Reese, Joe: Week Of Meetings-1991-03 ~ Marks Of A Healthy Assembly

Night, like we did yesterday afternoon. Arnett was going to bring me a flashlight, but he forgot it. So we'll have to speak fast and hope we get through. I've got, uh, I've got quite a lot of things to say tonight, and I- I'm- I'm not sure yet exactly how I'm going to do it, but I believe these things are important. We've been taking the theme of evangelism or reaching out or missions, this type of a theme, and really under the broader theme of what is God's plan for evangelism in the last days? And I'm going to address that subject tomorrow evening, Lord willing. What is God's plan for evangelism in the last days? And, uh, we're going to, uh, I believe, just take what you think is the most simplest thing and show you that God's plan has not changed since the first day. And in the last days, it's going to be the very same thing. God is not looking for a new plan. God is looking for people to fulfill the first plan, which he has determined to be the only plan that I see in evangelism. But this evening, um, I would like to look at a, a few things. We're going to sort of be flipping through the scriptures here on some of the marks, we might call some of the earmarks of a good, healthy assembly. This is an assembly that, uh, unlike, if you please, the assembly at Corinth, where the Apostle, uh, Paul came along and said, you reigned as kings without us. Uh, you were wise, we were stupid. You were strong, and we were weak. You were esteemed, and we were despised. And we only assume from that passage that what he was referring to is that Corinth looked like a big church, and it looked like they had a lot going for them. Well, if you read those letters, you'll find out they had a lot going on, but most of it wasn't exactly right, and they had trouble. But on the outside, it looked okay. And I suppose what I'm driving at is that on the outside, a lot of our assemblies look okay, but on the inside they're desperately hurting because they're lacking some of the characteristics that would make them a healthy, vital, zealous assembly. I'd like for you to take your Bibles and turn to Acts chapter twenty, first of all, and my first point would be this: you cannot have a healthy assembly without having healthy elders. Elders. I'd like to just put it like this: elders that lead and not that lower. Elders that lead and not that lower. In Acts chapter twenty, the apostle is addressing the elders at Ephesus, and uh, in this chapter, there are tears mentioned three times. That'd be a good thing for the elders to do, it'd be a good thing for all of us to do, learn how to shed tears a little bit. We seem to live in a society that says it's not manly to shed tears. It's, uh, it's not masculine, not macho. Well, Jesus will. Jesus was full of compassion, and he showed his emotions on occasion. It would be good for us as well. Nevertheless, look at verse 28. Acts chapter twenty. Take heed the warning that caution flags are flying. Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves, elders, and to all the flock over which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to feed the church of God, which he has 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. I understand that this word perverse means they just give a twist to it. They just twist it just a little, to make it questionable, perhaps. Perverse things. What's the motive? 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 peace. Peace. You see, elders in a local assembly are going to set the standard for that assembly. The assembly is not going to be any better than the elders. The assembly is not going to be any more spiritual than the elders. The assembly is not going to be any more zealous than the elders, and the elders have to lead, not lower. Let's go to Peter's account and just read that, found in First Peter chapter five, please, and then we'll make some comments. First Peter chapter five. Want a healthy assembly, got to have healthy elders. First Peter chapter five verse one. The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind, neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples or examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves to the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility, for God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he might exalt you in due time. I want to make a few comments, but I want to pray before I do. Can we pray? Lord, we know that for the most part, we all fall short of what you would have us to do. I mean, if we're really honest, Father, we'd have to say, oh God, help. And Father, we know that, uh, you have raised up men. There are many in this congregation tonight who are overseers in the Senate. Lord, I would pray that as I make these comments, you would guard my mouth. You would not allow anything that is said from this platform tonight to be used of the enemy, but by the Spirit of God, to confront overseers and those in the assembly as well. Lord, even me. These are, uh, these are serious things, and they need to be confronted. And we just ask thee for help right now, by thy spirit's power, in Jesus' name. Amen. The scriptures are very, very clear. That a teacher is under a greater condemnation, that is a greater judgment, than one who is not a teacher. That overseers are in a responsible position and function in the assembly. They will bear greater judgment as well. They will be responsible. They have to give an account to God, Scripture says. When it comes to being that example, I want to challenge you this evening. There are double standards being set all the time. One standard for me, another standard for you. One standard for elders, another standard for the congregation. Pardon me if I be a little rude, but I don't see that in the scripture. And what I'm about to say to these elders, particularly addressed to elders, I want you to know that it also applies to every person here. Because you are to be just as spiritual as your elders. However, you may not have been raised up by God to be an elder. You do have that responsibility. Elders, don't be lords over God's heritage, but be examples to the flock. Can I tell you that unless you can say tonight to your assembly, follow me, you're not fulfilling the function that God has given you. Follow me to work tomorrow. Watch me as I go about my job and pattern your life after what I do on the job tomorrow. Follow me to my business. Speak to my bookkeeper. Speak to, uh, my manager. Find out how I, uh, live before them. Uh, find out how I run my business and set your life after it. Follow that for your business. Go home with me and ask my wife what I'm really like behind closed doors and pull drapes. Talk to my children and see if I'm the father and the husband that I ought to be, and then pattern your life. Let me be an example to you. Follow me into my leisure time, when I go on my vacation, when I go boating or fishing or engaged in sports and activities, follow me into my leisure time and let that be an example to you for your leisure time. Follow me into my den, look at my magazines on the rack, uh, turn on my television and watch the programs that I watch, and then pattern your life after what you see in my den. Follow me into the elders meetings and the counseling session, and pattern your life by the attitude, the compassion, and the advice that I give. Follow me into the marketplace and see how I have a heart for souls. See how I witness on my job and at other places, and pattern your life after me. Be examples to the flock. Be ye followers of me, even as I am of the Lord. I believe with all my heart, beloved, you get elders leading by example. You get people following them. I'm not here to roast the elders tonight, but I know this assembly will go no further than they go. I know that. Marks of a healthy assembly? Elders that lead, not that have a double standard and law, but that lead. Take heed, elders, the scriptures say. How about the people? Well, the marks of a healthy assembly have a people that follow and not fight. The elders are to lead and not lord, but the people are to follow and not fight. Let's go to, uh, Hebrews chapter thirteen, just for a moment. Hebrews chapter thirteen. We begin reading in verse seven. Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. Considering their manner of life. Verse seventeen: obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls as they that must give an account, that they may do it with joy and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you. I don't know how many times I have sat among elders and wept over the conduct of some of the saints. It just, the other day, a, a, a fellow came to me, and you, you always got people giving advice who don't know anything. Did you ever know that? He said, the thing that's wrong with our elders, they spend all their time planning meetings, and they never get dealing with anybody on a personal basis. I looked at him. I said, you gotta be joking. I said, I don't remember the last time we even had a planning meeting for meeting. I said, all of our time is spent for the care of the flock. We can't even get far enough down the road to start planning meeting. The sheep are sick, and it takes a lot of care. You know, we have a... a thinking that goes around today. It's been, it, it's been propagated, I hope not intentionally, but it has been propagated that our assemblies are in terrible, absolutely bad shape. They're, they're drying up, they're folding up, they're fading away, they're, they're rottening away, they're decaying, they're lost because there's no leadership. God forbid. I don't believe that. I don't believe that. There's always room for improvement. The biggest room in the world is the room for improvement, someone said. And I'm not saying we don't need to keep on trying to do better, but I'll tell you, we do have some godly men in leadership today. We do have some men who are on their knees weeping over the flock. We've got men who are out there visiting and counseling and doing their God-given best, and what do they get in return? Fighting, bickering, contention, abuse, misuse from the people they love, from the people they're trying their best to help. Paul could say, the more I love you, the less I be loved, and there, there are elders out there like that. Just because you read something in a magazine, don't you believe it all. God has some men that he's raised up and laid his hand on, and they are God's men for the assemblies, and we need to be respecting them and honoring them and submitting to them and willingly doing that, praying for them and encouraging them, not fighting. Not every chance you get stabbing them in the back. You'll give an account for that. They're not perfect, they're people. They need your help. And if you're going to have a healthy assembly, you got to have elders that lead and people that follow. You just got to have it. And you won't get by without it. You can fake it, and you can run on empty, but I'll tell you, it runs out, and there's nothing but the flesh at the end, and we need spirit-filled Christians who love the Lord and who are willing to be obedient to this word. You know, if it comes to a problem and you say, I don't agree with what the elders are doing, just turn them loose to the Lord. God's gonna hold them accountable, not you. They- they're going to answer. Now, if it's a doctrinal thing or if it's a moral thing, hey, that's a different story. Now, you know that. We're not talk- we're talking about nitpicking stuff, aren't we? We- we're talking about things that are personality conflict, not doctrine, not moral things. Very few assemblies ever have problems in that area, really. We're talking about prejudices and biases and things that I could live with if I was a submitted servant. Things that I could live with if I'd humble myself, and things that I could do that would set an example to my elders that they could do the same thing, but I won't give them a chance. I'm gonna bless them. And I'm gonna run around behind the back and tell everybody they made this big mistake. I'm not gonna pray for them. Oh, I couldn't pray for them. You wanna have a healthy assembly, you're gonna have to. Third thing I want to talk about, and I'm sorry for moving on, but we just have to, because I got a lot to say here. A love for the Lord and his word. You want to have a healthy assembly, you got to have a love for the Lord and his word. Go to Revelation chapter three. Revelation chapter three. And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, these things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man openeth. I know thy works. Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it. For thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. If you're going to have a healthy assembly, you have to cultivate, that is, the elders have to set that example, and the flock has to follow that example of cultivating a love for the Lord Jesus and a love for his word. Those are two indispensable things. If this assembly here ever decided that they just didn't really need the Bible anymore. You say, well, now that'll never happen. Well, God forbid, but you couldn't say it would never happen. Then the best thing that I could tell you to do is get out of here. I mean, you can appeal it and fight for it and all that and try to, you know, but I mean, ultimately you got to either, you don't stay and fight, you can appeal it. The Bible says come out from among them. Now, if there ever came a time that that happened here, you just, you have to go. Because you got to be faithful to the Lord, and you got to be faithful to his word. That's an absolute must. Can never be divorced from that. We'll talk about that tomorrow night. But here is a church that God set an open door, and it wasn't a big church like Corinth. It just had a little strength, only three cars in the parking lot. They didn't have a wanna. Probably didn't even have Sunday school. Probably just got together and remembered the Lord, just a few of them. Had a little strength. And God saw something among them. Look, he said, thou hast kept my word and not denied my name. When you get a church that is keeping the word of God, saturated with the word, you're getting a church that is, that is dedicated to the Son of God. Then you're going to have an assembly that's activated by the Spirit. But you've got more than that. You've got an assembly that God opens a door. And that nobody can shut that door. And it's not because they were doing it great big things, and God said, oh, you, you've got to this plateau, I'm going to open up more and more and more. God says, look, there are two reasons that I opened this door. I know your heart. Your heart was turned to my son, and your heart was turned to his word. And the door was open. Doctrine and breaking the bread. They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and the breaking the bread. I've done a little bit of traveling this past year, sometimes more than I wanted to, and I found that there is a tendency among assemblies today to have a rather large family Bible hour and a significantly less people at the breaking the bread. Doctrine, fellowship, breaking the bread, prayers, these are all part of the assembly. But some people today are saying, well, breaking the bread is not that important. When you say that I'm too tired, or I'm too sick, or I'm too busy, or I'm too something to get out to break bread and remember the Lord, you're denying his name. You are. Now, I'm not saying that you're going to make, you know, fifty two Sundays a year or whatever it is. I don't know how many you're going to make, but I'm saying that's where your heart needs to be. Can I tell you a story? I know I'm, I'm not going to do too good tonight anyhow. I might as well tell this story. I did not appreciate the breaking of bread when I came among the assemblies in nineteen seventy nine. I I didn't didn't appreciate see. it. I knew it was in the scriptures, and I knew you ought to do it occasionally, and I thought you'd do it every week. That's much too often. Besides that, you ought to be having Sunday school class and teaching that book. You're wasting a lot of good teaching time by having that broken book. You tell me the way I felt in nineteen seventy nine when I moved to New Lister to start working among your family. After about two years of sitting in and listening and participating as the Lord led me to do so, and broadening my itinerant ministry, I got discouraged. Matter of fact, I got very discouraged to the point that I was, uh, I- I just didn't, I didn't know where the Lord was in my life anymore. And what had happened was I had let the ministry become a job, and uh, my heart wasn't in it anymore, just my mind and my hands and my feet and all that. And I was academically doing it all, going away and preaching all these great messages and everybody patting me on the back, oh, that's so good, you know. Inside you're on empty, just on. And when I told my wife how I felt, to my horror and surprise, she felt the same way. And we got before God, and we said, God, we don't know what went wrong, but it's just not good. We don't feel right about. And do you know that, uh, my wife, being a lot smarter than me, took me to this passage? And she read about the, the church at Ephesus and how they'd done everything that was right, but they'd left the first love. And when they left the first love, that was what God had against them. And their motive for everything that they was doing was in wrong. And I said, you know, that happened to us, and we got before God and we repented, and we said, God forbid we'd ever forget the pit we've been dug from. Now that's easy for me to say, that's hard for my wife. She doesn't remember the pit. She was saved as a little girl, but by faith she knows what God delivered her from. A life of that could have been any of us. And you see, because she was saved as a little girl and I was saved at twenty five, we were both taken out of a horrible pit. We'd forgotten we'd been purged from our old sin. We'd forgotten all that God had done for us. And beloved, you can forget that if you're not careful. And that Sunday morning, I went to break bread, but it wasn't the same. That's the first time I really remembered the Lord, I think. The first time that I think I worshiped that morning. Two years. About almost two years after I'd been in the work full time. Ma- ma- imagine. But you see, it's possible for us to come and sit here, or for us to make excuses of not being here and deny his name. Because we've forgotten. Did you know that your love for the Lord is directly related to how much you've been forgiven? Did you know that? You know, I'm getting way off subject here. Come on, go with me to Luke chapter seven. Luke chapter seven. Let God's word speak for itself. Verse thirty six. One of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and sat down to meet. And behold, a woman in that city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment and stood at his feet behind him, weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. Now, when the Pharisee, which had bidden him, saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that touches him, for she is a sinner. And Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he saith, Master, say on. There was a certain creditor which had two debtors. The one owed five hundred pence and the other fifty. and when they had... This is an interesting phrase, y'all just be able to apply this, when they had nothing to pay. When they had nothing to pay. He frankly forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him most? Simon answered and said, I suppose that he to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged. And he turned to the woman, and he said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet, but she has washed my feet with tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss, but this woman, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss my feet. My head withal thou didst not anoint, but this woman has anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore I say unto thee, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. Now watch this last statement. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth. How much have you been forgiven tonight? Think about it. How much? That's how much you're going to love. However much you've been forgiven. You're not going to have a healthy assembly, vibrant, zealous, unless you got people that love the Lord. And you can't love him if you don't know how much you've been forgiven. You need to go back and read it. Horrible pit, miry clay, filthy, enemy, separated, alien, no hope. God saved. You need to come out and remember that. Yes, you got to have the doctrine. Thank God the assemblies are teaching doctrine, the word of God. Gonna talk about that tomorrow night. But you need to be remembering the Lord. I find now that, uh, not a waste of time, even with good teaching time, but it's a very necessary part of my life because as a forgetful man, I need to be reminded of all that he's done for me to start the first day of the week off each week, if it's necessary. I'm thankful to the Lord that the assembly of Sault Ste. Marie that I am attending is packed for the Lord's sake. Now, I didn't have anything to do with it. I'm not blowing my horn. It was packed long before I came. But those people have a desire to meet with the Savior. We'll have somewhere between one hundred and two hundred break bread. Another fifty or so come in for the family Bible hour. People on the extreme. Let me encourage. If someone said we're going to have to delete our meeting, you better make that one the last to go, because there is where you're going to express your love to the Lord. Not in the teaching. You're going to express that love in many other ways throughout your weekly experience, but when you collectively come together, that's where you express your love. A love for the Lord and his word. God opens doors when you're dedicated to the Son of God and saturated with the word of God. God opens doors. Well, another thing that'll make for a healthy assembly is a care or a love for one another. First Corinthians chapter twelve. First Corinthians chapter twelve. This is a vital, necessary part. You cannot have a healthy assembly if you got people fighting all the time. You cannot have a healthy home if the people are fighting in the home all the time. I sat at a table not long ago. On one end of this table was a lady, and on the other end of this table was her husband, and all of a sudden I realized I was in the firing zone. And I, I pretty near didn't get out of there. I never heard it. I tell you, I couldn't even say it from this platform, the things that went over. Professed Christian in that home. And you know, if they'll say that, uh, when I'm there, what will they say when I'm not? Love for one another. See, the, if there's no love in a home, if there's contention in a home, you bring that right into the assembly, don't you? I mean, when we get a little bit older, we learn how to be hypocrites. Children are just honest, you know, they just say your breath stinks, you know. I don't like you. You know, they just tell you like it is. But when we get older, we we learn how to be hypocritical, you know, we learn how to cover that up, and we we have war from, uh, eight o'clock to nine o'clock on Sunday morning, and then the war is ended about thirty feet before we walk in that back door here to remember the Lord. You know, I mean, before you get out of the car, it's just, ah, God, if you do that again, I'm gonna, ooh, look out there, so and so over there, you know, and uh... And then you come in for worship. Well, see, that's got a direct spin-off, and we have to work on these things at home. Right now, I'm working on my thirteen and my fourteen-year-old, because they like cat and dog right now. We're working on, we've tried everything under the sun. This is not a message on how to raise children, but here's a hint for you. If you got that problem, I'll tell you what we've just started doing. We start, we've, we've, we've interceded, we've got in the middle, and we've got wounded, and they blame it all on us when it was their fault anyhow, you know? And so we decided now just put them together. You want to fight? Go at it. Just fight it out, figure it out. We're not going anywhere. We're in the car, stop, get out on the side of the road, go at it. Then we're going to keep going. You know what? They're learning it's no fun. They're learning. But they got to learn that, that fighting is wrong. Now, I'm not saying they're bringing blood or anything like that. Now, don't get me wrong. But I'm saying that we have to learn to work when we don't. We have to learn to work it out, and what most often happens is we never work it out. We only disagree. Well, I don't like that, and I don't like that, and I don't like the way you do that, and you know what so and so did, and they did that, and I did that, and I tell you what I did, and I... Boy, it just goes on, man. I'm telling you, elders meetings are full of that kind of stuff, but they never work it out. If you want to have a healthy assembly, you got to work it out. You got to be little enough to work it out. There's no problem too big for God. They're just people too big to ask God for help. You got to work it out. You got to have the same care. Now, in First Corinthians chapter twelve, Paul says, you can't say you don't need that person. There's nobody here tonight in the body of Christ That's that's distinctive. distended. They tell us today we got certain parts of our body that we can cut out and do away with, we don't need. I tell you, I'm no prophet, and I'd be stoned to make a prediction, but I'm gonna make a prediction. If the Lord doesn't come and the medical profession keeps advancing, they're gonna find out that every one of those parts are absolutely necessary in our physical body. And they're gonna find out why we're having problems today that we're having because some of those parts have been removed. Because the physical body is referred to for the, for the analogy of the spiritual body, which is Christ the head of, in the scriptures, and there's no part in the spiritual body that's dispensable, therefore I don't think there's any part in the physical body that is. It just makes good common sense to me. Some things are theological, and some things are just logical. You don't have to be a theologian to figure that one out. We need all the parts. We can get by without some, but we won't be the man or the woman that God created us to be with some of those removed. Now, God gives grace, and we're not talking about people here who had problems and operations and all that. God gives grace. We know that. All we're saying that in the body of Christ, there no nobody. There no people we can do without. We need one another. Look in verse twenty five, First Corinthians chapter twelve: that there should be no schism or division in the body, but that the members should have the same care one for another, and whether one member suffer, all members suffer with it, or one member be honored, all members rejoice with it. You can't have a healthy assembly unless you got that going on. I tell you what thrilled my heart Sunday morning. A lot of things thrilled my heart Sunday morning. I was really glad to be here. It was a wonderful meeting, and I, and I was lifted up in my spirit. I was encouraged in the Lord. Thank the Lord. But there was an announcement made that there was a brother here who'd been out of work for a long period of time, and he got a job. And you know what? Everybody was saying hooray for that guy, that he got a job, and wasn't that great? Rejoice with those who rejoice. You got to learn to weep with those who weep too. But you know what happens sometimes? Somebody rejoices, and we say, well, they didn't deserve it. Somebody rejoices, and we got something critical to say about them rejoicing, because we're not having the same care. We're not really loving one another. We're not esteeming one above the other. We're not doing unto others as we would have them do unto us. We're selfish. The body can't be selfish. This hand right here gets it in its own mind that it wants its own way, and it starts pulling away from the body. It can start pounding the head here, you know? And that'll hurt. You can't do that in the body. You got to have the same care. You got to love one another. Hebrews chapter ten, says, just for a moment. Hebrews chapter ten. There's a little garden here in Hebrews chapter ten, and there's a row of lettuces there. There's three heads of lettuce. Somebody already said that, I guess, here, did they? I- I- that's not original. Verse twenty two, there's let us draw near. In verse twenty three, there's let us hold fast. And in verse twenty four, there's let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works. You see, one thing that is absolutely necessary in an assembly is an assembly that is edifying, building up, encouraging to go on in the things of the Lord, and that's for all of the assembly has to do that. Every joint, every member, every part functioning and working together to the edifying of the whole body. Just the way God designed it. Somebody gets sick, you gotta take care of that. You gotta go and and minister to that person, not condemn them. You think that's the way it ought to be, the next time you get an ingrown toenail, just take a hammer and drive it. You wouldn't do that. Don't do it to your brother or your sister then in the body. Well, not only do we have to have love for one another in the body, but there must be love for those who are without. There must be a, a care for the unsaved as well. Uh, you never have a healthy assembly unless you have an assembly that reaches out. Somehow we've inverted the Great Commission. Jesus said go, we say come. This helps it. We say, look, we got a nice air conditioned building, and we're going to be preaching the word here tonight. Get them in here. Well, it'd be nice if they come, and we welcome all who don't know the Savior in our midst so that they might know that we love him and care for him and preach him and want them to know him. But really, out there is where it happens. Now, I asked last night how many of you had, oh, when was it, yesterday sometime? How many of you had track? Now, I've given you a whole day to get back there to that table. Raise your hand. How many of you have a gospel track on you tonight? Okay, leave them up there just a minute. I see somebody grabbing one. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty one, twenty two. Okay, that's just about double from last night. That's great. Now there's a table full of tracks back there, and uh, before you leave, you ought to go by there and pick up a track, put it in your pocket or your purse. Now, how many of you gave out a track today? Uh-oh. Uh, people tell me if you carry them in your pocket too long, they get dog-eared. You know what that means? Anybody give out a tract today? One. God bless. I did too. There's two of them. All right. You see, they won't do you any good. You're already... We're going to go out here and, and trust the Lord in every two thousand hours we're going to get one person that really comes to a knowledge of Christ. I wonder how many of us would willing, really be willing to put in two thousand hours. You see, the cults put us to shame sometimes, don't they? But if everybody here, think about it, uh, what do we got here? a hundred people maybe, or something like that. If we had, uh, a hundred people that went out just for an hour this week, that'd be a hundred hours of sharing Christ or handing out tracts. Wouldn't that be amazing? No telling what God would do if everybody would just do a little bit. Then there'd be a great thing done for Christ. The scriptures tell us, and we won't have time to look all these up, uh, walk honestly toward them that are without. Uh, have a good report toward them that are without. Walk in wisdom, redeeming the time toward them that are without. We are to walk honestly in this crooked and perverse world as lights. If you lose that, you perish. You'll perish. There's some assemblies today. I was in an assembly one time, and I was going to preach the gospel, and it was... well, it was Easter morning. I thought that's a good time to preach the gospel. I said to the elders, I said, you gonna have any visitors here this morning? Nope. I said, uh, don't, don't you usually have some visitors? Nope. I said, man, this is Easter. Don't you have any visitors? Nope. And so it kind of took all the wind out of my sails, and I got up there and kind of half preached the gospel and half didn't, and half didn't know what I was preaching, and just kind of discouraged and a little bit frustrated. And afterwards, this couple come up to me and said, I want to talk to you. And I said, oh, I said, how long have you been to this assembly? And they said, we're visitors. Man accepted Christ that day, and I told the woman, I said, don't you pray, I said, because you don't believe that you need a savior. And she listened to her husband receive Christ that day. You got to have a desire. I mean, you, you got to reach out to people, and they're all around you. You won't have a healthy assembly if you don't. Uh, you need to be a praying church if you want to be a healthy assembly. You show me a church that's not a praying church, and I'll show you a people that's not a praying people. Because this church don't pray, right? This building don't pray. The church is the people, right? And if the church is not praying, then the people are not praying. I was at a meeting not too far away from here at one time or another, and uh, I was there for almost a week, and I asked two or three times about prayer, and they said, well, we really should have some prayer. But we didn't. We didn't have any prayer. And so the last night I was there, I said, well, I might as well tell them what I think. I told them I didn't think much of them because they'd never prayed. And they got real mad. The elders had a three-hour meeting after I got through preaching, and I wasn't invited to that meeting. And they got real upset that I would say that they weren't praying, but they weren't, so I might as well say it. You know, about, uh, six months later, one of the elders saw me at a conference and said, I thought maybe you ought to know that we started praying before all the meetings, and he said, we got upset at the time, but he said, really, we needed to do it. Thank you. I'm not here to condemn. I- I'm really not. That's not my gift. I'm not a condemner, you know? Uh, some people have that gift, but I- I don't think that's my gift. But I am here to exhort, and I know that you need to pray. Praying is very important, and I got a few things here I want to say about prayer. And I'm out of time. I am, I'm gonna say most of it. Thank you. We don't pray, and that's bad, but let me tell you the reason we don't pray, that's worse. The reason we don't pray is because we think we can get by without it. Now, now hear me out. What do you do when you have no other hope? You get on your knees and pray, don't you? You see, when I can handle it, I don't pray. Or I say, you know, man, I heard the prayer, I heard the worst prayer for a blessing that I ever heard the other day. Rub a dub dub, let's eat the grub. I mean, that's even worse than, you know. And it was a mockery as far as I was concerned, to the Lord. We, we miss the, one of the greatest commodities that we have in the Christian life. Tell me, when can you pray? And, and the answer is anytime. Where can you pray? Anywhere. Anytime, anywhere, you can pray. You can pray with eyes closed, eyes open. You can pray standing up, sitting down, laying down, crawling on your head, doing calisthenic. You can do riding your bicycle, driving the car, don't close your eyes then. But any, you can, anytime you can pray. But we don't pray enough, and the reason we don't pray enough is because we think we can do without it. Because I'll tell you, when the doctor comes and says there's nothing more we can do. I think you'd better pray than if we hadn't already been praying. Prayer has been the last response, not the first resource. And the devil will play havoc with you when it comes to your prayer life. If the bottom falls out, a tragedy, financial problem, marital problem, something like that, and and you run into the bedroom and you drop on your knees and you say, oh God, and the devil just taps you on the shoulder. Say, what are you doing here? You haven't been here in a long time. You hardly ever get on your knees anymore. You hardly ever pray like this anymore. You think God's going to hear you now? Well, God's not going to hear you because you haven't been faithful to him. You haven't included him in your life. And you try to argue with him, you'll end up agreeing with him, and then you can't pray believing, so you might as well not pray at all. But I'll tell you, if prayer is your first response, I mean, if you just pray about everything, just the little things, and the middle-sized things, and the big things, just everything, you just bathe in prayer. I'll tell you, when the bottom falls out and you run the bedroom and you drop on your knees, the devil can't tap you on the shoulder. And you can have power talking to God. Prayer. You need to be specific. Paul says, continue in prayer, watch in prayer. This is battle. This is battle with the enemy. When he gives us the armor in Ephesians chapter six, he talks about the sword of the Spirit, and he talks about the spear of prayer. An offensive weapon. We talk about it, we think about it, we read about it, we preach about it, we write about it, we study it, but we don't do what? We don't pray. We don't pray. Prayer needs to be intentional. It has to be disciplined. If I only prayed when I really got that feeling to pray, I wouldn't pray too often. I pray because I know it's good for me to pray. I pray because I know God has commanded me to pray, and I pray because I know I still believe that prayer works. Prayer changes things. Prayer has to be intentional. It has to be deliberate. I shouldn't tell you this story, but I told Arnett this afternoon. I might as well humble myself before you. It'll make you feel better to see how low I am. I was going to pray one time, and I said, Lord, I'm not getting off my knees until I pray about everything. I'm just going to cover it all right here, right now. I'm just going on a marathon prayer time. And I got before God, and I prayed, and I fervently prayed, and I poured my heart out, and I prayed about everybody and everything, and just kept praying and kept thinking, and every time I'd think of something, I'd pray about it. Finally, I, I covered it all. I got off my knees, and it was twenty minutes. Now, I'm not a, I'm not boasting to that. I'm just saying, at that time in my life, I didn't know too much about prayer. I didn't know, what happened, and you better pray out loud sometimes if you're like me, because if I get out on my knees and close my eyes, and if I get too close to that pillow, you know what happened? You know, don't you? Tell you what else happens if you don't talk out loud sometime, your mind wanders too. This has to be deliberate, intentional prayer. For one year, and I got the record there at the house, and I'm not bragging about this, but you know what I had to do for a year, and I probably should still be doing it, I wrote out my prayers each day. That helped me. If you're having problems in your prayer life, try that. Try this. Dear Heavenly Father, if that's the way you're going to start, I don't know what you're going to say, but one thing I know, all of the finesse and and all of the flowery language is not there in the closet. I know that. See, here I try to, you know, do a little bit to God and a little bit to you, and I try to know something that you'll like a little bit too, don't I? I mean, really, let's face it. You do it. Be honest. When you get in your closet, what do you do? Mostly you just groan. You don't know what to say. You don't know how to express it. That's the reason the disciples said, Lord, teach us to pray, because in the Gospel of Luke, which, and I'm going to read just a little bit here from Leonard Ravenhill, he said that ought to be the gospel of prayer. Listen to what he says about the Gospel of Luke here. He says, uh, you could change the title of the gospel according to Saint Luke to the Gospel of Prayer. It is the prayer life of Jesus. The other evangelists say that Jesus was in Jordan and in the, and the Spirit descended on him as a dove. Luke says it was while he was praying that the Spirit descended on him. The other evangelists say Jesus chose twelve disciples. Luke says it was after he spent a night in prayer that he chose the twelve disciples. The other evangelists say that Jesus died on a cross, says that Jesus died on a cross. Luke says that even when he was dying, Jesus was praying for those who were persecuting him. The other evangelists say Jesus went on a mount and was transfigured. Luke said it was while he was praying that he was transfigured. Isn't that amazing? There's nothing more transfiguring than prayer. Prayer. When Jesus was teaching his disciples to pray, he gave them a story about a man who had a friend come at midnight. Remember that story? And, uh, and the man who had the friend come didn't have any food, so he went over and, and woke up another guy, banged on his door at midnight. Now, it wasn't a convenient time. And he said to him, I need three loaves. And the guy said, I'm sorry. He said, uh, I'm in bed, and my kids are in bed with me, and we're all asleep, and it's not convenient. I need three loaves. I can't do without it. I got... And finally the guy got up and gave him the three loaves, and the scriptures say because of his importunity, he gave him the three loaves. Now, there were two things that Jesus taught as he gave that story. The first thing that he, that he taught was be specific when you pray. Be specific. I tell you, if you pray like this, God bless the missionaries, you win every time. But if you start praying specifically about Joe Doe over there, and he's discouraged, Lord, and he don't have enough support, and his wife is sick, and they are in terrible need. Lord, would you please help them? You know it if God answers your prayer, don't you? See, we don't pray specifically because if we pray generally, then, you know, we can say, well, it kind of worked out, and we get off the hook. If we pray specifically, then we have to pray believing. So he said, three loaves. He didn't go over there and say, a friend of mine's coming, I'm out of food, can I have some? The guy might give him three crackers, wouldn't have been enough. He needed three loaves. He knew what he needed, and he asked for what he needed. Do that in your prayer. Pray specifically. The other thing was this, but because of the importunity, he gave it to him. Now, the importunity was simply this, the need was so great, the embarrassment of asking was forgotten. He knew it was late. He knew his kids were in the bed. He knew it wasn't a good time to wake the man up, but the need was so great. I've never yet seen an assembly that got together and said, God, we got problems in this assembly, and we're going to get on our knees, and we're not going to get off our knees until the problems are solved. God, help us. I haven't seen an assembly do that yet. You say, well, now be practical. We got families, and we got jobs, and yes, and you take off to go on vacations, and you take off to go to hockey games, and you take off to do whatever you want to do. You change your schedules, and you arrange it, and you eat cheese and crackers to have enough money to do it next year too. I'm, I'm, I know what you do. You work it out because we do what we want to do. If you wanted to come here and pray for forty eight hours, you could do it. But we don't want to. Got big problem, got big God, and we have not because what? We don't ask. Brother, we don't ask. You'll never have a health- healthy assembly unless you got to pray in assembly. I tell you what's happened to a lot of assemblies today, they cancel prayer meetings. You know that? Got cell groups now, little Bible studies all over the city. I'm not against that. Good place to learn, good place to be taught, but bad if it takes the place of prayer meeting. Bad. One of the essentials, prayer. Got to be intentional, has to be intelligent, know what to pray for. Pray. Well, there's one other thing I want to say. I'm going to say it. The last thing, and you could add to this list, this is not an exhaustive list. You'll think of a lot of things I didn't think about. But along with the breaking the bread and prayers and fellowship, and by the way, the brother said a sound of a healthy assembly singing, that's part of fellowship, and it really is, just enjoying the Lord together. Last thing I want to mention is dealing with sin when you know it. You can't have a healthy assembly if you got sin in the camp. If there's sin in the camp and you don't deal with it, and if there's sin in your life and you don't deal with it, you'll never have a healthy assembly. You got to deal with it. Second Chronicles seven fourteen says, if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. That's what it says. Then will I hear from heaven, we will heal their land, forgive their sin and heal their land. You have to turn, you have to be willing to own up to it. Isn't it interesting that in Psalm fifty one, it's not until after David makes his confession of sin, asks God to cleanse him, that he says, then will sinners be converted unto thee. Maybe the reason that we're not reaching out more and more active is that we need to deal with things in our lives before we can be clean vessels to be used of the Lord. First John one nine says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Elders need to lead, not lord. People need to follow, not fight. We need to love the Lord and his word. We need to care and love for one another. We need to care for those who are lost and reach out to them. We need to pray and pray, and pray. And we need to deal with sin. Some of you preachers, you can just keep adding to that list and keep on preaching. I've not covered it all. But the Lord has given us enough here tonight to consider, I'm sure. Sorry for the overtime. When you only come once every three years for the conference, you can get away with it. Let's pray. Lord, as we prayed before, and we just want to say it again, Father, we want to be totally honest. Thank you that we can be honest, and that we don't have to try to put on a mask or front, because you look right into the heart. And my prayer for these dear people tonight, thank you for every one of them that's come out. Oh God, send them away encouraged, challenged, remembering the things of the word of God tonight that have been spoken, and forgetting the things that have been of the flesh. That this assembly and others that are represented might be healthy, vibrant, growing, God-honoring, Christ-centered, mission-oriented assemblies, doing thy work, energized by thy spirit. O Father, we thank you tonight for our blessed Redeemer. We thank you that he changes lives, and if there's anyone in our midst here this evening that does not know what that life-changing experience is, O God, we pray for them, that they too would know the gift of God, which is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.