The Church: Our Ministry

We're going to be continuing our series on the church.

We'll be looking at the topic of our ministry this morning.! The church, our ministry. The ministry of the church, who's involved in the church, the mindset or the way that we should think of the church.

These are all things that I want to look at this morning. And as I was considering this topic, I just did kind of a Google search on what is the definition of ministry that led me to this definition, the act of serving others or working to advance a religious faith, often through teaching, outreach, or pastoral care.

I think through the study of this topic and considering it, we can come up with a much fuller, more biblical definition. There's 26 times in the ESV that we see the English word ministry come up, three times in the Old Testament, primarily as acts of service before God, and then 23 times in the New Testament.

The 19 of those, we see the Greek root word diakonia that is used there. This word means to provide a service, to assist, to supply.

It's an assignment. It's a duty. It's a work that's performed for another or on behalf of another. And before we move any further, I want you to know as a church that I'm so grateful for a church that ministers so well.

We have a church that is very faithful in ministry. There are many of you who daily, weekly are serving, making sure that the ministries of our church happen. You're teaching.

You're watching kids. You're filling in. You're making coffee. You're a number of things throughout the church that make things happen.

So if you are someone who is faithfully ministering, I pray this is an encouragement to you to continue in those things and to maybe be reminded why it is that we do these things. Perhaps you find yourself here this morning, a member of our church, but not actively serving anywhere.

I pray that this would be encouragement to you, that you would want to serve and be a part of the ministry that is happening, a ministry that I believe we are all called to be a part of. We'll be looking at five things this morning.

First thing I want you to write down is that ministry is fundamentally a means of service. Ministry is fundamentally a means of service. This word, diakonia, is not a word that applies status or gives authority or is used to describe professional employment.

Ministry is work performed in the service to God and for the benefit of others. It's not a title, but it is a function. It's something that we do.

And even as we translate the Bible into English, there are times that diakonia, this word that we get ministry from, is translated to describe other things because it's not a title. If you will look in your Bibles at Acts chapter 6.

Acts chapter 6, verses 1 through 4. Verse 1 of Acts chapter 6 says, Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.

Diakonia is the word there for distribution. Verse 2, And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables.

Serve. Again, diakonia. Verse 3, Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, who we will appoint to this duty.

But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the diakonia, the ministry of the word. Just in this one passage, we see this word that we get ministry from used three times to describe the distribution of goods to those that are in need, material needs being met.

We see it to describe service to others as they serve tables. We also see it in teaching and preaching the word of God. Three very different things, but all described, used, this word, diakonia, ministry.

I think it's also important to point out that the apostles here are in need of help. They're not able to fulfill all of the ministry, and so they begin to expand their team and people who are going to assist with ministry.

The ministry of the apostles was a means of service to other people. The apostles are serving people. They are serving the widows.

They are serving tables. They are praying as a part of the work of the ministry, and they are laboring in the study, the teaching, the preaching of God's word.

And when they begin to realize that they cannot do it all on their own, whether it's because of a lack of resources or time or whatever it may be, they don't stop serving people. Because I think that's our first inclination.

I don't have time. I just won't get to that. But instead, they go and they recruit more people to come and take on these ministry tasks. And I think we're tempted to think here that they are giving a level of importance to different ministry areas, but I don't think they're doing that.

I think that they're actually elevating all of ministry and saying that all of this ministry is important so much so that we can't faithfully fulfill this area. We need to recruit some people to specialize in this.

We need to get some people to come alongside us and help us with ministry. So they go and they begin to recruit people that are full of the spirit and of wisdom to come alongside them to do these ministries.

And it's because those ministries matter. All the ministry of the church is important. But we all are going to be involved in different ministries, serving people in different ways.

I'll give you an example of this just in our own context. Kathy Brotherton, our beloved children's director for a long time, is currently teaching a fifth grade girl Sunday school class.

Now, if you were to ask her about these fifth grade girls, because she said this to me, and I quote, they are totally awesome, as she would say. Only Kathy could say. They're totally awesome.

She's currently teaching these girls in a Sunday school class. However, Kathy has been hired and is on staff in order to oversee some things outside of that classroom during the Sunday school hour. But she's teaching that class because she hasn't found anyone who can full-time teach that class yet.

It's not that she doesn't want to teach that class. In fact, I've not talked to her about this, but given the choice between her other duties and teaching those girls, I promise you, she's going to teach those totally awesome girls in that fifth grade class.

But she has other things that are required of her. And she needs to spread that ministry out. Now, she's not found anybody, so you can check out the sermon early if you want to volunteer to teach fifth grade girls.

You can be done. You can fulfill your role. She's looking for someone to come alongside her, not because it's less important, but because it is vitally important to teach those girls in a Sunday school class.

She's looking for help in that. And we do this all throughout because ultimately, ministry is about serving other people, not about us.

It's not fulfilling ourselves. It's not a job raise or a pay raise. It's not a title that we use as a form of employment.

It's something we do to serve other people. Secondly, ministry involves our giftedness to the church. Ministry involves our giftedness to the church.

And in Numbers 4, 47, we see that ministry involved different kinds of labor and work in the tabernacle for the sake of other people. In 2 Timothy, in chapter 4, verse 11, Paul's at the end of his life and he says, Luke alone is with me.

Get Mark and bring him with you for he is very useful to me for ministry. So Paul's at the end of his life. He's cold. He's suffering. He's facing execution.

And he asks, will you bring Mark? Now, we don't know exactly what this ministry is for. It might be fair to say that Mark is going to meet some kind of physical requirement because Paul has just requested some physical aid.

It could be fair to say that Paul wants to train him up and send him out and send him somewhere else. We don't know exactly what this looks like. But what's interesting to me is he says, bring Mark. He's useful to me for ministry.

Well, Luke is sitting right there next to him. Why can't Luke do it? We don't know. But clearly, there is some giftedness that Mark has that Luke does not possess or is not able to do at that time.

So he needs another guy. Could be there's a skill set difference. Could be that there's a passion difference. Could be that they just need more people.

But he's requesting Mark's help because he knows he's a gifted guy and he possesses things that are useful for ministry. And our giftedness is going to look different between all of us.

In 1 Peter 4, verse 10, it says, as each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace. Verse 11, whoever speaks is one who speaks oracles of God.

Whoever serves is one who serves by the strength that God supplies. It's service to one another and all ministry matters, but all of our ministry is going to look different and that is okay.

We do this as a church staff, even among the five pastors. John does an incredible job of leading us in music. He's also an incredible preacher and teacher and does that with some regularity.

But as a part of ministry that we see in 2 Chronicles 7, 6, 8, 14, as well as passages like Ephesians 5, 19, Colossians 3, 16, we need musical leadership in the church.

And despite what he may think, Michael is not able to fulfill that ministry area. You come to our staff meeting, you would think he might be the music guy because he's always giving us music trivia and song trivia and quoting lyrics and playing videos and all kinds of stuff.

But he's not able to fulfill that ministry. He's not saying it's less important. But he knows he can't fulfill that area. He has to bring a guy along who can fulfill that area. That's why I lead our church podcast.

My dad has always said I have a face for radio. So that's why I do that part. Quite the compliment from my father. It would be a great mistake to assume or to think that everyone who is called to ministry, involved in ministry, tasked with ministry, has the same giftedness.

It's just not the reality. We're all different. We're all going to serve differently. Thirdly, ministry is from God and it is for God.

Ministry is from God and it is for God. We saw this already in 1 Peter 4. In Acts 21, 19, Paul again says here, after greeting them, he related one by one the things that God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry.

God worked in the lives of the Gentiles through the ministry of Paul. It's all from God.

It's all for God. And Paul is recognizing that for us. I want you to hear this this morning, that ministry is real human labor, but its spiritual effectiveness belongs to God.

Ministry is real human labor, but its spiritual effectiveness belongs to God. We have to recognize this in all of our ministries.

God is the source of all ministry. Insight, effectiveness, ability, longevity, whatever it may be. He's the source of those things. It's all from Him.

In a book titled The Theology of Biblical Counseling, Heath Lambert describes the work of the Holy Spirit in biblical counseling and he says, biblical counselors do not believe that the scriptures are sufficient without the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

The Bible doesn't work automatically on its own. The word of God is only effective when the spirit of God renders it effective in the lives of individuals. God has to be at work as we go forward in gospel ministry.

We cannot do it on our own. Lives are not changed by what we do, but only by what God does in them. It's true for all of our ministries.

Effectiveness is always up to the ministry of God Himself. Now we can look back at last Sunday's sermons both morning and evening. We looked at Nehemiah chapter 4 verse 9 says, we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night.

Michael described this as the tension that we feel between the work that we do and the sovereignty of God. So we don't just halfway do ministry or just hope that it will all come together somehow.

No. We pray to our God and then we go and get involved in the hard work of ministry. We do it by human labor, but we trust that it comes from God and ultimately it is for God.

This is exactly how we start our staff meetings every Monday. We begin with reading God's Word as a group and someone leads us in a devotion and we study God's Word together and then we pray to our God and then we begin the work of ministry.

We labor in ministry. We trust that it's all from God, trust it's all according to His power, to His will, to His strength and then we labor, we work, we serve in ministry.

But not only is our ministry from God and while it is in service to others, ultimately it is for God as well. 2 Corinthians 9 verse 12 it says, For the ministry of the service is not only supplying the needs of the saints, but it is also overflowing with many thanksgivings to God.

Verse 13, By their approval of the service they will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others.

In this passage Paul is explaining that the generosity of the people accomplishes more than just passing on money from one person to another or some people to another by fulfilling financial needs in somebody's life or material needs in somebody's life.

Paul is intentionally trying to connect the practical aspect of ministry with the praise and the glory of God in this passage. The Corinthians, their financial gift would accomplish two things.

It would supply material needs for the people in Jerusalem. It's also going to cause the people to give thanks to God because it's all about Him to begin with. He is our focus.

He is the reason that we do all of this. It says that they submitted, that they recognized as people who confess Christ as their Savior, they have a calling on their life and that is to be involved in the ministry, to be a part of serving others.

And this obedience to God, to the will of God is producing both generosity and is producing thanksgiving, praise, and glory to God. Michael and I were actually talking about this passage last week and he pointed out that this is a very different thing than them just writing a check and forgetting about it.

But this is joyfully participating in the ministry of God. And they're pointing all praise and glory to Him and Him alone, not for themselves but all for Him.

I think another example of this would be the Great Commission. Now, the Great Commission is not typically a passage we look at for thinking about ministry effectiveness. it's usually a missions passage but missions is a part of ministry.

In Matthew chapter 28 verse 16 it says, Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them and when they saw Him they worshipped Him but some doubted.

And Jesus came to them and He said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you and behold I am with you always to the end of the age.

There's great ministry that's getting ready to take place here that Christ has come and He is commissioning and He's sending them out to share the gospel with everyone everywhere. So we see evangelism taking place in this the spread of the gospel the growing of the church says go and make disciples.

We see in this passage worship taking place. When they saw Him they worshipped Him. We see the ordinances of the church taking place. They baptized them. We see the edification and the building up of other people around them teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

We also see that this is all from God. Jesus came and said to them all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. It's from who? It's from God. Christ came and He commissioned this work.

It's from God. And ultimately it's all for Him because in the end there's only one who will rule and reign over everyone and everything. Jesus says I am with you always to the end of the age.

He's the one who will reign supreme. Who will rule over all of us. The ministry that has been bestowed upon us has been given to us from God who serve others by human labor and it's all for God in the end.

From God through human labor and for God. Again 1 Peter 4 verse 10 I'm going to read this to you again. It says each has received a gift use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's very grace whoever speaks is one who speaks oracles of God whoever serves is one who serves by the strength that God supplies in order that in everything he continues God may be glorified through Jesus Christ to him belong glory and dominion forever and ever amen.

Our ministry is from God it's for God it's never about us it's all for his glory through Christ Jesus forever and ever and that leads us to number four ministry must be fulfilled faithfully ministry must be fulfilled faithfully there are reoccurring commands throughout scripture that calls us to finish or to fulfill our ministry and this tells us that there is a standard in which we go about our ministry we have been given a stewardship over something and there is a way that we are to go about it we cannot just halfway do ministry or do it in such a way that doesn't truly honor the Lord and I'm so grateful because there are even as I stand here there are teachers up in the adult hallway right now faithfully fulfilling their ministry all through the first hour we had adult Sunday school teachers faithfully serving and fulfilling their ministry and anytime I talk to other guys at other churches that are overseeing ministry for adults in Sunday school there are so many times that I walk away burdened but also rejoicing because we have faithful men that are teaching the

Bible week in week out that are laboring as they study and as they prepare no one's going up just halfway kind of reading the curriculum and just kind of faking it they are studying and preparing and laboring in God's word to feed you well to be faithful to the ministry in which God has given them we see that we're to fulfill our ministry we see this in Acts 20 and 24 Paul's greatest desire is that he would faithfully fulfill the ministry that's been given to him in 2nd Timothy chapter 4 Timothy is told to endure suffering to evangelize and to fulfill his ministry and 2 verses later Paul declares I have fought the good fight I have finished the race I have kept the faith he's saying he has fulfilled he has finished the ministry that he was given the ministry that he has been entrusted with Paul recognizes and shows us that ministry is not just a list of to do's but there's a responsibility that we are to steward it well in 1st

Timothy 1 Paul says in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God in which I have been entrusted verse 12 I thank him who has given me strength Christ Jesus our Lord because he judged me faithful appointing me to his service Paul tells us that he has been entrusted with a ministry from Christ that he has a standard in which he is to meet that ultimately Christ is the judge and the standard for that ministry and it's just as Michael is teaching in the same series on our head on Christ who is over our church he is the standard he's the agent of creation he's God in flesh he is our savior redeemer and he gets to set the standard in which we do ministry all for his glory Jesus speaks to this himself Matthew 24 and 45 says who then is the faithful and wise servant whom his father has set over his household to give them their food at the proper time blessed is the servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes

Christ reminds the followers that he has that he will return that one day we will face the Lord how will you be found faithfully fulfilling the ministry that's been given to you maybe halfway doing the ministry that's been given to you maybe not participating in ministry at all how will you be found when you face Christ whether through death or through his return will you be found faithfully fulfilling the ministry that he has called all of us to ministry is going to take some work it's going to be difficult this calling that we all have requires endurance Galatians 6 9 let us not grow weary of doing good for in due season we will reap if we do not give up 2 Timothy 2 3 share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus there's going to be difficulty

There's going to be hard days there's going to be days that you don't want to get out of bed early to be there there's going to be days that you don't want to be a part of things there's going to be days that you're going to get pushback people are going to get upset with you or a number of things continue to do what you have been called to do because we are supposed to be stewards of the ministry that God has given us we also cannot compromise our doctrine we can't neglect truth in 2nd corinthians 4 verse 2 says we refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word and there's too many churches out in our world today that tamper with God's word or ignore parts of it or refuse to teach it because they are focused on what they want what their desires are what they want ministry to look like instead of recognizing that there's a standard that has been set for us we must also have patience as we go about ministry because there are going to be difficult days and there's going to be difficult people 1st

Thessalonians 514 and we urge you brothers admonish the idol encourage the faint hearted help the weak be patient with them all that means that ministry is not just for our group ministry is going to include all kinds of people some of them very difficult some of them frustrating some of them not the people that we would normally hang out with ministry is not just for those that are easy ministry is not just for our friends but ministry is for the church the body of Christ therefore we need to engage with people that are not like us engage with groups that may be difficult or hard that's what ministry is about we admonish the idol we encourage those who are faint hearted we help those who are feeling weak and above all we have patience with them all

I regularly go into Joey's office and ask him questions about the Bible he has patience with me as I do that he's admonishing the idol I guess to fulfill our ministry we also must conduct ourselves in a godly manner Philippians 1 27 says let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ we have to live in a way that represents Christ well live in a way that is worthy Paul encourages Timothy in his ministry and reminds him in 1 Timothy 4 to set the believers an example in speech in conduct in love in faith and in purity there's a way in which we live there's a standard that's been set I think it's worth mentioning he also tells him not to let people look down on him because of his young age young people you!

should be involved in ministry too if you trust Christ as your savior you're a member of this church you should be involved in that ministry we can't half heartily go about our ministry or require endurance it requires integrity of teaching it requires holding to the word of God it requires godly conduct and patience it requires our faithfulness people in ministry let us let that not ever be said of us in our church let us be a church that is faithful in the ministry that God has given us let us be good stewards of the ministry the Lord has granted to us fifthly ministry is for every member of the church and I've already said this multiple times but ministry is for every member of the church if you'll open to

Ephesians chapter four Ephesians chapter four in verse 11 says he gave the shepherds the teachers verse 12 to equip the saints for the work of the ministry for the building of the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine by human cunning by craftiness and deceitful schemes Rather speaking truth and love we are to grow up in every way into him who is the!

verse 11 Paul is mentioning that there are those that have unique roles of leadership for us we have shepherds these are our pastors and teachers so include our pastors but also others who are teaching regularly and Paul says that he gave these leaders that this is a gift from the Lord that this ministry is from God leadership comes from God we are expected to serve as God deems appropriate according to his standard again in this series Michael has a sermon on our shepherds I encourage you to listen to that if you haven't but as pastors and teachers we have a job and that is to equip the saints and who are the saints any of us who claim

Christ as our savior can easily just say Christians Christ followers that's who we equip and notice there's no further distinction there's not a certain group of Christians!

It's just Christians in general all the Christians that are part of the church they are to be equipped for their job and what is their job for the work of the ministry that's the job we have a job to equip people in the church for their job which is ministry I think many people get confused because they think that pastors do all the ministry or the leaders in the church they're the ones that do all the ministry and I think this can be further confused because sometimes churches will use minister as a title but we're all called according to scripture to do ministry not just those in leadership roles and we do this ministry for the building up of the body of Christ it's through ministry that we build one another up and we grow the church and it happens in all kinds of different ways we serve one another in the six o'clock hour on Sunday mornings if you are here you will find either Scott and

Christina Townsend or Jason and Karen Smith who are making coffee and getting donuts ready and all of that I great ministry that they do for all of us getting us ready waking us up so we can be a part of what goes on in this place aren't you thankful for those people that serve in the background and do things that we would never even think about I know I am if you're a Christian first of all you should be a member of the church and if you're a member of the church you should be actively involved in ministry somewhere ministering somewhere and we have a number of different places to serve it could be in a fifth grade girl

Sunday school class it could be as a greeter it could be making coffee there's all kinds of things that requires faithful people to come and do ministry but it involves all of us and we have our results verse 13 to mature manhood to the measure of the stature the fullness of Christ this is our sanctification this is our growing to be more like Christ and it happens within the context of the local church as we are participating in ministry if you want to grow in Christ likeness if you want to be sanctified if you want to live like Christ go do ministry that's what's happening here people are serving one another and growing in Christ likeness serving is just a part of that process so often we tend to think of just numerical growth as our marker of success but that's not the case it's maturity in Christ it's seeing people who not only love the

Lord but continue to love him more each and every! day as they study his word and they serve the church well that is what we're striving for not just to fill seats but to fill our minds and our hearts and our life with Christ likeness verse 14 so we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the false doctrines and teachings that are of this world the things the world throws at us I love that Paul has these run on sentences because it helps us see his thought process here we we all have leaders to equip us we all do ministry which builds up the church it matures us and it grows us when we do we we we become more like Christ so that we're no longer deceived by the things of this world verse 15 that we speak truth and love and we continue to grow in that

Christ likeness verse 16 I love this reminder it's it's not the leadership of the church members that keep it all together it's not the it's it's it's not the pastors that hold it all together it is Christ that holds the body together and helps us move forward in our growth in our ministry in our lives it's all glory to Christ and while we are all called to ministry it is not for any of us but all for him we can't do ministry on our own we all need to minister to one another and we share in that this morning I'd like to give you four points of application I'm going to lift them right out of some of Michael's what he shares in the membership matters class he calls this the mindset of ministry it's based out of Galatians 5 25 through 6 5 what Jeff read to us this morning as a part of our scripture reading

Galatians 5 25 says if we live by the spirit let us also keep in step with the spirit let us not become conceited provoking one another envying one another brothers if anyone is caught in any transgression you who are spiritual should restore him in the spirit of gentleness keep watch on yourself lest you be tempted bear one another's burdens so fulfill the law of Christ for if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing he deceives himself but let each one test his own work and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor for each will have to bear his own load the first point of application that we see is that in verses 25 and 26 we must humble ourselves because ministry is not about us we must humble ourselves because ministry is not about us we cannot provoke one another we cannot the spirit whatever it is that you are involved in whatever ministry you might be a part of it's not about you it's all about

Christ and we have to humble ourselves to be effective and to be useful in ministry secondly ministry is for our protection in chapter six verse one brothers if anyone is caught in any transgression you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness ministry is for our protection and when we are involved in ministry and in the life of the church we're going to notice someone's going to notice when we're missing if I walk into the fellowship center at 650 on a Sunday morning and there's nobody in there making coffee I'm going to realize somebody is missing here I need to reach out and figure out what's going on when we're involved in the life of the church we're surrounded by people who can keep us accountable and it's for our good and for our benefit he also says in verse one keep watching yourself let's you too be tempted biblical counseling when we're meeting with people I'm always telling young men if you want to get past this sin struggle and this addiction in your life not only do you have to cut it out of your life and keep yourself from it but you also have to replace it with something maybe you tend to be idle maybe you tend to not serve maybe you tend to do things besides focusing on the ministry and glorifying the

Lord with your life will come serve can be a part of what the church is doing and perhaps the Lord will use that to remove the temptation out of your life when we just sit around and we do nothing when we're bored that's when temptation enters the easiest we need this in our life we need protection and ministry helps protect us thirdly ministry will require burden bearing we see this in verse 2 chapter 6 bear one another's burdens There's a team mentality within the church we do ministry together we serve together and when someone is struggling we go and we help that person we bear those burdens ministry shifts the focus away from ourselves and onto the needs of others we're together in the good times the easy times we're together in the difficult times the frustrating times we bear one another's burdens I was thinking about this just between the five pastors how we fulfill some of this

I was actually thinking of a lot of our conversations and our meetings together and I was able to categorize them into just four categories between the five of us I think this kind of sums up all of our conversations all of our times together the first category would be laughing together just enjoying life just hanging out secondly would be problem solving and this isn't like bad things it's just like how do we do things what time should we start how should we set this up who needs to be involved to make this happen what's the schedule supposed to look like things like that we're just problem solving in general a third category would be making fun of one another and apparently that has to do with Christ likeness you can ask Michael about that that's that's a top tier thing for us but a fourth category would be burden bearing we bear one another's burdens!

When we need prayer we can reach out to one another and ask for prayer we know that we have friends in one another we can be encouraged by one another and sometimes this is bearing our own burdens one of us are going through something one of us needs help or we're helping or sometimes this is bearing the burdens of the church so we might be all getting together very early in the morning to go to a hospital visit or to go see someone or praying for someone or reaching out to somebody we're bearing those burdens together I have a great example of this a couple months ago the transmission in our van went out which as you can imagine a lot of fun but I have this really cool Nissan it has this cool feature it doesn't have any AC it's great that's our second car so my poor wife and kids for a few weeks were driving around this jet black Nissan Verso with no AC so not only are they sitting on top of one another in this car but there's also no AC and it's black it's like an oven it's great and

Chelsea needed to get to the north side for the whole thing she got a ride up there with two of our kids I was supposed to take that car to a meeting and in the meantime I was going to take Lottie drop her off at Joey and Lacey house he was bearing my burden with one of her children we needed to pass her off then I realized Chelsea has the key to the car in her purse on the north side of town I'm not going anywhere with this car right now enter Jeff LeDuc who was also borrowing a car at the time he came and picked me and Lottie up took us to Joey's house dropped!

We have been in that situation where we just need a ride we need help moving something we need practical help and we bear one another's burdens but we have also been in those situations where we just lost a loved one we just walked through a terrible tragedy in our life we are facing something that we don't know that we have the strength to face on our own and we bear one another's burdens fourthly our last point of application we all have a personal responsibility to participate in the ministry verse five for each will have to bear his own load each member of the church has a calling on their life and that is to serve in some capacity serve in the ministry in some way we can't expect that everyone else is just going to take care of it or somehow it will come together we have to step up and we have to be involved in ministry ourself so as

I studied this and thought through this if we worked through this this morning I think we have a much bigger and fuller definition of ministry my definition of ministry would be that ministry is a means of that God fulfills through the faithful labor of every member of his church all to the glory and the praise of Christ Jesus our Lord let us pray Father we come before you in the name of Jesus Lord I'm so thankful for a faithful church that serves a church that wants to do ministry and wants to be involved in helping others and that they are faithful to do so day in and day out Lord I pray that we would be a church that is marked by faithful ministry to one another and to our community Lord we are so thankful for this church Lord

I pray you would bless us as we go from this place now we love you so much and we pray this in Jesus name Amen