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[0:00] well-oiled machine well maybe not so well all right good to have the shrives with us this morning brother if you don't know brother shrives passed away recently and they were a real blessing to this church when we were going through some hard times so all right turning your bible to first timothy chapter three this morning you know i've been working on this message this week and uh you know it's kind of along the same lines as uh brother russ was on uh wednesday night and uh brother russ was talking about this sign above our head right here and he was he used ernest shackleton as an example and uh he talked about faithfulness he talked about steadfastness he talked about following the leader and i'm not going to do exactly that this morning i'm kind of going a little different direction but um i will say this if everybody was doing that we wouldn't have the problem in the churches we have today i'll tell you that all right first timothy chapter three as i considered what to preach lots of things came to my mind but as i consider the people and the diversity of the people you like that word diversity you know that's supposed to make you feel good today hey let me clarify something real quick um i don't want to scare you this morning okay i don't want to scare you this morning but sometimes i have people tell me that i've i've not done that does anybody think i'm scary no oh my kids great thanks a lot all right i'm gonna try not to be scary i don't want to be scary um so just there you go i clarified that i'm gonna do my best not to be but for some reason i don't know i'll try to smile a lot if i'm not smiling go like this go and then i'll add that to it and that might make it better all right diversity um that's one of the buzzwords supposed to make you feel good not kind of like all inclusive you know these are words out these are words that are in our vocabulary today that weren't in our vocabulary 50 years ago i can't even keep up with the words in our vocabulary now you know somebody tells me something what does that mean you know you talk about behind the times i'm like one day behind and they tell me i don't know what i'm talking about okay so what i what i mean by diversity is we have younger and older here right and the younger tend to think that the older people need to take care of it and the older people tend to think the younger people need to step up right that leaves this this crowd of where am i you know i always kind of thought well i know where i'm at now but i kind of i got it was like well i guess i'm not in that crowd i'm not in that crowd so i got the guy i'm the guy that's got to do everything and that's not the way it is everybody has a part everybody has a part in the church there are two passages you know there's just two passages that really stick out to me now i don't know if you have those how many how many you have how many have that you got these passages that like everything you do boom these past these these one or two or three kind of come across i've got those right now and one of them is uh revelation chapter three which i i believe to be one of the

[4:00] most important passages of the day that you need to be you need to consider on a daily basis concerning the church and that's not my text this morning that's not where i'm going i probably end up there by default but i have these i have these passages that are just they just stick out and the other passage that that tends to grab a hold of me is the one i want to look at this morning in first timothy chapter three so if you would turn turn it's first timothy chapter three and we're talking about i'm i want to talk this is the title of my message is the church and you and i'm talking about i'm not talking about the universal church and i'm not talking about the universal body of christ everybody's a part of i understand everybody's a part of that i'm talking about the physical church this one you're sitting in right here and there's people all across this land and all across this world sitting in churches just like this one revelation chapter two revelation chapter two calls this place a candlestick you look at revelation chapter two real quick revelation chapter two in this uh in this book of revelation a prophecy book concerning the future written in 90 90 ad somewhere right in there and it when it talks about the church this is what it mentions it says in revelation chapter two verse 19 and 20 write the things which thou hast seen and the things which are and the things which shall be hereafter the mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand and the seven golden candlesticks the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches okay these were these were seven physical churches that existed all right just like just like you're sitting here this would be the church of silmar okay these were all these were all real places you know i i've said it i've said it for probably 30 35 years now you want to get in on what god is doing you get in on it in the church this is what god works through he works through the church it's not youtube right my brother that's right uh it's just that's not what it is it's not uh crusades and and stadiums it is the church this is where god's business takes place it's the candlestick and if you want to get in on what god is doing you need to do it in the church brother pilkington you know he was here recently was real blessing to the church he's got a message he preaches on um your candlestick being in your candlestick now i'm not necessarily preaching on being in your candlestick this morning because you're here this morning you are in the candlestick but what i want to talk about today is is what are you doing in your candlestick what are you doing in it do you have something to do in your candlestick do you have something to do in the church this morning what is it and are you doing it i remember uh saying probably heard 35 years ago there's a whole lot of people doing nothing in the church how many know the rest of it but there ain't a whole lot of people in the church with nothing to do right

[8:01] there's a whole lot of people doing nothing there ain't nobody with nothing to do and then you might have heard you might have heard that 20 percent of the people do 80 percent of the work right probably heard that now i understand you know there's a lot there's a lot of um a lot of other things involved in all that but whatever it is you want to be on the right side of it you want to be on the right side of what is going on that's what i recommend you do be on the right side of it don't be on the wrong side of it because when you get to heaven it'll be revealed and shown that you're you're on the wrong side of it you want to be on the right side of what god has got going on first timothy chapter 3 first timothy chapter 3 my text this morning first timothy chapter 3 and i want to look at uh start in verse 14 these things write i unto thee hoping to come unto thee shortly but if i tarry long that thou mayest know how thou artest to behave thyself in the house of god which is the church of the living god the pillar and ground of the truth it says and without controversy great is the mystery of godliness god was manifest in the flesh justified in the spirit seen of angels preached unto the gentiles believed on in the world received up in glory i look at that as one of the most important verses in the bible and uh talking about the deed of christ there but uh here in the context you have a behavior a behavior in the church and uh the in the context it's talking about the the bishops who would be the pastors and the deacons that's kind of what the whole chapter is dealing with so it's telling them how they need to be behaving in the church but i want to look at this morning on how about you you know there's got to be a behavior for you in the church you know this isn't a free-for-all you know you come in here and there's got to be some kind of behavior right well there is there is hopefully you're involved in that today i want to point out in this when it's talking about this this location it says um it says but if i tarry long verse 15 that are artists to know how the artist behaved thyself in the house of god one which is the church of the living god two the pillar and ground of the truth three i don't know how many verses you know of that describe uh something three different times but when god gives more attention to a certain thing i think we ought to give more attention and here we have a verse where god emphasizes when he says uh uh the the the he talks about behavior in the church the church of the living god that's what we're talking about that's where you are this morning that's where you are the pillar and ground of the truth wow you ought to be able to get truth here this is the pillar and ground of it wow that's i don't know about you but that's that's pretty strong stuff that to me really stands out remember we're talking about god's business not ours we have a lot of business that we do but we do well to take a look at god's business paul was pointing out some things to be done in the church how the leaders needed to behave but how about us i want to point out just i want to look at four things this morning about our behavior our behavior in the church

[12:02] first thing i want to look at in the passage here and it talks about how thou art to be able to talking in chapter three here about the leaders i want to say for first off is follow the leader follow the leader brother russ talked about that on one day night look at first corinthians chapter 11 first corinthians chapter 11 and verse 1 it says be followers of me as i also am of christ that's what paul says a pretty pretty easy concept real easy concept just follow the leader the leader is called the shepherd the leader leads the sheep he's the leader i'm not the leader you're not the leader how are you this morning following the leader how you doing with that you know there's a lot of avenues to go down i understand i'm talking about you know and there's a lot of things that can be mentioned but there's some there's some real uh pillow things you know i mean missions giving taking care of the church preaching teaching ministering hymns the word of god how you following this morning how you following the leader this morning i don't know exactly how it was 200 years ago because i wasn't there but i've read a lot and i have some understanding i think in the in the in the knowledge of the time but you know we're in a day and age right now where everybody's got their rights in the church they don't want to follow the leader everybody's got their rights you know things are not things are not pillars anymore they they become options you know it's it's not it's no longer a pillar it's it's whether it's my option or not i remember i remember pastor dave preaching on i mean he must have he must have went did it mentioned it i don't know how many times about singing he just camped on that for like a year you know you should be singing singing to the lord he went i don't know how many verses he went through i don't know how many verses you need to be convinced you need to do something i'm sorry if that was scary but i don't know how many times in the scripture talks about singing and lifting up your voice to the lord but he went on and on and on and i'm looking at this person going would you please just start singing after about a year you know i saw him start moving his lips it ought not be that hard it ought not be that hard but that's the way it is today everything in the church instead of a responsibility it's become an option follow follow the leader and this applies today from the youngest to the oldest i was going to ask who the youngest is but i don't want to embarrass everybody i was going to ask who the oldest was they want to do that either but um it goes that way everybody it applies to everybody this morning how you doing at following the leader second thing i want to look at and consider in the behavior in the behavior of uh of the of the house of god the house of the living god the pillar and ground of the truth is uh participation participation first one was following the leader the second one has to do with your participation you know pastor dave these things i probably learned it from him i would assume being here in this church for 35 years he mentioned that you know

[16:02] this is not a spectator sport right we're so used to going to the stadium and seeing the games and turning them on tv it was so used to being entertained and everybody doing it for us and the church today has decided they need the worship team and they need the bouncing ball and whatever else they need that's not that's not how it's supposed to be it's participation we are supposed to be participating in the church but unfortunately for too many it is a spectator sport you know i believe pastor pastor wall street did something on this not long ago but this right here says says somebody is going to be steadfast steadfast it may not be you but somebody's going to be unmovable somebody will be abounding in the work of the lord that's not what it says it's not what it says it's talking about us be steadfast unmovable always abounding in the work of the lord i i don't know about you but when i look at that that always word that that seems like a lie that's what it looks like to me i could be wrong and i was real bad in english in school and i told everybody earlier that you know it was either give me a d or see me next year and they chose to do the lesser of the bad but it says always and then it says abounding abounding to me seems like a lot too so if you find yourself in the work of the lord not doing a lot of that you might ought to rethink it today you might want to rethink it today just some practical things to think about as we look at our lives today participation participation i want you to think about this what does it look like i remember brother tony abara years ago he's a pastor now in ventura but i remember him preaching a message like that that's one of those phrases that stuck with me forever it's uh what does it look like that's what i try to do with things what does it look like what does your participation in you know this is called the work of the lord the bible the work of the lord but what does it look like for you something else number three number three is behavior in the house of god the the church of the living god the pillar and ground of the truth it's being hospitable now i don't know if i have ever heard a message on just being hospitable something i'm working on um the message you gotta work on the hospitable too i'm sure especially as scary as i am it's just you know i don't know um hospitable you know this is the only thing this is the only thing in the new testament that you are told to be given to now i don't know about you but when i see something like that in the bible it gets my attention whether i like it or not but this is the only thing that i see i'm gonna say the new testament i didn't look at every reference in the old testament but this is the only thing i see that you are to be given to i don't know to me that means wow i i gotta really pay attention to this so here in first timothy chapter three

[20:02] first timothy chapter three let me get back there in verse in verse number two it says a bishop pastor shepherd different words for it then must be blameless the husband of one wife vigilant sober of good behavior given to hospitality appetite so the man of god he is supposed to be given to hospitality given okay look at romans chapter 12 romans chapter 12 romans chapter 12 and verse 13 it says talking to the church and it says distributing to the necessity of saints given to hospitality so the preacher is supposed to be given to hospitality but guess what so are we so everybody in the church is supposed to be given to hospitality now interestingly this word that you are supposed to be given to is only mentioned four times in your

[21:32] New Testament I think it's no matter of fact it's only mentioned four times in your Bible it is exclusively a New Testament word okay that's just the way it is so because it's only mentioned four times I want to look at the other two verses okay let's go to Titus chapter one Titus chapter one Titus chapter one and look at verse eight we can go ahead we're going to go ahead and pick it up in verse four kind of want to cruise through some of this it says to Titus so it's speaking to Titus the one in Timothy was speaking to Timothy this one happened to be speaking to Titus mine own son after the common faith grace mercy and peace from God the father and the Lord Jesus Christ for this cause left I thee in Crete that thou should set in order the things that are wanting and ordain elders in every city as I had appointed thee so here Paul this is what Paul does right this is what

[22:32] Paul is doing when he when he is establishing Christianity he's it says verse six if any be blameless the husband of one wife having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly for a bishop must be blameless as the stewards of God not self willed not soon angry not given the wine no striker not given the filthy lucre you got all kinds of requirements for him you know we can all do whatever we want but not him yeah really right right okay but here's what it says for the bishop must be blameless steward of God not self will verse seven not given to wine no strength not given to filthy lucre but a lover of hospitality a lover of good men sober just holy temperate and it goes on but so it says not only are you given to hospitality you need to be a lover of it okay okay

[23:36] I mean it was strong enough okay you got it's mentioned everybody has to do it you're supposed to be given to it and then it says you're supposed to be given this hospitality all right 1st Peter chapter 4 so that was a sister passage to 1st Timothy chapter 3 talking to the bishops and then you got another sister passage I guess you could say talking to everybody 1st Peter chapter 4 1st Peter chapter 4 and verse 9 it says use hospitality one to another without grudging I thought oh man got a little more there got a little more there what is that grudging is that like do I have to right that's that's what I think it is I think it has to do with hi visitor good to see you today I did it that's kind of look look hospitality now remember what it said it said you're supposed to be given to it so what that means is this that means it's

[24:50] Christian it's Christian I breached the message on be Christian there's some things that ought to just be be Christian when you're not doing these things that be Christian you're not being it and that means you should confess it get right with God and then be Christian I get it you know I get it when a fallen world when a fallen body I get it and I know I blow it all the time but I'm just trying to encourage you to be given to hospitality and be a lover of it God said we are to be given to this given to it we're not you know hospitality anybody is anybody in the hospitality industry restaurants restaurants what would that be hotels right the city any kind of customer service oriented stuff

[25:55] I would I would I would I would take it that's what it is I'm not I'm in construction I can treat them any way I want just kidding not actually maybe no I'd say I think I try to be will not Richie goes like this he works for me I think wow wow I really I really try to see my brother here understands okay hospitality what is it what is hospitality you know when I'm when I'm when I'm going through my Bible and I see something in the New Testament sometimes and I have a question or if somebody was asked me a question and they said what is that maybe I don't know perfectly what it but I'll tell you this about hospitality right now I'll tell you hospitality is something good right we can all agree on that I think hospitality is something good hospitality is something that we all should be doing

[26:58] I think we can all agree on that hospitality is something we should all be given to I think we all agree on that that was pretty clear and then it's something not in the bad category so when you are in a bad way you probably won't be doing it can we agree with that okay that that that that that basically means when you're not being hospitable in the church you're not in the greatest of ways I'm trying to say you're carnal in a nice way because all there is spiritual and carnal that's all you get to be you know so when you're being spiritual yay we're being spiritual when you're being carnal ow I'm being carnal get it carnal is envy strife division not good stuff bad stuff bad but we all have our times that we do that and I looked up something on the hospitality industry and I put it in my okay so hospitality when someone makes you feel comfortable and at home that's being hospitable this is what the world says it's not bible definition but let me tell you something hospitality is a christian concept it's not a worldly concept okay it's in god's word when they're copying the bible great there's a lot of that going on out there but this is god's thing this is a christian thing friendly and generous to guests and visitors and i wrote down and familiar people in the church or friends right i shouldn't just be hospitable to the new person i should be hospitable to the older person right so when it said friendly and generous to guests and visitors i put down and friends that's okay right that's okay um okay so here's what the hospitality industry this is what this is what they say this is understanding the ten ten and five staff rule anybody ever heard of that ten and five staff rule okay this is what they tell all their people when they're going through this hospitality thing and how you need to be in these bigger industries and i say bigger industries it's really anything let me see if i can get this right here simply explain the ten and five rules suggest at any time a guest is within ten feet of a staff member the staff member should look the other way does that sound right no the staff member should make eye contact and warmly smile to acknowledge the oncoming guest huh huh we're networking the church huh you know make eye contact smile instead of this you know what i'm talking about you know what i'm talking about i'm talking about when you did that last right today that's what we're talking about it says when a staff member is approximately this is we're talking about ten feet away that was that was uh that was uh when a staff member is approximately five feet from a guest a sincere greeting or friendly gesture of acknowledgement should accompany the eye contact and smile so five feet ten feet is this right here five feet that's this right here that's brother great good morning all right and it's five feet the ten feet you know we're all out ten feet successful companies in and out of the

[30:59] hospitality industry have accepted their own versions of the ten and five staff rule at walmart anybody ever heard of walmart right at walmart founder sam walton coined the ten foot attitude and said i want you to promise that whenever you come this might go good on the um on church membership i want you to promise that whenever you come within ten feet of a customer not it you will look him in the eye greet him and ask him if if you can help him at wal disney anybody heard of wal disney is that successful sure at wal disney world the rule is taken a few steps further by outlining what should happen any time a disney cast member is near a guest with disney's seven service guidelines make eye contact and smile greet and welcome each and every guest seek out guest contact that's like me going hey i see a visitor here today hi how you doing good to see you right that's what it means um provide immediate service recovery if they need something done do it immediately display appropriate body language at all times ah preserve the magical guest experience hey you know what we don't believe in magic it's christian we're talking about thank each and every guest thank each and every guest we're talking about hospitality i'm talking about what the bible says you and i are supposed to be given to not do it we're supposed to do all the other stuff right the other stuff we're supposed to all be doing but this one no no no this one you're supposed to be given to that means given over this ought to be so part of your life that you know what i'm saying okay enough on that right moving right along okay hospitality i know it sounds weird but the lost can do a good job at that and be fake how many of them in the hospitality industry are doing it because they have to to keep their job a lot of them you want to you know i say once in a while maybe not maybe a little bit more but you find somebody that's genuine and i know i i when i see them i'll me and my wife will even talk about that that person's really they're the real deal they're the real deal the other one is like you are a robot this is a christian concept should be genuine coming from us and frankly it's the carnal nature when it doesn't hospitality we're talking about the church and you the church and us the church and me we're talking about behavior behavior in the in the house of god the the church of the living god the pillar and ground of the truth number four and i'm going to try to be fast we already looked at revelation 3 and you know the fourth point has to do with be a worker be a worker you know i know i know i talked about earlier about participation but i want you to separate the words because because i want you to just think about the word work and being a worker you know your

[34:59] heavenly economy your heavenly income your heavenly reward they're going to be based on your work this is called the work of the lord it's work it's not you just don't come here to relax and and do nothing it's work when he let me let me just give you the emphasis on the work thing with god okay what i try to do is i try to read my bible and try to understand who god is and and what he wants not that i give him what he wants all the time but but i want to understand i want to know god and and and and what he really wants and there's some things you can see in the bible and you learn the mind of god and in revelation when he's talking about the church he says i know your works and if you know one thing about the last message to the seven churches which is prophecy that goes on in this time period we're in right now from a.d.

[36:04] uh to 90 to at the rapture when the when god starts bringing in the daniel 70th week to the jew but in this time period he mentions to each churches he says he says i know your works i know your works i know your works i know your works one thing he emphasizes in each one of them churches the same is your work is your work be a worker be a worker in the in the house of god the church of the living god the pillar and ground of the truth be a worker first corinthians chapter 3 talks about your reward system in heaven how is your reward system in heaven i know it doesn't matter to you right now but it's going to it's going to when you get there start working on that if you haven't been work on your rewards in heaven see this every time we come here be steadfast unmovable always abounding in the work of the lord first timothy chapter three and i'm closing first timothy chapter three i want to just read it again verse 14 and 15 these things right i unto thee hoping to come unto thee shortly but if i tarry long that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of god which is the church of the living god the pillar and ground of the truth before i pray you know i don't know everybody here but um i want to mention about salvation i just want to uh if you're not if you're here and you're not a christian or you think you're a christian and you've never been born again you think you've been born again but what that means to you is you've been baptized or uh you know i've heard of all kinds of experiences here's what i tell people i ask people you got a birthday everybody here has a birthday right you got a birthday when was your spiritual birthday when was your spiritual one there had to become a day when just like you got born the first time you get born the second time that's the way it is you have to have a second birth to get to heaven your first birth is no good you're born in this thing it's no good you must be born again that's what jesus said um so if you don't if that doesn't resonate to you where you can look back and you can point to the time and the place you may not know the exact day but you can't point to the time and the place when you called upon the lord and you got saved and became born again then you need to look into that you need to have one of those so if you if you if that if that if that's a question in your mind then you can grab me you can grab you can grab anybody else and if they're not sure how to do how to tell you about it they'll point you to me okay so other than that behavior in the church of god the church of the living god pillar and ground of the truth let's pray father thank you for a beautiful day thank you for thy precious word thank you for thy people i pray this morning as we look at our behavior in the church that we will consider these points and just make sure that we're applying these to our lives god for those that apply these things on a regular basis amen keep going but maybe some of us have let it slip and we need to address those things in the church especially in the

[40:04]  last days when it was just it'll it'll have a tendency to get worse and worse i love you and fear you this morning i appreciate all that you've done for me and for us in this church bless thy people in jesus name amen you