Thank you. So glad we could be here. It's good to see each of you this morning and to celebrate this wonderful occasion together. I ask you to take your Bibles this morning to the book of Ephesians chapter number 3. We'll be there and we'll begin there actually and then I've got it. We're just a lot of different things. I want to say this morning The time is short gonna try to take 30 years of memories for myself With this church and pack it into 30 minutes, and so we'll just see what we can do this morning But you're turning to Ephesians chapter number three And I think a very appropriate verse for the occasion this weekend as we think about the Lord's Church and what God has done here at Lehigh Valley Baptist Church over the last 40 years is Ephesians chapter 3 and verse number 21. The Bible says, unto him be glory in the church, by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. And so this morning, you'll have to excuse me. I've actually, and I don't normally do this. Most of you know I don't normally type out my messages. I like to just speak ad lib as the Lord leads. But there's so many things that I wanted to make sure that I said that I decided to just go ahead and type this out this morning. And so I'm going to read most of this to you and probably ad lib a little bit. I'm just very grateful for the opportunity to be here today. It's really a joy to be able to celebrate with you as we commemorate this 40th anniversary. You know, we are, as a people, we are accustomed to the practice of commemorating people and events. And we do so because there's a value that we ascribe to people or something related to those events that we want to commemorate. For example, in a few days we're going to celebrate the anniversary of the independence and the birth of our great nation on July 4th. And it's a significant day. It's significant to patriotic American citizens because we highly value the men and the women who sacrificed their lives because they valued the principles of freedom and were grateful for them. And we ought to be grateful, you know, for those people and for the freedoms that we enjoy at the expense of the sacrifice of those who have gone before us. We ought to hold tenaciously to the same principles that made America great so that the freedoms that were passed down to us may be passed down to those who will come after us. And so it's important for us to stop and commemorate things that are valuable. And so in a similar way today, we want to commemorate the anniversary of Lehigh Valley Baptist Church. And it's fitting to celebrate because of the great spiritual blessings that have been made available to each of us here today. But we need not forget the sacrifice of others who have laid out for us the spiritual treasures that we enjoy today. And may we not be remiss to continue to lay up spiritual treasures for the next generation. You know, I love this church. I love it because of how God has blessed my life through this church. I have so much to be grateful for. I want to share a little bit about that with you. But I love this church and I want to see the same kind of spiritual heritage that I have received to be able to be passed on to the next generation. I have children coming up after me like many of you here this morning do. And you're concerned that in another 20 years, in another 40 years, We want to have the same kind of a church here in the Lehigh Valley, still holding to the same doctrines, still preaching the same gospel, still shining the light of Jesus Christ, so that our children and our grandchildren and future generations may be blessed by these things. You know, I've personally been blessed. In so many ways through the ministry of this church, it's really hard to pick which ones would be the most important blessings. I was nine years old when I moved here with my family. I'll never forget when my dad accepted the call to come here. You know, as a nine-year-old boy, there's a lot of things you don't understand. I was old enough to know that we were going somewhere, and honestly, as a nine-year-old boy, it felt a little bit like moving to another country. I don't know, maybe we just hadn't gotten to geography yet, but I thought, Pennsylvania, where's that? I've never heard of it. We lived in Illinois at the time, for those of you that don't know. Pennsylvania was a long ways away. Our car broke down in St. Louis on the way here. My dad's 1980 Chevy Chevette. What a vehicle that was. You know, the transmission died. You know, have you ever been to St. Louis? You know, all those crazy ramps where I-55, 44, 70, 60. There's about a million highways that converge in the middle of St. Louis. Yeah, that's where we were. right around the curve as we were switching from one highway to another, and the transmission just died. And so there we sat as my dad tried to go walk. There was no cell phones. Kids today don't understand that. You had to walk and get help. My dad at the time didn't have a credit card, which if you can imagine that. So renting a car was a bit of a challenge. But anyway, that's a long story. The Lord worked it out, my dad was able to rent a car, we drove through the night, and we arrived here in Emmaus just in time for breakfast on New Year's Day, 1988. What a way to ring in the new year. We ate at The Trivet, right up here on the corner, and we never went back. It might have been The Scrapple, I'm not sure. That's a true story, we never went back. You know, but so many of the great things that have happened in my life have been because of this church. I was saved and baptized in this church at the age of 11. I was called to preach in this church when I was 13. I had a missions conference with Brother Milton Martin and George Anderson that year. I had the opportunity to be involved in nine foreign mission trips with this church as a young man. My wife was saved in this church, surrendered her life to serve the Lord in this church. Of course, we met in this church and were married in this church in 2001. I was trained for the ministry through this church at our Bible Institute. We were blessed to serve on staff for a few years before eventually being sent to the mission field of South Africa a little over 13 years ago. And this church has faithfully cared for us, prayed for us, and supported us for many years. I have personally been the recipient of the labors and investment of many people who have served Christ through this church. Very grateful for that. Very blessed and grateful to be part of this ministry. I think one of the things that laboring in Africa for these last several years has taught me is this, that it's very special to be part of a New Testament church like Lehigh Valley Baptist Church. I don't know if you understand, but what we have here today is a very special and a rare treasure. You can go to a lot of places. You don't have to go to Africa to see this. You can go a lot of places around our own great country. And you will search in vain to find a church of the caliber and the treasure that we enjoy and are blessed to have here at Lehigh Valley. May we never take for granted the great blessings that we enjoy here. But sadly, this morning, we live in a generation when the value of a New Testament church, as we see in the Word of God, is undermined and underappreciated. It's not uncommon for many professing believers, in fact, not just the world, we would expect the world to not understand the value of the Lord's Church. They don't get it, amen? They don't get it. They're lost, they're without Christ. Why would they understand what we're doing here this morning? But I mean professing believers in our generation today who do not understand the value of a New Testament church. Some are simply ignorant of the scriptural teaching concerning the doctrine and the importance of the Lord's Church. There are many false teachers that have promoted a lot of false doctrines and created a lot of wrong ideas about what a church is and what a church should be doing that contributes to people not appreciating and understanding the value of a church. Some have been hurt. confused or even damaged in some way by sinful circumstances and relationships within churches. We all know people like this. And sometimes if we're not careful, when we get hurt within the Lord's Church, it can cause us to come to hold on scriptural conclusions and ideas about what our responsibility towards the Lord's Church ought to be. I want to tell you this morning, it is imperative today that we refresh our spiritual minds with the truth of the Scriptures concerning the place that the Lord's Church ought to hold in our hearts and in our lives individually. I want to speak to you for a few moments this morning concerning the value of the Lord's Church. Notice here in Ephesians 3 and verse 21, my time is running, I've got about 25 minutes, so stay with me. I want to give you three thoughts this morning about the value of the Lord's Church. The value of the Lord's Church and what makes a church special. What makes Lehigh Valley Baptist Church an organism that is valuable to God and ought to be valuable to each one of us today that are members and have the privilege to serve God through this church. In Ephesians 3.21, the Bible says, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages. world without end. Amen. You know, if we don't understand what the Bible teaches concerning the New Testament Church, we will not value it as we ought to value it. Sometimes I fear we're just ignorant of what the Scriptures actually say about the Lord's Church. Or we've heard it, but we've forgotten about it. In the midst of the busyness of life, or hurt or damaged relationships within the Lord's Church, we get We get sideways and the devil uses those things to get us out of line of where we ought to be as far as our relationship with the Lord and His church. We may come to the place where we view church membership and involvement in our church as a drudgery. or some kind of necessary evil because church has been invented by religious men who want control over people's lives. But I want to tell you this morning, you cannot read the New Testament thoroughly and study it honestly and not see the fact that the New Testament church is a divinely appointed institution, started by Jesus Christ, loved by Jesus Christ, and it ought to hold a special place in every believer's life. We know that a church is an assembly of scripturally baptized believers who gather together to carry out the Great Commission. Jesus Christ instituted the New Testament church for the very purpose of taking the life-changing message of the gospel to every creature. I can't imagine talking about the church without thinking about the book of Ephesians, because Ephesians really details for us, the doctrine, and that's the first thing I want to just quickly highlight this morning. This is not obviously going to be exhaustive in five to seven minutes, the doctrine of the Lord's Church. If you want to learn more about the doctrine of the Lord's Church, may I say, come and take a class in the Bible Institute on Ecclesiology 1 and 2. It'll be a great blessing to you. Nine times in the book of Ephesians we find the word church. Nine times we find the word body as a metaphor for the Lord's Church. So 18 times in the book of Ephesians, the church of Jesus Christ is explicitly called out and spoken about. Many of the doctrinal principles that we hold to concerning the Lord's Church are clearly stated in Paul's letter to the Ephesian believers, the church at Ephesus. You know, at the time as Paul wrote this letter, The concept of a New Testament church was something that was relatively new to these believers. You understand? Jesus had just started the very first church in Jerusalem not that long before. He had laid the foundation with the apostles and the prophets, the Bible tells us, in the book of Corinthians. And that was only about 30 years prior to the writing of this letter to the Ephesian church. So, you know, 30 years old, we look back 40 years and you say, wow, that's a long time. A lot of us don't remember back to 1978 when the church was started here. Maybe you weren't here, maybe you remember back to 1978, but you don't remember the beginning of this church. And so you could say that's a long time, but I want to tell you that's a relatively short amount of time, isn't it? When you think that before that time, before the time of Christ, There was no church. So the concept as Jewish believers, as people that worshiped God, was to go to the temple. And they still had the Old Testament sacrifices and all of these things that they practiced in their worship of God. And so when Jesus came, and Jesus preached the gospel, and Jesus established a church, this was a new thing. This was a new concept. wrapped their minds around what is a church, and we're supposed to allow Gentiles into this church, and we're supposed to get along with each other, and we're supposed to have leaders in the church that are going to teach us the word of God, and serve along, so all of this was brand new. So as Paul writes the letter to the church at Ephesus, he is outlining, really, the doctrine of a church. We're not gonna have time to look at all this this morning, but notice with me, just quickly, I'm gonna, if you're taking notes, I'll just mention these things quickly. In chapter one, verse 22, we know that the head of the church is Jesus Christ. The Bible says, he hath put all things under his feet and gave him, Jesus, to be the head over all things, to the church. We know the church is the body of Christ in verse number 23, which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all. The church is not only the body of Christ, but the church is the fullness of Christ. We're going to come back and talk about those two in just a moment. We know the cornerstone of the church is Jesus Christ in chapter 2 and verse number 20. We know the foundation of the church is the apostles and the prophets in chapter 2 and verse number 20. Some people don't understand. They think we still have apostles and prophets today. No, those things were done away with after Jesus Christ tells us in the Word of God that when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part should be done away. They were temporary. They were part of the foundation of the church. Christ Himself being the cornerstone He chose twelve that should be with Him, and He appointed those apostles. And He did that so that they could become the foundation of the church. And so, it is through their ministry that we've received the Word of God and the principles and the doctrines that we hold to still today. We know in chapter 2 and verse 22, the church is a building. that is fitly framed together for a dwelling place for God. Not a literal building. This building is not the church. We understand that, but it's a picture, it's a metaphor that God wants to build our lives together as an assembly of believers to be a dwelling place. for the very presence of God. We know in chapter 3 and verse 10 that the church is the custodian of the manifold wisdom of God and the mystery of the gospel. We know in verse 21 that the church has been designed to bring glory to God the Father, enduring throughout all ages to the end of the world. We know in chapter 4 and verse 4 that there is one church. That means it's one of a kind. There's one type of a church. It's a New Testament church, and it's identified by the doctrine of Jesus Christ Himself. You want to know how to identify whether a church is a true church of Jesus Christ? Look at its doctrine. Amen. Chapter 4 and verse 11, we know the church has been gifted with apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers for her edification. The church is to grow up into the image of Jesus Christ. That's the goal. That's why we come here. That's why we fellowship together. That's why we serve together so that we can Grow up together into the image of Jesus Christ. You say I don't know if I need a church Let me tell you this morning. You're not going to grow up and spiritually mature the way that God wants you to outside of the Lord's Church Christ is the head and the Savior of the church in chapter 5 and verse 23 and Christ is the one who nourishes and cherishes the church Christ is the one who sanctifies and cleanses the church and will present it to himself as a glorious bride in chapter 5 and verses 27 to 32. What I'm saying to you this morning is this. You cannot read the New Testament without seeing the importance and the value that Jesus Christ places on the true New Testament church. Lehigh Valley Baptist Church, we have a great heritage this morning. And we do well to preserve that heritage by holding to the principles and the doctrines of what a church ought to be. Now I want you to, just for a few moments here before we show the video, I want you to come back to chapter 1. You're still there maybe? Verses 22 and 23. I want you to look at the dearness of the Lord's church. The dearness. The closeness. The special place. How God Himself speaks about the place of the Lord's church. Look in chapter one, verse 22, the Bible says, and he hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all. The church is described here as the body of Jesus Christ. It's a metaphor. We understand that. We're not literally, physically the body of Jesus Christ. It's a spiritual picture. And the scriptures bear this out. But I want you to think this morning. What metaphor could God have chosen that would more intimately described the relationship that Jesus Christ intends to have with His church. He calls us His body. I mean, we are to be the hands of Jesus Christ. We are to be the feet of Jesus Christ. In fact, in essence, we are to carry out the will and the work and the purpose of Jesus Christ Himself. in the world today. I don't think you can get more intimate than that. In order for us to fulfill this purpose, God has gifted and placed each member in this body of Christ. 1 Corinthians 12 bears this out. And it is necessary for every member of this church to do your part in serving Christ through his church. One member is not more valuable or special than another. Though we have different gifts, though we have different places of service, though there's different offices and callings, there is always this truth. It's not about you and it's not about me. It's always about Jesus Christ, because He's the one whom we serve. But then he adds to this metaphor, He says in verse 23, and this is what really captivated my attention, He says the church is His body, but then He says, and He continues the thought, do you see it? Which is His body? The fullness of Him that filleth all in all. He adds to the metaphor, and He describes the church as the fullness of God. I got to thinking about that as I was preparing for this lesson. How in the world can the church of Jesus Christ be described as the fullness of Him that filleth all and all? We know who that's talking about, amen? Him that filleth all and all is God. God Himself. And He says the church is the body of Christ and it is the fullness of God. That's literally what He says. thought about, what does this mean? This is used in an objective sense. In other words, the church is not the one who does the filling, amen, but rather the one that is being filled. We understand this morning, if you're a member of Lehigh Valley Baptist Church, I'm talking to you, I'm talking to us, amen. So we're not the one who fills this place with the fullness of God, but we're the ones who God wants to fill this place with His very fullness of His very presence. In other words, Christ has filled the church with all the fullness of God. He is the one who enables and empowers His body to accomplish the service that He has directed and instructed us to do. The Church of Jesus Christ, this morning Lehigh Valley Baptist Church, we ought to seek to be filled with all the fullness of God. What I'm telling you this morning is this ought to be a place where God dwells. God cannot dwell here collectively when we assemble together unless God is dwelling in your heart individually before we come together. Amen? So when you come to church, make sure that you come in the fullness of the presence of the filling of the Holy Spirit of God. In order to experience the fullness of God's presence in this church, we must individually and collectively be emptied of self so that we might be filled with Him. You cannot be filled with the fullness of God when you're full of yourself. You understand? To be emptied of yourself means to be emptied of seeking vain glory. Emptied of seeking success in the eyes of men. Emptied of seeking recognition. Emptied of seeking financial security so that we may instead be filled with all the fullness. of the presence of God. Turn over to chapter 3. Notice another verse. What a connection. I just made this. Maybe some of you saw this a long time ago. I just made it a couple days ago. In chapter 1 and verse 23, he talks about the church being the fullness of God. But then in chapter 3, he talks about this same fullness of God and how we can be filled with the fullness of God. Look in chapter 3, verse 19. Paul's praying for them. And he says, he's praying that these believers would know the love of Christ. which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God." You know, here we are instructed how we might experience God's fullness in our daily personal lives. The filling of the fullness of God in a believer's life is a result, according to this verse, of knowing the love of Christ. There's a direct connection. When we know the love of Christ, we may be filled. with all the fullness of God. So what is it that separates us from the fullness of God? Well, it would be because we've been separated somehow, some way, from our love for Christ. Now we know in Romans chapter eight, there's nothing that can separate us from the love of God. Amen? And that's talking about the eternal security of the believer. I'm not talking about losing your salvation. I'm not talking about being separated from the love of God in that sense of losing your soul and being lost. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the fellowship that we have with God or we ought to have with God. In our daily walk with the Lord as believers, collectively as a church, you know, we know the love of Christ because He's revealed it to us. We know the love of Christ because we see it in redemption. But honestly, the way we experience the love of Christ is when we fellowship with Him. But you know, often we're not captivated by the love of Christ. because we're distracted with other pursuits. We end up trading passionate fellowship with the Savior for some manner of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. If Lehigh Valley Baptist Church is going to be filled with all the fullness of God, we're going to have to be a church that walks in fellowship with that Savior. We love Him because He first loved us. I want you to go to one more verse. Turn to Revelation 2. I'm not going to be here long, but I want to tie this together. Revelation 2 and verse number 4. And I want to just mention to you the danger of the church, and then I'm done. The danger of the church. You know, the church at Ephesus was planted, we know, during the ministry of the Apostle Paul. We read about it in Acts 18 to 20, about his work in Ephesus and his involvement in the beginning days of that body of believers. Somewhere about 10 years after the church was started, Paul wrote the letter to the Ephesians, somewhere in that neighborhood. Now, the Apostle John, somewhere around the 40th anniversary of the church at Ephesus. I thought that was interesting. They received a letter penned by the hand of John but authored by the one who had called that church at Ephesus to be filled with all the fullness of God. He had described them as the body of Christ. He had called them to be the place where the manifest presence of the fullness of God would dwell. That was God's purpose for the church at Ephesus and for every other New Testament church. But here in Revelation 2, you know the verse. In verse 1, unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write, These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, I know thy works, thy labor, thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil. Thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not, and hast found them liars, and hast borne and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast labored and not fainted. Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee. because thou hast left thy first love. You know, there's an inherent danger within every New Testament church. We may have the right doctrine and we may do good works, but there's a danger that we could be led away from an ardent, pure love for Christ. When a church leaves her first love, she begins to pursue other passions. Christ is only the head on paper in the doctrinal statement, but in reality, the church begins to usurp the place of Christ as the head and pursue her own desires. What a great tragedy! Tragedy, travesty. What has brought the victories of the past 40 years of Lehigh Valley Baptist Church? What has allowed us to experience the fullness of the presence of God? And what is it that will propel us into the future to continue to experience the fullness of the presence of God and be used of Him? Well, it has been and it will be if we as an assembly consecrate afresh and anew. passionate heart of love for Him that first loved us. You know, brethren, this morning, if we love Him earnestly, we cannot change or water down the gospel that has reconciled us to God. Don't ever change the gospel that we preach in this church. It's the gospel of Christ. It's not ours to change. If we love Him, we dare not stray from the humility that caused us to bow in worship at the foot of the cross. If we love Him, we cannot deviate from the doctrines of Scripture that Christ Himself commanded us to teach all disciples to observe. If we love Him, We must not relent from the pursuit that He has commissioned us to accomplish. It is our mission to publish the gospel to every creature and to make disciples for His namesake. And when we do these things with a heart of love and worship for Christ, we can be assured that He will continue to fill us as His body. with all the fullness of God. And Lehigh Valley Baptist Church will remain as a vessel that is sanctified and meet for the Master's use. I encourage you today. Let us remember to value this church as Christ himself loved this church and gave himself for us.