The State of the Church part 1

Again, I really enjoy that last song. The church is one foundation. The chorus really blesses me. She is treasured in prize. Those of us who were born again, truly a part of the church. I hope that we do see that we are treasured in prize. This church, his church, our church, the church that he has given us, we are treasured in prize. And I look forward to the work and the days and years to come. I thought that really speaks to not just my heart, but to where we're going this morning, not just this morning, but also next week. I appreciate that, Brother Keith. Well, take your Bible and turn back with me to 2 Timothy, chapter 4.

I'm sure that portion of scripture is marked from our scripture reading. We will divide verses 1 and 2, but a little later, we'll turn over just a little to the book of Titus. Titus is a familiar book for us. We were there just a few weeks ago, but you should not have any problem turning from 2 Timothy to Titus about halfway through the message. Now, this morning, I'll do something that is a little out of the norm for me. This out of the norm thing pertains to some areas in the life of the church that are very familiar to us. I will refer to a handout that you have all throughout the message at different times.

So you keep that handy as we just progress along. That's not something that I normally do, but I do believe it is a useful tool for us this morning. Now, I'll call you to look at the handout that you received earlier. Let me give you some information about where this has come from, this illustration, and then I'll touch on what's before us. You know, I think everyone knows of our partnership. Our partnership is Nola Baptist Church with Grace Life Church at Muscle Shells, Alabama, but really, it's with our mission's arm of the church, anchored in truth. We are a partner church with them in their missions endeavors around the world.

We don't just help them and assist them in missions work. They assist us. They want to take churches like us under their wing, so to speak, and they want to bless us and encourage us and help us. And they've done that for us, and they are doing that for us. But back in the spring, in March, Jeff Noblett, the pastor of Grace Life came, and he came and preached and encouraged us. It was a very good time. But he also brought before us this wheel illustration. Now, I was familiar with it because of some of the information that I have from their church. I thought it was very fitting. It fits where we've been going.

Some of the programming that we have instituted in the life of the church didn't necessarily come from this wheel illustration, but this wheel illustration fits where we have been going. Now, I want to invite you to look at the illustration that's before you. It's obvious that it's a wheel, but I want you to look at the center of the wheel, the hub of the wheel, and before you, you see preaching the word. This is a part of congregational worship. That's something that we're going to look at this morning. And then you see three different spokes there within the wheel.

You have in the top to the right, you have every member of ministry through small groups. We're going to address that and deal with that this morning. And then there at the bottom, you have family discipleship. And then at the top left, you have strategic world missions. We're going to deal with those next week. And part two of this message, we'll deal with them rather quickly. And then we'll get to the outside of the wheel. I don't want to overlook that. All of this is done by being empowered by the Spirit of God. If we're not empowered by the Lord, if we're not energized and enabled by the Spirit, we're just doing this mechanically.

We're just doing the work of the church in the flesh. And we do not want to do that. And then on the outside, all the way around the outside of this illustration, we seek to be a glory of God-focused local church, giving glory to the Lord through the local church and then a church. We seek to be a church that is a pattern for others. Now, just hold that in your lap along with your copy of God's word. We're going to use this. This is, again, unfamiliar for us. But we're going to use this as we progress in the message. Now to the familiar.

We're going to be examining this center portion, this preaching and teaching ministry as it is a part of our congregational worship. And then we're going to be looking at our small group ministry, which we've been a part of for over a year. Now, I'll go ahead and give you the title of the message. What we're going to be looking at this morning is what I'm calling the state of the church. We're going to be looking at the state of the church this morning. You see before you our first major truth. And that is word-centered congregational worship. Now, it's a little different from the will illustration, but it says the same thing.

We believe in what's called word-centered congregational worship. Now, I'm not going to go back and read Second Timothy. I'm not going to read Titus at this point in the message. As we progress along, we'll read those verses. I'll refer to them as we divide them. So the message will go along with the scriptures, obviously, that is our habit. And as always, we encourage you to take notes. The information will be before you. As always, we want to get all that the Lord wants us to have. So let's start off the message or the body of the message by looking at our first major truth, and that is word-centered congregational worship.

Word-centered congregational worship. Again, this is at the center of the will. This is at the center of this illustration that is before us. Now, when I say word-centered congregational worship, I'm speaking of what we do on Sunday mornings. And I will allude to the fact that this does speak about what we do at different times when we meet. Now, some people might say things like this. Well, we go to church on a Sunday morning or a Sunday night or a Wednesday night. Or we go to worship or are we gathered for worship? Now, none of those statements are wrong. None of them are wrong at all.

But we need to see that we are assembling together, whether it's a Sunday morning, a Sunday night, or a Wednesday night, we are assembling together as a congregation for what we would call corporate worship. Now, there are several elements which make up this congregational worship. But I want to focus on the main thing. I want to focus on the most important thing that we do, and that is we are sitting together under God's word. Now, I want to briefly examine this portion of scripture that we read earlier, 1 Timothy chapter 4, verse 1 and 2. Now, I'm going to reference some other scriptures.

And as always, I'll call you to write those down so that you can go study them on your own. So let's look back at 2 Timothy chapter 2. Look back at verse 1. Paul is writing to Timothy. He is there at the Ephesian church. And he says, I'll solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom. Verse 2, preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction. Now, there are two observations that I want to make here out of these two verses. I want us to notice first Paul's command to Timothy.

We see that right away in verse 1. I solemnly charge you. That's obvious right there in verse 1. So right here, we see Paul charges Timothy. All of the translations that we study together say the same thing, the English Standard Version, the New American that I'm reading from, and the King James. Now, for us in our day, this word would be better understood as command. It would not be wrong for you to say, I solemnly command you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus. That would be very, very accurate. Now, the idea here is issuing a directive or a forceful order. This would have been a very familiar word to this young pastor, Timothy.

Paul charged. Paul commanded Timothy quite a few times in 1 and 2 Timothy. In 1 Timothy chapter 5 verse 21, we see the very same word. And in 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 13, again, the same command, the same charge. And then in 2 Timothy 2 verse 14, again, another command, another charge. So Timothy was familiar with this type of language. But for me, the seriousness of this command is highlighted in two ways right there in the verse. This command was given to Timothy in the presence of God the Father and of Jesus. Go back to the verse. I solemnly charge you or I solemnly command you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus.

Paul is reminding young Timothy that he is under the watchful eye of God. And then Paul reminds Timothy that Christ will judge his ministry. Go back again to the verse. I solemnly command you or charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead by his appearing in his kingdom. Here Paul is reminding Timothy that Christ Jesus will judge him and his ministry. He will judge Timothy. He will evaluate Timothy in his personal life and in his ministry. But then notice our other observation, our second observation. Notice Paul's command to preach. Paul's command to preach. Go back to verse 12.

Preach the word. As a matter of fact, you could kind of adjust verse 1 and 2, and this would be accurate. You could say, I'll solemnly command you to preach the word. Here we see right here in verse 2 what Paul is commanding Timothy to do. That's very important for us to see. Now this is easy to see here in verse 2. It's right there. Timothy is commanded. He's charged to preach. Now this word and its meaning is real simple. It just means to proclaim. It means to be a herald or one who would herald. Now for me, there is a what here, and then there is also a how here. Paul is commanding Timothy to preach or to proclaim the word.

Now this word, word here, it would refer to the entirety of the written word of God. And then Paul gives the how, and he gives it in two ways. Timothy is to be ready to preach at all times. He is to fulfill this duty when it is popular and when it is unpopular, when it is easy, and when it is difficult. He was to preach no matter what popular opinion may say. But also in this how, Timothy was to correct and to rebuke. Go back to the verse. Preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction. Timothy was to correct and to rebuke. This is the negative side of preaching and teaching.

And then he was to encourage and teach. This was the positive side of this preaching and teaching responsibility. So big picture in these two verses, what do we see here? Timothy is pastoring there in Ephesus, the church at Ephesus. The Apostle Paul, in his apostolic authority, is commanding Timothy as an elder and the pastor to be faithful to preach the word to the people within that local church, the church at Ephesus. He was the pastor, so this was his duty. And this was what the church at Ephesus needed. Now, I want us to see that this is not an isolated event. This is not an isolated example. And this is not an isolated command.

In Titus chapter 2, verse 1, Paul calls Titus to preach, and I'm quoting the verse, "things which are fitting for sound doctrine." It is obvious. The context is the churches on the island of Crete. Paul exemplified this in his own ministry. In Colossians chapter 1, verse 24 to 28, Paul said that he was God's slave, he was God's servant, to preach the word of God to the churches. As an apostle, Paul had a unique position of authority and responsibility. This was to all of the churches, not just one. Another example would be the seven churches in Revelation. Those letters were written to pastors within those churches.

And those pastors were to proclaim, they were to teach, they were to preach every word of those particular letters that were written to those churches. So we see word-centered congregational worship that is within the pages of the scriptures. Now for us in our day, how should we apply this? To know about this church, we must see that the main event, the main event of our worship service is sitting under the word of God. Each time we assemble Sunday morning or a Sunday evening service, if we were to go back to a Sunday evening service, a Wednesday evening service. And our Sunday morning worship, it doesn't matter when we gather.

I want us to see that this definitely applies to us. Now let me explain to you how this was instilled in my heart and in my mind as a minister of the gospel. When I was first born again, I've told you my story many times of how God saved me on a Saturday night. And I'm telling you, I went right to church that next Sunday morning. Well, that became my home church, the Highland Baptist Church in Laurel, Mississippi. I did not grow up there, but that became my home church and Brother Dennis Sewell became my home church pastor. Well, that is what Brother Dennis exemplified before me on a Sunday morning and on a Sunday night.

We always gathered under the word. And everything led up to the preached and the explained and the taught word of God. Even on a Wednesday night, I'm telling you, in those days, we had a better, a stronger, a more healthy Wednesday night worship service and prayer time than most churches had on a Sunday night. And so this was instilled in me from the very beginning of my Christian journey. And then this is what we have worked hard here in the days of Nola Baptist Church. I go all the way back to October of 2011 when the Lord led me to take Nola Baptist Church as the pastor. And that was one of the things that we did right away.

Not only do we have a Sunday morning service, but we had a Sunday evening service, and we always opened up God's word. God's word has always been preeminent in every service that we ever have. And you know, if you think back for over four years, we took our time on Sunday mornings, verse by verse, chapter by chapter, through the Gospel of John. And I don't know if you know how rare it is for pastors to take their time and go verse by verse, sometimes word by word. And we saw Christ, deity, the Son of God, exalted through John's Gospel. And then we saw the evangelism of John, the evangelism of the Lord Jesus throughout that book.

And we took our time doing what? Exalting the Gospel of John on Sunday mornings. And our past worship services, Sunday mornings, Sunday nights, we've gone through books like Ezra, and Nehemiah, and James, and first and second, and third John. We've gone through various different subjects like baptism and tithing. And there's a whole archive of messages that we've gone through year after year, here together. And what am I showing you? We have worked very, very hard to make the preaching and the teaching of God's word preeminent in every service. Now, I don't always do this. I don't always tell you what I'm thinking about for the future.

But you know, on my radar, there are quite a few subjects and quite a few books that I want us to have the time to delve into. I can't wait to go through the book of Acts. I cannot wait to get into some of the deep, doctoral things of books like Ephesians, and Galatians, and Romans. I can't wait to get back into the Gospels, to go through the synoptics, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. I can't wait to go back through the pastoral epistles. I just can't wait. So we've got days, and weeks, and months, and years together to be in God's word. Now, what am I showing you?

The word of God is central as we gather together in our congregational worship services. That's why right there, the will illustration, the center of the hub, it's the center of all that we do. And then second, I want us to see our second major truth. We're seeing that we have word-centered small group ministry. Word-centered small group ministry. Now, this is the second spoke in our will illustration. You see that before you. Now, most all of you know the shift that we made in our Sunday night programming. I go back and I refer you to the date we made this shift in April of 2018. I don't like to use this language.

We canceled our Sunday night worship service. Not to just cancel, we replaced it with adult small group Bible study. This was a decision that we, as the elders here of the church, made, we took this very serious. We prayed thoroughly. We examined all of our programming. We knew that our adults needed small group ministry. Now, truthfully, we truly miss our Sunday night worship services. But because of some of our limitations, we needed to cancel Sunday night worship and meet together in small groups rather than coming together for a worship service. This was a tremendous need. And we've seen those needs be met in you and me and in our church.

Now, I want to take the time and revisit some of the information that I shared with you back in April of 2018. We're going to look at Titus chapter 1, verses 1 to 8. And then we'll make a few observations here. So let's turn a page over and let's look at Titus chapter 2. Let's look at verses 1 to 8. Paul's writing to another pastor, Titus, ministering on the island of Crete. Those churches there. And what does he say? But as for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine. Older men are to be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith and love and perseverance.

Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips, nor enslaved to much wine. Teaching what is good, that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands and love their children and to be sensible and pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be dishonored. Likewise, likewise, you urge the young men to be sensible and all things show yourselves to be an example of good deeds with purity and doctrine, dignified, sound in speech, which is beyond reproach. In order that the opponent may be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us.

Now, I want us to make two observations out of these verses. Notice first, there is what I'm calling central teaching from Titus the pastor. What do we see in verse 1? But as for you, Titus, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine. Again, I call you to remember the context. Titus was on that small island of Crete right there in the Mediterranean Sea. Titus had labored with Paul on the island, and Paul leaves Titus behind to set things straight in those local churches. We see that in chapter 1, verse 5. "For this reason I left you in Crete." What do we see?

Paul, he calls Titus to do things like appointing elders within the life of the church. We see that in chapter 1. And Titus was to be busy with this important business. But he was also to teach and to preach within those churches. Go back again to verse 1 of chapter 2. "But as for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine." He was to teach according to the needs and the doctrine within the life of the church. Simply, he was their preaching pastor because there were no other elders at this time. But then notice what I'm calling relational teaching within the life of the church.

We see this starting in verse 2, going all the way down to verse 8. Now, we dealt with these verses in a more detailed manner. Earlier in the summer, when we were looking at what I called a monumental ministry to a monumental generation. So these verses should be familiar to us. Now, I'm not going to repreech that message. But I do need to point out what we see here in verses 2 through 8. Titus was to minister to the young men within the life of the church. We see that in verses 6 to 8. He was to be an example to these young men. That meant he was to draw close to them. They were to be able to see his life, hear his words, observe his deeds.

And he was to impact them in matters of doctrine and also in personal practical matters. The older, they were to minister to the younger. We see that in verse 3 and in verse 4 and 5. Men were obviously to minister to men, and women were to minister to women. Now, what do we see here just in this one example? We have Titus, who is the pastor there on the island of Crete. And he's ministering to various churches on the island. And Paul is calling Titus to address certain needs within the church.

But in eight verses, starting in verse 2, we see that there are needs within the lives of the church, needs in young men's lives, needs in the older, needs in the younger. And we see Paul address those specific needs as he writes to Titus. Now, again, this is not an isolated event. This is not an isolated example. If we go all the way back to the book of Acts during the growth of the early church, those believers would meet from house to house. Acts chapter 2 verse 26 and chapter 5 verse 20, 42, and then in chapter 20 verse 20. And then also we see a good example of meeting needs within the body.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 5-- or excuse me, chapter 12, verse 12 to 26. In those verses, Paul explains how the body of Christ is comprised of many different individuals. There are many parts within the body of Christ, verse 15 and 17. In verse 18, he communicates that their individual needs within the body. Paul communicates that each member of the body is dependent on the body. So what are we seeing here? What are we seeing in various places? We see word-centered small group ministry. And again, I'll refer you back to the illustration. It comes out of the preaching, the congregational preaching.

And it goes out into the life and the work of the church. Now, still dealing with our small group ministry, I want to revisit the goals that were set for our small groups. Some of you might have noticed, but on the back portion of that handout, we see the goals that are set before us. Now, I presented these goals in April of 2018. So it's been over a year since I put these goals before you. And I gave us what I called immediate goals and future goals. Now, I want to revisit them, and I want to examine them. And I want you to see the progress that we've made and the Lord has made through this ministry. First, those immediate goals.

There were five put before you. The first goal was to teach the word and to meet spiritual needs. We've done that in the life of the church. We started off with that study, expository listening. And then we went into the peacemaker study, which was so helpful for relationships within the body of Christ. And then we took our time through the book of Colossians. And then we just finished up a very practical study on Christian accountability. What am I showing you? We have taken our time by going through the word, and spiritual needs have been met in our lives. And then we had the goal of creating fellowship over the word.

Oh, it's been my joy to see that happen in your life and in my life. Men and women discussing the lessons, discussing what's been taught, meeting for breakfast, having each other in their homes, conversation about what's been taught and how it's affected their life and their family life. See that fellowship, Christian fellowship, over the word and over what's been taught. And then the third goal, to develop life connected to life discipleship.

I've seen people in the life of the church, men and women, connect in a greater way, in a deeper way, connect over the word, connect over personal struggles, praying for one another and encouraging one another. And those relationships have been fostered in that intimate smaller context within the life of the small group. And then our fourth goal was to facilitate ministry within the body of Christ. And see, as we grow closer to one another and we fellowship over the word and what's been taught is forming us, then the natural outflow is ministry within the body. I've seen women minister to women. I've seen women minister to multiple women.

I've seen men minister to men. And Brother Keith and I have had the opportunity to minister in unique ways in your life through the teaching ministry of small groups. So I have seen these immediate goals. They are being met as we meet and as we talk. And as we share and as this ministry just goes on week in and week out. But notice our fifth immediate goal, to promote outreach and evangelism. I'm going to speak about that as we continue, but I wanted to point that out. Now second, notice our future goals. Future goals, to develop leaders.

See, one of the great works of small group ministry is God raises up new leaders for new small groups out of this ministry. And I do see this happening. There are leaders that are being developed and grown. That might be two years before some of you lead a small group, but we see that leadership developing. But notice our second future goal, purposeful outreach and evangelism. We're going to challenge you. We're going to be more purposeful in using our small groups for outreach and evangelism. See, our primary goal is to teach the word, but it's through relationships and through the ministry of the word that we reach out to, the lost.

And then notice our last future goal, and that is the multiplication of the ministry. Yes, as we grow, there'll be more small groups. There'll be days when we'll have women's small groups to meet women's needs. Men's small groups to meet men's needs. Yes, we will grow. Now I want us to take a step back here. I want us to look at what we have examined. And this is big picture. This will illustration is more important than you know. I would like you to put it back in your lap, and I just want you to see what we have before us. This illustration helps us see the function of the church. This is tangible.

This helps me as the pastor to better inform you what the church does and why the church does what the church does. This helps you see what we do and why we do it and how it all fits together. And I want to ask you to keep this illustration, put it in your Bible, because we definitely will use it in next week's message. And I would ask you to use it as a tool of prayer to pray over our ministries and to pray over how this functions and how this works in the life of our church. Now, I want to begin to conclude the message this morning in two ways. We have been looking at what I'm calling the state of the church.

This is the state of this church, Nola Baptist Church. It's Christ's church. He suffered and bled and died for it. He's coming back for the church. But in a sense, yes, it's our church, because he's entrusted this work to us. Now, first, I want to say this. As your pastor, I want to call you to a strong commitment to Sunday morning worship. I want to call you to a strong commitment to Sunday night, a adult small group ministry. I want to call you to a strong commitment to Wednesday night and that ministry on Wednesday nights. On Wednesday nights, our children and our students, they have strong Bible classes.

We call them Sunday school on Wednesday nights. As adults, we are faithful to pray on Wednesday nights, but we are faithful to be in the Word of God on Wednesday nights. And I want to call you to evaluate your commitment. I want to call you to examine your life. I want to call you to be honest about those things which can pull you away from that commitment. Sometimes these are unnecessary things. Sometimes these are very important things, but they can wait. And I want to call you to examine your attendance, yes. But I want to go further than that. I want to call you to examine your participation.

How do you participate in a Sunday morning worship service? How do you participate as an adult in that adult small group Bible study? How do you participate in our Wednesday night Bible study, in our Wednesday night prayer meeting? And as a child, as a student, how do you participate? Your children and your students need Wednesday nights. They need those Bible study times. And I want to ask you where your heart is. Is your heart in worship as we gather together? Is your heart in it when we gather in God's word, under God's word, in all of these settings? How is your heart? This is not a guilt trip. This is more than just an examination.

Yes, we examine what we do. We examine our commitment. We examine our participation. But it's a matter of examining our heart. And then second, I want to share with you where we are going on Sunday mornings. I want to share with you where we are going in our adult Sunday night Bible study. And I want to share with you where we're going on Wednesday nights. Now for me, I've been calling this our fall semester. Now let me explain what I mean by that. All of our children will be back in school soon. Summer will be over, whether we homeschool, whether we private school or public school. It's wherever the Lord leads us to school our children.

We'll all be back in school together very soon. And we will start what I'm calling our fall semester. First our Sunday morning series. August 11th, we will start a verse by verse study through the Sermon on the Mount. The title of that series is The Extraordinary Christian Life. I study through the Sermon on the Mount. In the Sermon on the Mount, we see the Christian life, the extraordinary Christian life. So I'll call you as your pastor to get you a new notebook for notes. And to come and be ready, go ahead and be studying and reading through Matthew chapter 5 all the way to chapter 7. Be in preparation. Again, look at our will illustration.

That's the hub of all that we do. And then second, our adult small group Bible study on Sunday nights. On August 11th, we will start a study. And it's out of a book called What Would Jesus Say About Your Church? It's a book written by Richard Mayhew. And we will study the seven churches of the Revelation chapters 1 to 3. But we will also study the churches there in Greece. The church at Thessalonica, Philippi, and Corinth. And then we will study the first sending church, which is the church at Antioch, and the church there, the first church in Jerusalem. This is a 13-week study that will take us right up to our December break.

And again, look back at our will illustration. What do we see with that first book? Every member ministry through small groups, as we gather under the word of God and minister to each other over the word of God. And then third, our Wednesday night Bible study. On August the 7th, we will kick off. That is our kickoff date for all of our classes, our children's classes, as they go back into that three-year cycle of going through the word of God. Our student class, as again, they go back into that cycle of going through the word of God every three years. And then our new adult Bible study.

On Wednesday night, August the 7th, we will start a study through the book of Proverbs. The title of this study is Wisdom for Christian Living. It is a study through the book of Proverbs. So again, get you a new notebook for notes. Be reading in the book of Proverbs. A good habit for you to develop would be one proverb a day. And again, go back to our will illustration. This comes back to the hub as we gather on a Wednesday night. And yes, on Wednesday night, we worship together. We worship congregationally as we're under the singing together. We worship with our children and our teenagers. And then we're sitting under the word of God.

Now, one more piece of instruction in our conclusion. To be honest with you, I believe we all need to dust off our copy of our expository listening book by Ken Ramey. I went and dug mine out a couple of weeks ago. This was our first small group Bible study. And I would call all of you to go back through your notes, get your book. If you need a copy of that book, I'll be glad to help you acquire one. And we all need to make sure we're prepared each time we meet for Sunday morning worship. For adults, small groups in the evenings on Sundays. And for Wednesday night Bible study, we need to be prepared.

We need to be ready to sit under God's word to allow God's word and the fellowship and ministry of the body to make us into the church that God wants us to be. Now, not out of guilt. This is not out of duty. None of this is out of obligation. Again, the heart, the heart of the matter. We want to be God's people. And God's word forming us into the people that God wants us to be. So what have we looked at this morning? The title of the message, the state of the church. And we'll continue to look at this subject next week as well. Let's pray.