6 Essential Needs For Serving Jesus in the Last Days
Acts 20:13-24
As we studied Acts 20 together, we learned a lot about the pastor’s heart of Paul. Throughout our previous studies in Acts, we have seen him as a missionary and church planter, but now, in chapter 20, we learn about him as a pastor. At the first pastors conference in the Bible, Paul exhorts and encourages the elders of Ephesus to stay focused on the Lord.
To recap, the 6 things are:
1. Authenticity
2. A Servant’s Heart
3. Humility in Service
4. Perseverance Through Trials
5. Unselfish Honesty
6. Unswerving Dedication
Ever feel the pressure to be perfect? As we serve others, it’s vital that we value authenticity as much as God does! As leaders, our lives should be open books. Authenticity builds trust and allows others to see that facing challenges and imperfections is okay. Transparency in ministry is more impactful than a facade of perfection. Let’s embrace our genuine selves and lead with honesty and vulnerability.
Serving others isn’t just a task; it’s a calling. In your calling, you must cultivate and protect a servant’s heart. Authentic leadership starts with humility and a willingness to serve in any capacity, just like Jesus did. Whether it’s helping someone in need or performing the simplest acts of service, our ultimate goal is to serve God by serving His people. Reflecting on Jesus’s humility can transform our approach to ministry and leadership.
And then there is the temptation of pride! Pride can often be a stumbling block in our spiritual service to the Lord. Humility is essential. We have two choices: to humble ourselves or let God do it for us. They are both painful, but humbling ourselves is the best choice! Embracing humility proactively helps us stay usable and keeps our focus on glorifying God rather than seeking personal attention and glory. Remember that it is essential that our service points back to Jesus every time.
Life is full of trials, and ministry is no exception. No matter what came his way, Paul’s perseverance and endurance inspires us to stay strong in our faith. Remember, trials are part of our Christian walk, and finding strength in the Lord can help us overcome them. Let’s keep our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, and find courage in His example.
It’s with unswerving dedication that we persevere to the end. Paul faced many uncertainties and challenges throughout his ministry. Despite knowing that tribulations awaited him in Jerusalem, Paul remained committed to his mission. This teaches us the value of steadfast dedication in our spiritual lives. Through the guidance and strength of the Holy Spirit, we can persevere in our faith and calling, even when the path ahead looks daunting.
Let’s remember the importance of our personal devotional times, flexibility in our plans, and the character of our own hearts. These essentials will help us serve effectively as last-day believers. By cultivating authenticity, a servant’s heart, humility, perseverance, unselfish honesty, and dedication, we can navigate the challenges of living out our faith in these times.
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FULL UNEDITED TRANSCRIPTION
Open your Bibles to Acts 20. We’ll pick up where we left off last time, Acts 20, in a Bible study I’ve entitled, “Six Essentials.” Or you can even put it this way, “six essential needs for last day believers learning how to serve in the last days.” It’s so important. We’re going to look at a few here as we are in Acts chapter 20. It’s a very helpful chapter in the Bible in helping us to understand our role in service and ministry. God has saved you to serve him. Theologically, of course, we are not saved by works, but we are saved for good works; all of us as believers God is wanting to see good works come through our lives (Eph 2:8-9). Or what the Bible may say is fruit from the tree of our lives. In Ephesians 2:10, it says, “We were created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” And although we’re not saved by good works, we are saved for them.
And the world needs you, and the Church needs you, and your home needs you and your families need you. And what’s really needed in the world is to reflect the character in nature of Jesus Christ through his followers. And here we are in Acts chapter 20. It’s such a pivotal time in the life of Paul. Pick up in verse 13, it says, “Then we went ahead to the ship and sailed to Assos, there intending to take Paul on board; for so he had given orders, intending himself to go on foot.” So, Troas to Assos is about 20 miles by land; about 30 miles by sea. They took the ship, but Paul took the land route, which is very encouraging to me because, although Paul as we learned last time extremely valued the support of believers, he knew that he wasn’t a “Lone Ranger.”
We learned and looked at this in our last study. He valued people. He knew that he needed others to accomplish the will of God in his life, and others needed him to accomplish the will of God in their lives. And we learned last week that the phrase we like to use here to describe that is, “We is the language of ministry.” It’s always “we.” It’s never, “I,” and it’s never “you.” It’s always us.
Remember, we thought of that superstar athlete. And whatever sport that you follow, no superstar becomes a superstar on their own. They’re always a part of a team. I mean, if you put the superstar out on the basketball court by himself. He will not be a superstar. You put the best baseball player in the world right now, Ohtani on the Los Angeles Dodgers – you put him out on the field by himself – he will not be the superstar that he currently is because he needs a team. And then that same idea, “we need a team,” Paul valued that.
However, we also see today that Paul also valued quiet time. Quiet time – alone with the Lord. He took the land…because he needed some time to think…he took the land route because he needed some time to sort things out. Jesus understood this truth. You can jot it down in Matthew 14:23, it says, “And when Jesus had sent the multitudes away, He went up on a mountain by himself to pray. And when evening came, he was alone there.” That’s why, church, I emphasize over and over and over…why I emphasize so much, why I repeat it virtually week after week, certainly month after month. That it’s very important, that it’s extremely vital for you to have a personal, private devotional time with Jesus alone; that you cultivate that. Sometimes you’ll hear it said, “You need to read your Bible and pray every day.” The environment for that is alone, privately, just you and your Savior. A time to spend invested in, perhaps, your prayer closet with a Bible open and your heart open and your mind open to what God has for you.
This is so important it’s, like, fundamental. It’s the ABC’s of following Christ. It’s not just enough to come to church or to have these gatherings with other people, but rather it’s important and vital. Like, it’s so important that you need to learn how to rearrange your life for it. I think about, since I just got back from a trip, how I think ahead for my plane trips. I think ahead and I think, “okay, they got security, it’s a busy time, I’ve got to get up at this time.” “If I’m getting a ride there, then I can get up a little bit later.” “If I have to drive myself and park myself, then I got to do this…,” and I’m thinking it all the way through. And I come up with a time and I set that time. I also view my days like that, like, I have a very full life. I have a very full life. I have full days, I love them, I love serving the Lord. I have a full life.
So I have to think ahead in order to set aside time. For me, it’s morning, and I think mornings are the best because it starts things out. It doesn’t have to be exclusively mornings, but they work the best for me because the house is still quiet and I can get up early and all that get sacrificed is my sleep. No one else has to pay for my private time except for me. And that’s just losing a little bit of sleep so that I can get some alone time. You know, you can start out with five minutes. Ten minutes. For me, it takes about an hour. I need about an hour to ramp up for the day and I already get up early, so getting up at six might mean getting up at five so I can get my time before my wife gets up, before my daughter gets up, before my son gets…whatever, whoever is in my home…before anybody gets up for their life. I need time alone with the Lord because I don’t know what the day is going to bring.
I know what my schedule says, but I don’t know what the day is going to bring. I know it’s heavy on my heart, so my quiet times are not only to read the Bible, but also to pray and cast my cares upon the Lord (1 Peter 5:7). I don’t want to take them into the day. I mean, they end up catching up, you know? They’re like a boomerang sometimes. You know, you’re casting your cares and you throw them and then boom! They go around and, boom, it hit you in the back of the head. They ended up coming back and I have to cast them again. But in the morning I want to set my heart toward the Lord. I have a devotional open. Depending on what my mood is, I’ve got different devotionals that I use. I’m somewhere in the scriptures. I’ve been spending a lot of time in 2 Corinthians. I’ve been spending a lot of time in the Gospels. I always try to read a proverb every day and just – time – unrushed.
Even before I come to service in the morning, I get up super early before anybody and I just spend time alone with the Lord. Paul, he gets some time alone. Some of you might like to take a walk, and you just want to take a walk or ride your bike to get alone time with the Lord. It’s super important, church. Have I made my point? Yes? No? It’s important. Super important. If you will just take me up on this, you will see immediate change within a couple of weeks. Immediate growth. An overwhelming sense of peace in a world that’s chaotic. When my Bible is open, the Lord gives me peace. I can’t tell you how many times that I have come to church here, I’ve come to serve and teach here, and being in the company of believers has calmed my heart. The songs, the ministry and even after teaching the Bible study, I’ll walk away going, “man, that was for me.” God spoke to my heart.
That was, like, God, thank you for that. I put my studies together. I’m weeks ahead. I’m weeks ahead when I put these together. So I’ll pull them out the week prior and I’ll edit them and pray over them. But I like to get ahead because it gives me free headspace so that I can do what’s in front of me. And, so, as I’m looking at this and I’m reviewing it, I’m, like, man, “Lord, that was so good.” So get your alone time, read your Bible every day. Remember what Job said in Job 23? He said, “I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.” Treat the Word of God like food, and you eat once, twice, three times a day. You snack here and there, take the Word of God and feast on it. Read it three times a day, snack on it here and there. Have a scripture in your back pocket that you wrote down that you can memorize. You can just pull it out of your pocket, review it, but take that alone time with the Lord.
It’s so vital. Even here, he spent time alone with the Lord instead of with the people.
And then we have his travel itinerary here. And he sails to Miletus. He’s on his way to Jerusalem, remember? He’s on his way to Jerusalem. Originally, he wanted to get there before Passover. Before Passover, because that’s where he was going to be, that’s the high holy day of the Jews – Passover. But he didn’t make it for Passover. So now, notice, he changed in verse 16. Now he wants to make it by the day of Pentecost. Now he’s built in, “Okay, I’m not going to stress out; I didn’t make it for Passover.” Now he’s got 50 days, five zero. He’s got some time. And all of these cities and all this travel, you know, it’s taking some time here. We’re reading it in seconds, but it’s taking days and weeks to accomplish this. So now he’s packed in about 50 days where he’s taking the stress off. And if you like to write in your Bibles in verse 16 next to the day of Pentecost, just write the word flexible.
Flexible. That’s Paul here. He not only getting quiet time with the Lord, which probably God gave him a peace, like, hey, “Don’t worry about it. You’re not going to make it for Passover. You can make it for Pentecost.” Pastor Chuck Smith would teach us often, and it’s so important you adopt this, he said, “Blessed are the flexible, for they will not be broken.” Isn’t that so true? Blessed are those of us that just stay flexible. Stay open to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Don’t be so rigid because the rigid ones snap, you know, and then we…you might even work with somebody who was like, man, that brother, “what happened to so-and-so? He snapped!” It’s because he wasn’t flexible and just going with the flow.
And remember, he’s also going to Jerusalem. For what? To take the offerings; he’s got all this money he’s bringing back to the suffering church, and that’s important to him. The Gentile churches are doing really well. The Jewish church in Jerusalem is not doing so well.
Paul went around to the churches encouraging them and asking them to support the local church. And so he’s taking that money back. Now, this section of Acts 20, you could say it is a pastoral chapter in the Bible; a pastoral chapter because we have seen Paul as the evangelist, and we have seen Paul as the church planter. But here in chapter 20, we now see a part of his “pastor’s heart,” as he calls from the elders of Ephesus to meet him in Miletus. Now, you Bible students, you know that in the Bible it’s broken up into sections: Gospels; history; the epistles, or the letters of Paul. And then there’s a section that’s referred to as “the pastoral epistles.” And if you’re in a Bible trivia game and they said, “What are the pastoral epistles?” Most likely you would answer it this way: 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus. Those are letters that are specifically written from Paul to Timothy as a pastor and to Titus as a pastor to help them in their pastoral ministry.
So often those three are referred to as the pastoral epistles. I want you to add one. And we did this when we studied through it, but I want you to add one to the pastoral epistles. And that would be probably the most pastoral epistle in all of the Bible is Second Corinthians. Because Second Corinthians was written as a pastor, Paul is opening up his heart, and he’s hurt, and he’s frustrated, and he’s wanting to correct things. He’s also happy because the church discipline they took place was successful. Like, it is the pastor’s heart. And in Second Corinthians, then, you can add this chapter as a pastoral chapter because you learn a lot about serving and ministry here. This could be considered the first “pastors conference.” Pastors conference, as it says right there in verse 17, “from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church.”
Just like we have Refresh in October, it is a gathering. It’s not exclusive to “elders,” it’s for everyone that serves. But this is the same purpose that we have Refresh. We’re calling people together. We’re calling those that serve, those that want to serve, so that we might be encouraged, that we might receive specific, fresh words for our ministry and for our service, and for what God wants to accomplish in our lives. And remember, when we started Refresh, we started it for this church. It was just a gathering for our church leaders. We said, “We need to be refreshed; we need to be encouraged; we need to hear from the Lord.” And again, I want to invite you. I want you to be here. We’re down just to the last 200…less than 200 spaces left. And we want you here. We want to serve you. We want to encourage you. This is sort of why I think what Paul was saying, “tell the elders I want them here. I’ve got something to share with them. I want them here because they need to hear from me. It may be the last time I get to talk to them.” And that’s what’s happening here.
This section of Scripture is also the only recorded message by Paul to believers in the book of Acts. Most of the time we hear Paul in Acts, it’s to the unbeliever. It’s him proclaiming the Gospel. We have seen Paul preach; we’ve seen Paul persuade; we’ve seen Paul plead with unbelievers. And that’s what happens. That’s what unbelievers need. Those that are separate from God, they need to have the Gospel preached to them. Perhaps that’s you today, and you need to know that Jesus Christ loves you. God in human flesh. He came and He died on a Roman cross 2000 years ago, for this, as a substitute for you, to forgive you of your sins, to bring you into wholeness, and bring you back into a relationship with God. So that today, if you repent of your sins and you receive salvation through Jesus Christ, you will be saved. You know what the Bible says. The Bible says that, “if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9). It happens that fast as you turn to God.
Preaching is important. Persuading, good, solid Bible answers to good questions that people are asking. Pleading – that’s what unbelievers need. But now, in chapter 20, you’ll find Paul encouraging. You’ll hear Paul edifying or building up. You’ll hear Paul exhorting, instructing, correcting. Because that’s what believers need. That’s what we need. We need to be built up.
Remember in 2 Timothy 3:16, it says that the Word of God is powerful, it’s inspired. And then it gives four things about the Word of God. It’s profitable, “for doctrine.” So that means it’s going to teach you how to believe. It’s profitable, “for correction, for reproof, and for instruction in righteousness.” So I just want you to think, out of the four things, three of them often are painful: instruction, correction, reproof; which is one reason why many people avoid the Bible. Because you open it up and go, “Oh, something more to learn; Oh, something to correct; Oh, I need to get right; I need to ask for forgiveness; I need to change.” Like, these things are in the Word of God.
And Paul is going to remind the elders here of this very truth. So now let’s get to the six things. Before we get there, one more thing I want you to notice in verse 17, the word, “elders.” Do you see that, verse 17, “He called for the elders of the church”? Circle that word, if you like to write in your Bibles, and right next to it the Greek word presbuteros. Presbuteros. That might sound familiar to you because there is a whole denomination that is derived the name of their church from this word. Have you ever heard of the Presbyterian Church? Well, they derive their name from this word because this word is taken from a word borrowed from the Jewish synagogue that means, “one who is learned in Jewish law,” or a leader, a mature spiritual leader. It speaks more of the maturity of the person than it does the age of the person.
And this is how the Presbyterian Church and other churches oversee their churches, where you could say their church governance is elder-run, or elder-led, and they get it from this word in various places in the New Testament.
Jump to verse 28 now. I want you to see two more words. In verse 28, you’ll notice it. Paul would tell them, “has made you,” right there in the middle, “has made you overseers.” Circle that word, and right next to it the Greek word episcopas. Episcopas. Does that sound familiar to you? Another denomination has taken the name of their church from this word, the Episcopal Church. The Episcopal Church, because their form of church government is what this word defines. This word means, “someone who is charged with the duty of seeing that things to be done by others, that they are done rightly; a guardian or a superintendent.” Sometimes this word is translated bishop, because that is the order of church government within the episcopal system, and other churches where there are overseers. So, a bishop would then oversee other pastors and leaders, and that’s a form, a portion, of their church government. You might be familiar with this word in 1 Timothy 3. Remember Paul’s writing to Timothy in verse one, he says, “Whoever desires the position of a bishop,” well, it’s also overseer or episcopas. It’s used throughout the scriptures.
The third word I want you to notice is also in verse 28, and that’s the word shepherd. It says, “Has made you overseers to shepherd the Church of God, which he purchased with His own blood.” This is the verb form of the noun, poimen, or poimeno, and this means, “to feed, to tend, to take care of.” It has everything to do with being a shepherd. It’s interesting in the scriptures now how these three words are used interchangeably to reflect the lead or the leadership of a church. What we would refer to as a pastor because in Ephesians chapter four, the word poimen is actually translated pastor there – that God has given us, “pastors and teachers” (Eph 4:11).
It’s the word poimen. And so we see that as elders, as overseers, as shepherds, to be that position of pastor. Now different words are used to describe it. But it was Jon Courson that put it all together. Pastor John Courson, I love the way he did it. There’s no need to reinvent it when he sees these three words referring to the leader of the church or leaders of the church, he says this, “the word elder refers to the man, whereas the word overseer refers to the man’s ministry, and the word shepherd refers to the ministry method.” So you have the man, the ministry, and the method – all come together.
Now, this is actually the reason I’m pausing on this. Just in case you’re ever come across someone that likes to argue about the way a church is governed or the leadership of the church, because there are different views, there’s the congregational view, there is the elder-run view, there is the pastor-led view, and then there’s a few unbiblical views. But those are the main biblical views. And again, people like to disagree and argue about it and make it a big deal. Listen, this is what I have found. If it is a biblical model and maybe we disagree about it, but it’s still a model that can be substantiated in the scriptures, what I have found that what’s more important than the model –listen – stay with me on this. What’s more important than the model is the man that fills the role. Because I’ve been around long enough, and I’ve seen men of God do great sinful things and disqualify themselves in elder-run churches. And I have seen great men of God disqualify themselves and do great sinful things in congregational-led churches. And I have seen men of God that have been used greatly of God disqualify themselves in sin in pastor-led churches. It is always, “the heart of the matter, is always the matter of the heart.” It is the character and integrity of the men that hold these positions that is of the utmost importance.
Because if you set up systems to try to prevent men from sinning, you will fail. The men have to be connected to the Lord. And if you’re wondering, you go, “Ed, what kind of leadership is in this church?” If you…if this is your church home, you’re in a church that is pastor-led. That is the model we choose to follow here. Pastor-led, that’s how. That’s the way we started when we moved out here from California to plant this church when we were very, very small. And now that we’re a little bit larger than we were, we’re still pastor-led, supported by elders and pastors that hold each other accountable, where we are collaborative and cooperative. And we…I’ve taught Bible studies on that more in-depth. You can check online for them, but that’s the model we hold to. We hold to unashamedly. We will continue to hold to it. And it’s okay if you hold to a different view, as long as it’s biblical. Just make sure the men have a good, right walk with the Lord.
All right, now let’s jump in to the six things before we leave here. As Paul is calling on them, they come to him. Notice, verse 18, “When they had come to him, he said to them: ‘You know, from the first day that I came to Asia,” and again, you Bible students have been going with us in our study through the book of Acts, remember, when he mentions Asia in this context, he’s referring to Ephesus. That’s where he ends up in Asia, primarily in Ephesus. So he knows. “When I came to Asia,” basically when I came to you guys, “in what manner I always lived among you.”
If you’re taking notes, number one, this will help you be a better servant; a better leader – if you’re a pastor, a better pastor. Number one, there is the need for authenticity. There is the need for authenticity. Pastors and servants, your life is to be an “open book.”
Look what he says here. You saw me. You saw my life. You know me. There’s nothing more than what you saw. Pastors and leaders are to be the same in the church as they are at home, as they are at work, as they are on the golf course, as they are fishing in the reservoir. We are to be the same. We are not to be hiding anything or pretending or living a hypocritical life. This is for pastors. Answer…like this is Christianity 101. Like, this is ABC stuff. It’s unfortunate, but this becomes a value in our culture, like people who really super highly value authenticity. Primarily because it’s been lost. Everybody’s hiding behind anonymity in social media, playing games and trying to be something, you know, like setting up the absolute perfect picture that you could post that’s so stink and fake and not real and edited. And so authenticity becomes a great value. But let me tell you this authenticity should be normal here. We should be really authentic and transparent with our lives, especially if you’re serving other people to be real.
I mean, you know, from time to time I might mention, I might mention, yeah, you know, “Marie and I, we got into this big argument, you know, and, you know, after all these years, she still chooses to disagree with me. I don’t know why, but like, we got into this argument,” and I’m just sharing my life and I might share it in a, in a Bible study and somebody will come up and say, well, pastor, pastor, I’m so thankful you’re so authentic because I have things going on in my life. And I’m like, bro, I’m not trying to be authentic. That’s the truth, man. That’s my life. Like, yes, Marie and I argue and you’re like, “Well, you know, honey, we can’t come here. Pastor Ed argues with his wife.” What are you talking about? It’s normal. It’s normal for me to win almost every single…. *Laughter*
She’s praying with the ladies right now. She’s not in here. But, I mean, we have those times, and I’m not trying to be authentic. I’m just being me. And of course, from the pulpit, if you’re sharing something, I’m not going to share it in such a way that might bring us into all the depths of that argument, or somehow put my wife in a negative light that…never. No. But the reality that we live like everyone else, we’re believers like everyone else…of course. Of course, that’s not authenticity as much as it is reality. And it’s important that we live in reality. Of course, now there are those that would look at ministry and go, they see it from the negative because there is a negative side to that. And it’s the idea, well, you know, “We just live in a fishbowl and everybody knows our business.” No, no, no, no. Be careful not to look at it as negative. It’s better to look at it as a positive. And no, I want to be authentic.
And there are parts of my life that are private. They’ll remain private, and that’s fine. But I’m not hiding anything. I’m not holding back anything. That’s what Paul says here. This is what made him strong. It’s what’s going to make the elders of Ephesus strong. It’s what’s going to make us strong. He says, “You saw me. You watched me.” If you showed up here in any given day, you should see the same thing as I am in the pulpit, as if you saw me at Safeway shopping, you should see the same thing that that you see at church. If you – wherever we might be – if you were at my house, you were at the park by my house, whatever it might be, you will be in a place where I could say to you, “you saw my life.” Wasn’t perfect; made mistakes. But hopefully I also demonstrated how to come back from those mistakes…how to ask for forgiveness…whatever. Like, it’s real here. And because it’s it causes so much problems.
People just choose not to be real. And I’m telling you, don’t do that. God will not bless that.
So don’t miss, Paul says, “Hey, you know what? You watch my life.” Notice, number two now, he says, “Serving the Lord.” So let’s pause there. That’s number two. That’s right there in verse 19, serving the Lord. Number two is it’s one of the essentials for living in the last days. Being a good servant is the need for a servant’s heart, a servant’s heart. I want you to notice Paul was very specific here. He says, “serving the Lord.” And we’re like, wait a minute, “Wasn’t he serving the elders in Ephesus?” Yes, after serving the Lord. Our service is always, “unto the Lord,” and not primarily to people (Eph 6:7, Col 3:23). Even though our service to the Lord is almost always worked out with people, you’re not serving people, you’re serving the Lord. Remember that because you’re going to have a lot of different people, a lot of different personalities, a lot of different things. But the Lord stays constant. He – you get your direction from Him, you get your strength from Him. You get your help from Him. We serve the Lord. The ministry is all about serving the Word. Ministry can be translated in the English, servant. If you’re a minister of the gospel, you’re a servant. And if you get into the ministry expecting to be served, you will be greatly disappointed. Jesus said in Mark chapter 10, our Savior, he said, “He came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many,” Mark 10:45. This is not a place like the corporate world, or like the world where you “climb the ladder.” You put…you “pay your dues,” and the higher you go the less work you do and the more people….
No, no, no, no. Here it’s inverted. It’s opposite of the world. The more responsibility you get, the higher you go, if you will, is actually the lower you go and you serve more people the more responsibility you have, not less. It’s a place where we learn to deny ourselves and take up the Cross, following Jesus, Matthew chapter 16.
Back at my home church, Calvary Chapel in Downey, where I was saved, I spent eight years serving there. They had a way…primarily…they had a way to both test and train those of us that believed we had a calling of ministry in our lives. And I did, from a very young age, I felt like I had a calling. I felt like I was called to teach. I didn’t know what that meant exactly, but I felt this heavy burden to exercise leadership in the church like, God, that’s how God wanted to use me. And so a person that wanted to go into the ministry would be sent out to the parking lot to pick up trash, saying, “Hey, I feel like I got a call to the ministry.”
“You do?”
“Yeah, I’m ready to serve.”
“You are?”
“Yeah. You wouldn’t believe how ready I am. Where do you want me to teach?”
“In the parking lot.”
“Oh, really? Is there an outreach? Is there something going on out there?”
“No. I want you to teach the trash. Go start picking up the trash and get this place ready for all the people that are going to be here today.”
And on more than one occasion, I’m going to be a little dramatic here, but I’m doing…I’m being dramatic on purpose so I can get your attention. But on more than one occasion, the response to a call like that, “Hey, you want to serve here? We need help. Clean the toilets. We’re going to go clean the toilets. Come with me and clean with me.” Or, “We’re going to go and pick up the trash and we’ll come and pick up the trash.” And the response is something like this, “I am not calledto pick up the trash. I am called to teach the Bible.”
“Well, you know, if you’re going to teach, you have a lot to learn. So go to the parking lot and learn with the trash.”
I’ve seen it time and time again, “I am not called to lower things.” Then I don’t think you’ve heard from the Lord. This call to teach or to lead doesn’t precede a call to learn and to serve, and it never supersedes it. The greater the servant, the greater the teacher. In this church, we all do everything. We clean, we serve, hospital visits, whatever. We all do everything. There’s not some class, for one, and we all do whatever the Lord needs from us.
And remember, I introduced a word to you last week. I want you to always remember it. Why would it be such a big deal to go pick up trash, or clean a toilet, or help clean the kitchen, or whatever the needs need to be done? Or straighten chairs? What was the word I taught you last week? Proximity. Why is it important? Well, the trash needs to be picked up and things need to be clean. But more important than that, proximity. Proximity. When you serve on the property of a church, it puts you in proximity to who? People.
Let me give you the illustration out in the parking lot. You take us up on it, you just go clean and you’re out there and then you see a car roll in, and out of the car comes this disheveled single mom. It’s already…you can already tell just looking at it…it’s just been a hard morning trying to get the kids out there screaming and kicking. And you would have never seen that and been prompted by the Holy Spirit to go help her if you weren’t out doing the first thing God gave to you. The first thing God gave to you was to help clean the property. But really, now you see that it’s a joy to clean the property, but it’s really cool that God would send me out there at just the right time so I could meet this young woman and her kids and help her get into church so she could come and worship. And on and on that list goes. We need to have a servant’s heart.
Which brings us number three, notice, “serving the Lord with,” verse 19, “all humility.” God is always developing humility in us. We can either…there’s two ways to deal with our pride, because pride will always stop ministry, will always stop us from being connected to God, pride and arrogance. And so, our options are, as believers, we have two when it comes to humility. Number one, we can, “humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God and he will lift us up,” or God will humble us (James 4:10; 1 Peter 5:6). But we’re going to get there. They’re both very painful, by the way, for God to take you and me from a place of pride to a place of humility. But I have found it is always less painful if I humble myself. It’s always less painful, because when God has to do it, it’s usually at the wrong time, at the wrong place, in front of the wrong people. And it’s very humbling; and God will get his way with us. But it’s better to choose humility. And humility is important because in ministry, when you’re serving, especially in the context of a church, it can be very dangerous because many people will like you and they’ll appreciate you because God uses you in their lives.
Like, just say you’re sitting down with somebody and you’re working with them on their marriage, and their marriage gets saved. There will be a natural tendency for them to look to you as, “the one that saved their marriage.” You’re not the one that saved their marriage. God is the one that saved their marriage. But He used you. And if you’re not humble, you will respond with something, “I am a marriage saver. Send all of your marriages to me, because look what I have done in all my studies. And I went to seminary and I figured out, and I know these books.” Nope. It’s time for a little humility. It’s always God. He gets to choose us. It’s always by, you know, and the fact that God used you because he saw humility in you. And it’s by grace. You’re sustained by grace. And it’s not a place to exalt Jesus below exalting yourself. And humility will help you with that. You have to learn how to deflect.
Paul did that. Remember back in Lystra? It’s been a while since we were in Acts 14, but they tried to worship him in Lystra and he said, “no, no, no, no, no, no way. I don’t want anything. Don’t worship me. I am not God” (Acts 14:8-18). And how careful we need to be. Jot it down, in Isaiah 42:8, it’s a life verse for anyone that serves God. But in Isaiah 42 it says, “I am the Lord, that is My name; and My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to carved images.” God will not share His glory with anyone. The quickest way out of ministry is beginning to think it is you and that you deserve the praise and adulation.
Now, the fact that someone expresses appreciation is not bad. It’s good that we should continually express, “Thank you for the time you invested.” Thank you. That was, you know, for example, after a Bible study, someone may come up and say, “Thank you for that message;
it really ministered to my heart.” You know, if I’m not careful, I was like, “Oh, you don’t know how long I studied; it was so hard; oh, I stayed up all night and I had to go buy a new book and get this great…and yes, all of my hard work paid off.” That’s just nonsense. If you receive anything today, anything at all, it’s because of the Lord. It’s His Word, it’s His Spirit. And if you walk out, “How are you going to, Ed? You got about two more minutes. I haven’t received nothing.” Then that’s my fault. And I’ll have to just go seek the Lord how I could be more useful for the kingdom. But Paul, he’s the apostle. And he’s like, you know, guys, you’ve seen it. Humility can be seen. And he says, you guys know I served you. I serve the Lord with all humility.
Notice, now, let’s get to number four. So we’re running out of time here. It says, “With many tears,” this is verse 19, “and trials which happened to me by the plotting of the Jews,” with many tears. And so, and this is number four, you want to be effective. This essential quality is needed. And that is the need for perseverance. Sometimes that’s translated endurance. It’s the Greek word you remember, hupomone. You’re going to need a lot of it. Because ministry and serving – life – of ministry requires courage and resolve. Why? Because there are many trials and tears, not just a few. Many, many, many. As we read in the Psalm [119] today, crying so much because people don’t follow your law. Many trials and tears. Paul had his fair share and often the idea was, “Well, I’ll just quit and I’ll go do something else.” And, “I don’t like this anymore.” Okay, you’re just at a place where you need courage and resolve, where the Lord can give you the strength to get through this one trial. And then you get through the one trial to go, “okay, that’s it, never another trial!”
It’s not going to happen. This is part and parcel. Jesus, “was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3). And a person who is wholly committed to Jesus will not be easily moved, as we’ll see in a moment. Pick up in verse 20, he says, and “how I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you publicly from house to house, testifying to Jews, and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Which brings us to number five, and that is the need for unselfish honesty. If you’re in your quiet times…and one of the things I like to do is read a chapter of the Proverbs every day. Yesterday’s Proverbs, this what it said, in verse five, “Open rebuke is better than love carefully concealed. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful” (Prov 27:5-6). Honesty. We need to “not keep anything back.” My goal as a pastor is to tell you the truth, like Paul said, “in love.” A friend that lies to you is not the friend you thought she was. Did you hear that? A friend that is dishonest for you, doesn’t tell you the truth, is not the friend that you thought he was. And that requires a conversation. Because in our friendships and our relationships we want the truth. I want the truth. I’m not speaking about opinions. I’m not speaking about how you view the truth, but just the truth. I’m going to tell you, “Hey, look, you shouldn’t be living with your girlfriend and say you’re a Christian – having sex with her. That’s not from the Lord.” That’s not. Don’t. Don’t even pretend that you’re okay. Don’t even pretend that that you think that’s fine. Don’t even pretend that the Bible approves it. Don’t even pretend that this church approves it. It doesn’t. That was the truth. And I’ll give you a hug and say, “I love you,” though. Ha ha ha. But don’t you think I’m going to tell you the truth? It’s ruining your life. It’s hurting our church, and we can go on and on.
If you came to me and asked me a question, you should expect you’re going to get the truth. And then you get to know why I didn’t want you go, “I don’t want to hear that.” Well, what did you expect? When you come to the pastors and the leaders of this church? I’m telling you right now, they’re going to tell you the truth. That’s what you’re going to get here. And I pray that we’re better at delivering it in love. And I pray that we’re taking you on a journey. But sometimes believers in churches, they get all offended for the wrong reasons, because somebody told them the truth and they got all bent out of shape about it. It’s like, well, “I’m just offended.” Well, why? Wait, let’s slow down. “Slow your roll,” a little bit. Why are you offended? “Well, I don’t like what you said.” Well, don’t get mad at me. What’s the phrase? I’m just the…messenger. “Don’t shoot the messenger,” with the message. Unselfish honesty. And, you know, one of the hard things he had to share was repentance. Talking to somebody about their sin.
Which brings us to number six. And that’s there in verse 22,
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. 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.
Number six, in our six essentials today, is the need for unswerving dedication. Unswerving dedication. Paul’s headed to Jerusalem, not quite sure what will happen to him, but he sensed it was going to be more, “chains and tribulations.” The Holy Spirit’s speaking to him, giving him those impressions. People are telling him it’s going to be hard and he comes to that conclusion, “None of these things move me.” Now, I think on a micro-scale, I think with certain situations we could say the same thing, like, we got this situation; we know it’s going to be hard. To say, “No, man, I’m going for it. I know it’s going to be hard. I know it’s going to be difficult. None of these things move me.” But on a macro-scale, hey, let’s be honest, a lot of things move us. A lot of things.
I just want you to think of a few right now: the way the economy is going, that moves us; the politics of the day, that moves us; we wake up to the news stories, that moves us; what’s happening in our neighborhood, that moves us. Moves us. The changes that are going on at work, that moves us. The layoffs. The money situation. On and on the list goes. A lot of things move us and church, here’s the word, we need to learn how not to be easily moved, and with unswerving dedication. Keep our eyes on the Lord. Remember Hebrews 12, “Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross” (Hebrews 12:2). They all go together.
This is Paul. As he opens up, we’ll have a couple more weeks in this section, but this is Paul opening up to the leaders, opening up to us as a church. Looking at these ingredients, these six things, there’s plenty more. I could have developed it bigger, but:
(1) Authenticity/Transparency
(2) A Servant’s Heart
(3) Humility
(4) Perseverance
(5) Unselfish Honesty / Speaking the Truth in Love
(6) Unswerving Dedication
God will bless those.
And when I go through difficulties and I’m not sure what the future holds in my life, I almost always revert back to starting, repeating, doing the things that God blesses. I may not know what the future holds. I may not know how things are going to turn out, but I know if I’m…I align my life with the things that God blesses, I’ll be okay. I’ll be okay. We’ll get through it. For homework, because we ran out of time, the worship team can come up here. I want to give you Matthew chapter seven right there at the end, verses 24 through 27, as Jesus is teaching about “building your house on the rock.” God is calling us as a church, back to the rock. He’s calling us to a place to re-examine how we are building our lives and where we are building our lives, because one’s going to lead to great success and one is going to lead to great fall. The beautiful thing is, you have the choice.
And so, Father, I thank You for Your Word today as it speaks to our hearts. I know that You have much to stir up in us, just in a simple Bible study with six simple things. And yet at the same time, they’re not so simple. They’re the reality of our lives. They’re the reality of what You’re working out in our lives, and we’re praying that You, God, would minister to us, drawing many to Yourself this morning, that You might pour out Your spirit in a powerful way, and that, God, you would have Your way among us. In Jesus name, Amen.
