True Kingdom Work - The Church, the Whole Church and Nothing but the Church

Thank you Keith. I really like that song, "The Reformation Hymn." We played that one by request. I think that's one we've used often in our study of the ten pillars of the church. That's one we will continue to use, very rich. I encourage you to get that hymn, maybe and use that in your own prayer time for our church and where we're going in the future. I appreciate that. Go ahead and take your Bible and turn with me to two places this morning. Turn to Matthew chapter 16 verse 18. We were there in our scripture reading earlier. It's a familiar place for us because we were there.

In our second message in the series, Matthew 16 verse 18, mark that passage and then turn with me over to 1 Timothy 3.15. It's a familiar verse as well because we were there in our introductory message in the series. We'll begin with 1 Timothy 3 and then about halfway through the message we'll turn over to Matthew 16. Now this morning we're about to finish up our series called "The Ten Pillars of the Church." We've been in this body of teaching for quite some time. I believe if my memory is correct we started on September the 2nd. We've covered a lot of what I call fundamental and vital material along the way.

Now fundamental meaning that this teaching is at its basic level who we seek to be as a church, which affects what we desire to do as a church. Now vital meaning that if we move away from this teaching, at best we hinder New Testament kingdom work. And at worst we shipwreck New Testament kingdom work, which is the church. And I do not believe that any of us want to hinder or shipwreck God's work. Now as I have said all along the way, I encourage you to be familiar with this teaching. Some of us who have been here at NOLA for a while, we are familiar with this teaching.

We went through it quite a few years ago and along the way this teaching comes out in the pulpit ministry. But there are some of you who are new here. And I encourage you to make sure you listen to those messages, maybe even get those message notes. Because I believe that the Lord wants us to be all on the same page here. And if any of this teaching stirs up questions, we'll be glad to meet with you. We'll be glad to meet with you over lunch, over a cup of coffee, even come to your home. We've done that along the way and that's part of God molding us into who He wants us to be. Now a question. A question.

What is this teaching called the Ten Pillars of the Church? To answer this question, we need to see that these are the building blocks of New Testament Kingdom work as we as the leaders in the church understand the Scriptures. We can call this teaching essential components of New Testament Kingdom work. Real quickly, I will go through the list. I'll put this on the screen for you. We have learned that the church is the number one pillar. If we do not understand that Kingdom work in this day and time has been entrusted to the church, we're out there working Lone Ranger.

We know that God is entrusted Kingdom work to this institution called the church. And then pillar number two is the gospel. The church proclaims the gospel. The gospel is our primary message to the lost world and even in the four walls of the church. Then pillar number three, the Bible, the Word of God. We've learned and we will learn even more this morning that it is sufficient and authoritative in all matters of life, especially church life. And then pillar number four, saving grace, salvation. However you want to phrase it. Some people use the term conversion. This is how the Lord God saves lost individuals.

I call these the top four, the most important because if we move away from these, then we shipwreck the church. Kingdom work. And then number five is church membership. We understand that church membership is a formal commitment of a believer to identify with the local body of believers. And then number six, number seven and number eight, this is our work. Before we roll up our sleeves. Prayer, number six, evangelism, number seven and missions. And then number nine, church leadership. We believe in biblical church leadership as taught in the scriptures. And then number ten, that is church discipline. Now what do we see here?

These are the building blocks of New Testament Kingdom work as we understand the scriptures. Now I want to encourage you to write those down. The end of the message I will go back to this list with some further instruction. Now this morning as we are having a message of conclusion, I want us to see that we started this series with an introductory message. It was titled the church, the pillar and the foundation of the truth. Now we taught out of first Timothy chapter three verse fifteen. Then we moved to our second message in the series which was pillar number one, the church.

The message was titled the church, the whole church and nothing but the church. And for that teaching we were in Matthew sixteen eighteen. Now this morning our message will spring out of those two messages. I will divide some of these verses. I will make some pastoral comments and further application that has been on my mind all throughout the series. And this application speaks to our present day and our future. And I believe what is shared this morning will finish out this teaching this series rather well. Now this morning's message will be a part one and a part two. Not that we will have a part one this morning or a part two next week.

What I mean is part one will come out of first Timothy three fifteen. Part two will come out of Matthew sixteen eighteen. And you see the truths that we will examine that come out of these verses. First we will look at the church is the pillar of truth and the church is the foundation of truth. That comes out of first Timothy. We're familiar with this teaching. And then the church has a mighty expectation and the church has a victorious future out of Matthew sixteen eighteen. And like I said earlier this comes out of those first two messages from the series.

But again I will go a little further in application for our present day and for the future. And as I always do I encourage you to take notes. Because we want to make sure we learn what the Lord wants to give us. We want to be good students. We don't want to just be listeners. We want to be listeners and doers of the word. Now let's start off our message or dividing the message by looking at this first Timothy passage first Timothy three verse fifteen. I will back up and I'll read verse fourteen. This helps us with context. I am this is Paul writing these things to you writing the Timothy hoping to come to you before long.

Now we know Paul's heart. He had a heart to go back to Ephesus to minister there in the church and to assist Timothy. But notice verse fifteen. But in case I am delayed what is he doing. He's giving Timothy pastoral instruction in his job. All right. So that you may know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God which is the church of the living God the pillar and support of the truth. Now we know the context of the letter. We also know the context of verse fifteen even really the small portion of this verse fifteen which is what we will focus on this morning.

This was all written to Timothy but more important was the fact that this letter was intended for a local church the church there in Ephesus. But notice how Paul describes this church or these people in the verse he says or he calls them the household of God. Notice the wording. The King James uses the word house the new American uses the word household. Now I've said this before I'll say it again. This is not referring to a building. This is an analogy. This is illustration used to describe the family of God God's people. These people there in the life of the Ephesian church were born again Christians. They were God's family God's household.

Paul continues. Paul continues to describe the church in the verse even further notice the phrase the church of the living God. And of course I'm reading from the new American. This is another layer of this understanding. Now it needs to be seen that this phrase can be translated accurately the living God's church. This speaks of God's possession. The true and living God owns the church. This is a verse that I've referenced all through this teaching. Act 2028 says that Christ purchased the church with his own blood. So this is God's household. These are God's people. This is God's church. That's possessive language. God owns the church.

These are his called out people. We know the meaning of the term church. It is the Eclosia of the called out ones. Now with that being said and that understood and that in our minds and hearts notice that the church is. I go back to the verse. The household of God which is the church of the living God the pillar in support of the truth. So that gets us to our outline. The church is number one the pillar of truth. Now we must see an important cultural picture here. I went over this in our first message. The introductory message but I will abbreviate this. We have a cultural picture.

We have a cultural illustration and this illustration describes the function of the church in Ephesus. That day there in the city stood the temple of the goddess pagan goddess Diana or the pagan goddess Artemis. Now in that day this pagan temple was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It was massive. It was giant in size and it had a major influence in the city. Almost the entire economy of the city was tied to the temple in the worship of the goddess Diana. Acts 19 tells us that the spread of the gospel was so successful that the economy of the city of Ephesus was crippled.

But the most impressive features of the temple were its massive pillars which held up what we would call the porch or the portico. And they were very prominent there in the front of the temple. There was 27 giant pillars and history tells us they were made of marble. They were overlaid with gold. And some of the pillars were decorated with jewels. And these pillars were funded or financed by kings and they were a type of tribute to the kings who donated the work. The tribute by the kings and the ornate decorations ultimately were secondary. The main function were to hold up the massive structure.

So it would be safe to assume that when these Ephesians heard this language they would have thought of the temple. They were all very familiar with this structure. They saw it almost if not every day. It was a major part of their culture as Ephesians. But then our second major truth, notice the foundation. Go back to the verse. "The household of God which is the church of the living God, the pillar and the support of the truth." The English standard uses the word buttress. The King James translates this word ground.

Now with this picture of the pillars of the temple of Diana there would have been an overlooked or maybe even an unseen foundation. The pillars in the temple rested on a solid foundation. If it had not had a solid foundation then it would have been structurally unsafe. So we have this solid foundation which supports the pillars, which supports the massive portico of the temple. Now we must see how the illustration or the picture applies to the Ephesian church. Paul is writing to the church so this has meaning. Here Paul is teaching these Ephesian believers that they as the church were to be the solid pillar supporting the truth.

Go back to the end of the verse. "The pillar and the support of the truth." Underline that word. Highlight that word. Note that word. We understand that this truth is the spoken revelation of God in His holy word. This truth is the content of the Christian faith for all Christians throughout the ages. This truth spoken of is the God for the church throughout all the ages as well. And this foundation we've learned is Christ Jesus Himself. Christ is pictured as the foundation all throughout the scriptures. We see that in Matthew 16, 18, which we will get to in a moment.

In Acts 4 starting in verse 11 and in 1 Corinthians 3, 11, Christ is pictured as the foundation. And this was to be who they were as a church. This was what they were to do as a church. Let me put it in our language. This tells us that simply the Ephesian church, these people were to be people of the book. They were to be people of the Word of God, the truth of God. Now in application for us in our day and in our time, we must see that we are to follow in the footsteps of Paul and of Timothy and of this Ephesian church and in the footsteps of this verse. Go back to the verse.

"And I write to you that you may know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and the support of the truth." We are to follow in the footsteps of this verse. Simply, we must be people of the book. That's why pillar number 3 is what? The Word of God, the Bible, God's holy Word. It is sufficient in all matters of life and in matters of the church and we submit to the authority of the Word. Now if you know your church history, you know what happens when the church moves away from the authority of the Word.

Oh, prior to the Protestant Reformation, the church was out from under the authority of the Word. And you know during the Protestant Reformation, those leaders, what did they do? They rediscovered justification by grace through faith. But they never would have rediscovered justification by grace through faith if they had not come back to the Word. And historians tell us that right behind justification by grace through faith was this great move to move back to the sufficiency and the authority of the Word over and above church tradition.

And for us today, we must see that we hold up the pillar of truth, which is God's Word here at Nola Baptist Church. And notice how we do this and what we do in our programming. What about our pulpit ministry? We work hard to teach you God's Word, sometimes subjects like the Ten Pillars, but many times verse by verse through God's Word. Next Sunday we'll start back in our series in the Gospel of John. But no matter who is behind this desk, they come prepared to preach and to teach God's Word. But I'll take it a step further. What about our small group ministry? We have small group ministry. No matter what age you are in the life of the church.

For our adults, we meet on Sunday nights and we're going through God's Word. If you'll notice how much time we spend in God's Word, we spend well over an hour teaching God's Word and discussing God's Word and letting God's Word be formed in our lives. On Wednesday nights we have our children and our youth under God's Word, capable teachers and leaders leading and teaching God's Word. And we take all of that very serious. And not just our pulpit ministry on Sunday mornings, not just Sunday nights and Wednesday nights, even in events in the life of the church. Why? Because we want to be people of the Book.

In our preaching and teaching ministry here, we seek to be purposeful. We seek to be under God's Word so as to have lives changed from our children to forming families, to forming men and husbands and wives and mothers, that we would all be formed by God's Word. And we must see that it is the living Word of God that changes lives. That's what saves lost sinners. It's the Holy Spirit of God empowering the taught Word of God to change the heart and the life. And that's what grows saints. Now a question here. What about our future teaching ministry? I can tell you what our Sunday morning services will continue to be like.

Preaching and teaching God's Word. You might say, "Pastor, I would have guessed that." No, we all need to be reminded. We're never going to move away from this sacred desk and this holy time where we elevate God's Word and submit to God's Word. I'll be honest with you as a pastor. I'll tell you what I miss. I miss Sunday evening services. Now I do believe we are where we should be. And our studies, our Bible studies on Sunday nights, we do that for various reasons. But I long for the day when we can have Sunday evening services. There are many things that need to be taught. I'll let you in on how my mind works.

I see the need and I discern the need and in the day I believe this will come. I would love to take us through systematic theology, taking us through doctrinal issues from the Scriptures. Now what am I showing you? We desire to teach you God's Word. What about the future of adults, small group ministry? And what about the future of children and student ministry? It's all going to be centered around what? God's Word. Now let me show you this. What about our missions ministry?

You might say, "Pastor, you bring that up just because you've been to the Philippines and really that's on your mind and your heart." No, it is on my mind and my heart and it is pertinent to where we are, but I want you to see just how biblical we seek to be in our missions ministry. Now I'll give you a little illustration that will help us here. I have in my hand one of my favorite Christian biographies. It's the story of a man named Frank Drown and his wife Marie. They were missionaries to South America and it's a great read, an easy read. This book is called Mission to the Headhunters. And yes, he went to headhunters.

As a matter of fact, they would shrink heads. But when Frank Drown is discussing his missions training, notice what he says. And I'm reading. The focus of the training period was on what a missionary's task should be. This was more than learning a strange language and holding Bible classes, more than winning people to Christ. A missionary's chief goal should be to establish churches, indigenous churches that will be self-governing, self-supporting and self-propagating. If your work as a missionary does not result in strong native churches that can carry on without you, our leader pointed out, you will have failed as a missionary.

Now notice how biblical this is. This had been the Apostle Paul's method and we realized with God's help it would be ours. Now why do I read you that? Now there are a lot of people who do lots of good missions work and it does not necessarily center around the church. But if you really want to be clear and biblical and if you really want to get specific, the point of missions is to do what? Start churches and encourage churches and help churches. That's why I have led us, Brother Keith and I have led us, to partner with Anchored in Truth. Their primary purpose is about the church and I want you to see that shows us how we are tied to what?

The Word of God, this pillar of truth. We are striving to be the church, the church of the living God that holds up this truth. Pillar number three. Go back and listen to the verse again. First Timothy three, that second portion. The household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and the support of the truth. And when we go out and do missions that way, we are just holding up the truth. I'll read you a quotation that I gave us before and I think it's a sobering quote. I like it because it says it in such a way that I can't. John MacArthur speaks of the church's responsibility and I quote.

It is the solemn responsibility of every church to solidly, immovably, unshakably uphold the truth of God's Word and the church does not invent the truth and alters it only at the cost of judgment. Now question why this as a part of the conclusion of this series? Why? We must not move away from God's Word. We must be people of the book and if we stayed tied to God's Word, listen, all of these other pillars will simply fall into place. Now I want to move on. I want us to see the second part of the message, the second part of the message, which comes out of our Matthew 16 passage. Go ahead and turn back with me to Matthew 16.

I'll read verse 18, but we'll only look at a portion of verse 18. "And I also say to you," this is Jesus talking to Peter, "the company of these other disciples. And I also say to you that you are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it." Now we know the context of this portion of Scripture. Jesus is with his 11 or 12 disciples and he's asking them, quizzing them who the crowds think that he is. He takes that line of questioning closer to home and he asks them who do they think he is.

And of course it's Peter, he's proving those natural leadership abilities and he answers the question properly. But after this proper confession, Jesus begins to teach the disciples some great and new truth concerning the future of kingdom work. Jesus speaks about the unfolding work of the church. This is the first time this word church is used in the New Testament. Now through this one verse, Jesus teaches them that the church has a mighty expectation. So let's look at truth number one, this mighty expectation.

"And I also say to you that you are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church." Now if we're a student of church history and we should, we should be, we see all types of people, all types of personalities who have been involved in the work of the church. I referenced earlier the days of the Reformation. There were all kinds of individuals that were a part of that day, that work in that day and time. But here in Matthew 16, 18 we see a different personal involvement. This is not man, this is Christ, Jesus himself. Notice who Jesus refers to after he speaks of Peter.

He says, "I will build my church." Now I've said this numerous times here, it's as if Jesus is speaking with his hands. Let me go back to the verse. "And I also say to you that you are Peter, that small stone in the original language, and upon this rock, large stone, Jesus is pointing to himself, I will build my church." Earlier we learned that we're God's household, we're God's people. We know that we are commanded to do the work of the church. Passages like the Great Commission in Matthew 28 show us that we are commanded to do this work. But, but we need to see that we are not left alone to do the work.

This is a two sided work, this work of the church. Christ expects us to do this work. Christ commands his people to do the work. But Christ says here that he will do the work. Simply Christ is doing the work through his people. Christ is doing the work through his people. Now I issued this warning before, and it needs to be stated again, because we see this going on around us today. This teaching is not man partnering with Christ to do the work of the church. This is Christ as Lord working in his people to do this work. Christ Jesus is personally involved, so this should produce what? A mighty expectation and a victorious future.

In other words, this work will never fail. Let's look at our second major truth, the church has a victorious future. This church, the church has a victorious future. Now I've mentioned this before, but we need to see that if we look at the church and look at church history, we see what I call the ebb and the flow of the church. We need to remember and understand that the church, it is comprised of flawed people while on earth. He is comprised of the redeemed, but yet sinful people. And while on earth, the church faces two struggles, external struggles, such as persecution in the world that work against the church.

But then the church has internal struggles. Bad doctrine creeps into the church, false converts creep into the church, and even false leaders creep into the church. And all of this disrupts the church internally. So this is the ebb and the flow of the church, but the scriptures teach that the church is victorious. Now we must see that Jesus stated here, "I will build my church." That's how we can say it is victorious. This is a definitive statement. Jesus' words cannot fail. Jesus' works will never fail. Also Jesus stated that the gates of Hades shall not overpower it. Simply death and hell cannot overpower the work of the church.

Here in Matthew 16, 18, Jesus declares that his church has a victorious future. The victory is secure because he says it. The victory is secure because he personally brings it about as he works through his called out people. Now we must see how this applied to the New Testament church, the church that the apostles founded. Study the book of Acts and you will see a mighty expectation from who? From the apostles. Study the book of Acts and you will see a victorious work through God's called people, the church. Study the book of Acts and you will see a bright future. Christ worked through them and Christ did mighty and great things.

In other words, simplistically, they, these men and others built his church. Now an application for us, we must see that we should have a mighty expectation and we can have in Christ a victorious future. If, and I'll say that word again, if we allow Christ to work in us, we can have a mighty expectation and a victorious future. Now we have attention here. We have the tension between the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man. Now we can go all day on that tension and we have in the work of the church, the sovereign work of God and our responsibility and we must understand that we can squander our opportunity.

We can flounder in our responsibility. Now I want you to think about what we have learned all through this study and how it applies to us at Nola Baptist Church in three ways. Strongly encourage you to write this down for your own prayer life. I want you to see how this affects Nola in her past. Now I don't know a lot about Nola's past. I have learned some from those who were here through the years before we came, but I know that Nola had been on a slow decline for many years. If I understand my timing right, I was told that starting in the 1960s, there became a slow decline and a slow defeat. I don't have all the answers as to why.

But what I'm showing you is, is Nola was on the decline, Nola was defeated and Nola Baptist was about to close and by God's good grace and mercy, God enabled people to hang on and God had a plan. It was all God, it wasn't me, it was God's plan that was unfolded to us. But I want you to think about Nola's present condition. Look at what God has done. God has rebirthed the church. God is growing a church. God has brought His, God called and equipped leaders to lead the church. And God is bringing men and God is bringing families and God is bringing young people and God is enabling us to do what? To do the work of the church.

So look at our past and look at where we are now. We are enjoying God's grace and God's mercy. We are enjoying the work of the church. But not only the past, not only the present, but what about the future? We have many needs, immediate needs in our future. One of the needs that we have is more elder leadership. Brother Keith and I have been praying for quite some time about how that would unfold and what that would look like. On Wednesday night, one of the men in our church always prays for elder leadership and men that God would have. Now we're not just talking about anybody with a pulse, no.

We're talking about men who were called of God and equipped for this job. We have this need in the future. Another need in the future is our building. I mean, I think it's obvious that our building is old and in many ways it's in disrepair. And there are many things about our building that are very, very antiquated. Brother Keith and I know it. We've been looking at it. We've been praying over it. It is really in pretty bad shape. Listen, your pastor's been in the attic. I've been under it. I've been inside the walls and I know what this church is like.

And we have to ask ourselves, are we giving to the Lord and giving to the work that which is adequate for kingdom work? But also about our future is vision. You're going to hear more about our vision this year. I think about our vision in three ways. Our immediate vision the next year or so. I kind of call it our immediate vision the next three, five years and then long term. Yes, I think about long term. I think about who would God would lead and bring to this place when my time is over. What am I sharing with you? We take what we've learned and we apply it to our past and we apply it to our present and it shapes our future.

And I think that this mighty expectation and this victorious future forces us to ask questions and it should. I've said this many times. Good preaching starts up questions. It doesn't always answer all the questions. I'm going to pose to you a few questions here and no doubt this will stir up with you. And again, this is good. Here's a question. Can things stay the way they are here at Nola Baptist Church? I mean, can things stay the way they are here at Nola Baptist? Another question that just fits with that first. Do we view Nola Baptist of tomorrow the same way we have viewed Nola Baptist in the past three or four years?

If we do, then I believe we do not have a mighty expectation. And if we do, I do not believe we have a victorious future. And the next question. Could we be in a position to do great things in the kingdom of God? I mean, could we be in a position to do great things in a local community and around the world? But I go right in the middle and I get more specific. Could we be in a position to reach lost sinners for Christ? And could we be in a position to grow the saints and to reach young people and to reach men and to reach families? Listen, could we be in a position to do great things for Christ? I'll be honest with you.

There are a lot of churches that are not in that position. Listen, I know churches that are crippled before they get into the starting blocks. I shared with you my heart, my motto that God had been working out in me in our first pillar, dealing with the church. I stand by this. I believe Brother Keith does too. My motto has been I'm shipwrecked on the church. I'm stranded on the island of the rock Christ Jesus. And my only provision is the Word of God. Personally as your pastor, I have a mighty expectation for Christ's church. I want to be a part of a victorious future. I reject a future of average. I reject the future of the same old thing.

And I reject the future of just being mediocre. I'll say this before we move to the conclusion. Eternity is drawing near, folks. Eternity is drawing near. People are lost and headed to hell. Christians need growing into usefulness in the life of the church. And He has entrusted us, yes, us, with the work of the church. Now as I draw to the conclusion of the message, really this is the conclusion of the series. I want to call you back to the ten pillars. I'll call you back to the ten pillars because I want you to make sure you write them down. If God's led you here, you need to write them down.

I think I've said two or three times to you, I've kept them on a large post-it note in the front of my Bible. That old post-it note was worn out from other notes and praying over them. I took that out and I'll redo that, put that in the front fly leaf of my Bible. You need to know them. Some of you need to spend some time studying this teaching. Go a little further, I can give you resources that'll help. And listen, if you're a part of Nola Baptist Church, this is your pastor talking to you. Nola, if you don't know this teaching, if you don't digest it and accept it, you're in sin. Because this is where God has led us to be.

This is who we are and who God wants us to be and what God wants us to do. What we do emanates out of this teaching. These ten pillars are the building blocks of the church. Now I want to tell you a story and I think this will help bring some of this to home. And then I'll make a few comments of application at the end. I think most of you know that I was in full-time ministry for ten years. I left full-time ministry in 2006. I left full-time ministry not going to a particular church. And I needed a job. And you know when you have a seminary degree, your options are limited. I see some smiles out there.

But you know I went to church with a man. He came up to me and he said, "Do you need a job?" I said, "Oh, I sure do." And he said, "Well, we build houses. I'll talk to my boss and I'll see if you can come to work for us." And I went to work with a building contractor who lives here in Brookhaven. And this building contractor at the time, and he still does, built some of the nicest homes in the Lincoln County area. Many of the homes that I was a part of were one, two million dollar homes. I mean, when you walk into these kinds of homes, you say to yourself, "Well, this is how the other half lives." You know what I mean?

Well, when I went to work with that crew of carpenters, I learned what true carpenters, some are master carpenters, what they do. I really had a misconception. I thought that the best carpenters needed the best tools. You know the ones that are high priced and we dream about men when we walk down the aisles of the hardware store at Home Depot or Lowe's? I just assumed that the best carpenters had to have the best tools. But I learned something. I learned that the best carpenters can take mediocre, even cheap tools and they can do the job quite well. I'll give you an example. I'll never forget we were working on the second story one time.

We were filling in rafters. You know what that is? That's high work. Because I was a little guy, I was always up high and I didn't mind that. I'd lots rather be up in the air nailing the rafters in rather than carrying them up and down, the scaffolding. Well, we were working on dormers and we had some unusual and complicated cuts. And I'll never forget we were struggling, or the men on the ground were struggling, and our foreman, his name is Ronnie Hooks, he's from the Fair River community, was struggling because he didn't have quite the adequate tool.

And I spoke up and I said, "You know, I got a skill saw in my truck." And I was a little embarrassed because it was about as cheap as it gets. You can buy them at Walmart. I think I got it as a wedding present years before. And when I got that cheap Walmart saw out, it was just what he needed. And I watched a man who was a master carpenter take a cheap tool and build over a million dollar house, at least on that day. Now I want to turn that around and I want to apply this to the Old Baptist Church. God's given us the best tools. Listen, God's given us the best tools.

This teaching, this fundamental teaching, these essential truths, these building blocks, now you study and look at what I'm giving you and I've been giving you. These are the best tools. And look, many of us may feel mediocre. Some of you might feel like you're a cheap tool from Walmart. We might not be as gifted as some and our church might be small, but God can enable us to do great kingdom work with the teaching that God has given us. We simply must stay in the hands of the master. We must be usable. We must be obedient to what God has given us. I'll give you the title of the message. Truthfully, I struggled over this title.

I could not move away from the title from the second message, the church, the whole church and nothing but the church, but I add to it. True kingdom work. Listen, folks, true kingdom work is the church. And I'm living and buying by this statement. It's the church. It's the whole church and nothing but the church. Let's pray. And as we normally do, we'll sing a closing verse.