SPEAKER_00: Make disciples for his glory.
SPEAKER_00: You are listening to the Spring Valley Baptist Church podcast.
SPEAKER_00: Spring Valley Baptist Church exists to make disciples for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Spring Valley, visit Spring ValleyBaptist.com.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening.
SPEAKER_01: Here at Spring Valley, we exist to make disciples for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: Here we are at our last week, this three-week mission emphasis for our church, this newly articulated, this return to the basics kind of mission statement.
SPEAKER_01: We make disciples for his glory.
SPEAKER_01: We make disciples who worship and grow and serve and go.
SPEAKER_01: And last week we looked more specifically in kind of a laser-focused kind of way.
SPEAKER_01: What does it look like here at Spring Valley for disciples to worship together?
SPEAKER_01: And for disciples to grow together.
SPEAKER_01: And today we're going to look at what disciples at Spring Valley, how we serve together, and then how we go together, because we are going somewhere together.
SPEAKER_01: I made a mistake here in the last uh couple of weeks by showing my family YouTube videos of what a Disney cruise looks like.
SPEAKER_01: Major mistake.
SPEAKER_01: Parenting hack, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Don't do that ahead of time.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I'm kind of brainstorming, I'm a planner, I like to look a little bit longer range, and so I'm trying to figure out, okay, what does the next year look like for us?
SPEAKER_01: I've never been on a cruise.
SPEAKER_01: I've never been on a big boat like that before.
SPEAKER_01: Part of it's kind of unsettling, you know, thinking I'm looking all around and land is nowhere in sight, but it seems like it's a great time.
SPEAKER_01: And you know, I I just you know a great way to unplug for a few days and all this other kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And now I'm getting um knocks on my door.
SPEAKER_01: Can we go into Disney Cruise dad?
SPEAKER_01: Can we go into Disney as like major mistake?
SPEAKER_01: And thinking about it, like you're looking at all of the different things that you can do on the ship and how attentive, especially like on a Disney cruise, of how like the weight, like the staff is just incredible, hand in foot, unlimited soft serve ice cream all over the ship, everything like that.
SPEAKER_01: Awesome kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, you know, just thinking about that, that was in the back of my mind for us, and it is the antithesis of who we are as a church.
SPEAKER_01: It is the exact opposite, because see, Spring Valley is not a cruise ship.
SPEAKER_01: We're a warship.
SPEAKER_01: On a cruise ship, right, you you have people, everybody's going to the same destination, but you have some people who are serving, and you have some people who are just kicked backed and relaxed and waiting until we get to the port.
SPEAKER_01: That's not Spring Valley Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_01: But rather, Spring Valley Baptist Church is a warship.
SPEAKER_01: It's a ship.
SPEAKER_01: And everybody on board has an intentional purpose activated for service.
SPEAKER_01: We're all going the same place, but none are just kicked back and relaxed and waiting until we get to wherever it is we're going.
SPEAKER_01: We have an active role to play as we are on this ship together.
SPEAKER_01: And so today, we will see that disciples serve and go.
SPEAKER_01: We'll look first at the passage in Ephesians that we just had read for us about serving.
SPEAKER_01: That will be our guide through the serve portion.
SPEAKER_01: And then together we will pull different places from all over God's word about how disciples are to go together.
SPEAKER_01: And so as we go to God and His Word, would you join me as we pray?
SPEAKER_01: Gracious Heavenly Father, as we come to your word this morning, I pray that you would speak to us.
SPEAKER_01: God, that you would give us eyes to see, that you would give us ears to hear.
SPEAKER_01: God, we pray that you would speak.
SPEAKER_01: For we, your servants, are listening.
SPEAKER_01: It's through Christ we pray.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: So you see there in your listening outline the section entitled Serve.
SPEAKER_01: And there's a lot of blanks, there's a lot of passages there, and we're going to move through these, and you can go and take these for your own reading and edification later on.
SPEAKER_01: But the first principle that we see in Ephesians chapter 4, verses 11 through 12 is this disciples are to be equipped for the work of ministry.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the apostle Paul, in writing to the church at Ephesus, is telling them.
SPEAKER_01: Believers are to be equipped for the work of ministry.
SPEAKER_01: He says this in verse 11.
SPEAKER_01: And he, that is God, gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and the teachers.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 12.
SPEAKER_01: To equip the saints for the work of ministry.
SPEAKER_01: God gives leaders to the church not just to do the work of the ministry as the quote-unquote professionals, but God gives these leaders to the church for the purpose, the so that they are equipped to do the work of the ministry.
SPEAKER_01: Equip the saints.
SPEAKER_01: If you're here this morning and you are in Christ, you have been radically changed by his grace.
SPEAKER_01: You have known, it has been shown to you that you are a great sinner, but that he is a great savior.
SPEAKER_01: You have disowned your past, you have disowned your sin, and you have received his blessing and his eternal life.
SPEAKER_01: You believe that Jesus died and rose again for you.
SPEAKER_01: If you are in Christ, biblically, you're a saint.
SPEAKER_01: It's not some special classification that we have to have some sort of counsel or committee, like say, well, I've got to see a little bit more proof first.
SPEAKER_01: You've got to do an X number of miracles, and it's got to be after so long, and then you can have the little glowing halo around your picture.
SPEAKER_01: No, biblically, you're in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: You are a saint, a holy one, not because of anything that you've done, but because of what he's done.
SPEAKER_01: Like that we are saints.
SPEAKER_01: Don't think so little of yourself if you are in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And God has given these leaders to equip the saints for the work of ministry.
SPEAKER_01: Not just so that it's done by a special professional class or a clergy or people that wear little collars, but that it is done by all of us together.
SPEAKER_01: And as a saint, congratulations.
SPEAKER_01: You're in the ministry.
SPEAKER_01: We are in this together.
SPEAKER_01: It is my job.
SPEAKER_01: It is our staff's job to equip y'all for the work of ministry service in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: So disciples are equipped for the work of ministry.
SPEAKER_01: Second, the work of ministry is meant to build up the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he says in the very next part of verse 12.
SPEAKER_01: Look at this.
SPEAKER_01: For building up the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: My points are just taken straight from the Bible this morning, okay?
SPEAKER_01: It's just, it's next, it's low-hanging fruit, right?
SPEAKER_01: This is what ministry is for.
SPEAKER_01: It's for building up the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And this is the metaphor that the Apostle Paul would use in multiple places throughout the course of the New Testament.
SPEAKER_01: That the body of Christ is equals the church.
SPEAKER_01: That we are individually members of the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And so serving ministry in the church, why do we have it?
SPEAKER_01: Why has God seen fit in his wisdom to include us in this?
SPEAKER_01: Because it is meant to build up, to strengthen, to develop, to nurture the church.
SPEAKER_01: And so what does that look like?
SPEAKER_01: Well, we see that in point number three.
SPEAKER_01: Third, the body of Christ is to be unified and mature.
SPEAKER_01: The next part of the verse is verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: That he is built, we are building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Service leading to building up, leading to the church, the body of Christ, being united and mature.
SPEAKER_01: And we are united in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: I've said it before, I'll say it again.
SPEAKER_01: Unity in and of itself is not a virtue.
SPEAKER_01: You can be united in grave error and wickedness.
SPEAKER_01: Unity in and of itself is not a virtue.
SPEAKER_01: But unity in Christ, that is a glorious gift.
SPEAKER_01: That we are connected to Him, united in the truth and mature.
SPEAKER_01: Mature, developed, and seasoned and stable.
SPEAKER_01: Like, wouldn't you love to be a part of a church like that that is united and mature, that is growing, that is developing, that is together individually and as a whole, saying, make me more like Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: What we prayed through song just a few moments ago.
SPEAKER_01: God, make us more like Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And what does that look like?
SPEAKER_01: Number four, a unified and mature body grows and builds itself up in love.
SPEAKER_01: Paul, he says there in verse 16, from whom, that's talking about Jesus, the whole body, the church, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, with each part working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
SPEAKER_01: When we stay focused on Jesus and we are united in Jesus, and we are held together by Jesus and equipped, then the body is working properly.
SPEAKER_01: And how does how can we see that a body is working properly?
SPEAKER_01: That it's growing and that it is building itself up in love.
SPEAKER_01: You know, church, we want to grow.
SPEAKER_01: Growth is not a dirty word around here.
SPEAKER_01: We want to make disciples for his glory.
SPEAKER_01: As many disciples as possible, as mature in Christ as possible.
SPEAKER_01: We want to reach just one more for Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because apart from Jesus, people are dying and going to hell.
SPEAKER_01: And we don't want that.
SPEAKER_01: We want people to have eternal life with their maker and their savior forever.
SPEAKER_01: Like, how unloving would it be if we did not, if we had the answer and we didn't tell them?
SPEAKER_01: We didn't show them the way that leads to life.
SPEAKER_01: We want this for the world.
SPEAKER_01: And our church will be healthy and united and building itself up in love as we make disciples.
SPEAKER_01: I love this, united and building itself up in love.
SPEAKER_01: Because y'all, some of us have been a part of the opposite of this, have we not?
SPEAKER_01: We've seen churches tear themselves apart in hatred.
SPEAKER_01: But not here.
SPEAKER_01: Here, we serve for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: We seek to be united and mature and building ourselves up together in love for our good and for his glory.
SPEAKER_01: This is there's a companion passage in 1 Peter chapter 4, and it's our last principle in this section this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Number five, disciples serve for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to what the apostle Peter.
SPEAKER_01: So it's not just not just Paul picking this up in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_01: Here's Peter.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Peter 4, uh chapter 4, verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: As each has received a gift, use it.
SPEAKER_01: Use it to serve one another.
SPEAKER_01: As good stewards of God's varied grace.
SPEAKER_01: And whoever speaks as one who speaks oracles of God.
SPEAKER_01: Whoever serves as one who serves by the strength that God supplies, in order that, so that's the purpose, in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: To him belong the glory and dominion forever and ever.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: If you're in Christ, you have received a gift, spiritual gifts.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're like, I don't know what my spiritual gifts are, well, that's part of us equipping you, helping you find your gifts.
SPEAKER_01: And yeah, spiritual gift inventories and quizzes and all that kind of stuff can be helpful, but they're not divinely inspired, okay?
SPEAKER_01: I tell people sometimes a lot the greatest way to be able to find your gifts is just start serving.
SPEAKER_01: Just get off the sidelines, get into the game, and be like, oh, I'm coming alive in this moment.
SPEAKER_01: I feel like I was made for this.
SPEAKER_01: Or, nope, definitely not that.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: Give it the old college try.
SPEAKER_01: Time to go over to a different ministry and try to find my place to be able to serve.
SPEAKER_01: Trial and error, talking with people, getting connected in ministries.
SPEAKER_01: For us to be active and realizing that we have been given these gifts not to be hoarded, but used.
SPEAKER_01: Used why?
SPEAKER_01: To serve one another as good stewards of God's grace.
SPEAKER_01: And why is God designed it this way?
SPEAKER_01: Why did he do it this way?
SPEAKER_01: In his wisdom, the God's word says, so that he might be glorified through Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So we make disciples for the glory of God, and disciples serve.
SPEAKER_01: Disciples are followers, learners, those who are walking in the way of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And so for us to live the prayer that we sang just a few moments ago, make me more like Jesus, we can go and we can look at Mark chapter 10, where there it says that Jesus, the Son of Man, came not to be served, but to serve.
SPEAKER_01: And to give his life as a ransom for many.
SPEAKER_01: And so we now take up, like Jesus did the night of the Last Supper, the night before his crucifixion, where he took the towel and the basin, counting his status as nothing, and taking the place of a servant, and stooping down and washing the feet of his disciples.
SPEAKER_01: And so we now who are in him and following him individually and together as a church seek to serve others for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: So disciples, they serve.
SPEAKER_01: And then next, the disciples go.
SPEAKER_01: Disciples go for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: And so for us, all together, as we pursue him, what we have is too good to keep to ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: Too good to keep to ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: Now, real quick, I just glanced down at my notes and realized I got too excited to talk about missions.
SPEAKER_01: We missed a couple of blanks.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to go back up and finish out serve, okay?
SPEAKER_01: What does it look like?
SPEAKER_01: What does serving look like here at Spring Valley Baptist Church?
SPEAKER_01: The church, we together, we have needs.
SPEAKER_01: We have needs.
SPEAKER_01: But you don't serve just because we have a need.
SPEAKER_01: It is mutually beneficial for us to serve, to build up one another in love.
SPEAKER_01: So, yes, we need you to serve, but you need to serve.
SPEAKER_01: Because I believe this word I heard one of my pastors say many years ago.
SPEAKER_01: When you serve, you'll be satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: The church will be edified, and God will be glorified.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to repeat that again because it's so good.
SPEAKER_01: When you serve, you will be satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: The church will be edified, and God will be glorified.
SPEAKER_01: You know, if you've been a part of it before, that it's not just coming to volunteer or getting service hours or punching the clock or just doing your duty.
SPEAKER_01: Like when you are serving on purpose with a purpose, for the glory of God, like there is a great soul-level kind of satisfaction that comes.
SPEAKER_01: That we are built up and nourished and just overjoyed that we get to do this together.
SPEAKER_01: You are satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: But then the church is edified.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's a good word.
SPEAKER_01: It's, you know, kind of like edifice, like building, like edified, built up or strengthened.
SPEAKER_01: That when you serve, the church is built up.
SPEAKER_01: The church is edified, it's strengthened together.
SPEAKER_01: And then, as we've seen from Ephesians 4, 1 Peter 4, God is greatly glorified.
SPEAKER_01: And so here at Spring Valley, we we have a variety of ways for members who have committed to our church family to be equipped to serve.
SPEAKER_01: And so a lot of times it's you just, if you're not serving, sometimes it's just a lack of awareness of what's going on.
SPEAKER_01: You you could come in and you could see all of these people and you could see how great and Lord willing, how smoothly things run.
SPEAKER_01: It's a little bit hot, but that's okay.
SPEAKER_01: And for us, together, it's like you might think, oh, things are going so well, they don't need me.
SPEAKER_01: Can I just tell you nothing's further from the truth?
SPEAKER_01: That we need each other.
SPEAKER_01: And so a lot of it is awareness.
SPEAKER_01: We need you to be aware.
SPEAKER_01: And so we are in the process.
SPEAKER_01: If you've been to our website lately, you've seen it's been redone, it looks incredible.
SPEAKER_01: And we're trying to put more and more tools and resources and on-ramps for service there.
SPEAKER_01: Really, what we're going to be working towards is building like an indeed.com.
SPEAKER_01: You know, indeed, if you've looked for a job, right?
SPEAKER_01: We're going to be building together like an indeed.com, but for service opportunities at Spring Valley.
SPEAKER_01: All of the different areas of ministry that have like a brief job description, the amount of time that it would take to be able to do the position well, and then who the point of contact person is and how you would apply, so to speak.
SPEAKER_01: And so a lot of it is just awareness, and we want you to know like all of the different ways that you can be activated for service here.
SPEAKER_01: It's coming in development, but until then, we have something that we're going to leverage, and it's called the serve form.
SPEAKER_01: The serve form, it's located on our website on the church center app, or you see the uh RFID tags there, the circles that are on the Pew racks, and you can just put your smartphone up to that, and you it'll bud go and you want to open the page, click open the page, don't worry, it's not a virus or anything like that.
SPEAKER_01: And one of the things that you'll see there towards the very top of that menu is the volunteer to serve button that you can click, and it will take you to this form that you can say, I'm interested in serving in first impressions ministry.
SPEAKER_01: I'm interested in serving in preschool or kids' ministry.
SPEAKER_01: I'm interested in being a life group leader.
SPEAKER_01: I'm interested in helping out with different events with food service or decorating for Christmas that's coming up.
SPEAKER_01: I'm interested in all of these different ways.
SPEAKER_01: You can select each of those.
SPEAKER_01: You can put as much or as little information in there as you want about why you want to serve in these areas.
SPEAKER_01: And when you press that little submit button, people who are much smarter than me have routed all of the pipes, all the plumbing for that to go directly to one of our staff members' inboxes who will follow up with you this week on how you can learn more about serving in those different ministries.
SPEAKER_01: We don't want lack of awareness to be a reason why people are on the sidelines and not in the game.
SPEAKER_01: We want every member activated for ministry.
SPEAKER_01: Because we all together are making disciples.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it's more up front, sometimes it's more behind the scenes.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it's more vocal, sometimes it's more unspoken.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it's really glamorous, and sometimes it is not at all glamorous.
SPEAKER_01: But we all together at every layer here in this body are making disciples for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: It's one of those stories that I hope is true.
SPEAKER_01: I hope it's true.
SPEAKER_01: It's hard to corroborate if this conversation in history actually took place, but so many people have shared it throughout the course of the years.
SPEAKER_01: You might have heard the story of.
SPEAKER_01: About JFK going to one of the NASA facilities in 1962.
SPEAKER_01: You might have heard about that, right?
SPEAKER_01: We went to the moon in 1969.
SPEAKER_01: So this is about seven years before that.
SPEAKER_01: We were working very hard to get up off the ground and get to the moon.
SPEAKER_01: And so the story goes that JFK was going to one of the NASA facilities and he's getting a tour of the whole place and he is talking with any and everybody that he possibly can, partly politicking, right, and partly just to kind of encourage the folks and hey, we're trying to get to the moon.
SPEAKER_01: And so the story goes that JFK is walking down the hallway one day at this NASA facility, and after he said hello to a couple of other people, he sees a janitor walking towards him, pretty fast-paced, with a broom in his hand.
SPEAKER_01: And JFK looks at the janitor and says, So what are you up to?
SPEAKER_01: And the janitor looks back at him and says, Mr.
SPEAKER_01: President, we're putting a man on the moon.
SPEAKER_01: Broom in hand, getting ready to probably go clean up a mess.
SPEAKER_01: Low position, tucked away, not very glamorous, but that janitor thought in his mind the small part that I'm playing, what some might count as an insignificant role, is being used by this thing that is larger than myself to help put a man on the moon.
SPEAKER_01: So what am I doing?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, I'm sweeping.
SPEAKER_01: But what I'm really doing underneath it all, I'm helping to put a man on the moon.
SPEAKER_01: So too for us here at Spring Valley Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_01: The role that you might be occupied in serving, yes, there's a particular task.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, there might be something lowly or behind the scenes or something that nobody else would even ever see.
SPEAKER_01: But if somebody were to come up to you and be like, So, what is it that you're doing?
SPEAKER_01: My hope and my prayer after this series and in the days that follow, the trigger response, the involuntary response would be, I'm making disciples for his glory.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Serving something that is bigger than myself, something that is larger than just my life, but something that I am leveraging everything that I have to be able to accomplish.
SPEAKER_01: Because no matter how small, no matter how invisible, everyone working together towards the same goal, a body building itself up in love, when we do this, we will be satisfied, the church will be edified, and God will be greatly glorified.
SPEAKER_01: We together, as disciples, serve the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And then next, disciples go.
SPEAKER_01: Acts chapter 1, verse 8.
SPEAKER_01: The truth is this disciples stay and go in the power of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Acts chapter 1, verse 8 says this.
SPEAKER_01: But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Now I don't know how brushed up you are on your geography.
SPEAKER_01: And uh you you might could uh flip over to the back of your Bible, right?
SPEAKER_01: And you could look there in the maps section at the very end.
SPEAKER_01: Like me when I was a little kid during the sermon, and I thought the preacher was boring, and I was just looking for any and everything to do.
SPEAKER_01: All the offering envelopes had run out, I had nothing else to draw on, and so I'd go to the only thing in my Bible that was in color, and that was the maps in the very back, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And I would go and I would look at the maps, and you could see there, kind of zoomed in on the nation of Israel, you look at that little dot and you find Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: And then you look a little bit wider out and you see, okay, a little bit bigger words, probably in italics and curved a little bit, Judea and Samaria.
SPEAKER_01: And then there was nothing that was actually designated the ends of the earth, but you could see that's the stuff beyond the borders, right?
SPEAKER_01: That is out there.
SPEAKER_01: And so for us, the Lord is looking at his disciples, and he says, You're gonna be my witnesses.
SPEAKER_01: You are going to tell people what you have seen and experienced.
SPEAKER_01: And the Holy Spirit is gonna fall on you, and you're gonna be empowered by the Spirit to be my witnesses.
SPEAKER_01: And where are you gonna be my witnesses?
SPEAKER_01: In Jerusalem, where you are right now, in Judea and Samaria, so you're gonna be branching out just a little bit, and then the ends of the earth, you're gonna go far out of your way to bear witness and to share this good news.
SPEAKER_01: Disciples, they stay and they go, not on their own, but in the power of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And then, Philippians 1, 3 through 5, disciples cooperate in missions.
SPEAKER_01: You can write that in.
SPEAKER_01: Disciples cooperate in missions.
SPEAKER_01: Look at Philippians 1 verses 3 through 5.
SPEAKER_01: Paul, there writing to the church at Philippi says this.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.
SPEAKER_01: Paul is writing to this church, and he is thanking them for their partnership in the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: And this word partnership could be also translated as fellowship together.
SPEAKER_01: Your fellowship in the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: But this kind of fellowship, it's not like going out to the lower atrium and getting a cup of coffee and talking about how each other's week's going, right?
SPEAKER_01: That's wonderful and good and right, but that's not the kind of like fellowship that we're talking about right here.
SPEAKER_01: But rather, this kind of fellowship is more like Lord of the Rings kind of fellowship, okay?
SPEAKER_01: I gotta weasel it in.
SPEAKER_01: This is my one per series reference, okay?
SPEAKER_01: I'm cashing it in.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_01: And the fellowship of the ring, that right here, people that are setting out on a quest to be able to destroy a source of evil and the darkness that comes with it, setting out, and it's a diverse group of men and elves and dwarves and wizards and all that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_01: But their aim and their purpose is to work together towards a certain end, and they are called a fellowship.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Paul is kind of tapping into right here.
SPEAKER_01: I'm grateful for your partnership, for your fellowship in the gospel, because it's not like I'm just out here solo going rogue, and y'all are watching me do all this kind of stuff, but you are actually partnering with me.
SPEAKER_01: Like when I'm out here, it's like you're out here doing it with me.
SPEAKER_01: And so the aim, the purpose, they're united, they're working together.
SPEAKER_01: And for him, he is grateful for them.
SPEAKER_01: And he is joyous over them.
SPEAKER_01: Paul, he was planting churches with the support of the church.
SPEAKER_01: And so he was partnering together.
SPEAKER_01: He was grateful for their partnership in the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: And we are grateful for your partnership in the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: That you're in this, that we cooperate together in this, and we are better together.
SPEAKER_01: And next, disciples meet needs and share the message.
SPEAKER_01: We see this meet needs with the great commandment.
SPEAKER_01: And share the message with the great commission.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to the great commandment in Matthew 22.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said to them, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
SPEAKER_01: This is the great and first commandment, and the second is like it.
SPEAKER_01: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_01: On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.
SPEAKER_01: And then the great commission that we saw a couple of weeks ago, Matthew 28, Jesus came to them and said to them, All authority in heaven on earth has been given to me.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
SPEAKER_01: And so we together, as disciples, seek to fulfill the great commandment.
SPEAKER_01: We want to meet people's needs.
SPEAKER_01: We want to love God and we want to love our neighbor.
SPEAKER_01: We want to love God and we want to tangibly love other people.
SPEAKER_01: God wants you, God wants us to show his love to other people.
SPEAKER_01: And so that means that we meet physical needs and we share the good news while doing it.
SPEAKER_01: That we are helping to reach out to a lost and hurting world.
SPEAKER_01: And so we give and we serve and we seek to build up.
SPEAKER_01: So, yes, you can address food insecurity.
SPEAKER_01: You can help with disaster relief.
SPEAKER_01: You can do these different kinds of things.
SPEAKER_01: Foster care, adoption, like you can meet tangible needs.
SPEAKER_01: And we can share the message as well.
SPEAKER_01: It's not either or, but rather it is both and.
SPEAKER_01: We share the message.
SPEAKER_01: We help to fulfill the Great Commission.
SPEAKER_01: And when we go or when we send, we are meeting physical needs and we are sharing about the greatest need.
SPEAKER_01: And so for us, you might have heard that quip years ago, right?
SPEAKER_01: Preach the gospel and if necessary, use words.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: That's foolish, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Like that's not true, falsely attributed to St.
SPEAKER_01: Francis of a CC, right?
SPEAKER_01: It sounds good on a bumper sticker, but it is not practical for us.
SPEAKER_01: Preach the gospel and if necessary, use words.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel is a message.
SPEAKER_01: It is words.
SPEAKER_01: You were a sinner.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is the Savior.
SPEAKER_01: Turn from your sin and follow him.
SPEAKER_01: Objective good news.
SPEAKER_01: He died and rose again for you.
SPEAKER_01: Message that needs to be shared.
SPEAKER_01: And then let us live lives of love that line up with that message that we share.
SPEAKER_01: Not either or, but both and.
SPEAKER_01: Meet needs and share the message.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because we could dig all the wells in the world, and people could be fully satisfied in their thirst and still die apart from a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So let's dig wells.
SPEAKER_01: And let's share about the living water that can satisfy their souls as well.
SPEAKER_01: Not either or, but both and.
SPEAKER_01: And then write it in: disciples go for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 67 that we heard at the very beginning of our service today.
SPEAKER_01: Let the peoples praise you, O God.
SPEAKER_01: Let all the peoples praise you.
SPEAKER_01: Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon the earth.
SPEAKER_01: The praise of God from every place on the planet.
SPEAKER_01: It's his glory.
SPEAKER_01: Or we see in Psalm 96, oh, sing to the Lord a new psalm.
SPEAKER_01: Sing to the Lord all the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Sing to the Lord and bless his name.
SPEAKER_01: Tell of his salvation from day to day.
SPEAKER_01: Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples.
SPEAKER_01: God is worthy of the praise of every people from all places, from all of time.
SPEAKER_01: He alone is worthy.
SPEAKER_01: And we are brought into that calling.
SPEAKER_01: Helping people to know and love and serve and worship the one true living God.
SPEAKER_01: And so what does that look like here at Spring Valley Baptist Church?
SPEAKER_01: Well, you can see there on the very back side of your worship guide this morning.
SPEAKER_01: I love hearing the ruffling of the pages right there.
SPEAKER_01: That's great.
SPEAKER_01: You look at the very back, and there at the top, you will see our go table.
SPEAKER_01: And there in the first column, you're able to see up at the top Acts 1.8.
SPEAKER_01: And there you're able to see our Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: So we're letting the Bible be the framework for us.
SPEAKER_01: We're letting the Bible show us all of this and where it is that we're supposed to focus our attention.
SPEAKER_01: And then there in the second column, you can see the different cooperative groups that we participate there in our Jerusalem, which is Columbia, our Judea, like South Carolina, our Samaria, like the United States, and then the ends of the earth, the world, the nations.
SPEAKER_01: And so we cooperate with the Columbia Metro Baptists, the South Carolina Baptist Convention, the North American Mission Board, the International Mission Board.
SPEAKER_01: And so each of those layers, and with those cooperative groups, we seek to meet needs, those tangible needs, fulfilling the great commandment to love our God and love our neighbors.
SPEAKER_01: And so there are some of the ways that we do that.
SPEAKER_01: You're able to see, like at the local level, we are a community partner and actively serving and praying for Lonnie B.
SPEAKER_01: Nelson Elementary School, right over there off Brickyard Road.
SPEAKER_01: That we are helping with Christian Assistance Bridge.
SPEAKER_01: And you see the carts all around our campus for people who are coming and bringing food as we are helping to address food insecurity here in the Northeast.
SPEAKER_01: You can look at each level there and how we are seeking to meet needs.
SPEAKER_01: And then the last column, how we are sharing the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: How we are helping to start churches.
SPEAKER_01: And you'll see that there are a few of those that are prayerfully to be determined.
SPEAKER_01: In our missions committee, we're working together to be able to find these partners where we can pray, where we can give, and where we can go and partner together.
SPEAKER_01: And we do all of this for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: Because again, church, this is where we are headed.
SPEAKER_01: And this is not a cruise ship, but this is a warship.
SPEAKER_01: And everybody on board has a role to play.
SPEAKER_01: So let me just remind you of the destination that we're all going to be arriving at.
SPEAKER_01: Look at Revelation chapter 7, verse 9 and 10.
SPEAKER_01: After this, I looked and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God who sits onto the throne and to the Lamb.
SPEAKER_01: Church, this is where we are headed.
SPEAKER_01: This is where we are going.
SPEAKER_01: There is glory immeasurable prepared for us as we seek to give Him all of the glory.
SPEAKER_01: This will happen.
SPEAKER_01: It is the future written down and recorded for us.
SPEAKER_01: And so now we are to be about our Father's business as we seek to get from where we are now to there together.
SPEAKER_01: We're not on a cruise ship, some serving and some receiving.
SPEAKER_01: We're on a warship.
SPEAKER_01: Every person activated for service as we seek to go where it is God has called us to go.
SPEAKER_01: And so we as disciples, we worship, we grow, we serve, and we go.
SPEAKER_01: For our good, we are built up and strengthened in this.
SPEAKER_01: Our church is built up and strengthened in this.
SPEAKER_01: And God is greatly glorified in us.
SPEAKER_01: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Heavenly Father, we thank you.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you for in your wisdom calling us to serve.
SPEAKER_01: You could have done all of this on your own.
SPEAKER_01: You could have done all of this just through a small group.
SPEAKER_01: You could have done this so many other different ways, but in your wisdom and in your providence, you have called us to serve.
SPEAKER_01: You have gifted us to serve, and you have given us a gospel message to go with and to share with a lost and hurting world around us.
SPEAKER_01: And so, God, help us to live into that.
SPEAKER_01: Help us to take what it is that you have given to us and to use it, God, for our good and for your glory.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you for doing for us what we could never do for ourselves, and saving us and giving us a place in your family.
SPEAKER_01: And now, God, help us as we seek to live out our family responsibilities.
SPEAKER_01: We ask this in the strong name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening to the Spring Valley Baptist Church podcast.
SPEAKER_00: Spring Valley Baptist Church is a growing, multi-generational, multicultural church located at 91 Polo Road in Northeast Columbia, South Carolina, and led by Pastor Blake Jenkins.
SPEAKER_00: We'd love for you to join us each Sunday morning for our worship service at 9.30 a.m.
SPEAKER_00: and our life groups at 11 a.m.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to learn more about our church, visit springvalleybaptist.com.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to know more about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, email us at communications at springvalleybaptist.com.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening.