HOLY BIBLE
The Kind of Men the Church Needs
welcome to real Christianity mission is to bring the church back to the Bible my name is Dale Partridge and I'm the president of relearned out of work and Reformation Seminary the premise of the show is simple the culture is growing darker the church is in need of sound Doctrine and many Christians are hungry for the truth join me here each week as we look to scripture and discover what it really means to be a Christian
 welcome to the show as many of you know these times have revealed the character of many men in the church it is shown us the courageous and the cowards The Bold and The Blind Forest early trials persecution and political hostility make the dividing lines more clear we can see who stands with the world or who stands with Christ however what is also been clarified is how few true biblical faithful ministers are actually out there we've been made aware of a great need of more mission-minded gospel Focus Bible committed righteous men in the ministry as you know our school Reformation Seminary aims to produce these very types of men
 two weeks ago we had our first class graduate and was ordained to gospel Ministry and these men will be planting biblical house churches in their local communities all over the world during the graduation I offered a 30-minute commencement speech and I'd like to share that speech with you today I titled it the kind of men the church needs met before we play that recording I wanted to make two brief announcements first we just launched the all-new relearn. Org store and you can find a link at realtor.org or you can just go to shop. Relearn. Org we have a variety of different products in there that promote the Gospel of Jesus Christ additionally were going to be adding a new products each month so go ahead and check back if there's not something in there that fits you this is a great way for you also to support our ministry while
 a gospel Focus product of the same time so please consider visiting the shop and consider buying a product for yourself a family member or friend again that's at shop. We learn. Org secondly as you know we are nearing the end of the 2021 year we are still short about $20,000 for 2022 we have raised the vast majority of our budget but we are still short I would you consider making a one-time donation or a monthly donation you can do so at relearn. Org forward slash donate and just to be honest the monthly commitments those of you who are giving 10 to $25 a month it's what we need most of these type of commitments allow us to not only have easier planning for a Ministry that also offer us the most Financial stability again you can make a donation of any amount at relearn. Org forward slash donate
 on that note here is my 2021 Reformation Seminary graduation commencement speech Sometimes the best way to teach a lesson is to tell a story
 and I'm not going to tell the story about my life and I'm going to tell a story about a man who lives a life that many of you will live in a similar fashion we are called to be missionaries were called to be Evangelist Church Planters we are in it for the long haul and I'd like to read you a story about a gentleman and his wife
 who has entered into the ministry in the same way that you are about to enter the ministry but this is almost 250 years ago
 I do not run Judson was born in the late 1700s and he was the first American Protestant Christians to be sent out as a missionary the previous generations the Catholic Church wasn't real big on missions the mission movement boomed in the 16 17 and 18 is one of the first men to get out there and be a Protestant reformed Christian man from America to be sent overseas is this gentleman out of my room Judson
 I hear a radical conversion in his late teens went into Seminary after he graduated Seminary he was offered a pastoral position in his hometown of Malden Massachusetts now his family was so excited to hear that he was offered a position as a pastor in the hometown where he would be with her family and while his family was excited his heart was not
 his heart was actually set on the international Mission field he wanted to preach the gospel to a different culture all the way across the seas which is a big deal in this generation this means about this means being away from your family for years at a time
 and before leaving the mission field he fell in love with a young woman he was about 20 years old and her name was Anne Hathaway line
 his intention was to marry and before he went out to the mission field he wanted to take with him a bride he had her all of the previous missionaries talk about the value of having a wife with them in the mission field
 he wanted to do so under clear expectations he wanted both and and and family to understand what it would be like if an joined him on the mission field across the other side of the ocean and in a letter he wrote to Ann's father you may have heard of it for it's a very famous letter and he asked for and hand in marriage and he wrote this again at 20 years old but he also wrote These powerful words that set the expectations
 for her father about what he was really asking
 he wrote and I quote I have now to ask whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring to see her no more in this world whether you can consent to her departure to a heathen land and her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of a missionary life
 whether you can consent her exposure to the dangers of the ocean to the Fatal influence of the Southern Climate in India to every kind of want to stress to degradation insult persecution and perhaps even a violent death
 can you consent to all of this for the sake of him who left his Heavenly home and died for her and for you for the sake of perishing Immortal Souls for the sake of Zion and the glory of God can you consent to all of this and hopefully soon meeting your daughter in the world of Glory with a crown of righteousness brightened by the acclamations of Praise we shall ReSound to her savior from heathens that were saved through her means from Eternal low and despair
 what an amazing letter asking
 for a daughter's hand in marriage
 photos of you who have daughters I'm sure you're wondering what would I do
 to see your daughter no more to possibly send her off to a violent death to see her in glory for the sacrificing work of her job and her Duty with her husband at the missionary sent off overseas there's no cell phones the only chance of riding every few months together
 by the grace of God her father permitted and to join out of my room
 and the two labor for many years together not in India but in Burma
 and and out an arm and they had children
 three of them died
 the first ended in miscarriage the second died at eight months and the third died at six months to few months after and passed away in 1826 she was just 37 years old
 Florida and passing out of my room was in prison for 17 months and every day and would bring him the supplies and the food so we think about prison here and it's provided that you would have three meals a day that's not the case many centuries ago it's still not the case and overseas destinations today if your family doesn't feed you you die in prison
 it so every day and would move food and supplies to the jail where he was at she ended up a living while she was pregnant
 right outside of the jail walls in the mud in the rain where she was having even more difficulty with her own health taking care of her husband who was imprisoned not even in her short life she was able to translate
 a catechism an English catechism into Burmese language she was able to translate the Book of Jonah Daniel the gospel of Matthew into the Burmese language this woman was working diligently side-by-side with her husband on the mission field in the midst of these incredibly difficult trials she was a faithful wife and a fruitful companion in Ministry
 why don't I run ended up spending 37 years in Burma fulfilling gospel Ministry decade after decade after decade and during that time he perseveres her imprisonment life-threatening illness I'm to the point where he was almost pronounced dead and the death of two wives and six children
 this gentleman that was faithful in the midst of trials in Burma in the call that he had for his Lord Jesus
 by God's grace he was able to translate the Bible into Burmese and compile a complete English to Burmese dictionary that help further translation efforts if it came after him it was 6 years of faithful Ministry before they even had their first convert
 are you mad that are going to be out there preaching the gospel getting on the streets proclaiming the word to the people in your community handing out gospel tracts whatever it may be remember out of my room when you're planting seeds remember that some plant some water but it's God who brings the increase and I do not have learned this he learned the gospel Ministry we want to mediate Leary that is not the case what happens often is a tweaks plant the seeds and it takes time and someone else comes and Waters it and someone else come and nurtures it with the Lord is bringing the increase and I do not have learned that six years of laboring before the first convert of his ministry
 was it discouraging Shirley
 but he continued to be faithful by the time Johnson went on to be with the Lord of 1850 there were over a hundred Burmese churches made up of nearly 10,000 Christians
 and today thanks to his faithfulness there are over two million Burmese Christians
 he was a Pioneer in every sense of the word going across oceans to plant churches to preach the gospel to translate the scriptures
 and in some similar way we're planting house churches which is a very new thing to the Western culture
 we are pioneering a new way of church and in a culture that might not be as hostile as that generation but it is still increasingly becoming more difficult what I want to say is that you men are missionaries we talked about this this weekend you men are missionaries wives you are married to a missionary that identity might take some time to sink in I remember when the Lord called me to be a pastor it was weird telling people that I'm a pastor
 it was weird for Veronica to say my husband the pastor on the pastor's wife the identification that the Lord has given you in this journey as a pastor or password wife will take some time to sink in
 and as you know for centuries America has been known
 as a Christian Nation
 send out as a Christian Nation
 it's America who's been sending out millions of dollars to missionary all around the world we have been the missionary sending nation of the world for the past several hundred years
 but over the past several decades America has gone from Mission funding to the mission field
 we have become the place where we invest our Focus we have sent so many people overseas and we still need to send those people overseas but it's time to start sending people here
 as we're witnessing the decline of biblical Christianity
 here in the West
 are you might not be going to the jungles of Burma but the spiritual warfare is just the same the rising political hostility that were seen every single day it's here the great confusion and Christian Theology and Doctrine it's here the selfishness of Western culture it's here we're sending it we're seeing it in our lives and in our families we are protecting our children against these things the depravity of our time it's being made known every news Outlet everyday you hop on social media you see what everybody else has seen is the world seems like it's getting darker and we need the Gospel of Jesus Christ to be proclaimed we need men and faithful families and women to be out here preaching the gospel and we are going to send those men off to do that
 as mature Christians we have to ask ourselves one critical question
 and it's a question that I've asked myself several times and I want you to go on this journey with me why in the freest country in the world a nation that's covered in over 50,000 Church buildings here in America
 we're blanketed with Bible colleges and seminaries more than any other country on Earth
 why in such a prevalent position
 are we seeing Christianity decline
 why are 78% of the children who are raised in Christian homes disassociated themselves with the Faith by the time they're 18 78% is faithfulness is biblical Christianity passed down generation to generation to generation multi-generational faithfulness that is not something that we're seeing today
 why why I've only two in ten Christians read the entire Bible
 2 in 10 professed Christians have read the entire Bible why
 and most of all why in a country virtually absent a violent persecution do less than 10% of Christians share the gospel with one person per year
 if we have a church of a thousand people 900 of them will not share the gospel with even one person that year that we might share our faith we might tell people that were Christian women have a discussion about Christianity but I'm talking about biblical gospel
 God created you you're not a ton of this year under his rule his rain there's a lot of broken that law you were under his wrath without your repentance of your sin and your faith in Jesus Christ you will perish Jesus has made a way for you put your faith and trust in him and him alone the biblical gospel
 only one in ten Christians
 are sharing that with one person per year
 why
 the evidence is weighty and it's difficult to explain away
 Christianity here in the last in America it's fading it's hurting it's broken the Lord's doing something here Christianity is rapidly declining
 which makes this an incredibly fertile Mission field
 now we know that God keeps we saved we know that we know that we live in a time when the church is filled with sheep and goats and wheat and tares and saved and lost we know that we know that there are people in the church who came to the church but never came to Christ
 we know that there are people who think they're Christian and I've never actually been born again
 it was Steve Lawson who said The only thing worse than not having the Assurance of Salvation is having the false Assurance of Salvation you think you're saved and you're not
 in the South if you've ever been there you have to spend a lot of time almost convincing people that they're not save so that you could preach the gospel to them because cultural Christianity has made people believe that they prayed the prayer one time when they were seven years old and they're actually believe her when is that they're actually not
 this is part of that mission field everybody thinks they know the Bible do the Bible I've read the Bible Christianity I've heard the gospel is a very difficult Mission field here in America
 we know the Lord is purifying the church you can see it you could sense it we know he is raising up gold men to plant and Pastor churches all over the world I'm seeing that I'm watching that I'm in this world of ministry I'm watching the Lord send so many people out all over including here in the States but what's the real solution to this problem what's the answer to the why do we really need another church building
 is that the answer we need another church building cuz there's 50,000 of them already here
 do we need another Seminary
 is a question that I'm wrestling with do any better worship music is that what we need better worship music do we need a better sermon series on motivation
 no
 it's not what we need I believe that the only solution for to church Revival is faithful biblical theologically sound gospel Ministry
 that's what we need
 we need biblically qualified men who commit themselves to doctrinal study who know the word who've read the Bible who understand its contents
 only man to be preaching to planting to be pastoring to be reproducing faithful Christian men and women who saturate their local communities with the word of Christ that's what we need
 we've had Costless Christianity for the past 150 years here in America it's fat lazy overweight sitting there doing nothing I actually remember a friend telling me they were in the Middle East in Tehran
 and they escaped from the persecution in Tehran to come here to be in the Pacific Northwest where we used to live
 and they said it was more spiritually dangerous to be in Portland because of the laxidasical Christian culture this year than it was to be in a wrong
 they would rather be in A persecuted territory where it keeps them on their toes and it keeps them leaning on Christ and to be here basically wallowing in Freedom and people walk by their Bibles 60 times a week and never touch them
 we need missionaries here in America
 we need men with thick skin and big hearts
 if you guys know and follow my Ministry
 you know that I've walked through that journey of thick skin
 I've had the negative news articles I've had the threats Veronica and I've had death threats put on us we had to call the police before there's things that happened to pastors Paul washers had many more than I have and there are many states before us would have had even more
 we are living in a very weird time anybody can make an accusation about anybody and you're guilty by social media
 will you be living above reproach walking wisely and very carefully but we need men with thick skin and big hearts
 we need wives who are committed to prayer wives I can't talk about this enough
 we need you to pray for these men it's difficult but we need you to pray for these men Weenie Man Who find themselves greatly concerned for the Lost we are not here to just disciple Christian did the greater Christianity we are here to preach the gospel we are here to have a heart for the lost if you don't have a heart that breaks for the Lost ask the Lord to give you a heart that breaks for the loss
 we need men who study
 the doctrinal confusion of today in the church is absolutely absurd
 we had men to the Reformation who have clearly defined Clarity in the 1689 London Baptist confession of faith for the Westminster Confession of Faith with the Heidelberg Catechism these things have been Define clarified for us
 most people have never read them
 many people died for them
 and most people never read them
 most people have emotional Christianity they want to Bible that fits with what they want they want a God who is how they want him to be we need men who are willing to study
 to come to the truth
 got a Systematic Theology and biblical theology. Understand the original language is to defend it and to have an apologetic for it
 we need those men we need those men
 and we need men who stand for the truth
 James coats up in Alberta Canada who was recently arrested he went to the same school that I went to the Master's Seminary he finished their doctorate program there and he went to jail because he stood for the truth
 he'll probably go to jail again
 and to be honest there might be a time where every single one of us are in jail
 it is not a strange idea to think that 20 years from today
 what we're doing will be so hated by the culture then we will be arrested for it we think it's so strange but it happens all over the world every single day you know what the most persecuted people in the world are not black people they're not white people they're not Mexican people but not orange people there Christians
 Christians are the most persecuted people on earth
 let's not think it's a strange thing with some fiery trial comes upon us as the first Peter says
 we are not greater than our master
 there are things that are coming for America
 we need men who will stand for the truth
 and it'll be costly we need prayer and preparation before that so that when that time comes the grace of God will be there for us and we can be faithful
 we need men who are not quiet about false Doctrine
 there is an infiltration of false Doctrine all around us
 the stuff that goes on social media you know what happens as pastors today
 when you were a Puritan Pastor that came off the Mayflower and your congregation was with you
 the last sermon they heard was from you on Sunday
 the last thing they heard about God was from you on Sunday
 do you know what happens today your congregation will hear your expository sermon and then they're going to go listen to six different podcast they're going to read a book They're going to go on social media they're going to have a discussion about theology with someone else and they're going to come back to your church and they're going to implement all of those ideas in your congregation and you're going to have to rectify and correct that the ology if it's wrong
 we men who are willing to correct false Doctrine
 we need men who are not only going to walk faithfully and theologically sound and boldly from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. we need men who are going to do that also from 5 p.m. to 9 a.m.
 when you're at home at night we need those men to be catechizing their children to be talking the truth in their home to be speaking truth to their wives to be praying for their family. In an orderly family you are a pastor of a church but you are a pastor of your home
 the work he does not and I imagine Paul when he's talking about running the race he ends tired
 Paul Washer says everyday you should fall asleep in the way you should do so with collapse in your bed
 that's the beauty of a Godly biblical man doesn't mean that we don't have hobbies it doesn't mean that we don't have fun with our families what it means though is that are raining priority is the Salvation of our home
 the protection of our church
 we need management terrorist wives we need men with obedient children your children in the room
 your father needs your obedience and your honor and your respect
 we need order in our homes
 we need men who were going to pour themselves out for the gospel
 what do you men have no plans for retirement no plans for rest but who run and run hard but the Lord called him home
 unfortunately these men are very rare
 they're very rare
 but that's the type of man that are in the room right here
 these men are incredible man I've watched them all year
 can we have our weaknesses
 but these are Godly men who are fighting at every level
 to be faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ
 today these men have completed rigorous theological training they committed themselves to plant a Biblical House Church that plants more biblical house churches
 their timing
 it's impossible
 the Lord has them exactly where he wants them right now
 I believe it we're about to see a growing wave of biblical house churches across the West over the next decade
 I believe the traditional church with the Lord's will for America and has brought many to face and when done faithfully and biblically can be a very great tool for the kingdom of God but I think we are going to see more and more and more house churches pop up across this nation and these men of the first group going off
 that each of them accompanied by a Biblical wife
 a faithful wife who liked and Judson found joy being married to her pastor and together my prayer is that you and your husband and your families
 our strength has been Sanctified in the Lord for this work that he has before you
 my wife and I have cried it many times in Ministry
 but when you have a Biblical House Church this operating according to scripture we had sound doctrine of theology biblical elders and ordered family and a heart for the Lost I'll tell you what it is the most amazing place on Earth
 it's even more amazing your family because your family is included in that shirt
 it is the closest thing that we will get to heaven this side of Eternity
 to be walking out the one another's of scripture so close with one another
 with a passion for the Great Commission
 it's an amazing thing but the Lord had permitted us and call us to do
 I do not have Justin once said the model for every missionary whether preacher printer Schoolmaster ought to be devoted for lice
 and that's my prayer for you today my prayer is that your flame does not go out
 I didn't Ministry full time for almost five years now
 there are days that I go I'm done
 I feel like my flame is Kohl's at best
 what the Lord does for those he called if you go to sleep in the next morning the Flames back up
 whatever happened whatever trial and whatever difficulty came before you explain doesn't go out cuz the Lord keeps it burning
 I pray that your conduct does not disqualify you from Ministry
 I pray that you don't let any moral failures in your home to prevent you from Ministry
 I pray that your battles are won by prayer and faithfulness and most of all I pray that you rely on him
 may God be with all of you and its Journey
 Nick Wright father we thank you Lord for this group of faithful men and women Lord we pray a blessing upon them we pray that you would give them an exciting Journey's Faithfully Journey father that you would clean them you would sanctify them but you would make them more like your son Jesus
 Lord strip away all that the world is put on us we nurse from the world and make us cling to you father but we ask that you would bless us with wisdom and discernment and protection that you would keep watch over our children and their hearts in Jesus
 thank you for joining me on this episode of real Christianity real Christianity is a listener supported audio Ministry of relearn. Org our mission at realtor.org is to bring the church back to the Bible we achieve this through strengthen and Christians in biblical and Theological literacy find biblical articles podcast sermons and videos at our website at relearn. Org our team is small but our mission is large and we need your help if you'd like to support our ministry financially you can always do so at relearn. Org forward slash donate thank you again for joining me today and I hope to see you next week for another episode of real Christianity