I'm glad you're clapping. It's about time I got the recognition. It's appropriate. Acts chapter 18. Acts chapter 18. There was a certain family that had two sons. This was many, many years ago. The older son said that he wanted to make a name for himself for his family. So this was in England, so he turned his face and his thoughts and ambitions towards parliament and fame. The younger son decided, as he was praying and then God got a hold of him, decided that he would turn his life over to the Lord. And he turned his face towards China and the duty that he would perform in bringing the gospel. The younger son, his name was Hudson Taylor, the missionary. He died beloved and known on every continent, even at this day and age. You mentioned Hudson Taylor. There's a lot of secular folks that know the name Hudson Taylor. When you consider his older brother, one man thinking about it said this, when I looked in the encyclopedia to see what the other son had done, I found these words, the brother of Hudson Taylor. You know, it may be that many times were inclined to ridicule, and it could be at that time, people would have been inclined to ridicule him and say that he went to the mission field. But on that and in that life of service, that was secondary. It wasn't something that was high and lofty and lifted up. It's not something that's going to bring you fame. But yet today, We look at Hudson Taylor and we say, what a man of God that gave himself completely for that. And that's gonna be our topic this morning. Our topic this morning is seven traits to help with being satisfied with service. seven traits that'll help you being satisfied with service. I think many of us, we look at this, and especially as a, it is the wrong term. Some people combine it, and if you look in Genesis, I think it's Genesis chapter two, there really isn't a word called help me. It's a help meat for the man. So there really isn't, you're like, you know what, I'm the help meat. Like, well, I don't know what that means. So are you meat? Are you like healthy meat? Are you a help, a helpy type of meat? All right, but it's a help. Meat. All right. So it and the the idea is that The wife is perfectly fitted to the man that I believe the man is perfectly fitted for the wife God brings the two together, but I think sometimes especially being the wife and there's some duties that are not and For a wife there's some duties that are not, you know, most people I guess aren't writing home about them. Okay, like oh, yeah. So what did you do today? Well, I made three meals Unbelievable, right? There's some things that are just, they're service oriented. They're service oriented. And really, I think sometimes we look at it and say, well, I don't understand this. You know, all I do is serve. But that's called being a Christian. That's the example that Christ gave us. And we'll see that right at the end. And what we have to do is understand that service is not a secondary calling. Service is a very primary calling in our life, and we should be excited about serving. There's a couple in the Bible. that reveal this, and actually in the Bible, there's only six passages that mention these two together. As far as every time they are mentioned, they actually are together. Acts chapter 18, we're gonna see in verses two, 18 and 26, and Romans chapter 16, 1 Corinthians chapter 16, and 2 Timothy chapter four, and most believe that 2 Timothy chapter four is the last time, because that's Paul's last epistle. And it's the last time that these two are mentioned. So let's look at them in Acts chapter 18, verse 1. After these things, Paul departed from Athens and came to Corinth. So we see that he's in Corinth. This is his missionary journeys. And in verse 2, and he found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come down from Italy with his wife Priscilla. because Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome and came unto them. So we are introduced to a couple, Aquila and Priscilla. And we're gonna take them and learn some lessons. And as I studied their life, there's seven traits that kind of come out. Seven traits that I believe will help us in being satisfied with service. And if you're just a lay person, so we have pastor's wives, I think our church knows this. If something's going on normally, myself and my wife, we're in the middle of it. That's what they're gonna see. And sometimes we're getting ready for a big day. We're getting ready for a big event. As I tell my folks, it's really weird. My hands still fit around a broom. Okay? So it's good for the church folks to see even their pastor with a broom in his hand. Not flying it. All right? Okay? I know some of you are like, well, that's perfectly fit for you. All right? But we're not talking about that way. All right? But our hands are made to work. We should be known as hard workers. We should be known as servants. And that's husband and wife. And a husband and wife working together, I don't think there's, as far as in the Christian realm, there's not a greater thing you can do together. serving God together. So here we see Aquila and Priscilla. The name is found as a family name if you look it up in history books and Roman annals. In fact in 2nd Timothy chapter 4 Priscilla is shortened and it says not the term Priscilla but Prisca. Alright, and that is a Roman name. Some say, there's one historian that says Priscilla means old-fashioned simplicity. That's the word Priscilla. It is also interesting to note that Aquila Priscilla's husband had the family name, if you look up in Roman history, Aquila was a family name that was tied to famous Roman soldiers. And so it could be that Aquila in his history had some Roman soldiers, some generals, or maybe some others, some commanders that were famous. Aquila and Priscilla, we see that they come together and Aquila and Priscilla are always mentioned together. And I think that's right there as we start out. It's instructive to you and I. Okay, and so this is, all right, it's a bunch of ladies here. A bunch of ladies, I think. Okay, but it's a bunch of ladies here. I'm just saying, in this day and age, we don't know. I'm just kidding. All right, but a bunch of ladies here. And so here you are coming in and you need to be careful that your husband doesn't have a ministry and you have a ministry. You're together. That's found in Genesis. The two become one. They're one flesh. And so be careful that you don't get wrapped up in your world at home and the husband is there in his world at church. You're together. So make sure and work at that. Work at being together in the ministry. Aquila and Priscilla teach us this. So we have seven traits. The first one, I think, is pretty easy and that goes along with what we just talked about. There was a strong unity or a strong oneness. A strong oneness or unity. You see this together in Scripture because, as I said, in chapter 18 and verse 2, look it down in chapter 18, verse 26, and he began to speak boldly in the synagogue, whom went Aquila and Persoa. They come to him, all right? That's in verse 26. You can go to Romans, Romans chapter 16, And in Romans chapter 16, we read in verse three, greet Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus. Notice again, what is it? So there's an Acts chapter 18, Romans chapter 16, but you also find it in first Corinthians. You'll find it in second Timothy chapter four. They're always mentioned together. There's a oneness, there's a unity. And you have to make sure that in your ministry, in your marriage, as you're working together, and I know we got young people, so just sit there and dream. Sit there and dream. And maybe there'll be some dipwad that you can trick and con to really care for you. All right. But more than likely, you're just going to have some, you know, lame brain idiot. All right. That's going to come along and you're going to just have to sit there and act like you like him, act like he's. I'm just I'm just being serious. All right. But anyways, anyways, if you're younger, just dream and hope. But those of you that are married, there needs to be a oneness. There needs to be a strong unity. And that means that you spend time together doing things. All right. And so make sure that in the ministry, the ministry can be very busy. And so but make sure that there is there is time for each other. And that means that you're working at it. And then also that also as a as a wife, if you see if you see something grabbing and carrying your husband away, then guess what? I know this about my wife. She's going to say something to me. All right, I have a strong enough wife that she cares enough that if she sees that something's carrying me away, hey, have you prayed about that? That's the job of the wife too. You're coming alongside, you're just gonna let him go? Like, oh, but he's this, he's flesh. He's human, he ain't God. So guess what? I'm glad that I have a wife that'll come alongside and say, hey, you know, have you thought about this? Have you prayed about this? That's that strong oneness and unity that you have. You're heading in the same direction and heading in the same direction means that you, that spiritually you are connected that way. There's a strong oneness or unity, number two. Number two, there is a love for the Lord. Love for the Lord. Okay, now you have to kind of study the life of Aquila and Priscilla to know or to follow this. So notice in chapter 18 in verse two, it says that, where was he at? He was in Corinth. Okay, he's in Corinth. He leaves Corinth and when we find, We find then verse 3, and because he was of the same craft, so this is Aquila and Priscilla, that they're of the same craft, he abode with them, by their occasion they were tent makers, and he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, persuaded of the Jews, and then From here, he goes to Ephesus. Now, if you know a little bit about geography, Corinth and Ephesus are not really close. Not even on a cruise ship or a flight. They are not very close. They believe that he spent about a year and a half in Corinth, and then he left and went to Ephesus. In the passages you'll read when you follow Paul's life, it says that Aquila and Priscilla went with him to Ephesus. And then it says that they left and they went to Rome. That's in, I remember in the book of Romans, we read that, hey, greet Aquila and Priscilla because they have a church in their house. I think that's in Romans also. Okay, so what do we see? We see Aquila and Priscilla have such a love for the Lord that they're willing to follow this guy. They stay 18 months, have them in the house. They open up their house to Paul and are working with him. And then he says, hey, I need to go to Ephesus and I need to start a church over there. And so they're like, oh, you know what? We'll go. And then from Ephesus, he leaves them there and they establish a strong church. And then they end up going to Rome. What does that tell you about this couple? They love the Lord. He's number one in their life. And this is what you have to be careful of. You have to be careful that all kinds of other things grab and become number one instead of God, the Lord. I come back to it, we mentioned it last night. Sometime, and this is my challenge to you as ladies, track yourself in the next week or two. And by that, I'm, I'm big on time. Okay. Time management. So track yourself, make a chart. You can easily download a chart and start at eight in the morning and go to eight at night. And then every hour you write in, what did I do? You know what? That'll help you see what's number one in your life. And if you find that at eight in the morning, hey, I updated my Facebook account. At nine in the morning, I had to load on some Instagram, okay? And at 10 o'clock, I had to look up some recipes on Pinterest, okay? So then the next day, and then the next day, And then, oh, in the afternoon I was, you know, I did this for the kids and then in the afternoon I wanted to, you know, I have no problem with crafts, okay? But I needed to spend a couple hours on my crafts. So how much time did you spend for the Lord then? Oh, I love him. As I say, talk is cheap. What it looks like you love is yourself. You love all the things that will promote yourself and that, oh, you know what? You don't know how tough it is. Actually, it doesn't look tough at all. It looks like all you do is goof off. Maybe you should start working once. And maybe once you start doing some of those things, like, oh. And I tell our young couples this and I tell our church ladies that come in they need to be careful because yes I don't we need to be careful of grabbing into the world's idea And so we have a lot of stay-at-home moms and I love that but the stay-at-home moms guess what? You're not staying home and being lazy You're a Proverbs 31 lady. Proverbs 31, she was pretty busy. In fact, it seems to indicate she knew how to do some business deals. She was buying and selling land. She was no slough at all. And some were like, oh, I'm a stay-at-home mom. So what did you do today? Well, at 10 o'clock, I took a nap. 10, oh yeah, the kids, I needed, oh yeah, I worked with them, and then about one o'clock, yeah, I needed another nap. Like, wow. You know what, I'm gonna be a stay-at-home dad soon. We need to be careful. What do we need to be careful of? We need to be careful that God is not just relegated to the weekend. God shouldn't just be relegated to the weekend. You need to have God in your life, and there needs to be a love for the Lord. If you're gonna be happy serving, one, there's gonna be a strong unity between you and your husband, and then secondly, there's gonna be a love for the Lord that cannot be broken. Nothing else comes between you and God. It is strong, a love for the Lord. Number three, number three. Notice in Acts chapter... 18 in verse 3 and because he was of the same craft He abode with them. It seems to indicate a pluralism there, right? That they were of the same craft. What does it seem to indicate? That Aquila and Priscilla were tent makers and it was they that So if I'm gonna be satisfied with serving, I'm gonna have a strong unity with my husband, I'm gonna have a love for the Lord, and then thirdly, and we could park here, but we're not, you need to have a good work ethic. A strong work ethic. I am glad that I have my wife, and she was trained to work hard. I'm glad that I have a wife that works hard. And we both enjoy work. We both enjoy doing hard work. And we've tried to pass that down to our children. So when we get at it, that's what we say, when our family gets at it, we can nail a job. We can crank it out. Because one thing I wanted our kids to be is hard workers. And some of that is overcoming some of just the whininess of today. Putting aside excuses. I always can find an excuse of, oh, oh, man, there's just something wrong with my leg. Like, what? Oh, we're thinking of running down to Dairy Queen. Oh, oh, really? Man, it just seems like it's working well again. I mean, it's amazing how many excuses keep us from that which is a little bit hard. And we have to understand, those of you that are in the ministry, It's written to, yes, it's written to Timothy, a young man in the ministry, but it's written to those that are in the ministry and ladies that are in the ministry, you're in it. So guess what Paul says in 2 Timothy, that you need to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. I'm not gonna tell you that it's always easy. There's gonna be hard times and there's gonna be tough times, but sometimes you gotta stay up late and work. Sometimes you gotta get up early and work. And sometimes you're tired, but you're still gonna work. Develop a good work ethic. Here you see Aquila and Priscilla, and guess what you see about them? They had a good work ethic. They could be counted on. And as ladies, and if you're a lay lady, all right, so here you are, you're a layman in the church, can the pastor's wife count on you? My wife and I, even flying here, we're always thinking about ministry, and we're always talking about ministry. And there's some folks, and it could be your husband as an assistant. Your husband is required to help out with the pastor. But this is what I always tell my assistants when we're trying to teach them. You know, some people are great at just dropping the monkey on your back. Always. They're like, oh, well, you get it done. Well, yeah, I will. I'll get it done. But you know what? I get tired of always having to cover you. Eventually, I'm just going to take your salary because I'm doing your job. You know what? Just go leave. And that's what you've got to understand if you're an assistant and you're an assistant pastor's wife. Don't just always toss it on the pastor's wife. Figure out what it takes and do it. Develop some hard work. Like, oh, but I mean, I might have to think. Yes. I remember having a secretary. This was many years ago. I had a secretary one time. And I'm telling you, it would drive me crazy, because I like things organized. like things kind of sharp and organized. I like our parents being able to know what's coming up. And so I was youth pastor, and I was laying out some things, and it was just crazy. I mean, nothing could ever, everything was always last minute. Nothing was ever organized. And I was like, hey, what you need to do is sit down and just, I was trying to help her with some time management principles, and I said, now normally on Sunday night, I just take, and I lay out the week, and I look at some of these things, and I was trying to help her with some time management principles, and this is when she says, you know what? I don't have time to think. I'm like, we're going to create some. I think actually it's not the time, it's just the thinking. All right. But guess what you have to do? If you're going to be satisfied with service, I think sometimes you forget that service requires work. And guess what our flesh does not like? It fights against that hard work. Our flesh doesn't like it. I believe that's one of the curses from the fall, if you read in Genesis chapter 3. I believe one of them was, remember, God told Adam that from the sweat of the brow. I don't think there was sweat of the brow before that, before the fall. All right, you can get it, you know, talk to your husband debate about it. All right, smack him around. All right, but debate and get all but but I think that that sweat of the brow immense that before and work was just enjoyable, man. It was a lot of fun because God created work, I believe, to be enjoyable. That's why when we get into heaven, I'm sorry to disappoint you. Some of you like, oh, we're going to get to have enough craft time. No, because men are going to be there. I'm sorry. All right? And then you'll be perfect. So you'll be like, that was so silly. All right? But anyways, when we get to heaven, you know what I think some of our job is going to be? We're going to have jobs. We're going to have work to do. So you better get used to it, or heaven's going to just be such a bore. Like, oh, no. I went to heaven, and I got to work? You're going to be disappointed. So if I'm going to be satisfied with serving, I have a strong unity. That's with my husband. I have a love for the Lord. Thirdly, I work to develop a strong work ethic. And that means you study it. What I appreciate about my wife, and you're probably seeing this, she loves studying God's word. And God's word will transform you. It'll change you. And one of those things is you have a bad idea, a bad biblical, a bad biblical idea of work, get in scripture and let the word of God change that mindset. Because work is not a bad thing. And diligence is a good thing to put into your life. And so, what will help you be satisfied with serving? Strong oneness, a love for the Lord, good work ethic. Thirdly, notice in verse 3, and because he was of the same craft, he abode with them. Thirdly, if you're going to be satisfied with serving, you're going to develop a love for hospitality. A love for hospitality. Actually, when I was doing my master's, I was doing my master's in biblical exposition. This was many moons ago, probably 20-something years ago. I was doing a class on advanced systematic theology, and one of the topics that we studied was biblical hospitality. And it really opened my mind up to the Bible and hospitality. I challenge you as a lady, study the Bible in biblical hospitality. You know what you'll find? It's all through it. In fact, one of the thoughts in, is it Luke chapter 10 with the Good Samaritan? One of the thoughts that is taught is hospitality. Who's my neighbor? Remember, that's the question. That's one of the purpose, that's what it's taught. And here's another one, one of the requirements of a pastor. You think of all the things that you could list out. There's a whole bunch of things. You know what? You need to be, you know, whatever, 5'9", because that's what I am. You need to be 5'9". You need to have this. You need to, you need to, I mean, there could be a whole bunch of things that you could list out, but it's not a huge list, and one of them is given to hospitality. So if you're gonna develop into somebody that likes to serve, then get a biblical understanding of hospitality and start loving to serve people. And if you want your young people, if you want your young people to develop into good servants, start getting them to understand that hospitality is a biblical trait. Back in just a week, on Thursday, we were talking about it. Yesterday, we were talking about it. And this weekend, flying home, I'm jotting down some notes for our seniors in high school. My son is actually in that class. And I'm just getting fed up with their attitudes. And it's all about them. In fact, they were coming up with some ideas about a trip. And they've been saving money, and so they came and I think talked to my wife, and they were like, hey, so maybe we can do this. So my wife just quickly ran down some things and then later I talked to my son about about it. I said, all right, so basically my mom and I are going to be doing this, which one is not one of the highlights of my year. OK, hanging out with a bunch of 18 year olds. OK, hopefully I'm a lot more mature than you at this stage of my game. OK, and just hanging out with you. And I know you think that everybody wants to be with you. OK, but no. OK, it's all about. And so I said, so it's just us. And you were asking us, all right, that it was like a 13 hour drive. I said, so who's going to drive? And they were like, yeah, so we could leave after church, drive all night, do this. I said, so who is driving? Because guess what? Not one of you is going to get in the driver's seat. No. Ain't going to happen. I said, so for 13 hours, mom and I are going to sit there and drive, and then let's do all this activity. I said, guess what you're not thinking about? Anybody but you guys. You're self-centered, selfish. And we have to be careful as, all right, let's say that we're the leaders in the church. Be careful that you don't cast that idea. That's why they need to see you working. They need to see you serving. And then you pass that down and say, hey, come alongside me and let's work together. That's biblical hospitality. It's having people over to your house. It's having people, it's having lunches, it's having different things. The church needs to see that. And what amazes me, we have a large bus ministry, okay? And usually every Sunday afternoon, even now, my kids are involved in the bus ministry, and usually every Sunday afternoon, there's bus kids at our house. Like, I'm walking out, like, what are you doing here? What are you doing? Why did you invite him here? I love, there's one boy, his name's Dawson. And it's really neat, because they were asking Dawson. He's in, I think, 10th grade. And he's got a really horrible, horrible background, horrible family background. And so some of the kids were joking around, because it's he and his sister, and they're both really involved now in the church, his older sisters at the choir, and just a lot of fun watching them grow. And so they're asking him, hey, so whose family do you want to be adopted by? And Dawson looks, he's got just a really funny, he's just a funny kid. He's a big, like, huge, he looks like a big teddy bear. And he's just sitting there, and he's like, he's always with my son, Jake. And he looks, he's like, I like to be adopted by the Damerons. And so my wife over here goes, hey, Dawson, you don't understand. She says, I'm nice here, but not at home, all right? But guess what? It should be very common. It should be very common that kids in your church know that you're hospitable. They should feel that love extended to them. Okay? And that will, you know what, that creates a wonderful environment within your church. So I'm like, well, I'm not going to have them over. You know, they might mess something up. Good. Then clean it right afterwards. What'd you buy it for? It's like my grandma. Some of you, if you got these things, please, please do not reveal it. Okay, but my grandma, when I was growing up, I'd run over to her house as a teenager, and I'm telling you, if some of you have it, just don't admit it. All right, but she had couches, but then she had those plastic covers, the clear plastic, and I would go over to see grandma, and I'm kind of sitting, I'm like, Wow, so why did you buy this stuff? I mean, do you ever get, I mean, do you, like, take them off? I mean, why are you covering them up? And then, I can remember when she passed away, I mean, those things, they were well-preserved, but at that stage, all right, guess what? Nobody wanted, nobody wanted that stuff, all right? It ends up at Goodwill, all right? Come on! All right, by that stage, I mean, nobody wants that stuff anyways. It's so old, and you're like, wow, it's really preserved. All right, I bet you George Washington's museum could use that. You know, maybe we'll call him up, maybe Abe Lincoln's. All right. We need to have a love for hospitality, number five, number five. All right, if you go to Romans chapter 16, Verse three, it says, greet Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus. And this is an interesting phrase, verse four, who have for my life laid down their own necks, unto whom not only I give thanks, but also the churches of the Gentiles. Now, there's some that believe that there must have been some situation that Paul was either called on the carpet or he was gonna be, you know, sacrificed in some way, and Aquila and Priscilla laid down their nets, they sacrificed themselves. So if I'm gonna be satisfied with serving, what should be there in my life? Number five, a self-sacrificing spirit. A self-sacrificing spirit. I know of some folks in ministry. In fact, I've dealt with some even recently. And every time, every time there's a hard thing, it's just like, oh, wow, it's been so hard. Yeah, I had to preach last weekend. Like, okay, wow. Like, yeah, and then the week before, yeah, I had to preach too. Like, wow. I mean, that's kind of what they're paying you to do, right? But there's some people that everything, it's just like, They they they act like it's just such I should just be bowing down Because they're just just offering themselves so much and then Then they always need a break Always it's like oh, it was such a hard month. I I just need some time for myself and Like, oh really, so what'd you do? Yeah, I went to church every weekend and taught, preached. Like, okay, and what else? But even when there's something tough, just don't develop that whiny spirit. That's not good, that's not really godly either. That's not Christ-like. Do you see Christ ever whining here when he was on this earth? Most of us. It would have been nonstop. All right, here come the Pharisees. And the Pharisees are coming up to Jesus like, who are you? You say that you're God. You know what? We're going to bring you up here. And Christ is trying to weep. Remember in Nazareth? All right, I've been there. I've stood on top of the precipice in Nazareth and looked over. I mean, that was a huge fall. And they're trying to grab him and throw him off. And Jesus gets out of it and slips away. And they're looking for him. Most of us would have been like, Oh my, they almost tried to kill me. I need a vacation. But you don't see Jesus doing that. You don't see him doing that. What you see Jesus doing is saying, you know what, I need to slip aside, and then he goes up all night in prayer. That's how he got restored. I challenge you, and we should get our sleep. I understand that. You know, I go back to the old age thing. The older we get, the more sleep we need. All right, I understand that. But sometime what you need is not sleep. You need restored with some time with Christ. And it'll revitalize you. It'll just pick you up again. Spend an extra hour in the word of God. Spend an extra hour and what you'll find is spend an extra hour in prayer and you'll find that the devil will do everything to keep you from spending that extra hour. He will bring every, I mean, the pipes will break in the house, things will get burning, you'll have alarms going off because you're like, all right, I am gonna do this. Because the devil knows you spend time with God in the word of God and in prayer, it's gonna revitalize you. And then that self-sacrificing spirit will come and it'll be a part of you. So develop a self-sacrificing spirit. That's Christ. It's not reciprocal. So think about Christ. What did Christ get out of it as far as dying on the cross? You're like, oh, he got me. All right. I mean, he got me. I know you're acting like my seniors back in high school, but we're really not that big of a deal to him. We already rejected him. We actually put him on the cross, and yet he died for us, although he created us. He died for us, and the majority of people in this world do not care at all for him. and yet he still extends his love to him. That's the self-sacrificing spirit that should be in us. It's not what am I gonna get out of it with my church. Nobody will probably ever remember, and if they do, that's fine, but nobody will probably ever remember Steve Dameron. But I hope they remember Steve Dameron's God and Savior. And in your church and in your town, They may not remember you, but can you leave them a taste of Christ? That's our job. And that happens by spreading that self-sacrificing spirit that Christ has imparted into us. How? How do we have, or how do we become satisfied with serving? Seven things, a strong oneness, a love for the Lord, a good work ethic, a love for hospitality, a self-sacrificing spirit, a hunger for scripture. Notice in chapter 18, we were there in the text, and chapter 18 and verse two, if you go down, it tells us a little story about Aquila and Priscilla. It's about a man named Apollos. Apollos was strong in the word of God it says in verse 24 and a certain Jew named Apollos born at Alexandria notice what it says about Apollos an eloquent man and mighty in the scripture came to Ephesus so here we see that Aquila and Priscilla are now in Ephesus at the end of the chapter so at the beginning of the chapter they're in Corinth they stayed there a year and a half Paul goes to Ephesus, and so they follow Paul, end up in Ephesus, and here they meet a man named Apollos, who is an eloquent man, mighty in Scripture, but look at verse 25. This man was instructed in the way of the Lord, and being fervent in the Spirit, and he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John. And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue, whom when, notice, Aquila and Persilla had heard, they took him unto them and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly." So here's a guy that is an eloquent man, and what is he? According to the verse ahead of that. In verse 24, he was mighty in the Scriptures, but Aquila and Persilla sit down with him. and they make him mightier. How is that possible if they didn't know the scriptures? It's not. So what is gonna make you a stronger servant of the Lord? Not staying away from scripture. The more you get in this book, the lower yourself will rate. the higher Christ will rate, and the more Christ-like you will become, and that means that you will then adopt that spirit of Christ. And what does that mean? I'm gonna be a servant. You're gonna adopt the Philippians 2 method. What's the Philippians 2? Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. What was that mind? He didn't think at robbery. He didn't think much of it to set aside his glory, to set aside his godhood, and he took upon him the form of a servant. And he became obedient, what? Unto death. That's the mind of Christ. The mind of Christ, when I get into Scripture and I study Scripture and I am a person of this book, what happens is that mind of Christ comes in and it takes over. There needs to be a hunger for scripture, and it should be with our ladies, not just with the men. Here you see Priscilla, and Priscilla was right alongside her husband, and what was she? She was a person of the book. So are you that? What are you a person of? What defines you? Is it some, you know, oh, these novels, These books, or is it the book? They say, oh, well, that's just for my husband. Well, I'm glad Priscilla didn't have your mindset. Or there would be a man, Apollos, I believe, that wouldn't have been as strong and as mighty in the book. Remember in Corinthians? So Apollos was in Ephesus, according to here. But remember Paul wrote to the Church of Corinth? You remember what they were arguing about? They were arguing about, hey, wait a minute, I am of Paul, I am of Apollos. They ranked Apollos on the same level as the Apostle Paul, almost as an apostle, and guess who brought him to that level? Aquila and Priscilla. So don't discount your ministry in your church. Don't discount what you're doing. You have first graders, you have second graders, you have fifth graders, you have sixth graders, and you're there and your responsibility is the Sunday school class or heading up a junior church or maybe, I don't know what you use, if it's master clubs or whatever, we use master clubs. So you'd say, well, my job is teaching those little kids. Well, pour yourself into it and be a student of scripture and make sure those kids learn to love scripture. Remember I mentioned that lady that passed away a couple weeks ago. She was also our first grade Sunday school teacher. She taught Sunday school probably for about the same amount of time. It was probably between 30 and 40 years she taught our first grade Sunday school class. And so there was a couple of A couple of parents, when we did the funeral, I had one of our pastoral staff, he went around, talked to some of the men in our church, and they got a few stories because she had taught for so long. And one of the men in our church, his daughter had been, and actually the man had been, the man had been in her Sunday school class when he was a kid. and he's a layman in our church now. His daughter then about a year ago was in her class too. She had passed away and she said, hey, or he sat her down and said, hey, so what do you remember about Mrs. Goss? That was her name. What do you remember about her? And this is what this little girl, she's eight or nine. She said, this is what I remember, dad. He said, when she would teach about the crucifixion, tears would roll down her eyes. We had another young man that would come in. He was reached through a bus ministry and he would come in on our Thursday nights to our children's. We have some children's ministries and so he'd come in and he was telling This guy that picked him up, he goes, oh man, I love Mrs. Goss. He said, I would never have made it through master clubs if it wasn't for her. She would sit down, he said, I had no desire to memorize scripture. But she would sit there and say, no, you're gonna memorize this verse. And one of the thrills to me at the end of the funeral was I had I had six young men that all had been in her Sunday school class. And some of them are just laymen. Some of them are training for ministry today. And they carried their Sunday school teacher out. Because here was a lady, a Priscilla, if you might say, that loved scripture, and she wanted to impart it into her first graders. Because it wasn't just a menial task. It wasn't just something I got to do. Well, I guess I got to serve somewhere, and the pastor needs some help. Like, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh. You know what? I'll do it. I'm glad that I had a lady that took it very serious. And for those young men, the one, he has four kids himself now in our church. And he came up, man, there was tears in his eyes. He said, in the right way, he said, I loved Mrs. Goss. She said she was just such a special lady. Why did that happen? Because she loved scripture. The last thing. Last thing, and I think you see it all through this, and actually it's in the text here in chapter 18. You see that here they train Apollos, and what does Apollos become? Apollos basically becomes a preacher, an eloquent man, mightier now in scripture, and he becomes a leader in the New Testament church in the first century. But guess what, in the book of Acts, here's three, just three simple times, Acts chapter 18, verse two, a couple times at the end of the chapter, Romans chapter 16 and 1 Corinthians, you read about Aquila and Priscilla, and then in 2 Timothy chapter four is the last time we hear of Aquila and Priscilla. Six times, that is it. Because if you're gonna be satisfied with service, You're going to learn to accept the secondary role. You're going to learn second place is OK. You're going to be willing to be second, willing to be second. Now, what about you? Well, you know what? I'm not recognized. Nobody recognizes me. And maybe not. But you know what, Aquila and Priscilla? I studied this a few years ago for our young couples, because I noticed a trend with our young couples. Our young couples, and if you're just newly married, I'm sorry, but this probably defines you. It is all about you. I mean, I'm telling you, first married, it's just like, it's us. It's us, it's our pictures, it's, oh, there's a church? Oh, I don't know, I guess we will come and grace your presence. All right, and well, I mean, it's just, there's something about it. You know, it's just, it's in us. That we have to be recognized, it's all about us. But if I'm gonna be used in God's kingdom, I have to be willing to be second. Because really, he's first anyways. But then, when it comes to church service, and we should, I try to be gracious to our folks, I try to help them, but I don't have plaques everywhere around our auditorium. This person came to church three weeks in a row. Yes! Like, come on, just be faithful. But it seems like all of us, we gotta be recognized. That's our society. Our society is all about us. It's all about being recognized instead of, you know, I'm just gonna be faithful. And I'm willing to take the second fiddle. I'm willing to do the secondary, the secondary things, the behind the scenes things. There's a whole lot of things that have to be done in a church. There's a whole lot of, I mean, like even our nurseries. I'm glad in our church that I have a nursery. Really, really glad. I remember a year or two ago, I was having a problem with some of the nursery workers, and so I had my wife, I was having a church business meeting, and I told my wife, I said, towards the end, I want you to bring all of the nurseries into the back of the church. So all of a sudden, you heard this rumbling. and screaming and crying. I'm like, all right, kids going off. And I stopped and I said, now you're noticing that all of us are a little distracted right now. And I'm about ready to lose my head. I'm twitching. I said, I thank God for our nursery workers. Say, bring me sanity on Sundays. Just nice. And I said, so don't ever crap about them. And then I turned it because I had some young couples like, you know what, it's a little dirty. And I was glad because my wife, in her nice way, grabbed some cleaning supplies and said, go clean it then. Guess what? We're not hiring anybody. It's your church. Who do you think does it? And that's what we, some of us are. We're like, guess what? You know, those, all those behind the scene things have to be done. The bathrooms need to be cleaned. The carpet needs to be cleaned. The walls sometimes need painted. All kinds, food needs to be made. We need all kinds of, I have a, I have an older man. He's 74 years old. I can't believe that he's 74. All right, but he retired at about 60 years old. Between 58, I think, and 60 years old, and he came to me and said, I want to mow the grass. Now, on our property, we have a lot of grass. At one time, we figured out we have a million square feet of grass. I know we're near Colorado. I'm not talking about the weed stuff. I'm talking about just grass. I know some of you are like, oh, I can't believe a church would have grass. I'm talking about mowing grass. So we have a million square feet. So this man said, if you get me a really good rider, I'll take care of it. I was like, what do you want? I went out. I bought him a rider. So he mows the grass. Him and another man that are retired, they take care of almost all the grass on our property and mow it all the time. You know what that is? That's willing to be second fiddle. Because you know what I haven't done? I'm like, oh, I got to get a plaque and put it up. Thank you. These are the official lawnmower dudes right here. Here you go. But all kinds of stuff like that has to be done. How is that going to be done if we don't have churches filled with ladies and men that are not willing to serve? Develop a servant's heart. Develop a serving spirit. And look for opportunities. Look for opportunities. Look for things that need to be done in your church and say, pastor, I'll do it. Develop that type of spirit. You and your husband go home. If you're just a lay person in your church, go home and talk to your husband and say, is there anything else we can do in our church? And what you'll start seeing is that spirit will then catch on to other people in the church and pretty soon everything's done. And that's how God's ministry gets done. It's not done by hiring another staff member or another staff member. I told our church, I told our men a couple of years ago, I said, I'm starting to get rid of staff because some of you sitting out here need to do this. Stop coming up to me and say, what staff member can do it? I said, you're going to do it. I have a job and I have enough to do, but you need to do it because it's your church. And you know what's unbelievable? I had a man come up a couple of weeks later. And he was talking about the truck stops. In our area, there's huge truck stops. It's one of the biggest corridors of commerce traveling from Detroit to Chicago. So there's thousands of trucks, and so we have truck stops near us. And this man just had a bird, and he says, so I'd like to do it. I said, well, good. I said, remember what I said a couple weeks ago? I ain't doing it. I said, last I checked, I have a job. I said, so if it's going to happen, it's going to be you. So one year ago, he prayed about it. One year ago, he started. He started. So on Saturday, they go out, and they hit a couple of them. They hand out, usually every Saturday, they hand out between 500 and 700 tracts. Then on Sunday morning, they go over, meet with some of the men before our church services. They try to get guys to come to church. Almost every Sunday, they have people sitting in our church service. Last Sunday, they had three. At the end of the service, one of the men slipped up his hand for salvation, and he came and got saved. Afterwards, I was talking with the man. He was from Nicaragua. He had been trained for seven years to be a priest. And on the way back to the truck stop that afternoon, The man looked and said, I finally know Christ and got saved. And you know why that happened? Because there are men in our church, and I'm talking to ladies now, so you find the same idea. There are people in the church who said, all right, pastor can't do that, I can. And that's a servant's heart. Be a Priscilla in your church. Come alongside of your husband and be an Aquila and Priscilla. And what does that mean? You're gonna serve together and you're gonna be satisfied with serving. We saw seven things that'll help you. My prayer is that it'll make us better people. A preacher one time went to see a dying man. He was very anxious about his soul. And after a few visits, the preacher shared with him the gospel and the truth dawned on this man. And through repentance and faith, he experienced the joy of forgiveness, the assurance of eternal life. And he said to the preacher, this was an older gentleman, he said to the preacher, he said, man, I feel like such a sneak. because I've served Satan all my life, and only now at the end of my life, I've yielded it to God. His conscience told him that this God, this Savior, that was so unbelievable, that came and died for him, that that Savior was worthy to be served. And his regret was that he had so little to give him. There's ladies out here and guess what? There's, you have a lot to give him. So what have you given him? Have you been crabbing about the service? Oh, I'm just not, I'm just not noticed. I'm just not recognized. Have you been crabbing about being hospitable? Crabbing about being second fiddle? You know what? That's not the spirit of Christ. Remember, and this is it, in John 13. Remember Christ? He's trying to teach his disciples. It's the last time he's gonna be with them before heading to the cross. And what does Christ do? He gets down on his knees. grabs a cloth and starts washing the disciples' feet, not their hands. I mean, remember what the Jewish people, they walked around in sandals. It wasn't pulling the socks off. What was he, that was a servant's job. And what was Jesus Christ saying? Be a servant like I am. And that's my challenge to you. Be a servant like your Savior. Heads bowed, eyes closed. And in just a moment, we'll have a time of invitation.