glory.

That's this hymn.

We're just looking at, this being so, this part.

I love.

This being so.

It seems that the poet was thinking, in terms of the couplets, following an ABBAAB pattern, with the hymn's movement being not primarily chronological but spatial, emphasizing.

Here's the part emphasizing the truth that both the earthly and the heavenly spheres find their center in Christ.

I love that.

I love that.

In other words, here's something about our confession.

Next slide the confession is not only common, it is confessional and creedal, but it is Christ.

That is who we confess.

We confess the historic person of Jesus Christ that is not limited by space.

He's everywhere, all the time, and he is everywhere present.

We worship him and praise him.

I preached Psalm 150 by assignment last week at Michael's church and we learned praise God everywhere, in all the places, in the heavenly places and in the low places.

If I made my bed in hell, behold thou God, you are there.

So Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God everywhere present, a part of history.

And not only do we confess a doctrine, not only do we confess truths, but we confess a person, together, as a congregation.

That is what the local church is about and that is why here at Redeemer Church, we deliberately think about the words.

Like Hosea said, offered to the people.

Words.

We call it a liturgy, but it's carefully prayed over.

Pastor Ricky spends time.

The message, the song that we're learning goes so well with the series.

We are your church.

That wonderful song Help us to be.

We are the hope of the nations.

You'll see me emphasize that in just a moment.

The songs go with the message.

We're not coming up with our own words.

And when you come to church, no matter how formal or informal you all have chosen to submit to, whatever words the song leader has decided.

I don't care if it's a super informal church.

You don't go to a super, super informal church and say, well, I'm gonna sing my own song today.

No, you sing what everybody else sings.

Words have literally been provided for you so that you can join a congregation to worship with the congregation cooperatively, and who you are doing the worship to is the same thing that you are saying.

Christ is in me, he's above me, he's below me, he's around me, christ is my all and all and he is our all and all.

We confess Jesus Christ.

But there's a counterfeit to that, and Paul says, and immediately dives into the counterfeit, in chapter 4 the spirit he says in chapter 4, verse 1, clearly says that in later time Some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits.

And what is the faith?

Is that his Commitment to the historic Jesus Christ?

It is abandoning the confession of Jesus Christ in daily life.

So many people, even in Christian churches, think of God as a Sunday God and do not realize he's also a Monday God.

They don't realize that the God who is present at church is also present with them at work, and so they, in that sense, they have become faithless.

Now I think there's some features about this counterfeit.

There's a community of the faithless.

See, there is demonic influence.

They'll be taught by deceiving spirits and demons.

The, the devil, is more concerned about Tricking people and deceiving them, then taking them out of church.

He'd be just as happy to keep you in church as and deceived as, to take you out, because if you can keep you in church and deceived, then you're not going to be seeking the truth.

You get out, you might be seeking the truth and you might find Jesus.

He doesn't want that.

The devil is in deception.

I saw somebody put on Facebook and there's a lot of crazy things that you can see on Facebook and someone put on Facebook how sad it was that the preachers don't dress in suits and ties like the ESPN announcers do, and because they, you know, they dress like just just normal people and it doesn't make them respect the the fact that the word of God is being preached from these normal looking preachers and they want someone that looks like a preacher and a preacher looks like someone.

A man looks like a preacher when he's dressed in a suit and ties.

That's what this person was saying.

So I responded and then deleted.

I Responded and deleted that the ESPN announcers look like Mormons.

To me, the devil is into not only the Building a community faithless, but he's into the cauterization of feelings.

You burn a nerve, that's cauterization, so you can't feel anything more.

And he says their consciences have been seared as with a hot iron so they don't feel anymore.

They can't feel that Christ is not present anymore.

They can't feel that Christ is present.

They don't know that, that sense of the presence of God that we who love Jesus and seek Him know.

They embrace the objective and the truth and they can be doctrinally sound and on their way to hell.

And there are people who have a living, dynamic relationship with Jesus, who are off on some doctrines but they're going to be in the glory forever and ever because their consciousness about the personal connection they can have with God has not been seared.

This is not talking about a sensitive conscience, about doing something wrong or hurting something's feelings.

This is talking about the actual consciousness of our dynamic relationship with God.

There's a constraining of freedoms Verse 3,.

They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth.

So they become legalists and legalism means to make up laws and every person in the world has their own construct of what is right and what is righteous and what line they will not cross.

Everybody in the world does, including us.

But what we have to do is recognize we don't preach that doctrine saves or right doctrine saves.

We preach that Jesus saves.

He is the way, the truth and the life.

We don't preach that right action save.

We preach that Jesus saves.

And we are always tempted to fall into legalizing of what we think is right and wrong and be easily scandalized by people who love God dynamically and have consciences that are sensitive to their living, dynamic, hopeful relationship to Jesus Christ, who walk with him.

But maybe they do something a little bit different than what we would like them to do, and so we judge them and want to constrain their freedoms, and this results in a corruption of faith.

That's the counterfeit.

But here's the contrast to that in verses five through seven or four, for everything God created is good and nothing is to be rejected.

It is received with thanksgiving because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.

First of all, there is and here's a tricky word because it evokes wrong things in people's mind, but I've chosen it on purpose there is wholism Everything God created is good.

Everything God created is good.

It is easy to fall into a dichotomy at church.

There's the ministers, they do the spiritual work and I just don't do anything spiritual.

You know what I do?

I'm just name it.

I'm an engineer.

I build cars like Frederick.

That's not spiritual work.

We can make this false dichotomy that there's something better in this mystical and in the spiritual and we don't understand.

One of the great truths that Martin Luther helped us understand was that the milkmaids milk God's cows, and when you wash the pans, you're washing God's pans.

When you mop the floor, you're mopping God's floor, and it's intentionality and thankfulness that makes everything consecrated and holy to God.

Imagine a church full of congregants that believe everything they do is consecrated to God.

Imagine a church that believes that their work on Monday and on Tuesday is a dedicated work to God.

They have a table prepared for them in the presence of all their enemies and no one around them follows God.

But they do and everybody else is doing.

What their work is, whether it's plumbing, or whether it's teaching in a school, or whether it's engineering, or whether it's a computer programming, whatever it may be, everybody else is doing it for their own purposes, in their own reason, but you, the child of God, you're doing it for the Lord.

God, your workplace is your parish, it is your space of ministry, it is your platform of ministry and you go to a church that believes that.

They're not going to give you rules of dos and don'ts and they're not going to tell you performances that can matter, where you can actually perform on the outside, and on the inside rot.

No, they're going to be very concerned about the inside because they want your inside to be energized on Monday for the work of God.

So there's holism.

Everything God created good.

There is holiness because it is consecrated to God.

It is consecrated to God with prayer and with thanksgiving.

Brothers and sisters, if our churches that we hope to plant the bay area the richest area in the country in the world in the one of the richest areas in the world, by itself the Silicon Valley by itself could be the 20th richest nation in the world.

By itself this area could be the seventh largest economy in the world.

So we are talking in a very affluent age.

We're doing eye of the needle work, where Jesus said it's harder to get a rich man to go a camel.

It's easier to get a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into the kingdom.

That's the kind of work we're doing.

But imagine we get a biblical understanding of the local church and our own vocation and we start serving God with joy and knowing that our work, that what we do, is holy.

True godliness has a sensitive conscience toward the internal and if fully enjoys the external in light of the eternal let me say that again because I think it's good true godliness has a sensitive conscience toward the internal and fully enjoys the external in light of the eternal.

But here's what a lot of Christians have done, this last bullet.

Here they have externalized sanctification, making the outward living the sum and total of all godliness, whereas God would have us to sanctify the externals, making godliness the sum and total of living.

And there's a consolation award prize for all this.

External godliness does profit, excuse me, external training exercise, verse eight, does profit?

Physical is of some value, for physical training is of some value.

But godliness has a value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and life to come.

I want to fly through this, but there is a reward in this life.

See that there is blessing.

Sometimes we're so, uh, exercised about the exercised about the abuses of the prosperity theology, because it's a heinous doctrine that is affected many people and lost many people.

But we forget to say that in true godliness there is this reward in this present life.

There is blessing in this present life.

Blessed is the man that walks not in the council of the godly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the lord, and in his law does he meditate day and night, and he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water.

That's for this life.

So there's a commission to local churches and it comes to this young man, timothy command and teach these things.

Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young.

Set an example.

Now.

There's two parts to this, verse 11.

There's command because there's the component of authority here.

This is a society.

The old Baptist and the 500 years ago referred to local churches as societies.

It's a society and the word of God has commandments for us.

And there's teaching, and it's teaching that's supposed to help us grow.

It's not supposed to tickle our ears.

It's not supposed to just make us feel like we've done our Christian duty because we showed up at church.

We can't just show up to church and hold a bad attitude toward everybody that's present.

We can't do that.

That's wrong.

We can't just show up to church and have ambitions that are totally inconsistent with true godliness.

We can't do that.

And so we come together to learn Again from one of my favorite authors, charles Bridges.

He says preaching, in order to be effective, must be reduced from vague generalities to a tangible individual character, coming home to every man's business, even to his bosom.

He goes on in a slumbering routine of customary attendance.

Nothing but the preacher's blow the hand, not lifted towards him but actually reaching him, will rouse him to consideration.

There is no need to mention names.

If you preach the right way, you don't have to say, hey, this is for you, ricky, hope you got it and it's not.

We're not supposed to deliberately target people, but we're supposed to preach to our congregation.

This was the understanding of pastoral ministry John Owen said again from the 1600s.

It is every man's duty to preach to his particular congregation particularly, in other words, to your people.

You preach to them and you preach in a way that they need to hear for their good.

That's what this series of messages is doing.

So there's no need to mention names.

He goes on to say the general sermons that are preached to everybody in fact are preached to nobody, but if anything moves them, it is a particular application as to such things in which their consciences are concerned.

They don't have seer consciences.

We assume that when people come to church, we want them to have sensitive consciences.

We must therefore preach to our people as well as before them.

The conscience of the audience should feel the hand of the preacher, searching it in every individual, nowhere to class himself.

The preacher who aims at doing good will endeavor above all things to insulate his hearers, to place each of them apart and render it impossible for him to escape by losing himself in the crowd.

So we want preaching that matters.

He goes on to say more general discourses.

They often lack skill to take home to themselves and often are yet inclination they don't want to if you're too general.

So they sit all the while stupidly, regardless of what is delivered.

The preaching has to hit home.

I thought to myself I'm never going to be able to finish chapter four in this sermon, so I want to come back to how does that influence the culture, then, and just pop in on some of these verses.

Because there's a culture that Paul wants the church to have a shared and remember culture, shared understanding, and he's trying to get Timothy to teach his church this shared understanding so that they would know how to behave themselves in the house of God.

First of all, we see the ethos of hope in the living God, for example in verse 10,.

This is why we labor and strive.

I wish I could expound those words that's not redundancy there, but for another time.

Or maybe if we write a little book together, we have put our hope in the living God.

Remember, this is a household of the living God.

We actually live and move and have our being and our inactive, dynamic relationship with the living God and our hope is there.

That's the ethos.

That is what drives our motives and our ambitions.

It's our ethic, everything about us, what moves me is my hope in the living God, who is right here.

There's examples of living.

We see that in verse 12.

Being example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity, that's what we want to find in the local church.

There's an exposition of the word of God until I come, verse 13,.

Devote yourself to the public reading of scripture and to preaching and to teaching.

Notice he makes a distinction there.

There is preaching and there's teaching, because those two are different.

But there's also.

I want you to get this why do we read sections from the New Testament and from the Old Testament every single Sunday?

It's not even what we're preaching from, because a number of people, even in a good church like this come to church every Sunday haven't read the Bible all week long.

You need to hear God's holy word and it is our burden and our duty to give ourselves to the public reading of God's word.

That's the exposition of scripture.

There's an exercise of biblical leadership Verse 14, do not neglect your gift, which was given to you through prophecy, with the body of elders.

When the body of elders lay their hands on you, so much implied there there's a plurality of elders that recognize the giftingness.

There is no rogue behavior among the leadership of God's people.

There's a plurality and a parody of elders.

That is clearly and specifically taught in the scripture and we submit to one another.

And there's the exercise of biblical leadership where we say we said to ourselves Pastor Ian has been gifted for this particular series of message that we want the church to hear.

And we said to him do this Now, pastor Ian, do not neglect the gift.

We're giving you the gift and responsibility of preaching this series of message.

We're giving you the gift and the responsibility of serving the congregation this way.

Don't neglect the gift.

Exercise biblical leadership Well, you could go on on that, I'm crossing the line into preaching and finally, the earnestness of life and death, verse 16,.

Watch your life and doctrine closely.

Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your ears.

So why are we doing this series?

Here's one text that should give you a whole bunch of ideas why this valuable series that Pastor Ian is preaching to us is being presented to you, congregation, as a gift.

Because we strongly feel the Bay Area of California needs many healthy local churches and neighborhoods where Christians worship together and live holistic and holy lives in the profound mystery of godliness, which is Christ for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

It is wonderful to be a Christian.

It is wonderful to meet with a congregation of believers who serve God, all over the Bay, in different areas and different jobs, to come together and worship and serve and celebrate the mystery of Godliness, jesus Christ Himself.