So according to the Bible, the house of Stephanas,
they're a bunch of addicts, right?
What were the addicts of?
The ministry.
They were addicted to the ministry.
Now what is ministry?
Someone tell me.
Service.
They addicted themselves to serving others, okay?
Now this is interesting, is it not?
To use such a strong word
to describe someone who is serving the Lord
as being addicted?
Well, this is actually very much possible
because I've met people where it's just like
they're part of the furniture of the church.
It's like you just kind of expect to see them.
Obviously we shouldn't have expectations of people,
but certain people are so addicted to the house of God,
to the ministry, they're just a part of being here.
It's like you kind of expect to see them
doing what they do every single time.
And by the way, I'm not the only one.
You know people in this church that are like that as well.
There's certain people you walk by
and you just, they're always in their place.
They're always serving God.
They're always doing the same exact thing
over and over and over again.
And you know what?
They're addicted to the ministry.
Oh, this is a little too much though.
Addicted?
I want to have my own life.
Well, actually the Bible says to deny yourself,
take up your cross and follow Him.
How about that?
I missed the part in the Bible that says
we're supposed to compartmentalize God
and say, well, I do church when I go to church,
but when I go home, I kind of do my own thing.
I'm sorry, I don't see own thing in the Bible.
What I read is if any man will come after me,
let him take up his cross and follow me.
Let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.
What I see is the Bible teaching us
that we are to serve God and love God
with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.
And you know, what I see is that
who cares what our lives are about?
We should just serve God.
And you know what?
In the old IFB, serving God had a different definition.
To them it was like serving God is like
you have to be a pastor if you really want to serve God.
You have to be a missionary if you really want to serve God.
That's like the only way you can serve God.
So if we had that definition here,
it's like the only one that was serving God
would be me right now.
You know, and you guys would,
I would be telling you to serve God,
but you wouldn't be able to like be a pastor though.
You know, you got to serve God,
surrender your life to full-time ministry.
Full-time ministry?
I thought we're all in full-time ministry, right?
Full-time ministry means you're serving God full-time.
Well, isn't that what we do all the time?
Because you don't need to be on a payroll,
on a church, on staff to be serving full-time.
You literally serve God in everything that you do,
whether it's your secular job.
You say, why?
Well, because there's commands in the Bible
that deal in marriage, with children, at work.
And God says that we do it as unto the Lord.
So how good of an employee are you
when it comes to those matters?
Okay.
We should be addicted to just serving God
at whatever capacity that we're in, understand?
Become addicted, learn to like it.