Amelia Church of Christ - Christian Church in Amelia, OH near Cincinnati in Clermont County

Listen to the sermon audio to hear ACC's Minister of Involvement, Dave Hubert, share his ministry vision.

Connecting. Growing. Serving. Say it out loud with me. Connecting Growing Serving.

We are wrapping up a three-week series where we are exploring the new vision that God has given our church. The series is called Simple Church because our vision is very, very simple. Connecting, Growing, Serving is the new vision of the Amelia Church of Christ.

We opened the series by exploring the first step of our vision: Connecting. When someone comes into our church, we want to connect them to Jesus. We have such a simple vision that people will immediately see that it’s all about Jesus. It’s not about how many programs we can have. It’s not about how many things we can do. It’s not about good things. It’s about God things. Everything is all about Jesus, and we want to connect people to Him and to His church.

Then last week we talked about the second step in our simple process: Growing. We had a huge announcement last week. Brian Morrissey is going to become our Worship & Small Groups minister. He’ll be leaving the youth ministry, but we’re hiring a new, part-time student minister to care for and lead our Jr./Sr. High students.

The small groups ministry is going to be the way that growth happens at ACC. It is the vehicle where we can all grow in our walk with God together. If you missed last week’s message, you absolutely need to check it out on our website. You need to hear our vision for this new, simple ministry.

Now, on to today. We are wrapping up the series by talking about the last step in our simple process. Serving. We’ve got some more big news for you today.

We’re going to be in 1 Corinthians 3 today. It’s going to be an unbelievable morning. Let’s pray and we’ll get things rolling.

Paul wrote the book of 1 Corinthians as a letter to the church in Corinth. This church was messed up. Seriously jacked up.

One of the many problems in the church was that people were becoming followers of other people instead of Jesus. That’s why connecting people to Jesus is the first step in our vision. People can’t come to ACC and connect to me, or any other person. But that is exactly the kind of thing that was happening in Corinth.

Let’s get into the Word. Start in verse 4. “For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not mere men? What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul?

Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.

So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose,

and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.” (1 Corinthians 3:5-9, NIV)

There is some amazing stuff here. This Scripture is going to hit hard today, but it’s going to be good.

The Apostle Paul had been the one to preach the gospel in Corinth for the first time. After that, he moved on and Apollos picked up where he left off, helping people go deeper in their walk with Christ.

So, in essence, Paul helped people connect to Jesus. Apollos helped them grow in Jesus. If anybody doubts that our vision is Biblical, there you go.

But let’s go back and look at what Paul said in verse 5.

A huge argument had developed in the church between the followers of Paul and the followers of Apollos. That’s when Paul steps in and says, “What the heck are you morons doing?” That’s a loose translation of the Greek, but that’s essentially what he said.

He said, “Who is Apollos? Who is Paul?” Then he answers his own question.

Who is Apollos? Who is Paul? Only servants doing their assigned task. Paul is saying, “Don’t follow us. We’re just servants doing what God told us to do. That’s it.”

There are no superstars in the church. If you’re here looking for some charismatic person to follow, you need to know this. We’re all about Jesus. There are no superstars here. Only servants doing what God has called us to do.

When you read through the gospels, you find out that the primary word that Jesus uses to describe us isn’t “Christian.” The word he uses most often isn’t “church” or “believer.” The primary word that Jesus uses to describe his followers is “servant.”

That’s why the final step in our simple process is serving. Once a person is connected to Jesus, we want to help them grow in Jesus. But as they grow in Jesus, they have to naturally progress to serving Jesus.

If a person stops at any point along that continuum, they will not become a mature Christ-follower. An initial connection to Jesus isn’t maturity. It’s the starting gate. If you’re just coming to church, singing a few songs, dropping a buck in the plate, and listening to the sermon every week, you need to know that we’re going to push you to grow.

If you get plugged into a small group, and you’re loving life, but you never move into an active serving role in our church…that’s not maturity. Being in a small group doesn’t make you mature.

Jesus didn’t refer to his followers as “church attenders” or “small group participants.” He referred to them as “servants,” and that’s where we want you to go.

Now look at what Paul said in the next verse. “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.” (1 Corinthians 3:6-7, NIV)

Paul planted the seed of the gospel. Apollos watered that seed. But God is the one who made something happen.

Our family went to the Brown County Fair a few weeks ago. While we were there, we saw what was possibly the biggest pumpkin I’ve ever seen. This bad boy weighed 500 lbs! It had the purple “best in show” ribbon attached to it.

But here’s the thing…the dude who entered this pumpkin in the fair didn’t make it grow, and yet he was rewarded for it. He cultivated the soil, planted the seed, fertilized it, and did all this stuff…but God caused that seed to grow.

I can’t make anything grow. I can provide the soil, plant the seed, water it, give it sunshine…but I can’t make it grow. Only God makes it grow. But I have to partner with Him. God miraculously causes things to grow, but if I don’t do my part, I short-circuit the miracle.

Look at these two pots. One of these pots got seed, soil, water, and sunshine. The other got all of those things except one. This pot received soil, water, and sunshine…but no seed. One person didn’t do their job, and nothing happened. The miracle of growth was short-circuited.

In Ephesians 4, the Bible says, “From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” (Ephesians 4:16, NIV)

The church is the body of Christ, and every one of us is part of that body. Each one of us has a role to play. The body is built up as each part does its work.

But what if one part doesn’t do its work? Everything falls apart. The body doesn’t function at its capacity. Ministry suffers. The church suffers. The gospel suffers. All of that happens when one part doesn’t do its work.

Why do more churches not experience the unstoppable power of God? Why are so many churches stagnant, boring, dying, or dead? They’re not serving! One part of the body is not doing its work and the whole body is suffering. God isn’t bringing the miracle of growth because somebody didn’t do their job and short-circuited the miracle.

Serving is expected in our church because it is commanded by Jesus. If ACC is your church home, then serving is not optional. It’s not suggested. It is required because the Bible says it is required. That should be all the sermon you need.

But if you do serve, look at what Paul says about you. You partner with God in His Work.

Starting in verse 8, Paul writes, “The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers…” (1 Corinthians 3:8-9A, NIV)

If you’re serving, you are one of God’s fellow workers. You partner with God to accomplish His purposes.

That is true, regardless of where you serve. If you are rocking babies in the church nursery, you are partnering with God. If you move to the mission field somewhere in the Congo, you are partnering with God. When you use your gifts and abilities, whatever they are, to serve, you are God’s fellow worker…His partner.

That’s why we are so passionate about the last step in our simple process. In our vision of Connecting, Growing, Serving, we are intentionally designing a system that makes it very easy to get plugged into a serving role here at ACC.

And God has raised up the person who is going to provide the leadership and direction for this ministry…Dave Hubert. I told you we had another big announcement for you today. We are so excited to announce that Dave Hubert is joining our staff as our Minister of Involvement.

This is an unpaid staff position. We already have one unpaid staff member. Josh Young is our Creative and Communication Minister, and he is currently unpaid. Dave’s role as Minister of Involvement will be unpaid as well. But it absolutely blows my mind that people are lining up to be part of our staff for little or no money! That is huge confirmation that God is in this. God is in this church. God is in this vision. And God is in our new ministry of involvement. And we’re going to take some time today to hear the vision that God has laid on Dave for this ministry.

Dave Hubert, Minister of Involvement, shares his ministry vision

Is this awesome or what? I am so excited to have Dave as part of our staff. I’m absolutely pumped that we have a person of his caliber who is going to be leading us into the roles of service and ministry that God has planned for us.

Now, some of you aren’t nearly as excited now as you were last week. Some of you got so excited last week because you thought, “Finally! We’re going to go deep. It’s about time we start small groups. I want to go deep. I want to be a deep Christian.”

You want to know the truth? You’re only as deep as the last person you’ve served. That’s why the last step in our simple vision is serving. Because that’s how we truly experience the depth and richness that God wants for our lives.If someone claims that, “I want to go deeper,” but they never get off their butt to do anything, they don’t actually want to go deeper. They just want to get fatter.

This person just wants to get spiritually fat. What happens if you just sit and eat and eat and eat, but you never get up to do anything? You get fat!Obesity is epidemic in our culture, but it’s also epidemic in the church. A whole lot of us are spiritually obese. We view the church as some sort of spiritual buffet. It’s the place where you can listen to sermons, get in small groups, etc. Just eat and eat and eat…but we never get up to do anything. We just sit at the table gorging ourselves on God’s Word and feeling very proud of how faithful we are.That’s not being faithful. That’s getting fat. Being physically obese leads to all kinds of health problems. Spiritual obesity does the same thing. When we appear before Jesus in heaven, our goal is to hear Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant!” (Matthew 25:23a, NIV) He won’t say, “Well thought, or well prayed, or well heard, or well attended.” He will say, “Well done, good and faithful servant!”

Following Jesus requires action. If all you’re doing is sitting in this room for an hour a week, you’re really going to start hating life because all you’re going to hear is Connecting, Growing, AND Serving. If you think we’re going to leave that last part off, you’re crazy!If you’re looking for a church where you aren’t expected to serve, this isn’t it. We’re not satisfied with people who are just taking up grace and taking up space. We are all about equipping people to get off the bench and get into the game!

But if you’re looking for a church where you can get out of your seat and do something to make a Kingdom impact, this is it. Every time a seed grows it’s a miracle. But we have to position ourselves to receive the miracle. If we don’t do our part, we make ourselves unreceptive to the work of God and the miracle doesn’t happen.God wants to do incredible, miraculous things in our church and through our church. Greater things than we’ve ever experienced before. But we have the capability to make sure it doesn’t happen. If we sit and don’t serve, the miracle won’t happen. There is one more line in our Scripture that should shake us up. In verse 8, Paul tells us that “each will be rewarded according to his own labor.” (1 Corinthians 3:8b, NIV)

The reward that God has for you is contingent on your service. That’s how much God cares about your service. We’re not saved by what we do. We’re saved by grace. But there are rewards from God that are completely based on our service and ministry. When we serve, as individuals and a church, we position ourselves to be entrusted with even greater blessings.

But here’s the biggest reason for all of this. The real reason we want to plug people into service is because we want people to be like Jesus. We are never more like Jesus than when we serve.

Jesus said, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45, NIV)

Jesus had ever right to come and be served, but He chose to come and serve. And we are the recipients of the ultimate act of service. Jesus served us by giving up everything for us. He gave up His place in heaven to be born in a manger. He gave up His throne to be raised in a poor family in the middle of a nowhere town. He gave up the worship of angels to be mocked by people that He created. He gave up His rights and privileges as the Son of God to be tried and convicted as a criminal. He gave up everything He had when He hung on the cross for you and me.

That act of selfless service is the only hope we have. If God wasn’t a servant, we’d have no hope. But He willingly laid down everything for us to rescue us from our sin, to change our lives, and to give us the gift of eternity. All because God is a servant.

Mike Edmisten & Dave Hubert

Tags: 1 Corinthians 3, Connecting Growing Serving, ministry, service, serving, Simple Church, vision