Roll Call | Bro. Alex Mason

Welcome to the. First Apostolic Church Podcast.

Our church mission is to love as God loves, showing compassion

every soul, thus winning those souls and equipping them to be

sent out to plant and to harvest.

Thank you for joining. Us today and we hope that you

are blessed by today's podcast. Praise the Lord everyone.

Amen. Good to be in the House of the

Lord this afternoon. Hey man, don't mind me, just

getting my bearings order here. Thank you for your faithfulness

to the House of the Lord. Amen.

It is a good day to be in the House of the Lord man, you can

go ahead and turn your Bibles to 1st Corinthians 12 and 12.

Give honor to pastor and his wife.

They are out of town. Love and appreciate them and all

that they do and hope that everything has gone well this

weekend. They he'd been preaching Friday

night and then Sunday twice. So, so maybe just a little bit

of evangelist in him today, this weekend.

So I hope that that has been well and they get to fellowship

with some of their friends. So I'm sure they are enjoying

that as well. Amen.

Thankful for my wife love and appreciate her and all that she

does and puts up with me and and whatnot my craziness and she is,

she is the reminder horse and I sometimes I would forget things

if she didn't remember things. So I appreciate that too because

you know, it's just one of those things people.

It's just one of those things. But I appreciate her and I love

doing life with her. Amen. 1st Corinthians 12 and 12.

It says I'm reading from the ESV.

I'm sure the KJV is up there right now, but it says for just

as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of

the body, though many are one body, so it is with Christ.

For in one spirit we are all baptized into one body.

Jews or Greeks, slaves are free and all were made to drink of 1

spirit. For the body does not consist of

1 member, but of many. If the foot should say, because

I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body, that would not make

it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say,

because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body, that

would not make it any less a part of the body.

If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing

Where be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear,

where would be the sense of smell?

But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of

them as He chose. If all were a single member,

where would the body be? I want to stop reading right

there. I want to speak simple subject.

I don't plan on holding you long tonight on roll call.

Roll call. I wonder if you would set your

Bibles down. Help me pray tonight.

Lord. I thank you Lord for this word.

Lord, today I thank you for the day that you have given us.

Lord, I ask you that you would prepare hearts and minds as a

planting ground for your word. Lord, let there be, Lord, a

burden of call to serve, Lord, in this place.

Lord, I ask you just to move, Lord, anoint my lips of clay.

Lord, I speak what needs to be spoken tonight to your people

and we're going to give you all the honor and the praise and the

glory and the Jesus mighty name that we pray and everybody said

in Jesus name, Jesus name. You may be seated, may be

seated. Roll call.

I'm going to continue on in in this.

I didn't want to keep you standing the whole time.

You're welcome. But it it talks about it, it

says if all were a single member, where would the body be?

As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

And verse 21 says that I cannot say to the hand I have no need

of you, nor again the head to the feet.

I have no need of you. On the contrary, the parts of

the body that seem to be weaker, seem to be weaker, are

indispensable. But.

And on those parts of the body that we think less honorable, we

bestow the greater honor, and our unrepresentable parts are

treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts

do not require. But God has so composed the

body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that

there may be no division in the body, but that the members may

have the same care for one another.

If one member suffers, all suffer together.

If one member is honored, all rejoice together.

Now you are the body of Christ, and individually members of it.

The body of Christ, all one. And some of you with roll call

may be familiar with the system of attendance checking in

school. I'm sure we've all been in

school at some point, some of us a lot long ago, but some of us

more recently. And with that, the teacher

either has a clipboard or they have it pulled up on the

computer now and they take roll call and, and they say, they say

someone's name. They listen for an

acknowledgement of the students saying here, some type of

acknowledgement present. I am here or you got the, you

got the kids that like to be smart, Alex.

And they'll say not here just for fun.

And there there's a movie that has has a famous quip.

It's from Ferris Bueller's Day off.

The teachers. He's standing there with his

clipboard and he's, he's being very monotone and he's, he's

calling for roll call and he gets the Bueller and Bueller,

Bueller, Bueller and the, the whole point of the, the movie is

that he is skipping school and, and the roll call, he is nowhere

to be found. And there, there are so many

things to attend in life. There are so many things to go

to and in attendance. Life is, is like a, a bustling

Hwy. if you will. And as we, we grow older, we, we

transition into adulthood, we, we veer onto the, the proverbial

exit, if you will, onto this grand highway and it's bumper to

bumper because everyone's got to go and do something.

Everyone's got to go do something and you know, we have

college, we've got jobs, we've got marriage, kids, church,

conferences, gathering side jobs, hobbies list could go on.

We you know that. And locally we've got those,

those softball tournaments people do.

That's just a little side thing. It's not like they're any pro

athletes or anything or getting money for it or anything.

And it's just a, it's just a hobby.

There's so many things you could get involved with.

You take your pick if you if you want to do a hobby, go golfing,

go golfing there you go. There's a there's a hobby.

If you like music, spend a bunch of money on music you like video

games, I like video games. I'll spend money on video games

too. Trevor is raising his hand and

so there's so many things you can get involved if you can

attend different conferences that meet your interests.

There are, if you're, if you're anything like myself, that you

got comic cons, those are about superheroes and, and comics and

you can go and do that. There's, there's the PGA tours,

you can go do that. There's so many different things

that can continually fill up your time spots and attendance.

And, and if you're anything like my wife and I, we, we aren't

busy for no reason at all. But with that, it comes to my

wife keeping track of everything.

And I try my best and sometimes I miss things.

And we, we, you know, have a little fun with figuring out who

forgot what. But with that we have, we have

countless multiple calendars. I could show you.

I think I counted, I got about 12 different calendars on my

phone. And then we've got, we got

different reminder lists and we've got alarms on our phone.

Every once in a while. I'll make fun of my wife because

she has alarms and sometimes she doesn't remember to rename them.

And so sometimes the alarm's going off and she's giggling

right now. So the alarm's going off and

I'll go and I'll read it. And it's not exactly what the

reminder's about, but she made an alarm.

And so I'll be like, go to Vincent's.

She was like, oh, that was from like two years ago.

I'm like, OK. But it reminded her of

something, all right, The reminder of something.

And, and, you know, we, we have to make sure when, when, when

everyone lives busy lives, we have to make sure nothing slips

through the cracks. We have to.

There's so many things to go on and, and there's a song, if

everyone, anyone watched Space Jam growing up, there's a song

that says time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping

into the future. And how true that rings as we,

we grow up into adulthood. And some of our students, I've

told them before, you'll find as you continue on into your high

school years, that years seem to become quicker and things seem

to become shorter as far as time goes.

And, and you have to, you have to take hold of those precious

moments and enjoy them while you can because it continues on this

rolling path. And it's difficult because

there's always something going on.

Time keeps slipping into the future.

And I've found it, you know, we, we grow busy, we grow ever more

busy. And sometimes we yearn for the

moment to catch our breath. We yearn for that moment of we

have nothing. It's a free Saturday.

What is that? We sleep in.

What's that right? And people yearn for the free

and the catch our breath. And I've found it interesting

sometimes that that we get into this mode sometimes of finding

rest on a Pew. We find rest on the Pew, We find

rest from church. And I'll get to where I'm saying

we attend church. We attend it's it's, it's a

significant part of our routine. We go to church on Sunday

morning, We go to church on Sunday night, we go to church on

Wednesday night, we go to prayer on Thursdays, on the first of

the first Thursday of the month. We do all these different things

and we get into the routine and it's significant part and it is

refreshing to the Spirit. It's refreshing and it's

important. It's supposed to be important to

be refreshed and it's supposed to be nourishing for all our

souls. And I'm not taken away from

that. However, God's call to us goes

beyond attendance. It beckons us to engage, to

participate actively in the lifeblood of the church.

It's an ever growing thing. It is the body we are called to

serve. Matthew 20 and 28 says even as

the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister

and to give life, his life as a ransom for many, Jesus himself

didn't come so he could be served, but to serve.

And aren't you glad that he did? What would have happened if the

whole point of Jesus coming was that he could come and be born

into a grandiose palace and become and earthly king and be

catered to? What kind of story and

recollection of Jesus would we be remembering today if he

didn't come to serve? Our call as Saints of God is not

just to receive, but it is to give of ourselves.

And I know when we talk about giving, we talk.

We talk about money, but it is so much more than money.

It is about giving of your time, your effort, your blood, your

sweat, and your tears unto the lifeblood of the body.

The concept of service is rooted in everything that Jesus did in

His lifetime on this planet. He washed the feet of his

disciples. He healed the sick.

He fed the hungry. He prioritized the needs of

others above his own comfort and His convenience.

Serving of serving is selfless. Just attending is selfish.

First, Peter 4 and 10 says, As every man hath received the

gift, Even so minister the same one to another as good stewards

of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak

as the oracles of God. If any man minister, let him do

it as of the ability which God giveth, that God in all things

may be glorious, verified through Jesus Christ, to whom be

praised in dominion forever and ever.

Amen. We are reminded in this passage

in first Peter of our individual responsibility within the body

of Christ, our responsibility, just like it said in our opening

passage. One body, but many members.

You know what that means then what that means is that there

are also many different abilities and gifts that God has

given each one of us. We are unique in that that we

may be a part of the body and it's one body, but unique

members that have certain ability sets that I could not do

that pastor could not do, that Brother Mason could not do that

Bishop could not do. There is there is so much

uniqueness that we have been given physically and spirit

spiritually, gifts and talents that are unique to you.

They were not intended for our own personal glory or gain, but

for the edification of the church and the advancement of

the Kingdom of God. Ephesians 2 and 10 says, For we

are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, unto good works,

which God hath hath before ordained, that we should walk in

them. We are not just.

We are not just aimless Wanderers.

We are purposely crafted to carry out specific assignments

and contributions to the Kingdom of God.

The call to serve. The call to serve instead of

just attending is not just a suggestion, it is a divine call.

It's woven into the fabric of our identity as a child of God.

When we embrace it, we end up aligning ourselves with the

heartbeat of God. We end up and becoming actively

participant in what He is doing and the work that He is doing

all around us. What I'm trying to convince you

tonight is that we need to stop attending church, stop having

church and just coming to church as the check box on the To Do

List for this week. I did Sunday morning, I'm doing

Sunday night and then whenever Wednesday comes, I'll do

Wednesday night and I'm not doing anything in between those,

but I'll come back Sunday morning again.

Don't let the things that you do become stale to where it is.

It's just another thing that you do on your To Do List.

I, I, I hope and pray that even if I get to that point, I could

come back quickly, that I don't allow church to become A to do

list item. This isn't your grocery list.

This isn't something you go into Walmart for.

This isn't something this is beyond.

This is a divine call. We need the people of the Church

of today to stop attending church for A roll call.

They say, well, I went, I can go to God.

And I said, well, I went to every service.

Lord, I was present. I was in my Pew.

I stood up a couple of times. I lifted my hands.

Every once in a while. We need to start answering the

divine call to serve. You have something to offer the

Kingdom of God. I've told our young people

multiple times, when you go, you become an adult, you get a job.

Whatever skills, whatever tools you have learned in that secular

job can be used for the Kingdom of God.

There is no reason. Well, Brother Mason, that's,

that's silly, Is it? Is it really?

There's no reason that we should have things that we can do for

man that we can't do for God's glory.

If you start to think about it, there are things that you know,

there are things that are unique to you, skills that are unique

to you that you aren't using for God, that you could be using for

God. And shame on us if we gatekeep

our gifts and abilities from the Kingdom of God.

If if it wasn't for God to begin with, we wouldn't even have

those abilities. We wouldn't have those

opportunities. We wouldn't have the knowledge

and the things that we do in order to do them.

Another thing and our, our call to serve in that is if, if you

are serving actively, don't become stagnant.

We get, I get it. We, we are all, we are all

subject to it. We get into the routines and the

ruts of things and we, we do for the church and it becomes a part

of the routine and we lose the passion like pastor said

recently and it becomes protocol.

Take this as a warning tonight. It can be just as, if not more

dangerous to become stagnant in your call to service as it is to

just attend church. We we, we have taken on

responsibility of being a part of the body of Christ.

The last thing we need to do is just attend or become stagnant.

Just attending looks a little bit of something like I'm going

to come, I'm going to sit at my Pew and when the preacher says

something really good, I'll I'll stand up.

I'll give a couple claps. I'll stand for the reading of

the word, The title slide looks good.

And and then I'll sit back down. Sit back down and, and I'll get

comfy and we'll just sit here. Come on and and stagnation looks

a little bit. Let's say brother Malone came up

here all right, I'm picking on you.

Let's say brother stagnation comes up here for emceeing and

praise the Lord Church beautiful day isn't it like it's it's

smart Alec right stagnation is I'm here.

I don't necessarily want to be or man, my week was really,

really tiring and and this is it's on my To Do List.

I just got to check this off. It's almost the same mentality

of I'm just here for a paycheck. But but instead you're thinking

that that's that's that attitude's, you know, I'm just

here for heaven. All right, I'm just here to

check. Punch my ticket, Lord, when I

just attend, what I expect, when I just attend, I expect to be

catered to. I am not going to do anything.

I am going to be a limp limb in the body, if you will.

When I just attend, you have these pieces of the body working

and we're dragging. We're dragging.

We're dragging along. And it's just like, are you

going? No, OK, we're dragging.

When I become stagnant, what happens in the body is that

we've got, well, if I have to, if I have to, OK, if I have to.

But true service is all about all the pieces fitting together,

everything working in tandem, Everyone's.

And you don't, you're going to have off days.

I get it. You're going to have off days.

But in, in the grand scheme of things, it's about unity.

It's about working for the betterment of the Kingdom.

And all the pieces are working together and you're just

trudging along and it's benefiting each other.

You're benefiting each other by doing it.

Yeah, when I become stagnant in my service, I may do it, but I'm

not going to like it and I'm going to have an attitude about

it. In these last days of the

church, coming to church for roll call is not going to cut

it. We have to answer the call to

serve. When we answer the call to

serve, we get over our stagnation.

The whole body of Christ starts to move in tandem and we what

happens is people start to grow. People start to grow.

I've told our young people, I want you to get involved with

things because I want you to grow.

I want you to grow When your knowledge of just everything,

everything that we do, I want you to grow in the sense of

getting you plugged in because what that does that they, they

may not be called to do nursing the, the nursing room ministry,

but you know what, they're doing something and eventually maybe

they'll find what they are called to do by doing something.

You're not going to find it by just sitting on your hands, just

attending. What happens is that people grow

spiritually because of it. Hidden talents will start to be

discovered. New skills are learned and

callings are poured out when we start to answer the call to

serve as the body of Christ. Serving refines our character.

It amplifies our collective impact in our community.

When we decide to get involved as the body of Christ here, that

makes an impact out there. Who doesn't want that?

We become a beacon of hope and people of unity because unity

becomes stronger when we decide to get involved in the body of

Christ. Serving is it's beyond serving

knows no bounds. The impact knows no bounds to

what could happen when we decide.

And we make up a resolve in our spirit that we are going to

serve and call. Answer the call to serve, and

we're going to do it with passion.

Music can come. We can stand.

I told you I wasn't holding you long.

But I want to close with this simple thought tonight.

Imagine, if you will, if our involvement in church could go

beyond just A roll call. If we could decide in our

spirits that I am going to do something more than just coming

to the House of the Lord. That's the first step.

There's nothing wrong with that. That's the first step.

And, and it's a big step, especially we talked this

morning about habits, sowing what you reap, reaping what you

sow. And there's an important thing

with habits, right? It takes repetition.

You should attend, but I'm saying don't make a habit of

just attending. Make a habit of finding

something to do, finding and serving.

Imagine if it went beyond just A to do list.

Imagine if you will, we could come to the House of the Lord

expecting and we could come to the House of Lord ready to

serve, whatever capacity that is.

There are so many different gifts and talents in this

building right now that can benefit the Kingdom of God.

Imagine what would happen if you started to serve and use your

individual gifts. Imagine what would happen if you

would find your passion of service again amongst the

whirlwind of life. It is time that we moved beyond

merely attending for A roll call.

These altars are open tonight and I just.

I wonder it what if we embraced the church not as a place to

attend, but as a call of service unto the Kingdom of God and the

betterment of the Kingdom of God.

I wonder what would happen to Mount Carmel if the people of

FAC would decide that we are going to do more than just

attend. We are going to go beyond that

and we are going to serve the Kingdom of God 'cause I have

something to offer the Kingdom of the Lord.

I have something that is unique to me that is going to benefit

the Kingdom of God. I don't know what it is and

maybe you need to do some reflection tonight of what you

can do where your hands can be useful in the Kingdom of God.

But tonight we need to decide, am I going to come to church for

roll call or am I going to come to church to answer the call of

service? I wonder if we could decide

tonight to set aside our old call mentality and that we're

going to answer the call to serve and serve with intention

and with passion. Oh Hallelujah, yes.

Thank you for listening. If you would like more

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