(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Romans chapter 12, the part that I want to focus on is beginning in verse number six where the Bible reads, having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith, or ministry, let us wait on our ministering, or he that teacheth on teaching, or he that exhorteth on exhortation, he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity, he that ruleth with diligence, he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness. And the title of my sermon tonight is the skills to serve in the church, the skills to serve in the church. This scripture has to do with spiritual gifts, which are abilities that God has given to different people. There's another passage over in 1 Corinthians 12 that deals with a lot of the same material, and it lists different gifts than the ones that are listed here. God gives different people different abilities, and when we come together in the local church, all of our talents and abilities can be used to further the kingdom of God. Now in the church, there are certain roles that are restricted to men only. Obviously, the preaching and teaching of God's word is for men only, but there are many things that women can also participate in in the church. They definitely have a place to serve and work in the local church. As I get into the sermon and I go over a lot of these different skills and different areas, even if you're a woman, every point in the sermon applies to you if you're a mother, because you could be raising up young men to have the skills necessary that when they reach a certain age, they could serve in the local church. As a mother, as a father, you're raising up the next generation of servants for God's house, and you could help them to get these skills in their lives. And those that are men could do all of these things, and those that are women could do many of these things. We need laborers to step up to the plate and serve in the local church. There's plenty of work to do. There are plenty of opportunities to serve. The harvest truly is plenty, but the laborers are few. We need many churches to be started all across America, and we need men that would fill those pulpits and serve and lead another generation of servants for God. But let's start out in this passage here. It says in Romans chapter 12 verse 1, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. So he starts out this passage on spiritual gifts by asking people to step forward and present themselves to the Lord, fit for service, ready to work, ready to do something for God, presenting their bodies a living sacrifice to God. He says in verse 2, And be not conformed to this world, meaning don't be patterned after this world. Don't act like this world would have you to act, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God at dealt to every man, the measure of faith. For meaning, what does for mean? Because this is a conjunction. So there's a connection between what we've read in verses one through three and the rest of the chapter dealing with spiritual gifts. Verse four, For as we have many members in one body and all members have not the same office. So we being many are one body in Christ and everyone members one of another. So in verse three, he says don't think of yourself more highly than you ought to think because of the fact that God has this body, which we know from other scripture, from First Corinthians 12, et cetera, that body is the local church. He has this body that has many members and different members have different functions and they're all important. So one ought not to think that he's much more important than someone else because of the role that he plays just because someone else is playing maybe a less visible role or a less exciting role if everybody is showing up and a part of the team and using their talents and abilities for the Lord. Everybody's important. Everybody is of the same value. So we ought not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. He says in verse number five, So we being many are one body in Christ and everyone members one of another. This is why the term church member is used. Hey, I'm a member of Faithful Word Baptist Church. You know, church membership. What does it mean to be a member? Well, the biblical word member is referring to a body part, whether it be a nose, an eye, a hand, a foot. And the Bible likens the church to a body. And he says you're a member of the church, meaning that you're a part of the body. And just as every part of our body has a function, every member in the church has a function. It plays a role, is a part of the team. Our bodies are fearfully and wonderfully made. Evolutionists used to claim that there were over a hundred things in our body that had no function, that were just the vestigial organs or they were just vestiges of evolution. And now I think that number is down to five or six things that they can't figure out what they're for. But I guarantee you that those five or six things are there for a reason. Just because they don't understand it doesn't mean that these things don't have a function. Everything in our body has a function. Everything plays a role. And we might think, oh, the sight is more important than the hearing. But you know, who are we to really judge that? We need everything. We need smell. We need taste. We need sight. We need our hands. We need our feet. We need every part of our body. And that's the way the church is as well. So he talks about the gifts that different people have. Verse 6, having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us whether prophecy, which means preaching, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith or ministry. What does ministry mean? Ministry means serving. Minister is a synonym of serve. Let us wait on our ministering or he that teacheth on teaching or he that exhorteth. Exhorteth is sort of like motivating and getting people fired up. He that exhorteth on exhortation. He that giveth, let him do it with simplicity. He that ruleth with diligence. He that showeth mercy with cheerfulness. Now keep your finger here and go over to 1 Timothy chapter 4. Because as you can see, these are gifts. Gifts are things that you've been given. But the title of the sermon is the skills to serve in the local church. What I want to talk about tonight is improving your skills that you might be used more greatly in the local church and also teaching your children the skills that they're going to need to serve in the local church. Now you might say, hey Pastor Anderson, I don't understand. If these are just gifts, you either got them or you don't. How can I improve my skills to serve in the local church if I'm not gifted? Some people are gifted. Some aren't. But that's not what the Bible means when it says a gift here. Because look at 1 Timothy chapter 4 verse 13. It says, till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Watch this, neglect not the gift that is in thee. So just because we have different gifts, it doesn't mean that we just sit back and just the gift is there and the gift does all the work. No, no, no. We need to not neglect our gift. Just because you have a gift doesn't mean you don't have to work to improve your knowledge and improve your skills. I mean think about a person that you would look at and say that person is gifted in music. Does that mean that they don't need to practice? Does that mean that they can just show up and just say, hey, what are the songs? And just jump on that piano, jump up here and just lead that song, play that song. You know, our piano players at this church are very gifted. Catherine is very gifted. You know, brother Matt Adams is very gifted. But you know what? Both of them spend a lot of time practicing. No one here realizes, no one understands the hours and hours and hours and hours and hours of practice that go into playing that piano. Is there a gift there? Of course. But they're not neglecting the gift. I mean they're working hard at it and that's just one example. We all need to work hard at the gifts we've been given. Now look, some people, they're just not good at certain things. Some people are just never going to be able to get up and preach a sermon. I mean of all the men in this room, some will never get up and preach a sermon behind a pulpit and that's okay. That's just not their calling in life. It doesn't mean that they're any less of a Christian or any less important. They could still be used greatly by God. Okay. Those who do have the ability to preach, the aptitude, they need to work on that and not neglect that gift but actually, what's the word I'm looking for, exercise it or cultivate it. That's the word I was looking for. You know, they need to cultivate that gift, right? And put effort into working and improving at their particular gift. He says, neglect not the gift that is in thee which was given thee by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. Meditate upon these things. Give thyself holy to them that thy profiting may appear to all. You know, here he's talking to a preacher. He's talking about preaching and he received the gift of the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands to preach the word of God with great boldness. The gift was there but Paul's telling him, don't neglect that gift. Work at it. Give attendance to reading, to exhortation and to doctrine. So we need to cultivate our gifts. Go back if you went to Romans 12 where we were. What are some of the gifts that we see here? I'm just going to point out a few of these example gifts in Romans 12. It says in verse number 6, having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith, we talked about that preaching or ministry. Let us wait on our ministering or he that teacheth on teaching or he that exhorteth on exhortation and a lot of those gifts right there could fall under preaching because you've got the prophecy, the exhortation and the teaching. These are kind of different types of preaching in a sense. But he says ministering, ministry, you know, just serving. That's a pretty broad word. Any time you're helping people or any time you're helping out at the church with whatever the task, that's ministry. It says in verse number 8, or he that exhorteth on exhortation, he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity. Now you say, well Pastor Anderson, giving is a gift? That seems a little bit backwards. Giving is a gift? Well here's the thing. There is a gift of giving because of the fact that everything we have is given to us by God. I mean if you have an abundance and you give to the ministry, you say, well that's me giving. No, no. God's the one who gave you everything that you have. So even the ability to give is a gift of God because the Bible says that God is the one who gives us the power to get wealth, okay? So all of our means to give and be generous and whether we're giving to the church or whether we're giving alms to those in need, we're helping the poor, you know, God's the one who gave us the ability to do that. And then the Bible says, he that ruleth with diligence. Now what does it mean, he that ruleth with diligence? Well ruling has to do with basically organizing, administrating, leadership, you know, helping people to know what they need to do and keeping things organized and running things. That's what it means when it says, he that ruleth with diligence. He that showeth mercy with cheerfulness. Now what does it mean to show mercy? Showing mercy is one that basically, you know, sees where somebody has done something wrong or made a mistake and they can reach out to that person and restore such an one in a spirit of meekness. This is something that some people are better at than others. Some people are not as good at reaching out to the backslidden or reaching out to those who have committed sin and restoring such an one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself lest thou also be tempted. So as you can see just from this short list, which this is not all the spiritual gifts, this is just some spiritual gifts, you can see that there's a place for everybody even on this short list. Even for women, even for men, even for children to be able to do these things. See even a child can teach the gospel to a lost person and preach the gospel to every creature through soul winning. I thank God that my older children are getting to the point now where they go out and they knock doors and they're able to win souls. My oldest three boys, Solomon, Isaac, and John, are at that age where they're a talker at the door and they can go out as teenagers with other teenagers and they knock the doors and they preach the gospel. You know, there's a place for them in the church to serve and to evangelize and to teach all nations, you know, teaching them the gospel of Jesus Christ, preaching the gospel to every creature. And it's a great opportunity for ladies to go soul winning in the local church as well. And I'm a strong believer in ladies' soul winning. Now some people downplay this, ah, it's for the men. You know, I believe that ladies can have a great soul winning ministry. And I thank God for a church where a lot of ladies participate in soul winning. Thank God for other Baptist churches that I've been a part of where ladies took a part in soul winning. You know, the Bible says in Acts chapter 2 that there were men and women there winning the souls when 3,000 were saved. And it says that the prophecy was fulfilled that God would pour out the spirit upon the servants and upon the handmaidens and that they would prophesy and that people would be saved. Also, Paul said in Philippians chapter 4, I beseech you Odious and beseech Syntyche that they be of the same mind in the Lord and I entreat thee also true yoke fellow, help those women which labored with me in the gospel with Clement also and with other my fellow laborers whose names are in the book of life. He said that there were women that labored with him not just with cleaning, not just with cooking, not just with the menial things. He said they labored with me in the gospel. And we see that in Acts chapter 2 where they are soul winning. They're winning people to Christ. The spirit of the Lord comes upon them and they're able to see people saved. So there's a place for everybody in the local church. But let, I'm just showing you that as an introduction. Now let me get into the meat of the sermon. Go to Proverbs chapter 1. Proverbs chapter 1. When we talk about skills to serve in the local church or roles that people play in the local church, there are roles that involve preaching, reading the scripture, singing songs, playing a musical instrument, soul winning in evangelism. There's also organization and administration. And this is both on the men's side and on the ladies' side. There are ladies that do organizational work in the house of God that would be diligently administrating, whether that's meals for the sick or meals for those who've just given birth or that are going through health problems or whether that's setting up a baby shower or whether that's planning ladies' activities or whether that's organizing cleaning and cooking and meals and things like that. You know, those are important tasks that are filled by ladies. And then there are men who organize things and administrate things in the church as well. Leadership, giving, all these different things. But look what the Bible says in Proverbs chapter 1 verse 5. The Bible reads, a wise man will hear and will increase learning. He will increase learning and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels. Look at Proverbs chapter 9 verse 9. Proverbs chapter 9 verse 9. Because what the sermon is actually about tonight is improving your skills to serve in the local church, cultivating your gifts, not neglecting them. Look at Proverbs 9 verse 9. Give instruction to a wise man and he will be yet wiser. Teach a just man and he will increase learning. He will increase in learning. Go to Proverbs 16 verse 23. Proverbs 16 verse 23. The Bible reads, the heart of the wise teacheth his mouth and addeth learning to his lips. So repeatedly in the book of Proverbs, these are just a few examples. God tells us that if we're smart, we're going to increase learning. We're going to seek out wise counsels. We're going to listen to instruction. And we're going to want to get smarter and more knowledgeable. And if we're going to serve in the local church, we need to have some skills. I mean playing the piano is a skill. Being a song leader is a skill. Reading the scripture out loud is a trained skill. Preaching a sermon is a trained skill. Going out and knocking doors and being a soul winner is a trained skill. I'm telling you, when I first tried to win souls as a teenager, I failed at it miserably. I didn't know what I was doing because I didn't have the skills. I didn't get the training until I got in a soul winning church and was able to go out with somebody that could actually show me how to do it properly. Turn over to Daniel chapter 1. We need to get some skills to serve in the local church. No matter what your ability is, it can be used to serve in the local church, whether that's an ability with cleaning, whether that's an ability with computers, whether that's an ability with music, whether that's an ability with just organization. Whatever the case, there's a place to serve. The number one skill I want to bring up, first of all, that I believe that every Christian needs in order to effectively serve in the local church is to be good at reading. To be good at reading. This might seem a little bit obvious, and say, well, Pastor Anderson, come on, do you think that we're illiterate here? Do you think we don't know how to read? Let me tell you something. Today, a lot of people need to improve their reading skills. A lot of Christians need to improve their reading skills in this church. And just in general, I don't want to pick on anybody, I'm not trying to give anybody a bad time. Hey, I'm trying to motivate you, I'm trying to exhort you, I'm trying to help you. Good preaching is a reproof, it's a rebuke, and it's an exhortation. It's my job as the pastor to try to light a fire under you and get you motivated to do greater things for God. And let me tell you something, God is going to be able to use you more greatly if you will take the time to prepare yourself and study and get some skills to serve in the house of God and not neglect the gifts that God has given you. And one of those things, and it's a really basic thing, and it sounds really easy, but it's to get better at reading. To learn how to read. Now, you ladies, listen up. You're not going to be up here reading the sermon. You're not going to be up here reading the scripture before the sermon. You're not going to have that role. But you need to listen to this point because you need to teach your children how to read. And today, in America, there are many people that are poor readers. Poor readers. Now, this is going to affect when you're singing, this is going to affect your Bible reading, this is going to affect your doctrine. Because if you're a sloppy reader, you're going to get sloppy doctrine from the Bible. I mean, there are just little tiny words in the Bible that can make a big difference in the meaning of that verse. And if you're one of these speed reader or sloppy reader or see and say type reader and you're not paying attention, you could get goofed up on doctrine. You need to be a good reader. But specifically, I'm talking about learning how to read out loud effectively. Reading out loud effectively. I mean, if we were to go, and I would never do this, and my goal is not to hurt anybody's feelings, my goal is only to help you and to try to motivate you and to exhort you to greater service for God up here. But if we were to go around the room and have every single person read out loud a part of the Bible without being prepared and just have you turn there, there would be some people who would be able to do that very easily and very well, and there would be other people that would struggle very much and stammer and stutter and have a hard time with it. And I'm here to tell you that you would be wise to invest in your ability to read if you want to be used greatly for God. I don't care if you're a young person, an old person, if you're a mother teaching your children, just understand how important this is. I mean, if everything we believe is from the Bible and we're supposed to read the Bible every day, then we need to be a good reader. I mean, if that's the source of everything. Not only that, but we need people who can stand in front of the congregation and read the Word of God effectively that God's people would be edified. I don't know about you, but when I'm in here and somebody's reading the Scripture and they're doing a really good job of reading it, sometimes I can just get a lot out of that even before the sermon even starts. I'm already edified. Just by listening to Brother Garrett Kirschway reading the Bible or Brother Dominique Davis reading the Bible, Brother Jesse reading the Bible, Brother Josh Hall reading the Bible, you know, reading effectively is a way to serve God. The Bible said, till I come, and he's referring to the house of God, give attendance to reading. It's a part of church. It's an important part. People need to be able to read. And let me say this, you will not be an effective preacher until you get good at reading out loud. I mean, that's just a basic, minimal skill for you to be good at preaching. You have to be able to read very well and read very quickly and read accurately and effectively. Otherwise, you're going to get up sermon after sermon and be misreading Scripture, misreading Scripture, and you're going to lose credibility with people when you're misreading Scripture. People are going to think, wow, this guy doesn't know how to read very well, or this guy, you know, is sloppy in his reading. What else? Is he sloppy with his doctrine? That's the type of things that people could think. Now, we all make reading errors. We all make mistakes. Nobody's perfect. But we need to strive for excellence in the area of reading. Also on soloning, there's reading involved with soloning because when you're preaching the Gospel to someone, obviously, it's best to try to stick with a basic plan of salvation. But every once in a while, you're going to need to show someone Scriptures that you're not as familiar with, that you don't totally have memorized. And you're going to need to be able to flip to that Scripture and read it effectively and preach the Word of God to that person. We need to learn how to read. You say, well, okay, Pastor Anderson, how do I get better at reading? Here's how you get better at reading, by reading. You get better at everything by doing it. Let me exhort you. If you struggle with reading, you need to read the Bible out loud on a daily basis. This is how you will get better at reading. Not reading silently, but reading out loud is the best way to practice reading if you struggle in this area. Learn to read the Bible out loud. And listen, the people who you like to listen to them read the Bible, a lot of people like to listen to Brother Dominique Davis read the Bible. They love the way he reads. But here's the thing, long before he ever stood up here a single time and ever read a chapter, anybody who knows him knows that he'd be on the soul winning bus, or he'd be, you know, in his house, or he'd be sitting before and after service, and he'd just be reading out loud by himself. Who remembers seeing him do that? Yeah, even before anyone even asked him, hey, would you like to read the Scripture before the sermon? Look, there's always a prepared place for a prepared person. He didn't even know that that was going to be an opportunity that was given to him, but he was just getting prepared, getting prepared, reading out. That's why he's good at reading, because he reads out loud. That's how anybody gets good at reading. Now the Bible, I believe, is the ultimate reading textbook. This is the best reading textbook, and I'll tell you why. Because it is filled with unfamiliar words, and because it is filled with names. Now don't you dare skip the chapters that are filled with names. Some people say, oh, I'll skip that, I'll read over that. No, no, no, that's where you need to park it if you're a bad reader. And let me explain to you why. Because of the fact that the best way to learn how to read is phonics. Phonics, phonetic, hooked on phonics, all right? I'm not endorsing that program, I don't know anything about it. But I'm telling you, you know, some of you probably need to get hooked on phonics. I don't know if that 1-800 phonics number still works. My wife's shaking her head no. No hooked on phonics? All right, I grew up with too many TV commercials. But anyway, what do you recommend? Oh, it isn't? Oh, OK. Well, OK, she said it's, hey, hooked on phonics is not hardcore enough for her. She said it's not enough phonics, it's not phonetic enough. OK, what's the curriculum? What do you like? I'm putting you on the spot here. No, I'm pointing at my wife here. She used the abeka phonics. All right, we got a second. All in favor, say aye. So my wife likes the abeka phonics program. But here's the thing. Phonetic reading means that you actually look at each letter and you sound out that word for what it's saying. The opposite of that is kind of the look-say method or the see-and-say method. This is what we want to stay away from. This is where you're just memorizing what words look like, sight words, like they're a Chinese character or something. You just look at what that word looks like and just memorize that word. And our school system is getting so goofed up, the way they teach math and the way they teach reading, and it's just bizarre. And so a lot of kids are growing up and they're like a functioning illiterate or they can barely read. And it's not even the kids' fault because the curriculum stinks. It's intentional, exactly. So we as God's people, I mean, they'll show them the word house, and if they say home, that's OK because it's like a see-and-say thing. And then that carries over to the Bible. And I've heard people read the Bible where it's like they're guessing what the words are. They're literally guessing the words. And they'll substitute house, home, just because it's like a mental guess. It's because their mind hasn't been trained to read phonetically and sound things out. So the great thing about the Bible is that it forces you to read phonetically. Because when you get to a list of names, I mean, let's just look at a list of names. Let's just demonstrate this. Go to 1 Chronicles. And you say, well, why is Pastor Anderson teaching us how to read? Because it's really important. Because probably more than half the people in this room could profit from this type of a sermon. You don't want to just sit there and think, oh, come on, I know how to read. You know what, you can get better at reading. Everybody can get better at reading. But some people need to get better at reading. And I want to help you. But when we look at the names in, for example, 1 Chronicles, you're not going to see and say these puppies because you've never seen anything like this before. And that's the thing. If you grow up reading the Bible, you learn to read phonetically. So look, if you struggle with reading, you need to read out loud 1 Chronicles 1 through 9, out loud. Do it. Say, oh, that's boring, that's hard. Oh, I'd hate for you to do anything hard now, wouldn't I? But you know what, we need to work hard to improve our skills. Look, people go to the gym and they work hard to become an athlete, don't they? They go out and they run and they push themselves. And they do it for a corruptible crown. We do this for an incorruptible crown. We need to work hard. We need to train ourselves. We need to get some skills to serve in the hospital. Look, everybody appreciates the piano player being able to play well. Everybody likes it. They love it. Everybody appreciates a song leader who can carry a tune. And when they don't, everybody complains. And if the piano player, our piano player doesn't make mistakes, but if we had a piano player that ever made mistakes, people would complain. Well, look, you need to improve your skills too. You need to learn how to read. And the Bible, for example, let's just look at one chapter. Let's go to chapter 6. I'm just picking a chapter at random here. You know, Levi might be a sight word for you, a pair of Levi's, you know, Levi Strauss. The sons of Levi, Gershon, Kohath, and Mararai, and the sons of Kohath, Amram, Ishar, and Hebron, and Uzziel, and the children of Amram, Aaron, and Moses, and Miriam. The sons also of Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar, Eleazar begat Phinehas. And some of these are probably fairly familiar to you if you know the Bible, but we're going to get into some that are more unfamiliar. Phinehas begat Abishua, and Abishua begat Bucai, and Bucai begat Uzzai. That's not Uzzie, all right? No, I'm just kidding. That's a weapon. And Uzzai begat Zerahiah, and Zerahiah begat Marioth, and Marioth begat Amoriah, and Amoriah begat Ahitub, and Ahitub begat Zadok, and Zadok begat Ahimeaz, and Ahimeaz begat Azariah, and Azariah begat Johanan, and Johanan begat Azariah. See, a C and C person, they wouldn't read Johanan there, they'd just say like Jonathan. You know what I mean? They'd probably guess at it and just say, well, it looks kind of like Jonathan. No, it's Johanan begat Azariah, he it is that executed the priest's office in the temple that Solomon built in Jerusalem, verse 11. And Azariah begat Amoriah, and Amoriah begat Ahitub, and Ahitub begat Zadok, and Zadok begat Shalom, and Shalom begat Hilkiah, and Hilkiah begat Azariah, and Azariah begat Sariah, and Sariah begat Jehozadak. And Jehozadak went into captivity when the Lord carried away Judah and Jerusalem by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. The sons of Levi, Gershom, Kohath, and Mararai, and these be the names of the sons of Gershom, Libni and Shimei, and the sons of Kohath were Amram, and Ishar, and Hebron, and Uzziel. The sons of Mararai, Malai, and Mushai. And these are the families of the Levites according to their fathers of Gershom, Libni his son, Jehath his son, Zimah his son, Joah his son, Iddo his son, Zerah his son, Jehadariah his son, the sons of Kohath, Amminadab his son, Korah his son, Assar his son, Elkanah his son, and Abiasaph his son, and Assar his son, Teyhath his son, Uriel his son. And you say, what in the world is this in the Bible for? Oh, just to teach you how to read? Hey, all scripture is given by inspiration of God is profitable for doctrine, teaching you how to read. Now there is, of course, doctrine that is derived from this and sermons that can be preached from this, but this is great to help you learn how to read when you get to verse 24 and you say, Teyhath. I mean, you're looking at all six of those letters, T-A-H-A-T-H, and you're pronouncing that, Teyhath. And you are learning to read phonetically because it is impossible to read these lists any way other than phonetically. Listen to me, if you struggle with reading, read the genealogies out loud, you know, read all of the Bible out loud, but especially focus on reading these out loud and focus on accuracy, not speed. Slow down. Slow down. Slow as you need to go and get 100% accuracy. In fact, if you're standing up and preaching a sermon and you read the scripture very slowly but you got it 100% accurate, people would like that better and have more respect for you than if you rushed through it and made a lot of mistakes and people are like, whoa, this guy doesn't know how to read. If you slow down and just put emphasis on it and said, you know, verse 30, Shemaiah his son, Hagiah his son, Asiah his son, and these are they whom David set over the, and I'm reading it intentionally slow, just so you know, set over the service of Song in the house of the Lord after that the ark had rest. You know, that's better than just coming in and saying, um, uh, Shema his son, Hagiah his son, and Asaph his son, and these are them whom David set over serving the song, and you know, you just thought, what in the world? Get it right. Read it right. Get better at reading. Every single person, I don't care what your job is, I don't care what your spiritual gift is, I don't care what role you play in this church, reading is a skill that everybody needs to have and everybody needs to improve, and if this is something that you're already good at, well, great, then I'm not talking to you, but those who have a struggle in this area read out loud. Just when you do your personal Bible reading, do it out loud, and don't you dare ever skip the genealogies. In fact, read them twice would be something that would make more sense. Daniel chapter number one, if you would, Daniel chapter number one. So these are some skills to work on to serve in the local church. Number one, reading out loud. Work on it. Increase learning. Attain unto wise counsels. Get good advice. Get smarter. Get better at it. Become a more effective servant of God through better reading skills, through phonics. Phonics is the only legitimate way to learn how to read in my humble opinion, in my not so humble opinion. No, I'm just kidding. But anyway, Daniel chapter one, verse three. And the king spake unto Ashpenaz, the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel and of the king's seed and of the prince's, children in whom was no blemish but well favored and skillful in all wisdom and cunning in knowledge and understanding science, and such is that ability in them to stand in the king's palace and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans. Now notice here, this is the devil wanting to get his hands on the most talented people, right? And you know, this represents the devil because these are bad people, this is a bad king. Nebuchadnezzar represents at various times in this passage the antichrist and sets up a great image of himself and everything like that. And he wants to get a hold of the people that are talented, right? And he wants to teach them the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans. He wants them eating meat that's sacrificed unto his god. He wants them drinking his wine. He wants them on his program. He wants them in his government school system that he might indoctrinate them. And he wants those that are talented. Now of these that are the talented, the smart, the intelligent are Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Now look what the Bible says in verse 17, as for these four children, children, did you see that? As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. At the end of the days that the king had said he should bring them in, then the prince of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar and the king communed with them and among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Therefore stood they before the king and in all matters of wisdom and understanding that the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm. Now here in this passage we see that God gives skill, going back to what we talked about, spiritual gifts. God gives skill, understanding, wisdom. The areas that they were skilled in, according to the Bible, were knowledge, science, and language. Okay? These guys had skill in those areas, knowledge, science, language. They had ability. God gave them ability and God caused them to even be able to excel past all those around them in those areas to where when Nebuchadnezzar communed with all of the captives that had been trained, there were none like these four children that God had blessed. So God is able to bless us and give us skills, knowledge, wisdom, and ability. But it takes work on our part. It took work on Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego's part. They made sacrifices, they worked hard, they got the skills, they prayed unto the Lord to give them skills, to give them abilities, and they learned these things. And in all matters, verse 20 says, of wisdom and understanding that the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm. And let me ask you this, who does God end up using the most? I mean, God ends up using the guys who were good students, who were dedicated, who worked hard at this stage where they're being trained. These are the guys that are going to be in the stories in chapter 3, chapter 4, chapter 5, chapter 6. And let me tell you something. Out of this classroom right here, as it were, this church service, the people in this room who are serious about gaining skill, gaining knowledge, gaining learning, gaining understanding, the people who are reading their Bible every day, the people that are praying to the Lord every day, and the people who are improving their skills and reading out loud and doing these things are the ones that God is going to use greatly. And the people who are lackadaisical about the preparation and lackadaisical about the training are the ones that are just kind of not mentioned. We don't really know their names. There were a lot of them, but we don't really know their names. They didn't really stand out. And so we need to take a lesson and be like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. And every single person in this room, and you children especially, listen up. You children, it's in some ways easier for you to build the right habits now than adults who've been doing it wrong for years and see and say for years or not been into reading for years. You know, you children can start out right. You can get a head start on life, and you can be the next generation of faith-forward Baptist Church that can read well and preach well and sing well and play well and do everything and rule well and administrate well and minister well and do soul winning well. I mean, good night. You start soul winning when you're 10, 11 years old. You're going to be really good at it by the time you're an adult. You know, start young. Even a child is known by his doings, the Bible says, whether his work be pure and whether it be right. You kids should decide that you want to grow up and be a wise man, not a fool. You children have your whole life ahead of you. You can either grow up and be wise, or you can grow up and be fools. You say, what is a fool like? They're a person who drinks alcohol because the Bible says wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. Not wise. You want to be not wise? You want to be stupid? No. You want to be foolish? Don't read. Just watch TV, play video games, and do everything except reading a book, and you'll grow up and be not wise. Or you can be smart, you can read every day, you can read out loud, you can read your Bible, and you can grow up and you'll have the ability to work and provide for your family and pay your bills. Read your work habits now so that you don't grow up and you're a lazy man that can't provide for his family. They can't pay the bills. They can't drag his butt to work six days a week because you, as a child, were lazy. Get the skills to be used in the house of God. What kind of skills do we need to be used in the house of God? The ability to read. What else? How about the ability to sing? Many people today, they can't even sing. I kind of took this for granted growing up because I was privileged to be raised in a Christian home where singing is something that you do because you're brought to church multiple times a week, and my dad would sternly rebuke me if I didn't sing in church. I remember, you know, I'd have the songbook and kind of, and my dad would say, hey, sing! Oh, you know, and you'd start singing. He made us sing. Thank God. That's how I learned how to sing, was by being forced to sing in church. Learning how to sing. Learning how to play a musical instrument. The Bible says, for example, in the book of Psalms, you don't have to turn there. Psalm 33 verse 1, rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous, for praise is comely for the upright. Praise the Lord with harp. Sing unto him with psaltery and an instrument of ten strings. Sing unto him a new song. Play skillfully, excuse me, play skillfully with a loud noise. How can you play skillfully with a loud noise? It doesn't happen by accident. It happens by a lot of practice. A lot of work goes into that. What other skills? How about the skill of just being a hard worker? How about the skill of just being able to show up on time? How about the skill of being able to be outside and work and walk for miles out soul winning? You know, I was soul winning in apartment complexes in Sacramento. It was like a Stairmaster workout, you know, just going up and down those stairs, going up and down those stairs. That's hard work, right? Hey, build some skills on just being a hard worker. Get some skills on speaking in front of people. It doesn't come naturally, I don't think, to anyone. It didn't come naturally to me. At first you're terrified, you struggle with it. Get skills to be able to talk to people boldly, to be able to speak in front of a group of people. Get some skills on organization and administration. Let me tell you something, this is lacking in churches all over America and sometimes it's hard even here to organize things because when you have big groups of people, I mean think about it, when there were 195 people who showed up on Saturday morning to go soul winning, don't you think that took some organizational skill? I mean, yeah, it says the guy who runs a soul winning time because when you run soul winning times you realize, you know, when a lot of people show up it's like, whoa, this is complicated. I mean when we do soul winning marathons where we have 150 people show up or 100 people show up, it doesn't sound like that many people but it's really hard to organize 100 people. It's really hard to feed 100 people. I mean, I don't know how Jesus fed the 5,000. You know, multiplying the food was a miracle but forget that. Forget the fact that he multiplied food and performed a miracle. There was also organization because he had them sit down in groups of 50 and the Bible tells us that, you know, he was smart enough and his disciples were smart enough to group people into groups of 50 and to make it. It was very organized. Look, how did they even know there's 5,000 people? Because they're in groups of 50 and there were 100 groups of 50. So I mean they had it all organized and everything. You know, I fed 150 people at a soul winning marathon and was pulling my hair out and like, whoa, this is hard. This is complicated. And then, you know, that big birthday party with the three not so little pigs and feeding 300 people. You know what? There's a lot of people with some skill and some planning and some brains to pull that thing off. It's a lot harder than it looks, folks. So those kind of organizational skills, administration skills, some of this involves writing with good handwriting. Some of this involves being able to count and being able to do math. I mean these seem like basic things but a lot of people struggle in math. You know, we need to be able to use math. How do you think we know how many people are saved and how many people are out soul winning? Because we counted. I mean, look, somebody's got to count the offering in such a way where the IRS doesn't put us in prison for negligence, right? I mean it needs to be counted and counted well and double checked by meticulous people who are counting it. And you know what? You want it to be spent in an organized way. You want it to be processed on the way in an organized way. You want everything to be done decently and in order, the Bible says. God is a God of order. And we need people that can rule well, that can organize well, that can administrate well, that can keep things organized and moving forward. You know, as the church grows, we need more organization, more structure. You know, we show up to a soul winning time, even just the 5.15 Wednesday soul winning time, we've been having like 40 plus people show up to that soul winning time. So what do we do? We said, Hey, we got to split this thing in half. I'm going to take a group of 15 people in the church van over to this neighborhood. Brother Baker is going to take another group of 20 some people over here in these vehicles. And we, you know, you got to have it organized. I look, I've showed up to soul winning marathons and I've showed up to soul winning times and soul winning events where there's no organization. It's really frustrating for me. I'm kind of an impatient person and I'm sure some of you are too. When you show up and you're looking at your watch and you're like, I've been here for 30 minutes. I've been here for 40 minutes. I came here to go soul winning, not sit around waiting. Point me in the right direction. Point me somewhere. I mean, sometimes I'm just to the point where I'm just like, I'm just going to go knock some random doors cause I'm not getting an assignment fast enough. You know what I mean? I want to get, you know, I'm here to work, I'm here to do something. You know, we need people who gain the skills and the, the, the, the brains to be able to pull things off, to be able to pull off an event where 200 people win souls, to pull off an event where 50 people win souls, to pull off feeding them lunch and getting them in vehicles from point A to point B. You know, we need people that are smart people and you know what? We're not going to go out to the world and get the world's experts and heathens. No, no, no. We as God's people just need to step up to the plate and get smarter, get some skills, get better and learn things. You know, I'm constantly having to learn things that I know nothing about and force myself to learn things as a pastor because a pastor, you have to be kind of a jack of all trades and you, you know, I remember when I first started the church, the thing I hated the most was, uh, taking care of the swimming pool to baptize people in and trying to, you know, it was just a nightmare being like a, I'm like, I didn't think I was being a pool man to be a pastor, you know, but you have to be, you know, you have to do everything as a pastor. You know, you're fixing things and decorating things and organizing things and counting things and, and you know, you got to learn how to use the computer, you got to learn how to use the internet, you got to learn about sound systems, you got to learn about video, you got to learn, but you know what? As the church gets bigger, we all need to learn different skills and step in and, and help out with things and, and, and to be able to grow in our understanding. And look, I'm not saying that I understand everything or have all the skills, you know, I'm a poor piano player, okay? I don't tell anybody because I'm selling a series of piano books, okay? But look, the series is good, all right? Those piano books work, all right? I'm just not good at playing the piano, but that doesn't mean I don't know how to write a good piano series, okay? Those who can do and those who can't teach, all right? But you know what though? Over the years I've realized that you know what? I have to improve my skills in certain areas, okay? And I, you know, look, everybody's not going to be the best at everything. You know, you may never be a great piano player. I'm probably never going to be a great piano player. You know, there are different, you know, you may never be a great preacher, you may never be, whatever. Here's the thing, we all need to figure out what we're sort of naturally good at and what kind of gifts or what kind of areas we could excel in and we need to work on not neglecting those gifts and getting better at them and, you know, if you're musically inclined, if you like music, you know what? You need to put in the hours and work and because you say, wow, we already have a piano player. But here's the thing, we're starting a new church in North Phoenix. Need some piano players up there, right? And do you think that that's the last church we're going to start? Or do you think we're going to start other churches all over Arizona and we're going to need people to preach because you're like, wow, you already got readers. Yeah, but we need readers up at the new place in North Phoenix. We need piano players up there. We need song leaders up there. We need people to organize stuff up there. We need people to run soul winning up there. We need people to serve meals up there. See, we need people to fill the roles and as this church gets bigger, more people will be needed. And we're not, we're not stopping at North Phoenix. We want to start churches all over Arizona. We want to start churches all over this, this region. We want to start churches all over America. And so I'm telling you that you say, well, I don't want to go through the trouble of learning how to preach and then I have no opportunity. Oh, we'll find an opportunity for you to preach. That's not a problem. We look, it's not that we don't have a place to put a song leader or a place to put a piano player. Look, there's always a prepared place for a prepared person. And so I just want to encourage you tonight as this ministry grows, as we, you know, lengthen our cords and strengthen our stakes and as we start new churches, new ministries, new programs, new soul winning times, and as the church just gets bigger, it takes more people to run the thing. And we can't just use people who are unskilled laborers. You know, if you're just a completely unskilled laborer and come to us, hey, pastor, you know, what can I do to help? It's like, well, I don't know. What can you do to help? Can you read? No. You know, can you sing? No. Can you play the piano? No. Do you know how to do soul winning? No. Just a silent partner. You know, well, can you, you know, can you help with accounting and numbers and math? No. Can you help organize this baby shower? Can you organize these meals? Well, you know, need some skills to be used, you know, be a skilled worker. And maybe you'll even start making more money at your job too as a bonus, all right, by getting some new skills. But there are some people who they go through life and they're not a lifelong learner. They kind of just went through school, did the minimum to graduate, and then they're just, oh, good, that's over with. And then it's just rot your brain. TV, video games, sitting around. You know what? I like to see a person who's always learning new things, always studying new things, trying to get smarter, trying to get, increasing learning. That's what we need. We need some skills to be more greatly used in the house of God. And I guarantee you that if you get some skills, I will have a place for you to serve God and do great things for God and be a part of some really cool things coming up if you'll get the skills and roll up your sleeves and learn how to work and do these things. Let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much, Lord, for the gifts that you've given us. Every single one of us has gifts, Lord. Even a person in this room who might think to themselves, I don't have any talent, I don't have any ability, but I guarantee you that person has talents and abilities. You said that you've given all of us gifts. You said that you've given it to every single one of us. Spiritual gifts. And so, Lord, help us to use our gifts to pray, to win souls, to preach, to teach, to organize, to administer, even to do menial things such as cleaning or cooking or just basic things of just accounting and organizing and things, Lord. Help all of us to get skills and then don't take those skills to the world and serve mammon, Lord. Help us to take those skills to the house of God and do great works for you and help us to see many more churches established and for this church to grow and have a much larger influence in this area. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.