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This is part one of a special two-part episode. Do you feel like you're on a religious treadmill? Do you feel like Christianity is just a system of rules and regulations?
I can do this, but I can't do that. Do you feel like your efforts to reach God, find God, and please God are futile? Do you feel like your faith is dead or alive? Today, Pastor Russ Andrews will walk us through Scripture to answer these questions. Join us on Finding Purpose, glorifying God by helping men find their purpose for living. For more information and to connect with Russ Andrews and Finding Purpose, you can visit us online at findingpurpose.net or connect with us on Facebook. Now let's listen to Russ Andrews as he teaches us how to be a Christian without being religious.
We're going to be in Luke chapter 9, and we're going to be looking at verses 1 through 17. And I've entitled tonight's message, The Marks of an Effective Ministry or Church. And so I want to answer three questions tonight. Here's the first one.
What are the marks? That is, what are the distinguishing characteristics of an effective church or ministry? Second, what was the main purpose of Jesus's ministry?
And third, what was His strategy to reach the whole world? Well, for any church or any ministry to be effective, it must have the anointing of God, including the man who's in the pulpit. He better be anointed by God or he should not be in the pulpit. So when you look at our landscape and all the different denominations in churches and all the really thousands of ministries that dot our country, how can you determine whether the one you're attending or a member of has God's special anointing on it? How can you tell? Well, in two words.
You ready? And Grant Kesselberry, our minister, talked about this Sunday morning. Time and fruit. Time and fruit. So the question is, is the church or ministry that you're a member of? Guys, you really need to think about this. See, I talk about this all the time. Or the ministry you're involved with, including this ministry, has it been bearing fruit for a long time? And how do you answer this question? You do this by looking for these distinguishing marks.
And so here's some of the things to look for. Are men and women coming to Christ by faith? Are people being born again in your church or ministry and you can witness the change in their lives with your own eyes? Are men and women repenting of their sins?
Hard to repent if the word repent and sins never mentioned in your church. Is the gospel being presented clearly? Does the church or ministry truly hold that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God? Are men and women growing deeper in their relationship with Christ? In other words, is discipleship taking place?
Is there a genuine hunger in the place you're going for God's Word and for God, for Jesus? Is the Word being preached with power and authority? So these are just a few of the most important marks of an effective church or ministry.
So let me ask you a question. How does your church or ministry measure up? How does this Bible study measure up? In Matthew 7 verses 15 through 20, Jesus says, Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people come to you in sheep's clothing, do people pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. He goes on to say, A good tree cannot bear bad fruit. It's impossible if it's a good tree. And a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.
It's impossible. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them. By their fruit. If somebody brings you an apple pie and you cut into it and there are not any apples, guess what? It's not an apple pie. I came up with that great analogy this afternoon.
That was divine inspiration. I want you all to notice that in here, I counted it up. Do you know how many times the word fruit is used in these six verses? Seven times. That means complete or full.
Why? Why did Jesus use the word fruit seven times? Because first of all, he wants us to be fruit judgers.
We're to judge fruit to make sure that it's good fruit, not bad fruit. But see, the first key mark of an effective church or ministry is it bearing fruit. And the second key mark of an effective ministry is time.
How do we know this? 1 John 5 says, Who is it that overcomes the world? The only overcomers, he goes on to say, are those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.
Listen, it takes time to overcome the world. And in Revelation, actually it's in 1 John, it talks about how that we are to be overcomers. Now that brings us to Luke chapter 9, verses 1 through 9.
And what I want to do, there are two sections here tonight. You got section verses 1 through 9. And in these nine verses, we're going to look at the marks of a biblical and godly ministry. And then secondly, I'm not going to have much time, but we'll get to verses 10 through 17, and I want to show you what the main purpose was for Jesus coming into the world. And by the way, it's still His main purpose. So let's look at Luke 9 and read verses 1 through 9 together.
Are you with me? When Jesus had called the twelve together, notice He called them. He gave them power and authority to drive out demons and to cure diseases. And He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. He told them, take nothing for the journey, no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, and no extra shirt. Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town.
If people do not welcome you, leave their town and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them. So they set out, that is the twelve, they set out and they went from village to village. And what were they doing? They were proclaiming the good news and healing people everywhere. Now look at verse 7. Now Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was going on, and he was perplexed, confused, because some were saying that John, that is John the Baptist, had been raised from the dead, others that Elijah had appeared, and still others that one of the prophets of long ago had come back to life. The reason they were saying all this is because it was, the Old Testament was talking about Moses that a prophet like you will come one day.
And you know it was prophesied that Elijah would appear before the great day of the Lord. But Herod said, I beheaded John. No it's not John, I beheaded him. His head was brought to me on a platter.
Who then is this I hear such things about? And he tried to see Jesus. Now listen, these verses right here are packed full of so many truths and principles for ministry.
We could be here all night. But I just want to point to five truths. And here they are. First, Jesus called the twelve. Second, He gave them power and authority to do the work that He was sending them out to do. Third, Jesus sent them out to preach about what?
The kingdom of God. And then He commanded them to take nothing with them. You see, Boy Scouts, I was taught to be prepared.
They were prepared, but differently than the world says to be prepared. And then He authorized them to share the truth and then to move on. Now look at verse one. When Jesus had called the twelve together. By the way, this word in the Greek, the word called, means to summon. In other words, Jesus summoned them, the twelve of them, to gather around. He summoned them for a very special meeting. In Mark 1 verses 16 and 17, I want to focus on this word called a minute. It means to summon.
In Mark 1 16 and 17, Jesus saw Peter and Andrew. And He said, come, follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men. So He said, come. Well, come is a command. And listen, when Jesus summons a man into ministry, whether it's a church or a ministry like Finding Purpose, it's a summons that you really can't ignore. I mean, you can, but you shouldn't, because He's calling you. And I would say it's an effectual call. In other words, when He's calling you, you're coming.
It's just like the summons you get from the court, courtroom. You got to show up even though you don't want to. And guys, here's what happened with me. So in the, let's see, I went to seminary in 1999, but in the really, starting back around in 1989, for about five years, I kept asking Jesus to call me, because what was happening, I was losing my interest in what I was doing.
It just did not satisfy me anymore. I went on a couple of mission trips, believe it or not, to Latvia and then to Belarus. That's when I realized I was not cut out to be a missionary. I'm really glad He didn't call me to be a missionary. He did call me to be a missionary, but not there.
It takes a special breed. And then, around 1999, I felt the nudge, if you will, to drive out to Wake Forest, because I heard there was a really good seminary out there. I had never even considered seminary. But you remember when Paul, he disappeared for three years? That was probably his seminary. He was going there, but he was studying unto who? Jesus, direct teacher, and maybe some of the other disciples.
We don't know what happened during that period, but He was gone from the scene for three years. Well, seminary is basically three years. It took me four, I guess from Bethlehem, a little bit slower, but it took me four years. But listen, the moment I stepped on the campus and the moment that I met with the admissions director, it's like, this is where God wanted me to be. It was four of the best years of my life, but I knew that He was calling me. I just didn't know what to do.
Just right now, I got to go there. I got to throw away all my suits. I was tired of wearing a tie and put on blue jeans and a lacosta and a backpack and show up, 45 years old, and I was older than some of the professors.
You see, here's the problem today. Many men and women were never called. Did you know that? God didn't appoint them or sin for them. So, why are they in the pulpit, men and women? Because they chose, they said, well, I think it'd be good to go to seminary. It used to be that ministers were really the most, the pastor of a church was the most highly respected person in the community. That's probably not the case today, but it used to be. And so, it's a very respectable position, just like being a pastor. I mean, it's a very respectable position, just like being a doctor or lawyer.
And so, that's what they chose to do. The prophet Jeremiah warns about people in the ministry who were never summoned by Jesus. You can read Jeremiah 23 carefully.
I just picked out a couple of key verses. Jeremiah 23 verses 30 and 32 says, therefore, declares the Lord, I'm against the false prophets. They tell you false dreams and lead my people astray with their reckless lies. This is God speaking to prophets and priests and preachers.
Yet, I did not send them or appoint them, and they do not benefit these people in the least. Declares the Lord. When it's a declaration, God means it. So, Jesus summoned the 12, and He commanded them to go.
Why? Because God the Father, Jesus volunteered, but God the Father basically summoned the Son and said, I want you to go to earth. And Jesus submitted to His Heavenly Father's will, and God sent Him into the world on a divine rescue mission. Do you know what His mission was? To save us from our sins. John 3.17 says, for God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.
Don't you love that? He did not come to condemn anybody. Think about the woman called an act of adultery. No condemnation.
What? He restored her. He drew, He called her to Himself.
Woman at the well, same thing. This was Jesus' sole purpose in life. This was Jesus' sole purpose in life, to save us, to rescue us. And so, if that was His purpose, what was His strategy?
Well, here's the strategy. He'd go out and preach to the masses. However, He poured Himself into how many men?
The 12. And then, according to Mark, He sent them out two by two. Now, why did He send them out two by two?
I think for two reasons. First of all, you know, in a court of law, you need a testimony of two. And so, you've got two men going out, whose lives have been changed, and these are just common ordinary fishermen, and they start preaching with power and authority, but they're, and so you've got the testimony of two. They support each other.
People say, gosh, two of them. I believe it. Then He also wanted, I think, them to support each other and hold each other accountable. That's why lots of times, you know, you know, when you go to the mission field, you need to not go by yourself.
You go with somebody else. And so, Jesus' strategy, listen, it should serve as a model for ministries. And this is why I'm so excited to have my brother, Jim Briggs, not sure where he is, to come on board. Jim felt God's call to come to the ministry, and he felt God's call to come to this ministry, thank goodness. And one of his main desires is to pour into our leaders, to develop them into greater leaders.
What's that called? Discipleship. That's another mark of an effective ministry or church.
They're actually discipling people. Remember, that's the great command. Go out and not make converts, but make what? Make disciples of all men. Number two, Jesus did not just send out His disciples. He gave them power and authority when He sent them. He just didn't tell them to go. He gave them, He poured into them power and authority. In other words, He anointed them, in this case, for two special things. Preaching. Do you know what? If you're listening to preaching, and it has not been anointed by God, it carries no power and no authority, and nothing will happen.
Just hot air. But you can take somebody, like I remember, I read about when Charles Spurgeon was going to church when he was about 16, and it was snowing. He couldn't get his church, so he went to this other church, and the preacher couldn't show up because there's too much snow.
So this deacon who was not educated didn't have a similar degree. He stood up, and he went to one verse, which says, I think it's in Isaiah 22 something, it says, look unto me, all you ends of the earth, and be saved. You know what he said? It's not too hard to understand, look. Okay, just look. Look at him on the cross. Look at him sweating bloods of tears. Look. What does he say?
Come unto me, all you ends of the earth. He looked at this man. He said, young man, you look miserable.
You need to come to Jesus. He was Charles Spurgeon. Was that a great sermon?
Nope. Felt like something you'd hear down in Bethel from a country preacher. But if it's endued with power and authority, it transforms the life of someone like Charles Spurgeon. The second thing that you want to do is a supernatural miracle, specifically driving out demons and healing the sick.
And so once again, we have a model here for what an effective church or ministry should do. Preaching, you catch this, and supernatural miracles. Now before you think I've jumped on board the healing platform, I'm not endorsing at all Kenneth Hayden or Benny Hinn.
As far as I'm concerned, they're false teachers. But I do believe that God still performs supernatural miracles. But what's the greatest supernatural miracle he ever performs? Your salvation.
Think about it. He rescues you from the dominion of darkness and brings you into the kingdom of light, into the kingdom of the sun. That's the greatest miracle there is. And when you see it, you've seen a supernatural miracle. But I also believe, listen, the reason that they did supernatural miracles back then with the 12 is to affirm their message because they did not have the written word of God. They will listen to an oral message. And so to confirm that this was a true anointed prophet, the 12, because they were preaching the word of God, he affirmed their ministry with miracles the same way he affirmed Moses with miracles.
This is my man. Look at these miracles. These miracles are confirmed. Jesus said, if you don't believe what I say, at least believe the miracles. Miracles affirm the anointing of someone. So why do we not have a lot of miracles in America?
And I think there's still physical miracles, but there are not many. Do you know why? We don't need them to affirm the message.
Why not? I've got about 75 Bibles in my office. There are Bibles galore in America. There's preaching on the radio. There are churches on every street corner, although most of them I wouldn't go to.
But there are a lot of good churches out there. We don't need miracles. Except for the miracle.
Changed hearts and changed lives. But you go to somewhere like Iraq or Iran or Pakistan or the Ukraine, I guarantee they're seeing physical miracles there. I know for a fact that they're seeing the appearance of Christ in the flesh. That's a supernatural miracle.
Why? They don't have access to the written word of God like we do. So in those circumstances, I believe that God does supernatural things to affirm His message and for a purpose. To draw people to this guy because he's a healer.
No. So that people will believe and be saved. Now Jesus anointed the 12 with the power and authority to do what? To preach the good news about the kingdom of God.
Why? Because this is what He did. Listen, He poured into 12 and He sent them out to do the same thing He was doing. The very first thing that you see John the Baptist and Jesus doing is they preach the message of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
Mark 1 14 and 15 says after John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee proclaiming the good news of God. The time has come, He said, the kingdom is at hand. Repent and believe the good news. When's the last time you heard that message in your church? Y'all think I'm down on the church a little bit? I am, but not on the true church, okay? I'm for true churches.
And God, we live in a very dark world right now. It's time to recognize what is true and what is false. And the way you do that is you study God's Word so that you can discern the truth from error. Did you know the last chapter of Mark? So Jesus began His ministry preaching a message of repentance for the salvation of sins. In other words, the Gospel, the good news. That's the last thing He said to the disciples before He ascended. Mark 16, the last chapter of Mark, Jesus said these are His last words before He ascended.
Go into all the world, twelve, and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved. Now, baptism doesn't save you, but that's what used to follow your salvation. It's the evidence that you've been saved.
But whoever does not believe will be condemned. After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was taken up into heaven and He sat at the right hand of God. Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere. And the Lord worked with them and confirmed His Word by the signs that accompanied it.
He confirmed His Word. Number three, notice that Jesus sent them out with the command, go out into all the world. See, here's another mark of an effective church or ministry. It's a sending church. It sends missionaries out into the city, out into the state, out across the world. And that's what really good seminaries are doing. They're sending missionaries all over the world. Any effective church or ministry must do the same thing. Preach the good news to all creation.
So what is the good news? It's the gospel of Jesus Christ who came to save men from their sins that they might have eternal life in Him. Think about that. The gift of eternal life offered to the world on a plate. And all you have to do is eat it, receive it. This is why Jesus said, you must be what? Born again. Another phrase you never hear in church, rarely. Number four, Jesus commanded His disciples to take nothing with them. Look at verse four. Jesus told them, take nothing for the journey. No staff, no bag, no bread, no money, and no extra tunic. Now I've got news for you.
When I go on a trip, my bag weighs more than 75 pounds when I get to the airport because I don't want to leave anything out that I might need. So why did Jesus send them out without nothing? Why do you think? As Jeff said, to get them to rely on Him and Him alone. In 1825, some of y'all have heard this story. It's a famous story. Shortly after getting out of prison, George Muller placed his trust in Jesus Christ. And then he later married and he settled down in Bristol, England where he actually began to grow in his faith. And he began to notice all over London, all the children, homeless children that were running around wild and didn't have much clothing.
They were begging for food and money. And so on December the 9th, 1835, at a public hearing, he presented a plan for an orphanage. God put the desire to build an orphanage in his heart. And after he presented the plan, contributions began to pour in. And shortly after, thereafter, his first orphanage opened and they took in 26 children. And so that was the beginning of his orphanage ministry. Now listen, this is what I admire about Muller.
From the beginning, he never asked for money. And some of y'all are going, Russ, why don't you practice that? Well, that's another sermon. Listen, I admire his faith. And he never went around telling about the ministry needs, which is what I was going to do tonight, but now I'm not going to do it. See, he believed in praying earnestly and trusting the Lord to provide.
And the Lord did, although sometimes at the last moment. So one morning, all the children in this one orphanage were down and they had all the plates and the utensils and the glasses and there was nothing to eat and there was nothing to drink. And George Muller said, let's bow our head. He said, Lord, he said the Lord's prayer, give us this day our daily bread. And there was a knock on the door and the man at the door was a baker.
He said, Mr. Muller, I couldn't sleep last night. Somehow I felt you didn't have bread for breakfast. So I got up at two a.m. and baked some fresh bread.
Do you need any? Here it is. Then there was a second knock. The milkman was driving along and he lost the steering in his truck and it just careened off the road right in front of the orphanage. So he had, it was loaded down with eggs and milk and cheese. And he went up, knocked on the door. He said, look, I've got a truck full of eggs and milk and cheese and I don't want a spore.
Do you need it? How about that? I call that a supernatural miracle.
And stories like this became the norm for his work. And during the course of his 99 years, Muller housed more than 10,000 orphans, prayed in millions of dollars, traveled to scores of countries preaching the gospel, and recorded 50,000 answers to prayer. Why don't we pray more? You want to know why you have not? Why have not?
Because we ask not. In Matthew 6, 25 and 33, Jesus says, Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you eat or drink, or about your body, what you are aware, but seek first his kingdom, man. And all these things will be given to you as well. Being a Christian is not about being religious, but about having a dynamic, alive relationship with Jesus Christ. You've been listening to Finding Purpose with Pastor Russ Andrews, glorifying God by helping men find their purpose for living. You can discover more about finding your purpose in life by checking out the resources at FindingPurpose.net or connect to Finding Purpose on Facebook. Pastor Russ would also like to extend a special invitation for you to join him and over 300 other local men to study God's Word together every Tuesday night at 7 p.m. in downtown Raleigh. Find out more at FindingPurpose.net. . .
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