Introduction;
Ephesians 4:1-3 reads, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation by which you are called, 2. With all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love; 3. Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. In context, these three verses covers part of Paul's address to the church about keeping unity in the church. Paul suggested good conduct in our occupations, before the people in the church. He prescribed humility in how we deal with people in the church. And he advocated Tolerance and patience in how we nourish people in the church. In this setting, Paul pontificates on the subject of deportment, virtue, and professionalism, in a formal Christian setting.
And in doing so, every now and then we must re-evaluate ourselves in the ministry that we are called. After years of labouring in the church, we must take the time to Revisit Our Ministry roots, to see where we need to update our strategies in helping God's people. Times have changed, the mentality of people have changed, and the situations people get themselves into have also changed. And in order for us as Christians to help God's people in the twenty-first century, we must update our responses to twenty-first century solutions. This is not the church, your grand parents attended sixty years ago.
Sixty years ago, if a young girl in the church got pregnant out of wedlock, the family would send her away, and keep her in hiding. Today when a young girl gets pregnant out of wedlock, she actually flaunts her pregnancy. And requires everyone to respect her wishes to keep her baby. Times have changed. Sixty years ago, if a young teenage boy in the church got a girl pregnant, his family made him do the right thing and marry the young lady. Today, he lets her know that he's a player, and he's not going out like that. And makes her feel that it was her fault for getting pregnant in the first place. Times have changed. Sixty years ago, men would work hard, and maybe drink a little moon shine to relax. Today they spend their entire incomes on drugs, that destroys the man and his entire family. Times have changed. Sixty years ago, if a person in the church had homosexual or bisexual tendencies, they kept it to themselves. Today, they go to court to force the church and everyone else to respect their rights, and their nasty way of living. Times have changed.
I think you get the message by now that times have changed, and the mentality of people has changed. And I know that God remains the same, yesterday, today, and forever-more, but the world He created did not stay the same. And if we are going to help God's people in this twenty-first century as a church, it is imperative that every cluster of the church, Revisit Your Ministry.
1 b.
In the twenty-first century church, a lot of emphasis is put on only some of the gifts that God has placed in the church. These gifts are, apostles, prophets, teachers, and those who perform miracles. Everywhere you look, there are new Apostles popping up. But what confuses me is that the definition of the title apostle is, one that is sent to establish. And since the church has been established long ago, I'd like to know what these new Apostles are establishing? An Apostle is not sent to establish a new doctrine, but only to establish churches by the doctrine that the lord has already set up. But in a lot of the churches that have these new Apostles, they seem to have a different doctrine than the lord has already set up for His church. Let's not forget that The Right Rev. Jim Jones established a church, and led more than 900 men, women and children to their deaths in a mass suicide because they followed a man that had established a church with a new doctrine. Some Apostles need to revisit their ministry.
Then there are prophets and teachers. While there is nothing wrong with prophets and teachers, in todays society, they all seem to come in the form of preachers. And now Everybody wants to be a preacher. (now hold on to your seats because I'm about to say something that may shock you) While there is nothing wrong with being a preacher, there are a lot of people that want to be preachers, and a lot of people that are already preachers, that have no business being a preacher at all. Being a preacher is just like being a doctor. A doctor takes your life in his hands when he treats your ailments. And a preacher takes the lives of Christians in his his hands when he preaches and teaches in the church. And in my many years of study and preaching, I see that a lot of current preachers do not take their task seriously at all.
A lot of todays preachers will be charged by God, just like God charged the Priest in Hosea 4:6. about the children of Israel. God's charge was, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.
But most preachers misconstrue this verse. They do not realize that this text was God's charge against the priest for allowing Gods people to be destroyed because of the lack of knowledge.
The Life application bible got the interpretation of this verse correct. It says, “my people are destroyed because they don't know me, and it's your fault,you priest. Since you have forgotten my laws, I will forget to bless your children.”
2.
And today, God's gentile people are being destroyed, and it's the fault of a lot of todays so called preachers. I agree with the statement that Evangelist Ingrim made in her sermon a few weeks ago. “God has no need for a punk.” We have too many preachers today that punk out when it comes time to study. They punk out when it's time to prepare themselves to bring the message of the cross to God”s People. And a lot of the twenty-first-century preachers are going to stand before God, and be charged with allowing God's people to be destroyed.
And I say on today, to anyone that feels the call of God on your life to be a preacher, if you are not going to take it seriously, go somewhere and sit down and just plain shut up. Because there is no glory in being a preacher. If you really want to get your tail kicked by satan, become a serious preacher. Satan kicks the preacher harder than anyone else in the church because, satan knows that if God's people are going to get any serious help, it is going to come from the preacher, because that's the way God designed it. And satan makes sure that a lot of preachers punk out at doing his/her job well. Look at Paul”s life as an Apostle/Preacher, he preached the unadulterated word of God everywhere he went, and he was either put in jail, stoned, talked about, and a few other things because of being a serious preacher.
I use to say that instead of preaching that he wished that men would be like him by staying single so that he could dedicate himself to preaching the Gospel, he should have went somewhere and got himself a woman, got married, went home, had a good time, and maybe he would have stayed out of trouble so much. But Paul's ministry life as a serious preacher, proves that there is no glory in being a preacher.
And since faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, the preacher is where the word Of God is suppose to come from. I've gone places and heard preachers get in the pulpit and say, I didn't know what I was going to preach about on today. I personally feel that if he didn't take the time to prepare a word for God's people, he had no business preaching in the first place.
And If you are a preacher, or if you want to be a preacher, either take your task seriously, or get off the pot and find something else to do, because God's people need real help, not a half baked sermon just to make the people feel good. God is tired of preachers going around giving His people religious placebos. (a placebo is a substance given to patients that have no medicinal value, but it cons the patient into believing they are being medically treated.) in other words a sugar pill dressed up as real medicine.
And God has had enough of the twenty-first century TV and local preachers, offering His people nothing more than religious placebos. If a sermon does not edify, uplift, and encourage God's people, it brings no spiritual value to God's people at all. And any preacher that has nothing more to offer God's people, should revisit your ministry.
3.
The Deacons; fall under the category of Those who are administrators.
The deacon is the only other spiritual officer in the church beside the preacher. And the same advise goes for the deacon that goes for the preacher. Either take your task seriously, or go and revisit your ministry.
The deacon has an awesome responsibility as a spiritual officer in God's church. But that responsibility does not include being a back biting, forked tongued, trouble making, whoremongering deacon. If you're not going to be a serious help to the pastor, it is time to revisit your ministry, because being a spiritual officer in God's church is serious business.
A deacons job is more than leading devotional service, it's more than raising the offering, it's more than greeting new members as they join the church. A deacon is a spiritual advisor, a teacher, a leader, and the pastors helper. The deacons job is a massive undertaking because, the deacon helps the Shepard with the sheep. When the pastor writes the vision and makes it plain, it is part of the deacons responsibility to help carry out the pastors vision. No one man can carry the load of a church by himself.
When moses saw the massive undertaking that God had asked of him, he sought advice from his father-in-law Jethro. In Exodus 18:13-26.
His father-in-law told him that The work was too heavy for him; and that he could not handle the work alone. He told him to select capable men from all the people—men who fear God, men who were trustworthy. And appoint them as officials over groups of thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. Have them serve as judges for the people at all times, but have them bring every difficult case to him; the simple cases they could decide themselves. That would make his load lighter, because they would share the load with him. And if he did it this way, he would be able to stand the strain, and all of the people would go home satisfied.”
Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything he said. He chose capable men from all of Israel and made them leaders of the people, officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. They served as judges for the people at all times. The difficult cases they brought to Moses, but the simple ones they decided themselves.
Moses could not lead the people forward because he spent day and night listening to the problems and complaints of the people all by himself. And it was about to wear him out physically. And this church (Second Mt. Vernon MBC) can not move forward, with everyone looking to one man as being the super preacher. The pastor needs help, and not just on Sunday morning. And the deacons and preachers must either give and be available to offer that help, or they must revisit their ministry. Because the pastor can not captain this ship all by himself, he needs a crew to help him navigate this ship to safety. Because the care of God's people is serious business. And it is time for the spiritual officers of the church to take their task seriously, and revisit your ministry.
4.
I hear people in churches saying they could not be members of a large church, because they don't like having to make an appointment to see the pastor. Can I tell you the real reason why some pastors only see members by appointment? Most serious pastors want nothing on their mind on Sunday morning, but their message for God's people when they enter the pulpit. He can not stand before the people with his mind clouded with some mess his members want to wait until Sunday morning to bring into his office. The message of the cross is all he wants to saturate his mind with. If your toenail hurts, go ask a deacon or another minister for prayer.
If you have a complaint about something in the church, tell it to a deacon, or one of the ministers. If it's simple they can handle it themselves. If it's a serious case, they will take you to the pastor at the appropriator time, but not before worship service on Sunday morning. It's time for Christians to grow up and stop being overgrown babies. If you've been in the church for forty years, and you're still running to the pastor every-time you get a headache, you have not grown at all. And furthermore, the deacons and preachers and evangelist, and church mothers can pray just like the pastor can.
In James 5:14, it says, Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; Not the super preacher. With the operative word in that verse being ELDERS, And that word ELDERS does not mean preachers. It means the seasoned in God. And if the ministers, deacons, evangelist, and church mothers, can not be advisors, can not be leaders, and can not offer a prayer, it's time for them to revisit their ministry.
The seasoned members;
It's time for the seasoned Christians to stop getting up talking about their getting old. The only thing that gets old is money and wine, and they both get better with time. God did not bless you to get old for you to just sit in the corner and shrivel up until you die. Even all of you that are senior citizens have a job to do in God's church. Your wisdom is wasted when you keep it to yourself. These young women need the help of the older women. These young men need the help of you older men.
Stop saying it's time for you to get out of the way, and let the young people take over. What are they going to take over, when you haven't taught them anything yet? The only thing they can do without training is lead the church into a massive wreck. This is not the church of the nineteenth century, where people would fake it till they make it. Every auxiliary in the church should take a lesson from the usher board. All departments in the church should have a few young people in training. Because some leaders are born, and other leaders are trained to lead. You wonder why there are only a few young people in the church? You wonder why some churches are only one generation churches? It's because you have not given the young people a real reason to even want to come to church. Give them church responsibilities, and hold them accountable. They are members of the church, not bystanders in the church. We must make the young people an intra-gal part of the church, so that growth will take place.
5.
If this church is going to move forward in the twenty-first century, the young people are going to have to be taught, not put in place, and allowed to stumble until they get it right. And the only people that can teach them, are the older Christians that already know the way. The younger people will eventually put their twenty-first century ideas into the mix, but before they can add their own ideas, they must be taught the basics first of all. And if we are not going to lead and train the young people in the church, it is time for church to revisit your ministry.
Next on the list are ,
Those who preform miracles.
Those with the gift of healing
Those with diversities of tongues. But I don't have the time to cover all of those today.
Those gifts are fine and important in God's church. But there is one gift missing from this list in todays text, and not too much attention is paid to it. And that gift is those who help others. AKA helps ministry. Everybody wants to lead, but nobody wants to be in the helps ministry. The mission department does a good job in their task of working in the helps ministry. But it's time for the entire church to back up the mission department in their task of helps ministry. The mission department can not do it alone.
If this church is going to grow, it needs a strong helps ministry. And I'm not talking about the helps ministry of the nineteenth century. It's great that the mission goes to the nursing home once a month to speak to the people that are there. But it's time for the church to back them up and start sending a bus to pick up some of those people every Sunday morning, so they can not only get out of that place for a while, but also sit in the congregation and hear the word of God just like the rest of us.
Everybody in the nursing home is not bed ridden. There a lot of people in nursing homes because their biological families don't want to be bothered with them. And if we would make provisions to get these folk to church, we could add many new members to God's church. Everybody in the nursing homes and drug rehabilitation centers are not old, broken down, and of no use to God. There are a lot of good, educated, talented, and gifted people in these institutions. But no one wants to be bothered with them.
Many people from these institutions and the regular members of the church as well, will come to church with twenty-first century problems. And the church must be prepared to offer God's help in a twenty first century manner. This is not the church your grandparents attended sixty years ago. Everybody that comes into the church was not raised in the church. Everybody that goes to church, was not reared in a Christian home. And they have real heart wrenching problems that must be addressed, in order for them to make their way to God. And God is not going to come down here and bring them into His church, and address their problems. That's what He has us for.
6.
The church is just like a farm. The farmer tills the ground, and plants the seeds. He makes sure the fields are properly irrigated. But it is still God that makes the crops grow. Likewise must the church become farmers of men. We must till the ground by getting these people to church. We must plant the seeds of God's word into their hearts, and we must water that seed with our constant attentiveness to their needs. And God will make them Grow if we properly nourish them in a Godly way.
There are too many empty pews in God's house of prayer. And it's time we get about the business of filling God's house. We can not wait for the affluent folk to come and join the church. We can not wait for the other missionary baptist church rejects to come and join the church. People young and old are falling away from God's church, and it's time for us to go after them, by any means necessary. Street ministry is fine, but there are people in other places that need God as well. And the mission department cannot do this alone. It must be a church effort because we are all missionaries. We can not offer these people a song, a sermon, and a prayer, send them on their way, and expect that to be enough. We as Christians require more than that, and any new member that joins this church also needs more than that.
God is not a Sunday morning God, and He does not need just Sunday morning Christians. This is an everyday thing, and if we can not help bring hurting people to Christ, it is time to revisit our ministry.
There are many areas in the church that come under the umbrella of the helps ministry. From the parking lot attendant on up through various positions in the church. But on today, I want to take a few minutes to deal with the personal needs of God's people through the helps ministry. ( drug addiction, spousal abuse, marriage counseling, home care for the aged, youth ministry counseling, ETC). We can not think that we can only come to church on Sunday morning and worship God, go home and sit down for the next seven days just to come back and do it all over again, and think that we have done God a favor. All of the work is not just inside of the church, the real work is in the trenches, or in the personal lives and needs of God's people.
Every new member that joins this church, should have their Christian care assigned to a seasoned member of the church. The pastor can not attend to every person in the church. That's where we start our work in the helps ministry. And if you as members of the church do not want to do God's assigned work, it is time for you to revisit your ministry. These new members and a lot of the older members need someone that can contact them almost on a daily basis, to have prayer with them, and to make sure that they are alright. We do not wait until Sunday morning to nourish our natural bodies, and God's people can not wait until Sunday morning to be nourished in their spiritual bodies. People join the church, and disappear, and no one seems to care for their souls.
7.
When we get in the trenches and do God's work, sometimes we may have to put on our work clothes and get a little dirty. But if that's what it takes to win souls for Christ, then so be it. Our senior citizens in the church, should be looked after, both naturally and spiritually on a daily basis if necessary. The regular members of the church should be looked after both naturally and spiritually on a daily basis if necessary. The young people should have an older person in the church that they can talk to, even when they can not talk to their biological parents, on a daily basis if necessary. And our new members should have that same natural and spiritual care on a daily basis if necessary.
God's people are hurting, and they can not all get into the pastors office to tell him their problems, that work is also part of helps ministry. Most women do not want to go to the pastor with certain problems in life, because he is not a woman, and can not relate to certain problems of a woman. They should be able to turn to the church mothers, ministers wives, and deaconess, for advise, instead of some of these dead head women in the streets. The church mothers may be old and feeble, but they are not too old to give sound advice to the women of the church. A lot of women are having problems at home, and they perpetuate those problems by seeking advice from the wrong women outside of the church, and in some cases the wrong women inside of the church. The church mothers, ministers wives, and deaconesses are experienced women, and have been there and done that. There is not too much that any woman can tell a church mother that she has not heard or experienced before. And if their wealth of wisdom and knowledge is not shared with these younger women, the young women are left to fend for themselves, and in some cases make tragic mistakes in life that could have been avoided. Church mothers, ministers wives, and deaconess, it is time to revisit your ministry.
At this church, the men's ministry already does a good job with the men. But they can still do more. Every male teenager in this church, should have an adult male assigned to him (that's also helps ministry). I know that women can raise and advise boys, but a boy needs a man to help him to become a real man both naturally and spiritually. There are some things that a woman can not advise a boy about because she is not a man. Mothers love their sons, but those sons need the guidance of a father in order to become the best man he can be. Likewise should the older men of the church help guide the young boys and young men of the church, so that they can become the best men they can be. Some young men have problems and passions that they may be ashamed to talk to the pastor about. But the help they need should still be available to them, through personal mentors from the older men of the church. If you don't know how to text and tweet, you better learn because, young people no longer converse through verbal conversations. They converse by texting and tweeting exclusively, but if that's what it takes to keep them in line, then so be it because, their very lives and their souls are at stake. And if you are not going to help them in a twenty-first century manor, it is time to revisit your ministry.
8.
The same goes for the young girls in the church. They have problems and passions that they may be ashamed to talk to even their own mothers about. But if the wise women in the church will not help and mentor these girls, they get their information from face-book and twitter and other social media communities they visit on a daily basis. They encounter problems in life, that the pastor should not be expected to deal with. That's what he has you older, wise, and experienced women for. You middle aged and senior citizen women still remember what it was like to be a teenager. And the only way these young girls in the church are going to develop into mature Christian women, they must be mentored by experienced Christian women. Because all of them do not come from Christian homes. This work is also part of the helps ministry in the church. And if you are not going to help these young girls, stop talking about their bad behavior because, you are guilty of allowing it continue by not reaching out to them by any means necessary. Either help these young girls, or revisit your ministry.
The senior citizens of the church need help and should be cared for by the younger and middle aged Christians in the church, that is also part of helps ministry. It may require going to their home and cleaning up their house for them, it may require being their chauffeur, taking them to the store and paying their bills. They do not shop, bank, and pay their bills on-line like many of us computer savvy Christians. It may require well being checks, to make sure they are alright. It may require picking them up and taking them out to lunch, so they can get out of the house. It may require accompanying them to the doctors office. for their scheduled appointments. This is also part of the helps ministry that we as a church must attend to. And if you are not going to see to the care of your own senior citizens in the church, it is time for the young, middle aged and every able bodied member of the church, to revisit your ministry.
This is the twenty-first century, and we must become a twenty-first century church. Drug addiction is real, homosexuality is real, spousal and child abuse is real, sex abuse is real, the killing of our youth is real, kidnapping children is real, the constant incarceration of our young men is real, crime is real, and if we are going to help God's people in a twenty-first century manor, it is time to revisit our ministry. The church can no longer turn up it's spiritual nose and look down on non-Christians, with the problems they are dealing with. We can not bring them to Christ, with the attitude that they chose their own paths, and it's their problem how they deal with it. When Peter and John were on their way into the temple, and encountered the lame man asking for money, they did not walk by the man and say, that's his problem. Peter and John had a helps ministry mentality. Peter spoke up, and took him by the hand and lifted him up, and blessed him with healing, and then took the man into the temple with them. Likewise must we be towards everyone of God's children that needs our help.
9.
People with these and other types of problems, are going to start coming into the churches, because God is going to send them in. And we must be ready to deal with and address these problems in a Godly way, at any cost. There is no price that can be put on a soul. Even non-Christians are still God's children, because He created them. All of us that are currently saying we are Christians, were once sinners. Just because we did not get involved with these and other types of serious problems, even before we accepted Christ as our personal savior, we were sinners, but still God's children. And when God sends these people to us in the church, we better be prepared to help God's people, or we will stand in judgment before God for neglecting the needs of His people. And I say to you on today, that it is time for all of us to revisit our ministry.
Jesus had a helps ministry mentality. Jesus did not ignore the problems of the people that came to Him. And in some documented cases, He helped those that did not personally ask for His help.
The woman at the well asked Jesus for His help.
The man that was born blind, did not Ask Jesus for help.
When Jesus attended a wedding, and they ran out of wine, Jesus asked His mother, why are you involving me in this event? Because she was asking for His help.
When Jesus went into the synagogue to teach, the man possessed with demons did not ask Jesus for help. It was the demons talking crazy, not the man himself.
When Jesus healed Peter's mother-in-law, they asked Jesus for help.
When Jesus told Peter to let down his nets, Peter had not asked for Jesus help.
When Jesus healed the man with leprosy, the man asked for help.
When Jesus healed the paralyzed man, that was let down through the roof of the house where Jesus was teaching, the paralyzed man did not ask Jesus for help.
In all of these documented cases, we can see that Jesus had a helps ministry mentality, and He helped those that needed help, whether they asked for it or not. And the church must emulate the ministry of Jesus, if we are going to help God's people in the twenty-first century. Jesus is the one who said, these signs shall follow them that believe,
10.
“in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover."
And the gifts He was describing, were not to be used just inside of the church. They were given to use in helps ministry as well, and if we are going to take our work seriously, in the work of the Lord, it is time to revisit our ministry.
Even from the cross, Jesus continued His helps ministry, while being crucified on the cross. When the thief that knew he deserved to be crucified, asked Jesus for help. Jesus told death to stand still, because He had one more soul that needed His help. Jesus told that thief, that today you will be with me in Paradise. Jesus not only helped that thief, but he took that thief to paradise with Him. That was helps ministry in action.
When Jesus went to the cross, to give his life for our sins, we did not ask Jesus to be crucified for our sins, but He took it upon Himself to be crucified, to make a way for us to get to salvation under grace. That was helps ministry in action.
Jesus was crucified for our sins, That was helps ministry in action.
Jesus died on that cross, That was helps ministry in action..
Jesus stayed in the grave for three days, That was helps ministry in action..
Jesus rose from the grave, That was ultimate helps ministry in action..
What Jesus did for us, was to demonstrate, helps ministry in action., and we as His followers, must emulate His ministry. God is not asking, us to die to help others, He just wants us, to put helps ministry into action.
I challenge you on today, to Revisit Your Ministry. Reevaluate your skills. Reboot your spiritual computer. And return to the work of the Lord. God's people need our help. The sinners need our help. The indigent need our help. The sick need our help. The down trodden need our help. The institutionalized need our help, and the Christians need our help. Revisit Your Ministry. Prepare for the work of the lord. Make time to help others. Put on the whole armor of God, those are your work clothes. Get into the trenches, and help God's people. If we put helps ministry into action, God will do the rest. Revisit Your Ministry.
In the words of Mahalia Jackson,
If I can help somebody, As I travel along.
If I can help somebody, With a word or song.
If I can help somebody, From doing wrong.
Then My living shall not be in vain.
If I can do my duty, As a good man ought.
If I can bring back beauty, To a world up wrought.
If I can spread love's message, As the Master taught.
Then my living shall not be in vain.
I challenge you on today, to Revisit Your ministry.
Don't let your ministry, be in vain.
Revisit Your Ministry.
