So in Exodus chapter 18, I want to begin there in verse 13 where the Bible reads,
And it came to pass in the morrow that when Moses sat to judge the people, and the people
stood by Moses from the morning unto the evening, and when Moses' father-in-law saw all that
he did to the people, he said, What is this thing that thou doest to the people?
Why sittest thou thyself alone?
And all the people stand by thee from morning unto evening.
And you thought I conducted a long church service.
And Moses said unto his father-in-law, Because the people come unto me to inquire of God,
when they have a matter, they come unto me, and I judge between one another, and I do
make them to know the statutes of God and his laws.
And Moses' father-in-law said unto him, The thing that thou doest is not good.
Thou wilt surely wear away both thou and this people that is with thee, for this thing is
too heavy for thee, thou art not able to perform it thyself alone.
So of course we understand the story here, Jethro is coming and he's seeing that Moses
is simply taking too much upon himself, that he's sitting here with the people, listening
to every cause from morning to evening, and he's saying, Look, you're going to wear away.
This thing is too heavy for thee.
And we just read the chapter, you know, Moses was a very humble man and recognized the wisdom
that Jethro was expressing here.
He said, You know what?
You're right.
And he followed his advice and, you know, was able to do more for God.
But what Jethro understood in the story and that Moses also came to understand and accept
is the fact that, you know, leading the people of God is not a one-man show.
It's not a one-man show.
Obviously there has to be a leader, you know, somebody has to call the shots, the buck has
to stop somewhere, somebody has to have the final say in what's going to happen in the
house of God.
But, you know, doing the work of God, doing the work of the ministry, leading God's people,
leading a charge for Christ is not something that is done by one man.
And quite frankly, it's not a two-man show either.
And it's not a three-man show.
It's not a four-man show.
It takes a multitude of people to accomplish something great for God.
And what Moses is learning here and what's being expressed to him by Jethro is that there
is a danger in trying to do it all.
And this is a good lesson, you know, for, we could, we're going to apply this specifically
to the church house tonight and to the work of God, but you could apply this as a mother,
learning to delegate is very important.
You know, instead of trying to have, to do everything by yourself, maybe it's time to
start to train the older children to take on some of the responsibilities and what?
Ease the burden so that you don't what?
Wear away.
And that's something that's very easy for us to do because as, you know, adults and
especially as men in our pride, you know, we want to do it all.
We want to be the ones that do everything and just get it all done ourselves.
But that is a foolish thought.
That is not something that we should do because of the fact that if we do that, we're going
to find something out that it's too heavy for us.
It's too much for us to just keep doing everything by ourselves.
I mean, sure, we could probably do that for a little while, but I'll guarantee you this.
We will burn out eventually.
And what I want to get across tonight is that there is a need in this church, not just church
in general, but in our church for people to rise up and to be leaders and fulfill roles
and help to do the work that we need to do as the local church, as a light for the gospel
of Christ in Tucson, Arizona.
One man cannot do it all.
That's not how God operates.
That's not what he ordained.
Keep something in Exodus.
Go over to Acts chapter 6, Acts chapter 6.
There's a danger in trying to do it all.
The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 7, as you go to Acts 6, I'll read for you from Ecclesiastes 7,
Be not righteous over much, neither make thyself over wise.
Why shouldest thou destroy thyself?
And he's saying, be not righteous over much.
What's he saying there?
Don't be too righteous.
No, that's not what he's saying.
He's not saying, what he's saying is don't spread yourself so thin.
Don't try to do everything yourself.
Don't be righteous over much.
Don't be somebody who says, you know, I'm going to just do all the work of God.
I'm just going to be the one who leads all the soul-winding.
I'm going to preach all the sermons.
I'm going to do all the cleaning.
I'm going to do everything that needs to be done in the house of God.
Don't be righteous over much.
And again, you could apply this in your personal lives.
You could apply this if you manage a business.
You could apply this if you're a busy mother.
You could apply this if you're some kind of a supervisor.
The importance of delegating responsibility to other people so that you can do the more
important things that need to be done.
Be not righteous over much.
What's the result?
Thou shouldest destroy thyself, he said there.
Isn't that what Jethro was warning Moses of?
You're going to wear away.
This thing is too heavy for thee.
This is not the model that we see in Scripture.
What we see in Scripture is that there is a lot of delegating.
Even in the local church, you see that the apostles, they appointed others, didn't they?
In Acts chapter 6, verse 1, in those days when the number of disciples was multiplied,
there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews because their widows were neglected
in the daily ministration.
So when did this burning come?
When did this need come?
It came when the number of the disciples was multiplied.
As our church grows, as there's more people and there's more need and we're trying to
get more work done, we're going to need to delegate responsibility to other people.
Other people are going to have to say, I'll take that on.
I'll fill that soul winning's time.
I'll help out in the house of God.
I'll be there early.
I'll help out in that area.
That's what we're, I mean, we want to grow.
That's what we're trying to do here.
But I'm telling you, as more people come, more responsibility comes, more work comes.
You know, it might just be more of the same work.
You know, before that, you know, cleaning the building wasn't that hard of a task.
You know, it was a few minutes on the end of an ork, you know, just done, you know.
And even then, I struggled.
It's a different story here, all right.
Don't worry, we're getting a Roomba, all right.
It's going to do that work part for me.
But, you know, I can't use the Roomba back there.
And we got, you know, but there's work to be done.
When things grow, as people or as churches grow, as families grow,
as you have more children, as your business grows, this principle becomes more and
more important of learning to delegate and have people step up and
fulfill roles that need to be fulfilled.
He says there in verse two,
You're saying, look, we have an important job to do.
We can't get caught up with just waiting on tables.
God didn't call us to be waiters.
He called us to the ministry of the word of God.
And saying, this saying pleased the whole multitude.
So it wasn't like, you know, these people heard this and said, oh,
why can't you just do everything?
There's 12 of you.
Well, look, yeah, there's 12 of them, but there's a multitude of people.
And they have a very important job of doing what?
Of being devoted to the prayer, to continuing to prayer into the ministry of the word.
You know, getting to the word of God, understanding the doctrines,
preparing the sermons, preaching the sermons.
You know, that's a very important thing.
Preparing the sermons, preaching the sermons.
You know, that's a job in and of itself.
And he's saying, look, we're not gonna get pulled away from that and
do these menial tasks when there's a whole multitude of people that can do it.
And the people there, they were pleased.
They said, yeah, you know what, we want you to do that.
We want to be able to come to church and hear a good sermon where the study's
been done, where the reading's been done, the preparation's been done.
We'll happily take upon us these responsibilities to free you guys up to
do that work.
They said, the saying pleased the whole multitude, and they chose Stephen,
a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and
Pecaris, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and
Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch, whom they set before the apostles.
And when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them.
And notice the result of this delegation, of this doling out,
of these seemingly more menial tasks.
Verse seven, and the word of God increased, and
the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly, and
a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.
What was the result of this delegation?
It wasn't just that all the disciples were freed up and
could spend more time doing the things that they needed to do, and that's it.
It didn't just make life easier for the 12.
What happened was, yeah, they were able to continue to do the things that they were
called to do, but there was an increase in the people of God.
That multitude continued to grow.
The word of God increased.
The number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly.
And look, we want to grow.
We want to fill this building up.
What we need to do is we need to delegate some things to some people.
We need some people to step up and say, I'm going to be there.
I'm going to be faithful.
I'm going to take on some responsibility.
And I guarantee you, if we do that, this church will grow because we'll have more
people going out and multiplying, and then those people will come in, and
then we'll delegate more tasks to more people.
And it goes on and on and on.
So we see the example of this delegation with the apostles.
We see it also that Paul relied on others in his ministry.
I won't take the time to turn us all there, but in Philemon, he writes to
Philemon, and he says, I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have
begotten my bonds, which in time past was to thee unprofitable,
but now profitable to thee and to me.
Whom I sent again, thou therefore receive him, that is, my own bowels,
whom I have retained with me, that in thy stead he might have ministered
unto me in the bonds of the gospel.
I mean, Paul was going around doing great works to God, but you know what?
He always had other people with him.
He had this Onesimus there that was profitable to him,
that was there to minister unto him in his bonds and the gospel.
He had need of other people.
Another great example of this is Timothy.
He told him, you know, he wrote whole epistles to him.
He's asking him to bring him the cloak that he left, to bring the books
and the parchments when he was in prison.
He's saying, look, bring me the things that I have need of.
He was relying on other people.
That's what I'm getting at.
He wasn't trying to just do everything himself.
What about the example of Jesus Christ?
He's also somebody who delegated a lot of responsibility to other people,
didn't he?
And then we see people in his ministry that ministered unto him.
In Luke chapter 8, I'll read to you from verse 3, it says,
And Joanna the wife of Cuzzah, Herod, Stuart, and Susanna,
and many others which ministered unto him out of their substance.
I mean, he didn't have a place to lay his head.
He didn't even have daily food to go by.
He was relying on other people to help him to do the ministry
that he had to do.
And he had those people helping him.
Of course, we could turn to other examples where he delegated.
You could think about the feeding of the 5,000,
where they're breaking the bread, and he's giving it to the disciples,
and the disciples are distributing it, and then they're picking it all back up.
Look, it was a great ministry, but it wasn't just a one-man show.
There's a reason why Jesus brought 12 people with him,
not just so he could teach them the things that they need to learn
and to go out and continue the work of God after he left,
but also because there was some just practical matters
that needed to be attended to.
Someone needed to hand out that bread.
Someone needed to gather up the fragments.
Someone had to go ahead and prepare the place of the Passover
that they might eat it.
But I want you to notice in all this is that they didn't just rely on anybody.
They just didn't just draw names out of a hat and say, oh, this person will do.
They relied on what?
Faithful people, faithful people that were there to do the work,
that could be counted on to do that work.
If you're there, if you kept your place, in Exodus 18,
if you kept your place there in verse 19,
he said, hearken now unto my voice.
I will give thee counsel and God shall be with thee.
Be thou for the people to Godward,
that thou mayest bring the causes unto God.
He said, look, you need to do your job.
And thou shalt teach them ordinances laws
and shalt show them the way wherein they must walk
and the work that they must do.
Moreover, thou shalt provide out of all the people able men,
such as fear God, men of truth and in covetousness.
He didn't say, you know what?
Just go out there and, you know, whoever, you know,
just looks like they're going to fit the bill, Moses.
Just pick whoever out to do this important work.
Because what's the, the Bible says that confidence
in an unfaithful man is like a broken tooth
and a foot out of joint.
When you put, and think about that analogy,
look, there's a lot of aches and pains
that we can put up with, aren't there?
I mean, I had a bruise in the back of my calf about this big
from one of these platforms falling on it the other day.
Adam was there, I got a witness.
And I said, ow, and that's all I said.
So, you know, you're full of the Holy Ghost,
you know, cuss when you get hurt, right?
That's a good, true test.
But you know what, it looks bad.
I got a picture of it and it's not pretty
and it looks worse than when it started,
but it doesn't bother me, it doesn't hurt.
But I tell you what, you break my tooth
or I roll an ankle, you're going to notice that.
That's going to be a constant nuisance.
It's going to be a literal pain in your neck or elsewhere.
Right, there's some things you can endure with.
Well, you know what you can't put up with?
Is an unfaithful man.
That's what it says, the confidence in an unfaithful man.
It's like, you put confidence in somebody,
they say they're going to do this job,
they're going to do this work,
and then they fall through, they fall out, they flake out.
It's like breaking a tooth.
You got to deal with it, you can't just ignore it.
It's a pain, it's an inconvenience, right?
So that's why when you notice in all this delegation
that's taking place, he's not saying just pick anybody,
he's saying what?
Find faithful people.
Find, what did he say here in verse 21?
Able men, people who are up to the task,
people who have some ability,
people who have the wherewithal to get something done,
have some initiative, right?
Able men, such as fear God.
You know, that's a pretty big,
that's an important requirement
if you're going to do the work of God.
You should be fearing God.
Men of truth and hating covetousness
and place such over them to be rulers of thousands
and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties,
and rulers of tens.
So you can see how he just breaks down
this whole problem for Moses,
says look, keep doing what you're doing,
but you're going to handle the more important matters,
the harder things that these other guys can't handle.
The rulers of tens can't handle,
it's going to go up to the fifties.
The fifties can't handle it,
it'll make its way up through the hundreds.
If it can't do that,
it'll make its up over the rulers of thousands.
And if after all that, they still can't handle it,
then you deal with it, Moses.
You know, that's how we run things
in the staff here at Faithful Word.
There's a lot of emails and things that come through
and a lot of them, it's a lot of the same questions.
A lot of times it's just here, watch this video.
There's a sermon on that.
Here's a Bible verse on that.
A lot of simple, basic, easy things
that I can answer, Brother Chris, a girl can answer,
or others that are there can just answer the simple things.
The harder things that maybe we run into,
we need to say, okay, pastor, what's going on here?
How do we handle this?
But that's fewer and farther between.
And that's what's going on,
this breaking down of the responsibilities.
The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 4, verse 2,
just stay where you are in Exodus.
Moreover, it is required in stewards
that a man be found faithful.
You need to be found faithful.
Look, if you want to be somebody
who's going to help in the ministry,
you want to be somebody who's going to,
you know, help share in the burden of the work of God,
you have to be somebody that's found faithful.
You know, that's kind of why I'm preaching this
to the Sunday night crowd.
Because the Sunday night crowd
is typically the faithful crowd.
You know, the Sunday morning,
I'm glad they're there Sunday morning.
But, you know, Sunday night comes by, they're not there.
Thursday night comes by, they're not there.
And look, they'll do fine.
I'm not saying they're insane, but I'm just saying this.
They're not the faithful people that we're looking for.
Look, if we need people to help with the work of God,
they need to be here when the work of God is going on.
It is required that a man be found faithful.
You know, and I'm going to get into some specifics here
in a minute, and I'm preaching this
because we've gotten into this building,
and there's a lot of things that I've wanted to do
with this ministry for a while.
You know, and I'll talk about that here in a second,
but it makes more sense to do it now.
You know, if we had done some of it before,
it probably would have just looked like
you're trying too hard.
You know, if we got the usher, we appointed ushers,
and we got coats and name tags,
and they're like, I know where the seats are.
They're right there, all right?
People walk in here, they might kind of,
and they'll probably find it, you know,
but they might be a little bit more hesitant.
They've got to know where the bathroom is
and things like that.
Look, we've got the facility to grow.
We want to put the effort into growing.
Got some ideas, but we have to understand and know
that as we grow, we're going to need people
who are going to, faithful men, women,
who are going to step up and fulfill the roles
that need to be fulfilled in this church.
I'm kind of priming the pump here by saying,
look, if that's you, if you're somebody that says,
I want to do that, I want to help,
then you need to be found faithful.
I mean, start now, being a faithful person.
Don't say, well, I'll be more faithful
when they give me more responsibility.
That's not how it works.
I mean, try that at the job.
And look, a lot of people think this way
on the job today, it's out there.
You know what, I'll work harder when they pay me more.
Do you think that's how the employer thinks?
Well, I'll pay them, I'll pay them more,
and then they'll start working harder.
That's not human nature, that's not how it works.
The same applies here.
If you want to do something, be found faithful,
be found already doing the work,
being somebody that can be relied upon.
You know, and I'll just use myself as an example
just because nothing else is really coming to mind.
But, you know, you say, how did you become the deacon?
Well, it's not because of my looks.
Say, amen, we know that.
It's not because I'm some gifted speaker.
Amen, we know that, right?
But it was because I was found faithful.
And, you know, it wasn't like I was trying
to earn some position.
I just said, look, there's a need in the church.
Someone's got to scrub those toilets.
Someone's got to mop those floors.
Someone's got to stack those chairs in a vacuum
and put them back out.
Someone's got to help with this or help with that.
I said, look, that's what I'm here to do.
I just want to serve God.
And I was found faithful.
And that's how, you know, that's how the story goes.
And they said, well, we need to find a deacon.
Well, who's faithful?
And I'm not saying that to toot my own horn.
I'm just saying, look, that's what we need to be here.
If you want to fulfill these roles, if you want to help,
you need to be found faithful to begin with.
The Bible said, Paul told Timothy,
the things which thou hast heard of me among many winces,
the same commit thou to what?
Faithful men who shall be able to teach others also.
He said, don't just commit these things to anybody.
Don't just rely on anybody to do the work of God.
Don't just count on anyone.
You need to find faithful people who are able,
who fear God, who hate covetousness.
That's the type of people you need to find.
Those are the people that you can rely upon.
Those are the people who are not going to end up
being what, a broken tooth or a foot out of joint.
There's another example of this.
The 12, if you know the Gospels, you know, the 12,
Jesus went around and he said, you know,
follow me and follow me and they forsook all
and they followed Jesus, but you know,
that didn't make them one of the 12 immediately.
They followed him for a while and then he chose the 12.
They were found faithful.
It says in Luke 6, I'll read to you.
And it came to pass in those days
that he went out into a mountain to pray
and continued all night in prayer.
And when it was day, he called unto his disciples,
which is a great multitude of people at this point,
and of them, he chose 12, also,
whom he also named apostles.
So when Jesus went looking to, went up and prayed that night
about who am I going to ordain, you know,
he came down and he picked out of a group of people
that were already there, that were already following him,
that were already what, found faithful to the work.
He said, well, is it really that important
to have people fulfill these roles?
Is it really that important to be able to rely
on other people to do the work of God
in the house of God?
Yes, it is.
Because leaders are there to lead,
but I'm telling you, they can only do so much.
And that's what Moses was being told.
Look, you're going to wear away.
You're going to destroy yourself
and everybody else is going to suffer in the process.
They're going to lose the leader
because he's trying to do everything himself.
And this is an important lesson for leaders, too,
to not take on so much, because the fact is,
leaders can only do so much.
Are you still in Exodus 18?
He said in verse 22,
And let them judge the people at all seasons,
and it shall be that every great matter
they shall bring unto thee,
but every small matter they shall judge.
You won't even hear about it.
They'll just take care of it.
So shall it be easier for thyself.
And look, that's not the point.
I mean, that is part of it,
that it should be easier for thyself,
easier for Moses to do what he needed to do.
Because remember, he's doing every what?
Great matter.
Every great matter still falls in his lap.
It's just that he's going to be able
to handle those great matters
because all the small matters
somebody else has taken care of.
He's saying, look, it will be easier for you,
and they shall bear the burden, what, with thee.
So it's not just that we need help.
We need help people to step up and fulfill roles
because I just want to put my feet up a little bit more.
I just need to relax more.
I just want to take more time off or something.
No, I'm going to be right there with you, what?
Sharing the burden with you, right?
That's what he said there.
They shall bear the burden with thee.
There's a burden to be born,
but it needs to be, what, divvied up.
It needs to be shared among the people.
Some of these smaller matters
needed to be delegated to other people
so that Moses could better handle the greater matters
that were his to bear.
It's a shared burden.
And ultimately, we'll all labor together with the Lord.
That's who we're laboring for,
and that's who we're laboring with.
And also I'll point this out is that
this is a mutually beneficial relationship.
When you have the man of God, Moses, doing what he does,
and then you have these able men that are found
and these tasks are delegated, everybody benefits.
It's not just Moses, it's everyone involved.
Because remember, they're standing there
from morning until night.
I mean, you thought the DMV was a long way.
You don't wanna go renew that license
or get those tags or whatever
because I'm gonna be there for two hours or whatever.
But they've got some matter they gotta handle,
and it's just Moses.
I mean, that line is out the door and around the block,
and you gotta pack a lunch and a dinner.
It's a mutually beneficial relationship.
Now they got these other guys.
Everyone's happy.
Say, oh, I'm getting into this business.
These things are getting taken care of quickly.
It's more efficient, just makes more sense.
If you wanna just turn back to Exodus chapter 17, one page.
Look, it's important to support leadership,
to help out, to lift up the arms of the man of God,
to get involved in the work of God,
not just for the man of God, but for everybody,
for the whole congregation.
We want this place, this church to grow.
People need to step up and do a part
and be found faithful, okay?
Look at Exodus chapter 17, verse eight.
Then came Amalek and fought with Israel and Rephidim.
And Moses said unto Joshua, choose us out men
and go out and fight with them, Amalek.
Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill
with the rod of God in my hand.
So Joshua did as Moses had said to him,
and fought with Amalek.
And Moses and Aaron and Hur went up to the top of the hill,
and it came to pass when Moses held up his hand
that Israel prevailed.
But when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.
So he's up there and it's kind of this picture
of him overseeing the battle,
him overseeing what's taking place out there, right?
And he's raising up his hand.
He's doing his part.
You say, well, that doesn't sound like a very tough job.
Well, go home tonight.
Don't do it here.
You'll get some looks.
Go home tonight and just grab something
and just hold it out there
and see how long you could do that for.
You know, you could pick up a little,
just hold your Bible out, anything.
It gets hard to just hold your arms out.
You say, well, that doesn't sound like a very big job,
but it was an important one.
His job was important because when his hands went down,
when Moses wasn't able to do what he needed to do,
notice what happened.
It says there that, but when his hand,
when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed,
meaning they started to lose the fight.
Things started to go against them.
It says in verse 12, but Moses' hands were heavy,
and they took a stone, and they put it under him,
and he sat there on.
And Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands,
the one on the one side and the other on the other side,
and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.
And he's literally holding his hands out all day long
until the sun goes down.
And they say, hey, Moses, let us get you a rock,
you know, and let's roll a rock over there, have a seat.
We'll get Aaron over here and Hur over there,
and we'll just hold those hands up.
People are helping him, and it's benefiting everybody.
Because when you have faithful men
supporting the work of God, supporting the man of God,
the whole congregation wins, they benefit.
The battles get won.
You know, if we have people in this church
that are supporting the work of God,
supporting the man of God, helping me, supporting me,
you know, we're gonna win more souls.
We're gonna win that spiritual battle that we're fighting.
We're gonna defeat the spiritual Amalek
that's out there.
When people step up and say,
I'll lead that soul winning time,
I'll learn how to give the gospel.
And they're gonna go out there,
and we're gonna be able to fight more battles and win more.
So let me just, you know,
I'm not gonna go real long tonight,
at least I don't think I am.
But let me just get kind of specific, okay?
And these are things that I'm gonna begin working on
and rolling out here over in the next few weeks,
things that I've been thinking about doing.
But I was just thinking today, you know,
what do we need in this church?
You know, what are some just practical needs?
What are some roles that need to be fulfilled here
in faithful word Tucson?
Well, one of them that I think is that we need some greeters
and we need some ushers.
We need some people who are just gonna,
and look, not every church has them, and that's fine.
Not everybody, you know, sees the need for them,
but I feel like that's something that we could benefit from.
When a person, when a visitor comes in
and there's a friendly face, right?
So we really narrowed down the odds of who we're gonna,
I'm kidding.
And there's someone there smiling and greeting,
and obviously it's gotta be the right people for the role.
Look, if you volunteer for some role and I just say,
you know what, you're too much of an introvert,
it's not gonna work, you're not bold enough,
you don't have, whatever, don't get all offended, all right?
If you're found faithful, we'll find something for you to do.
Well, look, the greeter and the usher,
I think that's an important thing to have.
Have somebody there, you know,
think about being a first time visitor.
The problem is, we all have been coming here for so long,
it's just, I mean, it's like going to the kitchen
and getting something to drink or something, I don't know.
It's just commonplace for us.
And we can just get into a routine
and forget what it's like to be a new person
walking into a group of people you've never met before.
You know, it's an uncomfortable situation sometimes.
And some people never come to church
just because they're afraid of that one thing.
They say, I would go to that church, I wanna be there,
but I'm so frightened of just walking in the door,
I don't know how people are gonna receive me.
It'd be nice if there was somebody there
that would just say, hey, I'm so-and-so,
welcome to Faith Ward Baptist Church,
and just strike up, you know,
I'm not saying you have to find out everything about them,
but just strike up a conversation.
And look, this is something we could all do
of our own accord, and we're pretty good at this,
but it'd be nice to dedicate some people.
What about the people that come in a little late?
I know, it happens, okay?
People that come in a little late,
it happened this morning, you know,
some folks, they ran into traffic,
trying to get here on time, they come in here,
everyone's got their back turned to them already,
I'm the only one that sees them,
and they're just standing there, looking, where can we sit?
And there was nowhere to sit, praise God,
and that's a good problem to have.
And I had to say, hey, could someone help them with that?
You know, and just before that,
there was another visitor that came in with her children,
and I had to ask somebody, do the work of an usher,
hey, do you mind scooting down
so we can fit some people here?
Making sure that the seats with the gliders
are kept open for families with, you know,
mothers with nursing babies and infants and toddlers
and things like that.
Look, we need that here in this church.
So we need some people who are gonna be found faithful
who can fulfill that role.
What are some other things we need?
I think another thing we need in this church
are soul-winning leaders, people who are willing to say,
I'm gonna take on that soul-winning time,
I'll take over the maps, I'll, you know, make my maps,
and look, I'll work out all the details here with this.
I can make, and I can get a printer here,
we can get the internet, I can show you how to make them,
you can do your own thing, however,
we can keep track of it,
but we need people who are gonna be consistently
at soul-winning times to say, I will be there,
that is my, I will run the Saturday time,
I will run the Sunday time, I will run the Thursday time,
I will, you know, start another time.
You know, the local times right here at the church,
you need that, and what, you know,
another thing I'd like to see
is I'd like to see regional soul-winning groups develop,
and that's typically, that's probably something
that's gonna happen more as we get bigger,
but look, if driving all the way down here
for the soul-winning time is kind of a drag,
it's, well, you could start a regional soul-winning time
at your house, you could just start one there,
and people in the area know, hey, brother so-and-so,
sister so-and-so, they have a soul-winning time
at their house, and you can start to work
in that region of the map.
You know, that's something that's possible.
The other things we're gonna need, and this is a big one,
because I'm clueless in this department,
audio-visual operators, right?
We're gonna need somebody to step up and say,
hey, I'll run the live stream when we get one.
I'll figure out cameras and audio,
and I'll probably learn all this along with you
so we have more than one person who knows how to do it.
You know, that's kind of a big task,
but look, someone's gonna need to do that.
Right now, it's just a matter of pushing a button
and pushing a button again later,
but look, if we want a live stream,
if we want to put those out there and reach more people,
you know, people could do more on social media
for the church, they could promote the church
in other ways, online, you know,
that's a real ministry today.
You know, that's not just something for businesses.
Churches grow that way, too.
Let folks know that we're here.
You know, we need, here's a real glorious one,
cleaning crews, right, like I mentioned earlier.
Be great to have people that say, hey, I'll clean,
and it doesn't have to be the same people for these things,
you know, for a cleaning crew every single time.
You know, we could start a rotation.
We can have, hey, I'll take this week, I'll take that week.
We could have those kind of things.
And here's a big one that I think we need in this church.
Okay, we need people who can fill this pulpit
when I'm not here.
Because look, when I, and you say,
well, we've never had a problem with that.
Yeah, because I've never had an accident.
I've never had a blowout on the way over here.
You know, I've never gotten sick at the last minute
and not been able, but here's the thing,
here's my question, what if I did?
Who's gonna fill the pulpit?
I can't just call, you know, Brother Jake Thornton
on the last minute and say, hey,
I know you're an hour and a half away,
but service is in 15 minutes, can you just step on it?
You know, I'll pay the tickets, plural, if you make it.
That's not possible.
And look, it will happen someday.
It will happen someday.
How do I know?
Because it's happened in Tempe.
I've gotten that call hour before service,
need you to preach.
Okay, and got up and preached.
You know, I'm racking my brain around here
and it just seems like, where are the preachers,
people that we can rely on to fill this pulpit?
And I understand the nerves behind all that
and people don't want, and I get that,
but you know what, you just gotta get over it.
Just gotta get over it and do it.
And you know, I wanna start a preaching class
to help with that, you know, help guys develop those skills.
That's something else I wanna do and we're gonna do.
So those are some things that we need right now.
That's what I feel like.
You know, we're growing as a church,
we're getting this place where, you know,
I wanna do more, I wanna keep this momentum going,
but you know what, in the process,
I don't wanna wear away.
Because that's not gonna benefit anybody.
I mean, you think I'm cranky now.
You think I come in just scowling and whatever else
and I'm just this rough dude or whatever.
Just wait till I really start to wear away.
Just wait till I really get, you know, burnt out.
I don't wanna go there.
You know, that's how I wanna live my,
and there's no need for that.
And you know what, that's not what God ordained
in the local church for this to be a one-man show.
You know, just because it's one guy getting up
and preaching doesn't mean that it's a one-man show.
There's so much more work that goes on
besides the 45 minutes to an hour of me getting up
and preaching the word of God three times a week.
There's the soul winning, there's the things
that have to take place to keep the building maintained.
There's people have needs.
There's all kinds of things that we could do
and things that we need to do.
So those are some things that we need,
but let me just give a word of warning here
about what we don't need, okay?
Because this is things that typically happen.
And I've already kind of mentioned this already.
We don't need people who aren't committed.
You know, if you're gonna say, I'm gonna do that,
hey, I'll run that soul anytime, then be committed.
Don't be that broken tooth.
Don't be that foot out of joint.
If you're gonna do that, let your yay be yay
and your nay be nay, then say,
do what you say you're gonna do.
But I've already kind of talked about that,
but let me just give a word of warning here.
Especially to those of you that might be thinking,
man, that cleaning crew sounds pretty good.
I don't know what's wrong with you,
but we know there is a need.
Don't be people who are gonna become disgruntled.
And look, I've seen this and I'm just saying this,
not because I suspect that's gonna happen to somebody,
but it's just because I've seen it.
People say, oh, I'll volunteer, I'll do that.
And they start doing some menial task
that goes completely unnoticed.
No one ever comes to me and says, who cleaned that toilet?
Man, whoever cleaned that toilet did a good job.
It's not a spotlight type of ministry,
but it is a ministry in the house of God.
You know, the piano playing is something
that's more recognizable, right?
The preaching, the song leading,
these are the type of thing, the Bible reading.
You know, those are things that people
kind of get acknowledged for just by having done them, okay?
No one's gonna really notice the cleaning
and things like this, these menial tasks.
And what tends to happen is when people
sometimes set out to do those things
and they don't have people coming up
and patting them on the back,
or the pastor doesn't come to them every time
and say you did such a great job mopping
or you did such a great job sweeping
or straightening that out,
that they actually become disgruntled.
And I'm always saying it because I've seen it,
where they just kind of, oh,
well, no one appreciates what I do.
Well, first of all, who are you doing it for?
Why are you doing it?
Are you doing it so that people
will come and pat you on the back?
Because I'm telling you, that's probably,
if that's your motivation, don't bother
because people aren't gonna come pat you on the back.
But if you're doing it for the Lord,
I mean, when I was scrubbing toilets,
I mean, I'm in there singing hymns.
I'm whistling while I work.
I mean, I enjoyed it because it's like God sees it
and I didn't care if anybody else noticed.
And I didn't get disgruntled over it
when I'm maybe once or twice, right?
And it does happen, that's why I mention it.
Look, the point of the sermon tonight
is that we need to learn to work together, why?
Because if we work together as a body in this church,
we will accomplish more.
More will get done, this church will grow.
You know, it's funny, people want the church to grow,
but they don't wanna do any of the work to help it grow.
If we wanna grow, we gotta work together to get it done,
which means we need to fulfill these roles.
That's what we saw there,
if you're still in Exodus chapter 18.
He said, if thou shalt do this thing,
and God command thee so, then thou shalt be able to endure,
and all this people shall go to their place in peace.
So look, you're gonna make it, Moses.
If you do what I'm telling you, if you delegate,
if you don't wear yourself out and burn out,
you're gonna make it all the way,
you're gonna get to the end,
you're gonna make it to that promised land.
And so it says, verse 24,
so Moses hearkened to the voice of his father-in-law
and did all that he had said.
He said, you know what, I'm gonna go ahead and do that.
And look, we need people to fill these roles,
and we need to understand something.
They might be menial tasks,
they might not be as glorious
as whatever other role is out there,
but we can't all fulfill every role there is.
You know, to be the pastor or the preacher,
you have to meet certain qualifications,
and just not everybody does, and some people never will.
And that's okay.
That doesn't mean you can't be used of God.
You can still go out and preach the gospel.
You can still minister here in the house of God.
These things, you know, you can help
with all kinds of things.
You can help support the guy
who did meet the qualifications,
the guy who is fulfilling that role.
That's a blessing.
God'll bless you for that.
And you should never get this idea that,
well, just because I don't do something
that doesn't seem as important,
then, you know, then I'm just not gonna bother at all,
or get disgruntled.
I was gonna have us go to 1 Corinthians 12,
but if you know 1 Corinthians 12,
it talks about how the body is one
and it hath many members, right?
He's using an analogy of a physical body,
and he talks about how, you know,
some bodies, or some parts of them,
some members are more comely than others, right?
And he talks about specifically, you know,
the foot and the hand and the eye and the ear,
and he says in verse 15,
if the foot shall say because I am not the hand,
am I not of the body?
Now, look, is the foot of the most glorious,
desirable part, do we look at a foot and go, wow,
we got a good-looking foot, right?
I mean, most feet, if you look at them,
they're not that glorious.
But are they necessary?
Oh, yeah, right, they're important.
I don't think I need to,
if you don't believe me, you know,
tie one up one day, go,
just try to make it on one, okay?
If the ear shall say because I am not the eye,
am I not of the body?
I mean, are the ears the most glorious thing?
No, if you don't clean them,
they get pretty bad, don't they?
The eye kind of cleans itself, right?
I mean, I know in the mornings you gotta kind of do that,
but people are always noticing the eye,
oh, they have such beautiful eyes,
I love that color of eyes, right?
They never say, I love the shape of that ear, you know?
They keep that ear so clean, right?
They come out just far enough, not too far, right?
No one talks about the ear like that,
but they notice the eye,
so should the ear get disgruntled at the eye
and say, well, I'm not of the body, I'm not important?
Look, if the whole body were an eye,
where were the hearing?
You know, if we were all fulfilling the same role,
a lot of the other roles would just go unfulfilled.
We wouldn't function right.
If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing?
If the whole ear, if the whole were hearing,
where were the smelling?
But now hath God set the members, every one of them,
anybody, as it pleased him.
And if they were all one member, where were the body?
I'm saying, look, if we all just fulfilled the same role,
you know, we'd just be a giant arm or whatever,
just one big eye, right?
No, we need to have these different members
so we can function just like our physical body.
Look, someone here has to be the foot, I'm sorry, right?
But look, we all kind of have to, you know,
we all gotta kind of be the feet, right?
We gotta go out and preach the gospel.
We gotta go out there and take the gospel of lust.
We've all gotta fulfill these roles.
And I wanna just close on this thought here.
It says, nay, much more those members of the body
which seem to be more feeble are necessary.
It's saying the ones that we look at and think,
ah, they're not that important,
they're actually more necessary.
We don't esteem them as highly as we ought to.
The pinky toe.
I mean, what's the point of the pinky toe?
You got, you know, you got eight other toes, right?
Besides your two pinky toes.
Do you really need that pinky toe?
Look, you lose the pinky toe,
like you gotta learn how to walk.
You're not gonna fall over, but you'd have to learn how to,
it'd be a, you'd have to,
you'd notice if the pinky was gone, right?
You'd have to adjust to that.
We should never get this idea that we're not important
because we don't fulfill some perceived big role.
Every single role that needs to be fulfilled
in this church is necessary.
And I'm preaching this, you know,
not just because, you know, hey, I could use some help.
I'm preaching this because, look, I need help.
I need it.
If we're gonna grow, if this church is gonna do
what it's supposed to do down here, I need help.
Because I don't wanna wear away.
You know, I don't wanna burn out.
And I don't want this church to burn out.
So let me just close by saying this.
You know, we're all important, every single one of us,
and you, yes, you, are necessary to this church.
Every single person here.
Say, well, I'm just a kid.
Yeah, but one day you're gonna grow up.
And all us people that are older than you,
we're gonna die off eventually.
And you're gonna be, now it's gonna be,
you're gonna have to be the preacher.
You're gonna have to be the soul winner.
You're gonna have to be the song leader.
You're gonna have to be the next generation
that comes up and, you know, fulfills these roles.
Everyone here is necessary.
Okay, let's go ahead and pray.