Sovereign Grace Bible Church
These are the sermons and teachings of Sovereign Grace Bible Church in Biggsville, Illinois. We exist to fulfill the Great Commission through the Great Commandment within Gospel Community.
Sovereign Grace Bible Church
From Consumers to Contributors: Every Member a Minister
What if the greatest threat to the church isn't external persecution but internal passivity? In this powerful message on "Every Member a Minister," we confront the culture of religious consumerism that's infiltrated modern Christianity, where believers show up for their weekly spiritual fill-up but remain disconnected from meaningful service.
Drawing from 1 Peter 4:10-11, we discover that every Christian is divinely gifted not just with salvation but with specific capacities to serve others—whether through speaking or practical acts. These gifts aren't meant to elevate us but to glorify God as we steward them for the common good. The authority behind our service doesn't come from our own abilities but from God's strength working through us.
For those who feel inadequate to serve, Scripture offers a striking revelation: God consistently chooses imperfect people to accomplish His purposes. From Rahab the prostitute to Moses with his speech impediment, from David with his moral failures to Mary with her humble status—God delights in using the weak to display His power. This truth liberates us from both pride and discouragement, reminding us that God is always the hero of our service story.
The church functions like a body where every part plays a vital role. Recent statistics reveal a troubling disconnect: while 86% of churchgoers say they're willing to serve regularly, only 27% have served even once in the past year. This gap exposes how deeply consumerism has infected our faith communities. We're challenged to discover our place of service by finding the intersection of our skills, the church's needs, and the burdens God has placed on our hearts.
Ready to move from spectator to participant? The journey of discovering your spiritual gifts begins not with a personality test but with a simple step of faith: start serving today wherever there's a need. As you do, you'll find yourself becoming part of something bigger than yourself—a kingdom of servants ruled by a servant King.
Good evening, welcome to Sunday service at Sovereign Grace 2.0. We are in our sixth distinctive as a church, and that is the distinctive every member, a minister. When we look at the distinctives that are going to be the guiding rails of our church, again, these are things that must never change, must never go away and must be indisputable. So, to begin with, this concept makes sure that we go against the tide of consumerism that currently engages our culture, where it is typical and normal that the average person who calls themselves a Christian will attend a Sunday service on a Sunday morning. They'll show up five minutes late, leave maybe 30 seconds early and they'll be back next week for their fill-up. How do we avoid this? Well, very simply, we just require a biblical consistency out of those who call themselves members at this church. In 1 Peter, chapter 4, verses 10 through 11, peter writes and says as each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace. Whoever speaks as one who speaks oracles of God, whoever serves as one who serves by the strength that God supplies, in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. So we can see from this text that you and I, as soon as we are Christians, we are gifted not only with salvation but with the capacity to serve Specifically, either in the realm of speaking or in the realm of serving. And if you're not sure which one you are gifted in, just ask the people around you and they'll be able to tell you very quickly Either it's speaking or not. That one's pretty easy to find out, and what you learn very quickly as well in leadership is that even if it's speaking, it's also serving, that you and I are called to pour out our lives for each other to serve one another sacrificially, and that no one is above any act of service within the church. One is above any act of service within the church, but not only that. We see the authority behind which we should be using these gifts.
Speaker 1:In verse 11, it says whoever speaks as one who speaks oracles of God and whoever serves as one who serves by the strength that God supplies. You see, when we are enacting our gifts from God, we don't do it in our own power, our own capacity, our own abilities. We look to God and all of these things and say it is from him and to him and through him that I am able to mop today. It is from him and to him and through him that I will be able to say anything of value today. And when we are able to have this pin that holds us steady with our gifting, it then becomes very easy to not become proud and puffed up and say, look what I did. And it also becomes very easy to not become depressed and discouraged when we fail and say look what I did, because at all times we say it has come from God, it is for God and goes back to God and, as we'll say further on here in the message as well, we are to use it to serve one another. One of the ways that we show love is by serving, by giving back in more than just a financial aspect, with our time, our energy, our effort.
Speaker 1:So one of the questions that can come up very often, as I've been in ministry over the years, is can God use someone like me? Or rather, it's usually stated in the negative God can't use someone like me. You don't understand how unable I am. Our response to that is God is the hero, not me. You see, god used Rahab in Joshua 2, chapter 2, to save the spies that were sent into the city so that God's kingdom would come to fruition in Israel. Rahab was a prostitute that was on the wrong side of the war, and yet God used her to enact his justice and to glorify himself. We have Naomi in Ruth 3 and 4, where she is this widow who happens to be traveling back to her home country. And in light of her moving back, god uses her so that Ruth marries Boaz, who eventually will bring about the birth of baby Jesus. Mary in Luke, chapter 1, is a young lady of no reputation, of no repute of her own, and yet she is the one who is chosen by God to give birth to the Savior.
Speaker 1:Moses, in Exodus 4, has the wherewithal to argue with God and say no, no, no, no. God, you don't understand, don't send me to talk to your people. I can't speak well, I have a speech impediment. It's not going to go well for me, it won't go well for you, god, you must have overlooked this. And yet we see that God used Moses, in spite of himself and in spite of his own objections, to change the course of history and to save his people.
Speaker 1:David, we see, is this young shepherd boy who, with just a sling and a stone, is able to take down a giant. And the exact same story, in the exact same story, we continue on in this man's life story. And the exact same story we continue on in this man's life. And the man who slept with another man's wife and then murdered that man is the same one that God says is after his own heart and he uses to redeem his people and to build a kingdom. We continue. Our last example for tonight will be Samson the judge, who, we would say, used very little self-control when it came to certain areas of life and yet at the end of his life, he is able to enact this great victory for Israel, not because he was awesome, but because God is awesome.
Speaker 1:What we learn from the Bible is that God does not use perfect people, he does not use righteous people, that God uses the weak and the unable, those who are aware that they are not righteous, that they don't have it all. So that we can understand truly and fully that God is the hero and not me. When I am serving, it is very important that I leave my cape behind and say that God's got this, whether I succeed or not. In Romans, chapter 12, verses 3 through 8, we see God as a For, as in one body we have many members and the members do not all have the same function. So we, though many, are one body in Christ and individually members one of another.
Speaker 1:I'll pause there. Paul is speaking to the Romans and he is saying he has just said live your life as a living sacrifice, lay it all on the line for Christ. And right after that he says by the grace given to me, I say don't think too much of yourself, but think with sober judgment. Why? Because it's very easy to inflate ourselves and to say no one else can do this in our church or no one else could make this impact that I'm making. He says to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure, this impact that I'm making. He says I think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
Speaker 1:Through that we also see that there is a measure given to each of us, that one of you might have a gift of encouragement, but it may not be as strong as someone else's gift of encouragement, and that that is okay, that you and I don't have to be a 10 out of 10 of all things that we're supposed to be good at, but rather that we are to always be this mixture of multiple talents and capacities that God has given us to serve his body. He then compares the church to this body and says that the body has many members, but the members don't all have the same function, proving the point that if you were made of all noses, it wouldn't make any sense for your body to be able to do anything worthwhile, because a nose with no brain does nothing, a nose with no heart does nothing, and a nose with no legs or feet isn't going anywhere quickly. So what we see is that every part of the body brings a different aspect of the body to life that you and I. When we eat a delicious meal, there is something to be said about how beautiful the plate is, and there's also something to be said about how it smells. We'd ultimately say the best part of a meal is how it tastes, and yet those other aspects do affect that. In the same way, our ministry here in the church is meant to complement each other. That your gifts being different or weaker than someone else's, or you being unable in this area or the other, is not a disgrace, but is rather this point of unity upon which we all cover for each other's weaknesses to make a beautiful spice blend upon which God is satisfied and says this is good. Verse 6 he says having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them if prophecy. In Verse 6, he says of mercy with cheerfulness.
Speaker 1:Another issue that you and I can run into is we look at this and we very much want to look at this like a Scantron test, like, okay, I would like to fill out the bubbles and figure out, like scale up one to five, how much am I of each of these, so I can know what my top two are. And that's what I'm supposed to do. What we can miss is that you and I are meant to be this mixture upon which we're able to perfectly minister in the role God has called us to. For instance, we have two guys back in the tech booth right now. I'm here to tell you that neither of them would be able to look at the Scantron test of their spiritual gifts and say you know, I was a three out of five on Acts of Mercy. I think that has something to do with computers. You would not get from point A to point B there, and so we can overthink this categorizing of the spiritual gifts, of these acts of service we're meant to do and say, oh, obviously I'm only meant to do this and we miss the point that you and I, much like a body, are to fill in the voids that are around us, and we'll talk more about that in just a second.
Speaker 1:So the question often then will come up why should I serve? Right, and we could say well, god just commanded it, so the end. But we'll go a little more pastoral tonight. You and I are a kingdom of servants ruled by a servant king. We are a kingdom of servants ruled by a servant king. Why do we serve? Why should we? Well, because we're following Jesus' example. He came to serve and not to be served. We serve out of remembering Jesus' sacrifice for us. We serve as a stewardship of my blood-bought life.
Speaker 1:Can you imagine being in some sort of war scene, being on the battlefield, someone dragging you off the battlefield, and they die dragging you off the battlefield? Can you imagine just the moment of being able to tell that person the story later of yeah, I know you died so that I could get off the battlefield, but then I gave into everything. When I got home and didn't do anything and became a couch potato and didn't care about life. We would say that's not honoring to the sacrifice that was made for you to get home. Somebody didn't go home. For you to go home, live like that matters, like that means something. My friends, so much greater is the fact that Jesus died for you and I when he could have just packed up and gone home. He didn't. And you and I have the obligation now in front of us, this opportunity rather, to be able to say God, my life is yours, I will steward my blood-bought life and give it all for you.
Speaker 1:Why else do I serve? I serve to bless those that are around me. People are blessed when we sacrifice on their behalf. Why should I serve? I should serve to create gospel bridges. When I am serving someone else, it creates an opportunity for me to be able to preach the gospel to that person or to those around them. I cannot tell you how many times we've been creating relationship with a new family of some kind and then all of a sudden we're invited to a big hoopla, like someone's big Easter at their uncle's house. And then we're there and everyone knows that guy's, pastor Dan, and I don't know most of these people, and so I end up sitting down and having these lengthy conversations with these people about who knows what, and usually it goes to spiritual realms. And that would have never happened if we had not first chosen to love this one family and been invited into this now giant family outing upon which many gospel conversations can and should happen.
Speaker 1:Lastly, why should I serve? I should serve so that I'm living a life worthy of eternity. You see, every 24 hours you and I get to check in whatever we just deposited. We're like yes, I just deposited something into my internal bank account. And if you're anything like me, sometimes Tuesday's a bad day. You're like I think we put a couple cents in the account, but that's okay. The goal of serving is that you and I are able to look at any given day and say what I did, for today matters if everything burns. Serving those around me, serving my God and my King will never disappoint me. It will never let me down. So I will live a life worthy of eternity.
Speaker 1:In 1 Corinthians 12, four through seven, it says now there are varieties of gifts but the same spirit, and there are varieties of service but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of service but the same Lord. And there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. So what we learn from this is not only are the spiritual gifts involved in our doing good and our serving our community, our church, but also the acts of service, the activities we do. These are all empowered and gifted by God.
Speaker 1:So we would say things like we very easily demean something like greeting at the door. We very easily demean something like greeting at the door. We're like anyone can open the door and smile and say, good morning, welcome to Sovereign Grace, anyone can do that. Okay, and you're like no, no, no, you don't understand. The only reason that you specifically are able to do that specific job today is because God allowed you to, empowered you to do it, and if there is a hole as a team, we are responsible to fill it. Okay, the last thing we should ever be viewed as from the outside is a selfish team when people look in and they're like, yeah, but if that job needs done, you know Joe Schmoe's not going to do it. He's just not touching the toilet. Okay, he refuses, he's not going to do it. That's the last thing we want.
Speaker 1:We want to have this heart posture upon which we are all fulfilling our role and perhaps the best role that we can, and yet this flexibility to say whatever holes are needed, though I will jump in the gap. In a sense, we are all gap men. We are all right there, ready to jump in at whatever portion is necessary to hold the line to ensure that the mission succeeds, because the biggest thing we have to remember, on every Sunday morning especially, but every week is that this is bigger than us. This is bigger than just a few people with a dream and a concept and a vision. This is bigger than the 40, 50 people that we currently have coming here. What we're doing matters for all of eternity, and every soul that comes in those doors, every soul we interact with on any given week, matters, and my testimony is validated by my willingness to step in the gap, by my willingness to be uncomfortable, by my willingness to step in the gap, by my willingness to be uncomfortable, by my willingness to overlook offense. Right, I'm picking on the tech booth tonight. It's just fun sometimes.
Speaker 1:But like the idea of like, if there's a sound issue that happens, right, there is this concept that everyone kind of looks back and is like, what are you doing? Like, there's just this concept right, something happens wrong with parking, everyone just kind of looks at the parking team, what are you doing? Like, and we have, we have these like little silo ministries, right, something's wrong with the food, nikki? Like right. And we're like, no, stop it. If I see something wrong, do you know what? My responsibility is now? To fix it, because I synced it. It's me, I'm it, I'm man in charge, I'm stepping in, I've got this.
Speaker 1:The worst serving culture we could ever create is one where everyone's very proud of their own little thing and when anything goes wrong anywhere else, they look from the sidelines and say that's terrible. What are you guys doing? What's wrong? We have to stand in the gap with each other. Why Verse 7.? To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good, not for the good of your little ministry. Not so that your portion of the church looks really nice and organized, not so that yours has no hiccups. We may have primary roles upon which we serve, yet at all times. We are a Swiss Army utility knife, ready to do whatever's needed to get the job done. That means everybody can hold a baby, everybody can clean up, everybody can say hello, everybody can love, everybody can give. No one is discounted in that, no one is discluded in that. It is required that we all be a part of that.
Speaker 1:As I was looking up statistics this week, the most recent statistics said that 86% of people who attend church say they are willing to serve on a regular basis. Of that, 86% 27% of people who attend church have served at least once in the last year. I want you to think about it. We're not talking about every week, we're talking about serving one day. 86% of people say I would love to serve and 27% of people do it once a year at least. And you think about that number and you're like okay, so how much is the every week people? How many percentages?
Speaker 1:Are we going down here and we get to a point where we understand the consumerism concept that we were talking about earlier, how easy it is to show up and to speak about I would love to do this and then, when the rubber meets the road, we're like but then I'd have to sacrifice, that I'd have to actually be diligent in this area of life, and I don't want to do it. I like being lazy in this area of life and that gives me freedom, and then I would have to do that. I don't want to do that. We have all the excuses in the world. We are the busiest generation that's ever existed. We live in America, where the world is telling us do more, be more, get more, and we forget the purpose of life.
Speaker 1:Christian, what is your purpose? It is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. That is your purpose. So the question that we have when it comes to serving, when it comes to our time, when it comes to our energy, when it comes to our gifting and our talents, our availability, is does my life testify that I am living for the glory of God, that I am enjoying God, or do I enjoy my hobby way more? Do I enjoy my job way more? Do I enjoy spending time with those people more? You and I have a mission in front of us. We have a goal, we have a dream, and it's all based off of what God has said. Nothing more, nothing less. God is in charge. He's got this. He will bring us to the finish line.
Speaker 1:The question is simply, at the end of the day, when we have our talents, whether you've been given one or three or five does not matter, because that's the other thing. We'll compare and be like well, that person has way more talents than me. So, like, stay in your lane. God's not going to be like how did you judge Betty on her talents at the end of his life. Okay, he's going to look at you and look at your talents and will you be able to say to God I made a good investment with the life you gave me. I held nothing back. I gave everything you asked, you asked. Or will we end the race as John Piper would say, collecting seashells and at the end of the race say God, look at my seashell collection. May we not do that. We must be different. Let's end the race strong, not because we're awesome, but because God's awesome.
Speaker 1:Now you might say Pastor Dan, I don't see you cleaning no toilets. And I would say I have cleaned a toilet in my life. I'll have you know. But what is your role, what is your job? In this? Ephesians chapter 4 gives us a beautiful picture.
Speaker 1:Paul says One of the things that we get backwards in the church is that when we hire a pastor, when we hire other staff members, we can think they're going to start making some work happen around here, they're going to get some stuff done and we miss the point of Scripture that last term there the shepherds and teachers actually could be hyphenated in the Greek and it's probably a better translation as shepherd teachers. It's the role of pastors, it's the role of elders. An elder is failing at his job if he is doing ministry as opposed to equipping for ministry. It is so easy to look at the pastor and say you should be doing this and you should be doing that and yet, at the end of the day, what the pastor should be doing, what he must be doing according to God's word, is equipping the saints to do the ministry. Much like a body. You may have a mind that's directing or a tongue that's speaking for, but if the rest of the body is not doing the mission, it doesn't matter. Shepherd teachers are to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ. That means for the building up of each other in the church verse 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith that means for the building up of each other in the church.
Speaker 1:Verse 13. That's a lot of words for saying we're going to get to the end mature in Christ. Why does that matter? Why does it matter that pastors spend most of their time pouring into their people to do ministry? Why does that matter? Verse 14, so that that's a purpose clause. Here we may no longer be children. What does that mean? That means the tendency is to be like this. The tendency is to be like children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes. This is what we normally do. We watched oh my gosh, it was terrible. We watched some videos during the break. Today, patrick and Brie were having a great grand old time of YouTube videos.
Speaker 1:I made like over a decade ago when I was first saved, and I'm here to tell you they are rough and I did not have anyone discipling me. I didn't know what the word doctrine meant. I might have spit on you if you had said that word to me, and I'm here to tell you that underneath all the weird kind of cliche thingies I was saying, there's a little bit of a head on the shoulders there and there is a gospel somewhere in there, but for the most part it's like oh my gosh, this guy has no idea what he's talking about. And it's like preaching hope to people without explaining what hope is and hope in what. And that's what we all look like Without shepherds. We're all like that. Jesus loves you. You're like great, what's the next step? I got nothing. I've never had someone actually say something positive to that. Do you want to come to church? We're ill-equipped. We don't have it. I spent most of my adult life experiencing that.
Speaker 1:It is good that pastors pour into their people so that we may no longer be children tossed around Verse 15. Rather so, instead, speaking the truth in love. Those are both required, you and I. So we have two different versions of people in this room. Okay, I'm here to tell you. There are the people in this room who are like we would never do surgery without anesthesia. We will always make sure there's anesthesia or there will be no surgery. And then there's other people that are like surgery at all costs, like if you don't have anesthesia, it's okay, we are cutting, we're going in, you're going to be fine. Bite this piece of wood.
Speaker 1:Now, why does that matter, that we have two different personality types here, two different natural tendencies? Well, first off, you and I need grace for each other Because it's not my way or the highway, it's God's way and that's it. What we learn from this text is we are to speak the truth in love. That means that people need both anesthesia and surgery, which means sometimes the anesthesia folk need to say, okay, there's not enough time to get all the anesthesia we need in this, but it's better to say the truth and have been able to say it and be done and our truth. Folk need to be pulled back like five notches and said patience is a virtue Like this. Wait just a moment, let's give a little bit of grace. Let's find a more tactful way to approach this.
Speaker 1:It is necessary to speak the truth in love, why we are to grow up in every way into him, who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. I cannot tell you how many churches I have been around, been in or experienced, upon which there are one or two unhealthy abscesses on the body that are never dealt with, and much like a cancer. You can build as much healthy things as you want if you don't deal with the cancer, its terminal, in the same way as a body. If we are not all together, if we're not all committed, if we're not all committed, if we're not all serving, if we're not all in and we allow people to be half in, we don't want to offend people, so we're like, oh, you could be a member and do nothing, that's fine, you could be a member and never give. You could be a member and attend, like every now and then.
Speaker 1:What we do is we not only fail that person by lowering a standard unnecessarily, but, to the detriment of the entire body, we fail the church. God's standards do not need us to lower them. Rather, we need to be the steps for our people to be able to rise to them, because you'll say it's too high, they can't make it. I'm like well, you ever seen those human steps where they got to get up a wall and they figure it out and they climb over each other? Welcome to the bottom of the pile. It it's fun down here. It'll be great, you're going to get stepped on, it's going to hurt, people are going to be mean to you, but at the end of the day, we're going to win. We're going to accomplish the goal. Why? Because God always wins and when we operate God's way, we win. Whether it looks like it or not in this life. God does not need us to lower our standards. Rather, he needs us to match the standards he's already set.
Speaker 1:So how do I figure out my spiritual gift or find my place to serve? This will be our conclusion here. I'll give you some more specifics. I want you to look for the intersection of three things. I want you to look for the intersection of what you're skilled at, what needs the church has and what God has placed as a burden on your heart. It's been fascinating over the years, as I'll be in a church situation and I remember this actually even just like a decade ago when I was first in youth ministry, and some lady coming up to me and saying the kids really need like a prayer meeting to happen at the school. They really need this, and I didn't have the equipment to like, figure that out and to help her and lead her, didn't have the equipment to like, figure that out and to help her and lead her. But I remembered, by god's grace, somehow telling her it sounds like god might be leading you to start that. And her me, no, no, no, no, not me, no, no, we need a pastor, we need a minute, we need someone bigger than me to start this and to make it, go and lead it. And, lo and behold, she actually ended up starting that ministry and it went very well.
Speaker 1:You see, god intentionally works on our hearts. The things that bother you bother you for a reason and you and I are foolish when we're mad at the people around us for not noticing the things that are bothering us. We're like don't you see that? No one's greeting anyone at the door? And he's like, no, they don't see it. I'm like you go get them. Like doesn't anyone see this place needs mopped? Like, no, no one sees it. But guess who does see it? You do Get a mop. Doesn't anyone see? No, they don't. It's you. And we act like God's foolish, like doesn't know what he's doing, like God didn't know what he was doing. He programmed me. I can see all the problems. Like great Sounds. Like he's equipped you to do a lot of work Get to it. When you and I become the people who bring problems all the time and never seek to solve them, we create the world's worst non-profit. In the entire world. It's not a church anymore, it's a terrible non-profit.
Speaker 1:We have to be a people who, when we see a burden in our hearts, we see a need that the church has, and we say do I have any capacity to fill this? Not. Am I the most gifted? Not. Am I the most comfortable? Not. Am I going to enjoy this the most? Do I have any capacity to fulfill this? And if the answer is yes, then we prayerfully step into it.
Speaker 1:The best test for learning your spiritual gift is to begin to serve today in whatever ways are available to you and are needed in the church. That's it. A lot of people will try and go this way, that way. Think about it, be philosophical, do a test. You can do all those things. I'm here to tell you that the best way to figure out what you are meant to do in this life, regarding your spiritual gifts and your aptitude to be able to serve in the church, is to just start serving, and God will handle the rest.
Speaker 1:Let's pray, father.
Speaker 1:We come before you and we ask that you would help us to be a church where every member is a minister, that we'd be a church on fire for you, where we put priority on you in all things, where our lives are a living sacrifice, where the world's able to look in and say those people put their money where their mouth is, they say what they mean and they mean what they say.
Speaker 1:They live their lives on the line for you. Help us, lord, to not be fickle, to not be hypocritical, help us to encourage the weak to continue to grow in our maturity in Christ and Lord. Ultimately, we ask, as we continue to go through these distinctives, as we continue to seek to equip this church for our good and for your glory, that you would bless our efforts, that you would save many souls, that you would sanctify us and free us from the bondage of sin in our lives, degree by degree, and you would help us to be a city on a hill, a light shining in the darkness, hope for a weary and beaten world. Lord, please help us. In Jesus' name, we pray Amen.
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