Our Conduct at Church

Just one announcement. I wanted to just get in there. I should have mentioned it. The men's club is actually on the 27th, so it is there. But I didn't want to mention it. It's not in the bulletin, but I didn't want to mention that. Also, we have been starting this, piloting this Sabbath or sermon chat. So as I'm going through the sermon, as you have questions, just jot those down. We'll take 15 minutes after church to go through those. Also, questions on the sermonette, so we'll have both of us up here. Last week, I talked about the biblical basis for why we are the church that Jesus built. We know the church is not this building. We know it's not a location. We know that it is a body of believers, a body of believers who worship God in spirit and in truth, keeping the commandments of God as a response to the grace that we receive through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. It is our response to that. There's nothing that we can do to gain or earn our salvation, but we love God by keeping His commandments. We recognize that grace and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ also by acknowledging that He is the cornerstone on which the church is founded. We then follow those things as He told the disciples, and teach those things that I have taught you. We teach those things that He taught the disciples, and we follow in His footsteps. That's what we discussed last week. It's an incredible connection that goes back 2,000 years. What does it mean, as we describe it, to come to church? That's the parlance. We know that you don't come to church because we are the church. What does it mean to attend a Sabbath service? What does it mean to assemble together? Even in mainstream Protestant circles, this is becoming a question. Alistair Begg, a famous teacher within mainstream Protestant circles, asked the question, what does it mean to have church in the age of cell phones? Why come to church? We have a webcast. You can just pull up your phone. You might be in the Safeway parking lot. You're like, I'm going to listen to church here. You might be on a nature walk. It's amazing, right? It's amazing technology that we have. What does it mean to assemble with this kind of technology that we have today? If you do come to church, what should you expect to happen? Again, I'm using coming to church in that shorthand way. And given that this is the United Church of God, and we have the Living Church of God, and we have this Church of God and that Church of God, what does it mean to go to another Church of God on the Sabbath? Maybe you could go here on this Sabbath, the next Sabbath you could go to another Church of God, and the third Sabbath you could go to a third, and the fourth. I think there are 300 now for a lost track. You could go for several years, and we wouldn't see you for two and a half years, but you say, I'm going to church. So how do we think about that? And when you come to this assembly, what should you expect in terms of what you're going to receive in terms of spiritual teaching or fellowship? And what should you expect to give while you're here? How should you behave? How should you dress? What's this all about? Bill Gates, who, depending on the value of Microsoft stock, is either the wealthiest or second or third wealthiest person in the world, he's also probably one of the greatest philanthropists of this modern age. He and his wife and the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. He once said that he would come to church if it just wasn't such a big-time commitment.

I mean, yeah, he's a busy guy, right? To spend this much time sitting here, you know, that's a pretty big deal. And, you know, he's actually argued for the existence of God, created a lot of stir and so forth for that. So what is it? You come here, you're going to spend an hour and a half, hour and 45 minutes, fellowship before and after, you might drive 30 minutes. What is this all about? So this is what I'd like to talk about today. I'd like to address some of these questions, look at what the Bible says about assembling together, why we're here, how we should think about these things. And, you know, last week it was a little bit more of a, you know, apologetics, right? A little bit more theological discussion of, you know, this version. This sermon is a little bit more down to earth, as it were, a little bit more practical. And hopefully we'll generate some discussion both in the sermon chat and afterwards. Let's start with Leviticus 23 verse 23. I think we go to Leviticus a lot. We tend to go there when we talk about the Holy Days, but I've mentioned this before. Leviticus 23, 23 to start with, why do we assemble on the Sabbath? Why are we here? What is the biblical basis for us assembling here together? Leviticus 23, 23 says, six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath, a solemn rest, a holy convocation. Now, it's interesting because we tend to go to Exodus 20 when we talk about the Sabbath and we say, remember, you know, we read the fourth commandment, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Well, that's true. We are to remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. But Leviticus 23 brings out another aspect to the Sabbath, and for that matter, to all of God's Holy Days by saying that it is, by definition, a time to convocate because it says it is a Sabbath of solemn rest. And you can put an is right in there again. It is a holy convocation. The centerpiece of the Sabbath is a holy convocation. It says, you shall do no work on it. It is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings. And you know, what's interesting is, and we've seen this before, it's not the Sabbath of Israel. It is, it doesn't say, you know, it is the Israeli Sabbath, the Jewish, no, it is the Sabbath of the Lord. And then in Mark 2, we know that Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath, and the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. But the Sabbath, what we see here, is by definition a holy convocation. It is, right? The word is, is sort of, you know, in this sentence. So it is the centerpiece. We come here because it is the centerpiece of the Sabbath, just as it is the centerpiece of the rest of these holidays that you'll see. It says there is a holy convocation or a holy convocation.

So we come here because God says we should come here. It is where we should be.

A convocation means it is a commanded assembly. That's what that means. It is commanded that we are here. If we are not coming to Sabbath services on the Sabbath, we better have a pretty good reason. If we're, you know, I announced Teresa being a shedded. That is a good reason. There's a health reason she's not able to come. That's why we offer the webcast. Because we don't want those people who have health issues to miss out on the teaching. There might be a reason, other reasons, but it's got to be a pretty good reason that you don't come. It can't just be because you're not feeling like it, or I'm not up to it, or I've had a difficult week. You'd say to the God of the universe, God, I've had a difficult week. I just can't come see you today. I'm sorry. I'm busy. I have to wash my hair. You just can't make excuses. God wants us to be here. We're going to get into this in a moment because He wants us to be in His presence. Go over to Nehemiah 8 verse 13. We can see this put into practice in Nehemiah because if we remember the story that the law was given.

Of course, this law had been passed down verbally for thousands of years. It was codified. It was given there. Then Israel went into the Promised Land and there were a whole series of kings who did not keep God's law. There was a restoration of true worship at the time of Ezra. In the book of Nehemiah in chapter 8 verse 13, we see that the people were rediscovering these things. They were rediscovering these things that we just read in Leviticus 23.

It says here, now on the second day, the heads of the fathers houses of all the people with the priests and Levites were gathered to Ezra the scribe in order to understand the words of the law. They were reading the book of Leviticus. They were reading the same things we were just reading a moment ago. They found written in the law which the Lord had commanded by Moses that the children of Israel should dwell in booths.

Could you imagine this? Imagine the connection. They were reading Leviticus 23 just like we were. They found in there that they were supposed to dwell in booths during the Feast of the Seventh Month and that they should announce and proclaim in all their cities and in Jerusalem saying, go out to the mountains and bring olive branches and branches of olive trees and myrtle branches and palm branches and branches of leafy trees to make booths as is written.

Of course, today we don't do that. Today we stay in temporary dwellings addressing the spiritual intent of this. It talks about what they did. Then if you skip down to verse 18, it says, also, day by day from the first day until the last day, talking about the Feast of Tabernacles, he read from the book of the law of God and they kept the Feast seven days and on the eighth day there was a sacred assembly according to the prescribed manner. So when Ezra re-established true worship, they went back to these things that were given. And they said, we have to assemble before God because it says it's a holy convocation.

I didn't read that because our focus is not on the Feast right now, it's on Sabbath services, but they said we have to assemble before God because it's a holy convocation and we're going to read from the book of the law because that's what we should be doing here. We should be instructed. We should be drawing closer to God through understanding his word. And they had a sacred assembly on the eighth day.

That was the restoration of true worship. That's what we follow. That's why we say we should be here on the Sabbath day. Go over to Hebrews 10 verse 25 and we'll see that it's been an issue for a while that some people don't come to church and they don't come to church for all sorts of reasons.

Like I said, some good, some bad. But the author here of Hebrews in Hebrews 10 verse 25 says, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some. So this was an issue that he was describing. And in the verse right before, he says, let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works.

See, we come to services to stir up love and good works, to encourage and to be encouraged. I say this all the time. If you feel like you're not up to coming to church, that's when you have to come to church. Because that's when you need to receive that love and that encouragement. And if you're not, well, we're going to get into that a little bit because there may be reasons why that's not happening.

Some people have to drive a very long ways to church. And you know, that's difficult. Some people here will spend an hour or more, an hour and a half, two hours sometimes coming to church. You know, that's because they're looking at these passages and saying, I need to come to church and I wish we could bring church closer. And as we look around here, we're going to see what we can do about that.

But we should not forsake assembling of ourselves together. So that's why we come to church. That's why we're here. We come to be instructed. We come to be taught. Now, when we come to church, you know, how should we be? You know, should we grab our flip-flops and put on a, you know, leave our bajamas on?

Come to church. This is, I told you, it's going to be down to earth, right? It's controversial. Okay, now we're going to get, that was easy. Now we're going to get into controversy. Let's go over to 1 Corinthians 11 verse 8. There's an interesting verse here that I think just should just kind of blow our minds, actually. I just think this is such an interesting verse.

1 Corinthians 11 verse 8. This is one of the most controversial sections of Scripture, right? Role of men and women. What should men do? What should women do? Hair lengths, so forth, right? 1 Corinthians 11, actually, we'll go down to, let's see here. Let's see here.

It's over.

Yeah, my eye is not falling on it here. I just had it.

Well, what he's describing here is hair lengths, and he's talking about how women should have their heads covered. And that covering sometimes is considered to be a shawl. Sometimes people will wear a shawl. We understand this verse to mean that a woman should be adorned with an appropriate length of hair, and that that is her covering. And it says in verse 10, for this reason, the woman ought to have a symbol of authority in her head because of the angels. 1 Corinthians 11 verse 10. Now, have you thought about that for a second? It says, because of the angels. What does that mean? Because of the angels. Well, if you look in a lot of commentaries, and you look at a lot of study on this, the implication is that there are angels here.

There are angels here at services, church services. And that if we're going to come before God in this holy convocation, we're going to be coming into the presence of God, and His angels will be about us as well. And because of that, it says, a woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head. She ought to have her hair at an appropriate length because of angels. This is so interesting. So interesting. Imagine that there are angels with us here right now, and we have come before God's presence. And we are supposed to be appropriately dressed and adorned because of that. If you go over to Exodus 28 verse 31, Exodus 28, we've looked at some of these before. You know, the priest could not come before God unless they were appropriately dressed. Let's look at that in Exodus 28. And of course, we are a holy priesthood, we know. And we'll talk about the balance of that.

We'll just look at the verses right here. Exodus 20 verse 31, you shall make the robe of the ephod all of blue. And he's talking about the specific garments here. There shall be an opening for his head in the middle, and you shall have woven binding all around its opening, like the opening of a coat of mail, so that it does not tear.

And upon its hymn you shall make pomegranates of blue and purple and scarlet yarn. All around its hymn, the bells of gold. This was a pretty fancy outfit. Okay, let's, I mean, we could read a lot, you know, in the margin. Fancy outfit. That's what we're talking about here. And so they had very specific things that they had to wear. Verse 40, for Aaron's sons you shall make tunics, and you shall make sashes for them, and you shall make hats for them, for glory and beauty. That was to glorify God, and it was also to be beautiful.

God wanted to see beautiful things when the priests came before him. So you shall put them on Aaron your brother, and on his sons with him, and you shall anoint them, consecrate them, and sanctify them, that they may minister to me as priests. And you shall make for them linen trousers to cover their nakedness, and they shall reach from the waist to the thigh. Now, isn't that interesting? That's kind of a short skirt. Thought about it? They're wearing shorts! Now, it was hot, right? So we don't have to get all, you know, wound up on what this looks like.

The point is that they had to be properly clothed, right? It was intentional. It wasn't like, oh, I'm running out the door to church. No. What am I going to wear? What am I going to wear was something that the priests had to ask and answer, and they had specific things they had to wear. Why would it be different for us? Why would we not say to ourselves, what am I going to wear for church today? I want to be appropriately dressed for beauty and glory. That's what the priest did.

You know, I share a story here I got this secondhand. Years ago, I used to work in the office of the Chief Financial Officer of Intel Corporation, and he had been an executive staff with the Chief Executive Officer, Craig Barrett, and Mr. Barrett had been invited to the White House for the technology conference that George W. Bush had convened after he took office. And so, Craig Barrett shared this story in executive staff with the Chief Financial Officer, and he shared it with a small group of us.

And so, as the story goes, Mr. Bush is there in the White House, and he's receiving the heads of all these technology companies in the United States. And it's a receiving line, and Mr. and Mrs. Bush are there and, you know, his staff, and then, you know, these men and women, mostly men, unfortunately, are going through in front of him. And, you know, Mr. Gerstner, you know, CEO of IBM, comes up, you know, Mr. Bush shakes his hand. Good evening, Mr.

Gerstner. Welcome to the White House. Good to have you here. Next person comes up, you know. Mr. Barrett, good evening. Welcome to the White House. Glad we're here, right? Very formal. Scott McNeely, CEO of Sun Microsystems, decides to come in sort of these deck shoes, you know, these kind of casual loafers, you know, pair of jeans. He had a coat but no tie. And, you know, this is a very formal occasion. And Craig Barrett was right next to him and saw it. Mr. Bush looked at Mr. McNeely, CEO of Sun Microsystems, head to toe, and said, one of us got the dress code wrong.

Ouch! Can you imagine? President of the United States, you are not appropriately attired for this event. I mean, you know, this is the head of state. This is the White House. You come appropriately dressed for the occasion. It's not the time to be in your pajamas. It's not the time to be wearing jeans. It's not the time to go without, you know.

Now, you know, we dress like this because, you know, we're kind of, this is a relic of the French, you know, aristocracy, right? This is, you know, your cravat is a picture, you know? I mean, this is something that's just leftover from Europe.

It doesn't mean we have to do that. You know, I think sometimes we have a western tie here, right? That's appropriate, right? In Hawaii, in the Philippines, people don't wear ties. It's very, very warm. When I go to Africa, I always wear a tie, as do many of the other ministers, but many people in Africa will wear, as you saw in the picture, they'll wear kind of a long robe because it's hotter.

We don't have to get hung up on that. That's not what's important. What's important is you wear something that is honoring God, that you wear something that is beauty, that is glorious, and that is reverent of where you're going. And in this case, we had the instructions. In our society, what I'm wearing, what Mr. Smith is wearing, so well-dressed, is appropriate for the occasion. And, you know, after that, I'm not going to talk about slacks or skirts, please.

I don't want to go there, right? I mean, the point is we should be intentional when we come before God, and that's what is mentioned, what is mentioned here. Now, let's talk about another really controversial topic. Let's talk about who speaks in church. Let's go over to 1 Timothy 2, verse 11.

1 Timothy 2. So you come to church on the Sabbath, holy convocation, you've driven a ways, you've prepared yourself physically. We're going to talk about preparing spiritually here in a little bit, but you've prepared yourself physically. You come to church, and now you're going to be part of this service. We're going to talk about that here. But 1 Timothy 2, verse 11, I just want to get this one out of the way here. Let a woman learn in silence with all submission.

For 1 Timothy 2, verse 12, And I do not permit a woman to teach, or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence. And so what you'll notice is that we don't have women up here speaking to you in church, because we follow this instruction. And I go here first because I'm going to go to 1 Corinthians 14 in a moment. We're going to talk about the format of church, what went on there, and that's kind of right in the middle of 1 Corinthians 14. I don't want to be distracted by this. 1 Timothy 2 here says that women are to not teach or have authority. So we don't have women stand up here and teach. Does that mean that women are not capable of being teachers, or that they're not capable leaders? They're not capable to do these types of things? And the answer is clearly no. Women are very, very capable in many areas. The best manager that I ever had in business was a woman many years ago. I learned so much from her. An incredible leader, insightful, articulate, wise. Just the most amazing person to work for. I think you would all appreciate working for someone like her. We have women who are generals in the army. What does that mean? Well, you know, women are very capable of leading men and women. What's being discussed here is within the ecclesiastical realm. It says in verse 13, the why. Why is this? Paul makes it clear, for Adam was formed first and then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived fell into transgression. So what he's explaining here is that Eve, or women, should not be put on the front lines of the spiritual battle. That's what he's saying. Eve was on the front lines of the spiritual battle. She had been left, or she was there alone with Satan. Where was Adam? I've asked this question many times. Where was Adam to protect her from this wily serpent? We don't know.

But she was there alone, and she was deceived. She was seduced, and she took of this fruit. And then Adam had to make a choice, a terrible choice that he had to make. And so Paul says that women should not teach or have authority within an ecclesiastical forum because Adam was formed first. Adam is the one that should be on the spiritual front lines, making the choice. It's not Eve. That's what the Bible says. Do you believe me? You know, there's people watching his webcast who may attend church from time to time, may not even be associated with our fellowship, may be interested in what I'm saying. And they might be saying, hold on, I don't believe that. I'm just saying that's what he says. A woman is not permitted to teach or have authority because Adam was formed first and then Eve. That's what the Bible says. Now let's go over to 1 Corinthians 14 because that's really where we're going to talk about what we should expect when we come to church. And that also talks about who speaks and why. 1 Corinthians 14. Let's broaden the context just a little bit here and talk about services.

In my Bible it says, Order in Church Meetings. That's the title of this section, and I think there's a lot we can learn from this discussion here. How is it then, brethren, 1 Corinthians 14, 26? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification. So basically what he's saying is, guys, I hear it's very confusing. I hear that everybody's coming in with all sorts of different things, and people are talking over one another, and people are doing things. Let's just kind of set the record straight here, what we should do. Verse 27, if anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be two, or at most three, each in turn and let one interpret. So what he's saying is, look, don't just go on and on. Okay, we got 10 people here. They're all going to come up.

Two, three max. And we kind of follow that principle here. You know, we try and keep two or three main messages. Let's just get those main messages across, walk away, and you can say, well, you know, somebody wasn't there. What did Mr. Pebber talk about in church? Oh, he talked about conduct in church. Oh, what was the sermon? Oh, it was about the calendars. Very interesting, right? It's hard enough to remember those two things, right? Oh yeah, well, let's see. Number one, the 17th thing we learned, you know, you just can't remember it, right? So he says, you know, two or three things. Now we get into this question of speaking in tongues. So what was this all about, right? So what he says, if you're going to speak in a tongue, there has to be somebody to interpret. And just to get us grounded, keep your, you know, if you want to put your hand there just to keep it. Go over to Acts 2, just since we're here, we'll make clear. Because we do have people from Pentecostal traditions and so forth. What is this tongues thing? Acts 2 talks about here about people speaking in tongues.

It says in Acts 2 verse 4, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. So these people were speaking in tongues.

And then it says in verse 6, and when this sound occurred and the multitude came together and were confused because everyone heard them speak in his own language. And so these tongues were different languages. We see we don't really have that issue in this country. We, you know, we have people who might speak another language, but we don't have multiple official languages of the United States. Some countries do. Canada does. Canada has two official languages, French and English. So if you were to go to the Montreal congregation of the United Church of God, you would probably listen to a message in translation.

Right? Now, if you didn't have a translator, you would sit there going, I'm not getting anything out of this message, right?

You're like, what are you saying? Right? Now, I know what I'm saying. And if there's somebody here who speaks French, they know what I'm saying, hopefully. God knows what I'm saying. So what was happening is people were coming to, you know, to this assembly, and they were wanting to express themselves in their native language. That's very normal, right? There were languages all over. They wanted to express themselves in their language. They knew what they were saying. They knew God knew what they were saying. But the issue is that without an interpreter, nobody else knew what they were saying. And Paul said, no go. That's not going to happen in church. We're not going to have people speaking in their own language if there's nobody else to interpret, because it's not going to be edifying. Go back to 1 Corinthians 14. Basically, Paul is saying, we've got to have some order in church. Church is not here as an opportunity for some personal self-expression. It's here for people to understand what they're supposed to be taught from God's word. So he says, verse 28, But if there is no interpreter, let him keep silent in church and let him speak to himself and to God.

When I'm in France, I leave my English Bible at home. I bring my French Bible. I really work to pray in French because I'm speaking in French. And if I'm speaking in French and I'm going to be, you know, preaching in French, I need to use the terms. I need to be more familiar. And so I pray. I'm praying to God. He understands me. Right? So this is what he's saying. So we're not going to we're not going to have that. So then he says here, verse 29, Let two or three prophets speak and let the others judge. And he says, if anyone is, if anything is revealed to another who sits by, let the first keep silent. That is, these people are not going to speak on top of one another. So what he's getting to is there has to be some order in church when we come to church. So, you know, we don't want to let the order kind of get in the way. When I'm in smaller groups, I don't need a podium. I don't need a big stage. I don't need to stay, you know, we can just all sit around a table, right? And I can give a message. And, and if somebody says, what scripture was that? I'm not going to say, excuse me. You know, I'm speaking now here, right? I'm gonna say, yeah, no, that's that's dude around me. You know, we can, we don't have to be constrained by our format. Well, in this, it could be a little problematic if somebody's shouting into the back, Hey, what scripture was that? You know, that's like kind of like, who is that person? You know, so we have to have some order. And that's what he's that's what he's sharing. People should not speak over one another. For you can all prophesy one by one that all may learn and all may be encouraged. This is what now he's getting to. We should be learning and we should be encouraged. And so if people are going to prophesy, prophesy just means inspired speaking. That's all it means. Right? Somebody's going to share something.

And in verse 32, and the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. So basically, what he's saying is, you know, if somebody gets up and says, you know, I want to share something I've been thinking about, I was reading the Bible and it really occurred to me, you know, and then he shares. And it's completely wrong. He says, you know what, if if you think that's prophecy, you know, you can look in what the prophets say and people will be able to discern, you know, that actually is contrary to what is in the law and the prophets. And, you know, then that person may not continue to share those things. Right? That's cause causing division. And that's what we do. We don't have somebody, you know, get up and start saying things. If I start saying things that are contrary to, you know, to God's Word, well, then, you know, somebody needs to tell me and I need to stop doing that. And vice versa with anyone, anyone here.

For God is not the author of confusion but of peace. See, when we come to church, we should be at peace. There should not be confusion. We should know what to expect. We should know kind of the format and the flow. Yeah, we can have some variations. We don't need to be overly constrained. But we should be at peace. And it says, as in all the churches of the saints, God wants this to be orderly, at peace. It should be an environment conducive to learning. That's what Paul is sharing here. And then he says, let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak, but they are to be submissive, as the law also says. And they want, if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home, for it is shameful for women to speak in church. Lots of debate about what this is. Was this a question and answer session afterwards? Was this prophesying? Was this speaking in tongues? Was this singing? What was this? Well, we have women who participate in the choir. They're speaking in that sense. Well, what we interpret this is by 1st Timothy. That's why I went to 1st Timothy first. We interpret this as a woman is not in a role to be an ecclesiastical role of teaching. That's what we teach in the United Church of God. And so therefore, a woman is not to stand up and start prophesying in that way. Now, when Jesus Christ came in a fleshly form, one of the first people to describe it was a prophetess named Anna. And in fact, just go a couple pages over 1st Corinthians 11 and in verse 4, every man praying or prophesying having his head covered dishonors his head. 1st Corinthians 11 verse 4. So a man praying and prophesying has to have his head covered. He should not have his head covered. But in verse 5 it says, every woman who prays and prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head. So we know women can prophesy. It says it right here. Are they prophesying in church? Was Anna prophesying in church? Did Jesus Christ assemble the 12 disciples and half were women and half were men? You know, he could get in a lot of trouble these days, right? They were all men. They were all men. If you look in 1st Timothy 3, right after the commandment about women not teaching, it says, you know, if a man desires the office of a bishop, and then it says that a man should be the husband of one wife. Paul was very clear. Men fulfill these ecclesiastical roles.

That's what they do. That doesn't mean that they can't pray. It doesn't mean they can't prophesy. It doesn't mean that they can't be leaders. It just means that in terms of standing up here on the front lines of the spiritual battle, that was not their role. Go over to back to 1st Corinthians 14. And then 1st Corinthians 14, 36, to finish what he's saying, or did not the word of God come originally from you, or was it you only that it reached? And now Paul's going to, you know, he's going to he's going to poke the bear a little bit here, right? Okay, are you going to listen to me? That's what Paul's saying, because now Paul, he's really ruffling feathers. He's really saying, you know, the way you're running church services, it's a mess. So this is what you got to do, right? Two or three people who want to speak in a different language, make sure somebody's there to interpret. A couple people who want to prophesy, make sure they only speak one at a time. They don't speak on top of one another. And by the way, the women are not going to be doing that. So he's really laying it out. And then he says, if anyone thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things which I write to you are the commandments of the Lord. So if somebody says, you know, Paul, he doesn't know what he's talking about. You know, this thing he wants to do, how we're supposed to run church. Now, I have been inspired to tell you, this is how we're supposed to run church. And Paul's like, nope, I tell you what is the commandment of the Lord. But if anyone is ignorant, let him be ignorant. Therefore, brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy and do not forbid to speak with tongues. It's okay. Prophesy, speak with tongues. Just have an interpreter. Just make sure you don't speak on top of one another.

And make sure you're encouraging and make sure you're at peace and make sure things are done decently in order. That's what you should expect from services. And I'm going to share a few other things, but I'm going to tell you, if you don't feel that from services, if you don't feel we're following, please come and talk to me. You know, we don't do things perfectly here, right? We're all human and we can all grow and we can all benefit. And we're going to be changing halls soon and we're going to have to be managing a lot of different things. So this is what you should expect when you come to church. Now, what about attending in different congregations? Is that a problem, to attend in different congregations? You know, so today you're here with us and tomorrow you're going to be meeting in another location. Let's go over to Galatians 6 verse 10.

Let's see how Paul describes this assembly that we're in right now. He uses a very specific term and it's a consistent term through the New Testament. Galatians 6 verse 10 says, Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith. The household of faith. Last Sabbath, I made reference to a household. What is a household? It's a family, right? You might file head of household on your tax return. What that means is you are the head of that family. That household might be a sister. It might be a parent that's aging. It might be a child, right? But it's your family. That's what that household is. We are a family and, in fact, that's what we're called to be. We're called to be in the family of God. The phraseology is the church is the embryo of the kingdom of God. We are that little tiny embryo, the beginning. We are a family. This is our family. Now, if you say, well, I'm going to I'm not going to see you next week. I'm going to be somewhere else. Family is okay with that, right? We're not going to smother you. You've got to be here. I want to know you. I'm not going to smother you. You say, well, I'm not going to be here for the next five weeks. You may say, oh, I'm going to miss you. What's going on? Oh, I thought I'd be with another family. Oh, okay. What are the families that... Well, they're a nice family. Okay, I don't think I'm going to be here for... I'm going to probably see you every other, you know, every other year. Well, now, okay, maybe they're part of your family, but you're not connected to them in the same way that you would be if you saw them every week. We are a family. We are a household. Go over to Mark 10, verse 29. We'll see Jesus Himself uses this same language to describe His followers. Mark 10, verse 29. Jesus describing the difficulties that we'll have breaking into the middle of the thought. He says, assuredly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake in the gospel who shall not receive a hundred fold now in this time. Houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions.

You know, I have someone in the church. His parents are passed away, has no brothers and sisters, has no really blood relatives. And he's told me, the church is my family. And he means it. I mean, he really means it. The church, his brothers and sisters, because he doesn't have any physical family. And so for someone like that, it's real. I mean, it's real down to the core of who that person is. Now, for some of us, we're like, yeah, we know we have our family over here. And this is our church family. We like our church family, but you know, our family's every... Well, God really wants us to think about our brothers and sisters here as family, because that's what the terminology He uses. So when we talk about a household, I think what we have to ask ourselves is, where's your home? Where's your household?

Because you're supposed to have a family. Is this your family? Or is there going to be another Church of God congregation that's going to be your family? In my view, just pick one. Just pick one. It doesn't have to be us. Okay? I mean, I'd like you to fellowship with us. I hope that you would feel inclined to be here, but pick one. Pick a home and stick with it. Now, that doesn't mean you can't go elsewhere. We have the reality that we have people who are here, who have family members and other Church of God congregations. I'm not going to tell them not to go over there.

They're going to be with their family over there, too. In that sense, they have two families. And sometimes that happens. And that's not easy. It's not easy for them. I've talked with some of my friends at work. And you know what they tell me? They tell me, Christmas is so hard. Because my ex, my kids want to go with my ex. So I have to go like Christmas Eve, I've got to go with the ex. And then Christmas Day, I've got to go with my ex. And they're just torn. They're just torn by that. That's not easy. But it's a reality. They have to deal with it. And so it's not for us to judge that. They have to go where they need to go. But if we're not in those situations, we need to pick a home.

Now, we have some friends in Southern California who attend with Church of God, led by David Hume. And I think this was probably eight years ago now. I'm trying to remember the time. We went, we got permission and we went with them to services there in Los Angeles on the Sabbath. And then on Sunday, we went to Pentecost services with United. Right? That's okay. You know, you do that once in, you know, a long while. That's okay. My home is here. Nobody has any doubt where my home is. My home is here in Oakland. Now, I've got other congregations that I service, but this is that base congregation. I go to Petaluma, and I'm very happy to be in Petaluma. And that's, that's where I spend my time. Pick a home and stick with it. Because if you don't pick a home, then you don't know how your family members are doing. You know how that is, you know, you call some, some relative. How are you doing? Oh, you know, I've been sick of this. Oh, I didn't know. You have been so, so tired. I haven't had a chance to go. You don't know. You can't send that person a card. You can't pray for that person because you don't know because you're disconnected. You can't serve. You can't be connected to the family here if there's not a home.

So take, take that place. Take that home where you're supposed to be. Now, what should we sort of give and receive when we're in services, right? We come to services, like I said, sometimes we're just, I'm so wiped out. I don't think I can, okay, I got to get myself together here. I'm going to come to services. Well, when you come to services, you don't want to be accosted. You don't want to be drained, right? You don't want to just walk away like, ah, this is exhausting, right? When you come to services, we need to be encouraged. We need to know that God's Spirit is going to be strong with this congregation. We'll go over to 2 Timothy 3 verse 16.

You know, the books of 1 and 2 Timothy are great books to read about church organization. If you want to look at that. In fact, many scholars will argue that Paul didn't actually write the books of 1 and 2 Timothy because they describe a church that is so well organized that it couldn't possibly be a church of the 50s or 60s of the first century. It has to be a church of 130 AD or 120 AD. So they'll argue that it's what they call apocryphal or pseudobiography. But if you look at 1 Timothy, and by the way, I think that doesn't make sense. I think Timothy really had his act together. And I think Paul was very happy with Timothy's organization of the church, and he was giving him advice on how to manage that. 2 Timothy 3 verse 16 says, All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. Now, we read that scripture a lot, and we read it in the context of what the Word of God is. But the Word of God is to be read during the Holy Convocation. We read that in Nehemiah, right? We saw that example in the restoration of true godly worship that Ezra established at that time, and they read from the law every day. So when we come to church, we read from God's Word. And God's Word is here to give us doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness. When we come to church, this is what we should expect to receive.

We should expect to receive these things. And the speakers who are on the speaking schedule are working hard to prepare those messages. And you saw us on the 21st. We're going to have some facilitation training, right? There's training. There's instruction to prepare for that. And we want all of our speakers to be prepared and ready to provide that. We read the Word of God for that reason. But it doesn't just have to be us up here speaking. It can also be for you discussing, right? When we come to church, it's not necessarily time to talk about the same things you're going to talk about with your co-workers. Did you see that way? Just move it. That was really cool. Yeah, I really like that. I'm thinking about buying a car. What do you think? I got to work on it. I mean, that's fine. That's okay. But our conversations should be about grace. They should be about God's Word. They should be about what's our hope about the resurrection. That's what we should be thinking about. It should be about the Scriptures. That's what we're here to do. We're here to read, and to learn, and to understand. Let's go over to Galatians 4.

We read Galatians 6 a moment ago. Galatians 4 and verse 6. I said Galatians. I meant Colossians. I'm so sorry. You've written that down. Colossians 4 and verse 6. This isn't a context of people who are not of the body, not of the faith, but I think it's certainly instructive that we would follow this.

Colossians 4 and verse 6 says, Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each other.

When we come to church, that's how our speech should be. It should be with grace.

Sometimes we hear language around us at work or school. We can bring that in. Oh, that really sucks. That's not very nice. There are probably better ways of expressing that.

Or there can even be foul language that might slip out. We might say that. Or we might use a euphemism.

We hear this all the time. We hear this, Oh my God. In French, they say that all the time. It is just like every other word is that. That's taking God's name in vain. You know, this is a good opportunity for us to say, Okay, I'm not around people like that. We kind of reset ourselves from the week. This is what we should expect when we're here.

Lastly, how should we participate? We know what we're supposed to receive. We know what we're supposed to do. What about participation? How should we participate? Let me go over to Acts 6, verse 1 here. Go over to Acts 6, because this is where the first deacons were established. They were established based on a physical thing, right? A physical thing which was how they were going to serve people when they got together. Acts 6, verse 1. Now, in those days when the number of the disciples was multiplying their rows of murmuring against the Hebrews by the Hellenists, that is to say that essentially the Jews of Jerusalem or the Jews in the area versus the Hellenistic Jews from Babylon or those who were influenced by Greek culture, had this dispute because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution. And then the 12 summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, It is not desirable that we should leave the Word of God and serve tables. And so they sought out men with reputation to provide a specific function during church. Okay, so we understand there's a biblical basis for that, right? There's a biblical basis to say, you know, we would appreciate, you know, we appreciate Mr. Willis, who's in the back. He's a deacon. And, you know, he is very involved with making sure that our church is set up here appropriately. I'm looking at Mrs. Mercer here in front. Very involved with, as a deaconess, involved in serving. But, you know, it goes beyond elders or deacons. Each of us has a role to play in church in participating. And we can see that over in 1 Corinthians 12.

Well, we talk about spiritual gifts. 1 Corinthians 12. Why don't you go over to verse 4? 1 Corinthians 12 and verse 4. We each have been given gifts, spiritual gifts. And when we come to church, we can exercise those spiritual gifts. And, by the way, we can also exercise our physical gifts because, you know, Mr. Willis might need a hand sometime, right? So we can also use our backs. We can use our hands, our physical gifts, to help. Everybody can help physically and spiritually. But let's focus on the spiritual gifts here. Now, there are a diversity of gifts but the same spirit.

1 Corinthians 12. There are differences of ministries but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities but it is the same God who works all in all. So there are gifts that we have each been given. But we come together for a single purpose, which is to serve the head of the church, Jesus Christ, who is perfectly aligned with God the Father in terms of what we should each be learning and how we should each be growing. Look over in verse 28, same chapter, 1 Corinthians 12.28. And God has appointed these in the church. First apostles, second prophets, third teachers. Now, let me... this is interesting, by the way. If you think about the first, sometimes we used to say this is a hierarchy, right? But I think Mr. Mark Mickelson is a very interesting insight. If this is a hierarchy, then that would mean the prophet has to do what the apostle says or the prophet has to say what the apostle is going to say. But a prophet can only prophesy based on what God inspires the prophet to say. So this is not a hierarchy. If it was a hierarchy, by the way, at the very end, administration is last. Okay? Which means I could say, well, Mr. Kubik, you're just administration. So I'm not going to pay any attention to you because I'm a teacher. That's my role as a pastor. I'm here, pastoring. I'm a teacher. So you're just administration. I'm going to do it. No, this is not a hierarchy. This is about gifts. Apostles, prophets, teachers, and after that miracles. Then gifts of healings, helps, helps. Wow. Each of you can be helps.

We need helps in many ways. Administrations. You know, some people are very good at administration, right? You can take tests. Myers-Briggs, right? You can talk about your scores in Myers-Briggs. Some people are very like, they go this, and they go this, and they go this, right? And you look at their trunk and go, wow, that's so organized. How did you do that? Right? You go to their home, they're like, wow, this is like, I'm scared. It's so clean, right? They're very organized. They're very good at administration. But you know, sometimes those people are just terrible at coming up with really creative ideas, right? They're very good at executing other people's ideas, but they can't come up with the creative idea. But you know, other people, like you look at them, like, wow, your trunk, that's scary. What's in there? Something's dead, you know? But you know what? They're creative. These are creative people, and they've got all sorts of fantastic ideas. And all you have to do is kind of harness those ideas, and man, we're just going to rock, right? So we have different abilities and gifts, administrations, varieties of tongues. If you go to France, we're very, for the feast, we're very thankful to have translators, right? We need those translators.

People who speak other languages. It says in verse 29, are all apostles, are all prophets, are all teachers, are all workers of miracles? No. We all have different gifts. Do all have the gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the best gifts, the greatest gifts. And yet, I show you a more excellent way, and he's going to talk to you in about here about love. What is your gift of service to the church? You really need to know how to answer that question. I can't necessarily answer that question for you. You can come and talk to me, you know, bounce off ideas. Everybody is here to participate. It might be in activities. It might be in encouragement. It might be helps, administrations. I would love to see a gift of healing. I'd love to see that. You know, miracles. We each have gifts. That's the principle here that I want to get across. Each of us has a role to play in this congregation. And when we come, we're here to receive teaching, but we're also here to give. We're also here to participate.

I hope this has been helpful. There's obviously so many things that I can say. I guess I'll just leave you with this final thought. When you come to church, try to ensure that you just don't get into a rut. I always sit back over there. Next time I'm here, I'm going to try and sit over here, next to Mr. Spears. We sit in the same place. We talk to the same people. We talk about the same things. Try and talk to someone new. If we have guests or visitors, talk to those guests and visitors. Welcome them. If you haven't talked to somebody in a while, go talk to them. Sit in a different place. Talk about different things. God might just be opening your mind to see that you need to branch out a little bit. When we come to church, it's a time to be taught, to give, to receive, to honor God, to worship God. And you know, when we come to church, obviously, we have to be spiritually prepared. And if we haven't read our Bibles all week, if we haven't prayed all week, guess what? We're probably not going to get the most out of church that we could.

It's a whole package deal. I hope this has been helpful. And after the song, hopefully we can answer some questions that you might have.