Luke 6:12 - 16, Chosen to Serve

Should you also value how to listen to preaching? And of course, the answer is yes.

Very fascinating to me, back in the Reformation days, over 200 pastors and theologians got together, and they came up with a variety of things about theology.

And included in this theological treaty was not just things about the Trinity, the deity of Jesus, His little resurrection, but how to preach, and also how to listen to the

Word of God. Listen to what it says about how someone should preach. Very fascinating.

They that are called to labor in the ministry of the Word are to preach, how do you preach?

Sound doctrine, diligently, in season and out of season, plainly, not enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the

Spirit and in power, faithfully, making known the whole counsel of God, wisely, applying themselves to the necessities and capacities of the hearers, zealously, with fervent love to God and the souls of His people, sincerely, aiming at His glory and their conversion, edification, and salvation.

Isn't that amazing? How are you to preach? That's a lot of responsibility. But of course, the follow -up is, if preaching is that important, and it is,

I think of Paul, by the inspiration of the Spirit, who said, preach the Word, right, in season, out of season. If preaching is important, listening is important as well.

If you think about sheer numbers of the minutes of a worship service, the majority of the time we have in our worship service on Sunday mornings and at Sunday nights is the preaching of God's Word.

And so while we know singing's worship, while we know giving's worship, while we know prayer's worship, preaching's worship, but also, how do you listen to a sermon?

That's very, very important. And that's actually part of worship. So these group of men got together, and they also answered this question.

What is required of those that hear the word preached? I have my responsibilities.

You have your responsibilities. And according to these wise men, what did they say? Not the three wise men, but these wise men.

What's required? It is required of those who hear the word preached that they attend upon it with diligence, preparation, prayer, examine what they hear by scriptures, receive the truth with faith, love, meekness, and readiness of mind as the word of God, that they meditate and confer of it, hide it in their hearts, and bring forth the fruit of it in their lives.

Good words, important words. And I rejoiced this morning that I know you love preaching, and I know you come with attentive hearts.

And it's almost like when I hear preaching, I think I'm kind of like a little bird in the nest. And I just think, you know,

I hope my mother or my father Sparrow comes and gives me the big worm of the word.

Does that make sense? No, I don't think so. Particularly on my part, it says that I'm to make sure that I apply themselves to the necessities and capacities of the hearers.

And so today, if you'll take your Bible and turn to Luke chapter 6, I want to make sure I connect the dots between theology and methodology.

I did that last week, and I want to do that this week as well. And so it'll be an interesting form of a sermon today, but we'll be in Luke chapter 6.

And I want to make sure that you, the congregation, get what I'm saying so that your responsibility of hearing properly is easier for you.

I'm going to try to make it easier for you to obey those exhortations from those men that come from scripture.

So today, we're going to be in Luke chapter 6, verses 12 through 16 again. But I want to draw some things out so that you can understand some theological things behind the scenes that will make it easier for you to apply yourself with diligence, preparation, and prayer.

So last week, we looked at two things, and we're going to review them today. And that is the prayer life of Jesus, verse 12, and the lordship of Jesus, verses 13 through 16.

The prayer life of Jesus, and then also the sovereignty of Jesus.

And as we're looking through the gospel of Jesus, according to Luke, we see, in fact, Jesus, the

God -man. Remember, we have the triune God. And the triune God made a decision among itself that, in fact, he himself, that the

Lord Jesus would take on human flesh, and that he would live among us. And when we watch Jesus in the gospel of Luke, remember he is not primarily an example.

Of course, Jesus is an example. We watch him suffer, and we say, that's how we should suffer, First Peter. But primarily, he's a representative.

Adam failed, and now this last Adam, he's not going to fail. Primarily, Jesus is a substitute, because we just look at an example, and if you look at Jesus' example of perfect living, you need more than an example, because if you see his example and don't do it, then you need a substitute.

So we're watching Jesus in the gospel of Jesus, according to Luke, and it's all eyes on Jesus.

And what's he like? And so we see today his prayer life and his sovereignty. Remember the prayer life in verse 12.

In these days, he, Jesus, went out to the mountain to pray. And all night, he continued in prayer to God.

And of course, the next section is choosing the disciples. And so Jesus prayed many things, certainly if it's all night prayer.

It wasn't just one request, but the tie -in request is he's asking for wisdom from the

Father as a true Jesus, the true man. Who do I choose? Jesus doesn't do anything of his own initiative.

He speaks the things that the Father has taught him, John 8. And now Jesus is praying. And we learned last week that when we look at Jesus' prayer life, the first thing we shouldn't do is say, we should pray more.

I tried to convince you last week that the first thing we should do when we see that Jesus prayed is to think, you know what?

He didn't stop praying when he went to heaven. Hebrews chapter 7, he lives to make intercession for us.

He keeps praying for us. And to know that Jesus is praying for us, not just praying for Peter on earth, but praying for us in heaven should give us great motivation.

And then secondly, I think it is fair to say, what's our prayer life like? Now, if you were here last week and you heard the sermon, hopefully you got encouraged and convicted.

How was your prayer life this week? Did anything change this week when you realized Jesus is praying for me?

And in light of that, I ought to pray more. I tried to give you a few practical things last week, even when

I get in the car. My first thing that I do is I turn on the radio. And two weeks ago,

I didn't even turn it on. This week, I actually turned it on. I thought, OK, what am I going to do? And I'm not trying to be a legalist.

I'm not saying you can't listen to radio. I'm just saying, for me, I'm already in the car. I might as well be praying. And if it helps you,

I do a couple things like this. This is my daily habit when I'm in the car. What did they teach you in driver's ed?

Hands at what position? 10 and 2. So I put my hands at the 10 and 2 position. And I'm a public school kid, so that's my education.

So I'm not that smart. And so I just have to have ways to help me. And so maybe this would help you.

I have 10 fingers, 10 and 2. I'm driving. The radio is off. I'm thinking, I'd like to have a better prayer life.

I'd want to be dependent on the Lord. I want to not waste time. You never waste time when you're praying.

And so I just have 10 fingers, and I do things like this. This is every day. I get in the car, I say, the

Lord is my shepherd. And I dwell on that. I say, thank you. And I've got worries today and concerns today.

But I know you're my shepherd. You guide, protect, and lead me. And I can just rest in you. The Lord is my shepherd.

And then I always do these five fingers. When I was in the hospital, thought I was going to die of COVID. They smuggled in some food.

They smuggled in ivermectin. They smuggled in all kinds of things. But Luke smuggled in a little index card with his kind of bad writing.

He's like a typical Abendroth male. Can't print. And it said, Hebrews 13,

I will never leave you. And so the

Lord is my shepherd. I will never leave you. No matter what happens, God, you'll never leave me.

Thank you. And then I think, well, I've got 10 fingers. I might as well keep going. And so then

I think, you know what? I pray for Kim, Haley, Maddie, Gracie, Luke, Hannah, Marty, Eliezer, Amos, and Clara.

And so I use my hands to pray for the 10 right on down the line. And then I do things like this.

Here we go. Here's the third round of 10. All hands on deck, 10 and 2. I'm not kidding.

This is what I do. And if I can help you just do anything like this, then I want to encourage you to do that. Our Father who art in heaven,

I'm thankful that you're my Father and their Father as well. And you protect and you provide. I try to do good things as a father.

How much more do you? This exalted great God. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

Your name is holy, and you are wonderful, and you are different, yet you care for us. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come. Your kingdom's going to come. Oh, Lord Jesus, come. On earth, our

Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done. God, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

I work through. And guess what I do with this hand? Any guesses? Give me this day my daily bread.

Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver me.

And so I 10 and 2. My flesh wants to say W -E -E -I, sports radio.

And I just think I should just spend some good time praying. And you could do it as a housewife. You could do it as a man who's babysitting.

You could do it anything. So I'm just thinking hands. One other thing that I thought was really practical over the years,

I've thought to myself, that one guy was probably right when he said, you can look at your hand. You can pray for people.

The pinky, the people that are the least significant in life, doesn't raise up very high.

Your ring finger, it's your weakest finger. Pray for people that are weak and sick. You go to your tallest finger, your middle finger.

And it's for leaders and those in positions of authority in the church or in government. Your index finger, the teachers, the pointers, the preachers, et cetera.

And then finally, you get to the thumb that is the least significant. And it points to you. And you pray for yourself. So that's my theology of preaching with hands.

Got it? My point is simple.

Jesus prayed. He's truly human. He's perfectly human. He's verily human. And Jesus prays.

He's dependent upon the Father and the God -man praise. And if the sinless, spotless, holy, undefiled

Lamb of God prays, well, we should be thankful that He still prays.

But also, we should say to ourselves, I should probably do some things in my own life to pray more.

Well, not only that, we looked at verses 13 through 16 about the sovereignty of Jesus. Now, of course, we know

Jesus is sovereign. We've seen Him heal. We've seen Him forgive. We've seen Him do all kinds of things in this gospel.

And we'll see a lot more, too. But here He calls and He names. And when you're sovereign, you get to name and you get to choose.

Parents are sovereign over their children. They get to name their children. And here we see both

Jesus choosing and naming particular people. And when the day came, verses 13 through 16,

He called His disciples and chose from them 12, whom He named apostles. Apostle means to be sent out.

Simon, whom He named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip and Bartholomew, and Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon, who was called the zealot, and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

And so these verses go together. Verse 12 and 13 go together. Jesus is up all night. He's praying.

And He gets wisdom from the Father. And now He chooses. And, of course,

He doesn't choose 11. He doesn't choose 13. He doesn't choose 496. He chooses 12 because you should be thinking,

Old Testament, how many tribes? Twelve. You see the plan of God. You see the continuity of God working back in Israel and now working now.

Jesus chooses 12 on purpose, not accidentally. He calls all these disciples together and then chooses from some of them.

And He chooses them not based on how many fish they caught, how many taxes they collected, how good they were, how good they'd be in the future, foreseen works.

He chooses them because He is the Lord. He personally summons them and calls them.

So here's where I want to help you connect the dots and just kind of slow down. We could get to the next section of verses, but I just want to slow down here for a minute.

Jesus prayed and Jesus chose. Jesus prayed and Jesus chose.

How does prayer and sovereignty go together? You ever ask yourself that question? He chose and He prayed.

How do those go together? If God is sovereign, why pray? Have you ever heard that? If God's in charge, why would you ever pray?

I mean, you don't have to pray. He's going to do what He wants to do anyway. So I want to think about that for a little bit right now.

I want to connect the dots. Jesus prays and Jesus chooses. So if God is sovereign, why pray?

Let me give you a few reasons. Number one, because you're commanded to pray. God commands you to pray.

We don't have to figure out everything. We're finite. Our minds are tainted by sin.

And so we don't need to know every little detail. But if God says to pray, and this is the

God that loves you, redeems you, rescued you, you're forgiven, you're right in God's eyes, the hope of heaven.

And if He says, I'd like you to pray, is there anything you wouldn't do out of gratitude for the Lord? And so 1 Thessalonians 5, pray without ceasing.

Ephesians 6 .18, praying at all times in the spirit, in all prayer and supplication.

Matthew 6, Jesus assumed you'd pray, but when you pray. And of course, the verses that you know from Philippians 4, do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known.

So God is good. He has a law. Remember, when you ever think about God's law, don't think about God's law floating around outside abstractly out there.

Always think of God's law. It's God's good pleasure to give us the law, to guide us, and to glorify

Himself. And this good, merciful God says, I want you to pray. And so the first reason we want to pray, even though God is sovereign, is because He's told us to.

Secondly, why pray if God's sovereign? Well, because He hears your prayers. God hears your prayers.

If ever I go to a football stadium, and I haven't been to a big game lately, but if I go to the University of Nebraska Memorial Stadium, I think there's 80 ,000 people there, and I'm thinking to myself,

I can't believe that God knows every thought. I can't believe if 80 ,000 people were praying,

God would know everything that they're praying. I mean, just imagine if everybody's talking, and you're like, this is just cutting through the noise, but God knows

His children. He's present and omnipotent, and He's omniscient, and so He can hear our prayer.

And so, therefore, Psalm 55 says, cast your burden on the Lord, and He'll sustain you. He'll never permit the righteous to be moved.

Why pray if God's sovereign? Because He hears you. He understands. He is known by you.

Remember the prophets of Baal? They're trying to get God's attention. Remember Elijah, the mountain, and everything else?

And what were they doing? They're cutting themselves, bleeding, trying to call on this

God that they don't know. I found a prayer that is called the prayer to every

God, and when you don't know the Father, and you don't know the Son, and you don't know the Spirit, and you don't know how to pray, you haven't been instructed to pray, you don't know to whom you're praying, this is someone that was really hurting, and this is thousands of years old, and they were crying out to a

God they didn't know. They were crying out to a God that they didn't know if He even would listen. And here's part of the prayer.

May the fury of my Lord's heart be quieted to me. May the God who is not known be quieted to me.

May the God whom I know or do not know be quieted to me. May the heart of my

God be quieted to me. In ignorance I have eaten the forbidden fruit of my God. In ignorance I have set foot on that forbidden by my goddess.

O Lord, my transgressions are great, great are my sins. The transgression which I've committed,

I don't know. The sin which I've done, I don't know. The forbidden thing that I've eaten, I don't know.

And he goes on and on and on. I don't know you, but I know I've done something because something's wrong in my life.

Help! But God answers our prayer because He's our

Father. We know Him. He knows us.

I just alluded to it, but number three, why pray if God's sovereign? Answer.

Because God answers prayer. God answers prayer. Just for a moment before I read any scripture, is there anything in your life that you can think of right now that you were really praying and praying and praying about and God answered?

The one that I think about most often is I was a custodian at Grace Church. And so my shift started at 3 .30.

I was laid off a corporate American. At 3 .30, we would meet and we'd get ready for our assignments, but we would pray first.

15, 20 minutes, I thought, this is kind of nice, praying on the clock. I was making $8 an hour at the time.

So I think I got paid $2 to pray that day. And there's a guy named

Patrick. I still know Patrick. I see him once in a while. And Patrick was a college student at Masters University, which is 17 miles away.

And so he was here at Campus of Grace Church and he said, I need a car to go back and forth between work and church and the university and I don't have a car.

All right, let's pray for Patrick to have a car. Probably 22 at the time. So we had walkie -talkies.

We all go to our assignments to clean and pick up and sort up chairs and pick up trash and everything. I get the phone call on the walkie -talkie.

Meet me at the gym. Everybody, meet me at the gym. It's Patrick. OK, I don't know. Is somebody hurt? Somebody bleeding?

Who knows? We get there and he goes, I've just been given a car. And we, of course, seminary students that were, you know, walking in the spirit, we're like Acts chapter 12.

Peter's in jail. The church is praying all night. Peter shows up at the door. Who must it be?

And they're like, don't bother us. We're praying for Peter to get out of jail. And he said,

I went into a pastor's office. The pastor said, how are you? How can I encourage you? What can I pray for you for? What can

I pray for you about? And he said, I really need a car. He said, I had a car. And I was going to give it away. And so here's the keys to the car.

And we're like, that was so encouraging. But you know what? I thought God's sovereign, so we shouldn't pray.

If he was going to get the car, he should have got the car. But no, God is pleased to answer prayer because then we do what?

We praise Him. We thank Him. We say, thank you for that, Lord. It's an answer to prayer.

Psalm 99, verse 6. They called upon the Lord, and He answered them. Jesus said, whatever you ask in my name, that will

I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son, like He was with Patrick in the car.

If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. And certainly the

Lord Jesus, He knew God was sovereign, and He prayed, and His prayers were answered, and the 12 were chosen.

I met a man once, and he said, what I do is I get a spiral notebook, and I write down the prayer request that somebody gives me or my own, and then date answered.

And he said, then when friends say to me, I don't believe that God is real, I say to him, here are my seven spiral notebooks with prayer request and prayers answered, and I hand him the seven spiral notebooks.

That man was named Wynn. Listen to what Jesus said. Ask, and it shall be given to you.

Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, it shall be opened.

What man is there among you, when his son asks him for a loaf, will give him a stone? If he asks for a fish, he not will give him a snake, will he?

If you then, parents being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your

Father, who is in heaven, give you what is good to those that ask you? Why pray since God's sovereign?

He hears prayers, and he answers them. To stop there just for a second, is there anything in your life that's really bothering you, troubling you, weighing you down, heavy hearted about, can't sleep about?

Certainly you've prayed, haven't you? Please do. Why pray if God's sovereign?

Let me give you another reason. Number four, because God ordains the means and the ends. The means are prayer, the end is that answered prayer.

So God works in both prayer and the end. It's not just the end is determined and there are no means.

The same thing could be true when it comes to evangelism. God saves who He wants. Why does He use us to preach the word?

Because God ordains the means and the end. All right, here's another reason to pray.

Well, let's make it true or false for fun. True or false? Prayer changes things.

Prayer changes things. Does prayer change

God's eternal decree? Does prayer change God Himself? But I wonder, answer those questions or no,

I wonder if prayer changes you. I wonder if you don't have a job and you pray for a job and God gives you a job, is your employment status changed?

I'd like to have a spouse. I'd like to have a spouse. I finally get a spouse and you go, I'm no longer single,

I'm married. I think that's different. I've got a loved one, a spouse who's not a

Christian, children who are not Christians, and I pray and I pray and I pray and I pray and I pray and then one day in God's timing,

He answers the prayer, the lights go on, and you say, does God change things through prayer?

Certainly not His will, certainly not His essence, certainly not His decree, but God changes people, things, has enough in Himself to do it.

Oh, what peace we often forfeit. Oh, what needless pain we bear. All because we do not carry, what?

Everything to God in. Jesus prays.

God's sovereign. How do they go together? Dear beloved, you don't even need to know.

They're not enemies, Spurgeon said, they're friends. Prayer, sovereignty, evangelism, sovereignty, they go together.

We teach both, we embrace both. Now here's my next question, I want to focus on this the rest of the time.

Jesus prays in verse 12. The answer to prayer is found in verses 13 and following.

We see the wisdom from God. We see His sovereign choice. Here's my question now.

Why were those men chosen? Why were they chosen? By the way,

God could do whatever He wants. Why does He need these guys? To what end, for what purpose were they chosen?

And by the way, I'll expand it a little bit. Why does God choose anyone? If you're a Christian, you've been chosen. Why? For what purpose?

Wouldn't it be interesting if you got saved, and the second you got saved, you just go straight to heaven? Or maybe when you got baptized, you'd go straight to heaven.

I guess if we held somebody under long enough, that could be the case. Matter of fact, when

I used to do the baptism, Steve does them now, but when I used to do them, I would say, now when you come up out of the water, don't start speaking in tongues.

Because if you do, I'm dunking you back under. We're not having that around here. So here's what's happening.

We're looking at this passage, and I'm just stepping back a little bit. We could read through it fast, we could preach through it fast.

Yeah, Jesus prayed, He chose. But I'm just trying to get you to think a little bit grander. I'm trying to get you to connect the dots and to think through what are the implications of such a passage.

It's not always good to read the Bible fast. Jesus prays, Jesus is sovereign, they go together in God's mind.

That's true, it's good, I can see some lessons for myself in all that. But the question is, why did

He choose? Why does He choose anybody? Why doesn't He just take them to heaven upon their regeneration?

I'd like you to turn your Bible to Matthew 10, because Matthew and Mark tell us why

He chose the 12. Luke doesn't say. Luke gives us tidbits that Mark doesn't give us, like he prayed all night.

But Mark and Matthew tell us why these men are chosen. Of course,

Jesus is going to die one day, and then these men are going to take the message and go forward.

But specifically, we're going to learn about how these men preach and have authority to cast out demons, according to Mark.

And like their master, they're going to follow in His footsteps. So Matthew 10, by the way, when you read this chapter, there's some things at the end of this chapter where you go,

I had no idea it had to do with disciples. And I'll show you what I mean. So chapter 10, verse 1, you see,

He called to Him His 12 disciples, gave them authority over unclean spirits to cast them out.

Then He tells you their names. Verse 5, These 12

Jesus sent out, instructed them, Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the

Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. That's start, to the

Jew first and the Gentiles after. And proclaim as you go, saying,

The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.

You receive without paying, give without pay. Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, no bag for your journey, etc.

Verse 16, Behold, I'm sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be wise as serpents, be innocent as doves.

Beware of men, they will deliver you over to the courts, flog you in their synagogues. You'll be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the

Gentiles. See what Jesus is doing? This is called seminary in a day. Marching orders, preparation, guidance, instruction, equipping.

Why am I going to choose you? Because you have ministry to do. For my sake.

He says in verse 26, if you jump down to verse 26, So have no fear of them, nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.

What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. Now these next few verses, we kind of make them for our own, whether we're going to talk about hell, or talk about how

God cares for us. But these were for the twelve. Primarily, specifically.

Dear twelve, verse 28, Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.

Twelve, rather fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. And by the way, this is the tender care of the

Lord Jesus and the Father for you twelve to go out for gospel ministry. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?

And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.

Fear not, therefore, you are of more value than the sparrows. I'm going to give you the mission.

And I'm going to provide for you. And I'm going to care for you. And I'm instructing you and equipping you.

So in light of that, to connect some of the dots again, to make it as practical as I can,

I want to ask some questions and give you some answers about why would Jesus choose anyone for gospel ministry?

Why would He choose you? And would it even matter? Is there a reason? This all leads to ministry and service for the

Lord Jesus. Because God doesn't need your good works. Who does? The Lord Jesus.

No. You. So I'm going to try to drive home the importance of service now in ministry.

Before I start, let me say this. Probably 25 to 30 % of the people at Bethlehem Bible Church do the typical 80 % of the work.

And man, I look around the room and I just see, I'm not trying to demean anyone,

I see workhorses. I see faithful behind the scenes, working. I never have to think to myself of certain people as I see you.

These people, they don't understand ministry, they show up late, they don't do anything. So many of you work and minister for the

Lord Jesus and use your spiritual gifts. Thank you. The elders are thankful for you and you give us joy.

Some though, on the flip side, they, you, you show up at Sunday morning and then you leave.

By the way, I'm glad you come for Lord's Day worship. I'm glad you come for what we call the ordinary means of grace.

But I hope as you watch this unfold in Scripture, you're going to say,

I need to have a ministry. I need to serve. If it's guilt in Adam, grace in Christ Jesus, it's gratitude and service.

I need to serve because when God chooses people, He chooses them to serve. Now some of you have ministries we don't know about.

It's behind the scenes. It's a prayer ministry. You're doing things that we don't know about. But there are many, I'm certain, that come to the church, you come for Sunday morning and that's it.

So may I say, let me try to put a little spur or a burr under your saddle.

You're not smiling. Because when Jesus chooses people,

He chooses them to serve. That's my point. Yes, Jesus prayed and Jesus chose, but why did

He choose? He chose because He wanted them to minister and to serve. So if you're serving, way to go, praise

God. It's just like with prayer. Lord, I wish I could pray more and I'm going to determine that I'm going to do that and put some things in my life that I'll do.

And Lord, I need to serve too. It's just like the Lord Jesus and His men to serve.

So let me try to encourage you to keep serving in ministry or to have a ministry.

First, Jesus chooses the least likely to serve Him. I mean, can you imagine the 12 that He chose to turn the world upside down?

And pastors kind of make fun of the congregation at this point. It's what they always have to do. Can you imagine we're going to turn

West Boylston and Central Massachusetts upside down with the likes of you? With the likes of me being the leader?

Back to that old phrase again, I get paid to be good in ministry. You're good for nothing. Some of the people here that have served the most or people that I know in my life that have served the most have no degrees.

Their IQ is not that great, but they have a desire to encourage and invest in the Lord. If Jesus chooses those 12 for the motley crew, my point is

He can use you. He uses me. Let me give you some more encouragement.

Jesus chooses people who will remain unknown until glory. We know some about Peter.

We know some about Paul, who will be a later apostle. We know some about Andrew. We know some about some of these apostles.

But a lot of them we don't know hardly anything about. It's like the roles of the church are just a bunch of unknowns.

Yeah, there's a few names in Romans chapter 16. I get that. But unnamed, unacknowledged, unknown, but God keeps using those kind of people to build the church and equip the church.

It's been said by an old German to pastors, you ought to preach

Christ, die, and be forgotten. But the Lord will know for all your work.

What I said earlier, I want to say again, to make it just explicit. Jesus chooses people who are not yet glorified.

I'm like, that's kind of dumb. What does that mean? He chooses people who aren't perfect. There are some of you,

I'm positive, who said, you know what, I don't think I could help anybody with marriage problems, because my marriage isn't perfect.

Romans 15 says that you're competent to give counsel if you're a Christian. And so one of the reasons why, when we have premarital counseling,

I tell the couples, find some couples at the church that you like their marriage, and go have dinner with them and ask them, what did you do well, what do you regret, what should you work on?

I don't say to the premarital couples, by the way, I want you to go find the perfect marriage and then set at their feet.

Sometimes I think Christians don't serve because they think, how could the Lord use me? I don't have it all together. I mean, there are certain sins that you're committing you shouldn't be doing any counseling, you should be doing repenting.

That's certainly true. But He picks people, and we'll probably have time to get there, 1

Corinthians 1, so that the boasting in the Lord's ministry and His work is not in us.

Turn to 1 Corinthians 12, let me give you another reason. Just as Jesus chooses people to serve and equips them, like He did with the 12,

He equips you. If you say to yourself, I don't know what to do, I don't know how to do it, I have nothing to offer,

I just want to remind you that you have been given a spiritual gift. When God saved you, the

Sovereign Spirit gave you a gift. And that gift can either be a speaking gift, generally, or a serving gift.

A gift that teaches, or a gift that helps and serves behind the scenes. And so I want you to know, that when it comes to ministry, just as Jesus said to the 12, you're going to preach and I give you authority to cast out demons, now it's going to be for Christians, I'm going to give you a gift so that you can help other people.

Because you can't do it in and of yourself. Natural born talents aren't enough. Paul says in 1

Corinthians 12, do you see it, verse 7? But to each one, that's you Christian, is given the manifestation of the

Spirit for common good. Jump down to verse 11. But one in the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually, just as He wills.

When God saved you, He then equipped you, and gave you everything you needed.

The disciples, of course, the apostles, they served. But what about our

Lord and Master? Was He a servant? Did He serve?

Do nothing from selfish or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, let each of you regard one another as more important than Himself.

Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves, which is also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard a quality of God a thing to be grasped, but emptied

Himself, taking the form of a bondservant, being made in the likeness of men. And take some time to make sure

I pastorally connect the dots, so that you think to yourself, yes, this is a good illustration of Jesus prayed, and He chose, and He chose them to serve.

But the inference, the implication is, yes, we ought to pray. That's a good takeaway.

And we should be glad we're chosen. That should be a good takeaway. And why were we chosen? Ephesians chapter 2, verse 10, talks about how

God creates works ahead of time, that we might what? Let others walk in them, of course.

I'm kind of losing you, so I'm just trying to help you. No, that we might walk in them, prepared ahead of time. Yesterday, I thought, okay,

I have a busy day. We have the men's breakfast, and then the funeral, and just this, that, and the other. And so I was sitting over here having breakfast, my kind of keto breakfast, and having things.

And then I went to get a coffee, and I came back, and there was a guy sitting in my seat. He was a visitor. I've never seen him before. And I said, excuse me, you're in my seat.

And my coffee's right there. Jose Burgos had invited him. He's from India, and he's got a

Hindu background. And so we began talking. He'd never been to any Christian thing ever. And I was already thinking, okay,

I have the Lord's Supper to do. I'm going to meet with some men in the morning. I've got to preach at the funeral, this, that, and the other.

And I didn't have a bad attitude, but I was just busy. And I thought, the Lord plops this guy right next to me.

I mean, plop, plop, fizz, fizz. It was just right there. And so I began talking about how

God has written on our hearts the law that we know when we sin. We look with lust.

We committed murder in our hearts. Why is thievery wrong all across the world?

I began to talk about creators and how some people don't like Christianity because Jesus is not saying, I'm one of five million gods in India.

I'm the only God. And I kept going and going and going. And by the time I was done, I just was so happy.

I was so joyful that the Lord could use me. That man has an eternal soul. And Jose did a good job of just bringing him here.

And here's the message from Pastor Harry. And I just thought, Lord, this was planned all along. That's right, planned all along.

And you gave me the gifts to be able to talk to him. In 1 Peter 4, he,

Peter, in the middle of persecution where you think, you know, I've got to run and hide.

For all the preppers that are here and for all the people that think, you know what, I've got to have enough ammo and gold and amoxicillin.

Just order some. It doesn't matter how much you have because guess what?

I know who you preppers are. And I'm calling you to help the people that didn't prep. What are you going to do, hunker down and shoot me when

I come to your house for some lasagna? These people are getting persecuted.

They're dying. And Peter reminds him, you serve other people. Jesus is the suffering servant.

You suffer and you serve. And you sacrificially lay down your life, not because that will save you, because that's what the

Master does. That's what you're called to do. Look at 1 Peter 4, verse 10. As each one has received a special gift.

That's that special gift to know how to serve people. Employ it, use it in serving one another.

It's not for yourself. And isn't this interesting? As good stewards,

NAS says, of the manifold grace of God. Whoever speaks, let him speak as it were the utterance of God.

Whoever serves, let him do so by the strength which God supplies so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.

And here's the praise to him to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Every one of you as Christians received a special gift at salvation determined sovereignly by the

Spirit to serve other people. And we're to serve, and I know so many of you do, so this is not a scolding.

For those of you that serve, I want to encourage you. For those of you that don't serve, I want to convict you. But here you think, okay, good steward.

What's the difference between a steward and an owner? What's the difference between a steward and an owner when

I say to myself, this isn't mine, but somebody gave it to me to watch, and so I should take extra good care because I'm not the owner,

I'm the steward. You think owners would take care of things, but here the steward takes care of something.

I've been entrusted with this. Even the kids' songs know that. Hide it under a bushel?

Of course not. And so here, it's the end of the world. If you went back a few verses, you'd realize it's the end of the world.

What do you do? Oh, you're hospitable, you pray, you love people, and you serve them, everyone to serve.

This is kind of language in the same theology in Romans where the first 11 chapters are, this glorious doxology of who

God is in Christ Jesus, union with Christ and everything else. And then 12 .1, it all turns.

And therefore, since all these things are true according to the mercies of God, then you pour yourself out in gospel ministry for other people because it's good and acceptable and perfect.

That is your spiritual service of worship. I read about a missionary in Africa.

They said, do you like your ministry? I was shocked by the answer.

No. My wife and I do not like dirt. We have reasonably refined sensibilities.

We do not like crawling into vile huts through goat refuse. But is a man to do nothing for Christ he does not like?

God pity him if not. Liking or disliking has nothing to do with it.

We have orders to go, and we go. Love constrains us.

Very interesting. Very convicting. Someone once told me, we make time for things that we love.

That's the same thing in gospel ministry. I'm certain for me, I'll only use me in this particular case, if Jesus were to walk into the room and said,

Mike, I've got a few needs. Could you help me? What would I do? Well, the

Patriots are on, sir. Soccer games for the kids, you know.

I think you know what I'm saying. I would do anything. Whatever you need, I'll be glad to do it.

Well, as we know, Jesus' body is on earth. Where is Jesus' body? Ever ask that question?

Is it in your heart? Jesus' body is in heaven.

At the right hand of the Father. And it will always be there. His human nature is there.

His divine nature is everywhere, of course. His spirit, the Holy Spirit, dwells in us. Christ in us, the hope of glory.

But since Jesus isn't here, his bride is.

Therefore, instead of serving Jesus, we serve his bride. Because whatever you do for someone that's a member of the bride of Christ, you do to the

Lord. Remember in that parable in Matthew 25, And the king will answer and say to them, Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even the least of them, you did it to me.

And so, dear congregation, we are soon and very soon going to be back in Luke chapter 6, working through the

Beatitudes, working through loving your enemies, working through build your house on the rock. It'll be week after week after week like we always do.

But I wanted to stop today and just try to connect the dots. And that is to say, yes, the passage says

Jesus prayed. And I could tell you the tense. I could tell you how many times that verb is used. But he prayed because he was dependent upon the

Father and to do the Father's will. And if he prays, then and in heaven, we should pray.

That's one of the dots I want connected. Secondly, I wanted you to see that God is sovereign over everything, yet there's still prayer.

And I also wanted to ask you the question, Why are you chosen? To give glory, to give honor, to boast in the

Lord. That's all true. But you are chosen to serve. So, dear

Christian that serves, way to go. Good job. I'm looking at so many of you now that serve and serve and serve and serve selflessly.

And some I don't even know who serve, but you are. If you just like to come on Sunday to hear preaching and then have nothing else affect you,

I'm trying to be the Grandpa Mike now. But why don't this be the last day you just show up and do nothing?

Why don't you show up and think, You know what, I'm just going to start volunteering for things if there's a need. By the way, we have a need in the chair ministry.

I'll just start volunteering for that. You say, well, I don't know my spiritual gift. Okay, you don't need to know.

You take a 500 question spiritual gifts inventory, you don't need to know that. You say, here's a need.

I show up for the need. Here's the need. I'll just go ahead and do that. What do you need? It would be good if you went to elders and deacons and said,

I don't know what to do, but the best thing I can do when I hear a convicting sermon is to do something right away.

The worst thing you do, hear a conviction and go, forget it. And just dull your conscience. Probably the best thing you can do when it comes to ministry.

Albert Barnes said, I entreat you to devote one solemn hour of thought this week to a crucified Savior. Think of the cross, the nails, the open wounds.

Think of how the Son of God became a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief that you, dear

Christian, might live forever. Think as you lie down on your bed to rest, how your

Savior was lifted up from the earth to die. Think amid your plans and anticipations of future gaiety, what the redemption of your soul has cost, and how the dying

Savior would wish you to act. His wounds plead that you will live for better things.

Or, as the songwriter says, Jesus paid it all, all to Him.

Thank you, Father, for your sovereign choice of us. To imagine an eternity past, it was determined that we would be your children.

And now we get to call you Father, our Father who art in heaven. Father, I rejoice today that this church is full of servants that are like Christ.

I'm sure I can't think of everything now, but from the moving ministry, children's ministry, chair ministry, sound ministry, kitchen ministry, the list goes on and on and on.

Thank you for the dear saints who serve. I pray that you might remind them that they're serving not just the children, not just stacking chairs, but they're serving the risen

Savior, Jesus, and He notices and will reward. And Father, for those that are here today that have no ministry, aren't serving the local church,

Father, make it easy on them to repent and to find something that they might do to help, to help them and also to help their own conscience.

Father, lastly, for those that are here today that aren't Christians, I pray that you would make sure that they would realize there's no amount of being good or serving other people that could ever please you enough to have them earn heaven.

And heaven is only earned by Jesus Christ and is granted freely by grace and grace alone through faith alone.