 Good afternoon and welcome to Unfiltered. Pastor David, welcome as always. Thank you, John. Pastor, recently on Chino Connect, I was spending some great time. You were wasting your time. Did I pay you for that? Didn't pay you. Did you? A post came up and it was asking how to find a local church or what church somebody would recommend. And so I was looking at all the comments that people were making, recommending their recommendation. How does one, if they're new to the area or moves to a different area or it's gonna move, you know, how do they look for a church and what are the key components in looking for a good church? How does one? Oh, it's one. Oh, one on one. How does one, one, one, one, one, right? How does one look for a church? How does one, I don't know how one would do that. What do you look for in a church? Well, you know, everybody has their different requirements and things that they'd recommend, so allow me to give mine. The first thing I would look for if I were searching for a church is do they honor and center their church services on Bible studies? Not just saying they open the Bible, but actual Bible studies, you know, because there's a difference between teaching from the Bible and teaching the Bible. There are quite a number of people who teach from the Bible, or at least they say they are, because they'll open it, they'll read a passage, and then they begin to talk, but they're not really teaching the passage, so they're teaching from the Bible. There are others who do a verse by verse where they expose it, where they actually are looking to see what those words meant, what's the context, what's the application. That's what you would call more in line with true Bible teaching. And so the first thing I would be looking for is a place that actually expounds on scripture, that actually exposes, that actually will tell me what that verse meant, and then make the practical application. So I look for that, I look for a high value of the Word of God and a very, what's the word, a very high standard of exposition so that the Word of God is actually being taught. So you look for a place that teaches the Word of God. You also look for a place, I would look for a place that exalts God with worship, meaning that the worship team is not centered on themselves and their tight jeans and the light shows and the smoke, because I'm from the old school. I wanna worship God, not the worship leaders. And so you look for a place where Jesus is actually honored. Now we all have different musical tastes. Of course, some people like classic hymns and if that's what you like, then that's a place that you would want as long as they're expositing. And there's classic hymns, that's wonderful. For me, I'm more contemporary. So I would be looking for a place that honors God, that doesn't make a big deal out of the people up there and that the people up there are not hopping around like rabbits. I've seen that where they bounce around and say, everybody, when I count to four, let's jump or whatever. I don't look for that because that's putting your attention on the musician and the man or the woman and you're not putting your attention on Jesus Christ. So you look for a place that exposes the word, you look for a place that has worship and you also look for a place that has community. A place where you not only go, but you can become part of a family of believers. Again, there are a lot of places you can hide, especially in large churches. You can hide. You come in and you're a consumer, you basically are, you like this and you like this, but you never contribute your own gifts. You never really get involved. When my wife Marie and I were first married, I had a professor when I was going to Bible college. I went to Biola and when I was speaking to my professor on one occasion, I told him that I was going to a particular fellowship and he told me this. He said, David, he said, God has put a call on your heart. If you go to the church that is as large as the one that you're speaking of, he says all your gifts are going to be washed out by the gifts of other people. He says, what you really need is to be in a place where your gifts are needed, where you can be used and trained in the things of the Lord. So I believe that today, John, unfortunately there are many people who like to hide in the pews. They like to be part of, and maybe even say, oh, I belong to this church. I'm sure on the Chino Connect, I never read it. I've never read it, so I'm just going to speak from what I would assume and I'll put things together that over the years I might have heard common. But there's quite a number of people say, this is what we do and this is where we go and this is how come. And in many ways it appears that that's really more of a worship of a pastor or a church and not necessarily a place that you go to be built up. And then finally, a place that's going to encourage you to give away your faith. Because it's been said, your faith is really not really fully formed until you give it away. So you look for those places, a place that teaches the Word of God, a place where worship is about Jesus, a place where there's a community of fellowship and then a place that encourages you to share the gospel with the lost. Amen. Well, Pastor, thank you so much and thank you guys for tuning in. Do want to invite you to our Sunday morning services at 8.30 and 10.45 as Pastor David is taking snapshots from the book of Acts and we'll be in chapter eight. Simon, the sorcerer, very powerful. I've enjoyed studying for that. I want to invite you guys to come out and join us. And so again, thank you for tuning in. We look forward to seeing you and God bless you. Pastor David, thank you.