In his sermon 'A Church With Purpose and Power,' Bro. Peter Halliman discusses the essential components that define a healthy and powerful church. He begins by referencing Acts 1:7-8, emphasizing the power granted by the Holy Ghost to be witnesses for Jesus across the world. Bro. Halliman poses critical questions regarding the purpose and power of churches, challenging members to evaluate the mission and effectiveness of their congregations. He likens personal growth and purpose to the church's mission, underlining the necessity of having clear objectives. The sermon outlines five key components of a healthy church: evangelism (reaching out to others and fulfilling the Great Commission), fellowship (embracing and building relationships within the church community), discipleship (teaching and modeling Christian living), service (helping others as a form of worship), and worship (a sincere connection with God). Bro. Halliman warns against churches becoming stagnant and lacking spiritual vitality, urging a return to biblical principles and genuine worship. He critiques churches that prioritize tradition over true engagement with scripture and God's mission, encouraging believers to live out their faith actively and authentically.

Good morning. Greetings from Poplar New Guinea. Turn your Bible to the book of Acts chapter 1. Book of Acts chapter 1. And I will pick it up in verse 7, reading through verse 8.

And it said unto them, that is, Jesus, it is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power After that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. Let's pray. Father in heaven, I ask your blessings upon the region of your word. I pray, Father, that your spirit might have free course amongst your people this morning today, and Father, that you might meet with us.

May our worship indeed be in spirit and in truth. Pray Father that your word would find a hiding place on our hearts and lodge there and produce fruits. Pray Father you will speak to us. As these things follow Jesus name I pray, amen. Subject and title of the message, A church with purpose and power.

And I want you to take your mind and ask yourself some questions as I deliberate in the message. What's the purpose of the church? Does Unity Baptist Church have a purpose? For any Baptist church, for any of the Lord's churches, is there a purpose for the church? That's the question we all must answer.

Secondly to that question, does the church, does the Lord's Church, Unity Baptist Church, Prophets Baptist Church, wherever church we're from, member of, does that church have power? And if not, why not? What's hindering the power of the Church? What's road blocking the progress? And when we begin to understand the entire mission of the Church, we'll get the answers to these questions.

I want you to also think in your mind about things that when you were younger and your aspirations, things you wanted to do. We all went to school. At least I think we all did. And when you were in your primary years, questions were asked, at least I know in my family, but they were not much different than you are. Peter, what do you want to be?

Go up. You will never ask that question. To stimulate, to help you put things in order of where your life is going to go so you might have a purpose point. Have a purpose point. And in pursuing that purpose there are objectives that you have to follow through those objectives to reach the purpose.

Once you follow through these objectives and you push your way through, you go through the schooling, you go into higher schooling, you go into whether it be college or university or whatever you want to call it, higher learning. And you work your way through the steps of all this learning and specialized fields. You finally reach a point to where you feel that you have some power, knowledge is power. And you finally realize or feel that you have enough knowledge, you have enough power to do your objectives, to carry it through. It can be a little intimidating at first, but once you start working your way through your job application, what you've been trained for, what you've been set up to do, you develop the skill sets And you're actually in the field and you're doing it step by step.

It becomes a little easier, becomes a little easier, becomes a little easier. And sooner than later, you become comfortable with what you do. Take that application, that example, as a supply to the message. The church, Does the church have a purpose? And if so, what is the purpose?

And the church where we are a member, does it have power? Without power. On mission in life, it's not just to join a church and then go there and attend church and hang out until the Lord comes. That's not the purpose of the church. It's not just a place to go hang out.

But a lot of people are doing that. And if you ask a lot of people, why are you a member of that? They can't even give you a reason why they're a member. Well, I've always been there. You didn't answer my question.

Why are you there? Well, my parents were there. You still didn't answer the question. Why are you? Remove everyone else.

There's no tribe here, there's no clan here, there's no sub-clan, there are no tribal people here. It's you individually with the will of why are you here? Why are you a member here? That's the question. The emphasis should be that of a healthy church.

The emphasis should be there. You can take care of yourself when you are in your twenties and thirties and forties and you can look after yourself and you can think about what it may be like a little bit down the road and you can be very cognitive, very attentive to yourself your health, your person who you are, how you manage, how you get on with things your physical capabilities, your talents are still set You can worry about that, you can think, you can consider. You can put time into that. Last year you were younger than three years. By the time you get to your 50s, will your body start changing?

Some of us know that. Some of you don't yet. Well, I'm in my 60s. Some of you don't get it. Well I'm in my sixties.

I ran a four eleven minute mile in high school and I got second place and they wanted me to go get the trophy, I wouldn't go get it. They said, why don't you go get your trophy? I said, because second place is supposed to place losers. You're great. That's right.

I don't want the trophy for being a loser. Well, that's just my character, that's Peter Halleck. I'm very competitive. Well here's my point, I can't run a 411th mile any longer. I still run, I still exercise, I still look after myself.

Things are changing. But I also look after myself on the health side. I'm very particular what fuel I put in here. Do you understand that? No one here in America would think or consider putting rubbish fuel in their vehicle and go down the motorway 90 miles an hour.

It's not going to happen. So why is it that people want to put all sorts of rubbish in here and then later they face the consequences of all sorts of illness. You see the objective was right. See where it's going? There's a lot of preaching on that too, but I'm Disciplining myself.

The emphasis on the Church is that it should be and it should have a very healthy spiritual appetite. It does no good at all to go absolutely obese on certain doctrines. It does no good at all. There are preachers and churches that go to see on certain doctrines. Yeah.

Yeah, that's right. And at the same time, they lose weight on practical living. Amen. There you go. There are Two sides to the coin, two sides to the story.

We have to have doctrine, we have to have principles, we have to have morals, we have to have Christian living, we have to have it all in a balance. It's what we call a healthy church life. So what makes a healthy church? It does no good to preach long and loud about non-drinking of alcohol and yet you have obesity. Yeah, amen.

I've never heard a preacher in this country preach on obesity. A dull hammer, long and hard, total abstinence and you're a heathen and you're up for exclusion if you found drinking some wine in your home. Yeah. Now I have friends, preacher friends who are total absentee people on alcohol. I don't condemn them for it, but I have agreed in that time.

You come to my home under my roof. You voluntarily place yourself under my authority. That's right. That's the whole meaning of the word chaos in Greek I'm more my home. He's the more of his house.

You're the more of your house when I enter your house. I Voluntary place myself under it is a military term I voluntary submit to your authority right yeah what constitutes a healthy church Preaching long and loud and heavy on the second coming of the Lord. But don't get me wrong, the Lord's coming back. He saved wood and He is. And I'm still pre-military position.

However, there are some things and there are some points to consider. We don't know how much of this ABCD we're going to go through before the Lord does return to take his people. Can you tell me that? A healthy church, what makes a healthy church? The church is nothing more than home life congregated.

This home, that home, that home, the home life has congregated into a public place. It doesn't matter which public, is it a public building that this has been set aside for the church to meet here or whether it's in your home or your home or whoever's home. There are five home churches in the New Testament. No matter whether the church congregates, if the church congregates, the church has congregated. And so what makes a healthy church?

I've got five points, but maybe we won't get through all five. But I will give you five points. What makes a healthy church? We're not just talking about the physical health, though that's important too. We're talking about the spiritual and the emotional health of God's people.

That's what we're talking about. Number one, evangelism. That is reaching out to others. It's getting involved with other people, and I will get into each point as I deliberate. Number two, there is fellowship.

That is embracing others, not just shaking hands and off you go. Right. Amen. Number three, discipleship, that is teaching others and that is teaching what you demonstrate verbally and physically, meaning you live it out. Fourthly, a healthy church is about service.

That is helping others. Today, money replaces time. Yes. Pay attention to these points. Number five.

A healthy church is about worship. That is embracing and encouraging others. Mostly is between you and God. What's the sink in? What is worship?

What do you think worship is? What have you been led to believe worship is? What has been loaded on your plate all these years and you see that's what worship is? Well, we're going to look at some things in the Bible and the Bible will become, God's Word will become very, very clear about worship. These are, one thing I want you to notice is that these five points, they are the Bible rules for a healthy church.

They're not my rules, they're not yours. They don't belong to another preacher, they don't belong to another pastor, they don't belong to another church. I didn't make them up, they're found in the Bible. They are God's recipe for a healthy church that has a purpose and it has power. Something that's lacking in our generation that we live in.

How many churches that you can think of or have known in the past or know now around the country, perhaps around the world. Because I travel around the world, I know a lot. So, different churches in different areas. And how many churches mean or worship what they have no purpose at all? Meaning they have no goals set, they have no motives, they don't have any kind of an aim, they don't have any objectives they're trying to reach.

They just hopelessly go in worship, they say the word should be and Sunday after Sunday they go to the balls and after Sunday everyone goes home starting in week nothing changes so What's the purpose? Do we have a purpose? Is there a purpose in God's world? And how many churches seem to meet and worship, but yet it seems as though they have no power. They have no power with God.

It seems like there's no power in the prayers. It seems like there's no power in the singing. It seems like there's no power in the preaching. It seems like there's no power in the conviction. In a relationship with others is just no power.

Evangelism, our first point, is reaching out to others. Christ, in his great commission to the church, Matthew 28, very familiar, all Bible students should know it. His last message to the church here on earth, he may pass it to the church, directives. They were not optional directives. Do you know how difficult it is for people today to follow directives?

Matthew 28, 18, 19, 20 is a statement of Christ to the church. He did not give an option. It's not optional choice, multiple choice. It's not whether you feel like it, do it. It's not whether you want to, then do it.

It's not whether you don't want to or do want to. It's not, that's not in the equation. They were directives given and the church was to follow out, literally live out these directives. Go preach. Evangelos.

Baptize those who say they've been saved. It's not up to me to determine who's saved. I hear a confession, if I'm satisfied with the confession, my duty is to baptize the Church of Thoreau. Following the baptism, thirdly, to discipleship or teach. There is not a number four.

A challenge you find. Three directors in God's people can't get it right on three. Yet we pride ourselves and boast about all this knowledge and the finesse that we have of the learning capabilities and all of the engineering and all of the technology in the developed world, we pride ourselves on it, and we will stand long and tall and go on and on about it in conversations. I've got this, I know how to do that, I can work it out. Yeah, great, but you can't work out three points.

Why is it so difficult for God's people to do that? Evangelism is reaching out to people. It means in Acts chapter one, verse eight, power. That means ability. That word power means ability.

If you go back to the Greek and look it up, power. And here's what it means. To put it in everyday vernacular, it means that Christ is saying to the church, I mean Christ, he has given the church the ability. A little bit more clear now. Christ has given the skill set.

Your nerves, medical, by trade, professional, on a professional level, and world of nuclear warheads. I do a lot of other trades. I do a lot of things with my hands. I can fabricate, I can make. There are things I cannot do.

I don't have the skill sets to be professional in some areas. But here is a message to you and on that the Lord has equipped. What do you have? What do you not have? What skill set do you not have to follow Matthew 28, 18, 19, 20?

He has equipped his own people. The Lord equipped the church. He gave them the ability. You have the skill set. You can do it.

I can't do that. Yes, you can. Do it. The Lord equipped His church, He gave His church, His people the ability to be witnesses to go into all the world. Wherever that world is, go into it.

Now, anyone in the church or every member cannot go into all the world. So what does that mean? It means that by witnessing, there are people you're going to meet, I will never meet. There are people I will meet, you will never meet. That's right.

You're one place, you're schoolmates, you're neighborhoods, the shops, the restaurants, doesn't matter where you go, you're going to be the people I will never see in my life. And there's a lot of people I will meet, you will never meet. Right. And we as God's people individually, but also corporately with the church, evangelists and mission work has to be authorized as a church authorized church work, mission work has to be authorized by the local church, however, but however, each individual. Don't write it off, oh well I don't have church authority, I can't evangelize, I can't witness, I really...

That's where it goes for the most Christian people. You have a responsibility, I have a responsibility, to witness to people... That's evangelism. And the Lord has given us power or the ability to do this. The skill set, the very thing that the Lord commanded His church to do, Understand this.

If you're given a directive, okay, you give me a directive to do something. I need to know what I'm going to do. I need to have the ability to do that. If you're going to give me a directive, I have to perform my duties professionally. Yes, I want you to well stand this to this.

I can do that. I want you to perform surgery in theatre and do an open heart surgery. I can keep you alive on the field, but I'm not a professional doctor. I can make incisions and I have and I can set people up on the field and I have. But I'm not a professional doctor and I will never tell anyone that I'm in the medical.

That's not my competition. But there are some here that can do that. Maybe. So why in the world do God's people think they haven't been equipped to witness? Right, yeah.

God's people, If you are saved by His grace, if you have been birthed from above, if you have God's Holy Spirit within you, then you have all the skill sets, you have the credentials, you have been given the ability to be able to evangelize on a personal level. The Lord did not put anything on his church that they could not handle. What is it that the Lord has said in Matthew chapter 28? What did the Lord say to the church that they can't handle? He gave them authority.

People have misread that. I face it all the time on the mission field. And there were churches and pastors in Papua New Guinea after absent for 28 years in New Guinea, turned into Catholicism with a Baptist name. You think it's not over here in America? Oh, it is.

Yeah. There are pastors who have become tyrants. Yes. Dictators. Yeah.

Making the people to fear. Yeah. Those people are not to fear man, we're to fear God. Amen. And so Catholicism has in some way or another cracked into a lot of popular churches all over the world.

The Lord gave the authority. The Lord gave the authority. Matthew 28, 18, 19, 20 gave the commandment to go why we don't go. As the Lord's church, all individually, there's two different levels here, and don't conflict the levels. Church authority, church capacity, church authority, it is what it is, keep it there.

Individuals don't have to ask for church authority to witness for people. We don't need a vote. You don't have to wait for a business meeting to say, can I talk to someone about my testimony? In Matthew chapter 4 verse 18 down to 22 that's That's where I take the inception of the local church. If you want to disagree with me, that's okay too.

Seaside or mountainside, that matter. Put it before Pentecost and you're okay. Amen. Here in Matthew chapter 4, these disciples had already received John the Baptist. Right.

John required some kind of fruit. These disciples had already been born from above. They had already been saved. They would have never been baptized had they not been saved. And this is not by John.

Christ comes walking by the Sea of Galilee and calls Peter and Andrew, two brothers, another set of brothers, James and John, they were not in the same family. Separate family, separate brothers, not twin brothers, but brothers. And Jesus started the church with two members. And then two more joined. And then another one joined.

And another one. And another one. And there were twelve members of the church, the first church. And what did Christ say to the disciples when he called them? He said, come, he said, follow me.

I want to zero in on that following and I want to give you an example. Different ones who come to the top of the guinea of the years or Malawi mostly to the guinea where my point is. And because of the treacherous, Dangerous hiking in the mountains and sometimes we're hiking in the mountains and right over here there's nothing but a cliff that's hidden by the jungles, you can't see it. Step off. I'll never see you again.

So we tell, I tell people, we come to the sit down. We start to hide you. Make no mistake. Where I put my foot, you put yours. Don't get reinvented in New Guinea.

I'm going to take you out of the body bag. I've had people who did not follow, obeyed them, what they said. And I've had people fall, break fingers, break their ankle, get cut up. And the man who broke his finger, the only young man, I said take the stick and I'll tape it up. That's all you get from me.

Rebellion from me has no sin. I don't think that. Church with power and a church with books, do you have it? Jesus said to the disciples, follow me. That means put your feet where I put mine.

In scripture, in evangelism, In the work that the Lord gave to his church, put your feet where the Lord put his. And he called the disciples and said, follow me, and the Lord said, I will make you fishers of men. First things first, elementary, basic things, primary things, nursery things, we as God's people, we have to get in line with Christ. We have to do what he says, we don't reinvent ministry, we don't run in front of the Lord, though a lot of people are. We don't add to his law, And we don't delete from it.

Why is it that there are churches called Baptist churches all over the world who come up with all sorts of programs and all kinds of plans to worship and do the Lord's work when it is never found in the Bible. Why is that? Eight years ago, it was 19, the year was 1982. I was ordained by Calvary Baptist Church. I sat under the ministry and was mentored by John Gilgamesh.

He passed away in the Old Macacal Canyon. He left, and Joe Wilson came. I'm ready to go to New Guinea as a missionary. There's a page with 24 Bibles handed to me by Joe Wilson. He said, I want you to read this and understand it and sign an agreement with Calvin Baptist Church and I as your pastor to go to the beginning as a missionary.

I said, okay. Brother Joe, you're my senior and you know the Bible better than I do. And you've been a preacher a long time. But I challenge you to open up your Bible and show them where these 24 revelations came from. Amen.

Could it do it? Didn't do it. That's right. When enough pressure was put on him by myself and Fred Hellerman, he finally confessed he got these from the Southern Baptist Convention. That was on Wednesday morning, the same night, Wednesday night, I stood up at Calvary Baptist Church, Ashford, Kentucky, resigned.

Yeah. In effect, as an immediate, as your missionary. I went and joined the King's Addition Baptist Church, James Hobbs, and I was sent out as a missionary to public beginning. But the authority of King's Addition Baptist Church and why would it be my role? Amen.

So my question, where are these preachers and pastors coming up with these plans? And why are they doing it? Yeah. Why are they doing it to God's people? Yeah.

Why are they doing it to His church, the Lord's church? It's not your church, Mr. Pastor. It's the Lord's church. Amen.

And they are the Lord's people, not your people. You're not a shepherd. That's right. Amen. So I tell the people in Papanigini, the pastors, in the language of that, of the languages in which they speak, there is a feminine conjecture to the church, which also carries over to the bride in our language.

Mr. Pastor, take very good care how you treat another man's wife. Amen. That church is not yours. That's right.

You see what people have fallen off the back of? Yes. Jesus said to the disciples, follow me, put things first. We must be behind Christ, follow Him, do what He says. Where did Jesus, here's the question, At what entry point did Jesus meet the disciples?

Let me help you understand. What was the door of entry for these men to Jesus or for Jesus to these men? What was the door of entry into the ministry? Jesus approached them from the very angle of which they already knew something about being fishermen. That was the concept, that was the teaching, that was the springboard, that was the door of entry of these men into the ministry Jesus approached them on their own level of what they do he didn't take it out of something where they didn't know what they were doing.

They knew exactly what it meant to be fishermen. They knew that. They fished on the Sea of Galilee, had been on the Sea of Galilee many, many times, grew up on the Sea of Galilee. The idea, the analogy, connecting the dots of the ministry, the Lord never expects His people to operate out of a category that you're not familiar with. Mission work will still be mission work in Papua New Guinea, but that whole climate and the people and the customs and the land and the terrain, everything would be totally forward to you.

You wouldn't know how to approach it. I make mistakes in America. Approaching people. I get away with it because I speak a little bit of a different accent, a different mannerisms, and people just write it off, but he's not from here. The idea of that when Jesus said, I will make you, I will make you fishers of men, I will make you, that whole idea, that concept is all about teaching, it's about learning.

You have to be, and here's the question for you and I, are we ready to be made? Are you ready to be made for what the Lord wants you to be in this life? Are you ready to be made? Well I'll do that but don't tell me what to do. That's where other people are.

Well, the Lord's telling us what to do and people still don't want to comply. Learning, being ready to be made for evangelism, what does Christ want to make you into? You answered your own question. Through the years, people in churches and preachers, They have made their own way. Preachers have made their own ministry.

Christians have made their own lives. Churches have made their own programs. And on and on it goes and all these man-made plans and programs, It's not what the Lord made, it's what people have made, they have added to, and then they wonder why the church is no longer healthy. You took in the wrong diet. That's why.

Evangelism is reaching out to others, it's not simply with the thought in mind that you want to make the church larger numerically, though that may happen. It may happen if you evangelize, it may very well happen. The Lord may say to Simon, bring them into the church, numerically the church grows. But isn't that the concept of most Christians now, those? Baptists or other ones?

Oh well, evangelize, we need to evangelize, make the church grow, we're going to get to that in a moment too. But I'll give you an example, you're healthy in your life, you go along with life one day, you're getting up, you're getting dressed and you notice an addition to your body of growth. That addition does not necessarily mean it's healthy. In fact, it probably means unhealth. So just because there is a numerical addition to the church does not mean the church is healthy.

It can mean that there are some other problems going on. Evangelism is for a healthy church to grow spiritually. That's where the health is. It's healthy for a church, the Lord's church, to be in obedience. Just do it, Jesus said.

Well, no one's following me. Do it anyway. No one's listening. Do it anyway. There's a certain amount of energy in those of us who have a little wage, matured, I want you to take your mind and I want you to go back in your own life.

Have you ever talked and spoken to a person and witnessed to them? And by the way, witnessing is not just picking up the Bible and preaching to people out on the street corner. That's right. Amen. Have you not read how Paul was shackled?

Have you not read how Paul gained in deliberation on his own testimony, how he was a Pharisee of the Pharisees, a Jew of the Jews, how he was taken and he took God's people and he had been beaten and consented to the death and so on? Steve is over, not so much Steve. Retending, consented to the death of Saul. Stephen's home. Not Saul, Stephen.

If I give the order and someone else calls the trigger and shoots you and I can sit to it. Who really killed you? Taking your own testimony and sharing it with someone is evangelism. Evangelism for a church is healthy. There is a certain amount of energy that we feel when we talk to someone about the Lord, isn't there?

Yeah. Someone who is not saved, and you talk to them, you share your own testimony, you share what the Lord has done for you in your own life, you're sharing that and the Lord, God's Holy Spirit gives you a certain amount of energy to do that. It's energizing, it's stimulating to do that as a Christian. We've had conversations about the old system, the old style, the old way of people going out and door knocking and handing out tracts and so on and so on and so on. I've been doing this work for 38 years.

You know, my observation of people, you know, the one time that you can get even people who are totally agnostic to the truth, even atheists, tribal people who are ready to murder you? I've been set up at roadblocks. The tires on the landing room are being chopped with machines and guns in my head. Go out, I'll take the keys to the vehicle, you can't have them here. Let's go over and sit down, Let's have some sweet potato.

Let's talk. Yeah. That's right. You know the one event in people's lives all over the world that surpasses custom culture, mannerisms, beliefs. The one thing that you can reach people, the one point in life where people will open up and they will just be free to talk, they won't argue with you, they won't debate, they won't get angry, they won't strike out at you, it's over the dinner table as you would say in the American.

Right, the middle. What happened in the days and life of Christ? Was he not found, eaty and drinky with the publicans and the sinners? Did they not accuse him of that? Is that not where the greatest ministry, Christ, was made?

Over-eating and drinking. And how is it that Baptist preachers fail to see that? Yeah, exactly. Don't get me. You go to a door nowadays and not see what comes out that door.

Yeah. It's not going to be pleasant. Take your riches, people. Where's the evangelism? Where's the power in your life?

What transcends culture and people? There are churches that are just passing away, aren't they? Do you know churches that are passing away? I do. I know a lot of churches that are passing away.

Churches are drawing up on the vine, as though it were. And that is both spiritually and numerically, that if evangelism is not practiced, that is the heartbeat of any church. If you don't reach people for Christ, it will not be known, unity, baptism, or triumph of the Bible. And I'm just using unity, I can say the name of any church Churches all across this country are drying up and they have no life lasting them at all. There's no new blood coming in and even those who aren't there, there's no spiritualness about the congregation.

They just go, everyone sits in the same seat. I go to church, I sit on the front pew. I know I'm not taking anyone's seat. No one's going to shout at me. Matthew 28, 19, 20 says, go!

That means move your lips, move your tongue. That means witness, make disciples. That means you have to have a going feet and a talking tongue. That's the meaning of that. When someone comes to believe, next step is baptism, next step is to teach them.

Jesus promised, He said, I will be with you. And to the end of his age, Christ did not say that you would grow in vast numbers. He did not say that. He simply said, I will be with you. The promise is to the church that obeys, not in number, numerically, the church that obeys spiritually.

Let's get something straight. Missions is our business. This should be our doctrine, our conviction, and our practice. Do what you can do and don't try to do what you can't do. How difficult is it to follow directives?

Jesus said in Matthew 18.20, Jesus said that he would be in the midst of a church with two or three members. That entire chapter is in church capacity. We've only got two members. Well, two members, leave that in there, take the only out. In my ministry, I've learned that one man standing with God is in the majority.

And if there are two members or three members, the Lord said he was right there in the midst of them. You cannot read chapter 18 of the book of Matthew and take that out in the context of church capacity. Jesus said that he would be in the midst of the church, not if you have two or three thousand members, but two or three. There are mission points that I have known over the years, but they've been an indefinite mission point for 12 to 13 years. Finally, I challenge you, today or next year or 10 years, Some of you here like me drew up in church.

We were taught come to come. All the doctrines, all the principles, preached, preached, heard, heard. And yet all at the same time, mission points were established around the world. It just became an indefinite mission point. To what end?

To what purpose? I find it nowhere in the New Testament. I find no war in the scripture where I can go up here, establish a mission point, and continue on for weeks and months and years. You know Why that happens? Money.

Mission point, ties offerings, go into the home church. Ties offerings, go into the home church. Will they become an independent Baptist church? Those ties and offerings will no longer revoke to the home church. They will be the home church.

Yeah. The promise was to the church. The church receives the blessing and a healthy spiritual appetite when we obey, not just in numbers, though that may occur, but spiritually speaking. Number two, what makes a healthy church? Fellowship.

Fellowship makes a healthy church. It's called embracing others. Oh, I know this may be very difficult for some. To embrace others, this is a hard thing to do for some people. They don't feel very comfortable in it.

It's not their comfort zone. To embrace someone, you get the idea that you have to be their friend. To be a friend means you have to know that person, you have to know them and still like them. That's a friend. And I know there's a lot of things about me you wouldn't like.

But there should be enough in me that if you're one of God's children, and I am, should be enough for both of us. We've got God's Holy Spirit. You have Him. I have Him. We understand what the Bible teaches.

We're in union about that. So why cannot we be friends? Fellowship is to be friendly one with another. Certain people whom you think would never be receptive of the gospel are witnessed to a lot of people in my ministry. Different kinds of people.

On both sides of the big pond. And there are people with a mouth like a barnyard. A mouth that would resemble a separate tank. The filth of the world, a room, no manner. No tact and no principles.

The kind of people that you really want to avoid. They go and walk into a room, you find a reason to walk out. There's really nothing in common, you don't really want to talk or have to talk to them. But the Lord may use you to bring these same barnyard people to be one of his children. And it may be you might have to be friendly.

And it may be you have to touch him. And it may be you have to embrace these same people. Maybe. That's exactly what we're talking about. The Lord brings people into our lives in order that we might demonstrate the power, and there it is, demonstrate the power of what has been done in our life, and have a purpose to witness, evangelize, Fellowship after salvation.

You can't have a fellowship with darkness. But after someone has translated, translated, translated, people don't get that translation. It speaks better. There's some grief in it. Speak Spanish.

There's some Greek for you. Going to bed since it needs to exhaust the stomach. It's nothing for you. Translation. Good morning.

Are you doing well? Now you've got the question. Translating people who are in darkness have to be translated into a world of light. After the translation has occurred, the translator is the Holy Spirit. And that translation into a world of light, you're in a world of light, I'm in a world of light, the same world of light, we're both in it together, we can have fellowship.

We can embrace one another. We have to get out of our comfort zone. Have you been in churches? I have. Where there are just some people that go out of their way to avoid you.

Yeah. It seems like just about the time you're ready to shake their hand, they walk right by you. Why is that? Have you ever wondered about these kind of people? What spirit did they come with?

Certain people that we would never dream or think that God would save them, God does save them. John the Baptist came preaching repentance and judgment. There were no negotiations, no pleading, no tears, just pure gospel preaching with God's judgment attached to it. Different approaches, different people. God never told Elijah to become a Daniel and God never told Daniel you've got to be like Elijah.

God prepares his messenger for the people. The message is always the same perhaps the approach may be a little different with a few little different tactics, the message will never change, salvation never changes. But often times the approach changes. Approach meaning sometimes you just have to be very direct and other times you're just very polite about it and you get to the point. When you evangelize and bring someone to the sacred knowledge of Christ, then you have a duty to fellowship that one.

It means, fellowship it means to get involved in that person's life. Do you get involved in people's lives? I do. Some people's life you'd rather not. Have you ever attached yourself to someone else's life or were they a bit newly saved?

You get involved in their life, you get to know them, you get to understand them, you embrace them. There is a spiritual and a physical communication. We see in Acts chapter 2 verse 42, there were three thousand souls added to the church. Fellowship was showing it was given. They had to break it and bring it.

Some people preach it and say well that's only about taking the Lord's supper. I disagree. Amen. I'll tell you what I believe it has to do with. They didn't just go to church and act chapter two and just function at church.

And that's a misunderstood term. Yeah. Where's the church? Oh it's down on 114 whatever the name of the street is. No, that's the church building.

That's the meeting house. Here's the church. We could go out and sit under a tree. The church would meet, congregate. You don't have to be here.

And so the church in Acts chapter 2, they worship not just at the church building or the structure, but I believe, Home Fellowship, I believe walking together, working together, spending their on time, off time, play time, work time, worship time, they just spend time together. Amen. That's right. That's worship, that's fellowship, that is fellowship. Why is it that there are Christians all over the country that they would rather and prefer to spend their fun whatever that's supposed to mean I don't know what that means over here yeah so what do you do for fun please I work what do you do when you're not working I sleep hopefully what are you doing I sleep eating well what do you do on holiday I work the people in the New Testament, they have fellowship.

On time, off time. If you really want to get to know people, spend some time at home. You're going to learn some things that you may not have learned. Acceptance and approval can be two different things. We can accept the other person, doesn't mean we always approve of what they do.

That's right. But we can accept them. We can accept their person. Fellowship is accepting the other person, it doesn't mean that you always approve. Yeah.

But you do accept them embracing. That's fellowship. If I can't embrace you and you can't embrace me, you and I will not have any fellowship. That's what that means. It is spending time together as members of the same spiritual body, even those of a bandit of God, saved people, should spend time together.

Why are the churches and members of those churches spending so much time away from each other and they only meet when they come to worship in the church meeting house? Where's that church with power and where's that church with the pope's? Yeah. What are churches doing today? Where are the churches where the church can visit or invite the pastor or the missionary or the speaker into their homes and then turn that over and where are the pastors that will invite the church?

See, it works that way too. And I've told churches all across this country when they wanted to have some kind of conference with me, they want to ask questions, I said, well, here's how it works with Peter Halleman. You ask your questions and I'll answer. But this meeting is not over until I answer mine. And when I'm satisfied and you're satisfied, the meeting's over.

Well, that principle, I want to apply that principle in just what I'm talking about here, about interacting as God's people. Why is it that pastors will have their own private life? Their private home. Church members know nothing about what they do. Except when they come to church and preach.

Where's the function? And it goes the other way. This is a two sided story here. Churches, church members and church pastors, they should have a fellowship where they embrace each other, not just at the church meeting house, down time. Yeah.

Why do I go to church? I go to church to worship. Yeah. Talk about that just quickly. Discipline is number three.

What makes a healthy church? Discipline does. Teaching others. In order to teach someone, you have to know more than they do. You cannot teach someone if you don't know it more than they know.

And furthermore, in teaching someone you have to know what it is that you're teaching, and you have to be convinced or convicted of what you're teaching in order to teach. No believers must be taught, that's part of the commission. What do we teach them? Do we teach them by word only? No, we teach them by modeling.

Living out and practicing and putting into action, demonstrating the theory that we have. What good did it do to learn all the English grammar if you're not going to practice it? And what good did it do to learn mathematics if you're going to always be on the electronics? People can't even count today. Yeah, that's right.

It might mean churches and Christians very well if we watch what we do and what we talk about and we live out what it is that we say we believe. It would do us very well. We teach new believers by work and demonstration, by living out, teaching them this is what a new creature is all about. This is what it means to be saved. It means spending time with them.

Yeah. We were talking about this last night. This generation, the younger generation, I worked it out by about a different view on it. I think it was brother Chris said 17 seconds. I figured out I had about 30 seconds with the younger generation to make a connection.

If I didn't connect in 30 seconds, I lost the ground. Mm-hmm. I think you said 17 seconds. Mm-hmm. People can't look you in the eye and talk to you in a moment.

Yeah. Right. Can't hold on to conversation. They can't put the phone down. Where's the skill?

Where is it, Gary? Do we have a purpose as a church? Do we have power in our lives as a church? It means to teach others. It means that you have to live what you say you believe.

It means you have to practice what you preach. It means that you have to teach others also that which you were taught. 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 10. Paul said to Timothy, teach others that which has been committed unto you. Yeah.

Who wants to be a member of a dysfunctional body? I would. I wouldn't want to be a member of a church that's dysfunctional. Confusion seems to prevail. Why would you want to stay a member of a church where there's confusion?

We continue with a group of believers where there is growth and where there is power and where there is a purpose. It gives you a direction in life. If you have no purpose, what's the point? And then fourthly, service, helping others. I don't have time to read all the verses I can give them to you, you can read it in your private time.

One of my favorite texts in doing service to others. John chapter 11, verse 1 to 8. Jesus went to the house of Lazarus. Martha was there. Maria was there.

What happened? She brought a box full of ointments, about a pound of it, and the researcher, history will bear out. It cost her about a year's wages. Can you imagine working a year? As your public job, working a year, you're saving, you're saving, you're saving, you're saving.

You just use enough of your own money to buy your food and just barely get along in life. You don't need all these new clothes, you don't need the phone, you don't need this, you don't need that. Save the money. And after a calendar year you take this heap of money and you go out and you buy something that's absolutely precious and expensive, very very dear and high value and you come to church and you offer it to the Lord in worship. Why would I do that brother, please help?

Because that's worship. Amen. That's Bible worship. And when they began to complain they and the other disciples in the key play of the Judas, he complained about all of the value of this being wasted were his words. Could not this have been taken and sown in the markets and given to the poor.

He cared nothing about the poor. There are people in churches, they care nothing about evangelizing. They care nothing about how the spiritual growth of the church. They care nothing about the fellowship of the church, or they care about themselves. Yeah.

Self-centered Christians, if there's such a Christian. And what was Jesus' reply? Martha was busy doing what? Serving the tables. Have we not come into a generation of table servers?

What do we call them? Social. That's welfare. Wouldn't that be welfare? Serving others.

You know what's better than welfare? Worship. Jesus said leave her alone and the only time in the Bible again I challenge you the only time in the Bible people say well you know we're saved by grace and we're saved under the works. I have a question. What is good works?

What's the good works that we're going to do. I've chased it up through the Bible. The only time I can read verbatim Jesus pronounced on Maria, she hath done a good work unto me. Now I know the physical works that we do. I know the grades, I know the preaching, I know the study.

I know the getting up and the dressing and the effort and the energy and the money and the resources. I know all that. We do that. We go through these motions and we put all this together. We go to church.

We say we've got worse. What good work have we done to the liberal? I travel across the country and go to people's homes and perhaps take people's say, usually young people, What would you like to go in for Peter? Yeah. I'd like in the home.

Yeah, it is. I've been talking about taking you out. Everyone takes me out. I would like a home cooked tomato. How does that look out for you?

You know why they want to take me out? This has replaced this. It takes more energy, more effort, more sacrifice for your time than it does a little money. And so people have replaced worship with money. Doing service to others.

John chapter 4 verse 20 to verse 24, it says that the father is seeking I always found this interesting that the father is seeking son, not all, son that will worship him in spirit and in truth. So why would the father be seeking? Does it seek and imply that he's fighting? Doesn't the Lord know all things? Yes he does.

Isn't he omniscient? Yes he is. Isn't he omnipotent? Yes he is. Why does the Lord say is there a replay on word?

Does the Lord ever exaggerate? But in John chapter 4 it says that the Lord is seeking those that will worship him in spirit and in truth. Then you fast forward, you go backwards, go back to Luke chapter 1910, And it says that the Son, meaning the Lord Jesus Christ, He came into the world to seek and save those who are lost. So the Son is seeking and the Father is seeking. Do you find that interesting?

I do. You know why the Father is seeking? Because there's a lot of worship. That's not true worship. A lot of pomp, a lot of ceremony, A lot of religion, a lot of prayers, a lot of singing, a lot of preaching by the little world.

And that's why the Father of Seekers. Though it may be a play on words, it is also real. Lastly, and I want to try to do this up and summarize. Here's my summation. What is worship?

Worship is giving honor, adoration, it is meditating or musing. You heard the word, are you? Let me help you with some Greek. The first letter, Alpha, R, Alpha, takes a negative. R, Muzed, don't think.

Muzed means to think. I'm going to put a video on a movie, don't think any longer, you're going to be amused. You're going to check out for the next hour and a half or two hours. And so the same idea and the same thought people come to church to worship, they don't worship at all, they check out. They're not in tune with the message, they're not in tune with God, they came with other alternative motives, they did not come to worship, they don't worship, they don't do the forms, they check up, they are musing over the things at home, business, family, the problems, whatever, and they don't hear the message, they don't muse over worship.

Worship is to muse, it is to meditate, it is to submit, it is to give oneself over and unto, surrender yourself to the God that you're worshiping. It means you spend your time and your resources, that is what worship is. I'll break it down quickly and perfectly put it on the level you can understand. Worship means, or I should say if worship was the only meaning that we were saved and if that's all worship meant why does the Lord not save us and immediately take us to the place where perfect worship is? Why did we say that?

If worship is only about being saved, yes we've been saved, That's worship. Well then why doesn't the Lord just take you home? Where perfect worship is. Where all of these people go. If worship was about singing only, why not wait until we all get to heaven where the perfect harmony and the perfect choir is going to be where people will sing with voices that would have a pop and crackle some can sing well but others can't some just make noise so if worship was about singing why not just wait till we get to heaven and go there?

We can all sing with perfect worships. That's where perfect singing is going to go. If worship was only about having godly, good fellowship with other Christians, then why not just stay at home and hang out at home until the Lord takes you home into heaven, where all perfect and godly and good fellowship will be. If worship was only to meet a godly Christian man or woman, and this can be true, it oftentimes is true, but if that's all that were, then you're worshiping a person. Not true.

Worship is that when you come to the appointed place, worship has always been appointed. God has always had a place of worship. He has always commanded His people to congregate at an appointed place to worship. It might be a home church, it might be in a public building, it might be in the deserts, it might be at the seashore, it might be on the mountain, it might be under the tree. Meet at that holy place.

The Lord's day is holy. Worship is on a day that is holy. God is holy. Worship God. A holy God.

His Word is holy. Worship His holy word. His people are holy, fellowship with holy people. The tithes and lot brings are holy, submit them to a holy God. Our worship is to be holy.

Worship is coming and giving and surrendering yourself to the very One. You should say you believe that. I'm not here for you. Is that plain enough? Amen.

And you shouldn't be here for me. Now I love the fellowship, we've talked about that. And it encourages me, and I know that you too, God's people, it encourages us to go to church and see other white believers go to church to worship God, but we don't go to church because someone else went or didn't go. Worship, and here it is, the last thought. Worship is being trained by our Lord.

How we are to live, conduct our lives, what we are to do and not do, what we are to say, not to say. How we are to disciple, not disciple, how we are to worship, how we are to take in what we are taught, what we learn, we take in, and then we go out into the world. And here's the example. What's the point of you being the best singer in the world and you never pitch up to sing. Yeah.

You tell me what's the point. You're the best musician and you never come to play. Yeah. What's the point? You're the most talented athlete and you never come to compete.

What's the point? Worship is coming to God's theatre to be taught, trained and then you go out of the world and you demonstrate that training in the field. That's Bible worship. God forbid that we sit on the pew for 40 years. You can sit on the pew for 40 years and you can still die again.

Yes, that's right. Truly. There's our worship, there's our church that we are a member of, we're here in the Unity Providence Baptist Church, we're a member. Does it have power? It doesn't have a purpose.

And if we're going to ask blessings to these words, the message will stop here. Thank you. May I have a drink? May I have a break? Yes, you can have a break.