Why Jesus? Because We Must Give an Account.

Introduction:

Worst excuses for missing work:

No Excuses. Last Call to Enter Jesus' Rest (Hebrews 4:11-13):

1. You have the Command . (Heb 4:11)

   Luke 16:16 - The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it.

2. You have the Information . (Heb 4:12)
3. You have the Appointment . (Heb 4:13)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  00:47-00:51

  Hebrews chapter four, we're going to be picking up in verse 11.

  00:55-00:56

  And 'tis the season, right?

  00:59-00:59

  For sickness.

  01:02-01:06

  It seems like everybody I know is either getting it or getting over it.

  01:08-01:12

  And I guess it's a valid excuse for calling off work.

  01:12-01:26

  But you know, I was looking this week at some more non-traditional excuses that people have given for calling off work.

  01:27-01:28

  Now I'm gonna share these with you.

  01:29-01:35

  Actually, I found these online, these weren't excuses that staff at this church has given for calling off work.

  01:36-01:37

  But some of these kind of cracked me up.

  01:37-01:39

  These are the worst excuses for missing work.

  01:39-01:42

  There's a ton of them, but I just wanna share a couple of my favorites with you.

  01:44-01:44

  Here's one.

  01:45-01:53

  A guy said, "Grandma tried to poison me with ham." Grandma.

  01:56-01:57

  I laughed at this.

  01:57-01:59

  I don't know, this was just, it just cracked me up.

  01:59-02:06

  But the one guy called in, he said, "I'm stuck in the blood pressure machine at the grocery store and can't get out."

  02:06-02:07

  (congregation laughing)

  02:12-02:15

  There are a lot of them that's actually circled around animals.

  02:15-02:19

  So animals are really good for excuses for missing work, right?

  02:20-02:22

  Here's a couple of those.

  02:22-02:26

  One was the guy said that he couldn't come to work because I was bitten by a duck.

  02:30-02:34

  Or this guy that said, I can't come to work because I threw my back out chasing a beaver.

  02:34-02:35

  (audience laughing)

  02:40-02:43

  Or this one, this one has to be made up.

  02:43-02:44

  But I'm gonna share it anyways.

  02:45-02:50

  On the off chance that this is real, this could be the craziest one.

  02:52-03:00

  The guy said, "I have to attend the funeral "of my wife's cousin's pet "because I am an uncle and a pallbearer."

  03:01-03:02

  (audience laughing)

  03:04-03:17

  Or last was this guy just called in and said, you know, I can't make it to work today because I forgot that I was hired for the job.

  03:19-03:19

  (audience laughing)

  03:19-03:21

  And that sounds like something that I would do.

  03:24-03:26

  But there was a bunch of, I read a whole bunch of them this week.

  03:26-03:34

  A lot of really funny excuses why people gave who were not able to go to, not able to come into work today.

  03:35-03:39

  And the title of today's message is, "Why Jesus?

  03:40-03:48

  "Because we must give an account." You know, there's a day coming that you're going to stand before God.

  03:52-04:04

  And I can't imagine all of the excuses that we're going to hear on that day as to why people refuse the gift of God's provision in Jesus Christ.

  04:05-04:07

  On that day, it's not gonna be funny.

  04:08-04:09

  Nobody's going to be laughing.

  04:11-04:14

  It's going to be tragic on that day.

  04:15-04:16

  And here's the truth, church.

  04:19-04:20

  There is no excuse.

  04:23-04:27

  We've seen over the last couple of weeks the call, do not harden your heart.

  04:28-04:37

  We talked about the Israelites who were constantly, "Come on God, prove yourself to me, prove yourself to me." They were never thankful, always complaining.

  04:39-04:41

  They persisted in their sin.

  04:43-04:47

  Jesus Christ did all of the work to save you.

  04:49-05:54

  And He calls you to enter His rest because true faith lives in the Sabbath rest of Jesus Christ. So if you're sitting here, or you've been watching this, and you haven't given your life to Jesus Christ, you haven't fully received him as Lord and Savior born again, he is my Lord, he is my life. If you haven't done that, I just got to ask you, what's your compelling reason that you haven't received him? Did he not prove his love for you enough? Are his promises not glorious enough? Is your way working? Have you found some methodology of life that far surpasses Wisdom of your Creator?

  06:02-06:09

  We've been talking about the rest that Jesus provides, and Jesus actually talked about this.

  06:10-06:11

  Matthew 11, verse 28.

  06:13-06:16

  Very familiar verse, but look at it again with fresh eyes.

  06:17-06:43

  Jesus says, "Come to me, all who labor "and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." And as we fast forward to Hebrews 4:11, the Hebrew writer, in this little passage we're looking at today, he's saying, "Hey, last call.

  06:45-06:54

  Last call. I know that phrase is usually used in another context, but we're using it here because that's what this passage is about today.

  06:54-07:05

  Last call. So on your outline, if you're taking notes, which we always encourage, no excuses. This is the last call to enter Jesus rest.

  07:07-07:07

  No excuses.

  07:08-07:11

  Number one, you have the command.

  07:13-07:15

  "You have the command." Look at verse 11.

  07:16-07:34

  He says, "Let us therefore strive to enter that rest "so that no one may fall "by the same sort of disobedience." Let's stop there for a second.

  07:34-07:35

  This is a call to urgency.

  07:36-07:41

  He's saying, "Don't be like Israel and Moses' day." Don't be like them.

  07:41-07:42

  Don't keep putting God off.

  07:43-07:44

  Don't keep hardening your heart.

  07:48-07:53

  But if you just stop and think about it for a second, it's a very interesting phrase, isn't it?

  07:53-07:57

  He says, here's what I'm, your last call, here's what I'm calling you to do.

  07:57-08:02

  You need to strive to enter the rest.

  08:06-08:07

  Isn't that a weird concept?

  08:08-08:10

  Strive to enter rest?

  08:14-08:16

  And you might be thinking, "Wait, wait, wait, wait.

  08:16-08:19

  I thought Jesus gave us rest.

  08:20-08:34

  So how in the world do we strive to enter this rest that Christ provided?" We need to be abundantly clear here, so please listen.

  08:35-08:37

  He's addressing unbelievers here.

  08:39-08:50

  He's not saying, he is not saying, Christians, you need to work in order to get saved and you need to keep working in order to stay saved.

  08:50-08:52

  He is not saying that.

  08:52-08:54

  Everyone say he is not saying that.

  08:56-09:02

  Okay, the Greek word tense here for strive means it's a single act.

  09:03-09:05

  He's saying you need to do this single act.

  09:05-09:08

  So this striving isn't this ongoing working thing.

  09:08-09:11

  He says this is a single thing.

  09:11-09:14

  He's talking specifically about receiving Christ.

  09:15-09:16

  And he's not saying work to earn.

  09:16-09:21

  He's saying you need to get serious about Jesus Christ.

  09:23-09:30

  Or to use another phrase, he's saying you need to violently turn from your sin.

  09:32-09:36

  You need to do whatever it takes to enter this rest that Jesus provides.

  09:38-09:39

  People, what does that mean?

  09:42-09:49

  I wanna sort of do a flashback to the gospels because Jesus actually talked about this a couple of times.

  09:50-09:52

  Look at the screen, Luke 16, 16.

  09:52-09:53

  Do we have that one?

  09:53-09:55

  Couldn't remember if I put that one on the thing.

  09:55-09:55

  There we go.

  09:57-10:26

  Jesus said this, he said, "The law and the prophets were until John," that's John the Baptist, "since then the good news of the kingdom of God preached. Look at this last phrase. He says, "And everyone forces his way into it." You know, in a parallel passage, Matthew 11, 12, Jesus said that last phrase this way.

  10:27-10:39

  He said, "The violent, take it by force." It's quite a different picture than we're used to, isn't it?

  10:41-10:50

  A lot of those we talk about receiving Jesus is put a check mark on the card or bow your heads if you wanna pray and receive Jesus, raise your hand or whatever, whatever.

  10:50-10:52

  And I'm not saying those things aren't valid.

  10:53-10:54

  I'm not saying that at all.

  10:55-11:01

  But Jesus said when the kingdom is preached, there's a violence of people getting into it.

  11:02-11:04

  It's people receiving it by force.

  11:04-11:05

  You could translate it this way.

  11:06-11:13

  Jesus was saying the kingdom of God is relentless and relentless people press their way into it and they press in violently.

  11:14-11:15

  It's sort of like the picture.

  11:15-11:18

  Have you ever been, ladies and gentlemen, have you ever been to the Pittsburgh airport?

  11:20-11:23

  And you know, you get on those trains that take you to the terminals.

  11:23-11:24

  You know what I'm talking about?

  11:25-11:26

  Okay, you know what I'm talking about, right?

  11:26-11:33

  Have you ever been there when it's busy and the train pulls up and you've got to get to the terminal and what do you do?

  11:34-11:46

  Do you stand there and go, "Well, I don't see a clear path into the train, "so I'll just stand here and wait." And if you do that, you're never going to get on.

  11:47-11:48

  When those doors open, what do you do?

  11:50-11:51

  You force your way in, don't you?

  11:52-11:57

  Grab the luggage, grab the kids, and you put your head down and straight through.

  11:58-11:59

  Plot through, right?

  12:00-12:01

  No, just me?

  12:02-12:07

  All right, if there's anybody here that I trampled at the Pittsburgh airport, consider this my formal apology.

  12:07-12:08

  But you know what I'm talking about, right?

  12:09-12:11

  You gotta force your way in.

  12:13-12:15

  And that's sort of the picture here.

  12:18-12:19

  That it's not automatic.

  12:20-12:26

  It's not like the gospel is the train that pulls up And you're like, "Oh yeah, that looks good." Jesus said, "No, no, no, no, no.

  12:26-12:29

  When the kingdom's preached, people are forcing their way into it.

  12:31-12:37

  They violently press in." Like, what does that look like?

  12:37-12:38

  I'll tell you exactly what that looks like.

  12:38-12:39

  It looks like a couple of things.

  12:39-12:42

  First of all, it's violent repentance.

  12:44-12:46

  It means violently turning from sin.

  12:48-12:49

  Here's what I mean.

  12:50-13:04

  If you're involved in a relationship, an affair of some kind, physical or emotional, violent repentance says, "You know, I can't be in this relationship, it's over.

  13:06-13:13

  "We're doing things that dishonor God's plan for marriage, "for God's plan for sexuality, it's over right now.

  13:14-13:17

  "And I'm coming clean." That's violent repentance.

  13:18-13:19

  That's pressing in.

  13:20-13:22

  or pornography addiction.

  13:22-13:30

  You're like, you know, I shouldn't be looking at this and someday, someday I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm probably gonna stop doing this.

  13:30-13:34

  No, violent repentance is, no, today.

  13:35-13:44

  I'm getting software installed, Covenant Eyes or something like that, or I'm taking my smartphone and I'm trashing it and I'm getting a rotary phone.

  13:48-13:49

  That's violent repentance.

  13:50-13:51

  That's what Jesus said.

  13:51-13:55

  The people that get serious about the kingdom, they force their way in.

  13:56-13:59

  Because there's no cost, it's too much when they see the call.

  14:01-14:02

  Maybe it's addiction.

  14:02-14:04

  I know I shouldn't have this addiction.

  14:04-14:06

  I'm taking too much of this.

  14:06-14:07

  I'm drinking too much of that.

  14:07-14:11

  Violent repentance is, I'm signing up for Christian recovery group today.

  14:12-14:16

  I'm getting around a group of people that are going to love me and care about me.

  14:16-14:17

  And I'm done with this today.

  14:18-14:24

  I'm not hoping it goes away on its own like like a pimple like that's not going to happen.

  14:25-14:27

  Violent repentance means I'm going after it.

  14:29-14:30

  That's what Jesus was talking about.

  14:32-14:36

  I know this is what God is telling me to stop doing.

  14:37-14:39

  So I'm violently quitting this now.

  14:42-14:43

  I'm not just going to hope it happens.

  14:45-14:46

  That's what he's talking about.

  14:48-14:57

  And that's why the Hebrew writer says, "Strive to enter this, rest." It's violent repentance, it's also violent faith.

  14:58-15:00

  It's violently acting on what I know.

  15:05-15:12

  You're gonna go home, you're gonna talk to a friend later today and they're like, "What did you talk about in church?" Well, the preacher's encouraging us to violence.

  15:12-15:13

  Yes, I am.

  15:14-15:17

  Violent faith, violent faith.

  15:18-15:22

  I'm honoring God with his money right now.

  15:22-15:23

  It's not mine, it's his.

  15:24-15:26

  And God calls me to be faithful in doing that.

  15:26-15:27

  I'm honoring him right now.

  15:28-15:31

  I'm going to be the spiritual leader in my home right now.

  15:32-15:39

  Dad's, you know, I've been kind of sitting on the back burner, you know, letting things kind of happen or hoping mom runs the ship.

  15:39-15:41

  God's called you to run the ship.

  15:43-15:50

  And if there's any intentionality behind the spiritual leadership, man, it's gonna be on you.

  15:52-15:54

  You might have to sit down with your kids and say, "Hey, guess what, kids?

  15:55-16:09

  "We're saying no to some things "so that we can say yes to some things "that God's calling us to do." Let's talk about baptism for a second.

  16:11-16:13

  Did you know that baptism is a command?

  16:14-16:15

  Did you know that?

  16:16-16:17

  Baptism is a command.

  16:19-16:24

  It's not for some Christians.

  16:26-16:29

  It's for everyone coming to Jesus Christ.

  16:29-16:30

  It's a command.

  16:32-16:32

  It's a command.

  16:32-16:33

  And what do you do to commands?

  16:34-16:36

  You obey them.

  16:40-16:42

  And if you haven't taken that step, why haven't you?

  16:46-16:49

  And I just want to encourage you, next week we're having a baptism.

  16:49-16:51

  I'm sorry, I have an eyelash, can you give me a second?

  16:52-16:55

  Did you ever have that, ladies and gentlemen, while you're preaching a sermon?

  16:56-17:00

  You get this eyelash, it's just like, did I get it?

  17:01-17:01

  All right.

  17:02-17:03

  What was I talking about, Darla?

  17:04-17:05

  Baptism, thank you.

  17:07-17:15

  If you're unwilling to obey Jesus Christ in step one, how are you ever gonna take step two in your faith?

  17:17-17:19

  Like, I just wanna do what God has for me.

  17:19-17:21

  Okay, well, step one is baptism.

  17:22-17:23

  That is step one.

  17:23-17:26

  And if you're not willing to do that, how are you gonna do step two?

  17:27-17:29

  Like, well, when can I do that?

  17:29-17:30

  Next, I just told you that, next week.

  17:31-17:32

  Next week we're having a baptism service.

  17:33-17:37

  Violent faith says, okay, If that's what God's calling me to do, I'm doing it.

  17:37-17:39

  And there's no question, I'm just doing it.

  17:40-17:42

  Because that's what God says, that's violent faith.

  17:46-17:48

  I've put it off long enough, there's no excuses.

  17:52-17:53

  Violent faith is like Zacchaeus.

  17:53-17:55

  Remember Zacchaeus, the wee little man?

  17:55-17:56

  You familiar with the song?

  17:57-17:58

  A wee little man was he?

  18:00-18:06

  I love the story of Zacchaeus because he shows us what this violent repentance faith looks like, remember?

  18:07-18:20

  Zacchaeus was like, "I'm giving half of my stuff away, "and if I've ripped anybody off of anything, "I'm repaying them back four times." And Jesus said, "This man got saved." Now, did Zacchaeus buy his way into heaven?

  18:20-18:21

  Absolutely not.

  18:21-18:24

  But Jesus said, "Look at the fruit of this man's life.

  18:24-18:25

  "He's serious about it.

  18:26-18:28

  "He's pressing in to the kingdom.

  18:28-18:34

  "He's striving to enter the rest." I'm honoring God no matter the cost.

  18:35-18:41

  And for the guy or gal that's still sitting here saying, well, you know, this sounds like you're saying you're saved by works.

  18:41-18:47

  No, these are not works anymore than entering the promised land was a work.

  18:49-18:53

  In all of these cases, it's stepping forward by faith, trusting God's provision.

  18:53-18:55

  And that's how the gospel is.

  18:55-18:58

  It's like, I'm done trying to be religious.

  18:59-19:02

  My Roman Catholic background is no longer my authority.

  19:02-19:04

  God's Word is my authority.

  19:05-19:06

  His way is right.

  19:06-19:16

  I know what He's telling me to turn from and turn to, and I'm doing whatever He wants me to do, whatever He says to do, I'm doing it now, and I'm doing it violently.

  19:18-19:19

  You have the command.

  19:21-19:23

  The command is to strive.

  19:26-19:27

  The command is to strive.

  19:29-19:33

  Number two, no excuses, last call to enter Jesus rest.

  19:33-19:34

  You have the information.

  19:35-19:36

  You have the information.

  19:37-19:38

  A lot of you know this verse.

  19:40-19:44

  And I think it's good for us to study it in the context in which it was written, right?

  19:45-19:46

  Look at verse 12.

  19:47-20:03

  It says, "For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

  20:06-20:13

  You know, that's going to show up on signs on pastors' offices, or maybe you have a bookmark that says that in your Bible or whatever.

  20:13-20:16

  But let's understand this in its context.

  20:16-20:20

  He says, you know, strive to enter the rest, right?

  20:21-20:25

  And then he says, for the word of God, like, okay, for.

  20:26-20:35

  That means there's a connection between entering God's rest and the Word of God.

  20:36-20:38

  And it's a pretty obvious connection, isn't it?

  20:39-20:51

  Because it's disobedience to the Word that is actually forfeiting entering God's rest here and eternally.

  20:54-20:55

  And that's where the Hebrew writer is going here.

  20:55-21:01

  He's like, "Hey, hey, hey, this is God's word." And when God says something, he means it.

  21:04-21:06

  Breaking it down, first of all, he says God's word is living.

  21:08-21:11

  We believe that this book was written by God.

  21:11-21:11

  It's living.

  21:12-21:17

  And it's called living because the author is alive, the Holy Spirit.

  21:17-21:27

  He's just as alive today as he was when he wrote this, just as alive as he's always been.

  21:28-21:31

  This is a living word from God.

  21:32-21:39

  It's not some archaic, out of touch text, so he doesn't understand the issues that we're facing in 2023.

  21:40-21:42

  Yes, he does because he's alive.

  21:42-21:44

  This is the eternal word of God.

  21:44-21:45

  It's living.

  21:48-21:50

  So secondly, this word of God is active.

  21:51-21:57

  Isaiah 55 tells us that God's word always accomplishes the purposes for which He sends it out.

  21:58-22:06

  There's not another thing on this planet that can be said of, always successful, always does what it's supposed to, God's Word always does.

  22:08-22:12

  That's why anybody who stands up here to preach, that's our main concern, we gotta get it right.

  22:12-22:14

  We gotta represent the Word of God.

  22:15-22:19

  Small group leaders, precepts leaders, that's our concern.

  22:19-22:20

  We gotta get it right.

  22:21-22:22

  This is God's Word.

  22:24-23:36

  And it's active. It's alive, it's active. Then next he says it's piercing or exposing, we could say. Now the word for sword there is actually a dagger. You know, when you think sword maybe you're thinking like He-Man or some giant pirate sword or whatever. It's accurate cut in an accurate place. And that's what he's saying about the Word of God, it cuts us open. It reveals our hearts. Now, we already talked about the deceitfulness of sin back in chapter 3, verse 13. You remember that? We talked about the deceitfulness of sin, well, that's not even the worst part of the problem because God's word tells us in Jeremiah 17, 9, that your heart is deceitful above all things. And this is why we need the word of God, because listen, your heart will lie to you in a most convincing way.

  23:38-23:46

  And it makes you rationalize your sin. It makes you justify yourself and it'll try to stop you from repenting.

  23:48-23:51

  That's true of every single one of us sitting here, every single one of us watching this.

  23:52-23:57

  We have this ability to rationalize our own sin, make excuses for ourselves.

  23:57-24:04

  Like I realize this is probably wrong, but here's why it's okay for me to do this.

  24:05-24:07

  When that happens, do you know what's going on?

  24:09-24:11

  Your deceitful heart is lying to you.

  24:11-24:12

  That's what's happening.

  24:14-24:15

  He's using the examples we used before.

  24:15-24:18

  We talked about having the affair, right?

  24:22-24:26

  Do you know what is said in the heart of somebody going through the affair?

  24:29-24:30

  Typically things like this.

  24:32-24:37

  No one would understand this special bond I have with this woman who's not my wife.

  24:37-24:38

  Nobody would understand.

  24:39-24:45

  We have this really amazing connection and we have this really special bond People just wouldn't understand.

  24:46-24:47

  Love is really what matters.

  24:51-24:51

  You know what that is?

  24:51-24:52

  That's your heart lying to you.

  24:54-24:56

  And you, like a fool, are believing it.

  24:59-25:00

  We talked about pornography.

  25:02-25:04

  The heart will rationalize that too.

  25:04-25:06

  Hey, hey, nobody knows.

  25:07-25:10

  You're not really hurting anyone by doing this.

  25:11-25:12

  What's your heart lying to you?

  25:14-25:15

  We talked about addiction.

  25:18-25:20

  Well, your heart will lie to you about that, won't it?

  25:22-25:23

  What's the biggest lie with addiction?

  25:24-25:27

  I can quit this anytime I want, right?

  25:28-25:37

  I'm just doing this, it just takes the edge off a little bit, but I can quit doing this anytime I want.

  25:38-25:41

  That little voice that tells you that, You know what that is?

  25:41-25:44

  That is your lying heart lying to you.

  25:51-25:56

  So sin will lie to you and your heart reinforces the lie and deceives you into believing it.

  25:57-26:00

  And you're like, wait, wait, you took a weird turn here, Pastor Jeff.

  26:00-26:02

  I thought we were talking about the word of God.

  26:02-26:02

  Oh yes, we are.

  26:03-26:04

  'Cause that's the point.

  26:05-26:07

  It's the word of God that exposes all this.

  26:08-26:11

  Otherwise, we'd never know what the truth is.

  26:11-26:13

  We wouldn't have the objective standard.

  26:13-26:18

  And we'd just be, my lying heart would be talking to you with your lying heart, and what do you think's true?

  26:19-26:20

  And we're just lying to each other.

  26:20-26:24

  But God gave us this word here that we can say this is what the truth is.

  26:25-26:27

  We know what the truth is.

  26:27-26:29

  And God's word exposes the lie.

  26:33-26:34

  You see, that's what he's talking about here.

  26:34-26:36

  God's word cuts you to the heart.

  26:39-26:42

  It says here that God's Word discerns.

  26:43-26:51

  That Word discern, that speaks to being a critic or a judge, meaning God's Word analyzes the facts.

  26:54-26:57

  God's Word ultimately is what determines whether you're real or not.

  27:00-27:10

  Now you see church, the word isn't just God's standard for self-evaluation or elder evaluation for the church.

  27:10-27:19

  Yes, it is those things, but ultimately where the Hebrew writer is going with this is look, God's word is God's standard of evaluation.

  27:26-27:32

  You have in your hands or on your lap or on your phone, did I miss anybody?

  27:34-27:39

  You have the very thing that God is going to use to judge you if you do not receive Jesus.

  27:43-27:47

  So you're not gonna be able to stand before him and be like, well, you know what, God?

  27:49-27:52

  You're telling me that was wrong, but I'm just gonna have to plead ignorance here.

  27:53-27:56

  I didn't know that the thing that I was doing was wrong.

  27:58-27:58

  Yeah, you did.

  27:59-28:00

  God said it.

  28:01-28:02

  You have the information.

  28:03-28:13

  Not just some ink and rice paper book, but a living, life-changing, cut you open and lay out your heart, word from God.

  28:15-28:18

  So you have the command and you have the information.

  28:20-28:24

  So finally, you have the appointment.

  28:26-28:28

  You have the appointment. Look at verse 13.

  28:32-28:45

  It says, "And no creature is hidden from His sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give an account." Listen, you will give an account.

  28:48-28:49

  We have to be clear here.

  28:51-28:55

  When we talk about standing before God, we're talking about two different things.

  28:56-29:03

  Because the Bible says standing before God is different for believers than it is for unbelievers.

  29:03-29:04

  Those are two different things.

  29:05-29:10

  Listen, tune in, because I know so many Christians that mix this up, right?

  29:10-29:12

  So standing before God for believers.

  29:15-29:22

  Listen, you will stand before God and your works will be judged to determine your eternal rewards.

  29:23-29:26

  That's 1 Corinthians 3, that's 2 Corinthians 5.

  29:26-29:28

  Write those down, read those, study those.

  29:29-29:31

  That's like a whole sermon series.

  29:31-29:35

  We're gonna have to do that someday, but not today.

  29:38-29:39

  Here's the short version.

  29:39-29:41

  Believers, you will not be judged for your sin.

  29:42-29:43

  You will not be judged for your sin.

  29:43-29:45

  The Bible says your sin was taken away.

  29:46-29:48

  God says, I will remember their sins no more.

  29:48-29:52

  The Bible says there is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

  29:53-29:54

  You will not be judged for your sin, believers.

  29:59-30:01

  I've talked to so many Christians that think they will.

  30:02-30:08

  Yeah, I've talked to so many Christians who are like, you know, when we're in line to get in heaven, don't stand behind me 'cause God's gonna, no, that's not biblical.

  30:13-30:15

  Jesus bore your judgment on the cross.

  30:15-30:17

  You know, we talk about the cross a lot around here, right?

  30:18-30:18

  Do you know why?

  30:20-30:22

  Because that is where God punished your sin.

  30:22-30:24

  That is the means by which your sin is taken away.

  30:26-30:36

  So let's not undermine the promise and the work of Jesus Christ by giving some nonsense that believers have to answer for their sin before God.

  30:37-30:39

  That's not what the Bible says.

  30:42-30:44

  But unbelievers, I got a different story for you.

  30:47-30:53

  Revelation chapter 20 tells us that your sin will be judged and sentence will be passed.

  30:54-31:00

  And the sentence is an eternal residency in the lake of fire.

  31:03-31:05

  And that's why the Hebrew writer gives us this warning.

  31:06-31:17

  He says, "No creature is hidden from his sight." So look, you can fool your spouse.

  31:19-31:20

  You can fool your pastor.

  31:21-31:23

  You can fool your small group leader.

  31:25-31:26

  You can fool your mom.

  31:28-31:29

  You can fool your boss.

  31:32-31:34

  Because your heart is so deceitful, you can even fool yourself.

  31:35-31:38

  But the truth is you will not fool God.

  31:41-31:44

  Interestingly, you see this expression here in verse 13.

  31:44-31:59

  It says, "All are naked and," look at this, "exposed to the eyes." This caught my attention because that phrasing was used in those days to refer to wrestling.

  32:01-32:04

  Now, like, I don't mean like Hulk Hogan.

  32:06-32:09

  I mean the fake wrestling, you know, that Greco-Roman fake stuff that they did.

  32:11-32:13

  Just seeing who's still listening.

  32:14-32:28

  But this was actually a wrestling term, exposed to the eyes, and it spoke to when a wrestler had his opponent by the throat and had him in a position where he can't move, immobilized.

  32:31-32:36

  And his point is this, you can't run from God.

  32:37-32:46

  Sooner or later you're going to face Him and He's going to have you in a position where you're going to give an account.

  32:49-32:51

  He's going to pin you and He's going to expose you.

  32:52-32:53

  You think you're getting away with something?

  32:54-32:56

  You think God's not going to know?

  32:57-32:58

  You think you're not going to face Him?

  32:58-33:01

  You have an appointment and you can't cancel it?

  33:02-33:03

  The question is, are you ready for it?

  33:12-33:19

  He will, on that day, lay out your heart.

  33:21-33:28

  you're going to be revealed truly and totally to Him.

  33:30-33:40

  God knows who you are, not who you say you are, or not who you've convinced Facebook and Instagram, what you want them to think you are.

  33:41-33:43

  God knows what you really are.

  33:46-33:51

  And in the end, all that matters Here's what God thinks about you.

  33:58-34:04

  Once upon a time, Adam in the Garden of Eden sinned.

  34:06-34:11

  And he ran and he hid from God, naked and ashamed.

  34:14-34:18

  And you realize that story plays out in all of our lives.

  34:22-34:33

  God finds us in the garden and the pretense is stripped away and we see ourselves for what we really are.

  34:36-34:48

  And this is what is so glorious about the gospel because when we receive Jesus Christ, That sin and that guilt and that shame, it's all been taken away.

  34:51-34:54

  So we can stand before God exactly as we are.

  34:56-34:57

  We have nothing to hide.

  34:59-35:00

  We have nothing to defend.

  35:03-35:04

  We have no burdens to bear.

  35:06-35:09

  No shame, no guilt.

  35:12-35:17

  Because Jesus removed all of that.

  35:18-35:24

  And that is the rest that He provides.

  35:26-35:36

  Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart.

  35:38-35:44

  There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.

  35:46-35:48

  Strive to enter that.

  35:50-35:51

  Don't miss it for anything.

  35:53-35:56

  Would you pray with me please as our worship team makes their way forward.

  36:00-36:07

  Father in heaven, Just simply ask that we would be a church that gets violent.

  36:09-36:11

  Certainly not against people.

  36:13-36:16

  Not really one person, I guess, just we get violent with ourselves.

  36:19-36:23

  And Father, your word tells us to bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

  36:24-36:34

  So there's a word for those of us who do know you that we would violently repent, that we wouldn't make allowances for sin.

  36:37-36:39

  but that we would deal with our sin harshly.

  36:44-36:46

  God, I pray especially for those who don't know you.

  36:48-37:00

  They've been sort of sitting on the sidelines, or I guess in our earlier analogy, where they're just standing in the Pittsburgh airport, watching the train pull up, and people get on and they think, well, maybe they'll get the next one.

  37:00-37:02

  They just look too hard to get on that train.

  37:06-37:08

  You've told us to strive.

  37:10-37:33

  So Father, I pray that as you grant repentance, that you would give people the faith to trust you, to believe in the promise of your rest, and to violently go after anything in their lives that they know either you are calling them to or you are calling them to stop doing.

  37:35-37:40

  Father, let your spirit manifest that striving in all of us.

  37:43-37:46

  We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Hebrews 4:11-13

1. What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
   

2. What does it mean to “strive to enter that rest”? What exactly is “striving”? Give some examples of violently repenting and violently having faith.
   

3. How does God’s Word “discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart”?
   

4. How do you convince someone in sin that their heart is deceiving them regarding that sin?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

Finding Joy in Work

Introduction:

We Have Joy in Work Because...
(Ecclesiastes 3:9-15)

1. It is a Gift from God. (Eccl 3:13b)
2. We are Made for working. (Eccl 3:10-11a)
3. It leads us to the "Big Picture".
   (Eccl 3:11b,14-15)

3 Ways Eternity Changes Our Work:

1. It changes our Mindsets of why we work.
2. It keeps work in its Proper Perspective .
3. It helps us to Reevaluate our work.

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  00:38-00:39

  Happy 4th of July.

  00:40-00:49

  I know a lot of people with it being the 4th of July might be distracted right now, thinking about their cookouts or the parades that are coming up or fireworks, right?

  00:50-00:55

  So I want to open up in a word of prayer so that we can clear our heads of these distractions.

  00:55-00:55

  All right?

  00:58-01:00

  So Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day.

  01:00-01:02

  We thank you for our nation and our independence.

  01:03-01:07

  And at this moment God, we ask that you help us to put away distractions.

  01:08-01:14

  You help us to instead focus on your Word right now, as we dig in, as we see what you have for us.

  01:15-01:21

  To glean from it truths that we can apply to our lives, and help us in our walk with you.

  01:22-01:25

  We thank you God. We pray this in your Son, Jesus' name. Amen.

  01:28-01:32

  So, some of you might see, I brought my posse with me.

  01:32-01:44

  I have my parents, I have my Jersey parents, I have my older sister and their family here, and I do have an older brother as well, but he is not here.

  01:45-01:47

  So where does that leave me in the hierarchy of my family?

  01:48-01:49

  Well, I'm the baby, right?

  01:50-02:44

  And I don't think I have to sell anybody on the fact that babies have it the best in the families. Despite that, there is one major setback being the baby of the family. One major setback. You get to see your siblings do everything before you get to do it, right? Things like graduating, you know, maybe going to college, doing all the exciting things in life, right? And one of those things for me that I was really jealous about initially was when I saw my brother get a job. My brother got a job at Viola's in Evans City and I just remember being so jealous because he was now making the big bucks. Minimum wage or not, it was far beyond the going rate at home for our allowance. I'm sorry mom and dad.

  02:46-02:53

  But a few years later I got to live that dream. I got a job at Sherwood retirement community as a server in the dining room.

  02:54-03:01

  And I worked there for five years of my life before I graduated college and got my first big boy job.

  03:02-03:13

  And thinking back on that first job, I remember being so excited for my first days there and conversely I was also equally as excited when I put my two weeks notice in.

  03:14-03:49

  At that point I was saying sayonara, I'm off to bigger and better things and to more important work. Now my excitement there was mainly rooted in the fact that you know I got a job that dealt with my college degree but I was also excited because I left what I felt to be a dead-end job. Right at that time I had no satisfaction in that work and there was no more happiness. Right I stayed there in college more so out of obligation because I had been there for about a quarter of my life. But at the end, I dreaded being put on that schedule.

  03:51-04:20

  Now the funny thing about my first job though is that it's definitely the most memorable one. I wasn't in charge of any big decisions at work and the work I did there was far easier than anything I've done subsequently. And as much as I was eager to leave Sherwood Oaks, I remember having a lot of fun, being really exciting and how joyful some of those days were. I want everyone here to think about your first job, right? Think about that.

  04:21-04:31

  All the different characters and just the situations and hijinks that you got yourself into. Isn't it memorable? Isn't it fun to think about those prior days?

  04:33-04:43

  I remember at Sherwood Oaks whenever I got there and I got to see that I was runner, right? And if my boy Ryan was the expedited busser, I knew it was going to and it was going to be a good day.

  04:44-04:48

  And after the shift, we got to eat all the leftover, unserved food.

  04:49-04:51

  I remember eating my paycheck in scallops one night.

  04:52-04:52

  (Laughter)

  04:52-04:53

  That was amazing.

  04:55-05:00

  But fast forward to today, I work at a financial institution, and I get to do some cool things, right?

  05:00-05:07

  I make a good wage, and the work is satisfying, but it doesn't have the spark of that first job.

  05:07-05:16

  In fact, as I've gotten older and I've chased the career path, moved jobs, and even gotten promotions, there hasn't been that same level of happiness and excitement.

  05:17-05:20

  My job is mainly for a paycheck, right?

  05:20-05:24

  I work to provide, but my joy is lacking.

  05:25-05:27

  And maybe you're in the same boat as me, right?

  05:27-05:31

  Nice job, you're comfortable, the work brings home the bacon, but not the joy.

  05:33-05:34

  So what do we do in that situation?

  05:35-05:37

  Do we split and search for the next thing?

  05:38-05:41

  Do we hunker down and reevaluate where God has us right now?

  05:42-05:43

  How do we stay happy at work?

  05:44-05:46

  How do we find joy in work?

  05:46-05:48

  Should we find joy in work?

  05:49-05:53

  Now, before half of you check out, hold up, wait a minute.

  05:53-06:04

  I want to take everyone along for this ride, because work does not equal having a 9 to 5, 40 hours a week, paid bi-weekly with medical and dental benefits job.

  06:05-06:10

  Whether you know it or not, nearly everyone works, and is therefore a worker.

  06:11-06:21

  Work is broadly defined as a physical or mental activity directed towards the production or accomplishment of something, fulfilling duties, laboring, toiling, exerting energy.

  06:22-06:25

  Because besides my main job, I work at my home.

  06:26-06:29

  When things break or need repaired, I work to fix them.

  06:30-06:32

  When the yard needs maintained, I work outside.

  06:33-06:38

  And at the church, when AV stuff needs done, I work to do that thing.

  06:39-06:45

  But my view of work and what falls under that domain is just a tiny sliver of what constitutes what work is.

  06:47-06:52

  I think about my wife Jessica and the stuff that she does - maintaining the home, feeding our family, raising our children.

  06:53-06:57

  She's toiling, she's exerting energy to accomplish something, so she's working.

  06:58-06:59

  She is a worker.

  07:01-07:06

  So you might be a mom or dad, at home with your young kids, feeding, nourishing, and pouring all you can into them.

  07:07-07:07

  You're a worker.

  07:09-07:12

  You might be a missionary, spreading God's word to remote regions of the world.

  07:13-07:13

  A worker.

  07:14-07:18

  You might be a student, studying for a degree or practicing under an apprenticeship.

  07:19-07:19

  A worker.

  07:21-07:26

  You might be like me, have a part-time or full-time job or self-employed, using whatever skill set you have to earn a paycheck.

  07:27-07:28

  A worker.

  07:30-07:42

  But there are special circumstances, I'll admit, where someone is unable to work due to either disability or other circumstances, but nearly everyone has the ability to work in either a physical or mental capacity.

  07:44-07:49

  So what are some of the word associations that we have with work, with the term "work" and "worker"?

  07:50-07:52

  I already dropped a few earlier.

  07:52-07:57

  Toil, exertion, labor, maybe back-breaking, sweat.

  07:58-08:01

  Are the real Debbie Downers in the room necessary evil?

  08:03-08:05

  But what about the word "joy"?

  08:07-08:09

  Is that word association even in the top 100?

  08:10-08:12

  Probably not, at least not for most of us.

  08:14-08:18

  Unfortunately, work typically has a negative connotation associated with it.

  08:18-08:21

  It's something we do out of necessity, and it often isn't easy.

  08:22-08:23

  And I'm not here to discredit those facts.

  08:23-08:27

  That's often the nature of work, especially living in a fallen world.

  08:27-08:31

  Right, sin warped and destroyed God's original intentions for work.

  08:32-08:41

  Despite the current conditions of this world, that does not mean that we can't have good connotations associated with work as God originally intended.

  08:42-08:47

  And that's what we're gonna focus on today, finding joy in our work.

  08:48-08:51

  So we're gonna be in Ecclesiastes 3, 9 through 15 today.

  08:52-08:59

  So I want you to go ahead and exert some energy, work to turn the page or swipe on your phone, and we'll be in scripture shortly.

  09:02-09:04

  So joy, work.

  09:05-09:08

  I'm sure many of us do have work that we find fun or joyful.

  09:08-09:12

  Could be a hobby or a part-time job we really enjoy.

  09:12-09:16

  So I'd say there's always work that we can find and label as bringing us joy.

  09:18-09:22

  But often there's a majority of work that we pile into that necessary evil category.

  09:24-09:27

  Maybe you don't really like your job, you're just there for the paycheck.

  09:27-09:34

  Or if you work around the home, I mean, laundry day, can't wait to watch "Clothes" for the billionth time.

  09:36-09:37

  Or even doing missions work, right?

  09:37-09:40

  I can't imagine it being joyful doing the fundraising aspect of that.

  09:41-09:43

  Getting ghosted on calls and ignored.

  09:44-09:49

  Or for the students out there, I mean, what joy it is to study for the next exam, right?

  09:51-09:58

  So while we are familiar with joyful work, what can we do to extend that into the rest of what we do?

  10:00-10:03

  Let's go to God's word and see what he has to say about that.

  10:03-10:06

  Again, we're in Ecclesiastes 3 and starting in verse 9.

  10:07-10:09

  What gain has the worker from his toil?

  10:10-10:13

  I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.

  10:14-10:16

  He has made everything beautiful in its time.

  10:16-10:23

  Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

  10:24-10:32

  I perceive that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live, also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil.

  10:33-10:35

  This is God's gift to man.

  10:35-10:38

  I perceive that whatever God does endures forever.

  10:38-10:41

  Nothing can be added to it nor anything taken from it.

  10:41-10:50

  God has done it so that people fear before him, that which is to be already has been, And God seeks what has been driven away.

  10:53-10:55

  So what a way to start off this scripture, right?

  10:55-10:56

  With an existential crisis.

  10:58-11:00

  What gain has a worker from his toil?

  11:01-11:02

  But this is a valid question.

  11:03-11:07

  I'm sure many of us have asked ourselves in regards to our work or working.

  11:08-11:09

  Why am I doing this?

  11:09-11:10

  What purpose does it have?

  11:10-11:11

  What is the point?

  11:11-11:13

  Why am I breaking my neck for this?

  11:14-11:16

  Why am I fighting this battle?

  11:17-11:26

  And just being completely transparent, I was asking myself these questions earlier in the year and was primarily the reason why I selected this passage.

  11:27-11:29

  Work was pounding me and I was feeling lost.

  11:30-11:31

  You ever have those days?

  11:34-11:43

  One thing after another, a mistake here, a setback there, or maybe there's something else going on in your life that's giving you stress.

  11:44-11:49

  Kids acting up, car issues, bad weather ruining an outdoor event.

  11:51-11:56

  See, there's a lot of things beyond our control that cause us to lose joy in our work.

  11:57-11:59

  It can be overwhelming, right?

  11:59-12:08

  And there are things that are unexpected that instantly suck any prior joy from your life, things outside of our direct work.

  12:09-12:16

  Right? This might be kind of an extreme example, But in March of this year, right, that pounding

  12:16-12:17

  [Pounding]

  12:19-12:21

  became the heartbeat of our unborn daughter, Francesca.

  12:22-12:22

  [Pounding]

  12:23-12:24

  And at 22 weeks,

  12:25-12:25

  [Pounding]

  12:26-12:27

  it stopped.

  12:28-12:28

  [Pounding]

  12:29-12:30

  We had no say in that.

  12:31-12:31

  No control.

  12:32-12:33

  [Pounding]

  12:33-12:49

  That situation and that event only exacerbated the question, "What is the point of my toil?" Well the answer to this question is addressed in verse 12 and 13 and encompasses all types of work and workers.

  12:50-12:56

  Again verse 12 reads, "I perceive that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live.

  12:57-13:04

  Also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in his toil." So what gain is there from our work?

  13:05-13:09

  answer comes to being joyful, doing good and taking pleasure in our work, right?

  13:09-13:12

  End a sermon. You have joy because darn it, thus says the Lord.

  13:14-13:32

  But we're human, right? We seek a deeper answer than that, right? I mean, I remember growing up and asking my parents questions like, you know, the "why" questions. Why is this? Why is that? And initially you get like valid responses to begin with, but then once you keep digging further, it always devolves into to "because I said so," right?

  13:33-13:35

  Doesn't this seem like a "because I said so" type of response?

  13:37-13:41

  So what is the practical answer to be joyful and finding joy in all our work?

  13:41-13:44

  How do we stay motivated and keep wanting to work?

  13:46-13:53

  Luckily for us, the rest of this passage offers verses that can give us insight and address our concerns.

  13:54-14:01

  So on your outline, we have joy in work because, number one, It is a gift from God.

  14:04-14:07

  This is the part that was tagged onto the end of verse 13.

  14:08-14:12

  Taking pleasure in our toil, being joyful, that is a gift from God.

  14:13-14:14

  So what does that mean?

  14:15-14:19

  How does knowing that this is a gift from God cause us to have joy in work?

  14:21-14:23

  Well, God has blessed humanity with many gifts.

  14:24-14:56

  And his gifts serve a purpose and should provide us earthly pleasure, satisfaction and joy, right? Work being a gift from God should provide us earthly pleasure, satisfaction, and joy. And to help us understand this concept a little better, I want to take a look at some of God's other gifts and see if this holds true, right? Marriage. Marriage is a gift from God. It is something that He instructs us to do. It serves a purpose to unify a man and a woman, to We create a family unit where both sides complement each other.

  14:57-15:03

  And when done according to God's plan, it brings us earthly pleasure, satisfaction, and joy.

  15:05-15:05

  Sex.

  15:06-15:07

  Sex is a gift from God.

  15:07-15:09

  It's something he instructs married folks to do.

  15:10-15:16

  It serves a purpose, obviously, to create children, but also to draw a married couple together as one.

  15:16-15:20

  Sex provides us earthly pleasure, satisfaction, and joy.

  15:21-15:22

  Food.

  15:22-15:23

  Food is a gift from God.

  15:24-15:36

  It's something we kind of have to partake unless we die, but it serves a purpose to provide our bodies with energy, but also has good things like taste, and is a way for us to fellowship and commune with others.

  15:37-15:42

  So food as a gift provides earthly pleasure, satisfaction, and joy.

  15:45-15:46

  So coming back to work, right?

  15:47-15:48

  There is purpose to our work.

  15:50-15:54

  And depending on what you do for work, it can be pretty easy to see the direct implications for it.

  15:55-16:02

  Like the nine-to-fiver or part-time worker does it for a paycheck, the stay-at-home parent does it to raise children, the missionary does it to spread God's word.

  16:03-16:05

  Those are the purposes that we see.

  16:06-16:15

  But often there are purposes beyond our privy, purposes that God in his infinite wisdom has for us, but we don't see immediately.

  16:17-16:24

  Perhaps the work that he has us doing is developing our skills and our character to make us more useful for his purposes.

  16:26-16:33

  Or maybe our work is a way for us to get around others, others outside our sphere of influence so that we can minister to them.

  16:34-16:41

  Work also can be a welcome distraction from stressful situations or other things going on in our lives.

  16:42-16:45

  But ultimately, work is to fulfill his will.

  16:46-16:51

  And in that knowledge, we can have joy in knowing that we served his purposes.

  16:53-17:00

  Now I can only speak from my experiences, but I know I've had plenty of times when that joy is always in hindsight, right?

  17:00-17:04

  When I'm in the thick of work, it's difficult to see that purpose and joy.

  17:05-17:10

  And I don't want this to be a cop-out, but this is where a bit of faith comes in.

  17:11-17:15

  God told us that work is a gift so we can know our striving is not in vain.

  17:16-17:20

  You kind of have to go into your work with that attitude, and knowing that God has a purpose for it.

  17:21-17:28

  See, to me, that's the best way to set yourself up to be joyful, even when your work doesn't immediately seem that way.

  17:30-17:36

  And one other thing I want to mention about God's gifts is that man is pretty good at corrupting.

  17:37-17:47

  When we try to find purpose beyond his, we override the meaning of our work to begin to believe the idea that work isn't a gift from God.

  17:48-17:56

  Just like marriage, just like sex and food, we do a good job at warping and destroying God's original intentions for his gifts.

  17:57-18:00

  Marriage turns into a nagging burden and a trap we can't wait to escape.

  18:01-18:06

  Sex becomes a perverted, warped fetish that entraps men and women in habitual sin.

  18:06-18:10

  Food becomes gluttony and temporary pleasure to escape bigger problems.

  18:11-18:13

  Work too is easily corrupted.

  18:14-18:17

  It can turn into an idol and a trap that enslaves us.

  18:17-18:24

  A constant drive to earn money, to look out for our own interests, and become self-centered in our accomplishments and recognition.

  18:26-18:33

  Even parents or folks that think they have good intentions get sucked into false purposes.

  18:34-18:40

  Their work takes over their lives and they no longer have fellowship with their family, with their spouses, and especially God.

  18:42-18:49

  But just because we see this around us every day and many fall into that trap, it doesn't mean God's purposes are still not fulfilled.

  18:50-19:02

  Right? That's one of the beauties in serving and submitting under an all-knowing sovereign God. He can take that mistake and use it as a learning opportunity, a way to bring our perspective back into his view.

  19:03-19:16

  And if you're seeing somebody go through that, it's a stark reminder that When you fall into that trap, when you let work become your idol, it is a way to just suck the joy from our work.

  19:17-19:22

  So we need to have a proper perspective on work being a gift from God.

  19:24-19:34

  We have joy in our work because it is a gift, and the second reason why we have joy in our work is because number two, we are made for working.

  19:36-19:42

  Picking up again in verse 10. "I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.

  19:42-19:50

  He has made everything beautiful in its time." So this point goes a bit hand-in-hand with the first one.

  19:51-20:01

  Because work being a gift from God, he follows that up by equipping us to carry out the purposes of his work and the actions of working.

  20:02-20:30

  Right, think about this. If we go back to Genesis, You know the first thing we see God doing is creating the universe the earth and everything in it right six days where the Lord is working And on that last day God creates man, and he creates us in his image So you know what do we just see God do work, and he created us in his image, so You know why wouldn't we not be made to do the same thing?

  20:31-20:34

  And work isn't a bad thing either, right?

  20:34-20:38

  It's not like work was a form of punishment that came as a result of the fall.

  20:39-20:41

  You know, Adam actually had the first job.

  20:42-20:45

  God created the creatures and he brought them to Adam to name.

  20:47-20:50

  And he also had work in maintaining the Garden of Eden.

  20:50-20:56

  It wasn't until the fall and when the curse came into the world when work became a burden.

  20:58-21:01

  See, God always had in his mind that his creation would be doing stuff.

  21:01-21:04

  We would be working, even in eternity, right?

  21:04-21:05

  We're gonna be working there.

  21:06-21:08

  Some of us are gonna need to find new jobs.

  21:10-21:18

  No more pastors, no more lawyers, no more doctors, but we will be serving in eternity and serving for God's purposes.

  21:20-21:23

  And what exactly that looks like is definitely gonna be different.

  21:24-21:31

  And if you have any questions about this, you just missed our Q&A day last week, but it sounds like a great opportunity for the next time.

  21:33-21:36

  But why have joy in this fact that we were made to work?

  21:38-21:40

  Well, it shows that God equips us, right?

  21:40-21:42

  We aren't helpless or left to be overrun.

  21:42-21:47

  He engineered us with capable bodies and minds to fulfill the assignments He's given us.

  21:49-21:52

  Just look at the human body and how amazing it is, right?

  21:52-22:01

  We have opposable thumbs, we balance on two feet, we have voices to communicate, and minds that can think of all sorts of clever solutions and ways to go about working.

  22:02-22:18

  I think about the technology advancements we've seen over the recent years, and just how we as people can live to be 70, 80, 90 years old and spend that entire time working and being productive for His purposes. That is joyful.

  22:19-22:21

  And that's why you should find joy in your work.

  22:21-22:26

  The assignments God has given for you are because they are made for you.

  22:26-22:36

  You might be stretched or pushed beyond your comfort level, but isn't it joyful in knowing God has personally given each and every one of us assignments?

  22:37-22:42

  If we take a look at our church family here, there's many people here with a myriad of talents.

  22:43-22:47

  People with different levels of dexterity, patience, comprehension, and strength.

  22:48-22:55

  And each of those allow us to flourish in different work environments, different assignments, and in different ministry callings.

  22:56-22:59

  See, I work in the AV booth, right?

  22:59-23:03

  And I do that because I like to nerd out and do tech stuff.

  23:04-23:06

  Do not put me back in children's.

  23:06-23:07

  (audience laughing)

  23:07-23:10

  I say that both for my sake and for your child's.

  23:11-23:14

  Do I wish I was equipped to handle children's?

  23:15-23:17

  Sure, but that's not how God engineered me.

  23:18-23:23

  And I'm thankful that we have people like Mandy, Ryan, Kristen, and others that are equipped in that way.

  23:26-23:33

  You know, it can be easy instead to get desensitized on how wonderfully and fearfully we are individually made.

  23:34-23:39

  Instead, we focus on how weak and incapable we might be, and how someone else is better equipped, right?

  23:39-23:41

  Stronger, faster, smarter, whatever.

  23:42-23:46

  No, stop comparing, stop sabotaging your joy.

  23:46-23:51

  You are made specifically, You are equipped purposefully.

  23:53-24:02

  One last thing I want to mention about this topic is that just because you are equipped, it does not make you obligated.

  24:03-24:05

  I want to repeat that and I'll explain what I mean.

  24:06-24:10

  Just because you're equipped, it does not make you obligated.

  24:12-24:15

  See, this is another joy-robbing trap that I see people falling into.

  24:15-24:18

  People at our church, I myself have done it, right?

  24:18-24:22

  I think almost everyone has done it at least once in their life, right?

  24:22-24:27

  Saying yes to every request under the sun or feeling like you must do something because you can.

  24:28-24:36

  Now, there are circumstances where you have to step up, where you are called to that, and I'm not discrediting that.

  24:37-24:46

  But the people that take on work over and over and over again, maybe initially you can weather that storm, you can weather an increased workload.

  24:47-24:54

  But if you keep grinding on and on, often this will lead to bitterness, resentment, and a calloused heart towards the work you're doing.

  24:56-25:00

  If you remember verse 13, there's that eat and drink and take pleasure part.

  25:01-25:03

  We can't do that if you're always working.

  25:04-25:06

  So just be aware of this pitfall.

  25:06-25:09

  We don't wanna get burned out on the work gift.

  25:09-25:12

  There are plenty of other of God's gifts to partake in.

  25:15-25:17

  So we have joy because God has equipped us, right?

  25:17-25:18

  We are made for working.

  25:19-25:28

  But the third and most important reason why we have joy in our work is because, number three, it leads us to the big picture.

  25:31-25:34

  Second half of verse 11, then I'll read 14 and 15 again.

  25:35-25:46

  "Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, "yet so that he cannot find out what God has done "from the beginning to the end." And in 14, "I perceive that whatever God does "endures forever.

  25:46-25:48

  "Nothing can be added to it nor anything taken from it.

  25:49-25:51

  "God has done it so that people fear before him.

  25:51-26:03

  "That which is already has been, "that which is to be already has been, "and God seeks what has been driven away." See, up until now, I've been talking mainly about earthly things, right?

  26:04-26:07

  Working at a job, at home, on the mission field, at school, wherever.

  26:08-26:14

  I've been trying to make a case of why we can be joyful in our earthly work.

  26:15-26:27

  Well, while we can find pleasure and satisfaction and joy here, we must understand that eternity is the end state of everyone's soul.

  26:28-26:36

  The work we do on Earth is just like our lives here, fleeting, and just brief wisps compared to our eternal state.

  26:38-26:43

  See, God never meant for us to achieve total satisfaction in our earthly work.

  26:44-26:51

  Right, I mean, I compare this similarly to how the law leads us to a need of a savior in Jesus Christ.

  26:52-26:57

  The work we do on earth leads us to a craving of more, right, the big picture.

  26:58-27:01

  We started with that question earlier, what gain has a worker from his toil?

  27:02-27:14

  And there was that earthly answer, pleasure, satisfaction, joy, but there's still the hardship, there's still toil, there's still thistles and thorns to contend with.

  27:16-27:22

  So I think the better answer is coming to the realization about God's sovereignty and eternity.

  27:24-27:32

  The ideas that work is a gift and that we're equipped for it means that we have an eternal creator who's given purpose in everything.

  27:33-27:37

  I mean, we aren't always privy to his knowledge and his reasons, right?

  27:37-27:45

  If we look at verse 11, it says, "In our hearts, we know about eternity, "but we don't have God's view." We don't know the beginning from the end.

  27:47-27:57

  I'm sure there's many great assumptions you can come up with as to why God wants us to work here or there or wherever, but in the end, it's out of our control.

  27:58-28:08

  And in verses 14 and 15, this further solidifies that our work here, in a way, is just a reflection of what God has already done or what he will do.

  28:09-28:13

  There isn't anything we're going to do that's gonna catch God off guard.

  28:16-28:20

  That being said, this concept might make some of you anxious.

  28:22-28:26

  But to me, this brings joy because no matter what we do, God is in complete control.

  28:27-28:32

  And knowing that the work that we do here isn't everything, that's a comfort.

  28:33-28:39

  we aren't all equally gifted with the same type of work, or equally equipped in our bodies and minds.

  28:41-28:44

  But eternity, that is the great equalizer.

  28:46-28:54

  So you might be struggling day in and day out with the work you do, or maybe you're one of those rare few that really love everything that you do about all the work that you do.

  28:55-28:56

  Props there.

  28:57-29:00

  The point is, there is an end state of eternity.

  29:01-29:08

  where all burdensome, tiring, hard work is gonna be gone and replaced with serving the Lord.

  29:11-29:12

  So we're kind of in this odd tension.

  29:13-29:14

  Do I need to go to work?

  29:15-29:17

  Mike just said that God's gonna take care of everything.

  29:18-29:21

  So, well, yes, you do need to work here, right?

  29:21-29:22

  We still need to work.

  29:22-29:25

  We're not robots, we're not programmatically going around feeding ourselves.

  29:26-29:30

  And God still uses us on this earth to achieve his purposes, here and now.

  29:31-29:34

  So what can we do instead with this knowledge, right?

  29:35-29:36

  What can we take away from this?

  29:37-29:45

  Well, what we can do is instead take away some changes we can make to our work now that we have a focus on eternity.

  29:47-29:53

  So I'm going to go through three new points, semi-quickly, on how eternity changes our work.

  29:54-30:31

  So letter A, the first way eternity changes our work we work. Having an eternal focus means that we're more concerned with God's intentions for our work versus the earthly things. And not, again, not putting those things completely aside, but it helps us to find joy in our work and purpose that isn't just skin-deep, things that we think about. When you have an eternal mindset, you can ask those deeper questions about your work and how God can help you figure out if you're doing what he wants you to do.

  30:32-30:40

  It can also help soften your heart to bitterness you have at work, or to help you focus on areas where you struggle to find joy in your work.

  30:42-30:46

  See, as Christians, Jesus gave us the great commission to go forth and make disciples of all nations.

  30:47-30:51

  This is the work God is most concerned about, his eternal work.

  30:52-31:02

  Right, if we're able to see the relationship that our work has with His work, and how what we're doing is supporting that, that is where we'll find the most joy.

  31:04-31:23

  Not everything we do is gonna have a clear implication of how this relates to Kingdom work, making another meal or taking the kids to school, but if you can piece together all those little bits of your life and see if the culmination of what you do is to fulfill His purpose, that's where you'll find joy.

  31:25-31:33

  Letter B, another way that eternity changes our work, is it keeps work in its proper perspective.

  31:36-31:44

  See, I mentioned earlier that work can become an idol, but if we have an eternal mindset, that really shouldn't be the case for us.

  31:44-31:47

  Work is a gift and should be treated as such.

  31:47-32:20

  We don't overindulge in it, seeking to use work to replace our relationships with God and family with it. And knowing that our work isn't going to completely satisfy us here, why don't we reach for the stuff that will? Prayer, God's Word, and a relationship with Jesus Christ. Now there are reasons when work might become a priority in your life, but it should only be temporary. Deadlines approaching are critical timeliness factors, I get that.

  32:22-32:30

  But we shouldn't get into the habit of making work, or making excuses, rather, on why work is more important than everything else.

  32:32-32:52

  Just a small example in my own life, and something I've been having to catch myself doing, is ensuring that I spend enough time with my wife and kids when they ask, even if it's in the middle of work, or when I have those work things on my mind, projects around the house or other work-related things that I need to do.

  32:54-32:57

  And I think this is a discipline we all need to be conscious of.

  32:58-33:04

  Putting work aside at times and ensuring it hierarchically doesn't take over our lives.

  33:07-33:16

  And the final way that eternity changes our work, letter C, it helps us, rather, to re-evaluate our work.

  33:18-33:26

  Now this point might apply more to work that we would consider a job, but it can also apply to the favors that we might do for one another.

  33:28-33:32

  See, there's a lot of jobs out there that aren't specifically kingdom-focused.

  33:35-33:41

  What I do, for example, I wouldn't say that's a kingdom-focused job, but at the same time, it's not anti-kingdom.

  33:43-33:56

  But there are jobs that do fall into that gray area, that fall into this, "Am I doing this for God's glorification?" There's even jobs that are clearly anti-kingdom.

  33:57-34:02

  Working a call center scam, drug dealing, crime, that's not really God's work there.

  34:04-34:08

  But what about working at a liquor store or a casino?

  34:10-34:17

  The question that we should be asking ourselves is, Is the work we're doing glorifying to God?

  34:18-34:28

  Are we hurting the world or are we able to use our work to bring about His mission to be a shining light in darkness and help folks understand the truth about eternity?

  34:31-34:38

  You know, for those prior two examples I just mentioned, the liquor store and casino, I'd have to say no.

  34:39-34:56

  It's not God-glorifying work. Those businesses cater to sin tendencies. I mean, that's just kind of part of the job in the industry. If you're serious about God-glorifying work, you need to move on. "That's great, Mike. I'm just going to quit my job tomorrow." Right? On to where?

  34:57-35:27

  Well, hear me out. A great resource we have is our church family. I specifically know three people, close friends that have gotten jobs or different jobs through others in the church, jobs with businesses or people that love God, glorify Him, and those jobs provide them joy. Right? Our family here, our church family, is a passionate group of people that can help in all aspects of our lives, work included.

  35:30-36:01

  See, coming to Jesus and embracing His will, you know, it's not always going to be easy. You know, you might have to make very drastic changes in your lives. But these are changes that we have to make as we strive towards our own sanctification and our desire to become salt and light. But as we turn over all aspects of our lives to God. To His will, work included, joy will abound.

  36:04-37:24

  We talked about work, talked about joy. It's not always an easy relationship for us to see. And I realize that with work being such a broad topic, I might not have answered the specific questions that you have or concerns or address individual situations that might be robbing you of joy from your work. But God has given us his word, right? There are many, many other verses, other stories and scenarios and things that God uses in his scripture to speak to you, to help you through those specific situations. Things that you are going through that are robbing you of your joy. And I would encourage you to read and also discuss and your small groups. What's robbing you of your joy? But I do hope though that these verses in Ecclesiastes help encourage you in seeing that work is a good thing. It's something that we can find joy in. It is a gift from God and we're made and equipped for it. But ultimately it should lead us to the big picture of eternity. We're in the arms of Christ. We find never-ending joy. Let's Heavenly Father, I thank you for this time.

  37:24-37:31

  I thank you for this church and all the work that you've given us in the church, outside of the church, in our homes.

  37:32-37:35

  It's how we have purpose in everything that we do.

  37:36-37:40

  And it's not always easy, God, but we can find joy in every aspect of our work.

  37:42-37:42

  You are there.

  37:43-37:56

  It's just a matter of seeing your presence, God, and realizing that you've equipped us, you've gifted this to us, and that we can take pleasure and satisfaction.

  37:58-38:12

  God, I thank you also for your plan of eternity, that one day we will be with you in heaven, serving you in unending joy. Thank you, God, for this truth. Thank you for this word.

  38:12-38:16

  God, we pray this all in your Son, Jesus Christ's name.

  38:17-38:17

  Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Ecclesiastes 3:9-15

1. What is one thing that God revealed to you personally during the sermon?
   

2. How does God’s view of work allow you to be joyful in your toil?
   

3. Why do we not have total satisfaction in our earthy work? What about people who are seemingly closest to God’s work (pastors, missionaries, evangelists, etc.)?
   

4. Why should eternity have such a strong influence over our work?
   

5. What changes can you make, in your mindset or circumstances, to bring joy in all your work?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

The Power of God@Work!

Review:

Is My Ministry About Me or About Jesus?

1. Do I make People the priority? (Acts 9:32)



Review: John 21



2. Do I want people to See Jesus' greatness... or Think I am great? (Acts 9:33-35)



3. Do I manage Interruptions and Overtime well? (Acts 9:36-42)



Review: Mark 5:40



4. Is Prayer my "go-to"? (Acts 9:40)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  00:00-00:03

  Open up your Bibles with me please to the book of Acts.

  00:03-00:04

  We're going to be in Acts 9.

  00:05-00:06

  Verse 32.

  00:07-00:20

  Before we begin today, I want to show you these are actual complaints /reasons for leaving churches that people had given pastors.

  00:20-00:21

  I'm going to give you a little list.

  00:22-00:23

  I found this interesting.

  00:23-00:25

  Now, this is a real list.

  00:25-01:07

  These are real complaints church members to pastors, real reasons given for leaving churches. Now, some of these were actually told to me, personally. Some of these came from pastor friends who told me through conversation, you know, what's some of the goofiest things you've heard about the reasons people have left church or complaints that they've had. And some of these I found online uh... from other pastors i'm not gonna tell you which is which though so uh... let's look at the first one uh... actual complaint from a church member to a pastor we need a small group for cat lovers all in favor?

  01:10-01:19

  two of you that's going to be a really small group how about a small group for dog lovers? how many people would go for that?

  01:20-01:26

  alike everybody better okay next one is um...

  01:27-02:13

  these are real we are leaving the church because we don't like the communion juice here's another complaint you shouldn't make people leave the youth group after they graduate actually said to a pastor like why are we making them leave? they're only twenty-five why can't they be in youth group with the teenagers creepy this one cracked me up our leaders are fighting about how to divide up the bulletin board this guy came to me he's like we're having this major problem in our church and all the leaders are fighting and I'm afraid we're going to have a church split I'm like what's going on he goes we have this bulletin board in our lobby and they're fighting about how to divide it up you guys are fighting about this?

  02:14-02:16

  I'm telling you, man, it's rough.

  02:18-02:31

  If that ever happens in this church, I promise you, I will rip that bulletin board down off the wall and you will watch me stomp on it into a million pieces if we're going to fight about a stupid bulletin board.

  02:31-02:33

  But that was killing the church.

  02:34-02:37

  I developed cancer because you don't preach from the King James Version.

  02:40-02:42

  That was actually said to a pastor once.

  02:44-02:47

  I developed cancer because you don't preach from the King James Version.

  02:50-02:51

  How about this one?

  02:51-02:54

  The toilet paper is on the wrong way in the ladies' restroom.

  02:55-02:55

  It's rolled under.

  02:57-03:02

  And every red-blooded American knows you roll it over the top, not underneath.

  03:03-03:03

  Amen?

  03:04-03:06

  Alright, yeah, show some love.

  03:06-03:07

  Show some love.

  03:09-03:12

  But that was a serious complaint somebody had about a church.

  03:14-03:18

  We are leaving the church because you have a red cross on the building.

  03:19-03:20

  That's the color of the devil.

  03:22-03:24

  I don't even know what to say about that.

  03:24-03:26

  But that was a real reason people left church.

  03:26-03:28

  And then I think this is the last one.

  03:28-03:32

  I'm leaving the church because nobody asked me to play golf.

  03:34-03:35

  Oh people.

  03:38-03:45

  We have our complaints about the church and some are grievous enough to make us want to actually leave the church.

  03:47-03:54

  But somewhere along the line, we forgot what the Great Commission was about.

  03:55-03:58

  Is the Great Commission about small groups for cats?

  04:01-04:05

  Is the Great Commission about which way the toilet paper sits on the roll?

  04:06-04:06

  No!

  04:07-04:12

  Is the Great Commission about What color are the crosses on the outside of the church building?

  04:13-04:14

  No, of course not.

  04:15-04:28

  Somewhere along the line, we get so messed up about these silly things and we forgot that the Great Commission is about people.

  04:29-04:30

  The Great Commission is about people.

  04:31-04:34

  Acts 1:8 - we've been studying this all year.

  04:34-04:39

  Jesus said, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you You will be My witnesses.

  04:39-04:41

  In Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and the ends of the earth.

  04:42-04:43

  Witnesses to who?

  04:43-04:44

  Witnesses to people.

  04:45-04:49

  Jesus said I'm going to give you power so that you can witness to people.

  04:50-04:51

  It's about the people.

  04:52-04:53

  God at work.

  04:54-04:57

  It's about changing people.

  04:58-05:01

  And He uses people like us to do it.

  05:03-05:07

  And somehow we can get involved in ministry or we can get involved in a church because of the mission.

  05:08-05:15

  We can see a video like this fantastic video with Pam Campbell or some of these other videos that we show talking about how God's working in people's lives.

  05:15-05:22

  "Oh, I want to be a part of a church like that because God's at work and God is alive and God is moving." That's what I love about this church.

  05:26-05:31

  As time passes, we can begin to focus on some other things, right?

  05:32-05:34

  Like what flavor the communion juice is.

  05:35-05:37

  Why hasn't anybody asked me to play golf?

  05:38-05:38

  Or whatever.

  05:41-05:43

  Time passes and we begin to focus on ourselves.

  05:46-05:50

  We start to ask, well, am I getting my share of glory or credit or whatever?

  05:52-05:53

  Am I happy?

  05:53-05:55

  Is everything in this church to my liking?

  05:58-06:05

  And we can go - listen - we can go from being mission -oriented preference oriented.

  06:07-06:15

  We can start out mission oriented, and if we're not careful, we're complaining about which way the toilet paper sits.

  06:16-06:18

  We become preference oriented.

  06:21-06:25

  Acts 9:32 - the scene actually shifts back to Peter.

  06:25-06:29

  We're going to rewind three years from where we were last week.

  06:29-06:31

  Remember, we saw three years pass very quickly.

  06:33-06:41

  We see Peter in a Jesus-centered, Holy Spirit-powered ministry just like Jesus promised in 1:8.

  06:41-06:48

  Today we're going to look at Peter's Christ-centered ministry and we're going to evaluate how we are doing with this question.

  06:48-06:50

  Here's a question we're evaluating.

  06:50-06:56

  I've been working so hard this week in evaluating this for me, and I want to encourage you to evaluate this for yourself.

  06:59-07:02

  Is my ministry about me or about Jesus?

  07:03-07:06

  Is my ministry about me or is it about Jesus?

  07:08-07:11

  First of all, number one, we'll pick up here, do I make people the priority?

  07:12-07:14

  Do I make people the priority?

  07:14-07:15

  Look at verse 32.

  07:16-07:30

  It says, "Now as Peter went here and there among them all, he came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda." Peter was about 25 miles northwest of Jerusalem.

  07:31-07:36

  Remember, the church was scattered because of Stephen's death.

  07:38-07:41

  We're going to pause here and I want to remind you that Peter was the head guy.

  07:42-07:43

  Do you remember Pentecost?

  07:44-07:45

  Peter was there.

  07:46-07:47

  He was the one that was preaching.

  07:50-07:52

  Peter saw thousands of people saved.

  07:53-07:55

  Peter was the one that took on the Sanhedrin.

  07:58-08:09

  But I want you to see just from this verse here, and we're going to see this throughout this passage, a very important thing in ministry, in any type of ministry you're in, Peter made time for people.

  08:12-08:14

  Peter never gave an excuse to avoid it.

  08:15-08:20

  Because if anybody in the history of the church, Peter could have said I'm too important, right?

  08:20-08:20

  I'm too important.

  08:21-08:23

  I could have gone traveling around ministering to people.

  08:24-08:24

  Do you know who I am?

  08:25-08:26

  Remember Pentecost? That was me.

  08:27-08:28

  I was preaching at Pentecost.

  08:28-08:30

  I could have just stayed home.

  08:31-08:32

  I'd send other people.

  08:32-08:34

  I have people that go and do that stuff for me.

  08:35-08:40

  Because I'm much too important to be just out among just regular Joes.

  08:41-08:41

  Don't you know who I am?

  08:42-08:43

  I'm not just Peter.

  08:43-08:45

  I'm like the Apostle Peter.

  08:46-08:51

  And he could have played that card.

  08:54-08:54

  He knew the truth.

  08:56-09:08

  The truth that every minister, everybody in ministry, whether it's small group ministry or facilities or hospitality or whatever you're doing, you are never too big for the ministry that you're involved in.

  09:09-09:11

  You are never too big for the ministry you're involved in.

  09:13-09:34

  If you think, well, people in the lobby and handing out balloons, that's a little beneath someone like me, then you don't get it. You're not too big for that ministry. Like, well, being in a small group, that's kind of beneath me. You don't get it. You're never too big for your ministry.

  09:36-09:44

  What made Peter, I was thinking a lot about this, what made Peter so, in this passage we're looking at today, just so invested in people's lives.

  09:44-09:49

  And I really think the answer takes us back to the beach in John chapter 21.

  09:49-09:50

  Do you remember that scene?

  09:50-09:53

  We're not going to turn there because that's like one of my most favorite passages in the whole Bible.

  09:53-09:56

  And if I turn there, we're going to be there for like three hours, right, Carrie?

  09:56-09:58

  And I see you nodding.

  09:58-09:59

  Yeah, you know what I'm talking about.

  09:59-10:04

  But it's one of the most beautiful scenes in the whole Bible where Peter just completely blew it.

  10:05-10:09

  And remember, he denied knowing Jesus, and then Jesus shows up on the beach post-resurrection.

  10:12-10:20

  And he says, "Do you love me?" "Peter," he says, "You know I love you." And what did Jesus say to Peter?

  10:22-10:22

  What did he say?

  10:23-10:30

  He said, "Feed my sheep." And then he said a second time, "Do you love me?" He's like, "Oh yeah, you know I do.

  10:30-10:41

  You know I love you." "Feed my sheep!" And a third time, "Peter, do you love me?" Same response.

  10:42-10:50

  "Feed my sheep." What Peter was learning on that beach was loving Jesus meant taking care of Jesus' people.

  10:51-10:53

  You want to show Jesus that you love Him.

  10:54-10:56

  You can't send Him a card or give Him a hug.

  10:57-11:04

  Jesus said the way that we prove, He told Peter, the way that you prove that you love Him is by ministering to His people.

  11:06-11:09

  Loving Jesus is about making people the priority.

  11:09-11:16

  In other words, serving people in the name of Jesus is working for God, and that's where you're going to see God at work.

  11:20-11:25

  Yesterday our church's small groups came together to raise the roof.

  11:26-11:30

  And it was our third quarter small group outreach.

  11:30-11:32

  Each small group is involved in outreach events.

  11:33-11:36

  And all the small groups came together to raise the roof.

  11:36-11:46

  And I have to tell you, standing here yesterday and seeing everything that was happening just makes me thrilled to be a part of a church like this one.

  11:48-11:49

  Just absolutely makes me thrilled.

  11:49-11:59

  There was so much joy in the midst of hard work and all done out of love, all done out of making people the priority.

  12:01-12:15

  One thing in particular that stood out to me was when Russ Howells prayed before lunch, One of the things Russ prayed, he said, "God, we are working for You." And I remember while he was praying just thinking, yeah, that's right.

  12:16-12:18

  We're not here for the family that we're serving.

  12:19-12:19

  That's part of it.

  12:20-12:22

  We're not here because that's what our small groups do.

  12:22-12:23

  Yeah, that's part of it.

  12:24-12:27

  We were there serving God.

  12:28-12:29

  We were working for God.

  12:31-12:39

  And listen, church, Some of you are still worn out from that.

  12:39-12:42

  And I don't want you to miss this.

  12:44-12:45

  You have to write this down.

  12:46-12:53

  You will burn yourself out if your focus is on serving people for people's sake.

  12:54-13:02

  You will burn yourself out if your focus is on serving people for people's sake.

  13:04-13:04

  You will.

  13:06-13:08

  You absolutely will.

  13:11-13:25

  If your idea is, well, I'm going to serve this person for this person, and this person is going to be so appreciative and respond in the way that I'm expecting them to respond, it is not always going to go that way.

  13:28-13:30

  You know how many stories I could tell you?

  13:30-13:33

  I'm just going to tell you a couple of really quick abbreviated ones.

  13:33-13:35

  But in my old church, we had a lady that lived down the street.

  13:36-13:37

  She called our office constantly.

  13:38-13:39

  I need help moving.

  13:39-13:39

  I need help moving.

  13:40-13:41

  She never went to our church.

  13:41-13:42

  She'd never been to our church.

  13:43-13:45

  But it was just we were the closest church.

  13:45-13:45

  I need help moving.

  13:46-13:46

  I need help moving.

  13:47-13:49

  So finally, one day-- this was a long time ago.

  13:49-13:50

  I just had my little Jeep.

  13:50-13:53

  And I said, all right, I'm going to help you move.

  13:54-13:58

  Well, the lady lived like three floors up in an apartment that had no elevator.

  13:59-14:02

  And where she was moving was to the other side of town.

  14:02-14:04

  and it was three floors up.

  14:06-14:09

  I remember when I went into this lady's apartment, her husband was sitting there.

  14:09-14:12

  He had some kind of an injury or something and wasn't able to help.

  14:14-14:16

  She must have had 300 boxes sitting.

  14:18-14:27

  And like 200 of them, on the outside, I kid you not, most of her boxes and Sharpie on the outside said underwear.

  14:31-14:32

  I'm not making that up.

  14:32-14:34

  every box, underwear, underwear, underwear.

  14:35-14:37

  And I'm just like, well, you didn't ask.

  14:38-14:39

  I didn't really know her.

  14:39-14:40

  But even if I knew her, I probably wouldn't have asked.

  14:41-14:43

  It was just a little weird.

  14:43-14:43

  Underwear, underwear.

  14:44-14:45

  But here's the funny thing.

  14:46-14:48

  Is each box weighed like 75 pounds.

  14:49-14:53

  I'm like, your underwear is made out of the same stuff they make bowling balls out of.

  14:55-14:56

  That can't be comfortable.

  14:58-15:02

  So I'm taking these boxes down into the Jeep, taking the boxes down into the Jeep.

  15:02-15:06

  Then we drive over to the other place, up three flights of steps into this new place.

  15:07-15:17

  And after like two or three hours of this, I'll never forget, I was like a third of the way up the steps with yet another box of underwear.

  15:17-15:17

  Yes.

  15:20-15:23

  And this whole time I'm thinking, this is evangelism opportunity.

  15:23-15:24

  I'm going to invite this woman to church.

  15:24-15:27

  And surely, how can she say no?

  15:28-15:30

  Because the pastor's carrying your underwear.

  15:30-16:00

  and well-liked i said so i do have a church of she said oh yeah i got a church in worthington and like well why isn't anybody from that church here helping and she said straight-faced and serious as anything she said all I could never ask my pastor to help.

  16:01-16:03

  He's way too busy.

  16:04-16:07

  And besides, he has a bad back.

  16:12-16:13

  And I felt like one of those old cartoons.

  16:13-16:20

  Remember the old cartoons when the character's head would turn into a lollipop and it would say "sucker" right on it?

  16:21-16:23

  That's how I felt.

  16:24-16:52

  and well tell your pastor from worthington to get over here and carry your heavy britches up the steps we had another guy just very quickly we had another guy he asked if i could help him move he was in a he was moving from one senior housing place to another and uh... he says can you help me move i said yeah we picked a day like july seventh or something like that july seventh i'm gonna be there at ten a.m.

  16:52-16:53

  We're going to get you moved, pal.

  16:54-16:55

  He goes, you sure?

  16:55-16:56

  I'm like, yeah, no problem.

  16:56-17:00

  So that was a month from that phone conversation.

  17:00-17:03

  He called me every day, three times a day.

  17:03-17:05

  He called-- remember, Aaron?

  17:05-17:06

  He called our house.

  17:07-17:08

  And this was a conversation.

  17:08-17:11

  Yeah, Pastor Jeff, I just wanted to see if you were still going to help me move.

  17:12-17:14

  I guess I'm still going to help you move.

  17:14-17:15

  I promised I'd be there.

  17:16-17:17

  I'm going to be there.

  17:18-17:37

  And every day at the office at home, "Pastor Jeff, are you still going to help me move?" At one point I said, "Do you trust me?" He's like, "Well, yeah, I trust you." And I'm like, "Well, if I told you I'd be there, I'll be there." Again, I'm thinking, you know, here's a poor guy without a church, and maybe this will be a means to share the gospel with him, et cetera.

  17:38-17:47

  And I've showed up, helped him move, got him all moved into his new place after a month of, you know, phone calls and changing my phone number and everything else in the midst of all this.

  17:48-17:57

  But as soon as we got him moved, I called it up with him like a day or two later.

  17:57-18:00

  I said, hey, I'd love for you to come down to our church.

  18:00-18:02

  We've got a lot of exciting things going on.

  18:02-18:03

  I'd love for you to be a part of it.

  18:03-18:06

  He goes, nah, I decided I'm going to the Lutheran church.

  18:08-18:11

  I'm like, well, then call the Lutherans to move your stuff.

  18:15-18:17

  Pastor Jeff has a pretty snarky attitude.

  18:17-18:18

  Look, I'm just being honest with you.

  18:21-18:31

  It's not always like, "All the moving boxes was done unto the Lord." Sometimes it's just like, "I just busted my hump for you people, and you don't even care!

  18:32-18:45

  Really? That's how you're going to treat me?" And in those moments, in those moments, I forget that I'm doing this for God.

  18:47-18:48

  I'm doing it for them.

  18:48-18:49

  I'm doing it for God.

  18:49-18:53

  If your mindset's always, "I'm doing it for them," you're going to burn yourself out.

  18:55-18:59

  When you do it for the Lord, it doesn't matter how the people act.

  19:00-19:04

  Whether they're appreciative or not, you love God and you love people by serving Him.

  19:07-19:14

  Number two, do I want people to see Jesus' greatness or do I want people to think I am great?

  19:15-19:18

  Do I want people to see Jesus' greatness and people who think that I am great.

  19:19-19:20

  Just pick up in the text.

  19:20-19:21

  Verse 33.

  19:22-19:26

  In the case of Peter's traveling here and there, he came down to the saints and lived at Lydda.

  19:27-19:31

  There at Lydda, he found a man named Aeneas.

  19:32-19:35

  Bedridden for eight years, who was paralyzed.

  19:37-19:41

  And Peter said to him, "Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you.

  19:41-19:44

  Rise and make your bed." And immediately he rose.

  19:45-19:55

  "All the residents of Lydia and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord." Let's talk about this Aeneas.

  19:55-20:00

  I read so many commentaries and preachers and scholars, and there's all this debate whether he's saved or not saved.

  20:01-20:09

  The Bible doesn't tell us whether he was, so I don't think we need to know or God would have told us.

  20:09-20:14

  The point is, what the Bible does tell us that we need to know bedridden for eight years.

  20:18-20:23

  Peter went down, and then the power of Christ healed him.

  20:26-20:32

  If you think about life from Peter's perspective, you remember he started out - what was Peter doing when Jesus found him?

  20:32-20:32

  Do you remember?

  20:33-20:35

  He was just a fisherman, right?

  20:35-20:56

  So one day here's dirty old Peter He went from that to being the leader of an exploding church movement.

  20:58-21:03

  And you would think that Peter might start to think that he was pretty spectacular.

  21:05-21:13

  You know, it might have gone from, "Wow, I can't believe Jesus picked me." You know, "I'm going to be a pastor." Jesus must have picked me for a reason.

  21:13-21:16

  Jesus must have saw some awesomeness in me.

  21:17-21:18

  But we don't see that in Peter.

  21:19-21:35

  Because you see in verse 34, Peter said to him, "Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you." Peter didn't say, "I command the spirits," or "I rebuke the devil." Notice how Peter kept the emphasis where it needed to be.

  21:36-21:40

  "Jesus Christ heals you." Jesus Christ heals you.

  21:44-21:52

  And I've got to confess, there are times that I want people to think that I'm awesome.

  21:54-21:55

  And I don't mean consciously.

  21:56-22:00

  I don't sit at my desk all week like, man, how can I get people to think I'm awesome?

  22:00-22:01

  I don't mean that at all.

  22:01-22:20

  I just mean that there's a part of my flesh, just this little remaining part of my flesh, This old man who sometimes just kind of rears up and says, "People should think that you're pretty awesome." You're sitting here right now going, "Pastor Jeff, that's terrible.

  22:21-22:22

  That's a terrible thought, Pastor Jeff.

  22:22-22:29

  How ungodly of you." Let me ask you, do you want people to think that you do your job well?

  22:30-22:31

  Can you understand what I'm saying?

  22:32-22:35

  I want people to think that I do a good job.

  22:35-22:38

  Just like you, whatever you do, don't you want people to think you do a good job?

  22:39-22:41

  Yeah, she does a great job.

  22:41-22:41

  She does a great job.

  22:42-22:44

  I'm just saying I have a little bit of that in me sometimes.

  22:45-22:46

  Okay?

  22:47-22:55

  I'm constantly reminded by God's Word, by God's Spirit, that I'm not great.

  22:56-22:57

  Jesus is great.

  22:59-23:09

  And even if I was great, hypothetically speaking of course, Even if I was great, it's not going to mean anything to you.

  23:11-23:16

  Jesus Christ's greatness means everything to you.

  23:18-23:28

  Jesus Christ's greatness brought Him to this earth to suffer and die on behalf of people that really didn't care about Him.

  23:29-23:32

  People that all like sheep have gone astray, to our own way.

  23:33-23:40

  Jesus Christ's greatness brought Him to suffer and die on our behalf so that we might be restored.

  23:40-23:43

  Our relationship with God would be restored.

  23:44-23:45

  So eternal life could be restored.

  23:48-23:49

  That's the greatness of Jesus Christ.

  23:50-23:54

  So it profits people nothing if they leave thinking I'm something.

  23:55-24:01

  But it profits people everything if they leave thinking Jesus Christ is awesome.

  24:04-24:06

  So do you want to know how you score in this area?

  24:08-24:11

  How do you feel if you don't get credit for something that you do?

  24:12-24:13

  How do you feel about that?

  24:13-24:18

  If somebody else gets credit for something that you do, how do you feel about that?

  24:20-24:23

  I remember happening in wrestling days.

  24:23-24:25

  I remember the first big wrestling show.

  24:25-24:52

  came out to see me and put on the performance. I was beat up backstage after the show, you know, getting cleaned up, getting dressed, you know, after this big show when I go out. There were a line of people in front of my brother wanting his autograph. They thought he was me. I'm just like, "What are you doing?

  24:53-24:56

  They shouldn't want your autograph, they should want my autograph.

  24:56-25:09

  I was the one that just got my tail kicked for 15 minutes by guys a lot bigger than me, and they're lined up, "Can I have your autograph?" And of course, Darren's just like, "Here you go, would you like a picture too?

  25:09-25:20

  Only $20." "What are you doing, man?" And I thought that would go away becoming a pastor, but that kind of stuff still happens.

  25:20-25:21

  It still happens.

  25:21-25:34

  that somebody will come up, I'll be talking to somebody, and they'll be like, "Oh, I heard this preacher say one time, I heard this preacher say..." And then they'll say something that I said in a sermon, and while they're telling me this, I'm like, "It was me! It was me!

  25:34-25:37

  I said that! I said that!" But you don't actually say that.

  25:37-25:45

  You're like, "Oh, that preacher must have been pretty wise, pretty insightful." But you don't go, "That was me that said that!" That's happened to me so many times.

  25:46-26:00

  Like, "Oh, Pastor Jeff, I was listening to so-and-so on the radio, and he said this." I'm like, "No, no, that's actually - I said that." And, um, well, do you want to see what happens when you point people to Jesus and not to yourself?

  26:00-26:01

  Look at verse 35.

  26:04-26:15

  It says, "And all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord." They turned to the Lord, not Peter.

  26:17-26:20

  They wanted to know Jesus, not Peter.

  26:21-26:28

  And if our ministry is going to have any eternal effect or impact, we have to be willing to be invisible.

  26:30-26:36

  We must decrease - we must not worry about what people think of us.

  26:37-26:41

  Our focus should be what people think of Jesus.

  26:44-26:50

  Thirdly, is it about me my ministry about Jesus. Thirdly, do I manage interruptions and overtime well?

  26:51-26:53

  Look at verse 36.

  26:53-27:21

  Do I manage interruptions and overtime well? Now there wasn't Joppa, a disciple named Tabitha, which translated means Dorcas. Despite what It wasn't like Dorcas was this nasty name they called her, like "hey dork" or anything like that.

  27:21-27:23

  It just means "gizelle." Alright?

  27:25-27:26

  Where was I at? Verse 36.

  27:26-27:35

  "She was full of good works and acts of charity." See, this woman wasn't some big mover and shaker.

  27:35-27:38

  She wasn't some big leader in the church.

  27:38-27:39

  She was a woman of good works.

  27:41-27:49

  What she actually did, we're going to see here in a second, she actually made clothes for widows.

  27:50-27:52

  Those were some of the good works and charity.

  27:52-27:58

  She actually made clothes for the widows.

  28:00-28:01

  And that's a labor of love.

  28:02-28:04

  Ask anyone who's made a quilt for someone.

  28:04-28:07

  Anybody here ever made a quilt for someone?

  28:09-28:10

  All right, a couple of you have?

  28:10-28:11

  Let me ask you this.

  28:11-28:18

  How many of you have received a quilt from someone, or something knitted or crocheted or whatever?

  28:18-28:19

  That's a labor of love.

  28:19-28:20

  Do you know how long that takes?

  28:21-28:22

  How long does it take to make that thing?

  28:23-28:30

  They're like, I started this when you were born back in 1975, and here's your napkin, or whatever.

  28:30-28:31

  It takes forever.

  28:32-28:34

  And I don't have the attention span for that.

  28:35-28:37

  I would get like half of a row and be like, forget it.

  28:37-28:39

  I'm just going to go to Target and buy them one.

  28:39-28:44

  But that is a labor of love to stick with something that long with your hands.

  28:45-28:48

  And that's the reason I'm telling you this, is that's the kind of woman this was.

  28:49-28:52

  She was so concerned for the widows in the church.

  28:52-28:54

  She's like, I'm going to make them clothes.

  28:54-28:56

  And that was who she was.

  28:56-28:59

  So you can tell how loved.

  29:01-29:04

  Because in those days, she became ill and died.

  29:04-29:06

  When they washed her, they laid her in an upper room.

  29:08-29:20

  "When Slita was near Joppa, the disciples, hearing that Peter was there, sent two men to him, urging him, 'Please come to us without delay.'" See, it says they laid her in an upper room.

  29:20-29:21

  That's not normal.

  29:21-29:23

  Normally when somebody dies, you bury them.

  29:24-29:26

  But you see, they knew Peter was nearby.

  29:26-29:27

  And they're like, well, you know what?

  29:29-29:37

  Let's put her in the upper room, Peter and maybe, by God's grace, he can heal.

  29:37-29:38

  He can do something.

  29:40-29:42

  He has an active faith.

  29:44-29:51

  Verse 39, it says, "So Peter and Rosemount went with them, and when he arrived, they took him to the upper room.

  29:52-30:07

  All the widows stood beside him weeping and showing tunics and other garments that Dorcas made, "Habitha made while she was with them." It's kind of a sad scene. Can you see it?

  30:07-30:08

  Can you see it in your head?

  30:08-30:09

  See all these elderly women?

  30:11-30:12

  She made this for me.

  30:13-30:13

  Isn't that beautiful?

  30:14-30:15

  She made this for me.

  30:18-30:19

  Peter put them all outside.

  30:21-30:22

  Why did he do that?

  30:22-30:24

  I think he did that because he saw Jesus do that.

  30:24-30:33

  I remember back in Mark 5, 40 I think, about the heal someone, but everybody else outside.

  30:34-30:36

  I think it's just that we're not making this a show.

  30:36-30:37

  This isn't Benny Hinn.

  30:37-30:40

  We're not David Copperfield or anything.

  30:41-30:43

  This is serious ministry, right?

  30:46-30:49

  Peter put them all outside and knelt down and prayed.

  30:51-31:00

  And turning to the body, he said, "Tabitha, arise!" And she opened her eyes, And when she saw Peter, she sat up.

  31:03-31:05

  And he gave her his hand and raised her up.

  31:06-31:17

  Then calling the saints and widows, he presented her a lock." And that's all well and great, right?

  31:18-31:21

  That's a great story for the saints and for the widows.

  31:21-31:22

  I was thinking about this this week.

  31:23-31:30

  This is really great for everyone except for one person, which would be...

  31:31-31:31

  Habitha!

  31:33-31:36

  I mean, could you imagine, like you're in Heaven?

  31:37-31:40

  No more sickness, no more tears, no more sorrow.

  31:41-31:42

  I'm with Grandma.

  31:43-31:44

  Like this place is perfect.

  31:44-31:46

  I'm in the presence of my Lord.

  31:46-31:48

  And the light of His presence shines everywhere.

  31:48-31:50

  And then you're back to Earth.

  31:52-31:53

  Man!

  31:55-31:58

  But we don't see her upset about it.

  31:59-32:02

  We just have to wonder about these things.

  32:04-32:06

  He presents her alive.

  32:06-32:13

  And it says, "And it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed in the Lord." Again, that's the result.

  32:13-32:16

  When the ministry's about Jesus, they didn't turn to Peter.

  32:16-32:18

  Very easily could have, right?

  32:18-32:21

  Peter just raised this woman from the dead!

  32:21-32:25

  "Peter is awesome! Let's worship Peter!" But it doesn't say that.

  32:25-32:27

  It says they turned to the Lord.

  32:28-32:29

  They believed in the Lord.

  32:31-32:37

  He and Peter stayed in Joppa for many days with Simon and Tanner.

  32:40-32:45

  The question we're looking at in just a second here - do I manage interruptions in overtime well?

  32:46-33:01

  Because life and ministry are a lot like Okay, so Peter's got his thing going up in Lydda and people are coming to Christ and there's this healing and all this is happening and then two people come from Joppa.

  33:01-33:02

  "Please come to us without delay.

  33:06-33:30

  Drop everything. I have an emergency." I don't know how many times we've gotten a phone call of people threatening suicide When the phone rings after midnight as a pastor, your heart just sinks because it's usually not good.

  33:30-33:31

  Right, Matt? It's usually not good.

  33:33-33:36

  A good friend fell off a horse and broke her neck.

  33:36-33:37

  She's at AGH.

  33:38-33:42

  Someone says in the hospital because they're having this severe health issue.

  33:44-33:47

  Peter managed the interruption well, didn't he?

  33:47-34:17

  You have to keep in mind when you read people's minds, this this was in a day without cars and trains and buses it wasn't Joppa was 10 miles away okay so it wasn't like 20 -minute car ride it was 10-mile journey to Joppa and Peter very easily like we said earlier he could have played the I'm too important card here Peter could have played the I'm too busy card and he would have been justified Peter could have said look Look guys, look.

  34:19-34:21

  Jesus healed this guy, right?

  34:21-34:23

  And all these people came to Christ.

  34:24-34:25

  I've got to disciple them.

  34:25-34:27

  I've got to get them plugged into church.

  34:27-34:28

  I've got to get them plugged into small groups.

  34:28-34:31

  I've got to tell them more about what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

  34:31-34:33

  I can't just drop everything.

  34:35-34:36

  All these people just came to Christ.

  34:36-34:39

  Actually, the Bible says all the people and share it.

  34:41-34:44

  I can't just drop this.

  34:45-34:46

  God wouldn't want me to do that, would he?

  34:49-34:49

  But he did.

  34:51-34:53

  Let me ask you, how do you do with divine interruptions?

  34:54-34:57

  How do you do when serving Jesus requires going an extra mile?

  35:00-35:01

  You get frustrated, you get annoyed.

  35:03-35:05

  Do you trust in God's sovereignty?

  35:08-35:11

  So often we default to, and I can be guilty of this, I'm too busy.

  35:12-35:13

  The truth is we're all too busy.

  35:15-35:16

  Every one of us here.

  35:16-35:17

  We're too busy.

  35:20-35:24

  Yes, we should disciple people to serve Christ as Peter was doing.

  35:24-35:27

  Yes, we all need breaks from time to time.

  35:28-35:33

  But if you're serving Christ, church, if you're serving Christ, get ready for interruptions and overtime.

  35:35-35:38

  And allow your schedule to yield to God's.

  35:41-35:46

  You might just be interrupting your itinerary because He wants you to see God at work.

  35:47-35:51

  And if you think about it, if Peter would have played the "I'm too busy" card, imagine that.

  35:51-35:53

  If Peter's like, "You know what, I can't come to the job.

  35:53-35:53

  I'm too busy.

  35:54-36:00

  I'm too busy." If he hadn't, he would have missed a woman rising from the dead.

  36:01-36:02

  How many times did that happen?

  36:03-36:05

  A small handful in the whole Bible.

  36:08-36:10

  He would have missed a woman rising from the dead.

  36:11-36:18

  He would have missed all of these people in Joppa believing in Jesus Christ.

  36:18-36:22

  He would have missed all that if he would have went, "Can't do it. Too busy.

  36:22-36:32

  Send somebody else." And finally for today, we're going to jump back to verse 40 for a second.

  36:34-36:44

  We would be remiss if we didn't point out this, asking ourselves this question looking at Peter's example, Ask yourself, is prayer my go-to?

  36:47-36:48

  Look at verse 40.

  36:48-36:53

  When Peter put everybody out, we're back in the upper room, Tabitha, she's laying there dead.

  36:53-36:55

  Peter puts everyone out. What did he do?

  36:55-36:56

  The Bible says he knelt down and prayed.

  36:59-37:04

  I'd like to remind you again some of the things that Peter would have seen just in the last few years.

  37:05-37:05

  Pentecost.

  37:06-37:08

  Tongues of fire over people's heads.

  37:08-37:09

  Speaking in tongues.

  37:09-37:15

  lame beggar at the temple healed, Peter saw an angel stage a prison break for the apostles.

  37:17-37:25

  Despite everything that God has done for Peter and through Peter, he still went straight to prayer.

  37:27-37:41

  So before you attempt anything, whether it's ministering to someone who's down and out, whether it's preparing for worship, whether it's preparing for your day at work, or whatever, as prayer your first step.

  37:43-37:44

  As prayer your go-to.

  37:47-37:55

  As prayer your default mode, because apparently for Peter, despite everything that he's seen and done, prayer was still his default mode.

  37:55-37:56

  Okay, we're going to pray.

  37:58-38:05

  Because it's so easy for us, church, to think that we have the finances or the resources or the creativity to approach any problem.

  38:07-38:10

  It's easy to think, "I did it before.

  38:11-38:16

  I can just do it again." That's easy.

  38:17-38:22

  I could say, "Well, I preached last week. I can preach this week. I don't need to pray.

  38:22-38:37

  I don't need to pray over the text. I don't need to wrestle with God in prayer about what He's trying to teach us." Leading small groups, you can say, "Well, I didn't study for small groups last week. I didn't prepare myself. I didn't pray for people." And things went alright. I mean, it went alright.

  38:39-38:42

  I don't have really time to pray this week, I'm just going to make it happen.

  38:44-38:48

  We're losing the sense that prayer should be our default.

  38:49-38:56

  Without prayer we can lose the truth that it is God and it is only God that is able to forgive.

  39:00-39:08

  Don't tell people, "I'll pray for you." I want to encourage you again as we have before.

  39:09-39:16

  When somebody comes to you with a burden and they sort of open up to you and say, "Here's what we're struggling with." Instead of saying, "I'll pray for you." What should you say?

  39:17-39:21

  "Let's pray right now." Right on the spot.

  39:21-39:23

  Say, "We're going to pray about this right now." Just stop. Boom.

  39:26-39:28

  Let prayer be your go-to.

  39:31-39:36

  It's about God, about His power to perform, not ours.

  39:38-39:44

  Another reminder of our total dependency on Christ is the Lord's Table.

  39:45-39:51

  This is not an opportunity to evaluate whether you like this church based on how the communion juice tastes.

  39:52-40:01

  What this is instead is a reminder for us We have total dependency upon Jesus Christ.

  40:03-40:10

  You know, the Bible says that every time we do this, we proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.

  40:10-40:13

  Now what are we proclaiming about the Lord's death?

  40:15-40:19

  When we take the Lord's Supper together, we're saying, "Jesus, it's You that heals.

  40:20-40:22

  Jesus, it's You that raises the dead.

  40:23-40:25

  Jesus, it's You that gives power.

  40:25-40:27

  Jesus, it's You that transforms us.

  40:27-40:32

  Jesus, it is you that continually changes us.

  40:32-40:43

  So I'm going to ask you, church, as an act of fellowship, once we pass those elements out, if you just hold them, and then we'll receive the Lord's Supper together, and we're going to stand, and we're going to worship.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Acts 9:32-43

1. What do Aeneas, Tabitha, and Simon have in common? What does this say about our approach to ministry?

2. Many Jews hated tanners because they worked with dead animals. Do you have any prejudices? How can you overcome them?

3. *How did you do on the questions evaluating your ministry? In what areas do you struggle?

   1. Do I Make People the Priority? (Acts 9:32)

   2. Do I Want People to See Jesus’ Greatness... or Think I Am Great? (Acts 9:33-35)

   3. Do I Manage Interruptions and Overtime Well? (Acts 9:36-42)

   4. Is Prayer My “Go-To”? (Acts 9:40)

Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.

A Disciple Works for Christ

4 things servants of Christ are convinced of:

1. I am a Servant (Luke 17:7)

Numbers 12:7 - Not so with my servant Moses.
Romans 1:1 - Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus,
James 1:1 - James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,
2 Peter 1:1 - Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ
1 Peter 2:16 - Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a coverup for evil, but living as servants of God.
Jude 1 - Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ


1. Hard work


2. Repetitive work


3. Unglamorous work


4. Endless work


2. My service is my Priority(Luke 17:8)


3. My service is Expected(Luke 17:9-10)

1 Corinthians 15:58 - Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  Pastor Jeff:

  00:00-00:16

  All right, so what are we doing here? I mean like at Harvest Bible Chapel, what are we doing? Oh, it's on the other side now, you switched it up. What are we doing here?

  Pastor Jeff:

  00:18-00:59

  We're glorifying God by doing what? Fulfilling the Great Commission, which is what? Making disciples. That's what we're doing. And what is a disciple? The last three weeks we've been doing a review. A disciple, first of all, somebody who worships Jesus Christ. A disciple is someone who worships Jesus Christ. And last week we saw that a disciple also does what? Walks with Christ. And last week we talked about you being part of a small group and we're so excited about about what the Lord's doing in our small group ministry and great response from people who wanna get involved with small groups.

  Pastor Jeff:

  01:00-01:02

  That's how we make disciples here.

  Pastor Jeff:

  01:02-01:04

  There's no tricks, there's no gimmicks.

  Pastor Jeff:

  01:04-01:05

  You're like, well, what's your plan?

  Pastor Jeff:

  01:05-01:05

  That's the plan.

  Pastor Jeff:

  01:06-01:13

  You know, we come together here to worship and we ask you to get involved in a small group.

  Pastor Jeff:

  01:14-01:14

  Why?

  Pastor Jeff:

  01:14-01:17

  Because it's biblical, because that's how you get connected with people.

  Pastor Jeff:

  01:18-01:19

  We are called to be part of a body.

  Pastor Jeff:

  01:20-01:56

  So a disciple worships Christ, disciple walks with Christ. What else does the disciple do? Works for Christ. So let's talk about that. Disciples work for Christ. Turn in your Bibles to Luke chapter 17. So disciples are convinced God alone is worthy of worship. I'm convinced that I belong to a body of believers. Here's something else disciples are convinced of. I work for Christ. I work for Christ.

  Pastor Jeff:

  02:03-03:29

  Kind of hold your place there in Luke 17 because I want us to look at another passage. You know, normally we don't like to spend a lot of time flipping around our Bibles. We usually try to camp out on one passage. But I want you to turn to Ephesians chapter 2. I want to share with you a passage that every Christian should memorize because we get so mixed up when we talk about working. And before we get into Luke 17, I want to clarify the place of works. You know, in the area that we live, the geographic area that we live, there's a lot of Catholicism and there's a lot of similar type mindsets. Whether you go to a Catholic church or not, I know people that don't go to any church but still carry a similar type mindset to say, "God is happy with me when I do stuff for him." That's what makes God happy. You know, so I have to, whether it's repeating these prayers or doing these religious acts or doing charitable deeds, those are the things that make God happy with me. Is that true or false? Does doing good works make God happy with you?

  Pastor Jeff:

  03:31-03:53

  True or false? The answer is false. Absolutely false. How do you make God happy with you. Well, the Bible tells us that we are wretched, miserable, rebellious sinners by nature. And no amount of good works gets you brownie points with God.

  Pastor Jeff:

  03:54-04:38

  God's not looking down from heaven saying, "Well, he's lost, but he's trying really hard, so that's not bad." The truth is, he's guilty of sin. We deserve God's punishment. We deserve God's wrath because of sin. But what did God do? While we were yet sinners, Romans 5, Christ died for us. Jesus Christ came into the world and died and rose from the dead so that our sins could be forgiven and so that we can have eternal life. And you have to understand something, Christians. There is nothing that you can do that's going to make God happy with you outside of receiving Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. That's it.

  Pastor Jeff:

  04:40-04:56

  If you're trying to find some sort of plan B other than wholly devoting yourself to Jesus Christ, there is no plan B. Okay? Plan B is still being lost. Plan B is futility.

  Pastor Jeff:

  04:58-05:02

  If you're trying to make God happy outside of Christ, you can't do it.

  Pastor Jeff:

  05:04-05:05

  God is pleased with His Son.

  Pastor Jeff:

  05:07-05:11

  And through the death and the resurrection of His Son, we've been given the promise of eternal life.

  Pastor Jeff:

  05:12-05:22

  And only by receiving Him, only by being born again, are we pronounced not guilty, are we adopted as children of God.

  Pastor Jeff:

  05:25-05:30

  But Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 and 9 clarify this, 8 through 10 rather.

  Pastor Jeff:

  05:33-05:42

  Because you're like, "Okay, well you're saying my works don't make God happy, so why do them?" Right?

  Pastor Jeff:

  05:42-05:43

  Church, you need to memorize this.

  Pastor Jeff:

  05:43-05:53

  "For by grace you have been saved through faith." Okay, so God's part is grace.

  Pastor Jeff:

  05:53-05:54

  What's grace?

  Pastor Jeff:

  05:55-05:55

  What's grace?

  Pastor Jeff:

  05:58-06:01

  God giving to you what He requires from you.

  Pastor Jeff:

  06:01-06:02

  That's what grace is.

  Pastor Jeff:

  06:03-06:04

  God says, "You need righteousness.

  Pastor Jeff:

  06:04-06:05

  I require that from you.

  Pastor Jeff:

  06:06-06:06

  You don't got it.

  Pastor Jeff:

  06:06-06:13

  I'm going to give it to you through Jesus Christ." God says, "I require holiness from you.

  Pastor Jeff:

  06:13-06:13

  You don't have it.

  Pastor Jeff:

  06:13-06:52

  I'm going to give it to you through Jesus Christ." you what he requires from you. So how do we appropriate that grace? Well, that's why he says it's through faith. Through faith. We don't earn it. We don't start working. And maybe if God sees me doing a good job, he'll give me some grace. We appropriate it through believing in who Jesus Christ is, believing that what he accomplished is eternal life through the cross, through the empty tomb.

  Pastor Jeff:

  06:54-06:58

  And like even the faith, you're like, "Well, I just have to muster up enough faith," right?

  Pastor Jeff:

  06:58-07:00

  And this is not your own doing.

  Pastor Jeff:

  07:02-07:04

  You can't even muster up enough faith.

  Pastor Jeff:

  07:04-07:04

  Look at this.

  Pastor Jeff:

  07:04-07:09

  It says, "It is the gift of God." It's all from God.

  Pastor Jeff:

  07:11-07:18

  Verse nine says, "Not a result of works, so that no one may boast." Because you know how people are, right?

  Pastor Jeff:

  07:18-07:19

  We like to boast.

  Pastor Jeff:

  07:20-07:21

  We like to boast.

  Pastor Jeff:

  07:23-07:24

  Who's got the biggest biceps in the room?

  Pastor Jeff:

  07:26-07:27

  I see a few hands going up.

  Pastor Jeff:

  07:27-07:30

  I wasn't asking like for you to volunteer.

  Pastor Jeff:

  07:30-07:31

  The answer is Bill Howe.

  Pastor Jeff:

  07:34-07:38

  By the way, this physical specimen that I am is all thanks to Bill.

  Pastor Jeff:

  07:39-07:44

  Jim, Jim partner, prayer partner, thanks for visiting with us today.

  Pastor Jeff:

  07:45-07:45

  Hokies.

  Pastor Jeff:

  07:46-07:48

  Um, where was it? Oh yeah.

  Pastor Jeff:

  07:48-07:59

  "Not a result of works that no one may boast, and even in the church." Well, I've been a Christian for this many years, and I've been a Christian for this many years, and I've been on this many mission trips, and God's surely more happy with me than He is with you.

  Pastor Jeff:

  08:00-08:03

  No one can boast. No one can boast.

  Pastor Jeff:

  08:05-08:08

  Christians, God loves me just as much as he loves you and vice versa.

  Pastor Jeff:

  08:10-08:11

  No one can boast.

  Pastor Jeff:

  08:11-08:12

  It's all a result of grace.

  Pastor Jeff:

  08:14-08:15

  It's all grace.

  Pastor Jeff:

  08:17-08:21

  For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus.

  Pastor Jeff:

  08:21-08:22

  Look at this next phrase.

  Pastor Jeff:

  08:23-08:30

  For good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

  Pastor Jeff:

  08:35-08:37

  Help me out Bible scholars.

  Pastor Jeff:

  08:37-08:41

  So verse 10 says, "We were created in Christ Jesus for what purpose?

  Pastor Jeff:

  08:43-08:45

  For good works." Is that what it says?

  Pastor Jeff:

  08:47-08:48

  That's what my Bible says.

  Pastor Jeff:

  08:51-08:54

  Listen, you're not saved by good works.

  Pastor Jeff:

  08:56-08:59

  You are saved for good works.

  Pastor Jeff:

  08:59-09:00

  Do you understand the difference?

  Pastor Jeff:

  09:02-09:06

  Not saved by good works, you're saved for good works.

  Pastor Jeff:

  09:11-09:23

  I think one of the problems in the evangelical church, in order to avoid the heresy that we are saved by works, we've given good works a bad name.

  Pastor Jeff:

  09:25-09:28

  And sometimes people don't even want to use the word works.

  Pastor Jeff:

  09:28-09:30

  There are probably some people sitting here right now a little uncomfortable.

  Pastor Jeff:

  09:31-09:31

  Oh, he's talking about works.

  Pastor Jeff:

  09:32-09:33

  He's talking about works.

  Pastor Jeff:

  09:34-09:37

  Yeah, because the Bible talks about works.

  Pastor Jeff:

  09:38-09:43

  In their right place, Christians, God saved you for good works.

  Pastor Jeff:

  09:45-10:00

  So that's why at Harvest Bible Chapel, we unashamedly say a disciple works for Christ because we were created, We were saved for good works.

  Pastor Jeff:

  10:02-10:05

  The truly saved work for Christ.

  Pastor Jeff:

  10:05-10:10

  Now let's go back to Luke chapter 17, verses seven through 10.

  Pastor Jeff:

  10:10-10:15

  Let's look at the verses, and we'll break them down.

  Pastor Jeff:

  10:18-10:36

  Jesus says, "Well, any one of you who has a servant "Plowing or keeping sheep, say to him when he has come in from the field, 'Come at once and recline at the table.'" We have to understand something in our mindset.

  Pastor Jeff:

  10:37-10:39

  We can read through this and be like, "Well, yeah, that makes sense.

  Pastor Jeff:

  10:39-10:45

  You've been working hard. Why don't you have a seat?" The people that Jesus was preaching this to totally saw what he was saying.

  Pastor Jeff:

  10:46-10:51

  Like, "No." The servant doesn't come in from working and recline.

  Pastor Jeff:

  10:52-10:57

  The servant comes in from working, gets cleaned up and he keeps working.

  Pastor Jeff:

  10:58-10:59

  That's what servants do.

  Pastor Jeff:

  11:00-11:03

  So that would have been the mindset of the audience that Jesus was preaching to.

  Pastor Jeff:

  11:03-11:05

  And that's going to be clear as we go through here.

  Pastor Jeff:

  11:06-11:07

  But understand that.

  Pastor Jeff:

  11:09-11:12

  They're like, yes, I see what you're saying, Jesus.

  Pastor Jeff:

  11:15-11:33

  First, will he not rather say to him, prepare supper for me and dress properly and serve me while I eat and afterward you will eat and drink." And his audience would have been like, "Yeah, yeah, that's how it works. If you have a servant, he works in the field, hey, it's time to eat.

  Pastor Jeff:

  11:33-11:57

  He comes in, gets cleaned up, and he makes you food. And when I'm done eating and you've taken care of me, then it's your turn to eat." And the audience would have been like, "Yep, that's how it works." 9, "Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded?" Rhetorical question, what's the answer to that? The answer is no.

  Pastor Jeff:

  12:01-12:40

  He did what he was commanded. Did he get thank you for that? No. So here it is. What's your point here, Jesus? Jesus said, so you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, "We are unworthy servants. We have only done what was our duty." All right, so a disciple works for Christ. Here are four things servants of Christ are convinced of. Four things of Christ are convinced of.

  Pastor Jeff:

  12:41-12:47

  Actually, when I was working on this this week, I sent the outline ahead and I decided to combine the last two points because they were so similar.

  Pastor Jeff:

  12:48-12:51

  So it's really three things servants of Christ are convinced of.

  Pastor Jeff:

  12:52-12:56

  But then again, I thought of a fourth one, so I might just share that with you too, okay?

  Pastor Jeff:

  12:57-12:59

  So is the outline wrong?

  Pastor Jeff:

  13:00-13:00

  Maybe.

  Pastor Jeff:

  13:02-13:07

  All right, some things that servants of Christ are convinced of, number one.

  Pastor Jeff:

  13:09-13:11

  I am a servant.

  Pastor Jeff:

  13:15-13:32

  The rest of this message will make no sense to you unless you can rest in that place where you can say, "I am a servant of Jesus Christ." Again, that might feel uncomfortable.

  Pastor Jeff:

  13:34-13:44

  A lot of times we sing songs about, you know, I am a friend of God, or we sing songs about I'm a child of God.

  Pastor Jeff:

  13:45-13:47

  Do we sing any songs that's like, I'm God's slave?

  Pastor Jeff:

  13:48-13:49

  Do we sing any songs like that?

  Pastor Jeff:

  13:50-13:51

  Are there songs like that?

  Pastor Jeff:

  13:52-13:53

  You really don't hear that, do you?

  Pastor Jeff:

  13:55-14:01

  I mean, are there, seriously, are there like Christian songs, are there worship songs that's just basically like, God, here am I, I'm your slave?

  Pastor Jeff:

  14:04-14:09

  Like, well, that sounds awfully uncozy.

  Pastor Jeff:

  14:09-14:16

  Well, Numbers 12, verse seven, God speaking of Moses, he says, "Not so with my," you know what he called Moses?

  Pastor Jeff:

  14:18-14:22

  "My servant Moses." Like, yeah, Pastor Jeff, but that's Old Testament.

  Pastor Jeff:

  14:24-14:30

  Romans 1, 1, Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus.

  Pastor Jeff:

  14:33-14:34

  You're like, yeah, but that was Paul.

  Pastor Jeff:

  14:34-14:39

  I mean, Paul was always like, he's kind of over the top on some things, right?

  Pastor Jeff:

  14:40-14:46

  James 1, verse one, James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.

  Pastor Jeff:

  14:47-14:49

  It's like the double whammy servanthood there.

  Pastor Jeff:

  14:51-14:52

  In a good way.

  Pastor Jeff:

  14:54-14:55

  Like, yeah, but that's James.

  Pastor Jeff:

  14:59-15:03

  You know, Jesus' brother, he kind of had, Well, surely not Peter.

  Pastor Jeff:

  15:04-15:06

  Peter wouldn't say something like that, would he?

  Pastor Jeff:

  15:06-15:17

  Well, 2 Peter 1.1, Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ.

  Pastor Jeff:

  15:18-15:30

  Actually in his first epistle, 1 Peter 2.16, Peter says, "Live as people who are free, "not using your freedom as a cover up for evil, but living as servants of God.

  Pastor Jeff:

  15:35-15:39

  Like, yeah, but that's not like that doesn't like reach all the way through the New Testament, does it?

  Pastor Jeff:

  15:40-15:48

  Jude. Verse one says, Jude, a servant.

  Pastor Jeff:

  15:50-15:51

  Of Jesus Christ.

  Pastor Jeff:

  15:54-16:04

  So again, we can't get very far today until you rest in a place where you can say, like Moses, Paul, James, Peter, Jude and countless others.

  Pastor Jeff:

  16:06-16:08

  I'm a servant of Jesus Christ.

  Pastor Jeff:

  16:11-16:15

  This is Jesus whole point in this teaching, we serve God.

  Pastor Jeff:

  16:19-16:40

  Now in this quick parable that Jesus told, Jesus said, "Any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep..." Interesting that he uses that type of analogy.

  Pastor Jeff:

  16:44-16:46

  Serving Christ has the same ingredients.

  Pastor Jeff:

  16:46-16:48

  What kind of work is it? Jot these things down in your outline.

  Pastor Jeff:

  16:48-16:50

  What kind of work is it to serve Christ?

  Pastor Jeff:

  16:52-16:54

  What kind of work is it? First of all, it's hard work.

  Pastor Jeff:

  16:56-16:57

  Serving Christ is hard work.

  Pastor Jeff:

  17:00-17:02

  This isn't screwing caps on toothpaste.

  Pastor Jeff:

  17:05-17:06

  Serving Christ can be hard work.

  Pastor Jeff:

  17:11-17:15

  Serving Christ can be physically demanding.

  Pastor Jeff:

  17:17-17:19

  It can be emotionally draining.

  Pastor Jeff:

  17:23-17:29

  And spiritually, you will go places you didn't know you could go.

  Pastor Jeff:

  17:31-17:32

  But it's hard work.

  Pastor Jeff:

  17:34-17:36

  And I've been guilty of it so often in the church.

  Pastor Jeff:

  17:36-17:38

  We're talking about work for Christ today.

  Pastor Jeff:

  17:38-17:41

  So often in the church, we want to package it like it's easy.

  Pastor Jeff:

  17:41-17:47

  "Hey, come and work for Christ. It's great." "We take these mission trips to exotic locations "and it's easy, it's easy.

  Pastor Jeff:

  17:47-17:52

  "It's just a matter of friendly handshake "and handing out a bullet and it's easy, it's easy.

  Pastor Jeff:

  17:52-17:55

  "We only need you to do that once every five months.

  Pastor Jeff:

  17:55-17:55

  "It's easy.

  Pastor Jeff:

  17:56-17:58

  "And even then, five minutes, that's all we need.

  Pastor Jeff:

  17:58-18:19

  "Five minutes of your time serving Christ is easy." Jesus was like, "It's like the guy "that's always on the clock plowing "or keeping the sheep, hard work, okay, hard work." Number two, serving Christ can be repetitive work.

  Pastor Jeff:

  18:23-18:25

  That's what faithfulness is, by the way.

  Pastor Jeff:

  18:25-18:32

  Faithfulness is being constant, being constant, consistent in striving for excellence.

  Pastor Jeff:

  18:34-18:35

  But it can be repetitive work.

  Pastor Jeff:

  18:36-18:39

  How about for us who are meeting in a school?

  Pastor Jeff:

  18:39-18:43

  A lot of the things that we do, the servants of Christ, It's repetitive work.

  Pastor Jeff:

  18:45-18:48

  Just ask our facilities guy, Dave, it's repetitive work, isn't it, Dave?

  Pastor Jeff:

  18:49-18:50

  You know what happens?

  Pastor Jeff:

  18:50-18:52

  We're gonna talk about this at the end of the sermon, but you know what happens?

  Pastor Jeff:

  18:53-19:00

  Every Sunday morning, Dave gets up early and he brings the truck and trailer here and unloads it and everything gets set up.

  Pastor Jeff:

  19:00-19:05

  And at the end of service, everything gets torn down back into the trailer, gets parked again.

  Pastor Jeff:

  19:06-19:07

  And guess what happens the next Sunday?

  Pastor Jeff:

  19:08-19:10

  The exact same thing.

  Pastor Jeff:

  19:11-19:11

  Rinse and repeat.

  Pastor Jeff:

  19:12-19:13

  pretty much every Sunday, right?

  Pastor Jeff:

  19:13-19:16

  Unless we're down in the cafeteria, which we do every so often.

  Pastor Jeff:

  19:17-19:18

  It's repetitive.

  Pastor Jeff:

  19:21-19:22

  It's repetitive work.

  Pastor Jeff:

  19:24-19:28

  You know, sort of like farming, sort of like keeping the sheep.

  Pastor Jeff:

  19:30-19:38

  See, faithfulness is being consistent over a period of time, not, "Well, I'm gonna get involved in this ministry "as long as it's fun, it's a novel idea." I'm kind of getting bored with that.

  Pastor Jeff:

  19:42-19:43

  It's repetitive work.

  Pastor Jeff:

  19:44-19:50

  Number three, sometimes, a lot of times, working for Christ can be unglamorous work.

  Pastor Jeff:

  19:51-19:52

  Unglamorous work.

  Pastor Jeff:

  19:56-20:00

  I just had a conversation with my brother about this this past week.

  Pastor Jeff:

  20:01-20:13

  What you see when you come on Sunday, you see this worship team up here leading in worship and I get up here and share something from God's word and there's things happening in the children's ministry.

  Pastor Jeff:

  20:14-20:15

  That's what you see.

  Pastor Jeff:

  20:16-20:18

  And you can come in here and be like, "Hey, that looks pretty cool.

  Pastor Jeff:

  20:18-20:34

  "I mean, these guys, they're great musicians "and wow, wow." And yeah, Jeff just gets up and basically, he just says stuff that's written down in this book, like, "How hard is that?" And what you see a lot of times is just the upfront stuff.

  Pastor Jeff:

  20:35-20:40

  What you don't see is all of the stuff that goes on behind the scenes.

  Pastor Jeff:

  20:41-20:45

  What we would say is the unglamorous things, the part that I guess this ties into the repetitive part.

  Pastor Jeff:

  20:46-20:53

  But when signs need fixed or we have to rehearse that song again because we're just not getting it and.

  Pastor Jeff:

  20:55-20:59

  You know, the sermon's just not making sense, I got to sit down and keep working at it.

  Pastor Jeff:

  21:01-21:03

  And you're like, and you give us the finished product, really?

  Pastor Jeff:

  21:04-21:05

  Most weeks.

  Pastor Jeff:

  21:07-21:09

  Sometimes the work isn't Hollywood fabulous.

  Pastor Jeff:

  21:10-21:15

  Sometimes it's as glamorous as cleaning up after the sheep, but it's still work for Christ.

  Pastor Jeff:

  21:17-21:19

  And number four, it's endless work.

  Pastor Jeff:

  21:21-21:22

  It's endless work.

  Pastor Jeff:

  21:25-21:27

  Tireless, there's always more to be done.

  Pastor Jeff:

  21:28-21:43

  It wasn't like Sam and Laura said, "You know, we got 15 songs that we just nailed down and we're gonna be singing them until Jesus returns, constantly writing new songs and learning new songs and getting more people involved in the process.

  Pastor Jeff:

  21:43-21:45

  It doesn't end, it doesn't end.

  Pastor Jeff:

  21:47-21:51

  Next week, Lord willing, you should see a completely new lobby when you come in.

  Pastor Jeff:

  21:53-21:59

  Because we've been working on, you know, new signage and a resource table and even like entry rugs and stuff like that.

  Pastor Jeff:

  21:59-22:03

  We're constantly striving for excellence because Christ is worth it.

  Pastor Jeff:

  22:04-22:12

  Christ is not worth us just calling it in, like, "That was good enough." No, he is worth more than we could ever do for him.

  Pastor Jeff:

  22:12-22:16

  That's why we work tirelessly, because we're striving for excellence.

  Pastor Jeff:

  22:16-22:17

  He is worth it.

  Pastor Jeff:

  22:18-22:24

  He's beyond anything that we can do, but we always strive for excellence, always striving for excellence.

  Pastor Jeff:

  22:25-22:25

  But here's the point.

  Pastor Jeff:

  22:28-22:29

  You're going to get worn out.

  Pastor Jeff:

  22:30-22:36

  You're going to get frustrated and you're going to get discouraged when you lose sight of who you are.

  Pastor Jeff:

  22:37-22:41

  I am a servant of Christ. Can you say that? Try it.

  Pastor Jeff:

  22:44-22:45

  All right, try it again.

  Pastor Jeff:

  22:49-22:50

  Again.

  Pastor Jeff:

  22:52-22:55

  I am a servant of Christ.

  Pastor Jeff:

  22:57-22:57

  Do you believe that?

  Pastor Jeff:

  22:59-23:07

  Because when you lose sight of that, it's not so much fun anymore.

  Pastor Jeff:

  23:08-23:09

  And you start to lose your focus.

  Pastor Jeff:

  23:10-23:15

  And you say, "Why am I doing this? Why am I doing this? Why am I doing this?

  Pastor Jeff:

  23:16-23:27

  Because I'm a servant of Christ." That's the first thing that servants of Christ are convinced of, is the truth that they are servants.

  Pastor Jeff:

  23:27-23:31

  And secondly, my service is my priority.

  Pastor Jeff:

  23:33-23:34

  Let's look again at verse eight.

  Pastor Jeff:

  23:36-23:39

  Well, verse seven, he says, your serving comes in from plowing and keeping the sheep.

  Pastor Jeff:

  23:40-23:43

  Will you say to him, well, come at once and recline at the table.

  Pastor Jeff:

  23:45-23:52

  Will he not rather say to him, prepare supper for me and dress properly and serve me while I eat and drink.

  Pastor Jeff:

  23:53-23:55

  And afterward you will eat and drink.

  Pastor Jeff:

  23:57-24:00

  So Jesus' point is my service is my priority.

  Pastor Jeff:

  24:03-24:13

  You know, the picture here is the servant coming in, he's been keeping the sheep and he's all filthy and he's got like sheep stuff on him and he stinks and he comes in and flops down.

  Pastor Jeff:

  24:13-24:18

  He's like, "Oh, I worked hard today." And the master's like, "Oh, you know what?

  Pastor Jeff:

  24:18-24:19

  "You deserve a break.

  Pastor Jeff:

  24:21-24:26

  "Scrub up, pal, it's dinner time." Right?

  Pastor Jeff:

  24:28-24:29

  But I did my work.

  Pastor Jeff:

  24:31-24:32

  And you're still on the clock.

  Pastor Jeff:

  24:33-24:33

  Keep working.

  Pastor Jeff:

  24:35-24:36

  Here's the point.

  Pastor Jeff:

  24:36-24:38

  Always the master first, never me first.

  Pastor Jeff:

  24:39-24:41

  Always the master first, never me first.

  Pastor Jeff:

  24:42-24:44

  Always the master first, never me first.

  Pastor Jeff:

  24:44-24:46

  What was our first year theme at Harvest Bible Chapel?

  Pastor Jeff:

  24:46-24:47

  What was our first year theme?

  Pastor Jeff:

  24:48-24:50

  Jesus is first.

  Pastor Jeff:

  24:51-24:52

  Why do you think we picked that theme?

  Pastor Jeff:

  24:54-24:55

  Because he is.

  Pastor Jeff:

  24:56-25:04

  And so often in the church, it's me, I'm first, I'm first, me, my needs, my wants, my opinion, my preferences.

  Pastor Jeff:

  25:07-25:10

  Always the master first, never me first.

  Pastor Jeff:

  25:12-25:17

  We have a tendency to be in such a self-centered mindset that we start to think God is our servant.

  Pastor Jeff:

  25:18-25:21

  God better come through for me. God better do this for me.

  Pastor Jeff:

  25:24-25:29

  And people hinge their faith on God's performance as if He is supposed to work for us.

  Pastor Jeff:

  25:33-25:38

  It's one of the lies that's infiltrated the church, that God owes us something.

  Pastor Jeff:

  25:41-25:45

  That's blasphemous, to think that God owes us anything.

  Pastor Jeff:

  25:48-25:57

  Well, if you're not rich and you're not healthy and you're not happy, then there's a problem because those are the things that God wants for you.

  Pastor Jeff:

  26:00-26:01

  And really, He owes it to you.

  Pastor Jeff:

  26:03-26:04

  I just jot these things down in your notes.

  Pastor Jeff:

  26:05-26:06

  Here's what I wrote down in mine.

  Pastor Jeff:

  26:08-26:10

  First of all, God is not a genie.

  Pastor Jeff:

  26:11-26:11

  He's not a genie.

  Pastor Jeff:

  26:13-26:15

  Oh, give me three wishes.

  Pastor Jeff:

  26:16-26:18

  My first wish is I want more wishes.

  Pastor Jeff:

  26:20-26:23

  Some people treat God like he's a genie.

  Pastor Jeff:

  26:25-26:26

  Like, oh, you're gonna get me out of this one.

  Pastor Jeff:

  26:29-26:33

  You gotta give me this, which is my second one.

  Pastor Jeff:

  26:33-26:34

  God is not a vending machine.

  Pastor Jeff:

  26:34-26:35

  Somebody wrote a book called that.

  Pastor Jeff:

  26:36-26:37

  That title always stuck with me.

  Pastor Jeff:

  26:37-26:38

  This was like in the 80s or something.

  Pastor Jeff:

  26:39-26:41

  But somebody wrote a book called, God is not a vending machine.

  Pastor Jeff:

  26:42-26:43

  That's how some people treat God.

  Pastor Jeff:

  26:44-26:46

  Oh, I see the things that God can offer me.

  Pastor Jeff:

  26:46-26:47

  Okay, I'll take some of this.

  Pastor Jeff:

  26:49-26:51

  There again, treating God like he's the servant.

  Pastor Jeff:

  26:52-26:54

  God, do this for me, chop, chop, do this.

  Pastor Jeff:

  26:54-26:56

  I need this, I need this.

  Pastor Jeff:

  26:58-27:00

  You better watch that line of thinking.

  Pastor Jeff:

  27:01-27:02

  I also wrote this one down.

  Pastor Jeff:

  27:04-27:05

  God is the fixer.

  Pastor Jeff:

  27:07-27:11

  As if God shows up and he's like, "Hey, this guy giving you a problem?

  Pastor Jeff:

  27:13-27:20

  "You just say the word, I'll take care of him for you." Yeah, "Could you take care of this problem for me, God?" "Hey, that's what I'm here for.

  Pastor Jeff:

  27:21-27:28

  "I'm your muscle, I'll take care of it." Now, do I believe that God works miracles for our benefit?

  Pastor Jeff:

  27:28-27:29

  Yes, I do.

  Pastor Jeff:

  27:30-27:33

  Do I believe that God gives us everything that we need?

  Pastor Jeff:

  27:33-27:33

  Absolutely.

  Pastor Jeff:

  27:34-27:38

  Do I believe that God is our refuge and shield?

  Pastor Jeff:

  27:39-27:40

  Absolutely.

  Pastor Jeff:

  27:40-27:44

  The point that Jesus is making here is it's all about your attitude.

  Pastor Jeff:

  27:45-27:46

  It's all about your attitude.

  Pastor Jeff:

  27:49-27:51

  God is the servant, I'm the one in charge.

  Pastor Jeff:

  27:51-27:56

  Jesus said, "The humble disciple of Christ "doesn't think that way.

  Pastor Jeff:

  27:59-28:11

  "My service is my priority." If you serve to get something now, you're going to be disappointed because God doesn't work that way, okay?

  Pastor Jeff:

  28:11-28:16

  So if you're like, well, I guess I'll be part of what the church is doing because I really want God to give me that promotion at work.

  Pastor Jeff:

  28:17-28:17

  He doesn't work that way.

  Pastor Jeff:

  28:19-28:25

  God doesn't have some kind of a score sheet in heaven, like, well, you know what?

  Pastor Jeff:

  28:25-28:27

  I owe Darren two now.

  Pastor Jeff:

  28:28-28:29

  I'm gonna have to get caught up here.

  Pastor Jeff:

  28:30-28:31

  God doesn't work that way.

  Pastor Jeff:

  28:33-28:36

  He is God and I am what?

  Pastor Jeff:

  28:39-28:41

  Right, here's how I like to finish that.

  Pastor Jeff:

  28:42-28:44

  He is God and I am not, right?

  Pastor Jeff:

  28:45-28:48

  He is God and I am not.

  Pastor Jeff:

  28:50-28:54

  But you did a great job contextualizing that for the message today.

  Pastor Jeff:

  28:54-28:55

  He is God and I am his servant.

  Pastor Jeff:

  28:57-28:58

  It's all about your attitude.

  Pastor Jeff:

  29:00-29:01

  It's all about your attitude.

  Pastor Jeff:

  29:01-29:13

  Notice Jesus said that the master says, "You know, serve me while I eat and drink and afterward you will eat and drink." I highlighted that word afterward in my Bible.

  Pastor Jeff:

  29:13-29:14

  You should do the same.

  Pastor Jeff:

  29:15-29:18

  Highlight, circle, underline, afterward.

  Pastor Jeff:

  29:21-29:23

  Jot this reference down too.

  Pastor Jeff:

  29:24-29:25

  This is an amazing reference.

  Pastor Jeff:

  29:25-29:32

  Luke 12 in verse 37 says that in heaven, This is Luke 12, 37.

  Pastor Jeff:

  29:32-29:34

  You can read the whole context and stuff later.

  Pastor Jeff:

  29:34-29:35

  You have to read the whole context.

  Pastor Jeff:

  29:36-29:43

  But this verse, years ago, when I came across this verse as a young Christian, this verse just blew my brain apart.

  Pastor Jeff:

  29:43-29:45

  I just, I was like, wow.

  Pastor Jeff:

  29:46-29:49

  This verse says that in heaven, God will serve us.

  Pastor Jeff:

  29:51-29:52

  It's like, what?

  Pastor Jeff:

  29:53-29:54

  That's what it says.

  Pastor Jeff:

  29:55-29:57

  Obviously, we will be serving God in heaven.

  Pastor Jeff:

  29:57-29:58

  We will be worshiping God in heaven.

  Pastor Jeff:

  30:00-30:07

  But Jesus said in heaven, he serves us.

  Pastor Jeff:

  30:07-30:08

  See, and that's the afterwards.

  Pastor Jeff:

  30:09-30:12

  That's the afterwards here in this passage that we're looking at.

  Pastor Jeff:

  30:13-30:14

  But I wanna eat and drink.

  Pastor Jeff:

  30:14-30:16

  You will later.

  Pastor Jeff:

  30:16-30:20

  Right now is about serving him.

  Pastor Jeff:

  30:25-30:26

  Afterwards, afterwards.

  Pastor Jeff:

  30:30-30:32

  That's why retirement for ministry is not in the Bible.

  Pastor Jeff:

  30:34-30:36

  Retirement for ministry is not in the Bible.

  Pastor Jeff:

  30:37-30:46

  And I'm not saying that God doesn't call us from time to time for one ministry to another ministry, one act of serving him to another act of serving him.

  Pastor Jeff:

  30:46-30:47

  He does, obviously.

  Pastor Jeff:

  30:48-30:49

  This church is proof of that.

  Pastor Jeff:

  30:53-30:59

  But what you don't see in the Bible is this, and I've heard this so many times, and it just, it's like nails on the chalkboard.

  Pastor Jeff:

  30:59-31:01

  You know, I did my time.

  Pastor Jeff:

  31:02-31:03

  I'm done.

  Pastor Jeff:

  31:04-31:05

  Somebody else can do it.

  Pastor Jeff:

  31:06-31:07

  Like I'm retiring from ministry.

  Pastor Jeff:

  31:08-31:08

  Really?

  Pastor Jeff:

  31:10-31:11

  Retirement from ministry, that's called heaven.

  Pastor Jeff:

  31:11-31:12

  Are you going there?

  Pastor Jeff:

  31:13-31:17

  Because if you're not, we're working now, okay?

  Pastor Jeff:

  31:17-31:18

  We're working now.

  Pastor Jeff:

  31:19-31:20

  But I did my time.

  Pastor Jeff:

  31:20-31:22

  No, no, you're not done.

  Pastor Jeff:

  31:22-31:23

  You still have a pulse.

  Pastor Jeff:

  31:23-31:24

  You're still breathing.

  Pastor Jeff:

  31:27-31:29

  you're serving Christ until that stops.

  Pastor Jeff:

  31:32-31:35

  So have you made it a priority to be in a small group?

  Pastor Jeff:

  31:35-31:37

  We talked about that last week.

  Pastor Jeff:

  31:37-31:40

  Have you made it a priority to seek how you can serve in church?

  Pastor Jeff:

  31:40-31:41

  Have you made that a priority?

  Pastor Jeff:

  31:43-31:51

  If this is your church home, have you made it a priority to say, how can I be a part of what's actually happening in this ministry?

  Pastor Jeff:

  31:51-31:54

  Well, I'm gonna tell you how in just a couple of minutes here.

  Pastor Jeff:

  31:55-31:59

  But my service is my priority, always the master first, never me first.

  Pastor Jeff:

  32:02-32:07

  And then finally, my service is expected.

  Pastor Jeff:

  32:09-32:11

  It's just expected.

  Pastor Jeff:

  32:17-32:18

  Again, we've been guilty of this.

  Pastor Jeff:

  32:18-32:20

  I know I have so many times.

  Pastor Jeff:

  32:21-32:23

  Who would like to serve Christ?

  Pastor Jeff:

  32:25-32:26

  You know, God doesn't say that.

  Pastor Jeff:

  32:28-32:30

  He's like, if you're one of mine, it's time to get to work.

  Pastor Jeff:

  32:31-32:33

  I created you for good works.

  Pastor Jeff:

  32:33-32:36

  And actually, He does them through us, right?

  Pastor Jeff:

  32:37-32:38

  That's the power of the Holy Spirit.

  Pastor Jeff:

  32:38-32:41

  He does something in us so He can do something through us.

  Pastor Jeff:

  32:43-32:44

  But my service is expected.

  Pastor Jeff:

  32:45-32:46

  Look at verses nine and 10 again.

  Pastor Jeff:

  32:48-32:52

  Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded?

  Pastor Jeff:

  32:53-32:54

  The answer is no.

  Pastor Jeff:

  32:55-32:58

  Understand this, God is never going to say thank you to you.

  Pastor Jeff:

  33:00-33:08

  He is going to say, "Well done, good and faithful servants," but God is not going to say thank you.

  Pastor Jeff:

  33:11-33:19

  And look at verse 10 again, he says, "So you also," this is Jesus' application point, When you have done all that you were commanded, say, "We are unworthy servants.

  Pastor Jeff:

  33:19-33:31

  We have only done what was our duty." That word "unworthy" literally means "unprofitable." Unprofitable.

  Pastor Jeff:

  33:35-33:36

  Here's what that means.

  Pastor Jeff:

  33:37-33:38

  To say, "We're unworthy servants.

  Pastor Jeff:

  33:39-33:40

  We're unprofitable servants.

  Pastor Jeff:

  33:40-33:58

  We're only doing our duty." for you. If you serve God, does that make Him more awesome? Yes or no?

  Pastor Jeff:

  34:00-34:01

  No.

  Pastor Jeff:

  34:01-34:18

  The answer is no. Your service doesn't make God any more awesome because He's got that whole market cornered on awesomeness. And you deciding, "Well, I'm not going to serve them. I'm not going to do a thing." That doesn't diminish God at all either.

  Pastor Jeff:

  34:19-34:24

  God's not like, "Oh, I could be so much better. I could be so much more.

  Pastor Jeff:

  34:26-34:40

  If only this person would get on board, I could be really awesome. That's what that means, unprofitable. We don't add to or detract from God in any way.

  Pastor Jeff:

  34:42-35:01

  We're unprofitable. He owes us nothing, so he's not going to thank us, but he will say, well done, good and faithful servant." A servant does what he is commanded, verse 9.

  Pastor Jeff:

  35:03-35:21

  So no matter what you are called to, please hear me, no matter what you are called to or how much you give yourself to it or how many hours you put into it, you are not being asked of anything more than what is expected.

  Pastor Jeff:

  35:26-35:30

  You are not being asked of anything more than what is expected.

  Pastor Jeff:

  35:33-35:34

  There's no overtime pay.

  Pastor Jeff:

  35:37-35:52

  There's no, "Well, you know what, God, I'm in charge of this ministry and I'm willing to help out with this ministry, but gosh, that's really asking an awful lot." though it's not slave, I'm just an unprofitable servant.

  Pastor Jeff:

  35:52-35:53

  I'm just here to serve.

  Pastor Jeff:

  36:00-36:04

  Another truth is this, you are not elite because you serve, okay?

  Pastor Jeff:

  36:07-36:09

  Like Jeannie Bloomingdale heads up the children's ministry.

  Pastor Jeff:

  36:09-36:47

  She's like, she's got platinum status in this church because she heads up the children's ministry doing a lot of work to make improvements. So she has platinum status in this church. True or false? False. She's not elite because she's doing her job. Well what about me? I'm the pastor of the church. That's why it's so funny like for the church plans. They're like senior pastor. Like they call me the senior pastor. That just cracks me up because it's almost like I have all these pastors working under me. Like I have dozens of these other pastors. I just to be the senior pastor.

  Pastor Jeff:

  36:48-36:50

  I'm like senior pastor, eh, like by default.

  Pastor Jeff:

  36:50-36:54

  It's like, yeah, he's the only pastor, but that doesn't look as good on a business card.

  Pastor Jeff:

  36:54-36:56

  Yeah, I'm Jeff Miller, only pastor.

  Pastor Jeff:

  37:02-37:02

  I'm not elite.

  Pastor Jeff:

  37:05-37:05

  Why?

  Pastor Jeff:

  37:07-37:09

  I'm just doing what God told me to.

  Pastor Jeff:

  37:12-37:14

  Our worship leaders are not elite.

  Pastor Jeff:

  37:16-37:18

  They're just doing what God told them to do.

  Pastor Jeff:

  37:22-37:25

  Amanda, I'm sorry to tell you, but you are not elite.

  Pastor Jeff:

  37:27-37:29

  You are just doing what God has called you to.

  Pastor Jeff:

  37:30-37:34

  So stop putting, I want to be the senior pastor on your friendship register.

  Pastor Jeff:

  37:36-37:42

  Amanda puts that on the friendship register every so often I go through them and it says, I want to be a senior pastor.

  Pastor Jeff:

  37:43-37:45

  And that's not going to make you elite.

  Pastor Jeff:

  37:46-37:49

  Plus, it's just not going to happen in harvest, okay?

  Pastor Jeff:

  37:49-37:52

  So, you know that's a joke, right?

  Pastor Jeff:

  37:53-37:56

  She doesn't really want to be the senior pastor, I keep telling myself.

  Pastor Jeff:

  37:57-38:04

  But, here's the point, you don't get accolades for just doing your job.

  Pastor Jeff:

  38:04-38:07

  You don't get accolades for just doing your job.

  Pastor Jeff:

  38:09-38:13

  I went to see the Thompsons down at McGee's.

  Pastor Jeff:

  38:14-38:18

  I go in and Dan's just like, "Hey, you know what?

  Pastor Jeff:

  38:19-38:24

  "Jeff, you should really be patting me on the back "because I've been encouraging my wife.

  Pastor Jeff:

  38:25-38:27

  "I've been making sure the baby's eating.

  Pastor Jeff:

  38:27-38:31

  "And I've been on top of all this new baby stuff.

  Pastor Jeff:

  38:31-38:33

  "Jeff, you should really pat me on the back." Why?

  Pastor Jeff:

  38:33-38:34

  For doing what you're supposed to?

  Pastor Jeff:

  38:34-38:35

  Congratulations.

  Pastor Jeff:

  38:37-38:40

  You did exactly what is expected of you.

  Pastor Jeff:

  38:42-38:43

  It's ridiculous, isn't it?

  Pastor Jeff:

  38:44-39:01

  Or turn it the other way around, parents. Parents, if your kids came up to you and said, "You know what, I finished my homework and I brushed my teeth. How much do you think that's worth tonight? Can you cut me a check?" Parents, what would you say?

  Pastor Jeff:

  39:03-39:07

  You don't get a reward for doing what you're supposed to do.

  Pastor Jeff:

  39:07-39:08

  So that's your job, okay?

  Pastor Jeff:

  39:09-39:09

  That's your job.

  Pastor Jeff:

  39:12-39:13

  That's what Jesus is saying here.

  Pastor Jeff:

  39:15-39:25

  There's no brownie points, kudos, props, yogi buttons, cookies, for just doing your job.

  Pastor Jeff:

  39:25-39:36

  That's why the end of verse 10, that word, he says, "We've only done what was our duty." That word for duty, literally means doing that which is expected.

  Pastor Jeff:

  39:36-40:19

  Just doing that which is expected. So somebody's going to leave here saying, "Pastor Jeff doesn't appreciate the people at this church." That is not true. Honestly, every day I am so thankful to God for all of you. I am. I am. I I think of, you know, so many times, I've shared this with you, you know it's on my mind, so many times I think, you know, this church started with just two guys in a Mexican restaurant praying about this church and talking about it.

  Pastor Jeff:

  40:20-40:35

  And I'm so thankful for the people that God has brought that are pouring into my life and carrying out different roles and ministries here and the new people that are coming and saying, "Let's get on board with this disciple-making thing." I am so thankful.

  Pastor Jeff:

  40:37-40:44

  But it is inevitable that someone is going to get upset because they feel unappreciated.

  Pastor Jeff:

  40:44-40:45

  That is going to happen.

  Pastor Jeff:

  40:47-40:47

  Write that down.

  Pastor Jeff:

  40:49-40:52

  Keep this, write it down in your bulletin and keep that bulletin in the front of your Bible.

  Pastor Jeff:

  40:53-41:01

  Someone at some point is going to completely get off the rails because they feel unappreciated.

  Pastor Jeff:

  41:05-41:11

  But if you're doing what you're doing in order to get people to appreciate you, you're gonna have a long day at the office.

  Pastor Jeff:

  41:14-41:29

  But if you do what you do because you love Jesus Christ, and because you see that He He is worthy of serving because you see that He is God and we are not.

  Pastor Jeff:

  41:31-41:32

  We're just His servants.

  Pastor Jeff:

  41:34-41:35

  And I would tell you to join the team.

  Pastor Jeff:

  41:39-41:43

  So just so somebody doesn't leave all upset because I said four things and there was only three.

  Pastor Jeff:

  41:43-41:45

  Look at the verse in the bottom of your outline.

  Pastor Jeff:

  41:50-41:54

  The fourth thing a servant of Jesus Christ says is this, it will all be worth it.

  Pastor Jeff:

  41:55-41:56

  It will all be worth it.

  Pastor Jeff:

  41:57-42:22

  First Corinthians 15, 58 says, "Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast and movable, "always abounding in the work of the Lord, "knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain." knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

  Pastor Jeff:

  42:23-42:26

  In the Lord your labor is not in vain.

  Pastor Jeff:

  42:30-42:43

  You are not going to be sitting in heaven 10,000 years from now looking back to this time in your life thinking, you know, back when I was on the earth, I just got a little too excited about Jesus.

  Pastor Jeff:

  42:44-42:46

  Just got a little too radical about Jesus.

  Pastor Jeff:

  42:47-42:54

  I was all like raising my hands and singing loud and I was playing songs about Jesus on my radio.

  Pastor Jeff:

  42:55-43:03

  Oh, and then the church, I like worked so hard to help in what was happening in the church.

  Pastor Jeff:

  43:03-43:06

  I think I just spent a little too much time on the earth serving Jesus.

  Pastor Jeff:

  43:06-43:07

  Is anybody gonna say that?

  Pastor Jeff:

  43:10-43:12

  You see, this is an eternal work.

  Pastor Jeff:

  43:13-43:17

  And that's why Paul reminds us, we should always be abounding in the work of the Lord.

  Pastor Jeff:

  43:17-43:19

  We should always be on the clock.

  Pastor Jeff:

  43:19-43:19

  Why?

  Pastor Jeff:

  43:19-43:21

  Because it's not in vain.

  Pastor Jeff:

  43:22-43:23

  It's not in vain.

  Pastor Jeff:

  43:27-43:28

  It's not in vain.

  Pastor Jeff:

  43:28-43:35

  So at this point, you're saying, well, okay, how do I get involved?

  Pastor Jeff:

  43:36-43:38

  You're saying work, but here's what I see.

  Pastor Jeff:

  43:40-43:41

  I see a church that meets in a school.

  Pastor Jeff:

  43:42-43:44

  that looks like you've got a system going here.

  Pastor Jeff:

  43:44-43:52

  And yes, that's precisely why we need people to step up and be part of what's happening here.

  Pastor Jeff:

  43:55-43:56

  We're still in infancy year.

  Pastor Jeff:

  43:58-43:59

  We're still working on a lot of things.

  Pastor Jeff:

  44:01-44:04

  And we need people who are going to step up and say, I'll serve Christ.

  Pastor Jeff:

  44:06-44:07

  How do I do that?

  Pastor Jeff:

  44:09-44:16

  Well, specifically this morning, as we close, I wanna talk about what happens here on a Sunday morning and how you can get involved with that.

  Pastor Jeff:

  44:17-44:21

  And I asked some people to speak and I'm going to speak on behalf of some others.

  Pastor Jeff:

  44:22-44:24

  But Ken Frederick, come on up here.

  Pastor Jeff:

  44:25-44:28

  We make sure this microphone's on my amazing AV people.

  Pastor Jeff:

  44:29-44:30

  I just said Ken.

  Pastor Jeff:

  44:33-44:35

  And she wants to be pastor.

  Pastor Jeff:

  44:38-44:39

  Yeah, she's, yeah.

  Pastor Jeff:

  44:40-44:43

  But I've asked some people to speak on the ministries that take place here.

  Pastor Jeff:

  44:45-44:48

  And Ken and, I guess, Amanda, they are married.

  Pastor Jeff:

  44:48-44:50

  So the two have become one.

  Pastor Jeff:

  44:51-44:52

  So it's a package deal.

  Ken:

  44:53-44:55

  You've commended us on our obedience, too.

  Ken:

  44:55-44:57

  So when you ask for me, you get both.

  Ken:

  44:59-44:59

  Well, good morning, everyone.

  Ken:

  45:00-45:02

  As many of you know, I'm Ken.

  Ken:

  45:02-45:06

  This is my beautiful wife and lovely better half, Amanda.

  Ken:

  45:06-45:09

  And we are in charge of the assimilation ministry here.

  Ken:

  45:10-45:17

  And as I guess as Jeff has talked, we came on board here back in August, last August, and been here ever since.

  Ken:

  45:17-45:20

  And we're excited for the relaunch coming up next week.

  Ken:

  45:22-45:27

  But part of what we do every morning is we're in charge of the assimilation ushers.

  Ken:

  45:27-45:30

  We help Jeanne facilitate children's ministry.

  Ken:

  45:31-45:33

  Right now we have a rotation schedule going.

  Ken:

  45:35-45:37

  We have a-- closer to my mouth.

  Ken:

  45:37-45:37

  All right.

  Ken:

  45:38-46:10

  See, I'm not in the music, so I don't about microphones. But anyways, we have a schedule going. It's usually about once every three weeks. We ask people to serve. It's usually a half hour before and a half hour after. You'll be asked to stand out in the lobby, open doors, smile, greet, say hello, and just welcome people into the church. I know when speaking with Amanda and kind of putting these words together, we felt very blessed to be part of this ministry. And this is just a way for us to give back and to serve and kind of take ownership a little bit.

  Ken:

  46:11-46:20

  It's real easy to show up Sunday morning and skirt in and skirt out, especially in a church that meets in a middle school, only because there's really no reason to hang out and we don't have coffee yet.

  Ken:

  46:22-46:22

  But we're getting it.

  Ken:

  46:22-46:24

  But we're working there and things are improving.

  Ken:

  46:25-46:32

  But anyways, if that's something you guys would be interested in, you have a smile, just a heart just to welcome people, we would love to have you.

  Ken:

  46:33-46:35

  We can get you on the schedule effective immediately.

  Ken:

  46:36-46:39

  Or if you need a couple weeks, we can work with you there as well.

  Ken:

  46:40-46:46

  But like I said, the requirement right now is just simply once every three weeks, half hour before, half hour after.

  Ken:

  46:47-46:50

  And we would love-- we'd be more than welcome to have you and would love for you to join us.

  Ken:

  46:50-46:53

  So that's the assimilation team.

  Pastor Jeff:

  46:54-46:55

  All right, thank you so much, Ken.

  Pastor Jeff:

  46:57-47:05

  So if you have one of these cards, the top there, it says, I would like to serve Sunday morning hospitality/children's rotation.

  Pastor Jeff:

  47:05-47:08

  And right now, we are in a rotation system, like Ken said.

  Pastor Jeff:

  47:08-47:10

  So what that means is every three weeks, you're up.

  Pastor Jeff:

  47:11-47:15

  You show up a half hour early, and you stay a half hour after.

  Pastor Jeff:

  47:16-47:25

  And that can be everything from what, Ken, to-- you know those lovely smiling faces you see when people are handing out the bulletins and holding doors for people and those kinds of things?

  Pastor Jeff:

  47:26-47:27

  That's the assimilation team.

  Pastor Jeff:

  47:29-47:31

  And we did get permission from the school.

  Pastor Jeff:

  47:32-47:35

  When we first started here, they said no food or drink.

  Pastor Jeff:

  47:37-47:41

  By the grace of God, one of the head custodians called me a couple of weeks ago.

  Pastor Jeff:

  47:41-47:43

  And he's like, I was just thinking about you guys.

  Pastor Jeff:

  47:43-47:45

  And I talked to my boss.

  Pastor Jeff:

  47:45-47:52

  And we're going to let you guys have coffee and food and stuff in the lobby for your members and for your visitors.

  Pastor Jeff:

  47:53-47:54

  Yeah, clap, please.

  Pastor Jeff:

  47:56-47:57

  So it's going to happen.

  Pastor Jeff:

  47:58-48:04

  And hopefully that'll help everybody to be here, you know, before like right when the music starts.

  Pastor Jeff:

  48:06-48:16

  So you can go ahead and check that on the fishbowls in the back table when we leave here, you can drop these off in the fishbowl again, like we did last week.

  Pastor Jeff:

  48:17-48:24

  So Sammy is in charge of our worship and also helps with the audio video end of things.

  Pastor Jeff:

  48:25-48:30

  And I've asked Sam to speak also on behalf of Dan Thompson, Aaron Bloomingdale.

  Pastor Jeff:

  48:30-48:31

  They run the soundboard.

  Pastor Jeff:

  48:31-48:35

  I just asked him to speak on your behalf with that whole ministry.

  Pastor Jeff:

  48:35-48:36

  So, Sam.

  Sam:

  48:37-48:37

  Yes.

  Sam:

  48:37-48:40

  I'm Sam, the worship leader here at Harvest.

  Sam:

  48:40-48:43

  As of late, it's more like the band director.

  Sam:

  48:45-48:54

  But I'm in charge of basically everything that you see on the platform, the soundboard, all of the stuff that's on the screen, all the graphics.

  Sam:

  48:54-49:02

  You know, we have Ashley Grooms back there, and we also have Brooke that will put the words up on the screen while we're doing worship.

  Sam:

  49:02-49:06

  We're always looking for more people to get involved with our ministry.

  Sam:

  49:07-49:10

  You know, Jeff was saying in his sermon that there's parts that are unglamorous.

  Sam:

  49:11-49:18

  This would be considered one of them as far as like you're behind the screen, you have to get here at eight o'clock in the morning and help us set up.

  Pastor Jeff:

  49:18-49:20

  I think Ashley prefers to sit back there.

  Pastor Jeff:

  49:20-49:20

  Yeah.

  Pastor Jeff:

  49:21-49:22

  (laughs)

  Pastor Jeff:

  49:22-49:23

  Is that true?

  Pastor Jeff:

  49:24-49:24

  Sure.

  Pastor Jeff:

  49:24-49:25

  Sure.

  Sam:

  49:26-49:26

  Sure.

  Sam:

  49:28-49:31

  But it's such a joy to be a part of this.

  Sam:

  49:31-49:40

  So if you have any sort of interest in being a part of the worship team, we're always looking to add more musicians, especially if you're a drummer, please don't be shy.

  Sam:

  49:43-49:55

  But yeah, the worship team, or if you'd like to be trained to run sound, the PA system, we're always looking for people to train to set up, run and tear this stuff down.

  Sam:

  49:55-49:56

  So that's all I got.

  Pastor Jeff:

  49:57-49:58

  Thank you, Sammy.

  Pastor Jeff:

  49:58-49:59

  And that's on there as well.

  Pastor Jeff:

  49:59-50:02

  I'd like to serve Sunday morning in audio video ministry.

  Pastor Jeff:

  50:02-50:05

  Also, we've had it in the bullet and it's no secret.

  Pastor Jeff:

  50:05-50:10

  We're looking for a drummer as well as some other musicians.

  Pastor Jeff:

  50:11-50:25

  So if you have some musical giftedness, go ahead and check that box or just write a little note on there because we would love to get more musicians on board so we can rotate in and out and give some of them a break from week to week.

  Pastor Jeff:

  50:27-50:29

  I thought the servant didn't get a break.

  Pastor Jeff:

  50:32-50:33

  Room for more servants.

  Pastor Jeff:

  50:35-50:40

  All right, I'm going to speak on behalf of Dave Grooms, but I'm going to ask if he would stand up.

  Pastor Jeff:

  50:42-50:44

  Everybody smile and wink and wave at Dave.

  Pastor Jeff:

  50:47-50:49

  Dave heads up facilities.

  Pastor Jeff:

  50:49-50:50

  And you're like, well, what facilities?

  Pastor Jeff:

  50:51-50:52

  We're meeting in a school.

  Pastor Jeff:

  50:52-51:08

  Well, like I mentioned in my message, every Sunday, all of the equipment, everything from the children's ministry materials, the lobby stuff, the stuff you see here up on the stage, you know, the stuff isn't here when we show up on Sunday morning.

  Pastor Jeff:

  51:09-51:11

  Well, it's stored in a truck and trailer.

  Pastor Jeff:

  51:11-51:23

  And Dave has been so faithful in making sure every week the stuff is here, even if it means fixing a flat tire on the spot or something like that.

  Pastor Jeff:

  51:23-51:25

  He's had to do it and has been very faithful.

  Pastor Jeff:

  51:27-51:35

  So every Sunday, eight o'clock, he would show up here, help unload, set up, and after service, tear down, load it back up.

  Pastor Jeff:

  51:35-51:37

  How long does set up take now, Dave?

  Pastor Jeff:

  51:42-51:42

  About an hour?

  Pastor Jeff:

  51:43-51:45

  Okay, so we're looking about an hour.

  Pastor Jeff:

  51:47-51:48

  And then teardowns, what?

  Pastor Jeff:

  51:48-51:49

  It's a little less than that, isn't it?

  Pastor Jeff:

  51:51-51:52

  A little bit less than that, okay.

  Pastor Jeff:

  51:54-51:58

  So there's a spot that you can check off if you would like to help us set up in teardown.

  Pastor Jeff:

  51:59-52:02

  And then last but certainly not least, I wanna talk about children's ministry.

  Pastor Jeff:

  52:03-52:04

  Yes.

  Pastor Jeff:

  52:06-52:06

  I'm sorry?

  Pastor Jeff:

  52:08-52:09

  Oh, drivers as well, yes.

  Pastor Jeff:

  52:10-52:11

  Yeah, drivers.

  Pastor Jeff:

  52:12-52:20

  Right now it's not far because the trailer's parked at Covenant Community, but we're going to see how that's going to look now that the cold weather's coming.

  Pastor Jeff:

  52:20-52:23

  We don't want to leave the electronics out in the cold.

  Pastor Jeff:

  52:23-52:27

  So drivers as well, absolutely.

  Pastor Jeff:

  52:29-52:42

  So children's ministry, Jeannie had asked me to speak on her behalf and we had a meeting on Friday, but we would like to get two more teachers into the rotation for children's ministry.

  Pastor Jeff:

  52:44-52:51

  And we're in the beginning stages of building a ministry to families of children with special needs.

  Pastor Jeff:

  52:53-52:57

  And I know you can look around and say, well, you're a small church and that sounds like a big undertaking.

  Pastor Jeff:

  52:58-53:01

  And I say, that sounds like God's probably behind it then.

  Pastor Jeff:

  53:02-53:02

  Right?

  Pastor Jeff:

  53:04-53:15

  And as most of you know, Aaron and I have two autistic children and it's been on our hearts to try to minister to families of special needs kids.

  Pastor Jeff:

  53:17-53:24

  And it's really been on Jeanne Bloomingdale's heart to minister to families, because honestly, it's just easier to not go to church.

  Pastor Jeff:

  53:25-53:30

  I mean, talk to my wife sometime about everything she has to do just to be here with the kids.

  Pastor Jeff:

  53:31-53:35

  It's like putting in a 40-hour work week just before you even get in the car.

  Pastor Jeff:

  53:37-53:40

  And for most families, it's just like, I'm just, I can't do church.

  Pastor Jeff:

  53:40-53:41

  I just can't do it.

  Pastor Jeff:

  53:43-53:57

  We want to be a church where families can say, "They love me, and they help take care of my kids, so that I can come and worship and get in God's Word." We want to reach out to those families.

  Pastor Jeff:

  53:58-54:01

  And I understand that it's a big undertaking.

  Pastor Jeff:

  54:03-54:09

  So that's why unashamedly, again, I stand up here and say, "Hey, God's going to be behind it, okay?

  Pastor Jeff:

  54:10-54:11

  'cause if he's not, nothing's gonna happen.

  Pastor Jeff:

  54:12-54:14

  All things are possible with God.

  Pastor Jeff:

  54:15-54:17

  And he's going to work through people.

  Pastor Jeff:

  54:21-54:31

  So we need people who are willing to dream big, who are willing to be visionaries, and who are going to help pioneer this new ministry.

  Pastor Jeff:

  54:34-54:35

  The Lord's already sending people.

  Pastor Jeff:

  54:38-54:41

  I met with Ben and Mandy, what was that, two or three weeks ago.

  Pastor Jeff:

  54:41-54:48

  We were talking about, I don't even remember how it came up, but Mandy's like, "Yeah, I'm a TSS, I'm getting my master.

  Pastor Jeff:

  54:48-55:18

  "She works with autistic children." I'm like, "Well, it looks like God sent you just in time "because this is a ministry that we're trying to get going "and she's going to help us with that." But we need people who are willing to volunteer to say, "I will pour myself out to minister "and serve these families." Jeanne had asked for prayer, for direction for leaders, for volunteers to invest themselves, and for families to come and let us minister to them.

  Pastor Jeff:

  55:18-55:23

  She actually put them on these pink sheets that you can grab on your way out.

  Pastor Jeff:

  55:25-55:32

  But if you have a heart for families with special needs kids, come alongside us and dream big.

  Pastor Jeff:

  55:32-55:35

  And say, "What can we do?" Yes, we're renting a facility.

  Pastor Jeff:

  55:35-55:36

  Yes, this isn't optimal.

  Pastor Jeff:

  55:38-55:41

  Yes, the people that are working are already stretched thin.

  Pastor Jeff:

  55:44-55:45

  So jump on board with us.

  Pastor Jeff:

  55:47-55:56

  Let's make an impact to a whole demographic of people that I didn't even know existed before we had our own kids.

  Pastor Jeff:

  55:58-55:58

  Let's love them.

  Pastor Jeff:

  56:01-56:02

  So just take a second, look through that.

  Pastor Jeff:

  56:03-56:06

  Put your name in some way to contact you, okay?

  Pastor Jeff:

  56:07-56:11

  If you put your name and don't put an email or a phone number, I'll show up at your house.

  Pastor Jeff:

  56:14-56:15

  All right?

  Pastor Jeff:

  56:16-56:20

  And I know who's all here, so if you don't put a card in, I might show up at your house anyways.

  Pastor Jeff:

  56:20-56:22

  Say you forgot to put your card in.

  Pastor Jeff:

  56:22-56:26

  Because what is a disciple of Christ convinced of?

  Pastor Jeff:

  56:27-56:28

  I work for Christ.

  Pastor Jeff:

  56:29-56:30

  I'm a servant of Christ.

  Pastor Jeff:

  56:32-56:34

  This morning, our appeal is get involved with what we're doing here.

  Pastor Jeff:

  56:36-56:36

  Okay?

  Pastor Jeff:

  56:38-56:38

  Fill those out.

  Pastor Jeff:

  56:39-56:43

  You can put them in the bowl when we close the service.

  Pastor Jeff:

  56:43-56:43

  Let's pray.

  Pastor Jeff:

  56:52-56:59

  Father in heaven, we are unworthy servants.

  Pastor Jeff:

  57:02-57:23

  And that might not be the message of self-esteem that are coming from a lot of pulpits, that are coming from a lot of psychologists, even some very popular preachers saying that we need to think more of ourselves.

  Pastor Jeff:

  57:27-57:29

  Your word teaches us quite the opposite.

  Pastor Jeff:

  57:29-57:31

  We need to think less of ourselves.

  Pastor Jeff:

  57:34-57:37

  We need to see ourselves as your servants.

  Pastor Jeff:

  57:37-57:39

  And yes, we're unprofitable, God.

  Pastor Jeff:

  57:39-57:45

  We realize that we don't add to you or detract from you.

  Pastor Jeff:

  57:48-58:03

  And we find that the punchline to all of this is our joy is maximized when we find ourselves spending ourselves in service for you.

  Pastor Jeff:

  58:04-58:14

  We find more joy and fulfillment and satisfaction in working for you than we do in anything that we do on this earth.

  Pastor Jeff:

  58:15-58:16

  So Father, I pray for this group here.

  Pastor Jeff:

  58:17-58:27

  First of all, I thank you for those who've been so faithful from meeting in Panera Bread, to meeting in the chiropractor's office, to now meeting in a middle school.

  Pastor Jeff:

  58:28-58:30

  There have been people that have been so faithful through this whole process.

  Pastor Jeff:

  58:31-58:33

  And God, I thank you for them.

  Pastor Jeff:

  58:35-58:39

  But I pray that their attitude and mine is just this, we're just doing our jobs.

  Pastor Jeff:

  58:40-58:42

  We're just serving the master.

  Pastor Jeff:

  58:45-58:56

  God, I pray that you bring more people on board this morning we're still trying to figure some things out and we wanna improve some things and grow in some areas, especially with this special needs ministry.

  Pastor Jeff:

  59:03-59:05

  Call more people into your service.

  Pastor Jeff:

  59:09-59:14

  So the Father, the mission of making disciples continues to multiply.

  Pastor Jeff:

  59:17-59:18

  Your kingdom advances.

  Pastor Jeff:

  59:21-59:22

  Your name is glorified.

  Pastor Jeff:

  59:25-59:29

  We pray this all in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, Amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Luke 17:7-10

Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.

So you want to be in ministry?

4 Myths about Ministry:

1. YOU ONLY WORK SUNDAY.


2. You get nothing but support from everybody you minister to.


3. You earn the total of all the offering money.


4. You have it all figured out.

Here is what you can (and can't) expect in Ministry...

1. I can't expect it to be EASY. (Col 1:24)


2. I can't do it if I am not CALLED. (Col 1:25)


3. I can't neglect the MAIN THING. (Col 1:25-28)


4. I can't do it in my own STRENGTH. (Col 1:29)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  00:00-00:04

  I'm going to provide one with you please to 1 Corinthians chapter 1.

  00:09-00:10

  I'm sorry, Colossians chapter 1.

  00:12-00:14

  Colossians chapter 1.

  00:17-00:19

  It's going to be in verse 24 starting out today.

  00:20-00:29

  If you're visiting with us, like what have you guys been talking about, I'm going to give you a summary statement of every single thing that we've talked about in Colossians so far.

  00:29-00:31

  This is like all of chapter 1.

  00:33-00:35

  All race to the church.

  00:35-00:40

  We are so thankful that the gospel is at work.

  00:41-00:56

  We pray God's will will be done in the church, which revolves around the ministry of Jesus Christ, who is God, and has delivered us and changed us by His atonement.

  00:57-01:00

  That's pretty much everything in chapter 1 so far.

  01:01-01:04

  But notice when we were going through chapter 1, we get to verse 15.

  01:05-01:06

  It's all about Jesus.

  01:06-01:08

  Jesus. Here's who Jesus is.

  01:09-01:12

  Here's the firstborn from the dead. The firstborn of all creation.

  01:12-01:15

  And the fullness of God dwelt in Him.

  01:17-01:20

  And last week He turned to you.

  01:20-01:24

  He said in verse 21, "And you." We were talking about Jesus. Now we talk about you.

  01:26-01:33

  This passage we're looking at today, we see a lot of "I's" and "me's" and Paul's going to be talking about himself.

  01:34-01:38

  Specifically, he's going to be talking about ministry.

  01:40-01:52

  But did you ever notice that some things in life sound easier, and frankly sound a lot better, than they actually are?

  01:54-02:01

  Meaning sometimes we have an idea of certain things that end up being a lot different in execution than they were an idea.

  02:03-02:09

  For example, vacation. When I say vacation to Myrtle Beach, what's the first thing you think of?

  02:10-02:15

  You have yourself sitting on a chair in the sand at the beach, right? Is that what you thought of? Who thought of that?

  02:16-02:17

  Vacation rental beach, right?

  02:18-02:21

  Sitting in the chair, sand beach, the sunny course.

  02:23-02:29

  But when you're actually planning on going on the trip, there's a lot more to it than that, isn't there?

  02:30-02:31

  Like what?

  02:32-02:45

  Like the packing, like you've got to care for the dog, like you have to get things ready in the house, we have to finish up any work that we're doing here, and then what about the actual drive, right?

  02:45-02:56

  and then I'm packing and all the checking in, and then when you get back, you're going to be gone for the cattle, and now you have a week's worth of work that you missed, and now you're going to work for twice as hard the next week.

  02:57-03:00

  You don't think about that stuff, do you, when you're planning your vacation?

  03:01-03:01

  But it's a lot of work.

  03:02-03:06

  How many of us at times really can eat a couple of days rest when you get back from vacation?

  03:06-03:08

  Anybody else? That's totally me.

  03:08-03:16

  When you get back from vacation, Aaron will tell you, I'm just like, "Man, I need a bath." Like that vacation took it out of me.

  03:17-03:25

  And I thought it was supposed to have the opposite effect, but some things actually sound better and easier than they actually are.

  03:26-03:39

  And you know that when you bought a house or you had a child, that there's a lot more work behind things than we realize up front.

  03:41-03:43

  And guess what? That's true of ministry.

  03:44-03:45

  That's true of ministry.

  03:46-03:50

  Now if I asked you, "Is everybody called to ministry?" What would your answer be?

  03:52-03:56

  Your answer should be something like, well, explain that statement a little bit more.

  03:57-04:01

  "Is everybody called to pastoral ministry?" No, not everybody is called to pastoral ministry.

  04:01-04:07

  But do you believe that all believers are called to some type of ministry?

  04:07-04:08

  Do you believe that?

  04:10-04:28

  Because according to the Bible, if you are a born again believer in Jesus Christ, 1 Corinthians, which I was thinking about earlier, which is not so long ago, 1 Corinthians 12, 11 says the Holy Spirit has given you a gift to be used for the sake of the church.

  04:30-04:40

  So if you're a follower of Christ, you have a ministry that He's called you to, that he's equipped you for and he's going to empower you to carry out.

  04:40-04:50

  So the question is not, "Am I called to ministry?" But the question is, "What are you doing with the ministry that you've been called to?" We've all been called to something.

  04:53-04:59

  Maybe you haven't been called to get up and preach, or get up and lead worship.

  05:01-05:01

  But you've been called to something.

  05:03-05:06

  So the question is, what are you doing with that ministry?

  05:08-05:10

  What are you doing with the gift the Holy Spirit gave you?

  05:11-05:12

  Are you using it?

  05:13-05:16

  Or more accurately, are you allowing Him to use it?

  05:17-05:17

  And you?

  05:18-05:19

  I'm already sure there's availability, isn't there?

  05:20-05:29

  Well, here's something I wish people would have told me back in 1995, when I first came to Christ.

  05:29-05:31

  Very shortly thereafter, I was called into ministry.

  05:32-05:34

  And here was my idea of ministry.

  05:36-05:42

  I roll into church on Sunday, about 10 minutes to 10, on the service doors.

  05:43-05:50

  I just roll in, and I just open my Bible, I say a few words for 20 minutes, and...

  05:50-05:51

  You're like 20 minutes.

  05:52-05:52

  Yeah, right.

  05:53-05:54

  Um...

  05:54-05:55

  Don't laugh while I write that.

  05:57-05:59

  Save so much for later.

  06:06-06:09

  I wish I would have known some things up front.

  06:09-06:11

  I just had this idea.

  06:12-06:14

  Well, here's some myths that were quickly dispelled.

  06:14-06:16

  John Key's done a couple of myths about ministry.

  06:17-06:19

  A couple of myths about ministry.

  06:20-06:25

  The fourth, number four, myth about ministry is you have it all figured out.

  06:27-06:36

  I've been talking with the Lord now for well since '95, so it's been about 15 and a half years or something like that.

  06:39-06:45

  I really thought at this point I'd have everything figured out. Actually, I thought by the time I hit Bible college I'd have everything figured out.

  06:45-06:56

  That's a myth. Sometimes people idealize people in ministry like, "Man, you must have it all figured out." and the Lord continues to teach me.

  06:59-07:00

  But that's a myth.

  07:02-07:07

  Myth number three, this is one that I was gonna kick out of.

  07:07-07:10

  You earn the total out of all the offering money.

  07:12-07:14

  You know some people have that myth still, you know that?

  07:16-07:19

  I had a guy tell me one time, he goes, you know what my problem is with the church?

  07:20-07:22

  Like, no, but I have a feeling we're about to find out.

  07:23-07:31

  He says, so you mean to tell me that everybody in the church is supposed to give 10%?

  07:32-07:34

  I'm like, wow.

  07:34-07:40

  That's not even an easy question to answer, because the way the question was worded, but I'm like, go on.

  07:40-07:50

  So that means if 11 people give 10%, And already, that pastor's making more than everybody else in the church.

  07:51-07:52

  And I'm like...

  07:56-07:56

  What?!

  07:57-07:59

  Like, somebody give me a calculator!

  07:59-08:01

  Does that even write mathematically? Is that true?

  08:02-08:03

  And you're gonna tell me how it is.

  08:03-08:05

  That's the accountant, you're like...

  08:06-08:09

  That's like, that's some kind of form of math I don't understand.

  08:10-08:10

  But, um...

  08:11-08:13

  That was this guy's intention. He thought...

  08:14-08:29

  When the offering goes around, I get to the back of the church, and I just kind of open my pockets, and I'm like, "Come on, Michelle, just dump it in!" And she just dumps it in. I'm like, "It's an extra bag, Michelle. Just dump it in." And that's a myth. Is that a myth, Michelle?

  08:29-08:30

  [MICHELLE] I have tears.

  08:32-08:33

  [BILL] Break a nerve, okay?

  08:37-08:42

  It's a myth. It's a myth. Everybody say it's a myth. Tell Michelle it's a myth.

  08:43-08:44

  Thank you. See Michelle?

  08:45-08:46

  Okay, number two.

  08:47-08:49

  Here's a big myth that I have.

  08:49-08:51

  You get nothing but support from everybody you minister to.

  08:52-08:55

  I thought that when I was a preacher, I was going to be Mr. Rogers.

  08:55-08:57

  Everybody was going to love me.

  08:58-08:59

  Everybody loves Pastor Jeff.

  08:59-09:03

  Everybody agrees with everything that Pastor Jeff has ever said anywhere.

  09:05-09:06

  You're like, yeah, that's a myth.

  09:07-09:08

  Is that a myth?

  09:09-09:10

  That is a myth.

  09:10-09:12

  That is a huge myth.

  09:15-09:17

  We're going to talk more about that in a second.

  09:18-09:23

  But you know number one. Go ahead, what's everybody's favorite joke you say to preachers? Go ahead, what is it?

  09:25-09:30

  Well, I hear Chicago say, "Oh, Merry Christmas." "Oh, Merry Christmas." Did you guys hear that?

  09:31-09:31

  Malarkey?

  09:33-09:34

  That, that...

  09:34-09:35

  Arrrr!

  09:37-09:37

  No!

  09:39-09:40

  Come on!

  09:40-09:41

  It's wrong!

  09:42-09:43

  Don't lie in church.

  09:45-09:46

  It's wrong!

  09:46-09:47

  Do you have any time to hurt that joke?

  09:47-09:49

  You only work on Sunday, can't hurt it.

  09:49-09:50

  You get paid nothing every week.

  09:51-09:51

  Both hours don't differ.

  09:51-09:52

  It's better.

  09:52-09:54

  You only work like a half hour a week.

  09:55-09:56

  Wrong!

  09:58-10:00

  People still hang on to that.

  10:00-10:01

  Like, that is incorrect.

  10:02-10:03

  That is incorrect.

  10:04-10:07

  It's at least, at least an hour and a half every week.

  10:08-10:08

  That's right.

  10:09-10:10

  At least.

  10:10-10:10

  At least.

  10:10-10:10

  At least.

  10:10-10:11

  Those are myths.

  10:12-10:16

  Listen, ministry is not something that I'm going to try because it looks fun.

  10:18-10:19

  Let's get into the text.

  10:20-10:23

  Here's what you can and can't expect in ministry.

  10:24-10:27

  Now, who's called to ministry? Let's review. Who's called to ministry?

  10:27-10:30

  If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, who's called to ministry?

  10:32-10:32

  Everybody.

  10:33-10:36

  A couple of you are convinced of that, the rest of you aren't.

  10:36-10:37

  Who's called to ministry?

  10:38-10:38

  Everybody.

  10:39-10:46

  Everybody, if the Holy Spirit is residing within you, he's giving you a gift to be used in some type of ministry.

  10:47-10:51

  Okay, so here's what you can and can't expect in ministry.

  10:52-10:54

  I'm gonna read through, and we're gonna go back to some of the principles.

  10:56-11:06

  All right, so now, "I rejoice in my sufferings "for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up "with his lacking and Christ's afflictions.

  11:07-11:20

  for the sake of His body, that is, the Church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you to make the Word of God fully known.

  11:22-11:39

  The mystery, hidden for ages and generations, but now revealed to His saints, to them, God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery.

  11:41-11:42

  What's the mystery?

  11:43-11:44

  Here it is.

  11:45-11:49

  Which is Christ in you.

  11:51-11:53

  The hope of glory.

  11:54-11:56

  Can't we proclaim it?

  11:57-12:06

  Warning everyone and teaching everyone with all the wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

  12:08-12:16

  For this I dwill, struggling with all his energy, that he powerfully works within me.

  12:18-12:22

  So there's some things about ministry in this passage that we're going to look at.

  12:22-12:24

  Let's back up here and get to verse 24.

  12:24-12:26

  We're taking those throughout this dialogue.

  12:27-12:29

  I can't expect it to be easy.

  12:30-12:32

  I can't expect it to be easy.

  12:35-12:42

  Look again at verse 24. He says, "Now I rejoice in my sufferings." Funny how that's the first thing that came out of this.

  12:44-12:45

  Oh, how's ministry going?

  12:46-12:48

  It's a lot of suffering.

  12:49-12:56

  However, I'm not complaining about that. I am rejoicing in my sufferings.

  12:58-13:01

  Now, why would you rejoice in suffering?

  13:01-13:03

  That seems a little masochistic, doesn't it?

  13:04-13:05

  Why would you rejoice in suffering?

  13:06-13:08

  That's a whole other circle.

  13:08-13:12

  We're going to look at just one reason in this text.

  13:12-13:15

  There's a whole lot of reasons to rejoice in suffering.

  13:15-13:16

  We'll cover that down the road.

  13:18-13:19

  Hang in there for one second.

  13:19-13:22

  We're going to see the reason for rejoicing in suffering.

  13:22-13:24

  Look at the second part of this verse.

  13:24-13:25

  This is a...

  13:28-13:31

  is a weird verse the first time you read it through until you stop and think about it.

  13:31-13:54

  Because he says, "In my flesh I'm filling up what is lacking in grace and afflictions." Now if you came in this morning and I said, "Is there anything lacking in grace and afflictions?" Your answer would probably be, "No." Like, "Didn't Jesus pay at all?" What do you mean there's something... I mean, I was here a couple weeks ago, man.

  13:54-14:04

  You read Colossians 1, 15, 20, the whole Jesus is first, Jesus is everything, Jesus is God, and now you turn around and say there's something lacking in Jesus?

  14:05-14:09

  No, he doesn't say that something is lacking in Jesus.

  14:10-14:10

  Notice that.

  14:10-14:12

  Does he say it's lacking in Jesus?

  14:12-14:16

  He says there's something lacking in Christ's afflictions.

  14:17-14:19

  I'm gonna explain that to you for a minute.

  14:20-14:23

  First of all, he's not talking about purgatory.

  14:24-14:30

  A lot of people have used this verse to support the doctrine of purgatory.

  14:32-14:42

  Now if you come from a Catholic background, please understand that I'm never trying to intentionally offend anyone or say anything hurtful in any way.

  14:42-14:45

  It's really my job to proclaim the truth of God's Word.

  14:46-14:53

  And the truth is that the doctrine of Purgatory is completely blasphemous.

  14:54-15:06

  It's a teaching that when you leave the earth, you go to this place where the fires continue to refine you and burn off the remainder of sin on you.

  15:06-15:23

  And you can be there for years and years and years and through making the sign of the cross and through praying the rosary or different Catholic teachings, you shave years off, paying your mass, you shave years off of purgatory.

  15:24-15:26

  That is a completely blasphemous concept.

  15:27-15:47

  Jesus Christ when He was on the cross said, "It is" what? "Finished!" So the idea that I pay for my sins after Jesus said He's done paying for my sins is an insult to Jesus for making Him out to be a liar.

  15:49-15:58

  He said it is finished. I believe Him. Right? He's God. He has the authority, He has the power to make such a statement.

  15:59-16:03

  So this verse is not talking about purgatory at all.

  16:03-16:06

  There's nothing in the scriptures actually anywhere about purgatory.

  16:08-16:11

  The Bible says to be absent from the body is to be where?

  16:12-16:13

  Present with the Lord.

  16:13-16:14

  There is no purgatory.

  16:16-16:19

  Okay, it certainly doesn't come from this verse, no someone tried to make it.

  16:21-16:23

  Paul just told us that Christ is sufficient.

  16:25-16:28

  So he's certainly not speaking out of his mouth.

  16:32-16:51

  Now notice he says, "these sufferings are in my flesh for the sake of the church." He's saying what he is doing for the church, this is Paul, Paul's saying what he is doing for the church is resulting in pain from persecutors.

  16:52-16:56

  We see that again because it's the keen understanding of what he means here.

  16:56-17:03

  What all is doing for the church is resulting in pain from the persecutors.

  17:03-17:12

  You're like, "Okay, but what's this lacking thing?" Again, nothing in Christ is lacking, but there's something lacking in the afflictions.

  17:12-17:13

  And here's what he means.

  17:14-17:18

  We live in a world that's completely gripped and ruled by sin.

  17:19-17:23

  Actually, Satan is called the God of this world, the Prince of the Power of the Air.

  17:24-17:28

  Open your eyes, turn on the news, pick up a newspaper.

  17:28-17:33

  Is this world completely gripped in the power of sin right now? It is.

  17:35-17:40

  But where's Jesus? Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father.

  17:40-17:45

  So you see, the world would love to continue to pour afflictions on Christ.

  17:45-17:53

  The first time he was here, you know the story, he was crucified, he was beaten and humiliated before nailing him to the cross.

  17:54-18:00

  That's what the world, the sinfulness of the world did to Jesus Christ and God allowed for our salvation.

  18:02-18:06

  But if the world had its way, Jesus would still be suffering.

  18:09-18:11

  You see, here's the problem for the world.

  18:12-18:13

  They can't get at Jesus.

  18:15-18:21

  So, who does the world target for the afflictions, for the suffering?

  18:21-18:22

  Who does the world go after?

  18:22-18:25

  We can't touch Jesus, so who does the world say we want after?

  18:31-18:34

  After the people that have Christ in them.

  18:35-18:35

  Did you get that?

  18:36-18:43

  The Bible says that Christ is living in us, so since the world can't get at Christ, who's it going after?

  18:43-18:50

  It's going after the people who carry the Spirit of Christ in them.

  18:53-19:03

  See, Christ is exalted and glorified, but now the persecutions of Christ fall on the people that He is working through.

  19:03-19:04

  Does that make sense?

  19:04-19:07

  So understand, he's not saying anything is lacking in Christ.

  19:07-19:08

  He's saying the world is still altogether.

  19:09-19:11

  And they're coming after his people.

  19:12-19:13

  Okay?

  19:14-19:15

  So where does the suffering come from?

  19:16-19:18

  Well, we talked about the world.

  19:18-19:21

  Certainly the scripture talks about the devil.

  19:24-19:27

  The glory blind and seeking whom he may devour.

  19:28-19:35

  But sadly, A lot of times the worst kind of suffering in ministry comes from within the church.

  19:37-19:39

  Right? And there's nothing new under the sun.

  19:41-19:44

  Eric can tell you some of the sufferings that we've been through in ministry.

  19:45-19:52

  You know, when we've been, whether it's ridiculed or lied about or whatever, in the world, how much does that bother us, Eric?

  19:53-19:53

  Zero.

  19:54-19:59

  Like, worldly people act like worldly people. Sinful people act like sinful people.

  20:01-20:03

  Why don't they make the wolf right to make the wolf?

  20:03-20:04

  That doesn't bother me.

  20:05-20:11

  But I can tell you how many times that we are agonized when the suffering comes from people within the church.

  20:12-20:12

  You know?

  20:14-20:15

  The church rewards against that.

  20:17-20:18

  Over and over and over.

  20:20-20:28

  Sometimes the worst case of suffering comes from either brothers and sisters in the Lord, or wolves among the sheep.

  20:30-20:37

  And this would be like, "Oh, so you're trying to talk me out of ministry." No, remember, this is a glorious thing.

  20:38-20:40

  Suffering and ministry.

  20:40-20:45

  This is a glorious thing, and it's worth rejoicing in.

  20:48-20:58

  So the world's getting at Christ by attacking us. Why is that worth rejoicing over? Write this down.

  20:59-21:04

  It's about identifying and understanding Christ's suffering.

  21:05-21:09

  There is something glorious for us as a church.

  21:09-21:12

  You know the early church considered it a privilege to suffer for Christ?

  21:12-21:14

  There's something glorious about that.

  21:15-21:25

  Listen to this verse. Philippians 3.10 Paul says that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection.

  21:25-21:28

  All in favor of knowing the power of Christ's resurrection?

  21:28-21:29

  Oh, I so can't wait.

  21:30-21:35

  You know, for the ultimate day, for that ultimate glorified, marvelous resurrection.

  21:35-21:37

  He says, I want to know the power of the resurrection.

  21:38-21:39

  You know what the next phrase is.

  21:41-21:46

  And they share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death.

  21:47-21:54

  There is something glorious Church about identifying with Christ in this way.

  21:55-21:57

  That is why Paul says he is rejoicing.

  21:59-22:02

  He is rejoicing. Suffering is part of the deal.

  22:03-22:05

  It is just part of the deal.

  22:05-22:09

  So you want to be a ministry? Well, don't expect it to be easy.

  22:10-22:14

  I found this online this past week.

  22:14-22:17

  I'd love to share, but there's a whole long list here.

  22:17-22:19

  I just wanted to share a couple of things with you.

  22:19-22:28

  It says, "Why Pastors Leave the Ministry." Here's a couple of things that stuck out to me.

  22:28-22:31

  80% of these pastors were polled.

  22:31-22:36

  This is by the Fuller Institute, George Barnum, and Paschal Care Incorporated.

  22:37-22:46

  80% of these pastors that were called believe that pastoral ministry has negatively affected their families.

  22:48-22:56

  90% of these pastors that were called, 90% feel that they are inadequately trained to cope with the ministry demands.

  22:59-23:00

  I want to be honest with you.

  23:01-23:11

  There have been times in my ministries, even very recently, where I've been praying, "God, I don't know why you thought I could do this." And you know what God's answer to that is?

  23:12-23:17

  God's like, "You can't do this." Thanks for acknowledging that.

  23:17-23:18

  Right?

  23:20-23:23

  But sometimes in my flesh I feel that I can't do this.

  23:23-23:23

  I can't do this.

  23:30-23:37

  70% of pastors do not have someone they consider a close friend.

  23:38-23:44

  40 % have poured serious conflict with a parishioner at least once a month.

  23:46-23:51

  50 % have considered leaving the ministry in the last month.

  23:51-23:55

  50% of the ministers starting out in the last five years.

  23:57-23:58

  Listen to this.

  23:58-24:03

  One out of every 10 ministers will actually retire as a minister in some form.

  24:03-24:04

  One out of 10.

  24:05-24:08

  So as you drive around and you see 10 churches, it's going to get that in your mind.

  24:09-24:15

  One of the pastors in these churches statistically will finish as a pastor.

  24:17-24:25

  94% of clergy families feel the pressures of the pastors ministry and family stuff.

  24:27-24:30

  I haven't been to that whole other sermon, but this one really struck me.

  24:31-24:35

  Over 1,700 pastors left the ministry every month of last year.

  24:38-24:39

  Just, I'm done.

  24:40-24:41

  I am done.

  24:44-24:48

  This thing says, "Number one reason pastors leave the ministry." Anyone wanna take a guess what that is?

  24:49-24:51

  The number one reason pastors leave the ministry?

  24:52-24:57

  Because the pastor has a vision to go one way with the church and the church isn't going for that.

  24:57-24:59

  That's the number one reason.

  25:00-25:01

  Pastors leave the ministry.

  25:03-25:08

  Now, this is for people who their vocation is ministry.

  25:09-25:12

  So how much easier is it for a volunteer to quit?

  25:14-25:14

  See what I mean?

  25:14-25:15

  I can read that list.

  25:15-25:16

  I go, that's a pastor.

  25:16-25:16

  That's a pastor.

  25:16-25:17

  That's a pastor.

  25:17-25:17

  That's not a pastor.

  25:18-25:20

  It's a lot easier to quit something when you're a volunteer.

  25:23-25:24

  And it's amazing.

  25:25-25:29

  You know, when ministry gets hard, it's amazing how easily some people quit.

  25:30-25:32

  It's just, it's amazing.

  25:33-25:39

  Some of the reasons that people give for either quitting their ministry or leaving their church.

  25:41-25:49

  One big bucket, I don't know, about 7 or 8% complains that the reasons people quit their ministry or leave their church all the way to the most dumb subject like this.

  25:50-25:52

  Everything in the church isn't exactly how I prefer it.

  25:55-25:59

  Everything in the church isn't exactly how I prefer it.

  26:00-26:03

  The marriage I want to have is welcome, it's human life.

  26:06-26:07

  What about this one?

  26:08-26:10

  If it's so and so since you really mean things to me.

  26:11-26:13

  Oh, you mean like they did to Jesus.

  26:14-26:15

  He dealt with some of that.

  26:17-26:22

  But you don't understand. I feel like I was betrayed by a positive friend of that church.

  26:23-26:25

  You mean like Jesus?

  26:28-26:37

  So you mean there is in some small grain of sand on the seashore a proportion, you've experienced something that Jesus might not have?

  26:38-26:42

  Let's rejoice in that instead of bailing.

  26:44-26:47

  So what hardships are you facing in your ministry right now?

  26:47-26:55

  You're like, "Well, you know, Pastor Jeff, I really just kind of started this church only a couple months old." Starting is not easy.

  26:56-26:58

  Talk to anybody that was in our core group.

  26:59-27:00

  Starting is not easy.

  27:03-27:08

  And there is some silly, stupid part of me that thought once the church gets launched, things would be a little bit easier.

  27:12-27:12

  [laughs]

  27:14-27:15

  Did it get easier to work through?

  27:17-27:18

  We're not saying nothing.

  27:19-27:19

  Alright.

  27:22-27:28

  As long as sin exists, the afflictions are going to continue and it's going to follow us.

  27:28-27:28

  Alright?

  27:29-27:30

  So it's not going to be easy.

  27:32-27:33

  I can't expect it to be easy.

  27:33-27:33

  Number two.

  27:34-27:36

  John 5. I can't do it if I'm not called.

  27:38-27:39

  Look at verse 25.

  27:40-27:45

  He says, "of which I became a minister," that's a servant.

  27:48-27:57

  "according to," listen to this, "according to the stewardship from God," that was, what's your Bible say?

  28:00-28:09

  given to me, for you, to make the Word of God fully known.

  28:11-28:13

  Now this word "stewardship" comes from a compound word.

  28:14-28:17

  The two Greek words that go together make stewardship.

  28:18-28:20

  Literally, it's "house manager".

  28:21-28:22

  That's literally what it means.

  28:22-28:27

  It's talking about someone who's in charge of managing somebody else's possessions.

  28:28-28:30

  That's what Paul said ministry was.

  28:32-28:37

  That's why I certainly try not to say if I were you, you have permission to smack me in the mouth.

  28:38-28:43

  But my ministry, our most biblical chaplain, is my ministry.

  28:43-28:46

  I try so hard not to say it, sometimes it slips out of my mouth, and I just want to correct myself.

  28:46-28:49

  This isn't my church. This isn't my ministry.

  28:49-28:52

  Who's is it? Point to who's it is. Whose church is it?

  28:52-28:54

  Yes, thank you. It's God's church.

  28:54-28:58

  Because the church of Jesus Christ bought with His blood.

  28:59-29:02

  It's not my church. It's not my ministry.

  29:03-29:08

  It was given to me in the sense of a stewardship.

  29:10-29:21

  God says, "This is mine, but Jeff and Aaron and Sammy and Amanda and the Arnolds of..." You people are going to be house managers.

  29:23-29:23

  Right?

  29:27-29:33

  So, John F. Stauber, ministry on some level, ministry should feel like a compulsion.

  29:35-29:36

  Okay?

  29:36-29:38

  Ministry should feel like a compulsion.

  29:38-29:40

  Now, I don't mean it like a bondage way.

  29:40-29:43

  Like, "I don't know to church and serve.

  29:43-29:47

  God's probably going to be mad at me today." That's not what I mean at all.

  29:48-29:49

  Here's what I mean.

  29:50-30:05

  When the Holy Spirit is residing within and has given you a gift, there should be something within you that says, "I just gotta do that ministry." "I just gotta do that ministry." You know, maybe you're doing this kids ministry.

  30:06-30:17

  There should be something in you, if you're not involved in our kids ministry now, there should be something in you that's just like, "Man, I wanna get involved in teaching kids." "I just love kids and I love teaching kids." There should be something in you.

  30:18-30:30

  Or maybe you're a musician. There should be something in you that says, "You know what? I'd like to come up and be part of the theater of worship." I can't wait to talk to Sammy about that. There should be some kind of compulsion in you.

  30:35-30:37

  So, what ministry gets you fired up?

  30:39-30:42

  You know, what ministry, we're all called to something.

  30:43-30:44

  What ministry gets you fired up?

  30:44-30:50

  That's why I have a bulletin again, we put different areas of ministry you can get involved in right now.

  30:50-30:53

  And I encourage you, we put emails on here.

  30:54-31:01

  I promise you, the people that are listed here that you're supposed to contact, they would love to talk to you, and they would love to get you talked to.

  31:02-31:18

  Because this isn't my church, and it's not the church of, you know, The 25 or 30 of us that we're working on helping plant this church, this is Christ's church and we are all members of this body, all doing what he's equipped us to do.

  31:18-31:20

  So, what's your ministry?

  31:21-31:23

  How would you answer that question?

  31:23-31:29

  If I was standing at the back door and you were on your way out, I was going to grab your arm and say, "Hey, what's your ministry?" What would you answer?

  31:31-31:34

  I don't really have a ministry. I don't really get to do anything.

  31:36-31:37

  Well, you need to come to my door.

  31:38-31:42

  because when you know the Lord, He's giving you ministry.

  31:44-31:44

  Right?

  31:45-31:46

  So please, I encourage you.

  31:47-31:51

  Don't be shy, send an email saying, hey, I'm so and so, I'm visiting harvest.

  31:51-31:55

  I'd like to know more information about how I can get involved in this ministry.

  31:55-31:56

  Maybe you'd like to audition to be on the worship team.

  31:57-31:59

  Maybe you'd like to apply to be in our children's ministry.

  31:59-32:02

  Whatever it is, get plugged in.

  32:03-32:09

  And that's not only me serving Christ, We're also making relationships, we're making disciples.

  32:09-32:10

  That's what the church is about.

  32:14-32:21

  So in times of time when you feel like failing, like we talked about before, here's something that I always have to remind myself.

  32:22-32:25

  God has put me in this job.

  32:27-32:29

  This is a stewardship.

  32:30-32:32

  God says, "Here, you're managing this.

  32:34-32:35

  I'm going to be with you every step of the way.

  32:35-32:39

  I'm going to give you the strength, and I'm going to give you the perseverance.

  32:43-32:53

  And I want to encourage you to, let's get back to those days when we were kids, that responsibility was actually the truth.

  32:53-32:55

  Do you remember those days, anybody?

  32:56-33:00

  I think if I got up here as kids, that's longer ago for some of us than it is for others.

  33:01-33:02

  Right?

  33:03-33:04

  Do you remember when you were kids?

  33:06-33:08

  I remember this so clearly.

  33:08-33:09

  Eric and I were just talking about this.

  33:10-33:14

  When you were in elementary school and they give you a job to do, how did you feel?

  33:16-33:17

  I was adults.

  33:18-33:20

  If somebody said, "Hey, I need you to do this."

  33:20-33:21

  (mimics grunting)

  33:22-33:24

  It wasn't like that when we were kids.

  33:25-33:32

  I remember one of my friends in sixth grade, I had to go down to the freezer in the cafeteria bring up the freeze pops.

  33:33-33:37

  And I'm sure for the teacher, it was like, I need somebody to come down there.

  33:38-33:44

  When I was asked to do that, I was just like, sir, yes, sir!

  33:45-33:47

  And I was just like, hey, check out me.

  33:49-33:50

  I was pissed.

  33:52-33:53

  You get the freeze pops.

  33:56-33:56

  Try it with a cup.

  33:59-33:59

  That was my job.

  34:03-34:07

  The point is, it was a privilege in my mind to do it.

  34:08-34:32

  And you see, working for Christ in the Church, I've got to tell you, it's a privilege to stand up here every week and say, "Check out what God said!" "God wrote a book and He told us everything He wants us to know about Himself and about God has sought and how you can have a relationship with Him because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

  34:33-34:34

  That is a privilege.

  34:35-34:37

  I cannot wait to get here on Saturday.

  34:37-34:40

  Aaron will tell you, "How do I sleep on Saturday night?" I don't.

  34:41-34:53

  I'm like, "Yeah, well, sure. Talk to Sam and Hector. You guys like doing this?" They're not like, "Oh, I guess we're going to be doing worship again." They are so stoked about doing this.

  34:53-34:55

  What are you stoked for?

  34:57-34:58

  Get the game, Matthew.

  35:01-35:02

  Do what Paul's called you to do.

  35:06-35:07

  Number three.

  35:11-35:12

  Number three is this.

  35:12-35:13

  I can't neglect the meaning of that.

  35:14-35:16

  Here's something else that's interesting.

  35:16-35:17

  I can't neglect the meaning of that.

  35:19-35:25

  I can go in a dissertation about how a lot of churches are getting away from the gospel and exposing the word of Christianity.

  35:25-35:31

  I'm not here to tear down anybody else's ministry or try to make myself look good or Harvey's look good.

  35:31-35:32

  That's not my goal.

  35:32-35:37

  But if we can be honest and step back, we realize that there are a lot of churches that are neglecting the main thing.

  35:37-35:38

  Is that true?

  35:39-35:40

  Is that true?

  35:42-35:44

  A lot of churches neglecting the main thing.

  35:45-35:50

  Like, "Well, what's the main thing?" Well, look in your Bible. In verse 28, here's the main thing.

  35:51-36:10

  "Him we proclaim." We're talking about Jesus next week.

  36:13-36:15

  Maybe I'll come back and visit in the spring.

  36:17-36:19

  Guess who we're moving on to next?

  36:20-36:20

  Anybody?

  36:22-36:22

  Jesus!

  36:24-36:24

  Why?

  36:26-36:28

  Because Jesus is first.

  36:30-36:32

  And in everything He might have the pre-evidence.

  36:33-36:35

  So what's His main thing?

  36:35-36:36

  Just draw these notes down.

  36:38-36:40

  The scope.

  36:43-36:46

  We're talking about proclaiming Jesus and we proclaim Him.

  36:46-36:51

  The scope, first of all, it's at the end of verse 25.

  36:51-36:53

  Making the word of God fully known.

  36:54-36:55

  That's the scope.

  36:55-36:57

  Or do you want us to make the word of God fully known?

  36:57-36:59

  That's why we're going through a book.

  37:00-37:05

  That's why I felt just like, "What are you really preaching on this week?" We're going through a book of the Bible.

  37:06-37:09

  Let's see what God is communicating to us.

  37:10-37:10

  That's the scope.

  37:11-37:13

  Making the word of God fully known.

  37:16-37:17

  What else is the main thing?

  37:17-37:18

  He says the mystery.

  37:19-37:25

  Now we think of mystery, we think about when we think about some kind of detective show who is a mystery, who doesn't.

  37:26-37:28

  That's not what the Bible means by mystery.

  37:28-37:29

  Here's what the Bible means by mystery.

  37:30-37:35

  In the Old Testament times, there were certain things that God had not revealed.

  37:37-37:42

  God's like, I'm gonna reveal some stuff, But it's common way that God has this timetable, right?

  37:42-37:43

  God has this like calendar.

  37:43-37:50

  God's like, "I have some other things I wanna "teach these people I created and reveal." And not yet.

  37:53-38:01

  And then we get to the New Testament times where we realize after the incarnation, the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, God is, he's like, "Okay, now here's the whole story.

  38:03-38:09

  "Let me pull the curtain back and show you Something that I never showed you before.

  38:10-38:12

  That's what the Bible means by mystery.

  38:12-38:15

  Previously unrevealed, now revealed.

  38:15-38:16

  What is the mystery?

  38:16-38:17

  Well, He says one of those.

  38:18-38:18

  You see it?

  38:19-38:22

  The mystery which is Christ in you.

  38:23-38:24

  That's the mystery.

  38:24-38:25

  God's love.

  38:25-38:26

  So it's going to come to that.

  38:28-38:32

  That I am going to dwell in my people.

  38:32-38:34

  In the Old Testament, where was God?

  38:34-38:37

  Where is this unique presence I should say?

  38:37-38:40

  His unique presence was in the temple, in the tabernacle.

  38:41-38:46

  But then when you get to the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, where was the unique presence of God?

  38:47-38:50

  It was in the person of Jesus Christ.

  38:51-38:51

  Right?

  38:52-38:56

  And if I said to you now, where is the unique presence of God?

  38:56-38:58

  We know God's everywhere, we talked about that.

  38:58-39:00

  But where does God choose to dwell?

  39:00-39:35

  So, the Bible It usually involved giving a particular manifestation of a gift.

  39:37-39:38

  But it was a temporary thing.

  39:40-39:44

  If God says there's going to come a day, I'm going to believe Him.

  39:45-39:47

  And that's not a temporary thing.

  39:49-39:50

  Permanent Residence.

  39:52-39:55

  The reason, that's the mystery.

  39:55-39:56

  What's the reason we complain to Christ?

  39:56-40:01

  I think we covered that one in verses 15-20, chapter 1, right?

  40:02-40:05

  Why do we proclaim grace? Jesus is first.

  40:06-40:17

  The means, look back at your text, the means, if we proclaim, verse 28, "warning everyone and teaching everyone," that's the means.

  40:18-40:22

  There's going to be times that I get up and just teach, like we did, about the person of Jesus.

  40:22-40:24

  Here's what it says, here's what it means.

  40:24-40:40

  "There's times it's our job in ministry to warn people." Listen, if you step into eternity apart from Jesus Christ, you're going to live out the rest of eternity separated from God in a place called hell.

  40:40-40:42

  That's a warning that the Bible gives us.

  40:43-40:44

  He says we are to warn.

  40:45-40:49

  We warn everyone and we teach everyone, but always then that's unrequited.

  40:50-40:51

  What's the goal?

  40:52-40:55

  Our goal is to present everyone mature in Christ.

  40:56-40:58

  To present everyone mature in Christ.

  40:58-40:59

  You see that in verse 28?

  41:02-41:04

  That's our goal. Why is that our goal? Because that's God's goal.

  41:05-41:10

  Romans 8, 29. God's goal for you as a believer is to be conformed into the image of his Son.

  41:10-41:12

  So that's our goal as a church.

  41:12-41:13

  That gets back to our mission statement.

  41:14-41:16

  Our goal is to make disciples.

  41:19-41:20

  And you see, that's a goal of the Pope.

  41:21-41:29

  Our goal is to make disciples and the goal of discipleship is conformity in the image of Jesus Christ.

  41:30-41:31

  So that's the goal.

  41:34-41:35

  Number four.

  41:38-41:40

  I can't give an advantage to him.

  41:41-41:43

  I can't give an advantage to him.

  41:43-41:44

  Look at verse 29.

  41:44-41:58

  He says, "For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me." The word struggling is from a Greek word from which we literally get the word agonized.

  41:59-42:02

  He says it's a struggle, we're going to talk more about that next week.

  42:03-42:05

  But you understand there's a double sided aspect of ministry.

  42:06-42:09

  If I say who does the work of ministry, is it me?

  42:12-42:14

  Or is it the Holy Spirit? What's the answer?

  42:16-42:17

  The answer is yes.

  42:19-42:21

  Wait a minute. Back up.

  42:21-42:22

  The answer is yes.

  42:25-42:27

  I'm going to explain that here in a second.

  42:27-42:29

  1 Corinthians 15.10 says the same thing.

  42:29-42:41

  Paul says, "I worked harder than any of them, meaning the other apostles, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me." Paul's like, "I've been working so hard in ministry." That is really God working through you.

  42:42-42:43

  You see that over and over and over again.

  42:44-42:48

  "I've worked so hard." That's not what it means. It's God in me.

  42:50-42:53

  The Holy Spirit gives the gift. It gives the strength.

  42:53-43:03

  You know, I was thinking about this. How can we understand this whole "Who's doing the work?" Is it you or is it God in you?

  43:06-43:10

  I brought something today. Don't let me leave without these.

  43:11-43:11

  These are precious.

  43:13-43:16

  These are my wife's garden gloves.

  43:19-43:31

  Now, aside from beauty, grace, and sense of humor, something you may not know about my wife is she runs a little farm on our three-acre-hook cross-field.

  43:33-43:36

  You gotta see, I've never seen anybody maximize space the way she does.

  43:37-43:42

  We could feed this entire room for like eight months on the stuff that she does.

  43:42-43:44

  If you like that, do it.

  43:44-43:45

  Okay, but anyways.

  43:45-43:46

  (audience laughing)

  43:47-43:49

  No, she does a fantastic job, she really does.

  43:49-43:53

  But these are the gloves that she'll use when she's out working.

  43:54-43:58

  Now let's suppose these gloves were on Larry King.

  43:59-44:00

  Is Larry King still with me?

  44:01-44:03

  I think everybody else has him, okay.

  44:04-44:06

  Let's say that we sat down and interviewed these gloves.

  44:08-44:09

  And we're like, "Tell us, gloves.

  44:10-44:12

  "Tell us what your life has been like.

  44:13-44:19

  "You look well worn." And they would say, "Oh yes, I am well worn, actually.

  44:19-44:23

  "I've spent a lot of countless hours out working.

  44:23-44:25

  "I've spent a lot of countless hours out leading.

  44:26-44:27

  "You can see the dirt on me.

  44:27-44:35

  "You can see, you can probably smell some sweat on here, and I've really worked so hard.

  44:37-44:39

  Look at the crop that we've produced.

  44:41-44:42

  Me and my team.

  44:44-44:48

  Look at the crop that we've produced because we've worked so hard.

  44:53-44:54

  But what's the reality?

  44:55-44:56

  Did these blobs actually do the work?

  44:58-44:58

  Did they?

  45:00-45:01

  Who did the work?

  45:03-45:09

  The work was done because my wife's hand was in the glove.

  45:11-45:22

  So if you came to my house and you said, "Aaron, these tomatoes are fabulous, you must have amazing gloves." She would slap you.

  45:25-45:26

  The gloves didn't do the work.

  45:29-45:31

  But they were part of the world.

  45:33-45:34

  But they didn't leave the world.

  45:35-45:36

  Do you know what you are in ministry?

  45:37-45:38

  Do you know what I am in ministry?

  45:41-45:41

  That.

  45:44-45:45

  We're just a part of the world.

  45:49-45:51

  And the only way anything gets done.

  46:00-46:01

  So you want to be in ministry?

  46:05-46:06

  You have to check your expectations.

  46:09-46:10

  And it's worthless.

  46:11-46:12

  You die with a great cause.

  46:15-46:19

  God, I thank you for what you've promised me.

  46:27-46:31

  And God, I thank you for the reminders you've given me that I can't do this.

  46:32-46:40

  Father, I confess to you how many times have I said I can't do it. I feel inadequate.

  46:43-46:48

  How many times have you reminded me that it's not about me.

  46:52-46:53

  Jesus said I will build my church.

  46:55-47:02

  So Father, it's just my prayer as we move forward in ministry.

  47:04-47:07

  It's my prayer this morning that we would move forward with great expectations.

  47:13-47:24

  I pray, Father, for those here who maybe have felt it's time to step up and use the giftedness, maybe even use some of the talents that you've given, but they haven't done it yet.

  47:24-47:26

  I pray for those people today.

  47:28-47:48

  And I pray the Holy Spirit will continue to be at work and bring them to that place where they say, "The gift the Holy Spirit has given me is to be used to glorify Jesus Christ in His Church." You are awesome.

  47:50-47:54

  Let us serve you in gladness.

  47:56-48:01

  We ask that you would be the one to work with us.

  48:03-48:04

  In Jesus name.

  48:05-48:05

  Amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Colossians 1:24-29

Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.