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I am in Nashville and it is 3am. I am looking forward to a fun week of vacation with my brother and sister. It is also great to be with my 3 girls. I have missed them very much.
It is going to be fun!
What an amazing weekend. Pastor Tommy Barnett was back in the saddle again. He had been absent from the pulpit for about 4 months. He has been in recovery mode after an open heart surgery that took place on Valentine’s Day of this year. Little by little I have seen him come into the office and then begin to support His son Pastor Luke from the front row during Sunday services. But it wasn’t until last weekend that Pastor Tommy Barnett stood front and center and began to minister to the people at Phoenix First from the front. His message was unbelievable!
Amazing, he spoke on his “2nd conversion” experience he recently had. He said it rocked his world. Pasto Tommy not only told of his real life happenings he challenged us all to be ready for our own “2nd conversions” that can take place in our lives. It cam e with a warning though. He cautioned us to be ready because it would rock our world!
Here is the link if you want to download it. It is only five dollars and it is worth every cent.
http://tommybarnett.org/products-page/specials/everyone-needs-their-world-rocked/
ENJOY!
Romans 12:1-8
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Serve God with Spiritual Gifts
3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. 4 For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. 6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; 7 or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; 8 he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.
Step 1: Dedicate your Body (vs 1)
Step 2: Eliminate Competing Distractions (vs 2)
Step 3: Evaluate Your Strengths (vs 3)
Step 4: Cooperate with others (vs 5)
Step 5: Activate your gift (vs 6-8)
1. You were created to minister
EPH 2:10 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
2. You are saved for ministry
2 Tim 1:9 9 He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time,
3. You are called into ministry
Gal 1:15 15 But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased
4. You are gifted for ministry
1 Peter 4:10 10 Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.
5. You are authorized for ministry
2 Cor 5:20 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.
6. You are commanded to minister
Matthew 20:28 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
7. You are to be prepared for ministry
Eph 4:11-12 11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up
8. Know that the body of Christ needs your ministry
1 Cor 12:27 27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
9. You are accountable for your ministry
Romans 14:12 12 So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.
10. You are rewarded for your ministry
Matthew 25:23 23 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
Did you know your ministry is determined by your design? It is! When you understand what God mad you to be you will come into an understanding of what God made you to do. I have heard some people in churches before complain to me saying that they are frustrated at their church. When I have heard this I always ask what area they are involved in and the overwhelmingly majority of the time people reveal that they are hardly involved. My answer? You are frustrated because you need an outlet. You need to be serving.
What is ministry? It can be defined as using what God has given you to serve Him and the needs of others. So who do you minster to? There are three different ministry points in life and they are as follows: God, Believers, and Unbelievers. You can find ministry to all of them and be very fulfilled as a Christ Follower.
We minster in three areas of need as well.
Physical (Matt. 25:35-36, 40)
Emotional (1 Thes 5:14)
Spiritual (Col. 1:28, 29)
So what is the purpose of ministry? The purpose is to build up his body and not your body. Don’t get all messed up trying to build you r ministry credentials as your main focus. Spend your life making Jesus famous and not yourself. Spend your life serving. Serving is ministry.
A lot is being said today about my Grandmother, Mary Velma Williams. I asked myself, “What insight can I share from a grandchild’s point of view?” I’ll start with a story.
I remember the summer of 1979. I was just 9 years old. My brother and I were playing at her house. It was the late afternoon and she was doing here daily house cleaning. We were running around playing superheroes. Our playtime boiled down to me and my younger brother Jeremy finding inanimate objects and claiming they gave us power. We would place our hands on tables, chairs, or anything else we could get our hands on and make a high pitch noise in order to demonstrate it was transmitting some sort of super power into our bodies. It was a fun morning to play superhero.
We gathered this imaginary power throughout the house and apparently Grandma had had enough. Without breaking her stride in cleaning she stated to us in her southern accent, “you boys better quit getting all this power from my stuff and start getting real power from this.” Just then she pointed to the huge Family Bible that sat on her coffee table. I would love to say we took her advice immediately but we had another thought. I quickly ran over to the large Bible and placed my hand on it and made my high pitch noise to indicate I was getting power from that Bible. Grandma was not amused and shooed us out of the house and scolded us for not taking her seriously. I can’t help but to think she had a chuckle to herself after we were gone.
But on a serious note it was Grandma Williams who made the legit challenge to me and her Grandchildren to get “real” power from reading the Word of God and living a life of total surrender to God. She lived her life as a wonderful example of faith and total trust in God. She lived in the power that only comes from God Himself.
This is what I remember about my grandmother….. Jesus was never far from her thoughts. But being around her, she never made you feel like this way of thinking was foolish or forced. I never once felt as if she was pushing her way of thinking on me. In fact, she inspired me to think this way for myself. Keeping Jesus in the forefront of my mind was appealing to me because I saw how happy and powerful she seemed to be. She lived this by example and never shoved it down my throat. She simply approached me as here grandchild and assumed I would feel the same way about Jesus as she did. As a result I did feel the same way. In fact I still do.
This is the legacy she leaves, a bright legacy of spreading and living out Christ-likeness here on earth. How did she do it? Paul said in 2 Cor. 4:16 “Thou our outer self is heading for decay our inner self is being renewed daily”. You see her life was a display of this Biblical truth. It was dedicated to showing others the love of Christ. Her body got weak as all of ours do but here light got stronger and stronger.
My last conversation with her she told me she was fine with whatever God had in store for her life and if she remained here on earth she felt there would be a ministry work for here to continue being done. That work was to minster to others by showing them the powerful life that only comes through Jesus. Even in here weakened state she was willing and able to minster to others.
She is now gone but she has left behind a bright and burning light. That light is her legacy. Now we bask in the afterglow of her legacy and we will continue to do so for generations to come.
Studies show that religion and happiness are linked. But faithful church attendance may not be enough: I read of about a larger survey taken recently. It found that those most likely to rate their life satisfaction as a perfect 10 went to services weekly and saw close friends there. Church regulars without pals in the pews didn’t see the boost. They were less satisfied than infrequent attendees with friends, says study head Chaeyoon Lim, Ph.D. , of University of Wisconsin-Madison. So go to services, and by all means but don’t skip small group!
Small Groups is where life happens at Phoenix First. Every Wednesday Night at 7pm.