April 27, 2003 Colossians 1:28-29
“We proclaim Him!”
INTRODUCTION
1. What we do PROCLAIMING Him! (vs. 28a)
If you choose to serve in one of these three capacities or in any way here at New Life Baptist Church, no matter what you are doing, you will only have one real job. That job is to proclaim Jesus Christ.
Some people have the warped idea that getting involved in ministry is a means of elevating themselves. Someone who doesn’t know me might look at me up here in front of you and think that I am in some way trying to toot my own horn or make myself look good. I hope that the rest of you have realized by now that my desire is not to elevate myself or gain power over anyone by ministering to you each Sunday. I have only one goal – to proclaim Christ. Paul’s goal was the same. In 2 Cor. 4:5, he says, “…we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.” Being a part of one of these ministry teams will not elevate you to some type of platform that causes everyone to look at you and say how great you are. Ministry is about service to God and the glorification of Christ.
+ proclaiming Jesus is a fantastic privilege – in vs. 27, Paul spoke of “Christ in you, the hope of glory”. I get to go around telling people that there is hope and that it is found in Jesus Christ. I get to tell them that God loves them. Another word for proclaim is to announce. Think of the different announcements that you have sent to people throughout the years – announcement of your engagement and marriage, announcement of your first birth, announcement of your graduation. All wonderful days and wonderful events. But none of them measures up to being able to announce that Jesus is here, that Jesus is alive.
+ proclaiming Jesus is not a popular exercise – even though you bring good news, not everyone is going to be happy with you. Some will reject what you have to say. But if you are truly proclaiming Christ rather than just your own opinions, then they are rejecting Him, not you. A big part of the reason that it is not popular is because you are giving warning to people. That’s what the word “admonishing” means. You warn unsaved people about the danger that they are in – the danger of condemnation because of their sin. You warn saved people about the possibility of falling away from the faith or losing in their battle against temptation. People don’t like listening to warnings especially when they can’t see for themselves the danger. They like deceiving themselves into thinking that they are okay and that everything will turn out all right in the end if they just ignore the warning signs. So some will close their ears and refuse to listen.
But there will be others that do listen and desire a change in their lives. To those, you give teaching.
Some of you had the opportunity of meeting Pastor Jerry Moore at the associational evangelism conference a couple of weeks ago. Jerry is the pastor of 1st Baptist Huntersville which is the church that we will be working with on our missions trip. One of the things that Jerry led his church to get involved in is ministry to two prisons in his community. One is a medium security men’s prison where Jerry conducts services every Tuesday and Thursday evening. The other is a minimal security women’s birthing center. That’s where women who are pregnant and in the prison system go to give birth to their children. Every time that Jerry visits these prisons, he warns some of some danger that they are facing, and he teaches others so that they will stay out of danger. If you go with us in August, you will have opportunity to minister in both of these settings. Does that make you uncomfortable? That’s okay. To be honest, it makes me a little uncomfortable? Does that give you the right to say “no” to the opportunity? NO, because Paul says that we are to warn and teach every man, not just those that we are comfortable with.
2. Why we do PERFECTING SAINTS (vs. 28b)
Perfecting doesn’t have to do with helping people reach the point where they no longer sin. It has to do with helping them to grow up – to reach their full potential, to get closer to the end product. It means helping them to become like Jesus. If you choose to participate in one or more of these three ministry opportunities…
+ you will have the opportunity to grow believers - Many children will be coming to Camp Monongahela and to Vacation Bible School. You will be able to help them reach their full potential. Many of them come out of broken homes. Some of them don’t have parents who love them, or if they do love them, they don’t know how to show it. You will be able to help get these children headed in the right direction so that they don’t make the mistakes that can literally ruin their lives.
+ you will get to see yourself grow – Doing ministries like these will stretch you and put you in positions that you have never been in before. Ask David, one of our camp counselors over the last two years. At the end of David’s first week of camp, he had the opportunity to lead a young boy to faith in Jesus. That was the first time that David had ever had that privilege. David was stretched, and David grew.
Quite honestly, some of you have gotten comfortable. You’ve stagnated in your growth. You’ve stopped trying to get to new heights with God. If you’re happy with that, then just stay where you are. But don’t expect God to be happy with you or to bless you in that.
Whenever you stop growing, you start dying. But whenever you go beyond what your normal experience is and do what God is calling you to do, you will get to see yourself reach new places with God.
+ you will grow together with your fellow team members – You’ll get to see what those other people look like when they first get up in the morning. You’ll get to sit down to a meal together. You’ll get to work side by side, and you’ll get to pray together as you share your own personal burdens and your burden for the people that you are working with. Doing one of these ministries will expose you to people that you might not have any other way of meeting. If you work at camp, you will get to know people from other churches in our association as well as our associational missionaries, James and Jerilyn Smith. If you work in Vacation Bible School, you will get to know teens and adults from Double Shoals Baptist Church in Shelby, NC. If you go on the mission trip, you will get to know pastor Jerry Moore and his wife, and you will learn of his love for people. You will discover that you are not alone because you are a part of the body of Christ.
We do things like these to grow other people and to give you a chance to grow. That’s why we do it.
3. How we do PERSPIRING POWERFULLY (vs. 29)
+ you’re going to work – serving the Lord in these capacities will not be easy – it will be work. Paul speaks of the service that he did in terms of struggling. It means working hard, so hard that you get tired, exhausted, plain worn out. Some or all of us who go on the mission trip are going to be sleeping on air mattresses on the floor of the church. You might ask, “If I do that, will I get any sleep?” Believe me; you’ll be so tired that you could sleep just about anywhere.
+ you’re going to sweat – if you want to find out about sweating for Jesus, just ask Shirley, Tammy, Terry and the other ladies who served in the kitchen at camp last summer. And once they got done, they didn’t have an air-conditioned cabin that they could go back to and get cooled down. There’s only one cabin that was air-conditioned. Serving at VBS will be hot and sweaty too – playing games with the kids and trying to keep them all headed in the right direction will be hard. And then there’s doing some construction projects and prayer walking the streets in mid-August with the mission trip. Each of these is going to drain it out of you, and you might even feel like quitting. There were times that Paul felt like quitting. But the same thing that kept him going will keep you going – the power of God flowing through you. As that power flows through you…
+ you’re going to see God do something
In the people that you work with – people are going to ask, “Why would you do this? Why would you sweat to come and help me, a stranger?” And that will give you an opportunity to proclaim Christ. At the final service of one VBS that I led in Boston, I got to watch as 25 teenagers and kids came forward to give their life to Jesus. Would you like to a part of something like that?
In you – It will open your eyes to the opportunities for service that are here in our own community.
INVITATION
Some people may ask, “Why should I give up vacation time or take off time from work to go and participate in ministry? The children just did a play illustrating what God gave up for us at the crucifixion. The result of that was resurrection for Jesus and new life for us. What are you willing to give up in order for new life to be breathed into you and into this church? If God is not tugging at your heart, then don’t do any of this. But if He is, if He’s calling you to get involved, you dare not say no to Him. You’ll be missing out on one of the greatest opportunities of your life.
Here at the front, I have three sign-up sheets – one for camp, one for VBS, and one for the mission trip. If you believe that God is calling you to be involved in one or more of these ministry opportunities, then I want you to come this morning, and sign your name on these sheets.
