Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast,
where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.
My name is Pastor Josh and I want to thank you for listening to
this podcast.
I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen
you in the word of God.
Now, come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has
for us here today.
If you have your Bibles this morning, we're going to open that
up in a few moments.
But I want to review with you just for a few moments about what
we've been talking about so far this year.
We've been talking about the goals for a growing church.
Now, last week we had a PowerPoint and notes.
This week you have notes and no PowerPoint.
And I'm going to tell you that technology can be a good thing when
it works, but when it doesn't work, it's a terrible thing.
And I had a whole PowerPoint set up for this morning, and I failed
to push that little button that says save.
And then when you get it all taken care of, I was ready to print
it this morning and get it all up there on the screen and I'm like,
where is it at?
So little confession time.
I did get the notes, though.
So on the back of your bulletins, if you got a bulletin
as you came in this morning, you should see the outline there
so you can follow along with me and I will do my best to try to
get you all the information so that you can have a full outline
there this morning and maybe even just maybe you can add some
extra stuff to the side of that here.
So we're talking about the goals of a growing church.
Last week, if you were not here, we talked about the first goal
of a growing church, and that is the gospel.
That that a growing church must be a gospel centric church.
A growing church must be a gospel preaching church.
A growing church must be a gospel living church.
And we define what that word gospel really means.
The word gospel literally means good news.
But we know that that good news is the good news of Jesus Christ.
The fact that Jesus came to this earth, he lived a perfect life.
He died on the cross for our sins.
He was buried in a tomb.
He resurrected on the third day and conquered death in that resurrection
so that we might have life, so that we might have forgiveness.
And so through faith, by God's grace, we are able to have salvation.
We are able to have everlasting life.
And that is the message that we proclaim.
That is the message that we live.
That is the Message that we center everything around within our
church.
Because if a church is not based in the gospel, the true question
is, is what will we be based in?
We could be based in a lot of different things, but all of those
things fall short of the importance of that gospel message.
Because we see at the very beginning of the church that the
whole purpose, the whole mission was to proclaim that message
to a lost and dying world, right?
Go ye unto all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
And we looked at what that meant.
We looked at the idea of this.
What do we preach?
Well, we preach the truth of Jesus.
How do we preach it?
We preach it boldly, with courage, with.
With plainness, with prayer.
You know, who do we preach it to?
Well, that verse tells us all.
Everybody.
Every person that you can preach it to.
You preach it.
You say, well, is that the pastor's job?
Is that the missionary's job?
Is that the deacon's job?
No, the Bible says all believers.
So everybody preaches.
And we preach in different ways.
Some people preach behind a pulpit.
Some people preach in the workplace.
Some people preach in their neighborhood.
Some people preach by the way that they serve.
The Bible says that we all have that responsibility.
So first step of a growing church is that we are focused on
the gospel.
We are focused on the truth of Jesus Christ.
We are focused in his word.
And so secondarily, we see this week the idea of the group.
And so we have to have an alliteration.
So we have gospel and group.
Now when we're talking about the group, we're talking about the
church.
So.
So to be a growing church, we have to have individuals that are
sold out for the gospel.
But those individuals are the ones that make up the church.
And so we come together corporately and we become the group.
And so it starts individually.
You can't have a group, you can't have a church without the individuals.
So the individuals need to be where they need to be so that they
can be the group.
But now we have to come together because we might have 200
people sold out for the gospel, but are we sold out for the
gospel and unified in our purpose?
Are we unified in our function?
Are we unified in our love?
And so the next step of a growing church is that we come together
and we understand the purpose of being an assembly.
And that's what we see here.
First and foremost, the church.
The word church is a translation of a Greek word that
is defined as an assembly.
So literally, the word church means assembly.
So today we are having church as we assemble together in this building.
Now, God forbid, this building is gone, we have no roof over our
heads.
Could we still have church?
The answer is yes, because it's the assembly of the believers.
And so when you drive by Middletown Baptist Church, the church
is not the building.
The church is not the steeple, even though that's a symbol of the
church.
The church is not the pews.
The church is not the pulpit.
The church is the people.
That that is, that is what the Bible teaches.
The, the Bible teaches that you are the church.
And so as we come together, whether we have 50 people or 5,000
people, that is the assembly of believers.
And so literally speaking, the church is a called out assembly,
an assembly of believers, assembly of people that are distinct,
different.
So what makes you a part of the church, not just your attendance?
Let's say someone walked in today and admittedly they were an
atheist.
They said, I don't believe that there is a God.
I don't believe in believing in him, I don't believe in any of
that.
And they come and they sit in this pew.
Does that make them part of the church?
No, that makes them part of our attendance today.
But it means really this, that they're just here, but they are not
of us.
The Bible speaks of there are people that were with us, but they
were not of us.
And then they went out from us because they were not of us.
So the Bible speaks to be a distinct part of the church, you
must be a born again believer.
You must be someone who has faith in Jesus Christ that goes back
to the gospel.
Now we believe in the book of Acts that it speaks of those that
were saved, baptized and added to the local church.
And so to be part of the assembly of believers, we believe
that's the process that one must take to come in faith in Jesus
Christ and then to be publicly professing their faith in baptism
and then identifying themselves with a local body of believers.
We talked about this last week.
There is a local body of believers, the local church.
And then we see that there is the worldwide universal body of believers
when we come to Christ.
So the beauty of this is that yes, we are Middletown Baptist Church,
we are the local church here in this area.
But if you went to, let's say you went to India and you're.
We're in India and we visit a church over there that's like minded
believing the same things.
Though we are not part of the local assembly, we are still part
of the family of God.
And there's this wonderful thing that you will See, if you go
to another country, they might be singing a different language,
they might be preaching a different language, they might have
different traditions and cultures within their church service.
But we can worship together because we're worshiping the same
Savior.
And that's the beauty of the church.
And so we come together as Middletown Baptist Church, as an
assembly.
And the Bible also uses a body, a physical body, as an example
of how a church should function.
So, yes, we are an assembly, but how does that assembly, how does
that church work and function properly?
Well, the Bible gives us an awesome example, a body.
And we all understand what it means for a body to be working in
unison, to be working well, to be working in a healthy way.
And so when we say that the church is the church body, we're
talking about the picture of something working together with different
parts.
And so we're going to go to Ephesians chapter four this morning.
This is going to be our main text.
And we're going to look at many other texts here this morning
talking about what it means for us to be a healthy group, what
does it mean for us to be a healthy church, what does it mean
for us to be a healthy body of believers working together in stride
for the cause of the gospel.
So the first step is the gospel.
The second spot, the second part, the second focus is the group.
How can we effectively proclaim the truth of God as a group?
Well, Ephesians chapter four, we're going to look at verses one
through six.
We're going to look at this concept of being one body in Christ.
I hope that you understand that when you look around this building,
you're going to see people from different backgrounds.
You're going to see people that look differently than you.
You're going to see different ages.
I hope that you're excited when you see the young people run
out for junior church.
That's an amazing thing to see.
And that's our next generation.
And if our whole church was one age, there would be a problem,
right?
If the whole church was kids, we would say, okay, we're going to
have some bad leadership here.
Okay?
The whole church was young families, that would be an issue,
right?
Because the young families wouldn't be able to look and see
how to raise their children.
If the whole church was, let's say, the more mature folks, we wouldn't
have the next generation, right?
So you see that there's this dynamic of we are one body, but we
are also different, which is a good thing.
And so In Ephesians chapter 4, verse 1, it says, I, therefore this
is Paul, prisoner of the Lord.
The prisoner of the Lord, beseech you, beg you, urge you that
you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called,
meaning this walk worthy of the job that God has given you.
We have all been given a job from God, a purpose from God.
We studied that at the end of last year and we've all been tasked
with that message of the gospel.
So how do we walk worthy of that?
Well, it says with lowliness.
That's humility, meekness, that's strength under control, that's
having a sense of knowing from exercising elements of our strength
with long suffering or patience, forbearing one another
in love.
So that's essentially this being patient with each other in
love.
And so what we can see is that part of the struggle within the body
is acting biblically with other believers.
How do we do that?
Lowliness, humility, love, forbearance, patience, meekness.
He says, you got to have that to walk the way that God walks, the
walk the way that God wants us to walk.
So, so we, we copy or we emulate the character of the Lord
in our church.
So verse three, endeavoring, striving to keep the unity of the
Spirit in the bond of peace.
So the Bible says that there is a challenge for us as believers,
as a church says, what do you need to strive for?
What do we need to endeavor to do?
Keep the unity of the Spirit.
What are we talking about?
What's the unity of the Spirit?
It means this.
If you're a saved, born again believer here this morning, you've
trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior.
We believe that God indwells us in the Holy Spirit.
Okay, so, so the Holy Spirit lives within you and the same Holy
Spirit that lives within you.
If there's another believer sitting across the aisle from you,
and if they have trusted in Jesus Christ as their savior, then
what we can see is that the same Spirit that lives within them
is the same Spirit that's living within you.
And so therefore we have something in the bond of unity, whether
we look the same or not, whether we come from the same background
or not, whether we're the same age or not.
So you say, I don't have anything in common with that person
over there.
Well, if you're a believer and they're a believer, you do.
You have the most important thing in common, that is the unity
of the Spirit in the bond of peace, in the clasp of peace, if
you will, the grip of peace.
So the whole idea is to keep the peace we have to have the unity
of the spirit.
And so as a believer today, what the challenge is for us is not
to assume that this unity comes naturally.
A lot of times we think that if we just go about our everyday
life and kind of go in the status quo and allow everything to
happen the way that it naturally happens, we'll just have
unity unless something comes up.
No, what we can see here is that the default mode is that there
is no unity, that there is division, that there is struggle,
that there is going to be people going back and forth on each
other.
So the Bible says, we endeavor, we strive for that idea
of keeping the unity.
So it's work, it's a challenge, sometimes even a struggle
to keep that unity.
But we say, no way.
I look at a bigger picture, I look at that bigger thought, I look
at the bigger purpose.
And so I want you to see the first mark of a healthy group, the
first mark of a healthy church.
There, as you see, is unity.
Unity.
Right above those three elements, we see a blank.
I want you, if you are taking notes, write unity there.
Now we're going to talk about the three elements of unity, the
three elements of unity in the church.
We're going to see that in Ephesians, chapter four, he says,
there is one body, one spirit, even as you are called in one hope
of your calling.
So we know that there's one body of believers.
We know that there's one spirit indwelling those believers.
We know that there's one hope with those believers.
Now, if you say, well, I'm hoping that 2025 is the best year
of my life.
I pray that all my finances are where they need to be.
I pray that all of my health is where it needs to be.
And that's my final hope.
And if I don't get that, I lose my hope.
Folks, we have the wrong picture of what our hope is really
supposed to be based in.
Folks, let me tell you something.
That's a theological truth.
Even if you have the worst year of your life in 2025, which
I hope you don't hope, it's the best year of your life, because
I love you.
The truth is, is that even if 2025 is the worst year of, of your
life, when it comes to circumstance, you still have hope
in Jesus Christ, in the eternal.
We all have that same hope.
We all have that same focus, Lord willing, when we're walking
with unity.
So even if my circumstance is a terrible circumstance this year,
maybe you lost a loved one.
Maybe things aren't going the way that you want them to go.
When it comes to politics or the news or your job or.
Or your health, you can say, you know what?
I still have a bigger hope in the call for my life to live a kingdom
focused lifestyle.
So he says you have one Lord.
One Lord, not 20 Lords.
The idea is, is that sometimes within a church, we have a hundred
people and there's a hundred lords.
Because we serve ourselves.
We're the focus.
The Bible says, no, we have one person that we serve.
That word Lord is a word that we use quite frequently, but it's
not sometimes what we understand it to mean.
We think Lord just means someone we really respect.
Lord means my master.
Lord means the one that I serve him and him alone.
What does the Bible say about serving more than one master?
You can't serve more than one master.
You can only serve one.
So you're either going to serve that one and hate the other,
or vice versa.
So what does he say?
Here we have one Lord, one person we worship, one person we
serve.
You're not serving the pastor.
Please never feel like I need to go because Pastor Josh is expecting
me to be there, folks.
Fact is that you could come and you could serve and effectively
get things done.
But at the heart of it, that's the wrong purpose.
You're not serving a man, you're serving the Lord.
And so the Bible says here, one Lord, one faith.
We don't come to our salvation by multiple different ideas of faith.
Well, as long as you have faith in something, that's okay.
As long as you have faith in your good works, as long as you have
faith in humanity, as long as you have faith in some kind of higher
power.
No, he says one faith.
And there's only one type of way that you can do that, and that
is through Jesus Christ.
I am the way, the truth and the life.
One faith.
One faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above
all and through all and in you all very clearly explains to us the
purpose of the church, and that is to glorify God and to live
together in unity, promoting the truth of Jesus Christ.
So we see here we have unity.
That's the first mark of a healthy group.
But I want you to see three elements of that unity.
First of all, within that unity, we must have humility.
We have the latitude to be different.
You would say, I don't know about that, Pastor.
We all need to look the same, talk the same, be from the same place.
I want you to see another passage of scripture that really
amplifies this idea of the body.
Go back to the body.
Right?
We're unified in the body.
Well, First Corinthians 12:12 talks about this.
We must have diversity within the body to work in unison.
Because if we're all serving in this ministry, we're going to
admittedly have some gaps in other areas.
If we're all serving in one way, at one capacity, with one style,
we're going to miss a huge portion of our community for the
cause of the gospel.
And so what we can see in First Corinthians, chapter 12, verse
12 is that there's this idea of explanation about the body and
how there's differences, but still working together.
So verse 12 says, for as the body is one unified, and have many
members, and all members of that one body, being many, are one
body, so also is Christ.
For by one spirit are we all baptized into one body.
Whether we be Jews or Gentiles, there's that diversity,
whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into
one spirit.
For the body is not one member, but many.
If the foot shall say, because I'm not the hand, I am not of the
body, is it therefore not of the body?
Meaning this?
The idea is, is that part of the body is, you know, let's say
the hand, this part of the body is different than the foot.
But are they still part of the same body?
Yes.
And if the ear shall say, because I am not the eye, I'm not
of the body, is it therefore not of the body?
The whole body were an eye, where were the hearing?
And so I love how he puts this.
Like, if we were all just.
And this is kind of a weird picture to put in our brains, if
we're just all one big eyeball, how could we hear anything?
Couldn't hear anything.
We would need the ear to hear something.
He says, if we were all the eye, how could we hear?
If the whole we're hearing, where are the smelling?
Right.
But now hath God set the members, every one of them, in the
body as it hath pleased him?
Meaning God wants this to happen.
God wants there to be people in different ways, in different paths
and different understandings of how they get to Christ.
Now, not different gospel, but, you know, praise God for the
people that were raised in a Christian home.
That's amazing.
And I think we should strive to have more folks within our church,
raising their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
That is our goal, that is our purpose.
That's a beautiful thing.
But some of you weren't raised in a Christian home, and you don't
have the same understanding, maybe that someone else did.
But the beauty of this is that it's okay.
You still have a place in the body of believers.
You still have a purpose.
You could bring something to the table with your experience that
can help maybe somebody else, maybe you can help somebody else
not go down that path because of some things that you've gone through
in your life.
Maybe you know what it means not to have a loving father, father
or mother.
And you can say, hey, let me show you what it means to have a
loving father and a mother to our families in our church.
And so what we can see here is that there is a purpose.
God has a purpose for you.
And so you are included in this.
And so verse 19.
And if there were all one member, where the body, but now,
are there many members yet?
But one body?
And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee,
nor again the hand to the feet, I have no need of you, Nay,
much more.
Those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are
necessary.
Meaning sometimes we feel like certain people that are in the church
are not as important as other people.
Hey, let's just be honest.
That's sometimes our natural inclination.
Well, look at the ministry that you have.
I'm not like that.
I can't do that.
Truth is that every element of the church is necessary.
We have to have everybody doing different things or we would
not be able to do anything.
And so there's no job more important than the other job, just
different.
And you can't say, well, I'm not the hand, so I don't.
I don't even want to come to church.
No, because you're the other part.
You're the part that needed.
That's needed over here.
And so that's the idea that there's humility and diversity in
this.
You could go more on and study that passage out, even, even more.
But I would encourage you to think about the importance of you
finding the place that God has for you, not what someone has for
someone else.
A lot of times there's jealousy.
I wish I could serve that way.
Why does that person get to get up and do this?
Why does that person have the opportunity to have three events
this month?
And this person only has two events this month?
Folks, the reality is, is that God has a plan and a purpose.
And when we come in with humility and diversity, we can understand
that it's not about us it's about him.
But then I want you to see the third element of unity, and that
is purpose.
We got to go back to the purpose.
What is the purpose?
We can't have unity without the purpose.
If the purpose is, hey, you know what?
I want people to like me or you know what my idea of purpose
is?
I want people to notice me.
I want people to praise me.
I want people to elevate me.
The whole idea is going to be messed up because what happens when
other people are elevated?
Well, I'm upset.
I'm mad.
There's no unity, folks.
It's the understanding of what is the purpose.
What is the purpose?
The purpose.
Okay, this is clear.
You guys will understand this.
The purpose is the gospel.
The purpose is the truth of scripture.
The purpose is seeing people come to Christ and then teaching
them how to walk in that in scripture.
That's the purpose of what we are called to do in the church.
No, I thought the purpose was that we have to make sure we have
three potlucks per year.
Potlucks are wonderful.
I love potluck meals.
Okay?
And when we do potlucks, by the way, I like deviled eggs.
So you can make all different.
I like diversity in deviled eggs.
Make them all different.
Okay?
But here's the thing.
That's not our ultimate purpose.
And I've used this as an analogy before.
Well, my purpose is that everyone will make sure that my deviled
eggs are the best in the church.
And if you don't try mine, then I'm going to get upset.
You see how silly churches can cause division and struggle and strife?
The Bible says no.
Our purpose is the gospel.
Who cares about some other things?
There's going to be things in.
In our church that you might have a different opinion on, and
it's okay to have that opinion.
I would encourage you to always have your opinion tied to
some element of scripture.
If it's a matter of color, like in the concept, like, well,
Pastor, we're going to build a new building, and we don't want that
new building to be, you know, aquamarine.
That might be a weird color to have.
I understand.
And.
And you don't have to tie that description, by the way.
Okay?
We can all have opinions that are just, you know, neutral.
But the idea for us is that when we're going to talk about things
that matter, our purpose, it needs to go back to the gospel, and
it needs to go back to the truth of scripture.
It needs to go back to understanding that there is a bigger
picture.
And it's the purpose of the Great Commission.
Go ye into all the world.
Preach, teach.
So we have the first element of, of a healthy church, the first,
excuse me, first mark of the healthy church.
And that is unity with humility, diversity and purpose.
But then I want you to see the second mark of a healthy church.
So looking at a church, you need to see unity for them to be
healthy.
For, for a church to be a healthy church, there has to be unity.
But then I want you to see number two.
There has to be community.
Community isn't the first purpose of the church, but there
has to be community within the church.
A church is a family, though a church is also a body.
It is a family.
It is a church family.
And so within the idea of community, we have to see encouragement.
To have community, you have to be encouraged.
Come with me to Hebrews chapter 10.
Very, very known passage of scripture.
And when we get there, you're going to understand why.
It's the, it's the verse or verses that people use when they're
talking about church attendance.
You need to be in church.
You need to go to church.
That's Hebrews chapter 10.
Agreed.
You should be in church.
Church attendance is important.
Doesn't make you saved.
You don't get saved by being in church.
You don't become extra spiritual just by being in a pew.
But there's actually more to it than just attendance.
It doesn't just stop at, hey, don't forsake the assembly of yourselves
together.
That is one element of it.
But I want you to see Hebrews chapter 10, verse 24.
It's always important to read the verse that comes right before
it.
Right.
This is not a, a point that I'm trying to make that, hey, church
attendance doesn't matter.
What I'm saying is how you attend church matters.
Hebrews chapter 10, verse 24.
And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and
to good works.
You go back a, a verse before that, he's talking about holding
fast to the profession of our faith without wavering.
So, so leading up to church attendance, he says the whole purpose
of this is to consider, to think about one another, to provoke
unto love and to good works.
The whole goal of church is to provoke each other to love and good
works, to encourage each other.
I want to encourage you, not just telling you that you're.
You know what, sometimes we think encourages this, telling people
what they want to hear.
Man, you look great today.
Well, that might be an Element of encouragement and it's okay to
do.
But what's the purpose of our encouragement here?
It says to consider one another, to provoke unto love and
to good works, to stir people up to love God and to love others.
To stir people up to serve God and to serve others.
That's the whole point, to encourage each other.
Verse 25.
You're familiar with this one.
Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together such the man
as some.
As the manner of some is so meaning this.
Some people are already forgetting to do this.
But exhorting.
There's that word, exhorting.
Exhorting means to challenge or to encourage, literally come alongside
of, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the
day approaching.
The Bible says one element of church, one element of getting together
as the group is to exhort one another to challenge one another,
to encourage one another, to build each other up, to edify one
another, to love and to good works.
Church.
Sometimes we walk into church with blinders on.
You know what I mean by blinders, right?
All you can see is what's in front of you.
You see the pastor, you can see your Bible.
Then you can see the.
The.
The road, the car.
Okay?
Truth is, is that we come into church and we look not just for ourselves,
but we look how we can provoke others to love and good works.
And in so doing, others will then look for how they can provoke
us to love and good works.
And so there's this idea of community with the element of encouragement.
But then I want you to see number two.
There's the element of community in the elephant element.
Elephant element of fellowship.
Fellowship is so important.
What I mean by fellowship, spending time with one another, getting
to know one another, serving together, laughing together, crying
together, hurting together.
Folks, relationships are forged sometimes in difficulty.
And that's part of fellowship.
Fellowship.
Confessing our faults.
James, chapter five.
Confessing our faults, one to another.
There's an opportunity for us to say, hey, look, this is what I'm
struggling with.
This is what I'm working on.
When we see the church as a place of community, there's a place
where we can come and we can fellowship.
Ephesians chapter two.
This was our whole theme for last year in many elements.
Excuse me.
Acts chapter 2.
Acts chapter 2, verse 42.
We had an opportunity for Acts 2:42 ministry, and we still will
have some more opportunities for that this year.
But the Bible says the early church, this is as almost as early
as you can get with the church.
Acts chapter 2 what were they doing?
What was their community like?
Well, they showed up on Sunday mornings for an hour, maybe an hour
and a half if the guy was preaching long, and then they went
home.
No, that's not what the fellowship looked like.
In Acts, chapter two.
What did the fellowship look like?
And they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine.
So they did listen to preaching and teaching and fellowship.
They spent time one another with one another and breaking in
bread they ate together and in prayers.
And then it goes down even further and tells us how frequently
they did this.
Verse 46.
If you look at verse 46, it says, and they continually continuing
daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house
to house, did ether meet with gladness and singleness of heart
daily.
The church is a daily community.
Church is not just Sunday morning.
Yes, we meet corporately Sunday morning.
We meet other times corporately as well, throughout the
week, if you didn't know.
We do meet other times.
We meet Sunday nights.
We meet Wednesday nights.
There's Bible studies throughout the week.
There's ministries throughout the week.
But the Bible says that the church is a daily endeavor to.
What does it say there?
It says that they went about worshiping, breaking bread, and they
did it with gladness.
They didn't do it like, oh, man, we got another church fellowship
today.
Don't they know that I'm a busy person?
No, they did it with gladness and singleness of heart.
They did it with unity.
So they fellowshiped with unity.
They fellowship with.
With gladness.
They fellowshiped with the everyday type of thing.
You know, folks, sometimes we get together in fellowship and we're
like, okay, we better be in our best behavior.
Pastor might be around, and we got to be in our church mode, folks.
You should be in church mode all the time, right?
Whether the pastor's around, whether your friends at church are
around, you are the church.
So when you leave this building, guess what?
You're still the church.
When you're at Walmart, you are an extension of the gospel.
That's hard because we're like, whoa, wait, wait, wait, wait,
wait.
It can't be that I'm an extension of the gospel.
On i95, when someone pulls out in front of me, okay, I get it, I
get it.
You.
You don't understand my workplace.
I can't be an extension of the gospel there.
The Bible says, yes, you have to be, because that's.
That's the church.
So it's daily.
So we see encouragement, fellowship, and then we see service.
One element of the community Is that I want to serve others.
Philippians chapter two says this, basically esteeming other people
better than ourselves.
Romans talks about that.
It says this, if I'm going to be part of the community, I want
to serve my community.
Now, we could talk about it from the broader sense of the Middletown
community, and we should be serving that community.
But if we're neglecting the folks within our midst, that's a
mistake as well.
And so there is an element of community, and that is service.
And that is, you know, it's explanatory.
It's self explanatory, right?
If there's a need within the church, we help.
The Bible says in the book of James, right?
There's taking care of the widows and the orphans.
That's speaking of taking care of people that can't take care of
themselves, possibly, and their culture at that time, it was
that cultural thing that they could not provide for themselves.
And so what I would say for us as a church as part of fellowship,
is looking out for the needs of others within the church.
And this is hard because you can't really legislate this.
But what I would say is that there should be compassion in our
hearts to say, hey, if I know of a need within the church and I
have the ability to take care of that need, I need to do that.
Let me tell you, there are some times where you need to pray
about some things, and there's other times where I don't think you
need to pray about it, right?
Like, oh, should I'm gonna really.
Should I.
Should I love my wife today I'm gonna really pray about that,
folks.
Love your wife, right?
It's Christ, love the church.
It's very.
It's a simple command.
It's a simple can the Bible to have compassion and be able to provide
for people that are in need.
Sometimes we need to pray about it.
If at what capacity we can help, right?
You might say, well, I.
I could help them in a big way, but that might hit me financially.
Pray about that.
Allow the Lord helping you in that area.
But the desire should be there.
Don't pray, don't pray.
Well, should I desire to help this person?
The desire is already there, so you should help that person.
If the desire is not there, I would encourage you to think about,
hey, am I looking and praying for those opportunities.
So three elements, encouragement, fellowship, and service.
I want you to see the third mark of the healthy church, and that
is accountability.
Not one that we want to celebrate very often, but this is.
This is a big one.
Accountability.
Now, let me preface that with this.
There is an ultimate accountability before God.
All right, so, so what do I mean by that?
Well, you only answer to God for your sins, right in the, in the
concept of he's the only one that can judge you.
So he's the ultimate judge.
And so therefore your.
Your ultimate accountability is before the Lord.
But there is an element of accountability within the local church.
And, and I have really three scriptures that I would like us to
look at.
One, we were just looking at Hebrews, chapter 10, verse 24.
Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works.
And then we see in verse 25, but exhorting one another part of
accountability is exhorting.
Let me give you a practical.
Let me give you a practical application of this.
Okay?
And, and we talked a little bit about this in our Bible study
this morning in my Sunday school class.
Let's say that I have a church member here.
And like, don't, don't think of me as a pastor.
Just think of me as a fellow brother in Christ.
And I'm watching this brother.
He's my friend, and I've invested with him, I've prayed with
him, I've served with him.
And I start to see certain elements of his life turning to sin,
turning to something that's going to cause him to step away from
the truth of God.
There's a right way that I can do this, and there's a wrong way
that I can do this.
The right way would be this in love.
Coming.
What does exhortation mean?
Literally coming alongside of.
Not coming from up top and condemning, but coming alongside
of.
And saying, hey, I've noticed this in your life.
You know that I love you.
You know that I'm here with you.
You know that I have no other motives, but I want to encourage
you.
I want to challenge you to get to a place in your life that would
allow you to align yourself with Scripture.
Now, how they respond to that is going to be indicative of where
they stand before the Lord.
They might be standing in pride and going, forget you, who
are you?
And there you go.
But there's a way that you do it.
There's a way that you don't do it in condemnation.
There's a way that you don't do it from, hey, you know what Jesus
says?
If you have a plank in your eye, don't go trying to pick the
speck out of another brother's eye.
So if you're causing strife within the church everywhere, and
then you go to someone else and say, hey, I saw you cause strife
over here.
There's an issue there.
But as you have grown in your maturity in Christ and you have inspected
your life, there might be a time where you need to come alongside
of somebody and exhort them to love and good works.
That's hard.
That's a part of church that we don't do very often because there's
a fear of offending other people.
And I understand that.
And that's why I say that there's a right and a wrong way to
do it.
If someone walks in today for the first time to this church, they
walk in and they sit down and there's something evident to me about
their lives that needs to change.
But I don't know them.
I don't know their background.
I've never built any trust with them.
I've never built any sweat equity with them.
I may or may not come down on them right away and go, hey, by the
way, I noticed that you need to change that before you come back
into the church.
You can't do that.
There's not that relationship built there.
But If I've spent 20 years with an individual and we've served
together, we've sacrificed together, we've cried together, there's
a lot more of a receptance to that message.
But then on the flip side of things, for some of us, we might
be the ones receiving that exhortation.
How do we receive that exhortation?
That's a challenge, too, never to receive the exhortation and pride.
I.
I had a pastor friend of mine tell me one time, when someone comes
to you with a criticism, it's going to be very hard for you to
receive that.
But always receive it in the honesty and saying, is there something
here?
Is there something here that I need to address in my life?
And many times there have been people who have come and said things
to me, and my first immediate reaction is, who are you to say,
there it is.
You guys know what I'm saying there?
And then it's like this.
Well, maybe if I pray about that, maybe that isn't completely
true, but maybe there's an element there.
Maybe there's something there that I need to inspect in my life
to say, well, maybe.
Why is that question placed out there, folks?
Just as much as there's an importance of us exhorting others,
we need to be able to receive that exhortation when it comes with
the church.
And so there's accountability there.
I want you to see another passage of scripture, Romans chapter
15.
We're going to move somewhat quickly here.
Romans, chapter 15, verses 1 and 2.
This speaks to the heart of accountability.
Okay?
So when you hear the word accountability within the church,
depending on where you grew up, depending on what type of church
you've been a part of, depending on where you stand in your
own life, that word has different connotations, meaning this.
Sometimes I hear accountability.
I think it's just someone up there trying to take notes and give
me demerits.
I grew up in a Christian school, and the Christian school
for me was that there were people that would walk around with
their demerit books, and every time I didn't adhere to one of the
dress code rules, it was, you got a demerit.
And that's how sometimes we feel like accountability is.
Accountability is just trying to drop the hammer on people.
And sometimes that's how humans do it.
That's how sometimes we do it within the church.
Accountability.
Well, I'm just going to look at every Sunday I'm here to try to
find everyone's flaws.
And we look and we go, yeah, I saw the way that, that husband and
wife were coming out of their car.
They're a bunch of hypocrites.
I bet you they were yelling at each other in that car.
And now they're trying to put on a happy face.
I know that to be true.
Right.
You see how you can be like the gospel police?
Okay, we're not called to be the gospel police.
So there's a spirit to the accountability.
There's a spirit to the accountability.
Look at it with me In Romans, chapter 15, verses 1 and 2, we them
that are strong, to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to
please ourselves.
The part of accountability is not so that I can catch someone in
the wrong, but it's to lift them up when they're hurting.
Verse 2.
And let every one of us please his neighbor for his good.
To edification.
Accountability is for the betterment of the person.
It's not to catch somebody and make ourselves look like we are the
ones that are better.
It's to help the other person up.
It's to do it in love.
It's to help those that are weak.
And the Bible speaks more about that in that passage of Scripture.
It speaks to that idea of Jesus's humility and how we can model
that in our own life.
So what I would encourage you to think about is this.
When we are, if we create a spirit of accountability within church,
let's say someone stops coming to church within, you know, this
Year they two, three, four months, you haven't seen them.
And it's not calling them and going, what's wrong with you?
What's your problem?
Why aren't you in church?
It's doing it in a spirit of, like, how can we restore this person
to fellowship?
You know, you see a.
A marriage struggling, it's not, hey, we want to pick that marriage
out and make them feel bad.
We want to say, hey, how can we get that couple in the nurture
and admonition of the Lord to raise their children to come together,
to be unified?
So it's.
It's not a judgmental thing, or at least, let's say condemnation
thing.
It's.
I'm wanting to help.
And it's the spirit of things.
Right?
We understand the spirit of things.
And so with the spirit of accountability in the church is always
to lift people up, to edify each other, to encourage them, never
to press them down and to condemn them.
And so we see that, and then we see another passage of scripture
that probably all of you, if you've been in church any amount
of time, have heard.
And that is a proverb in Proverbs, chapter 27.
Proverbs 27, verse 17.
The idea here would be the accountability means that we become
stronger together.
Proverbs 27:17.
Iron sharpeneth iron.
So a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.
As I grow, I want others to grow.
As I learn.
I want others to learn as I struggle.
I don't want other people to struggle, but I want to be able to
encourage them to a place where they can grow just like I've
grown.
And I think a lot of times that's like, well, who do you think
you are?
Well, the pride.
If it's done in pride, right, it's wrong.
But if iron sharpens iron.
So as it says here, a man sharpeneth the countenance of his
friend.
That idea of countenance just means his life, his demeanor, his
walk.
And so that's the purpose of accountability, to strengthen each
other, not to catch each other in wrongs and, and right to merit
in church demerits.
And you're out.
You know, you're out of God's good graces because you haven't taken
communion.
You're out of God's graces because you haven't attended church.
No, it's to.
How can we get A Galatians, Chapter 6 talks all about this.
Restoring the brother in love.
Because guess what?
We need to be cautious, because if we were in that place,
that's what we would want.
Treat others as we would want to be treated.
You know what?
When you're hurting, what do you want people to do?
Beat on you more?
No, you want people to help you, encourage you, strengthen you.
That's the same thing when it comes to how we deal with other people
within the church.
Folks, 2025, I'm looking around and I'm not.
I don't know, but some of us might come through some hard times
this year, and not just financially, but maybe spiritually.
Maybe I will come into a place where I go through a spiritual struggle
this year.
What do I want to see within the church?
Us lifting each other up in those times.
And that's the idea of accountability.
So a healthy church, a mark of a healthy church, would be unity,
community, and accountability.
But we're going to end with this one here.
And that is ability.
Ability.
When we are a healthy church, we have the ability to do wonderful
things for the Lord.
I put it down there.
When a body of believers can work together with the power of God
in their midst, amazing things can happen.
Amazing.
You want to see things really happen for the cause of the gospel?
Let's work together.
Let's have accountability, let's have community.
If we do that, we're going to be unified in our purpose, going
to be unified in our service, and we're going to be able to see
amazing things happen.
You want to see people coming into the church, getting saved, getting
baptized, reaching people in our community, reaching people in
our world.
We have the ability to do that in Christ, In Christ.
And we think sometimes that the church has lost its luster.
Sometimes we even feel like we have the church.
It's just not effective as it used to be.
The church is.
Is losing its feet in this world.
No, it's the individuals that are making up the church that are
losing strides, folks.
When we come together and do what God has called us to do, the
church is still powerful in his power because he's still powerful.
It's his institution.
The Bible says the gates of hell won't prevail against us.
And that's not a passive thing.
That's an active thing.
That means we're going out.
It means we're contending for the faith, that we're challenging
the world with these truths.
And so there is ability here.
And the ability is to see God's power working through us, in
us, for us, and all together.
We can see working in the concept of bringing people to Christ.
And so there's this wonderful ability that we have, and that is
relying and trusting in him and coming together.
And we can see things happening more than we could ever
imagine in our community, in our church, in our own lives.
I think a passage of scripture that can be seen in that is the book
of ecclesiastes.
Ecclesiastes, chapter 4, verse 9.
Some of you might have used this verse.
Some of you might even have this.
This is a classic one that people put up in their homes and
things like that.
But in the book of Ecclesiastes, you could take this
in the context of a marriage, you could take this in the context
of a family.
You could take this in the context of your relationship with
Christ.
You can take this within any context.
But Ephesians, chapter four, we see two are better than one because
they have a good reward for their labor.
For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow.
But woe to him that is alone when he falleth.
For he hath not another to help him up again.
If two lie together, then they have heat.
But how can one be warm alone?
Here's an amazing truth in verse 12.
And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him.
And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
So this idea here is that, yes, when we link up together, we
are strong.
When we link up together in Christ, we are even stronger.
So I would encourage you, like, hey, two people getting together
is better than one.
200 people getting together is better than two.
But when we add the Lord in the mix as well, the Bible says very
clearly here that we're even stronger.
And so we get together.
Yes, there is that community, there is that unity, there is that
fellowship.
But we do it not in the sense of our own wealth, our own worth,
our own goodness.
We do it in the power of God.
And we know that we're a lot stronger when we're unified with
others.
But ultimately, we have the power of God in our lives when we're
unified with him.
And so there's teamwork there.
Teamwork.
Think about how you fit into the team.
Not the team of Middletown Baptist Church alone, but the team
of the gospel.
Where's your place?
I remember growing up playing sports, right?
You know, everyone wanted to play certain positions.
Some of you that know sports know what I'm talking about.
Different sports are different things.
I can use, for example, football.
Everyone wanted to be the quarterback.
That was the cool guy throwing the ball around and on our team.
And everyone wanted to be the quarterback.
And so the coach says, oh, you guys want to be the quarterback,
let's try out.
And like 30 guys would get out trying to throw the ball because
we wanted to be the quarterback.
Not all of us had the ability to do it.
And there was one that stood out amongst the rest, and so he was
the one that was the quarterback.
But guess What?
The other 29 guys, we didn't just go quit.
We had a small Christian school, so they needed every single
person to be on the team.
So we went and played other positions.
Maybe not the one that was going to score the touchdown.
Maybe some of these guys are the ones that were blocking for the
other ones, and they got no glory.
Those guys that were blocking for the quarterback, they're sitting
there doing everything they can, getting bloody and tired and
bruised, and they're holding everyone back.
And the guy just sits back there and just tosses the ball.
And everyone cheers for the guy who threw the ball.
And no one was cheering for the guys that were protecting him.
Truth is, though, that that person right there was doing a valuable
work because without them, the person that was throwing the ball
was not able to do anything.
It's the same thing within the church.
You might not be able to say, you know what, Pastor?
You don't.
You don't want me getting up and speaking, okay?
I'm just not the.
I'm not the public speaker.
But your support, your prayers, your sacrifice, your service
can allow other people in the church to do certain things.
And then you can, by way of extension, and really directly affect
the cause of the gospel.
Who knows what your role is within the church?
And so it's teamwork.
It's not seeing that, hey, everyone has to be this way, or everyone
has to be this way.
You might say, you know, the years of me traveling and going out
are gone.
Okay, Pastor, it takes everything for me to just get out
of my house, get in the car, come to church.
I understand that.
I understand that not everyone's at that same place right
now, but maybe God has helped you in a specific area that say,
you know what?
I have a lot of time now.
Retired.
I don't have a 9 to 5 anymore.
I could sit and pray for a couple hours a day for different
people in the church.
That could be my ministry.
My ministry could be that I call people, hey, God's really blessed
me financially.
I can't go to a.
A mission field, but I could support someone to go to the mission
field.
You see?
You see how there's alternatives to what we expect to
be the, the way to serve God.
And so there's teamwork there.
And so I have a last point here.
It's that last phrase and I think it kind of summarizes everything
that we've talked about today.
I put down there.
This takes humility.
Everything that we're talking about today takes humility.
First Corinthians, chapter three.
You guys are familiar with this passage.
There were people in First Corinthians chapter 3 that were saying,
I'm from Paul, I'm from Apollos, I'm from this speaker, I'm
from this speaker.
And, and what Paul says is this.
For while one says, I am of Paul, this is verse four, First Corinthians
three, if you want to write this down.
For while one saith, I am of Paul and another, I am of Apollos,
are you not carnal?
He says, that's fleshly.
Who then is Paul?
And who is Apollos but ministers, servants by whom ye believed,
even as the Lord gave to every man I have planted.
Paul says, I've planted the seed.
Apollos, he watered it, but God gave the increase.
Takes humility.
It's not saying, well, look here, it's this person who did this.
It's this person who did this.
It's God who did this.
God's the one who gives the increase.
You might be the one that plants the seed, you might be the
one that waters the seed, but you are going to never be the one
that brings that fruit forward.
That is always God.
And so it's a complete humility on him.
It's a complete statement of saying, I don't need to be the one
that is the one who wins the prize.
I can be the one that sets the seed into the ground and lets that
go in motion.
Think about people 50 years ago here in Middletown Baptist Church
that planted seeds that we are reaping today.
Think about that.
Think about if The Lord tarries 50 years from now.
Think about things that you could do now that you might not ever
see the outcome of.
But people 50 years from now can say, wow, I'm thankful for those
people back then that sacrificed and that served and that.
And that did all of that.
Folks, I think that so many times in our society we're so self
focused that we're in the microwave society, I need it right
now.
Where's the benefit right now?
But are we willing to play the long game?
You know, in Eastern cultures, they're willing to do that.
They're willing to say, this is a generational thing, we don't
need to have the outcome right now.
And what I would say for us as Christians is that we need to, to
some degree, not just live for ourselves, but live for the next
generation.
Live for, you know, sacrifice now for the young people, use the
freedoms that we have now for the gospel, that maybe two to three
generations from now might not have those freedoms.
The beauty of the Internet is that we can put a lot of content
out there and that's there, okay?
The beauty of allowing ourselves to reach the, in the world
and the impact of the gospel means that, hey, you know what?
A lot of people tried to wipe away the truth.
The Roman Empire tried it.
Many, many dictators have tried to wipe out the influence of
the Gospel in certain countries.
I'm going to tell you that that never goes away.
It's not the influence of the gospel will not go away if we proclaim
it.
But I will say that the impact of the gospel in a community, in
a country, in an area, in a church, can pass away in one generation.
And I don't want to miss it.
I don't want to be the one that drops the torch.
I want to be the one that passes the torch.
And so it takes humility.
But then, as we mentioned, diversity, 1 Peter 4, 10, 11 speaks
of the manifold grace of God, the various graces of God.
So, meaning this, it's okay to be different, it's okay to serve
in a different ministry.
It's okay.
And then lastly here, and I think this is the most important
one, and then we're done.
To do all of this, to have these marks, takes a reliance on
reliance on the Lord.
I'll leave you with one last verse here.
To be the group that we need to be, to be the church that we need
to be, we need a complete reliance on the Lord.
John 15, 5.
Jesus is speaking to his followers and he says, I am the vine,
ye are the branches.
He that abideth or liveth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth
forth much fruit.
For without me you can do nothing.
The phrase that we can take with us this morning is, without
God, without Christ, we can do nothing.
With him, we can have wonderful fruit.
With him, we can be the group that God has called us to be.
Without him, we're just a social club that has flawed people.
But with him, we are the bride of Christ.
With him we are the ones who have all power given to us through
Jesus Christ.
Now we don't have the power.
We're not like.
So, like, I'm not all powerful, but I am in a relationship
with the one who is all powerful, and without him, I can't
do nothing.
And so I would encourage you to think about that when we come
to this idea of the group.
I'm going to ask if you're able to stand with me, every head
bowed, every eye closed as the music plays here.
This is a time for introspection.
This is a time for reaction.
This is a time for decision.
When we have a time of invitation.
This isn't just to say, hey, you know what?
How many of you are really failing in your life and you need
to come forward and get everything right.
That's not what this is talking about.
This, this time that we do is not a legalistic time just to get
numbers.
This is a time for you to respond to God.
You can respond to God in your heart.
You can respond to God physically here this morning by coming
up here and kneeling at the steps.
But all of us, as we last week hopefully dedicated ourselves to
the gospel, how many of us are dedicated to being part of the body
of Christ, to endeavor for the unity of the Spirit, to be willing
to say, I'm going to be humble enough to seek, to encourage others,
to seek to serve others, to be able to put myself in that place
of accountability within the church, though I'm ultimately accountable
to God.
And by the way, let me just be clear here this morning.
None of you need to confess anything to me.
I am not your priest, okay?
You go right to God.
You have that access to Him.
That's a beautiful access.
And so this is not about coming to me and being accountable
to me.
It's just the idea of bringing each other together and lifting each
other up.
That's the accountability.
And so may we this morning understand where we're at in that
process.
Am I willing to give accountability?
Am I willing to exhort others, and am I willing to receive exhortation?
That's something that we could ask the Lord to give us strength
in here this year.
But are we willing to work together with the power of God, with
humility, diversity, and reliance on him, to get the work
of the gospel to the world?
Today is a day where you can dedicate yourself to that.
This morning, if you don't know Jesus as your Savior, we've
mentioned the gospel at the very beginning.
The Gospel is that good news of Jesus Christ.
You can trust in Him.
Today.
The Bible says that if you trust in him in faith, if you give
yourself to him and say that you can't forgive yourself and only
he can forgive you, that is the moment in your life where all
of your burdens fall out and you know that you have everlasting
life, your sins are forgiven and you can know that Jesus is your
savior, that he died on the cross for your sins and that he conquered
death through the resurrection, that he extends life.
John 3:16 and so this morning, if you need that in your life, if
you want to be part of the church, if you want to know what
it means to be a member, if you want to know what it means to
be someone who is walking with that one hope in Jesus Christ, you
can come forward and we've got some folks up here that can show
you in the Bible what it means to know Jesus as your Savior.
So Lord, I pray that you be in this time of invitation, working
hearts and lives.
Thank you for what you've done for us.
Thank you for giving us the church.
Thank you for allowing us to be part of the assembly being part
of the church.
Thank you for letting us be your bride.
We long for the day in which we can be with you face to face.
So I pray that you be in this time of invitation, working hearts
and lives in Jesus name, Amen.
As the music plays, follow as the Lord leads here this morning.
Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church
podcast.
I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.
If you would like to find out more information about our church
or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org
or find us on Facebook or YouTube.
You can also email me directly at Josh massaro@middletownbaptistchurch.com.
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Thank you so much.
God Bless.
Have a wonderful day.