That song was written by George Beverly Shea. Is he still living? Yes? OK. Don't know. Great song. Great song. I'd rather have Jesus. I want to start by talking about a preacher from a couple hundred years ago. George Whitefield. No, it's not me, folks. George Whitefield. Some of the kids will think it's me. George Whitefield was probably the most famous preacher of the 18th century. In fact, he was called the marvel of the age. His voice was so clear and so strong that it was estimated that 100,000 people surrounding him could hear every word that he preached. And of course, we had no sound systems in those days. And George Whitefield preached at least 18,000 times, and he preached to over 10 million people. He said this, he said, There is no greater blessing that God can send upon a nation or a people than to give them faithful, sincere, and upright preachers. Likewise, There is no greater curse that God could send upon the people of the world than to give them over to blind, unregenerate, carnal, lukewarm, and unskilled preachers. Did you catch what Whitefield said? There is no greater curse on mankind than depriving people from hearing the Word of God. The greatest danger a nation can face is the danger of perishing eternally with no one to warn them, no one to give forth the gospel. And yet all across the country on Sunday mornings are churches and people who come together to applaud and to celebrate each other and they leave God out totally. They preach self-esteem. They preach positive thinking. They may preach some comfortable, heartwarming little story about good works and about good people. But they leave God out. And we call them self-absorbed churches or self-seeking churches or self-serving churches. Any number of things. But those churches are all geared allowing people in the church to do their own thing. And in our traditional churches, we we think we wonder, you know, how did that happen? You know what caused those churches to get off track? Some of them were excellent churches in decades past. What happened to them? Where did they go wrong? Well, some of those churches were designed to be like that. But unfortunately, a good number of those churches, they just lost their focus. And whenever a church faces conflict or transition or uncertainty of any type, even change, any lack of pastoral leadership can cause a church to go astray. And the church gets off balance, we say. It goes in the wrong direction. When there's no Bible preaching, when there's no warning, when there's no Word of God spoken to the people, the church goes in the wrong direction. And this is not new. The Bible warned us about this. Because God knew exactly what was going to happen in these days, in the future. Take your Bible. Turn to 2 Timothy 4. A passage we have looked at several times in recent weeks. 2 Timothy 4, verses 1-5. You may even have this memorized. We've looked at this so regularly. 2 Timothy 4, verse 1. I charge you, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, Because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. This passage, along with almost every writer of the New Testament, tells us that there is coming a time when people will not endure sound doctrine. In fact, in the Old Testament book of Amos, it says the days will come, and God is speaking, the days will come when I will send a famine upon the land. Not a famine of bread and water, but a famine of preaching. And people will seek the Word of the Lord, but they will not hear the Lord. Those who listen will not find the truth from God's Word. And that is exactly what happens to churches when they go in the wrong direction. None of this ever catches God by surprise. Verse 3 of the passage we just read says, they will want to suit their own desires. And that's a very good description of many churches today. We will just give the people whatever it is they want, and we will allow people to do as they please. Now, you folks here tonight, you know that type of church is not God centered. And you know that philosophy comes from the world. It doesn't come from churches, doesn't come from the Bible. And yet there are just churches all over the nation that are buying into that mindset, structuring the church to suit what people want to do. And that's why many churches today have dropped the name Baptist. First, they dropped the name Baptist, and then they're going to drop the name church. So without Baptist and without church, now we have fellowship centers or family centers or community gathering places. No mention of God, no mention of Baptist, no mention of even being a church. Here at Walnut Ridge, of course, we believe the church belongs to Jesus Christ. It doesn't belong to the community. It belongs to Christ. It's not the people's church. It's the church of Jesus Christ. And he alone is the owner of the church. He gave his life. He shed his blood to purchase the church. And his word is the authority, the final authority on all matters. And our message here, of course, is not self-esteem. Our message is the cross. Our message is the gospel. Our message is the truth of God's word. Our mission is to seek and to save the lost. Our methods are Bible based and our goal is to produce disciples. You know that. And sometimes we take it for granted, but we can't take that for granted in this day and age. Now, having said all of that, And most of it, I've said many times in the last five or six weeks. Can you see why it is so vitally important that we train and we equip people to do the work of the ministry correctly? Do you understand that? It takes the right people in the right place. If Walnut Ridge is going to continue to be a Bible church, Bible Baptist church, we must have the right pastor. We must have the right deacons. We must have the right teachers. We must have the right children's workers. And all of our methods and all of our messages must be in agreement with the scriptures. Now, part of my goal on Wednesday night and Sunday nights in this series is to challenge you, especially the more mature group of people in the church to challenge you to remain committed to the Lord's work here. And in addition to that, to help you lead other people into service who will be coming to the church. And your example is very, very important. These things we're talking about are very serious issues in churches today, and we must have the right people in the right place if we plan to stay on the right track. It's absolutely essential. You say, well, you've told us that many times. Well, that's the most important aspect of my job. That's the most essential part of my job as a pastor. I am to warn you, I am to direct you, I am to challenge you, and I am to equip you to do the work of the ministry. My focus is to be upon you, the people of God. And please don't take lightly what I say about these times being the most difficult days that the church here in America has ever seen. I'm not exaggerating that. Lord willing, in January, I'm going to preach a series from the book of Jude and Jude is very clear. Jude is very emphatic. Jude tells us that in the last days, the enemy will come from within the church. Jude says that in the last days, the enemy from within the church will twist and subvert the Word of God and twist and subvert the very faith upon which our churches were built. Folks, I'm emphasizing again, we must have the right people serving for the right reasons. If we have the wrong leaders, if we have the wrong pastors, if we have the wrong teachers, the church will go the wrong way. So tonight's lesson is called From Doing to Developing. From doing to developing. At my age, I fully realize that none of us can do everything in the church. We can't do it all. So in order to accomplish everything that needs to be done in the church, we must train, we must develop, we must equip people to carry on the work here. And that's a very solid Bible principle. We develop the right people to do the right job and to do it in the right way, a way that is acceptable to God, a way that is pleasing to God. So let me begin by asking you, Do you think that we here at Walnut Ridge can really do that? Do you think that we can develop people to minister, say, 10 years down the road? OK, how many say yes? Let me say I don't know. Well, whatever your answer is, the truth of the matter, folks, is we have to. We don't have any choice. We have to. We have to develop people to serve. And that's why over these many weeks I presented to you all of these challenges which we face in our Bible churches. And I'm sure you remember this. One of the challenges we face is our culture. We face a culture of diversity and tolerance. People who have no absolutes, no sense of what's right, no sense of what's wrong. We face people's attitude toward the church, which is extremely negative today. There's no respect for the church at all. There's no respect for any kind of authority and especially pastoral authority. And then third, just getting people to come to church is a lot more difficult than it used to be because people are just crazy busy or maybe the other way around. People are busy and then crazy. I don't know what, but people are busy, right? And then fourthly, we do face a literal famine of solid Bible preaching and teaching in our churches in America. It seems it seems that the day of great preachers is over. And all of these influences and all of these cultural issues, they complicate the job of recruiting volunteers in the Lord's work. And of course, I didn't even mention the spiritual battle. Satan is always going to oppose everything we do. And because of Satan, people will be far more interested in their own agenda that they are in serving people in the church. And again, these are real challenges to traditional churches today. But we have to step up to that challenge. I said this morning, we can't have a pity party. We can't duck out of the way. We can't run away. We have to step up to this. We may not like the attitude of our culture today. We may not understand the mindset of people today, but we still have the responsibility to equip and to train and develop people to serve the Lord. It is our job because no one else is going to do it. No one. There are people outside the church all around us who don't know in the slightest detail. They don't know at all what God is doing and what God could do for them. They don't know what we do in church, why we're here, what we're preaching, what we're teaching. They don't know. They're confused on the whole subject of what we're talking about. Others first serving people serving God. And you and I have to change that. We have to change that. Many, many years ago I served under a very well-known pastor who told his church he didn't care what happened to the church after he was gone. And he was serious about it. He said his only responsibility is to the Lord here and now. And his mindset was that we serve God right now to the best of our ability and we let somebody else worry about it tomorrow. What do you think about that statement? Can we continue just to bide our time and hope that somebody else will take over the job and take up the slack? Can we just maintain the status quo? Is that biblical? No, no. According to the Great Commission, the church is always going to be in the business of producing disciples until the Lord comes. We're always going to be training and equipping people to serve God correctly in the church. And there are two parts to this process of developing people to minister. You know them by heart. Number one, God is the prime mover. God saves people. Only God can save people. Only God can change people's hearts. That's the first part. And then the second part, we've emphasized the example that you and I show forth in the church of faithfulness and consistency. That's absolutely necessary if we're going to develop other people into godly, faithful volunteers. In other words, people like you and me, the most mature group in the church, the most grounded people in the church, the most experienced people in the church, the most stable people in the church, you and I have to take the lead. We have to step up to the challenge of developing other Christians. And if we expect to recruit good volunteers, you and I have to be good leaders. Good leaders. We have to be good examples. We teach people best by doing. So, tonight again, let's put these two principles together and let's see some other ways that we can motivate people to serve God. Let's look at one Bible principle here. Well, let me have another comment. I have another comment to make here. We know that pressuring people to serve doesn't work, right? And we know that we can't use guilt trips. We can't force people to serve by breaking their arm. You know, what's the answer? Well, we said God is the only one who can change people's hearts. God is the only one who can save people. How does God change people's hearts? Well, the word of God, right? The spirit of God. The people of God, the example of the people of God has a big influence there. The preaching of God's Word, prayer by God's people, the encouragement and the instruction that comes from God's people, the comfort that comes from God's people. Where does all of this take place that we're talking about here? How God changes people's hearts. Where does all of this take place? Word of God, Spirit of God, the preaching of God's Word. Where does that happen? Right here in the church, right? In a local church, that's where it all begins. So how do we help people? How do we develop people into being ministers, servants? Let's go to the Old Testament. First Samuel, Chapter 22. First Samuel, Chapter 22, verses one and two. David, therefore, departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. So when his brothers and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him and everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, everyone who was discontented gathered to him. So he became captain over them. And there were about 400 men with him. Now, David is a fugitive here in this story. He's running away from Saul. Saul wants to kill him. But notice the people who came to David's side. They came to help him. The frustrated people, the discontented people, the debtors, the other folks who had suffered a lot of injustices, 400 of them, they came to help David. And these people who came to help David, they had no one to stand with them or to stand for them. So they came to David for leadership. So again, what's the lesson there for you and me? What can we learn from this story? Well, some of the strongest volunteers, some of the very best supporters may be the people who have the greatest needs and the greatest problems in their own lives. Why? Because God can use anybody, right? God can use anybody who will yield Himself to Him. Jesus told us He didn't come to save the rich. He didn't come to save the famous. He didn't come to save the self-sufficient. Jesus came to save sinners like you and me. Brokenhearted people. He came to save the captives. He came to set them free, He said. And those are the people who turn to Jesus. And often, the people whom God raises up to help us in the church maybe would not be the people that we think should be doing a particular job, because God works best in plain, empty vessels. People who will yield to Him. 1 Corinthians 1, verses 25. 29. The foolishness of God is wiser than men. The weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty. and the base things of the world, and the things which are despised, God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are. And verse 29 says that no flesh should glory in His presence. Now that's totally opposite from the way our culture operates. Our culture and our society worships and idolizes people of power and people of influence and people of wealth and people of status. However, Jesus offers his kingdom to the weak, to the poor, to the uneducated, the outcast, people like you and me, right? All because God's power can be effectively displayed in these needy vessels, these needy people. So again, what's the lesson here for you and I as far as developing people to minister in our churches? Well, the lesson is clear. God can do great things. He can accomplish miraculous things through some of the most unlikely people. And God raised up 400 people to stand with David. And probably those 400 would not have been the people whom David would have selected. But God used them in a mighty way. In a mighty way. In the world's way of thinking, skill, knowledge, talent, affluence are the most important things. But all of that alone will not get you into God's kingdom. God doesn't use people who want to boast of their own self-achievements. God does not use self-serving people. So who does God use? Well, He uses faithful people. and humble people. Yielded people. He uses available people. Teachable people. Broken people. He uses needy people, hurting people, and he even uses people like you and me. And you put that all together. God uses people who have a servant's heart. Those are the people whom God It calls the service because they can put God first and others first. You say, well, how do we determine that? How do we know? Well, we can only look at people's attitude. Do they have an attitude of humility? Do they have an attitude of desire to serve? Are they yielded to the Lord? Do they have a love for people? Do they have a love for Bible truth? Years ago, we had this little saying that God looks for fat people. You remember that? F-A-T? Faithful, available, teachable fat people. That's how I got in, right? God looks for faithful people, available people, teachable people. Here's another example. We've read this several times. Matthew 20. Verse 26-28. Well, let's go back to. Verse 25, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles loaded or lorded over them and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you, but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant and whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave. just as a son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. The disciples here, they're arguing about who should have the position of greatest authority in God's kingdom, and Jesus says it's not about greatness, it's about serving. Now, keep in mind, Jesus is talking to the twelve men who will become the first century's greatest Christian leaders. And he says it's not about prestige. It's not about position. It's not about hierarchies. It's all about serving. And let's remind ourselves, since today we're voting for deacons, let's remind ourselves leaders are servants. their servants. In the church, leaders are not leaders just because they're elected to a place of leadership. No, you become a leader by serving other people and to become a leader in the eyes of someone else. You must be available to serve that person. Here's a good example. In the years that I pastored in Montana, we were privileged to have two different men at two different times, men from seminary. We had the opportunity to train those young men as interns so that they might move on to a position of pastoral leadership somewhere. And these men were outstanding men. The young men were very well trained in the Bible, very well schooled. They had great expertise in music. Great expertise in teaching people skills. They had tremendous potential. These young men had unlimited opportunities to our way of thinking. And in the process of my teaching and training these young men, I would learn that each of them, different men, different time, each of them would say, well, Pastor, you know, I'm not going to do this when I become pastor. And later I would hear I'm not going to do that when I become a pastor. And on and on it went. I'm not going to do this. I'm not going to do that. And neither one of those two men are in the ministry today. Neither one of them. Folks, if you're going to be a leader in the Lord's work, you must learn to serve God and God's people in whatever capacity it takes. I have cleaned restrooms. I have cut grass. I have ushered in churches. Well, I started to say I've worked in the nursery. No, I haven't worked in the nursery. I have helped people in the kitchen. I've helped ladies cook. I've changed light bulbs. I mean, you name it, I've done it. And you can never be a leader if you don't relate to your followers as a servant. You can't be a leader unless it's obvious to people that you have a servant's heart. That's a very solid Bible principle. And leaders, especially leaders, must set the example of serving if we ever expect to see volunteers serve in the church. Because if the leaders won't serve, then obviously volunteers are out of the picture. We can't develop people to serve unless the leadership shows them how. That's what doing to developing is all about. So let's ask ourselves, you and me, let's ask ourselves. Do we serve others or do we just somehow think that somebody else is going to do that? There's nothing wrong with delegating responsibility, nothing wrong with delegating work load. But as a leader, you can't delegate your own job. And you and I have to serve as leaders. We have to serve. We have to be a trainer. We have to be a mentor. If anybody's ever going to follow us in learning that people learn by doing. Here's another passage, John Chapter 13. John 13 verses 12 to 17. So when he had washed their feet, taking his garments and sat down again, he said to them, Do you know what I have done to you? You call me teacher and Lord, and you say, well, for so I am. If I then your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. You do them. Jesus has just washed the feet of his disciples as an illustration of serving others. And again, the point is very clear here. People have to be shown how to minister. And Jesus did not merely say, well, I want you to be a good servant by washing each other's feet. No, Jesus set the example by doing it. People have to be taught by example. We develop people by doing. And today our culture has the mindset that if we're important or if we're influential, other people will do everything for us. We don't have to do anything. It's even common in our children and our grandchildren. They think they have a right to command their parents or their grandparents to do everything they want done. And that attitude is completely backwards in the church. It's completely wrong. Jesus. As the Son of God, Jesus had every right. He had full authority to command people to serve Him. Did He not? Instead, He always served others. He was truly the Master. And yet, He became a slave. Our culture says, how many people do you have working for you? Jesus says, for how many people do you work? How many people are you serving? Folks, we teach people by our example. That's the right sequence. That's God's formula. The chief is servant of all. The higher the position of leadership, the greater the need to serve all. Here's another passage. You probably have this one memorized. Ephesians 4. verses 11 to 13. And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 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, carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. 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 and knit together by what every joint supplies according to the effective working by which every part does its share causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. You know what this means. God's given every person in the church special gifts. Those gifts are designed to build the church. They're not designed to promote individuals. They're for the church. God provides the talent and God provides the opportunities for people to serve. None of us can do it alone. We need everybody else working together by ourselves. None of us can be effective in the church together. We can and we can accomplish whatever it is that God tells us to do. We call that partnership or sometimes we call it teamwork. But here's the rub. In a lot of churches across the nation today, a lot of churches, people are not taught to work together. And they are not taught to work as a team. And there is no sense of unity in those churches. There is no attitude that we're going to grow together. There is no comprehension in those types of churches that together we will work to accomplish God's will. Folks, take my word for it. In our churches, we have failed miserably in this concept, this teaching of teamwork and partnership. That's one reason why people don't come to church. If you don't feel you're part of a team, if you don't feel you're part of a network, if you don't feel you're connected, why should you come to church? If you don't feel like you're a part of something important and something bigger than you are, then you're not going to get involved in training and teaching and maturing other people in the church. You will never see the significance of that. And no matter what spiritual gifts that God bestows upon people, it's impossible for God's people to use those gifts if they don't come to church. Churches grow. Individuals grow when we learn to minister and we serve one another in God's church and we work together as a team. We are a team. We are a network. We are connected. Verse 14. I'm repeating this. That we should no longer be children tossed to and fro, carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men and the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. What's that talking about? It's saying that people in the church, the leaders of the church, they have to have some kind of spiritual stability. We have to teach the basic doctrines of the Bible so that our people don't get blown away by every new cult or every new theology or every new theory that comes down the pike. And that means this is a growing process. This is a maturing process, which includes solid preaching and Bible teaching and church prayer. And of course, a big part of that is the pastor's job. He's to warn people about false doctrines. He's to warn people about false teaching. And then verse 15 expands on that. It says we must speak the truth in love and then verse 16 repeats it all again. We need each other. We affect each other. We are members of one another. We are a team. We are a network. We are committed. And that's you and me. That's you and me. Every believer has a ministry. Every believer has a place of service. and our place of service needs someone with us, following us to take that place of service. We have to teach people to be ministers. We have to teach people to serve. I've given you four or five areas of involvement in how you and I can Be a part of teaching other people, developing other people in the church, teamwork, spiritual maturity, truthfulness, love, connecting our talents or gifts one to another. We can do that, folks. We can do that. But the starting point, the starting point is for you and I to be the very best example that we can be in ministering to other people. If we as mature believers in the church, if we don't serve, then obviously volunteers are not going to serve. And you and I have to be examples to other people. We have to display everything I've talked about here. Teamwork, spiritual maturity, truthfulness, love, using our gifts. That's exactly what Ephesians 4 is talking about. And beyond that, you and I should be praying every day that God will send forth laborers into the harvest field. That's God's job. And when God does send us laborers, we should pray for wisdom, we should pray for discernment in putting the right people in the right place. in the right place, the church will become dysfunctional and we will go astray. So let me close by asking you the same question I asked earlier. Do you really think that you and I here at Walnut Ridge can develop people to minister? Yes, we can. We have to. And we can. If we're obedient to the Lord, if we love people, If we're willing to invest our time in the lives of other people, you and I can influence many, many people to serve God in a proper way here in the church. You and I can do that. We can transition from doing into developing people to serve God. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank You for the Scripture that so clearly tells us the task that we have before us. The Scripture that tells us, Lord, these will be difficult days, that we will have many people who come against us. The Scriptures that warn us that there will be people even within the church Do not follow the same path. Do not want to look at the truth of Scripture for their doctrinal stability. Lord, help us. Help us to speak the truth in love. And help us, Lord, to be the very best example we can of serving other people so that others can be developed to serve You. In Jesus' name we ask it. Amen.