Working Together, Part 2

Well, we have a lot of announcements today, and what I'd like to do is just draw your attention to them. Hopefully all of you have the announcement bulletin. We have a three-page bulletin this week.

We have a number of prayer requests, and some of these are updates, others are new. And I'd just like to ask all of you again to take the time when you get home to go over these, study them, and pray about them. And I put one in here concerning my one of our sons, his wife, Craig, his wife, Lareda's mom, Linda Sperlak, who's been diagnosed with breast cancer. And so I went ahead and put that one in. But you'll notice, again, any number of prayer requests here.

Secondarily, just as a reminder, the Rome sports night is tonight, and that's one reason why we have a number of our families gone today. We probably have oh, 15 or 20 of us down in Rome attending that. So that's this evening. They had services at the same time, so I couldn't be in Rome and here at the same time, so Mr. Cowan is taking services there.

Also, you'll notice in-home Bible study this coming week for the Hickson-Chattanuga area at the home of Bill and Deborah Doss. That's at 7 p.m. We will be continuing to study the book of Revelation. So in-home Bible study this coming Wednesday, December the 5th.

Then there's an update on the Winter Family Weekend. It says, with the clarion now full and the holiday end out of double-bedded rooms, we have secured a third housing facility, the Chariot Hotel, and it gives you a lot of updated information here. They've had to, due to one of the facilities making a last-minute change, they've had to change their schedule of events. So back on the information table, we have a new handout, an updated version of the change of schedule. So you want to take a look at that.

I've got this doing something over here. And then, as a final reminder to you, it says, parents, please do not send your teens without appropriate supervision for their own safety and protection. The dress code for this event is that of the United Church of God Camps. Could you go ahead and flick that up on the screen? Let's see if that helps this.

I keep... picture keeps flicking off and on. So we'll see what happens. Moving on in the announcements. On the last page, you'll see there's an update on the brethren in Mexico.

The hurricane that slammed that area, just to give you an update. Also an update on the home office relocation. That the 81 acres north of Denton is in the process of being purchased. Will not... monies will not exchange hands until January on that. The Ambassador Bible Center has accepted 34 students. And then we have the statistics for the Feast of Tabernacles here for night for the year 2007. Now, if you'll take your announcement bulletin.

Again, you'll notice a number of the events that are coming up are listed on the front.

The calendar inside gives you a visual display of these. Just as a reminder, on the 5th, again, we have the in-home Bible study. Choir Practice next Sabbath on the 8th. And I have a note here from Jacob Mammon. Jacob said he would like to apologize to all who came early for choir practice today. And Wade didn't found out that it was canceled. And he, you know, he apologizes for that. But he would like to ask all choir members that if you would not mind writing down your names and email addresses so that he can put together a file on those. So if there's ever a cancellation in the future, that he could contact you ahead of time and be able to let everybody know. So he asked me to go ahead and read this and apologize for him for that. But next week at one o'clock, so everyone should come ready to sing at that point. We do have a prayer request. Now Hal, this past week, had to have stints put in her heart. She's home now, but let's remember her. She's apparently feeling okay, but I know that she would appreciate everyone's prayers on her behalf. We do have a card back on the information table or the concern corner for that, so please be sure to sign it before you leave today.

I think what I'll do, since we got through the announcements pretty quickly, is to proceed to the second message today.

This one is titled, Working Together, Teaching as We Have Been Taught. One of the fundamental things that you find that God's Church has always stood for is the fact that we should teach what we've been taught, at least those who have remained faithful. Now the problem that occurred back in the late, early 90s, I should say, was due to the fact that there were those who did not adhere to this. When we went to Indianapolis, just to give you again a little background on this, there were three mandates that came out of Indianapolis. Preach the gospel, we recognized the fact that we needed to preach the gospel of the kingdom. That never changed. There's still some today who think the work is over, but that's not what the Bible says.

Christ said, blessed are those when He comes, that He'll find so doing and working. Secondarily, was to take care of the congregations. We believe quite strongly that in order to have local congregations, you needed to have a church pastor. So thankfully, the majority of our congregations do have church pastors to oversee them. And thirdly, to observe the feast. The opening night when the transitional board met, while we were still in Indianapolis, the question came up was, where were we going to hold the feast this year? Now, remember, it's May. We have no feast sites.

We have no feast coordinators. We have nothing. So I was asked to organize the feast, the Tabernacles that year. And the next day, during the lunch break, I had a meeting over in a side room and asked any former feast coordinators, anybody who had worked in the festival office in the past, to see me, to come to the meeting. Well, we had a meeting. We had about 15 people there. And I found out that the best feast coordinators that we had were with us. Also found out that they had canceled certain feast sites that year. Reading had been canceled. I think Corpus Christi had been canceled. Jekyll Island had been canceled.

So we immediately latched on to all three of those. Orlando, you know, we ended up, I think, with eight or nine feast sites. We had eight or nine feast sites within two weeks. We had the housing done within three weeks. We had the information out to everyone within about six weeks. And we set up, which is the same system that we use today, of registering online. We did not have to go through all this cumbersome process. And we still follow that same process today. I was asked to set up the computer set up where we could communicate with one another. And I had no idea what to do there, but I had a son working at Microsoft.

So actually, Victor Cuba got that set up because he's our guru on the council when it comes to computers. And we found that one of the first orders of business was that we would establish summer camps for our youth. So summer camps were then set up or started to be organized. And we had five or six summer camps. So all of that came out of the first meeting. One of the last speeches that was given in Indianapolis was this by Denny Luecker. And this was directly as a result of some of the things that Ray Wooten had said.

And then he said, I don't want to be out there by myself with any group or fragmented group. I'm appealing to you here, every one of you. Let's work together. We do not want to be individual congregations out there doing our own thing. I will not be that way. I want you to know that I will never be out there saying, well, I'm going to take this group of Southern California and we're going to go over here, have our own church, our own work.

I will not do that. I'm going to find those ministers and wives and who say I want to be a part of God's people worldwide. If you want to do your own work and your own thing, I don't believe that God is going to be with you. And that's not why we are here. None of us came here. We don't have one supreme leader.

We just don't accept Jesus Christ. And so that's how we started. Anything we're doing can be changed, but we're going to find out who wants to be unified, aren't we, in the next seven months or so? Who wants to be a part of the spirit I've seen here? And I hope all of you do. Well, what we found, there were a lot of people who gravitated toward United when we first got started. About a third of them have left because they thought United was going to be organized in a way where the people were going to tell the pastors what to do, or where the congregations were going to rule.

And when they found out that wasn't true, they went on somewhere else where they found that somebody else maybe was going to be organized that way.

The approach that came out of Indianapolis was this. Spiritual consensus, mutual respect, cooperation, trying to find out what is right rather than who is right. We wanted to do what was right. Our doctrinal approach that we would not have one man or a small group of men determining what the doctrines of the church would be, that there was no the Lord's anointed among us. There just wasn't a Herbert Armstrong there with us. The spirit of humility, cooperation, and willingness to serve. These were the fundamental approaches, if you want to call the spirit of Indianapolis, and how we organized. We came up with the church, the functions within the church. By the establishment of this constitution, we acknowledge the truth of the scripture that all members have a different function within the church. That it is our Father who determines each member's function within the church. As 1 Corinthians 12, 18 says, God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as he pleases or please. So we find that there are different functions in the church, different responsibilities, different duties. Not everybody is a pastor, not everybody is an elder, not everybody is a deacon. Not everybody performs the same duties or same functions. To the end, that all members may exercise a grace given to them by God, and as he walked the following administrations within the church are hereby established. Now, all this is from the constitution. 1 Corinthians 12, 4 through 7. There are diversities of gifts but the same spirit.

There are differences of ministries or service but the same Lord. There are diversities or differences of activities but the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the spirit is given to each one, why? For the prophet of awe. God gives gifts to his church so that everybody would be profited by that gift. A gift is not something that's self-absorbing that you use for yourself. It is to serve and to help the whole body. The local congregation is an assembly of members located pastored by a minister, recognized by the Church of God, governed by the UCG published rules of association. Notice, each local congregation is guided and shepherded by a pastor. So the pastor is in charge, assisted by elders, deacons, and deaconesses. A congregation may establish one or more local advisory council. Now, I read you that from the rules of association. We just lifted it out here and put it in that particular document.

Now, concerning the pastor being a guide and shepherd, again, as I said, we tried to base everything that we did upon the scripture that the Bible would be our guide. In John 21, 16, he said to him again a second time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? And he said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. And he said, tend my sheep. The word tend here means to feed, to tend to flock, to keep sheep, and to rule or govern, to furnish pasture for food, to nourish. And so, you find the job of a pastor is to provide you with spiritual food, to govern, to look after the sheep, just like a shepherd looks after his flock. Mr. Cowan has given a couple of sermons dealing with that.

John 12, 15, so when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these? And he said, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. And he said, feed my sheep. Well, the word here in the Greek means to feed, portraying the duty of a Christian teacher to promote in every way the spiritual welfare of the members of the church. And just as a shepherd protects his flock, looks after his flock, waters his flocks, looks to the state of health of his flock, so a shepherd or a pastor is to do the same thing. Acts 20, 28, therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. So the Bible uses the term overseer for church pastors, that we have the responsibility to oversee, to be responsible for the congregation, to shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his own blood. Again, the word shepherd here means to tend as a shepherd to feed or to rule. 1 Peter 5, 2, shepherd the flock of God, which is among you, serving as overseers. So, consistent throughout the whole Bible, and remember this is what Christ told Peter to do, so Peter and his writing to elders, and explaining to them how to be a good elder, said, Shepherd the flock, feed the flock, which is among you, serving as overseers. Not by compulsion, just because you're forced to, you have to, but willingly, not for dishonest gain, but eagerly. The shepherd here means to tend as a shepherd, to look after like a shepherd would.

1 Timothy 1, 10 through 11.

We get into here a few scriptures I like to just cover with you very quickly, and we're going to cover a lot of scriptures here because I think they tie in, and they show you the basis of why we do what we do, and why we felt it was important. When we went back to the fundamental beliefs, and we looked at what Herbert Armstrong had written, we found that that was what we believed. The very first one defines the fact that we do not believe in the Trinity, even though United has been accused of teaching the Trinity. I mean, the very first fundamental belief states that we do not believe that. And so, we just took those out and plumped them down into our document. What goes on to talk about fornicators or sodomites? In other words, the gospel is for those, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary, the sound doctrine. Now, notice the Bible puts an emphasis on having sound doctrine or sound teaching. According to the glorious gospel, the blessed God, which was committed to my trust, and I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has enabled me because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry. So, brethren, if you're in the ministry or any responsibility, you have to be faithful, and you have to be faithful to teach sound doctrine.

1st Timothy 1, 3-8, As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, Remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine. So, notice, charge them.

Nor give heed to fables, ninnless genealogies, which cause disputes, rather than godly edification, which is in faith. Now, the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart. In other words, the purpose of this commandment that He's giving to them, this order, is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk, desiring to be teachers of the law, and understanding neither what they say nor things which they affirm. But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully. So, brethren, we are to know what the doctrines of the church are, the sound doctrines, and we are to teach those. Notice, Paul says, So, one of the responsibilities of the church and of the ministry is to teach the truth.

We find one of the qualifications of a minister is that he has to be able to teach. He doesn't say just preach, but he has to be able to teach.

Because we have a lot of elders who are good teachers, but they're not necessarily strong preachers, from that point of view. In 1st Timothy 4, 6, it says, Remember, the word doctrine means teaching. Good doctrine or good teaching, which you have carefully followed. Again, this is one of the reasons, main reason, why we started in United. Because the doctrine, the teaching, the belief that we had been taught for 40-something years was going by the wayside. And so, we wanted to follow the truth. It says, Till I come, give attention to reading, I'm reading right now, to exhortation and to doctrine. Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them. For in so doing this, you will say both yourself and those who hear you. But reject profane in old wives' tales.

So, a minister is not to get up and just give his own ideas.

His own philosophy or old wives' tales were to stick to the truth. One of the things I remember being taught as we came out of Ambassador College was, preach the Word, preach the Bible. It says, Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the Word and doctrine.

Now, let as many bondservants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and his doctrine may not be blasphemed.

Those who are believing masters, let them not despise them because they are brethren, but rather serve them because those who are benefited are believers and beloved. Teach and exhort these things.

If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, I want you to notice how often Paul talks about sound doctrine, wholesome words, right teaching. It's all through his epistles. Even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ into the doctrine which accords with godliness. Now, if someone doesn't do this, he's proud, knowing nothing but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which comes envy, strife, railing, evil, suspicions. Timothy says, guard what was committed to your trust.

So, you find Timothy was being groomed by Paul, and apparently, Timothy, after Paul was killed, Timothy took over his duties and responsibilities as far as the church was concerned. So, he was very concerned that Timothy and those that he was training would be faithful to what they had been taught.

Second Timothy 1.11, to which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle, a teacher of the Gentiles, verse 13, hold fast, he says, the pattern of sound words. Now, normally in the Greek, the word sound means healthy, like a sound body, a healthy body, which you have heard from me in faith and love, which are in Christ Jesus. So, what you find, there has been a pattern established in the church from the very beginning. Christ taught the twelve apostles. Twelve apostles went out, and they raised up the church to start with, and they taught men and trained them, and they were ordained. And then those men went out and taught and trained others, and they kept passing on from one generation to another generation the basic fundamental truths. We come down to the very end time, and God began to call Mr. Herbert Armstrong in 1927, who worked with him. His mind was open, and he began to teach, and he began to do a work. Ambassador College was formed back in 1947. And once the college was formed, students came, there was a trained and an educated ministry. And we were taught the sound words of God, and that we are to hold to those. And over the years, it seems like about every 15 years in the church, there's a new wave of different ones who come along with doctrines that are not sound. And we find that that happened from within back in the late 90s.

2 Timothy 2, verse 2, notice, In the things which you have heard from me, so notice where he heard them. He heard them from the apostle Paul among many witnesses, or that there are others who can testify that I taught you these things, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. See, that's why we established the Ambassador Bible Center to teach the next generation and anyone who wanted to attend the Word of God. The Ambassador Bible Center, they go through every book in the Bible, cover from Genesis through Revelation over a period of seven months, eight hours a day, five days a week. And you've got to be tough to sit there and absorb all of that. But, you know, that they attend those classes. But the same thing is true. If we find that a pastor is not teaching sound doctrine, we talk to him, we try to show him what the Bible says, but if he refuses, then he can no longer be a pastor. Notice this title is Leadership Workshop. The last month, or the last Sabbath of this month, we're going to begin a series on leadership. Once a month, I'm going to cover leadership with you. And we're going to cover, you know, some of the basic principles of developing leadership. All levels. It doesn't matter how old you are, what gender you are, we should all be leaders. And we're all striving to be leaders in God's kingdom.

So one of the first things that we have to learn when it comes to leadership is that the true doctrine, the right doctrine, the sound doctrine, must be committed to men and women who are faithful with it and who will remain faithful. 2 Timothy 2.14-15. Remind them of these things and charge them before the Lord not to strive about words to no profit to the ruin of the hearers. Be diligent to present yourselves approved to God a workman who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth, rightly putting it together. Notice, the servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient. A minister is not to be harsh, cruel, mean, but to be gentle, able to teach, in humility, correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, that they might come to their senses, as verse 26 says. 2 Timothy 3.10. But you have carefully followed my doctrine, he said. And notice verse 14. But you have continued in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them. So we know where we have our roots and where we learned them.

Verse 16. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, or is God breathed, 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, or that we might become perfect.

In Titus, we find that a bishop must be blameless as a steward of God, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not given to wine, violence, greedy for money, but holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convict those who contradict. Now notice here, though, that Paul warned. And these were scriptures that we all knew before, but we didn't think that they would actually happen to us. We've been attacked many times from without, but who thought that the problem was going to spring up from within the way it did? Notice what he says, Take heed to yourselves and do all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departure, after Paul was dead, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. So outsiders would come in and attack the church. Also, from among yourselves, men would rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after themselves. And so we have lived to see that take place. Not only did it take place in the first century, but every era of God's church down through the ages you find this taking place, and it certainly has occurred in the end time. 2 Timothy 2.16, Shun profane and idol babbling. Notice verse 17, And their message will spread like cancer. We know how cancer can spread through the body and affect the whole body, just like leavening going through bread, of which Hymenus and Phylatus are this sort, who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past. So they were teaching the resurrection that already passed. You go back to 1 Corinthians 15, and you'll find there were those who were saying there was not going to be a resurrection. So you had all of these ideas floating around, and they overthrew the faith of Son, but avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife.

Titus 1.10, For there are many insubordinates, both idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped. So Paul said, when you come across this, it has to be stopped or ended, whose subvert whole households teaching things which they ought not.

One of them, a prophet of their own said, Cretans, are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. Well, this testimony is true. He said, they're right, therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men who turn from the truth. But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine. Titus 2.1, verse 15, Speak these things, exhort and rebuke with all authority, let no one despise you. See, Timothy and Titus were young men, so older people might despise them. But look, he said, you know the truth, you know the sound doctrine, you go ahead and speak, exhort and rebuke, because you have the authority. So, Titus 3, 9-10, Avoid foolish disputes, genealogies, contentions, and striving, and reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition. So, you try to get them to change, you admonish them a couple of times, but if they refuse to change, then they can no longer be with us. So, here in 2 Timothy 4, 2-5, we find, Preach the Word. This is a charge to all ministers. Preach the Word. Be ready in season, now to season. Convince, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. What does 2 Thessalonians 2 say?

The time will come when they will not have a love for the truth, for God's Word.

And then verse 4, And they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside unto fables. So, here's a prophecy of what was going to happen in the end time. And, brethren, we have lived to see that happen. So, what we find, the exhortation here, is very simple. That we are to hold on to the truth, as we've been taught. We're to hold on to sound doctrine, sound teaching. And that sound teaching and those doctrines are to be passed on to the next generation and to the next generation of leaders also. So that the next generation will be faithful in teaching the same thing. So, we have come to the end. Thank you very much. I appreciate everyone's attention. And I hope you found these helpful. Especially the first one, to give you an overview of how we began our doctrines. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask my wife. She was there. She's been there ever since the beginning, right along with us. And I'd be more than happy to answer your questions. Thank you.