Christ is Life Podcast

Paul makes his final greetings here, and the temptation can be to think that there isn't much application for us today.  However, what we see is how important team ministry was to the early church and therefore is for us today as well.  We all have a role to play in ministry as Jesus expresses His life through us.

Colossians 4:7-18... 7 Tychicus will tell you all the news about me. He is a dear brother, a faithful minister and fellow servant a in the Lord. 8 I am sending him to you for the express purpose that you may know about our circumstances and that he may encourage your hearts. 9 He is coming with Onesimus, our faithful and dear brother, who is one of you. They will tell you everything that is happening here. 10 My fellow prisoner Aristarchus sends you his greetings, as does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas. (You have received instructions about him; if he comes to you, welcome him.) 11 Jesus, who is called Justus, also sends greetings. These are the only Jews among my co-workers for the kingdom of God, and they have proved a comfort to me. 12 Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. 13 I vouch for him that he is working hard for you and for those at Laodicea and Hierapolis. 14 Our dear friend Luke, the doctor, and Demas send greetings. 15 Give my greetings to the brothers and sisters at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house. 16 After this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea. 17 Tell Archippus: “See to it that you complete the ministry you have received in the Lord.” 18 I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you.

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Colossians 4:7-18 (Jesus Plus Nothing - Week 17)
Pastor Jason White
Modern Service (11:00 am)
05.19.2024

What is Christ is Life Podcast?

Sermons and messages from Pastor Jason White and others at Colonial Hills Baptist Church in Tyler, TX

Well, if you have your Bibles with you are in Colossians chapter four, we're going to be starting in verse seven. And just a moment, we're, we're finishing up this Colossians message series that we started the very first Sunday of this year, it's been several months now we've been going slow and verse by verse listening or looking at everything that the apostle Paul had to say, what he was saying to the church at Colossae, and the culture and the time that he was writing to them. And what it still says to us to today, and it's been a really great series. It's one of my favorite books and all of the Bible. And I know that many of you have enjoyed walking through it this spring as well. And today, Paul's finishing up this letter, remember, this is a letter, Paul had written an introductory greeting. And this is kind of his final greetings that he's going to make here. And I think when we get to these sections, where Paul is just making final greetings, and we're reminded that this really is a letter, the temptation is to think that there's nothing here for us. Paul's just saying bye to his friends, what could that possibly say to us 2000 years later. And certainly, there are some meaty things that Paul had to say in this letter that we love diving into. And we can easily see how the Lord still makes application with those to us today. But there's something for us here, even in what the Apostle Paul says that the Lord wants us to see and that we can make direct application to our lives today. And I don't often do this, I usually set it up where scripture answers the questions for us here. But I'm gonna tell you right up front how this applies to our lives. Today, I'm going to just show you what David Garland in his commentary has to say about these verses. He said, there's three things in ways this applies to us. He says, Paul's list of co workers that we're going to see in this final section here in his letters, not just this one, but all of them reveals several things about his ministry. Number one, he says it was a team effort, Paul could not possibly do all that he did without the help and support of others, and he is not stingy in giving them credit. And thanks for what their contribution in the kingdom was. Number two, he says Paul inspired love and loyalty from those in the church and any picture of him is in embattled and embittered loner is mistaken. Sometimes we can maybe think that of the apostle Paul, and how much he did, and he was in jail and these other things, and he just kind of some loner, but that could be nothing further from the truth, which leads into the third thing that he says he says the early Christians relied much on a network of friends, without supportive friends, and partners need to emphasize those words, friends and partners throughout the world, Christians could never have succeeded in advancing the Gospel across national barriers. And then David garland makes application from that for us. He says, All Christians, you and I today, need a community of friends and fellow workers. That's how this applies to us today. Here we get some insight as to how God was working in the early church to accomplish so much. And that gives us insight as to how he still wants to work in and through us in His Kingdom work today. He puts us together as his church, as his family, to have a community of friends, community of friends, first and foremost, to do life with, for those friends to support us and encourage us and pray with us, for us to get to support them and courage them and pray for them, even challenge them and to have them challenge us. These are also people that we work alongside of as God does His work in and through us together because God ultimately works through team ministry, not just in and through you, but us together as a team. We're not just family. We're not just friends. We're a team. God has put us together as a team to use us to accomplish His kingdom work in and through us. And again, sometimes we see there think so much about Paul and he has him in is individual and all the things that he did. I mean, the guy wrote two thirds of the New Testament, it's easy to think that he was just some kind of super Christian, right? And we think, Okay, well, that's who Jesus really works through today's day and age. It's the, it's the celebrity Christians, the ones that we see on YouTube and popping up and just doing so much you have 1000s of people in their church and you can access 1000s of, of sermons, and they're just they're celebrities, right? Kind of like the apostle Paul was, God works through people like that. And then there's the rest of us. You know, that's, that's the idea that we can sometimes get, but that's not what we are going to see here. And Paul's final greetings to the church. So let's jump right in and just see what he says chapter four, beginning of verse seven. He says, ticket cus will tell you all the news about me. He is a dear brother in a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. I'm sending him to you for the express purpose that you may know about our circumstances, and that he may encourage your hearts. This was the bearer of the letter, the first co worker that Paul mentions here, and it's not just here that we get to see him mentioned in the New Testament, we see him mentioned in Acts, chapter 20, and verse four, along with someone named Trophimus. Be glad your mom and dad didn't name you that one right there referenced both as natives of Asia. He's mentioned again in Second Timothy verse, chapter four, verse fifth 12. And again, in Titus chapter three, verse 12. And here, he kind of receives the highest praise, right that I mean, someone could even get Paul says that, that he is a dear brother, not just a brother, but a dear brother, he is a faithful minister. And He is a fellow servant, Paul saw him self as a servant. And this person was someone a co worker, for dear brother, a faithful minister, a fellow servant in the Lord. And we also see that the reason that he was sending this letter there was so that they would know about his circumstances in that he might encourage their hearts through through seeing them this, this face to face interaction, the update on the situations and circumstances what God was still doing in another part of the world that they didn't really know about someone that had shared the gospel with them. Someone that was their friend, someone that was in this together, God was going to use that to in courage, their hearts, and God still does the same thing. And in through ice. How many of you are encouraged each and every single time you show up on Sundays, and you see your brother sisters, I know you are. Because whenever we finished the meet and greet, we can't get you back in your seats.
The Lord's using other people to encourage you and uplift you because they're friends. And these are people that sometimes when we're separated for a little while, we need them in our lives to receive that encouragement. And so again, you don't know who that is. You You may have read your Bible before, but you didn't remember that his name was listed in here. This is just some ordinary guy. He's not Paul. He's not the super Christian, the celebrity Christian, right. But he is mentioned in God's word. There's someone that God was working in and through is a dear brother and a faithful minister and a fellow servant. And he was at work in and through him to encourage people and their hearts. And so those of us who think of ourselves as the same, we're just ordinary people. Oh, God works through ordinary people to so much so that they even get mentioned in his word. Paul goes on. We've got a lot more people to acknowledge here as well and verse nine, he says he is coming with onis hummus, who is our faithful and dear brother, who is one of you, they will tell you everything that is happening here. Okay, so Paul mentions Oh, nice. Smith says the next one references him also as a faithful and another dear brother, I made high praise again for this particular individual. Now you may recognize his name you may not. It's not the only place that it's mentioned what Paul doesn't say here that we know from another letter that Paul wrote from someone named fight Lehmann. Is that Oh, nice. Amos is a runaway slave. If you begin to see that, that is who Paul is referencing here, a slave, someone in their society who was seen as property, someone who had no rights whatsoever. I mean, talk about ordinary, maybe even in other people's eyes, way below ordinary in this society if you have no rights, and you are just seen as property. And he gets mentioned here by the apostle Paul, the super Christian that we think of him as, and he's considered a faithful in the dear brother, he's, he's family. He's not property. He's family. Because Jesus had worked in and through him to bring him into the family, family, he's valuable to him. He's important member of the team, not just family, he's a part of the team. And so once again, if you see someone here who's listed as a slave and had no rights and consider nothing more than property, and you tend to think of yourself as having nothing to offer. Remind yourself of a runaway slave who gets mentioned in the Bible, as someone that God was at work in and through to accomplish great things. He wants to do this in and through you as well. Paul goes on, says my fellow prisoner. Arya Stark has since you his greetings, as does mark the cousin of Barnabas, you have received instructions about him. If he comes to you welcome him. Paul says, Jesus, who is also called justice also sends his greetings. These are the only ones Paul says the only Jews among my co workers for the kingdom of God, and they have proved a comfort to me. Paul mentions Arya Stark us here. This is someone that we see referenced from Acts chapter 20, as being from Thessalonica, which may sound familiar because of our New Testament book or letter that Paul wrote called Thessalonians. Right? And so this is where he was from. We know that the apostle Paul planted a church in Thessalonica, he shared the gospel there a church was formed, and evidently most likely, Eros, Dorcas became a Christian through the church at Thessalonica. And just like you and I, when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior and His grace into our lives and our sins are forgiven, and Jesus comes to dwell in us, he doesn't stop. He begins to work through us. And as Jesus was now firmly implanted and Eris Dorcas and a baby Christian and he began to grow and his understanding of what that meant and how Christ was in him and worked through him. Evidently, Jesus made it known to him that he wanted to use him to be a part of Paul's missionary journeys. He's mentioned in Acts chapter 19. Verse 29, is a Macedonian from Thessalonica, who braved the riotous uproar in Ephesus, with Paul, we also know that he traveled with Paul to Jerusalem, as we see the Jerusalem we see that in Acts chapter 20, verse four. And then we also see that he traveled with him to Rome. And we see that in Acts chapter 27, verse two, and so again, just an ordinary guy, who lived in this community, Paul shows up, shares the gospel, he receives it understands it, and Jesus transforms and changes his life. And now he's part of the kingdom and part of Team ministry. And his role was to travel with Paul, we don't know even exactly what it is that he did. But this is how Jesus can work in and through just an ordinary guy who was working in this community getting up every day working his nine to five, and then Jesus gets a hold of his life and his life looks completely different from here on out. Paul also mentions justice and also mark in these verses who's listed as the cousin of Barnabas This is also referred to as John Mark, the one who is often referred to as John Mark in the New Testament of our Bibles that many people in the first century had two names John was his Jewish name Mark was his Roman name and Mark also went on missionary journeys with Paul and he's commonly believed to be the author of the gospel of Mark and so again, someone that Jesus good Have a hold of and then works in them and through them to even inspire them to write things down. And we're still reading what John Mark had written down 2000 years ago. Again, we think of Paul as some spiritual hero who was a loner. But here, we see that not only did he have a team of people carrying out his work, but that these were friends, these were people who proved to be a comfort to him. They were a big part of our lives and a hope that even as we see, all of these people, are not just teammates. They're not just workers, right? I mean, these are friends of Paul, the way that he writes about them in the way that God works in their lives to encourage and comfort and do these things, which, again, hopefully, is a reminder to us, that God puts you in a family, and invites you to be a part of His Church, to have friends, to do life with not to show up just on Sundays, and listen to some content and then leave. But to have friends, to do life with these people as he works in and through us together. And many of you can testify to that I can invite you up here. And you could go on and on and on about the work that God's done in this area of your life to bring you such rich friendships in this church, people who have been your friends for for years and years and years and been there through the birth of your kids and your grandkids. And when the doctor said you have cancer, and you couldn't imagine how you would have ever gotten through some of the things without the friends that the Lord has blessed you with here and that you still continue to do life with today, you can even point to times where the Lord's worked in you and through you to make impact on different missions and others and people you've invited to come with you who came to know Christ are now part of this church today. And he did that in and through you together what a blessing that is. But some of you
just show up at 825. And then when 930 hits and we sing our final song, sometimes even before we finished the invitation, you're out the back door, and you're not here again for another seven days. I mean, it's not the life that God called you into. And I just want to encourage you that if you haven't put yourself out there, if you haven't gotten invested in a Sunday school class or biblical community, and in those kinds of things I hear people sometimes say, well, so and so never visited me nobody from the church ever checked in on me or you know what I'm just not maybe sometimes connecting with people here. And while Listen, we as a church can always always do better about seeing people and not negating, neglecting any of the things that the Lord wants to do in and through us. But one of my first questions is always Well, are you involved in community, because most of the time, when you're a part of a Sunday school class, or biblical community, and these friendships, people notice when things are going on, and then they're the ones who share that information with us. Because we can't all be that close of friends and know what's going on in every single person's life, we find out that information from people who are your friends, when you're going through things. And if we show up to support and encourage you, it's not because most of the time we knew it, but because one of the friends that the Lord's put in your life made us aware of that. And most of the time, they're already they're doing the pastoral care, which is beautiful. The church was really open to what Jesus was doing in and through us as a church, I would need a job when it comes to the pastoral care side of things. Because he can do that through you, your ministers of the gospel to support and encourage people when they're in the hospital and walking through dark times of life to show up at their house and take on meals and pray for them and encourage them and it's kind of what we're even seeing with the apostle Paul in the way he mentions some of these people here. chapter four verse 12 Epaphras Paul says, who is one of you and a servant of Jesus Christ since his greetings, he is always wrestling in prayer. Love that for you, that you might stand firm and all the will of God mature and in first, fully assured, I vouch for him that he is working hard for you, and for those in Laodicea and hi propolis if you were here, in the very beginning of this message, you know who this is? Because I know you listen to everything that I say. And you remember everything that I say up here every Sunday, right? But a papyrus joke, you probably don't obviously, right? I mean, he was a guy that apparently founded the church at Colossae. Paul referenced him earlier in the very beginning of the letter, chapter one, verse seven, and in the very first week that we began to dive into this letter, and again, we tend to think that it's Paul, the super apostle, that planted every church that we read about, and yet here, it's that guy who you didn't even know his name, right? You don't think of him as one of the people in the Bible, if you were to think of people listed in the Bible. But that guy, once again, here's the gospel, had an ordinary guy, get not just working a regular job every day. And all of a sudden, the Lord grabs a hold of his life and transforms and changes him and he goes back to his city, and he starts telling other people about Jesus as Jesus works in Him and through them. And then the church is formed. And he does this in and through us. We make ourselves available to him. I love that we referenced this here too, that he he rests, he's wrestling in prayer for them. If you're like me, sometimes my mind when we think of ministry, and even team ministry a lot of time is the big stuff, the tangible stuff, the things that you can see and point to right. But we're reminded here and just a little phrase that Paul is writing at the very end of a letter in his final readings that one of the most important aspects of Team ministry is the prayer ministry. Right? He's wrestling. In prayer, he's not just saying a little prayer for them over his meal, I mean, he is on his hands and knees wrestling with God and prayer for them here. And as we make ourselves available, maybe that's one of your huge roles. I mean, we're all he's gonna lead us all to pray, right. But maybe for some of you, it's even above and beyond and really a part of what he's doing in and through the church. And Pat first was praying that they would stand firm and Christ being fully assured of everything that they had in him. And if they were assured of those things, then they would quit seeking out what they needed outside and other places, and just be free to be a part of the team ministry that God has called them to, because he's providing for everything that they need, all of their needs, which is what we've seen all throughout this letter. Of course, Paul has a few more people that he mentioned here as he goes on chapter four, verse 14, our dear friend, Luke, the doctor, and Dimas send greetings this, Luke is the same one who wrote the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts and Dimas, we don't know much about him. But we do see him in a few other places in the New Testament. And he's even considered a by tradition. We don't know this for sure. But by tradition, he's considered to be one of the 72 disciples that Jesus sent out to share the gospel that we read about in Luke chapter 10, verse one, verse 15, he goes on and says, give my greetings to the brothers and sisters at Laodicea, and to ninfa, the church in her house. So again, we see a couple of things here to highlight and make sure that we don't miss nympho was hosting a church in her home. And there's a little bit of a disagreement in the way this is written as to whether this is a female that Paul is writing about or a male, but most people say that the way it's written and the evidence leads to the most likelihood that this is an actually a female. And once again, we referenced a slave earlier and someone who has seen his property didn't have any rights. And honestly, remember, we've talked about this before, females we're in kind of much of the same boat, right? I mean, they, their testimony wouldn't even hold up in court. And so once again, Paul is getting a hold of are saying that Jesus gets a hold of her life and is now at work in her and through her as someone who isn't very valued in the society in the culture to host a church in her home and don't get the idea when you're thinking about her her having a church in her home that she just like kind of opened the door and in bake cookies and filled up little glasses with sweet tea and was just kind of this sweet little hostess not to diminish anything in regards to hospitality in the way that Jesus works in us and through us but to host a church in your home to have one their net most likely some some kind of leadership role. All within that, that got to transforms and works in and through us, regardless of our gender. And what it is that the SAS society is saying about us so much so that she's even listed here we see the other brothers and sisters at Laodicea also mentioned in this verse, which we said early on was another community in this area, and another church was evidently there. And just the thing that I want to highlight is that the way this is written, and some things that we'll see in just a minute, as as well, is that there's this attitude then that they were all in this together. The churches were in this together from different areas, right? This is something that God was at work doing in them through them as a big team, there were these small little teams in areas, but then overall, they make up one big team, that he's the coach, if you will, of in and through as the head of the church. And so sometimes, when we think about team ministry and reaching people all around the world, but the good news of Jesus Christ, that can be pretty overwhelming, right? There's a lot of people out there, how in the world, are we going to do this? Even if we work together as a team? What about even here? I mean, when you think of Tyler in the surrounding area, we're to over 200,000 people live in Tyler in the surrounding area, how are we going to do all that together? Well, we're not. We're not the only local church, there are other churches that Jesus is at work in, and he's at work in and through them and us, and he's going to use us to reach some, and he's going to use others to reach others, we're not called to reach every one. And sometimes he's going to work in and through us, as our local church and things he's leading us to do a little differently than others. And sometimes, he's gonna bring us all together, to work together. And what it is that he's doing, we're going to have one of those opportunities and know that's what God is calling us to even do here in this community this
summer, because of some things that have been going on over the last several months. Maybe you've heard about this on the radio or seen it in other places. But on July, the 20th, we are planning a Love thy city day, I've been a part of three different leadership meetings over the last several months where the church leaders and city leaders, business leaders, social and emotional care leaders have gathered together to help plan and support this event called Love thy city, where it's going to be a day where city leaders, business leaders, nonprofit organizations, churches, we all come together to help meet people's physical needs to meet their emotional needs. And most of all their spiritual needs is we share the gospel with them. And we feel led as a church to be a part of this with the other churches in our area. And we've made a significant donation through our missions budget to support this, they have a budget of around $255,000, to really be able to pull off what we think will be most effective to reach people on this day. And so this is an event I'd love for you to put on your calendar. And to be praying about being a part of that if you want some more information about it, you can go to this website here, Love thy city.org You can even officially sign up to go ahead and volunteer in some way on that day, you could even support and make sure that they help meet their goal of that 250,000 be able to meet these needs and provide for people so that we have the opportunity to share the love of Christ with our city that day. The apostle Paul finishes up in these last three verses of the letter by saying this here after this letter has been read to you see to it. There see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter from lay it to see us. So once again, we see this working together throughout the universal church and they may have passed this letter on to be read. And then apparently there was one that they had that we don't have access today. But this is what Paul was doing or Jesus was doing it and through him and the other writers of Scripture, verse 17 Till Archippus See to it that you complete the ministry you have received in the Lord now we don't we don't really know what that was. We don't know much about who this guy is. It could be that he was called by Jesus to do some work in the ministry and maybe he just got lazy. Maybe he wasn't doing it anymore. And Apostle Paul's kind of confronting him in front of everyone. Hey, slacker. Continue to be available to what Jesus is doing in and through you because you're dropping the ball on this right now. Or maybe he's just encouraging him. Hey, keep it up. Continue. You're doing great and And that Jesus at work in you and through you is killing it. So keep it up, right. And then finally in verse 18, he says, I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hands. So again, we know that it was him who was the writer of the letter. And then he says, Remember my chains that he's in prison right now be praying for him. And then he finishes up and says, Grace, be with you. Now, when the Apostle Paul makes that final statement, Grace, be with you, once again, we can kind of have a tendency to just skip over that and, and dismiss it. It's just kind of some little little statement tacked on to the very end of it here. But make no mistake about it. This is what the entire letter is about. This is what Paul has been saying so much about grace, which is so thorough, that we could declare and say that, again, that the title of this whole skipping ahead, message series is Jesus plus nothing equals everything. That's the kind of grace that he is offering here. So much so that the apostle Paul, in chapter two, verse six said, in the same way that you received Jesus the Lord, the same way that you received and what had you receive Him by grace through faith, he says, Then continue to live your lives in him continue to live the Christian life, by grace through faith. The grace is what allowed Paul to say in chapter one that they were already qualified to share in his inheritance, that they had already been rescued from the dominion of darkness, and that they were already brought into the Kingdom of the Sun that he loves. It was by God's grace, that Paul could also tell them in chapter one that they were once alienated from God, they were once his enemies, but now God had reconciled them through Jesus's finished work on the cross, and that they were made holy, that they were without blemish, and that they were free from accusation it was by God's grace that the apostle Paul could share with him that Jesus Christ, the hope of glory, did not just die for them, but that he was in Vim, and that they were rooted in him and being built up by him and that they were being strengthened by him. And he could even go so far as to say that they were complete in Him and not lacking anything, was by God's grace that Paul could tell them that they had already been spiritually seated in heaven, and that they had died. And their life was now hidden with Christ in God. In chapter three, it was by God's grace that Paul could go on to chapter three and say that they were able to get rid of certain kinds of behaviors on the outside and refer to them as dirty clothes, they could just take them off, because they died to those things on the inside at the core of their being an spiritual union with Christ. And not only that, but that they could close themselves with new behaviors and attitudes, because they had been given a new heart and a new nature that produced those kinds of behaviors and attitudes in them and through them. And of course, it was by God's grace, that he was able to have such rich, and close friendships, and relationships that we've been talking about today. And that these people were considered family, and a part of a team ministry. It's by God's grace, that He gives us gifts, that He gives us abilities that Jesus works with as we participate with him to be a part of His kingdom work, team ministry and the friendships that he gives us that we've been reading about all morning. So let's make real practical applications. Before we leave for just over the next couple of minutes. What's your role on the team? Well, what are some immediate ways that you can be a part of what God is doing in and through this church, we've been talking about Vacation Bible School for a number of weeks, many of you are signed up as volunteers to help. Thank you, thank you, thank you, we could not reach the kids in our community without you. And this being a team ministry with the hundreds of kids who will show up and we know that Jesus works in and through this every year to bring kids to come to know Christ. But as of this morning, two weeks before we start, we are still short 10, guides to be over groups, which means if we don't have those, we will have to turn kids away from hearing the gospel, because we won't have enough volunteers to make sure that they're safe and can get from one place to another. And I don't want that to happen. And I know that you don't want that to happen. Some of the feedback that we had gotten before was that in the past those guides were also small group leaders and for a short 20 minutes had to kind of teach a little bit of a lesson and that that was intimidating and not necessarily what you were called to do. And so we hear you in that and we've created a new system where you don't have To do that we have certain people who have been gifted in those areas who will lead even that section. So all we are needing, are people to show up and sit with kids when they worship a row of about 10 to 15 kids that are in your group. And then when worship is over to just take them to their Bible, study time, and then make sure that they're safe to take them to their craft time, you don't have to lead the crap, you just got to get them to the craft room to take them to go get a snow cone and make sure you enjoy a snow cone at the same time that those things are going on. And so if that is something that the Lord might be able to do in and through you, whether you're young, old, male, female, whoever student, right, we need you, we do not want to have to turn kids away, and some of you are available. And you've just been hesitant, and it's a different season for you. But the Lord is saying, I'm not done with you yet. You're still a valuable part of this team. And you can do this. And even if you can't be here the whole week, I can use you during this time. And then we can partner you with someone who can only be here during this time. It's so maybe that's what the Lord is doing in and through your life. And if you're available to that you're open to that go find Marcy, our children's ministry, right, Minister right after this is over, come to our volunteer meeting today and find out how you can help quickly again, we've started a little bit of a differently abled ministry, I would say that very loosely, because it's not we have a very small group and a family who is in this situation. And we're trying to rally around them and provide for some certain things under leadership and things that they're giving us Do you know that there are people who live in our community that have kids that are differently abled, and because of their unique situations, even though they're Christians, they don't go to church ever anywhere, because they don't feel like their kids fit in. And they don't feel like that they
would be accepted by others if they acted out in certain way. And they're too nervous about it. And there's too much stress around that they just stay home. And that is not okay. We as the church should be able to come together with Jesus working in us and through us to find ways to be able to meet those people where they're at. And so we're in need of some volunteers to step up and be a part of a rotation, not maybe even every single Sunday to be a part of that with kids during this service, or how to expand that in different services as well. This fall, we're going to be starting a kitchen team ministry, we're going back to wanting to do some of you remember this from way before where we have Wednesday night meals before some of our our Wednesday night programming. We're a family we talked about being friends, what greater chances there from one Sunday, even to the next to get together during midweek and enjoy the friendships over a meal that we share together before we get into those things. Or even if you don't want to be a part of Wednesday night programming, but you just want to come eat and hang out with your friends. And we want to provide that as another opportunity. And some of you are gifted in cooking. And that's the kind of thing that you like to do. And we want a big enough group and a team that can do that, where it's not overwhelming. It's not stressful, and you may not even have to do it every single Sunday. So come find me Come find Steve, if that's what he's laying on your hearts. We always need more people on our first impressions team to be greeters. If that's your part of the team. music ministry Jerry would love to get you plugged in we have a great choir is so faithful and shows up and leads us every Sunday. But they would love to have more friends to join them. Apparently, you don't have to seem that great to be a part of it now saying they don't. But I'm just saying that's what he tells me like, you don't have to be able to sing like Robert Carter Can you can just be able to carry some kind of tune and blend in. And then it sounds great. You're like that's the kind of thing I should be a part of since I can't sing. And then finally, I mean, what else is it miscellaneous? Right, just one quick example. I had someone come to me not very long ago and said, Hey, I noticed that you guys are short on drivers for the bus that Jerry and you are the only ones who have a CDL and can drive that thing and you're not always available and looking for trouble. Well, I don't have a CDL. But guess what I feel like maybe that's what God is calling me to as being a part of this team here. And I'm gonna go start studying for it. And I'm gonna see if I can pass the test and get my license for the sole purpose, not of driving or trying to make money or do anything else just so he can be available to help be a driver for our ministry. And you're going okay, that's amazing, right? So even things that I haven't mentioned, what is it that God's leading you to do as a part of this team? Because again, this is a team ministry. You're a valuable part of it, and you don't outgrow? You don't ever stop until he puts you in the grave. You don't retire. I'll put it that way from the ministry. We all have something that he's leading us to do in E each age and stage of our lives