Episode Transcript
Jesus said in Matthew 28:19, Go, therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Welcome to Go Teach all nations, bringing you Christ's teachings through Australian and international speakers. And here is today's presenter, Josh Gonzalez. I want to share a message with you entitled The Same Spirit. Please bow your heads with me. Let's pray. Father in heaven, Lord, I just want to ask you that you give me the words, that you give me the thoughts. My mind and my head is quite clouded at the moment. With many thoughts. And Lord, I just pray that you empty myself of myself and you fill me with your Spirit. And Lord, as I share this message, that it may be a message that speaks to our hearts, but it may be a message that challenges us and also inspires us at the same time. And that's only possible, Father, when it is you that is speaking. And so I hand this over to you, and I pray, Lord, that you be with us now. We ask for this in Jesus' name. Amen. I want to warn you guys, I'm going to make some of you a little uncomfortable this morning, but I've done that before and it's becoming a habit. So hopefully you're starting to get a little bit used to it 'cause that's what happens sometimes when the word of God is preached, amen? It makes us a little bit uncomfortable, it challenges us. I wanna share a number of passages with you and I'll have them on the screen 'cause there's a few that I wanna go through. But if you're quick with your fingers, you can jump in the Bible, Mark chapter 10, I'm reading from 42 to 45. Something interesting that Jesus shares here in the book of Mark. The disciples that Jesus had called, they always had these ideas of grandeur. They always thought of how they were going to be elevated because of the fact that God had chosen them to be his disciples. They would talk about how, you know, which one of them was going to be the one that got to sit on the throne at the right hand of Jesus. And they were thinking, you know, which one of them was going to be the greatest. And they probably even thought about when it was all kind of said and done here on this earth, which one of them was going to be remembered in the greatest sense. And, and, and so Jesus teaches them something really profound here in Mark 10:42. It says, but Jesus called them to himself and said to them, he said, you know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you, but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.' Jesus is telling them, 'Listen, I see what's in your hearts. I see the thoughts that go through your mind sometimes, and I need you to look at and understand something. You see, it's the Gentiles, it's the pagans, it's the ones that aren't of our fold that when they get some kind of authority over people, they lorded over them. And you know what, it's a saying, right, that a famous philosopher said once, that power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts absolutely. Something happens to human beings when they get a little bit of authority sometimes, that it gets to their head. And Jesus saw that this was happening to the disciples, and so he says, listen, we're not to be like that. That's what the world is like, but we're not to be like that. In fact, when it comes to what we do and who we are, he says to them, whoever desires to be great will become a servant, and he who desires to be first will become a slave. And in another part, Jesus says he who wants to be first shall be what? Last. But then he says this, he says, for even the Son of Man— now he's speaking now about himself— he says, even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve. And this is actually one of the most profound statements in the whole Bible, because if anyone that ever walked this earth was worthy of being being served, it was Jesus. But he says, that's not what I've come for. And what's really happening here is that he is setting an example for his followers. Now, this example that he said is not just for the 12 men that were in front of him listening to him that day. This is the example that he set for all of his followers that were to come, including us today. He said, I didn't come to to be served, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many. Jesus was one who put others before Himself. Jesus was the one who was always thinking, how can He help? How can He serve? Even when He wasn't feeling up to it, even when He was hungry, even when He was tired. The Bible says that after a long day of ministering, when He saw a multitude, He had compassion over them and He went to them and He healed them. Jesus didn't think of himself. He thought of others first. But the reason why I'm sharing this for you today in the context of the message is because we need to understand that the Christian life is a life of service. But do you know one of the saddest realities statistically that we find that happens in pretty much every church? It is said that in pretty much every church It's only about 20% of the people that go to that church that are doing all the work in the church, which says there's about 80% that come along for the ride but don't like to get involved and are happy to let others do the work. If we want to see the work finished before Jesus comes, we need to have a church where there is 100% service in the church where everyone is getting involved, where people are seeking, how can I serve, what can I do, how can I be of use? And I want to share this with you now because I'm about to go on a trip, but during the time, maybe when I'm gone or when I just get back, at some point very soon, we're going to be looking at responsibilities for next year in the church. And the hope and prayer is that if you get a tap on your shoulder to serve, that you will be willing to serve. Let me get into the message. I'm going to go to 1 Corinthians chapter 14. If you can, go into your Bibles with me. I'm reading from the New King James Version today. 1 Corinthians chapter 14. And as we go now through the message, let's keep in our mind the example that Jesus has set for us in what we've just read. 1 Corinthians 14. The Apostle Paul, he's having an issue with the church in Corinth. And as we're going to see in a moment, it's an issue that is still prevalent in the Christian church today. But he says this to the church, he says, pursue love and desire spiritual gifts. But he says, especially that you may prophesy, for he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him. However, in the Spirit he speaks mysteries But he who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men. What we've just read right now is one of the most misunderstood scriptures in the New Testament, and a lot of Christianity has something going on right now in their churches and a part of their fundamental beliefs because of a misunderstanding of the scripture. Because if we read it in a certain way We can come back with the conclusion that there is a gift out there called the gift of tongues, and this is a gift of tongues that when it is manifested, humans don't understand. This is some kind of heavenly language because the Apostle Paul says, he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him. And so, as many Christians have done, they have misinterpreted this and started this belief that there is some specific gift out there that is the gift of tongues, but it's some language that they call the heavenly language that nobody but God only understands. But it's what the Apostle Paul says after that tells us that that is not the case. He says in verse 4, he who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church. And he says, I wish you all spoke with tongues, but even more that you prophesied. For he who prophesies is greater than he who speaks with tongues, unless indeed he interprets. There's the clue that the church may receive edification. Something that is biblical when it comes to the gift of tongues is the interpretation of the tongue. And so when there is a gift of tongues that's apparently been manifested with no interpretation, that is not the biblical gift of tongues. Now I don't want to spend too much time on this, but I just briefly want to, want to explain something. In the book of Acts, something miraculous happens at Pentecost. You see, what had happened is that Jewish people had basically gone throughout the whole land at that time, you know, the known world at that time, and many Jews had been now raised in different countries where they didn't really speak so much the mother tongue anymore. They spoke the language of the countries that they had gone to. For example, as most of you know, and my family is an example of this, my parents, my dad came from Spain, my mom came from South America in Peru, but they both spoke Spanish. They came to Australia and they brought their language with them. Now I was raised here, I was born and raised here in Australia, and they taught me their language, but for me, Even though I speak fluent Spanish, English is now my dominant language because I was raised in an English-speaking country. My children now is a different story. As much as we want to teach them Spanish, like the little one, she's like doesn't want to know. And now we're about to go to Spain and we're going to see what happens when people talk to them in Spanish and they don't know how to respond, right? But that's what happens with the generations over time. They lose and they adopt the new language of where they are. So this is what had happened to the Jews of the time. But at Pentecost, all the Jews were coming back. They were all coming back to Jerusalem. But there was a problem because the disciples, they had to preach the gospel now to all of the Jews that were coming back. But a lot of them didn't speak Aramaic anymore. A lot of them didn't speak Greek anymore. Some of them were speaking other languages. And so this amazing thing happens where the Holy Spirit comes into them Fills them up, and then they go out and they start preaching, and they start preaching in the languages of the different nations that these Jews were coming from. And so it was a miracle because they didn't speak those languages. It was only through the Holy Spirit that they could speak. And so they went out and they preached, and the Bible makes it so clear that everybody understood what they were saying. So the gift of tongues is not some heavenly language that no one understands. It's when the Spirit gives you the ability To be able to communicate in a language that's not your own. So it is a miraculous thing. And so Paul says, he, listen, you guys are falling into a trap here in Corinth because for some reason you guys have gotten to a point where you think this gift of tongues is the most important gift. And one can make that conclusion because again, if you open the book of Acts and you see how amazing and miraculous it was, you'd be like, man, I want to have that experience, right? That's amazing what the disciples got to do. And so in Corinth, they were putting this gift above others, and Paul says, listen, if you have this gift, amazing, but the only way that this gift really works is if you have an interpreter, because ultimately the people need to understand what it is that you're saying. And some of you are going off on some tangent now, speaking things that no one understands. Listen, if you want to ask God to bless you with any gift, he says Let him bless you with the gift to prophesy so that you can preach the gospel to people. But you see, this issue of putting one gift above others and making it very important is still an issue in the Christian church today, because we do know that there are some denominations out there that still hold the gift of tongues not just as the most important thing, but some of them hold it as evidence of salvation. They'll ask you the question, are you saved? You'd be like, yes, I've met the Lord Jesus Christ, I've accepted into my heart. Do you speak in tongues? No. Well, then you're not saved, because for them that's the evidence that the Holy Spirit is there. Now, do you guys know how that all happened? It was around the 1800s, actually close to 1844, and there was an issue happening in the Christian church at the time. It was actually a response to spiritual lethargy, that people were coming to church and they were just leaving empty. They were coming to church and they were singing hymns like they were at a funeral. They were coming to church and the preacher was preaching with no power. They were coming to Sunday school or Sabbath school, whatever they went to at that time, and there was no meat in what they were hearing. And so they were leaving church empty. And as a response to that, they're like, how can we go back? How can we go back to when the Christian church started. And so what they did is natural. They went and they looked up the Book of Acts, and they opened it up, and they saw in the Book of Acts what happened— that God, through the Holy Spirit, came into the disciples and gave them this gift. And so they saw that and say, we must need that gift again to have that revival. And so that's how the gift of tongues became a thing again in the Christian church in modern times. And you almost have to You almost have to, you know, admire the desire, right, that they had to go back to being on fire for the Lord. But something ended up happening along the way. What they ended up doing is that they combined that gift that they saw there and they mixed it with spiritualism. Spiritualism is basically everything we believe in about the spiritual realm, but it's just kind of take God out of it. That's what spiritualism really is. But what these guys did is they tried to mix that. And then in all of that entered mysticism. And mysticism is this idea of how do I know if I'm actually drawing near to God or not? Because mysticism teaches that in order, like the evidence for you to have been having an experience with the supernatural is that you have to have some kind of emotional experience. And so you know that there are many churches out there that put on this big extravagant show where people come up the front and they start speaking in tongues and they start shaking, or they do these big things that it's all about healing, and they come up and they do a show. And if you're not like going like this at the front of the church, then the Holy Spirit's not working. But if you're having those experiences, and for them that's evidence of the Holy Spirit, that's actually mysticism that's entered into the Christian experience. And what's interesting, because sometimes we're asked as Seventh-day Adventists, why don't we do these things, is because there's no evidence of this happening in the scriptures. Yes, there are healings. Yes, there are these things, but you never see it as some show that's at the front. Even when you look at the story of when Elijah called fire to come down from heaven to burn the altar, the Bible says he, with a still small voice, he called God. It was the prophets of Baal that were jumping up and down and putting on a show. That's not the way that the Christians do it. And so we need to be careful because there are some denominations out there, sadly, that have come under this influence, and they think that the only way that you can see if the Holy Spirit is working is by these kind of manifestations. But this is not the way that the Lord works. Chanting, doing things over and over again, turning in circles, getting in a trance, being mesmerized. These are things that are happening in the Christian church today because the belief that they have is you need to have this kind of experience to give you the evidence that you need that God is working in your life. And then that experience becomes the basis of your spirituality, and that becomes the determining factor in your life as to if you're getting close to God or not. When in reality, what should be the basis of our spirituality is our relationship with Jesus. Not the experiences that we're having. Now I'm getting off a little bit there, but I just wanted to share this with you because one thing I want us to think about is this: this idea of putting one gift over the other and making it of such importance is something that even in the Seventh-day Adventist Church we fall into this trap. Now you might think, how is that? Because, you know, we don't do gift of tongues, we don't do these other things. But there are other gifts that sometimes we put above others as the most important. Let me go with you for a moment a couple of chapters back to chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians, and let's look at what the Apostle Paul says here. 1 Corinthians chapter 12. When you're there, say amen. All right, 1 Corinthians chapter 12. Look at what the Apostle Paul says. He says, now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant. Just from the get-go, right there, we need to be paying attention because Paul is obviously addressing something that has become a problem in the Christian church. And he says, listen, when it comes to these spiritual gifts, he says, I don't want you to be ignorant. He says, you know that you were Gentiles carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led. Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. So basically what he's saying, the gist of it, is this: that the evidence as to if someone is led by the Holy Spirit, the evidence really of someone being filled with the Spirit, it's not about the experiences that they have and all of that. It really comes down to their relationship with Jesus. That's what is the ultimate evidence if the Holy Spirit is in someone, is inside of someone. It's their relationship with Jesus. Because anyone who's filled by the Spirit, he says, they don't call Jesus accursed. In other words, they don't do things purposely to bring shame to him. They don't go against him. They love Jesus. The person filled with the Spirit is attracted to Jesus. The person filled with the Spirit wants to live their life according to what Jesus taught. That's the evidence of someone being filled and led by the Spirit. Look what he says in verse 4. He says, there are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the prophet of all. I wanna unpack that in a moment, but first I just wanna mention something. This idea of bringing unity amongst diversity, as we can see clearly in the scripture, is something that started with God. But this was actually very big during the time of the Greek philosophers. Greek philosophy was in essence a lot about this. How can we bring unity in diversity. And this is actually where we get the word university come from. Did anyone know that? University, that's what it's about. And it comes from the Greek philosophy, and it's all about trying to find unity amongst diversity. University. That's why when you go to uni, you have a major of study, and that major of study is really to bring in all the minors and everything else that you study together. To bring unity amongst the diversity. But what's Paul really saying here? This is something, church, that we need to really pay attention to. He says there are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit. Paul is saying, listen, God has given every single one of you different gifts when it comes to church, when it comes to the body of Christ, when it comes to the followers of God. God has given all of us different gifts, but then he says this, but it is the same Spirit behind each gift. Did you catch that? Why is that important? It's important because we need to understand, church, sometimes we fall into the trap, as do other Christian denominations, of putting certain gifts above others. How do we do it in the Adventist Church? In the Adventist Church, the way we do it is by looking at the pastor. Usually, or the evangelist. Now let's be honest, you all have your favorite preachers, right? Everyone does in this church, usually they have their favorite preachers. They have their top 3 or their top 5, right? And we love those guys and we love listening to them. But sometimes when we hear these powerful preachers speak, we're like, man, it's like the Holy Spirit is so evident in them. And we start elevating them to the point where we think, man, they must have like an extra, you know, um what's the word, an extra, um, it's left my mind, portion. That's the one I was looking for. They must have like extra portions of the Spirit because look at the way that they preach, look at the way that they, they move people, look at how many people they baptize, etc. And sometimes we end up putting the gift of preaching as the most important gift because why? At the end of the day, we're a movement that has been called to preach, and so we put this as the most important gift. But Paul is saying that there are different gifts, diversity of gifts, but he says it's the same Spirit behind every gift. What does that say to you? I want you to understand something: that the same Spirit that's behind the preacher up the front is the same Spirit that's inside the person that's greeting you as you come through the door. It's the same Spirit that's in the person giving the Sabbath school class. It's the same Spirit as the person up there on the computer making sure that the audio is working. It's the same Spirit as the person who's preparing all lunch so that people can be blessed and fellowship after church. It's the same Spirit working in every single one of us, and we need to stop putting certain gifts above others and thinking that because we don't do that thing or we haven't been blessed in that thing, that somehow the Spirit is not able to work in me and use me the same way He might be working in and using someone else. Amen. There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. He says there's differences of ministries, but it's the same Lord. There are different diversities of activities, but it's the same God who's working in all. And look what he says in verse 7. He says this, and it's for the man— but the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one, and he says, for the profit of all. In other words, the reason why God gives us gifts, the reason why God gives us ministries, the reason why we're given activities to do ultimately is for the profit of all, not just the church, but those outside the church that we need to call and bring into the church. We need to stop putting some gifts above others. You know, I was at a church once, and I can say this now because it was a while ago, so no one will be able to figure out which one it was. I was at a church once and we were in a business meeting and I was really trying to get this church to understand this issue. And I was really trying to encourage them and inspire them because the church was going downwards and they needed to make some changes. And I was trying to make them, you know, get them to be mission-focused and to be thinking about serving and all this kind of stuff. And in the middle of one of those meetings, one of the members who happened to be, I believe maybe he was even the head deacon at the time, got up and he says, hey, hey, hey, We work 9 to 5. We're tired. You're the one that gets paid to do this job. I'm not even joking. He said, you're the one that gets paid to do this work, basically saying, leave us alone, you do the work. What do you even say to someone like that if that's the mentality that you have? Not only are you seriously wrong biblically, but that's the kind of mentality that kills churches. I want to let you know, yes, I do get paid to do this, and I give it 100%, but I can't do everything. There are many things I can't do. We need to work together. We are the body. The head of the body is Jesus, but we are the body, and we need to work together. We need to understand that every single one of us have a responsibility to do what we can to further the work of Christ and to continue to build the kingdom of God here on earth. That's the responsibility of the Christian. But there are some people that say, I'm not the preacher, I'm not the pastor, I'm not the elder, I'm not the Bible worker, so I'm not doing it. Can you imagine, church? I once heard a preacher share this, and I'm going to share it with you guys. I can't take credit for this because it's not mine, but it's good. He said, imagine the moon said, I'm not the sun, so I'm not going to shine. Imagine a lake says, I'm not the ocean, so I'm not going to flow. Imagine the rose says, I'm not a tree, so I'm not going to bloom. Imagine the grass says, I'm not a flower, so I'm not going to grow. Now we think of those examples and we say how horrible it would be, right? How horrible would it be for the moon not to shine and for the lake not to flow and for the rose not to bloom and for the grass not to grow? But sometimes we do the same thing. We say, I'm not the preacher, I'm not the pastor, I'm not the Bible worker, so I'm not gonna do it. I want to ask you a question. We're told, right, that it's the same Spirit. Actually, let me, let me keep reading this and then I'll pose this question to you. Let's, let's read to the end of this. Verse 8: For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit to find— sorry, for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit 'to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit,' right? 'To another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills. For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many are one body, so also is Christ. Paul just starts laying out, listen, whether it's this, whether it's that, it's the same spirit behind all of them. It's the same God that's working behind all the different ministries, behind all the different gifts. And he makes a point to say this is the way Jesus planned it, as how the body should be made up of different parts. But each part just as important as the other. I want to ask you a question. Is there anything that a person without the Holy Spirit— is there anything that a person without the Holy Spirit cannot do? Think about that. Is there anything that a person filled with the Holy Spirit the Spirit cannot do? Now, I know there's usually, when you ask a question like that, there's some philosopher in the crowd is like, you can't lie. Yeah, that's true, but I'm not talking about that. Is there a— is there anything that a person that's filled with the Holy Spirit cannot do? Answer me, church. No. Is there anything that a person filled with the Holy Spirit cannot do when it comes to the things of God? No. So if we understand that, then the next question has to naturally be then, okay, then what are you doing? What are you doing, church? Do you have the Holy Spirit? Have you accepted Jesus in your heart? Do you believe that God gives us the gift of the Spirit when we accept Jesus in our heart? So if we have the Holy Spirit, church, I need to ask you the question What are you doing through the Spirit? Some of us waste the Spirit and waste the gifts that God gives to us, because when we don't use something, we waste it. This is a lesson that me and my wife have learned these last few years because we're trying to get our daughters to learn musical instruments. Now, you know that Julia plays the violin, Millie's playing the piano now, but We have to tell them all the time, you've come this far, you've done so much in learning, but if you don't use this, you're going to lose it. It's a tragedy, church, that there are some of us that are wasting the gifts that the Holy Spirit has given us. And another thing you need to know too, if you're not faithful with the gift that he has given you He's not going to give you any others. Some of us will never be able to proceed in our spiritual journey like that with the manifestation of gifts from the Spirit, because why would God give us something that we don't want to use? Look what it says here in, uh, I don't know what book that one is. CH. Does anyone know what CH is? Christian Home? No, Adventist Home, AH. Anyways, it's one of the books. It says this, page 217: The Lord has signified that his work should be carried forward in the same spirit in which it was begun. The world is to be won, field after field is to be entered. The command given us is add new territory. Shall we not, as people, by our business arrangements, by our attitude toward a world unsaved, bear a testimony even more clear and decisive than that borne by us 20 or 30 years ago? For me, the first sentence is profound because it implies something. The Lord has signified that his work should be carried forward in the same spirit in which it begun. You want to see the spirit in which it begun? Open up the book of Acts and read what happened when the Holy Spirit filled those apostles, those men and women that were followers of Jesus, and went out and conquered the world for Jesus, we're told that the same Spirit that was working then is the same Spirit that's working now. Now that we understand that, the question comes back again: what is it that the Christian that's filled with the Holy Spirit is not able to do? You know why we're not advancing? We're not advancing, church, because we're comfortable. Let's be real. We're not advancing because we're lazy. Let's be real. We're not advancing because we're distracted. We've got so much, and the devil is making sure— yeah, the world is messed up, the economy is tanking, the work mob is going crazy in society. Like, there are things happening left, right, and center that has us preoccupied with what's going on in the world. The devil has us distracted. I want to share just a couple more things. I'm almost done. I've got to get this out. What if we recognize our gift but don't get an opportunity to use them in church? Or what if we're unwilling to use them in church? Let me take you to Acts chapter 6 real quick for a second and show you something incredible that happens here. Acts chapter 6, look at what it says from verse 1. Now in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists. Who were the Hellenists? Who were the Hellenists? The Hellenists were the Gentiles. So when the Christian church was forming, the Christian church was forming from Jews that were becoming Christians and pagans that were becoming Christians. The Hellenists were the ones that came from the pagan side, but the Hebrews had a complaint that came against them. And understand, this is now in the context— we're only in chapter 6, but in chapter 6 already the church is booming, and there's a problem that arose because of the growth. It says there was a complaint, and the complaint was this: that their widows were neglected in the daily distribution. In other words, the Hellenistic widows were not being looked after in the daily distribution when it came to the body of Christ, to the church. And so this was an issue. Of course, if you were from the Hellenistic side, you're complaining because you want to make sure that your widows are looked after. Look at the response, verse 2. Then the 12 summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, it is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. 'Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you 7 men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.' What's happening here? A complaint comes, and the complaint is brought to the 12 disciples, and the 12 gather everybody and they say, listen, we've got an issue here, but we— they say we, right? And you could read this wrong because it says, "It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables." It almost sounds like they're being a little bit petty, right? It's like, "We've been called to preach, not to serve tables," right? Is that what they're doing? It can come across like that if we read it the wrong way. No, these were men that were convicted and knew 100% what their calling was. Their calling was to preach the word. That was what God had put on their heart. That's what the Holy Spirit had convicted them of. Of, and that's what they needed to do. And even if other problems arose, they weren't able to afford to get distracted from what God had called them to do. But they come up with a solution. This is to serve tables. Now we might think, serving tables, anyone can do that, right? Anyone can do that. Seek out from among you 7 men of good reputation and full of the what? Full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to the prayer and ministry of the word. This is where they say the ministry of deacons kind of started, right? These were like the first deacons. They were called to serve tables. And we might think that no way is serving a table as important a gift or a ministry as the preaching. But understand this: these men, in order to do that work, needed to be full of the same Holy Spirit as the ones that were preaching at the front. Amen. They needed to be full of the same Spirit. Look what happens after this. It says, and the saying pleased the whole multitude, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit. A man full of faith and what? And the Holy Spirit. And Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, Nicholas, a proselyte from Antioch, whom they set before the apostles. And when they had prayed, they laid hands on them. These men maybe wanted to be the preachers. These men maybe wanted to be up front leading out. But God had called them to something important at that moment. He had called them to the ministry of looking after the daily distribution of the widows. In other words, as the Bible puts it, to serve tables. These men, full of the Holy Spirit, took that as— as they took it in a way in which you would take any, any role, no matter how significant. They took it seriously, and they were full of the Holy Spirit, and they accepted. They said, Lord, we want to be faithful to what you've called us to do. And they were faithful. And you know what happened as a result of their faithfulness? Look at what it says in verse 7: Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith. Because these men were faithful to what they had been called to do, God blessed them, God blessed their work, and the church grew. I got to tell you, church, if we're not willing to be faithful to what God has called us to do, the church is not going to grow. We're not going to be able to get to where God wants to take us. We need to be faithful in whatever God God puts on our hearts. Remember what Jesus said in Luke 16:10: He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much, and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. Sometimes God's not going to give you the much until he sees first that you can be faithful with the little. There are some of us here, church, we need to recognize Maybe that we haven't been faithful with the little. And could it be, church, that God has a desire to give us much? God has a deep desire to give us much, but that is never going to happen until he can see us being faithful in the little first. There's something that a lot of us Adventists say we want to hear when we get to heaven. What's that? What is that one thing that we say we just— oh, this is all— when I get to heaven, I just want to hear these words. What are those words? Well done. This is where the challenge comes in. I'm gonna finish up with this. I've got one quote after this and then that's it. Matthew 25:23: His lord said to him, well done, good and faithful servant. Servant. This is the thing, most of us, that's all we remember. All we remember is, well done, good and faithful servant. And we're like, all we want to hear when we get to heaven is, well done, good and faithful servant. But what does the rest of the verse say? And what is it that makes this person a good and faithful servant? Well done, good and faithful servant, you have been faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord. Brothers and sisters, you need to understand something. The only ones that are gonna get told on that day, well done, good and faithful servant, are the ones that have been faithful in the little that God gave them to do. You want to hear those words? You need to be faithful in the little things. Because of your faithfulness in the little things, God says, now I will give you and abundance. I don't know what— oh, this book is From the Heart. I remember that one. From the Heart, FH, From the Heart, not Full House, From the Heart. Listen to this: those who hear from the lips of Christ the words, well done, good and faithful servant, will be heroic ministers of righteousness. Now listen to this: they may never preach a discourse from the pulpit, but loyal to a sense of God's claims upon them and jealous of his honor, They will minister to the souls who are the purchase of Christ's blood. They will see the necessity of carrying into their work a willing mind and an earnest spirit and a hearty, unselfish zeal. Unselfish zeal. They will not study how best they can preserve their own dignity, but by care and thoughtfulness will seek to win the hearts of those whom they— what's that last word? Serve. If you get anything from what we just read in that quote right now, It has to be this. Those that are going to hear the words, "Good and faithful servant, well done," are those that lived their life the way Christ told us and gave us the example to live. How? By serving others, by not putting yourself first, by doing everything that you can in order to reach people. Remember the Apostle Paul said there's a diversity of gifts, it's the same Spirit. And he says, but the gifts are given to us for the benefit of everyone else, not just the church, but those outside of the church that we are called as a people to go and reach. We're going to come up soon to nominating time. My prayer and hope is that next year, 2024, we're not going to have another situation where 20-25% of the, of the people are doing all the work. Amen. Amen. Come on now. Amen. All right, that's a verbal contract. I've got— we got it on film. But I'm serious, guys. I'm being serious. We can't afford to have another situation next year where only a select few are doing all the work. We need everybody to pitch in because I want to tell you something. There are some people right now that God has called them to other ministries, to other exciting things that they could be doing to bring people in, but they're not able to to do that work because they're bogged down doing things that some other people that aren't doing things could be helping out with. Do you understand what I'm saying? This is why we need to come together and we need to pitch in. When we pitch in, God can and will do amazing things through this church. Father in heaven, oh Lord, we come before you, Father, asking you, pleading with you, Lord, that you change our hearts, Lord. That our hearts may be more like the heart of Christ, that we may have that desire, Lord, to serve you, that we may have that love for others, Lord. And Lord, we know, Lord, sometimes it's hard to love others, but Jesus loved even those that put him on the cross. Lord, help us, Father. We get distracted so easily, Lord. Lord, some of us are so comfortable with our Christianity right now. We're comfortable being lax, Lord. But Lord, we need to be reminded by you that time is short. We don't have time to be relaxed. We need to do what we can while the time is there. And Lord, I pray, Father, that if anything, the message is really honed in today, Lord, that no matter what gift it is that the Spirit manifests in and through us, Lord. Whatever ministry it is that we're given, that it is the same Spirit, the same God behind it all. Help us not to get discouraged but to be encouraged. I know sometimes, Lord, the way we are, it's like we want specific roles and responsibilities, and it's like if we don't get what we want, we just say we're not going to do anything. Lord, help us not to be like that. Help us to do what we can, Father, to serve You. And help us to keep this all in mind too, as we're getting close now to looking at positions and responsibilities for next year, Father God. Put it on our hearts to be asking the question right now, how can I serve my God? How can I serve my church? How can I serve my community? This is our prayer in Jesus' name. Amen. This message was made available by the Ryde Seventh-day Adventist Church. For more resources like this, visit their YouTube page, 3 AM Ryde Seventh-day Adventist Church. Seventh-day Adventist Church. This program has been brought to you by 3ABN Australia Radio.
