Good morning and welcome in everyone. Today, we are going to take a look at a passage of scripture, but before we do that, I wanted to tell you a little story.
One year, I decided to get a few rabbits for the purpose of supplying our family with fresh meat. I bought half a dozen does and a buck, but we needed to provide them with a place to stay, so Andrew and I found some free discarded pallets, removed all the nails from them, and refabricated them into rabbit hutches. It didn’t take very long, and we had piles of fresh food for the supper table. I’m not exactly sure how long it was, but I think my family adequately survived on rabbit meat for almost an entire year. I would butcher one every few days and my wife would cook it up on the wood stove to be used in stews and numerous other meals. But like any other animal, they needed to be fed regularly. As the flock grew, we quickly realized that we had to provide more food for them. We found ourselves searching for all kinds of things on our property, such as tall grass or certain sticks that they really liked to eat. We would tie them up in bundles and store them in the greenhouse for the winter.
This reminds me of the Christian Life.
You might not have raised animals, but maybe you have had an indoor pet. Did you put food out for them each day? Did you water them regularly? Well, the church is like a spiritual pole barn, filled with God’s sheep who are ready and waiting to be fed with the Spiritual food of God’s Holy Word.
1 Peter 5:1-2 The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;
Did you ever ask your dad for a pet dog? Quite possibly he told you that it was a huge responsibility. A pet needs attention and supervision. They need correction and direction. They need to be frequently fed and watered. The sheep of God need to be taken care of too, and somebody must take up the responsibility of doing it. This is what the Apostle Paul was doing.
2 Corinthians 11:28 Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.
In my heart, I don’t think that there is a greater thing that you can do with your life than to preach God’s Word. You can save a soul from eternal death and hide a multitude of sins,….if they believe and repent. How many of you have quit your job to take on another occupation? It was less pay, and less benefits, but you knew in your heart that it was the right thing to do. My family can bear witness that I hated the teaching profession. It was beyond that, I loathed it with a passion. Teaching anything to anyone, whether spiritual or secular, was the last thing on my list of what I was going to do with my life. But when I became submerged into the Christian faith, I knew that I was going to have to change my thinking on this. When we believe the gospel with all of our hearts, God can change things. Look at what He did in the life of the Apostle Paul. Love for Christ, is to keep His commands, and true love for Him requires preaching and teaching His Word. We don’t have to be publicly trained. We don’t have to buy special clothing. We don’t have to go through some kind of religious ceremony. This is an ordination that comes when you believe in the commands of God.
Listen to me men, whomever you may be…
Tell somebody about Christ. Tell them that he died and rose again from the grave. Tell them about God’s forgiveness. You might not know a lot of the King James Bible, but stick to what you do know. Don’t venture into areas that you don’t understand, and grow in grace and knowledge as you go. This is what numerous disciples did when they believed the truth of the Gospel. They immediately went out and preached Christ crucified. In any kind of occupation, you will find new people who have only been working at the company for a few weeks, while right next to them is the head machinist, who has been employed with the company for over 40 years. The new man is not going to know everything, but they grow as they go. Christianity is on the job training. There are certainly different levels of understanding and knowledge in the church, but we can all work together side by side, using the things that we know to convert people to Christ. When I first was baptized into the faith, I would spread flyers or hand out tracts about what Jesus did for us at the cross. I wasn’t seasoned in the knowledge of scripture because at that point in my life I was in a different place. I was like a baby Christian, but eventually baby Christians can mature through faith in Christ.
Do you know how to ride a bicycle? Did you teach your son how to ride a bicycle? Do you know how to drive a car? Did you teach your son how to drive a car? We take the knowledge that we have learned and we hand it down to the next generation, (unless you were like me in the past). As we mature as a Christian, we need to teach others the faith. This is the responsibility of men in the church. They needed to give the things that they had learned from scripture to others, beginning with their own wives and families. You don’t need some kind of special ceremony to preach God’s Word, because you have already been ordained by God as the head of your home. The church is not one preacher standing alone in front of a group. All of the men of the church have already been ordained by God to preach. It’s a great thing when a seasoned preacher can sit down in the church and listen to other prophets as they communicate the things that they have learned to the church group. Others need to pick up the torch, and do the same.
There are many things that I’ve done in my life that I have taught to Andrew, but none as important as the things that I have learned from scripture. Every man has that responsibility. Men must be capable of teaching others so that our faith is handed down to the next generation. Read the scriptures to your children day and night. Instead of purchasing them an expensive toy, give them the most expensive treasure that they could ever possess; the knowledge of Jesus Christ and the teachings of the church. Our little bunnies needed to be fed everyday, as do the sheep of God. God wants men to preach. It is a duty that only men can fulfill. It doesn’t require being a good speaker. It doesn’t require wearing fancy clothes. It doesn’t require years of schooling. It requires a willing heart. If I was to ask you to feed my rabbits each day when I was gone, would you do it? Jesus asked Peter to feed His sheep, and he did it. I don’t think that I could find greater joy in my own life, then knowing that men took upon themselves the responsibility of teaching their families the Word of God. This is our calling men. Fear not, because you will learn as you go. Avoid the things that you do not understand yet. We gain knowledge from what we teach, and instruction is the beginning of wisdom. The church needs to be fed each day, and the responsibility falls not just on one man, but all the men of the church.
1 Corinthians 14:26 How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying.
Jesus died for you on the cross, are you willing to take up the responsibility of handing down the things that He taught to the next generation? Will you willingly do the things that I was so reluctant to do in my past? All of you men need to stand up and edify each other with the things that you have learned from scripture. Read God’s Word, preach God’s Word, teach God’s Word. There are a lot of sheep in the world that need to be fed daily. Will you be the one who takes up the responsibility to feed all of the…..
…..Hungry Rabbits
Let’s think about these things for right now. We can be found on your web browser by Google searching, tlkjbc where you can find our diaries distributed through various platforms, or by getting our entire podcast feeds directly, along with transcripts at tlkjbc.com, or I suppose, you can find us somewhere up here, in the Great Northern Minnesota woods. Lord willing, we will talk with you some more tomorrow. Till then, bye bye everybody. ❤️
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