Sermon
Membership 101 Series - Our Statements (Part 2)
January 29-30, 2000
Pastor Leighton Sheley

I'll invite you to take from your bulletins the insert entitled 'Discovering Church Membership', and what I will suggest that you do as we are going through it, go ahead and fill it in. Then at the end of the service, tuck it back in your Bible and in the weeks to come we'll give you to instructions as to how to process that. Normally this course is taught in an adult elective Sunday School class, but as our staff got together and discussed it we realized that it's been a number of years since we as a congregation went through this material, and in our community of great, we have a community of great transientness. I was told that 50 percent of rentals are occupied by new families every 18 months, and so it's quite possible that you are surrounded by people that are fairly new to Church of the Highlands. And it's good for us as a congregation to be reminded of where we come from, where we're going, and why. And so as a staff we determined it was appropriate for us at this time to go ahead and go through our membership corporately in our congregation. And we are on page 15 which is entitled Session Two, The Highlands' Statements, and begins with this passage: Let there be real harmony among you so there won't be any split in church. I plead with you to be of one mind, united in thought and purpose. You know some words are pictures in and of themselves, and when I look at this passage I've circled the word harmony. And harmony is a musical term, and what it means it means a group of notes working together intelligently for a common purpose. A group of notes working together intelligently for a common purpose. One of the families in the church very generously provided tickets for my wife and I to go and attend the Symphony, and I really enjoy the Symphony. And what you usually hear it is you'll hear a melody line that's played against a background of harmony in the instruments. When the concert was finished my wife and I walked outside of Davies Symphony Hall and we were greeted with a bunch of notes from the traffic driving by on Van Ness. That's called noise because they're not notes working together intelligently for a common purpose. Okay? Harmony is working together intelligently for a common purpose. Let there be real harmony among you so that there won't be any split in the church. One of the things our pastor does so regularly is to thank the Lord publicly that in the 40 years of ministry here are at Church of the Highlands we have not endured the agonies of a church split. Our church works together in harmony because we have a common goal that we are working towards as a church. I plead with you to be of one mind, united in thought and purpose. One purpose.

OUR PURPOSE STATEMENT We exist as a church. The purpose of our church is summarized in a single sentence based on two key scriptures: We believe a great commitment to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission will grow a great church! We believe a great commitment to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission will grow a great church. Now what is the Great Commandment and what is the Great Commission? That's provided for you in the notes. The Great Commandment: Jesus said, 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart...soul...and mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and Prophets hang on these two commandments.' And so the Great Commandment is to love God and to love your neighbor.

The Great Commission: Jesus said, 'Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.' And then there are four points there on your page. To "Love God with all your heart" is "WORSHIP." To "Love your neighbor as yourself" is "MINISTRY." To "Go and make disciples" is "EVANGELISM." And to "Teach them all things" is "DISCIPLESHIP."

Page 16. Highlands church exists: Now some people have asked, you know, how did we get the name Church of the Highlands? Is it a name that we got from the great Scottish preachers of the Scottish Highlands in the previous centuries? And that's not true. Our pastor has a great regard for those great Scottish preachers, but actually the area of San Bruno in which this building resides is an area of San Bruno called Portola Highlands. The area of this hill and the houses that are behind the church here are in an area called Portola Highlands. Now when the church began it was a church called Calvary Cross Church in Daly City. In the fullness of time God provided for us this wonderful facility. We came and we did some research and we found out that in San Bruno there was already a church with the name Calvary in it, and we didn't want to create any kind of problem so the pastor went into prayer and said, Lord what would you have us name the church? And God said, well, Church of the Highlands. We believe that God gave us that name. It's a name that's fairly unique, Church of the Highlands is because of our existence here are at Portola Highlands.

Church of the Highlands exists: No. 1, To celebrate God's presence. To celebrate God's presence, that's worship. You know you go to some churches and you could hardly call it a celebration. In fact, it might resemble more of the funeral kind of an ambience, but you know we don't celebrate that way. We celebrate the Lord's presence here. We have a lot to celebrate. We have been saved from hell. That doesn't get you excited? We have been saved from hell! Amen? That's right, we have a cause to celebrate here and so you notice in the songs that we selected, the word celebrate is found in the first selection today. We celebrate the presence of the Lord. The Bible says that He inhabits the praises of His people.

No. 2, To demonstrate God's love, ministry. To demonstrate God's love.

No. 3, To communicate God's word, that's evangelism. To communicate God's word.

And forth, To educate God's people, that's discipleship. To educate God's people.

So we're here to celebrate, to demonstrate, to communicate, and to educate. And then we're going to go into more detail, what does that mean? No. 1, we exist to celebrate God's presence, worship. Worship could be defined in a simple way of expressing our love to God. Expressing our love to God. Now you know different people express differently. I know that there are some men in our congregation when they see their wives they go up and a hug and a kiss and they express their love that way. I know that there are some men in our congregation that when they see their wives they say, I love you, and that's a major expression for them because they are used to just communicating with a look and a touch on the shoulder. Different people express love differently. And you know what? We express our love towards God differently too. There is no cookie cutter kind of way that we're supposed to worship God at Church of the Highlands. We don't provide courses. In order to worship God your arm must be perfectly straight, elbow locked at an 80 degree angle (Congregation laughs) fingers outstretched together. No we don't do that because some people worship God with their hands raised, some people dance, some people it doesn't look like any thing's going on, but it is deep inside of them, deep inside of them. So there are different ways that people express their love towards God. Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only. The Father seeks worshipers. Who is the Father seeking? Worshipers. And His worshipers must worship Him in spirit and in truth, in spirit and in truth. Now what I did is I circled that word spirit and I drew an arrow and I wrote the word heart; spirit - heart. And I circled the word truth and I drew an arrow and I wrote the word mind, mind. So truth - mind. And His worshipers must worship Him in heart and mind. Now in some churches they provide an ambience of worship that is full of heart and lacking in mind. Other churches provide an ambience of worship that is simply a mental exercise and has no effect on the heart. At Church of the Highlands we try to provide an ambience of worship so that our people who come to worship, worship in heart and mind, in spirit and in truth. Now there' s a list of expressions of worship here, and it's not complete; singing, commitment, praying, hearing the Word, giving, baptism, meditating, Lord's Supper, and so forth. It's not complete. There are more ways of expressing our worship towards the Lord.

And then it says COH, or Church of the Highlands, worship style. Let me talk to you about our worship style for just a moment. You know some people will call and they will ask, well what kind of church is Church of the Highlands? And what they're really asking for is they want us to give them a label they're familiar with so they can get a mental picture of what Church of the Highlands is like. There's a problem with labels and the problem is this, labels mean different things to different people at different times. Right? At Church of the Highlands we're very careful about labels. We don't like to label our self. We don't like other people to label us. There are some labels that are out there. Let me give you some of the examples of labels that are out there, Pentecostal or Charismatic. Are you a Pentecostal or Charismatic church? Now I know that really there's a difference between Pentecostal and Charismatic, but to most Americans, most people in our community, they don't really differentiate the two. They just want to know, are you one of those kind of churches? Now some of the traditional characteristics of a Pentecostal or Charismatic church is they have an intense worship time, a heartfelt worship time. And that characteristic would be true of Church of the Highlands. Another characteristic of Pentecostal or Charismatic churches is they believe in the person and work of the Holy Spirit. Church of the Highlands believes in the person and the work of the Holy Spirit. We believe in tongues as long as it's biblically applied. And so some of the characteristics that are attributed to that particular label apply to Church of the Highlands. However, when some people ask that question what they picture in their mind is some of the radical elements that call themselves Pentecostal or Charismatic, and Church of the Highlands is not a radical kind of a church. And so if someone were to ask you, is Church of the Highlands a Pentecostal or a Charismatic church, the proper answer would be no. Why? Because different labels mean different things to different people. 

Is Church of the Highlands a fundamental church? Now traditionally that word fundamental meant they had one thing that they really built their Church on and it was the Word of God. They may or may not have observed the sacraments. They may or may not have had a worship time, and by the way, a song service is not the same as a worship time. And they build their entire ministry on one thing, the Word of God. Now at Church of the Highlands we preach the Word of God. We believe in the Word of God. When some people ask that question the thought that comes to their mind, their definition of that word is the one that has been communicated and marketed by the media recently. And what the media has done is redefined the term ‘fundamental’. What they have done is they tried to convey that fundamentalists are of those who preach the Bible and beat people over the head with it, and condemned people to hell if they don't do exactly what the Bible says. Now we at Church of the Highlands we preach the Word of God. We believe that this is the Word of God. We believe that we're supposed to do what the Word of God says. We also recognize that people make mistakes, but rather than condemn and cut them off, we at Church of the Highlands seek to encourage them to get back on the path that God desires for them, in love and mercy. So if someone were to ask you, is Church of the Highlands a fundamental church, the proper answer would be no. Because different labels mean different things to different people at different times.

Now what's another label? Another label is liturgical. The traditional sense of this label is that it's a church that observes the sacraments, and Church of the Highlands observes the sacraments. Our Saturday evening and Sunday morning services are built around the communion table and baptism, and so we observe the sacraments; so in that regard we have some of the characteristics of a liturgical church. But some people when they say, are you a liturgical church, the picture that they have in their mind is a place where you simply go through a ritual. It's dull. It's boring. It's dry. They preach in another language and you can hardly wait to get out if there. And that's the picture that they have. And so if someone were to ask you, is Church of the Highlands a liturgical church, the proper answer would be no, because different labels mean different things to different people at different times. Now what about the label Protestant? That label came out of the Middle Ages. What happened is some Roman Catholic priests protested against the church hierarchy because of some of their excesses, and they were called protesters or Protestants. Church of the Highlands isn't here to protest. We're not a Protestant church. Now some people would say okay well then are you a Catholic church? No we're not a Catholic church either because we're not associated with the organization that is founded in Rome and was founded about three centuries after Christ. That organization we're not associated with so we’re not Catholic, we’re not orthodox. Okay?

Then if we're not all of those things, what is Church of the Highlands? And I think the best definition, and I'll give it to you and you can write it down, is that Church of the Highlands is a nondenominational, Christian, Bible church. A nondenominational, Christian, Bible church. Now we even had discussions over that word nondenominational. If you go into your Yellow Pages you'll find that there are nondenominational churches and there are interdenominational churches. Now what is the difference between a nondenominational and an interdenominational? Some people say well Church of the Highlands has people that come from all kinds of backgrounds. Right? So we should be an interdenominational church. We have people who come from Catholic backgrounds. People who come from liturgical backgrounds, from fundamental backgrounds, from charismatic, Pentecostal backgrounds, some people, from no religious background at all. So shouldn't we really be an interdenominational church? That's not only true of our congregation that's true of our staff. Pastor David who led us in worship comes from a Baptist background. Pastor Larry who is our chief musician, plays the organ, he's from a more Pentecostal, charismatic kind of background. That's true in our staff. That's true in our congregation. Some people say aren't we an interdenominational church? You know if I were to go to the bank and I took in a deposit, and I wanted some cash back, the teller would probably ask this question, in what denominations would you like that? In what denominations would you like that? Now it's all money, but there's something that distinguishes one piece of paper from another piece of paper, and they call it a denomination, and that's true of the church. There's something that distinguishes that denomination from that denomination from that denomination. It may be small. It might be large, whatever. It's just something, and so we as a church have determined that nondenominational is the best term to describe Church of the Highlands because we don't emphasize the distinctives. We emphasize that which we hold in common, salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. A nondenominational, Christian, Bible church.

Page 16, point two: We exist to communicate God's Word, evangelism. His intent was that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known. Now a number of weeks back, a couple of weeks back, a few weeks back, I had the opportunity to speak to our children's church. I believe it was on a Sunday night, and it was on another passage, but the word church came up. And I asked them the question, what is the church? And you know I got five different answers. And I don't remember all of the answers, but I can remember some. One child says, well the church is a place where we come to worship. Another child said it's a place where we come to learn about God. And another child said it's a place, and I don't remember what that one was, but I remember there were five different answers and all of them began with, the church is a place. The church is a place. Do you know in the first number of centuries of the church there was no place? They didn't have a church building. They met in believer's homes. When you look at the Scriptures you'll find out that the word church, ekklasia, means the gathering and it doesn't mean the gathering of walls. It means the gathering of believers. The church is not this building. The church is us. Now we call it the church building because it's a building that houses a church, but it's not the church. It's just a building. We are the church, and it is through the church that the manifold wisdom of God should be made known. It's through us, not through the building. Go to the building. It will tell you. No, it's not going to tell you, it's four walls. It's us. Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But how shall they ask him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them. How is it that they're going to receive Jesus Christ if they never heard about him? And how are they going to hear about him if we don't tell them? We're the church and so we exist to communicate God's Word. Have you ever asked the question, you know I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, why didn't He take me to heaven right now? Let me propose an answer for that. It's because He's not finished with you yet. He has a job for you. He has a purpose for you in this life on this earth, and the purpose is to communicate the gospel of Jesus Christ in the pulpit that He has placed you. It was somebody else that told you. It's your responsibility to tell someone else.

Why our church must never stop growing, page 17, 1. Because God loves people. Number one, because God loves people. The Lord...is patient, not wanting anyone to perish, but wants everyone to come to repentance. Some people might say well isn't Church of the Highlands big enough? No. It's not, because you know even though there are hundreds of people that gather together each weekend to worship the Lord here, there are tens of thousands of people in our community that are not attending any church that haven't heard the gospel. Until every person in our community has heard the gospel, our church isn't big enough. God loves people.

Secondly, because God commands us to reach out. Go out into the country...and urge anyone you find to come in, so that's My House will be full. Go out into the country. Go out. I was in my study last night. I got a call from my wife. She said go out to the store and get some milk. That was a suggestion which I wisely heeded. If a general tells his army to go out into battle, that's a command. And in the context of this verse this is a master telling his servant go out. It's not a suggestion. It's a command. Go out into the country...and urge everyone, anyone you can find it to come in, so that My House will be full. You are my witnesses. You know, and it's not a matter of, O I've got to go out and tell people. It's not like that at all. I mean if you're really excited about your church, you're going to be excited to tell people. People are looking for a good church. There's no perfect church, but there are good churches. People are looking for a good church. I was talking with somebody last night and they were so excited. They just bought a Honda minivan. And they were so excited because they had a Honda car before that and they had such great service. They said I'm going back I'm going to get another Honda. By the way, I'm not a Honda dealer. (Congregation laughs) We find a great restaurant and we want to tell our friends about it. Listen folks, if you want to know what the finest restaurants are you need to talk with Pastor Larry. I mean he knows the find restaurants, and I can't ever get him to go with me to McDonald's. People are looking for great church. You should be so excited about church you just can't hardly wait to tell someone, you need to come to church, especially if they bring up O I don't know. Okay? We need to be excited about church and bringing them in.

Third, because God wants us to grow to. Because God wants us to grow. Under Christ's control, the whole Body is nourished...and grows as God wants it to grow. I underlined as God wants it to grow. God wants His body to grow. Jesus said I will build my church. He didn't say I will maintain my church. He said I will build my church. He wants this church to grow.

Now there are some unbiblical excuses for not growing. Three of them are specified there. God isn't interested in numbers. You know that's not biblical. I mean there's a whole book in the Bible called Numbers! Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers. God's interested in numbers. You go through Numbers and it says there were 6,353 people in this clan, and it gives exact numbers. You know you read the New Testament you'll find out the disciples were fishing and they pulled up the nets and they found 153 fish in the net. It wasn't Oh about 100 fish. Or about 200 fish. In fact, one of the things that the scholars have observed, that even though the Bible was written over several millennia, by dozens of writers, numbers are always handled consistently through the Scriptures. God is very much interested in numbers. Another reason, our church wants quality not quantity. We're not interested in quantity, we want quality. You know that's based on a false premise, and the premise that's false is this, quantity and quality are mutually exclusive. One cannot exist in the presence of the other. The false premise is you can't have quantity and quality. It's a fact that quantity allows for quality. It's the size of the church that we have that allows Church of the Highlands to present Scrooge every year to our community, which is a quality presentation of the gospel. And every year we try to make it better. We're trying to achieve perfection which we'll never get to, but we're going to keep on trying. Quantity allows us to dream big dreams. One of the things that God has given as is a lot of great musicians here. One of the things that we'd like to do as a church in one of these years that's coming up is to do a recording project with original compositions of music, worship songs that have been written by our own congregation. Quantity allows quality.

And so it says here we believe our church must grow larger and smaller at the same time. We believe that our church must grow larger and smaller at the same time. Page 17. Now what does that mean? That means larger, we need to grow larger because God has called us to grow. Some people think that Church of the Highlands is a big church. It's not. It's a medium-sized church. It's large for the churches in our community, but there are some. You know a few months back we were participating in the Billy Graham crusade, and I walked into the Cow Palace, and I said hey this would be a great church. Wouldn't it be great if Church of the Highlands grew so big we had to take over the Cow Palace? Some of the pastors are talking about Skycrest Center up here, and we could have a sanctuary of 1,200 people there. Better yet, let's buy Tanforan. I mean we could put thousands into Tanforan, and think, anybody can get on Bart from anywhere in the Bay Area and come to church. You know there's a church in Korea that has over three-quarters of a million people in one church? That's a big church. We must grow larger because God has called us to grow larger, but we've also got to grow smaller. And let me see if I can explain it. People don't get up on Sunday morning and take their shower, and brushed their teeth, and comb their hair, and get in their finery to come to be part of a crowd. They come because they want to worship the Lord. They come because they want to know more about His Word, and they come because they want to build significant relationships. 

We are by nature social creatures. We are by nature people of relationship, and the studies indicate that if a person comes and visits a church and doesn't build a significant relationship with weeks if not months, they're likely to just drift away. And guess what? Building relationships is not easy in a large crowd. And so we as a church we look for ways that we can provide smaller group opportunities. Opportunities for people to meet in comfortable settings. Our men's ministry, not in February, but in March is going to be providing breakfast not as we normally do next-door here in the cafeteria, but we're going to a fishing pond. And guess what the men are going to talk about? Fishing! Fishing. Now hopefully after they've been able to build a relationship and a friendship, their conversation is the going to expand beyond fishing into other areas, and ideally speaking it's going to come around to spiritual matters which are really the heart and significant ones. But what we're doing is we're trying to provide a setting in which men can come. They can feel comfortable because it's in a, they're talking about things their comfortable with, and relationships and friendships can be built. And so we are looking to provide these opportunities, these smaller group kind of settings for relationships to be built. I might say this, if you're new to our church and you haven't built that's significant relationship, you need to make yourself available. Go to some of these events. Talk with the pastor. Be friendly. Be friendly. And the Good News of the Kingdom will be preached to the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and THEN the end will come. The purpose of the church is to communicate the gospel of Jesus Christ. Why? Because as soon as every person has heard Jesus Christ is coming back, and we want Him to come back, and the sooner the better.

Page 18, point 3: We exist to educate God's people, discipleship. Let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity. Now I was in elementary school, and then I went to middle school or junior high, and then I went to high school, and then I went on to college. It would have been a real shame if I would have spent the best 16 years of my life in elementary school or kindergarten. And yet there are some Christians that when they receive Jesus Christ they get in kindergarten and they love smearing the paints and they love playing and they never even get to elementary school, let alone continue to grow in their knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Word says grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. So Church of the Highlands is an education based church as well. On Monday nights our pastor provides an excellent, rich, deep study in theology that's really well attended. And we have a school that's been in existence for 35 years and has 1, 000 students in it, a Christian school between preschool and 8th grade that educate our children. Not only on reading, writing, arithmetic, but also on the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Fourth point: We exist to demonstrate God's love. This is ministry. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples. That you have a Christian bumper sticker on your car. Does it say that? No. That you can argue theology. Does it say that? That you can recite scripture. Does it say that? What does it say? That you love one another. By this shell all men know that you are my disciples - that you have love for one another. What is the definition of love? Probably the best definition of love is found in 1 Corinthians chapter 13 verse four and following. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. How is it that Church of the Highlands is going to be known as a church of the disciples of Jesus Christ? Because we treat each other with patience and kindness. You know different people are at different stages in their growth? And the Lord really hasn't dealt with some people like He's dealt with others on certain issues, and we need to have patience with one another. Give the Holy Spirit an opportunity to grow that person instead of trying to force-feed them if you will. And furthermore, God doesn't have one set pattern for everyone of us. Sometimes the journey of one person is like this, and the journey of another person is like this (points in two different directions). God's journey for you is unique from someone else, and so we need to have patience and kindness towards someone else who is on a different, slightly divergent path, or at a different place along that path. May it be that Church of the Highlands is known for patience and kindness.

The heartbeat of Highlands is our ministry. Page 18, the heartbeat of Highlands is our ministry. Pastor has suggested the fellowship, and I agree with him. Fellowship is the result of ministry. Some of the best fellowships that I've enjoyed and the relationships that I've built are in the midst of ministry. Not just a social event. Every member needs to be a part of one. Be a part of what? Be a part of a ministry. Now at Church of the Highlands and there are three dots and an open space, and I'm going to give you four points to put under that.

At Church of the Highlands, No. 1, every member is a minister. At Church of the Highlands every member is a minister. Ephesians 4:11 and following reads; It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers. Why? To prepare God's people for works of service. It's our ministry staff that are the administers. It's our congregation that are the ministers. The pastoral staff administers, the congregation, the members, minister so that the body of Christ will be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining at the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love. How is Jesus described? He was full of grace and truth. He spoke the truth gracefully. I think on my tombstone I would like that stated, and I certainly hope it's true. He spoke the truth in love. He spoke the truth gracefully. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 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. As each part does its work. Now you know in the Scriptures the body of Christ, the Church, is likened unto our bodies. You know one of the things about the human body is it was not designed and constructed with surplus parts. You know sometimes the doctors they won't understand what a part does, but then after a while they say O, that's what that does. But we weren't designed with surplus parts. Guess what? Your position, your function in the body of Christ, is not surplus. Whatever it is, it's important. A couple of years back I did a foolish thing in a boating accident. I won't go into the details but I injured my ankle, one ankle. And so I was going around for several weeks on crutches. My other ankle still hurts years later. Why, because it had to compensate for the missing part, and sometimes the body of Christ is crippled in its ability to do its work because a part is missing, and that missing part causes injury to the other parts. Every member is a minister. You say well I'm not a minister, I'm a secretary or I'm a real estate agent or whatever it might be. You know what, what ever it is that you do God has placed you there, and that's your pulpit. It was a number of years ago that a man gave his heart to the Lord and he was the owner of a local liquor store. And some of the men came to pastor and said you really need to tell that man to close his liquor store, sell it or something like that. And pastor said well let's see what the Holy Spirit tells him to do. And you know what happened? Whenever somebody would come to his store and pick up a Jack Daniels, that man would stick a tract in the bag. And if the person got interested in discussing it, he'd go and lock the front doors of his store and they'd sit down and they'd pray over a keg. And he reached people that this pulpit couldn't reach. And you can reach people that this pulpit cannot reach. Wherever it is that you are is where God has placed you to be a minister.

Secondly, and this relates to the first, every Christian has a gift. Every Christian has a gift. Some people will think well I don't have any gifts so therefore I'm excluded. Wrong. That's not biblical. Every Christian has a gift. 1 Corinthians 12:6, There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. There is no one person that has all of the gifts, but every person has at least one gift. God has giving you at least one gift. Why? For the purpose of building up His Church. Every Christian has a gift.

Third point, family members work, guests sit. Family members work, guests sit. If you were to be a guest at our house you would come over, we would sit you on the couch, and we would serve you. If you're a member of the family you're going to do the dishes. Members work, guests sit. Some people have been sitting too long. They need to become members of the family and participate in the chores. And you say well some of those chores aren't really attractive. I don't look forward to scrubbing toilets. And you know there are a lot of tasks in the church that are tasks that are not seen, but they are nonetheless important. One of the passages Paul talks about the internal organs. You don't see them, but you'd missed them if they weren't there. Some people say well all I do is watch children.

That's the fourth point, every task is important. Every task is important. If you're doing something for the Lord it's not insignificant. Every task is important. There's a saying in theater. Pastor David Smith told me, he said the saying goes like this, there are no small parts just small actors. Every task is important. Jesus said this in Matthew 10:41 he said, Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones, children, because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth he will certainly not lose his reward. Those are the words of Jesus. He's not even talking to the Sunday School teacher, He's talking to the Sunday School teacher's helper who's preparing the snacks for those children. That is not an insignificant task. There are no insignificant tasks in the body of Christ.

If you have not found your part then I invite you to do so and begin participating as a member of the body in Christ here at Church of the Highlands, San Bruno. Let's pray. Lord we thank you for Your Word and how clear it is to us. And we thank you Lord that whatever it is that we do in Your name is not insignificant. That nothing escapes Your attention. We thank you Lord for Your mercies and Your steadfast love, and the forgiveness that we find in You. We thank you Lord for Your patience because we continuously stumble and fall in our sin, and yet You encourage us to get up and keep on. I thank you Lord for this wonderful family that we enjoyed at Church of the Highlands. Continue to guide us and protect us we pray in Jesus' name, amen. God bless you.