Bible Study 2-24-26

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((music playing)) >> ((music playing)) ((music playing)) >> We love you, Jesus. We adore you ((music playing)) at all ((music playing)) night. The great I [singing] am ((music playing)) lives in me. ((music playing)) El Shai, Prince ((music playing)) of Peace, Emmanuel, here ((music playing)) with me. Your name is ((music playing)) great and greatly to be praised. Your ((music playing)) name is great and ((music playing)) greatly to [singing] be praised. Sing Adonai. ((music playing)) [singing] >> Elohim.

[music and singing] >> The great I am ((music playing)) I am. >> Father, you live in me. >> Lives [music and singing] in me. >> El should die. [singing] ((music playing)) >> You are my prince of peace. [singing] Emmanuel ((music playing)) here with me. >> Here with me. >> Yes, you are. >> Sing ((music playing)) your name. >> Your name >> is great. >> Is great [singing] >> and greatly >> great to be >> glory.

Your name >> is great. ((music playing)) >> Father, it is great. >> And great. Love [singing] me >> Lord ((music playing)) your name >> Lord your name >> is great >> is great >> and great ((music playing)) >> hallelujah [singing] >> your name >> is great >> and greatly >> and great to me oh and worthy ((music playing)) you were and worthy you are and worthy Worthy ((music playing)) you will be forever Yah way.

Worthy you were worthy [music and singing] you are and worthy you will be forever Yah ((music playing)) way you are. >> Hallelujah. >> Worthy you are. >> Worthy ((music playing)) you will be. >> You will be forever. [singing] >> Oh you worthy. >> Yes Lord. ((music playing)) >> Worthy you are. Worthy you will. >> Worthy you will be forever.

[music and singing] >> Worthy you are. >> Worthy you are. >> Worthy you ((music playing)) are. >> Worthy you are. We worship you. We know you worthy. >> Forever you are. >> Worthy you. Whatever you will ((music playing)) [singing] ((music playing)) your name is great ((music playing)) and great [singing] to be praised for your name. ((music playing)) The name that heals is great. >> The name that delivers.

((music playing)) You are great and worth to be praised. ((music playing)) There's no other God is great and comes before you. >> We worship you. ((music playing)) Your name, [singing] >> your name is great. Great to [music and singing] be praised. Father, we worship you. We adore you [music and singing] Lord. Hallelujah. We love you Lord. No other name, no other name.

Ohord. Hallelujah. >> Good evening everyone. Let me thank our praise and worship team for leading us into the presence of God. Hey, it's been a while since we've been together and thank God for uh all of the things we still been doing even though we haven't been meeting with Bible study.

So, we're starting tonight and I'm I'm going to thank all of our faithful viewers and supporters and members who have put it on their calendar, thought enough to remember to be a part of our gathering tonight. So, we're going to be again resuming our Bible study. Uh and I'm so grateful and so excited.

Uh I hope you've had a great day. I hope I hope these last couple of months have been great for you. Uh let's uh let's start off with prayer. Pray with me, please. Father, in the name of the Lord, I pause and thank you for your loving kindness and your tender mercies to us.

Thank you for keeping us since December. You've been watching over us. You have protected us. You have guided us. You have you have been merciful. And Father, I I give you praise and I give you thanks. I thank you again for the opportunity to share your word. Pray that you would anoint me for these next few moments to be your mouthpiece.

And let the hearts of your sons and daughters be open to receive the teaching tonight. And [snorts] if their persons unsaved, backsliden, unsure, disconnected, I pray, Father, that you would draw them. ((music playing)) I pray that the saints would be edified and strengthened. I pray, heavenly father, that you give us wisdom on how to apply the teaching tonight into each area of our lives. and I give you praise and glory and honor in Jesus name.

Amen. Alrighty. You know for the last several uh weeks I have been challenging us and really since the start of this year uh we are resuming our theme of be a disciple and make a disciple that each of us are being discipled while at the same time we are making efforts to disciple others to share truth with others.

And what I want to spend a few moments, probably it's going to take me tonight and next week to talk about connecting with saints and keeping saints. I'm calling this uh this lesson keeping connecting and keeping saints. I want to challenge us on how to connect with people and how to keep them engaged, how to how to uh help them become everything God wants them to become and how God wants them to remain a part of his family.

And so I want to share some uh some facts with you tonight and some principles, some disciplines to work into our lives and to help others work into their lives. How do we how do we get our sons and daughters connected and stayed in the in the family of God?

How do we get our friends, co-workers, neighbors, acquaintances, people that we love and care about to get connected and to remain connected? uh we're going to spend uh just some time looking at some scriptures and some teachings about it and I pray that you will uh take take a part of that.

So if you're if you're new to our Tuesday night Bible study uh we have the opportunity for you to um take notes. So I think uh there's a there's a place on the web on on our website where you could get the notes and it's a fill-in- thelank kind of a thing so you don't have to write everything down.

So I think they're going to put that on the screen. Yeah, there it is. get the notes. So, go to that website if you don't have it already and uh it will help and assist you in taking notes for the message every Tuesday night. We believe that'll be a blessing to help you and strengthen you.

So, connecting and keeping sights, that's the teaching for tonight. Let me give you some some facts. Let me just run through some a few facts that I think are significant and important uh for you to understand. And approximately 20 to 30% of Americans claim to attend regular services weekly, religious services weekly. 20 to 30% of Americans.

That means 70 to 80% are not. And that's that's a very true uh percentage. As a matter of fact, when I first started studying this back in 1991, 49% of Americans claimed to attend uh worship services or religious services regularly. That uh uh yeah, so um we're we're living in a in a in a different day, in a different hour.

Uh let me try to remember to to to do this PowerPoint because I keep forgetting. So that number of 20 to 30% of Americans who claim to attend religious services is down from the 49% that was reported in 1991. And that's a significant uh change. Now let me take a moment and talk about the 10 reasons that uh people attend church.

Uh um so or let me tell you this too. close to 70% I already said that uh report that they rarely or never attend service. So what does that tell us? 70% seven out of every 10 people that you're connected with most of you are connected with uh don't go to church or rarely attend ser religious services.

So what that means is we have a the harvest is plentiful. We got a lot of people who need the gospel, who need a relationship with Jesus, who need to walk with God, who need to connect with God in some way. We got a we have a large field, a large harvest of people who need the Lord.

And and another thing that the scripture uh that research shows us that a lot of people is anxious for somebody to invite them to the to the church to cultivate a relationship with them to love them to to be a blessing to them to help show them that Jesus is alive and well.

And it is my encouragement to you that you and I stand in a place that we will try our best to win people to the kingdom of God. It would be devastating for you to love somebody and care about them and yet they never take the time and you never take the time to share with them to challenge them to pray for them to help win them to show them that the God we serve is real and alive.

And so uh that's that's a part of what my burden is. My burden is so many people need the Lord and God is calling us to reach out to them and help them be one to the kingdom of God. Now, let me spend a few moments and talk about 10 reasons why people do attend church.

Why why do the people that you um that you know do come to church? 10 primary reasons why people come to church. Here's the first one. Um they have they come for theological or doctrinal beliefs. something that that church teaches or embraces some doctrine that they support and highlight or declare um that causes them to be a part of a local assembly.

Secondly, uh because they care for that people have others. They care for each other. People come because they've developed relationships. I'm going spend a few moments talking about that in just a minute. But they they have people who um are in their sphere of connection that demonstrates and shows them love.

That's a very important reason. That's a very important deal. Uh I I tell the uh the illustration, the story about my daughter, I've told this a hundred times, I believe, maybe a thousand, who did stuff she didn't like. She she she joined the basketball team in high school.

She uh joined the soccer team. Didn't Here's a girl that don't like sports. She didn't like sports. My youngest daughter Natalie, but she wanted to join the soccer team. She wanted to join the basketball team. Not because she loved those sports cuz she doesn't, but because she had people that she loved being around.

She had relationships that she valued and cherished. And there are people I believe in your life, if you are the light of the world, if you are showing them the light of God, if you are an instrument of God, showing the love of God, people will want to be with you and around you.

And so I think it's a very important deal and a very true statement that that people come to church because they have relationships there that mean a lot to them. We're going to come back to that in just a moment. Thirdly, they come for the quality of the sermons or the messages that are preached.

They're hearing things that uh again supports their beliefs and convictions. They are challenged. They are encouraged. They are motivated. They get inspired. They're learning things that they need to apply to their life that's going to make their life better. So they they love the quality of the message that's being preached and the sermon that's being preached.

That's the third reason. Here's the fourth reason. The friendliness of the church members. People are friendly to them. Amen. That's why we want to be friendly. By the way, if you can't be friendly, um the ushers is not the ministry for you to be a part of. If you're going to be mean, nasty, contankerous, treat people hostily, join another ministry.

That's not a place for you. And by the way, uh, we want to be people that we are we're friendly to. Not not just the ushers are friendly, but when people come and sit next to you in church that you greet them, you smile, you recognize them, you acknowledge them, you show them the love of God.

Let's be that kind of a church that uh we are kind and friendly to people even if we don't know them and don't have a relationship with with them. That's one of the reasons people enjoy and why they choose to attend church. Uh here's the fifth reason. And the fifth reason is the church's engagement with helping the poor.

That the church is reaching out to the less fortunate. I want to take a moment to just highlight the fact that our church does this in a zillion ways. We feed the hungry on Saturdays. We uh go to the prisons. We go to the homeless shelters. We've got ministry.

A matter of fact, every one of our 130 ministries, 129 ministries has the responsibility of finding a need in the community and serving it. This is a very important deal. And again, I want to highlight I I think I mentioned this uh maybe a couple Tuesdays ago that every ministry should be engaged with serving a need in the community.

This is the this is what God called us to do. It is the assignment of the Lord. It is the um the call of the church to be the light of the world, the salt of the earth. And we do that by ministering to bruised, broken, hurting, poor, destitute, struggling people.

We demonstrate the love of God. We show the love of God. Uh yeah, there's going to be poor people always. But that's what Jesus said one time, the poor you will have with you always. We're always going to have uh people that we can show them the love of God.

And for many of you, you have lived a a destitute life. Many of you have been poor, struggling, and somebody showed and demonstrated to you the love of God. And this is what God calls us to do. Take take a portion of the resources available to you. Take a portion of the time that you have and share it by helping someone else.

And so, I'm very proud of our church. We we put out a report every year annually to show all of the some of the things. We can't do everything in that booklet, but we try to highlight some of the many things we do to engage and help the people who are less fortunate.

That's one of the that's the fifth reason people come to church. The sixth reason is the quality of the programs and the classes for children. I I hate to say this, but it's true that uh churches want to look for places where their children can grow, where their children can be challenged and developed.

And uh our our stress and struggle is we want to pray that God would raise up more people in our church who have a passion and a burden and a call even to serve children. Uh so many of our lives are shaped by what happens in our childhood.

So many people have events that occur in their life as a child that impacts them for the rest of their life. And so, uh, we're praying that God would raise up. This is another area where the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. There's some of you that God has put an assignment on your life and a call on your life to help bless and serve children. and some so pe so many uh so many of our uh people who've been members of this church a long time who have been serving kids and serving children over the long haul.

I think of uh Reverend Sylvia Taylor who not only serves children, she she serves special needs children. It's a tough group to serve, but she has a passion and a burden for it. And I just celebrate her and her team and those who work with her to care for those children with special needs.

They they may not think logically like everyone. They may not behave like everyone else does. They may not understand like everyone does. But here's a group of people who are impassioned and anointed and gifted to serve this this this group of people and uh to help the parents to help raise these children.

I I believe she has a special reward in heaven reserved for her because of this burden that she carries and this assignment that she has received and accepted from God. I I salute her and celebrate her and her team for that for the special needs in in our family.

So So again, uh this is one of the quality programs in our church that causes people to come is that and by the way I should have said this at the start. If there are pastors watching this, and I know a lot of pastors watch me on on YouTube and on our services, these things I'm going through are things that you should check off and take a look at your own church about how it's doing in these arena in these areas for you to develop pastors these areas.

Or maybe you belong to a church that you can take this information back to your church and maybe you can serve in one of these areas or help one of these areas become a reality in your church if it doesn't have it. I want to try to inspire.

I'm I'm motivated to try to help uh to try to help people uh um uh serve their their church and serve God's kingdom by implementation of some of these principles and some of these truths. And I think uh finding people who can implement quality programming and classes and ministry to children is a very very significant deal.

And I'm so proud of the people that helped that happen at the First Baptist Church of Glenn Art. Our next our next area is number seven. It is the acceptance and appeal of the pastor. Um people want to know that they like their pastor that their pastor has a concern for them.

One of the things uh I try to do and want to do is to make an attempt to uh love on the people. This is this is my my my motif is to love the people that God has given me responsibility for. And I try to look for ways and arenas and areas to demonstrate my love for the congregation, my love for the people who support our ministry, who are parts of our ministry and or maybe, you know, just love people even if even if they're not members.

I try to love people. God wants the pastor to be acceptable. He wants the pastor to have an appeal to the people and I believe you do that by showing the love of God to the people in your congregation. Um the the eighth reason people join is because of the denominational affiliation.

Something about the denomination that that church belongs to that they find important. Number nine is the quality of the Sunday school for adults. And and I probably should put a slash here. the quality of Sunday school/bible study for adults, the ministry, the teachings that you make available. Uh, and so probably this and the quality the sermon preach go together that there is a message.

Um, and I and I, you know, I look back over I've been a pastor. I've been pastoring for almost 40 years. I've been here at First Baptist for 36. This is my 37th year and I pastored another church for three. So I'm I'm I'm right around that 39 40 year period.

And I have to tell you that sometimes uh when I first got into the ministry and particularly into the pastor um you know I have to acknowledge that my the quality of my messages were weak and struggling. But God began to show me the errors of my ways and how to make the messages more practical and how people could take the teachings that we give them and apply them to their life.

So it took me you know it took me some time and some pastors have to learn that. I I want to do more than just preach a hallelujah sermon. make you shout. I want to I I want to do more than just make a declaration that God opened the Red Sea for the children of Israel and they walked across on dry ground.

I want to do more than that. I want to inspire you to know that the Red Sea that you face in your life, God can open up the waters and help you to cross over and what are the things you have to do to make that happen? What are the steps you need to take?

What are the principles you need to apply in your life for that to happen in your life? So I I believe that's a part of the strength of the favor that God has given to me and the anointing that God has given me and the training that God has given to me that he's exposed me to understand how important it is to teach the members of our church and those who are listening and watching to apply practical principles in your life.

I think is so very very important and that's a part of of of of what we try to do and I believe it plays a role in of appealing to people to be a part of our church. Here's number 10. The 10th reason is the the convenience of the times of the worship service.

I believe um you know people choose to join church at a time that works for their schedules. And um and so again those are I feel the 10 reasons why people go to church and these are the 10 things we want to try to ensure that we are incorporating into the the life of our church, the culture of our church that we're doing all of these things.

We're teaching theological and biblical truth doctrines that are true. We're caring for each other. We're preaching quality messages. I'm very careful about who preaches in the pulpit of First Baptist Church of Glenn Arden. And I I tell all the time, uh, look, if God ain't using you in other places, then I don't think he's calling you to be used here in this particular, uh, category or arena.

We want we want to see that God has chosen to use you and he's impacting and using you in a significant way. We want to be friendly. We want to be engaging and helping the poor. We want to have ministries for children. uh we want to we are associated with a denomination that pro probably many of you don't know Converge matter I hope I remember to tell you something about Converge when I get to the end of this teaching but I'm very proud to be a part of that denomination converge very powerful focuses on uh planting churches focuses on strengthening churches and it focuses focuses on sending missionaries around the world to share the gospel in the unreached places of the world where people have not heard about Jesus, don't know about Jesus.

We focus on training, identifying missionaries and training them and empowering them to go out and serve by sharing the gospel in unreached places around the world. I'm very proud to be a part of a denomination that does that. We want quality teaching, both Sunday school and Bible study and Bible institute classes and disciplehip groups.

We have all that going on. All of that is rich and powerful and lifegiving that lives are being changed and transformed because of the ministries that are being offered at our church. The classes, the information that's being shared, that's the that's the page we want to be on.

And I'm so happy and glad that I can tell you that we are a church that does that. Now, having said that, uh let's talk about uh what are what are some other reasons and how do we connect with people? How do we keep them engaged with us?

All right, let's The next area I want to talk about is relationships. That's the next piece is people come and are connected and belong because of relationships that they have. People get connected and are connected by relationships. They they engage uh with people that they learn to love and connect with and care about.

Uh I think that's a very very important and significant deal. Uh it's just like again I mentioned my daughter who went to join the basketball team in high school and went to join the soccer team. Never she I found it funny because she never ever uh would watch it on TV.

That that was not her thing. Uh but her friends started playing and she wanted to be around them and so relationally she did something she didn't like. And and by the way she she would fuss at you for being late to practice. You know I went to her soccer practice.

I went to her soccer games. I never saw her kick the ball one time in all of the years that she played. I never saw her put the foot on on the ball ever. But she don't want to be late because she she wanted to be connected with her friends.

And you brothers and sisters have friends and rel people who love you and care about who you love and care about who uh would come and matter of fact our church has grown because people have bought their their their friends, relatives, acquaintances, neighbors, co-workers. They bought their friends and relatives and neighbors and co-workers.

They went and told them about it and they brought them to church. That's how our church has grown. They bought their children and grandchildren. They they bought their next door neighbors and that's how we will continue to expand the kingdom of God by bringing people to the house of God where they can learn God's truth and apply it to their life.

And so relationships play a very important part. But I need to tell you also about this deal that people have to be taught how to resolve conflicts when they have conflicts. It's a matter of reality that's going to happen that people are going to have conflicts. They're going to disagree and it becomes very important that people are taught how to resolve conflicts.

Now, now we we have taught this I have taught this conflict resolution over a number of years. I have taught this over a number of years. And the thing I discovered is people are hesitant to do it. I don't know why, but people are hesitant to do it.

And matter of fact, I'm I'm going to teach you the principle here. And then I'm going to teach you something that's not going to be in your notes. You have to pull pull to the side and take some notes that that are not going to be on the screen.

Let me take let me take you to Matthew 18 15-1 17 here. These verses teach us what to do when there's a problem or an issue. I want you to again this is this is something I've been teaching for the whole 36 years I've been here but a lot of times people won't do it but it's what the Bible tells us to do.

Here's what Jesus said. Moreover, verse 15 of Matthew chapter 18. Matthew 18:15. Moreover, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. So you go. Just don't talk to anybody else about it.

This is just between you and him by yourselves alone. If you go and talk to somebody else about it, you're violating scripture. You're you're disobeying what Jesus said do. You go to that person, just you and that person. But if he will not hear, then take with you one or two more that by the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word may be established.

You take somebody with you to go and talk to them about this problem, about the conflict, about the behavior, about the sin. uh and and take two or three witnesses to verify and validate that uh you have taken the time to follow what Jesus taught in Matthew 18 in these scriptures.

All right. And then he says this. Here's uh verse number um let's see should be one more verse here. Um did I give it? You know what it should be 18? I'm sorry. Let's go one one more verse. Um okay. Oh no. I'm sorry. There it is. 17.

I'm sorry. If he refuses to hear him, let it tell tell it to the church. This is the third point, you and him alone. Point two, take two or three witnesses. Number three, if he refuses to hear, tell it to the church. Then you bring it to the leadership of the church.

But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector. Any person who won't hear the pain that they've caused you, they won't hear that they've offended you, that they've done something wrong against you and they don't want to make it right.

The Bible says, "Then you take it to the church, and if they still won't repent and change, then you treat him as a heathen and a tax collector." But I believe the call of God is for us to be in a posture or a position to listen. Now, let me give you two two things, two areas here that they won't it's not going to be in um it's not going to be on the screen because I I didn't give this to it and I had I hadn't planned on talking about it, but let me teach this again.

I've been teaching this again for 40 years probably. SBI, those letters SBI. Here's how you approach a person. Number one, you the scripture says situation. You identify the situation when the problem occurred, when the offense occurred, when the um behavior occurred. So, in other words, you don't say you always, you never.

You don't use those words. You you go to a specific situation of when an offense or a problem took place. You give them the situation. Y'all are so sharp. Thank the Lord for our production team. Look, they're putting it up. They got it together. They are. ((applause)) The First Baptist Church been on production people.

I didn't get this to them, but they're they're putting it up there and they know it already. I know it. Thank y'all so much. The S stands for situation. You identify the specific time when it occurred, the day where you were. You deal with you deal with situation.

The B in SBI stands for behavior. What behavior was observed? This is an important deal. Put a star next to it. Put a asterisk. Underline it. Put it in bold. Whatever you need to do. You deal with behavior. You don't deal with motive. You don't deal with intentions because you don't know that.

You don't know what a person's motive is. You don't know what their intentions are. You don't say um you don't like me or you don't uh uh you wanted to hurt me. You don't know what a person's motive is. So, you don't deal with motive. You only deal with what you observed.

The behavior that you observed. Here's what you saw. Here's what you experienced. Here's what you noticed. Here's what you heard. You deal with behavior. And then the I in SBI stands for the impact of that behavior. Impact. Here's what you did when you did it on that day.

Here's how it impacted me. Here's how it hurt me. here's how it made me feel. Then you deal with the impact of the behavior of what the person did. This is this is a clear deal, a model for you to use of how to approach somebody who has not treated or hurt you or or offended you in some way.

This we take Matthew 18 and we use this has the motif of how we would do it. Now, what if somebody comes to you and they want to they want to challenge you with how you treated them? Here's another acronym. This is a new acronym. Lover. L U V A.

L U V A is what this stands for. This is a this is a new and a different again a way of preparing you to hear when somebody comes to you. You don't just dismiss them. You don't just walk away and think that it's nothing. Lover. L U V A.

And each one of those letters stands for something. Here's what the L stands for. Listen. Learn to listen to what the person is telling you. Listen. Don't Don't be preparing your answer while they're talking to you. Don't be preparing what you're going to say in response. Listen. Listen.

And then the U in lover LU stands for understand. Seek to understand what they're communicating. Try to put yourself in their shoes. put yourself in their situation that if if what you did was done to you, what's the impact on you? Lover. L U. And then the V, here's the thing that people have the most difficult time doing.

Okay? Some of them have trouble listening. Some of them have trouble understanding. But the V stands for validate, verify, whichever word you want to use. Validate. In other words, I don't have to understand and I don't even have to agree with what you said, but let me validate that if if that's the way you felt, if if what I did, what I said, what you heard from me made you feel that way, I must acknowledge that.

Amen. I must acknowledge your uh your pain. You know, I have to say that I didn't mean to hurt you. I didn't mean to cause that to happen to you, but you validate that that you you understand. you validate that you heard what they say and that often means that you repeat back to them what they're saying that you can be clear that it's a clear understanding of what they're saying your validation or your verification that I can see how I made you feel so that's luv the first a means apologize this this is probably uh the toughest thing for people to do is to take ownership for what they may have done and to apologize this is how we keep relationships flowing.

And sometimes you might have to apologize for something that you don't even think that you did or or whatever. But if if it's going to keep peace, if it's going to keep our relationships flowing, if it's going to keep us connected, be willing to to bite the bullet and take ownership and apologize.

As a matter of fact, if the truth be told, we have a relationship with God because Jesus himself uh took the pain so that we could be forgiven. He he in essence he apologized to the father for us because he took the pain for us. We're able to have a personal relationship with the father because of what Jesus did for us.

He took the punishment. He took the pain. And and this is so this this is even true as it pertains to and relates to marriage. You got to learn to apologize. I'm I'm you know learn to apologize and make an acknowledgement and a confession of what in fact um uh has hurt them.

And then the last A in lover stands for um make amends. So in other words, amends. You uh you try to repair it. It might mean you have to pay them pay them back money you stole or they feel that you owed them. Make amends. It might means uh uh going and and apologizing.

You may have embarrassed them in front of people and you might have to go back and apologize to people uh who you have made um uh you've hurt them and you need to make amends whatever it takes to make it right. I believe that's a very very important piece of this component of resolving conflicts is listening, understanding, validating or verifying, apologizing, and then taking steps to make amends.

So all of this is relationship. And by the way, relationship plays such a big part in the church being what the church is. It is what it is why we are who we are because we have meaningful, powerful relationships. And guess what? The enemy is going to do everything he can to destroy the relationships that we have with each other.

He's g he's going to put things in place to try to make you feel misunderstood or he's going to try to do things to try to break off the the the connections that you have. That's the enemy's job. He comes to steal, kill, and destroy. He wants to steal, kill, and destroy.

Uh John 10. That's what Jesus That's what the devil wants to do. And Jesus has made it possible by giving us truth. Matthew 18 for us to practice this, practice these things. So go to the person privately, use SBI, use the lover thing. If somebody comes to you, make the steps and take the efforts to make it be and do what it is that God has called us to do to maintain powerful and meaningful relationships.

This is an important deal and I hope you get it and I hope you understand it. Okay. Now, now let me give you this last point about relationships and that is that ministry engagement or cell groups help us helps us to develop meaningful relationships. This is part point three under this relationship thing that God wants us to be engaged in ministry.

He wants us to be involved with cell groups. Um he wants us to be at a place of uh uh we we do our things. We have we do have cell groups. We do have ministry engagements from the ministry that you're involved in. You You're going to something going to bump your head.

Somebody going to do something that's going is going to pain you. Something's going to happen that's going to make you want to leave the church. I I'm frustrated when I see people leave the church and they never even followed Matthew 18. They didn't take the steps. They didn't do what God called them to do.

And when you do that, the devil wins. The enemy is successful. When you fail to do what the scripture teaches us to do, when we have a conflict, when we have a problem, when somebody's hurt us, when you when you fail to follow Matthew 18, then you have the devil wins.

When the relationship is seared or broken and you're not able to make it right, the devil wins. And in fact, so many churches have been torn apart and torn aunder because people don't follow Matthew 18 and they don't get it straight. Let's not be that kind of a church.

Let's not let people run us away. Let us develop meaningful relationship. And if the truth be told, every every meaningful relationship that I have, every powerful relationship that I have has gone through some sort of challenge, some sort of issue where the enemy tried to bring up something.

But guess what? These relationships are meaningful and powerful to me because we took steps to do what Jesus said in Matthew 18. And that's why we I have so many friends over the years that we've remained close and tight friends because we live and practice Matthew 18 and we're not going to let the enemy destroy us and frustrate us by causing us to offend each other and not make it right.

And so I celebrate that. I'm so happy and I celebrate the deal that this is what God wants us to do. I hope y'all are hearing what I'm saying to you today because this is the the the word of the Lord. It's what God has called us to do.

It's the assignment he's given us. It's the teaching. He's given us clear teachings of what it is he wants us to apply and how he wants us to live our lives. And we are called of God to help make this the kind of life that we are called to live.

So meaningful relationships are uh are developed through the ministry engagements that we have 129 ministries and the cell groups that we have and the disciple groups that we have. All of this plays such a significant role in helping us. Now, I've been pressing you about winning people to the Lord.

I've been pressing you about sharing the gospel. I've been pressing you about being equipped be able to lead somebody to a place of salvation. And your next ro job job with th these people is to help them get connected into relationships. uh help them to be at a place of being able to be involved in ministry, being involved in a cell group, being involved in a disciplehip group or class or to take classes.

We, you know, the the ministers that we have on staff, we can't do all of that. Our church got 10,000, well more than 10,000 people that are members of it. We have a whole lot of more people. We probably average about eight or nine,000 that come on the weekend, but there's a lot more members than that.

And it's our job and our assignment to help get others connected and plugged into what's happening at the church and and and and what we hope happens is that they develop relationships through that. All right. Here's the next arena what I want to talk about. I want to talk about ministry involvement.

Now, this too is an important deal that we want people to be engaged in ministry. Now um again 129 ministries. We got choirs and ushers and [clears throat] all kinds of group that serve the community that go to the nursing homes that go to the prisons that that feed the hungry on the weekends.

We we we have so many activities that people can serve and I'm grateful for that. We we're always looking for even more people to serve. But here's here's what I want to say about ministry involvement. Here's the piece I want to highlight. We are called to help people discover what their spiritual gift is.

We have to help people discover how God has equipped them, what God has put inside of them, what anointing God's given them. Now, I'm going to take the rest of today and just take a look at some scriptures that talk about a variety of gifts. And so, what that means is you need to understand the gifts.

You need to understand what the gifts are and how the gifts work for you. What is your gift and how they are the function? So let let me just take a moment and talk about u there's three categories of gifts. Three categories. Here's the first one. The first one is called motivational gifts.

Motivational gifts. And there are seven motivational gifts. Seven of them. Seven motivational gifts. Um and uh let me take you to Romans chapter 12. That's going to show us the first um these first seven gifts um that are motivational. Now what's a motivational gift? Let me talk about what that means for a second.

Um let me talk about what a motivational gift. A motivational gift is a gift that motivates you. This is why you are motivated to do what you do. Every one of us are are are motivated by something. And that's actually the first gift that you have to identify is what what does God use to motivate you to do what you do?

And I would challenge everybody to learn what your motivational gift is. Here they are. They're all located right here in Romans 12:es 6-8. Here's what it says. Having then gifts, differing according to the grace that is given to us. I love that right here. God gives each of us grace to function in our gifts.

Let us use them. So we got to we got to learn what our gifts are and exercise and use them. If prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith. or ministry, let us use it in our ministering. He who teaches in teaching. He who exhorts in exhortation.

He who gives with liberality. He who leads with diligence. He who shows mercy with cheerfulness. These are the seven motivational gifts. And God wants us to understand um how we're motivated. And my my motivational gift is mercy. I'm motivated because of the pain that I that other people feel.

I I can identify with pain that other people go through. God wants us to understand whatever. Matter of fact, we have classes to go through with how each one of these gifts, how you recognize them, how how they function and flow. I I I don't have time to go through each one of these seven all of these I got all these categories of gifts to teach you.

So, but we got classes to teach you how how to identify your gifts and know what his motivation. So, that's the first thing is the seven motivational gifts. The second piece here in this Oh. Oh, yeah. I read all of those. Let let me give you the second area of gifts are called ministry gifts.

God gives us and there are ministry gifts. Your motivational gifts motivates you to function in some ministry aspect or in some ministry way. So, so, uh, I'm a mercy person, but I'm motivated to do what I do and to function the way I function and to do some things and carry out some things, uh, in ministry based on how God has equipped me to function in ministry.

And he's done the same thing for each one of you. What What are the ministry gifts? 1 Corinthians chapter 12, there's eight ministry gifts. Verses 27 through31. verses 27-31. Now you are the body of Christ and members individually and God has appointed these in the church. First apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, administrations, variety of tongues.

Those are the eight. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? And the answer to every one of those questions is no. You you don't function in everybody doesn't have all these gifts.

Verse 30 uh verse 31, but earnestly desire the best gifts and yet I show you a more excellent way. Find out what it is. What is the gift that best functions in you that's that's greatly manifested in you. That's what that word best means. U the the greater gifts.

Find out what what when you do what it is God called you to do in one of these arenas, God's called you to do what he's called and anointed you to do. Um desire to be that. Desire to function in the way your motivational gift will motivate you to do some things that you will be excellent in, that you will be fabulous in, that you'll be anointed in. and find that gifts and function in that.

And that's the the most excellent thing you can do is to do what it is God has called you to do. Don't try to be everything to everybody and do everything that everybody's called you to do, but try to figure out and learn what it is God has gifted for you to do in the body of Christ.

Now, here's the third and final ministry involvement with these gifts. This the third category gifts. So we've talked about the seven motivational gifts, the eight ministry gifts and then there are nine manifestational gifts. These are nine manifestation gifts. Now what are manif manifestation gifts? These are gifts that are supernatural expressions of God that function through you.

So when you are functioning in what God called you to do and you are motivated and you're exercising gifts, there will be some manifestations that come from that. there will be some ways that God gets glory and will supernaturally do some things uh through you that are beyond um this um let me I I I put on I I I gave them verse seven but it actually I gave them verse eight but it actually starts at verse 7.

So um let me read verse 7. It's not going to come up. Um, it'll start at verse 8 cuz I only gave them verse 8 through 10, but it's actually verse 7 through there. There they go. That super sharp, super fantastic production, people. Even though I didn't give them verse eight, they I didn't give them verse seven, but they got it.

Here's what it says. But the manifestation of the spirit is given to each one for the profit of all. So God's given manifestation gifts to each of us has something that will function supernaturally out of us that will profit the body of Christ. Verse eight. For to one is given the word of wisdom through the spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.

Amen. And let me just while I'm here, let me go ahead and read verse 11. But to one and the same spirit, but one and the same spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as he wills. All of that means and all that says, it concludes to tell us basically this.

God will supernaturally exhibit his power and might through you. And and here's the whole thing I'm trying to tell you. Here's what I'm trying to say. Take these classes so that you'll number one know what your gift is. that you'll know what your motivational gift is, what your ministry gifts are, and and then there are opportunities that God will use to manifest himself through you as you learn to function in the gifts that God has given to you.

I think that's what God has called us to do. And I want you to learn these things not only so that you'll know about yourself that you will be able to empower others to be and do what it is God's called them to do. That as a matter of fact, that is ultimately what God wants us to be and what he wants us to do.

He's anointed us. He's gifted us to help people get involved and recognize and function in the gifts that God has given to them. Now, you know, uh I you can't, you know, you cannot always tell other people what their gifts are, but you can know what your gifts are and you can help teach them how these gifts gifts function.

We want to be able to tell people here's how the spirit of God functions. Here's what God does. Here's how God achieves what he wants to achieve. This is the work of the spirit of God. This is what the Holy Spirit does. This is how he functions. And it is it is our job as the saints of God to help other people get fully engrafted and embraced.

Um you know, uh this is what God is calling us to help people become what it is that God wants them to do and to become. And my and my stress to you is identify your gifts, learn what God has called you to do and be prepared to help others learn their gifts.

So I think it's very very important and I think that's powerful and significant and amazing that if we could learn these things and teach others, God would be pleased and he would be excited about it. So let me give you one last thing and then I'll take a few questions.

I see we have some questions coming in. Here's here's uh n uh number number four talks about meeting needs. Here's why people go to church because they get their needs met. And here's what God is calling churches and individuals to do is to serve others to help meet people's needs.

I believe that God has equipped you and empowered you and anointed you to help be a blessing to meet somebody else's needs. Some of you have lived life and you know you wouldn't be where you are today had not God used somebody to meet your need. If you had not if you had not met somebody who took the time and made the effort and helped you to get to a place where you would be able to recognize um some you know recognize your needs uh to be met or or help somebody else get their needs met.

That's what I'm trying to say. Help somebody else get their needs met. Some of you have resources. Some of you have doors that God has made available to you that you can open for people. Some of you have resources. Some of you have knowledge. And this is the greatest thing the church can do.

Use what God has given you to bless somebody else. Use what God has done for you to help empower somebody, to open a door for somebody, to help them find a job somewhere, to help them uh train their kids, to help whatever it is. The body of Christ can do so much to make the world a better place.

And I believe somewhere in the in the in the track of your journey, there's some things that God has spoken to you and said to you because he wants you to meet some needs. So, I encourage you to do that. So, I'm going to stop right here tonight and pick up next week with the rest of the these matters.

But here's the things that draw people to the kingdom of God. This is these these four areas are the first four areas and I' I've got three more next week that I'll talk about that God wants you and I to utilize to learn to embrace to help us get people connected and get people to stay with the body of Christ and to stay in God's kingdom.

Now, I do have a few questions. Let me talk let me see if I can answer some of these. Here's first question. If my church is not addressing some of the 10 reasons that people attend church, what is the best way I can suggest an idea to the leadership?

So the first thing the first thing I would tell you to do is pray for the leadership of your church, pray for them. And second thing I would tell you to do is whatever area God has gifted you in, go and offer to serve and help implement that in your church.

So when I first became the pastor of this church, we didn't have all these we didn't have all of these ministries. We I think we had 32 clubs and as we taught and instructed people, people would volunteer to start ministries, volunteer to do things and and I think the greatest thing you do is pray for your church and the leadership of the church and find an area that God has gifted you in and offer to sacrifice that.

And let me tell you this selfless uh what's the word? Uh uh uh self a self uh uh let me make a recommendation to you. Shameless promotion here. Shameless promotion. Uh urge them to get my book grace to grow because that details some of the areas in our church that have made a significant impact on our church to help our church grow and be everything God wants it to be.

I I go through there's 17 chapters in that book and I go some many of those chapters deal with areas of ministry that we established in our church through people volunteering and how we volunteered, how they volunteered and what they did and the mistakes they made and how they got it going.

And I would encourage you to uh encourage your pastor and members of the church to get the book. You can get it from our church bookstore. You can even go to Amazon. It's called Grace to Grow and get the book and read it. I believe it will be a blessing to you.

Um, okay. Like, I love to volunteer, but what if my volunteering turns but what if my volunteering turns into teaching? Well, if you Hey, if you're teaching people to uh do the um the things of God, uh then that's great. That's wonderful. Uh maybe that's your gift is teaching.

Here's another question. What does the Bible say about suing an employer when the conflict has caused has crossed the line? Again, I do think um you know, I don't know if um this is a secular employee employment or a religious employment, but again, the principle is still the same.

Matthew 18, you still follow Matthew 18. Um you go to them privately, you take two or three witnesses. If they don't, then you take it to the leadership of the church and you try to resolve it. And and by the way, here here's here's another thing that I think is important.

So, uh I believe every pastor should have a pastor. I believe every pastor to have somebody over that pastor that even if the pastor won't hear it then somebody can uh that in that church who feel that even the pastor is not correcting or or or dealing with it then go to that pastor's pastor.

I wouldn't belong to a church where where the pastor didn't have a pastor. So you you always got to have somebody that you can appeal to. Uh so that's what I would tell you to do. Here's question three. Please go over the definition of ministry gifts again. Also, how are they different than manifestational gifts?

Ministry gifts are what you what you do in the church. Manifestational gifts are what God does. That's the big difference. It's the manif manifestation gifts are God doing supernatural things. That's manifestation. Ministry gifts are things that the members of the church do on a regular. You do it.

This is not a manifestational gift of where something supernatural is happening. That's what manifestational gifts are. God supernaturally doing something. Ministry gifts are things that you do that you feel called, you're equipped, you're anointed and gifted to do uh based on how you're motivated. So that's what the difference is.

I hope that answers your question. Hi pastor, how can I use SBI and lover at work, especially if there's an issue with a manager? Also, how can I discern my gift? It seems to overlap. Like I love to volunteer, but what if my volunteering turns into teaching? So you might be a teacher number one.

Um SBI and lover uh uh you know you you can still approach somebody somebody uh at work and use SBI. And if somebody approaches you, you can still lose a lover. If you need to go to a coworker or supervisor or anybody that has hurt you, you can still use SBI.

If somebody comes to you with a with a problem that they're hurt by something you did, you can still use lover. You still listen. You still try to understand. You still validate. You still apologize. You still make amends wherever you can. So it's still the principles there still work either way or another.

How can I overcome low self-esteem? This prevents me from speaking to people. You got to obey God. You got to do what the Lord teaches us. We are disciples of Jesus and he's called us to do what it is that's we want to flow and function in the teachings of scripture.

And so you got to get over that and be obedient to that. Okay. And again somebody here is no question number six. How do I apply SBI and love if a person is not a believer? Again same same thing that on your workplace you can still SBI a person.

You still go with the situation the behavior that they did the impact to you. Yeah. This is a this is a way to function and a way to do it. You know what? I'm going to have to stop here. Um I'm I'm I'm over time. I'm supposed to finish around five of so I can give you some announcements and uh play the news and be done by 8:00.

So I'm a little bit over time here. We'll pick this up next week. Let me give you a couple of announcements that are very important. Here's number one. Tomorrow, I'm sorry we didn't announce this on Sunday. This slipped through the news somehow. Tomorrow night, uh Wednesday night at 7:00, uh I am preaching at one of our son's church, uh Pastor Bobby Manning.

Uh, I'll be ministering at uh, First Baptist Church of District Heights, 7 p.m. The address is 7234 Lansdale Street in District Heights, Maryland. Let me give that to you again. 7234 Lans Lansdale Street, District Heights, Maryland. We're going to try to get that put on our website for people who want to go want to go.

Um, and I'm inviting you all to come and hang with us. They are closing out their season of fasting and praying and uh he's asked me to come. By the way, we have uh transportation going. If you want to catch the church vehicles to go, just register and the registration for this is on the website.

So, let me encourage you to do that. Uh amen. Tomorrow night, February 25th. And then on Mar, March the 9th, let me give you this date, too. Monday, March 9th, there's a national day of prayer that's going to be it's actually going to be a prayer season with people all around the country praying.

It's going to be recorded and aired later on national television. And we are the we our uh family, church family is going to be representing Washington DC and I'm trying to get at least 500 of you to go. I think we got about 250 that have registered. Can I get another 250 of you to join me in this prayer day of prayer?

It's going to be at the Museum of the Bible 7 p.m. And again, um, we've got, actually, we got 300 people registered. We only need 200 more. Uh, I committed to trying to bring 500 people. And again, we got transportation going. And you can go to the website for the March the 9th Day of Prayer at the Museum of the Bible in Washington DC.

And I'm hoping that you will come and join me as we uh prayed with others around the country in the name of the Lord. I love you. If you don't know the Lord Jesus, they're going to put a thing up on the screen that you can call us.

You can accept the Lord Jesus Christ and get forgiveness of your sins. You can uh rededicate yourself to God if you backslid. You can join our church. If you don't have a church and you want to join our church or you feel God leading you to join the First Baptist Church of Glennard, we are a great church for you to be a part of.

I hope that you would come and join us. Uh or if you're unsure of your salvation, we can help you get blessed assurance. God wants you to know that you're ((music playing)) saved. So, just hit that call that phone number, hit that uh link or hit send it to that email ((music playing)) and we will more than willing be willing to take care of you and help you become everything God wants you to be.

I love you. Hey, thank y'all for joining me back tonight. Here we are after so many months. We're back together and I want you to know I love you and I thank God for you. I'll see you next time. >> This is FBCG News. ((music playing)) >> Be a disciple and make a disciple.

((music playing)) Be a disciple and make a disciple. Here's what's happening on our church calendar. This is the last week to register for the institute's spring courses. Classes on blended families, marriage, singleness, ((music playing)) leadership, and more are designed to equip you with practical tools to support your disciplehip journey. ((music playing)) Register today at fbcg glennard.org/theinstitutes.

Do you have a passion for seeing the next generation thrive? ((music playing)) If you're looking for a way to pour into the lives of young people, we invite you to information night for the youth unashamed ministry. At night, you'll get an inside look at the mission and vision of our unashamed ((music playing)) ministry.

Meet our leadership team and discover how you can become a volunteer to help guide the next generation of disciples. ((music playing)) Register today at fbc glennharden.org/inite. Then the following week, our youth high school worship service returns. Join us on Friday, March 6th at 7 p.m. for the relaunch of unashamed.

((music playing)) This is a dedicated space for all high school students to come together for a night of worship, community, and spiritual growth. We can't wait to see you there. >> Monday, March ((music playing)) 9th at 700 p.m., join Pastor Jenkins and believers from across the nation for a national day of prayer gathering at the Museum of the Bible.

If you plan to ((music playing)) attend, please register. FBCG will provide transportation from the worship center ((music playing)) departing at 5:00 p.m. Parking at the museum is limited, so using church transportation is highly recommended. Please register ((music playing)) today at fbcgardarden.org/transport. The Special Needs Ministry invites you to an evening of elegance March 20th, 6 p.m. at the Ministry Center.

This is a joyful night designed for individuals with special needs, ages 14 and older. Guests will enjoy dinner, dancing, and meaningful connection in a welcoming environment centered on God's love and community. Volunteers are also needed to help make this night unforgettable for every guest. Visit our website to register and volunteer.

((music playing)) That's the news for this week. To learn more about these events, monthly gatherings, ((music playing)) and all things FBCG, visit fbclarden.org. >> ((music playing)) ((music playing)) >> One direction forward.