As always, it's great to be here with you this morning. Thank you to the elders for the opportunity to speak while Kenny is away. A couple of weeks ago, he sent me a message, and he asked if I would be, if I would be able and willing to preach today. And I told him I would. And so I started thinking about, you know, a topic. That's one of the hardest things sometimes, to figure out; what topic do you want to study with the congregation? And so trust was on my mind. I had kind of thought about an outline, and started thinking a lot about that. And then last Sunday morning, Kenny preached a lesson on trust, on how we should trust in God and rely on him and all of those things. So kind of went back to the drawing board after that, which would have been okay. There's like he, I think, he said last week, he's always faith, faith, faith. And there's really not too many lessons on faith. We could talk about that every week.
But so this morning, I want to talk about a topic that we've all studied before. You've heard sermons on. I'm not going to say anything prophetic today, uh, looking at a lot of different scriptures on the topic of, why do we need a church family? Why do we need a church family? I know that Kenny did a two part lesson now, several weeks ago on the importance of the church and I don't want this to be a repetition of that, but I do want us to think about, I think we sometimes take for granted the group that we're with here and the church abroad, and I don't, I don't want that to be in a really, really negative sense, but we're all brothers and sisters in Christ. We're all living a life, trying to please God, thankful to him for everything he's done for us, with the ultimate goal of spending eternity in Heaven with Him and with all of us, right? And so as we look around this room today, many other congregations of the Lord's people, we're all hopefully living with that same goal. And so why do we need a church family? I'm going to look at we've got a few points this morning, and most of the passages will be on the screen, and we'll flip to a couple in our Bibles. I hope that this will encourage all of us who do have a church family, and help us realize the importance, and then, if there's anyone here that does not have a church family, that maybe this will encourage you to want to do so as well. If I would ask this question, why do we need a church family in a Bible class setting, we would have came up with all of these and many, many more in about a minute, alright? So this isn't like I said, is any anything prophetic, but I hope that it is beneficial to all of you, as it has been to me.
Number one, we pray for one another. We pray for one another many times every day. We pray for, probably the physical well being, or the physical improvements for those that we are thinking about. We get our family report. There's usually people listed there that are sick or ailing. They're having surgeries, and those, I would imagine, those people go on your prayer list as you pray that you pray for those. Those are brothers and sisters in Christ that need our prayers for physical ailments, for physical things that they are dealing with. And we see that in Scripture. This is Second Thessalonians, chapter three. It starts out, "Finally, brethren pray for us," and the rest of this is verse number two. I'll come back to verse number one in just a minute. But "finally, brethren, pray for us," and then verse two says, "and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men, for not all have faith." So physical safety that will be delivered from these wicked men. They don't all have faith. They don't like us at all. And so we would appreciate prayers that we'll get away from them safely. We see that some physical; say a physical prayer. Romans, 15:30, and 31, "now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ and through the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me, that I may be delivered from those in Judea who do not believe, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints." Again, same type deal here, delivered from Judea. As we travel, we need to get away from Judea to Jerusalem. Pray for me. Pray for me that happens. In Second Corinthians. I don't have this one on the board, but you remember in Second Corinthians 12, Paul talks about his thorn in the flesh, and he says that he prayed three times for God to remove that thorn. And God said, My grace is sufficient for when you're weak, I am strong. So we see he prayed for himself. He asked others to pray for him in those physical things. We see many miracles performed with those who have physical ailments. And so we should pray for one another's physical issues. We're very quick, a lot of times, to send a message out, hey, so I'm sick today, or us with children, hey, so and so sick. My parents are sick. Please pray for us. We're very quick because we know when we send a message, or we ask Kenny to put it in the family report that we have a whole group of people that will be praying daily for those things, and that's a good thing. We should find comfort in that. I also think, and more importantly, as we pray for one another, that we that we pray for our spiritual well being. Second Thessalonians, now this is the rest of verse one of chapter three. "Finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord may run swiftly and be glorified just as it is with you." Spiritual. The word of the Lord may may run swiftly. Pray for that. Pray for the work that we're doing that it will be successful, that God will be glorified, just as it is with you.
If you will, we'll turn to this one in Colossians chapter one, if you will, turn to that one for me, Colossians chapter one. As you turn there, I will mention that most of the time, if you look at Paul's letters and his introductions, you know he usually says, I am praying for you, earnestly. I never cease to pray for you. And most of the time, if not every time, that is a spiritual prayer, right? He's praying for them, for their faith, for their... the wisdom and knowledge of God to be imparted to them, for them to stick to what they're doing, what it you fill in the blank there for those introductions. But here in Colossians chapter one, let's read three and four. Says, "we give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ, Jesus, and of your love for all the saints." So we're praying for you, for your faith in Christ. We heard about it. We're so thankful for it, the love for all the saints that you have continue that we're thankful for that, and we are always praying for you. Skip down to verse number nine, right there in that same chapter. "For this reason, we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthen with all might, according to his glorious power, for all patience and long suffering, with joy." Praying for spiritual things, for the spiritual well being of these Colossians here. You know, we see Jesus in his model prayer, we see both things mentioned, right? Give us this day our daily bread, physical, and then lead us not into into temptation, but deliver us from evil, spiritual. So I'm not standing up here saying we need to just stop praying for physical things and only pray for those spiritual things. That's not what we see in Scripture, and I'm not saying that this morning, but I do want us to really realize and and see the importance of praying for one another and praying for those spiritual things that we have going on.
You know, as I said, when we're struggling physically, we usually ask the church for prayers, and that's good. We usually do that pretty quickly. Unfortunately, with spiritual troubles, warfare with Satan, we kind of keep those things private. We don't really like to mention those things as much, because maybe we feel like we'll be judged. You know, somebody might be might look at us differently when that's not really the the truth because all of us struggle with something, and sometimes it's worse than others. I want to ask this question, if we do keep those things private, those spiritual things, if we're not praying for one another, then who is praying for us? I think to myself, You know what? I'm struggling with this, but I'm going to keep it to myself. I'll let, I'll pray to God about it. And that's great, and you may can get through that. But knowing that hundreds of other people are praying for the same thing probably would strengthen us a little bit more. I say probably. I know it would. We've all been in situations like that where it's comforting, it's encouraging to know that hundreds, if not more, people, are praying for us in battles that we're going with, physically, or, more importantly, spiritually. Proverbs 15 and 29, "the Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous." If we're righteous, which that's our goal, as I've already mentioned. We don't say that arrogantly. We're trying to do what God would have us to do. The Lord hears the prayer of the righteous. And then James five and 16, "Confess your trespasses to one another, pray for one another that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much." Our church family is important because we are ready and willing to pray for our family's physical and spiritual needs. I would just like to ask here, and might ask it again at the end, but do you have a spiritual need this morning? We'll pray for you. We'll love you, hug you, whatever you need. That's what, that's what family is for, right? We tell our kids that, we tell our parents told us that, hey, you can tell me anything. It's okay. That's what family is for. Well, as in the church, that's what family is for. So let us know we'll pray together. That's the longest point. If you're wondering if that was really long, how many points I have? That's the longest point that I have this morning.
Point number two, why we need a church family. We love and support one another, and all these kind of will, you know, flow, hopefully right with one another. Kenny, read this last week in Luke 10. We're in our 10th chapter of our Doctor Luke study, "and after these things, the Lord appointed 70 others also, and sent them two by two before his face into every city and place where he himself was about to go." You I don't know about you, but I know that for me, if I was to go out door knocking, which that's-- we don't really do that much anymore, but if I was go out door knocking, I don't want to go alone. I want somebody to go with me. At least one person is the more the better, right? Make you feel more confident. Make you feel better about going out, not from a safety-- not from safety aspect, but just because it's easier. Two is better than one. If I go to the funeral home, to a family that has lost a loved one, I always little bit easier if I have somebody right next to me. You know, if I go visit someone physically ill or grieving at home, it's always easier to have somebody with us. For me. I know, I know many of you are probably really, really good. You've done it for a long time, but it's easier for me when I have that support going in to a situation like that. In this chapter 10 of Luke, in verse nine, it talks about the job that they had to do. In verse nine, it says, "they were to heal the sick and say to them, the kingdom of God has come near to you." So while we support one another, we love one another, we have a job to do as a church family. First Thessalonians chapter one, and then the next one will be in chapter four. But first Thessalonians, one, six through eight, it says, "And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became examples to all in Macedonia and Achaia who believe for from you, the word of the Lord has sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place. Your faith toward God has gone out so that we do not need to say anything." Examples to all. You became examples to all. The word of the Lord is sounded forth in every place, and I love that last line. Your faith toward God, God has gone out so that we don't need to say anything. That's comforting right there. As they're reading this that would have made them smile. Had to. You know, let's keep doing what we're doing. Keep doing what we're doing. There's supporting what -- that doesn't happen though, in this, these verses, that doesn't happen without love and support for one another, going out and working for the Lord, trying to sound forth the word of the Lord. Just one or two people, that doesn't work. It's a group. And they were going forth in every place, being examples to all.
And then in chapter four, we see similar things, more positive verses here, nine through 12. "But concerning brotherly love, you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another, and indeed you do so toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you brethren that you increase more and more, that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your own hands as we commanded you." And then I underline this part, "that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and that you may lack nothing." I looked at another version for that, what I underlined there, and it said, behave properly in the presence of outsiders, so that we behave properly in the presence of outsiders, or we walk properly to those who are outside. Isn't that our goal, again, as Christians, as the church, to go out, sound forth the Word of God, bring as many lost souls to Christ as possible? And again, that doesn't happen if there's the love and support within the group and that we're all trying to do those things, not just a few. Before we go to the next point. I want to say this because there are congregations of people everywhere that love and support one another, right? People, I mean, they're everywhere, whether they're the Lord's church, whether they're not, they love and support one another, but we must also, and this goes right into our the next point, but we must be working together and spreading the gospel the way that God wants us to and what we see in Scripture.
So that kind of brings me to this next point of why we need a church family. Well, we need to hold one another accountable. We need to hold one another accountable. We all need to be corrected. Sometimes we may not like it, but we need it. My wife finds several times to correct me throughout the day or week, whatever the case may be, and that's okay most of the time. Sometimes she's not right, though, right, no, but we all need to be corrected. We all need to hold one another accountable in First Timothy chapter one, verses, three and four, "as I urged you when I went into Macedonia, remain in Ephesus, that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification, which is in faith." You know, sometimes in conversations in Bible classes or just conversations with different people, whatever the case may be, we can get into conversations that, that we could, could be big disagreements, but in the grand scheme of things, they really don't matter. Right? We might disagree on it, but it really doesn't matter in the big picture. And he says, fables, endless genealogies, these disputes, these arguments that cause this, these problems. Stay away from those. Urge them. Charge them to teach no other doctrine, not to get into any of these things, but edify in the faith. You know, I kind of read that, and I thought, you know, basically, keep the main thing, the main thing. Don't get caught up in nonsense and foolishness. What's the main thing? And we can keep each other from doing that. We can hold one another accountable in our daily walks. You don't have to turn here. You remember the Bereans in Acts 17, "they received the word with all readiness and searched the scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so." You know we appreciate Kenny here for the work that he does. And I know he said this multiple times, and he would be fine with me saying it, but he wants everyone to search the Scriptures, whatever he says standing in this pulpit, he wants all of us to study and to make sure that anything that he says is appropriate and right in God's eyes, according to the Scriptures. You shouldn't just take what I say this morning for truth. I hope and pray that everything as we look at these scriptures that we are learning together and that I'm not saying anything out of the way, but if I am, let me know. Hold me accountable. We need to hold each other accountable, and we can become stronger, and we can become better every single day that we live. Remember Apollos in Acts 18:24 to 28? I'll read 25 and 26, "this man had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things of the Lord, though he knew only the baptism of John." Okay, so he is fervent in spirit, taught accurately the things of the Lord. Only knew the baptism of John. So he began to speak boldly in the synagogue, "when Aquila and Priscilla heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately." They did it with love, right? They held him, they just taught him a little bit more. He was bold, he was fervent in spirit, he was accurately teaching the things that he knew. And they pulled him aside and said, Hey, let us tell you this part as well. Let's go in a little bit more. And then at you, keep reading. And guess what he did? He went out and he started doing the same. He was boldly teaching again. He didn't get offended. It doesn't look like when they pulled him aside, he said, Oh, thank you. And then he started teaching it. And we can do the same thing when we have conversations, when we have Bible studies, that we can hold one another accountable.
Moving right along, I told you that first one was the longest. Number four, we get to spend time with one another. You know, we have our worship service here this morning. We have Bible classes a couple of times of week. A couple times a week, we have weekly Bible studies. We have lectureships, we have ladies days, we have men's days. We have all of these opportunities to spend time with one another. And that is a really, really good thing. Being around brothers and sisters in Christ should be a priority for us. You know, there, I would be lying if I said that every Bible class I've ever sat in, if every worship service that I've ever sat in that I was 100% fully engaged and my head was exactly where it needed to be. Drew kind of talked about that a little bit this morning. It happens. We're human. Something, the world, gets in our minds, and sometimes we cannot get it out. It just is what it is sometimes. Now we don't need to make that a habit obviously. Whatever the case is, there's been times where I'm not fully engaged, but I still leave feeling better than I did when I came because it's encouraging to be around brothers and sisters in Christ, we get to spend time with one another, and I appreciate that. And I try really hard the next time to get my head where it needs to be before I go into a worship service or a Bible class. But we get to spend time with one another, and that's a great and comforting thing when we go out into the world during our week, and it's not always the best of times. Psalm 133, and verse one, "Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity." Philippians two, verse two, fulfill my joy by being like minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind." How good it is, how comforting, how encouraging to know that we are like minded this morning. The same love, one accord, one mind. First Thessalonians, two and 17, "But we, brethren, having been taken away from you for a short time in presence, but not in heart, endeavored more eagerly to see your face with great desire." You know, when we're away from some of you probably have are away from your families for work, maybe for days at a time, maybe longer, maybe weeks, or maybe, or, you know, people that are and all they want to do is what? All they want to do is get home to see their spouse, the kids, the family. That's all they want to do. We endeavored more eagerly to see your face with great desire. We just want to come see you. We're there with you in heart, but we miss you. We're trying to get there. And so we do that physically, spiritually. Are we excited to see each other? Do we miss being around one another when we're maybe we're out of town for a week, we get to come back see everybody? That's encouraging. It's encouraging to be around one another, of like mind, of precious faith, of all of us with the same goal.
And then last this morning, we lift up one another. We lift up one another. I was about a month ago, or maybe longer, my parents had bought a new light fixture in a hallway, and they asked me to if I could change that, and my wife didn't want me to, because I'm not electrician, and she's scared I'll mess up, you know? But I said, Sure, you know, I'll do that. I'll try see what I can do. So I got up, and so my arms were up like this, you know, working trying to take the old one down, trying to wire the new one. And so my arms were up for five minutes, maybe, and my shoulders started getting weak. And I thought, Man, I don't know how people do this all the time. I couldn't hold my arms up for the all day. You know that I'm weak my shoulders, I'm going to be sore tomorrow, and I did it for five minutes. You remember in Exodus 17, eight through 16 is the passage Joshua and his men are fighting Amalek, Moses, Aaron and Hur up on the hill watching, and Moses, he had the rod of God in his hand. And so he would hold the rod up they would be winning. But he got tired his arms. And I can imagine you put in one you both arms are going to get pretty tired pretty quick. He got tired. And Aaron and Hur pulled up a stone for him to sit on. And you know that they held his arms up. They held his arms up until the battle was won. They lifted him up when he was weary, when he was tired, when there was no way that he was going to be able to do that he was weary, the Bible tells us, and he he just he needed help, and they were there to lift him up, and we can do that as well. Galatians six and verse two, "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." As I mentioned earlier on, the first point, we can't bear one another's burdens if we don't know what burdens to bear. We're a family. We all struggle spiritually. We pray together. We pray for one another, for those struggles, to overcome those things that we are struggling with. We pray to God for that to happen. We pray for God to help us, and we should. But knowing that hundreds of people are praying for you as well? Bear one another's burdens, that's why we need a church family.
We pray for one another. We love and support one another. We hold one another accountable. We get to spend time with one another. We lift one another up. Again, we would have got those five in one minute, if I would have asked that question, and many, many more on, why do we need a church family. First Corinthians 12. This is what Caleb read for us right before. "But God composed the body, having been greater honors that part which lacks, that there should be no schism, no division in the body, that the members should have the same care for one another, love for one another. If one member suffers, all of the members suffer with it." Well, how do all the members suffer? If one member suffers, well, all of them must know that that member is suffering. If one member is honored, all the members rejoice. If one person rejoices, we all rejoice. And that we usually know about that, because everybody's excited, we all rejoice with one another, but we all suffer together as well. When one suffers, we all suffer. As I stated at the beginning, I hope that if you have a church family, maybe College View is your church family. For visiting with us from another congregation, that this has helped you realize the importance, realize that that we are God's family. We are the church. Trying to get to heaven. We all suffer. We all struggle. And we can work together to spend eternity with Him. If you don't have a church family this morning, I hope that maybe these things we've looked at will encourage you to become a member of the Lord's church, and if you would like to study I know there are many men here who would be willing and welcome you to study the Bible. Don't go through it alone if you're struggling. We'll pray for you. We'll pray with you. The prayer of a righteous man avails much. Whatever you need. Come as we stand and as we sing.
