The truth is that we will be straightened out and we'll all believe alike and we will all be with Christ forever. But God has given us a sampling on earth and this is the local assembly of God's people. It is a sample of what we will experience one day in heaven. It is supposed to be like the home, a little taste of heaven on earth. Now often it doesn't happen in the home that way, but that's God's intention. The unity of the home is likened to the unity of the Trinity itself. And so the Father and the Son, you know, likened to a home, if you will. And so a man and woman will be one flesh, the Bible says. And so that unity in the home is supposed to be a taste of heaven. and in the local church we're supposed to assemble together and do some similar things that we will do in heaven for eternity and in some ways get a little sampling of that on earth. Now we talked here last week about becoming a biblical member of a local body of believers. And we showed the distinction last week between being a biblical member and being a practical member, right? And so, to be a member of a church, biblically speaking, is simply to be saved and gathered together. That's the biblical understanding of membership. Let's go to Acts 2 and verse 47. We Went through this quite a bit in detail last week. So when we read in the Bible about being a member of Christ, you know it's talking about someone who's saved and gathers with other believers and so They are members one of another, if you will, when they gather together. Acts 2 and verse 47, Praising God and having favor with all the people, and the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. And so here we find that really to be a member from the biblical perspective, the kind of membership that we have is practical and functional in a local church. But let me just say, anybody who's saved and fellowships with us regularly is a part of the body. and now they may not be a voting member, they may not be a member in that kind of way that they can serve in offices and so forth, but they are still a member of the body because they're saved and they're ministering to us and we're ministering to them and that by definition is being part of the body, all right? And that's the only membership that the Bible sees or understands. Now, I don't think it's wrong to have practical membership. Any group of people working together in the physical world and having monies that have to be dispersed and buildings that have to be taken care of and so forth and business transacted, so to speak, well, anybody can make rules regarding their own membership and vote in and out and make requirements and all of those things. This is just normal, the normal work of bodies of people working together. But this is not a biblical mandate, but rather a practical and functional way to work in the world in which we live. And I think we have to understand this. So of course there's the biblical membership and then there is the practical membership. So this practical membership is for earthly things and it is often a part of a local church. This is functional and I think wise. And I think every child of God should strive to be a, of course, a biblical member, but I think also a earthly practical member as well. I think it's helpful for Christian growth. And so, for the purpose of edifying and being edified, I think it's probably wise. Through scripture we get some glimpses of how God uses the local church in our lives or how we interact and get involved in a local assembly. And let me just say, the Bible doesn't give us a lot of real detailed descriptions of church business and church function and all of those kind of things. And there's a reason for that because how it's done exactly doesn't really matter to God. God is more interested in the big picture of what's going on and is not micromanaging every little detail. That's up to the body of believers involved to a certain extent. So instead we're going to see glimpses of the spiritual aspect, the more important aspect that we're supposed to be a part of through a local assembly. So we'll talk about some of that tonight. And we're just gonna kinda go through the Bible, the New Testament, and see different functions, if you will, of the local church, and kinda draw some understanding of how I can be involved in that function on a personal level. Let's go to Matthew 18. Matthew 18. Matthew chapter 18 and beginning in verse number 15. Matthew chapter 18 and beginning in verse number 15. Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone. And if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church. But if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican. And as I mentioned previously, remember the wording here is important. Let him be unto thee, not unto ye, as a heathen man and a publican. And so the concept is the same concept throughout the Bible, and that is that when you deal with someone who's done wrong to you, that obviously you're gonna be a little bit standoffish to a certain point if they won't try to reconcile that in any manner or any way, alright? But, really, that's not really the point of this passage, I don't think. I think the real point of this passage is that the local church is supposed to be a place that we can use to arbitrate conflicts. Now, let me say, this is biblical, but it's almost never used today, alright? Because we don't trust the Bible that much, alright? 1 Corinthians chapter 6. 1 Corinthians chapter 6. And I think you'll see that these passages are really saying the same thing here. 1 Corinthians chapter number 6 and verse number 1. Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust and not before the saints. Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world, and that the world shall be judged by you? Are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels, how much more, things that pertain to this life? If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are the least esteemed in the church. I speak to your shame. Is it so that there is not a wise man among you? Know not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren, But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers. Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because you go to law one with another. Why do you not rather take wrong? Why do you not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? And so this is exactly the same thing that's being talked about in Matthew 18. Someone has wronged someone else personally. Alright? And so, God says, when someone is wronging someone else personally, then you can use the local assembly of other believers to arbitrate things. And let me just say, in my personal opinion, you can use any of them. All right, I think the Bible teaches even the least esteemed. In other words, it'd be better than going to court against a brother in Christ. There's two people to say, you know, I trust brother so and so. Let's sit down and bring our case before him, so to speak, and let him decide and we will live with his judgment in this area. Now, nobody ever does this. You know, it's kind of like It's kind of like the passage in the book of Acts where they had all things common. You know, we stay away from passages like these, right? But, technically, this is what the Bible says that we would be better basically saying You know, instead of holding a grudge or going to court or doing something like that, we'd be better off saying, look, I'm going to find a brother in Christ that we both respect and I'm going to take it to them, maybe two or three. And if not that, maybe I'll decide, hey, how about if we take it to the whole church and let the church make a decision for us in this area and arbitrate the wrong that has been done. And that's what Matthew 18 is about. And that's what 1 Corinthians 6 is about. And so this is not in a legally binding sense. In other words, they wouldn't have any legal authority to pass judgment, but the two parties concerned could decide, I'm going to take whatever decision that person or that group of people make, and that will be good enough for us and we will live by it. And so this is what Paul was basically telling them. to do. And so that is one area that we can use other believers for in the local assembly. Then let's go to Acts chapter 11. Acts chapter 11, I suppose on occasion I may have seen that done through maybe some pastor or something, maybe someone might go to and but the Bible teaches it could be the least esteemed, it doesn't really matter because if they're a believer in Christ and you both trust them then that should be enough. Acts chapter 11 and beginning in verse number 19 Now they, which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen, traveled as far as Phineth, and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to none, but unto the Jews only. And some of them were men of Cyprus, and Cyrene, which, when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned unto the Lord. Then the tidings of these things came unto the ears of the church, which was in Jerusalem, and they sent forth Barnabas that he should go as far as Antioch. And so you see here the persecution concerning Stephen had gotten so great that Christians began to spread all over the place and they were somewhat of a disorganized spread. It was because they were losing jobs and they were being persecuted. And so they went to other cities and places and towns. And as soon as they got there, they began to preach the gospel and to gather together and to do whatever they needed to do to fellowship one with another. And the church in Jerusalem heard about it. And so they said, hey, let's help out. Let's send Barnabas, because a lot of these people You know, you think about, we kind of think about this, right? We kind of think that in the early days of Christianity, the church was unified in every area. Every church was unified. They all believed the same thing. And then slowly, as time developed, we got wider and wider spread. Not really true at all. Matter of fact, because young Christians were spreading across Europe so quickly and the Roman Empire so quickly, often relatively inexperienced people would have to be teaching and preaching in some of these places because they just didn't have anybody else. And so you can imagine the Ethiopian eunuch, he had to go as a new convert basically and probably start something where he was at. And so really most all false doctrine is addressed in the New Testament because these doctrines exploded under the scene at the same time that Christianity did. And there were many, many obviously back and forth arguments concerning the doctrine of Christ and the deity of Christ and many other things in early churches. And this is the history of Christianity, of course. And so, as we can see right in the New Testament itself. And so, a church, of course, can assist in spreading the gospel to other locales. And this includes anywhere around where they think maybe they can be a help or an assistance to someone growing, they should take advantage of that. Acts 13, Verses 1 through 5 tells about that as well as they assisted Paul and Barnabas in going on their first missionary journey. Alright, let's go to Acts chapter number 12. Acts chapter number 12 and verse number 5. So we're just kind of going through an overview of things in the Bible where the Bible mentions what a local church did or what a local church got together to do. And we've already seen that they've gotten together to arbitrate conflicts. We've seen they've gotten together to assist others elsewhere preaching the gospel and to help those get the gospel out in other places. and Acts chapter 12 and verse number 5. Peter therefore was kept in prison, but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him. And of course this makes sense. Prayer, another reason we gather together and we have a local church is so we can lift one another up in prayer and so we can have that unity in prayer that the Bible talks about. That where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them. Or when I agree with another on something in prayer, that I shall have my request. And so this is of course mentioned throughout scripture. Let's go to James 5 and see this again. And so I do think it's important to strive to understand How I can help get involved in some of these things, such as prayer of course. What an opportunity this is. James 5 and verse 14. Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church. and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up. And if he hath committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." And so here again is that concept and idea that we should be lifting up one another in prayer. You say, I want to get involved in the work of the Lord. Well, what an opportunity to pray for one another. That's why around here we have a prayer bulletin. Why? We're hoping you'll take it home and pray for each other and the needs that you have. That's why we put out a church directory. Why? We're hoping that you'll use it as a prayer list and pray through the families of the church on a regular basis. Why? It's an important part part of our ministry is trying to pray for one another and make sure that we are obeying the Lord in this area. And it's one of the reasons why God, I think, wants us to locally assemble together. I mean this is why it matters whether we get involved in a local church or not. because we won't know the needs of others, we won't experience that relationship if we don't. And so this is another avenue that we see in the Bible that the local church was used for. Let's go to Acts chapter 20. Acts chapter 20. Acts chapter 20 and verse number 28. Take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years I cease not to warn everyone night and day with tears." And so here he is talking to the pastors of the churches and he's saying, take heed and make sure you're feeding the flock of God. And so one of the things that we're supposed to do is gather together to be fed from the preaching of the Word of God. And this is found of course throughout scripture. Matter of fact almost every one of your epistles is simply a letter written by Paul back to a church to be read in front of the church as kind of a sermon to them and spelling out some of the things that he wanted to teach them. And so a church gathers to be fed by the preaching and teaching of the Word of God. And let me say I should be focused on this in two ways. Number one, I should be striving to be fed when the Word is preached. I should be attentive and striving to understand and know. And number two, I should be striving to learn so that I can feed others in different capacities, whether it's just talking amongst one another and giving them a verse that was a blessing to me, or whether I have an opportunity to get up and preach and teach in some meeting or opportunity in some class or whatever it might be. The point is, I'm supposed to be giving and receiving in this area and feeding one another from the Word of God, of course. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 9. And again, it's just kind of a shotgun approach tonight of many different things in Scripture that the Bible talks about that we can get involved in, in the local assembly of God's people. 1 Corinthians 9 and verse number 13. Do you not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel and so here it correlates the Old Testament tithing to the temple that allowed for the priest to live off of the tithes and so In the New Testament, we have pastors, of course, and so forth, and the same concept. It's a place to give our tithes and offerings unto the Lord, and a place to have an opportunity to do that. We'll get into tithing. I'll teach on that one of these Wednesday nights. I know there's a lot of people that fight against it and basically say it's not for New Testament times. But I will say this, and I think I'll show that that's not true, but I will say this also, that to me, I love the idea of the tithe because it gives me something I can do by faith. I can give by faith in that area. and know that I am obeying the Lord. And so that's a great opportunity as I see it. And so a church is a place for giving the tithes and offerings to the Lord and reaping the benefits of that, the blessing of God in that area of our life. 1 Corinthians 11, let's see, 1 Corinthians 11 and verse number 20. 1 Corinthians 11 and verse number 20, When ye come together, therefore, into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper, for in eating every one taketh before other his own supper, and one is hungry and another is drunken. What, have ye not houses to eat and drink in, or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not. For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread." And you know the passage here, he gives the bread as his body to be done in remembrance, and of course the juice as his blood to be done in remembrance. And then he warns in verse 34, And if any man hunger, let him eat at home, that ye come not together unto condemnation, and the rest will I set in order when I come. And so the assembly is a place to partake of the Lord's Supper, but not in some kind of a feast to our body. In other words, we're not to come to feast for our body's sake, but we're to come just to do it excuse me, in remembrance of him. But notice what it does say in verse 33, Wherefore my brethren, when ye come together to eat, talking about the Lord's Supper, tarry one for another. In other words, this is not something we do at home, this is not something we do individually, this is something we do collectively. And so, a church gathers to partake of the Lord's Supper, 1 Corinthians 14. And that's why I think it's important to understand again that idea of biblical membership, the idea that when you gather together with a group of believers and you yourself are a believer, that at that moment you are a part of that church. You know, you are basically ministering to them and them to you in that moment. And that's the way the Bible sees it. verse number 12, chapter 14 and verse number 12 here. Even so ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church. Alright, so as I mentioned here in the last few weeks, the idea is that every Christian is supposed to go out and preach the gospel to every creature and that in order to do that God has commanded us to assemble together regularly so that we can encourage and build one another in the faith so that we can better accomplish this task. And so we're supposed to be striving to edify other believers and to be edified when we come to church. And so I've mentioned this. When I come to church, and you can kind of examine if you will, somewhat your level of maturity as a Christian when you start coming to church to minister rather than just to be ministered to. When you start looking for folks to encourage and looking for folks to help and looking for folks to bless and looking for folks that you can be helped to rather than just coming just to get something, then this is kind of that transition towards maturity in the Christian life. And so, we are to edify one another and build one another in the faith. Ephesians chapter 5, Ephesians chapter 5 in our Bible. And again, as I mentioned, the Bible doesn't give us a lot of detailed specifics of exactly how it must be done, but rather kind of leaves that up to each local body. But it does give us kind of overviews, Ephesians 5 and beginning in verse 23. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. And let's look at verse number 29. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church. And so, so interesting that the Bible says that the local assembly of God's people is the church on earth and that only in heaven will we be all one local assembly. And so on earth, the Bible says, God nourisheth and cherisheth his body. Boy, those two words are hard to say. and back to back anyway and his body and so in a certain sense the Bible is saying there's something I can't get by myself as a Christian there's something I can't have by myself as a Christian there's something I need the local assembly for and God of course ordained it that way and so to receive direction he is the head of the church and so he gives direction to the church if you will and so none of us can get that direction fully on our own and none of us can be nourished and cherished completely in the same way on our own as we can when we gather together in his name and so A Christian who neglects the church, it seems, is lacking direction. And that's often really true in my experience as well, is that Christians that don't go to church often lack direction in their Christian life, and they really kind of just wander around. 16. Accomplishing very little for the cause of Christ. And I think this speaks to the wisdom of the Lord to give an assembly locally for us to gather with. Let's go to 1 Timothy chapter 5. 1 Timothy chapter number 5 and verse number 16. If any man or woman that believeth have widows, let them relieve them, and let not the church be charged that it may relieve them that are widows indeed. And so this is talking about basically ministering to the truly poor. And it's just admonishing that if someone in the family can take care of them, then they should take care of them and not pass it off on the church. But those widows or those poor that have nowhere else to go than the local assembly should be striving to help them. And I realize we live in a modern day, a modern society where our government has many programs and so forth for people in need. And probably in America today we don't see the real need that most of the rest of the world does. But I do think a function of the local assembly ought to be looking for those that are in some kind of need that we might be able to help. And that's why we do set aside some money every month to help those who might have a physical need in some area. And we seek out those opportunities because it seems that's what we're supposed to do. Hebrews Chapter 2. Well, let's go to Ephesians Chapter 5 actually. Let's go to Ephesians Chapter 5. Ephesians Chapter 5 and verse number 19. Ephesians chapter 5 and verse number 19, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. And so here we're just admonished to of course use singing as well in our worship and also in our edification to one another. Colossians 3.16 basically says the same things. Hebrews 2.12 mentions as well that we're to sing his praises in the congregation. And so I think it's important that we use this opportunity to minister to each other through singing. And I think that's a part of the local church. And that includes singing congregational songs. I think it's so vital. The Bible teaches that everything that I do in the church ought to be done with understanding. My brain should be engaged. I should hear what's happening. I should comprehend what's going on. And if I'm singing a song, when I'm singing a song in the songbook, and someone else wrote those words, all right, and someone else, I'm looking at Springs of Living Water, someone penned these words, and they meant something to the person that penned them, and they, in their heart, when they penned them, they were singing praises to God, right? And so, but if I sing it without understanding, well, then I'm not singing praises to God. I'm just making noises, all right? And so I'm supposed to sing. I thirsted in the barren land of sin and shame. And I'm supposed to realize that was me before I got saved. And so I should be able to see what the songwriter saw in that. Right? And nothing satisfying there I found, but to the blessed cross of Christ one day I came, where springs of living water did abound. And those words should hit me and they should mean something when I sing the song. It should have meaning behind it and I should minister to myself and also minister to others. Hopefully I sound decent enough that someone else might be able to listen to the song and be blessed by it as well. And if not, well, at least I helped myself if I understood what I was singing. And so we should be gathering to sing his praises. I think it's so important, even our little ones, that they pick up a songbook as soon as they can read and get involved in the service and sing out because it gets them engaged with what's being said. I think it's important. The other day, John was practicing a song and he didn't know a word in it. And he said, Dad, what's this word mean? And I didn't know what it meant. So, and I said, I don't know. Let's look it up. And we looked up the word so that when he sang, he could sing with understanding. And I know you all have cell phones with you every service. You don't know a word? Look it up. All right, and sing with understanding, you know. But the bottom line is that we're supposed to interact, and I think that's important. Realize that the reason we gather together is to edify one another. And that means, you know, only way I can do that, I have to talk to other people, right? I have to interact with them. I have to give and I have to receive. If I don't, if I just come to church because God made me, You know, God says I gotta go to church, so I just have to go tonight. And I just sit there like a bump on a log and ignore everybody else, well then I'm not really getting what I'm supposed to out of it. Or if I come, and let me say, teenagers can be notorious for this, not in our church, but Yeah, I know, sometimes they can be, right? You know, they sit, mom and dad made them come, you know, and so they sit in the back, and they sit like this the whole service, or they got their little phone out nowadays, you know, they're going like this the whole service, and they get nothing out of it. And so, in reality, they didn't get what they came for, and they kind of missed the whole purpose. And so, God willing, we'll understand that this tool of the local church means I'm supposed to get involved in it and let it help me the way God intended it to. It's not just a, you know, it's not just a factory, so to speak, where we walk in and it stamps itself on us and we walk out. That's not how it works. My brain has to be engaged. I have to be thinking about what's going on. I have to be listening to what's being said. And especially for our children, one day it has to go from mom and dad's beliefs to my beliefs, my beliefs. And I remember in my life growing up in church when it went from mom and dad's beliefs to my beliefs in life. When mom and dad said, you know what, we're going to be in church every time we get a chance to. and we're gonna be there all the time. And I said in my heart, that's right, that's right. And I didn't fight him about it. I didn't try to get out of it. I went and I believed it was the right thing to do, not because their decision, but because of my decision. And that's really when it became my own in life. And so the point here is simply that God made the local assembly for a purpose. He commands us to assemble together for a reason. That is to build one another, that is to edify one another. And let me say, here you guys do a great job of interacting. I see folks go up to visitors and others and interact with them. And I think that's exactly what God's talking about. That's really how we build one another in the faith, how we make a difference in our lives and in the lives of others by getting involved. And I think that's the whole concept of the local assembly.