We Proclaim Him

Well, it was already stated before but last week

was such a great week with our baptism service

and it's hard to come back from that and and

try to Duplicate what happened last week. So

we're not even gonna try we're not even gonna

do that. We leave that as its own service I even

heard a couple of you even say how much you enjoyed

that service and has even become Even your your

favorite service of the year and there's great

reason for that just seeing testimonies of God's

grace from so many people the way God has worked

in the lives of safe people and sanctify people

and Really truly was even from my own heart as

you know being able to baptize through my own

children Being fed that way and encouraged that

way such a joy to do that Well, we are outside

again as you know, and this is our last Sunday,

and I got to be honest with you. I wish we could

do this every week. I really do. I enjoy being

outside when planes are flying over and you can't

hear me. All of it. The rumbling of the base

right there. I love all of it and just most of

all just being together. as a church family,

but all good things must come to an end. And

so next week we will be inside and we'll be back

to our two services. You'll find your regular

seat again. It will be there right where you

normally sit. And if you're new, if you've come

over the summer and you're new, man, we're so

glad you came. We're so glad you're here. Please

stay with us. Please join us in the fall as we

go to two services. I don't know if Shay said

this or not, but we do have a membership class

next week. If you're thinking about membership

and joining our church, that class is next week.

You could hop online and commit to our church

and see what we do next Sunday and the week after

that. But yeah, next week we will be back inside

together. With all that, I thought on this week,

what I want to do this week is I want to talk

about our philosophy of ministry. Why do we do

the things that we do? What motivates us as a

church? What drives us as a church? What is the

primary focus of our church? And thankful that

we don't have to come up with our own motivation,

we don't have to come up with our own even mission

statement. The Bible has done that for us. The

Bible is a blueprint for the local church and

all we try to do is abide by what it has to say.

So if you have your Bible in front of you if

you have a copy of God's Word somewhere around

you I want you to turn to the book of Colossians

Colossians chapter 1 there is a passage here

Colossians 1 · chapter mention

in verse 28 and 29 of Colossians chapter 1 that

Colossians 1 · chapter mention

gives to us our philosophy of ministry And so

what I want to do is just walk through this passage

with you and help help you Just gain some understanding

about our church. Why do we do the things that

we do? How do we do them? What is important to

us? All of that is found in these two verses.

Let me read it for us and I'll pray and we'll

jump in. Here's what it says, it says, Him, Him

we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone

with all wisdom that we may present everyone

mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling

with all His energy, that He powerfully works

within me. Our Heavenly Father, we turn our attention

to the Word of God. You have spoken to us. You've

spoken to us through Your Word. It is holy. It

is inspired. It is authoritative. It is sufficient.

And I pray, Lord, that Through our time together

in your word as we study it that you would confront

us with truth That you would use the Spirit of

God to work in our hearts to change our thinking

to change our will to cause us to become more

like Christ Lord help us to be focused in this

time help us to Glean as much as we can in this

time that we have together And I pray that in

Jesus name Amen As I was preparing for this message,

I looked up different mission statements and

vision statements to some companies that are

even in this area. Maybe you even work for these

companies and maybe you don't even know what

the mission statement is of your company. But

this is one of them. It is this. The mission

statement goes like this. To empower every person

and every organization on the planet to achieve

more. If you work for Microsoft, thank you for

logging in every day. to make this complete and

happen. How about this one? Our mission is bold

to radically reduce the cost of access to space,

harness in space resources, and inspire the next

generation to enable millions of people to live

and work in space for the benefit of Earth. Blue

Origin and Jeff Bezos. And Misa, who logs in

to Blue Origin as he's at work, is helping make

it cheaper for us all to go to space. How about

this one? To be the premier purveyor of the finest

coffee in the world, inspiring and nurturing

the human spirit. One person, one cup, and one

neighborhood at a time. That's that Nashville

Company. called Starbucks. Well, Redemption Hill,

let me read to you the mission statement that

comes straight from the Word of God of this church.

Ready? Him we proclaim, warning everyone and

teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may

present everyone mature in Christ. That's why

we exist. That's why we come together as a church.

That's why we serve one another. That's why our

deacons show up for the last 10 weeks and set

up chairs, set up coffee, have the place ready

for us to come together so that we can proclaim

Him, so that we can teach, so that we can admonish,

so that we can present everyone mature in Christ.

This is why we labor and do what we do. This

verse. summarizes for us our vision, our philosophy

of ministry, our convictions, our values, how

we spend our time, what we focus on. It informs

our Sunday mornings. It informs our kids ministry.

It informs our youth ministry. It informs our

young adult ministry. It informs our community

group. All of it flows out of the truths that

we can find here in these two verses. It all

flows from here. This short, yet memorable couple

of verses, I encourage you to even memorize it

for yourself. Because it really does give to

us exactly why we exist. There's four things

I want to show you. You can write these down.

I want to show you our message. I want to show

you our method. I want to show you our mission.

And I wanna give to you our means. Okay, we'll

just walk through this together. Number one,

our message. Our message is Christ, you could

say. Our message is Christ. First few words of

verse 28. Him we proclaim. The Apostle Paul is

writing this letter here to the church in Colossae.

Now Colossae is a... a small town in what is

now modern day Turkey. And Paul had actually

not even been yet to Colossae when he wrote this

to them, but you can see how much he loves this

little church there. If you look in verse three,

he says this, we always thank God, the father

of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you.

Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus

and the love. that you have for all the saints.

Look down in verse nine. And so, from when the

day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for

you, asking that you would be filled with the

knowledge and all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

Verse 10, so that you would walk in a manner

worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him. And

Paul has this deep love for this church and this

deep. Desire to even one day be be part of this

church and yet he writes this letter to them

saying to them Hey, I have always thinking about

you. I'm always praying for you. I have a I have

a love for you and then on from verse 10 down

through the really through the end of the chapter

he he starts talking about Christ and and how

Christ is over all things Focus shifts to who

Christ is Verse 11 being strengthened with power

according to his glorious might for the endurance

and patience with joy Giving thanks to the father

who has qualified us to share and the inheritance

of the saints in the light verse 13 He Christ

has delivered us from the domain of darkness

He's transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved

son in whom we have Redemption and the forgiveness

of sins and he goes on and on verse 15 He is

the image of the invisible God the firstborn

of all creation by him all things were created

Keeps going through that whole section there

verse 19 in him all the fullness of God was pleased

to dwell Through him we reconcile himself all

things whether on earth and the cross or in heaven

making peace by the blood of the cross Verse

22 is he has now reconciled you in the body of

flesh by his death in order to present you holy

and blameless and above reproach before him and

he keeps going on and on into verse Even 27 to

them God chose to make known the great How great

among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory

of this mystery, which is Christ in you the hope

of the glory I Mean Paul can't get enough of

telling these people about Christ Who he is what

he has done for them how he is the hope of the

glory that is to come and then he says there

in verse 27 that there is this mystery. And what

is this mystery? This mystery that he's talking

about is how Christ would one day dwell in the

believer and how the Old Testament saints couldn't

understand it. But now this mystery has been

revealed and there is this understanding how

Christ has come into our life, how he dwells

the believer and he radically transforms us from

darkness into light. And then he says in verse

28, what? Him we proclaim. Christ we proclaim.

He's the hope and the glory that we have. In

the Greek, verse 28, the word him is at the front

of the sentence. Some of you may have a translation

that says, we proclaim him. If you have the NASB

or maybe the New King James Version, it says,

we proclaim him. In the Greek, the hymn comes

first to point out emphasis that it is only Christ

that we proclaim. You could say that this is

talking about him being Jesus, so Jesus is the

original hymn, okay? He's the original hymn,

young adults. All right, he's him. All right,

literally, he is him. It's right here in the

text. And it's him we proclaim. Why? Because

he is the essence of the gospel. He is the hope

that gives all sinners eternal life. Pastor J.

Vernon McGee says this, the gospel is not what

we preach, but it is whom we preach. No man ever

preached the gospel who hasn't proclaimed Christ.

Jesus Christ is the gospel. He is eternal life.

John wrote that he was going to show us eternal

life and that he had seen eternal life. And who

had John seen? He'd seen Christ. So when you

proclaim Christ, you're proclaiming the gospel.

And you cannot proclaim the gospel apart from

proclaiming Christ. This is the emphasis of the

church. The word proclaim, it simply means this,

to publicly declare. and in this case to declare

plainly and openly the Christ the focus of all

ministry. It's in the present tense which means

you are continually and always proclaiming Jesus

Christ. This was Paul's heart. Let me show you

this. If you turn back to 1st Corinthians with

me, I'll show you just a couple other places

in 1st Corinthians where the Apostle Paul does

this. Where this was the The soul thing, the

singular thing that Paul would proclaim in 1

1 Corinthians 1:23

Corinthians 1 verse 23 says this, but we preach

Christ crucified. A stumbling block to the Jews

and folly to the Gentiles, but to those who are

called both Jew and Greeks, Christ The power

of God in the wisdom of God Look over in 2 verse

chapter 2 verse 1 and 2 and I When I came to

you brothers did not come proclaiming to you

the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom

verse 2 For I decided to know nothing among you

except what Jesus Christ and him crucified Look

over in 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 Second Corinthians

2 Corinthians 4 · chapter mention

chapter 4 and verse 5 He says this For what we

proclaim is not ourselves But Jesus Christ as

Lord with ourselves as your servants for Jesus

sake for God said Let light shine out of darkness

has shown in our hearts to give the light of

the knowledge of the glory of God in the face

of Jesus Christ Who does he proclaim he proclaims

Christ? He doesn't proclaim anybody else. He

only proclaims Jesus Christ. He says there that

we proclaim Him, talking about Timothy. There

in Colossians 3, He's talking about Timothy.

He's talking about Apaphras. But I want you to

notice this and go back to Colossians chapter

Colossians 1 · chapter mention

1. It says, Him we proclaim. But look over in

chapter 3, in verse 16. He says, let the word

of Christ dwell in you richly. Now you take up

what? Teaching and admonishing one another in

all wisdom. So this isn't something that just

the leaders of the church do. This is something

that the entire church rallies around. Our focus

is Jesus Christ. That's who we teach. This is

a church ride proclamation. A Christ -centered

church. Jesus gets all the attention. Not our

style. Not our music. Not the culture. Not psychology.

Not self -help. Not a focus on politics. Not

a focus on philosophy. We don't focus on emotionalism.

We don't focus on adapting to cultural norms.

We don't change our message to stay relevant.

Christ and His power and the message of Jesus

Christ will always be relevant in a sin -filled

evil world. He's still the hope of eternal life.

I want to show you this. One more thing I want

to show you. Sorry, I'm not sorry. Turn to John

John 7 · chapter mention

chapter 7. I'm not sorry about anything. Why

would I be sorry about this? We got to stay an

extra couple minutes, okay? Coffee will be warm

for you in the back on your way out in John chapter

John 6 · chapter mention

6 John chapter 6 an interesting time. There's

John 6 · chapter mention

20 some thousand people that Jesus feeds even

more Jesus then walks on water. He's had these

two incredible miracles He then says to them

I am the bread of life and he he tells him in

verse 35 Whoever believes in me shall never thirst

he starts pouring out his heart to all these

people is this massive crowd of people He says

these things, and then he says some really hard

things. Look at verse 60, when many of the disciples

heard this, they said, this is a hard saying

who can listen to it, but Jesus, knowing it himself,

the disciples were grumbling about this, said

to them, do you take offense of this? Then what,

what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending

to go where he was before, if the Spirit who

gives life, the flesh is no help at all, the

words that I have spoken to you are the Spirit

and life, but, There are some of you who do not

believe, for Jesus knew from the beginning who

those were who did not believe, who it was who

would betray him. And he said, This is why I

told you that no one can come to me unless it

is granted to him by the Father. Look at verse

66. And after this, many of his disciples turned

away and no longer walked with him. So here's

the image. These twenty thousand people. Jesus

says this about eternal life and who he is. And

all of them turn and walk away. Thousands and

thousands of people turn away and walk away.

Except for 12. Look at verse 67. So Jesus said

to the 12th, do you want to go away as well?

Do you want to leave as well? Here's your opportunity.

You're going to either follow Christ or not.

I love this. Simon Peter answered him and said

this, Lord, To whom shall we go? You have the

words of eternal life. You have the words of

eternal life, Jesus. Where else should we go?

And this is so good for us, and even to the church.

Church, where else would you go but to proclaim

Jesus? To the culture? You start preaching the

culture in the church? You start pulling Santa

Claus into the church and the Easter Bunny We

start talking about politics in the church as

if politics can help us as Peter says where else

would we go? Why would we go anywhere else? Jesus

you have the words of eternal life Just proclaim

Jesus Spend your time focused on Christ Tell

us more about who Christ is. Listen, Christ is

the only hope that we have. He's the hope for

a broken marriage. He's the hope for the drug

addict and the alcoholic. He's the hope for the

discouraged and the anxious. He's the hope for

the parents who are parenting their children.

He is the hope for our failures. Why would we

ever pivot away from Christ and ask the world

how to do church? Why would we ever do that?

We have the answer. It's just him that we need

to proclaim Our message is Christ I Had lunch

with a friend who's a pastor and another church

and we were talking and this church has been

struggling numerically and About five years ago.

They started pulling in some cultural things

and started doing some hires DEI type hires and

Trying to take some cues from the culture as

to how to run their church. Try to take on some

more community type programs and at lunch he

just looks at me and he goes, he puts his hand

up like this, he goes, I can't quite put my finger

on it, but people are going to your church. and

I I I don't know exactly you guys haven't told

me why you keep coming back exactly but other

than the grace of God and the fact that we just

open up our Bibles and teach the Bible and you

guys get fed the Word of God we have no silver

bullet your pastor has one arrow in his quiver

And we shoot that every week. We just proclaim

Him. We preach Christ. And God has honored that.

For whatever reason, God has decided to honor

that. And to bless that. But there is no secret

sauce. I had another guy ask me that. Literally,

what's your secret sauce? And I was like, like

the sauce on this burger we're about to eat?

Like is that what... There's no secret sauce.

We just do what the Bible asks us to do. We try

to do that. We keep teaching about the hope of

eternal life, and that's Jesus Christ, and that

is exactly what Paul is saying to this church.

Him we proclaim. Secondly, let me give you the

method, lest we are here till noon. Our method,

it is this. Our method is admonition and teaching.

Says they're warning and we'll talk about that

Says him we proclaim and he tells you how to

do that. How are we to proclaim him? Well, we're

warning everyone and we're teaching everyone

with all wisdom notice there the word everyone

it's twice there and use it again For a third

time to present everyone mature in Christ He's

not talking about everyone in a worldwide sense

or every person or every creature rather He is

talking about everyone that we would encounter

in our ministry Everyone was in the scope of

our ministry. Everyone, we would say, that is

a part of Redemption Hill Bible Church, they

need to be warned and they need to be taught.

Everyone. Everyone who is a part of your church

under the care of the elders and the leadership

team, they need to be warned, they need to be

admonished, and they need to be taught. Now some

of your Bibles, if you're using the ESB, says

warning. If you are using the NASB or or another

version, it may say admonishing. Let's do some

work here. Let's get technical here to find out

and get to the bottom of this and what this actually

means. In the Greek, the word there, the Greek

word in the original language, which we get our

Bibles, is the word nuseto. Nuseto. It's the

English word where we get the word nusetic. When

was the last time you used the word nusetic?

Probably not very often, right? Because it was

the first time I ever heard of this word. It's

not a word that we use, it's not a very common

word, but it is one, listen, that has to do with

comforting. It's a word that the church has picked

up and is used for counseling, nucetic counseling.

The word literally means this, write this down,

it means to place in the mind and to so warn

or give notice before danger happens. The idea

is to lay it on your mind and in the heart of

a person with the stress being on influencing

not only the intellect but the will, emotions,

and the disposition. The idea is to counsel about

avoidance of an improper course of conduct. So

that's where the ESV has said part of your job

is to warn. You gotta warn them. You gotta warn

the church of false doctrine. You gotta warn

the church about bad practice, about sin. One

of the dictionaries that I look at says this,

admonition is not condemnation. And when it presents

the biblical principles for Christian living,

it forms a valuable element in spiritual discipline.

It's counsel that says, if you heed this counsel,

prosperity comes. It's counsel that says, if

you ignore this counsel, then... Destruction

will happen. That's what this word, nuicetic,

means. And this is how we counsel here at Redemption

Hill Bible Church. We counsel that oftentimes

includes a warning. If you go down this path

and continue in this sin, I want to let you know

what the Bible says, and the Bible says that

destruction will come. I want to let you know

before the destruction happens. Married couple,

I want you to know if you don't learn to forgive

one another and love one another, I'm warning

you what the Bible says, this will happen in

your marriage. Young people, if you continue

down this path of sin, this is what's going to

happen. That's what this word means that Paul

is saying. We need to... We need to warn them,

we need to counsel them, we need to admonish

them, admonish the church, counsel the church,

give them biblical counseling that includes a

warning, not just self -help. Hey, just pull

up your bootstraps, you got this. Look tomorrow

in the mirror and tell yourself, I've got this.

Tomorrow, I've got this. We don't teach self

-help. We teach dependence upon Jesus Christ

for strength and for grace. And we warn and we

admonish and then secondly not only do we warn

or admonish biblical counsel Which is also just

a form of discipleship there, but secondly is

this we proclaim Christ through what through

teaching Through teaching the word the word here

is in the the present tense It's a constant ongoing

teaching that you have now I'm gonna spend a

couple weeks here in a couple weeks I've entitled

a sermon that we're gonna get to here called.

Why do we preach for 40 minutes ish? every week.

Why do we preach for 40 minutes -ish every week?

Why do we preach? This helps us to understand

that this is what we need. We need truth. We

need to be reminded of truth. We forget truth

all the time. We are confronted with people who

tell us they have the truth and through social

media and through Reels and through all kinds

of different news outlets that are thinking that

it's giving you the truth and we need to come

back each week to be reminded of the truth and

that is done through the teaching of God's word

in this didactic matter. The word is actually

didasco where we get the word didactic. Instruction

in a formal or even in an informal setting. And

these are just the two commands that are given

to the pastors and teachers in the church to

biblically counsel your people and to give them

more truth. build them up, have them come to

a place where they accept Christ as their Lord

and Savior and then teach them, shape them, influence

them, preach the Word to them. And this philosophy

is carried out not just on Sunday mornings, but

is also lessons that are being taught even right

now in our children's ministry on Wednesday night

at our ambassadors. It's all this teaching time,

yes. It is important. Yes, as you know, it is

the highlight of our Sunday mornings. Why? Because

we are called to do this as a church. Which leads

then to number three. Our mission, what's our

mission? Well, it's right there. We're teaching

everyone with all wisdom why. So that we may

what? Present everyone mature in Christ. That

we may present everyone mature in Christ. That

is the goal. Again, the word everyone is used,

it's not everyone worldwide, but it is everyone

who is part of the local church. This is our

role, this is our goal, this is our aim, that

you would grow in Christ. That's what we want.

More than anything else, we want you to come

to a place of maturity. We want your life to

see a less sin in your life and more righteousness

in your life, a deeper commitment to the local

church, a deeper commitment to Christ. That is

what we want more than anything else out of your

life. We want you to become more like Christ.

In fact, this word even, maturity, it deals with

this. It has this idea of commitment to Christ.

A man by the name of Sinclair Ferguson, he says

this. It says in a word, maturity equals Christlikeness.

No other standard may be allowed to substitute.

All other standards would be lesser man -made

alternatives that disguise the all demanding

standard God has set before us in scripture.

We can't say that maturity is zeal or knowledge

or orthodoxy. or success, those are easier standards

by far. What would be particularly attractive

about them, he goes on, he says, of course, is

that we would measure ourselves against others

with the same degree of satisfaction in our own

performance. We might even, in this case, be

obviously more mature than others. When you set

your focus on Christ. Maturity happens. Not comparing

yourself to other people based on qualities that

are given to you by God, but leaning in and becoming

more like Christ. That's what the word there

means. We may present everyone mature in Christ.

Now you say, how is this in our philosophy of

ministry? Well, there's a lot of things that

we can be devoted to. We could be devoted to

having a multi -campus church. That could be

our devotion. We could be devoted to having seven

services and 15 on Christmas Eve and 14 on Easter.

We could be devoted to those things and we could

spend our energies trying to just bring in as

many people as possible. We could shift our style

around and we could shift our focus around and

our attention around. And we could go out and

we could say, in 10 years, we're going to plant

1 ,000 churches around the area. And we could

have that be our mission. But I'm telling you,

Redemption Hill is about your spiritual maturity

first and foremost. We care about you. And if

God wants to bring people in our church, he'll

bring people into our church. He'll decide how

big our church is. But our focus as elders, as

a leadership team, is on your spiritual Maturity.

Are you growing in Christ? Are you being fed?

Are you eating what we're feeding you? This is

the mission that's been given to us. We are concerned

with your spiritual depth. And as I've learned

over the years in planting a church, God will

provide people at the pace at which God wants

to provide His people to the local church. God

will grow His church. In fact, that was even

promised, right? He even said, I will build my

church. Jesus said, I will build my church. This

is Christ's church. And He's gonna build it at

the pace at which He wants to build it and what

we need to be focused on are the right things.

and the right things are is your spiritual maturity,

your spiritual growth. We're united in this.

This is what we labor over. I have been asked

over the years, what is the plan? What's your

five -year plan for the church? How is it that

your church has grown and other churches haven't?

And I remember one time a guy asked me that and

I go, man, I wish I had a better answer than

the fact that we just open up our Bible and we

care about the souls of people. And I got done

with that lunch and Shay looked at me and he

goes, don't ever apologize for that. And I go,

you're right, Shay. Why am I apologizing about

that? We want to concern our things with the

things that God is concerned about. We want to

love our people. We want to hold them accountable.

We want to do all that we can to see them grow

in Christ, warn them, counsel them, disciple

them. And God will take care of how big the church

will get or how small the church will get. And

we can't get off track on that. Right? Once you

get off track on that, you start to compromise.

Always compromising that. Just to remind you

guys, we are Shepherds Not CEOs. The goal is

to feed the sheep so they can be healthy and

strong. We hope that you eat the green grass

of scripture and discipleship. We hope you take

all of it in. It's funny, I was listening to

Alistair Begg and Alistair Begg said, you don't

see in scripture, you don't read in scripture

or visualize in scripture a shepherd holding

a sheep and then spoon feeding it. The grass.

I thought that was kind of a funny little picture.

This sheep just holding it and just grabbing

the grass and shoving it into the sheep's mouth.

You don't see that in scripture, but what do

you see? Shepherds leading them to green pastures.

Leading them in hopes that they will take in

the truths of God's Word and apply it to their

lives. We're committed to that. Committed to

feeding as much green grass as we can give you

and as much as you can handle in hopes that you

will mature in Christ. Lastly is the means. The

means. What is our means? Our means is the power

of Christ. Our means is the power of Christ.

Look at verse 29. What does Paul say? He says,

for this I toil. struggling with all his energy

that he powerfully works within me. The only

way the work of ministry gets done in the church

is by the power of Jesus Christ. The reality

is this, is pastoral ministry takes work, it

takes labor, it takes toil, and I don't say that

for sympathy or for sympathy for our elders and

our leadership team. I say that just so you understand

the reality of it. This is just what it takes.

Around the office we call it the blessed burden

the blessing of being in ministry But understanding

the weight of caring for the souls of the people

And Paul says this I I toil and I struggle with

all his energy with with his energy and he doubles

down he says it's his energy and then what that

he powerfully works within me And that word there

for labor, it's the word that we get agonized

with, or we say, we agonize over these things.

It has to do with an athletic competition. It

means to fight. It means to do battle that can

be done both physically and mentally. And Paul

understands that if he is going to advance the

kingdom of God that is going to take a fight,

it's gonna take agonizing over the word of God.

It's gonna take... dealing with people and working

with people and loving people and all of that.

And if he does that on his own strength, he will

burn himself out. So he says, I toil and I labor

and I struggle with his energy that he powerfully

works within me. Now this is not just true for

the leadership team. This is true for all those

who are part of the ministry. It is work to open

up your home every single week to bring people

in. Especially when it's dark at four o 'clock

and it's rainy and all you want to do is sit

on your couch with a remote. I get it. It takes

a sacrifice to do that. It takes a sacrifice

to wake up early in the morning to go to a men's

Bible study. I get that. That takes work. It

takes labor. It takes work and it takes labor

to sign yourself up to go down and help the three

year olds learn about Jesus. That takes work.

It takes work and it takes labor to come early

and set up and tear down and to be on the welcome

team and the coffee team and to be serving within

the church. All of that takes work and all of

that takes labor. And Paul admits that. And if

you do it on your own strength, you won't want

to do it anymore. Your flesh is strong. The force

of the flesh is strong with you and every other

human being. But with Christ's power, you can

serve within the local church. You can commit

yourself to this. To no other... to know greater

joy than seeing people walk in the truth. We're

committed to work hard, and I know you are as

well. We have so many servants in this church,

so many people that serve so well every single

week. I'm always blown away. I always walk through

right here as my route in. I walk, I tear down

the bushes here as I walk through. And I walk

through the coffee section and every week there's

somebody in there making us coffee. I love that.

I know you do too. Cause you're drinking. Every

week somebody brings us doughnut holes and we

skewer them on a stick. Every week people are

serving the Lord. Every week people are stepping

up and doing the work. of the ministry and helping

out so that we can proclaim Him, so that we can

teach and admonish with all wisdom, that we can

present everyone mature in Christ. This is Redemption

Hill. This is what we do. My last question to

you is this. Why wouldn't you want to be a part

of that? Let's hold you back. What's keeping

you from signing up next week to be a part and

committing yourself to membership? It's time

to get off the sidelines. It's time to take up

the take off the the warm -up Jersey and get

in the game It's time to deepen your commitment

to Christ to his church you haven't been serving

now is the time to serve You haven't been giving

Faithfully to church, now's the time to be giving

faithfully to the church of your finances. Now's

the time to deepen your commitment to Christ

and to his church. Let's pray. Lord, thank you.

Thank you so much for what you're doing in our

church. So many great things are happening. So

many faithful people who are laboring to see

others be complete in Christ. People who are

showing up every week. People who are showing

up during the week to have coffee with people

and lunch with people and minister to one another.

People who are opening up their homes to bring

others in. People who are leading Bible studies

in small groups and so many... many people on

the volunteer list who just want to be a part

of something that is bigger than themselves.

And we are the recipients of that hard work and

that labor. Lord thank you for the fact that

we don't have to come up on our own with our

own mission. You've given us the mission. You've

even given us the method by which we're to do

that. And you're gonna give us the power and

the strength to be able to accomplish that. So

we lean on you and we trust you, Lord. This is

your church. It's not Joe Penworthy's church.

Heaven forbid. This is Christ's church. This

is not the church of the elders. This is your

church. And I'm reminded, Lord, that you don't

need us. You're gonna build your church with

or without us. So what a blessing it is to be

a part of it. And that you would use us. And

that we can be part of making and maturing disciples

of Jesus Christ. Pray for your blessing upon

all of this is for your glory in Jesus name.

Amen