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Keeping the Faith
Presenter: Larry Kirkpatrick
Location: Mentone SDA Church, CA, USA
Delivery: 2008-01-05 22:56Z
Publication: GreatControversy.org 2008-01-05 22:56Z
Type: Sermon
URL: http://www.greatcontroversy.org/gco/ser/kir-ktf.php
The theme for today’s message is service. Won’t you join me at 2 Thessalonians 3:10-13.
Even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies. Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread. But ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing.
This passage has meaning, not only temporally but spiritually. If we are only consumers, if we lack in the spirit of service, the church will be hindered in leading people to Christ.
Why Did You Join the Church?
Now this is a church, a congregation. You did not join it for the loaves and the fishes (although we have some of the best fellowship meals around). You did not join it because you preferred the shape of the building, or because we have a nicer kitchen for the serving of fellowship meals than other churches (Although we have a very nice remodeled kitchen). You did not join it because of the carpet, the parking lot, or the way the pastor parts his hair. You did not join it because we have better music than other churches (although we strive here to offer reverent, godly music).
You joined this church because you believe that the teachings of Scripture as presented by Seventh-day Adventists, are right, draw to Christ, transform the life, and prepare one for the Second Coming of Christ and for translation. You joined this church because you studied your Bible and you said that you want to be a part of the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth (1 Timothy 3:15). You joined this church because you want yourself and the members of your family to grow spiritually. You wanted to be a member of a church that would lead you to think, that could be a showpiece of what God’s people are like, a place you could bring interested friends, neighbors, and co-workers curious about God and about the truths for this time. And, having sampled other churches in the area, you determined that this church, the Mentone Seventh-day Adventist Church, was where you wanted to serve God. You want to make a difference for Him, and here is where you want to make that difference.
Is that why you joined this church?
A Facilitating Entity
You see, the church is many things (more than we will here discuss). But one way of thinking about the church is very utilitarian. You should join a church because that congregation offers what you feel is a serious opportunity to grow as a Christian and to serve Jesus. If you feel that the congregation is lacking, but has possibilities, you stay by, join in, and you become part of making it be what it should be.
Church is supposed to be a facilitating entity. The organizational structure, the building, the telephone, electronics, school, financial resources, but more than any of these, the friendly, godly spirit of the people of a church, help that church to be God’s premier agency in that community for the advance of His plan of redemption.
Remember, there are two times for the church well illustrated by the experience of Noah. There is the phase after probation is closed, when all fates are decided, the execution of judgment is imminent, the clock is ticking, and the end is all but come. The doors of salvation are closed and it is a ride through the intensity of the final events.
We are not there yet. Mercy still calls; the door of the ark is still not shut; not quite.
There is a time before that. A time of building, preaching, learning how to labor, of laboring for the souls of others. First Noah was faithful in his smaller sphere. Then God called him to build the ark. He gave him 120 years. He called him to preach (2 Peter 2:5).
There is a time for ark building, church building.
One hesitates to directly compare a church, a congregation, with an ark. After all, we don’t claim that one must be a member of the church in order to be “saved.” What we do say, is that according to the inspired writings, God designs that His people organize themselves into support structures called churches; that the church is to help us train our children, labor for souls, feed our own families’ spiritual needs. More even than this, as Noah became a preacher of righteousness, we are to become preachers of righteousness, each, in our own way, in our own unique situation, high key or low key, in a group or in a one-on-one setting, in whatever way God calls us, we are to prayerfully, intelligently, live-out our Christianity, and as the Spirit guides, seek to interest others in the message of Jesus and the truth of God.
A Necessary Help in a Broken World
Think about it. Look at all the forces in our world. How many are drawing us toward God and how many are fulfilling other agendas? The church is one of those very few pointing us heavenward. I would go so far as to say that in 2008, the church is an indispensable part of planning to grow spiritually. The ark was indispensable because of the flood that surrounded God’s people then. The church is indispensable for the flood that would immerse us and drown us now. Our families need more than we can give them individually. So, we bind ourselves together as a congregation, a group of believers seeking God’s ways, willing to embrace the strengths of others, to offer our hand to our needy brothers and sisters who come seeking the same.
The church is God’s facilitating agency for the spread of Jesus’ Present Truth.
Now, let’s ask a question. What do you think happened on that ark? God did not magically build it for Noah; he and his workers had to sweat and saw and chop and grind, to gather up the substances, heat the pitch, apply it to the joints, and so on, until the ark was ready. With this in mind, how do you think the animals were fed? How do you think the long slate of duties that must have been required on the ark were accomplished? Were they just magically accomplished? Or did Noah have a clipboard to keep organized who was to accomplish each crucial task? Surely it was the latter.
The phase of time which we are now in is a time of activity. It is the time for the outpouring of the latter rain. It is the time for God-empowered activity in living and giving the gospel message. It is a time to grow and to go. For this reason God has called together a people and joined them together in covenant grouping. He has called into being His church and He plans that nothing will at last prevail against it. He has a work to be accomplished.
So we see that the church is God’s agency for the end-times. We also see that there are many things that God has not done for us, but that He wishes us to accomplish. We see also that God has not appointed angelic beings to do the work of His church, but that He has committed the gospel to men and that men are to be changed by it and be preachers of it. God has given us a work.
God’s Agency for Service
If the church is composed of men and women, youth and aged, seeking to do His will, then we understand that we are called to serve; all of us. But we also recognize that we all have different circumstances. We are not called all to serve in exactly the same office or the same capacity or the same place. We have different situations and gifts, different experiences, opportunities.
Now to return to our opening text:
Even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies. Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread. But ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing.
This passage seems to be referring to church members claiming to be in need, living off the kind and merciful provision of others. And yet, having opportunity, still they refuse to work. Worse, they walk disorderly, and are even described as busybodies. These are not adding to but are subtracting from the mission of the church. As busybodies, i.e. persons actively pursuing their own agenda, they are complaining, sowing dissension, gossip, dissatisfaction.
The point is, some are helping a lot, some are helping a little, some less. As a people we believe that church membership is for the regenerate, that is, for the converted. Thus we anticipate that the members of the church all, within their own set of possibilities, are committed to living and giving the message of Jesus.
Opportunities, Priorities, Time Reallocation
Not everyone, every year, will be able to help as much as they would like. The goal this morning is not to make anyone feel guilty. Nor is it our intention to lift up those church members who have been able to serve this year. We are thankful, very thankful for them. But we do plan to recognize them today.
Here we are in the speedy lifestream of Southern California. We are busy people, moving rapidly, feeling overextended, overstressed. Too much to do, and too little time to do it. Scraping through to pay our bills or racing from one deadline at work or school to the next, raising our families, keeping everything going, often we end the six working days running on empty. Just when it is time to rest, and to help more directly the needs of the congregation, what is left for God?
Listen. when you converted from a non-Christian, or from being a Sunday-church attender, to being a Seventh-day Adventist, how did you pull 24 hours out of your week? I’ll tell you how. There was a major reorganization of your schedule. You made time for God’s time. We need to watch how God leads us. Perhaps at some future time, He will give us opportunity to serve but that will require some thoughtful rearrangement of our schedule.
Local Leaders Appointed by the Congregation
What we will do in a few moments is revolutionary, heretical even. That is, 500 years ago, had a local church congregation instead of the then church hierarchy taken it upon themselves to ordain one to service, someone would have been up for burning. In those days, the hierarchy of the church appointed and ordained leaders; not the common members of the church.
But the Seventh-day Adventist Church has a process for appointing leaders that works at the congregational level. Each congregation elects a representative committee and then votes for the persons selected. These become the officers for the new church year. Those elected to the office of deacon or elder are then ordained. Already ordained persons, on behalf of the congregation, lay hands on those appointed and authorize them for service. That is, by the laying on of hands, they show that the congregation, led by God, has called them to serve. And so, these persons are not ordained today because some distant denominational bureaucrat has ordered it, or because the conference president or the pastor has decreed it, but because the congregation says that God has called.
We want to keep a sense then of how God not only has led but is still leading His people. He is active in our midst today. He is active here at the Mentone church.
You should know that these who take up their duties do so, not from a sense of self-sufficiency or superiority, but need. None of them volunteered themselves for these positions; they were asked and prayerfully accepted. In the call of the congregation, they have heard God’s call. Thankfully, they have responded.
How to Serve
Paul was urgent that believers contribute to the fulfillment of the church’s mission, and that church members be able to tell the difference between producers and consumers. We have an opportunity to serve, and opportunity to show that really God is first.
A note to all who lead here at church too. To you is committed a mighty trust. Heaven wants each of you to lead in your sphere of responsibility. In order to lead, you will have to resist many tendencies. You are not to be the Holy Spirit for others. You are not here as agents to water-down the church or to tighten it into a grumpy narrowness. You are not here to bring in changes that are only fads that have been popular in other denominations. You are not here to bring change for change’s sake.
Neither are you here to resist all change. It is one thing to resist illegitimate change, but altogether another to resist that which is legitimate. The church should be the scene of many new and original ideas, as the Holy Spirit leads us and as we keep in line with what God has revealed to His prophets. Unfortunately, too often the church is one of the last places where necessary and legitimate change occurs. Are we studying the instructions God has given us? Then we will be able to keep clear the difference between how He wants us to change and how the misguided might want us to change.
We want to labor together for the Lord, respecting each other’s ideas, attending those meetings necessary to help the church go forward in its mission, its more exciting part and less. When we take up a church officer position, we are accepting a position of trust. Others will be depending on us to follow-through. Sometimes we will make mistakes. But we will regroup and place ourselves back into God’s work-zone again.
Part of being a Christian is learning to endure not only the gifts but the failings of others. When we opt for pure isolation, we remove ourself from this necessity, and our growth is stunted. In the absence of contact with others, we become narrow. Because we tend to view church as voluntary rather than necessity, we may, at any time, gather up our marbles and go home.
But the call to Jesus is a call also to the body of Christ. Can we love the Bridegroom but hate the bride? If the church is the apple of His eye, the great object of His love and concern and sacrifice, can we be cold and indifferent to her? Shall we shower Him with praise and yet spurn the woman for whom He has endured so much? Let us not lose our way. Let us not see church as only another product to consume, but may we see it as opportunity for service to the Master. The world looks on and has certain expectations of the church. Will we fail to represent Christ to them?
Learning the Spirit of the Shepherd
Why, it may be asked, should we devote a whole sabbath morning worship to the ideas of service and ordination? Remember, we are a church where the people decide. The congregation has certain rights, privileges, responsibilities. We should see an ordination service as a recognition that God is leading the whole congregation. We should consider that this is not the laying of hands on two or three people only, but that because the congregation has sensed God’s call, all the church is appointing these to serve and affirming its own willingness to serve. We lay hands on these, but consider that we all thus reaffirm the priesthood of believers. God has called us too. We reaffirm our commitment to serve the Lord Jesus Christ.
Perhaps we from time to time are less ready to serve some in the church because of our frustrations with them. We are worn out by their relentless liberalism or narrowness, pettiness, and pickiness. Satan would love it if we nurtured such an attitude. We need to check the development of such feelings again and again, and refuse to embrace such a position. Here is a biblical test: 1 John 3:14. “We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren.”
A shepherd recognizes by experience that the sheep are prone to stray. But he does not consign the sheep to destruction because he has wandered off. Instead, he girds himself and goes searching, yet again, seeking and endeavoring to find. All who lead in the local church are called to make this same spirit of Christ their own spirit. It is a higher call. You are to walk in the footsteps of Moses, David, and most of all, Christ.
One taking on such a mantle asks himself, Who is sufficient for these things? (2 Corinthians 2:16). It is a healthy question. We are not. Christ is. Let us ever recall that without His power from beyond we can do nothing (John 5:30; 15:5). With His help and power, there are no limits!
A day is coming and coming quickly. On that day we will feel immeasurable sadness that we have not done more for the Master. We will long to have been stronger workers and to have had a hand in bringing many more souls to Christ than we did. You cannot change the past, or even the future; you can only change today.
At the end of his course, Paul could declare, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7). The latter portion of his life is a powerful example of service for Christ. How did it become that? By his relentless service for God through His church. Today we recognize these who choose to serve, and appoint them to service. May God grant to each one of us the same spirit and fresh opportunities to serve Jesus.
Charge and Ordination
And now, will those appointed for ordination come forward. Stand here in the front and and turn and face the congregation of the Lord. Hear the charge written in Scripture for you (1 Timothy 3:1-13):
This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous; One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity; (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?) Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover he must have a good report of them which are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. Likewise must the deacons be grave, not doubletongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre; Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. And let these also first be proved; then let them use the office of a deacon, being found blameless. Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things. Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well. For they that have used the office of a deacon well purchase to themselves a good degree, and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.
Is it your purpose, in the strength given you by God, to fill the office of service He has called you to through His church? If so, say amen.
At this time we will ordain. First, deacons, and lastly, elders. May the blessing of God be upon all His children who serve. GCO
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