Please take your Bibles and turn, if you will, to two passages of Scripture that will read, back-to-back. The first passage of Scripture is taken from Matthew chapter 28. It's the Great Commission. Matthew chapter 28, verses 16 through 20. And then with one of your other fingers, if you would, find Acts chapter 2, and turn to verse 37, and we'll read that as well, 37 through 47 of Acts chapter 2. We will this morning in Matthew chapter 28, verse 16. But the 11 disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated. And when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some were doubtful. Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth, good, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all but I command you, and low. I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
And when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter, and through the rest of the apostles, brethren, what shall we do? Peter said to them, repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children, for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God shall call to himself. And with many other words, he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, be saved from this perverse generation. So then, those who had received His word were baptized, and they were added that day about 3,000 souls. And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching, and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. And everyone kept feeling a sense of awe, and many signs and wonders were taking place through the apostles, and all those who had believed were together and had all things in common. And they began selling their property and possessions, and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. And day by day, continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having fable with all the people. And the word was adding to their number, day by day, those who were being saved.
Seldom, brethren, do people like us have the opportunity that we have. When you think of it, a century only begins once every 100 years. And since the time that Christ spoke these words, and then ascended into heaven, leading us a great commission, there's only been 19 of them. And you and I, we get to usher in the 20th or 21st, whatever it is. I guess there's been 20 of them, and we'll get to usher in the 21st. I am a man who lives in the past most of the time. The 21st century is just six years away. Less than what it usually takes, a senator to have his full term. Oh, I didn't mean that as a joke. I mean, that's a very short time. By the time this present senate probably rotates out of its office, we will be in a new century. By the time most of our children get through college, we will be well into that century. By the time many of us who are at the end of our lives go on to be with the Lord, we will enter the kingdom through the window of the 21st century. And that means that there are many things that are going to take place in the transitory sort of nature. There are many transitions, many changes that we'll have to go through as we enter into a new era, a new eon of time. Many of the churches in our community, some across the street, some around the corner a few miles, are making decisions concerning where they will have their ministry in this new century. Some are choosing to go to the suburbs where they can lead a more sheltered life, a more convenient life perhaps. Others choose to try to remain in the city and to put a buffer between themselves and the agony in those streets, just a few yards away from us, even as we speak this morning. And others like the churches that we read about in the Saturday morning's newspaper on the front page have chosen to stay in the city and to meet those 21st century challenges head up and head on. And we, rather than on no exception, we at Trinity Presbyterian Church, we're going to have to make that decision. We're either going to go or stay, and if we stay, we're either going to be involved or we're not. The life as it has been in the past will not be able to be continued as we would like it to be in the future. We're going to have to face those challenges and face them soon. And that means that pastors, not just in Jackson, Mississippi, but all over the country, are beginning to talk to their people about what it is that God has for us as a calling. What is the ministry of the church? I mean, 40 years ago when this church was started and all of the GIs came back from the war and they got their houses and named their streets Manila and Wellington and places they had been and struggled for the sake of freedom and for the right to worship God in the way we wanted to and ultimately for the right to worship God at all, for if Hitler had his way, no one would worship the true God just him. And they came back and they built a neighborhood church and they built their homes and they had their families and they built their playgrounds and their daycare centers and they raised their children in the love and in the nurture of the Lord and they did a good job. But those days were past. Now, new generation is here. The baby boomers, 76 million of them, born between the year 1946 and the year 1964. Over three million children born every year, those 19 years and in the peak six or seven years, over four million, peaking in 1956, I believe it was, with a four and a half million children born in one 12 month period and here they are. Some of them, the older age group, reaching their mid 40s. Others just coming out of the 20s into the 30s, beginning to start families and make decisions about where they will have their family and where they will have their children and what they will do in this new generation for Christ King and if they choose to do anything at all. Like I said, I'm not the only pastor that's concerned about this. Scotty Smith is a pastor of a church in Franklin, Tennessee. That's a suburb of Nashville. It's the Christ community church. It's the church in the PCA known as having the most famous choir of all choirs. Amy Grant and Michael English and Steve Green, all of the Nashville singers and musicians who play in the country, Western and in the Christian music industry, go to church there at scene. And in his newsletter that I now receive to the help of Doddy and Chum, whose daughter goes to that church, I read just last week that Scotty Smith, the pastor there was talking to his people, writing to them in his newspaper, this newsletter about their facing the challenges of the 20th century, this church full of baby boomers. This is what he said. For Christ community in particular, I am convinced that it will involve deeper worship and a more pronounced commitment to rooting and grounding ourselves in Christ in his word and grace. And lastly, a giving of ourselves to others as centered living. I want to invest more of my time and passion and making sure that a sturdy foundation is being secured in each of our hearts at Christ community. Too many of us are unsure, wavering confused or simply untaught in the basics of the nature of God and of the Christian life. We come from so many different backgrounds, a reality for which I give thanks, but nonetheless, a situation which in time could work against us unless we are growing together in the essentials of the kingdom of God and of life together in Christ. He's concerned, as this pastor is, about his people being ready to face the challenges of the new century. And the many may say, pastor, what's for naught? I mean, isn't this century going to be the same as every century? I mean, aren't people going to get married? Have babies, raise them up, be buried, go on to be with the Lord? Well, yes, that's true. Few of us will defy that pattern. And those who do will be the only ones who are present here when the Lord returns his second time. But it's what's under the current of those observable facts of life and death and immortality that really form the warp and woof of what we struggle with today. I was in the brick store Friday after this sermon was written, after this series was planned, after we had published it and launched into it, and then I found the book entitled, Signs of Warning, Signs of Hope. Seven coming crises that will change your life. Kirby Anderson, who's the founder and president of probe ministries and that radio program, a Christian demographer who studies generations and movements of people and why they do the things they do. He said there are seven great crises that the baby boomers and their children will have to face. I believe there's eight. I'll tell you what they are at the end of the message because what we're going to find out is that as we go through Acts chapter two, which will be our name text for the next 12 weeks, that in and only in and through Jesus Christ and His church, will those eight crises, will those eight issues, will those eight problems, will those eight deep and abiding needs ever be met in their fullness in this life. No one else but Jesus Christ and His local churches are able to meet those needs and confront those crises with any semblance of hope or success. As a bold claim, many of you may disagree with me. I encourage you to do so and to debate with me and talk with me, but it is my goal to convince you by the end of 12 weeks that there is no place like Trinity Presbyterian Church to meet those eight deep seated needs and confront those terrible challenges of the 21st century and no one but we in Christ. Are we able to do that? No one. Because there are more than just demographic changes, there's spiritual and fundamental changes. I'll give you many examples of that as we go on to prove the point, I hope. But let me share just one with you this morning before we get into the text. Back in 1924, two sociologists took a survey and a place they said then published as middle town America. Later we found out it was monthly Indiana, right there in the heartthrob of the nation for God and His people live in the Midwest. And they asked these mothers, I took a survey of housewives and they said in 1924, they gave them a list of different character traits and qualities and they said list them from one to the end of what you think are the most important character qualities that need to be instilled in your children. Let me tell you what the first three and the last three were. The first three in this order were a commitment to God in His church. Second, a, a willingness to be obedient, strictly obedient to authority. And thirdly, this was the third one, a desire mothers had for them to have good manners. Commitments to God in His church, strict obedience, good manners, one, two, three. Here are the last three. Independence, tolerance, social mindedness. Interesting, isn't it? In 1924, they wanted their children to conform and be part of a larger thing than their own lives, the church, authority, good manners. They didn't want their children to be autonomous and independent, rebellious and just concerned with social relationships. 1978, they returned to Muncie, Indiana. They gave to the granddaughters of these women the exact same test and the results were 100% inverted. The first three values mothers in 1978, one of their children to have were listed in this order, a sense of independence from anyone and any authority, a toleration for all views and a socially minded and socially responsible life. At the very bottom and last place was a commitment to God and His church. Two generations, and it was all flipped around. And that is what we're dealing with today. How does the church go forward into and time when independence, tolerance, autonomy are the rule of the day and a commitment to our God who saved us and the church of Jesus Christ is dead last and left over for whatever time we have. Those 76 million baby boomers are said by one survey after another to be the most religious group of Americans that have ever been born. 22% proclaimed to be born again and have a personal and satisfying relationship with Jesus Christ, but over 50% of those 76 million baby boomers said that they seldom that ever attend church and have no desire to have church in this mainstream of their life. The majority of them, over 70% when asked to explain what it is that has happened to them to bring them into a relationship with God, could not give any answer whatsoever. That's what we're dealing with, and it's you. It's me. It's just one of the good things about being 45 and not 65 at this moment. That I get to address my own generation and no one is able to say, well he doesn't understand that he's old, but he's too young to know what he's talking about. I am the boomer, pastled loafers, popular suits, the whole thing. I'm one of you looking at us and disturbed, challenged by what I see. Yet at the same time, like any baby boomer that's also been called the most arrogant generation, I am confident that we have by God's grace within us all the resources and spiritual gifts and the power of God to accomplish what he wants to accomplish and to see the church through successfully to what may be its last century on this earth. And so we will study two things back to back. First, for the next 12 weeks, the dynamic church. But we need to ask ourselves three things. What do we believe? What is the ministry of the church? And what is my responsibility as an individual Christian? What do we believe if we believe anything? Or we like those baby boomers that say, yes, I have a personal relationship with God that I can't tell you his name or what he's like or what he expects from me in this relationship. What is the ministry of the church? Is it just to have nice programs for all of our children, the baby busters they call them, and then to leave the church and go our own way. And what is my part and your part of individually as a Christian in this whole drama of God's life continuing to be lived out in this world through his church? So we'll study back to back. First of all, the dynamic church and then the apostle's tree. What the church is called to do and what we are to believe. And I hope that the end of these weeks however long it takes will nail down. What is the ministry of Trinity Presbyterian Church? And I hope we'll have planted enough seeds to decide together where we will go and how we will minister and what we will do in the days to come. Whether it's out the Yapi land or down into the city, we'll face that together, I hope. And we'll do it with a conviction in our mind that there is one faith once delivered to the saints for all times for which we have been given the privilege of knowing and the responsibility of the sacred trust of preserving and propagating to a generation yet to come that is perhaps more ignorant of God in his ways than even we are in this age. So what I want to do this morning and looking at these two passages is just give you an overview. If you're a note taker, this will be easy. If you want to pick a part verse for verse, this will be frustrating this morning because I'm just going to go over something generally and then we'll come back and go through with a fine tooth comb for the next 12 weeks. But first we'll look at understanding the dynamic church this morning. What does the Bible say when it describes the dynamic church? Then we will look at applying the principles of a dynamic church. How are we going to organize Trinity Church so that it is and can become a dynamic church and thirdly we'll look at involvement in the dynamic church. We'll begin to see what your part may be in this great cause of Jesus Christ. First let's understand what a dynamic church is from the Bible. First of all I believe the scripture says that a dynamic church is one with a single passion or through the book of Acts and all of the epistles that are smuddled in chronologically as they were written in this time frame of the book of Acts. Indicate that there was one single passion that drove the church in the early days forward into evangelism and niches into the jaws of Rome and even to death itself. That was an unbridled passion for Jesus Christ and the brethren. They really took the heart. What Jesus said when he was asked by a young lawyer, warriors have a way of asking those questions. What is the greatest commandment? What is the greatest calling? What's the one thing we need to do? Jesus real around on his heels and shot forward immediately. There was one commandment that is the greatest. You shall love the Lord God with all of your heart and soul and mind and strength and there was a second like unto it. You cannot love God if you do not love your neighbor as yourself. And they're loved for God and for Christ who was real to them who had been there just a few days before and now it ascended to heaven. 10 days later the spirit fell on them and they preached in evangelism and a great harvest came 3000 souls so that within a week's time, 3,120 people plus were the members of the church and all united by a single passion to know God and to love God and to know and serve the brethren that were united to him by faith. And brethren, that has to continue to be the hallmark of the church. This is an age of disloyalty, of apathy where people seem to only get excited about what they themselves are doing. We've lost the vision for loving a God who we cannot see and the people to whom are not blood related to and maybe that's why we're floundering as a church. Maybe our passion has grown cold. Maybe we're grateful to God for what he's done. Maybe we like Jesus because he's a great guy with the number one thing that we need to capture for ourselves and recapture if we've lost it is an unbridled passion and all consuming passion for Jesus Christ. Nothing can replace that. I don't know how slick the minister is and how professional the program is if it's cold and the life of God is out of our hearts. If the thing that doesn't get us up in the morning and put us in bed at night so we can look forward to getting the next day is not a love for Jesus Christ. Let's be done with this talk about a personal relationship with God and settle into a religion, a dead one like Judaism, like the one that the Holy Spirit fell into on Pentecost Sunday in blue pieces and out of it like a flower. Awesome, this passion for God and for the kingdom that he was building. A dynamic church has in addition to a single passion and has a double focus. There are two points of focus that guided the church in the New Testament. One was evangelism and one was edification. One was reaching the loss, the unconverted and bringing them to no Christ in his grace and forgiveness from sins. The other was taking those who were saved and building them up to know God better and serve him more faithfully. You know the church for it seems all of my life in the ministry for all of my life as a Christian for that matter is argued what the calling of the church really is. There seem to be six different models that we are able to choose from in this shopping center age, this consumer mentality. We could have the evangelistic church where everything is outward oriented and the goal is to get people in the church and fill them up with people who've given a nod to Christ and ask him into their heart whatever that may mean. A second model is the worshiping church. That is not a focus on people but a focus on God. The question that we ask ourselves is what is God's ultimate calling and the people who are into worship church say what is to worship God? That's what we do in heaven, that's what we do forever, that's what we ought to do now. And as long as we rightly worship God everything else in the Christian life will flow from good biblical worship. That doesn't work that way. It's not that simple. There are many churches that have doxological evangelism. People come to the church and watch this fabulous worship service and then that's all they do. That's what Scottie Smith's concerned about. He's got this fabulous program. He's marvelous musicians that he's an excellent preacher, one of the best ones in the PCA but he's concerned that they don't know the doctrine, that they're not needing the needs of the great commission, that they're not ministering the salt and light in the community, that they're in this music ghetto down in uprooland and that's all that's consumed their minds and hearts and he's wanting them to get beyond the worship. Some people say it's mercy ministry. Well there's the church some men saying if it's not in the world to be salt and light to the poor, to the needy, to the elderly, to the disenfranchised, to the hurting, if the church doesn't care about people that it closed its doors and gets some other government agency that God can use to do so. And who can deny that mercy, compassion, working with black people and poor people and immigrant people and lonely people have been the one thing the evangelical church has not taken seriously. My Bible studies come out our ears but roll up our sleeves and get dirty with the unclean of society. That's not been the mark of an evangelical. What about a church that's a discipleship church? We get them in and we teach them how to memorize scripture and do Bible study and teach in their spiritual gift because if you don't get them to work they're probably not saved. Save the serve. That's the motto. You've written this pulpit right from these depraved lips. Save the serve. It's true. We're not saved to sit and soak. We're saved to serve. We need to be disciples to quit. Others will say no. They're your close pastor but really the church is really to the teaching church. Teaching church. What a beautiful word. You can eat that for lunch. Good meal. Doctrine and study and expository sermons and you know out of good doctrine flows good breathing. You heard that from this pulpit as well. That's an over simplification. We can learn all the doctrine we want to and still not serve the church of Jesus Christ or the king like we ought to and so some people say finally you've all missed about it's fellowship. It's one big for small happy family intimate relationships small groups carrying 12 steps warm and fuzzy hundreds of kisses get in touch with that feeling or we're fellowships the thing they were going to do you know the problem folks is all of those things are true all of them are true and those six dimensions are the ministry and we've got to do them all fact is most of us churches do one better than the other five but that doesn't excuse it away it is our goal to do all of them well to edify and to evangelize that is what the church is called to do a third mark about dynamic church is simply this it's a church that is committed to four types of relationships four kinds of relationships you can find that easily as you look at Acts chapter two and the easiest way to see it is in a picture form to look at the cross there are relationships that have to do with upreach namely our relationship with God and with Christ such things as worship and prayer and vision and having a heart for God that we spoke about that has to do with our living and intimate relationship with God for apart from that there's no relationship that makes any difference in this life but there's also in addition to an upreach dimension there's a downreach dimension they were not only establishing with God through Christ and having a living relationship with him they were rooted it says in the apostles teaching and in the prophets of the Old Testament they had grounded themselves they'd anchored themselves at the base of that cross into the generations that had gone before them and the faith ones delivered to the saints not only did have a living relationship with God the Father they had a living relationship with the Word of God living and written in the person of Christ and the Apostolic teaching of the Bible thirdly they had a relationship that was outreach they were reaching out to people seeking and saving that which was lost and they had a relationship that was in reach fellowship they did love and care and take care of one another and give to one another and share their life together upreach with a relationship with God down reach an relationship to the apostles and prophets and the living Word outreach to the unconverted in reach to the fellowship of the saints those four relationships formed the nature and the personality of this early dynamic church they had a balance a blend to them that we're lacking today they were not afraid to be intimate with God to lay themselves open before the Word to be transparent with each other in fellowship and to be dead bone honest with the world about who they were what God had done for them and what he can do for those who humbled themselves and believed in him like they had and those open honest transparent relationships formed a remarkable atmosphere in which faith was spawned and conversions were seen and people were changed for Christ George Gallop says that his deepest concern for the future is that this new generation upon us the baby boomers are unable to carry on or to even sense an honest need for deep transparent and abiding relationships we are as bands Packard said a nation of stranger cocooning hiding pretending dressing up to hide the real man so much of appearance so much social mindedness that we can't be honest about who we are and what we need and how you could help me and I could help you and how God must help us all but out of those four relationships in that early dynamic church there was an atmosphere that was formed and in that atmosphere and through it God did free markable things and all one has to do is sit down take an hour sometime and read through the book of Acts like you would any chapter in any book and find out how we markable this dynamic church was based upon the strength of those four relationships and those four relationships gave birth to the very last markable dynamic church and that is it was committed to the great commission and that sixfold ministry in the great commission look back at the Matthew 28 chapter for a minute there you'll find Jesus Christ giving his disciples their marching orders giving a commandment a commission to the whole church that would last until the end of time to go forth and make disciples of all nation and look what they did look at the six E's we called in the six dimensions of this great commission first in verse 16 they worship God they did do that first they exalted him and therefore the ministry of exaltation or worship is preeminent in the church not only that but they evangelize the second E he said go and they went they didn't say you come to us we'll set up some buildings and you come on in for the program they went out out into their homes and to their neighborhoods and jobs and communities and they evangelize they lived the good news and they talked the good news until they had instilled the good news and other people's lives and they equipped people it says go and make disciples not go and make converts not go and fill up the church not go and marshal the program go and make disciples they equipped people to live for Christ not enough to believe in him but to serve him they also believed it was necessary and then he says baptize them in the name of the Father and Son Holy Spirit and otherwise enfold them into the life of the church there was a shepherding dimension didn't have just people running around faith all over place they brought them into a community they incorporated them into mainstream of church life and found a place for them for fellowship and for service a place where they could come and be themselves they took one man out of his human family and enfolded him into the family of God and they did that again and again and they get thousands and perhaps hundreds of thousands of times over as they went through the ministry of enfolding and then they taught them the ministry of education teaching them or the Christ had commanded them they did give attention to the axiom that good doctrine usually leads to good living they taught them the truth the faith once delivered to the saints everything from Genesis to what eventually would be revelation they taught them about the apostles and prophets being the very foundation of the church and their doctrine being the heartbeat of the faith once delivered to this life and world and finally they gave themselves to the last ministry the ministries of essentials they knew that the most essential thing was Jesus Christ's last statement that he would be with us always even to the end of the age they knew that they had certain needs needs for people and spiritual gifts and financial resources but more than that a need for Christ and his pregnant power that overflowing spirit that was in them that made them such dynamic people that had changed them from cowardly Christ denying running away in the dark sniddling little disciples all of the sudden into apostles and prophets and men and women of God the essential of God giving us what we need to do the job he's told us to do that's what a dynamic church is like one passion love for God and his people two points of focus evangelism and edification for deep and abiding relationships one with God and with his word one with the saints and fellowship them with the world outside as a witness and a six four ministry laying before them exaltation evangelism equipping and folding education and essential that is the church as Jesus Christ designed it and it is dynamic and now we need to apply those principles and I want you to do that by taking a look at your bulletin and see for a moment how we have fought through with the session these very principles and written our philosophy of ministry to allow God to make us a dynamic church first of all where is that one passion to love God and his people well if you open up the front cover to the inside you'll find a title called our purpose for ministry read it with me as I read it out loud the Trinity Presbyterian Church is a biblical church where Christ is preeminent we exist for the purpose of loving God with all of our strength caring for us people with all our heart and communicating his truth and always necessary we shall accomplish this mission by working together God's way you see we put at the very center not only about purpose statement but of our ministry picture in our logo a love for God and his people what is it the center of our logo it is the cross of Jesus Christ the symbol of his passionate love for us of our passionate love for him or he said you cannot be my disciple unless you're willing to take up your cross daily and follow after me and also here's an our passion for a world outside our doors that does not know peace in God apart from the cross of Christ we are people who need to be unashamed to say the thing that means the most to me is my relationship with Jesus Christ and the way I get an opportunity to express it resident if if through these 12 weeks we come out on the back end of the saying with no more chains than this I will be a happy man if we would just become more bold each one of us and unashamed especially the men in this room to look other men in the eyes and say I love Jesus Christ and I am not ashamed of his cross and I love you enough that I want you to live in the shadow that cross and become a Christian what about those two points of focus those two folks evangelism and edification well brethren if we were to look at the inside cover we'd find our priorities of ministry and there we have listed eight key ministry that we have and eight priorities that we need to give ourselves to and if you were to go down and check those off here's what you'd find out of those eight three of them have to do with evangelism and outreach three of them have to do with in reach and edification and two have to do with both a perfect balance of four and four edification and evangelism a commitment to be a balanced church not just you know we've done a good job especially Presbyterians we're we're great at edification we are the doctrinal wing of the church I know really and this is going to sound terrible to people who aren't Presbyterians that take it in context and with about a ton of salt because of Presbyterians saying it but if it weren't for the Presbyterians we probably wouldn't have systematic theology we wouldn't have doctrinal books wouldn't have seminaries they started almost every one of them in America regardless of where they are theologically they began as reformed seminaries we are the people who sing through what it means to have a faith and how to express it but you know we've lost our ability to go out and communicate that to all people we are the least evangelistic wing of the church let's face it we are the frozen chosen in a world that's on fire in its own sin we eternity know that we want to be honest with God about that but we're positioning ourselves so that God will change that and make us a church that can reach all kinds of people not just people who can understand long words like improlapsarian double predestination who can read that old King James stuff but people who know that God loved them and it's chosen them before the foundation of the world to be here and it's time to stop fighting him and come to him in mercy and grace and to serve him now and forever more it's not complicated Jesus said a child can understand it and that's what you all need to be children concerned about your playmates in this world the third thing those four relationships we've also positioned ourselves for are ministries if you look on the back you'll find that there are many ministries that have to do with our relationship with God some that have to do with our relationship with the world some with our relationship with the world and some just with our relationship with one another if you flip over to the front you'll find that we have listed there our primary ministry events there are four of them the worship services that have to do with our relationship with God upreach our LBI in Sunday School which has to do with our relationship with the world we're reaching down and grounding ourselves in the faith of the church the Bible and doctrine the confessions of our holy religion. We have a radio program that is in the evangelistic outreach. We want people all over the city to hear the word of God. And finally, we have the Wednesday evening fellowship, which is for the family of God to enrich and to encourage each other in fellowship, restructuring our church around these four relationships, so that's as a blend in a balance. And finally, if you open up to the inside of the back cover, you'll find out the philosophy and purpose and pattern of our ministry is formed around what we call the Mark program, ministry accountability and review and control. These six ease of the great commission, exaltation, education, evangelism, equipping and folding essentials are explained there and how we have taken those ministries and formed committees and teams of people who are responsible for adopting that ministry and running with it towards the kingdom of God. And on the back is a whole program and at the bottom of the back page of pastoral staff that are committed by spiritual gifts and by areas of concentration to those six ministries. And we want to be a church that does not everything in a super-dependous way, but we do what we're called to do well and we do it faithfully. We worship God, we reach the lost, we build up the saints as we unfold them and equip them and educate them and we are concerned in prayer and through stewardship and with our own lives to provide the essentials that our present Lord Jesus Christ will use for His glory and for our good and for the growing of His kingdom. Now, brethren, there's one third thing we need to look at briefly this morning and that is your involvement. It's the third part of every sermon, isn't it? What's all this mean to me? And on that outline, you'll notice we've asked you to do four things. First of all, we've asked you to read in what we want you to read as in the very center of your bulletin. It's a great sheet and you'll find one every week. These next 12 weeks to talk about our ministry, our philosophy, our visions and plans and how you can become part of it. This particular week in just two little pages we're giving you an overview of how we have structured the ministries of our church. We're asking you to take four minutes. That's what it took me to read this and on a slow reader. Four minutes to read this to find out how the session and deacons have ordered the church so that we're thrusting forth. All of our energies in a coordinated way towards those six objectives of the great commission. Then we want you to pray. We want you, after you've read that, to close that and to ask God to bless our church, to use our vision and philosophy for His glory, to apply His scriptures and make them living and active and sharper than the two-edged sword in our lives, but also to pray for yourself and to ask God, what is it Lord that you want me to do? Where do you want me to fit in? Give me a passion for some facet of this ministry. That will lead to a third thing we want you to do. We want you to discover something about yourself. We want you to discover your spiritual gifts. Find out what it is that God wants you to do and how you can do it. We have a vehicle for doing that. It will start the first Sunday of September. It's called Joining Together God's Way. It's our new members or inquirers class. Half of it talks about membership in the church and what it is to be a Christian, the first seven weeks. But the last six weeks taught by John Marquetti in Eddie Bat is an excellent survey and study of the spiritual gifts. Where you'll take a test and discuss with other people and find out how it is that God has made you unique and gifted for His Kingdom. And then we want you to discover that gift to deploy it, to develop, want you to jump in. We want you to volunteer to be involved for the Kingdom's sake. We want you to say, Lord, you saved me not just to sit in this pew and critique the sermons for the next 40 years. You saved me to do something special for your Kingdom. You've given me a whole life of experience as a whole background wherever I came from, wherever you came from. You've given me a personality that's got its quirks and its strengths and its oddities and you've given me gifts and abilities that I can use. And I want to extend my life for you and for your people. Because you see when you boil it all down to the nub bread and there's no other way to show we really love God and people and to serve them. No other way. Words are so cheap in this generation. Love you means so little. I think we need to think like God does. If you love me, show me. Serve me as I have served you. Now let me end this overview by saying this, brethren. This is not contrary to what it sounds like a recruiting sermon series. This sermon series does not have its end objective that all of you get on some community and do some work to keep the machine re-running. First of all, I'm not so sure that a sermon series is the best way to do that. In fact, I think the most worthless time of the morning worship or the announcements. Nobody listens to them. And nobody ever volunteers for any call or any plea from the pulpit. The only way we respond is when somebody reaches us individually and asks us face to face what you do this. Then we usually say yes. So this is not a recruiting series. What it is is a visionary series. I want us to open up our mind and step back for a minute and say I want to look at myself and attend the presentarian church and Jackson, Mississippi and the culture were in and the eternal kingdom of God that over arches at all and find out what it is that you want me to do because father there are eight crises that we must face and here they are. Crisis number one, the crisis of truth. Crisis number two, the crisis of loneliness. Crisis number three, the crisis of relationships. Crisis number four, the crisis of disillusionment. Crisis number five, the crisis of priorities. Crisis number six, the crisis of security. Crisis number seven, the crisis of spirituality and crisis number eight, the crisis of purpose. This young man, Anderson, this seven of those crises, loneliness, relationships, disillusionment, priorities, security, spirituality and purpose. To those seven I have added the first which is the ultimate crisis, the crisis of truth. Unless we know the truth of God and of his word and of his will and kingdom in church we will not be able to confront successfully and hopefully these other seven crises. But I stand before you today with all the confidence, not because I'm supposed to say this, they don't pay me anymore for saying it wrong or right. I say it because I'm convicted that it's true, that we have everything pertaining to life and God in as the Bible says. We have everything we need to Christ and his spirit and his word and the fellowship of these precious people to do what God has called us to do in this city at this time and do it well and win. A not a man who gives myself to losing causes. We can do it if we want to. Let me end by sharing this with you which is a little uncomfortable. When I was 10 years old at the Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic High School in Columbus, Ohio we had this project. We had to write our first book report and to do that you had to read a book, something I'd never done before and really didn't want to do in the future. So we had to go to the church library or to the school librarian or the church library and pick out a book and so I picked one out on Christopher Columbus and it was just an exciting book. How this man had sailed out on the sea for the purpose of expanding the kingdom of Christ in a new world he would find. Not after money, not after fame, but after the cross of Christ in every corner of the globe. That's not politically correct to say that today but that happens to be the historical truth even in 1959. And then we had to give a book reporting. We had to do it before the class and at the end of the book report we had to give one personal application of how that book had changed our lives. So my turn came and I was always reluctant to get up in front of a group. I was because of my height. I always sat in the back and so I went up these into this class of 60 students and I stood before them and I said here's my book report and blah blah blah. And then at the end I said the teacher Mrs. Robbie said Michael how did that book change you and I said well it made me ask God if he would let me do something great for him in this life and the whole class broke up and laughed. Even the teacher what she left padded me on the head like poor, demented child. So that was the last period of the class and when we all went home our bikes were parked over by the church. I went in the church and I went up to the altar rail and I just put my head down and I cried because my feelings were hurt mostly and I was embarrassed. But I also left and I asked the Lord the same question and I said God I know you're not laughing I'm serious before I die I want to do something great for the kingdom of God and I know at the age of 45 I'm never going to be famous and great I never will but I know this I am a pastor at a critical hour and with good people like you I have the opportunity to do something great for the kingdom of God and by God is my witness I am going to do it and you are going to do it with me or Father we give you thanks for this great hour which you've called us for this great calling to which you give in your church and to which we have been personally and corporately motivated to be involved. We do love you we want to serve you and we want your church to no longer be a laughingstock of the nation but the hope of this people called America. We want to reach the loss and build up the saints bring them into those relationships with you and your word and with the world around them and the fellowship of their loved ones so that they can do the things that you have said we must go as your disciples and do. We will need you to help us understand we will need your spirit to guide us through difficult decisions but we want to do something great for the kingdom so that men and ages to come will say it was those baby boomers. Those people of all different age groups who lived at the end of the 20th century who rose up at the proper time and made the kingdom great once again by the power of the spirit. Help us to understand what we must do more than that give us the grace and strength to do it all for Jesus sake. Amen