Hope Worth Having

Pastor Mike will be speaking on What to do When Things go Wrong Part 1. He will be reading out of Acts 21:17-40

Don’t draw the line where the bible doesn’t draw the line. You may disagree with it. It may not be your preference, but that’s okay because there is diversity in the family of God and we gotta recognize he is reaching people for the glory of God so that people will be saved. Hello. This is pastor Mike Sanders from the Open Door Church, and thank you for being a part of today’s program.

We’ve been tracking through the book of Acts, chapter by chapter, verse by verse. It takes a long time, but we believe that it is God’s way of teaching us the full counsel of his word. So today, we’re in Acts 21 verse one through 16, and we’re learning how to develop courage in your heart. So let’s get into this study. This morning, I want you to turn to Acts chapter 21, and we want to get back on track.

And I wanna talk to you this morning out of chapter 21 about what to do when things go wrong. What to do when things go wrong. Now I know that some of you probably feel that you know, maybe the pastor’s losing it, maybe he he seems to be redundant or repetitive, but I always want you to know every Sunday, you know, I have visitors, so we always try to bring them in the loop, and it’s important for me as a pastor to make sure everybody is in context. Because in Acts chapter 22, it’s not like it’s just a bunch of proverbs that are given to us and then we’re to apply them to our lives, but rather we have a narration by Luke under the inspiration of the spirit of God, and he is articulating to us the travels of the apostle. And we know and understand that he has finished his third missionary journey and that he is headed to Jerusalem.

When we come to verse 17 of chapter 21, we find that the apostle is there. He has finally made it to Jerusalem. Look at verse 17 of chapter 21. And when we had come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly. Now when the apostle had written to the church in Rome, he had requested that they would pray for him.

In chapter 15 of Romans verse 30 through 31, he said, now I urge you brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the love of the spirit to strive together with me in your prayers, to God for me, that I may be rescued from those who are disobedient in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may prove acceptable to the saints. Why was the apostle so concerned as to how he would be received in Jerusalem? Because he knew that first of all, there had been a little bit of a division in the church which was manifested back in acts chapter 15. In that there were the believers who had come out of Judaism, Jewish believers who had put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ, but you know that the gospel had gone farther than just Jerusalem. It went to Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the world.

And so now not only are Jewish people coming to Christ, but people from all ethnicities and all walks of life are coming to Jesus Christ. And so the question is, do we still have to follow these Jewish customs? Do we have to follow these traditions? You know in acts 15 that the apostles had come together for a conference, and that they had concluded that the traditions and the customs and the ceremonies that the Jewish believers were still following would not be opposed upon the new believers who had no background in that nor understood Judaism, but that they were called to simply love Judaism, but that they were called to simply love God and to live for Christ, remember the poor, and to be careful that they would not be offensive to others in how they conducted their lives. This is all laid out in Acts chapter 15.

So in Paul’s attempt to make sure that the church from all different walks of life and ethnicities, that they would be united together. He wants the Jewish church, the church in Jerusalem, to understand that the church in general is united. They are loved by each other. And so he has received a love offering. He is taking it to the church in Jerusalem because they are going through a famine.

And people are losing jobs and struggling to feed their families, and so other churches have collected love offerings, and they’re sending it to Jerusalem. The apostle and his team are responsible for transporting these resources to the church at Jerusalem. He says to the church at Rome, please pray that they will accept my service, my ministry, the gifts from the church. Please pray for that. And what do we find?

We see the answer to this prayer in Romans chapter 15. In Acts chapter 17, and when he had come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us what, church? Gladly. Now you gotta have more than one person awake today, but listen to me. How did they receive them?

Gladly. Gladly. Isn’t that a blessing? That’s a blessing that the church received them gladly. This is what the apostle was desiring, and this is what he wants to see happen.

And so as he comes to the church, he begins to give them a report of how God is working. Now we’re going to see that the apostle’s gonna face some tremendous adversity in the midst of this all the way to the end of the chapter. We’re not gonna be able to read every verse just because we don’t have the time unless you’d like to spend five hours with me, but that’s okay. I won’t take it personal. But I want you to learn three things this morning on what to do when things go wrong in your life.

And the first is that we must stay focused on the big picture. It’s easy to lose sight of the big picture. As we mentioned to you, the apostle is wanting to show solidarity. He is wanting to help the church from different walks of life that they are all united under the banner of Jesus Christ. Not the banner of a particular skin color or the banner of ethnicity or a race, but rather they are united under the banner of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ.

So the Bible shows us here that there is at the outset this great celebration. Look at verse 18. On the following day, Paul went in with us to James, who was the leader, the pastor at the church in Jerusalem, and all the elders were present. Verse 19, when he had greeted them, he told in detail, that is Paul is telling in detail, those things which God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry. When they heard it, what did they do?

The Bible says they glorified the Lord. And they said to him, you see brother how many myriads of Jews there are who have believed and they are all zealous for the law. What he is saying is this, is that Paul shares and he says, man, look how many people are coming to Christ and look what God is doing in the churches that have been started and I just wanna update you and I wanna give you this report. And they said, man, that is so wonderful, Paul, and we’re gonna praise God and give God glory for what he’s doing, but let us tell you what he’s doing right here in Jerusalem. He’s also reaching thousands of Jewish people, thousands who are coming to Christ, and they are having this celebration, and they’re rejoicing together.

And what you see here is that they as believers are not getting caught up in the details and the preferences and the differences, but rather they’re flying under that banner, the banner of Jesus Christ and saving souls. And they’re saying, hey, let’s rejoice together because God is working around the world and he is touching lives and he’s bringing people to Christ. So they’re celebrating. Then we come to verse 21. And there is that word but, which means in contrast referring to the Jewish believers, they have been informed about you.

There are rumors flying around about you, Paul, and that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children nor walk according to the customs. What then? The assembly must certainly meet for they will hear that you have come. So there’s this dilemma. Hey, Paul.

There are people who struggle because of the fact that you are out there winning people to Christ and you’re winning the gentiles, but there is this rumor that you’re telling the Jewish people to forsake Moses, to forsake the customs, to forsake the traditions. And Paul realizes what is another attempt by the devil to divide the church, to divide the church. And so as they’re meeting together as leaders, they come up with a solution. And they said, Paul, we want you to take on a Nazarite vow. This is all in verse 23 and verse twenty four and twenty five.

So Paul agrees that he’ll take on this Nazarite vow so that he can show the believing Jewish people as well as the unbelieving Jewish people that he is not against the Old Testament. He is not against Moses, but he is very much supportive of all of God’s word and all of God’s prophets and all of God’s teachers, and that he is in alignment with them. And that’s what’s happening, is that Paul is focusing on the big picture. It’s easy for us as believers to get distracted on details, to get distracted on preferences, to get distracted on personalities, to get distracted on politics, and allow these little things in this life to divide us as believers when God wants us to be united rejoicing and celebrating and giving glory to him because people are being saved. Now what we see in first Corinthians chapter nine in verse 20 is that Paul makes the principle of why he would do this.

Listen to what he says. To the Jews, I became as a Jew. In order to what? Win Jews. To those under the law, I became as one under the law, though not being myself under the law that I might win those under the law.

So what you’re gonna read next as you take time because we can’t do it all today is that the apostle takes on this Nazarite vow and he is willing to do it to show and demonstrate that he understands, he relates, and he wants to connect with the Jewish people and help them to know that the gospel is true. And so through his act, through his act of being willing to take on this Nazarite vow, he relieves or alleviates the tensions, and he begins to show unity in the church of Christ. Now one of the things you’re gonna learn as a believer, if you haven’t already learned yet, is that Christians do not always agree with each other. Can God’s people say amen? How about that?

Well, that’s a shocker. Christians don’t always agree with one another. But you see, God does not want us to focus on our differences. He wants us to focus on what we are united about. What I’m saying is that when you’re going through tough times in your life, when things seem to be going wrong, one of the things is get back to the main thing, To get back to the big picture.

Not to allow the devil to distract the unity of Christ, the body of Christ, the fellowship of Christ. Now sometimes, we all have different opinions and we say, well we think you ought to do this or we think you ought not to do that, and we have all these lists of things, what I call the do’s and don’ts of Christianity. And you know, the Pharisees were like that. They had more rules than even the bible had. I tell people I’m just trying to keep up with the top 10, amen?

Just trying to keep up with the top 10, but some people have they have 20, they have 50, they have a hundred. The Pharisees had over 600 rules on top of the Bible. How about that? 600. Some of you say, well that’s nothing, my mother had over 700.

That’s fine. I wanna teach you a valuable principle as a Christian, is that you need to learn to draw the line where the bible draws the line, but don’t draw the line where the bible doesn’t draw the line. Don’t draw the line where the bible doesn’t draw the line. You may disagree with it. It may not be your style.

It might not be your way. It may not be your preference. It may not be your opinion, but that’s okay because there is diversity in the family of God and we gotta recognize that God is working in different cultures, different groups, and he is reaching people for the glory of God so that people will be saved. What works in America doesn’t always work in another country. What works in Franklin County, Pennsylvania doesn’t always work in another state.

How about that one? Yeah. I pastored two churches, one in Indiana and here, and the things that work there, I tried them here and they all fell flat because people are different wherever you go. You ever thought that one out? So what do we do when we disagree?

I wanna give you four questions to ask yourself. When you disagree with someone or you’re trying to figure out what’s right or wrong, here are four questions for you to consider. All these questions come out of first Corinthians chapter eight, they’re principles that are taught in first Corinthians chapter eight, and in that chapter the believers were divided over whether they should eat meat that is offered to idols. They were divided about that. The Jewish believers said, absolutely not.

We’re not gonna eat meat offered to idols. The gentile believers said, it’s no big deal. The meat’s cheaper and it tastes pretty good and it came off the grill and we’re gonna consume us some good country steak. Amen? What was causing division in the church?

You say, well pastor, we’re not worried about that, I know. But see, some in the church they ask me, well pastor, what do you think about boycotting this store or boycotting that store? What do you think about all that pastor? You know what I tell people? I don’t boycott.

Now that’s Mike Sanders. There’s nothing in the bible that says boycott Target. Did you know that? There’s nothing in the bible that says boycott Starbucks. There’s nothing in the bible that says boycott whatever store you’re thinking about.

But yet for some Christians, that’s important. I want to lay out for you some guiding principles to help you relate and understand. Because the reason I don’t boycott is because I think I’m gonna end up boycotting everybody, I’m gonna live on an island by myself and nobody is gonna come see me and I’m gonna be by myself and I can’t handle that. Amen? I mean, when are we gonna stop boycotting?

And where does it start? You know, I go over here and I use this and, uh-oh, it’s connected five generations back to something that I don’t like. You know, I told you church one time, one lady, she challenged me on this, she was upset that I said that, and I showed her and proved it to her, but the point being is this, that you know that the tie, the tie, you know people used to wear ties in church, you ever heard of that? Tallon did. Tallon’s got a nice tie.

He’s looking better than the pastor this morning. How about that? But did you know the tie originated? People wore them to keep evil spirits away. And yet if I don’t wear a tie, you know, there’s gonna be a few of you just upset.

They can’t believe the pastor’s not wearing a tie today. Now some of you, you gave up the battle a long time ago. You’re okay with it. Alright? But here’s what I’m saying.

Maybe we ought to boycott ties. You know what I’m saying? We ought to boycott ties because they were connected to evil spirits. And some of you are saying, Amen, let’s get rid of the tie. You know what I’m saying?

You just, you know, you go All of a sudden everything’s connected to something that you don’t like. How about that? But let me give you some principles that’ll help you when you’re trying to make a decision on what should I do this or not do this, and it’s not spelled out in the Bible, but how do I make good decisions? The first question, Let me tell you what I mean by that is that some people think that Let me tell you what I mean by that is that some people think that the society sins are worse than their sins. Have you ever met people like that?

They’re self righteous, and they like to point out everybody else’s problems and everybody else’s sin, but they got their own issues they need to deal with. Right? Jesus said, before you take care of the speck in somebody else’s eye, why don’t you take care of the beam that’s hanging out your own eye? Hello? Hello?

And so you’re all worried about this and you’re all worried about that and you’re all worried about society’s ills. Let me say something to you, whatever decision you make is between you and God, it’s up to you. Make sure it doesn’t lead you to think you’re better and that you’re somehow above others. The ground is level at the foot of the cross. And the truth is we’re all sinners in need of a savior.

And we all need the gospel and we all need God’s work in our heart and we all need that so we can’t get to that point where we think we’re above and better than others so I don’t wanna be spiritually prideful. If this decision is gonna make me look down upon others and it’s gonna cause me to think I’m better than others, then I’m out. The second question, are we setting the right example to others? Now there may be many things that we can do as believers. Paul didn’t have to go get a Nazarite vow, he didn’t have to shave his head and take on this Nazarite vow, but he wanted to reach people.

He wanted to be an example to the new believers in Judaism. Does that mean you need to take on the Nazarite vow? No. I mean it might help some of you by the way. Some of you need a nice good clean haircut, amen?

You say, Pastor, why are you worried about our hair? Because I don’t have any and so I gotta pick on something, right? I’m just teasing. But he took the Nazarite vow. Sometimes in life, there are things I do or things I don’t do because I want to be an example to other believers.

I wanna be an example to the young people. I wanna be an example to the children. I wanna be an example to the students up at Cumberland Valley Christian School. And I’ll give you an example that Terry and I, we abstain from alcohol. I don’t want to be that guy who is taking down some alcohol and a little kid walks in and say, there’s pastor Mike.

He’s he’s drinking, whatever alcohol is out there. Right? Now I’m not telling you what to do. I’m telling you what Mike does because I wanna be an example to my responsibilities and roles here as a pastor. A third question, will I cause someone else to stumble?

In my decision making, will I cause someone else to stumble in their faith? Yeah. I know it’s not wrong and I know you can do this, and I know there’s nothing in the Bible about it. But will it cause someone else to stumble? Paul says to the believers, listen, if eating meat offered to an idol causes someone to stumble in their faith when I’m around them, I just won’t do it.

You say, is that a duplicit life? Is that a double standard? No. He’s just saying, I don’t wanna be a stumbling block. You see, we have choices in life, and you can either be a stepping stone or you can be a stumbling block.

You have to choose and every decision is a result of that. And so as you mature in your faith, as you get stronger in your faith, you begin to make decisions that you’re saying to yourself, is this a stumbling block to other people? When you become a parent, you say, well, I better not do that because, you know, I don’t want my kids to start, you know, like some of the things you guys say. Though some of the ways you talk, these little kids, have you noticed these little kids? They repeat everything you say.

Right? Somebody cuts you off in the road and you start yelling at them as if they can hear you through the car window, and you’re yelling at them and the next thing you know, your little guy is repeating exactly what you said. You see? Are you a stumbling block or a stepping stone? You have to ask yourself that.

Here’s the last question, am I building others up in their faith? You see, the apostle says this and he makes a quote. He quotes a famous poet or philosopher of that day, all things are lawful, but not all things are edifying. Not all things are helpful. Not all things are helpful.

Is this helping? Is this building other people up? Or is it tearing them down? So as I walk through the process of making decisions, should I do this or should I not do that? Listen, my friends, these are the questions I ask myself to help make a godly decision, an honorable decision, a mature decision.

But I always feel like this, that when the decision is made again, remember what I taught you, that you draw the line where the Bible draws the line. No if, ands, or buts. Pastor’s not backing down. But where the bible doesn’t draw the line, don’t draw the line. How do you make a decision?

Use those four questions to guide you in making the decision of what you believe is best. Stay focused on the big picture. Do not participate in creating more division. Do not participate in trying to cause more harm in the family of God, but always stay focused on what can we do. And even if it means to sacrifice our own preferences and our own opinions, that we do what we can so we can reach more people for the lord Jesus Christ.

That’s what you see taking place in chapter 21 verse 17 all the way through verse 26. Now the second thing I want you to learn is that you have to trust God in the uncertainty of life. In verse 27, let’s just pick up there of chapter 21. Now when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews from Asia seeing him in the temple, that is they saw Paul, the apostle in the temple, they stirred up the whole crowd and they laid hands on him, crying out, men of Israel, help. This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against the people, the law, and this place.

And furthermore, he has also brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled his holy place. Again, none of these are true. None of these accusations are true, but here is Paul in the midst of a riot. He is in the midst of dealing with something that has been incited by others and false reports that are circulating and agitators who are trying to stir up problems, and they are trying to cause people to turn against the apostle. And here we see that he goes through these difficulties.

We jump down to verse 30, the Bible says in chapter 21, and all the city was disturbed and the people ran together, seized Paul. They dragged him out of the temple and immediately the doors were shut. Now as they were seeking to kill him, news came to the commander of the garrison that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. He immediately took soldiers and centurions and he ran down to them, and when they saw the commander and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. So what’s the apostle going through?

He’s going through persecution. He’s going through physically people are punishing him for what they believe that he is doing, and they are trying to cause problems. And here, the apostle for just simply trying to be a blessing to the church at Jerusalem and simply taking on a vow so that he could reach more Jewish people, he is being beat up. He’s being maligned. He’s being mischaracterized.

He is being persecuted. That’s what’s going on. Because Satan has one plan and that is to destroy the work of God. He wants to damn every soul. He wants to make sure that people do not go to heaven, but that they go to hell.

He wants to drag people there and he wants to cause as much chaos in this world as he can. Jesus reminds us that part of the signs of the times in the midst before the coming of his return to this earth, he said to his disciples, then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you and you shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake. Some of you are trying to figure out what’s going on in this world. Friends, we we are moving quickly to the return of Jesus. And let me tell you, it’s not gonna get better.

It’s gonna get worse. You say, how do you know? Because I just read the words of Christ. You are witnessing, and I want you to note something. This stood out to me in my studies.

He said, you’ll be hated of all nations. Not just certain, but all nations. Every nation on this planet is going to hate Christians, hate believers. We’re gonna find out who the true Christians are when it cost you, when you have to suffer for the cause of Christ, when you have to stand up for the cause of Christ and people are pushing back on you and they’re trying to create havoc and chaos in your life just because you believe in the lord Jesus Christ, then my friends, that is going to thin out the crowd, and we’re gonna find out who truly loves the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen?

It will. It definitely will. But these are the signs of the times. The apostle reminded Timothy, the young pastor, he said, indeed, all who want to live a godly way in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Well, the apostle Paul is on his way to Jerusalem, and we see that he’s in this missionary journey, and he is determined to finish the task and finish the calling of what God has called him to do.

As we go through this passage, we see that the apostle demonstrates to us a tremendous amount of courage. And so I want us to learn from this narrative of verses on how you and I can show courage in the days ahead. So I hope that what you’re learning, you’re taking notes, and that you’re taking advantage of these wonderful principles. Now, we want you to know that we offer a devotion every day. Yes.

It can come straight to your email. If you go to hopeworthhaving.com, sign up for our devotions, and you can get a daily devotion that’ll be an encouragement to your life, and it’ll continue to challenge you in your walk with Christ. And I know it’ll be a blessing to you. So sign up for our devotions. I know you’ll be encouraged through those.

This is pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ, there is hope worth having.

The post What to do When Things go Wrong Part 1 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Priorities of Church Leaders Part 2. He will be reading out of Acts 20:25-30.

You may not be wealthy, but you can give your skills, your abilities, your talents. And if you are blessed, you can bring a meal to those that are struggling in life. You can be a blessing to people. What I’m telling you church is that his task is here, not far away. Hello.

This is pastor Mike Sanders, and it’s time for hope worth having this week. And we’re glad that you’re tuned in whether you’re with us every week or this is your first time with us, we’re glad to have you, and we’re just rejoicing in God’s good work here in the ministry of Hope Worth Having. Today, we’re gonna be in Acts chapter 20 verse 25 through 30 as we continue our study on the priorities of church leaders. Reading is good for you. Now I know we have these fancy devices and all that stuff.

I was gonna buy my mother a book the other day, and I said, how about I just send it to you digitally? She said, I don’t read digitally, I read with a real book, Mike. She said, I wanna touch the pages. I said, well, that means I gotta take more time, more effort to get it and ship it to you. I just wanted to hit a couple clicks and send it to her.

Right? Be done. You know what I’m saying? I know that’s lazy, isn’t it? That’s lazy.

But you know we need to read first of all we need to read the bible. The apostle told Timothy to give attention to reading. Certainly, the scriptures need to be a part of our life every day. We need to read the bible, and we need to make that important. You know, how many of you would like a blessing?

Anybody here would like a blessing? Few of you left. Well, here’s what the bible says, that every time you read his word, you’ll be blessed. You’re lacking a blessing, read the bible. Read the bible, you’ll be blessed, but also I would say just read good Christian books.

Let me give a recommendation. I would encourage you as well as you parents and grandparents to have your children read good biographies on great Christian leaders, men and women who have served and sacrificed for the lord Jesus Christ. I love to read I love to read about people who gave so much. I recently read a biography on John Wycliffe, who played such a valuable role getting the Bible translated from the Latin to the English language of that day. And just all that he had to deal with, all that he endured, and he had most of the translation done in the new testament, and then his house caught on fire and ruined all the translation, had to start all over.

Most of us, we’d quit, give up, throw in the towel. Right? These great men of God, great women of God who’ve sacrificed for the Lord, and we read about them, And they’re such an inspiration to us. So get your children reading about them. Get your grandchildren reading about them.

Another way for me to stay healthy in my spiritual life is to get me some mentors. Get me some spiritual mentors. Our brother, Dennis, he was talking about iron sharpening iron. That’s exactly what we need, brothers and sisters in Christ, is we need each other. I know you feel like you don’t need each other.

Some of you, you thought COVID was made just for you. You loved it. You loved being out of isolation. You didn’t wanna talk to anybody anyways. But the Lord wants you to stay connected.

You were created to be connected. You were created to have people in your life that will encourage you and strengthen you and even sometimes bring to attention the things in your life that need to be corrected. Somebody corrects you out of love and grace, commitment to your betterment, we should receive it in a positive way and be thankful. The bible tells us that we’re to warn one another. We’re to admonish one another.

Sometimes we’re bringing things to attention of people. That’s what it means to admonish, to bring to the mind. And so I wanna encourage you to surround yourself with good people, godly people. Every one of us needs to find a good godly person in our life, and we need to attach ourselves to them, and we need to let them have a great positive influence in our life. A survey was taken several years ago about the influence of a mentor in the life of a young person.

This was in the context of the church. And so 80% of the young people that were following Christ, living for Christ, and dedicated to the cause of Christ, had a godly mentor in their youth group. They had a godly mentor in their family. They had a godly mentor in their life. And that’s what I’m trying to say to you is that that’s what we need because you see, for us as people, human, we need something tangible.

We need something visible. And sometimes more is caught than taught. You see, I think about my own life as coming to Christ as a young boy, and I remember my Sunday school teacher. I remember my bus captain. I remember the different deacons and people in my life that were great influences upon my life.

It’s not that they ever had a class with me. We didn’t go through the 12 steps of some particular book, and I’m not saying any of that’s bad. I think it’s all wonderful, but I just watched their life. I was just always a part of their life and they were influencing me. So I wanna encourage you to do that.

Also, I wanna encourage you in trying to watch out for your spiritual life and being healthy is make sure you establish good boundaries in your life. Boundaries. Now sometimes we don’t like to make boundaries because we don’t wanna be legalistic, but just make sure that your boundaries are for you, not for everybody. But we all have things in our life that we might be more susceptible to than others. We may have weaknesses in our life.

There may be temptations in our life that draw us away from Christ and to participate in things that are ungodly. There may be websites that you go to that you shouldn’t be going to. There may be things that you’re reading that you shouldn’t be reading. There may be people that you’re hanging around with that lead you down a path of ungodliness. You’ve gotta have the courage to say, I’m gonna make some boundaries in my life, and I’m going to make sure that I protect myself from going down that road.

Somebody say, well, they’re just being legalistic. No. That may be something in their life that is a boundary that they want to be careful of. There’s nothing wrong with that, brothers and sisters. There’s nothing wrong with that as a church family to say, we wanna protect ourselves.

Terry and I have put boundaries in our life and they’re not your boundaries, they’re not something we’re asking you to do, they’re just our boundaries. Because we wanna be an example to all the children up at the school. We wanna be an example to all the staff. We wanna be an example to every person that’s a part of our ministry. Many of you know that I umpire.

God help those teams. We had a game yesterday and it rained on us. And I asked the girls it’s softball. I asked the girls, do you wanna keep playing? They said, yes.

I said, let’s keep playing. We kept playing, it was pouring down rain. And they said, we played better in the rain. I finally did have to call. I had to step in, step up.

Sometimes you gotta do that. And I said, let’s go home. It’s, getting bad out here. But anyways, before the game and the preparation, I was talking to the coaches and this lady was coaching team and she said, you’re pastor Mike. Like, man, I can’t go anywhere.

I can’t go anywhere. You gotta be example everywhere you go and so you might have boundaries in your life because you wanna be an example. You don’t know who’s watching your life and you don’t wanna send the appearance of evil to anybody. You don’t want to go down the wrong direction. It’s not about your freedom in Christ.

It’s about you not being a stumbling block. That’s why the apostle said, he said, my conscience is clear. I am innocent of all the blood of all people because I have not withheld God’s counsel. I have not refused to be that good example. That’s what the apostle was.

We encourage you to consider those things to help you to be healthy. The second priority of church leaders is not only to watch out for your own spiritual welfare, but to guard the flock. We come to verse 28 of chapter 20, and we note what it says. Therefore, take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of god, which he purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock also from among yourselves.

Men will rise up speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after themselves. Look at verse 31. Therefore, watch. Remember that for three years, I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears. We talked last week about the apostle’s compassion and that he was a man who was emotionally moved and cared for the spiritual well-being of every person he ministered to.

But what I want you to note is our responsibility as church leaders to guard the flock. All elders, all deacons, all pastors, all teachers are to guard the flock from savage wolves. This is just a picture of false teachers. When Jesus was asked the question, what are the signs of your coming? He said, before I come, this is what it’ll be like.

Matthew 24 verse 11. Many false prophets shall rise and shall deceive many. One of the signs of the times of the coming of Christ is that there will be false teaching that will infiltrate the church and it’ll infiltrate the world and it’ll draw away many people from loving Jesus, living for Christ, and being that vessel in which God can use. All teachers, all pastors, all leaders, all elders, deacons, etcetera, are to be on the lookout for false teaching and false teachers. Again, Jesus taught in Matthew seven verse 15, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly, they are ravenous wolves.

We are called to watch out for the sheep. Keep watch over them. The holy spirit has made us leaders and overseers. We have the responsibility to protect those, to protect their spiritual welfare, to make sure that they are headed in the right direction. Now sometimes people feel like maybe the pastor, the elders are getting a little negative.

Maybe they’re just being very legalistic or maybe they’re being difficult. That’s not the goal. That’s not why. Sometimes we do point out false teachers to you. We do name names just because they’re public figures.

We do point out false teaching because we don’t want you to be led astray. Now it’s unfortunate, church, but these things happen, and I want you to note in verse 30 of chapter 20, sometimes false teachers may rise up right within the church. Also, from among yourselves, men will rise up speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after themselves. If I’ve seen this once, I’ve seen it a thousand times as a pastor. People rise up, you know, their knowledge of the bible gets to their head.

Then they start making up things of what they believe. And then they start creating confrontation, and they start challenging. And then when they don’t get their way, they’ll pull people out of the church. They’ll go out there and say, I’m gonna do my own thing so I don’t have to be accountable to anybody. And then they don’t wanna be under elders.

They don’t wanna be under pastors. They don’t wanna be under people who will hold them accountable, and they go out and do their own thing so they can not only live as they want, but they can teach false doctrine that draws God’s people away from the truth. We see this over and over, church. It’s sad. It’s disappointing.

It has wrecked many a church, many a Christian life. As a pastor, it breaks your heart, but there are savage wolves that will come in. And they will not spare the flock, and they will cause great destruction. Now I want you to go back to verse 20 of Acts chapter 20. I want you to notice what was it that Paul did to help protect from false teachers.

Well, verse 20 says, how I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you and taught you publicly and from house to house. So whether Paul was teaching in the congregational meeting or he was teaching one on one, family by family, house to house, he was constantly teaching publicly and privately god’s truth. That was the answer to keep proclaiming the truth. Look at verse 27. I’ve not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of god.

Notice that Paul taught the Bible systematically, not merely focusing on certain themes or certain messages that he liked, but instructing the believers in the entire Bible, in the entire word of God. You don’t just need Dunkin’ Donuts every Sunday morning. A steady diet of Dunkin’ Donuts is gonna take you down, my friend. You gotta have your healthy food. And that’s what leaders do is they’re constantly teaching you to help you to say, here’s the truth.

What does the Bible say? Here’s what the Bible says. Here’s the standard that you measure all other truth by, all other leaders by. I wanna tell you that if you cannot respect the life of a leader, you should never follow them. And if you can’t respect what they’re teaching, you should never follow them.

God took home one of great bible teachers in our land, doctor Charles Stanley. Loved him. He was great. Solid bible teacher. Not saying he was a perfect man, but just know that he was a very godly man, generous man.

Weak believers may be attracted to worship that is exciting, but their true need is a steady diet of god’s word, the whole council of god’s word. Be careful, church, because you live in a time and an age where Christians jump from one church to the other based upon the latest fad. Who has the best gimmick? Who has the best entertainment, who has the fancy music. And I’m not against music, and we love it, and we want you to worship the lord, and we’re all in.

We get it. We’re with you. Let me tell you something. Here’s the question you really ought to be asking. Here’s the question you really ought to be asking as a believer.

Am I hearing the Bible faithfully preached? Am I hearing it faithfully taught at my local church? That’s what you ought to be asking. Not who has the best voices, not who are the best singers, not who can play the best instruments, not against any of those things. Thank God for people who are using their talents and abilities to help us as we worship the Lord.

Now, church, you’re never gonna find a perfect gathering of God’s people. How about that one? And if you do find a perfect gathering, please don’t join it because you’re gonna mess it up. Amen? I don’t want you to mess them up.

I mean, everything’s just as it be and then here you come. But the one thing that we cannot compromise on, even though a church may be weak in different areas, is the faithful teaching, preaching of God’s word. It just we can’t back down. This church has been blessed. This church has only had five pastors in over fifty five years.

That’s a blessing. You don’t realize it, but it really is. A lot of churches in fifty, sixty years, they’ll have 20 pastors. Okay? Now whenever there’s constant turnover in a church, let me tell you what that is a reflection of.

Just real quickly, let’s throw this in for free. It’s not even in my notes. Just popped in my head. But it’s a reflection when you have constant turnover, probably poor leadership, pastor, etcetera. But it’s also a reflection of people within the congregation not serving, working, having unity, and humility together.

Whenever there’s stability in a church, whenever you have good leadership, that is gonna be reflected, and that’s the kind of church you wanna be connected. And I think about the fifty five plus years here at the Open Door Church, and you’ve had great bible teachers and all different personalities and different pastors and different elders and different deacons, but we’ve been faithful to teach and preach the word of God. And you ought to rejoice in that because you don’t know how rare it is. You don’t know how rare it is. Now I don’t want you to do it because I don’t want you to leave our church.

But maybe when you’re traveling on vacation, just go out there and see. I hear it all the time. I hear it all the time. So I want you to be alert to that. Okay, church?

Third and final point, and I know God’s people are happy, and that is that we’re to trust God’s grace and faithfully work. Verse 32 through 35. So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I have coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel. Yes.

You yourselves know that these hands have provided for my necessities and for those who were with me. Verse 35. I have shown you in every way by laboring like this, that you must support the weak and remember the words of the lord Jesus that he said, it is more blessed to give than to receive. Yes. We’re called to faithfully work and to entrust everything to god’s grace.

Note that he says in verse 32 that the bible, god’s word, is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among those who are sanctified. That is the effective work of god’s word being poured into your life as you’re in Sunday school, as you’re in bible study, as you’re in your different small groups, and as you’re coming together as believers. God’s word is doing its effective work. We trust God to do his work in your hearts. We trust that his work will be significant and meaningful to you.

As Paul is faithfully working, he says, these hands have provided for my necessities. You know, as we’ve already learned, that he was a tent maker. He did not charge these churches that he had planted. He did not in any way require any kind of support from them because he did not want to be a burden to them. Paul had churches supporting him.

He was like a missionary. The church at Philippi supported him. The church at Thessalonica supported him. They sent in support. But these new churches that Paul was getting off the ground, he did not wanna come in and require that they support him because it was not possible.

He didn’t want it to be a hindrance to the gospel. So what does it mean to trust God and faithfully work church? Let me give you three real quick things. First of all, remember that his presence is near. His presence is always near us as we work for him, so let’s trust and pray.

Notice he says, I commit you to God. I commit you into his care. I commit you into his presence. As God’s servants, we are under both his care and we are under his command. He is near, and therefore, we pray and we seek his direction.

We seek his strength as we stay faithful to the work of God. The world may crumble, the world may be chaotic, the world may be confused, but the presence of God is near. And what is the one command that Jesus gave us with a promise of his presence? It was the command to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. And he said, lo, I’m with you always.

I’m with you. You wanna experience the manifested presence of God, then you get actively engaged in sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ around the world. His presence is near, so let’s trust and pray. His gospel is clear, so let’s learn and teach. Look at verse 32 again.

I commend you not only to God, but to the word of his grace. To the word of his grace. We have the clear written word, church. It is the source of all that we need to learn for success, spiritual success in this life. Is the source of all that we need to teach our children, our grandchildren, our brothers and sisters in Christ.

God’s word is powerful. Scripture works on behalf of the believer in many ways. Here’s just a few of them. First of all, the Bible teaches us that the scriptures are able to make you wise unto salvation. We’re not regularly smart enough to be saved, but God’s word awakens us.

Right? And so that’s why we keep feeding god’s word. It sanctifies us. Jesus prayed that his truth, his word would sanctify us. It changes us is what I’m talking about.

It makes us more like Christ. It helps Mike shed the things that are ungodly and to embrace the things, the values, the behaviors, the attitudes that are honorable to Christ. God’s word matures me. You may not feel like it, but it does mature you. It frees you from addiction.

It frees you from the bondage of sin. It perfects you, meaning it continues to develop you. God’s word counsels you. I remember many years ago as I was preaching, you know, we have a television ministry, Hopeworth Having, and a man from West Virginia drove all the way up here. And that Sunday on TV, I had preached the comfort of God’s word.

And his wife had just passed away, and he said, pastor Mike, I brought you a gift because I wanted you to know that what you taught is so true, that God’s word does comfort us. Sometimes we need counseling from God. Amen? We need his comfort. His word also builds us up, as we just learned.

It helps us to be infused with hope. Honestly, if I didn’t have the Bible and reading God’s word and knowing how things end, I would be just a wreck about this world. But because I know the last chapter in the bible, I got so much hope. I wake up every day with great purpose, and I wake up every day with great desire to do everything I can to get as many people to heaven as possible, amen? And I’m not like lifting up Mike Sanders, so don’t misunderstand me, but I’m just telling you I have this hope, and the hope comes from the word of God that keeps teaching me the truth.

And so that’s why I want you to stay in it. The gospel is clear. Let’s learn it. Let’s teach it, church. Finally, his task is here.

So help and serve. Look at verse thirty four and thirty five. Yes. You yourselves know that these hands have provided for my necessities. Verse 35.

I’ve shown you in every way by laboring like this that you must support the weak. Remember the words of Jesus. It is more blessed to give than to what? Receive. Church, look.

You may not be wealthy, but you can give some time. You can give your labor. You can give your skills, your abilities, your talents. And if you are blessed, you can help financially. You can put a tank of gas in somebody who’s hurting and going through a tough time.

You can bring a meal to those that are struggling in life. You can be a blessing to people. What I’m telling you, church, is that his task is here. Not far away. Right here.

Every day when you get up, god is putting opportunities in each one of our lives. So listen, don’t step back. Be a worker for God. Be a laborer. Use your hands.

Get involved. Let me tell you something. And I wanna say this, and I say this from my heart, and many of you know some of the things that we’ve experienced in the last forty five days. But let me tell you something, church. Healing is not hiding in your home secluded from others.

It is stepping out, serving God, and letting him use your hurt to minister to others and your challenges to bless others. And it is getting out there and connecting with people and helping them to be all that God wants them to be. Now I just wanna close, my conclusion is this, which he purchased with his own blood. Wow. Jesus went to the cross for you.

Paul taught us that in this text. He also told the Corinthians, you’re bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit with your God. I challenge you to commit your heart. You are not your own, but you are his and that he purchased you with his blood on that cross and that you dedicate your life to him. We belong to Christ and we are precious to him.

And if you have never trusted Christ this morning, we encourage you to place your faith in Jesus, the one who shed his blood on the cross to provide forgiveness to you that your sins may be washed away by placing your faith in Christ. Would you pray with me, church? Good leadership can lift an organization, or it can certainly cause an organization to plunge to the depths of ruin. And that’s why it’s important that leaders be aligned with God’s word so that they can be pouring into the people God’s word, and they can definitely do what is necessary to help the church to spiritually prosper for God’s glory. And so often I’ve seen this where churches get off track and they forget about what is the priority, what is most important.

And as a result, they begin to plummet. And so God has used and raised elders, pastors, deacons to continue to serve in the church, to help the church to be able to not only proclaim the gospel, to be a platform for the gospel, but also to enrich and encourage and strengthen the people of God. So I hope that these different priorities that have been mentioned will be an encouragement and a template for you as you continue to serve in your church. Well, I want you to remember that we have a website, hopeworthhaving.com. On that website, you can sign up for a newsletter.

If you would like to receive our newsletter, go to hopeworthhaving.com and just hit newsletter there at the top on the right, and it’ll come straight to your home, or you can have it sent to your email address, whichever is easier for you. And just keep up with the work in the ministry of Hope Worth Having. This is pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ, there is hope worth having.

The post The Priorities of Church Leaders Part 2 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Priorities of Church Leaders Part 1. He will be reading out of Acts 20:25-30.

That’s the way the devil works. He begins to work pride into our hearts. We think we’re better. We think we’re above. We think there’s something special about us.

Anything good and effective and glorifying that comes out of your life is the direct result of God’s good work in you. Hello. This is pastor Mike Sanders, and welcome to Hopeworth Having radio program. We thank you for taking the time to be a part of this program. We are broadcasting from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.

Today, we’re going to be in Acts chapter 20, and we’re continuing going through this chapter. We’ll be studying verses 25 through 30, talking about the priorities of church leaders. Sometimes it’s easy to get off mission. So we’re gonna look into the scriptures and see what the priorities of the church leaders are. And if you have your bible this morning, I want you to join me in Acts chapter 20 Acts chapter 20.

Our church family has been studying the book of Acts for quite some time now, and we’ve been going through the verses together, and we are in chapter 20 today, and we have already made it down to verse 25. We’re gonna try to finish out the chapter today, verse 25 through 38. But this morning, I wanna talk to you about the priorities of church leaders. God’s people need leadership because God works through leaders. The bible says in Judges 21 verse 25, in those days there was no king in Israel.

Every man did that which was right in his own eyes. That’s what happens when you don’t have leadership. People just do whatever they want. There’s no guidance, there’s no direction in their life, they just do whatever’s right in their own eyes. There’s a great need for leadership.

The book of Proverbs says, when a land transgresses, it has many rulers. But with a man of understanding and knowledge, its stability will long continue. The point simply is this, with honest sensible leadership, there’s always going to be stability. When you have constant turnover in leadership or a lack of leadership, there will be confusion, there’ll be chaos, there’ll be misunderstandings. There’s a great need for leadership in our country.

Amen? There’s a great need for leadership in our churches, our homes, and our schools. Someone once said that everything rises or falls on leadership, and I was taught that as a young pastor, and I really believe that. The strength, the health, the productivity, the fruitfulness of any church is directly reflected by the quality of the leadership. Good leaders can lift an organization to the height of success.

Whereas poor leadership can plunge a ministry or an organization into the depths of ruin. It is only when the leadership is right within the church that a church can be right. That’s why the apostle takes this moment in time as he is speaking to the leadership at the church at Ephesus, to give them some guiding principles to help them to keep their priorities right. You’ll note in verse 28 of chapter 20 that he says, therefore, take heed to yourselves and to all the flock among which the holy spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. In verse 28, he refers to the leaders of the church as overseers.

We jump back to verse 17. We see the scripture says, from Miletus, he sent to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church. Same people, same leaders, just different titles that refer to different responsibilities. Elders are the spiritually mature leaders in the church who have oversight. Overseers obviously are responsible for not only overseeing the ministry, organizing it, mobilizing God’s people, and keeping them energized and motivated for the cause that Christ has given us.

Elders, pastors, these are simultaneously same people, same responsibilities. Sometimes churches may divide them up and that’s fine. Whatever the point being is, they are the church leaders. Paul wants them to know what their priorities are. He wants us to know as God’s people.

It’s important for you to understand the template of the priorities of God’s leaders. So that you as God’s people will continue to not only pray for the leaders, but also encourage the leaders, but also to help them to be accountable to what the word of God says. So what are these things? We wanna point out three things. They certainly don’t encompass everything.

We’d have to be here all afternoon. I don’t know if there’s any takers. But we got one here. Thank you, brother. Appreciate them.

But anyways, these are some things that will help us as we are praying for our pastors, elders, deacons in the church, those who serve as teachers, bible study leaders, Sunday school teachers, all these leaders that have these responsibilities. The first thing he teaches us as a priority is that we’re to watch out for our own spiritual welfare. Look at verse 25 of chapter 20. He says, and indeed now I know that you all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, will see my face no more. So Paul is under the anticipation that he’s not returning.

Perhaps he knows that his martyrdom is soon. Perhaps he is already under the impression that his work and responsibility will not require him to pass back through in this area where he would see the leaders at Ephesus. He says in verse 26, therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men, for I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of god. Therefore, take heed to yourselves. Some translations say, guard yourselves.

Followers cannot rise above the standards of the leaders. If there’s anything that I believe is the epitome of leadership, it is be an example. Whatever you want out of the people or whatever group you’re leading, you set the standard. You be that example. And you can’t say that you expect something out of a group of people and then you yourselves won’t even live up to it.

Jesus condemned that among the Pharisees. They had a set of rules for the people and a different set of rules for themselves. We already saw that in the last three or four years of our government that frustrates us. That we see one set of rules for the people and another set of rules for the government leaders. It never works.

And so it is among God’s people that we have this responsibility to be that example. And part of being that example is watch out for your own spiritual welfare. If leaders don’t take care of themselves, they will not be able to take care of God’s people. That’s so important. The apostle says, I’m innocent of all the blood.

Meaning, it’s just a idiom kind of a phrase that he’s using. And he’s simply saying to them, I’m not responsible because I’ve done everything that I can to make sure that everybody knows the whole council of God. Look at verse 27, for I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God. This is an interesting word in the Greek because it’s the idea of not just counsel, but the whole plan, the whole purpose of God. All that god is doing, what Paul wanted them to see as the entire redemptive plan of god in god’s word.

And he said, I didn’t shrink back from that. I I didn’t hold back from that. I shared every bit of God’s plan, God’s purpose, God’s will, God’s counsel to you. He didn’t just say, well, I just wanna share the good stuff and leave out the bad stuff. Well, if we leave out the bad stuff, then the good stuff’s not as good.

Right? The reason the good stuff, the good news is so good is because the bad news is so bad. And the bad news is that we’re sinners in need of a savior. The apostle did not step back from that responsibility to teach the people that we’re all born sinners into this world, and we’re all in need of salvation through Jesus Christ. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting, what, church, life.

Life. The whole counsel of God, all of God’s truth, Paul was a man who lived with a clear conscience. Now he’s telling the leaders at the church of Ephesus, you need to watch out for your own spiritual life. Paul set that example. He was a man who lived in clear conscience, faithful to the task.

The responsibilities that he had, he did not shrink back. What are some things that we need to remember to be on guard about? Some things that are not only true for leaders, but ourselves, that we must watch out for our own spiritual welfare, and that is first that we must guard against false teaching. We’ll talk more about that in just a second, but it’s easy to get sucked up into false teaching. It’s easy to follow the crowd.

It’s easy to buy in to things that make us feel good. But see, my friends, truth is not determined by feelings. Truth is determined by the word of God. And so that’s our measuring stick. And that’s why we have to be careful that we don’t let our emotions carry us away, that we don’t get sucked into false narratives that lead us astray from the faith.

So many believers have been vulnerable to false teaching because they are not rooted in the faith, and they’re like as Paul said to the church at Ephesus in Ephesians chapter four, that they are blown away by every wind of doctrine. We must also guard against an unforgiving spirit. When you serve God, when you are engaged on the front lines, let me tell you something. There’s gonna be many obstacles, many challenges. The apostle understood what it was to be betrayed.

He understood what it was to be lied about. He But But yet Jesus, our savior, he understood and he dealt with difficult people, but yet he always had a great spirit about him. And pastors, elders, deacons, bible study leaders, teachers have to always be on guard that we don’t let bitterness take root in the heart. It’s easy to be upset. I remember a family I’ve helped out many, many years ago here at the Open Door Church.

Don’t worry. They’re not here. But, anyways, we did so much. The elders did so much. The deacons did so much.

It wasn’t just me, anyway. But, man, it didn’t take much. One decision made by the leadership team and, bam, they’re out, and they’re calling us the devil and the demon. And, you know, it’s easy to get angry. It’s easy to get upset about this.

You do so much. But you have to forgive. You have to move forward. You have to just let go and let God deal with that situation and keep on moving forward for Christ, knowing that the Lord will work out those details. Amen?

He’ll figure it out and let him deal with that. You don’t wanna be a bitter person because as you get bitter, then what will take root in your heart is that you’ll begin to develop anger and hate towards others. You can’t be effective for God if you have anger and hate in your heart. You have to bring that to the Lord. Another thing I think we have to be on guard about is self indulgence.

It’s easy to become selfish. It’s easy to become selfish in serving god and wanting it your way right away. You’ve been lied to by so many restaurants and so many organizations that have marketed to you. You thought it was all about you. Now before COVID, they I think they took the sign down, thank God.

But I used to go into the surgery waiting room to pray with people and it said, it’s all about you. You know, and I’d tell them, I’d say, you know, you see that sign up there? That ain’t the truth. And they’d be startled, horrified that the pastor would bring this up before their surgery. Anyways, it’s not about you.

It’s about Jesus. Amen? It’s about glorifying God, and our life is to be a sacrifice. Those who serve the Lord must understand that we are a living sacrifice for Christ, and we are called to give up so the people can go up. We are called to be people of sacrifice, and we have to be careful that we don’t become self indulgent in what privileges and expectations and want to be pampered.

And all of a sudden, we forget what it’s really like. Be faithful for Christ. We have to guard against pride. That’s the way the devil works, isn’t it? Is that he begins just little by little, gets a foothold in our life, and he begins to work pride into our hearts.

We think we’re better. We think we’re above. We think there’s something special about us when there’s really nothing special about you. Anything good and effective and glorifying that comes out of your life is the direct result of god’s good work in you and through you. Yeah.

We have to watch out. What are ways that will help us to watch out for our own spiritual welfare? Now you’re probably not gonna agree with this first one. It’s not very spiritual. It is in the bible.

That is rest. Sometimes you just need to rest. Sometimes you could be burned out, you could be stressed out and it’d be just good for you to rest. Remember Elijah, he was under the juniper tree and he felt like he’s the only one living for God. He’s the only one out there fighting the good fight.

And God said, just take a rest, Elijah. Just rest. Fed him some good food. I don’t think it’s in the Bible, but I thought maybe it was fried chicken or something. I don’t know.

But sometimes that’s what we need. We need to just take care of our health. Right? Rest up, take care of ourselves, and that makes us more effective for the Lord. But keep that in mind as you’re trying to watch out for your own welfare.

But also, I think reading. Reading is good for you. Now I know we have these fancy devices and all that stuff. I was gonna buy my mother a book the other day and I said, how about I just send it to you digitally? She said, I don’t read digitally, I read with a real book, Mike.

She said, I wanna touch the pages. I said, well, that means I gotta take more time, more effort to get it and ship it to you. I just wanted to hit a couple clicks and send it to her. Right? Be done.

You know what I’m saying? I know that’s lazy, isn’t it? That’s lazy. But you know, we need to read first of all, we need to read the bible. The apostle told Timothy to give attention to reading.

Certainly the scriptures need to be a part of our life every day. We need to read the bible And we need to make that important. You know, how many of you would like a blessing? Anybody here would like a blessing? Few of you left.

Well, here’s what the bible says, that every time you read his word, you’ll be blessed. You’re lacking a blessing, read the bible. Read the Bible. You’ll be blessed. But, also, I would say just read good Christian books.

Let me give a recommendation. I would encourage you, as well as you parents and grandparents, to have your children read good biographies on great Christian leaders, men and women who have served and sacrificed for the Lord Jesus Christ. I love to read I love to read about people who gave so much. I recently read a biography on John Wycliffe, who played such a valuable role getting the bible translated from the Latin to the English language of that day. And just all that he had to deal with, all that he endured, and he had most of the translation done in the New Testament, and then his house caught on fire and ruined all the translation, had to start all over.

Most of us, we’d quit, give up, throw in the towel. Right? These great men of God, great women of God who’ve sacrificed for the Lord, and we read about them. And they’re such an inspiration to us. So get your children reading about them.

Get your grandchildren reading about them. Another way for me to stay healthy in my spiritual life is to get me some mentors. Get me some spiritual mentors. Our brother, Dennis, he was talking about iron sharpening iron. That’s exactly what we need, brothers and sisters in Christ, is we need each other.

I know you feel like you don’t need each other. Some of you, you thought COVID was made just for you. You loved it. You loved being out of isolation. You didn’t wanna talk to anybody anyways.

But the lord wants you to stay connected. You were created to be connected. You were created to have people in your life that will encourage you and strengthen you and even sometimes bring to attention the things in your life that need to be corrected. Somebody corrects you out of love and grace, commitment to your betterment, we should receive it in a positive way and be thankful. The bible tells us that we’re to warn one another, we’re to admonish one another.

Sometimes we’re bringing things to attention of people. That’s what it means to admonish, to bring to the mind. And so I wanna encourage you to surround yourself with good people, godly people. Every one of us needs to find a good godly person in our life, and we need to attach ourselves to them, and we need to let them have a great positive influence in our life. A survey was taken several years ago about the influence of a mentor in the life of a young person.

This was in the context of the church. And so 80% of the young people that were following Christ, living for Christ, and dedicated to the cause of Christ had a godly mentor in their youth group. They had a godly mentor in their family. They had a godly mentor in their life. And that’s what I’m trying to say to you, is that that’s what we need.

Because you see, for us as people, human, we need something tangible. We need something visible. And sometimes more is caught than taught. You see, I think about my own life as coming to Christ as a young boy, and I remember my Sunday school teacher. I remember my bus captain.

I remember the different deacons and people in my life that were great influences upon my life. It’s not that they ever had a class with me. We didn’t go through the 12 steps of some particular book, and I’m not saying any of that’s bad. I think it’s all wonderful, but I just watched their life. I was just always a part of their life, and they were influencing me.

So I wanna encourage you to do that. Also, I wanna encourage you in trying to watch out for your spiritual life and being healthy is make sure you establish good boundaries in your life. Boundaries. Now sometimes we don’t like to make boundaries because we don’t wanna be legalistic, but just make sure that your boundaries are for you, not for everybody. But we all have things in our life that we might be more susceptible to than others.

We may have weaknesses in our life. There may be temptations in our life that draw us away from Christ and to participate in things that are ungodly. There may be websites that you go to that you shouldn’t be going to. There may be things that you’re reading that you shouldn’t be reading. There may be people that you’re hanging around with that lead you down a path of ungodliness.

You gotta have the courage to say, I’m gonna make some boundaries in my life, and I’m going to make sure that I protect myself from going down that road. Somebody say, well, they’re just being legalistic. No. That may be something in their life that is a boundary that they want to be careful of. There’s nothing wrong with that, brothers and sisters.

There’s nothing wrong with that as a church family to say, we wanna protect ourselves. Terry and I have put boundaries in our life, and they’re not your boundaries. They’re not something we’re asking you to do. They’re just our boundaries. Because we wanna be an example to all the children up at the school.

We wanna be an example to all the staff. We wanna be an example to every person that’s a part of our ministry. Many of you know that I umpire. God help those teams. We had a game yesterday and it rained on us.

And I asked the girls it’s softball. I asked the girls, do you wanna keep playing? They said, yes. I said, let’s keep playing. We kept playing, it was pouring down rain.

And they said, we played better in the rain. I finally did have to call. I had to step in, step up. Sometimes you gotta do that. And I said, let’s go home.

It’s, getting bad out here. But anyways, before the game and the preparation, I was talking to the coaches and this lady was coaching the team and she said, you’re pastor Mike. Like, man, I can’t go anywhere. I can’t go anywhere. You gotta be example everywhere you go and so you might have boundaries in your life because you wanna be an example.

And you don’t know who’s watching your life, and you don’t wanna send the appearance of evil to anybody. You don’t want to go down the wrong direction. It’s not about your freedom in Christ. It’s about you not being a stumbling block. That’s why the apostle said, he said, my conscience is clear.

I am innocent of all the blood of all people because I have not withheld God’s counsel. I have not refused to be that good example. That’s what the apostle was. We encourage you to consider those things to help you to be healthy. The second priority of church leaders is not only to watch out for your own spiritual welfare, but to guard the flock.

We come to verse 28 of chapter 20, and we note what it says. Therefore, take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of god, which he purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock also from among yourselves. Men will rise up speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after themselves. Look at verse 31.

Therefore, watch. Remember that for three years, I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears. We talked last week about the apostle’s compassion and that he was a man who was emotionally moved and cared for the spiritual well-being of every person he ministered to. But what I want you to note is our responsibility as church leaders to guard the flock. All elders, all deacons, all pastors, all teachers are to guard the flock from savage wolves.

This is just a picture of false teachers. When Jesus was asked the question, what are the signs of your coming? He said, before I come, this is what it’ll be like. Matthew 24 verse 11. Many false prophets shall rise and shall deceive many.

One of the signs of the times of the coming of Christ is that there will be false teaching that will infiltrate the church and it’ll infiltrate the world and it’ll draw away many people from loving Jesus, living for Christ, and being that vessel in which God can use. All teachers, all pastors, all leaders, all elders, deacons, etcetera, are to be on the lookout for false teaching and false teachers. Again, Jesus taught in Matthew seven verse 15, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly, they are ravenous wolves. We are called to watch out for the sheep. Keep watch over them.

The holy spirit has made us leaders and overseers. We have the responsibility to protect those, to protect their spiritual welfare, to make sure that they are headed in the right direction. Now sometimes people feel like maybe the pastor, the elders are getting a little negative. Maybe they’re just being very legalistic or maybe they’re being difficult. That’s not the goal.

That’s not why. Sometimes we do point out false teachers to you. We do name names just because they’re public figures. We do point out false teaching because we don’t want you to be led astray. Now it’s unfortunate, church, but these things happen, and I want you to note in verse 30 of chapter 20, sometimes false teachers may rise up right within the church.

Also, from among yourselves, men will rise up speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after themselves. If I’ve seen this once, I’ve seen it a thousand times as a pastor. People rise up, you know, their knowledge of the bible gets to their head. Then they start making up things of what they believe. And then they start creating confrontation and they start challenging, and then when they don’t get their way, they’ll pull people out of the church.

They’ll go out there and say, I’m gonna do my own thing so I don’t have to be accountable to anybody. And then they don’t wanna be under elders. They don’t wanna be under pastors. They don’t wanna be under people who will hold them accountable, and they go out and do their own thing so they can not only live as they want, but they can teach false doctrine that draws God’s people away from the truth. It’s easy to get off mission.

It’s easy to forget what’s most important. And even as leaders in the church, we forget our calling. I’m reminded of a time I was driving down the road, and there was this big burger place that sold hamburgers. And what did they have on their marquee? That they were selling tacos.

Here they are, the place where they sell burgers, and now they’re selling tacos. And you know that can be true in the Christian or the church is that we forget what we’re all about, and we get off mission. But God is calling us to be on mission, to stay on track. And that’s what the apostle Paul does for us in acts 20 is he’s showing us the priorities of church leaders. What should they be doing?

And so I hope that this has been an encouragement and a blessing to your life. We also want to remind you about our website, hopeworthhaving.com. And if you have any prayer requests, you can go to that website, hit the contact button, and you can give us your prayer request. We’ll pray for you. We care about what’s going on in your life.

God works through the prayers of his people. So let’s rally the troops and let us be a part of those troops that are praying for you. And if you’ll just reach out to us through hopeworthaving.com, we’ll be glad to take time to pray for you this week. This is pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ, there is hope worth having.

The post The Priorities of Church Leaders Part 1 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on Carrying on the Work of the Gospel Part 2. He will be reading out of Acts 20:17-24

Do you serve God as long as he’ll answer your prayers the way you want them? Do you serve God as long as he makes your life comfortable and convenient? But what if he allows the storms to come? And I know we can serve God when he gives, but what if he takes away? Hello.

This is pastor Mike Sanders from the Open Door Church, and we wanna welcome you to Hope Worth Having. And we’re excited about what God has for us today, so thank you for tuning in with us. We’re gonna be back in Acts chapter 20 verses 17 through 24, and we’re learning about carrying on the work of the gospel. What an important task that is. So I want you to join us as we continue to learn how to carry on the work of the gospel.

You don’t always have to have the last word my mother used to say to me. Well, that’s good advice in the church too is that it’s okay that we might disagree. Some of you are very upset. It’s too cold in here. What are we gonna do about it?

Well, just let the pastor start preaching, it’ll warm up. We’ll be okay, it’s not the end of the world. Let’s just give him to God and tell the Lord to straighten him out. We walk with humility. In all your relationships, are you humble?

In all of our relationships, are we willing to be humble to God and are we willing to say, Lord, I may not always understand and I may not always agree, but I certainly don’t wanna be prideful, arrogant, unteachable, and unwilling to work together as a team. I think what made the apostle so effective for God is his humbleness before God. As he served with the elders, as he served with the churches, as he worked within the different people of God, that he was able to walk in humility with God’s people. The second characteristic on helping us to carry out the work of the gospel is compassion. I’m back in verse 19.

And we note in chapter 20 of verse 19, he says, serving the lord not only with all humility, but with many tears and trials. Serving the lord with many tears, we jump down to chapter 20 verse 31 and you see he says, therefore, watch and remember for three years, I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with what? Tears. He served with many tears. Let me tell you what’ll happen as you’re serving God, as you go through life, it’s easy to become apathetic, it’s easy to become indifferent.

Towards others, towards God, the challenges, the problems of life can make you to where you don’t wanna have a tender heart. That you wanna build as many walls as you can in your heart and protect yourself from the pain and the hurts. The apostle says, no. I wanna be different. I want you to know that I was a man who served the lord with many tears.

Now that’s not a quality we’re all looking and desiring, but it’s a reflection of his heart that he was compassionate. It was the compassion that the apostle had that drove him to minister night and day. You saw that in verse 31. Night and day, he was very compassionate. You can tell a lot about a person by what they celebrate over and what they cry over.

Are you with me? Because those emotions, we could call them the extremes of emotions, reflect our heart. What is it that we celebrate over? Some people get super excited over the fact that their tomatoes are growing in their garden. Some people might get super excited about a sports team winning, and I’m not against any of that.

Don’t misunderstand me. But what do you celebrate? Do you celebrate when people come to Christ? Do you get excited when people are growing in their faith? Are you more touched in your heart with tears of joy about the fact that God is working in the heart of your children or your grandchildren or that someone is dedicating their life to full time ministry.

These are tears of joy. We don’t know. Paul didn’t tell us whether they were tears of joy or tears of sadness, but we do know that he served with many tears. What were the things that he was compassionate about? Well, we know in Romans nine that Paul wept over the loss.

He was broken to tears over those who did not know Jesus Christ as their lord and savior. When is the last time in your prayers to god praying for the unchurched, praying for those who do not know Christ, that tears streamed down your cheeks because you were so burdened that they would be saved? When is the last time that when you rose from your kneeling of praying for your loved ones or your neighbor that does not know Christ, that there were drops of tears left on the floor or on your pillow? When is the last time that you were so burdened to see people come to Christ that you wept with many tears. There are many things that we might weep about, but certainly shouldn’t God’s people weep for the lost.

We need a revival and what we need a revival in is God’s people praying and weeping with many tears. Not only did the apostle weep for the lost, but he, according to first Corinthians two four, he wept for the immature. Spiritual growth and therefore their spiritual formation was kind of just stalled. Maybe perhaps they were even backsliding or getting involved in things that were hurting their walk with Christ. And he was burden for the immature.

I want to challenge you and to encourage you to be a person that as we survey our church family, as we look and say, where are our brothers and sisters in Christ, that if we sense that maybe they have become apathetic or indifferent to the gospel or to one another or even to the Lord, that we would have a burden for them, that we would pray them back into fellowship with God’s people. Amen? That many tears would be shed, that they would come and rededicate, and that their hearts would be revived, and they would be spiritually awakened anew in their passion for Jesus Christ. Paul not only prayed for the lost and he not only prayed for the immature, but he prayed for the church that was endangered by false teachers. We see that.

You could take time to read on your own, but in verse 29 through 31, he was deeply disturbed. He warned everyone night and day with tears. He did not want god’s people to be led astray. How do you know that you have good leaders in the church? Is they out of great compassion for your spiritual maturity and for your spiritual protection that they warn you of false teachers.

I know that we don’t like confrontation and we don’t like disagreements, and so we just rather stay away from all that. We’d rather just say, hey, let’s just not get into the weeds or the details and let’s just love everybody. And that’s true, we should love everybody. But I want to remind you we have to have compassion, but we must have a compassion that is based upon the truth of God’s word. Sometimes the most loving thing you can do for someone is to tell them the truth.

Now in Philippians chapter three verse 18, it says, for many walk of whom I have told you often. And I now tell you even weeping that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ. There are false teachers out there, church. They’re sucking you into their false theology and they’re leading you astray and they’re giving you a pseudo religion that in the end, not only will it not save your soul, but it will wreck your faith. And I want you to keep that in mind.

It’s not that pastor’s up here and he’s a hate monger and he’s against everybody. I’m a kingdom guy. I’m for everybody that’s preaching the gospel. I’m for those that are lifting up Christ and teaching that Christ is the only way to heaven. Alright.

First is humility. Second is compassion. But third is faithfulness. I want you to go to verse 20 and verse 21. And he says, I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you and taught you publicly and from house to house.

Verse 21, testifying to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance towards God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Jump down to verse 27, for I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God. First, I want you to know that the apostle was faithful to God. He was faithful to the calling that God had upon his life. He was faithful.

He would not back down, but he was also faithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ. He did not dilute the gospel. He did not make it more palatable. He did not in any way change the gospel. He taught the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, and he taught that our response to the gospel is repentance and faith.

That we are to turn away from our sin and we are to turn towards God. I want you to see that he was faithful to the word of God. Verse 27, I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel God. You see, the apostle did not get up there and say, I just wanna give you the good stuff and leave out the bad stuff. We’ll always remember that the good is the good news is not as good without the bad news.

I mean, we wouldn’t understand the good news without the bad news. And the reason the good news is so good is because the bad news is so bad. And the bad news is that we are sinners in need of a savior. And it doesn’t matter how religious you are, and it doesn’t matter what list you’re trying to keep, unless you know Jesus Christ as your lord and savior. Jesus said in Matthew chapter seven that he’ll say to us, depart from me, you that work iniquity.

And they’ll say to him, but, lord, we did all these wonderful things in your name. And he’ll say, depart from me. The apostle encouraged all believers in second Corinthians chapter 13 verse five to test themselves to see if they are in the faith. Not everybody who walked an aisle or prayed a prayer or signed a card is a believer. Some do it just to get the preacher off their back or the parents off their back, but others do it with sincere hearts and are humble and really mean it.

Only you know. God knows, but you know. You can fool the pastor, you can fool the elders, you can fool your parents, and you can fool other church people, but you cannot fool God. The apostle was faithful to teach the word of God, the full gospel of Jesus Christ. I pray that all of us know Christ, believe in Christ.

As Paul is meeting with the elders, the church leaders for the last time, he’s heading to Jerusalem. This is where he will eventually be martyred. He’s headed to Jerusalem. He’ll never see them again, but what he is exemplifying to them is to be faithful to God, be faithful to the gospel, be faithful to the word of God. Listen, friends.

I know having a dozen donuts from Krispy Kreme every morning for breakfast sounds pretty exciting. But I’m telling you a consistent diet of Krispy Kreme donuts every morning is gonna be your downfall. And I know that you can go to a place where everything is wonderful and positive and things seem to be sensually in your emotions and your physical feelings to be so dynamic, but the gospel is never taught. The word of God is never taught, and you only get the highlights of the positive in the scripture and never have to mourn over your sin, and never have to wrestle with the changes God wants you to make in your life, and never have to confront your own attitudes. I know that’s a better, it seems, a life, but the truth is God wants you to be real with him, not a pretender.

And that’s why you need to be plugged in to not only a church that faithfully teaches the word of God, but you need to be plugged into a Bible study that teaches the word of God, a small group that teaches the word of God, and you need to stay faithful to these things in your life so that you can flourish for the lord and be on fire for him. The scriptures tell us in first Corinthians four two, it is required in stewards that one be found, what? Some translations put it trustworthy. I like that. That is the heart of the word is that we’re to be trusting.

What does it mean to be faithful? I think it means to be dependable. I think it means to be trustworthy. I think it means to be reliable. You and I are called to be faithful.

If we’re going to get this gospel to the ends of the earth, then we must be faithful to our brothers and sisters, and we must be faithful to our lord and savior, and we must be faithful to his word. I want you to be encouraged. God will reward you for you. I want you to be encouraged. God will reward you for using your talents faithfully for him.

God will reward you for your faithfulness. We’re told in the parable of talents that there are three different ways that he awards us. And I want you to keep this in mind. First is affirmation. He says, well done thou good and faithful servant.

Think about how many of God’s people that he has promoted to heaven in our church family. They got to hear those words of affirmation. Some of you have been living your life all your life to hear your parents say, good job. Proud of you. I’m sorry to hear that that it takes a whole lifetime or never that your parents would never affirm you.

I want you to know something. There is a God in heaven who does affirm you. And as you are faithfully serving him, he is saying, well done. Well done, good servant. Well done.

Not only will we be rewarded with affirmation, but we’ll be rewarded with promotion. The bible says that you have been faithful in a few things. I’ll put you in charge or a leader of many things. That’s the way God works. Your faithfulness here determines your reward and promotion in heaven.

That’s the way I kinda look at it. I feel like I’ll be in charge of all the golf courses in heaven. Not that I’m a good golfer, it’s just I’m willing to go out there and hack and hack and hack. But if we could just be faithful, I don’t know what God’ll put you in charge of in heaven. But if you would be faithful here, he’ll put you in charge of many things in heaven, and we can rejoice in that.

The third way he rewards our faithfulness is celebration. He says enter into the joy of your lord. I know it’s hard for us to comprehend and to imagine what heaven is like, but we get little glimpses in the bible. But I just want you to know in heaven that the psalmist describes it that in thy presence is fullness of joy, and at thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore. And I kind of understand this in this way, that it’s not just that I’ll be filled with so much joy I can barely contain it, but I see it is that there will always be the fullness of this joy, that it’ll be perpetual, that now on this life that I have moments of great joy and that I have opportunities of great joy that fill my heart and flood my life, but that eventually dissipates.

But in heaven, all the time, joy. Is there anything more superb than us entering into the joy of our Lord? When you think of your loved ones in heaven, I know you get tired of me saying it, but I just want to help you. And that is that they didn’t get up there in heaven and say, man, I’m disappointed. I’m let down.

They came into those pearly gates into the presence of God and they are so filled with joy, they are so overwhelmed with the pleasures of heaven and the rewards and the blessings that God has bestowed upon them for their faithfulness on this earth, that if you begged them to come back, they would not. Because when you come back to this earth, it’s sorrow, sadness, suffering, separation. But in heaven, all those are gone and the former things are gone. All things, behold, are new before our god almighty. Paul was humble.

He was compassionate. He was faithful. Number four, he was submissive, submission. We talked a little bit about this, but let me just expand on this a little bit. In verse 22 of acts chapter 20, he says, and see now I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem.

There’s an obligation upon the apostle. Not knowing the things that will happen to me there, except that the spirit testifies in every city saying that chains and tribulations await me. Let’s stop there. If I said to you, hey, I got a job for you and I just want you to know every day you’re gonna be thrown in jail, that every day there’ll be trials, that every day there’ll be so many problems, you’ll be frustrated. How many of you would line up and say, hey.

I want that job. But that’s what the spirit of God told the apostle. That’s what the spirit of God said and put upon him this responsibility and communicated to him, there would be chains and tribulations that await him. But look what his response is. None of these things move.

Many of you know and have heard of a great leader who’s now in heaven, his name was doctor Jerry Falwell. He started Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia. He was the founder of Liberty University. Many ministries for the homeless, for those who have addictions, for helping single moms, so many ministries that God used him to touch many people’s lives. But I remember hearing him preach at a pastor’s conference.

He said, the test of your character is what does it take to get you to quit. What does it take to get you to quit? Paul said none of these things move me. Are there people problems that you’ll quit on a dime for the Lord? Are there circumstances that if these things are true, I’m done.

I’m out. Are there situations in your life that if you face any trials and tribulations, then you’re tapping out. I wanna ask you a question. Why do you serve God? Do you serve God as long as he’ll answer your prayers the way you want them?

Do you serve God as long as he’ll do what you want, as long as he makes your life comfortable and convenient? Is that why you serve God? But what if he allows the storms to come? And what if he breaks your heart? Job said the Lord gives and he takes away.

What’s be the name? And I know we can serve God what he gives, but what if he takes away? Are you tapping out? Or are you willing to submit to God’s will? A true Christian is an example of submission.

Paul says I’m not being moved, I’m staying true to God. I’m gonna faithfully serve Him. I’m submitting to His will. You remember when Jesus gave that great high priestly prayer as he prayed to the father. He said in John seventeen one, father, the hour has come.

And what he was simply saying is, lord, I submit to you. I know that it’s time for me to go to the cross and be crucified. He didn’t walk away. He didn’t quit, but he prayed. And he prayed and he was submissive.

And God is calling us to be submissive. But I also want you to see finally is his devotion. We’re back in verse 24, which has always been a favorite verse of mine, and he says none of these things move me nor do I count my life dear to myself so that I may finish my race with joy and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. Paul remained true. He was devoted.

He remained true to the mission. Even in the midst of hardship, he had a single-minded devotion to God. It reminds me when he taught us in Romans twelve one, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. God’s people should hold nothing back. We should put it all on the line for him.

We should lay our lives out and say, lord, I’m a living sacrifice. I will not live for myself, but I will live for you. I will live to love you. I will live to love others. So unfortunate, but many people lack devotion to Jesus.

They are devoted to the world. They are devoted to sports. They are devoted to everything else that the world dangles before them, but they are not devoted to Christ. And I ask you, what are you ultimately devoted to? If we’re gonna carry this job out, church, we need devoted followers of Christ.

That just because there’s a challenge, a speed bump, just because there’s sorrow and struggles that we’re not gonna be tapping out and saying, I’m done, that we’re gonna keep moving forward. I’ve served in the ministry for over twenty five years. As a Christian, I’ve walked with the Lord for over forty years. I’ve lived through seasons of great joy and great struggle, and I have no doubt that you too will experience tough times as you serve the Lord. But I wanna remind you that ministry is not a 50 yard sprint.

It is a marathon. I want you to finish the race for the Lord. I want you to finish this race with joy. And I want you to know that your faithfulness matters. Your faithfulness matters to your family.

Your faithfulness matters to your church. Your faithfulness, most important, matters to God. May God bless us with a determination to carry the work of the gospel to the ends of the earth. Serving the Lord with all humility is one of the ways that we carry on the gospel, and people look at our lives, they see something distinct and different, and they want what we have. So, we’re called to be clothed with humility, and we make every effort to do that.

The apostle was a man of humility. He was a man of tears. He was a man who did whatever it took to reach people for Christ, and I hope that will be in your heart as well. We wanna thank you for being a part of this program again today, and we wanna encourage you to make sure you check us out on our YouTube channel. So we are broadcasting on YouTube on Sundays, and then also we have video clips of interviews and questions, q and a’s, and also our sermons, and even some different clips that you can use to help in growing and studying in your Christian faith.

So take advantage of that and check us out on YouTube channel. Like us, subscribe to us, and we know that it’ll be a great blessing. This is pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ, there is hope worth having.

The post Carrying on the Work of the Gospel Part 2 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on Carrying on the Work of the Gospel Part 1. He will be reading out of Acts 20:17-24

We need humility because in a world that is so filled with pride, in a world where people are boasting so much about their accomplishments, How much more do the people of God need to be a people who are humble? Hello. This is pastor Mike Sanders, and we wanna welcome you to Hopeworth Having Ministries. We are looking forward to sharing our hope that we have in Jesus Christ. And today, we’re going to be in Acts chapter 20 verse 17 through 24, and we’re gonna talk about carrying on the work of the gospel.

You know, we have this great work of sharing the gospel, and we wanna be a part of what God is doing around the world. So let’s look into this passage, and let’s learn how to carry on the work of the gospel. Acts chapter 20 verse 17 through 24. I wanna talk to you this morning about carrying on the work of the gospel. We have been studying the book of acts, going through a chapter by chapter, and we’ve already come to acts 20 and we’ve covered the first sixteen verses that are revealing to us the third missionary journey of the apostle Paul and his team.

And now they have left the city of Ephesus. We find the apostle in a town called Miletus, which is about 30 miles south of Ephesus. Maybe some of you might be thinking a little bit about Chambersburg and how Hagerstown’s about 30 miles south. So that’s where the apostle is, 30 miles south of Ephesus, and he calls the leaders of the church together. And he wants to talk to them.

He wants to make sure that they’re gonna be able to carry out the work of the gospel in the city of Ephesus, because this would become a very critical and dynamic church that would help proclaim the message of the gospel throughout Asia and into other parts of the world. And so the apostle wants to take this opportunity to share with them. We pick up in verse 17 of Acts chapter 20, and the bible says, from Miletus, he sent to Ephesus and he called for the elders of the church. And when they had come to him, he said to them, you know from the first day that I came to Asia in what manner I always lived among you. Serving the Lord with all humility, with many tears and trials, which happened to me by the plotting of the Jews.

How I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you and taught you publicly and from house to house. Testifying to Jews and also to Greeks repentance towards God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And see now I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city saying that chains and tribulations await me. I want you to get this key verse. I want you to highlight it in your bible.

I want you to put a star by however you like to. I know some of you don’t like to mark in your bibles, and I get that. But if you do, just bring your attention here. But none of these things move me, nor do I count my life dear to myself so that I may finish my race with joy. And the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

Ernest Shackleton, he led a daring expedition in 1914 to reach the Antarctica. A Year earlier, a lesser known Canadian led an expedition that was headed in the other direction to explore the North Pole. Both ships, the Carluk in the North and the Endurance in the South found themselves trapped by solid ice packs. Each crew was faced with a fight for survival, but the outcome of the two expeditions couldn’t have been more different. In the North, the crew members from the Carluk led by Biljamar, Stephanasen degenerated into a band of selfish, mean spirited, cutthroat individuals ending in the death of all 11 crew members.

In the South, Shackleton’s crew faced the same problems. Cold, food shortages, stress, and anxiety. But his crew responded with teamwork, self sacrifice, and astonishing good cheer and joy. In the end, each leader stayed true to his core values. Stepheson valued success above caring for people.

He consistently communicated his ultimate objective, get to the North Pole. Stefansson’s words, this meant that even the lives of the crew are secondary to the accomplishment of the work. To the very end, Stefansson denied that his drive for success led to a tragedy for himself as well as his crew. In sharp contrast, Shackleton’s leadership focused on the value and the dignity of his teammates. At one of the lowest points of the trip, Shackleton wrote, and I quote, the task was now to secure the safety of the party, end of quote.

The well-being of his team drove him to put others first. Shackleton even gave away his mittens, his boots and volunteered for the longest night watches. By valuing each person, Shackleton forged a team that was willing to share their rations with each other, even on the brink of starvation. Through his example and his sacrificial leadership, Shackleton was able to accomplish his ultimate objective, saving the lives of his crew members. When we come to Acts chapter 20, we are again introduced to a great leader, a dynamic leader.

His name is the apostle Paul. And he sets like Shackleton a great example for us. And what he leaves behind to the church at Ephesus and to the leaders there is an exemplary servant leadership style that will help them to carry on the work of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This morning, I want us to look at that example that we see narrated by Luke, who wrote this book called the book of acts under the inspiration of the spirit of God, but helps us to see the qualities and the characteristics that we’re able to help him as the apostle to be able to help others carry on the work. When you and I think about our lives, and we think about what God wants to do in us and through us, certainly one of those objectives has to be that we want to see the work of Christ and the gospel to march on.

We have the objective of wanting to reach out and connect and help others to know the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior. What are the qualities that are gonna be necessary in order for us to do that? I want you to first note it is humility. I want you to look at verse 19 of chapter 20 again. And as Luke is narrating what the apostle said, I don’t want you to misunderstand what the apostle is saying.

You might think he’s very arrogant and, you know, who goes around claiming that they’re humble, right? Certainly not the humble, but Luke is only trying to show us the leadership of the apostle, and how it is that you and I can learn from that leadership, and we can exemplify it in a way to accomplish the work of the gospel. So verse 19, serving the lord with all humility. Jump down to verse 34 of the chapter. We see here again, the bible says, yes, you yourselves know that these hands, referring to the apostle’s hands, have provided my necessities and for those who were with me.

The apostle was not one who was too good to work with his hands. He was not above working hard and making a strong effort to do what it takes to not be a burden on these new churches that were being planted into these cultures and communities where they had never heard the gospel before. The small band of believers that were coming together and understanding for the first time what it meant to be in a fellowship and a community of believers together. The apostle did not want to overwhelm them or overburden them. And so he often would work and he would keep the expenses and the cost down, which is just a reflection of his humbleness.

He served the Lord, in verse 19, with all humility. This is the key to us being able to extend the gospel to the regions beyond. And you say humility, Mike? Is that really what we need? Yes.

We need humility because in a world that is so filled with pride, in a world where people are boasting so much about their accomplishments and hiring PR companies to help promote their achievements, how much more do the people of God need to be a people who are humble? Now humility simply means that I’m willing to admit that I need God. I’m willing to come to the understanding that I can’t do it myself, self. That I can’t not only be saved by my works, it has to be through the work of Christ, but that even as I am serving God, that I’m totally reliant and I am totally dependent upon him. The book of Proverbs verse chapter 15 verse 33 says the fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom and before honor is what?

Humility. That’s the way God works. We are exhorted to be a humble people. We remember that Peter taught us in chapter five verse six to humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time. Here’s what I want you to know about humility, that humility is an essential virtue for the victorious Christian.

That you cannot be exalted and you cannot be honored as a believer apart from humility. This honoring and this exaltation does not be somehow that you’re gonna be famous on social media. It doesn’t mean that somehow you’re going to be well known and wealthy and never have any problems in your life. But what it does mean is that as we submit humbly our lives under the mighty hand of God, that he will exalt us in due time, that he will help us to be victorious in our efforts for him. He will help us to be victorious in our walk with him.

He will help us to be victorious over all the trials and all the temptations and all the struggles in life that as we humble ourselves before god, that he brings victory to our heart. Note that Peter said that we are to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. I think that’s an important phrase. The mighty hand of God often used in the scriptures to not just reference to the power of God, but to the sovereignty of God. That God is in charge and God is in control.

When we use that word sovereignty, that’s what we mean. He is in control of all of our circumstances. He is in charge of everything, the good, the bad and the ugly in our life. He is in charge, but we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. I think sometimes to understand humility, maybe we might consider the contrast.

That sometimes when things happen in our lives, we argue with God. That we are defiant towards God. Rather than humbling ourselves and saying, Lord, we submit to your perfect will. God says, I’ll give you victory. I’ll give you victory in the journey.

I’ll give you victory in the Christian life. I’ll give you victory in all that you are encountering and all that you are dealing with whether it’s internally in your emotions or your mind or your thoughts or whether it’s externally in the pressures and the sorrow and the struggles of life, God says, humble yourself. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. We are not only called to humble ourselves, but we’re called to put on humility. Colossians three twelve says, therefore, as the elect of God, holy, beloved, put on.

Put on tender mercies, kindness. There’s that word, church. Are you awake? Can you say it to me? Humility.

Thank you. The more you talk to me, the shorter my sermon gets. But he says, humility, meekness and long suffering. These are things we’re to put on. It’s kinda like you get up in the morning and I know how you ladies are, you go look at your closet and you say, I don’t got anything to wear.

Not that I’m personally experiencing this, I’m just telling you that I don’t understand it, I can’t comprehend it. You know? I don’t wanna get into anything personal here, but like I have all my clothing. I tell my wife, if you just put your clothes in order, then you already know what you’re wearing tomorrow. You already know what you’re wearing five days from now.

Who cares about the weather? Just have it all lined up and then it’s there. You just pick it up and let’s get going. That’s the way I am. Not too concerned.

Everything is in rotation. If you wanna know which jacket or which suit pastor Mike’s wearing, just look at my closet and you say, yep, on that Sunday, that’s he’ll be wearing the next thing that’s in line. Doesn’t matter. We could have a hurricane and snowstorm, I’m still gonna wear it. But like our clothes, we’re to put on humility.

You go to your spiritual closet and believe it or not, there’s humility. And God says, put it on. Now the problem is that unlike our clothes, sometimes we’re not always wearing humility and it’s very difficult when we find ourselves in the moment of confrontation or in the moment of a sorrow or struggle in our life for us to put on humility. But God says put on humility. In first Peter five five, he tells us to be clothed with humility.

So, you know, one of the things I’m learning is that it’s something that you just can’t do once and then be done with it. But I think it’s an everyday, in every moment, in every circumstance, we’re always asking the Lord to help us to be clothed in humility. To be clothed with humility that we might walk humbly before our God. Ephesians four teaches us that we are to walk with all, meaning all of God’s people, humility. We’re to be humble with them.

We’re to be humble with God’s people. What do we do when we disagree as God’s people? I know that’s a shocker, but God’s people don’t always agree. That’s the first thing I learned as a pastor. I thought everybody would agree.

I thought everybody would love every idea I had. I soon found out, buddy, that’s not true. But you say, how do we handle our disagreements, pastor? Well, the same way you do at home. Be humble.

You don’t have to always be right. You don’t always have to have the last word my mother used to say to me. Well, that’s good advice in the church too is that it’s okay that we might disagree. Some of you are very upset. It’s too cold in here.

What we gonna do about it? Well, just let the pastor start preaching. It’ll warm up. We’ll be okay. It’s not the end of the world.

Let’s just give him to God and tell the Lord to straighten him out. We walk with humility. In all your relationships, are you humble? In all of our relationships, are we willing to be humble to God and are we willing to say, Lord, I may not always understand and I may not always understand and I may not always agree, but I certainly don’t wanna be prideful, arrogant, unteachable, and unwilling to work together as a team. I think what made the apostle so effective for God is his humbleness before God.

As he served with the elders, as he served with the churches, as he worked within the different people of God, that he was able to walk in humility with God’s people. The second characteristic on helping us to carry out the work of the gospel is compassion. I’m back in verse 19. And we note in chapter 20 of verse 19, he says, serving the lord not only with all humility, but with many tears and trials. Serving the lord with many tears, we jump down to chapter 20 verse 31 and you see he says, therefore, watch and remember for three years, I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with what?

Tears. You served with many tears. Let me tell you what’ll happen as you’re serving God, as you go through life, it’s easy to become apathetic, it’s easy to become indifferent. Towards others, towards God, the challenges, the problems of life can make you to where you don’t wanna have a tender heart. That you wanna build as many walls as you can in your heart and protect yourself from the pain and the hurts.

The apostle says, no. I wanna be different. I want you to know that I was a man who served the lord with many tears. Now that’s not a quality we’re all looking and desiring, but it’s a reflection of his heart that he was compassionate. It was the compassion that the apostle had that drove him to minister night and day.

You saw that in verse 31. Night and day, he was very compassionate. You can tell a lot about a person by what they celebrate over and what they cry over. Are you with me? Because those emotions, we could call them the extremes of emotions, reflect our heart.

What is it that we celebrate over? Some people get super excited over the fact that their tomatoes are growing in their garden. Some people might get super excited about a sports team winning, and I’m not against any of that, don’t misunderstand me. But what do you celebrate? Do you celebrate when people come to Christ?

Do you get excited when people are growing in their faith? Are you more touched in your heart with tears of joy about the fact that God is working in the heart of your children or your grandchildren or that someone is dedicating their life to full time ministry. These are tears of joy. We don’t know. Paul didn’t tell us whether they were tears of joy or tears of sadness, but we do know that he served with many tears.

What were the things that he was compassionate about? Well, we know in Romans nine that Paul wept over the lost. He was broken to tears over those who did not know Jesus Christ as their lord and savior. When is the last time in your prayers to God praying for the unchurched, praying for those who do not know Christ, that tears stream down your cheeks because you were so burdened that they would be saved? When is the last time that when you rose from your kneeling of praying for your loved ones or your neighbor that does not know Christ, that there were drops of tears left on the floor or on your pillow.

When is the last time that you were so burdened to see people come to Christ that you wept with many tears? There are many things that we might weep about, but certainly shouldn’t God’s people weep for the lost? We need a revival and what we need a revival in is God’s people praying and weeping with many tears. Not only did the apostle weep for the lost, but he, according to first Corinthians two four, he wept for the immature. He was so burdened about those who were not growing in their faith.

They had come to Christ. They believed in Christ, but yet they had put a lid on their spiritual growth and therefore their spiritual formation was kind of just stalled. Maybe perhaps they were even backsliding or getting involved in things that were hurting their walk with Christ. And he was burden for the immature. I want to challenge you and to encourage you to be a person that as we survey our church family, as we look and say, where are our brothers and sisters in Christ?

That if we sense that maybe they have become apathetic or indifferent to the gospel or to one another or even to the lord, that we would have a burden for them, that we would pray them back into fellowship with God’s people. Amen? That many tears would be shed, that they would come and rededicate and that their hearts would be revived and they would be spiritually awakened anew in their passion for Jesus Christ. Paul not only prayed for the lost and he not only prayed for the immature, but he prayed for the church that was endangered by false teachers. We see that.

You could take time to read on your own, but in verse 29 through 31, he was deeply disturbed. He warned everyone night and day with tears. You did not want God’s people to be led astray. How do you know that you have good leaders in the church? Is they out of great compassion for your spiritual maturity and for your spiritual protection that they warn you of false teachers.

I know that we don’t like confrontation and we don’t like disagreements, and so we just rather stay away from all that. We’d rather just say, hey. Let’s just not get into the weeds or the details and let’s just love everybody. And that’s true, we should love everybody. But I want to remind you, we have to have compassion, but we must have a compassion that is based upon the truth of God’s word.

Sometimes the most loving thing you can do for someone is to tell them the truth. Now in Philippians chapter three verse 18, it says, for many walk of whom I have told you often. And I now tell you even weeping that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ. There are false teachers out there, church. They’re sucking you into their false theology and they’re leading you astray and they’re giving you a pseudo religion that in the end, not only will it not save your soul, but it will wreck your faith.

And I want you to keep that in mind. It’s not that pastor’s up here and he’s a hate monger and he’s against everybody. I’m a kingdom guy. I’m for everybody that’s preaching the gospel. I’m for those that are lifting up Christ and teaching that Christ is the only way to heaven.

Alright. First is humility. Second is compassion. But third is faithfulness. I want you to go to verse 20 and verse 21.

And he says, I kept back nothing that was helpful but proclaimed it to you and taught you publicly and from house to house. Verse 21, testifying to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance towards God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Jump down to verse 27. For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God. First, I want you to know that the apostle was faithful to God.

He was faithful to the calling that God had upon his life. He was faithful. He would not back down, but he was also faithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ. He did not dilute the gospel. He did not make it more palatable.

He did not in any way change the gospel. He taught the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ and he taught that our response to the gospel is repentance and faith. That we are to turn away from our sin and we are to turn towards God. I want you to see that he was faithful to the word of God. Verse 27, I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God.

You see, the apostle did not get up there and say, I just wanna give you the good stuff and leave out the bad stuff. We’ll always remember that the good news is not as good without the bad news. The work of the gospel takes many shapes and sizes, and it impacts people in different ways. But our job is to keep the gospel going forward. There are a lot of things going on in this world, but the one thing we cannot retreat from is sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ and continuing to minister.

The apostle Paul sets that example for us. Even though he faced opposition and he had pushed back, he would not quit, and he kept carrying on the work of the gospel. And so I hope that’ll be true in your life. I want to encourage you to check us out on Facebook. Take advantage of that and learn more about hope worth having.

And when you go to Facebook, like us on the page, and also you can keep up with different posts as we share different things that are going on in the ministry. This is pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ, there is hope worth having.

The post Carrying on the Work of the Gospel Part 1 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on How to Love Your Church Family Part 2. He will be reading out of Acts 20:1-16

Some of you got out of the habit of gathering with God’s people. I wanna challenge you to to reengage so that you might celebrate what God has done in your heart and the wonderful resurrection of our savior that you might be that person that encourages your brothers and your sisters in Christ. Hello. This is pastor Mike Sanders from the Open Door Church, and I’m delighted to welcome you to the Hopeworth having radio program this week. And I’m excited to share God’s word with you as a source of inspiration and direction for our life.

Today, we are going to be in Acts chapter 20, and we’re continuing to study how to love our church family. So let’s get into the Bible and get to studying exactly how to love your church family. Of genuine love for the church is a selfless commitment to being an encourager to others. I pray today that you will commit your heart to be more of an encourager and that even if you are already in this process and you embrace this mindset of being an encourager, that you will continue to seek more opportunities for God to give you to be one who encourages others. The second thing that I want you to see in this text is we begin to learn how to love our church family.

It is not only to encourage one another, but it is to serve with one another. I want you to look at verse four and five. Now, we have some complicated names here, we’ll do our best to go through them. But the bible says, and Sopater of Berea accompanied him, meaning Paul, that Sopater was with Paul, to Asia, also Aristarchus, and Secundus of the Thessalonians, and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy, and Tychicus, and Trophonus of Asia. These men going ahead waited for us at Troas.

You say, pastor, how do you know how to pronounce those names? I don’t. I just make it up like you do. But you don’t know them either and so anything I say sounds better than what you were thinking. But here’s what I want you to see is that there’s really eight people here that were on the apostle’s team.

These were individuals who were serving with him on the third missionary journey. Now I know that those of you that are detailed, you’re going through verse four, and you’ve only counted seven. And you’re saying, Well maybe the pastor, he’s got some issues and he really doesn’t know how to count. But the truth is, if you jump down to verse five, look what it says. These men going ahead waited for us.

Well who is the Us? He’s talking about himself, Luke. Luke is the human author under the inspiration of God that would pen down the words of the book of acts and give us this narrative of how the early church function. And Luke is including himself and so he is that eighth person that is on this team. And what I want you to see here is that the apostle did not serve alone.

We admire the apostle Paul, and we certainly believe he was a great man of God. And he was a very dedicated Christian committed to the cause of Christ, endured so much suffering so that the gospel may go to the regions beyond. But I want you to understand that he did not do it alone. There were others who served with him. The apostle reminds the Corinthians in first Corinthians three nine that we are God’s fellow workers.

That is we are co laborers together in the gospel of Jesus Christ. If you want to love your church, don’t be isolated. Don’t be the one man show. Don’t be the lone ranger. Don’t be the person who’s gonna do it all by themselves, but rather be the kind of person who is gonna serve with one another.

The church is not to be a place where we just sit down and we just learn the bible and then we leave. No. God has not called us to just leave, but rather he’s called us to gather together and we learn the word of God, we soak it up, but then we go out and serve. And I tell you that Christians that do not serve God, they will become very sour Christians. They’re always taking in, but they’re never giving out the height of your healing in any trouble and trial in your life is not to stay isolated from others.

It’s not to sit on the couch and to have self pity, but rather it is to break out and to use the platform that God has given you to serve and minister to others. But when you minister to others, do not do it alone. Do not serve by yourself. It marks a big step in your development when you come to realize that other people can help you do a better job than you could ever do alone. So many times I talk to Christians about this matter and they say to me, well, pastor, honestly, if I just do it by myself, I know it’s gonna be done right.

If I get other people involved, pastor, then they’re gonna mess it all up. And you see, you got some issues there. And it might be that you are the kind of person who is a micromanager and controlling, and everything has to be just perfect before you’ll be able to do any kind of ministry. But listen. There’s never going to be a perfect world or a perfect circumstance in which we can serve God.

Many times in the the scriptures, we see Jesus, we see the apostles, we see God’s people just spontaneously engaging in ministry with the circumstances and the situation they had. And maybe they didn’t have a lot of preparation, and maybe they didn’t have a lot of training, but they just jumped in and got the job done. And what I’m saying to you is that, yes, I understand maybe you could do it better. And you’ve been doing it for twenty years, and it’s been doing it your way, and now you don’t wanna mess that up. But let me ask you, what benefit are you to the church in that you are the only one that can do this ministry or you’re the only one that can do this particular way of ministry?

You see, friends, it’s very much like a mother who always picks up the clothes or the toys of the children. Yes, moms, you can do that for a while, but are you really helping your child? Are you really helping your child? Are you helping your child to develop skills that are important for them? Sometimes we can enable our children not to succeed.

We enable our children not to move forward in life because we do everything for them, and they become so dependent upon us that they cannot function in life without us. I want you to know that it’s just like that in the church. How important it is for you to work yourself out of a job. I remember when I first came to the Open Door Church, many of you remember Pastor Art Brown. How many of you remember Pastor Art Brown?

He was a wonderful soul winner, a wonderful man of the Lord. He was an associate pastor here. And when I had my meeting with him, I told him that it was his job to work himself out of a job. And he said, Pastor Mike, are you trying to get rid of me? I said, no.

I’m not trying to get rid of you. I said, I want you to train others to do what you do, so you can do other things for the Lord. And you see, that’s the key. Is that God has called every one of us not to be isolated in our ministry, but to train others. When I was a young man and I had answered the call to preach at the age of 16, and in that revival service, that preacher from Kansas gave an invitation, and I went forward and my pastor said, Mike why did you come forward?

And I told him why I came forward, and we prayed together, and we committed everything to the Lord, and when I got done praying, he said, Mike, a call to ministry is a call to preparation. And so he wanted to get me into bible college when I graduate from high school and all that, But here’s the one thing that was great about my pastor. And again, we’re talking about a very small church of about 50 people. But he would say, Now, Mike, you come with me. We’re gonna go visit the hospital.

Come with me, we’re gonna go check on this family. Come with me, we need to run some errands and take care of some things for the church. And what I loved about it is he was including me in serving with him. And so many times, I was learning, not by what was taught to me, but what was caught in this sense, that I was just observing how he did ministry. And so we have to remember that it’s our job to work ourselves out of a job, not that we’re trying to get rid of you at the church, but that God is calling you to serve with others.

Who is serving with you? Who is involved? You see, ministry is a partnership. Ministry is something that we do together as co laborers. Who have you walked up to and said, hey, I’m looking for some help.

Hey, would you pray about being a part of this ministry with me? Who’s gonna take your place? We’re not all gonna live forever, and we may desire that, but the point is, God is gonna call us home. And so we have to make sure that the next generation is ready. The Bible teaches us that the men are to train the younger men, and the older women are to teach and train the younger women.

And I know many times we’re looking for some special program, or we’re looking for the pastor to to commission us. But really, you don’t need any of that. You just need to be led of the spirit of God. And you need to engage people in the opportunities that are before them. Now church, we have a family’s responsibilities.

When you become a member of a church, you commit to one another. Often people will say to me, Pastor, why should I join a church? What’s the big difference? Who cares? Why should I be a member of a church?

And I always remind people that joining a church is an expression of your commitment to one another as the family of God. And when we join together, we are committing that we are gonna fulfill the one another’s in the bible. Very quickly, let me just relate to you, or share with you some of the family responsibilities that we have for one another. We are to serve one another. We’re to accept one another.

We’re to forgive one another. We’re to greet one another. We’re to bear one another’s burdens. We’re to be devoted to one another. We’re to honor one another.

We’re to teach one another. We’re to submit to one another. And we are to encourage one another. In my notes, I wrote down bible verses for each of those one anothers. And I want you to know that these are not things that the pastor is making up to just put more obligations on you, but this is what is in the scriptures.

When you say I’m a part of a church family, these are some of the one anothers that God is calling us to do. Now you might say, pastor, how do we do some of that? Because it seems like a lot of responsibility. Well, I want you to know first of all, that you can exercise those opportunities to minister the one anothers in your classes, your bible studies, your small groups, in the different programs of the church, or the different ministries of the church, or the activities of the church. These are opportunities when we come together that we can live out the one anothers that God is calling us to do.

Now you might ask, why? Why would we want to serve one another and serve with one another? Well, I want you to remember that the work that the apostle Paul is doing with his team here has eternal consequences. And the work that you are doing, the seeds that you’re planting, some of you are active in the preschool children’s ministry, the youth ministry. The seeds that you are planting into the hearts of those children have eternal consequences.

Some of you minister to the senior citizens, the shut ins, the widows, and I want you to know that the seeds that you are planting has eternal consequences. Some of you serve and minister to couples, to those who are grieving and struggling. You minister to those who are in the hospital. You minister to those who are in the nursing homes. And I want you to know that as you serve, that it has eternal consequences.

So don’t serve alone. Serve with one another. Train each other to keep on keeping on for Christ, and to keep the gospel going forward for Christ. So we’ve learned so far, and how do we love our church by encouraging each other. But we’ve also learned to serve with one another.

And the final thing that I wanna share, not that it encompasses everything on how to love, but what’s in our text, is that we’re to gather with one another. Now we come down to verse seven, and we note here that the scripture says, now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them. And he continued to his message until what, church? Midnight. Now I’m always fascinated with those who want to duplicate everything in the book of acts.

And I always say to them, you wanna duplicate every miracle and you wanna duplicate every amazing thing that is fascinating within the book of acts. But let me ask you, how many of you would like the church to duplicate to have a church service from Sunday morning all the way to midnight? The scriptures are not always designed that God is calling us to duplicate something. But here, what we see is simply that Luke is giving us a narrative of what actually took place on this particular Sunday. And they gathered with one another, and there were three things that they accomplished when they gathered together.

The first thing is that they were celebrating the Lord’s salvation and resurrection. You will note again that the scripture says that on the first day of the week, most of us see the first day of the week as Monday, but if you go back and look at your calendar, it’s Sunday. Sunday is the first day of the week. Why does the church gather on Sunday? Because we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and savior.

We are celebrating what Christ has accomplished for us. In that He gave His life on the cross and he was resurrected. Why is that significant? Because the resurrection hear me, church. The resurrection is God’s affirmation to all of us that he has accepted the sacrifice of Christ for our sins.

It’s not only that God is teaching us that there is life beyond the grave and that there is hope for tomorrow and that God has a future plan and that one day we’ll be together with our loved ones, but what he is teaching us that as God’s people, rather than under the old covenant meeting on the Sabbath, which was a Saturday, we are transitioning into the new covenant and we now are gathering together on Sunday to celebrate on the first day of the week, not giving God our leftovers, but giving him our best and coming together to celebrate what Christ has accomplished and the great salvation that he has provided each one of us. Now some are of the persuasion that this was really a man made tradition or that somehow that this was something that was done to try to distinguish Christianity from Judaism. But that’s not true. What is really true is that as we walk through the scriptures, particularly the new testament, that we see the church gathering on Sunday. And by the time we get to the book of Revelation chapter one verse 10, we see that the apostle John is now declaring that Sunday is the lord’s day.

It is the lord’s day. He refers to that right there in the passage, and so he is helping us to understand why we gather. We gather not just because there’s nothing else to do or not that we’re trying to earn points with god or that somehow we’re trying to have favor with God, but rather we come together to celebrate the Lord’s salvation and the resurrection. In a few weeks, we’ll be celebrating Easter, which is the celebration of the resurrection of Christ. But honestly, for us as believers, Easter is every Sunday.

It is every Sunday that we’re celebrating the resurrection. We see it as a great outreach to our community. We see it as a great opportunity to gather more to hear the wonderful and good news of Jesus Christ, but remember that you are coming on Sunday, the first day of the week, so that you can celebrate your salvation and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The bible tells us in Hebrews 10 verse 25 that we are to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. As the manner of some is.

But exhorting one another and so much the more, as you see the day approaching. Hear me out. There is much to be said about this, but look. He is teaching us an important principle. That it is to be a priority in our life.

To assemble ourselves together. To assemble ourselves and not to forsake that. And when you study it in its original language, it’s the idea of a habit. Some translations actually use the word habit. And in essence, he’s saying, don’t get out of the habit of coming together.

Don’t get out of the habit of gathering together with god’s people. And he goes on to tell us why. Why should we not get out of that habit? Well, because first, we’re called to exhort one another. The word exhort has the idea of building up.

Just like we were talking about earlier. That why do we gather? Well, we certainly celebrate the resurrection, but we want to encourage one another. We wanna build each other up. We don’t know what our brothers and sisters in Christ have been through.

We don’t know what they’re facing. And maybe our paths don’t always cross every day or even every week, but we want to come together so that we can bless somebody, so we can exhort someone, so we can build somebody up, so that we can continue to be an encouragement to them. And then he tells us so much the more as you see the day approaching. What day? The day of the return of our savior.

Now, church, if you can’t see the signs of the times, you’re just blind. You’re blind. And we live in troubled times. And it’s not the worst it’s ever been in the world because even the apostle faced many of these challenging times. But as we see things coming together, we know that the day is approaching.

And God is not calling us to meet less, but to meet more. So much the more. So much the more. And so maybe you’ve been just a person who gathers once a month or maybe you gather twice a month. Some of you have gotten out of the habit because of COVID.

You got out of the habit of gathering with God’s people. I wanna challenge you to commit your heart today to once again reengage and be faithful to the house of the Lord and be faithful together with God’s people so that you might not only celebrate what God has done in your heart and the wonderful resurrection of our savior, but that you might be here to be that person that encourages your brothers and your sisters in Christ to keep on keeping on for Jesus Christ. We cannot ignore the divine call to meet together, church. We just cannot ignore it. And you’ll note that he says in Hebrews, some do this.

Some do this. Some of our brothers and sisters do this, it’s our role to reach out to them, and there’s so much technology today. It’s not very hard to reach out to someone, but let them know that they’re missed, and let them know that we care about them. And if some of our brothers and sisters have gotten out of the habit, we want them back because in here, it’s not just about filling up seats, it’s really about encouraging one another, celebrating and being fed, and being encouraged and strengthened in our faith. What happens when I neglect the assembly of God’s people?

I become a vulnerable Christian. And I’m susceptible to all the temptations and the traps of the devil. As we have shared with you before, sometimes people say to me, pastor, I I really can’t remember even what you taught last Sunday. And I hear you. Sometimes I forget what I taught last Sunday.

That’s getting scary. But you know, I don’t always remember what I had for dinner last Sunday or Monday, or Tuesday. But I tell you when I was eating it, it was wonderful. And I want you to know that God was using it to nourish me. And you may not recall and remember every point that the pastor has, and you may not remember every detail of the worship service, but I’m telling you, through God’s people, through the means of grace, as he is pouring out his love and grace into your heart, God is ministering to you and he is feeding your soul.

He is nourishing your heart and he is insulating you from the temptations and the traps of the devil. There never was a day when our kids were growing up that we ever ever questioned were we going to church. I know you heard the story about the wife who was asking her husband if they were gonna go to church, and he didn’t wanna go to church and he was curled up in his bed and he didn’t wanna go to church. And she said, you have to go to church. And he said, why?

She said, because you’re the pastor. So I know you expect pastor Mike to be here. I understand that. But listen to me. I’m not here just because I’m the pastor.

Long before I was a pastor of any church, I was faithful because I needed the encouragement of God’s people. Because I needed the nourishment. And it’s just as much for me as it is for you when we come together, that we not only celebrate the Lord’s salvation and resurrection, but that we continue together. God never intended us for our lives to be lived in solitude or isolation, but he intended that we would come together and gather. And when we go to church as an assembly gathering, here’s what we are declaring by our presence, that we love God and that we love you, each other, as God’s people.

Very quickly, we also see that they were commemorating the Lord’s supper. The bible says in verse seven that they came together to break bread. Now, in the new testament, the early church again, it’s so interesting to me, but the early church, when they came together, they would have their worship service and then they would have a love feast or a big old meal after church. Then they would have the Lord’s supper together. That’s why we see in acts two verse 42 that it’s often referred that when they came together, they were breaking bread.

And then again, we see here in acts 20 verse seven that they’re breaking bread. It’s the idea that they were having this love feast that included the Lord’s supper, and that’s how they would conclude their Sunday together. Spending hours of fellowship and hours of eating and hours of just celebrating and commemorating what God has done. But I also want you to see that they were communicating the Lord’s scripture. We already mentioned to you that the bible says that Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them, and he continued his message until midnight.

How about that? Some of you are ready. I see the stirring. You’re already like, man, it’s we’re getting close. Getting close.

Don’t worry, I’m almost running out of notes. So you’re in good shape, okay? You’re in good shape. But here’s what I wanna say to you, is that the church gathered to hear God’s word taught to them, to learn and to grow together. And as they gathered together and as the apostle Paul was preaching, an amazing thing happened.

The message got so long that this guy who was sitting in the window, his name is Eutychus, you can go on and read it later this afternoon, but he fell out of the window. It reminds me of the time when I was an associate pastor of a church and the pastor was preaching and all of a sudden there was a commotion sudden there were several people grabbing this lady and dragging her out to the lobby, and the pastor didn’t quite know what to do so he said, let’s pray. And so then there were choir members back in those days, the choir used to be behind the pastor. And there were choir members jumping over the choir loft, going out there to help this lady. Unfortunately, the lady had passed away.

She had had a heart attack. And I always tease the pastor that his preaching put people to death. But that’s exactly what happened to Paul. This guy was his he was so long in his preaching that he fell out of the window and then he died there at the at the ground and Paul went down there and he did an amazing miracle and he raised Eutychus from the dead. Again, I know it’s our desire sometimes to want to replicate or duplicate what’s going on in the book of acts, but this was just again in all that I’ve taught you about the miracles is just a sign of God’s affirmation of the message that Paul was preaching and that he was God’s messenger.

But here’s what I do want you to see spiritually, is that when we come together, and we never know when there might be visitors or there might be unbelievers that are there, who are dead in their trespasses, and I wanna tell you that the power of the gospel is able to raise them up and to have new life in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the greatest miracle is not a physical. It is not a physical resurrection, but the greatest miracle is a spiritual resurrection when God brings new life to someone, a sinner, who calls on the name of the Lord for salvation. And you and I, when we come together, ought to be praying, Lord, if you send us anybody, we pray that today that the message and the love and the warmth of God’s people bring about a spiritual miracle in their heart and that many will be born again to trust the Lord as their seed. One of the things we see in this passage of scripture is Paul’s love for the church.

And he was very committed to seeing his converts to grow spiritually. His strategy was not just to win them, but he wanted to disciple them. And so one of the ways he does that is he continues to encourage the people of God. And so that’s what we’re called to do is we’re loving our church family. We need to encourage one another.

And so I wanna make sure you check out hopeworthaving.com, our website. And one of the things we’re doing is we’re featuring a different book each month. We have a bookstore and some different ways that you can learn and grow. So I hope you’ll check that out, and it’ll continue to help you to develop in your spiritual life. We just wanna thank you for being a part of this ministry, and we want to remind you that in Christ, there is hope worth having.

The post How to Love Your Church Family Part 2 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on How to Love Your Church Family Part 1. He will be reading out of Acts 20:1-16

If you want to love your church, don’t be the one man show, don’t be the lone ranger, don’t be the person who’s gonna do it all by themselves, but rather be the kind of person who is gonna serve with one another. Hello. This is pastor Mike Sanders. Welcome to Hope Worth Having radio program, and we are looking forward to sharing God’s word with you. And today, we’re gonna be in Acts chapter 20 verses one through 16, and I want us to learn about how to love your church family.

Isn’t that something? How to love your church family. I know it’ll be a blessing. So let’s get our bibles and let’s start learning together. If you have your Bibles this morning, let’s go to Acts chapter 20.

In Acts chapter 20, we’re gonna be in verses one through 16 and do our best to try to cover as much as we can. While you’re turning there, let me share a story with you about Elliot Huck. He was a 14 year old boy from Bloomington, Indiana, and he decided that he would skip the preliminaries to the national spelling bee. And though he had placed 40 out of more than 250 spellers in last year’s competition, and he was favored to go again, he felt convicted in his heart that he would stay home this time. More precisely, he felt convicted that he would stay in his church.

The Bloomington Herald Times championship was held on a Sunday. And in Huck’s eyes, the competition conflicted with his view of the biblical commandment to rest on the Sabbath. The paper writes that he said, I always try to glorify God with what I do in the spelling bee because he is the one who gave me the talent for spelling. He went on to say, now I think I’m going to not spell and to try to give glory to God in that. It certainly wasn’t an easy choice for Elliot Hock to choose to stay home.

He loved his time in Washington DC at last year’s competition, and he was looking forward to the same this year. But the expert Speller concluded, and I quote, I have just accepted that God knows what’s best and I’m just gonna do what he says. When we read the story of Elliot Huk, we certainly are impressed with his love for the Lord, but also uniquely his love for the church and how much he desired to be with God’s people. When we come to Acts chapter 20 in verses one through 16, we are introduced to the apostle Paul getting ready to head out of Ephesus. And he as well expresses and demonstrates how much he loves the church.

He is a model for us on how to love the church. Just a little bit of background, you see in verse one of chapter 20, that the uproar had ceased. You remember last week that there was a riot in Ephesus, because the impact of the gospel, the effect of the gospel upon the people’s lives, is that they were getting rid of their idols, and they were turning away from their sin, and totally following Christ. And this was such a dramatic change that it was influencing the economy in Ephesus. So much that they came together and started a riot, and the bible says in verse one, that after the uproar had ceased, that Paul called the disciples to himself.

We see in verse two that the bible says, Now when he had gone over that region, he encouraged them with many words and came to Greece. And verse three says, they stayed three months. And when the Jews plotted against him, as he was about to sail to Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia. So what we have here is the apostle is facing much opposition. He’s decided to leave Ephesus, because even though the riot had ceased, there was still turmoil, there was still trouble in the community.

And in an effort to try to calm things down for the local church that was in Ephesus, he desired that it was time for him to move on. You recall that he spent over three years in the city of Ephesus, helping this church to not only begin, but helping it to be established, to grow, to be organized, and to be effective in proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. But in his travels, he learns that there is a plot against him. To take his life. And so the apostle has to make some changes to his travel plans.

And so he calls together leaders, and he calls together the church, and he gets together with the disciples, and he teaches us just as we watch him unfold his affection, and his love for the church on how we can love our church. And when we refer to the church, we’re not talking about buildings, we’re not talking about technology, we’re not talking about property, and all the different things that are going on here at the Open Door Church. We’re talking about people. Because the church is people. It is God’s people.

The people who have been called out of the world into the marvelous gospel, the marvelous light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And how is it that we can love one another? How is it that we can love each other as a church family? The first thing that I want you to see is that we need to encourage one another. That we need to encourage one another.

Again, I take you back to verse one. We already talked about the circumstances, but I want you to see the phrase there in verse one where it says, that He called the disciples to Himself, and He embraced them. Then I want you to jump down to verse two, and notice again the bible says that He encouraged them with many words. What we see the apostle doing with the disciples, with the different believers, is that showing His love by encouraging them. How did He encourage them?

He showed affection by embracing them. And then he showed affection by encouraging them with his words. The apostle was committed to seeing those who had come to Christ. Converts who had believed in Christ, he was committed to their spiritual growth. His strategy was not simply just to win a bunch of people to Christ, and then leave them dangling into the winds of the doctrines of the worlds, or the philosophies of the worlds.

But rather to root them in the faith. And it was his determination that not only having established churches in the known world, and now he’s on his third missionary journey, but that he would go back to these particular churches, and that’s where we see Macedonia and Greece, and these particular areas that he is describing in verse one as he gives us his itinerary, and even the changes of his itinerary because of the plot that was against him. But his desire to go back to the people of God. His desire to go back to them and to encourage them and to help them to be strong in the faith. When we come down to verse two, and we again underscore that phrase that he encouraged them with many words.

It is the Greek word parakaleo, which means to exhort, or it’s the idea of comforting and encouraging, and giving consolation. So what he is teaching us here is that the apostle was a man, as Luke is describing this narrative of the apostle’s plans and his journey from leaving Ephesus, going back to the churches that had been already established, he helps us to see that the apostle’s desire is to come alongside and to pick up or to support or to encourage one another. And friends, we know that this word is also used in referring to the Holy Spirit. The Bible describes that when Jesus was communicating with the disciples about his departure into heaven, that he told them that he would send them a helper. And the Greek word is again, the idea of someone who would come alongside of us.

Someone who would come to encourage us and to strengthen us. I want you to know the great need that every time we come together as God’s people, how important it is for us to encourage one another. It’s easy to come to church and to be skeptical, or to be critical, or to find fault with this particular song, or maybe this particular ministry, or things aren’t done exactly the way that you would like them to be done. And what happens is we create a critical spirit, and we become negative people, and we start looking down, and we start spec finding, trying to find what’s wrong, when really what God calls us to do is to come together as a church family, and to love one another by encouraging each other. And to recognizing that everybody comes with different challenges in their life.

And that throughout the week, maybe we’ve all gone our different ways, and we’ve done our different things, and we have our roles and responsibilities, but then we come back together on Sunday. We don’t know what everybody’s been through, we don’t know what everybody is facing, but God calls us to be an encouragement. My challenge to you this morning is for you to desire every Sunday when you come, is to encourage one another, is to encourage God’s people, is to recognize that God is calling you to be a blessing. He is not calling you to drain people or to sap people of their energy, but rather to come alongside of them and to encourage them. If you’re the kind of person who has become negative in your spiritual walk, and maybe you kinda always are seeing everything, the glass half full, then I want you to know that God is calling you to be that kind of person who will repent of that, turn away from that negativity, and to embrace the spirit of encouragement in your heart.

And rather than seeing through people, and finding out what’s wrong with them or their faults in their life, I wanna encourage you to be the kind of believer, and the kind of member, and the kind of Christian that helps see people through their challenges, and their troubles, and their trials. That is the message that God has. That’s the kind of person that the apostle Paul was, is that he was a man who encouraged others. We’re called to simply encourage people in their walk towards heaven with the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you would begin every day with that mindset, if you would begin your day saying, Lord, you’ve blessed me so much and you’ve given me so much and I just wanna encourage and I just wanna bless others.

It is so unfortunate that the vocabulary of Christians is often void of terms such as build up, strengthen, and edify. But we’re reminded in Colossians four six, to let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each other. You see God is calling us to encourage one another. And when you think about that in relation to your own home, you think about that with your family, you think about it with your spouse or your children or your grandchildren or different people in your lives, We gotta remember that people cannot sustain a constant negativity in their life, it’s impossible for them. And you have to know that if you’re always finding fault with your spouse, that it’s going to create tremendous friction in your relationships.

And that if you’re always ragging on the kids, and if you’re always finding fault And I’m not saying things don’t need to be addressed, and things don’t need to be dealt with in helping your children to build their character and their strength in life. But I wanna tell you that a constant drip of that will eventually sever the relationship that you have with your children. And that you and I should use our words as the apostle did with many words. He encouraged them. Many words.

His words were words that spoke with grace. The bible tells us, let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth. But what is good for necessary edification that it may impart grace to the hearers. Think about that. What are people hearing out of your mouth?

What kind of words are they hearing from you? We think about the number of people in this world who have failed because of a lack of encouragement from people that they love and people that they respect. You say, well pastor, I was raised this way and my dad and mom never really encouraged me. Well so? That don’t make it right.

You and I have to be the people of change. And we, through the power of the spirit of God, have to let him use our lives to be an encouragement to one another. And not only within the church family, but within the context of our personal family. And in the context of even in our community, we want to be a people who speak kind words. Words of encouragement that may change the course of history, and may change the course, the life of somebody.

It is definite that when you encourage others, it does something in their hearts. The word encouragement has the idea of putting courage into the heart of someone. And you say, well, if you knew the people that I know, pastor, you would never encourage them. Well, I would say to you to ask God to help you to see the positive things in people And to begin to see the things and how God has created them in the image of God. If every time when you talk to your children, it’s negative, it’s pounding down on them, then it is no wonder that they don’t want a relationship with you.

I wanna challenge you to be that person who is encouraging one another. Listen to the words that Paul gave to the Thessalonians in chapter five and verse 11. Therefore, encourage one another. Build one another up just as you also are doing. Now some of you say, well pastor I’ve been trying to encourage everybody I can.

And praise the lord for you. It’s a blessing to have people like that in your life, amen? I always remind people, and I was taught this by a dear friend of mine, that you need three types of people in your life. And one, you need an apostle Paul, a mentor, someone who can help you and you can learn from, and somebody you can look up to. And number two, you need a Timothy’s, mentee.

Someone you can pour your life into. Someone you can help equip and train. But that third person was quite interesting to me. He said, You need a Barnabas, an encourager in your life. And we all need encouragers in our life.

We need someone who’s gonna always be cheering for us, supporting us. Not that anyone would want us to live a life of sin, or anyone would want us to fail, or to continue down a path that is destructive for our own lives. But we all need someone who is an encourager. And what you and I wanna pray about is God, how can I be an encouragement to people in my life? How can I be an encouragement to the body of Christ?

How can I be an encouragement to those who are in the family of God? Because a mark of genuine love for the church is a selfless commitment to being an encourager to others. I pray today that you will commit your heart to be more of an encourager and that even if you are already in this process and you embrace this mindset of being an encourager, that you will continue to seek more opportunities for God to give you to be one who encourages others. The second thing that I want you to see in this text is we begin to learn how to love our church family. It is not only to encourage one another, but it is to serve with one another.

I want you to look at verse four and five. Now, we have some best to go through them. But the bible says, and Sopitur of Berea accompanied him, meaning Paul, that Sopitur was with Paul, to Asia, also Aristarchus, and Secundus of the Thessalonians, and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy, and Tychicus, and Trophonus of Asia. These men going ahead waited for us at Troas. You say, pastor, how do you know how to pronounce those names?

I don’t. I just make it up like you do. But you don’t know them either and so anything I say sounds better than what you were thinking. But here’s what I want you to see is that there’s really eight people here that were on the apostle’s team. These were individuals who were serving with him on the third missionary journey.

Now I know that those of you that are detailed, you’re going through verse four, and you’ve only counted seven. And you’re saying, Well maybe the pastor, he’s got some issues and he really doesn’t know how to count. But the truth is, if you jump down to verse five, look what it says. These men going ahead waited for us. Well, who is the Us?

He’s talking about himself, Luke. Luke is the human author under the inspiration of God that would pen down the words of the book of acts and give us this narrative of how the early church function. And Luke is including himself and so he is that eighth person that is on this team. And what I want you to see here is that the apostle did not serve alone. We admire the apostle Paul and we certainly believe he was a great man of God.

And he was a very dedicated Christian committed to the cause of Christ and endured so much suffering so that the gospel may go to the regions beyond. But I want you to understand that he did not do it alone. There were others who served with him. The apostle reminds the Corinthians in first Corinthians three nine that we are God’s fellow workers. That is we are co laborers together in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

If you want to love your church, don’t be isolated. Don’t be the one man show. Don’t be the lone ranger. Don’t be the person who’s gonna do it all by themselves, but rather be the kind of person who is gonna serve with one another. The church is not to be a place where we just sit down and we just learn the Bible and then we leave.

No, God has not called us to just leave, but rather he’s called us to gather together, and we learn the word of God, we soak it up, but then we go out and serve. And I tell you that Christians that do not serve God, they will become very sour Christians. They’re always taking in, but they’re never giving out the height of your healing in any trouble and trial in your life is not to stay isolated from others. It’s not to sit on the couch and to have self pity, but rather it is to break out and to use the platform that God has given you to serve and minister to others. But when you minister to others, do not do it alone.

Do not serve by yourself. It marks a big step in your development when you come to realize that other people can help you do a better job than you could ever do alone. So many times I talk to Christians about this matter and they say to me, well pastor, honestly, if I just do it by myself, I know it’s gonna be done right. If I get other people involved pastor, then they’re gonna mess it all up. And you see, you got some issues there.

And it might be that you are the kind of person who is a micromanager and controlling, and everything has to be just perfect before you’ll be able to do any kind of ministry. But listen, There’s never going to be a perfect world or a perfect circumstance in which we can serve God. Many times in the scriptures, we see Jesus, we see the apostles, we see God’s people just spontaneously engaging in ministry with the circumstances and the situation they had. And maybe they didn’t have a lot of preparation, and maybe they didn’t have a lot of training, but they just jumped in and got the job done. And what I’m saying to you is that, yes, I understand maybe you could do it better and you’ve been doing it for twenty years and it’s been doing it your way and now you don’t wanna mess that up.

But let me ask you, what benefit are you to the church in that you are the only one that can do this ministry, or you’re the only one that can do this particular way of ministry? You see, friends, it’s very much like a mother who always picks up the clothes or the toys of the children. Yes moms, you can do that for a while, but are you really helping your child? Are you really helping your child? Are you helping your child to develop skills that are important for them?

Sometimes we can enable our children not to succeed. We enable our children not to move forward in life because we do everything for them, and they become so dependent upon us that they cannot function in life without us. I want you to know that it’s just like that in the church. How important it is for you to work yourself out of a job. I remember when I first came to the Open Door Church, many of you remember pastor Art Brown.

How many of you remember pastor Art Brown? He was a wonderful soul winner, a wonderful man of the Lord. He was an associate pastor here. And when I had my meeting with him, I told him that it was his job to work himself out of a job. And he said, Pastor Mike, are you trying to get rid of me?

I said, No. I’m not trying to get rid of you. I said, I want you to train others to do what you do, so you can do other things for the Lord. And you see, that’s the key. Is that God has called every one of us not to be isolated in our ministry, but to train others.

When I was a young man and I had answered the call to preach at the age of 16, and in that revival service, that preacher from Kansas gave an invitation, and I went forward and my pastor said, Mike, why did you come forward? And I told him why I came forward, and we prayed together, and we committed everything to the Lord, and when I got done praying, he said, Mike, a call to ministry is a call to preparation. And so he wanted to get me into bible college when I graduate from high school and all that. But here’s the one thing that was great about my pastor, and again, we’re talking about a very small church of about 50 people. But he would say, now Mike, you come with me.

We’re gonna go visit the hospital. Come with me, we’re gonna go check on this family. Come with me, we need to run some errands and take care of some things for the church. And what I loved about it is he was including me in serving with him. And so many times, I was learning, not by what was taught to me, but what was caught in this sense that I was just observing how He did ministry.

And so we have to remember that it’s our job to work ourselves out of a job, not that we’re trying to get rid of you at the church, but that God is calling you to serve with others. Who is serving with you? Who is involved? You see, ministry is a partnership. Ministry is something that we do together as co laborers.

Who have you walked up to and said, hey, I’m looking for some help. Hey, would you pray about being a part of this ministry with me? Who’s gonna take your place? We’re not all gonna live forever, and we may desire that, but the point is, God is gonna call us home. And so we have to make sure that the next generation is ready.

The Bible teaches us that the men are to train the the younger men, and the older women are to teach and train the younger women. And I know many times we’re looking for some special program, or we’re looking for the pastor to to commission us. But really, you don’t need any of that. You just need to be led of the spirit of God. And you need to engage people in the opportunities that are before them.

Now church, we have a family’s responsibilities. When you become a member of a church, you commit to one another. Often people will say to me, pastor, why should I join a church? What’s the big difference? Who cares?

Why should I be a member of a church? And I always remind people that joining a church is an expression of your commitment to one another as the family of God. And when we join together, we are committing that we are gonna fulfill the one another’s in the bible. Very quickly, let me just relate to you or share with you some of the family responsibilities that we have for one another. We are to serve one another.

We’re to accept one another. We’re to forgive one another. We’re to greet one another. We’re to bear one another’s burdens. We’re to be devoted to one another.

We’re to honor one another. We are to teach one another. We are to submit to one another. There’s no doubt that the apostle loved the church, and he loved the church because his savior loved the church. And the Bible teaches us that Jesus gave his life for the church.

And so we’re called to love one another as believers, and we need to be committed as believers to encourage each other and to make sure that we are helping our brothers and sisters in Christ to walk towards Christ and not away from Christ, that we need to make sure we’re building up and strengthening and edifying one another as we are to do in the faith. So that’s how we love one another. Just those simple things, a kind word, a word of encouragement, just listening and just trying to inspire each other and not giving up on each other. These are the small ways that you can make a big difference in your church. If you’re not plugged into a church, get plugged in and find you a good bible believing local church where you can honor Jesus Christ.

Well, I wanna encourage you to check us out on hopeworthhaving.com, and I want you to sign up for our daily devotions. We can send you a daily devotion through email, and each day, you can open that daily devotion, be encouraged and inspired in the word of God, and just be able to get ready for the day that God has for you. So don’t forget to sign up on hopeworthhaving.com, those daily devotions that’ll be a blessing to you. This is pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ, there is hope worth having.

The post How to Love Your Church Family Part 1 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Effects of the Gospel Part 2. He will be reading out of Acts 19:21-41

We need to get back to the gospel message because the gospel is not a moral code. The gospel is not a set of ethics. The gospel is not even religion, and the gospel is not some philosophy. The gospel is not a social program. Crucified, buried, resurrected, and ascended into heaven.

Hello. This is pastor Mike Sanders. Welcome to Hope Worth Having radio program. We’re looking forward to being able to share the word of God with you today, and And we’re gonna be in Acts chapter 19 continuing our study in the effects of the gospel, verse 21 through 41. And we’re grateful that God has not left us to ourselves or that he has become silent, but rather that he speaks, and he speaks directly to us through his word.

And so I want us to get our Bible and some pen and a paper, and let’s study together. You You say, well, pastor, I’m a stay at home mom, or I just stay home and work from the house or listen to me. God, we were talking about this in Sunday school, God has raised you up, moms, to reach those children with the gospel. God raises you up that your first mission field is not out there to the ends of the earth, but your first mission field is right in your home, reaching your children with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we think about what that might mean and what the impact of that may be in the heritage of your family, and the ripple effect upon your family that you would reach your own children with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We are called not to fight god’s plans and even his changes in our life, but we are called to fulfill them, and we are to finish the course that god has us on, that we may bring glory to his name. God is calling us to be alert to the changes of those plans. The apostle’s working in Ephesus, and he is sensing by the spirit, he needs to start journeying back to Rome. He needs to get back to Rome because God is calling him to reach somebody new. And I don’t know what changes are going on in your life.

And I don’t know all the details, but I know someone who does. His name is Jesus. And maybe you don’t like closing chapters, and maybe you don’t like starting new chapters and new seasons in your life, but if God is closing one door, you be assured that he is opening another door for you to make impact upon the world for Jesus Christ. I’m telling you church that the only thing that’s gonna save this country is Jesus. You might as well come to grips with it.

And the only way that we’re gonna get this gospel message out is one by one telling people about the lord Jesus Christ. Now as we see the effects of the gospel, it not only changes our plans, but it changes our priorities. So we come to verse 23, and I want you to read along with me as we see this text. So the Bible says, so he sent into Macedonia. And about that time, there arose a great commotion about the way.

Remember that we’ve talked about the way in several passages of scripture because Jesus said, I am the way. Referring to himself, he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the father. Listen, you don’t get to heaven by religion, and you don’t get to heaven by baptism, and you don’t get to heaven by church membership, and you don’t get to heaven because you read your bible. All those things by the way are great and good. And they’re good disciplines to help you to grow in your faith, but in the initiation of you coming to God, it must be by faith through Jesus Christ.

You must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so I had this young man tell me one time that he was going to heaven because he went to church. And no matter how many times I tried to explain to him that you don’t go to heaven by going to church, because the bible says for by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. He could not digest it.

He could not comprehend it, and I hate that. I hate that to this day, most likely, he still believes that he is working his way to heaven. You’re not gonna work your way to heaven, friends. You must come to the Lord Jesus Christ and you must give your life to him. You must surrender to him.

You must acknowledge that you’re a sinner and you must believe upon the lord Jesus Christ as your savior and you must call upon his name. And apart from this, my friends, you’ll split hell wide open. And that may bother you that pastor Mike would say that. But I want you to note in this text here that in verse 23 that there was a commotion about the way. You think anybody’s gonna get upset if the pastor got up and said or the apostle Paul said there’s many roads that lead to heaven?

Do you think if the apostle taught that, hey. It’s okay. You be you and you’ll get to heaven eventually doing it your way. Well, that wouldn’t cause any commotion. I mean, why are the people so upset?

Because the apostle stood up and said there’s only one way, and that is through Jesus Christ. Do you understand that, church? There’s only one way and you must teach it to your children, you must teach it to your grandchildren, you must teach it to every person that you come into contact with. And the reason these people were all so upset is because of this message about the way being Jesus. Verse 24.

For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Diana. This was the temple goddess Diana brought no small profit to the craftsmen. Meaning, they made these little idols that pointed people to the big idol, which was Diana and the big temple where they worship the false god of Diana. And so this made them a lot of money, these silversmiths, these individuals who put these little idols together. Verse 25, he called them together with the workers of similar occupation.

And he said, men, you know that we have our prosperity by this trade. Moreover, you see and hear that not only at Ephesus, but throughout almost all Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away many people saying that there are not gods which are made with hands. I love this. I mean, the apostle is guilty of attacking the false idols of this world, and he is guilty of proclaiming the name of Jesus Christ. He is guilty of lifting up the one and only true god that supersedes any idol in this world.

People are responding and coming to Christ and they’re throwing away their idols. And it’s such a big impact. Are you hearing me? It’s such a big impact that it’s affecting the business, the money. Now hang in there with me.

Verse 27. So not only is this trade of ours in danger of falling into disrepute, but also the temple of the great goddess Diana may be despised and her magnificence destroyed whom all Asia and the world worship. Wow. I love this. Here’s what the gospel does.

It changes your priorities. When you’re an unbeliever and a sinner and you come to the lord Jesus Christ and you give your life fully and freely to him and you receive him as your lord and savior, your priorities change. All those idols in your life, you say, well, pastor, we don’t have any metal idols in our homes. Listen to me. We may not have metal idols, but we may have mental idols.

Are you with me? Things that are more important to us than Jesus. Things that are more important to us than our love for God. And it could be sports. It could be friends.

It could be money making. It could be our careers. It can be whatever you wanna make it to be. Listen, anything can be an idol in your life, but when you come to Christ, you set aside those idols and you make Jesus number one in your life. In the Roman world, idol worship was always connected to the local economy, and it was a big business that people used to profit off of.

And Ephesus was the home of the great goddess Diana, and the temple of Diana resided there, and it was the very foundation of the economic system of Ephesus. And so here’s what’s happening. Paul’s preaching is messing that up. Paul’s preaching is messing that up. Wouldn’t you love it that if the gospel would spread so much that all the bars in Chambersburg would shut down?

Wouldn’t you love it that all the idolatry of people living for themselves and all the idolatry that is used in this world to make money and to profit off people would be shut down and people would love God, live for Christ, and they would wanna honor God every day in their life? Now do you think that even in America that wouldn’t upset people? Because when you start hitting the pocketbook, they’ll tolerate Christians as long as you don’t hit the pocketbook, as long as you don’t start affecting how we make our money. What I wanna say to you this morning, church, is we have to make sure that first of all, in our own lives, the gospel is changing our priorities. And that every day, we are in this battle with the flesh, the world, and the devil that wants us to put other things, other stuff, even other people, other politicians ahead of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

There is nothing more important to you than your relationship with Christ. Your life is about relationships. You can’t get relationships right, you can’t get anything right in your life. And that’s why it begins with your relationship with Jesus. That is the priority relationship in your life.

And then we are called to not only love God, but we’re called to love people. And that’s the effect of the gospel on us is that we’re no longer living for self, but we live for Christ, and it influences us to love others even though they are unlovable sometimes and even though they are difficult sometimes and even though they sometimes misunderstand us, we are called to make the gospel of Jesus Christ a priority in our own life and it affects the way we live our lives. The people in Ephesus want nothing to do with the gospel. They have rejected it because it’s messing up their idolatry. Now church, we have to be careful that we don’t let other messages take over the gospel message.

Sometimes as believers, we wanna get on these side tracks and we wanna follow these other messages thinking that they’re wholesome and they’re good, and yet we forget that the one message that changes lives is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our message is not social reform. Our message is not that somehow we can change the world politically. Our message is the message of spiritual reconciliation that is found in Jesus Christ, And that the true change that’s gonna come in your life is not gonna be through some step program, but it’s gonna come through a relationship with our lord and savior Jesus Christ. You see, our message is not even behavior modification.

We’re not trying to get you to act better on the outside. What we’re trying to do is to change your life on the inside, that you would become a person that is truly surrendered to Jesus Christ. We talked about the effects of the gospel. It affects our plans on what we’re gonna do because it’s all about Jesus. It affects our priorities because it’s all about Jesus.

But I want you to see, thirdly, that it changes our purpose. It changes our purpose. Look at verse 28. We pick up now. They’re they’re all upset.

And the bible says in verse 28, now when they heard this, they were full of wrath, and they cried out saying, great is Diana of the Ephesians. So the whole city was filled with confusion and rushed into the theater with one accord. According to archaeologists, this theater held over 12,000 people, so we can assume that certainly 10 to 12,000 people were in this theater. They were all united together and having seized Gaius and Aristocris, Macedonians, Paul’s travel companions. And when Paul wanted to go into the people, the disciples would not allow him because they’re upset.

The riot has happened. They’re all upset and they’re yelling and screaming in this theater. And Paul’s like, hey. I’ll go in there and I’ll tell them the truth. And they’re like, Paul, you go in there, buddy.

You’re not coming out alive. And so verse 31 says, then some of the officials of Asia who were his friends sent to him pleading that he would not venture into the theater. Some therefore cried one thing and some another, for the assembly was confused and most of them did not know why they had come together. They didn’t even know what their purpose was. They just got caught up in the the rally.

They just got caught up in the riot. They just got caught up in the protest. They just got caught up in the emotion of what’s going on. They don’t even know what’s really going on, but here they go all riled up, all worked up emotionally, like they’re gonna do something. Verse 33, the Bible says they drew Alexander out of a multitude, the Jews putting him forward.

And Alexander motioned with his hand and wanted to make his defense to the people. But when they found out that he was a Jew, all with one voice cried out for about two hours. How long is this rally? Two hours. How long is this riot?

Two hours. Great is Diana of the Ephesians. Two hours repetitively crying out, great is Diana of the Ephesians. And when the city clerk had quieted the crowd, he said, men of Ephesus, what man is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple guardian and of the great goddess Diana and of the image which fell down from Zeus? Therefore, since these things cannot be denied, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rashly.

For you have brought these men here who are neither robbers of temples nor blasphemers of your goddess. Therefore, if Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen have a case against anyone, the courts are open and there are procouncils. Councils. Let them bring charges against one another. But if you have any other inquiry, to make it shall be determined in the lawful assembly.

For we are in danger of being called into question for today’s uproar. There’s being no reason which we may give to account for this disorderly gathering. And when he had said these things, he dismissed he dismissed the assembly. Now friends, what I want you to see here is that through emotion and through what I would call a patriotic appeal of Ephesus and their money making machine, the crowd was stirred up. But the Bible tells us in verse 36 and all the way through 41 that finally someone in the midst of this chaos, in the midst of this confusion, stood up and said, from a secular viewpoint, what are you doing?

If you guys keep this mess up, you’re gonna cause us to lose our own ability to govern ourselves. And so we persuaded them to calm down, and if you’ve got an issue with somebody, take it through the courts. Take it through the court system rather than taking matters into your own hand. Now here’s what I want you to understand. These people didn’t even know half the time what they were rallying about.

They didn’t understand what the riot was about. They didn’t even know what their purpose was. And I wanna say to you, church, this morning that you need to be careful getting caught up into these riots and getting caught up into these rallies and getting caught up into these protests that are constantly being put before us, and we need to understand that as believers, this is not our purpose. That our purpose is to reach people with the gospel, that politicians are not our enemies, they are our mission field. And I understand it upsets you, and I understand you don’t like that, but the apostle Paul was not interested in being a part of some rally or some riot or some protest.

He was interested in sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. His purpose was not that he could get somebody elected, or his purpose was not that he could accomplish some kind of a protest, but rather his purpose was to spread the gospel of the lord Jesus Christ. And you gotta keep your eye on the ball. You gotta stay on mission for Jesus Christ. And friends, I want you to be careful that you do not get worked up.

We know this week there’s gonna be a lot of political turmoil. And some of you already know, some of you don’t know. You might wanna check it out. But whatever it is, our message is the gospel of Jesus Christ. We don’t wanna get worked up.

I remember I remember back then when they were saying, hey, let’s all go down to DC, Pastor Mike. Get us a bus and let’s all go down there, pastor Mike. And I said, listen. I don’t do riots, and I don’t do protests. We’re not doing that.

I remember during COVID, people were calling me up and saying, pastor Mike, would you speak at our protest? And I said, I don’t do protests. I mean, I’m not honestly, I’m not your guy. I mean, if you were smarter, you’d get somebody else. I’d wanna get up there and I’m just gonna tell everybody how to get saved.

And I’m gonna really mess them up because I’m gonna teach them the gospel of Jesus Christ and people got upset at me. How come you won’t get a bus and how come you won’t join the riot or the rally downtown? Because I’m not gonna let some foolish politician lead me down a rabbit hole that has nothing to do with my purpose on why I came to Chambersburg. Amen? Yeah.

Alright. Work it out. Work it out. Now you may have a different reason that you’re here. Alright?

And you have to settle that with God. But I did not give my life at the age of 16 to the ministry of the gospel of Jesus Christ in Stillwater, Oklahoma at a small altar to come and protest. I gave my life to share Jesus and the gospel with every person. I have full confidence that God is sovereign. Some of the reasons we have bad political leaders is because God is judging this nation, and you need to acknowledge that.

The world’s in a mess because people are not following Christ, and we need to get back to the gospel message because the gospel is not a moral code, set of ethics, the gospel is not even religion, and the gospel is not some philosophy, the gospel is not a social program, the gospel is not a new law, the gospel is Jesus crucified, buried, resurrected, and ascended into heaven. That is the gospel message. You say, where do you get this, pastor Mike? First Corinthians 15, we’re taught what the gospel is. And I wanna challenge you, church, remember your purpose because the gospel changes your purpose.

The gospel changes why you are here. The apostle Paul would later say to this church that he would establish in Romans one verse 16, I’m not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it is the power of God and the salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. The gospel is universal in its outreach, and we are called to take this gospel. We cannot be confused.

We cannot get off message. There is only one message on the planet that has the power to change lives and to defy death. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is that Jesus died on a cross and that he rose again three days, and for every person who believes in him, they can be set free from the bondage of their sin. It is this message that not only defies the bondage of sin upon us, but defies the grip of death upon us.

In that one day, we know that when we die and leave this world, that we have a heavenly home with Jesus Christ because Jesus rose again, not only to affirm that God had accepted his sacrifice for the sins of the world, but that Jesus Christ reminds us that there is life for every believer beyond the gray. Our hope is not in the White House, in politics, and your favorite politician. You are not called to protest, church. You are called to share the gospel. You are to understand the effects of the gospel.

The world riots. The world protests. But God’s people live peaceful and quiet lives and share the gospel with every person that they can because we understand the impact and influence. There are over 300 people groups just in our nation. Just in our own nation, different ethnicities and people groups.

And how many of those need to hear the gospel? The gospel transcends all boundaries. Jesus taught us this. Hang on to this, church. Before you jump on your phone and start checking out on me, I want you to hear what I gotta say.

I specifically want you to hear what Jesus says. Matthew twenty four fourteen, and this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations and then and then shall the end come. Is it the end tomorrow? Is it the end Tuesday? The end will not come until the gospel is preached to every people group.

The word nation means ethnicity. Until every ethnic group hears the gospel in America as well as the world. You say, I would like the end to come. I would like for Jesus to come and establish his kingdom on this world. It is not coming until the gospel is preached to the end.

I didn’t say it, Jesus did. If you got a bone to pick, if it messes up your eschatology and if it messes up how you see your theology, I want you to go have a fuss with Jesus this afternoon. But this is what Jesus says and you say, I would like to see the world changed. Let me tell you something, church. The world will only be changed through the gospel And it is our job to make sure that we are witnesses unto all nations and then the end will come.

As believers, we must be faithful. We must be faithful in our witness and our proclamation of the gospel. We must be faithful and determined in our allegiance to Jesus Christ. Even if we face conflict, even if we face opposition, and hear me, church, even if we face injustice in this world, it’s shocking to me that the world hasn’t already done more injustice than already we see. We do not deny that there are injustices.

We do not deny that things are not always unfolding as they should, but we don’t see the solution in a protest. We see the solution in sharing the gospel one person at a time. The effects of the gospel will change people’s lives. The effects of the gospel will upset those who reject it. The effects of the gospel, why it’ll bring the end of this world.

And the transition to the kingdom of Christ physically on this world. You wanna see true justice? You wanna see righteousness reigning through the world? You wanna see life to be fair? Let me tell you the answer.

Go tell more people about Jesus Christ. Because when the gospel goes to every person, that’s when the end will come. The gospel of Jesus Christ is powerful, and it’s just amazing how the Lord can turn someone’s life around so dramatically. And so we hope that you realize the effects of the gospel on your own heart. And I wanna remind you that we need to keep teaching and preaching ourselves the gospel.

And the reason is is because it’s easy for us to slip into that moralism or that legalism where we think by what we do, we’re marrying favor with God. But know as we remind ourselves of the good gospel that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. That is what impacts our life, and that’s where we find grace and forgiveness and the joy that is found as we walk with the Lord. Well, I wanna encourage you to make sure that you are keeping up with the Hopeworth Having ministry, and you can always do that by checking us out on YouTube. And you can get some daily devotions, sermons, as well as little clips of us just teaching the word of God.

So as little or as much as you need for your walk with the Lord in helping you to grow in your faith. So take advantage of that and check us out on YouTube, hope worth having. This is pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ, there is is hope worth having.

The post The Effects of the Gospel Part 2 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Effects of the Gospel Part 1. He will be reading out of Acts 19:21-41

Your first mission field is not out there, but is right in your home reaching your children with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we think about what the impact of that may be in the heritage of your family, that you would reach your own children with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Hello. This is pastor Mike Sanders, and you are listening to Hopeworth Having radio program. And we are delighted to have you with us today, and we hope that God’s word is a blessing to you because our goal is to teach the Bible verse by verse, chapter by chapter, and to help reach the lost.

So we’re gonna be in Acts chapter 19 today, verse 21 through 41, and we want to share God’s word and learn about the effects of the gospel. What are the effects of the gospel? So I hope you’ll take your bibles and join me as we study together. If you have your bible this morning, I want you to join me in Acts chapter 19. We’re gonna talk about the effects of the gospel upon our lives.

When you think about the good news, that’s literally the definition of the gospel. But when you think about the good news of salvation and how wonderful it is, it’s really hard to understand why anyone would reject the gospel of Jesus Christ. The apostle Peter preached in Acts 10 that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. We live in a world where people are still under the bondage of their sin. And they deal with the guilt of their sin every day.

They try different things to pacify that guilt, or subsided in their minds, in their hearts. But the real answer is the gospel of Jesus Christ. As we contemplate the thought that there are those who do not believe, that there are those who do not receive Christ as their lord, we wonder who would turn down eternal life for eternal punishment? Who would turn down heaven for hell? Who would refuse everlasting peace and joy for misery and pain?

Unfortunately, there are many that have. Jesus reminds us in Matthew seven fourteen, because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, there are few who find it. It’s not difficult in the sense that it requires a lot of labor on our part to receive Christ. It’s not difficult in the sense that it is an almost impossible situation. But rather it is difficult because we deal with the world and the flesh that is always calling us to live for self.

And to be a follower of Christ and to believe in Jesus, there are few who find it because they have to be willing to die to self and receive Jesus Christ as lord and savior. When we come to our text this morning in Acts chapter 19, we see the effects of the gospel. If you recall, the apostle Paul has been spending time in Ephesus. And in this section of passage of the scripture, he has been there nearly three years. He has established a local bible believing church.

Several people have come to Christ. The church is growing and thriving for the Lord. But his time in Ephesus is coming to an end. Remember the apostle was not so much a pastor as much as he was a church planter. And God had called him to be that pioneer to go into communities and into cities and to plow out a bible believing church.

And so it’s very unusual that Paul would spend so much time in one particular city and share the gospel so much. But what’s interesting as he comes to the end of his time in Ephesus, that it ends with a riot. It ends with the people becoming very upset with him. Not those who believe in Christ, but those who do not believe in Christ. You would think after three years of ministry that there would be many that would be grateful for the ministry of the apostle, but they are not.

And what we see in our passage today is the dramatic impact of God’s work, God’s truth, God’s gospel upon not only those who believe in him, but those who do not believe in him. The ministry of the gospel that the apostle Paul declared to the people at Ephesus had become very upsetting to those who had rejected it. And the total impact of this ministry upon the business world and the religious world in Ephesus had caused the city to demand that Paul be held accountable. Because he was impacting his message was literally impacting their livelihood. So as you are taking notes this morning, I want us to learn the effects of the gospel in our own lives, as we see it unfold in the life of the apostle Paul.

First of all, is that it always changes our plans. Look at verse 21 through 22. When these things were accomplished, the Apostle Paul purposed in the spirit when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia to go to Jerusalem saying, after I have been there, I must also see Rome. So he sent into Macedonia Two of those who ministered to him, Timothy and Erastus, but he himself stayed in Asia for a time. Now the apostle was intending to return to the places where he had already been.

Remember that we’re in the third missionary journey of the apostle, That he has already established churches in many cities and communities. That there are many who have already believed in Christ and so he wants to go back, make sure they’re doing okay, and to assist them in any way that he can. Not long stays, but he’ll go back and encourage the believers. That is his goal, but he says to them, you’ll see there in verse 21 that after I have been there, I must also see Rome. The apostle realized that his plans needed to change because of the gospel.

That he could not stay in Ephesus, and he could not stay where he had already been for a long period of time. He needed to get to Rome. Now why would he need to get to Rome? Because it was a strategic city. It was the hub of the Roman Empire.

It was in Rome that the apostle would establish a church, and it would have a profound impact upon the Roman Empire, which then would take the gospel even farther and wider to more people in the world. He recognized that the church in Rome would have a worldwide impact. And so the apostle is grasping this, the spirit of God is giving him the wisdom and the leadership, the guidance, that in order for him to have a worldwide ministry, he needs to get the gospel to Rome. And I think about that in our own lives. I don’t want you to worry.

I’m not saying that you need to pack up and go to Rome. I don’t want you to think in any way. But if you need to go to Rome, I’m cool with that. As long as you’re going to take the gospel of Jesus Christ. But even in our own life, we recognize that we all have a course to run.

That we all have a course that is mapped out by God himself for each of our life. Your life is not a quinky dink, and your life is not just by accident or even luck or some kind of man made philosophical fate that you are somehow living out. But God has purpose in your life. And God has plans for your life. And God wants to use each and every one of us for his glory.

And that when it comes to the gospel of Jesus Christ, that we recognize that God may change our plans day to day, hour by hour, literally moment by moment that we are open to the leadership of the spirit of God in our hearts, that we may be ready to share the gospel with one more person. D. L. Moody said this, if they will not come to us, we have to go to them because this is the spirit of the gospel. The gospel is not something we hold on to and say, man, we love it, we are enjoying it, we are grateful for it, but yet we do not share it.

We’re not doing well when we are just holding on to the gospel for ourselves, but we are called to recognize that God puts people in our life for a reason. The psalmist said this in Psalm 37 that the steps of a good man are ordered by the lord and he delights in his way. Have you thought about that? Have you thought about it? I know some of you already have your to do list for next week.

Maybe some of you not even sure what you’re gonna do after church, but a lot of people, they’re already organized what’s coming up for the next week. And that’s all good and wonderful, but you gotta make sure that you’re letting your steps be ordered by God and not by your selfish desires. And even as believers and followers of Christ, we can get so wrapped up in what we wanna do that we forget why God has us where he has us. And we forget why God puts us in positions of where we are. You might think, man I got this wonderful job and they pay me a wonderful salary and they do some wonderful things for me and God has me here to make money.

But I’m here to tell you as a believer, it’s totally different. The money is just a sideshow. It’s just the gravy on top of the mashed potatoes. It’s just the whipped cream on top of the ice cream. Amen?

You guys like whipped cream or am I the only one? We like a little cherry on top. Amen? But here’s the thing, why does God have you where he has you? To tell people about Jesus.

You say, well, pastor, I’m a stay at home mom, or I just stay home and work from the house or listen to me. God, we were talking about this in Sunday school, God has raised you up, moms, to reach those children with the gospel. God raises you up that your first mission field is not out there to the ends of the earth, but your first mission field is right in your home, reaching your children with the gospel heritage of your family. And the ripple effect upon your family that you would reach your own children with the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are called not to fight God’s plans and even his changes in our life, but we are called to fulfill them, and we are to finish the course that God has us on, that we may bring glory to his name.

God is calling us to be alert to the changes of those plans. The apostles working in Ephesus and he is sensing by the spirit, he needs to start journeying back to Rome. He needs to get back to Rome because God is calling him to reach somebody new. And I don’t know what changes are going on in your life. And I don’t know all the details, but I know someone who does.

His name is Jesus. And maybe you don’t like closing chapters and maybe you don’t like starting new chapters and new seasons in your life, but if God is closing one door, you be assured that he is opening another door for you to make impact upon the world for Jesus Christ. I’m telling you church, that the only thing that’s gonna save this country is Jesus. You might as well come to grips with it. And the only way that we’re gonna get this gospel message out is one by one telling people about the lord Jesus Christ.

Now as we see the effects of the gospel, it not only changes our plans, but it changes our priorities. So we come to verse 23, and I want you to read along with me as we see this text. So the bible says, so he sent into Macedonia, and about that time, there arose a great commotion about the way. Remember that we’ve talked about the way in several passages of scripture because Jesus said, I am the way. Referring to himself, he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the father.

Listen. You don’t get to heaven by religion, and you don’t get to heaven by baptism, and you don’t get to heaven by church membership, and you don’t get to heaven because you read your Bible. All those things by the way are great and good. And they’re good disciplines to help you to grow in your faith, but in the initiation of you coming to God, it must be by faith through Jesus Christ. You must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so I had this young man tell me one time that he was going to heaven because he went to church. And no matter how many times I tried to explain to him that you don’t go to heaven by going to church because the bible says, for by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. He could not digest it. He could not comprehend it, and I hate that.

I hate that to this day, most likely, he still believes that he is working his way to heaven. You’re not gonna work your way to heaven, friends. You must come to the Lord Jesus Christ, and you must give your life to him. You must surrender to him. You must acknowledge that you’re a sinner, and you must believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior and you must call upon his name.

And apart from this, my friends, you’ll split hell wide open. And that may bother you that pastor Mike would say that. But I want you to note in this text here that in verse 23 that there was a commotion about the way. Do you think anybody’s gonna get upset if the pastor got up and said or the apostle Paul said there’s many roads that lead to heaven? Do you think if the apostle taught that, hey, it’s okay.

You be you and you’ll get to heaven eventually doing it your way. Well, that wouldn’t cause any commotion. I mean, why are the people so upset? Because the apostle stood up and said there’s only one way, and that is through Jesus Christ. Do you understand that, church?

There’s only one way. And you must teach it to your children. You must teach it to your grandchildren. You must teach it to every person that you come into contact with. And the reason these people were all so upset is because of this message about the way being Jesus.

Verse 24. For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Diana. This was the temple goddess Diana brought no small profit to the craftsmen, meaning they made these little idols that pointed people to the big idol, which was Diana, and the big temple where they worship the false god of Diana. And so this made them a lot of money, these silversmiths, these individuals who put these little idols together, verse 25, he called them together with the workers of similar occupation. And he said, men, you know that we have our prosperity by this trade.

Moreover, you see and hear that not only at Ephesus, but throughout almost all Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away many people saying that there are not gods, which are made with hands. I love this. I mean, the apostle is guilty of attacking the false idols of this world, and he is guilty of proclaiming the name of Jesus Christ. He is guilty of lifting up the one and only true God that supersedes any idol in this world. People are responding and coming to Christ and they’re throwing away their idols.

And it’s such a big impact. Are you hearing me? It’s such a big impact that it’s affecting the business, the money. Now hang in there with me. Verse 27.

So not only is this trade of ours in danger of falling into disrepute, but also the temple of the great goddess Diana may be despised and her magnificence destroyed whom all Asia and the world worship. Wow. I love this. Here’s what the gospel does. It changes your priorities.

When you’re an unbeliever and a sinner and you come to the Lord Jesus Christ and you give your life fully and freely to Him and you receive Him as your Lord and savior, your priorities change. All those idols in your life, you say, well, pastor, we don’t have any metal idols in our homes. Listen to me. We may not have metal idols, but we may have mental idols. Are you with me?

Things that are more important to us than Jesus. Things that are more important to us than our love for God, and it could be sports, it could be friends, it could be money making, it could be our careers, it can be whatever you wanna make it to be. Listen, anything can be an idol in your life. But when you come to Christ, you set aside those idols and you make Jesus number one in your life. In the Roman world, idol worship was always connected to the local economy.

And it was a big business that people used to profit off of. And Ephesus was the home of the great goddess Diana, and the temple of Diana resided there, and it was the very foundation of the economic system of Ephesus. And so here’s what’s happening, Paul’s preaching is messing that up. Paul’s preaching is messing that up. Wouldn’t you love it that if the gospel would spread so much that all the bars in Chambersburg would shut down?

Wouldn’t you love it that all the idolatry of people living for them selves and all the idolatry that is used in this world to make money and to profit off people would be shut down and people would love God, live for Christ, and they would wanna honor God every day in their life? Now do you think that even in America, that wouldn’t upset people? Because when you start hitting the pocketbook, they’ll tolerate Christians as long as you don’t hit the pocketbook. As long as you don’t start affecting how we make our money. What I wanna say to you this morning, church, is we have to make sure that first of all, in our own lives, the gospel is changing our priorities.

And that every day, we are in this battle with the flesh, the world, and the devil that wants us to put other things, other stuff, even other people, other politicians ahead of the gospel of Jesus Christ. There is nothing more important to you than your relationship with Christ. Your life is about relationships. You can’t get relationships right, you can’t get anything right in your life, and that’s why it begins with your relationship with Jesus. That is the priority relationship in your life.

And then we are called to not only love God, but we’re called to love people. And that’s the effect of the gospel on us is that we’re no longer living for self, but we live for Christ and it influences us to love others even though they are unlovable sometimes. And even though they are difficult sometimes, and even though they sometimes misunderstand us, we are called to make the gospel of Jesus Christ a priority in our own life and it affects the way we live our lives. The people in Ephesus want nothing to do with the gospel. They have rejected it because it’s messing up their idolatry.

Now, church, we have to be careful that we don’t let other messages take over the gospel message. Sometimes as believers, we wanna get on these sidetracks and we wanna follow these other messages thinking that they’re wholesome and they’re good, and yet we forget that the one message that changes lives is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our message is not social reform. Our message is not that somehow we can change the world politically. Our message is the message of spiritual reconciliation that is found in Jesus Christ, and that the true change that’s gonna come in your life is not gonna be through some step program, but it’s gonna come through a relationship with our lord and savior Jesus Christ.

You see, our message is not even behavior modification. We’re not trying to get you to act better on the outside. What we’re trying to do is to change your life on the inside, that you would become a person that is truly surrendered to Jesus Christ. We talked about the effects of the gospel. It affects our plans on what we’re gonna do because it’s all about Jesus.

It affects our priorities because it’s all about Jesus. But I want you to see, thirdly, that it changes our purpose. It changes our purpose. Look at verse 28. We pick up now.

They’re they’re all upset, and the bible says in verse 28, now when they heard this, they were full of wrath, and they cried out saying, great is Diana of the Ephesians. So the whole city was filled with confusion and rushed into the theater with one accord. According to archaeologists, this theater held over 12,000 people, so we can assume that certainly 10 to 12,000 people were in this theater. They were all united together and having seized Gaius and Aristocris, Macedonians, Paul’s travel companions. And when Paul wanted to go into the people, the disciples would not allow him because they’re upset.

The riot has happened. They’re all upset, and they’re yelling and screaming in this theater. And Paul’s like, hey. I’ll go in there and I’ll tell them the truth. And they’re like, Paul, you go in there, buddy.

You’re not coming out alive. And so verse 31 says, then some of the officials of Asia who were his friends sent to him pleading that he would not venture into the theater. Some therefore cried one thing and some another, for the assembly was confused and most of them did not know why they had come together. They didn’t even know what their purpose was. They just got caught up in the the rally.

They just got caught up in the riot. They just got caught up in the protest. They just got caught up in the emotion of what’s going on. They don’t even know what’s really going on, but here they go, all riled up, all worked up emotionally, like they’re gonna do something. Verse 33, the Bible says they drew Alexander out of a multitude, the Jews putting him forward, and Alexander motioned with his hand and wanted to make his defense to the people.

But when they found out that he was a Jew, all with one voice cried out for about two hours. How long is this rally? Two hours. How long is this riot? Two hours.

Great is Diana of the Ephesians. Two hours repetitively crying out, great is Diana of the Ephesians. And when the city clerk had quieted the crowd, he said, men of Ephesus, what man is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple guardian and of the great goddess Diana and of the image which fell down from Zeus? Therefore, since these things cannot be denied, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rashly. For you have brought these men here who are neither robbers of temples nor blasphemers of your goddess.

Therefore, if Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen have a case against anyone, the courts are open and there are procouncils. Councils. Let them bring charges against one another. But if you have any other inquiry, to make it shall be determined in the lawful assembly. For we are in danger of being called into question for today’s uproar.

There’s being no reason which we may give to account for this disorderly gathering. And when he had said these things, he dismissed he dismissed the assembly. Now friends, what I want you to see here is that through emotion, and through what I would call a patriotic appeal of Ephesus and their money making machine, The crowd was stirred up. But the bible tells us in verse 36 and all the way through 41 that finally someone in the midst of this chaos, in the midst of this confusion stood up and said from a secular viewpoint, what are you doing? If you guys keep this mess up, you’re gonna cause us to lose our own ability to govern ourselves.

The gospel is powerful, and it is the power of God unto salvation the apostle taught in Romans, and we know its effects upon our hearts. But I think some people don’t realize that the gospel not only draws you, but it also can repel you. To some, it’s a scent unto life, an aroma unto life, but to others, it is a aroma unto death. Those who refuse to believe in Jesus Christ despite the evidence and the drawing of the spirit and the movement of God upon their heart through the word of God, and they still refuse to believe, only harden their heart. The gospel has an effect no matter what upon the heart.

It either draws you or you push it away. But either way, the effects of the gospel are real, and we see this in Acts chapter 19. And so we can’t lose confidence in the power of God’s word. We can’t lose confidence in the effect of God’s word, and we must be faithful to consistently share it with our family and with our friends. This is pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ, there is hope worth having.

The post The Effects of the Gospel Part 1 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Power of God’s Word Part 2. He will be reading out of Acts 19:8-20

I want you to be careful, Church, that you just don’t jump in emotionally and find yourself led astray, fully humiliated, all the way exposed as a part of a ministry that is not authentic before God.

Hello this is Pastor Mike Sanders. Well this is Hope Worth Having and I’m grateful and looking forward to sharing the hope that is only found in Jesus Christ on this program. Today we’re going to be back into the Word of God and we are going to be in Acts chapter 19 verses 8 through 20, continuing our study of the power of God’s Word.

And so I want you to grab your Bible, maybe get a pencil and a paper and let’s just start studying together. Do not hearten your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial, in the wilderness. All of us have the responsibility that we do not become so apathetic in our faith, so anemic in our walk with the Lord Jesus Christ that we allow our hearts to become hard to His Word, hard to His moving in our lives,

hard towards His Spirit drawing us to Him. We are called to have sensitive hearts to the Lord. As witnesses, we are sensitive to God and we don’t define our success by the response of others. Whether there’s five people here this morning or there are three or four hundred people here this morning, it just doesn’t matter.

What matters to God is that we are faithful and we are obedient to God. It is the world that defines everything by God. by a response, it is the world that defines everything relating to something that is big and large and we’re not against anything big or large, we’re just trying to help you as a believer to see the power of God’s word in the proclamation and that you are, as you are obedient, God will bless.

Oftentimes, we are opposed, it can cause us to be fearful. It can cause us to be paralyzed in proclaiming God’s truth but we must remember that our commitment is to always tell others about Jesus. Many missionaries throughout history have gone to countries and people groups that have never heard the gospel and it took years upon years before they ever saw a response to the gospel.

Were they unsuccessful? No, they were faithful. And we see many times that even today that there are large groups of people who have come to Christ because of those early pioneers who took the gospel to many places.

So what does the apostle do? Well, we’re back in verse nine of chapter 19 and the Bible says that he withdrew the disciples, those that did believe, those who were willing, those who were responsive, and where does he go?

Well, the Bible says he’s reasoning daily in the school of Tyranus. Tyranus was most likely some rabbi or some great teacher. He could have been living or maybe it was an honor that this building was named after him.

In whatever the case, they always met early in the morning. They did their training and their teaching. So the apostle found out that the building was open and there were seats available. So he invited the disciples to come and we’re going to get together in the afternoon every day and he would disciple them.

Who knows how many came? Maybe five came, maybe 20 came, maybe 100 came. We do not know, but that’s not the issue. The issue is daily, he was discipling these new believers. Daily, he was reasoning with them.

Daily, he was sharing God’s truth and he took advantage of this open facility. He took the opportunity to meet together as a body of believers. Remember what Paul taught us in 2 Corinthians. In chapter two, verse 16, in referring to the gospel of Jesus Christ, he said to the one, we are the aroma of death, leading to death.

And to the other, we are the aroma of life, leading to life. Who is sufficient for these things? The apostle even questioned his own capabilities of being able to share these wonderful truths of the gospel.

But he says, look, for some, when we share the gospel, it’s an aroma of death. They cannot even stand the smell of the gospel. It is a stench in their nostrils and it is something that causes them to repel against the truth of God.

But to others, the apostle says, it is the aroma of life. There are many who look forward and they love the opportunity to hear the gospel talk to them, to hear the word of God talk to them. So much these folks loved it that they met every day.

How about that church? We might have a heart attack if the pastor asked us to come every day, huh? But you know what? It’s the aroma of life to you. And it leads to more life to you. that as you hear God’s word taught to you, as you’re in your Bible study groups, as you’re in your small groups, and you are ministering to one another, and you are sharing the word of God in your classes, it is the aroma of life to you.

It is invigorating, it is stimulating, it is empowering to your heart. That’s what I want you to see. How powerful is God’s word? That when it is presented to those who have responded to him and received him as their Lord and Savior, it is a very powerful influence that has a great impact upon our life.

The Bible says that the apostle, he taught for two years. And of course we know that he was three years in Ephesus. We know later, we’ll learn in chapter 20 that Paul would talk about not only that he met in this hall, this teaching hall, but he would go house to house.

Now some have interpreted that, that he just randomly went out there and banged on doors and kicked doors down and told people they need to turn or burn. But that’s not what house to house means. Paul went over here to this family that loves the Lord and taught them the word of God.

And in this family over here in this house, he went over there and he taught them the word of God. And then this house down the street, he went over their house and he taught them the word of God. He did not care where, he did not care what the facilities were, he just wanted to share God’s word.

Why? Because it was the aroma of life. It was giving life and leading to life to those who love Jesus Christ. You don’t have to be ashamed of the gospel. You don’t have to be ashamed of God’s word because the best defense for the gospel is the gospel.

And you may say, well, there are those who critique it and those who find fault with it. It’s gonna always be true. There’s always gonna be those who are upset with the gospel, but church we are called to be faithful and to plant those seeds and to keep moving on with the gospel and proclaiming the gospel.

Listen to the words of the Apostle in Colossians 1, 28. He said him, meaning Christ, we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present every one mature in Christ.

No one’s gonna get saved without the proclamation of the gospel. Whether that’s one-on-one or whether that is in a small group or in a large group. Because the Bible says faith comes by what? Hearing the what?

The Word of God. Now again church I always tell you the Bible is either true or not. God is either being straight with you and honest or he’s lying to you. And so we come to Christ by hearing the word.

Some of you are discouraged about your family, maybe some children. You know what the most powerful thing you can do? Is take every opportunity to interject the word of God to them. Not to preach to them, not to beat them over the head with the Bible, but find opportunities to share God’s word and God will do his work through proclaiming.

But also in relating to helping believers grow. You wanna grow in faith? You wanna be presented mature before Christ? You want to be that person that God has called you to be in your faith? It is requirement that you are consistently and constantly under the word of God.

Do not ever devalue the proclamation of God’s word. Now I know what some people say. They say, well, Pastor, I can’t remember. You know, when our children were young, we’d sit at the table and I’d say, well, what did you learn in Sunday school?

They’re like, ah, Jesus. That was always the go-to answer, amen. The go-to answer was Jesus. You could never be wrong with Jesus, amen. You may not remember everything that Pastor Mike teaches, but you don’t remember what you had for dinner last week either.

But I tell you, when you ate it, it was so good. And let me tell you what the power of that food did, is it nourished you and it continued to strengthen you. And I wanted you to know that when you hear the word of God taught in your heart, you may not remember Pastor Mike’s outline, you may not remember the title, and maybe sometimes even forget the exact passage that he was in.

I know it’s in the book of Acts. Somewhere in there, but I’m telling you, as you hear God’s word taught in your classes, your Bible studies, even one of them, one-on-one discipleship, mentoring. As you hear it in the worship service, it is so good.

It is so good that we are hearing the word of God proclaim, and here’s what God is doing. He’s shaping you, He’s refining you, He is maturing you, and He is making you stronger for your journey of faith, and He is establishing and rooting you in the faith of Jesus Christ.

Now, let’s look at number two, the confirmation of the word. That’s what most of you wanna hear about. You wanna hear about verse 11 through 16. You wanna hear, what does Pastor Mike got to say about this?

Well, let’s start off with that theme that Luke gives us in verse 11, and that is now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul. These were not even normal miracles, but they were unusual. miracles.

Remember, church, that I have taught you that as we attract through the book of Acts, that Luke’s desire is not that you and I would somehow always repeat everything that happened in the book of Acts, but that you would see this as a transitional book from the old covenant to the new covenant, that you would see how God is confirming His word, His message, His messengers in the establishment of the church.

For you and I, we’re on the back end. We’re living and loving the church. We’re enjoying the work of the church in our hearts. We’re enjoying the family of God and the blessings of being with God’s people and fellowshiping and ministering to one another and supporting one another.

We’re catching the wave, but in the beginning days, that’s not how it was. There was skepticism relating to the Jewish people on whether this Jesus was truly the Savior. This message of Christ being the Messiah and dying on a cross for our sins, this message of His life, for our life, was really odd to the Jewish people.

And to the Greeks, it was foolishness. It seemed strange and unclear that somehow someone would give their life for the salvation of others. So what does God do in the book of Acts so that the messenger, hear me, and the message would be confirmed?

He allows the apostles to do unusual miracles. That’s what you’re seeing unfolded. Remember, when the Corinthians questioned the credibility of the apostle Paul, he said to them in 2 Corinthians 12, verse 12, he said, truly the signs of an apostle were accomplished among with all perseverance in signs and wonders and mighty deeds.

I taught you a few weeks ago church, which we’ve taught many times in different scenarios and circumstances to the family of God, that there are three types of gifts that are in the church that God has blessed us with.

We have the sign gifts, we have the speaking gifts and the serving gifts. It is my persuasion, and I wanna be very honest with you. Not everybody agrees with Pastor Mike, but I tell them it’s America and you have the freedom to be wrong.

Stay focused, Pastor likes to have fun, it’s okay, all right? A little laughter helps you make it through this sermon, Amen? I’m of the persuasion, the sign gifts were designed for the Jewish people, for unbelievers to help understand the validity of the message as we walked you through, and I’m not gonna do it again because it would take too much time, but the sign gifts would cease, they would come to a conclusion,

and we believe upon the completion of the New Testament that we have now the complete revelation of God’s word and all that he wants to say to us, and we have the credibility of the apostles, we have the credibility of God’s word that has been presented to us.

When you see these unusual gifts that are mentioned in this passage, they were to identify to everyone that the apostle Paul was an authentic, true spokesman for God. They validated the message that he proclaimed, and you will remember that back in verse eight and nine, he was proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So that’s what we see, we come, and with that understanding, but we see in verse 12 that even handkerchiefs, or aprons, or facecloths, different translations, but bottom line is that even the very handkerchiefs, or aprons, were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them, and the evil spirits went out of them.

This again, my friends, is the confirmation that is taking place, and it’s very unusual, and I know it’s your desire, and many of our brothers and sisters in Christ, they are so passionate that they want to see this repeated, and so they send you a cloth, and they send you some kind of apron, or who knows, hopefully they don’t send you shirts and different things like that, but point being is they send you something,

and they believe it has some kind of power. They believe that somehow it can do something special, why do they have this desire? Because this is what took place in the Apostle Paul’s ministry. Remember what the Hebrew writer taught us in understanding how God speaks to us and how He works in chapter two, verse three and four.

And I want you to hang on to this, write it down, study it later on your own, but just want you to hear what the Bible says. How will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? What a wonderful question to consider.

But he tells us that this salvation, this great message of the gospel was at first spoken through the Lord. It came to us first through Jesus. It was confirmed. How did we know that what was true, it was true.

It was confirmed to us by those who heard, who were those that walked with Him. Those apostles. those early disciples, those that were on the missionary teams, it was confirmed to us they heard this message.

Remember that in 1 John we are told that the apostles said that they heard him, they saw him, they touched him. They witness God also testifying with them both by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his own will.

Those signs accompanied the early church because the early church did not have the complete revealed Word of God. They had the Old Testament but they did not have the completion of the New Testament so as long as God was still revealing his Word and he was bringing his Word to the people he gave his messengers various miracles or unusual miracles to help them to know this was truly from God.

One commentator said when revelation stopped the sign gifts stopped. B.B. Warfield who was a great Bible scholar in the early days of American history said these miraculous gifts were part of the credentials of the apostles as authoritative agents of God in founding the church.

Their function confined them distinctly to the apostolic church and they necessarily passed away with it. Now it’s not a dividing point. You may still believe in the sign gifts and all that and I’m fine with that.

I just would like you to go down to the hospital and I’d like you to get up to Hershey and I’d like you to get these kids on the seventh floor healed. I need to to get this done, because if you truly have compassion and feel led of God, that you are given these unusual signed gifts that were for the early church, please get to the hospitals and save some lives, amen?

That’s all I’m asking. If you believe in the signed gifts, then I ask you to follow the rules that are given in 1 Corinthians chapter 14. Now we come down to verse 13. You’ve already been learning about the authentic ministry of the Apostle Paul.

It’s been confirmed by unusual miracles. We get down to verse 13. Now you’re gonna see people who like to imitate. Here’s what I want you to know, church. I want you to know, and I got a fast track here, is this, that whenever God does something and He works, the devil always tries to imitate.

The devil always tries to deceive. It isn’t an accident that Luke not only records the unusual miracles of the apostle, but that he also records the charlatans. Because he wants the believer to see the contrast.

Verse 13, then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits saying, we exercise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.

They thought that the name of Jesus was like a magical name, and that if you just flung out the name of Jesus, that all of a sudden they would be able to perform some of these unusual miracles, and that they would be able to use it to take advantage of the people.

They use these worked up exorcisms to gather crowds and to take money from them. And that’s what you see taking place. They say, hey, let’s just add another name. Let’s just add another God to our pool of different names that we use to call out the demons in people’s lives.

Well, then Luke records for us that there were seven, seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest who did so, and here’s what they found out. Look at verse 15, how do you know that they’re fake, Mike?

How do you know that they’re not real? Look at verse 15, an evil spirit answered and said, Jesus, I know. Well, Paul, I know, but who are you? Who are you? What a great question. That the demons would know the ministry of Christ.

They knew the ministries of the apostles, specifically Paul, but these exorcists, who are they? They’re just charlatans, they’re just fake out there. They’re just taking advantage of those who are hurting and in desperate need, and therefore taking their money.

what I want you to know here is the demons recognized the charlatan exorcists had no authority over them and their ministry was illegitimate before God Almighty. How illegitimate was it? The demons subdued them or mastered them as some translations put it and attacked them.

The demons wounded them and they were left naked and they left. They were humiliated. They were embarrassed. The fraudulent claims left them exposed before all that they were not true ministries of God.

God’s Word is unchanging. It is unwavering church. It is true. It is God’s word that’ll help you to discern what is a real ministry, what is a fake ministry. I’ve told you this before church, I gotta tell you again.

Everything that glitters and glows is not gold. And everything that has the name of Jesus on it did not come from heaven. I don’t wanna turn you into a negative, critical person. That’s not my goal. I just want you to test the spirits.

I want you to examine all things. I want you to be careful, church, that you just don’t jump in emotionally and find yourself led astray, fully humiliated, all the way exposed as a part of a ministry that is not authentic before God.

I’m not claiming the open door church is the only true ministry. There are many wonderful churches, many wonderful ministries in our community, in our nation, and yes, our world. But I want you to align your hearts with those authentic ministries and not be deceived.

Finally, we see the domination of the word. Now in verses 17 through 20, the Bible says, look at this, this is so wonderful. This became no. You see, the Jews and the Greeks that lived in Ephesus, they realized, hey, there’s a difference between Paul’s ministry and these Jewish Exorcists.

And what did it lead to? People exalting God, exalting Christ. There was fear that fell on them, and the name of the Lord was magnified. They were touched in their hearts. They were moved by God. And look at verse 18, many who had believed came confessing and telling their deeds, the evidence of a true revival coming into the hearts, the domination of God’s word in the lives of individuals.

individuals was that they began to exalt Christ and they began to confess sin, not only to God, but perhaps to others as they recognized that some of the things they were involved in was only corrupting their spirit and their souls.

So much so in verse 19, the Bible says they brought all of their pagan magic and they brought all of their pagan books and they gathered them together and they just burned them all up and said we want to publicly declare our loyalty to Jesus Christ and not to these false gods and not to these false ministries that are out there.

They were experiencing the conviction of God. Don’t think that they were just burning books of particular authors. No, these were books that had secret rights in them. These were books about pagan magic and false gods.

These were not a good, healthy book. that we all enjoy reading. These were books that were involved in corrupting the soul. The Bible says they were worth over 50,000 silver coins. To help you understand it, it would be equated today in 135 years of your wage.

And most of us aren’t gonna live to be 135, there may be a few, there’s some of you trying. But think about that, you take your salary each year, times it by 135, that was how profound the impact of God’s word.

And what is the summation of all that the apostle has to say in this passage? Look at verse 20 again. So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed. Church, you don’t have to be ashamed of God’s word, it is sufficient to do its work in our hearts.

It is sufficient to bring others to Christ, it is sufficient to sanctify or grow us more like Christ, it is sufficient to equip us to serve effectively for Christ. God’s word is more than enough, you don’t have to go out there and get the razzle dazzle, and you don’t have to be enamored by unusual miracles, and you don’t have to be drawn into ministries that are only imitating the truth.

But let God’s word richly dwell in your heart. Well, Paul’s ministry consisted of persuading people of the gospel, in other words, he was doing evangelism, persuasion. And you see that consistently, we watch him minister from Acts chapter nine all the way to where we’re at today.

in Acts chapter 19, and one person after another, he is persuading them to believe in Christ. Not everybody responds positively. Some even oppose the gospel. Wherever the apostle went, it was either a riot or a revival.

And so that’s what you’re going to see as you share the word of God. That it many times softens the heart, but there are many times that people respond by hardening their hearts towards God, and they become very stubborn and refuse to believe.

But that does not negate the power of God’s word, and it calls us to be faithful to the word of God, faithful to proclaim it, faithful to share it with others, and remember that God’s word will do its work in our hearts.

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This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.

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