Sermon: Christian Church Unity

Don't be intimidated by the robe, it's just reform coveralls.

Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Holy, holy, holy God. Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus, holy Spirit, father, we come in the name of our precious Lord Jesus, we come in the power of the Holy Spirit. Our hearts are filled with thanksgiving, having confessed our sins to you, oh God, in thought word indeed against you, against others, against ourselves. We ask that you now in Phyllis afresh with your Holy Spirit, that you would put us on a path of repentance

and that you may sanctify us, continually sanctify us, and that we may have the mind of Christ. We pray that your spirit would illumine your word and draw our hearts and our minds tonight. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

First text tonight is from Psalm 1 33,

song of a Sense of David. Behold how good and pleasant it is when brothers Dowell in unity. It is like the precious oil on the head running down the beard on the beard of Aaron running down on the collar of his robes. It is like the dew of Herman, which falls on the mountains of Zion. For there the Lord has commanded the blessing life forevermore. Turn to the New Testament To First John, chapter one, verses one through four.

We read that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life. The life was made manifest. And we have seen it and testified to it and proclaimed to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us. That which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you so that you too

may have fellowship with us. And indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. We turn to our text in Acts chapter two, verse 42 through 47 on the fellowship of the believers.

And they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship to the breaking of bread. And the prayers and awe came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles and all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. And the day by day attending the temple together

and breaking bread in their homes, they receive their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number. Day by day, those who are being saved thus end at the reading of God's most holy, divinely inspired God breathed in err word. This ordination tonight is a unique situation. We have a mother and daughter church present along with uh, a senior pastor of the mother church and the staff

and the church planter of the church plant. Uh, Josh has worked and served in the mother church and is being ordained for the gospel ministry to serve as an assistant church planner. And so Josh, well, since I've known him, Josh is a learner. He's always had a humble heart in his calling and approach to the gospel ministry serving in both pre and post seminary study. My wife El and I worshiped at Fellowship Reform Church this morning.

And, uh, Devin is quite able and gifted to pastor that church, that church plan, and I believe he and Josh can have a collegial partnership. Now, Josh is uniquely trained here at playing second fiddle, but with, uh, an intentional understanding of the value of playing that role and through his training here at University Reform. Uh, so my message is, uh, is tailored around this whole situation, not just Josh as an individual being ordained.

So we're gonna approach it that way. Lemme start off by saying, I, I called Josh the fish who jumped in the boat. Uh, Josh just showed up having visited the other conservative Presbyterian reformed church in town. He declared that he wanted to be worshiping at our church, which is Lauderdale Associate Reform Presbyterian Church in Lexington, Virginia. And even though our church was well, uh, over the past 15 and a half years has been trudging through a slow

revitalization process. Josh was not deterred back then. Uh, our church is not, was not then and is not the popular church, the RUF church. It is the old school reform worship church. And we don't draw the big crowds, but God sends us in his providence, the leaders and the thinkers, and it's been exciting to see where God will lead them. And so, uh, the real reason why Josh chose our church was because of his dad and his mom, their influence.

Josh is a covenant child, and Ron, his dad, um, is a second generation medical doctor. Uh, but he was a first generation born again Christian, eager and hungry to study God's word. And growing up, uh, Josh was taken by his dad to reformed expository preaching, uh, conferences on reformed theology. And his mother, Loretta, uh, she grew up on the mission field. She's the daughter of missionaries. She grow up in Nigeria and she went to high school in Kenya.

And so they cultivated in Joshua a heart for the loss. So our little church in Lexington was a good place for him to worship three out of his four years. And that one year that he wasn't with us, he was studying Puritan poetry in Oxford. And by the way, I went to the graduation ceremony in Washington and Lee that year, and I was reading through the long bulletin and I look on the back and Josh has won an award and he wasn't even there that year.

Uh, so it was a lot of preparation that has gone into tonight. Now, a little bit about our church is now 102 years old, a church plant planted in 1923 by this brilliant godly pastor and preacher, Dr. David t Lauderdale. Dr. Lauderdale's methods for biblical church planning were way ahead of his time. And he served from 1923 to 1960, and then he went out and planted another church. And although in searching for his replacement by, uh,

you know, as churches do, they tried to go in a different direction from his natural and spiritual gifts. It just resulted in short term pastorate because his Christ-like DNA of almost 38 years of service in our church, it was just there. And I truly admired his work. I often say he's was the master carpenter and I never met him, but I read about him and I heard his sermons and I always feel like the lowly apprentice.

And David Lauderdale was in spiritual terms, a master carpenter trained in the School of Christ by God's word and spirit. And in 1915, he married reformed theology of Erskine College and Erskine Seminary with the evangelistic zeal of what you know is moody Bible College Moody had died in 1899, but his zeal for an aggressive teaching and preaching of the gospel, uh, uh, pat was passed on to his followers. And Dr. Lauderdale there at, in 1915, he, he learned

that to be able to put that reformed theology, but that desire to share his faith and to evangelize. And so I heard sermons very much similar to Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus, you must be born again, you must be born again, calling people to Christ. And people were born again, God bless the humble pastor and Presbyterian preacher, and, and people were born again and learned to joyfully sing God's word through the salter.

We sing Bible songs. And I've continually been impressed by his devotion. This is where I'm going, impressed by his devotion to Christ and his church. And that devotion left its mark on our church, which still shows up today long after his death. So you see with men like Dr. Lauderdale, uh, his commitment to Christ and his church, it was just central, central in his life and his life was centered around Christ in his church.

And what mattered most to him was the welfare and the mission of Christ in his church. And today, when I'm around such men as I am here tonight, really touched by these men, I see their Christianity lived out. And it is if you just only knew a privilege to spend time with such godly men, and I find their devotion and their steadfastness, their commitment, their perseverance to Christ in the church is not just, it's not just an intellectualism,

it's not just an emotionalism. It's not just a humanitarianism. Neither is their Christianity seen as the dreaded spoiler of life. Now, in such devoted men, I see the same type of devotion and I read in the scriptures that stood out among these newly baptized believers in the day of Pentecost, in the inauguration of the apostolic church here in Jerusalem. Now as we turn to our passage here in Acts chapter two, we see that this Christianity, theres was central.

It was central to their lives. It was the controlling factor of their lives. It was everything to them. Their faith was not just a club or an organization, another organization along line of social organizations and institutions in which they belonged and were affiliated. Now, the faith of the new believers at Pentecost as faith in Christ was the center of their lives, not just another additional activity. They were no longer like just everyone else in the world.

Some so-called Christians are like everyone else in the fall and sinful war, with the exception of that one hour a week or maybe one hour a month, they spend going to an odd thing called church. You take that one hour a week or a month away, and they're no different from the fallen sinful world, not these new believers in Jerusalem. Martin Lord Jones, he writes this, he says, the thing that hits us about these people in acts is their whole life,

their whole outlook was changed. They now controlled something. They were now controlled by something absolutely new. Look at these people. They were the mob, the people who had cried out away with him, crucify him. That is where they had belonged, but now they belong with these disciples. To the followers of this Jesus, the Galilean, they had become entirely different. It was not an outward, but an inward change of radical

and profound change. They were now ready to take any risk in order to be with the very people they had previously reviled. They knew it was dangerous to belong to this group of believers and had not their leader been crucified on a tree just four weeks back. Yet they were now ready to join these people, to continue with them. They continued steadfastly with them. They would not leave them. They were risking everything.

They knew that their relatives would be annoyed, that they would probably be ostracized by all who were dear to them. It did not matter. They submitted to public baptism. They aligned themselves with these despised people. What happened? Whatever happened, they must be with them. Amazing. Again, we read Acts 2 42 and then verse 47, and they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread

and prayer and prayers. And the Lord added verse 47, they wanted to put the emphasis and the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. Now, I want to give you an outline. Now I wanna say something about, well, I'm do a little rabbit trail right here. It'll be the only time. I promise you. Uh, let me stop for a moment, Joshua, and talk about, uh, sermon preparation and plagiarism. Many preacher pastors today get caught

plagiarizing their sermons from another preacher and the pressure of the pastorate and time consuming meetings tempt them to become hypocrites and actors reciting the lines and performing a sermon, uh, like a, a religious play brother, don't go there. Don't go there. It's fueled by pride and vanity. Uh, always do the work you were trained to do in most simple terms. Write out a literal transliteration of the Greek and Hebrew or whatever.

Secondly, then write out the English text by hand, the one you're working out of and, and then begin to, as you're doing that, number three, jot down scriptures. The Holy Spirit brings to mind and outlines will jump out at you and things will begin to happen. And if things go really well, you'll almost have your sermon. Some days they don't go well, and then you, whether they go well or not, you need to check in, read these exegetical Greek

or Hebrew commentaries, expository commentaries, and then expository sermons and, and gather around you these godly men like a council and, and have them consult. Sit down and ask, uh, John Calvin, what, what do you think about this? What did you learn? What can you teach me? Uh, Matthew Henry, John Gill, what can you show me? Finally, number five, let your con congregation know that Martin Lloyd Jones tutored you this week

or John sto tutored Jew and, and encourage them to find that book and go read that book and uh, and let 'em find out those resources. And, and the fear is, well, what if they know more than I do? What if they become better? Well, we wanna work ourselves out of a job. We're always excited when someone begins to grow their natural and spiritual gifts, but we want our congregation to be hungry for God's word as we are Now,

sometimes these sermons really come quickly, sometimes it's a lot of work. I'll give you two extremes. Roy Taylor, the stated clerk in the PCA used to tell us about Frank Barker. And Frank Barker would come trudging in and he'd have a load of commentaries and he'd just plop 'em down and he'd start preaching and he'd, William Hendrickson says this. And then he would, if not very dynamic, is it, yet that church grew to 4,000 people b Briarwood Church in,

in Birmingham, Alabama. Then the other extreme is a Sinclair Ferguson. Sinclair had done a favor for our church and graciously come and done a church dedication when I was in Hendersonville, North Carolina. So I saw him at Senate and I sat down beside him and I noticed he had a little ESV, small Bible and, and somebody, it was just a trimmed piece of paper as a bookmark. And I noticed three scriptures on there. So I thought of something clever to say to him,

and I said, well, that must be a whole sermon for you. And he looked at me, he said, that's three sermons right there.

So I'm sorry to say Sinclair is not here tonight. It's gonna be more Frank Barker. I'm gonna be quoting a lot of people who taught me to teach you all five points here real quickly. This comes from John Sto, what he says about this church. And we're gonna go through these very quickly. Number one point, number one, it was a devoted church. Point number two, it was a learning church. Point number three, it was a loving church.

Point number four, it was a worshiping church. And point number five, it was a growing church. Let's go point number one. It was a devoted church. The first evidence of Christ's baptism of the Holy Spirit in the lives of these new believers was their devotion. What do I mean by that phrase? Baptism of the Holy Spirit in reform terms. What we understand that that to be is number one, the apostles had this empowerment to preach the word

as Peter had on Pentecost. And number two, the hearers had that empowerment of the ho, that work of the Holy Spirit, that they were given a new heart and new they were convicted, cut to the heart, given a new heart, new spirit. Given the gift of faith and repentance, they were able to be born again. And and thirdly, when we see this manifestation of the baptism of the Holy Spirit there, rapid spiritual gifts, their gifts developed rapidly.

Sometimes it outran their spiritual maturity as we see Paul dealing with the Corinthians. But this is what it means by this baptism of the Holy Spirit. And so after the Holy Spirit brought them to this place of conviction of sin after the Holy Spirit worked, regeneration, faith, and repentance in them after their public baptism of themselves and their children as an admission to the church, after these things came a new devotion

to Christ and his church. Finally, after waiting centuries, David's prophecy of God's anointed king and Son had finally come. This devotion is described as commitment or perseverance con continuing steadfastly. This devotion speaks to the reality of their conversion. Their conversion experience was not just a temporary momentary lapse of reason in which they awoke the next morning thinking they had been hustled. It wasn't just an emotional experience.

Steadfast agape love and faithfulness is the characteristic of our holy God. Christ Jesus remains steadfast in his obedience and devotion to the father's commands and Will would not his born again. Children given a new heart and a new Spirit exhibit, a steadfastness, a devotion to Christ in their savior. What is important to Christ will be important to them. And they under the power and the leading of the Holy Spirit will steadfastly

continue day in, day out in devotion to Christ and His kingdom to Christ and his church. And to whom and what were they devoted? This is point number two. It was a learning church and they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching these new believers were devoted to the apostles teaching and preaching of Christ Jesus. The teaching of the doctrine of Christ Jesus as the promised Messiah was now the centerpiece of their theology.

Jesus' words and teaching and preaching during his three and a half year ministry formed a Trinitarian faith in which they were taught in the unity of the Godhead, that there were three persons of one substance, power and eternity. God the Father, God, the Son God, the Holy Spirit. It may not have been clearly laid out on the days immediately following Pentecost, but by the time you get to Acts chapter five, there's certainly, they're starting

to articulate this tary faith before the Sanhedrin, it was certainly implied in other places in all of Jesus teaching and preaching about himself, the Father and the Holy Spirit would be recalled and shared and of course one of the most known Trinitarian statements in the New Testament. We know it so well. Jesus had said in Matthew 28, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son

and the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all I have commanded you. And the teaching wasn't a mere repe repetition of catechism questions to prepare them for admission into the church. No, the teaching was that which is essential to the Christian life. They were being taught in the School of Christ. That's what should happen here. That's what should happen in Mount Pleasant. We were taught in the School of Christ. He is the author, the preacher, the subject, the substance

of which is peace, pardon righteousness and salvation by him. The this, the apostles received from Christ and constantly taught in their ministry. The believers in turn, constantly and steadfastly devoted themselves as learners, as students. Uh, that teaching or doctrine. They never disowned it. They never deserted it. And they persevered in their learning in the school of Christ, not just for a few days, but for a lifetime growing in their knowledge of God.

Josh, teach, teach, and preach in such a way that even a 7-year-old, I had a 7-year-old in my second pastorate who could give me an outline, a written outline of my sermon. And she had drawn pictures to illustrate the points that really helped me when people say would come up and say, you know, I just don't understand your sermons. And I said, well, you know, a 7-year-old can get it. What's your problem? But teach in such a

way if the Holy Spirit is working in the life of a child, that they can understand it and that way, well what else? And whom else were they devoted? Point number three. It was a loving church and they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and fellowship. That fellowship was known as koinonia, the communion, the sharing of a common life in Christ. We read that passage from First John and verse three so that you too may have fellowship with us.

And indeed our fellowship is with the Father and his son, Jesus Christ. And there's that wonderful, uh, passage is the end of second Corinthians, as often used as a benediction, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of Holy Spirit be with you all. Sto says this, he says, well, this Nia in two senses, first it expresses we share in life together. This is God himself for our fellowship is with the Father

and with his son Jesus Christ. There's a fellowship of the Holy Spirit, a Trinitarian experience, common share in God the Father, son and Holy Spirit. There is a love relationship within the trinity, a love relationship from the God who is love that will spill over into these Christian relationships with each other. And of course we know in cornea as well as when they went to take up that, that offering to help each other as you all

as a mother church of his help so generously with these church plants. John Dick says this about this fellowship. He says, there's steadfast and fast steadfastness in fellowship by which has meant the communion of the saints in the exercise of evangelical love, he says, the gospel is not a selfish religion. It requires indeed every man to take care of his own salvation. And it shows it to be of such importance as to be truly worthy of his care.

But it teaches him at the same time, to take interest, interest in the temporal and spiritual welfare of his Christian brethren. This fellowship also manifest manifested itself in a communion of the saints in which the new believers think about. This had spiritual conversations with the apostles and other saints in their presence. There was this mutual edification of these believers and mutual conversation about Christ

and that was central to their lives. Their fellowship was based on this agape love of God and the eternal bond of fellowship within their holy, holy, holy triumph. God. You know, one of the benefits of believing in Christ is being overcome and surrounded and enveloped by the love and the goodness of God. The Bible states God is love. And you know that famous prayer of Jesus in John 17. We learn throughout Jesus' prayer to the Father

that there is a mutual delight and devotion and affection and glorification within the love of the Trinity, and that existed before the foundation of the world. Now in this part of the world, you know who Herman Homa is and a wonderful quote from him, the love of God is the infinite, an eternal bond of fellowship that is based upon the ethical or moral perfection and the holiness of his divine nature that exist between God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

You know that new believers often miss that when we speak about God loving them and God's love, agape love, they miss this holiness, this attribute of God and their understanding of God's love. And we need to teach them that and tell them that in other words, God's love has been and continues to be and always will be what we call perfect and sinless love. God never cheats. His love is faithful and everlasting love and the love

and the duty that is required by his law is perfectly expressed and modeled and practiced by him. You know, John three 16, that call of the gospel and that wonderful verse, we find the love of God towards his people. It emanates from the depths of his goodness. It starts out really one-sided, undeserved, sacrificial due to our sin, our un holiness and separation from God. However, Jesus atoning death on the cross. It does not win or compel the love of God the Father.

Rather, the father's love compels Jesus atoning death to accomplish God's purpose for his people. And you know, the ultimate version, the ultimate goal of conversion is aimed at producing such a radical transformation of the soul that once fallen sinners are now able to reciprocate the love of God with a love that can be defined again, Homa as a spiritual bond of fellowship by which two parties cleaved to each other and long after other, each other with this mutual delight

when asked, which was the most important commandment? Jesus saidhe Israel, the Lord our God. The Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and all your strength. God's love towards his called and redeemed people is an act of the will, which is constant. It's unchanging, it's unaffected by whimsical feelings. And the love of God is modeled in the trinity is

to be mirrored in our relationship with other believers. It's also to be mirrored in our relationship with lost unbelievers. In the same way God first extended his love to us as lost sinners. Jesus said the second most important commandment was this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And that is the high caliber of fellowship that we're seeing in Acts chapter two, the fellowship of God's agape love. This conversation often took place at meals,

which leads us to another aspect of whom and to what they were devoted. Number four, it was a worshiping church and they devoted them to the themselves, to the apostles teaching and fellowship and to the breaking of bread and prayer. And that is their fellowship was expressed not only in caring for others, but in corporate worship too. The breaking of bread and prayer suggest a reference to the Lord's supper. There's no doubt, like the passive meal the Jews were used

to came at the end of a larger meal in which the fellowship first took place informally and then formally in the reverence of the Lord's Supper. The Jews were used to beginning their informal meals with the breaking of bread. But it was this term, the breaking of bread that Jesus used to refer to what would be called the Last Supper or the Lord's Supper. And of course we know it was not literally the physically, uh, the physical body, uh,

for he ascended into heaven in his resurrection body. Hebrews 5 26 tells us it was a once for all sacrifice. He communicates himself to us by his Holy Spirit, his word and spirit. So in the breaking of bread and the Lord's suffer, they experience what we, you hear pastors use this phrase, union and communion with Christ, the nourishment of the Holy Spirit individually and corporately as the church, the body of Christ today.

Well, we had it this morning. We had that spiritual meal of the teaching and the preaching of the word, and then we had the Lord's Supper. Um, now also we don't forget this most important, they devoted themselves to prayer services or prayer meetings in both the temple and in their homes. Again, John Dick says this about prayer. He says, the gospel humbles man by showing his him his meanness and his infirmity. It draws him off his presumptuous confidence in himself.

It directs him to place his trust and hope in God. Prayer is therefore the natural exercise of a genuine, genuine Christian prayer is it is the language of his necessities, is the voice of his faith in pouring relief from the all sufficiency of his maker. Prayer is a, the the means of bringing almighty power to his aid of deriving from the infinite stores of divine goodness to supply is once. Hence the prayer of a Christian is not the

occasional exclamation in a moment of alarm or the bullying over some passing desire, but prayer is found in this habitual disposition of mind, a permanent sense of weakness and dependence. It constitutes a part of his daily exercise without which his spiritual life would be no more preserved than his natural life could be sustained without food. By continuing in prayer, the new first discovered the passions and affections of their ap piety

and were unable to persevere amidst difficulties, dangers in the profession of the truth and in obedience to the institutions of Christ. What a great quote. One more note about their worship. It was a balance of joy and reverence. Their fellowship and worship was formal as in the temple courts less formal in their homes. They were joyful for they had in verse 46, glad and generous sincere hearts. And they were reverent because in verse 43, we read and awe

or fear came over every soul again. Stot says, well, you know, it's right, it's right that in public worship to be dignified, it's unforgivable to be dull. At the same time, their joy was never irreverent. If joy in God is an authentic work of the spirit, so is the fear of God. Everyone was filled with awe. So it's a joy in substance, not a joy in style. The substance was Christ, the work of the Holy Spirit. You know, we're quick to joy, judge style that we disapprove

of and we don't like, but consider others who maybe have, uh, considerable joy based on the substance of what was taught that day, what was preached, what was learned, what was sung joy in the meaning as it pointed to Christ. Not a joy in intellectualism, emotionalism or good works or a sadism. It was a joy in Christ. Finally, by what was the product? What was the product of their devotion? The apostles teaching to fellowship

and the breaking of bread into prayer. Number five, it was a growing church. Verse 47, B Lord added to their number day by day, those who were being saved. You know, agape love has this aspect. The Old Testament speaks of mercy. The hesed has said, uh, the, uh, the mercy, the loving kindness that covenant loyalty in the Old Testament, in the New Testament. It is because of God's mercy and loving kindness our savior appeared and he saved us not

because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy of the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. So that agape love has that aspect of loving kindness and mercy. There was a lifestyle evangelism taking place in that, that this apostolic church, there were no new, no gimmicks, no sales pitches, unbelievers witnessed, uh, the devoted learning, loving worshiping church led by Christ disciples and apostles.

And the Lord added as the Lord Jesus continue to claim his elect in the baptism of the Holy Spirit, Peter said, uh, we're quoting Joel and it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. You see, first of all, it's God, God, the Lord himself who does the adding and then they're added to, uh, their number who are being saved. He did not add them to the church without saving them. There's no nominal.

Christianity at the beginning is not a membership drive. The idea of being saved without being in the church is inconceivable. Uh, salvation and church membership belong together. They always have. And it was the adding not only of these individuals, but the promise of salvation for their children. And thirdly, it was daily. It kept happening. It kept happening and kept growing. Sometimes we don't know what to do when a new church member comes and,

and they really want to share the gospel and evangelize. We're so reserved about it. Well, we have a way of doing this. We need to learn to harness that enthusiasm and help them if they want to share their faith. Little application before I leave. Um, Josh, this church plan in Acts chapter two was what? It was because of the holy triune God. God's word and spirit were at work. The baptism of the Holy Spirit in them, the Holy Spirit's work of salvation in the new believers,

sanctification in the new believers. All this was happening daily and people were imitating the disciples and the apostles as they imitated Christ. You see that they imitated the disciples and the apostles who were imitating Christ Jesus. This three and a half years of seminary, discipleship training was in full bloom as they taught, preached, and modeled for God's people to love God, to love God's word, to love God's people

and love God's lost. And Josh, you know that I'm a big advocate for the daily reading of God's word. I really push the one year Bible and learning, getting that foundational building block for their discipleship training. And Josh, if the daily reading and studying and meditating of God's word is important, is important to you, it will be important to them. If you love God, love God's word. If that's in your spiritual, DNA is born again,

children in your church plant will mirror that love. Josh. You know, I'm also big advocate for growing disciples. One of the first things I try to hand people is RC SPRs The Holiness of God. I read that book when it came out in 1986 and someone gave it to me as a copy, and it was one of the first big steps in my life in grasping the sinfulness of sin and moving away from an evangelical legalism to an experiential Calvinism, understanding the doctrines

of grace and healthy reformed teaching and doctrine. Josh teach, preach and model agape love with a emphasis on the holiness of God. If that's in your spiritual DNA Lord Jesus, born again to servants will mirror that holiness of God's love. Josh, you know, I'm also big. I I I went to Wheaton College and so my pastor was Kent Hughes and he wrote this book called Disciplines of a Godly Man. And I heard some of those sermons

when he was preaching them. And serious born again Christian disciples of Jesus Christ must realize they are enrolled in the School of Christ. The curriculum is daily training. It is not only for this life, but, and you know, we want to fulfill the great commission, but it's for the world to come so it's serving a purpose. So Hughes mentions those 18 disciplines, the discipline of godliness, purity, the discipline of marriage,

fatherhood for for men, uh, friendship, this discipline of mind, devotion, prayer, worship, integrity, the tongue. Oh, and by the way, in any church or especially a church plant, gossip, gossip, that is Satan's tool to destroy that church always has been. Can't let your churches, we fight this in the a RP, become little old ladies Religions club where they gossip and gossip, get a hold of that discipline of work, church,

leadership, discipline of giving witness ministry and grace. And I think I could write my own painful chapter about learning the humility of Christ, the discipline of that. And all these disciplines, if they're in your spiritual DNA, from God's word as it was in these disciples and apostles in Acts chapter two, these new friends in the Lord Jesus in your church plant will mirror you as you mirror Christ. And it will be a devoted church, a learning church,

a loving church, a worshiping church, and a growing church. Let's pray. Father, I do praise you and thank you.

I thank you that you show us all seasons of your church and it was so wonderful to see the beginning in Acts chapter two and to see how you worked in your church, that beautiful period in time. You also show us in other points the difficult moments and the sinful moments within your church and how to handle those things. But it's so wonderful to see that period of what it can be. Now, father, I pray you work in this mother church

and this daughter church, and this senior pastor, and this staff and this church planner in his assistant work mightily, especially we pray in Josh's life. In Jesus' name, amen.