Grace Emmanuel Church

Pastor Sam Chess

Six Observations about Life and Ministry

Several years ago we came up with a five part purpose statement for this church. Everything we do now we evaluate based on how it fits into our five-fold purposes:

Glorify God in Worship

Reach the world in Evangelism

Act on God’s Word in Service

Commune in Love in Fellowship/

Educate the Body in Discipleship

Turns out the five purposes I have been preaching to you this last six weeks line up rather well with our churches purpose:

Glorify God in Worship 1) Glorify God in our Lives

Reach the world in Evangelism 5) Designed to fulfill a Life Mission

Act on God’s Word in Service 4) Created to Contribute

Commune in Love in Fellowship 2) Formed for God’s Family

Educate the Body in Discipleship 3) Created to become like Christ

The more focused you become on letting these purposes become the driving passion of your life the more fulfilled you will be in this life and the more prepared you will be for the next life.

When we all get these things happening together, at the same time, the impact of our lives in this room on this community and this world can be enormous…. That’s what God intended us to be…

I. Defining our Role:

The Spiritually Powerful Church is different, people, with different backgrounds, using different spiritual gifts, in different places, meeting different needs- all to glorify God and

Accomplish their specific mission on this earth

Instead of this being some haphazard conglomerate mess off people talents…God has gifted us all with the different gifts, talents, experiences, different levels of service, so when he sovereignly brings us together in a body…

1) Everyone has an specific, individual role to play

2) Everyone is vitally important to the eternal mission

3) Properly functioning; a Body this size can touch thousands of people!

God’s plan…. done in God’s way…. works Divinely well…. every time!

Between 1787 and 1795 the Baptists became the largest denomination in America. At that time, they didn’t have a missions board, a national convention, or a seminary. All they had were small missionary associations, lay preachers, and unpaid volunteers. Their pastors had no formal theological training. The established Presbyterian, Episcopal, and Congregational churches insisted that they their pastorswere not clergy at all, but untrained, undisciplined, laymen who should be holding down a job instead of trying to preach.

Between 1795 and 1820 the Methodists overtook the Baptists in total members.. They did it with unpaid volunteer preachers going everywhere, sharing their faith, forming small discipleship (disciplined) groups into churches.

Their never has been, not will there ever be, a multiplication of Believers and churches, apart from the mobilization of everyone in the body, every Christian becoming convinced that it is they who are called to do the work of the ministry. The pastors have a specific role…

Ephesians 4:11-12 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up (NIV)

So many in America are trying to build large churches with the ministry being commissioned to paid church staff, and the bulk of church attenders are Sunday morning spectators. As a church…. we must be smart enough to look back at the model in Acts and to look at the times in church history when the church has really grown… really grown, and use that as a template for the future.

Pastors and staff doing the ministry = Church addition….maybe

When everyone ministers = Church multiplication…everytime

If any Christian leader is going to be “successful“. It is going to be because he/she was fortunate enough to exercise his gifts in and among a larger ministering body, where he was one of many ministers. Let me read you two things written by one of the great leaders of all time… the apostle Paul…

Paul…Acts 20:24 But my life is worth nothing unless I use it for doing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus--the work of telling others the Good News about God's wonderful kindness and love. (NLT)

Now listen to something else he wrote….it may sound like a strange passage for a sermon text but eventually you will see why it is important… This is the end of the book of Colossians:

Colossians 4:7-18 Tychicus will tell you all the news about me. He is a dear brother, a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. 8 I am sending him to you for the express purpose that you may know about our circumstances and that he may encourage your hearts. 9 He is coming with Onesimus, our faithful and dear brother, who is one of you. They will tell you everything that is happening here. 10 My fellow prisoner Aristarchus sends you his greetings, as does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas. (You have received instructions about him; if he comes to you, welcome him.) 11 Jesus, who is called Justus, also sends greetings. These are the only Jews among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God, and they have proved a comfort to me. 12 Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. 13 I vouch for him that he is working hard for you and for those at Laodicea and Hierapolis. 14Our dear friend Luke, the doctor, and Demas send greetings. 15Give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house. 16 After this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea. 17 Tell Archippus: "See to it that you complete the work you have received in the Lord." 18 I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you.

Pastor that’s just the closing of Paul letter… with a couple of PS’s What could I possible learn from that?

When we read about the Apostle Paul in Scripture we paint him larger than life, as if he personally contacted 100’s and 1000’s of people led them to Christ, nurtured them for 5 years into spiritual maturity… and that is just not true!

The Book of Acts paints Paul as often discouraged, because he would preach in the synagogue, for months and nothing would happen.

II. Six Observations about Life and Ministry

Observation #1) Paul was surrounded by ministering people:

-not well know…. unremembered

(v:7)Tychicus will tell you all the news about me. He is a dear brother, a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord.

Who in the world is he? Did you ever read the Epistle of Tychius? Why not? Because he didn’t write one! His name shows up in 5 of Paul’s 13 books but nobody knows what his “speciality” was… Apparently Paul’s job was to equip people like Tychius… but it was Tychius who really carried out ministry.

Observation #2) Everybody God used around Paul was vastly different backgrounds, different experiences, different viewpoints (I’ll show you that here in a minute)

Observation #3) Everybody Paul worked with had different gifts

-How many were administrators?… Only a few.

-How many had the gift of mercy , some… not PAUL

-How many had the gift of giving… some

-Nobody around Paul had it all….

Observation #4) Paul was big on publicizing who was actually doing ministry:

We read these endings to books like Colossians and tend to skip over them because they are just postscripts to the real writings of Paul… Not so..

Paul says to the Colossian church ; I want you to know who is really carrying on the ministry. You’re seeing my name on these letters…but I’m not really the guy getting it all done. God is using me and my gifts to get some thoughts on paper for you all to read but the actual eternal ministry here is being carried out by boots on the ground …and they are not my boots.

When Paul wrote the letter to the Colossians he was sitting in prison, in Rome. Other than dictating letters their was nothing he could, personally, do to get the spread the Good News to the ends of the earth

Observation #5) Paul considered the people around him as fellow ministers.

He freely passed the ball to them…When Steve was in school, he played on the basketball team, and there was one kid who was a hot dog… No matter who was open under the basket, he would drive straight into the pile of waving arms, often missing the shot entirely. However when he did make a basket everyone would applaud thus feeding his desire to do it alone all over again…

In basketball, the person who puts the ball through the hoop is supposed to be working with 10 hands… not two.

Observation #6) Not everyone in Paul’s team had the qualifications to be there.

Some of the people in Paul’s list in Colossians… if they came to our churches would not be given a position of any kind.

If you don’t feel qualified to be a minister of God you need to check out the following list:

God does not use me because I am flawless…not does he reject me because I am flawed. As I am willing to obey him and allow myself to be used, God accomplishes his work through me!

Summary of paul’s team:

1) Tychius:

-a trustworthy man, dear brother, faithful minister

Fellow servant… he seems to be every where with Paul…

- we don’t find him preaching…so what is he doing???

It’s likely that whatever Paul was doing would not be possible without whatever Tychius was doing.

V: 8 I am sending him to you for the express purpose that you may know about our circumstances and that he may encourage your hearts.

2) Onesimus: (see Philemon)

Run away slave.. Stole his masters money

V:9 He is coming with Onesimus, our faithful and dear brother, who is one of you. They will tell you everything that is happening here.

3) Aristarchus- A burden bearer

Remember when a mob tried to seize paul at Ephesus… mob got Aristarchus

- He was in shipwrecked with Paul

-In Colossians, he’s in prison, or at the prison with Paul

4) Mark…. Second class John Mark

Remember Paul first missionary journey.. Paul, Barnabus, John mark

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-Paul was so bummed by John Marks immaturity that he refused him on his second journey, and Paul and Barnabus split ways over the future of Mark.

10 My fellow prisoner Aristarchus sends you his greetings, as does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas. (You have received instructions about him; if he comes to you, welcome him.) 11 Jesus, who is called Justus, also sends greetings. These are the only Jews among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God, and they have proved a comfort to me.

2 Timothy 4:11 Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry. (NIV)

5) Epaphras: Paul’s prayer partner

12 Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. 13I vouch for him that he is working hard for you and for those at Laodicea and Hierapolis.

6) Luke:

V: 14 Our dear friend Luke, the doctor,

- Paul’s personal physician… why? He could have practiced anywhere

- He was brilliant… He turned historian and wrote the Books of Acts and the Gospel of Luke

7) Demas: “and says hi”

-He’s the man who gave up

-Timothy says: Demas has forsaken me!