Would you open your Bibles, please, to Galatians chapter 1? Galatians chapter 1. And I'm going to read verses 3 through 10. Follow along. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. who gave himself for our sins, so that he might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory forever. Amen. And by the way, verse four is one of the greatest summaries in just a few words of the whole gospel. I love that. And that's what leads us into the energy of verse six and following. I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel, which is really not another, only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, He is to be accursed, anathema, consigned to hell. That's pretty strong language. He says, did you hear what I said? Look at verse 9. As we have said before, so I again say now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed, anathema. For am I now seeking the favor of men or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ." Strong language. Strong language. That's called loyalty to the clarity and the simplicity and the profundity of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In other words, go get them, Paul. We need to be this loyal and this energetic for the purity of the gospel. And we're going to talk about that this evening. All right, I'm admittedly going to stay in kind of a teaching mode with you this evening. But I thoroughly enjoyed a few weeks ago sharing with you the missions policy that we're operating under now as a missions committee. And it's been encouraging to hear back from you that that was a helpful conversation for you and for you to be thinking through how to be intentional with missions. But as we finish getting through the missions policy with you, our conversation wasn't finished yet. We needed to have this conversation, and we're going to talk about a few points that I've talked with you before, not only as a candidate here, but in some Q&As with you. And we've talked about this at the deacon level, as well as with the missions committee. But I want to bring you in to this conversation as a church family, because these are categories I believe we need to be talking in as we think about outreach to the nations and the neighborhoods. So this is our final message in the evangelism series. It's been a good series. God's been kind to us. We've seen God bring people here and save them right in front of us. And some will be getting baptized soon, and we rejoice. But let's get into this topic and kind of finish this whole series and this presentation about missions. And when we talked about the missions policy, I called it the four directions to the four corners, meaning the four-direction disciple to the four corners of the globe. We talked about that. But what I want to talk to you this evening is what we're calling the four directions at five levels. In other words, we need to be thinking different levels of involvement and engagement when it comes to direction number three on the four-direction disciple. Direction one is we need to be growing as worshipers. Direction two is we need to be growing as servants to all men, saved and unsaved. And then direction number three is a direct effort of taking the gospel to the lost. And then direction four is a call for us to be discipling other people. So we're really thinking about the two directions on the horizontal plane, being a servant to all men, saved and unsaved, and then in particular, with the unsaved, having a gospel motive, a gospel mission. That's what I want to talk to you about this evening and think through some topics with you, all right? First of all, I want to start out the way we did with the missions talk as well, and it's a few reminders that Christ's last command is our first concern. We looked at this last time in Matthew 28, 18-20. You have the Great Commission. You also see it in Luke 24. You see it in Acts 1. You're going to see it in Mark 16. The Great Commission, His last command is our first concern. This is why we exist as a church family. As I reminded Pastor Rowe when he was here last week, I said, Pastor, he was standing right here, I said, Pastor Rowe, as he was looking around at the facilities and the renovations, he was so thrilled with them. I said, but, Pastor, I need you to know that people are quoting you to me all the time still. that brick and mortar is nothing. It's all about what's happening in the lives of people and in the souls of people. I said, you're still being quoted to me, and he's right about that. Our goal is the Great Commission. The heartbeat of the Great Commission is disciple-making. The heartbeat is not merely evangelism. Evangelism is one-third of the Great Commission. You have to go Give them the gospel. As they convert to Christ, you baptize them, and then for the rest of your lives, you teach them. That's the Great Commission, all right? And we as a church family have chosen to identify with a rubric of discipleship that we call the four-direction disciple. It springs out of Ephesians 4.13, and this is not news to you. I still can't get that pea to go up there with worship, but you got the point here, okay? This is our model. We have it on the lobby walls. We talk about this. Our men's ministry is based on this. We want to see every person in this room grow as a radical disciple of Jesus Christ in these four directions, all right? Let's talk a little bit more. Let's push this forward a little bit further, alright? The four-direction disciple model is our goal here, yes, for our family of disciples. But, and if this print is too small, just listen, I'll read it right to you. As we exit the parking lot, and interact with the neighborhoods and the nations in the gospel mission of disciple-making, how do we connect with other gospel disciples and even civic efforts in line with our Creator's will? It's a good question. See, that's a long question. It is a long question. Let's break it down just a little bit more, all right? Let's break it down into three short questions about, specifically, direction number three, being a witness. But I think you can bring direction two in here, too, as being a servant to all men. Three questions. Who can we partner with as we go out with the gospel? You say, well, I'll go with the person in the row over by the piano. No, I'm talking about outside of our ministry. Who can we partner with? We need to be asking that question. Question two, when can we partner with them? For what kind of efforts? For how long? At what level? And then number three, how do we interact with our community as gospel citizens as well? Three good questions. It's not enough for us to say, yeah, we need to be witnesses, and we need to have a very intentional missions reach to the nations, and we need to do one-on-one in neighborhoods. Got it. What's the next series? It's like, no, no, no. If we got it, we got to do it. We've got to put feet on this. And we need answers to questions like this. So, we'll continue on. I think what we need to do tonight is talk in these two categories. We need to talk about ministry contracts. I don't know what other thing to call that, but I'll explain it in a minute. And we need to talk about community impact. By ministry contracts, I'm talking about when we start putting the resources of finances in a contractual way with another ministry or with a missionary unit. Okay, there's a contract that includes our assets. Those are ministry contracts. For example, the missions committee is preying over three potential missionary families we might contract with for support. We need to think of that category, but then we also need to think in the category of community impact. We are to be not only good citizens, we're temporary citizens, our home is still to come, we get that theologically, but we are here. And by God's good hand of providence, he's orchestrated it for us in 2019 to be in Washtenaw and Wayne County. And while here, we are supposed to be salt and light, a preservative, if you will, of the culture at the very least, as well as salt and light of the gospel of Christ. But when I say preservative, I believe I'm still keeping in line with one of the applications Christ made or was referring to when he called us the salt. Because of our presence as a people of God in our community, we are indwelt by God himself. This is a dynamic of the New Testament church that wasn't present in the Old Testament like it is now. Something new happened at the day of Pentecost. We are indwelt as individuals by the Holy Spirit. You say, well, David was indwelt by the Holy Spirit when he sinned and he confessed it in Psalm 51. He says, don't take your spirit from me. What does that mean? He was indwelt, not in the same way as the day of Pentecost. In the Old Testament, we have what's called a, this is a big word, but you can handle it, theocratic anointing. This is where the Spirit of God came upon someone that was his anointed to lead his people and to stand between his people and him as far as his rulership of them. Even Saul had this theocratic anointing. David wouldn't lift his hand against him. He says, how can I lift my hand against the Lord's anointed? That's what he's referring to. No, but here in the New Testament, something happened at Pentecost where now the Spirit of God indwells every believer. And as spirit indwelt believers, we are moving around on these streets, and in these neighborhoods, and in these buildings, and on this corridor, and in this county, or in these counties, not only armed with the gospel of Christ, but we are allowed and expected to have a voice and be a force that would push forward God's agenda for our culture. Ultimately, it's salvation, but we also want to preserve life. We want to speak for the poor. We want to protect battered women and orphans. So I'm talking about community impact like that. That's going to be different than ministry contracts. In ministry contracts, we have enough in common to where we are committing our funds in a contractual relationship. Community impact is something we should be living every day. So I want to talk through those two categories. They're not in tension with each other, but we need to see the difference. You know why? Because some people, some believers, indwelt by the spirit of God, very much aware of their gospel mission, will get involved in their community, say at a pregnancy center or family life services like what's across the street, And because they're volunteering to answer phones or count money out of baby bottle campaigns, and then they find out they're sitting next to a Catholic volunteer, another Christian will say to the Christian that's there volunteering, you're compromising the gospel. Because you're shoulder to shoulder with a Catholic volunteer counting that change. I want to argue with you tonight, there's no compromise of the gospel going on there. If we enter a ministry contract with them, I believe that that would be a compromise. So let's distinguish between these, all right? These are our talking points. And I want to give you here, you see that little black arrow pointing up? That's going to be big. Those of you musicians out there, I'm not. But that arrow is my way to crescendo. Okay. We're going to start at the bottom of the arrow and I'm going to put four boxes by that arrow. I want to be very clear with you and on this recording that these four boxes are not unique with me. I learned them at a shepherds conference from a speaker named Tom Pennington. And he gave it just as a side note in one of his messages at Shepard's Conference several years ago. And it has impacted my thinking since then. Now, what I'm going to build out from those four boxes is unique to Calvary Baptist, what I'm going to suggest to you. But I want you to know that these four words that climb up that arrow are not unique with me. Tom Pennington is the one that gave birth to these four words and this concept. But I like it. I like it. Where do we have to start thinking? First of all, we need to start thinking in rounds of fellowship. Fellowship, let's say a few things about fellowship. What do you mean by fellowship? Well, let's say this afternoon I was at Cracker Barrel with a family from our church. Okay, Lori and I went out to lunch. And I looked across Cracker Barrel at any given time that I'm there and there's a chance I'm gonna see someone praying over their food. And you know me, I'm pretty shy. I'll eventually, if they're close enough, start mouthing off at them or having a good time, try to engage them in conversation, see where they go to church, see what their story is. And let's say they say to me, hi, we go to a Lutheran church. And I'll say, well, which Lutheran church? Is it part of the Missouri Synod of the Lutheran church? And if they say yes, I'll say, so you guys embrace the gospel. In other words, what I'm not saying is that they're not part of the liberal wing of the Lutheran church that doesn't defend the gospel. But if you're part of the Missouri Synod, you're hearing the gospel all the time. And tell me when you came to a saving knowledge of Jesus. And I have no problem having a conversation like that with someone. And I will look across the table at them at Cracker Barrel and say, with all sincerity, it's great to meet you, my brother. It's great to meet you, my sister. That's fellowship. We're in different churches, and our churches have different addresses and maybe even different labels on purpose. But, when I'm bumping into them in the neighborhood, I don't say, you're not one of the frozen chosen Baptists. You're my brother and sister in Christ, even though we go to different churches and see some things differently. The gospel is the same. That's what we're talking about with fellowship. So a few things about fellowship. I'm sorry about this font size. It's all I could do with all my words tonight. A couple of points. Our recognition as a church family is that the body of Christ is larger than just Calvary Baptist Church, right? Do you believe that? It's much larger than just the, normally on a non-snow Sunday, the 200 that might worship together here. And I also want to make this point. The diversity within Christ's kingdom can be absolutely breathtaking. Just ask Dr. Bob here. Dr. Bob, if I could give you the microphone for a half hour, I just want you to tell everyone about the last week of your life. How many countries have you been in in the last six days? Including stopovers. What's that? Three, and then America, right? I mean, this guy goes to Africa, he goes to foreign lands like Ohio, he goes to Europe, all the time, no big deal. But I promise you, he gets to see Christians that look and sound a lot different than us. And he's his brother and sister to them. Christ's kingdom is breathtaking. All my dispensational friends out there, and I'm one of yous, I believe Christ is building his kingdom in the hearts of his people right now. Everyone that comes to saving faith in Jesus calls him Lord and King, and we follow him. He said in Luke 6, 46, why do you call me Lord, Lord, and you don't do what I say? He's our King. But make no sense, or make no argument to the contrary that I believe that he is building his following as our king now, but there is going to be on earth a literal 1,000 year reign on a Davidic throne. where this will culminate, okay? That's what I mean by Christ's kingdom, and if you don't know what I just said, it's because you're not in the debate and you're okay. I'm not compromising there. Another observation about fellowship, the pure gospel is unchanged, right? Isn't that what we just read in Galatians 1, 8, and 9? The gospel is so firm, so unchanging, so strong, and eternal, it'll never change. You know, a hundred years from now, I wonder what, if our church is still here, what our believers will look like compared to believers down in West Palm, or out in Tempe. Even people that might use these same buildings a hundred years from now, if the Lord tarries, will look a ton different than us. So when we say fellowship, this is where it all starts. This is where I can look at other brothers and sisters who might be part of other Bible-preaching churches and denominations, and I can look at them and with full confidence and joy I can say, you're my brother, you're my sister in Christ. And that's the very foundational level we start as we consider working with other people. And I just want to remind you in Philippians 1, 12 through 18, Paul even says, you know, there are some people preaching Christ and they really are just all about it, but then there are other people that preach Christ and they're doing it to cause problems for me. And Paul says it, I love it, he says, I don't know, whether they're preaching with right motives or wrong motives, I rejoice that Christ is being preached. I look at Revelation chapter 5 verses 9 and 10, a scene from the future when the seals are being opened and it says that Christ has redeemed a people for himself from all tribes and tongues and nations. Well, if you go to look at the other nations today and you watch the believers, their worship, they're going to be a lot different from you, a lot different from you. They're going to believe the same gospel. But they are going to have different practices. They're going to have different traditions. They're even going to have different preferences in Christianity. But they're our brothers and sisters. That's what I mean by fellowship. But as we move up the arrow, we're allowed to get a little more narrow, if you will, on cooperation. And this is the second word, partnership. Partnership. You say, what's the difference between partnership and fellowship? Well, fellowship is, I'm looking across the table or across the restaurant at you and I'm saying, hi, my brother in Christ, my sister in Christ. Partnership is saying, across the room or across the table, would you like to get together for a common temporary effort for the gospel? Since we hold to the same gospel, even though we have our differences, do you wanna get together for a seasonal evangelistic effort or something like that? Now, everyone I might say, you are my brother or you are my sister in the public arena, I might not reach for all of them when it comes to partnership. I'm going to get a little more narrow now. Not too much more, but I'm not going to surrender any of the gospel. But I am curious now that if I enter an evangelistic effort with them, a partnership with them, people are going to come to Christ and they're going to go to their church. And their church doesn't have to be an exact replica of ours, they don't have to sing the same songs, they don't have to use the same translation. But I do want to start minding now, what are they going to be taught in those churches? And I'm going to get a little more narrow at this point. So, a few thoughts on partnership here. While diversity can be wide even within a narrow gospel, Believers who have more doctrine in common than not may be able, I'm not saying must, I'm saying may be able to join forces for a gospel mission of some sort. That's partnership. Examples would be serving on a board of a ministry together. I have a joy of serving on just a few ministry boards, and I'll tell you right now, there's a lot of diversity on these boards, of preferences, of even some doctrinal nuances, not the gospel. This is education. Let's say you're in town at a Christian school, a local Christian school, or with an educator's group. Within that group or sent to that school will be students from different churches and different preferences, but you can come together for a partnership. Acts of evangelism. I remember in Virginia Beach, for about three years, we would spend $20,000 from our budget to secure a booth on the main floor of a very busy mall in the Virginia Beach area. And then that $20,000 would not only secure that booth from Thanksgiving until Christmas, but it would also buy literature, gospel literature that we picked out, and some little toys and things to give away to children that came by. And then we would fill out slots as to who from our church wanted to volunteer to be there to engage people in gospel conversations. Well, the mall was so busy at Christmas that we started reaching out to some sister churches in the area. And we found it wise not to just look for another church that was just like ours, because they were already at the mall. That was us. So we look to some churches a little bit to the right of us, philosophically, and a little to the left. They were still gospel-preaching churches. They preached the same gospel every week. And they agreed. They knew where we stood on our, say, our music preferences or translations and all that. We knew that we might have differences with them on some of that. But we came together for one month to share the gospel. We got to pick out the material that was being distributed, so that was pretty tight. And we had a great time of partnership. And it was over in December, okay? That's evangelism. Operation Christmas Child, hello, this is what we're doing with that once a year. Awana, same thing. We have a contractual thing with them, but understand we, as part of the Awana fellowship of churches, there are churches in our fellowship that are a lot different than us. Gideons, I didn't put up there, I just saw David over here. Discipleship, how about biblical counseling? Do you understand that most of the biblical counseling movement's birthed out of the Presbyterians? And I appreciate my brothers and sisters over there. So that's what we're doing with partnership. I will say this though. As you come together to partner with people that are different from you, go to different churches, there needs to be a mutual grace towards each other. This is the grace that we see in Ephesians. Look over at Ephesians with me. Ephesians chapter 4. And I'll just read these, because we mention these verses so often. Written to a local church, but it reflects a grace that must not only be present in a local church, but between local bodies of believers. Paul says in verse one, I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you've been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. There's one body and one spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all who is over all and through all and in all. Just a reminder that with our great diversity, we have to focus on the unity we have in the gospel. If that's true in a local church, it's for sure true as local churches spread out to churches different from them for a gospel effort. That's partnership. There's another box, though, we need to consider. We call this membership. And as we climb up this arrow, we're getting more narrow. In other words, partnership is going to be something that's usually seasonal and it has a beginning and an end time. Membership is more permanent. Membership now is being part of a local church. A couple of observations about membership. While partnership most often is temporary and diverse, With membership, we are moving into permanent and unified. Does that make sense to you? As we go up this arrow, we're allowed to say we should believe the same way about most things now. But even within a membership of a local church, we're going to have a lot in common beyond just partnership with churches in our area that we partner with. But even in a membership, we're going to have a little diversity, but there's what we call submission to each other within that membership. Another thought to consider, there's a defined perimeter with membership that you don't have with partnership. There's an inside and an outside to the perimeter of your local church. In 1 Corinthians 5, I can't remember if it's eight or nine times, Paul emphasizes in a case study of church discipline that those who are within the church and then those who are put outside the church. There's a true perimeter and you're either on the inside or you've been put outside. And he's even going to continue that talk of inside and outside the perimeter of a local church into chapter 6 when he talks about legal cases with believers. Matthew 18 has that same kind of language from our Lord talking about church discipline. Let them be unto you as a heathen and a publican. In other words, you are to take someone who won't repent even after repeated loving admonitions and pleas of the body to repent. If they won't, if they won't hear them, you need to put them on the outside. With membership, there's an inside and an outside. And with membership, there's a shared doctrinal body of belief. There's shared doctrinal convictions. And I'd like for you to turn with me to 1 Timothy 3. We'll talk about shared doctrinal convictions. I think Paul alludes to this as he writes to a pastor named Timothy. Verse 14, I am writing these things to you, hoping to come to you before long. But in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God. An interesting way to refer to the local church. household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth. By common confession, great is the mystery of godliness. And now we have a hymn, an ancient hymn, most likely that's giving us wonderful points of theology and doctrine that we hold dear. He, Jesus, was revealed in the flesh. He was vindicated in the spirit. He was seen by angels, proclaimed among nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory. There's a doctrinal statement in the form of a hymn. You see, when you come into church membership, like Calvary Baptist Church, you have to say that I've read the doctrinal statement and I agree with it. And even if there are some nuances where I might say something differently than our doctrinal statement states it, or where on a non-gospel issue, I'm still studying that and I might come up to a slightly different conclusion, I have this word submission here. The word submission is someone coming into membership says, even on points of disagreement on non-gospel issues, I will submit to this statement, meaning I won't assail it, I won't attack that doctrinal difference as a member. Okay, I'll submit to that and I understand that's what's going to be taught here. I'm coming in with my eyes wide open. That's a membership. Membership, when we talk membership, we're talking about a covenant with each other. We're talking about a constitution and bylaws that have been handed to us by previous generations. We're talking about how we do church here, that's polity. How is our leadership structure here? We're talking about our assets, our bricks and mortar, as Don Rowe would say. That's a conversation that only membership has. That's getting way beyond just partnership and way beyond just Cracker Barrel fellowship, all right? And as we move up on this arrow, we're dialing in more and more on agreement. And there's one more square to consider, and it's at the top of the arrow, and it's leadership, leadership. It's at this point now, beyond just membership, that I think we need to say, are you in? Not only do you agree as a member, and will you submit, but will you help defend and teach this, what we believe as a church family? A couple of notes here. Leadership rises from within or through the membership. Now, the reason I put it or through is because when you guys were looking for a new pastor and you were praying through that, the congregation was working through the arms and the eyes of the deacons who were also serving as a pulpit committee. So you were dependent on leadership there to help steer a church to the next shepherd. And that wasn't unique for bringing me in as my predecessors as well. And we even saw this happen again. It was the senior pastor and then the deacons bringing to you Ernie Bowman. Okay, this is leadership coming here through the membership or here's something else we want to see happen more and more here, leadership coming from within the membership. I mean, it would thrill our hearts as a church family for God to identify, to gift and identify people in our midst that would serve as in a pastoral role here. Fantastic. When we're talking leadership, the leadership provides protection, teaching, and care of the membership. The leadership embraces and protects the doctrinal distinctives of that fellowship. And we're talking here of pastors and elders, and I put the word elders here because pastors are elders, elders are pastors, they're synonymous in the New Testament. Sometimes God may gift someone that is able to be supported fully by the local church as a pastor, as Ernie and I are. I believe that God can also gift people to serve in a pastoral role who get paid by another company. But their giftedness is God's business, and they serve that role because they've been gifted that way. We'll talk more about that in the future. That's leadership. Now, can you see what we're doing here? As we work our way up here, and by the way, Philippians 1-1, 1 Timothy 3 both contain references to the pastoral office, the elder office, as well as the deacons. And the deacons are, in many ways, the arms of the elders and the givers of the mercy ministry to the membership. And again, we'll talk more about that. All right? Okay, so let's think about these four words here that I was handed at that conference years ago, and I just really think it... it's helpful. A few observations. As I've been saying, as we go north with the arrow through these four words, the arrow itself narrows our agreement we must have on non-gospel issues. Fellowship, we're going to be pretty broad there as long as we hold the gospel in common, plus nothing. Gospel plus nothing. Partnership, we're convinced that we have so much in common that we would be able to work together temporarily for a gospel effort. Membership is, please drive to our address and worship with us and join with us. Leadership is, will you lead us in the membership. So as you work your way up, the arrow itself narrows. The focus of this rubric is the Great Commission, direction number three. Whether it's for missions or for personal evangelistic efforts, the focus is the Great Commission and the message is the gospel in all four of these. That's the constant as we move north. Though we get more refined and we come to more agreement, the closer we get to the top on other issues, the gospel never changes, all right? And the commitment or what we can call the contract, is the issue. And that's what we need to talk about. But what about a few other things? I want you to think through this rubric, and we have a few questions we need to throw at this. What about specialty ministries beyond the scope, the personnel, the expertise, the resources, and the facilities of local church volunteers? What do you mean specialty ministries? I'll give you some samples in just a minute. Another question, or another issue, another question. What about non-gospel driven efforts that are still in line with God's common grace and mercy? Like sanctity of human life. Like ministering to the poor. What do we do about that? We want to have a gospel ministry like that, but what if we don't have the facilities and the resources to do that? Can we partner with someone in the community to do that kind of stuff? And if it's not always a gospel issue, does it even fit in this rubric we've laid out? What about potentially working shoulder-to-shoulder with non-believers in an issue like this? And we've got to answer these questions. Now, if you're asking me, if we leave that chart alone as it is right now, the chart doesn't answer. It doesn't answer our questions. Let's push this a little further. Let me give you a couple examples. What about Catholic hospitals, Catholic clinics, and Catholic blood drives? Those aren't gospel missions. But giving would definitely be something salt would do. to preserve life so that the lives that are preserved maybe could later hear the gospel. And the Catholics have the hospital here in town. They have the blood drive vehicle that they can bring to the parking lot. I'm just asking, what about that? Is it a compromise of the gospel for us to get involved with that? What about disaster relief? If there's a fire, where I've been living for the last three decades when there's a hurricane and flooding from a storm surge, sandbags need to be thrown, bottled water needs to be delivered, trees need to be cut down. Am I compromising the gospel by helping out and working shoulder to shoulder with someone who rejects Jesus or someone who's a Mormon? What about military chaplaincy? If you, at Virginia Beach Seminary, we're constantly training two or three guys at any given point who are in our student body, who are getting ready to go into military chaplaincy, and their hands are going to be tied with what they can say. And trust me, after the last administration, our hands are tied even more. And do I tell them not to go in? That's compromising the gospel? I tell them they can't go to the military and deploy with the military to war zones to be a source of light as a gospel person because they're compromising because they're next to a female chaplain that is with Wicca or something like that. You have to answer those questions. Number four, what about what we call here in Washtenaw County the Council of Clergy? It's a law enforcement fellowship of pastors and they set up a Council of Clergy and they come to the Council of Clergy for help, for advice and for prayer. I'm not part of that yet. I've looked into it because before I came here I was a police chaplain. And I'm interested, but I just don't want to carve out that kind of time yet. I want to continue to focus on the church here. But I'd like to eventually get back in law enforcement, volunteer as a pastor. And it's more so in Ypsilanti than in Virginia Beach. I'm going to be sitting at a table with a priest, with someone in a liberal, gospel-forsaking denomination, as well as some evangelical believers. Do I say, well, I'm not coming to the table then. You have to answer that question. Is that compromise? What about homeless shelters? A couple more. What about meal provisions like Meals on Wheels or like Michelle, what's the name of this place you just sent me the link of? Hope Clinic over by Hamilton. What about that? Is it compromise that you're scooping out soup or mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving with someone who rejects the gospel? What about clothes and furniture? What about friend and deed? What about Catholic or secular foster care? We really had to wrestle with this at my former ministry because I reached out to Bethany Services And I said, as a church, we wanted to start making ourselves available and open to adoption or providing foster care. We wanted to bring children into the homes where they could be near gospel light of our families. And I said to Bethany Service, have you sent someone over to meet with me and the deacons? And they did. She was Catholic. Oops. But did we throw it in reverse? Well, no. Bethany Services would claim to be a Christian organization in the broadest sense, but they're not a gospel organization. But you know what they did? They gave us access to bring children into our homes, to be around our gospel light. What about crisis pregnancy centers? You got Beth Cote, who works with a gospel-driven, crisis pregnancy-type ministry in Taylor. But also right across the street here you have Family Life Services and if you volunteer with them and they have a need right now, everything from phones to going through donations, to helping with intake of new customers or new clients, you're going to be working with people that might not be gospel people over there. Is that wrong? Is that a compromise? And what about women's shelters? It's very important. I'm not sure what's available here. I only know what we had in Norfolk and it was a helpful ministry. So, you know, I'm giving you all these examples, and I look at that chart, and I'm like, it's not addressing it. Because what I've been giving you, 1 through 10 in examples, are not necessarily gospel-driven ministries. Partnering with other people who are also gospel-driven. But they are important, A, in our community for relief, and B, they are important for us to be in the community giving salt and light as gospel people. So here's where I depart from just these four words, and I think we need to make a distinction here. There's a red line going down there, which means that I'm going to introduce a fifth box. And this box was not part of Tom Pennington's, I want to save him in case I've really ruined his form. This is our conversation, though. I'm going to call this box citizenship. The red line means there's a distinction between what's south of that line Those are community and civic opportunities, salt and light opportunities. And what's north of those lines, which is more contractual, it's building towards contract. All right? For citizenship, let's talk about that. We're almost finished here. The key concept is volunteer, not contract. But I do want to say this, that a four-direction disciple, one, a man or a woman at Calvary Baptist Church who's wanting to grow as a worshiper, as a servant, as a witness, as a witness, I believe that such a person will be able to enter into the crescendo of the top four boxes with an overt effort at the gospel proclamation, but will also not have a problem serving in the box at the bottom, which might not mean that they're volunteering at a gospel ministry, but they're going there, listen, volunteering as a gospel person. And not only are you helping with sanctity of human life across the street, but you as a gospel person are counting change with a Catholic lady who needs to hear the gospel. Or you're throwing sandbags with a Mormon to preserve property, preserve a community, and give this Mormon a friendship and a gospel witness. There's a difference. Volunteer versus contract, but both are consistent for that third direction. The focus is on widows, the poor, the orphans, the suffering, and sanctity of human life. And by the way, every one of those are biblical categories. And you can see the heart of our Lord in both Testaments for the widows and poor and orphans. Even our Lord's little brother James addresses widows and orphans in James chapter one. It's not just an Old Testament thing, okay? The message may not be the gospel, but it is an open door for the gospel as believers volunteer. This is what our Lord said in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5 verses 13-16. You're the salt, you're the light. Let your light shine before men in such a way, let them see your good works in such a way that they may glorify your Father who's in heaven. I mean, you've got to get out, as one author says, you need to get, as Saul, out of the shaker and into the world. Okay? Luke chapter 14, verses 12 through 14. I want you to read this. Look with me at Luke 14, 12 to 14, a little preview of our upcoming series. Verse 12, Luke 14. And he, Jesus, also went on to say to the one who had invited him, hey, when you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, otherwise they may also invite you in return and that will be your repayment. But when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous." I agree with MacArthur, and some of you are already looking down at his study notes there. Okay, he's not saying in verse 12, it's not an ultimate forbidding of having a luncheon with friends. and people that can pay you back. The point is, look past them and look for those who have need as well. Okay? I think this is in line with the priorities of our Lord that he gave in the Sermon on the Mount and again here in Luke 14 as examples. Let me say a few more things about citizenship. The priority, please get this, The priority is inside and then outside. We can get red in the face on this one and it would be correct. What do you mean inside and outside? I'm talking about the local church. I'm talking about here, Calvary Baptist Church. We do have a triage, Dr. Bob, and that is to meet such needs as this that we're talking about within our church family and within our regular worshipers And after those needs are met, then we step outside. We don't start outside and let things go neglected with people that we're in contract with as members. Paul says it twice in Galatians 6.10, he says, let us do good unto all men, especially those of the household of faith. And he says something very similar in First Thessalonians 3.12 as well. The caution is, Local reduplication. See, what do you mean by that? We don't want, if we're going to look to get involved with volunteers for a relief effort, we don't need to reinvent the wheel here if there's already something going on within our region very close to us. We would look at what's being done and instead of reinventing the wheel, we would volunteer to help them. Okay? And maybe, just maybe, as we have volunteers stepping out to some of these different relief efforts, we will find a niche that's not being addressed in our community, which would be something we could consider with our facilities if we have leadership for it. But we don't want to reinvent the wheel. And then the resources we're talking about with citizenship are twofold. They are our people and our facilities. Volunteering our people, sending them out, or volunteering our facilities, bring them in. Now, as Pastor Ernie and I have tried to emphasize, we don't want this to be seen as a place you have to come to church to get saved. This isn't a come and see, that's Old Testament. It's go and tell. We don't say come and see because God is only here and only in this room on this campus and only when the lights are on. It's go and tell. Jesus came, he's indwelling us, and we're giving you the good news. We don't want to confuse that at all, but God has given us assets. And if they can be used prayerfully to give some relief in this area that's not reduplicating something, we could pray about that. We could pray about that. That's all under citizenship. And that's what I think is a good rubric for us to consider as four direction disciples. I give this to you to have you think through. I don't know if I'm going to post this online or not, if it makes any sense without the PowerPoint. But I'll have the file if you'd like to look through this again. I can send you this PowerPoint presentation. All right? So the four directions at five levels, just some categories I want you to think through. Those four boxes plus one. Four boxes plus one. Difference between contracts and community. So, I don't know if that makes sense. Some of you are looking at me like, you've just compromised the gospel. And I'll say, I don't think I did, okay? But I'm praying through this too. And the deacons and I are talking in categories like this. We talk about this stuff in the new members class. And we want to move forward intentionally. And as you can tell, we're getting our traction to do this.