"Our House" pt.2

We’re defining what it means to be the church

• We are the body of Christ
• We are empowered by Christ
• We reflect the glory of Christ

What about the purpose of the church?

• There’s different denominations that have interpreted their own doctrinal beliefs
• There’s variations in church government
• Deacons, elders, pastors, committees, committee on committees
• Servant leadership

1. Embrace your limitations (vs. 1)

• The church has grown so much that there is no way to keep up with all of the congregational needs
• God has blessed the church and thousands of people are coming to know Jesus
• It’s estimated that the church in Jerusalem had surpassed 10,000 members at this point, and Jerusalem’s population was roughly 14,000
• The Hellenistic Jews’ widows were being neglected
• We know from James 1:27 that caring for widows is near and dear to the heart of God, so it’s near and dear to the church
• Hellenists were Greek cultures Jews
• This is a racial problem
• The complaint arises
• The idea here is that this is more like general complaining than a direct address
• It has more of a gossip vibe
• If we are not careful, we can destroy the church with complaining without understanding
• The hellenists assumed that they were being neglected by the disciples because the disciples didn’t care, but the disciples couldn’t physically handle the workload
• We are the fellowship of the broken
• The perfect church doesn’t exist
• The simple reality of church is that my needs and your needs won’t always be met by the church
• We won’t always get our way because it’s not about us anyway
• The church doesn’t exist for us. It exists for Jesus
• We can exhaust ourselves with ministry
• We can’t do it all

2. Jesus is the heart of ministry (vs. 2-4)

• I struggled with this passage for a long time because it seems as if the disciples are too good to perform this task
• It’s more if we’re going to have to give up something, what’s it going to be
• Again ministry doesn’t exist for people for people’s sake. It exists so that people can experience the love of Jesus exemplified by his church.
• We can become so busy with ministry that we miss the mission
• Central Hills
• I can miss the 15 minutes
• We can become so busy with ministry that we can become self sufficient
• We figure it out so we begin to become naturally possessive of it
• We don’t spend time seeking God’s guidance because we really don’t feel like we need it
• How can I tell you about someone I really don’t know or explain something to you that i’ve never really experienced?

3. Servant leadership is a must (vs. 5-7)

• The Hellenists were complaining about their widows, but did you see them volunteering to help?
• Priests normally did this in Old Testament context
• God has equipped everyone for ministry by sending the Holy Spirit
• “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,” ‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭4:11-12‬ ‭ESV‬‬
• No one is above ministry
• Stephen is a man full of faith, a bold preacher, and a martyr
• If there’s a need sometimes we have to be the ones that meet it

4. God meets us in obedience (vs. 7)

• I’m convinced when God’s people are fully committed to him and his purposes he will meet us in that place and begin to do God sized things around us
• When we’re fully committed to him and not distracted by selfish ambitions or timeless traditions.
• The church is built only through people embracing the call of the gospel