Live Free with Josh Howerton - Don’t Try to Be Super-Pastor // Acts 6:1-7

Episode Date: November 15, 2024

As the early church continued to grow, the apostles realized they needed help caring for the people. Instead of trying to do everything themselves, they wisely chose other qualified people to serve those in need. God gifts different people for different areas of service because He loves seeing everyone in the church working together. How can you use the gifts God has given you for the benefit of the church?    For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's Word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.comit. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, what is up, everybody? Thanks for joining us on the Daily Drive on this Friday. My name is Bro, and together we've been walking through the book of Acts,

and today we come to Chapter 6, and we see how the church is crossing more and more cultural lines, and it complicates things. Again, this thing called the church is a brand new thing, and it is exploding in growth. And with growth comes new challenges and new strategies, and with growth comes more and more people with more and more needs, and that's what's happening in Chapter 6. Now, most of the people in the early church were more traditional Jews that spoke Hebrew or Aramaic, but there are also many of the Greek-speaking Jews known as the Hellenists who were also coming to Christ,

and it comes to the attention of the leaders that a number of those Hellenistic widows weren't receiving adequate care. And there were rumblings of inequity between the two groups. So the apostles call a meeting and say, You know what, guys, not that we're too good for this, but we really need to be about prayer, teaching the word and spreading the good news. We've got to figure out a better way to do a benevolence ministry than the 12 of us trying to juggle all these things. So they come up with a plan to delegate.

They let some caring, gifted, full of the spirit guise run the food pantry so that everybody would be adequately taken care of. And this move to let go of ministry and to allow other people in the body of Christ to lead was brilliant. And by the way, it was always God's plan. I was in my first lead pastor job with little church in Kentucky, and I really want to do a good job. My energies were running really high. Plus, I'd always been a hard worker,

so I pretty much painted a huge red S on my chest and tried to be super pastor. One Thursday afternoon, I'll never forget, was a defining moment in my life and ministry. I had just finished gluing the clip art on the church newsletter that I had written, so that I could take it to the print shop and have 500 copies ready to be mailed out, I would pick them up later so that I could hand fold them and I could put the mailing labels on them.

But before I left for the printers, I photocopied the worship music and stuffed the pages that I had stapled into the green choir folders so that when I led the rehearsal that evening, they would have everything they needed. And I told myself that after I put the finishing touches on the introduction of a sermon, I was swinging by the hospital on the way to the print shop and see someone's aunt who had inner ear problems and then get back before dark so I could mow the church lawn. I really wish I was, but I'm not making any of this up. And sitting there on the church lawn tractor, ready to mow, God spoke to this young, hardworking, hard-charging, multitasking pastor and said,

bro, you're an idiot. I said, excuse me? He said, you heard me. Man, you're killing yourself. You're neglecting your family. You're stifling the health and vitality of this church because you think you're the one and only he's super pastor. I said, no, I don't. Yeah, you do. Mike, I told you in Romans 12 that you should not think of yourself more highly

than you ought to think, but you do. And I know you've read that passage, but go back to your office, read it again, because it says, if you can teach, teach, if you can lead, lead. If you can encourage, encourage, if you can give, give. You get my point, Mike, you don't have all the gifts. I didn't give you all the gifts. So don't think of yourself more highly than you ought to think. I gave you a couple of gifts. I want you to use those to the fullest. But by trying to exercise all of them, you're acting like a cork in the neck of the bottle. You got all these little epipresent bubbles in the bottom of screaming, come on, let us out, let us play, let us serve, let us use our gifts. But you say, no, no, no, I'll take care of it all.

That's why you hired me because I am super pastor. Mike, you're killing this church by doing it all. And that was never my design for the church, never my design for you or anybody else. Well, I stood in front of the congregation the next week, and I apologized for the way I was working way too hard and way too much, for the way that I was robbing them of the thrill of using their gifts. And I apologize for the way I'd allowed myself, almost unknowingly, to draw a distinction between, like, anointed clergy and ordinary lay people.

And I apologize for the way I'd allowed them to put me on some kind of professional, pastoral, priestly kind of pedestal, and I confessed the way being super pastor gave me an adrenaline rush and fed an unhealthy sense of approval, pride, and ego in my life. I apologized even repentant for the way I had disrespected the genius of God for the way he designed the church with all kinds of gifts and all kinds of people. And I began to teach about the importance of team. And I started challenging people to get out of the bleachers and onto the playing field.

And I gave up my unhealthy need to lead it all and do it all. and we started helping everybody in the church discover their giftedness, and they began to serve in areas of ministry that not only deeply satisfied them, but also allowed our ministry to explode, because finally the right people were released to be who God made them to be, and we were doing it as a team. Oh, the genius of God. You know, God's spirit has always flowed through any ordinary person

who would be open and humbly available to him, and the early church was learning that not just some, But everyone has access to God. Not just some, but everyone has supernatural power of the Holy Spirit in them. Not just a few, but everyone has gifts. Not just 12 are chosen leaders, but everyone has been chosen to carry God's love and hope to this world. Look at one of the original 12. An extremely ordinary former fisherman named Peter writes about us.

He says, but you, you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God that you may declare the praises of him who call. you out of darkness into his wonderful light. And Gang Peter wasn't speaking at a professional pastor's conference when he said that. He was writing to everyday ordinary people like you and me. There's absolutely no distinction between a few elite spiritual superstars and the rest of us. All of us are chosen. All of us are called. All of us are saved. All of us are redeemed, anointed, recycled, equipped. All of us are gifted to make the wonderful light of God known in this dark world. Again, look at what. Peter writes, and he was one of these guys in Acts chapter 6 who makes this decision to delegate.

Later in his life, he writes this in 1st Peter chapter 4. God has given gifts to each of you from his great variety of spiritual gifts, manage them well so that God's generosity can flow through you. When we use our gifts and we allow God's generosity to flow through us, we stand back and say, man, I was made for this. And the church flourishes and the world takes us. notice of the goodness of God. I love the way the message puts 1 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 6 and 7. Each person is given something to do that shows who God is. Everyone gets in on it. Everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit to all kinds of people, and the variety is wonderful. Isn't that cool? I mean, only God. I mean, it's kind of like Oprah.

You get a gift, and you get a gift, and you get a gift. Every Christ follower gets a grace gift of the Holy Spirit that has been given for the common good of the church. Everyone gets in on it and everyone benefits. You benefit because you start to be fulfilled by being used in your unique way. The church benefits because it starts playing as a team. And the world benefits because the church is now functioning as the agent of God's truth and love and compassion and generosity as it was meant to be. We all get to be a part of the wonderful variety.

And I love how it said, each person is given something to do. that shows who God is. If everybody embraces who they are and allow God to use them, then all the needs get met. Nobody's overworked in the process. Nobody burns out. Nobody gets jealous of somebody else's gifts. And in the process, a watching world has their jaw drop open a bit as they stand in all of the God behind the gift. And they say, oh, I think I may have just seen a glimpse of who God is through you. Now, one of those men that they choose, that they delegate to as a guy named Stephen. And we're going to meet him on Monday,

so I hope you come on back for that. Until then, why not use your unique God-given gifts to serve somebody over this weekend? I'll see you back here on Monday. Have a great weekend. Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services

on Saturdays and Sundays. For more information about all the digital ministries of Lake Point, visit Lake Point, dot church slash daily drive. Also, if this podcast was helpful to you, would you be sure to rate, review, and share this podcast to help get the word out.