Well, good evening, everybody. Let's have a word of prayer. Dear Father, we come before you just now and ask for. for your Holy Spirit to come and give instruction and encouragement, exhortation, edification, and comfort through your word just now. We want to thank you for it, Father. Thank you for each one of the folks that are here tonight and those that have joined us online and pray that our time together in the word of God would be a blessing to each one by the work of your Holy Spirit. Thank you, Father. We ask your blessing now in Christ's name. Amen. Well, I do have a message that I would like to share, but before getting into that, I would just like to say I appreciate everybody being here and appreciate the fact that we're in this together. You know, we're not just a random group of people that happen to show up at certain times and, you know, just sort of warm the pew and then go our way. But we're a group of people here that are, well, we're, in a sense, we're bonded together. And not just by the fact that we show up here, but there's a real love and appreciation among the people that are here. And also among the folks that are here, there truly is a desire among the folks here tonight, Mission Boulevard Baptist Church and some that can't be here for whatever reason. But there is a common desire among us to see Christ glorified in our lives. As we look around at each other, And I want to encourage you, just go ahead and Brother Pat may ask you to see who you're going to fellowship with. But I want to ask you to look, just take a look at the people around and realize these are people that really want Christ to be glorified in their life. Isn't that? That's true, isn't it? And a part of that is the reason that we've that we've come together tonight, and I really appreciate that. So I just wanted to get that, just wanted to share that thought. I don't like to refer to messages that I gave in the past because you probably weren't here to hear it anyway. And if you were here, you may have been thinking about something else. But I had the opportunity. Well, I guess a service or two ago, Brother Mitch asked me to share during first half Sunday morning about New Year's and thoughts that I have for New Year's. And the main thought that I have is that our church would accomplish the work that God established this church to do. And I just really would like to share those thoughts again. So if you didn't get it the first time, you know, maybe you're here and you can hear it this evening. But I'd like to give a different lead in. And that is, I've heard people say that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Well, I want to relieve you of the deception of that because that's not really the definition of insanity. To be sane means to be healthy, comes from a Latin word that means to be healthy. To be insane simply means to be unhealthy, and we apply it specifically to the mind. To be insane means to have an unhealthy mind. Whenever people, and they use this term in the past more than today, but at one time when people were convalescing from a disease or an operation, they would go to a sanitarium. And it's called a sanitarium because it's a place that you go to become healthy. And so if you're sane, you have a healthy mind. If you're insane, you have an unhealthy mind. So, so please be disabused of that definition that in the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. Although that might be something that an insane person would do. But I was thinking about that in reference to some of the thoughts that I wanted to share tonight and thinking, you know, that's one side of the coin. The other side of the coin is to be doing different things and expecting the same result. To do this and expect the same result, to do that and expect the same result, to do this and expect the same result, when really, if you want to get the same result, you have to do the same thing. So I thought about it just to put it in simple terms. If you want to have tomatoes, but you keep planting corn, and you plant corn one year, and no tomatoes come up, and you think, well, we'll just try it again next year. And we plant corn again, and sure enough, you get the corn, but anyway, you plant the wrong thing, and you get the wrong thing. But on the other hand, On the other hand, if you're wanting to have corn and you think, well, I planted tomatoes and I didn't get corn, so this time we'll plant okra, or this time we're going to plant some green beans and we'll get corn. So there's kind of a flip side. You can do the same thing over and over again, expecting different results, or you can expect one result and then try to do everything except what's actually going to bring that result about. Well, here at Mission Boulevard Baptist Church, something very significant has happened. And what happened was that our missionary came to Northwest Arkansas in the late 60s with a burden and a desire to teach people on campus the truths of God's word. because the people on campus were coming to the campus, coming to the University of Arkansas, and coming in maybe as a Christian, maybe as a baby Christian, and then leaving as an atheist because they didn't have the foundation that they needed to combat the false doctrine that was being presented. And the nature of that mission work was to teach. And I had the privilege to be in on some of that in the very early days. And to see, I actually, when I came to Fayetteville, I just came with one thought in mind, and that was, wherever Brother Brian is teaching, I'm going to be there. And so he had a study at the University of Arkansas, Elmdale Baptist Church. I'm looking back there and seeing Randy. That's where I met Randy, actually, was not at Elmdale. It was First Baptist in Springdale. We met in the dungeon. First Baptist Church in Springdale at that time had the dungeon. It was the basement of their building. And after their Wednesday evening services, then the youth group would get together and have a Bible study down there. And Brother Brian was teaching, and that's where I met this guy down there that had hair longer than I did at the time. So he was really a hippie. But anyway, but, you know, and eventually the Lord led in establishing a church. And that church, the focus of that church was on being a teaching church. And the idea I think is expressed, the Apostle Paul expressed it in Colossians chapter one. So I'd like to ask you to come with me to Colossians chapter one. And verse 27, Colossians 1.27 says this, and this is the heart and ministry of the Apostle Paul. So I want us to realize that, that what came about here through the ministry of Brother Brian as he came and taught around Northwest Arkansas community, different churches, et cetera. And then the establishment of this church was a strong emphasis on teaching. But that's not just Brian Disney. Look here at Colossians 1, verse 28. Paul is here talking about Christ, the hope of glory. And then he says, whom we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. You see, what Paul was about, as he's expressing it here, was that his desire was that every person could become a mature Christian, to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. So, of course, the idea of perfect, we frequently nowadays use the term perfect to mean flawless, but the idea of the word perfect is mature. is mature. Paul's desire was that every person would reach spiritual maturity. And how is that going to be accomplished? Well, again, verse 28, whom we preach, that's who we proclaim Christ and his message, of course, warning every man, teaching every man in all wisdom. The idea is that everybody, every individual, should be given the opportunity, should be provided with the opportunity to get the instruction that they need so that they can grow to become a mature Christian. And that's kind of a radical idea. And it was extremely radical back in those days with churches. The idea was you come to church, you hear a sermon, and then you go your way, or you come to Sunday school, and I'm about to say something that I don't mean to attack anybody, but the general idea was that when you go to Sunday school, you get together and you share your ignorance, and then you leave. There typically wasn't very much instruction going on in a Sunday school at that time. And so this idea, though, that each Christian should have the opportunity to really get grounded in the faith and hear what they needed to hear in order to grow to become a mature Christian, that was kind of a radical idea. at the time that our church was established. I know nowadays people use the term discipleship a lot. It's almost become a buzzword that people kind of say whether they know what it is or not. But the idea is to make a disciple, and of course, Matthew chapter 28. In Matthew chapter 28, the Lord Jesus said, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them, teaching them. Go ye therefore and teach all nations. That's the word that is translated disciple, to make a disciple. But if you're making a disciple, what exactly are you doing? You're teaching that person. There's no discipleship without teaching. So the, and that's why the King James translators there translating it, teaching all nations is really a legitimate, it is legitimate. It's a good translation because that's the action of a discipler is to teach. But our church began with a real emphasis on teaching. And then there was a result that came forth from that. And the result that came forth from that is a church that is characterized by people that love one another, characterized by sending and supporting missionaries, characterized by a group of people that felt so strongly about the education of their children that of their own accord, And without any view of any financial pay, remuneration, determined we are going to educate our own kids and sacrifice whatever it took in order to make that happen. Because there was a group of people that had that strong a sense of dedication and devotion to the upbringing of their children and to provide a school for them. Well, that desire to provide a school for children didn't just rise up out of nowhere. That desire and that perspective rose up out of people that had been grounded in the faith and realized the truths of God's word and were committed to making sure that their children learned those truths and that they were going to grow up in an environment and even go to school in an environment that would reinforce those things. So even our school ministry and many other ministries of our church were the outgrowth of the fact that there was a core group of people that had been taught and grounded, solid in the word of God. Well, if you want to see the same thing continue, you're going to have to do the same thing. The teaching ministry of our church has to be strong. It has to be strong. And the teaching ministry of our church needs to have a core body of truth that's taught. And that core body of truth is, well, the Apostle Paul calls it the faith. If you would, there in Colossians, Colossians chapter two, the next page, Colossians chapter two, verses six and seven says this. As he have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. See the folks at Colossae, had been established in the faith. And how did they get established in the faith? They had been taught. They had been taught. And our church needs to maintain that vision that people who come into this church need to be taught and established and grounded in the faith. that we're not satisfied for someone to come and visit and then become a member and we're glad to have them and we shake hands with them and then say, see you next Sunday. We need to have a ministry to them. We need to offer to them the opportunity to get grounded in the faith. In order for that to happen, we need to have a, well, we need to have teachers. We need to have teachers. Not everybody is a teacher. Not everybody is a teacher. I see some of the moms around here, in a way, their teaching ministry is focused on these little guys. If mom's not there feeding that child and changing its diapers and making sure it gets its nap and everything, if mom says, well, I'm just gonna have to leave that to the Lord, I'm gonna go out and teach three or four Bible studies, well, okay, that's out of kilter, isn't it? That's an extreme example, but obviously, according to the scripture, different people have different spiritual gifts. Come with me to the book of Ephesians. Here we are in Ephesians chapter four. The apostle says here in verse eight, Ephesians 4, 8, wherefore he saith, when he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. And then let's go down to verse 11. And he gave some, okay, he's talking about the gifts that he gave unto men. He gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints. There's that term again. For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. So there is a particular gift, and we could even say a particular calling, to focus our life on being a teacher, to be the person that has this perspective. My ministry, the primary ministry that I have, is to make sure that every person that I, in the realm of my possible influence, has an opportunity to get grounded in the faith. And I know that's not everybody, but I know that it is somebody. I know that there are some folks that have that, and I'm trying to appeal to those people. If you would, come with me to the book of Romans, Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12. And Paul here is talking about the church. He's comparing it to the body. And of course, referring to the church as the body of Christ is comparing the church to a human body. Comparing the church to a human body. And by the church, I mean a specific local church. Not a... not a fantastical imaginary conglomeration of all believers, no, that's contrary to the scripture, but each individual church is viewed as a body of Christ. So here we are, and he says in verse four, Romans 12, four, for as we have many members in one body and all members have not the same office, Okay, so we, each one of us is a human being. We all have a body, don't we? And the members have not the same office. Okay, so you're, you know, if you just look, go ahead and consider your own body, you know, your hands and your feet and all that kind of thing. The different members have different functions, don't they? They have a different office. The office of the feet is to get us from one place to another. You know, the office of the hands is to do certain kinds of work. So we, being many, verse 5, are one body in Christ. Every one member is one of another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith, or ministry, let us wait on our ministering, or he that teaches, let him wait on his teaching. or he that exhorteth on exhortation, he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity, he that ruleth with diligence, he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness. Let love be without dissimulation aboard that which is evil, cleave to that which is good. So the idea is that, yeah, everybody is an ambassador of Christ. We're all representatives of Christ. We all have the responsibility to know and to share the gospel of Christ with people. But as we come together and function together in the church, we're gonna find different folks have different emphasis in their life as to what they're doing to maintain the function of the body as a whole. But a part of that is a group of people who are focused on teaching and ensuring that everybody is growing. So that's the, That's what we need to accomplish. And what I want to encourage us to do tonight is to consider the teaching ministry of our church. Have people come into our church in the past few years who weren't really lassoed and drawn in and taught the basics of the faith? Now, of course, around here we call them biblical concepts. But again, that's just that's just a term. All that the biblical concepts are is an explanation of the gospel of Christ. It's an explanation of why people need the gospel. What is the gospel? And then after you're saved, what is your responsibility as a saved person? And that's the basics of the faith. That's the basics of the faith. So we need to, there needs to be a cadre. There needs to be a certain people in this church that the Lord's called them to teach and they know it. And there, as Paul told us here in Romans chapter 12, he that teacheth, may he wait on or focus on his teaching. So that's what we're supposed to be about, the teaching. And of course, that's the commission, is to go ye therefore and teach all nations to make those disciples, because those mature disciples are going to be the best representatives of Christ as they go out into the work world in the grocery store. or driving the building equipment truck or, you know, whatever, working at the bank or whatever it is, that well-trained, mature member of the church, as he's interacting in the community, his life is going to be a great demonstration of Christ. And as he talks to people and shares Christ, he's going to know what he's talking about. in his ministry. So I'm not saying that all that we should ever be doing is teaching. What I am saying is that we should be teaching so that every member in the church is a mature, equipped ambassador of Christ. So that wherever we find ourselves, whether we're at home or out in the community or wherever it may be, we've been taught and trained and established so that we can present an excellent picture of Christ to the community. And that's the burden of a teacher. That's the burden of a teacher to see people have that grounding so that they can do that. But the church functions as a team. You know, different members on the team have different emphasis and they do different things. Whenever I shared previously, the Hogs had just won, the Arkansas Razorback Hogs had just won the Liberty Bowl. And I only found out afterward what a demonstration of team spirit that was. Because so many of the starters on the team had left. They had put their names out there in the portal. I don't remember exactly what kind of portal is it. Yeah, the transport portal basically is letting them know, hey, I'm out of here, Jack, can I join your team? So there was a lot of that going on so that we had a lot of, I guess people might call them the second stringers that were out there, the people that were really committed to be on the Razorbacks. So that was really a remarkable, in a way, a really remarkable demonstration. of the team spirit and working together as a team to accomplish something. And I wanna encourage us as a church to consider that we are a team. We are a team working together and one person's ministry may not be exactly what another person's ministry is. That's okay because it takes all of us to do it. and we all aren't going to be doing the same thing. So that unity is essential. But I want you to know something, that we all have a problem with unity. Would you come with me to 1 Corinthians 3. 1 Corinthians 3. He says this, 1 Corinthians 3, verse 3, he's correcting the church at Corinth there for their, Well, disunity. First Corinthians chapter three, verse three, he says this. You are yet carnal for whereas there is among you envying and strife and division. Are you not carnal and walk as men? Walk as men here, of course, walk as men is by the context here, it's you are walking like normal. natural men. This is the way normal, natural human beings do things. They're characterized by envy, strife, and division. And that envy, strife, and division is a characteristic of our flesh. If we go to Galatians chapter 5 and read the description there, the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, These words appear in that list because it's characteristics of the flesh and we all have the flesh. And therefore it's very natural if we allow our flesh to become the dominant influence in our life. It's very natural for the church not to be in unity. You don't have to have a special work of the devil to go into disunity. You don't have to have that. It's human nature to be divided. It's human nature. What we have to do is set aside the urges of the flesh and yield to the leadership of the Holy Spirit to work together as a team. So I'd like to close quickly by pointing out three passages of scripture that talk about unity and how to get it and how to keep it. Philippians chapter two, Philippians chapter two points this out. If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, If any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the spirit, if any bowels and mercies fulfill ye my joy, that ye be like minded, having the same love, being of one accord and of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. And then he tells us to follow the example of Christ and his yielded spirit to do the will of God rather than rather than to just be selfish and seek his own. But I want you to notice, on what basis is Paul appealing to these people? He wants them to have the same love. He wants them to be of one accord. He wants them to be of one mind. But on what basis is he appealing to them? Well, he's appealing to them on this. Is there any consolation in Christ? Do we have any comfort in Christ? Is there any love in Christ? Is there any fellowship of the Spirit? Is there any bowels and mercies? That is, is there any compassion? See, and all of those things are things that come from our connection to Christ. So the idea is that based on our connection to Christ, fulfill my joy and be of one mind and of one accord and say the same things. So based on our common salvation, we should strive together for unity. Also, I'd like to ask you to come with me to the book of Ephesians chapter four, Ephesians four. in which he says, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called. With all loneliness and meekness, long suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. I want you to notice the word endeavoring. That means working hard. Working hard to keep the unity of the spirit. Why do we have to work hard to keep the unity of the spirit? Well, the church at Ephesus was one of the Lord's churches, wasn't it? And yet there was a tendency among the people in the church at Ephesus there to be divided and go their own way and be characterized by envy, strife and division. You have to work hard to keep the unity of the spirit. And I'm not don't want to make anybody feel bad, but you know what? Staying married to the same person for a long time is hard work. You've got to maintain the unity in order to make it happen. And it's so hard that, well, if you look at the statistics today, about half the people that enter into it don't make it because it's hard. If it were easy, everybody would be able to do it. And that's not to fault anybody. It's just to point out that it's really difficult to maintain unity. And it takes work. It takes work. And it takes work in a church. to stay on the same page and to stay unified to accomplish that goal of helping people grow in the Lord. And then the other exhortation that we have that I'd like to point out is Colossians chapter three. Paul calls on the Colossians to have unity, but he appeals to them in a little bit different way. Come with me to Colossians chapter three, verse 12. Put on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies." Now that sounds like what he said in Philippians, doesn't it? Kindness. Humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering. forbearing one another, and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. So he wants us to have that bond of perfectness. He wants us to be bound together, perfectly bound together in maturity there. But the idea here is, do you see what he's calling on us to do here to maintain unity? Forbear one another. Forgive one another. If anybody has a quarrel or a complaint against anybody, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. But see, that's not normal, natural human behavior either, is it? The normal, natural human behavior is to find something that somebody has done that has offended me, and now, I'm on guard against that person because they might offend me again. And sure enough, they did. And after a while of observing this person that has offended me, I find that they don't do anything right. Everything that they say is an attack against me and goes against what I think. You see, if we if we don't forgive, If we don't forgive, then things don't just set. One thing leads to another. A lack of forgiveness leads to holding a grudge, and holding a grudge leads to fault-finding, and fault-finding leads to wrath and hatred. And it can happen in a church. And that's why he told us, endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit. And that's why he tells us, if you have a quarrel against someone, forgive one another, even as Christ forgave you, because that's really the key to maintaining unity. We're going to offend each other. We're going to do things that are going to bother one another. Well, even especially the leaders, Especially leaders are going to do that. James tells us in his letter, he says, brethren, be not many masters. For we offend all, or that is we all offend. We all say and do things that are not pleasing to other people. Not necessarily, not intentionally, but it's just that you're gonna say something. If you're a high profile person, you're likely to say and do something that people are not gonna like. Okay, whenever that happens, okay, what are we to do? Well, the carnal thing is envy, strife, and division. But the spiritual thing is, forbear one another and forgive one another. If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. Why should we do that? We should do that because we're on the same team. We're working together to accomplish something bigger than ourselves. And the thing that we're working to accomplish that's bigger than ourselves is to make sure that everybody who comes into the church has an opportunity to grow and become mature so that they can, by their life and their testimony, bring other people to Christ and help other people to grow. That's the goal, and that's why we have to work to maintain the unity of the Spirit. We're not talking about unity at all costs. We're not talking about saying, I'm going to speak foolishly here. Well, hey, we're all one body in Christ. We need to get our Jehovah's Witness and our Mormon brethren and Catholic brethren and Muslim brethren all together here, you know, and all be in unity together, you know, and have what people call a kumbaya moment. You know, we're not talking about any foolishness like that, but we're talking about that. Hey, we're a team in Christ. We're a unit in Christ. And we have a we have a great work to do, and it's going to be hard. And we're going to have to deal with our own flesh and set it aside. And whenever things come up, we have to just forbear one another, forgive one another, and learn to work together because there's something bigger going on than our personal preferences. Thank you so much for your kind attention this evening. Could I ask you all to stand with me? I'd like to lead us in prayer and then we'll turn it over to Brother Pat to close us out. Dear Father, please take the message this evening and give each one of our folks a real vision for what you want our church to be, that we would all work together to accomplish that, to be a body, to be a church, to be a group of people where if somebody comes in, they receive great example and they receive great encouragement to come and get grounded. in the Word of God and to have the understanding and the skills so that they might grow and be an effective ambassador of Christ. And we pray in Christ's name, amen.