We are going to be reading in the book of Ephesians this morning. Ephesians chapter 4. We're going to read verses 11 through 16. And we're going to be talking about the gift of God in giving a church this morning. Let's start with verse 11. And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to a unity of the faith and of a knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to a measure of the statue of the fullness of Christ. that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. But speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into him who is the head, Christ, May the Lord bless the reading of his word. Let's bow our heads in a word of prayer. Our Father, we come before you this morning, and Lord, I just want to say thank you for your word that encourages us and gives us the foundation of what we have built on. Lord, we ask that you would help us this morning, even as we come before you, that we would be encouraged to be a part of the Living Church. Lord, we thank you for each one who's come out, and I ask that you would bless each one abundantly. Father, we ask this in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. Thank you. You may be seated. As most of you know, this is our 75th anniversary. Roughly 75 years ago, in a couple of days, the church had their first meeting. And I thought just as we get into this that I would start off with just a slight biography of our church. For those of you who are not aware, I am the third generation of the same family. It was my grandfather who founded this church, Reverend Len Johnson. My grandfather was 18 at the time he got saved. His family had two problems with two of the sons. One of them had a problem in his leg and my grandpa had a problem stuttering. He stuttered with every sentence. He could not complete the sentence. And by his own testimony, talking to me as his grandson, he would tell me that he had the filthiest mouth of anyone in Chicago area. He made it a point to swear with every sentence that he spoke so that he could speak straight and had no love for the Lord. Well, a train conductor challenged his dad to take his family to the Gospel Tent Revival meetings held by F.F. Bosworth and to make sure to go to at least three of them. So he did. He brought the family on a Wednesday, a Thursday, and a Friday night. And on Friday night, my grandpa and the other brother decided to give their lives to the Lord. Little did they know that both of them would become pastors. They walked up in front of this congregation, one with a problem in the bones of his leg and the other one stuttering so bad he couldn't speak without swearing. And they committed their lives to the Lord wholeheartedly after hearing about his love for men, his judgment on sin, his love in giving Jesus Christ and the opportunity of salvation. And at the conclusion of their profession of faith, the man said, do you believe God heard you and saved you? My grandpa has never said what his brother said, but he said for himself, being a man of few words, he didn't want to swear in front of all these people. He just nodded his head and said, hmm. And the man said, then tell it to the people. My grandpa proceeded to turn to the people and say, I thank the Lord that he saved me. And he wasn't stuttering. And he said, and he healed me just now. And he went out. singing to the Lord, rejoicing in his heart, just having changed, having come from death to life, having seen, you know, having come from a place of no hope and hate in the future to a place of joy and wondering, can there be a God as real as this that loves me and would be willing to heal me? And he went home saying, if I can find this in the Bible, I will tell it to everyone the world over. And he proceeded to get his Bible out, spent most of the night and the next day reading through the Bible. I believe it took him about 36 hours. Read it from Genesis through Revelation without stopping. Obviously he was a little intense. And those of you who knew him knew that he never lost that intensity. In all of his life there was only one thing that mattered to him. He could meet a drunk in the street or the CEO of a business and within a couple of minutes he'd be talking to them about their soul. Have you come to know the real Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? That was in 1930, he was 18 years old. He proceeded to witness to his best friend. And by the end of the year, he had 60 people meeting in the garage for a Bible study that he was leading. His best friend had been led to the Lord and then his parents, his best friend's parents had been led to the Lord and it just started to spread. And he was being asked at that time if he would travel and fill in for pastors and do revival services and became known as one of the young men that you could call on when you had an opening in the pulpit or you wanted to do a special series of meetings. And in July, I'm sorry, in January of 1939, after several years, I guess that would be nine years of serving the Lord as an itinerant pastor, he was led to be ordained and wanted to be in the ministry full time. He started a small church, a gospel tabernacle church. And then in July of 1940, he met a young lady. He would have been, I think 29 at the time that this would have happened. And he met my grandma, Venice, and she was a soloist and a piano player for the revival services, and he was the pastor. And he would pray for the music and she would pray for the pastor and the speaker. And he said, pretty soon, he said, we decided that we ought to get together. And didn't take him long seeing that he met her and married her in about four months. In 1947, four years after that, he felt the call to come and start a work for the Lord. Being my grandpa and the days it was, he sold everything. bought a trailer, packed up his household goods in the trailer, got into the car and I'm not sure if this is completely accurate but my understanding is as they were ready to leave he went to see a friend of his. And on the way out of town, on the way south out of town, planning on going to Florida with the road trip planned, and they were going to plant a church in Florida, he had kind of had a burden there on his heart. Not sure why, but that just seemed to be where the Lord was leading. He got to, he'd had several burdens over the years. He had had one for the Northwoods. He had been up here for his honeymoon nine years previous. But he was on his way to Florida and he stopped to see an elder and one of the supporters of the work and just to have a word of prayer on the way out of town. And according to what I remember him telling me, the phone rang. And on the phone was a man from northern Wisconsin. He said, you know, I've called down there because I know the gospel is thriving in the Illinois area. And he says, you know, we have absolutely no ministers of the gospel that really preach a born again message up here in the North Woods. We have a lot of Catholic churches, a lot of Lutheran churches. We don't have anyone telling you about the Lord and about sin and about repentance and about the opportunity to be born again. And he said, if you know of anyone who is looking for work Please send them north. Obviously, they took some time to pray. And knowing the end of the story, you know that they didn't go south. They turned around and started north. They got to one valley and I don't know if the road was muddy or whatever but I remember hearing about it in times past that my grandpa said it was Decision Valley. They looked at the road and they weren't sure if the car would get through with the roads the way they were with the trailer on the back and grandpa said, we have to trust the Lord. So they had a word of prayer, they gave it the gas and they made it through. They came up here in 1947. They spent a year in Conover, St. Germain and Sainer, having Bible study in all three areas, having church services in two of them. Then they got a call to Stambo, Michigan, Iron Mountain area. They went up there for a year, and Grandpa really felt that that had been a step away from the Lord. And so after a year, they gave up that work, and he came down to Eagle River, where he had felt the call of the Lord. They originally started church services in the Cedar Shake House. It's a board and batten cedar house just across the road, literally across from the post office a block over. And this building was built in 1910 as an Episcopal church. The church had gone under during the war and had been sitting vacant for several years. My grandpa had asked if they would be willing to sell it or let it be used for church services and had been soundly refused. There was no way it was going to be used outside of the Episcopal Church. And in July of 1949, On a Thursday afternoon, he got a call. Again, this is dial-up telephone, and they said, if you can raise the money by the weekend, we'll sell you the church for $2,000. I believe it was 2000. I tried to do as much research as I could, but every time I talked to my dad and my mom, I get corrected. So I'm giving you that. I think that's what it is. And my grandma and grandpa got down and started to pray. And after a half hour, he said, you know, I need to call down to those friends of ours that have been supporting us in Chicago, and we'll see if the Lord is willing to work. And he called down to a businessman down there and he said, this is what's happened. We've been praying for a building. There's a building right across the street. It's open, but we need to raise the money by Monday. And he said, give me a couple of minutes. Call me back. So they hung up the phone and went back to prayer. The businessman called a couple of friends, called back and said, you can come down and get the money. We'll have it ready when you get here. Grandpa drove over, got the money, drove up here, and was able to put the money down and buy the church that weekend. The church opened, according to the newspaper article, on the 17th of July, 1949, for the glory of God. Now you ask, why all that story? This is a church, a church of the living God. We're supposed to be reading the Bible. Why this story? Well, we are celebrating the 75th anniversary of that, but more than that, we are celebrating the fact that God has been faithful for 75 years, that he has called and that he has directed sometimes against our wishes for three generations. I told God I would never go to Kenya. I served 20 years in Africa, 18 in Kenya, 20 years as a missionary. And I think part of it was because I tried to tell God I wasn't going. He called my grandpa who was heading south to go north and my grandpa turned the car around and went north and never regretted it a day in his life. And he not only called him, but he planted him, gave him the desires of his heart, the same as he had given me when he called me to Kenya. My grandpa had seen this empty church building and thought it was a travesty that a building sitting here with a steeple pointing to God, the tallest building in Eager River, or one of the tallest buildings would sit empty and not declare the glory of God. And so on, when he planted him here, he prayed about the name and he said, this is what we're gonna do. We're gonna call it the Community Bible Church. Community was for who was welcome. We want everyone to come in this community. It does not matter what denomination you are. There are very few Protestant churches here. So it's open, come on in. Bible, this is what we're going to teach. There will be nothing taught in this church that is not based out of God's Word and the Bible. And the church is who we aim to become. At that point in time, it was a preaching point. Didn't know how many were saved, how many weren't. There were, I believe, 70 people on the first Sunday morning that showed up after grandpa had gone door to door and written letters and visited throughout the week. but the church is who they wanted to be. And this is who we should be. We are a called out people for the Lord. That's what the church means. The Greek word means literally a called out community, a people that are set apart. 1 Peter 2.9 says, you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a special people that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. You know, the only problem with this message is that as you study about the church, there's so many passages, you can't pick one. And it could, I could go, most of you know I'm not quick in going through the Bible. We're two years in the book of Luke and we've, I don't think we've reached halfway. We might be getting close. And I could do the same on the church. But just notice that last part. We are called out people to do this. to proclaim the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light. I heard my grandpa give his testimony weeks in and weeks out, give the gospel invitation as I was growing up under him. And while he would occasionally mention that he had been healed of his stuttering and his brother's leg problem was miraculously healed over the next year, the leg would grow out and be perfectly normal, That was never the main focus of his testimony. The main focus of his testimony that God was real and that he saved sinners. And if he had saved a young man with a mouth like his, he could save anyone. And he wanted them to know it. He was dedicated to giving out the message of the gospel and telling people how God called the people from the darkness of sin and the darkness of their being conquered by sin and he set them free to serve him and that it was the most joyful and exciting thing that he had ever done. And I can remember that as a child. I can remember that. I'd like to talk to you about what is the start of any church. not just our church, but the Biblical part of a start of a church. We're going to look at the life of a church and then the future of a church. The start of any church, first of all, comes from love. Paul would say in 2 Corinthians 5.14, the love of Christ compels us, and it drove him around the world as far as he could reach. Whether he was beaten, shipwrecked, stoned, beaten with rods, cat of nine tails, he would not be stopped. You know, I find it amazing as I taught through the book of Acts, every time he went to the synagogues, he ran into problems as the synagogues would take him and run him out of town and the Jews hated him. And yet he never ceased going to the people of God and calling them to repentance. Those who knew the true God were the focal point of who he reached out to. They did not know Jesus Christ, but they knew sin. They knew their disobedience. And so he came to them to tell them of the Messiah and the gift of Christ dying on the cross, that it was in the will of God that this was their Messiah and that he would die. And that now they had an opportunity to return and come back to the Lord and to be his people. Most would not listen. Most would put their hope in the system they believed in, in the high priest, and in the scribes, and in the synagogues that they were a part of, and in the law of Moses. Yes, it sounded similar, but it was different. It only knew law. It did not put its trust in Jesus Christ, so it could not help. Only as they would come and put their trust in Jesus Christ could they find salvation. And Paul says that love for Christ compelled him. God had, in love, sent His Son. And Jesus Christ, in love, had laid down His life to redeem a people for the Father. God had given the people to His Son, and Jesus, in His love, would offer them back up to the Father. You see a unity there of purpose and a unity of love. Neither one trying to hoard it, but each one being willing to give to the other. And Paul understanding this is filled with joy in going out and he cannot contain himself as he reaches from one place to another. It's not just love, but it's also the obedience of Matthew 28, 18 through 20, the Great Commission. Remember when Jesus was ascending to heaven, he came and he spoke to his disciples saying, all authority is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen. You say, well, isn't that to the disciples? Absolutely, but that was also to every Christian of all time. You say, how do you know that? Because of the last word in there. He was speaking to those that were with him, to those who were following him, and he said, I am with you to the end of the age. They would all die. So who was he speaking to? Why did he make reference to the end of the age? because He's speaking to all of us. To all who would follow Him, He has a commission. This is why it's been given as the Great Commission. And it starts with the authority of Christ. He says, all authority has been given unto Me in heaven and in earth. We often look at this authority and say, well, that's the authority, you know, that lets us go into third world countries, into tribes that don't know the Lord Jesus Christ, into the plains of Africa, into the Serengeti and tell them there is a Savior who has come to save you from your sins. Yes, it is. Regardless of what the governments say, we are there to preach the gospel. But that is also the same authority that comes to you and to me and it says, as you're going, you're to be making disciples, that's the verb. Going is actually a present tense, it's just as you're going, do this, make disciples wherever you are. Of all nations, of all peoples, no matter where you are. You know, the interesting thing about my grandpa and one of the things I think that was so effective for him is he could never turn it off because there was nothing to turn off. He was lit from the inside out. He would walk into a restaurant, see a waitress who was down and say, let me have a word of prayer with you. What can I pray for you with today? And by the way, do you know Jesus Christ? Has he saved you? Have you followed him? Have you given your life to him? And he would just do that day in and day out. I'd go up with him as a young man, learning how to drive. He'd pick me up at 5.30 in the morning. If you wanted to be with my grandpa, you had to get up early. He'd pick me up at 5.30 in the morning and he'd let me drive him to breakfast and back. And sometimes we'd go to the UP. Sometimes we'd come to Eagle River. Sometimes we'd go to some other place. We'd eat together. We'd pray together. We'd pray in the car as we went and as we came back. And it wasn't just because I was there. That's what he did throughout the day. That was his standard mode of operation. In fact, occasionally we'd be up and he'd say, well, stop in here. I say, what's here? He says, this is the hospital. I need to make a couple of calls. Why don't you just stay here and pray and you pray God uses me and I'll go do the witnessing. And he'd include me in his work. See, he knew the Lord and he knew what that commission from God meant. It wasn't a special call to a special people for a special place. It was a general call to all of his people for all time. If you know me, as you go through life, make disciples, spend your time with people. Ask them about how they're doing with the Lord. Ask them what they've learned from God. Ask them when they've been to church last. Invite them to church. But it's more than that. You read this, it's not just go and make disciples. Sometimes we ask ourselves, well, how do we do this? Notice that what comes after that, it says, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all things that I've commanded you. Where do you get baptism and where do you get the teaching of God's word? The church of God. Part of making disciples is simply inviting people to the church, helping them to understand and hear the gospel over time where the questions they didn't even know they didn't know come out. Oh, that makes sense. I didn't know that. I never realized that. You know, we went to Africa and we went to the Maasai tribe. People will talk about your unreached people groups. They will never mention the Maasai tribe. That's been reached according to them. I typically give a little segment here saying I disagree with that. Everyone who's lost is unreached. We go to whoever God puts in our path. But we got there and we asked them, what's sin? Here we are starting in the church, ready to try to plan a church, a preaching point. What is sin? Oh, sin is when you kill another Maasai or you sleep with another Maasai's wife without his permission. That's it. You can't sin outside of the Maasai tribe. You can't sin in anything else you do. They did not even know the right questions to ask. How do you tell them that God came to save you from their sins when they don't even know what sin is? When they don't know if God is male or female? When they don't know if God is near or far? When they don't know the power of God, the knowledge of God, the omnipresence of God? How do you tell them about Jesus when they don't know the law of God? When they don't know what sin is? See, this is why we continue to work, we continue to call, we spend time, we talk, we invite, be a part of the church, come over time, listen to the truth of God's Word. So you see, even in this call of Acts 29, or of Matthew 28, you see the call to invite people to church, not just to spend time with them on their own, but just to continue, to invite, to talk, come along. Hear. And you know what else? There's one other phrase in there that's very interesting. It says that they may observe to do. That they may observe to do. Not that they would just hear the truth, but that they would come under the conviction that God has spoken. These are the words of the living God. And that because he has spoken, you are accountable. It matters not whether you believe in God. God has spoken and he will judge you according to his word. And when that message comes out, conviction settles in the heart of men and they start to look at the law and they start to say, I can't do this. I haven't done this. I'm a sinner. But this is the part of the church. We are here to teach and encourage And only in a church do we find these things coming together. Notice in Acts 2, 42, another passage of the new believers. This one's not a doctrinal passage. It doesn't teach us, do this. It doesn't say go out and make disciples. It just tells us what happened. It's a narrative passage. You say, well, is that authoritative? No, but what it does do is it shows us that when the Spirit of God works on a community of people, this is what happens when a real salvation takes part, takes place. They had heard the message of Peter on the day of Pentecost. They had been cut to the heart. Peter told them, repent and be baptized for the remission of your sins. They had done that. Three thousand were added to the church. Then it says this, and they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine, in fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayers. Two things. First of all, you see the longevity. We have many people who want to say, well, I don't need to go to church. I can just do it outside. I can go be with God somewhere else. No, you can't. Yes, you can worship God outside, but God's people desire to come together to hear the doctrine of the word of God. the Apostles' Doctrine. Jesus would say, teach them all things that I have commanded you, because the Apostles had not taught them at any point since then. But they would take what Jesus had taught, plus the death and resurrection, and explain it to us, and so that whole body now comes together and they would continue in all of the Apostles' Doctrine. This is at the church. This is what the church does. It is a preaching point where the gospel comes forth with power, anointed from on high. How many of you would genuinely spend 30 to 45 minutes out of your day in the word of God studying a passage? Very few, very few, if any. and I'm with you. This is why we come to church, so that we can get in-depth teaching on what God requires, what He wants you to do, so that you can know Him. You see this in the life of the believers. New believers, having just come for the Lord, what do they desire? The Word of God. They hunger for it. They thirst for it. 1 Peter 2, 2 would talk about as a newborn babe desiring the pure milk of the word that you may grow by it. They just love it. They can't get enough of it. They continued steadfastly in the apostle's doctrine and in fellowship. Again, a true Christian has been called out of the world. His old relationships are strained. I'm not going to say they're broken, but they're strained. You can't continue doing the things you used to do. You can't continue running the same way you used to run. You are now God's. He has called you and made a claim on your life. And you desire to be His. You desire to follow Him. And so you live together with those who also have that desire. And there's a fellowship. What does that word fellowship mean? It means a unity and a love between a group of people. You are united by what you love and desire, the Lord God. Not a social club, not great music, not a great building, but simply this, to hear the word of God. They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine in fellowship in the breaking of bread. Again, you see this is a church function. It's talking about it because there's mention of the Lord's table there, which we do as a church, as a body. When you gather together, it says, you do this in my name. And finally, in prayers, praying for one another, hearing the needs of one another, carrying the burdens for one another. This is, again, a passage on the church. Then we come to our passage today in Ephesians 4, and all of Ephesians is awesome. In Ephesians 1, it talks about how we come to God, that He has predestined us and chosen us from before the foundations of the world, past, present. He's working in us for the praise of His glory and future. We're destined for glory. Chapter two, we found how this is done. It's by the grace of God through faith in Christ alone. And then in chapter three, Paul talks about how this gospel has been opened to the Gentiles and that he was called to preach to the Gentile world. Verses, chapter three, verses three through 10, he says he was called to make all see what is the fellowship of this mystery. See that word again, fellowship? This is part of the church. You can't be a part of the church and not desire that fellowship, which was from the beginning of the ages, has been hidden in God, but was who created all things through Jesus Christ to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be known by the church. By the church. You see, so much today, Salvation is individual. Yes, it is. It's between you and God. I can't save you. Only God can save you. Only reality between your heart and God can save you. As you come to Him, praying to Him in faith, asking Him to forgive your sins to come into your heart. But what we forget is that does not stand alone. That stands as part of a body. As you are saved, you are brought into one body, one faith, one hope of your calling, one baptism, one Lord and Savior. You're brought into his body, his church. And there is a desire to be there, to fellowship. and that that church now becomes a place where the manifold wisdom of God might be made known, where his word is preached. Notice how fast this is going, but just verse one, right after this, we have our salvation in chapters one and two and three, the Gentiles, chapter four, therefore I beseech you that you would walk worthy of the calling. You go, well, that's a big, sentence. How do you walk worthy of the calling of God? Well, He doesn't leave us. He continues to explain and to tell us. And in verses 2 through 6, this is chapter 4 of Ephesians, He says, "...with lowliness, with grace, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love." You can see from that the church was never meant and the Christian was never meant to walk by himself in the world saying, no, I'm a Lone Ranger, I got this, I'll do it on my own. You can look at it and also see there's gonna be trouble in the body of Christ. We're not always gonna agree all the time. Occasionally, I'll step on your toes and sometimes you'll step on my toes. You'll bear with me in love and I will bear with you in love. bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, realizing we have a single calling, a single hope. We walk together in the body of Christ. I'm just going to skip down to verses 11 now. Notice what he gives as gifts. Jesus Christ gives gifts, and what does he give? He gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors, some teachers. Now, if you understand that a prophet is someone who proclaims the word of God, you could also read that as preachers. He gave apostles who wrote the word of God and preached it while they were alive, preachers who took that word and proclaimed it onto you, evangelists who took that word and went out into the world, pastors who would go, who were shepherds, who would look at your life and say, how are you doing? What can I do to help? Can I encourage you here? Can I encourage you there? Can I do this for you? And also, teachers that would teach you on different subjects throughout the Word of God. All of those gifts are found where? In the church. In the church of the living God. He would continue to say what those gifts would produce, verse 13, till we all come to a unity of the faith and of a knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man and to a measure of the statue of the fullness of Christ. The unity in the church does not come from some external, let's all feel like we're together, let's all pretend we're together, let's ignore the differences. The unity comes from understanding the truth of God's word and understanding the reality of salvation. And there's a unity that even is greater than our divisions. I can meet a Presbyterian, I met a Presbyterian in Africa. I was a little low, there was some issues going on between me and some of my friends and I just needed some encouragement and I met him and we didn't actually get along. He kind of didn't reach out to me at all. And I thought, you know, what's it hurt to reach out even if he's not? And so I said, brother, I just want you to know, I said, if you ever need anything, here's my card, call me. I said, you live about three hours away, you call, I'll come. Don't ever say that to the Lord. I will guarantee you, he will put your words to the test. Friday night, we're sitting down for pizza night, right? Phone rings. I pick it up. It's this guy that we didn't get along with real well. I mean, I reached out to him and I just didn't feel like there was any connection back. He says, this is Gary. Remember from the hardware store? He says, you remember what you told me when you left? And I said, yeah, if you ever need help, call. And he says, I'm calling. I said, all right, what's going on? He says, the hedge just blew on my car. He says, I desperately need help. I don't even know who else to call. He says, my engine won't run. He says, I'm stranded in the bush right at the end of cell coverage. He says, I've got three days to get my car home, to pack up my car, my wife, and my kids, and to get everything into Nairobi because I'm flying out Monday morning. This is Friday night. He says, could you help us? I said, absolutely. I didn't, I prayed first. I felt very convicted as I didn't wanna go. And I prayed, I said, Lord, help me. And then I said, yes, absolutely. And we went out, we towed his car, got it back to his house about one, two in the morning. And got in and he calls his kids at 1.30 in the morning. And he says to his wife, he says, gather the wee ones. He's Scottish with a big Scottish brogue. And he says, gather the wee ones. And she goes and she gets the kids, wakes up even the little one and they all come together. He says, let's join hands. We need to thank the Lord for our brother. You see the church is body. It's been called out by God. It's been planted by God. We celebrate 75 years, not because we've been faithful, but because God has. He had a plan, it wasn't my grandpa's plan, it wasn't my dad's plan, and it certainly wasn't my plan. I left the house, the home, my home at 18 with two things kind of in my heart as I was growing up. I wasn't gonna go to Africa, I made that decision at seven, and I wasn't going to be a pastor in Community Bible Church, because we'd had two already, and it was time for somebody else to pick it up. And somehow, God has brought me back. and He's given me the desires of my heart every time, even though I didn't know Him. I could go on forever. That's about half of what I've thought of. 1 Timothy 3, 14 and 15, these things I've written to you, hoping to come shortly, but if I'm delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is a pillar and support of the truth. That's our job. That's our job. We currently, that was past history, currently, our job is to stand and proclaim the truth of Jesus Christ. That has not changed. It doesn't matter what time, what day, how modern the people are, whether you're in the bush of Africa, of India, or Eagle River, Wisconsin, or downtown Chicago. There's only one message. Jesus Christ came to save sinners, of whom I am chief. And he'll save you if you'll come to him. The church has been given many commands, but the one I always think of first is this one, from Paul to Timothy, I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing in his kingdom. These things are for sure, this is going to happen. God will judge the living and the dead. He will appear, his kingdom will reign. He will be king over all the earth. And in light of that, what does Paul tell Timothy? Preach the word. Preach the word in season, out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching. Call people to come. What's the future of the church? Future of the church is that we are the bride of Christ. That God has purchased us. God gave us to his son as a love gift. He said, it's too small of a thing that my son would die. This is in Isaiah 40 and 48, 49. He says that my son would die to redeem the houses of Jacob in Israel. I will make him a light to the ends of the earth. I will give him of the Gentiles from the outermost parts out of every tribe, tongue and nation, a people will come to glorify me as God because of what he did. So he gave him a people. And Jesus Christ came and laid down His life and took us and made us His, and He offers us back up to God. And God looks at us, and not because of our worth, but because of the sacrifice that it cost His Son to purchase our salvation. He says, these are mine, and I will work with them. I will perfect them. And the day will come when I will glorify them, and they will sit with me in heaven. And there is literally, in Revelation, I believe it's 17, a marriage feast of the Lamb that is coming when we will welcome all the saints of all the time. We'll walk into heaven together and sit down with Christ and we will be His for eternity. We will be His. This is the future of the church. How do we apply this? How do we apply this? Is there any application for us today? Oh yes, there is. Matthew 25, we hear about ten virgins. Ten people who have not sold themselves out to anyone else, they've only worshipped the Lord their God. But five of them know God on the inside and they have the Holy Spirit. And five of them have not come to know God. They think they do. But when they go out to meet the Lord, they find they're not ready. They find they have no oil for their lamps. There's something missing in their lives. I would challenge you. There are many seeking many things today. Are you seeking for fellowship? Are you seeking for healing, help with a problem, wisdom for some area of life? Or are you literally coming to seek the Lord? Because I have something to tell you. The only thing this church has to offer is this. We will proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that has the power to bring you from death to life and to change you from the inside out, has the power to set you free from sin, to make you have peace with God to bring you into fellowship with a body that is despised, but also fellowship with His Son and with His Father, Jesus Christ. And I would pray that you would seek for this fellowship while there is time. The parable of the 10 virgins, five of them don't seek. And when they wish to enter in, they're cast out. They've hurted all their lives. They've been faithful all their lives in attending and in not worshiping some other God, but their hearts have never been His. They've never been the Lord's. He will say, I never knew you, depart from me. I would challenge you this morning as we celebrate not just a church, we celebrate the fact that God still is at work in the world today, that He plants churches. and He brings people together in the unity of His Son, and they worship God. I would challenge you to ask yourself, am I really part of that unity? Have I come to know Jesus Christ? Have I confessed that I'm a sinner in need of a Savior? You know, someone once told me, there's only one prerequisite to coming to Christ. You have to be willing to acknowledge your sin. Our hearts are not naturally prone to love God. They're not naturally good. They're wicked and abominable. If we could get away with it, what sin would we not partake of? If you knew you could get away with it, what sin would you not partake of? I would challenge you. My grandpa came here 75 years ago today with the one goal, to be a light for the Lord. And if the Lord was willing to plant a church, there would be a lighthouse on this corner. And I would ask you, have you come into the light? Let's stand as we close in a word of prayer. Our Father, we thank you so much that we can come before you and we can praise your name. We can praise you for the works that you've done in the past, the works that we see you doing in our lives and our kids' lives. And Father, I'd ask today that your Holy Spirit, Lord, would be poured out abundantly. Father, I know that in my words alone there is no power. But Father, I know that as you shine the light of the glory of God through the Spirit of God under people's hearts, they will understand the gospel. And Father, I ask for each one that's here, if there's anyone who doesn't know you, Lord, today, would you sign the light of the gospel one more time? Call them, Lord, that they would follow you and that they would love you and love your people. We ask for this in the name of your son. Lord, I also would ask you to bless each one who's come out this morning. Lord, encourage us to stay faithful, to continue steadfastly in what we have known. Lord, that we would not give up in this dark day and age, but Lord, that we would take our encouragement from the fact that you are never changing. And Father, I also thank you for the food that we are about to partake of downstairs. Thank you for this fellowship that we can have together. And I ask you to bless it and bless each one who's come out this morning. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.