Appreciate it a bunch. Thanks for our new water. I don't know if it's living water. Well, I've already got living water, but I'll take this one. This will quench my thirst. Boy, the food was delicious, and then hearing about the court of two sisters, three sisters, how many of them there are. Man, that's a good place to eat, I'm telling you. A lot of groceries down on the coast. That's what we call food down there, groceries. and going out and having some good stuff, McElroy's and the Biloxi and then Mary Mahoney's, just good stuff all the way down there. But it's good to be here and what, man, I'm full. And I, this is what we call generally the siesta session. But don't take a siesta. You know what that is, don't you? Yeah, now if you do, don't snore. too loudly, okay? Try to stay awake. Matthew 16, verse 18. You probably don't even need to turn there, but that's where we're gonna look to begin with. And I wanna speak this afternoon on the subject of the life of a church. What's the life of a church? We know that in this body dwelleth no good thing, but we know that we do have life. And the life of the flesh is in the blood thereof. Well, the church has life as well. And what is the life of a church? Jesus says in Matthew chapter 16, 18, and I say unto thee, thou art Peter, and upon this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. So Jesus is saying, you're a little bitty stone, but I am the rock. I am the rock bigger than the rock of Gibraltar. He's the rock of salvation. And so he is the foundation of the church. He is the keel of the church and without him, nothing else matters. So we need to look to the Lord. The church of Jesus Christ was built during his earthly ministry. It has not ceased to exist. On the day of Pentecost, the church was added to. Didn't begin there, but it was added to and receive power. You shall receive power. After that, the Holy ghost has come upon you and you shall be witnessing to witnesses under me, both in Jerusalem and Samaria and the other most parts of the earth. So the church is empowered as well. The Bible says, and Paul is speaking in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and verses 14 and 15, and I know you'll not have a chance to turn to all of these, but I'm gonna go very quickly because I do not want anybody snoring, so we'll just keep moving along here pretty quick. But in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verses 14 and 15, Paul's speaking to the church of Corinth concerning the body of Christ, concerning the functioning parts of a local visible church, which is the only kind of church. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, because I am not the hand, I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? No, all of the members make up the body, the local visible body. What is it that is essential to the life of a church? The Bible tells us that the church can think itself to be alive and yet be dead. The Bible says in Revelation chapter 3 and verse 1, and unto the angel of the church at Sardis write, these things saith he that hath the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know thy works. He's talking to that church. And he says to them, the church there, He's speaking to, I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, but are dead. Some churches like the church of Sardis believe they're alive, yet they are dead. What is it that makes up the life of the church? What is the life of a church? Is it the buildings? Is it the programs? This is a beautiful building. We had a wonderful meal, a beautiful fellowship hall. This building is not the church. This is where the church meets at. This is where the church meets at. The programs of the church are not the church. Not the church. The word of God tells us a living church, a church that is alive, is one with the right message and the right mission. You gotta have the right message, which is, what is the gospel? How that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and how that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. That's the gospel. Anything contrary to that is not the gospel. We preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the right message. That is the message of the church. What is the mission of a church? We'll get to that. The life of the church is found in several things. The life of a church is found in its confession, its confession. Most of our churches in America, days were based upon the New Hampshire Confession of Faith, or the Old London Confession, or the New London Confession of Faith. What is it that a living church confesses? A church that is alive, a church that confesses these fundamental doctrines of the word of God is known as a church that is living. The living church preaches the gospel of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. A living church believes and declares the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus. We believe in this sinless Savior. He is the only Savior. 2 Corinthians 5, 21, for he, God, hath made him Jesus to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. A living church is a church that believes in the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. I believe the grave is empty. I believe that Jesus Christ arose on the third day. According to the scriptures, Romans chapter one and verse four says that he has declared to be the son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection of the dead, his body did not see corruption. The Bible tells us that salvation is by grace. A living church preaches salvation by grace, as it says in Ephesians chapter two and verses eight and nine, for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works. It is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should doubt. salvation by grace through faith a regenerate church membership is What a church has to have if it's a true church, it has to have regenerated members The bible says in acts chapter 2 verse 41 Then they that gladly received his word were baptized. Now, did it say they prayed a prayer? No. It says they gladly received his word. Where did they receive his word? In their heart. You don't have to beg the Lord to save you. He'll save you by belief. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Babies cry, like I said this morning. Babies cry when they're born. We call out when we're born. And some cry out immediately, but salvation is not in a prayer. It's not a plan. It's in the man, Christ Jesus in the man, Christ Jesus. So we believe in the virgin birth. We believe in the sinless savior. We know that a virgin conceived and bear a son, Isaiah 7.14. We believe that He is a sinless Savior. For God hath made Him, for He, God, hath made Him Jesus to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him, Isaiah, or 2 Corinthians 5.21. We believe in the bodily resurrection. That's what a true church believes. Romans one in verse four says this Romans four or Romans chapter one in verse four, that he has declared to be the son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection of the dead. He's alive. He's alive. We believe in salvation by grace. I didn't know about grace until I knew the Lord. I had to hear about it for my grace. So you save through faith and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works. Less than any man should. Perish for my grace. You say through faith, that not of yourselves, the gift of God. So you shouldn't boast a regenerate church membership is what we have as a true church. Then they let gladly received his word were baptized and the same day. In the same day, in one day, there were added to them about 2,000 souls. Had a big baptism, didn't they? They that gladly received his word were baptized. I believe that salvation is into the family, but baptism in deep water is prerequisite to membership in a New Testament church. That's part of the life of the church. I don't want to emphasize that deep water. Now, when all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also being baptized and praying the heaven was opened and the Holy ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him and a voice from heaven. which said, thou art my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. The Bible speaks of him coming up out of the water. Now we also find that a true church has a commission. It has a commission. A ship is never commissioned until it has been built and until it's been on a sea trial. Ships have to go on sea trials, not just a trial, but several trials. Do you know how long it takes for most Navy vessels to receive their commission? Three and a half years. They have to go on sea trials. They build them at the shipyard and then they go out and they say, well, this is not working. This is not good. We got to fix that, fix that. And then it comes back in. We were talking about Jean-Pierre, Jean-Pierre Deschateur, a member of the church there in Ocean Springs. He goes out on sea trials. And he's one of those that's looking for anything. And, and so after three and a half years, the average is three and a half years for those ships to go out. How long was it after the day of Pentecost or before the day of Pentecost that Christ church walked and talked and was with him three and a half years. You don't power up a ship until it's commissioned and they had to have the power after the commission. Making sense. That's what had to happen. If a church is not missionary at home and abroad, it gets stuck. Talk about tugboats and toes. I'll tell you what, I've seen them stuck in the mud. I've seen them get stuck and a church will get stuck. It'll get stuck. If it's not missionary. We must be a functioning, empowered institution. Not merely functioning, but we must be thriving as an organization. If you're not missionary, then you're stationary. I've seen some old shifts that have just been laid up. They're just on the bank. Just laid up. I never want to be just laid up. One day I'll be laid out, but I don't want to be laid up. I want to work till Jesus comes. If he'll allow me to do so, that's in his hands. Amen. It's in his hands. If a church is not missionary abroad and at home, then it gets in that stuck position. Missions must be the heartbeat of the church. You want a living church a church that's alive. Did he have to be missionary? missionary Go into part of the world. No, go you know all the world preach the gospel to every creature That's what the Bible says a living church has to have a crew a Living church has to have a crew. What's that crew? It's called a congregation It's called a congregation. Every ship has to have a crew. You can't operate a ship without a crew. I And they can't be dead. Hey, and listen, a crew on a ship has to work. They can't just come and sit. Y'all getting the, as we would say, the drift. The crew has to work. We have a job. We'll have, we have work to do. We have to work. A working body, the church congregation, baptized believers. Covenanted together to carry out the great commission. A living church has to take its gifts and commands seriously. The Bible talks of gifts and callings. Does it not? Not everybody's called to do the same thing. The church. is to allow each congregational member in good standing to practice their gifts and use their talents in a decent and Orderly way and the Bible talks about in Romans chapter that in Romans chapter 12 verses 6 through 10 I wish we had time to go through that because it's just like a crew on a ship. Everybody's got a job Everybody's got a different talent. Everybody's got a Different thing that they thrive in and so we are to work in those areas Let's go over there Romans chapter 12 verse number 6 y'all are not that tired. Yeah, you are and But anyway, Romans chapter six, and you pray for Marcus. He's got to stay up. He's got to stay awake. He must stay awake. You hear me, Marcus? You must stay awake. Romans chapter 12, and let me see here where we want to read. Verse number six, Romans 12, and in verse number six, talking about the church here, it says here, and having gifts differing according to the grace that, is given us. So everybody has different gifts. Not everybody's saying, you know what? Some people want everybody to be just like them. I don't want to be like you and you don't want to be like me. We have different gifts. We have different things that we thrive at. And these are according to the grace that is given us, whether prophecy, there are some of us who prophesy, we preach. We prophesy, we give out, we foretell is what we do. That's what God's called me to do. It says, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith. Let us foretell, let us get the message out. Let us give out the word of God. Our ministry, there are those who are servants, they're ministers. They minister the word of God. I know preachers have to do both of those, but it says here, let us wait on our ministry. So there are those who minister, they see the need of ministering, they do that. Are he that teacheth on teaching. Some people are good teachers, some people aren't. Some people have the gift of teaching, they exhort the scripture, they're able to give us what's in there. And then it's, exhorting is part of that. Verse number eight, are he that exhorteth. Do you know in the black churches, they have exhorters. They have somebody that'll exhort. The preacher will be preaching and there'll be somebody not far from the pulpit and say, that's right, brother. Preach, preacher. You hear congregation? Have an exhorter. There are those who exhort, hey, we need to be doing this. You know what, some churches don't like somebody telling, we've got to get this done, we've got to be prepared for the preacher to get here, the pastor's coming, there's things we have to get in. You've got to have somebody doing that, there's got to be an exhorter. And so there are those who exhort, we've got to do more, we've got to go forward, let's go forward. If you're not going forward, you're going backwards. Or if you're not missionary, you're stationary. You got to go forward or backward or stationary. And that's not in a station wagon, but you've got those things that must be done. And as I said, I'm moving along quickly before our eyes close. A living church takes its gifts and callings. Seriously. It does. It does. The Bible says that the church is equipped. The Lord equips the church. He edifies the church through the ministers and teachers. Ephesians 4, verses 11 and 12, he gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors, some teachers for the perfecting of the saints and edifying of the body. The church is a chief place to grow spiritually and be built up in the faith. We worship as a congregation. I'm a visiting preacher, but I'm here visiting this congregation. This congregation is here. You congregate here. You congregate here. I know in some of the cities they'll say, no, you can't congregate in this area. They'll go up to a crowd of people and say, you can't congregate here, but you can congregate here. This is where this church congregates. This is where this congregation meets. The Bible says, let us hold fast the profession of our faith Without we, uh, without wavering for he is faithful that promise and let us consider one another. And this is out of Hebrews chapter 10 verses 23 and 25. Let us consider one another to walk. Well, the Bible says to provoke one another, to love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. We provoke each other. We don't like to provoke people. But if you've got somebody who didn't show up today that ought to have been here today, you need to provoke them. Amen. Some people call it goading, but you need to provoke them. We're to provoke each other. We're to love each other. We provoke unto love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as a matter of some ends, but exhorting. What does that mean? Hey, you, you need to be in church. Exhorting. It's an important part of it. then there's commitment. Hey, if you're on a ship and you don't do your job, you're gonna get fired if you're on a commercial vessel. They're gonna lay you off. And you're gonna be the first one that gets laid off. On a military vessel, you don't do your job, you go to the brig. They'll put you up for a while. You gotta have people who'll work. Got to have workers and that's what make a church what it is. The church has to be committed, committed to that mission. The Bible says concerning the church in Revelation chapter three, the church of Laodicea, I know that works that there are neither cold nor hot. You know what? I like hot tea. I like cold tea, but I don't like lukewarm tea. You got the picture. I don't want to look warm. I want my groceries warm. No, I want them hot. Boy, I enjoyed the meal today. I did. I enjoyed it too much. And now I'm sleepy. I know that works. That's neither cold nor hot. I wish that that weren't hot. Cold or hot. So then, because they are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will speed the out of my wife. I mean, out of my mouth, out of my mouth. I don't know where that came from. It stay, we need to stay committed. We need to be committed. We need to be committed to the Lord is what I'm saying. We need to stay with our first love. Maybe that's where I got the wife from. All right. Revelation chapter two and verses four and five. Nevertheless, he said to the church, I have someone against me because I has left that first love revelation two verses four and five somewhat against you. You've left your first love, thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do thy first works or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent." Do you know he's talking to a church there? Do you know the Lord can come and take the candlestick away? Oh, you can still be meeting, you can still be in the building, you can still be here. Any church can do that, but You can lose the power. You can lose the commission. You can lose because you're not doing what you ought to do. That's what it says here. There needs to be a love for Christ that motivates us into all of the other work we do. It's not going through the motions. It's loving Jesus and serving him. I believe that the church of today is not what it should be because the things of the world have captured the hearts of God's people. There are people who don't come back to church because their hearts are captured. They've been captured by the enemy. And so we need to be admonished today and we need to admonish them. Love not the world, neither the things of the world or those things that are in the world. Love not the world, love the Lord. That's what we are called to do is to love him. So a church is one that has a commitment to the things of God. There must be a commitment to the protection and the proclamation of divine truth in the book of Jude, that little book of Jude, Jude verse three. It says this Jude in verse three. Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. Here is a admonishment to commitment. admonishment to commitment. The church needs to be committed to its mission. And then the life of a church is in its compassion. There needs to be love, needs to be love. And I feel that love here. There needs to be love. The Bible says in Ephesians 5.25, Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. Do you know some people are not willing to give anything to Christ, church? I'm not talking about money, although that's essential and that's got to be, but we're needing to give of ourselves to the Lord. That's what we're to do. Giving of ourselves, commitment. to the things of God. And then there needs to be compassion, that love for one another, compassionate for the lost. I want to see people saved. I do. That's a desire in my heart to see people saved. And I think of the Lord Jesus. You know, where to be exhorted to love as we saw in Jude, but here's Jerusalem and Jesus weeping over Jerusalem. And Jesus says in Matthew 23 and verse 37, you know, the scripture, Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that kill us, the prophets and stone is them that are sent unto the missionary sent to them. How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not. There has to be compassion. We need to care about this lost and dying world. You say, well, God's got a people that's his, but no, no, he's given us a commission and he's given us a compassion and he's given us a conviction that we're to reach the lost. Our cities are being ravaged by the sin of this present age. I don't know if you have sin in a Decatur or not. I guarantee you got sin in Decatur because those of us sitting here are sinners. And I believe most of us are sinners saved by grace, but sinners, but sinners, the fields are white under harvest. You know that, I know that, amen? The fields are white unto harvest, and we must go and bring in the sheaves. It's not bringing in the sheep, it's bringing in the sheaves. And the Bible says in Psalm 126, in verses five and six, they that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. There are those who are headed into a devil's hell. There are those who we need to reach out to. There are those who need to hear from the Lord and we're the mouthpiece. The Bible says in Jude 22 and 23, and if some have compassion, if some have compassion, Jude 22 and 23, Making a difference. You know, compassion makes a difference. Are we to weep with those that weep? The Bible says we are. We're to show compassion, making a difference and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire. There are those that we are to exhort. And there are those that we're supposed to give the gospel to that all those things are there. The church has things that it must do. And the question is, do we want our church, this local church to be a living organization and an organism that's alive or do. We want it to be a dead organization. Organisms are alive. A lot of times organizations are dead. And this church is an organism. It's a body, a body of Christ. Living organisms breathe. Last I looked at here, all of you are breathing. If you're not, and if you quit breathing for a while, what's happened to you? You're dead. Living organisms breathe. They breathe. And you know what the breath of the church is? It's prayer. It's prayer. Prayer is the breath of the church. The Lord's church will only be as strong and alive as the prayers of the membership. How often do we find Jesus praying? He's the head of the church and he saw the need to breathe, to pray. Then living organizations must be fed. I mean, we just got fed. What if I don't eat for 30 days and you can go without for a while. I'd be nigh unto death. Amen. And some of us would lose quite a bit of weight. Marcus, you don't need to lose any weight. But we have to eat. Amen. We have to be fed. A living organism that needs to be fed. Are you feeding on the word of God? feeding, read the proverb for the day, every day, every day, every day, every day, every day, read through the Bible. You said, I'm not going to read through all about read through the new Testament. Read, read, read, feed, feed, feed, feed, feed, feed. Then living organisms must eliminate waste. Or you'll get rancid. You'll get poison. Amen. You have to eliminate. Waste. If we do not eliminate that, which is not good, it'll poison our bodies. And do you, and if a church does not eliminate that, which is not good, it will poison this body. It'll poison the local body. The Bible says in first John one, nine, if we confess our sins, do we all sin? If we confess our sins, he who Jesus is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You know, the reason that you're here today, it's because living organisms, organisms reproduce. That makes sense. You're you're here because you're a reproduction. from an original. Amen? And so living organisms must reproduce. My mom and dad. I don't have to explain all that. But anyway, I'm from them. And we go all the way back to Adam. And if we don't reproduce, we die. The family name dies without reproduction. Do you know churches die if they don't reproduce? It's true. We're to reproduce. Now, I know that's God's business, but we ought to be praying for reproduction. We ought to be praying, Lord, give us some babies. Lord, give us some new members. Lord, send us some folks. We need to reproduce. We need to see reproduction. I love nurseries, as long as I don't have to work in there. I don't mind stopping by. As a matter of fact, I did that Wednesday night. I stopped by the nursery at the church, and as my wife was working in the nursery, taking care of babies and that, and so I went by the nursery, and I don't know how many squalling babies there were in there. He said, well, I don't know about that. Listen, a healthy church is going to have some babies. Amen. We need it. You say you're pretty hard on us. I'm hard on me. He said, well, we're just that kind of church. You know, we preach the doctrines of grace. I know grace churches that are flourishing. Bryan Station's still doing good. Amen? They're still going. I talked to Brother Lonnie in Frankfurt. He's 80-something years old, still pastoring. And they're doing good. Why? Because they've had some reproduction through the years. You've got to have reproduction. You say, well, you're jumping on us. No, I'm not jumping on you. I'm jumping on me too. I like to see growth. I like to see babies. I like to see churches grow. It burdens me. When we get to the place, we're just about done. Now you got a young family coming in and I know what y'all are going to do. You're going to love on them. All right. Got that. But let's pray. And I'll pray with you that the Lord will take these things that are essential and make them real to all of us, amen? That we'll see that and we'll see this building filling up. You say, well, it might not be this. You weren't what you ought to be when you first came here. See, what happens is we get to where we want everybody to be a cookie cutter of us. And you weren't what you are now back then. Am I right? God had to do a work in your heart and in my heart, and we had to grow. But we had to be born first, had to be born again. And you might get some boogers, and some of them might not last, but you get a baby in, you have to love babies. Do you have to change baby diaper? Yeah, sometimes you're gonna have to. Hey, we've got some men, Well, Brother Corey, he was a drug addict. He was a drug addict, bad drug addict. I mean, not just a little bit of a drug addict. He had to be gotten out of jail. He had to be, he had, I mean, listen, they had to work with him and help him. And now, he's the manager of a, what's the name of it, do you know? I think it's a Chick-fil-A or something. He's managing a Chick-fil-A. Everybody could have said, we're tired of fooling with you. But then he began to get the milk of the word, and he began to drink of it, and then he got able to go to strong meat. I think what happens to us a lot of times, I wasn't raised in a good church, I was raised in that old Mormon church. But what we do, we expect everybody, oh, he got saved, he ought to be a grown man by now, he's been a member a month. Oh, bull. It takes time. And some of them, you're going to have to burp them. Oh, I hated to do that. That little babies, you know, put them up there and sometimes they did more than burp. Does some of y'all remember that? And sometimes they're going to spit something up, but we got to put up with it. Say, well, I ain't going to put up with that. Not going to grow. Not going to grow. Ain't gonna happen. Aint's not a word. Is not is. I don't want to be harsh and I'm not. Like I said, I'm hard on me. I'm not doing all I should do. You're not doing all you should do. If you are, you're the first one I've met in a long time that is. That's it. We're not doing all we ought to do. So let's get with it, amen? Let's get with it. That young preacher gets in here, support him, get behind him. I believe he's gonna be a blessing. I know he is. I know that. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. And what's he gonna do? He's gonna give you the desires of your heart. He's gonna do it. God bless you. I hear that fan now. I think it's off. I guess I heard a phantom. And thank y'all for the good meal. Thank you for the good time. And we've enjoyed it. And I could have given you pablum. You know what pablum is? It's not milk. It's fake. But I'd rather give you some milk and some meat. Amen? Amen. Because we all need it. Man, thank the Lord for both those good messages today. And pray that we will not take it to heart. Let's stand and turn to page number 188. 188, seeing the first and second verse, first and second verse number 188.