[0:00] About that time in 1996, but Pastor Gilbert at the time asked me to preach at a youth rally, excuse me, not a youth rally, a youth meeting.
[0:10] And I was 16 years old and I had only preached one other time. So it was the second time in my life I had ever preached. And he never asked me to preach again, so I guess that says how good it was.
[0:21] But it is a special place to be able to come back to. I think the place that I preached the first time shut down almost immediately. And so it is good to be here and it's good to be with family. I appreciate your love and care for them.
[0:37] And it is good to be here. I just, you know, being in Idaho and I was in California last year, we came down to San Diego with the family for a vacation. And I traveled all 50 states and I hadn't been able to get back down to California for a while.
[0:52] And so it was just kind of nice to see some places that I'd been before and pulled onto the parking lot property here. And even this just was memories were coming back, just being able to come through here and being able to sing and listen to my dad preach and just being able to be here.
[1:07] So I'm glad you're here today. Do your part. You are the church. It is your responsibility to be here and you've done that tonight. If you can be here the next couple of days, praise the Lord for that. Do it. Just kind of encourage you as a pastor, pastor would too, to be here if you can.
[1:22] And I'll try my best to be here as well. So make an agreeance and we'll both be here and we'll see what the Lord does. If you would grab your Bible and turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 10. And something that I like to say before I preach anywhere is just that I think, you know, sometimes the Bible says, or the Bible says this, he says, Reprove, Rebuke, Exhort. And I have gotten a bunch of messages.
[1:44] I said that this is, you know, the second time that I preached was back in 1996 here. But yesterday, what is today? Friday. So two days ago was a Wednesday. I put together on paper, there's more than this, but my 1400th message.
[2:01] And just new messages, you know, all the time. And as a pastor, it is a job. It is a lot of work to put together a message and we preach multiple times in a week. And, but I don't know how a message is going to come across.
[2:15] You know, the Bible says, Paul told Timothy, Reprove, Rebuke, Exhort. And so there's times where I put together a message and I'm like, this is going to be an exhortation. And somebody walks out of there upset because it was a reproof or it was a rebuke rather.
[2:28] There's times where I've got a rebuke message, or at least I feel it's that way. And I try to come across with love. The Bible says, speak the truth in love. And I try to come across a little bit. And, you know, people walk out of there, man, that was exciting.
[2:39] That was a great message. I'm ready to serve God. And I'm like, man, I preached hard against sin. You know, I mean, I just, and I preached hard against you. Didn't you realize that was against you? You know, and I've kind of, it's easy for a pastor sometimes to say, I think this is a reprove, rebuke, exhort message.
[2:53] But I think really the message is, any message is a reproof, rebuke, or exhortation based on where your heart is on that topic. Let me explain. I am an avid Bible reader.
[3:04] I just started it up the other day. I'm starting it up this time chronologically. I've been through it a bunch. We'll just put it that way. There are about three things that I do systematically every day. And are not, yeah, I guess about every day.
[3:16] I like to do some kind of exercise. I take a nap. Now, everybody, how many say amen to that? Right? I mean, I'm a napper. I have been a napper ever since I was a kid. And I'm just, I find the battery running low.
[3:29] And I like to go recharge for a little while. Right? But the other thing, the first thing I do in the morning is I read my Bible. And I just, I jump right into it. So, if I ever preach a message on Bible reading, if you're a Bible reader, that message is going to come across like an exhortation.
[3:44] Because you're a Bible reader. If I was sitting where you are and somebody got up here, or your pastor got up here and preached on, you need to read your Bible every day. I'm just going to walk out of here a little bit more exhorted to be able to do that. Now, if I am struggling with it, which is where a lot of people are, that you're busy.
[3:57] You've got a lot of things going on in your life. You get up in the morning, you go right to work. And you've got other things that come on. And I'm going to encourage you, even though I don't know that the messages will get to this point. I'm, like I said, avid Bible reader. I encourage you to read your Bible before you do anything else.
[4:09] But you're struggling with doing it, but you're trying to. You're on and off. You do it a little bit here and there. And you try to, and you make up some lost ground, whatever it might be. Then when somebody gets up and preaches a message on Bible reading, it's going to come across like a reproof.
[4:23] Like reproving you to do this. You need to do it. I know I need to do it. You're not going to feel super bad because you're trying. There's a lot of people that sit in our churches today, and their Bible, they love the old Bible, which we just waved in our hands.
[4:34] The King James Bible. We raise it up in an honor to that, in that song. There's a lot of people who love that book, and they love the preaching of the Word of God, but they've never read it. And so this is what happens is then somebody gets up and preaches a message on the glories of reading your Bible, and they walk out of there because they got rebuked.
[4:51] So I don't know how the messages are going to get across in these next couple of days. I think maybe where your heart is is where it's going to be. Now in this message today, I'm going to preach on three types of people that are in the church.
[5:02] A very practical message. I think it's a good one for you guys before anybody else shows up. Because this really is for your church. Tomorrow you're going to have visitors come, and we want visitors to come. That's exciting. It adds life to the congregation.
[5:15] It adds life to the singing, to the fellowship time. You know what it does? It reminds you that there are 7,000 that have not bowed the knee to Baal out there. And so it's good to have some more come in. But this is for you guys. I'm fine with preaching to those people, but I'm here for your church.
[5:28] I'm here to hopefully encourage you. So today we're going to preach three types of people in the church. And I will say that it starts off with rebuke, reproof, and exhortation. And so I've kind of thrown that in there.
[5:39] But the rest of these messages, however they are, they're going to come to you where your heart is on that subject. What I'd encourage you to do is before you come here, you just, you know, if you can, some of you can, some of you can. If you can, man, just get down on your knees.
[5:50] Maybe lay down flat on your face and say, God, what do you have for me? Look, I'm the preacher here this week, but that doesn't mean when I'm not reading through this multiple times in my preaching. I mean, it is almost, I would say the percentage is over 50% of the time when I'm preaching, I'll be reading something and I will get something from my own preaching that I never saw before.
[6:13] So I'm preaching, but when I point at you, I've got three fingers pointing back at me and I want it as well. I need this as well. And so I encourage you to get with God a little bit before you come to church and say, Lord, is this going to be for me?
[6:25] Man, if we get things right with God before we even come to church, then when you ever hit the altar at all, it's just about dedication and not about rededication. It's more about, hey, God, I want to do now what he said instead of God help me get clean to now be able to go out and do what he said.
[6:39] And so I like to get clean before I even come to church. Amen. So let's, let's jump into some Bible here today. Now, some of the messages I preach will be jumping around a lot of scriptures. Some of them will be right there. We'll just kind of keep you honed in in one section and, and that's fine.
[6:52] I don't really, uh, you know, I know the messages that are coming up, but if you know where your Bible Bible books are, then you're going to get your fingers ready. And we'll look at some scriptures here. But first Corinthians chapter 10 verse 32 mentions three groups of people right in that verse.
[7:06] It means Jew. It mentions Gentiles. And then it mentions the church of God. Now, I don't know what ethnicity you all are. I know that we've got some people in our church that have a very small percentage of Jew.
[7:17] Other than that, we all come from the Gentile, but we all make up the church of God and praise the Lord for that. You go a couple of chapters to your right in chapter 12 and look, if you would, in verse 12 of chapter 12, and you begin to see that the Lord has put in the body.
[7:32] He has set in the body and even the local body, the local church, those who he wants in there. It says this in verse 12, for as the body is one and half many members and all the members of that one body being many are one body.
[7:45] So also is Christ. The church body is made up of many members. All right. Now, you are all different. I'm up. I love football. I mean, like there's a couple of things I love in this.
[7:57] I love in life. All right. I love football and I love golf, although I'm not very good at either one of them. I love both of them. Today, I've been watching the masters a little bit and just cheering on some of the guys that I like to play, like to watch, and I would not like to play them.
[8:12] They would smoke me within the first hole. But I like those type of things. But I'm a different type person. You know, if I said I like the Cleveland Browns, there probably isn't anybody in this room who likes Cleveland Browns.
[8:24] Nobody. But if I said the Chicago Bears, you're a Cleveland Browns fan? Brother, you're my favorite already. Hallelujah. We got a winner in here. I'm a Cleveland Browns fan. I mean, that's not much to root for. It might be good on a resume because it shows we're faithful.
[8:38] We're either faithful or very stupid, whatever it is. I don't know. But I like Cleveland Browns. But we would find it. We went around this room. Some of you would say, I could care less about football. Some of you would say, I like the Dallas, those people down in Dallas.
[8:51] Some of you might like the Pittsburgh nasty people, all right, and Pittsburgh Steelers. What we're going to find is we're all different. We're all different. But when you come under this roof, you're supposed to be unified together to make the church of God.
[9:03] You can be yourself. That's the way God made you. Don't try to be me. You be you. But we're supposed to be together one. God set the people that way. The body is one.
[9:15] The body is one. And it's made up of a variety of different people. Look at verse 13. He says, For by one spirit all you're baptized into one body.
[9:26] That's not by water. That's by the spirit. Whether you be Jews or Gentiles. Whether you be bond or free. And have been all made to drink into one spirit. You and I.
[9:37] The day that you got saved. I got saved October 13, 1985 in Auburn, New York. In a really hideously blue couch. But to me it is the most beautiful blue. Because I remember that. Getting down and kneeling there as a five-year-old boy.
[9:48] Asking the Lord Jesus Christ in my heart. I got spiritually baptized. Put into the body. Baptized means put into something. Now I got baptized later on. Put into water. As a testimony of what happened to me a couple of weeks before.
[10:01] But if you're saved here. You and I got baptized into the body. We are together. Supposed to be one. In the local church here. Verse 27 says this.
[10:12] Now you are the body of Christ. And members in particular. Boy we are. We are different. We are particular. I think that word can be very heightened.
[10:24] If we begin to talk to. So you ever meet to somebody. We got some guys that come to my church. And they're very particular. Very unique. Glad there's you know. Sometimes we're only kind of glad. There's only kind of one of one type of person.
[10:35] That comes to your church. But we're you know unique. But God does that. He puts different types of people in the church. And that's the way he does it. Says it two times here in this chapter.
[10:45] Verse 28 says God hath set. Verse 18 says it says this. But now hath God set the members. Every one of them in the body. As it hath pleased him.
[10:57] So like it or lump it. You're here tonight. And you're part of this body. Now I want to show you this here. In verses 24 and 26. This is going to be our text. You know put a bookmark here. Because we're going to find three different types of people.
[11:07] That are in the church. That make up this body of believers here. Verse 24 says this. For our comely parts have no need. But God hath tempered the body together.
[11:19] Having given more abundant honor to that part which lacketh. That there should be no schism in the body. And that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer.
[11:30] All the members suffer with it. Or one member be honored. All the members rejoice with it. In these three verses I see three types of people that are in the body. There is the one unfortunately who causes a schism.
[11:43] One. And we'll talk about that. That's the person that gets rebuked. Then you've got the person who needs the care. You see them there in verse 25. The same care one for another.
[11:53] There's people that need care within the church. And let me tell you something. This preacher is not above being either one of them. You understand? I could be a one that causes a schism in the body.
[12:04] Just as easy as anybody else. Multiple times. In fact it's often heightened. You know the pew. People in the pew. Let me just get this straight. People in the pew cause a whole lot more problems than people behind a pulpit.
[12:14] Just because there's a lot more of you than there are of us. But when we do something wrong. It's more heightened. We can cause problems within the body. Right? So I'm not above.
[12:25] Again. My own preaching. About the schism. Alright? We've got the people that need the care. And then in the next verse. Verse 26. We see the people who are there to suffer.
[12:35] And rejoice. With the others. So I see three types of people here. And I'm going to literate it. And so they'll all start with H. We'll get into these. And we'll look around the Bible here. And we'll just preach on this.
[12:46] This evening for a little bit. Let's have a word of prayer. Father I thank you for this opportunity. To be able to be in this church. To be with brethren. To be with family. Lord I don't get to say that that often. And it is a real blessing.
[12:56] To be with the Wolski family here. And Lord to be with this church here. Lord what a blessing. Just to be able to come in. Thank you for the good flights. Thank you for the beautiful weather. Lord for even making a break in the weather tomorrow.
[13:08] That others may come. And be able to fellowship and worship with us. I ask you to please bless this preaching tonight. Lord I've preached this message maybe once. Maybe twice. I don't know.
[13:18] It's not something I preach everywhere. Lord I don't preach everywhere period. So this is. I'm not polished in this. So Father you have to speak through this. So God I ask you get your heart.
[13:30] Your hands in our hearts. God that you would start working on us. God that the rest of this meeting. Lord would be easy peasy. Would be easy going. Father that your spirit could work and mold us to the way you want us to be.
[13:43] Lord instead of waiting to like some final service. Where it feels like there's a breakthrough. God that our hearts would be open to the preaching of the word of God tonight. Lord and I say ours. I mean mine included. Lord I pray God.
[13:54] I pray through nerves. Lord I pray through knowing who Nathan Gipp is. More than anybody else in this building. Lord you know exactly who I am. And yet you choose to use us. You choose to use me. So Father today I pray that you'd bless the service.
[14:06] In Jesus name I pray. Amen. First person I want to talk about there is the one that calls the schism. That is the hindering person. Paul says to Timothy. He says rebuke.
[14:18] Then there are some times. And I'm not. I don't know who I'm talking to tonight. And I hope that there's not a hindering person here. But sometimes preaching is preventive maintenance. Preventive maintenance.
[14:29] Or you might be going through something. You might find yourself being a hindering person in the church. Maybe this message will be pulled out of the mothballs of your mind. Of your memory. And God will say remember when that preacher came in from Idaho.
[14:41] And he preached on the hindering person. So maybe this is what it's for. Maybe it's just preventive maintenance. But maybe there is a hindering person in the church. This hindering person the Bible says here can cause a schism in the body.
[14:54] Listen. There's a whole lot of things outside of the body that want to cause a problem inside. We're talking from the inside out right now. We're not talking about the world pressing on the gates of the church.
[15:05] We're not talking about the world coming at your heart and coming at your spirit. We're not talking about that. We're not talking about all the different things that you can turn on in your television today from the world and the way that it in its pollution can come in and invex the righteous souls that are here today.
[15:20] We're talking from the inside out. The schisms that start. You know as I do. I was out doing something today with my brother-in-law and my nephew. And I was walking around.
[15:31] And we're having a good time. And something is wrong with my left ankle. It happens every once in a while. And I mean it shot a pain today. And he thought I was joking. He thought I was hypochondriac or whatever. I don't know.
[15:41] But I mean it did. And it did it just the other day. Just a minute ago. Just shoot pain right up my leg. You say, are you hurting? No. Never. But whatever that is, is causing a schism.
[15:52] And it's not on the outside. It's on the inside. It's in the body. Listen, our churches, no matter how godly they can be, no matter how much we love the old Bible, no matter how much we love singing about heaven, and we love coming together, our church's biggest problems happens from inside the walls of the church, not from with outside.
[16:12] It is from with inside the divisions of the family that cause the problems than the outside. The Bible says here there's a schism. A schism is a division. It's a formal division from within.
[16:24] A separation. A church, a religious body over some doctrinal offense. Listen, I've went through a number of things in the church in New York. The Lord, you know, the Lord had to get the waters moving in order to get me to step out of the boat.
[16:39] I would not have moved. I was there for 10 years. And I just, one of those guys that's going to knuckle down, I'm not going to be a problem as best I can. I'm just going to knuckle down. I'm going to grin and bear it. I'm going to get in the foxhole and I'm going to dig in. And the Lord had to cause some things to go on.
[16:51] But I would not have left that church. You say, why? There was no doctrinal problems, but the Lord caused some other things to get me to go out. We need to be very careful about why we do different things.
[17:03] We like a schism comes from within. You better have a real reason. You better have a real reason. I went through some stuff in that church, but didn't leave it because there was no real doctrinal reasons.
[17:19] But schisms happen way more than just doctrinal stuff. You get personality stuff. I'm not everybody's favorite. Man, it breaks my heart. The other day we had a meeting come in.
[17:30] A guy came in and in walked about 10 people that out walked just shortly before that. You say, why aren't they there anymore? They don't like me. You know what? That's life.
[17:40] You know what they need to do? They need to go. That was a schism. And it happened from within. A schism is not a good thing. Look, if you would, in 3 John, 3 John, here's a man named Diotrephes.
[17:56] John writes the church. He loves the church. He says this, I wrote unto the church, but Diotrephes, verse 9, 3 John 9, I wrote unto the church, but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not.
[18:13] Diotrephes was a hindering person in the church. Why? Because he wanted to have the preeminence. He wanted to be preeminent above all others, before all others, superior, surpassing.
[18:24] I am behind a pulpit oftentimes each week. You know, I didn't choose this for myself. I don't choose this for myself.
[18:36] I would much rather be, I think in my own nature, I'd much rather be doing something else, but God has gifted me something to do from behind this pulpit. But let me tell you, I don't take it by constraint.
[18:47] I do it because he said so. I do it because he said so. What did Diotrephes do? He wanted it because of preeminence. I've watched it in my own church and dealing with people that, Pastor, let me show you how things are going to be.
[19:02] Pastor, let me tell you how this is going to go and this, that, and the other. And I'm just like, listen, I'm having a hard enough time hearing from God. But you say, what happened? Oh, this didn't happen anymore.
[19:12] You say, why? Because Diotrephes is one of the preeminence and that's the place that God gave me. It's called the schism. Man, I'm telling you, that was hard. I've watched that church over there in Lewiston go through a split.
[19:25] I've always heard about it. I've always talked, you know, always heard people talk about it and I've always heard about it, but then I went through it. Let me tell you something. I hurt for years. That schism lasted in my heart for years.
[19:39] You say, why? Because Diotrephes is one of the preeminence. He was a hindering person. What did Diotrephes do? He says, Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds, which he doeth, prating against such with malicious words and not content therewith.
[19:52] Neither doth he himself receive the brethren and forbiddeth them that would and casteth them out of the church. He prayed it around. He had empty words, foolish talks. He was malicious, intentionally harmful.
[20:04] Diotrephes is one of those people that have, you know, we need to be very careful. Paul says this to the church, the Ephesian elders, I believe it is, he was leaving. He says, Listen, there are wolves that come from without.
[20:16] We know those wolves come in. We know that Jesus said those wolves come in and they have like sheep's clothing. We understand that. But he says, Paul also says, But there are those that are from within that cause the schism.
[20:30] Man, that can happen. I remember a couple of men when I was getting ready to leave, the Lord had opened a door and I don't think half the people understood what was going on in my heart and my soul.
[20:42] And I just, you know, I had a couple of men come to me at one time with a complaint and I looked at those two men. They had a complaint about my pastor who's one of my best friends, great man in the ministry. Texted me the other day on a resurrection Sunday, praying for you, love you.
[20:54] Man, I'm telling you, what a blessing it was. We're in lockstep. But man, there were some times where it was a little bit hard with me and him. And I had a couple of those men come to me and one of them said this. We just got done canvassing together and going to visit some people and he said, Man, Pastor Gip, if there was a church, just, I looked at him and I said, I didn't know what I was saying at the time.
[21:11] I said, Brother, I said, let me tell you something. I won't do anything to hurt this church. I'd rather God move me over 2,000 miles away than hurt this church. 2,400 miles away, I remember those words that I said.
[21:24] You say, why? Because I didn't want to cause a schism. The Atrophies love to have the preeminence. He caused the schism in the church. I'd look at those two men and say, we ain't doing that.
[21:36] We're not causing a problem to the body of Christ. Man, how did it hurt Jesus Christ? It hurt him so much that he came down while Paul was on the road to Damascus and stopped the man that was hurting his own body.
[21:48] It hurts him more than it hurts us. It hurts us, but what does heaven feel when the schism starts from within our own walls? That one part of the people that make up the body, sometimes, and let me tell you, it's been, I've been this close to being that guy.
[22:07] I've been that close to feeling like I was righteous enough, more righteous than somebody else, where I could have been the one to cause the schism and feel like I was right to do so. But I don't want to be that guy.
[22:20] I don't want to be that guy. They've got those hindering people in the church. Look back at 1 Corinthians 12. Look at the second part of verse 24. For our comely parts, or excuse me, 25, that there should be no schism in the body and that the members should have the same care one for another.
[22:38] Here's the second type of person that's in the church. This is the hurting person. I don't mean, you know, hurting necessarily in pain, although you may be that person that's in the church today.
[22:52] But in 1 Corinthians 25, it says that they should have the same care one for another. There's some people that need more care than others do. And I have been that guy before too. I'll be honest with you, the ministry in Lewiston has black and blueed us a number of times.
[23:09] And there's been times where I have just needed to have the care from somebody else. I have been this hurting person multiple times. In New York, I went through some things there in New York because I mentioned it again.
[23:19] And it's things that help make me who I am today. Praise the Lord for those things. I thank God for what He's allowed me to go through. And that it didn't, it broke us, like maybe the pride issues things, you know, it broke us, but we didn't break so much.
[23:35] It bent like a reed, blown in the wind. And we were bent, but weren't necessarily broken. You know, we're still standing today, but man, there's some things. If I begin to think about it, there were some things. I remember when we went out from New York to Lewiston, I mean, it was really hard for me not to talk about what we had gone through.
[23:51] It was like getting hit in the neck and the blood was just spraying all over the place. It was so hard for me to not talk about it. You say, why? Because I was hurting. There were some times where I needed some care, where I needed some people to say, hey, it's going to be okay.
[24:06] And there's been times in my ministry today where I've gone through some things and I look at my wife and through tears, I mean, through tears, just God, what are you doing? What are you allowing to happen to us?
[24:16] What's going on? Maybe it's from the schism part where somebody has cut us and, you know, we're not supposed to, you know what we're supposed to do is turn the other cheek. Really hard to do, but that's what we're supposed to do.
[24:27] And we're supposed to, if one suffers as a Christian, we're supposed to just allow that to happen. And then we suffer and we take it and we take it and we take it and you take it and you take it and you take it and you say, what?
[24:38] You're hurt. The church is made up of a lot of hurting people. You know what I've found? My pastor said this to me all the time. He'd say, the church is a spiritual hospital. Boy, it is. As much as it is sometimes a, what do you say, it's a boot camp for those that get saved to learn discipleship and ready to go fight.
[24:56] It is that place where we come together like a family dinner. Praise the Lord, we get the preaching. It's a good family time, but there's sometimes where people just drag into church because they know it's the right thing to do.
[25:07] But listen, they're dragging in sometimes like for them, it could be their last service in. Why? Because they're hurting from what is going on. Maybe it is because they're getting pummeled from the outside.
[25:19] This world hates you. Jesus said this, to marvel not that the world hates you. It hated me first. Listen, if we're going to be like Him, listen, the closer you get to God, the more they will dislike you.
[25:30] He was perfect and they crucified Him. How should it be any different for us? What are they going to do? They're going to pummel us and they're going to come after you. You're going to walk in and you're going to be hurting.
[25:42] You could be hurting from the big three. It could be health, it could be finances, it could be family, whatever it might be. We come walking into church and you know what you need? You need care from somebody else.
[25:54] I want to encourage you today to stay in church. I want to encourage you if you're hurting today to keep coming back. Keep pulling yourself into this place.
[26:07] You know, maybe you want to wear your emotions or feelings on your sleeve and tell people about it. Okay, so be it. Maybe you're one of those ones that holds it all in. I'm not, I think there's a good middle ground.
[26:19] I think you probably need to talk to somebody. I think you probably need to get a hold of somebody and say, hey listen, I just need to tell somebody what's going on here. I don't know, it's really good to hold it all in. I mean, next thing you know, you blow up and you become something that you never wanted to be.
[26:34] You know, I mean, that stuff can hurt. There's something going on on the inside, but you have an option today, hurting person. You either move back and become a hindering person or you move forward in verse 26 and you become the helping person.
[26:48] The hurting person is very vulnerable at this moment. You say, why? Because you can't stay hurting. Something has to happen. You're either going to go back or you're going to get healed.
[27:01] But the church is made up of hurting people. Hurting people. David was out there running from Saul. One of the hurting people left.
[27:11] He didn't want to cause a schism. Right? Kind of did anyways. But here he is. He's running. And you know who came to him? 400 men who were in distress.
[27:22] 400 men who were in debt. 400 men who were discontented. And they found themselves with somebody who could lead them.
[27:33] And they were led. Man, together those distressed and indebted and discontented men battled some enemies and won.
[27:44] Oh, they caused some problems for David as well. But they were hurting. You know they became somebody to help him later on. Look at Hebrews chapter 10.
[27:57] Hebrews chapter 10 verse 21 says, And having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with the true heart and full assurance of faith.
[28:14] You saved today? Are you saved today? This is where everybody says amen if you're saved. Are you saved today? Amen. Alright. Very good. Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience.
[28:25] This is the inward man. Listen, before you come to church as I just mentioned again, find out what's not right between you and God and get it right. Have your hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. And then, I like this next part, and our bodies washed with pure water.
[28:38] If you've got to drag in from work, drag in from work. But man, you all look clean and healthy tonight. Praise the Lord. You took some time and you came to church and honored the Lord. But you're here. Inwardly, outwardly, you've drawn in in full assurance of faith.
[28:51] Verse 23, Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering for He is faithful that promised. And let us consider one another to provoke unto love in good works.
[29:04] We hear that word provoke, you often think like a brother provokes a sister. Our brothers provoke other brothers. I'm sure sisters don't do anything wrong.
[29:15] They never provoke brothers, I'm sure. But I never had one, so I don't know. But we think about provoking as kind of like, oh, they provoke me to do wrong. Here he says in a positive way, in an encouraging way, to provoke one another to love in good works.
[29:32] You know what I have found in my hurting? I remember, I don't even know what it was. I couldn't go back to it and tell you. Going through something there in New York, just feeling down in the dumps.
[29:43] Let me encourage you to do something when you're not feeling right. I had an old man that lived up on top of a hill. His name was Kenny McQuaid. Kenny McQuaid's in heaven today.
[29:54] Even when I moved out to Lewiston, I'd get a call from Kenny McQuaid. I'd answer the phone and he'd go, Pastor Gibbs. Okay. I never got it, he never got it right. I was always Pastor Gibbs instead of Pastor Gibbs.
[30:05] So he'd pray for Nathan Gibbs. There's some guy in the ministry today named Nathan Gibbs because Kenny McQuaid prayed for him. Religiously. I never told him, I never told him my name wasn't, you know, Gibbs. And so I remember one day I was just down in the dumps and I told my wife, I don't know, I was just discouraged.
[30:19] I think that's just what it was. And I said, Rose, I'm just going to go see Brother McQuaid. So what did I do? I drug myself up to his house, I knocked on his door, an hour later I left with tears in my eyes because Kenny McQuaid encouraged me.
[30:32] He didn't even know what he did. Do you know that there's probably somebody in this room today that won't say it, but you're hurting from something and just knowing there's other people that came out on a Friday night will encourage you to do more for God.
[30:47] It'll encourage you to take that next step. You are, if you're here today, you are provoking one another to love and good works. But maybe it's a handshake, maybe it's a kind word.
[31:00] It's okay to be nice. We're supposed to be loving. We're supposed to be kind one to another. We're supposed to speak the truth in love one to another.
[31:12] And I find myself, I mean when I say it, there's that manliness inside of me that's like, wah. But yet I find that compassion attracts more people than condemnation.
[31:23] condemnation. I'd rather preach on the hurting than the hindering any day of the week. I'm going to encourage you if you're hurting, keep coming to church. Eventually, if you do it at the right heart, you will be the one that is now healed and you'll make it into the third part.
[31:39] But you just keep coming in. The third one and the final one in 1 Corinthians 10 is there in verse 26. We talked about the hindering. We talked about the hurting.
[31:50] This is the helping. This is the one that I want to exhort. The hinderer, we get a little rebuke going on. The hurting, we get a little reproof.
[32:02] Hey, just keep going on for God. Don't stop. We get to the person that's the helping person. And I want to say keep it up. You know, often times the ministry is done by a small group of people within the church.
[32:17] And very often, I, as a pastor, can overlook those people. Say, what do I do? I try to text them. Hey, thank you for what you did. I mean, I will stop.
[32:28] I'll be praying for people. I pray for my whole church every day, every morning, and I'll be praying for them and I'll remember they did something and I'll stop. Be right back. Text them. Thank you, because I just hit me. Thank you for what you did.
[32:39] Or, I'm praying for you. Man, I've had that happen a bunch of different times where I had a brother in Christ, a pastor in Alabama. I was just praying for him and it was like the Lord said, text him. And, okay.
[32:50] I texted him, praying for you. He said, Nathan, he called me back, called me like a couple minutes later. He goes, Nathan, you wouldn't believe this. He goes, I had a dream. He said, I had a dream. And I'm like, we don't believe in all that stuff, brother. And I hung up on him immediately.
[33:01] No, I didn't do that. He goes, I had a dream. He goes, last night, that you were mad at me about something. And he goes, I just wanted to say thank you for sending that text. And I said, well, now that I got you on the phone, punk, let me tell you what I got.
[33:13] No, I didn't tell him that. You say, what are you doing? Just want to encourage them that are helping. Just say, hey, keep it up. Don't quit. Don't stop being the person. You say, but I never feel like anything comes my direction.
[33:25] I don't feel like I ever get that pat on the back or that attaboy. Listen, you're going to get it tonight. Just keep helping out. Keep doing what the Lord would have you to do.
[33:36] The Bible talks about a young, a woman in Romans chapter 16. Her name was Phoebe. Her name was Phoebe. And the Bible says about her that she was the succorer.
[33:47] I say succorer. Some people say succorer. I don't know how you're supposed to say it. But when I'm behind the pulpit, it's succor. Okay. All right. He's the succorer of the brethren. And the Bible calls her a servant.
[33:59] You say, I'm not the preacher. I'm not the person that gets the people see all the time. I'm just somebody that works behind the scenes and I do this, that, or the other. But if you're a servant, God recognizes what you do.
[34:10] A succorer is a person who provides us any forms of help. You say, I don't have a gift for this and I don't have a gift for that. The Bible talks about people having a gift of helps. I've talked to one of my sons and he is just a, he's a blessing.
[34:24] My kids are all a blessing. But he is just a blessing. And I looked at him and I said, buddy, listen, God's called you into the ministry. You know that and I know that. I said, your job is to be a minister.
[34:35] Your job is to be a servant and you will only feel right doing that job and helping other people out. I said, don't worry about what other people aren't doing. You just do what you're supposed to do and God watches it.
[34:49] You're a succorer of the brethren. Here in verse 25, he says that you rejoice or they suffer. The Bible says, rejoice with them that do rejoice and weep with them that weep.
[34:59] But I'm not doing anything. That's not true. You're a helper. I want to encourage you to keep helping today. Let's say, how can I help in the church? Well, without going back there, I'll give you three things here quickly out of this thought.
[35:12] It's Hebrews chapter 10, verse 25. We just mentioned that. You don't have to go there, but your presence is a help today. I'm telling you, I know, he hasn't said it, but I know what's going on in his heart because whenever I have a meeting, I'm looking at, and we try not to do this.
[35:30] We say we don't do this, but we do it. We look at who's not here instead of who is. But let me tell you something. He's happy. I'm happy that your presence is here today.
[35:41] Can't have a meeting without people present in the church. Your presence is helping. I don't do much, but you're here. Look at Acts chapter 12.
[35:52] Let me give you a couple things here real quick about helping and we'll close it up here. I told you I'm not the Father, so I'll keep you here for a couple hours. Amen. Acts chapter 12, verse 5, and then verse 12.
[36:08] Acts chapter 12, verse 5, it says this, Peter therefore was kept in prison, but prayer was made without ceasing. Look over there in verse 12.
[36:20] And when he had considered the thing, he came to the house of Mary, the mother of John, whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together praying. You know another way to help?
[36:31] Your prayer is helping others in the church. Whenever somebody joins our church, we sit down, I sit down with them and I go over the covenant. We give them the constitution of the church and then we say, okay, look at this.
[36:44] I don't ever push church membership. People come after a while and they say, I want to join the church. And I say, okay, you want to join the church? That's great. You've been here long enough. Let's do this, right? And we'll go over the covenant and one of those things in the covenant says this, that we remember one another in our prayers.
[36:59] Now, I'm the shepherd of my church and I pray for my sheep every day. I don't think that's necessarily your job, to pray for them every day. But your job is to pray for each other. Let me tell you what prayer will do. If you're praying for each other, I mean, if you're praying for sister so-and-so and brother so-and-so and their kids, then when sister so-and-so or brother so-and-so or one of their kids does something that you don't like because you've been praying for them, you'll have a little harder time causing a schism in the body.
[37:27] Prayer. It'll help you out and it'll help them out. And I encourage everybody in my church, they'll say, look, I'm praying for you every day. And if you want to pray for everybody every day, that's between you and God.
[37:39] Don't feel like it's your responsibility. But I'd say, would you get to know people in your church and pray for them by name? It's amazing that in a church even this size, and I don't know, but maybe Sunday there'll be some more people who are going to be like, you ever heard so-and-so?
[37:50] I don't even know who that is. We don't get to know each other. Get to know each other a little bit, but get to know each other through prayer. Lord, would you please be with so-and-so? I don't know what so-and-so's. I don't know what their likes and dislikes are.
[38:01] I don't know what their problems. I don't know if they're a hinderer or a hurting person or a helping person. But Lord, I know that I can pray for them. Peter was going through something and he made it through it because there were people that were praying without ceasing together.
[38:17] The least attended meeting in churches is the prayer meeting. Yet that's the thing that we're supposed to be doing more and more. Yes, we're supposed to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together.
[38:29] Hebrews 10, verse 25. Yes, we're supposed to do it as we see the day approaching to get together more in our presence. But if our presence lacks prayer, what are we doing?
[38:39] Then we're just meeting like people instead of meeting without meeting with our Father. You need to spend some time in prayer. That's a way you can help. Let me show you one that's real practical. 1 Corinthians chapter 16.
[38:52] And I know that this church does this and I know probably this church could do more of it. And you say, why? Your pastor talked to me? Your pastor has not talked to me about anything. Especially about this.
[39:03] But I know in every church when this stuff gets brought up, people get, don't you talk about my money. Last time I preached on giving was in the middle of June last year. We had a major thing that was going on and I had to preach about something else and we talked about money and I preached on money and I gave them scripture and I gave them love and I explained it all and 10 people left.
[39:23] Well, okay God. But what happened? The offerings went up because I preached the full counsel of God. But here he says in 1 Corinthians chapter 16, verse 1 and 2. Now concerning the collection of the saints as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye.
[39:39] Now, again, I'm playing the role of evangelist this week. So I'm not talking about me. I'm talking about your church. But he says this, upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him.
[39:54] That's your prosperity. That there be no gatherings when I come. By your presence, your prayer, and your prosperity, you can be a help to this church. We're going through some stuff in our church and our finances were down.
[40:08] Last, I'll be honest with you, last November, not this last November, the year before that, I was at the point where I was like, I'm going to end up cutting my salary. That was not good.
[40:22] Okay. And I'd worked a job for 12 years. I have another side job. I had to stop the job for 12 years. Just for 12 years doing that job, I was done. I had another job on the side and I'm like, okay, Lord, and got a paycheck from the church, but I said, man, the church can't keep doing this.
[40:36] We're barely making our bills. Lord brought some people back in. Praise the Lord. And I remember just praying and let me tell you something. One of my people came to me, you know, after the treasurer came to me and said, we have a big offering.
[40:51] You say, what happened? I felt like I could breathe again. They didn't know what the church was going through. I don't broadcast it. I don't tell other people.
[41:01] This is the first time I really told anybody a church, but we were going through it and I said, Lord, you want this thing to go or not? It's your church.
[41:12] What are we going to do? And somebody that came in, you would never have known it. A little prosperity here and there. Knock on the door years ago on the front door of our church, the front door of the parsonage when we lived years ago in the parsonage and here's this lady standing outside the door with her Sunday morning Dale Earnhardt jacket on.
[41:29] You know, never seen this lady a day in my life and I'm like, there was a little voice in my head that said, don't do it. Don't open the door on a Sunday morning. You're going to get pulled into a problem. But then there was the pastor voice in my head that said, do your job.
[41:44] I opened the door and there's this lady and she said, are you the pastor of the church? I said, yeah, maybe, depending on what you need. I said, yeah, I'm the pastor and she said, can I give you my tithes?
[41:59] Yeah, come on in. She handed me an envelope with $5,000 in it. You say, what was it? Did you ever see her again? No. She just came to give us some money. You say, what was it?
[42:10] That helped the church do a hard time. You say, what is a Baptist church? Usually not very wealthy. Usually not. You say, why? Because what comes in usually goes out to the ministry on.
[42:22] That's just the way it is. The Lord blesses it, He blesses it. If He does it, He doesn't. I mean, if He gives us money, we chalk it away, we put it in the storehouse for whatever may come up. Praise the Lord for that. But oftentimes, it's like a funnel.
[42:34] It comes in and goes right back out. I'm going to just encourage you if you're a helping person in that way just to keep doing that. Don't say, well, I didn't like what the preacher said, so I just had somebody not too long go, well, you know, you preached on tithing and so I quit tithing.
[42:49] What? It was the reverse effect. But then the offerings went up, so God had His way. You say, what happened? That was a person that was causing machism and they left. They left, but there were some hurting people that I got up and I preached and they started to become the helping ones.
[43:06] You say, where's the church now? Oh, we're not affluent, but we can pay the bills. We can pay the preacher. You know what we can do? We can support 20-something missionaries just a little bit around the globe.
[43:19] You say, why? Because there's people that sit in pews just like you do that say, I'm not really much and I don't really do much but I can do this. I encourage you to keep being a helping person.
[43:31] Your presence here today, your prayers over this meeting, it's not just His job to pray for your meeting. It's your job and your prosperity. Whatever the Lord has prospered you, you can't give what you're not prospered but whatever the Lord has prospered you, whatever the Lord puts on your heart and again, me not being the recipient, I hope you understand that.
[43:52] This church being the recipient for whatever may come. I encourage you, if you're a helping person, thank you and keep it up. 1 Corinthians 12, verse 27, we'll end this out.
[44:05] Now ye are the body of Christ, members in particular.
[44:17] So I ask you today, which one are you? Which one are you? Are you a hindering person? If you're a hindering person, let me just say this, stop it. Just stop it.
[44:29] It doesn't help anybody. Just stop it. If you're a hurting person, just reprove you and say this, be aware that you don't become a hindering person.
[44:40] You're a hurting person, keep coming. Give yourself time. Let the word of God have its way. Just keep coming into church, you say, but I don't feel like I'm doing anything right now.
[44:50] I feel like I'm just pulling them down. Listen, just keep coming and before you know it, over time, I love these words in the Bible, and it came to pass. It will come to pass.
[45:03] Maybe hardly passing it, but it will come to pass. And those hurting things that were bothering you, they might just fade away. Or if they don't, you'll at least be able to live with them. If you're a helping person, good job.
[45:17] Keep it up. Ask the Lord, what can you do? Preachers always come to say, ask the preacher what you can do. Hey, in a little church, there might not be a whole lot you can do. Maybe everything is done, but just keep coming.
[45:29] Just keep praying. Just keep giving. And you will help this church to become what God wants it to be in this area. Your heads bowed, your eyes closed this evening.
[45:41] Three types of people in the church. I have, I've probably been all of them, to be honest with you. I have hindered. I know it.
[45:52] I've hurt my preacher. I remember him crying in the office one time because I stepped out of bounds as a sheepdog and tried to be a shepherd. It was not my place.
[46:05] And I hurt my preacher and I hindered him. I've been a hindering person. It doesn't feel good. You say, what'd you do? I just said, okay, I'm done. I'm not going to do it anymore. Lord moved me across the nation never to hinder it again.
[46:20] I've been a hurting person. I've been a hurting person more than I'd like to admit it. Oh man, I've hurt. I would say last couple of years, even right now, there's been times where stuff will pop up into my mind, things that have bothered me.
[46:33] And I have just, I've looked at God and I've said, I do not understand. And my people don't know it. I have hurt. But it's so much better to be a helping person.
[46:45] Which one are you? The Lord's dealt with you this evening and you need to talk to God. Now turn the message over to your pastor here in just a second. This church is your church. How are you contributing to it?
[47:00] One body, baptized by the Spirit into one body. Which type of person are you? As the piano plays softly, the altar's open for you to deal with God as you see fit.
[47:15] I encourage you to be back tomorrow. Get to meet some brethren. Maybe you know, maybe you don't know. You don't know if they're a hinderer, a herder, or a helper.
[47:27] But you can come tomorrow and you can be a helper to them.