Ministry In The Body

00:01 We greet you this morning in the name of Jesus. Let the church say, Amen. Amen. It's a blessing to be here this morning, especially after the storms of this week. We were in Michigan yesterday for a very muddy reception, wedding reception. The wedding was in a church, and that was okay, 00:22 although there was a motorhome that got stuck in the driveway or in the parking lot. And then we went to a tent where there was a mud mess. But anyway, we're glad to be here this morning, high and dry, and thinking about ministry. So I've entitled the message this morning, 00:42 "Ministry in the Body." And thinking about that, as I woke up this morning, or soon after I woke up, the Lord laid a song on my heart. That often happens. I think in songs many times and enjoy that. 00:58 But number 307, I want you to listen to the words this morning and let the words minister to you. "Jesus, the very thought of Thee with sweetness fills my breast. But sweeter far Thy face to see and in Thy presence rest. 01:19 Nor voice can sing, nor heart can frame, nor can the memory find a sweeter sound than Thy blessed name, O Savior of mankind. O hope of every contrite heart, O joy of all the meek. To those who fall, how kind Thou art, how good to those who seek. 01:41 Jesus, our only joy be Thou as Thou our prize wilt be. Jesus, be Thou our glory now and through eternity." Now those words this morning are designed and meant to minister to us. But the question I'd like to ask you this morning is, what is ministry? 02:03 What is ministry in the body of Christ? What does it look like? What does it sound like? What does it feel like? What does it do? What does it not do? And how would you define ministry? In fact, I'd like to just kind of break from my norm and just have a little interaction this morning to hear from you. 02:21 What is ministry? As you think about it, as you think about it, as you look at the bulletin, which for 20 plus years now has had the pastors and then the deacon and then the ministers listed as the entire congregation. Do you ever notice that in there? 02:40 I'd like to ask you how you're doing this morning as a minister. How are you doing this morning in ministry? And how are we doing as a congregation in ministry and involving and being involved and doing the work of ministry? Maybe not the work of the ministry. 03:02 We have pastors and deacons and elders. But what about the work of ministry? What is it? When you think of ministry, what do you think of? Anyone? Being Jesus? 03:16 Conveying. 03:17 Conveying Jesus. Okay. Amen. Conveying Jesus to people around us. 03:23 Would we have done that in this song as we just read the words to the song and focused upon the Lord Jesus Christ? Okay. Someone else? Helping people get a hold of Jesus in their own lives. She's heard this before, I think. Okay. 03:44 Anyone else? 03:47 Exercising the gifts that God has given each of us. Every one of us have at least one spiritual gift to exercise in the context of the body of Christ. Anyone else? Speaking words of encouragement. Okay. Amen. Visiting the elderly. 04:08 Okay. All right. Praying for others. Okay. You're on a roll. Keep going. 04:20 Supporting those who are in the ministry. Is that what you mean? Okay. Support. Serving in the church. Okay. 04:32 Well, I want you to just keep thinking along those lines as we go through this message this morning. When we think about ministry... And by the way, I shared this with the leadership team in early February when we met, or late January, whenever it was. And turn in your Bibles to Ephesians 4. 04:50 And I want to talk to you about ministry this morning and what it is and what its purpose is. Now the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 12:25 that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care of one another. 05:03 I think when we talk about ministry in the body, we're talking about care of the body and the members of the parts of the body of Christ. And specifically the local congregations where we're thinking about. But even beyond that, beyond that ministry in our communities. The word minister means a servant. 05:25 In the Greek, it's been translated from the word diaconus, which oftentimes means a servant. And so we ask the question, how are we doing in our ministry? Another question that would be synonymous with that would be, how are you doing in your servings? Serving. In your servanthood. 05:46 In your serving the body of Christ. In serving the others. In fact, if you go and you look at a dictionary meaning for the word servant or minister, minister, or ministry, it is a... And this is the dictionary meaning, a person or things through which something is accomplished. 06:08 Well, that's pretty generic. A person or thing or things through which something is accomplished. What kind of something? If you have... In some countries, they call their political or their government agencies ministries. Ministry of transportation. 06:28 I guess that would be accurate if that's the definition. A person or things through which something is accomplished. Or the ministry of agriculture. 06:40 And it's in a purely secular sense that they use the word ministry. So we have to define what kind of ministry we're talking about. In the body of Christ, we're talking about gospel-centered ministry. And gospel ministry that flows out from the gospel. 06:57 And so when we talk about visitation of the poor or feeding the poor or visitation of the elderly, it's that which flows out of the gospel. We're not interested this morning in transportation unless it's flowing out of the gospel. We're not interested this morning in agriculture necessarily as a spiritual function unless it's flowing out of the gospel. 07:19 Now you may be a farmer. You may be a driver. And then you are involved in ministry if it's flowing out of the gospel in the sense that it's flowing out of your life call. And your call to reflect the Lord Jesus Christ. Another word that is... Or the word that is translated ministry or minister is diacona. 07:41 Diaconia. Which involves compassionate love towards the needy within the Christian community. Every business, every calling so far as its labor benefits others. 07:54 And so when we're talking about ministry, we're talking about a calling, a gifting, a business relating to the needs around us. And it goes on to say it is an office or administration in the Christian community viewed with reference to the labor needed for others, 08:15 both in the case of individuals and generally as a total concept including all branches of service. 08:24 And so when we talk about ministry, we're talking about reaching out to others out of a compassion for the needs of others and including all kinds of needs and all kinds of ministrations and all kinds of gifts. Building up. And the Bible says to edify. That means to build up. 08:45 And we do that more through discouragement than... Or I mean encouragement than through discouragement. More through building up one another rather than destroying or tearing down one another. And we're to equip others for ministry and for service. So let's look at our text this morning from Ephesians 4. 09:07 I'm going to begin reading at verse 11 through 16. "And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 09:28 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 09:49 but speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the Head Christ, from whom the whole body joined together, adjoined and knit together by what every joint supplies according to the effective working by which every part does its share, 10:07 causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love." This passage is talking about ministry. Ministry. Now it starts out in verse 11 by talking about the ministry. And so he gives some leadership gifts here in the church. The church of Christ from its founding to now. 10:28 And if you hear the word apostles, that speaks of a founding, a founder. The apostles that founded the Christian faith and gave us the message of God in the Scriptures. And the Bible says that our faith is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone. 10:48 And then he has the word prophets here, which are proclaimers. So you have the founders. You have the proclaimers. And then you have the word evangelists, which are soul winners. And then you have the term pastors, who are the shepherds, and teachers, who are the instructors. And so you have sometimes people class pastor-teacher together, 11:10 a shepherd-instructor. But you have those ministry gifts that are given to the church. And then verse 12 tells us why they're given and what their function is. It's for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry. Now you may have heard me say this before, but in that verse, 11:29 there's an unfortunate comma in the Old King James. And that unfortunate comma goes like this: "For equipping the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ." That's an unfortunate comma there after the word saints or ministry. 11:50 Yeah. Saints. Because it's more aptly translated, equipping the saints for the work of ministry. Equipping the saints for the work of ministry. That's very different than the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers equipping the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. 12:11 And so almost every translation in current translation, other than the King James, takes that comma out and says that it is the role of the apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. One thought there. 12:29 That it is the leader's job to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. Hence what we have in our bulletin, ministers the entire congregation. And so we need to ask ourselves as pastors and teachers, how well have we been equipping the saints for working, for ministry? 12:50 And so that would be a question that we need to address and answer as a congregation. And as for ourselves as well. And so we are to equip the saints for the work of ministry and for the edifying of the body of Christ. For the building up of the body of Christ. That's the purpose of ministry. 13:09 Now I want to give you some things this morning as we go through this passage to give you kind of an overview of... Or some definition to what this passage says about ministry in the body. 13:24 Because there's about 11 purposes or sub-purposes for ministry in this passage under the purpose of edifying or building up the body of Christ. Number one, the goal of ministry is to establish souls in the faith. 13:43 Establish souls in the faith. Okay. Those are some of the preliminary things I should have been following along with. But nevertheless, here we have to establish souls in the faith. 13:58 So he says in verse 13, "Till we all come to the unity of the faith." And so what we want to see happen in the church and in the community at large is we want to see people come to faith. 14:16 Now that's not up there on the board, is it? What's happening there, Todd? 14:24 Is it stuck? Okay. 14:28 Go ahead. We're having a little bit of trouble here this morning with setting this up. So to establish souls in the faith, he says talking about verse 13, "Till we all come into the unity of the faith." Now there is faith, which we want to see people established in faith. But then he's talking about establishing souls in the faith. 14:50 The faith. What is the faith? The faith is the whole body of truth delivered to us in the gospel and in the Scriptures. The whole body of truth that has been delivered to us, Jude says that it was delivered once for all. Once for all. 15:08 So there's not a new edition of the faith coming out anytime soon. It is the faith. The whole body of truth delivered to us. 15:17 Jude says, "I found it necessary to you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith, which was once for all delivered for the saints." 1 Timothy talks about people straying from the faith. And so one of the primary roles... Okay. Thank you. 15:37 Appreciate it. One of the primary roles of the ministry is to establish people in the faith so that they can grow in the faith. Now this is important because we're living in a day and age where people are not being established in the faith. They are being established in their own interpretation of the faith. 15:57 I had a conversation with someone recently that said something like this, that there were some things that would have to be understood by this person. And God would have to show this person before that person would believe. 16:12 And so the idea of many is that we pick and choose what we want to believe about God. And... But that's not... And then the person went on to inform me that that is what Christians do. Also is we pick and choose what we want to believe. 16:33 I said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a minute. No, I don't pick and choose what I want to believe. It's been delivered. It has been delivered for us. Now I will choose whether or not I believe it. But that doesn't choose what it is... Or that doesn't determine what it is. 16:51 We are not free to determine our own truth, but rather to seek to understand the truth that has been given." That's different than just picking and choosing truth or what we think might be truth, what we'd like it to be true. But rather to understand the truth as it has been given. 17:11 So I went on to explain that this truth of the gospel has been deposited in the church and in the Scriptures. In the Scriptures to the church. And then we embrace it. We embrace it. The fundamental foundational truths of the Word of God we embrace. We do not determine. 17:30 Now there are different nuances of application that we may disagree on. But basically, for 2,000 years, the true church of Jesus Christ has believed the same thing. Because it has been delivered once to the saints. 17:48 We don't try to 17:51 determine it. We try to understand it. And there is a big difference. And so when we talk about ministry, one of the purposes of ministry is that we would be established in the faith. Now the next thing that we see here is... I think we'll see it. 18:14 There we go. To experience the knowledge of Christ. And he says that we might experience the knowledge of the Son of God. So we want to know Christ. We want to know Christ. 18:30 And this word for knowledge here is not the word that is sometimes used for knowledge, which is the word gnosis or gnosko, which means an imperfect, partial knowledge. It could be used for salvation knowledge, 18:48 where you have enough to know that Jesus is the Christ and you believe that. But this is the word epignosis or epignosko, which means a perfect knowledge. A full knowledge. A precise, accurate, and experiential knowledge. 19:06 So what we want to have people to do is to not just know Christ in the initial aspect of salvation, but to know Him accurately and fully and precisely and experientially so that we grow in our knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now some people say, "Well, it's not important what you know about Christ. 19:26 It's important that you know Him." That is the first thing that's important. But the second thing that's important to really grow in knowing Him and in the knowledge of the Son of God is to know about Him. For you cannot know Him unless you know about Him. And the more that you know about Him, the more potential you have to know Him. 19:47 And so we have establishing people in the truth so that they might know the Son of God in a more precise and accurate and full way and an experiential way. And so when we talk about ministry, we're talking about helping people to come to know Christ in a precise, 20:08 accurate, and experiential way. Then next we see in the same verse, this is all in that one verse, verse 13, is to increase maturity. So we want people to become a perfect man. Man being there in the generic sense of men and women, that they would be perfect. And the word perfect there doesn't mean sinlessly perfect. 20:28 It doesn't mean that you never make mistakes. What it means is complete or mature. It means a mature person so that we would grow to maturity. Completion in Christ. To embody the full character of Christ. 20:44 And so one of the reasons we come and we preach and we teach and we sing and we worship and we enter into care groups and small groups and we pray for each other is not only that we'd be established in the faith and come to know Christ in a full and complete way, but that we might do so and be mature in our faith. 21:02 That we would grow in maturity so that we might not just consume resources, but that we might be a resource to the body of Christ and growing in Christlikeness. Embodying the full character of Christ, which leads us then to the next one, still in that same verse, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. 21:22 In other words, to infuse Christlikeness into people as the Spirit of God takes them to maturity, that they become more and more like Christ. Well, you say, "But I'm not Christ. How can He expect me to be Christ?" Well, He doesn't expect you to be Christ. He expects you to be like Christ. 21:41 And that's what maturity is about, is becoming more and more Christlike in our responses, in our actions, in our attitudes, in our opinions, in our worries, in our fears, in our confidence in Him. And all of the things that He wants us to become more and more Christlike. If you doubt that, read Romans 8:28, "That whom He did foreknow, 22:01 them He did also predestine to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren." So God loves His Son Jesus Christ, who is the model of the spiritual man that He wants each and every one of us to become. 22:19 And He loves Him so much that He wants a whole bunch of sons and daughters just like Jesus Christ. And as Christians today, part of our goal in ministry is to see God infuse Christlikeness of character in our lives. So that's all in just one verse. 22:39 And then He keeps on going. To inspire spiritual growth, that we might be no more children. We should be no longer children tossed to and fro. So we should not be children. Why don't you want to be a child spiritually? Well, 22:58 the Bible says that we have to be childlike, but we need to grow to no longer be child-ish. So we want to be childlike in the sense that we keep that reverence for God and we keep that dependence on God and the simplicity of faith and humility and dependency upon God. 23:19 But we want to grow out of childishness. So are you growing out of childishness? Or are you childish and think it's childlikeness? But anyway, He wants us to grow to be no more children. Why would you want to grow to be an adult? Young people, why would you want to grow to be an adult? 23:41 Children, why would you want to grow to be an adult? Well, sometimes it looks like this. Well, when I get to be six, then I can go to school. Because I can't go to school when I'm three. And I want to go to school. And so when I get to be five or six, I can go to school. And then when I was in school, 24:00 the first four grades were in the little room at Harris Elementary School. And the five through eight was in the big room. And you couldn't go to the big room until you were no more age of the little room. First, second, third, and fourth grade. And so we want to be with the big kids. 24:19 And so you can't be with the big kids until you've fulfilled your time with the little kids. And then when you're in the eighth grade, seventh, eighth grade, you say, "I don't want to be around these little kids anymore. I want to do something more. I want to learn how to drive a car." And so you can't drive a car when you're eight years old. 24:39 You can't drive a car when you're 12 years old. You can only drive a car when you're 15 or 16, legally that is, on the highways. And so I want to grow out of childishness so I can be responsible enough to drive a car. 24:53 And then what my point is, that there are experiences that can only be had when we put away childish things and grow in our ability to experience those experiences. And so it is with Christ. So it is with spiritual things in the Lord. There are things that God wants to teach us. There are things that God wants to do in us. 25:13 There are things that He wants to make us into that can't happen when we're childish. We have to continue to grow. And part of ministry is to inspire spiritual growth. Hebrews 5 says, "For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God. 25:34 And you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the Word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age. 25:48 That is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil." So there are some things that you want to experience in the Lord that you can't experience when you're back here. You must increase in spiritual growth. 26:08 Then there is the aspect of developing stability. One of the reasons we don't want to be children anymore is that children can be tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men and the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. Spiritually, 26:28 children can be unstable. Depending on who their teacher is, they can go one direction or another direction. There was a little boy one time who was asked by a person, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" He said, "I want to be a preacher." And then he was asked a little bit later, 26:50 "What do you want to be when you grow up?" He said, "I want to be a gangster." He said, "Well, yesterday you said you want to be a preacher. Now you say you want to be a gangster. What made the difference?" Well, he said, "It depends on who gets to me first." And so the influence in his life is going to determine the direction of his life. Unstable. Have you ever met anybody that's unstable? 27:10 They flip-flop all the time. That doesn't mean that we don't look at something objectively and try to define objectively the best course of action. What this is talking about, being moral and ethically and spiritually and relationally unstable, where we're and with truth, 27:31 we're just flopping back and forth. Some time ago, I asked about a certain Christian leader who's used quite a bit in Anabaptist circles on the circuit, speaking circuit. I asked, "How's he doing?" And his pastor said, "Well, I think he's growing. 27:51 I think he's changed some from what he originally started out with." I said, "Well, that's nice. That's good. But what about all the people that he taught before he changed? What do you do with that?" And so some people, "Well, this is where it's at today. I'm going to go all in on this doctrine." And then, "Oh, that's not where it's at anymore. Then it's over here." And so we kind of turn away from that. 28:12 Now we go over here. And this is the secret to Christian success. And now then, a few years later, they've flip-flopped to something else. And you never know. You never know where they're going to land on truth. And so what we want to see is that people become strong, stable, not double-minded, 28:33 and discerning. Scripture says there, we read it a moment ago, that we grow in discernment by exercising discernment over good and evil. You'll never have discernment if you don't start exercising discernment. That's what the Scripture says. And so we want to see people develop stability. 28:53 So then we go into verse 14. We're still there, where he talks about instilling doctrinal truth. Now this is a little bit different than the first one, which is establishing people in the truth of the Gospel. 29:08 This is now giving people the tools to stand strong in the winds of doctrine that keep coming and going and threatening to get us off track. Now sometimes we like to give people the benefit of the doubt. Well, this person just doesn't really know what they're talking about. Their motives are good. 29:27 Their intentions are good. And maybe they are. But I want you to know there are some people out there. There are some people out there. And I wouldn't even want to begin to name names. But there are some people out there who have it as their goal to deceive people. 29:43 And so they are carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. Wow. That's not just an innocent misinterpretation. 30:00 That is a determined effort to deceive and to get people off track. So we want people to have doctrinal truth so that they can look at the serious nature of the words of Scripture and understand it and apply it and live it without getting off course. 30:22 To know truth from error. Because truth determines belief. And belief determines outlook. And outlook determines action. And action determines destiny. Then we go on to verse 15, where he wants us to speak the truth in love. 30:42 Now this is a very important aspect of ministry as well, so that we can begin to see people acquire relational balance. Acquire relational balance. Is there such a thing? You go ride a bike, you're going to have to balance on that bike. Because you don't want to fall off on the right. 31:03 You don't want to fall off on the left. When I was first learning to ride a bike for many years, I had scars on my arm. Because I fell off the bike. I was unbalanced. And I fell into the rosebush. And the rosebush had thorns. And it scraped me up and scratched me up. Unbalanced. And so what is the balance here that we want? 31:22 We want the balance between truth and love. By the way, Jesus exemplified this beautifully and perfectly. The Bible says of Christ that the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. And so some of the grace people need a little infusion of truth. And some of the truth people need an infusion of grace. 31:43 And Jesus Christ is the right balance. And so we are not the right balance. By nature, we will tend to veer one way or another. 31:52 And God says, "I want you to grow up to know how to relate to people, be able to speak to them God's Word and God's truth in the spirit of love and grace." That is a lifelong endeavor. And so I love the verse in Psalm 85:10, 32:14 that mercy and truth are met together. Mercy and truth are met together. Grace and peace have kissed each other, it says. 32:26 Psalm 85:10, grace and peace, mercy and truth, righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Learning how to relate with others and how to resolve conflict. You know, I believe one of the things that we need to do is, as believers, learn how to resolve conflict in biblical, spiritual ways and not in fleshly, 32:48 angry, spiteful, and what was our Sunday school lesson this morning? Strifeful ways. And so we learn how to resolve conflict, whether that conflict is in a marriage, whether that conflict is in a family, whether that conflict is between people in church, whether that conflict is between businessmen, 33:08 whether that conflict is between neighbors, whether that conflict is between people of differing opinions, to be able to bring together so that we balance relationally to resolve conflicts. Then we go on to see some more goals of ministry. 33:30 Is bringing all things under the authority of Christ. Speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into Him who is the head, Christ. There are some expectations. There are some expectations that come along with gospel-oriented and gospel-centered ministry. 33:51 And one of those expectations is that we expect people to bring their lives under the authority of Jesus Christ. That as they grow up, they're growing up into Him who is the head, who is the head, even Christ. He does not become the head. 34:11 He is the head. We recognize His headship and we submit to His headship. And by the way, we should be expecting each other to do that in ministry. Amen? You should expect your pastors and leaders to submit to the headship of Christ. 34:31 Pastors and leaders should expect the parishioners to live under the headship of Christ. People who attend this church that are not members should be expected to live under the headship of Jesus Christ. And helping each other to do that is part of ministry. 34:51 He is the head. He is authority. In fact, all of these things come with a certain expectation. We should expect one another to be Christ-like. We should expect each other to grow in the faith. We should expect each other to know Christ. We should expect each other to be maturing and growing. 35:12 We should expect each other to be developing stability and relational balance and solving conflict biblically as spiritual men and women of God. And we should expect each other to come under the authority of Christ. There's one more thing here in the next verse that we should expect each other of. And that is motivating the members of the body of Christ. 35:35 Motivating the members. Verse 16, "From whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies." What part are you in the body of Christ? You say, "Well, I'm just a joint. I'm just a ligament. 35:49 I'm just a muscle." Well, we need those to supply according to the effecting working by which every part does its share. Does its share. You hear the President Biden talk about everybody paying their fair share. 36:09 Well, that has a whole interesting dynamic with politics and taxes. But the idea is found here that everyone should be paying their fair share. To do its share. The NIV says, "As each part does its work, when each part is working properly, 36:31 by the proper working of each individual part," the Christian Standard Bible. One of the things I love about our church is when I see people just stepping in and acting. This morning when we got here, there was garbage strewn out across the yard. 36:51 So I went out and I picked up a little bit. And here I saw some other people picking up garbage out in the yard. The dumpster's overflowing. And so the wind took the garbage. And hey, we didn't even have to ask anybody to do it. People just, "There's garbage in the yard. You pick it up." That's each part doing part of its share. 37:11 I don't love funerals, but I love when we have a need in the church when someone dies. 37:19 This church is on top of things. When someone dies, I mean, everybody goes to work. The food committee goes to work. The ushers go to work. The care group leaders go to work. The bakers and the food people go to work. 37:38 And the pastors go to work. And the janitors go to work. And it just seems like you don't even have to do much. You just activate the and it just goes. It's beautiful. I've related to some churches through the years that they don't have a well-working operation like that. 37:58 And what it means is that everybody's doing their part, showing that they care. And I notice that people do it with joy and with smiles and with enjoyment of working together. And so that's part of every part doing its share. Each part working properly. 38:18 Each part doing its individual part. But do we do that in the same way when it comes to spiritual things? 38:26 Like teaching Sunday school and being youth sponsors and giving topics and leading singing and all those things that every part, every gifted part has a part to play. It doesn't mean that every part leads the singing. 38:44 But it does mean that those who can lead the singing willingly just get it done. And that's a blessing. It's a blessing to see. So my question is, how are you doing for ministry? How am I doing for ministry? Am I doing my part? 39:01 And then last but not least, it all happens by the edifying of love. That edifying of itself. That is the body in love. 39:20 It's love that holds all this together. It's love that motivates all this. It's love that helps people to grow. It's love that helps people become Christ-like. It's love. Sometimes it's tough love. Sometimes it doesn't feel like love. 39:35 But it's love in the sense that we want to see what's best for the people around us. The word edification here has the idea, according to one commentary, that we minister or that we do that which will be a spiritual benefit to others. 39:57 Someone wrote this, "When one is in public worship, the paramount concern must be how all the believers should be built up and not how someone or a small group may selfishly benefit by the public experience. In Christian worship, individuals ought to be concerned how they can spiritually benefit others by what they say or do." And by the way, 40:18 this whole thing of ministry has large implications. And sometime through the next several months, I want to preach on some of these subjects. But some of the ministry is in public. Preaching, teaching, worship, gospel-centered service, and humanitarian aid. 40:38 By the way, there's a difference between just service and humanitarian aid and gospel-centered service and humanitarian aid. What you all did this past week, I hope, was gospel-centered. It is a result of the gospel and not just feeding the hungry. 40:57 You can feed the hungry. UNICEF can do that. United Way can do that. The United Nations can do that. But they don't do it as a gospel-centered response to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. 41:09 But the church, the church, young people going on mission trips, old people going on mission trips, Forrest and Teresa taking young boys in their home that need a safe place. That's a response from the gospel out. And that's the kind of ministry that we believe in. Sunday school and Monday school. 41:31 Praise God for the Monday through Friday school that churches need. Prayer ministry. Sometimes that prayer ministry is public. Leadership is public. But sometimes it's also personal. Evangelism and discipleship can be personal evangelism, personal discipleship, visitation, prayer and intercession, 41:50 admonition, correction, and rebuke, correspondence, the ministry of presence. You know that ministry happens sometimes just as God's people show up. When they show up in the name of Jesus and biblical counseling, that's the end of the slides. I want to close this morning with an illustration. 42:13 And pardon me for a personal illustration. Many times I have gotten it wrong. One time I got it right. I was pastoring out in Winston, Oregon, a little mission church there that you've heard about many times. And I found out about a lady who was related to one of the men that we knew in the community. And she ended up in the hospital. 42:34 And I don't even remember how we had met her. But we found out she was in the hospital and just felt one morning that I should go to Roseburg, which is about a 20-minute drive, and visit her in the hospital. Well, time got away from me throughout the day. And it got to be towards evening. 42:55 And evening's not a good time to go visit people in the hospital. They've been tired. Sometimes visiting hours shut down. And I was late. It was getting to the point where it was too late. And I had this inner urge, "I've got to go visit this woman in the hospital." So drove the 20 minutes to Roseburg, 43:15 to the hospital, went in, found her. She was sleeping. Well, sleep is a precious commodity in hospitals because they're always waking you up. But as I walked into her room, she did wake up. And she recognized who I was, I think. And I introduced myself again. 43:32 And she said, "Oh, thank you for coming." And we had a little time of prayer. Wasn't there long. Had a little time of prayer and a short scripture reading. And as we joined hands to pray after having read the scripture, we poured out our hearts to the Lord. 43:53 And something happened. She was able to connect with God. 44:00 I didn't do it for her. But I was there ministering. And that ministry was connecting her with God on a personal level. And when I left that evening, she said this to me. She said, "Thank you so much for coming. 44:21 I was praying today that one of my pastors would come and pray with me." And she was from a large Baptist church in town. And nobody came, she said. "And you came. I almost didn't. You came." And she said, "Thank you so much. 44:42 You have helped me to worship." And I got this picture of that's what ministry is. 44:51 Ministry is not big, flamboyant projects and productions. Although that may be used as ministry, it's helping somebody get a hold of Jesus in a new and significant way. And that's what ministry is. And that's what we have the opportunity to do. 45:10 So when you're doing food in the church, the purpose is so that we can connect with Jesus in a significant way. Even over a bowl of soup, we can do that. 45:22 When you're going about on visitation, having that prayer with somebody, significant opportunity to take somebody's hand and reach it up and give their hand into the master's hand. 45:36 Maybe it's in your Sunday school class as you had studied your lesson and came with that thought that just kind of set the table for somebody. How often we come away from Sunday school with thoughts that I never thought of before. It's wonderful. Helps me get a hold of Jesus. Having a song, 45:56 "Jesus, the very thought of thee," ministered to me. Who knows what the author had in mind when he wrote it except it was a song of praise and aspiration to God. And yet this morning, I got it and read it to you because it ministered to my heart. Just helping people connect with Jesus is what ministry is. 46:18 So coming back to my initial question, we're over time. How are you doing with your ministry? 46:26 The other evening, 46:27 someone from this congregation invited us out for supper. And as we sat there at the end of the meeting, at the end of the meal, having a good time, sharing, talking, visiting, at the end of the meal, this brother said, "Now how are you doing? 46:47 How are you doing?" So we had an opportunity there to just get real and have a more meaningful conversation. 46:56 And then this brother simply said, "Can we pray for you?" Absolutely. And they reached out to us and ministered to us. It doesn't have to be anything super fancy. 47:16 It's just, "How can I pray for you? How can I help you connect with Jesus in a meaningful way?" So look for those opportunities. I think Living Water has a lot of good things going forward. But there's one thing that I think could be better. 47:35 And that is our personal ministry to each other and to the broader community. Helping people do this. Grow in grace, Christ-likeness, experiencing the Lord. Let's pray. 47:49 Thank you, Lord, for this meeting this morning, for allowing us to share our hearts on personal ministry in the body of Christ. 47:58 Lord, both to receive it and to give it so that we grow, so that we become stable, so that we become more Christ-like, so that we speak into each other's lives the truth of God's Word, so we can be established in the truth, in doctrinal truth, without being wishy-washy and tossed to and fro, 48:20 and that we might represent Christ and do it well and help others rather than just consuming resources ourselves. Lord, increase our ministry opportunities and capacity here at Living Water. And we'll give you the praise because it's not about us. It's all about you. 48:40 In Jesus' name. Amen. Shall we stand together and let's sing a verse of the song?