Transcript

Take your Bibles and let’s go to Ephesians and we are into Ephesians 3. And once again the apostle has laid this magnanimous, glorious, theological foundation, if you will, and that’s the common way the epistles are written. Normally there is a section of doctrine or theology and then the practical outworking but don’t think that the theological section is not practical. It’s very important that you grasp the theology because it humbles and tenderizes the heart. It makes you grateful and endears you to treasure and love the Lord and that’s what you must have to walk out the practical end of those epistles.

So the apostle is writing to this Gentile church and, once again, we’re so removed from the cultural context of who he is writing to and what he’s writing about. He’s writing as a Jewish man who has been converted to Christ and placed in the office of apostle, and he’ll talk a lot about that in this part of the text. And he’s writing to these Gentiles telling them that God has this glorious plan that cannot fail, and as I said in the message earlier today, God achieved, provided for this plan through the merits of his Son Jesus Christ, and that is that God would through his Son’s work save for himself a people and those people would be his and they would know him and they would begin to love him and treasure him and adore him.

As a matter of fact, if you’ve been saved more than four or five years and you’ve been under good preaching. I hope my preaching by God’s grace is good preaching, good in the sense not of my style or delivery but in the content of what is preached. Can you say honestly, “I do know him and I do love him and I do treasure him more than I did several years ago. The more I learn of him, the more I learn of my Savior, I just do.” And you th know, here I am and I say this a lot maybe, but I’m in my 38 or so year here, I mean in totality, and my goodness at the hours I have put in studying and preaching and I still open the word of God and I still marvel. I’m still humbled. I’m still overwhelmed.

Bob Dylan, of all people, after his conversion and I believe Bob Dylan had a genuine conversion, but he had these words in a song,

“Of all those who have eyes and all those who have ears, It is only he who can reduce me to tears.” And there is truth in that. Anyway, the apostle is writing to these Gentiles telling them God is saving for himself a people and it’s not just of one nationality or ethnic race. He’s bringing in folks from all peoples, all tongues, all tribes, and all nations. He’s going to add to the Jews, he’s going to save many Jews and make them his eternal people, but he’s also saving many of you Gentiles and Paul is going to say, “And he has called me to be the apostle, you might say the lead preacher to get this started among the non-Jews, the Gentiles.” So he has given us this glorious theological foundation through chapter 2, verse 10 or so, and then he starts getting into practical things of how this is working out. So he moves a little further and says, “Now, this is how all this is working and developing out in time and space history.”

Chapter 3, verse 1, and I was going to go through verse 13 but I think we’ll just go short tonight and just go through verses 1 and 2, alright? That’s really really short and don’t get real used to it, if you don’t mind. Paul says, “For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus,” notice it here, “for the sake of you Gentiles.” That is pregnant with meaning. We’ll get into that in a moment. Verse 2, “if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you.” I’ve called this “The Master’s Minister,” and it’s going to take several sessions to get all of this in. The Master’s Minister. Actually, we’ll go down to verse 13 and Paul will weave in there many many aspects of how God calls his minister and how God particularly called Paul to be the foundational preacher to develop God’s people among the Gentiles.

Now, first of all, I. God calls and captures his ministers. I really struggled with which word to put verse there. I really would like to put captures and calls but then I like calls and captures, so I’ve gone back and forth through the years so pick the one you like. God calls and captures or captures and calls his own ministers. In verse 1 there he says very simply, “I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus.” That sounds like a capture, doesn’t it? You’ve been captured. You’ve been apprehended and that’s what he means. Actually, I think there is a dual meaning here. First of all, Paul was imprisoned by the Romans for his ministry to the Gentiles. As he preaches to the Gentiles, they reject his message and he begins to tell them, “Well, God has really called me to say a word to you guys, the Jews, but now he is closing the door on you and he’s sending me to the Gentiles.” Well, they got mad about everything he was saying, they didn’t like the Gospel of Christ, any of that, but I think they were also offended at the fact that he said God is closing things off to you and we’re going to the Gentiles.

As a matter of fact, flip back in your Bibles to Acts 21. Would you do that? Keep your finger in Ephesians 3, or I keep my Bible ribbon there, and go to Acts 21 and look at verse 27. Here’s where Paul is literally apprehended. He said, “When the seven days were almost over, the Jews from Asia, upon seeing him in the temple, began to stir up all the crowd and laid hands on him, crying out, ‘Men of Israel, come to our aid! This is the man who preaches to all men everywhere against our people and the Law and this place; and besides he has even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.'” Now, let me stop right there. Notice what they’re saying. This Paul, this guy, he preaches against our people and that’s because Paul began to tell them God is saving people other than just Jews. The Jews do have a special favor bestowed on them but God is also reaching out in grace to other peoples. And they say he preaches against the law because he began to tell them the law doesn’t save you, grace saves you. The law is the tutor which leads you to the grace of God through his Son Jesus Christ. And when they say he preaches against this place, they mean the temple and all of its ceremonial law as Paul begins to preach salvation is by grace through faith and not through the works of ceremonial law of coming to this Jewish temple. So you can just imagine how deeply offended they are at this. Terribly offended.

Verse 29 says, “For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with him, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple. Then all the city was provoked, and the people rushed together, and taking hold of Paul they dragged him out of the temple, and immediately the doors were shut.” So here we have this mob descending on Paul, grabbing him with their own hands and dragging him away.

Now, chapter 22, verse 21, “And He said to me, ‘Go! For I will send you far away to the Gentiles.'” Now, Paul is saying, “This is what God was telling me to do.” Verse 22, “They listened to him up to this statement,” so that’s the statement that really got them angry, that God said, “You’re not to minister to the Jews, you’re to go to the Gentiles,” and they thought, “We can’t bear that.” “They listened to him up to this statement, and then they raised their voices and said, ‘Away with such a fellow from the earth, for he should not be allowed to live!'” We’ll keep on going down to verse 23 and 24, “And as they were crying out and throwing off their cloaks and tossing dust into the air,” I mean, they were besides themselves in anger in showing this venting of righteous indignation. That’s what they presupposed they were doing. Verse 24, “the commander ordered him to be brought into the barracks, stating that he should be examined by scourging so that he might find out the reason why they were shouting against him that way.” So Paul said, “I’m the prisoner of Christ Jesus for doing what Christ called me to do, for preaching the truth that God called me to preach. I have literally been imprisoned by the Romans for this Gospel and for this ministry.” Paul actually saw his imprisonment as a part of God’s overall plan for his life and his ministry.

Now, secondly, there is a spiritual application here. Not only was he literally a prisoner for Christ Jesus but, secondly, he viewed being Christ’s prisoner as a calling from God. Paul viewed himself as Christ’s slave, as Christ’s servant. He would even use the word “bondslave.” You’ve heard many times the word “bondslave” was often used for the most menial slave. And slavery had a lot of different statuses or levels, if you will, in this day and sometimes a slave wouldn’t be too much different than an employee in our day, but then there were bondslaves who had no rights and no freedoms and Paul said, “I’m the bondslave of Jesus Christ. I’m his prisoner.”

Paul understood that both in his conversion and in his calling into ministry, he was captured and apprehended by God. Listen to me, someone may capture or apprehend you against your will and if they are anyone other than God, you must resist it. But if God captures you and apprehends you, you submit and say, “Yes, Lord.” That’s what he’s saying. Paul says, “I want you Jews to understand and now you Gentiles, the Ephesians to understand, I didn’t choose this role for me. I didn’t choose to become a Christian. I didn’t choose to become a minister. I didn’t choose to become an apostle. And I did not choose to become the apostle to the Gentiles. God apprehended me and gave me this role and I am his bondslave so here we go.” By the way, God does that for all his ministers.

Now, there are no more apostles and there are no more apostles to the Gentiles but every man truly called is a man apprehended by God. Every man called to preach should be able to know in his heart, “Woe is me if I do not preach the Gospel!” I’m telling you, I could not live if I were not allowed to preach the Gospel. I’ve often said you could put me in a ditch and if I have to live in a ditch, if there is one other person there that needs to be evangelized or grow as a Christian, I’ve got a purpose. Now, think about that. That’s a good way to live, isn’t it? Think about it. I’ve got a purpose. If somebody, if one person needs to be converted or they need to grow in Christ, then I have a purpose because God has apprehended me to be his minister. I know that.

As a matter of fact, let’s just look at the story of this. Let’s go back to Acts 9 this time. Acts 9 and we’ll begin in verse 1. “Now Saul,” of course that was Paul’s name pre- conversion, “still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?’ And he said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And He said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, but get up and enter the city, and it will be told you what you must do.'” Isn’t that amazing? He gets saved and immediately God says, “Now you’re under my orders. I’m going to tell you what you’re going to do.”

Verse 7, “The men who traveled with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; and leading him by the hand, they brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank.” Well, let’s go on to verse 16, “Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias; and the Lord said to him in a vision, ‘Ananias.’ And he said, ‘Here I am, Lord.’ And the Lord said to him, ‘Get up and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him, so that he might regain his sight.’ But Ananias answered, ‘Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he did to Your saints at Jerusalem; and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name.’ But the Lord said to him,” that’s the Lord saying to Ananias, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine,” that’s apprehension, “to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake.”

I mean, God says, “I am in total charge. I am in complete control of these events.” Paul saw himself as sought by God, conquered by God, captured by God, converted by God, and now commissioned by God to the Gospel ministry and particularly as things unfolded, to the Gentiles in particular. In every way Paul viewed himself as belonging to Christ. So as Paul is writing these glorious truths in chapters 1 and 2 about salvation by grace through faith alone, and all that God in his sovereignty has done to build that and make that happen, then Paul gets to this part and says, “But in the outworking of that ministry in bringing it to fruition, God has started off by calling me as a man in the office of apostle to begin this ministry among the Gentiles.”

Now actually Paul’s conversion, though different in some particulars but in principle is the same as ours. God sought Paul, God sought you. God conquered Paul, God conquered you. By the Holy Spirit he came in and conquered your spirit and humbled you. God captured Paul and God captured you. When you are born again, that’s God capturing you. The Bible says you’ve been adopted. Have you ever seen a baby adopt themselves? No, you adopt the baby and God does that to us. He adopts us into his family. And he seals us by the Holy Spirit. That’s God capturing us. He sought us, he conquered, he has captured us, and then we are called to be his servants and his ministers. No, most of you are not called to be men in the office of pastor or preacher, but you are all called to be ministers for God. God has saved every one of us to serve him so there are many parallels here. We are all, in effect, Christ’s prisoners and joyfully so. In every way, I belong to Christ. I am imprisoned by God to the riches of Christ and the blessings of eternal salvation. So God calls and captures his own ministers. Some are ministers in the sense of a formal office but all Christians are God’s ministers.

Now, II. God empowers his ministers. God empowers his ministers. Back to our text in Ephesians 3. He says he has, in verse 2 there, “a stewardship of God’s grace.” Stewardship of God’s grace, that means God’s divine unmerited favor was granted to him that he might not only be saved but that he might fulfill the office of apostle. It’s a divine unmerited favor that he is responsible, he has this stewardship. A steward is one who is responsible for another man’s property. Now, all these Gentiles that God is going to save and make a part of his eternal family of people, they are God’s but Paul has the stewardship of serving God and getting the Gospel to them and converting them and organizing them into local churches and appointing their first elders or pastors to oversee them. So it’s all unfolding in God’s timetable and he says it’s just a grace gift that I get this stewardship, this responsibility of apostle to the Gentiles.

Notice how he words it again in verse 7 of chapter 3, he says, “of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God’s grace,” it’s a gift that I get to do this, “according to the working of His power.” So this was God’s doing and not man’s. God had a plan from eternity to call to himself a people, if you will, a church. What’s the word “church” mean? The word “church” is the Greek word “ekklesia.” It means “called out ones.” God is in the business of using his Gospel, primarily the preaching of the Gospel, to call people out from making the world the center of their lives to making Christ and his church the center of their lives, and you can’t be a part of God’s church if you’re not one of his called out ones. “Well, pastor, how do we know if someone is really a called out one?” By the evidence Scripture prescribes and Scripture prescribes the evidence of repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ.

So God is calling out for himself a people, but not just from among the Jews but as he’s saying to these Ephesian Greeks, from the Gentiles also, and he is converting them and calling them and using a man in the office of apostle, that’s Saul or Paul, to take this Gospel to these Gentiles. And by the way, God is still doing the same thing today. While he’s not calling apostles, there are no men with authority over all the churches who can just walk in like an apostle could and he’s in charge. God is not doing that, but he is calling pastor/teachers to lead in using the apostle’s doctrine recorded as New Testament Scripture, using the apostle’s doctrine to preach and teach and build up God’s churches.

Ephesians 4:11 as this all continues to unfold, that is how God is working out this plan of bringing this glorious salvation to fruition throughout the earth, in Ephesians 4:11, “And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers.” What for? Verse 12, “for the equipping of the saints,” that’s us, that’s local church members, “for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ.” Another good cross-reference, 1 Timothy 3:1, “It is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do.” So Paul says, “I’m one of those ministers and I have this ministry because God’s grace has empowered me to carry out this ministry. He has called me to it and it empowers me to carry it out.”

Now, there are two or three things I’d like to say here before we close. First of all, by grace we were gifted to minister in the church. By grace we are all like Paul was gifted to minister to the Gentiles, we are all gifted to minister to our local churches. Now, God has not given you the responsibility to go out into the world and minister to everybody, everywhere, all you can. That would be unreasonable. It would be undoable. But he has given you the responsibility to look to take care of a certain group of people and that’s your local church. And here at Grace Life Church, that would break down further to your small group.

Paul says it very clearly referring to himself but, again, the truth parallels over to all of us, look at verse 2, chapter 3, “indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me,” here it is, two words, “for you.” It’s for you. So you could actually turn to the person in the pew beside you, turn to the person in your small group beside you on Sunday morning and say, “God has given me grace and a giftedness for you.” And then look at another person there and say, “for you.” Then look at another person in your class and say, “for you.” Your spiritual gift is not for you, it’s for them. Amen? It’s just thorough in the Scripture. God didn’t call Paul to be apostle for Paul, he called him to be an apostle for the Gentile church. God didn’t give you your gifts and callings for you, he gave you your gift and callings for the folks in your small group. It parallels. It’s true for all of us. It’s just the same for every believer.

Listen to Romans 12:6, “Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly.” So you’re given a different gift. I like to say you each have a spiritual gift mix. You each have a certain percentage of some kind of spiritual gift or gifts, rather, and each one of you are a snowflake. Now, that’s got a real negative connotation in our present culture. I don’t mean that kind of snowflake, but I mean each snowflake is unique and so each one of you has a unique measure of various spiritual gifts. God made you unique so that you could minister to the body called Grace Life Church in a way nobody else in this church can minister.

So all of us have been granted a stewardship, a responsibility of God’s grace for ministry to God’s church. It’s a grace gift that you got this gift. It’s a grace gift that you get to serve others in the church. Our goal as pastors here has been to strive to get enough truly regenerate, saved people, so that you really understand what it’s like to serve other saved people with your gifts. Most churches today spend much of their time pampering flesh babies, not using spiritual gifts to build up the body and it’s a waste and a dishonor to God. Is flesh babies too strong? Well, I mean flesh babies because I mean people who are not born again of the Spirit, they are still in the flesh, and if you’re still in the flesh, you walk into the church for yourself and it’s all about you.

1 Peter 4:10, “each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards,” that’s the word Paul used, “of the manifold grace of God.” You’ll give an account at the judgment seat of Christ. God is going to say, “I gave you responsibility. I gave you a stewardship when I gave you your gifts at conversion. Were you faithful in ministering in your church?” 1 Corinthians 12:7, “But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” The manifestation of the Spirit means the spiritual gift you were given for the good of those around you, not for you.

When I was first converted, I heard so much talk about spiritual gifts and what a blessing they were to you. That’s upside down. It may not always be a blessing for you to serve others around you but generally it is. It’s not about you having a certain experience or certain high or certain feeling or certain blessing, it’s about you recognizing what needs to be done, I’m going to serve my brothers and sisters. I have this stewardship that I’m responsible for just like Paul had his.

So not only do we have by grace been gifted to minister in the church, we are by grace also empowered for our ministry in the church. Empowered. You don’t do this in your strength, you do it in his strength. 1 Corinthians 12:6 reminds us, “There are varieties of effects,” that phrase there varieties of effects, that word “effects” has the idea of energizing. That is, the energizing to perform, as he continues on, “but the same God who works,” effectually works, that is, “all things in all persons.” So God gave you a gift and then he gives you a spiritual power to exercise it. So now, listen, if someone is lazy and unfaithful in their serving the body of Christ, they are 100% without excuse. God gave you gifts and he gave you power to exercise them for the common good, for your brothers and sisters around you.

Thirdly, in grace God gives gifted men to oversee the ministry of the saints one to another. As he said in Ephesians 4:11, he gives you pastor/teachers for the equipping of the saints, that’s the church members, to do the work of the service, or work of service, that’s the service we all have together. Another amplification of this is 2 Timothy 3:16 and 2 Timothy 4:2, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.” In other words, the pastor is going to equip you and oversee you so that you can be equipped and trained for your work of service. 2 Timothy 4:2, “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.” Another one, 1 Thessalonians 5:12, “But we request of you, brethren, that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you,” now notice this, “and have charge over you in the Lord.” So God says, “Like Paul, I have given all of you a stewardship, a responsibility by giving you a giftedness to serve in the body of Christ. Now, secondly, I didn’t leave you to do that in your strength, I gave you the Spirit to enable you to serve in that gift, to exercise it and live it out.”

Now, here’s what the Spirit enables you to do. Are you listening? He enables you to do your service and die to yourself and not care what gets done for you. Sealing in the Holy Spirit can do that. Your flesh can’t do that but the Spirit in you can do that. That’s why the Apostle Paul said, “I have to die daily.” Now don’t think, “Well, I died good last week but I’m not so dead today.” We’ve got to die daily and only the Spirit can get you dead daily and get you to where, “I can serve others and not think about me.”

And then, thirdly, in grace he gives gifted men, I don’t mean gifted in the sense that they are better than anybody else, just that God has called them to a certain office of leadership and gifts them for that calling so that they can oversee, that’s why he says in 1 Thessalonians 5:12, they have charge over you, he can oversee the proper orchestration, if you will, of the carrying out of these gifts. And that’s why we’ve worked very very very hard at small groups for all these years, because our job is to oversee the orchestration of the body serving and caring and ministering and loving and encouraging each other through small groups. It’s just 2,000 year old A, B, C, normal Christianity. That’s all it is.

We found something quite amazing in finding small groups who really love, serve, care, encourage, reprove, rebuke if necessary, look after, meet needs, we found a very very fascinating, essential, important truth if you want to see that happen in a church: you have to have truly saved people in your church. They have to be really converted. They can’t be Baptists who prayed a prayer at vacation Bible school when they were six but have never had a heart change. It won’t work. They have to be truly converted souls to really live this out and be faithful in it week in, week out, month in, month out, year in, year out, now for 38 years that’s my experience. And actually they told me lately that our percentage of folks faithful in small groups is about as high as it’s ever been and that’s a wonderful encouragement because everybody in some capacity needs to be thinking about how they are caring and ministering to others.

Well, I’ll end with this. I’ll end with this and one other thought. Romans 12:11, “not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.” Now, this is in the context of spiritual gifts and serving each other. Are you fulfilling your God-ordained ministry? Now, let me say again what I have said a thousand times about how you serve the Lord. You say, “I’m not sure what my gifts are.” Don’t worry about it. I’m not big on you taking these tests to find out what your gifts are. I’ve seen too many people take those tests, those spiritual gifts tests, I’m not saying they are sin but I’ve seen so many people take those spiritual gifts test and then they put on a badge and it’s like the union. They walk around, “I do this, this, this. I don’t do that, that and that.” Well, that, that, that may need to get done. “Well, that’s not what I do because I’ve got my gift.” I’m going to tell you what your gift is, your gift is that you have been privileged to be a part of the body of Christ and what you ought, this is where Jeff Noblit started and all of you ought to start here and that is: if it needs to be done and you can do it, do it. Is that spiritual? And what you’ll find out is I knew early on God had called me to pastor and preach. I knew it but God needed me to spend several years under someone else and serving and obeying and doing whatever needed to be done. I went to every kid’s camp, every children’s thing, every nursery thing, every student thing, every college thing. It didn’t matter. We did it. You just do what needs to be done.

So if you’re a newer church member and wonder, “How can I serve the Lord here?” Go to your small group leader and say this, “If you have something that needs to be done, if I can do it, I’ll do it.” If you have that spirit, you cannot miss the place God eventually wants you to get to, because what God is doing first is building your character before he puts you in your calling. Don’t ever forget that. Raise your children that way. Build your character.

“Well, my small group is doing this and I’m not really excited about that.” Well, bless your little heart. We’ll try to build it so you will be excited about it, and then we’ll try to build it so that the student ministry is all excited, and then we’ll try to build it so that the children, it’s always exciting, then we’ll just build it to where the nursery is always exciting, then we’ll build it so that the young singles, it’s always exciting, and the young married, it’s always exciting, and then we’re going to change it for the midlife crisis people, it’s always exciting, then the senior adults, we are going to shape it so the senior adults think it’s always exciting. It’s just going to be an exciting church. We used to have that name, didn’t we? No, I’ll tell you what we’ve got to do, start with me: get over yourself. It’s not about you. Your gift was given to you for your brothers and sisters around you.

If it needs to be done and you can do it. Now, if they ask you, “Well, next Sunday your pastor is going to be gone, we want you to preach.” You say, “Well, I can’t do that.” That’s fine. And our leaders are never going to ask you to do something you’re uncomfortable with. By the way, small group leaders, never never never put the people in your class on the spot. Don’t do that. That’s what accountability groups are for. That’s when we agree to get tough with each other. The classroom is like that Gentile court, it’s where people can come in to learn about God that may not know him. So we’re very careful in the small group to never put them on the spot, never put them under pressure, but to lovingly shepherd one another to serve one another in the body of Christ.

How are you doing? Are you fulfilling your stewardship so that one day you may not have had the unbelievably and awesome calling of being the apostle to the Gentiles, but you’ve got a calling and you’ve got a role and you’ve got a stewardship entrusted to you, and may you be able to do what the apostle to the Gentiles was able to say at the end, “I fought the good fight. I finished my course and I have kept the faith.”

Now, if I’m wrong, I’ll bear the burden at the judgment bar of God for you, and I mean that based on what I’m about to say. But if you’ll give your life to serve God in a healthy church, I believe you’ll go to the judgment seat of Christ with confidence and say, “God, we did your work, your way. I didn’t chase this ministry and that ministry and that ministry and that ministry. I stayed anchored in truth,” and the truth is God’s work is centered in and centered on his local churches.

Sometimes people say, ask me, “Is it okay, pastor, if I ministry with this group and basket fall for Jesus, and bass fishing for Jesus and deer hunting for Jesus and all these other ministries and groups?” I don’t think they’re wrong and I don’t think they’re sinful but here’s what I’m saying, I say, “You’ve taken a wife. When you go to church you took a wife, metaphorically speaking. When you took a wife, man, you may can help another lady around town who has a problem but that’s minimal compared to what you’ve got to do for your wife.” So you exhaust the needs in your local church and if there is anything left over, then you get to do other ministries. I’m confident that if you’ll do that, at the judgment seat of Christ you’ll fare very well.

But now listen to me, I’m concerned about a lot of folks who the local church was just something they used to support their ministry. You see, every ministry should actually be a local church ministry. It should be under the authority of the local church. We are looking at a missions group in South Africa and some years ago, there was a man that we supported for many years. I still love him and I still think he’s a good man but he would not submit his work to his local church. He would basically come in with an apostolic type spirit and expect the church to give a carte blanche blessing to whatever he wanted to do. Well, they loved him but they said, “No, we’ve got to oversee your work. There needs to be some aspect of accountability.” He was just too independent and proud hearted. He wouldn’t do that. So we eventually dropped our support because that’s not scriptural. Things are to be centered in God’s local church.

Well, you get that and you live that and that’s why so many many pastors love to come and hang around you because they are hoping they one day will have a church like you. So keep doing good. A lot of folks are looking at you and watching you. God’s ministers, the Master’s ministers.