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1 Cor 2-3 By Neville Naden

I'm ready for a sleep, and I ask you, if I go to sleep up here, can you throw something at me?
Because if you go to sleep, I'll do the same, how does that sound? Is that fair enough?
Folks, before we get into the main part of our message this afternoon, I just want to read a verse of scripture for you.
And it's interesting, this morning we had a bit of a foundation, and we looked at that Christ is the foundation of the church.
Not only is he the foundation of the church, but he's also the builder.
He says, I will build my church and the gates of hell, or Hades, will not prevail against it.
And it's interesting, now I don't know whether or not you're a replacement theologist, or believe in replacement theology.
I want to tell you that I am. I believe that the spiritual arm of the church is who God works through today.
He still has a plan for the Jews, for sure, but God's church is those who put their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And therefore, I want to read for you a verse of scripture, and we talked about Christ going to build a church, and we know that any building has a plan.
And we looked at this morning that this plan of building the church and bringing about redemptive salvation is contained within the scriptures.
The Bible is God's plan for humanity from eternity past through to eternity future.
And we looked at that this morning.
But it's interesting, in Jeremiah chapter 29, it's a well-known verse, in verse 11, it says this, he says, I know the plans I have for you.
Here he is talking to the Jewish nation, and I believe he's talking to us as well as his church.
And that's what he says, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Hey, what a wonderful God we serve. He wants to prosper us, he wants to give us hope, and he wants to,
and he doesn't want any harm to come to us, his people.
And so God does have a plan for each of our lives.
And it's interesting that when we look over to Paul's letter to Corinth, we see a part of that plan unfolding for the Corinthian church.
And if you have your Bible, you might want to turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 3.
Let me give you a bit of background to the book of, or to the city of Corinth, and then we'll get into and have a bit of a look at this particular book.
We know that Corinth is a part of Macedonian, you know, Paul got the Macedonian call.
And in Acts chapter 18, if you want to read the background to the book, you can go there and you can actually read Paul's visit to that area of Macedonia.
And it was there that they, him and Silas and Timothy, preached the gospel.
And as Paul, as customary with Paul, when he goes there, he preaches, people come to faith in Christ, he will either go back or he'll write to them.
And in this case, he writes to the Corinthian church to encourage them.
And the interesting thing about Corinth was there were so many things that were happening in Corinth,
at the time of Paul's writings, there was a major seaport, there was a lot of business activities that were taking place,
there was the temple of Aphrodite was there, so there was a lot of temple prostitution going on,
and so people were being exposed to all this activity that was taking place.
And their world view was being informed to a lot of this activity that was going on.
And so when we come to this particular book, Paul is trying to correct some of those world views that people had,
in regards to the way in which they lived their lives for Christ.
Now in saying that, I want to tell you a bit of a joke.
And I know that Roosevelt, oh no, what's he going to say? Well I'll tell you, it's going to be good.
Forrest Gump goes to heaven, comes to the pearly gates, you see Peter standing there,
and Peter says to Forrest Gump, well Forrest, the only way you can get in here is you've got to answer three questions.
And Forrest says, well I suppose I can do that Peter, and what are they Peter?
He says, well the first one is, how many days of the week start with the letter T?
He said, don't you tell me now until you go and think about it, and then come back and tell me a bit later on.
And so Forrest says, oh yeah, I think I can manage that one.
And he says, okay, what's the second question then Peter?
He says, oh, he says, well how many seconds in a year?
Oh Peter, he says, that might be a little bit harder that one, but I reckon I can work it out.
Give me a bit of time.
He says, okay, he says, well what's the third question Peter?
And Peter says, well what's the first name of God?
Boy, he said, I don't know about that one Peter.
He said, I've read the Bible quite a bit and I've never come across it.
He said, but I'll go away and I'll give it some thought.
A week later, a couple of weeks later, Forrest Gump comes back to Peter and he says, okay.
Peter says, how'd you go?
He said, well Forrest, he said, it's all Peter, he said, I think I'll work it out.
He says, yeah, what's the first two days of the week that start with the letter T?
He said, well, that one was pretty easy Peter, today and tomorrow.
Ah, Forrest, Peter says, ah, yeah, okay, I thought third Tuesday and Thursday, but that's okay.
He says, what about how many seconds in a year?
And Forrest says, ooh, that was a little bit harder Peter.
He says, but there's 12 of them, the second of January, the second of February, the second of,
ooh, very good there Forrest, very, very good.
And he said, what about the third one?
He says, what's the first name of God?
He said, ooh, he said, that was a really difficult one Peter.
He said, but I'll work it out.
He said, well, what's his name?
He said, well, his name's Andy.
He said, Andy, he said, how'd you come up with that?
Well, Andy walks with me and he talks with me and he tells me.
You see, the point of the joke is this, that people speaking to our lives
and people have different understandings of the way in which they read scripture.
So when they come to scripture, they come to scripture with their different world views.
And when we're growing up in the church, we've been influenced by people's teaching
down through the years.
And we need to acknowledge that.
And Paul looked at the Corinthian church and he says, this church is just not cutting it.
It's just not cutting it.
They're just not being the church that God wants them to be.
And so Paul writes to them and he says, OK, we need to give them some clear instructions
as to what it is that they should be doing.
So he writes to them about all those things about the information about relationships.
He writes to them about the proper use of communion
and the ones they conduct themselves around the Lord's table,
as we saw in 1 Corinthians chapter 11.
He writes to them about divisions within the life of the church.
And so Paul is addressing all these particular issues.
And leading up to 1 Corinthians, Paul, well, in chapter one, he says this in verse four,
I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus.
For in him you have been enriched in every way, in all your speaking and in all your knowledge,
because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you.
There was a church, there were Christian people in them.
They were saved, they come to faith in Christ and they could talk the talk.
There was no doubt about that.
Paul says in all your speaking and in all your knowledge, they knew.
So not only were they able to talk the talk,
but they knew they had a good understanding of what was required.
The problem with the Corinthian church was not that they couldn't talk it
and not that they didn't know it, but they wasn't living it.
And that became a real issue for Paul.
And so Paul writes to them to try and address some of these issues.
And the first thing he tackles is divisions within the life of the church.
And we want to look at this before we get on to chapter three
because it's in that context that Paul deals with things in chapter three.
He says in verse 10, he says,
I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that all of you agree with one another,
so that there be no divisions among you
and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.
My brothers, some of Chloe's household have informed me
that there are quarrels among you.
What I mean is this,
and we heard Rod talking to someone about this stuff at lunchtime.
What I mean is this, one of you say, I followed Paul,
another I followed Paul and another I followed Cephas,
still another I followed Christ.
Is Christ divided?
Was Paul crucified for you?
Were you baptized into the name of Paul?
I am thankful that I did not baptize any of you except Christmas and Gaius.
So no one could say that you were baptized into my name.
Now, when we go to chapter three,
we have that reflected in the first nine verses of this particular chapter,
where he says, brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly.
So is it possible to be saved and continue to live in sin?
Yes, it is.
Is sin encouraged?
No, it isn't.
But here we have a church that is saved by the grace of God,
but are not living according to the principles of God's word.
And so Paul writes to them, he says, I could not speak to you as people who are mature in the faith,
but little kids.
And he says, mere infants in Christ.
And nobody says this, I gave you milk, not solid food, for you're not ready for it.
Indeed, you are still not ready.
You are still worldly.
If there is jealousy and quarrelling among you, are you not worldly?
Now, I've worked in many of churches where this sort of stuff goes on.
People are jealous of people growing in maturity and so forth and so on.
And Paul says that's a sign of immaturity.
There's a lot of fighting, there's a lot of bickering that take place.
Paul says a lot of those things are a sign of immaturity.
He says, are you not acting like mere men?
For when one says I follow Paul and another, I follow Apollos, are you not mere men?
You see, they were living according to what people were influencing
and how people were influencing them to live in the city of Corinth.
Everything was for themselves.
There was a lot of materialism that was going on.
No one, no one was living for one another and that was a real issue.
And then he asks the question, what after all is Apollos?
Now, we know why these guys were possibly arguing
and the orator of the old group was this Apollos.
Paul might have had all the right doctrine but if Apollos, no one could preach it like Apollos.
He was the orator, he was the gifted speaker.
He was the guy that would have went to, what are those classes?
Public speaking classes.
He was that sort of a guy.
And those who align themselves with the apostle Paul was those who were free from legalism.
You know that faith in Christ was the way to go.
And those who align themselves with Peter were those who wanted to hold on to their old Jewish customs and ways of life.
And so people followed these particular leaders who represented a particular view.
And so Paul gets stuck into them and he says, look, what are you guys on about?
And he says to them, he says, what after all is Apollos?
And what is Paul?
Only servants for whom you came to believe.
As the Lord is assigned to each his task.
And note this, I planted the seed, Apollos watered it.
But God made it grow.
So neither is he who plants nor he who waters is anything but only God who makes things grow.
The man who plants and the man who waters have no purpose.
And each will be rewarded according to his own labour.
Do you get that?
We are mere servants of the church of God.
We're nothing.
We don't hold any status or any position that has us up there.
No.
The important thing is that it's God that's bringing about growth within the life of his church.
And that verse nine, and this is where we get into some of this other stuff.
He says, for we are God's fellow workers.
You are God's field, God's building.
God is about building his church.
And as we saw this morning, he's got a plan to do that.
Verse 10 says, by the grace God has given me, I lay the foundation as an expert builder.
And someone else is building on it.
So Paul says, it doesn't matter.
What these guys are fighting over is not a real issue.
And so he says, I laid the foundation and someone else is building on it.
Who cares?
That's not important.
The important thing here is that God is bringing about growth.
God is bringing about an increase within the life of the church.
That's the important thing.
And if you think these guys are doing it, then look, get over yourselves.
Because it is not you.
It is God.
And then there's a bit of a warning in the next part of that verse, second part of verse 10.
He says, but each one of you or each one should be careful how he builds.
Now remember we said the foundation is not negotiable.
And it's not like the foundations that are built today where they use sand and gravel and water and cement.
All those things. No, it's one element.
It's Christ. He is a rock, remember?
Matthew 16, upon this rock I will build my church.
So it's one element.
He says, which one should be careful how he builds?
Now we're not a lot of talking about the foundation.
Well he does talk about that in a little while.
But he's talking about the building upon the foundation.
He says, but in order to get the building right, the foundation must be right.
He says, for no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Now I know that, you know, we've been talking over lunch that there are so many things that we want to add to Scripture that are not really there.
You know, we play church and we get all religious and all that sort of stuff.
Man, religiosity has got to go out the window.
You know, religion is killing the work of the Gospel.
And you might say, well that's not true now because the Gospel continues.
Hey, it's hindering the work.
There's no doubt about that.
And people, you know, let me tell you a bit of a story.
Recently up in, and I was telling our folks in Goymea,
recently up in Brooklyn Hill I had a bit of an argument with the Anglican guy out there,
because for those who know me I'm an ordained Anglican in the Sydney Diocese.
And he came around here to visit me one day and the boss from BCA was there and he wanted to organise a meeting,
hoping that we would come together and, you know, shake hands and kiss and cuddle and all that sort of stuff.
Well it just wasn't going to happen,
because this guy is into all the hype and pomp and ceremony within the life of the church.
And so he comes together for a meeting and he begins to open up about what he would like to see happen in Broken Hill.
And what he would like to see happen in Broken Hill is that I would roam.
Have you ever seen me in a dress?
Like that one.
But I would robe and that I would walk down the whole of his church with him,
so he can say to the community that, hey, here we are, we're working in unison together.
Now I've got no problem with that.
The problem that I do have is that I would be masking up, I would be hypocritical,
because that's not Neville Mayden, you know.
What I would be doing is I would be showing people something that I'm not.
The only time that I wore that robe was at my ordination.
And so him and I had a bit of a barney in my office.
And I said to him, I said, mate, I said, the sooner you hear this,
and I said, the better it's going to be, I said, I'm not into playing church.
I said, I'm not into wearing robes.
I said, the only time I wore a robe is when I was ordained.
And I said, that's been back in 94, whatever it was, it's in mothballs.
And that's where it's going to stay.
I says, we're about preaching the gospel and about getting people saved into the life of the church.
You see, what he thought was Anglicanism was getting dressed up in gowns
and all sorts of other things and then getting involved in a procession.
And I said to him, I said, what makes you, what makes what you're doing more angry than what I'm doing?
You know, he couldn't answer me.
I said, in any house, at the end of the day, it's not about denominationalism and religiosity.
It's about proclaiming the word of God.
And so we need to be careful that we don't get so caught up in all this religious hype and ceremony
and that our focus is on preaching the gospel and preaching it in such a way that people will hear the truth.
You know, we said this morning that salvation is by God placing within us the capacity to believe.
And I'm a firm believer in that.
And when God places the capacity within me to believe, it's then that I am saved.
And so I can preach till the cows come out.
And people say, well Neville, if you take that view, then why should you preach?
I say, because God knows who he wants to save, but Neville doesn't.
And so therefore I've got to be faithful in terms of what it is that I need to do.
And so this foundation has been set, not by us, not by the Anglican Church, not by the AI ministries,
not by any other church denominational or any parachurch organisation.
It's been set by Almighty God.
And we need to realise that.
For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid.
Which is what? Buddha? No.
Zoroaster? No.
What's that Smith bloke's name in the Mormon Church?
Joseph Smith.
Yeah, Joseph Smith, no.
Charles Taylor Russell, head of the Watchtower Society, or the founder of that? No.
That's why Paul says we preach Christ crucified and coming again.
That's it.
And God takes that truth and implants it into the minds and hearts of people.
And then they are saved.
So that's the foundation dealt with.
That, there's no negotiations around that.
And then he says, these words, if any man builds on a foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw,
his work will be shown for what it is, that they will bring it to life.
It will be revealed by fire and the fire will test the quality of each man's work.
Now the interesting thing about this, years ago I used to have an understanding of this passage of scripture,
but those who built on the foundation, gold, silver and precious stones,
were the Christians in the church, and those who were building wood, hay and stubble,
were people that were on the edges, you know, and weren't really mature in their faith.
But it's interesting now, I don't know about you, but as I build a church,
I'm going to use, and I will use, and I have used, not purposely, but I have used these things.
And they're not literal in any way, shape or form.
So he says, if any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw,
his work will be shown for what it is.
So what is this gold, silver and costly stones?
Well, I believe that gold and silver here is doctrine.
Now you might say that you've heard me this morning and I said doctrine divides.
It does.
It does divide, and there's no doubt about that.
But we should not allow our doctrine to separate us in terms of our unity in Christ.
Not at all.
At the end of the day, we've got to agree to disagree, and then we've got to move on.
Okay?
And allow us to coexist.
And you might say, well, you've got no basis for saying stuff like that.
How do I do?
Because if I truly believe that people are saved by the grace of God and God placing within them the capacity to believe,
then all this other stuff are of secondary issues.
Let me give you an example.
When I came to work in the Anglican church from a brethren situation.
The brethren church is not into infant baptism, whereas the Anglican church are.
So how was I to reconcile those two things, or could I reconcile those two things?
And I found that I couldn't.
But I had to agree to disagree with one part.
And then once things began to be explained to me about covenanting theology,
that children of believing parents are covered by their parents' faith,
then I began to rethink the whole thing.
Now, I'm still not comfortable with baptising kids,
but it gives me something else to think about in terms of my thinking.
But what I need to say is I don't agree with that.
But does that stop me from fellowshiping with my brother or my sister,
who differs from me in terms of my theological thinking or the doctrine that I hold to?
Do it? No. Not at all.
We have an obligation to one another, to fellowship with one another,
and to build this church.
Because this is the building of God. It's not the foundation.
I'm talking about the actual building.
And so he says if any man builds on this foundation using gold or silver,
those things that are good, those things that are true, doctrine,
and so forth and so on, and costly stones, what a costly stone.
And it's interesting that Spurgeon, in writing in regards to this particular passage of Scripture,
is using those things, these elements here, that could stand the heat and the test of time.
Now, I don't know about you, but the church is going through a period of trials and tribulations,
and that which is established properly will stand the test of time.
It'll go through and it'll stand and it'll remain solid.
And so he says that all those things that we use in the building are important.
But what are these costly stones?
The costly stones are the attitude by which we go about our business,
the beauty in which we present the Gospel, the beauty in which we lead people to Christ,
the humility that we present when drawing alongside someone who's struggling in their walk with the Lord,
and say, hey, Jesus loves you.
Hey, isn't that precious?
When someone draws alongside us and says, hey, brother, I can see that this trouble isn't there,
can I pray for you?
I went to visit someone the other day back in Broken Hill,
and going to visit people, you can tell in the areas that they're struggling to do the conversation.
But at the end of my visit, I said, brother, I said, what is one thing I can pray for you this week?
And you know, that's where it's at.
People want to know that Neville Naden hasn't got all the answers, but God does.
And it's the one in which we go about our task of proclaiming and presenting the Gospel through humility
that he identifies as being, I believe, these costly stones.
Now, what about the wood, hay or straw?
Now, I don't know about you, but I'm not perfect by any stretch of the imagination.
Just ask my sister Rose over there, she'll tell you.
And so when I go about my task, I'm going to make mistakes along the way.
And if you're involved in ministry, and I want to tell you that you've made mistakes along the way as well,
because you're not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, and nor will you be this side of heaven.
A lot of our guys in Sydney think they're already in heaven, so they're already perfect.
But that is not the case.
We are going to make mistakes.
And the things that we had to the Gospel, this foundation, that doctrine,
the humility in which we go about presenting the Gospel,
and all the add-ons are the wood, hay or stubble, all the plans we put into place,
all the dressing, all the way in which we dress up,
and go to church out of a sense of obligation and not out of a sense of appreciation.
All those things are going to be burnt up one day when Christ comes back for his church.
And we need to be reminded of that.
And sometimes we tend to think that, hey, the church, the building of the church of God,
is totally dependent upon those of us involved in ministry.
Hey, that's rubbish. That's rubbish.
The building of the church of God is Jesus' role.
And for those of us involved in ministry, we take a lot of comfort from that.
Why? Because if we're not seeing people at the doorsteps of their churches on Sunday morning,
we need to sit down and we can talk to Jesus about it.
So come on, Lord, what's going on?
You said you're going to build your church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.
Why aren't we seeing people coming to faith in Christ?
And there's some of the bigger questions that we must deal with.
But, friends, we are going to make mistakes along the way.
And those things that are precious, those things that are resilient through heat and fire
and temptation and all that sort of stuff will remain.
But those things of wood, hay or straw will be consumed by fire.
Verse 13 says, His work will be shown for what it is.
It's going to be laid out there for people to see.
Because the day will bring it to life.
It will be revealed by fire and the fire will test the quality of each man's work.
Let me ask you a question.
When was the last time that you spoke to someone about Jesus?
Picked up an itch like him on the way over to Goulgenra this morning.
I thought I was a bit of a nut bag, a rat bag, I think.
And he said, oh, he said, couldn't I stay there?
I said, yeah, brother.
I said, it's a blessing of the Lord, isn't it?
And he looked at him and said, no.
By the time we got up and dropped him off out of the garden,
he says, oh, brother, he said, thanks for that.
He said, you know, he said, I'll pray all morning for you to come along.
You know, here he was, never met me before, but I just said a few words.
And then he began to open up.
Is he saved? I don't know.
But what he knows about God, I want to encourage.
And that's where it's at.
When was the last time we spoke to someone about Jesus?
When was the last time we were able to say, hey, faith is evident.
What do you know about God?
We want to encourage you in your understanding of him.
Come along to church.
You know, there's only one big difference between us inside the church
and people outside the church is that we're sinners.
We're saved by grace.
If you don't think you're a sinner, then you, you know,
that's not the place for you.
You need to get somewhere else because you're therefore perfect.
This place is a place for sick people spiritually.
And we need to be there to encourage one another in our walk with God.
And Christ, sure, he's done the job.
But in terms of how we grow in his grace, in his mercy, that is the issue.
Friends, how are we building?
Are we trying to understand scripture for what it is?
Do we have a sober judgment of who we are?
And our inabilities to be able to please God at times?
Yeah.
Do we make mistakes?
I hope you do make mistakes because that's a learning process.
People who make mistakes learn.
And people who don't learn by their mistakes end up in jail.
You know, our prisons are full of them.
But we need to crawl inside people and say,
hey, we want to give you a hand with this.
We want you to know this God.
It's like Paul going to Athens in Acts chapter 17.
You know the story.
He comes to this image of an unknown God.
And he says, I can see you guys are very religious.
Because you even have an image to an unknown God.
He says, hey, I want to tell you who he is.
And then he begins to open up to them.
And even quoting one of their own Greek philosophers,
they had to bring across a truth,
that God is still in the business of saving people.
Verse 14, if what has been built survives,
he will receive his reward.
If it is burnt up, he will suffer loss.
He himself will be saved,
but only as one escaping through the flames.
Sometimes we get into the habit of judging people, don't we?
If you're saying you don't, then you're lying.
Because I did.
As a minister of the gospel.
And to me that is wrong.
There's nothing making a judgment upon a person's life
if you're praying for them.
And if you're judging and saying,
hey, I've got my brother there, he's in need of my prayers.
And we've got some issues that are happening in our church right now.
That if other people knew about it,
they would be standing and judging,
hey, that person's no longer a Christian.
You know?
Instead of looking at them and saying,
hey, that person is a Christian and loves the Lord,
but he's struggling in this area.
Years ago I can remember, and I'll close with this,
years ago I can remember working down in Port Augusta.
And there was this guy down there by the name of Frank.
And he struggled with alcohol addiction.
But every Sunday he was at church, faithfully, there.
And he just couldn't get a handle on his...
But, you know, there were people within the church that said,
hey, he's not a Christian.
Look, he treats him every week.
Hey?
But he was there.
And he's still consistently going along the church down there.
You see, sometimes we try and say, yeah, okay, salvation is all of God,
but there are certain things that these people must do in order to be saved.
That's not my understanding of it.
My understanding of it is, yeah, these people are saved
and they're struggling in this area of their life
and therefore we have an obligation to pray for them,
draw alongside them and bring them into the body of Christ
so they too can share in the fellowship with us.
Like we said this morning, the church is the only army that shoots its wounded.
And when we do that, we come to church and we're all puffed up and proud.
Hey, it's not the precious stones that Paul deals with in 1 Corinthians.
This building of God, true doctrine, proclamation of the word of God,
of doing it with a sense of humility whereby other people can see our humility
and wanting to be like us.
That's why Paul could say, hey, be followers of me as I am of Christ.
Why?
Because of the way in which Paul went about his task,
in preaching and teaching the gospel.
Let me pray with you and I'm going to hear that, Steve.
Father, again, we thank you for your love for us.
And, Father, we just pray, Lord, that this afternoon,
if there's anything that I've said that's incorrect,
that you might bring it to my thinking.
And, Father, we pray, Lord, that those things that have been valuable
out of what's been said, we pray, Lord, that we might take those things,
ponder on them, meditate on them, and, Father, apply them.
Help us not be like the Corinthian church who had all the knowledge
and came behind in no spiritual gift,
that, Father, they weren't living the life that you wanted them to live.
And so, Father, we pray, Lord, that we might be careful to do that,
that we might not only know what you require of us,
but we might put into place those things that we know to be right and true.
And, Father, when we stumble and fall, we pray, Lord,
that there will be those around us to pick us up
and to strengthen us to go on to serve you.
So be with us, Lord, and we thank you for all that you've done for us in Jesus.
We ask and pray these things in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Quotes, I'm going to head out. I'm going to make a good one at a time.
Thanks for having us, Steve. Appreciate it being here with you guys.
Thanks, Henry, for inviting me.
Thank you.
Thank you, brother.
Give our love and greetings to everybody at Broken Hill, Tommy Slane,
and whoever else. Most of you folks know more people there than I do,
but I've been enjoyed to have you, brother. Thanks for being a part of it.
No worries.
I'm just thinking, we were on a bit of a sketch last night
with some folks around the kitchen table.
I think Mervyn and I retired at about 20 to 1.
But we're now part of the world here.
We're pretty far-flung, aren't we?
And now we're ministering out there in Broken Hill.
You know our brother here ministering in Brewarrina and all points,
north, south, east and west of it, from what I can gather, aren't you?
But, you know, brothers and sisters in Colleran and Bry,
sister here from Walgen and how sad that town is.
Not a single gospel minister left there now since the Anglican fellow left last month.
Lightning Ridge, the Bush Church aid missionaries leaving.
You know Dave down there, and we're thankful for our brethren in Dovell
and our little church here in Gilgandra.
We look up to the north, you've got Killargan Bay,
and nobody there now.
Canamble, nobody there now.
Look out west and Warren.
Nobody there preaching the gospel among our indigenous community there
and very few among the white fellas.
The field is vast and we are few.
But the Lord says, I will build my church
and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
It's occasions like this for me, you know, I've been here a couple of years,
but these three rivers conventions we've had here
have just been like meat and drink to me
and we grow in our knowledge of one another.
We grow together and we resolve to put away our valueless differences
and to treasure our unity in the gospel.
Let's just trust and pray that our resolve will be blessed by the Holy Spirit
and we won't be forgetful hearers.
So I think I'm going to ask Brother Fred if you could pray to that end
and Brother David if you could pray to that end
before we close the meeting in Psalms.
So if you two brothers could pray that we'll retain the things
that we've learned and been assured of
and that the Lord will build his church through his servants.
Brother Fred first.
I'm talking about you brother Fred Ferguson here.
You first and then David Cox.
You used to be called I love for Fred see and I don't.
I love for Fred okay.
You know I'm still learning brother.
It's been a long time.
Yeah.
Our Father we just thank you once again for the ministry that we've heard today.
We just pray Lord that the Spirit of God might take that truth
and we might work upon it.
Help us to encourage one another.
In times of difficulty.
We just thank you once again Lord for the fellowship that we've had
and we just pray that we might be able to have another one
to stand for as the head father said with his trust and our grace.
Especially our time together.
In the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.
Well we do thank you Father that we've had this time.
We are co-laborers working together that you are the master builder
and working on things according to your plan and according to your purpose.
And we thank you for that purpose to be faithful in the task that you give to us
that no man can think any more of himself than he ought.
And we will be diligent in those things to give us very high purpose
and very inclusive wisdom and a discernment to know those things
that we dare not negotiate on.
As opposed to those things that we have agreed to disagree on
and still continue to work on those things together.
Father we thank you that you yourself have made Christ as a foundation force
upon which the rest of the building you measured and taken from
and Father we just pray that you might continue with your love towards us
and your loving discipline to shape us all.
What it is you have to be, help us to be humble and remember that
we will work to impress as our brethren
and that we might indeed praise one another
and encourage one another in a full and better understanding
of your word and just open to us to it.
We do praise, James said that we would indeed just hear us
and fill in ourselves with people who do those things
and follow the light that you give to us.
Father we thank you for a home such as this.
We thank you for putting on the work that you do.
We bless this in Jesus' name.