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The church.

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The church.

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What's the church?

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People.

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People is the church.

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Church is one of these words that can endure all kinds of meanings.

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We talk about going to church and we probably mean going to worship, the divine service.

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We talk about the church burned down, we mean a building.

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We might talk about the church should do more for poor people and we probably mean the institution.

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Or we can say that the church is worshiping God and we're talking about then probably

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this institution of believers all over the world.

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Okay?

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So church can mean all these kinds of different things.

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We are primarily interested when we talk about the church is we are interested in the gathering

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of believers in all places in all times.

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And we typically will divide the church in two categories and I mentioned those earlier.

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We have the church militant and we have the church triumphant.

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And the church militant is the church still at battle, military, at war.

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And who are we at war with?

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Well, Satan, the world, our own flesh, the world, the church at war.

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We're going to it.

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We're fighting.

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The church militant is you and me and everybody else who's still living and breathing.

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That's the church militant.

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All believers who are still alive.

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That's the church militant and it extends in all places and all times across borders

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and across ethnic divisions.

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The church triumphant, this is the church at rest.

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Believers basically who are already in the anteroom of the banquet hall in heaven.

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Okay?

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All right.

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The close.

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All right.

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Okay?

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So, the church triumphant.

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So Grandpa George was a great believer, died, he's part of the church triumphant.

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That's a good way to talk about it.

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I found one of the best ways to make funeral announcements talking about somebody joining

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the church triumphant.

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That's a nice way to think about it.

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So they're still part of the church, they're still with us.

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They've just taken their place, left the church militant to the church triumphant.

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They're still part of the church, they're still here with us.

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And these are both part of the communion of saints as John was pointing out earlier.

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That's exactly right.

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Both of these are in the community of saints, part of that.

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Now, the church in this world has kind of like two component parts.

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Traditionally, we will talk about the invisible church and the visible church.

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Dr. Kolb was a little reluctant to endorse that and doesn't like it quite so much.

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But the idea here is what we're getting at is the invisible church would be the true

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believers.

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And it's invisible because you can't look at anybody and know if he's really a believer

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in Christ.

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Maybe he's just a hypocrite and playing the game.

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You don't know.

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In the visible church, well that is the outward manifestation of the church.

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So you have Trinity Lutheran Church.

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Well there's the church.

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Who's in that church?

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Well I can hand you the roster.

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And here's the roster of 500 names.

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Here's the 200 who are active and here's the other 300 and that's our church.

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Just be a little facetious, right?

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All right.

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So that's the outward manifestation.

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In that visible church of those 500 names on the roster there at Trinity Lutheran Church,

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how many are members of the invisible church?

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We don't know.

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Maybe all of them, maybe not.

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There might be some people who aren't even part of that.

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And it's even possible that you might have somebody who is part of the invisible church

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who's not part of a visible church.

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Pretty rare but theoretically it's possible.

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Say for example you might have a believer in Saudi Arabia who has no church to which

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they can go and they haven't found a fellowship of believers even though they're looking for

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it but they really do believe in Christ.

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That's possible.

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It's possible.

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Like I said, pretty rare but possible.

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So these do correspond but they don't overlap neatly right on top of each other.

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All right?

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The other thing we recognize with the church is the church does include all true believers,

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not just Lutheran.

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And you would think after my little spiel about Lord's Supper and the importance of

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unity that, well, only Lutherans are in heaven.

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No, come on.

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I don't believe that.

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And I don't think any Lutheran worth his salt believes that.

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And I'm tired of people saying, oh, you think you're the one that's going to heaven.

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No, we don't.

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And anybody who is hearing the Gospel, living the Gospel, and knows salvation through faith

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in Jesus Christ alone, that's what it's all about.

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In fact, if you get right down to it and find a little guy up there, our body, what do you

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have to have to be saved?

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Well, I would say it probably boils down to two things that are really important.

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Salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone and recognizing the Trinity.

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Those are the things you've got to have.

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Everything else is nice but that's what you've got to have.

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And if a person has those two things, yeah, they're a brother in Christ even if they are

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a pinheaded Baptist or a tradition loving Roman Catholic.

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They're a brother in Christ if those two things are there.

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And we recognize that.

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And we are able to embrace that and appreciate that and see the truth in that.

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But we also recognize that we do have an obligation for doctrinal teaching and keeping things

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right and teaching things the right way.

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And so that's why we don't just say, hey, our doctrinal differences don't matter, don't

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worry about it.

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Well, they do matter and we do want to try to deal with these things.

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But even as we're dealing with them, we recognize, yeah, you're still a brother in Christ and

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we'll see each other in heaven someday and we'll get this all straightened out and you'll

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see how wrong you were and we'll be okay.

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It's a matter of time, you know.

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But so we recognize that.

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We're not so close-minded that we're the only ones who are right.

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We don't think that at all.

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What are the marks of the church then?

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How do you know when you've got a real church or a false church?

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The marks of the church, and people have offered different descriptions of these, but the marks

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of the church, really there's just two of them.

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The first one is that the Gospel is proclaimed.

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Because if the Gospel is not being proclaimed, you can't possibly have a church.

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And the second criteria is that the sacraments are being observed and practiced.

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So it comes down to the means of grace are there.

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You've got word and you've got sacrament.

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That's what's making the church work.

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So the Gospel is correctly proclaimed and the sacrament is properly administered and

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practiced and that's where you've got the church.

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No Gospel, no church.

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No sacraments, no church.

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All right.

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So who's in the church?

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Well, the true believers.

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And so if I have somebody who confesses to me and professes to be a believer in Christ,

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is he a part of the church?

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Yeah, I take him at face value.

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That's all I can do.

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I take the profession and I don't doubt it and I treat him as a believer in Christ and

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I proclaim the Gospel to him.

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So when somebody confesses to me and seeks forgiveness and I have no reason to doubt

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his confession even though I might think he's not sincere, I take him at his words and I

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treat him like a believer.

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That's what you do.

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That's how we function within the church.

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So profession is adequate to recognize who's in the church.

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Now as I mentioned, Kolb wasn't really fond of invisible visible because invisible starts

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to kind of give the idea of intangible or not real or something and somehow not being

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substantial.

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He prefers the terminology and I think this is kind of good of hidden over against revealed.

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And this helps us too because sometimes we talk about the visible church and we start

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to kind of denigrate that like it really doesn't matter.

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But it does.

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And so the hidden and revealed I think help us a little better here.

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Hidden reminds us that ultimately who is a true believer is hidden from our eyes.

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God knows that.

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We can't really know that.

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So that's hidden.

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But what is revealed is the church in action.

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The church proclaiming the Gospel.

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The church administering the sacraments.

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The church burying its dead and baptizing its young.

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The church functioning as the church.

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That's where we see the church in action revealed.

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So this division tends to think invisible, that's the real thing.

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And the invisible, that's not the real church.

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That's wrong.

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The hidden church is true, the church, but so is the revealed church where God is revealing

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himself and he's at work and he's in action.

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And that is the church doing its thing.

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So the church is this gathering of believers carrying out the work of God, serving God.

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And the church then calls people to serve it.

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And that's where the ministry fits in.

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The office of the ministry.

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The office of the ministry exists at God's will.

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And the purpose is simply to make sure that the church is doing its job and to serve the

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church in the odd job.

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And what is the church's job?

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Proclaim the Gospel.

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That's what the church does.

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So the church is called to do.

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In fact, the church's number one job, which is without any doubt, is to proclaim the Gospel.

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Everything else is secondary.

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Soup kitchen, that's fine, that's secondary.

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Proclaim the Gospel, that's number one.

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Go build a house habitat for humanity, fine, that's secondary.

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Proclaiming the Gospel, that's job number one.

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Having an outreach event.

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We're going to do blood pressure screening.

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Fine, have fun doing it.

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But that's not what the Gospel is, what the church is all about.

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We're here to proclaim the Gospel.

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That's job number one.

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Let's not ever forget, number one task, to really declare the Gospel.

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The fact is there are lots of institutions in this world in which people can belong,

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but there's only one that's proclaiming the Gospel, and that's the church.

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And if the church fails in that task, no one else is going to do it.

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A lot of churches these days seem to be confused about this, and they get all caught up trying

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to meet people's needs.

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They want to be a place that provides fellowship and a place where they can belong.

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But bars can do that really well.

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Probably better, because at a bar they're not going to ever challenge your behavior.

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They're just going to let you be you, and they don't care.

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And so if I want to just go somewhere where everybody knows my name, well, Cheers will

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do the job just fine, thank you.

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Or the local bowling alley, I don't need to go to church.

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And when churches start trying to get into the business of meeting the need of people

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belonging, we're going to lose every time, because the bar and the bowling alley will

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do it better.

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Our job is not make people feel like they belong.

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Our job is to proclaim the Gospel.

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Now along the way, fellowship, that happens, sure.

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But that's not the objective.

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The objective is the proclamation of the Gospel, declaring the absolution of sinners.

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That's what we're here for.

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And no one else is doing that.

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So we've got to make sure we do that well.

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Don't ever drop that ball.

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So I get a little tired of people talking about the church needs to be even better at

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reaching out to people and making people feel welcome.

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Yeah, I suppose.

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That's secondary though.

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That's all secondary.

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And so we don't need to be in the business of marketing and being people friendly.

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That's not really our task.

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Our task is to be at the place that proclaims Christ and gives the absolution.

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So that's what we do.

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All right.

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Part of then, another aspect of this, and we just need to talk about this because there's

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no, it fits in here, this whole idea of proclaiming the Gospel, is the idea of the...