["Pomp and Circumstance"]
Good evening, everyone. Welcome to Faithful Word Baptist Church.
Great to see you all here for our first evening Sunday evening service.
If you drop things, have a seat, grab a memo, and open up that memo to song number 23.
You can begin this evening's service by singing song number 23,
there is power in the blood.
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
Amen.
Brother Edward and Mr. Nicholas,
Heavenly Father Jesus Christ, thank you for this evening's service.
Thank you for everybody that's here. I pray that you bless them and guide them in the right direction.
And that you identify us with your word and pray that you fill Deacon Russell with your Holy Spirit
and help him preach to us.
In the mighty name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Amen.
Let's turn to hymn number five.
Sound number five, when I survey the woman's cross.
["When I Survey the Woman's Cross"]
When I survey the woman's cross
On which the bridges follow me now
And the land of the free and the home of the kind
Who may live on whether it's true or true
Sleep in the name of Christ the Lord
Holy, holy, holy, holy
I stand with my strength to be alone
Sleep in the name of Christ the Lord
Holy, holy, holy, holy
I stand with my strength to be alone
Jesus Christ the Lord
Holy, holy, holy, holy
I stand with my strength to be alone
Fill the world of hatred and wine
And fill the gaps that I've longed to find
I stand with my strength to be alone
Fill the gaps that I've longed to find
I stand with my strength to be alone
All right, if you'd like a bulletin, just go ahead and slip up your hand, and we'll bring you one.
As always, the service times are listed there on the upper left-hand side.
We'll be back this Thursday at 7 going through the book of Acts, chapter number 14, tonight.
A couple of notes about any visitors. I don't think we have any tonight.
And also happy birthday to those celebrating the month of August.
And also congratulations to the Ventura family on the birth of Caleb John.
Also in the back there, there's a sign-up sheet for anyone that would like to volunteer to help clean the building.
Just keep in mind, we're asking for people to clean between Sunday and Thursday, like before Thursday.
So Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday, any one of those days, whatever works for people.
And also, I'll have a punch list for people to kind of look at, whatever they can get done on it is what's appreciated.
If you have any questions, just feel free to ask me about that, and I'll do my best to bring us all up to full speed.
On the back, there's also a note about the soul winning on the Navajo reservation.
This is in September, so this is a little ways out.
But I know Brother Raymond's trying to kind of big this one up a little bit.
There's got a couple of special events there, the Petrified National Forest and the Painted Desert.
And then also below that, big news, help us celebrate our fifth anniversary.
So Sunday, September 3rd, Labor Day weekend.
It'll be five years that we've been a church here down in Tucson.
So we're going to have, obviously, a special service, a milestone service.
Not going to have a guest preacher.
It's a service I would really prefer to preach myself.
I'm looking forward to that, so hopefully everyone's okay with that.
It's not a huge disappointment, but it's just a special one.
It's kind of one I would like to preach myself.
And then we're also going to have, of course, the potluck after the morning service.
So the church will provide the smoked brisket and then beverages, maybe a couple sides.
But there is a sign-up sheet back there.
So if you are planning on bringing something, please be sure to sign that and let us know what it is that you're bringing.
You don't have to bring all three courses.
You don't have to bring a main aside and a dessert.
You can just do one or two or whatever you want to do.
So again, that's always appreciated.
And we're looking forward to celebrating that special anniversary.
The one thing we probably will do, I'm sure, is maybe we'll have some guest preaching.
I know Pastor Anderson mentioned he might want to come down on that Friday night or something like that.
So we'll probably do something along those lines.
But beyond that, I think it's just a good church family meeting kind of a thing.
So just kind of keep it here with us and enjoy one another's fellowship.
Again, by all means, invite people, invite friends, family, anyone you think might be interested.
As always, invite them to any of our services.
But with this one, you can kind of dangle the brisket out in front of them.
And whatever delicious dishes you folks bring, I know we've got people that can cook amongst us.
So you can just wave that in front of them, put the proverbial carrot on the stick to get them out here if you want.
And I promise I won't be mean during the service.
It might be a good one to kind of dip their toe in the water.
It's not so bad after all. You're not always ranting, Raven.
But anyway, enough about that.
Also, who would like to have some popcorn tonight after the service?
I know we normally do. I see one hand, two hands.
Okay, only three of you, four, five? All right, I guess that's enough.
The machine didn't get clean, so it's still dirty, but it's just salt.
That shouldn't hurt anybody, right?
It's going to get really hot. Anything that's bad in there is going to get killed.
It's good for your immune system, right?
I think it should be okay.
Does anyone know that that's a serious health issue?
Am I going to poison half the church right now?
You don't care? You'll take it?
Iron gut back there?
It's back there. It didn't get clean, and I'm just thinking,
I'm going to clean it tomorrow, but the thing's such a pain to clean,
might as well get our money's worth out of it before I clean it again.
I figured, let's pop some popcorn.
Normally we do chips and salsa.
There's a half a bag of chips that are semi-stale.
I know it because I just ate a bowl.
I was getting a little light-headed before preaching, so I had some peanut butter,
which is probably not the thing you want to put in your mouth before you have to speak publicly.
I mean, a lot of peanut butter, but, you know,
you've probably been talking about this.
That's why.
Well, we're going to pop popcorn, but fair warning, the machine wasn't cleaned,
so if you don't want any, that's fine, but if you get sick,
then I'll probably be there with you because I'm having some.
I don't think it's going to hurt anything.
Anyway, let's quickly count up the soul winning going back to Friday.
Anything from Friday to for Friday, amen.
And then is that back on the university?
East side.
All right, so you got to say that.
Anyway, we're on the west side.
You shouldn't say that.
It's like east side.
West side, right?
West side of 10.
What's up?
What about Saturday?
Was there anything from Saturday?
The group on Saturday?
Anyone go out Saturday?
You have anything Saturday?
No?
Big old zero.
That's all right.
I shouldn't say it like that.
When you get two on Friday, you can make fun of Saturday's results.
What about today?
Was there anything from the group?
How many?
Four from the honey hole over there, the little sweet spot.
Nice.
Well, it's good.
I've been wondering where that is, so I'm glad to know it's right here.
Well, this is a different one.
Yeah?
So there's more than one then.
That's even better.
That's more gooder.
So, amen.
Well, keep up the great work.
Let's go ahead and have one more song before we end the preaching tonight.
All right, song number seven, I gave my life for me.
Song number seven.
I gave my life for me.
to open up our Bibles to Exodus chapter 18.
That's Exodus chapter 18.
As always, read the entire chapter.
Please follow along silently.
We're gonna give you a read from Exodus chapter 18.
Exodus chapter 18, verse one of the Bible reads,
when Jethro, the priest of Midian,
the closest father-in-law,
the prayer of all that God had done for Moses,
for Israel's people,
and of the Lord, I brought Israel out of Egypt.
And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law,
was the ruler, Moses' wife,
and they had sent him back.
They had two sons,
of which the name of one was Moses,
for he said, had been an alien to the strange land.
In the name of the others, and the angels.
The God of my father said he, with my help,
delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh.
And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law,
who came with his sons, his wife,
the Moses, and the wilderness,
were in camp, like the mount of God.
And he said of Moses,
I, that father-in-law, am of Jethro,
and I, that once again, and thy wife,
had two sons with her.
And Moses went out to meet his father,
and they were basically kissing,
and after they asked each other if they were well,
then he came into the tent.
And Moses told his father-in-law,
all that the Lord had done for Israel was Pharaoh,
and the Egyptians, for Israel to see,
and all of Jeremiah, had come upon them by the way,
and how the Lord delivered them.
And Jethro rejoiced for all the goodness
which the Lord had done to Israel,
whom he had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians.
And Jethro said, blessed be the Lord,
and delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians,
not out of the hand of Pharaoh,
but delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians.
Now I know that the Lord is great in all kinds,
for in the name of the Lord, I thank God proudly.
He was above them.
And Jethro and Moses fought on,
so he burned off all the sacrifices of God,
and there he came, on the other division,
to eat bread with Moses, his father-in-law, and the poor God.
And it came to pass in the morrow
that Moses sat to judge the people,
and the people stood by Moses from the morning of the evening.
And when Moses followed, and almost saw
all that he did to the people, he said,
what is the thing that thou doest to the people?
Why sittest thou thyself alone,
and all the people stand by thee for the morning of the evening?
And Moses said unto his father-in-law,
because the people come unto me to inquire of God,
and they have a matter of becoming to me,
and I judge between one and another,
and I do make it known the statute of God, which follows.
Moses followed and said unto them,
the thing that thou doest is not good,
thou wilt surely wear away,
though thou and this people that are with thee,
the thing is too heavy for thee,
thou art not able to perform thyself alone.
Partly now unto my voice, I will give you counsel,
and God shall be with thee,
be thou the people of God's will,
that thou mayst bring the cosmos of God,
and thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws,
and shalt show them the way where they must walk,
and the work that they must do.
Moreover, thou shalt provide the law of people,
evil men, such as fear God, and of truth,
gain covetousness, and place such over them,
to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds,
rulers of fifties, and rulers of texts,
and let them judge the people at all seasons,
it shall be, for every great matter,
they shall bring unto thee,
but every small matter, they shall judge,
so shall it be easier for thyself,
they shall bear the burden with thee.
If thou shalt do this thing, God command thee so,
then thou shalt be able to endure,
and all those people shall also go to their place of peace.
So Moses hearkened to the voice of his father,
and in all that he had said,
and Moses chose able men of all Israel,
who made them heads among the people,
rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds,
rulers of fifties, and rulers of texts,
and they judged the people at all seasons,
the archives, they brought us Moses,
every small matter, they judged themselves,
and Moses let his father know the part,
and he went his way into his own land.
Father Adam, pray for us.
Father, thank you for today, Lord God,
thank you for the salvation we have this week,
and I say we just bless their lives, Lord God,
give them wisdom, and just bless them, Lord God.
I say we just continue to bless our church,
and everybody we hear, Lord God,
and just those with the Holy Spirit,
thank you for your word,
and so we can keep the spirit, Lord God,
give us understanding of your word, Lord Jesus,
holy name we pray, amen.
Amen, so in Exodus chapter 18,
of course this is probably maybe not a famous passage,
but this is one they do hear preached from time to time,
where you have Moses' father-in-law coming and meeting him
after they've gone into the wilderness,
and he gives him this really good advice here,
and he tells him, hey, you need to stop taking
so much upon yourself,
and you need to start allowing other people
to start doing things.
You know, I think this is a really important lesson
for anybody who is any kind of in a leadership position,
and you know, what's kind of interesting too is that,
you know, this is something I've found true with myself,
is that a lot of times it's other people
that kind of have to point this out to you.
This is other people have to sometimes come to leaders
and say, hey, what you're doing is not good,
you need to let other people do things,
you need to get other people involved
in whatever it is you're trying to do
for your own benefit and for theirs,
and so, you know, this is something that, you know,
a leader has to be willing to admit to,
and not every leader can do that.
Some people, you know, really struggle
and have a hard time of letting go of things.
They want to be in control of things,
not necessarily because they're, you know,
some kind of egomaniac or whatever.
They have different reasons,
but whatever the reason is, we see a principle here
that we need to learn to delegate things as leaders.
You know, we need to be able to rely on other people
to help, you know, spread the load
of whatever it is we're trying to do.
You know, and this is something you apply it
in any organization, you know, whether it's a church,
you know, that's probably the primary application
we'll make tonight, you know, or whether it's in business,
you know, if you're running a business,
you need to learn to delegate things
and get other people involved to help you,
to free you up, or even, you know, in a home.
You know, it's good in a home to have a home run
as a cohesive unit so that, you know,
there isn't a dysfunction there, you know,
everyone needs to kind of fulfill their role
and help one another, you know,
everyone has a role to play.
And again, so this is a really important, you know,
principle that we find in scripture,
one that we need to learn to apply in our own lives.
But again, excuse me, the first thing I'm pointing out
is that Moses kind of is struggling with this, you know,
Moses didn't really, you look at it, you read the story,
you think it's such an obvious solution.
It's not some complicated thing.
I mean, he explains it in just a few verses.
Here's how you're gonna fix this problem.
And you kind of wonder sometimes like,
why didn't Moses just see that?
Why did Jethro have to come to him and actually say,
hey, this is what you need to do
and address the situation and fix it.
And I think a lot of times it's because, you know,
people who want to serve and are in ministry
and who want to, you know, people who are in leadership,
they just kind of have a mentality of it's all on me.
You know, I've got to make this thing happen.
I got to make sure that everything gets done, you know,
which is a good thing, you know, that's what you want.
You don't want people in leadership who are just trying to,
you know, pawn everything off,
trying to do as little as possible, you know,
or using people that are perhaps serving under them,
you know, just for their own advantage.
You know, that's not anything you want to see in a ministry
where pastors and their families will start to, you know,
take advantage of the fact that people
will bend over backwards for them, okay?
Now, I will say this, that, you know,
pastors and their families are church members too,
and there's nothing wrong with a church ministering
to their family as well, okay?
But, you know, it can go too far.
We got to kind of know where that line is, okay?
You know, that's not anything I've experienced,
but it's definitely something that can happen.
It's things I've seen in other ministries, you know,
but again, the principle here is that a leader often has
to have other people come and explain this to him.
It always reminds me of when I had this job
at a earthworks company, an excavating firm
back in Michigan, and the rule was there,
if two guys were in a ditch and there was some digging
to do, and it was kind of, because, you know,
sometimes it's like there's only room enough for one guy,
but you need that second guy there.
You know, I know it's like everyone always makes fun
of the city workers that are digging a hole
because they look and they see, you know,
five guys standing around a hole and one guy's working,
but it's like, if you've ever done that kind of work,
you know why that is sometimes.
You know, there's instances where you have to wait
for somebody to uncover a line or whatever.
You know, it's not just, is there maybe perhaps
some, you know, wastefulness going on there
in certain, you know, governmental bodies, perhaps, okay?
But anyway, the rule was is that, you know,
if you're standing around, there's digging to do,
the youngest guy that's there better be the one
doing the digging, and the boss, if he caught you,
would literally fire guys on the spot over that.
He'd say, hey, why is he digging?
You're useless, get out of here.
So, and the thing is, these older guys that stuck around,
they weren't ones that would just like,
they wouldn't say, hey, you dig.
They'd just start digging, because they're leaders.
That's just what they're there.
They're to work, they're there to serve.
They're there to get after it.
So as a young guy, sometimes you had to kind of like
take the shovel out of their hand, proverbially, you know?
You had to kind of elbow the way you're in
and be ready to jump on that so that, you know,
if the boss rolled up, you'd still have your job, right?
And, you know, I'm kind of saying,
that's kind of the way it is sometimes in ministries.
When you have somebody who wants to do a lot of work,
someone who just wants to serve,
sometimes you got to kind of muscle that guy out
a little bit.
Sometimes somebody has to come to him and just say,
hey, look, this is the way it ought to be.
You know, you're doing too much.
And look, this is to the benefit of Moses, right?
And this is another important thing that we can apply,
not just in a church, but in any organization
that we're a part of, that we need to learn to delegate
for our own benefit.
That's what he says there in verse 22.
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.
So shall it be easier for thyself,
and they shall bear the burden with thee.
So it's not that he's being completely unburdened.
In fact, when you think about it,
he's kind of getting the worst problems, right?
Isn't that what they're saying?
They're going to judge all the small matters,
but the most difficult and hard things,
you get to still take care of that, right?
But now he's able to devote all of his energies into that.
Because you know, if you put yourself in Moses' shoes,
if you're dealing with all these little small things,
if you start answering the same question repeatedly,
which happens in ministry, you know,
you answer that same email over and over again,
you know, you can kind of get jaded
and forget that, you know, people,
they don't know you've answered that question
a dozen times already.
You know, they don't know
that you've given that answer out so many times.
You know, so he's not having to take care of that.
He's not going to get jaded.
He's able to say, okay, now these more important things
I can really focus on, you know,
and really give my full energy to that.
He said, it shall be easier for thyself, right?
It's going to benefit the leader.
It's going to benefit you, Moses.
And again, you know, some leaders,
they hear that and they almost feel like that's,
well, if I, why should it be easier on me?
I'm the leader.
You know, why should I do that?
It feels selfish, right?
But this is a principle in leadership that must be learned.
You know, and why?
Because if thou do this thing, verse 23,
and God command thee so, then thou shalt be able to endure.
You know, that's why, because, you know,
especially in the ministry, you know,
if you're going to go for the long haul,
if you're going to serve God for decades,
you know, you can't burn yourself out in the first few years
and you have to be able to go for the long haul.
And honestly, that's what I'm here to do.
You know, and it's really helpful to have that perspective
in the Christian life, especially in ministry,
of seeing beyond just next week, you know,
this Sunday, next month, and start to start, you know,
start to think in terms of years and decades.
Because when you, you're going to have ups and downs
in the Christian life, you're going to have ups and downs
in a church's life.
You know, a church is going to have high points
and low points.
But if all we, you know, when we hit a low point,
if all we see is the low point, you know,
that can be pretty discouraging.
But if you can learn, you know,
get this idea that I'm here to endure,
that I'm here to go for the long haul,
you know, that really, you know, helps keep,
helps you keep optimism, right,
and help you keep a good outlook.
But how are you going to do that?
How are you actually going, it's great if you want to endure,
it's great that you want to go the long haul,
but how are you actually going to do that?
By learning to delegate,
by allowing other people to do things.
You'll be able to endure,
and all those people shall go to their place in peace.
So you can see that it's a mutual benefit, right?
It's a mutual benefit to the leader
and to those that are being led
that the burden is shared, right?
And again, it's being shared.
It says at the end of verse 22,
they shall bear the burden with thee, right?
Not, you're going to give them everything to do
and just sit back on your laurels and do nothing
and kick your feet up, right?
There's still work that you have to do.
But the principle again is this,
that we need to learn to delegate, right?
And that's why I want to preach a sermon
just briefly tonight on,
entitled The Delegation of Duties.
Delegation of Duties, you know,
to delegate something,
to turn something over to somebody else,
to appoint somebody else to a certain task, right?
To delegate somebody to somebody else.
This is something that organizations need to learn to do,
whether it's a church, a family, a business, whatever.
Because organizations, you know,
they're composed of individuals, right?
And the individuals need to learn how to serve
in their given capacities, right?
They need to be able to be given the opportunity
to fulfill certain roles,
so that they can grow and be a blessing
and be blessed as a result.
Now, one of the principles,
one of the reasons why Jethro, you know,
is very wise in what he's saying here,
is that by Moses delegating,
it's freeing him up not to do less,
but actually to do more of only the things that he can do.
Now, on the surface, that might sound kind of arrogant,
to put it that way, but it's a fact.
You know, there's certain things
that only certain people can do in organizations.
You know, for example, in the church here,
there's, you know, I'm the person that's been ordained
to lead the church, right?
Not everybody can make the decisions
that I make for this church.
Not everybody can do certain things
that I do for this church.
They haven't been appointed to it.
You know, they haven't been ordained.
They haven't met the qualifications.
They're there for a reason,
so that you get, you know, the right people in that position
so that they can lead that organization, right?
And again, I'm not saying that to try and sound puffed up
or lift myself up or anything.
That's just the fact of the matter, okay?
And, but what it's important to understand
is that because you have a leader, you know,
and there's only certain tasks that leader can do,
his energies are best spent doing those things
rather than doing things that anybody could do, okay?
So, that's what I think really is the wisdom here
in, that we see here in Exodus chapter number 18,
is that Moses is still serving,
but he's just focusing on the hard matters.
He's gonna answer the questions
that only he has the answers to,
that not everybody else, everybody's gonna know, okay?
Moses needed to be able to do the things only Moses can do.
You know, an example of this would be, you know,
for example, you know, I'm the deacon here, right?
I'm the deacon of this church.
And, you know, I do certain things that are kind of my,
you know, they're my, they've been delegated to me.
I have certain duties that are my job to do.
But, you know, there's nothing that I do
that our pastor can't do.
It's not like he hired me because I have some skill
that only I can do.
He's like, well, we really need that asset.
You know, the reason why I was hired as the deacon
is so that, you know, and other staff members were hired
is so that, you know, the pastor can focus
on the things that only he can do, right?
There's nothing I do as deacon of this church
that Pastor Anderson can't do.
But you can count on the fact there's certain things
that Pastor Anderson does that I can't do, right?
And not just because of his position,
but also maybe just because of his, you know,
inherent abilities, you know,
just because he's geared towards certain things
that I'm not geared towards, right?
But in order to free him up to be able to invest himself
in those things, you know, the day-to-day stuff
has to kind of get taken care of, you know?
And I'm not gonna go into all what that is,
but the point is this, is that, you know,
that's just how it works in an organization.
That's a wise way to run a church.
You know, that's what you see here with Moses.
But again, did Moses come up with this?
No, Moses was ready to just burn the candle at both ends,
morning till night, just answering quiet,
just standing there all day, you know, taking care of,
and having all these other perfectly qualified people
standing around who could have easily done
what he was doing, just kind of twiddling their thumbs,
kind of going, well, what should we do?
We'll just stand there, you know?
So sometimes that's what it takes for a leader.
Somebody else has to kind, to come and nudge them.
And honestly, this has happened to me
several times already, especially over the last year.
That's kind of why we've rolled out
the volunteer cleaning program, you know?
And there's other things I have in mind
that I'll kind of roll out over the next several months,
you know, about other things that get done in this church
that, you know, if other people want to jump in
and participate and help in,
that I'm gonna open that up to them
and try to kind of step back.
You know, we already kind of have done that.
You know, we've already kind of delegated the song leading.
We've delegated, you know, other aspects of the ministry.
People are filling in already,
but, you know, we need to keep that going, right?
So that I can focus on the things that I need to do, right?
So I'm kind of preaching this to, you know,
tonight on a Sunday night to the church family,
you know, our core group, you know, our diehards,
so they can kind of get a sense of, you know,
where I'm at, where we're at as a church.
So it's kind of a family meeting tonight, right?
So we're kind of talking about some of these things, but.
Anyway, let's just move along here in the sermon.
Go over to Romans chapter number 12, Romans chapter number 12.
You know, again, someone has kind of come to me
and kind of, you know, more than one person, in fact,
has come to me in the last year and said,
hey, you need to start delegating things.
And I've heard this preached
and I've heard other pastors say this
and I've even thought to myself, you know, I need to do that.
I need to start learning to delegate.
But, you know, sometimes, you know,
and maybe I'll kind of tell on myself a little bit tonight
why I've been reluctant, you know,
but for whatever the reason, you know,
that is something I've struggled with, right?
But I don't feel so bad about that because I look at Moses
and I'm like, well, Moses kind of had the same problem.
So at least I got something in common with Moses.
You know, I might have some of his better qualities
in, you know, I'm not like him in that way,
but at least we share some of the same flaws.
You know, if I could be like Moses
in some way, shape, or form, I'll take it, right?
You know, if I could be associated with Moses, all right.
I'll grab onto that.
You know, God has given us a group of people here
in this church and I believe that different people
in this church are gonna be able to serve
in different capacities and different ways
and everyone will kind of find their place, right?
But the leader is somebody who has to kind of step back
and let that open up and let that happen, right?
Moses had guys there that were ready to,
in an instant, help out.
I mean, they were ready to just step in
and just start doing the work, like immediately, right?
But what had to happen is he had to step away
and allow that vacuum to form
so that they could fall into it, okay?
And I believe that's how God sets up a church.
If you look at Romans chapter 12, look at verse three.
It says, for I say through the grace given unto me
to every man that is among you,
not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think,
but to think soberly.
The Bible warns us not to think more highly of ourselves
than we ought to.
But we don't wanna run to extreme of that too
and go to like this false humility, right?
And say, well, I'm nobody.
I don't think too highly of myself
because I think I'm a nobody.
But what does he say?
You need to think, but to think soberly, right?
Be serious, be honest with yourself.
What are your strengths?
What are your abilities?
What can you do?
What area could you improve in?
What area could you benefit the church in?
What is it that you could do, right?
Don't think too highly and think, well, you know,
I could, you know, get deacon out of there.
I can preach three sermons a week.
You know, you might be,
that's kind of jumping into the deep end, be honest.
You know, anyone who's tried to write a sermon
knows what I'm talking about.
And you say, oh, but deacon, you make it look so easy.
No one here says that, of course,
because I don't make it look easy.
But you know, my wife would tell you,
like, she's seen me over the years, right?
You think it just seems so effortless up here.
It just seems so natural, right?
I hope so.
I hope we're trending towards improvement
in the preaching around here.
Not like this, right?
But you know, look folks, it wasn't,
you think this is bad.
You think the preaching's bad now.
Like, it was,
and those of you who've been with us for five years,
you could probably testify to this.
Say, I remember when you started,
you know, three times a week.
It was, mm-hmm, it was kind of,
whew, you know, but we got through it, right?
And it's still, I'm not saying I've arrived.
You know, I'm not trying to think more highly.
But my wife would tell you, I remember,
because you know, sometimes every now and then,
you know, I'll leave on a Sunday morning or Sunday night
and just feel like, why am I doing this?
I should quit.
You know, I just want to slither out the door.
And the people deserve better than this, yada, yada, yada.
And she'll have to kind of encourage,
it's very rare that that happens.
Probably almost never.
I'm sure she can't even think of an instance
of that ever happening.
There's so few and far between.
But often, you know, when I get that,
you know, woe is, you know, poor me attitude,
she'll remind me, well, you know,
think about when you first started.
Like you'd write a sermon for a 10-minute preaching class.
It would take me like, I'd come home from work
in the evenings and spend all evening for like three days.
And then I'd scrap the whole thing, right?
I'd scrap it all up.
You don't, two weeks?
Oh man, that's even worse than I thought.
Look, this didn't take two weeks.
This took like two hours, right?
Like two hours ago.
So, you know, you can see that, you know,
I don't know why I'm going on about this,
but I guess what I'm trying to do is make the point
that, you know, there's certain things
that only I can do in this church, right?
But, you know, obviously I could do anything
that needs to get done.
But why wear away?
Why waste away like that?
You know, this is something that people have come to me,
even men in this church, other pastors,
and messages that I've heard have come to me
and said, hey, delegate, let things go, let things go.
And again, I see that was kind of,
it seems like it was kind of a struggle for Moses, right?
Because I don't think, I think it was such a simple solution
that you kind of wonder, how did Moses not see that?
But again, he says here in Romans chapter 12,
you know, we ought not to think more highly than ourselves,
but then we ought to, but we ought to also think soberly.
Look at the end of verse three there.
According as God hath dealt to every man
the measure of faith.
You know, God has given us a certain measure of faith.
God has dealt certain gifts and abilities
unto us as individuals, okay?
Look at verse four.
For as we have many members in one body
and all members have not the same office, right?
So he's likening the church onto,
you know, the physical body, right?
We would say, hey, this is my body,
but our body is, you know, is composed of our arms
and our legs and our torso, so on and so forth, right?
They're all individual parts, they're unique.
They have, they play different functions,
they have different roles, there's certain things
that only certain parts of our body can do.
You know, if we were to lose our eyes,
you know, it's not like our nose or our ears
could take over for the vision, it's gone, right?
That's a unique ability that only our eyes have.
And that's what he's kind of likening
the church onto as well.
This is an important thing to understand about a church.
A church is kind of like an organism, a body, a human,
that has different members that compose the whole body.
And just like the body has different parts
that play a specific function, you know,
there's people in this church that are gonna be
best suited for certain roles.
And there's gonna be certain things that perhaps,
you know, they're, only they can do it to that ability,
right, and it might not even be a matter
of whether or not somebody could do it,
it's just could they do it as well
as somebody else is doing it, okay?
You know, you could if you wanted to,
you know, there's people that lose like their arms
or whatever and then they learn to use their feet
to do everything, but is that really the ideal situation?
No, obviously not, right, they would prefer
to have their arms back to be able to do that, right?
So it's kind of the same thing, you know,
we might be able to get by with certain people
doing certain things, but what the Bible's showing us
is that if a leader will step back and allow people
to kind of find their place, the right people
will kind of fall into those places.
The people who are best suited for certain jobs
and certain abilities, you know,
who have those certain abilities will step
into those roles, I believe that.
Oh, I've got a water, thank you though.
He says there in verse four,
for as we have many members in one body
and all members have not the same office,
so we being many are one body in Christ
and everyone members one of another.
So we are many, you know, one body in Christ
and everyone members one of another.
Look at verse six, having then gifts differing
according to the grace that is given to us,
whether prophecy, let us prophesy according
to the proportion of our faith,
or ministry, let us wait on our ministering,
or he that teacheth on teaching,
or he that exhorteth on exhortation,
he that giveth, let him do it to simplicity,
he that ruleth with diligence,
he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness.
Now I don't want to go into each and every one
of these things, these different abilities
that he kind of lists out here,
but again, what is he saying?
You know, if this is what you can do, then do that.
Everybody should do what they're capable of doing, right?
And I think that's a good lesson for leaders.
That's a good lesson for people who can only
do certain things, or there's certain things
that only certain people can do.
If you have that ability, you should focus on that, okay?
But again, everyone has a role to play in the church.
I absolutely believe that.
Even if it's not directly involved
with the day-to-day functions of this church,
the building, whatever, everyone fills a role here.
If you would, go over to 1 Corinthians chapter number 12.
I should've had to keep something in Exodus.
We're gonna go back, but go back
over to 1 Corinthians chapter 12.
For example, you know, the Bible says in Titus
that the aged women should teach the young women
to be sober, to love their husbands,
to love their children, to be discreet,
chaste keepers at home, and to be good, right?
So the aged women are supposed to teach the younger women.
That is something that happens in a church,
but you know what, it's not in the bulletin, is it?
It's not like we have the ladies instruction time
every Tuesday at seven or whatever.
That's something that people just kind of fall into
because they're fulfilling those roles naturally, right?
And that's a very important role.
The aged women teaching the younger to do these things,
it's an important thing to set that example.
You know, ladies helping ladies with homeschooling
and just different issues that come up
with being a mother and things like that.
That's a very important role.
You know, and on that note, let me just say this.
You know, young mothers, especially mothers
with small children, you know,
they have their plate full, okay?
You know, part of the reason I've always kind of
been reluctant to kind of step back
and let other people do things
is that I know how churches operate,
and 20% of the people are gonna have doing 80% of the work.
And the people that are already busy
doing things for the church,
they're just gonna end up doing more.
You know, but you know what, so be it.
That's kind of the way it just, that's just the way it is.
You know?
So, you know, what I'm getting at is that,
you know, a young, a mother with young children,
you know, that's not somebody whose name
I wanna see on that list back there.
I'm just being honest.
I'm not saying it's forbidden that they can't do it,
but what I am saying is this,
is that don't devalue the role you play as a mother.
Understand that what you're doing
as a mother, especially of young children,
you have your plate full,
and you have a very important job.
And honestly, it's something that serves the church already.
You know, mothers who are raising children
and raising them in the nature and admonition of the Lord,
being that example to other ladies,
that is them playing a role in the church.
Because the Bible talks a lot
about child-rearing, doesn't it?
It talks a lot about motherhood.
So, you know, it's a very important role.
You know, the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.
And we can make a spiritual application out of that.
The hand that rocks the cradle saves souls.
Mothers can raise godly children
and go on and do great things for God.
But they have to understand that that role as a mother,
that is a role that only they can fulfill.
It's an important role.
So focus on that, ladies.
Now look, if some mom's just,
she's just running such a tight ship,
and she can come in here
and make sure the kids don't drink bleach
while she's scrubbing the toilet or whatever.
Knock yourself out, okay?
But I'm just telling you,
we know how it is with little kids and things like that.
You're gonna probably spend more time
chasing the kids around the building
while trying to keep them from making more of a mess
while you're trying to clean up the place.
It's kind of, you know,
it's kind of two steps forward, one step back, if that.
Right?
So I did wanna put that caveat out there, okay?
Because again, and I know when people see opportunities
to do things, sometimes they get the impression
that we're being desperate
or we really need people to do this.
Like if no one signs up on that sheet,
it's still gonna get done, okay?
And if other people, as other things are rolled out,
if people don't wanna jump in,
it's still gonna get done, okay?
So I don't wanna put undue pressure on people.
Did I have you go to 1 Corinthians 12?
I'm already taking too long,
so we're just gonna have to jump in here.
But in 1 Corinthians 12,
he kind of explains more about the body,
how there's different roles and things like that.
In fact, let's just look at some of it here.
I gotta kind of get the context a little bit here.
But in 1 Corinthians chapter number 12,
he says in verse 12,
for as the body is one and hath many members
and all members of that one body,
many are one body, so also is Christ.
Look at verse 14,
for the body is not one member, but many.
So he's using this illustration again
of the church being like a body, right?
Having these different appendages
that play a unique role, but composing the whole, okay?
If the foot shall say, verse 15,
I am not the hand, I am not of the body,
is it therefore not of the body?
You know, and that's, again,
you might sit there and say,
well, you know, I just do this in the church.
But look, it's an important role, isn't it?
You think, oh, cleaning isn't that important.
But what if, think about it, though,
cleaning is important, right?
What if nobody did it?
You end up eating out of a dirty popcorn machine, right?
Amen.
But I was told after the announcements
that popcorn, because it's made out of coconut oil,
the butter is actually coconut oil,
and coconut oil has anti-microbial,
microbial, why do I try to say words
I can't say from the pulpit?
Anti-fungus, is it anti-fungus?
That sounds really bad.
Anti-septic, I give you permission.
Anti-bacterial, what's the difference
between anti-bacterial and anti-microbial?
It's the same thing.
That's why they use bacterial, it's much easier to say.
Anti-bacterial is much, it just rolls off the tongue, right?
So, you know, we kind of put your hearts
at ease about the popcorn.
It's got coconut oil in it.
So it's anti-bacterial.
There's no need, why do we ever clean it?
All these times I've cleaned that thing,
try not to lay myself open with that tin,
because it's got all those tin pieces
that are like extra, you know, like they're sharp.
You gotta be real careful.
You know, I've never cut myself.
I haven't bled into the machine.
But even if I did, it's anti-bacterial butter
that's in there, we're good, right?
You know, you might get some of Deacon's blood on you.
Put some hair on your chest.
Maybe you don't want that.
What was I talking about?
Oh yeah.
What was I talking about?
Honestly though, does anyone remember?
How did we get on that?
Cleaning, yes, right, exactly.
Someone was paying attention, thank you.
Right, someone was writing notes.
You know, yay, keep notes for my sake around here, you know?
Keep track of the sermon, tell me where I left off.
I mean, I know I got pages of them up here,
but it doesn't seem to help anymore.
Getting senile, right?
Cleaning, what if nobody cleaned?
That job would look pretty important
pretty quick, wouldn't it?
Nobody ever took the trash out.
We'd start to understand how quickly,
you know, very quickly how important
a job as simple as that is, right?
So never say it's not an important job, because it is.
Well, I'm just the foot.
I'm not the hand, I'm not the head.
You know, no one sees me, I'm stuck in the shoe,
getting stepped on all day, I smell, right?
It's not a glorious appendage, right?
It doesn't get the ring, right?
Like, wish I could be that ring finger.
He gets to wear that ring, oh, I'm just the foot down here.
Yeah, but cut the foot off.
It's pretty important, right?
And if the ear, verse 16, shall say,
because I am not the eye of my not body,
is it therefore not of the body?
If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing?
Like, if your body was just this giant eyeball.
That'd be pretty cool, right?
Just be a giant eyeball walking around.
That'd be weird, actually, right?
But, you know, what he's saying is like,
look, we can't all be the same thing.
We can't all fulfill the same roles.
There has to be these different appendages
in order to have the whole body function,
you know, in a healthy manner,
in a way that's gonna get something done.
If everyone's trying to be the hand, you know,
we're not gonna be able to move forward with our feet.
Someone's gotta fulfill that role.
You know, someone's gotta be the mouth.
Someone's gotta be all these different roles.
Someone's gotta be the head
in order for the body to get something done.
You know, and that's really an important thing
for a church to understand.
Everyone, whatever role you play is important
because it helps the whole
and it's gonna help us get something done as a church, right?
I gotta move along here, but if you,
if you look at verse 25, he said,
that there should be no schism in the body,
but that the member should have the same care
one for another.
God, you know, God doesn't want this schism in the body,
this division, right?
We need to endeavor to keep the bond of unity, right?
The spirit of peace.
And whether one member suffer,
all the members suffer with it.
You know, you cut off an appendage,
even if you cut off your pinky toe,
like you have to learn to walk,
your pinky toe helps you balance.
If you have ever gotten some kind of problem
with your vestibular organ, like I've had,
which is, you know, the inner ear,
that little, no one ever thinks about the inner ear, right?
It's tucked away inside your head.
But you know what, if a little tiny piece of,
like granule little piece,
there's these little pebbles,
these microscopic little stones almost
in your part of your inner ear,
not gonna go into an anatomy class right now,
but if one of them comes out of this little stack,
it's part of your vestibular organ
and gets into the fluid that's in your inner ear,
you'll get vertigo.
One little thing goes wrong and it could set the whole,
and anyone who's had vertigo
knows how debilitating that is.
I had a bout of that for like several weeks
and it was one of probably the most miserable illnesses
I've ever had.
Everything's just moving,
things just start spinning for no reason.
It's terrible, but you know,
it's just one little thing going wrong
and one little organ in this great big old body, right?
It's full of all these different parts.
You should not have this attitude that I'm expendable,
that what I do doesn't matter,
that there isn't anything I can contribute.
You know, if we all do our best,
if we pitch in and seek to excel
in the roles that we've been given,
you know, that's gonna benefit everybody.
The whole body is going to be edified, right?
Look at verse 28,
and God has set some in the church,
first to possible, secondarily to prophets,
thirdly to teachers, after that miracles
and gifts of healings, helps,
governments, diversities of tongues, right?
Go to Acts, actually go to Colossians three,
I gotta move along, I'm running out of time.
So my first point this evening is just that,
you know, leaners need to learn to,
to delegate, right?
But also, a church as a body needs to learn
that, you know, the importance of fulfilling those roles.
You know, it doesn't do any good to delegate things
if there's nobody to delegate to.
Then it just becomes a source of frustration, right?
So if you're gonna take on a role,
if you're gonna do things in a church,
and it is needed and it is appreciated,
make sure you're doing it, one, for the right reasons.
You know, and two, make sure that you have the skills
and the attributes needed to serve.
And I just wanna talk briefly about some of these skills
and attributes that are needed to serve, okay?
In Acts six, I'll just remind us,
Acts six is where there was a, you know,
that contention among the widows, right?
Because the Grecians were complaining
because their widows were not being served, right?
They were being left out of the daily ministration.
Everyone was kind of pooling their resources
and certain widows who were destitute were being left out.
Okay?
And as a result, what did they end up doing?
They appointed, you know, the deacons, right?
We have all those lists of those deacons,
one of which was Stephen, right?
Who was martyred, you know, in the next chapter
was brought before the council and martyred.
But when they picked out those men to fulfill their roles,
you know, they didn't just draw names out of a hat.
They stopped and they considered who it was
that they should pick out, right?
It says in verse two,
then the 12 called the multitude of the disciples,
I'm just reading from Acts six, unto them,
and said it does not reason that we should leave
the word of God and serve tables.
So again, that's not them being puffed up.
That's them understanding because they probably read,
you know, Exodus, they know about this principle
in scripture that, hey, there's certain things
that people have to do.
Like we as leaders, there's certain things
that only we can do.
Those are the things that we have to focus on.
That's why they said it's not reason
that we should leave the word of God and go serve tables.
Saying we can find other people to do this job,
but not everybody is able to do what we can do, right?
To them it was give them the preaching and all of that,
you know, preaching the gospel, edifying the church,
leading, ruling in the house of God.
That's what they had to focus on.
Their studies, you know, their preaching,
that was what they were called to do.
He's saying it's not reason that we should leave
these things and serve tables.
Wherefore, brethren, look ye out anybody.
Just find seven guys, whoever, and have them do this.
They said find seven men of honest report
full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom
that we made a point over this business.
Again, what was the business in act six?
Serving tables.
Now serving tables doesn't, I mean,
obviously they have to have some discretion,
you know, in this particular instance.
Like wisdom is probably a little bit more needed
to kind of know who needs what and organizational skills
and all that kind of thing,
to make sure everyone's getting taken care of,
kind of bringing an end to the strife in the church.
But honestly, how much, you know,
does it really take a lot of wisdom
to just do some menial tasks?
Well, you know, the Bible seems to say it does.
You know, and what I'm getting at is this,
is that don't downplay the importance
of whatever it is you're doing in the church.
You know, it's important.
They didn't just find anybody.
They said find men of full of the Holy Ghost,
you know, and of honest report,
full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom.
And again, I'll say this.
You know, and this isn't like a commentary
on anybody in this church,
but this is just an observation that I've, you know,
something I've observed over the years
when it comes to these things like volunteer cleanings
that is, you know, within the church,
is that if people get carnal,
people can be actually becoming bitter
over something as simple as that.
I'm just, those of you that are gonna sign up
and participate, you know, let me just say now,
I appreciate you, okay?
I appreciate the help.
But I'm not gonna come to you every Sunday
and tell you how much I appreciate you.
Because hopefully that's not why you're doing it.
You know, all of you should be doing it for the Lord.
Obviously, I know it's helping me as a leader.
You know, and I appreciate that.
But if we're just doing it to try to get, you know,
a word of praise, prepare, you know,
let me just, let me just prepare you for disappointment.
It's like, it's not gonna happen.
Don't expect other people in the church
to notice your handiwork, except if it's done poorly.
Because that's what people do.
Oh, you know, I noticed when I went into the bathroom
that they didn't clean, you know,
on the upper part of the sink behind the handles.
People notice that stuff.
People will start to pick apart other people's work.
Or they'll people get an attitude,
well, I just don't feel appreciated in the church.
Well, so, you know, if you were full of the Holy Ghost,
it wouldn't matter.
You know, you don't see the servants in Acts chapter six
getting all bitter and bent out of shape.
Well, no one told us, you know,
what a great job we were doing serving tables.
It doesn't take the Holy Spirit and wisdom
to know how to do that necessarily,
but it takes the Holy Spirit and wisdom
to not get carnal about it,
not to get bitter about it,
and to make sure you're doing things for the right reasons.
Because it's still important, it's an important task.
It's freeing up the apostles to do their job, right?
So qualifications matter when it comes to serving, right?
I mean, it matters for the deacon,
there's qualifications for the deacon,
there's qualifications for the pastor,
1 Timothy 3, Titus 1, there's these qualifications for that,
but there's also qualifications for serving in the church.
You know, be full of the Holy Ghost, have wisdom.
Even back in Exodus 18 where we were reading,
there were qualifications that were given.
You know, they were to look out certain men.
What did the Bible say there?
I know I was gonna have you just keep there,
but find able men such as fear God,
men of truth, hating covetousness.
You know, Jethro said find these specific people.
Don't just grab anybody.
He's saying if you're gonna have guys judging these matters,
make sure they're men that fear God,
that they're men of truth, men that hate covetousness, right?
So there are qualifications even for these,
what we might deem menial tasks.
Less important, they are important, right?
They're just not spotlight,
they're not gonna get the glory.
No task is small when it's done for God.
If you would, go to Colossians chapter number three,
and I'll try to move quickly here.
The Bible says, wherefore we receive a kingdom
which cannot be moved, let us serve God
acceptably with reverence and godly fear.
That's how we oughta serve God.
In whatever capacity we're serving God,
do it with reverence and godly fear.
Whatever you do for God,
do it with reverence and godly fear.
Look at Colossians three, verse 22.
Servants, obey in all things your masters
according to the flesh, not with eye service
as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart,
fearing God, and whatsoever you do,
do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men.
Look, this is one of the qualifications,
this is one of the skills, one of the attributes
that is needed for people who are going to serve
in a local church.
To do it as unto the Lord and not unto men.
Obviously, Paul here is making an application,
that's how you should be out in your secular work.
In any job.
In your employment, that's how you should work.
Whatever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord.
The boss doesn't recognize you,
the supervisor doesn't recognize you,
you're not getting the raise,
you're not getting the promotion,
you're not getting an attaboy.
So what?
Do it unto God.
Knowing, verse 24, of the Lord you shall receive
the reward of the inheritance,
for ye serve the Lord Christ.
Everything that we do in this life,
we should do as though we're serving God.
How much more so when it's involved
in the work of God, when it's within the house of God.
You know, God notices how we serve him in the house of God.
So that's one of the skills or attributes
that are needed to serve.
Another one, and this is just another good principle
to have, this will benefit you,
is to learn how to walk circumspectly, okay?
He said, Paul said in Ephesians five,
wherefore he saith, awake thou that sleepeth,
arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
See then that ye walk circumspectly,
not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time,
because the days are evil.
So what does it mean to walk circumspectly?
Well, just from the context,
without even knowing necessarily what that word means,
but it's associated with awaking out of sleep,
arising from the dead, Christ giving us light,
not walking as fools, but as wise,
talking about being alert, being aware, having wisdom,
you know, that's how we're to walk,
that's how we're to serve,
and he says to walk circumspectly,
meaning have your eyes open and looking about.
Think about circumspect, like circumnavigate
going around the earth, because the earth is a globe.
Amen, the globe earth, we believe that here.
You can come to this church and be a flat earther,
but when you start speaking that nonsense,
don't be surprised if you get slapped down for it,
because it's foolishness.
And look, some people deserve to be rebuked sharply
for preaching foolishness.
Paul said rebuke them sharply.
Some people need to be rebuked sharply
when they start to just utter nonsense and foolishness,
especially when they start to berate
and disrespect a man of God, okay?
And those of you that know why I'm saying that
know why I'm saying that.
Okay, there's nothing wrong with being rebuked sharply,
especially over that stuff.
Anyway, let me bring it back.
Gather ourselves, beloved.
Keep on point here, okay?
So circumnavigate, circumspect,
you know, that's how we're to walk.
You know, this is a really good,
this is something that my old pastor in Michigan,
I worked for him, he taught me this.
You want to excel in the job,
you want to excel in your service,
learn to walk circumspectly.
Start looking for things that need to be done.
You know, it's the saying, see a need, fill a need.
You know, you don't have to wait for somebody else
to come and ask you to do something.
You don't have to wait for somebody else
to come and tell you to do something.
If you see a need, just jump in.
Just help.
That's what it means to walk circumspectly.
You know, when I was, you know,
going back to that particular incidence
where my boss taught me this,
what he was saying was that
when you're walking around the job site,
you should know where everything is.
Not just walking, like, okay, I gotta go do this,
and just totally oblivious
to everything that's going on around me.
Like, not taking note of things.
Whereas if I'm walking, I'm going,
oh, the nail gun's there, the hammer's there,
the pile of shingles is there.
Oh, the, this, you know, the tar paper's over there,
the, you know, these tools, the hoses are over there,
this is the compressor, it's plugged in over there,
like, knowing where everything is
so that when the boss says, hey, go grab me that,
you don't have to go, where is it?
I already know because I was looking.
Because I was walking circumspectly.
You know, you walk in here and the trash is overflowing,
take the trash out.
Like, it's that simple, right?
You know, and there's more than one trash can
in this church building, by the way.
You know?
If you notice the trash can in the nursery is full,
which it always is, by the way,
you know, maybe it's not the people aren't seeing it,
maybe it's because they know what's in there.
Right?
And they're like, well, let Deacon do that, right?
I doubt anyone has that attitude, right?
Because it's a little can that's tucked away.
At least I hope not, that's degrading, thank you.
The only person that's fit to take out dirty diapers
is me, I guess.
But dude, grab that thing and twist it up
and don't just leave it open in the other big trash can
so that it can just emanate its fumes
into the whole building.
But you know, you say, why do you have to explain
these things, but honestly, you know,
you're starting to see why I'm reluctant to let things go,
why I have a hard time just releasing this to other people.
Because some people won't think about that.
They won't, they'll pull out a diaper filled,
you know, a trash bag that is just overflowing
with the most, well, you know, anyway,
I don't need to turn any stomachs tonight.
And they'll just, you know, throw it in there.
It's like, wind that thing up, seal those odors within,
and maybe put them in, you know, the trash can,
while you're at it, you know,
empty the trash in the bathroom.
Freshen that thing up, throw it in there,
seal it up again, now you got it double wrapped.
And then you throw it in there.
And if you're really smart, you'll take the cold
coffee grounds and put them on top of that bag.
Boom, pro tip.
That's how you deacon, folks, right there.
Right, that's some professional level deaconing.
That's how you deaconate.
I better be careful, I'm gonna say something I shouldn't.
Right, you know, some people that are just
these amateur diaper thrower waiters.
You know, I'm double wrapping, triple wrapping,
I'm putting cold grounds directly on the bag, sealing it.
How did you get that?
I started walking circumspectly, I just started thinking,
hey, this needs to get done, you know,
but also I don't wanna gag everybody
when they come in for the evening service.
You know, seal that odor up.
That's what it means to walk circumspectly.
You know, turn all of the lights on.
Every single one of them.
If something needs to get done, just jump in and do it.
That's what it means to walk circumspectly.
These are the skills that are needed to serve, to excel.
You see a need, you feel a need.
And now you can kinda see why some people might be
a little hesitant to, and they might resist
relinquishing responsibility, okay?
I know that's kind of a mouthful.
And we just close by giving you a few reasons
why people resist relinquishing responsibilities.
Why they have a hard time of letting go of things.
Number one is pride, okay?
And this is the thing, this can be a reason.
People sometimes won't let things go
because they have too much pride.
Because they have to admit that somebody else
can do something that they can do, right?
Which is silly, but this is human nature.
You know, it's this attitude of,
well, I would let other people do it
if they could do it as good as I could.
I would let other people take out the trash
if they knew about putting coffee grounds on it.
You know, if they don't do it the way I do it,
then nobody should do it.
That's pride, okay?
That's a proud statement.
No one can do it as good as I can do it.
Okay, maybe not, but what if they can do it
80% as good as you?
What if, you know, how, what percentage of what,
how you can do it should people be able to do things
before you let it go?
You know, as long as the job can get done,
does it really matter how good they do it?
As long as the job gets done, does it really matter?
People need to learn to let go of things
and not be prideful about this.
I was gonna have us go to Numbers 11,
but I know I've been, I'm going along already,
but I keep saying that, but if you remember Numbers 11,
the Lord comes down and, you know, there's,
the Spirit comes upon several, you know,
like several men in the camp, and they begin to,
they come, they begin to prophesy,
and it says in verse 26,
but there remain two of them in the camp.
The name of the one was Eldad and the name of the other
was Medad, and the Spirit rested upon them,
and they were of them that were written,
meaning they were of that 70,
but were not, but went not out onto the tabernacle,
and they prophesied in the camp.
So the rest are coming to the camp,
or excuse me, to the tabernacle to prophesy.
These two guys, you know, Medad and Eldad,
are hanging out in the camp,
and they continue to prophesy there.
They're not with everybody else.
They're kind of doing their own thing, so to speak.
Verse 27, and there ran a young man,
and told Moses, and said Eldad and Medad,
you prophesy in the camp.
And Joshua, excuse me, the son of Nun,
the servant of Moses, one of his young men,
answered and said, my lord Moses, forbid them.
Okay?
Now you can kind of see,
you can appreciate Joshua at this point.
You know, he's being referred to as the servant.
Right, we know he becomes the leader,
and it's a great principle about leadership.
Every great leader was at one time a servant, okay?
Just like Elisha poured waters upon the hands of Elijah
before he took up his mantle, right?
He served in obscurity for years,
doing menial tasks under another man of God
before he was given that, you know, charge of his own.
Same thing with Joshua here, right?
He's called Joshua the servant of Moses,
and it points out the fact
that he was one of his young men, right?
So it kind of shows that this is something
that we kind of have to learn, right?
This idea of not being proud about certain things,
that this is something that people mature out of.
He said, forbid him, forbid them from prophesying.
That is the Bible saying that they were blaspheming
or preaching heresy?
The Bible says the Spirit came upon them,
that God was blessing this.
But because they weren't doing it
the way that everybody else was doing it,
because they weren't doing it
the way Joshua thought they should be doing it,
you know, his pride kind of flares up a little bit.
And he says, hey, you should forbid them.
You know, they need to do it this exact way.
But what did Moses say?
You know, an older man who's matured,
who had learned some things,
he said, envious thou for my sake.
He's like, you know, I appreciate where your loyalty is,
but he's like, are you just envying for me?
Does it really matter?
What would God that all the Lord's peoples were prophets,
and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them?
Exclamation point, right?
He said, I wish everybody would do what we're doing.
I wish everybody would serve in his capacity, right?
And it just goes to show you
that the reason why sometimes people
can't let other people do things
is because of their pride, right?
Joshua's reluctant, he wants these guys rebuked
because he feels like, hey, that's our job.
That's Moses, only Moses gets allowed to do that.
And he says, you know what?
Would that everybody would.
Would that God everybody would.
So that's one reason why people
resist relinquishing responsibility.
Another reason is impatience.
And this is a big one,
and this is when I think that it can apply
to mothers especially, okay, impatience.
Because moms, as I said earlier,
they have their plates full.
You have several young children,
you know, you've got a full day.
I mean, motherhood is an up at dawn grind
until you collapse at the end of the day.
And I'm not exaggerating.
If you're doing it right,
motherhood is incredibly difficult,
especially when you have more and more children, okay?
You know, motherhood is a very difficult job, okay?
They have a lot to get done.
If you're homeschooling, cooking meals,
keeping house, it's a tough load.
And it's never ceasing.
No mom has ever said, well,
that's the last load of laundry I'll ever have to do.
Praise God, that's over.
You know, what do moms say?
Can't this place just stay clean for five,
no, it can't.
It can't, because that's how human beings are.
You know, you're gonna wash that dish,
and then you're gonna turn right around
and make it dirty again.
You're gonna clean that whole kitchen,
and within 24 hours, it's gonna look like
no one did anything, right?
So they have a lot to do.
So I'm bringing this up because what happens sometimes
is that mothers have so much to do,
they'll get impatient,
because they're trying to get so much done
that they'll fail to delegate certain tasks
or to instruct.
Because, you know, it'd be great to delegate things to kids,
but here's a part of that process
is instructing them and teaching them, right?
You have to actually teach them.
You can't just, you know, kids don't come out of the womb
like, all right, put me to work.
I mean, hopefully, you know, by the time they're teenagers,
that's still a battle, right?
That's what I've been told, you know?
I know when I was a teenager, I mean, I was ready,
I was just, da da da da, reporting for duty.
No, it wasn't like that.
Yeah, I mean, I don't wanna tell myself too much,
but I know you have a hard time believing it,
but I was like every other teenager.
Did you do that?
I have to write out a list, do this,
have it done by the time I get back, right?
The temptation is to say, well, you know what?
I'm not gonna teach the kids.
I'm not gonna take the time to teach them how to do dishes,
how to do laundry, how to clean up,
how to watch after their siblings,
how to make a meal, how to cook,
because I just need to get it done
because there's so much to do, right?
Because it is a time dream to instruct people
and teach people things, isn't it?
And it's a job in and of itself, trying to teach somebody,
trying to teach a child how to wash dishes.
You know, we take it for granted.
And especially in the day and age that we're living in
when there's this machine that does it for you, right?
My mom had three dishwashers growing up, right?
We asked mom for a dishwasher, she said, I got three.
What are you talking about?
And I was like, huh?
It's like me and my two sisters,
I got three dishwashers, right?
But you know what?
Someone had to teach, and when I did it wrong,
when I would do a poor job, gasp, I know, right?
Because you know, teenagers, that's how they are.
They just want to hurry up and get it done
so they can get on to doing whatever it is
that's so important in a teenager's life.
You know, that they just can't take the time
to do the job right the first time.
You know, then you got to come back and show them
you did this wrong, you got to do this now,
you got to use the water, it's got to be hot enough,
you got to make sure the suds in there,
sometimes you have to change the water halfway through.
Now you have dishwashers today,
so if there's some kid out there
that's complaining about loading a dishwasher,
don't do it around me, because I will come unhinged.
Because we washed them all by hand.
And it's not like I had to go to the well
and pump the water, and then boil it, or something.
And it still came right out of a tap.
But good night, I didn't have just some machine
where I had to rinse it and put it in there.
Anyway.
But it takes time to instruct, doesn't it?
And it's going to take time to teach a kid
how to load a dishwasher.
You know, let me just prepare you for this.
There's a good chance a dish is going to get broken.
You know, the kids are probably,
they're probably just like me and you.
They have butterfingers, too.
Oh, I don't want to break a dish.
Have you ever broken a dish?
Then what's the big deal?
Right?
But the thing is, you know,
people resist delegating responsibilities
because they're impatient.
They don't want to take the time to instruct.
But the irony is, is that it will come back to haunt you.
It will come back to haunt you if you don't delegate things,
if you are impatient, if you don't take the time
to instruct, because then you're going to raise somebody
who doesn't know how to do these things, right?
You're going to raise the daughter.
She's going to go off and get married to some, you know,
godly guy who wants to have her be his wife,
keep her home and raise children.
And he's going to set her loose and she's going to be like,
well, I don't know how to bake.
I don't know how to cook.
I don't know how to clean.
I don't know how to do that.
My job is just to look pretty.
I thought that's, you know, that's all you want.
It's like, looking pretty is great, but you know,
there's some utility that's involved here as a wife, right?
We're trying to raise daughters that are going to be an asset
to some other family and some other household.
And it's especially those for us that maybe didn't grow up
in a household like that.
We got to kind of break that mold.
You got to reinvent the wheel, right?
You know, we grew up without parents
that were instructing us in some of these things.
Maybe we didn't get, you know, all the cooking instruction
and cleaning instruction and things like that.
Well, you know, we want to break that cycle, okay?
The Bible says in Proverbs 29,
he that delicately, delicately bringeth up his servant
from a child shall have him become his son at the length.
You know, if we endear ourselves to our children,
if we're delicate with them and we endear ourselves
and we're patient with them and we teach them
and instruct them, you know, it's going to benefit us
in the long run.
We haven't become our son at length, right?
I know it's kind of a backwards analogy that I'm using.
We want to bring up our son so they become our servants.
Amen.
But the Bible says in Psalm 18, you know, David said,
thy gentleness hath made me great.
You know, being patient, taking the time to instruct,
taking the time to delicately bring up that child,
bring up that servant, you know,
that's going to benefit everybody in the long run.
But it takes patience.
And this is why people don't delegate things.
This is especially within homes, especially amongst mothers.
They don't want to delegate things
because it takes patience and it takes time.
It takes, but you have to look at it as an investment.
Teaching and instruction is an investment.
You know, because what's the other, what's the other,
what's the other option?
Be impatient, not instruct, not teach, not delegate things.
You know, if I just said, you know what,
I'm just going to keep doing everything around here
and just, and not let go of the reins on anything.
You know, if I'd never said, you know,
we'd never got our song leader, said,
I'm going to do all, I'm going to do all the scripture reading.
I'm going to do all the song leading.
I'm going to do all of the, you know,
I'm going to run that AV room
and I'm going to clean this place,
top of everything else as a deacon
and as a preacher that I do,
and as a father and husband, everything else.
You know, what would happen is I'd burn out.
You know, burnout is a real thing.
I've done it.
It's not fun.
And I'm sure, you know, anybody adult in here
with any level of responsibility
has experienced the same thing.
No teenager has, okay?
You don't even know, you don't even know about burnout yet.
Oh, the trials and tribulations that are in your future.
Ha ha ha ha, just kidding, sorry.
But my point is this, is those are your options in life.
Delegate tasks, let go of your pride,
quit being so impatient with people,
instruct, teach, invest in other people,
give other people opportunity to serve,
be patient with them.
Not everybody has to do things exactly the way you do it.
People are going to make mistakes and do things wrong.
You lovingly correct and guide and all of that.
You can either do that or just burn out.
Who benefits when you burn out?
Nobody.
You know, I burn out, you know,
I just, I finally just blow a fuse in this church.
You know, you might come in here
and no trash has been taken out.
You might come in here and everything's just in disarray.
What happened?
I mean, I was sick, and I'm not saying
the place was a mess, but it's like you can already see
like what happens when Deacon's gone for a week.
Right, you gotta buy your own water.
People are coming in water.
Water.
Sorry, there's a tap you can drink
from the admissible system, you know,
but that's it, you know.
Because you know, I'm not there to run the card
and things like that.
You know, you burn out, you burn out in your home,
you burn out some organization,
it'll crumble before your very eyes.
And then you gotta try and rebuild
if you can find the willpower to do that.
Try to put the pieces back together,
and that's really tough.
Another reason why people resist
relinquishing responsibility is that they're reluctant
to overburden other people, and I already touched upon this.
But if you would, please, just go to Exodus 17,
and I promise I'll end there, Exodus chapter 17.
If you remember this, well, we'll just start reading
in verse eight, it says, then came Amalek
and fought with Israel in Rephidim.
Exodus 17, verse nine.
And Moses said unto Joshua, choose us out men
and go fight with Amalek.
Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill
with the rod of God in mine hand.
So he's saying, what's he doing?
He's delegating, right, he's kinda learned his lesson,
he's learning to delegate certain things to certain people.
He's telling Joshua, you take some guys, you go find them.
Joshua, you go find the guys, you know what to do,
you know who we're looking for, I don't have to give you,
I don't have to hold your hand
and tell you exactly what to do.
Just go find these guys, we're gonna go fight,
I'm gonna go do what I can do.
I'm gonna go do the thing that only I can do.
Right, I'm gonna go up to the top of the mountain
with the rod, my rod, only Moses has the rod,
the one that God used to part the Red Sea
and he's gonna go up there
and he's gonna do something only he can do, right?
So he's delegating.
It says, so Joshua did as Moses had said unto 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 and when he had let down in his hand,
Amalek prevailed, right?
So he's holding up his hand
and then he's letting down his hand.
When he holds up his hand,
Israel's winning the war.
When his hand drops, when he puts it down,
Amalek prevails, Israel starts to lose this war.
I mean, there's dire consequences between this and this.
I mean, this is making all the difference in the world.
But it's like, well, why didn't Aaron or Hur do it?
Why not just have Aaron or Hur go, we got it
and have Aaron stand there for a while
because it wouldn't have worked.
Only Moses could have done that.
Moses was the one that had to hold his hand up, right?
But Moses looked very swell, but Moses' hands were heavy
and they took a stone and 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.
So Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people
with the edge of the sword, okay?
Now, I'm kind of moving into my next point.
This isn't really playing into my last point
about why people don't relinquish responsibility.
It's because they don't want to overburden other people.
I already kind of touched on that in the beginning
of the sermon.
You know, sometimes people don't want to let go of things
because they know it's just going to be the people
that are already doing things, doing even more, okay?
So I'm not going to develop that point.
I want to close this on this thought.
Is that when, you know, the leader has certain things
that only he can do, right?
But notice in this story that Aaron or Hur
are helping him do the thing that only he can do, right?
They're still playing a part in this.
They're supporting the man of God, right?
They couldn't say, hey, give me the rod.
I'll hold up my hand.
It wouldn't have worked.
But they said, what can we do to help Moses?
What could we do, right?
And they put the rock underneath him.
You know, what's really interesting about the story
and it's a great point while we're here, you know,
pay attention to the small details in the story, right?
Because it says in verse 11
that Moses held up his hand, singular.
You know, I remember when I used to read this all the time,
I always pictured him like doing this.
Anybody else do that?
A couple people?
They always thought, I always think hand.
Because in the story it says they held up his hands.
But the Bible's real clear in verse 11
that it's when Moses held up his hand, singular, right?
So he's holding up one hand.
But then it says when Moses' hands were heavy.
So I think what's going on in the story
is that he's holding up his hand.
Because why is he holding up his hand?
So they could win a war.
You know, wars, especially back then
where they're being fought with like hand-to-hand,
you know, melee weapons.
It wasn't, they weren't just like flying a drone over
and just dropping one bomb.
It was over in seconds.
Like these wars would take hours.
I mean, you read about the stories that Joshua got into,
the wars, the battles that he had.
I mean, they're like all day.
They're pursuing him into the night.
I mean, these were like long times.
So you think, oh, it's so big deal, but holy.
Well, try holding up your hand.
See how long you can just hold your hand up in the air
or just out in front of you.
I don't know exactly how old he was handing it,
but you know, it's, you know,
especially they put a rod in it.
You know, put like a seven, eight pound rod,
whatever, you know, five pounds.
It doesn't sound like much.
I'm getting tired already.
I might, look, you know what I mean?
You know, I'm breaking.
Now granted, in my condition, you know.
But you know, that's, so that's,
get the context of the story.
Put yourself there.
See, Moses is holding out one hand,
it's getting weary, and then he's holding out his other.
That's what I think is going on.
That's why his hands, he held out his hand,
hand, and then his hands became weary.
He could only alternate so many times
before eventually he's just fatigued in both arms.
That's what I think is going on in the story.
His hands were heavy.
So then they take a stone, right?
They roll a stone over there.
They get him to sit down.
And he kind of, you know, the body mechanics
that are kind of described here, right?
Why couldn't they just stand alongside him
and hold up a hand, right?
Well, you know, they're holding his hand now.
Like, they're gonna take turns holding Moses' hand.
So you're like, well, let's put him
in an advantageous position for us.
Let's get him sitting down, you know,
get the load off his legs, and then it'll be easier
for us to hold his hand.
Instead of us having to do this, you know,
we can kind of have it here at chest height,
you know, near the center of gravity.
I'm losing everybody.
Do I read too much into these stories?
Am I overthinking things?
Right?
You say, what's the application?
You know, well, one, they're serving the man,
they're supporting the man of God, right?
They're holding up his hands.
I think what happened in the story
is that even Aaron and Herb were taking turns doing this.
They weren't holding up both hands.
Aaron held a hand for a while.
Then maybe that arm, even with its support,
got worn out, and Moses had to hold up this one.
Maybe, you know, Herb came over and held up this one.
You know, they're working together as a team.
Moses is doing the thing that only he can do,
but then he's got these other men, these other people,
that are helping him in that work.
You know, and what happened as a result?
Amalek was destroyed, right?
He destroyed his people.
He won the war.
He discomfited Amalek and his people
with the edge of the sword.
They won the victory.
But it was a team effort, okay?
You had to have one, you had to have Joshua,
who had the wisdom and discernment
to go get the right guys to go fight the battle.
And that was probably something
only Joshua and those guys could do.
Moses is an elderly man at this point.
You know, these other guys,
maybe that just wasn't, you know,
something that was suited them.
The young guys that had the zeal, that had the vigor,
that had the, you know, the physical ability
to go out and fight that battle,
and that was something that was specific to them.
So, but you know, that was a role
that only they could fulfill.
Then you have Moses doing the thing that only he could do.
And Aaron and her were the only other two
up there on that hill that had the wherewithal to think
and say, hey, let's put a rock here
and hold up, take turns holding up your arms.
It was a team effort that wrought a great victory.
The application is this, you know,
we need to learn to serve one another.
You know, this is something that's gonna help you
in your service to Christ.
When you realize you're not just serving Christ,
but you're serving your brethren.
You're serving your fellow church members.
Serve one another.
The Bible says in Galatians 5, and I'll close with this.
For brethren, you've been called unto liberty,
only use not your liberty for an occasion to flesh,
but by love serve one another.
By love serve one another.
That is how a church should function as a body.
That's a sign of a healthy church.
When people are stepping in and helping one another
and loving one another, you know,
and I feel like our church is good at this.
I think we have people in here
that are looking out for each other,
that go out of their way to help each other
and care about one another, I think that's good.
You know, we don't wanna lose that, you know?
And as we have opportunity to step in
and maybe hold up a hand, so to speak,
you know, let's not let that pass.
You know, let's make sure we take advantage of that.
You know, because here's the thing,
just like in the story in Exodus 17,
we have a battle that's before us.
We don't have some physical battle.
You know, we're not gonna go fight some Amalekites.
We wrestle against principalities and powers.
You know, we're trying to go out there
and snatch people from the clutches of sin and hell.
You know, we're fighting a spiritual battle, folks.
And not any one person can do it all.
Everyone has to step in and do their part.
And when people do that and they have it
for the right motives and they have the right attitude
and they have the right skills
and they're fulfilling their roles,
you know, that's when things start to get done.
Every person has a part in part to play.
And when everybody does that, when Aaron's there,
when Hur's there, when Moses is there, when Joshua's there,
when all the unnamed men that were with Joshua
are doing their part, man, things happen.
And honestly, you know, I'm excited, you know,
going into our fifth year anniversary
about where our church is at.
And I mean that.
You know, we got the ball rolling.
I feel like we're established and I'm excited
about the things that we have yet to accomplish
through this ministry.
I still think we can do a lot of great things here in Tucson.
I think we'd still see a lot of souls saved.
And I'm not gonna try and roll out everything right now,
but I have ideas, you know, in the coming year.
You know, the things that I wanna do,
the things that, you know, me and my wife
are gonna do together to help start bringing,
we need to get fresh blood in here.
We need to go out and get some people saved
and get them in church and get them baptized.
And obviously, you know, I play a big part in that.
You know, and here's the thing.
I really wanna divert my energies to that.
I really wanna start focusing on those things,
focusing on promoting big days.
Really, just come out and say it.
I'm taking a page out of Pastor Jimenez's playbook,
basically.
It's a pretty good playbook.
It works.
I don't know if you've noticed that
if you've ever been to Sacramento and the church.
Like, it works.
You know, we've kind of run the well dry with listeners,
which is great.
You know, we've kinda squeezed all of the online listeners
that know about us that are willing to come out.
I'm sure there's some that are out there
that listen that aren't reluctant to come
for whatever reason.
You know, but what we really need is fresh blood.
And that maybe sounds a little graphic.
You know, hopefully no one's listening like,
man, I'm not going to that church.
God, church isn't, this really is a cult.
What are they doing when the camera's off?
You know, what's that candlelight service really about?
It's not that kind of candlelight service, right?
But what I'm saying is we need to get people
who have never heard of the new IFB.
People who have never heard of our churches
and never heard of the preachers in our movement.
We need to get them to hear about Jesus.
We need to get them to hear about this church,
to hear the word of God.
You know, I'm excited.
I have things in mind.
There's things that I want to do.
There's things I'm working on personally,
things that I have in mind for this church.
But you know, in order to do that,
I really need to be able to step away from other things.
You know, and I'm just saying that,
kind of preaching this tonight,
that as I step away from things,
that's everyone else's opportunity to jump in and help.
But don't take it as, you know,
it's just me trying to get out from under something.
You know, it's me trying to do what only I can do,
which is lead this church, to grow this church,
and to accomplish something great for God in this city.
We all play a part.
Even if it's not directly related to that,
the evangelism and the instruction,
if it's not the preaching,
if we all kind of chip in
and proverbially lift up the arms of the man of God,
roll that rock underneath, keep those hands up,
you know, we're all playing,
it's a team effort, and we all play a part in that.
Let's go ahead and close the word of prayer.
Dear Lord, again, thank you for this great church.
Thank you for these folks that love you, Lord,
and desire to serve you.
And Lord, thank you for the opportunity
that you've given us in this ministry
to see great things done.
Lord, I pray it help give us wisdom, guidance,
and Lord, love for one another, Lord,
that we might serve out of sincerity,
serve out of a love for you and for one another.
We ask these things in Christ's name, amen.
All right, we'll go ahead and sing one more song
before we're dismissed.
Amen.
Let's open up our hymnals, it's a song on the 44.
It's on the 44, Lord, till Jesus comes.
And we'll praise you, Lord, for the praise you've given us.
O, and the rest will be our son,
O God, our holy one.
Where the grass shall leave thine heart,
thy hands of peace can grow.
Till earth, till Jesus comes, will earth.
Till Jesus comes, will earth.
Till Jesus comes, we will be gathered here.
O Jesus Christ, our God, who raised you,
made the saints come.
O, may we forsook you, how it was to love the Lord.
Till earth, till Jesus comes, will earth.
Till Jesus comes, will earth.
Till Jesus comes, we will be gathered here.
My son at once, my Savior's Son,
O Lord, my Son shall come.
With me the greatness will be done,
and peace, whatever be known.
We'll pray, till Jesus comes, will earth.
Till Jesus comes, we will be gathered here.
We'll pray, till Jesus comes, will earth.
Till Jesus comes, we will be gathered here.
.