Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Sermon Broadcast

Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world so that all may know Christ.

Join us now for a portion of one of our services here at Kerwin Baptist Church located in Kernersville, North Carolina. He was a faithful minister in verse 7 and said he was a fellow servant in the Lord. Then he brings up a man named Onesimus in verse 9, said that he was a faithful and beloved brother. Verse 10, he brings up Aristarchus and he says that he was his fellow prisoner. Isn't it nice to have somebody that will go through the rough times with you?

Oh, that's three of us. Okay, verse 12 says Apaphras, he says this, a servant of Christ always laboring fervently for you in prayers. Now the past 8, 9, 10 Wednesday nights we've been dealing with prayer. And this past Wednesday night we dealt with intercessory prayer, prayers that we pray on behalf of others. And he says here about Apaphras that he was always laboring fervently for you in prayers.

What a blessing. In verse 13 he says about Apaphras, for I bear him record that he hath a great zeal for you. Read the verse 14. And I want you to notice closely what he says, verse 14 to verse 18. Luke, the beloved physician, or beloved physician, and Demas greets you. Salute the brethren which are in Laodicea and Nymphos and the church which is in his house, and when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans, and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea, and say to Archippus, take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord that thou, and if you have a pen underline it, fulfill it.

Take heed, in other words, pay attention. Make it important, the ministry that God has given you, that you fulfill it. Verse 18, the salutation by the hand of me, Paul. Remember my bonds. Grace be with you.

Amen. That word fulfill in verse 17 is the Greek word playrao, and let me just explain to you what it means. It means to satisfy, to execute, to finish, to accomplish, to complete, to perfect. What Paul said this is, you tell him this ministry, this area of service, and by the way, at this point, he wasn't like a preacher. He was getting ready to help oversee a church in the absence of its pastor. But he said, listen, whatever this ministry that God has given you, you take heed to it. You pay attention. You make it important. I mean, you give everything you can to it. You center on that, and that's why Paul, I believe, said earlier in the New Testament, he said, this one thing I do, it's always on my mind, and he said, listen, you take heed to that, that you fulfill it, that you complete what God's asked you to do, that you endure it, that you complete it, that you finish it. That's what he said to do, the long haul. Father, I ask you, Lord, as we look at these different men that he gave in just these short verses, that, Lord, you do something in our hearts and in our lives, in your name we pray, amen.

Let me give you some quick background, and then we'll get started quickly this morning. In Colossians chapter 1 and 2, Paul does what we call this. He exalts Christ in chapters 1 and 2, and here's why. He puts him in his rightful place as the preeminent one in the universe, is the way that Paul describes, obviously, here in Colossians, and he explains that Jesus Christ is God in human flesh. We get much of our doctrine right here out of Colossians. The Lord God supports much of our doctrine, and here's what Paul did.

He said, hey, he's going to have to be in his rightful place. He is the creator of the universe. Jesus is God in human flesh. By the way, that's why he was crucified because he claimed that. Because Jesus said that he was God. That's why he was crucified. And since then, this world hates the name Jesus Christ. Oh, a lot of people say God to a lot of things, but Jesus Christ is one they're not comfortable with, and it's always been that way. Paul's explanation of Christ was going against the heresies that were trying to enter the church at this time. He was letting them know that, hey, you're hearing a lot of false doctrine, and I'm letting you know that Jesus Christ was God in the flesh. He should have preeminence in your life, and there are many today in our media and in our government who want to silence Jesus Christ.

They want to remove him from public in any way that they can. Now listen to me. You say, why is this important? Paul, in writing, he says this.

Let me tell you some men, as he's writing to this church, he said, let me tell you about some men that have been faithful. They have paid the price. They have counted the cost. They have stayed right.

They have stayed where they should be. And if they can do it, you can do it. If they can give themselves, you can give yourselves. And that's where we find ourselves in chapter 4. So he gives some different men describing to this church why it's important to be faithful and giving them some examples that did.

But it's very interesting to me in verse 14 through 18, something very interesting. But before I even deal with that, many of you will say, hey, preacher, this whole thing of, hey, the ministry that God's given you, you're talking about, be faithful, fulfill the ministry. You're a preacher. That's what you're talking about.

No, I'm not. Do you know, as we all know this, every one of you that have been saved by the grace of God, you have a ministry that God has given you. You say, I don't know about it. Well, he's given it to you. God has a role and a plan and a purpose for every person that he has saved by the grace of God. Now listen to me. In Hebrews chapter 11, we need to turn to it, but Hebrews chapter 11 is what we call our hall of faith. It gives a lot of individuals that their faith was great.

Now listen to me. In verse 3 of chapter 11, he mentions Abel, that Abel had great faith. You know what Abel was? He was a shepherd. He wasn't a pastor, wasn't a preacher. He wasn't in full-time ministry.

He was a shepherd. Verse 6 in chapter 11, he says, by faith, Noah gives him an example of great faith. Do you know that Noah was nothing but a carpenter and an art builder? Noah wasn't an evangelist.

Noah wasn't a pastor. In verse 8, he says, by faith, Abraham. You know who Abraham was? Abraham, that great man of God.

Abraham was a businessman. He wasn't a pastor. In verse 11, he said, through faith, also Sarah. Sarah wasn't a preacher. Sarah was a homemaker. She wasn't even a missionary.

She was just a homemaker. In verse 23, it says, by faith, Moses. You know what Moses was? Moses was a politician, a political leader in his day. It says also in verse 31, by faith, the harlot Rahab.

Whoa! She definitely wasn't a preacher. A former prostitute, God says, had great faith. Verse 31, excuse me, Joshua. You know who Joshua was?

He was a general in the military. He talks in verse 32 about Gideon, Barak, Samson, and Jephthah. Who were they? They were judges. They weren't preachers.

They were judges. He talks in verse 32 about David. David was a king. He talks about Samuel. Samuel was a prophet.

Listen to me, dear friend, what is God saying in chapter 11? You don't have to be full-time ministry. You don't have to be a pastor of a church. You don't have to be a sister pastor or a youth pastor.

You can be a layman, a businessman, a plumber. It doesn't matter. God's given you a ministry.

You can have great faith. In verse 14, notice if you will, he says this, Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greets you. I want to look at these two individuals. We're going to look at one more very quickly, and that will be done for this morning. But let's look at Luke.

Notice number one this morning. I want you to see by his example, availability to God. The Bible says this, Luke, the physician, greets you. That's all he says about Luke. Now, what did Luke do? What do we know about Luke? Luke was a Christian doctor.

Let me give you some facts, and there are several things that were true of Luke. Number one, I noticed this, that he was an educated Gentile. Luke was a medical doctor. He had been educated.

You say, well, it's different then than it was nowadays. But in those days, you couldn't just be a doctor by saying, hey, I want to be a doctor. You had to have education in those days, too, and you had to have training in those days, too. And Luke had been through all that training. Luke had been through all that education. He was a medical doctor.

He was from Antioch, we believe, and that was the church that sent out Paul and Barnabas. And Luke takes as a medical doctor, Luke heads out to help Paul on his missionary journey. Second thing I noticed is this, he was wealthy. Luke was wealthy. Luke was a medical doctor.

He did well. He was in the upper echelon of those with money in his area and where he was. And look at me, Luke walked away from that wealth to serve God, go through persecution as a missionary. Here's a man that was educated, a man that was wealthy, and yet even though he had all that going for him, he was available to God. I noticed thirdly, he was a committed Christian.

He gave up the comforts of home. He gave up the comforts of, I'm sure, a wealthy lifestyle to head out and serve God and stay in shacks and sleep out in the wilderness and do all these different things and work hard and all of a sudden you've got paid well for your services and now you're not getting paid anything but maybe a meal every once in a while by the people you're serving. He was a committed Christian. You see, for some reason, although he was educated and although he was wealthy, he was a committed Christian and he said, you know what, I'm going to be available to God, whatever God wants me to do. I noticed fourthly that he was loved by other Christians. Notice what Luke said. He said, Luke, the beloved physician.

That means this, verse 14 calls him beloved. This man was willing to sacrifice everything he had. He was willing to sacrifice wealth. He was willing to sacrifice comfort.

He was willing to sacrifice clout in his community to serve God and to advance the gospel of Christ. Look at me, dear friend, I'm asking you this this morning. If you're going to be in it for the long haul, you're going to have to be available to God.

You can't, listen, you can have things but things can't have you. You've got to be available to God. Why is it that sometimes people get in and they get out and they get in and they get out and they're faithful and they're not faithful and they're here and they're not there and all these things? So are you trying to get on? No, I'm glad you're here. If you're here, if you're not here, I hope you are here.

We love you. But why does that go on? I'll tell you why, because there's just other things that are just keeping them from church. There's just other things. Now I'm not talking about sickness and I'm not talking about, man, you're in the hospital and bus God, you ought to be in church. You get the doctor to let you out, come to church, you go right back. I'm not talking about that.

I'm talking about this. If you're going to be in it for the long haul, this is what Paul, as he gave the example, as he's reading down the gentleman that had been faithful, he mentioned Luke. This is what Luke did. Although he had all this worldly things that were available to him, he was available to God. All I'm asking you is this, I don't care what this world has that's available to you, would you make sure that you are available to God? That's the only thing that's going to make it last.

That's the only thing that's really going to count. Are you available to God? I want you to notice, secondly, not only availability to God, but accomplishing something for God.

Let me tell you what Luke accomplished for God. He used his occupation as a medical doctor, look at me, to care for Paul. Now, in those days, you didn't have obviously the medical facilities, the medical care that we have. You don't think it was a blessing to the apostle Paul as Paul was out preaching and serving and giving the gospel.

You don't think it was a blessing that he had a physician traveling around with him. Paul suffered from chronic ophthalmology, we believe, bad problems with his eyes. He had other health problems, health issues, and I believe that Paul suffered with his eyes. And I've given you, if you remember probably a year ago, I gave you a passage in Galatians, why I believe proves that Paul, that his thorn in the flesh was his eyes. It was because when God showed up to change Paul, that bright light blinded Paul on that road to Damascus, and I believe that he struggled with his eyes ever since then.

It reminds me of Moses as Moses was wrestling with the angel at night, and in the morning when the angel finally won, Moses limped the rest of his life from that encounter. Let me tell you something, folks, when God gets ahold of you, you're never the same. Luke accomplished something for God. You say, preacher, what did he accomplish? Well, let me give you first, I think about this, he helped Paul.

You know international travel back then wasn't, it was worse than it is now. He had to go from different water, different diseases, different things, and Luke used his ability to help Christians. By the way, look at me, as they were reaching people, we find a count in God's word that Luke helped to give medical care to those that weren't even saved, and they came to Christ as a result of it. We find this, that Luke wrote the gospel of Luke, he wrote the book of Acts, he wrote an eloquent presentation of Jesus Christ in all these books, and by the way, he wrote something that no other disciple could, no other follower of Christ could, and by the way, he wrote one of the gospels, and out of the four gospels, nobody could write it like Luke, because he was the most educated, he was the most eloquent, and Luke gave tidbits about Christ that nobody else would understand, because Luke was looking at it through the medical eyes of a physician.

If you combine, by the way, listen to me, I'm giving you a lot of facts, but just listen. If you combine the gospel of Luke and the book of Acts, compare them to all the books that Paul wrote. We always say, Paul, what a man of God, listen to me. If you combine everything Paul wrote and everything Luke wrote, Luke wrote 5,000 more words in the Bible than Paul did. He accomplished all this, not as a preacher, as a medical doctor. Luke, by the way, mastered the Greek language because he was a physician.

But to the medical terms was Greek, he mastered it to really be able to start reaching the Gentiles, and Luke was a Gentile. You say, preacher, why are you telling me all this? Look at me, I've got to somehow get it through your mind and my mind that it doesn't matter what position you have, it doesn't matter what category you are in, God is going to give you a ministry, you've got to be available to Christ, and if you're available to Christ, you can accomplish something for Christ. What I'm saying out of a church this size, we could be accomplishing so much more than we're accomplishing.

We accomplish a lot in this church, but if everybody got involved, if everybody took their talents and used them for God, imagine what we could do. I want you to notice, thirdly, abandoning the things of God. You say, well, okay, what are you talking about? Now look at verse 14, Luke the beloved physician greet you, notice this, and Demas greets you. So he gives the illustration of Luke.

Luke was available to God, Luke accomplished things for God, and all of you can. But he gave the third example, here's Demas, and he says this, Demas greets you also. Now, what does the Bible have to say about Demas? It mentions him three times.

Let me read you the three times he was mentioned. In verse 24, Philemon, we find this, Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas, my fellow laborers. Paul says Demas was my fellow laborer, he helped me, he labored with me. In Colossians verse 14, we find here the second reference to Demas, that he just mentioned him with Luke.

But let me tell you the third reference, in 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse 10, Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world. That means this, that Demas was right by Luke. Demas and Luke and Aristarchus and Antikokos and all these men that were faithful and finished, listen to me, Demas was right there by them. Demas was right there helping them.

Demas was right there serving with them. But Demas got to the point that he left it all, he abandoned Christ, he quit, he stopped, because he loved this present world, abandoning the things of God. Dear friend, listen to me this morning. I believe that now more than any time in our history as a nation, I believe right now more people are leaving the things of God, leaving the house of God, and we've got good people, good Christians, don't come to church, don't read their Bible, don't pray, don't go anywhere. You know why?

They love this present world. Dear friend, when you and I begin to love the world, we have started the process of abandoning the things of God. I want to challenge you this morning, if the world is more important to you than God, then it's just a matter of time. The handwriting is on the wall. There's going to come a time where we're just going to quit, we're going to stop, we're going to go away, and you say, well, no, I'm not ever going to get there.

I'm just going through this or I'm just going through that. Look at me, dear friend. This is a man that walked and served and preached and ministered with the greatest men that ever lived, the writers of the Bible, and he abandoned God. He abandoned the things of God. If he would do it, don't you think we could?

He loved this present world. By the way, Paul knows what he's talking about here. Paul had a young man named John Mark. And John Mark went on a missionary journey with Paul and it got a little bit too hard for him and he stopped, turned around and left. And Paul said, hey, I'm through with him. I am through with John Mark.

He is not profitable to me. He quit. And Paul wouldn't take him back. But a guy named Barnabas told Paul, and Barnabas was very close to Paul, Barnabas said, hey, I want John Mark to come and I'm going to take him under my wing.

Look at me. John Mark, who turned away, you would think that would be the loser. That would be the guy that would never do anything.

He's just a quitter. He ended up doing great things for God. But a guy named Demas that had talent and ability, he's the one that left God. I can't tell you how many times it seems the folks that have so much to offer God waste it. And it seems so many times that those that don't seem to have much to offer, God does great things with them.

You know why? When you're available, God can do great things with you. Abandoning the things of God. By the way, let me read you a couple of verses. John describes the worldly system to us in 1 John 2 it says this, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. I don't know which of those three got Demas.

It might have been all three, I don't know. But I know this, that one of them or all of them got him and he left the things of God. Now what does God say about the world?

Well, in James 4, verse 4, the Bible makes it clear that whoever is a friend to the world is the enemy of God. The Bible also says that you and I cannot serve God and mammon, the world. We can't serve both. We have to choose. Have you ever tried to stand in two canoes at once? Say, have you preacher?

No. Not going to either. If you had one foot in one canoe and another foot in another canoe, they're going to go in opposite directions. They're not going to go the same way. And you can't stand in two canoes at once very long.

You know why? Because they're opposing forces. They're going to go different ways. And you can't have one foot in the things of God and one foot in the world and try to be in both at the same time.

It doesn't happen, it doesn't work, something's going to fall. I'm telling you as a pastor, I love you enough to tell you this on a Sunday morning. If you're trying to be in both right now and you wonder why nothing seems stable in your life, because the Bible says a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. Let me give you last, we find accepting the will of God. Look at verse 17. Given these three examples, here's Luke. Luke was available to God. Luke accomplished something for God. Here's Demas. Demas abandoned the things of God.

And we've got one other guy in here that he gives, and I want you to notice this. Look if you would at verse 17, if you will. And say to Archippus, take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfill it. We believe that Archippus was the son of Philemon.

Now you say, well why is this important? He was getting ready to take the spiritual leadership of this church in the absence of Epaphras. Epaphras was mentioned by Paul in just a few verses before, and Epaphras was a great man. He had a zeal for these people, but he had to go. He had to leave. He was gone. He was taken. And he was being persecuted and different things. And now this young man, Archippus, has to take leadership of this church.

And Paul said, hey let me tell you something. You tell him that you take heed. That means you accept it. You embrace it. You take this ministry that God has given you, and you fulfill it. And you say, preacher, what is it you're trying to say to us? Let me say this, and this is where I'm trying to get through with all of this. Do you know that God gives each of you, when you get saved, you have spiritual gifts?

Now that's another whole thing. We have tests that we sometimes give people here that on their spiritual gifts. We have tests that we can give you, and it can show what is your spiritual gift, or what are some of your spiritual gifts. Do you know that not everybody has the same gifts? I'm not going to give you all the passages of scripture. The Bible says that we, being different, are one body in Christ.

Everyone members one of another. We're all connected. We all have gifts. God is going to give you gifts to do the ministry He's given you. God is going to give me gifts to do the ministry He's given me.

That's just the way it goes. If God's going to give you a ministry when you get saved, He's going to have to give you the ability to do it, don't you think? So everybody here, whether you know it or not, you're gifted.

Some of you husbands, you look at your wife and you say, I'm gifted. And you just got gifted with a slap or something, didn't you, probably? All right, preacher, why does God do that?

Now look at me. God does not give us spiritual gifts for us just to be good at something. Why does God give you gifts?

Listen, I'm going somewhere with this. This is a lot of teaching for a Sunday morning, but you've got to get this, okay? Why does God give you and me spiritual gifts?

Let me give you the reasons. Number one, God gives you spiritual gifts to glorify Himself. Let me read you a verse. Now you've got to listen very closely to the last eight minutes of this message, okay? Listen to me. 1 Peter 4-11 says this, If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. If any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth, that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever.

Listen. He says if you speak, it better come from God. If you minister, it better be out of the ability that God gives. Why? So that God gets the glory. Look at me, dear friend.

If you get saved and God gives you spiritual gifts, but you don't use those spiritual gifts, if you're not involved in a ministry, if you're not helping in the ministry, if you're not doing something for God, if you're not using those gifts, then you are ceasing from glorifying God. Let me give you an illustration. Okay, if I can't, I hope none of these people mind me giving them. Okay, Marvin and Frank back here. I don't know if Frank's here. I know Marvin's here.

Frank might be working. Marvin and Frank, a lot of times, they're down at that bus garage. They do things for our buses. They'll fix little things on our buses if they can. They watch them.

They go through different things. They help take care of our buses. They don't get paid one dime to do that. They never ask to get paid one dime to do that.

They just go down and help. You know why? There might be some things that Marvin cannot do. Marvin is probably not gifted to the point where he would get up here and preach to you. No, I'd like to see it.

I'd pay money to see that. Now, he may or may not be gifted to do that. I don't know. I'm not the one that gave him his gifts. I don't know what his gifts are, but I know this, that God gave them gifts mechanically. Now, Marvin could go out and he could use that gift and just try to fix things for people and make money and do whatever.

There would be nothing absolutely wrong with him going out, making money, using mechanics to do whatever. But I do know this. In addition to whatever, he has given his gifts to help with the church. I believe that God gets the glory for that. Now, I could mention numerous of you that do things for this church.

That's not one on point. I always pick on Marvin and he can take it. Now, Marvin, I believe, comes down and the gifts that God's given him, that's something he knows how to do. It's something he's good at.

And you know what? He doesn't take that gift and only use it just for him to make money or get something from this world. He takes that gift and says, you know what, I want to use it to do something for God.

And he does. Now, when Marvin takes the gift that God's given him and he uses it for God, God gets the glory for that. But if God's given you a gift and you don't use it for God, he won't get the glory for it, will he?

Don't get mad at me. Second, why does God give you gifts? Not only to glorify himself. Just one more second to build the body of Christ.

You say, why are you coming up with these phrases? Listen to me. Let me read you the verse. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 11 says this, and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers, all different areas of ministry, all different things.

Why? For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Why does God give you gifts so that you'll take those gifts and use them for him? And when you do, you help build the body of Christ. Thank you for listening today. We hope you received a blessing from our broadcast. The Kerwin Baptist Church is located at 4520 Old Hollow Road in Kernersville, North Carolina. You may also contact us by phone at 336-993-5192 or via the web at kerwinbaptistchurch.com. Enjoy our services live and all our media on our website and church app. Thank you for listening to the Kerwin broadcast today. God bless you.