Welcome to the Further Gospel podcast. My name is Kosti Hinn, and I am the host today, Flying Solo, one more time, on the back end of this two-part series we've been looking at last week, What You Should Expect of Your Pastor, and this week, What Your Pastor Should Expect of You. If you're new to For the Gospel, we are a ministry that is providing sound doctrine for everyday people. That means we take big theological concepts, we boil them down into simple ways, and we present divine truth that everyone can grasp from God's word. You could say it this way we love bringing the cookies down from the top shelf. And there's a lot of great ministries and a lot of great necessary movements that leave the cookies up high in the academic world and other places, and that's awesome. We need good scholarship. But our ministry focus is we are everyday people. We need everyday truths, and we need those from the Bible in simple ways. So that's what we're doing. For more, you can go to furthegospel.org. We've got a blog, this podcast, and we've got a YouTube channel now. And we are launching video after video. We just recorded a whole bunch so you can get great content that you can not only learn but share as well. And we have a new donate option. We tell you more on our website about what we do with your money if you choose to give outside of your local church priority. But more than anything, we're just excited. God has been doing some incredible things through this ministry. So thank you to those of you who have been so generous to pray and to share and to give. Let's dig into our topic today. We're looking at what your pastor should expect of you. I want to walk through seven things. And these will be clear as day. They're all from the Bible. And if you're not doing one of these, it doesn't mean you're not saved, and it doesn't mean you're not evil, or you're just a bad Christian. It may mean you've never been taught or you haven't thought about this perspective. So we're going to talk about these. These also are not the way to be saved. We have another episode on the gospel early in the podcast episode list. We also unpack how you know if you're really saved in one of our blog articles and another podcast episode that you can look at. These are not the way to be saved. What I'm about to tell you is not the way that you know you're saved. It is the outworking of a saved person. These actions, which we got to do something if we're Christians, are the result of loving Christ, being crazy about his church, uh imperfections and all, including you and I, and then wanting to be in his service. You could say these are ways to make your life count. And I guarantee that as a true believer, with your heart in the right place and your motive to serve and love Jesus and bring him glory, if you were to live these out in your local church, your local church will thrive. Your ministry will thrive. That doesn't mean you're going to grow to thousands of people. It does mean, though, that the people around you that God has given to you to be friends with and to love the pastors that He's given to you in your life will be blessed by your life's impact for the glory of God. So the first thing that your pastors should expect of you is to gather. You could call this the habit of gathering. The church should be gathering. This is an emphasis on attendance, which all of these are going to push against cultural norms in the church today. But if you could summarize what the church is to do, we are to gather. We gather to worship, we scatter to witness, and that is an essential function for the body of Christ to come together. The assembly of believers is not suggested. It is commanded. Hebrews 10, 24 to 26 makes that very clear. We stir one another up when we gather. We celebrate the ordinances when we gather. We declare the manifold glory of God. We are a witness to Him when we gather. Ephesians 3 makes that really clear that the church is the manifold witness, the manifold glory of God. We're shaped by the preaching of God's word. We encourage one another. Um, honestly, in the old days, people took this so seriously that they even plan to go to church on their vacations. I think nowadays a lot of people are like, I'm on vacation. I'm not going to church either. I'm on a vacation from everything. Uh, but we need to bring back the old days where uh even on a vacation, you plan and schedule to go and enjoy time with unknown family in Christ. Go meet some new family. Be a person and be a family, be a church that gathers. Uh these days it seems people don't even bother attending church, or they get offended and don't like the church because of some nonessential, or they decide that they don't like the coffee or they don't like the hospitality, so they'd rather stay home and watch online in their jammies. And the reality is uh there are seasons in life or maybe moments where we're not feeling well, and online resources are a huge blessing. That's why we do what we do. But the driving emphasis of everything that we want to preach and teach is get to your local church, go gather with people. And maybe that takes place in a home, in a house church, or in a big building somewhere, or even in a field where God's people gather, that is the church. The church is gathering. And so we need to keep a high emphasis on gathering for Lord's Day worship. Another thing that your pastor should expect of you is a habit of growing. You look at the early church, and like in Acts 2.41, there were people who were receiving the word taught. They were being baptized and added into the church. And what were they all doing? They were growing in doctrine, they were growing in the knowledge and wisdom of God, they were growing together, they were dealing with sin. No secret that Paul had to deal with the church at Corinth pretty sternly because they were, as you might want to say, vagus on steroids. They were wild. There was sexual sin, there was immorality of all kinds, but they were growing. They got through it. Paul reprimands them, and then in 2 Corinthians, there's a little more of a better view on the way things were starting to go. The church has never been perfect, but it has always been growing. And so we need to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, as Paul writes to the church at Philippi. This is something that your pastor should expect of you. And this puts the onus on you to be seeking God, to be praying, to be learning, to be prioritizing his word in your life, and to actually have a desire to know Jesus and grow closer to Jesus, we need to be in the habit of growing. So, what does that look like practically? Well, I've already mentioned doctrine or uh seeking the Lord through his word, but what about a prayer life? I think that instead of always looking to the church to be the anchor of prayer, if you will, the prayer meeting, the midweek prayer meeting, the reminder on Facebook or wherever to be praying. What if we as people took ownership of that on ourselves and said, you know, I'm gonna wake up in the morning and I'm gonna be a praying Christian? Because a praying Christian is a powerful Christian in the sense that God's power is gonna be working not only in you, but through you. A ministry without prayer is powerless. A person, a Christian, a pastor, every single person who would ever say that they were a follower of Jesus is powerless without prayer. Even Jesus prayed, and that's a huge part of our growing. And so not only should your pastor expect you to have a habit of gathering, we should also be people who are growing. Uh third, your pastor should expect you to have a habit of discipling. Discipling. That basically means that you're obeying the Great Commission, that you are being discipled, and then in turn discipling others. Now, this happens in different forums within the church. Some people do it in small groups, some people do it in one-on-one discipleship settings. Um, overall, discipleship happens in many different ways within the church, but the fact is, every Christian who wants to be a faithful Christian and a healthy Christian needs to be in the habit of discipling. We sharpen one another when we disciple, we rebuke one another, we confront one another, we bear the burdens of one another. Um so if you're a part of the church and you say you're a believer, I would challenge you to look at your life and ask Do I have a schedule and convictions and a track record of discipleship, either for yourself or discipling other people? Imagine for a second if our churches put a greater emphasis on the discipleship of believers. Do you realize what would happen? You would have people that are living out Ephesians 4.12, equipped saints for the work of service, for the building up of the body of Christ. Body life would be through the roof. What do I mean by body life? Church body life. That means that the church body, the members, the people, are ministering to each other, taking initiative, loving each other, caring for one another. It doesn't mean that, you know, the pastor's wife is the one who's always starting the meal plan. Or if the pastor doesn't go out to help people, nobody does. No. A church that is discipling will be an empowered, busy church, actively seeking to help one another and to walk with one another. So your pastor should expect you to be living out an Acts 1.8 lifestyle that you are a witness for the Lord, and he should be expecting you to live out a great commission lifestyle, making disciples, and that includes around the world. And so we're out making disciples of every nation. We are missional about it, and that starts wherever you live, right in your own home, and expands out from there. Another thing, your pastor should expect you to have a habit of serving. There is absolutely no excuse for us as believers to not be serving others. Now you might say, well, Costi, I'm in a wheelchair, I'm I'm not healthy enough to serve, I've got, you know, back problems, and you know, I can't go set up all the chairs at church. I would say we want to make sure we're defining service the right way. For years in the American church, people think, oh, if you're sweating every Sunday, you know, you're really serving. Or if you're just doing the Sunday serving ministries, you're serving. Now, we should be making sure that our ministries in the church are filled with people who are servant leaders, and that's what equipped people will do. They'll build up the body. But what about all the behind-the-scenes ministries that go on all week long? What about hospitality, cards ministry? What about just people who pick up the phone? If the church needs a ministry to start, especially in seasons like this where so many people are disconnected, they're staying at home, they're other places. You know, you could be in a wheelchair even or bedbound and still potentially call two or three other members, be a part of a team in the church that goes and reaches out to people via phone call. You can maybe write a card. Even nowadays, you can use apps or even on your own phone, you can talk to text. I do it all the time with my wife. If I'm driving, you just hit the Bluetooth button and you can send a text just by talking. Uh women like Johnny Erickson Tata have set the bar so high already for people, even people who are quadruplegics who cannot do a lot, they would say. Uh Johnny reminds us all that uh we can do a lot more than we think we can. She is painted with her mouth, she's in encouragement with her mouth, she teaches and sings all with her mouth. You can use your voice to serve others, even and to encourage. But for many people, it's real simple. 1 Peter 4, 7 through 11 says that we are to employ our gifts in serving one another. You've been given a grace gift. It's unique to you. Nobody else can do you better than you. You have been given a spiritual gift to serve the church. And it is commanded that you serve, something that I think is maybe rubs the wrong way on some people where they think, ah, the church always wants something from me. No, the church wants something for you. You've been given a grace gift by your creator. So the simple question that you should ask yourself, and I've got to ask myself, what am I doing with my gifts to further the mission of God on planet earth? Because that's really the only reason why we're here. There's a lot of other great things that God gives us and we get to do because of common grace on planet Earth. But if you boil down your existence, why in the world wouldn't God just end the world right now and take us all to heaven? It's because you and I are plan A for evangelism and reaching the world. We are to serve others, the church and the world around us with our spiritual gifts, and that's gonna include sharing the gospel with other people and caring for one another in the church while we fulfill our mission. So, what is it gonna be? Uh maybe a greeter at a door, somebody in the parking lot, maybe it's somebody doing card ministry or putting together hospitality gifts, maybe it's a meal plan, maybe it's visitation or care, maybe it's coming alongside some of the pastors at your church just to do admin work or take some things off their plate so that they can continue to focus on prayer and on preaching and study. Maybe for you it's starting to sing, maybe it's children's ministry, maybe it's teaching and preaching. Maybe for you, serving means leaving the corporate world, leaving what you're comfortable with, and going to the mission field. Maybe it means leaving the corporate world and going to seminary, training for ministry and deploying as a servant of the Lord on the front lines as a pastor. Whatever it is, we are all called to serve, and pastors should unapologetically expect us to serve, and we should receive that exhortation with gladness, joy, and humility. The next one, our pastors should expect us to have a habit of giving. Giving in the New Testament is commanded, although giving in the American church is often viewed as a suggestion, and everybody's afraid, right, to do like Paul says. Don't be using compulsion now, don't be arm-twisting people. And I agree, we shouldn't be guilt tripping or arm-twisting, but there's a massive difference between compulsion and declaring with conviction what God's word commands. Jesus said in Matthew 6 21 that our treasure and our heart are inextricably attached. And sometimes you and I try to make excuses when it comes to giving. We say things like, Well, I give my time. Well, Jesus wasn't talking about time, he was talking about money. And money continues to be one of the number one heart issues in people. That's why Jesus said that your money and your heart would be attached. Where your money goes, your heart is. Where you are invested in tells you and I everything about our affections. Is Jesus it? Do we love his church? Do we love his mission? Are we in the habit of giving? When it comes to money, we could rightly conclude that nothing quite wrestles our hearts like our wallets. In our world today, it is greed that often wins. So in the church, giving bears witness that our hearts have changed. Giving is the outworking, generosity is what flows out of your heart and my heart when Jesus has changed us. I don't want to be greedy anymore. I want to be a giver. And remember this it's never about the amount, it's always about the heart. That's what God wants. He doesn't want your 10% legalistic mandated tithe. He doesn't want your special weird prosperity gospel offering the first fruits of this and the whatever offering of that, the stuff that guys make up on TBN, so you give your $7,777 and 77 cents and God will bless you this year with a new job, a brand new car, and a bigger house. No. God wants your heart. The question you and I ask is where do our affections lie when it comes to money? The Christian must look at his or her resources, scroll the bank statement, and pray, God help me to see where I can be a better steward of what you've given me since you own the cattle on a thousand hills and it is all your money, you've given it to me as a manager. How might I better steward this? Pastors should unapologetically and lovingly expect that their church will give, but also teach on these things so that we don't just assume everybody knows this stuff. First Timothy six, verses seventeen and eighteen, Paul tells Timothy to instruct the rich to be rich in good works, eager and ready to share, excited to advance gospel ministry. First John three seventeen explains that the way we pour out ourselves to others actually showcases our Christian love. So if we are saved and we do love others, giving to them in some way, shape, or form will be evident in our life. Certainly giving towards the work of ministry. Sometimes pastors get a little uncomfortable talking about this stuff, but we really should just open up the Bible and walk through it together. Paul is so clear in the New Testament epistles that the laborer is worthy of his wages, that we're not to muzzle the ox while he's treading the grain. So, first of all, expect that your pastor would be an ox. We talked about that a little bit last week. But if your guys are working hard, they're getting after it in the church, make sure they're well cared for. If you're in an area where they got to be bivocational and you own a company, hire one of them, give them a part-time job, make sure he can make the ends meet, take care of your pastors. For years I saw this abused in the prosperity gospel movement, but also on the other side, coming out of some of that, I've seen it abused the other way where people in some ascetic way, like a monk that whips himself every time he sins, try to make their pastors suffer as though they're God's mechanism for breaking down the man and humbling him. We need to care for our pastors. The goal of ministry isn't to beat them down in the ground, hammer them in like a peg, and teach them that they're a man of the cloth and so they should have nothing. No, the goal is to support them as they labor faithfully as qualified leaders. That's the whole point of them being qualified, and then to live out of 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 generosity, cheerful, excited to give. And again, it's never about the amount, it's always about your heart. If you're new to our podcast and you're thinking, what is the deal with money and tithe and all of that? I want you to go to our blog after you listen to this podcast. And www.forthegospel.org is our blog. And what you do, you scroll down or you click on blog, you go to categories, and just go to money or giving, and there'll be an article that talks about 10% and tithing and whether the Bible actually teaches that and then what the New Testament model for giving really is. There's a couple other teachings on money. There's one also on our YouTube channel called Money and the Gospel. I would encourage you to go watch that and share it maybe with your small group or dig in. And we'll continue to teach and give principles on money because it's one of the most talked-about things in all of the New Testament. But we got to keep moving through this list. Just a couple more. Another thing your pastor should expect of you, and every Christian should be striving to do, is be in the habit of preserving. What do I mean by that? Preserving unity. Unity in the church and preserving it is an important commitment for every church member. We've got to guard against division of all kinds, and this may come in the form of confronting sin and enabling church discipline and restoration, like Matthew 18 says is the goal. It might be exposing people who are sowing discord amongst the church because we're supposed to hate what God hates. And if you're thinking, what in the world? God hates things. Where's that in the Bible? Proverbs chapter six, verses sixteen to nineteen give you seven things that God hates. He actually hates things. And one of the things is people that divide. He does not look kindly upon division. It might mean confessing your own sin of gossip and divisive habits. Maybe you're the problem. And that just means it's time to confess your sin and get right with the Lord and your church. Because church unity is a mighty weapon in the hand of God. He uses a unified church, a unified army, if you will, is stronger in battle than a divided one. A house that is divided can't stand. And the devil is always trying to divide and conquer. So you need to keep unity as a priority. But one thing that needs to be mentioned here is that relational unity should never replace or transcend doctrinal unity. We don't unify and overlook truth. We unify while still keeping truth as a premium, which basically means you don't let doctrine sort of go by the wayside. You keep doctrine premium and primary, and we're unified in relationship and truth. No church leader, no church member, no Christian should ever sacrifice sound doctrine in order to promote unity that overlooks truth. Unity without truth isn't unity at all. And that's something we need to keep in mind. We tolerate people who are seeking genuine answers. We want to have a spirit of love towards those who are trying to work it out. But that never means we tolerate false beliefs or dangerous doctrines in order to preserve our unity. That is false unity. Finally, your pastor should expect of you the habit of reaching, of reaching. So we've been through a bunch of verbs here. This is number seven. We've got gathering, we've got discipling and growing, serving and giving, preserving and now reaching. If we gather to worship and scatter to witness, then surely reaching lost people has to be a high commitment for every one of us. If we're believers, this doesn't mean you need to be an expert apologist with a PhD. It just means you've got to be really good at telling people what Jesus has done in your life. And anybody can be good at that. You just point to his goodness in your life, all that he has done. Has he changed you? Yeah. Are you not who you used to be? Yeah. You're a new creation. Has he made some things better in your life that have nothing to do with having more stuff but have to do with being a better person? Yeah. Are you the alcoholic you used to be? No. Are you the drunk or the filthy talker that you used to be? Are you the sexually immoral person you used to be? No. Do you got the same temper you used to have? No. How's your marriage? How are your relationships? How's your purpose in life? You feel like you're living for something bigger than you now, and now it's all about God's glory and not yours? Well then Jesus had done something incredible in your life. You are 2 Corinthians 5.17, a new creation in Christ. The old is gone, the new is come. So go tell somebody about it and invite them to church. Some people call that sort of a come and see evangelism approach. Some people call it relational evangelism. It's inviting people into what has changed you. Now, for some of you, you've been following with our ministry for a bit now, and you're more versed in the gospel and uh you've used some of our resources, or you're a longtime Christian who knows the gospel really well. Well, we need to get busy reaching people. And so our pastors should expect that of us. For years, people just assume evangelism is the pastor's job. He's the one that goes out and does it. It's his job to fill the church and keep it filled. It's his job to save people. I got news for you. We are all on mission. Every one of us has been given the great commission. It is not a suggestion, it is a command. And so what a joyous privilege to spend our lives reaching people for the gospel. And maybe reaching for you doesn't mean that you're going to go across the world and be on the mission field. Maybe you're a sender, somebody who gives and supports the work of ministry. But we've been armed with the gospel. So we should live unashamed and we should give unashamed and we should push every single ounce of comfort and complacency out of our lives and invite God's pressing hand in through his word, moving us along onto mission. That's what we need to be busy doing. And so if you've got a pastor that's a little pushy in these areas, then you have much reason for praise today. If you're driving, don't text them just yet. But I think later on, maybe send them a message or encourage your church, send them an email and say, thank you for pressing in on my comfort zone. Thank you for pushing me. And I would encourage you, if you're a church member, to list these out and commit to them. Talk to your spouse if you're married, your kids, if you have them, if you're single, uh get locked in on these habits and be somebody who goes and gathers with the church. Be somebody who takes their growth really seriously. Be somebody who's being discipled and then making disciples. Go serve. Give. Preserve unity. Fight for unity in the church. And then reach the lost with the gospel. If you don't know your neighbor's name yet, that's my challenge for you this week. You go meet the neighbor on your left side and your right side. If you're in an apartment, the neighbor under you, or the neighbor above you. And now, one little side note, I'm sure some people are listening going, Yeah, I'm not going to do that because I've been living sort of a hypocritical life, or my neighbors might see me act a certain way that I'm not proud of. Well, then here's my challenge to you. At some point, you need to go over there and get right with them and apologize for whatever behavior you've exhibited and then say, hey, I'm a Christian and God's been doing some work in my heart. I'm kind of a mess, but I'm thankful that he's cleaning it up by his power. And I just wanted to let you know that and also invite you to go on that journey with me because I was hopeless and lost and I'm kind of a hypocrite, but God is changing me, and I realize that I need him, and he's the solution to my sin, and he's the solution to my life and all things that we're seeing today in our society and our culture. Um, have you ever thought about that? And then use that as an opportunity, even in your humility and acceptance that you've been an imperfect neighbor to be an evangelist, to go and reach them with the gospel. So while there's still time, let's live on mission, let's be these kind of people, let's embrace these high commitments and habits, let's invite the expectation of our pastors. We expect things of them, so uh, why not invite their expectation of us? Not only will living this way change your life, but it will change your church and it could even change the community around you. That's the goal, that's what we're here to do, to be salt and light. So that is what your pastors should expect of you. Thanks for listening to this episode. This has been another episode of the For the Gospel Podcast. For more articles or for videos, go to www.forthegospel.org or go to our YouTube channel. And then keep in mind we're on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok. And we've got some pretty incredible merchandise that we're going to be giving away in the coming weeks. We have shirts, we have stickers, we got more coming. So you can represent the gospel everywhere you go. We're praying for you guys. And here, if you have any questions, you can fill those out on our contact form on the website and send them in. But for now, this has been another episode of For the Gospel. Keep on living for the gospel.