JBC A Biblical Model: A Strong Family

Pastor Corey delivers his weekly message titled "JBC A Biblical Model: A Strong Family

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1 Thessalonians 5, beginning in verse 12, as we come to the end of our series, and you can see what we've titled the message here. JBC, a biblical model, and the concept behind that is that we believe that 1 Thessalonians or the Thessalonian Church is a biblical model of a godly church, a biblical church, and we wanted to test the model that we have here, what we are all about, and compare it with what the Thessalonian Church is all about. And that's why I titled it that. And we end the series with this concept. What does it take to be a strong family? Because the Bible calls a church the family of faith. We are a family, church. We are. And it's important that as a family we have some guiding principles. And not only guiding principles, but that we meet together regularly, right? And that we break bread together regularly, which we do. And not just physical bread, but the word of God, the bread of life. So a strong family, what does a strong family look like? Beginning in verse 12 of 1 Thessalonians 5. Paul says here, we ask you, brothers and sisters. Now, some of you, your Bibles may say brethren, or may just say brothers. The concept is the body of believers, the brethren. Brothers and sisters in Christ. Now we ask you, brothers and sisters in Christ, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord, and who admonish you. Hold them in high regard and love because of their work or their work's sake. Live in peace with each other. And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive. Encourage the disheartened. Help the weak. Be patient with everyone. Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else. Rejoice always. Pray continually. Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the spirit. Do not treat prophecies with contempt, but test them all. Hold on to what is good. Reject every kind of evil. May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it. Brothers and sisters, pray for us. Greet all God's people with a holy kiss. I charge you before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers and sisters. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Now, as we said, just about every time we've preached out of this passage or out of this book, there's a whole lot to unpack here, but I want to make it simple for you. I broke it down into three basic concepts of what a strong family looks like. And then a lot of these commands that are given here fall under one of those three things. So let's pray. Father, thank you for the truth of your word. Thank you that we see in this passage, though the word family isn't mentioned, we see brothers and sisters. We see how we're to treat each other, how we're to relate to one another, how we're to relate to others who are misbehaving, how we're to treat those who are doing well and who are teaching us and admonishing us. We see how we're to worship and what's important in prayer and praise and the word of God. So as we conclude this series, may we take serious as a family of faith these principles to make us strong. And I prayed in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. A few years ago, um, I went to FCA camp with Newberry football team, and the theme of that camp that year, uh, through Fellowship of Christian Athletes was Family Strong. And I preached a whole series on that, Family Strong. And uh I didn't think about that until this morning, until after I had already prepared the message that the title was similar to what we had done in the past. But today's message is titled A Strong Family. You know, it says, as the family goes, so goes the church. As the church goes, so goes the community. As the community goes, so goes the region or the state. As the state goes, so goes the country, right? And because we live in a great country, I know we have a lot of problems, we have a lot of issues, and to be real honest with you, many in leadership in our country right now are rotten to the core spiritually. They really are. And um and the belief system, I mean, when you have the White House press secretary saying that it is important, of utmost important, that we teach three-year-olds about changing their genders for their health, you know that insanity has taken over the highest levels of our government. And I believe that the reason that we have some of that going on is because we're not strong where we need to be. We're not strong in our families at home. And we're not strong in the family of a church. And so we've talked about the family at length, at times the nuclear family. Today I want to focus on the church family. Brothers and sisters in Christ and what it means. Number one, I believe in order to have a strong spiritual family, you have to have strong spiritual leadership. Strong spiritual leadership. Now the Bible says here in verses 12 through 13, it says to acknowledge those who lead you, who work hard among you, who care for your souls, who care for you in the Lord, who admonish you. It says, hold them in highest regard and love because of their work. Look at what Hebrews 13, 17 says about, it's the same concept here. It says, have confidence in your leaders. It literally says, submit or obey their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be unprofitable for you, or that would be of no benefit to you. Now the Bible says that it is important for all of us to be under leadership. I believe this: you can never be a leader if you can't be under leadership, right? If you're uncoachable, you can't really be a coach. I know good coaches throughout America who go to coaches' clinics all over America all the time throughout the year when they can in the offseason. They're always trying to learn, they're being coachable themselves so that they themselves can coach others. And so the Bible talks about pastors and leaders in a church or not to lord over the people in 1 Peter, it says. So, so the the concept of church leadership is that a pastor is to be a shepherd. He is to be a servant, he is to die for the sheep, he is to serve the sheep, but he's also to lead the sheep. It's really an odd dynamic if you think about it. He's a sheep, but he's also a leader of the sheep. He's a shepherd. And he's part of the body, but he is to also be a leader of the body. It's really a dynamic that only God can come up with. And so that's why Pastor, I believe, is specially gifted by God to fulfill that biblical office. And so the Bible talks about that, and you have to have strong spiritual leadership. And it says, acknowledge those who work hard among you. It's not wrong to acknowledge people, to say that somebody's done a good job, or say someone helps you in your spiritual growth. It's not wrong at all to do that. And so the Bible says to do that, to recognize those in that way, because they care for you in the Lord and they admonish you. They're constantly uh looking out for your souls, they're praying for you. Uh it says, hold them in the highest regard and love because of their work's sake. Now, here's the thing I want you to understand about that. It's kind of weird for me to be preaching about this because I'm kind of talking about me and Brother Cameron and our leaders and Brother Eric and even some our lay leaders. So, you know, it would be better for somebody else to preach it, but it's just where we are, and I have to talk about it. But here's the thing I want you to see. And I and I say this with humility, but also boldness. There is no other work on the face of the earth like spiritual work. There is none. Those of you who are in our congregation, I know we have three of you who served as senior pastors who are here today, maybe a fourth. If I know Brother Frank also has served, he's gone to Bible college, he's part of Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. You three, tell me if I'm not right when I say that. There is no other work like spiritual work. Am I right? It doesn't mean that it's that it's better than someone else's job because all jobs are important. You know, what blew my mind during the COVID crisis was all of a sudden governmental leaders declaring themselves to be God in a way, a pseudo-God, telling people that, well, your job is essential, but your job isn't. Who died and made you God? I mean, your job is essential to your family, correct? Right? So all jobs are essential and they're all important. But when it comes to spiritual work, there's nothing like it. I I'm gonna say this to you, and I just want you to, I'm gonna say I'll never mention this again until if I'm still here 27 years later, I might have to repeat it. But uh I'll never say this again, but I'm gonna say it now. I hear criticisms of me sometimes, and I try to listen to the criticism now as I'm older, and I learn some things from them. And some of the criticisms are very true, and they're good to learn from. You hear me? I might be a pastor, but I'm still a human and I can be wrong. And when I'm wrong, I want to admit that I'm wrong and I want to correct it and make it right. If I do something that I shouldn't do, I want to make it right. There are things that if I do do it will disqualify me from ministry, but here's what I want to say. One of the criticisms I get is he's always fishing and hunting. And I know some of you have said it because people have told me you said it. You know you got tattletales in the church. Yeah. Here's what I want you to understand. When you go to work, let's just say you go to work, you're there at eight, you get off at five. Most of you, when you're off at five, you're off, correct? And you go home and maybe at five o'clock you you leave straight from work and you go to the ball field to watch your kid practice. And you pick them up from practice. Then you take them to a game the next day. And Monday and Tuesday, you're with your kids at practice, and you come to church on Wednesday. Then Thursday, you maybe are at a game, and then hey, some of you whose kids play maybe like who don't play football, but they play um, you know, baseball or something like that, man, they have three and four games a week sometimes, right? Two or three games on Saturday. And you go to your, you go and do that, right? So on a Tuesday, if my work is done at four o'clock and I want to hook up to my boat and go to Noonan's Lake and catch fish when they're actually biting, I'm gonna do it, right? I can do it, correct? Here's the point, here's the point I'm making. I make a deal with you. I'll only hunt or fish on my two days off from now on. But here's what I'm requiring. My two days off are gonna be Friday and Saturday. Because I work on Sunday, you realize that, right? Yeah, listen to me. I work on Sunday. Here's the problem with some of you. Listen, you say I don't work, but on Sunday when I do work, you don't want me to work long. Remember that? I mean, I can't win with you, with some of you. No. So here's the deal. Work Monday. Whatever time I come in, I come in. Office closes at 3 o'clock, but I'll keep my phone on till five. At 5 o'clock, I'm off. If your loved one dies at 10 o'clock, don't call me. I ain't coming. I'm off. If you get married on Saturday, I'm out. If you got a rehearsal on Friday night, I'm done. I'm out. I'm off. Here's the point I'm making, y'all. Listen. That would be absurd, right? It's absurd. I've been on call 365 days of the year, 24-7 for 35 years. Listen to me. That's what God's called me to do, and I'm not complaining. It's what He's gifted me to do and what He's called me to do. It's what I love to do. And when you call me in the middle of the night because you have a need, if I can meet it and it's something that has to be met, then I'm there if I can be. If I'm hunting in Alabama, I'm five hours away. I'll be there. I'm coming back. It better be important though. Or I might say, I'll meet you in the afternoon. I got something to deal with early in the morning, okay? Um the ministry is very unique. You don't turn it off, and you can't tell people when they're hurting to come back the next morning at eight o'clock. You understand what I'm saying? And so, therefore, it's a unique way of doing life. And that's what spiritual leadership is. And a church has to have strong spiritual leadership. It has to have people who are in leadership who care and who want to do what they do. Okay? Let me tell you why you pay me. Can I give you some? I just I don't know why I'm going into all this, but you pay me not to preach. Now don't get any ideas. I want my check tomorrow, okay? Tomorrow morning. No. You pay me to be available. You pay me so that I can study, so I can pour myself into the Word of God, so I can pray for you, so I can be available to you, so that I can be available to the community, so that I can be a representative of Christ in this church. That's what you pay us to do as leadership in leadership. But listen to me, listen. You don't pay me to love you. You don't pay me to care for you. That has to come from a deep sense of spirituality within a leader because he's called to that congregation and that group of people. You follow what I'm saying? I had somebody tell me one time when I'm, you're only here at the hospital because you're paid to be here. And he said that to me, and I said, Well, I'm sorry you feel that way. I said, but I'm actually here because I care. And I'm your pastor. Well, you're welcome. Now, listen, I'm not trying to build myself up. This one's so weird to preach on this. But a church has to have healthy, strong spiritual leadership. And not just in the pastor, but in other people. And so some of these people who serve with distinction hold them in high regard and love because of their work sake. Live in peace with each other. Let me give you a second thing here. A strong family patiently helps one another to grow and develop. A strong family patiently helps one another to grow and develop. We just went to the desert. There we go. Let me just say this. You talk about people who serve. The only time you know they're there is when a mistake happens. So 99.9.9.9% of the time, they're doing an amazing job. And even when a mistake happens, it may not be them, it's the equipment. Always the equipment. Never them. Right? Thank you for the good job you guys do back there. Yeah, let's give them a hand. That's good. And their work's not done when it's over. They put together a podcast, they put together the live stream, all of that stuff that I don't even know how it all happens, but they make it happen. It's pretty good stuff. So a strong family patiently helps one another to develop and grow. Look at what it says here in verses 14 and 16, or 14 through 16. It says here that we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive. Listen, it's not okay in a church to be the person that's always creating problems. Unfortunately, in some churches, people are afraid to deal with the person that's always creating chaos. Because they're afraid that that person might get their feelings hurt, but in the meantime, that person's hurting everybody else. They're being disruptive. So the Bible says you got to warn those. It says, encourage to dishearten. People are disheartened. Think about it. I mean, it doesn't matter what area of life you're in, but let's say if you're a young family and you got little kids and all of a sudden inflation's going through the roof. And you gotta drive a long way to go to work. I bought a salad. A salad to go. Sixteen dollars the other day. A salad. And I'm still mad at myself for that. Lettuce, man. I'm telling you, lettuce and dry bread. Things are out of control. I mean, it's disheartening when when you look at your account, you work hard and all of a sudden, you know, you're I mean, you go, you go to the grocery store and it I mean your checking account blows up. I had I went I went the other day. To a to get my eyes checked. I had a floater in my eye, so I had to go see a retina specialist and all of that stuff. And the first thing they do, you're sitting in there. It looks like they moved out because they don't have any chairs in there. They got two chairs because of COVID. And I'm telling you, I'm like, this place looks shady. And I'm in there. And before I can see the doctor, well, sir, your deductible is $268. I almost walked out. I was so mad. I'm like, I'm gonna go in there and tell me there's nothing wrong with me, and I'm gonna give that guy $268 so he can drive a Mercedes. Like if they get $268 from everybody all the time, they're gonna have a lot of money, you know. And sure enough, he said, There ain't nothing wrong with you. I just came out of there exasperated, just frustrated. Every time you turn around, people are frustrated, people are discouraged. And he says here, warn those who are idle, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone. Man, y'all, we need to pack patience into our spiritual life like never before. We really do. We really do. All of us, not just you, but I need it too. Patience. Some of you irritate me. Listen, and that's reciprocated. I irritate the fool out of you. I know it. I know it. But that doesn't give me a right to be unkind or to treat you with contempt. It's irritating sometimes. But you know what? I have to be patient with you. You're my brother and sister in Christ. I love you. We're part of a family. We got to bring patience to the table and just pour it on each other. We need to patiently help one another to grow and develop. Look at the growing that's going on here. Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone. Notice what Titus chapter 2 says. This is what we're to be doing as a church. This is what I love here. Look at what Titus 2 says. Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in the faith and love and endurance. Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine. Now let me just say this. You say, well, that means I can have a little wine? Keep in mind that the wine of that day was not the level of, did not have the level of alcoholic content or alcohol content that we have today. Says here, but to teach what is good. And go on. Verse 4. Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God. Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled. Second time, it says that about the young men in that passage of Scripture. Look at the development and the growth. We are a family. On Wednesday night, the adults are broken up into men and women. And I think to some extent that's healthy. It doesn't mean that we shouldn't have co-ed classes. I have no problem with that. But on Wednesday night we have two women's classes and a men's class. And we can teach each other things from that perspective. We can follow scripture in Titus that says, you know, this is when we teach the younger men how to be self-controlled. I know I teach the men's class. This is when we teach, you know, them how to respect one another and how to live their lives and how to love their wives as Christ loved the church. Ask any man. We've been on that quite a bit the last month and a half. And it's where development and growth takes place. And we patiently help one another. That's how you become a strong family. It's the long haul. And one last thing I want you to see here. A third breakup of this passage. And it's this a strong family is serious about biblical worship. You say, man, I don't see the word worship in there. Look with me. Verse 16, rejoice always. Does rejoicing happen in a worship service? Yes. Pray continuous. Pray prayer happen in a worship service? Yes. Giving thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ. Notice, verse 19, do not quench the spirit, do not treat prophecies with contempt. Got to keep in mind now when this was being written, the word of God was not complete. And so you had prophets who would teach the word of God. They would teach the apostles' doctrine, which was the teachings of Jesus, handed down to the apostles. You'd have two or three that would judge to make sure that what the person was teaching was consistent with what Jesus taught. And says here, but test them all. Test them to make sure it measures up with what Jesus taught. Hold on to what is good and reject every kind of evil. I see worship in this passage. Worship. And in the midst of worship, we see the Holy Spirit. The Bible says, do not quench the Spirit. What does that mean? Paul pictured the Spirit of God as a fire. If you notice in Isaiah 4, 4, Acts 2.3, Revelation 4.5, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, is used as an illustration, as a fire. Fire speaks of purity, power, light, warmth, and if necessary, destruction. When the Holy Spirit is at work in our lives and in our churches, we have a warmth of love in our hearts, light for our minds, and energy for our wills. He melts us together in the fire of his spirit so that there is harmony and cooperation. And he purifies us with that heat so that we put away sin. The Bible says, reject every kind of evil. The fire of the Spirit must not go out on the altar of our hearts. We must maintain that devotion to Christ that motivates and energizes our lives. The Bible says, Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 1, 6, stir up the gift of God which is in you, Paul wrote to Timothy. And the verb literally means to stir the fire again into life. Apparently, Timothy had been neglecting that gift and had to be reminded. Listen to this. Warren Wearsby says this. So it is important that we permit the Spirit of God to teach us the Word of God when we meet together to worship. And we're not to quench that spirit. So a strong family is serious about worship. Look at the elements of worship: to rejoice, to pray, to give thanks in all circumstances. And then to let the Holy Spirit be the Holy Spirit. To let him work in our hearts and in our lives. Don't quench the Spirit. Don't throw a bucket of water on the Spirit's fire. Don't come to church to worship with your own agenda and then throw a bucket of water on somebody else who's on fire for the Lord. A strong family is serious about their worship. Now look at all of this stuff. Strong family has spiritual leadership, patiently helps one another to grow and develop, is serious about worship, about biblical worship, with prayer and the word of God as the center of it. And the Holy Spirit moving in our midst through worship, through singing, through preaching, through teaching, through prayer. And I'm just going to be honest, y'all. I know that I'm looking at my church and I'm looking at us as a congregation together, and I know some of you say you're biased, Pastor, but I want to just say this. As I'm reading this and as I'm studying this, and as I'm looking at these things, and I get these three things that stand out to me, I'm like, you know what? I think Jonesville is serious about its worship. I really do. I do. Are we perfect in that? No. You don't have a perfect worship leader. You don't have a perfect pastor. But are we serious about biblical worship? Are we serious about prayer? Do you know that we have ladies that have been meeting for several years now, once a week, to pray for hours for our church? Do you realize that? Many times they have no idea what I'm preaching about, and they have prayed already about the content of what I'm preaching, and then we talk about it on Sunday or the next day when they come on Tuesday when they come to pray and they say, Do you know what you preached about this past week? We prayed about the week before. And I'm thinking, how in the world did you know that? I didn't even know what I was gonna preach. I'll tell you how they knew that. It's the Holy Spirit. And God melts people together in the fire of his spirit. I think we're a church serious about prayer. I think we're serious about rejoicing. We have had some serious heartache in this church. Thank God we haven't had some of that stuff recently. But we we've had a church. We've had infants die. We've had men working on their tractor, a tree. A man had a tree fall on him and killed him. We had a man leave choir practice on his motorcycle and got and hit an eight-point deer right acros right over here, just down the road, right here on 241, killed him. We had a man and his ex-wife and daughter, a man who's part of our worship team, who's now part of the cowboy church. We sent him away. We said, they need you, get out of here and go. And um, and he went and he's a big part of the cowboy church. Uh, what is it, Raptor Cross Church in um in Williston area? Well, his ex-wife and daughter were on a on a small plane and crashed near Lakeland. We've had our share of heartache. We had two young men in this church who are part of this church who were killed tragically on a Saturday night, right before their graduation. This church has been through a lot. And in the midst of that horrific heartache, the families of those people and our church found a way to keep rejoicing. Rejoice always. Pray continuously. I wrote a little note here in my Bible. Pray without ceasing, it says, or pray continuously. Warren Wearsby says, To pray without ceasing means constantly recurring, not continuously occurring. Listen, listen to what that means. Constantly recurring, not continuously occurring. It doesn't mean that you have to be a monk. And while you're driving, no. Open your eyes while you're driving, please. Please do not be reading the Bible while you're driving. You can pray and talk to God. Heck, you talk to other people on the phone. Might as well talk to God, but keep your eyes open. But you can pray constantly because it's recurring. That's the concept. It's a long conversation. That's what prayer is. It's a continual conversation that we have with the Lord. And I believe this church is serious about biblical worship when it comes to those things. I believe we're serious about the word of God. We don't treat the word of God with contempt, but we treat it with great respect. So much so that the only time it's ever happened in my 35 years of ministry happened a few months ago or a few weeks ago when I had you stand for the reading of God's Word, and I went into the introduction of my sermon, and I had you be seated and you objected and said, We didn't read the Word of God. It was awesome. I love rebukes like that. That's great. And in the midst of this worship, we find peace, and he sanctifies us, sets us apart. And we are reminded in verse 24 that the one who calls you is faithful and he will do it. We find in our worship time how faithful our God is, and it reminds us of his faithfulness. I didn't ask their permission to share it, but I'm going to share it. I'll ask for forgiveness if I'm not supposed to. That's kind of my style. But Walker and Karen Moran. They're sitting back there. Raise your hand back there so everybody knows you. There you go. Coming back from a joyous occasion last night in Trenton, got involved in a four-car pile-up. They got hit from behind. And there was a baby in the car behind them. Is that correct? Is the car right behind you? And as Walker tells me, and he sent me the pictures, that if the baby would have been on this side of the car rather than this side of the car, it would have been horrific. No one was killed. Someone was injured. And I'm sure they have some aches and bruises. But they're here today. Our God is faithful. And he can protect us, and he reminds us of his faithfulness to us, right? In situations like that. I believe we're a church that's serious about helping each other grow and develop. And sometimes it's painful. And we have painful conversations. We have biblical confrontations with each other about things in our life, and that's not right. That needs to be corrected. And we're there for restoration, not ridicule, and we're there to help each other to grow. And we offer forgiveness and we put it behind us and we keep moving because we all find ourselves on one side or the other of that process. And it has to be done patiently with one another to help us grow and develop. Spiritual leadership. People who care. A spiritual backbone. And they're not afraid to speak the truth or teach the truth. Or admonish you in the truth. It's an encouraging thing. Heck, I'll even say this. Patiently? You want to talk patiently? You want to talk about patience? I was 29 years old when I sat right here on the edge of these steps. Now, our stage wasn't built like this then. Came back. It had steps right here. And there was a hole in the platform. The building was about 85% uncompleted, but the shell was here. And I sat here that weekend that I came to visit to meet with the people as to whether or not I'd become a pastor of the church. And God took me to a passage of scripture in John when I sat here in this uncompleted building. At 29 years of age, and I was scared to death. I'm 29 years old. And the Lord took me to a passage of Scripture and said in John, where Jesus said, Where I am, there my servant will be also, and I'm here and I want you here. So I knew God had called me here before I'd ever preached a sermon here. And I became a pastor at 29 years of age. I'm 56 now. Do you think that during these last 27 years that there's been some patience granted toward me and to me? You better believe it. And you have granted that to me as a spiritual leader, and it helped me grow. Well, if you're gonna give me that and help me be the man that God called me to be and patiently follow and patiently encourage, and patiently lift up and pray for, shouldn't we do that for everyone and be patient for everyone in this with everyone in this congregation at different levels of maturity? I told you this a few weeks ago, but I had a pastor tell me one time that he wouldn't like pastoring our church. And I said, Well, that's fine because uh the pastor's not leaving. The current one there. That's fine. I don't know what you're talking about. He goes, Well, the reason I wouldn't is you don't have enough mature people in your church. I said, Mature, what do you mean, mature? He goes, I want people that are mature Christians in my church. I want people to bring a commentary with them when they come to church. I said, Well, I I I I guess you're a terrible preacher because if they if they're carrying a commentary, that means that you're not giving them what they need because they never mind. But his mindset was that he didn't want to fool around with the dirty diapers of spirit of spiritual growth. And I told him, I said, well, I wouldn't want to pastor your church ever. Because what happens when all those mature people grow to heaven? You got nothing left, pal. A strong church, a healthy church, has got all levels of spiritual maturity. All levels. And a strong church has different age group levels, right? If all we had was children and a few parents, we Wouldn't be able to do things. If all we had was gray-haired people, and there's nothing wrong with gray hair or gray beards, we wouldn't have a future. So it's important to have a church of people at all levels of spiritual maturity. That way the older people in the faith, the more mature people in the faith, can help develop the younger people in the faith. Makes sense, right? But it's messy sometimes. It's difficult. It's challenging. I'll give you one of my pet peeves. You ready for this? And I know personally, I'm Generation X, I believe. I just missed the baby boomers by a year or two. 1966. So I'm what they call Generation X. Now, I've lost track, but people my age call everybody that's younger than them millennials anyway. But I think we got like a new group that's not millennials anymore. I don't know what they're called. But anyway, I lost track of all of that. Tell me if it's not true. Coach, I don't know why I don't carry this thing with me. I'm always having you. I'll tell you why I don't carry because some of you text messaged me while I'm preaching. No, I'm not gonna end the sermon at the time you want. I'm sorry. No. Got my phone. I'm calling a millennial. Now mind you, they texted you ten seconds ago. I'm looking at Penny. I'm I'm like this. They could be answering. Shut up, Larry. He's calling me. I won't talk to you. You're not a millennial. Um look at Penny and I'm gonna go, and it's still ringing. It's going on. Big millennials don't answer the microphones. And especially it was irritating to me when they were part of my household and I was paying for the phones. I pay you to answer that phone. You just keep calling, calling, calling, calling. You say, What's your point, preacher? Here's the point. Different generations can irritate us, but let me tell you something. If we don't have them, we don't have a future. So they don't answer their phones. Who cares? But you know what they do, a lot of them? They answer the call to God. They're here on the worship team, they're here serving, they're here when it's time to do the heavy lifting around here. Sometimes a lot of them are here helping and working and serving. So it takes us all. Strong family church. That's the biblical model right here. Strong leadership, patiently helping people grow, and man, we we have a strong concept of biblical worship. I'll tell you one last thing. I'm done. Somebody sent me a meme the other day. I'm looking at him, he's over there, but he sent me a meme of the pitch man, and another one, and another one, and another one. You know, the guy's selling stuff on TV making fun of me saying, and one more thing, and one more thing, and one more thing, and another one, and another one. He's not wrong, y'all. We are one body, and people are hungry for that kind of church. They're hungry for it. And we're growing because people are looking for that. And they're finding it. I don't mean this in a sinful way, but I'm proud to be the pastor of a church that's a biblical model like the Thessalonian church. I am. Let's stand together. Heavenly Father, I thank you for the truth of your holy word, and that you inspire us through the truth of your word to live a certain way. God, you have the answers for us in the world in which we live in, the ancient truths that are relevant today. Help us to continually be strong and to keep growing as a strong family in those disciplines that we talked about today. Help me to keep growing. May these next 20 years be the best years of my spiritual life, this growth time in me, so that I can lead your people. Now, y'all, as we get ready to have our invitation, I want to invite you to trust the Lord in what He's spoken to you about. If you gave your life to Christ recently and you're ready to be baptized, I want you to come forward. Come to me when we start singing here in just a moment. We'll present you before the church and let them know so they can rejoice in all things with you. This is where God's calling you to be a part of, be a part of this church family. Man, this is the time. This altar will be open for you to pray. Let the Lord lead you. Father, we thank you and we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. As our worship team leads us.