Please open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 5 and find verse 25. You're in a text that shows the applicability of Christ's love for the church. And we just sang about it through this song that Timothy Dwight, grandson of Jonathan Edwards, wrote in 1800. And when we sing this song, we're singing words of affection toward the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And my question to you tonight is this. When you sang those words, Did you sing them from the heart? Did you, in your soul, say, oh yes, Lord, I love thy church? Do your tears fall for her? Do your prayers ascend for her? Do you give your toils and your cares And do you intend to do this until your days end? And do you really feel this way about the church of the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you prize her heavenly ways? Do you prize her communion? Do you prize her solemn vows as the song sings? Now, we all just sang that song, but it's so important for us to know whether we sang it with sincerity of heart. And my prayer for all of us here at this conference is that if anyone could not have sung that song with sincerity tonight, that somehow by the time we've made our way through the conference, that you will be able to sing it with all of your heart. If we would love the church, there really is only one place to go, and that is to Christ. To learn of love for the church. Christ loved the church as it says in this passage of scripture. And we're here to learn from Christ in this message. We're here to itemize the different ways that the Lord Jesus Christ has loved his church. It's a nearly inexhaustible subject, as there are so many ways. And we don't have time to speak of all of them tonight. But what we do desire tonight to do is, as much as we can, to learn from the Lord Jesus Christ about his own love for his church. That we would put on the mind of Christ. for his church, and to think about the church the way that he does. And then, in learning from him, to behave in a way that's consistent with his behavior toward the church. And that somehow we would gain an increased appreciation for the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is He to whom we must go. You can't get a right pattern for loving the church from Christian culture today. Most people can't get it from their families, because it didn't exist in their families. And most people can't get it from their best friends, because most people's best friends did not have a hot passion for the Lord Jesus Christ. So there's really only one place to go, and that is to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so I pray that, as a result of our time, that it would be fulfilled in us that the mind of Christ toward the church would be acquired. That we would, as we read in 1 John 2.6, that he who abides in him ought also to walk just as he walked. And that we would walk in love, as Paul said to the Ephesians, as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us. So there's no better place to go to learn how to love the church than to the Lord Jesus Christ himself. I'd like to talk about what do we mean by the church. At this conference, the subject of our time is the visible church. It is what some people call the institutional church. We are advocates of the institutional church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Baptist Confession of 1689 defines the visible church. as the organized society of professing believers in all ages and places, wherein the gospel is truly preached and the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper administered in true faith. This is the visible church. It's a picture of the local church, which we see in Acts 2, 42, and all over the New Testament, where they continually and steadfastly devoted themselves to the apostle doctrine and to fellowship and the breaking of bread. And to prayers, it's the people in community gathered together, meeting together, eating together, learning, evangelizing together. This is the subject of our conference, the visible local church. The local church includes both believers and unbelievers. The local churches are always mixed multitudes, which is why it's so important for us to continually to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. What we find, however, in our day is that people often take the church of the Lord Jesus Christ so lightly. That they isolate themselves in various ways from the ministries of their local churches. And in doing so, they're opting out of divinely ordered discipleship that God has provided for them. His ways of loving them are deprived from them when they opt out of a vigorous life in the local church. And so this is the concern of our conference. When I think about the local church, my mind so often goes back to the early days of my conversion. I was converted in my teens in Southern California. And upon my conversion, I became not just a member of my local church, but a devotee of the local church. It was Calvary Church in Placentia. And I am so grateful for that local church that was there, that had elders and deacons. And it was a biblically ordered church, and I grew up in the faith there. And there I was coming into the church. I never had a biological brother, but God gave me so many brothers. I had a father, I had a wonderful father, but God gave me many fathers. And I was so thankful to grow up as a youth. with many spiritual fathers in that local church, and they were a blessing to me. I never had a shepherd, but there were many shepherds in that church. And I'll have to be honest with you tonight. I have always delighted to be in the local church. Not for one day of my Christian life have I not desired to be Fervently involved, never have I desired to be disconnected from her, her shepherds, her sheep, her ordinances, her prayers, and all of those kinds of things. It has not always made me comfortable though, I'll have to tell you that. I'll never forget that day as a newly baptized Christian, our church had a cookout. at the beach. That was my stopping ground. That was my territory. The ocean. I spent my youth in the ocean. And there we were as a church walking across the sand. And I was walking with an older man in the church. I was a very cool Southern California surfer boy, and he was walking along in his goofy black shoes, and his white socks, and his strange shorts, and his weirder shirt. And there I was, a brand new believer, and at first I was embarrassed to walk with him, but I realized God was dealing with my idols. And that's what happens in the life of the local church. He puts you with people that he has designed that you'd be with so that he would deal with your idols, among many, many other things. And all of my idols of coolness were being disturbed and confronted as we were walking across that beach. But though I've not always felt comfortable in the local church, I've always been blessed by it. And I pray that my affection, my joy in the local church would infect you, that it would perhaps add to your account of happiness toward the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray that that somehow would happen. And then there is the invisible church or the universal church. And of course, the universal church is the whole number of the elect that are gathered under one head, the Lord Jesus Christ. So tonight I'd like to speak about that church and the ways that the Lord Jesus Christ has expressed affection toward the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I am so happy to stand here tonight and report that I have received these affections into my soul, and I am so thankful for them. So, the first way that the Lord Jesus Christ has expressed affection toward His Church is that He gave Himself up for her. And the text that you turn to at the beginning of our time reads, Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her, that he might sanctify her and cleanse her with the washing of the water by the word, that he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. So here, it is stated by Paul that very plainly that Christ loved the church. And then he expands on that language and he uses a word to illustrate what kind of love it was that he was loving a bride. And this verse makes it very clear there is a way that Christ loves the church that is a pattern for husbands as they love their brides. And here the Lord Jesus chooses one of the highest states of human experience to explain his love. And he uses the term bride. It's shocking in many ways. Now whenever you see a bride for the first time, She takes your breath away. And I don't care if you're just the groom or if you're the father of the bride. As I was, I was the father in the weddings of two of my children this year. And so twice this year I looked down and saw, I saw that bride for the first time. What an amazing moment that is. And so here, as the groom stands waiting for his bride, he has desire for her. He sees her beauty, and it absolutely takes his breath away. This is the language that the Lord Jesus Christ uses to explain his love for the church. He uses the word love, the word agape, the highest word that the Bible knows to explain what love is. I was very interested to read D. Martin Lloyd-Jones on this passage of scripture, who made a very important comment. He said that many marriages break down because people don't realize what love means at the beginning. And I would just like to use that idea and turn it around in our use tonight for the church. Because many churches break down because people do not understand what love means for the Bride of Christ at the beginning. And they're brought into the church by the love of Christ, and yet they treat her members as if they don't know what kind of love got them there. And they don't understand the heart of Jesus Christ for his local expressions of his body. And often churches break down because of this misunderstanding that people have. And so they have to learn from the Lord Jesus Christ. And here we learn of how he loved, how did he love. He gave, his life was not his own. He came to do his father's will. He left his heavenly glory. He lays his life down for his friends. And what did he give himself up for? Well, he gave himself up to shame, to slander, to abuse, to crucifixion. He was spat on, he was scoffed at. He gave Himself up to all the penalties of violation of the law as the curses of the law were unleashed upon His body for His church. His body was broken, which is why when we enter into the celebration of the Lord's Supper, we read that He took bread and He broke it and He gave thanks, and He gave it to them saying, this is my body which was broken for you. Do this in remembrance me. He purchased the church by his own blood. He paid so much for the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And why did he do it? He did it so that he might sanctify and cleanse her by the washing of the water of the Word." So, his love wasn't theoretical. He did something about it. He did something with the bride, and that was that he loved her in spite of her deficiencies. He picked her up off the street. bleeding and in rags, and then he clothes her, and then he loves her for the rest of her life. He gives her a new name, he gives her new garments, white garments. And the objective of his love, that he might present her to himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. And so we learn here that the Lord Jesus, He desires to do something with his bride. He desires to present her. And this is why he's working out her spots and her wrinkles. in the same way that a good husband works out the spots and wrinkles of his wife, patiently working them year by year, kindly and graciously, in the same way that the Lord Jesus Christ is working out the spots and wrinkles of the husband. Every husband knows how patient Jesus Christ is toward him in his sins and his shortfalls, his stupidity, And he must take that same understanding that he has toward himself, his own love for himself, and then give it to his wife at the same time. And so, this is how Christ has loved the church. He gave himself. He sanctifies her by the word of God in order that he might present her to himself. So that's how Christ loved the church. And so if we desire to love the church, then there's a lesson here for all of us in this text of scripture. Now, to me it's always seemed so amazing That there would be so many people who would claim to love Jesus Christ, but they would not love His church. The local, gathered church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it expresses itself in so many ways. In what I'm just going to call Christian nomadism. where people go from one church to another. No church is good enough for them. If they're offended in a church, then they're out of there. If the people are cold, then they leave. If the church is not meeting their needs, then they leave. If the preaching doesn't warm their heart in the particular way they're used to having it warmed, they leave. And Christian nomadism is is rampant in the church today. Family idolatry is another sin that leads to lack of the church. This is the sin of permitting our earthly families from keeping us from doing what God has commanded us. And it manifests itself by putting our families or other things above the people of God. The Lord Jesus himself did not permit his earthly family to keep him from his holy task. This should be our same pattern. He said, he who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. He who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. It was a few years ago that I invited Jeff Pollard to come and give a message at one of our conferences. And I asked him to give a message on family idolatry and to speak of the various ways that this finds its expression in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I want to read to you some of the applications that he brought in that message. Number one, family members come for a visit. It is on the Lord's day. We've not seen them for a long time. So instead of worshiping God, which he has commanded us to do, we stay home with our family, which he has not commanded us to do. This is family idolatry. Number two, you know that the Lord has put his finger on something in your life. that is contrary to scripture and it needs to change. But because of your affection for your father, or your mother, or your husband, or your wife, or your son, or your daughter, or any other family member, you do not forsake it. This is family idolatry. Family idolatry is not the only impediment that kills love for the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's another example. Our children have a gift for music or sports or some academic pursuit. And an event or a conference comes up in the line of that gift. And we come back so late from that event, which God has not commanded us to do. And we're so tired that we don't come to worship on the Sabbath, which God has commanded us to do. That's some form of idolatry. Here's another example. We are so concerned that our children get the best education. And so that they would have great experiences, and see great sites, and attend fantastic events that will add to their account educationally. And we bring them to those things which God has not commanded us to do, so that we do not have family worship, or we rarely have family worship, which God has commanded us to do. This is perhaps an educational idolatry or something like that. Another example, the Lord's Day arrives in which God's family will take the Lord's Supper, which God has commanded us to do. But an opportunity to visit another family or to go on a picnic or on a family outing arises. And so we put aside the Lord's Supper, which God has commanded us to do, and we go to our family event, which God has not commanded us to do. Or another example, a new family is visiting the church and we've not spoken to them for quite some time. And our view is that my spouse and my children are not outgoing. And I've determined that my family is not outgoing. And a new person comes into the church and I've not spoken to them. Because I'm from a family that's not outgoing. We like to stay to ourselves, we say to ourselves. And so we don't open our home for hospitality, which God has commanded us to do in order to keep our families comfort zone, which God has not commanded us to do. Or maybe you have a busy week ahead and you feel that you need rest. And you say to your family, we need to get our sleep. So instead of gathering with the saints of God on the Sabbath day, we sleep in in order to get our rest. which God has not commanded us to do. There are innumerable ways that we set other things that God has not commanded us to do above what he has explicitly commanded us to do. We love our games so much. We love our sports so much. We love our talents so much. We love our wives so much. That we do not do the things that God has commanded us to do. Now, I'm certainly not saying that you can never miss the gatherings of the people of God. But what I'm concerned about is that I see so often people using reasons for the neglect of the church of God and the gatherings that are there. And the question is, do you want to be shepherded by God? Do you want to be taught by him in the way that he has ordained for you to be taught? He's brought you into a church. He's given you these people and this church. He has ordained that you would be one of the recipients of the gifts that God has invested in his church. The reason this happens normally is that we've trained our affections wrong. We've trained our affections to love other things greatly and love the essential things lightly. And so we neglect the things that God has commanded us to do because our affections are toward the things that God has not commanded us to do. Not that they're wrong, not that they're unlawful or evil to do. Most of the things that God's people choose to do in place of devotion to their local church are lawful things, are good things, are helpful things. So I'm not advocating the abandonment of all of these things, but I am advocating the asking of a question. And that is, how are your affections toward the church of the Lord Jesus Christ? Now, in contrast to this whole way of viewing the church, Christ loved the Church and he gave himself up for her. That's the first mark of Christ's love for the Church. And then, another mark of his love is that he personally identifies with the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. We find a scene in Acts chapter nine, where the Apostle Paul is breathing threats against the church. He's dragging men and women out of their households and killing some of them. And he was a fearful persecutor of the church. And on that day, when Saul, to be the Apostle Paul, was on the Damascus Road, He hears a voice from heaven, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? He was persecuting the church, but Jesus says, you're persecuting me. The Lord Jesus so closely identifies himself with the church, that he says that when you persecute the church, You're persecuting Him. And this, of course, should explain His great affections for the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. He takes it very, very personally. And there are a number of places where we see Christ's connection to His Church. In Matthew 25, Jesus says to the people, In the final judgment, he says, I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger and you invited me in. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. And then those hearing this say, Lord, when did this ever happen? And he says, truly, I say to you, as you did it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, You did it unto me. And so if you do something to another Christian, you're doing it to Christ himself. If you feed, if you clothe, if you bless or curse, you are doing it to the Lord Jesus Christ himself. He takes these things so personally. And he says that we are of of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. This is a great mystery that speaks of Christ and his church. He loves his body, in which the fullness of him fills all in all. This is the mystical union of Christ and the church. If you identify with the church, you identify with Christ. If you treat the church of the Lord Jesus Christ poorly, you are treating him poorly. It's helpful for us to understand the gravity of this issue of taking the church of the Lord Jesus Christ lightly, to make it some kind of option in your schedule. to somehow allow affections for other things to arise to lessen her importance. Because if you lessen her importance, you're lessening His importance. And so there is no local church or there is no believer in which Christ is not personally identified. So we should be very, very careful with the way that we treat the Lord Jesus Christ's church. Often instead of identifying with, we nag against the church or we're constantly involved in criticism of other church members. And there we are with our logs in our own eyes, sweeping our heads around, leveling everyone within 15 feet of us as that log is just sweeping around because we have forgotten about the importance of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we treat her wrongly. If you are disconnected from the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, if you are disconnected from a local church, I just want to encourage you to consider this. You are in some ways disconnected from Christ. You are at least disconnected with His affection for the church of the Lord Jesus Christ and her members. You may be Christ's, but you are a disobedient son or daughter because you have lost His affection for sinful church members that He has affection for. God has so kindly placed us in his church, and he identifies with us. I love what Samuel Rutherford said about this. He said, the great master gardener, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, in a wonderful providence, with his own hand, planted me here, whereby his grace, in this part of the vineyard, I grow. And here I will abide till the great master of the vineyard think fit to transplant me. And so, the Lord Jesus Christ has great affection for his church because he personally identifies with it. Here's a third way. He builds the church. This passage of scripture will be developed in detail later on in the evening by Dr. Beeke. But we're so familiar with this phrase, on this rock, I will build my church. I think this is one of the most encouraging passages in all of scripture, that God will both build his church and he will preserve His Church and there is nothing that anyone can do to destroy the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ if you are connected with His Church. You are connected with that institution that will never be destroyed. That perhaps is the only institution in the world like it. And so we should pay attention to her importance. Now there are so many ways that he builds his church. He builds his church by gathering his people together through the preaching of the Word of God, through prayers, through singing, through the celebration of the Lord's Supper, through baptism, through a gathering together and personally for evangelism, for church discipline, for for works of hospitality in the church, and for fathers and mothers as they faithfully teach their children. Christ builds up his church in many, many ways. And these are many of the reasons why you need to be in a local church. And there are so many reasons that people give for not being part of a local church. They say the doctrine is not quite to my liking, or they've had bad church experiences, or they say, it's hard to find a good church. It's hard for me to be with people, or the churches around me aren't friendly, they're not welcoming. Or God just hasn't led me to a church, or it's not a family integrated church. There are so many different reasons why people exempt themselves from local church life. But each one of these views that I've just spoken of views the Christian life as some kind of a designer religion that you can just create on your own. People have these thoughts. They seem to view the Christian life as some kind of checklist of options. And you can do whichever ones of the options that you like. And each one is kind of like a matter of negotiation with God. And so involvement is the church. is something that they want to negotiate with God. But that's not something negotiable with God. He has said too much about his local churches and the responsibilities and the duties that all Christians have for involvement in those local churches. And people are not satisfied with what God has given them in their churches. They want more. They want a new program. They want something more exciting. They want some silver bullet to solve all of their problems. But God has given a way to build up His church. And He has designed to use the local church as His means of grace, along with many other means of grace, to build up the Church. And He gives these things, preaching and prayer and singing and communion and baptism, because He cares so much for His people. And to reject the ways that Christ has established to build up His Church, is to reject Christ and His Word. And then there's another way that he loves his church. Zeal for her has eaten him up. In John 2, verse 13, we find this phrase, zeal for my Father's house has eaten me up. And in the Gospel of John, Jesus' zeal for his Father's house is being expressed in many ways. He first expresses his zeal by turning water into wine. And then he has a conversation under the cover of night with Nicodemus, And then he expresses his zeal for the church by taking a whip and he takes the time and he weaves this whip. Can you imagine the Lord Jesus Christ taking the time and weaving that whip? Moses speaks of God as whetting his glittering sword until he lays his hand on judgment, and he's whetting his sword. He's sharpening it, a whetstone is a sharpening tool. And there's the Lord Jesus Christ, he's whetting his glittering sword. And there in the marketplace, he was weaving his whip and He drove the money changers out of the temple and it was his zeal for his father's house that had eaten him up, that caused him to do that. And of course, we want a more moderate religion. We want a mild Jesus. We want him to give us a balanced life. We want him to give us some of this and some of that, kind of a half and half. kind of Christianity where too much zeal is to be avoided. Zeal has fallen on hard times today. We want tolerance today, but while we may desire that in our hearts, that is not what the Lord Jesus has for his church. But the whole tenor of the Lord Jesus disposition toward the church was zeal. And this was an expression of his love. And so he calls into question the expressions of passivity, and nonchalance, and neglect, and disengagement, and wariness of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ never removed himself from the imperfect gatherings of God's people. He went to them. And he was among them. And he did his work that God had appointed him to do. That's what we should do as well. Not neglecting the saints of God. The Apostle Paul was given this same zeal for the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was affectionate in Philippians 1.8. He says that God is my witness how greatly I long for you with the affection of Jesus Christ. He was dedicated to the Church. Paul said that he was being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice of service of their faith. He suffered, as it says in Colossians chapter 1, 24, that he was rejoicing in his sufferings for the Colossians, filling up in his flesh what was lacking in the afflictions of Jesus Christ for the sake of his body, which is his church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God. He labored He labors and strives. He says, in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ, to this end I labor, striving according to his working, which works in me mightily. He cherished the church. Paul was gentle among the Thessalonians as a nursing mother cherishes her own children. He imparted not only Not only the message, but he imparted his own life. He was rejoicing with joy. He says, for what is our joy and hope and crown of rejoicing? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ? He was fervent in prayer, night and day, praying exceedingly, he says, that he might see their faces again. Why? In order to perfect what is lacking. in their faith. Paul is like those men who love the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. God has always sent men who love the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, and this is demonstrated over and over again. Most of these men were normal men. They were not vocational ministers. They were men who dedicated themselves in obedience to God. And part of their obedience was love for the church. They were regular men who labored for the church. How many of the 12 were members of the professional clergy or leaders in the synagogue? James and John were fishermen. Matthew came out of a tax office. In the Old Testament, how many who loved and ministered to the church? were religious leaders with official capacities. Not Noah, not Job, not Joseph, not Moses, not Gideon, not David. These were men who had been given gifts by God to pour out on the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. I was struck by what Horatius Bonar said regarding the leaders of the Great Awakening. Here's what he said about them. They are in earnest. They lived and labored and preached like men, whose lips the immortality of thousands. Would you be a man like that? Would you be a woman or a child like that in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ? They are bent on success as warriors. They set their hearts on victory and fought with the believing anticipation of triumph under the guidance of such captain as their head. Third, they were men of faith. They knew that in due season they should reap if they fainted not. They were men of labor. Their lives are the annals of incessant, unwearied toil of body and soul. Time, strength, substance, health, all were possessed, and they freely offered to the Lord, keeping back nothing, grudging nothing. They were men of patience, day after day, They pursued what to the eye of the world appeared to be a thankless and fruitless round of toil. They were men of boldness. Timidity shuts many a door of usefulness and loses many a precious opportunity. It wins no friends while it strengthens the enemy. Nothing is lost by boldness nor gained by fear. They were men of prayer. They were much alone with God, replenishing their own souls out of the living fountain that out of them might flow to their people rivers of living water. They were men of strong doctrine. Their preaching seems to have been of the most masculine and fearless kind, falling on the audience with a tremendous power. It was not vehement, it was not fierce, it was not noisy. It was far too solemn to be such. It was massive, weighty, cutting, piercing, sharper than any two-edged sword. They are men of deep spirituality. No frivolity, no flippancy. The world could not point to them, but slightly dissimilar from itself. This is the kind of love that the Lord Jesus Christ had for his church. There are so many ways that the Lord Jesus Christ has loved his church. He is present with her saying, I will never leave you or forsake you. He sends her another helper like himself and says, I will not leave you as orphans. He comforts her and says, let not your heart be troubled. He sends prophets to speak to her. He was poor, yet making many rich. He prays for her. He draws her with loving kindness. He sanctifies her from her former defilement. He made her alive together with Him. He nailed her sins to the cross. He holds together and nourishes her. He hides her. in God. He came to serve her. He came to fill her with converts. He came that she might have life and have it more abundantly. He illumines her, for He is the light of the world. He feeds her with living bread. He flows living water through her. He guides her, for He is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the door of the sheepfold. He is her good shepherd. He is her rock and all drink of that same spiritual drink. He took the sins of the world upon Himself for her. He drank the poisoned cup of wrath for sin to the dregs for her. He loved her when she was dead. He made Himself her chief cornerstone. And now He writes her members' names on his hands. He created a role for her, for she is his workmanship. He made her. He will destroy anyone who destroys her. For he said, if anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. Do you see the love of the Lord Jesus Christ for His Church. There are so, so many ways that Christ loves His Church. And I pray that somehow, as we're here together, that we would have the mind of Christ for His precious Bride, whom He purchased with His own blood. The Lord Jesus Christ shed his blood for the Church. And what does that mean, brethren, for us? What does it mean? Would we shed our blood for the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ? Would we retrain our affections for the love of the Bride of Christ? Would we take up His cross, and follow Him and have the mind of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Would you pray with me? O Lord, I thank You that You have saved such sinners as we are. I thank You for saving me and placing me in Your body, for giving me brothers and sisters and fathers and mothers Your word, your ordinances, your discipline, your chastisements. You're putting your hand on my idols through the ministry of your church. Lord, I pray that you would do a miracle here. I pray that you would raise up a new generation who love your church. and would bleed for her. For more messages, articles, and videos on the subject of conforming the church and the family to the Word of God, and for more information about the National Center for Family-Integrated Churches, where you can search our online network to find family-integrated churches in your area, log on to our website, ncfic.org.