How Will We Serve the Lord Together

Introduction

About Jesus. Sing me a song about his love. I sing that song. I don’t know how many people sing that song frequently, but my daughter knows I sing that song. So she’s heard me sing that to her before. Alright. You have your Bibles, you’re probably recognizing that this is the place to have them. But I would make uh a comment at the beginning of our lesson that our Bible should be lived. And we should be the type of people that all throughout our day, throughout our week, we take our scriptures that we’ve studied and we apply them to our life daily. If you’re visiting with us and you’re from the community, we’re glad that you’ve chosen to be here. We have an evangelism bulletin board that’s up in the hall that has various things for those in the community to use and for those of our members to use.

And this past week we put up uh uh brochures about Uber drivers, Lyft drivers, those that might give rides, and over 65 of those were handed out, and there’s only one left, and so we will print more, and we are glad that you all are using those for those that might find the direction through our Lord Jesus, and then ultimately hopefully teach the gospel to those we meet in the community. Our theme for our year here at Bumby, this particular season this year, is coming from Joshua chapter 24, where we read from Joshua 24 that our good Joshua teaches us the lesson as for me and for my house. Listen, we will serve the Lord. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

The idea here that we recognize is that Joshua is bold in stating that while he has his kids with him, while he has his wife still alive, while he has his family that is still there with him, we will serve the Lord. The family structure that we are in today and that you are in today comes in different phases. Comes at different points. Some who are here this morning are happy, they’re encouraged, they’re part of a family, but they’re in an empty nest. They have had those children that they have raised go on to have their own place of abode. There are others here who are like me who are raising teenagers and soon to be teenagers. Rachel and I like to say at the end of this year, all three of ours will be in double digits.

But we’re happy, we’re just in a different phase.

Maybe they’re an individual that is not old, or maybe they are older and they’ve never married, or maybe they’re a widow or a widower and they’re they’re one person in their family, and they’re the one person in their home. We still have premises that we can understand, though, from Joshua 24 that says we will stand for that which is the Lord’s bidding. Together in serving is the theme I want to speak on this morning. And so I want to speak on the idea of the we passages or the together passages as they relate to Deuteronomy. In our family’s reading, in our family’s prayer, and in our family’s outreach. The three scripture readings that were read were so aptly read by our good brother Johnson, and I’m glad for that.

1. In Our Family’s Reading

Thank you. And as Danny read those for us, we understood very clearly that they seem unrelated scriptures. As you hear the passage of scripture about Timothy and Eunice and Agabus and Philip and Aquila and Priscilla, they seem like unique standalone passages, but the reality is for our lesson today, they all interweave into an important message. And so to talk about the spirit of togetherness, we first go to our family’s reading. And first go to that.

Through people that taught him the Old Testament ways of ways of importance and ways of things that were vital to his life. Timothy was a young evangelist and a young preacher. And perhaps some of the passages that were read to Timothy were passages of scripture that were older than Timothy that were found way back in the Proverbs. Passages of Scripture, such as Proverbs 5, 1 through 8, that Timothy’s mother Eunice and his grandmother Lois would have had access to.

But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword, her feet go down to death, her steps lay hold of the grave. Lest you ponder her path of life, her ways are unstable. He’s basically saying, Solomon is teaching his son, he’s saying, the ways of an adulterous, immoral, wicked woman are unstable. It’s not the way you’re going to have an even paced, good, consistent life. He says, Therefore hear me now, my children, and do not depart from the words of my mouth. Remove your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house. And then in Proverbs, we’ll go to Proverbs 27 in a minute, but I want you to turn just one chapter over to Proverbs chapter 4.

He says in Proverbs chapter 4, verse 23, keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. Perhaps we need to decide in our reading the importance of reading passages of scripture that apply to knowing things about life. And Proverbs chapter 4 and Proverbs chapter 5 are passages of Scripture that talk about warnings about life. And we need to use this passage of scripture in Proverbs chapter 4 and Proverbs chapter 5 to teach balanced, practical things that relate to certain demographics of life. Young men need to hear, don’t be near the wrong ladies. Don’t be there. And young ladies need to hear, don’t be the type of lady that dresses in such a way that draws the attention away from the mind, away from the speech, and onto the body.

Don’t dress that way. And so when we read these passages of scriptures, they’re important to help us recognize things that we can do in our families’ readings. But our family’s readings also need to be balanced. As we turn over to Proverbs 27, verses 23 through 27, listen to these words. Proverbs chapter 27, verses 23 through 27. Be diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and attend to your, notice that word, herds. Now remember, this is Proverbs written by Solomon to the next generation, to people that will come after.

But he states this in verse 24 for riches are not forever, nor does a crown endure to all generations. When the hay is removed and the tender grass shows itself, and the herbs of the field are gathered in off the mountains. The lambs will provide your clothing, and the goats the price of a field. You shall have enough goats as milk for your food, for the food of your household and the nourishment of your maidservants. Often our young people go away from home, not knowing what to do with the limited resources they have. And they’re not given the wisdom to understand the importance of saving instead of spending. They’re not given the wisdom to know resourcefulness like you, like that which used to be at the time of those that grew up during the time of the Great Depression, who took every resource they had and made every little ounce last.

We live in a society that is so rampant with excess that we throw away and throw away and throw away. Where in this particular context, in this particular passage, it’s talking about the idea of preservation of that which will help in the future. We live in Florida, and come hurricane season, we stock up, don’t we? There’s certain things we pick out. We go, well, haven’t eaten this in a while, but it’s it’s shelf stable. This might last where the power to go out, this might last where the oven to not work right, you know, and so we we we pick certain things for for in the event of a hurricane. But this particular passage is giving similar information in that it’s saying certain things will provide for you.

You shall have enough of what you need, but it may not be what you initially think you should need. We talk to our young college people off to college and having challenging work life situations where they see a total differentiation from how it used to be when they were back home. And many of us have gone through that. And here in this passage of scripture, we need to read this passage not to our college age kids, but to our middle school and elementary school kids so that they know when you get older, save. When you get older, make sure that you’re going to make the decision to not spin, spin, spin, spin, spin, and conserve what you have and choose to make the things that you have last.

Make sure you’re one that doesn’t just throw it all away in excess and that kind of thing. And that’s a good passage. That’s a really good passage. The reason I’m bringing this passage right next to the other passage in Proverbs 5 is they’re so different. Timothy had the wisdom that his mother and grandmother had taught him, and certainly it wasn’t just wisdom of Jesus’ coming. Well, that’s important, but how’s he going to manage his life? How’s he gonna deal with the things of life? He’s gonna know Jesus is coming, so I’m not gonna be around the wrong people. I’m gonna choose to be near godly people. I’m gonna make sure Timothy might say that if he got married, he was gonna marry a worthy woman, someone like Proverbs 31 talks about, not someone like Proverbs 5 talks about.

And so he makes that emphasis, Paul does to him, that he was taught in the ways of scripture. And when we look at these other passages of scripture, Timothy dealt with money. Hear me? Timothy went from one place to another, from Ephesus to Laodicea, to Corinth, to Philippi. And that takes management of money. He had to do it in a wise way. So we need to recognize that. A lot of this teaching and preaching that we do to our kids needs to be not only talking about these types of things, but needs to be talking about things regarding the vision of life. Or things that’ll happen way down the road. We think, well, why tell them this? Because it’s gonna matter and it’ll stick with them.

I think that passage of scripture in Proverbs that says, teach a child in the way he should go, and when he’s old, he will not depart from it. That’s kind of like when the kids remember the lessons that the parents told them a long time ago and it starts connecting. It’s when they take all these studies of things that their parents have told them and grandparents. I love how it mentions Lois in there too. Uh Lois, not just Eunice, Eunice was his mom, but Lois is his grandma. She taught him a lot of things too. I remember things my mom taught me through through Bible study as a little kid. I remember things my grandma taught me through Bible study as a little kid. I remember those things.

And surely you all do as well. We look at these passages of scripture, and we need to ask ourselves, like it said in uh Joshua 24, as for me and for my house, we will serve the Lord, but we will do it together. We will have it in the spirit of togetherness. Someone says, Well, I I struggle with trying to figure out what to read. I struggle with trying to figure out what do I teach my kids, what do I read? Do you notice how difficult the reading was in today’s uh meditation list? The verses we read were good, but you read on the chapter you’re going, oh, that’s some pretty heavy reading. Well, it’s balanced in the list that we gave, but a lot of it is differentiation between not serving idols but serving God.

Don’t serve the Baals but serve God, don’t serve things that are worldly but focus on the Lord. I’ve got the whole list. If you want a copy of it, just come see me after service. I’ll jot down your name and send you an email file or print off the data. I’ve got the whole list that’s designed. You can sit down and talk about some of the meditations with your family. Or maybe you could go through a Bible reading program that parallels some of the reading in the Bible classes. The teachers have really good books and also individual material that goes along with a Bible memory verses. You could do that with your kids. You can do that.

You can have a daily Bible reading journal. You could open up the New Testament and start with Matthew and go from Matthew to from chapter one to the end. But the reality is do something. I saw a meme, it was great. I think Robert showed it to me. There he is. It says, life is a lot like the squirrel. You’ve got to make decisions. The squirrel goes from left to right, left to right, left to right. Goes one way across the road, the other way across the road. Life is filled with many dead squirrels in the middle of the road, but by all means choose some way and get across the road. Go do something and make a decision. That’s a pretty good point. If you want to do something for your family, just do something.

2. In Our Family’s Prayer

Make a decision as to what you’ll read and then do it. Decide decisively that you will try your hardest to get from point A to point B in your family. You’re trying to make progress, not have a squirrel dead in the road. You don’t want your children’s demise. You want your children’s success. And you want to navigate them safely through life. In our family’s prayer. In Acts chapter 21 of 1 Corinthians 13, 9 through 13, we need to serve the Lord in our family’s prayer. Agabus and Philip. We don’t talk about these two men as much as we talk about Peter and Paul and Timothy. But Agabus and Philip were two preachers. And the reality is, in the third missionary journey of Paul, they go to the house of Philip.

And Philip, you might remember, is one of the seven. The seven were men that were chosen to distribute food, needy funds, things that the Grecian widows needed that they were being daily neglected in the distribution of help. The Jewish ladies that were widows, they were being taken care of, but there were some Greek-speaking Jews that weren’t getting taken care of in the daily distribution. And so Simon, Prothrase, Nicanor, Philip, Tomon, Parmenius, and Stephen, the seven were chosen. And Philip was one of them. And in Philip’s service, he was a family man whose daughters were also able to prophesy. At the time of the first century, prophecy was such that it was giving information to the people of God. Just as there were prophets that were men, there were also prophets that were women.

Let’s see.

Anyways, I’ll keep talking. I don’t see anything on the screen. I’m just gonna keep talking. So uh Philip, his daughters could prophesy and were able to convey messages. Nevertheless, in their doing that, that became limited at a certain time. It says in the book of 1 Corinthians, as we look on in the text in chapter 13, verses 9 through 13. 1 Corinthians 13 9 through 13. We’ll do it the old school way and just talk it out. 1 Corinthians 13, 9 through 13. We know in part and prophesy impart. That’s the emphasis I want to make. He says here at the beginning, when they first had the word, that they didn’t have the whole Bible like we have right here. So he says, we know in part and we prophesy in part.

God gave them some information. He said, But when that which is complete or mature or perfect is come, that would be the Bible.

Then that which is in part will be done away with.

I impart, but when that which is complete has come, that which is in part will be done away with. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things. Now we see it a mere dimly. That’s paralleling the prophecy time, the dim time when they have part of the thing that they’re going to write about, part of it. But then that would be after the will of the Lord has been conveyed through the whole Bible, I will be known as I’m known, and now abide faith, hope, and love, these three, but the greatest of these is love. So in our family’s prayer, go to Acts chapter 21, 7 through 14 now.

Had to delay just a little bit, but I’m really grateful for Tony. He’s able to do all these technological things behind the scenes, and he’s very busy working diligently to help our uh audiovisual department here today go good. So Acts 21, 7 through 14.

The point Paul is making here in this missionary journey after he goes from Cosroads to Patra, and they sail from Cyprus to Tyre on the third missionary journey, is that they’re going to places where there is a church. They’re going to places where there is an assembly of God’s people, which would mean they’re there on a Sunday. They’re there on the Lord’s Day to partake of the Lord’s Supper. Obviously, I get the idea that there are days of the Lord. That’s not what I’m saying. What I’m saying is they were there at a worship time, and it says in verse 8 on the next day, we who were Paul’s companions departed and came to Caesarea. Listen, and entered the house of Philip. Notice, it doesn’t say entered the house of Philip’s virgin daughters.

It called it the house of Philip. He’s the leader of the house. The evangelist. Well, that means he’s their local preacher, in the sense that he carries forth the message. But then it also says a special thing about him. He was one of the seven. That means he was one of the ones from Jerusalem that at one point helped the church there. And we stayed with him. So we recognize where his home is. And we stayed many days. And a certain prophet named Agabus came down from Judea, and then the scripture reading, you remember, says he took the belt of Paul, tied him up with it, and said he would be bound to go to Jerusalem. I want to make a point from this that’s not about Paul.

We often talk about, oh, it’s so sad, Paul’s going to Jerusalem. The Agabus calls out, oh, I don’t want you to go, you shouldn’t go, it’ll be sad. But notice something happy here in this context. Philip has worked diligently to teach his daughters what is right and what is true. Listen to how it recognizes their morality that is right and that is true. Listen to how it recognizes that God, through his wisdom, said those ladies could teach other ladies. I guess he gave them prophetic utterances that they could talk to the other people about. Notice some things it does not say.

So in the context there, it’s led by men and led by the apostles and led by Philip. And so a proper thing is given at the proper time. But notice the good that he does for them. He talks about Philip in his prayer with the family here that he has had with them. And so that’s so important that we recognize this idea. Agabus was the speaker in his daughter’s house, right? Philip and his daughter’s house. Isn’t that right? Caesarea was the home of one of the seven, and the children were active in prayer and had the ability to prophesy. But yet, as we read from 1 Corinthians, where there are prophecies, they will cease. How will we serve the Lord? In our family’s reading of scriptures, in our family’s prayer and service, and in our family’s outreach.

3. In Our Family’s Outreach

Chapter 16 and verse 19. It says, The churches of Asia greet you. Aquila and Priscilla greet you heartily in the Lord. I like that word. Heartily in the Lord. With the church that’s in their house.

Now, Ephesus was a church that had issues, but Corinthians really had issues. They had a lot of drama going on at Corinth. Didn’t matter to Aquila and Priscilla, the drama there. What mattered to them is that they were faithful, they served the Lord, and they cared about their brethren at large. And here’s Aquila. Here’s Priscilla, a couple that nowhere in the Bible that I know of, if it does tell me, and I’ll recant this point because I’m not sure. But nowhere that I know of in the Bible does it mention their children. I don’t know if they’re single. I don’t know if they never had children, in that sense that they were singular in the home of just a husband and wife with no children. They’re married, we know that much, but we don’t know if they had kids.

Or my theory, this is what I think, is they’re at the empty nest phase. I think their kids have probably already become older, and they make the decision to serve the Lord in their age, in their time where they’re utilizing their wisdom to continue their work for the Lord. Nevertheless, in their families reaching out, they serve the Lord. There will come a time where we will not be just focusing on raising our kids. And I have heard this said so many times. I’ve read it over and over, and I know at one point I’m gonna have to apply it myself. But I read this over and over from people that say this.

Things have changed, and the roles that I have been so focused on maintaining and driving and designing my life after have totally transformed once it’s just me and the spouse at home. Don’t let that bother you. Let that put you into high gear to reach out for the Lord. Amen. That’s what Aquila and Priscilla essentially did. They looked towards a church of Ephesus where they were and worked diligently towards them, but then they also cared about the church at Corinth. They had their issues, had their problems, had their challenges, and they reached out to them and greeted them heartily. They traveled hither and yon with Paul all over the Mediterranean zones, the regions around Ephesus, Laodicea. They traveled with him. They served the Lord. They went to places, and there are many, listen here, it there are many here who do that here, and you need to be commended for it.

Someone needs to tell you, thank you for the work you do. I think of Walcott and Bonnie. They are good, good people who travel the world to help spread the gospel. And others do it too. There are people who, in their own community, in their own home, right here in Orlando, Florida, or the Central Florida region, teach and preach the gospel to people round about in their community. Keep it up. Don’t let anybody uh say that’s small business. It’s not small business, it’s the Lord’s business, and never is the Lord’s business small business. Good. And we look to Acts 18, 18 for another scripture for just a moment. In Acts 18, 18, it says this. So Paul still remained a good while. Then he took leave of the brethren and sailed for Syria, and Priscilla and Aquila were with him.

Don’t miss that verse, brethren. What that verse is saying is they didn’t just hang out with Paul during church hours. Listen, it says he took leave of the brethren, and Priscilla and Aquila were with him. We need to emphasize just what was emphasized to me just in a Bible study Friday. Some of us in the assembly were here in the community. And the person said to us in the Bible study, do you guys like ever get together outside of the uh these Bible studies just to do stuff together? I thought to myself, yes, we do. Would you like to hear what we do? And I just started listing things, Steve lists things, different ones list things. We just sat there talking about times we get together.

Conclusion

That’s what they did. Aquila and Priscilla got together outside of worship time to be with Paul. When Paul took leave of the brethren, when he wasn’t in this capacity like we are now, he went somewhere and they went with him. And they went with him on a missionary journey and a traveling journey as well. So how will we serve the Lord in our family service? Let’s look to our Bible examples here. How will we do it? Timothy and Eunice in reading, parents and grandparents teaching the word of the Lord to their children so that when they’re older, they’ll remember the words and not just remember them by way of knowledge of them in their head, but they’ll follow them. Philip, father and kids, notice it doesn’t say Philip was a single dad that had to raise his daughters.

It doesn’t say that anywhere in the text, and it’s probably not the case. It doesn’t say Philip’s wife wasn’t important. That’s definitely not the case. All ladies are important to God, just as all men are. But it makes an emphasis on to lead the family, and he led them. We also have the case of Aquila and Priscilla in their outreach that served the Lord. These lessons are vital. These lessons are important, and these lessons are for us. We look at these scriptures, and on the surface, they seem unrelated, but they’re so interconnected because they talk about the demographics of life as we mature. First, when we’re a little kid, and we still have our grandparents alive. My grandmother who read for me at nighttime a Bible lesson of Hebrews with the lights turned out, is no longer alive.

I have my mother with me, and I’m very grateful for that. He’s older, but many of you in this context in this congregation don’t. You are not at that phase of life where you still have your mother with you. Remember that. But yet look at this other area as the demographics move along. Philip with kids that are older, not little kids, but ones that can prophesy or we’re given the ability by God to do certain things. Obviously, those are maturer kids or older kids. Those of us that have teenagers don’t say, it’s terrible. I can’t believe we’ve got teenagers. They’re awful people. They’re not. They have great potential. And in this instance, this father nurtured his kids and helped them understand you are good. You are valued.

I care about you, and your faith is important. And then in the latter phase of life with Aquila and Priscilla, the outreach. Don’t think our faith should just be nothing because I don’t know what to do anymore. Think, oh, I’ve got the opportunity to do more. Let’s excel more and more. How will we serve the Lord? Like our Bible examples in reading and prayer and outreach. Well, thank you so much for giving me your ear this time. And I want to just give the invitation if there’s someone who’s not a Christian this morning and you need to become a Christian, know the words of Acts 22, 16. And now, why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.

If we can help you do that, come forward and sit on our front row while we stand and sing.