Latest / Enjoying the Journey / Do What You Can

Transcript

Do What You Can · Enjoying the Journey

• 0:08
  In our busy world, family time is frequently neglected.
• 0:13
  It is vital that we give attention to our families while
• 0:17
  we can, and it is especially important to give attention to what
• 0:21
  God says in his word about our homes. For the
• 0:25
  next few moments, let's join Scott Pauley as we open the scriptures
• 0:28
  and and find God's message for your family.
• 0:39
  One danger in the study of family is that
• 0:43
  though you want the best for your family, if you're not careful,
• 0:47
  you can almost become self-centered even about that.
• 0:50
  For example, you can study and pray and, and work
• 0:55
  on your home life only thinking about the people that live under your roof.
• 0:59
  I want you to know that God's perspective is when families are what
• 1:02
  they ought to be, then those families become
• 1:06
  conduits of his grace to others. They become channels for
• 1:10
  his truth. They become the means by which a church is helped,
• 1:14
  a community is blessed, a city is turned to Christ.
• 1:18
  And such is the example of Aquila and Priscilla.
• 1:21
  Now, we We've been in Acts chapter 18, and I've given you a number
• 1:25
  of just practical things that we learned from Aquila and Priscilla's example,
• 1:30
  but I want to bring you to a couple of other scriptures today. Remember I
• 1:33
  said to you they show up in 4 different New Testament books? Well,
• 1:36
  we're first introduced to them in Acts 18, and there we learned that they just
• 1:40
  started right where they were, and I hope you'll start right where you are.
• 1:44
  But let me bring you to 2 other texts today and show you that they
• 1:47
  did what they could. And I want to challenge you to do what you can.
• 1:51
  The first scripture is Romans 16. Romans 16,
• 1:54
  verses 3, 4, and 5. Paul writes to the church at Rome and says
• 1:58
  this: Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers
• 2:02
  in Christ Jesus. Now, 2 interesting things here. First, Priscilla's name comes
• 2:06
  first. Remember, we talked about that before. Perhaps she's
• 2:10
  the more prominent personality, but the important thing is not personality.
• 2:14
  The important thing is spirituality. And Aquila and Priscilla were
• 2:18
  spiritual people. They're serving God together. And notice
• 2:22
  how he identifies them as his helpers in Christ Jesus.
• 2:25
  I believe in the ministry of helps. I believe in the gift of
• 2:30
  helps. And I want you to know that though everybody cannot lead,
• 2:34
  and everybody's not going to be in charge, and everybody's not going to be a
• 2:38
  pastor or a deacon, everybody can be a helper.
• 2:41
  Would you ask God to make you a helper today? Pastor Sexton
• 2:46
  used to say to us that in a local church everyone does one of two
• 2:49
  things: they either pastor the church or they help someone pastor
• 2:53
  the church. I like that. So you're either called of God to lead
• 2:57
  and feed, or you're helping. And if you help God's
• 3:01
  servant, you're helping all those he ministers to. So Paul said, they are my helpers
• 3:05
  in Christ Jesus. And then he goes further: who have
• 3:08
  for my life laid down their own necks
• 3:13
  unto whom not only I give thanks but also all the churches
• 3:17
  of the Gentiles. Likewise greet the church that
• 3:21
  is in their house. Do you see how God's work in them became
• 3:25
  God's work through them? That it didn't dead end with Aquila and Priscilla and somebody
• 3:29
  says, well, they have a nice family, well, they have a great home. No,
• 3:32
  no, their family, their home became
• 3:35
  the platform by which then they were able to minister to others.
• 3:39
  We saw a little of that in Acts 18 when they taught Apollos.
• 3:43
  Remember that? Teaching others what they've been taught. But now let me
• 3:46
  point a couple other things out to you. The first is that they involve
• 3:50
  their entire household in the work of the local church.
• 3:54
  Did you notice here that in Romans 16, verse 5,
• 3:57
  the Bible says the church met in their house?
• 4:01
  They literally allowed the church to meet in their living room.
• 4:06
  That may not seem an amazing thing to you, But in the first century,
• 4:09
  when Christians were being hunted like animals, when they were being treated like criminals,
• 4:14
  when they were viewed as some crazy sect of people,
• 4:18
  some, some lunatic fringe, to allow a
• 4:22
  New Testament church, followers of Jesus Christ, to meet in your home immediately
• 4:27
  would mark you. Remember, they were, they were in a world where great persecution
• 4:31
  had come upon the church, and yet they were not afraid to be identified
• 4:36
  that way. They were not afraid to be connected to what God was doing.
• 4:40
  That same principle is repeated in another place where they're mentioned, in 1
• 4:44
  Corinthians chapter 16 and verse 19. Listen to it: The
• 4:49
  churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscilla salute you
• 4:52
  much in the Lord with the church that is in their house.
• 4:56
  So it sounds to me like over quite a period of time they
• 5:00
  allowed the local assembly to gather in their home. Now,
• 5:03
  I'm not a proponent of saying every church has to meet in a house.
• 5:08
  In this particular era, in the New Testament, they could
• 5:11
  not meet openly. They had to meet privately. I thank
• 5:15
  the Lord that we have facilities and places where we can gather together and assemble
• 5:20
  freely, and we ought to thank God for that. But I would point
• 5:23
  out to you that for them to open their house to the church meant
• 5:27
  first that they had opened their heart to God. They were heart
• 5:31
  deep in the work of the local New Testament church. We don't
• 5:35
  know if they had children, but if they did have children, think of the impact
• 5:39
  that must have had on their children. My dad tells the story of his
• 5:43
  father starting a church in their house when he was just a boy,
• 5:47
  and some very funny things actually that happened. They lived
• 5:51
  in the back of the house and the church met in the front of the
• 5:53
  house. That's an interesting and a sometimes complicated scenario,
• 5:57
  but it does reveal that someone is heart deep in the work of
• 6:02
  the local church. I want to recommend that you not only connect your family to
• 6:05
  a church where you attend, but that you involve your family in
• 6:09
  the work of the New Testament church. And then something else I would point out
• 6:12
  to you from both of these scriptures— did you notice it? In Romans
• 6:17
  16, the Bible says they were helpers, they laid down their own necks
• 6:21
  for Paul. He gave thanks for them. All the churches of the Gentiles gave
• 6:25
  thanks for them. And then in 1 Corinthians 16, the Bible says
• 6:28
  they were saluting people much in the Lord. You should
• 6:32
  take careful note that Aquila and Priscilla were encouragers.
• 6:36
  You know what an encourager is? You know when you get around somebody and they
• 6:40
  just lift your spirit, they point you to God? And it's not just personality,
• 6:44
  it's not just they're cheerful. No, they, they're spiritual people.
• 6:48
  And so they make you think of the Lord. Oh, this is something
• 6:51
  all of us ought to pray that God will make us. This is something all
• 6:54
  of us ought to desire to become. Friend, you may
• 6:58
  not be able to do many things, but you can do this thing: you
• 7:01
  can be an encourager. Do what you can right
• 7:06
  where you are. When the Bible says they saluted people much in the Lord,
• 7:10
  salute doesn't simply mean they, they put their hand to their,
• 7:13
  to their forehead. Salute means they greeted them,
• 7:17
  they spoke encouraging words, they, they reached
• 7:21
  out to people. See, I think this is a mark of a spiritual home,
• 7:25
  a spiritual family. They've not internalized everything.
• 7:28
  They've not circled the wagons and simply concentrated on themselves and
• 7:32
  become introspective. They're looking out to the needs all around them and
• 7:35
  seeing how they can meet them. Would you ask God to
• 7:40
  show you how your family can minister to another family, how your family can
• 7:44
  encourage someone who's discouraged, how your family can reach your neighborhood
• 7:48
  with the gospel. In fact, why don't you sit your
• 7:51
  family down and have a conversation about it? Brainstorm a little bit, involve even the
• 7:55
  children, get some ideas. What are some things we could do to make
• 7:59
  a difference? You see, when Aquila and Priscilla connected themselves to the work of the
• 8:03
  church, that was more than the meetings. Yes, the church met in their house.
• 8:06
  Yes, they assembled with the church, but it went beyond the meetings
• 8:10
  to the ministry. It went beyond simply an assembly once
• 8:15
  a week to each and every day seeking to do what they could right where
• 8:19
  they are. Oh, what an impact that would make on our own families,
• 8:22
  on our children, and what an impact that would make on the church and the
• 8:26
  communities where God has allowed us to live and to labor. Do you see
• 8:30
  why Aquila and Priscilla have become such a favorite of mine? I hope you're
• 8:34
  getting to know them so well that they'll become a favorite of yours. I'll remind
• 8:37
  you, you're going to meet them in heaven someday. Around the throne of God,
• 8:41
  and you're going to say, I know who you are, we read all about you,
• 8:44
  tell us more. On that day at the judgment seat,
• 8:49
  I would love for someone else to be able to say of my family that
• 8:52
  God used that family to minister to us. Would you pray
• 8:56
  today? Lord, make us like Aquila and Priscilla. Make us more
• 9:00
  the servants we ought to be in our home, with our church, and for
• 9:04
  our community. May by God's grace, all of us just
• 9:08
  do what we can. For more resources
• 9:13
  for your marriage and family, visit us at etj.bible
• 9:17
  and click on the Take the Next Step link where you'll find
• 9:21
  many Bible resources that will strengthen your marriage and equip
• 9:25
  you to raise your children in the ways of the Lord.
• 9:29
  We highly recommend Scott's book, New Testament Marriage.
• 9:33
  In it, you'll discover timeless biblical principles from the husband
• 9:37
  and wife team Aquila and Priscilla, and these principles
• 9:41
  are very applicable to your marriage today. From all
• 9:45
  of us at Enjoying the Journey, thanks for listening today,
• 9:48
  and until next time, we pray that you will enjoy
• 9:53
  the journey.