Sunnyside First Baptist Church
Let's Git'er Done!
Philippians 4:4–7ESV
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Philippians 4:4–7ESV
- Let’s Come Up to Speed!The Apostles and Disciples have been out in their communities talking about Jesus.Here is what they were not saying:Following Jesus means you will never be hungry or thirsty againFollowing Jesus will make you richFollowing Jesus will make you popularFollowing Jesus will be a “Get out of Jail Free” cardFollowing Jesus will solve all of your immediate life problemsFollowing Jesus actually means the opposite to all of these thingsYou may not have all that you and your family needs to eat and drink but there is a community around that is willing and able to help with the needs of life.Money is a relative thing… No matter how much you have, you always seem to want $1 more. Jesus talks about money more in the New Testament more than any other topic.Being “popular” as a follower of Jesus is and has come with a target on your back. The world is waiting for you to have a bad day, a bad minute that they will frequently be there to taking pictures and posting on Facebook.Claiming a relationship with Jesus will NOT get you out of Jail. Sometimes it will get you into some greasy situations. But if he can free Peter and John without the jailer’s knowing it he can free just about anyone from any spiritual, emotional or physical prison.Jesus DOES show up in a fox hole in the middle of battle. He does provide a way, even for those who don’t claim knowledge or allegiance to him. The rain does fall on the just and unjust.But more likely your deepest needs and most difficult questions about life and death and everything in the middle are answered in a relationship with Christ, through His people, and through His church universal church.As hard as it was to be a follower of Jesus, follower of The Way in the first century, it is nearly as difficult to be a committed follower today.[[LET ME REPEAT THAT]]I am more and more convinced that the pressures, the stresses and strains on Christ followers in this the 21st century are very different but equally troubling for us.I could list all of the “stresses” that comes with being a current follower but I will leave that for you to fill in the blanks. Because your list is not my list and mine is not yours. But we all have them.Here is my message regarding all of that...Believers, stop grousing at each other. Stop being critical of each other, give other people the opportunity to have a bad day or a bad minute without judging.Everyone, including your Pastor is a work in progress. I’ll let you know when I arrive, but you won’t hear me because I’ll be in HeavenWe, American’s in general have always had a “can do” attitude. No matter how high, how fast, how deep, how wide or how far away “I” can do it… Alone.It got us to the moonIt got us to the Marinara Trench, the deepest part of the oceanWe have won wars and lost wars, on the lives of millions or our men and women in uniform.There are many other examples… And we have no need for a totally sold out relationship with God because we have ourselves.The early church did not have that option, and we can learn much from that experience. But it takes a willingness to share what we have and a step out in faith when we don’t see a way for something to happen. It takes a relationship with others, probably outside our comfort zone to see our plans come to pass.Fisherman, as also known as disciples, in the earliest parts of the New Testament, the Lord picked carefully who His first disciples where. At least 11 times he did GREAT!It was pretty easy to be a fisherman back then… get in a boat, row to the center of a body of water, throw a net and scoop up fish, right? Not even close...Principle #1 — Fishing like discipleship takes planning and executionEverything from preparing your message to gathering your tools takes lots more time than you think it will.Whoa, whoa Jeff, you told me that I should stop “doing” Christian and start “being Christian. My message it still the same.
2 Timothy 4:2 NIV84 2 Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.Two key factors in providing “preaching” or “teaching.” Be prepared in season and out of season; to be very patient and be armed with the full armor of of God. Once you start it will get VERY ugly.Ephesians 6:11–18 NIV84 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.There is a handbook of preparation for this discipleship thing… your looking at it, the BibleWho would be my guide, my mentor, my leader.If we were meeting together I would have everyone one of you turn to the person on your left and right and turn around and look behind you.We are all here in the universal church ready to be discipled and to disciple.I can’t do that… I don’t know what to do, to say, to teach. Allow the Spirit to lead as you meet and discuss, let him set the agenda.Principle #2 - Once you start catching… it’s catchy!If you are diligent, prepared and have all of your tools it may take hours, days, weeks, months to finally get on the fish… but once you do you are IN!I love Deadliest Catch, this is a Discovery Channel program that has followed crab boat fisherman in Alaska for 20 years, through the sometimes brutal conditions to catch crab. They search and test, test some more with trial strings, different baits and depths to finally GET ON THE CRAB and fill their tanks.Discipleship is not that much that much different. Sometimes the conditions are brutal. Sometimes you have to try a million different things, all along the way you are learning more and more with each try… Don’t give up!Remember its your job to do discipleship in the best way that you know… it’s God job to do the “saving.” Our job is to fish and it God’s job to fill the nets.Principle #3 - Once you start “catching” your tanks will be full and overflowing.As I watch Deadliest Catch, you can see the season of accomplishment on their faces after pot after pot comes over the rail full and overflowing. All of the misses, all of the failures, all of the missteps, all of the wrong place, wrong times fads away to nothing.Once you enter into the crab game, the discipleship game, you will find small success after small success. Then maybe, just maybe a BIG success. But remember it is our job to be great disciples and its God’s job to do the “saving”This is where we are today in Acts 6.1-7.Acts 6:1–7 NIV84 1 In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. 2 So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. 3 Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them 4 and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.” 5 This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. 6 They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them. 7 So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.Verse 1aActs 6:1 NIV84 1 In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.“In those days when the number of disciples was increasing.”The first disciples had planned and learned, tested, failed and FINALLY they had found a formula that worked to increase the number of disciples.Jeff, If we could just know what it was in the first century that made the church grow like this it would be “easy”WE DO KNOW.... Turn in your bibles back to Acts 2.42I am going to continue to beat this drum...Acts 2:42 NIV84 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.All of the stuff that really sounds to simple to work… I come from the KIS Seminary. I have a Master’s Degree in simple! Keep it simple.That’s how movements of God start… teaching, fellowship, eating and prayer.Once the Crab boats are on the crab… the keep crab fishing for 24-36 hours straight. To fill their tanks.Disciples keep discipling to reach as many as possible. there is never enoughThe fisherman, the disciples created a problem for themselves or did they?They had TOO MANY Disciples to be served… What a grand problem!Back toActs 6:1 NIV84 1 In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.“the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.”As is today… whenever a movement of God of any kind begins to happen. satan or his minions do whatever they can, whenever they can to disrupt it.Other crab vessels will go to GREAT lengths to disrupt and diminish another boats harvest so as to snake in and capitalize on that harvest.That is some of the most interesting parts of the show, crab boat captains FIGHTING over a section of ocean that is full of crab.These two sects of Jews, Grecian and Hebraic began arguing about how much or how little their widows were being fed.A BIG DEAL TO THEM… And a play ground for satan!So we have moved away from disciple making, to food distributors. Food and eating is definitely is PART of the Acts 2.42 formula as long as you have the end game of making more disciples in mind.It has been said, at least by me, that you can talk until your blue in the face but if your talking to someone with an empty stomach all they will hear is… FOOD!Acts 6:2 NIV84 2 So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables.It was time to prioritize… it was time to meet material NEEDS and SPIRITUAL NEEDSIt was VITAL that the “12” or the Apostles to continue making broad decisions about their ministry.So that the worlds “hungry” could be and would be fed to keep there mouths full and their minds being transformed and renewed by God. Making them into disciples.On the crab boats they fish for codfish as bait. Then use the codfish to catch more crab!The Apostles leveraged their position by using individuals already following God, believing in the mission of the disciples to in turn reach more disciples.V3.Acts 6:3 NIV84 3 Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to themThe Apostles saw a need, saw a resource and stayed in their own lane.They kept soul-winning, their command while at the same time meeting the needs of the masses by designating what became to be called “Deacons” to meet very real material needs.The idea here is a group of deacons, of doers, of planners, of meeting needs of others, of sharing the Gospel with as few words as possible. Every church in the world needs DEACONS!The NIV Application Commentary: Actsdiakonia, translated “distribution” in the NIV,is used in verse 1. Diakoneo, translated “wait on,” appears in verse 2. Both these words refer to the serving of food. But in verse 4 diakonia is used in connection with the ministry of the Word.
Isn’t it interesting… That first “office bearers” in the church where chosen NOTActs 4:34 NLT 34 There were no needy people among them, because those who owned land or houses would sell themMove forward to V7.Acts 6:7 NIV84 7 So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.Once the problem between the different neighborhoods was settled, the Apostles and disciples could return to their calling.AND THE NUMBER OF CRAB ON THE BOAT FILLED IT TO OVERFLOWING!The crab boat captains fixed the issues between them, got the right bait with the right method in the right place and at the end of the season they came if with full tanks and money in their pockets.The disciples, the apostles all were in their lanes, all doing what and how God had called them and prepared them. As a result, The word of God spread,disciples increased rapidly and many who where formerly “priests”Theses Priests were the least likely to become followers of God. These were former Jewish priests.This was an unexpected bonus catch.These were also as many as 8,000 priests from the Temple cults, who were caught in the crab pots of these fisherman..Discipleship breeds Discipleship. Activity breeds activity. Success breeds successAs we end today let’s look at the principles from earlierPrinciple #1 — Fishing like discipleship takes planning and execution.I would begin any disciple-making process in the words of Acts 2.42Acts 2:42 NIV84 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.Principle #2 - Once you start catching… it catchy!People will be drawn to the teaching that is producing change in the people being taught.It starts like this… “Hey in Sunday School last week, Jack was talking about...” “That was really interesting, this is what I learned.” “Why don’t you come next week and see for yourself.”Principle #3 - Once you start “catching” your tanks will be full and overflowing.The Gospel, the Good News of Jesus, the nuts and bolts of the Gospel began to spread like a engine that couldn’t be stopped.Fed by the Holy Spirit, the gates of hell would not overcome it.That would be my prayer that we would begin a Gospel engine that was powerful enough to have an unlimited number of catches! All professing Jesus as Lord.That along the way we would identify those in greatest need. Yes, we would fed them until they are full. We would disciple them until they are making their own disciples. And He will be with them until the end of the age and we are all called home. - Today Is The Day
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2 Timothy 4:2NIV2011
Acts 6:1–7NIV2011
Acts 6:1NIV2011
Acts 2:42NIV2011
Acts 6:1NIV2011
Acts 6:2NIV2011
Acts 6:3NIV2011
Acts 4:34NIV2011
Acts 6:7NIV2011
Acts 2:42NIV2011
Philippians 4:4–7ESV
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Sunnyside First Baptist Church
509-837-3084
11 members • 3 followers