 And as your greet you this morning of Jesus name I just would like to say that that beautiful hymn that was sung twice in this Assembly lift your glad voices in triumphant. Hi probably means something to my wife and I that it might not mean to all of you Oh Probably the most meaningful singing that hymn happened at our son's funeral Several weeks after we were in Costa Rica That service was in Spanish. We did not know Spanish then not one of our family What one of our relatives was at that funeral only my wife and I and three of our living children who remained No relatives there. We knew hardly anybody's at the funeral. There was a very large gathering of people and So now the body has been put down to the grave and my two sons and I are shoveling in the soil and Someone starts to sing in English now instead of in Spanish lift your glad voices in triumphant high Looked everywhere with my shovel full of dirt and saw my wife standing there with tears laying down her face Her eyes don't give the heaven a great be smile on her face said she was singing at the top of her voice So if you would allow me to I remember that as you're singing we have heard that the mystery of life Includes more than the biological dimension Life is a gift from God Christ is our life He is known to us as The logos of life we find that in 1st John 1 1 So we today Even at this weekend gathering for fellowship can experience spiritual life Life and light are perhaps alike in this unique way that both of them happen both of them are Available both of them take place as they are traveling When light does not move there is no light at all and Life is what it is for us because it's moving Maybe I should explain that to you just a little bit We have felt life moving into us even this weekend Yes, even through us and perhaps from us to others Virtue flowed from Christ and the hymn says he healed them That's spiritual power and vitality Move from heart to heart Inspiring and healing and restoring and preparing and anointing all of us. This is life and it's moving It has a an eternal source and flows through and in this assembly and through the ones who are guiding this service and the moderation and the chorus it's things these young people and we feel this Invigoration and we know this is not something that McDonald's could do for us North North Starbucks This is the very purpose in essence a Fellowship in the Christian Church I'd like to read two texts from your Bible We'll start the next chapter to this is a is not only a theme a Touchstone for keystone for for kingdom fellowship weekend. It is also a very important theme in this message this morning But this is Luke. This is a Act chapter 2 verse 42 and they continued steadfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship And the breaking of bread and in prayers. I'd like you to turn yet to Romans chapter 6 and Marie here verse 17 But God be thanked that you were the servants of sin But you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was livered you And then it says being then made free from sin You became the servants of righteousness the title that gave me this morning was structure and life The title is short. I Added just a little definition to that title by including these five words structure in life Vitality within the local assembly And so this is one more of those practical message about life not dealing with our families this time Nor with the issues of death that are throughout our communities But dealing with our local congregations bringing this life of our Lord Jesus Into the local assembly where you and I Are committed to the other brothers and sisters and Christ's life and love are there and light Each of these three words is important structure and life There is structure There is life and the uniting conjunction in this case the word and Reminds us that these two elements must be found together It is quite possible. I Realize that to stress the one at the expense of the other It seems like that it could be very possible to stress structure the formative elements And maybe mess the life that's needed there But it would be equally on wise To expect that we can emphasize life without having a proper biblical structure that would be an equal mistake It is possible to have structure with no life at all I'm sure most of you are aware of that and then we'll prove that shortly But I am not aware how life can exist anywhere without structure. I don't know where that would be found I Don't know where to locate such a thing as life That is not inside a structure And it is possible to over structure. I want to say that to you business corporations know this Organization becomes top-heavy cumbersome expensive and inefficient Perhaps you find yourself this morning this is now very very personal Reacting to the strong emphasis placed on the structural elements of your religious past And God's answer for you is not to tear down the structures We cannot destroy the foundations of the faith Without the danger of losing the faith with it and Have not all of us observed this in the lives of many people around us in congregations also Haven't we seen what happens? When structure was considered non-essential of no importance I'd like to give you several natural examples of Structure in life before then we move into the biblical side of it And what applies to your local assembly to the congregation the church the body that you are part of it God trust committed to I'm gonna start with the illustration of a fireplace our place of old fireplaces of always Interested me my wife's Father specialized in building fireplaces. That was his specialty as a bricklayer So I've been around fireplaces in the colonial home and provided at least three things for that house light in the nighttime Warmth when it was chilly and it means that preparing the food. There was usually an oven in the one side of the fireplace the heat in there Baked that bread there were kettles that swung out over to the flame and they could be swung back out Where the lady could stir that cook and add something to it. That's how the cooking was done the fireplace and So this brick or this stone or this perhaps at times in more primitive settings a wooden structure lined with clay Did none of those functions that I just talked about with the life that is with the fire within it And we know what happens with fire That is not contained within a designated structure You can go to California You talk to governor Newsom out there and explained him what takes place when fire rages across the land It's not in the contained structured prepared Place to be burning The fire is a beautiful thing and has a lot of life in it in that sense But it needs a structure It's interesting you can see places where the Civil War was fought Where fires have gone through some of the cities and towns out there in California, Oregon and These days the only thing she left upstanding is that brick structure that has a fireplace at the bottom of it The rest is gone and that structure survived the fire But it's as dead as can be the structure remains, but there's no life in it So that was one example of structure in life. I'll give you another one In the same state if you allow me to go west again Out there. Let's find at least one large sequoia tree It's an imposing structure These trees are so fascinating There's a tree out there named Moses Lightning struck Moses one day this sequoia tree The fire started up there in the top because the lightning had burned for nine days They try with helicopters and who knows what else to put that fire out. They couldn't have put extinguish that flame That tree burned for nine days that there was a lot of fire up there on top of that tree They couldn't get it out that tree is still growing today Fire damage at that time of that time It's pretty well healed over The trees was going on as if it didn't happen a lot of structure in a sequoia tree so much structure in fact You take one of those giants one of the large ones and Measure how much it grows in one year How big is now in the 22nd of August 21 and how big it is in the 21st 22nd of August 22 You'll find that if you took all the structure that was put together into that tree in one year It would make another sequoia tree standing beside it in perfect proportion Standing 60 feet tall That's how much one of those giants grows in one year. There's a lot of structure there, but you know what? There's life in it But you won't find any of that life apart from the structure. It's all it's always there That's a sequoia tree The life in that tree is virtually indestructible But it is found only within that structure. I Don't want this to be a carnal example But it serves such a useful purpose I'm gonna give you a third example of structure in life Would you go a little bee for a while this morning? To a baseball game Here the structure becomes very defined. I'm not going to take you into all this language and throw these descriptions There is the decided mention To the field of which this game is played there are bases properly located. There are foul lines There are specific numbers of players for each team and they each serve in specific locations across that playing field They have their own functions The game has quite an elaborate list of predetermined rules and they have empires present there to govern those There are uniforms that designate the teams And even the balls and bats are subject to the norms of the league and whether this is in candlestick park Or a sand lot in an empty field The structure is there. You never saw a ball game properly played without it yet No one comes to the ballpark to observe to study and to photograph the structure No one brings their tape measures along to see that they're exactly 90 feet between the bases I doubt if anyone comes with a National League or American League rulebook stuck in their back pocket. So make sure they goes all right when they're in there And although all those structures are in place. That's not why we went To the ball field They came to see the game That's why I came to KFW Many of you have expressed to me and to others to each other This weekend your amazement at the effort expanded to organize and A function so well planned and efficiently organized as what we've experienced here this weekend And you have right to be amazed about that Some people have said how can they feed this many people? And though I've worked with these dear brothers for several years I have no idea what all they do when I'm in Costa Rica and they're getting ready for this meeting The structure of KFW has provided for the blessing So very evident here Yet not one of you that's here now Inside or outside the tabernacle Has come here in order to film a map that was back here in this corner of this campus that had 35 Black pins fastened on to it and 35 red ones Yeah, you didn't even know it was there many of you And what purpose is it but some would put a tremendous amount of work into that And it needed to be done Part of the structure part of the work that we could talk for a long time about things that people have done To make this weekend what it is to make it possible for us to enjoy it as we are when we are here You came A trust I'm going to finish this sentence correctly You came To be part of the game Did you notice how it changed that or weren't you listening? What did I not say? I did not say that you came to see the game And I hope I'm right about that You came To be part of the game These organized structures are infused with life And that life has melted my heart this weekend Is brought tears to my eyes I cried sometimes because you were crying The rest of time because it's what I needed to do It has inspired my little faith It has increased my love for you This is life and that's what life does in the church And so we're talking about structure in life. I hope this has introduced to you What we're wanting to do here this morning. I need to take you on a journey And I will try to do this without be laboring any of these points But I'd like to show you something of the structure that our Lord Jesus has built into his New Testament church Yes, there is life here in that life is himself He is our life When I talk about the church of Jesus Christ I'm not talking about the meeting house I'm not talking about this tabernacle that we're in this morning And the first time I was in here was over 65 years ago Shortly after it was built. I'm not talking about a sanctuary But the the bible refers to the church as a body It also refers to the church as a building Built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone that's structure And this building fit the frame together growth unto holy temple in the lord That's life That's found in the same verse by the way in Ephesians chapter three It is the habitation of God by his spirit. That's life But it's inside a structure Can we notice some of those structural elements of the church? Some of the structures of a local assembly. I'd like to do that for you just briefly if you'll allow me to And though we could spend a lot of time looking at scriptures and we we just cannot do that I'm going to just let you see these various elements and We will look at some scripture maybe but we'll try to move through this This particular structure here that we're in right now includes in the many Things that help facilitate what happens here. It includes a clock up there in front of me And maybe you can't see it, but I can see it, but it's part of the structure We'll see how much life we can get into that structure. So we'll work at that We have noted already in this building the church of Jesus Christ the foundation From Acts chapter two until today There's a foundation there and we build upon that The foundation the apostles and prophets I read that to you from chapter two verse 42 When Roland Allen who was an Episcopal priest wrote his book titled Missionary methods st. Paul's or ours He referred to the body of apostolic tradition That Paul delivered to each church that he established on his missionary journeys Tradition here does not mean archaic legalistic fairsacal Left over ideas that somehow didn't evaporate jet That's not what tradition means here Tradition is a very beautiful word in scripture We have this word in our bibles where you do not in English Tradition here is teaching As in the diddy key of the apostles the teaching of the apostles Paul mentions in first Corinthians in those 16 chapters. He mentions five times Things that he presents to all the churches wherever he goes Now I have those references written here and we're not going to look them all up But that's in chapter 4 to chapter 7 to chapter 11 to chapter 14 to chapter 16 Where he says that these things I teach everywhere That's the tradition of the apostles that that is very very foundational to the order of a Christian church And when Rowland Allen attempted to make a list of those teachings that Paul took with him and the other apostles of the churches They established It's very interesting that this Episcopalian included the Christian woman's veiling in that list And it is interesting that in chapter 16 at the end of that discussion when brother Paul is finished presenting that teaching To the Corinthian church. He says that what he's doing here is saying here to this Corinthian church. He does in all the churches So Rowland Allen was right about that That'd be along with baptism the Lord's supper and many other things that were taken from church to church Including some thoughts about the gatherings of the saints These are vital and necessary purposeful things full of meaning And there's structure here yet again As we've used the phrase they are infused with life But that's not the only structure we have the congregation has chosen servants Elders deacons perhaps evangelists There may be other ways to designate these servants of the Lord in his body So there are ministers and or pastors And all not all churches use exactly the same organizational structure when it comes to the servant body of the church And I think there's probably some room for variation there I just came from a congregation A little over a week ago Here in the states where their structure is a little bit different from what we have in Costa Rica Their structure might be better than ours. I appreciate what they're doing there Yet we know That having a bishop in the church though that is part of designated structure in scripture Does not guarantee life in a church You know Diotherapies may still love to have the preeminence There's no spiritual life there If that's the way things are At least the spiritual life is not coming from him and so Though we have this element of structure in the church It's up to those called to these places And here's the responsibility and function To be sure that they are united with Christ filled with love knowing the shape filled with life The structure is important The life that comes from that servant of the Lord Is more important We have mentioned some of the brotherhood symbols That the bible gives to us that christ gives to us that the holy spirit is inspired to put into and build into The structure of our local assemblies in our church life as we call it The supper the basin The kiss of peace and love the right hand of fellowship The waters of baptism And there is much to observe Much to officiate here None of us deny that these are very very distinctive christian elements and we have them in our congregations They are structures They're forms and things that we can do But they have life in them if there's life in me Maybe i'll just pause here to give you a break My wife's sister Of course my wife herself They did not come from churches that That ever have observed a practice a physical practice of gen 13 in their church services All our congregations do not And my wife did not have that practice until after we joined the menonite congregation in The state of Vermont after we were married Suzanne's younger sister She's seven years younger It was quite a few years after that when she had her first feet washing experience In the church of god on main street in mount joy, pennsylvania And her husband had just started going to that congregation. They wash feet in that church And sydney had never seen this practice ever before in her life And she sat there and saw these ladies washing each other's feet And she didn't know what to do It looks so beautiful to her with something she'd never seen she sat there and cried Maybe you never cried when you saw people washing feet But i would tell you this that was she was doing that at that particular moment in her life There was life going into that basin life going on with that towel and life going into that feet washing experience Maybe the rest of us ought to ask god to put into us As we do it Did you follow that see there's a structure you're not gonna you're not gonna neglect the basin You're gonna wrap the towel around you that part will all be taken care of But but the life part dear brothers and sisters Did you get that the apostolic tradition Going on here to more structure in the church See where we're going down through here. We're adding to this this this church building is growing This this habitation Is is receiving more elements more more functional and structural elements into this spiritual building The apostolic tradition includes instruction for the gathered assembly We saw that even in our texts that we read First Corinthians 14 is very pertinent here. I'm not going to read that chapter to you, but there's specific instruction there for conduct order In the local assembly and there's quite a wide rate variation in singing And in the music that we use from one country to another for one geographic location to another from one climate area to another Songs change Music is different from one place to another We are we are latin congregation at home latin's Normally enjoy a kind of music a bit different from what northern europeans Maybe you would have espoused Although in our congregation at home the there's a very very deep A fervent appreciation for the deepest hymns of the faith And they're this they are probably selected the most often in our congregation We have some very very deep and meaningful and moving hymns in our spanish language And they also sing some of those choruses by memory that are a bit more lilting and a bit more repetitive and maybe susanne and i just have to Surrender a little bit of Preference when we join in with some of that there's construction there concerning the lifting of an offering There's structure there and instruction concerning the participation of those who are present in the service Some are told to remain quiet And do they're speaking elsewhere Some are told when to Remain quiet to allow others to take their turn There's love instruction there and this this provides this provides order for the service Sunday school as you probably know it in your Community is a relatively new innovation There were no bibles at the beginning and those early services back there in the book of acts no printing house prepared Sunday school booklets There was the weekly agape perhaps And i'll just say this that that interesting worry for the place where they met house of prayer That term still survives today in latin america many congregations call their place of meeting House of prayer others called House of worship But there is more than corporate worship Moving on here again There's a mission purpose Make disciples of all nations we heard This weekend So we have evangelism and church extension Disciping of new believers as an anti-yak Discipling includes discipline at times And matthew 18 speaks of this As does glacians chapter six verse one The only way in which we deal with transgressions or errant behavior or Wayward footsteps And when someone has gone away Someone is disobedient One faithful Losing faith Losing their commitment We seek to restore such a one in spirit of beacons. What does that mean? Restore that person We consider ourselves. Let's we be tempted And within 1955 Chevy is restored That has the same block in there and the same carburetor ahead when it was built by gm in 55 It has more horsepower now It's more fuel efficient because further than a mile of gallon Then when it did when it was first built Because of the improved fuels and oils and rubber on the tires that we have these days Restored to full usefulness. This is the goal and the bible shows us how to do that At times one is severed from the body And perhaps more important than how this is done is the spirit with which it is done It is the spirit that giveth life the bible tells us We noticed this weekend that discipleship is maybe A bit weak as an element in our congregations in our churches In our understanding of how congregations should function We need to re-examine the structure here and maybe the Lord would give us as a result of this weekend together An opportunity to grow in this area of discipling men and women new believers For christ jesus on our church services and in our communities And the church is one United In one accord Unanimous the bible says in spanish where your bible says one accord the word in unanimous is there every time in spanish That greek word from which What accord comes in your language? greek would say it like this they take three words and put them together into one Breathing heavily together A church that is all with one accord in one place is there breathing heavily together A church that is with one accord praying is breathing heavily together We have that in chapter 4 when those two were sent back From the sanhedrin the council and they came to their own company and they breathe heavily together and something happened there That place started to shake before that prayer meeting was over And when we get together to pray that structure When the place starts to shake that's something else and this and the spirit in the presence and the evident Worship with christ in the midst puts life into the structure So they were one And being and being in agreement They were able to come to agreements They well understood the word cannon I'm not going to take a lot of time to describe that word for you It's a greek word It's translated in your kj's version bible several ways several times With time that word cannon came to include the body of scriptures that you hold in your hand The christian bible someone decided on those 39 books. So there's 27 in a new testament There were decisions made there Decisions that we still honor and respect to thank god for today And I don't think they were carelessly done And we should honor what was Done by other people who went before us and putting that bible together that we now have bound and in our laps with your the christians And to the other christians Cannon referred to their walk how they lived the testimony the practice of life And the gentleman that wrote for us strongest concordance tells us in his greek dictionary at the back The cannon is a standard for faith and practice I have my bible is open here. I'll just read this first two in galatians chapter six And verse 16 it says And as many as walk according to this rule peace be to them And mercy upon the usual of god the word rule there is cannon You walk according to it. There's a way to walk it affects how we walk. We have that same thought and same word In flippings chapter three and again verse 16 Where it says nevertheless, we're unto we have already attained let us walk by the same rule Let us mind the same thing and that unity there keeps us very very much alike There's a cannon in the christian church And so if we're not going to walk by that rule then we are unruly We certainly wouldn't want to be that What does unruly mean it's subordinate literally greek it means to walk to march out of step Now here's the army moving along and they're going toward it towards a Destined location and someone is just completely out of sync with what the rest are doing not marching in step unruly So there's order in marching in order. There's order there and there's structure there And the way that marches forward is so it is in the church It certainly was that way in the early church I know there's a lot of controversy these days About the place of brotherhood agreements and a congregation I'm just going to say a brief word about that too many congregations Have a procedure For making decisions But don't not know how to come to agreement I don't know if you understood that sentence or if you even heard it They know how to vote But they do not know how to come to consensus And that is why though they've decided things and they're moving forward with the decisions they made There's this unity in the congregation In lack of peace Because they learned how through parliamentary procedure or some democratic way How to make decisions, but did not learn how to make agreements Still have disagreed people when it's all over They have not learned How to follow it to the things which make for peace and the things we're with one may identify another What our bible calls? Ordinances In one reference your bible calls that decrease for to keep would you go to x 15? I want to show you that And we just briefly notice a couple of things here. So we have authority here decrease for to keep But there's also life I'd like you to notice the life not only the structure that came out of this meeting in Jerusalem in x 15. I'd like you to notice the life that came out of it Would you allow me to read from verses 25 through 28 in this chapter? It seemed good on to us That's more than just a vote That's more than just a decision It seemed good on to us being assembled with one accord We were we were assembled breathing heavily together with the difficult thing We had to work on and and our hearts were just like that team of horses Breathing heavily together all in the harness holding that big load up the hill to send chosen men on to you With our beloved Barnabas and Paul men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our lord Jesus Christ We have sent there for Judas and Silas who shall also tell you the same things by mouth for it seemed good to the holy ghost and to us And then it gives here this instruction That they had prepared to send out to those Gentile churches I want to show you The life that was in those decisions The life that was in those agreements The life that were in those decrease for to keep Would you look at verse 29 So we're going to work on staying from meats here Offered to idols and from blood and from thick strangling from fornication, which is a wise thing to do of course From which if you keep yourselves look what this says you shall do well Very you well So it seemed good to them There's certainly life there and to the holy ghost someone besides just James the brother of jesus is in charge of this meeting. There's a holy spirit here giving direction You should do well You will find approval and acceptance. This is the right thing to do Do it together Verse 31 says that when they received this word and had it read to them they rejoiced for the consolation Should be hard for you to imagine the blessing that that would have been for those churches To know that now it was only clear, but now it's clear. It was only fine now. We know we didn't know how it was supposed to be but now we can Understand that we can do it together They rejoice for the consolation In chapter 16 verse 5 it says and so were the churches established in the faith I'd love to be a place like that There's power there. There's life there that that's not just structure. Yes these decisions Yes, these four or so points that look structural there and maybe in your time in place where you live Those items will look a bit different from what they looked here But they met the needs that there were and solved the problem that they faced But look at the result in verse 5 They were established in faith and that's not all and increased in number daily. There's life here So I don't want you to look disparagingly upon the agreements of a congregation You sought to face the Lord you looked at scripture. You wanted God's will to be done You realized of the issues here that you need to address their God's newly risen up You want to maintain peace in the brotherhood? You want to make sure you're honoring the conscience Of the assembled body you want to be sure that you're willing to surrender your thought for that of another and your preference You can yield it to somebody else. There's life here And we come to some decisions, but look at these holy consequences The spiritual results in the church And then there is a functioning brotherhood There's a method for reaching the consensus. There's a method for choosing the servants There's a method for extending the witness for solving problems for receiving new disciples into the body There's a method used. There's a way to relate to sister congregations We see all this in the New Testament model, especially in the one in Antioch And as it's been mentioned several times this meeting and I want to refer to it again and we read it here in this passage The Antioch the Holy Spirit of God was a vital part of that church. You've never worked without it starting very beginning when the Apostles of Jerusalem sent Barnabas to Antioch when they heard about these converts among the Gentiles over there And so these Jewish apostles stayed where they were and they sent Barnabas He was a Jew too, but they sent him over there and the Bible says this about Barnabas. He was filled with a holy ghost That would be the right man to send to a church like that After he was there for a while brought Paul down there some of the church for a year taught the people from God from From what little bit of scripture they had and their knowledge that from the apostles of the life of Christ And I don't know if Barnabas ever saw Jesus He meets all the qualifications for deacon. He was not chosen among this Excuse me. He was not chosen when they looked for another apostle. It might be that he was not There with the other 11 as they ministered and lived with Jesus He was not chosen either as a deacon when the seven were chosen though. He met those qualifications But we had the holy ghost there and after this work was done This church to begin was established and the neighbors around looked at this new formed body They said these people are Christians and they called them that That's quite a name to be called by your neighbors And then the Holy Spirit through a prophet spoke stood up and said there's gonna be a great dirt There's gonna be a problem of Jerusalem. Maybe we should do something about that and everyone with one mind Agreed to do something. Let's send some funds over there It was a Holy Spirit again in that same church in India that said separately me Barnabas and Saw for the work where to I've called them And then it says they were they laid hands on them and prayed with them and they were sent forth by the Holy Spirit From this same church that the idea came from to go to Jerusalem and solve this problem about the Judaizing influence of circumcising the Gentile believers And when they got to Jerusalem and met with the church with the elders and with the apostles concerning this matter Then we read these words that you heard this morning. It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us That's a a vital model right there and you see a lot of structure what we've covered this morning But there's life there and I closed them with these words There's abundant life in this structure. It is not a valley of dry bones Nor a collection of restored bodies with no breath in them like Ezekiel saw in chapter 37 prophesage of the wind Breathe on me breath of God. Did you hear that already this morning? Did you sing it? I think of the newly erected tabernacle That we have at the end of the book of Exis you may turn to chapter 40 Moses that received this model up in the mount He obeyed the Lord built this with the help of very re skilled artisans The Bible says in verse 33 of the last chapter of Exis that Moses finished the work Now I want to read the verse 34 Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation The glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation because the cloud above there in the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle And the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle So the visual went onward on in all their journeys The cloud were not taken up then they journeyed not to the day that it was taken up The cloud the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day and the fire was on it by night In the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys A lot of structure to the building of the tabernacle details beyond imagination But it needed to be filled with life As you and I also need to be and so do our congregations at home Listen to these words After Jesus gave four steps to take to restore a brother who was taken in a trespass or a fault He added these words at the end of that instruction Matthew 18 Barely I say unto you what serve you shall bind the nurse shall be bound in heaven and what serve you shall lose So the nurse shall be loosed in heaven Again I say unto you that if two of you shall agree on earth As touching anything that they shall ask It should be done for them and my father which is in heaven For where two or three are gathered together in my name There am I in the midst of them That brings a lot of life into the structure Why is it alive? Why is this just not dead works? Why is this not simply empty tradition? Why are these things that we're doing filled with joy and blessing Why is it working so well in some congregations and it's interesting to me to notice that I've observed congregations with a more defined position of structure than what others have And yet more unity and more souls coming into those congregations from an unconverted background Than in places where it seems like you know these kind of Things kind of accommodate And why is that? Well, there's several reasons and with these I close We are volunteers If any man will come after me Because we can never our people have to do it The only members we have in our congregations the ones that wanted to do it They wanted to be allowed to do it They're glad they can do it They want to be part of it And whatever it takes to do that that's what they want to do The bible says of the rest there's no man join himself unto them, but the people magnified them And so there were those who were those who were not and those who were committed And those who were not and those who were volunteers and those who were not It was clearly defined and understood there. It's it still is today So we were committed It says they continued steadfastly in the apostle doctrine fellowship breaking a bread into prayers They were one accord In one place Then jesus said by this soul men know that you're my disciples if you love one another as I have loved you this this might be One of the most disobeyed teachings within the anabaptist world I don't know how we can divide from each other Learn to do without each other Brothers who we needed and loved and worked with and labor with and prayed with and visited with and evangelized with And now we walk away from them never to get back together again How can we do that brothers? If we love one another's christ loved us He leaves 99 He goes to find that which is lost How can we do that to each other brothers? And we're filled with that same spirit of god That's the same spirit of life that same spirit that's within the sun is now sent forth into our hearts By the holy spirit, which he has given us We that same spirit of life and love within us. That's why it works to your brothers That's where the life comes from We do not love in word But indeed in truth We lay down our lives for our brothers We are willing to submit To consider the conscious of another To weep with those who weep To bear one another's burdens and thus fulfill the law of christ With one heart and one voice We glorify god We worship the lord and the beauty of holiness The light shines before men And they see those works in that life And they know that we have been with jesus We have fallen into the ground and died So we don't abide alone But life comes forth And with it much fruit In the life of jesus is that is evident and manifested in this mortal flesh I would just like to Invite the holy spirit of god To come upon this assembly to fill this place That everyone that's here would know that christ is here that god is here the spirit of god is here It's safe to be here You can tell the truth here You can open your life here Find someone to take care of you here Have your needs met here Because god is here And christ is in the midst And there's structure here This weekend We have found life here May god bless you