Last week, we began a sermon series entitled, Why the Church? This series examines some core traits and components that shape a local gathering of believers, often called a church. Why this series? Because culture, even some who claim to be people of faith, are taking aim at the church and making blanket statements, lumping all churches together, in their tearing apart the name of the church. Unfortunately, churches and church leadership are giving those opposed to the local church plenty of ammunition to use in undermining the effectiveness of the local church. While no local church gathering is perfect because it comprises imperfect people, we must strive to keep essential traits of the church in front of us, holding them tightly, defending, and standing upon them. In this series, we hope to open the box of what is the church, why the church, and look at God’s word as our instructions for the local body of believers, and allow scripture to guide us to put the pieces together. Last week, we began by defining the local church as follows: “The church is a beautiful collection of messy people who have experienced the grace and truth of God through faith in Jesus Christ and desire to communicate this good news to the world.” This week, we will begin to examine one of the core components of the church, a trait, a characteristic, and a crucial piece of the foundation of the local church: Biblical preaching and teaching.