Sharing Ministry

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

We are starting a new series on... Or no, yeah, I guess we're starting a new series. We're starting a new series, but it's an old series. It's kind of familiar, but it's also new. So we're gonna start a new series on Acts, but it's also the book of Acts that we've been covering this whole time. So it's familiar, right? It's familiar because we're returning to Acts. And the author is still Luke, and the way he writes, we see the gospel kind of come out in real life. So we see, in the book of Acts, we see how the gospel actually grows, not theoretically, this isn't principles, this isn't, but this is narrative, this is history, this is what actually happened. And so it's familiar. It's also new because there's a safe bet that more of you have read the beginning of Acts than the end of Acts, okay? It's a really long book, and the first two chapters are super exciting.

And then when you get into a bunch of cities that you've never heard of, you kind of check out. Just a little, it's okay, you can admit it. You're among friends. So our series, Acts, the Gospel Movement, we're gonna cover Acts 13 through 18, okay? We're gonna spend a few weeks on this. And today we're actually gonna be covering Acts 13 and 14. And we're gonna do that for two weeks because we're gonna be looking at kind of some different aspects of Acts 13 and 14.

And so we're covering that. And this is what is traditionally known, Acts 13 through 18, it's what is traditionally known as Paul's missionary journeys. He goes on three missionary journeys. And in Acts 13 and 14, he goes on the first one, the first missionary journey. And this is actually a big turn. Acts 13 is a big turn in the book of Acts because it kind of begins to turn toward more on Paul's ministry. In fact, in Acts 13, Saul becomes Paul. Luke begins to refer to Saul as Paul exclusively in Acts 13. And so on a couple of different notes, Acts 13 is kind of a hinge in the book of Acts, okay?

And so today we're gonna, like I said, his first missionary journey, spending two weeks on Acts 13 and 14. And this morning, what we're gonna be doing is we're gonna be kind of focusing on the way that Paul ministered, okay? The way that Paul ministered. In 1964, there's a Canadian communications theorist named Marshall McLuhan. Marshall McLuhan, you may have never heard of him, but he had a really famous one-liner. And his famous one-liner is the medium is the message. The medium is the message. And what he's saying is that in communication, or when you are communicating anything, the medium itself heavily influences the message. Now, McLuhan would have stated it much more strongly than that, but that's probably a pretty measured way to think about it, okay? So the medium itself heavily influences the message. So let me just give you some examples. If you are watching a movie on a laptop

versus watching a movie in a movie theater, okay? Those are two different experiences. In fact, what he would say is that the message even changes, it's the exact same movie, but the message is depending on where you are. Maybe a more everyday example, if you are ending a relationship over text versus ending a relationship in person. Same message, technically, okay? I'm breaking up with you. But doing it over text says something, doesn't it? It says something different than if you do it in person. Or maybe you messed up at work, and the same message,

you know, same message, but in one instance, you get a short email about it from your boss, and the other one you get called into her office, okay? So again, same message, right? We gotta fix this, you need some feedback on this problem that you created. But it's totally different because the medium is different. The way the delivery system is totally different, okay? So the message seems to be the same, but the medium, the method changes. Ministry works the exact same way, okay? Ministry works the exact same way. The way that you minister says something about the gospel. The way that you minister says something about the gospel. Now what I mean by minister, all I mean for minister is that you are serving people in Jesus' name toward reconciliation with God, okay? That's really it, some kind of broad definition. I pull out from 2 Corinthians 5, 18, and 19. And so this is really everything

from a cup of cold water to declaring the gospel, to meeting some other kind of physical needs, to counseling, to just, man, ministry just means serving people in Jesus' name toward reconciliation with God. That's it. And so it's kind of this broad definition, but the way that you do it, it says something about the gospel. In Acts 13 and 14, we're gonna examine the way that people minister to one another, and we're gonna learn in that process some kind of, am I cutting in and out, by the way? Okay, we're just gonna kill this. Sorry, I don't know how else to do it, because it's too distracting, right? If it's just going in, it's not too distracting. I'm getting a note from Candace, so that tells me this is not too distracting. Okay, I'm gonna keep going. All right, my apologies early on.

Whenever we are looking at the way that the minister, we're actually gonna learn something about the gospel itself. Okay, so just by looking at kind of how they did things, because, so another way to say this would be the ministry medium influences the gospel message. The ministry medium heavily influences the gospel message. And what we are gonna find, and this is for you list takers, you note takers right here, we're gonna find that ministry is seven different things. I'm gonna go through them pretty quickly right here. Ministry is intangible. Ministry is demanding.

Ministry takes forever. Ministry brings new life. Ministry has unmasked joy. Ministry is divine cooperation. And ministry, most importantly, is shared, okay? So we're just gonna run through these. By the way, if you notice, the three on the left are bad. The three on the right are good, because ministry is, it's not always good, okay? So I need to give you the bad before I give you the good. Okay, that's just how I need to do it. So ministry is intangible, and this can be a good thing, but sometimes it's not. Ministry is intangible. I want you to look at Acts 13, verses two and three, and you're gonna have to forgive me. We're gonna be jumping around 13 and 14 a lot, and so I'm gonna try to go kinda in order, but you're gonna notice some gaps. That's okay, we'll cover the gaps next week, all right? So you should be here next week to find out what else Acts 13 and 14 says.

Verses two and three, it says, while they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, set apart from me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. Then after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off, okay? If you will look at this process of them, they were in the middle of worshiping, and the Holy Spirit said something. Well, was it audible? Probably not. It was probably two or three of them kinda getting some kind of feel, some kind of sense, okay? We don't hear about a voice, we don't hear about anything written on a wall. They're just getting a sense that these two guys need to be set apart. And then after the Holy Spirit said that, they were like, hey, we're not quite sure. So then they fasted and prayed just to be sure.

And then they laid their hands on them and then sent them off, okay? So they were obedient, but what we have to kind of admit here is that it's very intangible. This is kind of based on a feel of the Holy Spirit, right? And it's a strange thing. It's not something that is easily quantified, easily reproduced. Another thing that happens very soon after their work begins, Paul and Barnabas, they run into a magician, Elimus the magician, okay? And he's working to derail them. And then what happens? Look at verse 13. This is Paul, Saul, talking to the magician. He says, and now behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time. Immediately, mist and darkness fell upon him. And he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand.

And so what you see here, man, it really is strange, right? It's not like Paul was following a handbook here, okay? It's touchy-feely, it's intangible. It's like everybody in here who loves rules and regulations and processes and procedures and all that, this is driving you nuts, okay? Because it's just not built that way. That ministry, in some sense, is very intangible. Ministry is dependent upon the Holy Spirit. This is what we pray for every Sunday morning. Every Sunday morning, we're praying at 10 o'clock and we're praying for the Holy Spirit to light on fire what we have been preparing. Because if we're just relying on what we've been preparing, then we're just not gonna get much, right? We're relying on the Holy Spirit, okay? Because ministry is kind of necessarily uncontrollable. And that is to say, maybe a different way to say it, is that it defies guaranteed methods.

It defies guaranteed methods. Like an Excel spreadsheet isn't gonna tell you that Paul and Barnabas were the two to go, okay? A formula isn't gonna tell you how to deal with a magician who is trying to derail your ministry, okay? There's no handbook, there's no field guide for this. It is intangible. It is intangible. It's almost maddeningly so sometimes. Like you wish you had some rules to follow, okay? Ministry is intangible and that can be, sometimes that can be pretty frustrating. The second thing I wanna say about ministry, this is serving people in Jesus' name toward reconciliation with God, is that it is extremely demanding. Ministry is demanding, it's physically demanding. I wanna show you one verse that you would not know this by looking at the verse. Verse 14, 13-14, Acts 13-14.

It's very short, it says, but they went on from Pergia and came to Antioch in Pisidia. Okay, that does not look hard, does it? Let me tell you. And just to be clear, Antioch in Pisidia versus Antioch in Syria, there's two Antiochs, it's confusing. We're gonna call this Little Antioch, okay? This Antioch was about the size of Burleson, about 50,000 people, so this is Little Antioch, okay? The other one was like a major, like the third largest city in the Roman Empire, okay. We'll talk a little bit more about big and little Antioch next week, but here, they're going from Pergia to Little Antioch, okay, this journey alone, just this leg, okay? Not the whole journey, just this leg, it was 117 miles by foot. Or from here to the Texas-Oklahoma border, on foot. It's also a 3,600 foot elevation change, which would be like hiking over an Appalachian Mountain, okay? So this is the first stop.

They go to Cyprus once, then they go through Cyprus, they sail to Pergia, and then it just says, they went on from Pergia and came to Antioch in Pisidia. It doesn't tell you that that was a five to nine day journey on foot over mountains, okay, but it was. It was there. In Lystra, okay, Paul's gonna go to a city in Lystra where he is beaten with stones, physically arduous. All of Paul's missionary journey, all of his first missionary journey was roughly nine months and it was roughly 1,200 miles on foot. Some of it was in a boat, but most of it was on foot. 1,200 miles, nine months, physically demanding.

I just got back from India a couple of weeks ago and we were doing some fun stuff out there with a kind of a vision trip and man, it was physically arduous. I mean, it was tough. Our whole team got sick at one point. I think we took turns, I think Caroline got sick twice. It was just not easy. It was not physically, it was very demanding. It's not just physically demanding, it's also emotionally demanding, so you look at Acts 13:45.

Acts 13:45 says, but when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him, okay. So they've already got opposition on Cyprus with Elamas the magician and now they're at Little Antioch and they're dealing with some contradiction. They're dealing with people that are reviling them and eventually they drove them out of the city. You ever been driven out of a city? Okay, probably not. Maybe you have, maybe some of you have. That's a story over coffee for sure.

But man, that is trying. It's emotionally and mentally demanding. It's difficult to stomach that. And that was just a couple places. In Iconium, the opposition is poisoning the minds of the people that they're ministering to. The opposition is making plans to kill them and they leave that city in Iconium, right. So this is demanding stuff, ministry's demanding. And maybe another way to say that is ministry is not really a side project. If you're gonna serve people in Jesus' name, toward reconciliation with God, that is not something that is a leisurely activity. If you think it's a leisurely, you're going to quit because it's not leisurely. If you're doing it to make yourself feel better, please stop. It's not gonna make you feel better. It's gonna expose your weaknesses. It's gonna deplete your reserves, okay. If you were doing ministry because you wanna make

the world a better place, please stop. Please don't do that. You're not going to end poverty. You're not gonna stop cycles of brokenness. You're not gonna raise enough awareness. You're not gonna raise enough money. I know you didn't know that you were gonna get such a pep talk today this morning, but here it is. Ministry does help people personally, okay. But you need to understand as you do that, the larger systems that you are dealing with are taking more people than you are helping, right. If, for example, you start feeding people who are homeless, that's great. There's nothing wrong with it. In fact, that's in the word. We should care for the poor. We should feed the homeless, okay. That's a good thing. But if you are doing that to end homelessness,

that's not a good motivator. In fact, that's a demotivator, and eventually you're gonna get burned out and quit doing it. It's gonna be extremely hard on you because it's too demanding. We can't end poverty. Poverty is something that is beyond our control. Poverty is a mindset. Poverty is part of the fall. All that stuff will not be solved until we're all in glory.

And you might be asking after I've said all that, like, well then what good is ministry, Drew? That sounds terrible. Now I'm not gonna tell you yet. I'm gonna get to that. I'm just gonna keep piling on first. Look at how much time it took. Look at all the time that it took them. I got a breakdown here. They were in Cyprus for five weeks, Little Antioch for four, Iconium for 10, Lycen for one, Derby for seven. They returned and went through Perga again, stayed in Perga a little bit. Now it's probably a 12 week deal. All told, you're dealing with staying in those cities plus the travel. You're dealing with about nine months.

And maybe just another way to say it is, man, ministry just takes forever. Ministry takes forever. Think about what they had to do. This is in every city. Every one of these here, okay? In every place they start, Paul and Barnabas start in a city center, usually as a Jewish synagogue. In fact, in this whole first journey, it was always a Jewish synagogue. They start in the Jewish synagogue and they preach and they teach anybody that would listen, okay? And those who are called, those who the Lord is kind of, their hearts are, they're beginning to explore the gospel. Okay, they're like, hey, let's meet up. So they meet with these people. They train them in the gospel. They go out sharing with them. They pray with them. They lead Bible study with them. They make disciples with them. This is what they're doing with every single person. And on top of that, they're answering basic gospel

questions every time, same questions every time. They're also dealing with opposition, people that are telling them other things and they need to refute them. They're also dealing with people that are just plain Judas's, okay? That people that are undermining them, that are kind of infiltrate their ranks and they're not like, they look like really great students but they're just gonna stab them in the back whenever the timing's right. So listen, that takes forever. That takes forever. That's every city. That's every city. And that is relationally demanding. Not only is it relationally demanding, right? It took decades for Paul to gain that level of maturity. And so he's pretty far along in his walk and he's having conversations with people and they're looking at him dead in the eye and go, so can I still worship idols? So can I still have sex outside of marriage?

So can I still beat my wife? So can I still do that? And they're not joking and they don't understand why their question's wrong. Like, that takes forever. That is frustrating. That is arduous. That is, man, that is wading through very thick mud. I'm sure those conversations reminded him that this, okay, this is not quick turnaround stuff. This isn't something that just kind of is flipping a switch here. Now when you combine that, when you combine it taking forever with the fact that it's intangible, which is, you know, it's kind of impossible to measure, it's also demanding both physically and mentally. It's kind of a wonder that anybody does ministry. It's kind of a wonder that anybody says like, yeah, let's do that. It'll be terrible and demanding and I'll never see any fruit from it. Sign me up, I'm ready to go. I wanna get to the pluses, but I just really wanna say this.

Those hard things teach us about the gospel too. It's not just fun and sunshine. It's also extremely difficult. But that tells us of something about the gospel. It tells us that gospel ministry, if we're really preaching the gospel, if we're really ministering in his name, it's not about our kingdom, it's about Jesus' kingdom. It's not about necessarily how we feel or our legacy or anything like that. It's about Jesus' intangible kingdom, his immeasurable kingdom. This thing that we cannot peg down, this thing we can't say, well, like I've gained 50 points in God's kingdom. We can't do that. It's not real, it doesn't exist like that. A merit system, it would be ludicrous in this. And we know this. You and I know this. If you follow the Lord, you know this. But on an everyday basis, you lose touch with that. You want merit, you wanna know that you're doing okay.

You wanna chart, you want points. You do. Maybe it's just me, but I do. I wanna know I'm doing a good job. I don't necessarily want points. I just wanna know I'm winning. But the gospel's not about me winning. It's about Jesus' intangible kingdom. Also, this also tells us that the gospel quite simply requires our whole life. That if you're going to follow Jesus Christ, and if you are here kind of wondering if you're gonna follow Jesus Christ, let me just tell you. If you're gonna follow him, then it requires sobriety. And I don't mean that you can't drink alcohol. I mean that you must soberly consider your life. It is a serious decision, a weighty thing to follow the risen Savior. That is not something that you just kind of check off on a grocery list. This is a big deal. Jesus says, count the cost. Jesus says, take up your cross and follow me. Jesus says, lose your life to find it.

Jesus says those things. Might be like, well, that's kind of harsh. Yeah, yeah, I mean, it is. And if you're sitting there, you're like, I don't even know if I believe you. I don't even know if I believe in Jesus. I don't know about it. You're not making this sound very attractive. Like, I'm not really trying to, to be perfectly honest with you. I'm just trying to help you understand what it is to follow the Lord.

And that there is some difficulty in it. And that honestly, I don't feel the need to sugarcoat it. Neither should you. Okay, let me say three more things that are a little happier. And just as true. Because the ministry medium heavily influences the gospel message, right? If the way that we do ministry heavily influences the gospel that we actually believe, like in real time, like we need to know, we need to know what we believe, right? Okay, ministry paves the way for new life. Ministry paves the way for new life. In every city, Cyprus, Little Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, Derby, Perga, everywhere, man, there are people that are believing. In Cyprus, the proconsul, who's like the big government official, he believes and many others believe. In Little Antioch, the word is spreading and people are cheering and Iconium. There's many people who believe and they're all rejoicing.

In Lystra, there's a lame man who is healed and people are freaking out. And Lystra actually, people are freaking out so hard that they worship Paul and Barnabas. They call him Zeus and Hermes and they make sacrifices to him. It's pretty wild. Lystra was not a long journey. They were only there a week. In Derby, it says that there's many disciples that are being made, right? So like, look man, new life. Let me just, I know that feeding homeless people won't cure homelessness, okay? That's still true. But what I'm telling you is that when you do that in Jesus name, we can do that in the hope, in the real, tangible hope that change can and does happen.

People's lives are transformed. I've seen it with my own eyes. I've heard it with my own ears. People can change. And sometimes it's just easier to sit on the sidelines and say, you know what, we're not gonna end poverty. It's not gonna do any good. Nobody's, no, because at the same time that the gospel tells you to be sober about what you're doing, the gospel also tells you that the Holy Spirit can change anyone, anyone. I mean, Paul the Apostle is a fire-breathing, persecuting murderer and he becomes like the biggest flag-waving champion for the gospel. The Lord can change anybody. We have people in our body whose lives are changed. Marriages are restored. Wounds are healed. Anxiety and depression is subsided. Like real, tangible change. Not something I can throw up on a chart, but just as real. In fact, probably more real than a chart. And I think our encouragement, even as we see that,

is just like, may it just be available. Just, I know it's gonna be hard. I know that, but put yourself out there and be available. Do you think any of this happens if Paul and Barnabas aren't available? And I'm not trying to bring up some big theological debate. I'm just simply saying, like, what a privilege these two guys had to just see all of that change. Front row seats. Man, this is the invitation, right, in ministry. It's not that we're not in it for the money. We're not in it for the fame. We're not in it for the merit. We can't earn any of those things, or if we could, it doesn't even matter. But man, the Lord is doing some work and people are being changed. Ministry paves the way for like this new life. Ministry also brings unmatched joy.

Man, there's this joy that you just feel in seeing people being born again. And all these places have people that are freaking out. They are rejoicing. They're like singing in the streets. I mean, it may not be like a musical on TV or something. Like, it might not be quite like that, but there's just spontaneous parties going on. People are just rejoicing because they're free for the very first time. They're free from the thing that they could never be free from. They're not just politically free. They're not financially free. They are free to their core and they know it and they're rejoicing. There's so much joy. Being a part of that is intoxicating. It's life-changing. I know if you, just a recent example, just took a trip like I was talking about to India, Himalayas, and man, Drew Ivey.

Just ask him. Just ask him about the trip. Big tilt, right Drew? Yeah, big tilt, big life changer, just perspective shaper kind of deal. And part of that was because he just got to see a lot of these things firsthand. He got to experience some of these things firsthand, doing ministry. Also, you don't need to turn there, but in Acts 13, 44, it tells, they're preaching and they kind of go to the synagogue. They're invited to say something, so they say something. And there's all this response to it. And then it says, in 44, it says, the next sack, almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord, okay? There's just, man, there's something good about a room full for Jesus. There's just something good about, man, I mean, I was just sitting up here and I get the best seat because I just hear everybody else singing and it's just glorious, man. I love hearing you guys sing loud.

I know Zane is not here. Zane Rickard loves to sing loud. And I love listening to Zane Rick. When I don't wanna sing a worship song, I just listen to Zane and I wipe away a few little mini tears and then I sing loud. I mean, that's how my mornings go, typically. Because it's just so good, man, to just see that joy, that unfettered, unfiltered joy, man, I love it. For those of you who don't know Zane, you're missing out. And it's just, yeah, it's amazing. The joy is amazing.

Ministry is also divine cooperation. And that's just a really fancy way to say you get to work with God. You get to co-labor with the Lord God in heaven. You are serving people in Jesus' name toward reconciliation. And let me just tell you, this, this idea of serving people in Jesus' name toward reconciliation, that is a primary expression of being a Christian. Let me say that one more time. Ministry, aka serving people in Jesus' name toward reconciliation with God. That is a primary expression of being a Christian. It is how we get our hands dirty. It is how we bring things to fruition. It is the answer to the prayer, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So on earth as it is in heaven. The way that happens is by us serving the Lord, cooperating with him. I'm not saying we make it all up. I'm not saying it's all up to us. I'm saying the Lord is working

and we get to cooperate with him. What a joy, what a privilege. What do these three things teach us, these pluses? Which teaches that the gospel has abundant life at its core, at its heart. The life that Jesus lives when he comes to earth is abundant. The life that he gives is abundant. The life he displays is abundant. This is the life that God, this is the life that God is offering to the world. When God says I wanna reconcile the world to myself, what he wants to reconcile them to is an abundant life in communion with him. The core of the gospel is abundant life.

And ministry should express that. If you were doing ministry and you were not excited about it, and look, I don't mean like you're just doing back flips every time you take out the trash or something, but I'm just telling you, there needs to be a moment, and this is why we're having ministry banquet tonight, six to eight, okay? To remember why we're doing what we're doing. Remember that this is like an expression of what we believe in our core, of what we believe to be true.

Lastly, and this is, I would just put this forth as most importantly, I can't prove that, but I think it's most important. And this is gonna be kind of my final point, I wanna expound on this a little bit. All of Acts 13 and 14 should show us that the gospel and gospel ministry is always shared. It's always shared. The gospel is shared, and gospel ministry should always be shared, okay? Gospel ministry is always shared among people. So I just wanna point out a few things, we're gonna just kind of dot around a little bit, but if you notice, Paul is not sent out by himself, and he doesn't go by himself, why?

It's actually easier to travel all that way by yourself, right, you're lighter, cheaper, right? Less logistics, less strife. You don't have to work things out. We're gonna see in Acts 14 that he and Barnabas get into a big fight and don't go the same way after that. And so he could've avoided all that by just going by himself, right? He and Barnabas could've been friends, they could've hung out later. But instead they have a big fight, and maybe that was due to the fact that they had spent six to nine months together on the road doing crazy stuff, I don't know.

Also what you might not notice on first read, if you go back to all the way to like verses one through three, all the way back in big Antioch, where they are at the beginning of this, there is a five teacher rotation. It's Paul, Barnabas, and three other guys. We don't know those guys. I don't know, they don't matter, I'm just saying you couldn't recognize their names if I said it. Why do they have a five teacher rotation? Why do they have five teachers? Look, where the gospel is difficult, where ministry is difficult, when you share the ministry, you spread the pain out. You share the burden together. When things are tough, shared ministry really, really is the difference. If you're trying to do solo ministry, if you're just trying to handle it all on your own, put that all on your own shoulders, man.

First Thessalonians 2a, which is one of my favorite verses, it says, this is Paul writing to a couple people in the Thessalonian church, he says, so being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God, but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us. We were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God, but our own selves, our own lives, it says in other translations, that look, man, there's something good when you share that ministry with other people, when you're on a team, when they have your back, there's just, the pain is halved, it's spread out. You don't bear everything alone. I think it's appropriate to mention that we have home groups coming up on September 15th, they start that week, if you're not in a home group, man, it's just a good way to be connected with other Christians, to help share their pain

and for your pain to also be shared, because it's not always easy, you go through tough times, you need people with you to handle that with you. Sharing ministry also, excuse me, expresses key parts of the gospel, look at what they do, I just wanna show you, this is amazing to me, look at what they do at the end of their missionary journey, it says in Acts chapter 14, so this is the end of the big journey, 1423, this is kind of the last leg of the journey, it says, and when they had appointed elders for them in every church with prayer and fasting, they committed to the Lord in whom they believed. Okay, what they did at the end of their journey was they went back through all the other towns that they had been to, okay, so they go to Little Antioch, they go to Iconium, oh yeah, look, it's up here, they go to the red, sorry, I know this is small and I don't expect you to see it,

but I do expect you to see this, that there's a red part, there's a red part and that's the journey out, and then the blue is the journey in, so they go, they effectively go Cyprus, Perga, Little Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, Derby, and then they go backward, back to Lystra, Iconium, back to Little Antioch, back to Perga, they take a little bit of a jaunt to Attila, Atalia, excuse me, and then they go back to Antioch.

They go through each church and what do they do? They give their leadership away in every church, they appoint multiple pastors, multiple elders in every church, and when they do, they are telling them, hey, we're not gonna be here to lead this church, this is you guys, you're gonna have to lead this church, we're gonna go, what are they doing? They're sharing ministry, it would've been very easy for them to go, okay, you know what, in nine months, we're gonna be back through and we're gonna visit all these churches again. They do visit some of the churches, but it's not with the intent of maintaining control over them, it's with the intent of helping them grow and be healthy and stuff like that. They appoint elders, and let me just put it in more stark terms for you just so you can kinda see it, appointing elders, rotating teachers, sending people out, all of that is just as important, if not more important,

let's just say it's just as important, I don't wanna overstate it, it's just as important as loving people, it's just as important as caring for the sick, and it's just as important as preaching, it's the same. Appointing leaders, sharing ministry, raising up people, and just saying, listen, you can do this, the Lord's called you to do this, we're gonna commission you, we're gonna send you out, that's just as important as a church caring for the poor and preaching and loving people, it's just as important.

And here's why, it's because it demonstrates the gospel, how, well, we believe a gospel, we believe a gospel that says we can't do this on our own, right? We believe a gospel that says that we've been saved into God's family, right, that has local expressions, not just kinda big C church, you know, I go to church in the woods, kinda no, actual churches, families, particular local families.

We believe a gospel that says that we have all been given to Holy Spirit to minister to each other and to other people. That's the gospel that we believe, but sometimes we lose touch with that with the way that we do ministry, okay? Sharing ministry kind of establishes, maybe, think of it this way, when we share ministry, we establish the gospel in the details, we establish the gospel in the details, right, because remember, the ministry in the medium heavily influences the gospel message. Let me just give you some illustrations. I feel like it'd be appropriate to do that, okay? So let's just pretend that we, our church is going to decide to make disciples through coercion and manipulation, okay? And we laugh, but that's less rare than you'd like to think. Make disciples through coercion and manipulation, so hey, if you don't do this Bible study, I don't know if you're really a Christian.

If you don't get baptized within these next couple of days, I don't know if it's gonna take, right? Look, there's all kinds of ways to gaslight and coerce and manipulate people, especially if you're in a spiritual authority over them, you can pretty much say anything and they believe it, okay? And if so, if you're gonna make disciples and you're gonna use coercion, you're gonna use manipulation to do that, then the gospel that you believe says you have to be in control. God's not in control of their life, that you have to be the Holy Spirit. You have to be the one to kind of control them and make them do things and motivate them and all this. And by setting yourself up that way, you are now distorting the gospel. Do you see what I'm saying? So you are making disciples through manipulation. You are actually distorting the gospel message that you are sharing with them.

Those two things aren't separate, they're the same. If you are going to trick people into coming into a church service, okay? If you're talking to your friend, you're like, hey, listen, I'm going to this great concert, Sunday morning, 10.30, it's at this place. You're trying to be as covert as possible. And then they walk in, they're like, it's a church, undo it. Just look, if you have to trick people to come to a church service, the gospel that you believe is that it's not enough, it's not powerful enough to save people. It's not attractive enough that you have to gussy it up. You have to make it all pretty and do all these things just to make sure, no, man, listen.

Our church is always opt-in. Our church is always transparent. Our church is always invitation-based, man. Everybody's free to come, free to go whenever they want. And we aren't going to manipulate. We're going to make disciples in grace and honesty, in abounding love, like we're going to do that. Because that's the gospel that we believe. And if we say we believe that gospel but then manipulate people, then we're lying. That's not honest.

If we shake people down for offerings, if we shake people down for offerings, here's how that looks. If you're at a church service, let's call it a Christmas Eve service. And the guy comes out, says, hey, glad you were with us today, man. Wasn't that a wonderful orchestral performance of a way and a manger? Man, wasn't that great? Everybody claps. Oh yeah, so great. Yeah, oh, look. Look, why don't you show your appreciation during the offering time? What is that? You're shaking people down. You're manipulating people. Nevermind that God says, oh, I love a cheerful giver. Nevermind says that each person should decide in their heart what they're gonna give to the Lord and then let that be the deciding factor. So the New Testament says

that God cares way more about your heart than your pocketbook. But if God has your heart, then he has your pocketbook too, right? Like this is the gospel that we believe that we don't need to trick people. We don't need to cajole people. We don't need to manipulate people. We don't need to pull any levers. We don't need to have smoke screens. We don't need any of that. And the reason that we don't need that, and look, I'm not throwing rocks at churches that have smoke screens. It's fine, whatever. I'm not trying to prop us up as some, we're the greatest church ever. We're doing it like nobody else has did. Look, man, no, we're just a church. We're just a covenant family following the Lord Jesus Christ and that's enough. And the gospel we believe is powerful enough.

And when you employ methods, and when you, it's not just employing methods. Maybe here's a different way to think about it. There is a way to be a part of a church, to run a church, to lead a church, to do all these, there's a way to do that where you are building your own kingdom. You're not building Jesus's kingdom. You're about the church brand, okay? You're about the church brand. And let me just say it and really just, building your own kingdom is the same. It's just as bad as distorting the gospel of Jesus Christ. If you're building your own kingdom under the guise of building God's kingdom, then you are just like the Pharisees. You're just doing it a little more culturally accepted way. What we need to see in part in Acts 13 and 14 is that not only was there a message, this kind of this gospel message, and we can see it, there's a couple of sermons, we're gonna be looking at that next week.

Not only was that kind of the gospel, but also the way that they were conducting themselves. Look, I've been in, I've been a paid religious professional for 25 years, okay? I've seen inside and out. Some of you might see more than me, but most of you haven't. I've seen church work inside and out. I've seen big churches, I've seen little churches, I've seen startups, I've seen mid-size. I've seen a lot of churches that are going to, are gonna say, listen, we're gonna make decisions like this over here because it's expedient and we won't get too many questions and we can kind of just do what we want and not answer to that many people, okay? But here's what I have to say about that. That's not the gospel, right? I don't just say, oh, that's not my preferred way to lead a church, no. That's out of step with the gospel. It's out of step with the gospel for leadership

to make decisions in the dark and never be questioned about it. It's out of step with the gospel for people to just say, well, you know what, I mean, look, as long as I'm just here and I give money and serve every once in a while, that's fine. That's really all I need. No, because it's not the gospel that we believe. It's not because I'm somehow like some spiritual policeman. I'm not. I'm not gonna knock on your door if you miss a Sunday. I promise, okay? I'm busier than that. Okay? I might wanna knock on your door even, but I'm just busier than that. What I wanna tell you is that the way that the gospel of Jesus Christ shapes how we do ministry is that we do it in a transparent way. We do it in a way that gives ministry away to other people. Can I tell you, we are a church

that other churches kind of in our spot are looking to hire more staff, right? Does that make sense? They're trying to like angle things to hire more staff. That's kind of like the trajectory that we aren't doing that. What we're doing is we are raising up leaders. We've raised up a volunteer pastor. Daniel Oster is a pastor, and he's a pastor just as much as I'm a pastor, right? I'll preach more because I like preaching more. But man, look, we have a pastor who's empowered, who's equipped. He tells me no all the time, all the time, actually. Golly, all the time.

We have deacons who are empowered, man. I mean, ask them, okay? I remember growing up at a church, and you would ask a deacon, and I did, hey, how are decisions made, basically? I mean, I was doing a little research. I was young in ministry, and they gave me a look like you don't wanna know. You don't wanna know how decisions are made here. It's a horrible way they're made. It doesn't reflect the gospel. Now, let me just do one more thing. In your own life, not just how we operate as a church, but in your own life, doing ministry personally, how do you treat people? Do you treat them according to the gospel? How do you run your classroom? How do you conduct your business? How do you negotiate contracts? Do you just kinda fall back to the world default? Like, look, this is just how things are done. Or is it influenced by the gospel?

Is it influenced? Because, look, if you're saying, and I remember having a conversation with one of you, and I will not name you, this is probably eight, nine months ago, I knew one of your coworkers, and the last time I talked to him, he seemed like an all-right guy. And he was a Christian. He was a guy I knew from a long time ago. And the person I was talking to looked at me like, are you serious? You're commending that guy? And I'm like, well, I hadn't seen him in a while, I guess. Well, it turns out, this guy was the biggest jerk at work. The biggest jerk, he was awful.

He would come into a room and he'd start talking politics, and everybody would kinda just turn their head, and just kinda pretend like they're doing something else. And you have that guy at work, I know you do. You have that guy who, maybe you're that guy, I don't know, but you come in, you start talking about something, and everybody kinda just, oh, okay, I'm busy over here now.

That guy maybe believed the right things, maybe, but was not expressing himself according to the gospel. Does that make sense? The medium is the message. It heavily influences the message. The way that you conduct your life says something about the gospel. The way that we conduct our church says something about the gospel. And this gospel is both hard and soft. It is both everyday and kinda routine, but it's also very exciting and an adventure. It's both. Look, for some of you, if you're just checking out, Jesus, if you don't even know, and you're like, I just heard a whole sermon on ministry, this is great.

Let me just invite you. For some of you, this is gonna be a moment where I'm just gonna ask you to reflect I'm gonna ask you to reflect on your own life, your own dealings, and I'm gonna ask you to just consider, am I reflecting the gospel in everything that I'm doing? In my relationships with my friends, my teachers, sorry, my coworkers, sorry, how I run a classroom, how I run a business deal, just all of these things. How I raise my kids. Are we living out the gospel at home? I just wanna just take a second. I wanna pray. You guys pray with me. Jesus, we know that you are in charge. We know that your gospel reigns supreme. We know that you are, you are the one calling the shots. I pray that we, as we are dealing with just maybe some difficulty, maybe we're in the middle of some joy, maybe we're in between. I pray that you would help us to, just to be reminded of the gospel of grace,

the gospel of truth, the gospel that just calls us out. Lord, there's no shame in you. We've been forgiven, we've been set free. Lord, help us to live like that. In the name that we pray, amen. Before we stand and say, I just wanna tell you, I'm gonna be back there by those couches and those chairs. I'd love to pray with you, love to talk with you. Just as we sing and even after we sing, we're still gonna be by there, so let's stand. Praise the Lord.