[0:00] It's Matthew 16, 18, and 19 today, and we're going to talk today about what did he want his church doing. He started the church. He owns the church. The church belongs to him.
[0:11] So what specific instructions do we find about the church? And I've just picked out five things that are pretty clear that he was speaking to the church or about the church. It's an exciting thing to look at.
[0:23] So let's read Matthew 16, 18, if you would. The Bible said, And I say unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
[0:36] And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Now go back to 18 with me, and let's read together, starting with I will build.
[0:52] Let's read that together in one strong voice out loud, everybody. You ready? The Bible says, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
[1:04] And so today we're going to see that. Now remember this. Where is the church built? In verse 18 it said, Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church. And the rock that's being talked about, there's Jesus, which is the confession that's made in the previous verse, when Peter said, We know you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
[1:25] And Jesus said, Yep, that's right, and that's the rock I'll build my church on. And so the church is built on Jesus Christ, and we're excited to be able to study the Bible together. Father, we love you, and thank you so very much for saving us.
[1:39] I thank you for these two young people today that obeyed you and followed you in believers' baptism. And I pray, God, that you'd help them to live out their faith the rest of their lives. I pray, dear God, that they have truly been born again, and that we will see the fruit of that many years from now.
[1:54] I thank you for the Word of God. I thank you for what you're doing in our lives. And I pray today that you'd show your power, draw us closer to you, work in our lives. And God, if there's somebody here today that doesn't know you as their personal Savior, I pray that they would get saved.
[2:10] I pray they would see from the Bible how to know that they have sinned against the Holy God, and how that Jesus paid our debt, and they can be saved. And I'll give you praise and honor and glory for all you do. In Jesus' name, amen.
[2:22] All right, Dick, your Bibles, if you would turn to Matthew 16, 18. Just before we start the message and look at that, I would like to introduce to you on Thursday night, we ordained a new deacon and installed a new deacon.
[2:37] And so if I could get Brett Johnson to stand up. Brett Johnson's our newest ordained deacon. And then Brother John Pearson was installed as a deacon. Brother John, could you stand up? Back there in the back.
[2:48] The other two deacons are over there in the office. They're in my office. You can see straight in there, by the way. There are no walls. You've heard of the church without walls. I have the office without walls.
[2:59] And they're over there. So there are four deacons. I want you to know them. I think they got a picture of them. There are the four deacons behind me. John Pearson, Micah Rosselli, Brett Johnson, and Chuck Littlefield, or better known as Chukka Littlefield, if you were here the other night.
[3:14] Take your Bibles down and go with me to Matthew 16, 18. I am excited to show you this right here. What did he want his church to do? You know, I'm afraid we don't understand.
[3:27] It's his church. You should have figured that out by now. We've said that week after week. It's like five weeks now. And we've looked at that as his church. And what did he want his church to do?
[3:38] And so today, if you go to church, you've got your way of doing church. It might not be his way, but you've got your way. And you've got what you expect out of a church, but it might not be what he wants out of a church.
[3:49] And so the Bible says in Matthew 16, 18, I say also unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church. And you should have marked that. I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
[4:02] So I want to talk to you about what he wanted, what he said clearly that he wanted his church to accomplish. I'm going to start off with my last point. If you happen to be one of those people that get the sermon outline, I'm going to go right to the last one just because I'm not sure I'll get there.
[4:16] So I'm going to go ahead and get that one, and then I'll come back to the beginning. But look at your Bibles if you would at Ephesians chapter 3. Open your Bible to Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 10. Now I've got a question for you.
[4:28] How many of you have ever just felt like showing off? You know, you had something you were proud of, and you wanted people to see it, and you wanted to show it off, and you wanted to say, check this out.
[4:40] Check me out. And I went to high school. I weighed 145 pounds. I was a little country boy without indoor plumbing. And so I took a bath on the back porch in a tub and used a bathroom in an outhouse.
[4:52] And people in town in the big city of McEwen, 10 miles away, there were 2,000 people in less than two. They've never crossed 2,000, I don't think. And so I wanted to be able to show off.
[5:04] And, you know, I wasn't. When they were picking up the superlatives in my school, you know, the people that were like the most likely to succeed, the best looking, the friendliest, the funniest, when they were picking up, they didn't pick me for any of them.
[5:18] I didn't get picked. There were only 50 people in the class. Probably 30 got picked. I didn't get picked. So I was most likely not to get picked. That's my superlative. And so when I married Betty, I married this beautiful lady.
[5:32] I was so proud. I was like, can you believe this? Even a blind hog can find an acre. And every now and then, you had to be a country boy to understand. But I was excited. And then God gave me four gorgeous children.
[5:43] Sorry. That's just how I felt about it. And so I wanted desperately to go back for the 10-year reunion. They didn't have one. A little town, 50 people graduated. They didn't even think about having a 10-year reunion.
[5:55] But I wanted them to have one because I wanted to walk in and say, check them out. I might not be much, but I sure will hit the jackpot. Amen? In Ephesians 3 and verse 10, that's what Jesus does.
[6:09] In Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 10, one of his purposes in the church is to say, check me out. I am really good. Check me out and watch what I have done with my church.
[6:22] So I want you to read Ephesians 3.10. I mean, then we're going to read a couple other verses there. But look at Ephesians 3.10. The Bible says, to the intent. You ought to mark that. This is the reason. To the intent.
[6:34] To the intent. That now, under the principalities and powers in heavenly places, might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God.
[6:46] So if you've got your Bible open to Ephesians chapter 3 up in verse 6, he said, I'm bringing the Gentiles and the Jews together. I'm forming the church. And it's called the fellowship of the, they're called fellow heirs.
[6:59] In verse 9, it's the fellowship of the mystery. Things that nobody understood in the Old Testament. That's what the church was. And it was exciting. Now, I want to read Ephesians 3.10 to you in Tennessee Hillbilly.
[7:10] Because I think sometimes you might read that verse and be like, a lot of big words. I don't understand. I don't know what's going on. So let me explain to you. He said, what was my purpose in the church? So that the principalities and powers, so that the demons and all the powers of the devil and all the wickedness of the world up there in the heavenly regions, they're not here.
[7:31] We don't see them. But the demons that are in the clouds and the demons that are the prince of the air, so that they might know by looking at my church how smart I am.
[7:42] The manifold, many-splendored, wild-looking, crazy, wonderful wisdom of God. So Jesus said, I want you to check out my church.
[7:53] And here's what he did. He said, I came down and I saved a bunch of dirty, rotten, stinking sinners that ain't worth anything. And I brought them up and I saved them and I changed them and I put them all together in this group I call the church.
[8:05] Check out my church. Demons, look at this. You said I was a failure. You said I couldn't do it. You said you could beat me. You thought sin could win.
[8:16] But sin didn't win. I won. I saved them. I changed them. I made something new out of them. He wants to show off his wisdom to the demons. He uses the church to show how good he is.
[8:28] He has saved horrible people that deserve hell. He has shown his grace. You should write this down. We are trophies of his grace. Everybody in the world in some fashion or other has a me wall or a me room.
[8:44] You know, a me place. You know, that's where you put your trophies. You won them in Little League Baseball. You still got them. Maybe you got them in a closet. But you still got them. You got all these things that show off who you are.
[8:56] Somebody gave you a plaque. You hang that plaque on the wall. Or somebody, you got a picture of you with your baseball team or your ball team. Or whatever. You got a picture of you with some important person. You got this me wall.
[9:06] This place where you say, this is who I am. See all these things. That's all the nice things people ever said about me. Don't take up much room. But there it is. I want you all to look at it. That's me. They're bragging on me. And so here's what Jesus said.
[9:17] I got a trophy case too. And y'all are my trophies. Look at what the Bible says in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 6. Look at what your Bible says. And he hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
[9:33] That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. Let me put that Tennessee Hillbilly for you.
[9:45] You ready? This is what he said. He said he raised us up. He took us out of what we weren't. Made us into something bigger than that. He made us all sit together in heavenly places in Christ. We're in heaven. We're with him.
[9:55] We're sitting there with Jesus. So that in the ages to come, millions of years from now out in front of you, he could show how great his grace was. How great his kindness was.
[10:06] He could say that. So here's what he did. He said he made a church. What's one of the purposes of his church? To show off how good he is. So he went down to where you lived.
[10:17] And he found a guy who was messed up in drugs and alcohol. A guy who was messed up in sex and perversion. He found out a guy who was messed up in all these things. And he saved you. And he transformed you.
[10:27] And he changed you into a new creature and a new person. You were a sinner. And now you're a saint. And he sent you up on there. And he walks around going, you'll see how good I am. Look what I did with that guy. I got him out of the nastiest place you've ever seen.
[10:40] Check out what I did. I am good. Then he found another guy who was really moral and really good and really arrogant and really proud of how better he was than everybody else. And he still saved him even though he was so arrogant and proud in his own self.
[10:53] He brought him to a place where he would humble himself and trust Christ. And he took us and he saved us and he put us on the wall. And so up in heaven, God walks around saying, I'm a really great God. You want proof? There it is.
[11:04] There it is. That's Austin Gardner. That guy's a scumbag. I mean, if anybody ought to have gone to hell, it was old Austin. But I went down and I saved him. I went down and I found him.
[11:15] And I brought him to Christ. My dad, trophy of grace. He's in heaven now. But before I was ever born, my dad, at the age of six, his mother was killed in an illegal abortion.
[11:28] He was raised in hard, rough times. He was orphaned at the age of six, lived in foster homes, passed about from place to place. Horrible things happened to him. Things that just ruined his past.
[11:40] And he got into every kind of sin and stealing and doing everything wrong and drugs and alcohol and women and every kind of perversion. His own testimony to me. And one day he was sitting in an old country church up in the hills of Tennessee.
[11:52] And a preacher said, you can be saved today. You can have new life. I can show you the God of heaven who changes people. And my dad said, that guy was talking to me. It was like he was talking directly to me.
[12:04] And my dad said, that day I got saved. I never knew my dad as any of those bad things. I always knew my dad as the new man. A trophy of grace. So one of the things that the Lord Jesus does with the church is show off.
[12:20] He likes to show the devil. I wanted to go to the class reunion. And I wanted to say to the class reunion, I may be skinny and I may not be much. I may not be smart. I may have come from a poor area.
[12:30] But God sure blessed me and gave me all this wonderful blessings in my life. And the God of heaven says, I am a lot. But I can show you how I know I'm a lot. Let me show you. And you ought to underline in verse 7, the exceeding riches.
[12:42] That means bigger riches than you could ever imagine of his grace. How he saved us. If you're here today and you're born again, you're born again. Because of what Jesus did on the cross of Calvary.
[12:55] Amen. And if you look back and think, if everybody knew the deepest, darkest secrets you have. If everybody knew the thoughts that you have. If everybody knew the failures you have. You'd realize it's really a good God that saves.
[13:08] Amen. You ever go to church? I did. I go to church and the preachers that get up there and they say, The day is coming when God is going to turn on the video screen and show everybody everything. Every idle word you've ever said.
[13:20] Every failure you've ever had. Everything you've ever done wrong. He's going to show the whole world. I can remember when I heard that I was like, Oh my stinking soul. That is going to be one bad day.
[13:32] I don't know how long it's going to take him to show all my mess ups. Because there's been a bunch of them. I don't tell everybody those things. I don't want those things mentioned. I'd like those things to be under the blood and in the past. I'd like them to be gone. And he's going to show those.
[13:44] And I can remember thinking when he does, I'm going to dig a hole under the pew. I'm going to dig a hole in the ground. I'm going to find every way I can to hide myself. But here's the beauty of his grace. He said, I know all that about you. But they won't nobody else know.
[13:56] I erased all your sin. I cleaned up your past. I made a new creature out of you. And one day I'll stand up and say, Let me introduce you to St. Austin. And everybody will say, Austin? How did he get to be a saint?
[14:07] He's going to say, Ain't I good? Amen? Ain't I good? Look how good I am. Look how I change lives. Look how I make new people. Here comes Rahab, the harlot.
[14:19] Even mentioned is that in the Bible. And she's in the lineage of Jesus Christ. And somebody might say, How's a harlot getting the lineage of Jesus Christ? Because he loves to show off how good he is. And how he saves dirty, rotten people that don't deserve to be saved.
[14:32] Amen? So what does it say in Matthew 16, 18? Remember? Look at it. Matthew 16, 18. The Bible said, I will build my church. And what's he wanting to do with his church?
[14:43] One of the many purposes of his church is to show off how good he is. By the way, So let's go tell people about Jesus. Let's invite people to Christ. Let's not judge people, no matter what their past has been or how much they've messed up.
[14:56] Because we know that we are trophies of grace of how good our God is. And our God can save anybody, no matter where they are. No matter how they've messed up, our God can save them. Amen? Our God changes lives.
[15:07] He said, I will build my church. Let me show you another one I want you to look at. If you would, take your Bibles and go with me to Matthew. Go with me to Matthew 22, and verse 36.
[15:18] Now in Matthew 16, 18, he said, I will build my church. And in Matthew 22, he's talking to them. And the guys are saying to him, Lord, tell us what the, what's the biggest thing you want us to do?
[15:30] What's the greatest commandment? And so as a church here at Vision, what's the Lord want out of us? What's he looking for from us? Well, he wants to show off. He wants the demons of hell to know how good he is.
[15:43] Satan wanted to rise up and think he was as good as God. And God said, no, you never was as good as me. You always had your own interest at heart. I have others' interest at heart. Amen. And then look, if you would now, Matthew 22, he says, here's the great commandment, verse 36.
[15:57] Master, which is the great commandment in the law? And Jesus said unto him, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.
[16:08] And the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. You want to know what I want to accomplish? I'll just go ahead and tell you up front.
[16:19] Here it is. Here's what I want to say to you. The great commandment, number one, is to love God with all your heart, with all your soul, and all your mind. So let me show you real quickly how we do that. The first commandment I see that's so clear in the scriptures to the entire church, we are to love God with everything in us.
[16:38] Loving God means obeying God. In John 14, 15, the Bible says, If you love me, keep my commandments. You could read that this way.
[16:48] Since you love me, you will keep my commandments. If you love the Lord Jesus, it will show up in the way you keep his commandments because you want to do what pleases him.
[16:59] You want to do what pleases him. Betty and I have been married for 41 years. I want to please her. I want her to be happy with me. I have four wonderful grandchildren living in my house right now and my daughter.
[17:10] She always says I'd leave her out and my daughter and her husband and they're in my house but I'll be honest with you, man, I want my little grandkids to love me. There are times they'll go downstairs and I'll say, Betty, you think they had a good time?
[17:21] Betty, you think I was sweet to them? Betty, you think I said something nice to them? I want my grandkids to be like, we love granddaddy. Anybody else? Are you grandparents in this room? Y'all like that? Or you feel like that?
[17:31] No, you don't. Y'all don't feel that way. But I just want them to because when you love somebody you want to please them. Amen? Alright, look what the Bible says in John 14, 21. It says, He that has my commandments and keeps them, that's the guy that loves me.
[17:46] And he that loves me will be loved by my Father and I will love him and will manifest myself to him. He says, Hey, you know, the guy does what I want him to do. That's the guy that loves me. That's the guy that loves me. It's amazing.
[17:57] You want to do what the person you love wants you to do. Do you love God? He said, I want you to love God with all your heart. You do not obey to get love but because you do love.
[18:11] You don't love, you don't obey God so he'll love you. You obey because you do love God and he already loves you. So that's what's going on. In John 14, 23 it says, Jesus answered and said, If a man love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we'll come and make our abode.
[18:29] Your actions show how you feel in your heart. your actions show how you feel in your heart. In John 15, 10 he said, If you keep my commandments you abide in my love.
[18:40] John 15, 14 he said, You are my friends if you do whatever I command you to. If you love God you just want to do what he likes. Amen? If you love God.
[18:51] And by the way if you don't see that at your own house how many of you grew up in a home where the best meals were when daddy was home. And when daddy wasn't home mama wasn't that worried about it.
[19:04] You could eat hot dogs and ketchup. And you could eat What are you raising your hand for? Huh? Pring, you're in trouble. You're not the only one. But when daddy's home mama puts on the dog. That's how we used to say it.
[19:15] Mama fixes the food because daddy's home. When daddy's gone it's grilled cheese sandwiches. Amen? When daddy's home you're going to eat good food and when daddy's not home mama's like Oh, we'll just get by.
[19:26] We don't matter. Daddy will be home. And then we'll eat good. That's what's going on. You love. You love. Hey, it goes to everything in the world, you know. In my house the toilet seat goes down.
[19:37] Anytime a man uses it you always put it back down. You say, why? Because that's the way she likes it. Amen? That's the only reason. I don't think it makes logical sense. But when you're in love you just do what she wants.
[19:48] Amen? And it's what Jesus said. You love me you do what I want you to do. If you love God you're going to do what God wants and that makes sense. It really does make sense. When you're in love you want.
[19:58] I sometimes sit around my grandkids just got here a couple of months ago and I sometimes sit around thinking I've got to figure out some things to do for my grandkids. I just want to do stuff for them. I want them to be happy because I'm in love.
[20:10] You understand? If you love Jesus you're wanting to do. And by the way you don't think it's hard to do that either. The Bible says in 1 John 5 3 for this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not grievous.
[20:25] His commandments are not hard for us. It's not like you're saying oh boy I love my wife but it is hard. I'll do everything I ought to do but it ain't man it's hard being married it's hard and loving her is hard work.
[20:40] I don't think that's what you really think. If you're in love it's like you know you know I'm counseling a couple right now and we're talking and when we talk she's looking at him going and he looks at her and goes and then I say oh goodnight let's move to the next point real quick.
[20:53] Amen? That's what loving people do. Amen? Say amen right there. It's a sweet thing. It's a sweet thing because you're in love. Isn't that the truth? There's a brand new married couple over here.
[21:04] They're stuck at the hip. Man they can't separate. Well not a hip but his knee and her hip. Amen? Because she's short and he's tall. But it's a sweet thing because you're in love. Say amen. He said if you love me you keep my commandments and we walk after his commandments.
[21:18] So how do you love God with all your heart? How do you love him? He said love God with all your heart. Well the way you do it is you don't have a divided heart. The Bible says in 2 Chronicles chapter 16 and verse 9 For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong in behalf of him of them whose heart is perfect toward him.
[21:38] So what God's looking for is somebody who says I just love you nobody else. I just love you nobody else. You see I don't have I am not a perfect husband and I I am I've not been perfect but I can tell you this I've had a perfect heart.
[21:54] I've never took a piece of my heart and given it to another woman. I've never taken a piece of my heart and given it to somebody else. I love Betty. She gets all my heart. I may blow it as a husband I may not be the best I may not always be the kindest I may not always be the sweetest I may not always do what I want to do but my heart's for her.
[22:12] Here's what God says I want you to love me. I want you to love me with everything in you. Money ought never even rival me. Things ought not rival me. Stuff ought not rival me. I am God.
[22:22] Love me with your whole heart. In the Bible David the sinner had a perfect heart towards God. It wasn't that he didn't sin it was that he just loved God. Solomon the wisest man didn't have a perfect heart because he loved God but he also built temples for other gods.
[22:39] He divided his heart so love him with all of your affection. Then you're to love him with all of your soul. The Bible says in Matthew 16 26 for what is a man profit if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?
[22:51] That's you. When he uses soul they're talking about you. By the way when an airplane crashes they'll say something like there were 168 souls on that plane. 168 people on that plane.
[23:03] So it's you loving with who you are. You deciding to live out what you know pleases him. Loving him with your soul means you make godly choices and you're obedient because in your heart you love him and in your mind and your will you're saying no I love Jesus and I want to make the right decisions.
[23:22] I want to make the right decisions. If you ever meet a couple in love and I hope Betty and I have more goo goo eyes than the young couple getting married and I hope I hope that we're as joined after 41 years of marriage as a young couple just getting married I really hope we are that but here's the whole deal here's the whole deal you know what we ought to make decisions this is what she likes I want to do this because that's what she likes you don't do what she likes because it's her birthday you don't do what she likes because it's your anniversary you don't do what she likes because it's Christmas you do what she likes because you're in love say amen isn't that true you're in love so you love him with all your heart you love him with all your mind as you make decisions and then you love him you love him with all your soul then you love him with all your mind Romans chapter 12 in verse 2, you renew your mind.
[24:04] In Romans 12, 2, the Bible says, and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that they prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will. Change the way you think.
[24:16] In 2 Corinthians chapter 10 in verse 5, you throw away thoughts that don't please God. You're like, I don't think he likes it when I think like that. I don't think he likes it when those things inhabit my heart so I'm going to throw those away so I can serve him and I'm going to get every thought.
[24:29] I'm going to say, does this please you, Jesus? Because I want my mind to be pleasing to him. In Colossians 3, 16, the Bible says let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. So if you want to serve him with your mind, you fill your heart and mind up with the word of God. That's why we're big Bible readers here. Amen? That's why we carry a Bible. That's why we read the Bible through. That's why we start in Genesis, read it all the way through to Revelation. That's why our church services aren't based on emotion.
[24:55] It's based on, I love him with my mind. I read my Bible. I study it. Because by the way, whatever you put in your mind, that's what comes out of your mouth. That's what Jesus said in Matthew 18 and 15. He said what's in your heart is what comes out of your mouth.
[25:09] It's what comes out of your mouth. By the way, because I may not get to it in another part of the message, that's why foundations is important for you. That's why learning all about Jesus is important for you. That's why Sunday school is important for you. That's why Sunday morning and Sunday night and Thursday night is important for you.
[25:23] That's why everything we're doing, because we want to fill our minds. I love him with my mind. I love him with who I am. I love him with my heart. I love him with everything that's in me. If you understand that, say amen. That's what he wanted his church to do. The church in the Bible is actually called the bride of Christ.
[25:40] And so we ought to be kind of like that young girl about to get married standing there going, ugh, about to marry my love. She's in love with her mind. She's in love with her heart. She's in love with everything about her. I love him.
[25:52] Jesus said, hey, I want you to know the great commandments to love me. Love God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. Then he said, love God, love your neighbor. He said the next part is to love your neighbor.
[26:03] And when he wanted to explain that, he told the story of the Good Samaritan because they wanted to figure out who their neighbor was, and that's found in Luke chapter 10 and verse 29. And I don't have time to go through the story with you, but love says I show mercy.
[26:17] The good neighbor showed mercy on him. A good neighbor is not mean and vengeful and angry and aggravated. You might deserve to be, but you're not. You show mercy.
[26:30] A good neighbor doesn't do his neighbor wrong. In Romans 13, 10, he works no eel toward his neighbor. In Romans chapter 15 and verse 2, he tries to please his neighbor. In Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 25, he tells his neighbor the truth.
[26:44] By the way, every commandment hangs on those two commandments. There's commandments to talk about how I'm to love God and put him first. That's why we have time for worship. There's commandments to talk about how I love my neighbor. I don't have time and I won't go into this one with you today because you hear it all the time, but the next and really you got the great commandment, then you got the great commission. The great commandment, love God with all your heart, your mind, and your soul and love your neighbor as yourself. Great commandment. Then the great commission, which was take the gospel message, take it to the entire world and make sure everybody knows that Jesus died on the cross.
[27:16] We're not about spreading Baptist stuff. We're not about spreading capitalism. We're not about spreading religion. We're about spreading good news. Jesus died for lost people.
[27:28] We're about spreading the word that changes lives. Matthew 28, 18, he said all power, all authority is given to me. Now go and tell everybody. Go teach them, baptize them, and teach them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you.
[27:44] So I got a great commandment. I'm to love God with all of my heart. I'm to love God with all my mind and all my soul. I'm to love my neighbor. Then I'm to take the gospel to the world. We've already seen that God's in the business of showing us off.
[27:58] God's in the business of showing us off. So it ought to be like, I really want to please him. I really do want to do what he wants me to do because when he says, check out my kid, I want to be living a life. He's like, yeah, I'm working in that guy's life. Amen.
[28:09] You ought not say, I got once saved, always saved. I got saved when I was four, been living like the devil ever since, but I'm going to go to heaven when I die. What? I'm glad your wife don't talk that way. I got married.
[28:22] I don't care how I'll treat him, how I live or anything because, you know, I got married once and once married, always married. So I'm going to act like a devil woman. I'm like a devil man. I don't think nobody believes like that. Only people believe I got a dumb Baptist. Amen.
[28:35] If you're really in love with Jesus, you're like, I want to please him. Amen. You want to please him. You want to honor him. Third purpose that I have that I want to show you. Number one, great commandment. Number two, great commission. Number three, getting the word.
[28:50] You know what makes a good church? You ready? A lot of this. That's a good church.
[29:01] Like this morning, you're hearing a bunch of Bible. Jesus said, I will build my church. It's his church. What did he want his church to be about? Obeying him, loving him, loving your neighbor.
[29:14] What did he want his church to be about? Telling the world about Jesus. What did he want his church to be about? Getting in his book. Look again, if you would, at Colossians chapter 3 and verse 16.
[29:25] Colossians chapter 3 and verse 16. Look at this great verse. You've already seen it once, but look at this great verse. Look what it says. In Colossians chapter 3 and verse 16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another.
[29:41] In psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatever you do, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus. Now I want you to look at that verse. I want you to underline it.
[29:51] The word of God is to dwell in you. Now that's an old word. But how many of you have a dwelling? Hold your hand up. You have a dwelling? Hold your hand up.
[30:02] That's an old word. It means house. It means a place you stay. It could be an apartment. It could be a tent. But it's a place where you live, where you inhabit.
[30:13] That's where you dwell. And here's what God said he wanted Christians to do. He said, I want my word to dwell in you. I want the Bible to move into your heart and take up residence.
[30:27] I want it to live in you. Now the sad thing is the only time we ever get around the Bible sometimes is Sunday morning. And on Sunday morning when we come to church and say, Preacher, you got 30 minutes.
[30:38] Unload it all. Give it to me as fast as you can because I ain't even going to think about this for the next 168 hours. In 168 hours I'll come back and give you another shot. That's not what he said.
[30:50] See, it was never about an occasional find out something about the Bible. It's not about a Bible conference. It's not about a revival meeting. It's about let it move in and dwell in you and take up residence.
[31:04] Let the Word of God live in you. Let it, let it, your house is, your heart's where the, the house where the Lord's Word lives. That means we learn what it means.
[31:15] It means we learn enough of it that it affects the way we think. By the way, if you get enough of this book in your heart, you're going to love your wife like nobody else ever loved their wife. You're going to love your husband like nobody ever loved you.
[31:25] You're going to pay your bills. You're going to be a good neighbor. You're going to do all the stuff because the book moved in. You don't think like Americans think. You think like Jesus thinks. Amen?
[31:36] In Peru, I used to tell them all the time, we don't want to think like Peruvians and we don't want to think like Americans. We want to think like God's people and God's people think differently so the Bible moves in.
[31:48] It becomes a part of our thinking process. We learn to think what the Bible says. In Psalm 119, 169, the Bible said, let my cry come near before thee, O God, give me understanding.
[32:01] According to thy word. God, help me understand things based on what your Bible says. Help me understand my job based on what your Bible says. Help me understand how to raise my family based on what your Bible says. Help me how to manage my money based on what your Bible says.
[32:12] According to your word, I want to live everything out. I want it to be about the word. You say, well, I don't preach. That's your opinion. He said, I will build, what word? I will build what?
[32:23] My church. It's not our church. Vision isn't Austin's church. Vision isn't the church of the deacons. And visit isn't the church of the members. It belongs to Jesus.
[32:34] It's his church. Amen? And he said, I like my word to dwell in you. I like my word to dwell in you. Preaching and teaching the Bible is like the most important thing we're supposed to be doing.
[32:49] in Acts chapter 20 in verse 28, the apostle Paul said, take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock of God, all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you over is to feed the church of God which he's purchased with his blood.
[33:04] Feed them. People ought to come to church and we ought to be slicing off Bible and putting it in our hearts so we live in it. Say, man, we've been in Matthew 16, 18, so long, I'll never forget it.
[33:15] Good. It's going to be in there, ain't it? You say, that's what you wanted. That is what I want. I want the book in you. I want the book in you. That's what he said. Preaching and teaching the word of God is the most important ministry.
[33:26] 1 Timothy 5, 17, let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine. It's how we get saved, the preaching of the word.
[33:38] 1 Corinthians 1, 21, for after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. When the Bible talks about preaching, it's not talking about how you yell, how you spit, how fast you run.
[33:54] I grew up in churches where the preachers run on top of the pews and scream and yell. Spit going everywhere. The time they got through, man, their clothes are half off of them. That's not what preaching is. You can do that. I'm not against you doing that, but preaching is not about the antics.
[34:06] It's about what you say. It's not about the antics. Another guy might be a far better talker talker than I am, a far better speaker than I am, but the whole point is speak the book.
[34:20] Speak the book. Some one guy may come in here and he may talk really low and monotone and you're like, that guy, he just don't get excited. He ain't preaching. That's because you don't understand preaching. Preaching is not your antics.
[34:32] It's what you're saying. It's what you're saying. They need someone to preach to and the Bible says in Romans 10, 14, how then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? How shall they believe in him in whom they've not heard?
[34:44] How shall they hear without a preacher? They need somebody. That's just an announcer is all that is, by the way. Somebody who announces the book. With the word of Christ dwells in us, we want to bring everyone to maturity.
[34:59] Our church ought to have in mind we're going to grow them all up. Oh, 39 years ago, Betty and I, almost 40 years ago now, I guess 40 years ago, Betty was pregnant with a baby.
[35:14] And we were just kids. Good night, we were like 21 years old. And we had this little baby. When you have a baby, guess what your goal is? Your goal is not to be able to show off a baby.
[35:25] Your goal is to bring him to maturity. You want your kid to grow up. You want your kid to learn how to pay their bills, learn how to live their life. You want your kid to be able to have a wife or have a husband. You want your kid to be able to live a good, proper life because you want to bring them to maturity because they can't stay babies forever.
[35:42] And if they did stay babies forever, something's wrong. There was a lady in Peru who had a little girl and her name was Stephanie and I'll never forget, but she was like four years old and never learned to walk.
[35:53] She was stiff as a board. Three or four years of age, she died and I preached her funeral. She never got out of the babysitter. Something was bad, wrong. But you don't want a baby to stay there. You want them to go on to maturity.
[36:03] Every church ought to have in mind, I want to grow them up. We saw four people, we have four deacons here in our church so that ought not be, the honest truth is everybody in this church ought to be deacon material. Every man in this church.
[36:15] Everybody ought to be growing up and maturing. There ought not be anything in this church like, well they're the real men of God. No, we're all his trophies. Amen? We're all his. He walks around saying, you see, check that one out, I made him.
[36:28] Check that one out, I changed him. Check that one out. And that's for men and for women. That's why, that's why that discipleship is so important. If you come to our church, you need to get involved in foundations.
[36:41] There'll be somebody out here in front and you can talk to them after, but you need to say, man, I've got to learn more. I want the Bible to move in and take up residence in me. I want to know the Bible so much that when you poke me, Bible spills out.
[36:53] I want to be full of the Bible. And so another person who's been further down the road, then you'll take the Bible and teach you the Word of God. And you'll grow. It's foundations. We're trying to grow you into maturity.
[37:04] That's why you get involved in a Sunday school class. You say, why do y'all have so many services? The new churches don't have so many services. Well, we're so busy trying to get so much of this in you, we're thinking about adding some services.
[37:16] Amen? We got to get more in you, not less. We're not trying to back up and say, can't we cut out some Bible around here? We're trying to say, let's add some more Bible. You might come here and say, y'all don't sing much. Well, we don't.
[37:26] We try to get this in you. You always want to get home on time, but you really like that church that sings 50 minutes and reads the Bible for two and lets you go home. Nah, that ain't preaching. Get the book in them.
[37:37] Get the book in them. It's the Word of God that changes you. It's the Word of God that changes all of us. 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 13. For this cause also thank we God without ceasing because when you receive the Word of God which you heard of us, you receive it not as the Word of men but as it is in truth, the Word of God and underline this in your Bible which effectually worketh also in you that believe.
[38:01] I don't know what happens, but when you get enough of this in you and you just keep sticking it in your heart and sticking it in your heart and you don't even want to change. You don't even want to change and you're not even trying to change, but you get enough Bible in your heart and all of a sudden you're like, I don't know why but I think different than I used to.
[38:17] I don't know why but I do different than I used to. I changed. Well, what changed you? I don't know. I'll tell you what changed you. Getting this in you. See, a lot of churches it's like self-help. Let me give you 12 steps to fix yourself and get better.
[38:30] And here's what he said. Just stick this in your heart. Just stick this in your heart. It'll work about the change in you. It'll work about the change. Last one and I quit. He wanted the church to encourage and motivate each other.
[38:44] In Hebrews 10, 24 he said, let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works not forsaking the assembling of yourselves as a manner of some is of ourselves as a manner of some is but exhorting one another.
[38:58] We are to attend church together. The Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 5, 11 comfort yourselves together edify one another. So we're a church and we ought to come in this room. It's really kind of exciting.
[39:10] John Pearson's one that's brought this to my attention. But you can come into Vision Baptist Church on a Thursday night and John did it not long ago and he started taking pictures. There's a couple sitting over here setting the Bible and there's a couple sitting over setting the Bible together.
[39:20] There's a couple sitting over setting the Bible and there's people all around the room setting the Bible together. It's not even church time. What, these people don't know something? They do know something. They know they want the Bible in them and it's one another encouraging the other one to live for Jesus.
[39:33] We had a meeting of our men and the deacons are getting prepared and one of the men looked at another one and said, you motivate me. You make me want to serve God. That's the point. That's the point.
[39:44] We want to motivate each other to serve the Lord, to love lost people, to live victorious lives. We want to comfort each other. Now it's time for me to quit. So let me, can I remind you of the first one I said and I'll make it, it was supposed to be the last one.
[39:56] Do you really get it? I will build, what? My church. I will build my church. Here's what he likes to do. Forever, from now on forever, Jesus and God and the Holy Spirit walk around in heaven going, check him out.
[40:14] Check him out. I made him what he is. I saved him. That guy back over there, look at that guy right over there, look at that guy right over there, look at that girl right over there. That girl was in perversion and sin.
[40:26] I changed her. Nobody will ever know what she used to be. And so you look on the counter and you see things nicer than any Oscar ever made. The Oscars. You see something nicer than any of those little golden statues. You see living, breathing people that are brand new creatures.
[40:39] You don't even know their past. You just look at them and say, man, that's a fancy trophy. And he says, it sure is. And he says, that's my goodness. That's my grace.
[40:50] So you got a family in here and you've learned to love Jesus and he's walking around and said, that's me that made that family like that. It's me that did that. It's the grace of God that did that. And he said, I just want to show off.
[41:03] Can I read the verse to you before we close? Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 10. Here's what he says. Devil. Hey devil, come here. Come here devil. Let me show you something, buddy.
[41:15] Check him out. You say, that's not what that's saying. He actually did that in the book of Job. In the book of Job, he was there and the devil was there and Jesus, Jesus, God looked at the devil and he said, hey, have you ever noticed my man, Job?
[41:31] Have you ever checked him out? He said, yeah, I know him. And God says, good, ain't he? He's a good man. Loves me, don't he? Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Go ahead and tell the truth. The devil said, well, of course he does because everything about him, you just protect him and bless him.
[41:45] So no wonder he loves you. God said, that ain't why he loves me. He loves me because he loves me. He loves me because I loved him. He loves me because I made him who he is. And the devil said, well, yeah, but you know, he's so protected.
[41:56] The devil said, and God said, go out there. You can kill his family, do anything you want to him. He'll still love me. Now his 10 kids are dead and all his riches are gone. And his wife says to him, won't you curse God and die?
[42:07] And he said, lady, I came in this world naked, I'm leaving naked. He's been good to me. He can take it, he can give it, but I love him. I love him. And then his friends came to his house and said, boy, God sure is working you over.
[42:23] And he said, oh, he's not. He said, you're all wrong. I don't like you. Don't like you being here. You're lousy friends. And I promise you this, I'll die someday, but I will see him.
[42:34] I will see him. He's mine. I'm his and he's mine. That's exactly what's going on. And right now in heaven, the God of heaven saying, wow.
[42:45] He calls our names. He calls the names of those that have gone before that have been saved by his grace, washed in his blood and cleansed and made new creatures. And he says, I'm a good God.
[42:59] I'm a good God. Look what I did with those messed up people. And it's good, isn't it? Amen. He said, in Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 10, he said, I want the devil to know it when he looks at the church.
[43:13] I want him to see how smart I am, how wise I am, how good I am. Are you saved? Do you know if you died, you'd go to heaven? Have you been made new?
[43:25] Are you a trophy of his grace? Can you say, man, if you just knew me before Jesus, if you can't, today's the day you ought to get saved. And if you are saved, man, you ought to fall in love with Jesus.
[43:37] Love him with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your body. Love him with everything about you. If you're saved, you ought to want to do what he wants because it's his church. Matthew 16, 18, he said, I will build my church.
[43:50] I will build my church. And he said, devil, check out how good I am. Trophies of my grace. With your heads bowed and your eyes closed, let's pray. Father, thank you for the opportunity to be in your house today.
[44:02] Thank you for the opportunity to talk to these wonderful people. I know I don't deserve it. I know that I am nothing but saved by your grace. But I pray you would deal with hearts and draw people to you.
[44:13] I pray you'd save somebody. I pray you'd change somebody's life. And I pray that something great would happen in somebody's heart today. I pray that Christians would fall more in love with you and more in love with your church.
[44:25] And I will give you praise. This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfredo, Georgia. For more information, log on to www.visionbaptist.com where you can find our service times, location, contact information, and more audio and video recordings.
[44:42] Thanks. Saturday AIDS LEGO