"Just" Regular Church Members

The Replacements is a football movie that came out I think when I was in high school about…

The qb comes back because he doesn’t want the team to make the play offs without him, but he doesn’t know the team and they’re losing the game and he has a temper tantrum in the locker room at half time…

They win the game with the non-professionals.

God is using all his people, not just the pastors, to do awesome things in his power and name!

Pastors can’t do it all

Everyone in the church should be doing the work of ministry.

So men are notorious for refusing to make more than one trip when moving things from one place to another. Dads will do everything they physically can and sometimes more to get all the groceries from the car to inside in one trip.

If there is a stack of small boxes or a pile of junk that needs to be moved, guys, we find a way to stack it all up in our arms right? Cause it just doesn’t make sense to walk from here to there twice if I only have to do it once.

More than I’d like to admit, I’ve pushed it a little too hard; whether it’s the grocery bag ripping or the stack of boxes in my arms losing balance and that beautiful slow motion dance of trying to catch them all happens, I’ve tried to do too much.

When a pastor or pastors are the only people in a church doing the ministry, that’s what will eventually happen.

The people in the church who were overseeing this care ministry for the widows were not showing the same care for the widows who were not full blooded Hebrews.

Ephesians 4:11–12 ESV

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,

Everyone in the church, young to old, should be doing ministry. There are different abilities, different gifts, different activities, different ways to do this. If you are a Christian, then you should be involved in a church. If you are involved in a church then there is a way for you to be ministering! There are glamorous jobs and ones that aren’t glamorous, but they are all part of making disciples!

If you need help figuring out how you should be ministering, please come talk to me about it! God has something for you to do!

The call to follow Jesus is a call to lay your life before Him in loving service to his Kingdom. God can use anyone to do incredible things for his Kingdom!

God uses lay people

God will use any of his people to proclaim the Gospel boldly to a hostile world.

Stephen was “full of faith and of the Holy Spirit... grace and power”

He was growing in his faith.

He boldly proclaimed the truth.

He had compassion for the lost even as they killed him.

He was willing to stand for God and trusted in his Word.

Luke 21:14–15 ESV

Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict.

God used Him to proclaim the Gospel to people hostile to the Gospel.

They lied about him.

They didn’t want to know the truth.

They attacked him.

Don’t think that because Stephen was killed so quickly that his life a ministry were a waste. We are still talking about him, being inspired by him 2,000 years later.

You may be wondering why in the world Stephen would be praying for the people killing him. If that’s your question, you’ve got to understand the grace and forgiveness that Jesus has shown to you. It’s so great that it moves those who receive it to show incredible grace and forgiveness and love to others. Stephen knew they could be forgiven because Jesus had paid for their sins. Stephen knew he had been forgiven. In the same way every one of you can be forgiven…!