Romans 12:8 - A Call to Effective Service

We're going to start in Romans chapter 12, Romans chapter 12.

And we will be in verse eight here this morning.

We are continuing our study, looking at the spiritual.

It's about theoretically knowing about the grace of God, about the truths that God has told us to believe, but now it's about living it.

And in verse number one, he tells us that it's our reasonable or logical service to present our bodies a living sacrifice.

And so part of that sacrifice to God is service.

And part of that service is identifying the spiritual gifts that God has given us to use within the body of Christ.

So it's serving one another, so that we ultimately serve the Lord.

And so it's very important for us to understand our place in the body of Christ.

Now, the phrase body of Christ is a unique phrase because if you're not used to church, you might not understand what that means.

But what the Bible tells us is that the church is the body of Christ.

Therefore, we're working together for one purpose.

And that purpose is to glorify God through the preaching and teaching and the multiplication of the word of God.

And So in Romans 12:8, we get to our next gift.

So far we've looked at the gift of, as we see in verse number seven, the gift of ministry.

Or we even see in verse number six, the gift of prophecy.

We see the gift of teaching, we see the gift of exhortation, and we saw the gift of giving.

Now we're going to look at the gift of administration.

The King James here says he that ruleth with diligence, verse number eight, that word there ruleth essentially just means this, to administrate, to oversee.

And so what we see here in this passage of Scripture is that the Bible says that there is a gift of administration.

Not everybody's gifted with the gift of administration.

Not everyone's gifted with the gift of teaching.

Not everyone's gifted with the gift of mercy.

What we're going to see here is that these are unique gifts given to different people with the different grace that is given to us in verse number six, as the Bible teaches us.

So what is the definition of the gift of administration or leadership?

Well, it's the God given motivation to organize people, resources and ministries so God's purposes are accomplished efficiently and effectively.

I want to say that again just so that you can take that in.

The gift of organization or the gift of ruling or the gift of administration is the motivation to organize people, resources and ministries so God's purposes are accomplished efficiently and effectively.

I want you to know one part of that definition that's so important, and that is God's purposes, not our individual purposes.

Oftentimes, people that are gifted with the gift of administration are all about getting their purposes accomplished.

And again, what we've seen is that people can exercise these gifts in the way of the flesh or in the way of the spirit.

So what we see is that oftentimes when people are exercising the gift of administration in the flesh, it becomes not about God's purposes, but.

But it comes about their own purposes, and that eventually turns to what we would call manipulation.

And so the motivation for this gift is to see God's work accomplished through wise planning, organization, sometimes delegation and oversight.

The person who has this gift of administration sees the big picture.

They're able to organize people and projects well.

They're able to delegate responsibilities according to people's abilities.

They're able to set goals and develop plans.

They're able to enjoy bringing order out of chaos, and they work diligently to accomplish God's mission.

You might say, pastor, why are we going through all of these gifts?

Why is it important?

What does this mean for me?

Pastor Ethan talked about that last Sunday evening.

If you want to go back to that message, I would encourage you to do so.

But here, just briefly this morning, why are we studying the gifts?

The reason why we're studying the gifts is so that we all can be more efficient and effective in our service for the Lord within the body of Christ.

I don't know if you've ever felt this way, but sometimes I have felt this way that I'm trying to serve God, but my wheels are spinning like I'm not accomplishing anything.

I don't find joy.

I don't find that what I'm doing is effective.

I don't find any satisfaction in the service.

And oftentimes the reason that comes about is because we're serving in areas that God has not called us to serve in.

We're just doing what we think is right.

But the Bible says that we're equipped to be effective in the work of the ministry.

Ephesians chapter 4 says that the leadership of the church is called not to do all of the work of the ministry, but to equip the saints for the work of the ministry.

So all of us that are part of Middletown Baptist Church, all of us that are part of the body are called to be ministers.

All of us are called to serve at some capacity.

I can't serve at every capacity.

You can't serve at every capacity.

But if all of us come Together for the purpose of the edification of the body and for the exaltation of Christ, we're able to come together and be effective in accomplishing God's goals within our life.

But just as we have seen with all the other gifts, sometimes we can exercise these gifts in the flesh.

So what does it look like to be a spirit filled administrator?

And what does it look like to be a flesh filled administrator?

Well, let's look at the spirit filled characteristics first.

First of all, a spirit filled person who is walking in the administrative gift would lead as a servant rather than being a dictator.

Sometimes the person who has the gift of administration essentially doesn't mean to do this, but becomes a dictator.

And so it's not about being a dictator, it's about being a servant leader.

A spirit filled administrator empowers others.

Instead of doing everything personally like you guys have seen maybe or experience, maybe a micromanager.

Well, a person who is spirit filled in the gift of administration is not a micromanager.

They're about empowering others to do the work of the ministry.

Someone who's spirit filled working in the gift of administration would value people more than projects.

Sometimes the person that's been gifted with seeing the big picture values the project more than the people.

And that can become a huge issue because we know that the gospel ministry is a gospel ministry to the people.

And so it's not about the project, it's more about the people.

Another way that we could see a spirit filled administrator working is that they make decisions prayerfully guided by God, giving God the glory for their success and not taking the glory from themselves.

And ultimately they would lead with humility and diligence.

That's what Romans chapter 12, verse 8 says anyway.

It says that a person who's been given the gift of administration, or he that ruleth with diligence, that phrase there, ruling with diligence essentially just means doing their best for the cause of God, doing their utmost for the Lord.

And we even know that there's other passages of scripture that speak to this.

First Corinthians, chapter 14, verse 40 says for things to be done decently and in order.

So it's God's plan for us to have some sort of order, some sort of direction, some sort of plan for our gospel preaching church.

Some churches are just going about saying, you know what, we're just going to figure it out as we go.

And that can be kind of frustrating, right?

I don't know about you, but there's times in my life where I want direction I want clarity.

Well, that's what the administrator brings to the table.

God wants us to have clarity and direction and a plan for the future.

Sometimes churches can over plan, sometimes churches can be over administrated.

And there could be so much to say that it is reduced down to a process or a program.

We can't be that way either because we have to allow for the Holy Spirit to guide us.

We have to be open for God to move us, to change us.

And so there's a balance here.

And so what we can see here is that a spirit filled Christian who was walking with the gift of administration, leads with humility and diligence and allows God to direct.

But then we look at the flesh filled characteristics.

Person who's walking the flesh can become controlling or overbearing.

They may value efficiency over relationships.

Well, if it's working, then who cares what people feel?

That's a problem.

There's another thing that they can do.

They can become impatient with slower people.

People that don't see the vision right away.

You maybe have accomplished something in your life and you saw it all happening from the very beginning.

You said, you know, I saw this five years ahead.

I saw how this was all working out, but maybe someone else didn't see how it was working out.

Sometimes that happens within the church.

Sometimes people can see the way that God is working, but other people can't.

And what happens is, is the people that see the direction that God is moving can get frustrated with people that don't see it right away.

And so the fleshly filled administrator can become impatient with people that don't see it right away.

It can lead to micromanaging.

It can lead to lead to a place of lack of trust with people that are around.

It can lead to someone finding identity and their accomplishments and not in Christ.

Folks, as a believer, our identity should always be in Christ.

Our victory is always in Christ.

Our success is always found in Christ.

What happens sometimes is that a flesh filled administrator will look at what's been accomplished for the Lord and take the credit for themselves.

And we also can see that sometimes a flesh filled administrator can neglect compassion while pursuing results.

There's no compassion, there's no mercy, there's no grace.

It's like, hey, you know what?

If you're not part of my plan, get out of the way.

Because we got things to do.

And though there should be someone that has that direction, that has that plan, that has that purpose in their hearts and in their minds, there should also always be with that truth, love and Compassion and consideration for those that are part of that process.

And so we could go to a lot of places in Scripture to point out examples of this gift being acted out in a practical way.

But I think the best place we can go is Acts, chapter 6.

So go with me from Romans 12:8, where it says for us to rule with diligence, and go with me to Acts chapter six, verses one through seven.

We're going to look at how the early church in Jerusalem dealt with a problem of administration.

Because what happens within the church is that sometimes there's growth, sometimes there's blessing, but sometimes with blessings and growth come difficulties, more people, more problems.

And that's happened quite frequently within churches in America and around the world, that as the church grows, there's more administrative needs.

And with those administrative needs, people can be hurt, people can be left out, and people can have wrong perspectives on how to deal with those people who have been hurt.

So here in Acts chapter six, we see that the church is growing, which is a good thing.

We see that they have a good problem, and that is the problem of growth.

And we see in verse number one, it says, and in those days when the number of disciples was multiplied, now we, as the American church, see that verse and we say, wow, everything must be going well, because there's that multiplication.

And it is.

That is a good thing.

The church should always be multiplying.

A healthy church will always multiply.

An unhealthy church won't multiply.

So this church is a healthy church.

They're growing in the truth of God.

But with this growth comes a problem.

What's the problem?

See it with me.

It says, then arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews.

Now, this never happens in churches today, right?

There's never any murmuring.

But back in the church here, there was some murmuring going on.

There were people complaining.

There were people that saw a problem.

And instead of dealing with the problem, they went to leadership, and they said, here.

Here's all of our issues with it, which sometimes that's the way to go.

Sometimes there is a proper channel in which we bring our concerns to leadership.

And we see two groups of people that are essentially feuding here.

We see that there's the Grecians.

Now, who are the Grecians?

These are Jews that have been influenced by the Hellenistic culture, the Greek culture.

These are.

These are not people that are Gentiles.

The Gentiles haven't essentially been grafted into the church till later on.

But we see these are Jews.

That have had some influence from the world.

And they're coming together with, as it says here, the Hebrews.

These are the ones that are the judaizers.

These are the ones that have held to the old time tradition.

And so even though they're the same people, there's difference in their culture, there's difference in the way that they see things, there's difference in the way that they respond to the different traditions of the culture there in Jerusalem.

And oftentimes what we see within our church is that sometimes it's not a spiritual issue that causes a divide, it's sometimes a cultural issue or a preferential issue.

And we look and we say, well, that person doesn't look like me, so here's, here's why I don't like them, or that person is getting favored over me.

So that's why we need to separate.

And that's what the problem really comes with here is this understanding that the Grecians are looking at the Hebrews, and the Hebrews are what they consider to have better treatment.

So it says that they have a problem with the Hebrews because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration.

Now what is this saying?

This is saying this.

The Grecians are noticing that their widows, the Grecian widows, are being neglected where the Hebrew widows are not being neglected.

Now, we could speak a lot about this verse.

One thing we do need to understand is that the Bible says that we should take care of our widows.

That's a spiritual thing.

We should take care of those that are in need.

In that culture, a widow was someone who didn't have the resources to take care of herself.

And so the church would come in and by the love of Christ, take care of them in many different ways.

So the church should take care of the widows.

And we see that the Grecians have a legitimate complaint in the fact that they weren't being taken care of, particularly with their widows.

And so the growth had produced a ministry challenge.

And when we grow as a church, or even if we're just sustaining as a church, we're going to face ministry challenges.

And so how do we deal with these ministry challenges?

Well, one way to deal with it is proper administration.

The apostles didn't ignore the complaint.

They could have become defensive.

But what did they do?

They recognized a legitimate problem that needed to be addressed.

Look at it with me in verse number two, then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them.

Now, I want you to see the distinction here because oftentimes when we think about Disciples, we think about the 12.

The 12 are the apostles.

The disciples are the bigger group of followers of Jesus.

So we see that the 12, the leaders, bring together all of the disciples unto them and said, it is not reason that we should leave the word of God and serve tables.

Now, at first you might say they're not considering the Grecians request of taking care of their widows, but they are.

So.

So the administrator sees the issue, but is taking care of it before there becomes a bigger issue.

So a spirit filled administrator asked, what's hindering the ministry?

What are people overlooking what needs to be attended to?

And what they see is that this is a legitimate problem.

So the problem, number one, is that the widows were being overlooked.

But number two, we see that they establish their priorities.

Anytime we're dealing with an administrative decision within the church, we always have to recognize the priorities at hand.

So let's say, for example, someone came into the church today and they sat down in their pew and the pew was a little bit wobbly.

And they said, pastor, there's a problem with the pew.

The pew is wobbly.

And I said, okay, guys, we're going to cancel the whole service here today because this pew is wobbly.

We need to take care of this because this is our number one priority.

We need everyone out of the building because we're going to have machinery in here.

We're going to take care of things.

No, you understand the absurdity in that, right?

The priority is the worship service.

The priority is the Word.

So we would say, well, let's come up with a plan to get around that today.

Maybe you can sit in another pew today.

Maybe we can fix it really quickly with a makeshift fix and then fix it in a better way later.

Right?

You see that we put the priority before the problem.

So there's going to be priorities and there's going to be problems.

So what does the church do here?

What does the leadership do?

They don't say, well, you know what?

We as the 12 need to go ahead and take care of all those Grecian widows and neglect the Word of God.

They say, no, our priority is the word of God.

So they recognize in verse two, they say that it is not reasoned.

It's not reasonable that we should leave the Word and go serve tables, because the 12 could have went and served the tables, but then neglect the Word and the Word would not be preached.

The Word would not be demonstrated to the people so that there could be spiritual growth.

And so the apostles understood that everything was important, but not everything was Equally important, when it came down to ministry decisions, their priority remained prayer and the ministry of the Word.

So administration begins with knowing what matters most.

So for them they said, yes, the widows matter, but the Word of God is a priority.

So we need to come up with a plan so that the word of God can be preached and that the widows are taken care of.

So it's not a compromise.

It's not, well, the widows have to be left out.

It's not that we neglect the problem over here, it's that we have a priority that takes first place and then we need to come up with administrative decisions that can help get everything accomplished within the ministry.

So they identified prayer and the Word of God as the priority within their ministry.

And I think that that should be the priority for every ministry.

We see that in verse number two.

We see that in verse number four.

They said, but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word.

They didn't compromise their priorities.

So we have a problem.

That's the widows.

Number two, we have the priority.

That's the word.

So what's next?

Well, number three, they develop a plan.

They come up with an administrative plan to not compromise the Word, but also to deal with the widows around them.

Verse number three, wherefore brethren.

So they're talking to the big group, the disciples.

Wherefore brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest reports, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, who we may appoint over this business.

Essentially what we see is that the leaders say we need to delegate this ministry to someone else who is qualified for this.

And so the plan was this.

They didn't just identify the problem, go, yep, there's a problem with the widows, we're going to move forward.

No, they say that yes, there is a problem and now there is a solution.

Their plan included what?

Selecting qualified servants, delegating the responsibility of the widows to them, and then establishing accountability.

Administrators love turning chaos into clarity.

So a spirit filled administrator doesn't just point out problems, they provide a plan to have that problem resolved.

And that's what we see happening here in verse number three.

Now it is important to note that in verse number three, they chose the right people because part of the administrative process is not just saying, well, anyone that has a warm body can do this job.

No, there is a process in which we select the right people to delegate different ministries to.

And so verse three, he says, look ye out among the seven men of honest report.

They were honest people, full of the Holy Ghost, which means that they're being guided by the Spirit.

They're walking in faith.

They're walking, yielding to the Spirit and not the flesh.

And then it says, with Holy Ghost and wisdom, they're full of wisdom, God's wisdom.

Notice that they didn't just ask who, who's the best administrator?

Who, who's the best servant here?

No, they ask who the best, in this case best Christian was.

The one who was of honest report, the one who had the Holy Ghost filling them, the one who was guided by the wisdom of God.

And so what we see is that character always comes before competence.

Sometimes we can see someone who has the right tools on the outside but does not have the right character for the position.

These leaders said, no, we're going to look at who has the right spiritual character and then who could fill that role in an effective and efficient way.

And so the Spirit filled administrator understands that the right people are needed to be selected to accomplish more than just a perfect program, but ultimately the will of God being lived out in the body of Christ.

So verse number three tells us that they came up with a solution and that is to pick the proper people for the plan.

Verse 4, they remind us of the priority.

We're going to give ourselves to prayer.

We're going to give ourselves to the ministry of the Word.

But then we see verse number five and the same pleased the whole multitude.

So, so this actually brought about clarity.

This brought understanding, this brought unity.

This was a solution that was received.

This isn't always the case within the church.

Sometimes the solution that's provided isn't unifying.

But when the whole church is walking in fellowship with God, a solution that comes from God should bring joy, it should bring unity, it should bring satisfaction.

And it says, they chose Stephen, a man full of faith, of the Holy Ghost, and Philip and Prochorus and Nicantor and Timon and Parmes and Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch.

And then verses 6 and 7 tell us that what came about from this?

What was the result?

How did this come about?

How did this play out?

Verse 6 is this whom they set before the apostles.

And when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them.

And so they prayed over this.

There was great intention involved.

They didn't just come into this with no consideration.

There was, lord, are these the right people for the position?

I think this is something that we all should do within our ministry here at Middletown Baptist Church.

We should prayerfully consider every decision.

Every individual that's placed in a position should be considered, considered with prayer and with Scripture and What we see in verse number seven, it says, and the word of God increased.

So they prayed over them.

They laid hands on them.

They commissioned them.

And now what was the result?

Well, the Word of God increased.

And when the will of God is coming about, the word of God will increase.

So notice this progression.

The problem was solved.

The church stayed united.

The apostles remained focused.

The ministry of the Gospel spread.

And what happened was that the disciples multiplied.

And the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly.

And a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.

I want you to see the result of this administrative decision.

The result was that the Word of God increased.

And as the word of God increased, disciples were multiplied.

And as disciples multiplied, there was more people obedient to the faith.

This should be the goal for every decision that we make within Middletown Baptist Church.

We should make the decision to follow God with everything.

We should prayerfully consider the right people for the right positions.

And then let the Word of God do its work in our midst.

Let the Spirit of God lead and convict and comfort and teach so that we can see disciples multiplied in our midst.

A healthy church produces disciples.

A healthy church is made up of healthy disciples.

An unhealthy church, a church that is stagnant, a church that is stunted in growth, will never create more disciples.

Why?

Because we're not healthy.

We can't reproduce if we're not healthy.

And the Bible says, only when we're walking in the unity of Christ, when we're walking in His Word, are we able to see that multiplication happen in our midst.

And we can reach out into our community.

And we can see more people come to Christ.

And that's the goal for every church.

Or at least it should be the goal for every church.

I think it was last week when I was mentioning something about what should be the answer when people ask us why we're doing what we're doing?

Why do you have a children's ministry?

Why do you have a teen ministry?

Why do you take teens to camp?

Why do you give in the church?

Why do you have a first impressions ministry?

The list can go on and on.

Why do we do what we do at Middletown Baptist Church?

The biblical answer should be this.

To make disciples.

You say, no, I don't believe that, Pastor.

I don't believe that it should be that.

It should be that.

We have a place where we're safe and healthy.

Those are all very, very important things.

But if you go back to Matthew, chapter 28 in what's called the Great Commission, it's very clear what God delegates to us in what Jesus Christ tells us at the very end of his earthly ministry.

Matthew, chapter 28.

The church is called to do something very specific.

It's not about having more ministries.

It's not about having more followers of a person or a program.

It's not about having bigger buildings.

It's not about having more money.

Jesus says in verse number 19 of Matthew, chapter 28, what we are all called to do within the church.

He says, go ye therefore, and teach all nations.

In the Greek, that phrase teach all nations literally means make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever.

I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.

Jesus's goal, God's goal for the church is to grow the church to multiply disciples and glorify him.

I think that sometimes people say, well, the main goal for us is to glorify Christ.

Yes, the way that we glorify Christ is by making disciples.

So you say, well, why?

Why are you talking about that in a sermon about administration?

Because even our administration at the church, even the leadership decisions should be based around making disciples for Christ.

Not what makes sense on paper necessarily.

Not what financially gives us the best standing, not what brings us the best PR in our community.

No, the decisions that we make within the leadership of the church should always be focused on the priority of making disciples for Jesus Christ, gaining unity in the midst of the body.

And so this decision that was made, you know, what could have happened within Acts chapter 6, the disciples, or the apostles in this case, could have been like, well, you know what, the Grecians have been a problem for us for some time now, and their complaints are really not benefiting us.

So let's just let them kind of drift off to another church.

Well, back then, they didn't have the luxury of having multiple churches in town.

Like today, people can just drift to church to church.

Back then, they had to deal with this issue, and so they didn't neglect the Grecian widows.

They didn't hear it and say, well, thanks for your opinion, but, you know, if you're not on the bus, you know, get off or we're going to run you over, basically, is what many times people do within administrative decisions.

And so what they do is they say, no, let's address this.

Let's address this with a proper solution.

And that proper solution brought about the word of God being increased and that disciples were multiplied and that people followed in such a way that they were able to grow in the knowledge of God and grow in the wisdom of God and ultimately glorify God.

And so good administration never draws attention to itself.

It's the goal of a good administrator to remove obstacles so that God's work can flourish.

Folks, I'm tired of taking all the responsibility upon myself, thinking that I'm the one that is responsible for the success of Middletown Baptist Church.

I'm not responsible for the success of Middletown Baptist Church.

You know who's responsible?

God.

All I need to do is submit to him, follow him, obey him, listen to him, make decisions that glorify him.

And folks, that's the same thing for you.

There's the pressure of success is not on you.

Why?

Because our Lord is already perfectly successful in every way.

We just say, hey, I want to follow him, I want to obey Him, I want to make decisions that align myself with his work.

And folks, we're going to be prosperous, successful Christians.

It's not about financial prosperity.

It's not about having health, wealth and everything we've ever desired.

No, it's about walking in the will of God and therefore there will be blessings.

Administration exists so that we can all glorify God and multiply his work here on this earth.

So a spirit filled administrator solves problems, clarifies priorities, develops plans, empowers people, and celebrates kingdom progress where a flesh filled administrator creates unnecessary policies, controls instead of equips, focuses on systems over souls, values efficiency more than people, and becomes frustrated when others don't work the same way as them.

So we look at those two things and we say, well, yeah, but I, I, I know that we have to have order within the church to do decent things in order.

I agree with you.

As a church, we should do things in order.

But with the concept of understanding that everything that we're doing is for the purpose of, of the gospel of Jesus Christ and multiplying disciples.

I was just talking to our Bible study this morning and I said, you know what?

We love lists.

Most people love lists.

And I, and I said, what if I did this?

I said, okay, next Sunday we're going to have a list of the hundred things that you must do to be a good member of Middletown Baptist Church.

And you've got one week to do all of them.

And some of the things that you would do are feasible.

You know, like give to the church, read my Bible, pray.

Okay, I can do that, I can do that.

And some of you come back on the next Sunday.

And I say, how many of you finish your list?

And let's say 20% of you stood up.

And you guys are the studious ones.

You guys are the ones that love to finish things.

And you say, I did my list.

I'm good.

I said, okay, how do you feel?

I feel great.

Okay.

Started all over again this week, but now the list is going to be 200 things.

Oh, no, that's going to be tiresome.

Right, because we're never going to be able to do enough.

Then you got the other people that say, oh, Pastor, I didn't do anything on that list.

Well, how do you feel today?

I feel super guilty.

Well, you know what?

You should feel guilty because you didn't follow my list.

No, that's not biblical teaching.

Biblical teaching is there's therefore now no condemn nature to them who are in Christ Jesus.

It's not about me dictating to you a list of rules.

It's about following God with all of our heart and align ourselves with him.

Yes, there's things that we have to set up for order and decency, but at the same time, we can't allow the process and the program to dictate the spirit of God moving in our midst.

What if someone says, well, Pastor Josh, you know what?

I know we meet on Sundays, and I know we meet on Wednesdays, but I just really have a desire to meet on, on Monday nights.

And I say, well, you know what?

That's not part of our program.

Okay?

You can meet with people and study the Bible on Mondays because that's just not part of our program.

You see how if we're so rigid in our program that we, we stop the working of the Spirit within our midst.

So we should have order, we should have rules, we should have procedures.

Those are great things.

And the Bible says to do them decently, in order, but with the lens of administration through the lens of the gospel.

And so what we see is that Jesus Christ is the greatest administrator.

Jesus perfectly organized his earthly ministry.

He called 12 disciples.

And you know what?

He didn't pick the people that we would have picked.

I, I'm.

I firmly believe that I probably wouldn't have gone to the fishing docks there in the Sea of Galilee and picked my disciples.

I would have probably picked them from somewhere else.

But Jesus picked his 12 disciples.

And then later on in Luke chapter 10, he appointed 70.

Then he sent disciples two by two.

And then he organized the feeding of the 5,000 by having crowds sit in groups in Mark chapter six.

And then as We've already seen this morning.

Before ascending to heaven, he commissions or delegates his followers with a clear mission in empowering them through the Holy Spirit to do his work.

And most importantly, Jesus ordered everything around God's redemptive plan.

Every miracle, every conversation, every journey that he took to Jerusalem and to other places moved with intentionality to the cross.

And so through his perfect leadership example, he accomplished the Father's will and established the church that we are beneficiaries of today to carry the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

And so what it means for us today is that if we want to be good leaders, good administrators, we need to be good followers.

Not everyone is called within the church to be a leader, to have the gift of administration.

We know that even with some of these gifts, you might be gifted by God and naturally desire to do these things and have the natural motivation to do these things.

But there's other times in our life where we are called to situations where we do need to do something outside of our comfort zone.

We used the example last week.

You know, there's the gift of giving, and some people naturally give.

But let's say you're sitting out there in the pew today and you say, well, you know, God hasn't gifted me in giving, so I don't need to give.

No, that's not the way that it works.

You might not be naturally gifted in the gift of administration, but there might be a time in your life where you need to lead and you need to get a place where you are growing in your understanding of God and His example so that you can clearly lay out in an efficient and effective manner for someone that you're leading.

I think a good example of that would be that every single person in this room should be leading someone within their home.

So let's say example dads, you say, well, I'm not gifted in administration.

I understand that, but you should be leading your children to understand Christ in a clear and effective way.

You might have a ministry within the church, and you say, pastor, just give me the list of, of things that I need to do, and then I'll do them.

I understand that we need followers within the church, but at the same time, there is a level of leadership that needs to happen within the church, program within ministry.

And so the way that I think about it is this.

A good leader is a good follower.

A good leader is a good follower of the right person.

And in this case, a good Christian leader is a good follower of Christ.

And so the main thought would be this the gift of administration is not about controlling people.

The gift of administration is more about coordinating God's people to accomplish God's purposes.

Some of you are gifted in this way.

Exercise that gift with leadership, with grace and mercy, and helping other people accomplish what God has called them to do.

Don't be a stumbling block.

I've been part of certain systems in which the leadership was a stumbling block to the people.

They didn't have the freedom to worship, they didn't have the freedom to teach, they didn't have the freedom to lead in the way that God had called them to lead.

What if I told you all I'm gifted in teaching and I'm also an administrator and all of you need to teach the exact same way as me.

So you need to study the same books as me, you need to have the same style as me, you need to have the same time frame as me, you need to have the same follow up questions as me.

The problem with that is that many of you might be gifted in the gift of teaching, but gifted in another manner in which you're teaching with visuals.

Are you teaching in a shorter amount of time?

You're teaching with different questions.

And so for me to administratively put someone into a box and say, no, you know what, it has to be my way or no other way, that's limiting the work of the gospel that can happen within the church.

Now we need to have a standard of truth in the word of God.

But if someone's in the standard of truth in the word of God and they teach differently, maybe they teach with a discussion time, or maybe they teach through a video, or maybe they teach through going through a book study, whatever it might be, hey, if the truth of God is being elevated and celebrated and applied in every classroom, then I would say, hey, we're doing a great thing.

It doesn't have to be the same way.

And that's what administrative leadership looks like.

It's like this, hey, if God has called you to do this, I want to celebrate that, I want to encourage you, I want to strengthen you in that.

And so within the church, guess what?

No one is going to be the exact same.

Therefore, everyone has a different way of ministry.

And what we have to understand is that just because someone is ministering or serving in a different way, like maybe I wouldn't do it that way.

At the same time, if it's effective for the cause of the gospel, if it's effective in following the word of God, we need to celebrate them and encourage them and equip Them to do the work that they're called to do in the power of God.

So Acts chapter six is a great example of how there was a problem, and there always will be problems within the church.

But there was a biblical way to deal with that problem within the church.

And it was to come up with a prayerful spirit led plan to address the problem at hand, to identify the right people in the right way, with the Lord's guidance, and then enacting that plan with prayer and unity.

And what happened?

The result was that there's multiplication.

Folks, I want Middletown Baptist Church to multiply.

But for us to multiply, we have to be healthy.

For us to be healthy, we have to be exercising.

For us to be exercising, we have to be following what God has called us to do within the church.

There is a model out there that says, well, you know, everything rides and dies with leadership.

And I understand that model, I understand that.

But what I would say is, who are we looking to for leadership?

If we keep our eyes fixed on a person, a person will fail us.

If you wrap all of your faith up into one pastor or one program or one movement, guess what?

When that program or that pastor stumbles or fails or turns away from the truth, that can shatter our whole foundation.

But if our foundation is based in Jesus Christ, and we look to good leaders as guides, but ultimately the greatest leader, the greatest guide is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, then we're never going to fail.

Because our eyes are fixed on one that will never fail.

He is the perfect object of faith.

And if we put our faith in him, in every situation, in every way, he will sustain us.

He will give us the sufficiency that we can only find in Him.

And so in Acts chapter six, I see a group of men who could have acted many different ways, but they acted in such a way that they submitted themselves to the Lord, found his path, delineated and delegated that path out to the church there in Jerusalem, and they were able to see success and multiplication.

My prayer is that the legacy of Middletown Baptist Church is not found in one man.

Okay, so my prayer is that I'm here for 50 more years.

But even after those 50 years, guess what?

I'm going to be forgotten just like everybody else.

So the point is, is that we want people to look to Jesus.

We want people to see what Jesus is doing in our church, what Jesus is doing in our community.

The focus should always be on him and what his plan is.

And the way that we measure a good leader is how much they're aligned with the Lord and not with their own purpose or their own plan.

And so within the church, we must identify leaders and celebrate those leaders, but at the same time point out that the Jesus Christ that we serve and that we worship and that we read about and that we are all about within our ministry must be our ultimate guide and our ultimate administrator within the church.

So I'm thankful for a church that desires to be decent and in order.

But I'm also thankful for a church who is going to look to Jesus Christ for our hope, for our guidance, for our sustainability.

I don't know about you, but I have done some research and statistically speaking, the American church is declining.

There's churches that are closing daily.

I don't know if this statistic is true.

You could fact check me on this, but I'm going to say it anyway because it makes.

It's a good point.

I heard that there's more openings for pastors at churches than actually people that are looking to fill the roles.

I just.

Down at camp, there was a church that was talking to his pastor or the, the deacon there, and he said that we've been looking for a pastor for three years and no one will come.

You know, we don't have anyone that will be willing to step up.

You say, what does that mean?

Well, it just means this, that we don't need to take for granted that what we have here is going to last forever.

What we have to do is we have to say no.

We have to be busy about the work of the Lord.

We have to be thankful.

We have to be walking in fellowship with God so that we can multiply, so that we can start more churches, so that we can train up a next generation to preach the gospel message.

I was with.

Was it 14?

We had 14 teens this week go to camp.

14 Teens, two juniors.

There was hundreds of other kids there.

And I saw many children worshiping.

It was at the end of the.

At the end of the.

I stayed in the junior camp most of the time.

At the end of junior camp, they had this song, they had this theme song that they sang all week about praising the Lord.

For the God of the beginning is the same God that they're worshiping today.

And then all of the.

They said, all the adults stop.

No adults sing.

We want the kids to sing this last verse.

And it brought tears to my eyes to hear, probably, I don't know, 200 fourth through sixth graders just singing about their Savior.

And I was like, if.

I wish all of you could just Be transported to that moment.

Because if you're ever tempted to think that their kids are not loving Jesus and seeing the truth of Jesus Christ, it was there in that moment.

Folks, there's hope for the next generation.

But if we're not diligent about leading and administrating the truth of God to the next generation, we're going to miss the chance to see the torch pass to the next generation.

So live your life that God has blessed you with whatever gift that might be.

But understand that we need to point children, we need to point teenagers, we need to point new Christians to the truth of who Jesus is not about.

Hey, you know what?

Here's a list of rules that you have to follow.

No, it's about loving Jesus and following him.

What does Jesus say is the greatest commandment?

To love him with all of who you are, heart, soul, mind and strength.

And to love your neighbor as yourself.

That is the Christian walk.

You might say, well, that's dangerous, Pastor.

Don't preach that, because that means people will just do what they want to do.

The Holy Spirit will change their heart.

I can't change your heart.

I've been around teens long enough to know I can put all the rules out there.

But as soon as I turn my back from them, they're going to do what they want to do, right?

It's Jesus who changes their heart.

And by the way, that's not just with teenagers.

That's with adults, too.

The truth is, is that I want to introduce you.

I want to introduce Middletown.

I want to introduce Delaware.

I want to introduce the world to the joy and the satisfaction of having a walk with Jesus Christ, knowing that he can change our desires, knowing that he can change our addictions, knowing that he can change our heart and take it from a heart of stone and move it to a heart of flesh.

That's what we have to get excited about.

I want to build new buildings here at Middletown Baptist Church.

I like to start new ministries.

I like to see people coming into the building.

But if we do all those things outside of the purpose of leading people to Jesus, then we're missing the mark.

What is spiritual growth?

Well, spiritual growth is reading my Bible, praying, and going to church.

Well, we all know that you can read your Bible, pray and go to church and never grow.

What is spiritual growth?

It's being more and more like Christ.

If you're more like Christ, you're going to love to read your word.

If you're loving Christ more every day, you're going to love to pray to him.

If you love Christ more each and every day, you're going to love getting to church.

Church isn't going to be a chore.

It's going to be what you're excited for every single time.

I'm excited to be around the church.

I'm excited to be around my brothers and sisters in Christ.

I look for every opportunity to get here.

Sometimes I think I live here.

I think that's a good thing.

Maybe one day I will just live on the property so I can just stay around it.

But the idea would be this.

If we want to see true change, it's not about sitting here and controlling people and leading people and going, well, you got to be this way.

You got to be this way.

You better read your Bible, you better pray, you better go to church.

Those are all symptoms.

Those are all things that might happen if we're loving the Lord, and it will help us grow in the Lord.

But at the end of the day, what changes us is the Holy Spirit changing our hearts.

And I pray that we never get to a place within our midst, that we just think that going through the motions is enough.

The church is not a social club with a Christian theme.

Sometimes that's how we see it in America.

We come together and we've got a Christian theme.

And now we can just have fun.

And I like having fun.

I was at camp for this last weekend.

I had too much fun.

I'm too tired, okay?

I hurt my back.

And I realize I'm getting older and older and I can't do the things I used to do.

But our goal, our priority, must be disciples.

Administratively speaking, it's disciples fellowshipping disciples.

Any ministry must be, let's all become healthy disciples so that we can see more disciples come to Jesus Christ.

So you might say, I'm not.

I'm not a leader.

I'm not an administrator.

That's not the way that God's gifted me.

I understand that not everyone's gifted in all of these gifts.

But what we can say is this.

God has given me a framework, and that framework is number one.

To submit myself under him.

And if he calls me to be the leader, lead people to him so that they can lead people to him.

And that's true biblical administration.

To lead with diligence, to not frustrate people.

You know, there's a lot of things that I have preferences in, and I'm going too long, but I just.

I got to get this out.

There's a lot of things that I prefer, but if I put my Preferences as the stumbling block in the way of people who might need to grow in the Lord.

I'm limiting their spiritual growth.

Now there's a time and a place for me to teach and to disciple, but there's a time and a place for me to open that door and say they need Jesus more than they need what my preferences are.

And so what I would encourage you to do is think about it from the framework that every single person is in desperate need of Jesus Christ.

We want to get them there.

And once we get them to the faith in Jesus Christ, then we lead them and guide them into the steps of spiritual growth.

I'm not saying those things don't matter.

I'm not saying that the next steps are unimportant because those are so vital.

Because the next step of this administrative process is not just to have people get saved and say, oh, you're saved, you just got saved today.

All right, now you go need to lead this ministry over here.

Make sure that you're coming to church six times a week, make sure you're dressed this way, you talk this way, you act this way.

And they have no idea why anyone's doing anything because now we have a baby in Christ and a baby needs help.

Okay?

My, my son's 2 and I still think he's a baby because it's hard for me to understand that he's not a baby anymore.

But he's growing up and he's running around, but he still is in desperate need of someone to take care of him.

We have some two year old Christians that are running around the church, figuratively speaking, that need guidance and we look at a two year old Christian and we, and I'm saying a two year old Christian because you understand, it's like the terrible twos.

That's a difficult time when we look at a Christian, we say, yeah, why are they acting that way?

They should know better than that.

They should be this way, they should be that way.

Shouldn't they know.

You know what, let's never assume that a two year old knows what they should be doing.

I look at my, we're at the wilds and if you've ever been to the wilds, there's cliffs and there's stairs and there's all different ways that a 2 year old can get into a lot of problems.

Okay?

And we had our two year old this week there and, and he loved to run around and I would say, okay, I wasn't worried about my, I, my, I had 11 year old there too.

I wasn't worried about my 11 year old running off the side of a cliff, even though maybe I should have been because they were jumping off these things into the water.

But I was worried about my 2 year old running, jumping off that cliff.

So I needed to protect that 2 year old a lot more than my 11 year old who was off and I didn't watch him every second.

It's the same thing within the Christian walk.

There's Christians that are mature and we can say, okay, they're good, they can start leading, but there's others that we have to say, no, we need to have a little bit tighter control, not control in the concept of you do this, this and this.

But hey, this is how we're supposed to walk as Christians.

We're not supposed to act this way, we're not supposed to do this, we're not supposed to think this way, we're not supposed to turn to this thing in this world.

And so, in so doing, we're able to lead and administrate with diligence effectively for the cause of the gospel.

And instead of being frustrated in the ministry, we're empowered and excited to see people grow at the proper rate.

And that's healthy discipleship.

And so that's administration.

We're going to come back next week and we're going to look at the very last gift listed in Romans chapter 12.

And that's the gift of mercy or compassion.

And we'll talk more about that when we come back next week.

So we're going to go ahead and conclude the service now.

But if you're able to stand with me, every head bowed, every head closed as the music plays, we're going to have a time of responding to the word of God here.

This morning we talked about it a lot.

We've covered a lot of ground here today.

And though you might be overwhelmed with a lot of information, I pray that one thing stuck out to you as a spiritual truth that you can apply to your life.

And so here in a few moments, the music's going to play and we're going to give you an opportunity to respond to the preaching of the Word of God here.

This morning, we've talked about many of these gifts, but today particularly, we've talked about the gift of administration.

Is the gift of administration something that you've been gifted in?

If so, are you utilizing it in the spirit or the flesh?

If you've been utilizing it in the flesh, turn it over to the Lord, submit to him, be a good follower as you lead others Maybe you haven't been gifted with the gift of administration, but you certainly have opportunities to lead in your own life.

Come this morning, turn it over to the Lord.

Give your family, give your job, give your home life over to the Lord as you lead at different capacities.

Ultimately, though, I think we all need to submit ourselves to the authority and the leadership of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Maybe today is just a reminder for you to know that Jesus gave Himself for you and then he calls you and guides you and directs you to a place of service.

Maybe you've lost your thankfulness here today.

Maybe you've lost your joy.

Maybe you've lost your effectiveness in the ministry today.

Come to the Lord and ask him to give you that joy and that peace and that strength to serve with power.

Not your own power, but the power of God.

If you need Jesus Christ as your Savior here today, we've got some folks standing up here and we can show you in the word of God what it means to know Jesus and have a relationship with him.

Lord, I pray that you be in this time of invitation, working hearts and lives.

We thank you for your love and your grace.

We ask that you work in the folks that have come already and those that are coming.

Lord, we're just thankful for the work that only your Holy Spirit can do.

We ask those things in Jesus name.

Amen.