That I thought that I have a friend like this. Yeah.
It can happen. It can happen. You can invest in a friendship that Sunday.
It shows that it's very, very unstable.
Okay personal applications.
You have that on the bottom of the page 7. 4 questions.
This is, go to the last chapter. Always be ritually team. We have Biblical foundations for community.
The first example, and the most important is the 3, 19 got this, the 3 in one, and you need in diversity.
The revelation develops in the New Testament to Christ as the Son of God and the Holy Spirit.
The third person, the 3 UN team.
Since God created us. Since He's image and likeness, we have been created for community with him and with one another.
No question is an island. We have to know that.
I hear people sometimes saying, Oh, I go! I grow spiritually in in my plays with the Lord, just me, and the Lord is now you don't go like that.
You learn a few things when you are in your room, and you have to apply them in the community.
Then, when you put together what you know with what you do, you grow.
Otherwise, if that is true, many of us will be with small bodies and large heads, right?
Because we need a bigger heads to put in it. Everything we know.
But if we don't develop our spiritual muscles, small guys with big heads we don't like like that right?
We don't like something we like to go to grow in harmony.
As we enter into the benefits of the new government, to the blood of Christ, we become members of a new community.
Lacy called to reflect the glory of the godfather.
The gas head in its corporate unity.
We grow, being together in relationship with the Lord and with each other.
Is true that the full created a very catastrophic situation in the world, and alienated last phone.
God ourselves, others in nature. But redemptive plan is to bring us together again, and all those aspects.
And in this way we we have that experience called Shalom.
Okay, that is that inner peace, that love, harmony, unity, and also well-being found in the 380.
Shalom is a very complex term.
We have at least 8.
Metaphors in the New Testament about the Church.
Church is such a complex concept that cannot cannot be understood in one word or in a few words, and you have at least 8 illustrations in the New Testament.
Is the value of Christ, the Bride of Christ, the temple of the Holy Spirit, members of God's family.
And the people for God's own possession. You have also household of God.
You have army of God, and you have the vines and the branches.
You have more than a few illustrations, all of them.
Show that the church is more like a living organism, that an organisation you have both aspects.
You. Have. We have to realize in the local church we have both aspects.
The organism side that brings growth and the life from Christ and the organizational part that is the one that brings order.
Yeah.
To community in crisis, not the collection of lonely or isolated individuals.
We are not the judges, because we come together to meet in a certain time.
We have a church because we are coming together in the name of Christ for His glory and for the the in the behalf of the others.
We are a dynamic interaction of people who know they are accepted and beloved in Christ.
Got does not call us to be King's at large, or a colonial hermit.
Yeah, we have those right? But a vital organism of other centered people of which Christ is the head.
We are meeting together to bring glory to God, and to encourage each other.
What community is so important because provides a context for relational enrichment and commitment.
Trust, loving the acceptance, mutual submission out of reverence for Christ, encouragement and accountability.
Forgiveness and confession under the cross, physical, psychological, and spiritual, healing.
Nourishment in the life of Scripture meditation and prayer, participation in a corporate calling and purpose, love for neighbors, minister and service, expression of unity on diversity.
Guyidance is sustainance in spiritual disciplines support for those in physical, emotional, and financial need.
An environment of growth and transformation, celebration of one another's gift and existence for others.
Those are the benefits of community, and I encourage you to.
Write down this list or take a picture of it and use it, especially when you talk with people that stopped coming to the meetings from the pandemics, and later.
Tell them why community is so important, encourage them in our church in Mughalist it is a church of 400 plus people.
Almost 100 people never came back. After the pandemics we had up the certain period of time, a few months when the Government didn't allow us to have physical.
You know, meetings, and they met on Zoom, and some of them. They just stopped coming to war meetings, and with the other elders we were talking, and we started to visit hey, person, that is, not coming back to find out what is going on.
It is a hard work, because some of them, when they hear that you wanna visit them, they just the phone.
It is hard work.
But because we are shepherds we have to take care of the people that are going away and astray we have, in the order of God.
Are you wantful picture of a shepherd that left 99 of his sheep in a safe place, and those going to save one that it, those running away?
Why? Why Christ gave us this illustration. What is the motive for that parable?
Maybe for a time like this, only have to become more sensitive to people's fears and needs, and to help them to overcome those.
We have also to be aware of the distortions that are making.
Our understanding of community to be, to fade away, works to be given wrong.
In some places, in some churches you have human agendas of grasping for power on the.
You have these kind of things in some churches I am, was asked to.
Do an assessment to a certain church, and it was obvious that actually it was struggled for power.
There!
You know what is. If you stop fighting, you start growing.
It's so easy.
To practice it is different.
Disease. The disease of instit institutionalization is.
Hasosified the organism to the degree that the Church has become identified with the carapace of building rather than a living, holding.
A body of believers, you know that it's a I'm going to church.
I hear the very often this end time show that to do the same I go into church meaning I'm going to the building no, you don't go to that building.
You go to meet with other believers, but for some people, because they don't see life in that place, they go to that building.
One of my friends, but at least 10 years older than me.
Told me I'm going to my church, and I told him, yeah, but you said that that is not the judge going because we meet there.
Yeah, I understand that. But you said that that is not the church.
Yeah, but I still have friends there.
Yes, it's painful and he's doing this.
He's going another assembly, too, but also he goes to his church.
There has been a proliferation of pastors whose churches are extensions of their identities, and whose edifice complex, are driven by a quest for significance.
I know places where the pastors had ambition to build a huge building, and after that the church was just.
The churches couldn't survive after the building project.
I I know many places like that, and I know why.
Because people have a lot of expectations, but they don't want to pay the price to go to that level.
The man was like the pastor. Senior passors, a great person with a large vision and very good communication skills and people.
Bought his vision, but he had the vision on only to build a building, not to build the body.
That is the biggest difference, and some people are doing this, and we have to.
I'm for a larger room. Hi! In my opinion, an earlier problem is, when you have a meeting place that is only 50 to 70% full.
You know what? Because it they have the room for growth.
If you have the room full.
You can bring more people.
You have to see this thing, but I don't agree to have a room of 300 seats with 30 people in the audience, and I saw that thing too.
The rise of post alignment, Liberalism, and both modernism.
More and more. I hear sermons that are just cultural advices and things that come from the from the, you know, psychology and from different post model things that don't have any connection with that Scripture.
I hear that, and some people are saying, Man, this pastor is so smart, this preacher is so good.
Why, look at him! He comes to this idea and this idea.
And this idea, yeah, okay, where are they who did in the world of God?
Where is the word? I've got the meat spiritual meat for that.
You hear on the radio and on TV, or a lot of those rapid growth of suburbia and the increase of mobility now is up to us.
Where do wanna go to meet with people?
It doesn't matter. Distance is not a.
When we were young, when I was young. It's we had 3 cars in in the Assembly assembly of almost 300 people.
Just a few. Everybody was working or taking the bus to come to the meetings, and everybody was from there.
No, you have people from Central Indiana, or I came yesterday of from Chicago, from Milwaukee, from they got it. Were up or finished, so I don't know where, and they can meet.
Yeah. It's a few hours away from each other.
Hey? Idea is that sometimes, when you have so many of possibilities, you are not very connected with the rest of the assembly, and churches are like restaurants.
It's.
How many churches do you pass to go to to your STEM?
One day, if you are tired and you fight with the one of the elders you don't wanna go to that chapel anymore.
You stop somewhere to on the road? Tibs, from your home?
You have this freedom right and that just loosens the loyalty.
You have again that chance to do whatever you want. No, we have to be faithful to the place where the Lord set us to be.
And tendency to impose moreing management, psychology, and entertainment.
Yeah, in some churches, you see that? And they are growing fantastically right?
You have churches in. I don't wanna give names.
Okay. It's of 10,000 15,000 20,000 people.
But if you watch the program of those churches, you realize that actually, they just have a show.
Actually one of them told me. I'm sorry we can meet that date, because after that I will have the show show he was in a big band in his church, and he he didn't worship the Lord.
He had the show. Can you imagine that it's somewhere here?
People are saying what they are thinking, and we have to be careful to to take from other churches what is benefit, and let us Biblical.
I agree, I can learn from other churches, and I can learn from other Christians, but I have all the time to bring them to the like.
The Word of God, and compare those if they work together, if they are together.
Okay, time is up. We have to stop now.
We start at 4, 30.
Would continue.
Okay, here we go. Let's get started. Everybody have your have a seat. And did you wanna say something?
So best. Jim Greenwald from Kenosha, Chapel, Grace Chapel, in Kenosha to open with prayer.
In this meeting, maybe. Tell us a little bit about what's happening at the Kenosha Assembly, and Jim Greenwall.
Well, I'm Jim. So yeah. Fred just asked me to share a couple of things going on.
We had, you know, we're simply invited.
You know we're assembly had been kind of dipping a little bit in terms of people, who were kind of excited about some new families that have started lot of work has been going on over the years.
We've got a couple of individuals that do prison work, and we've been getting visors. As a result of that.
As a matter of fact, the family I don't know if it's like close enough family has started coming, for he's been.
He's been a fellow just released from prison is bringing his girlfriend and her children they've been coming from a skege for several weeks now, and he's very excited about the Lord I'm not quite sure if he's actually saved, but he's got a lot of he's very excited.
About it so it's just neat to see the Lord blessing that way.
We, some of you may know. We started back to the 7 Mile fair gospel booth work.
Dan and Joel participated in one of the shifts.
Last month in handing out tracks, and so on. It was great to partner with you guys in that way, and we're going to try doing that on a monthly basis we're going to do another booth next week, and planning to do one in April and try to do it once
a month up until summer, and they'll take a couple months off, but it's again another opportunity to distribute gospel tracks.
Talk to people that have questions. We've we've another family has been visiting again.
They it's said that they wanna make us their home.
It's a an Indian family from Lake Bluffville, and I've been driving up to to meet with us every Sunday, and and so things are going good that way.
Some of you may know Kirk Leiby. He'll be with us tomorrow.
I'd invite you, but you've got another visitor, so.
But Kirk will be sharing the word with us tomorrow, and so so things are good like to, you know, Kevin and Kelvin James here join started coming the assembly a couple actually, I say they were the ones that brought Covid because they came
to the week before. Everything shut down literally and but they stuck with us, and this is their I hope they're enjoying today, because I, among other people, I was really trying to get them to come.
And so it's a great to have them here, too.
So anyways, but we appreciate the invitation every week or every year.
So, anyhow, that's that's pretty, father.
We thank you for this weekend that we can be together as brothers in Christ, that we can come together united in Christ as part of your body, that we can come to hear your word to encourage one another to fellowship with each other, and to to just a exercise spiritualally we thank you for your word as it's.
Been presented. Today we pray for our brother as he will share here in this next session, and we pray that we will continue to be encouraged to learn from it.
We pray that we will be, even after a fairly long day here, that we will be focused on, ready to hear what you would have for us.
So we ask your blessing on your word, on your brother, on our brother, that you've brought here to teach, and we just commit our time to you in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Amen!
Okay, we changed a little bit to the program. I'm sorry.
It was actually just a Q&A 6 session.
The last one. But I will finish earlier, and they let you ask the questions you still have for a few more minutes.
Anyway, which I would like to talk about 7 purposes of the church.
Why the Church is so important and so needed. We have the corporate love and compassion.
Because Erica, love is a God, empowered volitional commitment to the best interests of others.
The local church, the Assembly has a a few things to share with people helping to grow and to trust the Lord, and to become involved in people's life in the way that is beneficial.
At the same time is for for God's glory.
Another corporate purpose is identity and purpose. We know that actually manual, everybody.
Actually, we got our identity from our group. We are identified with right?
I was born near me, that means I'm a Romanian.
Actually because of my citizenship. I'm an American Romanian citizen with Romanian roots, but only with American passport, because when I was kicked out of Romania in 1988, I the companies just you know punish me taking me my
Romanian Citizenship.
That. Actually, I'm only in America. Oh, identity!
Right? Okay, being together in the assembly that helps us.
The context of personal relationship with the Lord and with others.
We learn who we are and we become involved, having a certain purpose and a certain identity.
In Hebrews, 1022, and 25, we learned that our faith, hope, and love become a corporate position when they are expressed and nurtured in the life of the believing body, and we also have in first quarantine the same idea.
I don't know if you have a personal purpose statement.
You shouldn't make one, I think we you are pray about it and makeup.
Personal purpose statement, a family personal statement, and also a church statement.
I encourage all the sandwiches I'm working with to have purpose statement, a vision, and the strategy with the strategic plan.
You can't grow.
Yeah, I think bye, chance we can grow only if you are guided by the Holy Spirit to plan each step of your goals.
We do this in our life is in our mind and heart.
You know, is okay. I have children 5 years old at 6 they go to school at the 18.
They go to college. It's 25. They get married we have these kind of things already in our minds.
We have already a purpose statement, but we should have for our local churches, as well.
I encourage you to do that. Yeah.
In this case, do you see that members can embrace a common vision for their place and time in history?
The purpose can change in time, because we address to different needs in in the body or believers, and also in the community, in the society.
Hey, corporate nature and service, creating a meaningful context in which they can, would mutually encourage and edify one another.
Using the spiritual gifts that each of us got.
Every believer in the moment when he or she becomes a child of Christ, received at this spiritual gift to be used for the body of Christ, and you should know our spiritual identity. We should know who we are in Christ, and how to use that gift for His gloating.
At the same time we are just passing by within this world, and they have to be very, very sure about that.
Nice. Is that only because we are getting older, but because we are not part of this world.
We are not part of this world.
The Bible is still clear about that. The questions heavenly citizens.
Yeah, temporary. And when you start to see life in this way, you don't fight in possessing everything here and having everything here and controlling everything here. Good.
Just a passenger all of us. We are not from this area.
Who cares about the Mayor of Williams Bay?
Yeah, I don't. I'm sorry. Right?
It's I'm here for a few hours. There's no problem even.
If I see that actually in the middle of the road, they have a lot of construction.
And all this stuff. I don't care about them.
He has his job, and I have to do mine. I'm a traveler here, and in this world we have travelers.
And you should have this mentality, and will help us to see that actually, we are a community of build games who are traveling to our guard, and we are meant to assist nurture, encourage one another along the way.
I like the old cowboy movies, you know, and with, you know, people coming from different parts of the world to tape positions here.
In America, the land and they are coming, and they are helping each other them right.
They're like this kind of hey? As Christians, unlike those billions, we should keep that in mind.
Healthy community can create an environment of authenticity in which we are encouraged to be honest with God with one another, and do it. All sounds.
Spiritual dissent. It's so important to know what is real, what is Biblical, what has real spiritual value?
That makes us to be honest about our desires and our feelings.
And community can also create an environment of mutual encouragement and hope.
Since we cannot be done well in times of discouragement and depression.
Sometimes when we are too oppressed, the other questions can help us, and we need that.
We need that corporate discernment. It is.
Somehow we are not. We are not very familiar. Familiarized with the idea.
Okay, we can help each other. Emotionally and spiritually.
We are used, especially as the man we are used to keep everything inside.
But this just giving us inside is not helping but when you start to open up and to start to talk about our needs and about our questions, the community or believers can help us.
The biggest blessing we have in our assembly is that God has people gifted people that can become complimentary to our needs, and can help us in what we need, and that is great.
For both forgiveness and reconciliation. That is a in the American societies that little bit better than you.
The Romanian culture. The American culture is a private culture.
You don't step on the your private domain of somebody else.
Okay, you have the borders a lot more clearer and the boundary is a lot more clearer defined in the Romanian culture.
You don't have something like that. It is a very relational society.
And people just come to your home. They don't knock on the door.
They just go inside and Hey, hey!
Hey? Sometimes it's nice, but many times it's not.
And.
This kind of attitude can hurt some people right, and that it is need for forgiveness and reconciliation.
And you have to learn to do this. Yeah.
And the Biblical basis for personal and communal foriveness and reconciliation is the gracious work of Christ on our behalf.
Because I was forgiven. I learned to forgive other people people that didn't experience the forgiveness of Christ.
Don't know how to forgive other people, and they keep rouge, and they hate, and they do a lot of bad things.
With, some some interpersonal conflicts, are beneficial.
You know that we don't like to be disturbed, but we have pulse, example, kids.
He had a so of Satan in his body that is, keeping him humble and closer to the Lord.
The students are saying, that is, that illness for his own, but also it can be some friends he had around him if we read Philippines, chapter one, we see that actually some people were proclaiming the gospel just to bring troubles in a post life, and those can be also some of those
thorns when things are very serious. Matthew, 1815, to 17 is got solution.
We have a few steps there for steps how to deal with people when they heard us. Yeah.
And the last 2 corporate authority and submission.
I'm sorry I have a lot of words to do.
Hi, straighta! You know the Powerpoint rule is to have 7 words and 7 lines. That's it no more beyond.
I have 3 times more. It's fine. Yeah.
Got has ordained different spheres of authority in the home workplace, church and the State.
Those are for our own well-being and protection.
To be under certain authority, God once us to be under his or and His authority has different layers.
Yeah.
When are modeled on on the Divine Trinity.
It is possible to avoid, to extremes that of authoritarianism or hey guys.
That minimal design minimize authority. We'll have to keep the balance.
We have the role of Elder Sandy. Consider local church.
The ministries for guidance, teaching, and festival care.
We have to be submissive to them.
And that brings liberty and security. It's us.
As best as the elders, and we have to see our role in the local church is the one of protective authority.
We are in authority to help other people to avoid mistakes and to help them to grow and to be protected from the outside.
Influence of the world, and from the enemies from outside of the local church.
It is a big job, and it should be done with sensitivity and with wisdom.
And the last purpose of the church is corporate worship and prayer.
Is thanksgiving to God. It is interesting because in the New Testament you don't have many passages talking about the corporate worship and prayer you don't have those you'll have a few historical things and a couple of passages in
pulse, the letters, talking about the the power, the prayer, but otherwise you don't have regulations, as you have in other things like in the Old Testament.
You know ultimately you have the whole regulations for the piece.
How to Do Worship Right not you don't have that.
You have to let the Spirit of God just guide you, and you'll be coming one person that is worshipping and serving the Lord.
Okay. We'll stop here.
What it takes to finish. Well!
We have 7 things here.
First of all is intimacy with Christ.
Second, this fidelity in the spiritual disciplines.
Served. I'll be Biblical perspective on the circumstances of life.
The spirit of teachability team.
Responsiveness, humidity, and the abilities.
A clear sense of personal purpose and calling.
Healthy relationships and ongoing minister. You have all the on your paper.
Okay.
Oh, we still have a few minutes.
To answer your questions, and for some practical aspects. What do you want to?
To ask.
Sounds good.
Good question. I was expecting you to ask something that will change.
Good job.
For me this!
The hardest thing to do is solitude.
I needed to learn to say no, too many things to stop being involved in so many things because they are taking my time.
And I am. I learned to say, Okay, I will have a day, a week.
Then why I put aside for my time with the Lord, and that day is on Monday, because usually I.
Right. They said that they Sunday I mean the selling the Lords, and on Monday I can take half a day sometimes, but not the full day.
And that is one of my biggest struggles, because.
I'm also full-time teacher, and I was able to take out of some of my classes on Monday, but not all of them, and.
And that is hard. It's hard because I need that time I'm an introvert, and I need my time to be with a lot that that is really really bothering me.
But it's I know that I'm getting to refocus.
I will be out of my teaching in 2 years, 3 years.
Yeah. And after that I have more time for them.
Yeah.
Yeah, thank you for asking. Yeah, it's hard.
Over 700 750 assembly, single Mania.
From different sizes, from 5 for 600 people to 23 people manual of them have trained several leaders because they we open.
We started Timothy as bibalistic to 30 years ago, and many of them came to study.
But we still have maybe 3,000 or so people involved in the midst that they don't have a too much enough Biblical training to be efficient in in our local assembies.
I'm fully treated. We get a strategy that the larger assembly are sending teams of people train people to do ministry on smaller assemblies and to help them grow.
But it is a large number of assemblies, and after the evolution was just a, you know, a revival.
That an explosion of assemblage. It was great.
100 we had around 300 Tony Assembly, 222, and now we have over 750, and it is a lot of work, and many young people are nothing to see you serving.
They are caught in other things, and they are in involved in other, in other activities.
And, like our role, is one of the world, is to motivate people, to come, to study the world of garden, to grow in serving him.
Is a lot of work.
Yes, sir.
I'm a train counselor, and I do.
Biblical counseling you in in the counseling field, usually you have 3 approaches.
You have 2 psychological approach. You have Christian integrated approach or biblical counseling.
I. Psychology is good to learn a few things and take notes.
How to do about a counseling, but it's not helpful, because it goes to the effects, not to the causes and the result.
In this case the results and the solutions are false.
Is a great question. Counseling is closer to what counseling is, but it uses psychology to with some player, and versus is like a mixture of methods.
And again. They don't go deep enough to solve problems.
For example, they, you know, the.
Right? Right? He's alive. That is the same.
He says you are suffering from a deformation of reality.
Really no, he's lying, and when you start doing these kind of things, you already don't go to the root of the problem, and you don't solve it.
Don't help people to solve it. You just work with, you know, semantics, and it's not true.
Andblical counseling is just, considering that the Word of God is the foundation for the counseling.
There you find the wisdom, you find the solution for the cause and the solution for your problem.
It's true you have to be careful when you you've make the evaluation to see if you have there some medical issues, and you work with us.
And our brain is so interesting that we should be very careful in the way we treat it, and.
Absolutely. Yeah, it's you start with the Word of God, and let the Spirit of God changing people.
And what I learned in my Biblical counseling sessions, that many times when I start the new session with somebody, I stopped with the evangelistic outreach, and people are coming to know the alert because they come because they say they have a certain problem but they really don't
realize that actually, the biggest problem is, they don't have a good relationship with a lot.
And when they restore the relationship with the Lord, they repent.
You can work with them a lot better, because the speaker works in you and organs him. And this is my approach for counseling. Yeah.
I also do teach this class at the tumultuous Bible Institute on both levels, undergrad and grad school.
Thank you for your time. Hmm, yeah.
Sure.