HOW TO GET GOD’S ON-GOING CARE FOR ME
Exodus 18:9-27
You will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation Ex.19:6 is our theme for the year, let’s flesh that out a little. One cannot become "priests" and "holy" without help. How do we get this help so that when we do serve as God envisioned us to be i.e. his chosen people, a royal priesthood, belonging to Him and don’t get burnt out at the same time? We need God on-going care if we are to survive the tumult and toss and turns that are to come in a broken world we live in.
CELEBRATION:
Praise God’s salvation for you and others
Praise be to the LORD, who rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians and of Pharaoh, and who rescued the people… Exodus 18:10
There is a thirst for a BIG celebration in A BIG WAY: see in the way millions are tuned in Y2K celebrations, World Cup Soccer, Grammy awards, people are spending time and money to celebrate, aren’t they?
Let me submit to you a reason to celebrate. Not just for a one time event but an event that has everlasting impact? Where we are all winners, where we all can make acceptance speeches: where we don’t need to thank members of the academy, where we all make the jackpot, where we all get married to greatest Lover who died for us to show us His love… “I thank God, praise God” and the audience of One, hears it and applauds and sings for joy over us. Here we have the most astounding thing that God would love sinners and rescue them, that is why we celebrate God in worship, BUT do we celebrate??
Center on God’s rescuing hand. Has he not saved us, just as surely as God saved Moses and Israel from the clutches of Egypt?
When we celebrate God, and see His redemptive love, His rescue effort, triumph over evil we see God caring for u and I. He cared enough to be squished into tiny little insignificant human form for me.
Revisit the story of love, story of grace, be lost in wonder in awe and worship Him again in a big way.
Get God’s ongoing care by listening how He has come through for us, for all.
Never boring for me to tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love.
Tell the story of salvation: Is this not reason why we’re together.
Worship/Celebrate
SHEPERDING:
Reliance on one celebrity pastor is wrong
“What is this you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge, while all these people stand around you from morning till evening?”… “What you are doing is not good…you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you, you cannot handle it alone.” V.14, 17 (NIV)
In this situation there is CRISIS of care, meeting needs of people lined up from sunup to sundown,
produce frustration, - judged NOT GOOD! Reliance on one celebrity, the expert who know it
all is wrong. What that produces is burnout, you will wear self out. What Moses did is
so inefficient and wasteful. He ends up a loser, and everyone loses, no one wins. It is the same with us today.
Culture taught us the way go, the way of the celebrity
Pay millions to entertainers, superstars, to meet our needs, but do they deliver maybe for
the length of the song, performance on stage, on the playing field? But after that little burst, all go home empty as well!
Yet millions of people buy into it - celebrities are all running away to hide in million
dollar mansions, with paid body guards, surveillance systems,
those who think they can hide eventually wear themselves out, check in at some insane asylum, commit suicide, take drugs, get lost in world of fantasy (see it in Jim Bakker, Jim Swaggart, Kurt Cobain, Elvis Presley)
people are wondering why don’t they care for the ordinary folks
who pay their bills. God never created us to be lone superstars, he created the church, it
is about family, not elevating one to be superstar, it is about love, meeting each other
needs. That is why when he created the church, God tells us in His word:
“But I am giving you a new command. You must love each other, just as I have loved you. If you love each other, everyone will know that you are my disciples.” John 13:34,35 (CEV)
church is people, not the pastor, or the elders, or sun. school, it’s all about people. God envisions kingdom of priests, not a kingdom of Moses! If we do change way of doing things from the cult of the celebrity to the biblical apporach, then we can change way of thinking, resulting in change in a way people feel about church, cared for, rejuvenated
let me suggest CRISIS of care, not that I find a line-up to my office everyday but look at life, not all of you are doing fine, we’re beaten down by many things, you name it we’ve got it in this congregation, but who is there to hear us, to love us, to extend God’s embrace? No one can wave a magic-wand and all problems go away. We need on-going care. Would you trust a member of your own family or some stranger? Here we are as God’s kingdom of priests, family!!
Many of you have experienced God’s help as this church started 35 years ago. You were ministered to in the German language, u felt at home, then u struggled through converting to English and have DONE well but today this neighborhood have change again - how can we make disciples of the nations around us? Use the same principle, if we are expecting everyone to be cared for in the English language only - we close the door on opportunity. It is a multi-cultural neighborhood, and we need need multiple ways to touch them for Christ. We need to change mindset of only one way to do ministry, need to pray Lord of harvest to raise up leaders, caring people who’ll go make disciples in new and different ways. One celebrity pastor will not do it in our situation! We need you all to work together or this shepherd will run out of gas! We need all of you to sign up and become family to each other to solve the crisis of care! Often the needs of a mult-ethnic church are diverse and more than likely the pastor do not have all it takes, he needs the help of entire church to extend care as a holy nation, kingdom of priests.
EDUCATION:
Prevention is better than the cure
“…you should teach them God’s laws and show them what they must do to live right.” V.20 (CEV).
Gotta change, to resolve crisis of care and Jethro proposes change and he reminds Moses of primary responsibilty. Gotta change in order to get preventative measures in place so that no one is exhausted because of the sheer titanic volume of work in caring for people. Takes time to be close enough to really hear people, takes energy to care, takes effort to get to a place where folks can share freely and be ministered to. But often like Moses, unwisely work from crisis to crisis, putting on band-aid solutions when surgery is needed before u know it, they’re back in line, line-up grows with each day. Jethro wisely counsels and directs Moses to change. Better to have preventative measures and no line-ups.
We too gotta changetoo, God will remind prime directive “Make disciples” kingdom of priests to do this. Go boldly to where few churches have gone. Not many have multi-cultural church. perhaps we will be the trend-setters. The ones others will model.
Today small groups are making impact, however it is non-Christians are cashing in on it. See them making most of it. Support groups for almost anything you can find. It is only in recent times that many more churches are doing this. So inspiring to hear of a church in our NAB circle who are using a small group of mechanics and garage owners who are Christians using their skills giving car maintenance service for single moms.
In churches on Sundays, God’s laws are often taught but where is it shown?? See how these church folks show with their car repair skills. As they became known to their community, businesses began donating shop supplies, oil etc.
God’s on-going care for me comes when I realize God put here to make a difference, in my circle of influence, with my set skills and talents. U feel tremendous fulfillment, as you serve others, you feel good too. As God’s people are doing service, taught the value of doing so, they’ll have less time to complain about "what’s in it for me." It is when they are taught to move beyond themselves they will be encouraged, equipped and empowered and so less clogging up the line-ups to Moses.
DELEGATION:
Multiplying leadership is the way to go
“…find some capable, honest men who fear God and hate bribes. Appoint them as judges over one thousand, one hundred, fifty and ten. These men can serve the people… V.21-22 (NLT)
“They will make your load lighter, because they share it with you.” V.22 (NIV)
Load lighter? That’s a dream! But it can happen, if we do listen to God’s counsel by multiplying leaders, hetting away from the cult of the celebrity.
This is legitimate work, God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but to save it. He wants to save this complaining people, He rescued them, remember?
So God sent in Jethro to have a heart to heart talk with Moses. Common sense to serve so many, you’ve gotta to SHARE the ministry so that work is being spread out and people’s needs are met.
As long as there are sinful, broken, fallen people, living in a sinful world they will be problems. Note that God did not send them all away, bunch of whiners and losers, zap them all. Moses will be free and go home, no pressure, strain or stress. Note that God did not say to just get them all superficial treatment, take a couple of pills and call me tomorrow. Real people with their real problems need real people to deal with them, and one worship service alone, one leader, one person will not cut it. Multiple leadership to multiply care.
In NT because the apostles shared the work of the ministry, when people started to complaining about the kind of care they were getting:
“God’s message spread, and many more people in Jerusalem became followers. Even a large number of priests put their faith in the Lord.”
Acts 6:7 (CEV)
Want to see Biblical way of growth and evangelism? See the needs of real people and meet them. We need visionaries and folks who could lead by being brave and take a shot at leadership. Many of us are scared, or not given a chance, or discouraged, or have self-esteem issues but we need to do things we have not done before only because we hear the call of God, beckoning us to setp up.
Who among us will step up to the plate? So we won’t tax the few but share the load and so that even the hardest to reach can even be reached when they see love and care being doled out by the volumes through committed folks who dare to make a difference.
Whay happens when godly counsel is heeded?
GOOD RESULTS:
ALL are helped when all are cared for
“If you follow this advice, and if God directs you to do so, then you will be able to endure the pressures, and all these people will go home in peace.” V. 23 (NLT)
People need to be cared for, need to have sense their needs are met and looked after. They need sense of going home in peace. They need shalom, in world that brings little rest. They need intimacy in sea of people, where it is essy to be impersonal, get lost in crowd. Any church that wants to grow and fulfill the Lord Jesus’ call to make disciples need to seriously think about the great commission and not miss out of the blessing of becoming his kingdom of priests and a holy nation. As we see, people must be with people, then the line-ups to Moses will be lessen. Will you be the people God can use to meet the very real needs of people? Cannot afford to be superficial and apply a bible verse here and there like a bandaid and expect changed lives in Christ. Jeremiah 6:14 spoke out
From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike all practice deceit. They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace’ they say, when there is no peace.
“All who have sinned…” No one in this world is fine, we struggle and Christians struggle, Christians need help. We cannot be "fine", even Paul can say he’s not fine “My friends, I want you to know what a hard time we had in Asia. Our sufferings were so horrible and so unbearable that death seem certain” (2 Cor.1:8, CEV) When was the last time you heard that from a fellow believer? Here’s Paul saying it honestly : “Please help us by praying for us.” (2 Cor.1:11, CEV).
When was the last time, you heard that? Remember Paul writing to believers, expecting them to care enough to pray and hear his troubles. What about us? What arena do we have for this? Let’s be honest Sun.am service hardly the place, we want to out of here by 12, we want a good message and a good experience, but where can we go to air out the "not so nice" stuff in us that is inevitable in a broken world that we live in.
Can you hear God’s word say:
"See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness." Hebrews 4:12,13 (NIV)
Is there no place for real people to touch real needs?
I submit to you that it is best shown where people feel at home, in small groups, where there are real people with real names with real needs. In small groups there is less chance of intimidation, less of “How dumb must I be to ask that question”, no need to show off your theological education. I invite to be vulnerable and be broken and accept God’s healing touch and Word, where folks can be real and not get shot down with criticism, “that’s so immature, unspiritual.” Make it happen, folks, just as Moses did and people can go home in peace! Is God directing you today to respond?
Will you?
In God’s plan He has provided care for me, and before God my response is
Check all that applies to you:
1. I want to be part of a small group ministry ____ (the Biblical way to grow as a disciple is to follow the way Jesus taught the Twelve)
2. I desire to start a small group ____ ( the pastoral staff will equip you with necessary training and resources)
3. I would like more information about small group ministry ____ (perhaps you are not clear about the merits of small group ministry)
4. I am not part a member of this church yet but I am willing to investigate the claims of Jesus Christ in a small group ____
5. I am already a part of small group that cares for me ______
6. Please leave me out of this, thanks! _____
