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Title: Acts of Talents
What this is all about: You have a responsibility to the ministry of Jesus Christ
What I want you to know: You will be held responsible for your role in the ministry of Jesus Christ
What you need to do: Respond with faith to the call that you have been given to the ministry of Jesus Christ
How you need to do this: Recognize the gifts that have been given to you and use them.
Series: Acts of Harvest
Text: ,
Date: February 11, 2018
Pastor Mike Ellis
Introduction:
- Today we are going to continue our journey through the book of Acts through the lens of harvesting.
- This theme comes from the words of Jesus Christ found in .
- We are now six weeks into this study, and we should have learned some things that change our lives.
- Starting with the very idea that you have been called to be workers of the harvest.
- The second lesson was that you need to be prepared to respond when the Holy Spirit says to do so.
- The third lesson was that your devotion needs to be only to God and His work.
- The fourth lesson was about being bold for the Lord, and how this can only be accomplished through a courageous faith.
- Last week the lesson was in unity, and the absolute necessity of being of one heart and one mind.
- We saw this unity through some people of the church selling some of their extra land and homes for those that were in need.
- The whole point was to be crucifying one self for the greater good of all.
- Today we will continue the thought of crucifying self, but we will do so with service to God and His church through ministry using the gifts that have been given to you.
Read
1. Talents Noticed
- There was church in Dallas Texas that was at war with itself.
- The church was about to split when the truth was finally revealed.
See also ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
- A church leader had received a smaller slice of ham than a child that was sitting next to him.
- Can you imagine what the press would have done with that story?
- “The hamstrung preacher”
- “The pork bellied deacon”
- “The three little pigs that stayed home”
- We find a similar setting here in the book of Acts.
- Just last week we read of a church that was united, so what happened.
- The church was growing, and growing churches will have some struggles.
- Struggles that if not handled quickly and correctly will cause a blow up.
- For the Jerusalem church as with almost all church issues the problem was internal.
- Blaming outside sources will only get you so far, sooner or later you have to recognize the reflection in front of you.
- The real problems are within.
- Charles Spurgeon once said “that if you find a perfect church don’t join”
- For the Jerusalem Church, the problem was some griping church members.
- At this point it had been about 5 years since the day of Pentecost and a lot was happening.
- People were getting saved, they were coming to services, there was great excitement.
- And then, the complaints.
- Here we have some grumbling going on.
- This word grumble is best described when Israel was complaining against Moses while in the desert.
- The compliant was that the Greek-speaking Jews felt neglected when it came to the portions given to the widows
- They were suspicious of the Aramaic-speaking Jews
- They were making claims that their widows were getting ripped off, and that they were not getting the support they needed.
- We have no way of knowing if the accusations were true, but they were put out there for all to see and hear.
- The apostles had to do something and do it quickly.
- They recognized they should not do all the work themselves
- There response was for the church to choose among themselves people who could help.
- The church chose 7 men that fit the description given by the apostles and take note here that they chose 7 Greek-speaking men to oversee this work.
2. Talents Used
- We see in our verses how these men responded.
- They went right to work, doing what was asked of them.
- They were to serve food to the church members, and make sure that no one was shorted of any amount.
- It is here that we find the mention of the word diakonia which is Greek for deacon.
- This means servant or helper to the pastor, and servant or helper to the church.
- The servants that were appointed used their God given talents to minister to the church.
- All throughout Scripture we can find great examples of people just like you stepping up and into the role that was given to them.
- Noah and building the ark
- Jacobs son Joseph and his many roles in his life
- The Levites taking the role as priests
- Solomon building the temple
- Ezekiel being a watchman
- Jesus Christ dying on the cross
- Ray Miner and ...
- Kent Hatling and ...
-You and ...
- All of this work was done through the using of the gifts that were given.
- If you want to use your God given talents, then ask Him, get on your knees and pray that He opens the doors to be used, but you better go through the door.
- You cannot live your life just peaking in at the other side, you must walk through.
3. Talents Rewarded
- The Bible uses rewards—as a motivation for service
- While the greatest motivation is love for Jesus
- Rewards are used and we should be concerned about them
-Jesus gives the Parable of the Talents in
-This parable has a simple message:
*True and false disciples will be distinguished by how they invest the resources that Christ has given them
-True disciples will serve Jesus
*they will use the resources that Jesus has given them
-False disciples will not serve Jesus
*they will not use the resources that Jesus has given them
-Those who use their resources will receive eternal reward
-Those who don’t use their resources will receive eternal judgment
-Jesus doesn’t call everyone to pastor a church
-Jesus doesn’t call everyone to foreign missions
-But he does call everyone to service
-He gives us all resources
*gifts *talents *opportunities to use them
-He expects us to use those resources in serving him
-You don’t hear many lessons like this today
-It seems that the common thought is
(1) God calls preachers—and gifts them to do ministry
(2) God calls missionaries—and gifts them to do ministry
(3) And everybody else was free to do what they wanted to do
(4) God called missionaries—to do ministry
(5) And everybody else was free to do what they wanted to do
-You are OK—so long as you showed up to church
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