I found over Christmas, I get nerdy Christmas presents.
My nerdy Christmas present this year was a scanner.
You know what I'm talking about?
A desktop scanner for my house, I know.
Pretty cool, I love it.
And I have a bunch of old pictures that I had never scanned
and so I spent some of my time over Christmas
scanning pictures and I found this old picture.
There's like three of them, here's the first one.
This is Park Street Baptist Church.
It was the church my dad became the pastor at
when I was nine years old.
I think 20 people or so voted on him being the pastor.
And I know that this is kind of a year or two into it
because the parking lot, you can barely see it there,
but the parking lot that's there is an actual
like concrete parking lot.
When we got there, it was a crushed shell driveway.
The whole parking lot was old shells
and they were like white chalky and they would get all over.
It was like getting salt on your clothes, but it was that.
And I would get in a lot of mess because we go outside
and play, but anyway, we got to a parking lot.
There's another picture, this is like the other side of it.
There it is from the other side.
That building is no longer there.
They built another building on top of that.
That's my brother and I, Shadrack, sitting.
I'm the cute one.
You laughed really hard.
Okay, that's Shadrack and me and we're both wearing
matching basketball ties, which is pretty cool,
but that's on the stage of that particular thing.
And then I found this picture, this is just because for fun,
that's us going out to eat after church.
The one on the left with the pizza is me.
The one on the right, the middle there is my brother Shad.
Doesn't that look like Zeke?
I think that looks like Zeke.
But that's my brother Shad.
And on the right, do you see who that is on the right?
You guys know who that is?
That is Corey Kirschner on the right-hand side.
Not the Indian, the little boy right there.
That's Corey.
I think it's, we kind of voted, didn't we?
I'm pretty sure that's Corey.
Anyway, who likes going out to eat after church?
That's always fun, isn't it?
Yeah.
I say I like to say that like going to church has been a habit
for me for a long, long time.
In our family, if the church doors were open,
you went to church.
If there was somebody there on a Thursday vacuuming,
we sat in our place and watched the vacuum
because you're supposed to be in church.
That's a joke, that didn't really happen.
But going to church is an important thing.
But when you think about the word church,
and I've taught you some of this before,
but it's good to think about.
In English, we use the word church.
And when you think about the word church,
you often think about church as an institution.
You think about church as a building.
We use that language.
Hey, it's time to go to church, right?
And when we say that, we're saying we're going to a service
and a service time.
We're going to a location.
Anybody here know the address for this place?
Quick.
Hey, there's a bunch of you.
You know the address, 7839 County Road 236,
Finley, Ohio 45840.
We know that because we come here, we mail stuff here,
and we know how to get here, that's part of it.
But we also know that from a biblical perspective,
the word church is translated in English.
It really comes from the word eglacia,
which means assembly, right?
Assembly.
And it means it's a group of people that come together.
It's a group of people that assemble together.
And so as you think about Jesus,
and you think about what he did with the church
and how he thinks about the church,
the assembly, you know what assemblies do?
Assemblies assemble.
They come together, right?
They spend time with each other.
They do things together.
And this is really a pattern that Jesus showed.
This is a pattern of behavior that he had.
And I think we can be followers,
mimics, mimitates, imitators of Jesus,
in assembling by taking into account
his attitude and actions in assembling.
That's really the big idea for tonight,
is that we can do that.
Now, I know that some of this will be reviewed
for a lot of you, but I hope that you have a heart
for this particular idea,
and that you evaluate your own life and why you come
and what we're doing as a result of this particular lesson.
And so let's go ahead and go to the Lord in prayer,
and then we'll get into the text tonight.
God, we love you so much.
I thank you for,
I thank you for your word,
and I thank you for this idea,
this mystery that was once not revealed
and has been revealed of this church,
the assembly, this thing that you died for,
this thing that you love.
And I pray that you'd help us to follow you,
to imitate you in your love for us
and our love for each other.
And I pray that as a result of the lesson tonight,
that this wouldn't just be whole-hummed,
that this wouldn't be something that I've heard this before,
but I pray that it would be a time
where folks would really evaluate their own heart
in and around this thing that we call the assembly,
the church.
I pray that you'd help us to do that.
We love you, in Jesus' name, amen.
Okay, so attitudes and actions of Jesus.
Usually I like to go to a text and stay in a text,
but tonight I'm gonna go to a bunch of different texts
and I hope this helps you.
Number one, we see this, that Christ's habit was assembling,
his habit of assembly.
It should be our custom, it should be our habit too.
In Luke chapter four, verse number 16, it says this,
Pastor Corey read it last week in his message,
but I think it bears repeating.
It says, talking about Jesus,
and he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up.
This is his hometown, these are the people that knew him.
And as his custom was, say that with me,
as his custom was, as his custom was,
he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day
and stood up for to read.
We see here that obviously the synagogue
and the church are two different things, right?
But the synagogues, these local bodies of people
who are following God and trying to worship God
as they understood it from the Old Testament
were groups of people that would meet
and they would praise, they would sing, they would read,
and someone would stand up and give the sense
over what was read.
They didn't have books like we have them today.
In fact, I was listening to some research here
in the last couple of days that talked about
some of the differences between a lot of the Jews.
And when Christians started writing the original text
of the New Testament, making copies of manuscripts,
that they would do it on the front and the back.
And a lot of times that ended up getting to where
it was codex like book form.
They didn't have, back in Jesus' day, they had scrolls.
And so in a lot of the synagogues,
they would have some portions and they would bring
that portion out.
And in fact, that's what happens in this particular narrative
where it's brought out and Jesus reads from that scroll.
That's what they did.
And that should be our custom too.
Like when we ought to have a habit,
I feel like I'm speaking to the choir here tonight,
but we ought to have a habit of coming to church.
At church we sing, we read the scripture,
somebody stands up and says, this is what the scripture says.
And I think part of what we're trying to do,
and we're gonna talk about this later,
but we wanna be different after we've met.
We wanna change, we wanna make right decisions when we meet.
In fact, that's what it says in Hebrews chapter 10,
24 and 25.
Christ has his habit, it should be our habit.
He says in verse 24,
and let us consider one another to revoke unto love
and to good works,
not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together
as the manner of some is,
but exhorting one another and so much the more
as you see the day approaching.
The writer of Hebrews, I've preached on this to you before.
He says, hey, when you should be together,
you should be assembling together,
you should be coming together.
What do you do when you come together?
You provoke one another to love and to good works,
and you don't stop doing that, don't forsake doing that.
The assembly assembles, you ought to come together,
you ought to assemble,
and you ought to encourage that word, exhort,
encouraging one another so much the more
as you see the day, meaning the day of the Lord approaching.
Who thinks Jesus is coming back, Sam?
I think he's coming back very soon.
So it's important for us to know each other,
to love each other, to be with each other,
and to hear the word of God proclaimed,
and we ought to respond to it.
So Christ's habit of assembling should be our custom.
Christ's pattern when assembling, it should be our pattern.
Now I've already kind of referenced to it,
going on from verse 16 in Luke chapter four, it says this,
and there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah,
and when he had opened the book,
he found the place where it was written,
the spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor,
he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives,
the recovery of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty them that are bruised,
to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
And he closed the book and he gave it again
to the minister and sat down,
and the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue
were fastened on him, and he began to say unto them,
this day is the scripture fulfilled in your ears.
I love this passage of scripture, it goes on,
they try to kill him, it's kind of a rough thing.
But who agrees that if Jesus showed up to church,
he'd be the one preaching?
Okay, he'd be the one coming up and giving the sense.
Like at that point, the preaching calendar
does not matter, Jesus is gonna do that.
And he showed up and what did he do when he got there?
Like many of the rabbis that would teach,
he would, in the Sabbath day, they would get,
they would open up the word of God,
and he would give the sense,
and that's exactly what happened here.
I just wanna say this out loud, I know you expect this,
I know that you long for this, so many of you that come,
I hope you're not just coming for the social aspect,
you wanna come and hear the word of God.
It's the word of God, I want to preach to you,
not my own thoughts only.
In fact, I want my thoughts to be guided by God's thoughts,
I want to say, thus saith the Lord.
This isn't like Ben's ideas, these are God's ideas.
I want Pastor Cory and Pastor Miles.
I want every Sunday school teacher that gets up
to open the Bible and use the Bible.
And when I say use it, I mean,
make it plain, explain it, help us understand it,
and apply it to our lives.
That's the pattern of what Jesus would do
when he would assemble.
Now, something was different about Jesus.
The many that heard Jesus says,
he's like one that speaks of his own authority.
He definitely saw the Old Testament as an authority,
he would quote the Old Testament passages
as authoritative as they are the word of God.
But there were times that he would say,
you have heard it said, but then he would say,
I say unto you, you've heard it said,
but I say unto you, and then he would go on
and give his explanation.
That's because he's the word.
That's because he is able to give new revelation
and he certainly would do that.
And so that ought to be the pattern for us,
not that we give new revelation,
but that we take God's revelation and we make it clear,
we make it plain.
That's what we do when we assemble.
Number three, we see Christ's love for the assembly.
Now, before I move on to number three,
even though I just did, Christ's pattern was assembling,
what should our pattern be?
It should be in assembling, our pattern should be,
we're opening up the Bible and we're talking about it.
That's the pattern.
Number three, Christ's love for the assembly.
Christ's love for the assembly.
We should have a love for the assembly.
If Christ's love and gave himself for the church,
then we ought to love and give ourselves for the assembly.
Verse Ephesians chapter five, verse 22,
verse 22 here it says,
wives submit yourselves unto your own husband
as unto the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife,
even as Christ is the head of the church
and he is the savior of the body.
Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ,
so let wives be to their own husbands and everything.
Husbands, love your wives,
even as Christ also loved the church,
what is Christ feeling towards the church?
What is his action towards the church?
What is his affection?
It's love.
As Christ also loved the assembly, the church,
and gave himself for it.
How did he give himself for it?
He died on the cross.
He bore the wrath of God for you and for me.
He did it so that this church could exist.
He did it so that we can do what we're doing now.
This is why he did it.
He gave himself for it.
Why?
Verse 26, that he might sanctify and cleanse it
with the washing of water by what?
By the word.
Understand that when Jesus died,
he didn't just die so that we could be converted,
like I said this morning,
so that we could be saved.
Clearly that's part of it.
He sanctifies us.
He sets us apart if any man be in Christ,
he's a new creature.
But then he is sanctifying us how?
By the washing of the water, by the word.
He wants us to be more like him.
That he might present it to himself a glorious church,
not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
but it should be holy and without blemish.
So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies.
He that loves his wife loves himself.
For no man ever yet hated his own flesh,
but nourished it and cherished it,
even as the Lord of the church.
For we are members of his body, of his flesh,
and of his bones for this cause.
Shall a man leave his father and mother
and shall be joined into his wife,
and the two shall be one flesh.
I think it's interesting,
and we've talked about this before.
Verse number 31 says,
for this cause shall a man, this is quoting Genesis.
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother,
shall be joined to his wife,
and the two shall be one flesh.
He's talking about, when that first was said,
he was talking about how that woman was made out of man
and how that there was a help then meet for
or appropriate for Adam when Eve was made out of Adam
and brought to Adam.
And he says, when he saw that, he says,
this is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh,
she shall be called woman because she was made out of man.
And it says for this cause,
because woman was made out of man,
because woman was made for man,
and man was made for woman.
Because that's true, a man will leave his father and mother
and cleave to his wife.
Here he kind of lays out this idea
that it's, he says in verse 30,
we are members, who's we?
In verse number 30, who's we?
Go back one slide, Kevin.
So I'm in the love of their wiser own body,
he loves his wife loves himself,
no man ever yet hated his own flesh,
but nourished and cherished in it,
even as the Lord, the church,
for we are members of his body, who's we?
The church, we are members of his body.
You agree?
Christ is the head, we're the church.
We're members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
Do you see the correlation?
He's saying, Adam said, this is bone of my bone flesh
and my flesh, talking about man and woman.
Now what Paul's saying is, we, the church,
the bride of Christ are members of his body,
of his flesh, and of his bones.
The two have come together to make one, right?
And he says, for this cause, now referencing,
what not man and woman only, but Christ in the church.
Do you get it?
For this cause, shall a man leave his father or mother,
shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall be one flesh.
Okay, Paul, are you talking about Adam and Eve?
Are you talking about Christ in the church?
And he says, this is a great mystery,
but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
Just so you understand why I'm quoting Genesis,
it's because God always had in mind to picture,
through a husband and wife, Christ and the church.
It's something that they didn't understand
until now, I'm getting to say it.
Now I'm getting to show you, Christ loved us so much,
and the picture of that is, a husband and a wife
loving each other, sacrificially loving each other.
And so he says, verse 33,
nevertheless, let every one of you in particular,
so love his wife even as himself.
And the wife see that she reverence her husband.
The perfect picture of a husband is Jesus.
He would not ask us to do something that he did not do.
And what did Jesus do for the church?
Verse 33, he loved the church even as himself.
Does that blow your mind?
Christ loves you.
He loves me.
And the wife see that she reverence her husband.
The wife see that she respect her husband,
that she submits to her husband.
And so, I'm not trying to teach you about marriage tonight,
although I am trying to teach you about marriage tonight.
What am I trying to say?
Point to the church.
It's not just me.
Everybody point, come on, let's do it, let's do it.
We're going over people who haven't joined yet,
but basically, I'm joking.
This is the church, right?
Christ loved the church and gave himself for it.
Who am I to love?
Let's point to the same people, right?
It's supposed to love the church.
It's an important thing.
Number four, I think this is important.
Number four, Christ's attitude towards assembling
and towards the assembly, towards the church.
Number four, Christ started the assembly.
That means we should be on his mission.
The assembly ought to be on his mission.
It's his church.
He started it.
It ought to be on his mission.
Matthew 16, 13, when Jesus came into the coast of Caesarea
Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying,
whom do men say that I, the Son of man, am?
And they said, some say that our John the Baptist,
some say Elias, talking about Elijah,
and others say Jeremiah's or one of the prophets.
He says unto him, but whom say, unto them,
whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said,
thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
And Jesus answered and said unto him,
blessed art thou, Simon Barjona,
for flesh and blood has not revealed to thee,
but my Father wish is in heaven.
And I say also unto thee, thou art Peter,
and upon this rock I will build my church, my assembly,
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Interesting that Jesus, when you think about the word assembly,
Jesus essentially says, hey, my assembly is gonna be built
on this idea, what is the idea?
He says, the idea is, verse 16, it's what Peter said,
it's what Little Stone said,
thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Amen?
For you to be the true church, for you to be,
we believe in a regenerate church membership,
what do we mean?
That saved people are part of the church.
Unsafe people are part of the church, right?
So if you believe that Jesus is the Christ,
the Son of the living God, if that is your profession,
if that is your trust, then you are a part of Christ,
you're a part of his body, you're a part of the church.
And he says, to Peter, upon this rock,
I will build my church and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it.
This church is this assembly.
When Jesus ascends to heaven and there is the assembly
of people in the upper room that are then indwelled
by the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, okay?
And they are now empowered as that body of believers
in that upper room.
Let me ask you a question.
How did they all get there?
How did they get there?
Did Jesus have something to do with assembling
that assembly?
Absolutely, if it wasn't for Jesus,
they wouldn't be assembled anymore.
In fact, that's what happened.
And so he had that assembly, he helped them believe in him,
they trusted in him, because they were there together,
they were filled with that Holy Spirit
and then he had commissioned them
and that's what they went out and did.
And so the Great Commission is our mission,
that's what we do.
Number five, here's the last one.
Oh, before I, I'm so excited about moving on, let's pause.
If his mission was to build his church on the earth
and it's by believing in Jesus Christ
that we all go to heaven,
then we don't get to like choose
what our mission is gonna be as a church.
Does that make sense?
We don't get to vote on what our mission is gonna be.
What's our mission?
We glorify God, we do it in this church age
by reaching people, discipling people
and sending people out to minister.
That's what we do, it's called the Great Commission.
That is our mission.
Can we vote on that?
Who votes with me?
Come on, I said we can't vote on it
but we should just like all admit
that that's what we're trying to do.
Okay, very good.
Number five, number five, Christ's assumption was assembling.
Christ's assumption was assembling, it should be defended.
Matthew chapter 18, I love this.
Jesus is talking and he says,
Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee,
go and tell him his fault between him and thee alone,
if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother,
if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more
that in the mouth of two or three,
when it says every word may be established.
And if he shall neglect to hear them,
tell it to the church.
Tell it to the church, tell it to the assembly.
What is he saying?
My point in bringing this up is this,
that Jesus assumed there's already been an assembly
that started and he's telling his disciples,
this is how you're gonna do life together
as part of the assembly.
If there's a problem, one on one,
if he doesn't hear you two or three,
and if he doesn't hear you,
then you take it to the assembly.
What is he trying to say?
You're gonna be a part of an assembly.
You get it?
You're gonna be part of a church.
But if he neglect to hear the church,
let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican, right?
And so then Peter,
down in verse 20 says,
down in verse 21,
then Peter came to him and said,
Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me
and I forgive him till seven times?
Jesus said to him, I say none of thee until seven times,
but until 70 times seven.
I think it's interesting that right after Jesus teaches
about church discipline,
being disciplined in the body,
like dealing with people in the body,
that Peter goes, well, how often do we have to do this?
How often do we need to forgive?
You know why?
Because when people get together in a symbol,
we mess up.
Anybody ever been offended by somebody at church, right?
You're like, oh, nobody wants to raise their hands, right?
Generally when you're offended, you're offended by people,
right?
People are flawed, people are messed up.
And sometimes at church, your expectations are high
because we're all supposed to be Christians,
and act christianly.
And sometimes Christians don't act like Christians,
and all God's people said, oh me, right?
Sometimes I don't always act like a Christian.
And it's in that assembly,
we ought to love each other and care about each other
and forgive each other.
That's true from every leadership position
on down to the youngest kid we got.
We ought to forgive each other and love each other.
So, what were our points?
What was Jesus' attitude and actions?
Actions, when he was here on the church,
he had a habit of assembly.
He would get together, he would come together.
That was his custom.
His pattern in it was that he would do what they taught
him to do and what he wanted in the assembly.
He wanted people to preach the word and make it clear.
It's clear that his attitude towards the assembly
was that he loved it.
It should have our affection too.
Christ started the assembly, he had a mission for it.
We don't get to change his mission, we do his mission.
Amen.
And the number five, his assumption was
that this thing, this assembly that was going to be started
was gonna continue on until he raptures it out one day.
Amen.
And so we ought to be unified in that.
All of that stuff, hopefully that you, amen,
and you believe.
Let me give you some tips, okay?
These are some things that I think ought to govern
the way you think about this thing that we do
called assembling, okay?
Here's just some things that I just wrote down.
I'm like, this is like what we need to do
when we come together, okay?
When you come to assemble with the assembly,
let me give you some things you ought to be thinking.
Number one, look for somebody to encourage.
You ever need encouragement?
In fact, in Hebrews he said,
don't forsake the assembling of the selves together, right?
But provoke and love into good works.
One of the things that I have the privilege
and the honor of doing as the pastor
is trying to help people when they're going through difficult.
I think that's a good thing.
Is trying to help people when they're going through difficulty.
And I see people come into church
and everybody thinks that they're doing great
and I know they're not doing great.
And everybody that says fine when you say how are you
is not fine.
It's a greeting.
They're not lying and they're just saying,
hey, yeah, doing good.
Good to see you.
They're being positive.
But not everybody is doing fine.
Sometimes life is hard.
And so if you need encouragement
and I need encouragement and we need encouragement,
you know how it's gonna happen?
It happens when we actually decide
I'm gonna be in encouragement.
I'm gonna look for someone to encourage.
So when you come to church,
here's my, this isn't a mandate.
This is now my opinion.
Okay, I'm telling you when there's no like command
from the Lord that says what I'm about to say,
but I think the spirit of it's there.
Don't just come in and plop down and fold your arms
and go, well, somebody bless me.
Right?
I think it's good that when the service is about to start,
don't just plop down, go sit with somebody,
go talk to somebody, go ask them how they're doing
in such a way that they know you actually care
about the answer.
It's not just a greeting.
Hey, how are you?
What's going on with, didn't you have a surgery or something?
You know, how's your wife?
How's your husband actually dig in?
I wanna know how you're doing.
Can I, how cool would it be to pray with each other
in between the pews?
That happens around here a lot.
So look for someone to encourage.
Number two, their bullet points.
So the second bullet point.
Look for places and people to serve.
Jesus said, I came not to be minister unto,
but to minister, to give my life a ransom for many.
He said to his disciples, the greatest among you
shall be your servant.
And it doesn't have to be a position,
it can just be an attitude.
Hey, how can I help?
How can I, how can I help what's going on around here?
How can I help the body?
Not just the institution, not just the programming.
How can I help the people in my church community?
How can I do that?
Here's the third one.
Look for a decision to make.
What do I mean?
Teaching and preaching are similar, very, very similar,
but also sometimes different.
I think inherent in the preaching of God's word
is this idea that I'm trying to call you to a decision.
I'm not just trying to inform you of what to know,
I'm trying to help you to grow in obedience.
Does that make sense?
And so that means that when we come to church,
when we listen to the word of God,
what we're trying to do is, okay,
this is what the word of God says
is my life matching up to that.
Do I need to make a decision to repent?
Do I need to make a decision to obey?
What do I need to do?
That needs to be your attitude every time
you come to the church.
Here's a fourth bullet, ready?
This again, not command.
I just think that this is an attitude thing
that can be really helpful, okay?
Do this in the right area.
Number four, take notes.
Take notes.
Here's what I mean.
What's the point?
What is the point of preaching?
What's the point of Bible teaching?
The point of Bible teaching is Bible obedience, right?
The point of it is life transformation.
Do you agree with me?
We're not just learning it to know it,
we're learning it to obey it.
And for that to transform our lives.
Okay, not trying to be critical.
If you feel like I'm talking about you,
I'm not because I don't have anybody in mind, okay?
I'm not talking about you.
But which person seems like they're more engaged
and more eager for life transformation?
This guy?
I don't have a pen, where's my pen?
This guy.
Who seems more engaged?
Right?
The one who's ready to like, okay, what does the word say?
I've got my Bible, I'm listening.
Which one's more engaged?
The second one, clearly.
Why do I put blanks in your bulletin?
I wanna prompt you to like, write some of this down.
If you write it down, you might actually end up doing it.
I don't know.
Does that make sense?
Remember like, who's, this they have this,
I understand now that Bob Evans is an Ohio thing,
but we had it in Florida.
Who's been to Bob Evans the last month?
Okay, cool.
At the Bob Evans in St. Pete, Florida,
years and years ago, I remember this,
they would put the mugs for coffee out, right?
And when they put the mugs in the saucers out,
they would put the mugs on the table,
like pre-put them there,
and the mug would be on its top, right?
It would be flipped over, right?
And what did you do if you wanted coffee?
You flipped it over, right?
You're telling the server, hey, I want coffee.
And all guys, people said, amen.
Turn it over, right?
If you don't flip it over, you won't get anything.
If you keep it on the top, you don't get anything, right?
And there's a sense in which when you're like,
when you're ready to receive,
when you're ready to study, you're here,
you're taking notes, what you're kind of doing,
I want, behavior doesn't change your heart,
the heart affects the behavior.
Does that make sense?
But in a sense, what you're doing
is you're flipping that cup over.
God, I want to get something today.
God, I want to be different today
because of what's being taught.
There's a lot more attendance than there is obedience.
I want to be affected by what God's doing here,
what God's saying here.
So taking notes is not the end all be all.
I'm not saying if you take notes, then you're a good Christian.
There's some people that never take a note in the world
and they are obedient and growing.
That's not the point, but the point is
to turn that cup over, okay?
Now I lost all my sermon notes.
Here we go.
Next one.
I literally dropped all my notes.
I don't know where they are.
Here we go.
Next one, Kev.
Sing loud.
Is singing just the thing we do to get to the preaching?
When we're singing, we're trying to make our melodies
and our hearts to the Lord.
We're trying to prepare our hearts
for the rescuing of God's word.
You're like, but I'm not very good at singing.
Who cares?
Maybe the people around you, maybe they care, okay.
But sing, this is about Jesus, this is about the Lord.
Sing out.
Again, it's an attitude thing.
Then the last one.
I think it's the last one.
Oh no, two more things, respond to the invitation.
Respond to the invitation.
You want to get a lot out of it?
Who thinks it's a good thing when people respond?
Yeah.
Have you ever judged somebody?
Man, I'm glad they're going down, they need it.
Have you ever done that?
You don't have to say yes or no.
If you've done that, you need to come down.
Okay.
It shouldn't be, oh man, finally they're done.
It should be praise the Lord, they have the courage
to make a decision for the Lord, right?
And so, hey, it's a good thing to respond to the invitation.
Last one.
Bring a guest.
You want to hear the sermon differently?
You want to experience everything differently
than just another old Sunday at church?
Have someone who's lost sitting next to you.
Have someone who's lost their mind.
Have someone who doesn't know Christ sitting next to you.
All of a sudden you realize the stakes just went way up,
right?
And you know what happens when people hear the word of God?
They're far more likely to respond to it
than if they had never heard it before.
You want to experience something incredible?
Sit next to a lost person.
I remember years ago we had a Muslim lady
that we were working on that we were inviting to church
and she finally came, she finally came to class
and we were talking on that day about Isaac and Ishmael.
And I remember thinking, oh man, I wonder if she understands
and I'm talking about fight between the Jews
and now the Muslims that are happening now,
like that's where it started.
Just life is different, church is different
when you are experiencing it, when you're on mission
and it's happening right then.
And so you pray different, hey God,
would you help Pastor Ben not to mess up today?
Help him to be clear, because this person
doesn't know Jesus as Savior.
Who thinks it's important to bring guests to church?
Yeah, so man, imagine if you prepared your heart
before you came, if you look for somebody
who encouraged when you show up,
it's not about you, it's about everybody else.
That you look for places to serve,
you're looking for people to impact,
you're looking to be changed as you show up,
you're looking for God to fill up your cup, right?
To give you something to live in.
And you're writing that down and when it's time to sing,
you're singing because it's not about you, it's about him.
And you're trying to give him praise and glory.
And when there's a decision to make,
you're responding even at the invitation
and sometimes you even bring someone
that needs to hear it with you.
Man, if that was the way that you approached assembling
when the doors come open, man,
we'd have to build new buildings around here.
We would, maybe we were gonna do that anyway.
We'd have to do more, because I believe God would show up
because he'd have our hearts.
And when he has our hearts, then he affects our hands
and our feet and our mouth.
And there's a whole lot of people that need Jesus.
There's a whole lot of people in this town that need Jesus.
And we can do that.
We can help reach them with the power of the Holy Spirit
when we work together as the assembly.
Would you buy her the...