Ministries of the Church Pt. 2: Fellowship, Worship, and Service

Today, many churches more concerned with finding out what works in order to have a successful church than looking to God’s Word to see what he wants his church to be.

This concern has led to the rise of pragmatic, seeker-sensitives churches who justify any activity they can imagine as a legitimate activity of the church as long as it is loosely connected to the gospel.

As long as it helps people “feel” connected to God or make people happy anything and doesn’t overtly contradict anything in Scripture, although that line is getting blurrier by the day, any activity that a church can dream up can be can accepted as

So you get churches that will try to get butts in the seats by giving away free gift cards to visitors or in the case of one church, even a car to try and boost their attendance for Easter.

Its also how you end up with churches all across the country that don’t spend their summers studying a book of the Bible, but instead look to Hollywood to have a sermon series called, Summer at the Movies where they study theological themes from the most popular films that hit the box office.

And here is the danger of these pragmatic churches and why every church must be on guard against doing anything that is not in accordance with God’s Word.

Churches that sell out and resort to grow by any means necessary, eventually sellout to the point where they lose the gospel because it is an offensive message that will never tickle the ears of the world.

Instead they dumb down sin, make Jesus into an inoffensive hippy who was all about love and freedom

And a church that abandons the gospel is not a church. And even scarier, a church that abandons the gospel is an offense to God deserving his judgment.

So perhaps the better question is not just what does a church do because obviously lots of organizations that call themselves churches do all kinds of things.

Instead, we must ask is what does the Bible say a church needs to do in order to glorify God and serve his purposes?

Earlier in this sermon series, we looked at the nature of the church where we focused on the defining marks of a biblical church.

During that time, we looked at what the Bible said a church is, church membership, the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and church discipline.

Then we looked at biblical church leadership. God has given his church Elders and Deacons to lead his people by equipping them for the work of ministry and instructing them in godly living.

Today we are in the the second sermon of our final section of this sermon series where we are looking at the Ministries of the Church.

In other words, what are the ministries that God has given every biblical church to

Our aim is to see what the Bible says God expects every churches to be actively doing if they are going to glorify his name, help the saints grow in Christ, and the proclaim the gospel to the lost.

And the Bible clearly lays out what these ministries are in which is a description of the very first church.

In this passage we see that there are five ministries that marked the life of the early church.

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

In this passage we are told that the church devoted themselves five ministries that marked the life of the early church.

First, they were devoted to the apostles teaching which we would call the Ministry of Preaching.

We are also told they devoted themselves to the fellowship and all the believers had everything in common with one another and even shared regular meals together. This is what we would call the Ministry of Fellowship.

Then they were devoted to the breaking of bread, which for Luke means the Lord’s Supper, and to prayer. We are told they were filled with awe and the met together regularly and praised God. This is the Ministry of Worship.

Then there is the Ministry of Service because all the saints were selling their belongings in order to care for one another.

And finally, we see that the church was devoted to the Ministry of Evangelism because we are told that the Lord added to their number day by day.

If our church is going to be biblical and glorify God in what we do, then we must hold on to these five ministries and faithfully grow in them the best we can.

Last week, Josh shared with us what this looks like in the Ministry of Preaching.

Today in part two, we are going to focus on three ministries: the Ministry of Fellowship, Worship, and Service.

Then next week in part three, we will close out our sermon series on the church and focus on the Ministry of Evangelism.

I. The Ministry of Fellowship

Now we aren’t going to do a deep dive on what fellowship is because we had a whole sermon on that earlier in our series called Membership That Matters so if you want to know more about what fellowship truly looks like I’d point you there.

To summarize for you, biblical fellowship comes from the Greek word that means to share something in common with one another.

According to it is also a gift that the Holy Spirit works in the life of the church.

The implication of both of these two things is that the Spirit gives us fellowship with one another by showing us everything we share in common through the gospel.

In Christ, we all have fellowship with God because through faith in his sinless life, sacrificial death, and bodily resurrection, our sins have been forgiven and we have been reconciled to our heavenly Father.

Because every Christian has fellowship with God, they also share fellowship with one another. Therefore, we are able to have unity and be one in Christ because the salvation we share far outweighs any worldly differences that we might have.

This unity is expressed then in our corporate life together where we love and serve one another. Or to say another way, have fellowship with each other.

If you’ll remember, in our sermon that focused on fellowship, I said that the simplest way I can define fellowship for you is Loving each other enough to help each other follow Jesus.

The fact of the matter is, no one is strong enough to follow Jesus on their own. With satanic attack, persecution from the world, not to mention the struggle with our sinful flesh, all of us need one another’s encouragement, love, and help if we are going to grow in Christ.

This is because every person is made in God’s image. This means there are some aspects of God that we reflect like a mirror to show his glory.

God is Trinity, and he has true fellowship within himself in the persons of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Because we are made in his image, we are made to live in community as well. God never imagined Christians to live as isolated believers.

As such, the fellowship we experience as the church is not an optional luxury, it is part of God’s essential provision to help strengthen our walk with Christ.

Let me tell you plainly. You will not grow in Christ on your own. Until you commit to other believers who are committed to you, you will always be stunted in your spiritual growth because you need other people to come alongside you.

To encourage you. Pray for you. Help bear your burdens and give you wisdom of what it means to follow Jesus.

This is why being a part of a church is so necessary for every Christian. Without the fellowship of other believers they are a lone sheep who is easy prey for any wandering lion that might saunter by.

So for a church to be a NT church at all, it must have fellowship among its members. The Ministry of Fellowship is absolutely indispensible for a church to be healthy because it affects all the other ministries of the church.

The ministry of preaching reminds us of our common salvation so that we fight for unity even when we sin against each other.

The Ministry of Worship rings hollow if our fellowship with others is broken because the Bible says we cannot love God whom we have not seen if we don’t love our brother or sister who is sitting right next to us.

Our fellowship also provides the motivation for the Ministry of Service because we are compelled to serve one another in the practical, material, and spiritual needs of life because we love one another.

Finally, our fellowship is also what will lead to effective evangelism. The love we have for one another puts teeth to the gospel we preach and shows the world that Jesus really does have the power to save because why else would a bunch of sinners love each other like this.

If fellowship is so important, how can we cultivate this ministry in our church?

While this could be its own sermon series, let me give you two small suggestions.

Join a Small Group

Community Groups are how we as a church intentionally gather together to work out the gospel in our lives.

If Sunday morning is where we gather to hear the gospel, then community groups are where we gather together to help one another live it out.

At our church, our community groups really aim at two things. Fellowship and discipleship. The big idea when we get together is to help one another see how Jesus is redeeming us. How he is working in our lives to make us more like him.

And what if your already in a Community Group? Most of our church is. Then I would encourage you to help your leader and the other people in your group make your group more than just a mundane Bible study.

Community Groups should not become a place where we are content to just talk about theology for an hour every week. Listen. I love theology but if that is what we are doing at group, I’m not interested. I don’t know how many people would be interested.

Instead, we should all make it our aim to practically and biblically apply the theology that we talk about to our lives in a tangible way. Then we will be able to truly help one another grow in Christ, revel in the salvation we share, and experience true fellowship.

So if you’re in a group, refuse to be content in just going through the motions. Play your part. Love the other people in your group and come every week expecting God to work in you and through you so that all of us can grow in Christ together.

Now I will say, community groups are not the only way you can experience biblical fellowship. In fact, you don’t technically need to be in a group to have fellowship with other believers. All of our Community Groups are just how we try to help facilitate these intentional relationships at our church.

But there is another way our church can experience true fellowship that is more organic and less formal and that is when we all make it our aim to...

Be Discipled and Make Disciples

Discipleship is following Jesus and helping others follow him too.

Every Christian is called to grow in Christ and come alongside another brother or sister to help them grow as well.

Think of the Christian life as a relay race. Every one of us is just taking the baton of faith with the aim of carrying it faithfully and handing it off to the next person. The Christian life was never meant to be a solo race. We are meant to run after Christ together and to help each other along the way.

That is all discipleship is, and making disciples is the mission of the church. Therefore, every Christian who is a part of the church should engage all their life towards this purpose.

The mission of the church is to make disciples, and therefore, every Christian who is a part of the church should engage all their life towards this purpose.

Maybe it will be helpful to think about discipleship like this. All it is is building a true friendship with a spiritual basis.

And immediately when you start encouraging Christians to disciple other Christians, they begin to doubt whether or not they can. They think to themselves, “What if I don’t know enough? What if I’m not mature enough?”

If that is the case, then find someone who knows less then you, or maybe a little less mature in their faith and show them what you do know.

At the same time, everyone of us should be listening to others who know more and are more mature than us so that we can grow in Christ.

At the heart of discipleship is teaching and being taught.

When you are discipling someone, all you’re saying is “I’ll give my life and my time for you. I’ll pray for you and try to give you some spiritual wisdom wherever I can so hopefully you can follow Jesus a little more faithfully.”

And if you still have doubts about whether you really can disciple someone else just remember, God is not asking you to be perfect to disciple someone else. He just asking you to help give direction to their walk with God.

Paul said Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.

When you disciple someone you are saying, I want you to follow me, like I follow Christ.

Not in a proud way because you know your own weaknesses. And it is good that you are weak and imperfect because If you were perfect, then you would be too hard to follow. No one can imitate perfection. Therefore, you’re imperfect example of what it means to follow Christ will actually be a huge encouragement to the person you are discipling.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), . If you were perfect, then you would be too hard to follow.

After all, when you are discipling someone, you are essentially just trying to help them pursue a godly life. How you know when someone is spiritually mature is when his or her involuntary responses to life are godly and not of the flesh. That’s how you know someone is walking in the Spirit.

It doesn’t mean they never struggle, but when they do their normal tendency is to respond in a godly way.

So when you disciple someone, you’re trying to bring that person to the point of maturity in some area of their life where they can spontaneously respond in a righteous way.

So how can you go about discipling and being discipled.

Let me first say that I don’t think discipleship only looks like getting together with an older saint for an hour every week for a year. That can definitely be what it looks like but it doesn’t have to even though many Christians assume if it doesn’t look like that then its not discipleship.

Discipleship can be more informal. It can be a formal relationship where you spend time together every week for an extended period of time. It also could just be a month or two weeks. Maybe you just want to go through one book or study one book of the Bible. You don’t have to commit to that person for life.

Truly, discipling someone else can be a single meeting to talk about one specific issue. Maybe you see a couple struggling with something in their marriage in a way that you recognize from your own life. That might be an opportunity from the Lord to come alongside them and share how God worked in your life through that situation so that maybe they can apply some of those lessons and grow in Christ.

Also, you don’t have to be more mature in every area of your life in order to disciple someone. Just because you don’t know anything about leading a company as a Christian doesn’t mean you couldn’t speak to a brother or sister who is the owner of a company and just became a new dad about what it means to be a godly father because you’ve raised 3 kids of your own.

There needs to be room in the life of our church for informal, mutual discipleship. Where we get together with other brothers and sisters to just talk about life and how God is working in us so that we can mutually encourage one another and give each other wisdom where we can.

So we should make it an effort to find people and ask them out to coffee or invite them over for a meal with the purpose of encouraging one another in the Lord.

Now that sounds great and all, but how do you actually disciple someone? Because just getting together for coffee or lunch does not mean we are being spiritually intentional? If we really want to disciple another Christian whether that is in a one time meeting or over the course of several months, what actually should you do?

Typically, when I disciple someone no matter the situation, I’m trying to do three things.

First, I want to Teach Them Biblical Truth. I will usually ask them to read a specific book or listen to a sermon or podcast, or even just get with them and ask them questions about the specific topics I want them to understand. Basically, I want to teach them on a personal level what God’s Word says about whatever they are going through or trying to grow in.

Then I Apply Scripture to Their Life. The biggest mistake you can make when discipling someone is to teach them principles without ever showing them how to put those principles into action. You want to ask questions that get them thinking about their own life from God’s perspective. You’re trying to help them interpret their life spiritually and then respond to life in a godly way.

In this step, I’m trying to get them to see how Scripture speaks directly to their life in some circumstance so they can know how God expects them to act in response which leads to the third thing I do which is to...

Work with them to Solve Problems and Respond to Life Biblically. This is where you work with them to help them see how to act on the biblical truth that applies to their life. I ask them what are some of the ways Christ wants them to live out the truth we’ve talked about to help them see their life through a spiritual lens so that they live for Christ instead of walking in their sinful flesh.

Basically, if you want to disciple someone effectively, you want to teach them the Bible, show them how it applies directly to their life and then help them to apply it to their day to day life. It really is that simple and as long as you are one step further along in your walk in some area of you’re life, you can come alongside another brother or sister and say, “Imitate me as I Imitate Christ.”

The Ministry of Fellowship is the life blood of the church, and without it, no church can be healthy. It is a picture to the lost of how we have fellowship with God through Jesus Christ, and it is how God strengthens and encourages us to continue walking in the gospel instead of walking in our sin.

The next ministry that is essential for a church to prioritize if they are going to be a biblical church is...

II. The Ministry of Worship

To worship God is to ascribe worth to him.

Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.

Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

As God’s holy people, the church is called to declare the praises of our God for saving us in Jesus Christ. We are to ascribe glory to God and to worship him with all our life in thankfulness for his salvation.

This is exactly the idea Peter gets at in

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

But with such confusion as to what worship actually is, many churches have lost what it means to truly worship God when they gather together.

So what I want to do is to show you what true worship is according to the Bible.

True worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

When Jesus says that true worshipers “will worship” it is better to say that they “must worship.” That tells us that in this verse, Jesus is not talking about the kind of worship that God prefers. He is talking about the only kind of worship that God accepts, namely worship offered in spirit and in truth.

The word “spirit” does not refer to the Holy Spirit as in Christians will worship in or by the Spirit which is true. What Jesus means here is that to truly worship, a person cannot simply conform to external religious rituals (that is outwardly). Instead, true worship begins inwardly (that is in the spirit) with the proper heart attitude towards the Lord.

The word “spirit” does not refer to the Holy Spirit as in Christians will worship in or by the Spirit which is true. What Jesus means here is that to truly worship, a person cannot simply conform to outward religious rituals. Instead, true worship begins inwardly (that is in our spirit) with the proper heart attitude towards the Lord.

Basically, God does not want your religious works of sacrifice, he wants your heart.

So when we gather together to worship, are you just going through the motions or are you drawing near to God so that he will draw near to you?

When you sing songs, are you just going through the motions or are you proclaiming the truths that we sing believing they are true for you?

Do you intentionally listen to the preaching of God’s Word knowing that through it God is working to convict, encourage and edify you?

Or what about when we pray together as a congregation? Do you just bow your head and close your eyes and let your mind wander before you hear Amen or do you join in the prayer yourself so that we are corporately asking God for the things we are praying for our church?

God wants worshipers who don’t just go through the motions, but truly worship him from the heart.

Not only that, but true worshipers of God will also worship in truth. This means that our worship must be consistent with Scripture and centered on the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ.

Not only that, but true worship is also grounded in truth. This means that our worship must be consistent with God’s Word.

We do not worship an unknown and secretive God who we are trying to figure out like some kind of pagan puzzle.

We worship a God that has perfectly revealed himself in the Word made flesh Jesus Christ, and has preserved this revelation in the Holy Scriptures.

Therefore, when we worship God we don’t worship someone who we get to make in our image. We worship him as he has revealed himself to be. Many churches will try to soften God’s Word to make God more appealing to the lost.

They will emphasize his love and grace while completely ignoring his righteousness and wrath against sin.

This dear Christian is idolatry. Any time we fail to worship God as he has revealed himself, we are making an idol of our own design and worshiping it as the God of the Bible.

Not only that, but worshiping God in truth also means that we must worship him in the way that he has revealed in Scripture and not however we see fit.

This is what is known as the Regulative Principal. If you don’t know, the Regulative Principle says that when we gather for worship, we should only include practices that Scripture either explicitly or implicitly endorses.

Some churches follow what is known as the Normative Principle which says that whatever is not explicitly prohibited in Scripture should be accepted in worship services when churches gather.

This is how you get churches that will have a painting room or perform an interpretive dance or a drama skit.

Its not that these acts are evil or wicked. Just that they don’t belong in the corporate worship of God’s people.

Instead we should form our liturgy, which is just a fancy way of saying how we organize our worship services, around those things that the Bible expects when God’s people gather.

So these would be practices like the preaching and reading of Scripture. Singing hymns and other spiritual songs. Prayer. The ordinances of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. As well as giving our tithes and offerings as an act of worship that says we love God more than the things of this world and trust him to provide for all our needs knowing that giving to support the mission of his Kingdom is more important than anything else in this life.

All throughout the Old Testament we see how God was very particular how his people approached him in worship. They were not free to do so in whatever way made them happy. Instead, they approached him on his terms because God is holy and worshiping him as he commands shows that we recognize and exalt his holiness.

So all this to say, when we gather together to worship, it should be to worship God for who he is on his terms.

Focused on God

Jesus says that the aim of our worship should be to glorify the Father.

In both the Old and New Testaments the most common words for worship carry the idea of bowing down with awe-filled reverence before God.

This tells us that a church’s worship must be decidedly focused on God and not on us.

Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.

To worship God is to ascribe to him honor, glory, adoration, praise, reverence and devotion that is due to him for both his greatness and his goodness.

His greatness because he is the sovereign creator of the universe and the only True God.

His goodness because he is our blessed redeemer who did not leave us dead in our sins, but sent his Son Jesus to die for us so that we might be forgiven through faith.

And specifically, we worship God as he has revealed himself in Jesus Christ. True worship will always include the exaltation of Christ as we worship God by the power of the Holy Spirit.

When you sing songs, are you just going through the motions or are you proclaiming the truths that we sing believing they are true for you?

The only reason we are able to approach the Father in worship is because we have had our sins forgiven through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and this gospel has saved us through the work of the Holy Spirit who gives us new hearts that desire to worship God instead of living for our sin.

Therefore, our primary concern when we come to church should not be what to we get out of it. Instead it should be, is God pleased with our worship.

Do we actually value the preaching of God’s Word and receive it eagerly with thankfulness by responding to God in obedience to what his Word says?

This is the kind of worship that God desires from us and this is the kind of worship that edifies us and helps us to grow in Christ.

Jesus is worthy of all our worship because the Father has given him the name that is above every name. God is Trinity, he is One God in three persons. Therefore we cannot truly worship if we are not worshiping all three the persons of the Trinity for their work in the gospel.

When we pray, do you just bow your head and close your eyes and grab a quick nap before you hear Amen or do you join in the prayer yourself so that we are corporately asking God for the things we are praying for our church?

So what does all this have to do with you? How should the ministry of worship practically work itself out in your life?

Spirit-Empowered

Now you might wonder, “What about the Spirit?” Later in Paul wrote that we worship quote “by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus.”

Worship Application

Empowered by the Spirit

The next thing we see is that Jesus says we must worship God in Spirit. This means that our worship must be empowered by the Holy Spirit who lives in us.

Now, the word “spirit” does not refer to the Holy Spirit as in Christians will worship in or by the Spirit. What Jesus means here is that to truly worship, a person cannot simply conform to external religious rituals (that is outwardly). Instead, true worship begins inwardly (that is in the spirit) with the proper heart attitude towards the Lord.

Basically, God does not want your religious works of sacrifice, he wants your heart.

So when we gather together to worship, we approach the Father, covered by the blood of the Son, empowered and transformed by the Spirit to give God the glory due his name.

So why do I say that true worship must be empowered by the Spirit.

It is because the Spirit is the one who gives life to our dead stony hearts and opens our eyes to the gospel so that we can worship God. Without his ministry in our life, our worship will always be dead and unfit to worship God.

Likewise, Jesus said in that the Holy Spirit glori

Centered on Christ

Finally, Jesus says that we will worship him not only in spirit but also in truth. The truth that Jesus was talking about was God’s Word, and this speaks to two ideas.

First and foremost, when you come to worship with God’s people you should war against just going through the motions. See this time together as an opportunity to gather with your brothers and sisters in the faith and celebrate God for his salvation.

First, Jesus is the Word made flesh, so our worship should glorify the Father by the power of the Spirit as we focus on Christ and his gospel.

It is only in Christ that we are reconciled to God and able to approach his throne in worship. Without the blood of the lamb covering us, we would not know God and could not worship God as Father.

Therefore, all our worship should center on Christ and his work in the gospel because it is only through him that we are born again and adopted as God’s own son and daughters.

Biblically Grounded

Engage your hearts and minds in the worship service.

Therefore, true worship is not only done in spirit and in truth, it is also Trinitarian in nature.

Revel in the preaching of God’s Word knowing that God is gracious in revealing himself to us in the Scriptures.

When you sing songs, are you just going through the motions or are you proclaiming the truths that we sing believing they are true for you?

Celebrate God and all that he has done in singing loudly to the Lord, not because it is just something we do, but because it is how we praise the Lord together for his salvation.

Instead of turning your mind off until you hear someone say amen, pray with us as we seek the Lord and ask him to help us live for his glory. Pray that God wold answer the prayers we pray for yourself and for your brothers and sisters so that when we pray, we do so together as one body.

Celebrate the ordinances biblically. When we have a baptism, we should all remember that we were all buried in Christ and raised to walk in the newness of life. We should also celebrate the Lord’s Supper in a way that reaffirms our commitment to him and to one another remembering his body broken and blood shed for us. Not treat it with the reverence of a mid church snack.

Finally, we should joyfully give our tithes and offerings knowing that giving helps support the work for the Kingdom that God is doing here and across the world through our Missions giving. To trust Jesus when he said that we cannot serve God and money because we will end up hating one in favor of the other.

And all of this speaks to the second way the Ministry of Worship should affect our lives. We must reclaim the Sunday gathering as an essential discipline for our Christian witness and spiritual growth.

Do we actually value the preaching of God’s Word and receive it eagerly with thankfulness by responding to God in obedience to what his Word says?

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Today, many Christians have no problem doing the very thing the author of Hebrews warns us against.

Every Christian must be committed to gathering with the people of God on Sundays to worship the Lord.

Using the language from Hebrews, it is the habit of some to neglect the weekly gathering and look for any excuse they can to not go to church.

Using the language from Hebrews, it is the habit of some to neglect the weekly gathering and look for any opportunity available to use as an excuse to not go to church.

Too many Christians approach gathering together on the Lord’s day as a duty or a task. Its something that is done out of obligation or quickly pushed aside if something better comes up.

Too many Christians approach gathering together on the Lord’s day as a duty or a task. Its something that is done out of obligation or quickly pushed aside if something better comes up

But we must reclaim the Lord’s day as the day where we get to gather together to fulfill our highest calling as God’s people. It is the day that we proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Finally, as important as the weekly gathering is, it should not be the only time we worship. Sundays are just the springboard to get you to worship God with all your life.

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

In this verse Paul says that we give God spiritual worship when we offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, then he defines in verse 2 exactly what that is.

Pauls says true spiritual worship is obedience to God. Worship, is meant to be a way of life. Not just something we do on Sundays.

We could never miss a church service, but if that is all our worship is, we miss the point. God wants all our life to be lived in worship of his glory and if we are content to check religious boxes thinking that is what the Christian life is, then we completely miss the point of .

Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. 23 For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry.

Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,

as in obeying the voice of the Lord?

Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,

and to listen than the fat of rams.

True worshipers will worship in spirit and in truth.

23 For rebellion is as the sin of divination,

and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry.

III. The Ministry of Service

Finally, we come to the last Ministry a church must have in order to be a biblical church that we will look at today and that is the Ministry of Service.

Earlier in we read how the early church would sell all their possessions in order to provide for anyone that had need.

Now this is not a prescriptive text meaning we need to create some kind of compound where there is no private property any believer has.

The principle the Scripture is teaching in this description of the early church is that we should love one another enough to make sacrifices to serve each other.

Now it also seems likely because the saints were having favor with all people that their service likely extended beyond the boundaries of just their congregation.

In fact, Paul even said in So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

It should be our heart to serve anyone as they have need, while particularly caring for members of our own body.

In doing so we follow the example of our Lord Jesus Christ who did not come to be served but to serve others.

Now I’m not necessarily talking about serving on a Serve Team on Sunday. That is definitely needed and one of the ways that we serve others in our body. However I think serving in those ways has more to do with our mission as a church to preach the gospel which we will talk about next week.

What I’m talking about in the Ministry of Service is how we are called to meet one another’s needs where we can. There is not real way to develop a church program for this.

The big idea is that we should be people who are characterized by a willingness to serve others. To help others when we see they are in need however we can out of love for them.

So if we someone in our body struggling to make ends meet, we should joyfully come alongside them and bless them financially.

When one of our member families welcomes a new baby we should be filling spots on the care calendar to bring them meals to help in that season so fast that we are disappointed we didn’t sign up sooner cause there are no more spots left.

Say a mom and dad in our church get sick so you bring them some food out of the blue so they don’t have to worry about taking care of the kids and making dinner.

Or maybe you you notice someone’s marriage is struggling and they never get time just to themselves. You can offer to babysit so they can have a real date night and rekindle their romance and friendship.

There are all kinds of ways we can serve and love one another if we just open our eyes and ask, “How can I bless someone else today?”

And this doesn’t even just have to be people in our church. We should be willing to serve our neighbors, coworkers, and strangers any chance we get because in doing so we show them a picture of the unconditional love and service God himself showed us in sending Jesus to die for our sins.

The big idea is that if you see a need in someone else’s life that you can potentially help even in a small way, you should see that as an opportunity God has sovereignly placed before you grow to live like Christ by serving others.

The Ministry of Service is less about having a program and more about having a culture where we do what we can to love and bless each other in whatever ways God has gifted us while at the same time looking for opportunities to love those around us that are not a part of our church in hopes that we can use that opportunity to share the gospel.

Churches should not only be known for holiness and godly living. They must also be known for doing good to others if we are going to truly obey the Great Commandment which doesn’t only say to love God with all your heart mind soul, and strength, but also to love your neighbor as yourself.

As says If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

May we be known as the kind of church that is kind and generous happy to serve others like Christ served us.

Conclusion

A church is not just people who gather together. They are people who are saved by God and gathered together for a purpose. Namely to glorify God and follow Jesus.

We do this as we carry out the five ministries that should mark the life of every biblical church.

We must uphold the preaching of the Word in a lost and dark world.

We must also cultivate our fellowship with one another so that we can love one another and so prove that we really are Christ’s disciples.

We also must make worship a priority for every part of our lives. Not just in gathering together on Sunday which is one of the most important spiritual disciplines for our faith on par with prayer and reading the Bible, but also in our every day life as we grow in obedience to God’s Word.

Then, we must also be a body that is marked by a willingness to serve others for their good as a way of following Christ who served us by dying on the cross in our place for our sins.

And next week we will look at how we are called to evangelize the lost and share the gospel with anyone that will listen in hopes that they also might be saved and share in the ministry God has given us to do to glorify his name.

Let’s Pray

Scripture Reading

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

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