(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Now, in 2013, a day we live in, a lot of people don't treat coming to church or being in church as very important. A lot of people think that, oh, it's not that big of a deal and there's all these different types of excuses not to come to church. There's people, you know, I'm busy, I've got work, you know, there's no church that's really good enough, or whatever, you know. Some people like to say, oh, well, two or three are gathered in my name, they're nearby in the midst and just say, okay, well, when I'm gathered just with some other people who are saved, then that's our church, even though there's like no real Bible study even going on anyways. But even if it is just a Bible study, it's still not church. And I've even heard, I was out soloing and I've heard recently, and it's just kind of weird, it's kind of struck me as a little bit weird, more than one person, a few people already told me, like, well, you know, the end times are here, the world's going to end soon, and just, I've had it with churches and I'm done, and just like, you know, they're just waiting for the end to come. And what we see here in Hebrews 2, look down at verse number 23, it says, let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful, that promise, and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as a matter of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching. So here, it's saying, as you see the day approaching, look, you need to be in church more, so much the more as the day approaches. And it was just kind of odd, I heard people thinking that, like, well, they're getting out of church because they think the day is approaching because the end times are here. And, but the Bible is exhorting us here, and it's going to be real stern too, because, you know, it says here first that we need to consider, consider one another. You know, a church is a congregation of people. You don't have to turn there, but there's in Hebrews 2 12, the Bible says, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. And that was a quote from Psalm 22 22, which says, I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee. The Bible interchanges the word church and congregation, congregation is just a group of people meeting together. It's, you know, the congregation that is the church is Bible believing Christians, people who have received, who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know, those that have been baptized and just are typically part of the church and know, and the congregation is a congregation of believers and your church isn't just about one person. It's not about just the pastor or whatever. A church is about everybody. It's a whole group. A whole group makes up a church. I mean, ultimately church is about Jesus Christ, but, but it's, the focus should never be on just one person in church because it's everybody. And that's why it says in verse 24 there in Hebrews 10, let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works. So, you know, part of the reason we come together in church is to provoke one another unto love and to good works. You know, you're going to need that encouragement, that edification that you get from other people within the church. You know, you make friends, you get to know people a little bit, and that's going to rub off on you. And that's going to impact your walk with Christ. And that's one of the reasons why church is so important. And it says, you know, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, not forsaking the congregation as the manner of some is, there's a lot of people that that's just their manner. They don't want to go to church. They, you know, they have other things they want to do, but it says exhorting one another and so much the more, as you see it approaching, it's so much more important to be in church today than it was five years ago and 10 years ago or a hundred years ago because the day is approaching. It's getting, we're getting closer and closer to end times and we know that perilous times are going to come. We know that tribulation is going to come upon us. It's going to be a great tribulation. You're going to need church more than ever during those times as the day is approaching, man, you need to make sure you're in church more and more. You're going to need to know, Hey, these are, you know, these are some Christian friends that I have. These are people I rely on when things get really bad. You know, these people can help to lift me up, you know, spiritually or even help you out physically if there's other needs that you have. These are people that you're going to be able to rely on and help you in these times of trouble and they're going to be able to encourage you to live for God, to do good works and to do the things that we're supposed to do because I'll tell you what, if you're out of church, most likely you're going to be around the world and you're just going to be around people of the world and other people who aren't, who don't have their mind focused on Christ and don't treat church as being an important and that's going to rub off on you. And I'll tell you what, you walk with God is going to, is going to start to stray. And I know this, I know this firsthand from experience. I mean, I got saved when I was 20 years old and yeah, I got saved just like anyone gets saved. I put my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and that was it. He sealed me with the Holy Ghost and it was done deal. Now a little bit, I tried to get into church a little bit, but I didn't really stick with it very long. And I'll tell you what, when I got out of church, I was thinking like, well, I don't need to go to church because I could just read the Bible. I'll just read it for myself and I'll understand what it says. I don't need to go to church. And you know what? That lasted for about two days where I was like, you know what? I'm just going to, I'm going to read the Bible on my own. I started reading the Bible and it just stopped and you know, the flesh, I was still really worldly. I liked doing a lot of partying and other things I was doing. And you know what? The Bible reading got less and less really fast and the way that I was living my life before was just exactly the same way I continued to live my life. And it continued that way for years and years and years. Yeah. There were some times where I thought, you know what, you know, I really got to get back into the Bible. I really got to, you know, study. I really got to learn this. I really got to improve my relationship with God and you know, it's heartfelt, honestly. And I'd take, you know, a night or again, it would last maybe a week. I'd be like, okay, I'm really going to dig into the Bible and I'm going to read. Again, without anyone else around when I was forsaking the assembling, it doesn't last. Those types of things. All it takes is this one thing and you're out and then you don't even think about it again. You get distracted with the cares of this world. Now church is extremely important for many reasons. We're going to go through a bunch of them. We're just going to explain why the church is so important. Go ahead and turn to Matthew chapter 16. Well no, don't turn there. Turn to Acts chapter 20. In Matthew 16, Jesus Christ, I'm going to stop reading verse 16 for you guys. We'll turn to Acts chapter 20. The Bible says, And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered him and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood is not revealed unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also 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, 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 loose in heaven. Jesus Christ founded the church upon the rock, upon himself. Now the Catholics will get this wrong and they'll say that Peter is the first pope. He's the father of the church. And that couldn't be further from the truth. They'll try to say that they're popes, you can't be married and all this other stuff. Peter was married. That's why it says that Jesus healed Peter's mother-in-law when she was sick and had a fever. And Peter was married. We're not Catholic. You know, a Catholic, the word itself means universal. And when I grew up in a Presbyterian church and I had to learn and recite, it's called the Apostles' Creed. And it's just we believe in God the Father, you know, the mayor of heaven and earth, and Jesus Christ is, you know, the whole thing. And I don't remember all of it verbatim. But I know a lot of it. And part of it, and I always thought this was weird, but I never understood it. I didn't even know what the word Catholic meant or anything. It says we believe in the holy Catholic church, in that Apostles' Creed that as a Presbyterian, as a reformed Catholic, we were supposed to memorize and recite this and chant this as something that we supposedly believe. The word Catholic means universal. I'll tell you what, the universal church does not exist. That's why the Bible over and over again refers to churches, the church at Galatia, the church at Ephesus, you know, the church at Thyatira, the church at Smyrna. All over the place there's individual unique churches that all have elders and bishops that operate and help to run those churches. And we do not believe in this Catholic, in this universal church. And there's so many movements today out there that are trying to bring everyone together under one big umbrella and basically just make one big church and just say, well, you know, we're all Christians, we're all saints, we're all part of a church. No, that's impossible just knowing the definition that we all went over earlier, that a church is a congregation. Now the only way you're going to have a universal church is if everyone in the universe was gathered together in one place. That would be a universal church. So this doctrine is a false doctrine out there trying to just do this ecumenical, just bringing everybody together and really bringing in, you know, ties that don't belong there, they don't exist. You know, we have a local individual church and not until we're all gathered together in heaven or Jesus Christ comes out in the rain is when we're really going to have all the believers together in one place and have that complete church. So that's just a false doctrine. It's a Catholic doctrine and we reject that here. Now you're in Acts chapter 20. Look at verse number 28. Just to show you the importance of church, Acts 20-28, the Bible says, Jesus Christ purchased the church with his own blood. The church was so important to Jesus Christ, he shed his blood. Yes, he shed his blood for our remission of sins, but he shed his blood, he purchased the church of God for himself. It's extremely, we shouldn't forsake that. Don't take that lightly that Jesus Christ shed his blood for the church of God. And this is an exhortation to the overseers. They said the Holy Ghost has made you overseers to feed the church of God. People are supposed to come into church and be fed. And what it's talking about, it's not just talking about, you know, food. It's not saying, oh yeah, here's a hamburger, you know. We're not feeding you food. We're feeding you with God's word, with the manna of God's word. With the bread of life. The Bible has those words and, you know, we don't even necessarily have to understand it, but there's definitely a reason that God has an importance on the church and that people that come here are supposed to be able to learn from the preaching, from God's word. And, you know, when you're going to church, there ought to be a lot of Bible being used because that's where the truth is coming from and that's what's going to really feed you and help you to grow as a Christian. Now the Bible says that the church is actually a body and Christ is the head. In Ephesians 1, you don't have to turn there, in Ephesians 1 verse 20 the Bible reads, Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this world but also in that which is to come, and hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the church. Which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all. And go ahead and turn to Colossians chapter number 1. It says in Ephesians 1, it says that basically it's given to Christ, he's given to be the head over all things to the church. So Christ is the head of this church and the church it says which is his body. So the church is part of the body of Christ. So when you come here and you gather together with believers and you congregate and you listen to the preaching, we're part of the body of Christ. We have the Holy Ghost living inside us, Jesus Christ lives in your heart and when we come together here, we make up the body of Christ. That's part of what the church is for. Jesus Christ is the head, he's the one given the directions, he's the one that has all the wisdom and he's the one that directs us. And the body, the rest of the body is the arms, the legs, these things are the ones that do the work. We're here to do the work for Jesus Christ. We are marching orders from God, we are marching orders from the Bible, from the head, from Jesus Christ. And he tells us that we need to go out and do the work. And in order to do the work, we need to clean up our sinful lives and do the things according to the Bible. So we come in here, we come into church, we get edified, we hear the directions from the head, and we can go out and do those things that we need to do. Look at Colossians 1 verse 18, again it's saying the same thing. Verse 18 of chapter 1 of Colossians, And he is the head of the body, the church, again emphasizing the body is the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. Now skip down to verse 24 because this is the Apostle Paul speaking here, that he counted it, he was happy, and here he is rejoicing in his sufferings for the church. Look at verse 24, Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ and my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church. Paul's counting it, he's rejoicing, and he's happy that he's able to suffer for the benefit of the church. Now Paul thought it was that important that it didn't matter what he went through, it didn't matter the afflictions that he was suffering, and the pain, and the things that he had to endure, because he's helping out the church. And you know what, not everybody has that same attitude. Some people come to church and just give me, give me, give me, give me, give me. They just want to be fed and go home and do whatever. But in order to be a proper member of the church, we ought to all have Paul's attitude here, to where he's rejoicing in his sufferings, and he's going through sufferings. Obviously if he's rejoicing in sufferings, he's going through something, and he's going through sufferings to be helping out Christ's body, to be helping out the church. And that's the way we're going to have a great church, is when people are coming in and looking out for one another, and willing to go through pain and affliction maybe, to better Christ's body, to better the church. Now another aspect of the church in Ephesians 3, chapter 3, verse 20, it says, Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without men, and Amen. A lot of people like to say, well, we're living in the church age. And they'll say, you know, it's dispensational, and people of the Old Testament were saved through their sacrifices, and the blood of bulls and of goats, and that now we're in the church age, and then the end time is going to be another age. That's nonsense. Verse 21, Ephesians 3 says, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without end, Amen. All ages, the church was made for all ages. Those in the past and those going into the future. Even Moses was in the church, and Acts 7, verse 37 says, that this is that Moses which said unto the children of Israel, Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me, him shall ye hear. He's prophesying of Jesus Christ. This is he that was in the church in the wilderness. So if we're in the church age right now, only in the New Testament, how is it that Moses was in the church in the wilderness? The church was for all ages. The church is supposed to be throughout all ages, and the church will always be. It's a congregation of believers, people who believe in the Lord, people who believe on Jesus Christ. Now that's just a little bit of a history, and just kind of explaining why, you know, from the Bible, how God views the church, and how Paul viewed the church, and you know, Jesus Christ founded the church with his blood, and he founded it on himself, and he loves the church, and it's part of his body, and he wants you to do better. Now, as I mentioned earlier, you know, people give an excuse of not going to church because they can't find a good church, and they'll say, you know what, I want to go to church, I'd like to go to church, but I can't find a good church. Now, I'll admit, yes, you do have to have some kind of minimum criteria of finding a church. We all ought to have that. You can't just go into like, you know, a Pentecostal church where people are flopping on the ground and rolling in the aisles, and don't have the Spirit of God in them because they believe in a workspace salvation. You can't just go to a place where a bunch of people are meeting. If the people there aren't saved, that's not church. I mean, it might have the word church in the name, or it might save the word church on the outside of the building, but it's not a church. A church is a congregation of believers. So the first piece, probably the most important thing for a church, is obviously make sure that they're right on salvation. In order to find a church that you need to go to, they have to have the gospel right. It has to be salvation by grace through faith alone in Jesus Christ, and that, you know, you can never lose your salvation. That's critical. That's key. Otherwise, you don't have a group of believers to congregate with. The second thing that I look for is that since the, you know, church is supposed to be a place for learning and perfecting of the saints, and it's something where we go to a place where we go to learn, you need to have the word of God. You're not going to be able to learn without a word of God. That's why we put so much emphasis on the King James Bible. The King James Bible in English is the word of God, and this is something, if you're an English speaker, you shouldn't go to a church that doesn't use this because if they're using some other book, it's not the word of God. This is the word of God preserved for us today in 2013. It's God's perfectly preserved word. We have it for us today, and I'm not going to get into all the reasons why it's a whole other sermon, but if you have doubt about that, you can come and talk to me about it. I can show you all the different places in the modern versions where, not all of them. That would take way too long. I can show you some of them because it's all over the place. I mean, the whole Bible, the whole books are different. I mean, you look at them. You can do this on your own. Take one book of the Bible and just start going through it, any of them. Take any book of the Bible and just start going through it and see if you can follow along. Go side by side and read it, and you'll see how vastly different they are, and there are many places where the differences... You know, some places you can say, okay, well, it's really not that big of a deal, and it's not. It'll be minor things, but then you can look at other places where it's like, well, no, where it says that you're being saved as opposed to just you're already saved. That's a big deal, and that changes and that corrupts the word of God, so we need to look at this. We need to make sure that the church we go to is using the word of God in order to be fed, and the third thing that I look for in a church is that they do some kind of soul-winning because the church is also for the work of the ministry. It's something that we need to be doing work and going out and getting our marching orders. We need to win the loss. The church itself is going to die. If you're not reproducing, if you're not going out and getting new souls saved and reaching more people, the church is, yeah, great, okay, you're all believers, but if you're not bringing in new believers, the church is just going to fizzle out and die, and that's not a place you're going to want to be. You want to be in a church that's doing the work for God, that's going out and ministering and doing what God has for us. Those are the three things I look at, and I'll tell you what, that is not a very difficult list to find. Maybe there's some places in America, I'm sure, where smaller communities, smaller towns, where you really just have a hard time finding this, but if you can find at least these three things, maybe they're off on some doctrine. I'll tell you what, it's not worth, turn back to Hebrews 10, if you will, because I forgot to point this out. Turn back to Hebrews 10 if you're not there already. It's not worth it to forsake the assembling over some smaller issues. If you got believers there, if you got people, they got the right Bible, and they're trying to do the work for God, okay, they're going the right direction. There might be things you disagree with, but if you at least got those three things, it's not worth just forsaking and saying, well, I'm not going to church anywhere then, because they believe in a pre-trib rapture, and I'm post-trib, and I just can't listen to it, and I don't want to have anything to do with that pre-trib nonsense, so I'm just not going to go to church. You shouldn't do that, and I'll show you why. In Hebrews 10, verse 25, we saw 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. Look at verse 26, this is often used to preach on other things, but look at that first word, for. For if we sin willfully, now that's a conjunction, that's saying, okay, we just got done saying not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, then it says, for if we sin willfully, after that we receive the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries. Now, I don't think it's a coincidence that these verses are listed right after we said not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is. He links them together as saying, look, he that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses of how much sorrow or punishment supposed ye shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite under the spirit of grace. Despising the spirit of grace. You know, because this is talking about someone who's saved, it says wherewith he was sanctified. Someone who is sanctified. Someone who is washed in the blood of Jesus Christ. When you don't come to church, when you don't go and be a part of the church and be a part of the ministry, you're saying that you're trotting underfoot the Son of God. The Son of God shed his blood for the church. The Son of God did these things so that we can have this church, that we can be part of his body. And when you're not in church, you're not part of the body. You're not part of the body of Christ in that sense when we're gathered together. And it says that you've done despite under the spirit of grace. So it's not worth it over a few, maybe, of the smaller things. If you can't find, you know, a great church, but you at least got a few things there, hey, don't despise the church of God. Go be a part of the assembly. You know, try to stir people up. Maybe do some sowing. Do some work for God. You know, you can still learn. If the Bible's being preached there, if they've got the King James Bible and if someone's there with the spirit of grace, if someone's there with the spirit of God, you're going to be able to learn. It's going to be profitable for you. It might not be the best church in the world, but it still could be profitable for you. You shouldn't forsake the assembling of yourselves together. God treats us very seriously. Now go ahead and turn to Matthew chapter 13 because, you know, once you find a good church, now if you have absolutely no church at all in your area whatsoever, you can't even find those three basic requirements. And, you know, make up your own requirements. Those are the ones that I use, and I think there's very good reason for those. I think it's pretty solid, and I don't think you'll go wrong if you use that as your template to find a church. But if you don't even have that in your area, you're either going to have to drive pretty far if you can or try to move to get to a good church. I mean, church is important. Church is extremely important. Church is more important, you know, worshipping God and serving God and laying up treasures in heaven for God is way more important than anything you could do in this lifetime here as far as, you know, moving for a job, but you're moving to a place that doesn't have a good church or whatever it may be. I mean, there's lots of reasons why people decide to move and pick up and move, and I think the best reason to do that is to get involved with a good church, get involved with someone where you're going to be stirred up, and you're going to be edified, and the people there are going to help you to grow in the Lord, and you could be laying up for yourself treasures in heaven that is going to last eternally, and a good church is going to help you to do that and help you to grow and help you to do more for God. Look at Matthew 13, look at verse number 3. This is a parable of the sower. It says, And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow. And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside, and the fowls came and devoured them up. Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth, and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth. And when the sun was up, they were scorched, and because they had no root, they withered away. And Jesus Christ explains this, jump down to verse number 20. It says, But he that received the seed into stony places, this is what we were just finished up reading here in verse 5, the same as he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it. So they heard the word of God, and they receive it. They get saved, they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 21, it says, Yet hath he not root in himself, but doeth for a while, for when tribulation or persecution ariseth, because of the word, by and by he is offended. If we don't have a good solid root, we're just going to be just pushed over, we're going to be plucked up, we're not going to be able to stand when those persecutions arise, because I'll tell you what, tribulation and persecution is going to arise because of the word. Because of the word, say, the Bible offends a lot of people in this world. And when you decide, you know what, yeah, I believe the Bible, and you get saved, you put your faith on Jesus Christ, the more that comes out in your speech, the more you learn about it, and it comes through in your actions, and people start to notice that, the more you're going to start experiencing persecution or tribulation, you know, whether it be friends or family members, co-workers, whoever start to notice, and they'll pay attention to that, and the devil's going to try to get you out. He's going to try to get you to stop growing, stop learning. That's why it's important that you need to get rooted. So it says here, the reason why the people, you know, the seed that was sown in the stony places, the stony places, of course, is hard to get root. He's using this parable to explain, you know, a real phenomenon of sowing literal seed with people who hear the word of God and hear the word of God and get saved. You know, if you don't have deepness of earth, if you don't have a root, it's going to be easy just to get knocked over. And it's, you know, if you think about a plant, right, because you're starting with a seed, and that's what this parable is all about. You start with a seed. Now, the seed is going to be very susceptible to the environment. If you just throw a seed on the ground, you know, that's why when we planted grass at our house, you know, you're covering the ground with tons of seeds. Not every single one of those seeds is going to take root and actually, you know, become grass or become something else, right, whatever it is you're planting. That's why you throw a lot more seed than you actually plan on getting because not all the seeds are susceptible to the environment. You know, birds are going to come and eat them up, you know, they're just going to, whatever. There's a lot of things that can happen, not enough water, not enough sunlight. All kinds of things will happen so that the seed doesn't actually grow into a plant. But now, a lot of those seeds will. They'll start to grow and they might start to take root, but they're still very susceptible. They're, you know, they're young plants. They're just going to start any little thing. I mean, you step on them, you know, an animal comes by or whatever, walks all over them. That can ruin it and that can mess it up and then they won't end up growing to full development. But then some, like as in the parable here later on, you know, those that fall into the good ground, they grow up and they bring forth fruit. So you need to get the roots digging down and the more the roots dig into the ground, the stronger that plant becomes. You're getting more nourishment, you're getting fed more. As the roots dig down, you're getting more, you're growing, you're getting bigger and bigger. And then eventually, with enough growth, that plant will be able to reproduce again and bring forth more seeds so that the process can return again. And this is a good parable for us as believers because God likens the word of God as a seed. It's something that you receive in your heart. Now the devil comes before you even believe. He tries to take that seed away, just like a bird comes and eat those seeds on the ground. The devil doesn't want you to get saved. But once you do, when that word, you believe on the word of God and it starts to take root in your heart and a lot of people, a lot of things are gonna come and try to ruin that and mess up that seed that has been planted and that started to grow. The new spiritual being inside of you that needs to grow in the Lord is gonna, a lot of things, a lot of outside influences are gonna come to try to mess that up in order to make sure that you're doing the best you can for that seed, for that new life inside of you, that new spirit. You're gonna wanna be around the right people and you're gonna wanna be getting fed with the right nourishment from church. You're gonna be not only from church but also in your own Bible reading and prayer time with God and all these things are gonna help to strengthen and to build those roots down and you oughta find a good church where you can just get planted in. It says in Isaiah 37, 31, I love this quote. It says in Isaiah 37, 31, and the remnant that has escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward. The only way you're gonna be able to bear fruit is when you're rooted down. We need to be rooted down for one, first and foremost, and God's word and his word is be rooted in that and founded and be, because when you're rooted, think about it, you're gonna be unmovable. You don't wanna be as a weed that has very, very, very little roots, not very much at all. You just go boom, pluck them up. You find these weeds, yeah, they grow up real fast but there's nothing to them. You just pull them right out of the ground. You wanna be like that oak tree, that root structure that goes down into the ground and just goes unseen. You can't see it from above the ground but man, those roots go down. You can't move those things. I mean, you need a tremendous amount of power and force to try to uproot a big tree like that and that's the way we need to be on God's word and in church where we get rooted in place, we get grounded, we get settled and say, you know what, I'm gonna have my roots down so that when the persecutions come, when the tribulations come, when the trials come, when people come and try to bam out and say, oh man, do you go to that church? They believe thus and so. They believe that sodomites should be put to death. Do you believe that? Do you believe what the Bible says about that? Do you really believe that? And a lot of people are gonna say that they'll get offended, they'll get scared and back off and be like, no, you know, and they don't wanna face that persecution because they don't have roots. You don't have a root in the Bible. You don't have a root in church. You ought to be strengthened and nourished in the word and get to the point where your root is down so much that it doesn't matter what people say. You get, you know, the storms can come and they can beat against you. The trials, tribulations can come and you're not gonna move, right? I mean, a big severe thunderstorm, a brand new plant that grows out there, even a big enough storm can be enough to wipe that away because the roots aren't growing down deep enough. You just get enough water flowing or whatever can just carry that plant away, but it's not gonna do anything to that big tree, that big root structure. We need to get those roots down. Now, church serves multiple functions. One, it serves for edification through fellowship. Again, I spoke about this earlier where you meet people, you get to be friends with people. You edify one another because you're of the like mind. You're the like spirit. You both believe the Bible and you kind of can help each other because we all go through high points and low points in our life. I mean, different things happen to us. You might be going through a hard time. Hey, the people in church are gonna help you with that. You're gonna be able to feel better and just be comforted through the friendships and the fellowship that you're gonna have at the church and where you're interested in other people's lives and maybe someone else is going through a hard time. Hey, you wanna be there to help that person out because a lot of times they're gonna come back and help you out too. Another reason for church is to sing praises unto God. Hebrews 2-12 says, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the church we read this verse earlier, will I sing praise unto thee? Church is a place for singing praises unto God. God loves it when we sing praises unto him and God commands us even to sing praises unto him. The book of Psalms is actually a song book and it's the biggest book in the entire Bible. God wants us to sing praises to his name. He expects that. He wants us to do that and he enjoys hearing it. I don't know exactly what he thinks but I imagine that it's gotta be similar. I love to hear my little girls sing. I love it. I love it. It doesn't matter if they can carry a tune. That doesn't mean anything. I just love to hear their voices just singing especially when they're singing Bible hymns and stuff like that when they do that and sometimes they just make up songs and they're saying, I love hearing that. You know what? I think God looks at us similarly because if you're saved, God's your father. Just like I'm the father of my daughters, God's our father and we're probably like really little children to him. The amount of wisdom and knowledge and power and everything that he has, I mean we're like really, really, really, really little, really little babies to him and I just know that I experience a lot of joy with my children singing and I can't imagine that God would also, I believe God also has that same type of joy when he hears us sing praises to him and we exalt his name. I think he loves that and you know what? God gave you your voice. It doesn't matter how well you sing. I think God just wants to hear your voice. He wants to hear you singing praises to his name. So don't worry about whether or not you have a good voice. When you're in church, you ought to sing. We always sing praises to God and it's important. Fourth, well actually no, thirdly, church is a place to pray. Mark 11, 17 says, And he taught saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations a house of prayer? But ye have made it a den of thieves. God's house, the church, the church of the living God is a place where we should be able to go to pray and that's why we also do public prayer here. And then, number four, learning God's word. It's extremely important it would come to church to be able to learn. Ecclesiastes 5, chapter 1. Go ahead and turn to Ephesians chapter number 4. Ecclesiastes 5, 1 says, Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God and be more ready to hear than to give sacrifice of fools. For they consider it not that they do evil. So say, look, when you go to church, you should be way more ready to hear and, you know, hearing obviously because you'll be hearing the word of God and listening and learning than to give the sacrifice of fools. So the people that come to church and they think that like they're going to be justified because they're putting money in the offering plate and they're just giving this sacrifice unto God and they come and they're going to live like hell the whole week and then they're going to come in and just say, Well, here, I'm going to put, you know, $500 in the offering plate. That's going to go a long way. The Bible's calling that that's the sacrifice of fools. He said you ought to come be more ready to hear. You know, and I'm not doubting giving, you know, putting money in the offering plate. That's not the point. The point is just that, you know, a lot of people they're not ready to hear. They're not coming to church to hear the word preach and to learn and to grow and to get their root down and to understand more and to be able to serve God. You know, God doesn't want, God's not as interested with your physical sacrifices as He just is with your obedience to His word and just learning His word and doing it. God has some very simple commands for us to follow. Now, we might find it difficult because we're living in His flesh but the commandments themselves are very simple. They're not that complicated. He expects us to follow Him and that's what He wants from us. He's not asking for some huge sacrifice of your own volition to do something. Now, if you want to do that, great, but He's more interested in just in your obedience and just in obeying His word and listening to Him. And these are not things that you can just replace by doing them at home. You can't just do all these things that we mentioned with the church. You can't just do them all by yourself at home. Now, if you're in Ephesians chapter 4, look at verse number 11 because we're going to see here the purpose here and it explains the purpose of pastors and teachers, evangelists. It says that He gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. So these are the reasons why He gave prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, apostles for the perfecting of the saints. So the saints are those that are believers that are sanctified through the blood of Jesus Christ. The whole point of the pastors is to try to perfect you, to try to make you better, more complete in Christ and in obeying His word, for the work of the ministry. So for doing the work, for going out, winning souls to Christ, visiting the fatherless and the widows in their affliction, doing the work of the ministry, serving other people. That's what ministering is. You're serving. And for the edifying of the body of Christ. So it's also to edify other people within the church. You need to go out and help people outside of the church. We need to edify the people within the church and perfecting of the saints. So these are all reasons that pastors and teachers and prophets were all given was for these things. Now it says, Till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men in cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head to even Christ. So by coming to church and learning and growing and hearing more, you're not going to be any more a child. Because a child, it's easy for a child to be tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine. Before you really learn a lot about the Bible, before you know very much, it's easy to be deceived because people are pretty slick and the devil is pretty slick, and he's going to come to you and say, Well, look at this and this. You know, see, you can be gods too, or whatever the false doctrine is. And a lot of times, if you're not rooted down, if you haven't learned, it's going to be easier for someone to be able to toss you to and fro and carry you about with every wind of doctrine. So whatever way the wind is blowing, people are going to say, Oh, yeah, well, that sounds good to me. Yeah, sure. But it's by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness. People are doing this on purpose. They lie in wait to deceive. There's a lot of people out there trying to trick you and try to tell you that the Bible says something that it doesn't. So in order for that not to happen to you, you need to learn, you need to be reading the Bible, and you need to be coming to church and hearing this, getting around other believers, edifying one another, doing the work of the ministry, and getting perfected through church. Now, I'm almost done here. I'm going to close up. Go ahead and turn, if you would, please, to one more place. I'm going to turn to one more place. Turn to 1 Timothy chapter number 3. I've got one point I'm going to skip here about marriage and the church. When you get time on your own, you can read Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians 5 goes into a great, there's a great passage about marriage and how marriage is equivalent to the church. And he describes, you know, the relationship between a husband and a wife is a picture of the relationship between Jesus Christ and the church. And when you get some time, I don't have enough time to go through it. It's in my notes, but I got to skip that for now. Ephesians chapter 5, right near the end of the chapter there, kind of the latter half, you can read that on your own. It's a very good correlation between marriage and the church and get that on your own time. But, you know, this church, we're meeting in a house, and a lot of people, you know, some people are scared of that. Some people don't like that. They expect a church to be a building, but, I mean, a church is not a building. As we said many times already, it's a congregation. It's where people get together. The building means nothing. The building means absolutely nothing. When people, when the disciples said to Jesus Christ, they said, oh, look at these stones. You know, look at how beautiful the temple is, basically. It's just like, see these stones? There's not one stone upon another. It's not going to be cast down. This is all going to be gone. I mean, this building, this structure that we're in, it means nothing. It's going to be, it's going to vanish away. It's going to be gone. The church, the people are what matter. The souls are what matter. The people that are here, that is what has eternal value, and that's why it doesn't matter where we're congregating, where we're meeting. And just to show you, though, I mean, the Bible says, I'm going to read three verses for you. All throughout the Bible, this is where, how churches met. This is how people met. We're in houses. It wasn't, it wasn't in some great fancy building. But in the New Testament, in Romans 16, 5, says, likewise, greet the church that is in their house. Salute my beloved Epinadus, who is the first reach of Micaiah in the Christ. Colossians 4, 15 says, salute the brethren, which are Laodicea and Nymphus, and the church which is in his house. And Philemon 1, 2 says, unto our beloved Ophiah, and Archippus, our fellow soldier, and to the church in thy house. So don't let it bother you that we're meeting in a house. I hope it doesn't. It shouldn't matter. But you know, honestly, it's another reason. It's another excuse that people will give not to come to church, and maybe not to go to church, or maybe not to come to this church. Because I write it, played out in an invitation, I don't want people to have a different expectation about this church when I go out and talk to people. I don't want to feel like I'm deceiving them or tricking them. I want them to know up front what we're all about. So I'll try to tell them as much as possible, hey, we're a King James-only Bible-believing church. Hey, we believe that, you know, we believe salvation's by grace through faith. I want people to know what we believe, but I also say, hey, we're meeting in the home of Pastor David Versons. This is where we're meeting. I don't want you to think, because I mean, some people have this idea in their heads. I'm not going to be deceptive about it because I don't think there's any reason to be it. There's nothing to be ashamed about being in the church. But some people use that as an excuse not to come to church. They'll say, oh, well, well, it's in your living room. That's kind of weird. That's not weird at all. I mean, maybe in today's society it seems kind of weird because you have these mega churches that are just built and they have Starbucks in the cafeteria and they, you know, they sell all this stuff and it's this great big auditorium you're used to. But there's nothing wrong with meeting in a house. The church is important. Jesus Christ shed his blood for the church and, you know, he cares about the individuals. He cares about the people of the church way more than about the building. He doesn't care at all about the building. The building means nothing. And so don't let that be a distraction for you or something to take you out. But look at, I'm going to close with this, 1 Timothy chapter 3. Look at verse number 15. He says, It is very 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. The church here is called the house of God. So this is God's house and it's the pillar and ground of the truth. So the church is a place you can come and this is the pillar. This is the ground. This is where the truth is. This is where you're going to want to be. This is where you ought to be to invest your time coming to church. It's the pillar and ground of the truth. And earlier, 1 Timothy 3, explains the operation of the church, the qualifications for a pastor and those types of things. But the Bible puts a lot of emphasis on the church. And we've read a bunch of scriptures this morning that explains that, look, Jesus Christ has blood for it. We're commanded not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. We need to come and learn. We need to grow. It's only, it is one aspect of your growth. It's one aspect of your Christian life. I'm not saying it's the only one. There's plenty of others. But it is a very important aspect coming to church. I mean, just simply being here. I mean, there would be no reason for me to come and try to start a new church and get something going if I didn't think it was important that people be here. You know, and take that into consideration too. You've got someone here that's spending a lot of their time reading and studying and trying to learn as much as possible so that I can share this with you. Because I want you to grow and I want you to be better as well. I care about you. I care about everyone that comes to this church and I'm devoting a lot of my time to try to help you out. I'm here to try to minister to your needs and I want to help you and, you know, people and the pastors and the leaders and the people who do the preaching in other churches that are Bible believing churches, they're doing that same thing. They care about the people that come and you could, I don't want to say, I don't know if I'll use the word respect but, you know, show the gratitude maybe even just showing up. I mean, coming to church, come and listen to what someone else has spent hours or, you know, years preparing to feed you, to help you, to help you to grow and think of it as such. Don't be, don't let that slip away because there's people that are trying, that are really saying and want to help and want to explain things and want to show you things from the Bible that help you out, to help you in your day-to-day life. Church is important. Come and listen and don't just, you know, be worried about what you're going to have for lunch. Listen intently on the word of God and try to apply it in your life and, I mean, make your best effort to be here, to be in church, to be around the other believers and to make it a priority for yourself in your own life. Obviously, I made my own priorities. I'm going to be in church every day. When we go on vacation, we make it a priority. We're going to be in church. It's something we need to have. We don't want to slip. We don't want to fall back. We want to continue to grow no matter where we're at, no matter what we're doing. It's a priority and I hope that you all will make that a priority for yourself. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Dear Lord, I thank you so much for this church. God, I thank you for the believers that are here, that we're all together with one mind and one place, dear God. We're here to sing praises unto your name and we're here to just hear your word preached. God, I thank you for all the learning that's going on and I pray that you would please just use me as a pastor to be able to teach well and to instruct through your word and truth, dear God. I pray that you would please just stir up everyone's heart here to make church a priority and not only just to come to church but to be active in the church and to help others out and get to know people and really be able to edify others and minister unto other people and just experience the joy that you give us through helping others and just being around God's people, dear Lord. It truly is amazing and it's a great blessing and I pray that you would please just help us all to just do that and to get rooted down in church. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.