Anonymous Part 4, by Pastor Rob Ketterling
All right. Well, we have enjoyed the Anonymous series. In just a minute I want to show you a video, and I wanted to have a pastoral moment with all of our campuses here and just, again, let you into a glimpse of how God speaks to me and what I go through as pastor of this church. Here's the deal. In this series, we wanted to go into a prison, and I wanted to preach an entire sermon of the series in the prison. Okay, I wanted to preach it, be able to record the whole thing, and then show it at all of our campuses on the weekend. And then I would have the weekend off, I might travel, I might be on vacation, I don't know. But it was kind of a way to do that and then have a weekend off and show everybody the sermon. That was the big plan in the series.
Well, it didn't work out. We couldn't get the multiple videos in there, we couldn't get it in time. It just didn't quite work out. And the date after we got the clearance was after this would have been served. So the team came to me and they said, "Hey, do you want to still preach in the prison?"
I'm just giving you a glimpse of what is going on. In my mind, I'm thinking, "Ah, we missed the date. You know, I've never preached in a prison before. You know, it won't matter if I preach. I won't be able to show the video, and I won't get the weekend off." And so my flesh is saying like, you know, "Here am I. Send somebody else." Okay? Can I be human for you? All right, some of you, that bothers you. All right. I don't float either, you know, on water. All right. So I'm just struggling with it. And as I'm kind of this is all going on so quick. And in the moment, all of a sudden I wanted to say you know, like, "Send one of our other team or somebody that is faithful in prison ministry."
And this what the Holy Spirit did to me. "Oh, really? Because you can't have the weekend off, you're not going to go preach to the prisoners? Oh, because it doesn't work for your schedule, you're not going to inconvenience yourself on your day off and go to the prison and preach on your day off? Oh, so that's how you're going to be; pro Christian, not just Christian serving Jesus."
Wow! Getting disciplined, all right? So immediately, as I'm ready to say no, I'm like, "I'm going. I'm going."
So I'm just giving you a glimpse into the struggle, because I know you have the same struggles. And somebody asks you to serve and you go, "Oh, it doesn't work in my schedule, it doesn't work in my time, doesn't work with this. Send somebody else." And then the Holy Spirit does the same thing to you.
I just wanted you to have a glimpse into this, and then when you see this video, I wanted you to enjoy the video. But I, just being transparent, I just didn't want you to think that your pastor was like, man, he's running at every fire. There are days that the flesh riles up in me. I have to kill the flesh just like you do. And I was just glad to serve and to be transparent. So enjoy this video where we went to the prison, all right?
[Video played]
Amen, amen. And I want to say thank you to all the people that go into the prison. And we have over 60 people that are in Lifegroups that are there ministering, and we have several people that are just going in weekly and preaching to the prisoners. And can we show our appreciation to the real heroes, the people that go in day in and day out. Thank you. Yes.
[Applause]
Now, today I want to switch gears on the Anonymous, and I want to assure you that you are not anonymous, that you are not a number, but that you matter. And in a large church like this, I really want to address this, because you may not realize this. But, you know, we count everything around River Valley. We count everything because that data gives us feedback. I want to know how many people are in Lifegroups. I want to know how many Lifegroups we have. I want to know how many students went to mid week. I want to know how many kids were in youth group. I want to know how many people gave their life to Jesus Christ. I want the data of how many people prayed with prayer teams. I want to know how many people got baptized in the Holy Spirit at our Holy Spirit retreat. I want the numbers. I want the data because the data tells the story. So every week we are getting numbers. You may not realize this as well, but our church has to fill out an annual report. In our fellowship that we are involved in, we fill out this report and tell them all the numbers because they tell a story. Okay?
And so I just want to give you a couple numbers that just came out and we just received. Leadership magazine does this, and it is pertinent in this series. They do a survey of all the growing churches in America, and they said that River Valley was the 23rd fastest growing church in the United States of America. And they just told us we are the 99th largest out of 380,000 churches in America. They said we are the 99th largest, which kind of blew my mind. And then we grew by 917 people last year. Now, those are real people that came to our church. And it's a beautiful thing to see all these people coming into the church. But I want to assure you, as the church grows, you are not a number. We count the numbers, but you are not a number. You have a name. You are not anonymous.
And I want to let you know in order to even become a member we get asked this a lot. People say, "Well, what do I need to become a member?" One of the things you have to do after fulfilling the Discover class, you need to have a pastor vouch for you. You have to be known by someone on this pastoral staff. It doesn't have to be me, okay?
Because somebody said, "Well, how in the world do you know 6500 people on a weekend? How do you know all of them?"
I said, "I don't, but somebody needs to know them."
And if you want to become a member at church, you need to be known by one of our pastors. That's why you need to join a Lifegroup, find a place to serve, or be the neighbor of a pastor, all right, so it is easier to serve. All right.
Now, with all this growth, I just want to remind you again, you are not anonymous. You are known by God. And we believe that behind every name, every name that is in our database, behind every name is a story. We believe that. Behind every name is a story. We may not fully know God's story in your life, but I want to let you know God knows your story and you are not anonymous. You matter to God.
And I want to point out from a passage of scripture that you would probably read and just gloss over. You'd just kind of like, oh, he is saying this person, this person, this person. I want to read this passage of scripture, and I want to help you to see that you are not anonymous, and I want to look at people that the apostle Paul recognized. So in Romans, chapter 16, if you have your Bibles, you can turn there. That's the only place we are going to look today. Romans 16, I want to go through there and show you a list of names and show you what is going on. The apostle Paul is having a farewell. He's closing out the letter, and as he is writing to these people, he lists all these names. He lists actually 27 names of people that he's greeting, and then he lists eight more people that he is sending greetings through himself to these people. And as we look at their names and look at their meanings and look at what's going on behind the scenes with these names, as people, theologians and experts have put this all together, they give us a glimpse of the church that shows us that people are not anonymous, that they are making a difference, that the apostle Paul recognized it, and we should understand this and take a look at this.
I want to let you know that I got a ton of this material from Glen Menzies, who heads the theology department at North Central University maybe some of you had him for class and also Dr. Wood, the superintendent of the Assemblies of God. We were in a Bible study together, and I said, "This is exactly what I'm looking for for our series." And I said, "I'm going to use this material, and I promise to give you credit." So there I did it, all right?
So now these names that are here, I want to just jump right into it, chapter 16, verse 1. The first one by the way, I'm going to butcher their names, okay? I may not get all their names right. And I thought about really studying and making sure I perfectly pronounce all their names, but I knew most of you didn't know how to pronounce them anyway, so I didn't sweat it. All right, if you know their names, you can go around and correct it later.
But verse 1, chapter 16, it says, I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church in Cenchreae. It's a port city of Corinth. And he says, I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of his people and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been the benefactor of many people, including me.
So the first person in chapter 16, Paul think about this. Paul has been writing some amazing deep theology. And if you've studied Romans, Romans is loaded with things about God and deep theology. And, you know, when people say, "I want the deeper things of God," I mean chapters 1 through 15 Paul is going for it. He is teaching some amazing, incredible insights into God. And then in chapter 16, it is not just a throwaway chapter where like, okay, now he is saying bye to all his friends. There is really something going on here that we can grab hold of.
And Phoebe, her name means bright and radiant. And it is interesting that Paul is basically filling out a reference form for Phoebe. Have you ever had to fill out a reference form for somebody? You look at it on your desk. "Oh, I got to fill this out. All right."
And Paul is saying, "Phoebe is a good person. Phoebe is good and I'm vouching for Phoebe. Phoebe is an amazing lady." And he said she's a deacon.
Now, I want to let you know this, the King James Version, when they translated the Bible into King James, the guys that were doing that were staring at that and they couldn't do it. They couldn't call Phoebe a deacon, so they just said, "Phoebe, a servant." So if you have a King James Version Bible, it says "Phoebe, a servant." If you look in the new NIV, they actually have given her the credit because the apostle Paul says, "Hey, there is a lady, and she's not anonymous. She was a deacon." Okay?
Now I just want to let you know there is going to be a trend throughout the chapter 16, and Paul is going to give a lot of praise and a lot of credits to ladies. Okay? He's going to let you know and he's going to let me know that ladies are growing the church, they are leading in the church. And Phoebe has the exact same term as Timothy and Apollos. He's saying Phoebe is a deacon and this is the real deal. So he's says, "Deal with it. She was a deacon."
Okay, now in addition to that he says she was a benefactor, and he says this lady has some serious money and she really blessed the church with her money. And he says, "You know what? You may not realize this, but I know it and God knows it; Phoebe has been serving as a deacon taking care of people in the church, and she has really been using her money and been a benefactor." If it was in our terms, we would say Phoebe was a Kingdom Builder. Phoebe was a Kingdom Builder, really giving her wealth and serving. This lady made a difference and she is not anonymous.
And maybe you are here and you're saying, "Well, I wonder if my gift makes a difference." Your gift makes a difference. And I'll tell you this, part Minnesotan, part just I struggle with this; we don't go chasing after rich people at River Valley. We thank God for people that are rich at River Valley. But you will not see me chasing after rich people saying we want to name a building after you or something like that if you give a donation. We want you to use your gift. We will acknowledge that you use your gift of giving. We are thankful for that gift of giving. We say we'd rather have you get that account in heaven. But don't just think like, "Well, at other churches they chased me more than they chase me here." Realize the Holy Spirit is chasing you, and you can use your gift. And if it is anonymous, God is keeping track of it and he says well done. Okay? So Phoebe was that type of Kingdom Builder.
Moving on to the second and third. I have got all these people, and I'm looking at that and I realize how long the service is, and I'm thinking I'm feeling a bonus service coming on. All right, I have to figure this out on the fly. Pray for me. All right. The second and third people in this chapter, because he names 27, Priscilla and Aquila. He says, Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my co workers in Christ Jesus. They risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them. Greet also the church that meets at their house.
Okay, so we have got these two people, Priscilla and Aquila, and they work with Paul. They travel with Paul. We see in Acts that they travel with him. They work with him. They have a house church. So they are like Lifegroup leaders and they are taking care of care ministry, and they go on global teams with Paul, and they are serving with, they're working. These two are exceptionally committed.
And I thank God for people in our church that are exceptionally committed. It seems like you're all, you know, yes, Lifegroups, yes, Global Teams, yes, serving, yes, we are going, what else can we do? And when I'm with these types of people in our church we have these types of people I always walk away in awe. I'm in awe of people that are this aggressive, that are like we are going to check all the boxes, we are there with you, we are for you, we are doing it. As a matter of fact, the apostle Paul says these two have "risked their lives for me." They risked their lives for me.
And I know there are people in this church that you say, "I would risk my life for some of the pastors in this church. I'm committed to the vision of what God is doing and I'm there. I would risk my very life." And I just can tell you as a pastor, wow, I just feel the love when you know somebody is that committed and they are in it with you.
As a matter of fact, you may not know this, but in our church our deacons pray for your pastors every month, and each deacon is assigned to a pastor. And they go throughout our church and recruit people in our church to pray for us each month, a new family or single to pray for us every single month. And then we get that letter or card or email, and it says, "Hey, we are the family that's praying for you this month." I thank God for the people that say, "We are doing it, we are in there with you, we are there with you, we support you, we'd lay down our life to help complete the mission and vision of Jesus."
It's a beautiful thing. This is a husband and wife team. And I want to tell you that the lady's name is Priscilla and the guy's name is Aquila, okay? Now this is very interesting, four of the six times that these two are mentioned they are always mentioned together. Four of the six times the apostle Paul mentions the wife first. Okay, again, this is significant. He is saying, "Ladies, we know you have giftings. We know there are strong women in the church." If you're married to a strong woman just nod your head. All right. And he says, "I know there are strong ladies in this church, and I thank God for the way that Priscilla and Aquila, together as a team, are making a difference. And the emphasis is really on Priscilla. Like, Priscilla is doing it, she is leading, and Aquila is right there by her side. But there is a gifting, there is an anointing on her that it is obvious that people have flipped it and they say her name first. They don't mean to discredit him, but they are really giving her the credit that is due saying, really, seriously, if you want to know why the good is going on in this household, it is because that lady is stepping to the front and really making it happen. And we thank God for ladies that step to the front and minister together. I thank God for couples that minister together.
So we go on and he has another one with an interesting name. Epenetus. He says, Greet my dear friend Epenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in the province of Asia. Now Epenetus' name means worthy of praise, and he was the first convert, the very first convert. And you can imagine, he's got to lead somebody to faith to be their first person. And Paul says, "Epenetus was the first person that I led to faith in Jesus Christ. Thank God for that one." You know, you got the first one in.
And I will say this, in 2015 our church is going to celebrate its 20th anniversary. It is amazing. We are going to celebrate our 20th anniversary, and I want you to just mark it down. September 18, 2015. That week we are going to have a party to celebrate 20 years. As I thought about that with that party coming up next year, I thank God for the people that were the first ones in. I thank God when I said God gave me a vision to start a church we met in a school. We met in Shannon Park Elementary. We met in Shannon Park Elementary. We didn't even have rooms for the kids. The school wouldn't rent us rooms. They rented us the gymnasium. So we had two thirds of the gymnasium was church, one third was children's church. The nursery, the toddlers and all that and the preschool was in the hallway. And parents still let us watch their kids. They must have been desperate for a baby sitter, that's all I'm thinking, you know. I'm going to tell you this. As much as I progressed as a preacher, I was horrible back then. I was horrible. I used to say to people when I'd preach, "Guys, I'm going to get better. Stick with me. I'm going to get better, okay? Just let's love each other and let's realize we are going to do something for God."
And I've just got to say this, if you are the Epenetus in this church, thank you. Thank you that you believed when there was nothing here, when there was so little, when there was just stumbling, when there was just it was rough. It was rough. And we were in the gym and the kids would cheer, and I'd have to repeat the line over again. And kids would escape from the hallway, and I mean I'm like, "Could somebody please grab that little kid and not quit the church? All right, all right. Good." I mean thank God for you. There were years we did setup and teardown, setup and teardown. Some people had to get up at 5:00 a.m. and do portable church and start the truck. And I thank God for the people that were the first ones in, and I want to say this: God will reward you. You are not anonymous. I may not always have the opportunity to say thank you. And in a crowd of 6500 you may think, "Where were these people when it was tough?" Okay, some of them didn't even know about Jesus back then. I thank God that you were the first ones in.
Can we just here and at all of our campuses thank God for all the people that were Epenetus, the first ones in? It's all good.
[Applause]
Definitely doing a bonus sermon. Don't get nervous now, all right? We've got 27 names and I'm on five, all right, so we will do a bonus sermon.
Number five, he said, Greet Mary, who worked very for hard for you. And it's interesting; that's all we know. All we know about this from Paul is she's just a hard worker. In every church there are just hard workers. You don't hold a title of deacon or ministry director or elder, you're just a hard worker. And Paul is like, "You're not anonymous." You're the Mary, you're the hard worker. We thank God for hard workers that come in here. And I wrote this down. You may not hold a title, but we see you holding a towel. We see you holding a towel. And leaders see all the hard workers holding the towel, that washed the feet of the least of these, and go in the trenches with no thanks, no fanfare, but you serve faithfully day in day out.
I just want to I'm giving some thanks in this sermon. You may not realize this, but years ago my mom and dad, Bob and Isabel Ketterling my dad has gone on to be with the Lord. But they cooked a meal for our church on mid week Wednesday night. They would cook it at home. They would cook it at home and then bring it to church and serve everybody on Wednesday night, sometimes like a turkey dinner, then put all the dishes back in their car and then wash the dishes at home. And there have been people like that throughout the history of our church that are like, "I bring the dishes home. I stayed late and vacuumed. I sacrificed. My car got a dent or a ding. This happened, that happened. I'm just a hard worker. I don't complain. I do it."
And I want to say this. If you are a leader in this church, let's say thank you to all the Marys that are out there just being faithful. Leaders, use your verbal attaboy, like, "Good job. I see you serving."
Every time I pull up to one of our campuses and I see people out there in the parking lot and I see them in the vest, I stop the car. I roll down the window, I'm like, "Thank you. Thank you for being the first friendly people we see. Thank you." And sometimes it is cold. I'm like, "Thank you. It is even cold and you're doing this. Thank you for doing this. We are so grateful for that." We ought to walk around giving thanks, saying, hey, we see the Marys. We see the people that are doing this.
Six and seven are Andronicus and Junia. He said, Greet Andronicus and Junia, my fellow Jews who have been in prison with me. They are outstanding among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was. I just want to let you know, again, in all likelihood this is a married couple. It's a guy's name and a woman's name. And wait for it: she was an apostle. She was an apostle. That's what it says there. It says she was an apostle. That means that she and her husband went to unreached people groups that did not know the name of Jesus and started to set up a church. He didn't say one was an apostle and one wasn't. Apostles. He said right there, he said, "They are outstanding." He says among the apostles they were outstanding, and he said, "They were in the faith before I was. Before I even got in on Christianity, they were in on the faith."
And I thank God for the people that were in on the faith, that built it before I got there. And I know that just naming a few names will get me in trouble, because I know there are too many names to mention. But as I was praying about it, I just said before this church was ever you know, before I ever started pastoring, the Selchows and the Watschkes and the Demoulins and the Toners, these families poured into me, and they are a foundation of what you see now with multisite. And there were many, many others. I know I can't name them all. But there are people that were there that were apostles that started the church before there ever was a church, from nothing. And so we are going to do this, and I thank God for them that they laid the foundation. And Paul is just saying thank God for them. Thank God for them.
Oh, man, one more, and then I definitely will go do more and do another sermon. You will have to watch it online. But number eight, here is a name that I'll just butcher. Greet Ampliatus, my dear friend in the Lord. And here is the thing I just want to say about this. It says, "Dear friend." "Dear friend." I mean, here is an interesting thing. It doesn't even say that he does any work. It just says he's a dear friend. And it is speculated this guy was physically disadvantaged, that this guy was physically disadvantaged and just couldn't do any work. So he is saying, hey, he's an encouragement to the body and he is not anonymous. Sometimes you think, "Well, I can't do this, I can't do that, I'm not of any value. I'm anonymous. God doesn't care." First of all, I can say this, I've seen some physically disadvantaged people do some absolutely incredible things around our church. I thank God every time I go to our Apple Valley campus and I see Stevie out at the Welcome Center smiling at me, and he had a stroke. He just goes and travels speaking about that. And he's in our church, and if you need a smile, just go up to Steve. And he's on the front row amening me. And I just thank God for people like Stevie that say, "My disadvantage will not keep me on the sideline. I'm finding something to do." And I thank God for that.
And I just thank God for people get this if you're in your struggle, you're saying, "I can't even do the Welcome Center. You don't know how I'm disadvantaged. I can't do it. I've got this limit or this limit." Can I just say this? Just by showing up you minister to the body. Just by showing up when the snow starts to fall and temptation comes to people that could easily get up and on their own two legs walk out and get in their SUV with heated seats and make it to church, and the devil says, "Well, it's snowing, you know, and it's cold, online is a pretty good option," they are going to think of you. They are going to think of you making your way here, getting out of your special vehicle and making your way into church come rain, come snow, come whatever, and they are going to think of you and you're going to be an encouragement. You're going to be an encouragement. You're not anonymous. Every single person matters.
So let me jump to the end of this here. I believe this; that we are the church. As I look at this list, Paul lists all these names, and he says we are the church. We don't go to church. We are the church. We are the church. And he says these people are using their gifts, and he says there is a place for everyone. Everyone has a place. Everyone does ministry. It's all different. And he goes through the list and he's trying to let them know they are not anonymous. They are not anonymous. God is using them. And I want to let you know whether you're a couple, whether you're a single, whether you're a guy, whether you're a lady, God is saying, "I'm using you to build my church and you are not anonymous." And no matter how big a church grows, you are never a number. You are never anonymous to the One that really matters. You may just do a simple thing. You may be Mary, the hard worker, but you are not anonymous.
And it's easy to take people for granted. That's why I believe Paul ends this chapter with, "Greet these people with a holy kiss." He is not just trying to say, hey, let's kiss everybody. He was trying to say, "Let's not take these people for granted. Let's realize that everybody has a place in the body. Everybody is doing something, and they are not anonymous. They matter. They are making a difference."
And I believe this. You're not a number; you're someone that we count on. You're not a number; you're someone that we count on. This church is committed to discipling you, helping you grow, letting you use your gifts and talents, and saying, you know what, you will be prayed for. You are not anonymous.
One of my highlights every Tuesday I want to let you know this our pastors pray over thirty names of people in our church. Thirty names, thirty families. And we get through there. We rotate. We used to have ten, and then the church grew, and we went to twenty every Tuesday. Then we went to thirty every Tuesday. Now we might need to go thirty per campus every Tuesday. But here's the deal, it's a joy to pray over those names. It's a joy to lift you before the Father. And it's a joy to say we get to do work together. We get to build his kingdom together. You are not anonymous. So receive the kiss of God. Receive the kiss of God. He says you are not anonymous. Your labor is not in vain. Don't let the enemy use that against you to get you to stop. You are not anonymous.
So, Lord, I just pray right now that you would help us. Paul had an amazing list of names in Romans 16 that help us see that people do different works in different stations of life, and you use all of us, Lord, for your glory and for your honor. Help us to realize that we are not anonymous. And as this church grows, I pray against anything that says they are just a number. The heart of the pastors here is that every person matters. The heart of the leaders of this church is that every person matters. And whether they ever get praised publicly, we know, God, that you write down everything they've done. You see every deed they do. You see even the cup of cold water that they give in your name, and you're keeping a record of it. You're going to reward every work that's done.
And I thank you, Lord Jesus, for the people that build your church. For the people that say we'll reach the next one and the next one and the next one. Thank you, God, because behind every name there is a story, and we thank God that every story gives glory to your name, the name that really matters.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen and amen.
