We're going to take a look at another item in our church new members class, if you want to call it that. This would be the type of thing that I would teach in a new members class. But if you've been here a while, I'm guessing I'm going to surprise you tonight. How many of you have ever found, unexpectedly found, a family heirloom in a spot you didn't think it was? Anyone? No? You don't have a family heirloom, right? Yeah, my family, we've moved around so much. We're pretty good about tossing stuff out. I don't know. I'm still missing my baseball cards, Mom, the ones that I think you tossed. No, seriously, every once in a while, I read an article today. I was reading an article about a fella. who bought a house in Geneva, New York. I don't even know where Geneva, New York is. And he found up in the attic, it had been up there for over 100 years now, photographs. And found out through a little bit of investigation that the house used to be owned by a famous photographer, nobody I'd ever heard of. But in that attic were photographs of Susan B. Anthony. So, boy, can you imagine? You go up into your attic and here's literal photographs of Susan B. Anthony. I found such an heirloom here at Elmira Baptist Church, and so I'm gonna share it with you. Matt, can I have your help? You've been passing things out. Would you give one of these to each person that's here tonight? This is the Elmira Baptist Church Covenant Among the Members. This comes directly from our church's constitution. It comes directly from our church's constitution, and I have found that most church constitutions have a covenant among the members. Anyone want to take it? I'm going to involve you tonight. Keep you awake, see what you know. Anyone have a guess? What is the purpose? Why does a church constitution in the United States, I don't know about other countries, why does that church constitution often have a covenant among the members? What is the purpose of that? Why do they have one at all? For example, the statement of faith in a church constitution basically states the doctrinal position of the church. And so that's a good thing. We're going to actually look at the church's statement of faith briefly. Well, briefly means several weeks because there's a lot of statements there. But what is a covenant for? Warren? Yes. Agreement. Key thought. Mutual agreement. So whether you understand it or not, and that's why I'm bringing it out tonight, when you say, I'd like to be a member of Elmira Baptist Church, you should, and it's on me, I need to do a better job, you should at least, at least take a look at the statement of faith, make sure that you're in doctrinal agreement, and the covenant, which is agreement in our practice, in our Christian living. So let me just read it to you. You have a copy in front of you, and you can just sort of think through the phrases, and then we're gonna go, after a little bit of explanation, we're going to go a bit by bit through here and look at the scripture behind the statements. They're not included here. There's a scripture at the end, but the scripture behind the statements. So here it is. Having been led by the Holy Spirit of God to trust the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior and to give ourselves wholly to Him, we do now joyfully and solemnly covenant with one another to walk together in Him as one body in Christ. We do therefore in His strength and by His grace promise the following. We will exercise Christian care and watchfulness over one another and faithfully warn, exhort, admonish, and encourage one another as occasion may afford. We will not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. We will promote the Church's prosperity and spirituality in order to sustain its worship, ordinances, discipline, and doctrines. We will cheerfully and willingly contribute of our material means, according as God has prospered us, for the maintenance of a faithful and evangelical ministry to spread the gospel over the earth. We will maintain family and private devotions and train up our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. We will faithfully witness for Christ in seeking the salvation of the lost. We will seek God's power to deny ungodliness and worldly lust and to walk circumspectly in the world that we may be living testimonies to the praise of His glory. We will be just and honest in all our dealings and live to the glory of him who has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. And then it quotes Hebrews 13, 20 to 21. Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever, amen. Let's ask the Lord's help in examining this document. Father, we're grateful that you have called us to Elmira Baptist Church, and I'm thankful that you've gathered us tonight, this group, to study your word together and to pray And we ask for a fervency in both, a seriousness and a focus in both our Bible study and in our time of prayer. Lord, bless those children that are here tonight and the teachers that are working with them. We want to see them grow in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And so we ask for your help as the teachers teach them. And we ask for your help in this Bible study as well. And pray all these things in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen. So this is our church's covenant. Again, I did not write this. This is not new with me. I've seen several covenants. This appears to be very common words, very common language. There are other covenants that say slightly different things. And if you have a church covenant that you thought was particularly well-written, I'd love to read it. I enjoy reading. But this one starts with having been led by the Holy Spirit of God to trust the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior. In a word, this is salvation. As a church, we only accept members who are saved. Now, this first sentence does leave out something that sometimes Baptist Church covenants have and that Baptist Churches practice. What, just from your own knowledge, what is missing here that is required to be a member of Elmira Baptist Church in addition to salvation? Baptism, right. We do require people to be baptized, and when people come and seek membership here at Elmira Baptist Church, one of the questions I ask them is, where were you baptized? And if they say, well, the Catholic Church. Okay, then we have to back up a little bit, do some teaching, because when we talk about baptism, we're solely by immersion, because that is baptism. Sprinkling isn't baptism, pouring isn't baptism. So I check on their salvation testimony and I check on their baptism before I recommend them to you, as we do often on Sunday mornings, occasionally on Sunday nights for membership. Here's the second statement, and to give ourselves wholly to Him. Turn in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 8 and verse 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 8 and verse 5. Paul is commending the churches of Macedonia. He's talking, he's writing to the Corinthians, the Corinthian church. He's commending and praising the churches of Macedonia. And verse five says, and this they, this is the Christians that were the churches of Macedonia, and this they did, not as we hoped, but first, excuse me here. but first gave their own selves to the Lord and then to us by the will of God. Now, the context here is a offering that Paul and his companions are raising to give to Christians who are about to go through a famine. We can read about that in another part, but notice that before they gave money to a good cause, and it was a good cause, they first gave themselves to the Lord. Can we think of one word that sort of summarizes this idea of first giving ourselves to the Lord? Set apart, sanctified. Those are good words. Yeah, that wasn't the direction I was headed, but those are good words. Sanctified, set apart. Submission. That's a good word, too. I think we are. We're not going to tonight, maybe, but we are going to get to submission. The word I'd like you to keep in mind is commitment. Commitment. Sanctification. Submission. Commitment. To whom are we committed? According to this document here. To whom are we committed? To Christ. To God. You're not committing to me. When you say, I'd like to become a member of Elmira Baptist Church, you're not committing to me. You're not even committing to the church. You're primarily committing to God. Now, does God care about church membership? And the answer is yes. We've already looked at that. So when I commit myself to God, one of the first things I ought to do is look around me and say, OK, which church here am I going to be a part of? Because there are no Rambo Christians, right? A Rambo Christian is a guy all by himself, doesn't have any fellowship, doesn't work with other people. He's just going to do God's work all on his own. We know, those of you that, well, The New Testament teaches us that God accomplishes his purposes through the church. So if I'm going to be a part of God's plan in the United States in 2024, I almost said 2023, in 2024, I need to be a part of a church. I need to be committed to that church. And as you talk with friends or neighbors or family members that are members of other churches, Help them understand this. There needs to be a level of commitment to the church, because first of all, we're committed to God, that supersedes a commitment to, say, the NFL, or to sports, or to making money, or to, and you put in whatever hobby or job you want there. So when you say to us, to the church, I'd like to become a member, I hope that first of all, you're committed to the Lord, because that's what it says here. Give ourselves wholly to Him. We now do joyfully and solemnly covenant with one another to walk together in Him as one body in Christ. So let me give you three key thoughts from this statement, joyfully and solemnly covenant with one another to walk together in him as one body in Christ. The first, the words already come up, mutual agreement. We have to agree about some things if we're going to work together. We'll talk about what some of those things are when we get further down in the document, OK? Mutual agreement. There's a second concept here, and that's mutual effort. We're going to walk together. Now, that doesn't mean literally get arm in arm and walk down the street. That means we're going to live, we're going to behave, we're going to act in such a way that we are unified around the truth. So mutual agreement, mutual effort, and then mutual accountability. And although that isn't expressed real clearly in this sentence, it's going to come out in the next sentence. What do I mean by mutual accountability? I mean that I'm concerned about how you live, and how you talk, and how you think, and how you're growing in Christ, and you're concerned about how I live, and how I think, and how I speak, and about my growth in Jesus Christ. Mutual accountability. We'll look at all three of those ideas here. Mutual agreement, mutual effort, and mutual accountability. So we do. Next sentence here. By the way, you can raise your hand, ask questions, bring things to my attention. That's fine. Yes, Guillermo. Well, OK. So this is really good, Pastor. And as I look at it, as we're going through this, I'm thinking, why is this? No, no. Yeah, yeah. Just get it out there. Let's go. Why is it that it doesn't feel that way sometimes? And I know we have the Sunday morning, for example. So let me tell you a little bit about my thought on what Guillermo was talking about. And these are my thoughts. I don't have scripture to back them up. So if you have some scripture, I'll be glad to take scripture over what I think. But here's what my thoughts are. We're always going to have people who want to be around Elmira Baptist Church. They like us. It's a nice place. You come and people ask you how you're doing and shake your hand and say, we love you. And if you said to them, hey, I don't have any food, we'd bring you a bag of groceries, right? There's been people who've said to me, I don't have any gas. And I've given them a 20 and told them, go get gas. I mean, 20 doesn't give you much gas anymore. But I mean, the idea is we're willing to help. I know people in this church that have loaned other people a car to use for a while. So people like that. but they don't want to be committed, do they? And that's the difference between people who regularly attend, or maybe sporadically attend, and membership. Membership is stepping up to this covenant and saying, I want to be a part of this church. And it does take commitment, first to the Lord, and then because you're committed to the Lord, a commitment to the church. But everywhere I've gone, whether it was Mongolia, or when I ministered in Oregon, or here in California, and as I've talked to other pastors, there's always more people who want to be nearby, but don't want to be committed. Don't let that bother you, because I believe the Lord rewards us who seek Him and express that search for God in our lives through our commitment to a local church. And they're losing out by not being as committed as they could be. Now there's a second thing I want to say, and that is I know we have members of Elmira Baptist Church who are not living up to this covenant. My goal over the next year, in 2024, as we talk about God being faithful, is also to remind us that we need to be faithful. And I plan to use this document in a kind way, not as a bludgeon. You are not living up to this. No, just kindly. This is what we agreed to as members here. And here's some areas I think that we should work on. And as you meet with members, their members, and maybe they're not living up to this, encourage them in the Lord. Help them see the scriptures. Because this is a well-written document, and it's been a help to me over the last couple of weeks as I've been preparing for this class. Warren. I think it can be said that you discovered this. Sure. And going over it, I think a lot of people don't have the beneficiary. These documents exist, and you never saw them. And so I think a lot of people just don't know exactly what that means. Right. Well, one of the things I'd like to do, Warren, and another pastor gave me this idea, is have the church read this document in unison before each Lord's Supper. Why before each Lord's Supper? Well, the Lord's Supper is the church, Elmira Baptist Church, gathering together to remember the Lord's death, His resurrection, and His coming again. And while we have close communion, that is, we do allow other members of other churches to participate with us, in communion, it's primarily, and the focus is, on the members of Elmira Baptist Church. So, maybe we'll do that, Warren. You can pray for me. Okay, thank you men and ladies, you're welcome to contribute as well. We do therefore, in his strength and by his grace, again, great wording because we're not doing this in our own effort. What we're about to commit to, we're not doing because we're great people. We're doing it because God strengthens us and because God gives us grace. We promise the following. We will exercise Christian care and watchfulness over one another and faithfully warn, exhort, admonish, and encourage one another as occasion may afford. Let's think about some scripture. I've got some written down and I'm ready to go, but maybe you have some scripture as well that follows along these thoughts about Christian care and watchfulness, faithfully warning, exhorting, admonishing, and encouraging as occasion allows, may afford. Yeah, yeah. Well, Romans 12, 1 and 2 write, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. I always think more along the lines of Galatians chapter 6, verse 1. Let's look there first. There's a couple other verses, but let's start there. And by the way, I got to prepare. So don't feel bad. You think, I didn't know that. I've been sitting down thinking about this for a long time. So Galatians 6, 1 says this, brethren, If a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted." This is Christian care and watchfulness. If I see a brother doing something that's public and sinful, I have a responsibility to help him back to truth. Not to beat him up, right? Not to post his name on Facebook, so and so is publicly sinning. Now I go to him and I say, brother, I'm concerned because this is what I see or this is what I heard and this isn't right. You can't live this way, right? So when someone comes to me and this has happened before, and said, Scott, I see this in your life and this isn't right. I don't need to get defensive. Uh-oh, what are you talking about? What right do you have to tell me how to live? When I've covenanted to be a part of a church, I should expect that the other members are going to be concerned enough about me that if they see something in me that's ungodly, they're going to bring it to my attention and help me correct it. That's how churches ought to work. Now we've gotten into a bad place, I think, in general, churches in America in general, where we almost get, we almost think, like, nobody has a right to tell me what to do. Well, God has a right to tell you what to do. And he's given us this fellowship of believers to help one another, to courage one another. So the Christian care and watchfulness, looking out for each other in that way. Let's go to Hebrews chapter three. And you can write, this is your copy to keep. So feel free to write on that piece of paper, flip it over and write on the backside, whatever helps you remember these passages. Hebrews chapter three. Galatians 6.1 was the passage, the whole passage actually is good, but just Galatians 6.1, verse 2, bury one another's burdens, right? But that's what I was thinking of. Here in Hebrews chapter 3, verses 12 and 13, take heed brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God, but exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin." Again, we're talking about Christian care and watchfulness over one another. I'm exhorting. You're exhorting. By the way, this covenant is not the pastor's duties to the members. This is all of the members' duties to one another. So you have a responsibility. to warn, to exhort, to admonish, and to encourage. Let me give you one other passage, two verses from 1 Thessalonians 5. And then if you've thought of some, I would like to hear yours as well, because there's more passages. 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 11. says this, wherefore, comfort yourselves together and edify one another, even as also ye do. Then I'm going to skip down to verse 14. Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak, be patient toward all men. And again, the whole context is good. I'm just cherry-picking verses for the sake of time. So these are some verses that remind us that as members of Almira Baptist Church, We have a duty to warn, to exhort, to encourage, and to admonish as occasion may afford. And don't be surprised if a member comes to you and in love says, hey, I'm concerned about this. Don't take it as a personal attack. They're trying to love you in Christ. If they need more explanation, explain. If you need to look at scripture together, if you need a mediator, grab one of the deacons. But don't become defensive and angry that people would confront you if you're sinning. We want that. We want that. I want that. OK. Thoughts on that sentence? We're going to move on to the next one. Just going to go. Yes, Matt. Yes, yes. I was going to save that one for later when it says, we will, let's see, where is it? We will, where did I put that? I got to look at my, we will not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. And that verse also talks about provoking one another to love and to good works, which is the aspect that Matt is thinking of. So yes, that's Hebrews 10, 24 and 25, talks about provoking one another to love and to good works. Thank you, Matt, that's good Yes, Nira? Yes, 2 Timothy, could you read it to us? Sure 2 Timothy 4.2, again, there's context there, read the whole passage, but that's a good anchor point, good Good. Let me just say this about warning, exhorting, admonishing, and encouraging. I don't know all that goes on in this church. Even if all of you tried to tell me everything that went on in the church, I wouldn't be able to keep it all in my head. So God expects you to do your part to warn, to exhort, to admonish, and to comfort, and to encourage. When you see something that's worth encouraging, go ahead, say, hey, good job, right? When you see something that, hey, be careful of that, warn, hey, don't do that. In other words, not everything has to go through the pastor. God's given you a ministry here as well, so keep that in mind. Here's the next sentence. will not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. And that's where I have Hebrews 10, 24 and 25. And then also I want you to look with me at Acts chapter 2. I mentioned this at the beginning. Acts chapter 2 and verse 42. Acts chapter 2 and verse 42. Here's Acts 2.42, and they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and prayers. This is after those 3,000 were saved on the day of Pentecost. They weren't just saved and baptized and then just sort of scattered. They were saved, they were baptized, and they continued steadfastly. Let's think of another synonym or a phrase for continued steadfastly. I'm not looking for anything in particular. I'm just trying to get our minds to work. We wouldn't say, hey, let's continue steadfastly. We'd say what? Let's endure. Let's do this together. Let's be faithful here. Let's be committed. There's that word again. Yes? Diligent. Let's be diligent. These people put in effort, is my point. Remember I mentioned mutual effort. These folks that continued steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine and in fellowship and in breaking of bread and prayers, they didn't just show up once a month. They didn't just listen to a podcast. They were committed to this group of believers there at Jerusalem. Not just the apostles doctrine, but also in fellowship and breaking of bread, spending time with each other. By the way, we could all, COVID really messed with our minds. We don't wanna be too close to each other. We need to push that out of our minds. Hospitality is a Christian virtue that God calls us to. And some of you do great meeting with people and some of us could do better. If you're doing great, please keep doing it. And I know you do it. If you're not doing well at it, think to yourself, when's the last time I had someone into my home or I met them? I mean, it doesn't have to be into your home, maybe you meet them. If it's been a month or two, please work at that. They continued steadfastly in fellowship and in breaking of bread. And here's the fourth one, in prayers. In prayers. I know they prayed individually. But also, many times in Acts, we see them praying together in one place. Before Pentecost, they're in the upper room, aren't they? Praying. After Pentecost, in chapter four, they meet together because some of the apostles have been threatened, don't speak anymore in the name of Jesus, and they're gathered in one place and they pray. And you remember when Peter is in prison, and they're all gathered at Mary's house. And what are they praying for? That Peter will be released, right? So here's my point. Yes, when it says they continued steadfastly in prayers, they continued steadfastly in private prayers, just one-on-one with God. And I hope you've had time in the last 24 hours, just you and God. But they also continued steadfastly in gathering together to pray. Now look around us. Here's Guillermo's point. How many people do we have here Sunday morning? How many people are here tonight? My point isn't you're a good person, pat yourself on the back. My point is we could all do better. Elmira Baptist Church could do better at continuing steadfastly in prayer. And I know some people who are at work. I know my wife is sick tonight. Things keep people from being here. I'm not saying if they're not here, they're bad Christians. There could be a good reason why they're not here. But some people are not here because they're not committed enough to the Lord. Not to me. Not to Elmira Baptist Church. I've told you this statement before. Preachers talk about the Sunday morning attendance shows the popularity of the church. And the Sunday evening attendance shows the popularity of the preacher. And the Wednesday night attendance or the midweek attendance shows the popularity of God. because that's really why people come. They want to meet, to pray, to spend time with God. I commend you, but let's encourage others to join us, other members of Elmira Baptist Church. Hey, come Wednesday night. What were you doing last Wednesday? Right? Just in a kind way. Well, I was watching Jeopardy. You know what? I think there's something better. Why don't you come on out and join us? Be kind, but I think that's part of the warning and admonishing, right, and exhorting one another. Acts chapter 2 verse 42, that's what we just read. Let's move on to the next sentence. It says, we will promote the church's prosperity and spirituality. Because prosperity and spirituality together, I don't think church's prosperity is we're gonna make the church look rich. I think the prosperity there is its spiritual prosperity. We will promote the church's prosperity and spirituality in order to sustain its worship, its ordinances, its discipline, and its doctrines. Let's take those four things, and if I can give these a title, just sort of a big picture word category, let's call these the elements of our church. These four elements should be in every church, whether it's in the United States, or in Mongolia, or Afghanistan, or Namibia, wherever you go in the world, if there's a church, they should have worship. They should have ordinances. What are the two ordinances? Anyone, just call them out. Baptism and? The Lord's Supper. They should have discipline. We'll get to that one again here in a second. And they should have doctrine. If a church has no doctrine, imagine you go to a church and you say, hey, what doctrine, what does your church believe? And they say, well, it really doesn't matter what we believe. We just love each other. Run for your life. What you do believe matters, right? A Mormon's going to tell you that Jesus and Satan, they're brothers. That's a lie from the devil. It's not truth. We can't be a part of that. So doctrine is absolutely essential. But let's look at that fourth word. It's a third word in the order, but I skipped over it. Discipline. What do we mean by discipline? To maintain its discipline. Right. And what happens if I won't, as a member of Elmira Baptist Church, I just refuse to be in line with God. Let's say I just leave my wife and I'm living with another woman. What responsibility does Elmira Baptist Church have toward me? Yeah, kick me out. That's a responsibility. Let's look at these in order. Let's start with worship, though, and then we'll get to discipline. Otherwise, I get ahead of myself. Worship. Forms. The elements are worship, ordinances, discipline, doctrine. The forms may be different. The songs that we sang in Mongolia were, by necessity, different than the songs we sang here when we worshiped. because we sang in Mongolia, Mongolian, the language. And many of the tunes were Mongolian tunes, and I encouraged that. They sounded very Mongolian. They sort of were in line with the Mongolian culture. That's fine, that's just a form. But the worship has to be worshiping God. It cannot be the worship of man. It cannot be a performance. I'm concerned, I'm gonna tell you a little bit about just, I'm gonna go down a side rabbit trail here. I'm concerned when churches turn down the lights and they shine spotlights on the platform. What are they saying? You're not important, here's what we wanna emphasize. Whether it's the preacher or it's the worship team or a song leader, any one person, worship is the church not the person who's up here. And we want to maintain that here at Elmira Baptist Church. I can't worry about what every other church is doing, but I can be concerned. We want people to understand when they come in on Sunday morning for worship, it's you all, it's us all that are worshiping, not just whoever's leading songs and the musicians or the pastor. So we leave the lights up. Worship. Any other thoughts on worship? We're going to move on just for the sake of time. Yes, Guillermo? Which is a reasonable service, yes. You're right. I'm going to put that up to give ourselves wholly to Him, which is where you brought it in the first time and I did not write it down. Other thoughts on worship? I was looking through my notes for another topic. not this topic. And I came across a little anecdote that I had. WT and I, this was in 2020, at least the date of the note was 2020. We're out knocking on doors, just meeting people in our community, giving them the gospel, inviting them to Almyra Baptist Church. And the fella who opened the door, he was kind enough, I remember now, he wasn't mean-spirited, he wasn't belligerent, he just said, you know, my problem with Christians, this is what the man said who answered the door, my problem with Christians, because we told him we're from Elmira Baptist Church and we're here to tell him about Jesus, so my problem with Christians is they go to church, they dress up, they go to church on Sunday, they sing the songs, and then they come home, they put their Bible away, and Monday through Saturday, they're no different than anybody else. And that's what Guillermo is referring to. Worship isn't just something we do on Sunday morning, and then Monday through Saturday we get to do what we want. Worship is an expression of a life that's wholly given to the Lord. And I hope you are taking time to worship God each day in your personal time with Him. Occasionally, as you're with your children, you're leading in a time of family devotion, sing a hymn, sing a song. You can worship there just as well. And then when we gather on Sunday, I don't know about you, there's an excitement and there's an enthusiasm, not an emotional experience, but just an excitement and enthusiasm that we all get to worship together. It's different when I sing with all of you than when I sing by myself. And so there should be that energy and just, oh, I'm so glad you're all gathered here with me. Not with me, the pastor, but you can think the same way. I'm so glad you're gathered here with me to worship the Lord. because it's an expression of our entire lives in that moment. So keep that in mind when we talk about worship. Here's the second thing, the ordinances. We've talked about the ordinances before, so let me skip over to a discipline and ask you to turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 5. I had to find my note there. 1 Corinthians chapter 5. In 1 Corinthians chapter 5, let me catch up on the context. If you don't remember, you probably do. We have a man who's living in fornication. And the Corinthians are sort of proud of this. Now, the Bible doesn't say why they're proud. I'm going to extrapolate. I think they're proud. They're thinking, look, we can be forgiving and let this guy continue in sin. And Paul says to them in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, In verse 6, your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven, leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us, And then down in verse 9, I wrote unto you in an epistle, not to company with fornicators, yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters, for then must ye needs go out of the world. But now I have written unto you, not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with such in one know not to eat." So what is he saying? He's saying where we continue steadfastly in fellowship and in breaking of bread, that's appropriate. But when we have a Christian brother who has has set his path, or is set on the path of sin, and won't repent, and we've called him back to repentance, and he says, no, I'm going this direction, we have to kick him out of the church. He can't be a member of Elmira Baptist Church. Not because we hate him, not because we think we're better than him, but because a little bit of leaven leavens the whole loaf. A little bit of sin, allowing a little bit of sin, leads all of us to be more tempted to sin, and God wants us to do our best as a church to maintain discipline. Now this is not what most churches do in the United States, but this is what God calls us to do. So we're not worried about what other churches are doing. We're worried about what God calls us to do. I had a person come to me, oh, some time ago now. And this person said, I'd like to become a member at Elmira Baptist Church. But I happen to know it was public knowledge that there was one of these sins in the situation. And I said, well, here's the problem. As soon as you became a member, we'd have to kick you out. That's what I said. I didn't know what else to say. I said, here's the list. This person nodded the head, and I think we're good. The person still comes. You pray for the person. They need to get right. But as long as they're not right, we can't accept them into membership, is my point. There's no point in accepting people into membership who fall into one of these categories, because God calls us to maintain the discipline of Elmira Baptist Church. Yes? means that they can come. Yes, they can come. Okay, well let me ask you this. How would you suggest Elmira Baptist Church prevent people who are living in sin from coming to our Sunday meetings or Wednesday night meetings for that matter? Would you like someone to be at the door and say you're not on the list? No, I think if it's open and we know according to God's word Let me throw out a possible scenario, okay? Let's imagine we know this guy who comes on Sunday mornings, is a heavy drinker, and often during the week he's drunk. A drunkard is one on the list, is that right? What does that man need? He needs Jesus Christ. Yeah, he needs, he needs, he's either not saved and he needs to get saved, or if he is saved, he could be saved and living in sin. He needs to be reminded that the grace of God will give him victory over drunkenness. Where is he going to hear that? Not in Oprah. Right? Not on the news. He's going to hear it here. So here's my thought, Guillermo, and I'm open to correction, but my thought is we want those people here on Sunday morning and even Sunday night to hear the gospel preached and be reminded that there's victory in Jesus Christ. I know this is going over livestream, but you remember about a year or two ago we had someone join us who was not dressed in a way we could tell whether it was a man or a woman. Some of you remember this. There was a big part of me, as a red-blooded conservative, who just wanted to say, you don't belong here. But wait a minute, wait a minute. Where does that person belong? Now, at that time, that person was not saved by that person's own image. That person has since become saved, and it's changed the way that that person dresses. by God's grace, not because I'm a good man, and some of you have been working, not because any particular person is sprinkled magic pixie dust, but because the gospel changes lives. We believe it. So we do accept, Guillermo, that sometimes people will come here to worship with us who are either far from God, they're Christians but far from God, or they're not even saved. But as soon as they come and say, I'd like to be a member, I have to say, You can't cross. You can't go through that door yet, because here are the issues. Go ahead. Follow up. And then Warren has something. By the way, this is a great conversation. This is the type of conversations I want to have. I love people. I know you do. Because I mean, there was a time in my life that I was going through the Lord. It's not that I'm not saying, but I'm trying to, how do I say this? Trying to understand where to draw that line. Yeah. I mean, in this particular passage, Paul, You know, he wasn't being a judge of people outside from people that were outside of the church. Right. Now, these people that come and claim to be believers, they're not members, but they say, I'm a believer, yeah, I'm saved. I think, you know, that's a different story. Isn't it? I don't think so, but I'm hearing you, so I'm nodding my head, I hear you. Can you give me a week to think about it? Let's bring it up again next week. Yeah, Jesse, I'm open to hearing it. It struck me that it has become the reputation of the church. That's a good point. That's the way it strikes me. So, if someone is doing something that is tarnishing the name of Christ and subsequently the name of this church, do you think that's something that has to be dealt with? Maybe that's where it crosses to a point where we have to settle. Warren, you had something also. It is. Yeah. I wouldn't be allowed in the church. No, I hear you. That's why I'm laughing. Yeah. Right. And God knows my heart. Unlike you guys. Yeah. in one way, but also in similar ways. Now, I understand that there are things that we would say this is not a membership policy. But again, it's important, like you said, to bring that individual along and say, this is the growth we expect. We're committing to membership. If you're in a situation where someone has gotten a divorce and run off with a woman, is it any less problematic that they Yeah, no, I'm laughing because that, yeah, right, right. Scenario is real. We do. We're going to stop there. It's nine. No, it's not nine. It's seven. Seven forty nine. And we're going to go to our prayer sheet. But let's pick it up with discipline. I'm going to underline that in my notes here. And we've got three thoughts. Guillermo's thought about where do we draw the line. Jesse's thought, which is a great thought. I hadn't thought about that. the reputation of a church is at stake, right? What we accept, I mean, it's one thing, well, I think he goes to Elmira, it's another thing, yeah, he's definitely a member there, right? Those are two different things. And then Warren's point about having grace and giving people room to grow, but at the same time, having clear expectations of the members so that if someone comes for membership, we can say, well, here are the things that would prevent you from being a member. And have biblical reason for those things, not just, well, pastor doesn't like that. Grab your prayer sheet and let's go over that.