What Is Expected Of Members?

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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August 8, 2016

00:00: Amen.
00:00: You may be seated.
00:06: I was standing up here praying, just enjoying hearing you all sing.
00:12: It's such a blessing to be a part of this church.
00:20: I'm going to ask you to open your Bibles and go with me to Hebrews chapter 10 and hold your place there.
00:27: I want to tell you, I was praying and I was asking God to clarify something for me.
00:36: I have, for the last three weeks, I've been talking about expectations in the church.
00:47: If you weren't here for that, I'll simplify what we talked about.
00:52: We're in a larger series called a Biblically Functioning Church.
00:55: We're talking about what the church is supposed to be, how it's supposed to function, how it's supposed to operate, how it's supposed to view the scriptures, how it's supposed to view leadership, what is the church to be.
01:07: And then in that series, we started an 18 point sermon.
01:12: Which I said, there's no way I'm going to do 18 points in one Sunday.
01:16: So that sort of became a mini-series within the series.
01:19: And that sermon is asking two questions.
01:23: The first question is this, what should a member of a church expect from the church? And the other half is what should the church expect from her members? What should the church expect from those who call themselves members of the church? And as I mentioned in the weeks gone by, being a member of a church is a covenant relationship.
01:52: We come together and we make a commitment to one another to be in fellowship with one another.
01:58: And we submit to one another.
02:00: And it is very much a covenant relationship.
02:03: And as I said, in every covenant relationship, there's expectations on both sides.
02:08: I've told this story last week, but I'll say it again.
02:11: When I married my wife, there were expectations for her and she had expectations for me.
02:17: One of those expectations is that we will be with each other whether times are good or times are bad, whether times are of plenty or times are of less, that we're going to be together till death do us part.
02:29: And even for us, we make the joke, I have a little sign in our bedroom that says, I know we can't be married in heaven, but can I sit next to you when we get there? I want to be together even then, but as brothers and sisters, not as married people.
02:43: But the point being is there's expectations in relationships and that's not wrong.
02:48: Now, we can have wrong expectations.
02:51: We can come into churches and have incorrect, unbiblical expectations.
02:57: And that's not good, but it doesn't mean we shouldn't have any.
03:02: So if you weren't here the last three weeks, I'll give you the first half, the nine things you should expect.
03:09: I'm just going to list them.
03:10: If you want to go back and listen to the audio, please do.
03:13: But the nine things you should expect when you come into any church, if it is a biblical church, you should expect biblical preaching, biblical theology, a biblical understanding of the gospel, a biblical understanding of conversion, a biblical understanding of evangelism.
03:35: You should expect biblical church membership, biblical discipleship, biblical leadership, and biblical discipline.
03:46: Those are the nine things that every church member should expect from the church.
03:54: Now, that church can look different.
03:57: As I've often said, our church looks different.
03:59: I've never seen a church like ours before.
04:01: It's different.
04:03: There are some churches that are really kind of modernist and there's some churches that are very traditionalist and then there's sort of us.
04:10: I'm wearing a tie and jeans on the same day.
04:12: What are you going to do about that? You know? So sort of meet that middle ground.
04:18: But that type of stuff is secondary to those nine things.
04:24: Those nine things are primary.
04:27: But oftentimes the expectations in the relationship of church and church member have a tendency to be very one-sided.
04:36: People come into the church, well, the church must meet all of my expectations.
04:41: But I will not consider the fact that they will have expectations for me.
04:50: This has led to the consumer-minded church, which so many have become accustomed to.
04:59: We go to the church like a consumer.
05:02: Does this church fit my need here, here, and here, and here? I'm not participating.
05:07: They're participating.
05:08: They're doing for me.
05:11: My expectations are secondary to what I expect.
05:14: And that's sort of how we choose a restaurant or how we choose a place to buy our groceries.
05:20: You know, we expect, you know, to go to our hardware store.
05:23: We expect our expectations to be met.
05:26: But see, the church being a covenantal relationship means that we have expectations on both sides.
05:32: And so now today we're going to move to what should the church expect from its members? And this is what I was asking God for clarity on, and I still haven't gotten it.
05:45: I wanted to know if I should preach this all in one service, because there's nine things, or if I should preach a few of them.
05:54: Next week, Brother Mike's going to preach in my absence, and then come back in two weeks and finish it.
06:01: I'm not asking you to vote.
06:04: But part of me says I'm going to need to break it up.
06:08: Because there's a part really about spiritual gifts that I really want to camp out on for a while.
06:14: So I'm just going to start.
06:16: We're going to let the Lord lead, and we'll finish when it's time.
06:22: But if you want to write down the nine points are broken down into three categories.
06:26: And if you want to write down these three categories, it's very simple.
06:29: There are three categories of things that the church should expect from its members.
06:33: Number one is participation.
06:34: Number two is contribution.
06:40: That one's popular.
06:43: And number three is submission.
06:45: That one's even less popular.
06:48: The church should expect from its members participation, contribution, and submission.
06:55: So today we're going to look at participation.
06:58: And we may move on to the contribution, but we're going to focus primarily on participation.
07:03: In your Bibles, we're going to look at Hebrews chapter 10.
07:07: Verses 24 and 25.
07:09: Verses that I'm sure most of you are probably familiar with.
07:13: I've even preached on these verses at times in the past in different contexts.
07:19: But these verses have a very important particular meaning for our subject today.
07:25: It says in verse 24, and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.
07:36: Not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
07:51: Can we pray? Father in heaven, I thank you for the opportunity to again preach your word.
07:58: And yet Father, I know that if it is to have any meaning at all, if it is to have any substance at all, if it is to affect any heart at all, it will be because your Holy Spirit is teaching and speaking today.
08:15: I pray, Lord, that I would decrease and that Christ would increase.
08:21: I pray that you would keep me from error.
08:24: And I pray that you would speak to your people.
08:28: And Lord, those who have already bowed the knee to Jesus Christ, that you would draw them closer to conformity to Him.
08:36: And Lord, if there be those in the room, which I'm sure there are, both young and old, who have not yet bowed the knee to Jesus Christ in humble submission and repentance, Lord God, that you would today, through the preaching of your word, draw souls unto yourself.
08:55: Lord, I know that I lack the power to convert a heart.
09:01: But your Spirit has that power.
09:06: So we trust Him today to do that which only He can do.
09:12: Through your Son, Jesus Christ, we pray.
09:15: Amen.
09:23: It's always funny when you hear people talk about church, talking about whether or not you need to be there, whether or not you need to go.
09:35: And it's really been in the last, well, the last two generations, maybe three generations, where people have been able to have somewhat of an excuse because they say, well, I have a preacher preaching to me through the television set.
09:53: You know, who's better than Billy Graham? You know, would be their argument.
09:56: And I can listen to Billy Graham on the radio.
09:58: Or I can watch one of these, I can watch John MacArthur on the Grace to You network.
10:05: I can listen to R.C.
10:07: Sproul every day for hours.
10:12: Why then should I have to participate in the body? The pastor surely isn't better than R.C.
10:20: Sproul or John MacArthur or any of these other guys.
10:24: The teaching that I'm getting is not exceeding the quality that I could get from Ligonier or Grace to You.
10:34: Certainly, I can be an armchair theologian and learn just as much and behave just as consistently as a Christian if I didn't go.
10:52: And so you hear people who make the argument, well, you don't have to go to church to be a Christian.
11:03: And in that statement, there is a fundamental misunderstanding.
11:11: Because when you say, you don't have to go to church to be a Christian, you automatically are equating church with somewhere you go.
11:23: And that's not right.
11:26: Church is not a place where you go.
11:30: So, church is a group to whom you belong.
11:37: It's the people of God.
11:42: Do we know what the word church in the Greek is? I think some of you do.
11:48: Ekklesia, ekklesia in Greek.
11:51: The word ek is the prefix that means out of.
11:56: And that's why on the signs, you see exit that comes from the Greek ek, to go out.
12:03: And kaleo is the root.
12:07: Kaleo means to call.
12:10: And so the word ekklesia means to call out.
12:15: But that's not really the meaning.
12:17: That's the etymology of the word.
12:21: The etymology of the word gives meaning to what the people are.
12:25: They're the ones who've been called out.
12:27: But ekklesia means the assembly of God's people.
12:33: The ones who've been called out coming together as an assembly.
12:39: And that's where we get the word church.
12:41: Church is actually a derivative, I believe, of a German kirk.
12:45: It's where we get that word.
12:47: But ekklesia is who you are, not where you go.
12:52: Ekklesia is what you belong to, not where you...
12:55: This building could fall to the ground, hopefully without us in it.
13:02: But this building could collapse and flatten to the ground.
13:07: And Sovereign Grace Family Church would still exist.
13:13: A tornado could lift it up and move it and destroy it.
13:21: And Sovereign Grace Family Church would still exist.
13:25: Because it's who we are, not where we go.
13:29: So when someone says, I don't need to go to church to be a Christian, my response is always the same.
13:38: I say, you don't go to church.
13:41: If you're part of the body of Christ, you are the church.
13:45: And you have been given specific gifts from the Spirit of God to be used with other believers within the body of Christ.
13:56: And so if you're not meeting with that body of Christ, you're not functioning.
14:03: It's like the Apostle Paul said.
14:07: He said, the eye can't say to the ear, I have no need of you.
14:09: For if the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? And the hand can't say to the foot, I have no need of you.
14:14: Because if the whole body were a hand, where would be the ability to walk? Right? You have a particular gifting and your gift is used within the assembly, not outside, not apart from.
14:32: It'd be like I said, like a tongue.
14:33: If you found a tongue, it wouldn't be worth anything.
14:36: That's kind of what I kind of consider myself, the mouth of the church.
14:39: Everybody has a gift, right? I'm the mouth.
14:42: Everybody's got a gift.
14:44: But if that was all it was, well, what if I were in here preaching by myself? What if I stood up in my living room every Sunday morning and just shouted for 45 minutes? Eventually, they'd put me in a home.
14:57: No, I mean, seriously, you have a gift to be used within the church and participation in the church, participation in the body, participation in assembly, not even an option.
15:17: It really isn't.
15:18: And people say, well, you got to go to church to go to heaven.
15:21: Being a Christian isn't all about going to heaven.
15:26: If you have limited your understanding of Christianity to only the end result, you are missing the glory to which God has called you.
15:36: God has called you to live for Him, not just die and be with Him.
15:40: If all that was meant for you and your salvation was to go to heaven, then God would have taken you the moment you got saved.
15:51: If that was the only purpose for your salvation was to get you to heaven, why didn't you just dive in? You're not called just to go to heaven.
16:04: You're called to live for Christ and live in conformity to Christ in this world.
16:13: So let's talk about participation.
16:17: We're gonna talk about three ways that we are called to participate in the body of Christ.
16:23: Number one is worship.
16:25: Number two is fellowship.
16:31: And number three is ministry.
16:33: Worship, fellowship, and ministry.
16:37: You are called to participate in all three.
16:42: Look again at Hebrews 10, 24.
16:47: It says, and let us consider how to stir one another to love and good works.
16:56: The term stir up here in the ESV is translated stimulate in the New American Standard Bible.
17:05: And in the King James Bible, it is provoke.
17:09: So if you think about those three English terms, to stir up, to stimulate, or to provoke something, you kind of get the idea of what the original language is trying to indicate.
17:23: It means that believers are supposed to be prodding one another along towards two goals in the Christian life.
17:30: You are supposed to be encouraging one another towards two goals in the Christian life.
17:34: You know what those two goals are? Love and good works.
17:38: Now those are some pretty broad terms.
17:40: Love itself is a broad term.
17:43: Good works is a broad term.
17:46: But in a simplified way, the writer of Hebrews is telling us here, these are the things for which you gather.
17:53: To be stirred up, to be prodded, to be pushed, to be directed, to be encouraged, to be stimulated, to be provoked, to do good works, and to love.
18:07: And the primary time in the week when we have the opportunity to be prodded along in both of those areas is when we gather together for worship as the body of Christ.
18:21: Think about what happens in the worship experience.
18:24: Think about what happens in this one hour and a half on Sunday morning.
18:29: We come together and we pray for one another.
18:33: Every week a different man comes up to this pulpit and he has prepared a prayer and he prays for the people of God who have various types of needs.
18:46: And that's a demonstration of love.
18:49: Hopefully that isn't the only time in the week that you pray for people.
18:53: Hopefully your daily prayers include the needs of the saints.
18:57: But that's an example.
19:00: And it's leading us, it's prodding us, it's provoking us to love.
19:08: Sometimes we come up here and we'll pray for somebody and somebody will get me at the back door and say, I didn't even know that that person had that need.
19:17: And I'll say, good, now you do.
19:19: Now you can pray for them.
19:21: Or even better yet, now you might can fill that need that they have.
19:26: You found out about it through this and now we've provoked you to love and good works.
19:34: What else do we do? We sing together.
19:38: I gotta be honest.
19:39: I am not a music guy.
19:42: What I mean by that is I don't spend, some people spend a lot of time listening to music.
19:48: I do not.
19:49: I listen when I'm riding down the road, I'm either listening to preaching or I'm listening to The Dividing Line, which is a Christian talk radio program.
19:57: I listen to people talk because I'm a talker.
20:00: And so it tends to appeal more to me.
20:04: But I gotta tell you, when I hear, as I did earlier, my ears were open, but my mouth was closed as I was praying.
20:12: And I'm hearing you guys singing.
20:14: That was provoking me to love.
20:19: It helped me to love the saints even more because I hear them sing.
20:23: You realize that in heaven, we're gonna sing the praises of God in eternity.
20:31: It's gonna be one of the things that we're able to do is we're gonna be as, you know what? There are angels that surround the throne of God called the Seraphim.
20:39: Do you know what their job is? To say, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty and the whole earth is filled with His glory.
20:47: And that's all they do forever.
20:50: And you might say, boy, that sounds like it'd get kind of boring.
20:52: Not when God's the author.
20:55: And not when that's what He created you to do.
20:57: And that's what He created those angels to do.
20:58: He created those angels to proclaim His glory forever.
21:05: And so we come together and we provoke one another to good works through song, through singing, and through encouraging one another in that.
21:15: What else do we do? We hear the Word.
21:21: And I would say that as far as that which provokes us to good works, the preaching of the Word should be paramount because the preaching of the Word is what should challenge us.
21:35: It should be what steps on our toes.
21:37: And I do have people that won't wear flip flops anymore just for that reason, because they said I've stepped all over the top of their feet.
21:42: No, no, no.
21:43: They come in and they hear the Word of God and that provokes them to good works and to love.
21:54: Remembering that love is not a feeling, but love is an action.
21:58: It's something that we do.
21:59: It's a verb.
22:01: It's how we demonstrate grace to one another and mercy to one another and all of those things.
22:08: We come together, we hear the Word proclaimed to us, and it's a spurring to love and to good works.
22:16: So it says, so when we consider how to stir, as this verse says, immediately, if you think about just in context, let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.
22:27: The first thing I would say is be together for worship.
22:33: Being together for worship is the primary way that we will love and stir each other up to good works.
22:41: It's not the only way, and it's certainly not the only way that we can do that.
22:46: But it's the first way.
22:47: It's the first day of the week, Sunday.
22:49: We all think of Monday as the first day of the week.
22:51: Monday's the first day of the work week.
22:52: Sunday's the first day of the week.
22:53: We come together during the first hours of the first day of the week every week for what reason? To stir one another up to love and good works, to provoke one another to love and good works.
23:08: And the Christian who would deny himself this, who would deny himself participation in this, is missing out on one of the great blessings that God has for His people.
23:23: He calls us to look for opportunities, to consider how, that means to look for ways to do this, to consider how we might stir one another up.
23:34: To love and good works.
23:36: One of the ways is by participating in worship.
23:40: I don't have the argument, do you have to go to church to be a Christian? Because I answer, as I said, every way.
23:47: Number one, church is not a place you go to.
23:49: But number two, the answer is simple.
23:52: Christ has not called you to be a lone wolf.
23:55: He's not called anybody to be outside of the leadership and submission to the local church.
24:00: No one, no believer has been called to singularity.
24:05: He's called you to assembly because no matter how mature of a Christian you are, you need to be spurred or provoked or stirred up to love and good works.
24:23: You still do.
24:26: And we do that first and foremost in the worship time when we come together.
24:30: So participation in worship is first.
24:33: And by the way, that's why we have a standard here at Sovereign Grace for those of you who are members, for those of you who are not members.
24:40: We have a constitution.
24:42: Every church has generally a constitution and bylaws, a functioning document that helps us to talk about rules and things for the church.
24:50: Do you realize that one of the standards of Sovereign Grace Family Church is that if you do not participate in worship for a period of four months without any reasonable explanation as to why, that you are no longer a member in good standing.
25:09: Because why in the world would you be a member in good standing if you don't participate in the worship with the saints? Now in that four months, we've reached out to you.
25:21: We don't just leave you hanging out to dry.
25:23: We've reached out to you.
25:24: We've called on you.
25:24: We've encouraged you.
25:26: But if you've chosen to separate yourself from the body for 120 days and that doesn't affect you, that's a problem.
25:40: So we actually have that written into our literature of how we function.
25:44: It's a way to simply say, we want people to understand what we expect of our members.
25:50: And one of the things we expect of our members is participation.
25:56: And it doesn't say 52 weeks a year.
25:58: I'm not gonna be here next week.
25:59: I'll be in church somewhere, but I'm not gonna be here.
26:04: But the reality is, and we've seen this in the past, Jack and I joke about this, because years and years ago, I've been in this church since I was eight years old.
26:15: And there's only a few people who really out-length me now.
26:18: Mr.
26:18: Paul out-lengths me as far as time, Mr.
26:21: Jack, and a few of my stepmom, of course, because she's the one who brought me here.
26:24: But as far as length goes, I've been here longer than most everybody.
26:27: And we've seen kind of a little bit of everything.
26:29: But we have seen people who've been gone from church for years, who show up just for a meeting to vote.
26:38: That's a shame.
26:39: Number one, it's a shame that you just abandon the church, but it's a shame, too, that you would come just to throw a voice out there that you have no reason to do because you're not a participant.
26:51: That person who does that has no real understanding of the function and role of the church in the life of the believer.
27:02: And we've seen it happen.
27:03: Thankfully, it won't happen anymore because we've disallowed that.
27:09: But anyhow, participation in worship is vital.
27:13: It's part of what the church should expect of you.
27:16: And if you're not participating in worship, you should expect somebody's going to call on you.
27:21: You should expect the pastor, or one of the elders, or one of the deacons is going to reach out and say, hey, we love you.
27:30: You have a place here.
27:31: There's missing when you're not here.
27:35: There's gifts missing.
27:36: There's participation missing.
27:38: We miss you.
27:38: We miss your children.
27:40: Come.
27:41: You should expect that.
27:45: Number two, participation in fellowship.
27:49: Look at the next verse 25.
27:52: Not neglecting to meet together.
27:54: And you might say, well, that kind of goes with the first thing, which is worship.
27:57: But honestly, when he says, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, I think that there's more than just worship and view in that passage.
28:07: Because a lot of pastors do use that to prove that you should come to church.
28:11: They'll use Hebrews 10, 24, and 25, and say, see, you have to come to church.
28:14: It says, don't neglect meeting together.
28:15: I don't believe that the meeting together is limited to this one time on Sunday morning.
28:19: Because if this is the only time we see each other ever, and we're not ministering to each other in other ways, I do think we're missing something.
28:29: And I do think that there are people who come to church once a week, but don't have any opportunity to fellowship with the saints any other time in their life, and they are neglecting the benefit of the body.
28:42: Now, let me say this, because I don't want to make anyone feel like I'm attacking anyone, or like I'm making anyone feel bad.
28:51: I know some of you work 60 hours a week.
28:53: Some of you have jobs that make it difficult to come on Wednesday nights, or to come to Dad's and Dudes, or to come to the women's meeting, or to come to Sunday school.
28:59: Okay, I'm not trying to condemn anyone.
29:03: What I am saying is this, we won't grow together if the hour and a half is all we get a week.
29:13: We've got to do more.
29:14: We've got to work more in fellowship with one another.
29:18: Some of the best and most profound theological training I have ever done has been in my living room with people who come to my house and have coffee or tea, and sit in my house and just talk about Scripture.
29:33: Do you sit with God's people and talk about God's Word outside of the body? Now, I know some of you sit outside of the body and talk about other stuff.
29:44: And that's, I mean, we don't always have to be reading Spurgeon's commentaries and reading Calvin's Institutes.
29:49: I mean, we don't have to do that.
29:51: But does the Word of God challenge you to be with the people of God, sharpening, as it were, one stone against another? Because that's what fellowship is.
30:03: Oftentimes, we think of fellowship as just two people getting together and talking.
30:07: And there is an element of fellowship there.
30:09: But the fellowship of the saints is when we get together to challenge one another.
30:13: The other night, Don and I went out and we were with some of my friends from high school.
30:17: And it ended up being an hour and a half lecture on the doctrine of the Trinity because we were talking to a guy whose wife was a Mormon.
30:25: And we were talking to another guy who goes to a Methodist church.
30:29: And we just started talking about the essentials of the faith.
30:31: And these are guys that, I haven't seen this one guy in 20 years.
30:36: But he knew I was a minister and he asked a question.
30:38: And I tell you what, when that door opened, we were there.
30:43: And that wasn't part of the body.
30:44: What I'm saying is, do your conversations and your fellowships turn to the things of God when you're with one another? Do you challenge one another in your walk with Christ? That should be part of our fellowship.
30:58: We should not neglect those times.
31:02: We meet for worship, yes.
31:05: But we also meet for growing as brothers and sisters in Christ.
31:12: And beloved, we can't neglect that.
31:15: And I know we all live so far away.
31:17: That's the one difficult thing about being the one of four, if you want to say there are four Reformed Baptist congregations in Jacksonville.
31:27: It's us, it's Sovereign Grace Baptist.
31:31: There's a couple of Reformed guys in town.
31:34: And so we end up bringing people from Beach, from Orange Park.
31:39: We have people come from all over.
31:40: So it is tough.
31:42: That's part of what the covenant is though, is that we're gonna work together.
31:46: I'm thankful that Mike comes up with opportunities for me and him to go out and witness together because that's a time where we get to share and really challenge one another.
31:54: Because I tell you what, going down to a rally for the president and handing out tracts, you're not the most welcome person there.
32:02: But I'm glad I have a brother that stirs me to good works that says, hey, we need to go.
32:06: Okay.
32:08: Because without him spurring me that, I don't know if I'd have went on my own.
32:11: I was encouraged and I just say, I like having somebody that says, hey, let's go.
32:16: Okay, let's go.
32:19: That's the not neglecting thing.
32:22: And we need to do more.
32:25: Every one of us could be doing more.
32:30: Fellowship with one another over a meal, over the word.
32:35: But I gotta move on, but you understand.
32:39: Participation in worship is first.
32:41: Participation in fellowship is a close second.
32:43: It's part of this.
32:45: Number three, participation in ministry.
32:48: And this is where I'll start to bring it to a close.
32:51: I'm glad I didn't try to do all nine.
32:52: We got to get to three of them.
32:55: He says, not neglecting to meet together is the habit of some.
33:00: And by the way, I just real quick on that.
33:03: It's interesting that in the first century, there were already people who didn't want to participate in worship and fellowship.
33:09: Because he's already saying, it's the habit of some people, even in the first century, even within a hundred years of the time Jesus walked down the road in Jerusalem.
33:20: Within a hundred years of that, there were already people who said, yeah, I can be a Christian and not go to church.
33:24: I can be a Christian.
33:25: There were already people who didn't want to participate in worship and fellowship.
33:29: He says, it's already the habit of some.
33:32: But it shouldn't be the habit of us.
33:35: And he goes on to say, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
33:43: That word encouraging is the word I want you to really think about because that word encouraging, it's the root.
33:53: It's the same as the word for the Holy Spirit that Jesus uses in John 14.
34:02: When Jesus says, I'm going to ask the Father and he will send you what? Another comforter, alas, parakalaitos is the Greek.
34:11: It means another comforter, parakalaitos.
34:14: Para means alongside, think of like parallel bars.
34:16: They go alongside one another.
34:18: Kalaitos, it's interesting because it's the same, ekklesia, kalaitos, it's the same.
34:24: A parakalaitos is a person you call to your side when you're in need.
34:28: It's a person who walks beside you.
34:30: It was a word that was used often for the lawyer who would come to your side in aid of your defense in court.
34:37: He was your defense attorney.
34:40: And Jesus says, I am going away.
34:43: But when I go away, I'm going to send you another parakalaitos.
34:47: I'm going to send you another.
34:49: And the King James says, comforter, somebody who's going to be there.
34:52: He's going to be within you.
34:53: He's the Holy Spirit of God.
34:55: You're not going to be alone.
34:57: I'm going to be gone, but you're going to have the Holy Spirit living within you every day forever.
35:04: And then he says to the believer in this verse, he says, and you are to parakalaitos each other.
35:14: You see, we have the Holy Spirit living within us, but we also have the body of Christ living around us.
35:18: And guess what we're supposed to do for one another? Minister to one another.
35:24: We are supposed to come alongside one another when we have needs.
35:28: That's what this word and the intention is.
35:32: We are to come alongside one another, to minister to one another.
35:37: As I've said before, and I'll say again, people call me the minister.
35:40: I am not the minister.
35:43: I know it's a generic term and we use it, but you are the ministers.
35:50: I am the elder of one of three.
35:53: I am one of the elders.
35:56: I'm the shepherd, pastor.
35:58: That's another term.
36:01: But minister is what you are.
36:06: Because a minister is a person who administrates the gifts that God has given him in the service to another person.
36:17: So the word minister comes from administrating of a gift.
36:21: You are administrating your gifts to one another.
36:27: Beloved, this passage tells us so much, but at the end of the day, if all we do is worship together for that one hour, and then maybe see each other periodically for coffee, that's good.
36:51: But I want to ask you this, and I want you to be honest.
36:56: In what ways are you ministering to the people that you have covenanted with in this church? Because God gave you something.
37:09: If you have come to Christ through the work of regeneration in your heart, and He took out your heart of stone, and He put in a heart of flesh, and you are now a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, regenerated by the Holy Spirit, walking in the Spirit of God who lives within you, you have a purpose in His body.
37:35: Are you using, or have you found it? This passage, this message rather, is not intended to send you away feeling bad.
37:55: But this message is intended to send you with the question, if God has called me to be a part of His church, which He has, if He's called you to salvation, He's called you to be a part of His church, if He's called you to be a part of His church, in what capacity has He called you to minister? My wife and I have wonderful conversations because we are thankful that God has given us clarity as to what our gifts are and what they're not.
38:29: Because I do know what I'm not called to do.
38:35: I do know what areas that I'm not gifted in, and I'm thankful that I have elders that serve with me that are gifted in different ways than I am, and deacons who serve with me who are gifted in different ways than I am, ministry leaders, different ones who are gifted in different ways than I am.
38:48: I'm thankful for that.
38:55: But beloved, every one of you has a purpose here.
39:01: Every one of you has some ministry that God has given to you.
39:05: And I would never say something is simple because there's nothing that's simple.
39:12: Some people say, even as simple as cleaning up.
39:15: That in itself is a ministry.
39:16: I'm not going to say it's simple.
39:18: Because I've cleaned this building.
39:19: It ain't easy.
39:21: So that in itself is a ministry.
39:24: And every one of you benefit from it.
39:29: But what is your ministry? Because one of the expectations that we should have is that you are seeking to fulfill your ministry.
39:41: Has God called you to teach His Word? And in what capacity? Has God called you to proclaim His Word? And in what capacity? Has God called you to minister to the need, to the sick, and to the hurting? And if so, in what capacity? Has God called you to be an example in generosity, in giving, in contribution? And if so, in what capacity? If you don't know, that's fine.
40:11: I want to help you.
40:12: That's our job.
40:13: Because the job of the elders, again, Ephesians 4, is to equip the saints for the work of ministry.
40:19: And if you don't feel equipped, then that's our failure.
40:23: We want to help you.
40:25: But never do we want you to think that you are expected simply to come and go.
40:32: You're expected to come and minister.
40:39: That's the expectation.
40:40: We are expected to participate in worship, in fellowship, and ministry together.
40:51: Next week, or two weeks from now, we're going to talk about contributions.
40:55: And we're going to dig a little deeper, because the first contribution isn't financial.
40:59: The first contribution is your spiritual gift.
41:04: And we're going to talk more about that when I come back.
41:07: So let's pray.
41:09: Father, we thank you for your word.
41:11: We thank you for the opportunity to study.
41:13: I pray that this message has been faithful to your text.
41:16: I pray that we have been spurred, and encouraged, and prodded along to looking at our lives and saying, where are we ministering the gifts that God has given to us? And Lord, that you might open to us doors and opportunities for ministry in this body.
41:33: In all this, we pray, Lord, in Jesus' name and for his sake.
41:39: Amen.