Church Planting — Acts 2

0:02 Good morning. What a blessing to be here before you this morning. We're gonna look at something very interesting today, and I guess I titled it or a biblical church plant. Probably you never heard anything about this before, or you might be curious about it. So, hopefully, it'll bless you, at least the person who prepares always is blessed the most.

0:30 But I was thinking before we go into what is a biblical church plan, what does it look like, and how do you know when it's time to do one, I was thinking before that, how do you know what a biblical church looks like? And so I thought we'd look at that first, and then from there, we could slowly go into what a church plan is like or how do you go about doing one. When we open our Bibles to Acts chapter two, Acts chapter two, and we're gonna start in verse 41. Now the the thing about about doing a sermon like this or a study on this is the bible doesn't say anywhere, this is how you do a church plant. And so you have to look for basic principles in scripture and see what happened in scripture.

1:22 And then from there, what we... We build our basis or our foundation. So let's go to Acts, and what I want to show you is just different ways in in which... And how they started the the churches in the beginning in Acts, and how they grew and what happened. And then from there, we'll go on to another point.

1:44 Alright. So why don't we start with reading scripture, and is there any way I can have this light up here turn on temporarily before... Behind Behind the Behind the screen. There we go. Alright.

1:59 Pretty soon, I'll I'll start bringing my my glasses. I still don't wanna do it. So I'm I'm fighting it. I'm fighting it. Alright.

2:07 Yes. Amen. But I know where I'm going as we said earlier. Alright. Okay.

2:14 Let's let's read scripture. So then those who had received his word were baptized and there were added that day about 3,000 souls. And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. Alright. Now I wanna ask a question.

2:43 How do you know if this particular church here, this body, how do you know if it's a biblical church? How do you know that they're doing the the right things? Because I've been asked many times, what do I look for in a church? How do I know if they're biblical? This is what we call the four pillars of the church.

3:03 The four pillars of the church. Four things that have to be true of any local body. But when when you're looking, what are you looking for? And so before getting into too many comments, let's just look at scripture. Alright?

3:15 First of all, we see that people were saved. They were baptized to give testimony that they were saved. And then what do we see? That they were devoting themselves to the apostles' teachings. Now, since the apostles aren't around anymore, now we have scripture.

3:33 So if we were putting it in today's terms, it would sound like this. They were coming to the to the church building to hear bible teaching so they can grow in their faith. Alright? That sound more... You understand that?

3:47 They were constantly listening to good bible teaching. If you're looking for a church, the first thing you have to do is see, do they teach the bible? Are they faithful to scriptures? Are they constantly teaching scripture? Now you say, that's a given.

4:04 It's common sense. You won't find that in too many places anymore. What what the current trend is is to have forty minutes of singing, what they call worship, and twenty minutes of bible study. And so things are changing. Things are shifting.

4:23 And there's supposedly all these mega churches and all these things everywhere. Yet, even by the way people voted, you're like, well, where's the conviction? Where's the conviction against abortion? And where's the conviction against principles of marriage? And, you know, like, something's wrong with the bible teaching.

4:42 Would you agree with that? Because if we're teaching scriptures correctly, then it affects every way in which we live, even in the way you vote. Alright. So what we see here is that the people who are being saved were baptized to give testimony that they were saved. They were part of a local body, and they were consistently listening to bible teaching.

5:06 And so, very important, someone asked John MacArthur, it was a question and answer session, I don't know what to do. I'm going to this one church that's a little smaller, but they teach the Bible real well. There's another church that's bigger. It's got more activity. It's cooler, if you will, but they don't teach the bible that good.

5:27 Which one should I go to? And so John McCartney says, you shouldn't even ask that question. Go to where they teach the bible. That's where you're gonna go. Forget the size or or how much pizzazz one has.

6:03 So when we have a potluck, all of you should be here. Right? Because that's important too. And we should be inviting one another to each other's homes because that's what you call fellowship. And how do you get to know each other well?

6:14 Oh, when you invite someone to your house and you have a meal or to hang out for some coffee or cook, whatever. Fellowship is so important. By the way, that shows if you're growing spiritually that you love to be with God's people. And so when they were being taught the Bible right, they love to be with each other and they were constantly having fellowship, having each other for meals and having meals at the church. Hey, that's a great thing.

6:41 That's a great thing. Fellowship is just as important. So that means tomorrow night everybody's going be here. Amen? Right?

6:49 Alright. You can drink coffee if you're tired from work and come and eat a taco over here. Alright? We'll take care of you. Alright.

6:57 Now, so they were devoted themselves to teaching, to fellowship. Notice the next one. The breaking of bread. The breaking of bread. Now, here's what's interesting.

7:09 The breaking of bread is taught in four different scriptures in the bible. Three of the gospels in detail and then in first Corinthians in detail, plus you see it practiced throughout the acts of the apostles. And guess what meaning is eliminated from so many churches these days? The Lord's Supper. And the number one reason many people tell me that they don't like the Lord's Supper is because they don't get anything out of it or it doesn't do anything for them.

7:38 See, that's not the point. It's about Jesus Christ. It's about coming to remember him and worshiping him. And so I couldn't convince several people, why don't you come? Look, I just don't get anything.

7:48 It's just not for me, man. It's what I was told. But the breaking of bread is central as well to a local body, and we can see it there in scriptures. Now I'm just showing you what the scriptures say. I can come up with other ideas, but I thought it better if I just tell you what the bible says.

8:07 And and we can build a church based on what it says and its principles. They're better than my ideas. And the next thing is they were devoted to prayer. Devoted to prayer. So that means that Wednesday, everyone here is going to be here to pray.

8:21 Right? Amen? Everybody got quiet. Everybody's going to be here Wednesday. Right?

8:29 It's just important, just as important to pray as it is to hear the bible taught. You need to devote the same amount of time to prayer as you do to bible study, to cry out to God. Why? Because prayer shows your dependence on God. We realize, God, that unless you move in a powerful way, nothing's going to happen.

8:51 You know that. Right? And so we come and we pray and we commit ourselves to coming. And, yes, I know you're tired from work and and and it's tough sometimes because you have to cook dinner and then rush over here, but that's okay. That's okay because we wanna cry out to God and ask God to move in a powerful way.

9:11 And I want you to be here to pray for me. And I wanna hear... Be here to pray for you, to intercede for you. I think that's important. And we see in scriptures that they were devoted to these things.

9:38 That they were giving to the work of God so that the work of God could keep growing. And we can see that also in the acts of the apostles. And then as the church is unfolding and growing, we can see that they start sending out missionaries and supporting missionary work. So so these are what I call fundamentals of a local church. It's gotta have teaching of the bible.

10:01 It's gotta have fellowship, the breaking of bread, prayer, and underneath that, it has to have evangelism, generous giving, and supporting and sending of missionaries. That's what you look for in a local church. That's got to be true of the local church. Alright. Now, let's go to Acts chapter 11 and look at an example of how the Lord blessed a local church.

10:26 Okay? So let's go there. This is what I would call a church plant. If you want to see one, you're going to see one right here. Acts 11 and verse 19.

10:42 So then, those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose in connection with Stephen made their way to Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except to Jews alone. Verse 20, But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who came to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks also, preaching the Lord Jesus. And so we see then that some men went to Antioch, which is North of Jerusalem. Today, I believe it would be Turkey. Modern day Turkey, I believe.

11:19 It's right around there. Antioch. And so they went to that region and they started preaching Jesus. By the way, if you want to do a church plant, guess what you have to do? You have to preach Jesus.

11:31 I'm a little smarter than what you thought, Alright. So they had to they had to preach Jesus. That's what they were doing. Were preaching Jesus. Notice verse 21.

11:41 Here is the key, And the hand of the Lord was with them. And the hand of the Lord was with them. That's why we go to scriptures and have fellowship, and that's why we pray, and that's why we break bread, because we want the hand of Lord to be with us. And as they went to this area and they started preaching Jesus, God's hand was with them. And look at the result.

12:04 And a large number who believed turned to the Lord. Turned to the Lord. Wow. Isn't that exciting just reading that? So they went to a new region where the gospel wasn't preached.

12:17 They started preaching Jesus and God, that's the key, was with them. And he blessed the preaching of the word and people were getting saved. And let's continue. And the news about them reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas off to Antioch. So they hear, wow, God is doing a great work in Antioch.

12:38 The elders at the time in Jerusalem, because the churches were just starting to grow, was let's send someone responsible, man mature in the word of God, who can go check out the work and give him some guidance. And so they did that. And there's Barnabas. And look at verse 23. And when he had come and witnessed the grace of God, he rejoiced and began to encourage them all with a resolute heart to remain true to the Lord.

13:06 He was so excited as he saw people getting saved. And he said, you know, keep serving God. Be firm in your faith. Keep growing in him. Wow.

13:15 Look what God is doing. And he was so excited. He went to encourage them to be a blessing. And they were thrilled to have him with him. Verse 24 speaks a little bit more about Barnabas, for he was a good man, full of the holy spirit and of faith, and considerable numbers were brought to the lord.

13:34 Wow. Wouldn't you like to see that? Right now, I was part of a church plant. I've been part of two actually. One thing we noticed when the Lord started blessing our work in Houston was that we were all young at the time when we started.

13:54 And as the church started to grow, we needed help. We didn't have enough maturity or knowledge, and so we were looking for older men to join us who could give more direction to the body as it was starting to grow. And so Barnabas sees a need. He says, man, this work is growing in such a beautiful way, but we need more bible teaching. We need men of the word.

14:17 And so what does he do? Verse 25, and he left for Tarsus to look for Saul. See, up to this point, Saul still hadn't engaged in Lord's work full time. He was witnessing and doing things for God. And Barnabas remembers him and he goes and finds him.

14:34 He goes, I need someone who can teach the word in a powerful way. And he brought this man. And when he had found him, verse 26, he brought him to Antioch, and it came about that for an entire year, they met with the church, and they taught considerable numbers. And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. They were being taught so well that they were living out Christ that they they...

14:59 That's where that type Christian came from. They looked like Christ. Look at that. And so they were being taught well, and they were witnessing and living out the Lord Jesus, and that's where that name came from, in case you didn't know. And so we see how God blesses local work, and then the leaders from another assembly sent mature men to help them grow and to teach them so the body can grow in a healthy way.

15:28 Alright. Let's look at chapter 13 and verse one. Chapter 13 and verse one. Okay. Now, they were in Antioch, the same church, the same church in the church that was there, prophets and teachers.

15:47 So then it tells you that there were qualified Bible teachers there. Barnabas and Simeon, who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manon, I hope I pronounced that right, who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. So you see, I believe, six men, because the assembly had grown so large that they needed a lot of Bible teachers. And while they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit set apart for me... Said set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.

16:19 So we can see then here a church that started by preaching Jesus. The Lord was with them and blessing, people were getting saved, and then the local, the more mature church body set leaders that could help them grow in a healthy way. The church grew, and then the church started sending out missionaries. Wow. That's a tremendous pattern for us to follow, that's laid out for us right there in scriptures.

16:49 Okay. Let's go to Acts chapter 16, and let's look at verse 11. Let's just start in verse 22. And from there we went to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia, a Roman colony, and we were staying in the city for some days. And on the Sabbath day, we went outside of the gate to a riverside where we were supposing that there would be a place of prayer.

17:23 And we sat down and began speaking to the women who had assembled. And a certain woman named Lydia from the city of Taitaira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening. Notice, she was a worshiper of God, but she wasn't saved. Did you notice that? And the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul.

17:49 Wow. And when she and her household had been baptized, because she believed, right? She urged us saying, if you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay, and she prevailed upon us. And so we see then that this particular church got started through a prayer service. Through a prayer service.

18:12 They went out because they were going to pray, and there were some women there worshiping, but they weren't saved. And when they heard the gospel preached, and even through the prayers, she was saved. And then the church of Philippi was started then through a prayer service. You ever seen that before? Right there.

18:51 I'm waiting on my man over here. We're going to do like Andy Taylor when Barney was trying to waste time, started singing, Row, row, row, your boat. Right? We better not do that. Okay.

19:13 Alright. Technical problems. Let's continue. Alright. Now, what do we look for in local church?

19:22 What what are you looking for here? How do you know you're in the right place where you should be? Alright. Now... Alright.

19:29 Here we go. Now, in any local church, the the bible says that Christ is the head. And so that's the illustration. Right? And so the local body always looks to Christ.

19:43 Is this Christ honoring? Is this what you would want, Lord Jesus? Because you're our savior. Now, notice that at the heart of a local church is the word of God. It's the word of God.

19:54 The word of God has to be at the heart. And from the word of God, Christ is exalted, and then we do everything else that we're supposed to do as a local body. Right? So Christ is the head, the word is the heart of the body. And from there then, we do our fellowship, our our worship, our prayer, and our witnessing.

20:16 Alright? And so you can see a body there unfolding where Christ is ahead, the word is a sinner, and everything goes from there. Alright. Now, what what do we mean by worship? What do we mean by worship?

20:30 Right now, in today's thinking, we say, let's go to listen to a a singing group, right, a band or whatever. Thrice or what are they called? All these names, they're such weird prophets and sidewalk prophets and all these weird names they have today. And so they said, oh, we went and we... What do they say?

20:48 We worship. Alright. Now, there's no example in scripture of Paul the apostle and all the leaders went to a band and they and they went and they worshiped. Alright. What according to scripture, and of course, this is a whole other sermon, but I'm just going to give you a real quick, what according to scripture is worship?

21:09 Just listen to this text. Romans twelve one, I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, because God has been merciful to you and forgave you, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. To put in the words of Vance Havner, a renowned preacher who already went to be with the Lord, He says, unless you first present your body, all of you, to the Lord and say, Lord, here I am. Take me, all of me, my will, my emotions, all of me, here I am. That's the act of worship.

21:50 And then from there, if you want, you can sing or do what you want. But the first thing you do is you present yourself before God. And say, here I am, Lord. Do with me what you want. And so that's what I mean by worship.

22:04 It doesn't mean let's sing for twenty minutes and, oh, we worship. That's not the point. Your whole life, your whole lifestyle is a worship. Everything you do every day is a worship. And, of course, everything we do has to be to be smothered in prayer.

22:49 Who should I encourage? Who should I call? And of course, the fellowship. Everybody's going be here tomorrow night. Right?

22:54 Amen? Amen. Right. That's the fellowship tomorrow night. Now, here's the questions that I ask when I go to any place.

23:04 Does that local body, does it preach Christ crucified? Does it preach Christ crucified? Because listen, today they want Christ, but they don't want a crucified Christ. They talk about other blessings and this and that, but they eliminate the cross, And it has to be a cross centered preaching. Do they preach Christ?

23:26 Crucified. That's what you have to look for. Do they preach Christ resurrected, the living God? Is Christ the center of the church? And if that's true here, that means that we love him.

23:41 That means that we love to worship him, that we love to sing to him, we love to obey him, we love to serve him because it's about Jesus Christ. And that has to be the core of a church. That's what I'm looking for. Remember, it's not about you. So this church doesn't exist so that, oh, are you going get sad if we don't do what you want and you're going to leave?

24:05 Oh, well then we're gonna change so that you won't do that. See, that's not how it works. It's about Jesus. It's about worshiping him. Now the second thing we're gonna ask is this.

24:16 How can I get involved? How can I serve? How can I be a blessing to the local body? That's your question. See, the question we go...

24:26 We have many times when we're looking for a local church and wondering if it's biblical. What does this church have to offer me? That's not a good question. I don't think that's a biblical question. You don't see that in scripture.

24:41 You see that people were involved and they witnessed and they served. We're going to look at some examples in a minute. Next. By the way, you can go ahead and clear that. Thank you.

24:52 Next. I love God's people, and I am committing to pray for them. Thus, the prayer meeting becomes a priority. The prayer meeting becomes a priority. Look at, this is a passion of mine.

25:08 I think that everybody who is here today should be here on Wednesday crying out to God. You wanna see the hand of God move? You wanna see God do powerful things? You wanna see more people get saved? Then come on, let's pray.

25:21 Let's bow before our God and beg for him to move in a powerful way. And because I love people, and we love God's people, and we love the Lord Jesus, and we want to pray for one another, then I want to be also in fellowship. I love to be with you. I I can't wait till Sunday morning to jump up and get over here. I can't wait for Wednesday and Sunday night where I'm with God's people and serving and and being with them.

25:49 See, that's a biblical church. As long it's about Christ, I don't care who gets to preach or who leads the singing or who teaches Sunday school or who runs the kitchen. If one more soul repents and turns to him, then I'm willing to vacuum, to paint, to pray, to serve, because we're all committed to serving Jesus Christ and bringing people to him. And so that... That's what a church should look like.

26:50 That is, to add on to a building. Right now, what happened with the work that I was involved with when I was young is that it grew and it kept growing. It was totally full. So they said, Okay, instead of starting a new work, we're going to add on. So they added on enough room for about 125 more people.

27:10 So they knocked on the back wall and they pulled it out, and then that got full. And they said, okay, now we don't want to expand anymore. What we're gonna... What we're gonna do is we're gonna start two works instead of adding on to the building. And so that's what they did.

27:26 Now what happened was that 85% of the people lived in one part of town, and the rest lived in the other. And the majority of the group was gonna move out that way, and and they bought a building, they bought a funeral home, they were gonna remodel it and make it a church. So then the rest of us, it was about six families, we said, well then, what are we going to do? We don't want to drive fifty minutes to the new building, and so we decided, why don't we start a new work? So we got together with the elders, We proposed this.

28:00 They thought it was a great idea. And so what the elders did was they started to pray and to pray amongst the six families. We're going to name two elders, and we're going to name two deacons. And so they already knew as well, and they picked, at that time I was too young, they picked some other men and they became the leaders, they became the elders. And then they saw two men who were capable also to be deacons and they named them, prayed for them.

28:30 And what they did was, we had a big meeting, everybody came out, they brought the two elders up and the deacons and all the families, and we had a big prayer together. And then they commended them to this new work. Right? Now, after they did that, there was about six couples who started. Then we started saying, alright, we're going to start this new work.

28:56 What do we need? Well, the elders already chose two elders and two deacons. We also need somebody who can lead music. There's nothing more miserable than starting a new work with someone who can't sing. Amen?

29:12 Right. I wasn't the one, by the way. Alright. So we had this one brother, very capable. We're dear friends, and he's...

29:23 Well, he can play guitar, play this, and he can lead singing. And what a blessing it was to have that brother along with us. Then we started thinking, okay, we need someone to to help with nursery and Sunday school, and and so we have to pray through all this, and we realized it was a lot more work than what we thought. Man, you find yourself working night and day, and and and then we said, we had to start witnessing, and so we started going to the neighborhood and to apartments, and suddenly, the the the the Lord gave us a couple who became saved. And we're so thrilled in an apartment complex, and he's now an elder, by the way, in the local church.

30:04 Praise the lord for that. Now... And then we said, okay. We're gonna start having bible studies in your home. You invite people, and we're gonna come.

30:12 We're gonna teach the word. And he started inviting people, and people started getting saved. And that's how our new work started to grow, and God started to bless it. Then what we would do is once a month, we would go back to the main church and we would give a report to the elders. The elders would look at the report and encourage and pray and keep it encouraging and keep it in communication.

30:40 Right? And then also, they would help financially. They would help financially. Right? So this is how the Lord blessed the the work.

30:51 Alright? Now, when is it not a good time to start a church? Uh-oh. When is it not a good time? It's not a good time when four or five couples start meeting and they're like, this church is boring.

31:06 This church doesn't get it. And you start having this negative talk, and they try to form a group and then they leave in the huff and mad, but we're going to go somewhere else. That's not a good time to start a work. Now, I've seen it two or three times. And the groups that did that, hey, Ray, would you come and preach, you know, a couple of times a month and help us?

31:29 We're gonna try to grow because we have more vision and and blah blah blah. And you know what I noticed? That God never blessed the work. I saw an example in Houston. I saw an example in Canada, and it never grew.

31:41 But when when they submitted to the elders and they prayed together and they were commended by the the the main church to start a new work, I see God's hand moving in a powerful way. And so this is what we need to be looking, that we have to submit to leadership. You can't go off in a huff, but you can't go off to prove to everybody that they were wrong and you're right and watch. I'm gonna show them how to do it. I've seen it over and over again.

32:31 I'm sure that many of you are thinking, well, we like Westlake, but it could be better and this and that. And yes, I guess it could be, but I'm telling you what, I'm blessed here. I'm blessed. This is a biblical church, and I'm glad that I'm part of it, and I'm praising God for what he has done in this local body. Amen?

32:50 Alright. Thank the Lord. Now, we're going to look at a local church in Corinth. Now, if I were to say to you, I want you to go and do some work in a local body, you would probably, oh, wow, me? Oh, I'm...

33:08 Yes. Tell me about where I'm going to go. Well, I'm going tell you where you're going to go. There's a lot of jealousy. Oh, by the way, watch out because they'll sue you.

33:16 You know? They like to do that kind of stuff there. Oh, there's immorality there. And and some people come drunk or get drunk in the local church. There there are false teachers teach...

33:27 Teaching wrong about about the resurrection. It's chaotic because some people jump and bounce everywhere and scream and they they misunderstand the the the gifts of spirit. And so, hey, that's what we're gonna send you. Would you go? Would you go?

33:43 You're like, no way, man. Don't send me there. Don't send me there. Now, having said that, want you to notice this, please. First Corinthians 16, and let's look at verse 14.

33:56 Let all that you do be done in love. Everything you do, you gotta do it in love. Remember, first Corinthians 15, if you don't do it in love, you're just making a bunch of noise. God's not gonna bless it. Verse 15.

34:13 Now I urge you, brethren, you know the household of Stephanos, that they were the first fruits of Ichaea. Ichaea is basically the area where first Corinthians was at. Alright? They were the first, one of the first to get saved in that local area where they started that local church. Now look at that.

34:35 And that they have devoted themselves for the ministry to the saints. So as Paul is reflecting on this local body, first Corinthians, the Corinthian church, he's saying, look, you know what I'm thinking of right now? I'm thinking of this family. That whole family, and according to what it sounds like, that the uncles and cousins and all of them were saved, I'll tell you why I said that, because look what it says in verse 16, that you also may be subject to such men. So it wasn't just Stephanus, the father, and his family, but Stephanus and his relatives, the whole clan.

35:14 Right? Notice that you also be in subjection to such men and to everyone who helps in the work and labors. So what do you see here? I see a family that came to Christ, and they devoted themselves to serving in the local body. And Paul says, bless those men.

35:35 Bless those families that are doing that. Encourage them. Help them. Look at them. They're devoted to that church.

35:41 They're devoted to serving and and to and to laboring for God. Wow. What a beautiful picture. Now, I was thinking, what about my family? If I were gonna go visit a local church, what would they say about my family?

35:57 Is my family devoted and serving and giving themselves to a local body? Then we have a second example in verse 17. And I rejoice over the coming of... So there's three guys came to the local body full of defects that needed help. Now watch.

36:19 I rejoice over the coming of Stephanus and Fortunatus and Achaiakos because they have supplied what was lacking on your part. Wow. So here comes three men to a church full of issues, and they say, you know what we're gonna do? We're gonna go to that local church, first Corinthians... Corinthians, I'm sorry.

36:41 We're gonna go to that local body, and we're gonna see where do they need help. What's lacking? What's lacking? And we're gonna plug in those holes. Whether you're going to meet with the elder, oh, this church doesn't do that.

36:55 Know, I was an elder for twenty years. I heard it all. And we would say, what's the answer, brother? I don't know. Well, come back with the answer.

37:06 Because if we had the answer, we would fix it. And they would run off in a huff. You know what's better? To do what these three men did. It's better to do what they did.

37:17 They came to the local body and like, oh my word, look at this place. But you know what we're gonna do? Where's their lack? Where can we be a blessing? Where can we plug in and serve and encourage?

37:31 That's what they did. Look what the Bible says. I rejoice. I'm so excited these these men came, Stephanos, Fortunes, and Achaicus, because they have supplied what was lacking in your part. Listen.

37:43 For they have refreshed my spirit and yours. Therefore acknowledge such men. You see, that's what God wants. God wants for men of God, of families to be devoted to the local body and to say, where can I fit in and how can I bless this local body? How can I serve?

38:07 How can I? And of course, I want to pray for the elders and encourage them. Because out of love for the local body, they meet and they serve and they do. It's a lot of work. And it's easy to criticize.

38:22 It's better to bless and to fill in and help where there's need. And so are you available? Can can the elders come to you and say, brother, we have a need right here. You say, yes. I'm gonna fill in what's lacking.

38:41 And so it was a committed family, and there were committed men committed to the work of the Lord. And they blessed the church. Paul put it this way, they refreshed me. They refreshed me. Do you refresh the elders of this body?

38:59 Are you blessing this body with your service, giving yourself? Are you are you are you laboring? Are you praying? Are you doing what it takes so that God can move in a powerful way? Listen here.

39:15 We're only tapping what God can do. We're only tapping. And when God's people have the right spirit, the right spirit, not a critical spirit, a blessing spirit, a serving spirit, a working attitude. When God... People do that, God can do nothing but bless.

40:14 I just pray that you would encourage this local body, and I thank you that so many people in this local church serve and are committed to you, and I bless you for them. And I thank you. They're so refreshing. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for the local elders and all the work that they do.

40:30 We bless them, and we pray for them, and we ask that you would encourage them and lift them up. And just thank you overall for what you are doing through this local church. We praise you in your blessed name. Amen.