Inland Empire: Riverside
A Healthy Church - Audio
And thanks for serving the children's ministry. Last announcement for the single ministry, single sisters, they'll be immediately following the D groups tonight. They'll be a meeting in the green room with the single sisters, okay, meeting for all the single sisters. So how are we guys doing tonight? We're doing all right. We're still in healthy. We're feeling happy, spiritual. Doing all right. How many of you have gone into having a physical lately? A physical, okay. A number of us have, okay, my cat went not that long ago. You had one Auggie, how to go. You had a physical today, what would they say? You look good. And they tested everything, right? And so you're waiting to get the results. You lost ten pounds. That's good. I went in for a physical when I turned 40. And I was in there, they tested everything, all my blood, everything. And there was only one problem when I went in. I was kind of afraid of what would happen. But I came in, there was one prognosis that gave me, said, one issue you've got, all your numbers are perfect. Except one of your numbers is too high, it's out of the range of what's normal. It was my testosterone was too high. I don't know, manliness, manliness, just manliness at age 40. It was just too high. Are you healthy? You know, we've had boot camp to get us in shape. We've been a lot of reflection and repentance and we've been looking at our own walk with God and we really wanted to strengthen and rejuvenate the church. It is important to evaluate, are we healthy as an individual spiritually? We've looked at that. But you know, it's important to look at it on a congregational level and I see a lot of health in the congregation, very encouraged. As a region, you know, we had over 1,000 people at church on Sunday, which is exciting. Not just here if you added the desert cities, that would bring your neighbor there also. We had almost 800 here, so I think it was closer to 1,100 overall with the whole region, which is really exciting. Lots of friends coming out, neighbors coming out, family members. My little sister wants to start studying the Bible and there's a lot of good news, amen? Really good stuff going on. I hope you're feeling that way. A lot of great activities, the edge ministry had a really awesome party this weekend, lots of new friends and family members and people came on out to really fellowship and see the light in the eyes of the disciples and to see there's something different. But I started thinking, you know, we need to evaluate how are we doing? Are we a healthy church? What does an overall healthy church look like? And you know, the word church in the Bible, it can conjure up a lot of ideas. When you think of the word church, what's the first thing that comes to mind? Raise your hand. Raise your hand. What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think of church? Okay? What do you mean, Brian? A building. How do you think of a building? A lot of times that's what our cultures conditioned us to think. The church. Where's the church? And they think if your church is a building, right? What else? Be. What? Gathering. The gathering. The gathering, right. Okay. What else comes to mind? You think church? A family. Okay. These are good. These are good condition. Because the actual word ecclesia from the Bible, which is the Greek word for church simply means a crowd of people who have been called out. Or, you know, essentially it's just the assembly, the gathering. The gathering of God's people who have been called out of the world to form the kingdom of God. That's really what the church is. And I want to look today at some of the marks of a healthy church. There's going to be a little refresher for some of us older Christians on, "Hey, what should the church look like? What should it? How should it function? What are the basics of the church?" And we need to evaluate and we need to continue to build a healthy church. Amen. So let's open up our Bibles to Acts chapter two and we're going to begin today. We're going to hit some of the marks of a healthy church. And certainly we'll see right here the beginning of the church demonstrates, I think, all the different marks of a healthy church, but we're not going to use this scripture only. But I want us to start with number one, a healthy church begins with devotion, right. A healthy church begins with devotion. And in Acts chapter two, we have the beginning of the church when the first 3000 are baptized. After Jesus ascended, poured out the Holy Spirit. And then Peter stands up, gives us the first Sunday morning sermon. And then you see 3000 get baptized and they remain together and we find in verse 42, it says, "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer." Right? So there's a devotion, the four devotions right there. Verse 43 says, "Everyone was filled with awe and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common, selling their possessions and goods they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people and the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." Isn't that awesome? And those marks of a healthy church, we find them throughout this text, a couple things I want to talk about real quick in here. You see that they were all together and had everything in common. Fundamentally, when we're devoted to Jesus and His message, we're devoted to the apostles' teaching, we're devoted to the fellowship. We really do have everything in common. Isn't it awesome to be part- we don't all have the same blood connection, but we have the same spiritual connection when you are in the family of Jesus Christ. Same moral foundation, the Word of God, right? Same purpose, same Lord, same standards, same hope. Right? We're going to read a little bit more about that as we're going to read in Ephesians 4, some of the more details on this, but it's awesome to know that we really are family. The church is a true spiritual family, and you know what? When God sees real family, and when He sees healthy families, you know what He does? He likes to add to their number. Isn't it awesome that Adrian got restored even tonight, isn't that awesome? So proud of you. Thank you, Adrian, for being so open, so real. You know, to see on Saturday night Elizabeth, a physical family member, but also now a spiritual family member, baptized into Christ, was so exciting, and Elizabeth here, where's Elizabeth? She's at school. Okay, we're getting her a workout, so she will be here, but she came on Sunday with her stand-up. She's an awesome, awesome new sister in the edge ministry, and then on Tuesday night of last week, we also had a sister Courtney, baptized in the campus ministry, amen? Exciting. God is adding to our number. See, He adds to families that are healthy, and will be taking care of other family members. If the Lord adds to their number, He wants to add to healthy families, or He knows that the people being added to their number will be taken care of, amen? You know, you also noticed that they had everything in common, and I often find, you know, it's interesting that they sold their possessions and goods to meet the needs. Now, from a historical standpoint, as I read the text, would I believe occurred? It doesn't say this explicitly, but what I believe occurred is you had people in town, in Jerusalem, for the Pentecost, right, the Feast of Harvest, and relatives would travel into Jerusalem. It was a big holiday. It was their Thanksgiving, their Christmas time. It was a time where they would gather up for family holiday, and one of the commanded times of worship in the Old Testament, so you'd have relatives in from out of town. The message of the kingdom is preached, and it says, "People from all nations gathered there. They were residing there in the city. They heard the message. They understood what happened with Jesus, that they were responsible. They were pet. They get baptized. And you know what? They understood. We have found the kingdom of the living God. We have found the family of God. They didn't move back home if they were from different parts of the world. They realized, "Here's where we're learning about the Messiah. Here's where we're even about family. Here's where we're understanding the eternal message of God." So naturally, people had to send word home, "Hey, we're not going back home. Sell the farm. Sell the business. We'll start in business here in Jerusalem. We're building the kingdom." So it made sense that had to sell possessions and goods, gave people new households, people had to buy new beds, people had to get hooked up. It was a big mission team planting. You're there, right? Understand that? And so they were willing to do whatever it took to strengthen the family, to meet the needs of the family right there. And that needs to be the heart we always have as Christians. Whatever is needed in the family of God, whatever is needed to honor God and build His kingdom, we are devoted to that. They began with a serious devotion, right? And then of course, right there at the beginning, it says, "Devoted to the Word of God, to the Apostles' teaching." They needed to learn, "What is this all about?" And that is why we gather to devote ourselves to study in the Word of God. I hope you're digging into the Word of God, wanting to learn the Word of God. We've done different, quiet time series, Hebrews, book of Acts. We've got plans for more and deep studies and deep teachings, but true, healthy churches are devoted to the Word of God, and that needs to be a hallmark of what we're all about. You know, number two, a healthy church is built on Jesus Christ. Let's turn to Ephesians, chapter two, Ephesians, chapter two. You know, who leads the church? Is it Doug Wentz, is it Steve Lansbury, is it Mike Rock? No, it is Jesus Christ who leads the church. You know, we're really shepherds. We're managers of his local body right here as pastors, as teachers, as evangelists, but the reality is Jesus is the head of the church. The church, a healthy church, is built on Jesus. And we understand that his spirit has come down on the earth and infuses us, is unified with us at our baptism. The Holy Spirit enters us because the blood of Jesus makes us clean, and so we are directed by the spirit of Jesus Christ. To read in Ephesians, chapter two, look with me in verse 19, and this is very familiar for many of us, it says, "Consequently you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him, the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord." So who's the head of the church? Jesus, if you find Colossians, you can write this down, Colossians 118 says, "Jesus is the head of the body, the church." He's in charge, he's who we follow. What should the church, which is us, his gathering, his collective family, what should we be doing with our lives? What should the inland empire, Church of Christ, be doing with its time and energy? A great way to figure that out is to go, "Well what was Jesus doing with his time and energy?" What should our small groups be doing, right? What should our married family groups be doing? What should our campus family groups be doing? What should our teen family groups be doing? What should our edge ministry family groups be doing? What should our Latino ministry groups be doing? What should every part of the church be doing? What was Jesus doing? That's always a good question. If you're confused about what you should be doing, you always go back to Jesus. He's the cornerstone, right? He's the foundation. He was preaching, teaching, and healing, and revealing the love of God to the world, and that is what the church needs to be doing. Amen? Fundamentally, okay, what is our doctrine? We know that we are a gathering right here in the inland empire. What is our fundamental doctrine? It needs to be simply the Bible. It needs to be the Bible and the teachings of Jesus. What was Jesus doing? What do we hold to? We are teaching. It's Jesus. You guys with me? A healthy church is built on the foundation of Jesus, and I hope you hear a lot of Jesus in your Bible talks. I hope you hear a lot about Jesus in your sermons. I hope that that is what we're talking about when we share our faith. We're talking about Jesus. He is the source. He is the foundation. He says on this rock, the rock of the confession that Peter said, "You're the Christ." On this rock, I will build my church. Remember that verse? Who churches it? It's Jesus's church. Number three, a healthy church has clear family guidelines. If you have a household, you need to have some family guidelines in that householder. It won't be healthy. Let's turn over to Ephesians chapter 4, two chapters over, and let's read there the clear family guidelines of a healthy church. This one, Paul writing to the Church of Ephesus says, "As a prisoner for the Lord then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle. Be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace." There is one body and one spirit just as you were called to one hope when you were called. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. All right, let's stop real quick right here with this. First of all, there's family guidelines in a healthy church and if you have a household, if you're a family, if you're a father of a family, there needs to be some healthy guidelines in the household, right? There's got to be some guidelines on who's handling the trash, who's handling the household, how do you organize things? Is it a spiritual household? Do you have family devotionals, do you have quiet times? Are Bibles regularly opened in the household? Or is there an expectation that will hold to God's Word in your physical household? How do you handle your finances? How do you handle food on the table? Who cooks? What's the plan with the kids? Off to school, off to sports? You've got to have guidelines and plans and you've got to organize things. God gives us here, he says very simply, in verse two, he says, "Be completely humble and gentle, patient, bearing with one another, God loves for his family to be unified." He loves for his family to feel like a happy family, right? Now we want a happy family and he expects and begins with a humility that Jesus modeled for us. And then he goes on and he talks about the core convictions, right? What are our core convictions? And I'm not going to get into all of them here, but clearly one body, there's one church. The Bible says there's one body, one church, as God looks down on earth. You are either in his church or you are not. So our goal as the Inland Empire, Church of Christ, is to be in that, to be a part of that one body. We need to be that body. We need to know how we enter the body. We need to understand it's through the clear teaching of Acts chapter two. Those who heard the message, they believed, they repented their baptized. That's when they're in the body. First Corinthians 12 verse 12 and 13 says we're baptized into the body, right? So when you become a part of the body, who is in that one body, all those who have Jesus as the Lord and who are true disciples, baptized in the name of Jesus for forgiveness of sins and committed and devoted to lifestyle being a disciple of Jesus, right? That's using the body. That's how we need to build our collective one body, right? Do we cast judgment on every other group in the world if they're not here in this room? No. But we need to be that body and we do need to understand there is some clear guidelines. There is one church the Bible says and God gets to define overall worldwide what that's made up of. But the scriptures tell us clearly how you enter it, what's involved in it, the standards of it and we see right here we have a couple more details if you look in Ephesians 4 where he says one, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. That's a big one where you get a lot of confusing teachings. It's one baptism. What is it? It's got to be the one that Jesus commanded, it's got to be the one that Peter commanded in the name of Jesus for forgiveness of sins because you've repented, you get baptized, you entered the kingdom of God, right? That is the one baptism. If a church doesn't teach it like Acts chapter 2, the original Sunday morning sermon, then they're teaching it in a false way and God be their judge of they're in the one church. The one church must hold to the foundation of the Bible and the scriptures and Jesus. Amen? We don't want to be arrogant and we're the only ones. There are the people that teach this simple teaching, it's not complex. There are people. We have a fellowship around the world and there are other groups that teach it. We though need to be that church. We need to always hold ourselves to this standard, amen? I want to hold the church. We've been tremendous examples in this, preaching powerful. I thought Doug Sermon was great, really challenging people, "Hey, are you ready? Are you where you need to be?" We've developed a way to help people become a part of the body. We don't condemn people, we call them to salvation and we teach them how. One man, one woman, helping another man, helping another woman and I'm proud to be a part of a church that's doing the same things that Jesus was doing. Amen? You know, as you read on, let's keep reading here in verse 7. It says, "To each one of us, grace has been given as Christ apportioned it." This is why it says, "When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men." What does he ascended mean, except that he also descended to lower earthly regions. He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens in order to fill the whole universe. That was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. And we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the head that is Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work. You know, Jesus gave gifts to prepare the church for unity, to prepare the church for knowledge and enrich it, to enable the church to mature and to grow in the fullness of him. And each of us has been given individual gifts, we're going to hit that a little bit more in a second. He's certainly given the gifts of the church to prepare each of us to build up the kingdom of God. He wants all men to find him and to know him, he really does. And he's using you to get the work done. But he not only wants to find the loss, he wants to keep the safe saved, right? He wants us to stay strong. He wants us to mature as a congregation. He wants us to mature individually and collectively. And he's designed the church in such a way that that can happen because he has given the church what it needs. A lot of times you feel like, "Well, we don't have what we need." Yes, the Bible says he gives them, he apportions them, he's in charge. And Jesus is perfect. Why wouldn't he give us what we need? A lot of times even as a minister, I think, "Oh, I've only had this kind of person or that kind of person." And usually it's just a question of prayer and acting in faith and that person surfaces. God's already given the gifts that we need to build the church and grow the church the way we need it to grow. They're here. They're in you. And you know, and he designed our church to be able to handle crafty teachings, right? To protect one another. And that's why we do need deep teachings. That's why we do need to respect leadership. God gives there a certain authority to leadership. And I'm not saying this because I don't feel, I do feel respected and I think that's a healthy thing. All right, we need to respect leadership. We need to respect ministry. We need to respect family members. We need to respect the authorities that God implements and those that have experience in order to protect against the cunning and craftiness of men and against every wind and wave of teaching. You know, and it's a noble ambition to want to raise up and become an elder. And it's a noble ambition to want to be a great shepherd. It's a noble ambition to want to be a family group leader. And as a congregation, you know, we're going to need more and more of you to want to raise up and lead small groups. And I want to hold up the family group leaders who've given themselves to that, to the different leaders of the different service ministries in the church. I want to hold you up. Our church is growing, amen, because of you putting yourself aside. You know, the body matures as each member does his or her part. That's why the idea of one man helping another man be a disciple and me and also one woman encouraging, challenging, admonishing, teaching and being with somebody else on a weekly every other week basis to help train is how we mature. God intends for each member to be a part of strengthening the church. You count. All right. You make a difference. You're here for a reason. You have been gifted by God for a specific reason. That's why, you know, it is important that we are at everything. You know why? Just practically speaking. God's giving you certain gifts and they're needed in the church. You know, there's a story of a church in the 1800s that was an actual building that was made that where they put little lamps, lamp hooks all around the walls. And back then, of course, they didn't have electricity. And so each member of the church had to bring their lamp and hang it on the wall. And if somebody didn't show up, they could tell there was there was there was no light in that area. The other people in the area wouldn't be able to read or read or understand what was going on. It would be darkness there. And it gives you good symbolism. You know, when you're not here, there's a darkness. There may be somebody God brought out that day that he intended for you to meet, that maybe somebody on this side of the auditorium brought somebody out, that somebody on this side needs to meet because you're the one that has been gifted or you have the experiences. Maybe you've had the tragedy in your life that will relate to the person that came out with with somebody on this side of the auditorium. That's the other reason why as members of the body, you know what? You are important and you don't come just for you, right? You come to make a difference and that's the next point I want to make. And that is a healthy church has responsibilities, right? A healthy church has responsibilities. Look in Romans chapter 1, chapter 12 rather, Romans chapter 12, a healthy church has responsibilities. And we know this is our theme scripture, but I want to see the little point here about the different gifts that God gives in the church. He says in verse 1, he says, "Therefore I urge you. Romans 12, verse 1, I urge your brothers in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and to approve what God's will is, His good pleasing and perfect will. But the grace given me, I say to every one of you, do not think of yourselves more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Notice how pride is regularly touched upon in God's teachings about the church and how it needs to function. You know, any gathering, we always want a jockey for position. And he says, you know, do not think of yourselves more highly than you are. And that's a great challenge to all of us, right? That's a sin that got Satan, you know, kicked out of heaven, right? Pride, wanting to be the man and there needs to be a deep humility in every one of us. Ministry staff, leadership, family leaders, every member of the church, we need to have a humble spirit. And he says in verse 4, just as each of us has one body with many members and these members do not all have the same function. So in Christ, we who are many form one body and each member belongs to all the others. Real quick, let me make a point here. Not only do we belong to each other in this congregation, that's why campus, you know, I love the campus ministry and I want campus ministry to always open your eyes. I love that we meet together on Tuesdays with the marriage ministry because I want the campus and I'm part of marriage groups. I want the marriage ministry to realize, wow, you know, we have an edge ministry of young marriage and of kids yet. We have singles in our ministry and every part of our ministry needs to connect with each other. We all belong to one another and you know what? We take a vested interest in each other and it doesn't end in the ill and empire. We're connected into the Los Angeles church and we have eight other sister churches, right? Regions of the L.A. church that comprise the greater Los Angeles church and we're part of the Southwest family of churches. We specifically are connected in because of this conviction. We make a difference in the lives of our brothers and sisters in Utah. We're working right now to help our brothers and sisters in Sacramento and we care about other disciples that are in God's one body that are within our region of the world. We also reach all the way around the world with airplanes and internet and phone calls and we are making a difference in the Middle East and that is right. We should. We belong to each other. You guys with me? And he goes on and he lists out the gifts. He says, "We have different gifts according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesied, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve. If it is teaching, let him teach. If it is encouraging, let him encourage. If it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously. If it is leadership, let him govern diligently. If it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully." And we have other gifts listed out in 1 Corinthians 12, but God has gifted you in this ministry and in his body to build it up and to strengthen it. And there's a responsibility we have to use those gifts. There's a responsibility that we all have. Every one of us got to look at it and go, "Wow, am I really using the gifts God's given me?" And there's probably things and gifts and roles and things we haven't thought of. Maybe you've thought of them. You know, I want you to know as ministry staff, as the evangelists, appointed by God and women's ministry is to lead the church, we want this thing to grow. But really, it's God's church and you are the ones God is using to grow it. If you've got an incredible idea that, "Hey, God wants to use me for something," we want to bless that. We want to help and nourish that. We want to empower you to go, "Hey, I want to build ministry." I want to do some amazing things. And I know we've got a lot of different ministries going on, but a lot of times we see ministries going on and we think, "Hey, I can help with that," but maybe we don't know how to begin. The way you begin is, you know, you need to come up to one of the steps, "Hey, I think I can help in this area," or talk to the people who are already in that ministry, whether it's music, whether it's media, whether it's children, whether it's ushering. You know, by the way, we need to constantly, I think, cycle through who our ushers are. It's a great service role. And you know, Brandon and Jason are doing a great job. We'll hold up Brandon and Jason, thank you for that. I know we've had more, maybe some of you also want to help lead that, so many others here serve in great capacities. All of you are needed. And we're a big church, so not everybody gets to speak, not everybody gets to be on the stage with music, not everybody gets to do it, but I guarantee you there's a wolf for you. Don't think there's not. There is. And we want to nourish it. We want to inspire you. If God puts it on your heart, you need to just do it. You need to act about it. You need to be like, "Hey, I want to do something about it, all right?" We want you to be talking about that. You know, the other thing about responsibilities is the church, to be healthy, has some other specific responsibilities. One of the responsibilities is in 1st Corinthians chapter 9, let's turn there. You know, we need to grow the church, meet needs, and in doing so, you know, it does take money. It does take money to grow the church. It takes money to rent this facility. It takes money to gather together. It takes money to support staff so our full time job can be leading and ministering and preaching and teaching and guiding and organizing and doing the work of the ministry. It takes money to meet the needs of the poor in the neighborhoods, right? It takes money to organize it and make things amazing so that they're impacting and attractive to our communities. 1st Corinthians 9 verse 7 says, "Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its grapes? Who tends a flock and does not drink of the milk? Do I say this merely from a human point of view? Doesn't the law say the same thing? For it is written in the law of Moses, do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain. Is it about oxen that God is concerned? Surely he says this for us, doesn't he? Yes, this was written for us because when the plowman plows and the thresher threshes, they ought to do so in the hope of sharing in the harvest. If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you? If others have this right of support from you, shouldn't we have it all the more? But we did not use this right. On the contrary, put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ. Don't you know that those who work in the temple get their food from the temple and those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar? In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel. We certainly see and we understand that since the earliest days, the idea of giving to the temple, to the work of the Lord, to God's people, to build him up, giving a tithe was an Old Testament command. Certainly in the New Testament, Jesus calling the church to give up everything for him. But you see very clearly that we are to give to support the work of the ministry and it's a responsibility in order to be a healthy church. Have any of you guys noticed the budget on the announcement sheets on Sundays? It's been a little rough hasn't it? And I think we need to keep teaching on that. I don't want to overreact, but I also don't want to underreact. There's a responsibility to prove faithful to God without question in our finances. Budgeting. Karen, I've been going through our budget. Look at the things. What can we cut out of our budget? Being as responsible as we can be. Now we've always given for 20 years. We always give first to God. It's never been a question, but I want to be a good steward. I want to be able to give more. I want to handle things wisely. I want to feel like I'm being what God's called me to be. It is a question of faith and there's a responsibility in a healthy church. I think every member, our teens, they can give. People that really have almost zero income, you can give. You have the ability to think ahead, to plan ahead, to prepare, to give a sacrifice and worship to God. And I believe a lot of our budget, really, I believe almost the teens, the campus, and the singles ministry, those that don't really make, maybe some of the singles make a lot of money, but campus and teens don't, but you know, just a little bit of being responsible with maybe you get 10 bucks a week, maybe you get 100 bucks a week. You know, if you really are responsible with that, say God first, I believe God, if everyone had that heart, He opens up the floodgates. We got to prove faithful, and then it's a responsibility we have as a healthy church. The last thing I want to bring up, I want to bring up that, you know, a healthy church fights off false teachers. A healthy church fights off false teachers, turn with me to 2 Peter chapter 2, and you know what, there are false teachings out there all over the place. All kinds of things are going on. In Peter chapter 2, we see that Peter is addressing this issue in the church. If false teachers can arise within the first 70 years of the church, trust me, they can arise. It's been 2,000 years. There are 35,000 different denominations of what's called Christianity. There are false teachings all over the place, and we have to be prepared for them. Peter chapter 1 says, but there are also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them, bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed, these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping. There are false teachings out there. We cannot become complacent and fall into Americanized Christianity. Let me tell you, it's inundated with false teachings. We have time to get into the details of what they all are, but there are many, and we've got a hold to the simple teachings that we find from Jesus, and from Acts chapter 2 we have that foundation of how you enter into the church. We've taught that over and over and over, but we cannot become complacent. There are other false teachings, people who are teaching about being a disciple, but they think that you have to follow them. We've got that issue going on across the globe. We've got people think you need to follow a man, you need to follow this way, that they're the only way. The reality is Jesus is the only way, and we've got to hold fast to our family and to the clear teachings of Jesus, and be knowledgeable, and if you have questions about doctrines and questions about how churches are to be, you know, get your nose in the Bible, begin to read and begin to ask questions. I'm open to, you can call me, ask me any questions. As ministry staff, we are ready and willing to answer any questions. We are pastors and shepherds, we want to help the church be secure. We need to fight off false teachers, and then the last thing I want to say to you is in Revelations 2, Jesus is teaching one of the churches and admonishing and saying, "You know, remember your first love. Remember what it was like to be in an Acts chapter 2 yourself." So excited, right? Like Adrienne restored tonight, like Courtney, like Elizabeth, just new and fresh. Remember what it was like when you came out of the waters of baptism? How excited you were, I remember getting up, and you know, at 6 a.m., driving over to the kettle in Manhattan Beach and having a quiet time before I headed off down to downtown L.A. for my job, and loving reading the Word of God, and being challenged, man, if you got to know the first principle studies by heart, I'm like, "Really? Yeah, you got to know how you're going to teach them, you don't know, like you're right. I'm going to go memorize them," and how excited it was to learn the Word of God. Remember your first love church, God's blessing us. He's blessing us. We're a healthy church. We can even be more healthy. You need to look tonight and see that we need to be a collective, healthy gathering as a congregation. We're all a part of it. I love you guys. I know we're going to have a lot more to say on this as the fall moves through, a lot of great things going. Let's be vigilant. We're going to bring your neighbor day. Let's be following up with the people we reached out to. Let's keep staying in there. We're going to have to push ourselves every day. It's hard work being a disciple, but man does it feel good. I love you. Amen. Thank you. [BLANK_AUDIO]
Midweek lesson by Steve Lounsbury