 Hey everyone, welcome back to the second session. Yeah, so we started off this course, PC203, the local church. We understood its origins. So we understood its origins and knowing that it's God's idea and that it's God's blueprint. We had to follow his blueprint. I also would want to mention that not all of us here would want to become a pastor or pastor of a church and whatnot, but then nevertheless having said that this is for everybody, right? When you look at the five-fold ministry, it doesn't matter if you're apostles, prophets, teachers, pastors, evangelists, some of us may be called for children's ministry, but you're still serving the church. Some of us may be called for worship ministry, but you're still serving the church. Some of us may be called for evangelism, become an evangelist, and you're still serving the church, right? As a prophet, you're serving the church. So the subject is for everyone and it doesn't matter which is your primary area of calling is. This is for all of us, right? There's a couple of other things I just want to re-highlight from the last point that we touched on. Why should you be part of a local church? One of the interesting points in the notes, if you look at page eight, the other thing the pastor writes is, bodily parts do not float around, but stay together, right? That's the local church, okay? It's compared to a human body. So you don't see a right hand taking a walk and say, oh, no, I don't like the right hand. Or you don't try to manipulate the scripture saying, okay, you know, the right hand should not know what the left hand is doing or what the left hand is doing. So I don't want to be part of all that. They're still together in one body, right? So it's very important to be plugged into a community, to a Christ-centered community. I'm not sure if we touched on community a little bit, but then, yeah, it's important to be part of, plugged into a Christ-centered community because that is also God's idea, right? And another beautiful scripture that I want to read is Isaiah 65 verse eight. It's as mentioned in the notes, by the way, Isaiah 65 verse eight. A new wine is found in the cluster, right? You just take a single pebble of grape, you're not going to get much off it. There you can squeeze it. There'll be a splash of its juice or whatever. But then a single grape by itself produces some juice. But then when a cluster is pressed together, we have more wine. And wine in the scriptures is symbolic of anointing as well. So if we grow together in a community, in a Christ-centered community, we go from grace to grace, from different levels deeper, the levels of intimacy with God as a community as well. So yeah. So that is chapter one, the origins and its purpose. Let's move on to chapter two, the purpose of the local church, right? The purpose of the local church, its mission, message and methods. First off, the mission. Matthew chapter 28 verse 18 and 20. We very popularly known as the Great Commission, right? It says, And Jesus came and spoke to them saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen. As I mentioned, this is popularly known as the Great Commission, some say that, hey, it's not a great suggestion. It's a great commission. We like the idea of commission, but then we just take it as it's a great suggestion. It's not a great suggestion. Guys, it's a great commission. It's a mission. And it's a core mission because we are core laboring with God in this. We cannot do this without him. While Jesus said this, he did not say, he did not give like an exact methods on how you are to go about doing this. He didn't say, okay, hey, these are the five steps to have a successful local judge or go about accomplishing this mission. He did not give them that methodology, so to speak. He did not give them that methodology, so to speak. But rather, we see in the book of Acts how God's strategy unfolds. Very simply with the preaching of the gospel, people are brought into faith in Christ. Simply preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ brings people into the faith in Christ. That is what baptizing them also means. Yes, it's immersion. People are baptized in water, but then also means that you are bringing them into this fellowship, into this family, this household, the church. So that's a simple God's strategy. And what happens when the great commission is fulfilled? What happens when we go about equipping and empowering people, when you go about discipling and evangelizing? Again, in the book of Acts, we see when this is happening, the churches are being built locally in different towns, in different cities. So carrying out the great commission results in establishing of local churches. And you read that through the book of Acts, and I'm not sure if you are doing the book of Acts this semester, or you've already done it, or some time next semester, I don't know. But it's very interesting, an exciting book. But here's the thing. So great commission helps us establish local churches, and then the circle finishes once again. The local churches, as it's being built around, helps in fulfilling the great commission. It's a both go hand in hand. So when we fulfill the great commission, the local churches are being established. And as the local churches are being established, the great commission is being fulfilled. The gospel of Jesus Christ is taken to the ends of the world. So that is the mission. Take the message, take the gospel of Jesus Christ. When that is done, the local churches are established. The natural dimension, the physical expression of the local churches are being established. And then as that happens, the great commission is being fulfilled. And then next we see the message. The purpose of the local church as we see its mission, now the message, simply put, the gospel. We are to preach the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ in page 10. The gospel is the message of the cross of Jesus Christ. The work that He completed and the salvation, healing, deliverance and redemption that is ours, because of what He did. That's the good news. That's the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is the message we as His church are to carry. Nothing else, don't add to it. Don't take away anything from it. Don't dilute it. It's as good as is. In fact, it's too good to be true. When you take the message of Jesus Christ, what He's done for us, what He's accomplished for us, that message is good enough. We read that in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 17 to 24. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Can someone read that off your notes, please, from page 10 at the bottom? Anyone? First, can I read from the Bible? Yes, please. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 17 to 24. Go ahead. But as God has distributed to each one, as the Lord has called each one, so let Him walk and so I ordain in all the churches. Was an even called while circumcised, let Him not become uncircumcised. Was an even called while uncircumcised, let Him not be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing. But keeping the... Sorry to interrupt. So are we reading from 1 Corinthians chapter 1? Or are we in 2 Corinthians? Sorry, Pastor. Sorry, sorry. It happens to all of us. Yep. Thank you. No, don't worry about it. Go ahead. Sorry about it. 17 to 24, right? Yes. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God. It pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign and Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Thank you so much. So Apostle Paul is very clear in what he is writing to the Corinthians. Regardless of your audience, Jews request a sign, Greeks seek after wisdom. Whoever your audience is, whatever they're expecting, don't change the message of the Gospel. Preach them Christ crucified. That is the message of the local church. It's simple. So that's the message. And then he goes on to say in the next section, which is labeled as the whole council of God. So here in Acts chapter 20, it was 20, 21 and 27. It simply says this, how I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you and taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying to Jews and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole council of God. The whole council of God. So as ministers, we have to teach and proclaim the whole council of God. What does that mean? We have to teach sound doctrine. Okay. What is the opposite of a whole, whole council, partial council, half council, right? We are not to preach, say, only value. Thanks, Isaac. What is simple, isn't it? I mean, you understand the whole council. That means we just can't take a little bit and just talk on one subject. Just take, say, for example, grace. Just talk about grace and grace and grace and grace. Okay. And then ignore the truth and the holiness of God and everything else. I mean, there's nothing wrong in just talking about the grace of God as is. But then what about all the other aspects or all the other attributes and everything? Okay. So the whole council of God is to be shared. That's the sound doctrine. Right? In other words, 1 Timothy chapter 4 verse 6 and 16 goes on to say, if you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which you have carefully followed. Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them. For in doing this, you will save both yourself and those who hear you. Right? So we as a local church, why is it important for us to present the whole council of God? Because that way it's good for us and it's good also for those who are listening to us, who hear us, isn't it? And that way we are not manipulating anything. That way we are not missing out on the sound doctrine as we are doing it as followed. So when we see, when we present the whole council of God to our congregation, what happens? When that is done correctly, we are guarding the flock against every false doctrine. So when you're teaching or what you're teaching and what you're preaching is according to the word of God. You are guarding your congregation, the people from false doctrine. So when people understand truth, they will be able to identify error and stay away from it. So our job is to preach the truth. Jesus is the way of the truth. Our job is to preach Jesus. Christ crucified. This is a classic example, right? Of a person who is trained to identify a false currency, a counterfeit currency, right? A 2000 rupees note and whatnot. So the job of this person is not to study all the thousands of counterfeits that are possibly out there. His job is to only study that the original, the authentic, the legal currency note really well, right? Now how many counterfeit notes are you going to a intensity? Oh, I think this is a counterfeit. Oh, no, I think this is no. So when you sit and when you studied the authentic one, now you know, okay, hey, everything else becomes very easy. So when you study the Gospels, when our doctrine is sound and the whole council of God, then what we've done is we've guarded ourselves from every other false doctrine, right? And so that is the message of the church that we are to be careful about as well is not diluting the message of the cross, not taking anything from it, not adding to it. Just preach Christ crucified and seek after the wisdom from Holy Spirit and then we are on the right track, right? And then finally to the next section is the methods. Are you guys with me? Yeah, the mission, the message and finally the methods, right? So we are in page 12 of the PDF. If you have a hard copy, it's going to be a different page number. So the methods, methods we use must be aligned to the standards and directives set forth in the word of... At this point, we are not... It's not about the things that we're doing at APC or the things that well-practiced methods, et cetera, et cetera, okay? We're clearly putting it across saying these are the standards and the directives set forth in the word of God. And so what are some of those methods that we as a church are to follow? And the very first thing is pure, purity. The methods we must... We use must be pure before God and man. We must not use deceit or manipulation to achieve our objectives. Can I hear an amen? The methods we use must not be used to deceit or manipulate people to get things done, right? But rather do it with integrity, with honesty before God, knowing that we are accountable to Him. It is the church is His. When we understand... If you just simply understand that the church is His, then I think a lot of things can fall in place. We must be pure in the way we communicate God's word. We do it with sincerity and as doing it before God. We do not use the word of God to serve our own agendas. Can I hear another amen? We do not use the word of God to serve our own agendas. And very sadly, that's the case across the globe and a lot of churches that we use the word of God to serve our own agendas, to build our own kingdoms. I think we can go on. In 2 Corinthians 4 verse 1 and 2, 2 Corinthians 4 verse 1 and 2, it says, Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. We have to treat the word of God with a lot of reverence, knowing that the church is His. The message is very simple, and this method is very simple. Be accountable before God, knowing that He is watching and knowing that is His church that we are dealing with and knowing that we are using His word. And John 1, we all know this verse. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. So if I am to present to you something as the eternal word, how careful should I be? How careful should I be in receiving it or giving it to you? I'll never forget this video. So there's this tribe, I think in Indonesia. And they are receiving copies of the Bible for the first time in their own language. In their own language. It's a small village and the video is available on YouTube, by the way. The whole village is assembled by the airstrip and the video is taken from the time the airplane lands in their village and they are receiving the word of God with so much love and anticipation and so much of reverence. And the head of the village says he is the word. How can we not honor when we are receiving the word for the first time? And if you just have the reverence for his word, a lot of things will fall in place. So that's the simple method of purity, pure. And as we come down to page 13, one of our methods, let it not be offensive, yet without compromise. Now we just read in 1 Corinthians 118 where it says, 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 18, it says, for the message of the cross is foolishness. Another translation says, the message of the cross is offensive. The message of the cross is offensive. But then that doesn't mean we are inconsiderate. So as an example, let's take, for example, what does it mean by not offensive? How can our methods not be offensive? For example, my locality is populated with a lot of people from a different background, right? Say I'm going to build a church. I'm going to be inconsiderate and I'm going to, you know, so as charismatic people we can be loud. I'm not going to have any soundproofing. I'm not going to have, I'm just going to let people park anywhere in the road and whatnot. So all of those things, small details, integrity, things can be offensive considering my locality, right? So our methods in ministry and our preaching must not intentionally offend people. Notice those words there, must not intentionally, okay, that is, that's about the heart, isn't it? Intentionally offend people. Our objective is to point people to the truth in the person of Jesus Christ in the Word of God. We do not compromise the truth, but speak it in love, right? Like I said, we do not compromise. We don't dilute, but we speak it in love, okay? So that's a simple method is not offensive, but yet without compromise. And next is in demonstration of spirit and power, in demonstration of his spirit and power, demonstration. What does demonstration mean? Okay, I'm going to demonstrate how to do this for you. You know, I teach keyboard or guitar from teaching a musical instrument. I'm gonna say, hey, hey, okay, this is how you are to play this exercise at right on the board. But then for a student to understand, I have to demonstrate how that's to be played. It's not enough for me to just right on the board saying, okay, hey, these are the notes. This is how you play the C major scale on the guitar or on the keyboard. The student might attempt to play it, but then it would make it a lot easier if me as a teacher first plays it, demonstrates it, and then it becomes a little easier for the student to understand, isn't it? So we as a local church, one of the methods is that we demonstrate the power, moving in spirit and in power. Right? 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 4 and 5, the scripture from the notes. It says, and my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power. That your faith should not be in wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Right? Think about Jesus. Everything Jesus did in his time on earth, he did it in the power of the Holy Spirit. Right? In the last semester, we discussed healing and deliverance. If you remember, time and time again, we stressed on how Jesus did it with the power of the Holy Ghost, with the power of the Holy Spirit. And when we look at Acts chapter 1 and 2, the commandment is very simple. Stay there until you're filled with the Holy Spirit and you will receive power. Right? So in demonstration of spirit and power is crucial. It's very important for us that we remember that this is a very key method, regardless of the modern tools that we have. We have all these modern tools and technologies, different methodology, organization skills and what not. But all of these things can never and should never be a substitute for ministering in demonstration of the spirit and in power. We can have all the best technology equipments in this world to perform, to demonstrate a certain method, but then none of that can be an alternate or substitute to move in spirit of God and power. Right? You guys with me? Age 14. The next method. You see, this is just complimentary of each other. If we are dependent on the Holy Spirit, as it says, we have to be spirit directed. And in the first session, I mentioned that the methods can change over centuries. The methods have changed over centuries and how we worship, how we sing, how we bring our offerings and what not. And now we have internet and we are having classes online. People would have never thought 20 years ago, 100 years ago, 1,000 years ago, 2,000 years ago. The methods have changed, but the principles remain as the first century church where it is dependent on the Holy Spirit. We are 2,000 years later with all these fancy equipments are still to be dependent on the leading of the Holy Spirit. Right? As mentioned, multiple scriptures. We see that Philip was directed by the Holy Spirit. It says, the spirit set to Philip go near and overtake this chariot. As crazy as it may sound. Obey the Holy Spirit. Right? And this is again complimenting the next point, strategic. And if we are sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit and if we are obedient to his guidance. Right? The strategy is a piece of cake. What is strategy? It simply means, we have to do the right thing at the right time, be at the right place at the right time, etc. That's for our context. That's what it is. In the context of the local church. What to do strategy? How do I reach out to the city? What do I do in order to reach out to the online audience? And what not? You need a strategy. And you think Jesus has changed over time or the Holy Spirit has changed over time. He stopped talking. Right? You think, okay, this is the 21st century. Holy Spirit doesn't know anything about it. Right? What will the Holy Spirit know about Internet? I have Google for everything. Okay. If our first step if we can just surrender and submit before him, come before him and say Lord, here I am. You've called me to be in the city. My church is here. You've called me to be so and so. You've called me to serve so and so. We just humbly, very genuinely come and say I don't know what to do. You tell me what to do. Right? Like this very famous prayer of King Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 20. Lord, all these nations have surrounded me. We are a nation. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you. Right? So if only our eyes are on him as a primary method, you know, he will give us the strategies, divine strategies doing things at the right time, a certain way to be at the right time. Divine connections, divine favor and whatnot will be released sensitive to the leading of this Holy Spirit. And then and because we are obedient and because we are sensitive, he allows us to be relevant. That's the final point. Right? He allows us to be relevant to our day and our age. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. He is all-knowing, all-powerful. He is wisdom. He is the ancient of days. We cannot surprise him. There is no century that is ahead of us in the future that can we can come up with that is going to take, you know, surprise him, take him by surprise, what not. He has got strategies for everything. He is all-knowing, all-powerful. He is wisdom. Right? He is the spirit of wisdom. So it is his wisdom that allows us, helps us to be relevant to our day and our age. The very last point there says we must remain sensitive to the culture without being controlled by the culture. And then concludes by saying God is greater than the culture. Right? We must remain sensitive to the culture without being controlled by the culture. I love this translation of this verse from Romans chapter 12 verse 1 and 2. Romans chapter 12 verse 1 and 2. But I want to read it for us from the message version. Message version. I just put it in the chat section so we can all follow. This is I think verse 2 Romans chapter 12 verse 2 from the message version. Where is that? Yeah. Don't become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. It's talking about relevancy. Instead fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you always dragging you down to its level of immaturity. God brings the best out of you. Develops well formed maturity in you. It's beautifully put, isn't it? All right. So with that I want to conclude this session as well. I want to encourage us that as we go about this course and everything that we do in every ministry that we are involved in let's keep it simple. Let's not dilute the message of the cross of Jesus Christ Church is his idea. Let the foundation of this course be that understanding as well and everything that you're doing ask the Holy Spirit to lead you to guide you and we need that, isn't it? And encourage other leaders around you you know bless them, encourage them, motivate them and ask them to be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit when they don't know what to do do you know a leader who needs encouragement? Let them know that hey God's got their back. So, yeah with that we'll bring the session to a close. Thank you all for joining. I'll stop the recording now.