of Jesus Christ tonight, several things I want us to take a look at. One is, let me tell you what brought me to this kind of a message. As you all are aware, I was an engineer once in a different life, and as part of that role, one time I was in facilities management. And so when you start looking at a building, there's certain things you look at. You look at how that building was designed. What was it designed to be? Then you look at the construction of that building. How was it built? Who built it? That sort of thing. And then you look at the operation of it. How do you make it? How do you operate that building in such a way that it fulfills the design purpose, the design specs? I wanted to take a look at the church of Jesus Christ in those same terms, the design of the church. the building of the church and then the operation of the church. Most of it will probably be reviewed, but I think it's important for us to review these things every now and then because we need to know. You can't hear me. And because of where this microphone is, you're probably going to hear me more than you want to the rest of the evening. So we're looking at the design of the church, the building of the church, the operation of it. It's important steps or important things that we should understand if we want the church to function as an effective body of believers. Because the last thing we want to be is ineffective as Christians, right? Another thing, we don't want to be as inefficient as Christians. We want to be as efficient as we can possibly be with the resources the Lord's given us. But always, we want to be effective in what we do because we want to honor Him. Because everything we do is for His glory. It's not for ours. We're not trying to put together any kind of a body of believers where people say, ooh, look at them. Look at what they're doing. That's not the goal at all. We want people to look at our Savior and praise Him because of what He does through us. And so tonight, I just want us to take a look at the church of Jesus Christ. Before we begin, let's pray. Father, thank you for allowing us to be in your house again this evening. We thank you, Lord, for putting in our hearts a desire to be here. We thank you for each one who made their way out. We thank you for the health and the strength that allows us to be here. We pray, Father, that as we meet together tonight, the Holy Spirit would move among us, that you would show us things from your word that we need to see. We do wish to be an effective body of believers here in this place. We want to serve you in a way that brings honor and glory to the Lord Jesus Christ, in a way that honors the Spirit of God, because we're instructed in Scripture to be very careful and not quench the working of the Holy Spirit among us, and we certainly don't want to do that. So we pray, Lord, that as we look at these verses tonight, these passages of Scripture, that you might speak to our hearts. Teach us what we need to see tonight, and I ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. So the first thing we'll take a look at is the design of the church. And what I've done in this handout that you have is basically the outline that I'll be following, and more importantly, the verses that are in there. Now, when you see these verses, it's not going to necessarily be the entire verse. It may be a portion of a verse, just enough to get the gist of what we're talking about without being too verbose as we go through this. So I hope that'll help you. We're looking at the design of the church. First and foremost, the church is designed by God. It is not of human origin. I think that there are people who believe that just a handful of people got together at some point and said, hey, let's do something and we'll call it a church. And we'll just have this little organization and we'll get together and we'll make up some rules. and we'll put together some parables and a few myths, and we'll call it, I don't know, for lack of a better term, we'll call it Bible, and we'll run from there. Well, that's not what happened, is it? The scriptures existed long before the Lord Jesus established the church, but it is God's church, he designed it. And some might say, well, why in the world do you believe that? Well, we believe it because scripture teaches it, and I put a series of verses here that help to reinforce this. Why do we believe that Acts chapter 20 and verse 28 says, feed the church of God? Paul was speaking to the church elders in the church of Ephesians when these words were spoken. Feed the church of God. It's God's church. Paul didn't say, feed my church. He didn't say, feed Peter's church. He didn't say, feed anyone else's church. It's God's church. And he made that very clear to them. In Romans 16 verse 16, the church's are referred to as the Churches of Christ. Again, these are the Churches of God, the Churches of His Son, Jesus Christ. And there are individual congregations that are associated, loosely associated sometimes, some more tightly associated than others, but every local church is an autonomous body. They rule themselves. And it's when churches begin to band together and then allow some higher council to tell each individual church what they're going to do or what they're not going to do. That's when we start to see trouble, because those individual councils can then become larger councils and larger and larger, and so you can end up with a huge organization that is completely out of touch with the people in the local churches, and God did not ordain that. He established local churches, but each of them are local bodies of believers of Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians, as Paul wrote those epistles to the Corinthian church, he referred to a church of God or churches of God in those two epistles six times. So it's very clear, Paul's trying to make it clear, to whoever he writes to, whichever body of believers that he's ministering to, that this is a church of God. You report to him. You don't report to, Paul was saying, you don't report to me. You don't answer to me. You report to the Lord because this is a church of God. Galatians chapter 1 verse 13, Paul said, when he was giving his testimony, he said, I persecuted the church of God. He recognized that I was persecuting God's church. I was persecuting something that he thought so highly of that he established it. And he called people to come together and worship together in a body of believers called a church, a local flocks. And Paul said, I persecuted those people. And he went on, he told the story of how he hauled people, he had authority from the religious leaders in Jerusalem to go and arrest people who followed what he referred to as the way, the way of Christ. He said, I had the authority to arrest them. He split up families. He had people thrown in prison. He even was a part of having some people who worshiped Christ killed, and he recognized that. He said, but it was the church of God that I persecuted. Galatians 1.22 refers to the churches of Judea which were in Christ, again, associating churches with God, God the Father and God the Son, and also God the Holy Spirit. 1 Thessalonians and 2 Thessalonians, in 1 Thessalonians we read of the church of the Thessalonians, which is in And in 2 Thessalonians, we read that term, churches of God. So Paul again, he's writing to the church at Thessalonica, reminding them that they are a church of God. 1 Timothy 3.5. He makes a reference to preachers taking care of the church of God. He says, if you're going to be the pastor, if you're going to preach in a local assembly, it's God's church that you've been given the role of under-shepherd over. And so you tread carefully. That's God's chosen people. And so you don't run roughshod over them. You don't mistreat them. You feed them. And you take care of them. You nurture them. care of. Again to 1st Timothy, or to Timothy in 1st Timothy 3 verse 15, he refers to the house of God, which is the church of the living God. I believe that where we're meeting today is known as, and should be known as, the house of God. This is a place where we come to worship and it should be reverenced. It should not be, this shouldn't be like any other building. I know that there are people who have churches now and they will meet in a multi-purpose room and sometimes they'll move the chairs out and they'll have whatever kind of activities, game time and everything else in that building or in that room, that sanctuary room, but that's a very bad idea. I can remember being a part of a church that had a Christian school many years ago and because they marched the students in and out of the auditorium or the sanctuary, for school activities, the young people in that school lost any respect for that room, that place of worship. And so it's a very bad idea sometimes to do that. We've got to maintain the sanctity of the place where we meet for worship. It's very important that we do that. And so I think maybe that's part of what Paul had in mind when he called it the house of God, which is the church of the living God. And then in 1 Corinthians 12, 28, we have a reference the ministry gifts in the church. Now I didn't include that verse here, you can look it up later. But we know, we've recently looked at that passage of scripture where it talked about the gifts that God gave to the church. The gifts of teaching and of preaching and of the evangelists and of apostles and all the different gifts that God gave. He is the one who gave them to the church. So again, I'll ask the question, why do we believe that God designed his church. We believe it because his word tells us that. It's very specific about that. It's very adamant that God is the one who designed the church. Now, we have to also, though, admit that in the society we live in, the world we live in, and it's been this way for, I guess, for many generations, some people view the church differently than that it was established by God. Some people view the church as a social club. And it goes something like this, they show up for church, they catch up with everybody, get the gossip, the latest whatever that's going around, and they try to keep up with everyone else. And by that I mean if brother A got a new car last week, it's not gonna be long before brother B and brother C decide they need a new car too maybe. If sister Q comes in in a nice little Easter frog, then sisters R, S, and T are gonna decide they need them next week, and they're gonna fuss at brothers A, B, and C because they didn't buy them the same frock that sister Q had. And we laugh at those things, don't we? But isn't that true? Far too often people see the church as a social club, and they're not at all interested in God's work, and that's the sad part, because God left us here with instructions. He gave us an entire manual of instructions as to what we're to do as a church, and the most important thing is, We're to win other people to Christ. We're to lead them to the Lord. Now some other people that view the church differently, they view it as a display case. And that goes something like this. They walk in the door and they say, look at me. Look at all I bring. Look at all the possessions I have. I got this really nice suit. I got these really shiny shoes. You wouldn't believe what I drove in. You need to go out there and look at what I drove in today because I just got it last week right straight off the showroom floor. And they come in that way, and they say, look at my possessions. They may say, look at my positions. Look at all the positions I have at a church. Now, we're a very small church. We don't have that many positions. So if you're gonna come in here and talk about your positions, they're probably gonna be ones that happen outside of here. Maybe you're a county commissioner, or maybe you're on the school board, or whatever, the head of your local, what's the group that tells you what you can and cannot do in your yard? Homeowners Association, Scourge of the Earth organizations in my opinion, because I grew up in the South, I'm a little too independent for those people to tell me what to do with my property, but you can come in with all kinds of positions that you want to share with people. If you believe the church is a display case, you can come in with performances. Have you ever seen the ugliness of people coming into a church to perform when they get there? I've seen this firsthand, and it's a very ugly thing. We were a part of a church one time when even during the offering that was taken up on Sunday morning, different people would play the piano. And it became a competition, and it was clear that it became a competition. Every week, someone would try to one-up the person who did it the previous week. And you're sitting back thinking, that's so sad. Why do we do this? That's not why we're called. The Lord didn't call us to come in and compete with each other. But the thing is, the folks who see the church as a display case, they come in, they say, look at all this stuff I have, and they're proud of every bit of it. Remember what Paul had to say to the Corinthians about pride and about being puffed up? He condemned them for that. He said, you've got to stop that. You're puffed up because of bad behavior. in your church need to stop it. So we certainly don't want to go down that path, do we? By the way, this isn't an accusatory message at all. I don't see that going on here. What I'm saying is any church could have this sort of thing happen if we're not careful, but that's not why the Lord put us here. So some people, instead of seeing this as a God-designed organization, they see it as a social club or a display case, and some people look at it, as I call it, as a totem pole type of organization. Who can be the highest on the totem pole? Again, this is a competition. It's really sad to see people who think almost in the terms of, well, which one of us is the most holy? Which one of you are worse sinner than I am? So I can say I'm better than you are. Or maybe they want to say, well, look at who does the most around here? Who's the most active in our church? Who accomplishes the most things? Or maybe who's the most valuable one of us? Isn't it ugly when people start doing that? And here's one that really tops the list. When someone comes in and they start looking around and say, okay, which one of us is the most humble? Well, if you've started looking for the most humble, you're not even on the list at that point, are you? Clearly, right? So we've gotta be careful because people will set up a totem pole kind of thing as to which one of us is the baddest. God calls the church to unity in his word. And I'm gonna read a couple of verses, 1 Corinthians chapter 12. I'm gonna start reading in verse four. He says, now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it's the same God which worketh all in all. He said, there might be differences among you. Some of you may be better at certain things than other things. Some of you may just be really poor at doing some things, and if so, don't do them. If the Lord hasn't given you the gift of being able to do something, recognize that. Now, I'm not saying use that as an excuse to shirk responsibility. If someone says after, we'll be meeting next door for some refreshments after the service, if someone were to say, can you sweep that up right there? Well, I don't have the gift to sweep it. I don't think that's gonna fly anywhere, is it? Or could you help me carry this box over there? Well, I don't have a gift for that. You know, the Lord gave me a gift for being humble, so I can't pull that off. We don't have an excuse for that, do we? And we laugh at things like that, but it almost gets that bad sometimes, doesn't it? God calls us to unity. He says you may have diversities of gifts, but operate them all under the same Spirit of God. He says you may have differences of administration. Some of you may approach problems, administering things different than other people. That's okay, because we all serve the same Lord. And he said there may be differences in the way you operate things. the same God. And I want you to know, verses 4, 5, and 6, he's referring, I believe, to the Holy Spirit in verse 4, the same Spirit, to God the Son in verse 5, because he refers to the same Lord, and he's referring to God the Father in verse 6, because he refers to the same God. He's referring to all the persons of the Trinity. So he's calling us to unity. So God designed the church, not people. The second thing I want us to take a look at under the design of the church is the church's design specs. First thing that I believe that we can say that God has designed the church for is worship. I think by that praise and thanksgiving, we come and we adore our Lord. That's one of our functions. Acts chapter four and verse 24, we read, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord. There's that unity. They lifted up their voice to God with one accord and said, Lord, thou art God, which has made heaven and earth and the sea and all that in them is. You made it all, God, and we're here to worship you because you are alone worthy of our worship. And we're gonna do it together. That's what we do when we sing the songs of praise, we sing them together. We hope we sing them together, right? That it's not some ragtag thing and we don't sing as one voice. But that's what we try to do. In unity, we try to worship the Lord, don't we? Romans 11, verse 36 says, For of him, and through him, and to him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen. We glorify our God forever, don't we? Ephesians 3, verses 20 and 21, tell us now, unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Which God do we serve? The one who is able to do exceedingly above anything we ask or think. I like the sound of that, don't you? We may be hesitant in what we ask God for, but we're not usually hesitant in what we think we'd like God to do for us. We have some really good imaginations among us, now wouldn't you think? And God can do far more than we can even imagine. That's the God we serve, and he's calling on us to worship him. 1 Timothy 1.17 says, under the king eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever. We will spend all eternity worshiping this God that we're speaking of. The church is just a training ground for us, where we get used to it, and we get used to worshiping him together, because in heaven, that's what we'll be doing. A second of the church's design specs, though, is to study and obey God's word. And those two go together, by the way. It's not enough just to study it. We need to obey it when we see what it teaches us. John 14, 15, Jesus himself said, if you love me, Keep my commandments. Do what I ask you to do. He didn't say keep my suggestions. He didn't say keep my recommendations. He says keep my commandments. If you love me. Acts 2 verse 42 tells us, speaking of the early church, it says they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, that is what the apostles taught, and in fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers. Doctrine, they continued in it. The apostles had learned the doctrine from the Lord Jesus himself and they began to teach it to the church and the early church kept it. They obeyed it. Ephesians 6.6, we're told as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. So not only studying it, not only figuring out what it means, doing it, obeying it. Hebrews 13.6, says to do good and to communicate, forget not. For with such sacrifices God is well pleased. Doing good, God considers that a sacrifice. For some people it's quite a sacrifice, isn't it? If you're someone who's, you just got that mean streak, for you to bring yourself in a line, with what the Holy Spirit wants you to do and leave that mean streak over there somewhere. That's quite a sacrifice, isn't it? Or some other thing that makes it difficult for you. But Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments. And God says that's a sacrifice and I will honor that sacrifice if you do it for me. James 1 and verse 22 says, Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only. Doing and hearing, they go together, don't they? Okay, so we, the church's design specs, worship God as one, studying and obeying his word as one, fellowship and supporting each other is another design spec of the church. Acts 2.42, again, I reread this verse, they continued steadfastly in the apostle's doctrine and in fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers. They fellowshiped with each other, they enjoyed each other's company. We talked a little bit about this morning, People who draw near to the Lord because they enjoy fellowshipping with Him. We draw near to each other because we enjoy fellowshipping with each other. And we can do that before church. We can do it after church. We can do it over in the other building with a plate of food in our hands. We can do it all during the week. But we can draw together and we can fellowship with each other because we love each other. We're a family. We're the family of God. 1 Thessalonians 5.11 It says, comfort yourselves together and edify. That word means build up, build up one another. We encourage each other, don't we, as a church. That's what we're called to do. Because I'm gonna tell you, the world, I don't know if you've noticed this, but the world doesn't like us as much as they like other people. If you're a Christian, the world doesn't like you very much. And the devil's gonna make sure that it likes you less and less as every day goes by. So we have to encourage each other, don't we? If we're sitting around waiting, For the rest of the world to encourage us as Christians, it's gonna be a long wait. That'd be as long as the wait we talked about this morning if it was your job to go find things that were wrong with Jesus Christ. You'd never find them. It's a long wait. And so we have to support each other. We have to encourage each other and fellowship with each other. A fourth portion or part of the church's design specs are simply to serve God. First Corinthians 15.58. We talked about this verse not too long ago in a service. Be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. Keep serving God, don't give up. It may get discouraging sometimes because you try to witness to someone, you try to share the word of God with someone, you try to be kind to someone. Sometimes they'll just reject it outright. They don't want anything to do with the love of God. We don't give up, do we? Because it is Him that we serve. We're not just serving ourselves. And we're not just serving we're serving the God of this church, which is far more important than just serving a church organization itself. And then the fifth church design spec that I list here is, excuse me, we're called on to evangelize. Matthew 28, 19 and 20, we are very familiar with these verses. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you. That's a great commission. He's given us work to do. And then Acts 1.8, you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth. You're gonna be witnesses, Jesus said. I'm gonna give you the power to do that. And I'll be with you when you do it. And I'll bless that effort. That's part of the design specs of the church. So God created the church. He designed the church. And he gave us these design specs. Worship God, study and obey his word. fellowship and support each other, serve God, and evangelize. The second thing I wanted us to look at, besides the, we get past the design of the church, is the building of the church, the actual construction of it. And to get that, I'm going to turn to Matthew 16. Matthew chapter 16, verse 13, we're gonna look at the fact that Christ himself is the founder of the church and he's the foundation of it. Matthew 16, I'm gonna start reading in verse 13. It says, when Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And they said, well, some say that thou art John the Baptist. Some, Elijah, and others, Jeremiah, are one of the prophets. He saith unto them, but whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. He spoke right up, no doubt in his mind. Verse 17, and Jesus answered and said unto him, blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for the flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Jesus was gonna build his church upon referred to as this rock. Some have misinterpreted that to say he was going to build the church on Peter. He didn't build his church on Peter. The Roman Catholics may think that's the case, but it is not the case. Jesus built his church upon himself, and I can almost imagine him saying, Peter, on this rock right here, and pointing to himself, this is where I will build my church. I will build it upon myself. And so he is the founder of the church. and he is the foundation of it. First Corinthians 3.11 refers to Christ as the stone which was set at naught, which has become the head of the corner. Other people might have set him aside, but God used him as the cornerstone of the church, and that's where the church has been built. So he's both the founder of the church and its foundation. Second point that we see under the building of the church is Christ is the builder of the church and its head. Again, Matthew 16.18, upon this rock, I'll build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. That term build has the idea of progressive assembly or progressive construction. One stone set on top of another, continuing to build, one on top of another, and all those stones fit exactly the way he wants them. And we, by the way, are the living building materials that he uses to build his church. And so he designs each one of us to fit together with each other. And if one of us is missing, then there's a gap in the wall, so to speak. And so the Lord calls us to come together and be together as a family in Christ, doesn't he? He says, I'm gonna build my church, and there's absolutely nothing that Satan can do to stop me from building my church. But that doesn't mean Satan isn't gonna stop trying, does it? He's been trying for 2,000 years. to stop the building of the church, and he will continue to try to do that, but he's not going to be successful. Because the Lord says, nothing, nothing is going to stop me from building my church. And I'm thankful for that knowledge. I'm going to turn to 1 Corinthians 12. 1 Corinthians 12, and we'll start reading in verse 12. Jesus describes in these verses the church as one body. It says, for as the body is one and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. The foot shall say, because I am not the hand, I'm not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? And if the ears shall say, because I'm not the eye, I'm not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members, every one of them, in the body as it pleased him. We are one body in Christ. We have many functions. Just like our human bodies do, we've got eyes, they do one thing, they've got one function. They've never tasted anything. Our ears have never smelled anything, have they? Our mouths, our tongues, have never heard a single word. They're good for tasting, but they don't do anything else. Our feet are good for certain things that our hands are not good for. I've never been successful at walking on my hands. I've seen some people do it for short distances, but you know the point I'm trying to make, right? There are many functions, but we are a single entity in the church. though there are many functions. Colossians 1.18 refers to Jesus. It says he's the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. So when we think of Christ being the builder and the head of the church, we think in these terms. Christ leads the body of believers, each one of us. He is at our head. He empowers us through the Holy Spirit to use the spiritual gifts that we've been given. And He enables believers to serve Him. Each one in his own capacity. I referred to that a few minutes ago. We each have certain capacities that we're good at in serving because every Christian has been given at least one spiritual gift. Who knows what it might be. Some people have a good gift of teaching. Some other people have an incredible gift of hospitality. They can make anyone feel welcome. And other people may have a gift of being able to reach little children. Some people may have a gift of being able to reach the most hardened sinner with the gospel message in such a way that they say, oh, I see it now. Where other people might not have that ability. And so we have to use the ability, Jesus enables us to use the gifts that he has given to us in our own capacity. And I think the scripture would warn us, don't try to cross over into someone else's capacity. Then we get into the competition again, don't we? If there's someone in your church or in our church who has that really good gift of hospitality, those of us who don't have it don't need to go over there and say, well, I'm going to be the one to greet people when they come in. Some people have the ability, just walking in a room, to alienate half the people in that room. Have you ever known those people? And if they open their mouth, they alienate the other half of the people in the room. Some people have that ability. They're not the people, by the way, you want greeting folks at the door of your church, are they? That same person might be able to sit down in a room with two and three-year-olds and just command the room. And the two and three-year-olds listen to them, they obey them, they listen to them read Bible studies and all those stories and all of those kinds of things. You see my point, don't you? We all have different gifts and we need to learn to use those and to use them for the glory of the Lord. So Christ is the, when we think about the building of the church, he's the founder, he's the foundation itself. He's the builder and the head of the church. And we also see that he's the one who commissioned the church. Again, in Matthew 28, those two verses 19 and 20, go ye therefore and teach all nations. Baptizing in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you. That's our commission. Jesus instructed his disciples to evangelize the people around them and to teach new believers what they had learned from him. And we're still being told to do that. Every generation of believers needs to do likewise, don't we? We need to evangelize and we need to teach people what the Lord has taught us through his word and through the various teachers that he's provided for us to learn from. The Holy Spirit inspired the New Testament writers to record the instruction for the church. It's right here. It's in the Bible, 66 books of it. And it was recorded for us so that we can know how we should behave, what it is that we are supposed to do for the Lord. And we're to continue the work of Christ. How long? Until he comes back for us. As I've said before, there's no discharge papers from the army of the Lord. We are in His army and we will continue to serve Him until He comes and takes us home. And then we'll continue to worship Him there. And we'll continue to fellowship with other believers there, which is even better, isn't it? So that's it. We've seen the design of the church. We've seen the building of the church. Now I want us to look at the operation of the church. How is it that when you operate a building, you want it to function the way it was designed to function? or operate as a church, we want to design according to the, or we want to operate according to the Lord's design specs, don't we? And so there's a couple of roles that I want us to look at when we think of the operation of the church. The first is the role of the pastor, who has been given the responsibility of the under-shepherd. We know that Jesus Christ is our shepherd, don't we? We know that he is the one who meets our needs, ultimately. But he has assigned certain people to be, to feed, to feed the sheep, to serve in that role of under-shepherd. So the first thing that a pastor, the first role he has is to feed the flock. And I didn't include the text from a lot of verses here in this section. I just put the references. Please look those up as you have time. But in John 21, verses 15 to 17, you may remember the story. It's after the resurrection of the Lord, and he's walking along with Peter, and he says, Peter, do you love me? Peter says, yes, Lord, you know I love you. He said, then feed my sheep. and he'd go a little farther along and he says, Peter, do you love me? Yes, Lord, you know I love you. Well, then feed my lambs. And he asked him a third time, Peter, do you love me? Yes, Lord, you know I love you. Then feed my sheep. He tells him three times. You're gonna, I want you to feed the people who are left behind. I've taught you, I've given you the word of God. Now it's your responsibility to give it back to them. And Peter, in 1 Peter chapter five and verse two, he shared that same, Many years later, he shared that same advice to the elders in the area of Asia Minor, because he said in 1 Peter 5 too, feed the flock of God which is among you. He's talking to preachers there, elders there. He says, the Lord's instructions are, feed the flock. If you love him, feed the flock. All of us, if you love me, keep my commandments, but to those people in charge, those who serve as under shepherds, he says, if you love me, feed my sheep. First Peter chapter three and verse two, this is the, I mean, First Timothy chapter three and verse two, the Apostle Paul was writing to Timothy, a young pastor, and he said pastors must be apt to teach. Must be apt to teach. I'm gonna tell you, we live in a day now when there's a whole lot of preachers who are just as apt not to ever teach as they are apt to teach, aren't they? You can listen to some of them and you think, And what difference would it have made if I hadn't heard that message? We've got to be careful with that. Anyone who has a responsibility to teach, we've got to be apt to do it. And speaking of an aptitude there, we should be instructive pastors, teachers, evangelists. We need to be instructive in the Word of God. That's what the Apostle Paul was telling Timothy. And he told him in 2 Timothy 4-2, he said, preach the Word. be instant, in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine." He said, keep on doing it with longsuffering. Preaching can be, I'm sure, I haven't been doing this particular role for that long, but I'm sure that there are people who have been doing this for decades, and they realize how futile it seems sometimes. Because they may sit and talk to people until they're blue in the face, and people just get up. They come in, they sit down, they listen, they get up, and they go out, and their lives are never changed. But Paul says that's going to happen, Timothy, from time to time. So just be long-suffering. Continue to teach and preach doctrine. And don't ever let that stop, because you've been given the instruction to feed the flock. Second thing that pastors have as part of their role, they're supposed to lead by example. And 1 Timothy chapter 3 and Titus chapter 1, you can look at those passages to see what the very bare minimum requirements are for a pastor. Churches who are looking for pastors do well to look there and make sure they're following those guidelines because that's the very bare minimum. A church can add other requirements to a pastor if they want to. If they're looking for a pastor, they can say, he's got to be at least six foot four. He's got to be handsome. He's got to drive a sports car. They can do anything. He's got to be a perfect plumber so we don't run into the problems that we had earlier today. He's got to be able to mow the yard faster than anybody and cleaner than anybody else. You can have all kinds of things, but the bare minimum requirements are given in these two passages of scripture, and they teach. that a pastor, someone in that role, needs to lead his congregation by example. The third thing that the pastor needs to do, according to Scripture, he's got to evangelize. Because it's his responsibility not just to feed the flock that God has entrusted him to, but to attempt to grow that flock if he can. If visitors come to a church, try to win them to Christ. Even if they never come back to this church. then our job is to try to get them saved, isn't it? If someone comes and visits here, it's all of our responsibility, as a matter of fact, to share the word of God with them. And they could be visiting from out of town. If they go right back to their hometown and find a church where they can worship, we're going to praise God for that, aren't we? If they just go across this town, as small as it is, to a different church, we're still going to praise God if something that was said or done here gets them into the family of God and gets them in a place where they're worshiping it regularly. We will rejoice in that, won't we? But part of the job of a pastor is to evangelize, certainly. And along with that, not only do we try to feed the flock here, not only do we try to grow the flock, but we teach other people to do the same thing. if there are people who could become pastors, people that the Lord might call out to a mission. I've been in a part of churches where it was a regular prayer that you would hear people pray in that church. Lord, call somebody out of this church to go and be a pastor or be a missionary. Raise up some young people here that would dedicate their lives to the Lord. Isn't it good when people are willing to pray that way? Even if it means that my son or my daughter, my grandchild, My best friend or whoever is going to leave to go to a mission field and I might not ever see him again. We still can pray that, can't we? That the Lord would send people into his field. So we have that responsibility as pastors. A fourth thing, the role of a pastor is to study to improve himself. I've heard it said many times, I've read it many times, a preacher who does not read, who does not study, who does not seek to improve himself should never step into a pulpit because he's very soon going to be obsolete. I was told many, many years ago. that when you go through the university, if you're training to be a physicist, or an engineer, or a rocket scientist, or a computer programmer, or whatever, many years ago, people would say, in five years, if you don't continue to study, you're going to be obsolete. The technology, the world around you will have changed so much that your skill set will be obsolete. Well, it goes the same way for a pastor. His skill set can very easily become obsolete. He's got to continue to study to improve himself. 2 Timothy 2 verse 5, Paul again writing to Timothy, he says, And so we do, all of us, by the way. That applies to all of us, not just pastors. So we've got that as the operation of the church. We've got the role of the pastor. We've also got the role of church members. And some of those are, the first one I've listed here, we've got to learn as church members from pastors, teachers, evangelists, others that the Lord brings across our path. We need to support their efforts, don't we? We all support the folks that are missionaries that are listed back there. We want to support them in their ministries. We want to support others in their ministries, don't we? We need to pray for them. We need to pray for their families. How many of you have known people in the ministry whose families have been attacked in ways that you would never believe? That things just fall apart in pastoral and missionary families sometimes. It's like the devil sees them as special people to attack. And this isn't just pastors, it's anyone who is actively engaged in the work of the Lord can expect to have a target on their back that the devil is trying to hit with every dart he's got. And so we have to pray for people, don't we? So the Lord will support them. Pray for their families, their ministries. Second role of church members in the operation of the church, they need to study God's word as well. As I said, 2 Timothy 2.15, study to show thyself approved. It applies to everyone here. not just to the guy standing back here. It's all of us. We have to study to show ourselves approved. A third thing, role of church members, again, to evangelize. Remember Matthew chapter 28, 19 and 20, it applies to every one of us. The Lord has left us all here as witnesses. A fourth thing, a role of church members in the operation of the church. We need to remain faithful. 1 Corinthians 4-2, the Apostle Paul said, it's required in stewards that a man be found faithful. God has given us something. He's called us to be stewards. And he said, I'm going to entrust you with certain things, certain talents, certain abilities, a certain amount of money, and I'm going to go away. And I'll come back one day and I'll see how you've handled what I trusted you with as a steward. Then the fifth thing, the role of the church. We need to pray for each other. We need to be very careful with that. And I think in this church, I think that is a very important thing that we do. We do pray for each other. And we remember each other. When there's sickness, if people are having a bad day, whatever it is, if someone is rejoicing here, we wanna rejoice with them. We wanna rejoice with these couple of folks right here who have a brand new little granddaughter, don't we? Because those of us who've been down that path before, we know how pleasant that is. And so whether we're hurting, whether we're rejoicing, whatever it is, we want to share that and we want to pray for each other. The sixth thing, the role of church members, is to worship the Lord. We do that individually and we do that as a group. We come here to do it as a group, but I hope that every one of us worships the Lord during the week, too, as we read His word separately, when we're by ourselves, we pray alone sometimes, we just get a side where we find some quiet time. Some people do that when they're driving down the road, which is a whole lot better than texting while you're driving down the road. You can actually pray and survive the trip. If you're texting, all bets are off, right? But we can. We can pray, we can worship the Lord. We can sing to our hearts content driving down the road. I got a feeling, some people see me driving down the road sometimes and they think, what is that lunatic doing? Because I've got some CDs in my truck. Father Gary and I were listening to one yesterday. It's a very old song. It was written by Schubert. It's Holy is the Lord, and I'm gonna tell you what, It's so pretty, the words are so beautiful. Holy is the Lord. We can do that, we can worship him. When we're alone, then we can come here and we can do it. We're a little more subdued. I don't bellow out that loud when I'm here. You told me you couldn't hear me earlier, so I turned the microphone on. When we're singing, the microphone gets turned off because it wouldn't be pleasant if it wasn't. Seventh thing, as a role of church members, we need to bear fruit for the Lord, don't we? He is the vine, we are the branches, and we bear fruit in Him. We can't bear fruit without Him. You cut a branch off of a grape vine, it will bear no further fruit. If there happens to be a grape on it, it will turn to a raisin very quickly. It won't grow any further. So we bear fruit for the Lord. So we've looked at the design of the church, the design specs, we've looked at the building of the church, we've looked at the operation. Just a reminder as we close, The church is of God's design. We have to follow his design specs when we're operating in the church. Christ is the builder of the church. He's the head of the church. And it's built with his chosen building materials, which is each of us. And sometimes I look in the mirror and I think, why in the world would he have chosen me to be part of that building? But He did, and He did it for each one of us. Isn't that amazing? That He did that. It's amazing grace, isn't it? That He would choose any of us. And then we're His body. We operate the church under His direction. And He has provided an operating manual for doing that. And it's a very accurate operating manual. Some say it's a mirror. When you open these pages and you look there, you see yourself. When it talks about how vile a sinner can be, we see ourselves. When it sees people who are hurting, people who need the Lord and they need His love, we see ourselves there, don't we? So He's given us that operating manual. And all of the efforts that we go through for helping the Lord with establishing a local church, being a part of a local church, operating, as it were, inside a local church, we do it all for His glory, don't we? Not for ours. We don't need the glory. He doesn't need it either, but we give it to Him, don't we? We worship Him. We adore Him because He is our Lord and Savior. Let's close in prayer. Father, thank You again for allowing us to look into these passages of Scripture. We thank You for allowing us to be a part of the local church. What grace that is! Because Scripture is very clear that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There is none righteous, no, not one, at least not in and of ourselves. Any righteousness that we have of ourselves is as filthy rags before a holy God. But we're thankful, Father, that you made a provision that our sin could be washed away. It could be cleansed. We could be born again into the family of God. We could become choice-building materials for the church of Jesus Christ, and we thank you for that. We thank you that you put us within his body. And we pray, Lord, that in that body, that we have different distinct functions, distinct skills. Some of us may have more weaknesses or more strengths than others. We pray, Lord, that we might operate with perfect unity as the Holy Spirit leads us in this place. We pray that this church would be an example of the body of Jesus Christ that follows your leading, that obeys the commands that you've given us in scripture, that loves you supremely. And maybe we'd be an example of a body of believers who love each other and support each other and love the sinners around us to the point that we will share Christ with them and we will do everything in our power to bring them to Christ. I pray that you'd have that ever before us, Lord. We pray that you'd open up doors of opportunity for witness and make us faithful to go through those doors. Thank you again for allowing us to be here this evening, for everyone who has made their way out. We pray, Lord, that as we go into the fellowship time now, that you'd be with us and that it would be a blessed time. We ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you all.