As you might have imagined, it's interesting that I have this message after we already had the Q&A session. But that's because we were away last weekend, so that came out of order. So I'm happy to cover my section now. So the portion that we are covering reads as follows. We have read the constitution, bylaws, and policies of the church, including the dealing with church discipline, conflict resolution, and members' rights and responsibilities, and membership covenant, and agree to be bound by the policies and procedures set forth in them. We will, when we move from this place as soon as possible, unite with some other church where we can carry out the spirit of this covenant and the principles of God's word. And so we've covered a majority of even this subject matter already. And so what I'm aiming to do tonight is tie it up and tie a bow on it. So there are a few aspects of the covenant we haven't covered. So we haven't really talked about the Constitution and bylaws specifically, what's in them. But we have covered discipline. We have covered elders. Some of these things and so I'm gonna go through those highlights When we come to the church We come as we are Okay, and and by our own admission and more importantly the scripture teaches that we are not fully sanctified Okay shocker So an ongoing transmission is Transaction transmission is taking place in our lives transformation Hebrews 10.14 says, by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. So we're perfected for all time in Christ, but we are being sanctified. This takes place in the church. And we're made up of many types. We heard that passage this morning from 1st Thessalonians 5 14 and where it talks about admonishing the idle Okay, so there are idle among us Encourage the faint-hearted They're faint-hearted in the church help the weak, be patient with them all. And so there's Paul's admission that there are traits in our lives. We have these faults, we have these dispositions. So we as works in progress need parameters or a framework to keep us inside the court as we do the work of the church. And so for this reason, it's necessary for the church to have a constitution and bylaws. They're derived from biblical principles as well as some sanctified wisdom added unto. So when the church is constituted, it doesn't have to reinvent the wheel. We can draw from faithful church fathers of the past, from what's available to us today, and we can create our constitution. Our particular constitution was created some 40-ish, 40 years ago. With some some tweaking and I'll confess right now if you were to study it right now you you'll find a couple things that That we need to to fix we in one portion that it States that we're members of the Association of Reformed Baptist Churches of America. So in our next constitutional revision, we'll fix that But so understand that that's there and we are not presently members of ARCA So we heard in the sermon last week that if a church doesn't have documents defining what the Word of God teaches, then you should run from that church. If there's just a picture of the Bible there on the website, you should run from that church because that means they can define it as they will. Our documents seek to follow the Word of God where it speaks. We have to on occasion make our own contributions relating to the times in which we live. So earlier documents wouldn't have to deal with things such as the LGBT community. But how can the LGBT community harm your church? Well, they can ask that they be married here. Well, what if you don't have a policy that states we don't marry people who don't believe like us? Well, you have to add those policies to your constitution. That's an issue of something that you would add to the times to your constitution and bylaws. So, we will eventually go through a constitutional revision and we will add those things and we will work through those things. We're working through many things now and we just haven't gotten that far yet. But we certainly don't want them drawing us into the courts and trying to destroy our church for refusal to do such a thing. We also need protection from within. We need this Constitution and bylaws as a protection from within. Maybe a renegade member, a rogue elder, whatever. We need these constitutional protections from within. So with great effort and much prayer, study, and discussion, before nearly all of us joined the church, Ruth isn't here, she would be the one, the exception, this constitution was formed that guided us. So some highlights of the Constitution and bylaws. Being convinced of reformed, distinctively Baptist doctrines, we ascribe to the London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689. In our Constitution, you will find the sacraments, Lord's Supper and baptism, elders, the selection process, reasoning for a plurality of elders, and how they interact, how they interact with with each other, how they're equal, how they interact with the congregation. And we know, we've heard this before, elder-led congregational ruled, which prevents runaway elders yet acknowledging their authority. I'm gonna give you a couple highlights from Robert's Rules of Order. And one of the things that Robert's Rules of Order do, which is in our Constitution, is keep it civil, the discussion civil, and keep someone from running away with the agenda. So there's those relationships, there's responsibilities. from the congregation to the elders because there's no leading without any following. And so as they lead according to scripture, I never perfectly follow them. There's also a description of membership, how to become a member. The elders are responsible to screen prospective members, how to remain a member. Did you know that if you stop coming, our Constitution states for four Sundays in a row, you can be removed from the roles? Well, that's one way to keep people from remaining a member and being aloof to the church. But there's other consequences for a member to stop coming. We will seek you out. We won't we won't just let you walk away from the church. You become a member of this church. You can't just walk away from it There's consequences to that. There's there's a commitment that you've made and you can't just say nada not anymore for me The proper way to leave a church would be that, say, you're moving, or you believe differently, say you became, yeah, you believe differently, I'm not gonna go into details, you're seeking or begun the process to join another church, and you will have informed the leadership of this, and I'll go, deal with this a little more at the end here when we cover, when we move from this place. But I'd like to say that when you joined a local church, this might not be the first one you joined, but when you joined a local church, your life has fundamentally changed forevermore. Because you've stated that you agree with scripture, that it is the place of a Christian to be a member of a local church. And so you can't just go off now and say, I don't want to be a member of a church anymore, because you'll be willfully sinning. Also in the Constitution and Bylaws meetings, you will get a two-week notice very, very soon about our membership meeting taking place in April, you members, about a quorum. It requires 2 3rds of the membership to conduct that meeting. And these rules fall under sanctified reasoning. It's not scripture that two-thirds have to be there, but that's sanctified reasoning that's added to that. Robert's rules of order are there for us when necessary. Let me read a couple of things that are stated in here. It provides common rules and procedures for deliberation and debate in order to place the whole membership on the same footing and speaking the same language. The conduct of all business is controlled by the general will of the whole membership. The assembly, so this is where elder-led congregational rule really comes into play, and it is backed up by Robert's Rules of Order. The assembly, they have the final say on everything. This vote, I'm not gonna say on every single thing that the church does, but you know what I mean, what we bring up for vote, what it's appropriate for vote. And then there's areas of not addressing one another, not criticizing one another for statements, but addressing the moderator and your conversation toward the moderator. All these things are for to keep decent order. Yeah. And so I have this for anybody who wants to look at it. I have a Robertsville cheat sheet. And I have another printout of the same with examples on how to make motions, how to modify a motion, and so forth. And so all these things are there in place for us. So we have these officers, elders, deacons, trustees. Does everybody know we have trustees? It's a six-year term. They have to do all the business of the church whenever documents need to be signed. They are in charge of keeping track of the church's insurance, these types of things. All property and assets. And lastly, in our constitution is an amendment process, which allows us to amend it. So at the beginning of this series of the membership covenant, Pastor Josh defined the membership covenant this way. It's a biblically based promise and commitment made to God, to a local church, and to oneself, which summarizes our ethical pledge of holy living and life together in the body of Christ and in the world. Christians don't date the church, they marry the church. So we've said, in becoming members, that we agree with these things. We agree with the Constitution. We agree with the Covenant. And so I ask you, are you familiar with this Constitution and bylaws? And as we heard, even as an application from the sermon this morning, we should be familiar with these things because that's, as a congregation, that is our responsibility. We must take ownership of this Covenant. In your life, you have extensive contracts for loans, for medical coverage, and you pour over those documents, making sure that you understand all that's taking place. How much more so are the, well, all these commitments, they'll all be dust come eternity. But how is this covenant life together? This has eternal significance. I said a moment ago that your life has fundamentally changed when you joined a local church, but in what way do I mean? First of all, I declared, told us that you've declared for all time going forward that you understand that the word of God teaches this committed relationship. Therefore, if you walk away, you're willfully sinning. But why would you do that? You have joined yourself to the greatest institution in the world. There are many clubs and institutions that come with many wonderful privileges. There's golf clubs, there's yacht clubs, there's flying clubs. And they have properties and benefits, massage stuff, you know, saunas, all that stuff. It's like heaven on earth. Wonderful pampering. But when you joined yourself to the local church, you were folded into the institution formed and governed by God. Well, you might ask, why are there poorly led churches then? That's because the membership didn't fulfill their responsibility to kick bad leaders out or to challenge them when they did go rogue. They didn't hold up to their end of the bargain and allow churches to slip away. members should challenge the errors. And we shouldn't join ourselves to an unbiblical church. Or if after maturing, because we're all on this journey of maturity, and realizing that we're in one, we should challenge it, and then if the church doesn't repent of it, then we should leave it. The Lord has chosen this stage for our perseverance. that we not drift away from the Lord by neglecting our gathering together, Hebrews 10, 24, 25. I know someone who had a difficult experience in their church of many years. The church split over how they dealt with an elder, and they also had a building project that not everybody agreed, so some people parted their ways. And that church splits happen so quickly sometimes that you don't even see it happening. But some people packed up and left. Well, this person I know, they packed up and left along with him, but they never joined themselves to another church. It's five or six years later, still not in a church, still not a member of a church. No one has any authority over her. And she has a Bible study. She goes to a Bible study, and that is her church to her. And the more I learn about this Bible study, I just don't like the way that they make that their church. Well, I won't say I don't like it. This is unbiblical, is how they make this their church. And so what have they done? Well, they've studied a couple of Joyce Meyer books. One of the other ladies who's, I would say, would be the leader, she and her husband got burned in their church, and now they go to church on TV. And so what they're doing is they're doing what they want to do. They're following themselves and they're even getting to a point where they expect the things that you would expect from your church, from the members of your church that love you and from your leadership. They expect that from other Christians, even though they're attached to no one. This is unbiblical. Sorry, I forgot where I was. So they've drifted from good doctrine. And these things can happen when we decide, when we know better than God. Think to yourself, think to yourself of someone who's left the church and how that journey has gone for them. But you brothers and sisters, your eyes are opened and you are under a persevering umbrella of the church. Shepherds keeping watch for your souls, your brother and sister next to you, keeping watch for your souls. The Lord has designed this stage for our sanctification. A guy thinks his character is humming along pretty well when he's single. You know, he might say, I never argue, I'm very agreeable, and I'm extremely generous. Matter of fact, I'm selfless to a fault. Then he gets married and he realizes, well, eventually he realizes. that all of these areas in his life aren't really humming along at all. He just hasn't been exposed to the challenges that point out these flaws in him. We can think very well of ourselves when we're single and we only have ourselves to disturb and to get motivated and all these things. I think I can hear some amens in that, but not necessarily from the single people. It took joining yourself to one another to discover these blind spots. Ephesians 5, 22, 23, let each one of you love his wife as himself and let the wife see that she respects her husband. And so we have to learn to do these things. The wife has to respect a man who's not perfect and the husband likewise has to love someone who's not perfect. So we've entered into a relationship as members one of another in the local church, and it is a great blessing, but we also rub up against one another. That eventually causes friction. The problem in the Philippian church, Paul had to entreat Yodi and Syntyche to agree in the Lord. They said struggles, and we will have struggles. We don't necessarily like everything about our brother or sister. The more we are known, the more our flaws and faults are exposed, and we're careful for those kind of things. Well, just like the couple who, before they were married, put their best face forward, so we stir up a good effort when we come to church. But we don't have to like everything about our brother. We have to love our brother. John 15. 12 and 13, this is my commandment, Jesus said, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. God sanctifies us in the church. Through the word, John 17, 17, sanctify them in truth, your word is truth. Through prayer, James 5, 16, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. and through the Lord's supper and baptism, these means of grace in the church through laying down our lives for one another first and then to the world. This is why the end of our covenant here reads, we will, when we move from this place, as soon as possible, unite with some other church where we can carry out the spirit of this covenant and the principles of God's word. When we leave this local church, we are to have the Lord's leading. And we've seen that example in several of the families who have sought prayer. I'm, you know, I'm getting orders or I'm seeking employment somewhere else and the church is praying for them. That's the way to do it. The way to do it is not to come up to your brethren in the church and say, we're leaving. We checked out. That's not how we do it. We seek prayer from our leadership. We seek counsel. We ask the Lord. And we've seen the Lord send some people and bring them back through prayer. The Lord was leading in that, I believe. We don't want to make a misstep and find ourselves in a church desert. You've heard of food deserts, you know, no grocery stores in the cities, that kind of thing. Well, there's church deserts too. And you could find yourself growing colder toward the Lord in that situation. Psalm 106.15, King James Version, after Israel's rebellion, it says, and he gave them their request, but sent leanness to their soul. And that's scary, that the Lord would allow us to wander if we choose to, but he would send leanness to our soul. There are so many benefits we receive from these means of grace here that we don't even know. Did you know that nutritional science is not very advanced yet? And so, The carrot. The carrot gives us beta-carotene, right? But there are also many other benefits that come from the carrot. We just don't know about them yet. And so, my advice is eat the carrot, not the pill that says beta-carotene. But eat the carrot, because that's what God designed for us. Well, God designed this church for us, too. We know that it's for our good. For our protection. This is God's prescription for the Christian. You need the whole church and not just some of the parts that you like. Don't pick and choose what you like in the church. Try and engage in all of the church. And remember that we remind you as elders that we don't want to bind your conscience for things outside of the Lord's day. We would encourage you for some things outside of the Lord's day, but we would also try not to burden you. One of the things that we worked through last year was not having other activities on the same week as home group weeks so that someone might not find themselves doing two and three things in the church in the same week as home group and not being able to keep up with that. Not undo burdens. So we can't even write on paper all the benefits our children have gained, but we can see it in their lives. This journey that you began as a pilgrim. will continue for generations. Think about that. I'm a first-generation Christian. Lori and I are both first-generation Christians. And so we don't have some of the heritage that some of you have of having Christians in your family beforehand. But this extends beyond today, beyond these decades that you'll spend here, hopefully, but beyond that in your children. So, my encouragement to you is to embrace the church that the Lord has provided for you. We're a little bit past seven, so I want to let's close in a prayer. Father, we thank you for your church and the prescription of your church that you have given to your people. Lord, help us to embrace it. Help us to see the glory of the church and be given your eyes for the church more and more as we see the day approaching. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.