Sunday, June 22, 2008

A Servant's Heart (Sermon: Acts 9:32-43)

After the ascension of Jesus, Peter became a man of great power. He was unquestionably the leader of the twelve. He preached and thousands responded. Peter had the power to heal the sick and lame. And finally, he even raised Dorcas from the dead. With such power comes an amazing responsibility. Many people would be overcome with pride and arrogance, but Peter remained a servant to the church.

While we will never experience the same opportunities that Peter had of establishing the church for the first time in history, we will certainly be given great responsibilities if we make ourselves available to the Lord. Be careful that you do not loose sight of why you are where you are. It is easy to lose a servant's heart.

I believe that one of the reasons, we think too much of ourselves is because we compare ourselves with other people. But do you know that the standard against which we are measured is not other people, but against the righteousness of Christ. If we will remember who He is, it will be easier to remember who we are. Let me encourage you this week to take every gift, every skill, and every resource and use them with a servant's heart.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Pass It On

Today, many tradesmen learn their craft from schools, but not too long ago tradesmen learned almost exclusively by being an apprentice. A skilled craftsmen would take on an apprentice who would learn by watching and working with the master. Once a level of competency had been reached, the apprentice would go out on his own and eventually he would take on his own apprentice. And thus the trade would be passed from generation to generation.

I believe that is a good picture of what Paul was instructing the young pastor Timothy to do: “what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (2 Tim 2:2). In essence…pass it on.

The church must always be looking to the next generation of leadership. Those who have learned to preach must invest in those are recently called to preach. Older deacons should help younger deacons. Older women who have served faithfully should encourage the younger women to serve faithfully. And etc…

Let me encourage you today to look for individuals in your church to which you can pass on what you have learned. By investing in them, you will be passing on what the Lord has shown you to other generations.

Monday, June 9, 2008

Boldness (Sermon: Acts 9:26-31)

Boldness...it was one of the primary distinguishing marks of first century preaching. As Barnabas testified about Saul, he said that Saul preached boldly. Luke also points out that after being accepted by the disciples he continued to preach boldly.

But what is boldness? I fear that some have incorrectly equated boldness with a mean spirit, as though getting mad was spiritual. We don't need to be mean, mad, or arrogant. We just don't need to be afraid. Boldness, then, might best be described as the absence of fear. It is a quiet power that gives the believer the strength to stand firm irrespective of any opposition.

So how can we have this type of boldness? I believe the secret behind Saul's boldness was the filling of the Spirit. Acts tells of a prayer meeting of the believers: "And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness" (Acts 4:31).

Today, as always, the church needs believers that are filled with the Holy Spirit so that they can speak about their faith with boldness. If you have an earnest desire to be a faithful witness for the Lord, then pray and ask Him to fill you with His Spirit. If you seek the Spirit, the boldness will come.

Monday, June 2, 2008

A Living Legacy (Sermon: Acts 9:23-25)

The word disciple means to be a student of a teacher--a follower. When we think of a disciple, we often think of one of Jesus' twelve disciples, but there were other disciples in the New Testament. Mark 2:28 tells us that both John the Baptist and the Pharisees had disciples. The Pharisees even considered themselves to be disciples of Moses, since they were trying to follow his teaching (John 9:28). And so while there were many disciples in the New Testament, today I want to draw your attention to the disciples of Saul.

Acts 9:25 reveals that before the new believer Saul ever left Damascus he already had disciples of his own. Wow! Some Christians live their entire life without ever discipling anyone else and Saul had disciples even as a new believer. Only God knows the impact that some of these disciples had in the world. That's one of the amazing things about investing your life in disciples, once they have come to maturity, they carry on the ministry even in your absence.

Some of you may have heard of Stephen Olford, but to the average reader his name will not be familiar. But how about Billy Graham? Have you heard of him? Did you know that Stephen Olford discipled Billy Graham and taught him how to preach in the power of the Holy Spirit? It's true.

As believers, we all want to make a contribution to the Kingdom of God. We all want to be remembered for something we were or something we did. In short, we all want to leave some sort of legacy. Do you realize that if you make discipling others your legacy, they will still be carrying on the ministry even after you are gone? Discipling others is the only real way to leave a living legacy.

Why not pray today that God will show you some believers that you can help to grow closer to the Lord?

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