OPEN: Back in the 90’s there was a president of was a president of Harvard University named Neil Rudenstine. Now, one of the major roles of college president is to raise money for the institution so they can pay the salaries and other financial responsibilities of the organization. And Neil Rudenstine was very good at meeting that need. For three years - since he became the school’s president - he methodically raised a $1 million a day for Harvard..
The reason he was so successful was that he was passionate about every facet of his job. He focused on both the big and small things in the college. Besides spending twelve hours a day on a demanding job, he fretted banquet menus, argued about his $10-15 medical co-pay and, wrote notes to the football coach, the editors school newspaper, the various staff as well as the dorm house masters.
But one morning in November, he overslept and just couldn’t manage to make himself go to work. When he went to the doctor, he was diagnosed with “severe fatigue and exhaustion.” The directors insisted he took an indefinite leave of absence to recover.
So he did.
And he didn’t return for the next seven days.
In fact, he didn’t return for the next seven weeks.
In fact, he spent the next seven months recovering from his fatigue. (Courtesy of Victor Yap Sermoncentral.com based on stories from Newsweek 3/6/95, U.S. News & World Report 12/12/94)
APPLY: Watching Moses put in long hours day after day, Jethro said to him: "What you are doing is not good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone.” Exodus 18:17b-18
When Moses led the people of God out of Egypt there were at least 600,000 men with their wives and children (Exodus 12:37). And all day long, every day for several weeks, he’s been in the desert with these people and he has constantly been judging their many conflicts and disputes.
It’s obvious that it’s tiring Moses out. He’s been doing this from early morning til late nite for several weeks now. Jethro can see the fatigue in Moses’ eyes and he sees how haggard Moses appears each day.
And it’s obvious that the people aren’t real happy with this arrangement either. It’s wearing them out as well too.
Have you ever stood in a long line at the Grocery store or at the Post Office? Have you ever gotten impatient if you had to wait more than a few minutes? (me too)
Imagine what it would be like if you had to wait in line for HOURS to get service! Out here in the desert… there’s over a million people… and only one line to stand in.
You can kind of get the idea of what this must have been like for the average Israelite.
So Jethro watches what’s going on and he realizes his son-in-law needs some advice. So he makes a suggestion. He says: “Moses, you need help.”
Look again with me to Exodus 18:19-21
“Listen now to me and I will give you some advice, and may God be with you. You must be the people’s representative before God and bring their disputes to him. Teach them the decrees and laws, and show them the way to live and the duties they are to perform.
But select capable men from all the people— men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain— and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens.”
In other words: don’t quit doing what you’re doing… just learn to share it with others.
You see, God never designed us to work alone.
Do you remember back in Genesis – when God created man? Do you remember the reason He gave for creating Eve? He said “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." Gen. 2:18
It’s an abiding principle in Scripture that when we work for God - we need to work with others.
That’s part of the reason Jesus didn’t do His ministry alone. He selected 12 men to work along side of Him. And THEN - when he sent them out to do their work - do you remember how he sent them out? “He sent them out two by two” (Mark 6:7 & Luke 10:1)
Why?
Because trying to work for God all by yourself can wear you out.
Ecclesiastes 4:10 “If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!”
Ecclesiastes 4:12 says: “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”
In science it’s called the principle of SYNERGISM
Synergism basically boils down to this idea: Two can carry more than one.
ILLUS: I once read the story is told of a horse pulling contest in Canada.
The winning horse in the contest pulled 9000 pounds
The runner up pulled 8000.
Together you’d expect them to pull 17,000 lbs. but not so! When teamed together, they pulled 30,000 lbs – nearly twice as much.
That’s part of the reason Jesus created the church.
There are people who will try to tell you that they can be just as good a Christian without going to church, but that’s just not so. Those folks are deceiving themselves. They are deliberately ignoring the fact that part of the reason Jesus went to the Cross was to establish His church. And one of the reasons He established the church was so that we could do more together than we could individually.
Now, congregations are filled with imperfect people but when these imperfect folks allow themselves to be guided by God’s word, they end up “pulling together” and find they can accomplish a great deal for God.
Christianity is not a Lone Ranger religion.
(pause) And so, when Jethro sees Moses is trying to do his job all by himself, he says:
“This isn’t good – you need help”
That was true for Moses in the wilderness, and that’s true for the church in our day.
That’s why God created the role of Elders for the church.
Paul wrote to a preacher named Titus and told him: “The reason I left you in Crete was that you might straighten out what was left unfinished and APPOINT ELDERS in every town, as I directed you. An elder must be blameless, the husband of but one wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient. Since an overseer is entrusted with God’s work, he must be blameless— not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain.” Titus 1:5-7
Elders are called Pastors in Scripture (I Peter 5:1ff) because their job is to pastor - or shepherd -the congregation. Elders work as shepherds, protecting the church and leading their fellow Christians to follow and honor Jesus.
Now preachers also shepherd, and protect, and lead the congregation - but God wanted to make sure the preacher didn’t work at that alone. Elders and preachers are called to work together as a team to make the church stronger
Even Elders are to have people who help them. They’re called Deacons. The purpose of deacon is to do the physical things around the church so that Elders can devote their full attention to the spiritual matters of the flock (Acts 6).
Another passage that figures in here is the one Paul wrote to a preacher named Timothy:
“…the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.” 2 Timothy 2:2
Now this passage from 2 Timothy tells me two things:
1st it tells me that my job - and the job of the Elders - is to make sure that reliable men get trained in what we know. I do that from the pulpit and I also do it one on one whenever I can.
2ndly, this passage tells me that it should be the objective of every man in this congregation to reach the point where they are entrusted with God’s Word so they can share it with others.
So I got to thinking. What have we done to equip you to reach out to others?
Then I realized that many of you have seen the “Jule Miller Video Series” (it’s a five part lesson series that gives an overview of Scripture, tells about how to become a Christian, and gives a short lesson on Church history).
That series has been very effective in leading hundreds of people to Christ just in my ministry alone. And we have it in DVD format, VHS format, and in booklet form.
How many of you can work a DVD?
How many of you can run a VCR?
How many of you can read?
Well, then we’ve got just the tool for you to use.
And since so many of you have already seen it, a lot of you are already trained to share your faith with others… all you have to do is find someone to teach.
And if you decided that was what God wanted you to do, you can borrow the video and do it by yourself, of I or one of the Elders would go with you if you like.
Why would God want us to do it that way?
Why would He want you to do what many think the preacher ought to do? Because God understands that a preacher can preach and preach and preach. And a preacher can do all kinds of ministry in the church.
But if he does his job all by himself… the church won’t grow/ mature.
God wants the church to work by the principle of synergy. When everybody in the church pulls together they’ll get far more done than one man in a pulpit.
ILLUS: The first church I served was fun for me.
I did everything.
I not only preached, I taught, led singing, led the youth group, gave the communion meditations, sang in choir, mowed the grass, did the newsletter, etc. etc. etc.
Now I had a great time. Ministry is fun for me.
But I wasn’t doing my job.
I worked hard and a lot of people became Christians and attendance rose.
But the church was 1 mile wide and an inch deep. It had grown physically, but now spiritually as is should have. I didn’t effective raise up Godly men to do ministry as well as I should have.
The beauty of THIS church is that lots of people are doing a lot of things.
The atmosphere is literally contagious
We have a strong Eldership. And these Elders understand the importance of training men to do ministry. In many of our sister congregations, the Elders are the only ones who give the meditation at the Lord’s Table. Here, you hardly ever see the Elders up in front. They find Godly men who love to talk about Jesus and let them do it.
Because of that, we have lots of men here who enjoy getting up at Communion time and telling about what the communion time means to them.
In addition, we have great teachers who take their teaching seriously.
We have wonderful youth leaders who teach lots of kids about faith in God.
We have a mission committee with people who love missions.
We have people who have a card ministry – writing shut-ins, those in the hospital, new attenders, and those who may have missed a few weeks of worship.
There are volunteers that help me with the newsletter and the office work
And people who serve Jesus by driving the church bus.
And I could go on and on and on.
I can’t tell you how proud I am to serve people like you.
But I realize I still could do more to help you and train you.
I mean - Moses was a great leader of Israel - but he had a blind spot. He did too much by himself… and wasn’t training others to do God’s work.
If that happened to a great leader like Moses, I’m sure it could happen to me or the other leaders here. So if you see that I could do a better job of equipping you – you tell me. I want to do my level best to make you the best you can be for God.
For example, let’s say you want to be one of those “reliable people” that I can entrust with God’s teachings so that you can be qualified to teach others. You tell me about it because I might have overlooked you.
People should be challenged to ministry.
They should be challenged to share their faith.
And they should be equipped to do so.
And part of my role is to equip you, challenge you, make sure you have the tools to do ministry
Why should that be the way it is?
Why? Because I can’t reach and teach all the people you can.
When you make it your objective to get information you can share with others… the church will grow.
Now when Paul told Timothy
“…the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others” (2 Timothy 2:2) I believe this advice can also apply to YOUR specific ministries for Christ.
Are you a Sunday School teacher?
Find people who you can train to do your job when you’re sick, or when you need a break. Eventually that trainee should be able to start their own class, or take over yours so that you can go start another class.
Do you have a mid-week Bible study?
Find people to lead that study so you can start another one with other people.
When you share your job with others… you don’t wear yourself out and you get more done. And you get more people interested in your ministry.
PLUS: Church-growth experts have told us that a strong growing church should have at least one or two new groups starting up every year. When more people want to share their faith… they draw more people in.
So let’s revue:
God designed us to be able to work. But He didn’t intend for us to do His work all by ourselves. He designed the church to pull together to accomplish a great that they couldn’t do alone.
CLOSE: During World War II, a church building in Strasbourg was destroyed. After the bombing, the members surveyed the area to see what damage was done. They were pleased that a statue of Christ with outstretched hands was still standing… because it had been sculpted centuries before by a great artist.
Taking a closer look however, the people discovered both hands of Christ had been sheared off by a falling beam. It seemed like a great tragedy at the time.
Some time later, a sculptor in the town offered to replace the broken hands as a gift to the church, the church leaders refused. They had had long enough seeing the statue that way that they realized the damage done to Christ actually symbolized a powerful teaching from Scripture. They were called to serve God with all their hearts, but if they didn’t do their part, Christ had no hands. They said that the statue had taught them that the work of Christ had been given to them.
