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Growing Pains - The Blueprint Series
49 Plays5 months ago
In this sermon, Ridley Barron preached about the essential role of discipleship and unity within the church. He highlighted the importance of growing in relationship with God, serving others, and addressing dissension immediately to maintain spiritual health and focus on kingdom missions. Barron contrasted a vibrant church with one lacking growth or evangelism and emphasized grumbling as a serious sin comparable to idolatry and sexual immorality. Through the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, Barron encouraged obedience to God's call, raising new leaders, and maintaining a servant-oriented attitude. He concluded by urging members to pray about their role in the church, engage in acts of service, and embrace opportunities to further God's mission.
Timestamps:
00:00 New church serves Hebraic and Hellenistic Jews.
05:28 Address conflict with fellow believers promptly and compassionately.
06:50 Church's focus on Jesus unifies and strengthens.
11:38 Church multiplying, launching new locations, partnering, growing.
14:22 Believers must stop dissension and grumbling.
18:41 Division of church responsibilities and raising leaders.
23:08 Service selection based on spiritual, not human criteria.
25:45 Philip becomes 1st missionary, spreads Christianity.
33:04 Students impact others with future gospel work.
37:45 Center on the cross, serve the kingdom.
40:44 Seek counsel, engage, and respond to God.
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Transcript
Introduction and Vision
00:00:00
Speaker
Next chapter 6, we've been reading some really cool stories, really fantastic things happening in the early church. The story continues today. I want to read some things to you, share some things with you. My heart for our church, specifically this morning in light of and in shadow of what's being shared here.
Challenges in the Early Church
00:00:16
Speaker
Verse 1, it says, In those days as the disciples were increasing in number, there arose a complaint by the Hellenistic Jews against the Hebraic Jews that their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution. Just so you understand what's going on here, the Hellenistic Jews referred to the group of people who had been dispersed by the captivity, the Babylonian captivity, by other
00:00:39
Speaker
conquering groups that came in and spread the Jews all over the Middle East. Many of them had stayed where they had been taken and because of that began to become Greek speaking or as they refer to them Hellenistic Jews. And they have come back home to Jerusalem for Pentecost if you remember in Acts chapter 2. So many of them are there, they're a part of this new church and of course that new church also consists of Hebraic Jews. Jews who stayed or either came back home immediately after the conquering was over with, continued to speak the Hebrew language, practice Hebrew traditions. So as they are there, the church is ministering to all of these people. You remember last week, a couple weeks ago, we talked about how they held everything in common and they were providing for one another's needs. It's believed that this was part of that practice that they were taking care of widows because that day and age, widows didn't have a source of income, no way to provide for themselves.
00:01:32
Speaker
So the Hellenistic Jews are saying, hey, we're just not getting our fair share here, okay?
Apostolic Solutions and Leadership
00:01:38
Speaker
Verse 12, it says, the 12 summoned the whole company of the disciples and said, it would not be right for us to give up preaching the word of God to wait on tables. Brothers and sisters, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the spirit and wisdom who we can appoint to this duty. but we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. Let's be reminded here that the church is built around the Word of Jesus Christ, the Word of God. This book that we preach on a regular basis that we teach, that we encourage our kids and our student ministries with, um this book is is what we are about.
00:02:16
Speaker
This is where we get truth, and this is where we get the truth that changes our lives. And so they're saying, we're gonna spend our time teaching that word and praying. A.W. Tozer, the great pastor, author, um man, big student of prayer, is it is said that when he was a pastor of a church, he would spend hours every day praying for his congregation, so much so that he actually had a guard that sat outside his door so that he would be uninterrupted when he was praying. I have Ari. Ari does a good job for me. She protects me when I'm doing my thing, but ah he had ah he had such an emphasis on prayer. What an amazing thing to realize that people in his church were being prayed for on a regular basis by this man of God.
Managing Growth and Unity
00:02:59
Speaker
Verse five, it says, this proposal pleased the whole company, so they chose Stephen, a man full of faith in the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nechanor,
00:03:10
Speaker
Timon, Parmenas, and Nicholas, a convert from Antioch. They had them stand before the apostles who prayed and laid their hands on them. So the word of God spread, the disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly in number, and a large group of priests became obedient to the fat the faith. Growing churches, just like growing people, experience growing pains. You remember growing pains when you were a kid? Wake up in the middle of the night, screaming at mom and dad, what's going on? My leg hurts. Now you just have joint pain because you're getting old. But back then you had growing pains, right?
00:03:45
Speaker
um Those growing pains hurt and that's what happens when things grow because things change. If you're a living thing, if it is a living thing, living things change. It's a dynamic thing all the time because if you stop changing, you stop growing, you stop living. It's true of plants, it's true of animals, it's also true of human beings and especially true of the church. So growth because of its nature always causes tension, causes tension because things are shifting and changing, it's dynamic all the time. And when God starts to multiply a congregation, Satan's gonna do everything he can to try to divide it.
00:04:25
Speaker
And if you watch all the way through the church, you see different things that he would use. There were attacks from the outside. There were attacks from the inside. There were doctrinal issues. There were theological issues. There were practices of the church that separated people. This one specifically is more of a functional issue that we're talking about here. But regardless of the issue that's been sent by the enemy to try to distract us from our purpose, we have to be aware of the devil's schemes because he's always up to something. I would say to you, if you have no recollection of Satan working in your life at any point trying to do something to distract you or destroy you, it may be because you're already his. Maybe because you're already serving his purposes. So, just be aware that if you're following Jesus, there will be a confrontation between you and what Satan wants you to do. And what seems to be small differences can quite often grow into very large problems, especially if we just let them go.
00:05:22
Speaker
So let me just take a moment here to remind you of something really, really important in Scripture. We've talked about this before. If you have a problem with a fellow believer, you have a spiritual, biblical, moral responsibility to go to that person and address the issue right away. What you don't have permission to do is go talk about it with everybody else. What you don't have permission to do is to sit on it and become more bitter because you haven't addressed it. When Satan plants the seed of discord, you've got two options. You can ignore it and just watch it grow, or you can go dig it up so it doesn't have an opportunity to grow.
00:05:57
Speaker
And so as believers, we have this responsibility to confront one another in love out of kindness to say, hey, there's an issue here. There's a problem. There's a difference of opinion we need to work through or to at least understand better. Adrian Rogers, the great pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee wrote this. He said, where there is healthy life, there is growth. Where there is healthy growth, there are problems. Where there are problems, there are God-given solutions. Where there is a God-given solution, there is even greater growth. We've already seen this in the book of Acts, that every time Satan would come, the church would respond and it would say, the church increased greatly. He goes on to say, do you know why the early church grew as it did? Because every time the devil attacked, they went to God and God launched the counter attack.
00:06:47
Speaker
Their problems became a springboard for greater growth. All hell cannot stop a church that keeps its eyes on Jesus. Just a minute ago, as they were reading this passage of Scripture for us during in our Scripture reading from Ephesians chapter 4, it talks about this reality that as we understand our gifting and when we understand our roles in the church and we take on those roles, what happens is that God unifies us in the faith, uses that phrase, unifies us in the faith so that we can better withstand the tricks and the snares of the enemy.
00:07:20
Speaker
As He's going to come against us corporately and personally, we are better able to respond to that when we are unified as the body of Christ. As our church has grown rapidly over the last six years, we've faced those challenges where somewhere or some group of people got disgruntled because maybe they didn't like the way a certain thing was going, or they didn't like a certain thing that had been done. They might have possibly didn't like the pastor's sermon that morning. I know that's rare, But maybe that was the possibility that happened. But in those moments, what kept us from splitting and dividing and becoming fractured was this unifying faith around what God has done for each of us. And when we focus on that and focus on Jesus, Satan loses.
00:08:04
Speaker
And that's where we have to stay as a body of believers, no matter where God takes us on this journey as Grove Hill Church.
Mission and Expansion
00:08:10
Speaker
You see, our mission is to make disciples for Jesus. Our mission is to reach souls for Him. And if we aren't reaching and we aren't multiplying, then we are not doing our mission. On a normal Sunday, if you walk down this hallway down there on the right underneath all the blue paper for this morning, there are three green signs that share the vision statement of our church. Discover, grow, serve. We want people to discover a relationship with Jesus Christ. It's an astonishing reality that God loves us so much that he sent his son to die so that he could have a relationship with us. And there's nothing you and I can do to initiate that.
00:08:50
Speaker
We have to receive what He has given us. He also, we are encouraged to grow in that relationship. That's what discipleship literally means is to continue to grow and to plant our roots deeper and deeper in our faith and to learn more about this relationship He has with us. And then finally, we want people to serve. Why? Because we believe that serving is the natural expression of gratitude for what God has already done by sending Jesus to serve us and die for us. The story is told of an artist who was commissioned by a church to paint a picture of a dead church. Don't know why any church would want to do that, but they commissioned an artist to do that. After a few weeks, he came back to the church. He walked in with his portrait underneath the sheet, pulled the sheet off in front of the deacons and said, here's my portrait.
00:09:36
Speaker
Well, they looked very closely at the portrait and said, um it doesn't look like a dead church. It's a gorgeous building, it's beautiful, it's elegant, and it's even crowded with people. Why do you say this is a dead church? And he said to the deacons, look closer. So they got up and they moved closer to this portrait, and as they did, they realized that the baptistry of the church was filled with cobwebs. You see, if you want to see the portrait of a dead church, find a church that's not multiplying. Find a church that's not growing. You see, a church will grow or it will die. A church will evangelize or it will fossilize. You will either continue to grow or you will just like any other living organism begin to die. Growth is not easy, it's not automatic. We do our part, we plan, we pray, we work, we cultivate, but it's God who brings the increase in the church. It's his hand that makes this thing work.
00:10:32
Speaker
Spiritual growth is the product of spiritual life, and numerical growth is the product of spiritual growth. That's the plan that God has for every church. Just like he said to Adam and Eve, be fruitful and multiply. Just like he said to Noah as he came off of the Ark, be fruitful and multiply. He says to his church, be fruitful and multiply. That's how you can tell the health of a church. Now instantly, and we said this just a few weeks ago, some people say, I don't believe in numbers. I don't think that God cares about numbers. I remind you that the fourth book of the Bible is called Numbers, but I also will tell you that they haven't read the book of Acts closely because we're only in the sixth chapter of Acts, and by my count, this is the sixth time that God inspired Luke to write, The Church Grew Rapidly.
00:11:22
Speaker
The church grew rapidly. Now, instantly, some of you are going to say, well, what about my grandparents' church in Bump of the Road, Iowa, out in the middle of nowhere? There's 150 people in the town, and that church hasn't grown in years just because there's not anybody there. Does that mean they're a dead church? No. Multiplication and increase doesn't have to happen within the walls of the church. In just a few months, we're going to be launching out people to go start a church in Lewisburg, Tennessee. We are multiplying and increasing the kingdom of God because some of you will be called to go be a part of that church. And because of that church, somebody's going to come to know Jesus Christ and the kingdom will continue to grow.
00:12:00
Speaker
And it is our vision, our goal as a church that that's just the beginning. That we will continue to plant and replant and re-strengthen churches literally everywhere that God sends us. We also are looking at a partnership with a new church plant in Denver, Colorado. Young pastor out there who's getting ready to start a church in the most, I think it's the second most, unevangelized city in America. That's our opportunity to continue to see the kingdom of God grow. And it happens because you and I have a heart that says we'll do whatever it takes to see God honored and his church increased. That's his goal, to see the church multiply and continue to increase, showing its health. I think when people say God doesn't care about numbers, what they are secretly saying is I'm too lazy to do the work of the kingdom.
00:12:47
Speaker
I'm too scared and intimidated to offer myself or my so my talents or my skills. I don't wanna give you my passions, I'd rather keep them to myself. I'm scared to use my resources because I'm very afraid that God won't give back. But there is never ever a good excuse not to do the commissioning of what God has given us as believers to do. One of the problems we see many times in churches that once were healthy is dissension. Dissension creates division so that we aren't willing to pursue what really is the main focus of the church. We get sidetracked by our goals, our agendas, our purposes. And this is gonna happen in any church. You know why? Because every single one of you have a different personality, right? How many of you like country music? How many of you are unsaved?
00:13:37
Speaker
ah Just joking. I'm talking about the country music. You all got panicky all of a sudden. Come on. How many of you like rock music? How many of you hate music? I mean, everybody has their personality. You ever tried to take a road trip with six people and say, what station you want to listen to? Man, everybody that walks in these doors comes in with a different personality, a different taste, a different desire. And what we have to do as part of our denying of ourself is to lay those desires down and say, okay, God, where do you want to take us as a body of believers? This isn't about my preferences. It's not about your preferences. The pastor doesn't get to pick and choose what the decorations for VVS were because it would just be a poster on the wall.
00:14:22
Speaker
We have a body of believers that are pulled together by the faith. And so when dissension enters our church, just like in any other church, it has to be stopped immediately. You have to address it right on. In fact, Paul in the book of Philippians says in chapter two, do everything without grumbling and arguing. How many of you have done that really well this week? Anybody made it through the whole week? Didn't grumble about anything? Didn't grumble about your wife? Didn't grumble about your kids not putting their clothes away. Didn't grumble about something you saw in the news. How many of you have made it through the week and didn't grumble about your church? Didn't like the way so and so looked at you in the hallway at church. Didn't like the fact that I had to park all the way down at the daycare center to get to church again today. Didn't like the fact that the pastor went 10 minutes over again this week. Again and again and again.
00:15:22
Speaker
You see, we can get trapped in that mentality because as human beings, that that's the way we are. We're kind of selfish. We naturally want what we want. And that's part of what God says to us. The only way you're going to fight this, the only way you're going to battle those natural desires is by my spirit. My spirit will enable you to set those things aside. So instead of giving in to frustration, we ah we We have this call to just set aside our desires and pursue what Christ wants for us. Now if you don't think this matters to Christ, I want you to notice something here. This is pretty interesting. I caught this in preparation for this. 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 7. Paul's writing to the church at Corinth. He says, don't become idolaters as some of them were.
00:16:08
Speaker
Now nobody wants to be an idolater, right? We know that's a bad one. that's like That's like the first commandment. You don't do that. You don't set other things before God. He goes into verse eight, he says, let's not commit sexual immorality as some of them did. Of course not, man. we We're gonna keep our marriages pure. We wanna keep our relationships the way they should be. we're Absolutely not gonna do sexual immorality. Verse nine, he says, well, don't test Christ as some of them did. And we're destroyed by snakes. Well, man, I don't wanna be the guy who's known as testing Christ or challenging God. But look at the next verse, and don't grumble as some of them did. Paul literally just listed grumbling among three of the worst, in our mind, sins that there are out there. He said your grumbling is in the same ballpark as somebody who's an idolater, or sexually immoral, or tested Christ. So when you get that tendency to grumble, you know what you're supposed to do? Not call the pastor, I know that's what you're gonna say.
00:17:07
Speaker
Now, if you get that tendency to grumble, then you should stop and thank God for what you got. Thank God for His blessings. Thank God for what He's showing you, what He's teaching you. Paul says, give thanks in everything for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. I know we all have a tendency, want to complain about what's going on in our country, but thank God you've got this country. There are much worse places you could be right now. You complain about your house because you have to fix things all the time. We'll be thinking, you got a roof over your head.
00:17:38
Speaker
complain because your wife fixed fish for the third time this week. You wish it was something else, but just be thankful you got some fish and you didn't have to fix it for yourself. There's all kinds of things to be thankful for, right? And it literally changes our attitude. So the challenge is that we can't give into frustration, but we have to seek practical solutions when those challenges come into our lives personally, but also especially into our churches. When the challenges come into our churches, what do we do to respond to that? because Satan's attacks are always very, very clever. We notice that he attacked the church in many ways in these early chapters of Acts, and when he decided that persecution and corruption wasn't going to destroy the church, he decided he would distract the apostles. Their biggest assignment, their main assignment, their calling, was to preach the word and pray.
00:18:30
Speaker
They said it for us right there in those first passages, those first verses we read, preach the word and pray. And so Satan raises a functional issue of administration. Well, who's gonna take care of those poor widows? Who's gonna do that?
00:18:48
Speaker
In order to do that, the apostles would have had to have given up their God-given responsibilities of teaching the Word, and they would have left this young, infant church without defense against all kinds of false doctrine that could have crept its way in. This is the first time in scripture that we see God give a clear division of responsibilities in his church. Paul would later come along and he would expound on this and say, as we read in Ephesians 4 earlier, everybody's got a gift, everybody's got a talent. When you come to follow Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit is put in you so that you can use those gifts and talents to make the church better.
00:19:25
Speaker
to increase the work of the church, to extend the kingdom that God has given us. As we continue to watch God move in our congregation and we continue every week to see new families who are being brought to our doors, it is essential that we continue to prepare for that by raising up new leaders, new servants, new ministers who can carry the gospel for us. It's an amazing thing to me and I'm very, very proud of the fact that within 24 hours of opening up the sign up sheet for volunteers for Vacation Bible School, we had to close it because it was full. I don't know if you heard maybe Lisa talk about this recently. The ladies all on some kind of chain on Facebook where they talk about Vacation Bible School among churches literally around the country. And a church with 3,000 people in Texas had to cancel their Vacation Bible School because they didn't have enough workers.
00:20:17
Speaker
Guys, that's a sad testimony when we can't find people who want to come and share the gospel, the life-changing gospel with children. And then we shake our heads and wonder why the public schools are directing them in the direction they're taking them. Well, because we're not teaching them the truth to contradict what's being fed them by false doctrines and teachings that are out there. so What this passage is not doing is it's not saying that waiting on tables is less than preaching the word. It's not saying that this is some kind of lesser position. But what it is saying is this, waiting on tables can't replace the teaching of the word.
00:20:58
Speaker
just like soup kitchens can't replace the teaching of the word. Social justice can't replace the teaching of the word. Even worship can't take place of the teaching of the word. Teaching of the word is essential and central to everything we do as the body of Christ.
00:21:16
Speaker
So Luke shares with us a checklist of some things that these guys who are filling this position, these seven guys, here's some things I want them to be known for. This is how we're going to select these guys. Number one, they had to be members of the body. Why? Because they bought into what was going on. They were already a part of what was happening. He said he wanted them to be men, okay? Don't get hung up on the idea of men versus women. This is not the place that they're beginning to make that argument. The reason they chose men was because they were serving widows. And because they were in a culture where that would have been questionable if somebody else was taking that responsibility. So there's cultural sensitivities at work here. But the body, the body, the whole body is male and female, young and old who are followers of Christ Jesus. Every single one of us have a role to play. The third thing that they talk about is the reputation of the men.
00:22:05
Speaker
They were men of good reputation. Others who were a part of that Jerusalem community had seen them, knew them, understood who they were and what they were capable of. Number four, they were spiritual men. And number five, they had great wisdom and practical advice to offer in this suggestion. Now, why is that important? Because in the church today, we sometimes get so desperate for people to serve, we lower our standards in who we let in. We lower our standards on who becomes part of certain positions because we go, oh, that's not a showy position. Maybe we don't need to be so stringent on who we allow to do that. But can I just tell you that the person who changes the diapers in the nursery is as important as the person who plays the keyboard on the stage? And the person who outside greets somebody with a hug is just as important as the crazy pastor inside that greets people with a hug?
00:22:54
Speaker
And the person who's teaching the students over in the portable right now is equally important as the person who's teaching the Word of God on the platform during this hour, because it's all of us working together who make the kingdom of God effective. Now, we forget this many times when we select people for service. We default to other unbiblical criteria when we're choosing those people, and we reap what we sow when we do that. It is incredibly sad to watch, and I've seen it many times over my ministry career, churches that choose leaders based on charisma, wealth, secular success, popularity. Spiritual criteria should always trump human criteria when you're looking for people to serve in the church.
00:23:38
Speaker
We should never become so desperate that we are grabbing just any warm body who's walking down the hall and people who are not qualified to do the things that they're supposed to do. We believe that the scripture teaches that people are called qualified and called to do the things they do. The results when people choose to do that, when they choose to fall back to these human criteria, the results are leadership teams that have high capability but low spirituality. And what they do is they lead churches astray. They let down the back door so that false doctrines allowed to come in in ways that you didn't expect. They lowered the standard of what the church of Jesus Christ should be looking for and they reap the fruit that is sown by their secular selections. The apostles, however, set a devotion to ministry standard that all of us should follow. And this is it. Ministry demands total commitment. Everything a man or a woman can give,
00:24:38
Speaker
no substitute for hard work or discipline. A man once told preacher Donald Barnhouse, I would give the world to be able to teach the Bible like you do. Barnhouse replied to him good because that's exactly what it's gonna cost you. The truth is the kingdom of God never has enough hands. The kingdom of God never has enough workers. There's always some opportunity for you to step in and to lead to serve, to guide others as we are focused on disciple making and elevating God to the place that He alone deserves. Notice how in this story there were two specific people mentioned first as the new deacons of the of the church. One of them was a guy by the name of Stephen.
00:25:26
Speaker
You recognize that name because he later becomes the first Christian martyr of the church. And the reason he does is because of his boldness in preaching the name of Jesus in front of overwhelming opposition in the streets of Jerusalem. He refuses to stop saying the name of Jesus. The second guy is the guy by the name of Philip. Philip will read about later in the book of Acts, but he literally becomes the first missionary. As part of his assignment as the first missionary, you might remember the story where he is literally taken to a road in the middle of the desert to meet a guy we call the Ethiopian eunuch. That Ethiopian eunuch becomes the first Christian convert on the continent of Africa. And because of that, the Church of Jesus Christ is carried to new nations, new worlds, new empires, and new kingdoms. What am I telling you this? Why am I telling you this?
00:26:17
Speaker
None of us knows where God will take us after we take that first step of obedience. You never know where God is gonna open the door, where God is going to show you the next place. But disobedience to God's call on your life, which every single one of us have, disobedience to that call makes us miss the privilege of joining him in his work. We miss out on the opportunity to see what he's up to. So my encouragement to you, If God calls you to wait on tables, then wait on tables. If God calls you to change diapers, then change diapers. If God calls you to park cars, if God calls you to clean floors, if God calls you to just flip on the lights and lock up the building, whatever God calls you to do, do it with all your heart so that he receives glory and you are shown as an obedient follower of Christ Jesus.
00:27:09
Speaker
Last week while we were here worshiping, which by the way, I just love Sundays because I get to be with you guys. I look forward to it. It's my favorite day of the week because of the opportunity I have to be with my brothers and sisters in Christ. But last week while you and I were worshiping here, a little over 50 of our students and adults were somewhere else doing something really, really cool. I told Kyle this week, these guys are my heroes. These guys are my heroes because while you and I were here enjoying the fellowship here, they were out in the community taking the name of Jesus in ways that many of us might not choose to do. I want you to take a second and watch this.
00:27:54
Speaker
You see, for years there's been this heavy expectation on the church to entertain our youth. And yet we watch time after time as our youth continue to fall away. See, God didn't create the church to entertain our youth. He created the church to disciple us. Jesus have my heart, my will, my soul. Jesus have my voice, my dreams, my world, which I lay.
00:28:31
Speaker
With joy I cast my crowns, Jesus have it all To You I bring my praise, my lips, my song A living sacrifice has won, reborn Your life is now won, Your will is what I want
00:29:08
Speaker
Jesus have it all, to you belongs the glory, the praise of all the world. Jesus have it all, Jesus have it all, a blessing in all, a majesty in all, Jesus have it all.
00:29:34
Speaker
Jesus have your church, your love, your pride The joy for which you freely gave Your life radiant in blood Washed and purified, Jesus have a soul Jesus have your word, your do, your song
00:30:07
Speaker
and time that all that has been made glorify your name Jesus have it all.
00:30:21
Speaker
Oh Jesus have it all. Jesus have it all. To you belongs the glory, the praise of all.
00:30:37
Speaker
Jesus, have it all. A blessing and all the majesty and all. Jesus, have it all. Jesus, have it all. To you belongs the glory and praise of all the world. Jesus, have it all. Jesus, have it all. A blessing and all the A majesty in all Jesus have it all Jesus have it all Jesus have it all
00:32:01
Speaker
Yes.
00:32:51
Speaker
So what do we do? We for sure don't entertain them. We show them the gospel and empower them to put it in action.
00:33:11
Speaker
As you watched that video, many of you saw some of our adults and, as I said, about 50 of our students. I saw future pastors.
00:33:24
Speaker
future missionaries,
00:33:30
Speaker
future deacons and elders, future Sunday school teachers, future door greeters, future AV men, future women serving other women, possibly even some parents who choose some day to adopt, impacted by not only the gospel that's been fed to them, but the gospel they fed to others. Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to go sit in one of the restaurants locally, invitation a couple of guys to sit down and have a conversation. And as we were sitting there, one of the ladies that was served by our students was sitting on the other side of the restaurant. She recognized me as I sat down, she turned around and she said, with tears in her eyes, she said, don't know why in the world those students chose to show up at my door. I said, I guess God must love you a little bit.
00:34:25
Speaker
She said, well, he must love me a lot. I said, I'm pretty sure he does. I went back to my meeting and started paying attention there, but it didn't take long before I could hear her on the other side of the restaurant. She had two friends sitting with her at the table and she was sharing in great detail what our kids had done for her.
00:34:45
Speaker
I heard a lot of stories about last weekend. What I didn't hear, was one report of a teenager going, well, I don't want to do this. I don't want to be the one holding the weed eater. I don't want to be the one that has to pull the tree down with the rope. I don't want to be the one who has to pull out the thorns and the briars. I don't want to be the one that has to clean out a garage. I want um want to do something else. I need to do something more prominent. I need to do something where people will see me more. I need to make sure that somebody acknowledges that I've done this.
00:35:23
Speaker
The impact that was made last week was incredible. Can you imagine what will happen if 400 adults take that same attitude and say, Jesus, you can have it all?
00:35:42
Speaker
We say around here, we like to say and repeat it over and over again that the best is yet to come in this church and it will come if we take that kind of attitude.
00:35:53
Speaker
If we quit holding back from God and say, whatever you desire, it's yours. Whatever you ask, I will listen. Wherever you sin, I will go. I already mentioned the fact that we're getting ready to send some people down to be a part of starting a new church in Lewisburg. If we send 40, 50, 60 people down there to do that, you know what's going to happen here?
00:36:19
Speaker
Instantly, we're gonna have 40, 50, 60 openings for people to step in and fill that gap.
00:36:27
Speaker
And while that's going on, as God continues to bring people this way, we're gonna have more and more opportunities to extend ministries into other places. Right now, John's in the process of putting together new life groups to fall. Right now, we're looking at 20-something life groups for the fall. We always need more. Always need more. Nothing breaks this man's heart worse than for new new people to come in and go, hey, I'm looking for a life group. And he says, ah they're all full. Don't have any D groups and the discipleship groups getting started right now because they're they're just all full. There should never be a point in this church where we have to turn anybody away from ministry because we don't have people ready to serve. Never. The end of this passage.
00:37:08
Speaker
In this passage, Satan threw his very best at these people, and what happened? God counterattacked, and what response the response was that the church grew rapidly again. Over and over and over, all the way through the book of Acts, we see this. The church continues to grow, to grow, to grow. Why? Because in every instance, they stay focused on the word, and they give God the authority to do what he has to do in their midst to make sure that Satan doesn't get a foothold. That's my encouragement for you today.
00:37:38
Speaker
Let's stay focused on the Word of Christ. Let's be focused on God's mission for us. Let's stay centered on the cross so that when Satan comes, when Satan comes, whether it's in the next 10 minutes or the next two days, when he comes to offer his best attack, we allow the Spirit to counter-attack and we go on with the work of the kingdom. Some of you need to
00:38:08
Speaker
at this point be praying real hard about what what your role is. Where's your place? How do I serve? How do I get involved? How do I get off my blessed assurance and do what the kingdom of God has asked me to do? Because I can't sit back and just rest in what God has done for me. The next thing that happens when I acknowledge what God has done for me is I am compelled to turn around and serve somebody else. Will you pray with me? Father, forgive us for not recognizing what you've already done in us by planting seeds, by giving us passions, by giving us talents, by giving us resources, Lord. Forgive us that we didn't see that that was you actively working in our lives saying to us, here's where I want you to serve. Here's where I want you to go. Here's how I want you to be a part. Here's what your role is in my kingdom.
00:39:04
Speaker
Lord, there's not one of us here who have been called by Jesus Christ, who have responded to that call, who have an excuse for not doing what we've been asked to do. We might be intimidated, we might be scared, we might be arrogant, we might be afraid, we might be worried, we might be anxious. None of those none of those serve as good excuses for not being what you created us to be. Every one of those comes from Satan. So I pray that you would teach us to hear your voice above every other, that we might be obedient followers of Christ. It's in Jesus' name I pray, amen. So in the next few seconds we participate in what we kind of call the response time around here. If you're new here or maybe not as familiar with that, it is literally what we call it, a response time. We believe that whenever the word of God goes out, the Holy Spirit is given the opportunity to speak to hearts around this room.
00:40:01
Speaker
And the next step we believe is obedience, a response. Now you might go, hey, I can respond right here in my chair. Yes, you can, but two things are gonna happen. Number one, you're gonna get up and leave and forget all about it because you didn't put a physical expression to the spiritual impression. And number two, you're gonna be convinced later this week that it wasn't real because Satan's gonna come after you and go, you didn't really mean that, you just sat there. You just sat there.
00:40:29
Speaker
So when we say response, what we mean is sometimes it takes a physical reaction to put some metal to what you've talked about, to what you've heard, to what you've responded to. That may mean coming up here by yourself, just kneeling to this altar and praying about that decision. It may mean conversation with me or Pastor John or Lisa or one of the other counselors we have here. It might be that you bra grab your spouse by the hand and say, baby, we've been sitting long enough and soaking. It's time to start giving back. Maybe. Maybe it's time for you and your spouse to talk about the use of your resources for his kingdom. Maybe somebody here today just needs to know Jesus. That's the best place to start. Just to have a conversation with us. Let us help you understand what it looks like to be a true follower of Jesus, a true disciple. Whatever God is leading you to this morning, we encourage you to respond in the next few seconds as we sing.