In July of 1961, the Green Bay Packers began their season with a dark cloud hanging over them. The dark cloud was they had been in complete control of the NFC Championship game, and then in the fourth quarter, blew the lead and lost the game. Well, the team was quite talented, was expected to win the Super Bowl, as it had been the year before, and they expected their coach, the famed Vince Lombardi, to pick up where they had left off. But these 38 players were stunned when Lombardi gathered them around in a huddle and held up the football and said, gentlemen, this is a football. And they were amazed that he would do that. Lombardi took his players back to the fundamentals. And for the next seven years, they won five Super Bowl championships. The fundamentals cannot be overlooked. We never move on from the fundamentals. Sometimes we have this idea that we get saved and then we move on to more extravagant or complicated or more important truths or ideas. The Bible never gives us that option. That's a purely man-made fantasy. we must go back to the fundamentals this morning. And the fundamentals of any task are vital for the effective execution of that task. This morning, we're going to deal with the very fundamental truth that we have to get right. If we're going to get the church right, the theology of the church, the truth about the church, if we're going to get this right, we have to start right here. that Christ is the head of the church. If we don't get that right, we won't get anything right. Because we'll make church about us. And we'll start doing silly and goofy things that will appeal to our emotions, it will appeal to our desires, and we'll be motivated to do all sorts of different things, but it will always come back to being about us. And so we have to look at the fundamentals this morning. The church belongs to Christ. Who owns the church? I mean, the sermon could really be this simple. Christ owns the church. Now go live for him. It could be that simple. But the Bible has so much to say on Christ being the head of the church. And there are phenomenal applications here for us. When we come to church, I don't know how you enter into this building. And let's just get this fundamental down right now. The building is not the church. Look around at the people in the chairs. Behold, the church. Christ did not shed His blood for brick and mortar. He shed His blood for people. that they would be saved from the wrath of God and eternal judgment in the lake of fire. That's why He shed His blood. To save us, people. And we have to keep that fundamental clear. But the fundamental truth that we must start with when we talk about the church is Christ is the head. Which means it's His. and He gets to do with it as He pleases. Oh, that's hard for us to hear, especially in a culture that's absorbed with self. And we have to step back, and we have to ask ourselves some fundamental questions. The first question we have to ask is, What does it mean that Christ is the head of the church? So let's turn to Ephesians chapter one. Headship. It's almost a dirty word today. I don't know how much you pay attention to church culture. I pay very close attention to church culture and what's being said in churches and what's being said by pastors and even so-called pastors, men I wouldn't consider pastors, but who unfortunately hold the title. There are many arguments about what the word headship means in our day. In the Bible, the word headship refers to leadership and authority and rule. That's what it means. And as you think of this, you need to remember something very clear When the Bible talks about headship, it always refers to men. Men have headship. That doesn't mean God doesn't love women. That just means He has a different role for you ladies. We're going to look at that at the end of our sermon this morning. How does this fit for you? Men, what does this mean for you? Headship has become a very complicated idea and truth in our world. And it's become complicated for this one reason. Men and women no longer want to live according to a biblical worldview. That's all that it is. In 2023, Barna Research Group found in their polling that 6% of Christians have a biblical worldview. 6%. Here's what that means. 6% of Christians live according to this. You wanna know why we're in such a mess? That's it. So what are Christians doing when they form their worldview? Well, they've taken a syncretistic view of the world. Here's what that means. They've taken a little bit of Bible, They've taken a little bit of secular humanism, and they've taken some form of either Marxism or atheism, and they blended it all together for some drink that's supposed to make them feel good. If you were to take arsenic and put it in a cup of coffee, just one little drop, you still get poisoned. If you take the Bible and you add poison to your theology, you're still poisoned. We cannot take this approach. It's no wonder the church is struggling to affect our world. The world has poisoned the church. And the world is influencing the church more than the church is influencing the world. And a big reason for that is I believe we have a lot of people in church who think they have to tickle ears and rub bellies. They are afraid to stand up and proclaim the truth because they are fearful it will chase the unbeliever away. What does the word of God tell us is the power of God? It's not your innovation. It's not your creativity. It's not entertainment. It is the preaching of the unaltered gospel of Christ. And where that gospel is proclaimed is where the church is healthiest and strongest. And this is where we have to stand firm on headship. It's Christ's call to obedience for the believer. So let's look at the authority that Christ has over the church In Ephesians 1 verse 22. This is a prayer that Paul is praying over the Ephesian church. And he is praying for them that they would know that God has put all things under his feet. And he gave him head to be head over all things to the church. And so as we look at this verse, we have to get the pronouns figured out. In verse 22, and he put all things under his feet. Well, who's the he and the his? What pronoun belongs to who? The first he belongs to God the Father. God the Father, the one who has planned our salvation. The one who has determined how salvation will look. He gives the church as a gift to His Son, Christ Jesus. And His refers to Jesus. The one who has the authority over the church. He's the one who has earned our salvation. Who has earned the inheritance of the church from His Father. And so as we look at this, we have to understand that God the Father gifts the church, Christ the Son earned salvation for the church, and has received the church as an inheritance from His Father, and His Father has put all things under His feet. according to the church, relating to the church. And that phrase, under his feet, means to be in complete control of something, to be under the complete control of Christ. Paul is referring back to a psalm here, Psalm 110. It is the most quoted psalm in the whole New Testament. And Psalm 110 simply says this, you'll know when you hear it. The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. This is the Psalm Jesus quotes to the Pharisees that causes their heads to explode when they can't understand what does it mean when my Lord said to my Lord. They couldn't grasp that. But this is exactly what we're seeing. God the Father, my Lord, gifting to His Son, my Lord, the church. The idea of headship is the dominant rule over a particular territory. It should be noted that Christ is the only one who is declared to be the head of the church. The only one. And it is the dynamic force that Christ provides that gives us direction and unity. If we're going to be a unified church, and we must be if we're going to be obedient children of God, it's going to come from Christ and not us. We must be obedient to His commands as it relates to the one another's in the scripture. loving one another, being kind to one another, forgiving one another, all of those one another's that you see in scripture. If we're gonna be unified, we must practice those things. And you say, well, how is that not from us? Well, it's because Christ gives you the power to do these things. Left to ourselves, we would do the exact opposite. We'd dig our heels in, we'd be bitter, we'd be self-righteous, we'd play the I'm right, you're wrong game, We do all the things wrong. Christ gives us the ability and the right, I'm sorry, not the right, he gives us the ability and the power to accomplish his will. So while Christ is sovereign over all things as creator, and he is, Colossians 118 makes that clear, that's one of the reasons why we read that this morning, he is declared to be head of the church here and in other places. So let's stop and get some fundamental truths nailed down here. Let's think through this. Number one, we have a metaphor of the body again. Head and body in verse 23. Church is Christ's body, he is the head. So that means something. And headship in the first century church, or in the first century of the world, was a way of speaking of someone having authority over something else. We have the same metaphor today. Think of an organization and someone will say, well, so-and-so heads up that organization. Same metaphor. They're the ones who are in charge of it. But think with me for a few minutes about this idea of Jesus being head of the church. I want everyone to look down at your Bible at Ephesians 1.22. Look. He put all things, how many things? All things. all things under Christ's feet and gave him to be head over all things to the church. Who's the head of the church? Christ is the head of the church. Now, there's a distinction that needs to be made here. God the Father is not the head of the church. God the Spirit is not the head of the church. God, the son, is head of the church. That matters. And you say, well, what's the big deal? The big deal is God cares so much that you know that Christ is head of the church that he says it numerous times in his word. That means that when we are here gathering together for worship, we're following Christ in the Holy Spirit by the word of God, which is given to us. And we have salvation, which is a gift from God the Father through His Son, by His Holy Spirit. But we are looking at Christ, the head of the church. And so as we come together and we think about church, the first thought must be Christ. If that's not our first thought when we're thinking about church, we do not have a biblical thought about church. If we go right to the ministries and we go right to all of the ideas and fun and plans that we have, we have gotten away from the fundamentals. And when we start thinking like that, we start thinking about us first. We start thinking about all the things that we want to do and what we want to have. but Christ must be our first thought. So what does it mean that Christ is over the church? And that idea of the word Christ being over means he has the highest position, the highest rank, he's over all other people, including you, including me. And there are so many applications here, I had to discipline myself just to give you three. Now, some people have the idea that I determine what goes on in this church. There is a sense in which I'm responsible for what happens here, but I don't get to scheme up what happens in church. I don't get to dream up how we do worship. Why? It's laid out for us. It's given to us right here in God's Word. The elders don't get to decide, hey, we're gonna do just a fun day today. We've been preaching on too hard, let's have some fun today. Pastor, you've been tough on them. Let's give them a little break. Let's do a carnival day. We don't get to decide that. Christ has laid out the standards for church right here in His Word. I've been in churches where people think, and actually the reason they think this is because it happens, that charter members determine what happens in your church. And they get to run everything. I'm glad we have some charter members still alive here. but the Word of God determines how we run this church. Not charter members, not pastors, not elders, the Word of God. Every church has a culture. We're different than the Lutheran church down the road. We do things differently as a culture than the Methodist church down the road. We're not Northmar. We're not Grace. We are different than the other churches in Cortland. And that's a good thing. But, if we're to be a New Testament church, here's the three applications. Number one, a New Testament church proclaims the Word of God. That's the most important part of this. Worship comes from the Word. And so as we gather together, our message and our action Our action items come from God's word, which means the church preaches the true unaltered gospel without apology. That means that when we stand and we sing, our song should be found in scripture. Not necessarily the exact words, but certainly the spirit of that. When we do communion and baptism, we're seeing the Word of God before us. When we pray, we should be praying the Word of God. The Word of God is foundational to everything we have. Second, the New Testament church has two offices, which means we have to have these two offices to be a New Testament church, elder and deacon. We'll talk more about elder in this message in Acts, but deacons are servants. If we didn't have deacons here, not much would get done. We need these servants. Third, a New Testament church practices church discipline. Now, for some people, that causes their skin to crawl. Church discipline, how is that loving? How is that kind? Look, you don't have to like it, but Christ commanded it. Not me, not Martin Luther, not Athanasius, not Peter or Paul, Jesus Christ himself commands church discipline. Why? It keeps his church pure. You don't have to like it, you don't get to not do it. And there's a lot of things, a lot of actions in church that are avoided to do the things you don't want to do. That Christ has clearly commanded. And if we're to be a New Testament church, we have to have these three marks. Second, notice the abundance in Christ in verse 23. Paul writes, the church is Christ's body. The fullness of Him who fills all in all. What in the world is Paul talking about here? Again, the church is Christ's body. The church is now described as the fullness of Christ, that which makes something complete. And you look at that and you go, wait, hang on a second. How does a church make Christ complete? Is Christ lacking anything? No. What this is speaking of is Christ's mission to save souls. And as we think of Christ's body, He is making His mission full as His gospel goes out and men and women are saved. And one day we are going to gather around the throne in heaven and you are going to see the fullness of Christ. And it is the fullness of Christ who fills all in all. Christ causes the church to be full. And that all in all, it speaks of completeness. I like how Paul writes it in Colossians 2.10, you, the church, are complete in Christ. If you think of church and Christ is not your first thought, it's not a complete thought. It's not a complete idea of church. You have to have Christ at the center of your thought when it comes to church. John writes in John 1.16, from His Christ-fullness, we have all received grace upon grace. All of your grace comes from God, through Christ, by the Holy Spirit. All of it. If we are to be a complete assembly, a complete church, we must submit in everything as it relates to the church, to Christ. So let's get to the fundamentals. Again, the church is not a building, it's not brick and mortar. Aren't you glad we have a church building to meet in? And it's warm, sometimes a little too much warm, right? But aren't you glad it's warm in the winter? I won't say it's cool in the summer. It's still warm in the summer. However, it's warm because we have bodies here. And it's a wonderful truth that we can gather. We're protected from rain. We're protected from wind. We usually don't have creepy crawlies in here, right? We're protected from these things. God has given us a wonderful building to meet in, and it's such a comfort we overlook it. But this building is not the church. It's a church building. It's where we gather. It's identified as a church building, but the church is the people. And you and I are made complete in Christ alone. At the most basic level, each individual member, members in Christ, every Christian individually, you must submit to Jesus Christ as the head of the church. He is your King. Christ is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. And if we are to give homage to our government just as citizens, he's higher than the position of president in the United States. And so our worship must ultimately go to him. We should never worship men. We don't worship angels. We worship Christ and Christ alone, the head of the church. This means that when the Bible gives us a command, I'm going to give a simple illustration from Romans 6.12, do not let sin reign in your mortal body. That means each individual Christian must make sure that is true of them. You must make sure that no sin reigns in your mortal body. Why? Not because I'm saying so or it's the right thing to do. It's the right thing to do because Christ has commanded it. And if we're going to move forward in obedience and faithfulness, we're going to put our sin to death. And that's hard to do. Some of us have sin patterns that have gone back our whole life. But you know what God can do with broken relationships and broken habits and sinful habits? He can redeem them. Some of us here have testimonies where you should be either dead or in jail. And God redeemed you. He redeemed your brokenness and your broken situation and your broken circumstances to make your life a trophy of God's grace. And don't forget you're a trophy of His grace. You didn't do this on your own. But let no sin reign in your mortal body. Here's what that means. Number one, in your life, your individual life, sin that is known only to you has to be put to death. It's not known only to you, is it? It's known to God. Christ knows. He sees it. And we cannot allow sin to be reigning in our mortal bodies, even if we're the only one who knows it. We can't allow sin to reign when it affects me and other people, when it's a relationship issue. We have to change that. We can't let sin reign here in the church. We'll look at that in Ephesians 5. And we cannot let sin reign in our relationship with the world. Every aspect of your life needs to be righteous and holy. Now, we understand that we are but dust, and God knows that too, and He knows that we will sin, and here's the beautiful reality of that. He says, when a man sins, you have an advocate with God. His name is Jesus Christ. And you confess your sin to Him, and when you confess your sin, God is faithful and just and he will forgive you of your sin and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. But let no mortal sin reign in your mortal body. You must put sin to death. So we have seen the headship. Look at the ownership in Acts chapter 20. I want you to see this. We will not be here too long, but this is perhaps the most important speech in all of the book of Acts. Paul addresses the Ephesian elders and he gives us here a clear understanding of how church is to function, and we will talk more about this next week. But he uses the term overseers in verse 28. We'll look at verse 28. Paul writes, Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God, listen, which He purchased with His own blood. So we're looking at who owns the church. Well, Christ owns the church. But here's what's amazing. He's purchased the church. And then He's given oversight over the church to people in the church. Now, I don't think any one of us would do that with our most precious possession. You love what you have, you have a certain possession that you just love, and you're gonna hand it off to a toddler? You and I would go, we would never do that. Well, what's God doing handing off his precious possession to those who haven't conquered their sin yet. Well, this is God's work and not ours. And also, elders, this is for us. This section here is really for us. So please listen as we walk through this because this is a high call to elders to care for the church. We are to take heed. Everyone is to take heed regarding themselves. You are to be ready. and watchful against any kind of danger, need, or error. The first line of defense to your life is always you, and to watch. Now, you can't watch properly unless the Word of God is in your heart, and you're reading it, and studying it, and meditating upon it, and memorizing it. But then we are to take heed over all the church. Every one of us has areas in our life that we just don't see clearly. We don't see clearly. And God has given specific men to watch over us and to care for us and to call out sin. And when they do that, I pray you listen. It may be one of the most difficult parts of your life to have someone look at you and say, I know you think the problem is over there, And there is a problem there, but there's also a problem right here with you. I have been counseling for 10 years with my certification, with my training. Do you know that I have never seen one counseling situation, no matter how ugly it may be, where one person is 100% the offender? Never. We have to deal with our own sin. And when overseers come to us and they love us and they call out our sin, they're doing their job and watching over our souls. The word overseer is one who watches over someone else's possession carefully to give it back to them. We must return, elders, the church to Christ. We don't ever have it. It's not ours. But we care for it. For Christ. And we have to do it well. And it is the Holy Spirit who has made us overseers. That word made is the exact same word in Acts 13, 48, which speaks of God appointing people to eternal life, He's appointed overseers too. That's a high calling. And not everyone is appointed as an overseer. Not everyone makes the cut. But at the end of the verse, Christ has purchased the church. We talk about a big purchase in our life. Maybe it's a house or a car. You spend a lot of money. You're paying interest for it. It's yours, but it takes hard work to pay this off. It pales in comparison to the Christ made for the church on the cross. How precious is the church to Him? How careful must we be in overseeing it? And in verse 28, we have a basic principle in the New Testament. You are not your own. You were bought with a price, which means this. You don't get to do whatever you want to do. You don't get to live your life however you want. You can't remake the rules. Christ owns the church. And if you are a part of the church, you have come to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. You have heard you're a sinner. And you must Bow before Christ, who has come to earth, lived a perfect life, gone to the cross, shed his blood for you. You've come to recognize you can't save yourself. You need Jesus. And you fall upon his mercy. And you know he's been raised from the dead and you will be raised too. You're part of the church. But here's what that means. Jesus owns you. We are slaves of sin or we are slaves of Christ. And that means that there are responsibilities that we have in life. One day, we will stand before Him and we will answer for our life. Christians will do this at the beam of seat judgment. What will He say? If your desire is that Christ would say to you, well done, good and faithful slave, then you must do as He's called you to do. But there's a problem. There's a problem. Look at verse 29. Here's a big problem in the church. Paul says, for I know this, that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, sparing the flock. Here's the basic problem. Not everyone who makes a confession of faith is truly saved. We talked about that two weeks ago. Not everyone in the local church is part of the universal church. There are some who use the church as an opportunity for personal gain. And God has wisely set up elders to oversee the church to prevent that from happening. Here's the problem. Look at verse 30. In the protection of the church, you have to be careful because there are gonna be men who will rise up, meaning they will rise up to the position even of elder. And they will speak perverse things and draw away the disciples after themselves. Can you imagine people being in the pastorate who aren't Christians? Imagine that. Can you imagine people overseeing a church who aren't Christians? Imagine that. It happens. Some of us know that all too well. Elders. We need to oversee the church and handle it with care. Because it's Christ's, not ours. Turn back to Ephesians chapter 5, and we're going to look at the obligation that we have. We've talked a little bit about the obligation that the elders have, but what about the average Joe? What responsibility do we have? It's a mystery, Paul says in verse 31 of chapter 5, but he's not talking primarily about marriage here. He's talking about Christ and His church. And we read this and we go right to marriage. Well, there's wonderful application here for marriage, but that's not the primary meaning of the text. And Paul knows that he's really taken this comparison deep, and so he takes a step back in verse 31 and he goes, look, I know it's a mystery to you, but I'm talking about Christ and the church, not your husband or wife. And so we have to keep that straight. Now, look at the comparison. The comparison begins in the home. Verse 20 to 21, submitting to one another in the fear of God. OK, so we have that word submit. And then he turns and he uses it in a different way. Wives submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. So right there, we have the responsibility that begins in the home. If we're going to have a right understanding of submission, we have to have submission in the home. Why? Paul brings it back to Christ and the church. For the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is head of the church. So this is going to sound foreign to a culture. But women, you don't get to do just whatever you want to do. You know, there are times when I will counsel a woman and I have to call her husband. Hey, this is what I'm hearing. Have you given counsel that's different than what I would give? Because I do not want to have a woman disobey her husband. If he is giving good counsel, she should do it. Now, if he's giving bad counsel, then he needs to be brought in and we need to talk. Let's not abuse your responsibility here. Women, you don't get to do whatever you want, not because God doesn't love you or he doesn't like you or doesn't trust you, but because you need to be led. You know, part of the curse of the woman is that she seeks to devour the man. Here's what that means. She wants to have the highest place. And the absolute worst reality for a woman is to have the highest place. God knows this. So he puts the man in charge, who then says, I don't want to deal with this woman. She can have the highest place. And God says, no, you lead men. Look at how Christ leads a church. You're not the easiest people to deal with. You're not the easiest bride church. He leads you and you submit to him. Let your homes operate in the same way. That's the comparison. For some people, Right there, a whole world of marriage thought has come crumbling down around you. I thought, I thought I could just boss her around and tell her what she had to do. Oh no, it's for her good, not for your greed. I didn't want to submit to him. What's he know, what's he know what's best for me? Well, he probably doesn't, but God does. And he can use, as Brother Bill Finnegan likes to say, a crooked stick to draw a straight line. We are to love our wives, men, as Christ loved the church. You wanna know what that means? It doesn't mean you love with emotion, or you love in romance. It means you love from the will. When she is at her worst, you love her the same. You love her and pursue her when she doesn't return that love. And you say, well, what's that all about? Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church. See, that's the primary reality. It's how Christ loves the church, not how you love your wife. How does Christ love us? Constantly, passionately, purely. without end. So here's the principle that runs all the way through Ephesians 5. You ready? Women, you can stop submitting to your husband when the church stops submitting to Christ. Men, you can stop loving your wife when Christ stops loving you. Christ is the head. He makes the rules, not us. Notice the cleansing in verses 26 and 27. Christ loves the church, why? That he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word. That he might present her to himself a glorious church. Do you get the picture? Do you get the image that God has for you? Not having spot or wrinkle. Can you wait for that day? Or any such thing. But that he should be holy and without blemish. One day it will be true. This is what God gave His Son for. Not so we could run around playing church. Not so we could act like we have Little Hollywood in our building. and we can put on our little shows and have our little stand-up comedy routines. It's to honor Christ who is the head by being holy and Christ-like. This is the purpose and the cleansing. Look, cleansing hurts. Cleansing hurts. If you ever had a wound that had to be cleansed, with alcohol of some form or some form of cleansing agent. It hurts. It stings. You want to recoil from that. But it's so needed for your health. We in our sinful nature do not want to be cleansed. Because it hurts. And we will push that away. And I watch people push away from that which is needed. The elders watch, as some people will say, I don't need the church and they walk away, you need the church. God has declared it to be so. God has determined that he will sanctify you for holiness, he will set you apart to be holy, to be Christ like. and He will cleanse you. He will make you clean. But that is a painful process. You have to deal with the past issues. You have to deal with future fears. You have to deal with present failures. But Christ is greater than all of that. He's conquered it all. And He's going to wash us With the word, that word wash is the ceremonial cleansing of baptism in the law. It is the very foundation for New Testament baptism. Cleansing was what the priests did to every utensil that was used in the temple. It was ceremonial. It wasn't to keep the utensils clean. It was, this is to be cleansed for the work of Christ or work of God. And it was dipped in water to cleanse. So when you are baptized, it's not that God is cleansing you there. You're cleansed by when you're washed with the blood of Christ. But it is the ceremonial point of saying my life is now set apart for Christ. It is dipped in water to be brought out to live for him forever. I am now of his holy use. Set apart for holiness. Sanctification is always a painful process because here's the reality. I have to be vulnerable with you. And sometimes you fail me and you hurt me. You say words that you don't think about before you speak them. Now what's the problem with what I just said? It's about me. Can I not do the same thing? Not only can I do the same thing, I have already done them. I've already done them in the past six and a half years. I've had to go to several and say, I was wrong, please forgive me. I remember one woman, she was shocked. She goes, a pastor asking for forgiveness? What in the world? And she was serious. I said, what are you talking about? I'm not better than anyone else. She goes, I know, but I've never had that happen. How sad that a leader will not lead by example. I'm not better than you. In fact, I think when I stand in these positions, I must rely on Christ because I can't do these things. And I preach far better than I live. Every pastor does. Every pastor does. Charles Spurgeon said it's easier to preach 100 servants than it is to live one. So help me as we go through this. I need you. But see, when we obey Christ, here's the beauty of what He does. He redeems our deepest hurts. Redeems them. He brings our deepest secrets to the light to expose them and to overcome them. He takes our broken past and He redeems it for a hopeful future. Our worst relationships become testimonies of God's grace in our life. He promises that He will work good in your life, and we need to trust that He will do it. We need to obey Him so that He will do it. And we live according to His Word so that as He's doing it, we have the power to keep going. The purpose in all of this is that Christ's church will be presented to Himself. This is how it works. Christ purchases you for Himself to present you to Himself, holy and blameless. He's not coming to you and being like, wow, I can't believe I get you. You go, I can't believe I get Christ. That He would purchase me and present me to Himself. Has He seen me? Yes, He has. In your current state and what He's going to make you to be. We don't come to church and do things for ourselves. We do everything for Christ. We are here for Christ. Back to the fundamentals. Church is about Jesus, not you. So if you're going to church, jumping around churches, looking to see what you think is best, what pleases your emotions, what makes you happy, the songs that you want to sing, and it's all about you, you're doing this wrong. I understand that Calvary's not gonna be a place where everyone lands, but you need to find a church that preaches the word of God, number one. Number two, you need to find a church that's going to use the Word of God as the basis for everything they do. We're not perfect in that, but we do strive to do it. The songs we sing, the scriptures we read, the prayers we offer, the preaching that is given, the ordinances that they are observed, all of this is based upon The Word of God. Because that's what glorifies Jesus. And the King of Kings knows what He's doing. And if we as a church are going to be healthy and unified, we need to do what He's called us to do. He's the Head. We follow Him. The reason the church is not a glorious place all the time, and it's not, is because the church chooses to operate different from the King's command. It's filled with sinners who still sin. Imagine that. And that sin has to be dealt with. But when these sinners submit themselves to Christ and determine that they will follow Him and pursue to sin less, the church becomes a glorious place. It's not perfect yet, but it will be one day. When we sin less and we pursue Christ, we sin less because we're pursuing Christ and Christ is working in us, and we're filled with His Spirit, He makes us without spot, without an unwanted stain, and we're on our way to be holy, Christ-like, which is the whole goal of sanctification. So as we close, who owns a church? Christ does. What's the purpose of Him purchasing the church? To present it to Himself holy and blameless. You can't do that on your own. Therefore, what we do matters. We preach the Word. We sing the Word. We read the Word. We pray the Word. We see the Word. And we obey the Word. And in that, we glorify Christ the Head. Everything is all about Jesus. All the time. Because He is the rightful owner of the church. He's the King of all kings. He's the Lord of all lords. And listen, He's the only one who deserves our worship. God has saved us. Placed us in His church. Christ is the head. Let us serve Him with reckless abandon and full passion. Let's pray. Fathers, we closed this morning. It is my prayer that we would see Christ as the head of the church, not just seeing it and thinking through that idea, but we would obey it. We would proclaim it. We would believe it. And we would operate under these words of Scripture, that we would trust you to do what is right, even when we don't get it right. Lord, I ask that you would work in our hearts, conform us to the image of Christ, that we would put to death the deeds of the flesh, that no sin would reign in our mortal bodies, that Christ would be seen clearly in this place as we proclaim the truth of the gospel to all who believe. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.