Covenant and Community

OK, if everybody could, Grab your favorite. Favorite sea Yeah. Glad everybody could be here this morning. Yeah.

Summer's an interesting, there's an interesting phenomenon that happens in summer, and I'm starting to think of it as like the snowbird effect. It's like first surface is, a relatively smaller surface you may have noticed, but as the heat of summer comes on, this surface grows in like July and August, and then once it cools down, it seems like it shrinks a little bit again. But, hope you guys are comfortable in here. Pastor Milton is in, New Mexico.

Actually, he's coming back from New Mexico. He performed a wedding there and, and will be back tonight. And so, I am preaching in his stead. And this morning we're gonna be talking about the new Covenant community.

And this is really, this message is a tack on to the series that we've been doing. If you've been here for the past several weeks, we've been doing a series entitled The Dearest Place on Earth, which is where the church, yeah, if you're in the new covenant, then. it's the dearest place on earth is right here to be gathered with God's people. And as we've looked at that subject, we've noticed that, that we should really love to gather.

We've looked at the God's presence in corporate worship, experiencing God's presence in the preached word, in the Lord's Supper, and experienced the grace of giving last week, or really, man, great message last week on just the whole subject of giving from our pastor. But throughout this series, we've been assuming some things that I would like to define this morning and bring out of the realm or get out of the realm of assumption, and that is we've been assuming a certain understanding of The local church, we've been assuming a certain understanding of this concept called covenant, which we see, a concept that we see in the Old Testament and a concept that transfers over to the New the New Testament.

Testament really is just another word for covenant, promise, vow, oath, commitment, contract. These are all synonyms of what we mean when we talk about a, a covenant.

And, I want you to open with me to Ephesians chapter two, as we begin this line of thinking. We just try to, we're going to try to establish this morning, what exactly do we really mean by the local church? And what is the Bible, what is the biblical concept of covenant? And how does that relate to us as a new covenant community?

If you look at Ephesians chapter 2, just in verse 12, we'll look at for now, you'll see that the apostle Paul is speaking to the Ephesians, this is in a a local church, and he speaks to these believers and says, you were without Christ. And then skip down a phrase or two, strangers from the covenants of promise. The Ephesians, that local church and then the New Covenant Church in general. There was a time in which they were strangers to the covenants of promise.

And what does Paul mean here when he says covenants? As we look back into the, the Old Testament, we look at the covenants of promise. We're looking at covenants like the Abrahamic covenant, where God binds himself to keep this, this contract with Abraham to make him a great nation. You could look at the Palestinian covenant where God reaffirmed the Abrahamic covenant and says, I'm going to give Israel a land.

You can look at the Davidic covenant where God comes to David and says, I'm going to put you on the throne, and you will always have a son on the throne. And God binds himself with a promise, with an oath to keep these covenants, with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. How often do we read Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? And David, we see in the Davidic covenant, God makes this promise to his son, David.

And then you see this promise of this other covenant that was to come, this fruition of the other covenants called the new covenant. In the new covenant, we were going to see, forgiveness. We're going to see guilt set aside, God would come and dwell with his people. And what I want to do this morning is I want to focus on, we're going to focus on that new covenant concept.

We used to be strangers from this new covenant. And now Paul is going to say that something has happened where we are no longer strangers to this thing that happened or was established or prophesized in the Old Testament. Turn back to Jeremiah 31, and you might, you could keep a finger in Ephesians chapter 2 if you wish, but definitely turn back to Jeremiah 31 where we're going to look at the, the classic statement of the new covenant. Quickly here just as by way of introduction.

By the way, children, I've tried to give you some little clues. When you see some alternative coloring on the screen behind me, that's your clue that a question is being answered on your clipboard. So, you can give mommy and daddy a little bit of peace until you see that different type of coloring. It'll give you a clue on the, on the, on the screen behind me.

Jeremiah 31, starting verse 31, we see the new covenant promise, the new covenant promise. Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. So the new covenant is going to be made with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, this is two words to summarize one people, the Jews, right? So this new covenant is going to be promised to the Jews.

There is promise to the Jews, verse 32, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. What covenant is that? The old covenant, right underneath Moses, the Mosaic covenant, but this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my law in their minds.

I will write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they shall be my people. There's that phrase that we looked at a few weeks ago that happens. Over and over and over again, I will be their God and they shall be my people.

This is the new covenant promise in the Old Testament. It hasn't happened yet when Jeremiah is talking about this, but it's, it's looking forward to this covenant, this contract, this vow, this oath, this promise that would occur. But there's a big surprise that occurs when we get To the New Testament. Have you ever had a really big surprise, maybe as a child, your sibling is being invited to a birthday party that you haven't been invited to, and then you find out at the last minute, you get to go too.

Have you ever had something like that happen to you? or you think, you're, it's an anniversary and you think that your spouse has forgotten and you're heading off, you think, to Jack in a Box McDonald's, but really they take you to the Mission Inn. These, these are wonderful surprises that come into our lives where there's a wonderful surprise about the new covenant when we get to the New Testament. And that is, what we see in 1 Corinthians 11:25 when Paul is speaking to this local church in Corinth.

He's reciting what Jesus had said, in the upper room on that last supper, and Jesus says, this cup, which we remember we took communion last week in the larger body. Oh no, yeah, we did it last week. This cup is the new covenant in or by my blood. What's surprising there?

After reading Jeremiah 31, what's surprising about Jesus saying, this is the cup of the new covenant? What's surprising is, is as you move on into the New Testament and you look at books like First Corinthians and you look at Ephesians, is it just Israel? Is it just Judah that gets buy-in to the new covenant? Is it just the Jews?

No. The surprise is, is while that the new covenant is promised to Israel and Judah in the Old Testament, when we get to the New Testament, the church gets the, the Gentiles get invited in. We get buy into the new covenant. It's like, it's like they were going to have this big party just for Jews and the Lord says, you're included.

You're, you're in Abraham too, and I'm bringing you into this new institution called the church, this new covenant community. And so we get this wonderful surprise. And so you look back to Ephesians chapter 2. Where in, in Ephesians 2:12, he says, you were without Christ, strangers from the covenants of promise, but verse 13, but now, and we'll notice the connection here to the blood.

Now in Christ Jesus, you have been brought near by the blood of Christ. That's the cup of the new covenant. Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. You're members of the family of God now.

Having been built on the foundation, the apostles and prophets, Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone in whom the whole building being joined together, grows into this holy temple in the Lord, we've looked at temple terminology in the past. in whom you are also being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. See, this would have been an incredible surprise to any Gentile at the time, of the early church. Because when you look at the Old Testament, you see these wonderful covenants and promises, just like Paul says in the early part of this chapter, given to the Commonwealth of Israel.

But then what happens is Christ comes along and we get included being in Christ. And so these are wonderful promises. But when Paul is speaking of such promises, at least in this context, in Ephesians, Paul focuses on the new covenant with respect to what we call the universal church. If you've taken any of our theology classes, we talk about the universal church.

What is the universal church? The universal church, is, is that which is the body and espoused bride of Christ. It is a spiritual organism made up of all born again persons of this present age. The universal church is not just this church meeting here at Cornerstone.

It's every born again believer throughout the world in this age that happens to be meeting. And really if we look at what all of the scriptures have to say in the book of Hebrews chapter 13, we see that it even includes those that have gone on to heaven. There's a mystical communion that we have with those that have even gone on in heaven. And so when Paul is talking about this new covenant stuff in Ephesians, in Ephesians, he's talking about this universal church idea, this idea of every believer, once you become born again, once you are regenerated, every one of us is baptized in the universal Church of God.

However, When Paul is talking about that cup of the new covenant over in 1 Corinthians 11, Paul's instructions in 1 Corinthians 11 are directed not towards the universal church, but towards what? The local church. 1 Corinthians 11:18 sets part of the context when you come together as a church, meaning as a local church, and then he goes into the subject of communion as a way of reminding them of that cup, that new covenant that they are in as a local church. And so what you have here is you have a covenant, a promise, a contract that is promised in the Old Testament.

Jesus grants us in on the new covenant, when he says, this is the cup of the new covenant in my blood. And the rest of the New Testament basically applies it. Most of the time, 90% of the time, to the local church. That's why a writer like John Piper can say the following.

This means that God wills for the new covenant to create local churches. He's commenting on 1 Corinthians 11. The covenant promise, you will be my people and I will be your God does not just create a universal body, but local expressions of that body in specific local gatherings called the church. In fact, most of the references to the church in the New Testament are references to the local church.

Out of 114 occurrences of the Greek word ecclesia, which is the Greek word that we get church from or gathering in the New Testament, at least 90 times it refers to the local church. So when you're look, reading through your New Testament, And you come across the word church, church, church, church, church, you examine that context and Most of the time, about 85% of the time, it's talking about the local church, including 1 Corinthians 11, where Paul is saying, this is the cup of the new covenant given to you, Corinthians.

You have come into this new covenant as a local church, and this leads, again, our brother Piper, John Piper, to say something like the following, the new covenant creates a new people gathering in a local church. With a covenant commitment to God.

And two Each other And so as we've been looking at this series, we've been assuming a lot of what we're going to say this morning, and that is, is that a local church is a covenant community that is covenated with God underneath the new covenant to keep certain promises to God, and God is the one that is primary keeping promises to us. But there is a horizontal dimension to this covenant. It's not merely a vertical thing between us and the Lord. It's a horizontal thing.

There is, there are commitments that we have to one another, and there are commitments that we have to our God. And so with that introduction, I want to ask 3 questions this morning, 3 questions, and that is, first of all, what is a new covenant community, community? In other words, what is a local church? It's a lot of confusion on this topic today.

On what exactly makes a local church. Secondly, I want to ask, why should you covenant with a local church? Why should you be willing to make a covenant with a local church? And thirdly, what does church covenanting entail?

What exactly does that look like? And so, let's ask the first question. Let's ask this first question, and that is, what is a new covenant community? What is a local church?

I'm gonna give you two. Sides of the coin here. Sometimes these two sides of the coin get pitted against each other when you read about the subject of the local church, but really they're, they're necessary elements. And then the first element is, is that a local church is an organism.

And children, if I did that right, it should be. In red, which is hard for everybody else to see, I think. Organism. A local church is an organism.

What do we mean by organism? Well, a couple running thoughts here. A regular assembly of people who profess. And give evidence that they have been saved by God's grace alone, for His glory alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

It's an assembly of people. A local church is basically just, it's a bunch of people who regularly get together. another thought, it's a local living and loving collection of people who are committed to Christ and committed to each other. Notice the word committed.

When we use words like committed, we're using covenant terminology. It's a local living, loving collection of people, collection of people focused on this idea of organism. It's a group that gets together, and we, we move and live and breathe and depend upon one another. Another line of thinking here underneath the organism is it's a display of God's wisdom and glory.

Look at Ephesians 3:10. This is speaking more of the universal church, but it definitely can apply, to the local church. To the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places. We are manifesting God's wisdom to angels and demons as an organism.

And then lastly, or, as, as far as the thought of the local church being an organism, it, it, it displays or puts on a display of counter cultural Christ-like love. They will know you are Christians, what, by your love for one another. It, it's a counter cultural love because the average person doesn't just decide to get together with people that are unlike them, the local church is not a collection of people that are all exactly alike. If the local church is working properly, it's our contention that Across the board, what it may be that Christ is the only thing that we have in common.

If the local church is working properly, we should have men and women, we should have old and young, we should have different races. We should have different interests, different personalities. There should be an incredible multicolored variety of people that God brings together and we love being together because we love Christ. And so when people look at all of these different people that get together and they love each other, that is a counter cultural witness and we put God's glory on display as we choose to gather together with people that we may not have gotten together with otherwise.

this is no slam on you or slam on me, but outside of Christ, some of us really probably wouldn't hang around with each other, right? But in Christ, we look at each other and the difference and we're like, man, brother, sister, have you ever just run into somebody in the mall who is just radically different from you, but you find out they're a Christian and all of a sudden there's this bond. You guys might not have anything else in common. But suddenly you have Christ in common.

There's this wonderful, wonderful bond. So a local church is an organism, but we can't stop there. A local church is organized. I don't know how many times I've heard it said when I've been out witnessing, And talking to people that profess to know Christ.

You hear people say something like this, I love Jesus. I'm just not part of the organized church. Or I, I don't really like organized religion. Well, that sounds like a very noble statement.

The problem is, is in the New Testament, Christ Church is organized. There is organization to Christ Church, and I, I, I don't want to spend a whole lot of time on this. you could take a, one of our Bible study, classes on this subject, but when you look at what the New Testament says, even in the very first church in Jerusalem, it had a basic organization. You have believers knew the number of their members for like Acts 2:41 says that there was added to that day 3000 souls.

To know how many souls were added, they had to know what the number was before 3000 were added. They united in public worship and prayer meetings. They practiced baptism and the Lord's Supper, things that we've been talking about. they enlisted the aid of 7 men to care for the poor.

They had an election process. They selected certain men based on certain criteria and elected those men. They, the new, and then we look at later on in the New Testament, or, also Acts 2:42, they gave themselves to the apostles' teaching, to prayer, to the Lord's supper, to fellowship. There was an organization to what they did when they met.

When you get later in the New Testament, you see that the New Testament church had offices of elders and deacons. you see all throughout the New Testament, the importance of biblical leadership. I just want to propose to you that if you're meeting with a bunch of Christians and you're just really enjoying yourself, that's great, but if you don't have this organization, you're not a church. It's not a local church.

It might be a wonderful time of fellowship, but if you don't have elders and deacons, it's not a local church. New Testament church had regular Sunday meetings wherein they ministered, took up collections, had communion on the first day of the week. New Testament church sent letters of commendation for one another when they transferred membership. You can look at those verses.

they registered, there was registers kept of widows under the care of the church, and they practiced church discipline of their own members. First, the Corinthian church had the authority to remove someone from its membership. Brothers and sisters, if you can remove someone from the church, there was an inclusion that took place. You can't remove someone who wasn't included.

You see that? So a local church in summary, this may sound funny at first, but a local church is a new covenant, organized organism. It's a new covenant, organized organism. It's a group of people that get together underneath the, underneath the shed blood of Christ.

And they're following biblical New Testament organization to their meetings. And so that is a local church. And so in summary, the establishment and continuity of the local church is clearly taught and defined in the New Testament, and we're going to look at a couple, passages here. I want you to open up to Acts 13.

I just want to demonstrate some important facts about the local church right from the Book of Acts. It's a little nidbits that we get as we see how the church arranged and organized itself, established and continued itself in the New Testament. Starting in verse 1 of chapter 13. Now, in the church, That was at Antioch.

Is this the local or universal church? Local, it's right there at Antioch. There were certain prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon, who were called ***, Lucius, Irene, skip down to verse two as they ministered to the Lord and fasted. The Holy Spirit said, Separate to me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work to which I have called them.

Then, having fasted and prayed and laid hands on them, they sent them away. Who is the they in verse 3? Today is the local church. What's interesting, if you look at the tense of the verb in verse 2, the Holy Spirit says, now separate to me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have perfect tense already called them is the idea.

The idea here is Paul and Barnabas had already had a subjective call by the Holy Spirit. Remember Paul on the road to Damascus was already told by the Lord Jesus Christ, you're going to be an apostle, you're going to go out to the Gentiles, right? You're going to go out, you persecuted me, and I'm going to send you out. They already had this personal call.

Paul had a direct revelation from Jesus Christ himself. But notice that Paul and Barnabas do not go out unilaterally. They do not go out by themselves, even though Paul had a direct revelation from Jesus Christ. It wasn't until the Holy Spirit said to the church at Antioch, Separate from me these two to the work to which I've already called them.

Then Paul and Barnabas, there was a laying on of hands, and we're going to do that a little bit later actually for a couple of our missionaries. The church laid hands on them and sent them away as an expression of that local church. There is a local church thing going on here. This is what we mean by local church.

If you have, some people that get really excited about missions. And just all grouped together and head off to Mexico just on their own. They're just off, they're having, they all, find out of each other and start meeting at a home and they say, hey, let's go down and do some work in Mexico. And they just go down there and they do some great stuff.

Yeah, I think it's awesome for people to go down and just be moved individually to go out and do some great stuff for the Lord in Mexico. However, brothers and sisters, that does not constitute a local church. And Christ is the one who said, I will build my church. And when Christ wants to send out missionaries, the Holy Spirit speaks to The church and then the church lays hands on the missionaries and sends them out.

That's the way it's done. That is part of what constitutes a local church. Look at 1423, same book, Acts 14:23. So when they had appointed elders, This is Paul.

When they had appointed elders in every church and prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord. Part of Paul's job was, as he was church planning, was to develop leadership, biblical leadership. That was his job as a missionary was to go out and actually establish churches with biblical leadership. Verse 27.

Now when they had come and gathered the church together. They reported all that God had done with them, and that he had opened the doors. Now, who is this? Who, who is getting together with the church?

This is Paul, right? This is part of, they were the ones that were sent out in Acts 13:1. Now they come back to their local church and they give a missionary report to that local church. They gathered together here's, listen to what the Lord has done.

Look at chapter 20, verse 17. Just a couple other verses here in, in Acts 20:17. Now from Miles, he that is Paul sent to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church. I know Paul's the one that planted the Ephesian Church.

And then when he wants to speak to the church, he calls for the leaders of the church. He didn't just call some miscellaneous brothers to get together. He called the leaders of the church so that he could pass on some information to them. And then look at verse 28, what Paul has to say to these leaders.

He says verse 28, therefore, take heed to yourselves, and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the Church of God, that church there in Ephesus, which he purchased with his own blood. I want you to notice some things here. Who is the one that made the Ephesian elders overseers? You can say it.

Who made the Ephesian elders overseers? The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one that made them overseers of this church. And notice they're overseers to shepherd a local church.

And then this local church is that which Paul speaks of as having been purchased with his His own blood. Christ can speak or we can speak of Christ purchasing a local church with His own blood. Did Christ purchase the universal church with His own blood? Yes.

Can we speak of Christ purchasing a local church with His own blood? Yes, we can speak in both ways. We can speak of Christ purchasing Cornerstone Fellowship Bible Church with His own blood. And if we understand the scriptures properly, it's the Holy Spirit that has, has, has, put over us the elders that we have at this church.

It's the Holy Spirit that has given us the shepherds to shepherd this flock. And so we see the establishment and continuity of the local church underneath the new covenant. Again, over and over again throughout the New Testament, you see the local church being spoken of in these corporate, corporate terms. And then, secondly, or a second concluding thought before we move on to the second question is that the members of the one spiritual body that is the universal church are directed to associate themselves together in local assemblies to join, to commit to devote.

To associate themselves in local assemblies. 1 Corinthians 11:18, when you come together as a church, Hebrews 10:25, not forsaking the assembling of your, of ourselves together, as is the matter of some. And so, when we ask the question, what is the new covenant community, the New Testament seems to be pretty clear. A new covenant community is an organism.

It's a group of people that regularly assemble underneath the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That has a biblical organization. It's an organism with an organization. It's all underneath the blood of Christ.

Christ says, this is the cup of the new covenant. We get this wonderful surprise of being invited in Jeremiah 31 that was originally promised to Israel, but now it comes to us as well. That is the, the new covenant community, the local church. Let's ask a second question.

Why should you covenant with a local church? Why should you commit yourself to A local church. And before we begin to answer this question, let me just say, That we are living in a day when the idea of Committing or coveting or joining a church is not necessarily a popular concept. 90% of Americans that claim to be Christian, out of the 90% that claim to be Christian in the United States, 61% say that you don't have to be involved in church at all.

The vast majority of Americans that would say that they're Christians say that it's, it's not at all necessary to your Christian life to be joined to a local body of believers. You can be just as satisfied, just as happy, just as blessed, being out in a forest with your Bible. And a personal Bible study on a Wednesday night. Nothing against Wednesday night Bible studies.

I love them. But there is something about the local church, the New Covenant community. That is unique. And I just want to propose to you this morning that there are some good reasons, if you haven't already, to consider covenating with a local church.

When I say covenating, making a mental decision. And going through whatever procedures that that particular community defines. To identify yourself as a committed one, to identify yourself as I am part of the family. Now we understand that there are people that visit churches that are unbelievers and we always want to welcome unbelievers.

There are people that travel and, and, and you, you drop in on a church, and then there are people that are just looking for a new community to be a part of. And those are all, legitimate, adventures. But the local church is spoken of over and over and over again as a family. It's spoken of, metaphorically as, as like a marriage.

And just as the woman at the well was identified, remember Jesus says the woman at the well, she says, Oh, I have no husband. And Jesus says, you've spoken correctly, you have no husband, you've had 5 husbands, and the one you're living with right now is not your husband. And in saying such, Jesus was recognizing something that even though she was living with a man, and perhaps living with a man for a long time, He was not her husband. Why?

Why was he not her husband? Because in the Jewish recognized system, she had not followed through with her covenant. She consummated with her husband, she was living with him. She may be a maybe common law married to him, but Christ did not recognize her as being with a husband.

In the same sense, there does seem to be in the New Testament, an assumption throughout the New Testament that when we become born again and come into the universal body of Christ as members, that there will be a joining, there will be family commitment that occurs once you become born again. That we, you just think of all the terminology that's out there that we are family, it's household, it's one another's, the whole, even the word membership finds us derivative from the Bible, that we are members of one another.

And so why should you covenant with the local church? Let me give you some, a few reasons, 4 reasons.

First of all, Join or covenant for your individual health as a Christian, for your individual health as a Christian. And a couple of subpoints underneath this, join a church for your own spiritual protection. we can't always read our own souls perfectly. We can deceive ourselves.

And so we need other people to help us walk as individual Christians. The Bible says that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it? And I've seen that in my own life. I have deceived myself without the help of a family to come along and point out those self-deceptions.

I am hopelessly lost. And so without a community, without some group of people that you will covenant with, that you've agreed to allow them to enter into your life and, and share the good, the bad, and the ugly, we are, we are a danger to ourselves. I hope you feel that in your soul that Without the Holy Spirit speaking through your brothers and sisters, we have great potential for self-deception. And I am so thankful for brothers and sisters in the local body in this very church that love me enough to come up and tell me when I'm wrong, when I don't see something in my life.

But those brothers and sisters wouldn't come and tell me that. If they didn't feel that I was connected to them as a family member, if, if you're not, if they're, if you haven't gone through the family members stuff, then it's a little intimidating to walk up to somebody who hasn't said, yeah, I'm part of the family, feel free to, give me a good swift kick in the rear if I need it. We need to join, For our own spiritual protection. the Bible speaks of us as sheep, and that's a humbling concept.

sheep are dumb. How's it feel that, when Christ calls us sheep, in a sense, he's calling us stupid, that we're just prone to fall into stuff. I, I don't know if you feel that in your own life, but I'm not a very old man, but at 30 years, 8 years old, I am just, I get a little bit over here and I'm stumbling into that. I'm over here and I'm tripping on this.

And boy, I see the wisdom of God and wanting me to stay within a fold and to have shepherds. Even though I'm a shepherd, I've got the elders or shepherds over me and the body of Christ. We shepherd one another, right? There's great wisdom.

Join a church for your own spiritual assurance. We don't join a church to be saved. But, there is something about being a part of the church that will Enhance the insurance, the assurance of your salvation. In joining a church, we are asking our family to hold us accountable to live according to what we confess.

Membership is a local church. Our membership in a local church. Is that congregation's public testimony that your life gives continual evidence of regeneration. And joining a church, we are taking hold of one another.

And we are holding each other accountable to mutual responsibility and care. We're holding each other to the task by God's grace and pursuing righteousness with others who call upon the Lord out of a pure heart. The Bible over and over and over again calls us to make our call an election sure, right? And to check yourselves to see if you're really in the faith.

But if you'll notice those commands are always given in a community context. the sad thing is, is in Matthew chapter 7, there are, there is a day in judgment where people will stand before Christ and say, Lord, Lord, did we not do many works in your name? Do we not prophesy in your name? Do we cast out many demons?

They'll say, depart from me, I never knew you. And the danger is, is that while you can be deceived in the community, that's very possible, wheat and the tears. It's even more dangerous to be outside of the community. And there is the danger, brothers and sisters, of winding up on the day of judgment, saying, Lord, Lord, and Christ saying, I never knew you.

When the Holy Spirit would want to, to help you understand the gospel, one of the, missionaries these days are speaking of one of the, the, the greatest unreached people groups in the United States. what the greatest unreached people group is in the United States? It's people who attend evangelical churches. People who attend churches just like Cornerstone Fellowship Bible Church, who come once a, once a month whenever they feel like it, or they come and sit underneath the teaching God's word.

But have never really embraced the gospel in the sense of the new covenant. There are people throughout this land that are loosely associated with churches, that come to churches once in a while or even come every week. That don't know Christ. And part of our job as a New Covenant community is to love each other enough to be comparing, to be helping each other examine our own fruit.

That you are helping me and I'm helping you as we, as we help each other on this way. So, join a church. For your individual health as a Christian, but secondly, join for other people. Join for other people.

Join a church for the sake of non-Christians, non-Christians. I want to join a church for the sake of non-Christians. Church membership helps make the gospel clear to non-Christians by providing a unified witness of what it means to be a Christian. Membership provides this unified witness by implementing a statement of faith, encouraging unity and doctrine, a covenant, a church covenant, encouraging unity and lifestyle.

one of the criticisms of just Christians in general is just the, the general division that people perceive amongst us. And while there is, there is a lot of unity in the church, and we're thankful for the unity, there is some validity to that criticism. It's not uncommon at all for some individuals to not really like what's going on in their particular local church and just to go off and just start their own organization. It's just, it's happening every day.

Every day there's new organizations that are just popping up. They have nothing to do with the local church. Somebody felt like that their church didn't quite move fast enough. They had too many cogs and red tape or they weren't satisfied with the philosophy and so they just go off and they just say, well, we're just gonna do my own, we're just gonna do our own thing.

I was talking not too awful long ago. To an organization that we are, have really enjoyed, it's an organization that goes down and, and does some great things in Mexico. And I was just chatting with him, how did you guys get started?, what, what's, why are you doing what you're doing? And he said, well, we used to be connected to the church, but, those people.

there's just, so much politics and so many this and that and, things that are, are tie us back, so we just broke off and started our own thing. And I just, I, I, I asked, I said, well, on, on what authority on what basis did you just start this new organization? Well, we just, we needed to get things moving and, and, and the church wasn't moving fast enough. And I just, I, I was like, well, this is a great organization that's doing this thing, but I just find myself stepping back and saying, well, on what basis?

Maybe the Lord, if you would have hung in there, could have used you to speed the situation up. Non-Christians look at this, they look at the, they look at some of the, just the plethora of organizations out there, and it's hard for them to discern, well, what is the church? What is the church? sometimes we're out there just doing our thing and if we're not showing a close connection to the local church, it's been, it was my experience that I, I got discipled in an organization as a young man that wasn't connected to the local church, and I spent years away from my local church.

Nobody really taught me that I ought to be intimately connected with my local church. I was a part of it, but I was one of these guys that just showed up about 20 minutes after the service started. And, enjoyed the preaching and whatnot, but it was like, the real Christians are out there evangelizing on my college campus and, and, had that attitude and, these old buddy duddies are singing their hymns and, this isn't spirit-filled. I'm just coming in with all this pride and criticism and there was nobody in my local college campus situation that was pointing me back to the local church.

Brothers and sisters, I, I, I, I think that there was a shame, there was, there was a stunning of my own personal growth, but when I led people to Christ, I didn't have any place to bring them other than to this group of college students that were all just as young and stupid as I was. I wasn't connected. So join, join for the sake of non-Christians, join for the sake of weaker Christians. God is not merely concerned about your own private piety and your own private quiet times, but also about our care for the other sheep.

This is a, this is a whole aspect of godliness that privatized Christians ignore. If we don't love God's people, John says we have reason to question our love for God Himself. God wants us to encourage weaker Christians and run the race with them. Don't leave it to others, other people to care for those outside your circle of friends.

This is your responsibility. And as those that are part of the new covenant community, which we should see ourselves as providers, as coming to serve and not merely to be served. there was a great change that happened in my life when I began to see the, the importance of the local church. Instead of showing up 20 minutes late, I was getting there 20 minutes early.

It wasn't something, well, praise my, it's like the Holy Spirit convicted me of my pride, and I said, man, I need to get here so I can greet some people and try to pass out some bulletins or try to set the air conditioner because the pastors never remember to get it right or, there's things, there's people that need prayer, people that are needy. And when that started to click in my mind many years ago, I, I really feel like that that's where the things took off for me in my walk with the Lord.

Join a church for the sake of the church leaders. So you join for non-Christians, you can join for weaker Christians, but join for the sake of church leaders.

If regular attenders don't eventually make themselves known to the pastor as members of the church, then the pastor cannot take responsibility for them as part of his particular flock. Pastors need to know for which sheep God will hold them accountable so that they can tend to them most responsibly and effectively. it's I can, I can say from experience, and just being an elder and, and I speak for all the elders that, one of our struggles is just trying to define who are we shepherding.

And, and with care groups, it's made it a lot easier to have that definition.

OK, here's my responsibility. I'm going to enter into their lives and they give me, but, sometimes it's, it's, it's funky because I know that one day I'm going to give account to God for the blood of some people, right? As a pastor, I'm going to give account to God for some people. But sometimes you're not quite sure, am I give an account for him or her or them.

And, when people come and covenant with you, it's pretty easy. You're like they're in. But when people don't, and they're here like, once a month or every couple weeks and you're not quite sure, then you're like, well, maybe they're just checking us out. Maybe they're, just trying to figure out whether they belong here, and that's great.

The Holy Spirit leads people to different places. But I'll tell you what, joining for the sake of your leadership, it brings such a joy as a pastor and elder to know who your flock is. Pastors cannot be free to do what they ought to do. If there's not some definition, pastors can only devote themselves to the ministry because they are set free to do so by members who fund their work.

So join for your individual health, join for other people. Thirdly, join for the corporate health of the church. The corporate health of the church, Join a church to expose false gospels. There are false gospels out there.

that are being propagated. By all kinds of people that call themselves Christians. And by identifying yourself, coveting yourself with a local expression of the universal church, you can have a part in protecting the church from false gospels. The best defense is a good offense.

God wants us to band together to love, so that we can model Christianity for the world. This is often how we best debunk the messages that masquerade as biblical Christianity but are really different messages altogether. one of the messages out there of what, what is really Christianity, what is a church is just a group of people that get together to learn how to practice good upstanding morals and to, to be good parents and to be good spouses and to have nice children that don't go do bad things.

That's a church.

And when that message goes out, that false gospel, now those are great results of the gospel, but if that's the message that's being sent out, The people are, they're getting a wrong impression, you, and you can join. You can join a group of sinners, saved by grace and have a part in destroying that false gospel. I, heard a story. Mark Dever tells a story of his mom when he came home from Cambridge and told his mom that he wanted to be a Baptist minister.

She's like, oh jeez. I just, I, the organized church is just full of a bunch of vipers and hypocrites, and Mark Dever said, Well, Mom, have, have you found that people outside the church are all that much better? And she's like, well, no, they're vipers too, but at least they know it, was her response. And Mark Deborah responded to her and said, Well, Mom, I would, I would agree with you in one respect that you're right.

There are vipers outside the church. And there are vipers inside the church. He said that where I would disagree with you, Mom, is that outside the church, they don't know it. They all think they're doing pretty darn good.

But a true local church, a true church knows their vipers, and they gather together with other vipers, and they call out to the Lord Jesus Christ and the gospel every time they get together. And so slither on in here, mom. And that's really true. the average person out there in the world, they think they're doing OK.

And, but we need to, as, as we come together as fellow sinners, we can have a part together in propagating a true gospel which says, we're, we are wrecked people saved by grace. Come join us. We want people in this community to have that impression of a local church, of our local church. And so we also can join a church to edify the church.

some people refuse to become committed or to covenant because they feel that they will be slowed down in their spiritual growth if they joined. But perhaps God, maybe he wants to use you or to use people to speed up other people. Membership doesn't stop with ME. OK.

It doesn't stop with ME. I remember, This has happened a number of occasions. it's, it was part of my own testimony, but, again, back to a story I heard from another pastor, a guy, he noticed that one of his, attenders would come in every Sunday, right after the worship where the music was done, and then they would, he'd be there during the preaching, and then he would take off immediately, and he cornered him one day and said, hey, I noticed you've been coming around for several months and you just show up in the preaching here and, how are you doing?

Where are you at?

He goes, well, yeah, I just, I love the preaching here, but I can't stand those hymns. Boy, they're just, they're not spirit-filled, and, and I'm an evangelist, and, as soon as I'm done, boy, I'm out, I'm hitting the streets, I'm out sharing the gospel. And so the pastor was talking to him, why don't you, have you ever thought about settling down and joining the church? And he laughed and said, if I joined this church, it would slow me down.

the church is full of people that want to whine and complain about the problems and, you don't have people out there serious about the gospel, and to which the pastor responded, maybe the Lord wants to use you to speed them up. And the thing is, is I remember having the exact same attitude. when I was a young man, I always wanted to be a missionary, and I thought missionaries had nothing to do with the local church. I thought whatever I'm doing, I do not want to be a part of the local church because it's just full of a bunch of complainers.

You've got to worry about facilities and building stuff, and I want to go to Mexico where you don't have to tie, have any ties with all that stuff. I didn't realize how complicated it is to be a, a missionary in Mexico and stuff and deal with the government. but I'm just going to go to Mexico and just get out there and preach the gospel and help the poor, and let's forget this pastor stuff. That was my attitude as a young man.

actually, before I wanted to go to Mexico, I wanted to go to, Russia, but then the wall fell down and all the intrigue left, so, so, so then I was off to Mexico. But, what? That's the beauty of the local church is, yeah, there's people that are coming up slow and there's people that are growing quick, but the Lord puts us all together and we help each other. And what, the young bucks gain from the wisdom of the seniors and the seniors gain from the enthusiasm of the young bucks and those that are further down the line are passing on wisdom to those that are brand new and vice versa.

And if you, there's a, there is a syncretism that happens when we stay together and do our work as a community that just cannot happen apart from a local church situation. the local church is not. It's not a spiritual interest group. there's a lot of spiritual interest groups out there, and they're great, and I love the contribution that para churches make as long as they're pushing people back to local church and rightly see in the local church.

There's, you got to have interest groups to do certain things. The problem is, is we have a lot of interest groups that are just totally divorced from the local church. And I was part, I was part of an interest group that was just about college kids and it's just, everybody's just like me. And then you have other interest groups where it's all about just evangelism.

We just, we just do evangelism here and, the local church, boy, they're behind the times. And then you have other interest groups that are all about just Bible study and then other interest groups that are, picket, about abortion and political activities. And, and a lot of times people get sucked into these interest groups and get sucked away from this thing called the church where Jesus says, I will build my, I shed my own blood for the, and the Holy Spirit has given the leaders to the Right.

And I, I'm not, I, I hope you don't feel like I'm saying this in pride because I'm, I, I, I have remorse over my own attitudes that I, I carried in the past.

fourthly, join. Or covenate yourself with a local church for God. This is the ultimate reason. Join a church for the sake of God's name.

The building of the church up is ultimately God's work. The Lord added to their number daily, those who are being saved. when Paul was given that revelation upon the road to Damascus. Did Jesus say, Saul, Saul, why are you, why are you persecuting those individuals?

Why are you persecuting these various persons? He said, Paul, why are you persecuting me? Jesus Christ so connects himself, so associates himself with the church that to persecute the church to persecute local believers is to persecute Jesus. That's how strongly he identifies himself with the local church.

Do we feel that strongly about the local church? Jesus shed his own blood for the local church at Ephesus. He shed his own blood for this particular local church. Do we feel as strongly About the church as Christ does.

Join a church for the sake of God's cause. God wants his glory displayed, and his gospel spread to all nations. We can take God's glory and gospel to the nations better if we band together than if we remain alone. missionary work all throughout the New Testament is a corporate venture.

And throughout the New Testament, it is a local church venture. If you have missions that are disconnected to the local church, and I say this upon the authority of God's word, you do not have biblical missions. Biblical missions are connected to the local church. Being part of God's plan to spread His glory and gospel to all nations is a privilege that we will not have in heaven.

We seize the privilege of evangelism best if we work together as one diverse unity. One diverse unity. you look at a field of tulips, and you walk up to just one individual flower and you see these little individual tulips, but if you back off and get into an airplane and look at fields and fields of tulips, you just look down and you see red. And then you look down in another square and you see yellow.

Have you ever seen where they raise flowers and whatnot? You see these different, all of a sudden you just see, you just see a color, right? And that's what happens when we come together as a church. We might be just individuals, but from God's perspective, it's, it's one thing.

It's this one organism, this organization that's moving out, this church that Christ is building. Let me end with this question. And that is, what does church covenating entail? We've answered the question, what is the new covenant?

What is the local church? It's a, an organism that has an organization underneath the new covenant, right? We've asked the question, why should you, why should you covenant with the, with the local church? Well, for your own individual, health as a Christian, you should join for other people, for the benefit of other people.

You should join for the corporate health of this body that Christ is building. Join for God. But what does that really look like? If you were to covenant yourself with Cornerstone Fellowship Bible Church, what would that look like?

And, and many of you have already done that. Well, first of all, speaking of prerequisites, to covenant yourself with cornerstone, you would have to be regenerate, regeneration as an evidence by, as evidenced by ongoing repentance and belief. If you were to come and covenant yourself with us, you must be born again. And not just a professed belief, but regeneration as evidenced by ongoing repentance.

And belief. Does that mean you're perfect? You got to, OK, you're totally perfect now. Oh.

We, we already know you're a viper, OK, so no, no secrets here, but are you, are you walking in repentance? Are you day in, day out repenting of sin? Like, you're, and you're confessing sin to the Lord and two brothers and sisters, and, and are you walking in belief? You're believing the gospel.

Yeah, you might say, oh Lord, help my own belief. I believe, help my own belief, but are you, if you're regenerate, there's going to be fruit and Fruit is repentance and faith. We're going to be seeing this repentance and faith in your life. And as we look at the New Testament, church membership is regenerate church membership.

There's no evidence in our minds in the New Testament of just being a member because you were born in a certain country or because you just got baptized as a child. It's, you believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. There's evidence in your life that you are born again, and then you covenant with a particular local church. So regeneration, the second requirement or prerequisite would be baptism.

Now baptism is not something that's required for regeneration. We know that we're, we're saved by our faith alone. But baptism throughout the New Testament appears to be that sign of entrance into the covenant community, right? think of the Ethiopian eunuch.

He hears the gospel. Philip talks about the gospel, and then he said, look, there's water. What prevents me from being what, baptized? And throughout the whole New Testament, you see baptism, baptism over and over and over again as the sign that you've come into Christ, you've been buried, you've been raised with Him, and now you are part.

Of the covenant community. So at Cornerstone, if you were to fill out our application for membership, we would ask, have you been baptized? If no, are you willing to be baptized? So, at least if you're willing to be baptized, and we could baptize you and we would invite you in to, to make this covenant with us.

But thirdly, what does church coveting entail? regeneration, baptism, Covenant commitment. Coveting with the local church involves some commitment. Now this is going to look differently in different churches, and to be honest with you, I think the Lord left it that way on purpose, that as the church is spread throughout the world in different cultures and times, there would be different modes of how that covenant is healed just like marriage, in marriage in a Jewish society, they didn't sign a paper, but they did go through a ceremony and they made vows.

And once you went through the ceremony and made those vows, then you were officially married, right? Today in the United States we have a ceremony, we have a ceremony, we put on a ring, and then I've got to sign that little thing, that little contract that goes down to the state, and then in the state's eyes I'm officially married, right? There's different ways that covenants are sealed in different cultures. But the assumption is in the New Testament, the overriding assumption is that you will covenant yourself with some particular local church, however, that local church chooses to voice its covenant., ceremony or covenant procedures, now, one of the things, let me just say this really quickly, one of the things that is, is tricky about talking about a church covenant or membership per se is, is the Bible assumes that everywhere and it talks about membership everywhere, but it's almost like, sometimes when you're talking to membership to someone, it's almost like talking about the Trinity to Jehovah's Witness, right?

Jehovah's Witness is like, well, where's the Bible? Give me one verse that tells me about the Trinity. well, I can't give you one verse, but I can give you 5 or 6 systematically to demonstrate Trinity everywhere, and, and then if you look at these singer verses, you'll see that, yeah, the Trinity. And I think of the same thing, with the, with the concept of covening with the church.

It's everywhere. It's assumed, new covenant, terminology, promise, oath, commitment, vows, So, what does it look like here? I've got before you, I'm just going to read through this quickly. Covenant Fellowship Bible Church's covenant of fellowship.

And all this is, is just a summary of what the Bible says about the commitment between brothers and sisters ought to have one another. And if you have become a member, you've read this and signed this. And if you haven't, this is what you would read and sign. Having been led by God, the Holy Spirit to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as my personal savior and Lord, that's regeneration.

Desiring to unite in the worship and fellowship and testimony of that, portion of Christ's body, local church, as Cornerstone Fellowship Bible Church, and having read and agreed to the statement of doctrine of this local church, understanding it to be the basis of its beliefs and teaching, I, Mike Barry, I've signed this, do hereby express my desire to enter into a membership. And understand that I am placing myself under the authority and care of the elders whom the Holy Spirit has made overseers, and further understand that I am expressing a desire to grow spiritually in Christ and to be trained and equipped for the work of service in his body, particularly in this local church.

And then there are, 10 basic statements that flow of scripture that we have listed. By the help of and guidance of the Holy Spirit, I covenant.

21, endeavor to be an example of Christ in my speech, conduct, love, faith, purity of my life to forsake the ways of sin comes out of Ephesians 4. Exercise a mutual care of other members in the body of Christ. 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 41 another passages. Be slow to take offense, but always ready for reconciliation and mindful of the scriptures to seek it without delay.

Again, it's out of Ephesians. strive with others for both peace and purity of this assembly as, as part of the body of Christ. Hebrews, chapter 12. And faithfully, attend faithfully the stated services of the church, Hebrews 10:26 that you just agreed, man, I, if I'm going to be here and benefit, I, I gotta be together when God's people are gathering.

Cherish the word and the ordinances. So we talked about the preaching, we talked about the Lord's Supper and previous sermons. baptism would be included here. contribute as a faithful steward.

It's time, talent, money in the measure that Christ prospers me, that the responsibility of the local church, the worldwide ministry of the spreading the gospel be faithfully discharged. That's what Milton preached about last week. Teach my children the word of God. Seek the salvation of my family and acquaintances to walk circumspectly in the world so that I can be a faithful witness to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Lastly, encourage one another in the blessed hope of our Lord soon returning and to engage in regular Bible reading and prayer so that I may be ready to meet him. That's how we do the covenant thing here. We don't think that everybody has to do it exactly the way we do it, but that's how we do it here. We do believe that it is biblical to, however, a local church expresses a covenant, to make a covenant with the family, to identify yourself in some way as one of the family so that there can be that mutual ministry.

Now, obviously, if you're an unbeliever here this morning, then we, we would not invite you to covenant with us. We would want you to hear the gospel. We'd invite you to keep coming and visiting. But hear the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ so that you can repent of your sins.

If you're just visiting and checking us out as a, a local church, keep coming, and we encourage you. If the Lord leads you on to another local church, that's awesome. If you're a regular attender and you've never officially come in with us, you've been coming here for a long time., we don't want you to feel, that this is some heavy handed law thing that if you don't covenant with us, then you will be excommunicated, whatever excommunication means, but, from our body, da, da, dah.

I, we just ask you to pray, as you, as you think about the scriptures we've talked about this morning, if you haven't covenated, why not?

And maybe there's some good reasons. I, I, I know, I can think of some really good reasons why there's people who haven't come in with us, they, they want to be here, but, for various reasons they don't feel like that they can come in at this time. but I know for me years ago, the main reason I didn't covenant with my local church is because I just hadn't thought about it. And nobody really taught me that that was important.

That was the main reason why I didn't do it. so that might be you, or just ask the Holy Spirit to show you. Look and just gauge in your heart. Am I, have I been unduly duped by American individualism that just says, I can't commit because something else better might come or I don't want to commit because that feels weird., there's this unchurching of America that's going on, this, this, This lack of, of, of desire, especially in the American church, to want to just give yourself over in a committed fashion that you see it in marriages, you see it in the church, you see it even in parenting where parents won't give themselves fully to their children and vice versa.

It's an epidemic in the United States and the church is no exception. And so I just challenge you to pray about that. With that, let's pray. And we are going to, as I pray, if we could have Team Uganda come on up here with the elders as we close in prayer, we are going to, Set them apart for the ministry.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for this time to be in your presence. As a New Covenant community. And we thank you, Lord, for the surprise, the wonderful surprise that we are included in this promise that you made to Judah and Israel, and that we get to drink of the new covenant in your blood.

We thank you, Lord, Lord, that you have called us into a community. You haven't left us by ourselves. And Lord, you've spoken lovingly, but frankly that we are sheep, that we need the flock, that we need our shepherds. Thank you that you've given us shepherds by your Holy Spirit.

thank you, Lord, that we have protection within the body. Lord, I just pray, Father, that your spirit would work amongst us. Lord, that there would be a gospel appeal, Lord, to commitment. Lord, we don't want anyone to be motivated.

merely by a sense of guilt. A sense of Low, Lord, we pray that your spirit would motivate your children. With the gospel that the new covenant in your blood, Is the gospel. And you have established this gospel community for our good.

And Lord, may your spirit motivate us in that way that we would take joy in our commitment to one another, not grudging. Lord, may your spirit convince us of these things. Lord, may we be Bereans. Search these things and see if they'd be so.

We commit this to you in Christ's name. Amen. As part of our, privilege and duty as members of Cornerstone Fellowship Bible Church, we believe that the Holy Spirit has said to us, set apart from me, Bill, Eileen, Carly, and Brooke, Vincent. to the ministry which I have called them, and they are going to Uganda, and we are now, according to Acts 13, going to lay hands on them.

And we're going to pray for them and we're going to set them apart, for this ministry this summer. And as they go out, they are not just going out as individuals who just said, hey, here's something that we can do. They're going out as representatives of this local church which has been purchased with Christ's own blood. Let's lay hands on them.

We'll have, a couple of the elders pray loudly since they're not miked and then I'll close. We've got two elders pray and then I'll close. OK. Well, thank you for the bill, and I, Carly and grub.

The calling that you have placed upon their lives to go to Uganda. We know that this is a repeat trip for Belle and Carly and Eileen. The first time for growth? Father, none of us knows what lies ahead, but we know who is in Africa, who is out of Africa, who is sovereign over Africa.

We know, Lord, that your desire is that the word of the cross, the message of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will go forth. Your father, know that it's being proclaimed in the school to which, Bill and Eileen, Carly and Brooke are being sent. We know that you are there and that you will be with them. Father, we also know that, in this world of the cross.

Who would want to thwart, deny, and crush their, their, their work, their ministry. We pray, Father, that You would hold him at bay. That he not have his way, especially in their hearts and minds. We pray, Father, that, you would strengthen them for the work, that you would make them ever mindful of your presence.

Um-hum. And we pray, Lord, that this would be a life changing experience, that they would see you and experience you anew in Uganda. Um-hum. And that that place would never be the same in Jesus' name.

OK. Lord, I pray as well for, for this, this team as they go out. I, I just pray that you would, Guide them as they go, just, in, overhearing talk last night about the, Um-hum, just the challenges of being over there and, and the different things that come up and, and the, the, all of a sudden you're expected to speak or, or just preach the next morning or something like this. Just pray that your spirit would guide them, that you would help them, Lord, to be, that you would equip them, that you would give them the wisdom, of knowing how, what to say and what to do and how to act in different situations and so on.

Just pray that your spirit would guide them in, in every situation that they're going to find themselves in. They have, a plan of how things are hopefully going to go, but there are going to be changes in that and just pray that you would guide them, that you would, give them the wisdom they need in all the situations that, that come up. Um-hum. So thank you so much, Lord, for your faithfulness in that.

And now, Lord, we, release them to this ministry. We pray, Father, that You would return them to us safely, to give a wonderful, wonderful report of what you have done through them. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.

Amen. By the way, there is, I think there is still some support that we're, Hoping we'll come in. They've been able to raise a, obviously enough of their support to leave. but if the Lord lays it on your heart to give, you can, get that into the hands of Alvin or one of the ushers back there.

because I was so long winded this morning, we are not going to have a closer. And we are not going to have announcements. So, read your bulletin and God bless you guys. If you guys have any questions, feel free to come up and talk to me.

I'm, let me just say this last long winded thing. I fretted till early parts of the morning, About this message because I know there is great potential for offense, And to hurt, and I just, if you have any questions about this, if you just come talk to me, my motive is to try to encourage the family to do family business. And if you wanna, if you got some alternative viewpoints, feel free to come up and share them and, and we'll talk about them together. God bless you guys.

Have a great afternoon. Snowbird.