--We understand that it is not the work of the Lord’s church to open up this kitchen here so we can feed soup lunches to the city’s less fortunate or provide an area where support groups can meet or a place where the brethren can enjoy one another’s company by sharing a meal and playing a few games or what have you, that’s not the work of the CHURCH, but rather it is the individual Christian who ought to see to those less fortunate, to offer support to those seeking help for various problems, to open their homes to friends, family, and brethren.

--We understand furthermore that it would be easier to stir up atmosphere and emotion if we had an organized group of designated singers making music to God for us; easier still if that group were assisted by instruments of music, BUT we also understand that the responsibility is to speak ONE TO ANOTHER in SINGING of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs (Col. 3:16).

Let’s understand first that it is indeed the responsibility of the Christian to TEACH the gospel to others and to provide service, benevolence, and support. Then we’ll look at that responsibility that belongs to every Christian, as it was exemplified by Christ Himself, the apostles, and our other brethren from the first century. Thirdly, let’s look at some of the obstacles that are in the way of providing adequate service to God.

I.  Individual service is a responsibility of every Christian.

A.  Man or woman, young or old, fearless or shy, eloquent in speech or simple in speech, every Christian is charged to provide service. Look at Matthew 25. Verses 14-30 are what we know as Christ’s parable of the talents . . .
In his previous parable, Christ has told His disciples to be watchful and prepared for the Lord, for the day or the hour is not known when He will return.

Matthew 25:14-15: "For it is just like a man about to go on a journey, who called his own slaves, and entrusted his possessions to them.

"And to one he gave five talents, to another, two, and to another, one, each according to his own ability; and he went on his journey."

Although we understand that a "talent" in this parable is a kind of money, I think it’s interesting that the word, as we use it, fits in the application Christ means to make. Whatever our talents might be, whether great or small, we are all expected to use them to make increase for our Master, as did the 5-talent slave and the 2-talent slave. In v.24 we begin to read of the failure of the one-talent slave, who did not profit for his master. In v.26 the slave is called not only "lazy," but "wicked," and in v.30, the "worthless slave" is cast out. Certainly we learn from this parable that God expects an increase from our service to Him, but likewise we see here Christ has left us with a responsibility that every individual is capable of meeting to some extent or other, "according to his own ability." There are men out there are so gifted at preaching to gospel to a congregation that they simply aren’t able to meet the demand of all the brethren that ask them to come and speak. I remember it was about 1996 or ’97 and my family was having lunch together and the conversation turned to Connie Adams, a gospel preacher who is a close friend of our family, and I said to Dad, "Why don’t y’all get him to come and preach a meeting at Bartlett?" and Dad said, "We have him booked for the year 2000." Bro. Adams is sought for his talents in preaching the gospel, but you don’t have to be a preacher booked solid with gospel meetings for the next four or five years to perform your service for God. After all, who is that gospel preacher going to preach the gospel to if YOU don’t go out and invite people to attend?

Looking at another example: There are Christian women who are capable of handling half a dozen 2- and 3-year-olds in a Bible class that’s FORTY-FIVE MINUTES LONG. When I lived in Lebanon, KY, with my sister Traci, who happens to be one of those Christian women I speak of, she asked me to teach the nursery Bible class for the one 18-month-old baby in the congregation. It was all I could do to keep that girl in a seat for two minutes—I couldn’t keep her attention for THAT long. I was just happy when she got used to me enough that she stopped crying the minute she toddled into the classroom. Soon enough, Traci was back to teaching the nursery class again—that’s the way it is for these gifted and patient women, I know at Bartlett it’s always the same two or three who are always back there singing and reading to those little babies. Some women have that talent, but you don’t have to be the all-time nursery class teacher to perform your service for God. If it’s as simple as inviting a friend over for dinner with the preacher where you can start talking about the gospel, or if it’s as simple as picking up your neighbor’s children and bringing them to Bible class with you, you can render your service to the Lord acceptably. But you’ve got to open your home, you’ve got to pick up that phone, you’ve got to knock on that door.

B. Christ in Matthew 25 goes on to speak of the judgment that He Himself will render in the end—

Matthew 25:32-33: "And all the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats;

"and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left."

And what, here, is the criteria of His judgment? Conduct of worship? Certainly in other passages we read of Christ’s requiring a worship to Him that is in spirit and in His truth, but here He renders judgment based solely upon one’s individual service—

MATTHEW 25:34-46.

Here, brethren, in this matter upon which Christ separated the sheep from the goats, is where I believe our greatest weakness lies. (I could be wrong here. I may be talking more about myself. If that’s the case, bear with me, I need to hear this.) How much importance do we place upon seeing to the needs of those outside our own families? We understand and teach rightly that this building is a place to feed a hungry spirit, not a hungry body. We understand and teach rightly we are to provide medicine for the ailing spirit and a home for the spiritually lost, but that we don’t pool our resources and open the Rocky Point Church of Christ Minor Medical Clinic or the Rocky Point Church of Christ Orphanage. BUT do we meet the subsequent obligation to INDIVIDUALLY feed the hungry bodies and tend to the sickly flesh and house the physically abandoned?

C. But let’s look even further, brethren. If we diligently provide faithful spiritual service within these walls, and we serve the physical needs of our fellow man, do we likewise take our spiritual service into the world with us?

Matthew 28:19-20: "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,

"teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

"Teach them to observe all that I commanded you . . ." in saying that, what did Christ just command the disciples to do? Teach. They were to go about teaching Christ’s commandments, and one of those commandments was to teach His commandments to still OTHERS.

The apostle Paul expected growing Christians to become TEACHERS, and he rebukes them for not being so--

Hebrews 5:12: For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.

Paul saw in himself the responsibility to distribute the talents the Lord had entrusted him with—

I Corinthians 9:16: For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel.

"Woe is me," Paul said, "if I do not preach the gospel." And what person would wish woe upon himself? No man despises his own flesh. And Christ, having created us, knows as much, that’s why He said,

Matthew 22:39: ". . . You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

This after the first commandment to love the Lord with "all your heart, soul, and mind." Which one among us Christians wants to spend an eternity in Hell? I sure don’t. I know you don’t—no man despises his own flesh.

Matthew 7:12: "Therefore, however you want people to treat you, so treat them, for this is the Law and the Prophets."

"Love your neighbor as yourself . . ." "Do unto others . . . ." This ought to make evangelists out of every one of us. If we abide by the second commandment and the Golden Rule, we ought to desire the salvation of every soul. "Woe unto us" if that isn’t the case.

Christ will separate the sheep from the goats.

Ezekiel 33:8-9: [The prophet Ezekiel here relates the message delivered to him from God.]

"When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you shall surely die,’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require from your hand.

"But if you on your part warn a wicked man to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, he will die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your life."

With that kind of prospect before us, we would do well to heed Solomon’s proverb—

Proverbs 11:30: The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life,

And he who is wise wins souls.

Our responsibility is in spreading the seed. We don’t make the plant grow, the seed isn’t ours. It doesn’t belong to us. We’re spreading Christ. And He said in Luke 10:16—

Luke 10:16: "The one who listens to you listens to Me, and the one who rejects you rejects Me; and he who rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me."

II.  Example of Christ’s personal ministry.

In His own ministry on Earth, Christ was often going into individuals’ homes, visiting them at the workplace, taking every opportunity to teach them about His ways.
 

A. The Apostles

In Matthew 4 Christ sought after His disciples as they worked in their fishing boats. To Peter and Andrew He said, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men" (Matt. 4:19). James and John in v.21-22 were mending their nets with their father, He called, and they responded. Christ even offered invitation to the tax man, in Matthew 9, the very writer of this book is called by Christ’s personal invitation.

B.  Nicodemus

Let’s also consider one very often-quoted passage of scripture, John 3:16: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." This lesson, which speaks through the ages, is an account of an individual study between Christ and Nicodemus.

C.  Samaritan Woman

In the next chapter over, Christ once again takes opportunity to teach to a single woman at the well, using the situation as an illustration. Upon asking her for a drink of water, she responds to him—

John 4:9-10: ". . . How is it that you, being a Jew ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)

Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."

Here is Christ, wearied by a journey from Judea to Galilee, stopping for a rest in the evening, and still taking opportunity to speak to this Samaritan with whom He traditionally should have no dealings. As Christ sought those to come in to Him, we as his children ought to go about seeking those we might bring to Christ.
 
 

A. Andrew

John 1:41: [Andrew here was one who sought out Jesus and was immediately compelled to spread the good news.]

He found first his own brother Simon, and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which translated means Christ).

B.  Philip
John 1:43-45: The next day He purposed to go forth into Galilee, and He found Philip. And Jesus said to him, "Follow Me."

Now Philip was from Bethsaida, of the city of Andrew and Peter.

Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."

With these examples of the personal enthusiasm in spreading the news of Christ, we can look afresh at the Christians after the kingdom was established who were persecuted in Acts 8—

Acts 8:4: Therefore, those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.

Not so long after this occurrence Paul wrote in his letter to the Colossians—

Colossians 1:23: . . . if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.

Imagine the zeal of the early Christians in spreading the gospel, such that by this time Paul could write that the gospel was "proclaimed in all creation under heaven." And theirs was a world that morally was not too different from our own. The world was self-serving, wicked; they physically persecuted the Christians. Christians at that time were on square one with the Jews and the pagans. And this was a time where there were no telephones, no automobiles, no Internet, no airplanes, no comfortable shoes. The odds by all worldly accounts were stacked against them, but the word was "proclaimed in all creation under heaven."

We ought to remember this when we look at organized religion today. When we look at these massive networks with their unified conventions and their millions upon millions of dollars spent spreading false doctrines and we ask ourselves, "How can we compete? We’re just US." We ought to remember that the New Testament church thrived through individual service—what the world perceives as our greatest weakness is our most powerful strength. But it is up to us to use our talents.

A.  Sometimes were just worried that we’re going to say the wrong thing—which is really just the right thing in the wrong way at the wrong time. We’re afraid of scaring them off too soon. "Well, y’know, I’d invite Bill from next door to come to church to night, but I’m afraid brother so-and-so’s going to go off on another one of his tangents and that’ll be the end of Bill at church." Brethren, with the right attitudes on our part, that need not be the case. First of all, we as Christians must always teach the truth with humility, sincerity, and love. If that attitude is shown forth, a reasonable person will see that and respond to it, whether they agree with the truth you speak or not. On the other hand, brethren, there are some who you won’t ever see again—but as Luke 10:16 indicates, that’s no longer between you and him, that’s between him and the Lord. You can’t let that possibility stop you from facing your duty.

Ecclesiastes 11:4: [Offers a valuable proverb--]

He who watches the wind will not sow and he who looks at the clouds will not reap.

B.  At other times, a Christian may hesitate to teach the gospel because they feel that they don’t know enough about the Bible to do so.

Brethren, is that any kind of excuse the Lord is going to accept? We looked at Matthew 25 earlier—Christ speaks of this very problem in the first parable of the chapter. As the five prudent virgins of the parable had their lamps trimmed and ready for the bridegroom’s coming, we should be prepared to spread the Word of God.

Our command to study is in—

II Timothy 2:15: Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth.

We are to add to our faith KNOWLEDGE—

II Peter 1:5, 6: Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge;

And in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness;

. . . and the list continues. Continue also Peter’s admonition that we be in a state of readiness—

I Peter 3:15: . . . but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence;

If we lack the sufficient knowledge, we ought to prepare ourselves. And brethren, even if we ourselves are not prepared scripturally defend the truth, that shouldn’t stop us from opening an exchange with an individual. As in the previous example, a reasonable individual who sees your sincerity, humility, and love, will accept an offer to study a topic further at another time. True, there will be those UN-reasonable individuals who will take your initial lack of knowledge as an excuse to dismiss you altogether—but you can’t let that possibility stop you.

C.  Thirdly, there are Christians who simply refuse to do personal evangelism because they see it as not being their job. "Why should I go speak to this person, don’t we PAY brother so-and-so to visit individuals?" Of such people, brethren, it can only be said that the Word of God is not in them.

Consider the example of the righteous prophet Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 20:8-9: For each time I speak, I cry aloud; I proclaim violence and destruction, because for me the word of the Lord has resulted in reproach and derision all day long.

But if I say, "I will not remember Him or speak anymore in His name," then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire shut up in my bones; and I am weary of holding it in, and I cannot endure it.

Paul said "Woe unto me if I do not preach the gospel." Philip ran to tell Nathanael the good news. The Christians were scattered by persecution, but like Jeremiah, they could not contain the fire—they continued to spread the gospel.

Jesus said in—

Matthew 12:34: ". . . the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart."

Jesus said of the Pharisees here, ". . . How can you, being evil, speak what is good?" An individual whose heart does not yearn to personally spread the gospel is an individual whose heart does not belong wholly to God.

D.  And, finally, brethren, there are Christians who do not serve God in their service to man because they fear isolation and persecution. We read of how Andrew ran to immediately tell his brother Peter the good news of Christ. How wonderful it would be if we could all tell the news to our own flesh and blood with the confidence that Andrew did. But unfortunately, it comes down to a matter of keeping silent of our newfound faith or being disowned, locked out, thrown away by our own families. And the fear of that has kept us silent through the years. The fear of conflict and loss has kept us from taking the stand that we should. We want to keep the peace. But, brethren, is that the peace that Christ wants us to have?
Matthew 10:34-38: "Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.

"For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;

"and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household.

"He who loves father and mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.

"and he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me."

Brethren, how do we reconcile this passage with Christ’s earlier statement in Matt. 5:9 that "Blessed are the peacemakers"?

John 14:25-27: [Has our answer]

"These things I have spoken to you, while abiding with you.

"But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.

"Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful."

Looking again at Matthew 10, Christ said "Do not think that I came to bring peace ON THE EARTH." Christ came to bring a much greater peace, a peace that surpasses all worldly understanding.

As heartbreaking as it can be sometimes, our lives on Earth were not meant to comfortable. A Christian sees life on another plane. We are slaves to Christ, by which we are free. In pain, we feel joy. We are at war . . . but we are at peace in ourselves.

V.  CONCLUSION

During the Civil War, the governments on both sides began drafting young men in military service for the first time. The wealthier individuals who did not wish to fight were able to legally avoid service by hiring someone to go in their stead, or by sending a servant to fight.

It would be easier to leave our children’s spiritual guidance to a youth minister. It would be easier to use the Lord’s money and facilities in the work of education, benevolence, and entertainment. It would be easier to sit back to listen to a choir than to pick up a book and encourage the saints with your own voice. It would be easier to pack these pews with a gimmick, a ball game, a rock ‘n’ roll concert, rather than going out and individually preaching the world of God.

Bob Bunting told a story recently about his wife, Sara Bain. When she was younger, the elders at the congregation she attended had an idea to get the young people involved in the spiritual work. After services they would have them sign, address, and stamp cards that were to be sent out to the people who were on the sick list. So the kids would do that, they’d all get together fill out the name from the list onto the card and envelope and sign it and seal it and put a stamp on it . . . but what did those names on the list mean to those kids? Instead of filling out a card to John Smith, why not go over to John Smith’s wife and say, "I understand your husband isn’t feeling well. Is there something I can do to help?"

We have a meeting coming up here in September, and this congregation is going to take the time and expense to send out 5,000 invitations to people around the community. And that’s a fine thing to do to make contact with those in this community who would otherwise maybe never hear of the Rocky Point Church of Christ.

Why don’t we as individuals working for Christ do everything we can to deliver those invitations by hand?

Let’s make every effort to keep the cause of Christ alive they did in the Bible. Look at Christ.

Look at Paul.

Look at what those early Christians did.

We can set this world on fire.

It starts HERE with YOU.