Partnering with God Through Ministry
Chuck Sligh
NOTE: BUY AND USE THESE PROPS: 5 loaves (round, Middle-East style if available) of bread and 2 fishes
November 16, 2014
(A PowerPoint slide presentation is available for this sermon upon request by emailing me at chucksligh@hotmail.com.
TEXT: Please turn in your Bibles to Matthew 14.
INTRODUCTION
I’m going to be up front with you this morning and let you know what I’m going to do. Today I want to use all my powers of persuasion to persuade as many of you as possible to get out of the bleachers and off the sidelines and into the game of what’s going on in the life of GBC.
By the way, they’re locking the doors right now, so there’s no point in trying to escape! But seriously, I just want to do everything I can to convince you to get involved at GBC.
OUR GOALS AND MEANS TO REACH OUR GOALS AT GBC
Here at Grace Baptist Church, we have five overarching goals for each person who walks through the doors of our church, and they’re represented by this chart:
1) First, that you come to KNOW Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior.
The most important decision you will ever make in your life is be saved, and one of the reasons we’re here as a church is to show you how to have a relationship with Christ.
We mention this often in our Morning Worship Service, but we’re ALWAYS available to answer questions about salvation—after any service or anytime in the week.
2) Our second goal is for you to WORSHIP God. – Though we should worship God every time we meet, the most impactful venue for worship at Grace is in the Morning Worship Service.
3) Our third goal is for each of you to learn and obey God’s Word, the essence of discipleship. We’re trying to turn non-believers and believers into dynamic disciples of Christ through practical and doctrinal teaching from God’s Word. We try to integrate discipleship into every service, activity or program in the church, but the venues where this happens most naturally are in our PM Service, Sunday School (where there are classes for all ages), and in our homegroups. Every Christian needs to grow, and we grow by learning and applying God’s Word. Commitment to these venues will help you grow in Christ, challenge you in your faith and help keep you from sin and backsliding.
4) Our fourth goal is to build close, strong relationships between believers in small groups through studying God’s Word together, encouraging one another, serving one another, and being accountable to one another. – Surely, whenever we meet together, we want to strengthen our relationships with one another, but the best and most impactful venues for this goal are in our homegroups and small group Bible studies.
5) Finally, we want every one of you to be serve God and others in ministry by using your gifts, talents and abilities in order to build the body up in faith.
How can we reach these goals?—We can reach them by what I call “Growth Vehicles.”
What are the Growth Vehicles that will drive us to our goals:
• First is RELATIONSHIP
The first key is to encourage every one of you to get the issue of your salvation settled.
As I said, we’re here 24/7 to help you come to a living faith in Jesus Christ.
• Second is MEMBERSHIP – We believe that it is God’s will that every believer should join a local church wherever they live and be involved in it.
• Third is PARTNERSHIP – Encouraging each member to faithfully attend these ministry venues so you can reach these goals in your lives.
• Fourth is STEWARDSHIP – Not being part of any denomination or fellowship, this church itself receives no support from outside the church. It takes money to pay the mortgage, the utilities, pastoral salary, teaching curricula, sound and media equipment, cleaning supplies, office supplies, and many other expenses. Only as God’s people take on their responsibility to support their church with their tithes and offerings, we can do what God has called us to do, and you grow personally in faith and generosity.
• The fifth growth vehicle is OWNERSHIP. – When you SERVE in your church, you feel a certain degree of ownership of it. You feel you have a greater stake in its success. It’s YOUR church—the place you serve in and labor for the Lord in.
• The final growth vehicle is through OUTREACH. – How can those without Christ find forgiveness and freedom, and how can those who have dropped out of church hear about a church that wants them to reconnect with God? By people like you who take the Great Commission personally and go out into the community and tell others about Christ, your faith, your church.
FOCUS ON MINISTRY
Now it’s that fifth goal that I’m going to zero in on today because you’re not going to grow as a Christian as long as you are only a spiritual “consumer” versus becoming a spiritual “producer.” Since we started Grace Baptist Church in 2003, what success we’ve experienced is because of people who believed in our mission and invested themselves and their resources and their time and their talents to see God change people’s lives—to save them from sin, to give them purpose in life, to transform their hearts and their actions and their attitudes.
These spiritual “producers” have said “I’m not going to just show up for the morning worship once a week and just drop some money in the plate; I’m willing to overlay a little of my time with the strategy of my local church”—and consequently, God has done some amazing things!
Listen, success for us is not about coming to hear a popular preacher; or seeing how many people we can pack in here on Sunday morning; or having a fancy building.
• Success for us is that guy who hasn’t been to church since he was a teen, and he’s been invited to our church a dozen times, and one Sunday he just decides to come and he drives into the parking lot and walks in the church and people are welcoming.
Well, he’s probably thinking, “Is this some kind of a cult?” People are happy, and he’s thinking, “Nobody’s really that happy!”
Somebody gives him a bulletin at the door and they’re friendly and normal and nobody’s eyes are glazed over, and nobody’s twitching and the music isn’t creepy, or too old fashioned, like listen to Bing Crosby, but lively and joyful and current.
Then he looks across and sees somebody he knows from work who comes over to talk to him, and he thinks, “That’s cool. This guy has integrity at work. He’s real!”
Then he hears the preaching, and he maybe he doesn’t buy into everything he heard in the sermon, but he thought it was engaging and interesting and well-thought-out, and the music was interesting and he says, “Hey, I’d come back to that.”
That couldn’t happen without those greeters, all those over-friendly people, and those worship leaders committed to worshipful music done with excellence. So he does come back, and one day he hears about his condition before God and he comes to God with repentance and faith in God.
• Success is that 25-year old mom who grew up in church but got away from God and she’s not connected to any believers, and she experiencing problems in her marriage because it isn’t built on God’s Word.
Then somebody invites her to Grace and she shows up and all of a sudden she just feels something, and she tears up—and the service hasn’t even started yet! The sermon is both encouraging and convicting and she has a spark of something she hasn’t had in a long time—a spark of a desire to please God again.
Her kids come out of Sunday School and K.I.D.S. Church and say, “Mommy, I LIKE this church. Can we come back again?”
Then she comes to one of our homegroups and she finds people who love her, who care about her struggles, who want to help her and strengthen her faith, and who’ll reach out to her husband.
That couldn’t happen without all those serving in the church service, the teachers teaching her kids, and the homegroup leaders and hosts opening their homes and giving their time.
• Success is that couple that has just been saved, or maybe just got right with God, whose Christianity in the past never exceeded a weekly nod to God by attending the morning service. Beyond that, God was peripheral to their lives. They’re challenged to attend the PM service to learn God’s Word in a teaching format.
And they said, “Man I need to know this stuff; I want to GROW in Christ, and I want to learn and be informed as a Christian and know how to live successfully the Christian life and be able to give answers for what I believe.” So they start coming to the Sunday night services.
You see, success at Grace has never been about how many people we could pack into this room. Success is about partnering with God to engage in people’s lives ONE BY ONE to bring them to Him, and bring them closer to Him, and bring them closer to spiritual maturity. All these things happen when God works through PEOPLE who partner with God to serve Him in their local church.
Why do people do that? Why do people give their time and use their talents to be involved in their church like that? Why would all kinds of people from all walks of life —single soldiers, career military families, civilians, couples, singles, parents—volunteer in their local church?
A LOOK AT THE TEXT
Let’s see why in our text today in Matthew 14, beginning in verse 13:
Matthew 14:13-14 – “When Jesus heard of it [that is, the death of John the Baptist described in the previous verses], he departed thence by ship into a desert place apart [so Jesus tried to get away to be alone for awhile]: and when the people had heard thereof, they followed him on foot out of the cities. [The people wouldn’t leave him alone. They basically followed on the bank as the boat floated down.] 14 And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick. [Despite the fact that He was tired and had just heard the news of his cousin’s death, Jesus went right back into ministry mode.]
Now look at verse 15 – “And when it was evening, his disciples came to him, saying, This is a desert place, and the time is now past; send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves victuals.”
So the disciples see that they’re way out in the desert and the sun is going down and there are thousands of people walking around, and they’re starting to get worried. So they say, “Uh, Master, it’s getting late, and the sun’s going down and we’re going to be out here in the middle of nowhere with thousands of people...so these people need to GO HOME; they’re going to need something to eat.”
Verse 16 – “But Jesus said to them, They need not depart; give ye them to eat.” Now here’s where the drama comes in. Notice that Jesus doesn’t argue about the need. These people just followed Him from one place to the other and Jesus doesn’t argue that there are thousands of people who need to eat. The question is WHERE they’re going to eat. There’s no McDonald’s or DFAC close by, and they’re way away from home. And Jesus says, “They don’t need to go away to eat”—and He looks at His disciples and says, “You do it. You feed them.”
Imagine their incredulous looks on their faces as we read verse 17 – “And they say unto him, We have here but five loaves, and two fishes.” They’re painfully aware of their inadequacy and inability—just like many of you may feel about serving and ministering for the Lord. They’re saying, “Lord, we don’t have what it takes. We’re not arguing about the NEED. We’re just saying we don’t have what we need to do what You’ve asked.”
Now Verse 18 is where it gets interesting. – “He said, Bring them hither to me.” – Jesus says, “Give me that. Let me see what you’ve got. Bring me what you have. Let me have your full capacity. Let me touch what you think is not enough to get the job done.”
Now look at verse 19-21 – “And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. 20 And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full. 21 And they that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside women and children.”
Now you’ve got to picture this: Jesus breaks the bread and He gives the pieces to the disciples, and they’re thinking, “Uh, okay. What am I supposed to do with this?”
John says, “Surely you don’t want me to serve this. Hey I’m not going first. Peter you go first. I’m not going to look like an idiot; that’s you’re department.” (Now I know that’s not what you read in your Bible, but it’s in the original Greek. [WINK])
And Jesus says a blessing and gives the bread and the fish to the disciples and they hand them out to the people piece by piece.
Now here’s the principle I want you to see, and I cannot overemphasize its importance.… Here’s a dynamic God has used for 2000 years to accomplish His will by using PEOPLE in the local church. The disciples took what they had—little and seemingly inadequate though it was—and they did with it the only thing they could do and then Jesus intervened and did what only HE could do, and something that was beyond their capability happened.
The short version is: They did what they knew to do; He did what only He could do.
And you know what folks?—This is how you got here today, or how you got where you are. God used somebody—some PERSON—to get you where you are in your life. I don’t know your story individually, but let me tell you a little bit of it: somebody in your past—whether they invited you to church, or invited you to a Bible study, or started a conversation about God or Christ with you, or answered some questions for you, or invited your kids to church—SOMEBODY in your life did something very SIMPLE, something very ORDINARY, something that basically required of them a little time and effort—they did what THEY could do, and God used that little service for Him and did what only HE could do in your life.
And today you look back on that relationship, that confirmation of some truth, that conversation, that sermon, that CD, that meal—whatever it was—and you look back and say, “I found Christ, or I got right with God, or I’m more connected with God and His church now or I have a passion for Jesus and a passion for reading the Bible, and the only way I can explain it is that SOMEBODY invested some time in my life”—and then GOD did something in your heart!
Somebody did what THEY could do, and then God did what only He could do.
This is how the local church has grown from the beginning. This is the secret of ministry. This is a secret to life-change and the disciples experienced it first hand. They turned toward that massive crowd and did what they could do, and Jesus did what only He could do.
CONCLUSION
You know what, folks: that’s what God wants to do in every one of your lives. Over the last few months, over 50% of our congregation PCSed out of our church. Not all of them were involved in ministry, but we lost a very high number of our ministry base that made this church run.
Now our numbers are swelling again, but we have only a skeleton crew doing the job they did. We need many, MANY of you to do what the disciples did in our text. We need many of you to say, “You know what Chuck, I’m not EDUCATED in this; I’m not EQUIPPED in this; I don’t have TIME for this; I DON’T KNOW HOW; it’s intimidating; it’s overwhelming; I have a hard time even finding Matthew in the Bible, Chuck; I mean I’m just a STARTER in the Christian life; a BEGINNER; or I’ve been there, done that and burned out…”
I don’t know what you may be saying to yourself now, but we need many of you to say, “I’ll do what I can do in my church and I’ll trust GOD to do what only HE can do.” And if you’ll do that, I can guarantee you that God will do work through you because this is how our heavenly Father has grown His church for the last 2000 years.
We need some men and women who are willing to carve out an hour one Sunday a month, or bi-weekly or weekly (your call), to sit at a table with some kids in a K.I.D.S. Church class and teach them the Bible stories that will be the anchors for their souls for all their lives.
You say, “I don’t’ know how to do that.” – Nobody does when they first try! But all you have to do is do what YOU do know how to do, and do the best you can, and watch God take your mundane work and bless it and make something great out of it. We need some men and some women who’ll be the face that comes to mind when these kids later on think about the first person who first taught them these stories.
Illus. – All through my childhood and teen years, I remember men and women who poured their lives into us kids as I was growing up. It wasn’t easy, because I’ll be honest: we were rambunctious, mischievous and full of energy…and sometimes we really didn’t want to be there. I mean they called it Sunday SCHOOL right? Whoever thought of putting the words “Sunday” and “school” together and selling it to kids wasn’t too bright, you know what I mean? “Oh great, I get to go to school SIX days of the week now.”
But you know what?—I remember that Mrs. Campbell showed up week after week in my primary Sunday School class, and Mr. Davis showed up in the junior boys class every week, and you know what?—I don’t remember A SINGLE THING either one of them said; I don’t remember if they were gifted teachers or lousy; I don’t remember if they were smart or not too bright.
What I do remember is they SHOWED UP; they WERE THERE and though they had everything going against them—our own inherent sinful nature; Satan; imperfect parents; erring preachers; a name for a kids program called “Sunday School”— all that going against them…but here’s the thing: they showed up and did what they knew to do; and GOD showed up and did what only He could do.
Would you join our team and cease being a spiritual consumer in the church and start being a spiritual producer?
We also need some people who’ll work once a month in the nursery, and be responsible to show up on the service time they sign up for or switch with someone if they can’t make it—and BE THERE to make sure our babies are dry and clean and fed and happy.
You say, “Well, that’s rather ordinary. What’s so great or spiritual about THAT?” Humble service is the most spiritual service there is.
Jesus said, “… whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister: And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all. For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:43b-45)
The greatest, most spiritual people in the church are the toilet cleaners, the church cleaners, the baby-bottom-wipers, the snotty nose kid wipers, the menial task people, the ones who come out on a work day and get dirty for the Lord’s cause. Those are some of the spiritual giants of our church and any church. God can take your mundane work for Him and bless it and make it something great. In fact, it already is great in the sight of Jesus, for He said that he who is the servant of all is the chiefest—the number one person—in His book.
We need people who’ll say when they come to church, “I’m not just coming to sit and wait for someone to minister to me. I’m going to go around and welcome others. I’m going to mill around and meet and greet. I’m going to be interested in others and find out where they’re from and where they work and where their kids attend school and where they live.” – In other words you’re going to get out of your self-centered existence and think of OTHERS.
We need you to do what men and women have done for generations and what many people have done in this church from day one—to give of their time and to use the talent they have to do what they can do so that God can do what only He can do in people’s lives. Would you be willing to do what I know that you can do, and watch God do through you what only HE can do, which is change a heart and change a life? I challenge you to get into the bread and fish business for the Lord. Do what you can do for God…and watch God do through you what only HE can do.
(GO OVER MINISTRY STRATEGIC MINISTRY VOLUNTEER FORM.)
