But hopefully this is not the last time you'll think about the church I didn't make any more copies of the outline from last week, which we didn't get through So I mean, I've got a couple
If you have if you don't have one and would like to have one Put your hand up and give one to the Schmidt. They weren't here last week I'm anybody else need one of these I'm out I'm out you're gonna have to share Some of you may not know that this is a degree-granting institution When we when we designed our educational curriculum we wanted to we wanted to add a little
Little spice to it, I guess you could say and and we really do intend to Recognize folks who have persevered in the core curriculum, which is 12 courses spread out over the over the four-year period of time This summer months because they're so crazy Our months we don't offer any core classes But there are 12 classes three of those classes offered each year times four years gives you 12 we're doing this pre-algebra with our kids at home, you know, so 4x equals 12, you know Four times x equals three three courses in the course of the year, right? Can I do that on the board for you? now if
My My partner in crime Bob wanted me to remind you all of this and We are actually keeping all of this on file and if you have been here For the whole of this course and would like for us to enter that in to the database that you've completed this particular class Fill out one of these cards if you would okay because we really we really are going to recognize As people make their way through these 12 classes. We really are going to recognize folks and give them a Certificate which acknowledges that that accomplishment All of these classes are on tape and they are all in the library now they're bound and they're there and you could start with class one And you could go through the whole deal Okay, and this is a kind of a nice segue into what we're going to talk about in just a minute The learning component here at St. Paul's you know, this this is not The purpose of this is not just the stuff your head full of stuff. That's not the design here You you may remember I've I've mentioned this on numerous occasions You may remember this very unofficial non-scientific poll that Mike Horton took at the annual meeting of The Christian booksellers association CBA at which Mike Horton who himself has done some writing and has a program called a white horse in you can hear on the radio He's a little more in your face than I'm inclined to be but in your face kinds of people tend to do in your face kinds of things and what they did at the CBA he and some of his buddies Was walked the floor of these 5,000 Publishers, writers, distributors, bookstore owners, whatever and ask them three questions Name five of the ten commandments. Now these are people who are writing Christian books They're distributing Christian books. They're editing Christian books. They're publishing Christian books And they spent two or three days just walk in the floor doing an informal survey with folks named five of the ten commandments Nobody could do it Give me a definition of justification by faith which is one of the cardinal tenets of Reformation theology from which all of Protestantism
Modern-day Protestantism would would trace itself Nobody could do it And when asked the third question when asked to define the gospel the The definitions had Almost nothing to do with the kind of thing you're going to hear me talk about in the sermon this morning if you haven't been there The holiness of God the sin of man and the substitutionary atonement of Christ for sinners
People in person said the gospel means that Jesus is coming again soon. Well, that's good news and I'm You know, I hope he does. I hope he's done. I hope he's back before we're done, you know But the gospel has to do with what God has done for sinners and they couldn't get answers From writers editors distributors again. I Know what can happen with unofficial and non-scientific things and I know how even the best of us if we've got an axe to grind or a point to make Can skew things or interpret things or put a spin on things to prove our point. I understand that that can happen But still it's pretty significant to me that that in this unofficial informal non-scientific survey They apparently couldn't get answers to some pretty significant central questions Questions which ought to be answered by anybody who would identify himself as an evangelical whether you're Presbyterian or Baptist or Charismatic or assembly of God or whatever Name five of the ten commandments Give me a definition of justification by faith and they couldn't do those things apparently Well, I want to tell you and I'm unapologetic about this. I don't want that to be said. People are saying Paul And that's why we put together this core curriculum because we want people to know and it's not that you're not going to cover the whole waterfront Of the content of the Bible and you're not going to cover the whole waterfront of Biblical theology, but we want to give people some Skeleton, you know, we want to give people some stuff to hang everything else on and that's what these courses are designed to do They're designed to expose you to important books of the Bible Bob is going to teach now the book of the teachings in the fall. We've had a course in John There are courses in Bible throughout this thing and then there are courses of a theological kind like this one What is the church what is the whole of the Bible have to say about who the people of God are and what they're to look Like and do we want people to know this and really the You know the the highest point in all of this Is is what is in the outline You can't worship a God who you don't know You know you can't you can't be amazed by grace if you don't know what grace is about You can't marvel at majesty. We're on a roll You know, you can't marvel at majesty. You can't you can't be astounded by glory if you don't have any exposure to that glory in that majesty and
so we we believe very strongly that this is a day of embarrassing Biblical and theological illiteracy And we we can't change the world But but we can do something trying to do something here in an attempt to counter the The trends of illiteracy that we see so after that little sermon If if you want one of these cards
I don't know what I guess I'll just Tell you to come and get one, but if you've done the class and you'd like for that to be entered into the database then fill one of these out and You can give it to give it to me or to Bob or to bud bud the collector of all pieces of paper and Know what to do with them Okay, but I won't really That I don't embarrass yourself like there they are right there. So you can come and get one All right, I've already kind of started my a little spiel, but let's Let's pray together and then I'll come back to it again
Father Grant to us in this time
a clarity of thought and and a Clear and unhazy picture of what We believe it is that you want your people to look like Your church And not generally but specifically this church
Grandest your spirit that our hearts might be Stirred up and opened up and made receptive And that our hearts might be encouraged as we consider your word and as we as we seek yet again to think rightly about ourselves as your people Living in our day and for this moment in the midst of the nation Lord you I'm convinced You want for your glory to be put on display in The midst of your people and I pray that we would understand that and I pray that we would have a privilege of seeing it more and more That that you might be praised and glorified and that that our hearts might be made glad We pray in Jesus name
Okay last week We spent spent the whole of our time talking about worship and I think I said at the end of the class that if there was something you wanted to Ask about or talk about that that we'd give you that opportunity today Anything that came up last week that you want to pursue a little more or when I ask a question about
Alrighty what we're what we're doing is Trying to summarize the basic structure of church life
Here at St. Paul's would you look at Acts chapter two I want to read verses 42 to the end and
and suggest to you that That the things that we see as pillars or Rubrics or legs on the stool for the organizing of church life for the structuring of church life are not things that we just dreamed up you know that have sort of appeared Because somebody had a vision or something like that, but they're really rooted in what in what we see um in the book of Acts and Particularly this little passage verses 42 to the end of chapter two is it is a kind of a snapshot and you and you have these snapshot these little summary statements throughout the book of Acts Um, this is one of them and they appear um There there are several of them throughout the book of Acts you get to these things. There's another one just just to prove this point There's another one at the end of chapter four for example and there There they're transitional kinds of statements. They summarize what has been seen to that point and then they segue you into what is coming next Okay Chapter four verse 32 now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul Neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own but they had all things in common and with great power The Apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and great grace was upon them all Nor was there anyone among them who laughed for all? Who were possessors of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold and laid in the Apostles Feed and they distributed to each as anyone had need see that summarizing what's gone before But it's also transitioning you into what is going to come next which is this deceit of anionis andifier the commendable Act of Barnabas and then the deceit of anionis andifier regarding the sale of properties or lands or whatever for The proceeds from which were distributed among the people for the meeting and needs and you have these Summary kinds of statements throughout the book of acts this one At the end of chapter two is a is a proof text if you will For me and for us as we think about how Church life is going to be organized at St Paul's and let me read it and and then the point up to you These very these four pillars that are there and they The 3000 plus from verse 41 who were added to the church they continued Steadfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship in the breaking of bread and in prayers Then fear came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done through the Apostles Now all who believed were together and had all things in common and sold their possessions and goods and divided them among all as anyone had need So continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house They ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart praising God and having fave with all the people and the Lord added to the church daily Those who were being saved and the four things The four pillars or or legs on the stool which emerge and around which church life Is organized our worship the people were going to the temple daily they were engaged in in the practices of the day the worship practices of the day going to the temple for worship and praying um the the phrase uh eating their bread you know breaking bread There's a kind of a Kind of a division in the house about whether that simply refers to To fellowship gatherings church gatherings were folks shared a common meal or if maybe the Lord's supper is in view there The sacrament of the word supper In any event that certainly is a part of worship the observance of the sacraments and then What we're going to talk about today learning you'll you'll see again? I feel like I mentioned this ad nauseam that that those three thousand plus Who were gathered together as a church devoted themselves? To the apostles doctrine They were devoted to teaching Okay devotion they continued steadfastly is what the king i think the old king James and my new king James continued steadfastly in the apostle doctrine and And I tell you whenever I think of that idea of continuing in something or being devoted to something or being steadfast in something I think about the kinds of vows that people take when they get married And and what some people in God's provenance are called to when they make those vows some people are called to suffer through extraordinary difficulties and and I particularly think of of one spouse who cares for another spouse with all time And the kind of devotion and the kind of determination that the healthy spouse has to manifest in order to be faithful to the vows taken Who knows how many years prior My wife is in that situation. She's got to take care of me and I'm convinced it's coming on But they were devoted you know they persevered in this they continued in this folks I'll come back to this but you know it just isn't an optional thing To be a lifelong student of the scriptures there is going to be absolutely There is going to be a direct correlation between your growth and grace and your commitment to being a lifelong student in the teaching of the Bible It's just that's just the fact just the fact Well, we'll come back to that and then the other thing that you see is what what we Call or calling community. We I think it's good to use that word We're really talking about fellowship and we'll talk about this a bit more in a minute But you see evidences of of that In the manner in which folks conducted themselves with one another you know the house to house stuff and and The resources that God and its providence had given to them were used in order that the people of of the church might have their needs met and then the last thing is Outreach And really this is as much as anything what the book of acts is about. It's about the gospel going to the uttermost parts of the era And so church life is gathered around these four things under these forum brellas I said I think last week that the gospel is at the heart of the whole thing The gospel is the thing that is that is 11 in the midst of all of it the glue that ties it all together And I would never want that to be forgotten or overlooked But as you think about the structure of church life. This is how Again, based on what we see in the book of acts and the general teaching in scripture We think church life ought to be structured and we said last week that worship Is the highest activity in which a human being can be engaged Anybody who has tasted and seen that the Lord is good anybody who knows anything about the grace of God is going to be a Worshiper that is going to be the first impulse the first response of a person's soul But there's a connection between worship and learning And that connection of course as as I've said is that our Growth in grace our experience of worship our delighting in God is going to be in direct proportion To our knowledge of God and what he does and his ways with us Learning is is just essential. It is integral to the to the whole business of growing in the knowledge of the Lord Now there are lots of different ways to think about learning I mean there is of course that coming to terms with the basic content of scripture
I mean we could do all kinds of exercises and probably put our ignorance on display at this point But we need to know our Bible We need to know the basic content of the Bible And again, that's why we've structured this educational curriculum the way that we have it We can't do for you in one hour in the course of a week What it is that you need to have done That just isn't going to get it
If if we are to be a glad-hearted worshiping people If we are to be a people whose delight really is in the Lord Then all of us not just the professionals Have to be students reading and rereading Thinking, reflecting, meditating, praying, wondering, marveling, whatever At the basic teaching of scripture, the basic content of the Bible The data of scripture, the information of scripture As it gets into our minds becomes the grist in the mill And when the Holy Spirit goes to work that mill starts working And if there isn't any grist in the mill There's going to be a lot of heat without any light All right, be a lot of heat without any light or the candy But where the information is pressed into our hearts pressed into our minds pressed into our souls that is the stuff that the Holy Spirit employs When growth occurs, that is what he uses It is the teaching of the Bible It is the data of scripture that he uses to move us forward So we really do have to know our Bibles We can't stop reading our Bibles And I think probably everybody in this room Has had the experience of reading a familiar passage A passage that you know and maybe have known for years You know, you may be reading along And you come to a passage, you come to a verse And it's like, oh, it smokes, you know, it's like There's some event this thing happens as you read it And you say, wow, I never saw that before I never, it's almost like you never read that before Well, you had read it, right? It had been deposited It was in your mind, it was in your heart, it was in your soul It had been stuck into your person And what happens when you read that passage And you say, man, I never saw that before What happens is the Holy Spirit comes alongside that word and causes it to live Causes it to be active and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword That pierces right to the core of your being
If that word isn't there, if it's not in your mind If it's not in your heart, if it hasn't worked its way into your soul There's nothing there for the Spirit to work with Okay So we've got to be, we've got to be students of the word We've got to have the data of scripture pressed into our minds Now What are the benefits of that? What is the outcome of that? Well, you know, the first and the highest benefit really And the first outcome, the first purpose in all of this, is that we might know the Lord Look at what this is said, John 17 One through three, this is um
A passage that may be familiar to you, Jesus spoke these words Lifted up his eyes to heaven And said, Father, the hour has come Glorify your Son, that your Son also may glorify you You have given him authority over all flesh That he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him And this is eternal life That they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, from you have sent There's only um, there's only one place I think I'm just certain about this There's only one place in all of scripture where eternal life Is defined For somebody says This is eternal life And it's right here in John 173 An eternal life Isn't defined in terms of duration It's not defined in a quantitative sense It is defined in a relational sense Eternal life is knowing the Lord It is knowing Jesus Christ It is knowing the God of heaven and earth And they're, you know, for the Hebrew person And even for us, but particularly for the Hebrew person To know someone is language of intimacy Right, it's not knowing about But it is knowing at the deepest levels Right Adam New his wife And she conceived and gave birth to a son Right When God talks about knowing his people He doesn't, he doesn't just know about them In the way that you know things about the present of the United States Or in the way that you may know things about me He knows them intimately He knows the truth about them He knows their affections and their longings But he knows them in the way that a groom knows a bride In the way that a lover knows of the love it And to know God is a romance It is an ongoing, ever-deepening Always mutually beneficial and delightful romance Right So the highest thing in all of this is that we might not just It's not, again, it's not to fill our heads full of stuff Not just so we can dot our theological eyes And cross our theological teeth The highest thing in all of this is that we might Know the Lord And in knowing the Lord There is there is gladness for the people of God There is delight for the people of God Right, when I go over this in my newcomers, the newcomers class And I remind them of that that popular song from the late 50s or early 60s when everyone To know, know, know him Is to love, love, love him And I do Yes, I do, yes, I do You know, for the Christian to grow And his or her knowledge of the Lord Becomes a joy and a delight At Barbonite We're at dinner last night and on the way home from dinner I was, you know, just thinking about my You know, my sorry miserable life And I mean, really, if you could get inside my skin, you'd say, hey, men
But, you know, I was saying I was saying something to Barbonite about the fact That at 46 years of age, after 25 years as a Christian I feel like just now Is the gospel really beginning to take hold in my life Now, don't let that be a discouraging to you, I'm a slow learner Now, I've been able to work, you know what I mean? I've been able to articulate the gospel for 25 years I could share the gospel from the day I became a Christian I did the next day, I went to my dad and to my stepmother And said, you know, I believe what happened to me yesterday And you know, they looked at me like I was from Mars But I mean, I walked them through the thing I've been able to articulate the gospel for a quarter of a century But there is a sense in which After 25 years of thinking about these things and wrestling with these things And trying to figure out what this stuff means for me personally I feel like it's beginning to take hold And, you know, just in just a little bit in the second service We're going to recognize high school, college, and seminary graduates And we're going to pray for these folks And one of the things that we're going to pray for them Is that they might always keep before them The merits and mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ So as to know the joy and freedom of their salvation So as to know the joy and freedom of their salvation You know, it just The work of sanctification is a work of reconstruction And a work of reconstruction is a work of carrying down And then of building up And it takes a while It takes a while But the outcome of the whole thing is this highest thing Which is to know the Lord Jesus Christ At the deepest level And to find, for example, that Augustine's prayer increasingly becomes true in my life You have made us for yourself, oh God And our hearts are restless until they rest in thee And after time, the business of not just knowing about the Lord But knowing the Lord at these deepest levels It just really begins to grip you And there is a measure of joy And increasing joy and delight which comes So that's the first thing The outcome of this business of learning and growing Is that we might know the Lord Now there's something that flows out of that And if you look at Romans chapter 12 It is that we might do the Lord's will
Romans 12, 1 and 2
I have to teach you therefore, brethren Buy the mercies of God or in view of the mercies of God In view of the mercies of God Now what's Paul saying? This is a transitional statement He's moving from this description and explanation of the gospel Which is occupied him for the first 11 chapters Into how it works itself out in people's lives All right, he's moving from the description of the gospel To its implications for the way they live And as he does that, he has this transitional statement In view of the mercies of God, I besiege you brethren In view of the mercies of God What he's saying is don't ever lose sight of the things that I've been talking about for 11 chapters Keep before you always The mercies of God as you see them express In the grace of God in Jesus Christ In view of God's mercies Present your bodies a living sacrifice Holy acceptable to God which is your reasonable service And do not be conformed to this world But be transformed how By the renewing of your mind How do you get your mind renewed By keeping the mercies of God always before you By never losing sight of the grace of God in Jesus Christ In all of its fullness and all of its implications and all of its interrelatedness Okay Keep it always before you That's how you get your mind renewed Be transformed by the renewing of your mind That you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God See The outcome of growing in your knowledge of the Lord Is that you prove you put on display that's what that's what the word means you put on display What is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God All right So the highest thing is to know the Lord at these deepest levels But that manifests itself in our lives it shows up in how we live There is a change in the stuff that we do As the word of God Like 11 in our souls reshapes our thinking and reshapes our hearts and reshapes Then the way that we live and the things that we do Perfectly No No in fits and starts Yes Okay, but it's it's kind of like the Dow Jones you know the Dow Jones industrial and it's kind of like investing in the stock market Right you know how it goes. I mean you make You invest this I tell people who are getting married You know one thing you need to do is start saving right away even if it's just a couple of pennies Right out of the blocks start saving some money you put in a couple pennies here And boom boom boom boom after a while there's this thing the miracle of compounding that and it just begins to take off like that Well, it doesn't ever do it in a straight line does it it kind of goes like this Sometimes they're a real low spot real deep valent and you call your broker and you say sell That's the wrong time to get out of the game Right Don't get out of the game there Hang in there and it you feel about that you know, and it just kind of keeps moving up right Christian life is like that you invest those pennies You know you you commit yourself to exposure to the word of God Reading a little bit after a little bit after a little bit just kind of making those investments putting that stuff into your life And change takes place it just does there's no There's not a magical formula for this not three easy steps or seven quick ways or anything like that It is the it is the dogged Determination to be exposed to the word of God for the content of the word of God over time and it results in the transformation of people's life It just doesn't okay And that good and perfect and acceptable will of the Lord begins to be manifest in our lives and then the last thing Is that as we do that we grow in as the scriptures say we grow into conformity with the image of Christ Okay, we become more Christ like and To be more like Christ is not burdensome It's hard But it's not burdensome So you know this business of learning I tell you it's just It is just critical for our well-being as individuals and for our well-being as a church Okay All right, and then there is community and And I suggested that that it's probably good to use that word as over against Um the word fellowship and you know fellowship is a biblical word and I don't take exception to to biblical words But the connotations of the word I think have become problematic for us because typically when we hear the word fellowship What do we think of? Yeah, we think of cakes You know, we do we think of food and we think of I don't know you know cookouts and and that's all great stuff Okay That's great Yeah, I think you think of Christians getting together, okay now that's certainly a part of Of what fellowship is but the thing that I that I point out to people is that in verse 42 of Acts chapter 2 I'm back there um When Luke writes that these 3000 people continued stud-fastly in the apostle doctrine and fellowship In the original you need to note that there was a definite article in the text All right That that you know little article that little definite article You know little things can sometimes be big things they can make all the difference in the world And and what Luke is saying is the folks weren't committed to the idea of getting together to eat cake and and share stories They were devoted to the fellowship their devotion was to one another One of the things that happens when people are devoted to one another is that they get together and enjoy one another's company and they eat cakes and uh and play games and share stories, okay But the emphasis is on their devotion and they're continuing Stead-fastly in the fellowship they were stuck With each other and to each other Okay Um, and you see how that works itself out in Acts 2 and at the end of chapter 4 where people made Enormous sacrifices significant sacrifices In order that the needs of the people of God might be met you see it worked out in chapter 5 We're professing Members of the church are not allowed To get away with their deceit Ananias and Safira I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago here. You've got you know you got this extraordinary thing going on Where the Holy Spirit has been poured out on the church the gospel being preached and folks are being converted left and right And it's it's like for everybody. It's not just for Jews. It's for Gentiles It's for people from all over the place and there is this explosion Where the church is just growing by leaps and bounds and it's a wonderful time and right in the midst of all of that Here you have this deception that goes on and God wants to make very clear To the church That that deceit is not going to be tolerated God is holy because people are to be holy And the loving thing to do is to deal with deceit It is to deal with sin Okay That's what it means for a group of people to be the fellowship and to be stuck together It means they care for one another. It means they confront the things that have to be confronted And that happened with Ananias and Safira It happened between Paul and Peter and Barnabas over the gospel Where Paul was not hesitant To take Peter to task for compromising the gospel He was not afraid. I'm sure he trembled but he was not reluctant. It seems to confront Barnabas With his betraying the gospel That's what it means to be a fellowship It means that God is through his people Will exercise a loving and restorative discipline within the fellowship You don't do discipline to get rid of troublemakers That's not why you do discipline You do discipline because people are on a path headed toward destruction And you want to reclaim them. You want them to be restored That's what it means to be the fellowship Okay Now what we've tried to do here Recognizing that That becoming a fellowship is a difficult thing in the 1990 Right It is hard. I mean I look around this room. There are some people. I mean I'm been in your homes Okay Some of you. I mean, it's like It's hard. We don't live in neighborhoods. We don't live around each other It's not like we put a building down and I could go out for a walk on a Friday afternoon and visit 30% of the people in the parish just by walking past their home Honestly, it takes me 30 minutes to get to some people's homes 45 minutes to get to some people's homes When I go see Addison Williams who's the oldest member of this church 97 years of age It takes me 35 minutes to get to see him and and I usually spend for 30 45 minutes with him I mean half time you didn't know I'm there, you know, but I'm there and I'm reading it. I'm praying So you know, it's virtually a two-hour deal for me to go see Addison And I I mean, I love doing it, you know It's it but it's hard because of the distances that people traveled because of the isolation the fragmentation the mobility So we've created this whole shepherd group structure Because we think we've got to be we've got to be very focused and pointed as we try to create environments in which people can care for each other That's why we're doing what we're doing. That's that's why these things that they're it's just so very important you know We want to create the environments. We want to create the places We you know, you can leave the horse to water, but you can't make a drain type of thing That that's what we're trying to do is pastors and elders and staff in this church is create the environments where people can get connected to each other But I mean, you know, we can't Like a bunch of cowboys right around town with lassos, rope and people in You know, this is for you that we might become the fellowship Stuck to one another doing the best we can to care for one another. I can't do it all Bob and I can't do it all we're not supposed to do it all We're supposed to equip people for the works of ministry That the body might be built up and no longer be tossed to and throw by every wind of doctrine that comes along We're supposed to be engaged in this thing together. That's what it means to be the fellowship and that's why we've created these shepherd groups and and You know, it's really young and
I mean, I've been I don't know how many churches that have worked in four or five I guess There's points along the way And honestly, this is the first time even though there are some real obstacles This is the first time where and it really was bud's idea, but proposed this idea has given some structure to it and and Is is You know on top of people trying to make this thing happen This is the first time That that I feel like a church is is really positioned to do the kind of mutual ministry among its members that needs to happen So that we can become the fellowship that God wants for us to be So that's what that's about because we want for St. Paul's we want it to be home We want it to be we want it to be family we want the things that are described at the end of chapter two Of acts more and more to be characteristic of our corporate life and and I'll just point out to you The last thing that is said in chapter two Is that the Lord was adding to the church daily those who were being saved And that is said right after in the first part of verse 47 Right after Luke says these people were praising God and having favor with all the people Why do you suppose they were having favor with all the people Because the love about which they spoke wasn't just tinkling brass First Corinthians 13 the love about which they spoke was being expressed And people looked at them and saw that something was going on in their lives together corporately And I and I think that was a magnet that like magnets draw iron filings I think they're life together. They're preaching and teaching, but their commitment to one another um was a very compelling for people Okay, that's community and then the last thing um Which oh and and I always forget to do this um evangelism Really is a function of community It's a function of our living together um It is You know as we live together and as our lives touch other people's lives And as people become aware of what it is that's going on in our corporate life We should have the expectation that people will say what's going on? What's the deal? So evangelism As I think happened in the in the early church evangelism is the kind of the natural outworking of people Engaged in worship growing in their knowledge and understanding of the grace of God living together in community those dying Those are the things that propel people into their neighborhoods and workplaces and everything else to talk with folks about the gospel Okay Then the last thing is is the outreach Which is our responsibility um to the world The church at Antioch Is the church we want to emulate at this point the church at Antioch assumed responsibility for the world and commissioned Paul and Barnabas and sent them to preach the gospel To the Gentiles We are a church in a denomination the Presbyterian Church in America Our denomination has a great world vision And we have a great agency in Atlanta seeking to get people into various fields around the world But here's the thing what we've said is we've thought through this thing philosophically We don't want to depend upon Atlanta. We want Atlanta to serve us Which is what denominational agencies are supposed to do Okay, they're supposed to serve the local churches as local churches assume their responsibility For taking the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth It's not a denominational agency that's responsible for taking the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth We're responsible for that. That's our job Okay, and we're we're wanting out we work in tandem and they have some expertise that enables us to do our job Okay, but it's our job. It's our job to take the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth So what what we've done over the course of the last couple of years is develop this um You know, I still think people think this is loony tunes This 75 year plan I think when people here need to talk about that they think He you know, that's just silly It's not it's really not I Mean, I am really committed to this thing And so are the elders of this church the idea that we're going to identify a handful places in the world And we're going to focus our energies and our resources on those places And in 30 years if God gives me another 30 years My heart's desire is that we will see churches planted in those places and training institutions theological seminaries planted in those places So that for the next 45 years the people of St. Paul's can see the harvesters reaping the harvest I mean Dark God I believe it's going to happen. I really do Um, and and the theological seminary thing is an integral part of this The training institutions are an integral part of this whole thing Um, a theological seminary was started in Korea about 35 years ago Out of that theological seminary 1300 churches have been started In the last three and a half decades Theological seminary was started in Pakistan Um, these are these are two instances. I'm aware of started in Pakistan, which is not finally at all the Christianity So you can't compare Korea, which is finally the Christianity with Pakistan, which isn't the theological seminary was started in Pakistan 15 years ago Over 30 churches have been started Out of that theological seminary As you get as you get seminaries established as you get training institutions established in these places These will be the places where the indigenous leadership will go for training and the natural outcome of that is the people will start churches It's what will happen and that's what's driving our commitment to missions Um, it's the philosophy that's governing it and the goal that we have is to see these cities Be impacted significantly for Christ and for the church So that the last part of the 75 year period of time might be a time of real harvesting Okay, so that's that's it. I mean, that's how we think about church life around here, okay Worship learning community and outreach. Let me let me stop and um See if you have any questions or comments
Yes, sir
Yeah, that's interesting you mentioned that I somebody told me a couple of years ago about this that Japanese corporations and I don't I don't read about that stuff But but they they do have these multi-generational business plans And I and that kind of was my thought a couple of years ago. I thought well, she was if if they've got multi-generational business plans If they've set their sights on particular things It seems to me we ought to do the same and some somebody has said um This probably his application to every area of life, but somebody has said we overestimate What we can do in the short term and we underestimate What can be done in the long term You know, we expect too much in the short term and we don't expect enough with respect to the long term And we're we are an instant gratification society. We want results now. We want benefits now. We want we want it all now But we're talking about we're talking about investing in something the fruit of which you will not see The fruit of which you will not see the full benefit of which you will not see
Anything else
Denomination of that our our style of worship Well, I mean, yes, and no, you know, Bob. Um, I mean Our worship here at St. Paul's is a kind of a hybridized thing it all All Western Christianity whether Roman Catholic or Anglican or Presbyterian or Methodist or whatever all of it has some connection to the to the Latin liturgy there were actually five or six different liturgies that that developed in the early centuries of the church The Greek Orthodox retains one of those liturgies the Orthodox churches the the rest of Christendom Western Christendom depends or it doesn't depend upon but but is connected historically to that to that Latin liturgy to the Western churches worship expression at the time of the Reformation there were some significant adjustments to that To that liturgy there was a correction of at a number of points. I mean the The understanding of the sacraments and The sacrament of the Lord suffer the mass the priesthood You know those kinds of things were corrected but but still the the basic flow and and movement and form looks look very much like the old Latin liturgy Someday you don't have anything to do Saturday afternoon in your grasses cut You might want to look at a a book by a felony barred Thompson the book is called great liturgies of the Western church And in that he compares Calvin's Geneva liturgy with the Strasbourg liturgy with Luther's German mass with Zwingli's liturgy by the way all of these things whether whether Luther's Lutheran German mass or Calvin's Geneva liturgy They're all very very different from from most of what you see in modern Non liturgical Protestantism And Calvin wanted to do some things that You know that tend to make our hair stand on end Calvin felt that that in in the service of worship The the highest thing the loftiest thing and I've gets I'll get you the quotation if you don't believe me on this because it's in barred Thompson's book The loftiest thing that a minister could do in the service of worship To remind people Who had confessed their sins of the sufficiency of the work of Christ And he did he did not do the tae absolve the way that the Roman Catholic priest would you know because because it wasn't in The priests powers to absolve people of their sins But for the minister to stand before the congregation after they had confessed their sins And direct their attention to the person and finished work of Christ And to remind them that because of that work Their sins have been washed away he felt to be the highest pastoral thing that the pastor could do Okay Now it's you know, we don't you don't see that sort of thing very much in in the Western non-Roman Catholic kinds of liturgies Um, but the but the other correction was In a in a restoration of the centrality of the word of God preached as governing the whole of life Okay, and The the thing that that I've Wanted to do and feel like we're having the chance to do here at St. Paul's Is to bring back together the centrality of the word of God preached governing all of life and historic form Which Becomes a vehicle for people to give expression to their to their worship Longings Okay, and we've done that in a piecemeal sort of way and we use the Westminster confession of faith for affirmations of faith We also use the hybrid catechism. We use the apostles creed nice scene creed We've used other things in the past prayers that we use one of the prayers that we use in communion is actually a prayer taken from Calvin's Geneva liturgy portions of it So it's it's a hybridized kind of the thing um And I guess it's it's somewhat unique, but it's still tied to that that basic Latin form that that has That everybody in western christianity has a connection to Does that answer your question? Okay Okay Anything else Well, I hope this has been helpful um I sure would encourage you to keep in mind these Various pictures these snapshots that we've seen in the scriptures of the church what the church is um I'll tell you for me it's been really really helpful to Read through this stuff and think through this stuff again It just I forget really easily and forget who I am and what I am and who and what we are together as the people of God A holy nation Set apart by God living in the midst of the nations and and that's what we are Okay, let's pray thought of you with us as we come to worship Pour out your spirit upon your people encourage our hearts increase our sense of anticipation For what it is that you might do in our day and for those who have been at worship. I pray that Those things from your word would be cemented to their hearts I pray that that our gathering together was for them a taste of the blessedness that awaits us in the presence of Christ For us all Lord would you go with us strengthening us Enabling us comforting and encouraging us as we seek to be your people In the midst of the nations Lord might your glory be put on display in our lives individually and in our life together as a church We pray in Jesus name