Immanuel Sermon Audio
I Am a Church Member: Leading
- Me church, it's all about you. That's sort of a humorous way to look at the other side of what we've been talking about on Sunday mornings, but can we just be honest and say the reason it's funny is that there's a little bit of truth in it, right? Jokes aren't funny unless there's a little bit of truth in there somewhere. And so you watch that video and you say, oh my goodness, a buff and a wax, are you kidding me? Who has tickets to the Super Bowl? You gotta be kidding me. But at some level, we all have this tendency to say, if I'm going to come here, I want it to suit me and be all about me. And I hope that what you've picked up over the last couple of weeks is that that is the opposite view of membership is what we see in the New Testament. And so we spent several weeks talking about, I am a church member. There's an outline this morning in your bulletin, if you wanna follow along there. We talked a couple of weeks ago about being a functioning member. Somebody who uses the gifts that God has given you for the good of His church and for the glory of Jesus Christ. We talked about, what does it mean to be a praying church member? Who should you pray for? How should you pray? We talked about that a few weeks back. We talked about two topics that are closely related but distinct and important to separate. One, being a deferring church member. That's somebody who says, my preferences will not rule my experience at this church. And then on the other hand, being a unifying church member, somebody says, I'm gonna control my heart and my mouth, my tongue to bring unity to this church family. This morning, we're going to talk about what does it mean to be a leading church member? A leading church member. Leadership's a funny thing, right? You all pretty much know it when you see it. You can look at a person, you can look at a situation and you can identify that is leadership or you can do the opposite. You can look at a person or a situation and say that is not leadership. But then if I asked you to sit down and to give me a definition, okay, tell me what it is, we sort of get confused a little bit. And sometimes we make the mistake of thinking leadership amounts to rank or title. If you have the position, then you are a leader. But you all know people who have the position, the rank and the title, who are not leaders. And so you can't say leadership is just a rank or a position or a title or some kind of office. Sometimes when we make the mistake of saying leadership is charisma, we look at a person who's just sort of a magnetic personality and an exciting personality and we look at that person and we say now that person, they are a leader. But you know people who are charismatic in personality who don't lead people in any significant way. And so it's a danger to say that leadership is just charisma. Sometimes we make the mistake of saying that leadership is managing, it's having control or being responsible or being in charge. If you have something that you manage, then you are the leader of that thing. But again, you know people who have responsibilities that you look at that person and you say, they may be a good manager, but they're in no way, shape or form, a good leader. Leadership. Let me give you a simple definition of leadership, not a perfect definition, but one that I kind of like. Leadership is influence. That comes from John Maxwell and he's written tons of books about leadership, studied on the topic, spoke on the topic, known as a leadership guru and he says, leadership is influence. Can I tell you why I like this definition? I like it because I have this gut feeling that when I say to you, we're gonna talk about what does it mean to be a leading church member? A lot of you say this one is not for me. Man, the functioning, yes, praying, yes, deferring, unifying, yes, I can see how that applies to me. But already you're thinking, I'm not a leader in this church, but listen, if you define leadership like that, you are a leader. You do have influence. Maybe your influence is over your family. Maybe your influence is over your friends. Maybe your influence is over the people you go to Sunday school class with. Maybe your influence is outside of these walls and the things that you say about our church when you leave this building. But all of you, all of us, have influence in some way, shape, or form. And so when we talk about being a leading church member, you don't get to carve out a little niche and say, well, I'm not in charge of anything. So he's not talking to me. You don't get to carve out a little spot and say, well, the elders or the deacons or the committees or the staff, those people have the, he's not talking to me. Yes, I am. You don't get the opportunity to say, well, you know, I don't have exactly a charismatic, bubbly, effervescent personality that's just attractive to people, that's okay. If you exercise influence over other people in any area of life, then you need to understand what does it mean to be a leading church member? And so this morning, I'm gonna talk about leadership on three levels. And I hope that you see how each of these levels might apply to you regardless of what situation in life you find yourself. So here's the first level of leadership. It comes from Ephesians six. Parents have the responsibility to lead in matters of faith. Parents have the responsibility to lead in matters of faith. What I'm saying is it is not the church's job to lead your kids in matters of faith. It's your job to lead your kids in matters of faith. Yes, the church has a supporting role to play, but first and foremost, before anyone else and above anyone else, that is your responsibility. Take your Bible and find Ephesians chapter six. We're gonna look at Ephesians six and then we're also gonna look at Deuteronomy six. Ephesians six, verse four. Paul says this. He's addressing fathers, but the application is obviously to parents, fathers and mothers. He says, fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline in the instruction of the Lord. Parents, fathers, mothers, this is your job. Bring your kids up in the discipline and the instruction of the Lord. And I think when Paul wrote that, he's thinking about Deuteronomy six. And so flip to the Old Testament and let's look quickly at Deuteronomy six. I think this is the passage probably in his mind. Deuteronomy six, four to seven. In this passage, Moses is speaking to Israel. God is speaking to Israel through Moses and this is what the Word of God says, Deuteronomy six, four. Hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children and you shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise. Parents, this is your responsibility to lead in matters of faith. Now I'll be honest, I realize that life is complicated, especially life in a broken world with broken relationships, with imperfect, unperfect, whatever the correct pronunciation there is, imperfect families, but you have the responsibility. It's your job given to you from God. And I realize that you can come up with some situations where things seem a little bit gray and I realize that I'm not gonna be able to give you hardened fast rules that apply to every situation that you ever find yourself in as a parent, but it's your job to lead in matters of faith. Sometimes parents say to me, something like this, well, you know, you just can't force it on them. I agree with that. You just don't wanna shove it down their throat. Yeah, I'm not asking you to shove it down their throat, but what I wanna ask those parents is, especially those dads, are you that laid back with your favorite sports team? Do you just say to your kids, you know, I pull for the Jayhawks? I don't care who you pull for. I'm a graduate of Texas Tech University. I'm gonna buy you lots of orange. (audience laughs) I'm a TCU alumni. Let's learn the Baylor Fight Song. You don't do that. You force it down their throat. You say, this is who we are. This is what's important to us. And when I say that, and I press you on that, some of you think, oh, but preacher, you don't know. You don't know. When your kids get older, you force it down their throat. They're gonna bow up. They're gonna walk away. They're gonna reject it. They might. They might. But I guarantee you, for every kid that grows up and bows up and walks away from what their mom and dad tried to shove down their throat, there's 10 others who grow up and say, I am so thankful that my parents drug me to church and taught me about the Lord, even when I didn't want it. I'm thankful for that. So am I telling you that it's magic, that it's just sort of, you do X, Y, and Z, and it's all gonna be okay? No, but I'm saying it is your responsibility to lead in matters of faith, yours. Let me give you a personal example. I could tell you lots of stories about my parents growing up, but I like this story. It's about the father of one of my best friends in high school. There was a couple of us, my junior senior year, that hung out, and three of us that were really tight, me and Justin and Ethan. And there was a fight coming up on pay-per-view, right? Not regular TV, but you had to pay for it on pay-per-view. We really wanted to see the fight. We really, really wanted to see it. And so we start putting our heads together, and this is back in the days, I realize this may sound strange to some people, but not everyone had a cable box. You remember those days? If you wanted pay-per-view, you had to have a cable box. My family did not have a cable box, so can't watch it at my house. Ethan's parents don't have a cable box, so can't watch it at Ethan's house. Justin was our last hope. He said, "Look, you gotta go to your dad. "You gotta beg him. "Tell him we'll pay for it. "Tell him we'll bring pizza. "Tell him we'll do whatever. "We gotta see the fight. "Please, please, please, see if your dad will do it." So Justin goes and he asks his dad, Neil, Neil, dad. We want to watch the fight. Pay-per-view, we order it for us. Can we come over and watch it? And Neil says on two conditions. Number one, you gotta pay for it. And number two, I get to watch it. We said, "Fine, we don't care if you watch it with us. "Come on, more of the merrier." So we give him our money. He orders the thing weeks in advance. And we're all excited. And Neil says to us, we give him the money. We make the plan. He says, "Here's the deal. "Fights on Sunday night. "If you're gonna watch it at my house, "you gotta go to church on Sunday." You gotta go to church. That's the deal. Absolutely. Why would we not go to church? My mom worked at the church. We are always at church. Fine, we promise. We'll go to church. Here's the money. It was all set. That Sunday comes. We wake up bright and early. We go to Sunday school. We go to worship. We go home. And somewhere in the afternoon, I don't remember whose idea it was. Somebody had the idea, "Hey, let's go have some Wendy's chicken nuggets." And I don't remember why that stands out in my mind, but I know it was Wendy's chicken nuggets. Let's go have some Wendy's chicken nuggets before the fight. I'm supposed to go to church. We went this morning. We had Sunday night church back then. Wendy's Sunday night church. Wendy's Sunday night church. We went to Wendy's. And then we went to Neil's house. And there was Neil at the front door, waiting on us. Hi guys. Hey, we're ready to watch the fight. What's up? You're not gonna watch it here? What? We paid for it. That's not fair. What do you mean? We're not gonna watch it. You didn't go to church. Yes, we did. We were in Sunday school. Check the roles. Call the church office. We were there. We sat right by you in church. You heard us singing. You elbowed us when we got to talking too much. We were there. Where were you tonight? Wendy's. Just closed the door right in our face. We were mad. And I'm telling you, he was the most uncool parent we had ever met in our lives. That is so not cool. Now listen, this is not a sermon or an illustration about Sunday night church. This is an illustration about leading in matters of faith. And sometimes it means you're not cool. In fact, a lot of the times it means you're not cool. Get over it. Deal with it. Be the not cool parent. Some of you say, well, our kids are grown. We're gonna talk to you in just a minute. But you say, our kids are grown. They're not at home anymore. Maybe you need to teach another younger parent how to not be cool. They need you to come alongside them and say, listen, don't be cool. Do it like this. Here's the point. We're thinking about leadership. Parents have the responsibility to lead in matters of faith. Here's the second point I want you to see. Thinking about leadership. Grandparents have the responsibility to lead in matters of faith. The application of this is different when you're a grandparent as opposed to a parent, but the principle is exactly the same. Grandparents have the responsibility to lead in matters of faith. Look at the book of Second Timothy in the New Testament. Second Timothy. This is the last letter that Paul wrote. He wrote it to Timothy, his protege. When Paul wrote it, he was in prison in a rock, he was in prison in a rock dungeon in the ground, in Rome. And he writes this last letter before he dies. He writes it to Timothy. And look what he says in Second Timothy, chapter one, verse five. It says, I am reminded of your, the your is Timothy. I'm reminded of Timothy, your sincere faith. A faith that first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and now I am sure dwells in you as well. At the very least, you look at that verse and you say that the grandmother Lois passed it down to the mother Eunice who passed it down to Timothy. But the way he structures the sentence, what Paul is probably saying is I know that both of those ladies had an influence in your life. I know that you wouldn't be who you are today as a follower of Jesus if it weren't for your mom and it weren't for your grandma. And I rejoice that you are following the Lord just like you learned it from your mom, just like you learned it from your grandma. Grandparents, you think you don't have influence. You think that stage of your life is gone. You can't influence your grandkids in matters of faith, baloney. We're around, I'm around. I'm preaching the message at your funeral. And I see the grandkids sitting on the front row. Trust me, you have influence. Trust me, you may think they're not listening, you may think they're not interested, but I see them in this moment of crisis. They were listening. You can influence them. And Paul is saying, yes, parents have the responsibility to lead in matters of faith, but grandparents, you're not on vacation. You may be retired, but you're not retired from this. You have the responsibility grandparents to lead in matters of faith. Now, all of that concerns family relationships. What if you never get married? What if you're widowed? What if you're divorced? What if your kids are up and grown and gone and live halfway around the world? You never see them. There's still application here in our local church. You still have the responsibility to lead. So look with me at the last idea. Second Timothy two, one to two. Every generation has the responsibility to lead the next generation and this is a key in a way that prepares them and empowers them to lead. Every generation has responsibility to lead the next in the church in a way that prepares them to lead and empowers them to lead. If you're in second Timothy, we're gonna look right on the same page. Second Timothy chapter two. Verse one and two. Paul says, you, remember he's talking to Timothy, you then my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. There's a lot of generations crammed into that verse, right? Verse, there's Paul who has this message and he gives it to who? Timothy and he says, Timothy, I'm giving it to you and these witnesses, the many witnesses who are there with you, I'm giving it to you guys and your job is now to entrust it to faithful men. So we've gone from Paul to Timothy and the witnesses to the faithful men and what do the faithful men do with it? They teach others. Generation to generation to generation to generation to generation in the church passing down the message of Jesus Christ. That's how it's supposed to work. If you're a part of the church, you have the responsibility to take what you've received and to pass it down to somebody so that when you're gone, they're prepared and they're empowered to lead in a God-honoring way. They're ready to take the gospel message and take it to others. Some of you say, no one has ever passed down the message of the gospel to me. No one has ever done that for me. My parents didn't do it. I didn't grow up going to Sunday school. I really wasn't around church all that much. No one has passed it down to me. I'm about to pass it to you. Are you ready? The Bible says that about 2,000 years ago, Jesus walked on this earth to seek you and to save you. Luke 19, 10. The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. The Bible says that Jesus lived a perfect life. He completely obeyed God in every thought, every word, every action, every motive in every way. He died on a cross taking your place and taking your punishment. He died to purchase you. And his demand on your life is very, very simple. Repent of your sin. Acknowledge that your sin is sin. Turn away from it and look to Jesus and trust in him. Put your faith in him. Put your hope in him. Put your eternity in him. That's it. That's the message. It's not complicated. You're a sinner. God did something to save you. He sent Jesus. He lived for you. He died for you. He rose from you. He's coming back for you. In your job, until he comes back, is to repent of your sin and believe in him. And that's the message. Paul says, look, I took that message and I gave it to you, Timothy and all the witnesses. And then you're gonna give it to the faithful men and then the faithful men are gonna give it to others also and on and on and on and on it goes until some preacher in Odessa, Texas gives it to you. Until your mom in 1973 gives it to you. That's how it gets passed down. You have this responsibility to lead the next generation in our church in a way that they understand the gospel, that they hold fast to the gospel and that when you're gone, they're prepared and they're empowered to lead. This is what Paul is talking about. Every generation leading the next, preparing them and empowering them to lead. In the book that we're sort of loosely referencing on Sunday mornings, Tom Rayner talks about what this looked like in his life. And I love this story because this story about Tom Rayner reminds me as a pastor, as somebody who works at a church that what we're talking about here in Second Timothy 2 is not a program. Do you understand that? It is not a program. And so Rayner tells this story. Today he's the president CEO of LifeWay, big important guy, preaches all sorts of places, has a big fancy blog and writes lots of books. But way back in the day, he's just a young dad who just met Jesus, newly married, new to a church and he says, I didn't know what to do. What does a Christian dad do? What does a Christian husband do? What am I supposed to do as a church member? Nobody told me, they just were glad that I was there and said, come on. And he said, I had no clue what to do as a new Christian. And he talks in the book about a guy named Bob and he says, Bob befriended me. So this wasn't a program that we had at church. We just became friends and we spent time together and Bob taught me and he shared with me and he prayed with me and I saw in his life what I was supposed to be doing. And this, what most people would say, this upstanding Christian leader learned how to do what God wanted him to do, not from a program, but from Bob. It's not a program. Let me give you a more personal example, slightly different story, but I think the same idea is in it. Brooke and I left Texas and we moved to Kentucky. We were gonna go to seminary out there and we had this big plan. None of it worked out, but here we are today. God's been good through it all. When we first get to Louisville, we start visiting churches and we go to this church and we go to that church and we finally end up at 9th and O Baptist Church, okay? 9th and O Baptist Church, maybe a little bit bigger than our church here at Emmanuel. And so we're there at 9th and O and we don't know anybody. We're Texans in Kentucky. New people in the state, new people in the church. We don't know anybody, but we come and we find a Sunday school class and we plug in and we start to make some relationships. And about two or three months into our time, they're at 9th and O after a Sunday night service, an old couple walks our way. And you understand when I say old, I don't mean older. I mean old. They were old, old, old, old. I have no idea, they're probably 100 years old. Here they come, walking towards us. And it's obvious, they're making eye contact and they're coming straight for us. And I'm saying, do you know these people? No, do you know these people? I have no idea who, and then they're there. They're on top of us, old people. What do we do? (congregation laughing) And the old guy says, can I take you and buy you a milkshake? (congregation laughing) Yes? (congregation laughing) I don't have any agenda, we just wanna take you out. We've been members of this church when it really was on 9th and O Street. 50 years ago, we've been here a long time and noticed you're new, you sit down the row from us every week, we never met you. And we just take you out to milkshake. Let's go to steak and shake. Anybody ever been to steak and shake? That's where we went. They can shake, amazing milkshakes. So we went with these old people. We sat down, we ordered our milkshakes, and we started talking, and guess what? After about two minutes, I wasn't even thinking about how old they were. And they probably weren't thinking about how young we were, or how stupid we were. We're just talking. And this didn't ever develop into some sort of lifelong, he's my hero, he's my mentor. But listen, as the new person in the church trying to find our spot where to fit in, how to serve, how to plug in, we knew no one. This was not a program that was going on at 9th and O Baptist Church. This was a person who said, "Can I buy you a milkshake?" You have the responsibility to pass down the faith once we're all delivered to the saints, to the next generation in this church, and to do it in a way that prepares the next generation and empowers the next generation to lead when you are gone. Listen, your staff is not in the business of setting up blind dates. I'm not gonna tell you to meet somebody for a milkshake. All you have to do is pick somebody out and just walk towards 'em, and they're gonna be nervous. Do you just lock in on 'em? Don't let 'em go. Chase 'em out in the parking lot if you have to. Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter if they don't know you. Doesn't matter if they're older than you. Doesn't matter if they're younger than you. Doesn't matter if you think you don't have anything in common. You just lock in on somebody. People are telling me all the time, "Oh, there's so many new people at our church these days. "I don't know who all these spaces are. "I'm not gonna fix that with a program, "but you can fix it as a person." And you go to somebody and say, "Hey, "can I buy you some chicken nuggets at Chick-fil-A, "maybe a strawberry milkshake? "Let's go." It's not a program, not something we can do for you as, quote unquote, staff, leadership, pastors, whatever. It's very, very simple. And I know that it's a little bit awkward, but it's what you have to do as a church family if you are really going to do what we just put up there about equipping the next generation, preparing them to lead, empowering them to lead. These are the types of things that you've gotta do. These are the types of things that you've gotta think about. What I'm really saying, to take that one step further, long time a manual members, I'm talking to you. I'm not talking to the guy who's been visiting for three weeks, I'm not talking to the people who are new to town, I'm talking to those of you who have been here for a while, you know who you are. This is your church, 'cause let me be honest with you. Maybe I need to repent of what I'm about to tell you, but I'm just gonna be honest. Not in one million years would Brooke and I ever have asked that couple to go have a milkshake, never. We were the young ones, we were the new ones. We would not have done it. They took the initiative to do it to us. So I'm talking to a manual members. This is your church, you're rooted here, you've planted your life here, you've invested here. Continue to do that and invest in the next generation of our church. Not a program that we're gonna lay out for you and make it really easy, but it's a relationship that you can build with the people next to you, even if you don't know them. What does it mean to be a leading member? Summon it all up, nothing to do with rank, nothing to do with what you're in charge of, nothing to do with charisma, here's the last big thought. It's using your influence for the good of your church and the glory of God. Using your influence for the good of your church and for the glory of God. So, in your bulletin, just like we've done every week, you've got a little slip of paper, this week it's blue. Here's the pledge that I'm challenging you with this week. I will lead my family to be good members of this church. We will pray together for our church. We will worship together in our church. We will ask Christ to help us fall deeper in love with this church because He gave His life for the church. This commitment applies to my relationship with my spouse, my children, my grandchildren, my siblings, and any other family members who are part of this church family. This commitment also implies to the generation coming after me. Even if my family's not part of this church, I will pray and I will work so that the next generation of believers might be equipped to lead this church when I'm gone and at the bottom you sign your name. If this is a commitment you wanna make this morning. Again, I've told you this every week. I'm gonna tell you this morning and I'm gonna tell you next week. Signing your name on a blue piece of paper means nothing. It's a start and it's a physical act that you can make this morning to move yourself in the direction of being a leading church member. But if it ends with you signing your name on a piece of paper, you totally missed it. Let me pray for you. Father, as we make these commitments together, we pray that you would lay on our hearts the gravity of what we're doing. Father, help us to understand that this is not just sign your name on a piece of paper, put it in a box and forget about it. But that when we do this, we're making a promise to you. We're making a vow to you. We're making a promise and a commitment to this church. Father, if our heart is not in this commitment, we don't wanna make it. But my prayer is that you would move us, that you would change our hearts, that you would soften our hearts, and that you would help us understand what it means to be a leading church member and leading our kids and leading our grandkids and leading our friends and leading the next generation. Father, you have something for us to do here in passing down the gospel and using our influence for the glory of your name and the good of this church. Father, we're gonna continue in worship. And this is a time where we want to simply acknowledge you as God and as Savior, as owner and ruler and Lord of this church. And Father, we want to thank you for who you are and for the grace that you have poured into our lives. Father, I pray for people who may be here who have never received the gospel that was passed from Paul to Timothy, to the faithful men, to the others who passed it down to today. Father, there are people here this morning who need to receive that message for the very first time. We pray that you would open their hearts and draw them to yourself. We love you, be honored as we sing together and we pray and we worship in the name of Jesus.