How to Serve Effectively for Christ Part 1

Pastor Mike will be speaking on How to Serve Effectively for Christ Part 1. He will be reading out of Acts 18:1-5.

Jesus said, get to work now because there’s coming a day when you won’t be able to work. Jesus says, as I was sent by the Father, so send I you, Church, you are sent by Jesus. Get out there, use your hands, teach the young people to work, be effective.

This is our moment. This is our time. Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders from the Open Door Church where I serve as senior pastor and I am the host of Hope Worth Having Radio Ministry. We’re delighted that you’re with us and today we’re going to be in Acts chapter 18.

And we have been tracking through the book of Acts for quite some time, but I want us to be in chapter 18 today and I want us to learn how to serve effectively for Christ. So many times God’s servants are ineffective or they are anemic in their service for God.

Well, let’s look to Acts chapter 18 and learn how we can be more effective. If you have your Bibles this morning, I want you to join me in the book of Acts and we’re starting a new series on how to serve effectively and we’ll be studying through the book of Acts chapter 18 and learning how to serve effectively for Christ.

Now the Apostle Paul told the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 11 verse 1 to imitate me just as I also imitate Christ. Whenever we study the life of the Apostle, which the book of Acts so clearly focuses in on, not only his life, his ministry, and the accomplishments that God had used him for, we are reminded that God is calling us to learn from his example.

The Apostle encouraged believers to imitate him. It’s the Greek word of the idea of mimicking him. And so I pray that as we study the chapter 18 together, that we can see some things about the life of the Apostle that stand out as an example, a model for us as well.

we are studying God’s word together. Paul’s ministry in Corinth has many lessons for us as Christians. The Apostle has now left Athens in chapter 17. We learned about the Unknown God. We learned about this place that Paul took the Gospel to, and it was called Athens, and they worshipped many idols.

And there was this one idol that was entitled the Unknown God, and the Apostle took this occasion to teach us about the one true God, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He has now left Athens, and he has come to Corinth.

Look at verse 1 of chapter 18. After these things, Paul departed from Athens, and he went to Corinth. Corinth was a major stop for the Apostle Paul in his missionary trips, and it was about 40 miles from Athens.

It was located on the famous Ithamas of Greece, that section of land that is at the bottom, southernmost part of Greece, and Corinth was a very large metropolitan city, and they say that there was nearly a million people that lived in this city.

Now, Corinth was a great commercial center because of its great location by the sea, and it made it a good place for a lot of trading, but it was also a great place for sports. Corinth really was the center of sports, and athletes were very prominent and popular in Corinth.

That’s why when you read 1 and 2 Corinthians, you see the apostle using a lot of illustrations of Olympic athletes, because they were so revered in the community that he used that as a way to teach the gospel, to teach what it meant to live a faithful Christian life.

But there is one downside to this great city of Corinth. It was known for its immorality. There really were no guardrails in Corinth as far as a moral compass. It was a place where immorality was rampant.

People lived however they wanted to, and they were influenced by many heathenistic religious pagan religions that pretty much came up with their own moral codes, which were not much, but basically let people live out however they wanted to in the flesh.

So when we come to our text, we see the apostle is entering into this city, and his heart, his desire is to bring the gospel to them. So let’s pick up in verse two of chapter 18. The Bible says he found, referring to the apostle, a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife, Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews.

Jews to depart from Rome and he came to them. So because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and worked, for by occupation they were tent makers. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded both Jews and Greeks.

When Silas and Timothy had come from Macedonia, Paul was compelled by the Spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ. Now if we’re gonna look at the life of the Apostle and learn how to effectively serve Christ, I want you to see first of all that we need to connect with people and help them to grow in the Lord.

You see here in verse two the first mention of a great Christian couple in the Bible. Their name is Aquila and Priscilla. We learned later in the scriptures that they were mighty people for God. They were mighty in the scriptures.

We learned that they were very amicable and very friendly and hospitable to the apostle Paul because they had common ground and that is first that they were both Jewish. And so this couple received the apostle very well.

He was a Jew raised up in Judaism and he was a great leader in Judaism and he was looked upon as a rabbi, a teacher, someone who knew the Old Testament well. And so there was a great connection there.

We learned that Aquila was born in Pontus and that him and his wife had recently come to Corinth from Rome, Italy. Why? Because the emperor at the time said we want all the Jews out of Rome. There had been some factions of Judaism that had believed apart from Jesus Christ that there were other messiahs and they believed that other messiahs had come and they were causing a lot of havoc.

There were riots and there were problems in the empire. And so Claudius just said, hey, I’m done with these people and I want them out. So unfortunately, Aquila and Priscilla had to move out. Now they had already come to know the Lord Jesus as their savior.

How did they come to know Christ as their savior? It is possible in Acts chapter 2 that they were among the thousands of people that had received Christ under the preaching of the apostle Peter. Or perhaps when the church was persecuted in chapter 4, chapter 5, and chapter 8, we see that the gospel begins to spread out into regions beyond.

It is possible the gospel came to them and they trusted in Christ and they believed in the Lord. Either way, however it was, God had sovereignly brought them under the message of the gospel and they had believed in Jesus Christ and now even though the political rulers of the day thought that they were doing something to their political advantage we find that God providentially had Aquila and Priscilla to have to leave Rome end up in Corinth and bump in to the Apostle Paul and so this is a beautiful story and we realize God had put this together and you’ll note here in verse three that it says that he was of the same trade he stayed with them and worked for by occupation they were tent makers now every young Jewish boy had the responsibility of learning a trade even if they were studying to be a rabbi they still had to learn a trade it was just a requirement among the Jewish people They learned this trade.

And what was the trade that the Apostle learned? He was a tent maker. He worked with leather and cloth, and he made these tents for people to dwell in. And so, by God’s providence and God’s sovereignty, he brings them together in this task of tent making.

And we see that this couple was so hospitable to Paul in that he not only worked with them, but he stayed with them, we see in verse 3, and we recognize that they were very receptive to the Apostle Paul.

Now, I want you to also see that this couple was mighty in God’s word. Jump down to verse 26 of chapter 18. The Bible says, so he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. Apollos, in verse 24, he was a great teacher, but he began to speak boldly in the synagogue.

And when Aquila and Priscilla heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. Now, how did this couple get to the point that they were mighty in the scriptures and that they were able to help the great eloquent preacher Apollos understand the way of God more accurately?

In essence, they were helping him to see that he no longer had to preach the baptism of John, which was the foreshadowing of the coming of Christ, but rather the baptism of the spirit that was to come for those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, how did they get to that point? Let me tell you how. The Apostle Paul, what a great servant he was because he connected with people and he helped them to grow in the Lord. That’s what he did. And I want you to remember these three things about connecting with people and helping them to grow.

That if you’re going to be an effective servant of God, you need to pursue godly worship. relationships. You need to pursue godly relationships. Now, here’s what I hear sometimes as a pastor. Well, I don’t feel connected to the church, or I don’t feel like we know anybody.

The church has great responsibility to be a friendly church, to be a church that provides ministries, programs, and opportunities for you to connect. But let me tell you something. If you don’t show up, what are we supposed to do?

You see, you can’t complain to me that you don’t have friends in the church when you don’t come to Sunday school, you don’t jump into a small group, you don’t jump into Bible studies, you don’t jump into different ministries, and you refuse to be active for God.

What we see in the life of the apostle is that he pursued godly relationships. He took the initiative, and he was intentional about his relationships. And yes, he popped into a new place called Corinth, and he popped into a new people, the people of Corinth, and God sovereignly is connecting him with people.

But here’s how God works. He works by you and I actively connecting, reaching, welcoming, reaching out to others. If you wanna be effective servant of God, you’ll never be able to do it alone. You’ll never be able to reach your optimum in Christ, you’ll never be able to max out for God, trying to live for God alone.

That’s why you have to pursue godly relationships, not only in the church, but in the community, in your family, and even at the workplace. That you’re gonna need that support, you’re gonna need that encouragement, you’re gonna need those relationships, because iron sharpens iron.

And we are called to sharpen each other for God. So here’s the question, who in your life is making you sharp for God? Who in your life is influencing you to be all that God wants you to be? Now, before you get upset about that, because you might say, well, nobody, remember this, here’s the other question, the flip side.

Who are you sharpening? Who are you influencing for God? Who are you stepping up to the plate and connecting with people? And I know some of you are gonna say, well, I’m bashful, pastor, I’m shy. I don’t really like to talk to people.

You’re putting a lid on your spiritual life. And you know, the Bible says that if you want friends, you must be friendly. I mean, you can’t walk into the church, sit down in your seat and not talk to anybody and wonder why nobody talked to you.

Now, I want you to know that as a pastor, behind the scenes, I’m training, I’m talking, I’m teaching, I’m telling people, don’t just come in and sit down, go around, shake hands, welcome people, make people feel, I’m teaching the leaders to step up and engage in conversations and relate to people and try to…

to help them to feel welcome. We have visiting guests all the time, but not just visiting guests. We have members in the church that need encouragement, they need prayer, they need support, and they need the blessing that fellowship brings to their life.

That only happens when God’s people take the initiative to be willing to connect with others. But the other thing I want you to learn is the servant of God must root believers in their faith. So we look at Aquila and Priscilla.

They’ve come to Christ and they’re forced out of their hometown and they have to go to Corinth. They end up in Corinth and they’re business people and they’re tent makers and the apostle gets connected with them and he’s working with them and he’s working for them and he’s making tents and he’s helping them to be a success, but not just financially, spiritually.

He’s investing in their life. He’s helping them to be rooted in the faith. He’s helping them to become stronger. How do we know this? Because we see the results of this relationship with the apostle in that they are not only growing in their relationship with God and growing in their relationship with the apostle, but they are out there helping other servants of God like Apollos to understand the transition from the Old Testament to John the Baptist,

now to the ministry of Christ that has been manifested and now that Christ has died on the cross, been resurrected, ascended into heaven, here is the new covenant that Christ has given us. Now friends, if you’re gonna be able to connect and help people grow, you got to know the Bible.

I know it’s shocking and I know it’s scary, but I want you to know that each of us need to be students of the Bible. We need to be mighty in the scriptures. We need to be the kind of people that not only can discern air when we hear it taught in different platforms or different speakers, but we also have the ability to guide and encourage other believers to be sound in their faith.

Remember the Berean believers? What were they doing? They were more noble than the Thessalonians. Why? Because they researched the scriptures to see if what the apostle taught lined up with the Bible and they wanted to make sure that his message was the message of Christ.

And so it is that each of us are called to connect and help others to grow. The servant of God pursues godly relationships, roots other believers in the faith, and hear this, the servant of God finds people and mentors them.

The servant of God finds people and mentors them. Aquila and Priscilla would go on to be stalwarts in the faith. In Romans chapter 16, the apostle refers to them. In 1 Corinthians chapter 16, he refers…

to them again, what are they doing? They are powerful influencers in the body of Christ, in the family of God. Why? Because they were mentored by the Apostle Paul. You say, well, how could I do that?

Well, that’s what I’m trying to say, is that as you get active in the church, as you get active in the children’s ministry, the youth ministry, as you get active in men’s ministry, women’s ministries, as you get active in different ministries, here’s what’s going to happen.

You are going to have the opportunity to influence others for Jesus Christ. But if you’re just a Sunday morning Christian, you just sit, you just come in and sit and just want to hear the message, go home and never think about it again, you’re going to limit the potential that Christ has in you.

And you’re going to limit what God wants to do in you and through you and yes, around you by staying active for the Lord. Now, I know that many of you say, well, Pastor, look, I got this going on and I got that.

Here’s the thing in life. You’re going to have to learn to downsize your life, and you’re going to have to learn to right size your life, and you’re going to have to learn to prioritize your life. That you can’t do everything in this world, but if you want to leave a mark for Christ, it must be a priority.

And whether you’re serving in the community, in the church, in the home, it must be something that must be very important to you that you are going to find time to do it. You’re going to make it work in your schedule.

And let me say that for some of you, it might be your children. Some of you moms need to understand that God has blessed you with these children to connect with them and to help them to know Christ and to grow in the Lord Jesus Christ.

I think about this often. If parents would be as dedicated to influencing their children for the gospel as they are in other ministries and trying to influence others for the gospel, what impact could happen upon the church?

And what impact could the church have as these young people are growing up in the faith, loving God, living for God, and they are touching their communities and their world and their friends for Jesus Christ?

That’s the way it works, church. You don’t have to go around the world and not opposed to it and to watch you if God is calling you to. But you know what? Your ministry might be right under your nose.

As one evangelist told me, I’ve reached the world with the gospel, but I haven’t even reached my own family. That’s a sad testimony, isn’t it? Let’s make it a priority to connect with people and to help them to grow in the Lord.

The second thing we see out of the life of the apostle is that he was committed to work extra whenever it was required. Look at verse two again. It says that he found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius died.

had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome, and he came to them. So he was of the same trade. He stayed with them. He worked, for by occupation they were tent makers. He came unto them. He began to build a relationship with them, and he began to work with them.

Here, this is the apostle, but he is laboring. In 1 Corinthians chapter 4, the apostle reminds the believers that we labor working with our own hand. In order for the apostle to have adequate support, to meet the needs of his own personal life, he engaged in a trade called tent making.

and whenever he would come into a new community rather than asking these new believers to support him as a minister of the gospel even though he had the right to do it according to 1 Corinthians 9, he chose not to because he wanted to support himself and he didn’t want these new believers to feel that he was some charlatan who was trying to take advantage of the people.

1 Thessalonians 2.9 Here the apostle says, you remember brethren our labor and toil for laboring night and day that we might not be a burden to any of you. We preach to you the gospel of God. He’s not talking about being a emotional burden.

He’s not talking about being a physical burden. He’s not talking about being a burden that he was an overbearing personality. He’s talking about a financial burden. I didn’t want to be a financial burden to this young new small community of believers and so I worked.

I labored with my own hands. The apostle points out to the thessalonians you remember how I labored. You remember how I toil. Paul did not hesitate to work with his hands in order to get the gospel out to people.

Again, Colossians 1.29 he says, to this end I also labor, striving according to his working which works in me mightily. The apostle saw his work as an act of worship. He saw it as a partnership with the heavenly father working in him and working through him.

He saw it as a means of ministry that his labor, his work, his toil, his effort, was all a part of the providential plan of God and that he was not looking for anyone to support him, but rather he wanted to be an example of laboring and doing in whatever it takes physically to make it work so that the gospel could go to more and more and more people.

Now, what’s that mean to us? Well, first of all, I want you to know that there is dignity in labor. Now, why this was so unique is that when we get to 2 Corinthians, the apostle is criticized for being a laborer.

He is criticized for being a man who works with his hands because the Greeks believed that it was beneath them to work with their hands, that they were so filled with wisdom and philosophy and education that only slaves would work with their hands.

And so they believed the apostle was not a true servant of God because he worked with his hands. But I want you to know the apostle steps up to the plate in a profound way, not only in what he taught, but how he lived and he said a servant of God is not afraid to labor for God, is not afraid to work for God.

God is not afraid to use their hands for God. Now we as believers need to remember that there is dignity in work. It’s unfortunate that in our society there’s no shame in being lazy. That people actually admire others who are lazy and are not out there working.

But friends we need to once again in the family of God, whether our culture comes along or not, we need to recapture this great dignity of working. Helping our children and our grandchildren understand that we as well will set the example, but we believe as God’s people that we’re not to be a lazy people, we’re not to just sit back and expect everybody to take care of us, to ask the government to take care of us,

to ask the church to take care of us, but rather we get out there and we use our hands and we use them for the glory of God. Now this mindset is slipping away in our culture, but it doesn’t have to slip away in the church.

It doesn’t have to be true among the believers. We recognize that there are those who are in need and we recognize there needs to be a safety net for those who are incapable. But my friends if you got some blood flowing through you and you got some ability in you, let’s get out there and let’s go make something happen for God, amen?

Now hear me. The Thessalonians, having heard the Apostle teach that God was going to return one day, they decided they would just camp out on the mountain and they would wait for his return. And here’s what the Apostle Paul said, if you don’t work, you don’t eat.

How about that one? Now that would send shock waves through 50% of Americans. And you think I’m kidding but I’m not. I want you to teach your children to be workers. It starts in the home. It starts when they’re little.

I want to encourage you as parents and grandparents and believers to teach the younger generation There’s nothing wrong with working with your hand. Not every child should go to college. We need some more plumbers.

We need more electricians. We need more welders. And I wanna tell you, if you wanna be an effective servant for God, you must be willing. And you must see the great dignity of working and the value of it, and God uses us at our work.

Remember what we are promised in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 58. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

We interpret that in relating to our spiritual ministry and our spiritual work, rightly so, but I wanna tell you that its application is even broader and that every work you’re doing at your job, at your role, your responsibility, whatever it is, keep abounding for God.

Keep letting God use you. You say, why am I at this job? I hate this place. I can’t stand these people. And I just can’t take it anymore. Have you ever thought that God has you there for a reason? That God wants to use you to bump into an Aquila and a Priscilla to disciple them in Christ?

Have you ever thought that God might have you to come in contact with someone because he wants you to reach them? Oh, I tell you this morning that God approves our labor. And God affirms those who labor for him and labor tirelessly for him.

Jesus said in John 9.4, we must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. Friends, there’s a day coming when we cannot work, but that day ain’t now. And it’s time for the church to rise up and be a powerful workforce in this community, to be the best workers in this community, to be the best citizens and being the best models, the best servants of God.

And we may not always like our boss and we may not always agree with our boss. And we may think sometimes that our boss has gone crazy, but we work for someone higher. And that is the Lord Jesus Christ.

We work, the Bible says, as unto the Lord. And Jesus said, get to work now because there’s coming a day when you won’t be able to work. And the night is coming, Jesus says, as I was sent by the Father, so send I you church, you are sent by Jesus.

Get out there, use your hands, teach the young people to work, be effective. This is our moment, this is our time. So many have dropped out of the workforce. So many are no longer working. This is the time for the church to rise up and to infiltrate all these jobs and fill them with believers and followers of Christ and make an influence for Jesus.

Don’t cry about the problem, do something about the problem, step up and be a solution to the problem. And serve Jesus Christ. I know, there’s a lot to consider. but I want to ask you a question. Why do you have the job you have?

You say, well, I want a new Corvette, or I want a new house, or I want this. Nothing wrong with those things. But let me tell you the real reason you have a job, to glorify God, to reach others for Jesus.

The third thing, how can I be an effective servant for God? Be ready to explain the gospel. We come down to verse four and five. The Bible says he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath. He persuaded both Jews and Greeks.

When Silas and Timothy had come from Macedonia, Paul was compelled by the Spirit and testified of the Jews that Jesus is the Christ. Well, it’s never easy to serve the Lord. And as we serve God, there’s going to be pushback, opposition.

There’s going to be trials. But we’ve got to stay focused. And that’s what we see in the life of the apostle. Even though he faced adversity, he just would not quit. And so we’re excited about the opportunity we have to serve the Lord, even in difficult times.

And so I’m praying that the Lord will bless you with his wisdom and that as you look at the example of the apostle, that you can make an impact for Christ. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.