Daddy Zurishaddi- June 19, 2022

Membership

A. It is a privilege to welcome new members into the church!

1. I have had opportunity to do so many, many times over the almost 12 1/2 years that I have been pastor here.

2. To God be the glory!

Every time we welcome new members, I pray that you long-time members receive encouragement in YOUR membership.

2. And that those who have not formally joined the church will be encouraged to apply for membership.

C. Why is church membership important?

1. Membership shows that you understand and want to obey God’s design for the Christian life.

i. BIBLICAL Christianity ALWAYS involves individual Christians being a part of a local Body of believers.

ii. The Bible does NOT provide for Lone Ranger Christians.

3. Biblical Christians understand that God has placed them, He has led them to a particular place in the Body of Christ.

i. 1 Corinthians 12:18, 27 (NASB95) But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. 27 Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it.

D. To what end?

Ephesians 3:10 reminds us that: His [God’s] intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms.

E. So, church membership is something more than Facebook Christianity.

You know, where we accumulate a list of superficial acquaintances so that we can boast about how popular we are.

Where most often we indulge in shallow platitudes instead of deep Bible truth.

Church membership calls us to go higher and deeper in the Lord.

To share the messiness of an in-person instead of a virtual world.

G. Through the local church we fulfill Jesus’ command in:

1. John 13:34–35 (NASB95) “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Bring Members Forward

A. So, this morning New Life Family Church has the privilege of welcoming, loving and COVENENTING WITH 2 new ADULT members.

1. Brother Barry & Sister Linda Wagner, would come forward?

2. Please face the congregation.

B. Would the Board: Madeline, George, Jay and Michelle come and join these new members?

C. As New Life Family Church welcomes these new members, I want to remind us that we are not an orphanage but rather a Family.

1. Jesus said in John 14:18 (NIV) I will not leave you as orphans; …

D. In an orphanage:

1. Orphans are not related.

2. Their common bond is merely that they all reside at one location — the orphanage.

E. But, in A Family:

1. It’s NOT that way!

2. The family is BLOOD-related. The BLOOD of Jesus.

3. And here at New Life we don’t merely meet at a physical location, we are united by the blood of Jesus.

F. So it is our privilege to receive into the membership of this church family, __2__Adult members who have…

1. … made proper application and have been approved by the Official Board of the church and are now ready to receive the right hand of fellowship by this congregation.

G. Our new members, and we as a church are going to remind each other of our responsibilities and privileges.

1. Our FAMILY COVENANT together.

H. I will begin with our newest members:

1. I am going to read a statement and ask that if you agree with it that you say, “I do.”

I. Here goes:

Having been led by the Holy Spirit to accept Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, and desiring fellowship with people of like precious faith, and now in the presence of God and this assembly you are entering into a covenant relationship with these members of the Body of Christ.

K. So, do you promise that with the help of the Holy Spirit you will:

1. walk together with the other members of this church in Christian love?

2. work for the advancement of this church?

3. help it pursue holiness and a deeper knowledge of Jesus?

4. promote its prosperity and spirituality?

5. sustain its worship, doctrines and disciplines?

6. contribute regularly and cheerfully to the support of its ministries and activities?

7. If so answer: I do.

L. Do you promise to:

1. maintain your personal devotions?

2. seek the salvation of the lost?

3. avoid sin by avoiding the very appearance of evil?

4. seek that love which thinks no evil?

5. If so answer: I do.

M. Do you further promise to:

1. watch over the other members of this church in Christian love?

2. to remember each other in prayer?

3. to aid each other in distress and sickness

4. to be courteous and forgiving to one another even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you?

5. If so answer: I do.

N. Church, please stand. Do you promise to:

1. watch over Brother and Sister Young AND Brother & Sister Smith in Christian love?

2. to remember them in prayer?

3. to aid them in distress and sickness?

4. to be courteous and forgiving to them even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you?

5. If so answer: I do.

O. We therefore, as the Church of Jesus Christ and members of His Body, now receive you, into our fellowship and communion, recognizing that God has already added you to His Church. And we pray that the blessing of the Lord be upon you always.

P. Prayer with the Board.

Q. ALL come and welcome!

Intro to Message

A couple of days ago Gallup released a poll that shows belief in God (I’m not not necessarily talking about Christianity) has fallen to an all-time low:

Gallup says: A large majority (81 percent) of Americans say they believe in God, based on the poll conducted May 2-22, but that number has dipped 6 points from a consistent 87 percent from 2013-2017.

Over 90 percent of Americans said they believed in God from 1944 to 2011, the number stabilizing at a high of 98 percent from 1944 through the 1960s.

But that number has dropped considerable with about 17 percent of American adults telling Gallup that they do not believe in God, while the remaining 2 percent said they were unsure.

The Gallup Values and Beliefs poll found that the decrease in theism has been driven by young adults and those on the political left. Both groups’ belief in God has dropped by 10 percent or more compared to the 2013-2017 average for their demographics.

Recent polls show that while high rates of theism remain with only a modest decline, traditional religious structures (church) are declining faster, according to Gallup.

Gallup has found that Americans are much less likely to attend church, become members of a church or rate themselves as confident in organized religion than to simply believe in God’s existence.

Jesus, speaking of the end times, said in:

Matthew 24:10 (NASB95)

10 “At that time many will fall away ...

Matthew 24:12–13 NASB95

12 “Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold. 13 “But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.

I believe that a decline in a belief in God indicates the decreasing influence of Christians in their world.

That we are not the salt and light Jesus called us to be in Matthew 5:13-16

The reason we are ineffective in our world is because we have become disconnected, untethered from the Word of God.

We no longer view this world through the lens of the Bible.

We don’t have a Biblical worldview.

Colossians 3:1–2 NASB95

1 Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.

We tend to be more earthly oriented than heavenly oriented.

That is born out by some other stats of which I just became aware:

They come from George Barna who left the research company he founded and is now with Family Research Council. He said earlier this month:

You don’t have to be a genius to understand that America is a nation in crisis. … My proposal to you is that we have a single crisis in America that’s introduced a number of serious challenges in this nation: a crisis of worldview.

Everybody has a worldview. And that worldview essentially is the intellectual, the emotional, and the spiritual filter through which we understand, interpret, and respond to the world round us.

I already knew that.

The reason it’s a crisis is because most Americans — including most parents, most children, and most pastors — have an unbiblical worldview.

Whoa! What?

We’ve discovered there is no single worldview that dominates in America.

Small percentages of Americans are sold out to Marxism.

Small percentages are sold out to Eastern mysticism.

Small percentages are sold out to biblical theism, which is what we call the biblical worldview.

But most people are creating their own worldview.

They get exposed to ideas from all these worldviews from a variety of places, then pick and choose elements from each of them — blending them together into a customized worldview. They may have a few things that they draw from the Bible. They have a few things they draw from Karl Marx. They have a few things they draw from secular humanism, and so forth. In the end, they put it all together and they’ve got this unique, personalized worldview that drives their decision making.

It’s part of the reason why in America today only 6% of adults have a biblical worldview.

Barna goes on to say:

We got here because we don’t even understand how worldview works.

Did you know that a person’s worldview starts developing at 15 to 18 months of age and is almost completely formed by the age of 13?

I did some longitudinal research over the course of several decades, tracking people related to their worldview.

What we discovered is that most people die with, in essence, the same worldview that they had at the age of 13.

It doesn’t change much.

That was news to me!

If we’re going to change things, we’ve got to go back to God’s Word and figure out how He said we should handle this.

And what He tells us — first and foremost — is that it’s the responsibility of parents to develop the worldview of their children.

Today is Father’s Day so let me challenge fathers to take up this challenge.

Use the handout I put in the bulletin today to talk to your kids and grandkids about their worldview.

Instead of incessant saturation in social media and this world, we need to do what the Bible says in:

Deuteronomy 6:4–9 NASB95

4 “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! 5 “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 “These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. 7 “You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. 8 “You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. 9 “You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Secondly, He says it’s the job of a community of faith to equip the parents, to support the parents, to hold the parents accountable in that process.

Those two groups need to be laboring together to make a biblical worldview real in the minds, hearts, and souls of our children.

And therein lies our problem. Why do I say that?

Because our research shows that only 2% of the current parents of children under the age of 13 have a biblical worldview.

Do you remember that stat from our 30 days of prayer guide? Wednesday, June 8th?

Barna says:

You cannot give what you do not have.

So, should the church take on this job?

Well, it’s not quite that simple either, because what we discovered is only 37% of pastors of Christian churches in America have a biblical worldview, including just 12% of children’s and youth pastors.

That’s deeply troubling — and if we have any hope of righting the ship, that has to change.

Barna’s conclusion:

We can turn this around, but we have to dig in and be prepared for this to be a multi-generational process. It’s not going to happen with a year of good preaching. It’s going to take decades for us to turn around the mess that we’re in — but together, we can do it.

I believe fathers can make a difference.

Yesterday, I asked Brother & Sister Wagner to attend a membership class before we welcomed them as our newest members.

An ordained AG minister?

I was asking he and Sister Linda to help me with the membership process of our church.

Part of the class reviews the book by John Bevere: Bait of Satan that deals with offence, hurt, and unforgiveness in the church.

In his book Bevere says that he believes that a lot of the problem we have is fatherlessness. He says:

… I want to deal with a situation more painful than a betrayal by a brother. It is one thing to experience rejection and malice from a brother, but it is entirely different to experience rejection and malice from a father. When I speak of fathers, I am not just referring to a biological father but to any leader God puts over us. These are the people we thought would love, train, nurture, and care for us.

Our nation lost its fathers (dads, leaders, or ministers) in the 1940s and 1950s, and today our condition is getting worse. Not unlike Saul, many leaders in our homes, corporations, and churches are more concerned with their goals than with their offspring.

Because of this attitude, these leaders view God’s people as resources to serve their vision instead of seeing the vision as the vehicle to serve the people.

May God help us!

A week or so ago I read what Rick Allen, National Men’s Ministry Director said. he said:

A friend of mine, Jay Mooney, recently pointed out a historical fact: no civilization has ever survived two consecutive generations of fatherlessness.

Let that sink in. Without fathers, civilization collapses.

Tragically, that’s where our society is heading. In the past two decades we’ve seen staggering figures in the number of children who have no father in their lives. Last night, about a third of children in America went to bed without their biological father there to say “goodnight.”

Now let THAT sink in. Fatherhood is being lost in our nation, and we believe that is by design. The enemy needs to remove fathers from the picture so he can attack the family.

Fatherhood and the role of godly men in the church have never been more important! If the church will not recognize and celebrate those two things, no one will.

Pastor Charlie Crowe wrote a fictional piece called: I Got into the Enemy Mainframe.

The story tells of an IT person infiltrating the devils’s computer where they find a plan to destroy humanity. The plans say:

During the short time span called the incarnation we had hoped that we could bring a division and hostility between the Father and the Son.

Having failed at that we will forever face the painful disadvantage of God as Father.

Our strategy calls for us to keep that reality secret from humans.

If humans conceive of God as the loving Father we shall not be able to keep the sons of Adam from flocking to him.

So, we must distort that understanding of God.

Our plan operates on the fundamental principle that the best way to distort an understanding of God is by distorting the male half of humanity.

If no one can see God the Father in the men of earth then they will not want to see the God of Heaven.

Weapon System 1: The craving to experience more. We formerly called this the lust of the flesh, but many field units began to actually believe this was a reference to sexual appetites only. (It is acceptable for humans to think this, but not for our operational agents). It does not matter if the craving to experience more pursues sex or adrenalin or wings and beer. As long as the male is so concerned with having more experience at the cost of knowing God, it matters not what he pursues. Our agents have done an excellent job of confusing males into thinking that casual sex, risky behavior, followed by sports, beer, and wings is an ultimate expression of machismo.

Weapon System 2: The craving to have more. Because males not taught by the Holy Spirit are fools we have convinced them that they must display their value in what they pretend to own. The desire to have for the sake of enjoyment is less useful for us than the desire to have to impress or to be accepted. Males are perhaps most foolish when they imagine that they are free of the lure of fad and fashion. The man who buys a bicycle for the joy of riding is of little use. He must be taught that if he has all the “right” gear, uses the right phrases, and keeps company with the right people he will be accepted. Let the fools collect hobbies not for the fun of a hobby, but so they will think many people approve of them. The wonderful thing about more is it never arrives.

Weapon System 3: The craving to be more. We have done marvels in turning the once negative word pride into a positive attribute. While the “craving to have more” is often driven by the desire for the approval of others, the craving to be more is driven by a male’s desire to be a self-made man and to worship his maker. Since Adam imagined he would be equal with God, this has been our greatest weapon. A male may find the flesh and the world’s things inadequate, but rarely will he admit to himself that he is inadequate. Awe, the delight of pride. It matters little what the male holds his pride in as long as it becomes his primary identity.

A word of warning.

While we desire the ruin of all people we focus our attention on the male half of humanity because that half poses the greatest dangers to our cause. If every man in a community, area or nation were a godly man like his Creator all our other tools would be useless. Our glorification of sports and recreation would be reduced to harmless fun and games. Our carefully developed progression of porn and our grooming of overly available, sexualized women would be useless. Our endless teaching of men to have self-esteem would be replaced with Theo-esteem. We teeter on the brink of great success, but do not become over confident because godly men can be our undoing.

Which brings me to our text:

with one simple takeaway.

Text: Numbers 2:1-2, 12-13

Numbers 2:1–2 (NASB95) Now the LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, 2 “The sons of Israel shall camp, each by his own standard, with the banners of their fathers’ households; they shall camp around the tent of meeting at a distance.

Numbers 2:12–13 (NASB95) “Those who camp next to him [Elizur the son of Shedeur of the tribe of Reuben] shall be the tribe of Simeon, and the leader of the sons of Simeon: Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai, 13 and his army, even their numbered men, 59,300.

ZURISHADDAI [Zū rĭ shăd′ da ī]— Whose name means: THE ALMIGHTY IS A ROCK. Father of Shelumiel, the chief of the tribe of Simeon, chosen to help Moses number the people (Num. 1:6; 2:12; 7:36, 41; 10:19).

Now I know that we like to have bigger than life heroes.

But sometimes the most influential and world-changing individuals are all but invisible.

That is our father’s day hero: Zurishaddai

Really, the only thing we know about him is that he was the father of Shelumiel — a mighty leader under Moses

SHELUMIEL [Shē lū′ mĭ el]—GOD’S PEACE or A FRIEND OF GOD. The son of Zurishaddai and a prince of the tribe of Simeon who assisted Moses in numbering the people (Num. 1:6; 2:12; 7:36, 41; 10:19).

But Shelumiel became what he was at least in part because of his father’s godly influence.

So dad, don’t give up because the world does not know you.

Make sure you know God and then pass that along to your children.

Pass along a Biblical worldview and your impact upon this world will be incalculable.

“It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”― Harry S. Truman “It is amazing how much can be accomplished if no one cares who gets the credit.” ― John Wooden

Prayer