In this sermon, Steve Hopkins speaks about the significant impact small churches and individuals can have on their communities and congregations. He encourages listeners to examine their giftings and resources and to use them to serve the church and the world. Examples of personal and family ministries include caring for orphans, widows, and the sick, praying for others, and sharing the gospel. Hopkins emphasizes the importance of serving Christ not only in one's household and church but also in the world. He warns that the devil will try to throw obstacles in the way of those who choose to serve Christ and others, but believers should remain obedient to God.

I was praying this morning and as I was praying my thoughts kept continuing to return to just how great effect a small church like this can have on the community around us and also the great effect we individually can have on each other's lives within the congregation. And you probably heard me say this before, we should all be looking at our giftings and resources and seeing what God has given us and what he might have called us to do or would be desiring for us to do in the church and also in the world. And I've always said, not a one of us can do everything, but every one of us can do something. We can't all for instance be elders and deacons, but we can all use our gifts and our resources to serve the church and also the gospel and the work of Christ in the world. And so I just want to ask before we launch into Romans here again, what is your ministry? What is your personal ministry? What is your family ministry? James 127 speaks of pure religion, the pure outworking of saving faith in the care of orphans and widows in their times of need. And that encompasses all the needs under those two headings of all those who struggle to care for themselves but are unable to do so. And of course, again we can't all do everything, we can all do something. We can all be involved in some way in the care of those who are not able to care for themselves. In Acts chapter 10, 38 we read that Jesus went about doing good and healing. We can all go about doing good and we can all go about caring for those who are sick. Of course the miraculous gifts have passed away with the apostolic age, but we can all go about doing good and tending to the needs of those who are sick among us and praying for them and also for the needs of those who are in the world as we want to show Christ to the world and bring the gospel of his saving grace to the world. We can all be tending to those who are sick and who are in need among us and we can also be ministering to those who are in the world in order to advance the kingdom of God. We can all pray, we can all really pray. We can determine that instead of just maybe at the meal time or just because we have it on our list, to really, really pray for those who are in need and those who are in trouble and those who are sick among us as though it was our own body that was going through what they are going through. In Luke chapter 2 we read of a widow who had a prayer ministry and it says that she fasted and she prayed night and day. And of course this was a woman who got to see Jesus before she died. In Acts chapter 9 we read of a woman named Tabitha who had a personal ministry to the poor and we read that she made clothes and coats for the poor, for people who were in need. And when she died, before she was actually raised up by the apostles, the people were saying, look at all the wonderful things that she did, look at the coats that she made for me, look at the clothes that she made for me as they were mourning for her. She had a personal ministry that she was able to do with the resources and the talents that God had given her and we all need to be looking at that. We can all help someone, we can all be engaged in ministering to someone both in the church and outside of the church. We can't all preach the gospel in the open air but we can all share the good news with others in this world of what Christ has done for us and what God has done in saving our souls. We can all relate the gospel to someone in some way throughout the week. And we can have such an effect upon our community if we would all just do that, do something outside of the four walls of our own homes. And I am a big advocate of you get your family together and you say, hey we're going to go do this for Jesus. Little kids can understand at three, four, five years of age, what are we doing? Well we're going to go in a special way today, we're going to go serve Jesus, however we're going to go do this together as a family. And it may cost us and it may be uncomfortable but we're going to go and we're going to do this, whatever it is that God has laid upon our hearts. And what we need to understand is that when the believer determines and resolves that this is going to be their manner of life, to serve Christ, not only in their own households which we should in our marriages, in our homes, yes, in our church, but also in the world. But when we resolve that we're going to do that, I'm going to use my talents, my resources, my energy, whatever, to minister to other people in the flock of Christ who are in need and also to those who are out in the world for the sake of the advance of the gospel. Guess what? The devil is going to throw up obstacles, he's going to throw up blockades, he's going to do everything in the world to stop you from doing that and to convince you that this is not a direction you need to be going in. He's going to do it. He doesn't want anything like what I've been talking about taking root in a church and going on in a church and in the world. He's going to throw every obstacle up, every possible way to discourage you and to convince you to only look at your own things because scripture says, look not only upon your own things but also upon the things of others. He's going to convince you that no, you don't want to go that way because God receives glory when we are obedient to him.