WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.500 I've never prepared a sermon in Eastern Europe, so I prepared this in Cracow. 00:00:06.500 --> 00:00:09.200 I was in Cracow this week at a church planting conference. 00:00:09.200 --> 00:00:10.200 I'll say a little bit more. 00:00:10.200 --> 00:00:12.400 You'll find that I'll dip into that a little bit. 00:00:12.400 --> 00:00:17.199 I'm not going to say much this evening, but I will say one or two things about that as well. 00:00:17.199 --> 00:00:24.600 So it was the gift of administration and the congregation kind of fell short this week 00:00:24.600 --> 00:00:27.199 because I wasn't really meant to be preaching this evening. 00:00:27.199 --> 00:00:34.200 So that's why it's been prepared while I was away and therefore it will appear, 00:00:34.200 --> 00:00:38.000 it'll become clear that that was the case as we go on. 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:41.799 So helps here, help, the gift of helping. 00:00:41.799 --> 00:00:46.399 Just means one who comes along to help, one who comes alongside to help. 00:00:46.399 --> 00:00:49.299 It's both in practical and spiritual terms. 00:00:49.299 --> 00:00:52.700 We've got certain things that we've been highlighting in this series 00:00:52.700 --> 00:00:55.200 about the importance of spiritual gifts and where they lie. 00:00:55.200 --> 00:01:00.700 See if you can pick them out as we go through the sermon, some of the things we've talked about. 00:01:00.700 --> 00:01:06.200 And Jesus is a great example for us of a helper. 00:01:06.200 --> 00:01:09.200 It's a rare word. 00:01:09.200 --> 00:01:11.200 It's a rare word in the New Testament. 00:01:11.200 --> 00:01:21.800 And it has shadows of the Holy Spirit coming along to help practically and spiritually. 00:01:21.799 --> 00:01:28.299 In our lives we help one another, it's got more horizontal rather than vertical. 00:01:28.299 --> 00:01:31.299 It's not so much about serving the Lord, although that's our motive. 00:01:31.299 --> 00:01:34.299 It's about serving one another. 00:01:34.299 --> 00:01:38.799 Always as we've seen in all these series, the motivation for us and all of the gifts of the Spirit 00:01:38.799 --> 00:01:43.799 is that we do so out of gratitude. 00:01:43.799 --> 00:01:47.799 Gratitude for our adoption, gratitude for being forgiven, 00:01:47.799 --> 00:01:52.299 gratitude that we belong to, it's family that we have purpose, that we have direction, identity, 00:01:52.299 --> 00:01:55.299 and that we have love poured out on us. 00:01:55.299 --> 00:01:58.799 And therefore grace in our lives should make all of us helpers. 00:01:58.799 --> 00:02:04.299 We all have that privilege of...and responsibility. 00:02:04.299 --> 00:02:09.800 We know the gifts, elements of the gifts are common for all Christians. 00:02:09.800 --> 00:02:17.300 And yet there's ways in which some people are specially gifted with gifts of the Spirit. 00:02:17.300 --> 00:02:26.800 And this is probably the most unsung and unnoticed of all the gifts, the gifts of help, or helps, or serving. 00:02:26.800 --> 00:02:32.800 I just want to say a few things about it for us. 00:02:32.800 --> 00:02:34.800 Primarily it's for the benefit of others. 00:02:34.800 --> 00:02:37.800 So in your Christian life it's thinking about how the Holy Spirit will help you, 00:02:37.800 --> 00:02:41.800 enable you to live a life that benefits others. 00:02:41.800 --> 00:02:46.800 We've seen that for the benefit of the church, for the kingdom of God, 00:02:46.800 --> 00:02:48.800 all the gifts of the Spirit. 00:02:48.800 --> 00:02:56.800 And it's good as a witness to the world that people will see the love of Christ in action. 00:02:56.800 --> 00:03:01.800 And it's really someone, someone with the gift of help, 00:03:01.800 --> 00:03:04.800 someone who is very gifted, this is very basic, 00:03:04.800 --> 00:03:08.800 someone who is very gifted at seeing where help is needed. 00:03:08.800 --> 00:03:16.300 In a community, in a family, in a church, very related in many ways to what Anna was saying earlier. 00:03:16.300 --> 00:03:23.800 It is, through experience and through examples in the Bible, it's someone who's willing, 00:03:23.800 --> 00:03:30.800 we see someone who's willing with this gift of help to sacrificially do so. 00:03:30.800 --> 00:03:34.800 Give of their time, their energy, their priorities. 00:03:34.800 --> 00:03:40.800 And usually the gift of help is related biblically, I think, and scripturally, 00:03:40.800 --> 00:03:44.800 and through experience to undertaking unglamorous works. 00:03:44.800 --> 00:03:48.800 Not a glamorous gift of the Spirit, it's not an upfront gift of the Spirit. 00:03:48.800 --> 00:03:54.800 It's the people who are particularly gifted from the Holy Spirit 00:03:54.800 --> 00:03:58.800 to do the things that other people don't want to do, 00:03:58.800 --> 00:04:02.800 and who will do it willingly with a servant heart. 00:04:02.800 --> 00:04:06.800 People who see things that need to be done without being asked, 00:04:06.800 --> 00:04:11.800 what a great gift in a family, what a great gift in a congregation. 00:04:11.800 --> 00:04:15.800 People who do unnoticed work, unnoticed by most, 00:04:15.800 --> 00:04:20.800 but not by Christ or by the spiritually sensitive. 00:04:20.800 --> 00:04:26.800 And people who will be practical in their help to one another. 00:04:26.800 --> 00:04:33.800 But also, can I say, spiritually, we often think of the gift of helps as a practical gift, 00:04:33.800 --> 00:04:37.800 helping people in very tangible and practical ways, like we were hearing earlier. 00:04:37.800 --> 00:04:43.800 But it's more than that, it's the ability to help with a word of encouragement, 00:04:43.800 --> 00:04:49.800 with a text walking alongside someone, saying that you're praying for someone. 00:04:49.800 --> 00:04:54.800 Seeing a need and responding to it, helping someone. 00:04:54.800 --> 00:04:59.800 It's something that we are all to be committed to, 00:04:59.800 --> 00:05:03.800 but there are those with particular gifts in that area. 00:05:03.800 --> 00:05:09.800 Can I say to you, if you are someone who recognizes that you have that gift in yourself, 00:05:09.800 --> 00:05:17.800 can I encourage you to express that gift with willingness and with joy? 00:05:17.800 --> 00:05:20.800 Don't allow it to become bitter, 00:05:20.800 --> 00:05:24.800 in that I wish more people were able to do what I'm doing. 00:05:24.800 --> 00:05:28.800 You're special if you have the gift of helps. 00:05:28.800 --> 00:05:35.800 And as you do it joyfully, you will encourage others to do help in the same way. 00:05:35.800 --> 00:05:38.800 If you don't particularly feel you have that gift, 00:05:38.800 --> 00:05:42.800 but you see it in other people within the body of Christ in the gospel community, 00:05:42.800 --> 00:05:46.800 don't take advantage of that gift. Mimic it. 00:05:46.800 --> 00:05:49.800 Don't say, oh, that's okay, that's what someone else will do that. 00:05:49.800 --> 00:05:55.800 Someone else will do the unseen, the unnoticed, the unglamorous work of the congregation. 00:05:55.800 --> 00:05:58.800 Be thankful for them, but don't take advantage of it. 00:05:58.800 --> 00:06:02.800 If the gift is of help and maybe broadening it to administration, 00:06:02.800 --> 00:06:04.800 I'm not going to say much about that. 00:06:04.800 --> 00:06:09.800 Don't criticize and condemn those who are great administrators, great organizers. 00:06:09.800 --> 00:06:15.800 We all need organizers in a community, in a Christian community, we need organizers. 00:06:15.800 --> 00:06:23.800 Don't kind of think there are pain in the neck to be organized. 00:06:23.800 --> 00:06:26.800 No, do we need to sign up for this? Do we need to organize for that? 00:06:26.800 --> 00:06:30.800 Because a church must run on these bases, like a family must run on these bases, 00:06:30.800 --> 00:06:34.800 but rather be prayerfully supportive in whatever way you can. 00:06:34.800 --> 00:06:38.800 We all have to be helpers. It might not be in your nature, 00:06:38.800 --> 00:06:41.800 or it might be not your experience. 00:06:41.800 --> 00:06:45.800 You might naturally be used to being served. 00:06:45.800 --> 00:06:50.800 You may not easily find that you acknowledge people's needs. 00:06:50.800 --> 00:06:55.800 You may be impatient, you may be proud, self-absorbed, an entrepreneur. 00:06:55.800 --> 00:07:02.800 Then take these weaknesses that you have and recognize that in God's church, 00:07:02.800 --> 00:07:06.800 among God's people and God's family, we're all called to be servants. 00:07:06.800 --> 00:07:11.800 We're all called to be helpers, even if we don't have this specific gift. 00:07:11.800 --> 00:07:17.800 It is such a reflection of the character and the nature of God 00:07:17.800 --> 00:07:21.800 and the gift of the Holy Spirit in our lives. 00:07:21.800 --> 00:07:27.800 Interestingly, also it's the currency of the unseen spiritual world of angels 00:07:27.800 --> 00:07:36.800 on our behalf, ministering spirits sent to help those who belong to Christ, the Hebrews 1.14. 00:07:36.800 --> 00:07:42.800 So the church is to be by grace because of Jesus 00:07:42.800 --> 00:07:48.800 and because of what He's done, a beautiful community where God is given the glory 00:07:48.800 --> 00:07:54.800 and where Jesus is made famous as we declare Him to the world by the way we help one another, 00:07:54.800 --> 00:07:59.800 by the way we care for and show love towards one another. 00:07:59.800 --> 00:08:06.800 People desperately need to see what it is about the gospel community that makes it different, 00:08:06.800 --> 00:08:19.800 that is attractive, that rubber stamps the great claim to faith and truth that they possess in Jesus Christ. 00:08:19.800 --> 00:08:27.800 And sometimes that will be almost inexplicable to them, but it should be attractive. 00:08:27.800 --> 00:08:32.799 At the conferences, you'll probably find over the next few weeks, okay, right, okay, Cory's away, I'm here, 00:08:32.799 --> 00:08:36.799 I am still going to be quoting Tim Keller because he was the speaker at the conference 00:08:36.799 --> 00:08:43.799 and I'm going to pass out the link to it because I really want you to hear what was being said 00:08:43.799 --> 00:08:48.799 because it was really powerful about God changing the power of the gospel to transform my life, 00:08:48.799 --> 00:08:51.799 my church, my community and my world. 00:08:51.799 --> 00:08:55.799 Very powerful and you talk just at one point talked about the burning bush, 00:08:55.799 --> 00:09:00.799 that the burning bush was unique because as Moses went to look at it, 00:09:00.799 --> 00:09:05.799 it was in the desert and everything was very dry in the desert and this bush was burning 00:09:05.799 --> 00:09:09.799 and normally it just burned up very quickly, but this bush was something different 00:09:09.799 --> 00:09:17.799 because it was burning but it wasn't burning up and he was attracted to see this inexplicable reality 00:09:17.799 --> 00:09:23.799 and he applied that to the church and said that the church, there's much that's inexplicable about the church to the world 00:09:23.799 --> 00:09:31.799 but there should be an attractiveness about it and attractiveness about we serve and love and care for one another. 00:09:31.799 --> 00:09:37.799 As part of the conference in Krakow, we finished on the Thursday on the Friday, 00:09:37.799 --> 00:09:46.799 Neil and I and one or two others went to Auschwitz, which was a harrowing and hellish place. 00:09:46.799 --> 00:09:54.799 Terrible dark memories of evil and darkness and division and pride and greed and brutality and sheer horror, 00:09:54.799 --> 00:09:56.799 sheer horribleness really. 00:09:56.799 --> 00:10:06.799 And one of the things that I wanted to do coming out from there and thinking back to here was I just wanted to hug you all 00:10:06.799 --> 00:10:13.799 and I wanted to hug Jesus Christ and I wanted to hug the gospel as if you could hug the gospel. 00:10:13.799 --> 00:10:22.799 Just for its sheer beauty and hope in the midst of the utter darkness of what humanity has done to one another. 00:10:22.799 --> 00:10:31.799 A reminder, it just was a reminder to me of how great the gospel is and how much time and effort and care we should take to protect the gospel 00:10:31.799 --> 00:10:39.799 and how easily we get distracted from our heavenly calling and become ugly ourselves. 00:10:39.799 --> 00:10:46.799 Use the gifts of the Spirit to build up the church and to build up one another in the family. 00:10:46.799 --> 00:10:50.799 Recognize and remember that. 00:10:50.799 --> 00:10:59.799 So the spiritual gift of serving or helping is one, as we read in 1 Peter chapter 4, 00:10:59.799 --> 00:11:02.799 that should always be other centred. 00:11:02.799 --> 00:11:08.799 It is something that we should recognize involves one another. 00:11:08.799 --> 00:11:11.799 That we are thinking of others and not ourselves. 00:11:11.799 --> 00:11:17.799 It is the channel through which many of the other gifts, the gifts of service, 00:11:17.799 --> 00:11:20.799 is the channel through which many of the other gifts are expressed. 00:11:20.799 --> 00:11:25.799 It is part of our DNA and it is what Christ examples. 00:11:25.799 --> 00:11:30.799 He gave his life a ransom for many, came to serve and not to be served. 00:11:30.799 --> 00:11:32.799 It is other centred. 00:11:32.799 --> 00:11:34.799 A rare thing of powerful beauty. 00:11:34.799 --> 00:11:38.799 For example, the things that happen in the church that others don't see. 00:11:38.799 --> 00:11:41.799 In the community, the gospel community. 00:11:41.799 --> 00:11:47.799 The quiet individual unseen acts of helping. 00:11:47.799 --> 00:11:50.799 Hugely significant. 00:11:50.799 --> 00:11:55.799 It is a gift of helping that is dependent also on the Holy Spirit. 00:11:55.799 --> 00:12:00.799 Whoever serves, serves as one in the strength that God supplies. 00:12:00.799 --> 00:12:04.799 It is not a natural gift. It can be natural. 00:12:04.799 --> 00:12:07.799 People can be good helpers in life. 00:12:07.799 --> 00:12:11.799 But this is a spiritual gift that is done for the glory of God, 00:12:11.799 --> 00:12:16.799 with the strength of God for the furtherance of His kingdom. 00:12:16.799 --> 00:12:22.799 And therefore we need His grace to enable us to overcome our selfish motives. 00:12:22.799 --> 00:12:25.799 And that is what makes it unique. 00:12:25.799 --> 00:12:32.799 We are dependent on the power of God in our ongoing lives to be helpers. 00:12:32.799 --> 00:12:34.799 And indeed for any of the gifts of the Spirit. 00:12:34.799 --> 00:12:37.799 Again last week I was being away. 00:12:37.799 --> 00:12:43.799 I was reminded of the importance of having a power source near you. 00:12:43.799 --> 00:12:46.799 My phone's battery is really rubbish. 00:12:46.799 --> 00:12:49.799 And my iPad does not seem to last very long either. 00:12:49.799 --> 00:12:55.799 An iPad and a phone is completely useless without the power source 00:12:55.799 --> 00:12:58.799 engaging the battery and filling the battery. 00:12:58.799 --> 00:13:00.799 And you wanted it to keep in touch. 00:13:00.799 --> 00:13:02.799 You wanted it to take photographs where you are. 00:13:02.799 --> 00:13:05.799 And you are just very conscious of the power source all the time, 00:13:05.799 --> 00:13:07.799 looking for a power source. 00:13:07.799 --> 00:13:11.799 And it is just that reminder to us of the energy source 00:13:11.799 --> 00:13:16.799 that we are required to be engaged with in our Christian lives all the time. 00:13:16.799 --> 00:13:20.799 If we are to live for Christ, if we are to live for His glory, if we are to serve Him, 00:13:20.799 --> 00:13:22.799 we can't be strangers to Him. 00:13:22.799 --> 00:13:24.799 We can't be isolated from Him. 00:13:24.799 --> 00:13:26.799 We can't be out of touch with Him. 00:13:26.799 --> 00:13:31.799 We need to be prayerfully depending in our weakness on His strength. 00:13:31.799 --> 00:13:37.799 And as we serve in these ways, helping, not becoming embittered, 00:13:37.799 --> 00:13:42.799 not grumbling at others, then we are to do it with a sense of eagerness. 00:13:42.799 --> 00:13:46.799 We didn't read this, but in chapter 5 of 1 Peter it speaks about 00:13:46.799 --> 00:13:49.799 the leaders of the church serving with eagerness, 00:13:49.799 --> 00:13:54.799 serving with willingness, not under compulsion. 00:13:54.799 --> 00:13:57.799 And there is that great sense that we have leaders, 00:13:57.799 --> 00:13:59.799 elders, deacons, as members of the church, 00:13:59.799 --> 00:14:10.799 we are to serve and do these helping acts in our lives willingly and eagerly. 00:14:10.799 --> 00:14:14.799 So just to close, and I'm going to finish with this and then hand back over to Thomas 00:14:14.799 --> 00:14:19.799 for the communion, which is a great way to finish our service tonight. 00:14:19.799 --> 00:14:24.799 We recognise that there's formal ways in which we can help. 00:14:24.799 --> 00:14:29.799 We had the tables out this morning which listed all the different things that we could be helping 00:14:29.799 --> 00:14:35.799 and whether that's just doing so because we feel that led to help 00:14:35.799 --> 00:14:40.799 or that we really have a specific gift in one area then that's great. 00:14:40.799 --> 00:14:45.799 And of course there's also the informal help that is done 00:14:45.799 --> 00:14:50.799 that nobody sees but you and Jesus Christ. 00:14:50.799 --> 00:14:56.799 But remember that as a church we have the formal structures in place 00:14:56.799 --> 00:15:01.799 through our ministry teams that we mentioned this morning, 00:15:01.799 --> 00:15:05.799 but also through our deacons. 00:15:05.799 --> 00:15:14.799 Deacons are those ordained members of the church who are set apart to be helpers. 00:15:14.799 --> 00:15:18.799 That's their calling. Acts chapter 6 makes that clear. 00:15:18.799 --> 00:15:20.799 Our deacons are helpers. 00:15:20.799 --> 00:15:24.799 We initially, to help the elders, the leaders of the church, 00:15:24.799 --> 00:15:28.799 so the leaders were free to do what they were called to do, 00:15:28.799 --> 00:15:32.799 they had a hugely significant practical role 00:15:32.799 --> 00:15:37.799 and so we have helping moulded into our structures as a church. 00:15:37.799 --> 00:15:42.799 In our city groups we have deacons who are there not only to be helpers 00:15:42.799 --> 00:15:46.799 but I hope to inspire help and to delegate 00:15:46.799 --> 00:15:51.799 and to find out those with gifts of help and match them to needs. 00:15:51.799 --> 00:15:55.799 Deacono helping. 00:15:55.799 --> 00:15:59.799 But also remember relational helping. 00:15:59.799 --> 00:16:04.799 And that involves not only knowing but being known, 00:16:04.799 --> 00:16:07.799 being ready to give help to one another, 00:16:07.799 --> 00:16:12.799 but also to be able to receive help, not to be so proud 00:16:12.799 --> 00:16:17.799 that we can't receive help either spiritual or practical. 00:16:17.799 --> 00:16:21.799 And remember the relational side and the spiritual side of helping. 00:16:21.799 --> 00:16:26.799 It's such an important thing to be helping one another spiritually 00:16:26.799 --> 00:16:29.799 in our day-to-day living. 00:16:29.799 --> 00:16:34.799 And in St. C's we have that vision to be that kind of Christ-centered 00:16:34.799 --> 00:16:39.799 people together in all our impossibilities 00:16:39.799 --> 00:16:43.799 that we're working against programs towards relationship. 00:16:43.799 --> 00:16:48.799 We're not really that concerned about maintaining an organisation. 00:16:48.799 --> 00:16:52.799 We know that an organisation is important to us at that level 00:16:52.799 --> 00:16:58.799 but it's to serve Christ that we seek to do all these things. 00:16:58.799 --> 00:17:02.799 So that church conference that I was part of, 00:17:02.799 --> 00:17:06.799 there were 600 church planters from all over Europe. 00:17:06.799 --> 00:17:11.799 People doing very ordinary things, some with very small churches. 00:17:11.799 --> 00:17:16.799 The biggest group of people were from the Ukraine. 00:17:16.799 --> 00:17:19.799 That's where the most church planters had come to this conference, 00:17:19.799 --> 00:17:24.799 praying for God to bless and God to work and learning from one another 00:17:24.799 --> 00:17:28.799 as part of the city-to-city Europe which is from Redeemer initially. 00:17:28.799 --> 00:17:31.799 And we're part of that. We're part of that. 00:17:31.799 --> 00:17:35.799 And there's not a day goes by when I don't feel inadequate 00:17:35.799 --> 00:17:40.799 for that calling and that work and I feel so often 00:17:40.799 --> 00:17:44.799 I've wasted so much time and helped so few people. 00:17:44.799 --> 00:17:47.799 And the challenge for me for going to these conferences, 00:17:47.799 --> 00:17:50.799 and I hate going to them usually, 00:17:50.799 --> 00:17:53.799 is that they take me out of my comfort zone. 00:17:53.799 --> 00:17:59.799 But also I hope, re-inspire and reinvigorate me to remember 00:17:59.799 --> 00:18:04.799 that we're part of a great work, a part of a kingdom movement 00:18:04.799 --> 00:18:08.799 and it's an amazing privilege to be part of that. 00:18:08.799 --> 00:18:13.799 And we hope that we always remember that in all our helping 00:18:13.799 --> 00:18:17.799 we're seeking to be reminded that God through grace changes me 00:18:17.799 --> 00:18:22.799 and he changes my church and he changes my city and he changes my world. 00:18:22.799 --> 00:18:25.799 And that's what we long to be and to do here. 00:18:25.799 --> 00:18:28.799 We're going to celebrate the Lord's Supper together. 00:18:28.799 --> 00:18:32.799 God has called each of us here together to serve him 00:18:32.799 --> 00:18:36.799 and to help one another in the gospel ministry. 00:18:36.799 --> 00:18:40.799 And many times I feel like we're hanging on to his coat tails 00:18:40.799 --> 00:18:43.799 and speaking reverently as our Father. 00:18:43.799 --> 00:18:46.799 But he can help us to do what we're called to do. 00:18:46.799 --> 00:18:49.799 We're here as part of the kingdom work. 00:18:49.799 --> 00:18:53.799 I hope that we see the bigger picture that as children of God 00:18:53.799 --> 00:18:58.799 we can move forward and therefore not to focus on the minutiae, 00:18:58.799 --> 00:19:04.799 to forgive your leaders, to forgive what you don't like about sensees, 00:19:04.799 --> 00:19:09.799 to forgive the difficulties you have maybe with people in the church, 00:19:09.799 --> 00:19:13.799 the struggles about it not being what you want it to be, 00:19:13.799 --> 00:19:16.799 your discontentment with various things that may be not that important, 00:19:16.799 --> 00:19:20.799 to look to Christ and look to His calling and look to the privilege 00:19:20.799 --> 00:19:28.799 and look to His love and to be kind and to be helpful and to do miracles. 00:19:28.799 --> 00:19:32.799 Because these things are miraculous through His Holy Spirit. 00:19:32.799 --> 00:19:36.799 And in your workplaces, not just here but in your workplaces, 00:19:36.799 --> 00:19:41.799 your God's children there, you're on mission to reach out. 00:19:41.799 --> 00:19:46.799 Since these will never fulfill its calling from the front, 00:19:46.799 --> 00:19:48.799 we'll sink. 00:19:48.799 --> 00:19:52.799 But do consider the souls of your families, your friends and your colleagues, 00:19:52.799 --> 00:19:56.799 they've been placed in your lap. 00:19:56.799 --> 00:20:00.799 Not to save them, that's God's work. 00:20:00.799 --> 00:20:02.799 Praise the Lord that that's the case, 00:20:02.799 --> 00:20:05.799 but to share Jesus boldly with them. 00:20:05.799 --> 00:20:09.799 I'm looking forward to seven days of prayer at the end of November 00:20:09.799 --> 00:20:13.799 and we're going to bulk that up a little bit this year 00:20:13.799 --> 00:20:18.799 with more focused evangelistic, 00:20:18.799 --> 00:20:25.799 missional opportunities from then through to the carol service, 00:20:25.799 --> 00:20:31.799 through to Easter, through to hopefully reading one-to-one Bible with your friends, 00:20:31.799 --> 00:20:34.799 and that will be a great challenge for us. 00:20:34.799 --> 00:20:39.799 And in all of that, 00:20:39.799 --> 00:20:42.799 just outwork the gift of helping. 00:20:42.799 --> 00:20:46.799 Be a helper, 00:20:46.799 --> 00:20:50.799 honour those who are specially gifted with helping in this church. 00:20:50.799 --> 00:20:54.799 You'll need to think, you'll need to work out and think who they are, 00:20:54.799 --> 00:20:58.799 because much of their work is unseen. 00:20:58.799 --> 00:21:00.799 But God knows who they are, 00:21:00.799 --> 00:21:03.799 and if you're sensitive you probably will know who they are also spiritually. 00:21:03.799 --> 00:21:05.799 But support them and pray for them, 00:21:05.799 --> 00:21:10.799 and seek to mimic them as they mimic Christ, 00:21:10.799 --> 00:21:13.799 and be a helper, be self-forgetful, 00:21:13.799 --> 00:21:15.799 and be a helper for Jesus Christ. 00:21:15.799 --> 00:21:18.799 That's Bowerheads, briefly, in prayer. 00:21:18.799 --> 00:21:22.799 Father God, we thank you for the privilege of what we have here, 00:21:22.799 --> 00:21:25.799 for the unity and love and support we share. 00:21:25.799 --> 00:21:29.799 We know there's battles and struggles always in any gospel community, 00:21:29.799 --> 00:21:31.799 but we pray that we would take them to Christ, 00:21:31.799 --> 00:21:34.799 that you would fuse us together in love, 00:21:34.799 --> 00:21:37.799 and that love would cover a multitude of sins, 00:21:37.799 --> 00:21:38.799 for there are many sins, 00:21:38.799 --> 00:21:42.799 organizationally, administratively, 00:21:42.799 --> 00:21:47.799 in the way we maybe sometimes do things or don't do things. 00:21:47.799 --> 00:21:51.799 And yet help us to put aside sometimes our personal preferences, 00:21:51.799 --> 00:21:53.799 and seek to be helpers, 00:21:53.799 --> 00:21:55.799 seek to look out, seek to be concerned, 00:21:55.799 --> 00:21:57.799 and seek to love. 00:21:57.799 --> 00:22:01.799 Bless us then as we come to celebrate the Lord's upper together. 00:22:01.799 --> 00:22:30.799 Amen.