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 relearn. Org 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 today is going to be a little bit different we are going to take a break from our Romans study because I want to confront an issue that I think is absolutely essential this is the issue of why you should put yourself or your family into membership at a local church that is to say that why you should make sure that you are connected to the local church it's my opinion actually did if you love your family the most impactful fruitful thing that you can do is make sure that your family is connected to a local church I can't tell you how many times I have met families at the precipice of Brokenness as a pastor or get phone calls from people that I don't know or haven't talked to you in many years and we'll say we're right about to have a divorce or we're separated or my husband's addicted to pornography or my wife's an alcoholic or whatever it may be life is falling apart
 and we need some help and I go where's your local church why aren't you connected to a local church they come to you the very last yard line at the 99 yd line these things need to be dealt with at the 25-yard line or at the first yard line and so these are issues why we need to wild things are good in our families make sure were a part of local church so that when things get bad when things get tough when tragedy and Trials come they will you will be connected to a body of believers who can facilitate Redemptive reconciliation biblical counseling and really restore the order of your home that is one of the great benefits of local church membership and I'm going to talk about the 12 blessings of local church membership and why your family should absolutely prioritize a special you meant
 a second man you must make sure your family is in a strong biblical local church now what if you're like hey we don't have a strong biblical local church I go to move move your family quit your job find another job get rid of whatever is going on I don't care if your parents are in town I don't care if you have really good friends there if you can't find I mean like you've searched you spent a year trying to do it you can't find a local church you either need a go to Reformation Seminary which is our program to plant a house Church Plant a Biblical couch or or or move if you're not called to Ministry move because I'm telling you the lack of being connected with a local church spiritually in a family is absolutely dangerous absolutely dangerous we need to be willing to do whatever it takes to relocate to put ourselves and our families under the sea
 virtual care of Elders in connection with membership of a local church so that we can be fulfilling the one another's of scripture are so many blessings over to be talking about before I dive in I want to make a couple announced with one this episode of totally unscripted I usually spend 5 to 10 episodes or 5 to 10 hours preparing for an episode I just had a little bit of a passion this morning we need to talk about this and I wanted to make sure that we have an episode to really nail in the importance of church membership and finding a local church that really is fruitful for your family and it's obviously aligned with scripture so that that's the first thing to give me some great if I kind of stumbled around a little bit here the second thing I wanted to talk about
 is my books of Manliness of Christ is not on pre-order anymore it's actually available for anybody to order and so if you guys would like to get a copy of the manliness of Christ especially for you ladies that have men in your lives this is a great Father's Day gift are you can order that a tree learn.org man relearn. Org forward slash man it's ten bucks we've already sold maybe fifteen hundred of them and we have another 1,500 available for sale right now I will order more at some point but please consider picking up the manliness of Christ it's how the masculinity of Jesus eradicates effeminate Christianity now we're going to be talking about some of those things even today because we have a church where men are passive and the reason a lot of families are Christian families aren't connected to a local churches because of their passiveness they need to see the manliness beeper
 hiding and protecting the Christ has offered so that they can mimic that in their masculinity and leave their families well so again manliness of Christ you can go to relearn. Org forward slash man okay we're going to dive in here and again I'm doing totally off-the-cuff here but I want to talk about the blessings of local church membership number one or just regular reciprocating Fellowship this is a huge blessing of a local church you have regular that is weakly we know that the early church met on the first day of the week which is Sunday and they met him the first day of the week to commemorate and the resurrection of Jesus Christ and so Jesus becomes our rest instead of meeting on Saturday as a synagogue did in remembrance of the Sabbath the New Testament Church met on Sunday to commemorate the rez
 Russian Jesus Christ is our rest from the law instead of the old way where it was work 6 days and then rest on the seventh the New Covenant way is start with a rest and work from that and that is the gospel of grace that you must understand but regular of reciprocating Fellowship is so essential you want to have that regular touch point on Sunday but more than that you want to have Community touchpoint midweek I used to be having a men's meeting or a woman's meeting or coffee or dinner or having family over every single week so you have Fellowship you have close connections with people know the word Fellowship in the Greek is Koinonia Koinonia is the participatory Fellowship we have Christ in common it's not one-sided it's reciprocating it's the one another's I was over a hundred one another than
 Testament we need to be walking those out to local church membership offers the ability for reciprocating and regular fellowship and there's some references there if you want to the Colossians 3:16 Acts 2:42 through 47 act 24/7 Hebrews 10:24 through 25 Number 2
 is a second blessing is spiritual warnings and encouragement we live in a time that is incredibly discouraging we live in a time when I say any time were you need spiritual warning when you're walking into territory mismanagement of assets mismanagement of a home mismanagement of children whatever it may be. Temptations you know opportunities that are risky Sin Sin abounds in the sense that it's all around us we live in a fallen / we have a broken world and we have an enemy and so we want to make sure that were around people on a regular basis to can offer us your two warnings and encouragement now this is something we need to have a heart for right it says in the scriptures and I wish I had it in front of me it's in the Proverbs but essentially a fool despises of rebuke
 but a wise man loves it okay if the idea is those of you who said oh yeah I love being accountable most people are lying when they say that but we really need to do is it when someone hold you accountable we need to really appreciate that shirt discipline as it says in Hebrews chapter 10 is unpleasant when it's occurring but it's good for us and so spiritual warnings and encouragement we need to be willing to be corrected now for the community of people community of Christians were you're not receiving correction ever either you're living a perfect life with your not or you're at a community people that aren't willing to actually correct you when you need to be corrected the Houston Field House Church I think correction happens a couple times a year for every single person because we're so close with one another until again plus the number to spiritual warnings and encouragement number 3 is the accountability to scripture
 you need people examining your life and measuring it against scripture to make sure that you are living that way all the time not just when you know all hell breaks loose in your home and John's you know addicted to porn and there's an affair going on or whatever it might be you need it even on the little stuff you need accountability the scripture how you speak to your children or that as a wife that you're actually caring for your home
 you need people in your life to see your life so they can hold you accountable to scripture so we eat we need that ability number for is communion with the Saints
 this is a beautiful thing that we get to do Christ reinstituted Institute of the the Lord's Supper as a way to commemorate his death and resurrection and what he did on the cross for us it is something incredibly special to be reconciled to God through Christ through the elements of of a wine and bread in a symbolic obviously symbolic expression of the Eucharist and so we don't believe in transubstantiation where the blood and the bread or actually the physical blood and body of Jesus Christ or symbolic that however they are something for us to remember we need to remember because we're forgetful people if you read the Old Testament you realize how forgetful God people are very very forgetful and so it's an opportunity to have communion with the Saints in Christ communion about the gospel to read
 Linda Grace that's been extended to us that something that's very genuine blessing think about what you get to sit around the fire with somebody or men have a barbecue over with some families and you get a chance to talk about what God is doing in your life and how wonderful you've been blessed this year or the thing that you just learned from scripture how encouraging those things are to you that is communion with the same as obviously a formalized structural understanding what I'm talking about the Lord's Supper but that the essence of the idea of having fellowship with one another communing with one another around the gospel is essential and is important part of a church membership number five is the the use and development of spiritual gifts okay you said development of everybody has a spiritual gift sometimes it's very evident sometimes it takes a lot of observation from other people to realize what gift you have but everybody has a a
 Christian has a gift that the Lord has given that person for the edification of the body of Christ for the work of ministry and this use in a in a church you should be able to use that spiritual gift and develop it under the care and observation and supervision of Elders and so. Datsun for to get that's why we love the biblical House Church model because you actually have an opportunity you're not in audience Christianity or spectator Christianity you have to have an opportunity to have an every member functioning Gathering where you can use and develop that's good for you you can't do that in the traditional church it's just a little bit the structure does prevent that from being a widespread a blessing for everybody in the church okay number 6 is the protection from theological and doctrinal heresy when if you were a pastor in the 1600s
 and you preach the a message on Sunday and all week long
 your flock went out
 they came back the following Sunday the last thing they heard likely about
 you know the gospel or theology was from your mouth to previous Sunday unfortunately that's not the case today as a pastor I know this very well is that your flock goes out into the world and they listen to podcast that read books me a hover over social media articles and they watch videos and YouTube and documentaries and they come back with doctrinal positions and ideas that you need to help Shepherd them through and ultimately wash their minds with the water of the word Sometimes they come back with clarify doctor and sometimes they come back with heresy and so we have lots of opportunities to take in false Doctrine in our world and you need to be willing to submit to the Elders of the church that have been trained the logically to be able to discern truth from are so that you can be protected from bleeding wrong one of my favorite quotes is from an old Mentor who said if you believe wrong
 now you'll never live strong and I believe that's true we need to actually believe of right and we get that protection in a local church membership number seven guidance toward holy and righteous living it's not we don't just need to not send in our life we actually won guidance to the preaching of the words to discipleship of the word being preached through discipleship for one another and relationship through a discussion and fellowship we want to be encouraged and spurred on to Good Works to Godly and righteous living we want to continue to be Sanctified in the truth and this is vital we can't do this if we're not with God's people on Sunday so again people men I don't care what is in the way if you can't find a church to be a part of and and you need to find a church that is Doctor Li sound you need to find a church that you can actually look your kids in the eye when you leave and take what he said in the Pulpit is actually true you don't want to get yourself in a situation we have to constantly tell your children
 well what he said there we actually don't believe so we kind of line but you know we would rather not do the rock concert thing over here but we're going to do that whatever it maybe you just got you just have to make sure that you're convicted make sure that you have biblical and doctrinal Clarity you did make sure that you have been Looking For Love by the elders you do have a woman Pastor whatever it maybe get yourself into a Biblical church and always tell people if you can't find one move here come here come to our little House Church community here in Cottonwood Sedona Arizona right we'll take you come come to your I don't care what it takes will help you get here but that's the kind of attitude you need to have it Whatever It Takes we will move because the absence of your family from a a Biblical church is so much more dangerous than you continuously or are they did you actually relocating with a hassle and expense that it takes to relocate your family to be a part of one somewhere else
 I guess I'm getting off myself my self box right there but again for protection from the illogical and doctrinal heresy and how sorry I was on the 7th guidance toward holy and righteous living yes we need this we need guidance toward holy and righteous living I just love that I have brothers in my life that can tell me how to grow and that they see things and encouraged me but also will direct me how to be a better husband how to be a better father how my wife can be a better mother, my wife can be a better Homemaker how I can be better pastor we need that to the family as a pastor if there's any passwords that are listening you know that the top things that you deal with at a church is marriage and family and so I'm having
 a constant Ministry not just a Dad or Mom but I'll save the children I'm a huge fan of family integrated church if you're not you need to read a book called a weed in the church talking about how we have created age segregated Ministries there extra biblical I actually would say that they're not
 Ivan Ivan struggle with him I'm not going to say that they're unbiblical I'm just going to say that I really am not in favor for age segregated Miniatures I believe that the family should be in church together and yes I know there's some issues with having little children and all those things but we have overcome those in the House Church model you and I've seen family going to go to churches all over the place is actually I forgot what it's called it's like the you know you can Google it up like family and family in a good at churches and you'll find it a search engine where you can actually find give faithful churches that are family integrated they don't have youth Ministries and Sunday school if you want your kids in that so ministering to the family we want our kids to be ministered as a pastor I could actually preach to the kids I want the kids to hear part of the sermon stained and directed towards them they are also part of the visible Church they are being Sanctified by their parents faith if they're not believe it's already in the sense that they are part of
 God's covenant people here in in the body of Christ now you know why they actually believe her so we will find out as they age and mature especially when we have these little ones but we love to make sure they were ministering to the family were also ministering to biblical family roles or talk about traditional marriage want to talk about fighting against the you know counterfeit that are available today we want to talk about what does it mean to be a Godly boy and a girl the girl in obedience to your parents all these things are important
 number nine number nine is giving in support of the Christian Ministry we have to believe that giving is more it's more blessed to give than it is to receive we really need to believe that three types of giving that we see in the New Testament it's one is not typing typing is biblical but it's not Christian tithing was nailed to the cross we are called to give and you could be more than 10% less than 10% it's all about the heart and we want to see a cheerful Giver that's the Lord's so I just want to see a cheerful Giver whatever that might be we all know that all of it is the Lord's are the three areas that we see in a given is giving to giving to the poor we see giving to the local church the members and the needs of the local Christian Church this is Christian a Christian man you got a bunch of dead over there let me help you out or hey you eat your car broke down the me to help you get it get it get yourself a new car can I cover your insurance for you whatever might be those needs medical need whatever it might be
 nothing could be what it must be is the laborer is worthy of his wages you need to be giving to your pastor now and I'm in a again you have all types of things you have to take in consideration to pay for the building and the Landscaping budget and electric bill and the parking lot maintenance and the staff and all that stuff in the house. She just basically give so that your pastor can study the word of God and come prepared and basically have some sort of compensation for the time that he's taken away from secular work that would provide him an inch a family so that he could do that so that that is one thing we do need to be giving up something I say to our local church to the ministry that happened in there making sure that it's Great Commission Focus the gospel is continuing to go out the kingdom of God is continue to take Route so giving is a blessing you need to be doing if you're not a part of the local church can't do that at least in all three of those categories number 10
 support and spiritual emotional physical or financial need anybody that's been through some sort of illness or chronic illness or or depression or anxiety or physical disability or whatever it may be our spiritual turmoil knows that you just want to be connected so that when those when those tragedies strike and they will they will strike you as people there you were people that we've never walked outside of community as a family always had Christians around us when tragedy hit we have all types of people around us but its Financial physical emotional spiritual we have people there God has care for us because we've been members of a local church and I watch families show me a family that absolutely drowning and tragedy
 and alone and I show you a family that's likely not connected to a local church because when you're connected to a local church you're actually a faithful participating reciprocating for a believer in that that congregation when those moments come up the Lord cares for his people through his church then amazing thing I don't miss out on that number 11 discipline and Times of sin we talked about this little bit before you need to be corrected it's a good thing I need to be corrected it's a good thing we all need to be humble enough to hear Corrections and we need to be constantly in a state of reconciliation constantly in a state and desire to be connected with one another discipline and sin is wonderful majan if you didn't discipline your kids
 how Wicked would that be to allow them to continue on not knowing that they're sending
 no at it's wicked we would never do it
 we discipline our kids because we love them the Proverbs talks about that he who spares the rod hates his child and so we need to constantly be disciplining our our our our families are the men and women in our churches and now we do that just fell in love and sure we're going to fill out that we're going to do things harshly here and there but there needs to be Grayson both sides but the reality is it that we need to be willing to be in a community that offers discipline and correction when there is sin it is a safe thing and you need to know people well enough that they can actually bring a correction if you do this whole thing where it's like you can get this close but then stop right there and they keep everybody at arm's length then you're never going to have anybody comfortable enough to offer you correct in your scent so when your husband's Addicted to You Know video games and he's playing you know what the name of that video game I can't think of it
 now I can think of it because I don't play video games but when he sitting there playing Call of Duty there you Call of Duty you know at night he's not being a good husband if you're not part of the local church have no one to talk to about those things no correction that can be made but those things need to be dealt with you need to have accountability and correction when there's rampant sin
 okay number 12 this is the equipment for the personal Ministry you have a personal dentistry in if you don't have a personal Ministry of a problem the Great Commission includes your personal Ministry we are called to fill the Great Commission within our sphere of influence in the sense of you know mother's Great Commission is that those children that she spends so much time with father isn't it you know Great Commission is it just one of those kids now there's a sense that we also have a Great Commission commission to get out and preach the gospel whatever the Lord has prompted Us by the spirit to do so and we we go we got to be ready in season and out of season to preach the gospel therefore we need to be trained and Theological Doctrine so that we can explain what we believe and to those difficult questions always be ready and the way we're ready because we're constantly being trained for constantly been being built up where reciprocating Fellowship we can preach the gospel and when we get attacked we get persecuted we get shut down or we have deeper questions or or follow-up questions we have a community that we can draw from
 it's so I just want to encourage you guys as we close out here get connected to a local church I don't care what it takes men I don't care what it takes we need to move our families need to find it when you get a phone call when you look at their statement of faith went to visit them there are some good church finders you can use at EMS the Master's Seminary they have a church finder and you can go to tms.edu and you can find like this Google the master Seminole Cemetery Church find you're going to find him faithful churches there I know nine marks also offers a church finder that's pretty good you can look at nine marks of 9 m a r k s.com our network of house churches is Reformation fellowship.org that's available we have a church finder there for our house churches we have here we only have about 10 house roaches in it now but we are continuing to plant more churches by the end of the year Lord willing will have about 25 and so you start to find those in a couple years maybe we'll have you know 100 and so
 that is another thing for you to to to considering your journey but the big thing is get connected get connected and stay connected don't get offended don't get hurt don't be transient don't go in and out don't waffle don't go flip-flopping don't go visiting and never committing actually commit anchor down and be a part of a local church quick so box of the day hopefully that was edifying for you guys thank you for listening to the show we get out I think 6500 reviews for this podcast they really do help the exposure of the show so if you haven't left the review would you do that all you got to do is just tap the stars in the podcast app that you listen to especially if it's an apple podcast but if you write something on Apple podcast I will read it you can also listen to the show on Spotify by which a lots of people listened to on Spotify so you can share that nothing I'd ask you to do is
 sharing one of these episodes with a friend I always post these episodes plus the show notes for these episodes a tree learn.org and you can follow that I have the the show notes the scripture references that we put up together all this to all these 12 points that I made today put out there so this will always be available for you to listen to
 on that note Just One Last reminder pick up the manliness of Christ at realtor.org for sock man and on that note I will stop talking that you guys were joining me today my name is Dale Partridge this is real Christianity and I'll see you next week
 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