Not The Pastor's Job | Shane Smith 2026 Sermon

Added: 2026-05-13

[00:00:04]All right. Well, good morning.

[00:00:07]>> Good morning, church. How's everybody doing?

[00:00:09]>> Good. Are you glad to be here?

[00:00:12]>> Come on. Amen. It's good to be together this morning. Uh happy Mother's Day to all the women of the house. Amen. Can we just give it up for our women?

[00:00:20]>> Amen. We're stick around. We're going to honor you at uh second service. We have a little blessing for you all, but I just wanted to uh wish you happy Mother's Day. And uh just a little shameless plug. I want to wish my mom a happy Mother's Day. Amen. So, she's probably going to watch this later cuz I think she's on on her way to her church.

[00:00:38]But uh the first time in probably 40, yeah, I guess 43 years that I haven't been with my mom. So, little different, but that's okay. Uh I wanted to wish her happy Mother's Day from here. So, um another I say shameless plug, but it's not really shameless. It's just it's a good plug. This is a good plug you need to know about. Um, this is the DHI pamphlet. We had new ones made and I just want to mention this real quick.

[00:01:00]Uh, these are so every day from Monday through Thursday, we have the DHI here.

[00:01:04]Uh, maybe you're new in the house.

[00:01:05]What's the DHI? The DHI is the Divine Healing Institute. Uh, we do that Monday through Thursday, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Uh, two sessions of teaching, ministry, practical application, things like that. So, get involved, get here.

[00:01:18]It's amazing. Invite people, grab some of these. These are brand new because we updated some of the information on them.

[00:01:23]Uh on the back it has the information about the healing services that we're having up in Denison every Sunday at 3 p.m. What time do they happen? Every Sunday >> 3 p.m. So grab these, invite your friends, invite your enemies, invite whoever you want to invite uh and get them there because uh they need to be people need to understand the truth about uh about healing uh because there's so much that's mistaught about it. But uh this morning I want to jump into the word. Uh I have uh a message I want to I say a message a teaching I want to uh you know show share with you this morning and show you some things in scripture. Uh and if I titled this which I I do have it titled here. Uh I I titled it not the pastor's job.

[00:02:04]>> Okay. It's not the pastor's job because most people think well that's the pastor's job. You know when it comes time to oh what oh visitation that's the pastor's job you know. Oh praying for the sick that's the pastor's job. you know, teaching and discipling Christians or other believers. That's the pastor's job. Well, this message this morning is entitled not the pastor's job. And I want to I want to expound on this and look at this this morning. If I subtitled it, I call it the the saints individual responsibility. Because as the saints of God, cuz how many saints in the house this morning? There's way if you're a saint. Okay, you're a saint.

[00:02:38]So that that means that you have a responsibility to be a saint which means being a saint or a son as we call it a son of God means that that carries with it that responsibility to do the things that the Lord has commanded us to do.

[00:02:51]Amen. He's given us the great commission he's given us. He's told us to go out and to make disciples to uh to teach all nations uh everything that he has told us to observe and do not just observe.

[00:03:05]Okay? Because a lot of Christians have gotten really good at observing things.

[00:03:09]They observe, they analyze, they sit, they read, they hear. Uh but not many people actually partake in the doing part. Amen. And so how many each each Christian is responsible for themselves?

[00:03:24]Each Christian is responsible for the word that they do or they don't do.

[00:03:29]uh as your pastor, I'm not going to be there when you get to the pearly gates and vouch for you. You're going to have to, you know, I'm not going to say, "Oh, yeah, we know um uh you know, Floyd, he he was really good. You know, he was a he he attended every Sunday and he tithed and you know, he he was faithful to the church and he served and you know, my word's not going to be any good in that situation, right? It's going to be between you and God and what did you do with what God has given you?" And that's the question I'm going to ask you this morning is what have you been doing with what God's been has given you?

[00:04:03]>> So, we're responsible to be doing something. Now, go with me to Matthew chapter 25. Matthew chapter 25. We're going to start in verse 14. Jesus teaching a parable. A parable of what the kingdom is like, trying to describe to us. You know, if I was to give a description, he said, "This is what it would be like." uh and the idea of a parable uh is is you know synonymous or you know uh similar to the idea of parallel where you you lay down two parallel lines against each other. Well, a parable is the same thing. A parable goes with the the idea or the word parallel meaning he's showing us something of the world that would kind of but not to the fullest degree represent the kingdom. And it was to help you understand a degree of what the kingdom is like. And it says here in Matthew 25 starting in verse 14, it says, "For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling into a far country who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them." Now notice what he said. It's it's like a man. Well, Jesus, you know, he he called himself constantly the son of man, right? And so it's like a man who who was traveling to a far country. Well, go think it with me for a minute. Let's let's just use our brains a little bit this morning. Jesus has traveled to a far country. He's traveled I'll say it this way. He's traveled to our home country.

[00:05:31]Okay. Okay. Some of you didn't get that.

[00:05:33]Some of you just waking up still. That's okay. He's traveled to our home country.

[00:05:37]Meaning, you know, heaven. and he's traveled to uh the place where we're from cuz we would say we're we're in this world but we're not of this world.

[00:05:45]You know, we're born of heaven. We're reborn. Yeah, we were born into this world, but we've been born again. And we've been born again. We've been born again by the spirit. So, we're born of heaven now. Amen. And so, our Lord and Savior has traveled to that far country from whence we came now, right? And he's there. And watch what it says. And he called his servants, his own servants, his his brothers, you know, those that were going to work with him, alongside of him. He calls his servants, and he delivered to to them. He delivered to his servants his goods. He gave it to him. Well, what was his goods? Jesus said in Matthew 28, "All authority in heaven and earth has been given unto me." So, he gave you all authority. Uh he's given you all power. He's given you the Holy Ghost. How many people got the Holy Ghost this morning?

[00:06:35]>> Okay. Well, if you got the Holy Ghost, that means you've got his goods.

[00:06:39]>> Come on. Why? Cuz when the Holy Ghost moved in, when Jesus moved into you, he brought everything with him.

[00:06:44]>> That's right.

[00:06:45]>> You know, he didn't leave you empty-handed. He didn't leave you partially filled up. He didn't leave you lacking or missing some things. He's given you all things that pertain to life and godliness. So, when he moved in, he brought everything with him.

[00:06:58]>> Amen. So, he delivered these goods to you. So, you got no excuse now. you've got everything that you need. That's one of the things that most Christians like to give still is they like to give their excuses. You know, well, you know, I just I'm I'm shy. Okay, well, get over yourself, >> you know, die to yourself, >> right? Cuz, you know, get bold. The Bible doesn't say that the righteous are, you know, shy as kitty cats.

[00:07:23]It says the righteousness of God is as bold as lions, right? And lions roar.

[00:07:28]And so, so we're to be bold. We're not to be timid. We're not to be shy. You know, you say, "Well, you know, I'm shy." Well, other excuse is, well, you know, I don't like to speak in front of people. Well, just conquer that fear because if you're going to fulfill the great commission, at some point you're probably going to have to get up in front of people and talk.

[00:07:44]Okay? So, you know, stop giving God your excuses. It didn't work for Moses. I guarantee you it's not going to work for you. Moses tried to give God all the excuses. you know, well, I'm I'm from the lowest tribe or, you know, I I I I stutter and he's like, you know, you know, I've got an answer for every excuse. Well, God's got an answer for every one of your excuses, too.

[00:08:05]>> So, stop g stop giving him your excuses.

[00:08:08]Understand that you've been given everything that pertains to life and godliness. Ephesians 1:3 says, "You've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. So, you're lacking nothing. You're not needing anything." And now watch verse 15. Now he he begins to divide up what we say talents. Okay? Uh you know we could look at talents as again remember Jesus is laying down a parallel, right?

[00:08:33]And you could look at talents as money, you know, or a a good that's given to somebody because he did say he delivered his goods to them, right? But notice he's trying to relate something on earth that would represent what the kingdom of heaven, which we can't see. It's invisible, but it's here. what it's like. And yet, you know, he's saying, "Okay, so uh if I'm gonna if I'm going to compare it to something that you would in your finite mind would understand, I'm going to give you talents." Well, in today's day and age, we would say, uh, you know, to make you understand what this would look like, I'm going to give you $1,000 and I'm going to give you 500 and I'm going to give you 50 bucks and I'm going to give you, you know, 10,000. I'm going to give Right. And he begins to divide up these talents. He begins to divide up these goods. uh we would say he begins to divide up his money. Now the parable is not about how much money you got.

[00:09:27]It's not about how many talents you had received. The parable is all about what you did with what was given to you.

[00:09:36]Okay? So I just want to get that out of your head right now. Well, why did one guy get so many and another guy only got, you know, that's not what the parable is about. You're missing the point. Let's keep reading. And so he says there in verse 15, "And to one he gave five talents and to another two and to another one to each accord, sorry, to each according to his own ability." In other words, he did it. It was his ability to do it and he gave it away cuz he freely wanted to give it away. And immediately he went on a journey. In other words, immediately he he ascended into heaven. He's gone, you know. And the angel stood there looking at the disciples saying, "Why do you stand gazing up into heaven waiting?" you know that the same Jesus that us send it'll be the same way. He's going to descend the same way. So I want you to see the correlation of what Jesus is explaining.

[00:10:22]He went on a journey. Verse 16. Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them and made five more talents. He made five more. He invested it. He did, you know, he he did business. He got busy with what was given to him and he went out and uh you know one one one parable Jesus talks about and he tells his disciples to occupy until I come.

[00:10:48]>> Other words that word occupy doesn't mean you just you know set up your tent and just you know put out your sleeping bag and and pick a spot of ground and just stay there till he comes. The word occupy means that you actually take what's given to you. You do business.

[00:11:02]You do the Lord's work until he comes.

[00:11:05]>> Okay? And so watch this. So this one, he got busy and he got so busy that he earned five more. And likewise, verse 17, and likewise he who had received two gained two more also. So he was busy as well. We can see this. But he who had received one went and dug it dug in the ground and hid his lord's money. After a long time, the lord of those servants came and settled the accounts with them. In other words, after a long time. And we would say, you know, well, it's been a long time until Jesus has ascended into heaven or since he's ascended into heaven. And we would say, would we all agree this morning that we are living in the last moments, the last hour? And we would say even this morning that the hour is late. you know that yes our master uh our lord and savior yeah he has terried but there is coming a time when the when the skies are going to crack very soon and he's returning >> and in this parable this is what he's saying he returns and he returns to settle the accounts okay to to we would say to reconcile and to see you know what what they did with what he had given them and so he had received oh sorry uh verse 20 and so he who had received received five talents, came and brought him five others, saying, "Lord, you delivered to me five talents. Look, I have gained five more talents besides them." His lord said to him, "Well done, good and faithful servant. You were faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things. enter into the joy of your Lord. Verse 22. And he also who had received two talents came and said, Lord, you delivered to me two talents. Look, I have gained two more talents besides them. And his lord said to him, "Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord. Now, I don't know about you, but after I've run this race or after me and you have run this race, you know, I want to hear well done. Well done, good and faithful servant. Right? Enter into your rest. Enter into your joy. Now notice if if at the end of the age because if you actually continue to read in Matthew 25 and he talks about the end of the age and I don't know if we're going to have time to get there this morning but at the end of the age you know you're going to hear you're going to hear either one of two things. You're going to hear well done good and faithful servant or be gone from me I never knew you. Now, the ones that hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant." The next thing that he says to them, now in this translation, but in but if you read further down to verse 25 or in chapter 25, he says, "Enter into thy rest."

[00:14:13]Right? Well, what are they resting from?

[00:14:17]They're resting from their work. They're resting from the things that they did on this side on on this earth on in this world, not in that there. See, there's nothing to do on that side. There's everything to do on this side.

[00:14:29]You know, you're you're of no use. Now, please understand me when I say this. I don't take this the wrong way. God wants each and every one of you, but you're of no use to him over there.

[00:14:44]It's quiet this morning.

[00:14:47]You know, the only use you are to him is on this side >> because on this side, he can use you to cover the whole earth with his glory.

[00:14:56]That's right.

[00:14:57]>> Over there, you get to enter into your rest because you were so busy covering the earth with the glory of the Lord.

[00:15:03]>> Do Do you get me this morning?

[00:15:05]>> Right? And so, notice he's telling these ones that worked. He's telling these ones that traded. He's telling these ones that got busy with what they were given, "Well done. You did good." you know, enter into your rest, enter into your joy, come up here with me and and sit down for a while because you've been busy. Let's keep looking here at uh the one that uh only did one or received one. Verse 24.

[00:15:31]Then he who had received the one talent came and said, "Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed, and I was afraid.

[00:15:46]And I went and hid your talent in the ground." Look here. There, sorry, look there. You have what is yours. Lord, I think it's in Luke, actually. Luke talks about it. He says that he actually took it and he wrapped it in a handkerchief and he and he buried it in his backyard.

[00:16:02]He buried it in the ground. And then when the master returns, right? He brings this this it's the same parable.

[00:16:08]It's the same story. This this this one servant, this one son came and brought back to Jesus our Lord one talent.

[00:16:18]Why? Because watch what he said. He says, "I knew you to be a hard man."

[00:16:22]Read that back there in verse 24. I knew you to be a hard man, right? Reaping where you have not sown and gathering, sorry, gathering where you have not scattered seed. Well, that makes sense to what Paul says about God. Paul said, "One waters or sorry, one sws, another waters, but God gets the increase." See, God didn't sew. God didn't water. That was you and I. But God got the increase.

[00:16:57]God got the harvest. And that's the very same thing that Jesus says to his disciples when he said when he looks at the multitudes and he looks at the crowds and he says, "Look at them." He says, "They're like sheep with no shepherd." And he says and he says, "We need to ordain laborers. We need to we need to send more people out into the harvest field because there's there's so much work to do." Let me tell you something, beloved. We have the same issue today.

[00:17:21]We've got a harvest that is truly ripe for the picking, but we have few laborers, few workers in the father's vineyard. And and Jesus says, watch what Jesus said. He says, "Pray to the Lord of the >> See, the harvest belongs to him."

[00:17:38]>> So, so what Jesus was saying here in this parable was right. He was saying this, this one servant knew. He says, "I knew you to be a hard man. You you're you're you're reaping what you've not sown. You're you're gathering up where you've not scattered seed. So what did I do? I took this one Lord. I took this one this one thing that you gave me, master. And and the sad thing I want you to see this this morning. The sad thing is his servant thought he was doing something good.

[00:18:05]Here it is. I've got it for you. I kept it safe and sound.

[00:18:09]And watch what he says to him in verse 26.

[00:18:13]But the Lord answered and said to him, "You wicked and lazy servant.

[00:18:21]You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed.

[00:18:28]So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers that at my coming I would have received back my own with interest." In other words, what he was saying to him there is you should have done the least. You should have done the bare minimum. And if you would have at least done the bare minimum, I would have gotten something back. But you did nothing. All you did was hide what was given to you. And and you think you're okay. You think that's good. You're going to present that back to me like that's what I want. And yet God's Jesus is telling us this is what the kingdom's like.

[00:19:10]>> So if that's the case, church, then that means the kingdom always demands increase.

[00:19:17]>> Increase and and being fruitful in the kingdom is not optional.

[00:19:21]>> It's not something that we can just say, well, you know, I never had the chance.

[00:19:25]Or, you know, again, give God our excuses. Well, you know, I I just I I was shy or I wasn't bold or I was tim timid and you know, I've got it here, Lord. I still got the Holy Spirit. I still got the life and abundance that you gave me. I still got the anointing.

[00:19:39]I still got the power. I've got it right here. And yet that's no good to him.

[00:19:45]Because in Matthew chapter 10, Jesus told his disciples, "Freely you have received, freely give."

[00:19:53]How selfish of us to receive life and life and abundance and yet hold on to it and not give it away.

[00:20:01]How selfish of us to to have the good news of Jesus Christ, to have the good news of the gospel of the kingdom, the good news of the forgiveness of sins, the good news of the healing of sickness and disease, and yet we just hold on to it and we don't share it.

[00:20:17]Paul says, "I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it's the power unto salvation." Yet, we have Christians walking around acting like they're ashamed of themselves, acting like they're ashamed of the message that they've been given, acting like they're ashamed of the Holy Spirit that resides in them, and they never share them. And and the sad statistic today is almost 89% of Christians, there's a recent poll done, almost 89% of Christians have never won a soul to the Lord.

[00:20:47]And then we wonder why Christianity is actually the fastest dying religion >> and Islam is the fastest growing.

[00:20:57]Look at the numbers.

[00:20:58]>> Numbers don't lie.

[00:21:01]It's because the servants, the sons haven't risen up to the occasion. The sons haven't been using what they've been given.

[00:21:10]What are you doing this morning with what you've been given?

[00:21:15]The kingdom demands increase.

[00:21:19]And so he says here in verse 27, you should have at least deposited my money.

[00:21:24]You you should have you should have did the bare minimum. But you didn't even do that because if you would did that, I would have had at least something to look at when I came back.

[00:21:35]Watch what he says here in verse 28.

[00:21:37]He says, "So take the talent from him and give it to him who has 10 talents."

[00:21:45]Like, well, it's just mean. Why did he He took it away from him and he gave it to the guy that had 10. I mean, the guy that had 10, he started off with five and now he's got 10. He surely he's got enough. Now, see, look, look at the parable. What's Jesus showing us? He's showing us I'm going to entrust this with somebody that I know will do something with it >> and not just going to hold on to it.

[00:22:09]>> So he says, "So take the one from him and give it to him who has 10 talents for look at verse 29. For to everyone who has more will be given and he who will and it's sorry and he will have abundance but from him who does not have even what he has will be taken away and cast verse 30 and cast the unprofitable servant into outer darkness. There would be weeping and nashing of teeth. He's saying, "Oh, well, you know, Jesus is love.

[00:22:51]Jesus is kind. Jesus is merciful. Jesus, yes, Jesus is all those things."

[00:22:57]But Jesus is also explaining to us that the kingdom of God demands increase.

[00:23:03]And that people who don't do anything with what they've been given are wicked and unprofitable.

[00:23:10]And he actually says this place where he mentions the the weeping and nashing, it's hell.

[00:23:19]It's eternal separation from God.

[00:23:24]And those who are sons of disobedience will be thrown into hell. But sons of obedience inherit the kingdom of God.

[00:23:34]Do you see? Do you see the kingdom this morning?

[00:23:40]Jesus is revealing to us what the kingdom looks like. The kingdom looks like saints taking the responsibility to do what the Lord's told them to do.

[00:23:51]Not pointing their finger back at the pastor and saying, "Well, it's the pastor's job to do that." Cuz some Christians have gotten real comfortable with tithing and they think they'll just tithe to the church. she'll give the pastor the money and we'll just let them we'll let the pastor do the work of the ministry cuz and we'll just sit here and we'll just give and they feel comfortable or maybe they they've satisfied their soul through their giving and they think because they've done that they've paid their due they've paid their penance and they're comfortable with themselves.

[00:24:21]Nowhere did it say in here that you know these these servants had tithed.

[00:24:28]Nowhere in here did did it say that these servants had given to a ministry or supported a ministry or attended a church or or or or read their Bible daily or prayed and fasted. It actually says they did business. They got busy.

[00:24:40]They did the work of the Lord.

[00:24:42]>> That's what he's talking about when he's talking about doing business or occupying or trading.

[00:24:49]Trading what? I I'll trade you sorrow for joy.

[00:24:54]I'll trade you sickness for health. I'll trade your sins for forgiveness.

[00:24:59]I'll give you back what the enemy stole.

[00:25:02]That's the trading that was taking place.

[00:25:06]So, so it's it's it's not your leader's responsibility. Now, should your pastor and leader be winning souls? Should your pastor and leader be preaching the gospel? Should your pastor and leader be teaching you the word of God and and showing you how to Absolutely. But it's for you to do the work of the ministry, >> not for him to do everything.

[00:25:25]Go with me to Ephesians chapter 4. Let's look at this in verse 11.

[00:25:30]Ephesians chapter 4, starting in verse 11, it says, "And he himself, who himself, Jesus, Jesus did this, he himself gave some to be apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers." Now, it's interesting because in the Greek, okay, uh the Greek New Testament or if you were a Greek reader, I would put it that way, you would understand what what the Greek would say. And the Greek, you know, we would we would call this is what well, this is what the church typically calls this. They call this the five-fold ministers or the five-fold ministry. And we say, well, the, you know, in the church, in the body of Christ, the five-fold ministry has to be evident. It has to be in there. You know, we need apostles, we need prophets, we need evangelists, we need pastors, we need teachers. But in the Greek, it's actually four-fold.

[00:26:18]It's not five. Okay? It actually reads, and you can kind of clue into it here in the English, but when you look at the Greek, it even gets clearer. In the Greek, it actually says, "And he gave some to be apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors who were also teachers."

[00:26:38]Cuz notice in the English there, if it was five different gifts to the body, then it would say some pastors and some teachers. But there's a clue there in the English. It doesn't say and some teachers. It just says pastors and teachers, which should clue you in to go look at the Greek because there's something going on there. And when you look at the Greek, it actually says pastors who are also teachers. So your pastor should be your teacher.

[00:27:04]Your pastor should be the one that teaches you the word, expounds on the word, teaches you what to do with the word, how to do it with the word. That's your pastor. That's your shepherd. And it makes sense because when Paul tells Timothy in in in Timothy when he's addressing a spiritual son and he's telling them how to ordain deacons and how to ordain elders and he's giving them the qualifications of a deacon or the qualifications of an elder and in there in the King James, it doesn't typically use the word elder. It uses the word bishop. But in the new kings it actually says elder which it's the same same in one elder bishop but it says that the the elder and it lists all these qualifications and one of the qualifications is he must be able to teach because the word pastor is not used anymore after the scripture.

[00:27:49]It's just bishop or or elder which is basically a a leader of a church. And so we'll put it this way. your leader of the church or your church or your life team, right? We can you say life team was a life team is a church. Your your leader of your life team is your pastor.

[00:28:05]It's your that's your shepherd. That's the one that's teaching you, training you, equipping you to for the work of the ministry. So God gave us these gifts. Now, God didn't give us these gifts to the body so that we would honor them and adore them and reverence them and oh, look at the apostle and look at the pastor. Oh, here comes the prophet.

[00:28:22]Here comes the man of God.

[00:28:25]That's that's religion.

[00:28:28]You whenever they whenever whenever you hear God, that's the tone of religion cuz they like to say it that way, right?

[00:28:37]But notice these these ministers are not to be put on pedestals.

[00:28:42]These ministers were to be in the trenches with you, making sure that your ammo was stocked up, making sure your canteen is full of water, making sure any wounds are bandaged up. And they're behind you going, "Okay, soldier. We've almost got the enemy a little harder, a little further. Let's keep pushing forward. We're We've almost conquered this. Keep going, soldier." That's what these ministers were for. Yes, >> they're for you to support you, to help you, to teach you, to encourage you, to exhort you, not for you to worship them.

[00:29:15]>> And yet, some churches treat these people like they're gods themselves.

[00:29:21]>> I think of Paul who says, you know, you want to be an apostle.

[00:29:27]He says, we're the offcouring of the world. He said, we we ain't got a place to sleep tonight. He says, "We barely get food." He said, "We're persecuted.

[00:29:35]We're reviled." You know, he says, I'm I'm thinking Paul's like, "Are you sure you want to call yourself this? You sure you want to walk in this same calling that I'm walking in?" And it amazes me how many people want a title.

[00:29:50]>> You want, oh, I'm apostle so and so, or I'm a prophet or prophetist so and so, or I'm evangelist so and so. How about our titles just be sons?

[00:29:59]>> I'm a son. Matter of fact, I'll tell you a little story real quick. Invited, this was years ago, got invited to this house church to teach and to preach. And bear with me in my folly.

[00:30:14]There was it it was a black house church and there was this very large African-American woman that came walking down the the stairs of her house and she was dressed in had an orange hat on, orange dress, orange shoes, orange lipstick, orange nail pol. I mean, this lady, she looked like an orange.

[00:30:33]And she comes down and she introduces herself to me as apostle, prophetist, evangelist, so and so. I'm not going to list her name. I'm like, "Wow, that's a lot of stuff, you know." And so I go and I I sit down and they they said, "Well, they they take me." And now this was what was hilarious. She had she had her servant address me for her. I was like, "Whoa, this is different, right?" And so they take me and they they sit me down in the front of the chairs and you know and you know her servant goes back over to her and then a little while later I see this person and she's this little timid lady.

[00:31:06]She comes over to me and she goes um uh excuse me um sir. She goes uh the the apostle prophetus evangelist uh would like to know how we should introduce you.

[00:31:17]I'm like introduce me like y'all invited me here. Like I mean you should know how to introduce me. She I said, "Well, my name's Shane Smith." Right? And so she runs back over to the apostle, prophetist, evangelist, and she and she I hear them talking over there and then she runs back over to me and she's like, "Um, well, uh, what is your title?"

[00:31:36]I'm like, "Okay, I know what's going on here."

[00:31:40]I said, "You can introduce me as son of God, Shane Smith." And she was like, "Oh, okay." And so she runs back over to the prophetus, right? And she tells her, "Well, would you know after the service was over, she tried to pull me aside and rebuke me?"

[00:31:57]She did. She came, she said, "You know, there's nothing wrong with titles.

[00:32:01]There's nothing wrong with calling yourself a pastor or calling yourself a prophet." And I said, I said, "No." I said, "You don't understand something."

[00:32:08]I said, "I gave you the highest title that I can carry.

[00:32:11]>> I'm a son."

[00:32:13]>> See, we're sons, >> you know. Oh, yeah. Okay. Well, well, we, you know, some of us flow in the in the office of an of an apostle. Yeah, absolutely. Does our does our, you know, our apostle, we would say, does our our brother Curry, does he flow in the in the gift of apostilhip? Sure. Absolutely he does. But you never hear him saying I'm Apostle Curry Blake.

[00:32:34]You know, do you know now people address me as Pastor Shane, and I'm fine with that. You can call me whatever you want.

[00:32:39]Just don't call me late for supper. But, you know, I I get that, pastor, but I don't need you to call me that. There's people in this congregation that just say, "Hey, Shane." And I'm not like, "Hey, you know, I'm Pastor Shane to you. I don't do that stuff. I'm just Shane. So, call me what you want." You know, we got to we got to let go of this. Oh, we got to have a title. We got to have this. We got to No, we're just sons. Right now, watch. But he gives these gifts and men and women will flow in these gifts. And he gives these gifts to the body. Right?

[00:33:11]Watch what it's for. Verse 12. for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry. Notice who's doing the work of the ministry? The saints. It didn't say that the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and pastors who were teachers were doing it. It said that the saints were doing it, but these giftings were given to you so that you could do the work of the ministry.

[00:33:36]>> See, I for hear so many Christians, they say, "Ah, I just I want to be in full-time ministry." And I'm like, you are.

[00:33:43]>> You're in full-time ministry, each and every one of you. I'm looking at a bunch of full-time ministers this morning, >> and I'm here to equip you. Brother Curry is here to equip you. Pastor Justin is here to equip you. Brother Ian Ian, I mean, all I can list all the leaders.

[00:33:58]We're here to equip you so that you can go out and actually do the full-time ministry. That's right.

[00:34:05]>> See, a full-time ministry is not you sitting behind a desk and collecting a paycheck. That's not full-time ministry.

[00:34:11]>> A full-time ministry or a full-time minister is somebody who takes their job serious and goes out and actually makes not just converts but makes disciples of everybody that they encounter.

[00:34:22]>> You're all in full-time ministry, >> right? And so they're there, watch for the equipping, some translations say for the perfecting. We're going to talk about that in a minute. Of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Verse 13, till means this is this is going to happen till a certain point, right? This this this word till shows us that there's an end goal or an end point or a desired mark to be reached. Amen. Okay.

[00:34:55]So until watch, we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of God to a perfect man. Everybody say perfect man.

[00:35:08]>> See a m that word perfect man in the Greek means a mature man. A a a a fullg grown man. An adult son man. Someone who's not childish anymore. Someone who's put away the childish things and and actually put on maturity, actually put on sunship and actually becomes a manifested son.

[00:35:30]Someone who puts away the carnality of Christianity, who puts off the flesh and walks in the spirit, a perfect man to the measure and the stature of the fullness of Christ. Now, the the word measure there in the Greek is the Greek word meta, which literally means, it's no other way to translate it, measurement. So, in other words, if hear me out now, I don't think the Bible's telling us that we've got to grow up to the same exact height as Jesus.

[00:35:58]But if but I'm going to lay a parallel for you here, a parable. If Jesus is 6'1 in, then we're to grow up to 6'1 in. In other words, okay, Jesus is the mark.

[00:36:13]Jesus is the bar. Nobody else is the bar. Watch. Your pastor's not the bar.

[00:36:21]Your apostles, not the bar.

[00:36:23]>> Jesus is the bar. But now the apostles and the prophets and the evangelists and the pastors who teach, they're to grow you up into that bar. They're to encourage you and exhort you to get to that bar. But Jesus is the bar.

[00:36:36]>> He is the mark. We we I refer to him as as the prototype son. He's he's the original design. And we're to like a blueprint. We're to look at the blueprint and say, "Okay, do I look like that?" look in the mirror of the word and say, "Okay, do am I matching up to what it says I should be?" Right? And so, he is the mark, but we're to grow up into the meta, the measure, and the stature.

[00:37:01]Even the word stature deals with the idea of like position.

[00:37:06]Okay? How many people uh in here served in the military?

[00:37:11]First of all, thank you for your service. Now, you know what? Now, now you're because of you. You served in the military. You know what I'm about to say. In the military, they teach you how to do everything. They teach you how to stand. You know, there's positions where you can be at ease, right? Where you can have your your feet about shoulder width apart, your hands behind your back, you know, clasped together, and that's a position of relaxation. But when you're when you're in formation, when you're not at ease, man, your feet are together, your shoulders are up, you're you're standing tall, you know, you got your hand I mean, you're you're in a position of, okay, I am I am in a position as a soldier right now, right?

[00:37:46]They teach you how to stand. Now, see, when that US soldier when he wakes up in the morning and and he's at home, he's not he's not on base yet, but he's got to be at base. Maybe he's got to be there at 5 in the morning. But when he's at home, he goes to the coffee pot. He makes his coffee. He's wiping asleep out of his eyes. He might be dragging himself around a little bit. He goes and gets a shower. He goes over to the closet. And when he opens his closet up, he sees there the dress blues. And he begins to put those things on. And next thing you know, as he's putting all this all his uniform on, right? And he and and now he's looking in the mirror as he's addressing, you know, he's fixing his collars. He's fixing his belt. He's fixing his shoes. And he's got everything together. And how now all of a sudden his stature has changed.

[00:38:28]He's no longer walking around like this tired in the morning. He's now looking.

[00:38:32]Why? Cuz he's looking in the mirror as a at a US soldier. And so he's he's he's standing tall. His chest is out. His head is up. Why? Because he's changed.

[00:38:41]He has the uniform on now. Well, let me tell you something, beloved. You're clothed in the glory of God.

[00:38:48]>> Amen.

[00:38:48]>> You've been dressed with the righteousness of God. You've put on the You watch. You've put off the old man and you've put on the new man which is created after God in true righteousness and holiness. So, let me tell you something, soldier. You better stand like it.

[00:39:03]>> Amen.

[00:39:04]>> That's what I'm telling you. We've got to come up to the measure and the position and the stature of Jesus Christ that the world would no longer see you and I, but they would see him when they look at us.

[00:39:16]>> They would see the joy of the Lord upon us. They would see the peace that we walk in. They would see the love that we have. They would see Christ, not us.

[00:39:28]>> And yet, these gifts are given to you to grow you up into that.

[00:39:34]I wanna I want to read something. I I didn't know what point I was going to do this, but I I got to read this to you now. I think we're at the point where I need to read this and I'm looking at time and I want to get to this cuz this is important. You got to hear this this morning cuz I've called this not the pastor's job.

[00:39:51]Each saint has individual responsibility.

[00:39:57]This is this is actually out of uh uh the waste word studies and he breaks down here in Ephesians chapter 4 uh verse 11 through 12 and he goes on talking about you know the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry but listen to what he says because this is something you have to understand punctuation in neither the present Greek nor the English text is inspired you know when I say punctuation I'm talking about commas semicolons periods you know things like question marks. None of that is inspired. Matter of fact, punctuation has actually done damage to understanding the word because in the Greek there is no punctuation. There's no spaces. There's no periods and commas and exclamation marks and question mark.

[00:40:41]None of that is in the Greek, even in the Hebrew. Okay? And so punctuation has actually messed some translation or some translating up, I should say. For instance, how many know the scripture that says um when the enemy comes in like a flood, God rise God raises a standard against him.

[00:41:00]>> Okay, the comma is in the position of this. When the enemy comes in like a flood, God raises a standard against him. But most theologians and scholars say that that comma is in the wrong position.

[00:41:13]that it would actually say that when the enemy comes in, like a flood, God raises a standard against him.

[00:41:21]>> Okay? For instance, here it does the same thing. It messes it up. Let's keep reading. So, punctuation in neither the present Greek nor the English text is inspired. The earliest manuscripts of the New Testament, which we possess, have no punctuation.

[00:41:38]The punctuation of Ephesians 4:12 reres havoc with God's plan of operation in the church. Namely, that each saint is expected to be engaged in some form of Christian service as God may lead. For it puts the entire responsibility of proclaiming the word upon the shoulders of the gifted men who are God's gift to the church and requires nothing of the saints to whom they minister. This is what we've seen. This is what I've seen.

[00:42:10]I've seen the church come to the point of where they say, "Well, the pastor's job to do that. It's the apostles job to do that." And that's not what this verse is saying.

[00:42:19]Keep reading. To the men to whom God has given special gifts for ministering in the word as given in verse 11 are apostles, right? Prophets, evangelists, and teaching pastors.

[00:42:32]The construction in the Greek does not allow us to speak of pastors and teachers as two individuals.

[00:42:39]The two designations refer to a pastor who has also the gift of teaching. The two gifts go together in the divine economy and it therefore follows that a god-alled pastor is to exercise a didactic ministry. That word did is an old name for a word for teaching ministry, a discipling ministry, a teaching ministry. That's what the pastors be to hold. Okay. Um he goes on that is okay. Notice this is what the pastor's chief business that is. His chief business will be to teach the word of God. His is his the pastor is a ministry of explaining in simple terms what the word of God means. The word pastor is from the Greek word which means a shepherd. The illustration is evident. The pastor is to bear the same relationship to the people to whom he ministers as the shepherd does to the flock of his sheep. That's the relation there. Cuz what did David prophesy in Psalms 23? The Lord is my shepherd. And then he he goes in how I shall not want.

[00:43:48]And he anoints my head with oil and he leads me by still waters and he he leads me into green pastures. It's interesting all those things that that are in there.

[00:43:56]anointing the head with oil. Shepherds did that to their sheep. Why? Cuz they would pour oil on their head to keep the flies out of their ears. They would lead them by still waters. Cuz I don't know if you know this, but sheep won't drink from moving water cuz it scares them. It spooks them. So notice the shepherd knows what the sheep need. The shepherd knew that, right? The shepherd. Now bring that into the New Testament. Bring that into the position that we're in today. The shepherd who is a teacher, the pastor who is your teacher is showing you what the word of God is. He's teaching you and he's bearing that same relationship that a shepherd does with a sheep as a shepherd or pastor does with his flock, his his congregants. Right? Watch. Turning to verse 12, we find the word perfecting is not from the Greek word which refers to spiritual maturity, but from one that has the idea of equipping someone or something so that it might serve the purpose to do the work for which it was brought into being. Well, that's what he says there in verse 12, isn't it? He says, "For the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry." Well, that's why they were brought into being, the saints, for the work of the ministry. Right? He goes on um the English word ministry has changed its meaning. Today when we speak of ministry we usually have in mind the regularly ordained clergymen of the church. The word that the word here has no such meaning. The Greek word from which it is translated comes from a transliteration into our language in the word deacon. And translated it means one who serves. Beloved, that's you.

[00:45:38]Technically, hear me out. Technically, you're all deacons.

[00:45:43]Technically, you're you're all deacons in the church, meaning you're all serving in the church, you know.

[00:45:50]Wow. I I I need to wrap up, but I need to say a few things.

[00:45:54]>> That is good.

[00:45:57]>> Listen, if you are coming here and you're not serving, there's an issue.

[00:46:05]Now, I get it. We If you're new and you just go, I just showed up here. I just, you know, I I don't know much about this place. Yeah, we want you to sit. We want you to learn. We want you to get the message. We want you to get the truth in you. You know, we want to get to know you. But beloved, there's an issue when you just attend every Sunday and you don't actually serve the body of Christ.

[00:46:21]>> Amen.

[00:46:22]>> There's an issue. We're called to be servants.

[00:46:26]>> We're called to love one another. We're called to help one another. We're called We're not called to come into this place to see what we can get out of this place.

[00:46:32]>> We're called to come into this place to see what we can give in this place.

[00:46:36]You get this this morning? We're all deacons. We're all servants, right? And so this this this translation means one who serves. Now, I'm going to keep reading because I got to wrap up. The full translation is as follows. Now this is what the Greek says. And he himself gave the apostles and the prophets and the evangelist and the teaching pastors for the equipping of the saints for ministering work, for deacon work, for serving work, resulting in the building up of the body of Christ. From this translation, we see that the pastor of a church, for instance, is a specialist.

[00:47:18]His work, now this is what the specialist does. This is what the pastor's to do. I'm going to give you the definition. His work is to teach the word to the saints and to train them in the art of winning souls and of teaching and preaching of the word. Each church, listen to this. This is good. You guys got to get this. I'm telling you, if you want photo copies of this or something, I'll see if I can get some. Each church should be a miniature Bible institute, a training station from which saints go out to spread the gospel. The pastor thus thus multiplies himself.

[00:47:56]He has a ministry to the unsaved and that of preaching the gospel to them and the winning of them to the saving and knowledge of our Lord Jesus. But his chief work, his principal work is to equip the saints to do that work. Why?

[00:48:12]Cuz a good pastor knows he can't do it all.

[00:48:16]See, that's why Jesus stood at the multitudes in Matthew and said, "Look at them. They're like sheep with no shepherd. They're like sheep with no pastor. We need to ordain workers. We need to ordain laborers. We need to ordain pastors. We need to ordain shepherds." Why? cuz they're like sheep scattered abroad having no shepherd.

[00:48:37]Jesus himself knew he couldn't do it all. And so he said, "I got to I got to ordain you 12 to help me with this."

[00:48:45]Well, guess what? God's still in need of you this morning.

[00:48:49]He still needs you. He's still crying over the harvest. He's still crying over the world and saying, "I need you in my harvest. I need you to be laborers."

[00:49:00]>> So watch. So the pastor thus multiplies himself, right? His ch sorry his chief work is to equip the saints to do this work. Since the pastor must specialize in the work of training the saints, it follows that he cannot spend his time and energy upon a thousand and one things in the work of the church which should be done by its members.

[00:49:25]Notice I'm looking at you.

[00:49:28]You know, don't get me wrong. I have no problem coming in here and scrubbing toilets and sweeping floors and vacuuming. Trust me, I I'll do it in a heartbeat. I have no problem with it.

[00:49:38]I've got no problem. I mean, I I got no problem with running sound if they need me to run sound. I've got no problem with running a camera if they need me to run camera. I have no problem with that.

[00:49:48]But when I got all these people sitting in here, then I've got a problem with it.

[00:49:54]>> Do you hear what I'm saying this morning?

[00:49:55]>> Yes, sir.

[00:49:57]See, the the the a good pastor is not going to burden himself with all the cares of the little things within the house. He's going to teach and perfect his students to do the things. Don't think, no, no, get me wrong, there's nothing minimal or nothing little in this place. Everything we do, we do it unto God.

[00:50:16]>> But how many know one man can't do it all?

[00:50:19]>> He needs a team.

[00:50:21]>> And I'm looking at a team.

[00:50:24]>> There's a team in here this morning.

[00:50:25]Most of the team's not even here yet.

[00:50:27]Most of the team ain't shown up till 10:00. They need to go back and listen to this. So, I'm speaking to the team that's listening online right now. Go back and listen to this.

[00:50:35]>> And you should have been here, team.

[00:50:38]>> But we're a team. A team works together.

[00:50:42]A team doesn't stand back and watch one man do it all. A team sees one man working and say, "Hey, how can I serve you? How can I help you? How can I how can I assist you in this? Because, man, we need to work together in this. We need to join arms. We need to link arms in unity. I think of things like the Tower of Babel, Babel, whatever you want to call it. God said because they were in unity and in one voice that nothing would be impossible to them. Imagine, think with me. We've got to do this church. We have to do this. If we come together in unity and one voice, nothing would be impossible for us.

[00:51:14]>> Now, all of you should have said amen to that.

[00:51:16]>> Amen.

[00:51:17]>> Especially if you're on the team.

[00:51:20]>> Come on now. Watch. I I'm going to wrap this up. I got to give you a break.

[00:51:23]Watch. So his chief work is to equip the equip the saints to do that work. And so the pastor must specialize in the work of training saints. And it follows that he cannot spend his time and energy upon a thousand and one things in the work of the church which should be done by its members. It is a wise pastor that puts people to work and holds himself to a life of prayer and the ministry of the word.

[00:51:51]Each of us, every one of us, everybody say, "That's me."

[00:51:54]>> That's me.

[00:51:55]>> Each of us is to engage in the Christian service that the Lord has commanded us to do.

[00:52:03]>> Again, it's not optional.

[00:52:07]>> Increase in the kingdom is not optional.

[00:52:10]Fruit in the kingdom is not optional. It is required. So this morning, I'll I'll end this teaching with this question that I've asked you already this morning.

[00:52:20]What are you doing with what he's given you?

[00:52:23]>> Have you taken your responsibility to do what the Lord has commanded you to do?

[00:52:27]Amen. I hope you all got some things out of this this morning. Good good things this morning. Amen. Did you enjoy this?

[00:52:33]Amen.

[00:52:35]Probably going to become a part two.

[00:52:36]Just warning you because we didn't get to a lot of the things in here. So, uh let's take a break. We'll come back at 10 a.m. We'll start up with second service. Be blessed.