All right, Matthew 16, verse 21. Matthew 16, 21, from that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed. and be raised again the third day. Let's go back to the Lord in prayer. Lord, we're blessed tonight again to be able to be here, and I thank you, God, for your goodness. Thank you for this portion of scripture. I pray you bless the preaching of it. I pray you speak to our hearts, have your way in our lives and in our hearts today. Help us, God, to leave changed and better than we came in. Meet the needs of the service. I pray, God, for all the requests, and Lord, there's an urgent request on my heart, and you know what it is, and I pray you'll bless that need tonight. and be those that couldn't be here. And we thank you, God, for your goodness. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. You be seated. Now I'm gonna preach about ministry tonight. And one word that I wanna look at as it pertains to ministry tonight is in Matthew 16, 21, and it's the word must. And Jesus began to show unto his disciples how that he must. go into Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day. Now, there's so many times the word must is used concerning Jesus Christ. Often it says that this must be to fulfill the scriptures. That is not said here, although that is certainly a part of what this verse means. But I wanna preach on the must of ministry tonight. And I wanna give you a definition of the word must as we start looking at this tonight. There's the word musty, which is not a good thing, but the word must means this, to be obligated or necessitated. We would say have to, okay? If you must, then you have to. And so that's what I'm preaching about tonight, have to. and the must of ministry. Must means that it's required, it's essential. It's that which cannot be done away with. It cannot be deleted, it cannot be overlooked, or it cannot be substituted. Must, okay? It's a have to thing. There's some great verses in the Bible that use the word must. Probably the most quoted is John 3, 7, it says, be born again, right? You must be born again. Acts 4.12 says this, neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none in the name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved, amen. You gotta be saved. You gotta be born again or you're gonna die and go to hell. And there's no other way, you must be born again. There's also Hebrews 11, verse six, it says that without faith it is impossible to please God, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is. and that he's a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. You can't be saved without believing in God. Somebody says, well, I don't know if he's real or not. Well, then you're not saved. You must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. So must is a great word, and I'm gonna preach to you tonight on the must of ministry. And I want you to understand tonight that every Christian is called to ministry. We get this idea often that ministers are simply preachers. No, yes ministers are preachers, but not all ministers are preachers. Every Christian is called to be a minister. To minister, let me give you some Bible verses tonight. Mark, these are the ministry of Jesus Christ. Mark chapter 10 verse 43 says this, but rather so shall it not be so among you, but whosoever will be great among you shall be your minister. and whosoever of you will be the chiefest shall be served of all, for even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. And so if I didn't read any other verse to you tonight, that verse simply says that Jesus Christ who we're following was a minister, and we are to be ministers. Every saint has a ministry. And part of that is just being at church and doing the work of the Lord in the church house. That's just a small part of it though. Ephesians chapter four verse number 11 is talking about the things that God gave to the church and the reason God gave those things to church. Ephesians four verse 11, he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. You see, you are supposed to be a minister to the body of Christ. Isn't that what your hands, anybody eat supper tonight? Your hands were ministering to the rest of your body. and your teeth and your mouth, as you were eating your meal, those parts were ministering to the rest of the body. And the brain was ministering, it was saying, get some more of that, okay? And your feet were ministering as they took you to the place you need to go. And so the body of Christ ministers to the body of Christ. And everybody's called to be a minister of some kind, okay? Peter's mother-in-law. Y'all remember when the Lord healed Peter's mother-in-law of a fever? The Bible says after the fever's gone, she arose and ministered to them. That's what you do when the Lord does something for you. You minister to the saints of God. Luke chapter eight, verse number two. It says this. Certain women, which have been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils, and Joanna, this wife of Jesus, Herod, Stuart, and Susanna, and many others, which ministered unto him of their substance. I'm just reading these verses tonight because I want you to understand that you are a minister. I'm not preaching to preachers and Sunday school teachers. I'm preaching to everybody that's been saved. And the message tonight is this, the must of ministry. You see, the great need of Christianity and the great need of Quebec Baptist Church is not just ministers, but ministers who must. We looked at Matthew 16, 21 to start with. Jesus began to show to his disciples how that he must go into Jerusalem and suffer many things and be killed and raised a third day. That's his ministry. And it wasn't just that he must minister, but the must, he had to, okay, to fulfill the ministry. And that's what I'm trying to preach to you about tonight. Ministers who must is the great need in our society today. Even at 12 years old, when Mary confusedly said to Jesus, that thy father and I have sought thee, when he was 12 years old, and Jesus kind of straightened her out in a nice way. He said, wish ye not that I must be about my father's business. Talking about his heavenly father. He said, I've gotta be about my father's business. I must be about my father's business. Luke 4.4. 443 rather, Jesus said, I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also. Acts 9 16, the Lord said of Paul, for I will show him how great things he must suffer for my namesake. You see, Paul is becoming a minister in Acts chapter 9 and the Lord says, you must. Suffer, so many things for my namesake. It's the must of ministry. Stick with me tonight. I hope you understand this before I'm through. The Lord said to Paul in Acts 23 verse 11, be of good cheer. He's headed to Rome there. He said, be of good cheer. Paul, for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome. Acts 27, 24, now Paul's on a boat and the Lord said, thou must be brought before Caesar. Acts 27, 26, Paul told his companions on the boat, how be it we must be cast upon a certain island. An effective ministry is a ministry of musts. If you were hiring somebody for a job, okay, wouldn't you like to have an employee that felt like they must show up to work? I have to, I have to be, even when they don't feel like it. Wouldn't you like to have an employee? If you're hiring an employee, wouldn't you like to have, I've just gotta be, I know I don't really feel like it, but I've gotta go. I've gotta show up. I must be there. An employee that feels like they must be on time. An employee that feels like they must do their best. An employee that feels like that they must get the job done. An employee that feels like they must put in their full eight hours, not seven and a half. An employee that feels like that there's times that they must go in early, or they must stay over a little late. Wouldn't you like to have an employee like that? Somebody that feels like that there's some things they just must do to fulfill the job they've been called or given to do. That's what I'm preaching about tonight, the must of ministry. In Acts 12.25, the Bible says that Barnabas and Saul, this is before he's called Paul, it says this in Acts 12.25, and Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their ministry. That word fulfill, I tell you, there's a couple of words in the English language that just kind of define themselves. One of them is long suffering. We talked about that in Sunday school class recently. And this one here is fulfill. Don't you like that? Fulfill. Are you fulfilling your ministry? Turn with me to Colossians chapter four. Colossians, the fourth chapter. You know what the Lord expects you to do? Everything I said about the employee that you'd like to hire. That's what the Lord expects out of those that he calls to service and to ministry. Colossians 4, verse 17. I've often thought as this epistle was written to the saints at Colossae, I wonder, of course, there was just one copy. Everybody didn't have a copy like we're reading, and they probably read it in the congregation. Imagine as the epistle from Paul the Apostle is being read to the congregation, and they get down towards the last, and it says this in Colossians 4, 17, and say to Archippus, I bet his ears perk up then. Paul's got something to say to me, hallelujah. And say to Archippus, take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord that thou fulfill it. That didn't hardly sound like a compliment. I wonder if the Lord might say that to some here tonight. Take heed to the ministry that thou hast received of the Lord that thou fulfill it. Do you fulfill your position? Do you fully feel your position? Do you fully feel the ministry that God has given you? Say, well, Brother David, all I've got to do is pray. Well, do you fully feel that place? Do you fully feel your place in the pew? Do you fully feel your place in reading the scripture? Do you fully feel the place of encouragement? Do you fully feel that place of teaching a Sunday school class if that's what you're supposed to do? Almost anybody can learn a lesson and be prepared to bring forth that lesson and bring snacks and be nice. But the one that is the most effective will be the one that must do some other things along with that. And so tonight, as we are looking at this subject of the must of ministry, I want you to think if you're a musician in our church, we've got choir directors. We've got people that fill business positions from the treasurers to the clerk and the trustees and other positions. I'm gonna tell you something, you need a burden. You need a burden. You need some passion. You need some zeal. because if you don't have that, you will not fulfill your ministry. You're gonna be like that guy that shows up to work and sometimes he's late and sometimes he's gotta, sometimes he don't work real hard. Y'all know what I'm talking about? The must of ministry. You'll mostly just be spinning your wheels. You won't be fulfilling. I heard, and I was giving Brother Casey a hard time tonight about wearing his Tennessee shirt. Most of you know that Tennessee won the College World Series. And I heard, I had the radio on in the truck one day, they were talking about it. And they said this, and I thought, it just struck me so well. They said, one of these days, would it be, and they were talking about athletes. They said, they're not gonna be remembered by how much money they made. they're gonna be remembered by what they did. The championships they won, the home runs they hit. Listen folks, one of these days you'll be remembered by what you did for God. Not by how much money you've got or how much knowledge you've got, but by what you're able to do. I'm afraid that our churches are full of people who fail to fulfill their positions. In our society today, not only can businesses not, they have a hard time finding workers, period, much less dedicated workers that are devoted to doing the work. You ever been to a church and sat in a Sunday school class of somebody that didn't have any must for their ministry? Ever heard a preacher preach that didn't feel like that he must be fully prepared to preach? I hope you don't feel that way tonight. I've sat in them classes, I've heard them sermons, and I've seen the results. You wanna see results in your, isn't that the purpose of ministry? To see results? Well then if you're gonna see results in your ministry, then there's some things that you, you gotta have some musts. And I'm not even capable at the night of telling you what they all are. But I wanna preach about it. And first of all, I wanna say to you tonight that it begins with basic duties. Luke 16, 10, Jesus made this statement. He said, he that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much. And he that is unfaithful in that which is least, or unjust, is unjust also in much. That simply means this. If you can't show up to church, you're not gonna fulfill your ministry. If you can't read your, how you gonna teach a Sunday school class if you can't read your Bible? If you can't fulfill kitchen duty. If you can't fulfill, if you can't clean up after yourself, right? I mean, a young person that can't clean their room, how they gonna hold down a job? And so it begins with the basics. Jesus had told the Pharisees there that were majoring on the minors. He said, man, you're paying tithe of the herbs you're growing in your garden. But you've omitted the weightier matters of the law. Justice and mercy and faith, or judgment and mercy and faith. He said, these ought you to have done and not to have left the other undone. If you're gonna fulfill your ministry, then you're gonna have to take care of just reading your Bible and being faithful to church and praying like you're supposed to. It starts with basic duties. And then next, in your heart, you have a must to do more. I must do more than what I'm doing right now. But if you can't do that, you can't do anything else. I hear pastors say from time to time, and even it's probably been said here at Missions Conference, other things like that, people that feel like they've been called to the mission field, if you can't witness to your neighbors, how you gonna go to another country and witness to people? If you can't pass out a tract here, how you think you're gonna pass one out in the Philippines or some other place? It starts with the basics. But then, by the grace of God, For God and not for self, you feel a must to do more. I've just gotta do more, I've gotta do more, I've gotta do more. The Lord asked the question in Isaiah chapter six, he said, whom shall I send and who will go for us? And Isaiah said, I've gotta do more with what I'm doing. Isaiah said, here am I, send me. Do you feel that in your heart tonight? Could you say tonight, I don't know what the Lord wants me to do, but I'm ready, I wanna get plugged in and find out what it is and do it with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. So I'm saying tonight, either ask God to give you a burden or get out of the way and let somebody that's got a burden do your job. Right? And it's not our position. It's not my, I know from time to time, and I'm responsible for this pulpit, but it's not my pulpit. This pulpit is the pastor's pulpit. I just happen to be filling that position. It's not your Sunday school class. It's not your piano if you're a pianist here tonight. But it's an opportunity to minister for the cause of Christ. And we need to be devoted to that thing. There needs to be some musts. in our ministry. So it starts with doing the basics, and then you feel the need that you must do more, and you just need to find out what you're specifically supposed to fulfill, and throw everything you've got into it. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 16, okay? 1 Corinthians 16. Remember what I gave you that definition of must? It's have to, right? You have to. I must. 1 Corinthians 16 verse 15 is a wonderful verse talking about the house of Stephanas. We don't know who this guy is exactly, but Paul said this in 1 Corinthians 16 verse 15, I beseech you brethren, You know the house of Stephanas, that it is the firstfruits of Achaia, listen to this, and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints. You know what it means to be addicted? That means you have to. That's what I'm preaching about tonight. This family, if you will, of Stephanas, this household of Stephanas, they have to minister to the saints. There is a must in their life, and they must do this thing. Okay, I've got some, just one question, and I've got multiple answers for it tonight. The question is this, do I have a burden for what I'm supposed to be doing? Do I have a burden for what I'm supposed to be doing? Well, the answer is no, if. I'm gonna give you a bunch of ifs, okay? You do not have a burden for what you're supposed to be doing if you're absent from it and don't miss it. If you've got a position, if you've got a ministry and you're absent from it and you don't miss it, then you don't have a burden for that. In the last year, I've heard of at least two pastors that have taken sabbaticals. There's something wrong with that. There's something wrong with that. I mean, I would like to maybe sometimes. But there's just something wrong with that. I'm not talking about having a medical leave or something like that. I'm just talking about, I just need some time off. Well, if you're absent from it and don't miss it. If you're absent, listen, if you're absent from church and don't miss it, there's something wrong. If you're absent from your ministry, if you're absent from your Sunday school class as a teacher, and you don't miss it, you just need to give your class up. Or get a bird and run. I'm preaching about the must of ministry. Jesus said, I must go to Jerusalem. I must be killed. I must suffer. And I must rise from the dead. If you're absent and don't pray or wonder how it went, then you don't have a burden. If you've got a Sunday school class and you miss and you don't wonder how your Sunday school class went and don't pray for whoever's taking your place, then you don't have a burden for your Sunday school class. You need it. I'm trying to tell you tonight, I'm not trying to be mean, I promise I'm not, it just comes natural for me, I've told you that before. what we need in the church world. And it's not just our church, it's every church. We need people with a burden, with a calling, with a, I must, I must. And so if you're absent and don't pray about that position somebody's taken in your place or wonder how it went, then you don't have a burden. If it's a relief not to do it, then you don't have a burden. Now, I'm not saying that, hey, there are times, and I've found out, I felt like today that the Lord will be with us Sunday, and I'm gonna get Him to preach to the men during Sunday school, the men and boys during Sunday school, Sunday morning, Lord willing. And it will be a relief to me. But not in the sense that I'm excited not to be doing it. I'm just excited to be hearing somebody else. If it's a relief not to do it, you probably don't have a burden for it. If you don't pray regularly for those you minister to, you probably don't have a burden for the ministry. That means if you've got a Sunday school class and you're not praying probably every day for your Sunday school class and calling those names out to those children or those people who are there. Listen, listen. The pastor, which is me in this church, ought to pray for everybody in this church every day. I mean, what kind of a pastor would he be if he couldn't pray for the people he's supposed to minister to? And so because of that, I've got a prayer list because I can't think of everybody's name. And so if you don't pray regularly for the people you're supposed to minister to, don't say you've got a burden for them. If you're not praying about that ministry, you don't have a burden for it. You don't have a burden if your own desires do not take a backseat to the ministry. I'm not saying that you can't ever do anything else. That's not what I'm saying. But if you've got a burden for a ministry, then most of the time, your desires are going to have to take a backseat. If you've got to teach Sunday school class, that means you can't sit up and watch TV on Saturday night when you need to be studying your lesson. or practicing your music, or whatever the case may be. If your own desires don't take a backseat to the ministry, you don't have a burden. If you plan to quit because you're not appreciated, you don't have a burden. Now I'm not saying it won't cross your mind. But if you've got a burden, you're not gonna quit even if you're not appreciated. Because you've got a burden. You understand what I'm saying? I'm just gonna quit, they don't appreciate me. Well, then you don't care for them. Don't say you care for the people you minister to if you're gonna quit because they're not patting you on the back. Who you doing it for? You or them? This goes to homeschool, this goes to Christian school, teachers, parents. Folks, we need a burden. We need to have a must about ministry. If you plan to quit because you're not receiving the recognition that you feel like you deserve, then you don't have a burden. If you constantly dread it, If you constantly dread it, you don't have a burden. Oh, man. I had to teach Sunday school. Oh, man. I'm not saying you won't dread it every once in a while. There's times that I dread preaching a particularly hard message, but I don't dread fulfilling what God has called me to do. I heard a preacher say this one time, and I just started preaching. It was really good advice for me. He said, if you can be happy doing anything else besides preaching, he said, you're not called to preach. It's pretty good, ain't it? At the time, I already mentioned I was a song leader when the Lord called me to preach. And you know what? I really enjoyed leading singing. But I couldn't be happy there anymore. You know why? Because that wasn't what I must be doing. Sometimes we must try to fulfill a position without a burden. Let me explain that. Sometimes nobody else will do anything. Isn't that sad? Well, if nobody else will do it, I'll do it. Well, I appreciate that. I appreciate that. But if you're gonna do it, ask God to give you a burden. It may be that you're doing something, you know, we have, now we're up to three nursing home services a month as a church. But Josh has got three every week. One, two, three, is that right, three? And from time to time, we'll have to call on others to help out because they're on Saturday. And Brother Neil, in particular, is carrying the load of our nursing home ministry. And sometimes you may have to fill in and substitute without a burden for it, but ask God for one. Ask God for one. God, help me to have a burden, even if it's just for today. Lord, help me to have a burden for this, or give somebody else that burden one. Because people that have a burden for a job will get more done than people that don't have a burden. And so I'm telling you today that most of us probably need to either ask God to give us a burden or pray for God to show us what it is we need to be doing. Is it possible tonight that there's somebody here and you feel like that you're doing what you're supposed to be doing, but you just don't have a burden for it? I'm gonna tell you, that's your fault. You can't blame God for that. If God called you to do something, and you don't have a burden for it, then somewhere you need to get along with God and say, God, I need a burden for this. Because you probably did have one and you don't have it anymore. And so right now in our church, as well as a lot of other churches, there are people that need somebody to minister to them. Young people need people to minister to them. Our seniors need people to minister to them. Married people need somebody to minister to them. And so if we need somebody to minister to us, then we need somebody to have a burden for that ministry. Somebody who must. Must. I must go to Jerusalem. Now, did he have to? Well, if he was gonna fulfill his ministry, if he was gonna fulfill his ministry and fulfill the scripture, he must do it. But you know what he could have done? He could have called for the legions of angels. Could he not? Would it have been a sin? Not really. but to fulfill the ministry, he must do it. And if you and I are gonna fulfill the ministry God has called us to, and I'll go ahead and get Micah to be making his way to the piano tonight. Maybe you're here tonight and you say, Brother David, I just don't really know what I'm supposed to be doing. Well, then find out. Imagine getting hired on at a job and going years and not knowing what you're supposed to be doing at the job. What do you think about that? Listen, we got a good crowd for Wednesday night tonight. Imagine going to a place and you know you're supposed to be doing something, but you don't know what you're supposed to be doing. You know what you need to do? You need to ask the person in charge. What do I need to be doing? You know, I'm gonna tell you, I've already said it already. If you know there's some basic things you need to be doing, then throw everything you got into them. And pray, God, show me what else I need to be doing. And I'm telling you, if you and I will get a burden and find out what God wants us to be doing and throw everything we've got into it, you're talking about seeing results, folks, I believe we can see them. So let's stand, and you just mind the Lord tonight. I don't know how the Lord might have spoken to you, but you mind him tonight. If you feel the need to come and pray. Mic a place, altars open.