Qualifications and Duties of Church Members - Steve Zehr

Well, good morning, reaching the name of Jesus this morning,

and I want to start by saying thank you for

the opportunity to be here to serve with you. It's

always good to be back to get to know some

of you. It's amazing how quickly there's new faces. And

I don't don't really know some of you until I

shake your hand and ask your name again. But it's

been good to be here this morning, to listen to

the opening the brother that talked about nature. And I

was just on a little bit of a walk this morning,

and I was thinking about nature. And maybe this tells

you a little bit about who I am, but I

was thinking about sometimes sometimes we hear people talking about

having too sensitive of a conscience, and I I probably

whatever the opposite of that was what I struggled with.

And yet I think what I was thinking about this

morning is nature can help me develop a sensitivity towards God.

Something as simple as being kind to animals can help

us develop a sensitivity towards God. And I think a

conscience to what God thinks, what God wants. This morning,

we have a topic. The topic title was given to

me Qualifications and duties of church memberships of church members.

It's an interesting topic, and it's one of those topics

that I'm not sure that I would have preached if

it wouldn't have been assigned to me, at least the

way I plan to present it. And so again, it

seems like a lot of material. There's a lot of

qualifications and a lot of duties we could talk. So

I just I just obviously had to narrow this down,

but I want to start with a few, just just

a couple of qualifications as to be qualified as a

church member. What does that take? Well, at the very

minimum it takes. I've got two things here. Number one,

it's a new birth and believer's baptism. And I just

I'm gonna be jumping around quite a bit, so at

the beginning here, I want to just read a few verses,

or maybe just a verse. But it's the story of

Nicodemus that came to Jesus by night and he asked Jesus,

what what does it take for a man to He

started asking Jesus these questions about his miracles and so on,

and Jesus answered and said, unto him, barely barely, I

send to the accept a man be born again. He

cannot see the Kingdom of God. So the words of

Jesus almost two thousand years ago just as true today

as they were back then. He must be born again,

and I believe that includes believers. Baptism. Mark sixteen sixteen

says he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved,

but he that believeth not shall be damned. So without

the new birth and the new birth the believers baptism

into the body, there really is. I don't think anything

really to work with, and so I don't ever see

a reason for a member who is not born again

or baptized to be qualified to be a part of

a church. Now, the second thing I'd like to think

about is pretty pretty fundamental. It's pretty basic. It may

sound like a bad joke, but in order to be

qualified as a member, you have to be a member.

It's pretty simple. But I think there's some confusion on that.

I'm curious how many of you are members at Costco,

And okay, a lot of you are for better for

worse right, and so here we are a lot of

US members at Costco. I think we are too. How

many of you remember when you had to be a

member to get inside of a buy Mark. Okay, at

least where we live now. I watched that whole thing change,

and I don't know how it is here, but there

you don't have to be a member of anything to

get into a buy Mark. I remember getting my little

green card and if I forgot it, I couldn't go in.

The door was locked. And over time it just seems

like that gradually shifted to where, you know, if depends

on who is behind the counter, they would just let

you go. If you were with a group of people,

you could go. If you were sneaky enough, I guess

you could go. And eventually I got to where they

didn't even ask. They would just hit the buzzer and

you could go in. I don't even think there's a

buzzer there now. You just go in and there's a

lot all the infrastructures there. They still have the little

checkpoint counter and the person there in the swinging gate

and all that, but there's as far as I know,

no requirement for membership. And it reminds me of how

what has happened in a lot of churches. There's just

no gatekeeper, no requirements, And it actually is something that

I think it's surprising how often this comes up, that

you don't really have to be a church member to

be in good standing with Christ, to be considered a

part of his church, you know, a part of his body,

part of his bride. Marriage is that is different. Now,

if you take the thing in marriage, it's different than

most other human relationships. I have a good relationship with Gerald.

I'm not married to Gerald. I have a good relationship

with all of you. I'm married to one person. Okay,

because it's different being friends with somebody. Loving someone doesn't

mean you're married. Marriage takes special commitment, to take special vows.

It's a special relationship, and it's the same way I

believe with church, with being a part of the body

of Christ. A lot of people love Christ. They say

they want to be a part of Christ. They want that.

But we know membership is voluntary. But so is marriage,

at least when I got married. But that doesn't mean

everybody's married. Doesn't mean everybody's a church member in the

way I understand scripture now, I know there's a lot

of different ways you can look at that. We talked

about being argumentative, and I don't know I could argue

about all this. You probably could you know people can

They've argued about what it means to be a church member,

how important all this is. Here's one thing that has

come down to me for me that I want to

leave with you to think about, and that is this.

If you have insulated yourself from church discipline, in other words,

if you have situated yourself into a spot where it

is impossible that you could ever be excommunicated following, then

you are not a member of the Body of Christ.

And I know that is hard. I know that a

lot of people are not members of a church for

some of these very things that have happened. They've seen happen,

they've felt abuses. That doesn't negate. But what I see

the Bible teaching on this, so it's taught in scripture

and to be a part of a body of Christ.

And I've told people this before. You know, I spent

a lot of time thinking I was pretty great at

some things. One of those things was sports basketball, and

I can honestly say I was never cut from the

Portland Trailblazers team. You know why that is because I

was never a part of it. You can't be cut

from something you are never a part of. And the

Bible teaches this. Okay, so the duties, just briefly, you

have to have the new birth, you have to have

believers baptism, and you have to be a member the

Body of Christ, which involves duties and regulations. Thinking about

the duties again, as we think about the parable of

the talents. We talked about that the other the other

evening as pertains to ministers. You know, we have been

given a talent, and that talent means responsibility, it means value,

and was looking for a ministers we think of somebody

with the most responsibility. Maybe in the home it's the father,

in school, it's the teacher, the principle, but that doesn't

mean the rest of you don't have responsibilities unless you

buried it. God has given you a talent and there's

a care taking responsibility you have for the Church of

Jesus Christ, the church you are a member of. It

doesn't matter if you're a young lady, a young man,

whatever it is. If you're a member, you have a talent.

You have a responsibility to take care of the Church

of Jesus Christ. And so when you think about duties

we need, let's let's keep that in mind now, have

you ever been assigned a new job and you realized

you didn't know what that meant, what your duties were.

We have that happened sometimes in our reorganization meeting. Somebody

gets voted on as caretaker of you know, I forget

what all the names secretary or treasure or something, and

pretty quick you can have two people mowing the lawn

and nobody flushing the irrigation system or you know, because

there's confusion nobody. So we kind of went through that

and tried it's good to know what your job is.

And I think that's what this message is for, is

tried to help us as members know how to what

are what our duties are. Some of the eight of them,

we're going to talk about eight of them. I'm sure

there's many more. Okay, Number one, Know them which labor

among you? First? Thessalonians five, verse twelve says and we

beseech you, brethren, to know them which labor among you,

and are over you in the Lord and admonish you.

This is a very specific verse. It's a pretty easy

verse to follow, and it means something something along the

line of act kindly towards them, acknowledge them as the

messages of Christ and treat them with tenderness and respect,

know them that labor among you. It's impossible for a

leader to get around like he should. And often the

accusation comes, you know, I just don't. I don't trust

my leader because he hasn't developed a relationship with me,

and I just you know, he's he's too busy, he

has not taken the time to really get to know

me like like so I can trust him. He don't

haven't earned the right to tell me the things he

wants to tell me. God, in his wisdom, I believe,

foresaw that problem, that very problem. He had a solution,

and he made a way for that to happen. In

the way is that you get to know him. It's

it's not complicated stuff. It's just that we've reversed it.

Often make friends with your leader would be another way

to say, value them. How does the Bible say you

should make friends? He says that a man hath the

at friends must show his self friendly. Ask yourself the question,

what would be your idea of a perfect leader, perfect bishop?

He just want I'd love to hear what that would be.

Would you want a person who is like a like

a really good friend to you. He trusted you, trusted

him because he knew you so well. He understood you.

He was a kind person. That makes just a wonderful

bishop and a wonderful minister deacon. He spent a lot

of time with you. He understood your background. He understand

what factors went into your way of thinking, why you

believe the way you did, why you think the way

he do. He was careful what he says about you.

Wouldn't that be wonderful to have a minister that was

in bishop that was careful what he said to it.

He didn't want to put you in a bad light.

He was hospitable. He had you over to his place.

He fed you wonderful meals. He made friends with your children.

He liked you. He liked your children. He was compassionate,

He was understanding. He gave you the benefit of the

doubt when you did stupid things. We all do that,

you know, when you made mistakes, he gave you the

benefit of the doubt. He tried to say, well, you know,

here's what's going on in this man's life. I doubt

He meant he wanted you to look good. He looked

your best. He treated you with respect even if you

didn't agree with him. Wonderful way to make friends. And

did you know that according to the Bible, it's teaching

that we should do all of these things, except that

it says in this verse that you should be this

to your leader, know them that labor among you. Duty

number one. That was duty number one. Duty number two.

Respect and love, love and respect. I'm not sure which

way the title. There's a book, I think love and Respect.

I probably should read it. I don't think I've ever

read it. But first, that'sling is five verse thirty. I

think that book has to do with marriage. Possibly. It

says first that'sling is five verse thirteen. And to esteem

them very rely, very highly in love. So there's the respect,

in love, respect and love, esteem them highly in love

for their works sake. This is crucial for good relationships,

to have respect and to have love. Now, there's a lot,

a lot of things about respect and love. One of

the things I'm just going to bring out one thing.

How do you show respect and love for someone? How

do you show respect and love for your wife, your husband?

I talked about this the other day with the other

Evening about ministers and it's the same thing applies, but

I'm going to bring it up here again, active listening,

to learn how to listen actively. I see these young

ladies over here. Some of you are looking at me.

You're paying attention. Some people nod their heads, some people

to keep notes. There's all kinds of ways. One of

the ways not to be an active listener. Sleeping in

church is not active listening. It's it's I think it's

you know, as we get older, I understand it. I try.

You know, it's it's one of those things people aren't

feeling good and so on and so forth. I understand.

But by and large, when you think about what a

minister does to prepare the meal, we had a wonderful

meal last night over at Derek and Gladys. It was

lovely to be there. One of the things I did

not do is fall asleep at the table right when

they were serving the meal. Because that's disrespectful and it's

not loving, it's not kind, it's it's none of those things.

So active listening. We live in an era where everybody

wants to be heard. Everybody wants to be noticed, everyone

wants to have a voice. This is in church, you know,

men's meetings are big things. Everybody has to have their voice.

We go around the room, everyone gets a chance to talk.

Talking is what is presented as this privilege, as this opportunity.

And when your preacher stands to preach, you have been

given a different kind of opportunity, the opportunity to listen,

to hear and Romans ten. Paul is telling them then

that faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word

of God. I think I mentioned this the other evening

as well. But many of the Jews saw Jesus, but

they didn't believe so seeing, but the Gentiles heard, they

didn't see, and yet many of them believes. How do

you become an active listener in a world we're seeing talking,

self expression, opinion giving, self promotion has become the primary

avenue of primary sense, the age of media, active listening.

During what we just went through, drough a time of grief,

and a lot of you have experienced this. But to

be an active listener is better than being a a

compulsive talker. It's just better to listen. And Paul speaks

of this. According to Chris, he was an early writer

and he speaks of this thing. This Paul speaks of

this as a majestic kind of listening, a majestic kind

of hearing, this hearing by the word of God, and

he compares it to described it as a thing higher

than miracles. So if you think about how wonderful would

be to see Jesus walk on water and to see

a miracle performed, Chrissostrum is comparing this thing of hearing

by the word of God as a thing higher than miracles.

And so this is one way you can show love

and respect not only to your wife and to your

your husband, and to the people around you, but to

your church leaders. You know, sometimes at a men's meeting,

even though all of you have three minutes, maybe it's

good to listen to what the leaders have to say. Okay,

Number three another duty is to be at peace among yourselves.

That this is actually the last part of that same

verse versus the Thessalonians five, verse thirteen. And to esteem

them very highly in love for the works sake, and

be at peace among yourselves. Now, what this indicates is

that you have a choice. You have a choice of

whether you want to be at peace or not. And

do you think do you think that church problems just

happen like a like a bad accident, Like you're just

at the mercy of like a machinery breakdown. It just

just happens. Nobody's fault, you know. I like machinery. I've

always kind of enjoyed machinery. And there's all kinds of machinery.

There's tractors, there's combines, there's airplanes, there's robotics, and these these,

the higher high precision machines, to me, are a thing

of beauty. And the more decision, the timing, the tolerances

of a machine, the more impressive it is. That's why

a high performance jet is more impressive than a six

bottom plow. There's just more going on, faster and so.

But the trade off is is when something goes wrong,

it's quite a bit more spectacular. The Church is a

high performance machine, riding with a friend of mine over

there in the matdress area in one of those big

John Deere choppers. I had never had much of a

chance to be around them. This is a big one.

I think John Deere puts their somebody could probably correct

me one. Maybe their biggest engine goes in these big

sized choppers. This thing had close to a thousand horsepower

if I understood like V twelve engine and a tremendous power.

So I went to ride with them in a thirty

foot header. It's got this huge drum six to eight

inch knives in it, going at twelve hundred rpm. And

just to appreciate that, just imagine like maybe some of

you do this time of the year with your lawnmowers

and your baggers trying to mow wet grass, you know,

thirty six inches at a time, and how that plugs up.

This is going through thirty feet of corn and turning

it into silage at a pretty fast pace. Day or

two after I was riding with him, he was in

another field and I just heard about it later, but

he was running this through the field and one end

of that shaft on that cylinder came loose, and that

machine proceeded to destroy itself, six inch knives all the

way out to the truck. When that kind of thing

happens in the church and the body of Christ, when

it malfunctions, whose fault is it? Is it always the

guy in the driver's seat. Is it just nobody's fault?

Just an hour act of God? Like we say sometimes,

is it inevitable? I've heard people say that I just

know that this church is headed towards church trouble. It's

just inevitable. I can see the signs, I can see

where it's headed. It takes a lot of insight to

say that I suppose tremendous amount of spiritual wisdom and faith.

But the Bible teaches that we have agency. We can

be at peace among ourselves. We have a choice and

how it functions. Galatians five, verse fifteen says, if you

bite and devour one another, take heed that you be

not consumed one of another. And just like that chopper,

you can just destroy yourselves by disobeying this verse and

not being at peace among yourselves. That's a third duty,

be at peace among yourselves. The fourth duty is rebuke

not an elder. For Timothy five verse one, rebuke not

an elder an elder, but entreat him as a father

and the younger men as brethren. There's a kind of

a point of interest. The leaders here are not here,

but in other places, in a couple different places, the

leaders are specifically told to rebuke with all authority, and

here we're told not to rebuke the leaders. Now, how

does that seem fair? You tell me. Well, one way

to explain it, just full disclosure. Here is this word rebuke.

Rebuke not an elder. Isn't quite the same word that's

used when it said leaders to rebuke with all authority.

They're same in the English, but slightly different. And the

one where leaders rebuke has more to do with and

I think I explained some of this meaning more like

bring conviction, refuse to allow some things, but do it

with compassion, do it with long suffering. This word here

has more the idea of actually be rating and scolding,

maybe mocking, you know, pretty sharp, heavy duty things there.

And it says not to do that, maybe giving somebody

a dressing down, you know, really giving them a peace

of your mind. And this happens a lot in politics.

I think we've seen just a real breakdown with this.

The Bible says to honor the king. Now we're not

comparing ourselves to kings here, but there is something about

God's view of authority and how we should relate to it.

I don't want to be rate or mock President Trump.

I might not agree with it. I don't want to

do that with with President Biden. You know, you hear

a lot of podcasts and commentaries, and it starts to

get into our mind. And this I think, I think

we see this in our nation. This becomes an acceptable

way to deal with with authorities that we don't like.

But I believe the Bible teachers that we should be respectful.

There should be an honor, and even though human behavior

is to explode and to take take the chance we

have to be rate or defy the authority that we

don't agree with, the Bible teachers against that. So the

second part of this verse, though, is what should we

do if we feel something's not right. We know that

leadership is not perfect, We know that sometimes they need

to be corrected. So the Bible does have a way

to do that. It says against an able to receive

not an accusation, but to entreat him as a father.

Let's see here in this verse nineteen against an elder

received not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses.

You know, it's easy to go kind of half cocked

and start believing everything you hear, and you know how

it is often if you hear on the other side,

it changes things. But this says, like, if there's something

serious that you believe about the elder, there should be

two or three witnesses. So it's it's making contingencies for

the biases for the emotion we may feel against an

authority in our lives by saying, hey, before you just

run on pure adrenaline and high octane and energy and emotion,

you better make sure there's two or other two or

three other people that saw the same thing. So number

five is kind of along the same line as number four,

but it's coming out of Hebrews thirteen, verse seventeen. Obey

them that have the over you, and submit yourselves. Now,

I know this is kind of heavy duty things here.

I'll read the verse obey them have the rule over you,

and submit yourselves. For the watch for your souls is

they that must give account, that they may do it

with joy and not with grief, for that is unprofitable

for you. Now, I've heard this verse explained a lot

of different ways. I've heard a lot of explanations about it.

In fact, sometimes the explanation and the exegesis gets so

lengthy and long and complicated that you would think this

verse pretty much means exactly the opposite of what it says,

which is a terribly interesting mind experience. What would this

verse say if it said the opposite? You know, what

are the antonyms of obey and submit? That's easy enough

to look up. It just means the the opposite of

obey is to oppose. The opposite of submit is defy.

Is that is that what the Bible is actually saying,

oppose and defy them to have the authority over you.

And it's obviously not talking about political leaders, because it's

saying they watch for your souls. I don't have all

the explanation for this, but I do know antonyms and

synonyms well enough to understand that this verse means something

besides oppose and defy. So it's one of our duties

that that we should we should think about. Now. There

again there's leaders are not always right, but they're not

always wrong, believe it or not. And we need to

think about that. And we need to respect that, I think,

and to take their their thoughts and their opinions. Sometimes

they have reasons for what they say that we don't

see all the time. And it's saying all this I

I we have Brethren's meeting and madres we promote listening

to everyone. But again I am I am mandated to

preach from from what the Bible says, and so that's

what I'm doing this morning. These are these are these

are some of the things the Bible teaches. Okay, that

was number five, number six, muzzle not the ox. This

comes from the Deuteronomy. The Mosaic law taught that when

the ox, they didn't have John Deyer combines or threshing machines,

so that the ox would tread out on the on

the threshing floor the wheat. And the idea was there

that you were not to prevent that oxen from taking

a bite of the grain. I guess is that it

was that it was treading out, and this this came over,

this idea came over into the New Testament. Paul tells

Timothy in one Timothy five or seventeen. Let the elders

that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially

they who labor in the world, and doctrine. For the

scriptures say, if thou shalt not muzzle the ox that

tread without the corn and the labor is worthy of

his reward. Now a lot of you have got into

there's there's different businesses here. We have seed business, metal business,

donut business, construction business. You know, it depends on what

you work at, what what you do, uh kind of

dictates the hourly wage or or or annual income that

you you command. Preachers have never necessarily commanded a high wage,

I think, if unless you're in a megachurch or something

like that. And yet the Bible's teaching us something here

about this, thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he

tread without the corn. There's one place I used to

go to when I was on a preaching or schedule,

and I remember it's numerous times we would end up

at this brother's house for lunch, and he would always

quote this verse. The labor is worthy of his hire

before the noon meal. The labor is worthy of his reward,

I think, is the way the verse says. And he

seemed happy, genuinem I happy that I was there, and

genuinely happy to feed me, and genuine am I happy

that I had preached at their church that morning, And

he said he would say this, and as a token

of his appreciation, how do you show your appreciation? So

how should we look at this issue? I just want

to look. I want to read a couple of verses.

First Corinthians nine. Maybe you want to turn to this,

probably one of the few places I'll be turning to

you this morning besides John three. But fir Corinthians nine,

verse fourteen. And I'm going to start at verse nine,

end at verse fourteen, and just know ODIs verse fourteen,

because that's the one I really like. Here it says

this is a separate place. Paul brings this thing up

about the Mosaic law muzzling the ox. The first place

was in one Timothy. But he says, if we're just

written in the Law of Moses, thou should not muscle

the ox the mouth of the ox that treadeth out

the corn? Does God take care for oxen? For saith

he altogether, or saith he it all together? For our sakes?

For our sakes, no doubt this is written that he

that ploths should plow in hope, that he that thresheth

should in hope, in hope, should be a partaker of

his hope. If we have sown unto you spiritual things,

is it a great thing? If we shall reap your

carnal things. If others be partakers of this power over you,

are not we? Rather? Nevertheless, we have not used this power,

but suffered all things, lest we should hinder the Gospel

of Christ. Do you not know that they which minister

about holy things live of the things of the temple,

And they which wait at the altar are partakers of

the altar? Even so have the Lord ordained that they

which preach the gospel should live of the gospel. Even

so the Lord hath ordained, speaking of ordinations, that they

that preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel. Now,

I don't know exactly how to interpret all this. I

know that we do not hire our preachers. I'm glad

we don't. I'm glad I'm not paid to preach. And

you also run across the occasional preacher that actually has

more money than you do. So how should you help out?

How can you help? Do they still have needs? Well,

here's just a couple of things my experience, And you know,

I think you have the host family thing. I think

I saw it on your thing there. When I was ordained,

I was at twenty nine years of age. We had

three three children, three little children. They they didn't stop coming,

they kept coming. We had more children, and it was

a bit overwhelming. There was times when I was we

were all very overwhelmed. I think anybody that's been in

those shoes will know that. For me, then ordained bishop

later on. You know, there was times we were studying

for a message, you were thinking about baptism, you're thinking

about maybe communion, some special service, a wedding, And there

was a while in this congregation. If I remember, somebody

could probably remind me, but there was a there was

a moment back there where the congregation had decided that

the minister would go was invited pretty much automatically to

wherever the host family meal was to be served that day.

Later on that if I remember, that got changed around.

It was like, oh, now her mind. You know, we're

just we're just people too, and and uh, we'll just

get on the list and all we'll all be part

of the host family thing. Which is great, great idea,

except that, you know, when you've had a bit busy week.

You're prere you're studying Saturday, you're studying Sunday morning, your

wife has babies, you were on to clean the church,

you're trying to memorize the names of the baptismal applicants.

You don't mess that up. The children are running around

with diapers and Sunday schools and Bible memories. She's trying

to cook a meal because she's host family. It is

ridiculously hard to concentrate. I had I had an old

when I was ordained. There was an old bishop at

least once. I remember he was talking to me. He

was old then, and this is almost twenty five years ago,

and I remember him telling me about those early years

with tears on his cheeks, about how difficult it was

during those years, all those those little children and all

those things were happening. I'm not as emotional as some people,

but I've sure felt like crying looking back on some

of those years because it's hard. And I would encourage

you to think about that. Like your minister, if you

want to have a sermon that's worth anything, you have

to give him space to do that. Another idea, you

know we have. I've heard of people that use the

fifth Sunday offering for the ministry to share it to

the ministry if there's a fifth Sunday. Now you know

we don't do that, have done that. But there are

so many expenses that never get you know, when you

when you're having a vacation out at the coast. He's

driving to Twila for something or somewhere somewhere. It takes money.

It takes like like taking time off work to visit someone.

Church travel that never gets reimbursed. Coffee, you know where

did this think? Like? Preachers never took me for coffee.

Now the only way to talk to somebody is to

take them for coffee. Coffee's expensive nowadays, taking them for lunch.

You Like, we're constantly by like who's paying for all

this stuff to make the church work? It's and I've

had young people. I've had people say I'll pay for it,

which which in normal social settings is not that like

if you invite them, you're supposed to pay for it.

But this is church work, like some time you have

to talk to him. And so you know, there's things

like that. We've had people just give us one hundred

dollars bills. So you know, I know you're on your

way to wherever this weekend stop somewhere you and your

wife and have by stake. There's just there's just different

different things you can do. We have Thanksgiving coming up,

you're having a Thanksgiving meal. Sounds like the power of

being thankful is something I've I've realized, like in bad circumstances.

We all know that, we all tell ourselves that this

time of the year, But the power of being thankful

changes our mental outlook on life. Try being thankful for

your ministry and it will change your outlook of them.

I'm sure you do. Like I said, I probably wouldn't

be preaching a sermon if something so, it wouldn't have

been assigned to me. But it's it's something that's about

you know, show thankfulness, you appreciation, and it may change

your outlook and your perspective if you're if you're struggling

with that, it would it will help. Okay. Number seven,

Bear you want another's burdens Glatians six, verse two says

bear you want another burdens, and so fulfill the law

of Christ. Glatians five, verse thirteen. For brethren, you have

been called into liberty only us. This not liberty for

an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one

another Flippians two four. Look not every man on his

own things, but every man also on the things of others.

Are you around? Where are you at? When someone is

it is need to hand, when somebody is there to grieve,

to confess maybe to die, they need to die. Where

are you at? Are you there for them to go

through that experience? There's hard things in life that we

talked about. Are we as Mennite people at a church,

as churches, are we good at burden bearing? That's one

of the things that has been brought up to me recently.

Are we good? We don't always know what to say.

I know that we don't. We don't always know what

to do. But I would like you all to remember

that at times like these, like justice being killed in

our church, at this church, I know the history has

had many opportunities, opportunities I did not take properly. I

believe that. But when you see a grieving or a

suffering of any kind, that is an opportunity. It's an

opportunity for burden bearing. Try not to miss these opportunities

because they just come and then they're gone, and you

may be the person in a unique opportunity to help

or to be there. Time Magazine a number of years

ago they made a list of the fifty top most

memorable moments in Olympic Game history. And I didn't see

all them, but at number eighteen, there's a man by

the name of Derek Redmond. Now he was a British

sprinter in the four hundred meterteen ninety two and in

barcel he had been a lot. He'd been through a

lot of things in life, injuries and different things. I

don't I don't know what all it was. But he

had had had some hard, hard road and this, uh,

this this dream of glory and chasing this this Olympic

medal was very real to him. And when they took

off in this four hundred meters, he got a couple

hundred yards into a couple hundred meters into it and

he tore his hamstring. He fell to the ground in pain.

He could he couldn't, he couldn't finish the race. This

dream was lost. It was it was over. There was

nothing he could do but uh, in his pain, in

his hurt, he got up and he decided he wanted

to at least finish the race. So he's he's limping,

he's running, hopping along, just headed for the finish line

and down out of the out of the bleachers on

the sideline, this big burly man comes through the crowd,

comes sprinting down up beside Derek puts his Derek's arm

around him and starts to help him down the track.

It was his father and uh. They ran down the

track and helped him make his way to the finish line.

And as Derek got to the finish line, as he

bowed his head and wept on his father's shoulder, he wept.

He wept for the loss, He wept for the dream

that would never be realized. He wept for the medal

he would never win. And sixty five thousand people stood

and a potted that man. But it wasn't the glory.

It was the grief that made that moment one of

the most memorable moments in Olympic history. I like you

to remember that it's not the glory it is. It's

the grief. It's a moment, a moment to forget yourself

and to meet the needs. You know, when you love someone,

even when it's ugly, when there's no possible way to win.

And this is when the church gets ugly, when men's

meeting gets ugly, when you're ugly when you show up.

And here's the thing. I don't know if you've lived

enough church life yet to realize that it's not the

pig roast, it's not the amount of pig roast. It's

not the ballgames. It's not the suppers that make a

church work. It's not the women's days and the quilting

bees that mark the affecting effectiveness of a church. It's

the way burdens are born in a church. To make

a church an above average place to be. It's one

of the qualifying duties of church membership. And that brings

us to the last point on what it means to

be a member. How do you actually show love? You

might say that you really love something, you really love someone.

I've had people say they love the church. I think

it's a good thing to say. But Hebrews ten, verse

twenty fives tells us not forsaking the assembling of ourselves

together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another.

And so much the more as you see the day approaching,

you know, we live in a time of easy travel,

easy to go, it's easy to be gone. We live,

we live our lives in fluid motion. We're just here

and there, we're everywhere. People have places to go, people

the important things to do, I'm sure, But when you

really love someone, you show up. That's what you do.

And I'm not going to dictate how much that has

to be and and what what what all that actually means.

Just remember that when you love someone, it's it's not

it's not complicated instructions here, it's extremely simple language again

in the form of a command. It is a directive

to actively choose to meet regularly with other Christians, and

it is a warning against neglecting regular assembly with the believers.

It's it's it's a it's a verse that elevates the

church assembly and the local community as the highest form

of protection against apostasy. And uh, like I said, I've

I've had people say, well, I love I love the church.

You know if if if someone says I love you,

but they never show up for you, it's completely meaningless.

You can say you love the church and then be

gone for for for the next three men's meetings, and

you know, all the hard thing, I'm not even sure

what that means. If you love something, you show up.

What does forsake mean? For sake just means to abandon.

It's a it's a really bad word to use in relationships.

You abandoned family, abandoned mothers, abandoned children. These are you know,

you can abandon your diet. Let's see you see how

that works for you. You can just you know, just

used the word abandon and it doesn't go good with

a lot of things. It doesn't conjure up good images

of any kind of relationships. And it's a it's an

ugly word with ugly outcomes. Abandoned children, abandoned families, fathers

that abandon You know, you know, you're you're you're super dependable.

Until you're not, you've abandoned it. What will your spiritual

be like? Spiritual life be like in your lifetime if

you abandon, if you're an abandoner, if you're not there,

if you're not if you're not showing up or that

of your children. If you love someone, forsake them not

don't abandon them. Okay, so we've looked at at eight

things to do, eight duties to perform. I'm going to

go over them. Number one, know them that labor among you.

Number two, Love and respect your leaders. Number three, be

at peace among yourselves. Number four. Rebuke not an elder.

Number five abandon submit yourself to those that have the

rule over you. Number six muzzle Nott the ox. The

labor is worthy of his higher number seven. Berg you

want another's burdens number eight forsake, not the assembling them

yourselves together. You show up. And one final thought I

want to give before we close here, Jesus said, occupy

till I come. And going back to the parable of

the talents in Luke's version in chapter nineteen, the Parable

of the Talents, Jesus saith. Therefore, a certain nobleman went

into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom

in return. And he called his ten servants and delivered

it into them ten pounds, and said, unto them, occupied

till I come. The Bible tells that some of those

citizens actually hated the messenger. They sent him back. They said,

we will not have this man reign unto us. But

others took the one talent they had and they multiplied

it into ten. And this brings us back to the

truth that no matter how little we have of our talents,

God is able to multiply them into dramatic ways to

make this church a beautiful place by doing these little things,

you know, the lesson is that while it may not

seem like we're doing a lot, a lot a lot

is done. There's not a lot of nomadic or obvious

gains being made. I would just like to encourage us

that with these small things, these small eight things, and

like I said, there's many, many more that you could find.

The truth is that if we do what is our

duty to do, if we occupy till He comes, our

reward will be great in heaven. In verse ten, there

he says, he that is faithful in that which is

least is faithful also in much heat that is unjust,

and least is also is unjust, also in much. And

so remember, you know, you may you could probably find

eight more things that are that are better than these

eight more grandiose, maybe more important things. I hope God

does have more important things for you. You may find

eight things that are more noticeable and impressive. But try

to remember, if you can, that it's not it's not

the sprint, it's not the home runs, it's not the

big wins, the grand show of accomplishments that God is

looking for. But it's the faithfulness in the small things.

Ord bless you. I'll turn the time back over to

further legal