Discover Heartland Week 1:The Gospel and Membership Explained

All right.

Well, good evening, everybody.

Hope you guys are doing well.

We are beginning what uh we have been pushing for a while now with a new member class that we've been working towards for quite some time.

If you didn't get a chance to get one of those little booklets on your way in, I would encourage you to grab one of those.

Um there's some guys in the back that can distribute those if you don't want to feel awkward and stand up and won't have to walk to the back.

But that's we'll be working through that.

I'm not going to read through it, obviously, but that that what that is is the it's just a culmination of a lot of uh things that we have been working towards in the life of our church.

A lot of this will not be new uh to some of you, and uh maybe maybe some of it will be, but really what we've been our our heart has has been lately, not lately, but for quite some time, just trying to get it on paper, is this this probably six to eight months ago, we as elders began to process um we have to do a better job of helping our people understand of what church membership looks like and all the things that that entails, both from a uh scriptural standpoint and then also a sp very specific standpoint on how that scripture applies here in the context of of Heartland Church.

And uh out of that I started working on this booklet probably four or five months ago and uh finished all the edits as of like three hours ago.

So uh here we are.

And I say finish, it's working.

Um probably what's gonna happen with this first class is we're gonna teach through this.

It's got some very key things that we think are important for our folks to understand and important for people to understand as they join the church, uh, because I recognize some of you may not be members yet, and others of you may have been members.

Some of you, I see some charter members in here, so some of you have been members since the very beginning.

Uh, and the hope and prayer is that you have a really healthy picture of one, what the Bible says about church membership, but two, what that looks like specifically at Heartland, both from expectation standpoint, what we're commanded to do standpoint, all the things.

So we're gonna work through this systematically.

The tentative plan for tonight, and we'll see how it goes.

Again, this is the first one.

And what what we plan to do in the months and years ahead is offer this three to four times a year.

It won't always be on Wednesday night.

We'll have other times where people who are interested in membership can participate and they can learn about the church.

And um, in fact, our I'll just let this cat out of the bag.

Our bylaw team is working on a revision of our bylaws where this would be a requirement for people to join for them to go through this membership class so they can better understand uh the context of church membership at Heartland Church specifically.

So the plan for tonight, that's where I was trying to get to, and I gave a five-minute segue.

But the plan for tonight is to get through the first three chapters.

You'll see there that's the welcome, and in that we'll speak to the the why behind what we're doing, the gospel, and then why church membership.

And then uh in the four weeks that follow, we'll cover the subsequent chapters.

But when we get through, I'm gonna give you an assignment when we get through, when we get through tonight, I'll encourage you to strongly encourage you to read the chapters that we'll cover next week.

But the plan is to get through three chapters.

We'll see.

I'm doing something that is so not my personality if you know me.

I'm normally a manuscript, I've got every word, I've got transition labels.

I have zero notes right now.

So I'm wildly uncomfortable, but we're gonna we're gonna go with it.

So I have zero notes other than the book that is before me.

So let me let me pray for us and then we'll dive in and um work through the book together.

Father, we are so grateful uh for who you are.

Um God, as over the last couple of months, as I've been working through this and and diving into this um contact content that we see in in your word, I've just been, I don't know if convicted is the right word, probably probably more so grateful and thankful uh that you have given us your church.

And God, I think I think so many times we uh uh look at uh an organization that is a church and say, well, it's it's it's just an organization and man, according according to your word, it is oh so much more than that.

And it is, yes, it is is beneficial for us as as followers of Jesus.

There's so many uh beautiful things for us, but most foundationally it brings glory to Christ.

And if we if we have no other reason to care about your local church other than bringing glory to Christ, that should be enough for us as regenerate followers of Jesus.

So, God, we we pray that you would be glorified in our time in the same way that we pray on Sunday, that you would be glorified as we uh do everything we can to magnify you and your gospel above all above all things.

So be with us not just tonight but in the weeks to come.

Help us uh as a church, grow us in our understanding of what what you would have us to be about uh at at Heartland as it relates to uh being in line with what your word says, how we do that corporately, but also how we do that individually, and the way that we interact with one another, and the way that we interact with deacons, and the way that we interact with with elders, and the way that we uh conduct ourselves in the gathering with with orderly worship and uh care for one another in the days between.

Uh, may we do it all for the glory of Christ.

And it's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

You if you've been around here for any amount of time, one of the things that you know and that you've heard us say multiple times is we believe strongly in the importance of the life of the church in the life of a believer.

We say that quite frequently.

It comes out in sermons, it comes out in our welcome, it comes out when we talk about uh the communication cards, it comes out when we talk about guests from the platform.

It comes out when I talk to guests in one-on-one conversations.

Our uh desire is for people to be a part of a local church, right?

And we use language like if that's heartland, fantastic.

And if that's not Harlan, that's okay too.

And that's not, we don't use that language to discourage people from uh joining and covenanting here.

We use that language because we care about people being within the context of the local church.

A church that it, and and I'll I'll say it like this, and we'll define church later on, but a church that is faithful to scripture, right?

Because there's a lot of churches that are not, and we're not gonna get into that, but we believe it is important, utterly important in the life of a believer.

But we also believe, and this is part of why we are here and part of why we decided on doing the class in this way.

We also believe that it is important for an individual follower of Jesus before they join or covenant themselves to a local body to understand that local body, to understand what it's about, right?

Uh, I laid out some things in this book to understand what it believes, right?

It is my hope and prayer that any follower of Jesus before joining a local church would at least take a look at their statement of faith, right?

If I would be concerned if you joined the church and never investigated what they believe.

So understand what the church believes, understand what it values, right?

What are the things that it uh treasures, right?

We we should be treasuring Christ above all things, obviously, but what are the things that the church values, both in word, what it says, what it writes on paper, what it says on the website, but also in action, what it does in the gathering, what it does uh in in the study of God's word, what it does in the interactions of the one another is that we'll hit here in a couple chapters.

We should know about how it functions, right?

We use this word polity.

Some of you may not understand that, but you will before you finish this class, right?

How it functions, how what is the responsibility of the elders, what is the responsibility of the deacons, what is the responsibility of the staff, what is the responsibility that I have, right?

So so many people come into the the a church and and say, man, I'm just a congregate, I have zero responsibility.

Well, let me just get the cat out of the bag.

God's word has something different to say about that, and you'll see that as we work through that.

So, what what is um the functions and then what it expects of its members, right?

There you should, as a member of God's church, right?

As a member of his church at Heartland, there will be expectations upon you.

And that's not because uh people like exercising authority, that's because God's word says there should be expectations upon members, and we'll get into those as well.

But our prayer and hope is that both this class and this booklet would be a guide to help you understand all those things specifically about his local church here at Heartland.

I'll also say here as well, I'm gonna pause to take a sip of my tea.

And you can make fun of me for drinking tea, but I like tea.

But um I'll also say here, too, just be completely honest.

If you're looking for a perfect church, I can't remember exactly how I phrased it in this little booklet, but you're going to be looking for the rest of your life.

Right?

If you're looking for a perfect church, you might as well stop looking, right?

You're not going to find it, right?

That and part of the reason why is the church is made up of people, and people are sinful.

But the beautiful thing about that is God's word gives us all the direction and instruction we need on how to help each other see our sin, how to confront each other in our sin, how to love each other in the midst of our sin, how to point out uh that to each other, how to live in God's grace and and all of those things.

So I just get let you know from the front, we're not the perfect church.

Heartland is not, neither is any other church, but I will tell you that the blood of Christ is enough, right?

We're not the perfect church, but we have the perfect Savior.

And that's one of the many reasons why we care about and covenant ourselves to the local church.

I already talked about it's essential in the life of a believer.

Some other things that you'll see as we work through this is how uh it functions and some of the outworkings of what happens within the context of the local church.

And one of the most important aspects of that, and we're gonna get to that in a minute when we look at this Greek word called ecclesia, is the the gathering, right?

The regular gathering.

God's people for the course of history, as we have traced the church all the way back to the New Testament, they have gathered regularly, and and it's within the church that people gather, right?

The the saints gather, baptized believers gather.

Um, it's also within the church where discipleship happens, where uh the we uh the saints are equipped for the work of ministry.

That's one of the things that we take seriously as elders is equip the saints for the work of ministry.

There's intentional conversations that are taking place that are gospel-centric.

Uh we grow in our Christ-likeness with one another.

There's so many one-another that I could hit on.

I think there's 85 or 86 different, specific one another passages.

Uh, some would claim more than that, but 85 to 86, uh, some would say as many as 95 in the New Testament about what happens within the context of the local church.

So we we do all these things together as we as a covenanted body of believers seek to be obedient to the commands of Christ and follow uh the commands of Christ.

Also, it's important to note as well, and and this is in part why you hear us every Sunday when we finish our gathering.

There's a benediction, but then there's language communicating that you're sent, right?

It is uh our belief that the local church is God's plan to get the gospel to the nation.

So for some of us, that means we're sent in that man.

I I pray for the day that we have three or four families up here that we're sending across the world, right?

Or we're sending to uh a different county in Mississippi to plant a church.

I pray, I pray for that day, and Lord willing, we'll have that day.

Um, but at the same time, we celebrate those who are walking from this place, they're going home, they're having conversations, they're pointing their neighbor to the gospel, they're sharing the gospel with their neighbor.

The point is you you leave the body of Christ, leave the gathering, I should say, would be a better way to say that, and you are sent out with a worthy message.

The church is God's plan to get the gospel to the nation.

So when you commit to Heartland Church and you covenant yourself to Heartland Church, you join Heartland Church, all these things are things that we are to be about.

And this book is designed to clarify those in greater level.

But ultimately, we exist to glorify God by following Jesus, proclaiming his name, and living in his grace.

That is uh what we purpose ourselves to be about at Heartland Church.

And I will say, something that is foundational, without Christ, there is no church.

Right?

So we have to always remember that without Christ, there is no church.

Now, with that, we're gonna move into chapter two.

That's a brief intro and welcome.

I'm gonna move into chapter two, and this is something that I believe to be extremely important.

And for some of you, you're like, man, I know the gospel already, but we're gonna talk about the gospel anyways.

Uh, whether you know it or not, we're gonna we're gonna talk about it anyways.

And we we all, not we all, I shouldn't use that language, many of us know that you can trace the fall of man all the way back to the garden in Genesis 3, right?

You have the fall, and I also know for so many years, uh this is even I have conversations with kids about this today, my kids um not as much anymore, but for so many years, me personally, I was like, man, that Adam dude was an idiot, right?

Like, how in the world can that brother deny God?

Right?

He told him what not to do, and that dude did it anyways.

And then as I've gotten older, I say that this I realized this many years ago.

This isn't something I realized yesterday, let me just clarify.

I was like, man, I do that every day, right?

We do that every day, right?

But we know that sin entered uh the world in the fall in general Genesis 3.

And one of the beautiful things I love about what our kids are doing in the back now is they're memorizing scripture.

I got up this morning.

I'm not gonna tell you which one of my kids, one of my kids tattled on somebody because they wrote on the mirror in the bathroom, and I went in there, and it was first of all, it was my wife's handwriting.

But second of all, it was the memory verse, right?

It was the memory verse.

So they are the some of the very verses that we are using in this to point to the depravity of man, right?

The all have fallen sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Um, all those passages is passages that our kiddos are learning and memorizing in the back and hiding that truth in their in their heart.

So we we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

If you want to know more about that, go ask some of the kids in the back.

That's one of the beauties of the local church.

And we, and I said this on Sunday, we must understand that we have no rights before the Holy God.

Zero rights.

I think so many times we, and I I alluded to this Sunday, so many times we look at it through the vent the view of our present-day uh rights system and political system and governmental system, which I said Sunday is a beautiful thing for government, but it is a very poor way to approach the gospel.

We don't have rights before God.

We have zero rights before God.

The only rights we have before him is an eternity in hell.

Right?

That is the only right we have before him.

And that's something that we have to understand.

Even to begin to understand the importance of church membership, we have to understand that apart from the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, we have no rights before a holy God.

We are separated from the God the Father.

There is no salvation, there is no hope.

That is what we deserve.

But we also know the reality of the gospel is John 14, 6.

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

No one comes to the Father except through me.

Right?

We our our relationship can to the Father can be restored through the blood of Jesus Christ.

Praise God, right?

Praise God for that truth.

That uh graphic we just used, the three circles graphic.

One of the things I love, there's hundreds of those graphics out there.

One of the things I love about the one that we have is there's a like four or five arrows from the fall back to creation.

And if you notice in that graphic, they're all crossed out.

And what that represents is all of the many ways that we as humans try to earn our bay whack earn our way back to God.

We try to do right.

If you're like me, you don't make it very far, right?

You maybe a couple seconds and you're, oh man, I just thought about something else, and that was a sin too.

Like it's sin after sin after sin.

And we try all these different ways and we we can't do it, right?

We we can't do it.

But what we see in the gospel, and this is important to understand, what we see in the gospel is the proclaimed, right?

The proclaimed word of God, according to what we see, Paul and others, right?

When the word is proclaimed, the Spirit works, hearts are convicted, uh, responses are prompted, and people respond to put their faith in Christ alone.

Right?

That that is the hope that we have that the word will be proclaimed over us.

That's why you've heard me say things from the pulpit uh like, hey, it's it's a beautiful thing to meet the needs of people, but if you're meeting the needs of people without telling them the good news of the gospel, you're you're doing humanitarian work, you're not doing gospel work.

So it's so important for us to proclaim the word, right?

Then we know that it's not our responsibility to save anybody.

I can proclaim the word to John or Jim or Jane or whatever, Josie all day long, and they may or may not respond.

It's not up to me to get them to respond.

The Spirit prompts and then the Lord draws them to them himself, and we see salvation take place.

And I I'll run through that in this uh booklet in the gospel section, but I want to hit a couple of uh key terms there that we use often uh at the end.

But before I do that, I just I want to make sure that you guys understand and that anybody who is exploring church member membership understands.

And this is the first uh sentence in that last paragraph before key terms.

I'm gonna read this for you.

The first statement, the first step in evaluating church membership should have nothing to do with the specifics of the church.

Right?

The first step of you evaluating church membership should have nothing to do with the specifics of the church, it should be you being able to answer the question, am I a Christian or am I a follower of Jesus?

So when you're like, man, why in the world are you talking about the gospel when you're in a membership class?

Because if someone's not a follower of Jesus, and we'll get into the specifics of this from God's word later, then they aren't going to be a part of his church, right?

The first step in becoming a part of a covenanted body of believers, of regenerate church members, is being regenerate, right?

So experiencing salvation.

So the gospel is critical for uh obviously for the hope of our lives, but also for church membership.

Let me look, let me point you to some of these terms because these terms will be used throughout this class, and there are also terms that we use around here a lot, and I try to always specify what I mean by those, but let me let me use some of them.

Total depravity, that is the comprehensive nature of sin that communicates that mankind is incapable of saving themselves, right?

That that's the whole thing I just communicated is we have no rights before a holy God.

There's nothing that we can do to earn our salvation, nor can we save ourselves.

That's totally up to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and the Spirit's working in our life.

Conversion, that's a general term referring to an individual's initial encounter with God in Christ, resulting in the reception of God's gracious provision of salvation.

That's not my definition.

That's why that little footnote's there.

I borrowed that from somebody who's smarter than me.

Regeneration, it's an aspect of salvation that emphasizes new birth where fallen man is indwelled by the Holy Spirit.

You'll hear me talk later on about the supernatural baptism of the Holy Spirit that happens at the moment of conversion.

We we believe that when a person comes to faith in Christ, puts their faith in Christ for the first time, at that moment the Spirit indwells them, and they are indwelled by the Holy Spirit, right?

That's why I've heard pastors say, and I love it, like you have more power for gospel ministry than John the Baptist, because the Spirit is within you, right?

The Spirit is within you.

Uh which I already lost it.

I just did read generation, right?

Yes.

Justification, acquittal of sin, where God makes depraved man who was worthy of condemnation, innocent before a holy God and righteous God by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

We are justified, you hear us say that word, not by our works, right?

There should be works that are an outflow of our salvation, right?

Those should be, it should be something called fruit.

Last Easter, one of the things that we I got to do is baptize my two boys, those two boys, especially Marcus, he could answer for the last three years the questions right about what is baptism.

Are you a follower?

He could answer all those questions right, but before we would put them in that pool, we wanted to see fruit, right?

So there should be fruits in the life of believers.

So there should be works, but it's not the works that save you, right?

They're an outpouring.

You are justified not by your own merit, but you are justified by the blood of Jesus alone.

And then sanctification, uh, and I made point of this on Sunday, and probably because I've been in it so much with this, but sometimes I think we lose sight of sanctification and glorification.

Those are our part of our salvation, right?

It's not like they're, oh, you're saved, and then uh salvation ends.

No, salvation is continuing to be worked out through sanctification and then ultimately through glorification.

So sanctification is growth in Christ likeness whereby a believer pursues obedience to the power of the indwelling spirit, right?

So we submit in obedience to the Father, right?

We say that about our prayer life here.

We we say often like hey it your prayer life is not about pleading with the Father for him to submit to your will.

It is about you pleading with the Father in obedience to what his will is for your life.

And that's a different way to pray right so we are submitting in obedience to the Father and through the power of the Spirit we are sanctified.

And again throughout the course of your life this isn't like a I always tell my boys my my son Eli loves to shoot and shoot bows and all that I always tell them this isn't like a straight era like I'm here God's there and I'm going straight to him right no it's like ebbs and flow.

There'll be seasons in your life where things are going fantastic and then there'll be seasons in life where you are struggling to get out of the pit that is sin and temptation.

One, first of all, there's a membership class that's part of the beauty of the local church for your brothers and sisters to come alongside you in that moment.

But ultimately your trajectory should be becoming more like Christ there may be highs there may be lows but the overall trajectory should be becoming more like Christ that is sanctification and then glorification and that is the thing that we celebrated what is to come with our service on Sunday this is the final step of salvation where we are completely conformed in to the image and likeness of Christ.

And I don't know about you I used to listen to my granny all the time say I'm just ready to go and I was thinking why like why would you want to leave this place?

And now I'm like why would you want to stay right why and I uh some of you older people I'm not saying who I can see you shaking your head yes but it's just it's life is difficult so I'm like I said Sunday doesn't mean we should be careless with our physical life it doesn't mean that we should carelessly pursue death but we should most certainly look forward to the day that is to come where we are in the image and likeness of Christ in totality and glory.

So praise God for for that is to come.

So that is why the gospel is important uh most foundationally obviously we want to articulate it but most foundationally the the church is for regenerate baptized believers and we're going to get into that more lately but it's important on the onsets of church membership conversations that people can articulate the God I've been and I I haven't I don't think I've had that experience here before I'll say yet because it probably will happen but I've been in local churches before with people who are members of local churches and I'll tell I'll ask them to tell me about their salvation story and it will be well my my grandma drug me into church three times a week Sunday morning Sunday night and Wednesday night I was like okay well tell me about your sin.

Oh I mess up sometimes okay well tell me about what Jesus did for you and they can't even tell me about the blood of Jesus right they can't articulate the gospel yet they are members and been baptized in a church right we have to make sure we get the gospel right people have to understand that the the body of Christ is a group of regenerate believers and if someone's not a regenerate believer then they we want them to become regenerate believers but they their first step isn't let me join the church and then I can figure this gospel thing out.

No that's not what we see in scripture we see them professing faith we see them being baptized we see them being added to their number which was the local church.

So gospel is important.

I can talk about that the rest of the time but I only have 30 minutes left so let's jump to why church membership this is the most extensive portion of our conversation tonight and where we'll spend the majority of our time and hopefully we'll be able to get through page 12 before we finish up but uh I'm gonna let me read actually I didn't plan on doing this but I'm gonna do this I'm gonna read for you guys I love so we as again we'll get in I keep saying we'll get into this later feel free to read on we are part of the Pillar Network here at Heartland and I love what their statement of faith has to say about the church.

So let me read this and then I'm gonna speak to a Greek word and then I'll I'll work through it uh through this book.

Let me read this whole statement of faith about the church this comes from the Pillar Network.

We believe in the universal church a living spiritual body of which Christ is the head and all born-again persons are members we believe local churches are the visible expression of the universal church on earth.

The local church is an autonomous congregation of baptized believers operating under the lordship of Jesus Christ.

You can't miss that statement the lordship of Jesus Christ.

I made a statement earlier about there's a lot of churches that aren't operating our churches like churches.

If a church is not operating under the lordship of Jesus Christ then they're not a church according to God's word.

So operating under the lordship of Jesus Christ the congregation is to gather regularly to celebrate God centered worship to commit to the teachings of Scripture to exercise its gifts for the work of service and then to enjoy common fellowship and unity in Christ.

Get this part as well every church member has the responsibility to give faithfully of his time ability material possessions to support the mission and ministries of the church.

The church is to obey the Lord's great commission to make disciples of all nations by both local evangelism and global missions.

And then it goes on into the ordinances which we'll get into later but I I love how they outline both the universal church and the local church.

Also love how they emphasize the Lordship of Christ and how they emphasize making disciples locally and globally.

Those are all things that we see in in God's word.

And with that we you've heard me I know if you've been here for any amount of time you've heard me use the word ekklesia and I use that all the time and it it refers to assembly and and rightfully so but when you dig into that word further in the Greek there's it's it can be broken down into ek and then clesia closia comes from cleo which is like called out so I think often we look at ecclesia and this this goes back to the gospel as well I think often we look at ecclesia and we only talk about assembling or the gathering but it's the gathering of called out ones.

Right the church is the gathering of called out ones it is assembly it's an assembly of the ones who've been called out by the power of the spirit in response to the gospel right who have put their faith in Christ alone right they've been baptized this is what I was alluding to earlier supernaturally by the Spirit and then there's this physical outward expression of this work that's taking place in their life in water baptism and they're covenanted to a body so that it's this called out it's a gathering of the called out ones is what we see is the church.

And in the Pillar network alluded to and I even put it in this this booklet as well this thing called the universal church and the local church right the universal church as I think I I defined it in here something similar to all believers across all time right all regenerate believers across all time we see that in Ephesians I think we see that in Colossians and some other places as as well right and the beautiful thing about that you hear us say this and I think sometimes we take this for granted some of the things we read in the New Testament about the early church man those brothers and sisters were a part of the same universal church that we are a part of let that sink in for a second what what beauty is that what what uh glory is that for the the cause of Christ that his church has existed for centuries right carrying out the mission that he has given her to take the gospel to the nations and bring him glory.

So you have the universal church then you also have the local church which is the specific local expression of his church right and it can be identified as a regular gathering or an assembly of baptized believers something I didn't put in the booklet that I wish I would have is um who are joined together or who are covenanted together to and they preach the word participate in the ordinances and live out in covenant community with one another.

So you have the universal church and then you have specific expressions of that and that is called the local church.

And I I believe and we believe as as a church here at Heartland that there are uh even outlined in the New Testament you see those specific expressions of the local church uh we are working through a letter that was written to one of those that is the church at Corinth we as a church for the last goodness gracious we've been in the first Corinthians for a year now has it been a year I don't know it's it's been a long time but we're in the last chapter we started the last chapter this week so we're almost we're almost done um but we and that that is a a letter written to a specific local body of believers right so we believe that it there are specific expressions and and we are one of those here.

So that is what is the church now the why membership that's that's an one that I I get the question posed to me more frequently than I would like to admit is why in the world should someone join a local church?

And I I think the heart of that question can be good but I believe also more often than not that that question comes from a standpoint of what I would call consumerism approach to church or what do I get out of a a church because if you if you're asking why I should join a church then you probably don't understand the importance of a church according to the New Testament right you don't understand the one another's you don't understand the lordship of Christ it's more of like well I'll be just fine if I don't go to I can go have church by myself in the woods.

Brother sister you can't that's not church according to the New Testament.

That may be a church according to your theology but that's not church according to the New Testament there's so many different reasons that we see in the New Testament that are outlined for us that we should be a part of a local expression of his church for the good of Christ and for the good of one another.

If you don't hear anything else about it we we should be a part of the local church for the glory of Christ and for the good of one another right most foundational now there's there's other things that are a part of that discipleship of each other the the glory of God the edification of the saints evangelizing the lost being committed to the body of Christ and we can go on and on and on but most foundationally it is for the glory of Christ and for the good of one another.

Further and this is something that um I don't know if I'm just kind of getting more on edge as I get older but one one of the the temptations I have when someone asks me that question sometimes is just to say hey the God's word in the New Testament points to the church right so if you're looking for the exact phrase join a church you're you're not going to find it.

But when you look into the context of the New Testament one all the things that they're doing it points to church membership one they're added to their number what number right what they points to they're they're keeping roles and keeping up with each other right we see all throughout the New Testament following conversion believers are baptized and they're added to their number they are baptized and they're added to their number indicating identifiable local body of believers that they are being added to so again going back to what I it's hard sometimes not to just and it can come across kind of snarky and I don't intend it to be that way but man if you if you're asking why join a local church the the easiest response is because the New Testament tells you to like you don't really need like if you are truly submitting to God's word as the ultimate authority in your life the final arbitrator of all things is what our membership covenant says if you are submitting to that the only reason that you need to join a local church is because the Bible tells you to you don't need any other reasons there's a multiple other reasons but you don't need any other reasons according to submission to his word.

So with that let me let me just look at for the good of one another and for the glory of Christ.

The good of one another I'm not gonna go through all of these but this is reference to the one another I mentioned earlier.

And again there's some debate on how many exactly there are in the New Testament some some scholars would say well that doesn't necessarily count as a one another passage but there's somewhere between 85 95 one another's and they're all throughout the New Testament and it's things like you'll see here love one another be devoted to one another live in harmony with one another serve one another care for one another.

This is one that it's not always popular admonish one another right build up one another forgive one another be patient with one another speak the truth and love to one another and I could go on and on and on.

So many one another and what that is pointing to is pointing to committed local church membership what is happening amongst the the interaction between believers right these are all things that should be an outpouring of how we interact with one another here at Heartland.

These are things that we should be doing with each other and sometimes these things especially with difficult situations like if I'm caught in a specific sin and I'm blinded to that according to these one another passages some of my brothers should come tell me that they should come tell me that and that's not a fun thing to do right if you've ever been in one of those conversations that's not fun to do to sit with your brother or your sister if you're a lady and say hey I see this in you and I am concerned some people think well you're just trying to be mean I I would be willing to bet that the person sitting across the table is equally not enjoying that conversation as much as you are right neither one of you would enjoy that conversation but the Lord calls us to do that and that is really if we do it with the right spirit it's done for the good of one another right even when we get into church discipline later which is how difficult is that when we call us in outs and then we follow that process and then two or more call it outs and then it's taken to the church and it's and you go through the whole thing every aspect of that is done with the soul of the individual in mind.

We think about it from our what we deserve our right standpoint which I went back I pointed out earlier.

We think about it from that standpoint but according to scripture all of that is done because the soul of that person is at stake right and when we begin to think about church membership in that way about the care of each other's souls in a way we should gladly step in even though they're difficult we should gladly step into all the one another passages right um all of them and it's a difficult thing to do but the God's word calls us to be a part of the local church in part for the good of one another and ultimately for the glory of Christ and this is the one where I want to spend probably more time than anything else we've spent time on.

And I I kind of alluded to this earlier but many professing Bible believing Christians that I know reject the importance and necessity of being a part of a local church.

And it is devastating making the claim that it's not needed right making the claim that that's not for me making the claim that well I've been hurt too much in the local church I understand and respect that but like I said earlier the church is made up of imperfect people we're not in the the church is not primarily about us it's about the glory of Christ right so if if we do not adequately understand the importance of church membership and I pointed to this earlier then we do not understand the glory of Christ and that should scare us right that that should scare us.

If we don't understand church membership then we don't understand the glory of Christ and that should be concerning right we should be concerned about that.

Also just to point out God's plan for the church is not individualistic in nature right so we have to get out of our individualistic mindsets and look at man God's plan for his church was communal right there it was a community of believers doing life for one another spurring on one another to good works for the glory of Christ.

And I put some illustrations in here I'm gonna uh point to some of these and I apologize for um just reading some of the stuff I put in the book but to illustrate this truth let me let me say it this way a person who is a follower of Christ I want you to think about this way person who is a follower of of Jesus has more in common with a person who is a follower of Jesus but grew up on the other side of the world than they have in common with a person who grew up in their household who is not a follower of Jesus.

Let that think in for a second you as a follower of Jesus have more in common with someone who grew up on the other side of the world who also is a follower of Jesus than you might have with someone who grew up in your household who is not a follower of Jesus or someone who grew up next door to you that is not a follower of Jesus.

And this points to the beauty of the unity that we have within the context of the church the unity that we have is not in our flesh and blood the unity that we have is not in our hobbies.

The unity that we have is not in our preferences it's not in our language it's not in the color of our skin the unity that we have is in the blood of Jesus the blood of Jesus that's why I love one of the the things I love about my son Marcus is anytime someone asks me, man, what a greater picture of the gospel than earthly adoption right that boy is my boy and I will go to bat for him you better believe it real quick.

What a picture we have been adopted in the same way into the family of God and the unity that I have with other people who were adopted in the same way to the family of God is rooted in the blood of Jesus.

So we have so much in common with so many different people around the world other people have an unhealthy view of church because they're approaching it from the following statement and I can't tell you how many times I've had people ask me this question what can the church do for me?

I don't know what that was but I just heard something over there knocking what can the church do for me and the temptation there is the best thing I can do is tell you to go to the next one right that is not a healthy that that's a sinful response for me and I've never said that just to clarify but that's not a healthy question for us to ask about a church what can it do for me?

Yes there are benefits there are so and I could sit here and and talk to you for four or five six hours about the benefits of the church in the life of a believer right there's so many things and there should be things that we look for we should desire a church that is preaching the word right preaching the word we should desire a church that cares about uh fostering discipleship from birth to 150 however old a person lives we should care about a church that takes seriously the the ordinances we should uh do all the we should care about all those things yes and those things are blessings to our soul right we should desire a church that practices church discipline right that that is a beautiful thing that God designed not that we should desire to have discipline situations like at the fullest extent but we've told you guys before if if I said something in a conversation and Gary Scott heard me say it and it was sinful, Gary Scott coming to me and saying hey you said this you might want to rethink how you say that next time that's church discipline that is church discipline and that is beautiful and that is a sign of a healthy church and that is a sign of a healthy brother in Gary and if I were to respond well and say you're right I'm sorry can you help me keep an eye on that that is a sign of a healthy brother in me submitting to that simple act of church discipline.

So those are all things that we should care about and look for in a local church.

However we have to fight against the temptation of approaching church from a consumerist view.

And so many times in our cultural context that that happens for example I'm gonna I'm gonna read you some of these I put in the book if you walk to a church and you and they preach the Bible faithfully Right.

They they fostered discipleship well at all ages.

They practiced church discipline.

They correctly handled the ordinances.

But not enough people greeted you.

What do you think about that a second?

But not enough people greeted you.

A consumerist view would say, man, I'm out.

Peace.

I am out.

I'm going to move on to the next church.

I heard a podcast about this recently.

I think I may have shared with you guys.

I can't remember.

But another approach to that situation would be to observe that need and intentionally step into that church, covenant yourself to that church, and you be the one that makes sure that there's never another person that walks through that door that isn't met with God's grace and welcome to the body of Christ.

Make it your aim to ensure everyone that walked through that door felt welcome.

I heard a podcast about this, and a couple did that, and then they stayed there for like 10 years, and then they were sent somewhere by the church in a church plant.

And they had everybody, they told that story, and they had everybody in the room who had ever been either invited or actually gone to their house for a meal, and like 90% of the people in the room stood up because they made it their aim to be the people that they didn't they weren't welcomed when they got there, but they made it their aim to make sure everybody that stepped foot through those doors were welcomed going forward.

So that is a beautiful thing.

Another cultural danger towards church is fall into the trap of attractional growth at the expense of biblical faithfulness.

And this is the one that gets really difficult, right?

Even today, sometimes when I go back to where I'm from and I'm going to do that this weekend, I'll probably be asked this question this weekend because I'm preaching a funeral at the church that I came from.

And I interact with friends of of old.

One of the first questions is, how many people you got there?

How many people you got there?

And my response is to tell them exactly how many people that we have on our membership role and how we take seriously caring for their soul.

Um I don't tell them how many people we have attended, I tell them how many people are on our membership role because those are the people that I will give an account for, and the other elders will give an account for when we stand before the God of creation.

Right?

For those looking for a local church, we should be evaluating it not whether or not every seat in the sanctuary is filled.

We shouldn't be evaluating it based on, oh man, is it enjoyable?

Is there an entertainment factor?

Is the is my are my kids getting every little itch scratched?

I'm gonna tell you this is a soapbox of mine, but parents submitting to their kids' desire to have every felt need met within the context of use ministry is playing into the pandemic of our students leaving the church because we're teaching them that the church is about something that it's not about and it's devastating, right?

It's devastating.

We shouldn't fall into that trap.

We should be evaluating a church based on its biblical faithfulness, period.

Right?

Period.

That is the most important thing that we should be evaluating.

It it calls us, scripture calls us to approach church membership in a sacrificial manner, not with an entitled attitude or mindset, right?

And the the sad reality of the church today is that so many people just bounce from church to church, and there are reasons to leave a church, so I'm gonna get to those in a second.

So let me just go ahead and say that.

But so many reasons, so many people just bounce from church to church when their needs weren't met the way that they thought they needed to be met, or they didn't get their way with something, or uh maybe it's not the style that they want anymore.

I remember at the church I was at, this was a beautiful thing.

There was an um a guy that I served, first pastor I served under there.

He pastored there for 29 years, and he told me a story when he got there, he made a bunch of changes, and a lot of people weren't happy.

It was an old church.

That church now is probably pushing 300 years old, old, older church, larger church, but older church.

And uh a guy came up to him one one Sunday, there was like four or five young adults that were baptized that Sunday, came up to him weeping because he had caused some problems about some of the changes that were being made, and they were all stylistic in nature.

And he came up to the pastor weeping, repenting, and saying, Brother, if that's what we are about, I don't care what our style of music is, if that's what we are about, and if we're pointing people to the gospel, right?

So we should measure a church on biblical faithfulness first and foremost.

I'm not saying those other things don't matter, but that should be the things that we should uh be caring about first and foremost.

Now, I did outline, and I'm gonna I'm gonna read through these, and that's not to insult your intelligence, but I do I do want to read through these because I do people often ask me, is there are there reasons good reasons and are there bad reasons to leave the church?

Yes and yes.

Let me let me walk through some of these for you.

Below, we're gonna work through the good ones first.

Here's some here's some things that might, and again, these aren't exhaustive lists, there's there's other things as well, but these are some things that might prompt you to move from one church to another.

Moving to a new area.

Right?

We moved from Nashville to South Haven.

I'm not gonna drive every day to Nashville to go back to church, so many of you have experienced something similar.

Right?

A disagreement with leadership that follows the biblical process for addressing concerns with a pastor or elder, as outlined in 1 Timothy 5.19.

Right, there have been times where people have left with issues with an elder either here or other places, and they never handle it according to scripture.

Right.

I hope you know that we as we as elders, we want feedback, but we also are going to submit to scripture.

So if you have a concern or question, come talk to us in a manner that's in line with what scripture says.

Or if you're at another church, do the same thing there.

There's a right way to handle that and a wrong way to handle that.

A difference in conviction after having brought the concern to the pastor or elders.

There may be times where you go, whether it's here somewhere else, to the elder or pastor, and you say, hey, this is what my conviction is, and their conviction is different, and there may be a mutual agreement.

Okay, that's it might be better for you to go somewhere else.

And there, that's okay.

Like the number of people, I haven't really experienced that here, but where I was before that would leave, and then I would like to see them in the grocery store, and they're like, oh, like hiding behind, like, dude, you're still in the kingdom.

Like we're brothers and sisters in Christ.

Like we are about God's kingdom, not the specific local church.

So there's a difference in conviction, that might be a healthy reason to leave, right?

And the individual notifying and seeking counsel from their current pastors or elders as a God guides them to another local congregation, right?

Maybe God is just leading you to another local congregation, whether that's from here to somewhere else or someone else to here.

But when you do that, have a conversation with the elders that are responsible for your soul.

I think so many times we overlook the reality that let's say you're leaving another local church.

I uh I have a great relationship with Luke Saunders.

Well, a lot of pastors, but Luke Saunders comes to mind because I just taught there recently at Colonial Hills Fernando.

Right?

That brother takes seriously overseeing the souls under his care, right?

We as elders here take seriously overseeing the souls that are under our care.

So if you're gonna land at Colonial Hills, I celebrate that, right?

And I I was with him one Sunday when he told him his congregation, if you get mad at me, there's Heartland's a great place to go, right?

We we love other local churches, right?

So just have a conversation as as you you go.

So that's an appropriate thing.

Not for any other, if not for any other reason, because that whether or not you you understand that or not, the church that you're leaving, that brother is given an account for your soul.

So please do everything you can to submit to that leadership in a way that follows God's word so that you can help him as he is giving going to give an account for your soul.

Another one is sin issues not being addressed within the leadership, within the congregation, etc.

Like if you are in the context of a local church and there are clear sin issues going on and those are not being dealt with, I would hope that you would bye and just walk, go move on.

Obviously, you're gonna have conversations on the way out, but if they're not willing to address those, that the leadership isn't, then that might be the Lord leading you somewhere.

Well, sin should be addressed.

Matthew 18 talks through that.

An unbiblical approach to church discipline.

Church discipline is good and it is right and it is got by God's design.

However, there is a specific way that it is to be done according to God's word.

And I'm not saying all situations are handled perfectly, right?

And there's always three sides to every story.

Uh but if if it's clearly not being handled appropriately and there's no humility to receive that feedback, then it might be time for you to go to another local church.

So that's another way, another reason that might be time for someone to look for another church.

Another one, a conflict that has been addressed according to scripture, and both parties agreed to part ways, right?

And that could be with a member.

I've had conversations with other pastors here in the community where they had two members that had conflict with one another, and uh it was not able to be resolved 100%, and they both agreed, hey, I'm gonna go over to this church and I'm gonna stay here at this this church.

And that was a mutual agreement between those two people, and both of the elders at both of those churches were involved, and they helped them foster that.

So that's another way, a reason it might be another another example of a time where it might be uh appropriate to leave.

And then here is the some harder ones, the inverse, unbiblical reasons to leave.

And let me just say if you've if you've left a church for one of these reasons, please don't hear me singling you out.

I'm I'm not doing that.

I'm just trying to help us develop a healthier understanding of ecclesiology and what it means to submit to a local church and when to leave and when not to leave.

So the the below is the inverse, unbiblical reasons to leave.

Harboring bitterness towards another person or the leadership that has offended you, right?

Harboring bitterness towards someone who have asked for your forgiveness, who have repented before you, whether that be another brother in Christ, or that be uh someone in leadership, but you not being willing to get over your bitterness.

God, this is so hard.

This is a hard one, right?

God's word calls us to forgive because we have been forgiven, right?

So we have to work through that.

And again, that that's a hard one, and there's some obviously some other things that can be at play there, but in general, if you're just harboring bitterness towards someone who has repented, I'm not just saying verbally repented, I'm saying verbally repented, and then showed action of of uh of the same repentance, then that's not necessarily a great reason to leave.

This is the one that is just mind-blowing.

The church is no longer my style, man.

Get that out of here.

Get that out of here, right?

The church is no longer my style.

That's not a great reason.

Um, I'm not gonna say that to you, but if you come to me with that, then I will coach you to scripture, and that that should be our response.

Um, the youth ministry or inner ministry is any ministry is not entertaining enough.

And again, I understand that question.

Like I get that I did youth ministry for a long time, but like a healthy, just so you know, a healthy response, like if you're let's say you're at another church, you're asking that question, if that pastor said, Well, um, did was your student being discipled well?

Were they being pointing to God's word?

Were there people reaching out to them?

Those types of things, like those are the right questions that that brother should be asking.

Because if if someone comes to me with that and I ask those questions, and even if they say they weren't being discipled well, but the ministry was making an effort to disciple well, they just weren't receiving it, then I'm probably going to be okay with saying, hey, like I understand that, but remember, here's the most important thing.

But I also understand with that too, please know that I understand that sometimes kids need to be in a different environment to be discipled, and that's that's okay too.

But don't just throw up this blind, oh, it's just not entertaining enough.

It's not the right thing.

I'm out.

Like that that's not the way to handle that your kid needs to be in a different environment.

So that's that's another one that's not a biblical reason to leave.

Man, I've only got two minutes.

Holy smokes.

Uh, accusatory spirit without towards leadership without following 1 Timothy 5.19.

That goes back to what I said on the one that um was the right way.

So just make sure you follow 1 Timothy 5.19.

Here's one that we see often just in church in general, not just here, is leaving to escape active church discipline.

Someone who is caught in a specific sin has been pointed out by a brother or sister, it's been pointed out by the leadership of the church.

And instead of submitting and humbly responding with a broken and contrite heart, according to Psalms 51, the person just says, you know what, I think I'm gonna leave and go to a different church.

That's not uh a great reason to to leave.

It's not a it's not a biblical reason to leave.

At that point, that person would be fleeing sin uh and fleeing God's design for church discipline, so that's not a great reason to leave either.

So, man, I wish I had time to give more commentary to that, but we are out of time.

Um again, know that neither one of those lists are exhaustive, but that's just some general thing.

And also know that uh the I I probably was more sarcastic than I should have been in some of those.

Don't let that come across as as uh not caring.

I if you've ever sat with me in one of these, you would know how I care deeply.

Uh but I I do want us to pause in in our own individual lives and take seriously the thing I said at the beginning is man, when we understand that most foundationally the local church is about the good of one another.

Not it's not about me, it's about the good of one another and for the glory of Christ.

Our approach to the church changes.

Did the lights just flash, or is that me?

Changes so much.

It changes when we think about it from that perspective.

It's not about me most foundationally, it's about the good of one another and the glory of Christ.

Then our approach changes so, so very much.

And we look at situations differently, we respond to people different, we respond to criticism differently, we we just handle ourselves differently when we can get it into our mind that man, I am here for the good of my brother and sister, and they're here for the good of me, and most foundationally, we're here for the glory of Christ.

If that is our approach, then all these other things will fall into play.

So just remember that in your hearts and mind as you go.

Let me pray for us, and then we'll be back next week for session two.

Father, we are grateful for who you are, we're grateful for your church.

Um, God, I'm I'm thankful for Jesus.

Uh God, I'm thankful that me, a filthy wretch, has been saved by the the blood of Jesus.

And um, God, if if if if I need no other reason to uh pursue healthy church membership than the glory of Christ, then that is enough.

And I pray, pray that both over myself and over uh the folks here, over our entire body, even the folks that weren't able to be here.

May we continue to grow in Christ-likeness, and as we do, may we get a taste, a further taste of the realities of your church and the goodness that there is for each other, but most foundationally in the glory of Christ that we get to exude and the dress rehearsal for heaven that we get to participate in every Sunday.

And may we do all these things for your name and your fame.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Next week, real quick, we will be covering.

Let me skip to the back here.

We will be covering most most all of chapter four.

So, chapter four will be what we are in next week.

So I'd encourage you to skip ahead, read through chapter four, and that's where we'll be next week.

All right.

See you guys on Sunday Sunday.